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The Trouble with Family | ||||||
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Category: Post-DH/AB Characters:Harry/Ginny, Hermione Granger, Luna Lovegood, Minerva McGonagall, Neville Longbottom, Nymphadora Tonks, Other, Ron Weasley Genres: Action/Adventure, General, Humor, Romance Warnings: Death, Mild Language, Mild Sexual Situations, Spouse/Adult/Child Abuse, Violence Rating: PG-13 Reviews: 19 Summary: It is after the Battle and the search for Hermione's parents uncovers some unexpected branches on a previously well known family tree. Canon Relationships. Some Mature/Adult Themes and Language. Hitcount: Story Total: 51977; Chapter Total: 1897 |
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“Sorry Boss, Minister” Dave began, “But I seem to have lost track of your earlier questions.” “What did you want to know?” “You mentioned before that this ‘Mr P’ supplied you with information on a number of Women and Children that were being sent out of the country.” Kingsley recapped. “Yes Minister. That is correct.” “Can you tell us how many there were in this group?” Dave reached back into his jacket and again got out his Mirror Phone. Dave’s Mirror Phone showed signs of some recent ‘hard use’, I couldn’t help but wonder how it managed to end up in its current state. He tapped the screen a few times and lines of writing could be seen. “There were 15 Children under the age of 6” “20 children between the ages of 6 and 12” “9 Teenagers and 18 adult females under the age of 35.” “How many of them were slaves do you know?” said Kingsley with a worried expression. “All the adults were bonded into Slavery Minister. As well as just over half of the children.” Dave replied with a rather stony face. “You said that they were to be taken out of the country. Did you know where they were to be taken?” Kingsley asked. “Not at the time Minister. It was as you say a ‘rush job’. We moved to try and recover these people almost as soon as ‘Mr P’ provided us the information.” “We were able to intercept some of the group before they left England. Unfortunately most of them reached their destinations before we were able to locate them.” He added rather nervously. “Where did you find them Auror Webb?” came the question. Dave was now clearly uncomfortable and he was choosing his words very carefully when he replied. “When we found them they were located in establishments of a commercial nature Minister.” “You mean like a business? What sort of business? Can you describe it?” “Not willingly in the present company Minister.” Dave said rather nervously, but seeing Kingsley’s reaction he added. “But I do have some shall we say ‘advertising material’ from these establishments that I can show you. They will make it clear what sort of businesses they were.” “However Minister I must advise you in the strongest possible terms that these documents are not for the faint hearted. My team are rather hardened people in some ways, but even some of them had trouble with these documents and the places themselves.” At this Dave once again reached into his wallet and brought out what he called a manila folder (a muggle device). He handed it over to Kingsley. Arthur, Bill and Charlie all moved to be able to see the contents of the folder. When Kingsley opened the folder, the 4 men visibly recoiled with an intake of breath. Looking through the contents of the folder, Kingsley went pale and started to shake. Arthur had tears in his eyes and was struggling to maintain control. However both Bill and Charlie had to run for the porch where they were nosily sick over the railing. Lifting his gaze to look at Chief Williams Kingsley asked. “Have you seen these?” “Not those ones in particular Minister. But I have seen others very much like them from previous reports submitted by Syd’s team.” “You mean this isn’t an isolated case?” he asked struggling to hold in his emotions. “Sadly it is not Minister. Syd and his team have responded to incidents like this far too often”. Chief Williams replied with the pain of the memories showing in his eyes. “How often?” was the question Kingsley directed to Dave. “Personally I have lead at least 19 recovery operations like this in the past 3 months alone. I have participated in many more however. Sometimes we are able to recover people before they get to places like you have just seen. Other times we are too late, and the people involved have already begun to have been ‘hurt’.” Dave replied with a haunted look in his eyes. “You mentioned before that on the latest mission there were Death Eaters with the Children. Do you know who they were?” “Let me check Minister. When I left we were still trying to confirm some of them.” At this Dave tapped his Mirror Phone device a few more times and the text on it changed. “Ok, Drunkmouse and his team have given us the following names.” “Rodolphus, and Rabastan Lestrange.” “Augustus Rookwood” “Corban Yaxley” “Antonin Dolohov and Fenrir Greyback.” “Quite a group.” Kingsley commented. “What happened to them?” Looking to Chief Williams for confirmation Dave continued. “In the raid on the last location, we encountered some difficulties. The building was ‘warded’ to repel magic from it. So we had to resort to our Muggle equipment and techniques.” “Once we made entry, Yaxley made the mistake of thinking that Fireball and Shelly were ah, ‘employees’ of the facility and made to grab them. They corrected him of his mistake and ‘disarmed him’ without alerting the others.” “We moved through the location to the rooms where we expected to find the children. Unfortunately in addition to the children we found that the room was occupied by the group mentioned before. Minus Yaxley who was ‘tied up’ at the time.” “Rabastan Lestrange was closest to the door so he was the first to be neutralised.” “While he was being dealt with Greyback and Dolohov moved to grab the two young girls who were in the room with them. Rockwood was dumb enough to go after Fireball.” “Rodolphus showed his true colours and allowed his ‘friends’ to do the fighting for him. He hung back in the hope of sneaking out in the confusion.” “While he did manage to climb out a window and make his escape at one point in the proceedings I managed to get myself far enough out the window to deliver a ‘gift’ to him as he ran down the street with his pants around his ankles.” Dave said with a smirk on his face. “Syd, just what sort of ‘gift’ did you give him?” Chief Williams asked with a slight look of concern. “Nothing major Boss. Just enough to remember me by.” Was the ‘innocent’ sounding reply. “Syd!” Chief Williams asked clearly not letting him off the hook. With a slightly embarrassed look on his face Dave answered, “Let’s just say that his ‘family jewels’ are now a depreciating asset.” He said with a very self-satisfied smirk on his face as he looked at Chief Williams and Kingsley. Once comprehension dawned on Chief Williams and Kingsley they also displayed similar smirks on their face. “I can see how that particular ‘gift’ is going to make his life very uncomfortable for him.” Kingsley said enjoying the thought of Rodolphus suffering through the difficulties brought on by Dave’s ‘gift’ to him. “Dolohov? Isn’t he...” Chief Williams started to ask “Yes Boss, he is the one who killed mum’s little brothers the last time she visited here.” Another flash back raced through my mind, as I felt a sudden kinship with Dr Webb and all those others who lost family members to that horrid man. “They were your name sakes are they not?” Chief Williams asked. “Yes, two of the three.” “So what happened to him?” Chief Williams enquired of Dave. “He and Greyback tried to grab the girls who were in the room and use them as shields against me. But they forgot that they were in a location where magic was expelled. So the first spell he tried to cast caused him a great deal of pain when it didn’t work. I put him out of his misery and focused on Greyback.” “Syd you didn’t did you? We wanted him alive.” Chief Williams chided Dave. Trying (and failing) to show an air of innocence Dave replied, “He isn’t dead Boss. Although he probably wishes he was. I merely knocked him out and restrained him. It was a bit of a rush job though as I had Greyback demanding my attention, so it’s understandable if I fastened things a little too tight on him. But there shouldn’t be any ‘permanent’ damage done to him.” Looking very unconvinced at this statement Chief Williams went on, “I see. Is your mum aware of his capture? I happen to know she asked to be kept informed of any news about him. I presumed she always hoped to testify against him.” “Yes Boss, she knows. I sent her a photo of him after the incident for her to identify him. She seemed rather pleased that we had caught up with him.” “And Greyback?” At this Dave displayed a rather evil looking smile at Chief Williams and replied “He mostly got away”. “How do you mostly get away Syd?” “Well Boss he might have left a few things behind.” “Such as?” At this question Dave sat up and reached up to his neck. Digging under his shirt for a moment he brought out a silver chain bearing several while objects on it. Upon closer examination they appeared to be teeth. That wasn’t the only thing uncovered however. There was also an almost impossibly shiny ropey looking golden chain around his neck that had an animal tooth of some sort secured to it. It also had two of the most beautiful rings on it that I had ever seen. They appeared to have been woven from different metals with a selection of delicately cut stones included in the weave. The smaller of the two rings had bright blue sapphires in it, while the larger of the two had black gems in it that seemed to have flecks of colour as well. I was not the only one to notice these rings, all the girls in the room clearly noticed them as well. Their appreciation of them clearly written on their faces. Tossing the silver chain over to Chief Williams, Dave continued on oblivious to the stares he was now getting, “He left those behind Boss.” Holding the chain up for it to be visible to all Chief Williams asked, “Are these his actual…” “Teeth, Fangs, whatever you want to call them Boss. Yes they are his. I might have missed one in the confusion, but I think that I got all the others” “How?” he asked sharing just about everyone else’s look of incredibly at what he was holding. “As I said Boss, Magic had been blocked in that building. So I had to do it the old fashioned, ‘Muggle Way’ as you call it.” “You knocked out Greyback’s teeth with your fists?” was the shocked reply. Everyone else was staring at Dave with a little apprehension as well as a touch of appreciation also. “Actually it was more of an open hand set of strikes. Using my fists would have cut up my knuckles Boss. You should know that.” “Did he leave anything else behind as you put it?” “His wand, one or two fingers and a lot of blood. I also don’t think he eye will recover unless he was able to get to a healer quickly either.” “I didn’t collect his fingers or the blood. We vanished those later after we broke the wards.” He explained. Chief Williams next asked Kingsley, “Am I correct to assume you would like your countrymen returned to you?” Smiling Kingsley added “But of course. Azkaban has kept a special cell for them in the event of their capture.” “Very well Minister I will put the wheels in motion for you.” While Kingsley was nodding his thanks, Ron spoke up and asked “What are those? Pointing to the rings on the chain around Dave’s neck. Glancing down at the chain around his neck the expression on Dave’s face changed from amusement to one of profound sorrow in an instant. Cupping the Rings in his hand he looked at them with a very tender expression and answered, “Our Wedding rings”. “Haven’t asked her yet have you?” Ron asked, obviously before he thought about it. Hermione moved to elbow Ron in the ribs to get him to shut up but he had already continued on, “You don’t have a mark on your finger so you obviously haven’t worn them. Or did she turn you down?” Almost everyone around the table cringed at the question, as they had a very good idea of what the answer was going to be. “No Ron. She didn’t turn me down, she said yes.” “And we did get to wear them. For a short time anyway.” Tucking the chain and the rings back under his shirt (this seemed to disappoint the girls), and with a look of utter loss on his face turned to Ron and added, “She died not long after we were married.” “Sorry.” Ron said as it finally dawned on him what he had said. “I didn’t think...” “That’s obvious.” Hermione snapped at Ron making him retreat from the conversation. Chief Williams once again went over and laid a comforting hand on Dave’s shoulder and said, “Sorry mate for not being there when it happened.” “Not your fault Boss. We knew you would have been there if you could. She understood.” “She fought as hard as she could for as long as she could. In the end it just wore her out and all she wanted to do was rest. She asked us to respect her wishes and as hard as it was we… I couldn’t say no to her.” Dave replied the pain clearly evident in his voice. Clearing his throat loudly Kingsley spoke up. “I’m sorry for your loss, Auror Webb. I take it this was a recent occurrence.” “Yes Minister. It happened while I was home after the loss of my brother.” He said in a quiet voice that was clearly heard by all. The looks exchanged around the room showed that this comment had clearly stuck close to home for everyone present. Not knowing what to say Kingsley made an attempt to change the subject, “Auror Webb, what can you tell me about this ‘Mr P’ that you have been working with.” Taking a moment to compose himself Auror Webb began to speak, “We knew of ‘Mr P’ before we started to work with him. As we had frequently encountered him during our trips into the Ministry.” “Initially we thought him not much different to the other mindless bureaucrats that infest governments around the globe. Even though he did seem to have an extra-large cast iron wand shoved up his ‘rear end’” he added to the general amusement of all. “We took more notice of ‘Mr P.’ when we started to hear stories spread about him. Apparently he was in the bad books with Pius Thicknesse, when he was the Director of M.L.E. According to the stories being circulated ‘Mr P’ was ‘losing’ people who were supposedly brought into the Ministry for questioning.” “When we investigated ‘Mr P’ ourselves we found that he was indeed ‘losing’ people. Quite deliberately in fact. We learned later that he became aware of the fate of the people who were brought in for questioning and had decided that he didn’t want to be a part of it.” “Knowing that resigning would result in his own ‘questioning’ and likely disappearance he decided to play the game the only way he knew how. He started to mess up the paper work. Change orders around etc. When that didn’t work he made illegal port keys and directly smuggled people out himself.” “Thicknesse was getting suspicious however and time was starting to run out for Mr P.” “One night we went to investigate a building where we suspected that Mr P was trying to hide those people he had smuggled out of the Ministry.” “Upon our arrival we found it already being watched by a group of people who had disillusioned themselves.” “From their behaviour it was clear that they were casing the building rather than guarding it. We kept watch to determine exactly what was going on.” “Not long after we arrived however a squad of Dementors arrived also and were shown into the building by those who were previously watching the building.” “Squad of Dementors? What do you mean by this?” asked Kingsley. “Recently we have taken note of some strange behaviour that has been observed in Dementors. They appear to be taking orders from a single source. Initially we thought it was Tom Riddle Jr, but with his demise this new behaviour has continued.” “We still don’t know the source of this behaviour. But the results of it are rather clear. Even when presented with a fully formed Patronus, Dementors who are part of squad formation will not flee. Not unless all the Dementors are simultaneously confronted. I’m sure you can see the potential problems with that approach when a squad is typically 10 Dementors or more.” “We have been working on some techniques and tools to counter this predicament, which are showing promise. But have yet to be perfected.” “A worrying development.” Kingsley remarked. “Very.” Dave agreed then continued, “We made entry to the building and found the Dementors in the process of attacking the occupants.” “Mr P was standing between the squad of Dementors and a group of people that he had been sheltering. It was clear that he was close to exhaustion and very worried about the people behind him.” “One of the ladies in the group who still had a wand had stepped forward to try and help him. But it was clear that she was also close to exhaustion as well.” “A quick glance with Jimmy was all it took and we agreed that we should step in to assist. Even with the 4 of us that were present that night we were not enough to drive off that Squad of Dementors.” “Jimmy ordered me to try the ‘alternate approach’ that we had been working on. Thankfully it was effective and we were able to permanently neutralise the threat.” “That’s not possible. Dementors can’t be killed.” Hermione said rather indigently. “That would depend on your definition of what alive and dead is wouldn’t it?” Dave replied. “It can’t be done, Auror Webb. Everyone knows that it is impossible to kill a Dementor.” She insisted. “Let me try to explain it like this. We all agree that a Dementor will flee from a Patronus?” he asked. “That is true.” She agreed. “Excellent. What do you think would happen in the event of a Patronus being placed Inside a Dementor?” he asked Hermione. Hermione sat there for a few moments with that studious expression on her face as she thought about the question. She started to speak a few times. But each time she started to speak, she stopped herself and thought some more. Eventually she said, “The only thing I can think of is that it would try to flee in all directions at the same time.” “That would be a good description of the effect that is achieved Hermione” Dave agreed. “But how do you get a Patronus inside the Dementor in the first place?” she asked clearly showing her curiosity getting the better of her. “That is proving to be the difficult question to answer. So far the best approach has been to use a Patronus ‘with an edge’ on it to basically cut its way in.” “However there are very few people who have such intense joyful/sad memories. Whether that is a good or bad thing would depend on if you are one of the people with such a balance of memories in you.” “The other option that is starting to show some promise is something we are calling ‘friendfyre’ or ‘blessed fire’. As it seems to be very effective against dark magic. The biggest draw back with this approach is that there is a very small number of people that we have found who are able to produce such a flame.” “I would say that’s because it doesn’t exist, Auror Webb.” Hermione started to lecture. However, as she started to get into the swing of her tirade Dave raised his hand. As soon as he did so Hermione stopped and stared at it. As his hand was covered in a brilliant golden flame. “But that’s just a modified version of ‘Bluebell Flames’. I use that spell all the time. It is very useful as a portable cooking fire or a waterproof light. But it won’t be of much use against a Dementor.” She explained. “My sisters are well versed in the ‘Bluebell Flames’ spell. And this has several key differences. While it is waterproof, it gives off no heat unless it is in contact with dark magic. ‘Bluebell flames’ can be used for cooking if an object is placed directly above the flame. But as you can see” he said as he lifted a nearby piece of parchment into the flames. “No heat is transferred and no damage is done to this parchment.” “If you have a cursed object or something tainted with Dark Magic to hand I invite you to place it into these flames and see the result.” He invited her. At this invitation Bill stepped forward and produced a small wooden object which he placed in the flames. Nothing happened to it. Ron exclaimed “It didn’t do anything.” Bill answered, “I would be worried it if it did. That object isn’t cursed.” He said with a smile. “However, this one, is different.” At this he produced a different wooden object and placed it in the flames on Dave’s palm. At once the flames latched themselves to the object and you could almost hear it scream as the Friendfyre attacked it. When the flames subsided there was nothing left. Not even ash. “Remarkable.” Was Kingsley response. “Who can produce such a flame?” he wanted to know. “Currently the only people who have been able to do it consciously apart from myself are, my Dad, 2 of my sisters and one cousin.” “We are hoping to understand it enough to be able to teach more people but more study and work is required to better understand it.” Dave closed his hand and the flames disappeared. “How did you discover it?” Hermione wanted to know. “I didn’t. My Grandfather was the first one I’m aware of who could produce it. Although how it learnt it he wouldn’t say, other to hint that it was an ‘old family recipe’. He never expanded on that explanation. At least not to me, I don’t know if he told dad or not.” “It has proven its worth many times though and gotten myself and others out of several close scrapes with Dementors recently as well.” “Did you use it when you met this ‘Mr P’?” Kingsley asked. He was clearly trying to get the discussion back to this mysterious person he wanted to know more about. “No Minister. I used the first option I mentioned.” “I see, what happened after the threat of the Dementors was removed.” He asked Dave. “We moved in to check over the occupants of the building. Jimmy and I went over to the two who had been trying to hold them off and picked them up from where they had collapsed. When got them comfortable and tried to question them. While we were doing that the other members of our team were dealing with the people who the first two had been trying to protect.” “It turns out that they were all either Muggle-Borns who worked in M.L.E. and had had their wands snapped. Or they were Magical folk who had refused to support Tom Riddle in his goals and thus had been targeted.” “We asked the person who had initially been fighting the Dementors what his name was, but all we could get out of him was a long string of stuttering ‘P… P…. P…’” “Is that how you came to call him ‘Mr P’ then?” Ginny asked. “Correct.” Dave answered. “’Mr P’ as he was christened by Fireball was not in any fit state to talk. So we moved the whole group of them to a secure location in Northern France, where we could be assured of their safety and be able to nurse them back to health.” “It was during this time that the young lady who had tried to assist Mr P took a real shine to him as she (and us) learnt more about him. To the point where they became basically inseparable.” “They both also showed a very strong desire to get back to England and continue what they had started. With or without our help.” “It was decided that their chances of survival would be greatly enhanced if they worked with us. As well as our own effectiveness be increased if we had better contacts on the inside.” “We presented this proposal to them both and they agreed, as did out Minister.” “As a result we gave them both a rather crash course in document forgery, intelligence gathering, defensive techniques and survival in general. As well as a set of tools for communicating and passing information along covertly.” “I must admit both Mr P and his Missus proved to be far more effective than we (and they) had ever thought. They were working out brilliantly. The number of people we were able to intercept before the Ministry rounded them up greatly increased. At the suggestion of Mr P’s Missus we made a similar offer to those people that we had rescued if they wished to do so they could assist us.” “The vast majority of them wanted to help but were too frightened to go home. So we offered them positions in secure locations we had outside of England where they could help us process and care for the people we were bringing out.” “As while the numbers where increasing so were the needs of these people.” “This arrangement also meant we were able to bring more of our Aurors into the country to run the front line missions and enable our very eager volunteers to look after the ‘behind the scenes’ operations.” “Soon after the ‘Muggle-Born Registration Commission’ was formed we had very solid skeleton of our operation in place.” “While he might be many things to others ‘Mr P’ is a born organiser and one of the bravest men I have ever known. He worked tirelessly to streamline and smooth out any ‘kinks’ he saw in the operation. It is due in a large part to his work as well as that of Drunkmouse and his team and Madam Bones that we were as effective on the ground as we were.” “This was just as well. For very soon the Ministry began to sell people into slavery. At first none of us would believe it. We couldn’t comprehend anyone wanting to ‘own’ another human being in this day and age.” “Sadly we were all very much mistaken. There was and is a massive market in the world at large for human slaves. Not just for the purposes you saw in those documents either Minister.” “It wasn’t until we intercepted a group that had already been sold that we realised that this nightmare was actually real.” “Once I saw their ‘slave contracts’ I knew that the situation had taken a much darker path than before.” “Slave contract? What is that? I’ve never heard of it before.” Arthur asked. “I must admit that outside of a school history lesson I haven’t heard of them before either” Kingsley agreed. “I would be surprised if either of you had. As they are some of the darkest magic around that doesn’t involve the death of someone to make.” “Are you able to show us such a contract?” Kingsley asked. “Not of a living person Minister. But I do have one with me I can show you.” “Please.” Was the answer from Kingsley. Dave once more reached into his wallet and produced several sheets of something resembling parchment but not as thick. “This is called paper; it is the muggle equivalent of parchment. Although it is not a durable.” “This is a copy of my Grandfathers Slave contract.” Dave added. At this everyone stood up for a better view. Arthur in particular looked up in almost anticipation. Dave shuffled the papers and then laid them flat on the table and cast a spell to make them larger and easier to read. “When someone is sold into slavery by a Government a magical contact is created that is binding. The contract can only be altered by those authorised to do so. It can’t be destroyed as that would lead to the death of the person who was listed on it as the slave.” “Once they have been listed as the slave and the contract signed (by their blood usually) the contract only needs the signature of the authorised government representative before the Slave is bound to it irrevocably.” “Can a person ever regain their freedom once they are a slave?” I asked wanting to know that there was hope for these people. “It is dependent on the type of contract that is signed. Mrs Weasley.” Was his reply. “This contract is a good example of how a contract can be altered to allow the slave to regain their freedom.” “At the top left hand corner of the document you can see the name of my Grandfather, his date and place of birth. On the right hand side of the page you can see the conditions of the slavery.” “In the case of my Grandfather you can see that he was initially condemned to a lifetime of slavery and that it was to be hereditary as well.” “WHAT?” Kingsley, Arthur and Bill yelled almost at the same time. “But that would mean…” Arthur started to say. “Yes it would mean that had my Grandfather had any offspring they would have been born into slavery eternal.” “Thankfully someone seems to have altered the terms of this slavery contract before it was signed by the listed government representative.” “I believe Mr Weasley you might have an idea as to who carried out the alterations and may even recognise the signature next to those alterations.” Arthur looked closely at the places indicated, as did Bill, Charlie, George, Ron and Ginny. Looking up with pride shining in his eyes Arthur said, “That is indeed my father signature there. But what did his alterations do to the contract.” “In short the work done by your father nullified the lifetime component of the contract as well as the hereditary aspect as well.” “It seems that he also made it possible for any future ‘owner’ of my Grandfather to free him without Ministerial approval.” “It doesn’t state it here, but from what my Grandfather told us, your father also arranged the sale of my Grandfather to people who he knew had similar views to him on this subject and that they would take the necessary steps to free him when the time was right.” “While your father wasn’t able to cancel the contract completely Mr Weasley he did everything he could to nullify as many aspects of it that he could.” “The risks he ran to do this were numerous. They all had dire consequences for him if he was caught. Which given the fact that he had to sign his own name to the paper work were rather high. If the paper work was ever checked properly.” Dave explained in a voice that clearly carried his thoughts on the bravery of the man he was describing. “Does this make it clearer to you why my Grandfather, Father and indeed the whole family holds your father in such high esteem Sir?” Dave said with eyes that were beginning to moisten. Arthur was speechless. We all were. It was a difficult thing to comprehend that people would be willing to inflict so much pain on each other in such an inhumane way as well. Eventually all Arthur could do was nod his understanding. As he was still overwhelmed by these discoveries. “To answer your questions Mrs Weasley. That is one way a person can regain their freedom.” “If the persons slave contact has no lifetime component and no end date specified another way a person can regain their freedom is to have their copy of the contact contain so many sales that all the available lines are used up.” “Thankfully given certain lax bureaucratic procedures that ‘Mr P’ may have helped influence and implement.” Dave said with a crooked half smile that again seemed oddly familiar. “That is indeed how many of the current day contracts have been written. This gives us a window of opportunity that we have been exploiting.” “As working with our colleagues and various organisations around the globe we have been able to form our own ‘Slave Trading’ organisation. For want of a better term.” “This organisation has enabled us to setup various pipelines where we can ‘trade/sell’ OUR slaves amongst each other to use up the transaction spaces available on their contracts.” “The down side of this is that each ‘sale’ a slave goes through takes a toll on them both emotionally and sometimes physically.” “Some people can deal with being sold frequently and thus are freed quicker. While others can only handle it every few weeks. Most of the kids fall into this category” He said with a very sad look in his eyes. “It isn’t perfect but it is the best we have been able to come up with so far. I just wish we could have gotten to them before they were sold in the first place” he added fighting back tears. At this point Charlie and Bill put their arms around Dave’s shoulders and supported him like they would have one of their own brothers. I was so proud of them I almost burst. The others around the table were also looking at Dave and Chief Williams in a new way. As understanding of just what they had been fighting against and what it had cost them began to dawn. “Is there a ‘perfect solution’ as you put it David, to this problem?” Hermione asked. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised she asked given that she is always looking for the perfect answer. Dave’s answer caught her a little off guard though. As he answered, “You mean other than having these poor people avoid being sold in the first place?” showing a little heat in his voice. Hermione started to blush at this. Dave quickly continued, “Sorry Hermione. That was unkind of me and out of line.” “The best solution for these people that are in this unfortunate situation would be the nullification of the contract at the source.” “As there is a copy of each of these contracts at the originating Government. Meaning that the Ministry has got copies of them somewhere. We have taken to calling these collections of originals as ‘The Ledger’. We believe that given the scale of this that there will be several ‘Ledgers’ that we will need to locate.” “Our biggest hope as it stands now is to locate these ‘Ledgers’ and have them nullified by the appropriate representative of that Government.” “Who would that need to be?” asked Kingsley. “The Minister of Magic would be a great starting point don’t you agree?” Dave asked Kingsley once again showing that familiar looking crooked smile of his. Grinning broadly Kingsley replied, “I do think he would. And I can guarantee that the current Minister would lend his full support to the idea as well.” Returning his grin, Dave replied “Thank you Minister. Thank you very much.” “I’m getting the feeling that it is me that should be thanking, you, Chief Williams, your Team and your Minister for your work on this. While it is a deeply saddening topic. Your work on it has been exemplary.” “No thanks are required Minister, although I will pass them along to my team. We were simply doing our job as humble Aurors Sir. It was what we signed up for.” “But if I may I would like to ask for a favour, or more accurately a few favours.” He asked in a very firm voice. “You may ask Auror Webb and I will see what I can do. Within reason of course, I hope you understand that.” “I do Minister, fully.” “Ask away then Auror Webb.” “Minister, I would like to ask for a full and unconditional pardon for Mr P and the others like him that have been working with us. As it currently stands they are all guilty of High Treason in one form or another. They deserve to have their lives back Minister not living with the fear of being caught and thrown in jail.” “A perfectly reasonable request, Auror Webb. One that I’m happy to grant and I can guarantee that it will be done. On that you have my personal word delivered in front of these witnesses.” “Thank you Minister.” Dave added with a smile. “I would like also to ask for the so called ‘Blood Purity Laws’ and the ‘Muggle-Born Registration Commission’ and their various ruling be repealed. This is to enable those people who we have rescued the opportunity of returning home if they so desire to do so.” “That one could prove to be a little trickier Auror Webb. But I agree with you whole heartily on it. Indeed, moves have already been started that will lead to those laws being stuck down.” Kingsley, Dave and Chief Williams stepped forwards to shake on the agreements that had just been made. While they were doing this Hermione was taking a closer look at the document Dave had placed on the table. “Excuse me David” Hermione asked. “Why does your Grandfathers family name appear to be blurred out? Along with that of his next of kin on this form?” “The names are blurred apparently to make it more difficult to trace his birth family. As after he was accused of his crime and sold into slavery as part of his punishment, his family cast him out. As it was done magically all documents that bear his name now have any reference to his original family made illegible.” “That’s horrendous” she exclaimed. “I agree it is. We believe it was done deliberately by his family, as they knew his feelings on the subject of family.” “So I take it that Webb isn’t your original family name then Dave?” Arthur asked. “No it isn’t Mr Weasley.” Dave replied. “We have no idea of what family Grandpa belonged to before he was cut off and sold. No idea at all. All we have is an old vault key to his personal section of the family vault. But without knowing which family he was a part of we can’t even begin to try and ask for access to it.” “So where did the name Webb come from then?” Hermione enquired. “After he was freed Grandpa realised that he would need a new family name. So he decided to choose one himself. In the end he selected two people who he held in very high regard and decided to make himself a new family name from theirs.” “The man who eventually granted my Grandfather his freedom was called Byron Black. He remained a great friend of my Grandfathers until his death. So grandpa used his initials in the new family name. That is where the two b’s come from.” He said with a thoughtful expression. “Where did the ‘We’ come from then?” Hermione asked. Giving her a rather puzzled expression he replied, “I would have thought that was obvious Hermione. The ‘We’ came from the man who gave Grandpa his chance at a new beginning. It came from Weasley.” “Our family name begins with ‘We’ to remind us that we began with the help of the Weasley family.” If Arthur was surprised before he was thunderstruck now. His face was a study in different emotions, each fighting for time to be expressed. Dave turned to look at him and said, “I don’t know if Grandpa ever explained how he came about his new name to your father or not. But I do know that his intention was to add a permanent memorial to him in his new family as a way of honouring him. All of us are taught the meaning of our name and about the people involved in its creation. My dad has your father’s name as his middle name as a personal memento, but this was meant for the whole family.” “I do hope that it meets with your approval Mr Weasley. As it would have meant a great deal to my Grandfather if it did.” Dave said facing Arthur. Still not knowing what to say Arthur crossed the room and quickly embraced Dave and held him tightly to him. After a brief moment of alarm Dave returned the embrace only to be joined by all the Weasley men in the room. I felt the urge to join them but there just wasn’t enough space. I would have to wait my turn later. While this was going on a new voice spoke up from the door and said, “I’ve been listening to what you said earlier Syd, and I’m grateful for the pardon you have organised. Does this mean I can come clean now and get my job back?” Extracting himself from the impromptu male bonding session, Dave turned to look at the source of the new voice and exclaimed, “Mr P” The rest of the family turned as one and with looks of disbelief said “Percy?” Dave quickly crossed the room embraced Percy and picked him up and spun him around. Placing him back on the ground he put one hand on each of Percy’s shoulders he looked him directly in the eyes and said, “We got them mate. We got them ALL. Every single last one of them.” Percy stared back with a look of wonder on his face. In a small voice he said, “All of them?” “Yes mate every last one. We even came out with a few extras once we broke open those cesspits.” “But they were scattered over so many countries, how did you do it?” “That’s a story for another day mate.” “I told you we would hunt them down and we did. We got them ALL back. We even got a surprise haul of Death Eaters also.” Dave said with fierce pride in his voice. Percy had actually begun to smile at this news. “You did it Mr P. Without that information you got for us, we would have been far too late to save even half of that lot. I was coming back into the country to take you and your Missus out to Dinner tonight to celebrate when I was asked to come here instead.” “So are you are free tonight? As you hadn’t responded to my message as yet. Dinner is on me.” Not able to contain his smile Percy asked, “Dinner? Where are we going?” “Anywhere you and your Missus would like to go mate. You, just say the word and strings will be pulled to make it happen.” Dave said grinning ear to ear. Not one to miss out on a chance to rib his brother George spoke up, “Percy is this mysterious ‘Mr P’ we have been hearing about? AND he has a Girlfriend? Can the world get any stranger than this?” Looking at Dave with a resigned expression, Percy said, “I think smuggling people and fighting Dementors with you is going to be easier than surviving the ribbing that my brothers are preparing for me.” Looking across at the rest of the Weasley boys I could see them all wearing looks of feigned innocence. And failing badly at it as well if I might add. |
| Reviews 19 |
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