Four more Aurors had come through the floo. Amelia was upset with Fudge, Dumbledore, Crouch Jr., and just about everyone else. Harry Potter had been used in some plot to resurrect Voldemort and Dumbledore had apparently just sat back and waited for developments. One of her oldest friends had been kidnapped and no one even noticed. Crouch had been harboring an escaped convict and Fudge was blind as a bat.
She detailed two of the Aurors to take Crouch to a holding cell at the Ministry. One of the others, Dawlish, she sent to watch over the dementor to relieve Shack. Since he was one of Fudge's favorites, let him take care of the demon that Fudge had brought. Auror Jones she sent, along with the magical eye and peg leg, to the Hogwarts infirmary to take a statement from Mad-Eye Moony.
She got everyone's attention and was about to administer the serum to Peter Pettigrew when Harry Potter interrupted her.
"Madam Bones. Peter Pettigrew was my parents' secret keeper. And he admitted it last year. If I could get Sirius Black to come in, would you guarantee him a fair hearing?"
Madam Bones heard Fudge off to the side blustering. "Black confounded those three students. He was sent to Azkaban for good reason!"
"But he was never given a trial!"
Madam Bones looked over at Fudge and Dumbledore and asked, "Is this true?"
Fudge looked sheepish and Dumbledore nodded to Amelia.
"Yes, I'm afraid. As you know, last year Mr. Black was caught here on Hogwarts grounds. Apparently the three students in the back heard Pettigrew confess and Mr. Black claimed he had had no trial. Minister Fudge demanded that he receive the Kiss for escaping Azkaban immediately, but before it could be accomplished Mr. Black had escaped again."
Amelia couldn't believe that a man had spent 12 years in Azkaban without a trial. "Mr. Potter! If you can contact Mr. Black and if he is willing to submit to questioning under Veritaserum, I will guarantee that he will receive a fair hearing, and if innocent will be exonerated!"
Harry Potter nodded at her and started removing the leash from the dog at his knee. No one was more shocked than she when the dog morphed into the infamous Sirius Black!
Minister Fudge started screaming that Black was to be sent back to Azkaban, but no one was listening to him. Dumbledore was sitting back with twinkling eyes, apparently amused by the whole thing. Severus Snape was looking at Sirius Black with loathing. Minerva looked as though she would put the Death Eaters and the Minister in detention for harming one of her cubs. Amelia's Aurors looked just as shocked as she was. Amos Diggory and his wife and son were looking at Sirius Black as though a Demon had showed himself all of a sudden. The three students in the back didn't look surprised at all.
Amelia could have made a point about harboring a fugitive, but if he was innocent, she didn't want to make a bad situation worse.
Sirius Black addressed her. "Madam Bones, I will submit to questioning under Veritaserum!" He made his way to the binding chair that had formerly held Crouch Jr.
She administered the Veritaserum and waited for it to take effect.
"What is your name?"
"Sirius Orion Black."
"Are you a Death Eater?"
"No."
"Are you a follower of He-Who-Must-No-Be-Named?"
"No."
"Were you the Secret Keeper for the Potters?"
"No. I convinced them that I was too obvious and they secretly switched to Peter."
"Did you kill the 12 muggles when confronting Peter Pettigrew?"
"No. Peter caused an explosion to escape."
"Were you interviewed or given a trial after your arrest?"
"No. Barty Crouch decided I was guilty and threw me into Azkaban. I was never questioned."
"Why did you escape Azkaban?"
"To protect my godson."
"Why was he in danger?"
"Fudge gave me a copy of the Daily Prophet when he was inspecting Azkaban and I saw a picture with Pettigrew in rat-form on the front page. The article stated that the boy with him was a classmate of Harry's. I had to kill Pettigrew before he could harm Harry."
Amelia administered the counter-agent. "On behalf of the Ministry of Magic, I would like to apologize for a severe miscarriage of justice. I will work on your behalf to receive compensation for your illegal imprisonment. Any charges for escaping Azkaban will be dropped and any fee for being an unregistered animagus will be taken from the settlement."
"Thank you, Madam Bones."
"Cornelius, Albus. I expect full cooperation with the DMLE from the Minister of Magic and the Head of the Wizenmagot for a Statement of Exoneration and Declaration of Innocence for Mr. Black." She took a piece of parchment from Albus's desk and with her wand created such a Declaration. Dumbledore just smiled at her and signed, but Fudge looked as though he had a bad case of constipation when he added his signature to the form. Madam Bones used a copying charm and created 5 copies: the original for Sirius Black, one copy for Dumbledore as the head of the Wizenmagot, one for her files, one for Minister Fudge, another copy for Gringott's and a last one for the press.
Sirius Black thanked her and whooped as he rushed to the back of the room to hug his godson.
Finally, Ameila turned back to Pettigrew and administered the Veritaserum.
"What is your name?"
"Peter Alfred Pettigrew."
"Are you a Death Eater?"
"Yes."
"When did you become a Death Eater?"
"August 1981."
"Were you the Secret Keeper for the Potters?"
"Yes."
"Did you betray them to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?"
"Yes."
"Did you kill the 12 muggles when confronted by Sirius Black?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"To make my escape and to deflect blame to Sirius."
"How did you escape?"
"I cut my finger off and transformed into my Wormtail form to escape down a sewer."
"Where have you been for the last 13 years?"
"I found a Ministry worker's family to hide at to wait for when my Master resurfaced. When I was found out, I found my Master so that he could protect me."
"Were you involved in a plot to resurrect your Master?"
"Yes."
"What did you do?"
"I kidnapped Bertha Jorkins when she recognized me and gave her to my Master. I helped to subdue Mad-Eye Moony so that Barty could get into Hogwarts. I brewed the potion to restore my Master according to his instructions. I gave my hand to the potion as part of the ritual."
Amelia was even more appalled than she was when questioning Crouch. If this were true, the wizarding world was in for some very rough times, and Fudge had continually cut the funding from the Aurors.
Apparently war was around the corner and there was very little time to prepare. It might take ousting Fudge to get things going right.
She used Dumbledore's floo again to call two more Aurors to take away Pettigrew. At this rate, all of the Aurors on duty would be escorting prisoners tonight. When the two new Aurors arrived, they saw Sirius Black in the back of the room and started to move toward him. Amelia stopped them and indicated Peter Pettigrew instead would be escorted to a holding cell.
Harry Potter walked over to her and indicated that Ron Weasley would no longer be needed as he could only testify if needed for Sirius Black. She began to ask Albus to dismiss all the students except Potter, as she felt she had enough information without involving Diggory. As she was suggesting this, Potter had a request.
"Can Hermione Granger stay?" He dropped his voice; "If she doesn't find out soon what happened, she's going to explode on me, and I wouldn't want to be responsible for the cleanup after the destruction of the Gryffindor Common room."
Dumbledore twinkled some more (Harry wondered how he did that, some twinkling charm?) and asked Sprout to escort Weasley and Diggory out. Mrs. Diggory was set to leave with Cedric, but Amos stayed behind as a department head in the Ministry to get the rest of the story. Ron looked like he wanted to protest, but one look at McGonagall's face shut him up quick.
As a last word, Dumbledore asked, "Oh and Mr. Diggory and Mr. Weasley. If you could pass the word to your house mates that an announcement will be made tomorrow at lunch regarding the events of this evening. Professor Sprout, if you could inform a prefect from Ravenclaw and Slytherin as to this, as well as Professor Karkaroff and Headmistress Maxime the same and that they may meet with me tomorrow around 11:00 to get the details beforehand. Tippy!" All of a sudden a house elf appeared in front of the Headmaster. "Please arrange guest chambers for Mrs. Molly Weasley and her son Mr. Bill Weasley if they would like to stay at the castle and escort them there. Inform our guests that Mr. Potter will be detained for a bit longer and that I am sure they will be able to get the details in the morning. Mr. and Mrs. Diggory, do you wish to stay in the castle tonight?" After they had indicated no, he dismissed the elf and Tippy nodded her head as she popped off to arrange things.
Professor Sprout left the room after a look at Minerva. Minerva nodded her head slightly to indicate that she would find her afterward to let her and Filius in on the scoop. Pamona Sprout definitely wanted to get the details before all the rumors started.
"Now, Mr. Potter, if you would recount the happenings of this night?"
In another part of the castle, Bill Weasley had just been shown quarters in the guest chambers at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. His mother had been upset at having been dismissed from her waiting by a house elf, but had left to floo her husband that they would be staying at the castle and that she would let him know what was happening.
He was thinking about all of the weird things that seemed to happen around Harry Potter. He had heard stories from his brother about the things that they had been involved in since first year. When he had met Harry before the World Cup, he had found him to be a somewhat shy individual who didn't seem to like the spotlight as much as his brother seemed to indicate. Harry definitely looked less shy why he had come back from wherever he went after the third task.
Bill heard a whoosh as an owl came through the chimney at the fireplace and landed on the desk in the guest chambers. His eyes widened as he saw that this was a special Gringott's owl. These were particular owls were bred and trained for the highest security communications. They were specifically warded against tracking charms, trained to find their targets when they were alone, trained to pass through most wards undetectably, and trained to dodge any attempt to bring them down short of their target. They were a massively expensive form of communication and were only used by those willing to pay premium rates or by the Goblin leadership. He took the letter addressed to him and opened it.
"Mr. William Weasley
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Guest Quarters
Mr. Weasley,
As an employee of Gringott's this communiqué falls under your Oath of Secrecy to the bank. No one outside of those indicated within this letter may be informed of its contents or that such a communiqué has been delivered.
Due to the nature of the events that you are attending and the results, you are charged with finding out any and all pertinent information as to the events of the TriWizard Tournament on June 24th 1995 and the involvement of Mr. Harry James Potter.
No information passed to Gringott's will be used against our client, Mr. Potter, and this information is specifically requested to aid Gringott's Bank to effectively serve our client.
Any Oaths of Secrecy that may be requested of you should be worded in such a way that the information divulged can be passed on to be used to aid Gringott's in their service to their depositors.
Should there be any significant effect on Mr. Potter in his status as a client of this bank or on any other client, Mr. Potter should be invited to meet with myself at his earliest opportunity. No one other than Mr. Potter and those that he chooses to inform may be apprised of this request. Please ask him to contact me at his EARLIEST convenience to go over any matters that should arise.
For successful completion of this task, am amount of G500 will be added to your account. Should you fail to complete this task, your employment will be reviewed with a possible consequence of termination. Please come directly to me with pertinent information by 16:00 on June 26th, 1995.
May Profits Be Increased and Our Enemies Destroyed
Ragnok
Director, Gringott's Bank
Chief of the Goblin Nation
Bill looked at his letter and his only thought was, "The shite is about to be hit by the blasting hex."
A/N: I didn't think Bill would necessarily know the muggle expression with the fan. So, there you go on that one