Chapter 030

Knowing it was best not to try and impede her when his real best friend got like this, he merely aided her in dragging him to the door by not resisting. He'd ask her what the problem was when it looked like she wanted to talk about it.

She never noticed either auror standing against the wall either side of the portrait hole until both shifted to bar her way.

Almost barging right into one she suddenly pulled up, short.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, suddenly noticing both for the first time. "Sorry! Is there sometime wrong?"

"You are attempting to take Lord Potter from out of here against his wishes, little miss," firmly replied the lead auror. "We will not allow that."

As Hermione seemed to appear stunned and confused, Harry stepped a little further forward and explained, "It's alright, auror. She's gets like this when someone has annoyed her and she wants me to go somewhere private where she can rant at me about it. She has no intention of harming me."

The auror gave him a nod of acknowledgement before he turned back to Hermione. "Is that true, little miss?"

"I―" she stuttered to answer before she immediately blushed in embarrassment and dropped her head. "Yes," she softly and quietly replied.

The auror again gave a nod before he said, "Part of the duties of the aurors currently assigned to the castle is to make sure Lord Potter is not bothered by staff or students about matters soon to be before the Wizengamot. And part of our duties is to otherwise see to his safety."

Snapping her head up to stare at the auror in horror she'd been suspected of such a thing, Hermione exclaimed, "I would never―"

"She wouldn't," Harry quickly agreed. "It's very rare she wants to rant at me about something I've said or done; it's almost always about someone else. I'm happy to be that sounding board for her, at those times."

Hermione immediately spun to face him with a look of shock on her face. Then her expression immediately reverted to one of embarrassment before she cast her eyes down again.

Ignoring the young girl's clear embarrassment the auror said, "Then we shall follow." And stepped aside to allow them to continue the final step to the portrait hole.

As soon as they passed through back into the outside passageway Hermione stopped a few paces further on before turning to Harry again, and leaned in a little to speak quietly with him. "I was going to take us to... you know... that room. But―" Then flicked her eyes towards the aurors, who had followed them out.

"For now, we'll use the abandoned classroom we used until we find out if we can trust them or not," he firmly stated.

Hermione seemed to give a firm nod of agreement before leading them off. She'd been referring to a hidden dueling room they'd discovered through the Marauders' Map.

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―==(oIo)==―

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Amelia had only just walked into the bullpen for the DMLE when she was almost besieged by aurors all asking for her immediate attention.

She quickly stuck two fingers into her mouth and used them to blow a piercing whistle. That shut everyone up.

"Right!" she huffed. "I'll have the currently available Master Aurors join me in my office. The rest of you, find something else to do until the Masters and I figure out what we're going to do next."

Walking into her office she was joined by Rufus Scrimgeour and the others.

Finally sitting behind her desk she moved the rack of memory vials Potter's elf had dropped there earlier to one side, sighed and turned her gaze on her deputy. "Alright, Rufus; let me have it."

Without a word and pulling a clipboard from under his arm, the Master Auror referred to it and replied, "Albus Dumbledore is in Interrogation Room 1. Minerva McGonagall, Severus Snape and Filius Flitwick are in Interrogation Rooms 2, 3 and 4, respectively. Pomona Sprout, Poppy Pomfrey and Filius Flitwick are in Interview Rooms 1 to 3 respectively.

"Interrogation Room 5 now holds Vernon Dursley while Interview Room 4 holds Petunia Dursley. That makes all Interrogation and Interview Rooms full, for the first time I've ever known. Young Mister Dudley Dursley, the teen son, is apparently away at a private muggle school; a... Smeltings' School for Favoured Sons, I believe. He is not due to return until the second week of December.

Amelia nodded and said, "We may not need to talk to him about the treatment of Lord Potter, but we'll need to talk to him about the results of the twin trials of his parents if both end up being incarcerated."

"Yes, boss," replied Scrimgeour. "Standard procedure, then.

"The Minister, Barty Crouch Senior and Junior and Rubeus Hagrid are in holding cells until we have Interview and Interrogation rooms free," he continued. "Besides Hagrid, I hope you don't mind but I think we can hold off on the interviews of those four until we get the Professors and the Dursleys dealt with. And aurors have not yet been sent out to arrest Lucius Malfoy or Molly Weasley; as we lack both the staff and accommodations for them if they were brought here."

"No, I think you've called it right. We need to get what professors we can back to the school as soon as possible. Who's doing each of the interrogations?" she asked.

"Dumbledore is currently in his Interrogation Room with a single auror. We're not doing the interrogation, yet, as we want him to sweat for a while," he replied. "The Senior Auror watching over him, Flamebright, has been told that if he allows the old coot to convince him of anything he'll be the occupant of Dumbledore's cell before the day is through."

Amelia gave an amused snort and said, "Leave him in there for another hour, then tell him we've had to put his interview off while we investigate other findings of his alleged crimes we've just recently discovered. That should make him sweat a little more."

"Yes, boss," he replied with a small smile.

"What about Snape?" she asked.

"The healer's found he's managed to dose himself with anti-Veritaserum from somewhere," he explained. "We need to purge him of that or those before we can begin."

"Ah!" she said. "Of course. He's a half-blood, isn't he?"

"Yes, Ma'am," he replied. "The healer recommends a good six hours before we begin to interview him. I suggest returning him to a holding cell, for now."

"Make it so," she said. "And the others?"

"I've made a start on McGonagall," said another Master Auror. "I had to stop when she... errr... burst into tears. And I've decided to suspend the interrogation until she's... managed to compose herself a little."

"How long's it been?" she immediately asked.

"About ten minutes?" he replied.

"Give her another five and then get back in there," she ordered. "I don't care if it makes you uncomfortable, or not. We need the transcript of that interrogation so I can discover if there's yet more charges to throw at that old fool, Dumbledore."

"Yes, Ma'am," he immediately replied, checking his muggle watch.

"Who's interviewing that fat child abuser, Dursley?" she asked.

Scrimgeour frowned back with a pained look and said, "He was making so much noise about how we're nothing but freaks and how he refused to recognise our authority we had to hit him with a silencing charm and hope he tires himself out. That was about... ten minutes ago."

Amelia gave another small snort of amusement before she said, "Nice trick. Go in there once every ten minutes and try again. Each time he starts to rant and rave, silence him again and walk out. Then try again in another ten minutes.

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