End-of-year exams were coming. Hermione was working through her intensive revision plan. She had been preparing and revising it for weeks and actively encouraged the study group to adopt it. Her attitude could have been pushy and overbearing.
During a morning walk, Harry tried to remind her that she did not have to score one hundred out of one hundred to be accepted as the brightest student in Hogwarts.
“But I like getting good results. Why not aim to get full marks for every test?”
Harry shrugged. “You can aim for the best, just don’t try to push the others so much. They will eventually see the good in all the work you are doing. Remember, they are eleven and twelve-year-old kids. People tell me I talk like a thirty-something person, and you are nearly the same. Try to enjoy something childish each day. I was told years ago that I would regret not letting myself be a kid.”
“Who was that?” Hermione snapped. “What did that person know about life?”
Harry stopped and turned away.
“I’m sorry, Harry. I take that back. You had to be an adult while I was playing with my dolls. I’m sorry.”
Harry turned back. “It’s Ok, Hermione. I get hit by sad things sometimes. The person was Sirius Black. He helped me survive Azkaban; he doesn’t know who I am now. He keeps calling me James. That’s my father. Sirius has to be kept away from me while we are here. He has gone back to being a third-year student, wanting to play pranks on the Slytherins.”
“I’m sorry, Harry. What I said was childish. I accuse other people of bad behaviour and then act up myself.”
Harry stepped up to Hermione and took her hand. They walked on together for a few minutes.
“You’re holding my hand, Harry.”
“I am, aren’t I.” Harry let Hermione’s hand go.
“I didn’t mean that I objected, Harry.”
Harry tried to recall the detail from the etiquette books that Aunt Amelia instructed Harry to learn by heart.
He bent his free arm's elbow. “Please take my arm as we promenade, Miss Granger.”
Hermione put her arm through Harry's proffered arm, and they continued to walk.
Susan, Hannah, Neville, Blaise, and Dean were ahead of Harry and Hermione. Daphne, Tracey, and Sue Li were following them.
After a few minutes, Harry felt that someone was staring at him. He turned his head and saw Tracey grinning at him. Daphne was staring at Hermione with a steely look.
-ooOOoo-
Albus was worried. Harry was not his happy little soldier. Albus had some firm ideas on how Harry would behave once he was returned to the magical world. When he placed Harry with his aunt and uncle, Albus was convinced that Harry would be raised in a loving, caring, but muggle family.
Harry would grow up isolated from the adulation directed at him by the simple but earnest wizards and witches who had suffered during the Wizarding War. They needed a hero to save them, and Harry was that hero. He would have been ruined by it all.
If Harry had grown up in a magical family, he would have arrived at Hogwarts a rich, entitled, spoiled brat, a Gryffindor duplicate of Draco Malfoy. Albus would have no hope of guiding him to his destiny.
Who was this who had arrived at Hogwarts? Albus had resisted the version of events that Amelia Bones had come up with. Albus resisted but eventually had to admit that the Dursleys were gone. He also had to admit that Harry had killed them by an outburst of accidental magic. Harry was fifteen months old at the time.
Albus never admitted it to anyone, but the report from the Head Unspeakable was right. Albus had placed a strong binding on Harry’s magic. That binding was the cause of the outburst. Albus didn’t have to own up to that, and he wouldn’t, as long as Fudge kept the report secret.
That still didn’t answer the question. Who was this boy? His magic identified him. He was Harry Potter, the son of James and Lily Potter. Amelia claimed that he had lived for more than nine years in Azkaban. Albus rebelled against the thought. Severus had followed his orders and listened to Harry’s surface thoughts. Severus started his own journey at that point. Severus told Albus from that day that Harry had lived in Azkaban. Albus didn’t see the same thing. Albus saw the neat granite exteriors of Potter Hall. Albus couldn’t put those contradictions together. The only thing that Albus could think of was that some powerful wizard had put the boy under powerful controlling spells and was controlling his whole mind. That wizard was trying to fool the great Albus Dumbledore.
Now Albus had to admit it. He had to admit it to himself. The powerful wizard was Harry. Harry had locked Severus and himself out. Potter Hall had been hidden and watched since the Wizarding War. Albus was now sure that no one had found the place. Albus’ first guess that Harry had been raised at Potter Hall by an unknown wizard was wrong.
That left Azkaban; Albus would never admit to Severus that he had been right from Harry’s first day at Hogwarts. The Death Eaters in Azkaban could instruct and train a child like Harry. Why would they do it? The answer was not what Albus wanted to accept, but he had to. They had trained Harry to be a Death Eater. Harry would soon rival Tom Riddle if he continued to develop as he had started. What was Albus to do?
There were more questions. What was Severus doing? Severus had promised Albus he would persecute Harry and not let him build a firm idea of his identity. Then, instead of being sorted into Gryffindor, Harry let the hat put him in Slytherin. Severus took Harry in and allowed him to establish himself with a following inside Slytherin. Albus knew about the Marquis of Crécy. Cyrus Greengrass was not a person to be trifled with, and his daughter was being trained to succeed him. Daphne Greengrass was always there, following Harry around, watching everyone as though she was a professional bodyguard. Harry didn’t need guarding. He could kill a mountain troll with one spell.
Albus needed to know more about Harry. Harry kept his barriers up when he was at Hogwarts. If Harry could be persuaded to stay with the Weasleys, perhaps Arthur and Molly would see something about Harry in an unguarded moment.
-ooOOoo-
The holidays were getting closer. Examinations were not a problem for Harry. Hermione was stressed, but that was Hermione. She would score full marks on almost every test. The Grangers had arranged for Harry and Susan to stay with them for the second week of the holidays.
Lucius Malfoy had formally invited Harry and Daphne Greengrass to stay at Malfoy Manor for the first week of August. Harry and Daphne were to be accompanied by parents or guardians.
Harry informed Aunt Amelia of the headmaster’s attempt to place him with the Weasleys for the summer. Amelia replied that she had the situation under control. The Weasleys were officially informed that Harry was in protective custody and would not be staying with them, no matter what Albus Dumbledore told them.
The Hogwarts Express journey to King’s Cross was uneventful. The students were now in awe of Harry and showed some respect for him and his companions. Ronald Weasley and Seamus Finnigan were told before leaving Hogwarts that they would repeat the first year. Ronald did not tell his parents, and there was trouble when the official mail reached The Burrow. Molly came to Hogwarts and made a series of embarrassing scenes until she got an agreement from Professor McGonagall that Ronald could start the second year. Ronald was told that there would be no second chances after this, and he would be held back if he didn’t pass his exams.
The days at the Granger’s home started out being quiet. Hermione was unwinding and letting the stress of her exam fever die down. Hermione, Susan, and Harry binge-watched TV and popular videos. The Grangers had collected all the rom-com movies that Hermione had missed at Hogwarts. There was a lot of catching up to do.
There was also a swimming pool at the neighbourhood community centre. Hermione and Susan renewed Harry’s swimming lessons. It immediately became apparent that Harry was finally growing and building some strength. Hermione and Susan were still taller than him, but he was catching up.
-ooOOoo-
Jean Granger stayed home for the week. She noticed the odd cars constantly passing the house. Aunt Amelia had placed the Granger house under surveillance. On the third night, Aunt Amelia came to dinner. Richard Granger invited a couple he identified as his ‘old friends’.
Peter and Vicky Barnes were the same age as Richard and Jean Granger. They were both slim and fit-looking, and they happily greeted the children.
Richard introduced Amelia Bones, “Peter, Vicky, this is Amelia Bones. She is Harry’s and Susan’s guardian.”
Dinner progressed with bright and happy conversations. Peter and Vicky did not seem to notice that Amelia, Susan, and Harry did not join in with all of the conversations.
After dinner, Richard invited Harry, Amelia, and Peter to his study.
Richard arranged seats for his guests. Then he nodded to Peter.
Peter said, “Harry, thank you for your letter about Tom Marvolo Riddle. I understand the reasons why you can’t reveal your sources to me. There are many issues which I can’t reveal to you either. Also, I understand that Amelia knows our correspondence and holds a responsible position in law enforcement in your society.
What I can tell you is this. Government law enforcement agencies in this country have been investigating Tom Riddle Senior for many years. Those investigations all came to the same dead end. Riddle was found dead with his deceased parents in the Riddle family home in 1943. There was no known cause of death. The government has not given up on discovering what happened because we know that Tom Riddle Senior was involved in dangerous criminal activity. He was attempting to sell some hazardous material to our enemies at the time purely for personal gain.
We could not give up our investigations and close the case. There was no activity for many years, but we could not give up. The investigation was restarted from the beginning. We went to the last person whom we could ask for help. We briefed the Prime Minister concerning the case. We asked him to send the name Tom Riddle to his personal contacts. The answer that came back was suspicious. The Prime Minister told us to not ask him about Tom Riddle again.
We could not give up. We started the deepest search of government records that we could. We investigated every mention of Tom Riddle. After a long search, we found a birth certificate for Tom Marvolo Riddle. This birth certificate named Tom Riddle as the father. We couldn’t find anything about Tom Marvolo Riddle besides being born at Wool’s Orphanage. We investigated Wool’s Orphanage. The orphanage was burned to the ground during the Blitz in 1940, and its records were lost. It was another dead end.
Then, a note appeared on my desk. The note said, ‘Ask Hermione Granger’. I knew Richard Granger, and I knew that his daughter Hermione was away at boarding school. Nothing else was getting a result, so I asked Richard to ask his daughter, and here we are.”
There was a brief silence. Amelia took the opportunity to ask a question.
“You said ‘your society’. What do you mean by that?”
Peter smiled, “I mean the Wizarding World. The society which is inhabited by wizards and witches in this country and every other country in the world. In Britain, the major institutions are the Ministry of Magic, Gringotts Wizarding Bank, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, St Mungo’s Hospital and so on.
I mentioned the Prime Minister. We know a direct connection exists between the Prime Minister and the Minister for Magic. That suspicious answer we got told us that the Minister for Magic didn’t want to talk about Tom Riddle.
We also know about obliviation. Suppose I turn up at the office tomorrow, not remembering about tonight. In that case, the others will know that I have been obliviated. They then must go through all the trouble of filling in my memories. Obliviation isn’t the all-powerful tactic that it once was.
The next question should be, who is ‘we’?
‘We’ are a group of government, university, business, and military people who have joined together to try to save the Wizarding World from its own folly. The group membership is unofficial and not recorded anywhere. You will not track us and deal with us as you do with accidental magic incidents.
The next question should be, what do ‘we’ want?
I should tell you about Tom Riddle Senior. Mr Riddle joined the public service and rose through the ranks. He was an accountant. His job when the war started in 1939 was to track expenses in the scientific projects which the government was running. He was sent to investigate a project called Tube Alloys. That might seem harmless, but it was the British project to make atomic bombs.
That project was running before the USA entered the war at the end of 1941. Before then, the Americans did scientific research but were not interested in atomic weapons. Once the USA entered the war, the Americans decided to get moving with making atomic bombs. British and American scientists knew that scientists in Germany understood the theory. A lot of it came from them. They also knew the Germans were working on how to build a weapon.
The American government started the Manhattan Project. It was agreed that the work done by Tube Alloys should be given to the Manhattan Project. Also, the leading Tube Alloys scientists were sent to the USA to work on the Manhattan Project. It was fabulously expensive work. There were expensive trials of new technology, which were abandoned when better methods were found. Some of these early experiments were not well managed.
The Tube Alloys scientists were still paid by the British government through research grants. This is where Tom Riddle Senior got involved. He was supposed to make sure that the British government's money was not wasted.
Tom Riddle Senior knew nothing about science but met people who knew much more than they should have. Some big contracts were given to American companies to build factories to process uranium into atomic bombs. Some of these contracts were cancelled and given to other companies who promised to do a better job. This left the original contractors out of a hugely profitable business.
The problem the authorities didn’t know about was that these rejected contractors already possessed a significant amount of plutonium extracted from processed uranium. They were told to put any dangerous material into the nuclear waste dump. At the time, the nuclear waste dump was a pile of drums filled with radioactive stuff that wasn’t concentrated enough to be put into a bomb. Nobody knew how dangerous it was. These were very early days in the whole business. There was a lot of waste.
Tom Riddle Senior was approached to see if he could use his contacts to find a buyer for this plutonium. Tom agreed to find a buyer with a substantial payment for himself. We think that he didn’t tell anyone what he planned to do. He contacted an old acquaintance in the Spanish Embassy, who then contacted the German Embassy in Madrid. An offer was made, and twenty kilograms of plutonium in a chemical solution was sealed into lead ingots and shipped to Britain as if it was lead for industrial use. The shipments arrived, and Riddle had the ingots packed into crates to be sent to Spain. Spain was supposed to be neutral, but clandestine shipments, usually via another neutral country, could be arranged. Riddle had the crates stored in his parent's cellars until he arrived back in Britain to personally supervise the transaction.
The night Tom Riddle Senior arrived at his parent's house, Tom Marvolo Riddle caught up with him. Tom Marvolo Riddle was still in school, but he obviously had ways to influence and control people. He also didn’t hesitate to murder his father and grandparents. There was no love lost there.
What is the situation now? Thanks to Harry, we now know where that plutonium is.
Is that plutonium still dangerous after all these years?
The active isotope, plutonium 239, has a half-life of 24110 years. It decays into uranium 235, which can also be used to make an atomic bomb. So the answer is yes. That plutonium is still dangerous. There is enough of it to make two or possibly three atomic bombs the size of the one that destroyed the Japanese city of Nagasaki in World War 2.
What do we do now, and who does it?
We need someone to remove the magical protection that stops us from seeing the building where the plutonium is stored. We also need someone to remove magical traps and artefacts that could harm anyone.
Then we will inform the British government authority who clean up radioactive accidents. They will come in and remove the plutonium and anything contaminated by it. That will most likely mean the building and a large amount of ground it is standing on.”
Peter stopped talking and waited for someone to say something.
Amelia responded first. “None of this is to come to the attention of the Ministry for Magic.“
Peter asked, “Why?”
Amelia answered, “Because, as you have already said, their first response will be to obliviate us all and pretend this hasn’t happened.”
Richard nodded, “That seems to be the favourite response to difficult incidents.”
Harry spoke, “Lord Greengrass knows some useful people. We can ask him to help.”
Amelia smiled, “You are right, Harry. He knows the sort of people we need for this job. Also, the ministry will never hear of it.”
Harry had a question, “Do you have any idea who knew to ask Hermione?”
“No, none at all,” Peter replied.
Harry nodded. “It sounds like you have a squib in your group.”
“A squib, what is that?”
“A person born into a magical family who has no magic themselves. They usually must join the muggle world to survive. They may know a lot about magic but can’t use it.”
Peter looked up, “Humm, so we have a squib who could have told the Ministry about us but hasn’t. We know that because …..”
“You haven’t all been obliviated or told to give up,” Amelia responded.
Amelia continued, “I will talk to Cyrus Greengrass. Is there anything else we should know?”
“There is a huge amount. There are special protective suits and radiation warning devices that anyone must have before they go anywhere near that plutonium. I will arrange training for your team before you break down those barriers. No one should go near that place alone. Everyone must have someone watching them and checking on radiation levels.”
Peter looked around. “When you are ready, tell Richard, and he will get a message to me. That will not attract too much attention.”
Peter and Vicky were saying goodbye. Peter shook hands with Harry. “Richard warned me, but I thought he was kidding. You didn’t say much, but the vibe around you is like you are a trained soldier. I don’t know if we will meet again, Harry, but if you need help with anything, let me know.”
Hermione watched and listened. She was determined that Harry would explain that comment and give her all the details for her journal.
-ooOOoo-
Weeks later, a Li family curse-breaker and his team were being trained in an unnamed warehouse far from prying eyes. The training was on how to behave in a ‘hot’ environment. They wore head-to-toe sealed suits with respirators. They were trained on how to use the contamination monitors.
They were shown how to handle a ‘screaming hot’ article. After all these years sitting on a pile of plutonium, the Gaunt ring could have become dangerously radioactive.
The retrieval was scheduled for October.
ns 15.158.61.8da2
