5

Chapter 5: Fyre Proof

Chapter Text

Accompanying the others into a large luxurious room that was apparently Minister Fudge's office, Harry looked around. The place was outfitted with very expensive-appearing woodwork and accessories, looking like photos he'd seen of mid-Victorian-era houses for the really rich. An aesthetic that pure-blood wizards probably thought was dangerously avant-garde, he thought with inner amusement. Presumably Minister Fudge was perfectly happy to spend his bribes lavishly…

An extravagant desk lay at the far side of the room, baroque carvings embellishing the polished wood, and the Minister was sitting behind it looking important. At least in his eyes. Several matching chairs were nearby, but a couple of dozen simpler and less over the top ones were set out in ranks in front of the desk, like one of the classrooms at Hogwarts. Harry assumed someone had conjured them to accommodate the crowd of people currently either sitting in them or moving to do so.

"Yes, yes, that's it, take a seat!" Fudge directed, waving a hand grandly. "There's lots of room." Madame Bones and Dumbledore were standing next to his desk, watching as everyone else sat. Skitter perched on the end of the last row, and he noticed with inner amusement that everyone else looked glad she was not right next to them. There were a lot of very confused and worried glances being thrown her way.

Harry shrugged and sat beside her, Hermione and Luna taking the next two chairs. Sirius looked at the costumed girl, shuddered very slightly, and walked around the back of the chairs to get at the other end of the same row, Remus following, both of them leaving a gap of several empty seats between them and Luna who was looking quietly amused. Ginny, Neville, and Ron exchanged looks, peered at the empty space, and as one appeared to decide that the next row was ideal instead. Moments later everyone was sitting down and looking at the Minister, who gazed back over folded hands as if he was in charge and had called them here to announce who the murderer was.

Trying not to laugh at his own inner commentary, Harry composed his face into a mask of seriousness and waited. He was still having trouble coming to grips with the fact that Voldemort was actually gone. The nightmare he'd lived ever since he'd arrived at Hogwarts, and arguably since he was one, was finally over.

It was a lot to accept, and he thought it would probably take a fair while to sink in properly. But he was, to his enormous satisfaction and gratitude, free.

He owed Skitter a very great debt of thanks, one he couldn't begin to think how to repay. The girl was terrifying, sure, but she'd done with ease what no one else, certainly none of the adults around him, had done or apparently could do. Riddle was literally ash and Sirius had proof of his innocence, which had cheered both of them up immensely in both cases. Not to mention the most vicious and evil of the Death Eaters were about as dead as it was possible to get.

Hermione had told him that she'd read that fiendfyre even destroyed the soul. Assuming that such a thing really existed, even that was ash in their cases. He couldn't help thinking that it was a well deserved fate.

Malfoy was not going to be happy, nor were a fair number of other Slytherins, when they found out. He'd recognized several of the Death Eaters in the Veil room from that time in the graveyard when Pettigrew had resurrected his evil master, and had realized that they were the parents of several students he knew and heartily disliked, including Malfoy's bookends Crabbe and Goyle. In his heart of hearts he had faint sympathy for them losing a parent, but that was solidly outweighed by the certain knowledge those parents had been doing everything they could to kill him and his friends, and were mass murderers already.

So yeah. They did rather get what was coming to them. Which was apparently an annoyed Skitter to the face.

Hermione was watching his expression with a somewhat knowing look on her own face, he noticed when he glanced sideways at his friend. She gripped his hand and squeezed it for a moment, smiling slightly, and he returned the pressure before she let go and turned to face forwards, while putting on her attentive student mien. It made him smirk slightly inside since he knew full well that she thought the Minister was an idiot at best, which to be fair was something he felt entirely justified. Beyond Hermione Luna winked at him, then also looked forward, while pulling out a ballpoint pen and a notebook from inside her robes. He was amused how Hermione's irritation with quills had led the blonde girl to using the 'muggle' writing instrument when the older one had finally got so annoyed with constantly having to re-ink the traditional tool she'd given up and gone back to using something practical. Several other friends of theirs did the same for their note-taking, although they had to use quills for assignments that got handed in.

The last person stopped adjusting his chair and went quiet, and the Minister nodded with what he probably thought was dignified satisfaction. "Excellent, excellent," he burbled, casting his eyes around the room and looking like he was about to start a speech. His gaze stopped on Skitter, who was staring entirely motionlessly at him as if she was carved out of flaming stone and he paled, then quickly looked away. "Yes… If we're all ready, I think we can start?" Turning to look at Dumbledore, then Madame Bones, he went on a little quizzically, "What do we do next?"

Harry had trouble not snorting with laughter and he was almost certain that he heard a very faint sigh from Skitter, but she didn't move a muscle. Hermione's cheek twitched, he noticed, then smoothed out.

"If you'll allow me, Minister?" Madame Bones said calmly, moving forward a little and not looking like she really intended to pay any attention to the man anyway. "All right. I'm sure we would all like to get home and relax after what was… definitely a more… exciting… night than one would hope for, so what I'd like to do is get an overview of what actually started… whatever that was." She looked at Dumbledore who nodded genially and made a small gesture of acceptance, although he didn't say anything, merely observed. Harry noticed what he was mostly observing was Skitter, with quite a lot of glances his way, glances that quickly moved off him whenever he met the elderly wizard's eyes.

Luna was making notes with quick motions of her hand, not even looking at the pad, and apparently using some sort of shorthand from what he could see, while Hermione was listening very carefully and probably committing the entire thing to memory based on his long experience of the girl.

"As I understand it, the Ministry was attacked by the Dark Lord and a number of his people earlier tonight. I witnessed the aftermath of the fight in the atrium when I arrived, but I would like to know what happened, who was involved, and where all this took place. And why Mr Potter and his friends happen to be here, for that matter." She looked at Harry for a moment, then scanned over the others that had come with him. He noticed her eyes lingered on Sirius for a second or two, his godfather meeting her gaze with a smirk.

"We'll come back to the presence of an escaped prisoner later," she added with an unreadable expression. Several of those present looked back at Sirius as if they'd only just noticed him, got worried expressions, and looked forward again rapidly. A number of the aurors from upstairs had entered the room very quietly after everyone had sat down and were standing at the back of the room, Harry knew, and he was sure they were also dividing their attention between his godfather and Skitter.

He was fairly certain they were much warier of the girl than the alleged murderer. Which was only common sense.

Everyone was scared of what Sirius was supposed to have done. They were fucking terrified of what Skitter had been seen to do…

Her coat made of near-living fyre might also be taking up a fair bit of their attention, he thought.

"Harry?" Dumbledore looked directly at him. "Perhaps you could begin, as this whole affair does appear to start with you one way or the other."

He took a deep breath, then nodded. Even Skitter was looking at him now, everyone else turning around in their seats. Director Bones had a dictaquill ready on a sheet of parchment. "Do you want to see our memories of what happened, Director Bones?" he queried into the silent room.

"I will definitely wish to do that, Mr Potter, but a description first if you wouldn't mind, just for the record." Bones nodded with a small smile briefly flickering across her face and he took another breath, feeling nervous suddenly. Something he thought a little odd considering just how insane the last couple of hours had been during which he'd largely been too scared to be nervous, but there it was.

"All right. It started with one of my visions…" he began, which caused many of the people including Madame Bones to look somewhat confused. Minister Fudge had been looking confused from the moment he'd turned up, of course, and Harry assumed that was his default expression by this point…

He started explaining the background to the mad dash to save Sirius, which took a good twenty minutes. Madame Bones went through a somewhat amusing series of expressions including attentiveness, confusion, absolute fury, deep irritation, and impressed horror. He noticed that as he spoke, a few times she cast a rather irked look Dumbledore's way, and he got the distinct impression she was coming to some conclusions about the elderly wizard she wasn't happy about. Conclusions Hermione had also come to and mentioned more than once, and ones he was also coming around to thinking might well have more truth to them than he was happy about.

Eventually he finished describing the mad scramble through the bowels of the Department of Mysteries, chased by murderous Death Eaters intent on killing them all in as horrible a manner as possible. He mentioned how Sirius and the others had come rushing in at the last moment to help, and had probably saved them from a nasty death for the moment, she looked at his godfather with an unreadable expression for a moment then back to him.

He paused for breath at that point, glancing at Hermione and his other friends who had been listening silently and occasionally nodding to something he'd said. "So there we were," he continued after a moment with a small shrug. "In the room with the Veil, and half a dozen or so people wanting to kill us between us and the exit. We were exhausted, we'd been running like mad for what seemed like hours by then, Ginny had a bad ankle, Nev was on his last legs, Ron was all wobbly from those weird brain things, and Hermione had almost been hit by something nasty Dolahov fired at her. She only barely managed to duck and if he hadn't stumbled he'd have hit her anyway. Sirius and the rest were fresher, but they were also outnumbered. Then…" He frowned as he thought back an hour.

"Dolahov tried some sort of spell I have no idea about, and missed me. I ducked and the spell hit the Veil, right at the same time Bellatrix also hit it with something else when I think she was trying to get Sirius. There was a bizarre noise, a blue glow in the middle of the room between us and them, then the next thing we knew Skitter was standing there." He glanced at the girl, who was watching him and listening without motion or word. "Things got a little confused then," he added in about the driest voice he'd ever used.

Harry somehow got the impression she was probably smiling slightly under the mask.

"Not that they were particularly unconfused up to that point of course," Hermione commented, making him grin a little tiredly. Madame Bones, who was watching them with an intrigued expression, snorted with laughter for a moment and even Dumbledore smiled faintly. Minister Fudge was staring at them with the face of someone who really doesn't quite know what's going on. Which seemed to be fairly common with him, based on Harry's previous interactions with the man.

"I see," Bones nodded after a moment or two. "Then what happened?"

"She did," Harry simply said, indicating the girl on his left, who turned her head to look at the DMLE director. Bones swallowed very slightly.

"Skitter didn't seem all that happy to have found herself here, which isn't surprising really," he went on after a few seconds, Skitter returning her attention to him. "She asked where she was and who everyone was. Along with… a fairly strongly worded comment that an answer was urgently required." He couldn't help grinning at the memory, because it had been one of the coolest things he'd seen for some time. If he'd been unexpectedly transported to an entirely different world and time he doubted he'd have had a fraction of the composure she showed.

Luna muffled a laugh behind her hand and even Ron looked amused.

"Her turning up like that seemed to make the Death Eaters pause. I mean, we were all wondering what just happened at that point, even them. They were just as surprised as we were," he explained, spreading his hands. "No one knew what was going on. MacNair demanded to know who she was, she told him, some of the other Death Eaters started shouting, and before you know it Malfoy told them to kill her as well. Then she killed him first."

Minister Fudge looked shocked, as well as worried, and stared at the girl with sweat on his brow. He didn't seem to want to say anything though. Harry had half-expected him to protest that Lucius Malfoy was a fine upstanding member of the public or some such rot, but apparently he didn't quite feel here and now was the ideal time or place to bring that up. Not with Skitter looking right back at him.

"How?" Madame Bones inquired, looking intently at him, then Skitter.

"Shot him in the face," Harry replied. "Bloody good shot too, it got him right between the eyes." That was a memory that he'd treasure for years, as blood-soaked as it was. He'd never liked Lucius Malfoy and after the graveyard he'd always wondered which of them would be left standing one day. She winced very slightly.

"Then Bellatrix got upset and tried to hit her with an Avada, so Skitter shot her as well," he continued. "The ones that were left got really upset at that point and the next thing you know everyone was trying to kill everyone else. I ended up behind the Veil stand thing with Skitter and Hermione, everyone else took cover in other places, and it was total chaos. Skitter shot a couple more of them, then more insects than I ever realized even existed turned up and…" Harry swallowed as the memory resurfaced. Ron was green and sweating, and even Sirius closed his eyes and shuddered. "The next thing I knew every Death Eater in the entire place was being eaten alive by things I'd never even heard of before. Which is probably why someone had the bright idea to summon some fiendfyre…"

He shook his head slowly, meeting her eyes directly. "That did not go the way they expected," he finished.

Everyone looked at him, then as one swiveled their heads to gaze at Skitter, who waved.

There was a long pause, before Bones nodded somewhat shakily.

"Once we got over the shock, Skitter told us that Dumbledore was fighting Riddle upstairs, and said we should go up and deal with him because he was annoying her. So we did." He was glossing over a lot of bizarre details, he knew, but honestly talking about it was never going to do what had happened justice…

"Tom didn't last very long. And he's very dead now. Then you and the aurors turned up, and I suppose you know the rest," he finished.

For the second time there was a pause, even longer this time, before Bones nodded. "I see. I think. I must say that raises more questions than it answers, but thank you for explaining your side of the story." She took a deep breath. "Do any of the rest of you have anything useful to add to Mr Potter's recounting of the recent events?" she asked, scanning first his friends, then Sirius and the others.

"Harry described it well, Madame Bones," Hermione commented after a few seconds. "Obviously there are a lot of details he didn't go into but that's a good summary."

Luna and Neville nodded. Ginny shook her head but it was more in wonder than disagreement. Ron was slumped in his chair massaging his forehead as if he wanted to go to bed, which Harry could well sympathize with. He himself was exhausted.

Madame Bones and Dumbledore exchanged glances for a second or two. "We're going to need to watch the memories to fully understand all this, I believe," the latter finally said, getting a nod of agreement from Bones.

"Yes," she said. Turning back to the small audience, she studied them for a few seconds, clearly trying to think what to do next. He imagined that she was not ready for this sort of problem out of the blue, not surprisingly. Even in the Wizarding world it was a little out of the ordinary to put it mildly.

"Miss Skitter?" she finally asked, very politely.

"Yes, Director Bones?" the girl next to him replied as politely with zero emotion in her voice, cocking her head just a little.

"Can I ask where it is you actually come from? By the sounds of it your appearance here was not deliberate."

"No, it wasn't," Skitter replied evenly. "I was just walking down the street with my friends and the next thing I knew there was some sort of portal right in front of me before I could even react. Then I was here down in your weird room." She shrugged. "I can't say I liked that, but on the other hand I've found some interesting up sides to the whole thing. I still want to go home though." She stroked the arm of her fyre coat in a somewhat possessive manner, which made everyone somewhat nervous. The way the fyre seemed to… shiver… under her hand was the worst part, Harry thought…

"I don't know exactly how I got here, but Hermione and I both worked out here is not actually my world," Skitter went on, which made Dumbledore's eyebrows rise so high his hat nearly fell off. He gaped at her, while Bones was looking thunderstruck and Fudge seemed completely lost.

"Not… your world?" Bones echoed incredulously. "You're claiming you come from another world?"

"Yep. And about fifteen years in the future for that matter," Skitter replied with a nod. She indicated Hermione. "She told me the city I'm from doesn't seem to exist here at all, and where it should be is a completely different one. Which is weird, but I guess it's not all that weird all things considered."

Harry saw that Bones seemed to be having trouble speaking and Dumbledore was still gaping in disbelief. Eventually the director pulled herself together and managed to say, "You're taking this all more calmly than I would expect under the circumstances. Finding oneself on a different world must be a shock."

"It's annoying, yeah," Skitter grumbled, somehow still without any real emotion. He was amazed and a little envious of her ability to remain icily calm. "All this magic stuff is weird too. We don't have that at home."

Everyone who hadn't been in the Veil room gave her odd looks. "Excuse me?" Madame Bones said with a certain amount of bemusement in her voice, as she examined Skitter.

"Yeah, we have people who claim to have magic, but that's pretty much all bullshit as far as I know." Skitter shrugged a little as they stared again. "Lots of Parahumans are kind of deluded if you ask me."

Harry felt, and he could see in Hermione's eyes when he glanced at her, that the same was quite possibly true in the case of wizards. He'd seen more than enough evidence of that over the years.

"But…" Bones paused, then tried again. "But what are you doing if it's not magic?" She pointed at Skitter's lethal coat, then waved a hand somewhat vaguely beyond the room. "None of this is possible without magic!"

"It's Parahuman abilities, not magic."

"Are you claiming to be a Muggle, my dear?" Dumbledore added almost on top of her speaking, stroking his beard in a way that implied interest mixed with deep puzzlement and worry.

"I have no idea what a… Muggle… is," Skitter replied evenly.

"It's the wizarding term for someone who doesn't have magic," Luna helpfully commented, making Skitter look at her for a moment. "It's very discriminatory, Daddy says."

"Ah." The costumed girl nodded. "I understand. Racism. We have a lot of that too."

Her head turned very slowly to fix on Dumbledore's gaze, the elderly wizard having been listening to what Luna said with a look that suggested to Harry he wasn't entirely happy about her comment, even though in his opinion she wasn't wrong. He was almost certain he saw Dumbledore swallow slightly at the yellow eyes fixed on him. "I don't much care for racists."

Skitter's voice was somehow even flatter than it had been up until now. And could he make out the slightest hint of buzzing coming from somewhere in the walls around them?

Everyone else looked around uneasily, but apparently neither Dumbledore or Bones could look away from Skitter.

"I wouldn't call it racism, my dear young lady," Dumbledore said after a few awkward seconds. "The term isn't meant in a discriminatory way, I assure you."

"No?" Skitter asked. "Do they call you… what, Whizzies or something, then?"

Dumbledore winced. Harry tried not to giggle. He was going to have to remember that one…

"The Mug…" Bones stopped immediately, then started again, "The non-magical population doesn't know about the magical one. There's a very long standing legal statute that makes it illegal for anyone who doesn't have magic to know about even the existence of magic itself, with only a small number of exceptions, you see, and…"

"How do you manage to hide something as large as this building right in the middle of a city as big as the one outside from everyone?" Skitter asked, interrupting her. "Or all the crazy people with robes who want to kill everyone? Let me guess, magic again?"

"Well… yes."

"And if someone does find out about you guys? What happens then?" Skitter's voice seemed to have something in it which suggested the question was more rhetorical than it should have been, Harry thought uneasily. He glanced at Hermione again and saw her watching closely, her eyes thoughtful and worried, as well as containing something he couldn't identify.

Bones seemed to feel she was nearing dangerous waters, if her expression was anything to go by, but nevertheless she replied, "The Obliviators deal with the problem."

Skitter nodded in a manner that made Harry fairly sure she somehow knew that already. "So you use mind control. Erase memories. Master people. I see."

He wondered what that term 'Master' meant, because it clearly meant something important based on how she said it. He could almost hear the capitalization.

"Memories are suitably adjusted where necessary, yes," Dumbledore remarked, still watching Skitter with the care of someone who knew damn well he was in the presence of something much more dangerous than he was happy about. "I assure you it's harmless, and required for our own safety as well as theirs."

She cocked her head a little to the side as if she was examining an interesting creature, which seemed to make Dumbledore feel rather uneasy. Everyone else in the room was watching and listening quietly, Harry himself getting the feeling that Skitter was not very impressed by them.

"Fair warning, anyone trying to Master me is going to die," Skitter remarked casually. "My memories are my own and you try to take them from me, you won't live long enough to regret it. Are we clear?" Even as she spoke her jacket flared up behind her into that wasp's head and looked around, the mandibles working, causing nearly everyone present to gasp in horror and lean away. Harry, despite himself, flinched a little although he'd almost expected something like this. Compared to upstairs, this was the girl being very restrained and polite, really. Just giving a warning, which by the looks of Dumbledore's wide eyes and Bones' pale face, was received and understood.

Next to him Hermione made a very small sound that was perilously close to a snicker, causing him to look at her. She looked back with a blank face but her eyes were sparkling. He rather got the impression she liked Skitter.

Which, knowing his friend, somewhat worried him if he was completely honest with himself. He was all too aware that she could be ruthlessly pragmatic if you pushed her hard enough and 'ruthlessly pragmatic' on Skitter's world probably had a picture of her right next to the dictionary entry…

He was getting a touch worried that they might end up comparing notes, and who knew where that would lead?

"I believe we are fully aware of your feelings on the matter, Miss Skitter," Dumbledore said after licking his lips for a moment. "No such action will be taken, I assure you."

She nodded and the jacket was just a simple flaming jacket again. Harry relaxed a little although he could see most of the others present were not even slightly close to being able to do so. Minister Fudge was watching with a look of horror in his eyes but was very obviously trying not to draw attention to himself, like a small rodent confronted by a large and hungry predator.

"We're getting slightly off track, I think," Director Bones said after a few seconds of quiet in the room. "While the fact that your… abilities… are apparently not magical in nature surprises me, that's not immediately relevant. I'm just trying to determine the truth behind this rather memorable night. From what Mr Potter says, it certainly appears as if you have saved all of us a lot of trouble, and undoubtedly saved a lot of lives too, for which I'm grateful." Skitter nodded again, and Bones looked around at the rest of the people there. "Does anyone else here have anything of a material nature to add to Mr Potter's recounting?"

"The boy was accurate," Moody replied, speaking for the first time. Harry had seen how he hadn't looked away from Skitter the whole time, and his right hand was in his robes undoubtedly holding his wand ready. However he didn't look like he was likely to try anything, and if anything his expression suggested that he was somewhat approving of the girl's terrifying ability to solve problems permanently. Tonks, next to him, still had limp brown hair and was obviously having a lot of trouble with the whole situation, as were most of the rest. Even Sirius looked worried, although he'd gradually become less so as time passed and nothing catastrophic happened.

He kept glancing at the aurors along the back of the room. They were going to have to do something about that…

"Good. I think that gives us a decent overview, then." Madame Bones nodded firmly. "So I believe the best thing to do now is to gather memories from everyone…" She looked at Skitter who was watching her. "...Nearly everyone present for later examination, along with witness statements. I will certainly be speaking to various people about the appalling lapses in security that Mr Potter and his friends have highlighted, but I think in light of what's happened we can hardly blame the children for doing what they felt they had no choice about." She met his eyes, then looked at his friends. "That said I would strongly urge you all to consider talking to someone in authority first next time. If there is a next time, which I devoutly hope there isn't. We all got lucky this time and we can't rely on that being the case again. Do you agree?"

Harry found himself nodding, because she was right. Although he wondered exactly who they were supposed to have talked do, under the circumstances.

Oh well. Something to think about.

"Mr Black?" She turned her attention to Sirius, who stiffened slightly. "I would like a word with you, please."

"Ah…" Sirius looked around, at Harry who shrugged a little, then at Lupin. "Am I under arrest?"

"Not quite," she replied, sounding tired. "Because the man you are accused of killing died not an hour ago upstairs, fourteen years after he was supposed to have been murdered. I can't help thinking that as a result your conviction is, to put it mildly, highly suspect. But I would like to get your side of the story before you vanish again. Please."

Sirius nodded his agreement. "Understood, and thank you. Can I point out that I was never actually convicted?"

She stared at him. "What does that mean?"

He shrugged. "To be convicted of a crime, you need to be tried for a crime, and I didn't get a trial. I was just thrown into Azkaban and left there."

Bones closed her eyes and appeared to count under her breath for a little while. Finally she opened them again and turned her head to glare at Dumbledore, who flinched a little. "Of course you were. Why does that surprise me on top of everything else?" Pointing at one of the aurors, she ordered, "Smith, get me Mr Black's arrest records immediately."

"There aren't any," Skitter commented emotionlessly, making everyone stop dead and stare at her.

"Excuse me?" Dumbledore said after a long moment.

"I checked. I found your records room and checked the entire thing. No record of Sirius Black being charged with anything, only a single page saying he was found on the scene of an explosion that apparently killed thirteen people in a state of confusion while babbling nonsense." Cocking her head, she examined the Minister, who was sweating heavily. "And a note ordering him to be transported to some place called Azkaban signed by Minister of Magic Millicent Bagnold. Your predecessor, I assume?"

Every single person in the room was looking at her with incredulity by this point, and Dumbledore had gone very pale again. "How…?" he managed, stuttering slightly.

"I see everything," Skitter replied, almost sounding mildly amused. "As I said." She glanced sideways at Remus who was staring at her.

Harry suddenly got an inkling of just how ludicrously dangerous the girl really was. The fiendfyre was the obvious part. The thing everyone noticed. But… if she was seeing through every single creature she was controlling, which he was abruptly certain was true, and somehow could handle all those different viewpoints at the same time…

Had she read everything in the entire building already? If not, it was only a matter of time, he suspected.

Bloody hell.

That was going to cause the authorities to scream in horror if anything would.

Blinking, Dumbledore needed a couple of seconds to take this in, then his face changed to that of a man who had thought of something very worrying indeed. Director Bones kept looking at Skitter for a few seconds more then raised her eyes to the auror she'd addressed previously. "Bring me that folder."

"Yes, Director," he replied, before vanishing out the door.

"Not that I disbelieve you, Miss Skitter," she said, looking back to the girl, "but I need to see it for myself."

Inclining her head in understanding, Skitter didn't reply.

Harry looked at Hermione, and saw from her expression that she'd already worked out what he'd just done. Probably some time ago. He rather felt she envied the other girl that ability, which didn't even slightly surprise him. Past her, he noticed Luna seemed to have figured it out as well. His other friends were looking puzzled and apprehensive, while poor Remus was sitting with his eyes closed obviously attempting to understand what was going on. Sirius just seemed a strange mix of relieved, terrified, and amused.

Moody was still staring fixedly at Skitter and for some weird reason smirking slightly.

"All right." Madame Bones took a deep breath. "We'll start with Mr Potter, then work our way through the rest of you. Once we've done that, most of you are free to leave." As she was about to add something else, Smith came back into the room at a jog, carrying a folder. Even from here Harry could easily see it was nearly empty. He walked over to the DMLE director and handed it to her. Opening it, she looked at the contents, then at Dumbledore. The woman did not look happy, and Dumbledore for a moment appeared somewhat guilty before his expression cleared.

"You and I are going to have a long talk," she said very quietly, before turning to the Minister who blinked owlishly at her. "Minister, in light of this… shambles… I believe it is appropriate that you immediately sign an order rescinding any arrest warrant for Sirius Black, release him on bail to the sum of… one knut, I think, and arrange for an immediate trial in which he can officially clear his name from what is obviously a gross miscarriage of justice. Don't you agree?" Her tone of voice made it very clear that the only possible answer he could give was "Yes, Amelia."

He looked trapped, glancing at Dumbledore who simply looked back, then nodded meekly. "Yes, Amelia."

Harry managed not to laugh.

Moments later he'd fished out a sheet of parchment, scribbled on it with his fancy quill for a few seconds, signed the bottom, and had it removed from him almost too fast to see. Madame Bones inspected the document carefully then nodded and slipped it into the folder she was holding before closing it.

"Mr Black?"

"Yes, Director?"

"Do you have one knut?"

"I do." Sirius held up a small coin, looking like he was doing his best not to grin.

"Smith, please collect the bail money from Mr Black."

The auror, who looked confused but nodded anyway, walked over and held out his hand. Sirius dropped the knut into it. "You're free to go. Please don't leave the country until your trial," Madame Bones said. "You'll be notified as to the date as soon as it's arranged."

Sirius nodded agreement. "Thank you."

"My pleasure."

Bones took a breath, shook her head a tiny amount, and put the folder down next to her on the Minister's desk. He reached for it and she glared at him, which made him pull his hand back as quickly as if he'd touched a fire, then sit there looking worried. Harry was, once more, certain that Hermione stifled a giggle.

She really didn't like Fudge.

"Right." Madame Bones adjusted her monocle, then took a step forward, in an authoritative manner. "Enough distractions. You two, get some more memory vials." She looked at the aurors, a pair of whom immediately left the room, the remaining ones standing waiting for further orders. "Again, we'll start with Mr Potter. Smith, Dawlish, you will document the memory collection. I'll do the extraction myself because I'm damned if this is going to have even the slightest chance of error." She pulled a couple of familiar crystal vials out of her robes and motioned to him to come up to the front. "You're familiar with the process?"

"I am, Madame Bones."

"Excellent. If you would fix the sequence of events leading up to your arrival at the Ministry firmly in your mind, then?"

He concentrated, aware of everyone watching him, and nodded when he'd arranged his memories of the whole bizarre last few hours. "Ready."

Her wand touched the side of his head, then pulled back. A very large collection of wispy memories followed it, making her eyes widen slightly, and Dumbledore look intrigued. "Impressive," she said quietly enough that he was fairly sure she hadn't meant him to hear it. The memories went into one vial, which she closed.

"Now the fight downstairs, please."

That filled another one. By the time that was done, the two aurors had returned with a large box of vials, so she took a third one from it and turned back to him. The first two were being labeled by Smith, and double-checked by Dawlish, who was writing the labels onto a scroll and initialing the entries. "And finally the trip upstairs and what happened then."

Shortly that was also stored away safely. All three filled vials were carefully placed into another case that the aurors had brought with them, and one was currently guarding. Harry noticed Dumbledore was looking at the vials with a gaze suggesting he very much wanted to examine the contents. Bones gave him a warning glance and he sighed faintly.

"If you could go with Auror Jones there and sign the statement on which memories you have handed into evidence, please, Mr Potter. At that point this is done for now." Director Bones indicated a dark-haired female Auror who was standing to one side, in front of a stack of parchment, waiting patiently. He nodded and moved to do as requested. Skitter was intently watching the entire process, he saw, and Hermione was dividing her attention between him and the strange girl. She gave him a quick smile. "Miss Granger? You next, please."

Hermione quickly looked back to Director Bones, then stood up and headed to the desk. Harry answered a few questions Jones asked, then signed the form when she had completed it and handed it to him. Once that was done he went and sat next to Skitter again, who glanced at him. Meeting the intimidating yellow lenses of her costume, he smiled a little.

"What does that feel like?" she queried quietly.

"Not much, really. Your memories get a little less… intense? I suppose that's the best way to put it. But I think she's using a slightly different spell than the one I've come across before," he replied just as quietly. "It didn't seem to have as much effect like that as the last time."

"It's a forensic memory copying spell, I think," Luna, who was listening to them, put in as she leaned slightly towards them while still keeping her attention on Bones, who had so far filled four vials with memories from Hermione. Who apparently overdid this just like she tended to with her essays, something that made him grin to himself. She was such an overachiever…

"If it's the one I read about it's supposed to be faster and more detailed than the usual one, with some changes to make it better for evidence," she added. "That probably alters how it affects the original memories."

"Interesting," Skitter murmured, watching as the fifth and final vial was filled. "Magic has some fascinating differences from Parahuman abilities…" Her voice, even with so little emotion it was almost machine-like, nevertheless betrayed a keen fascination with the whole operation.

Harry had a strong sensation that she was learning a lot more about magic itself than anyone other than perhaps Hermione, and maybe Dumbledore, realized. Especially if she had got into the Department of Mysteries…

They were going to be very, very worried when they found out, he suspected. He was also damn near certain it was far too late.

"What do you know about Acromantula?" she asked out of the blue, turning back to him and Luna. They exchanged glances, both with wide eyes.

'Oh, bloody hell,' he thought with apprehension. 'She's found out about giant spiders…'

Luna suddenly started giggling in a funny way, and by the time Hermione came back and sat down next to him, both he and the blonde were having trouble not roaring with laughter. He was pretty sure Luna was having almost exactly the same images going through her mind as he was, and wondered what Dumbledore, who was looking oddly at them, would say when Skitter rode a spider the size of a horse out of the Forbidden Forest…

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Taylor watched the Bones woman, who was very obviously not particularly happy with Dumbledore for a lot of reasons, finish up collecting the memories of everyone who had been present during this entire bizarre shitshow. The whole process of storing memories in little glass bottles for later viewing was weird, but she'd read up on it and understood the theory behind it pretty well. The research labs downstairs had an enormous library that was chock full of absolutely fascinating information, and her power seemed almost to be salivating as she tasked armies of strange creatures to scan all the books. She got the strangest impression that her ability was having the best time it had ever done, and wondered what was going on, but at the same time was rather pleased with how dramatically improved her ability was by now.

As she'd told that Lupin guy, she saw everything. It was closer to total truth than it should have been possible to be, or had been before she'd arrived here. The sheer number of different viewpoints she was dealing with, without the slightest difficulty, was so large by now it needed scientific notation to properly express. Yet it was still growing, and produced no strain at all.

Back home she'd been pretty good at multitasking. But compared to what she was doing now? It wasn't even close.

Every room of this building had her in it. The streets outside were within her purview, as clearly as if she was standing there, from every possible perspective all at the same time. She was reading hundreds of books simultaneously, examining magical artifacts in various hidden rooms, mapping the entire facility to a level she suspected would let her describe it down to a tiny fraction of an inch, exploring secret passages, and watching everyone at the same time.

It was pretty cool, and if she hadn't been offloading her emotions almost entirely into her swarm, might have been overwhelming. But somehow she was able to keep up, even as that swarm kept increasing. Her fyre was warm against her chest and back, adding to the swarm in a way that was utterly unlike any insect she had ever come across, even the weird magical ones, but at the same time by now feeling so right that she could barely imagine it not being there.

And the fyre was happy. It liked her mind woven so intimately into it that there was almost no gap between them. For some reason it filled a hole that the fyre had, like her mind was the exact part missing that it had been looking for. Bizarre as fuck, yeah, and she had no idea how she could really ever explain just what was happening, but it was a thing.

Admittedly the fyre's happiness was very much not like a normal sort of happiness, it was much too alien for that, but even so she already knew it like her own emotions.

And her power loved this.

She was still pissed that some idiot wizard had yoinked her here without so much as a warning, but… the upsides at the moment far outweighed the downsides. As long as she got home again, a little holiday like this wouldn't hurt, she thought with satisfaction.

Because the benefits certainly seemed to be worth it, and she'd just found references to other magical libraries that might have even more interesting information in them.

Hmm… That school Hermione and her friends went to… Hogwarts, which was a silly name, but wizards seemed to be a silly bunch… It had a big library, according to her information.

She wondered how she could arrange to visit the place…

By the time Bones and her people had finished with all the witnesses, and the woman looked over at her after a short discussion with Dumbledore, she'd finished the library downstairs and was investigating the non-magical building above them just out of curiosity.

"Miss Skitter? Now that's out of the way, we should have a discussion."

"Of course, Director Bones," she replied politely, as the woman seemed competent enough especially compared to most of these peculiar people and she had no reason not to. "Let's talk."

Her jacket hugged her with flamey friendship as she got up, Harry, Hermione, and Luna following. They seemed fascinated to find out more, and she was fine with that as she found them interesting people she could see herself being friends with.

Although she missed Lisa. Her friend was going to have a lot of questions when she got back.

She wondered if she could make a fyre jacket for anyone else?

Lisa would love that.

Probably.