Chapter 62 - Christmas gifts from friends

Amelia Bones was just as serious about her work and just as impartial as she was in the movies.

This gave his some form of comfort. Pity that she would die in the future at Voldemort's hands. Maybe he would save her?

Yes. Saving her seems like a right decision. Because after that she would owe him a life debt and having a capable woman like her owing him a life debt would be of great help to him in the future.

Though he was still unsure if rescuing Sirius was a good thing.

After all, Sirius might have been of great help to the original Harry with all his love and support but having an ȧduŀt in his life who tries to get close to him at all cost would be annoying.

Plus, having a godfather who wants to compensate for the lost decade by coddling him and keeping him safe would also hinder his plans.

So once Sirius is out of Azkaban, he would have to find a way to deal with the overly emotional dog animagus and tell him to mind his own business and not get in his way.

Having a godfather would get Dumbledore off his back as well. So that was perhaps one of the few benefits he would get from this situation.

Amelia Bones had come with three aurors. Nympadora Tonks, Kingsley Shaklebolt and a third one he didn't recognize.

Talking with Amilia was a simple affair. She did not ask unnecessary information or any unnecessary question so the whole story was explained to her quite quickly.

But when she asked him how he knew all that, he of course couldn't tell her that he'd seen it in a movie.

So he told her the second best thing instead.

"I got it from interrogating the death eater known as Peter Pettegrew."

The shock in their faces was a sight to see.

Which he did.

The rat animagus was stuffed in a cage and presented to them without any further ado.

The third unknown auror scoffed at him and mumurred something about delusional boys and wasted time while Amilia's gaze turned even more stern.

"I don't like being made fun of Mr Potter. And I don't like to have my time wasted. If you have Peter Pettegrew then please bring him to us so that we could take him into custody. My patience is running thin as it is."

Harry gave her an amused glance before he looked at Nymphedora and asked her to perform the spell which turns an animagus back to it's human form.

After all, he couldn't very well use underage magic in front of Ministry workers could he.

Nymphedora glanced at Amelia who gave her a nod before performing the spell.

And boy they were in for a shock when they found Peter Pettegrew, the person whom everyone had thought to be dead for the last decade in front of them.

"How did you find him Mr. Potter? I find it unlikely that you would be able to capture an ȧduŀt wizard on your own." Amelia asked and he gave her a shrug in return.

If she didn't wanted to believe that he would be able to capture a death eater on his own then that was even better for him.

He guessed that Susan Bones had not written to her about the troll incident.

Because if she did then Amelia would not underestimate him so much.

But then again. What kind of sensible person would believe in such a rumor?

"The answer is simple. I didn't capture him. He came to me on his own."

"What do you mean Mr Potter?" Amelia asked.

"He felt guilty." He replied "He might have become a death eater and betrayed my parents and framed Sirius but the never forgot that they were his good friends once. Nor did he forgot how he left me an orphan. So when I joined Hogwarts, he came to me and confessed his guilt and told me to do with him as he liked."

The story was not a solid one but he had done some serious work for it.

Creating a memory in Peter's mind where came to him and confessed his guilt had been one of the hardest task he had ever done in his and even the end result was not a very good either but it'll hold under any Veriteserum that they might use on Peter so essentially, there was nothing for him to fear.

He never told them that Peter was once a rat of the Weasleys. There was no point in giving away useless information which might hurt innocent people. Not that he cared much about innocent people but Hermione did and he rather not do something that would cause her to look down upon him, even though she didn't knew what he was doing right now.

Then just as he had predicted, Amelia used Veriteserum on Peter to be sure of his identity and asked him a few questions that sealed the rat animagi's fate and gave credit to his words.

In the end, Amelia looked horrified at the thought that the letter wrote to her was the truth and that they had sent an innocent man to Azkaban for the last decade.

The ramifications of such an injustice happening to the lord of the noble and ancient house of Black would definitely hit the ministry hard.

But Amelia was one to seek justice no matter the ramifications and she would not changes her ideals no matter what.

So with a last few words, they took put Peter into chains and apparated out of the place.

—————

Harry looked at the three christmas gifts lying in his room in Privet Drive and smiled despite himself.

There were only two girls who he knew that would send him a gift.

And the third one must be from Albus Dumbledore which probably held the Invisible Cloak.

He had thought that after seeing his antisocial behavior and showing all the signs that he had no inclination of being the Wizarding World's savior, Dumbledore would refrain from giving him back his family's heirloom.

Or perhaps the last few days in Hogwarts that he spent while attending the class because of Hermione and Penelope's 'Make Harry Sociable' project made gave the old man the wrong idea that there was still a little chance for him being the wizarding world' savior.

He wondered that if he went back to school after the holidays then will he still come across the Mirror of Erised just like how the original Harry did in the movies.

He shook such thoughts and took out the cloak from within the wrapper.

It had silvery color and a silky and slipperly feel to it, giving him the feeling if you didn't held it firmly enough then it would slip right out of your hands.

It also weighed almost as light as a feather and he wondered if the thing about deathly hollow was real or just a myth.

After all, the wand was said to make a person invincible and yet Dumbledore defeated Gellart Grindelwald all the same.

He had never seen any other Invisiblity cloak in his life so couldn't tell the difference between them and this one.

And last but not the least, the cloak with filled to the brim with all kinds of tracking charms.

Or so Selena told him but even he could guess that Dumbledore would do such a thing.

Well, at least that solved the mystery about how Dumbledore was able to see Harry and his friends even when they wore the cloak and hid in Hagrid's hut.

How simple.

It would take him some time to identify and remove all the charms in it but he had a feeling that it would be worth it.

Then he moved on to the other two gifts that were unsurprisingly given to him by Hermione and Penelope.

'Hmm… Bitty must have fed their owls and kept the gifts here for me.' He thought and went forward and removed the covers from both their gifts.

Hermione had given him a travel guide. He could instantly tell that the book must be expensive with it's hardcore cover and silky pages.

It showed all the places in Britain that attracted tourists to them.

The implications of this gift was simple for him to see.

She wanted him to get out of home and spend some time outside instead of being cooped up in his labs. Even if it meant that he had to travel to exotic places which were filled with people.

Hmm… Perhaps he would try that one day.

He kept her book aside and opened the one book gifted to him by Penelope.

And realized that it was not a book at all.

But an album.

And album filled with the images of Lily and James Potter from their younger days.

He had no idea where she got all those images from nor did he really cared about it.

He was not Lily and James' son. He might be occupying Harry's body but he never felt any love for his parents. Especially when they were people that he never knew.

So in summary, this gift was useless to him.

But he knew that Penelope must have put on a lot of hard work and effort in order to gather so many images and create this album for him and that meant a lot to him.

He carefully put the album alongside with Hermione's travel guide and took the invisibility cloak.

He couldn't go back to his usual lab with an object that was filled with Tracking charms.

It was time to open another lab. An underground lab that he would use for his charms and runes practice. Hmm… that seems reasonable.

He would use the first underground base and the test subjects for Researching Human Transfiguration, Healing magic and things like that and he would use the second base for charms and runes work.

One for practicing perfectly legal magic and the other one of illegal ones.

"Bitty."

"Yes Master Harry Potter Sir." The elf replied as she appeared in front of him.

"I have another task for you."