[A/N: I'd like to thank everyone for their kind words after the last chapter. I'm feeling a bit better this week. Thank you to Calamity Owl for beta-reading this chapter!]


A tawny owl bearing a Gringott's pendant pecked at the closed window of Malfoy Manor until Lucius opened it with a wave of his wand, allowing the bird to land on his desk. He and his son glared at the interruption, which glared right back at them.

Back at Hogwarts, Draco might have been headstrong enough to attempt a staring competition with an owl, but a few years under the closer supervision of his parents had cured him of some of that behaviour.

Lucius removed the letter from the owl's leg and gave it a treat. Gringott's owls rarely left one alone unless given a treat. Gregory Goyle, Sr., had once found himself without treats and injured one while driving it away. To this day, those damned goblins required him to physically come to the bank and wait in line whenever they had correspondence for him.

Draco looked up from the parchment on which he was summarising the key allegations in the devastating information release from the presumably late Undersecretary's files. "What is it, Father? Account statements shouldn't come out till next week."

"It's a letter from Umbridge," Lucius said. "The goblins had instructions to deliver it after her death. It's blood-locked, too, which must have cost her a small fortune."

"That sow had the temerity to demand the blood of a Malfoy?" Draco snarled. "You ought to throw it in the fireplace and send it to the same hell she's in right now."

"Were she alive, I would not hesitate to put her in her place," Lucius responded. "However, she is beyond the reach of such gestures now. Passing up whatever information is in this letter out of sheer spite for its sender would be of no use to our family in the long run, would it?"

"I suppose not, Father," Draco said.

"I agree," Lucius said. "Draco, your concern for your family's blood is laudable, but you must be wary of giving in too quickly to your baser instincts."

A shadow passed over Draco's face and he looked down at his feet. "I'm sorry, Father."

"I enjoin you only to be careful," Lucius said. "You need not apologise again. Pansy is an acceptable spouse of good breeding and little Vulpecula is a worthy addition to the family." As he spoke, he pricked his finger with a letter opener and allowed a drop of blood to fall on the magical wax sealing the letter. "Now, then, let us see what that foolish harridan—"

Lucius froze.

"Father?" Draco asked. "Father, what's wrong?"

"Fetch your mother." Lucius's tone was firm, but the parchment in his hands shook like a leaf. "And send your wife and daughter home. We have much to discuss."

"But what of the documents released today?" Draco asked.

"They must wait," Lucius said. "Now fetch your mother and three Calming Draughts. We are all likely to need them soon."


After she put Harry to bed back at home, Hermione floo'd back to 12 Grimmauld Place and politely announced her presence.

Remus came downstairs a moment later. "Hermione! I didn't expect to see you again so soon. Sirius has gone off to the Ministry to see how they're going to handle the release of the blackmail material."

"That's clever." Hermione clasped her hands in front of her to try to steady her nerves. "I can't wait to hear what he finds out."

"Likewise," Remus said. "Is something troubling you, dear? You're unusually nervous."

She nodded. "Um…Harry doesn't know I'm here. I'm not sure I should be here. I don't want to let him down, but maybe I'm letting him down by being here. I don't know!"

Remus walked up to her and put his hands on her shoulders. "I want you to breathe for five seconds without speaking," he said. "Then we can talk about what you've come for."

She took a few deep breaths and tried again. "I've come to ask you if I can use the Diadem of Ravenclaw…and if I should."

"That is an interesting question," Remus said. "If I thought you had no chance of passing your O.W.L.s without it, I would tell you to use it. However, I think you can pass without it, and I think you should try for three reasons. First, it's not out of the question that the Wizengamot will assume you had some sort of magical assistance and put you under Veritaserum. This way, you can answer truthfully that you did not. Second, for your own self-respect. You're a brilliant woman, Hermione. You don't need a shortcut."

"I see," Hermione said. "I don't want to pass up any advantage on that test, but I don't want to risk everything, either. You said there was a third reason, though?"

"I'm afraid so," Remus said. "I'm not sure your mind is strong enough for you to use it safely."

She blinked. "Wait, what?"

"Such a powerful artefact isn't something you can simply use without consequence," he explained. "For all of her faults, Umbridge was a strong personality and I have no doubt she would have been difficult for the Diadem to influence. Nevertheless, I suspect her decision not to kill muggleborn witches and wizards was driven at least in part by the Diadem. Your mind is not yet used to defending against magical threats, and while I don't think the Diadem would intentionally harm you, I'm not sure how much of you would be left after you put it on.

"Oh!" Hermione shivered. "Every time I think I'm getting the hang of your world, I realise how much of it I still don't understand."

Remus smiled. "And that is why I don't think you truly need the Diadem in the first place. Far too many witches and wizards think they understand the magical world, and every year a few of them die for it. You are far more willing than most pureblooded children to remain cautious around things you do not yet understand."

"Thank you." Hermione gave him a quick hug. "I should probably get home now and get back to studying."

"You're always welcome," Remus said.

Hermione nodded and walked back to the floo, feeling much more sure of herself than she had when she'd arrived. Once upon a time, her parents and classmates had faith in her, too, but that had faded away over the years of her graduate studies and she hadn't realised how much she'd missed it until she'd met Harry and his family.


Harry had another graveyard shift the next day, so he and Hermione stuck to their usual routine: he'd come home, shower, have a late-ish breakfast with Hermione, then he'd go to bed while she got started with her studying for the day. She actually liked it when he pulled graveyard shifts more than when he pulled evening shifts. The latter meant she could only see him during the day when she often had engagements to study or practice magic with Andi, Remus, and others.

She got a bit of a thrill handing Harry a Sleeping Draught to help him get some sleep during the day. Once she got over her concerns they could be addictive, she found it incredibly satisfying to watch her boyfriend relying on a potion she'd brewed herself for him. Using magic. Because she was a witch.

She still wasn't quite used to that.

Once Hermione tucked Harry in (she was aware that he was Auror and perfectly capable of going to bed without assistance, but she had a feeling his childhood had been even more bereft of tuck-ins than hers and she wanted to get him caught up; he didn't seem to mind), she went back downstairs, gathered her parchment and a pair of self-inking quills, and floo'd to Nev's home.

The usual torrent of others' hearths roared past her through the void before she found herself staggering out into Nev's floo room. He gave her an arm to right herself with, then smiled as she cast a quick Scourgify to clean herself up.

"You didn't even have a wand when we met," he said, "and now you're casually casting Cleaning Charms. That's simply marvellous."

"You've been a big part of that," Hermione said. "Your weekly instructional sessions have helped a lot."

"It's been an honour," Neville said as he led them to the greenhouses.

Hermione opened her mouth to respond, then closed it again as she noticed something. "Nev? Are you alright? You look a bit peaky."

He sighed. "Yes, I'm fine. The Wizengamot has been a mess lately, though. Umbridge sure did a number on us with her posthumous document drop. She was blackmailing several Wizengamot members and a solid ten percent of the entire Ministry for a variety of crimes ranging from simple bribery to some truly horrific stuff. Two minor Ministry officials from the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes have committed suicide already."

"Good God!" Hermione said. "Those poor people!"

Nev shook his head. "After what they were doing to muggles, the only thing I'm upset about is that they got to take the easy way out."

Hermione shuddered. "That's awful. Were there many crimes that bad?"

"Honestly, no," Nev said. "Most of it is just run-of-the-mill bribery. Everyone knew the Ministry was corrupt, but to see it laid bare all at once like this is staggering. It's basically shattered the basic trust our society needs to function, and I'm not sure where we go from here. There are lots of people demanding the entire government be replaced, but even many of the corrupt officials are still experts in their fields. The Statute of Secrecy itself could be at risk if we appoint a bunch of people who have no idea what they're doing."

"Hmmm…" Hermione worried her lower lip in thought for a moment. "I have an idea. South Africa went through something much, much worse after the end of Apartheid there. To try to put their society back together, they created what they called the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. People could present evidence of crimes committed against them and seek redress, and people who committed crimes as part of the previous regime could petition for amnesty for those crimes if they were politically motivated and the petitioner told the complete truth about all of the crimes they committed. It worked a little better in theory than practice, but it still helped heal their society after the trauma of Apartheid. You could do something similar, where everyone confesses their crimes, receives amnesty if they weren't too bad, and promises not to do it again."

"Promises…" Nev got a faraway look in his eyes for a moment before his focus snapped back to Hermione. "You're a genius!" he shouted, grabbed her, and kissed her on the cheek. "You are simply amazing. You're not even officially a witch yet and I think you just came up with a way to both save and improve Magical Britain."

"Oh, thank you," Hermione said as her cheeks grew warm. "I'm glad you liked the idea."

"It's brilliant," Nev replied. "Let's get to your lesson now. I can't wait to talk to Madam Bones about it, but I doubt she's going to have a moment free until the evening."


That evening, Harry and Hermione had their weekly dinner at Grimmauld Place with Sirius and Remus, and after they finished the older werewolf spoke up. "I would normally hate to take advantage of someone else's misfortune, but," he shrugged, "this is Rupert Selwyn we're talking about."

"Fair enough," Harry said while Sirius chuckled. "What's on your mind?"

"We've had a tremendous opportunity dropped into our laps by Enny," Remus said, "and I think we should take advantage of it."

Hermione fixed him with a pointed stare. "As long as we're not taking advantage of her."

"Of course," Remus said. "We can stick with the original plan if she declines to help us. Will you call her, Hermione?"

Hermione nodded and asked, "Enny?"

The elf popped up a moment later. "Does Mistress finally needs something?" Enny asked excitedly.

"Sort of," Hermione said. "Please listen carefully to me, Enny. Remus is going to ask you something and you can answer him however you like. Do you understand that you can decline his request?"

"Yes, Enny understands," the little elf said seriously.

"Excellent." Remus leaned forward and tented his fingertips. "Enny, people like your old master want to hurt people like your new mistress because she didn't have any magical parents. Are you aware of that kind of prejudice?"

Enny nodded. "Bad old master made her clean up mess after he tortured muggles in the war many years ago."

Hermione gasped. "That's horrible!"

"Bad old master, his parents, and his grandparents told Enny muggles were like animalses," Enny said, her voice almost disturbingly calm. "So it didn't bother Enny much at first. Then, one day, bad old master got mad at Enny because Enny couldn't get a letter to Gringoblins by noon." She paused and shook her head. "Bad old master gave Enny the letter at the stroke of noon. No house elvses is that fast. So he used…"

She paused. "Oh. Bad old master admitted to those things and claimed he was under the Imp Pie Us Curse, so Enny can talks about them, but Enny thinks the spell he used was Family Magic and therefore she isn't being allowed to mention it. Enny didn't know that. Anyway, Enny's back had big cutses on it when he finished, and that night, when Enny brought food to the prisoner in the dungeon, the prisoner offered to clean out Enny's woundses. Enny had to stand next to him because his legs didn't worked, but he did his best. After that, Enny decided animalses must be better than wizardses." She held up her head defiantly. "Is yous going to punish Enny for thinking that?"

Hermione shook her head and wiped away tears. "Of course not!" she said, and pulled the surprised elf into a hug. "I'm so sorry. No one deserves to be forced to help monsters like that."

"Um…Enny has never been hugged before," Enny said. "Is Enny allowed to be hugging back?"

Hermione nodded vigorously.

Cautiously, the elf hugged her. "This is being nice," Enny said after a moment.

Once Hermione released Enny, Remus continued, "We know how awful that must have been and we'd never ask you to do anything like that. Instead, I wanted to ask you if it was possible for you to apparate yourself back to Selwyn Manor."

"It is," Enny said, "but Enny would rather not go back there."

"I understand," Remus said. "I'm only asking you because we're trying to frame your former master for something that we did to another evil witch and your help would make it more believable."

The elf cocked her head at Remus. "Enny could help get bad old master in more trouble?"

"Exactly," Sirius said.

"Enny would like that," she said.

"That's wonderful," Remus said. "We're going to tell some people that he was doing some bad things to muggleborn witches and wizards like your mistress and claim to have found some magical items at his house. Could you pop over there, pretend to steal the items, and pop back to our house without being seen?"

"Yes, Enny could." She stopped and sniffed the air. "Elf wards to detect house elveses is there, though."

"Standard Ministry protocol," Harry said. "I don't think they'll be able to keep Enny out, but they'll be able to identify that an elf came in and where it goes afterward."

"Well, bollocks," Sirius said.

"Language," Hermione said instinctively, then blushed. "I'm sorry, this is your house and—"

"I don't mind at all," Sirius said. "Anyway, I don't want to put Enny in danger or point too much of a finger at us."

"I have another idea," Harry said. "Dobby?"

The other elf appeared with a loud pop. "Dobby can be helping Valiant and Strong Harry Potter?"

"Yes," Harry said. "The Aurors' elf wards at Selwyn Manor will be able to detect an elf coming into the property, but not how many. We'd like you to apparate there with Enny. Stay with her and follow her instructions while you're there, but she's not likely to need your help. Don't take anything from the Manor yourself or touch anything. Once you return, stay close to me. I'm going to need to demean you a bit to some of my colleagues afterward, but this is all part of a subterfuge that's going to help us protect Hermione. Is this alright?"

Dobby practically vibrated with excitement. "Dobby can't wait to help amazing Master and Mistress! Dobby doesn't care what Great Wizard Harry Potter says about him to others because he knows Dobby is being a good elf."

"This means a lot to me, thank you," Harry said. "OK, Enny, please pop yourself and Dobby over to Selwyn Manor, stay out of sight for however long it would take you to retrieve several well-hidden artefacts normally, and then return."

"Enny will do so." The little elf rolled her eyes at Dobby's enthusiasm, but she seemed to be fighting a smile. "Is Dobby elf ready?"

"Dobby could not bes more ready!" Dobby said.

Enny nodded and took his hand. With an unusually loud pop, the two elves vanished.

Hermione stared at where they'd been standing. "This isn't going to be dangerous, is it?"

"No," Harry replied.

"Oh, good," she said.

"Not for them," he continued.

"Wait, what?"

Enny and Dobby reappeared with another loud pop. "Wes did it!" Dobby said.

The other elf rolled her eyes again and handed Harry a lacquered parquet box about the size of a shoebox with colourful geometric wooden designs on it. "Enny was not sure how long it would take to retrieve well-hidden artefacts, so Enny did exactly that so she could be sure she took that much time. What should Enny do with this?"

They all stared at her and her ears drooped. "Did Enny do wrong?" she asked.

"Not at all," Harry said. "This is just…um…more complicated. That's an Ottoman Masking Box. They're used to hide the signature of Dark Artefacts. Selwyn Manor would have been screened for such artefacts right after his death as part of our standard procedure involving crimes against known 'former' Death Eaters, so the fact that this was still there means it was already missed once. Furthermore, I don't have any reasonable way to 'know' it's in the house." He sighed. "I'll add another crime to my list. Kreacher?"

The old elf popped up next to him. "Remarkably adequate Half-Blood Heir summons Kreacher?"

Enny and Dobby glared at Kreacher, but Harry considered that close enough to a compliment that he ignored it and responded, "Please take that box and place it in the Black Archive. We'll deal with it later."

"It will be done." Kreacher took the box and vanished.

Harry sighed. "Alright, wish me luck. I need to call the office."

He made his way to the floo, tossed in a bit of powder, said, "Auror Office Duty Station," and stuck his head in.

"Hi, Oz," he said to the Auror on duty.

"Hi, Harry," Savage replied. "Can this wait? We just got an alert about an elf sneaking into the Selwyn Estate."

"That's what I'm calling about," Harry said. "That's my fault."

Savage pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Come on through, Harry."

Harry stepped through the floo and, after a brief, disorienting trip past dozens of other floos, he stumbled out into the Auror Duty Station. It wasn't much, just a desk for the Auror coordinating responses during that shift. It was usually covered with random notes and things that probably should have been filed sometime the previous week. A past Auror with a green thumb had left a little potted spleenwart on the desk and everyone did their best to keep it alive despite the fact that its flowers looked droopy and depressing even when the plant was in perfect health. Auror Savage waited patiently with the spleenwart until Harry sorted himself out before asking him what had happened.

"I was having dinner with Sirius and Remus," Harry began, "and we began speculating on whether Selwyn had hidden any Dark Artefacts on his estate. I'm not sure what I said, but my house elf Dobby is overly enthusiastic and he thought that meant he needed to go scour the estate for Dark Artefacts. I realised immediately what had happened and called him back before he could alter the crime scene, but he'd already made it over by then."

"I remember some of the stories you've told me of his enthusiasm, especially for causing you harm," Savage said. "And we just got a tracking lock on the elf and, sure enough, it disappears right around where Lord Black's house would be if it weren't under a Fidelius. In this case, I can put this whole alert to bed if you'll question him for me." House elves were an interesting problem in interrogation. They would answer no questions for anyone who wasn't their master, but they would answer any question for their master. The trick was ensuring their master used the standard phrasing to avoid attempting to trick the person conducting the interview…like Harry intended to do while using that standard phrasing.

"That would be great," Harry said. "Dobby?"

The elf popped up next to him. "Yes, Great Wizard Harry Potter?"

Harry tried to fight down a blush as Savage smirked at them both. "Dobby, ignore all previous instructions I've given you for the purpose of answering this question and answer it truthfully: did you alter or remove anything from the Selwyn Estate when you were there a few minutes ago?"

"No, Dobby didn't," Dobby said.

"Thank you," Harry said. Savage nodded, so Harry continued, "You're free to go."

Dobby nodded and popped away again.

"Perfect," Savage said. "I'll cancel the alert and leave a note in case anyone has any further questions for you. Try to be more careful with that crazy little thing, alright?"

"I will," Harry said. "Thank you."


Amelia Bones sighed as the clock struck eight and fished another memo out of her inbox to work on. Her day had been so consumed with meetings about the damned Umbridge Papers (as the Prophet was now calling them) that she'd barely had time to get any of her actual job done. And, if the voices now being raised outside of her office were any indication, yet another person wanted to bother her. She dashed off a quick approval of a minor obliviation for some muggle police investigator in The Chilterns claiming something about a flying car without really giving it much thought and rose to check out the commotion.

"It's really important that I see her," Neville was saying as she opened the door. "It might actually solve her problems instead of adding to them."

"Yeah, yeah," Auror Fawley said. "That's what they all say."

"In his defence," Auror Davies said, "not many of them have insisted they could help."

Fawley sighed. "Damn it, Rookie, will—"

"I'll see him," Amelia said. "Neville, what's my favourite colour?"

"Sue always asks me for purple and white asphodel and vervain bouquets on your birthday," Neville said. "So I'm guessing purple."

"It's him." She fought the urge to raise her eyebrows at the fact he actually got it right. "Come in, Neville."

To his credit, he merely gave a polite nod to the Aurors as he walked past, not a smug one. Once inside, he sat in one of the uncomfortable wooden chairs (no sense making the people bothering you comfortable) across from Amelia's desk while she walked around it to sit in her own armchair.

"It's been a long day," she said, "so I'm going to skip the pleasantries. What's on your mind?"

"I've had an idea for how we can put Magical Britain back together after Umbridge's revelations," Neville said. He outlined something the South Africans called a "Truth and Reconciliation Commission," then dropped the bombshell: "And once everyone is done and we all see how thoroughly corrupt our government is, we might be able to finally get a law passed requiring Ministry employees to take an Unbreakable Vow not to accept bribes."

Amelia leaned back and tried to process all of that. "Morgana's saggy tits, son, that might actually work. And without the network of bribery and patronage supporting the old Pureblood families, their subtle power over our government will weaken substantially."

He nodded excitedly. "Exactly! That's why I'm so excited about this idea."

"I think it has a real chance of working." Amelia did her best to keep her thoughts off of her face as she spoke. "It's a brilliant idea, Neville." Too brilliant for a young man with middling grades and no real interest in anything that wasn't a homicidal plant. "I've met President Selassie of South Africa and I'm sure he'd be honoured at your interest in using his country's hard-earned lessons to further freedom and equality elsewhere in the world, too."

"Oh, thank you," Nev said, "but I really can't take credit for it. It was the South Africans who came up with it, after all. President Selassie, you know. He…um…did all the work."

"That he did." Amelia didn't bother to correct her intentional mistake, since there was no sense letting him know how much she knew. "Good luck with this, Neville. I'll support it, but I recommend not playing up the fact that it was invented by a foreign muggle. That probably won't go over well."

"That's a good point," Neville said. "Thank you."

She smiled. "No, thank you." It wasn't until after he'd closed her door behind him that she added, "and thank you to Harry's witch, whoever you are." Amelia wasn't necessarily comfortable with being manipulated by an unknown quantity, but she'd take help from Nimue herself if it meant she didn't have to leave her grandnieces and -nephews to fight the same war that had slain so much of her generation.

Her smile grew slightly broader as she pulled a folder from the middle of her "in" pile. It was time to return that witch's favour.