Chương 15: Amelia Bones

Amelia Bones, the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, had a perfetly normal day at work before making her way home, planning toturn in early since she had the next day off and was planning to spend it with her neice, Susan. Unexpectedly, though, when she got home a Pheonix was waiting in her living room with a letter.

"Hello Fawkes." Amelia greeted the Pheonix before approaching to receive the letter which she assumed was from Professor Dumblebore, just as she had inorrectly assumed that this Pheonix was Fawkes.

Amelia gave Olympia some pets "Thanks Fawkes." she then opened the letter to read it.

------

To Miss Amelia Bones:

I am writing to inform you that it is Miss Ginny Weasley's birthday tomorrow. It may be beneficial if you were to appear there..

------

"Too vague Dumbledore." Amelia chuckled in amusement "He'll nevr change, will he Fawkes?"

Now that she had verified that the letter had been read, Olympia chirped musically, spread her wings, and flew up a bit before leaving in a burst of fire.

Susan came jogging into the room "Oh, the pretty bird left?" she sounded disappointed.

"Yeah, Fawkes was just delivering a letter to me, and returned to the one he is bonded with." Amelia explained to her.

"That's too bad. I wanted to see if I could pet it once you were home, Auntie." Susan admitted to her Aunt "She was so pretty."

Amelia thought about correcting Susan, and saying that Fawkes was a male Pheonix, but decided against it. Of course, in this case Susan was actually guessing correctly, sincve the Pheonix had been Olympia, not Fawkes at all.

"Well, as you know I am supposed to have tomorrow off. Hopefully nothing comes up, but for now our only plans for the day involve attending a girls birthday party."

"Oh. Whose birthday?" Susan asked, surprised.

"Her name is Ginny Weasley." Amelia explained to her neice "We'll swung by Dagon Allei a gift for her in the morning.

------

Then following day started within expectations. Amelia and her niece went to Diagon Alley, Susan selected a gift for Ginny, abd they went to the Burrow. Upon arriving, Amelia was soon surprised when she was approach by none ther then Draco Malfoy, who requested to speak to her privately.

Figuring that Dumbledore had some reason for sending her hear, Amelia agreed, and was soon able to see eight-year old draco cast macic wandlessly to petrify a rat, who he promptly revealed was an unregistered animagus named Peter Pettigrew, along with alleging any heinous crimes.

As the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, even though it was her day off, she had to bring him into the Ministry and interogate him. Unfortunately that meant temporarilly leaving Susan over with the Weasley's. Amelia, though, knew that she could trust arthur and asked Draco to inform her neice that something came up at work and she'd return as soon as possible.

------

Saturday September 10th, 1988

After Ginny's birthday, Susan was invited to come visit the Greengrass Manor, and the day of her visit had finally arrived. Her best friend, Hannah Abbott, had stayed over at her place the previoys evening abd they were both invited over today.

Susan was a bit nervous about meeting so many people again, but her blond friend Hannah was excited, having said that there was no such thing as having too many friends. Hannah's motivation comforted Susan quite a bit.

As they were chatting near the fireplace, Susan saw her Aunt Amelia come into the room and smile at them. "The Greengrass family are good people. You two girls can relax and try to make more friends." Amelia sasid and then hugged Susan "I'll be by to pick you girls up this afternoon and bring you both home." she informed them.

"Thank you Auntie Amelia" Susan said, gethering her resolve, and picking up a bit of floo powder, syepping into the fireplace, and dropping it "Greengrass Manor."

------

Amelia watched her niece use floo powder to leave, then watched Hannah do the same as well and depart for the Greengrass families Manor. Amelia then took a deep breath "Well, time to go meet Professor Dumbledore.

Amelia proceeded to aperate away, out of her home, and arrived at the gates to Hogwarts "Good Morning Mr Filch."

Filch nodded to her and started opening the gates for her. Since she had arranged an appointment in advance, Filch had been prepared to meet her and escort her to the Headmasters office.

"Good day, Miss Bones." Filch answered "The Headmaster asked me to nting you to his office when you arrived. Please, with me." while he treated students poorly, Filch knew how to suck up to Ministry higher-ups.

Amelia nodded and followed Filch all the wat to dumbledore's office and opened the way for her "Thank you Mr filch. I'll be fine from here."

Filch nodded and started walking off, quickly joined by Miss Norris. Amelia then turned towards the office and started heading up into it.

"Welcome, Amelia" Dumbledore greeted her with a warm smile "I must admit that I was surprised when you asked to meet me, considering how busy you've been lately, but you are always welcome here."

Amelia Bones approached and took a seat accross from him and chuckled "Not too busy to at least come express my gratitude for the tip you had Fawkes deliver to me." she insisted "Because of that, an innocent man has been released and his name cleared. What is a little work weighed against such a thing?"

An expression of genuine surprise appeared upon Dumbledore's face "Though I would love to claim to have sent you this tip you are speaking of, I fear that I did not. Even I had been fooled by Peter's trick."

"But, the letter was delivered by a Pheonix." Amelia insisted.

"Most peculiar indeed. Though I am not aware of anyone else having bonded with a Pheonix, it appears that such a thing must have happened." Dumbledore admitted to Amelia "Though it is surprising, based on the information you have given to bme, the most logical guess for who sent the letter was young Draco himself, implying he bonded with a Pheonix. Quite fascinating."

Amelia was stunned. She had completely convinced herself that Dumbledore had sent Fawkes with that letter, and that when she confronted him, he'd neither confirm nore deny her suspicions, electing to remain mysterious.

Out-and-out denying it and alleging that Draco may have bonded with a Pheonix was not what she expected. While she thought he might be mysterious and coy, Amelia Bones did not believe for a second that he would blatantly lie, so that meant he really hadn't sent the letter "I admit, it never occurred to me that it might be a different Pheonix."

"The error is an understandable one, considering how rare it is for a Pheonix to bond with a wizard." Dumbledore reassured her "You also have given me some rather unexpected information to consider as well."

------

As Amelia was leaving the office a while later, there was a Hufflepuff 4th year girl with pink hair waiting outside"Oh, hello Miiss Tonks" Amelia greeted her with a smile "Free period I assume?"

Tonks nodded "Hello Miss Bones. Yeah, I have a free period and was waiting to see the Headmaster about starting a new club."

"I see. I am sorry that my meeting with the Headmaster delayed you" Amelia apoligized "Well, I have more work to get back too. Enjoy the rest of your free period."

Tonks nodded and headed up into the Headmasters office while Amelia made her way out of the school and then headed to the Ministry for work.