Edited by the mighty pazed!

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Chapter 74

Tonks screamed as the flames surrounded them briefly, then broke into nervous laughter as they re-emerged into the night-time sky. "What in Merlin's name was that!" she yelled as she regained control.

"Flame Tunnel," replied a booming voice from the Dragon carrying them. "It is a quick way for my kind to travel… It is akin to your apparition," he said, spiraling down towards a smoldering area of ground.

"Good of you to join us, old friend," said Keighvin as the dragon dropped off his passengers and landed, shrinking to human form as he did.

"I take it Harry is okay? And on his way back to Hogwarts?" he asked looking over the scene. "Harry's work?"

Tannim chuckled. "Yeah, the kid did good. Nice bit of distraction and bait and switch, according to FX."

"Excellent!" the dragon man said. "And the perpetrator?"

Tannim pointed to the body lying on the small roadway just below the church. "Dead."

The older Auror looked towards the body. "Who was he?"

"Peter Pettigrew," said Tannim, as he looked around for more embers.

"And just how did he die?" he asked.

"Don't really know," Tannim said rubbing his foot across some still smoldering grass. "Harry's bodyguard said it was some kind of green spell under the shield they had him trapped with."

The elder Auror nodded. "The killing curse… maybe he hit himself somehow… We'll go look him over. Tonks?"

The younger woman was quickly in step with her trainer, and walking up the hill.

Harry slid to the ground, off the back of the elvensteed. "Thanks Al," he said.

"No problem," his friend responded. "It was a nice evening ride."

Harry shrugged, and smiled as he spoke. "Glad you enjoyed it then."

"Right," the elf chuckled back. "Off with you, go see your friends and tell that DMLE lady that it's done."

"You got it," Harry said as the elf wheeled his mount around and set off the way they had come.

"You here FX?" he said to the night air.

His oldest friend faded into view. "You know my orders as well as I do, Harry. You are not to be out of my sight tonight for any reason or I kiss my tails goodbye."

"Yeah, well, nobody said you needed to be hidden any longer, did they?" he said with a cheeky grin.

"You know, you're right!" the fox said morphing into his James Dean look. "It will be nice to walk around visible in this place for a change."

The pair stepped out of the Forbidden Forest and began the walk towards Hogwarts.

"So, how do you feel now it's over?" FX asked as they approached the doorway.

Harry shrugged. "I'm glad it's done… but I'm also sorry it had to end the way it did. The others never even got a chance to enter the maze… It kind of feels like I cheated."

FX could understand his young friend's feelings, but he tried to offer a positive perspective. "It wasn't cheating, your skill set and experience is just different than theirs," he said. "You used your abilities to their fullest, as well as your ability to think outside the box."

Harry shrugged. "It doesn't feel that way… I just hope they understand why I did it the way I did."

FX smiled. "I don't think that will be a problem, especially after they hear the entire story," he said, pointing to the group of nervous individuals just outside the Great Hall.

"Harry!" yelled the eldest girl in the group when she spotted them.

In seconds he was surrounded by his friends and the other competitors, all of them sporting wide smiles and looking relieved.

Shacklebolt knelt next to the body of Peter Pettigrew. "It's him, he fits the description…" He then retrieved the wand from next to the body.

"I've got a wand here," said Tonks, leaning down.

Tannim grabbed her wrist before she could pick it up. "That one has several malignant curses on it. It will need to be handled carefully."

She pulled her hand away slowly. "Y-you're sure?" The man nodded. "Thank- Thank you…"

"Not a problem," he said turning towards his mentor. "It's over here," he said.

Chinthliss nodded as he joined them, looking not at the wand but the crowbar standing upright embedded in the ground. "So that is what remains?" the dragon asked.

"Yes," his ex-student said simply.

Tonks lifted her eyes away from the wand at her feet, confused as they were not looking at the wand, and slowly looked towards the area where the men were peering. She saw movement of something small and dark in what remained of the grass.

Chinthliss knelt, studying the quivering mass. "Such a sad thing," he said softly. "So twisted… so damaged… a fitting end."

"Wh-what is that… thing?" Tonks asked as Shacklebolt joined them.

"Something that will never hurt anyone again," the dragon man said as he stood. "What is about to happen will never be spoken of again." He turned towards the pair of Aurors. "I will explain everything to Madam Bones fully, and she will make the final determination of how much she wishes you to know and how this secret is to be protected, but this place and what we are going to do must never be learned of outside a select few, not only for your safety, but for that of the people you are sworn to protect. Is that understood?"

They looked at each other then at the inky stain on the ground and nodded slowly.

"Neither of you is to be out of our field of vision for any reason until then. Is that understood?" They nodded again.

Satisfied, the dragon and his student ushered the pair to stand next to the Elf Lord, and took up places, one on either side of the crowbar.

"Deep?" Tannim asked, as he began to center himself.

"Quite, I do believe," replied Chinthliss.

Sitting, the pair of them held out their hands. For a moment nothing happened then the crowbar began to sink into the ground, till it entirely disappeared and the soil behind it filled in leaving not a trace.

"What are they doing?" the Auror asked.

"Making sure no one is ever able to attempt this again," he said, turning towards the wand that had destroyed so many lives. "I will help you deal with the wand. I believe it will offer the proof your Madam Bones will wish to have."

It hadn't taken long for Madam Bones to find out Harry had returned and have him escorted to the room she was currently working in.

"It's good to see you Mr. Potter, we were quite concerned for your safety," she said, gesturing towards the chair to her right. "Your friend will need to..."

"I will be staying with my charge while he speaks with you, or we will be waiting outside for his father, or Headmaster Chinthliss, to return," said FX, his hands still in the pockets of his jacket.

"And you are?" she asked.

"That's FX," Harry said, sitting down. "Just ignore him, everybody does."

A bloody knife appeared sticking out of his chest, and FX stumbled forward into the room. "Gah…" he cried, grasping at the blade and collapsing on the ground.

Madam Bones' eyes went wide and she leapt to her feet. "Harry! GET DOWN!" she yelled wand in hand, casting spells around the room, searching for an unseen enemy.

Meanwhile Harry rolled his eyes. "Cut the act fox, now is not the time!" he said in an aggravated tone.

The face of the blond man lying on the floor covered in blood, broke out in a wide grin as the blood and knife vanished. "Sorry, force of habit," he said, standing and brushing himself off.

Harry scoffed at his friend. "Yeah… whatever. Sorry about that, he still forgets people can see him sometimes."

Madam Bones' eyes darted between the pair, her eyes wide. "Who? What?" she said, her wand still in hand.

Harry sighed. "Madam Bones, may I present FX," he said gesturing to the young James Dean lookalike. "Friend, confidant, and in this case bodyguard-"

"More like babysitter..." the fox said.

"More like pain in my ass," Harry said, glaring at him. "Anyway, he's not supposed to leave me alone till my father returns."

"H-how did he do that?" she asked, keeping her wand trained on him.

"He specializes in illusions…" Harry said, waving the entire thing off. "He does that type of thing all the time."

FX nodded. "I apologize, I didn't think about what I was doing," he said. "I won't do anything like that again tonight," he added, making an X mark over his heart with his right index finger. "Cross my heart."

She lowered her wand slowly. "You have unusual friends Mr. Potter."

Harry smiled. "I know! Great aren't they?"

She shook her head and sat again, after she satisfied herself there was no one else in the room. "Mr. Potter-"

"Harry," he said.

She smiled softly. "Harry, I need to hear your side of how things went tonight, and everything you did."

Harry nodded and began his story.

It was almost midnight when the group returned to Hogwarts and found Harry outside, sitting on a short wall playing his guitar, in front of a fairly large group that were listening and in some cases, dancing.

When he spotted them, he stopped playing and set his guitar to the side. Leaping up he moved to greet them. "DAD!" he yelled hugging the man.

After a moment he pulled back. "You're all alright then?"

Tannim nodded. "We're fine son… did you call your mother?"

"Sirius called while I was talking to Madam Bones," he replied.

"Good," he said. "Go back to your friends and have fun. We're going to go talk to Madam Bones, it may be a while; then we'll go back to London and get some sleep."

Harry nodded. "Alright, I'm glad you're all okay," he said to the group, then headed back.

Tannim gestured to FX that he should stick close to Harry and walked into Hogwarts.

The group settled into the room with the head of the DMLE. She spoke first. "I'd like to apologize for the poor decision of Minister Fudge. This is something that never should have happened."

Chinthliss spoke before Tannim could. "I'm sure we would all like to know what form of action will be taken because of his decision."

She nodded her understanding. "The Undersecretary, Dolores Umbridge will undoubtedly take the brunt of the blame, as she was the one placed in charge of security arrangements for the Minister. I doubt she will be in that position by morning, despite young Harry's safe return."

"And the Minister?" Chinthliss asked.

"He will be publicly reprimanded," she said with a sigh, "and he has agreed that the security arrangements for his office will be made by the DMLE from now on. He will no longer have the authority to grant Portkey usage, of any form. We are also looking into any others he may have authorized in the past."

Chinthliss nodded. "Most likely the best we could hope for," he said, giving a stern look to Tannim who acknowledged his old teacher with an aggravated shrug, as he looked away.

"Now," she said. "I would like to hear your story, and what happened."

Chinthliss looked at the two Aurors that had been with them in the graveyard. "How much of this do you wish them to hear?" he asked. "Some of the information I am about to pass on could be quite dangerous, especially in the wrong hands."

She studied the dragon man's face intently for a moment, then turned to the pair. "You are not to speak with anyone about what you witnessed tonight until I have spoken with you. This is classified at the highest level. Understood?"

The pair nodded. "Good, now wait outside and guard the door until we are done. I'll speak with you shortly."

When the door closed and locked, Chinthliss waved his hand and turned towards her. "The room is now secure, and we are the only ones here," he said.

"Now will you tell me what this as all about?" she asked.

"First, may I ask you who, exactly, Barty was?" Chinthliss questioned.

"Bartemius Crouch Jr," she said, looking sad. "His father was the head of the DMLE during the war with Voldemort… He oversaw his own son's trial, Crouch Jr, and saw him sent to Azkaban for the attack against the Longbottoms. He was sentenced to Life. How he got out remains to be seen, but we can not seem to locate his father, and his mother passed some time ago. He has apparently been doing much of his job by owl of late, due to illness… we suspect he had something to do with it. I will know more shortly, we plan to use Veritaserum on his son as soon as time permits…. We found Alistair Moody held captive in his own trunk, here in the castle, in the room he was using. He will recover but it will take time."

Chinthliss nodded. "That is another piece to the puzzle then," he said softly.

He took a deep breath and blew it out. "As to your question," he began, "that begins with something Albus Dumbledore seemed to believe to be true."

"Dum…" She looked gob smacked. "What does he have to do with Harry's abduction from the last task?"

"More, I think, than he will ever admit to," he said in reply, "especially as most of his sins are those of omission rather than those of action."

She looked at him confused. "We need to begin even before Harry's birth when Dumbledore became privy to a prophesy-"

"Pftt…" she scoffed. "Woolly things, they never are clear till after they have come to pass, if then."

"Granted," he said with a smile. "I never put much stock in such things, but for some reason Albus Dumbledore seems to. Now this prophesy was given to him by someone that he was interviewing for a position, and who is employed currently here, at Hogwarts…"

"Trelawney?" she asked sitting up in surprise. "Why would he trust a prophesy from that woman?"

"That I cannot answer, I only know that he does," said Chinthliss with a shrug.

"Do you know the actual prophesy?" she asked.

"I do," he said before reciting it. "The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies... I also know his interpretation as well…"

She pondered the prophesy for a moment. "Harry was born at the end of July?"

Chinthliss nodded. "As was Neville Longbottom," he added.

She thought a moment more. "It could have been either of them…"

"My thoughts exactly," he said. "However after the attack on the Potters I do not think that he ever considered the other possibility."

"He then took Harry and placed him in a home where he knew Harry would not be welcome," Chinthliss continued. "While he did not know the extent to which Vernon's temper could reach he did expect it to be an unpleasant experience. He did this to ensure that he would be prepared to see him as a hero removing him from those experiences and delivering him to a world of wonder, where he would eventually become his successor."

"However," he said leaning forward, "that was derailed by his disappearance; he spent much of his limited spare time searching for Harry after that. At least until three years ago. At that point he became much more desperate. This is when professor Quirrell was possessed and later killed, here in the castle."

She grunted and shook her head. She was aware that the man had disappeared about that time but they had been unable to find any trace of him. That appeared to be yet another of Albus's secrets.

He reached into a pocket and pulled out a small leather bound book. "We retrieved this from his possession." He handed it to her.

"A destroyed diary?" she asked.

"A diary that was once owned by a very notorious individual," he said.

"T. M. Riddle?" she asked looking at the name embossed in gold.

"Tom Marvolo Riddle." He blew out a stream of flame that formed into the name. It then broke apart and reformed into something different.

I am Lord Voldemort

She sucked in a breath and looked at it in horror. "Where did this come from?"

"A new student two years ago, who will remain nameless, brought it to him as their father had told them to never trust a spelled object. In this case it likely saved several lives."

"So it was cursed?" she asked.

"In a sense, yes," he admitted. "If they had used it as it was intended it would have most likely, in the end, caused a possession of the student by drawing the remaining free part of his soul to them, and a weakening their will over an extended time."

Her eyes widened at that statement. "Possess… Remaining?" She looked down at the object still in her hand, and laid it gently on the desk beside her. She then rubbed her hand on her robes as if trying to remove a stain from her hand. "But it is destroyed now? There is no chance of that happening?"

"Tannim did so several days ago. So no, that diary is no longer a threat," he said. "However…"

She groaned; she didn't like the sound of that.

"However, we are getting ahead of the story," he continued, with a smirk. "After finding that diary he became convinced that the destruction of Voldemort was not complete, and we believe that he began planning a way to force Harry's return, and he did so with the Tri-Wizard Tournament."

"He put Harry's name in the goblet?" she asked.

"No," Chinthliss said, sitting back and shaking his head. "Not directly. We believe he allowed certain events to transpire, as well as certain information fall into hands of those who would do so."

"Crouch!" she said. "Moody was Albus's friend for years! He would have known the difference!"

He nodded. "That is what we believe as well. He had help however, Peter Pettigrew. He was at the portkey destination. Thankfully Harry arrived earlier than expected, therefore he was unprepared. And we had taken the precaution of having FX in a position to accompany him."

She nodded. That was understandable, especially as they were already on to the pair of Death Eaters. "Please tell me this was just a case of them wanting revenge?" she asked glancing at the diary nervously.

"I would if I could, Madam Bones, however that was unfortunately, not the case." He reached into another pocket and produced a stack of pages. "The notes," He handed her the stack, "reference a ritual that had been prepared nearby."

She glanced through, grimacing at the pages. "This… This is… sick. These ingredients… nundu, and unicorn blood… the infant…" She looked up at Chinthliss, a little green. "Oh, Merlin… Please tell me they didn't use this."

Chinthliss shook his head. "They never had a chance to complete it."

"Do… Do you know what this does?" she asked, not sure she wanted an answer.

"We believe it would have created a new, fully aged body for Riddle... Unfortunately the first half of the ritual had been done some time ago," he said calmly.

She choked. "He-He's alive?"

Chinthliss shrugged. "He has been reduced to a shade once again. As it is, he will not be troubling anyone again."

She looked at him eyes wide. "Y- you stopped him."

"Harry and FX held Peter off long enough for Tannim and Keighvin to arrive," Chinthliss said. "Then Tannim and I took care of the rest." He reached into his pocket for the last time and withdrew a wand and handed it to her.

"Not to worry," he said, "we broke the enchantments, it is safe to touch."

She gingerly reached forward and grasped the handle. This wand, through its owner, had caused so much pain and destruction. It had even taken the life of her brother and his wife.

"We thought it best to bring it to you as proof," he said.

She nodded , slowly. "T-thank you." She placed the wand next to the diary.

"Madam Bones," he said drawing her thoughts away from the wand and her memories. "We will leave it to you how you wish to handle your two Aurors, but you must understand, the danger is not completely passed, and it will not be passed for a number of years. While I am quite confident it is not within their ability to do so, if one of his followers were to find out what transpired there and could undo our precautions to recreate that ritual, or find another that did something similar, it could prove to be disastrous. As it is we six are the only ones that know that anything happened beyond the fight with Pettigrew. What do you wish to do?"

She looked at the wand in her hand. Then in a sudden move she took it by either end and snapped it cleanly in half. "Could you please see that these are destroyed completely sir?" she asked.

He took the pieces in his hand and exhaled gently. They watched as the flames consumed the wand.

Standing, she went to the door and once Chinthliss had dropped the privacy wards she asked the pair of Aurors to enter. She would offer them a choice, a magical vow never to speak about what they had observed other than Peter Pettigrew being there waiting to avenge his master, or having the information removed through a spell. If it was her she would have chosen to have it removed, but that would never be a choice for her, as she would need to keep an eye on the area… just in case.

She looked up as the men stood. "You must prepare yourself, as well as your Auror force, Madam Bones," Chinthliss said as they began to walk towards the door. "Your world will be changing, and while we will be around at times, it will be up to you and yours to see your people through the turbulence to come. The world is a wondrous place, it is time that your people join us," he said with a smile as he followed his friends out the door.

Harry woke to someone slamming his bedroom door open. "Up Harry!" said the voice of his father, as Harry worked to free himself from his covers.

Tannim grabbed his hand and pulled, causing Harry to stumble out of bed. "We've got to go! It's time!"

Harry's mind began to clear. "Time? The BABY? It's coming?" he asked, scrambling for his clothes.

"Yes! The Baby!" Tannim yelled. "They're already at the hospital! We need to go!"

As the pair rushed out the door and down the stairs several other doors were beginning to open and sleepy confused people peered out, woken by the yells.

"Harry? What's going on?" Luna asked, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

He pulled her into a hug and spun her around. "It's TIME!" he said, laughing then dropping her, causing her to stumble. "I'm about to be a brother!"

Tannim paused on the stairs. "Come on Harry! Your mother will kill us if we miss this!"

Luna smiled and shoved him towards the stairs. "I'll tell the others, we'll be right behind you!"

Nodding he stormed down the stairs, hot on his father's heels.