Henrietta Potter And The Slytherin Child - (A 'Henrietta Potter' sequel) || D.M

56 - Amos

Blaise Zabini.

My thumb hovered hesitantly over his name.

My Auror instinct said contacting him would be too risky. He, after all, knew I had been at Nott's to arrest them. I could be potentially putting myself in a lot of danger again.

But he had saved my life.

Suddenly the doorbell rang out, making me drop my phone. I glanced up at the clock. It was ten o'clock at night. Who the fuck was visiting this late?

I opened the front door which revealed an elderly man in a wheelchair, accompanied by a twenty-something looking woman.

The man looked so frail that it took me a moment to place him, and when it finally came to me, my heart raced uncomfortably in my chest.

It was Amos Diggory. Cedric's father. And he looked furious.

"Finally!" He spat, forcing his wheelchair through my front door, making me step back in alarm. "I've been trying to get an appointment with you for months! It's disgusting!"

What was disgusting was this rude little man's behaviour!

The woman tentatively followed him in, glancing at me apologetically.

"Every time I make an appointment they give me one for two months time!" Amos continued, bellowing at me in my own home. I thought I heard movement from the top of the stairs, but when I glanced up, I saw nothing. "And then a day before said appointment, they send me an owl saying you've been called away on urgent business and offer me one for another two months time! You're shutting me out."

At this point, the woman quickly jumped in asking to use my bathroom. I sent her upstairs with directions as she left me alone in the hallway with Amos.

"Of course I'm not shutting you out, Amos." I tried to explain calmly. "It's just, I'm afraid, as Head Auror, I'm responsible for-"

"There's plenty you're responsible for." He spat coldly, his small beady eyes glaring accusingly into mine.

"Sorry?" I asked, blinking.

"My son, Cedric, you do remember Cedric, don't you?"

How the fuck could I forget him? I felt my heart twist as horrifying scenes from the graveyard flashed before my eyes.

"Yes," I swallowed, "I remember your son. His loss-"

"Voldemort wanted you! Not my son!"

It was like being slapped hard across the face.

"You told me yourself, the words he said were ′kill the spare'." Amos continued, his voice mean and spiteful. "The spare. My son, my beautiful son, was a spare."

"What do you want from me, Amos?" I asked quietly.

"I am an old, dying man - and I am here to ask you - beg you - to help me get him back."

"Get him back? Amos, that's not possible."

"The Ministry has a Time-Turner does it not?"

How the fuck did he hear about that?!

"The Time-Turners were all destroyed." I said, hoping this would be enough to deter him from his mission.

"The reason I'm here with such urgency is I've just heard rumour - strong rumour - that today, the Ministry seized an illegal Time-Turner from Theodore Nott and has kept it. For investigation. Let me use that Time-Turner. Let me have my son back."

"Amos, playing with time? You know you can't do that." I said, incredulously.

"How many people have died for the Girl Who Lived? I'm asking you to save one of them."

"Whatever you've heard - the Theodore Nott story is a fiction, Amos. I'm sorry." I lied, praying that he would just get the fuck out of my house.

He gave me a cold, intense look that said he didn't believe me in the slightest. But rather than pursue it, he called up to the woman.

"DELPHI!"

She appeared at the top of the stairs, making her way hurriedly down them.

"Is everything okay, Uncle?" She asked, her eyes darting curiously from him to me.

"Delphi," Amos said, his eyes still glaring at me, "I'd like you to meet the once-great Henrietta Potter, now a stone-cold Ministry official. I will leave you in peace, miss. If peace is the right word for it."

What a twat.

*****

I needed to find Blaise and I needed to find him fast. I couldn't risk not doing anything knowing that there may be other illegal Time-Turners out there. Not when the likes of Amos wanted to get their hands on one.

"Where are you going?" Albus asked indignantly the next morning after breakfast, as I hurried about in my Auror robes.

"Work," I said distractedly, my mind only on my mission ahead.

"But what am I supposed to do?" Albus whined. "And I'll be going back to school soon!"

"Well, then you can spend the day packing, I'm sure you don't need me here to hold your hand." I snapped, still annoyed at the way he'd spoken to me the previous day.

"Do you have to go to work? Or is this another cover up to go and see him?" He snarled.

"Yesterday wasn't a cover up, or do I have to show you my bloody scar again to prove that to you?!" I sniped back trying to push down the urge to slap his head. "And, yes, I'm afraid I do have to go in. I have urgent business to attend to that cannot wait."

"What urgent business?" Albus scowled at me. "Can I come? I don't want to stay here all by myself!"

I sighed heavily. Fucking fantastic. I didn't need this right now.

"Fine!" I snapped, thinking I could just leave him in my office. Perhaps I could even get him to do some tidying for me. And I could ask Carol to keep an eye on him, make sure he behaved himself. I'm sure she would not mind.

I had it all planned by the time we arrived at the Ministry.

"Where are you going?" Albus asked, slight panic in his voice as soon as I told him I was popping out. "Why can't I come with you?"

"Because I need someone to stay here and tidy my desk," I muttered, gathering extra supplies for my secret mission. Although I had got my wand back, it wasn't going to be enough.

"No, you don't. Uncle Ron said he has never seen it tidy before." Albus whined as I carefully tucked a vial of poison up my sleeve. "Let me just come with you."

"I said I won't be long, Al!" I sniped, getting impatient as I shoved a dagger down the inside of my boot.

"Why? Just tell me what you are going to do. Is it about the Time-Turner?"

I froze in the process of stuffing a bezoar down my bra. Albus wasn't meant to know about that.

"I heard that old man last night." He pressed, a hint of accusation in his voice. "All he wants is his son back. And you won't let him. Some hero you turned out to be."

I closed my eyes. Somehow this hurt me more than him calling me a whore.

"Albus, please don't talk about things you don't understand." I said, adjusting my spell proof vest. "Now, if anyone asks - just tell them I've popped out for some stationary supplies."

Leaving my son looking utterly perplexed, I stepped out of the office and headed towards my first destination.

*****