Interrogation, Wards and introspection
Chapter 17 –
The Burrow was a cacophony of sounds and noises as Ted Tonks finished regaling the ordeal. Nathan could see that disbelief and astonishment that was written clearly on the face of the Aurors and on that of the headmaster. Nathan wanted to use this opportunity to gauge the reaction of the headmaster to ascertain his personality. Just like Snape, he was another man that he'd been disenfranchised with after reading various renditions of the man online in his previous life.
"I believe it is imperative that we finish identifying and securing the man, Amelia. The questioning of the witnesses can be done later. If I may be so bold, a few drops of veritaeserum will go a long way, and administration prior arrest is a matter that falls legally in your hands." The old headmaster advised the group that was crowded around. "And might I also suggest, that we set up wards, here for I do believe that Ted, here alluded to him being an animagus, should he attempt to transform after he is revitalized, I fear it will be most difficult get hold of him."
Seeing the sound advice that the old man had given, Amelia nodded and ordered her Aurors to set up wards and tie the man upon a chair, by the living room.
"And if this really is Peter Pettigrew, I fear a grave mistake has been made on my part and an innocent man is locked up in Azkaban." He finished grimly.
"You mean Sirius Black?! No, Albus, even if this man is Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black did betray the Potters, he confessed when he was arrested!" Amelia exclaimed.
"Ah! Grief, Amelia, is a very powerful emotion. It can cause even the most tempered minds to shatter, despite the defenses one may set up, to protect it. If he does turn out to be Peter Pettigrew, we may have to tread very carefully in our next steps. Two, innocent lives may be hanging in the balance?" He breathed a sigh, as his eyes strained to look at the tied-up unconscious form of Peter Pettigrew.
"Two, Albus?" Arthur interjected.
"Just another one of biggest regrets, Arthur." Dumbledore said mysteriously.
"Alright, if it is as you say, I shall follow your lead on this Albus, I have a vial of Veritaeserum with me to administer, on duty. His words will carry in the wizengamot, with the number of Witnesses and Aurors present, it shall go a long way, but then again, that is if this is Peter Pettigrew." Amelia acquiesced as she finished checking the bounds holding the man in his position.
"Rennervate." She cast at the man once she'd finished checking everything.
The bald man woke with a gasp, and started frantically looking around, first at his trousers for any fire and then at the people that were standing around him with their wands pointed at him. He then concentrated on something, that his face looked akin to having gotten diarrhea.
"That isn't going to work, anti-animagus wards are up." Amelia informed.
The man grimaced and started struggling on the ropes, but when he found he couldn't move, he started wailing "Ah! Headmaster, you have to help me, Black almost killed me, but I gave him the slip…."
"Yeah, none of that, dose him." Amelia ordered.
"W-wait, no no! Please, no!" He wailed again.
But it was for naught, as Kingsley Shacklebolt pried his mouth open and dropped three drops of clear liquid in it.
"As soon as his eyes, go glassy, I want no one to say a word, I will carry on the questioning. This is now an official questioning conducted by the DMLE." She announced as the liquid was being administered.
As soon as his eyes turned glassy and far off, she started the questioning.
"What is your name?"
"Peter Pettigrew." Came the monotonous reply.
"What is your date of birth?"
"12th March 1960" he droned on.
"What happened on the night of 31st of October, 1981 between you and Sirius Black?"
He tried to struggle with what he wanted to say next but couldn't "Sirius chased me through Godric's Hollow after James and Lily died, and the dark lord disappeared, I blew up the street we arrived in after cutting off my finger, and accused him of betraying James and Lily to the dark lord, and changed to my rat animagus and stayed hidden here till now."
"Who was the secret keeper for the home of the Potter's in Godric's Hollow."
"It was me. We had switched at the last minute, Sirius thought it was his idea, but I played a prank on him, a marauder through and through." He had given up resisting the truth serum and was happily goading the answers along.
Gasps followed his last declaration and Nathan could see that the people who had gone upstairs were also listening in to the proceedings here.
"That will be all, give him the counter. And then take him to the holdings, Kingsley, I want you and Auror Moody personally on guard, if he's not in his office, go to his home, I don't care about anything else, I want Pettigrew guarded twenty-four seven!" She ordered, and Kingsley secured the man, gave him the counter and hastily retreated out of the home with some of the Aurors that had shown up.
The people gathered watched the man be taken away, no longer struggling anymore, a wide smile, was plastered on his face.
"What does this mean, Albus? Why didn't this come up at Black's trial?" Amelia asked, seemingly having lost all strength she'd previously possessed.
Dumbledore let out a breath and said "I don't think there ever was a trial for him, Amelia. It was wartime, and the ministry was overworked with the number of cases and new evidence that was cropping up every day. Barty Crouch wanted this case expedited because everyone had heard the apparent confession of the poor man. They'd assumed him to be mad, back then. I shudder to think what the dementors have made of him in Azkaban."
"I can mount a defense hearing for him if that's the case. He's practically my brother-in-law. Amelia, why don't you have him moved out of Azkaban discretely? We don't want some people finding out about this, it is going to open some very old wounds and stir up trouble." Ted pointed out.
Amelia Bones nodded and said "You might need to produce more Witnesses, everyone at this dinner could be considered one. That will go a long way, in substantiating the veracity of the events. Especially the witness statement of the first year, Frye, was it?" She looked at Nathan and continued "according to your recounting of the event he was holding the rat, and he pointed out its long life, and he does not have any emotional connection with Sirius Black's freedom, so his statement is crucial for the coming trial."
"Ah! Yes, Nathan Frye, a remarkably talented young man, praises of his sharp mind and propensity of pranking with his friends have reached my office, Prof. Flitwick has nothing but praises for him. Tell me, Mr. Frye, do you have wards and enchantments set up around your home? If not, please have them set up at the earliest, I believe Arthur could guide you to Gringotts to have them done." Dumbledore advised.
Nathan did not have wards set around The Abode; he had been planning to set them up during the summer. "No sir, we don't have wards around my home, I was planning to have them done during the summer. I will have them set up tomorrow if you think they will be necessary."
"Yes, I believe that some unsavory individuals might be interested in you, after today's events. It would be prudent to have them done at the earliest. Arthur if you would?" Dumbledore requested.
"Certainly Albus, I will take Nathan and his mother along with me to Gringotts, and get a ward stone commissioned by tomorrow morning." Arthur Weasley promised.
"Now, that the unhappy business is done, would anyone care for a nice Christmas Dinner?" Molly asked, she had come down from the upper room after she'd noticed that the Aurors had left with Pettigrew. She also didn't want to miss the chance of having Albus Dumbledore be part of the Christmas dinner at the burrow. "I can have it all freshened up and hot, in a matter of moments."
"Ah! Molly, while I do enjoy your delicious Treacle Pudding, the business conducted today has had me finding myself with a very tight schedule, though I wouldn't say no, if you were to give me a nice parcel of the pudding to take away!" He said cheerily.
"Yes, certainly Albus! And why don't the rest of you take up your seats at the table, I will set the food there again." She said as she returned to the kitchen to prepare Dumbledore's pudding.
"Is mum seriously going to serve the food again, after we've just found that a murderer was living inside our home?" Charlie whispered to Bill.
"It's her way of coping with the situation, I believe. And I am not going to say no to the food, it'll be a waste otherwise." Bill pointed out.
"I can agree with that!" Ron said.
oOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOo
After the dinner, which had become very awkward for everyone involved, Nathan and his mother were apparated by Ted, to the Leaky Cauldron, and they'd returned to their hotel to sleep off their exhaustion caused by the excitement of the previous night. Nathan's mum had once again been worried, about Nathan attending a hearing as a witness for a criminal justice case, inside of a world that she could not be a part of. It had taken Nathan more than a few hours to allay her fears and worry, though she was still worried about it, but had decided to find out everything about it from Andromeda and Molly, both of whom she had become fast friends with.
The next day, they had met with Mr. Weasley outside of the Leakey cauldron and he'd taken them to Gringotts for the warding. Nathan again had to part with two thousand galleons from his vault. He had come to realize that he'd need to find more ways to earn money in the wizarding world, especially after his talk with Ted, for his total in the vault had significantly halved after the fees for all seven years at Hogwarts were removed.
Luckily, he had other plans in mind for them. He knew that the idea of starting his own newspaper firm in the wizarding world was far-fetched at best, but he'd gone ahead with it, to gain some insight into the politics and business that was conducted there. Now, he was looking towards the idea of writing books and stories that were famous in his previous life, to earn himself some money both in the magical and non-magical world. He was planning to sell these books in both the Magical and non-magical worlds. While he did not remember every little dialogue in those books, he knew the plotline of most famous stories, that were famous by the time he'd died. He figured if Gilderoy Lockhart could get rich by writing bullshit in the magical community, him selling good stories for people to enjoy would go a great way in helping him earn money.
He had also learnt about electrical appliances in the magical world. Neither his watch nor his mom's Nokia phone broke down, upon entering the magical wards or interacting with magic in general. But Nathan mused that might have just been because it was a Nokia, they're ridiculously tough as it is. They had floo travelled, they had been side along apparated, and they had crossed somewhat powerful magical wards, and it didn't interact with their electrical appliances in any way. Nathan had even taken a signal receiver that he'd built along with him. The signal would give a signal using cell towers, around the country and triangulate their location when inside the wards, and it had worked perfectly. He was able to generalize the location of the Burrow, between the hills near Devon, and the location of the Tonks' apartment somewhere in East London. So the devices worked despite the wards, but they lost their accuracy, with both locations being somewhat unplottable. He had used the device back in Hogwarts, and he nothing more than Northern regions of Scotland for the location of that place, before the device had broken down. So he mused that there was something different about the wards there. He would find out when he would finish learning runes and wards properly, next year.
He gave his general address to the Goblins and marked out the property that he wanted to get warded. He then purchased an emergency portkey for his mother, should anything happen to her while he was at Hogwarts, and she needed a quick escape, for after facing murphy the previous day at dinner, he had realized again, that things could go wrong very easily, and he was lucky for how they had turned out. He did not want to rely on luck for everything in his life, despite it being the reason he was here in the first place.
Saying goodbye to Mr. Weasley, he and his mum, floo travelled back to the Tonks' where they would be staying the night for Nathan's testimonial hearing the next day at the Wizengamot.
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