Those journalists experienced with dealing with her knew she would say nothing until the questions and shouting died off; and quickly let their younger and newer fellows know it.
Once the noise died off she began. "Good evening," she said. "At approximately ten a.m. this morning, Mister Harry Potter stepped into the arena of the first task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He was the fourth and final competitor to do so. "It was expected he would simply complete the task, irrespective of how difficult it was, just as the competitors before him did. However, Lord Potter entered the arena with his own intentions in mind."
She then covered exactly what Harry did and how he did it. And then told them why.
Then she explained the actions she and her aurors took based on the information Harry had provided, together with who was taken into custody and who was, eventually, released.
And, finally, she told them the information relating to the charges and against whom they were filed was now subject to an information blackout 'to protect the reputations of both the witnesses and the accused'.
"Then what information can you tell us?" demanded one miffed reporter.
"I've just spent half an hour providing you that information," she snapped back. "Were you not listening?"
The journalist looked away and scowled as the next quickly got their question in. "Madam Bones, is it fair to target Albus Dumbledore when he helped rid us of the Dark Lord?"
"We are a society of law," she replied. "And no one, no matter what they've accomplished in the past, is excused from obeying those laws.
"I allege that Albus Dumbledore has broken so many laws that Lord Potter helped bring to light, I have no choice but to hold him in custody until he faces justice in the form of a full sitting of the Wizengamot. It will then be up to the Wizengamot on what penalty or penalties he shall face. It is not for anyone bar the full sitting of the Wizengamot to determine whether or not he is guilty of some or all of the charges he faces."
"As you've arrested both the Chief Warlock and the Minister," called another, "Are you looking to clear the way for your own ascension into the top tiers of our government?"
"That question is so stupid it does not even deserve a response," she flatly retorted. "However, I know you'd take that as affirmation. "I have already told you that we are a society of law that not even Albus Dumbledore, no matter what hat he's currently wearing, job he's currently doing or his history is exempt from. The same also applies to the Minister.
"Further, I am the Regent of the Noble and Ancient House of Bones and the Director of the DMLE. That's more than enough of a job for anyone, including me."
Another journalist immediately piped up. "Madam Bones, do you believe you'll successfully prosecute these cases?"
"The prosecutor will likely be Rufus Scrimgeour," she replied. "And, before you ask, I will not be adjudicating the trials. The Chief Adjudicator has already been notified of the cases that will be brought before her. And preparatory documents for all the trials will be sent to her in advance."
"And what will your role be?" he immediately asked.
"Whatever the Chief Adjudicator tasks of me," she replied. "If and when necessary I will otherwise provide aid to Prosecutor Scrimgeour."
"Can you give us any specifics on the charges filed against any of them?" asked a rather earnest appearing female journalist.
Instead of shooting the young woman down, as was her first instinct, Amelia instead thought about it and replied, "It is both against DMLE policy and a breach of privacy to tell you specifics. However, if you were at the first task of the Tournament you'd have a pretty good idea what many of those charges will be."
Shifting her attention from the one young woman to the gaggle at large she said, "Now, you'll need to excuse me. While my aurors and I have completed the initial interviews and interrogations there is still a great deal more work to do. And I need to get back to it."
Without waiting to see if the journalists would allow her to leave, and knowing they otherwise wouldn't, she turned and walked back to her office. Those who hadn't had time to get in their questions tried shouting them to her as she left, without success. They knew they wouldn't get their answers, as she never answered any question once she determined the doorstop 'interview' was over, but they always tried anyway.
At Hogwarts, Hermione Granger was having her own issues. The first was discovering that her favourite professor, Minerva McGonagall, and the man she near-idolised, Albus Dumbledore, were not deserving of her favouritism or idolisation after all. And the second was being forcefully informed, by the boy himself, that he, Harry Potter, was not the boy she thought he was, either. It had all been a carefully crafted persona the boy wore to hide the truth about himself.
That he did it, not to hide from her but from Albus Dumbledore, was beside the point. She knew she shouldn't take it as a personal affront as she fully understood why he did it, but it still hurt a little. The Harry Potter she thought she knew wasn't real; just as the Harry Potter that was supposedly written about in those fanciful tales about his childhood wasn't real either.
That had been well-driven home when she tried to convince him that house elves were, in fact, slaves. That he then coldly informed her that she had no idea what she was talking about and then directed her to go to the library to learn the truth for herself, had also hurt. When she then tried to trick him into freeing the elves he'd bound into slavery once she read the truth and would inform him of such, he dismissively told her she would find no such thing and, therefore, her demand was pointless.
Of course, she immediately went to her 'haven', the library, and used her research knowledge to find all the information the library contained on the little creatures. She was determined to prove Harry wrong.
However, what she found astounded her. Harry was right. The elves weren't so much slaves as they were a symbiotic creature that shared of a witch's or wizard's magic to sustain themselves and, in return, provided services to the witch or wizard. And, further, the house elves could not take that magic unless a minor bonding ritual was completed first. If Harry, as she had demanded, released the elf, the elf would be unable to access that life sustaining magic and would slowly wither away and die after first going insane. She was horrified to realise she'd practically ordered Harry to kill the elf, Dobby.
"He was right!" she whispered to herself, appalled. "Oh, Gods! He was right!"
She needed to track him down and immediately apologise.
Once she'd reached her decision she quickly put all the books she'd taken off the shelves back in their rightful places on those shelves before hurrying off. She was in a hurry to apologise, but that did not mean she would not see to the rightful re-shelving of 'her' precious books first.
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