That evening, Harry's reading was once again interrupted by one of the House Elves, who invited him down to dinner.
"If Susan's down there then it would probably be better if I take dinner in here," replied Harry.
"But young sir, Mistress Amelia was most insistent that you join her and young Miss Susie," replied the House Elf.
With a resigned sigh, Harry placed his book down upon the bedside table and got up from his lying position on the bed. He made his way downstairs and to the kitchen where Madam Bones and Susan were both already seated at the dinner table.
Seeing as there was only one other place set up at the table, Harry settled himself down in the seat and a moment later food appeared upon the plate, a combination of slow roasted beef, roasted potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, boiled carrots, green beans and mashed swede. Having not eaten since his earlier sandwich, and before then not had a proper meal since then end of the summer term at Hogwarts a month and a half previously, Harry tucked in with gusto, doing his best to ignore the silent atmosphere that resulted from both he and Susan being once again in the same room together.
Eventually, however, the awkwardness in the air robbed Harry of his appetite, and he soon found himself just pushing his food around the plate with his fork, mostly waiting for any hint that he had sat at the table long enough to be polite.
Had he looked up, he would have seen that Susan was behaving in much the same way. Also missed by Harry was the subtle look that Madam Bones gave to her niece that signalled that she wished to speak with Harry privately.
Harry looked up as Susan's chair moved back and he watched as she left the room.
Madam Bones turned her attention to Harry and asked "Are you aware that you were being followed when you were at the Ministry yesterday?"
"What?" asked Harry, surprised by the revelation "No, but… Hang on. Just before I was called into the courtroom, I heard the sound of footsteps. I couldn't see anyone, so they must have been invisible, but who-"
"An Auror of mine, Nymphadora Tonks," replied Madam Bones "I discovered her lurking outside of Courtroom 10 as we were leaving the trial. She was hiding under an invisibility cloak."
Harry's eyes widened in realisation "So is that the "quick bit of business" you had to deal with before that talk between us the Minister?"
"That's correct. As a junior Auror who had absolutely nothing to do with the case, she had no reason to be anywhere near those courtrooms. As the director of her department, I was able to easily take her in to ask her a few questions. I was unhappy to learn that she was there upon Dumbledore's request."
Harry's expression darkened "So the wrinkled old git can't be bothered to turn up and help me out, but instead sends one of his pawns to discover just how things went?" Madam Bones gave a nod and said "It certainly seems that way. I was rather disconcerted to find that Miss Tonks seemed to feel that her acting on Dumbledore's behalf was somehow an acceptable practice and therefore exempt from the usual rules. The law says differently and she is currently locked up in a cell that only the highest ranking of Aurors have the ability to unlock."
"So you think that your department have become compromised then?" asked Harry "Not counting this Tonks person of course."
"It is almost certain," replied Madam Bones "Albus Dumbledore has a level of influence that stretches far and wide. There are likely to be many people within not just my department but the Ministry as a whole, along with the Wizengamot itself that report to Dumbledore, and I am sure that although Tonks was the one sent to trail you, many others would have been keeping an eye out for you."
"Does he know I am here?" asked Harry.
Madam Bones gave a shrug "I honestly don't know. You were probably seen being taken to the Minister's office, and I suspect that it was noticed that I joined the two of you there. Because you left the Minister's office by his own secure floo connection it will most certainly be unclear where you went, though this house would definitely be a more likely guess than most. I can, however, say for certain that Dumbledore knows that you did not return to the home of your relatives in Surrey after yesterday's events."
"What makes you so sure?" questioned Harry.
"The House Elves who went to pick up your things reported that a wizard under an invisibility cloak was loitering outside the house. That man was Sturgis Podmore, a man known to be loyal to Dumbledore. Podmore has since left his post and was replaced a sorry excuse for a wizard called Mundungus Fletcher, who has a strong reputation for being a petty thief who owes Dumbledore a couple of favours. Podmore has likely reported that you did not return to the home of your relatives during his watch, and Fletcher will end up reporting the same."
Harry scowled and asked "Please tell me you can do something about these people?"
"I can get them for loitering in a muggle area," replied Madam Bones "That your family lives there can be used to bolster the charges against them. For security reasons the location of your home is supposed to be known to very few. I am one of those who have been permitted to know, and even then it was only once you started at Hogwarts. That these two seemingly random individuals have been detected so close to your home, and remained there for a long time, is more than enough to call their intentions into question. "
Harry nodded, but then frowned again and said "Hang on, if the location of my relatives' home is meant to be kept a secret, why was it read out before the entire Wizengamot in that courtroom yesterday?"
Madam Bones smiled at him and answered "That is the beauty of magic. It can alter many things. Your address may well have been read out in that courtroom for confirmation reasons, but every person in that room who did not already know your address forgot it as they passed through the doorway as they left. And had any of them written it down, they will have found the ink used to be smudged and indecipherable, with no spell able to put it right. We do like to keep a tight security."
Harry was very tempted to mention Dementors, Death Eaters at the Quidditch World Cup and his name being entered into the Goblet of Fire, but decided to leave it. Instead he asked "So what's going to happen to Tonks?"
"She'll be let go," replied Madam Bones "Had she been down at the courtrooms for a valid reason, such as trying to find me to alert me to an emergency, then there would be no problem. Had she been there by mistake or just gone for a little wander, then she would have received a warning. However she was following the orders of someone else, someone whose intentions towards you are currently in question. I will not have someone like that in my department. It's bad enough having sycophants like Dawlish who obey the every whim of the Minister without having Dumbledore's lackeys playing by his agenda as well."
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