Bones gave a frustrated grimace and seemed to think about it.
Harry just smirked and said, "You're here, under a Fidelius, I have control of the wards, I could even call for a house elf to stun your arse from behind if I wanted to. I've done none of that, have I?"
With a slight sigh of defeat, Bones came out from behind the door with her wand pointed down and away. She looked resigned to her fate.
Harry cast the Polyjuice Detection charm on her... which showed she wasn't someone under Polyjuice. "Sleeve up, please," he said.
Instead of sliding just one sleeve up, she slid both up. Both arms were bare.
He lowered the wand and gave her a nod. "As far as I can tell... all clear." "As far as you can tell?" she grumpily asked, sliding her sleeves back down.
"As far as I can tell," he firmly replied. "For all I know Riddle, or one of his masked minions, might have been able to design a new form of glamour or masking potion no one's seen before."
"In that case, can we wake the rest of my people back up now?" she asked.
"You wake 'em," he said. "One at a time and make sure they don't try to immediately attack me. They can have their wands back once you've woken them all. I'm going to be back up on that landing."
"Wise," she muttered, raising her wand and casting the Enervate Charm on the one nearest her as Harry jogged back up the stairs to 'his' landing.
Once she had the remaining nine aurors all awake and it was explained what was going on, Harry came back down, handed Bones their wands and said, "So long as they know not to attack me again, you can give them their wands back, now."
"They won't!" she firmly said, glaring at the aurors first.
First things first - because 'faux-Hammer' proved to not be Hammer - as minister, Bones reappointed herself as Director of the DMLE pro tem. It would be fixed... later.
Harry then told her about the folks trying to find some way in through the main gates since he took control of the wards. "I'd say they, whoever they are, are Death Eaters; as no one else would have cause to, let alone know the secret of, this place.
"How about you send a few of your aurors out there via a portkey... with large metal shields strapped to their off-hand forearms... to go and arrest them?"
She gave a nod and said, "I'll do that once I know this place is secure."
"Well then," he said. "How about you and me go into the drawing room, Riddle's supposed audience chamber, so you can see for yourself that certain individuals are dead?"
She gave a nod and Harry walked to the double doors of the drawing room. "Oh, and your aurors are free to search the rest of this place. I believe Madam Malfoy is upstairs in her suites. One of the Malfoy house elves told me that's where she was. She is also, according to one of the elves, unconscious. She reached that state, I believe, by being beaten by her oh-so-loving hubby."
Bones immediately spun and gestured to two of her female aurors. "You two, go check it out. Treat her as hostile until you know otherwise. All but you four, go search the rest of the property for more hostiles."
The two females gave a nod with muttered, 'Yes, Ma'ams' and took off up the stairs. The other aurors began to disperse.
Harry then turned back to the doors and opened them with a flourish.
Stepping out of the way, he said, "One scene of a terrible, terrible accident. I hope you'll forgive me if I covered the bodies. I had to bring a couple of young female children through here to get them out."
Having already seen the prisoners after they arrived at the Ministry - all bar Griphook were already sent to St Mungo's under female auror guard - Bones only gave a nod and walked forward. She had four aurors follow her in.
Others were about to follow, but Harry glared at them and said, "I thought you were given orders to go and search the rest of this manor?" That had the last few scowl, but leave in pairs to do that.
Bones had looked about and headed directly to the dais, side-stepping Nagini on the way, before not even pausing and yanking the sheet off Riddle's body.
She paused only a moment before running a quick scan over him before lowering her wand. "Well, he's dead."
"Yup," said Harry. "A piercing curse to the forehead will tend to render someone that." Turning to Harry she asked, "You killed him?" "Yup." he replied.
"How?" she demanded.
"A piercing curse to forehead ring any bells?" he snarked.
A little frustrated, she asked, "No... I mean... how were you able to accomplish that?" He smirked and, putting actions to words, "I raised my wand like this... then I cast the piercing curse... it hit him in―"
"Alright," she cut him off. "I get it. You killed him with a piercing curse to the forehead. What I want to know is... how were you able to do that when he is... was... so bloody fast!"
"Simple," he replied. "I'm faster."
She just gave a huff of annoyance and shook her head.
"Riddle's fatal misconception," explained Harry, "Is that he believed he was both the most powerful and the fastest with a wand. As such, he did not conceive of the possibility there was someone out there who was faster than himself. There is... me."
She finally seemed to accept that before she gestured to the other shrouded bodies. "And them?" "His entire Inner Circle, I'm led to believe."
"And how did they die?"
"First mistake, by making the fatal decision of kidnapping me and bringing me here. Second mistake, they then all stood in one big circle around me. Third mistake, they assumed they were safe because Big Bad Tommy Boy was here to protect them and they greatly outnumbered me." He smirked.
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