At the beginning of July, Madam Bones came to Grimmauld Place to interview Harry about the Third Task.
"You're looking quite well, Mr. Potter," she said as Winky served them all tea. "I notice your scar is not so prominent anymore."
"Healer Murdoch things that it'll start to disappear more now that the soul fragment isn't there," Harry said. "Professor Snape's been giving me some Extra-Strength Scar Cream. It's definitely odd. I never realized how much background pain it was giving me until it was gone."
Madam Bones looked sad for a moment.
"I'm sorry that you've had to go through that," she said. "Mr. Weasley was kind enough to allow me to watch the destruction of both horcruxes. The soul itself tries to fight the destruction. I can't imagine what it did when it was being pulled from your head."
Harry shrugged. Sirius patted his knee.
"He's also looking well due to the healer visits we've had to Healer Crutchley," Sirius told her. "There . . . is a lot that the Dursleys must answer for. I'm speaking to Axel about the various ways we can bring justice about."
"I just want to ignore it all," Harry said. "They got stuck with me. It wasn't their choice."
"Their choice or not doesn't excuse their treatment of you," Sirius stated sternly. "Your mother, if she had gotten stuck with Dudley, would never have treated him like they treated you. Regardless of her relationship with Petunia."
Harry glanced at his lap.
"Was it serious?" Madam Bones asked.
"Nothing some potions can't fix," Sirius replied. "Thankfully. It may take a bit for him to get up to height with the rest of his peers, but we're certain that we can get him up to weight."
Harry blushed at that. Madam Bones set her tea down.
"Right, down to business," she said. "I asked Sirius to have you write down an account of that night. Have you done that?" Harry handed her a parchment. Madam Bones took hold of it and settled her monocle on her face, glancing over what he had to say.
"Much of this is similar to what Mr. Diggory wrote in his account," Madam Bones said, clearly pleased. "Now, what I need to do now is get a copy of your memory, with Lord Black's permission." She produced a parchment which Sirius looked at and signed.
"This won't be difficult," she told Harry. "I need you to think of that night, pull the memory to the front of your mind, and I shall use my wand to pull it from you."
Harry shook his head.
"It'll hurt!" he cried.
"This will not hurt," Sirius said. "I've had it done once or twice. It mostly tickles. I promise, I wouldn't have signed the consent form if it were going to hurt you." Harry paused, running that over in his mind. Sirius was right. He trusted his godfather and if his godfather didn't believe it was going to harm him, then he shouldn't be so scared about it. What was wrong with him?
"Sorry," Harry said. "I don't know . . . I know you wouldn't hurt me, Sirius."
"You've been through a lot, pup," Sirius said, running a hand through Harry's hair. He loved when Sirius did that. "It's natural that you have reservations about things."
Madam Bones set a crystal vial on the table and drew her wand. Harry scooted to the edge of the sofa so that she didn't have to reach so far. He held his breath as the woman placed the tip of his wand to his skull and he thought hard about the night of the Third Task. After a few seconds, he felt a small tug and then a glowing silver wisp was pulled from his head and the memory within his mind became dim. He watched, fascinated, as Madam Bone placed the memory into the crystal vial. She produced a second vial, twirled her wand around the top of the first vial, and then extracted a copy of the memory, setting it into the second vial. She then took the original memory and brought it back to Harry's head and the wisp slipped back into his mind. The memory was no longer dim, and back at the forefront of his mind.
"Whoa!" Harry breathed, eyes wide. "That was so weird! And cool!" Madam Bones smirked as she secured a top to the crystal vial and labeled the bottle with his name and the date of the Third Task. She then placed the vial and Harry's written statement into a box and locked the box.
"I can't tell you how glad I am that the Wizengamot saw fit to create the task force," Sirius said as Madam Bone finished her tea and cucumber sandwiches.
"It has not been easy," Madam Bones said. "Minister Fudge is still trying to run interference, but in ways that . . . I can't bring him in for contempt nor could I easily prove that he's trying to impede an auror investigation. So, it may take time."
"Is that why Crouch's trial was pushed back?" Sirius asked.
"Partly. He also claimed the Wizengamot docket is too full to have the trial at this time. Thankfully, Barty'll have more time to heal before he has to take the stand in front of his father."
She set her tea down and seemed to war with herself for a minute.
"May I ask, Lord Black," the woman began, "off the record . . . is the Order of the Phoenix meeting again?"
"Off the record . . . yes," Sirius replied. "But it's . . . very different than what it was before. You have the loyal Dumbledore followers and then you've got those of us who . . . a variety of reasons . . . don't think the sun shines out his arse."
Harry laughed, nearly snorting tea out of his nose.
"Moody's warned Dumbledore off of recruiting aurors to the Order," Sirius continued. "At least, those who are part of your . . . task force."
"Alastair!" Madam Bones muttered, a bit darkly. "How long will Dumbledore follow his advice?"
"Probably not as long as we like," Sirius answered. "He's most upset that Remus won't go to the werewolf packs and try and pull them onto our side, and he's upset that Snape won't go back to spying."
Madam Bones looked surprise at that.
"So that is true," she said. "Severus Snape was actually a spy?"
"Professor Snape's great!" Harry piped up.
"Spoken like a true Slytherin," Sirius muttered, ruffling Harry's hair. "But yes, Snape was a spy then and he's not a spy now. It's too dangerous with him taking on a Muggleborn apprentice. He wants to focus on keeping the Death Eaters from recruiting at Hogwarts. Surprisingly, Dumbledore was not pleased with that."
"Dumbledore doesn't care for us Slytherins," Harry said, munching on a sandwich. Sirius winced.
"Yeah," he agreed. "I see that now."
"Would you . . . off the record . . . be willing to keep an eye on Dumbledore for me?" Sirius grinned into his tea.
"I'll absolutely help keep an eye on Dumbledore for you," he answered. "Lull him into a false sense of security. Maybe we can even help that along."
Madam Bones sighed. "By sending aurors into the Order as undercover agents?"
"Exactly."
"Which ones did Moody have in mind?"
"Shacklebolt and Tonks."
Madam Bones nodded. "I'd want those two in my vigilante group too. Why don't . . . I'll speak to them myself and once I've spoken to them, you can approach Tonks. Will Moody work with us?"
"I think after what's happened to Barty . . . he's less open to the overarching authority of people like Dumbledore," Sirius said. "I'll scope him out. I'll either send him to Shacklebolt or I'll approach the man myself. He was a few years ahead of me in Gryffindor."
Madam Bones rose. Sirius and Harry did too, and Sirius saw her to the Floo. When he returned, Harry was munching on more sandwiches and had poured himself more tea.
"We've got some time before we're due back at Spinner's End," Sirius said, settling down beside Harry. "Anything you want to do this afternoon? Just the two of us."
Harry thought about it. He had many ideas, but he also didn't want to go out in wizarding public at the moment. The Daily Prophet had stopped including him in their slander of Headmaster Dumbledore, but they had not printed a retraction to their articles about him, and he didn't know if he could really face the magical population at the moment.
"Do you think we could just go sightseeing?" he asked. "Like . . . or . . . could we go to the British Museum? I overheard Aria talking to a couple of our other Muggleborn classmates, and a few of them had mentioned that on field trips to the museum, they spotted what they now know to be a magical side to the museum. Could we do both sides?"
"I think that sounds great," Sirius said. He looked at what he was wearing. "I'll ditch the robes. I think I'm wearing Muggle-like clothes enough."
Harry nodded, thinking Sirius would stand out a little as being a bit posh, but he would still pass as a Muggle without the robes on.
"I really want to see the Rosetta Stone," Harry said as they left their tea and snacks. "And they've got stuff from Greece and Egypt!"
Sirius slung an arm around Harry's arm as they stepped out the front door into the bright summer sun. Harry grinned up at him as Sirius conjured a pair of sunglasses for himself, sliding them onto his face. His godfather really could rock the whole "cool Muggle" look.
Except for that day when Madam Bones came to collect Harry's memory, the month of July was not as eventful as June had been. Aria and her growing family stuck to the Muggle world for the most part, hanging out in Liverpool with Dean and Seamus (even though Seamus was still being an idiot half the time), or going up into the Lakes District to hang out with Justin as his summer home. Twice, Aria and Harry had received permission to go with friends out into the Yorkshire Dales and once they had gone to York.
Excitement and anticipation grew, however, the closer to the end of the month. With Aria being born on the 29th, and Harry on July 31st, they had decided to throw a joint birthday party, especially after Harry admitted that he had never had a birthday party before. Last year they had had a small family dinner with presents, which Harry believed to be an actual birthday party. So Aria and Sirius were going all out to show Harry what a proper party was like.
Of course, they ended up asking Neville if he wanted to join since he was born July 30th. So, he came over to Grimmauld from Switzerland. All their friends were invited, and many were coming. From Gryffindor there weas the entire incoming fifth year class minus Fay and Sophie. Hermione managed to make it, and there were many questions and much teasing about her time spent in Bulgaria with Viktor Krum. From Hufflepuff Susan, Hannah, Justin, and Ernie showed up. Padma and Lisa Turpin and Luna Lovegood represented Ravenclaw while Ginny, Daphne, and Tracey represented Slytherin as guests. Aria had made sure to include all the fifth years (minus Crabbe and Goyle) but she had not been surprised when they had all declined.
At first, Aria was certain that Hannah was not pleased to be there, but that Susan had bullied her to come along. Hannah eyed Harry with deep distrust for the first hour of the party and had spoken to almost no one until Susan had pulled her aside and the two of them had had a tense conversation in whispers. Afterwards, Hannah was a little more relaxed, but not quite.
There were a lot of congratulations and questions for Neville. The newspapers had broken the news about the Longbottoms a few days after they had left for Switzerland. Everyone was happy for Neville, and Aria thought her friend had never looked so confident in his life. He showed off his brand-new wand that he had gotten in Geneva. He had been using his dad's wand which had been a suggestion made by Algernon, and clearly it had never worked for him because it was still loyal to Frank. With Frank healed and, on the mend, he had reclaimed his wand, which was an eleven-inch ash wand with a unicorn core, notorious for only preferring one person, and taken Neville into Geneva to get a new wand. His new wand, a twelve-inch Swiss pine with a phoenix core, was highly polished and came with sharp triangles etched into the handle. The triangles, the wandmaker had said, were meant to represent the Swiss Alps. Neville was over the moon with it.
Sirius had gone a little overboard with the decorations, Aria thought. There were banners and streamers and balloons, all magical, so there was an array of items that changed colors or even changed positions on the wall. Winky and Kreacher had been tasked with making three cakes so that Aria, Neville, and Harry all had their favorite cakes. Aria had chosen a soft sponge cake with a buttercream filling and strawberries on top covered with cream; Neville had chosen a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting; and Harry who did not have a favorite cake because he had never thought of having one before, had requested a white vanilla cake with buttercream frosting and lots of fruit on top.
Magicals, Aria learned, did not traditionally blow candles out on their cakes. Muggles did, however, and Kenneth made sure that Aria's cake had candles and then Harry asked if he could have candles, and since no one wanted to leave Neville out, his cake also got candles. But these were magical candles and the flames changed colors every few seconds and the flames went out in shower of sparks that had everyone gasping in delight.
There were all kinds of food for the teens to nibble on. Kenneth had made sure there was a plethora of Muggle food that they had gotten from nearby restaurants as takeout; Aria noted that the Patil twins were really pleased to have samosas and naan available as well as three different types of curry to select from. Aria had requested that they get salad and kebabs from the nearest Middle Eastern restaurant and Harry had asked if they could get pizza.
Kreacher had been horrified with the amount of Muggle food and ensured that there were more respectable options such as tea sandwiches, scones, treacle tart, as well as homemade butterbeer and pumpkin juice. Aria proudly introduced her wixen friends to Muggle soda and the boys, since there was not much difference between Muggle teens and teenage wizards, had a burping contest.
The presents were spectacular too. Aria received many books and notebooks and fancy quills that made her heart fit to burst. Everyone had given Neville something to do with herbology, whether it was a book or a packet of seeds or a plant. Hermione had given him some kind of plant in a pot that she had found in Bulgaria and Neville nearly disappeared into the library at Grimmauld to discover all that he could about the plant. Aria also gifted Neville a box set of Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit which he thought he would enjoy. She had given Harry a Quidditch jersey with Oliver Wood's name on the back and he had given her a few wizarding romance novels that were supposed to be similar to Jane Austen.
Most of their guests had stayed overnight, filling up the renovated attic with mattresses and blankets and lots of giggling after hours. They had managed to sleep though, so after breakfast was done and everyone had gone home except for Ron and Hermione, Aria and Harry took them back to Spinner's End. Robert, Samuel, and Tommy had insisted that they throw a birthday party for Aria and Harry at the pool and had invited all their Muggle friends and had ordered lots of pizza. Ron was excited to attend a Muggle party, and Aria hoped it wasn't too big of a letdown after the fabulous party they had had at Grimmauld. Of course, Ron's swimsuit was similar in style to what Draco's had been with it being a once piece that covered his chest and came down to his knees like he was from the turn of the century. He did manage not to stare too much at the Muggle swimsuits that Aria and Hermione and the other old teen girls wore, though Aria noticed him glancing at Hermione multiple times. Hermione, Aria thought, wore a cute floral bikini that was very tasteful.
For a brief moment, as everyone had jumped into the pool with loud whoops and shouts, Aria had frozen on the edge of the pool, suddenly remembering the freezing cold water of the Black Lake and the panic that had come with not know where she was or how she had gotten there. There must have been some kind of look on her face, because Robert had immediately climbed out of the pool and pulled her back from the edge.
"What's the matter?" he asked. Harry, now realizing she was not in the pool, swam over to the edge and hauled himself out.
"I . . . uh . . ." Aria swallowed, unable to come up with a lie quick enough.
"She almost drowned in the school lake," Harry supplied. "Fell off the boat."
"We'd have had the party somewhere else if the water was going to scare you," Robert scolded gently.
"I didn't know it would!" Aria cried. "I usually . . . I can usually just jump in."
"Just use the stairs then," Harry suggested, gesturing to the shallow end. Aria nodded. She really did want to go swimming. She entered the pool via the shallow end. Once she was in, the fear she had had on the edge of the pool seemed to get washed away with the splashing and the games. A few times she had to swim back to the shallow end and assure herself there was a bottom to the pool, but as the hours stretched on, any lingering fears faded away, and by the end of the pool party, she was jumping into the deep end with her friends.
Aria and her friends were the last to leave the pool with Robert, Samuel, and Tommy. They cleaned up the pizza boxes and soda bottles before making their way back to Spinner's End in the fast-fading summer light. Hermione chatted about her time in Bulgaria, sticking to the Muggle places she had visited with her parents, though there was the inclusion of Viktor though she and the others were careful to keep any mention of him being a professional athlete out of the picture in case Robert, Samuel, or Tommy wanted to look him up. The three older boys were quite interested in Hermione's travel stories. They had one year left of school before university and were thinking about taking some kind of trip if they could save enough money for it. Aria began thinking how she could convert Galleons into Muggle money and sneak it to them. She had yet to admit to anyone on the street that Sirius was not the only one with money. They had attributed the improved kitchen to the insurance money, and anything else they blamed on Sirius being generous.
Robert had called him a "sugar daddy" once which had made Tommy slap him across the back of his head while Harry turned bright pink and Samuel and Aria had burst out laughing.
All was well in their quiet little town until they began passing by the playground, long abandoned by children for the day. The sweltering heat that had been driven many in doors and which had allowed them to have the pool to themselves, suddenly disappeared and their breaths immediately became visible like it was the middle of winter.
"What the fuck?" Samuel cried, staring at their breaths. Robert suddenly whimpered and began trembling.
"Dementor!" Hermione cried, looking behind them. Harry was quickest to draw his wand and send off a Patronus. Aria had a sudden, wild terror about the fact that Harry had just performed magic in front of three Muggles, but the Dementor fleeing pushed that to the side. What was a Dementor doing in Cokesworth?
"What the fuck was that?" Tommy cried.
"We need to go," Harry insisted, looking at Aria, Ron, and Hermione. They nodded and started running down the street, the three Muggle teenagers racing to catch up.
The cold followed them. Aria drew her own wand, the creeping feeling of despair growing stronger the closer to Spinner's End they got. Suddenly, Samuel tripped over a large crack in the pavement. Aria turned back to help him stand, only to give a short scream at seeing four Dementors coming at them from behind. One was nearly on top of Samuel.
"Expecto Patronum!" All four wixen shouted, their Patronuses charging the foul creatures. Aria and Robert helped Samuel to his feet, and she shoved the Muggles in front of the group.
"Get to my house!" she ordered. "Now!"
The group sprinted the rest of the way, the sweltering heat returning, barging without ceremony into Aria's house.
"What just happened?" Tommy shouted as Harry slammed and locked the door. Aria hurried to draw the curtains facing the street, but not before looking out to see if they had been followed. Nothing moved outside. All was quiet.
"What's going on?" Kenneth cried as he, Sirius, and Remus came out of the living room.
"Dementors!" Ron cried, his face pale and freckles standing out. "At least four of them. We had to chase them off."
"Oh boy," Remus muttered, glancing at the three Muggle boys.
"One of them almost got Samuel," Hermione said.
"I'll make hot chocolate," Remus said, hurrying into the kitchen while Sirius disappeared back into the living room. Samuel did look very pale and was trembling the most out of everyone. The dementor had gotten very close.
"Let's have you sit," Kenneth said, ushering them into the living room.
"What the fuck?" Robert and Tommy cried seeing Sirius with his head in the fire.
"What is going on?" Robert demanded. "What did you four do? What was chasing us?"
Aria glanced at her friends.
"Muggles can't see dementors," Hermione whispered to her.
"Can someone please tell us what the bloody fuck is going on?" Robert shouted, gesturing wildly at Sirius who was finally pulling his head out of the Floo. "His head was in the bloody fireplace!"
"It's called the Floo," Aria said. Her friends and Sirius and dad gave her sharp looks, but she plowed ahead anyway. She was cold, she wanted hot chocolate, and one of her closest friends had almost been harmed by a dementor! She just wanted her friends to know the truth about her!
"I'm a witch," she continued.
"Aria," Kenneth warned.
"They're going to have to be Obliviated regardless," Sirius told her.
"I don't care!" Aria cried. "I'm tired of keeping secrets from them!"
"A witch?" Tommy repeated. "Like . . . pointy hat and cauldrons and deals with the devil?"
"Pointy hats and cauldrons yes," Aria replied. "No deals with the devil though. I don't . . . I don't even think that's possible?"
Now she was curious.
"So, what you four did . . ." Robert pointed to Aria, Harry, Ron, and Hermione. "You did some kind of magic?"
"We were being chased by dark creatures called dementors," Aria explained. "That's what made everything go cold. You can't see them because you don't have magic. But you can feel the effects. They feed off happy memories and leave you with only bad ones."
A haunted expression came across Robert's face.
"I . . . all I could think about was my da," he murmured. "And how he . . . I could hear him screaming and see his fist . . ."
"Yeah," Aria cut him off. "Like I said. They leave you with only the bad memories."
Her friends nodded, looking at each other. Samuel now sat on the couch; a blanket wrapped around him as he continued to shiver.
"When we were younger, some of the kids at St. Brigid's would call you a Witch," Robert said, turning back to Aria. "Because of all the weird stuff that happened when you were around."
"My accidental magic. Hold on . . . they use to call me what?"
"And we'd beat them up because no one got to make fun of you like that. And now you're telling us you're actually a witch?"
Aria felt off kilter. Her friends were taking it rather calmly.
"Why haven't you told us before?" Samuel asked, teeth chattering, as Remus entered the room with a tray full of mugs with hot chocolate.
"Not really allowed to," Aria answered, "that's why everyone's glaring at me."
"We're not glaring," Sirius said.
"Muggles, non-magicals, and wixen have lived separately for hundreds of years because Muggles use to burn us at the stake," Aria told them. "The entire globe had a wizarding world that lives alongside, but secretly, the nonmagical world. I go to a magical school up in Scotland."
"That posh school that's super selective and secretive?" Robert asked. Aria nodded. "We tried looking it up in the library once and it kept saying it didn't exist."
"Does that mean Mr. Snape's a witch too?" Tommy asked.
"Wizard," Remus and Sirius said together.
"Or warlock," Remus added.
"Though if someone called Snape a witch to his face, I'd pay to see it," Sirius said with an amused snort.
"So . . . are you having trouble at school like your dad says you are, or was that all made up too?" Tommy asked.
"No, I have had trouble at school," Aria admitted. "Some people didn't like me because I'm poor, but there are a lot of people at the school who don't like people like me or Hermione because we're called Muggleborns which means that our parents aren't magical. That no one in our families have magic. It just . . . showed up in us. There's a lot of people in the wizarding world who think we don't belong and they . . . they can be really awful." She felt tears pricking at her eyes as she thought of Abraxas Malfoy and of the Durmstrang students who had attacked her.
"There were . . . some of those students . . . we hosted some foreign students this past year who really disliked me because my mum and dad aren't magical," Aria said. "They tried . . . they didn't in the end . . . but . . ."
Robert pulled Aria into a tight hug. Tommy joined them and Samuel threw off his blanket to join the group. Aria felt the tears fall as she hid her face in Robert's chest. These three had always been like brothers to her, protectors against the other kids at school who weren't from the wrong side of the river. She could always count on them to make her feel better. They had supported her in so many ways, and now that she had been able to tell them about who she truly was, it was like a burden she hadn't known she had been carrying had lifted. Robert, Samuel, and Tommy accepted her for who she was, magic and all.
The Floo flared. The Muggle teens jerked back in surprise, yanking Aria with them as three people came out of the fire one by one. Madam Bones appeared first, followed by Auror Shacklebolt and Auror Scrimgeour who Aria remembered from the Unforgiveable Curse demonstration that Professor Moody had done.
"Can you do that?" Samuel asked Aria.
"Yes, it's one of the ways we travel around," Aria told him.
"Thank you for coming so quickly," Sirius said, bowing slightly at Madam Bones.
"What exactly happened?" Madam Bones asked. "I've got Auror Tonks checking in on Azkaban about their dementors."
Were all dementors at Azkaban? Aria had thought that maybe there might be a few wild dementors running about, and that perhaps this was a case of that. But if all the dementors were supposed to be out in the North Sea, then what were four doing in Cokesworth?
"We were coming back from the pool," Ron said, earning everyone attentions. "When it suddenly got super cold. Hermione spotted a dementor behind us and Harry cast a Patronus and then we started running for the house, but then Samuel fell and when we were helping him up, four more dementors were almost on us so the four of us cast Patronuses and chased them off. Then we got here."
"You can cast a Patronus?" Scrimgeour asked, rather dubiously.
"Yes," the four magical teens said.
"Ask Moody if you don't believe us," Ron said. "We cast them at the Welcoming Feast for the Triwizard Tournament. It was in the paper and everything. Professor Lupin taught Harry and Harry taught us!"
The aurors glanced at Remus who blushed, before busying himself with passing out the hot chocolate. Aria sipped at her drink, sighing contently as the warmth filled her and drove away the linger cold brought on by the dementors.
"You three aren't wizards are you?" Madam Bones asked. Robert, Samuel, and Tommy shook their heads. They flinched a bit when Madam Bones drew her wand.
"I'm just going to make sure that the dementors didn't leave any lingering effects on you," she told them. "They can very nasty. Drink your hot chocolate. Chocolate helps alleviate dementor exposure."
"Wish all medicine could be chocolate," Tommy muttered.
"We're going to have to Obliviate them," Scrimgeour said.
"No, please!" Aria begged. "They won't say anything. They won't be a danger to us!"
"A danger?" Robert cried, insulted, "why would anyone think we'd be a danger?"
"The Statute of Secrecy only allows for immediate family to know about magic," Remus explained. "As well as certain government officials. It's too big of a risk given that Muggles have a habit, even to this day depending on the country, of hurting wixen. We can't risk exposure."
"We would never!" Samuel cried, insulted.
"Unfortunately, that's a risk we can't take," Sirius said kindly.
"That's not fair!" Aria cried, not caring if she was whining. "They're like my brothers! I've grown up with them. They've always looked out for me." She latched back onto Robert who wrapped his arms protectively around her.
"How . . . exactly do you plan to make us forget what we've seen and been told?" Tommy asked, stepping behind Robert.
"They're going to wipe your memory if tonight," Aria sniffed. "You'll think we went from the pool to here, probably hung out for a bit, and then send you home."
"No way're you messing with my mind!" Robert cried. The boys backed away as Scrimgeour approached them, Robert pulling Aria with him.
"Robert," Kenneth called, gently. The boys looked at Kenneth, a man everyone on the street respected. "You won't . . . I don't think it'll hurt. You won't remember a thing."
"But Aria will," Robert argued. "She'll have to look as us every day knowing what happened tonight. Just another thing she's got to keep secret!"
Scrimgeour pulled his wand.
"No!" Aria sobbed as he auror pointed his wand at Samuel. With a quick whisper, the teen's eyes glazed over in confusion. Robert and Tommy looked ready to bolt, but Scrimgeour turned immediately on Robert and then Kingsley was on Tommy. Kenneth pulled Aria out of Robert's arms as the aurors whispered to the slightly confused boys, herding them out the front door. Aria kept sobbing as the aurors returned.
"I'm very sorry, Miss Bourne," Kingsley said. "But you know it had to be done."
"Fuck you!" Aria screamed. Kenneth spun her around, holding her shoulders tight as he leveled her with a frightening glare.
"Do not scream at people like that," Kenneth ordered. "He's just doing his job!" Aria burst into a fresh wave of tears.
A sudden cacophony sounded at the window in the kitchen which was kept open in the summer for the post owls. Within seconds a parliament of owls came flying into the living room, each owl hooting angrily at each other. From the ruffled feathers, it was clear that the owls had all tried to come through the window at the same time. Aria, Hermione, Ron, and Harry all received a letter. The owls exited the way they came, each angrily still hooting at each other. Everyone heard the owls try to leave through the same window at the same time and if it weren't for Kingsley's fast thinking, the poor owls would've gotten stuck.
Each envelope held the seal for the Ministry of Magic. Wiping her eyes, Aria opened her letter.
"It's a warning from the Improper Use of Magic Office," Ron told Remus and Sirius. "Warning us about using magic outside of school."
"Sirius!" Harry's voice pitched high as he stared in horror at his letter. "I've been expelled! Someone's going to come and snap my wand!"
"What?" Every adult wixen in the room converged on Harry to stare at his letter.
"They're expelling him for using magic in a Muggle area in front of several Muggles," Sirius said. "But this should be his first warning!"
"Second," Harry said. "There was a deranged house elf that visited Privet Drive just before my second year and used magic to drop a cake on the head of one of my uncle's guests. The ministry registered the magic as mine."
"It did?" Kingsley cried. "House elf magic shouldn't even register at the Improper Use office. They only watch the wands with a Trace still on them."
Aria had to agree, in her head, with Kingsley. She had been using wandless magic in small amounts over the summers after all ever since Fawkes had given her that little vision after second year.
Another owl appeared and dropped a letter in Harry's hands.
"Um . . ." Harry now looked confused. "Dumbledore says that I should stay put and not listen to the expulsion letter."
"What's Dumbledore got to do with this?" Madam Bones asked. Everyone shrugged.
Then a third owl came in with another letter from the Ministry stating that the expulsion had been rescinded pending an investigation from the Improper Use of Magic Office which was then quickly followed by fourth letter from Arthur Weasley telling Harry to 'stay put' and not go out.
Once the letters stopped everyone stared at each other for a moment, trying to process the amount of information that had just come flying in, literally, over the course of several minutes.
"I'm confused," Kenneth said. "Is Harry expelled or not?"
"No," Madam Bones answered. "He's not. But there will be an investigation since he used magic in front of Muggles, and it was a very complex spell. I am confused, however, about a multiple of things including why Mr. Potter is getting investigated for magic in front of Muggles but not you three." She pointed at Aria, Ron, and Hermione.
"Is it because it's our first offence?" Hermione suggested.
"No, this kind of spell work would warrant an investigation regardless," Kingsley explained. "Because underage wizards are allowed to use magic to defend themselves. The Patronus Charm is defensive."
"I'd like to know why they tried to expel Mr. Potter before the investigation," Scrimgeour muttered.
"Probably because Minister Fudge is out to get me," Harry groused.
"Besides that," Madam Bones continued, "it's been nearly three years since your last warning, Mr. Potter. Expulsion for disregarding the rules on underage magic only happen if the underage magic is a habitual offense."
"What should we do then?" Kenneth asked. "Is someone to come here? Will they try and snap Harry's wand regardless?"
Madam Bone got a frightening look on her face, like she was preparing herself for a duel. Aria hoped never to be on the receiving end of Madam Bones' wand if that was how the woman looked when she got focused.
"Sirius, take everyone back to Grimmauld," she ordered. "The three of us will wait for the Improper Use of Magic officers."
Yep, Aria thought as she and her friends were ushered towards the Floo. She would not want to be in the shoes of the Improper Use of Magic officers when Madam Bones finally got a hold of them.
Within seconds she was flying through the Floo system and being spat out in the receiving room of Grimmauld Place.