Even so late at night, the ministry seemed to be in a state of panic. Amelia and the Unspeakable checked their wands and told the man at the desk that Harry didn't bring his. The man checked anyway and waved them through when no extra wands were found.

Harry didn't say anything about the frantic people until he, Amelia, and the Unspeakable were in the elevator. “What's going on?”

Amelia's arm over his shoulders tightened. “Give me a few minutes, Harry. I need to...” She stopped talking when the elevator door opened and she led him down a hallway and to one of many identical doors. “I want you to wait here for me, all right.” She said and opened the door. It was a blank room and she sighed. “I'll have a chair brought in for you in a minute.”

Harry gave her a pointed look and she moved her arm to cup the side of his face.

“I'm sorry. I'll explain everything in a few minutes.” Amelia said. “I promise.”

Harry stepped into the room and the door was shut, locked, and then it glowed for several seconds. He looked around the completely empty room with no windows or anything and realized that he couldn't get away. Not that he was going to try to, anyway. He was only twelve and there were a dozen adults between here and the many fireplaces he had seen in the lobby.

He walked over to the back wall and leaned against it, then sat down on the floor. All he could really do now was wait.

*

“He's only tiny.” One of the Aurors said as he looked through the monitoring equipment. “What is he, eight?”

“He's twelve.” Amelia said and did her best to stay composed. “He's starting his second year at Hogwarts next month.”

“No, he isn't.” One of the Unspeakables said. “We can't let a class five walk around among the students. Who knows what could happen with all of that dark energy floating around in his head.”

Amelia turned to glare at the man who spoke. “If you utter one more stupid comment like that, I'll curse your ass off before I have you stripped naked, hog-tied, and thrown out of the ministry on your face!”

The Unspeakable leaned away from her venomous voice with a surprised look on his face.

“Amelia.” The head Unspeakable said with a stern voice, even though he was smiling. That was a good threat and he would have to remember it.

Amelia took a deep breath and calmed down. “Harry has had that thing in his head since he was one year old. If anything was going to happen because of it, it would have happened a very long time ago.”

“Since he was...” Kingsley stopped talking. “Merlin's beard, the horcruxes! They all belong to you-know-who!”

Complete silence met his words and everyone in the room looked at the monitoring equipment. Four of the rooms were currently occupied by the retrieved horcruxes with the only one missing being Hufflepuff's cup. The goblins had stated that taking anything from a client's vault without their permission was against their magical vows to protect their client's valuables.

“I have a call to make.” Amelia said and looked at everyone in the room. “No one, and I mean no one, is to bother Harry. If they do, they will answer to me.”

“Yes, ma'am.” A chorus of voices responded immediately. All of them remembered her threat and none of them wanted to experience it.

Amelia left the room to go to her office to call Harry's godfather, Sirius Black. Perhaps she could use his returned influence as the Head of House Black to convince the goblins to let them retrieve the cup. Bellatrix Lestrange was actually a Black before she was married. She was his first cousin on her mother's side and his third cousin on his father's side, which bothered Amelia a little.

Their family tree was actually quite messy and she didn't wonder why some of them were a little crazier than normal. If Amelia was lucky, since Bellatrix was in prison, Sirius should have control over the vault because of his status. If she wasn't that lucky, she would have to seriously consider some less than admirable options to do what she had to do. She didn't like that option very much.

Amelia closed the door to her office and went to the fireplace. She wasn't looking forward to this. She knew she was going to be in trouble when she told Sirius about having to take Harry and she couldn't help it, not now. There was no way to hide his involvement or stop whatever had been put into motion with the discovery of the journal, which made her very sad. She took a deep breath and tossed some powder into the fireplace.

“The Peakes House.” Amelia said and stuck her head into the flames.

*

Twenty minutes later, five of the ministry fireplaces in the lobby lit up at the same time. Molly Weasley stormed out of one with her husband right behind her, nearly equally as angry. Sirius and Ela came out of the next one, both quite angry and upset. Remus Lupin came out of the next one and joined them, his face a tight mask. Bertha Jorkins came out of another and Professor McGonagall came out of the last one with Thorfinn Rowle.

The man at the security check-in station was a bit overwhelmed with so many people practically yelling at him to hurry up with checking their wands and to let them through. He hadn't checked so many people through in so short a time before and he let out a relieved sigh as the group moved off as one to the elevators. It was no longer his problem and he almost laughed at the thoughts of the poor sucker that had those very unhappy people coming for them.

*

“I couldn't contact anyone else to meet us on such short notice.” McGonagall said as the elevator doors shut.

“Thank you for trying, Minerva.” Molly said. “Bringing another teacher along with so much experience should be a benefit all on its own.” She glanced at Thorfinn. “I'm a little surprised you managed to get him here at the same time.”

McGonagall blushed slightly before she stopped herself and spoke. “We were consulting on certain procedures that we need to follow when we go back to the castle this month.”

Thorfinn raised an eyebrow at her and then smiled. “Yes, consulting. Our future meetings need to be much more controlled than they have been during the summer months.”

Molly nodded and faced forward again. She completely missed McGonagall's light swat at Thorfinn's roaming hand that had carefully grazed the older woman's backside. Sirius hadn't missed it, though. Ela clamped her mouth shut to stop her giggle when he whispered about it into her ear.

The elevator doors opened and the entire group quickly walked down the hallway to the door that Amelia had told them to go to. It wasn't locked, so they entered to see Harry as he sat on a straight wooden chair and Amelia knelt beside him.

“Harry!” Sirius exclaimed and darted to the chair and hugged the boy tightly.

“Hi Sirius.” Harry said and hugged him back.

“I'm sorry for getting you out of bed so late.” Amelia said to the bedraggled man and then looked at the others. “I'm not even going to ask how you all got the message so quickly.”

“Ginny called me as soon as you abducted Harry!” Molly accused loudly and Arthur put a hand on her shoulder.

“I didn't abduct him. He came along willingly.” Amelia said, her voice said. “Unfortunately, if he had refused to come, I would have taken him by force.”

“You bitch!” Molly spat.

“Hey!” Harry said and glared at her.

“Molly, please.” Arthur said. “That's not helping.”

“She took Harry from his home in the middle of the night and now he's sitting in a bare room in the ministry!” Molly said without looking away from Amelia. “He doesn't have a bed or even a decent chair to sit on!”

“That's because this wasn't planned out at all.” Sirius said and Amelia nodded.

“What's going on?” Bertha asked. “I've only seen the ministry this buzzing after I did some stirring.”

“I already told Harry what was going on and I was waiting for Sirius to arrive before I told Harry everything else. Now that you're all here, you might as well stay and listen as well.” Amelia said and waved at the room. “Minerva, if you would.”

McGonagall waved her wand at the room and conjured up enough chairs for everyone and even formed a table for them all to sit at.

“Thank you.” Amelia said and sat down beside Harry as everyone else sat around the table. “Harry, if you want to break the news to everyone.”

“Sure.” Harry said and looked at Sirius for a second and then looked at everyone else. “I'm a horcrux.”

McGoangall let out a squeak of horror, Thorfinn choked and put his arm around her, regardless of propriety. Molly burst out crying and Arthur looked extremely sad as he tried to comfort her. Bertha looked shocked and stared at the handsome boy without knowing what to say.

“What's a horcrux?” Sirius asked, confused.

“It's a nasty piece of the darkest magic known to exist.” A man's voice said from the corner of the room. They all looked over and the Disillusionment charm ended as the man faded into view, just like the text on the chalkboard.

“How long have you been there?” Molly asked, clearly surprised.

“He was here when we entered the room.” Remus said and Sirius nodded, as did Thorfinn.

Harry didn't bother nodding, since he had heard the man's shallow breathing a while ago. He had followed the man that had brought the chair into the room and Harry assumed that the hidden man was there to keep an eye on him. He was right.

“As I was saying, it's the darkest of magics and only a depraved lunatic would even attempt to make one of them, let alone make six of them.” The man said.

“Six!” McGonagall gasped and started to wave her hand in front of her face. “Oh, dear lord.”

“That can't be true.” Thorfinn said. “There's no way... you would have to...” He stopped talking and looked at Harry.

“You have to be a murderer like Voldemort to make one.” Harry said and Molly sobbed harder and Ela buried her face into Sirius' chest. He couldn't tell if it was because he said the name or because of the murderer part, though. “Amelia and that man think that when he killed my mother, he made one by mistake.”

“Oh, god!” Molly nearly wailed.

Amelia waved her wand and cast a muffling charm on her. “Now I'll tell you the rest.” She said and began to tell the story of Tom Riddle. It was a long one after all of the evidence she had gathered up.

An hour later, everyone around the table were stunned, except for Harry. His aunt and uncle had been telling him for years that there was something wrong with him and now he had the proof. He was sure this wasn't what they meant, though. They were just horrible people and hated magic. And him. They had no clue that he had a piece of a dark wizard's soul stuck into his forehead.

“No, that... how...” Sirius mumbled, unable to accept it.

“It makes sense.” Remus said and rubbed the stubble of his chin with the back of his hand. “We all knew he was crazy during the last war. We just never suspected that he went this far around the bend.”

“Where is Albus?” Amelia asked. “I tried to contact him at the Malfoys...”

“What?!?” Harry said loudly. “Why would he be there?”

“Lucius spoke up for him and took custody until the second part of the trial tomorrow.” Amelia said. “It was odd, I know.”

“You let the Malfoys go?” Harry asked, surprised. He had thought for sure that she would have gotten them for something after the Aurors raided their mansion.

“Yes, and I'm sorry. They really didn't know anything about Draco kidnapping you.” Amelia sighed. “Lucius even testified under Viritaserum, which also cleared him from the three dark items he had in his possession that his family had stored in his house.” She shook her head. “It's not against the law to inherit a dark object, unfortunately.”

“I assume you tested him for the antidote for the serum.” Thorfinn asked and she nodded. “Well, damn. He really did take it and was under the effects when questioned.”

“Yes, and Draco is underage.” Amelia said with another sigh. “He also committed the majority of the crime while at school.”

“Which means it falls to his Head of House to discipline him.” McGonagall maintained her composure and didn't sigh, even though she wanted to. “Professor Snape is his godfather as well.”

“That's just great!” Sirius said, angrily. “I'll kill Snivellus if he lets Harry's kidnapping go unpunished!”

“It's not like we can force him to be a horrible godfather.” Amelia said and rubbed her hand over Harry's head. “He will want to protect young Malfoy as much as you want to protect Harry.”

Sirius growled and then huffed. “According to Harry, Draco's never been punished, not even after using magic in the hallways against him and Hermione.”

“Excuse me?” McGonagall said with squinted eyes and a stern face.

“It's true.” Thorfinn said and she turned her gaze to him. “I saw the aftermath and took him right to Snape for punishment. I had no idea that Malfoy wasn't punished.”

McGonagall's look softened. “Well, it's not your fault. I'll have to talk to Severus and see about changing his mind.”

“Yeah, that's not going to work.” Harry said and they all looked at him. “You said it yourself that first day when you gave me detention and docked points. No one can tell a Head of House how to discipline the students under their care, not even the headmaster.”

McGonagall looked like she was sucking on something sour, mainly because she didn't like having her own words thrown back at her, no matter how correct they were.

“This discussion has taken you all very far from the reason you're here.” The Unspeakable said and nodded to Harry.

“Yes, right.” Amelia said. “As you all can see, we have a severe problem.”

“I've got it!” A voice said in the hallway and the door to the room opened to show a group of Aurors. “Bless the little monsters! They delivered Helga's cup!”

“Who said that?!?” Amelia asked as she stood up and no one responded. “I'll check all of you and dock everyone's pay if no one admits to it.” She said in a fairly good growling imitation of Sirius.

Harry glanced at his godfather and he looked amused.

“Dawlish.” The voice said and he stepped forward with a locked box in his hands.

“You're staying for the night shift.” Amelia said and he groaned. “You'll get the morning off.”

“Yes, Madam Bones.” Dawlish said, dejectedly.

“Put the cup in the last room and get the diagnostic tests and spells going on all of them.” Amelia said and she looked at Harry. “I'm sorry, Harry. That means you as well.”

“What's going to happen to him?” Sirius asked and put a protective arm over his shoulders.

“Nothing too invasive.” The Unspeakable said and motioned to the door. “I'll need to ask you all to leave and...”

“Absolutely not!” Ela exclaimed and stood, her anger clear on her face and the pressure in the room seemed to increase for some reason. “I am a dedicated healer to Sirius Black! Harry is his godson, which means I am his healer as well. I will remain to observe what you call your 'not too invasive' procedures and ensure their legality.” She said, almost in a snarl. “If you do anything that harms this wonderful young man, I'll have you charged with assault on a child and have your wand broken!”

Everyone around the table looked surprised as Sirius stood up to put an arm around her.

“That's my girl.” Sirius whispered to her and kissed her cheek.

Ela blushed a little and the pressure in the room disappeared. When she looked down at Harry, she saw his happy face and her blush deepened a little before she composed herself and looked back at the Unspeakable.

“I'd rather she stay, too.” Amelia admitted. “We've never had to perform any of the item diagnostic spells on a human being before, so he needs to be monitored and checked after each one.”

The Unspeakable gave her a pointed look, looked at the healer's defiant face, and he sighed. “All right. Keep that chair and go to the side of the room. I can't have you too close to the subject because it might change the results.”

Ela accepted that and moved over to the side of the room with her conjured chair as everyone else reluctantly left the room. Harry was now alone with just the healer and the Unspeakable and he waited patiently for whatever tests the man was going to perform.

Ela took her seat and quickly performed her own diagnostic spells and she didn't find anything wrong with Harry at all. She wouldn't know that her knowledge was a little lacking in the spells available for diagnostics until the Unspeakable started chanting. Her eyes widened as a light white glow puffed out of his wand and covered Harry's head.

Harry started coughing and his eyes watered as whatever it was seeped inside. “It itches!” He exclaimed and tried to rub at his face and scratch his cheeks at the same time.

“Don't do that.” The Unspeakable said as the white glow disappeared and he stood there for a minute and waited.

“ARGH!” Harry yelled and gripped his forehead with both hands. “IT'S BURNING!”

“End the SPELL!” Ela yelled and tried to end it herself, to no effect. She stood up to smack the Unspeakable and he waved his wand at her to freeze her in place.

“It's almost done.” The Unspeakable said and flicked his wand to have a piece of parchment appear. “Here it is now.” He looked at the parchment as it was filled in with writing. “All right. I see. I've got the full shape of the thing mapped out.” He unfroze Ela and she glared at him.

“I'm charging you with...”

“He's not hurt.” The Unspeakable said and nodded to Harry, whose face was covered in tears and light scratches.

“You bastard! What does that look like?!?” Ela exclaimed and pointed to Harry.

“He did that to himself.” The Unspeakable said and handed her the sheet. “Now I need to test the amount of energy it contains.”

“You will do no such thing!” Ela spat at him and raised her wand at him.

The Unspeakable laughed. “What are you going to do? Tickle me? You swore a magical binding oath to never do harm.” He turned to Harry. “Your head is going to hurt because of this. Normally, testing the energy inside a container is straightforward and is easily measured. The problem is, your container is the frontal lobe of your brain. It's going to throb and give you a massive headache until the spell ends.”

“You don't care that Ela's right there, do you?” Harry asked.

“No, because she can't legally do anything to me to stop the investigation.” The man said. “Even if she binds me or freezes me, that will cause the both of us harm. Me for being restrained and you for having to witness it and not finish the tests.”

Ela let out a growl and the man chuckled.

“All bark and no bite.” The Unspeakable said. “Not even Madam Bones can impede the proceedings now.”

“She's the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.” Harry said and wiped at his face. “How can she not stop you?”

“It's simple, really. I'm allowed to break the law.” The Unspeakable said and pointed his wand at Harry.

“No!” Ela gasped and tried to move and found herself frozen again as the man swiped his wand at her.

“You see, we need that leeway to do our jobs effectively. If we couldn't bend or break the law to get the job done, then there would be no point to have Unspeakables in the first place.”

“Luna was right. You do what the Aurors can't.” Harry said in understanding.

“Yes.” The man said and muttered something, then Harry felt like his head was going to explode.

“STOP!” Amelia yelled as she burst into the room, then she was caught by a pair of arms. “I said diagnostic spells, dammit! You're not supposed to experiment on him!”

“You don't have the authority to tell me what I can and can't do.” The man said as Harry's head dropped to the table and he whimpered and cried from the pain. “Class five objects, even living ones, need to be tested for their voracity and their potential harm to people.”

There were several bangs and pops from down the hallway and Sirius Black and Thorfinn Rowle jumped at the man holding Amelia in the doorway. They tumbled to the floor and then several stunners flew from their wands and went around the room. Amelia, the man holding her, Sirius, and Ela were stunned.

“Stop what you're doing.” Thorfinn said and levelled his wand at the Unspeakable.

“Go ahead and stun me. Harry's head will keep building pressure and then he might die because I wasn't awake to end the spell at the right time.” The Unspeakable said without turning around. “If you do, I hope you enjoy spending some time in prison for causing the death of a child.”

Thorfinn looked at the writhing form of the young boy that was screaming incoherently and he couldn't choose what to do. If the Unspeakable was telling the truth and he stunned him, the spell cast on Harry could kill him. If the man was lying, then Thorfinn was culpable in the torture and possible death of a student. He felt torn about what to do for about three seconds before a stunner from behind knocked him out.

“Take their wands and tie them up before going to get the others.” The Unspeakable working on Harry said.

“Yes, sir.” The group of Unspeakables said and did as they were told.

“Who would have thought that Madam Bones would try to interfere?” One of them asked and sat her by the wall with everyone else that had come to Harry's defense.

“She's close to the boy, which let me get him away from the other children he was staying with without any fuss.” The Unspeakable said and ended the spell on a now unconscious Harry. The man created another piece of parchment to look at the results and he was surprised. Harry had twice as much dark energy inside of him than the journal had. “Look at this.”

The group gathered around the table and one of them whistled. “How is that possible? He should be shooting off random spikes of magic with that much dark energy in his system.”

“At minimum, he should be infecting everyone he's touched with it, just like the quill in the journal.” The head of the Unspeakables said.

“He... hasn't.” Amelia said as she blinked her eyes open.

“You can't know that.” The Unspeakable said.

“Test... me.” Amelia said and shook her head to try and get rid of the stun after-effects to clear her head. “No... dark energy in me.”

The Unspeakable chuckled. “You haven't spent enough time with him to...”

“We have.” Ela said, fully awake. She nodded at Sirius as he started to come around.

“I'm impressed that you've had some practice to shake off the stunning spell.” The Unspeakable said.

“We just spent three whole weeks with Harry for summer vacation. If anyone here had the most recent exposure to that much dark energy, it was either Sirius or I. We would have a trace of it, at least.”

The Unspeakable gave her a pointed look and thought about doubting her.

“I'll testify under Viritaserum.” Sirius offered and that convinced the man.

“All right.” The Unspeakable said and performed the initial trace spell on Sirius. Nothing showed up, so he did the same two spells on Sirius that he had performed on Harry. Sirius didn't react, because he didn't have any horcrux energy in him at all. The man did the same spells to Ela and nothing happened. Just in case, he checked Amelia as well and nothing happened.

“How is that possible?” One of the Unspeakables asked. “He's twice as powerful as the sentient journal. Why isn't everyone he touches filled with dark energy?”

“Maybe with prolonged exposure...” One of them suggested.

“His relatives.” The head Unspeakable said with a smile. “Keep them here until I return.”

“Yes, sir.” The others said and he strode from the room with a purpose.

While he was gone, the others slowly came to. Ela was the most vocal and yelled at them for hurting Harry, breaking their word, and the men laughed. She berated them and called their manhood into question, as well as their bravery for torturing a defenseless child. The men stopped laughing and one looked angry.

“Ela, that's enough.” Sirius said.

“I'll have them all charged for this.” Ela said, her voice full of threat and promise.

“Good luck with that. You don't even know our names.” One of them said with a laugh. “Oh, Mr. Auror, go arrest that man that's from the Department of Mysteries, would you? What does he look like, you ask? He looks like a man! Ha ha ha!”

The other Unspeakables laughed as well.

*

“Ugh.” Harry groaned as he started to wake up. His head was throbbing and he didn't know where he was, even after he opened his eyes. His face was squished onto a table, so he slowly lifted it up to look around.

“Harry!” Amelia and Sirius gasped at the same time.

“Huh? What...” Harry looked at the group of people that had come to be with him and saw them all tied up and sitting by the wall. None of them looked happy to be there. “What's going on?”

“Nothing that concerns you.” One of the Unspeakables said.

“You're so stupid.” Harry said and the man frowned at him. “I'm here and they came for me. Why wouldn't it concern me?”

The man didn't have an answer for him and went back to watching the prisoners.

“Harry, just stay there and don't do anything.” Amelia cautioned him.

“Why are you all tied up?”

“We tried to stop them from experimenting on you.” Sirius said. “Apparently, they don't care that they are endangering a child's life or torturing him.”

“I didn't think I'd meet people just as bad as the Dursleys.” Harry commented and rubbed at his face.

Molly gasped and started crying again. “H-Harry... no... why...”

“Dumbledore.” Sirius almost spat the name. “He put me in prison and sent Harry to his aunt and uncle to keep him safe from the wizarding world and being famous.”

“That... that... why would he do that? It doesn't make sense!” Molly asked and looked at Minerva. “You were there, weren't you? What happened? How did you let that happen?”

Minerva closed her eyes and let out a sigh. “I honestly don't know.”

“Wh-what?” Molly asked, shocked.

“I had watched them all day and told Albus that they were the worst kind of muggles that I had ever seen... and then I felt like everything would be fine and watched as he left Harry on the doorstep without ringing the bell. I left when he told me to and didn't look back.” Minerva said. “Every now and then I would ask about Harry and his welfare, to which Albus replied that everything was fine and he was being treated well. I stopped asking after a while.”

“That's such a lie.” Harry said. “I never saw him before I showed up at the school.”

“Harry...” Minerva started to say.

“You were under a subtle compulsion spell. Probably multiples.” Thorfinn said and she caught her breath. “I knew that the headmaster was an accomplished Occlumency expert to block thoughts. I only suspected that he was a Legilimens as well. It would make any compulsion seem like your own idea.”

“No, he... he would never...” Minerva sighed. “He did, didn't he?”

“You know he did, especially since you were supposed to do your job and go pick up Harry Potter for his school things.” Thorfinn said.

Minerva winced slightly and then she gasped. “I didn't go get Harry Potter, even though I knew he was raised by muggles!”

The other adults looked with concern at Minerva and she shook her head.

“Thorfinn, I am going to need your help when we leave here.” Minerva said.

“Well, you better write him a note to remind him, because we'll be obliterating you all when we're done here.” One of the Unspeakables said.

“You can't do that!” Amelia spat at him. “I'm the head of the department!”

“We do it to Fudge when he orders us to do things and he doesn't want to remember.” The man said with a shrug.

“Oh, that goddamn stupid idiot.” Amelia said through a clamped jaw. “He gave you free reign.”

There was a light clapping sound at the door and they turned to see the head of the Unspeakables there clapping his hands slowly.

“You finally got it.” The man said and stepped into the room and went over to the table.

“Well? What happened?” Amelia asked, angrily. “I hope that Mr. Dursley spit in your face for waking him up so late.”

The man looked angry for a second as his hand twitched to go to his cheek, then he sighed. “The tests came up negative.”

“I know they did.” Amelia said and nodded at Minerva. “She's already told us that the Dursleys were horrible people before Harry was anywhere near them.”

The head Unspeakable sat down and didn't say anything at all for several minutes.

“Sir? What are we going to do?” One of the Unspeakables asked.

The man sat there for several minutes more before he spoke. “We have to destroy them.”

“You are NOT using Fiendfire inside the Ministry of Magic!” Amelia nearly yelled. “Agilbert would be the only one I would trust to do it and even he's nervous about using it five times on the horcruxes!”

“You're wrong.” The head of the Unspeakables said.

“No, I'm not. I've talked to him and...”

“It's six times, not five.” The Unspeakable said and cut her off.

“NO!” Everyone in the room yelled, except for the Unspeakables and Harry.

“We can't let a threat this large remain in existence.” The man said, his face firm. “We won't be using Fiendfire, either.” He pulled out a vial of dark black liquid. “Basilisk venom works just as well.”

“No! Harry's just a boy! You can't poison him!” Molly said loudly.

The Unspeakable glanced at her and stood up. “I'll do the other ones first.” He said and left the room. After a minute, there was an unholy scream that cut through the air and made them all shiver at the torturous sound of a soul piece dying. After another minute, another similar scream was heard. It still made everyone shiver. Three more followed over the next few minutes and then the man came back into the room.

“It's done.” He said, his face a blank mask. Being right next to the items and hearing the screams had shaken him. He tried to hide the effect it had on him. He wasn't successful.

“Sir, you...”

“I take full responsibility.” The head of the Unspeakables said as he walked over to stand beside Harry.

“You're wiping all of our memories after this, so how is that taking responsibility?” Thorfinn asked.

The man gave the teacher a glare before he sighed and looked at Harry. “I need you to drink this.”

“NOOOOO!” Amelia yelled, as did Sirius, Ela, Molly, and Minerva. Remus growled and his eyes flicked to yellow.

One of the Unspeakables stunned the werewolf before he could do more than growl. “Sir, maybe we shouldn't...”

“It has to be done.” The head of the Unspeakables said. “Harry...”

“That's Mr. Potter to you.” Harry said. “Only my friends and people I care about can call me Harry.”

The man felt a little proud at his defiance. “Mr. Potter, drink this and everything will be over. You won't be bullied, or talked about, or have to suffer any more.”

Harry stared at him. “I'll also lose everything good that I have in my life, too.”

The man closed his eyes briefly. “I can make you do it.”

“Go ahead and use the Imperious curse on me. It's not like you've never done that before, right?” Harry asked and the man looked surprised. “What? You didn't think I'd look up what it was that a murderer did to me after he killed my parents and also find out what the other two Unforgivable Curses were?”

The Unspeakable gave him an appraising look. “I'm impressed you would bother.” He said and looked at the nearly empty vial in his hand. “You know we have to do this, don't you? It's too dangerous to...”

“You're a bloody coward that's trying to convince a boy to kill himself!” Sirius nearly yelled. “You make me sick! If I wasn't bound up, I'd tear your goddamn throat out with my teeth!”

“That's why you are bound like you are, Mr. Grimm.” The head of the Unspeakables said. “We can't have you transforming and escaping, can we?”

“I'll do it if you let them go.” Harry said and the women started crying again.

“I promise we will let them go as soon as you're dead.” The Unspeakable said.

“I'm going to kill you!” Sirius growled and struggled against his bindings.

“I think we are all in agreement with that.” Thorfinn said with a deep voice filled with hatred. “I give you my word that none of you will live past morning.”

A couple of the Unspeakables chuckled.

“You're not going to remember that threat, let alone that we were involved with the kid killing himself.” One of them said.

“Oh? And where exactly would that kid be getting his hands on a vial of basilisk venom that's a class four controlled substance?” Thorfinn asked and he almost laughed at the doubtful reactions on their faces. “Like Mr. Potter said, you're really stupid.”

“You can call me Harry.” Harry said and Thorfinn nodded, appreciating the gesture.

The head Unspeakable looked at the vial in his hand and sighed. He knew Thorfinn was right. There was no way to explain that Harry had somehow gotten his hands on basilisk venom, smuggled it into the ministry past the security check, and then drank it while in custody.

“You all leave me no choice.” The man said and motioned for the other Unspeakables to move away from the table and Harry.

“What are you doing?” Amelia asked, worry on her face.

“Solving all of our problems.” The Unspeakable said and raised his wand at the boy.

“NO! You CAN'T!” Amelia screamed.

“Avada Kadavra!” The Unspeakable said and a jet of green light shot out of his wand and slammed into Harry's forehead. Harry's body was flung backwards off of the chair and flopped onto the floor, lifeless.

“NOOOOOOO!” All of the prisoners yelled as they saw Harry fall.

“No! No no no!” Sirius said as his face went pale. “Nonononono...”

“Sirius!” Ela gasped through her tears and tried to get out of her restraints to comfort the man she loved and to stop him from falling into his Dementor depression nightmare, while also fighting to fall into it herself.

“It's not real. It's not real.” Sirius mumbled, over and over as his eyes glazed over.

“Oh, my god. You killed him.” Minerva whispered, stunned at what had just happened. “A boy... a mere boy that has never hurt anyone... and you killed him like he was nothing.”

“You monsters.” Arthur said, his eyes filled with as much tears as his sobbing wife's were. “You didn't even wait for the expert to see if he had anything to remove the horcrux safely, like he promised Amelia.”

The Unspeakables looked both uncomfortable and guilty as they tuned away from the little body on the floor.

“This couldn't wait until tomorrow night.” The head of the Unspeakables said and looked at the prisoners. “It had to be dealt with before any of you managed to escape.”

“You better kill me, because as soon as these bindings are off, I'm going to kill you.” Amelia said, her face a deep red from her anger.

“You're not going to remember any of this.” The head of the Unspeakables said. “You won't be able to block my Obliviate spell.”

“Block it? I'm going to counter it.” Amelia said with a smile. “Did you think I wouldn't have defenses against you and your men? I'm not a wandless young man that can't fight back, you bastard. I am a fully trained combat wizard and also the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. I know a few things that even the vaunted head of the Department of Mysteries doesn't know.”

The head Unspeakable looked a little surprised at her claim and stood there with his wand at his side. He was sure that she was bluffing. She had to be. No one had a defense for the Obliviate spell. It didn't exist, because he would know about it if it did.

“Are you still doubtful? Go ahead and try your spell. Let's see how well it works.” Amelia said.

“I can just stun you first.” The man said as he felt something tug his wand out of his hand. He felt his entire body snap together into a frozen pose, then he slowly fell forward into the table, bounced and rolled off to the side, then fell to the floor with a thump like a toppled tree.

“You know, I really hate bullies.” Harry said and waved his wand at the bound prisoners to cut all of the bindings at once before he started sending stunners at the Unspeakables. All wordlessly.

“GET THEM!” Amelia yelled and suddenly all of the Unspeakables were tackled to the floor like muggles.

Molly had knocked hers out with a punch, Arthur had his in an arm lock of some kind as he looked for the wand the man dropped, and Amelia was the first to get her wand back. When she turned to look, she saw that Harry had already stunned the ones not in a fight. With them taken care of, Amelia helped the ones struggling by stunning their opponents.

“HARRY!” Ela yelled and Harry turned to wave at her and Sirius, then he walked around the table to kneel in front of his godfather.

“H-Harry?” Sirius asked as his eyes seemed to come back into focus. He blinked them a few times and then he realized what was in front of him. “HARRY!”

Harry grunted as he was gripped in the tightest hug he had ever received.

“You're not dead. You're not dead. You're not dead.” Sirius mumbled repeatedly and held his godson.

It took several minutes for everyone to retrieve their wands and to calm Remus down after reviving him.

Harry was hugged by everyone for the next few minutes and they all held him much tighter than he thought possible, even Professor McGonagall.

“How? How is this possible?” Ela asked as she sat down on the floor beside Sirius and pulled Harry onto their laps, which embarrassed him a little, until Ela hugged him close and gave his cheek several kisses. Now he was really embarrassed and his face and ears turned bright red.

“We all saw the killing curse hit him square in the face.” Thorfinn said and he held Minerva in his lap just as tenderly as Ela was holding Harry. “I've never seen anything like it.”

“None of us have.” Amelia said and her hand reached for Harry's face and stroked his other cheek. “Harry, you're a miracle.”

Harry remembered Hermione saying the same thing and he wasn't sure how to respond.

“You should be dead.” Arthur said and Molly let out a little sob before he hugged her to quiet her.

“This is the second time that you've survived the killing curse.” Remus said, his voice full of wonder. “The world's going to explode when they find out.”

Amelia and Sirius exchanged looks and then looked at the others. “We shouldn't tell anyone.” They said together.

“What? Why?” Molly asked. “Everyone will love him that much more...”

Harry snorted a laugh. “Love me? Everyone talks about me behind my back and sometimes in front of my face. They mostly call me a troublemaker and a delinquent.”

Minerva let out a sigh and reluctantly nodded. “I've tried to squash the rumors and to ease the gossip; but, all it does is make it worse and adds to it.”

“It does.” Thorfinn said and caressed her arm and held her hand. “The Slytherins are the worst.”

“You mean Malfoy.” Harry said and Thorfinn nodded. “I'm not allowed to hex him in the halls.”

“Students shouldn't hex others at all.” Minerva said with a stern voice, then she sighed. “Although, Malfoy does deserve it a lot more than the average student.”

“He'd hate you if you ever said he was average where he could hear it.” Sirius said. “Look at what he did to Harry when Harry said he was nothing.”

“I said he was nothing compared to Voldemort.” Harry said and most of them winced at the name. “I wasn't lying. He really is.”

Minerva gave him a stern look. “Mr. Potter, you can't say such things, even if you believe it's true.”

Harry smiled at her and she sighed.

“Now what?” Arthur asked and glanced at everyone's faces.

“This is a nasty mess we're in.” Remus said and looked at the unconscious men on the floor. “If they take orders directly from Minister Fudge...”

Amelia sighed this time. “Unfortunately, their work tonight is what the minister is going to notice and not the crimes they've committed to do it.” She said and looked at me. “Then there's the question about the-boy-who-lived-twice.”

“Can you do the dark detect spells?” Harry asked her and her eyes widened.

“I... Harry, you...” Amelia floundered with her words.

Harry leaned over and touched her face. “Just the first one is all you need.”

Amelia nodded and Harry stood up to put the stolen wand on the table and to move away from the others. She cast the slightly complicated spell and nothing happened. No pain, no red glow, nothing.

“It's gone?” Amelia asked, shocked. “Then... then that means...”

“Yep. I died.” Harry said with a grin. “No more horcruxes! I was the last one.”

“Harry, you... you shouldn't be happy about dying.” Ela said.

“Well, it worked.” Harry said and picked up the wand and walked around the table to go to the head of the Unspeakables. With a flick of the wand, the man was flipped over to face up. “Did you hear that? You killed me.”

The man's eyes didn't actually get wider, it was just an automatic reaction that Harry thought he saw as he bent down to take the vial of basilisk venom out of the man's pocket. Harry didn't say anything as he popped the cork and tipped some of it into the man's open mouth.

“Harry, what are you doing?” Sirius asked.

“Nothing.” Harry said and put the cork into the vial, erased his fingerprints from it, and then put the vial into the hand the man had held his wand in. “I'm just seeing if he wants me to end the spell on him.”

“Don't bother. Just leave him there.” Amelia said and waved Harry over to her. “I've got half a mind to actually go through with my threat of killing him.”

“Oh, that reminds me.” Thorfinn said and eased Minerva off of his lap. “I have a promise to keep.”

“You can't do that in front of me!” Amelia gasped as Thorfinn poked his wand at the closest Unspeakable's chest and there was a slight popping sound.

“What was that?” Harry asked.

“Organ Shattering Curse.” Thorfinn said and went to the next man.

“Thorfinn!” Both Amelia and Minerva exclaimed together.

“A magical oath is a magical oath.” Thorfinn said and performed the spell again. “These men ruthlessly killed a child.”

“Hey!” Harry said, indignantly.

Thorfinn chuckled. “You won't be a teenager until next year.”

Harry opened his mouth to respond, then sighed as he closed it.

Sirius had to laugh at his godson's resigned expression.

“I gave my word that they wouldn't survive until morning because of this.” Thorfinn said and went to each of the underlings to smash their hearts. They each died in their sleep and none of them felt any pain. “It's more humane this way, too. I'd rather they die than me, which would have happened if they obliviated me and I didn't complete my oath.”

Amelia sighed, knowing this was going to be one hell of a mass of paperwork. “Leave the department head.” Amelia said, her face stern. “He's going to face as many charges as I can lay against him.”

“Yeah, good luck with that.” Sirius said. “Even if you manage to get the charges to stick, which you won't, Fudge will delay the trial until he can get enough sympathy votes to get the man off with little more than a slap on the wrist.”

Amelia didn't look too happy about that, mainly because she was the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. It was supposed to be her job to handle all of that, not the minister's.

“Done.” Thorfinn said and walked back over to them. He sat down and didn't wilt under Minerva's glare. “I'll face any charges that Amelia sees fit to apply to me as well.”

All of the faces turned to look at her and she turned to look at me.

“It was the cursed horcruxes that killed them, right? They shouldn't have touched them.” Amelia said.

Harry looked surprised for a moment, then he nodded and leaned over to hug her around the neck. “I love you.” He whispered in her ear and kissed her cheek.

Amelia hugged him back and pulled him onto her lap. “I love you, too.” She whispered and kissed his cheek back.

“So, how long will your spell hold?” Sirius asked Harry.

“Is your clothing cabinet still spongified?” Harry asked him with a smile, which made Sirius laugh.

“It lasted for four months.” Ela told everyone and they let out laughs, too.

“All right.” Amelia said and looked at Arthur. “I'm glad you're here. You can be an official witness to the destruction of the physical items that contained the horcruxes.”

“I can do that.” Arthur said. “I am from the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts office.”

Amelia nodded. “I'll gather all of the records for everything and we can tie this all up into a nice little package. No one is going to question it.” She looked around at everyone's faces. “Agreed?”

“Agreed.” They all said, even Harry.

“Let's get to work.” Amelia said and that was what they did.

They didn't even have to convince anyone else that their story was what happened, because the Unspeakables had cleared everyone else out during the testing of the horcruxes. When they checked the other rooms for the horcruxes and any related damages as they put the bodies of the Unspeakables inside, they saw that all of the items were melted and almost unrecognizable, even the foe glass that Agilbert had made with the help of his wife.

“Agilbert's not going to be happy that we broke his toy.” Amelia said with a chuckle and levitated it into the cushioned evidence box they had. “At least there's no dark energy left in any of these things.”

“Amen to that.” Arthur said and a few people turned to look at Harry, who looked quite happy.

“When can I go home?” Harry asked.

“I'll need your statement and then I'll take you through the floo.” Amelia said. “I'm going to be up all damn night handling the paperwork for all of this.”

“Not really.” Harry said and she gave him a surprised look. “The Unspeakables don't have names.”

Everyone stopped working and gave him surprised looks themselves, then they all let out laughs, especially Sirius.

“Ha ha! No one's going to be looking for them! Ha ha ha!” Sirius laughed and laughed.

*

Inside a large dark forest in Albania, the wisp of a spirit was on the hunt for its latest victim. It could only possess a creature for a short period of time before its life force was used up and it expired. Normal creatures weren't meant to house a spirit that could perform magic.

The spirit suddenly felt a shuddering shift in its being, let out an ungodly howl, then faded away. It's last tether to the living was severed by the signature spell that had made it into a spirit in the first place.