Hi everybody. From this chapter on, the story is leaving the darker parts a bit. Still, there was a reason why I labelled it M.
Miracle
It was early in the morning of the twenty-second of December when two pops of apparition were heard in front of the gates of Hogwarts. The ones appearing from thin air were four teenagers, who looked in a terribly hurry.
"Hurry, we need to get inside the wards of Hogwarts before they can catch up to us!" urged the black-haired boy around seventeen years of age.
"Yes, otherwise they will lock us up again," agreed the blond boy around the same age.
The two girls, younger than them by approximately two years, nodded and sprinted towards the gates of the school as fast as they could. All of them wore some white clothes which weren't really suited for the snow all around them. Especially as they didn't have shoes on their feet. Thankfully for them, the gates opened easily, and they continued their sprint towards the doors of the old castle. Before they could reach them though, a booming voice called out to them. They turned towards the voice and the girls cried out in relief.
"Hagrid, thank goodness!" the black-haired girl cried out.
"Hagrid, we need to see Professor Dumbledore urgently!" exclaimed the brown-haired girl.
"Hermione, Jazzy?" asked Hagrid, recognising them, utter relief stood on his face.
"Yes. Please, we need to see Professor Dumbledore immediately," repeated Hermione.
"Please Mr Hagrid, he will be the only one that can protect all of us," urged the blond boy.
"We just escaped after being used in a ritual. We need to inform Professor Dumbledore!" added the black-haired boy.
"Of course," agreed Hagrid and accompanied the group of teenagers to the headmaster's office, not wanting to leave them alone, not after they had all worried what could have happened to Jazzy and Hermione. He also recognised the black-haired boy as one of the seventh year Ravenclaws, but the blond, while he looked somewhat familiar, wasn't known to him.
They walked through the still empty castle with the four teenagers still being extremely tense and jumpy. Hagrid noticed that the two boys seemed to cover the girls and that the girls seemed to draw strength from them. After about fifteen minutes, they reached the gargoyle that guarded the entrance to the office.
"Cinnamon Stars," declared Hagrid and the gargoyle stood aside and allowed them passage. The stairs took the group upstairs and Hagrid being in front of the group opened the door.
To their surprise, they found Professor Dumbledore working on something with a man none of the teenagers knew.
"Yes, what?" started Dumbledore, then recognising three of the four teenagers and making a good guess for the identity of the fourth.
"Professor Dumbledore, you have to help us," exclaimed the black-haired boy.
"Mr Lestrange, what is going on?" asked Dumbledore.
"We were kidnapped and forced to take part in a ritual," replied Endymion, "I didn't suspect anything like this when Amycus' letter told me that my family performed a certain ritual during the winter solstice when the heir was seventeen. I had heard others talk about them. Therefore, I asked Professor Flitwick to grant me permission to leave so I could perform it. It was a trap."
"Yes. Jazzy and I were kidnapped on Halloween when we were on our way down to the Great Hall for breakfast. I don't know who stunned us from behind, but it might have been Peter Pettigrew. We saw him later and he told us that we should feel honoured that we would help with some ritual that would assist with important plans. We weren't told more. I know that they gave Jazzy several potions that put her in the best possible physical and magical condition to make the ritual the strongest it could be," added Hermione, "And Pettigrew with his rat animagus form could have easily managed to sneak inside and he knows the secret passageways better than most people."
"Okay, one thing after the other," the man the four didn't know spoke up, "First things first, I am Rufus Scrimgeour, the head of the auror office at the Ministry of Magic. I need to know exactly what you remember and possible hints of where you were held captive. Start with giving your names please and then tell things in chronological order."
The four teens nodded. They seemed shaky on their feet though.
"Rufus, I suggest we call Poppy to assist the four. They will need medical assistance after the ordeal they seem to have gone through. They can answer our questions until Poppy arrives, and then we can take a break until she is done. First though," he waved his wand to conjure a large couch to let the teens sit down, which they immediately did. Then he added some blankets and also conjured thick woollen socks for them. They put on the socks and wrapped the blankets around their torsos.
"Thank you, Professor," said the blond boy that the adults didn't know.
"Ah, would you perhaps tell us your name, young man, I don't remember you being a student here at Hogwarts," asked Dumbledore.
"You are right, I wasn't. My name is Bartholomew Crouch," he identified himself.
"I guess you are related to Bartemius Crouch then," stated Rufus.
"He is my grandfather, yes," confirmed Barty with a growl.
"You seem to dislike your grandfather," noticed Albus.
"You would too, Professor, had you grown up the same way I did. He always criticised me, nothing I did was ever good enough. I was always reminded that I better didn't shame the family like my father did. The only time he ever willingly spent time with me was when he demanded from me to prove that I met his expectations in my magical education. I was clearly shown that I was only the heir to the family because he didn't have other options. After all, my parents weren't married when I was conceived. As if that was my fault," replied Barty bitterly.
He was silently impressed how easily the story came from his lips with the appropriate emotions. The Dark Lord had told him that nobody would manage to see through the tale he had quickly spun, but to experience it was something different.
"Then your father was Barty Crouch junior," determined Rufus and Barty nodded.
Albus and Rufus looked at each other, glad to have their theory confirmed. The boy looked similar to his late father.
"Let's begin with your involvement in the ritual you mentioned. What was demanded of you?" asked Rufus, "And how did you get involved?"
"Sometime in August a man came to my grandfather's house. You have to know that my grandfather didn't want anybody to know about my existence. I don't know what he planned fully, but I suspect that he only waited until he could find a proper bride to marry me off and then claim my firstborn son as his proper heir, which he could raise. After all, if I was married to the mother, the stigma of a bastard as heir would be gone. I don't doubt that he would have found a way to make me disappear. Perhaps he would have claimed that the family tapestry informed him about the baby being born from me. He sometimes muttered about needing a way to have an heir he could show off to others again to save the family name. I wouldn't be surprised if he claimed he hadn't known about me surviving the war and only figuring it out after the new name appeared on the family tree.
"I was basically raised a prisoner in my grandfather's home. I don't know how he went around Hogwarts sending a letter to me, but he did. I never got one when I was eleven. Winky, the house elf, was tasked to raise me and I was given a tutor that taught me all the important magical subjects. The man died last winter though. He was a victim of a werewolf attack in Dartmoor," explained Barty, using a known event to take out a possible way they could confirm his story.
"Roderick Bode?" asked Rufus, remembering that attack.
Barty nodded. Winky had already been spelled to confirm the story if she was asked. Peter had taken care of that before they made their dramatic entrance. As a rat he could enter the school easily and at night nobody would detect him. Especially not as nobody would set up protection around one of the school's house elves.
"He was a good tutor, even if he was always strict with me and never accepted anything but perfection, which my grandfather demanded he ensured. But he was also fair and gave me reasonable periods of time to achieve the demanded results and supported me in understanding the material. He had sworn an unbreakable vow to not talk about me, and additionally he was paid extremely well for his work by my grandfather."
That could also be proven. Even if Barty Crouch had paid Bode for something totally different, in fact it was the use of a plot of land for means Barty hadn't found out up to this point in time. But that wasn't documented, and if investigations took place, it would come out that Bode got large amounts of money from Barty Crouch, which would strengthen this story.
"Who was the man who arrived in August?" asked Rufus.
"I first didn't know. But the man overwhelmed my grandfather. For some reason he had given Winky clothes during the World Cup. I never got the full story. The man later was introduced to me as Peter Pettigrew. A Death Eater and colleague of my late father. I found out that Pettigrew had met Bertha Jorkins in Albania when she was on vacation and somebody else broke through some block on the memories that my father had placed on her to keep my existence hidden. I think that they believed that my grandfather wasn't hiding me but my father. They hoped he would be willing to assist with some important plan of theirs," answered Barty.
"It must have been a surprise and disappointment to find out they were wrong," analysed Rufus.
"You have no idea, sir. Pettigrew was extremely displeased that I wasn't my father, as it ruined their original plan. But they decided that I still could be of use to them. I didn't want to help them like my father would have done. Despite my grandfather being a horrible person, he had it right that being a criminal wasn't worth it. I mean, my father died when he was just twenty-one at Azkaban," stated Barty.
Rufus nodded and had his dicta quill note everything.
Then Barty spun a story how he was held captive for months and then he overheard how two more captives were brought in. The change of location was also mentioned, him being informed that the new captives were of a higher profile than him and there would be a large search for them. He was mainly kept fed and in good condition for reasons he was only told late. Directly before the ritual that was. And he didn't have a chance to refuse, as he was put under imperius curse to obey by Pettigrew.
He told them how he felt his magic fall in tune with Jasmine's when they met shortly before the ritual, which she confirmed and then told her own story, which was a modified version of what had really happened. The parts that could implicate Barty and Endymion negatively were obliviated by the Dark Lord personally after all. Hermione and Endymion added their parts, which all matched each other, with Endymion explaining how he had been stunned at the entrance to Lestrange Manor, where he wanted to perform the ritual, as it was his ancestral home.
"How did you escape?" asked Albus.
"The imperius failed when we woke up from the ritual," answered Endymion, "And we were still outside on the stone tables where we had participated in the ritual," here he blushed, "naked from what we had done during it. Probably they didn't expect us to wake up as quickly as we did and didn't expect the imperius to fail. We knew it would be the only chance we got to escape and after quickly donning the clothes we were given before the ritual again we ran for it. It was pure luck that our wands were placed onto the stone tables with us. I guess it was to channel the magic better, as wands are made to assist a wizard or witch with the proper channelling of their magic. Bartholomew and I knew how to apparate, so we could side-along Jasmine and Hermione. I decided that Hogwarts would be the only place where we would be safe. I didn't know if there were moles in the Ministry, so we couldn't go to the aurors. It would be safer to come here and let Professor Dumbledore call aurors once we were here."
Then Madam Pomfrey appeared inside the doorframe.
"Headmaster, I got your message. Oh my goodness, Miss Potter and Miss Granger!" she exclaimed.
"Yes, Poppy. If you would check the four here to make sure they don't suffer from any complications. They just escaped from captivity of Death Eaters and I want to be sure that we don't overlook anything," asked Albus.
"Of course," she agreed and started waving her wand over the four. After a while she looked severe, "Albus, they all show residential magic of a powerful ritual. And from what I can determine, I would say it involved sex."
"Yes, they were forced to sacrifice their virginities in that ritual, Poppy. They just told us the story after Hagrid took them here after they arrived," replied Albus.
"Well, one thing you need to know is that both girls are pregnant, and their magical signatures have changed. Miss Potter is connected in marriage to him," she pointed at Barty, "And Miss Granger to Mr Lestrange."
"Thank you for confirming that part for us, we had already found out from another source," nodded Albus, "though we didn't know about the pregnancies. Are you sure, Poppy?"
"Yes. I used the most detailed diagnostic spells I have available. They are all in good health, just magically exhausted, which the kind of ritual you mentioned would do."
"That's a relief," commented Albus.
Silently, he was glad that he wouldn't have to deal with the Girl-Who-Lived being outside of his influence anymore. This situation changed things, but from what he had heard and confirmed with passive legilimency while the group told their stories, it wouldn't be to the advantage of the Death Eaters and possibly Voldemort, if he had managed to regain a body with Pettigrew's help, which was probably the goal of the ritual. But none of the teenagers had seen the results, as they had lost consciousness when they experienced the climax of their coupling. That he had also confirmed. He could turn this to his advantage.
The part about the pregnancies was an unpleasant surprise, but he would manage to also profit from it. At the beginning of his career as a teacher, he would have suggested an abortion of the babies, as students didn't need to be distracted and burdened with having to raise babies, but experience had taught him better. The only way to let the students concentrate on their studies without accidental pregnancies, because there was one simple fact. He had a castle full of growing teenagers to lead. There weren't enough teachers to control all the places where they could get up to sexual activities.
And magic curiously voided any way to abort pregnancies. If it was attempted without there being a medical cause for it, meaning, that if the pregnancy was continued the mother would die, then any kind of potion, poison or physical way would be blocked. It might harm the witch mother, but until the baby was born, nothing that didn't harm the witch could be done. Therefore, he had ordered any healer or nurse working at Hogwarts since he had become headmaster to ensure that all witches were on contraceptive potions. The Potions master would brew them each month to not have any holes in the system.
Once a witch was enrolled at Hogwarts, she was instructed to get an informational meeting at the hospital wing with currently Poppy Pomfrey as the healer in charge of the school, to get information about the mandated contraceptive potions as well as when it needed to be taken first. Meaning, once the first monthly period of the witch took place. This also wasn't unknown to the parents. He never had any complaints about this procedure, as the parents that sent their children to Hogwarts also didn't want them to have children before they had finished school. They also didn't want their children to have sex, but this they couldn't prevent fully. Better to prevent unpleasant consequences.
"I believe that it would be best if you took the four of them with you to the hospital wing. I will activate the stronger parts of the wards that will bar entrance to the school to anybody that I don't explicitly invite. It will be a bit more inconvenient to our guests, but they will understand when I explain the reasons for it to Madam Maxime and Professor Karkaroff. Though we will need to arrange some changes to your living arrangements," he looked at the teenagers.
"Yes, I want to stay with Barty," confirmed Jazzy, "Ever since the ritual I don't want to separate from him."
"The same is true for me with Endymion," agreed Hermione.
"Not surprising. You are magically married to each other now. While that will be a change, you will get used to it. While we didn't need to accommodate married couples among the students for a long time, there are rooms for that within Hogwarts," assured Albus them, "We will have to see how we adjust your classes, as the pregnancies will make it impossible for you to continue like before. Brewing potions for one is highly inadvisable during pregnancy," commented Albus.
"I will take care of that, headmaster," stated Poppy, "I will need to talk to both of them what they can expect during their pregnancies. Thankfully, the largest limitations are placed during the last three months, which falls into the summer break. They can sit the exams for those classes they can take with their classmates and the others can be done after the babies are born. Or we can give them a pass on them in the practical parts as this year's exams aren't as important. They could do the theory parts in this one case. And OWLs are at the end of their next school year, thus far enough after the estimated date of birth."
The adults nodded. Then Poppy took the group of four, accompanied by Hagrid for additional protection, to the hospital wing while Rufus and Albus stayed in the office to discuss what needed to be done now.
"Do their stories check out?" asked Rufus, being aware that Albus was a skilled Legilimens.
"None of them lied. I checked while I had them tell their stories. This is a horrible situation, but at least I believe that the boys will treat the girls well. From what I could see while using Legilimency, Mr Lestrange had a small crush on Miss Granger but never acted on it, as she is muggleborn. Or at least he thought so until he was informed that he would be required to take the virginity of a halfblood witch for the ritual. As he refused, he was placed under imperius. And young Bartholomew truly detests his grandfather for how he was treated all his life. He was basically imprisoned in the basement whenever there were visitors and otherwise in his room. He won't feel any sadness when we tell him that he is now head of the Crouch family, due to his grandfather's death.
"I believe that either Pettigrew or another Death Eater placed the trigger on Barty to hide their traces. They needed him silenced, as he would find out about the marriage aspect of the ritual and inform us. I also suspect they wanted to use the tournament as a distraction from their plans. And it worked. We couldn't spare too many aurors to search for Jasmine and Hermione, as it would have cost us too much if anything with the tournament didn't work out. I guess they placed him under imperius to keep acting like he normally does," pondered Albus.
"That would fit. And having him killed also makes sense, as the longer a person is under the imperius curse, the more likely it is that the person fights against the curse or behaves strangely to those that knows him or her. And Barty would most likely fall into the group of the ones fighting against the curse. They would only want to take that risk for a limited time. And if not for my experience with the assassination method, nobody would have suspected anything until it was too late to prove it anymore," pondered Rufus, "At least we can report a good part in that the girls are back without injuries. Though I hope we can keep the pregnancies secret from reporters like Skeeter for a while longer. We first need to organise several things. I will inform Amelia as soon as I'm back at the Ministry," promised Rufus.
Albus nodded and they discussed measures that needed to be taken first.
Voldemort and Peter listened to the things that were talked about in Dumbledore's office, until the office was empty again.
"I love it when a plan comes together. Dumbledore doesn't have a clue that Barty and Endymion helped with the ritual willingly and now won't suspect that they support me," stated Voldemort, incredibly pleased with the development.
"I didn't expect that he would buy it this easily. He should at least have asked more questions," commented Peter.
"Ah, but there Dumbledore's weakness comes in. He is too used to using legilimency to spot liars. And both Barty and Endymion were given the necessary memories to make him believe in their stories. Enough confirmation of major parts and he doesn't think that some things might not be the full truth. After all, the sob story Barty gave him how his 'grandfather' treated him was the full truth, outside that he wasn't given a tutor to continue his studies in magic. He was only given material to keep him busy. And the elf was his guard and caretaker, that can be confirmed. She will call him Master Barty, which works with him claiming his name is Bartholomew, which he decided to use as his name after he was turned back to seventeen by the potion. That can be shortened to Barty as well after all," pointed Voldemort out, "Additionally he always wants to see the best in people and with us being proactive in getting the story we want to have believed out, with facts doing nothing to disprove it, well, he won't doubt it. He will be too busy figuring out what exactly the ritual did. As the dark mark won't come back in full force until I allow it to do that, he won't have the last proof he needs to declare my return."
"I see, he will suspect, but without absolute proof, nobody will risk giving out such an unbelievable story, as the Ministry declared you dead after two years of no sightings of you, my lord," understood Peter.
"Exactly, Peter. We will secretly contact core members of the Death Eaters that will be sworn to secrecy about my return. We won't give any clues about our activities. For the rest of the school year, the public will be too busy with the remaining tasks of the tournament to think too much about some dubious ritual. The return of Jasmine Potter and her shocking marriage with the hidden heir of the Crouch family will also make the reasons for it happening less interesting. Especially as I plan to let the information of the two girls' pregnancies leak to the press by February at the latest," grinned Voldemort.
"Skeeter will love that," agreed Peter.
"Yes, and while she spins that ridiculous gossip she calls journalism, Dumbledore will be busy pacifying the public that he will protect the mothers and their unborn babies better than he did the mothers on Halloween. The busier Dumbledore is kept, the more freedom to move in the shadows we will have. Barty and Endymion will also draw attention to themselves, giving the perfect images of wizards that were suddenly pushed into positions they weren't just yet ready to take up, but trying to do them justice. Both as new heads of their houses and soon-to-be fathers," added Voldemort.
Peter could just imagine that playing out. Barty had a sense for dramatics and he would enjoy showing off his new wife. Hard to believe that he was one of the most intelligent and skilled Death Eaters back in the seventies, despite his youth. But the magic that made Jasmine fully submissive to Barty, also compelled him to protect her. Not as strongly as it influenced her, but it was noticeable. They would see how that developed. Normally, from what Peter knew, after the marriage bond was performed, the excessive behaviour lessened a bit. But who knew what would happen now that babies were involved? Several wizards became overprotective when their wives expected.
"Which of your followers do you want to contact first?" asked Peter.
"Lucius, Thaddeus and Corban will be the first ones we contact. They are the most cunning and have the connections we will need. Amycus will be contacted as soon as he has proven that he wasn't involved in the ritual at all and had absolutely no knowledge that we would be involving his ward. Once that is done, he and Alecto will be called to join us again, together with Walden. Victor Crabbe and Howard Goyle will not be informed at the beginning. They are lackeys to Malfoy anyway, so he can pass on orders when needed.
"Before we don't have a good plan to get those still at Azkaban out, we need to lie low as much as possible. And from what you told me, Lucius already managed to get close to the fool Fudge. He can put certain ideas into his head, which will again keep Dumbledore busy. It can't be anything extreme though. I will think about concrete plans once I have more information from the first three about the current situation," decided Voldemort.
Peter nodded and started writing letters that the Dark Lord would sign. It was time to get started with the next step.
Barty held Jazzy in his arms while they rested in a large bed in the hospital wing. He was happy that everything had gone well, and Dumbledore had bought their story. The spells of the Dark Lord had worked out perfectly. While it was different to what the original plan had been, this was much better. It would supply him with a way to unsuspiciously integrate into wizarding society, supposedly a victim of his grandfather's obsession with a proper heir after his father was outed as a Death Eater. He could sit the NEWTs at the end of the school year together with Endymion and he would ace them again. He would have records that were useable, which would allow him to sit for all his seats at the Wizengamot.
It was somewhat a shame that Jazzy didn't remember some of their time together, but he could recreate many pleasant times with her. Probably it was better to not have her know about everything. She still had the knowledge from the books she had read, as that wasn't a problem. Not even Dumbledore would think anything strange about the fact that the girls would have been allowed to pass time by reading books. And he wouldn't ask for all the things written in them. He had more important things to do. A mistake, but not Barty's problem. For Endymion it was probably better that Hermione didn't remember that he had willingly supported the ritual. He could talk to her and again explain his opinions about things, but he had been spelled to forget certain details. It was safer for him to be beyond any suspicions.
He was the son of a Death Eater that was involved in the torture of the Longbottoms, which already gave him a somewhat negative reputation, which he had worked hard to overcome. He needed to appear like an innocent victim. And Hermione was headstrong and while they were perfect for each other, her knowledge about the wizarding world first needed to be expanded before she would be open for the reasons why so many had joined the Dark Lord. Why Endymion would support him in the future.
He would also need to think what kind of profession he wanted to take up. With NEWTs at the end of the school year, there wasn't much time. And this time around, thanks to his father having died, there was nobody pressuring him in directions that he didn't like. Additionally, the situation would be a lot different overall. He would become a father sometime in September next year. And Jazzy still needed to continue her education. Once the baby was born, they would have to organise a schedule that allowed Jazzy to prepare for her OWLs next to taking care of the little one. He didn't really care if it would be a boy or a girl. He was just looking forward to having a real family. Jazzy was unsure about the baby part, he knew that. But it was understandable. It would be difficult for her to do all kinds of demands justice.
But there were ways to let everything work out. Once he had his NEWTs, he could perhaps look into apprenticing under one of the teachers at Hogwarts for a mastery of their specialty. That way, he would be able to assist Jazzy better once the baby was born. During the pregnancy he could only be there and be moral support. She had the hardest part of having a baby. Thankfully Winky was trained as a nanny elf. She had been his nanny as well and she would be a great help with his baby. That reminded him, he would need to call her and bind her to the Crouch family again. Now that his father had died, that wouldn't be a problem. But he would wait until he was recovered from the ritual. Right now, he felt very tired and decided that taking a nap was the best idea right now.
The group of four looked at the adults standing around them. Only Endymion had somebody there for him that counted as family. His foster father Amycus Carrow, who had demanded to be questioned under veritaserum when he was accused to have tricked his ward into a trap to be used in a ritual. The questioning cleared him from any suspicion, and he got a thorough apology from the DMLE, but they made it clear why they had to interrogate him. He understood and hadn't been too angry. Still, he cared greatly for Endymion, who he had raised since his father Rabastan was sent to Azkaban.
The ones present were Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall, Flitwick and Moody, an unspeakable by the synonym Grizzly, whose features were hidden by a grey hooded cloak, next to Rufus Scrimgeour, Amelia Bones and Cornelius Fudge. Others had tried to be present as well, but Madam Pomfrey had blocked them, insisting that her hospital wing was already overly full with the ones that were allowed inside. Especially a woman in pink called Dolores Umbridge had hated being dismissed, but not even Fudge, whom she had accompanied, defended her position and just told her to wait until later, when he would brief her on the important parts.
"Alright, you four have been through a terrible ordeal but we need information that only you can give us," stated Grizzly, "to make this easiest on you, we would like for you to give us some memories that we can watch in a pensieve. For those among you that don't know what it does, it allows wizards and witches to watch memories from a third person perspective."
"That doesn't sound so bad," accepted Jasmine, "How would we do that?"
"I will hold my wand to your temple, and you need to concentrate on the memory you want to give. Professor Dumbledore has offered the use of the school's pensieve. This way, you don't have to leave the safety of the wards of Hogwarts, which, thanks to assistance from former Professor Lupin, now don't have any holes anymore. We can watch your memories and possibly ask some questions afterwards, without you having to change places," explained Grizzly.
All four teenagers looked relieved to hear that. They had got a visit from Lupin, well, mainly Jazzy and Hermione, where the man told them that he had just returned from abroad and had started to look into making the protection of the school stronger for them to be safe there.
"Which memory would you like to start with?" asked Hermione.
"How about the first time you woke up after being kidnapped?" suggested Professor McGonagall.
The four nodded and one after the other they gave their memories, the adults secured them in vials and labelled each one. The process was continued until they had all the memories they felt they needed.
"Now, we will need some time to watch all these memories. I suggest you get some lunch, and we will see you again when we are done. I suspect you would prefer to not go through all these things again," commented Scrimgeour.
The teenagers nodded and were led to a table that was set for them by Madam Pomfrey while the group of adults went into the pensieve to see what the teenagers had experienced during their captivity. It took about two hours until all memories had been watched. The four had used the time to get to know their new spouses better. Next to cuddling a bit. With Madam Pomfrey watching they didn't want to do more. Even if especially Jazzy and Barty felt the urge to do more again. Finally, the watching group was done and came over to them.
"I'm deeply sorry what you had to endure. But at least no permanent damage was done. It could have ended a lot worse. I am proud that you took the one opportunity to escape when it presented itself to you," said Madam Bones.
"Thank you," replied Endymion, "What will happen now?"
"We will put Peter Pettigrew on the wanted list. With the evidence you four handed us, it is clear that the events of 1981, when he was declared dead were much different than they appeared. This also includes," here she gave Fudge a stern look to not argue, "reopening the investigation into Sirius Black's role in the events surrounding the deaths of your parents, Mrs Crouch."
"Will Sirius be cleared?" asked Jazzy hopefully.
"It is probable. We need to interrogate him about his alleged role as your parents' secret keeper, but it is clear that he wasn't responsible for the massacre in Manchester, where we believed he had killed Peter Pettigrew. I have got your statements that you gave Professor Dumbledore last June, Mrs Crouch and Mrs Lestrange. This combined with four compatible memories of Mr Pettigrew still being alive and working as a Death Eater, brings strong doubt to the interpretation of events back then," answered Madam Bones, "the one problem is contacting Mr Black to come to a hearing."
"Have you thought sending him an owl?" asked Jazzy simply, surprising the adults, who stared at her baffled, "What, that is how I would try to contact somebody I want to meet."
"So simple," groaned Scrimgeour.
Hermione giggled and the two boys grinned at the baffled looks on the faces of the other adults. Then the group was surprised by the door to the hospital wing being thrown open and a group of girls rushing in with two supporting a third one that seemed to be in pain.
"Madam Pomfrey, we need help!" called one of the girls that supported the one in the middle.
The healer quickly walked over to them.
"What happened?" Madam Pomfrey asked.
"Janice was sent a box of chocolate with the mail this morning. Nobody thought anything about it, as she often gets gifts from admirers," explained the girl that had called for Madam Pomfrey, "but when she ate one of the pieces, she soon started complaining about stomach-ache. We then quickly took her here."
"I see. Put her on the bed over there," instructed Madam Pomfrey.
The group that had already been in the hospital wing watched what unfolded until Madam Pomfrey went to her potions cupboard and pulled out a brown bottle.
"It's nothing too bad, but she will have to be on bedrest for five days to neutralise the poison that was in the chocolate. Honestly, who would do something like this?" she frowned.
"Oh no, that must have been one of the jealous bitches that wanted to go with Endymion to the Yule Ball. She was targeted by some that were jealous," exclaimed the other girl.
Hermione looked at her husband.
"That's Janice Spencer. A friend of mine in Ravenclaw. I asked her to the Yule ball, as I really didn't want to let any of the ones that pursued me think they had any chance. I really didn't like any of them and Janice has a boyfriend that's already out of school. They plan to marry after she graduates. That's why I asked her, as I knew that she wasn't interested in me as more than a friend," explained Endymion, "I also asked her boyfriend if he would have a problem with me going with her as friends, and he was actually relieved to hear about it, as he knows I don't like Janice romantically."
"I'm shocked that you are this popular. I mean, poisoning the girl you go with when it's known she has a boyfriend outside of the school is extreme," commented Hermione.
"You have no idea how desperate the gold diggers can be," sighed Endymion, "That is at least one positive result from the ritual. They don't have any chance anymore," he grinned and kissed Hermione's cheek, which made her blush.
Then the girls noticed them after Janice was given the potion to deal with the poison and following that one to let her sleep to not have to deal with the pain while awake.
"What is going on?" asked one of the girls, being surprised by the group of adults, three of them known high ministry officials, and then recognising at least Hermione.
"Granger?" the second girl asked surprised.
"That's Lestrange now," replied Endymion, sounding a bit smug.
"What?" both girls exclaimed.
"As the news will come out soon anyway, as we will give a statement to the Daily Prophet, it won't hurt if you know the basics. These four managed to escape from the place where they were brought after being kidnapped at different times just last night. They were forced to participate in an unknown ritual, which left them married. Miss Granger was married to Mr Lestrange, meaning she is now Mrs Lestrange. Miss Potter was married to Mr Crouch, meaning she is now Mrs Crouch," explained Professor Dumbledore, "They will stay here at the hospital wing for the rest of the day and after the Christmas break return to their normal classes, with Mr Crouch here joining the seventh years after being sorted."
"Wow, I didn't think anything like that would happen. But it's good to see you back safely, Lestrange and Crouch. Man, that's strange. But your looks changed greatly, Crouch, if I may say so. To the better," girl one stated.
"Thank you. I was given potions to bring my body into perfect condition for that ritual. They said it would be more powerful that way," replied Jasmine.
The two girls nodded.
"I hope nothing too bad happened to you, even if I guess it is a shock to now be married when you are just fourth years," commented girl two.
Both Hermione and Jasmine nodded. The girls looked back at their friend.
"If she needs to stay in bed for five days, she will miss the Yule ball," sighed girl one.
"And she was looking forward to dancing at a great social event. Oh, we should write Damien what happened. He will want to visit her," realised girl two.
"He would. And I bet he will investigate who did that to his girlfriend. Honestly, they didn't have to go this far because of a ball. I mean, it was clear that she wasn't interested in Endymion that way," grouched girl one.
"Ladies, I would ask you to not tell any exaggerated stories about the return of Mrs Crouch and Mrs Lestrange. Please wait until the Daily Prophet has come out this evening. I expect them to print a special evening edition," asked Professor Dumbledore.
"We can do that, Professor," nodded the two and then left the hospital wing to get the letter to Janice's boyfriend written and sent off.
"Uh, as they mentioned the Yule ball, should we appear there?" asked Barty, "I mean, would people expect us to go?"
"That's a good question," nodded Fudge, "I believe it would be a good signal to the public if you showed up to assure the other students that were worried about their missing female friends that things are alright again. Professor Dumbledore could also give some information beforehand to make sure you aren't bothered by others too much. And at the ball the main attention should be on the champions of the Triwizard Tournament. Which means, after some initial interest, you should be able to enjoy the evening. I will have some aurors discreetly patrol the event to exclude possible attacks. We won't allow that anything happens to you again."
"Thank you, Minister, that is assuring," accepted Hermione, "And hey, at least this way I didn't get those dress robes futilely."
"That's one way to see it, Hermione," chuckled Jasmine, "Uh, Barty, can you dance?"
"Yes, I can. At least I know the basics of the most common dances. I never got to practice much," he replied.
"That's more than I know. My relatives never allowed me to take any courses in that area. And due to the kidnapping, any course here at Hogwarts that would have taken place is long over," commented Jasmine.
"Mrs Crouch, I can help you with that. If you and your husband meet me tonight and tomorrow morning, we will have you at least proficient enough in two common dances to not stand out negatively. The opening dance is a waltz, which is easy enough to learn and otherwise one faster dance will give enough variety to let you appear skilled enough for others that might look at you for a while," assured Professor McGonagall.
"Could Endymion and I also join, Professor?" asked Hermione, "While I have had dancing classes last summer, I would like to get used to dancing with Endymion a little to know how he moves. I mean, we didn't have the chance to practice or anything like that."
"Sure, I think that is a good idea," agreed Endymion, liking the idea of dancing with his wife and holding her in his arms while doing so. Any opportunity for that was great in his opinion.
"I agree, Mrs Lestrange. We can do that. Meet me at seven tonight," nodded Professor McGonagall.
The four nodded, glad to have that arranged.
Another chapter done, till next one.