What Voldemort Left Behind

Chapter 32 - The Ministry

AUTHORS NOTE: This chapter worked so well IN MY HEAD and then i tried typing it and it all went really badly, words didn't sound right and nothing fit together but i kinda managed to get some important parts of the story in so even though it wasn't the best wording there's a lot of story in it and next chapter there may be something that a certain reader will really like 😉

Ginny had insisted that Harry should go to the Ministry first thing to sort everything out. He suspected that the family were trying to separate him from James, not for James's sake but rather for Harry's. James had already asked to see his dad but Ginny, who had thought her husband was still upstairs, explained to James that his father was slightly unstable and needed to be calmed first before he could see him.

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It was late afternoon and Harry had just apparated to London, he was meeting Ron and the two of them were going to the Ministry again. Ginny stayed at her mother's with James and the other two, so Ron had come along to keep Harry company as he was meeting for the first time with the man who would've killed his son.

The Ministry was packed with people, it was the middle of the week and it was summer, there were many protesters at the Ministry, since the Wizarding World was mostly hidden, there were often large protests taking place in the main reception area of such an important place where disruption could be caused. Some of the protesters shouted at Harry as he passed, they waved signs and made rude gestures, some tried to shoot spells but Harry and Ron easily blocked them.

They took the golden lift to Kingsley Shacklebolt's office, the Minister didn't usually handle the smaller aspects of court cases but he was a good friend of Harry's after their years of working together and wanted to be there for him.

"I'm sorry about James, Harry."

"Thanks, he's doing better, I think, now, Ginny stayed with him today."

The Minister gestured for Harry and Ron to follow him and he brought them to a very small room near the Courtrooms. The criminal glared at them and struggled slightly against the chain holding him against the seat. What shocked Harry was his left forearm. A black tattoo that roughly formed the shape of the Dark Mark, it looked as though the dry ink was dripping from it and underneath there were scars and cuts in the skin from forming the crude hand drawn version of Voldemort's symbol. It was a horrific sight, bigger than a real Mark would be and cursed into the arm either by himself or another who practiced Dark Magic. It wasn't a symbol that could be simply replicated on the skin, Voldemort had obviously made it so that any that tried to grant themselves the "honor" of bearing the symbol, would suffer. It was close enough to the original to make out the skull and some lines that in a traditional Mark would form a snake and it was enough so that Harry had to fight to force memories down, the room spun from the effort of suppressing them. Ron noticed and glanced at Kingsley who conjured a chair for Harry and Ron helped him to sit down. He conjured a glass of water and handed it to Harry who thanked him gratefully. Harry felt a little better as he sipped the water and was ready to start the interview.

Kingsley spoke quietly. "Should I leave? We can leave you alone completely with him if that's what you'd like."

"No stay. It's easier if I'm not alone."

Kingsley nodded and sat back in a seat. There were five people in the room, Harry, Ron and Kingsley on one side and facing them were the man who was under investigation and an Auror with his wand pointed, who had stayed silent the whole time apart from a respectful greeting to the three ex Aurors when they had entered the room.

Harry managed to keep it together through the interrogation despite Ron's skeptical glances in his direction. The man had been made to take some Veritaserum before the questioning started, which wasn't reliable enough to be used in the actual trial, but worked for this interrogation as the odds were they were hearing the truth. The last question had slipped Harry's mind until now but it needed to be asked.