"Yes, Sir," nodded the auror, backing out again. 'Old coot bastard,' thought Proudfoot, returning to his great stack of parchment he needed to get through before he could even think of heading home that night.
'First, though,' he thought. 'A note to Bones letting her know of Dumbledore's breach of the house arrest and that he was now in our cells.'
He pulled a small fresh sheet of parchment to himself and quickly wrote the note. A couple of minutes later he charmed it with the Parchment Aeroplane charm and sent it on its way. He knew Bones was still in her own office, as she planned to floo him direct before she left for home herself.
At the Longbottom manor, Dowager Lady Augusta Longbottom had just received her Wizengamot Administrative Services letter informing her of the emergency meeting of the Wizengamot the next morning after Neville had already been in to see her to tell her of the news on the wireless. Both, with Hannah also present, had been listening to the wireless when it arrived.
"With 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named' now dead, my Lord," she said. "You should now think about attending the Wizengamot session yourself."
"Not yet, Gran," he said. "I will not make the same mistake my parents did and come out of hiding too soon.
"I will attend under glamour, but be sitting in the visitors' tiers while you remain sitting the Seat as Proxy."
She nodded at the wisdom of that. "A wise precaution," she said. "I will, of course, be happy to continue to sit the Seat for as long as you want or need me to."
"Thank you, Gran," he said.
Gesturing to the wireless, she asked, "How do you feel about this?" "Relieved," he immediately returned, showing he'd already considered it. "As you know, I tried to tell Dumbledore it wasn't me and that he should have first checked to see if it wasn't Lord Peverell, but he wouldn't listen."
"It appears you were correct," she smiled.
He just nodded while Hannah curled up under his arm on the couch they were sitting upon, waiting to see if there was any further news in the offering.
Given the time, none of the three thought there would be, but there was always the chance. They couldn't sleep, anyway.
Though staying up late listening to the wireless Harry, Luna and Sirius were up early the next morning to arrange an early morning appointment in the Ministry.
With Sirius's permission, Harry sent a messenger Patronus to Bones at a few minutes past 8.00am, asking if they could visit via floo for a long chat well before the Wizengamot session.
A few minutes later, a lynx-shaped messenger Patronus arrived and, in Bones's 'etherealed' voice, said, "My office floo will be opened for you and yours at 8.15am. The same password as last time."
Luna immediately dragged Harry up to their room after first calling to Sirius, "Dress up, you old dog! We're visiting the Minister."
After then realising why Luna was dragging him up the stairs - it wasn't for more sex, after all - Harry sighed and resolved himself to having to dress upmarket wizarding for the morning at least.
Because she had the time, Luna was making sure Harry was dressed his best. Of course, for Harry, he thought that meant the Black with green piping near-formal robes as they had the Potter and Peverell crests on the breast. Those weren't the ones she wanted him to wear.
Instead, she had him wearing the deep red robes with Chinese Fireball dragon-skin boots. However, she also had the Potter and Peverell crests stitched to the breast with the crests reversed in order as they were on his Black with green piping robes he'd worn the last time visiting the woman. Dobby was very happy to affix them before he put them on.
She also made sure to use a fairly liberal amount of Sleek-Ezy she massaged into his hair, before it was properly combed and tied back with a crimson red acromantula silk ribbon into a ponytail. She, of course, combed it.
Once she deemed him presentable, he moved to stand before the full height mirror to look. "Wow, Luna!" he softly said. "You do nice work!" She just smiled back as she was finalising her own dressing requirements. Hers was a witch's informal robe and a pair of kitten-heeled court shoes, supposedly becoming quite popular with young adult witches of late. On her head she wore a small matching fascinator of the same material as the robes. However, Harry had been more interested in the black lacy sheer underwear she wore until she covered it with the robes and was mentally focusing on that.
"Mind out of the gutter, Love," she said as an aside.
He just sighed. Getting involved in a sexual relationship with a Seer had its drawbacks.
When the two teens rejoined Sirius down in the welcoming parlour with its floo, Harry looked to Sirius to see him wearing his own high class robes with the plum purple of a set of Wizengamot robes under his left arm.
He whistled and said, "Niiiice, Padfoot." Sirius grinned and returned, "Same with you two; Harry, Luna. Ready to go?"
Harry checked the time and saw they had almost a half minute. "Yep. Now we just need to wait for the correct time."
"Seconds away," said Sirius.
Harry gave a nod and walked over to the fireplace. A pinch of floo powder and, on Sirius's firm, "Now," tossed it into the grate.
Coming out the other end as graceful as he could he stepped aside to allow for Luna coming right behind him.
Again, he had wands in his face from a decent spread, Bones included. He said, "Lady Bones is soon to marry Edward Carmichael."
That had the wands lower as Luna came through next. A long moment later and Sirius came through. "I'm the last," he said, straightening up. Bones waved her wand at the floo, both shutting it off and locking it down again.
"Welcome," she said. "Thank you for coming both early and promptly."
The meeting was all about the 'official' announcement Riddle was dead, together with his real history he'd already shared with the woman. And that she would then be announcing 'Lord Peverell' was to be, as per the law, awarded the Order of Merlin, First Class. He immediately tried to refuse it. However, she told him he couldn't; that the law stated he was to be awarded one for defeating a dark lord.
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