Chapter 12
“Knock knock,” came a deep voice from the front door of Harry and Draco’s new home.
“Uncle Marvolo!” Harry shouted as he barreled toward the older man. Riddle wasn’t ashamed of his name, as Dumbledore and his ilk liked to spread around; he just thought that his middle name of Marvolo had a more sophisticated air. Harcourt never used his uncle’s first name; he respected the man too much to cheapen Tom’s image to the unwashed masses. In return, the Minister for Magic never used Harry’s full name, knowing how much the teen really hated it.
“Hello, Minister,” Draco intoned as he walked sedately toward their guest. “Please come in and make yourself comfortable.” Nodding his acceptance and with his arms still around his honorary nephew, the pair walked toward the sofa situated in front of the fireplace. Since the nightmare curse had been broken, the raven haired teen was reluctant to let go of anyone he’d considered family, so he sat next to Riddle and cuddled into the older man’s side. Tom quirked a curious brow at Draco, and the blond smiled sadly as he explained.
“You’ve been rather busy, and we understand that, but Harry had been hit with a nightmare curse, cast by Rita Skeeter,” the blond answered the unasked question. “Unknown to me, he’d been having the same nightmare on his birthday ever since he was ten. Lily thinks it has to do with the attack on them when Harry was three. She assumes it’s some sort of post-traumatic stress reaction to the assault.”
“What’s the dream about, if I might ask?” Riddle queried as he carded his fingers through his nephew’s hair.
“Apparently, he’s Dumbledore’s soldier of the Light and is tasked with killing you to protect the wizarding world,” Draco replied somewhat sarcastically. At his husband’s flinch, he gentled the tone of his voice. “Harry and I fell in love in this other world, but he was friends with the Weasels and that mudblood know-it-all, who assassinated myself and all of his Slytherin friends right in front of him. It was at the final battle that all of this happened. Dumbledore beheaded Severus, and so Harry did his duty and killed you before collapsing.
“He said that it felt like he’d spent a lifetime with these people; that the Weasleys were his surrogate family because you killed his parents when he was a baby. He told us that he was left with Lily’s squib sister and that family, and that he was horribly abused the entire time. He was hailed as the Chosen One because, when you went to kill the whole family, somehow the killing curse you shot at him was bounced back at you and destroyed you for a very long time. The hoops that Dumbledore had Harry jumping through were terrifying, and it was all so that he would be closer to the weasel and the mudblood; so that he would lean on them for support, rather than his true friends.
“So, because he’s had to relive that nightmare nonstop since the second of August because of some curse anchored to his engagement ring, he’s become a bit more clingy; afraid that we’ll all disappear if we’re so much as a foot away from him at any time.”
“I am so sorry I wasn’t here to help you, loveling,” Riddle whispered to Harcourt as he hugged the teen. “I’ve been working to hunt down the Order of the Dragon so that we can get them Kissed. In fact, I’m here with a spot of good news, if you’re interested.”
“That would be very much appreciated,” Harry murmured from his place, glued to Tom as tightly as he was. His voice was muffled, and Draco snorted in amusement.
“Arthur, Molly, Ronald, Bill and Ginevra Weasley are dead,” Riddle announced rather happily, “as is the mudblood. Ginevra was nailed by one of our security wizards as she was sneaking into the records department of the Ministry. As you know, because of the number of kids to which Molly had given birth, the last two measured rather low on the magical scale. She had attempted to use a disillusionment charm and it failed as she was going up the lift. Amelia had security wizards waiting for her, but she saw them and came out firing. Unfortunately, she took a cutting curse to the neck and succumbed to her injuries.
“The rest of the fugitives were trapped in a burned out shed on Teodred Nott’s property and, after a short but intense battle with Hit Wizards, were killed. Nott saw some strange activity by the shed and, concerned, he floo called me and told me what he’d seen, so I sent out Rowle, Rookwood, Dolohov and Macnair to assess the situation. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, along with their eldest and youngest sons and Granger, burst from the building, firing blindly. Fortunately, Theo’s kids, who were playing near the pitch, were protected from the short battle, but they were still traumatized as they witnessed the catastrophic injuries inflicted on the fugitives. Dolohov and Rowle sustained minor injuries from a blasting curse that sent debris up into their faces, but other than that, my men came out of the battle relatively unscathed.”
“So all that’s left are Black, Lupin, Diggle, Doge, Vance, Moody, Shacklebolt, Aberforth Dumbledore, Albus Dumbledore, Figg, Fenwick, Dearborn, Meadowes, McKinnon, Fletcher, Pettigrew, Hagrid, Podmore, Jones and Tonks,” Harcourt said sarcastically as he sat up. “No big deal, really.”
“I’m grateful that the right Weasleys are dead, along with that know-it-all bitch,” Draco said, briefly glowering at his husband, “but, as Harry so helpfully pointed out, there’s still far too many of them loose.”
“Didalus Diggle, Elphias Doge, Emmeline Vance, Arabella Figg, Benjy Fenwick, Caradoc Dearborn, Dorcas Meadowes, Marlene McKinnon and Sturgis Podmore have been on our side this whole time,” Tom explained with a grin. “They’ve been moles in the organization since its inception, and it was through them that we were able to keep tabs on the Order. They came to us after the attack on July 31, 1983; shocked that their venerated leader would attack a three year old child. After the attack, they listened as the old man tried to justify why he felt the need to murder a toddler, and they didn’t like the direction in which they were headed.
“So, about two weeks after Harry’s birthday, they came to my office in a group and started laying out all of Albus’ plans; not only for the Potters, but for the wizarding world as a whole. It seems that the old man’s dalliance with Grindelwald had awakened a deep desire to control the entirety of the world, both muggle and magical. Apparently Gellert made some sort of flippant remark about enslaving the muggles, and the notion stuck in Dumbledore’s mind. Of course Grindelwald wasn’t serious, but once Albus latched onto the idea, he decided to run with it. Grindelwald argued with his boyfriend for several days about the folly of confronting muggles and the catastrophic effect that would have on our world, but Dumbledore wouldn’t be swayed.
“He ended up obliviating Gellert, but since he hadn’t had any real training in the mind arts at that time, he ended up destroying the sixteen year old’s intellect and thought processes. With very little guilt or remorse, Albus executed Grindelwald and burned the body to hide the evidence of the old man’s attempts at memory modification. Then he went on that whirlwind world tour with Diggle while Bathilda Bagshot reported her grandnephew as missing. Gellert was to be a very important figure in German magical politics once he graduated Durmstrang, and his sudden, unexplained absence caused quite a furor. When Albus returned from his trip, he was taken in and questioned, but by then he’d completely forgot about Grindelwald and could, quite honestly, deny any knowledge of, or involvement in the young man’s disappearance.”
“So you’re telling us that the famous ‘duel’ was a lie?” Draco asked incredulously.
“Of course,” Tom replied as Harry sat up and stared at his uncle. “Why else do you think that absolutely no one was there to witness this imaginary epic battle?”
“It’s quite terrifying to know that Albus Dumbledore has so much of the wizarding world wrapped around his little finger because of a fairy tale,” Harcourt said with a wry smile.
“Indeed,” Riddle said with a snort of amusement. “Now, other than Albus, we still have to corral Alistor Moody, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Dumbledore’s brother Aberforth, Mundungus Fletcher, Peter Pettigrew, Rubeus Hagrid, Hestia Jones, Nymphadora Tonks, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. The hardest are going to be the Dumbledores, Pettigrew, Black and Lupin. I’ve had tails put on Moody, Shacklebolt, Tonks, Hagrid and Jones, and we’re very close to eliminating them from the mix. I think a protracted stay in Azkaban, with constant exposure to the dementors, should do the trick. That leaves Dumbledore and his brother, Pettigrew, Black and Lupin. Hopefully, with the right incentive, we can get one of the others to roll on the last five.”
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October 31, 1998
The Daily Prophet
TRAGEDY STRIKES WIZARDING WORLD!
Many lives lost
Phil Connors, reporter
This reporter has the sad, sad duty to announce that, once again, people important to the wizarding world are gone. Our first report dealt with the death of premier reporter for this paper, Rita Skeeter. According to the information detailed in the Auror’s report, she was found dead, splayed out on a kitchen table in a town home at Grimmauld Place, located in muggle London. From autopsy reports it appeared that she had succumbed to devastating burn injuries, as well as the complete draining of her magical core. Investigators were unable to determine how or where the injuries occurred; however, the Unspeakables have surmised, based upon their own examination of the body, that she came into contact with extremely restrictive, dangerous family wards that perceived her as an intruder and reacted accordingly.
Several weeks ago, information crossed this reporter’s desk detailing the brutal death of Holyhead Harpy seeker Ginevra Weasley. She was wanted for questioning in relation to some illegal activities perpetrated by the Order of the Dragon; a vigilante group that had attacked James Potter and his family on their son Harcourt’s third birthday. No one really knows who is involved with this organization, but it was thought that Miss Weasley might be able to shed some light. She was caught attempting to sneak into the Records department of the Ministry under a disillusionment charm that had failed, exposing her to the security wizards on duty at that time. Sources say that she came out of the lift, wand a-blazing, and was taken down by a miscast severing charm to the neck. She died moments later, before any medical personnel could get to her.
Just a few days ago, tragedy struck once again when the bodies of Arthur Weasley, Molly Weasley, William Weasley, Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger were brought into St. Mungo’s. They were believed to be a part of the vigilante group run by Albus Dumbledore and were also wanted for questioning in relation to that organization’s activities. Teodred Nott noticed some unusual movement near a burned out structure at the back of his property. Concerned for his son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren, he informed the DMLE about the possible trespassers, and Hit Wizards were sent out to assess the danger. Thorfinn Rowle, Augustus Rookwood, Walden Macnair and Antonin Dolohov approached the structure, having seen shadows flickering within the building. They were surprised when Arthur and Molly Weasley, as well as William, Ronald and Hermione burst from the shack, firing wildly at the Ministry’s officers. Spells were returned, and unfortunately the fugitives were felled by the superior training and skills of the Hit Wizards.
In one fell swoop, five members of the Weasley family lost their lives supporting the twisted ideals of Albus Dumbledore. We also lost a brilliant muggleborn to this protracted insanity, as well as a devoted and talented reporter. The surviving Weasley children had this to say: “What happened to our mother, father, sister and brothers was their own fault,” Charles told this reporter when asked. “Fred, George and I had begged them to withdraw from the Order of the Dragon, but they felt that they had an exalted mission, set down by Merlin himself, to cleanse the wizarding world of what they termed as ‘the wrong sort’. Miss Granger was in love with our brother, Ron, and would follow him to the ends of the earth if he asked. She, being raised primarily in the muggle world, didn’t understand our customs or traditions, and Ron kept her ignorant of all the information she needed to navigate these very new waters. He counted on her inexperience of our world to keep her in her place and at his side, and it cost the life of a brilliant witch, who could have gone on to change the world.”