Her decision was obvious. She had no choice but to sit. She also knew she had to change her approach. She did both.
"Alright, Harry," she sighed as Dobby put a cup of tea before her. "How'd you do it?"
"How'd I do what?" he asked right back.
"How'd you kidnap the Longbottoms?"
"I've already answered that question. I didn't."
When it looked like she was starting to get frustrated again, he said, "You're operating under what appears to be a whole whack of assumptions, Regent Bones. You need to get them out of your head before you're going to get anywhere near where you need to go."
She stared back for a few moments before she firmly asked, "What assumptions?"
"Let's start with the two that immediately arose based on your first question. This is also the point at which you lost, by the way," he said.
"One: You are operating under the assumption the Longbottoms were kidnapped. Where is your evidence of that? And, before you say something utterly moronic like, 'Well they must've been, how else would they be gone?' I'll just say, 'Lack of evidence to the contrary, does not constitute proof of claim. A lack of evidence is just a lack of evidence, nothing more.'
"Two: Your question put to me was one of clarification, which assumed a second point of claimed evidence where such evidence has not been established; that I kidnapped the Longbottoms.
"Now, I'll help you out, Regent Bones, with correcting those two fallacious points put to me as an interrogatory with the actual facts.
"First: The Longbottoms were not kidnapped. They were taken under signed authority of the auspices of the Potter-Longbottom Alliance, where it states in precise terms why and how one House must provide aid to another. And the law, as you should well know, supports me in this.
"Second: Using the auspices of the Charter as aforementioned, I had the Longbottoms removed from Saint Mungo's so that they may receive far superior care than they were, until that time, subjected.
"Third: Because this is an issue relating to the alliance, I cannot talk about it with Madam Bones of the DMLE as you well know. I can, however, talk about it with Regent Bones of the Noble and Ancient House of Bones, a member House of the alliance."
He paused a moment and called, "Dobby."
Surprised by Dobby's foresight, Harry saw his copy of the alliance documents appear on the table before him.
"Thank you, Dobby," he called.
Looking back to Bones he asked, "Do you wish to discuss that with me, Regent Bones?"
Bones sat there and listened as the young man sitting in front of her utterly and irrevocably tore her case apart. And there was nothing she could do about it because she both needed answers and he was right.
She also knew he was right about the section within the Charter because she had spent many hours reading it over and over again, so that the House of Bones would not fall afoul of it under her regency.
She then sighed and quietly said, "Now I know how everyone else felt, when you made them feel like idiots."
"That was not my intent, Regent Bones," he said. "I've just had to put up with, over the past three-plus years, people making somewhat baseless but incorrect assumptions about me and mine. And I'm no longer willing to put up with it from anyone. Even someone, such as you, whom I greatly admire."
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
After the Grangers knew Harry wasn't going to be arrested after all, they soon left and headed for work.
Meanwhile, Madam Bones sent her aurors off to get them away from the table, while Regent Bones decided she was going to sample a Dobby breakfast for herself. She was hungry, after all. She didn't get a chance to eat before she left home, that morning, and would likely not be eating for hours yet if she didn't.
Once the table was cleared from everyone bar Harry, Hermione and Bones, Harry threw up a small area silencing charm.
As she swallowed her first mouthful, Bones asked, "Alright, Harry; where are they?"
"I'm not going to answer that question, Amelia," he replied. "One, it is pointless for you to know because, where they are right now, no one can get in or out of. And, two, if word got back to Regent Longbottom as to their location she would try to get them. If she did, it could cause such a magical catastrophe it will likely kill quite a few people, herself and them included."
"What treatment are they receiving?" she asked.
"Family secret," he immediately replied. "However, I have complete faith it will be successful."
"You believe you can cure them?" she demanded.
"Not me," he returned. "But, I believe the treatment they're currently undergoing will be making their lives a lot more comfortable," he replied. "I doubt, very much, they'll ever get back their full health. It's been far too long now for that."
"Who's treating them?" she tried.
"Medical personnel under non-disclosure agreements," he replied.
With a little head shake added in, she disagreed. "Medical non-disclosure agreements don't work that way. They're meant to stop the medical personnel discussing anything to do with the patient with anyone else."
"This one works both ways," he replied. "The medical personnel wanted protection of anonymity from, especially, Regent Longbottom.
"And, Regent Bones, you're straying far too close to an interrogation, again."
"I need answers to these questions," she frustratedly retorted.
"No, you want answers to your questions," he disagreed. "There's a difference. You have all the information you need already. You've had that since I told you I had the Longbottoms taken from Saint Mungo's under the auspices of the charter of the alliance for their care.
"You know I'm both legally in the right and about what's happened with the Longbottoms. Right then, your investigation ended.
"Everything else has been you just sating your curiosity and having answers ready for when Longbottom goes on her next rant. That is not my concern. However, I've also been doing my best to help you through allaying your fears and providing you answers to your questions; but I will not betray the trust of others to provide them to you when such would be such betrayals."
By the time she left, Madam Director Amelia Bones felt both frustrated and powerless. Harry had neatly countered everything she threw at him with the aplomb of someone both thrice his age and assuredness he was in the right. The bugger of it was, he was.
He then turned around and, without even being asked, gave her a magical oath he had told her the truth for the entirety of the 'discussion'. So, she didn't even have the option to decide he'd lied, which would have allowed her to continue to investigate. He'd neatly taken that away from her.
If she pushed now, she'd be interfering in the lawful practices of one of the major alliances. And that... was 'not allowed'. As Regent of Bones, however, she knew the 'whys and wherefores' but couldn't use that information as Madam Bones of the DMLE. Madam Bones of the DMLE had to keep her nose out of it, which meant the DMLE had to keep their collective noses out of it.
It was the first time in her life that the dual roles of Regent and Auror, let alone Department Director, had come into conflict and she didn't like it one bit.
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