The End of First Year
Amelia decided that her next item of business was to go and visit the Dursleys personally.
She could have had Becky do it, but this at least she wanted to do on her own as she wanted to hear it firsthand the Dursleys' side of the the story.
It had taken awhile to obtain a warrant to do so as the magical bureaucracy was extremely testy when it came to interrogating muggles, especially if she was to be allowed to use magic on them, and she had a strong feeling she would be.
Personally she was already tempted to blast them into oblivion, but she wanted to at least give them a chance before she went on a crusade against them and basically ruined their lives by throwing them in a deep, dark prison cell. She promised herself she would look at the case at least somewhat objectively as she did with all cases, not declaring full proof of guilt until she got that far.
She came in the middle of the day in the hope that she might be able to talk with just Petunia. Both Dursleys together might be less willing to talk, and her instincts told her Petunia would be the one more talkative.
Knocking on the door, she waited until Petunia opened it.
"Mrs. Dursley? I was wondering if I might speak with you," Amelia said, trying to maintain an official business like state.
Petunia stared at her, or more importantly the wand she was currently gripping.
While she was dressed in muggle clothes so as not to draw attention from any neighbors, her wand alone clearly showed that she was a witch to her.
"Wait a minute," Petunia stated, sounding partially afraid and partially angry, "you're one of those freaks."
"I prefer the term witch," Amelia answered, already not liking Petunia's disposition, "I'm Amelia Bones, Head of Magical Law Enforcement for the Ministry and I'd like to speak with you concerning the care that you've been providing a Mr. Harry James Potter."
Petunia looked suddenly more nervous than she already was but managed to say: "We've been taking care of the boy just as was asked."
Sure you were, Amelia thought. While still trying to remain objective, it was kind of hard to in front of this woman. She had known death eaters who were more pleasant to talk to.
"I've been having visits from his social worker, Severus Snape, perhaps you had better discuss it with him if you have any concerns," Petunia then told her.
"Believe me I will," Amelia answered, "then you would agree that such visits did indeed take place?"
"Yes, they have," Petunia answered.
"Did Mr. Snape find anything that would suggest that Mr. Potter was not receiving adequate care under your custody?" She questioned.
Petunia looked wary at such a question but then said, "He agreed that the boy's care was satisfactory."
"The thing is we've received evidence that would seem to conflict with that," Amelia said, still struggling not to simply jinx Petunia into a jelly, "we've discovered scars and other evidence as well as testimony from the child in question that claims that he was a victim of abuse under your care."
"That boy is a complete liar!" Petunia exclaimed angrily, "we've given him nothing but attention and spent tons of money we don't have on him. We did it out of the goodness of her own hearts."
"You wish to deny these allegations then?" Amelia asked.
"Yes I do," Petunia stated.
"If that is the case, I am prepared to file a claim against you for custody of the boy and have you stand trial for child abuse," Amelia informed her, impressed with even herself at managing to hold back her anger.
"I do not answer to any laws you people might have," Petunia argued, "if you want to take the boy, though, go right ahead. He's been nothing but trouble since the day he was dumped on our doorstep."
"I will definitely be taking the boy, but I'm afraid it is far more dangerous than that. Under certain circumstances, with this being one of them, you actually are subject to our laws if it is proven that you participated in child abuse of a magical child," Amelia insisted, "unless you care to provide another plausible reason for the scars and the boy's testimony."
"Perhaps they were obtained while he was attending that freak school," Petunia suggested, "a dangerous place if you ask me."
"Such as the abuse that Severus Snape wrought as a teacher to him," Amelia tossed out there.
"Severus did no such thing!" Petunia exclaimed, surprisingly defending him.
"What makes you so sure?" Amelia asked.
"Severus may not have liked the boy, but he'd never have actually physically harmed him himself," Petunia replied.
"I'm intending to draft a claim against Mr. Snape as well in addition to you and your husband. If convicted he could also face prison time," Amelia informed her, "however if you agree to cooperate now and serve as a witness against him in addition to confessing yourself I'd be willing to offer you a plea bargain."
Once again, Petunia unexpectedly defended him.
"Snape did nothing wrong," Petunia declared.
Such staunch defense of him caused her to open a new line of questioning.
"You say that you consider wizards to be freaks and yet you continue to defend Mr. Snape, why is that?" Amelia asked.
"Severus is an old family friend. He genuinely cared for Lily and he certainly wouldn't allow anything bad to happen to her son," Petunia argued.
Something about the way that Petunia was talking about Severus caused her to ask her follow-up question.
"Were you at any time in a romantic relationship with Mr. Snape?" Amelia questioned.
Petunia looked entirely surprised by such a question, but answered it nonetheless.
"We do have a history together yes, but I would consider that irrelevant," Petunia countered dismissively.
"I would say that it has a high degree of relevancy," Amelia pointed out.
Petunia must have decided to just let it out. Perhaps she had simply been hiding it for too long and she had just been dying to let it out, but she still did it.
"What can I say? A woman has needs you know. My husband hasn't been able to sexually perform since our son was born so perhaps I was looking for a bit of action. I might not be as attractive as some others but I'm still a desirable woman," Petunia stated.
"Do you feel that Mr. Snape's relationship with you may have impacted his ability to judge Harry's level of care?" Amelia queried.
"I would say that it only enhanced it," Petunia replied.
This new revelation added a new dimension to the whole thing.
Perhaps Snape was simply too distracted while sleeping with Petunia during his visits to notice if Harry was being properly cared for, or chose to disregard them in order to provide an excuse to continue visiting her.
Or perhaps Petunia had been having an affair with him partly to avoid him drawing any attention to Harry's abuse.
Both scenarios certainly were not good but she needed to find out which one. Normal questioning however might not yield the results she was looking for however.
She held up her wand, making sure that Petunia's eyes were on it before saying, "I would like to make sure I get the truth straight. It will be far better for you I assure you if you cooperate now. If we are forced to bring this to trial or continue with the case know that your sentence, if convicted, will be much more severe. Do you understand?"
Petunia nodded.
"Good then I'd like to know if Severus Snape conducted in your view thorough inspections as Harry's social worker?" She asked.
"Oh he certainly was thorough," Petunia added wistfully before clamping a hand over her mouth at having made such a confession.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Amelia asked, already guessing what it meant.
"Fine, so maybe we didn't treat the boy like a prince like you people seem to think he should get, but he got what he deserved, nothing more," Petunia replied, now deciding to come clean, "maybe I managed to conceal the truth from Severus and maybe I was having sex with him to prevent him from looking closer. Severus was always so insistent on making sure that boy was doing okay even if he refused to actually go as himself. He used that freak magic of his to change his appearance so the boy never knew he was or why he was there, I could never understand why, but he insisted. He said he owed a favor to his mother or something to look after him. You wouldn't believe what I had to do to hide things from him, like convincing him that Dudley's second bedroom was Harry's. Honestly, that cupboard of his had more than adequate space for him to sleep in but I'm sure your kind are used to living as kings in that castle of yours. At least the sex was good so it wasn't a total problem. Perhaps it was wrong to do so, but not nearly as bad as you seem to think it is. Does that make me a bad person? I think not. I'll deny any charges of child abuse because anything that boy got from us is what he needed."
Amelia was certainly surprised at such a confession, but was angry nonetheless.
Petunia appeared to have unwittingly placed the blame more on herself in her defense of Snape. While Snape was clearly in the wrong as well, it wasn't as bad as she had thought. He appeared to have been duped by Petunia as well.
However with her anger now redirected she could no longer hold back on using her wand.
She turned Petunia into a nice fat slug.
While she scolded herself for losing her temper like that, she also couldn't deny that she enjoyed watching slug Petunia literally squirm ever so slowly.
After finally turning her back however, Petunia was no longer willing to cooperate as she immediately and fearfully ran back inside.
At any rate, she couldn't have managed to hold her temper any longer anyway.
While usually more in control of her emotions, Petunia had definitely managed to set her off. Her justifications for the abuse that Harry had suffered, not even considering them a big deal would be enough for almost anyone.
DUELDUELDU
While this was taking place, she was unaware that Dumbledore was watching concealed from nearby.
He'd set a spell to notify him the moment that anyone magical came within 1000 feet of Harry's house allowing him to catch most of the conversation. Amelia might have found it with a very thorough search, but she hadn't and he could have easily passed it off as an extra measure of protection that he had placed for Harry's safety back when he had been living at the Dursleys.
With the realization that it was likely that she or someone else might show up to question Petunia, he had enacted a plan.
He had originally been intending to imperious Petunia into confessing and taking blame away from Snape, but Amelia might have noticed the signs of someone being imperioused.
Yet when he had snuck into her house to examine her mind, he'd found the truth to be just as good.
She would never have confessed such a thing on her own, but with the compulsion charm he had placed on her she had.
He was hopeful that Amelia would be convinced by this.
Snape was far too valuable for him to lose, although he was sure that Amelia would still demand some sort of punishment for him.
As long as he kept him out of prison, it would be fine.
His next order of business was to inform Snape what needed to happen.
When he got to the Potions classroom, Snape having just let out his last class for the day, he informed Snape on how the conversation he had just listened to had gone.
"You do realize it won't get you totally off the hook?" Dumbledore reminded him, "I can probably manage to get it to where you are only fired and perhaps some community service potions work."
"That's fine, I was rather tired of teaching brats all day anyway," Snape claimed, "I have far more important work to do."
"That you do," Dumbledore agreed, "it may even accelerate our plans with you now having more free time."
"I would hope so, we have waited long enough," Snape agreed.
"I do wonder however if you really did know about the abuse or not," Dumbledore stated.
The question seemed to amuse Snape.
"I promised Lily after her death that I would make sure that her son was safe so I made sure of that, but Petunia didn't do as good of a job hiding his situation from me as she thought. The truth was she really never needed to since I agreed with her parenting. I would have done much the same thing in her situation. However the sex was good and while she sure wasn't Lily, I considered her a decent enough consolation prize. Besides I know she enjoyed it as much as I did," Snape claimed.
"I found it very interesting while going through her mind that while she definitely claimed to hate wizards, she had no such animosity towards you," Dumbledore commented.
"It was always more jealousy than hate for her," Snape answered, "if she could actually use magic herself I'm sure that she would use it. It's one reason why she wanted sex with me so badly. I'd give her potions to temporarily make her more beautiful during our lovemaking. I gave her what she craved and her desire simply outweighed her reluctance towards magic. The fact that she also was more desirable then was merely an added bonus."
"People will do things they wouldn't normally do with the right incentive," Dumbledore said wisely.
"I quite agree," Snape agreed, "that also reminds me that I need to get back to the project."
DUELDUELDU
As Snape left, he didn't go to his office, but through a hidden door behind a statue, using the password that only he and Dumbledore knew.
As he entered the room behind it, filled with various potions, and magical items, all in an attempt to get the experiment to succeed.
He bypassed all of those things and instead made his way over to the two tables where two figures lay. Such figures might have been thought of as human had they both not been missing legs and arms.
Yet he went over to the larger of the two and gazed down at it, a face he felt he could gaze upon forever, the face of Lily Evans.
It had taken him this long just to accomplish this much as it involved something that had never been done before: bring someone back from the dead.
He had been so distraught over the loss of Lily, knowing that it was his fault, him having unknowingly given the prophecy to the Dark Lord that ultimately caused him to go after her and kill her, even though he had begged him to spare her.
Such absolute remorse over being the cause of the death of the love of his life had nearly caused him to kill himself when he decided that one way or another, he would find a way to bring her back.
He soon realized however that it would be incredibly hard to do. First of all, the body had been all but destroyed in the magical explosion that had occurred, rendering it useless, even as an inferi or the result of some sort of necromantic spell if he had opted to take either route. It had required him to craft a totally new body, using what little had been salvaged from the scene of the crime, basically just ashes. Unfortunately the items that he found he would need in order to even have a chance to do so would be impossible for him to obtain without knowing the right person. Fortunately he had learned of the story of Dumbledore and his lifetime regret at the loss of his sister Ariana, and it was in that regret that he found a kindred spirit in bringing back the dead, and a great benefactor, promising that he would also bring back his sister as well so that she might be able to enjoy the life that had been taken from her.
It had been over 10 long years since then, and had it not been for Dumbledore's aid, he would never have even gotten this far, having access to knowledge, books, magical items and potion ingredients he could never have gotten on his own. While they often clashed, Dumbledore chose to put up with him as he wasn't the only one harboring deep remorse for helping to cause the death of a loved one.
Snape had far more than just blackmail on him involving what had happened with his sister Ariana which he was sure Dumbledore would have tried to have him forget or lose in some way from his memories by now had it not been for the experiment that necessitated him knowing it. He literally had the life of his sister Ariana in his hands, and he knew by now that Dumbledore would do anything to bring her back, which allowed him to get away with far more than any ordinary teacher would.
While the loss of income from teaching would be a problem, he still should be able to make enough money from making and selling potions for him to afford working on the experiment. It could take several more years before they were finally ready, but Snape was willing to wait, he had been patient this long, and this time without Potter around to steal her away from him and Lily no doubt incredibly grateful for bringing her back to life, he would finally win the heart of his one love.
"I'll bring you back, I promise Lily." Snape announced to her still lifeless form.
DUELDUELDUEL
The announcement that Snape had quit was considered great news by most of the students, minus most of the Slytherins. The fact that he was still going to be staying at the castle, but not in a teaching position, as well as the rumors about just why he had resigned in the first place was the topic of many a conversation, speculating about it.
"It was probably because he snapped and killed someone." Ron Weasley suggested to Dean, Seamus, and Neville at the Gryffindor table, slightly away from Harry's group at the end of the table, currently consisting of himself, Pansy, Susan, Su, Hermione, Parvati, and Lavender. Since each of the girls had many friends, they had taken to sitting at a different table every day so that they would always be sitting by one group of them, there not being enough room for each of their friends to sit with them at any one table. While the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs were usually pretty happy to have them, and the Gryffindors too for the most part, the Slytherins, particularly Malfoy and his cronies never seemed happy when they sat at their table, choosing the very opposite end where they normally sat while the rest of the Slytherins gave them a wide berth, except for both Daphne and Tracey, who had been friends with Pansy virtually their entire lives and weren't about to have that change now.
Admittedly the Slytherins' action of ignoring them and trying to avoid them was far better than what they usually had to put up with in Ron Weasley, who kept insisting that Harry should be friends with him, while simultaneously insulting Pansy because she was a Slytherin - and therefore according to him evil - whenever she was around. Harry had grown tired of his antics by now, especially after having already told him off multiple times for it.
"I just wish that it had been another slimy Slytherin that he killed off, actually shown favoritism the wrong way for a change." Ron finally concluded, still totally ignoring the fact that had Snape killed someone he most certainly would have gotten a far worse punishment than being forced to resign. Privately he would guess that Snape had finally just realized he hated teaching so much that he had decided to quit, but of course with Ron Weasley it had to be something bigger than that.
"Yeah, but why would Snape kill another Slytherin?" Seamus asked, "If Snape did kill someone it would be a Gryffindor."
"I never said he'd do it, just wish it was a Slytherin, we could use less of those in the world." Ron replied, glaring pointedly at Pansy.
"Ron, shut up." Harry told him loudly, "I don't like a lot of the Slytherins like Malfoy either but there are plenty of good ones as well."
"All Slytherins are the same." Ron countered, "Its not your fault you have to get married to one of them but no need to try being her friend, she's just into you for your fame and money, not like your real friends like me."
Harry was about to pull his wand and hex him, but Pansy pulled him back down.
"Please don't get into trouble on my account." She whispered to him.
"Why don't you fight me Slytherin?" Ron suggested to Pansy, not even bothering to use her real name, "You need Harry to fight all your battles for you?"
Pansy looked hurt, she had always felt badly about this, and he had feeling that Ron had figured that out as well.
"Pansy could beat an idiot like you any day of the week." Su claimed.
"Come on, you'll just get us into trouble." Susan cautioned to Su.
"I'm sick of hearing him talk." Su said before turning back to Ron, "Why not fight me instead?"
"You need someone else to fight for you again, why am I not surprised Slytherin?" Ron asked Pansy, obviously at least not stupid enough to pick a fight with Su.
Harry knew that Pansy was not one to jump at a fighting opportunity, but apparently whatever Ron had said had gotten to her because she surprisingly said, "You're on."
Ron grinned, "If I win you have to agree to only sit at the Slytherin table again."
Susan opened her mouth to say something but Pansy shushed her and told Ron, "Name the time and place."
Ron seemed to think for a moment, before saying, "Tomorrow, in front of the trophy room, midnight."
"Why not in front of everyone in the Great Hall, you coward?" Su claimed.
"That's fine with me." Pansy answered, disregarding that suggestion, "I'll be there."
Pansy got up from the table, clearly unwilling to sit anywhere near Ron at that moment, and the rest of their group, including Lavender, Parvati, and Hermione, hastened to do the same, most of them having already finished eating anyway.
When they got out of the great hall, however, Pansy couldn't resist saying, sounding a bit worried, "What was I thinking? I don't know how to duel."
"You couldn't let him keep saying that stuff about you." Su claimed, "He's a jerk, and he needs to be put in his place."
"I don't even know what came over me, I'm usually able to just put up with all of it, but I suppose after everything me and the other Slytherins have been going through this week..."
"What do you mean?" Lavender asked.
"Come on, its not like you haven't noticed." Su replied, "Ever since Snape quit, many of the students have been taking it out on the Slytherins, without having to worry about Snape punishing them every time they try anything on them, they think its time to really hand it to them."
"Snape is still here though." Parvati reminded them.
"Yes, but not as a teacher and he can't really do anything anymore as far as punishment is concerned, all he can really do is go get another teacher. Besides, he isn't allowed to be out and about during school hours, at least that's what my aunt told me, she wouldn't admit to anything further so that's all I know about Snape.
"At any rate," Su continued, "alot of students have figured out that Snape is no longer an obstacle in pulling pranks and stuff on the Slytherins. A lot of them feel justified in doing so because Snape has been letting them get away with stuff for years, and they just kind of assume that all Slytherins were children of former Death Eaters, so they deserve it."
"That's ridiculous though!" Susan insisted, "I'm sure there are plenty, but not all of them are bad, there are plenty of them who's parents were never Death Eaters. And besides, even if their parents were, it doesn't mean their children feel the same way or deserve to be punished."
"We might feel that way only because we've gotten to know good Slytherins like Pansy, Daphne, and Tracey but a lot of students haven't been willing to give Slytherins a chance." Harry stated.
"That's kind of why I just got so mad." Pansy admitted, "I never really guessed just what Snape actually did for us, I always thought he showed blatant favoritism but it wasn't until after he stopped teaching that I found out that the only reason a lot of students wouldn't mess with us is because they were so afraid of Snape. This morning the entrance to the Slytherin common room was glued shut with magic resistant glue, none of us could get out or even notify anyone what was going on, we all missed breakfast. Yesterday Tracey had the back of her robes burnt off when she tried to sit down in a chair, and then a girl in 5th year the day before that had her face burned when a firecracker exploded in her face. I've heard of another half a dozen instances as well.
"How come you never said anything?" Susan asked.
"I didn't want to worry any of you." Pansy answered.
"We want to know if you're all right." Harry told her, putting an arm around her.
"Yeah, nobody messes with you without me having something to say about it." Su told her.
"I don't want you having to fight all my battles for me all the time though." Pansy responded, "I'm sure you'd be happy to do it, but I want to be able to defend myself."
"I'm going to find out just who's been pulling pranks on all the Slytherins." Susan stated.
"The Weasley twins for one I'd wager." Hermione said, "Several of those pranks sounded like their usual style."
"I'm going to be having a talk with them then." Harry said, "They seem like nice guys, unlike their brother Ron, they probably just got a bit carried away."
"I'll talk to them." Susan insisted, having a feeling she could handle the situation better. "You and Su need to get Pansy ready for her duel."