Amelia and Jupiter were in their makeshift war room tracking the progress of their teams surrounding Malfoy Manor. There were nine aurors broken up into three teams with an unspeakable assigned to each to help break through the wards. They would also handle any unsavory curses the Malfoys may have used to protect their home.

She was running on potions but she knew the longer it took to put this together the more opportunity there was for a leak, and she would not allow Lucius Malfoy to slip through the arms of justice again.

The two were looking at a map that Dobby had helped them make of the Malfoy grounds. Once all three teams were in position they would give the signal to start breaking through the wards. At 4:00 a.m. the Malfoys were likely to be asleep and unprepared for the intrusion.

"HQ, team alpha is in position."

"Beta is in position."

"Gamma is in position, HQ."

Sharing a look with Jupiter she gave them permission to enter. This was the worst part of being the director. Being stuck in the background while her team was out in the field. She would have preferred being in the mix with them and Jupiter seemed to share that sentiment. But they were needed here to watch over the mission and give guidance when possible.

The plan was to disrupt the wards long enough for the teams to slip through the gates. Alpha would be going in through the front door. Their mission was to detain Lucius Malfoy.

Beta was to sneak through their hidden escape route and catch Narcissa if she were to try to leave. However, their main mission was to get into the secret compartment in the drawing room and find Malfoy's hidden dark artifacts. Gamma was to remain outside and provide backup.

"The wards are down, beta is through."

"Alpha is clear."

Gamma took a second before responding "Gamma is through and in position HQ."

"From now on I want everyone's listeners activated for the rest of the mission,'' Amelia told them.

Looking at the map the two leaders could see that gamma had taken up position along the property line. Alpha was almost to the front door and beta was making their way towards the secret escape near the gardens.

Once the other two teams were in position, Amelia gave the alpha team permission to enter. Now it was in the hands of her aurors.

"On three Smoke, I want you to take out the door." The alpha team leader said.

"1..2 ." crash!

" Go go go!" Smoke shouted.

"Keep your eyes open, we don't know what he's been able to set up. Smoke, bar the doorway. Blue, keep an eye on our six."

"Sonorus! This house is surrounded by aurors. We are here to arrest Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy. You are to present yourselves and surrender your wands by order of the Ministry of Magic." Alpha leader, Duke's voice boomed.

"Duke, the spell shows there's one human on the second floor and two headed to the back of the house." Cat informed them.

"Beta can handle the other two, worry about the one at the top. It's most likely Malfoy himself and he'll have an advantage at the top of the stairs." Duke responded. "Cat and I will head up the stairs. Smoke, wait a few and then back us up. Blue, make sure we don't have any surprises down here. Let's go Cat, shields up."

It only took a few seconds before they heard Cat yelling "green green!"

Green was used to alert others that the killing curse was being used. Malfoy wasn't holding back and he wouldn't be able to wiggle his way out after that. Amelia couldn't believe he jumped straight to unforgivables. The man must know his days were numbered.

The next couple of minutes were a jumble of spellfire, yelling, and crashes. Amelia felt her heart drop when she heard Blue yelling 'Cat down!'. That seemed to be the signal for Smoke to prove that he was an unspeakable and started casting spells that Amelia had never heard of.

"We've made it to the second floor,'' Amelia heard Duke say. "What's Cat's status?"

"She's alive, but she took a lot of damage. I have her under a stasis charm." Blue responded.

"I have two going in to retrieve her,'' the gamma leader informed them.

Almost immediately after they heard the Bata leader start to speak. "Stop, by order of the Ministry of Magic, you are to surrender yourselves and come in quietly."

"You do not want to do that Mrs. Malfoy. Think of your son. He could be caught in the crossfire." Another voice shouted. Amelia could only assume Narcissa had made to attack.

"The hallway is clear, we're now searching room to room" the alpha leader's voice broke in.

"Narcissa has dropped her wand and the two of them are coming out of the passage."

"Make sure you get the child's wand,'' Amelia reminded them." and double check her for an extra wand and portkeys."

"They are clear, gamma please come pick them up."

"We're on our way beta,'' they heard the gamma leader say. "Thor has taken Cat to medical and I'll stay to back up alpha. The other two are on their way to beta."

"The second floor is clear but our revelio spell has stopped working. Keep your eyes open, beta, Blue. He could have gone down the back stairs towards the escape route or back towards the front. We are headed to the attic. Blue stay in the entrance hall until beta gets there. Gamma can watch the front door". The alpha leader ordered.

"We are entering the house now, Blue" the bata leader responded.

"Cub just took the other two Malfoys to a holding cell. Wisdom and I will guard the main entrance." The gamma leader informed them.

"The attic seems to be where they house their elves. There are five up here. They claim they haven't seen him and I doubt Malfoy would stoop low enough to hide with his elves. We are sending them down to gamma before we start searching."

"Blue has joined our team. I'm sending Hop and Lucky with him to search for Malfoy on the main floor. Comet and I will secure the drawing room and search for the secret compartment." The beta leader informed them.

Muting her listener, Amelia turned to her partner in frustration. "Where could he have gone? Do you think Dobby left out another secret exit?"

"That elf seemed very devoted to Harry. I doubt he would deliberately leave anything out. However, the Malfoys are an old family. There may be older passages that he was unaware of." Jupiter reasoned, while scanning over their map. Suddenly he reached forward and grabbed the listener.

"Smoke, Wisdom! Start searching for concealment spells, wards, hell even runes on the walls. The Malfoys are way too old and dark to not have an area to house prisoners. I know for a fact that Lucius's great-grandfather used to torture muggles at the house for fun."

"On it boss!" Smoke answered.

"I'm headed in." The gamma unspeakable responded.

Muting the listener again, Amelia asked "You know this for a fact?"

"Yes, I went to school with his grandfather. The little slug came back after Yule bragging about it to the common room. And before you start to accuse me of giving them a pass, please remember that I was only twelve and would not have been in a position to do anything for many years. By the time I was in any position to go after them, Nexius was already dead, and Brighton had moved to France," the unspeakable explained.

Before Amelia could ask further questions, they were interrupted by Smoke. "Duke and I have found a passage in the hallway on the second floor leading down. It is likely how Malfoy escaped us. We are headed in."

"I want Wisdom and Lucky to back them up. Hop and Blue are to return to the drawing room," Jupiter ordered.

Amelia hoped to Merlin that Lucius hadn't escaped. The Malfoys had enough money for him to easily disappear. She didn't doubt for a second that the man was selfish enough to leave his wife and son behind to deal with the fallout.

"Comet has opened the compartment door, and Blue and Hop are back." The beta leader's voice rang out.

"The passage leads down past the first floor. It looks like it goes under the house. This may be the holding area you were talking about Jupiter", Duke whispered into his listener.

"We are now entering the passage. We'll be right behind you guys." Wisdom's voice followed him up.

"We have hit the motherload! There are all kinds of books and dark artifacts under here. Even without the unforgivable Malfoy is looking at life in Azkaban." Comet exclaimed.

"Be careful Comet,'' Jupiter warned. "There could be more safeguards within."

No sooner had Jupiter spoken when they heard yelling and healing spells shouted out. The two directors braced themselves for the worse.

"Comet was attacked by an animated snake statue. We have contained the statue but it injected him with some kind of poison. I'm sending him to medical with Hop. Blue and I will guard the room until Malfoy is detained," The beta leader informed them.

"The passage led down to a large stone door. Smoke is currently trying to take down the wards around it," Duke's voice came through a few moments later.

"We are coming up on you Duke," they heard Wisdom say.

A moment later they heard the two groups meet up and Wisdom join Smoke in deactivating the wards.

"We're through,'' Duke announced. "Smoke and I will take point, Blue and Wisdom will back us up. It is likely that Malfoy has been in here for the last 30 minutes and who knows what is waiting for us on the other side. Do not hesitate to use lethal force if necessary. Let's go!"

The next few minutes were a constant stream of detection spells and shield charms.

Suddenly, "Green! Green!"

"Malfoy is hiding in that back right corner!" Blue shouted.

"Blue, I want you to get ready to start intercepting his spells with debris. Smoke on my say so, we're going to blast through the wall he's hiding behind. Wisdom if you get a chance, take him out," Duke ordered his team.

"3 , 2 , go! Bombard!"

The sounds of spellfire filled the office once again until, "We got him! Malfoy is down!"

"He's still breathing but he's going to need medical if we want to keep him that way," Smoke followed up.

"Bring him in," Amelia said "but make sure you check him for portkeys and slap some suppressant cuffs on him. He's not getting away from us now that we have him."

HP-HP-HP

Harry woke up feeling refreshed. He hadn't had any nightmares about giant snakes or deranged godfathers. Wanting to start his day off right, he put in an order for a full English before heading to the bathroom for his morning constitutions.

Tonks had suggested they upgrade his wardrobe today and he was going to need all the energy he could muster to get through the multitude of shops she listed. He didn't think he needed to get everything she talked about, but it was nice to have someone so excited to help him.

Stepping back into the room, Harry was greeted by the smell of his breakfast and Hedwig pecking at the window.

"Hey girl, welcome back," he greeted her as he let her in. "Thank you for waiting for Hermione's response," he continued, removing the letter she carried.

Getting comfortable, Harry opened the letter as he started on his breakfast.

Harry,

I'm sorry this letter is so short, but I don't have a lot of time to write. Things have been complicated lately. My parents received a letter from a wizarding legal office who are trying to sue Hogwarts for negligence and child endangerment. They are suggesting that the teachers didn't do enough to protect students from the basilisk, and didn't explore all options when it came to reviving us from petrification.

Needless to say, this was upsetting to my parents, but things are even more complicated because I didn't tell them about what happened before the letter came. When they asked why I had stopped writing for a couple weeks, I told them I had just gotten very stressed with school work. Then the letter came and I had to confess that I was attacked by a giant snake and left basically comatose. They are very upset with me and the school.

They wanted to pull me out of Hogwarts but I convinced them to wait until after they spoke to these solicitors. Apparently they are trying to put in more safety measures at Hogwarts for muggle-borns and their parents.

My parents are going spare over this, and they have grounded me for the rest of the summer. I'm not allowed to do any extracurricular reading, magical or otherwise. I also have to go into the office with them and help out. They have set me up to see a therapist, but I'm not sure what that's going to do for me since I can't exactly tell them the truth.

I'll send you another letter once I know more.

Hermione,

P.S. I'm glad you're away from those awful people. I hope your solicitors are able to find you better guardians.

P.P.S I love these pens you sent me, thank you!

HP-HP-HP

"What has you so giddy this morning?" Haggler questioned the portrait.

"Guess who made friends with one of the wizards from the Gringotts' founding portrait in the lobby?" Harry said in a teasing voice.

"I'm so happy you found someone respectable to keep you company,'' the goblin sneered.

"Don't go getting jealous on me, you know you're my best friend," the portrait continued with a laugh.

"Wait, I thought those in that portrait were blocked from moving around the bank?"

"Oh they still are, however, they can appear in the duplicate portrait that is hanging in the ministry. Anyways, I just heard some juicy news. It would seem that the Malfoy house was raided last night." Harry said with the little jig.

"I don't see why you're so happy. You should know that nothing sticks to Malfoy after he starts greasing palms."

"Au contraire mon ami. Narcissa Malfoy is currently sitting in a ministry holding cell and Lucius is in St. Mungo's getting treated. Apparently they found his secret stash of dark artifacts, and on top of that, Lucius was throwing around unforgivables!"

"So you're finally seeing the fruits of your labor. I see why you're so pleased with yourself this morning."

"More than please! I didn't have a direct hand in this. This must have come about from Amelia's interview with Harry. I didn't expect to take down Malfoy for another couple years."

"Well then my friend, congratulations," Haggler said, raising his coffee to the smiling portrait.

The comments for the last chapter were pretty amusing. Thanks for all the new follows and favs.

I've seen this question a few times so I figured I'd put it up here for everyone. This story will end before the school year starts. I don't know how you feel about it but I'm thankful considering the pacing ( I know that's all me). I do know where I want things to go and I think you will be happy with how it ends.

Also for the new readers, I don't update quickly but it is consistent. I update towards the beginning of every month.

Story recommendation: Awakening by SweetShireen

After his name came out of the Goblet of Fire, Harry woke to a disturbing reality. The wizarding world only saw him as an expendable pawn, his carefree attitude towards studying left him struggling to survive, and he had never truly appreciated the one, constant companion at his side—Hermione Granger. It was high time for change.