Lightning Strikes Twice Ch. 56 (Harry Potter)

A/N: Harry tells Amelia everything.

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Coming to a decision, Harry reaches out and gently caresses the DMLE Director’s cheek with his hand. Even despite her clear trepidation and the split loyalty she feels in regards to him and her country, Amelia leans into his touch, letting her eyes drift shut with a contented, submissive mewl.

Harry smiles, even as he caresses her face with his thumb.

“You are going to become Minister of Magic, pet. Not just for my sake, not just for the sake of Magical Britain… but for the sake of the entire world.”

Amelia’s eyes snap open at that, staring up at him in shock.

“Events are already in motion, Amelia. Things that will need to be stopped. Things that will need someone to take a stand against. The world will need strong leaders when everything comes to a head. Magical Britain will need a strong Minister of Magic as well.”

Swallowing convulsively, the Head of the DMLE looks even more uncertain and wary than before.

“What… w-what are you saying?”

“I’ll show you.”

In the end, Harry decides it’s best to let her see, just like he did with Apolline. And… he won’t hold anything back. While telling everyone about the time travel is a risk Harry isn’t inclined to take, he needs certain allies to be informed of the truth if he’s going to be able to rely on them.

Apolline Delacour could be a massive boon with her access to a Veela Coven, but her recruitment was anything but normal or planned. Amelia Bones on the other hand… well, Harry had been working on her for months now. If he couldn’t trust her with his secrets, then he couldn’t rely on her as Minister of Magic.

Placing both hands on Amelia’s head, Harry once again gathers up his magic and then wordlessly hits her with it. There’s a look of trust in Amelia’s eyes warring with trepidation right up until the end. Then, she gasps, her eyes rolling back in her head as the memories begin to play out right then and there.

It’s not the exact same set of memories as he showed Apolline, of course. After all, he doesn’t really have anything personal to give Amelia. In the future he’d come from, Amelia died to Voldemort and Harry was never particularly close to her niece, Susan Bones, either. Still, he gives her the general stuff that Apolline got, plus some more specific things like the eventual collapse of the Ministry.

Funny, even during Voldemort’s Second Rise, the Ministry of Magic hadn’t fully collapsed. It had fallen to the Dark Lord for a time, and been repurposed into his weapon, but it had still existed. What Harry makes sure that Amelia sees now is the end of a Ministry that no longer needs to exist. After all, in the absence of Magic, what was the point of a Ministry of Magic?

He also does one other thing… namely, he obscures his identity in the memories he shows her. Harry has already decided he’s going to tell Amelia who he is by the end of this conversation, but the revelation of his identity would only detract from the revelations about time travel and the end of both magic and the world at this point.

With a careful application of magic, he hides his true identity in the memories, leaving Amelia to focus solely on the important things… namely, what’s coming for them and the lengths he’s willing to go in order to stop it.

As he waits for her to get through the memories, Harry floats the kneeling DMLE Director up off of the ground and over onto the couch, letting her rest back while she’s dealing with the information overload he just threw her way. Then, he looks through some of the files on her desk, checking in on her current workload. Nothing too big. Certainly nothing that will keep her from focusing on her bid to become Minister of Magic.

Finally, there’s a gasp from over on the couch and Amelia shoots straight up off of it and onto her feet, wand in her hand. Harry raises an eyebrow, slightly bemused by the reaction, but also mildly impressed. For all that she’d submitted to him rather easily and even eagerly, Amelia Bones was a fighter at the end of the day. Her proclivities in the bedroom did not make her a meek or weak woman… not by a long shot.

For a brief moment, she looks wild eyed and like she wants to cast a hex at anything she can after what she saw. But the only other person in the room is him, and she’s smart enough not to give into that particular impulse. Eventually calming down, Amelia lets out a low breath and looks at him in horror.

“That’s… that’s what’s coming for us?”

But to her credit, the horror lasts barely a second before it’s replaced by determination and resolve.

“How do we stop it?”

Harry grins. That’s his girl.

“That’s not an easy question to answer, but you bet your sweet ass that I’ve been working on it all the same.”

Amelia blushes at the mention of her derriere, even as Harry makes his way back over to her, gently but firmly pushing her back down onto the couch.

“Still, there’s a couple more things you should know before we talk shop. I didn’t include it in the memories because I didn’t want to detract from what truly mattered, but you need to be informed anyways.”

Amelia straightens up at that.

“Your identity?”

Clever girl. Though…

“That… and one other thing. First…”

With a wave of his hand, Harry stops obfuscating himself, revealing his true visage to Amelia. The older witch’s eyes widen as she finally learns who he is, but the shock, while present, is muted. She doesn’t jump up and shout in outrage, she doesn’t get upset or baffled. Rather, by doing things in this order… it takes barely seconds for her to come to terms with it.

“I suppose I can’t exactly be surprised. Given the time travel, it would have to be someone from your generation to try and come back to fix things. And who better than the Boy-Who-Lived?”

Harry smiles as Amelia practically mutters out that last part. She keeps stealing glances at him, clearly also coming to terms with their sexual relationship as well.

“… I assume you found out about my proclivities in that future of yours somehow, and that’s why you seduced me the way you did? Because you realized it would let you control me while you inserted me into the position of Minister of Magic.”

Blinking, Harry tilts his head to the side at that.

“Ah… no, actually. That wasn’t it at all. Amelia, you died far before the world ended. You died when Voldemort rose to power again over the next couple of years. You died fighting him, long before things could truly get bad.”

Amelia freezes at that news, her lips thinning out as she processes this latest revelation.

“I… I see. Was that the second thing you needed to tell me?”

No, but he was realizing he had multiple additional things he needed to tell her, actually.

“It wasn’t. I’m going to lay all my cards on the table, Amelia. First and foremost, the reason I started seducing you in the first place… is because of one of the ways in which I am aiming to grow strong enough to deal with the future that I hope never comes to pass. I’ve developed a tantric ritual which ties the magic of witches to my own, binding us together and allowing me to access that magic and combine it with my already existing pool to great effect.”

The DMLE Director blinks owlishly at that, but Harry just plows on ahead.

“I have bound five witches so far to my magic, giving me access to more power than Voldemort and Dumbledore at the height of their strength… combined.”

That wasn’t a boast either. Harry knew how powerful Voldemort was… but he also knew how powerful he was as well. And that was before the ritual. As for Dumbledore, well, he didn’t quite know what the aged wizard had been like at his height, but he couldn’t possibly be anywhere near where Harry was now.

“As for the other thing I wanted to tell you… that would be the fate of Bellatrix Lestrange.”

Amelia’s entire body spasms at that, her eyes widening as she looks at Harry with fresh trepidation and horror.

“What? Lestrange? What about Lestrange?”

Harry smiles, catching a hint of ‘knowing’ in Amelia’s tone. Heh, it looks like he wasn’t the only one who’d kept secrets.

“It sounds like you already know, Madam Bones. Tell me, how long has the Ministry known about Bellatrix’s escape? How long have you been keeping it from me?”

Amelia flinches and looks down at her hands.

“… It was only noticed after Rudolph Lestrange started ranting about the Dark Lord stealing his magic. A full audit of the prison was done, and the disappearance of both Bellatrix Lestrange and Bartemius Crouch Jr. was uncovered. Given the delicate nature of the situation, and the embarrassment of Sirius Black’s escape just last year, it was determined by… the former Minister Fudge that things needed to be kept quiet in order to avoid inciting a panic.”

Harry snorts derisively. That sounded about right.

“If he’d stayed Minister of Magic, he would have done the same thing after Voldemort’s return at the end of this school year. He would have spent the entire summer and following year not just sticking his own head in the sand, but also forcibly sticking everyone else’s heads in the sand as well as much as possible.”

Needless to say, the ‘Voldemort’s return’ bombshell clearly grabs Amelia’s interest… but she’s not the type of woman to allow herself to be easily distracted.

“… What precisely do you know about the disappearance of Bellatrix Lestrange and Barty Crouch Jr., Harry?”

Harry gives her a look, but Amelia refuses to be cowed. She’s in full interrogator mode right now.

“I know quite a lot, Amelia. Time Traveler, remember?”

That at least causes her to blush a bit, though it still won’t dissuade her from seeking answers.

“… I freed Bella from Azkaban. After I gave her back her memories of the future and usurped control of her Dark Mark from Voldemort.”

Amelia looks horrified, and admittedly, Harry doesn’t blame her. This was always going to be a sticking point, which is why he’s ripping off the band aid now while he still has control over the narrative.

“She’s mine, Amelia. My creature, through and through. I won’t try to defend her or justify the things she’s done. But you saw what we’re up against. In the future I came from… well, hard times made for strange bedfellows. The Bellatrix Lestrange you knew died the day I came back to the past. She died when I forcibly uploaded her future self’s mind into her head and made her confront everything she’d done and everything she’d become.”

Looking rather faint, Amelia swallows thickly.

“… I see. And what about Crouch’s son?”

Harry tilts his head to the side and grimaces. Alright, so maybe this was going to be the hardest sell of the day.

“… Currently masquerading as Mad-Eye Moody while puppeting his father under the Imperius, all to further the plans of his Master so that Voldemort can make his return.”

Amelia’s eyes bulge out of her skull at that.

“EXCUSE ME?!”

Ah, now that was the voice of the Director of the DMLE. Smiling somewhat wryly, Harry sighs.

“I’m a Time Traveler, Amelia. I’m a Time Traveler who has come back in time to stop the end of the world and magic itself. In comparison, Voldemort’s Second Rise is small potatoes.”

Amelia chokes on her own spit at that, before looking more than a little hurt.

“How… how can you tell me that he kills me and then call it ‘small potatoes’?”

Shaking his head, Harry reaches out and takes Amelia’s hand in his own. She tries to pull away for a second, but he’s insistent and soon has their fingers interlocked as he looks her in the eye.

“I will never let him harm you, Amelia. You are mine too, you know. My woman. My witch. I am letting Crouch Jr. carry out his plans for two reasons. First and foremost, I intend to stop it all before anyone is hurt irrevocably. Mad-Eye and Crouch Sr. might both be suffering at the moment, but they’re strong. They’ll pull through. Secondly, foreknowledge of the future only remains as good as it does if I don’t change things in the present too much. I know how to stop Voldemort from ever coming back again. I know how to neutralize not just him but also his most fervent supporters in one fell swoop, once and for all. If I deviate from the plan, then nothing is guaranteed anymore.”

Smiling wryly, Harry raises a brow.

“You know Moody, perhaps even better than I do. Tell me, if he had a choice between being imprisoned for a while longer and letting the Dark Lord and his followers potentially escape, what would he choose?”

He can tell he’s scored a point there when Amelia huffs at him and looks away. When she looks back though…

“I notice you don’t have me answering what Crouch Sr. would choose.”

Here, Harry grins.

“Well… Bartemius Crouch Senior is an asshole of rather epic proportions. So I don’t really find myself factoring his thoughts into the equation, I’ll admit.”

Amelia snorts derisively at that, and Harry figures that’s probably the best he’s going to get. He dives right into the very last secret, figuring she’s already halfway to putting the pieces together herself.

“The last thing you need to know is that I’ve modified the ritual, Amelia. It now allows me to drain the magic from the male relatives of witches I’ve already bound to me.”

Her eyes immediately snap to him at that, and Harry nods at her unspoken question.

“Yes. Rudolphus Lestrange and Lucius Malfoy were not visited by the Dark Lord… they were visited by me. Bella and Narcissa are both bound to me.”

Amelia frowns.

“… Skeeter too, presumably?”

Harry inclines his head.

“Skeeter too. And the last two witches are Aurora Sinistra at Hogwarts and Lady Apolline Delacour. To be clear, every single one of those witches made their own choice. They accepted the binding willingly. Rudolphus and Lucius did not accept the loss of their magic willingly of course, but I can’t bring myself to care about their feelings all that much. They’re scum, and at least this way they’ll have actually contributed to society in a way… mostly by having their magic used to save the world.”

Mentioning that last bit is of course on purpose. He wants to reorient Amelia’s thoughts back to what truly matters. Everything else is secondary. Everything else is permitted in the pursuit of saving their people along with magic itself from extinction.

Still, Harry watches Amelia closely as she ponders everything he’s just told her. He could have held things back. Maybe he should have. But he wants to be honest with her. So he’s told her… well, he’s told her everything. And now it’s just a matter of seeing which way the coin falls.