Amelia Bones was in excellent mood. There were no early morning floo calls about murders, broken Statute of Secrecy or other problems. It was also early July, which meant summer holiday, and also constant company of Amelia's niece. The DMLE director missed Susan when the girl was at Hogwarts. Visits home during Christmas and Easter breaks just weren't enough.

Amelia peeked inside Susan's room when she passed it. The teen was still asleep, curled into a ball. Deciding to let her niece sleep in, Amelia continued downstairs to the dining room. When she got there, she saw that Muffy, her house elf, had breakfast ready. The DMLE director seated herself at the table and turned to the little elf:

"Thank you Muffy. You can go now. I'll call you if I need anything."

The elf bobbed a curtsey and disappeared with a pop. Amelia was halfway through her breakfast when Muffy reappeared.

"Mistress has a floo call from the Auror with lion mane. Auror says he needs to talk to the Mistress right now."

Amelia walked to the entrance hall, a part of her house which contained the only fireplace connected to the floo network. When she neared the fireplace and greeted Rufus Scrimgeour, she saw that the Head Auror wore a very sour expression on his face.

"What seems to be the problem, Rufus?"

"The Minister came down with a sudden and serious bout of vanishing sickness. He is at Saint Mungo's and the people up on the first floor just can't do the reasonable thing and postpone today's inspection of Azkaban. Apparently, both the Minister and his team of bootlickers want you to do it instead."

Amelia growled in irritation. A day with dementors and dregs of society. Oh, joy. She turned back to Scrimgeour and answered:

"Alright, I'll do it. Tell them I'll be in my office in fifteen minutes."

The Head Auror nodded and disappeared from the flames. Amelia didn't return to her breakfast. Instead, she headed back to her room and changed her black pumps for a pair of heavy dragonhide boots from her Auror days, and then put on a warm cloak which she usually wore during late autumn and winter. Muffy then appeared with a bar of chocolate, which Amelia took and then flooed to the Ministry, using the private connection directly to her office.

When she arrived and stepped out into the antechamber which also housed her secretary's desk, Pius Thicknesse and four Aurors, who were there to serve originally as the Minister's and now her bodyguards, were already waiting for her. Dawlish, Savage, Proudfoot and Kingsley Shacklebolt. Two biggest bootlickers in the whole Auror Office and two biggest Aurors. Amelia had no problem to trust Proudfoot and Shacklebolt with her safety, but Dawlish and Savage wouldn't be her first choice for her personal bodyguards. Also, she believed that two Aurors would be sufficient for the prison inspection.

"Amelia, I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but it cannot be helped," said Thicknesse, interrupting the DMLE director's musings.

"I understand, Pius. Let me just sort out a few things and I'll be on my way."

Amelia then sent her Patronus – a robin – to her Head Auror, informing him that he was in charge of the DMLE during her absence and ordered Dawlish and Savage to return to their normal duties.

The group exited the office and continued to the elevators. On the way they were met by Scrimgeour's Patronus, a silver lion, which only growled out four words:

"Message heard and understood."

As they neared the golden grilles of the elevator shafts, Amelia noticed Thicknesse giving her strange looks.

"Is there something on my face, Pius?" she asked.

"What? Oh, no. I was just thinking about your Patronus. Its form was quite unexpected."

"Was it really? After all, digging in dirt and hunting worms is my job description," remarked Amelia and mentally added: And I often sing, too – in the shower.

That was the end of all conversation, as at that moment an elevator rattled down from the first floor. The two Aurors and their boss got in, leaving Pius Thicknesse standing in the corridor. They went down to the atrium, the only part of the Ministry without anti-portkey and anti-apparition wards, and from there they portkeyed to the island, or more accurately a big lump of rock in the North Sea, where Azkaban prison stood.

The air was freezing, heavy grey clouds hung in the sky and not even a bit of moss grew on the island as a result of the dementors' long-time presence. Kingsley Shacklebolt immediately produced his Patronus and Amelia once again called her silver robin, which then hovered above Shacklebolt's lynx, watching out for any stray dementors. The group walked through the prison's main gate, where they were met by the head human guard and the inspection began.

The guard led them first to the low-security wing, which was mostly guarded by humans and dementors stood only at the entrance and were let inside only two times a day to keep the inmates sufficiently scared. When they were finished with that wing, Amelia was appalled. The human guards couldn't be bothered to check if the toilet buckets weren't leaking, the bars were getting rusty, and in some cases they even looked as if they would fall apart soon.

The DMLE director got a distinct impression that the dementors were the only beings in this part of Azkaban who took their duties seriously and she was quite irritated about it. The low-security cells housed not only people like Mundungus Fletcher, pickpockets and thieves, just as it should be, but also rapists, who in Amelia's opinion belonged in the high-security wing right next to murderers, but thanks to the change in laws in the early seventies (which almost caused Barty Crouch and several others to have a fit of apoplexy) got a less severe punishment.

The DMLE director was disgusted when one of them hiked up his robes, bared his member and yelled at her that he hadn't seen a woman for three years and wanted a good blowjob, but she wasn't really surprised or shaken. She, and almost every other female Auror or Law Enforcement Patrol officer, encountered similar behaviour several times during their active service.

When they neared the high security wing, the prison guard turned to her:

"Ma'am?"

"Yes?"

"Quite a lot of the inmates here just lay in a corner and stare, but some others are a little too alert, such as Bellatrix, Mulciber and Sirius Black. It would be better if you kept to the middle of the corridor. Bellatrix tends to grab at people's hands and robes and Mulciber often tosses out half-chewed food or other more disgusting things."

"And Black?"

"He does nothing like that. He just remains sane. Too sane, if you consider where he's spent last twelve years."

"Are there any other precautions we should take?" asked Amelia.

"No, ma'am," answered the guard and unlocked the door to the high-security wing. Amelia's senses were immediately assaulted by a stench of unwashed bodies, blood, urine, faeces and Merlin knew what else. She stopped walking for a while, just long enough to become inured to the horrible smell. She didn't want to use a bubblehead charm – while it would spare her from smelling the stench, it would also reduce her ability to hear and communicate with the rest of the group. The two Aurors and the guard mimicked her actions.

When they were all ready to continue, Amelia motioned for the guard to lead the way. The first thing she noticed were the bars. There was more than enough space between the iron rods for a prisoner to stick an arm through and grab somebody's robe, or, if that somebody wasn't careful, their wand. It was a recipe for disaster.

The prisoners in the nearest cells were just laying down on the floor or on a pile of hay, staring at the ceiling or mumbling nonsense. However, further away from the entrance it was a whole different story.

The group neared the cells which housed some of the most sadistic and maniacal Death Eaters, first of which were the Lestrange brothers. One of them let out a hate-filled hiss, the other just glared, gripped the bars of his cell and gnashed his teeth.

Another notable reaction came from Antonin Dolohov. When he spotted Amelia, he spat:

"He will return one day, and when He does, you'll be among the first to go, Moody's little girl."

Nobody in the group could see any visible reaction, but it didn't mean that Amelia remained unmoved. Dolohov's words sent a chill down her spine, but it wasn't the death threat which rattled her. She was more disturbed by the man's utter and complete confidence that his lord would return. If that happened, it would be a disaster.

There could be heard slow shuffling from the several cells they passed as the occupants withdrew to the back corners. Then, the shuffling in one of the cells became more frantic and a bony hand was thrust through the bars, followed by a screech:

"Cornelius, it wasn't very nice of you to disappear for so long. Come here, I want to play!"

This was followed by a short fit of giggles. It was more than clear that this cell was occupied by Bellatrix Lestrange. Amelia couldn't help staring at her. Before her imprisonment, Bellatrix had been an arrogant aristocratic beauty, but now she was an insane wreck. When the female Death Eater finally noticed exactly who was standing in front of her, she squealed in glee.

"Little Amy Bones! Your mummy and daddy were even more fun to play with than Edgar and his brats."

Although she felt a surge of anger, Amelia didn't give a verbal answer to Bellatrix's taunt. She caught the insane woman's eye and glared at her, putting as much disgust and contempt as she could muster into her expression. She didn't know precisely how long she'd stood in front of Bellatrix's cell, locked in a glaring contest with her, but it was long enough for Proudfoot and the prison guard to start nervously squirming.

Finally, Bellatrix averted her gaze and stared at the dirty floor for a moment. Then she sharply lifted her head, spat in Amelia's direction and retreated to a distant corner of her cell.

"Well, that was certainly… different. Neither Bagnold nor Fudge could go through this part of Hotel Azkaban without soiling themselves in fear. And to out-glare my lovely cousin? Neither of them had the balls to do that," said a raspy male voice from the opposite cell. Then there could be heard some sniffing and the voice continued:

"Hmm, I love the perfume, Amelia. Is it jasmine?"

Amelia and all four Aurors turned in that direction with their wands drawn the moment they heard the first sentence. There, on the floor, leaning on the bars sat a dirty, emaciated and unkempt man, whose left hand was wrapped around one of the vertical iron rods and the right one had a tight grip on a squealing rat's tail.

"Shut up, Black," growled the guard, but the prisoner didn't obey.

"Oh, come on, be a dear and allow a man a bit of a talk with someone else than Barmy Bella and Mawkish Mulciber," rasped Black.

The guard lifted his wand to cast a silencing charm on the prisoner, or possibly stun him, but he was interrupted by Amelia:

"Wait a moment. He can get what he wants and we'll find out why he still hasn't gone around the bend."

The guard did as he was told, but his expression clearly showed his belief that the DMLE director was a few ingredients short of a potion.

Amelia turned her attention to Black, trusting that Kingsley Shacklebolt and Perseus Proudfoot would watch out and intervene if Bellatrix, Mulciber or any other prisoner tried something.

"So, Black, how is it possible that others in this wing go insane after a few months, but you are still relatively normal after twelve years?"

When he heard the question, Black dropped the rat, which quickly scurried away, gripped the bars with both hands and pulled himself up to his knees and then to his feet. He fixed his gaze on Amelia's face and said quietly:

"I suppose I could tell you, but will you listen? Are you going to listen the way you did when you were a seventh year prefect, Snivellus and me were firsties, Dumbledore ate up my made-up story and you were the only one willing to hear what Snivellus had to say?"

"Do you think I should? If I remember correctly, back then you were an annoying little pest who couldn't and wouldn't see that he was going too far, from what I've heard, you haven't changed even when you grew up and the line between a schoolyard bully and a criminal is thin."

There was a flicker of fear in the prisoner's eyes. He gripped the bars even more tightly and blurted out:

"Amelia, please, you have to listen. I didn't betray Lily and James. I'd die before I told Voldemort where to find them. And for that matter, I was unable to tell."

"What about all of the muggles and Peter Pettigrew?"

"Little Pete is probably very much alive if some hungry alley cat hadn't eaten him for lunch. And he now has a missing finger to go with the torn ear, the bloody rat."

"So he is crazy after all," said Proudfoot to Shacklebolt quietly.

Amelia ignored the remark, her attention still on Black. Apparently, he heard Proudfoot, too, and sent him a baleful glare.

"I am as sane as I can be, considering where I've spent last twelve years and I tell you that Peter is a rat, just as Minnie is sometimes a cat."

The DMLE director instantly understood what Black tried to tell her and said so. It earned her another look from the guard, but she ignored that, too, and continued asking questions.

"We have established that according to you Peter Pettigrew lives and you didn't betray the Potters. What about all of the dead muggles?"

"That was Peter's work. He fired an exploding curse while he happened to stand exactly above a big gas pipe which ran under the street."

Amelia thought about everything she'd just been told and for a while she didn't speak. The man in front of her was starting to get nervous and in the end exclaimed:

"Trust me! I'll even swallow veritaserum or take an Unbreakable Vow."

The DMLE director conceded that the whole Pettigrew business could have happened like Black said it did, but there was one last thing which didn't make sense to her.

"If I understand you correctly, Black, you claim that the crimes you were accused of had actually been committed by Peter Pettigrew, and that the man is still lurking somewhere in the outside world?"

"Yes. He's hiding from both the Dark and the Light side."

"If it's so, tell me then why you didn't mention any of this during your trial," ordered Amelia.

"I would have mentioned it if I actually got a trial, but Crouch and company hadn't given me one. They hadn't even questioned me. Old Barty is actually the one who got more than a bit crazy near the end of the war," growled Black angrily. "He just tossed me in here and that was the end of it."

It looked as if the last rant cost Black every remaining ounce of strength. He let go of the bars and sat down on the floor. Then he looked up with a sad expression on his face and whispered:

"Please believe me."

Black's claims and accusation were serious enough to warrant a good look through the old trial transcripts and a veritaserum questioning. However, Amelia would have to be careful. At the moment, Sirius Black was one of the most hated people in the British magical community and anyone trying to reopen his case had a good chance to get labelled as crazy or dark. And as for Barty Crouch, her former boss was a dangerous man for whom the end often justified the means. If he'd for some reason really denied Black a trial, wanted it to remain a secret and now found out that Amelia was sticking her nose in the matter, things could turn ugly. With all of this running through her head, the DMLE director turned to the dejected prisoner and said:

"I'll look into the matter and see what I can do, but don't expect a questioning tomorrow, trial the day after and freedom the following day."

Black nodded and the group started walking back towards the entrance to the wing. Before they got too far, the guard warned them:

"Mulciber's been too quiet today. By this stage of the inspection last year he'd already spat at the Minister."

In the end they were all grateful for the man's warning. Mulciber was waiting for them and they had just enough time to jump aside when he slopped the contents of his toilet bucket at them. The guard lost his patience this time, stunned the Death Eater and complained about creeps and stinking heaps of dragon dung the whole time which it took to get from the high security wing to the prison's main gate, where Amelia got the man to swear a magical oath to keep silent about everything that happened with Black before she and the four Aurors returned to the Ministry.

When the trio arrived back at the Ministry, they made a beeline for the Ministry Munchies, where they each got a cup of hot chocolate. Amelia still had the chocolate bar which Muffy handed her before she left for work, but they all felt that the hot and liquid variety would be more helpful.

While standing in the line at the stall, Amelia noticed her secretary, a young woman named Ruby Cadwallader, near the beginning of the line. When she caught the young witch's gaze, she motioned for her to wait near the fountain. After everyone got their hot chocolate, they joined the young witch and set out for the lifts. Amelia put up a privacy bubble and quizzed Miss Cadwallader about any office drama which could have been going on. Her secretary answered:

"Things went more than a bit crazy while you were away, ma'am. First, Williamson thought it was a good idea to leave his folder with caricatures of nearly every high Ministry official lying about and some brownnosing Auror trainee grabbed it and brought it to Head Auror Scrimgeour and, well…"

"Rufus got angry, because he hates it when somebody makes fun of him and he was in one of those pictures. Am I right?"

The secretary nodded and resumed her report:

"Then, Tonks spilled her pumpkin juice all over Umbridge in the lift on her way up to our floor, and of course Madame Undersecretary made a huge scene. By then, Auror Scrimgeour was in a foul mood and told Tonks that next time when she spills something, she should make sure that it was hot and that it ended up on Umbridge's head."

"Did he say it where Umbridge could hear it?" asked Amelia with some exasperation in her voice.

"Unfortunately, yes."

The DMLE director let out a sigh. Rufus Scrimgeour was an intelligent, capable man, but he also had little patience with people whom he considered annoying or foolish. In fact, Amelia believed that this last trait was the main reason why he hadn't been named the DMLE director back in 1990.

Meanwhile, her secretary continued:

"Almost immediately after that some hit-witches came around with a letter to Walden Macnair's boss, and started collecting signatures from every female Auror, Law Enforcement Patrol Officer, Auror trainee and secretary. I admit I signed the letter, too."

"Was this about slaps on the bottom, innuendos and ogling?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Did they send the letter already?"

"No, ma'am, they went to the other departments to collect more signatures and they also intended to come back here and get yours, too."

"And they will get it. Now, Ruby, what about the Ministry rumour mill? Is there something I should know about?"

The Ministry rumour mill was even faster than the one at Hogwarts and sometimes produced just as outrageous stories. For Amelia, the most memorable story was one which started shortly after she'd taken up her current position. Somebody from her department remarked in a conversation that she "looked a bit under the weather in the morning", which got twisted into "she's got morning sickness" and at the end of the day half of the Ministry had been whispering that their new DMLE director had been having a torrid affair with her Head Auror and forgot to take the contraceptive potion.

"Nothing big," said Ruby. "Mr. Crouch is without a secretary again and apparently Bertha Jorkins has recently got forgetful in addition to being a little slow."

"Thank you, Ruby. I'll have a talk with Rufus right after I get into my office, but after that I'll be down in the archives if somebody looks for me and can't wait. Oh, and while I'm there, find Williamson, Tonks and the other Auror trainee. I want to see them all standing in front of my door when I come back."

After she arrived in her office, Amelia quickly switched her boots for a pair of black pumps, took off her warm cloak and mentally went through everything she'd been told. After a while she heard the outer door open and close, followed by a short conversation muffled by the closed inner door. Immediately after that, Rufus Scrimgeour knocked and entered the office. Amelia addressed him:

"Rufus, please sit down and tell me what our Knockturn Alley acquaintances and other such types had been up to. Then I want to hear what you have to say about a certain incident with Dolores Umbridge."

The Head Auror did as he was asked and started talking:

"It's been quite uneventful. Mundungus Fletcher had been beaten and hexed by the owner of the White Wyvern in Knockturn Alley for an unpaid tab, and Weasley had to visit the library of some muggle university to take care of an enchanted textbook. Oh, and Mafalda Hopkirk sent out one warning for underage sorcery, but that's all and it's been taken care of."

"I'm glad to hear that. Now, what about the business with Umbridge?"

"My temper just got the best of me. I suppose the comment about spilling hot drinks on her head was out of line," admitted Scrimgeour with a sigh.

"That's certainly true. You'll have to go up to the first floor and apologize. Not only was that comment out of line, but Umbridge is also vengeful, and if she doesn't see you in her office today, you're in for a lot of unpleasantness."

Scrimgeour didn't dispute Amelia's statement. After asking to be excused he left the office and headed to the first floor.

His boss followed soon, when she set out for the tenth floor. After she arrived, she passed the entrance to the Department of Mysteries, all of the old courtrooms and the holding cells, until she arrived at the entrance to the archives.

Right behind the heavy double door there was the archivist's desk. The wizard seated behind it mumbled a greeting, pushed himself from his chair and performed a few detection spells. Then he handed Amelia a small knife and a piece of parchment. The DMLE director cut her left palm and let three drops of blood fall on the parchment. The wizard then added a drop of dark blue potion to the bloodstain.

When he saw that the disturber of his peace was really Amelia Susan Bones and not some polyjuiced little creep, he moved to toss the slip of parchment to his wastebasket, but Amelia stopped him and disposed of it with a vanishing charm.

The Ministry archive consisted of two rooms filled with dust-covered overflowing shelves. The front room, which was considerably more spacious, held transcripts of regular Wizengamot meetings, while the smaller back room was used to store trial transcripts.

Amelia entered this second room, all the while thinking that a house elf would take much better care of all these records. The trial transcripts were sorted alphabetically, with the A's nearest to the entrance, and the shelves stood quite close to each other. The DMLE director wasn't particularly eager to walk between them. Their height, the narrow space in-between and the dust all over them put in her mind some quite unpleasant images, but whether she wanted it or not, she had to dive into the maze if she wanted to find the file she was looking for.

The B's were found easily and so was Black's file, wedged tightly into a crate so full that it looked as if its corners would soon give way. Amelia pulled the folder out and looked inside. There were statements from the muggle witnesses before they'd been obliviated, and also from all of the wizards who arrived at the scene to either arrest Black or deal with the damage. Aside from the witness statements there were only a few photographs of the gruesome scene taken from several vantage points, and some close-ups of the crater in the middle of the street.

It looked as if Black had told the truth. The file contained no trial transcripts or records about questioning. Of course, there was a possibility that the things just got lost, but Amelia doubted it. Barty Crouch had been and still was a perfectionist who demanded the same from his subordinates and Merlin help the poor sod who had the audacity to make a mistake. This behaviour had even earned him the moniker "Bastard Barty" during his time as a DMLE director, so any Auror who questioned captured criminals and any scribe who was responsible for taking a trial transcript would take extra care that those records were correct and correctly filed.

Amelia quickly made a copy of the file, put everything back to its place and left the archive. The massive double door closed behind her and she didn't see or hear the archivist get up and walk to the back room. The man noticed a wide smudge of dust on the back of the DMLE director's robes and he was now slowly walking past the rows of shelves, looking for a place where the layer of dust had been partially wiped off.

When he found it, he started examining the crates, and sure enough, there was one which had a slightly cleaner upper edge than the others. The archivist pulled it out and stared at the files within. He would think that they hadn't been touched, but for one detail – one file looked cleaner than the others. He put the crate back and marched back to his desk, where he grabbed a sheet of the purple parchment used for interdepartmental memos and wrote:

Mr. Crouch,

Bones went through Sirius Black's file and she now has a copy of it in her possession.

Greetings, IP.

The memo was on its way to Bartemius Crouch's office some ten minutes after Amelia exited the archive.