Chapter - 13 : Griveance Part - 3

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And the few power struggles at the Ministry Dumbledore did choose to lose he'd always try to arrange in such a way so that shortly afterward, everyone could see what 'fools' they'd been for not having trusted him all along! Thus increasing his influence and power, as rather than being seen as a sinister tyrant who always got his way, he was viewed as a noble voice of reason that people ignored at their peril - because he was always proven right in the end.

No, Dumbledore didn't have to be the Minister of Magic. He already wielded all of the power there through his colossal reputation.

Harry wanted his freedom. But he suspected that Albus would fight him so hard on that issue that Voldemort might have an easier time getting his body back than Harry would of getting emancipated. So, having thought through that, he'd already resolved to put more than one iron into the fire.

Whoever this Sirius Black person really was, he almost had to be better than the Dursleys. And, if he wasn't, his record was shady enough so that Harry could get himself withdrawn from his custody in an instant, if that was called for. So, it was a very small risk to him to set whatever wheels had to be put in motion for him to be cleared of all charges, and granted custody of Harry.

He would prefer emancipation, but would take a different guardian if that was all he could get. And blocking both of those, when there was currently a surge of 'Help our poor Harry' feelings running high all around, ought to at least tax the old man's abilities.

Hopefully, the old man couldn't block everything forever.

Harry would prefer to set on a third course for freedom, but that would have to wait. He had a complete set of secondary options, but none more that could be pursued while these present plots were brewing.

There was a young lady, just out of Hogwarts, at the pet registry center of the Ministry. Oh, it had a funky, self important name, the Registry of Magical Creatures Sub-Department, a smaller attachment to the Department for the Disposal of Dangerous Magical Creatures (where, according to memories acquired from Tom, there was still a loyal Death Eater working). But, in order to sell a creature as a magical pet, you had to pass it through here.

Peter was frantic at being there, understandably so. Still, it did him no good whatsoever to scamper around his cage, since Harry had been wise enough to put some very strong locking charms not only on the door, but also the major joints, so it couldn't even come apart under the rat's thrashing.

Peter's efforts just annoyed the young lady, who had to cast her stunner several times in order to hit the frantically evading rat. And, by the time she'd succeeded, the pretty young witch was greatly annoyed at the critter.

Then she started her regime of diagnostic spells, meant to certify a critter as harmless.

Peter was anything but.

A dark magic detection spell came up a faint positive. This was apparently rare enough to raise a daintily plucked eyebrow on the girl, although Harry imagined that she shouldn't be too surprised. Those who kept the really dark pets never made the mistake of trying to register them as harmless. But the boy also made note of the spell, as it just might have been reacting to Peter's Dark Mark, and a spell for revealing those would be terribly useful if Tom should come back and start getting some new recruits.

Harry already knew what Tom knew about his old ones, of course.

Naturally a positive, even a faint one, on such a fundamental part of the pet certification process demanded additional scans, and deeper ones, and once again Harry made careful note of the spells the young witch was using, as he could imagine far more uses for them than just certifying pets.

One of the great weaknesses of the magical world was that, unlike muggles, they did not have enough common sense to apply good solutions to several problems. A muggle with a cigarette lighter could and would start any sort of fires, whereas a wizard with a cigarette lighting spell would light cigarettes. And only rarely was that strictly a limitation built into the spell itself.

Apparently, Peter had been a naughty person, because he came up badly on enough of those spells to clearly alarm the young woman, enough so that she called in Auror support - an interested party from the Department for the Disposal of Dangerous Magical Creatures was already on hand by then, having been only just next door.

Then it came time for the big event Harry had been waiting for, the animagus revealing spell, and one part Peter had panicked over, because he knew it would expose him (and one very good reason why he couldn't truly expect to have hidden out with a family more wealthy than the Weasleys, as there were too many dangerous magical critters out there NOT to pay the seven sickles for the extra bit of security registering your pets offered most people).

Pet shop animals came already certified. But the 'Oh, I just found this on the lawn, can I keep it?' sort of pets did not. But there were enough flesh-eating slugs and other things out there not to trust most of the latter sort, thus the whole registration process in the first place.

As expected, once the revealer spell hit Peter, he became Peter again, and no longer Scabbers the Rat.

To the surprise of the young lady, the disposal expert, and the Auror (but not to Harry) Peter had already overcome the stunner and made a mad dash for freedom the very instant his increased size broke him out of the cage.

Harry brought him down with another well-placed stunner, right in the back. What he'd wanted to do was launch a pair of blasting curses to blow out the rat man's legs out from under him, so he could never run away under any circumstances, ever again.

But a bloodthirsty image would not suit the Golden Boy of Gryffindor.

"Wha... what did you do that for?" the witch sputtered dumbly.

Harry shot her a sharp look. "This is a suspicious character! Don't you think it a bit odd that Scabbers the Rat was a MAN?! Why would anyone choose to hide out for twelve years as a FAMILY PET? Huh!?" While the Auror and other 'responsible adults' stared in mute shock, Harry bent low and searched the stunned Pettigrew's clothes, surreptitiously palming both wands he found on him, noting in pleasure that one of those was Voldemort's. Then he lifted the man's left arm up to show off the dark mark to the trio. "Would you look at that? This man is a Death Eater."

"Pettigrew?" the Auror's voice strangled out, even as she'd come closer to examine him herself, and confirm indeed that it was he.

Peter chose that moment to surge up once more (Harry's stunner had been deliberately weak) and dash away again. This time a pair of blasting curses did take out his knees from beneath him, blowing off both legs near the hip.

After all, a stunner hadn't worked, and from the way Harry had positioned himself, between and slightly behind the adults, the Auror would think the disposal agent had done it, and the disposal agent think the Auror did. A minor Confundus on each, and both would even believe they'd thrown one of the pair of spells, intending to stop the man by aiming for the floor ahead of the suspicious character.

Now Harry permitted himself a small, and wholly internal, grin of satisfaction. Workers at the Ministry were idiots, the lot of them. It was inevitable that someone among this circus of fools would have permitted the animagus to escape in one unguarded moment.

But even a rat had to have legs with which to flee on.

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