198 CHAPTER {288-290}

****STRAIGHT-TO-THIRD-BASE (I)****

~~Malfoy Manor~~

"What are you planning to do to Pettigrew?" Tonks asked as she snuggled closer to Harry in the bed. His warm body was feeling so damn comfortable.

"Give him a painful death" Harry answered as he wrapped his arm around her slim waist and pulled her closer. He took in her smell while enjoying her warmth.

"Maybe… You shouldn't kill him" Tonks said nervously.

Harry was displeased at her suggestion, but he didn't show it on his face as he started to wonder if she was starting to regain her morals or something along those lines. "Why do you say that?" Harry asked softly as he gently tucked some of her hair behind her ear.

"Uhh… I think killing him would be a mercy" Tonks finally answered, mustering her courage. "Even if you give him a painful death, it will be over for him after he dies" Tonks explained while staring straight into his eyes. "It would be much better if you keep him alive so that you can torment him for the rest of his life" Tonks finished with a fanatical glint in her eyes.

Harry was taken aback by the zeal in her voice, but that wasn't all, Harry was surprised by her suggestion. He would have expected something like this from Katerina or Gellert, but he never expected Tonks to say something like this… Maybe, cruelty really ran in her blood. "That sounds like a plan. Now, I just need to come up with a fitting punishment" Harry finished with a smile on his face.

Tonks smiled at his words and leaned forward and pecked him on the lips. "I love you, Hadrian" Tonks said softly before realizing that she had called him using his real name. "I can call you Hadrian, right?" Tonks asked.

However, instead of answering her right away, Harry simply captured her lips and soon the two of them were making out… "I hope-" Tonks pulled herself back a bit and grinned at him wickedly "-that is not a gun you are packing" Tonks said while wiggling her brows at him. Usually, Tonks wouldn't have tried to tease him, but she was feeling really horny right now.

Harry flushed at her words even though this wasn't the first time she caught him sporting a boner after making out… |Don't you dare back off. Tease her back!| Lily screamed inside his mind, surprising him. Initially, he had no plans to play along with her since he knew she was drunk, but now he knew that he couldn't back off or he would disappoint his Mom.

However, he started to wonder why his Mom was pushing him all of a sudden…

"Why don't you see for yourself?" Harry asked while giving her a toothy grin.

<<Lime Starts>>

"You know what? I think I will" Tonks huffed haughtily, but she failed to hide the sly smile on her face. Moments later, one of her hands finally trailed down from his chest to his abs before her fingers finally gripped his length. Tonks faked a gasp… "My, my, you are packing some serious heat, aren't you?" Tonks asked coyly.

"Ugh…" Harry groaned as Tonks shoved her hand inside his boxers and started to stroke him.

"You wouldn't mind if I took a look, right?" Tonks asked coyly, but she didn't even wait for an answer as she slowly disappeared into the sheets. She pulled her hand out of his boxers and grabbed the band of boxers. Tonks stared at him hungrily as she bit her lips and started to play with the hem of her boxers.

Harry stared down under the sheets only to find Tonks resting her chin right over his junk while giving him a hungry look… Tonks grinned widely as she started to playfully pull down his boxers. His cock sprang out, making Tonks giggle as she pulled down his boxers completely. Tonks laid down her head over his thigh before playfully grabbing his length.

"Fuck!" Harry gasped when she took his whole crown inside her mouth and started to suck on it while staring straight into his eyes. He didn't expect her to go straight to sucking instead of trying to tease him or something. "You are amazing" Harry breathed out as he tucked her hair behind her ear so that he could watch her face clearly while she sucked him.

Harry released another groan as she started to play with his balls with her other hand. "Tonks! I am close!" Harry exclaimed as he could feel himself getting close. He hadn't masturbated since the day he started to sleep with Tonks, so he was really worked up and with how good her mouth felt, it wasn't a surprise that Harry was about to burst his load.

Tonks however, decided to take that as her cue to become more aggressive… She started to bob her head on top of his member with even more zeal while stroking his length and massaging his balls with her hands. "I am coming! I am coming!!" Harry screamed as he clutched her hair tightly in between his fingers and his toes curled up.

Moments later, Harry exploded inside her mouth and instead of letting him go, Tonks decided to swallow his whole length as he shot his thick load down her throat… Harry was taken aback by how good it felt. After Tonks swallowed his whole load without letting anything go, she finally let him with a loud pop.

<<Lime Ends>>

Tonks grinned as she climbed up to him… Harry was panting a bit which wasn't a surprise as his climax was pretty intense. "So, did you enjoy that?" Tonks asked saucily as she decided to lay down her head over his chest.

"That was amazing, Tonks" Harry breathed out. Tonks beamed at him brightly, but somehow the smile didn't seem to reach her eyes as she was feeling really dizzy and tired.

|Hadrian, why don't you return the favor?| Lily suggested, after all, it was only good manners to return the pleasure to your partner.

|I don't think she is up for it, Mom| Harry answered drily.

"I am glad… Good night…" Tonks said with half-lidded eyes before she promptly fell asleep over his chest. Moments later, she was snoring softly and Harry couldn't help but smile at the woman… His woman. The thought made him blink. Maybe he was finally starting to see her as his woman, but that wasn't a bad thing.

Yes, not a bad thing at all…

Harry could feel his dampness through her panties in his thigh and even though he wanted to return the favor to her, he didn't want to wake her up, now that she was finally asleep. Maybe, he could give her a pleasant wake up instead… Yes, that would do nicely. With that decided, he too decided to close his eyes and fall asleep…

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****A-NEW-WAR-ON-HORIZON? (I)****

~~Minister's Office~~

Amelia groaned as she rubbed her temple in annoyance… It was already 3 past midnight, but she knew she would be in this office for at least a few more hours. Amelia once again picked up the report on her table and groaned again. This was a fucking nightmare… A nightmare she was hoping to wake up from, but no luck.

"Motherfucker!! Son of a raging whore!! Morgana's soaping twat!!-" With that Amelia started to curse like a sailor and Connie sweatdropped. Sometimes she wondered why Amelia didn't become a sailor… After all, she at least had them beat on cursing. After cursing for a couple of minutes straight, Amelia finally started to calm down.

"Are you done?" Connie asked with a sweatdrop, hoping her friend was done.

Amelia glared at the woman but gave her a curt nod before slumping back in her chair. This was going to be a long fucking night- day- or however long she needed to stay in this fucking office to sort all this fucking mess. "Yeah, I am done for now" Amelia sighed as she once again started to rub her temple in annoyance.

She really wanted to pop a bottle and chug it down in one go, but she knew that she needed to stay sober if she wanted to deal with this whole shitshow. "Now, how the fuck am I supposed to deal with this?" Amelia asked herself with a groan.

"Yeah…" Connie agreed lamely. "How much do we even have in the reserves?" Connie asked.

"Not enough. At least not enough to cover all this shite" Amelia finished tiredly. "If Cornelius wasn't dead then I would have gutted him like a pig" Amelia gripped unhappily.

After she became the interim Minister, she began to investigate the whole Ministry, which was a slow and steady process, but it didn't take her long to discover that there was something wrong with the repository…

Well, it didn't come as a surprise when they discovered that the Minister and his Undersecretary were stealing the Ministry funds to fill their own pockets. Haha! The Minister and his pet toad were funneling Ministry gold into some offshore Gringott accounts. Who could have thunk, right?

"Where are we at recovering that gold?" Connie asked curiously. They had managed to track the gold they stole to some offshore Gringott accounts. Their deaths obviously made that part easy for them since there was no one to oppose them or protest, but dealing with Goblins could be hard even on good days.

"The Goblins aren't willing to play ball" Amelia growled in frustration. "Those little shits are refusing to let go of that gold since according to them gold is gold. They don't care if the gold is stolen or not" Amelia finished unhappily. "Greedy little bastards!" She spat out wondering who had the wonderful idea to let the Goblins handle all of their liquid assets.

"Loans?" Connie asked with a grimace, already aware of how bad of an idea that was.

"Those little buggers are probably salivating at that prospect" Amelia mused unhappily. "They are going to impose impossible rates. Hazards of giving them the monopoly over all of our gold, I suppose" Amelia smiled mirthlessly.

"Then what are we going to do? Pay for the damage from our own pockets? I know you don't have that kind of gold, neither do I" Connie asked with a huff as she slumped back in her chair with a look of defeat on her face.

"Honestly… I don't know" Amelia sighed in defeat as she banged her head on the table and groaned in frustration. Then someone knocked on the door, but Amelia refused to get up. "Who is it?" Amelia called out loudly, her voice was a bit muffled with her lying face down on the table.

Instead of answering, Saul simply unlocked the door and entered her office. "Wow… Long night, eh?" Saul asked, trying to lighten the mood, already knowing how dire their situation was.

"Don't start, Saul… I am not in the mood" Amelia groaned as she pulled up her head. "Have you heard anything from the Muggle side, yet?" Amelia asked.

"Not yet" Saul answered simply before he plopped down in an empty seat. "Good thing we don't deal with the Muggles, right?" Saul asked, once again, trying to lighten the mood.

Thanks to the Statute they weren't worried about the Muggle Government, but they still wanted to know how they were planning to deal with the whole London incident. After all, thanks to Harry, now they knew that Muggles were aware of their society all along and they didn't want to be blindsided, just in case some zealous Muggle decided to reveal their existence on live television or something.

"Thank Merlin for small mercies, I guess" Amelia sighed, feeling somewhat glad that they won't need to pay reparations to the Muggles, especially with them already hurting for gold.

"Hey, what if we increase the taxes?" Connie perked up. It wasn't a good idea, but it was still better than taking a loan from the Goblins.

"Bad idea, Connie. Really bad idea… A lot of people are already buggering out of the country. If we increase the taxes right now then we are simply motivating more people to bugger out of the country" Amelia shook her head as she shot down the idea. Connie slumped back in her seat, looking defeated.

"...Amelia, do you want to deal with the Goblins once and for all?" Saul asked thoughtfully. He knew that the monopoly the Goblins had on their gold was a huge problem.

"How?" Amelia asked as she narrowed her eyes at him. Even Connie turned toward Saul and stared at him owlishly. Was there even a way to deal with the Goblins once and for all?

"I may have an idea-" Saul began to speak nervously "-but, a war with them would be unavoidable, but if we do this then by the time it ends, they are no longer going to be an issue" Saul finished. Connie looked horrified at the idea of starting a war with the Goblins, especially when they were already in a War and they were barely scraping by.

However, Amelia didn't dismiss the idea… The Goblins no longer had the numbers for open warfare, at least if they weren't breeding an army in secret, which was not out of the realm of possibility since Goblins loved their caves. Still, open warfare was going to be a bad idea for them since they lacked the means to fight Magic with Magic.

So, they could only barricade themselves inside their precious banks with the aim of collapsing their economy or until the Ministry decided to surrender…

"Tell me more, I am listening" Amelia perked up as she leaned on her table with her elbows, looking really interested in his idea…

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****A-NEW-WAR-ON-HORIZON? (II)****

"Well, we know that the Minister and his Undersecretary stole our gold, but with how busy we are-" Saul paused for a moment as he waved around his hands "-From we, I meant the Ministry-" Saul clarified as he raised one of his fingers to make a point. "-We simply decided to hire a private force to track the gold and reclaim it" Saul finished.

Amelia frowned as she began tapping her fingers on her knuckles with a thoughtful look on her face. "From 'a private force', you mean the Lost Garden, right?" Amelia asked while she emphasized 'a private force' with her fingers when she spoke, only to receive a nod from Saul in return.

However, before Amelia could say anything, Connie decided to butt in, trying to be the voice of reason. "You can't be serious, Saul!" Connie scoffed. "With the London incident, the ICW would be keeping a close eye on us and if Potter goes and starts a Goblin Rebellion in the process of reclaiming Ministry gold, the ICW would be forced to act" Connie warned.

"And that isn't all… I hope you guys haven't forgotten, but Potter is a Dark Lord. The Ministry can't be seen making any sort of deals with him so openly" Connie pointed out.

"Potter and almost all of his followers might be wanted criminals, but not all of his followers are criminals, and Lost Garden is not an illegal organization, at least not yet" Saul scoffed. "Yes, we are skirting along the lines, but that's enough of a gray area for us to hand them the assignment" Saul finished with a grin on his face.

"Saul is right… If we do this then we would be simply exploiting a loophole, but it would be enough to prevent the ICW from charging us with anything" Amelia agreed with a smile on her face. She was starting to like the idea. "However, they might attempt to sacrifice us in order to appease the Goblins" Amelia pointed out.

"Yes, I am sure that they are going to try that" Saul nodded his head in agreement. "However, according to the treaties, the Goblins don't have authority over any Wixen as long as they haven't committed any crimes on Goblin soil" Saul reminded the duo.

"Any Wixen must be judged under Wixen laws no matter what crime they might have committed against Goblin Nation as long as they haven't committed any crimes on Goblin soil" Amelia finished reiterating the rest of the law with a satisfied smirk on her face.

"I hate to be the spoilsport, but the jury might decide to throw the book at the Wixen responsible for the private force in the first place just to appease the Goblins" Connie pointed out in a scathing tone before Amelia and Saul could start celebrating. Both of them considered her words and realized that Connie was right.

There was nothing they could do to stop the ICW from throwing the book at the ones responsible for hiring Lost Garden in the first place…

"So, we are back to square one?" Amelia asked with a groan as she slumped back in her chair, looking really defeated. She was starting to like the idea, but then Connie decided to pour cold water on all of the hope, however, she didn't blame the woman. It was a good thing that she pointed out a hazard before it was too late.

"Not really…" Saul trailed off and soon both Connie and Amelia were staring at him. "We simply need to find someone high enough on the pecking order who would be willing to take the fall" Saul pointed out, making Amelia wonder if Saul was high on drugs… There was no way someone was going to take the fall for something like this.

A low-rung Ministry grunt might have agreed, but someone high on the pecking order? Forget it!!

"Forget it, Saul, it's not going to work" Amelia waved her hand dismissively.

"Come on, Amelia. You know just how serious this is. The Goblins have been gaining too much ground since the last treaty was signed. We should have done something decades ago, but we didn't. Now look at us… We can't even force them to return our stolen money" Saul growled out as he jabbed his finger at the report lying on Amelia's table angrily.

"That's not all! They use our gold to give out loans and instead of getting any interest, we have to pay them in return for letting us keep our gold in their vaults. And what's more, we simply can't withdraw all of our gold and use some different banking service!! Do you know why?" Saul asked angrily before continuing his rant. "Because we foolishly allowed them to create a monopoly!" Saul finished angrily.

Both Amelia and Connie were taken aback by his tirade, but neither of them were able to say anything in retort… After all, whatever he said was the truth…

"...I can see the problem, Saul, but what do you want me to do?" Amelia asked bitterly.

"I will take the fall" Saul declared with clear determination in his voice.

"That won't work, Saul. Your Department is not connected to the Ministry in any way. It needs to be someone from the repository or someone high-up within the DMLE, or someone higher, like the Undersecretary, Chief Warlock or the Minister" Amelia explained. She agreed with everything Saul said…

Amelia knew that they needed to deal with the Goblin issue and they needed to do it soon since the Goblins were basically in control of their finances, and right now, she was between a rock and a hard place… The Ministry needed to cover all the damages caused during the fight, but they didn't have the funds to cover so much damage.

So, they could either take a loan from the Goblins, which was a really bad idea, or they could reclaim the stolen gold… However, reclaiming that gold was bound to cause another Goblin rebellion…

"Let's stop here… We still have some time to decide" Amelia decided to end the meeting, looking defeated and tired…

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