"You don't have to do all this," Steven protested. "She's a hero."
The auror stared at him, one mechanical eye moving in many different directions. Steven struggled to recall his name...Moddy...no, Moody.
It seemed like an appropriate name for a man who seemed this paranoid.
"She nearly brought a wing of the ministry down with that whip of hers," Moody said. "I've examined the memories of the Ministry officials involved...she's fast."
"She's a friend!" Steven insisted. "If you try to trap her, she'll fight you. All she wants is to be back with me."
"I hear you beat a troll with a bathroom door," Moody said. "Any you aren't even full grown. What do you think she's going to be able to do?"
"You aren't listening!" Steven said. "She likes humans! One of her best friends is a human!"
Moody gave him a look, and Steven flushed. It was true that none of the gems really had much use for humans, but of them all Amethyst was the closest. She'd been friends with Vidalia, and at one time her and his dad had been friends.
"It wouldn't hurt to listen to the boy, Alastor."
The second auror in the room was tall and broad shouldered. His skin was the color of Garnet's, and he had a gold ring in his ear. Steven instinctively liked him. His name was weird...like Elvis...Kingsly something.
He actually sort of liked Moody, except for his refusal to listen.
"She's dangerous," Moody said.
"All the more reason to be cautious in dealing with her. If she is of no danger to the boy and only dangerous to us if we get between her and the boy...then fighting her only puts good men at risk to no real benefit."
"So what would you have us do?"
"Let me talk to her," Steven said. "Explain to her that you guys are our friends."
The third auror stood at the window, staring outside. He had a pair of omnioculars and he said, "The bird is coming. It's being followed by...a purple flying dog."
They were in an old abandoned farmhouse. Apparently the Ministry thought that if there was going to be trouble, it shouldn't happen in one of their expensive buildings.
"She's a shapechanger," Moody ground out. "And already a menace. What happens if the muggles see her? We'll be obliviating half of England!"
"We didn't have to hide back home," Steven rushed to assure him. "The Gems had been there so long people just...kind of didn't think anything about them. I'm sure she'll do better once we explain things."
The owl flew through the open window. It landed and held its foot out to Steven.
The note only said, "I'm coming."
"I think it's going to be all righ..." the Auror at the window began.
"Stupify!"
Moody had surrounded the farmhouse with aurors under disillusionment charms. Steven had heard Moody give the order that no one was to attack without orders, but someone hadn't listened.
An explosion sounded outside, followed by the sound of twenty aurors shouting out spells. There were flashes of light, and a moment later the entire wall exploded outward.
An angry looking Amethyst stood outside, swinging her whip. She struck a tree, causing it to explode into wooden shrapnel. The aurors outside dove to the ground, forced to use shielding charms .
She turned and saw Steven. Her whip lashed out and a moment later Steven found himself yanked toward her. A normal human would have been badly injured, maybe even permanently. Even a wizard would have been hospitalized.
Steven though she turned a threw with her whip. As he flew through the air, he closed his eyes and sighed. It had been too much to hope for a peaceful meeting between her and the ministry.
She caught him even before he landed. A moment later she had him under one arm and she was dodging the blasts from the wizards. At this distance they weren't as accurate, but Steven still winced as he was hit in the leg with a spell and he felt it go numb.
"They're friends!" he yelled.
"Some friends," she grimaced as she was hit in the shoulder by a stray blast. She was fast enough that she'd been able to dodge all but a few of them. She didn't even slow down.
A moment later they were through a row of hedges and they'd found a highway.
The crack of air that accompanied apparitioning wizards caused Amethyst to abruptly zig zag. Luckily, it seemed that teleportation was a little disorienting. By the time the wizards had gotten their bearings, Amethyst was already half a mile down the road.
"What's with these guys?" she muttered as there were more flashes as wizards apparated ahead of them."I don't want to have to hurt them, but I will."
Looking behind her, Steven could see at least half a dozen wizards on brooms. They were getting closer.
"Don't hurt them!" he said. "They're the good guys."
"Then tell them to leave me alone!" she said. She lashed out with her whip, grabbing a tree and uprooting it. She threw it behind her without looking.
The wizards behind them on brooms scattered.
On the road ahead of them a single familiar figure appeared. Unlike the others, he didn't seem to take any time at all to get his bearings. Instead he simply lifted his wand and there was a flash of light that exploded to the horizon.
Amethyst tripped and fell, rolling to a stop. She still didn't drop Steven.
"Dumbledore!" Steven said. "He's the headmaster of my school."
Dumbledore walked slowly toward Amethyst, his wand lifted to his throat. He spoke.
"Stand down."
"This is a Ministry matter," one of the lead aurors said. His voice sounded like the one that had cast the first Stupefy. "You have no authority here."
The other aurors were still half blinded by the flash, but Moody stepped forward and cuffed the younger auror on the back of the head. "He's the chief warlock of the Wizengamot. Have some respect."
Dumbledore stepped forward and said, "We seem to have gotten off to a bad start. My name is Albus Dumbledore, and I've been fortunate enough to have young Steven as a pupil at my school for the last several months."
Amethyst rose to her feet and looked at him suspiciously. "What about these guys?"
"They are...I suppose you would say they are the police officers of my kind," Dumbledore said. "It's their job to keep our people safe from monsters and evildoers. I understand from Steven that you would know something about that."
Amethyst glanced at Steven uncertainly.
"What do you all want with me?"
"I'd like to discuss your future in our world...that of yourself and your companions, whenever they should decide to revive themselves, and especially of young Steven."
Amethyst looked back at the aurors, many of whom had finally caught up with them. Finally, she sighed. "Fine...but I can't make any promises for the others. I'm not in charge."
"The boy has already killed one teacher, and he'd just a child. I've seen the reports...she's a menace."
"She's not a danger to children," Dumbledore said. He glanced back at Amethyst and Steven. "The wards wouldn't allow her inside if she was. If anything, I would think that she would make the children even safer."
Cornelius Fudge stared at Dumbledore angrily.
He glanced around the room at the other members of the board. Dumbledore somehow already had the votes to allow this, creature to stay on the grounds.
"She can't stay inside the castle," he said, knowing that he'd lost the main issue.
"One of our staff members, Rubeus Hagrid has agreed to help acclimate Miss Amethyst to the wizarding world."
That oaf? It would be like the blind leading the blind. As far as Fudge was concerned, this was a disaster of an idea. The creature belonged in a cell somewhere. Short of that, she should be in the Forbidden Forest.
As though he'd read Fudge's mind, Dumbledore said, "We've decided to build her a small dwelling on the outskirts of the Hogwarts grounds, near the Forbidden forest. She's agreed to help Hagrid to...contain some of the more dangerous creatures there."
Cornelius Fudge sniffed. It wasn't the worst idea. She'd been some sort of monster hunter in her old world, assuming the child could be believed. Keeping her busy fighting other monsters might not be the worst idea. There were packs of werewolves who could use a few lessons...
Really, there was a political upside. If the creature hurt some of the students, it would weaken Dumbledore and Fudge could remind everyone that he'd objected but had been overruled.
If the situation worked well, he could simply remain quiet about it and lose nothing.
All in all, there wasn't any real reason for him not to agree.
"All right," he said. "But I want my objection noted in the records."
The boy's face broke out in a huge grin. From what Fudge had heard, he was a little slow, although there had been the incident with the troll earlier in the year.
The Hufflepuff parents were solidly behind him, even if no one else was, so getting rid of him was no longer an option, even if he'd murdered a professor.
The life of a politician was sometimes trying.