Chapter 24

"They did WHAT?" screamed Fudge as he leapt up from his desk and began to pace in front of the large fireplace that dominated his office. "They're goblins! What makes them think that they can just shut down like that? Don't they understand that we're at war?"

"Lord Gold doesn't seem to care about current events, just his treaties." Percy stated.

Fudge scowled angrily. "They're OUR treaties, not his. We can do what we want with them." He returned to his desk and pounded his fist on it. "Didn't you explain that to him?"

"I didn't really have the opportunity." Percy gulped.

"Get out of here!" Fudge shouted. "You're a pathetic failure to me. If I had sent someone else, we wouldn't be having this problem now! I want that report on Potter's assets on my desk early tomorrow too."

Percy quickly left the office, leaving Fudge to his tirade. He would calm down in an hour or so. He always did. Then after that, he would go and do something else sure to bring him back to his angry state.

"I take it that the news didn't go over well." a fellow assistant said from his desk as Percy sat at his own.

"It did not." Percy sighed. "I hope I'm not around when he realizes that the economy is in big trouble now. Fudge will have to seize almost all of the commercial business establishments and force them to work at this point."

A deep sigh came from his fellow worker. "And then the next thing we know, we'll all be bloody Communists."

"Whatever." Percy mumbled as he waved an anxious looking Auror through to the Minister's office. If Fudge didn't want visitors, that was his problem for now.

"What will this do to the economy, Lord Silver?" Harry inquired as he struggled to retain his calm composure. How could Fudge do this to him? What had he ever done to deserve all this persecution? Didn't the idiot realize that he was only hurting Britain and not Harry?

The quiet but shrewd goblin steepled his fingers thoughtfully. "The British money supply has just taken a significant drop, obviously. If the Minister is wise, he will take action that will promote immediate deflation. That will be very beneficial to you. Whether or not he promotes it, it will eventually happen.

Harry nodded. It seemed that the closure of Gringotts would not be overly catastrophic for the average wizard or witch and their family. The situation would be very comparable to the Great Depression however. Then the war would come, just like before. "How long until this closure starts hurting the goblins?"

The goblin seemed surprised that Harry would be concerned for his race's welfare so it took a moment before he answered. "The treaties with Britain call for the violator of the other treaties in place to cover expenses. The goblins can therefore keep the bank closed almost indefinitely since we're not the ones paying for the loss."

"I wonder if Fudge realizes that?" Harry asked himself. "Will the bank still be open to me?"

"Of course." Lord Silver said, waving his hand in a dismissive manner. "We'll still strive to work with you and your accounts, despite the difficulties caused by the Ministry. North Gringotts will also still be able to function for you as well. With time, we may be able to open Gringotts in a type of safe mode. Your strength in magical power could perhaps help us in that respect."

Harry smiled. "That's some good news at least. Thank you for coming to brief me on the situation Lord Silver. If there is anything at all that I can do to help you, let me know."

The goblin nodded and stood up as Harry did. "Briefing you was the least we could, Lord Polairix. If anything significant happens with regard to your account or assets, we'll contact you immediately. Also, thank you for your offer." Then, wasting no time, the goblin magicked himself away from Nair'icaix.

Letting out an exhausted sigh, Harry fell back into his chair and slumped back. Could things get any worse? The Daily Prophet was gone and Fudge had made it practically impossible to deal with the British economy, not by cutting off his resources, but by ruining the economy in general.

The door to his private study opened to admit Bellatrix, Tess, Bess, and Reggins- his ghostly secretary. He looked at them hopefully. "Any new plans to solve all my problems with one easy step?"

"I'm afraid not." Reggins said dryly.

"Great."

Bellatrix approached the desk and laid a calming hand on his shoulder. "Don't let it get to you, Harry. We'll figure something out eventually."

Several overstuffed chairs appeared for all but the ghost to take a seat in. Tess wasted no time in getting down to business. "Your first and probably foremost loss is the Daily Prophet. The Ministry has seized that, so there is no way to simply start a new paper for the same subscribers. It will likely be impossible to even print a newspaper in Britain unless you're the Ministry from here on out."

"Is there a way to print a newspaper outside of the country and then send it in to everyone?" Harry inquired thoughtfully, his mental facilities rising to the challenge.

"That is a remote possibility, my lord." Tess replied. "The newspapers still have to be distributed and doing so from even a country as close as the North or France would be too difficult. There are also legal challenges in other countries that must be overcome."

Harry nodded. "True."

"There's always the Quibbler." Bellatrix suggested, remembering about how Harry had gotten his story out in his fifth-year at Hogwarts.

"I don't want to create any trouble for the Lovegood family." Harry sighed. "Knowing Fudge, if there was even a hint that I might be trying to work with them, they'd be shut down before their press even started printing."

"How about WWN? Could you buy it?" Bess asked.

Before Harry could respond, Bellatrix shot the idea down. "I'm afraid that it is impossible. The Ministry has always owned that medium and controlled it rigidly. The Dark Lord has tried to acquire it for himself many times and has always failed."

There was a silence as they all considered the stalemate that they had come to in their discussion. It did not appear that there was any way to fix the Daily Prophet problem. Harry revived the discussion. "What about my financial dealings in Britain?"

Bess shrugged. "We can just set up a false name and deal under that for you. If you're not inclined to do that, then perhaps you can ask some of your followers to use their names for your behalf."

"Seems fair enough." Harry answered, slowly considering both options. Maybe a combination of both would be effective. He yawned and glanced out one of the windows. The sun had just barely gone down and he was already tired. Pathetic. Perhaps there was a way that he could build up his stamina. He would have to ask some of his bodyguards if they could provide some guidance.

A brief knock sounded on the door and it opened to admit Count Hiscophney. "I'm sorry to disturb you, my lord. It has come to my attention that a small Muggle village located on the north coast of Britain is under attack from Voldemort's forces. I believe he intends to decimate them."

Harry frowned worriedly. "How did you find this out?"

"I have always had lookouts stations on the north coast of that country for safety reasons." Hiscophney answered. "Coincidentally, Voldemort has attacked a village in which one of my agents made his home at."

"I'll have to do something." Harry decided out loud. "Assemble a strike team to go with me to the village. If we hurry we can still save a few people."

Hiscophney grinned. "I've already taken the liberty to do so, my lord. Your bodyguards are also waiting."

Harry stood up and unconsciously summoned his black breastplate and battle robes lined with silver. "That was very efficient of you. Send one of Nailoff's men to fetch Narcissa Black and have her appropriately clothed for an outing of this nature." He turned to Bellatrix. "Would you like to come as well?"

Bellatrix wasted no time in answering. "Of course! If I can help it, I'm not going to let you go into a dangerous area alone."

"Good." Harry said as he watched Bellatrix quickly summon her own armor. He turned to Bess and Tess. "You might as well prepare to deal with any injuries that need minor care. I'll contact Xerina and have her send a couple of doctors."

"Yes, my lord." they said, echoing each other.

The two personal assistants then left the room as Hiscophney's men entered, soon followed by the Ice soldiers, and then a pair of Ice soldiers bodily dragging a very disgruntled Narcissa with them. "She didn't want to come." one of them explained to Harry as they let her go and watched as she narrowly missed falling on the floor.

"She doesn't have a choice." Harry commented as he quickly used his powers to peek into her mind and confirm that her attitude toward him and everything else remained the same. Perhaps this little field trip would change things a little. At the very least, it would get her attention.

Narcissa, who seemed to understand this fact, did not say anything but contented herself to scowl in Harry's general direction. Harry decided to address her directly. "A muggle village is under attack, Narcissa. I'm taking you with me so that you can see what you seem to believe in firsthand."

Harry stepped forward and firmly grasped Narcissa by the elbow. "You'll stay with me so that I can keep you safe and prevent you from running off and causing trouble." He nodded to Hiscophney, Nailoff, and of course- Bellatrix. "Let's go."

Ron, Hermione, Snape, and McGonagall were once again convened in Dumbledore's office with the Headmaster. Kingsley and Mr. Weasley, who had been present at the meeting earlier that day, were missing. Dumbledore had already informed them that Mr. Weasley was unable to come and that Kingsley was quite tardy.

"Perhaps we can start without Auror Shacklebolt," Snape suggested unhappily. "There are things that I need to do and wasting my time in useless meetings is not one of them."

"We should probably start." McGonagall stated logically. "I'm sure that he can be brought up to speed as soon as he arrives."

Hermione frowned as she mentally reviewed the events of the day. Closing down the Daily Prophet had been a very intelligent thing to do, she reckoned. Trying to seize Harry's money was also a good idea turned bad. There had been enough goblin rebellions in the past, but never over whether or not the bank should allow the Ministry to seize the funds of a witch or wizard. "I don't get it." she voiced finally. "Why did Gringotts close?"

"That was a very unpredictable move on their part, wasn't it?" Dumbledore mused. "It is quite possible that young Percy's attitude toward them insulted them. He's a bit stuck up, but I wouldn't expect a goblin to react so adversely. There's also another possibility, one that I hope is not the case."

Snape gave everyone present a dose of his trademark sneer. "What could that possibility be, Headmaster?"

"Well," Dumbledore said slowly, "it could be that the goblins are allied with Harry."

"What!" Ron exclaimed. "Why?"

He received no answer because Kingsley Shacklebolt burst into the office panting. "The Ministry received an anonymous tip that a Muggle village on the north coast is under attack by an unidentified group of wizards. Scouts were immediately sent to confirm the report. One of them returned and is barely alive."

"Death Eaters?" Hermione asked.

Kingsley shook his head. "No. There is no Dark Mark and all of the attackers are wearing gray."

Professor Dumbledore's face grew grim. "It seems that Harry is letting us know what he thinks about our actions against him today."

Harry used his above average powers to magically transport himself, Bellatrix, Narcissa, and two of his bodyguards to a specified location in the besieged village from the hill outside of town where he and Hiscophney had quickly formulated a plan of action.

"There's something wrong about this picture." Bellatrix announced as she held one of her cherry wands in front of her, ready to fire a curse at anything that posed a threat. "The Death Eaters should be wearing dark cloaks with masks, not gray cloaks with no masks."

"Camouflage?" Harry hypothesized.

"Maybe." Bellatrix said, her voice reflecting her lack of assurance.

An explosion shook the ground and several random curses exploded only a few feet away from where the small group stood. In the confusion, Harry heard Narcissa scream and try to run for cover. However, she was prevented by his firm grip around her elbow.

"Let me go!" she demanded. "You can't make me go through this mess!"

"You and other like-minded pure-bloods seem to think that it's okay to put innocent Muggles through this." Harry commented dryly as he slowly turned and scanned the area, holding his Black Ash wand out as if it could stop anything from coming his way. "Let's go this way. It seems that all the Death Eaters are further in. Hiscophney and Nailoff should be driving the Death Eaters on their sides toward the center of the village."

Narcissa did not reply to Harry's bland barb, but did follow her sister and brother-in-law's bodyguards as they slowly made their way to the center of the village. The others seemed to concentrate on what lay ahead. However, Narcissa couldn't help but observe the occasional corpse laying mangled in the street.

She thought that she could never see anything worse than those corpses. Much to her horror, she found that she was wrong as they passed a corpse that wasn't quite dead yet. "Can't you do anything for him?" she asked Harry.

He shook his head. "There's nothing that can stop him from dying, I can feel it. It's my duty to care for those who have a chance."

There was nothing for Narcissa to do but nod in acceptance and try to steel her nerves as she felt herself sink into a mental state of shock. After several minutes of walking to the center of the village, they were all surprised when a small girl abruptly dashed out from between two houses farther up the street.

Before any of the group could call out to her, a Reducto curse flew from behind her and hit her dead on, ripping her to shreds before their eyes. Narcissa fell to her knees and vomited violently, only vaguely aware as Harry rushed forward, his bodyguards on his heels, and shot a counter-curse on the dead child's behalf. From his angry exclamation, Narcissa assumed that he had missed.

"Are you okay?" Bellatrix asked sympathetically.

"Not really." Narcissa replied gratefully, glad to know that her sister still cared for her, despite her change of allegiance. "I don't suppose you could convince your husband to let me just go back to your fortress.

Bellatrix shrugged. "He won't, and even if he would- medicine doesn't always taste good."

Narcissa sighed as Bellatrix helped her to regain her standing position and as they made their way forward to join Harry who had already began to slowly make his way further toward the center.

When the arrived, they found the Death Eaters packed into the village square, all of them facing outward and maintaining a complicated compound shield charm that was proving very effective against the Ice soldiers and Trazkabanian sorcerers who had already attained the village square.

Much to everyone's shock, they spied Voldemort standing on a raised platform in the Death Eater's midst. When he spotted Harry he held up his hand signaling for everyone to pause in their fighting momentarily. "So nice to see you, Harry. Or is it Lord Polairix?" Voldemort hissed quietly, but still making his words heard by all.

"Call me what you wish, Voldemort." Harry scowled defiantly. "Why are you here? What's the purpose?"

Voldemort grinned. "Well dear fellow, you'll find out shortly." The Dark lord then signaled and the Death Eaters threw several small objects similar to Muggle hand grenades into the midst of Harry's followers.

"They're spell capsules," Bellatrix muttered to Harry quickly, "but don't worry. There are very few spells that are compatible with them, none of them harmful or deadly."

Before Harry could ask what their purpose could possibly be in a battle, they exploded, bombarding everyone present with an spell that Harry could not accurately identify. When the spells died down, Harry quickly checked all of his followers for injuries.

There were none. Instead, their cloaks had all been transfigured into a dark shade of gray. Harry looked down and saw that he had been affected the same way. His cloak was gray, all traces of black and silver gone, except for his breastplate. "What was that for?" Harry demanded, looking at Voldemort for answer.

"Take a wild guess." Voldemort replied, smiling evilly. "I'd stick around, but there's things I have to do." He pulled a black pocket watch from the folds of his cloak and looked at it before holding up his wand. "Cheerio!"

A brilliant flash of red light blinded everyone and when Harry was able to clear his eyes, he quickly observed that Voldemort and all of his Death Eaters were no longer present. "I don't understand what just happened." Harry said blankly.

His statement of confusion was abruptly punctuated by the popping sound associated with Apparition as Kingsley Shacklebolt, Professor Dumbledore, Ron, Hermione, Professor McGonagall, and an entire squadron of Aurors arrived.

The new arrivals all shot silent and appalled looks at the carnage that Voldemort and his Death Eaters left behind as Harry and his forces stood speechless, realizing what Voldemort had just done to them. They had been framed. Harry was particularly mad, this being his second time being framed.

Kingsley Shacklebolt grimly turned his attention to Harry. "You may be the Lord of Polairix, but as Harry James Potter, you are still a subject of the United Kingdom and therefore subject to our laws. As the senior Ministry Auror present, I hereby demand that you surrender yourself for arrest on the charges of mass murder."

"I am innocent of all crimes you accuse me of." Harry said slowly as he tried to formulate a way in which he could explain this away. "What you see here is Voldemort's doing. We arrived to defend the Muggles and as soon as we cornered the Death Eaters, they escaped."

Shacklebolt's response was cut off as Ron pressed his way forward with Hermione on his tail. "Of course you're innocent. You're only standing over a zillion corpses with the blood practically dripping of your hands."

"I just explained everything to you!" Harry said desperately. "Give me the benefit of the doubt would you?"

"I can't do that." Shacklebolt said grimly as he pointed his wand at Harry, the Aurors under his command doing the same to him and his followers. "I'm under strict orders. Besides, you are still an escaped fugitive."

For some reason, this made Harry particularly angry. Did they ever listen to anybody they arrested? He couldn't blame the Aurors or McGonagall though. They were acting on Ministry orders after all, and McGonagall was under Dumbledore. Dumbledore, Ron, and Hermione were the ones he needed to talk to.

With a casual swish of his wand, Harry initiated an explosion that sent all but those three flying back, knocking some unconscious. Count Hiscophney quickly moved to keep the others who had been knocked down on the ground. "You three 'must' listen to me this time." Harry growled.

"Your actions have told us all there is to tell." Hermione said weakly, gesturing toward several mangled corpses of innocent Muggles.

"LISTEN TO HIM YOU IDIOTS!" Bellatrix screamed, stepping forward from the midst of the Ice soldiers from where she had previously avoided notice. "He's trying to tell you something."

Dumbledore looked surprised for a moment before responding. "So, Miss Black, I see that you've allied yourself with Harry."

"That's Mrs. Potter to you." Bellatrix growled.

Harry would have had to have been deaf to miss the gasps of Ron and Hermione. "You married… that thing?" Ron yelled. "She's a heartless whore!"

"How dare you?" Harry snarled. "Never. Insult. My. Wife. Again." He was about to step forward and inflict some physical harm upon Ron when Bellatrix calmly put her hand on his shoulder. "I'm not worth demeaning yourself that way, love." Harry sighed and relaxed.

"Why are you wasting your time insulting her?" Hermione asked Ron, her quavering voice gaining strength with every syllable. "Her evil is nothing besides Harry. What he has done is worse than thousand murders! We know that you were supposed to fight Voldemort, but instead you betrayed everyone's hope! Your heart is darker than midnight, you devil."

Harry stood stunned, no rebuttal coming to his mind for Hermione's horrid accusation. Unconsciously, he expected Bellatrix, who was probably better at comebacks, to say something. However, what she did took him and everyone else by surprise.

Without saying a word, Bellatrix quickly closed the distance between herself and the teenage girl with three quick strides. She then promptly drew back her arm and delivered a backhanded slap to Hermione's face which caused the younger female to fall backwards onto the ground.

"I may have been a heartless whore, possibly still am, and may spend the rest of my days trying to redeem myself," Bellatrix whispered, "but at least I know deep down that I'm not a treacherous slut."

Hermione gasped, and not willing to consider Bellatrix's accusation with an unbiased perspective, let out a defiant scream and launched herself at her opponent's legs. Bellatrix promptly fell onto her back as Hermione jumped onto her and began to claw at the older woman's face.

Once Bellatrix's surprise at being counter-attacked wore off, Hermione's advantage gained from surprise was quickly neutralized by Bellatrix's fighting experience and maturity. A fist to Hermione's jaw stunned her long enough for Bellatrix to roll, putting her on top.

A few more bloody claw-marks were added to Bellatrix's face as she straddled Hermione and sat up as Hermione shrieked her indignation. All thoughts at fighting Bellatrix flew from Hermione's mind as Bellatrix began to methodically slap Hermione's face over and over again as she screamed and snarled unintelligible words and sentences.

The fight came to an abrupt halt when Harry gently, but firmly grasped one of Bellatrix's wrists. "I'm not sure that I'm worth all this effort either," Harry said, staring into his wife's violent violet eyes with calm reassurance.

Bellatrix didn't say anything as Harry helped her up and guided her back away from Hermione who was being quickly approached by Ron and Professor Dumbledore.

Harry waited a moment for things to calm down before speaking levelly. "I don't care how bad you think this looks. I did not do it. I am not responsible for the attack on Privet Drive either. I would prefer to work with the Order and Ministry so that we can defeat Voldemort. If you're not willing to do that, then so be it. I'll fight both of you. The Ministry for the good of the people it supposedly serves, and Voldemort because he is evil."

"You can't fool us with your fancy words and lies." Ron yelled.

Harry sighed sadly as he looked from the faces of his former friends to the faces of the fallen Aurors who were only now getting up. None of them believed him. "I have no wish to fool you. You're only fooling yourself."