Chapter 14: Repercussions
-------------------------
Life is a road
And I want to keep going
Love is a river
I wanna keep flowing
Life is a road
Now and forever
Wonderful journey
I'll be there when the world stops turning
I'll be there when the storm is through
In the end I wanna be standing
At the beginning with you
- `At the Beginning' by Richard Marx and Donna Lewis from the movie Anastasia
-------------------------------
Harry, Hermione and Teddy stood waiting outside door of Ron's flat later that afternoon after they had knocked. Ron came to the door, a little surprised to see who was standing on his doorstep.
"Harry, Hermione, come on in." They came in and Ron shut the door behind them.
"Have you read the Prophet this morning?" Harry asked. Ron nodded.
"Yeah, and I think Ginny's gone too far, she's bang out of order. I don't believe you've been pressuring her into a relationship, I'd bet anything that it's been the other way around."
"I'm glad you're on my side, Ron."
"Well, aside from perhaps George, I'm probably the only one in our family that's going to take your side."
"That doesn't surprise me. You and Hermione are probably going to be the only ones in the wizarding world that believe me."
"I'll help you as much as I can to help clear this up. Just let me know what I can do."
"Well, there is something you can do," Harry said. "We have to meet with McGonagall this afternoon to straighten this out, would you mind watching Teddy for a few hours?"
"Sure. I'd be happy to." Ron reached out to take Teddy from Hermione and she handed him over along with his little diaper bag. Ron said, "Sure, we can have fun, right Teddy?" Teddy grinned.
"Thanks Ron, this helps a lot," Hermione said. "We should probably get going, Harry." Harry nodded and he and Hermione headed for the door. Harry held the door open for Hermione and when she walked out and Harry was about to follow, he stopped when he heard Teddy call for him. Harry and Hermione turned back, and saw Teddy frowning, a hand reached out to Harry.
"Dad," Teddy tearfully said. Harry went back and took Teddy's hand.
"Hey, I'll be back in a little while, you'll have fun with Ron this afternoon. I'll be back."
After a little more emotion from Teddy, Harry and Hermione were on their way, Apparating to just outside the Hogwarts grounds. That nervous gut feeling settled in the pit of Harry's stomach as they made the long climb up the hill to the castle. That feeling got stronger as they climbed the stairs to McGonagall's office. They both stopped outside McGonagall's office door, giving Harry time to take a deep breath and exhale nervously. Hermione wrapped an arm around his shoulders and gave him a comforting squeeze.
"Everything'll be fine, Harry. Hopefully there'll be a way to smooth this over."
Harry opened the door and held it open for Hermione to go through before following. They entered the office to find fourteen other people besides Professor McGonagall in her office. Twelve of them were wizards all dressed in black, the other two were witches dressed in navy blue. The two witches were arguing with McGonagall, the wizards were all arguing amongst themselves. McGonagall noticed Harry and Hermione standing in the doorway, and put her hands out to stop the flow of disagreements that were flying around her.
"Stop, stop!!" The conversation ceased instantly.
"Mr. Potter is here now, so we can get on with this. Harry, Hermione, come in, have a seat."
Harry and Hermione came in and sat down in the chairs across the desk from McGonagall. All the portraits of the former headmasters and headmistresses were wide awake and rapt with attention.
McGonagall said, "Harry, Hermione, these wizards are the board of governors here at Hogwarts, and you may already know Miss Amelia Lynch, and this is her associate, Rose Shamblin. They are here to discuss the issue that has come up in the Daily Prophet this morning, and to decide what action is to be taken regarding Teddy. The governors are here to discuss your future here as an educator. I believe we should start with the governors."
"The accusations made against me aren't true."
One of the governors, a short round fellow, cleared his throat and said, "Mr. Potter, even if they are or aren't true, it still leaves us with a problem. Parents want something done about this. I vote for termination."
Another wizard, a tall, skinny man with a friendly face, argued, "Now, Wickham, we need to get both sides of the story before we go making rash decisions."
"We have to do something, Davis, you saw all the letters from parents this morning, and they demand action. Something has to be done." About half of the governors murmured in agreement.
"I think we need to hear all sides of this story before reaching a decision," a different wizard said. "We're talking about a man's career here."
"What career, last I had heard; he hasn't been made a permanent teacher. This is Harry bloody Potter; he can get any job he wants!"
"But if his reputation is tainted by an issue as this, who's going to hire him?"
"Ok, say we conduct this investigation, what do we tell the papers? They're going to want some answers!"
"We tell them the truth. We're investigating the issue."
"That won't be good enough for some people."
"Well, you just can't please everyone, Wickham. If you spend your life trying to do that, you'll never succeed." A loud chorus of `hear, hear!' was heard from the portraits.
Another wizard, one of the ones who had agreed with Wickham, said, "I think we should put it to a vote, whoever thinks termination should take place now, raise their hand." Six raised their hands. "All oppose to termination?" Six raised their hands. "Alright, in the case of a tie, Headmistress, you give your vote."
"I vote with the opposed. I think an investigation needs to be made before reaching a decision. And I think we start by questioning students, namely Miss Ginny Weasley."
"Excuse me, Professor, but considering this is the second time Ginny has gone to the press in a fit of rage, and has already lied to the press, who's to say she'll tell the truth now?" Hermione said. Everyone nodded in agreement.
"Is it against school policy to using Veritarserum?" One of the governors suggested. Another one shook his head.
"There is nothing that says you cannot use it on a student just as long as the case is severe enough that it requires it. I would say this classifies as severe. Tomorrow, bring Miss Weasley here, and question her. I think for now, we'll leave it at that, and discuss this later once we get all the facts. Headmistress, we'll leave it to you to conduct the interrogation, but make sure you have plenty of credible witnesses to there's no doubt to the answers. I think it also might be best to suspend Mr. Potter from teaching until then, until we get this sorted out."
"And now, gentlemen, I think we need to be getting back. Good day, all." The governors left the office, leaving the two child services people.
McGonagall sighed and said to the two witches, "Alright, ladies, now you may speak." Amelia Lynch stepped forward.
"Mr. Potter, the reason I'm here is that Mrs. Andromeda Tonks, after reading the article is demanding that custody be removed from you and that Theodore be placed in her care. As her physicians don't advise that, the child won't be given to her. But, we're going to conduct an investigation, and it will depend on the questioning of Miss Weasley. But until then, I'm afraid we're going to need to take Theodore." Harry opened his mouth to protest, but Hermione stopped him by putting her hand on his.
"Where will you send him?" Hermione asked.
"We'll place him with a temporary wizarding foster family. And when we get results and come to our conclusion, then we'll make a more permanent decision."
Harry was stunned. Here he was, suspended from teaching, and was about to lose Teddy. How could it have come to this? How could Ginny have been so cruel and selfish? Harry recalled when he was a few years younger, he would've given anything to be faced with a problem that didn't involve Voldemort, now he'd almost rather be in that situation. Then he had an idea of how to fix his problem, now he was completely lost. And then there was Hermione, sitting there as if it this all was no big deal. He was feeling a lot of anger, all of which was directed towards Ginny and the whole situation, but at that moment, a little bit of his anger turned to Hermione, and her seeming lack of concern about the situation.
Harry may have thought Hermione seemed a little indifferent on the outside, but on the inside, she was as nervous as she had ever been. It seemed so surreal that things could change so fast. That Harry could lose Teddy forever; he could lose his job as a teacher, just when he had come to the realization that he was destined to become a teacher. Indifference was not an emotion in Hermione's being at that moment. No, she still loved him too much to not be worried.
"So where is Theodore?" Amelia asked.
"One of our friends is babysitting him," Hermione said.
"Well, we'll be over this evening to take him to a family. Make sure he's ready to go at seven." Hermione and Harry nodded, and Hermione just about let out a small sob. Amelia said, "Well, we should get going, we need to get a family arranged. Thank you all for your time." The two witches left, leaving Harry, Hermione, and McGonagall in the office. McGonagall sighed and folded her hands on her desk.
"Well, Harry, just for the record, I don't believe any of this rubbish. We'll bring Miss Weasley in as soon as possible for questioning. I think it goes without saying that it'd be best if you weren't present for that. It would also be best if you stayed at Grimmauld Place while you're on suspension." Harry nodded solemnly. McGonagall said, "I know this is rough, Harry. But we'll do all we can to get it all cleared up. I promise."
"Thanks, Professor. We should probably go get Teddy ready to leave." He stood and headed for the door, Hermione close behind.
-------------------
Harry was silent for the rest of the day as he and Hermione packed up a little suitcase with Teddy's things in it. He balled up a pair of overalls and threw them into the suitcase causing Hermione to sigh.
"Harry, you have to fold them. His clothes will fit better in the suitcase if you fold them."
"Well, I'm sorry, I'm a little preoccupied right now," Harry snapped. "I don't give a damn right now whether or not Teddy's clothes are folded just right, or what you think I need to do to make things easier for the people who are taking him away from me." Hermione sighed again.
"Look, Harry, I know you're angry-"
Harry snorted and gave her a look that said, `well there's an understatement.'
"Ok, very angry, pissed off even. But there's no need to take it out on me. I'm on your side, remember?"
"Are you really? You were sure pretty quiet in McGonagall's office, and you made damn sure that I didn't say anything to even defend myself!"
"The reason I didn't say anything was because I knew if I did, I'd let my emotions get the best of me, and I'd say something that might've made things worse! And I know you'd have done the same thing. I don't want you to lose Teddy, and I don't want you to lose your job. This whole thing just frustrates me so much that I'm not even sure I should be there either when they question Ginny because I might do her bodily harm!"
Hermione started to get so flustered that she started throwing clothes in the suit case. This time, it was Harry's turn to sigh. He grabbed her hands to make her stop and held them in his.
"Hey, I'm sorry. You're right; I shouldn't take it out on you. It's just…I don't know what to do. Everything just got so screwed up so fast. I mean, I could lose him forever, where will he end up? I mean, forget about the job, I can get a new one, or I don't even have to have a job. But he's not even a year old, and he's been through so much, he shouldn't be shifted around so much. And he just started to speak, he's recognizing me, what is he going to do when he can't find me?" Hermione wrapped her arms around Harry and held him close.
"You don't know that he's going to be taken away from you permanently. Everything will get straightened out. You're not going to lose him, there's no way they can believe that what Ginny's said is true. You've got the truth on your side, and everyone is going to see that."
Harry wrapped his arms around Hermione's waist and they stood there holding each other until the doorbell rang. They let go and Harry went to answer the door, while Hermione finished packing Teddy's things and brought him downstairs. Amelia Lynch and her assistant, Victoria, were standing at the door. Harry stood aside for them to come in, and gave Hermione a sad look when she came down the stairs with Teddy on her hip, a look which she returned.
"Well, Mr. Potter, we've arranged for a family to take Theodore. They're Mr. and Mrs. Matthew Fischer. They're both a witch and a wizard, and they're prepared to take him in temporarily. They're a good family; we've worked with them before, lots of success stories from children we've placed there."
Harry solemnly nodded. He almost felt like crying, and feared if he said anything, he just might. Amelia said, "Well, I told the Fischer's we would be there in an hour, so we'd better get going." Victoria went to take Teddy from Hermione, but she handed him over to Harry first.
"Let him say goodbye first."
Harry looked at the little guy in his arms and said,
"Now, you be good, Teddy. And you'll be back soon, I promise. We'll get this all sorted out, and you'll be back to live with me very soon. I promise." The tears were really threatening to fall. He sniffled. "I love you, squirt," he said, and kissed the child on top of his head and handed him over to Victoria.
So far, Harry and Hermione were able to blink back their tears as the witches left with Teddy, but the heart-wrenching moment was when Teddy realized what was going on and got scared. He reached an arm out over Victoria's shoulder and cried out, "Dad!" and began to cry. The witches just kept walking out the door, and it took all of Harry's resolve to not go and just take Teddy back from them. Teddy's hair turned dark blue as he cried and cried. The tears really began to fall from Harry's and Hermione's eyes, listening to Teddy's cries. They hugged again as the door was shut, muffling Teddy's voice.
We'll get him back, Harry," Hermione tearfully said, and she kissed him on the cheek. "I promise."
-------------------------
Hey, hey! Aren't you guys so proud of me? This is probably my fastest update on this story yet!! My beta keeps me motivated; she's got the whip ready and beats me till I get the next chapter done. JUST KIDDING!! Lol . Anyways, hope you enjoyed this next chapter!! Ginny interrogation to come next!! I can't guarantee it'll come out this fast, but who knows, I might surprise myself! Talk to y'all later!
Husker_fan_2006
-->