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If This Is How You Treat Your Heroes...	By : SpeedyTomato Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Lucius Views: 96985 -:- Recommendations : 12 -:- Currently Reading : 15
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Chapter List
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Chapter 22

Beta'd by the most wonderful, amazing and stupendous Tenchi. Woman, you are the best and love you for all you do for me!

Looking around at the panel seated there, nodding when he saw all of them paying attention, Wienstein then looked back at Madam Bones and asked, “It's my understanding that this is about a piece of evidential legislation you need to get through to prosecute something?”
“It is,” Amelia told him with a firm nod. Stepping up, she passed the exception rule she had written up to everyone. Waiting for them to read through what was there, she said, “It's very simple and focused. What this pertains to is what is being published in the Seer right now. Because of what's happened here, Mr. Potter refuses to help us. I can understand that. The French government also won't make him available for us to talk to. However, the French Minister of Magic himself is willing to authenticate those memories. As he's someone with enough standing and respect, I want an exception made to allow the authentication from a foreign Minister or their head of DMLE. That is a very narrow scope for an allowance and one that shouldn't cause problems for us. They are, after all, people most would judge as trustworthy.” Stopping, she waited.
Looking through what was written there, Wienstein nodded then glanced around, seeing nods from others as well. Quietly, he asked, “In the scope of what you're dealing with, how much will this assist you and is it the only evidence you have to prosecute?”
“It will be an immeasurable help,” Amelia admitted with a firm nod. “Like with other cases, those memories are not the only evidence we have. We investigated, have other evidence and such, but the memories are something we do need to prosecute what was done to Mr. Potter, as he won't come help us even to do so much as to give an authentication of the memories.”
“I can't say I blame the young man there,” Arista said, putting the parchment down and looking at the head of the DMLE.
“None of us dealing with this case can either,” Amelia said with a sigh. “However, going about it the way he has leaves us with our hands tied as to what we can do to give him justice in so many matters. That's why I am proposing this.”
“In this case, I think it's a matter of too little, too late for him,” Anis told the woman softly, shaking her head.
“That's another statement I can't, and won't, argue either,” Amelia admitted. Looking around, she said, “However, I want to try. It may be too late and the damage is done for him, but he deserves for us to step up and do something, even if he won't come back. We want to show everyone that we will do the right thing, even if it takes time to finish it. This should not have gone on for as long as it did. We should have done something earlier, we all admit that. We didn't, though, and it leaves us in a bind. No one in my department will argue that. What I want is for those that helped to drive the situation to where it is now to pay. They should not get off and have their crimes ignored just because Mr. Potter was in a position that left him with no choice but to flee the British Isles. No, I will not let that happen. They committed crimes and should pay. This will allow me to bring them to justice.” Stopping, she waited.
After putting up a privacy ward and conferring with those on the panel, Wienstein dropped it then looked at her before asking, “When it comes to the matter of Severus Snape—can he be prosecuted for other cases? From what we hear, there are other names mentioned. Or is Mr. Potter the only one you can level charges for?”
“We have another case when it comes to him,” Amelia told him with a firm nod. “We have the evidence we need to lock him up with that one alone. I want him to go away for this one as well. If I play it right, I can get him to admit to all the others over the years.”
“You're going to cut a deal with a child molester, aren't you?” Shirley Bigglesworth asked, tone disgusted.
“We are going to try,” Amelia admitted, a sour look on her face. “In this case, he holds information we desperately need to slide some other pieces of the puzzle into place when it comes to another case. I assure you, he's not going to get a sweetheart deal. All it's going to involve is taking being Kissed off the table. He will never leave Azkaban.”
“Do you actually have the man in custody or are you waiting for this to apprehend him?” Arista asked, curious, leaning back.
“We have him,” Amelia said, a grim smile on her face. “He was picked up overnight after someone exacted a form of retribution. He'll survive it, the Healers assure me of that. I'm waiting to see what I can get here before I start pushing him.”
Nodding at that, Wienstein asked, “Who is it you think he can give you evidence on?”
“Albus Dumbledore,” Amelia told him clearly. Looking around, seeing grave expressions on everyone's faces, she said, “I want to know what is going on here with that end of things. I have all the evidence in the world to go after Albus and make many charges stick. However, I don't know why he did this or shielded a child molester. That tells me Severus Snape has some information that we need to hear. It also tells me that whatever it is will be big. I don't think anyone here will argue that we need to know the why here.” Shaking her head, she sighed, “I don't like cutting a deal with someone as vile as Severus Snape, you should be aware of that. My hands are tied, though. If he won't give it up for that deal, he won't get one, I promise you that.”
Leaning back in his chair and looking at the faces of the panel, Wienstein sighed and nodded, “Understood. I don't envy you your position, Amelia.”

“We sometimes have to do what we don't like to get results. This will be one of those things,” she said, shaking her head. “However, if I can cut the deal with him, his victims will never again have to worry about what he may do to them. He will be in Azkaban until the day he dies. That should give them some form of comfort.” Lowering her voice, she added, “Names we do have that were mentioned in those memories lead us to people that don't want to talk about it, if they do remember, because they are so frightened of the man and what he may do to them. This will help. I won't tell anyone I don't think this is a case where the ultimate punishment wouldn't be appropriate, but it may work out better for so many to even do this.”
“I don't think we thought about it that way,” Anis told her with a sigh, shaking her head.
“Give us a minute to confer then we'll give you our decision, Amelia,” Wienstein told her before putting the ward back up to discuss the matter.
Standing there, looking down, Amelia waited. This lone decision was the one that would dictate how she dealt with Snape, and others, so it was difficult. She just hoped what she knew of members on the panel held true and she would get what she needed here.

Looking at Amelia as she approached, Rufus waited, arms folded over his chest. When his boss joined him and Wallias, he asked, “Did it go through?”

Holding up the official parchment, she told him with a grim smile, “It did. I also have the French Minister of Magic's official authentication that the memories are real. That's all we need to use them.”
A grim smile on his face, Rufus nodded, “Good. No one is getting off then.”
Looking between Rufus and Wallias, she asked, “You made damned sure he has a solicitor and the Healers cleared it for us to talk to him?”
“We did, Amelia,” Wallias told her with a firm nod. “I contacted Bradley Newton myself. You know he's about the best there is. There won't be any screaming that Snape didn't have the best representation in the world.”
Pleased with that, Amelia nodded, “Good.” Changing topics, she asked, “Weasley is gone, is he not? We only have a couple of hours before the Ministry officially opens. I don't want anyone seeing him around here.”
“We made sure of it,” Rufus assured her. “I sent him home under a glamour with a couple of Aurors to make sure no one was the wiser.”

“Very good,” she said. Looking between the two, she said, tone firm, “Let's do this then. Make sure you have the paperwork and we'll see what we can manage here.” Seeing them nod, she knocked on the warded door and waited.

Reading through the article in the Seer one more time to make sure she understood everything that was there, as it was complicated because it dealt with Harry's experiences with Fudge and the Ministry, Hermione looked up when Ron said her name.
Putting his own copy down, Ron asked, quietly, “Since you know everything, does this mean that Harry and Sirius are no longer British citizens? I mean, they are now French citizens.”
“They hold dual citizenship now,” Hermione told him softly, sipping at her pumpkin juice. “I think they would have to file a form to revoke their citizenship here.” Sighing, she shook her head, “At least they are safe and no one can get to them.”
“Fudge can't like this article,” Ginny said, smiling a little. “I mean, Harry gave up everything here about what Fudge did and said. It doesn't look good for him, that's for sure. Especially if the French are mad enough to level sanctions on Britain.”
“I think this is the first time I've ever heard of anyone leveling sanctions like this against us. And Fudge has to know he's in trouble with this. Harry—well, he told everything and then some. No one is going to be happy with this if they are in the government. Serves them right,” Hermione sniffed, shaking her head. “It's the truth and we know it. Now they get to deal with it.”
“I wonder how long it's going to take for Fudge to resign. I mean, I'm not that good with politics, but even I have to know that this is going to be bad for him.” Ron said, stuffing the last of his bacon in his mouth.
Smiling a little, Hermione said, “I'd guess within the next 48 hours. He has to know that no one is going to stand for some of this.”
“Good riddance,” Ginny said, shaking her head. Sighing, she added, “Since we go home tomorrow, hopefully we can get fully filled in on what’s going on. Mum is being cryptic about some of this, but I get parts. I want to know, that's for sure.”
“So do I,” Hermione nodded. “That'll be a good thing.” Looking around the Great Hall, seeing everyone huddled over the Seer, she said, “I think it'll do all of us some good to get out of the castle for a while. I don't think anyone is staying over break this year.”
“Yeah, it will,” Ginny agreed. “Let's see what happens during our break and what changes are coming.” Looking around, she asked, “So, what are we going to do today?”
“I don't know. We'll find something,” Hermione said, pushing her plate back.

Scowling, Severus looked between the two pieces of parchment he was holding in his trembling hands. He was still in a great deal of pain, no doubt there, and was not dealing well with what happened, but he refused pain draughts for it. That would come when they were done then he would rest. Right now, he needed to focus. His solicitor was damned good, that's for sure, but he trusted no one, especially with the charges he was facing. No, he had to look out for his own best interests here and he couldn't do that if he was drugged.
Sneering, he tossed the parchments down, leaned back and folded his arms over his chest. “What's the deal and what do you want?”
Glaring at the man, Amelia said, tone clipped, “There is one deal. It's non-negotiable and final. You take it or leave it. I don't care which.” Gesturing to the papers the vile pervert just laid on the table, she said, “I have more than enough to get you Kissed with no problem at all. That's the only thing I'll take off the table. You will spend the rest of your life in Azkaban with Dementors guarding your cell. To get that, you give up the name of every victim you molested over the years and everything you have on Albus Dumbledore. It's a take it or leave it proposition, Snape.” Leaning back, she said, “And you have two minutes to give me an answer. After that, we walk out and leave you to your fate.”
Listening to what his solicitor whispered in his ear, Severus glared across the table at Madam Bones but nodded to the man. Sighing, he rubbed his face with a trembling hand then asked, “And what are you going to do about finding the people that did this to me?”
“Since you can't give us any information at all about what happened and we have no way to trace the spells; nothing,” Wallias told him with a snort and shake of his head. “We have no leads we can even attempt to pursue on this. You give us something, we'll look into it.”
“They castrated me,” Snape snarled, dark eyes flashing.
“They did, didn't they?” Rufus said with a grim smile. “Rather poetic justice, that is. Same with the words 'child molester' scrawled on your forehead. However, we have no way to trace this. The Healers couldn't give us a clue. Unless you remember what happened, we have nothing to work with until someone confesses. I doubt that will ever happen.”
Snorting, having expected that, Snape shook his head. Flexing his hands, he winced. Every bone in his hands had been broken. Though they were healed now, they still hurt and probably would for the rest of his life. Sighing, he said, “Fine. I agree. Where do you want to start here?”
“Everything, Snape,” Amelia said, tone deadly. “We find out you held back or are lying, your deal goes in the dung heap and you meet a Dementor for a final Kiss.”
“Everything,” Snape told her, sneering. “I want it in writing, though, with an unbreakable spell on it.”
Producing the form, Amelia pushed it across the table then said, “It's binding on both ends. You sign then you start talking.”
Reading through the contract after his solicitor had and explained it to him, Severus picked up the quill and signed it with a trembling hand. Pushing it back, he sneered, “Where do you want to start?”
“Albus Dumbledore and what he's concocted for this,” Amelia told him after checking the parchment and sending it off to be filed. Leaning back, she said, “What does he have in mind for Mr. Potter? You obviously have something as Albus protected you when the accusations were leveled.”
Figuring that, Severus nodded. In fact, he didn't mind doing it. The position that the old goat had put him in and what he was all but forced to do over the years made this very easy. Snorting, he said, shaking his head, “He plans for Mr. Potter to die. To walk to his own death at the Dark Lord's hands, for the greater good. He's convinced that Mr. Potter has something called a Horcrux embedded in his scar. Only his death will remove that. Of course, he's also convinced that the brat will come back from it and can be the only one that will end the Dark Lord because of a prophecy made long ago.”
Face grave, Amelia looked at the two men beside her and shook her head. Because of what they did, she knew what a Horcrux was. Seeing thunderous looks there, she turned back to the vile man and asked, “And how does Albus plan to convince Mr. Potter to do this? I doubt it's going to be easy.”
Snorting, Severus drawled, “He's groomed the boy to be a good little lemming from the time he was small. He knew what the boy's family was like and how they treated him. He put the brat there intentionally to 'build character'. If Potter was treated badly, he would be more grateful and willing to please when he came to school. That worked out quite nicely.”
“Once in school, he made damned sure Potter was lured into getting involved in the mess. The Stone, the Chamber, all of it was his way to not only get Potter involved in the mess, but guide him in the right direction. He might not have set some of it up, but he let it go on because he knew what it was. He knew the Dark Lord wasn't dead and needed Potter to know the enemy was still around so the brat could get a feel for him. Part of it was already in play by the time the boy came to school, Albus made sure of it. The Stone was a lure that would draw him out then set everything in motion. He just needed Potter to follow his lead. And the brat did it very well. The boy wanted revenge for his parents and to stand up for what was 'right'. It was perfect.”
Disgusted by that, Amelia asked, keeping her tone even and trying not to show how angry she was growing at what she was hearing, “And Black? Why didn't he give up the information he was innocent?”
“Black would have put Potter first and not let him be drawn into what Albus had planned. It was a fight the old goat didn't want. The sentence of being Kissed hanging over the man's head made it easy to keep him in line and do what Albus wanted. He might strain at the leash Albus held, but he wouldn't break it and risk the ultimate price. I doubt Albus would have let it come to that, but he never said it, letting Black think there was nothing he could do.”
“Bloody hell,” Rufus mumbled, shaking his head.
Staring at the man, Wallias ground his teeth, furious. “And you let him do this knowing what he had planned?”
“The Dark Lord is back,” Snape snarled at him. “I've seen him with my own eyes. Do you want the hell that came with the last war all over again? Potter is a sacrifice I can easily live with to avoid that.”
“That's not your call to make,” Amelia told him, tone icy. “It's also not Albus' to dictate. We don't sacrifice our children to a war that isn't happening yet. We fight those, not mere schoolboys.”
Snorting, Severus said nothing, shaking his head.
“So, all Albus' manipulations of Mr. Potter, him dictating who can do what, him making sure only he decided what, all this was nothing more than to raise a young man to send him off to die?” Amelia asked, staring at the man.
“That sums it up quite nicely, yes,” Severus said with a nod. “He needed his golden boy to do the right thing. He wouldn't get that if people only had Potter's best interests at heart, so he made sure to fill everyone's head with what he wanted from them and for Potter to only associate with the 'right' people that would steer him in the direction he needed.” Stopping, he then added, tone thoughtful, “It was quite a masterful move, really, and worked out so well.”
“Not anymore,” Rufus snarled. Shaking his head, he added, “It appears that Mr. Potter found others willing to help him that don’t give a rat's arse about what Albus wants. Good for him!”

Snorting, Snape sneered, “You think. It's only a matter of time before Albus finds him. Once he does, he'll manage to talk him into coming back and doing what he wants. It'll just take time. He always gets what he wants and can work with any situation.”
“Not this time,” Amelia told him, tone deadly. “No, he will leave the young man alone.”
“Unless you can put him somewhere that he can talk to no one, he will,” Severus told her with a dry snort. “He has too many followers that think he's the second coming of Merlin to do his bidding. If you don't think he has plans in place to deal with this, you're delusional.”
Glaring at the man, Amelia vowed, “That will be arranged if I have anything to do with it.” Shaking her head, she began to ask for details, wanting as many as she could get before pressing on to Snape's victims.
Severus easily gave up everything he had on the old man. After all, if he was going down, Albus was coming with him. It was only fair because the old man had put him in this position to start with.

Sitting in her office, glaring down at the many feet of parchment that encompassed the whole of Snape's confession, Amelia took a drink of her coffee then shook her head. Looking up at Rufus and Wallias, both of whom were seated in front of her desk looking furious, she said, “We'll get him in front of the court tonight after hours so no one is the wiser. Then he can be shipped to Azkaban. I want him in the deepest, darkest cell there is. Tomorrow I'll give a press conference that we have him and he's locked up for good.”
“I'll arrange that,” Rufus told her, tone icy.
Shaking his head, looking at the parchment, Wallias said, “I knew Albus was Machiavellian, but I never suspected anything like this.”

Shoving the disgusting parchment aside, Amelia leaned back in her chair. “I don't think any of us could have.” Shutting her eyes, she pondered aloud, “I wonder if I should send a copy of this to Mr. Potter and if he would accept it. I think he has a right to know before it comes out. We won't release it until after we have Albus in custody and are starting his prosecution. I think, though, the young man deserves that.”
“That might not be a bad idea, Amelia,” Wallias told her, shifting in his chair. “It's the least you can do for the young man.”
Nodding slowly, she said, “I think I'll see if I can't get with the French ambassador to see if we have a way to pass it on. I don't want to send it via owl. I'll check into that today.”
“What are we going to do about Albus?” Rufus asked, chomping at the bit to go after the man.
A grim smile on her face, Amelia said, “We'll get him. Today I'll bring the prosecutor in and let him look over what we have. I want this to be as solid as granite when we pick the old man up. Once I get his take on what's here and what we might need to do still, we'll go from there.”
“Sounds good,” Wallias told her, looking pleased.
“Let's do this—you two go over everything again and check what you can. I need to get to the Wizengamot again and set up a time tonight to deal with Snape. After that, I'll get the prosecutor here and we'll go over what we have with him. We also need to see what he wants to do about Fudge. After that, we'll press on and go with what he says.” Seeing nods from the two, she said, “That's the plan and we go with it. Let's get to work.”

Looking down at what he had penned, Cornelius sighed. It was his resignation. There would be a press conference shortly and he would deliver this. Because the press conference was about the mess in the Seer and the citizens wanting information on just what was going on, they wouldn't be expecting this. That was good. It would be easier this way as they wouldn't be prepared.
Shaking his head, he scratched out a couple of words and replaced them. Normally, he would have had someone write this for him, but he didn't trust anyone right now to do that. No, this was better. Shaking his head, he tried to think back to see if he couldn't pinpoint just where this had all gone so badly. There were mistakes, of course, plenty of them, that lead here, but he couldn't find one defining moment that made him see where he had made the biggest mistake. He supposed that's because there were so many small ones they just added up.
Leaning back, he looked at the parchment, feeling his stomach clench. This isn't how he wanted to go, that's for damned sure. Especially knowing that once he left it would be easier to level charges against him. He didn't want to chance staying though. Too much was going on for him to take that flier and risk even worse and making the situation even more horrific than it was. No, he needed out so he could defend himself.
Picking up the paper, he read it through again, shaking his head, feeling sad. It was best, though, he kept reminding himself. Then he could press on and do what he could to stay out of prison.
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If This Is How You Treat Your Heroes...