Chapter 15
Harry, Carrie and Daphne were inside the Ministry.
Now, this would normally be seen as a borderline suicidal move – Harry had just blown up Malfoy Manor, Carrie was a muggle and Daphne was complicit and involved with the crime. To appear within the walls of the magical equivalent of the Supreme Court was not only gusty, it was basically the same as giving every law administrative around the finger.
The other inmates would have chalked it up to typical Potter recklessness; the kid never seemed to be worried about things going wrong, no matter what the potential consequences were. Harry's main policy was basically to emulate Indiana Jones, because who the hell needed plans? He just made things up as he went!
Speaking of the other inmates, Harry intended to visit them this summer after being away for so long. It might be a little hard on Officer Parker – he'd avoided giving her trouble for over two years! -but barring Carrie, Pierce and Miranda he hadn't see many of the other inmates in a while. Only Mark and his thugs were truly unlikable characters in the prison; Harry had been startled to discover that most of the kids his age who had committed crimes were doing it out of boredom, desperation, frustration or rebellion against uncaring, distracted or obsessive parents. Aside from that, some of them were actually quite nice, like Alex, Marcie, Sarah, Jedd, Justin or Katelyn.
Harry had been sending them letters, and they had occasionally popped up during the summer, but apart from that he hadn't seen them. He hadn't even told them much about the wizarding world yet. It was true that he had been closest to Carrie, Miranda and Pierce but the others had been there for him to, and a major part of what made early life with the Dursleys bearable.
There was something he'd like to ask them, anyway.
Nevertheless, normally Harry wouldn't be quite so brash, especially not in his normal routine. There were two reasons he was acting out a bit. Firstly there was the thing with his godfather, falsely accused and imprisoned in Azkaban. The major problem being that Harry had no idea how to extortionate him, and his application for visitation rights had been denied by Barty Crouch on the grounds that he was one of the prison's highest security prisoners.
But nothing had been normal since Hagrid had brought him his Hogwarts letter, and this world was abnormal as a rule. So how could a little more abnormal hurt him? Taking chances was the only way anyone ever learned anything. Besides, Carrie never went into a building without an escape route planned out.
"You know, I can't function as your missing sense of self-preservation forever," Carrie had remarked as they entered the building. "One of these days you're going to have to think up your own plan."
"I find life is more fun without one." Harry had said. Daphne had smacked him over the shoulder for that, but her expression made it well worth the effort.
"You idiot," She said fondly. "I suppose I can't begrudge you for your hotheadedness to much, because I'd be dead without it wouldn't I?"
Harry grinned at her and said, "I suppose so. Just wait, next time I'll actually have a plan of attack!" Daphne hit him again, but there was no bite in her eyes. He would have died before he admitted it then, but he liked it when she looked at him like that.
Carrie was right in that this probably wasn't the smartest idea he'd ever come up with. However, the show was just to perfect to pass up.
Turns out that them blowing up Malfoy Manor bore unexpected fruit.
It was Pierce who came up with the idea – normally he was the calmest of the four delinquents but he did have a nasty side. After they had blown up the Manor, they had overlooked their handywork to find that there was a Cup that hadn't been destroyed. Touching it made Harry's head hurt...in the area of his scar, with a feeling he had associated with the back of Quirrel's head all the way back in first year.
They had quickly retreated into a hedge that had managed to escape getting burned when the father of the house came home.
Harry would have liked to take Lucius's photo when he saw the ruins, because it was equally the funniest and most satisfying thing he'd seen all year.
Pierce had texted at this point; luckily Carrie's phone had been on silent. When Carrie explained what was going on, he suggested recording everything the man said when looking over the wreckage. You never know what might come up, and the man was a Death Eater. Astoria had wanted to do it, but Daphne wouldn't let her. In the end, Harry had put on the cloak and walked as close as he dared, holding up the microphone to the blonde man and his stunned son.
Lucius had ranted – ranted and raved, with all sorts of colourful language, aspirations cast on various individuals and profane curses on all mudbloods, even though he had no feasible way of knowing that they were the ones involved. The obvious bigotry was so below his standing as a pureblood that it was kind of sad. Harry considered it a testament to his self-control that he didn't start laughing; there were giggles emanating from the direction of the bush as well.
Lucius had dug through the wreckage until he came up with the strangely invincible cup. He then said something that was beyond Harry's hope – he said that he had gotten it from Bellatrix Lestrange after she was imprisoned – moved from her vault in case it was searched, because it belonged to the Dark Lord. At this point, Harry had stopped recording, hurried back to the truck with his friends and drove straight for the Leaky Cauldron.
Then he'd called Rita Skeeter.
The intrepid reporter had been further investigating the details surrounding the chaos of the Chamber incident, including Lucius Malfoy's accusation of Ginny as the Heir of Slytherin. She was also planning to go back into Albus Dumbledore's past, to see as she said 'if there was anything dark and ominous hiding behind the twinkle of those eyes."
Despite Harry inadvertently interrupting her conversation with Aberfroth Dumbledore, she was happy to see him again, clearly expecting new gossip. She'd asked him a bunch of questions about Dumbledore's impending court hearing, and whether or not he intended to be among the legislature as the last Heir of House Potter.
Harry simply stated that he thought doing so would be in shockingly bad taste, due to his record. This earned boisterous laughter from various people inside the club, and at least two total strangers slapped him on the back and commented on his 'balls of steel'. Both Ginny and Astoria had gone red as beets at this comment, though Harry laughed it off. Then he'd played the recording and asked Rita to write a tell-all about it. She looked like she had just been handed a million galleons.
Needless to say, the paper came out the very next morning.
There had been chaos and commotion throughout both the upper class and within the Ministry itself at this revelation. Lucius had been detained when he came to work that very afternoon, his wife and son also hauled in for questioning. By some stroke of luck, it was Kingsley Shakabolt who was in charge of monitoring the Malfoys so they couldn't bribe their way out of their cells.
Minister Fudge had almost denied it as proof on the sole basis that it had come from a muggle recording device, but thankfully he'd been shouted down by Amelia Bones, who was looking extremely vindicated by this announcement.
There had been a lot of talk, and one thing that had happened was that Ginny was called in to testify against the Senior Malfoy. She had told him how nervous she was feeling in her last letter to him, which had reached him this morning. Harry had bought her an owl she could call her own, as a gesture of friendship. If I'd been closer to her, paid a little more attention, maybe I could have stopped the Chamber incident before it gained so much momentum. Her parents hadn't been too happy about her accepting so much money from him, but they didn't protest too much.
He had written back to tell her to just remain calm and tell what she knew. And that he would be waiting there, not as a man with a vote but as a friend giving encouragement, even if she couldn't see him.
When Ginny received this letter, she smiled to herself, because she knew he was referring to the invisibility cloak.
Astoria was also attending in the audience along with her father. Daphne had declined to come simply because she wasn't sure if Lucius could read mines the way their former Headmaster supposedly could, and she didn't want to risk – however small – anyone finding out what they had done last night.
So Harry, Carrie and Daphne were all sitting on three unused seats at the highest benches within the Ministry building. Lucius Malfoy was sitting chained to the chair in the middle, looking furious but also sweating a bit. Ginny was standing at the front of the witness line, looking nervous but determined. Harry spotted his classmate Neville Longbottom in the guest stand as well, looking like he wanted to be just about anywhere else. A second later he figured out why – Neville's much-feared grandmother was sitting in the Ministry stands as one of the Senior members.
To his surprise, he also recognized Ginny's dormmate Meghan Rushman in the crowd as well. Well, she was a pureblood, he mused. Ginny's family was all in the guest area, looking at Lucius with expressions that could kill a dozen men.
Astoria was practically hanging over the bar while her parents looked at the scene in front of them with shock and deep thought. It was no mystery to Daphne – or any of their friends for that matter – that she was hoping that this would be the thing that terminated her arranged marriage to Draco. Harry couldn't see it working out any other way unless Daniel Greengrass was mental enough to have his daughter marry a death eater, and the man didn't strike him as the mental type.
Amelia Bones emerged and banged her gravel on the desk. "Order in the court!"
"It's starting," Carrie hissed. She pulled out a bag of popcorn.
"Where did you get that?" Harry asked, eyes wide.
"What's that?" Daphne asked curiously.
"It's a kind of snack. Popcorn. Buttery. I think you'd like it," Harry said absently, still trying to figure out how Carrie had carried that bag here without him noticing. Daphne raised an eyebrow and tentatively took some of the yellow food and swallowed it. Her eyes lit up.
"Lucius Malfoy, you stand accused of accessory to the crimes of Lord Voldemort -" The crowd collectively flinched. Carrie rolled her eyes, she still didn't see why everyone was so afraid of a dead man's name. "-multiple counts of murder, use of all three Unforgivable Curses, and instigating the corruption of a minor. How do you plead?"
"Not guilty," Lucius proclaimed haughtily. There was noise in the crowd, Molly Weasley let out an enrage shriek, followed by Astoria, who looked like she was being held back by her mother from crossing over the bar and attacking the ponce with her bare hands.
"Why does that not surprise me?" Harry said through his teeth. Both Carrie and Daphne grasped his wrists to keep him calm.
Amelia banged for silence."Very well, we will have that put to the test. The prosecution calls Miss Ginerva Molly Weasley to the stand."
There were a few snickers in the crowd at Ginny's full name. The diminutive redhead was very obviously resisting the urge to glare at the ones responsible; she raised her head high and walked over to the witness chair.
"Arthur Weasley, do we have your permission to use a child's dose of Veristrum to verify Ginny's story?" Amelia enquired. There was a murmur in the crowd and Lucius paled slightly; he had used his money last time to halt any use of the truth potion, but he had no time for this one.
Arthur gave a slight nod, "I give my permission."
A Ministry worker approached Ginny and put a single drop of green liquid into her glass of water. Looking nervous, Ginny gulped it down, shuddered a bit and then nodded obediently at the interrogator.
"Ginny Weasley, can you tell us the nature of the item that possessed you?"
"It looked like an ordinary diary at first glance, but there was nothing written in it. When I started to write in it, the ink would disappear. A second later, it would come back but it had formed different words," Ginny said. "It introduced itself to me as 'Tom Marvalo Riddle', and he said that he had been a sixth year Hogwarts student."
"What kind of correspondence did you have?"
"Well, at first he was very nice to me – very understanding. I...I trusted him, I felt compelled to tell him about things that were bothering me, especially after I was sorted into Slytherin. But after a little he started getting more and more aggressive. He told me to identify every half-blood or muggleborn student that I knew. I started blacking out in the hallways and waking up in a different part of the school, not knowing how I got there. One time I woke up and there was blood all over my hands; Tom had possessed me and forced me to kill all of Hagrid's chickens to write the messages on the wall. I was terrified; I tried to tell my friends, my prefects anyone what was going on but the words wouldn't come out of my mouth. I tried to stop writing in it but my hand started moving against my will. Eventually it went dark and cold for so long I thought I was dead; but then I woke up in the Chamber with Daphne and Harry and Astoria and Tracy."
Ginny's shoulders were shaking, it was obvious the experience still haunted her and retelling it to a huge audience was not easy for her. People smiled encouragingly at the little victim, so that she might get some justice done.
"Did you make the connection between Tom Riddle and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named before he took you to the chamber?"
"No ma'am, he never directly said it to me. He told Harry and the others about it when he was gloating about what he had done in the Chamber. I heard it second hand from them."
"Did any of your teachers seem to notice your erratic behaviour?"
"I think so, Professor Snape pulled me aside one day and asked if I still wasn't over my anxiety over being sorted into his house. I tried to tell him then but something stopped me."
"How exactly did the accused slip you this diary?"
"We were at Diagon Alley," Ginny recalled. "We ran into him and his son Draco there. He pulled out one of my books when he was asking if my father was being well paid for the sweeping searches the Ministry had been doing. He dropped the dairy in my cauldron right afterwards."
"What would have happened to you and Daphne Greengrass had not been rescued?"
Ginny was shaking a bit when she answered, "He would have drained all of our lifeforce and devoured our magical cores; it would have given him a second body and more power than he had previously had."
There were shouts of outrage all over the place at this announcement. Many parents were cussing out Lucius while others held the ears of their children so they wouldn't pick up the language. Carrie looked mildly impressed, "Wow, there are even a few that I don't know."
Ginny was released and ran back to her family. Molly Weasley hugged her daughter tightly and looked like she was going to give Lucius Malfoy one of her personal Howlers in person but was politely dissuaded by Shackabolt.
The next person called to the stand was Ginny's head of house, Severus Snape.
"Can you tell us why the school wasn't extensively searched after Justin Finch-Flinchy was found Petrified?"
"I couldn't tell you Madam Bones." The potions professor said sourly. "I asked Dumbledore that exact same question every time a student turned up Petrified, you can take a Pensieve memory if you don't wish to take my word for it. He just said something about school spirit and dismissed me."
"Why didn't you catch onto Ginny Weasley's possession?"
"The Weasleys were a traditionally Gryffindor family," Severus explained. "Having miss Ginerva sorted into my house came as a shock to everyone. She looked terrified as she descended into the dungeons, and some of the, ahem, higher-class students were bullying her mercilessly over her 'blood traitor' status. I had attributed her strange behaviour to this and focused my attention on styming my students attitude towards her. It wasn't until she disappeared, along with Greengrass that I pieced together what was actually happening."
"Does Headmistress McGonagall have any and all records of Tom Riddle's history at the school avalible?"
"Yes. She told me to report to the DMLE that they are ready for your earliest convenience."
"Do you know why Harry Potter had declined to take his seat in the Wizamgot?" Amelia questioned.
Snape gave her a wry, sarcastic half-grin before saying, "According to him, he thought that sitting on a legislature while having a criminal record, albeit a muggle one, would be in shockingly bad taste."
Despite the tone of the trial, there was a ripple of laughter through the witnesses at this particular comment. Rita Skeeter was clearly having a ball writing her next expose. Even the stoic Amelia Bones took a second to crack a smile at this comment.
After a few more witnesses the main event began. Veristrum had to be forcefully applied to Lucius who was looking both furious and panicky.
Amelia began the questioning, her eyes having taken a steely glint to them, "How many Unforgivables have you cast?"
"Thirty-five." There was a gasp within the crowd. Carrie swore under her breath. Both Daniel and Angela Greengrass looked as though they were going to be sick.
"How long were you in service to the Dark Lord?"
"Ever since my seventh yeat at Hogwarts. I was a spy at first, and then joined officially after I graduated."
"Have you taken the Dark Mark? Has your wife taken the Dark Mark? Your son?"
"I have taken the Mark. Narcissa refused it; she was raised under pureblood ideals but she was horrified by the lengths my master was willing to go. I have raised Draco under my dogma and he will take the Mark as soon as he is old enough." Lucius ground out, clearly trying to fight the truth potion but failing.
"You planted the diary on Ginny Weasley knowing what it was and what it was meant to do."
"Yes!"
"Tell us the exact nature of the diary and the cup retrieved from the destruction of your manor."
There was a long, painful pause. Lucius Malfoy's expression had become one of pure terror. He tried to lock his jaw but the word came out anyway, "Horcruxes."
And then his head exploded.
Harry jerked back in his seat, Daphne's hard flew over her mouth. Screams erupted within the crowd, people scrambled backwards to get as far away from the body as possible. Amelia was shouting and Aurors were pouring into the room.
Both Ginny and Astoria were gripping the iron bars and staring at the gory scene in front of them with a hard, unreadable expression that belied their ages.
"What the hell was that?" Carrie gasped. Even for a hardened delinquent, she looked shaken. Harry was equally stunned and sickened by what had just happened; for the first time in a long time he had aboslutely nothing to say.
"I think," Daphne whispered, her face turning the same shade of green that it had when she had seen Fluffy rip of a troll's head. "that was a punishment for revealing one of the Dark Lord's secrets."
"Let's go," Carrie hissed, "Security's going to be crawling all over this place, we better be scarce."
"Yes," Daphne said. "There's something I want to talk to my father about."
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Daniel Greengrass was not having a good day; he nearly stumbled as he and the rest of the guests were politely evacuated from the ministry in case there were any other explosive curses attached to the body of Lucius Malfoy. His wife had gone deathly pale and was clutching his arm like a lifeline.
His younger daughter walked out in front of him when they were on the streets and raised her passionate green eyes. "Dad," She said, "To quote a muggle phrase – I hate to say 'I told you so', but...I told you so!"
Daniel stared down at his precious baby girl for a moment before sweeping her up in a tight embrace, "Oh Astoria! I've been a fool. I nearly trusted a Death Eater with the future; I nearly trusted him with you. I'm so sorry. Will you forgive me?"
"Of course daddy," Astoria's voice was muffled slightly against his shirt. Angela tapped him on the shoulder and she told her daughter and hugged her as well.
"Father, Mother, Astoria." Daphne ran up the street, breathless, "I heard what happened inside the Ministry, are you all alright?"
"We are fine," Angela said slightly shakily, "But we have a marriage contract to terminate. We're headed straight for Gringotts."
"I know mother." Daphne stood in front of them, her eyes shining with absolute certainty. "There's something else I want to do while I'm there, something very important to me. I've thought it over very carefully. You've told me earlier this month that I owe a life debt to Harry; and I've decided exactly how I'm going to repay it. Make me Daphne Potter."
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Unknown to Daphne, a certain small redhead was having a smiliar conversation with both her mother and a very flustered, blushing Harry.
"G-Ginny, I-I-" Molly Weasley was not a woman who got flustered easily, but today was proving to be the poverbial exception. After all the worry about her daughter being taken prisoner, then escaping, then the events of the trial had been trying enough, but this new announcement truly threw her for a loop. "I-Are you certain?"
Ginny raised her brown eyes and smiled at Harry; the boy's cheeks flushed even darker and he ran a hand through his long black hair. "Yes mum. I can think of no other way I wish to fulfil this Life Debt. There's something I can't explain but I feel drawn to Harry. Everything about him draws me in, his sense of humour, his bravery, his unshakable honour, his willingness to put his life selflessly on the line for others. I feel complete, I feel stronger around him, near him. If I can't be Ginny Potter than make me Ginny Black. I know he's the heir to both titles. I wish to by Harry's wife."
There was so much conviction in this tone that the fact that the girl had just turned twelve years old and the boy thirteen didn't seem to make an iota of difference.
Arthur turned his attention to Harry, who looked, for the first time since Ginny had met him, like he wanted to sink into the floor out of embarrassment. "Do you love my daughter?" He asked simply. If his little girl was going to marry anyone he wanted it to be someone who cared for her unconditionally.
Harry looked actually shy!, he managed a sincere smile and looked up at the two parents, "I value Ginny very deeply. After I saved her I felt something take hold inside me. I will protect her with my life."
He sounded very sincere. Despite his background in vandalism and theft, Arthur found himself trusting the errant boy-who-lived and said, "Well, I think a trip to Gringotts is in order."
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These two families ran into each other, in a happy coincidence, right on the steps to the bank. The inital conversation was awkward, but Daniel and Angela were no pureblood bigots; they addressed the Weasleys with utmost politeness and friendliness.
When they exchanged their reasons for being at the bank, there was a bit of a quandary, but then Harry explained that he was saddled with House Restoration and the problem, for lack of a better term, magically disappeared.
Astoria nearly gave her parents a heart attack when she promptly threw her arms around Harry's neck and kissed him. "You too Ash?" Daniel said, he'd never been so flustered in his life.
Astoria pulled back and grinned, "There's no one else like him, dad. No one." Harry looked horribly embarrassed by this praise but nodded sheepishly.
The contracts were drawn up while the new in-laws chatted amiably, ice broken. The bond would lie dormant until the four of them came of age at seventeen, but they were officially engaged at this point, with rings to prove it.
That night Harry and his three girls moved back into Potter Manor. They stared at the dusty interior for a long moment.
Astoria, predictably, was the one to break the silence. "This place so needs to be redecorated."
"Agreed," Harry said. He let out his breath, "But right now I really need some sleep."
End Chapter
That was fun. If only Lucius had blown up in Canon too. Well, our pairings are finally bonded. Next chapter opens with some kissing :)
Moon: (headdesk. Headdesk. Headdesk) UGH. Okay, I'm sorry this is an interlude, not a full chapter, but I just wanted to get a few things out of the way so I can get the next part started. Also, school happened, and I'm tied up. I'm really, really sorry. Now, have fun watching Death Eaters get their stuff burned. I don't own Harry Potter, though I really wish I did.
Interlude: Pyromania
"Hey Alex."
"Wha...Harry? Do you have any idea what time it is?"
"Yeah. Sorry, but I needed to talk to you as soon as possible."
"Hey, be quiet! What are you doing? You do realize that if my dad catches me talking to another boy after last year-"
"Alex, shush. Listen. I have a place where you can hide."
"Seriously? You're not messing with me?"
"I'm serious Alex. But I also need some help. I called some of our other friends from our cell block, and they're going to be here today too. But what I'm going to ask..it's difficult, and it'll require believing some crazy things."
"Harry, you're a rascal, but you're a good kid at heart. So where is this place?"
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Harry had a map of Magical London out in front of him, along with a pile of old newspapers and documents that he had accumulated with some help from Dobby. He was leaning over it with a serious expression. One you didn't see your average kid using. It was one you associated with teenage criminals or gang members, and it never boded well.
It was a rather extensive map, with roads leading to certain locations highlighted with notes next to them. There were words all over the map, in fact, shaped like they were directions or plans. There were many red markings on it. Things were circled. Manors. Shops. Dens. Back Alleys.
Targets.
It was a net, and a very meticulous one at that. Closing it in, to try and make sure there were as few loop holes as possible. There was a list of names written on the side of it, along with various times and dates.
The current Daily Prophet was sitting on the desk as well, holding the story of Lucius's trail. The curse that blew his head up was identified as a means of keeping one individual from giving away a secret and its details. The curse was only a few years old, which meant that whatever the Dark Lord had done, he had done it soon after his death.
The Horcruxes, whatever they were, were classified as top secret by the Ministry who promised to take care of them. Needless to say, people were talking. Some of the darkest magic in existence...supposedly, once you had made one, you could never die – but you had crossed a line that you can never return from.
Now, normally Harry didn't get involved with politics. Frankly, Voldemort and his whole blood supremacy ravings seemed little more than a glorified gang war than any actual open, country-wide conflict. Despite his less-than-an-upstanding-citizen act, Harry didn't get involved in that sort of thing.
However, this was the same guy who murdered his parents, and the fact that the curse still held and the scant information he had about Horcruxes, the bastard was still out there. After two girls he cared for deeply were also nearly killed in the crossfire Harry was privately declaring war on the now-wraith Dark Lord.
Now, this sounded easy enough but was difficult in practice. The underage magic restriction was still in place, effectively curbing anything Harry might have been able to do magically until he returned to school.
He had woken up early to get Dobby from the Malfoys. He had made a promise, after all. Narcissa hadn't required much convincing, considering what had just happened to her husband Harry supposed he shouldn't be surprised.
House elves could do things that wizard's couldn't, and Dobby had nearly fallen over himself with enthusiasm for doing the will of the Great Harry Potter before the young convict could even complete his explanation.
Then he'd made some calls. Pentacost was pleased to hear from him again, and offered to repoen a place in the Blood Knights for Harry. The boy had politely declined and then offered a handsome payment for his latest insane scheme. Daphne was slightly doubtful about it, although she conceded that she could see why it could work.
He wondered if this was the right thing to do. This hadn't bothered him so much when he had done these sorts of things before, but he'd never attempted something on this scale before.
Death Eaters. He'd come up with the most comprehensive list that he could find of all those still outside of Azkaban, all of them from the ones with money and influence to the low-level grunts.
He was going on a demolition spree.
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"So," Alex said. "Magic is real."
It wasn't much of a question, seeing as Miranda and Pierce had to guide him, Marcie, Katelyn and Justin through Diagon Alley to the Manor where Harry was residing. That, and Ginny and Tracy were levitating books in many different directions. Carrie had been there ever since last night.
This had been a bit much for the muggles to take in, having only the bearest minimal understanding of Harry's 'powers' before this point. So Astoria sat them down and told them all they needed to know in exchange for them telling her about muggle political systems. Tracy came over at some point, her father having filed a marriage contract, and the conversion promptly shifted from politics to how plane engines worked.
It was a weird lunch.
After that, Harry sat them all down in the War Conference Room (yes, it was called that) and carefully explained his utterly insane master plan to them. Alex had been mortified at what the younger kid had in mind and wondered if magic affected your sanity to any degree. All four female witches scowled at him.
Justin and Katelyn, on the other hand, looked like they had just been given the last five Christmas's and their birthdays, too, all at once.
"You want me to blow things up?" Katelyn whispered, her tenures in Juvie had been due to the fact that the seemingly innocent, sweet and petite redhead was a major, utterly uncontrollable pyromaniac.
Harry nodded and smiled. Ginny pointed to various houses on the list. "Basically the plan is to destroy whatever we can, like Malfoy Manor, and see if anything survives it. Because if there's a small object that isn't blown to kingdom come, that means it's a Horcrux and we'll give it to the DMLE for disposal. If there's nothing there, well then there's a massive blow to Mr I-Plan-To-Take-Over-The-World-By-Possessing-Eleven -Year-Olds and his supporters. With any luck it will also expose their less-than-savoury passtimes or new evidence that was conveniently overlooked."
"Remind me how we fit into this?" Marcie asked curiously.
"I'm not allowed to do magic over summer break, and the wards are very sophisticated. If I do anything overt it will cause a lot of domestic drama that quite frankly is so tedious I'd probably jump out a window to escape it. Besides, if it's muggle it can't be traced because wizards don't seem to consider you a threat. They won't even know you're there." Harry explained.
Marcie grinned. "So basically we can raise all the hell we want and waltz away, leaving them running around like Headless chickens?"
"Yes. Basically."
Katelyn's grin was approaching Lucifer levels, and she burst out into maniac laugher. "Okay," Justin cracked his knuckles. "Which house gets torched first?"
Parkinson Manor
As much as Astoria would have loved to torch the house with Evan and Pansy still inside, she couldn't do it in good conscience, so she had to trick them out of it while Katelyn went nuts with the explosives.
Oh, and maybe she should have let them get a little further away before blowing the house sky-high. Maybe she was still a little angry with the way Pansy had been treating Ginny during their second year. Maybe she didn't have to also set fire to the grounds...or the sheds...or the stables...or the other empty servant quarters...yeah, Astoria could hold a slight grude.
Just a little.
Katelyn had been cackling like a madwoman the entire run to the next house, while Astoria mentally stored the image of the spoiled, cruel Parkinson's faces when their mansion and grounds went up in flames.
Goyle Manor
Justin brought popcorn with him. Despite him knowing the very unpleasant sides to gang life, he couldn't help the glamour that came with working with some of the Blood Knights. Harry paid well the few times he contacted them, apparently. The kid was a sweet one, but damn he had a ruthless streak!
The Goyle folks were monumentally stupid, Justin practically had to drag the idiot kid out of the house to keep him from getting killed.
Thankfully, his face had been obscured by a mask. It never hurt to be careful.
Crabbe Manor
"Pyromania, Pyromania ow, Pyromania, ow ow ow..." Katelyn sang as she threw a stick of dynamite through the window.
Daphne mildly walked up behind Carrie and Pierce, who were pouring gasoline over the floo entrance, watching with no small amount of trepidation as Katelyn went nuts with some flamethrowers. There was a certain carthesis to seeing criminals who had walked off without even a reprimand, the fun Katelyn was having was...slightly worrying. "Erm, Miss Fawkes-"
"Call me Carrie, Daphne, please. Miss makes me feel old."
"Alright. Carrie, this may not be my place to ask, but is Katelyn completely well?"
Carrie cast a glance over to where her friend was having the time of her life torching a death eater hideout. "I've wondered that a few times myself. I think it's just a tick of hers. At least she's using it on death eater manors this time instead of school textbooks."
"Hey, Nelson sucks! It makes better firewood than a teaching apparatus!" Pierce protested vehemently.
Later
Amelia Bones was in a situation.
Now, it wasn't an entirely unpleasant situation. In fact, it was her professionalism that kept her from jumping for joy like a five year old.
Over the day, some angel from above had coordinated an attack on every death eater who escaped custody by their money or by claiming Imperious. They were using some sort of untraceable fire and explosive curses that she couldn't track.
Her office had been swarmed by 'upstanding pureblood citizens' screaming at her to do something, and that did wear on her very quickly, but it was her first victory against these cockroaches since Lucius's trial, and there was no way she was going to complain about it.
Evan Parkinson in particular had an expression she'd like to frame and put on her wall.
End Chapter
There. Agh. Ugh. I can't express how much I hate school for doing this to my brain. It's like it's draining all the creative juice out of me. So frustrating.