A-Meeting-Unseen (II) [Chapter 167]

~~Unnamed Classroom, Hogwarts~~

Amelia wondered how to start the conversation for real… Until now, they have been playing around and to be honest, this conversation could have been a lot easier only if Harry Potter was a normal 14 year old, but unfortunately, she was out of luck. Harry Potter was anything but normal… After all, he killed three people, including a child of his own age when he was eleven.

Then who knew if those were the only people he had killed? There was also the fact that he managed to surprise ‘The Alastor Moody’ and teleport him to Hogsmeade by some unknown means. That by itself was quite an unbelievable feat in her books. Even she wasn’t certain if she could manage such a feat. Then there was also the matter of the unknown teleportation method…

‘It would have been so much better if I could have cowered him with authority’ Amelia thought bitterly…

“Voldemort is back” Amelia declared while intently staring at Harry, wanting to see how he would react, and she wasn’t exactly surprised when Harry didn’t seem to react to the revelation in the slightest, which probably meant that he was already aware of that. Although Connie and Tonks looked kind of surprised as they weren’t expecting Amelia to reveal that.

“I already know that” Harry admitted with a nod of his head, surprising both Connie and Tonks even more.

“Then do you know why he attacked the Potters that night?” Amelia asked, repeating her initial question.

“I have some ideas, but no, I am not certain why” Harry lied straight through his teeth. Yes, he didn’t know what the Prophecy truly entailed, but he knew that it was the reason why Voldemort attacked them on that fateful Halloween night. Though he didn’t need to tell her that as she could very well lead him to the damn thing.

To be honest, he wasn’t planning to stack his cards on the Prophecy, but knowing what it truly entailed might help him in the endgame… Though he wondered if he could find a clue about the identity of the Death Eater who delivered the damned thing to Voldemort and damned his family… Even Lucius knew nothing about the Prophecy, so obviously he knew nothing about the identity of the person who delivered it to Voldemort.

Harry was hoping that the fucker was still alive so he could enact his own brand of vengeance upon that fucker…

Meanwhile, Amelia internally sighed in relief at his admission. She finally had something to hold over him. It felt really distasteful to use a 14 year old boy in such a manner, but beggars can’t be choosers, she decided.

If Harry was really the only one who could defeat Voldemort, then she could probably surprise herself with the lengths she could go to assure their victory. Susan was the only family she had left, and there was very little she wouldn’t do to make sure Susan lived in a world where Voldemort and his Death Eaters were no longer a threat.

“There was a Prophecy regarding you and him and that is what led Voldemort to your doorstep” Amelia revealed grimly and Harry had to force himself to look surprised. Honestly, he wasn’t expecting her to reveal her cards so soon in the game… “Your parents weren’t the target, they were simply in the way” Amelia added while giving him a sympathetic look.

“You are saying that some nutjob babbled something nonsensical and Voldemort decided to attack me based on that?” Harry asked with a bewildered look on his face, only to receive a solemn nod from Amelia and sympathetic looks from Alastor, Tonks, and Connie. “How weak he must have been to fear a one year old babe” Harry mumbled with a lost look on his face before he looked away.

Amelia decided to give him some time and Tonks decided to wrap her arm around him comfortingly… Harry may not be the boy she imagined him to be, but that didn’t mean that she stopped loving him or caring about him… He was still her family, so she might be mad at him at this instance, but that didn’t mean that she would turn her back on him.

“...How did you come to know of this?” Harry asked after a minute of silence. His last statement wasn’t out of the act he was putting on. He genuinely wondered how weak Voldemort must have been to feel threatened by a one year old… Though unfortunately for Voldemort, not only Harry survived the attack, but Voldemort made an enemy who would take everything away from him.

“We discovered it by luck… We wanted to know who entered your name in the Tournament so we were investigating all the Professors, and that is when we discovered that Sybill Trelawney gave a Prophecy in 1980. With some more investigation, we managed to uncover some snippets” Amelia lied as she wanted to hold the Prophecy over his head so that she could get him to work with them.

There was nothing Harry could learn from Sybill Trelawney herself, so he would have to depend on them if he wanted to learn the contents of the Prophecy…

“Ohh…” Harry mumbled absentmindedly. He suspected that Amelia was probably hiding a lot from him, but there was no way he could confront her about that at this instance. After all, the game would stop being fun if the others realized just how outmatched and outgunned they were and Harry didn’t want to do that as the game was only starting to become fun.

“Do you know who she delivered the Prophecy to?” Harry asked.

“Albus Dumbledore” Amelia answered without wasting any time.

“Then how did Voldemort come to know about the Prophecy?” Harry asked curiously. It was true that Harry didn’t like Dumbledore, but he didn’t believe that it was Dumbledore who delivered the Prophecy to Voldemort. That was not how the Light Lord rolled.

“That, we don’t know” Amelia answered with a frown. “Though we suspect that someone, probably a Death Eater, might have overheard the Prophecy and delivered it to Voldemort” Amelia suggested tiredly and Harry nodded his head with a contemplative look on his face.

|Indeed| Harry mumbled internally... Thanks to Amelia, he now knew who delivered the damned Prophecy in the first place. He could start his investigation from there… “So, what do you need from me?” Harry asked, making Amelia smile…

This was what she wanted from the beginning, which meant that the meeting was not a waste…

<Line Break> (A few minutes later)

Amelia sagged in her seat after Harry finally left the room. The whole meeting was somewhat bothersome for her as she had to tip-toe around the landmines… The boy was much sharper than she imagined, so she had to be extremely careful about whatever she said… The mental gymnastics she had to perform during the conversation was more than just troublesome.

Tonks and Connie were about to start speaking, but Amelia raised a finger to her lips to shut them up… “Is the room secure?” Amelia asked as she turned toward Alastor who was running his Wand along the nearby wall.

“Seems to be, but give me a minute” Alastor declared as he continued to inspect the walls. After nearly a minute and a half, he was finally satisfied that the room was secure.

“Ma’am, was it okay to let him go like that? I mean we didn’t even make him swear Secrecy Oaths” Connie asked with an unsure look on her face.

“It was definitely a risk, but it was necessary. We need to gain his trust and we didn’t discuss anything sensitive, so it was probably okay” Amelia answered after taking a deep breath. “Voldemort is already back, so we don’t have the time to play it too safe” Amelia pointed out, making Alastor grunt in agreement.

“We are people who Voldemort must kill if he wants to win and Dumbledore already knows that we are up to something, so it wouldn’t be a huge loss if they somehow managed to learn about us” Alastor said before taking a huge gulp from his hip flask. “Though you are giving him far less credit than he truly deserves… He is very dangerous and way more devious than his looks would suggest” Alastor added gruffly.

“Then why did you lie to him?” Tonks asked. Right now, she was so confused that her head was spinning. First of all, she came to learn that there were some truths in Alastor’s words regarding Harry. Then there was the fact that he had done something to the Malfoys to keep them in line… Tonks might be a rookie, but she knew how to read between the lines thanks to her parents.

Alas, Harry was still her family, so she couldn’t come to terms with the fact that her boss was trying to take advantage of him…

“So that we could make him cooperate with us… He may not realize this right now but he will need a lot of help if he wants to win the war” Amelia revealed while rubbing her temples. “This War will be fought on two fronts and he will need all the help he can get if he wants to make any headway in either Wizengamot or the actual battlefield… It would be the same for us as we would need him as the pillar” Amelia finished as she leaned back in her chair.

“Look… I know it might look like we are using him, but in reality, he will be using us just like we would be using him” Amelia added when it looked like Tonks was about to argue. Tonks was a very important part of her group, so Amelia didn’t want to lose her.

“We will be scratching each other’s backs” Alastor grunted with a somewhat disgruntled look on his face. It was clear that none of the liked what they were doing, but they knew what needed to be done to win the upcoming war…

With a conflicted look on her face, Tonks decided to drop the matter for the time being…

(A/N: Guys, what do you think about the rewrite?)