Harry Potter: A Twist In Time

Pomona led her 'delegation' into the great hall with every set of eyes in the place focused on the group, they were all wearing Italian designed dress robes and the Institute headmistress felt like a bride as she walked down the hall with her husband at her side.

The three Potters were next with mum and dad behind them; Neville, Luna and Ginny then had Sirius and Amber completing the procession. Amber had heard tales her whole life about Hogwarts but after her time at the Institute was singularly under whelmed, she wasn't sure if they had went for dank and depressing as part of their Halloween celebrations but her gut feeling told her this was the norm. The Institute members added a splash of much needed colour to the festivities with only the Beauxbatons students not dressed in black, Dumbledore of course was ridiculously colourful and she half thought if this was why he kept everyone else in black.

The older Hogwarts students couldn't believe their eyes that this was professor Sprout, their former head of Hufflepuff, and strolling arm in arm with professor Lupin. When their gaze travelled along the former pupils 'disbelief' was the only word to describe the changes on display.

Pomona approached Albus and Amelia before speaking, "Good evening Minister, Headmaster, we just popped by to let you know that the search parties can be brought back, your missing students are safe and sound at the institute and being cared for after their ordeal today."

It was like watching an equilibrium experiment using real people, the colour drained out of Albus while seemed to flow into Amelia, as she was almost purple with rage.

"You mean to say we sat there enjoying a feast and listening to you prattle on all night while Hogwarts had students missing and you did nothing!" if anything the experiment moved even further in Amelia's direction as Dumbledore was now ashen while the minister exploded as the realisation hit that the old fool didn't even know.

"Just what kind of school are you running here headmaster? Students missing and you don't even know? The goblet spewing forth names of people who haven't been near the castle - you have a lot to answer for and you better start talking now."

Albus spun round to face the staff table and professor Vector stood up, "all Hufflepuff students present and accounted for."

When she sat back down it was Percy who stood up next and he looked pissed off, "headmaster, you allocated specific tasks to professor Clearwater and myself which meant we were unable to monitor returning students. We both assumed that you would take care of the situation since you ensured we were otherwise engaged."

Slughorn didn't even bother standing up, "I was busy dealing with a pupil all afternoon headmaster."

Amelia heard the growls coming from the Potters at that remark but decided to deal with Dumbledore first, "there's no point trying to blame the staff you appointed, as headmaster the duty of care for the students of Hogwarts falls to you. When do you think it would have become apparent that there were students missing?"

She wasn't expecting an answer and turned to Pomona for more information, "could you tell me please headmistress just who is missing and how they came to end up at the Potter Institute?"

"There was a death eater attack in Hogsmead today," Pomona now had the undivided attention of everyone in the hall, "Peter Pettigrew stunned Ronald Weasley and Millicent Bulstrode before being disturbed by Cedric Diggory and Cho Chang. Cedric was hit by a cutting curse but his life was saved by the emergency portkey that all Institute students are issued with when they leave the Château, the portkey triggered as soon as he was injured and transported both him and a shocked Miss Chang to Italy." Pomona didn't think it was possible for Amelia to get any angrier but she was being proved wrong and wondered how the minister would cope with the next instalment of the story.

"Miss Chang was in shock and it took over an hour for Cedric to be well enough to be woken and able to answer questions, this was when we discovered that Pettigrew had abducted the two students for his master. A team from the institute acted swiftly, rescuing both students from Voldemort's clutches and they are at the moment enjoying the hospitality of our infirmary for precautionary measures only."

Amelia didn't need to ask who the team was or that she would be hearing a lot more of the details later but there was still more than enough information here to shred the old whiskered wanker. "Have you anything to say Albus?" he was stoic but Amelia wasn't letting him off the hook, "I think at the very least headmistress Lupin and her staff deserve a thank you for the rescue and care of students you didn't even know were missing." The sarcasm dripped off her words while the old goat mumbled 'thanks' as if it was choking him to say the word.

Amelia now ignored him as she turned to Harry and Hermione, "Lord and Lady Potter, tonight both your names and Tom Marvolo Riddle came out of the goblet which means you will have to compete in the tournament or loose your magic, do you know anything about this?"

Harry's answer was carefully worded so that no lies were told, "madam minister, our fight with Voldemort earlier tonight is the first time either my wife or I have been in Britain for at least a couple of weeks."

Amelia had to ask the question and was aware of Harry's evasion but again that was for later, "unfortunately I'm informed that you must compete as this constitutes a magically binding contract."

Both Potter's just nodded their acceptance as Albus seized his chance, "Harry we really need to talk and now that you're moving back into the castle there are things that we really need to get sorted out…"

Harry cut him off, "Amelia this is a ministry sponsored event?" he asked, receiving her nod he ploughed on ignoring the desperate attempts at interruptions by the old coot, "is it a condition of competing that you must reside in Hogwarts during the event?"

She looked towards her two officials who were in charge of the organisation, both shook their heads so Harry pushed home his point, "we will then compete but arrive shortly before the event is due to take place, is this within the rules?"

"Yes Lord Potter, that would be acceptable."

Albus almost had a coronary, "that hardly promotes the goodwill spirit that we are trying to generate here."

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