Burning Day
Powderkeg and Spark
By Kinsfire
Disclaimer: When will it ever end? (Author takes on a dramatic pose and overacts his heart out.) How many times do I need to say that I don't own any of this? That it all belongs to JK Rowling and that she makes all the money? (Author blinks and realises that his acting skills have not improved over the years.) Uh, yeah. Well, it's still true — she owns it all.
Note: The quasi-riot in the Gringott's square was based on nothing in particular. I wasn't thinking of any specific incident. What I was thinking was that all it takes is one low level, fairly green Auror getting a little scared and firing off nothing more than sparks to let someone know that they mean business for a stampede to start. It wasn't so much of a riot as it was the equivalent of someone screaming "Fire!" in a crowded theatre. And a young child died in the stampede.
Amelia Bones arrived with Albus Dumbledore and surveyed the damage. Ripped cloaks were all across the square, and the body of a small child lay in the square. Harry himself was being comforted by Luna as he sobbed uncontrollably.
Not the start that we wanted, dammit, she thought. None of us wanted anyone to die, least of all a child. She shook her head and walked to Harry, who was being comforted by Luna. He was beside himself with grief.
"Harry?' she asked, kneeling beside him. "What happened?"
"They did!" he snarled, pointing at the columns of Gringott's.
She looked at the columns and saw nothing until she saw a tiny streak of red sliding down one. Following the streak, she found herself faced with a team of Aurors at least fifty feet off the crowd, held in similar angles to what Malfoy's followers had been when they had gotten to Malfoy Manor.
Harry was no longer crying, and Amelia found herself almost wishing that he was, because his rage was rolling off him in waves of power. "If these idiots had been able to hold off firing into the crowd, there wouldn't have been a rush to get away that left a young boy dead!"
"You need to let them down, Harry," she said softly. His answer was to simply unloose them from the columns, and they fell heavily to the ground. At least one break was heard.
The lead Auror got to his feet and stormed over. "Harry Potter, I am arresting you for your attack on a team of Aurors. Are you going to come quietly?"
Amelia Bones drew herself to full height and opened her mouth to speak when she was stopped short by Harry's simple "Yes. I will come quietly." He looked over to Luna and his eyes twinkled. "It's up to my wives to make me come any other way."
"Harry?" Albus asked.
"Simple. He's right. The panic started by the Aurors was finished by the time that I sent them flying. Whether or not the law that they were following was rescinded even before they began to pick children up, I sent them flying into the columns of Gringott's." He pulled his wand and handed it to Albus Dumbledore. "I can't be certain that an 'accident' might not happen with it, so I would prefer it if you were to hold it, sir?"
"I am honoured," he replied. "It shall be returned in pristine condition."
Harry chuckled. "Perhaps I should have handed it to Luna. I think I prefer my wives checking into my wand health."
"Enough," the Auror said. "Put your hands behind your back."
"He's been rather cooperative," Amelia said, ending her comment with the unspoken request for the Auror's name.
"Blytheville, ma'am. Heathcliffe Blytheville."
"We'll be having a long talk back at the Ministry about certain things going on recently, Blytheville," she said. "Count on it."
She followed the team to the Ministry, as did both Luna and Dumbledore, and watched as Harry was processed.
Harry was processed through the system and asked the others not to interfere with the process at all. "That' part of the problem, you see," he said, not caring if the other Aurors overheard. "If you have friends in high places in the Ministry, you can get all sorts of perks, including getting various charges to go missing. I believe that the attack had mitigating circumstances, but I did attack them."
He went to his cell, listening to various complaints coming through the link from his wives. We knew this could happen, he finally sent back through it to them. I was prepared for this. Besides, if they do what I expect them to, any extra shielding should prevent a successful Obliviation.
What are you expecting? Hermione asked. He could feel her eyes narrowing in suspicion.
To be beaten slightly, enough to know 'who's boss' and then some healing to hide it, and an Obliviation to lose the memory, so that I can't complain about it later, he replied simply. If Umbridge could do it and climb in the Ministry, then it's an old established unwritten rule. She didn't even have to Obliviate anyone, because she had the Ministry on her side to quash any complaints.
That night, the cell opened and two Aurors came in. I think it's about to begin, he sent them.
"We were on that team you attacked today," one of them said simply before sending a Stinging Hex Harry's way.
Harry didn't even flinch as it hit. "Ow," he said as if he were reading it from a script. "That hurt. Stop it."
"You won't think it's quite so funny in a little while, clown," the other one said.
The next hour was a study in tactics to humiliate and harass and hurt a person. The nudity, the beatings, and even the cracking of a single rib would likely have begun the process of tearing another inmate apart, but Harry had been made numb to such things by years at the hands of the Dursleys and then from Voldemort.
At the end of the hour, he stood bleeding and bruised, facing his attackers. "You are aware that you will pay for this someday?" he asked quietly, and in a voice that made one of them shiver slightly.
The other one smirked. "Jan, heal him." The one that had reacted to his voice came over and cast several spells, even fixing the cracked rib. Once that was done, the smirking one said, "It's not likely that you'll remember this, 'friend'. Obliviate!"
Harry had been prepared for that, and had his shields up. He also thanked his wives for the added strength as the memory modification spell washed over him. He schooled his face into the blank look that Lockhart had on his face when his spell backfired. The smirking one said, "When we leave the room, you'll think that you just woke up for some unknown reason, and will go back to sleep."
They left the cell and turned out the lights, and Harry grinned in the darkness. "That's what you think, sucker."
This treatment continued for a week, every night different tortures happening to him. He and his wives had to admit that they effort made the night before his trial was a classic, though, and he knew that they'd all remember the girl.
She looked as if someone had taken all the best about Harry's wives and tossed in Cho and the Patil twins for an exotic look. The girl obviously had no problems getting dates, especially if she was willing to dress in public the way she was dressed under her Auror cloak. Or not dressed, as the case may be.
I don't know, loves — is the idea to make me cheat on you ladies or to give me a raging case of blue balls?
Cheat, I think, Luna said through the link. To have the evidence in hand in case you manage to do something to them, they have something that they can use to humiliate you with.
Well, if you mention it in the trial, Hermione said, it tends to defuse the ability of that faction to use it as evidence. Especially since they'll be expecting you not to remember it, and then they can use it at their discretion.
Since he's sort of stuck there, why don't we give permission? Pansy said. Then we can use the link and ... well, I'd imagine the skills of five people who have given the subject a great deal of study just might give the young woman pause.
Or an orgasm it'll take all of tomorrow to recover from, Susan finished with a giggle. And we also know that any of us can get telepathic flashes from the person we're making love to.
Sneaky, Harry said. Sex as a spying tool is an ancient tradition, but we're not doing it in quite the same way.
With that, Harry 'succumbed' to the ladies charms. He was a little surprised by what he found, other than a partner a lot more eager to do this than he would have expected. She was fresh out of the Academy, and had been told that Harry was a revolutionary who was going to topple the Ministry. They didn't like to ask her to do it, but ...
She had been a fifth year Hufflepuff the year that Harry had been in his seventh at Hogwarts. He had a vague recollection of her fending boys off due to her looks, and he detected from her the intense jealousy that she'd had for a while that Susan had gotten to him first, not that she could blame Harry for falling for a girl with an arse that perfect ...
The girl was the epitome of Hufflepuff — strong, loyal, and with a strong sense of justice. She wasn't entirely sure that this was the right way to deal with the situation, but her superiors insisted with great sincerity that Harry was likely working for the fall of the wizarding world.
In response to this, they gently sent to her mind some things that might make her doubt her convictions — the law having been scuttled before the child pick-ups began; the honesty (or lack thereof) involved in sending an Auror in to prostitute herself with a prisoner; the beatings that they made her believe that she'd heard about somewhere.
As the two lay in the afterglow of a very pleasant diversion, he sent to his wives, I thank you for being with me. I wouldn't have felt right doing this otherwise, and probably wouldn't have. After a pause, Does that little thing with the tongue really drive you four that insane? His only response was a series of giggles.
A bell chimed and Auror Isabella Honeyspear stood and slowly dressed. He was quite sure that she'd be walking a little sorely later on, but there hadn't been any complaints from her at the time. With just you making love to her she'd likely be walking that way, but with all five of us? said Pansy with a mental smirk. Isabella knocked on the door and was released, followed about five minutes later by one of the male Aurors. "Pity you won't remember anything about this," he said before the usual spell-work.
The day came for his trial before the Wizengamot, and he smiled. The Auror department was not going to be happy with what they were about to learn.
He was led to the all to familiar chair, although this one seemed to be a replacement for the one that he had been in the last time he'd been there. Guess I broke the last one, he said in a mock-sorrowful mental voice to his wives. As usual, the chains wrapped around him, although not tightly.
Careful, Harry, Hermione replied. This could go quite well for you, or it could go quite badly.
I'm not terribly worried. At worst I'll get a short stint in Azkaban, which will not sit well with the people. After a momentary pause, he added, besides, you've always got Gabrielle and Isabella to console yourselves with.
Gabrielle? Susan asked. Making a motion to include her?
Must have been to busy to try to approach you. Fleur said that she wanted to be wife number five, and Gabrielle, who was there at the time, didn't argue. I told her that I had to get to know her as more than a stunningly beautiful young woman on the outside — I need to see if her inner beauty was the same. Plus, she has to pass your muster. Ah, the trial's about to start.
The chains dropped. "Please rise. This is the Ministry of Magic versus Harry Potter, regarding the incident of one week ago. In this case, how does the defendant plea?"
Harry stood straight and met the eyes of the lead judge. "Guilty, but with mitigating circumstances."
He couldn't tell which surprised the watching crowd more — his guilty plea, or the fact that he claimed cause. There was low level pandemonium for a long moment before the lead judge brought it under control. Harry was intrigued to note Scrimgeour on the panel, but not doing a Fudge and running the show.
"You claim extenuating or mitigating circumstances. Explain."
"May I stand?" Harry asked. "I talk better on my feet." At the lead judge nod, he stood. Moron, he thought to his wives. They all forget that I'm rather passable at the wandless stuff.
Pretty good with your wand too, purred Hermione through the link. Miss Honeyspear had no complaints.
Minx. "We all remember what was happening a week ago. For some reason, the crowds in Diagon Alley were angry over something. I had arrived with one of my wives — Luna, to be precise — and with Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore. We had found that they seemed to be angry over the disappearance of a large number of children, and were talking as if the Ministry had been doing the abductions. Many of them reported that those who did it flashed Auror badges."
He sighed. "The talking seemed to be working when a team of Aurors arrived to break up the illegal gathering, as they called it. It was just after the lead Auror admitted that they were grabbing children due to a law that had already been struck down that one of the Aurors apparently fired off some sparks to try to contain the crowd. This led to a stampede of people trying to escape. When the dust settled, there was a dead boy in the square, killed by the panic that the Ministry Aurors had caused in their ineptitude."
Scrimgeour stood. "I ran the Aurors for quite some time, and I can tell you that they are not inept, and I take great offence at such an intimation."
"Then standard procedure when you have a crowd that is on edge is to fire sparks at them and make it seem as though they are about to be attacked? At the point that your Aurors showed up, it seemed as if they might be willing to calm down. Both Luna and Albus — sorry, Headmaster Dumbledore — report seeing sparks aimed toward the crowd. They don't know who they came from, but they were certainly there. Which means that the Aurors fired them and caused the panic."
He grinned. "For that matter, are they given the training that will lead to a court case against pretty much the entire Auror department, brought by me?" Before anyone could react to that statement, he said, "That's neither here nor there. After an Auror-caused panic, a young child was dead. I simply turned and threw my hands toward the Aurors. You can ask the Headmaster about some of the situations that I got into in my last two years of school, when I would do things such as that during times of great stress." He grimaced. "I hate to wake the dead, so to speak, but I did something quite similar to William and Charles Weasley during a very stressful situation that has since been dealt with." He could see the Weasley family (minus Charlie) wincing, and sent an apologetic look their way.
"This is true," Albus said from the gallery. "Under the form of stress that he refers to, he has done things of that nature before."
"You are more powerful than he and you kept your temper," one of the other judges said.
"I argue the first sentiment, and point out in regards to the second that not only am I roughly eight times his senior and have had many more years at curbing my temper, but I did not spend all my formative years knowing that I had a Dark wizard actively searching for my death. All but the first fifteen months and the last five years of his life have been under a cloud of worry." He stood. "Already he shows an ability to hold his temper. Had this incident happened during his seventh year at Hogwarts, when the wizarding world seemed quite willing to vilify him for all that they could, it is likely that several of your Aurors would still be hospitalised. The wounds taken by the team from seven days ago are purely impact wounds, and were healed immediately, I understand."
"They might have been hurt far worse than that," Scrimgeour exclaimed angrily.
"And they might have been blasted to Scotland," Harry replied. "I am not on trial for what might have happened; only for what did. I lost my head upon seeing that a child had died due to the actions of the Aurors, and basically threw them to where I wouldn't have to see them until I could calm down."
Amelia stood. "As the first on the scene after the incident, I can tell you that he was still extremely angry, yet his only other action toward them was to release them from their Sticking Charms."
"They could have been killed!" Scrimgeour yelled.
"From a fall of fifty feet?" Harry scoffed. "I fell further than that while unconscious in Hogwarts Quidditch games, and I think my wives and children can tell you that I didn't die!" There was a titter of lascivious laughter that went around the room at that, which was partially why he had phrased it that way.
The judges disappeared back into their chambers and some people came down to visit him. "I expect to be sentenced to Azkaban for a time," he said. "Scrimgeour doesn't like me since the conversation in his office, and I insulted his Aurors as well. When word comes out about this last week, he's going to be out of office one way or another, because that will reflect back onto him."
He turned to Bill. "I'm sorry about -"
"You go right ahead. If it helps lessen your sentence at all, then you can blame me for everything. After all, Charlie and I are the reasons why there isn't a Weasley-Potter amongst your children."
"No, I take blame for it as well," Ginny said. "Remember, I could have told you all that Harry wouldn't do that. If I'd known him as well as I do now ..." She looked at him. "Have I ever told you just how damned lucky your wives are?"
"No they're not," Harry said with a small chuckle. "They have to deal with me."
"He's got a point there," Pansy said.
"And a pretty good one at that," Susan replied.
"Ah, my own personal ego-busting squad," he interrupted, before the other two could join in. Luna stuck her tongue out at him. "Ah, making promises just before I go to jail. You're evil, I tell you."
"And you wouldn't have me any other way," she replied sweetly.
He was trying to decide several comments, from the mildly suggestive to the flat out raunchy, when the Wizengamot judges exited their chambers and took their seat. Scrimgeour was smiling, so Harry took the wind from their sails. "Since I see the Minister smiling, my only question is this — how long am I sentenced to Azkaban for?"
A gasp shot around the courtroom, which was quickly silenced by the lead judge. "You are correct as to your sentence. Since testimony from Albus Dumbledore and Amelia Bones both speak to your state of mind and what you could have done, we have been lenient. You are to be remanded to the custody of the Aurors that you may be taken to Azkaban, where you will spend the next thirty days."
Cries of protest rose throughout the gallery, and what surprised everyone, including the judges, was that it was Harry who shouted "Silence!" to the gallery. None not closely connected to him knew that he'd added a mild Sonorus to the shout. "The verdict was fair. I was accused of attacking Aurors. Had I not had the mitigating factor of my emotional state, I likely would be there for a very long time, rather than thirty days. So please calm down, everyone."
He smirked internally. I'm letting out my Slytherin side. You know word of this will get out, and those that were there will be talking about this verdict. Scrimgeour won't stand a chance of remaining in office once I sue them for their abuse. "Before I go to Azkaban, may I please speak with Madam Bones to give testimony in an upcoming trial? I can be there under the guard of whatever Aurors she may choose."
The judges looked to each other and then looked back and nodded. Amelia Bones called forth Tonks and Shacklebolt, who led him to her office.
"What evidence do you have?" Amelia asked once the door was closed.
"Pensieve memories of a number of the Aurors abusing me in the cell I was in for the last week, including their attempts at Obliviation."
The silence was painful. "Oh, one thing. Go easy on Auror Honeyspear. Her superiors played on the fact that she's the perfect Hufflepuff, and convinced her that I'm evil and trying to throw the wizarding world into anarchy."
"What did she do?" Tonks asked with narrowed eyes.
"With the permission of Susan and the others, I let her seduce me. I can perform Legilimency by touch when I'm that intimate with someone, and they ... well, Honeyspear looks like the very best of my wives, with a little bit of Cho and the Patil girls tossed in." He blushed a little bit.
Amelia sat there for a long moment, looking angry. Harry called Susan and company to the office just in case. "It's bad enough that they're abusing prisoners and making them forget the abuse, but to prostitute my Aurors to gather blackmail material?"
"They chose well. She really believed that she was doing it for a good cause. Amusingly enough, they were partially right — I do intend to change things here."
"Let's get the testimony out of the way so that you can begin your sentence," Amelia growled. This led to two hours of Harry describing what had happened and giving her copies of his memories. When he was finally finished, he was given over to the Aurors that were to take him to Azkaban, but not before he could kiss his wives goodbye.
At Azkaban, they took what few possessions that remained, including his wedding ring. For the first time in five years, he was completely alone. He had been placed in the short-term incarceration wing, since he had a term of less than a year.
Even knowing that he'd be released in thirty days, being completely alone brought back some very bad memories for him, and he lost track of the time fairly quickly. The Dementors hadn't guarded the prison in more than seven years, but the place still seemed to hold a miasma of their foul presence within these walls in the cool damp stone walls and the general feeling of hopelessness. The fact of it being in the middle of the cold and dangerous North Sea didn't help very much either. Smart prisoners did not want a window seat, as it were.
It didn't help that he knew that he had lost Amelia Bones' respect. She was the closest I had to a real aunt, and now she'll have nothing to do with me when I leave. Will she try to fight me in my attempts to improve things?
He sat in his cell day after day as the dankness and darkness seemed to creep into his bones. No one talked to him at all, and he found himself wondering if that was normal, or Amelia Bones' request. I should have at least apologised for disappointing her.
Maybe she'll convince the others that it was a bad idea to have married me. No one has come to visit, after all. I can't say that she'd be wrong, either. I shouldn't have done that with Honeyspear. It's probably cost me everything.
Faster than he thought, but still far too slowly, his thirty days were over. His wedding ring was returned to him, and he stared at it for a long moment before slipping it into his pocket, rather than slipping it on. He was led to the small boat that would take him from the island to the mainland, and he climbed in silently, both in his steps and in his demeanour.
He kept his head down during the slow, wet trip, thinking about what he had left to do. He still had a revolution to deal with, but his heart had gone out of the process.
The boat came to a stop at the dock and he climbed from it. He stepped from dock to dry land and watched as five people stepped from the building — his wives and Albus Dumbledore. They stepped toward him, worry evident on their faces.
"I'm sorry," he said.
"What happened to your ring?" Hermione asked as she caught sight of his hand.
"I've been afraid to put it back on," he admitted. "No one visited me, and when I left Madam Bones, she was so terribly angry at me for the Honeyspear incident, I thought that she might have convnced the four of you that -"
He got no further, because he suddenly had four women holding him tightly. "Put your ring back on, Harry," Susan said softly. "Feel what we really feel about you."
He reached into his pocket, pulled out the brilliant grey-white metal ring and just looked at it for a moment. Susan reached over after several seconds of his indecision and took the ring, sliding it onto his left hand.
He was suddenly assailed with the emotions and sensations of four women, and the strongest of all of them was the intense love that they still felt for him, followed closely by the relief at his release. After a month of no connection, and worries that they would have been convinced that being with him was a bad idea, this was too much for him, and he crashed to his knees, crying as hard as he had for the dead boy five weeks earlier.
They held him again, rocking with him as he cried out his relief and the pain of separation that had finally completely struck him, even though that separation was ended. Once he had finished his outburst, they helped him to his feet and took him back to Potter Manor.
He was met by the rest of his revolutionary crew, with the addition of Auror Honeyspear. "Thank you for your kind words, Mr Potter," she said. "They used me. I quit the Aurors because of that."
"I'm sorry for the loss of your job, Miss Honeyspear," he said quite honestly.
"That's all right," she said. "I've been with this group for a little while, and they've helped me out." She blushed as she said that, which made Harry turn and look at his wives. Pansy mouthed "Later" at him, so he nodded.
Amelia Bones approached. "I'm glad you're back, Harry."
"I'm glad to be out, Madam Bones," he replied. Changing the subject, he said, "I have been in a single cell for a month, with very little chance to keep clean .If you all don't mind, I think I'll go up and get a shower before coming down to get a progress report."
He walked up the stairs, hearing behind him, "He used to call me Aunt. What happened?"
As he disappeared, he could hear Susan starting to speak, "Well, Aunt Amelia -" in a very angry voice. He shook his head in puzzlement. What's going on? Her anger at me was fairly evident. What changed her mind?
The water had only been running for a few moments when the door opened and he felt bare skin against his. "Welcome home love," Hermione whispered in his ear. "Let's get you properly clean." When they left a while later, he was quite clean, and happier than he'd been when he entered the shower.
He re-entered the room that seemed to have become their war room, and was immediately met by Amelia again. "I am so sorry!" she exclaimed, far more worried than he had ever seen the woman before. "I was angry at the Aurors under my command, and I didn't realise that you might take my anger at them as anger at you. I understand the link, and understand that they gave you permission."
"You don't hate me?" he asked, cursing the 'little boy' quality he could hear creep in.
She swept him into a hug. "You've made my Susan so happy over these years. How could I hate you?"
"Easily," he said. "My relatives hated me because I existed. You would have had a real reason to hate me."
"Well I don't, so let's go past that, and get to the meeting. We'll talk later, and I'll try to make up for my mistake." She led him to his seat at the head of the table and hugged him tightly again before letting him sit.
He shook his head, smiling and looking at his wedding ring for a moment, smiling at the feeling fo completeness once more. "Okay, what's happening out there?"
Bill spoke first. "We've gotten the Quibbler moved to the new site and got the wards up. I was serious about that when we spoke, by the way. It would take a warder from the team that laid the wards about an hour to drop them, and that's knowing how they went up. The Ministry trying anything against them is going to leave the Ministry warders in pain to say the very least." At Harry's questioning look, he explained. "The wards are set up in layers. At no point are they intentionally lethal, but they will give several layers of response, first announcing that a breach attempt is being made." He grinned. "There are two ways of getting around that announcement, and the better one is the route that only a goblin-trained warder would take. Most everyone else is going to try a different route, and that route will set off silent alarms. As they get deeper and set off other wards, it becomes non-silent, and then starts giving warning shots, so to speak — no danger, but annoying. If they keep pushing, it will get nastier, until the point where it's offering a severe shock to the team. None of it is fatal, but it is damned annoying."
"Good. How about protecting the other families?"
"The Parkinsons and the Grangers have been moved for the time being," Albus replied. "Alonso and Aldonza have once again taken over the dower cottage on the property, and Keith and Dorothy opted to move in here, into one of the spare bedrooms."
"How's the situation on the street?"
Lawrence spoke up. "Ugly. The people know that you were in jail, and they don't like it. You're seen as having gone to jail for them, and have become a hero. Someone got a photograph of you crying over that little boy, and ... I hope you'll forgive me, but I used it for some publicity for our cause."
Luna giggled. "It was a beautiful editorial, too — asking whether this was the mark of a cruel and heartless anarchist, right next to the photo."
"Is there a leader amongst the people that we can talk to?" he asked.
A few people winced before Lawrence spoke again. "Actually, they seemed to have been waiting for you to get out of jail. You've stood up to the Ministry before, and went to jail even. They show every sign of wanting you as their leader."
Harry grimaced. "And my suit against many of the Aurors isn't going to make that seem any less of a good idea."
"Especially with an ex-Auror testifying for you," Honeyspear said.
"I want this fight as bloodless as possible. If the people are going to decide that I'm their leader, then they are going to listen to that important point," Harry said to the assembled group.
"Harry, we agree with you, but how on earth can you manage to think politics at a time like this?" Susan asked as she slid up his body.
"Well, we may all be naked, but no one was doing anything about it," he said softly just before kissing her lips. "I take it that the official welcome home orgy is about to begin?" Oddly, that comment caused each of the girls to wince. "all right, what happened while I was gone?"
Pansy looked pensive for a long moment. "Well, while you were gone, we ended up having an orgy. All female, but with more than just the four of us."
"Ah, Gabrielle finally made her move?" he asked with a grin.
"So did Miss Honeyspear," Hermione said. "When we explained what had happened, she asked for another chance, this time without the man in the middle." She giggled. "Not that she had any complaints about the man, she moaned rather forcefully. She apparently has a very good memory, and sometimes remembers sensations."
Pansy picked it up again. "Well, we were all sitting around drinking, unhappy that we couldn't feel you in our heads, and ... well, one thing led to another, and we all ended up naked and having sex."
"Where's the problem?" he asked. "You trusted everyone enough to make love with them, so why would I be angry?"
"Because I looked down at one point to find a redhead making love to me," Hermione said softly, "and Susan was in an odd conglomeration with Luna and Gabrielle, while Pansy was being 'tortured' by Isabella."
The image that it brought to mind caused him to take several seconds before piecing together what they were saying. "Okay, since I know for a fact that it wasn't Daphne for various reasons, the main one being that she's delightedly monogamous with Ron, and it sure as hell wouldn't have been Molly Weasley, that leaves one other Weasley female." He blinked for a moment and said, with no inflection whatsoever, "No. How could you. With her." He looked at them with greater animation next. "So, how was that?"
They were looking at him in surprise. "What? We've all grown up, and I know that alcohol doesn't make you do things you don't want to, so I'd imagine that in these last five years, Hermione, you've gotten to really like the new Ginny." He wiggled his eyebrows.
"Harry, it's Ginny," Hermione said.
"Is there some reason that we all have to decide if she's to be admitted to our little family right at this moment?" he asked. They shook their head in the negative. "Okay. So we worry about what might be a non-issue after everything is said and done. A much more adult Ginny being in an orgy with you ladies is the least of my worries right now, okay?" They nodded, and the night continued to the enjoyment of all.
Harry Apparated to the Ministry with Amelia to begin the process of levelling charges against multiple Aurors. He also began the process of finding out whether or not the children that had been abducted had been returned to their families yet.
Rufus Scrimgeour showed up in the middle of Harry's swearing out complaints against the Aurors, all of whom had names now, thanks to the memories he had left for Amelia. He had sworn out the one against Isabella grudgingly, before Scrimgeour arrived, and blushed as he had to admit that he certainly had had no complaints at the time.
"What will it take to get you to stop this foolishness, Potter?" Scrimgeour asked.
"Ensure that every child that was taken is returned to their parent or parents and agree that the Ministry needs to be rebuilt from the ground up."
"You're talking about a coup!" was the Minister's outraged response.
"We're talking about a group of people who know that there's no taxation on the rich, and who have had a sign that the Ministry as it currently stands can literally tear their homes apart with no remorse for the act. Your vaunted Aurors are mostly thugs and bullies, with some notable exceptions."
"Yes, Miss Honeyspear," Scrimgeour said snidely.
"Actually no," Harry said. "I was thinking of some different people; people with honour and pride in their job, who are rather offended at the concept of Aurors being allowed to torture inmates in the holding cells."
He glared at the Minister. "I blame this on you, sir," he said angrily. "You were in charge of the Aurors for a while, and this is something that strikes me as being around for a while. The body is only as healthy as the head is, and if the body is showing signs of decay ..."
Scrimgeour rose to his full height. "Don't think that this is over by any stretch of the imagination, Potter," he snarled, once more enforcing the leonine aura that he gave off.
"I caution you the same, sir," Harry replied sharply. He was about to say more when someone burst into the office.
"We have Aurors in trouble, ma'am!" the out of breath Auror said to Amelia Bones.
"Well send 'em reinforcements!" Scrimgeour said.
"Explain the situation in ten words or less, Auror," Amelia said sharply.
"Auror went to pick up a child," he panted. "Family fighting back."
"You've still got people picking up children, Rufus?" Harry asked. "Illegally?"
"There's nothing written that rescinds it, Potter."
"It's a unjust and bigoted law, and you know it." He spun on the Auror. "Where is it?"
"It's up in Fife, a farm family."
"What are you telling a civilian for?" Scrimgeour yelled.
"I'm gone," Harry said. "Maybe I can keep some of his goons from killing any more innocents." With that, Harry ran from the room, shouldering aside Scrimgeour when the man tried to block him.
He arrived at the Apparation point to find a number of Aurors heading out. He slipped a quick tracer on one of them just as they disappeared, and then followed it, calling to his wives as he did.
He arrived with the team of Aurors, and found that the situation was going to rapidly get out of hand. The Auror team was gearing up to storm them, but both the adults were holding firearms, and at least one Auror that Harry could see was on the ground, being seen to by his team. He stepped away from the team and walked up to the family, but not before placing a strong shield between the Aurors and the family. "Hi," he said simply.
"You came with them," the man said with distrust.
"Only way I could find where 'here' was. I was in the Ministry when I heard about the Aurors illegally picking up a child, and thought that I could stop it." He suddenly grinned as he got word from his wives. "In about fifteen seconds, another group of people are going to show up here, and they'll be on our side."
Right on schedule, Hermione, Luna, Susan, Ginny, Daphne and Ron appeared, with Albus, Bill, Isabella Honeyspear, both Delacours and both Alorkin and Griphook appearing seconds behind them. "They were at the meeting," Hermione said sweetly, "and thought that they'd offer their assistance in keeping the children safe."
"Okay," Harry said to the Aurors. "You've got us fourteen, almost all of whom have fought Voldemort, versus you guys. Do you really want to push this one?"