Coming into the Great Hall was a bit of an effort for Harry because his entire body was sore, Nym had kept him to his word that he was hers until his body could do nothing more. Next to him though his wife was practically skipping. Her elated attitude had her smiling all the way from their room to the hall, her golden blonde hair and rosy cheeks, she looked like an angel, or at least an angel in a devil's body because her short top and skirt was sinfully delightful to look at.
There were some knowing looks from the older girls as Nymphadora hummed a happy tune while eating her plate of breakfast even as Harry struggled to keep upright. "So you have a secret party of your own after you left last night?" Alicia snickered behind her hand.
"Something like that yeah," Harry nodded and then groaned and adjusted his shirt and tie, revealing some dark hickeys and a number of bite marks on his skin.
"Woah," Katie choked on her juice because she had been right next to Harry and saw it all. "She's more dangerous than the dragon."
"Oh please, my hubby is going to be begging me to do all that again and again, you don't get that with a dragon," Nymphadora said happily as she sipped her tea.
Harry sighed because she was right, his body ached but he yearned for more. He worried about what type of person he was that he got off on having his wife mount him like she owned him, but she just as much enjoyed him being on top and just thrusting into her.
Taking a moment to look around the room Harry was picking out people he knew in the crowd and was curious as to why Viktor Krum and Fleur Delacour looked so downtrodden, he'd tied Viktor for first and Fleur only came a few points behind Cedric even if she came last. It was otherwise a very close event and surely it could be easily made up in the next task.
The flapping of wings overhead as the morning post started to come in drew his thoughts away from the other champions and Hedwig landed in her usual spot and stole a piece of bacon from his plate in exchange for the copy of the Daily Prophet.
"Boy-Who-Lived tricked by some floozy?" Harry read aloud as he couldn't believe his eyes.
"Young twelve year old Harry Potter," he said, reading the paper to those around him even as his breathing turned more ragged and harsh. "Our littlest and most inexperienced champion of the Triwizard Tournament, was found to be trapped in the clutches of an old woman."
"Old?" Nymphadora scoffed because she was only twenty-one, she knew she was younger than Rita. And even if she was old, she'd look damn good anyway.
"We are not sure as to the identity of the foul mistress who is clearly using our child hero for his fame and money, but what we do know is that this misguided woman is an auror. A person tasked with upholding our fair and just laws has decided to commit vile acts of line theft and pedo-" Harry's voice ground to a halt as he stood up and tore the paper in his hands to shreds.
"Where the FUCK is Rita Skeeter!" Harry demanded to know from the room full of students that jumped in their seats at his furious outburst. "Where's the dead bitch who called my wife a pedophile!"
Harry came stomping up to the head table. "She works for the Daily Prophet right?" asking the professors who nodded quickly because Harry had already drawn his wand and after yesterday no one really wanted to be on the other end of it. "Not after I get through with her."
His threatening declaration had a lot of mixed reactions from those in the hall, but thankfully Nymphadora had rushed over to calm him down before he started to come up with a plan that might result in a whole building in Diagon Alley being leveled from spellfire.
"Don't get upset, you just leave this to mum and dad, by the end of this you'll own the Prophet for what they said," Nymphadora calmly told Harry as she got him to put his wand away. She wholeheartedly supported Harry's righteous fury, she was pissed too but she also knew that acting in anger would just result in a lot of needless trouble.
"Trust me, we can get back at her for this, legally," Nymphadora said because she had a few people she could go to about this article, one of which was Madam Bones. There weren't exactly laws about libel in the magical world but the Daily Prophet needed a passable working relationship with the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. The best case without it would mean they no longer got direct statements, the worst was if the aurors started to put pressure on them in other ways.
More flapping of wings drew attention and Nymphadora watched a regal looking owl fly down to land on the table in front of her, she recognized this as Madam Bones' owl, something others who had dealings with the ministry did as well. Once the owl extended its leg out to her and took off after the letter was taken, Nym snapped it open to read.
The grin on her face should have been a warning to those who had done bad deeds because the metamorph just turned to her husband with a gleam in her eyes. "And wouldn't you know it, Madam Bones is ready to take your statement now," giggling to herself because the note mentioned that the wards in her office had been compromised but after she bullied the Unspeakables to fix it and not leave their own listening charms in place again, it was now one hundred percent secured for the conversation she had been promised.
"That is remarkably fast," Minerva commented on the speed at which the DMLE was acting regarding the reputation of Mr. and Mrs. Potter.
"She's just such a big fan of his that I guess she couldn't wait to meet him," Nymphadora smirked and tugged on her husband's arm to get him to follow her. Once they returned to their suite, Nymphadora waved her wand around Harry and found a couple of listening charms on him. While she didn't want those there she also didn't know who had placed them, it was possible that a student on the far end of the hall just wanted to hear better gossip or maybe someone wanted to listen in on their conversations, either way it was going to be removed.
"Alright, are you ready to meet my boss?" Nymphadora asked as she changed into a more appropriate dress than the risque outfit she had previously chosen.
"Sure, do you really think she can help with the article Rita published?" Harry inquired because he would accept no less than a retraction from the outlet for the horrible things they said about his wife.
"Oh she'll do more than that, promise," Nym said as she opened the floo so as to go straight into the bullpen of the DMLE that way they could skip the line to get into the ministry and not get recorded either.
Popping out of the flames, Nymphadora looked around and saw the normal dregs she worked with. She'd probably have been with them this morning if she hadn't had the time off. "Hey Shack," Nymphadora greeted as she brought Harry up with her. "You have a chance to meet my husband?"
The tall auror looked down at the wizard he'd watched compete yesterday. Because after Nymphadora had come up to the judge's booth he figured out that it was The-Boy-Who-Lived she had gotten hitched to, and he was impressed, not many fourteen year olds would be able to walk into a pit with a dangerous creature like that. Not many sane fourteen year olds he meant.
"No I didn't, hello Mr. Potter," offering the young wizard his hand. "Senior Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt."
"Nice to meet you sir," Harry shook the man's hand.
"He's my partner when we go out on patrols," Nymphadora informed Harry why she singled out this auror in particular.
"I see, well then please do keep my wife safe while you work with her," Harry requested of the older officer.
"The biggest danger she faces is her own feet," Kingsley chuckled because he had an opportunity to tease his junior auror by bantering with her husband.
"I am not that bad," Nym said as she folded her arms in a huff.
"Don't believe her, I have a number of stories I can tell you regarding our patrols, especially one that involved Eeylopes and a case of tainted birdseed," Kingsley grinned as he watched his partner quickly start to shove Harry away.
"Maybe another time Shack," Nymphadora glared because she did not want all those stories being told to her husband, she was his sexy badass auror wife, not his clumsy, covered in owl droppings wife. "Like never."
Coming up to a door, Harry was snickering because he could tell when someone had some embarrassing stories surrounding them. But he would let it go, he could always owl Kingsley later for the details. Letting Nymphadora knock on the door that said Director, they waited for a voice to call out to them.
"Come in," the stern voice said and the two entered and shut the door behind themselves.
"Auror To-, sorry, Auror Potter, Mister Potter," Amelia greeted as she stood and offered her hand to the young wizard. "I take it that you got my letter?"
"Yes we did ma'am," Harry said and kissed her knuckles because this was his wife's boss and he wanted to be extra polite so as to not make any trouble for her. "I am quite furious with the printings about Nymphadora in the Daily Prophet and I want to burn them to the ground but my wife has convinced me that's not very productive."
"No it would not be," Amelia smirked because she saw the article and it was quite damning of her officer. Had the situation been different she would have openly opposed the relationship due to the age difference but as this was not as simple as a teenager being taken advantage of by an adult, and the marriage was legitimate then she had no legal right to interfere. "Although I did not ask you to come here to discuss the press. My auror here believes there is information that I would find very relevant that only you can provide to me?"
"Yeah," Harry nodded and rubbed the back of his head. "I uh, told Nymmie about all my adventures at Hogwarts."
"Before he begins, you're sure that this office is secure?" Nymphadora asked because there were a number of people she was worried about if this information got back to them.
"I am, there were a few holes, some not unexpected, like the Unspeakables," Amelia stated. "One went straight to the minister's office. But I believe that had been put in place by my predecessor when he had aspirations of furthering his career. Of course if Cornelius ever did find it, he never said so."
"But I can assure you, that what is said in this office is just between the three of us," Amelia promised the pair because even if this turned out to be a big load of nothing, that her office was now leak proof had been reason enough to follow up on this.
"Alright," Nymphadora said as she turned to Harry. "Just start from the beginning with your first year."
"Okay," Harry nodded and then spoke about everything relevant that happened in his first year of Hogwarts.
After he finished that tale, Madam Bones slowly stood up from her chair and walked over to a cabinet, with a flick of her wand it unlocked and she pulled out two tumblers and a large decanter of amber liquid. She dropped a couple of ice cubes into each glass and returned to her desk. Slowly pouring a generous amount in each, she slid the first drink to her auror and then downed the other herself. Her breath was shaky and she steadied her hand to set the glass down. "I can see why you did not want to speak of anything until my office was secure. If this information got out to his supporters…"
"Are you alright?" Harry asked because the woman looked shell shocked by his story.
"I was a senior auror during You-Know-Who's attempt to take over the world," Amelia gulped and took a deep breath. "I saw horrible things, things I never wish to see again, I lost family and loved ones constantly. And I now find out that that monster is still alive. Still out there somewhere. So no Mister Potter, I am not alright."
"Oh, I'm sorry," Harry sadly said because Madam Bones seemed like a nice woman and he didn't feel too good about upsetting her.
"And that's just his first year," Nymphadora informed with a false smile on her face. "He's got two more."
"I see, please go on," Amelia said as she steeled her nerves so she could hear more of this information, expecting to be just as horrific in its revelations.
Finishing up his second year tale, Amelia looked angry. "Is there anything we can do about my uncle?" Nymphadora asked because Lucius did try to kill loads of people in the school.
"Possibly not, unless we can prove that he knew what You-Know… Tom Riddle's Diary could do and would do, then the worst we can get him for on that is giving a cursed dark object to a minor. As for trying to use the Killing Curse, it's not illegal to say the first word," Amelia admitted. "Don't get me wrong, I have no doubt that he was going to use it, but as he was interrupted before he could finish. He may simply claim that he was trying to scare you off Mister Potter."
That was irritating to hear that the law would allow for Lucius Malfoy to get away with everything he did. "We could still try and he might actually go down for it, but it's not a guarantee," Amelia stated as she could see and understand what the young wizard was thinking. "I must look at it from both sides, what I want to have happen and what I believe will happen based on past cases."
"But what worries me is that he felt confident enough to attempt this right outside the Headmaster's office," Amelia frowned because the rumors were that you couldn't so much as pass wind in Hogwarts without Albus Dumbledore knowing about it. Now there was no real proof to that other than his ability to know when students were getting up to trouble, but anyone who has been in their profession long enough had a similar ability that came with experience. But there were suspicions about just how much the headmaster knew at any given time. And being told of the interactions between Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore, Amelia was beginning to lean more on the side that he knew more than he would admit to.
"And now we get to last year," Nymphadora said as she sipped from her second glass of whiskey. It was good stuff, really expensive, something she could never afford a glass of on her salary, but now that she had married into money, maybe it could be a more regular thing for her to treat herself to some of the good life.
Harry got busy with telling that story and when he finished he watched Madam Bones' features. "I'm really sorry about using the time turner to break Sirius out ma'am, but he was innocent and I couldn't get Fudge to listen."
"In any other circumstance, I'd arrest you on the spot for misuse of a time turner and breaking a fugitive out of ministry custody. But as I believe your version of events more than what Cornelius told me, then I am more than willing to not pursue this as you did the right thing," Amelia said because Cornelius had told her over the summer that they almost had Black but he had confounded a group of students and fled. To know that was not true in the slightest and an innocent man had almost died, her opinion of the minister had hit rock bottom.
"Now that only covers your first three years, I would like to hear about anything you can think of that goes up until now," Amelia asked because she'd rather try to get ahead of the problems, knowing the scale of the ones Harry Potter was capable of getting himself into, instead of letting things culminate at the end of the year."
Scratching his cheek, Harry folded his arms to formulate his thoughts. "Well besides the Death Eaters attacking the World Cup, my name came out of the Goblet of Fire, and Mad-Eye believes it to be an attempt to kill me."
"Which it probably is given that Tom Riddle is still alive," Amelia pointed out, because that held water. She was glad that Alastor still seemed to have his wits about him.
"And I've had a weird dream, but it didn't seem like a dream, it was like I was looking at it from a different perspective. There was a big house by a graveyard. I remember seeing Peter and someone else, I think Voldemort was there, they talked about a woman, Bertha Jameson, or something like that, they had killed her for some reason and then this old man died," Harry admitted because he didn't really know what that all meant and he hadn't a dream like that since.
Nymphadora and Amelia shared a look, because after everything he'd said neither witch believed that this was a simple coincidence. "Harry, do you know what a pensive is?" the director asked. This didn't sound like a dream to her and if it wasn't, and Harry had actually seen the Dark Lord, then it was possible to take that as a memory. Something that wouldn't be possible with a dream.
Shaking his head Harry replied with a negative. "It's something that allows me to see your memories. If you'd just think about that vision of yours, bring all of it up to the front of your mind, Auror Potter will take it from you and we can see this, it may contain information that you simply didn't know to notice."
He trusted his wife to put her wand to his head and closed his eyes tight to remember that dream from the summer. He saw it start to fade away in his head until it was almost gone and when he opened his eyes again he saw some silvery goo dangling from her wand, to which she dropped it into a stone basin that came up from the center of Madam Bones' desk.
"Alright, let's see what we're working with," Amelia nodded and then instructed Harry on how to use a pensive.
All three fell into the liquid and while it was cloudy and hard to discern details like where this graveyard was or the location of the house on the hill, they were pulled along with what Harry saw until they were inside. "That's Pettigrew alright," Amelia commented seeing Peter kneeling in front of a chair as a raspy voice talked.
"But who's that," Nymphadora pointed to the man that pushed Peter away and took the spot. He wasn't too hard on the eyes if she was being honest, but any worshiper of the Dark Lord was an instant disgusting creep in her book.
"It can't be, he's supposed to be dead," Amelia said because she remembered that face from many years ago.
"It seems an awful lot of people who are supposed to be dead really aren't," Harry commented in irritation.
"That's Barty Crouch Junior," Amelia explained. "He was a death eater that got sentenced to and died in Azkaban years ago."
"Then how am I dreaming about a man I've never seen before?" Harry asked since that didn't seem likely he'd just imagine an already dead Death Eater.
"I don't know," Amelia said as the memory ended and they were brought out of the pensive. "But I know someone who might."
"Anything else that just didn't seem right to you this year Harry?" Nymphadora asked because this was really good information, if Barty Crouch Junior was alive and working for Voldemort then Barty Crouch Senior should know something about it .
Harry hummed and shrugged. "Well I thought it was weird that after Professor Moody taught us about the Unforgivables, he used the imperius on each of us."
Amelia had been in the process of locking up the whiskey in the cabinet when she ground to a halt. "He did what?"
"He-," looking at his wife who seemed shocked to hear this. "Yeah he put each of the fourth year students under the imperius curse. It took me a couple of tries but it doesn't work on me now but the other students still struggle with it and he said he might come back to that as punishment for students who don't pay attention during lessons. And he said Professor Dumbledore gave him permission."
Amelia blinked for a few moments before stomping over to her door and throwing it open. "SHACKLEBOLT, SAVAGE, DAWLISH, PROUDFOOT, gear up now, I want you ready to go to Hogwarts five minutes ago, 14-60."
The four men stood still for a moment to process the order given to them before they ran out of the bullpen to gear up.
"What's a 14-60?" Harry asked because he figured that was a code but he didn't know what it was.
"It means rogue auror," Nymphadora whispered as she went over to her desk and grabbed some gear that she kept. Mad-Eye always told her that it was a waste of time in an emergency to have to go to the armory for the basics, and to keep what you'd need to get to the armory in the first place. He had always worried the ministry would be besieged one day. Right now it would benefit her to make sure that Harry was safe. "When we get back you stay in our suite, let us handle this."
Harry nodded as only a minute later the four men returned and they had on a surprising amount of items on them. "We can use the floo that connects to our suite at Hogwarts, it's faster since it's not too far from the Great Hall," Nymphadora said as Madam Bones nodded and she opened the way for them to come through.
"Alright, you remember to stay here," Nymphadora instructed Harry as the half dozen officers moved out into the halls.
But Harry wasn't just going to sit and twiddle his thumbs so he went over to his trunk and grabbed the Marauder's Map and activated it. He could see the six people moving towards the Great Hall, it was obvious that they had been noticed because the headmaster was coming down from the table. But it didn't make sense to him that Mr. Crouch was up at the head table with the professors.
"And Mad-Eye is in his office?" Harry said to himself when he saw that the group was staying in the Great Hall and not leaving. He saw the students start to back away from the aurors and his every instinct went into overdrive.
"Something's wrong," Harry hissed as he burst out of his room, and sprinted like a madman through the castle.
Turning the corner to the open doors he could see the stand off between the headmaster and the aurors. Flicking his eyes to see Ron at the end of the table, seemingly a pariah after what he had done last night at the party came to light. But still he noticed that Mad-Eye, or whoever that was, was drawing their wand.
"Ron, launch me with a spell now," Harry said as he came running up to the table.
The redhead was so confused he just drew his wand and did what he was told. "Levioso," hitting Harry with the spell that sent him up near the rafters.
"Expelliarmus," Harry shouted and watched the spell shoot out of his wand and race towards the confused man who before he could react took the spell to the chest, forcing the wand out of his hand to clatter on the floor out of his reach and also threw his body back to hit the wall behind them.
"Harry?" Nymphadora questioned why Harry had ignored her instruction.
Looking down because the spell kept him up there. "That's not Mad-Eye, he's in his office, the map said so," Harry explained and it was the Headmaster who acted first, whirling around he tagged the imposter Mad-Eye with a spell that froze him in place just as he was getting up.
"The map never lies," Harry smirked as Ron started to lower him down to the table. "Thanks mate."
"No problem," Ron nodded his head as Harry moved over to show the parchment to the aurors and Dumbledore.
"If that's Alastor?" Amelia said as she tapped on the map where her retired officer was, before she looked up at the man bound on the floor who looked like her former colleague. "Then who is that?"
"My guess," Nymphadora hummed thoughtfully as she pieced together all the details she learned from Harry. "The fake Mad-Eye is Barty Crouch Junior. Mad-Eye's house was attacked this summer, from what we saw, it's likely that Barty Crouch Junior and Peter Pettigrew got the drop on him and he's been polyjuiced this whole time to get Harry into the tournament."
"That would explain where my potion ingredients have been going," Severus said as he approached with the other professors to learn of why there was such trouble during lunch.
"You knew that sensitive potion ingredients have been disappearing from the Hogwarts storeroom and you didn't report it?" Amelia said, but she knew that it was mostly a school matter. Although any sensible person would report to the aurors that the ingredients for polyjuice potion had been going missing systematically. And after hearing all of Harry's stories she wanted to bust Severus' balls any chance she got.
Severus didn't really have a response to that because while not illegal it just made him look foolish to never had brought this up when it was obvious to him something was afoot. With a sneer he turned away to return to his meal.
"May I see that map, Mister Potter?" Amelia requested of the resourceful student.
With a nod Harry passed it over to her. "Moody is in his office somewhere, Shacklebolt, Dawlish go find him, tear it apart if you have to."
The two senior aurors nodded and took off to the defense against the dark arts classroom, map in hand to help pinpoint Moody's location.
While Savage and Proudfoot went over to collect the imposter, Nymphadora slowly sidestepped her way to her husband. "If I wasn't working right now, I'd snog you under the table for what you did."
Harry grinned because he kind of liked that idea. "Well I saw something and you might have been in danger so I acted," trying to play off his actions as something normal.
"I'm glad that I have someone like you watching over me, my little guardian angel," Nymphadora said and once Madam Bones had her back to them she quickly pecked him on the cheek before standing up straight again.
"Auror Potter, sorry to say that your honeymoon will be ending early," Madam Bones said, it had been less than a week but with everything she learned today she wanted all hands on deck for what was to come. "I think you understand why."
"Of course ma'am," Nymphadora nodded to her boss. She expected that once Harry told her his story that she'd want all of her aurors back so they could prepare for the possible return of Voldemort.
Amelia looked to see that Harry was a tad disheartened and could understand why. "Do not worry Mr. Potter, while there may be some nights that your wife will be very busy assisting the DMLE, there will be just as many when she comes home."
That did ease some of Harry's worries that he wouldn't have a chance to see Nymphadora anymore. "Don't worry hubby, I'm your sexy badass auror wife, just watch me kick butt and look good doing it," giving him some assurance that she'd still be around before they brought the captive back with them to the DMLE.
Once they had left, Harry stood in the middle of the hall with an aching in his chest from being apart from his wife for just this long. "Mr. Potter, you've been gone for much of this morning and when you returned it caused quite a commotion as you can see," Albus stated to the student. "I do believe you have some explaining to do."
"I don't need to explain anything, my wife and I just had a lovely and private conversation with her boss," Harry stated. "And anything that came about because of that conversation, I'm sure you can understand the need to wait for Madam Bones' full and detailed report."
The old wizard's lip twitched in annoyance that Harry had in a polite manner told him to bugger off and he wasn't going to say anything. There were a number of potential things the young boy could have said to an intelligent and resourceful witch like Amelia in the time he was gone and frankly many of them could have disastrous results if not carefully managed.