Lady Tonks, Lord Potter

10

Augusta Longbottom never liked portkeys very much; it always seemed to be a rather undignified method of transport. Portkeys were marginally acceptable, better than the nauseating process of Apparition, travel by broomstick was out of the question, especially at her age, but Floo travel, her preferred method, was decidedly out of the question based on her destination. Especially as the Floo was disconnected for her destination. Once she had steadied herself, adjusted the singed vulture hat on her head to its proper angle and had a series of deep, steadying breaths, she prepared herself for the inevitable conversation that she'd been having with almost everyone since the Ministry fell. As soon as she swung open the door to the kitchen of the little house it began.

"Merlin!" Amelia Bones sat back in her chair as if she had just been hit with a stinging jinx. "You're alive?"

Augusta sighed discontentedly and walked forward, handing Alastair Moody the bent handle of some Muggle contraption. "You didn't warn her?"

The old Auror chuckled slightly and tossed the handle of a child's tricycle into the rubbish bin. "Didn't see the point."

After taking off her hat and smacking Moody in the arm with it Augusta sat down at the kitchen table and focused on Amelia with a stern glare. "I understand there's a new government, of sorts. Well done and all that, with the circumstances, but what in Hecate's name are we doing about Hogwarts?"

"Ah." Amelia nodded, coming back from the shock at seeing Augusta Longbottom alive and well, adjusted her monocle and leaned forward. "It is still under lockdown. Nothing in or out. They're quite safe, but we're working on methods to try and contact them. For now, though, it's best that the students are there with everything up in the air." She tilted her head. "But that can't be the reason you're here, is it?"

"No, it isn't." The older woman sat straight in the chair, hands clasped in front of her on the table. "While I'm glad Neville is safe I'm worried about what the Muggles will do now...with the Obliviators incapacitated along with the rest of the Ministry..."

"Ah." Amelia eased slightly. It was a conversation she had held with many people since Voldemort's assault on the Ministry. "Surprisingly, or depending on who you speak with, rather unsurprisingly, the Muggles have chosen not to believe what is directly in front of them. Right now our sources have informed us that it is being portrayed as a terrorist attack. Muggles in many different countries are being blamed, but the prevailing belief is that a cult wishing to bring about the end of the world perpetrated the attack."

"Not far off." Moody's voice was full of disdain. "Even if they don't have the real details. We're safe. For now. Not sure how we'll handle what happens next." He held up a hand. "And no, we don't know anything more than that. They've been quiet. Too quiet."

-ooo-

The afternoon sun broke though the clouds occasionally, then only fitfully, matching Harry's mood. Where before he had dreaded being at Hogwarts as Lord Potter, only teased about it if he was lucky, now he was fully the Potter of House Potter, part of the High Council, the current government of wizarding Britain. As he sat on the window seat in front of the high, leaded windows looking out of the hunting lodge over the rolling Scottish landscape Harry kept thinking back over the last several days, none of it good. Having to tell Ron that his father was dead, that the Burrow was gone. Seeing Hermione's face as she clung onto her mum, listening to her tell him in soft words always on the edge of hysteria about her father's death. Attending the memorial service for Arthur Weasley, as there was no body, Ginny standing straight as a broomstick at Molly's side without a hint of emotion, as if she had simply shut the world out. Sitting with Tonks when she got the letter from Andromeda, listening empathetically whilst Tonks worried about her parents...everyone in turmoil about their parents, while in the back of his mind he wondered what his parents would have been like. What his mum would have said about the contract to marry Tonks...