Harry sighed and then he turned to Amelia Bones. "What crimes were Sirius Black convicted of?" He asked.
"Support of You-Know-Who, accessory to murder, namely your parents and killing Peter Pettigrew and several muggles," She answered.
"What if I told you that you're wrong?" Harry responded calmly. He raised his hand to waylay her rebuttal. "Go have any of your people look for any information on the trial of Sirius Black and you'll find there is none. It doesn't exist because he never was charged, nor tried, nor convicted. He was sent to Azkaban and left to rot for all of those years without a chance to defend himself by Barty Crouch."
Amelia's mouth stopped in mid-opening.
Harry pressed on but not in an accusing manner. "Neither of you were in your current positions when it happened and I can understand how it propagated into what it is now, but I would like you to keep an open mind when it concerns Sirius Black."
"What does Sirius Black have to do with tonight?" Fudge asked.
"Everything," Harry replied truthfully but with an exaggerated sigh. "Sirius Black is my godfather and over the last couple of years he and I have been..."
"Mr. Potter, are you saying you know where Sirius Black is?" Madam Bones asked. "If you do, you must tell me at once so we can go arrest him. He is a dangerous fugitive."
"Stay calm Harry," Hermione's voice came through causing the anger that had erupted in Harry to dissipate. He looked at the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. "Ma'am, as I said, I believe he was never tried or convicted. Prove to me that I'm wrong. In fact since Sirius played a major part in tonight and what I want to discuss, go and have that information looked for now."
"Mr. Potter," Bones started as her eye tightened around her monocle. "I will not be spoken…"
"Amelia," Cornelius Fudge interrupted. "It's a minor thing to do. Have one of your people go to the records office and pull the information. Harry obviously thinks it is important."
"I'm sorry Madam Bones," Harry added, realizing that he didn't want to get on Amelia's bad side. "I didn't mean to speak rudely; it's just been a long and stressful night. I hope you can understand."
"I won't be able to understand until you explain exactly what happened," Amelia replied. After a contemplative stare at the teens she turned to the Minister and nodded. "I shall have it done now Cornelius," She said. She quickly crossed to the door and disappeared. She was only gone five minutes before returning. "I have a junior Auror looking into it," She said. "He'll bring the records shortly."
"To continue with my explanation, let's presume what I said is correct," Harry said. "Sirius Black is my godfather and Voldemort found out that I consider him part of my family. Last night Voldemort tricked me into believing he had Sirius down in the Department of Mysteries."
"Why would he do that?" Bones asked. "And how?"
"As I mentioned to the Minister earlier, the how involved Riddle sending…"
"Someone sent you a Riddle?" Bones interrupted.
"No Ma'am. It's his real name. Lord Voldemort's real name is Tom Riddle. He went to Hogwarts fifty years ago," Harry said and then with his eyes fixed on Cornelius Fudge he continued. "He was the one who originally opened the Chamber of Secrets."
"Dumbledore mentioned that name I think," Fudge replied with a shrug. "It's unimportant."
Harry had to fight with himself to keep from rolling his eyes or climbing over the desk and throttling the Minister, but finally he turned back to Amelia, "Riddle has been sending me visions recently about the Department of Mysteries. He's been trying to lure me here to get something for him."
"What did he need you to get for him?"
"A prophecy ma'am," Harry replied. "I didn't know it until it was explained to me by a Death Eater of all people," He said with his voice increasing in volume. He spent a couple of seconds to calm down before continuing. "But it seems there was a prophecy made that led to the murder of my parents. Voldemort now wants it."
"But if his Death Eaters could get in there why did he need you?" Madam Bones asked.
"Lucius said that only the people the prophecy is about may retrieve it," Harry explained.
"Of course," Bones replied. "I'd forgotten about that," She made a few notes on some parchment before looking back at Harry. "So he used some kind of vision trick on you that caused you to come here thinking you needed to rescue your godfather? Is that the basics?"
"Yes Ma'am," Harry replied glad he didn't have to explain the connection he shared with Voldemort.
"Why did you think you had to come yourself? Why not go to a Professor?"
"After the torture I've been experiencing over the last year and the only protection I received was being told to keep my head down, I hope you can understand I have little confidence in what the response would have been."
"Which I believe has been improved recently," Bones said.
"Maybe, but say I had told someone and they had told you. Would you have been more interested in arresting Sirius or rescuing him?" Harry asked. "There was no time to try to convince you and I couldn't let Sirius die."
More notes were jotted down. Finally Bones looked back up. "So you came all the way to the Ministry and made it to the Department of Mysteries. You were then attacked by the six Death Eaters?"
"No Ma'am, there were twelve in all," Harry responded and then he acted like he remembered something. "That portal...or whatever it is, wherever it goes you need to send Aurors."
"What are you talking about?"
"The stone archway," Harry explained. "We found out it was a portal or something. It's in the room with all the benches. Malfoy was saying something about it was called the Death Room."
Madam Bones' eyes widened. "But that's the Veil…it's…" She stopped. "Maybe you need to explain from the beginning…tell me everything that happened."
"Yes ma'am," Harry replied. "Hermione was concerned it might be a trap," He explained. "So when we got to London…"
"How exactly did you get here?" Amelia interrupted. "You were at Hogwarts right?"
"Yes ma'am we were. We rode on my broom and a couple of Thestrals," Harry said as if it happens every day.
"The Thestrals were very nice," Luna said. "Mine was named…" She looked at Amelia and Fudge. "Oh you probably don't need to know that."
Amelia just looked on in shock as she listened.
....
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