Life and Love After Voldemort

Harry's eyes were as wide as Bagman's grin. "So you're saying that known fugitives Vincent Crabbe the First and Gregory Goyle Senior are who you've been referencing this evening as your backers and co-conspirators to defraud the Chudleighton Casino -- for which you intend to frame Ronald Weasley and me, as well as fund an effort to achieve the violent overthrow of the government?"

"Did I stutter, Potter? That's exactly what I'm saying! Since when did you start talking like one of the Aurors that used to question me in the good old days?"

"Why don't you ask the Auror who trained me! Got all that, Kingsley?" What had appeared to be the dining room wall disintegrated to reveal Minister Shacklebolt and a handful of DOMLEE personnel standing with their wands drawn. "Don't make a move, Bagman! Auror's office; you're under arrest." Harry's sweater transformed to display his identification as an agent of the Auror's Office.

"Petrificus Totalus!" shouted Kingsley, leaving nothing to chance. "Harry, we've been over this; make sure to say 'Auror's Office' first," Kingsley instructed, them smiled. "Splendid work, Potter! I've rarely seen a confession extracted in a more adroit and legally-compliant way."

"Thank you sir, but there's one other small matter to attend to..." Harry lurched forward and snatched a beetle that had been scurrying out of a pocket in Bagman's jacket. "Oh, Kreeeacher... There you are! Kreacher, please dispose of this insect for me."

"As you wish, master of the house..." Kreacher brandished a rolled-up copy of the Daily Prophet and prepared to strike.

At once, the beetle transformed into a cowering Rita Skeeter. "No, no, wait, it's me! This bad man captured me and turned me into a beetle for getting too close to the truth!"

"Auror's Office!" Harry boomed. "You're under arrest for being an unregistered Animagus." Harry used Petrificus Specialis to freeze everything but Rita's mouth. She's no escape risk, and I'm going to get in the last word on her right now. "I think accessory-before-the-fact is in your future as well, but I'll have to check with Hermione on that. She's gonna get the first legal crack at you if I have my way! And be glad we're only talking Azkaban; without Ludo's inadvertent admission that you knew nothing about the plot to overthrow the government, we'd be talking high treason and the Ultimate Banishment."

"Hmmmpf," replied Rita. She was more subdued than at her last confrontation with Harry, but still was intent on using the only orifice available to her at the moment. "I heard a lot of speculation on your part, but precious little proof."

"As if proof has ever mattered to you when you've played judge, jury, and executioner in your hit pieces," Harry retorted. "Don't you worry; whatever proof you overlooked will be revealed soon enough and covered in the Prophet by someone other than yourself. However, you'll have plenty of time to work on a biography of me now. How about calling it: 'The Exterminator!'" Harry posed dramatically in the fashion of the action movie posters he remembered from the wall of Dudley's second bedroom and completed the Petrificus spell on Rita with one shot from his wand, as Kingsley and the DOMLEE personnel roared with laughter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The levity was short-lived, as plans had to be formed to apprehend Crabbe and Goyle and destroy their planned attack on the government. The confession by Ludo Bagman of the serious threat to national security that was underway allowed the Ministry to authorize the use of Veritaserum on Bagman to extract the whereabouts of his co-conspirators.

After Bagman's interrogation had concluded, Kingsley called Harry into his office for an update. "Potter, we've found out that Crabbe and Goyle are in Scotland, apparently holed up at a well-guarded stronghold at the tip of the Mull of Kintyre. However, the two have a separate rendezvous point arranged with Bagman that is not as fortified as the stronghold. We will need to rely on the element of surprise and everything you've learned thus far in your training, for it's certain that Crabbe and Goyle will use every bit of Dark Magic at their disposal to avoid being caught."

"Yes, Minister. I'll be ready the instant I'm needed."

"Thank you, Harry. I want to apologize for being short with you yesterday when the rumors of the impending scandal broke. I was questioning my own judgment as well as yours for risking the reputation of the Ministry, though hearing you discuss your motives and tactics to Bagman as you egged more boasts out of him explained a great deal."

"Sir, it's because of your training and your plea for us to remain vigilant that I was able to sense when things weren't right and formulate a way to react appropriately and professionally. In the past, I've let my emotions get the best of me and relied too much on those in authority rather than keeping my own counsel, and I was able to overcome those obstacles while being guided by the legal and professional parameters of the Auror's Office."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Harry's mind raced back to what he'd had to keep to himself for so long. After he'd spotted evidence of the Imperius Curse from his encounter with Nessie Chudleighton, Harry was determined to get the Auror's Office on the trail of Bagman. As he persevered on that front, Harry made sure to safeguard the most valuable part of an Auror's arsenal: his wand. During Harry's tedious research through manuals on Auror field equipment after Kingsley chewed him out over his bungling on the ID badge front, Harry ran across a service provided by the Auror department called a Wand Trace.

As the manual stated: "DOMLEE encourages that the Wand Trace be maintained and updated before any field excursion. In the event of the use of a wand in official Auror business, the spells cast are immediately and completely documented. This is especially valuable in the event that Prior Incantato cannot be run due to wand damage or magical tampering. The Trace also documents the improper use of a wand by someone other than the registered owner, so it is important to ensure the Trace is in place so that it can be utilized as evidence of the transgression against the transgressor[s]." Harry was dumbfounded that like the new ID badges, the Wand Trace wasn't standard operating procedure. We can't allow this stuff to slip past us anymore. Paging Hermione... He took it upon himself to maintain the Trace on both his and Ron's wands from that moment on.

The events of the last 24 hours confirmed that Harry's preparations had paid off. When Harry had hurriedly left the suite on the pretense of getting updated figures from the Ministry for Hermione to work on, Harry had something else on his agenda. The news of the conspiracy and Hermione's unearthing of evidence to that effect sped Harry to the Tracing section to have a confidential rush-test done on his wand as well as Ron's, which he'd slipped out of Ron's outer robe while pretending to have accidentally put it on in his haste to get out of the door. Harry gathered the figures for Hermione while the test was run, then returned to the section to find out the results.

Harry's suspicions were confirmed: Ludo Bagman was identified as having used both wands illicitly. One wand was used to Imperius a casino employee who placed bets under the Fair Share Partners banner, and the other was used to Imperius a casino accountant who further doctored the payment trail. The time of the improper use of their wands also fit into the pattern Harry had envisioned. The spells were cast the night of Harry's first Quidditch match as Cannons Seeker. Harry recalled that he and Ron didn't make it back to the locker room to retrieve their wands from the wand holding area at the stadium until the next day because Bagman had jovially steered them back to the penthouse without changing out of their uniforms. Harry gambled that leaving the wands there was the right thing to do if it could serve to smoke out Bagman, who could use his position as team owner to avoid being questioned as to why he was loitering by the holding area. As with the wagers, Ludo didn't think for a minute that the wands themselves were being monitored, so he hadn't tried to obscure the Prior Incantato chain of spells. Armed with this ironclad evidence, Potter dashed into Kingsley's office and laid out everything about Bagman from rock-solid proof to the circumstantial and the theoretical.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Minister had called in undercover staff from the Auror's Office and legal experts working in DOMLEE to discuss how to proceed in the apprehension of Bagman. Kingsley laid out the main problem the Aurors were facing. "I don't see how we can expect to compel Bagman to name his backers without Veritaserum; he's been grilled by the Wizengamot and come away unscathed." The legal experts had reminded everyone of the strict rules against using Veritaserum in the post-Voldemort Department of Magical Law Enforcement except in extraordinary circumstances, which the current situation did not meet at that point.

Harry seized the moment. "Ludo thinks he's got me dead to rights. I have to let him believe that and try to stir up an outburst from him that will make him talk. This is the time to test our belief that overconfidence and arrogance will make our enemies reveal their secrets to us, Minister." After selecting Grimmauld Place as the spot for the confrontation (the legal minds preferred it to the suite as it lent further latitude under the law to the presence of Aurors and other DOMLEE personnel), Harry left the Ministry to explain the situation to his friends and fiancée as best he could without betraying his active Auror standing (which Hermione had figured out as always but kept quiet about it).

After the press conference, the main thing left to do was make final security preparations. At Harry's request, Ginny's dad Apparated into her flat and escorted her to the Ministry with Hermione's updated data in tow. Beforehand, Harry had tried to convince a skeptical Hermione that Apparition was perfectly fine. He was convinced due to his precautions that Bagman would feel certain that the quartet was completely oblivious to his scheme and he therefore wouldn't have anyone taking the trouble to monitor Apparations in and around the flat. In the end, Harry asked the Sweeper who had been working on Grimmauld Place to set spells masking any further Disapparation, which calmed Hermione. (Kingsley later sent an Auror to the flat at the moment Bagman threatened to procure Ginny. The Auror was in position to greet the associate who was later sent to nab both Ginny and Hermione with breaking-and-entering charges for starters.)

Before he left, Harry noticed that Ron was visibly upset that his main role in the evolving effort to undermine Bagman's scheme was to accompany Hermione back to the Burrow, set protective charms, and await further instructions. "What good can I do sitting around the kitchen with Mum? I could be helping bring down that bag of scum face to face!"

Harry had no sympathy for Ron's dilemma. "Sorry, Weasley; that's not your department."

Soon after, Hermione pretended to need to talk to Harry alone (further infuriating Ron), but in fact wanted to share her glee with Harry over Ron's fiery attitude. "He's kicking himself for not being able to get in the middle of the fight. Oh Harry, I knew his heart would lead him back to the right path when his loved ones were at risk again!"

"Hey, I promised to do what I could on that front, but I knew that the decision had to come from him. You'll have to thank Bagman for lighting the fire under him!"