The next day's headline brought almost complete hysteria to witches and wizards of the country.
'HIGH INQUISITOR CASTS UNFORGIVABLE AT HARRY POTTER!'
Yeah, that title alone was going to ruin a good amount of peoples day.
"I cannot believe how brazen that harlot was. Who does she think she is? Trying to torture children and harm one loved by Hogwarts when within its walls." Ranted one angry female ghost as I showed her this mornings paper.
"The woman has done many horrible things in the past, but you don't have to care about someone such as her Helena. She is not worth it at all. Also, I have my doubts about her actually being able to harm me. She just doesn't have the power to cast a proper killing curse and I am very resistant to dark magic." I said as I tried to placate my ghostly friend.
"Hmph. She should be grateful you only took an arm from her. Hogwarts would have trapped her in its lost dungeons and make some of the armors pay her back." The still upset Helena grumbled as she started going down a rather dark option.
"Not to interrupt, but did you say Hogwarts would trap a person? Like, it would decide to do something and act on it?" I asked as what she had said clicked.
"Hmm? I thought you knew Hogwarts was semi-sentient." She responded with a bit of confusion over my question.
"Yes it has been my belief that the school holds some measure of sentience due to various evidence, but what you just said was very different from semi-sentience. That sounded like Hogwarts has the ability to make actual decisions." I explained as the unasked question behind that was told.
"Oh, that's where you are confused. Well I guess the differences in how we define semi-sentience would be the problem here. How do you define it Aedan?" Helena said as she began her way of making me understand.
(This next part might be completely bull or trash to some, but this is what I'm going with.)
"My understanding would be that it classifies a being without true conscious thought and actions. A thing operating based on instinctual actions or without a sense of self." I answered after giving some thought to the rather philosophical topic.
"In a sense you are correct, but it is also not complete. You see, Hogwarts acts based on the beliefs of both its creators and the school's values.
Although in practice the castle mainly protects students, redirecting away from harm, helping teachers stumble across bullying, a shortcut to class or even a little punishment for bad students from time to time. You don't see it, but Hogwarts is always there.
In your case, Hogwarts has shown to be very fond of you for many reasons, mostly your values and spirit. You have the best of the founders in you and uphold the values of the school, so when you were threatened within her halls she was, for lack of a better word, angered. That woman attacked a student and attempted to do the same to a person who perfectly represents this place's values, hence it would have retaliated in a manner deemed fit for the offender." The Grey Lady explained as she took on her scholarly demeanor.
"I see, so it is basically a programmed response with various sets of protocols based off of the set parameters. Who knew wizards had programmed things almost a millennia before Muggle could? I'm guessing Peeves is basically a kind of offshoot of the schools values due to the way students view their time here, giving birth to a purely mischievous spirit. While the Room of Requirements would be a sort of student help room governed by the castle itself." I said with a chuckle at the realization.
"I am not sure what those words mean, but you are correct about Peeves and the Mother's room. The castle itself made them what they are today, hence one cannot remove them or permanently destroy them." Helena said as she dropped another little bomb on me today, but I'll just internalize that one.
'Glad I distracted her from Umbridge. I honestly don't care enough about her anymore. She served her purpose, now she can rot in jail and annoy everyone there with her vile views.' I thought before beginning to explain advances in modern computing.
The following days were pretty great at Hogwarts.
With Umbridge gone and the minister being totally fucked right now, meaning everyone was basically just waiting for elections to be called, the school gained its peace once again.
Teachers no longer had to be present at every extracurricular activity, students were free to be kids, teens and young adults again without having to fear absurd punishments, the faculty gave a week of no homework to celebrate while a feast was organized just because we could, and everyone felt positive in general. The twins even used all those fireworks they had in canon to give everyone a good show, and maybe do a little advertising for the shop they planned to open this summer. As an investor I was quite pleased with the business savviness on display.
My extra class for Orderlings and those with some brains/guts were continuing, only with a lot less secrecy than before. I was technically working within my subject when doing these, but they were definitely what the toad would have targeted before her arrest, so I had everyone keep quiet. And I have to say that they were shaping up quite well overall, with maybe about half being able to at least take one normal Death Eaters and the rest just being too young to have the power to do so. None of them will die quick though that's for certain and it's not like power is the only way to win, but they'll need to be smart and lucky.
On the family side of things... well there's no easy way to say this but, I haven't seen mother that pissed since Ignacius Avery's trial. (guy who experimented on him for people who forget stuff.)
The woman was going on a goddamn warpath against the toad and no one was going to stop her. Harry was legally her godson and she's been helping take care of him for four years now, so when she heard a person she and everyone hated tried to hurt him, oooh boy. She was drafting up a proposal to make a freaking death cell like the Americans had, just so they could properly execute the bitch. Mother said that since the ministry won't be able to use Dementors anymore, they might as well adopt another country's method.
Sirius was just smiling and nodding during this bit, while also subtly using the Black family's wealth to help things along in order to support his wife. The fact that he was also really angry at the toad motivated his inner Slytherin a bit that's for sure.
Well, that was after the two of them came over to fuss over Harry for a while. The kid might have been embarrassed to no end, but I knew he was actually happy to have people caring so much.
I decided to be petty as well and had my people send a notice to mother about a rather nasty semi-sentient poison i had created with some masters from Breaking Grounds, which resembles the thing used in America. I am not exactly proud of that thing, but sometimes you just want to see how far you can go. Now, this wasn't the worst poison we had created, just the best one for the job. We actually made something which can dissolve goblin materials, a material said to be able to absorb anything to strengthen itself, but it was overkill and nothing could properly contain it without melting so we stopped at that point and destroyed the research to avoid someone doing something stupid with the stuff.
And then I helped lobby for the new death penalty and a revamped prison system at the same time. This was mostly because I wanted to either have Azkaban up and running without Dementors instead of using all of Fortress' jails, simply because they weren't meant for long term detainment and it paints a target on their backs. Plus it's the Ministry's job to take care of this, not a private business.
Meanwhile pretty much everyone was done with Fudge. His actions, general attitude and lack of abilities already put him in a wobbly position, but now he was just done. He would never hold any office again and would be extremely lucky to avoid even half the charges which were now being levied against him since he was linked to the majority of the scandals rocking the Ministry.
There was now officially a Wizengamot gathering called for the end of the week in order to officially dismiss him from the position of Minister for Magic and begin the election process.
I was certain mother would be the best candidate. Her track record, reputation, political platforms and her abilities all placed her as the best choice. The only people who could have threatened her would be Dumbledore who doesn't want the office, the now deceased Crouch sr and maybe me but I don't want it either.
It also helped that she would receive the backing of many members of the Wizengamot, with Ministry officials and employees believing in her, the vast amounts of money both her husband and son have at their disposal, and the boost she gets from being the legal guardian of Harry Potter and having married someone now recognized as a war hero.
Yeah, Minister Bones was going to happen and if someone tries to stop that, they'll be dealing with me.
This was actually something I was discussing with her at this moment since we were having a pleasant dinner. It was just the immediate family present; Mother, Sirius, Selene, Victoria and myself. We wanted to have a nice time, get the in-laws to know each other more and plan out the upcoming election a bit, while also getting the chance to see each other. Mother felt the need to see each other since it had been a while and who am I to disagree?
"Haha! You should have seen the look of Fudge's face when they dismissed him! It was golden!" Sirius happily said as he was feeling the effect of his fourth glass of wine.
"Yes you big lout, most of us were there when it happened." Mother admonish's with a wry smile.
"*Sigh* He really hasn't changed much since our school days." Selene stated as she watched the man start making a fool of himself.
"You were there at the same time as him mom?" A curious Tory asked before taking a sip of wine.
"Oh indeed we were. I was lucky to be in Slytherin or that hound dog would have tried to hit on me too. Still can't figure out how you collared him Amelia." Selene admitted with a sly glance in mother's direction.
"You just need to know how to crack the proper whip that's all. Once you know how it's rather simple. Also, I do remember a certain prefect trying to peek into bath's during the boys turn." Mother shot back, making Selene blush as she turned her head.
"No way! Mum really did that!" A scandalized Tory said, but the smile on her face told everyone she wanted to hear more.
"Amelia don't you-" Selene tried to say but it was too late.
"Oh did your mother have a crush on Sirius' brother back then. She tried to peak on him, sent him anonymous chocolates and even targeted Sirius' little group to appeal to him. A true fan girl at the time." Mother said as she revealed my future mother-in-law's 'dark' history.
"So that's why you had such a stick up your ass back then, you wanted to bed Regi!" Barked Sirius as I knew the wine officially made him lose most of his control if he could talk about his brother.
"But how come you never got together?" Victoria asked since it was obvious she would have preferred Sirius's brother over her father.
"Politics and power play's happened. I had to inherit the Travers name and that meant someone had to marry into the family. At the same time, Regulus was the heir to the Black family, meaning it would take away the only person willing and able to become Lord Black from their family should he marry into the Travers. The two families could never come into an agreement so your grandfather found a willing partner elsewhere." Selene answered with some sadness in her voice as she remembered those days.
"Sorry about that. If I hadn't run away, a lot of things could have been avoided." Sirius suddenly said in a drunk manner, probably thinking about a lot of his youthful mistakes.
"I don't blame you Sirius. In the end I made the decision to stay and marry. At least one good thing came out of it." She responded as she looked lovingly at her daughter.
"Mom." The teary eyes Tory said as she got up to hug her mother.
As we watched the mother-daughter moment, one of my house-elves suddenly popped in holding my vanishing box.
"Master Bones, the box is saying it's urgent." The still slightly gloomy Winky said as she handed it to me.
"Thank you for bringing this to me Winky. Could you bring me a sobering potion for Sirius? I think it's about time for everyone to head home soon and I don't want anyone being drunk when apparating." I requested of the little elf.
"Yes master Bones. Winky will get the medicine for the loud dog." She responded as she popped out.
"Hey! What are you teaching your elf?" The slightly miffed Sirius said after he heard Winky.
"Nothing. We just told her that if she ever finds a big black dog walking around the house, that it was you. Everything else comes from your behavior." I teased as he looked ready to counter before mother glared him into submission.
With a chuckle I began to read the urgent message.
'Aedan, Voldemort has Sirius in the Ministry of Magic. Professor Dumbledore isn't here and I can't reach Sirius or Aunty. I can't just let this happen and I need your help to rescue him.' The message from Harry said.
'So I'm guessing Tom moved up his plan since he knows things will be very different once mother becomes Minister.' I thought after reading Harry's message.
"What does the message say dear?" Mother asked as she became curious over the matter of an urgent message.
"Well, it would seem Sirius is being tortured in the Ministry of Magic and Harry wants to rescue him." I answered with a little smirk.
""""What?"""" The confused members asked as most sobered up real quick.
"Who's the idiot that wrote that? I'm right here." The still not really functioning right.
Lucky for me, Winky popped in and gave me the sobering potion which I immediately stuffed down Sirius' throat to his displeasure.
So while he got over having something gross forced down his throat (degenerates beware), I answered simply: "your godson."
"*cough cough* Why would Harry *cough* think I'm being tortured?" He asked as his faculties started returning to him.
"I'm guessing he wanted to be useful and took off the necklace I gave him in the hopes of seeing what Voldemort was up to. Most likely he was emboldened by the successful case of Arthur." I answered seriously.
"I am going to have a good talk with that boy. He gets this from you encouraging him you know." Mother said as she glared at her husband, who wisely shut up.
While that was happening, I wrote back to Harry about the fact that Sirius was in front of me right now because we had been having dinner.
'Wait, what?' Came back the stunned reply.
'Voldemort made you see things to lure you to the ministry. This means he wants you there for some reason and probably has some of his Death Eaters ready for you. Don't do anything drastic, we will be at Hogwarts in a few minutes.' I wrote to him, hoping he won't just rush off for no reason.
"Alright everyone, we have a plot to counter and some Death Eaters to beat. So sober up and let's get to Hogwarts. I'll call for the Headmaster, mother I'll need you to be ready to help apprehend them but you'll have to hang back a bit so we don't tip them off, Sirius will go with me to Hogwarts, Tory you'll come with me for this and Selene I'll need you to contact our allies to prepare them for some trails. We can't let those who show up get away like the last war." I swiftly ordered as the adults began getting ready.
All of them have been through the war and know how to move when called for.
"Be careful until I get there and keep my idiot safe." Mother said as she prepared to Floo away.
"I promise to bring him back. You be safe too." I replied, getting a nod and a flash of green fire.
"You keep my daughter safe. If she gets hurt it'll be your ass." Selene then threatened out of concern as she stepped up to the fire place.
"I'm sure she'll try to protect me at this point, but I'll make sure to bring her back safe and sound." I said with a small joke before getting serious.
"Good." The woman simply said as she disappeared to do her job.
I quickly sent an urgent message to Dumbledore and headed out with Sirius and Tory to my bike.
I then summoned the bikes sidecar from the shed and got everything hooked up magically, passed a helmet to Sirius and Tory, then got on.
"You've got to be kidding me." Murmured Sirius as he got in the sidecar.
"Deal with it. I sure as hell didn't want you holding my waste and I wasn't about to let you drive." I said as Tory got behind me.
"Yeah yeah, let's just go. At least no ones going to see me in this thing." The man said in response, getting Victoria to giggle a bit at his circumstances.
Without further ado, I turned on my bike and took off towards the castle.
It was time make everyone know who was back and who was on his side.