15 Chapter Fifteen- part One- Rats, monkeys and toads

Magnus rubbed at the bridge of his eyes tiredly as he sat outside Amelia Bones' office with Andromeda, in the DLME offices. They had left Hogwarts a little over two hours ago and spent the best part of an hour being asked question after question as to how they had come across Pettigrew in his Animagus form, and Magnus had made sure to stick to his story that it had all just been a theory that had turned out to be true.

Andromeda had been present for the entire interview as she was down as his guardian in both the muggle and magical means, and since he was underage they legally could not question him without her present. Though she had confirmed everything that Magnus had answered.

The reason that they were still waiting however was due to Magnus' request to Amelia for him to be allowed to watch the interrogation of Pettigrew when the time had come and that time was fast approaching as Amelia came out of her office, with three vanilla coloured folders in her arms, and turned to them.

"Alright, it's time, the unspeakable has confirmed that it is really Pettigrew and have checked him for any ways that he can escape via magical means," Amelia explained, "he is now in one of the interrogation rooms unconscious awaiting to be woken up, I suspect he won't be looking forward to being wakened"

"I should think not," Andromeda agreed with a smirk that Amelia mirrored.

"Now, you will both be escorted into the viewing room alongside Senior auror Moody, if you need to contact me while I'm interrogating him simply inform Moody and he will pass the message on to me" Amelia told them.

Both Andromeda and Magnus both nodded and were soon led out of the auror bull pen into a narrow corridor with a number of doors all with white roman numerals on them in pairs with one of the doors having a circle around the numeral.

Coming to the fourth pair of doors they met Moody outside of them who nodded and opened the door to lead them in, they followed to find a sparse room with a singular wall that looked to be made of one way glass and a number of chairs sitting in a line.

Moody took a seat before Andromeda followed him to do the same. Magnus stood for a bit as he looked through the glass to see the interrogation room, it was clean and well kept, the walls were brick and mortar painted over with some light grey colour, pewter maybe.

In the middle of the room was a heavy-set iron table and three chairs, the table had various runes inscribed on the legs and across the edges, all of which, Magnus knew nothing about what they did.

One of the chairs was already occupied, while a young looking auror stood guard at the side of the room with his wand drawn but held pointed down and to his side. Magnus did not know him, but that was not surprising given how Magnus did not know every auror on the force, just the recognisable ones.

Magnus' attention though was all on the man in the chair at the table, slumped over the table with his hands bound in shackles, connected to the table, that had similar runes carved on them which now Magnus guessed was some kind of magic suppression or prevention ward to prevent a suspect from using magic while shackled.

"Sit down lad," Moody said in a gruff voice, "no point tiring out your feet, he ain't going nowhere"

Magnus gave nod of acknowledgement to his advice as he gave a final glare at the rat in the other room before he took his seat on the other side of Andromeda just as Madam Bones came into the interrogation room.

"Wait outside Coalson" Amelia said as she came in leaving the door open for the young auror to leave through. He nodded and did so returning his wand to his wrist holster as he stepped out.

As soon as the door closed and clicked shut Amelia tapped several runes on the table and soon various bricks in the interrogation room and the room they were in lit up in response with runes of their own. Magnus blinked as he looked at them.

Moody smirked seeing his reaction, "security wards lad, prevents anyone outside of these hearing anything that goes on in either, listening or recording charms not cast by registered auror or hit-wizards are disabled and both rooms are sealed tighter as a nuns arse on communion"

Andromeda made a sound of reproach before swatting Moody's arm, "I'll thank you to keep such remarks to yourself around my nephew, Auror Moody"

Moody just gave a small chuckle in response and Magnus had to try not to smirk himself as he continued to watch the other room.

Once the lights from the runes faded Amelia sat down at the table and tapped one more rune on the table before retracting her hand just as Pettigrew woke with a jump, almost falling out of his chair.

"Good evening Mister Pettigrew, you are in a DMLE interrogation room, I trust you understand why" Amelia commented as she sat looking at him with a hard look from across the table, "you have been missing, presumed dead for the past ten years, and now you're found alive and… well. While pretending to be a students pet rat, an unregistered Animagus form at that"

Pettigrew sat shivering in the chair under her gaze, looking like he was about to wet himself, though Magnus could not tell if it was from her glare or from posing as a rat for the last ten years.

Seeing as she got no response Amelia tapped another rune on the table and the chain connecting to Pettigrew's cuffs retracted until he had both elbows on the table's edge hunched forward cowering.

"You will answer what questions I put to you, and you will do so promptly and truthfully, am I understood," Amelia growled out at him.

Pettigrew nodded his head rapidly so fast that it looked like his head would pop off any second.

Getting the affirmative response Amelia nodded before she tapped another rune and four runes around the room lit up and stayed that way.

"Director Madam Amelia Susan Bones badge number delta echo seven two one seven three, interrogation room four, case number tango delta one five two four nine eight, suspect as been confirmed by Unspeakable department as Peter Pettigrew, born September ninth nineteen fifty nine, one count charge of failing to register as an Animagus, further charges pending completion of interrogation" she stated openly, and that was when Magnus realised what the runes were inside the room. Recording wards, to record the interrogation, clever really.

"Now then Mister Pettigrew, you were found in the possession of a young boy at Hogwarts school, using your unregistered Animagus form to disguise yourself as his pet, is that true" Amelia stated to get started.

"Yes," Pettigrew shivered out still hunched over the table.

"And what was your purpose in doing so?" Amelia asked again, keeping a hard gaze on him.

"I… I was…. Hiding…. Listening for when it was …. Safe to come out again" Peter said fearfully.

"and you did so without the family's knowledge of your true identity or nature" Amelia asked for clarification, she had worked with Arthur Weasley a number of times and she didn't want to drag him or his family through the mud.

"Yes," Pettigrew admitted again.

"And from what were you hiding, the war has been over for ten years, surely you could have come out of hiding before now" Amelia pressed.

Pettigrew shuddered and it looked like he was not going to answer any time soon about that. Amelia glared at him, "Suspect is unresponsive. I ask again, why did you not reveal yourself"

"I…. I couldn't, not yet, not until… he returned" Peter stuttered out fearfully.

"Who returned?" Amelia asked a deep frown on her face.

"The…. The D-Dark L-Lord" Peter answered before trying to shrink back in his seat as Amila's glare doubled in intensity.

"You confess to being one of his followers, a death eater," Amelia spat in disgust at him.

"Y-Yes" Peter stuttered fearfully at which Amelia stood up and pulled back the sleeves of his shirt to reveal his forearms and the faded dark mark on his arm.

"Let it be on record the suspect has admitted of his connections to the last Dark lord, and bares the mark of a death eater on his inner left forearm," Amelia intoned for the record before sitting back down and opening one of the files and taking out a plastic pocket holding the remains of the wand that Magnus had snapped.

"Mister Pettigrew, can you identify these wand remains?" Amelia said as she placed the pouch in front of him and watched as the rat seemed to pale drastically.

"t-t-t-t-the D-D-Dark lords" he stuttered out in abject fear as he looked on his master's snapped wand.

Both Andromeda and Moody gave a sharp hiss at the owner of the wands identity, they both remembered who snapped it.

Moody's magical eye turned on Magnus, "real good choice there lad, I doubt there's an auror still alive from the last war who wouldn't want to have done the same given the chance"

Andromeda nodded in agreement and regarded her nephew with a side glance seeing that he was still too focused on Pettigrew to listen, she knew he must be trying hard to control his anger given the situation.

She was partly right, his lack of reaction was due to his already knowing, but he was also focusing on the interview at the time.

After processing the new information Amelia continued, "It was on your person when you were found and captured," Amelia stated as she glared at him, "where did you get it."

"I-I took it that night, the night when he attacked and disappeared" Peter swallowed hard.

"That night, the night when he attacked the Potters, you were there?" Amelia asked with heat in her voice.

"Yes, I followed behind after he went in, and watched from the D-Door way as he killed them" Peter admitted shaking and shivering.

Magnus had to grab the seat of the chair he was in as he tried desperately hard not to get up and barge in there, though he doubted he'd make it through the glass, that was likely heavily charmed, his emotions were raging as he heard Pettigrews confession to having been there.

Andromeda put a hand on his shoulder for both comfort and aid, she could tell he was having trouble dealing with this, his eyes had turned red the second he had laid eyes on Pettigrew in the other room though she doubted that he realised.

Back in the interrogation room Amelia was putting together the facts in her mind at lightning speed, "who was the Potter's secret keeper?"

"I-I was," Peter stuttered after several long moments of silence.

"Not Sirius Black," Amelia asked hurriedly after that, finally getting to the answers she wanted.

"No…" Peter replied and continued after she kept glaring at him, "it was meant to be a bluff, people would think S-Sirius was the one who knew the secret so they would go after him, and not me"

"And yet you took their location right to the dark lord anyway didn't you" Ameila spat with venom in her tone, not expecting an answer.

Magnus was breathing heavily through his anger just barely restraining himself as he closed his eyes and tried to focus, "Ask him…" Magnus said through clenched teeth, "ask him who cast the charm to make him their secret keeper"

Moody heard him and blinked several times, damn it all to hell why hadn't they thought of that, and quickly pulled his auror badge from his pocket and tapped it with his wand before muttering into it.

Amelia felt her badge shake in her pocket and brought it up to her ear to listen as her gaze seemed to go right past Pettigrew for several seconds as she caught up before she came back into focus and glared hard at the rat in front of her, "Who was the one to cast the Fidelius Charm and made you the Potter's secret keeper"

Peter seemed to freeze up the moment that she said that and his eyes began to dart everywhere around the room fast for several seconds, "I…. I don't know, I… I don't re-remember" he said as if he was in pain before the next second he began to shake rapidly and hard if it wasn't so sturdy Magnus was sure that the table would have been toppled as Pettigrew seemed to be having some kind of seizure.

"Goblin Shite!" Moody cursed just as Amelia drew her wand and shot Pettigrew with a stunner knocking him out.

"What, what happened," Magnus asked as he sat still in his chair looking at Pettigrew in the other room still.

"Rat's been obliviated, and they did a hack job at it," Moody answered as he stood up.

Andromeda sighed, "I've seen this a few times in my time at saint mungo's, idiots trying to forget things and have someone untrained in mind arts hit them with an obliviate, everything seems to go well at first until something reminds them of what they forgot and then the idiot is hit with mental trauma of having that memory forcibly erased from their minds"

Magnus frowned at that as he watched Amelia deactivate the runes and leave the room, "can the memories be restored?" he asked but Andromeda shook her head.

"No, Obliviate dose exactly as intended it obliterates any strand of the intended memory, but when done poorly by someone untrained in the mind arts the memories between the part that was erased are frayed and brittle, retaining connections to the full memory. He likely remembers about becoming the secret keeper and who all was there but who ever cast the spell and the casting itself has been completely removed. It's why most Mind healers recommend having the entire days worth of memories removed from start to finish so that there are no gaps or chance of frayed memories" she explained

Magnus looked down and scowled, he didn't know how or when but someone had gotten to Pettigrew and erased his memories, and now his chance to find out the truth has slipped past him.

Moody put his hand on Magnus's shoulder, "Don't look so down lad, that was some sharp thinking on your part, all this means is that you asked the right question, not your fault some bastard got to him first" he said trying to reassure the boy while his own mind was racing through various possibilities as to who could have erased the memory and why they would do so. He wasn't fully aware of everything back in the last war, too dangerous that way, everything had been compartmentalised to keep secrets from leaking out. He would have to try to look into this himself when he had the chance.

Magnus nodded but kept his eyes closed so as not to look at Pettigrew again as he got up and followed both Andromeda and Moody out of the room, They were approaching Madam Bones office again to talk just as he started to get his anger back under control, but whatever progress he made shattered in an instant when he heard a very recognisable voice from inside Amelia's office.

"What's all this About Amelia, I was just informed that you barged into Hogwarts without leave to arrest some illegal Animagus!" Fudge's pompous voice rose inside the office carrying out through the slightly open door.

Inside Amelia was sitting behind her desk looking pissed off as both Fudge and Madam Umbitch… excuse me Umbridge, stood at the other side of her desk, they had been waiting for her when she had gotten back from the interrogation.

"Minister, I do not know who informed you of this matter, but let me assure you that I did everything by the book, an auror presence was requested at hogwarts by a student and their guardian pertaining to this matter and I acted as discreetly and as promptly as was necessary" Amelia stated.

Fudge seemed to bluster at the explanation, "very well, and just who was this animagus, some student doing something he shouldn't be" he said brushing the matter off as if it was nothing.

"No, I have just gotten through questioning him, he is a full grown man, who has been posing as a family's pet for the past ten years, and his identity has been confirmed by the unspeakables, to be one peter Pettigrew." Amelia stated but before she could continue Fudge cut her off.

"Oh don't be ridiculous Amelia, Pettigrew is dead, Black killed him, everyone knows that," Fudge stated, completely ignoring her statement about the unspeakables having confirmed his identity.

On that note the door to the office opened and Mangnus stepped with red eyes and hair glaring at Fudge, "then everyone is clearly as big an idiot as you are!"

Fudge rounded on the new voice and looked down to see Magnus just as he began to register his words and began to bluster, "now see here young man, I don't know who you are but you can't speak to me like that, I am.." he began to berate Magnus only to be cut off in return.

"A Monkey in a cheap suit, not fit for the office you hold!" Magnus stated as he glared hard at him,

"Now see here!" Umbridge began to come to Fudge's defence only to be cut off by Magnus' ferocious glare.

"Shut your mouth you pink hypocritical toad, or I swear I'll shut it permanently!" Magnus snarled, his magic pouring into his voice making it boom like thunder.

Umbridge practically shrieked and leaped behind Fudge who was looking at Magnus in shock and fear from the sudden loud voice.

Magnus then turned his glare back onto Fudge, "You asked who I am, I am Magnus Roark Black, Heir to the Most Ancient and Most Noble House of Black, and you are the pompous ass who has been overlooking the fact that a member of my house never received his trial and was thrown into Azkaban on suspicion alone"

"I…" Fudge started to say but Magnus didn't give him a chance.

"Sirius Orion Black, is innocent of the crimes he is accused of, you would know that if you would just listen to your head of DLME instead of spouting off absolute rubbish!" Magnus roared at him, his voice filling every inch of the room, "he was framed, and although he was not a recognized member of my house at the time because of his disownment at sixteen, that is something I will be soon rectifying, he is a Black and my Blood!"

Fudge seemed to grow pale as Magnus spoke and began shaking as his voice grew louder still.

"You have twenty four hours in which I expect my uncle out of that hell on earth and in chambers receiving a fair trial to prove his innocence once and for all and for that traitorous rat Pettigrew to be charged, for which I will be claiming satisfaction for his crimes against a member of my house, if theses things do not come to pass" Magnus stated his voice a roar until he reached the final line and began to let out a low growl, "then may Merlin help you because I will use every knut, sickle and galleon in the black family vaults to ruin both of you and expose every single little dirty dealing secret you both have and see to it that you are both sharing opposite cells in the highest towers of Azkaban without a single knut to your names, am I understood"

Both Fudge and Umbridge nodded and whimpered out an affirmative to his demand, before he stepped aside and they both practically ran out of the room.

Everyone watched them go before Andromeda cleared her throat from inside Amelia's office, "I think it's best that we take our leave now, Magnus has already missed some of his classes and tutoring lessons he will need to catch up on notes before he goes to bed" she explained.

Amelia simply nodded and watched as the pair left the auror department from her office door, a few seconds later Moody stepped in looking like he was trying very hard not to grin.

"Just letting ya know, I'm gonna head off to Azkaban to get Sirius outta that cell of his," Moody commented as Amelia nodded in response, still watching the backs of Andromeda and Magnus go.

Moody nodded back still fighting his grin as he turned, "We've got to make that lad an auror when he's older, if not for any other reason to have someone around here with the clout and balls to shut up the bloody politicians" he commented as he closed the door behind him.

But despite that, Amelia's laughter was still heard as she finally came back to herself and her memories registered with her. Moody shook his head as he limbed away letting his own grin finally form, "every auror and their mother will be wanting a copy of that memory" he muttered under his breath as he made his way towards the floo.