Chapter 10: The Pursuit of Truth. Part 4

"Cornelius, he has a point. We must at least deploy a four-man team consisting of Senior Aurors to ensure that there are no hiccups," Amelia suggested.

Fudge banged his fist against the armrest of his chair. "I shall not have it! We don't have the manpower to waste on hunting Sirius Black. All aurors already have tasks that they must handle, and I shan't let any of the good men and women who work for the aurors be distracted from any more work."

Amelia sat down on the chair across from the minister that was occupied by Malfoy previously. "Minister, you are the one who reduced my department to the state that it is in today. We saw our funding cut to levels that half of what it was before the war with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named began. We were completely hamstrung by those cuts, Minister."

"Pish posh, Amelia. There is no need for more funding for the DMLE. The war is over, and we are in a time of peace, we don't need a bloated DMLE any longer," Umbridge simpered with her sickeningly sweet smile.

"To sum up, the ministry is not going to do anything to protect the future of Magical Britain?" Ted asked, he wanted to strange the two idiotic politicians in front of him.

"As I said earlier Mr. Tonks, the ministry has everything under control," Fudge said with a faux smile.

Ted and Amelia got up simultaneously and left the office. They headed back to the Office of the Head of the DMLE.

Amelia collapsed in her chair. "That was a whole bunch of effort for a whole bunch of nothing."

Ted did not bother to reply.

"I am surprised you didn't bring up the inconsistencies of the Sirius Black case to the minister," Amelia observed dryly.

"What good would that do? He will probably tell Malfoy before we can even exit his office and that would create a whole slew of fires that we might not be able to put out," Ted refuted.

"You seem to suspect foul play as well I take it," Ted stated.

"There seem to be some inconsistencies that I'm not at liberty to discuss," she sharply replied.

"As long as you are following the proper channels, unlike your predecessor."

Amelia tapped the table with her fingers. "What are you going to do next?"

Ted remained silent for a while. He couldn't tell Amelia about Pettigrew without breaking the confidentiality clause with Harry. He didn't ask Harry's permission to reveal this bit of information.

"That is something I cannot reveal," Ted sighed.

"As long as you don't get on the wrong side of the law, we won't have issues Tonks," Amelia warned.

Ted chuckled, "I'll be sure not to."

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Harry woke up late that morning, no one else seemed to be around, and based on the time, he just missed breakfast. Good thing that the first of September was a Friday this time.

After the events that transpired last night, Harry had Dobby pop him over to the entrance to the Room of Requirement after he complied a quick letter to Ted about the dementor attack. He spent a couple of hours blasting training dummies to vent his frustrations and anger. He returned to his bed well past midnight and he unceremoniously collapsed onto his bed.

He trudged down to the common room and noticed that almost the entire house was gathered in the common room. His housemates had their backs facing him and they were huddled in a semicircle around the fireplace.

As Harry got closer to the common room, he noted Neville and Hermione were seated around the fireplace. Hermione looked like she wanted to be anywhere else but in the common room. Neville smiled nervously at the gathering, his eyes constantly looking around for an opening.

He heard George's voice echo through the room. "That was wicked what you two did. How did you even learn that spell?"

"Trade secret George," he heard Hermione reply dryly.

"Come now Ms. Granger, surely you can reveal some secrets to us," this time it was Fred who spoke.

"Not really. Trade secrets are trade secrets. Surely you two gentlemen can appreciate the need for secrecy," Neville cheekily said.

"Blimey Forge, this one seemed to grow a bloody pair over the summer," George exclaimed with mock surprise.

"Oh Neville, Oh Neville, the banisher of evil and the protector of the innocent," Fred declared with his usual flamboyance.

Harry eyed Hermione whose wand hand was itching towards her wand. Enough is enough lads, methinks I should interfere before your bollocks are handed to you in a platter by Hermione.

"Expecto Patronum," Harry lazily cast with a flick of his wand. A brilliant white stag burst from his wand and the entire common room turned to him.

"I'd suggest you ask the staff to teach the spell if you want to learn it," Harry responded amusedly as he watched the common room collectively gasp at the brilliance of the patronus.

Maybe I can hit two birds with one stone.

"I call him Prongs," Harry grinned mischievously. He immediately noted how the twins looked at each other, their expressions immediately lit up in recognition at the name. They instantly turned to Harry, who made eye contact and gave them a little smirk.

"The spell is really difficult to learn and I don't know if most people can completely master the spell," Harry explained carefully.

Cormac Mclaggen stepped forward. "Big words, Potter. You're just a third year, how difficult is the spell for you to be able to master it."

The arrogant arse just had to open his mouth.

Mclaggen took a couple of more steps and turned around to the rest of the Gryffindor students. He raised his voice and spoke, "Potter here believes he is the only one entitled to greatness. Just because he gained some additional tutoring during the summers, a luxury that most of us don't face, he believes he is better than us."

He sneered at Harry, who didn't want to deal with this idiocy early in the morning. Mclaggen added, "He teaches his little gang of followers, but somehow we are unworthy of the spell."

Harry stood silently and watched Cormac put on his little theater. There were a few who were whispered furiously among each other and more were shifted uncomfortably around the room.

"Who even knows if he really killed the Slytherin's monster?" Cormac sneered menacingly at Harry. "After all, he is the only known living parseltongue alive."

The room went silent at the accusations that Mclaggen levied. Harry frowned; he didn't expect such an event ever transpiring today.

"You think he petrified Hermione, his best friend?" Neville furiously yelled at the fourth year. "You think he would go around petrifying muggle-born students when his mother is a muggle-born?"

Harry saw Ginny grow pale with fear out of the corner of his eyes. Fred and George looked mutinously at the fourth year. Hermione was looked like she wanted to hex Cormac.

Harry shook his head and before Cormac could respond to Neville, he clearly said, "Cormac, I love how baseless your accusations are."

He took a deep breath and started, "Let's leave aside how I was stuck in the Hospital Wing when Colin was attacked and how I was at the locker room preparing for the quidditch game when Hermione got attacked, you're insinuating that I somehow received some special support is absolutely ridiculous if you know anything about my life.

I lived with my muggle relatives ever since my parent's death. Hell, I didn't even know I was a wizard. Pray, do tell me, where was this special treatment when I was in the muggle world? I barely know any witch or wizard outside the ones in Hogwarts."

He paused and let his words hang in the air. He wanted to be theatric with his response to the arrogant git.

"I heard your father was 'big' in the ministry. Or so you like to brag. Merlin's beard, you must be really trying to compensate for something," Harry remarked easily. He heard several students snicker at Mclaggen's expense.

"By any chance, does your father mooch off Malfoy's leftovers? Because if you want to know who really the culprit behind the attacks was, I can tell you. It was Lucius Malfoy."

The common erupted into a cacophony of voices. Suddenly, the students started to look at Cormac with suspicious eyes and the subject of their suspicion fiercely glared at Harry.

I am surprised he hasn't lost his temper yet.

"You can continue to smear my name as much as you want to Mclaggen, but I will ignore you like the insignificant ant you are. Besides airing Malfoy's anger about me freeing his elf really doesn't do you any favors here in Gryffindor," Harry finished with a charming smile.

Mclaggen gave Harry a furious look and walked away. The rest of the Gryffindor's noted how the fourth year did not refute any of Harry's claim as he walked away.

Fred and George approached Harry before Hermione and Neville could. Fred whispered, "Can we speak in private; I believe we might have something that might interest you."

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," Harry murmured. The twins immediately stiffened and motioned him to follow them. Harry followed them and indicated his two friends to stay behind. Neville and Hermione reluctantly remained in the common room.

Harry followed the twins to a classroom that was a couple of floors below their dorms. Fred pulled out a piece of parchment for Harry.

"Here you go, this is the Marauder's Map. We found it in Filch's storage room in our first year. You might need it more than us," Fred said seriously.

"Besides, we already know all the secret passages to the school, and we can easily run away from Filch and Ms. Norris," George grinned.

"Remember the time we tricked that cat into that abandoned bathroom on the second floor with some kneazle nip?" Fred mused with a distant look.

"And how Filch barged into the bathroom and Moaning Myrtle woke up half the castle with her screams? That was a satisfying memory, brother of mine," George said dreamily.

"Too true, brother mine. I still dream of that day to date," Fred added wistfully.

Harry rolled his eyes and unfolded the map. He placed the tip of his wand on the parchment and whispered, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

Several lines of ink appeared on the parchment and rearranged into a map of Hogwarts with a label for each person.

"By the way, how do you know about Prongs and the map Harry?" Fred asked curiously.

"My father was Mr. Prongs and he and his friends were The Marauders. They really did prank half the school and gave a lot of grey hairs to McGonagall, much like you two," Harry laughed at the dumbstruck expression of the twins.

The Weasley Twins kowtowed before Harry. "We are not worthy! We are not worthy! Oh, Great Heir, we are not worthy!"

"Rise my minions, your heir commands you," Harry proclaimed.

"We hear and we obey my liege," they declared simultaneously.

"Drop the act you two, let me show you something you blokes didn't know about the map," Harry smugly stated. The two of them walked up to Harry and looked at the map in anticipation.

Harry dragged his wand upwards and the map shifted to the Gryffindor Tower. The twins widened their eyes. Fred blurted out, "Wait, you're telling me that the map can show you anywhere in the castle and not just what's around you?"

"Absolutely, that's one of the greatest functions of the map," Harry nodded with a smug smile.

"We definitely weren't worthy, were we Gred?"

"We certainly weren't Forge, we certainly weren't Forge."

That was when Harry spotted a familiar name in the common room, Peter Pettigrew. Harry's eyes widened. "Gentleman, we might have an intruder in the tower."

Harry pointed his finger at the name Peter Pettigrew. Fred was confused but George's eyes widened. "Blimey, isn't that the bloke that Sirius Black was supposedly killed?"

Fred whipped his head so fast towards his twin that Harry heard an audible snap. "Then what are we doing here? He is right next to Ron and we need to do something now!"

Harry held a hand up. "Look at the rest of the common room, no one is behaving out of place. If we react hastily, he might run away."