Investing in the Future

Chapter Five

Amelia had liked what she had seen of young Mr. Potter...but right then she wanted to scream because of him. Oh, she knew it wasn't really his fault, but it was a little unfair that he had left the country, leaving her with a complete mess. Hogwarts was closed for the foreseeable future as Curse Breakers and Ward Experts crawled all over it. Dumbledore had been temporarily stood down from all of his positions, awaiting possible criminal proceedings, and all of the staff were under investigation, except Binns who had finally moved on. Fudge and the horrible toad...woman that was his Senior Undersecretary had tried to claim that everything had been done at their instigation, she had been forced to step in with the truth, that it was Harry Potter and his family who had raised the alarm and called for aide. Of course, she had done so in the middle of a press announcement which had the press baying for blood now. What sort of Minister tried to take the glory from their beloved young hero? She knew they would change their tune once it was discovered Harry had left Britain, but she just hoped they didn't learn that fact until Fudge was pushed out of office. It wouldn't be easy, there was no definite method to get rid of a sitting Minister and he was too deep in the pockets of those like Malfoy for them to want to see him go. A new Minister may not be so easy to control after all.

They weren't the only ones who had tried to claim what wasn't theirs. She had enjoyed the look of frustrated rage on Snape's face when he had tried to claim the basilisk corpse for potions ingredients and she had shot him down, the Minister actually backing her on that one. Right of conquest would go to Harry after all...if the basilisk was dead which she would neither confirm or deny but simply allowed people to make assumptions. She then promptly arrested him for abusing his position. She did not want a Death Eater, reformed or not, around children but Dumbledore had always blocked any attempt to remove the man from the school. With Dumbledore gone she had been able to arrest him and he was awaiting trial. As he was Potions Master he was being kept isolated an on a regime of flushing potions so that he could be tried with Veritaserum since as a half-blood he wasn't protected from it by law.

It was very tempting to follow the Tonks and Grangers over to America but if she left who knew who would be elevated in her place, she doubted it would be Kingsley, despite being her top choice. She had seen Harry's memories of first year and this last one and she knew Voldemort, or Riddle, was not yet gone for good. She had articles ready to go covering everything she had been able to quietly dig up on one Tom Marvolo Riddle, she wanted to cut off at least some of his support, just in case he did return. Perhaps she could sic Skeeter on it when the time came, the woman was great at digging up dirt and sensationalizing it. Although it could backfire if she put too much emphasis on him being a half-blood killing purebloods.

Unfortunately, Harry's memory left her with a duty that she did not look forward to at all. The temporarily resurrected Riddle had said that young Ginny was responsible through writing in a diary. She had to find out where that diary came from and the girl was beyond questioning. She had given them a few days to grieve and bury the child but now she had to question them. She knew Arthur, knew his family would never knowingly aide the Death Eaters or their leader so she had not called them in for questioning. She stood, shrunk her Pensieve and then left her office for the Burrow where the entire family was still gathered, the two eldest boys home for the funeral. Appearing down the path from the house she was struck by how silent it was, she had been here before and it was never quiet. She hated having to do this, but she would not risk the family falling under suspicion as others tried to appear blameless.

~~

They ran into their villa, soaked through and laughing. Dr. Harding was heading for the dock since apparently most of the staff didn't live on the island, or at least not yet. Dr. Sattler had gone into her and Dr. Grant's villa as all three were going to shower and clean up before heading for the Control Room to watch the others return. The gas-powered Jeep had been able to take all the back routes and cut through paddocks, so they had made it back a lot quicker than the tour vehicles would. Nym didn't say anything when Harry emerged carrying his backpack, instead picking up her own, trusting his instincts for trouble while hoping he was wrong, her Mum would kill her if anything happened to him. A park like this, there was a lot that could go wrong and spectacularly at that. Maybe the storm would just cause their Villa to flood or something simple like that...yeah right, not with their luck.