"We were only making enquiries" she explained.
"Not anymore" Arcturus responded simply. "Unless you plan on arresting any of these students?" he asked, with more than a hint of warning in his tone.
"They used dark magic" Crouch cut in once more. "Oh shut up Crouch" Charlus broke in. "You're idea of dark magic is anything beyond the spell you use for trimming your mustache".
Arcturus snorted in amusement and Dorea raised an eyebrow at her husband causing the man to shrug.
Moody watched the scene unfolding before him in complete amusement. He had heard rumours about the Potter and Black Lords but he had never seen the men, not even in his position as a guard for the Wizengamot meetings.
Crouch was clearly furious at the joke made at his expense and his moustache twitched irritably.
"I assume you got everything you need?" Arcturus continued but did not even give anyone a chance to respond. "Good, now leave, we have things to discuss the members of our families" he demanded. "We are not finished" Crouch responded angrily.
"Unless it is official then you are" Charlus returned seriously.
Crouch shared a look with the minister who shook her head in defeat.
She knew that the Potter boy was right and that if they did attempt to arrest any of the teens then it would reflect very badly on her and her establishment.
The boy had indeed held himself and his friends well against the senior members of the ministry and she had to grudgingly respect him for that.
She had heard from a few sources that the Potter boy was very talented but was still a complete mystery to all. She had even briefly attempted to access the family files to look into the young man a little more but had been unsuccessful. What was clear to her was that there was a lot to that boy and it made her feel more than a little uncomfortable.
She decided there and then as she left the castle that she would look into the matter and shot the auror to her right a look.
"I want you to learn everything you can about Harry Potter, Alastor" She commanded. "For some reason he seemed to like you, maybe we can use that".
Moody nodded his agreement. He too was very interested in the young man and was quite pleased at the chance to investigate him.
"Yes ma'am" he confirmed with a growl.
(BREAK)
After the ministry contingency had left Arcturus quickly dismissed the Professors also, clearly wanting to talk to the teens in private.
"What happened yesterday?" he asked calmly. After hearing the several accounts of what had transpired he rubbed his temples in a frustrated manner and sighed deeply before looking towards Charlus.
"Things are getting very dangerous now" he acknowledged. "You obviously did well defending yourselves but you must be careful, you certainly would have got their attention now" he warned.
"It was Harry that did most of the work" Andromeda explained. "We would have been killed if it weren't for him".
Harry shook his head.
"You all did well under the circumstances" he pointed out. "We got lucky though, it should have been worse and if it weren't for James, Remus, Peter and Sirius it would have been".
"And the reason it wasn't is because you've been training us" James interjected. "We would have been useless without it" he admitted. Arcturus nodded ruefully.
He had suspected that Harry was the main reason why the Death Eaters had been largely unsuccessful in their attack and it had now been confirmed.
Again he found himself indebted to the young man but it was a debt he carried willingly. Harry was his equal in his eyes and he couldn't respect him more. He could see the Black in the boy and he could see the Potter also but there was more to him than just that. He was a natural at what he did and he was quickly proving that he did it better than any that Arcturus had ever met. He was proud of the teen and proud that he shared blood with him no matter how distantly related they were.
"I can't take all the credit" Harry broke in. "If it wasn't for Remus Merlin knows what would have happened to Narcissa" he sighed.
"What's this?" Arcturus asked with a frown. Remus suddenly looked very nervous. He was very aware of the Black Lord's reputation having heard some terrifying stories from Sirius over the years.
"It was Remus that defended her" Harry explained simply.
Arcturus looked at the werewolf calculatedly and nodded after a moment.
"Then it seems I am indebted to you also young man" he conceded.
Remus shook his head desperately. All he wanted was for the man to leave him alone, he certainly did not want to be a burden to him in any way.
"I just did what I could" he whispered in response.
"And for that I am grateful" Arcturus returned. "We will address this at a later date" he added, sensing the nervousness of the teen. Remus swallowed deeply and nodded reluctantly. He just hoped that the man would forget the debt.
"What are we going to do Grandfather?" Bellatrix asked worriedly.
Arcturus sighed.
"I had already decided that I would side with Harry over those morons and it seems that you have all made your choice also" he pointed out.
"Not that we got a choice" Bellatrix grumbled.
"And you wish to join them and attack innocent people for a ridiculous cause?" the older man questioned.
Bellatrix shook her head and held her hands up in a placating manner.
"No, it just means that everyone in our house will be out to get us" she explained. Arcturus frowned at his granddaughter and shook his head.
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