You're My Destiny↣ Harmione

Chapter Thirty-Three

The third part of the evening was, quite simply unbelievable. If the Potters and Blacks had not only captured Snape but put an end to Voldemort for good, they would be practically magical royalty in Britain when that news broke. Amanda insisting they were just like normal teens, and treated her the same, was a massive plus as far as George was concerned. Young Lord Potter was clearly a wizard who believed in doing the honourable thing.

It went without needing said that the Potters and Blacks outranked the Ketterings in Britain's magical society - by a wide margin too. Uncle Basil wouldn't be able to object if Lord Potter was looking after any future magical dealings Amanda may have.

-oOoOo-

With Remus, Sirius and Amelia spending most of the night in the ministry, and everyone else remaining at the Longbottoms until the wee small hours, it was well into the afternoon before the people staying in Grimmauld got together to compare stories - and prepare for tomorrow's wedding.

Harry kicked things off by jokingly congratulating Remus for his capture of Snape, leaving the werewolf less than amused.

"Amelia spun that fiction you lot came up with last night and that is now the official version of events. One signature and all that gold was transferred into my Gringotts account. I can't keep it…"

While his last comment was instantly being rubbished by the entire room, Emma moved over to sit on the arm of Remus' chair. Taking his hand, she waited until the room had quietened down before saying what was on her mind.

"I have had nightmares almost every night over what that man forced me to do to my daughter. Last night, I cried myself to sleep in Dan's arms. That being said, even in this room I'm not the only person to have suffered at the hands of that bastard. Knowing he's going to be dealt with might see me finally beating this thing. That a thoroughly honest and decent man can gain from this too is something to be applauded. In any situation it always helps if you can see the good in it. Until now, I was really struggling to do that. Amelia, I'm assuming he will be dealt with?"

"Oh that's a certainty. He's just been recently released from Azkaban yet used an unforgivable curse to attack Houses Potter, Black and then kidnapped an injured auror, Frank Longbottom, from St. Mungo's. All this while trying to resurrect Voldemort - he won't see the New Year." While this was welcome news, Amelia wanted to know how the other group had faired. "Was Augusta and Neville okay?"

Hermione was first to answer Amelia's question. "That the worst thing Frank endured at the hands of Snape was being cold settled his mother and son very quickly. Having his dad sitting in a chair by the fire held Neville's attention for the rest of the night. Frank fell asleep in that chair but Augusta just tucked his blankets tighter. I got the feeling she and Neville would be sitting beside him for the rest of the night, before returning him to St Mungo's this morning."

Harry then had a question for those who had taken the prisoners to the ministry. "Do we know yet how Voldemort happened to be growing out the back of Lockhart's head - without a memory between them?"

This produced a wicked grin from Amelia. "We asked Snape that question while he was under Veritaserum, even he doesn't know the right story. He found them like that in an Albanian forest. There apparently was evidence that Lockhart had been bitten on the leg by some poisonous snake, but he had no memory of anything like that happening. He invited his spirit friend to 'stay with him' as, even without a memory, Lockhart was afraid of the dark. All our people could say was that both had been hit with an incredibly powerful obliviate curse. They say it would take years of work to undo even the smallest part of the damage, years those two just don't have. All the healers agree trying to remove Tom would kill them both. The snake venom though seems to have accelerated the deterioration of the body that supports both of them."