What Trelawney Never Predicted by Marauder24
Harry was sitting in the Minister’s office. He had received an owl the night before from the Minister requesting this meeting. Things had been hectic in the week since Ginny brought Emily home for St. Mungo’s.
The Minister stood with his back to Harry. “I’m sure you are wondering why I have asked for this meeting?”
“Yeah, I do,” Harry replied curtly. He still remembered how Scrimgeour had approached him at Dumbledore’s funeral.
“Now, now Mr. Potter, no need to be rude. I know we haven’t always seen eye to eye, but I need your help,” replied the Minister, turning to face Harry.
“That would be an understatement. You wanted me to be your own personal mascot.”
“The help that I require of you now is different “,said Srimgeour, ignoring Harry’s last remark. “I’m getting old Mr. Potter. I can’t be the Minister of Magic forever.”
“I’ll celebrate the day you retire. I have a new born daughter at home; so if you don’t mind, could you please hurry this up?”
“I’m going to announce my retirement within the week and I want to endorse you as a candidate for the next Minister. That is if you will accept.”
“You want me to take your place?” When the Minister nodded Harry continued. “Now why would I want to do that?”
“As I said earlier, we haven’t always seen eye to eye but we have more in common than you might think. For instance, our hatred of dark wizards. So what do you say?”
******
The week went by in a blur. Harry was sitting at the kitchen table when the owl appeared with the morning’s Daily Prophet. He paid the owl and instinctively set it down without reading it. He still had lingering memories of the garbage they printed about him in his fourth and fifth years.
There was a loud crack outside his kitchen door that announced someone’s arrival. In seconds Tonks came through the kitchen doorway. She ran up and gave Harry, who was still sitting in his chair, a huge hug.
“What’s going on? What’s this for?” gasped Harry while trying to get a breath or two in through Tonks’ hug.
“Did you see that Prophet. I came here as soon as I saw it.”
“What is going on down here? You woke up the baby, Harry,” said Ginny as she walked through the doorway to the living room. She had Emily in her arms. She was squirming a little but barely making a sound. “Oh Tonks, I didn’t know you were here.”
Harry stood up and went over to his wife. He kissed her on the cheek and took Emily from her. He looked down at his daughter and smiled. He never knew that someone besides Ginny could ever make him so happy. He now knew what his parents felt like when they held him.
Ginny and Tonks hugged and only then did Ginny ask why she was there. “I saw the Prophet and came over right away. This is so exciting,” exclaimed an excited Tonks. She clumsily knocked over a chair.
Ginny grabbed the paper from the table, ignoring Tonks. She stared at the front page and turned to Harry. He had zoned out, playing with Emily. Little Emily was holding on to Harry’s finger as hard as she could. She looked at him held the paper up. Her face showed no emotion. The headline read.
Minister announces retirement. Harry Potter to take his place.
Tonks was the first to say anything. “Why didn’t you tell us you were going for the job? The rumors about Scrimgeour retiring have been going around for weeks, but no one ever said anything about you taking his place,” said Tonks as she got up off the floor.
“We wanted to keep it quiet for as long as possible,” answered Ginny. Tonks looked shocked.
“Well I got to get going. Scrimgeour is going to show me the ropes,” said Harry. With a quick wave, he moved to the door and was gone.
“I should get going too. I have a report that I need to finish before lunch,” said Tonks. Seconds later she was gone too. Ginny was left alone with Emily.
Later that morning Ginny decided to go and see how her mother was doing.
“I haven’t had a decent night sleep since she was born,” said Ginny.
“What did you expect dear,” replied Mrs. Weasley.
“Maybe a little bit of sleep. It’s only going to get worse with Harry becoming minister soon.”
“It is so exciting to have a Minister of Magic in the family,” beamed Mrs. Weasley.
“Yeah, whatever,” Ginny groaned in reply. She was excited for Harry but wasn’t looking forward to even less help taking care of Emily.
“Why don’t you leave her with me and go home to take a nap?”
“I don’t know mum.”
“Ginny, dear, I did raise a whole family. I know how to take care of a baby girl.”
“Ok, ok,” Ginny replied with a yawn. She wasn’t very comfortable leaving her infant daughter alone with anyone else, but if there was anyone she trusted it was her mother. She said her goodbyes and apparated home.
When she arrived home, she wasn’t there alone. Three figures covered in large black robes were waiting for her. Ginny let out a quiet gasp as a red light struck her in the chest.
******
Harry was sitting in a chair in front of the Minster’s desk. The Minister was showing him how the daily work of the Ministry was run. His eyelids were starting to grow heavy.
“Mr. Potter, I think that will be enough for today,” the Minister said. “After today, I’m confident that the magical world will be in good hands with you as minister. You can always owl me if you need advice.”
“Thank you,” was all Harry said in reply.
“Go home to your family.”
Harry was gone moments later. When he arrived home everything was quiet. He stood outside the back door and before he opened it he realized something was wrong. It was too quiet. There should be a baby crying at least. He opened the door to find the house empty. He went from room to room looking for Ginny and Emily but they were nowhere to be found. He returned to the kitchen thinking that Ginny must have taken her to the Burrow. When he sat down at the table with a bottle of Butterbeer in his hand, he saw a piece of paper that he missed on his first search of the house. On it was written only one line.
“You will never see your precious wife again.”
Harry panicked. What was he going to do? His first instinct was to call an emergency meeting of the Order of the Phoenix. After he sent the messages he made his way to the Burrow. When he arrived there, Mrs. Weasley came running out of the house with Emily in her arms.
“Harry, I got the message. What happened?”
He looked at her and before answering her question he asked one of his own. “Why is Emily here?”
“Ginny came over this morning and left her with me. She needed to get a little bit of sleep. I was worried when she didn’t come back. I was about to go see if she was alright when your message arrived.”
“Oh. When I got home the house was empty. When I saw the note I panicked.”
“What note? Oh never mind, everyone will be here soon” said Mrs. Weasley putting a hand on Harry’s shoulder. Harry looked at her and gently took Emily from her.
A cracking sound behind announced the arrival of someone. It Kingsley Shacklebolt, and Tonks. Seconds later Mike appeared right next to them.
“I got the message. What’s happening?” asked Mike.
“Mike, someone took Ginny.”
“What?” screamed Mike. “When did this happen?”
“I just got back a few minutes ago and found her gone. A message was on the table.”
“Do you know who it was?” asked Tonks.
“No, but I have some ideas. It’s got to be someone who doesn’t want me to be minister.”
“Or somebody looking for revenge. I have to admit the timing is a little funny though,” Mike replied.
“Mike I need your help. I know it is a lot to ask but I don’t know what else to do. While I’m having the meeting I need for you to use some of your old ‘friends’ to get whatever information you can. I need to know where Ginny is.”
“No problem. I’ll get right on it. Goodbye.” He smiled at Mrs. Weasley and said, “Christina will eventually come looking for me. This place and Harry’s house are the first two places she will look. When she shows up, just calm her down and tell her I’ll be back as soon as I can. Hopefully with Ginny.”
She smiled and said, “Be careful.” Mike nodded.
Mike turned to Kingsley. “I could use some help.” Kingsley smiled and went off with Mike.
“Come on inside Harry,” said Mrs. Weasley.
A few minutes later everyone else showed up. They were in a frenzy of discussion when Christina showed up with Stephen. She took one look at everyone in the room and new something was wrong. She sent Stephen in the other room and sat down with everyone else. “What’s going on? Where is Mike?”
Everyone looked at her but Hermione was the first one to answer. “Somebody took Ginny.”
Christina gasped and asked, “What about the baby?”
This time Harry answered. “She’s upstairs sleeping. Ginny dropped her off here so she could take a nap and never came to pick her up.”
“But what about Mike? Surely you told him about this. I don’t see him anywhere. He wasn’t at home.”
Everyone in the room looked at Harry until he said something. “He’s out looking for her. When he was helping Dumbledore he made some useful contacts. They helped us out during our search for the Horcruxes and now I’m hoping they will help find Ginny. Don’t worry, he will be fine. He’s better at this stuff than any Auror I’ve ever met.” Christina nodded and hung her head in her hands. She clearly wasn’t encouraged by Harry’s words.
They talked for hours trying to formulate some plan.
Meanwhile, on a hill in the highlands of Scotland stood a large house. The house was as large as a castle. In the basement a young red headed witch was chained to a wall. Three figures from her past that she never thought she would see again stood in front of her. They were laughing at her misfortune. She let out a scream just after one of the figures pointed their wand at her and said “Crucio”.
Unknown to them, two figures crept around the outside of the house looking for a way in.