Amelia's List

On Monday, September 18th, Amelia sat at her desk and sighed. It was becoming absurd by now. All the new cases, which had popped up on her desk since Potter's hearing…

Potter! She had wanted to contact him, she remembered for a second, but then she took out her list of things she had started the day of his visit and forgot about it again. The list was spelled to the nines so that only she could read it and she carried it in her moleskin pouch with her at all times.

She looked through it and sighed again. There was so much to do! She really needed to get some of the lesser stuff marked as 'done' or 'delegated'. She skimmed the list and saw the points under the header 'Improper Use of Magic Office'. That office was in a headless state, literally, as its head – Dolores Umbridge – had been charged with attempted murder and was waiting for her trial. It was part of Amelia's own department, so she should fix it immediately! She didn't want the one next in line as the head, though. It was one of the dizzy pureblood witches, who seemed to fill their offices.

What to do?

Then she had an idea and scheduled an office meeting with all the members of that office in one hour. Someone from the Aurors was to watch the maps for emergencies.

She then wrote two questions on top of an empty parchment and duplicated it so every member of that office would get one.

She then went back to her list of the different points she had noted there with detailed descriptions. Even the abridged version read like a decade of work:

· Organize Trials for the Death-Eaters and Umbridge - still ongoing

· You-know-who (still at large) - search still ongoing

· Black's case (awaiting Pettigrew's trial) - pending

· Inform Amos - done

· Investigation of Albus' crimes - still ongoing (together with Gringotts)

· Investigation into Fudge and the Dursley family - not started yet (sensitive)

· IUoM office needs a new head + a structural overhaul - starting

· Investigation of the member of the Wizengamot using Potter's vote - needs to get started!

She sent another memo to the Wizengamot Administration Services that she needed to talk to one of their researchers.

At least, Potter seemed to be all right as far as she could tell. His call when Dumbledore grabbed his shoulder that the man was hurting him, still haunted her. She had still been so in shock, from the memories she had watched minutes before that she had not reacted as quickly as she should have, and she still scolded herself for that. Well, all she could do now, was to do better, should she ever be in a similar situation, she decided resolutely.

Five minutes after she had sent the latest memo, there was a knock. Her request had been answered promptly by her friend Sylvia Abbott, who worked as a clerk for the Wizengamot Administration Services.

"You needed one of us, Amy?" Sylvia asked and took a seat.

"Yes, Sylvie, I need information but without the office knowing about it. It is an investigation in an ongoing case."

"So, you don't want it to spread?" Sylvia grinned. "I can keep it between us for now. Just tell me when it's not under wraps anymore."

"Will do. I need you to look into who is voting with the Potter votes, who appointed them, and their vote history."

"Oh, dear! Now I understand why this is hush-hush. Do you want me to see if the votes align with the Potter guidelines?"

"If possible, yes."

"I thought, the boy was on top of all of that?"

"Sylvie, he grew up with muggles. You seem to have bought into the stories from the fictional books."

"No!"

Amy nodded sadly, "As most of our world did. But please keep silent about this too, for now!"

"Ok, I will."

Amelia nodded. She knew Sylvie loved to gossip, but that she could keep secrets as well if necessary so she trusted her friend.

Sylvie added, "Anything else? I am terribly curious who did vote, how that happened, and how they voted!"

"Yes, me too! That is it for now. Thanks!"

Not much later she got her office full of the entire IUoM Office. Fortunately, her room adjusted for all five to fit. The chair in front of her desk duplicated itself several times, so she could say, "Thank you all for coming on such short notice. Please, take a seat."

When they had done so, Amelia went on, "As you know, your boss Dolores Umbridge is in a holding cell awaiting trial. So, you are without a department head. Now usually I would await the results of this trial, but I will not keep her in that position even if she gets free."

Some gasped.

"As some of you have realized by now, I need to appoint another head for your office, and I thought to do a little test. You will be shown two short memories and I want you to think about what you would change in our response and what you would keep."

She noticed that some looked confused, and one perked up. Davis is the one to watch out for now, she was sure. They were to look at the two memories alone and then go quietly into one of the four corners of her office where she conjured a chair with a clipboard. If all seats were taken, one could always sit in front of her desk.

"Be quiet now, please. This is not a team effort. When you are finished please leave quietly and return to your work. Begin."

They looked at one another and then Davis got up and was mentally gone for two minutes, while his finger stuck in the pensive liquid. As soon as he had finished, the next entered, while Davis sat down in one of the corners and sat there thinking with his eyes closed. When the next left he started writing slowly and thoughtfully, whereas his mentally returned colleague started writing at once.

When Davis had finished, he was the last one, to hand Madame Bones his clipboard, together with a rather pale Mafalda Hopkirks. The two left quietly right away and Amelia went to work.

When Amelia looked through the ideas, it became apparent, that one was absolutely not right for the job, as his answer was, 'All went, as it should." That was it.

Amy's mouth hung open after reading it. Was the man really thinking his job was so secure? He was the nephew of Fudge twice removed, or something. No, that would not save him! Fudge would not stay in office forever.

Two answers were adequate. They at least noticed that sending an owl into a muggle residence might not have been a good idea.

Hopkirks' answer was full of apologies for not noticing that it had been a house-elf, casting the spell and she then tried to explain why no Aurors were allowed to be sent to investigate the casting of an obviously defensive spell as shown in the second memory. She offered no suggestions, on how to improve their work procedures.

The only one that did, was Davis. He had obviously thought about the weaknesses in their way to respond to accidental magic for a while. There were many doable and logical suggestions, and she had a winner, for sure.

She sent another memo for Davis to come back and within minutes he was there.

"You wanted to see me, Madam Bones?" He asked with trepidation. He really had taken a leap of faith there. This could make or break his career!

"Yes, please take a seat. Now, I would like to know if you'd like the promotion.

"Yes! But can I fire Bolder?"

She chuckled, "Yes, I insist on that!"

He sighed in relief, "So you like my suggestions?"

"Yes, they show, you have thought about it and want the office to become better at what it is doing, but the first thing you should think about is more staff. You don't have someone at hand right now, don't you?"

"Actually, I do. She is an amazing, smart, former head girl and she cannot find a job."

"Let me guess, she is muggle-born?"

"Yes. She finished school a year ago and is considering going back to the muggle world."

"Then hire her and I will back you up. What's her name?"

"Penelope Clearwater."

"Good. Ask her, if she knows of other muggle-born with the same problems, who would like to work in the office."

Davis nodded.

"And I can really fire Bolder?"

"Would you mind if I do that myself?"

"Not at all, it would make it easier for me."

"Very well, please keep quiet about the promotion until I announced it, yes?"

"All right, boss. And thanks!"

Bones nodded, "Now, I would like you to very quietly look into, why Harry Potter's accidental magic before Hogwarts went unattended. He told me he turned muggle teachers wig blue in front of the whole class for instance and no one came."

"That can't be. I will look into it, quietly," Davis nodded.

"Good!"


A/N: I wrote a much more detailed list, but I cannot paste it here. Well, I can, but most of its formatting gets lost and it doesn't make much sense anymore.

Anyway, the result of writing said detailed list back in August '22 was that I didn't look at this story for the next 4 months; the list just seemed too daunting. So many things needed addressing. But then I thought: Hey, I am the author, I do not need to address every point! Yay!

So, I can tell you, that I managed to finish this story half a year after starting it with about 10.000k words still to come. I cannot tell you how happy I am, that I was able to do that! I do like this little trope-infested story.

I will post the rest during the next week approximately. Cheers!