Author's note- Two chapters in one post.

Confess Our Sins

There are several ways to learn from your mistakes. If you practice law, having a handful of adults demanding answers is one of the painful ways to learn. Solicitor Ted Tonks tried to explain how they got where they were today.

"I thought I was dealing with greedy men. I was wrong. I found an imperioused politician, a compulsive gambler, and a power-hungry academic. All of them criminals. I wasn't ready for that. I need your help."

Tonks looked around the room. They were in a basement room at the ministry. He'd never been to this floor of the Ministry of Magic before. There were the usual note boards mounted on the walls. The rooms were ordinary, but these people delt with criminals every day. He had two judges, two Crown Prosecutors, the Director of Magical Law Enforcement, and two Senior Aurors sitting across from him. The two Aurors who helped him at Hogwarts were standing toward the back of the room. This was his best chance to find the help he needed, even if it arrived harder and faster than he planned.

Tonks said, "The Judges in the Triwizard Tournament kidnapped Lord Potter's magic. Potter has to compete in the tournament or he dies. He is also a minor so he can't give informed consent. Headmaster Dumbledore considers himself to be Potter's magical guardian. He isn't."

"Then who is? It can't be the muggles who raised him." That was one of the Senior Aurors. He was an imposing dark-skinned man named Shacklebolt.

"Sirius Black took the Godfather Oath to raise Harry." Tonks didn't want to say it. He'd rather leave Black out of the story, but there it was, the screaming bogart in the meeting room.

A group of people are seldom silent. They twitch. They scratch and squirm. In this case, the eight of them were silent for a few seconds. Then, they were all talking at once.

Amelia got them back on track. "Enough!" she barked. She apologized to the judges. "Excuse me, Your Honors. One by one. What did you try and why didn't it work?"

"I gave Dumbledore two-thousand Galleons. I have evidence of a dozen incidents where he failed to report injuries to students and committed financial fraud. He won't let go of Lord Potter." That covered the essentials about Dumbledore.

"You tried to bribe the Headmaster of Hogwarts?" The witch who asked the question was wearing a judge's robes but Ted didn't know her by face or by name.

"Yes, your honor. I tried to bribe the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and the former Director of Magical Law Enforcement. In fact, all the judges." Tonks thought it was best to lay out the facts as simply as possible.

"Bagman is a compulsive gambler. I bought his bad debts from Gringotts. He told me to go away."

Bagman had actually said 'piss off', but Tonks was trying to be professional in front of the judges.

"The tournament was Director Crouch's idea, and he chose the other judges. Yesterday we found out he was a puppet under the Imperious curse. Your mind readers can tell you who pulls Crouch's strings."

Bones answered the question that Ted was itching to ask. "We test for the Imperious curse after so many of the Death Eaters claimed they weren't responsible for their crimes. The tournament judges had their magic bound to reduce the immediate risk to Lord Potter."

There was a general rumble across the room before the judge spoke up again. She looked to be a witch of some legal experience if the worry-lines on her face and the force of her gaze were any indication. "Solicitor Tonks, some people believe they are beyond the grasp of the law. Let's see how they behave when they've been in a cell for a few days and when they are not Imperioused."

Susan Bones took that as an order and wrote out her notes.

"Where is this Goblet of Fire now?" the judge asked.

Everyone looked at each other for a moment wondering who forgot to secure the Goblet.

Ted spoke up, "I assume it is still at Hogwarts. The last place I saw it was on the ground floor in the main hallway."

"Have the Goblet brought to the ministry and secured as evidence," the judge said.

Bones pointed to the two Aurors in the back of the room and sent them back to the school. How could they have left the Goblet behind.

Ted sighed in relief, and Bones then looked up in surprise. "Oh, excuse me. Ted, this is Dame Jennifer Theis. Judge Theis, Solicitor Tonks."

"A pleasure. Now what do you know of Lord Black?" the judge asked.

"Your Honor, I can't ask for a hearing for Black as long as Lord Potter is at risk. The two men who sent Black to Azkaban are now judges in the Triwizard Tournament. Black would say anything to protect his godson." That was the essential outline of his problem even if it left out the details.

It was only seconds until the judge had further questions.

"Everyone thought that Black was the secret keeper of the Fidelius Charm. That made him the chief suspect." Judge Theis said.

"He wasn't." Ted looked at Amelia Bones for a signal if he could say more.

Bones spoke up. "Peter Pettigrew was the secret keeper. He is a murderer, not a hero. He is alive and in hiding. I have someone watching him."

"So Black was…" Shacklebolt left his sentence unfinished.

Ted watched as Shacklebolt put the puzzle together.

You obviously put your life at risk by being a secret keeper and holding your friends' lives in your hands. It was another thing to be thought of as the secret keeper and yet not have the secret to surrender. Black made himself an obvious target to lure the Death Eaters away from the Potters. That was the plan. It wasn't necessarily a bad plan simply because it went horribly wrong.

One of the barristers asked, "You're sure that Potter was entered in the tournament against his will? These schoolboys are clever."

"Yes, sir. Potter swore a magical oath that he didn't enter the tournament, didn't ask to be, and didn't want to be entered," Ted said.

"Now I get it. If you don't free Potter, then I can impugn Black's testimony against Pettigrew by saying he was coerced." That must have been the barrister for the defense. Tonks had been working on the case for weeks and these professionals picked up the key points in minutes.

"Do the tournament judges even have the power to release Lord Potter from his magical contract?" the second judge asked. His graying temples gave him a stern appearance though he appeared only slightly younger than Dame Theis.

That was a question that Ted felt he could address. "I believe I've found five ways to do that. I submitted the suggestions to the Tournament judges when we met in Dumbledor's office. Things happened so quickly that I doubt they've had time to read them."

The senior judge sat quietly for a few moments. It was clear that she was thinking and not done with them.

"Director Bones, can you have Director Crouch examined by noon tomorrow?" The judge phrased it as a question. It was clear that Amelia Bones had best make it happen or she would have to explain why. To a simple solicitor like Ted Tonks, the Director of Magical Law Enforcement was a god. Now, solicitor Tonks glimpsed the pantheon of gods who stood above her.

"Judge Gonson, can you and the barristers have the defendants ready by noon? I'd like to hear the charges read in my chamber at 1pm. Then we'll see what the defendants have to say for themselves.

"Also, Bones, include the charges of attempted murder, kidnapping, extortion, and conspiracy."

Tonks felt a surge of hope and a tickle of pride. He was hopeful since the judge was taking the case extremely seriously and doing all she could to reach a solution quickly. He was proud that he'd kept his face under control when he heard the judge's orders. This looked like the help he wanted.

"Solicitor Tonks, you'll turn over your case notes to the Crown Prosecutor within the hour."

Ted started to speak but stopped himself with his mouth hanging open.

"You have some problem with that?" Dame Theis asked.

"Until the trial of Lord Black is concluded, I'd like to retain copies of my notes. Could I deliver all of the notes to the Aurors to be recorded as evidence?"

"Very well. As soon as possible."

"May I attend the hearing, your Honor?" Tonks asked.

"The hearing is open to the public but it will not be publicized ahead of time."

The two judges stood and the rest of the room rose to their feet. Amelia waved for him to stay so Tonks put his notes back in his bag and waited. She answered questions from a few of the Aurors and then Amelia faced him with a smirk on her face.

"Welcome to my world. It looks like you survived," she said.

"And my clients might have the help they need," Tonks agreed.

"Talk later?" she asked.

They both had their marching orders. Maybe they would have a free moment. Maybe not. "I've tickled the dragon, and how I have orders to feed it within the hour. I'll see you then," he said.

HPHPHP

Lost Auror, Found Spy

It wasn't that unusual. Greeneye had reported an alarm just the other day. This morning, that same depositor added another Knut and the delinquent micro-account was reinstated. It bothered the goblin that such a small coin could cause so much parchment work. These upsets happened, but more often to some depositors than to others.

The warning chime sounded at 09:30. One of the accounts had missed making their morning deposit. Greeneye carefully checked the ledgers and made sure that the enchanted quills were properly inked. Each one seemed to be in order. The delinquent account was registered to a wizard, one Master Auror Alastor Moody, now retired. The diligent goblin had studied his accounts. He knew that this wizard was one of their first customers to sign up for the micro-deposits. He'd only missed a deposit once before, and that was over a decade ago. That was before Greeneye had his micro-account. Greeneye didn't personally know the wizard in question, but he was familiar with the wizard's account manager here at Gringotts.

The pre-printed forms were neatly stacked. Greeneye filled out the brief report and forwarded it to his supervisor and to the appropriate account manager with the flick of a finger and the press of a rune. One of his accounts was in arrears.

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Professor Filius Flitwick was surprised to receive a patronus while he was teaching his class. He briefly interrupted his lecture and sent two Patronis in reply. Filius knew that his Charms master student had a free morning. When she arrived, she took over his class and she proctored one of the snap quizzes he kept at hand.

Flintwick walked past Professor Moody's classroom and heard him lecturing. Moody had a double session of Defense this morning with both Gryffindor and Hufflepuff students. Filius started walking towards his quarters and took an abrupt turn. He walked past the rooms that Moody had recently taken over as a new professor-in-residence. Filius disillusioned his wand and then himself. He slipped behind a portrait on the south side of the hallway and came out of the passageway on the floor below. This level was both quiet and empty.

The Patronis had given Professor Flitwick a message in Gobbledegook, the Goblin language. It was Flitwick's mother tongue. Someone had raised questions about the physical security of retired Auror Alastor Moody. The Professor silently cast a Homenum Revelio charm angled up at Moody's room above him. He waited for the echoes to form. He was quite surprised when a glowing echo of the spell formed not above him in Alastor's room but in front of him. The shape seemed too large to be an elf or a goblin, though too small to be a giant. There was a human, or a human body at least, where there should only be solid stone under Professor Moody's rooms.

Was this a problem for the Goblin Nation, or for the Aurors? Professor Flintwick solved his question by sending a Patronis to both Gringotts and the Ministry of Magic. Whoever was trapped inside the stone wall, they were unlikely to exit into this corridor. The Charms professor then went upstairs to see who came and went through Professor Moody's front door.

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Kingsley Shacklebolt was next to her but she pushed him aside and was the first one to dive onto the floo. Short of a Goblin portkey, the floo was the fastest way to Hogwarts from the Auror's den in The Ministry of Magic. Size has its advantages, but not in the ways you might think. Nymphadora Tonks was slightly taller than her parents, but she would never be considered a large person. She was a shape shifter. Even that had limits and it was hard for her to appear as one of the giants. She shrank her size as she entered the floo. She traded size for speed. She knew where she was heading. Moody's quarters were close to the Hufflepuff common room. She knew a shortcut from the infirmary. Tonks was the first one out of the floo. She changed her plans in mid-slide across the polished floor. She left a thin trail of soot in her wake.

Auror Tonks stayed on her knees and called out.

"Nobby, Flopsy, Lolly, I need your help."

Nobby was the chief elf of Hogwarts. Flopsy was Tonks' elf from home. Lolly was Alastor's elf, and she was the first one to pop up next to her. Tonks sat back on her heels so she was closer to their height. Kingsley came out of the floo and Tonks waved him to a stop as she spoke to the elves.

"Moody might be in trouble. Lolly, do you know where your master is?"

Alastor Moody had been Tonks principal trainer when she was in the Auror's Academy. Tonks had met Moody's house elf several times.

The elf looked down as she searched through the castle below her. "Ma.. Master is not well. He is in a trunk in his rooms. Lolly will go to him."

Tonks touched Lolly's shoulder before the elf popped away. "I want to help him too. I'm worried that the room might hurt you. I'm sure Alastor would ward his rooms." She quickly let go of the elf. It was a risk to touch a magical creature without permission. Tonks made excuses to herself that she was in a hurry. She pulled her hands back and showed the elf her bare palms to show she meant no harm.

Tonks turned to the chief elf of Hogwarts. "Nobby, can you see if there is something unusual under Moody's rooms? We don't want to set off the wards if we can work around them." Tonks didn't really know the situation downstairs. She had received a three-times-relayed message about a body under Moody's bed. The elves could give her some hard facts in a heartbeat. In the meantime, Tonks was counting each heartbeat of her own.

Nobby popped back into the infirmary. "The room be warded, but not by Professor Moody. The room, door, and floor be alarmed. The trunk be expanded with a space expansion charm. We can gets into the trunk from the lower hallway."

Tonks saw Madam Pomfrey walk out of her office and into the infirmary. There wasn't time to talk.

The Chief elf of Hogwarts put his arms up. The four of them, two Aurors and two elves, touched the Chief elf and they were gone. Nobby could apparate silently. This time he was in a hurry.

They were in a basement hallway a moment later. Thank the gods that Kingsley was a professional and didn't require an explanation for every little thing that happened. Tonks had worked with Kings a few times before, but not in the last several months.

Compared to the infirmary, the basement corridors were dim. Lolly pressed her hands against the stones on one side of the hallway and gave out a moan.

Kingsley spoke to Alastor's elf. "Lolly, go to him and see how he is. If we have time, then come back and talk to us. If it's bad, then pop him into the infirmary." Then, the large Auror faced the Hogwarts elf. "Nobby, can you check if the infirmary is clear and give Poppy a warning about what to expect."

Just after the Hogwarts elf had left, Alastor's elf was back with them. Tonks was still sitting on her knees. "Master Moody is not well. He be dangerous sicks in a few hours. The nasty expanding box is alarmed, but not warded. The alarm will go off when we takes Master Moody from the box."

"Who cares," Tonks said. "Let's grab him and go."

Kingsley touched the young Auror's shoulder. "Alastor might care. We can always set off the alarm later. Can you put me in the box in his place?" Kingsley asked.

Lolly tilted her head as if seeing things sideways would somehow make the large Auror fit into a smaller space.

"You is too big to fit. Master is sitting up in the tall box. He can't reach the lid."

Tonks rocked back over her feet and stood up. She stepped away from them. She knew how big Moody was. He'd trained her, for Merlin's sake. She knew what he looked like.. except…

"How many eyes and legs?" she asked. The answer was simple for most wizards. That wasn't the case for Auror Moody.

"One of each," Lolly answered.

Nymphadora Tonks grew and changed her appearance. She reached out to grab Kingsley as she balanced on one foot. Her sense of balance was never great. It was worse with one eye and one leg.

Nobby was back and out of breath. He turned Tonks around and had her squat down. She couldn't squat on one leg, so she sat on the smooth stones.

Nobby said, "Flopsy, you move your mistress into the nasty box on my signal. Lolly, you go to your master. On my signal you will bring him here." Ignoring that the trip was through solid stone, it was one of the shortest and smoothest trips Tonks had taken by elf.

Tonks was ready for the dark. She was ready for the confined space. She was nowhere near ready for the smell. She cast the bubblehead charm and tried not to be sick.

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Alastor Moody hurt. The optimist in him said that feeling pain meant he was still alive. His head was throbbing with each heartbeat. His tongue felt cracked and dry. He was thirsty and his stomach hurt at the same time. His eyes were gritty when he tried to open them. The sounds around him were loud and the lights were bright when he cracked his eyes open. The occasional draft of air would shift between smelling sweet and sour. Someone wiped his face and gave him a wet cloth to suck on. That helped. He'd like them to do it again.

He felt a spell hit him and he opened his eyes whether he was ready or not. The last thing he remembered was being stunned at Hogsmeade and then being manhandled in his room. Now he recognized the Hogwarts infirmary. Moody wondered if there was another unlucky patient that stank or if he were that patient. Alastor woke up.

"Where is the bastard? Where is Crouch Junior?" he growled.

Of course he growled. His throat was dry. You'd growl too if you tried to talk after a few days without water.

Kingsley crouched down so that Alastor could see him without looking up into the lights. "Are you dreaming? Crouch Junior is dead," Kingsley said.

Alastor nodded. Alastor had thought the same thing. "I wish. He's here. He and the munchers have some blood ritual planned this weekend. I'm invited. Put me back in the box. Use me as bait."

Pomfrey spoke up before Kingsley could reply. "Alastor, I'm worried about you. It was a sloppy stasis charm. You're dehydrated. I'm trying to save your kidneys, so that limits the potions I can give you."

As a healer she wanted to stabilize him at Hogwarts and then send him straight to Saint Mungo's. He'd probably be ready for transport in half an hour. It was painfully obvious that Alastor Moody had other plans instead of following her orders.

Poppy Pomfrey considered stunning him.

"I see," Kingsley said. His eyes roamed the room as if he were searching for a better plan. "Tonks took your place in the expanded trunk so the alarm wouldn't go off. Her elf is in there with her."

"And you let her go?" Alastor asked.

It was a cutting accusation rather than a question. Kingsley assumed Alastor was asking about the young Auror rather than the family elf, though technically it could be both. Alastor was also under the quaint assumption that Tonks could have been stopped.

"She bought us a minute. Don't waste it," Shacklebolt said. "We stun Crouch. Wring him out with Veritaserum. Obliviate him, and put him back in his room with an empty bottle at his side.

"Options?" Shack asked.

"How about we get Tonks out of the trunk first," Moody said. "We put homing tokens on me and the trunk. Then you and every armed and armored Auror you can scrape up welcomes the Death Eaters at their party. Cast to kill," he said.

That plan didn't last long.

HPHPHP

Author's Notes- Feedback is appreciated. The wheel of justice is powered by toil and sweat. Suppose you found a group of criminals at work, at school, or at church. What would you do and who would you tell?

It always bothered me that Alastor Moody, Mister "Constant Vigilance" himself, could be kidnapped so easily according to JKR. Was the change-purse-portkey too farfetched as spy craft? What will happen now that the imposter is uncovered?

It is one of my guilty pleasures to write about goblins and elves.

Slow