-oOoOo-
It was a pretty rattled group that made it back to the Grangers. Since it contained four crying toddlers and they were all leaving the scene of a battle, they really couldn't be anything else but rattled. Dan sat on the sofa with Harry and Hermione drawing comfort from each other on his lap. Emma and her toddler headed straight for the kitchen, with Dudley this upset nothing but food would calm the child down. Lily sat with Neville on her knee as she used her most calming voice on her godson while holding him close, he snuggled in and his sobs began to abate.
Emma returned with a now content Dudley, the bowl of melon pieces calming him quicker than words ever could. She plonked him, and his tightly clutched bowl, onto Remus's lap before heading back to the kitchen. She returned with a tray containing three more bowls as she attempted to coax Neville to speak. "Hello Neville, I'm Emma. That's my little girl over there with Harry and you can see by how quickly Dudley is polishing his melon off that this is good. Would you like some?"
Hermione wasn't forgetting her manners, it was her experience from the last time that made her reluctant to do that again. Harry though jumped down off her father's knee and led her over to the new boy by the hand. Harry remembered this boy though hadn't seen him for a while. He attempted to copy his best friend but didn't yet posses the necessary vocabulary skills to pull it off. Still, it got the job done. "Nev, Hermi! He Dud, sit?'
Harry and Hermione then helped him off Lily's knee as her wand created another chair at the kids' table for her godson. Emma placed the bowls down and helped the kids to sit, she then sat Dudley at the table and had a quiet word in his ear. "Be a good boy and Aunty Em will give you more when you're finished."
Dudley was well acquainted with the word 'more' so was on his best behaviour.
Dan casually asked Remus a question, the adrenalin was still coursing through his body but he didn't want the kids becoming upset again. They would all have to keep their behaviour nice and calm for now. "I take it those three were some of these terrorists we've heard so much about? Did I hear Sirius saying he was related to one of them?"
"Yes, those were death eaters. Some of the most fanatical actually, the woman is his cousin and without question one of the worst of them. She kills and tortures for fun!"
Emma was struggling to understand this whole concept of death eaters yet was careful to keep her voice at a conversational level and tone. "I find it hard to believe Sirius could be related to someone like that, he seems the exact opposite!"
It was Lily who answered, "That's probably because he is. The Blacks are what's considered a dark family, defiantly no pun intended. They all, bar a few buy into these beliefs that purebloods are better than everyone else. We have a perfect example of why this is a load of crap sitting right in front of us. Neville is a pureblood wizard, though the Longbottoms are like the Potters and considered light. My Harry is a half blood, your Hermione is a muggle born while Dudley is a muggle. The kids certainly don't know any different and won't unless someone teaches them otherwise."
The four in question were sitting around the small table, eating their melon and chatting as only children of that age can. They were totally unaware that they were now the centre of attention and the scene was heart warming for the watching adults.
Dan was now struggling to keep his voice at the required level. "Differentiating between children like that is absurd, appalling and many other names I can't say in case the kids pick them up. You might as well have people feeling superior because they have blood type O, it makes no sense!"
Lily couldn't help but chuckle at that analogy, "Actually that would make more sense, at least blood type is a physical thing you can measure. Apart from Dudley being non-magical, there is no physical test to tell the difference between the other three's blood status. That maybe down to the fact that there is no difference. To a death eater, three of the children sitting there don't deserve to live. Actually, make that all four of them since they class the Longbottoms as blood traitors."
Dan was struggling to come to terms with a society that considered his daughter a lesser being, one not fit to live. "Man has been fighting with each other since they first walked upright on the earth, whether it was over land, religion or the best mate to breed with. I suppose it was too much to ask that witches and wizards would be any different, they could at least have came up with something a bit more substantial to fight over."
Emma remembered something from earlier and wanted to ask for an explanation. "What was the significance of that slip of paper, it appeared to be very important but for the life of me I couldn't understand why."
Remus took out his scrap of parchment and handed it to Dan. "Try and copy what's written there."
Dan was sure he was being pranked, that was until he realised he couldn't do it. Every attempt he had at it provided him with a different address, not the one on the paper though.
Remus explained the phenomenon. "Only the secret keeper can write that address down, you won't be able to copy it or tell anyone else about it. That's why it was so important, only someone shown that bit of paper could have found the Longbottoms."
Lily was nodding in agreement, "Apparently Frank's mother made only two of these, the other one was in the possession of Albus Dumbledore. You can bet your life she will be asking Dumbledore for an explanation of how it came to be in the possession of three of the most vicious death eaters there is. We made a mistake in our choice of secret keeper, Frank and Alice didn't. There is not one shred of doubt in anyone's mind that Augusta Longbottom would have chosen death rather than betray her family!"
Lily and Remus suddenly had their wands in their hands as the sound of apparition was heard. A shout of 'It's me darling.' coming from the hall in James's voice saw them relax. He entered the room, kissed his wife and then sat down with the kids.
"Sirius is staying at St Mungo's just in case any more death eaters show up, Barty sent over a couple of aurors but Frank and Alice still feel better knowing he's there. I think Augusta is hoping a few death eaters do decide to pay her family another visit, she's ready to wipe the floor with them. I thought we were going to have to magically restrain the old battleaxe when Sirius showed her that slip of paper we took from Bellatrix, she was all for heading straight to Hogwarts the instant she saw her family was ok. Only Frank saying he wanted both him and Alice to be there delayed the inevitable."
"How long will Alice be in the hospital?" Emma asked.
"She may get out tomorrow or, at most, the day after. I hope you don't mind if Neville stays here until then?"
Emma could see how her original question could be misconstrued and sought to reassure. "Of course not, he's very welcome. I just hope that when we get to meet Mia and Mary we don't end up in the middle of a battle again!'
The four kids stopped eating and chatting just long enough to stare at all the adults laughing – grown-ups were such strange creatures!
-oOoOo-
This was the part Barty was dreading, it was never easy telling a mother they'd lost a child. When the mother in question was your wife and you had personally orchestrated your son's death, there wasn't really a word strong enough to describe how he was feeling. The story he was going to tell his wife was the one that he had already laid the foundation for earlier tonight. He would keep the department so busy that their son's case would soon be forgotten amongst the carnage they were going to create, the story he spun would soon become fact in the eyes of everyone who mattered.
They had started their interrogations with the two brothers and both had quickly mentioned Barty Junior as being a death eater, he'd calmly written out the arrest order for his son along with the others named. Within the hour word had come back that his son was dead, the muggle aurors were writing it up as a suicide. The department held its collective breath as Barty finally spoke.
"It would seem my son, like many young men before him, made a grave mistake that he clearly deeply regretted. Faced with the prospect of being forced to take part in his first death eater attack, he would appear to have taken his own life instead. From what we've learned so far, his level of involvement as a death eater would probably have seen him spend some months in Azkaban before being free to continue with his life. Instead he's now lying in a muggle mortuary."
Barty was no longer acting as his emotions shone through his mask of untouchability. "I feel as if I've failed my son in that he couldn't come to me for help, I now have to go home and tell his mother her only son is gone. Please continue arresting those death eaters named by the Lestrange brothers and we'll get truth serum into Bellatrix and Snape as soon as the healers allow us. I shall return tomorrow."
With that he had left, knowing that all the high profile arrests they were going to make would see his son's death relegated to a mere footnote in history. Barty entered their bedroom, "Hello love, I'm sorry but I've got some bad news."
-oOoOo-
Albus had many friends inside the ministry and news of the death eater purge soon reached his ears, he was about to floo to the ministry in an attempt to curtail the damage being done to their society when Barty Crouch Junior's unfortunate fate was mentioned. He quickly checked with another two sources before believing the rumour to be true.
Albus almost wrecked his office as his temper knew no bounds, he had been sure the situation had been well taken care of and now he was left exposed. He'd known Barty Crouch senior could be a ruthless bastard but this action took that ruthlessness to a new extreme. Albus didn't even consider the possibility that the young Barty could have taken his own life, his father was somehow responsible for his untimly death. Not only that, Barty Senior was sure to blame Albus for forcing the parent into his decision, useing Severus to take his revenge was a foregon conclusion.
There was also no doubting the harm that Severus answering questions under veritaserum could do to one Albus Dumbledore, he would be lucky to dodge a dementor's kiss and end up in Azkaban. No, Albus was being forced into making the same decision as Barty had. someone he loved was going to have to be sacrificed for the greater good. The young man known as Severus Snape was tragically going to suffer heart failure before regaining consciousness, it was also going to happen tonight.
With all the extra activity at the ministry, it should be a piece of cake for Albus to slip in there while invisible and cast the obscure spell that would stop his potion master's heart. Albus knew he couldn't be turning dark because his heart was breaking at his decision, and there was no spell to help with that. As long as he could cry tears of sorrow and regret his actions then his soul was safe, he was certainly crying now.
-oOoOo-