Amelia Bones was also mentally wrestling with a problem, basically everything that had happened within Hogwarts today. Mister Potter and his girlfriend might have fooled everyone else in the infirmary with his startling questions and glib answers but Amelia knew when she was being played.
That she had been played by two kids the same age as her Susan was what really worried her. Susan's latest letter home left Amelia with the impression these two were also playing Dumbledore for all they were worth too.
The Boy-Who-Lived having to hire tutors, because the education being given at Hogwarts wasn't of a high enough standard, would rock magical Britain to its core. That was small beer though when compared with the bombshell that the Dark Mark couldn't be administered under any form of duress, be that blackmail, potions or curses.
There were many prominent magical citizens who had used the imperius curse as an excuse for them becoming Death Eaters, this revelation exposed each and every last one of them as murdering liars.
There was not one shred of doubt in Amelia's mind that these two teens wanted her to know that game-changing information, or that they were certainly all on the same side in this matter. It was their motives behind these manipulations that she desperately needed to discover.
That they wanted Black to receive a trial was a given. Then again, Amelia agreed wholeheartedly with Harry that this was something he shouldn't even have to ask for from a competent Ministry of Magic. Since she would be running the trial, and ensuring there was no room for trickery, this was something Amelia was happy to organise - the sooner the better.
In her many years of service in the Auror Department, Amelia had seen that vile green curse take lives. Today was like witnessing a miracle, and seeing someone actually survive the same vile curse that had taken family from her easily qualified as a miracle to Amelia. Not only that, the curse then rebounded onto the caster and issued its own form of poetic justice.
She had no trouble believing Macnair was a Death Eater, and no tears would be shed by her over his demise - especially after hearing from his own lips that Macnair had lost count of how many people he'd murdered.
Amelia's old mentor - Alastor Moody - had fought tooth and nail to allow aurors the use of lethal force against these bastards, saying that a dead Death Eater was one who wouldn't torture or kill again. She was a fully paid-up member of that club, Macnair would certainly never torture or murder anyone ever again.
Amelia had heard of dementors unlocking memories of those unfortunate enough to be exposed to the creatures, usually vile memories people didn't want to remember. She had never heard of their presence unlocking someone's magical abilities.
Then again, parseltongue wasn't exactly a well-researched branch of magic. Add in that Potter apparently inherited that trait from Voldemort the night the bastard hit baby Harry with the killing curse and just about anything would be plausible, though she still didn't believe their story.
This left her with a number of unanswered questions however, questions she really wanted to know the answers to. How did Potter learn that spell? They couldn't possibly know Macnair was going to turn up in Hogwarts that day, he was a last minute addition by Cornelius for his knowledge of dark creatures. Did this mean Potter had a way of identifying Death Eaters?
She wondered if that meant there were going to be more Death Eaters turning up dead. Looking into the flames of the log fire in her own sitting room, Amelia took a sip of her very good firewhisky and discovered she didn't really care. Too many of these murdering bastards had gotten off Scott-free after baby Potter killed their master, one getting away was way too many as far as Amelia was concerned.
Potter and his girlfriend, Granger, didn't have the look of vigilantes however. Yes he was certainly angry about the lack of a trial for his godfather, rightfully so and especially if Black now turns out to be innocent. Considering how hard they were pushing for this trial, Amelia couldn't see any way Black wouldn't be a free man at the end of it.
Knowing the amount of collusion that would need to take place for Sirius Black to be flung straight into Azkaban without a trial, and discovering he was Harry Potter's godfather, led Amelia to believe their government might actually be even more corrupt than she thought it was.
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