Chapter 33

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Severus was petrified, stripped and searched for potion vials, port keys, protective amulets and active charms. To his horror the muggleborn Auror having grown up on police dramas on the Telly examined each of his teeth and performed a manual cavity search, the former Gryffindor taking little care to be gentle with his former most hated professor.

The still naked wizard was then led to a cell with a toilet and administered the flushing potion. The Auror then stood on the other side of the bars casting air freshening charms, watching Snape writhe in agony for an hour before rushing to the toilet again and again, enjoying Snape's humiliation as every bit of the potions that had been in his system and everything else in his digestive tract was violently expelled via his bowels.

Eventually he finished though he'd run out of toilet paper and the Auror offered him the choice of cleaning spells normally used by parents on their children or using his robes as toilet paper. Scowling Severus demanded charm only to be told to bend over so the highly entertained Auror could access his bum. Severus just hoped that the Auror didn't have access to a Pensieve Camera or photos of his dirty bare ass would eventually make their way around most of his ex-students. Though as he reminded himself, it was highly unlikely he'd see most of the people the Auror would choose to share this with again. He just needed to get through this and hope he didn't give away anything too incriminating, then he could start making plans to disappear.

Thoroughly chastened he was finally offered a clean prison robe to wear and escorted back to the interrogation room.

Amelia greeted him and demanded that he open his mouth for the magical suppression potion which he feared would enable the Veritaserum to override his Occlumency. Knowing that it was futile to struggle he tipped his head back and the Auror poured in the potion while his boss cast a swallow in charm to make sure he didn't choke or try to spit it out. After a few minutes they placed the Veritaserum on his tongue and he started spilling his secrets. They asked about everything from whom he'd taught the Sectumsempra to, how Potter and Miss Bones had learned it, whether he had killed the identified victims of the Sectumsempra curse, who else that he'd killed, to the names of every Death Eater he knew was marked and the names of all unmarked supporters and a list of the crimes he'd seen each of them commit, which students had been intended to receive the mark this summer, the process of receiving a dark mark and whether anyone could be marked while under the imperius curse, who was known to be held under the imperius curse by Voldemort while committing a crime, and by the Death Eaters and the locations of any known Death Eater hideouts or safehouses. They also asked why he'd begin spying on the Death Eaters for Dumbledore and whether he was also giving information about the light side back to You-Know-Who and who if anyone he was truly loyal to. They asked about what he knoew of You-Know-Who's resurrection, any weaknesses he was known to have since then, Horcruxes and whether he had put in place a plan to be resurrected again if he was killed. Finally they asked what crimes he had committed since he'd been pardoned at the end of the war and he was forced to incriminate himself confessing to actions he had not been pardoned for. It took several doses but eventually he had spilled all his secrets.

They had more than enough to charge him and the pensieve memories of his interrogation would be enough to stop Dumbledore from interfering with the process. Severus Snape would be going to Azkaban for the rest of his life, if he wasn't given the kiss for his crimes.

Amelia, and Head Auror Robards were both delighted, not only did they solve multiple cold case murders with more than enough evidence to convict their killer but they had a large list of Death Eaters including several Ministry employees and Hogwarts students, including those that had claimed to be under the imperius curse after Voldemort's defeat last time. After all the information they obtained from him, it was almost irrelevant that he believed that Potter had learned the spell from his old potions text book and must have taught his army the spell. Particularly since they already knew from Harry and Susan that Harry had only taught the spell to Susan and Neville. The only thing they did not get any information on was the Horcruxes, neither Voldemort nor Dumbledore had ever trusted the potions master enough to mention them in Snape's hearing.

They called in all the Aurors and sent out teams to start arresting those named. While Amelia and Robards drafted legislation allowing anybody found with the Dark Mark on their arm to be questioned under Veritaserum. They were quite hopeful that it would be passed this time, though it had always failed to pass before, since by the next Wizengamot meeting the Death Eaters who would've voted against it would all be under arrest and therefore unavailable to vote against the legislation and Amelia intended to ban their proxies from voting as well citing vested interest since the holder of the seat was one of the prisoners who would be questioned under the truth serum if the vote passed.

Soon the holding cells were so full that there were six wizards in each cell designed for a single occupant and they'd reached the limits of magical expansion. Amelia mentioned in her application for permission to use Veritaserum that without an efficient way to question each one they were going to have to start housing some of the suspected Death Eaters at Azkaban until they could be fully investigated and tried which could take several months and also warned the Wizengamot that once the investigations were completed they would need to attend the trials at least six hours every day for months to get through them all and get the innocent out of Azkaban as quickly as possible. The Wizengamot were easily persuaded that Veritaserum questioning so the innocent could be immediately released, really was the lesser of two evils, or perhaps as Amelia cynically believed, the vote passed because it seemed that Veritaserum questioning would expedite the trial process and therefore would inconvenience the members of the Wizengamot less than the alternative.

The questioning began and instead of individual trials Amelia scheduled sentencing hearings where the list of crimes the witch or wizard had admitted to under veritaserum was read out and the Wizengamot then voted on whether they wanted to hear the confession for themselves either in person or the Pensieve recording of it or to refer the case for a full trial or to proceed directly to sentencing. Amelia had chosen the order of the hearings cunningly and after the first few less well connected wizards confessed to all of their crimes in sickening detail, crimes which included the torture and murder of some well known ancient and noble pure blood families, the majority of the Wizengamot started voting to proceed directly to sentencing without listening to the horror spelled out in detail. For twelve hours her Senior Aurors took turns reading out horrific lists of crimes committed and asked the Wizengamot for the death penalty and a Wergild of either 10,000 Galleon per person murdered and 5,000 Galleons for each person permanently debilitated or if the perpetrator did not have enough money for this, up to 80% of the wizards assets to be divided in the same ratio, which the majority of the light and neutral factions voted in favour of, in spite of Dumbledore's impassioned pleas for leniency and giving the criminals the chance to repent and redeem themselves. By the time the Aurors got to the crimes of fellow Wizengamot members and the allies of those in the room, several hours and dozens of cases later, it was late in the day and the majority of the Wizengamot were eager to get this over with and get home to their families and dinners. They were barely even listening to the names anymore unless they recognised their friends, but voting by rote on the crimes. Torture and mass murder earned the perpetrators the death penalty. Of course Amelia knew that there was the possibility that some of these cases would be reviewed once the Wizengamot got over their horror at the hundreds of murders, and each case had been presented exactly according to the confessions with only the blood status of the victims removed from the summary of crimes to prevent the pureblood bigots on the Wizengamot from pardoning those who had only killed muggles, muggleborns and halfbloods.

Amelia hoped that by the end of the month most of the known Death Eaters would all have been dealt with, most of them would be either executed or kissed and even if Voldemort did have remaining horcruxes the likelihood of anyone with the knowledge and the will to resurrect him remaining was negligible. The Unspeakable curse breaking teams were searching for the items to destroy them to be sure it couldn't be done.

As time went on the Death Eaters being questioned weren't naming any new names which was somewhat frustrating to Amelia and Kingsley who had believed Harry and Susan when they reported that Draco Malfoy, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle were all Death Eaters but no current students had been named by those questioned under Veritaserum. Clearly the youngsters had been kept segregated from the rank and file for some reason. Amelia knew that Lucius Malfoy must have known, it was Harry's opinion that the boy wouldn't breathe without his father's approval. But Lucius and Crabbe Senior had both been killed and Goyle senior was nowhere to be found.

-o0o-

Having a now well established process to deal with the Death Eaters as they were identified, and having been given the run-around when asking Albus for information or his theories. Amelia approached Harry and asked him if he knew anything about the locations of the Horcruxes.

"The horcrux Dumbledore destroyed was found in his maternal grandfather's house, though it's really more of a shack, near the cemetery where Voldemort's resurrection occurred, but the horcrux I destroyed had been given to Lucius Malfoy for safekeeping and I once heard Draco boasting that he had a secret storage area under the drawing room floor. Maybe some of his most trusted Death Eaters from last time will also have one," Harry told her. The fake horcrux Dumbledore and I found had been removed by someone calling themselves R.A.B. but Voldemort had hidden it in a cave on the shore where the orphanage had gone for summer holidays. The cave was above the high tide line, but was difficult to see and even more difficult to get to without magic unless you already knew it was there, and warded with blood wards that were not tied to anyone in particular. I imagine any other place he hid them to be very well warded and difficult to get to.

"You said that he wouldn't trust the likes of Malfoy with his resurrection and now you're saying he did?" Amelia said frowning at the contradiction.

"We're talking about two different things. If he's set up resurrection plans then he's done it since he was resurrected this time. He wouldn't trust someone like the man Malfoy is now, after his resurrection, especially when Malfoy used the horcrux he'd been trusted with to try to discredit the Weasleys as part of an ongoing personal feud instead of keeping it safe like he was ordered. But he gave him the Horcrux during his original life, possibly quite some time before he was killed at Godric's Hollow by my mother. Back then Malfoy would've been different, younger and maybe more impetuous or idealistic, truly believing in Voldemort's cause and revelling in the opportunity to cause death and destruction. It was possibly before he became the Head of his House with personal power of his own. Besides you don't have to have a horcrux in your possession to resurrect someone, it only has to exist somewhere, and I don't think Malfoy knew exactly what he had or maybe he would have tried to resurrect Voldemort straight away, or perhaps not sent it to Hogwarts to be used at all," Harry tried to explain. "But what I was trying to say is that Malfoy may not have been the only follower who was given a horcrux. He might have given one to some of the rest of his most trusted followers during the last war. What happens to the Lestrange estates and vaults, wouldn't one of them be among the most likely to have one? Who else was that close to him? I doubt that he'd have trusted Snape with the knowledge."

"Merlin's pants! You're right," Amelia cursed. "The wizards that he has instructed on how to resurrect him would have no knowledge of what or where the horcruxes are and those trusted with the preservation of a Horcrux aren't likely to know what it is. That way even if he was betrayed the Horcruxes would survive."

"The Death Eaters instructed on how to resurrect him probably weren't even told that there are Horcruxes, it would increase Voldemort's reputation for being all powerful if the person bringing him back didn't know why the ritual would only work for him, and didn't have a name of the anchors to research," Kingsley said.

"Have you been asking them the right questions?" Susan asked.

Amelia reviewed the list in her mind, "Yes I believe we would have identified anyone who knew about any resurrection plans and anyone who had been given something for safekeeping," she replied relieved.

"Who's going to inherit from the LeStranges?" Harry asked.

"I have no idea. Until a moment ago I was relieved that neither of the LeStranges managed to reproduce and their direct family line would die out," Amelia retorted. "Their father was an only child so unless there's a second or third cousin somewhere that I don't know about, the vaults will sit unclaimed. Bellatrix' personal vault will probably be reabsorbed into the Black family vaults except for any specific bequests."

"Can you postpone her will reading until after you've searched her vaults?" Harry asked.

"We could but young Malfoy will be the new Lord Black, he isn't likely to cooperate with us searching the vault before or after the will reading unless you have some evidence of criminal activity that we can arrest him on for leverage," Kingsley said, looking at Harry and Susan hopefully.

"Susan said you saw the Dark Mark on his arm but until one of the other Death Eaters identifies him, I can't arrest him on hearsay. Snape reported under Veritaserum that he was being tested to become a Death Eater but hadn't yet been confirmed," Amelia told him. She wondered if that meant all the other potential followers from the new generation had also been marked without Snape's knowledge.

"I would have already told you about it if I did. He's a dark shit though I don't have any evidence to prove it other than the dark mark on his arm. We caught him trying to bypass the school wards but at the time preventing him from succeeding at letting the Death Eaters into the upper level of Hogwarts where they could have ambushed an entire house or waited until only the younger students were coming up the stairs and killed dozens of kids before the professors arrived, was more important than gathering enough evidence to have him arrested, especially after the headmaster had already prevented you from arresting him over using an unforgiveable. But Malfoy isn't the next Lord Black. I am! Sirius' made me his heir," Harry said revealing his heir ring.

"Pity about the evidence but you were right. A school full of children is no place to set a trap for a group of Death Eaters," Kingsley said sighing.

"You were the one who attacked young Malfoy and his friends last year? We must have interviewed every student in the snake pit, I should bill you for the waste of time. Actually, according to your version of events if we tried to pursue charges against Malfoy I'm afraid I should have to arrest you for abducting three fellow students, particularly as they spent a week in the hospital wing with absolutely no memory of the day in question," Amelia said.

"Don't you dare! Malfoy cast an unforgiveable on him and you did nothing about it in spite of having proof, two different Malfoys in fact. Of course, Harry is going to feel that he has to defend himself from attack after that, and to hide the evidence of defending himself since he was punished for it last time. Besides you'd have to arrest me too!" Susan yelled.

"He wasn't punished, I was there when the detention was cancelled," Amelia replied.

"That detention was, sure, but that didn't stop Snape from taking it out on him, within a week Harry received detentions from Snape for sneezing in the hallway, being late for breakfast and for not using the correct wand movements for the spell we were learning, he's had an unfair detention two of three times every week with Snape since the one you supposedly prevented," Susan retorted.

"None of those are valid reasons for a detention. Why didn't he go to his head of house?" Amelia asked.

"The same head of house that last time he protested a detention, did nothing about it and told him to keep his head down and stop provoking the teacher by insisting on telling the truth? Detentions where he was forced to write lines with a blood quill until he developed a permanent scar on his hand that all the professors must have seen and did nothing? That head of house that has never once done anything to protect Harry when he's asked for help or when the whole school has turned on him and calling him the next dark lord or a liar and a cheat?" Susan asked sarcastically.

Amelia sighed, "What on earth was Dumbledore doing at that school? Blood quills are illegal except for signing contracts. You'll need to tell me about that later."

Harry grinned, "Does it help to know it was Umbridge?" he asked.

Amelia smirked.

"If you have enough proof to take her down, or at least get her out of the ministry then we will definitely get back to that," Kingsley replied.

Harry nodded and showed her his hand.

Amelia and Kingsley looked at the still easily readable scar left more than twelve months later and cursed. How had this been allowed to go unnoticed in the most famous student in the school? How many other children had been similarly tortured?

"I'll make the petition to have the wills sealed until their possessions can be searched, but I'm not sure that we will get permission from Gringotts even with your support," Amelia agreed. "I'll also have Dolores Umbridge arrested and questioned. She isn't a pure blood in spite of her posturing."

"Finding the Horcruxes, or the people who know about the resurrection ritual is more important," Harry demurred.

"It bloody well is not!" Susan exclaimed. "She tortured you. She's as dark as any Death Eater, she can't be left running around the ministry influencing the minister of magic."

"Susan's right, I need to arrest her and have her questioned before the Minister can interfere on her behalf. She may not be a marked Death Eater but if she was torturing children then she's an evil bitch. Kingsley, I want you to lead a curse breaking team and some Aurors you trust absolutely in turning over all of the LeStrange properties as soon as you can arrange it, and send someone to arrest Draco Malfoy, Gregory Goyle and Vincent Crabbe Junior," Amelia ordered.

"Yes Ma'am," Kingsley said getting up to make some floo calls.

"Did Susan know you're the heir to the House of Black too before you were betrothed?" Amelia asked Harry.

"Yes, of course," Harry replied, calmly.

"You're sure?" Amelia demanded.

"I told her when we were talking about her needing a second son to maintain the Bones family that whoever I married would need to have two sons for my titles so if we married we'd need to have a third child to pass down the Bones line. But if it happens that we can't have a third son I'll fold the Black title in with the Potter title and split the money up between all our children, so there will still be an heir for the Bones line as long as we manage to have two sons," Harry said.

-o0o-

Draco wasn't surprised or disappointed that his courting offer to Bones hadn't been accepted straight away. Even though it went against protocol, he half expected that Bones wouldn't make a decision until they'd seen each other again, possibly even not until September though it would be insulting if she didn't at least reply and ask for time to consider her decision. He knew he probably hadn't made a very good impression on the light sided witch until now but as the Head of the Noble House of Malfoy and the most Ancient and Noble House of Black he knew he was one of the most eligible, if not currently the most eligible bachelors of their generation.

Bones hadn't seemed interested in anyone else this year and given some of the comments he'd heard she wasn't interested in accepting any of the betrothal offers she had on hand. He would have liked to send her a betrothal offer himself and have everything settled but he knew she would be too suspicious to accept that.

He was furious when Susan replied that she was unable to accept his courting overture because she was already betrothed. He was sure she hadn't been betrothed when they left school for the summer, which meant she'd chosen to become betrothed since, possibly after receiving his offer. Worse the letter was clearly a form letter designed to be sent to multiple recipients and offered no apology or information who he had been rejected in favour of. He was surprised to feel a little hurt by the rejection as well. It wasn't like he had any feelings for Susan Bone's. He hadn't even been particularly attracted to her though objectively she was the best looking of the light side heiresses currently on the marriage market. He'd chosen her more for her relationship with her aunt, Madam Amelia Bones the head of the DMLE was extremely well connected and one of the most powerful figure for the light that didn't appear to be in Dumbledore's pocket.

-o0o-

Harry followed the goblin into Bellatrix Lestrange's vault and listened to the curse-breaker's report on the contents. He authorized the destruction of several items and the breaking of the curses on others. The only thing he took out of the vault was a small golden cup with badgers on the sides which he took straight to Madam Bones and Auror Shacklebolt who were waiting to find out if Harry had found a horcrux and to witness its destruction. They were shocked when the goblin showed them the item to be destroyed. Helga Hufflepuff's cup was said to be priceless. Amelia wanted to protest but the spells showed it was a Horcrux and preventing You-Know-Who's return was more important than preserving any artefact.

"Anything else in there worth noting?" Amelia asked. The goblins had only allowed for the removal of the cup but it still might be worth knowing what was in there and who inherited it.

"Some irredeemably dark stuff which the curse breaker will destroy and a couple of goblin made items I agreed to gift back to them on the condition that the curses were removed, some gold, not much else. No books or papers to tell us where else to look or deeds to potential safe-houses. There was a copy of her will which left the entire contents of her vault to her sister Narcissa Malfoy. I allowed the goblins to repossess anything that belonged to them and return to it's owner anything they could identify definitively as belonging to another family and asked for all the curses on as many of the items in the vault as the vault could pay for to be broken and the fees to be taken from the vault, so there hopefully won't be many galleons left after the curse breakers take out their fees," Harry said.

Kingsley and Amelia had to laugh at that. "It's a pity that she wasn't savvy enough to have collected blackmail material on her fellow Death Eaters and hangers on that we could use to help round up all the unmarked supporters" Kingsley said.

"Bellatrix didn't strike me as the cold and calculating type to blackmail someone, she seemed more the blow your head off straight away if you offended her type of witch, though perhaps she or her husband and brother-in-law kept blackmail material elsewhere. I bet that some of the other Death Eaters had files of blackmail material on each other and everyone else. Still, it's good to know we're going to be able to destroy another piece of Voldemort. Is there any way to use that piece to tell how many others there are or where to find them?"

"I wish it were that easy Harry. The experts say with authority that they will be able to tell how many items he had made before this one but even if this is the third, it's impossible to tell whether the other two you and the Headmaster destroyed were the first two or the only other two or how many more were made after this piece," Kingsley said.

"The one I destroyed was made from a muggle diary dated the year before he was head boy, it was probably the first. I think he might have been just playing around with the spell to see if it worked and whether it damaged the item when he made it, before he made the others out of the founder's heirlooms, so we at least have the first even if the other one might be later, but Riddle was seen wearing the ring Dumbledore removed a Horcrux from in memories from his seventh year so it was also probably one of the early ones. I don't know whether he would have worn the Horcrux or if that was before he made it, can you ask the Death Eaters when he stopped wearing it?" Harry said.

"That makes a lot of sense. I don't think that he would want to keep the Horcrux on his person like that, though the temptation to have at least one of them where he could check on it would have been significant. Did Dumbledore agree with that speculation?" Amelia asked. "This cup didn't go missing until a few years after he graduated so it is possible that it wasn't the two you've destroyed were earlier than this one. We need to wait for the experts to tell us how many Horcruxes were made before the cup, though how many more he might have made will be anyone's guess until we find more."

"Merlin only knows what Dumbledore thinks," Harry said frustrated. "But Slughorn thought Voldemort was aiming for seven, whether that was seven Horcruxes or seven pieces of his soul counting him, or even if he made them all before he came after my family, or if he's made any since then or thought better of it, is anyone's guess.

"How does Professor Slughorn have anything to do with it?" Amelia asked irritated.

"Tom Riddle was one of his Slug club. He asked him for advice about how many one person could make or something. I'm not sure if it was Slughorn that told Riddle about the Horcruxes or loaned him a book with them in, but Slughorn knew Voldemort knew about Horcruxes back when he was a student, and Voldemort knew he knew," Harry explained.

"That's someone else that needs to be arrested and questioned, he probably knows enough to know the resurrection ritual too," Amelia declared.

"He wouldn't do it though. He's too much of a coward. He doesn't have anything to gain from Voldemort coming back again, he was afraid he'd be killed for knowing too much," Harry said seriously.

"He still needs to be arrested. If he'd shared what he knew years ago, we could have taken care of all this before You-Know-Who was resurrected at all, and we need to know who else he might have told about the resurrection rituals, and why he never informed the authorities who Voldemort was and the possibility of him returning," Amelia stated. "Keeping information to yourself isn't a crime but someone that morally reprehensible is probably guilty of something we can charge him with."

"And if it comes out that he had told Dumbledore years ago?" Harry asked.

"Then I'll find a way to string the old goat up and pour Veritaserum into him until it's leaking out all his orifices to find out why he never did anything about that knowledge, and why he never got a complete list of the Death Eaters from Snape or did anything about the Death Eaters he did know about," Amelia snapped.

Kingsley chuckled dryly. "What did Dumbledore say about the Horcruxes?"

Harry huffed in annoyance. "Does he ever confide in anyone? He didn't tell me what the diary was at all until I guessed it was one when he told me about them this year. Voldemort told me more about the horcrux than Dumbledore did though he didn't use the name Horcrux. He told me that Ginny poured out her soul into the diary and that he was able to use that to become a person again and Ginny would die. I saw the teenage Voldemort slowly appearing to become flesh and blood as Ginny lay dying and I watched him torn apart as I stabbed the diary with the basilisk fang and Ginny recovered as he did, and still Dumbledore didn't tell me what it was or that there might be more of them we needed to find and destroy to prevent his resurrection," Harry said almost angrily. "It wasn't until last year when he set me looking for the other horcruxes that he told me anything about what he thought the diary was or asked me the details about what happened when it was destroyed. He wanted me to get information from Slughorn about them that the man was too cowardly to tell him. Even then he told me Voldemort couldn't be killed until they were all found and destroyed which was obviously not true. Do you think he made a mistake or was he deliberately lying to me and why would he lie about something like that? If he could have been killed at the ministry in fifth year, why didn't Dumbledore try to kill him?"

"I don't know Harry," Amelia said. "Albus Dumbledore has built a reputation for knowing everything but the truth is that no one man can truly do that, and his own belief in that reputation prevents him from asking others for an expert opinion. We had hoped that he confided in Snape, but he didn't."

"He might also have confided in his best friends Daedalus Diggle or his second in command in the order Mad-Eye Moody, though I somehow doubt that he told anyone everything, he was too fond of keeping things to himself. But I can tell you that Dumbledore truly believed the prophecy that you were the only person who had the power to kill Voldemort. He is completely shocked and refusing to believe that Susan killed him that night, insisting that he will be back again and begging people not to let their guards down. The newspaper's are starting to claim that he's gone senile again and even after being proved wrong last time, people are believing them," Kingsley added.

"If he truly believed I was the only one who had any hope of killing Moldieshorts, then why didn't he try to give me the training I'd need to kill him? Why did he leave me to try to train myself?" Harry asked angrily.

"I have no idea Harry, I know that Mad-Eye, McGonagall and myself believed he was training you. You had several meetings with him last year," Kingsley replied.

"Which he spent showing me the memories of how he came to believe in the Horcruxes and how he found the one in the ring, things he could have told me in a single session, and nothing remotely practical or useful, like how to destroy a Horcrux without killing my hands like he did, let alone how to fight," Harry snorted.

A/N: Thank you to all those who reviewed followed or favourited this story for your support.