"So you have no idea why you are here, Arthur?" asked Scrimgeour.
"Apart from what little you told me while arresting me, I have no idea why I'm here," replied Arthur Weasley, evenly.
Following his arrest in the middle of the night, Arthur had been taken to the Ministry, where two Healers had awaited his arrival. They examined him for influential potions, but seemed to find nothing. Then he had been escorted to a holding cell and left there until about ten minutes ago when two unspeakables had arrived to escort him to the questioning room.
One of the unspeakables had removed Arthur's glasses and the other had placed a blindfold over his eyes. They had then marched the blindfolded man along several corridors until that arrived in the room in which they were currently sitting. He had been pushed down into the chair that sat in the middle of the room and cold steel chains had quickly secured themselves around Arthur's wrists and ankles, shackling him to the chair.
The blindfold had then been whipped off and Arthur had blinked as his eyes struggled to adjust. Someone put his glasses onto his face, allowing the room to come into focus.
Around him were two unspeakables, four aurors and Head Auror Rufus Scrimgeour.
Scrimgeour leaned forwards and fixed Arthur with an intense glare before speaking.
"Last night a man dressed in full Death Eater costume attacked the home of the Abbott family. Sarah Abbott was the only one home at the time and she was gravely injured. Fortunately the family's two House Elves were able to disable the attacker and put the Lady of the House in a magical stasis to prevent her bleeding to death.
"The attacker was Severus Snape, Arthur."
Arthur's eyes widened and his skin paled as the ramifications slowly began to become clear.
"Once we got him to the Ministry we questioned Snape, using everything we had at our disposal. He thinks himself to be a good occlumens, but we soon had him singing like a canary. He told us all sorts of things Arthur.
"In particular he told us that he had received orders to kill Sarah Abbott from Albus Dumbledore himself."
"No," whispered Arthur, in disbelief.
"He also informed us of a seedy plot taking place up at Hogwarts Castle, one designed to ensure that Harry Potter listened to once voice, and one voice only; Dumbledore's."
Arthur shook his head.
Scrimgeour pressed on "By the time we got to him, Harry Potter had been subjected to memory altering spells and behaviour altering potions. He is nothing like the person he was on Saturday morning.
But Dumbledore did not stop there. He knew that the students of Hogwarts would notice a sudden change in Mr Potter's behaviour and so he organised several counter-measures. First there were the members of the Order of the Phoenix who were stationed around the castle in order to intercept all post owls. Second, and far more sinister, was the attempted administration of blind acceptance potions to all the student population.
"I say attempted because when we arrived at the castle, there were around forty students found in a classroom on the seventh floor. They had caught on to what was happening and had attempted to avoid being caught in the web. They were rounded up and locked in that room, under the guard of many members of the Order of the Phoenix, including your oldest son, as well as a substantial portion of the school staff.
"What we need to know from you, Arthur, is why?"
Arthur Weasley swallowed nervously, and then he began to talk.
The door opened and Healer Turpin stepped out. Looking around she quickly spotted the father and daughter sitting on some waiting chairs just a little further down the corridor.
"She's awake," she announced, and the duo immediately got up and hurried towards the door, with Susan trailing behind.
Amelia sat down in the chair behind her desk and poured herself a cup of tea from the pot. It was now just after nine thirty in the morning and this was the first break that she had taken since lunchtime of the previous day.
Having interviewed Arthur, Molly and William Weasley, Minerva McGonagall, Filius Flitwick, Pomona Sprout, Alastor Moody, Nymphadora Tonks and Poppy Pomfrey, Amelia and the other interrogators had agreed to take a one-hour recess in order to recuperate before continuing their work.
So far only the three Weasleys and Tonks had been willing to talk to any real extent. While all of them were obviously firmly entrenched within the 'Dumbledore can do no wrong' camp, their reasons for being so were at least somewhat understandable.
For the Weasley family, it was a case of financial support. After Molly's brothers, Gideon and Fabian Prewitt had been killed while serving the Order of the Phoenix in the first war against Voldemort, Dumbledore had personally paid for each of Molly and Arthur's children to attend Hogwarts.
Personally, Amelia was certain that there had to be more to it than that, but whatever the true reasons, the perceived generosity on Dumbledore's part had secured the loyalty of the Weasley family who, after all, would only have been able to send Bill to Hogwarts and the rest to Waxwings.
Tonks was a different matter. Initially she had joined the Order of the Phoenix due to a recommendation from Alastor Moody, whom she had been protégé to during her final year of training to become an Auror. Initially Tonks had been loyal because Moody was, but, thanks in large part to Dumbledore giving her a job after she was fired from the Auror corps, Tonks was now as loyal to Dumbledore as any Weasley.
So far everyone else had remained tight lipped. This, coupled with the lack of influencing potions in their respective bodies led Amelia to assume that they were loyal to Dumbledore because he had something on them.
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