The Beginning of the End

Madam Amelia Bones was not often afraid.

She had begun her career as an Auror during the first war, and in the years since had gradually worked her way through the ranks of the DMLE- from Auror, to Senior Auror, to Head Auror and finally to Head of the DMLE. 

She was not shaken by many things.

Currently, though, she had to acknowledge a couple of fears.

The most obvious one being You-Know-Who's return. That was very, very bad. She didn't particularly want to dwell on that right now, though, not after a long, hard day yesterday spent trying to convince the incompetent Minister that he was in fact back. She still wasn't sure that she had gotten through to him, and she had been trying to since the trial three weeks ago.

("Honestly, Amelia," Fudge had shouted, slamming a hand onto his desk, "Do you take me for a fool?"

Yes, Amelia thought to herself, but it was probably not a good idea to say that aloud. Scrimgeour and Shacklebolt were silent behind her, thank Merlin. She could have brought Moody along, but she needed people who would only speak when told to. Moody would have cursed Fudge into next month if he had raised his voice like that in front of him.

"Minister, you must understand- the Dark Marks on the boys' arms were verified before they were transported to Azkaban. They are very much real. The only person who can apply those Marks is You-Know-Who Himself."

"Clearly not! He has obviously taught someone to do it before his death, so that this awful fear-mongering may continue on in his wake."

"No. I was in the Auror interrogation team at the end of the war- we have confirmed with Veritaserum from multiple Death Eaters that the only person who knows the spell for those Marks is You-Know-Who himself, and that he would never and had never passed that on to anyone. For them to be verified in a test, they have to be imbued with his magic. Those Marks are."

"You are absolutely mistaken, Amelia. Surely, if he was back, we would have known. There would have been raids, muggles and muggleborns dying, murder in the streets. There has been none of it! He is not back!"

"Who do you think was capable of freeing the three Lestranges from Azkaban a few months ago? Or Augustus Rookwood? Hmm? The Death Eaters cannot plan something like that without their leader. He is back, Cornelius, and he is clearly playing the long game. He's changed his strategy now, maybe even realised that too many lives were lost in the last war to repeat it. The Ministry need to prepare, and you need to be at the helm of it. For the sake of your position, if nothing else. Good day, Minister," she snapped, before storming out of the office- Scrimgeour and Shacklebolt behind her.)

Secondly, Amelia was very afraid of the fact that she had just used a medieval clause that had never been used before to throw four teenagers into Azkaban for life. Teenagers that were the same year as her niece, Susan. In fact, Heirs Potter-Black and Nott had been friends with Susan. The former was her partner in Astronomy! He helped her study for Transfiguration when he noticed she was struggling with the theory in class! And Amelia had just thrown him into Azkaban. She had asked Susan if she had any idea who or what could have lead Heir Potter-Black to join the man who killed his parents and she had shaken her head before pausing to think for a second. "Actually," she had said, slowly, “Maybe the Muggle relatives who raised him. And the ones in the Orphanage."

And wasn't that just a lovely picture that she was sure (or hoping) would drive Albus Dumbledore into a premature grave? The lasting results of the damage inflicted upon the young Heir by muggles that Albus was responsible for placing him with could be what drove him to becoming a Death Eater. Amelia was on the war path now, she was definitely going to mention that to Albus next time he lamented over how the world needed the Chosen One during Wizengamot meetings.

Her biggest fear of all, somehow beating the return of You-Know-Who and her own morals fighting with her actions, was the Ministry corruption that Amelia was now investigating.

It had only been a few weeks, but even from the beginnings of her research- Amelia could tell that the boys were telling the truth. This Ministry corruption ran deep, she needed to know how these boys knew about it and what else they could tell her.

Naturally, with Amelia's track record of stellar luck recently, the Minister had insisted that she was to be accompanied by none other than Lord Lucius Malfoy. Fantastic. Of course, Amelia hadn't told Fudge why she was really visiting Azkaban- he would never have allowed it. As far as he needed to know, she was visiting to ask more questions about the motives behind attacking the Department of Mysteries- not enquiring for more information on Ministry corruption.

She marched out of the elevator and towards the still-ruined statue in the Ministry's atrium, where she would be meeting Lord Malfoy. He was already there.

She bowed her head, "Lord Malfoy, I apologise for the delay. Thank you for accompanying me."

"It is not a bother, Madam Bones. I was visiting today anyway. Regent Heir Regulus Black will be, as well. I can't imagine the Minister would have thought to mention that."

Amelia frowned, "No, he didn't."

Lord Malfoy tutted, "Typical. Today is the only day the boys are allowed visitors at all, and I admit I find myself quite surprised that Cornelius would not make an exception another day for you."

"Ah, we have found ourselves at a bit of an impasse recently. I do not have his favour, nor does he have mine."

"I see," Lord Malfoy said, as they began walking out of the Ministry towards the nearest apparition spot, "Due to revelations made in the trial, I assume?"

"Cornelius is being rather obtuse on the matter of your Lord's return."

"My Lord? Madam Bones-" Lord Malfoy began.

"It is not an issue to me at this very moment, I can assure you, Lord Malfoy. I am very much focused on the Ministry's corruption at this moment in time, not rounding up Death Eaters. Your Lord has made no other moves that would result in mass detaining."

"Very well, then I must insist that you call me Lucius. I believe our current interests align rather well."

"Amelia, then. I must thank you for your civility, despite the fate I have condemned your son to."

Lucius gave a soft smile as they reached the apparition spot, "Anyone else who could have presided over that trial would have given Draco and the others the Dementor's Kiss for their accusations against the Ministry alone. Allowing my wife and I to have our son alive, even if imprisoned, is a mercy. One that I am grateful for."

Too stunned to respond to that, Amelia merely nodded.

"Now, shall we? Regulus will be meeting us at the boat, he had a rather... out of control dog to deal with this morning."

"Yes, I am familiar with Padfoot. Remarkably difficult to train, that one."

Lucius faltered slightly, "I- pardon?"

"Regent Heir Black's poorly behaved dog is nowhere near the top of my list of priorities, Lucius. In fact, it isn't even on the list- and it won't be so long as Regent Heir Black can handle it. I believe it's time to go- the boat will be leaving to Azkaban in fifteen minutes, yes?"

"Yes, I believe so. I'll tell Regulus to ensure his dog does not get off the leash."

With two loud cracks, they were gone.

•••

Amelia had learnt in all her years in the DMLE to expect the unexpected during her working days.

Yet, somehow, the distant realisation that she was spending her Tuesday morning on a boat to Azkaban with two Marked Death Eaters, discussing the summer weather and the past weekend's Quidditch game between the Ballycastle Bats and the Tutshill Tornados, still took her strongly off guard.

Nonetheless, she allowed herself to relax. Lucius and Regent Heir Black, who had asked to be called 'just Regulus, you were friends with Siri in Slytherin anyway,' were perfectly polite to her, and not at all intimidating. That was fine, it suited her perfectly. Even if the Aurors guiding the boat seemed to think she was quite mad. 

When she was stepping off the boat, Regulus even held his hand out with a small bow to assist her. She supposed those stuffy Pureblood manners that had been drilled into the three of them from a young age had some uses after all- the rocks of Azkaban were absolutely treacherous.

"Madam Bones," Auror Savage said, with a respectful incline of his head, "Lord Malfoy, Regent Heir Black. Please step inside to be searched.

Lucius and Regulus produced their wands, and set them down on the table- followed by four care boxes ("Tiberius is in Norway visiting a poorly relative at the moment," Regulus explained, "And Lady Zabini has matters to attend to back in Italy. We're bringing care items for Blaise and Theodore too."). They then stepped aside for a security scan from Auror Savage, as Auror Williamson searched the boxes and registered their wands. Amelia then set down her wand, along with a still camera, notebook, self-writing quill, and ink pot, and allowed herself to be scanned.

"As per usual protocol, Lord Malfoy and Regent Heir Black- you must leave your wands here to be collected upon exit," Auror Savage explained, "Madam Bones, as Head of the DMLE, you are permitted to keep your wand- but any spell cast will be tracked and automatically registered in both the guard's office and DMLE Headquarters. You will now be lead up to the High Security Wing. I shall lead you upstairs, and you will be transferred to Auror Proudfoot upon entry- she will guide you to the cells."

"Thank you, Savage. Lead the way," Amelia said, gesturing forwards.

The higher they climbed, the colder it got. They could all see their breath in front of them.

"This is where I leave you. Proudfoot?" Savage called, once they reached the top of the final staircase.

The witch appeared, wrapped up warmly.

"Good morning, Madam Bones. Lord Malfoy, Regent Heir Black. I shall lead you to the prisoners."

They passed several cells of Death Eaters from the war on their way. As awful states as they were in, Amelia recognised many faces- Charles Avery, Antonin Dolohov, George Jugson, Marcus and Carlotta Snyde, Barnabius and Lucinda Lee, Gavin Mulciber, Adam Travers, and Henry Selwyn. She had either came face to face with them in battle or went to school with them- as she was a former member of Slytherin House herself. In some cases, it was both.

Amelia tuned out the comments as she passed the cells.

"Good to see you survived that cutting curse, Bones!" Mulciber called, "I wasn't aiming to kill, by the way, merely just stop you from firing those bloody blasting curses. You almost took my arm off!"

"Morning, Amelia," Dolohov said, with a slight nod, "Came a long way from NEWT potions partners, haven't we?"

(She did allow herself a sarcastic eye roll at that, Dolohov had been almost as good at potions as he was with duelling.)

"Ooh, the DMLE head came to harass the little baby Death Eaters," Carlotta Snyde said, "This will be good!"

"You're looking rather radiant, Madam Bones," Jugson said with a sly grin.

"I'm sure she'd much rather snog a grindylow," Selwyn scoffed, "Would you ever just give it a rest?"

"No chance you're here to release us?" Travers asked, "I never thought I'd say it, but I actually miss Wizard's Chess. And my house elf's apple pie. And a good nights sleep without fucking Dementors."

"Shut up, Adam," Avery sighed, "She wouldn't be here with Malfoy and Reggie if she was."

"Oh! Are you here to lock them up instead?" Travers asked excitedly, gripping the bars of his cell, "Put little Lucy across from me, I believe we're overdue a catch up. He keeps ignoring me when he visits, rather impolite of him really. I just want to hear all about what I've missed in the Potioneers section of the Prophet, I know he reads it! Though he does have such a condescending manner, Mini Malfoy is a much better conversationalist."

"Shut up, Adam!"

It felt as if it took an age to reach the cells they were looking for, right at the end of the Maximum Security Wing. 

"You may return to your post, Proudfoot. Thank you," Amelia said, as they approached the cells.

The Auror blinked a couple of times, before nodding and walking back.

Regulus let out a low whistle, "You should come here more often. We're usually not allowed privacy."

"I don't intend to make a habit out of it, actually," Amelia said, looking around with distaste.

She hung back slightly as Lucius and Regulus spoke to the boys and gave them their care packages. Azkaban really was no place for people so young, regardless of their crimes. Lucius' words from earlier still rang in her head- she could imagine why his son being alive was a mercy, but would death not be a mercy compared to spending your life here? It wasn't a place for most adults either, really. 

Lucius gestured for her to come forwards. Heir Nott and Heir Potter-Black were in cells beside each other, whilst Heir Malfoy and Heir Zabini were in the cells across from them. Amelia transfigured three chairs out of rocks on the floor, towards the wall at the end of the hallway so she could see all four boys. Settling in one, she gestured for Lucius and Regulus to sit. She cast silencing and Muffliato charms around them, so she wouldn't need to listen to the other prisoners as they talked.

"Really, Amelia," Regulus said, "I must insist you come here more often. Having a seat up here is an absolute blessing. Not having to listen to Travers or Jugson even more so."

"I shall keep it in mind. Now, for the matter at hand. Heirs Malfoy, Potter-Black, Nott and Zabini, I am here in search of information. I am trying to begin my investigation into misuse of power and corruption in the Ministry, and I need you all to elaborate on the claims you made during your trial- as well as how you received that information so I may chase up the sources."

The boys looked at each other for a split second, before Heir Malfoy spoke, "Please, refer to us by our first names. Not much need for formalities in a place like this. What good is being honoured as a Heir when you're in a cell?"

"Alright then," Amelia said, as she lifted her notebook and the self-writing quill from her bag, "Now, I would like to begin by discussing Dolores Umbridge, former Undersecretary to the Minister and former Hogwarts Headmistress and High Inquisitor."

"Former?" Blaise asked.

"Yes. She was found, alive, at the edge of the Forbidden Forest the morning after your arrest with no clue as to how she got there. She has contracted lycanthropy, and thus lost her positions."

"Bugger," Theodore muttered.

"Theo! You said that was centaur territory!" Harrison exclaimed.

"I thought it was!"

"Deserved it though," Draco said, shrugging, "No one hates creatures more than Umbridge. That's poetic justice."

Amelia paused, pursing her lips, "Seeing as presumably abducting the Headmistress and leaving her in suspected centaur territory was not on your charges sheet, I will pretend I did not hear any of that. Moving swiftly back on track- I would first like to hear more about her detention methods, and how you became familiar with them."

"Theo and I got detention from her in the very first Defence class of fifth year," Harrison began, "She explained that we would be covering an exclusively theory-based syllabus, regardless of our exams coming up. Theo raised his hand to ask how we were supposed to complete the practical portion of our Defence OWL without being taught to actually use the spells in class, and Umbridge immediately gave him a detention for questioning the Ministry's competence. She then explained that if we studied the theory to the expected level, we would have no problem casting these spells on our first try in the practical exam. I then spoke up and said that some of the spells on the OWL syllabus were rather complex, like protective enchantments, or the reductor curse, or even the deprimo spell, and that they cannot be mastered upon the first try. She told me to join Theo in detention for the next week, and started telling us that we wouldn't need any of those spells- we'd be learning stuff like counter spells and conflict avoidance."

"That is rather troubling..." Amelia muttered.

"Even more so that all the curses Harry just mentioned did in fact come up on the OWL practical," Blaise said, "Anyone who learnt solely what Umbridge taught will not have passed the practical."

"I might actually request a review of grades before they're sent out, perhaps a strongly-recommended opportunity to repeat the practical is in order."

"I will mention this to the Minister myself, as well,"Lucius said.

"Anyway, back to the detentions!" Theodore said, cheerfully, "So, she used blood quills from the very beginning. Harry and I both have 'I Must Not Question Authority' carved into the back of our hands for life now, and we are far from the only ones. There's a whole load of different phrases, like 'I Must Not Disrespect My Superiors,' or 'I Must Not Break Rules.' Real fun. The blood quills were also cursed, on top of the regular blood quill curse. The usual counter curses and healing methods did not work. Essence of Dittany helped numb the pain of it, but they had to heal fully without magic- and healed at three times slower than the normal rate. She told us multiple times that the Minister sanctioned her use of the blood quill for unruly students."

"May I photograph these scars for evidence?" Amelia asked, frowning.

The two boys nodded and held their hands out through the bars, and Amelia floated her camera forward to capture the necessary images.

"By the end of the year, Umbridge had started using the Cruciatus Curse on students who she kept giving detentions to, ourselves included. I believe we were the first ones, actually. Longest she held it was thirty seconds on both of us, but I'm not sure about other students."

"Merlin fucking damn it," Amelia muttered, "Moving on to the alleged Time Turner, can you tell me about that? How did you come to discover that?"

"I had Care of Magical Creatures at the same time as the Arithmancy class that Blaise, Theo and Harry all took," Draco began, "At dinner that evening, I was telling them that Umbridge had inspected our class that day and made a fool out of Hagrid. They asked me if my class time had been moved last minute without me telling them, because Umbridge had been inspecting Arithmancy as the exact same time. After dinner that night was the house meeting, and we brought this up. Our housemates began mentioning when their classes had inspections or when they had seen Umbridge, and it wasn't adding up. The instance that I remember clearest was that the day before, Umbridge had inspected the seventh year potions class at the exact same time she inspected third year charms, whilst she had also been in the library when some of the sixth years had a free period. Someone mentioned Time Turners, and found a book in the Slytherin library that discussed them, and it all matched up."

"Then we started noticing that time went, well, wonky in certain parts of the castle that weren't used often. The first one found was at the end of the seventh floor corridor, beside the stairwell on the opposite side from Gryffindor tower. Two fourth year Slytherins were meeting Ravenclaw friends in a disused classroom to practice Defence and came up the stairwell. The classroom they were due to practice in was five doors from the stairwell. It took them an hour to reach it from the top of the staircase. Other Slytherins found themselves in two similar situations," Blaise continued.

"Then, a few days later, I was doing my Prefect rounds after curfew and came across a first year I had been looking for who hadn't returned to the Common Room by curfew," Harrison said, "He was panicking, saying he had left the library fifteen minutes before curfew and took a shortcut an older year had taught him and the hands on his wristwatch started spinning really fast. When it slowed down, two hours had passed. I brought him back to the Common Room, and reported back to Professor Snape. I explained our suspicions to him, and mentioned the other instances I had heard about. He summoned Professor Vector, and asked me to take them to the locations. They deduced that it was in fact the beginnings of a time vortex or a tear in time caused by misuse of a Time Turner, and warded the areas as strongly as they could to keep students away. Dumbledore did not take heed of the warnings at all, saying children had such overactive imaginations."

"We checked the records in the Time Chamber before we torched the place," Theodore added, "Umbridge had unlimited use of a Time Turner fully signed off by the Minister for the purpose of 'Student and Personnel Investigations' in Hogwarts. We also found the records of the Ministry's general misuse of Time Turners- where they changed the outcome of events to be in the Ministry's favour. For example- in 1993, the Ministry originally chose not to fire Remus Lupin from his position as Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher in Hogwarts after his lycanthropy was revealed. The decision was unpopular amongst some parents, so the Ministry used a Time Turner to ensure he was fired instead."

Amelia blinked for a few seconds.

"... I don't even think I possess words to say to that. Cornelius is a fool. Right, it is a massive shame that you destroyed all evidence of this- it will be hard to prove otherwise."

"Who said we destroyed it, Madam Bones?" Draco said with a sly grin, "I did tell you during the trial- if you seek justice, the evidence will find you. The documents of the Ministry's misdeeds with Time Turners, including Umbridge's unlimited usage, will find you very soon."

"Alright then, thank you. My final questions for today- the false prophecy regarding Harrison and the- the Dark Lord. I would like to look into this."

"Oh, I was informed of the first part of it by Professor Snape at the beginning of my second year. Dumbledore had shown an unusual interest in me the year previous, and Severus believed this was why but he only knew the first part. 'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies.' Dumbledore told him that he was positive it was about me, that the prophecy had been spoken to him, and that's why the Dark Lord went after me. I didn't believe it, of course. I don't put faith in prophecies. I met an Unspeakable who's friends with Regulus, and discovered that the Department of Mysteries oaths don't apply when someone asks about a prophecy regarding them. There was no record of any prophecy like that. Of course, I confirmed this when we broke in. The prophecy was surely faked, and I firmly believe the person who faked it was the person who claimed he witnessed it."

Amelia put her head in her hands, "May Lady Magic give me strength. I'm going to have to do so much overtime."

•••

When she arrived home later that evening, Amelia had a lot to think about.

Worst of all- if those boys hadn't murdered Aurors, then she would almost (sort of) agree with what they had done. 

In the war, Amelia didn't function along the Ministry approved definitions of right and wrong. She sought justice, and did what she thought would achieve it.

She wasn’t light, or dark. She was grey.

As she poured herself a glass of firewhiskey as she sat in her study, Amelia realised that she was going to have to go back to that line of operating. 

If the Ministry was corrupt, then their law can be damned.

She was going to seek justice one way or another, even if it cost her her job.

Even if it meant working with the Dark- Lucius Malfoy was to be her sodding ally in exposing the Ministry’s corruption, thus by extension, so was the Dark Lord.