582 Clearing House
I wasn't surprised to see two people waiting down below for me, one of which was an Auror, or a magical policeman, and the same woman that had sat in the administration office that was the operator for the phone booth.
The both of them looked surprised that it was actually me and not some imposter, which must have happened more than once. A quick check of the man's mind told me it was dozens of times over the years and it almost made me laugh. I kept it stifled and stepped out of the phone booth when it landed on the floor in front of them and the door opened.
“It's really him.” The Auror whispered, his rough face not hiding his shock at all.
“It's nice to meet you in person, Gladys.” I said and took the woman's hand and bent over it to lightly press my lips to her knuckles. “I hope I'm not taking you away from your job by visiting out of the blue like this.”
The woman gave me a look that said she was really grateful to have something to do that broke up her long boring day answering the telephone when someone used the muggle entrance. By her thoughts, this was the first time all week she had been called to do her job. Since it was me, she thought it was the best thing to ever happen to her.
I reached into my robes and pulled out a framed photograph of my head inside a Nundu's mouth and I pretended to be dead, with my eyes crossed and my tongue out. She saw it and actually laughed, which made me smile, and I handed it over to her. The Auror looked quite envious, too.
“It's already autographed, so you don't have to open it up for me to sign it.” I stated and she nodded and hugged it to her chest. I glanced around at the bustling lobby and back to her. “I don't suppose I could get a tour, could I? I've never been here in the Ministry of Magic before.”
“I'm not sure she's allowed to...” The Auror started to say.
“Of course, Harry.” Gladys agreed and cut the Auror off. “We can start in my office as I drop this off and we can go from there.”
I smiled widely and offered her my elbow, which she tightly clamped her own arm onto. “Wonderful, thank you.” I said and looked at the Auror. “You're more than welcome to come along, Auror Scrimgeor.”
The man frowned slightly. “How do you know my name?”
I couldn't resist answering with my tag line. “I'm Harry Potter, the best Harry Potter.”
Gladys let out a soft laugh, getting the joke immediately.
“That wasn't an answer.” Rufus said and his frown didn't lessen.
I smiled in return, because a frown was just a smile turned upside down. “The simple answer? I know your name because I know everyone's name.”
His eyes widened and he immediately turned to look at a random man passing by.
“Mr. Cattermole, Reginald to his boss and Reg to his friends.” I said and Rufus looked surprised, then he turned around to face away from me and looked at a woman. “Doris Pickford.” I said and then couldn't resist showing off a little. “She was married until a Death Eater raid in '69 and has been alone ever since. No children.”
Both Rufus and Gladys turned their heads to stare at me with shock on their faces.
“It's all on the public record.” I said to explain how I had known so much. That wasn't how I actually gained the information, though. I had read her mind like it was an open book. “So, about that tour?”
“Y-yes, I... this way.” Gladys said and led me over to the elevators.
We stepped inside the car already there waiting and the Auror walked in behind us, then he moved around us to stand at the back of the elevator car. The man on the controls asked what floor and Gladys said Administration, which was on the top floor. The elevator started to rise and a soft squeak came from the undercarriage.
“The secondary cable is starting to fray.” I said before I could stop myself. I had been in close contact with more advanced technology for so long that any faults or potential faults automatically filtered into my mind.
All three people gave me pointed looks, two of them accusingly and the one from Gladys was to stop me from saying shocking things like that.
“It's the sound.” I said as an explanation and nodded at the elevator operator. “Have you reported it to maintenance yet? Or are they still angling for a pay raise and have the window displays set to rain constantly?”
The man let out a huff. “It's only been a week of the depressing sight and we're all chipping in to pay off their demands.”
I chuckled and took out a money pouch, then took out a clearly empty one. “Do you think 300 galleons would put things right? I can't let the rest of the people that work here suffer under those conditions any longer.”
Gladys gasped and her arm squeezed mine even tighter than before.
“I think that's much too generous, Mr. Potter.” The elevator man responded.
I counted out the money and put it into the empty pouch, then handed it over. “Nonsense. You all do good work here, even the janitors. This place would fall apart without all of you doing your jobs.”
Gladys looked a little embarrassed after I said that, so I patted her hand.
“You might not think your job is essential to protecting our world; but, how often does a drunk stumble into the phone booth, magical or muggle, and tried to use it to call someone and you had to step in to deal with them?” I asked her.
Gladys really did look embarrassed now.
“Every job is important, no matter how small or boring it is. It's a cog in the giant machine of the Ministry and you should be proud of yourself and your skills.” I said and smiled at her. “How many people do you know that would do everything they could to have a job at the Ministry?”
That made Gladys lose some of the embarrassment and she looked thoughtful. The elevator came to a stop and the man at the controls gave me a firm nod and tucked the money pouch away. I nodded back and stepped out with Gladys and she shook her self slightly and then led me to her office. The Auror behind us had lost the frown and almost looked happy as he followed us.
I saw her office first and it was modest; but, it wasn't a small one. I commented that I had heard about how the head of the Improper Use of Muggle Artifacts Department was relegated to a much smaller office and she had to share it with her fellow employee.
That made Gladys almost beam with happiness and she led me back out into the hallway and my fairly detailed tour consisted of mostly seeing the closed doors of the head administration of the ministry. We weren't allowed to look inside unless the person was in and I was introduced to them, which did not include the Minister of Magic himself. He always started his day later, for some reason.
We moved down to the next floor and the Auror took over the tour, because it was the floor with the Auror offices and the head of the department. Luckily, Amelia Bones was in and she was quite delighted to have me visit. I may have also offered a small contribution to her department, to grease the wheels as the old saying goes.
In fact, she was so happy that she took an hour off and led us on a much more detailed tour of the Auror offices and introduced me around, which made her even more happy at shocking pretty much everyone that worked for her.
The only one that hadn't reacted besides a grunt was Mad Eye Moody. All I did in response was ask to shake the man's hand and thank him for taking down as many Dark Wizards as he had during his long career. The man visibly straightened up and gave me quite a pointed stare, then he took my offered hand and shook it.
When I used Panacea's power on him to fix most of his issues, the man was so gruff and tough that he didn't say anything. His magical eye did stop whipping around at things to focus on me, so I gave him a subtle wink and said I hoped he would be around for another very long time and could keep doing his job for as long as he could stand it.
That earned a bark of laughter from him and we went on to the department of records on the same floor. It was where they kept all the case files that had either been solved or were still open, so there was a lot of them and it was a huge room. I mentioned a few things and Amelia indulged me by showing me how to use the filing system they had.
I promised to be right back as I checked on a few things and asked Gladys to consult with Amelia about the rest of the ministry that I would be allowed to tour and what would be considered off limits. The two women engaged in a quick discussion and the Auror behind them ignored them and kept his eyes on me.
I gave him a subtle nod and went through the various aisles to find what I was looking for. The people arrested on or near October 31, 1981. I found the right filing cabinet and had to use a step stool to reach the right drawer for that year. I opened the drawer and it slid out several feet and I let my fingers do the walking until I reached the two months I was looking for.
I pulled three files and one was barely two full pages of notes about the attack on Godric's Hollow. The second one was a bit thicker with six sheets of parchment and was about the investigation conducted afterwards and that the case was closed.
The third one was the thickest and the one I really wanted to see. It was about Sirius Black and his full trial, which was a surprise. He really was the Secret Keeper this time and had betrayed the Potters, had killed Peter Pettigrew for trying to stop him, and he was sentenced to death. As a marked Death Eater, the sentence was carried out immediately by sending him through the Veil of Death.
That explained why I had been considered the owner of the Black vault at the bank, because I was Sirius' heir after he had claimed the Black Lordship. I made me wonder who had the key, though. Why didn't they use it, or was it hidden by someone and even Sirius hadn't known where it was? Did he try to hand it over to Voldemort? He was his right hand man, after all.
I put the files back and didn't try to look for anything else. I had already used up any grace period to search on my own and I returned to where I had left the two women. Rufus gave me a subtle nod back, which meant he had watched me and approved of what I had checked on. We left there and went to the elevator and waited for it to arrive.
Before it did and we descend to the next floor that held the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, Amelia thanked me for visiting and promised that she would put the 1,000 galleons of my donation to good use to protect her Aurors. I thanked her right back for doing such a good job and to keep doing it to the best of her ability.
We stepped into the elevator and left a very happy woman behind and continued the tour. The Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes was a huge department, since they handled all of Great Britain. In fact, most of the departments were huge. The Improper Use of Muggle Artifacts office was a closet by comparison.
The next floor was the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures and they had many stuffed displays and a very animated director that thoroughly enjoyed having me visit and that I knew a lot about magical creatures.
Gladys even admitted I had given her a photo of myself with my head inside a Nundu's mouth and the man looked surprised and then laughed before he asked to see it later, perhaps over lunch. She accepted the offer with a flushed face and her eyes darted to me several times as we went to the elevator to go down to the next floor, the Department of International Magical Cooperation.
I knew she wanted to thank me for it and I gave her a knowing smile. If things worked out, she might have a few more reasons to thank me later. The Goblin liaison office was run by Dirk Cresswell and he and been on the job for years. Unlike a lot of his fellow magicals, he actually liked the goblins and admired their tenacity.
The next floor was the Department of Magical Transportation and it was neat to visit the floo network controller and who handled running the Hogwarts Express and everything that entailed. It was fascinating, as was finding out the Knight Bus was not the first attempt at vehicle transport attempted. However, since it was successful and worked, they had stopped trying to make anything else.
The next floor was the Department of Magical Games and Sports and the people there loved that I knew all about Quidditch and wasn't lost as they talked about everything they did to regulate the Quidditch League. They even boasted that they had won the bid to host the Quittitch World Cup in four years, because it took that long to build up the funds to afford it, and they hoped England performed well enough to qualify.
I didn't comment that they wouldn't qualify for at least another couple of years after that and left their offices with a handful of team banners and tickets to several local games during the summer. I thanked them for everything, especially taking time away from their important jobs. They all gave me knowing winks or clapped me lightly on the back.
The last stop was at the Atrium, where we had started and then spent a good portion of the day touring the place. I wasn't allowed near the Department of Mysteries on the ninth floor and the Wizengamut courtrooms down on Level 10 weren't in use until needed, so there was no point in visiting the floor that was full of the same empty rooms.
Although, the Auror did offer to send an owl the next time there was a court trial being held. I thought about accepting, except I wasn't really planning on sticking around after I had handled a few things. As I had worked my way through the Ministry of Magic, I had also been scanning for evil magic and checking people's minds for any crimes they had performed or were performing.
Deloris Umbridge hadn't become the Senior Undersecretary yet and was only the Head of the Improper Use of Muggle Artifacts Department. Her crimes were many and she had plans to cash in a lot of the blackmail she had on everyone to ascend to the highest office her schemes could get her to.
I had left some of her secret notes scattered around and gave mental hints to the bosses of the people she was blackmailing. I was trying to bring to light that it was Deloris that was at fault, and not her victims, and it might solve the problem before I had to step in. I'd have to keep checking to see if any of the planted seeds took root, though.
The others I would take care of over the next few days, since doing so right after my visit was a bit too blatant to not be suspicious. At the very least, I'd be hunted down for questioning if anything happened to anyone too quickly.
“Thank you both for such a great day.” I said when we reached the spot for the muggle phone booth to drop down and Rufus pointed his wand at the ceiling. It started to drop down and we stepped back out of the way to let it. “I can't express how much this meant to me.”
Gladys looked like she appreciated it as much as I did. The Auror named Rufus nodded, because I had solved two of the worst problems the ministry had at the moment and he appreciated it, too. Fixing the weather underground and also getting him new equipment to do his job better? He couldn't have asked for anything else.
The booth arrived and I stepped inside. I tried to wave as the doors closed, like any kid would when saying goodbye, only my hands were full and I had to catch the banners before they fell. I kind of just shook the pile at them and it made Gladys laugh and Rufus let a small smile show on his face.
The booth rose up and they watched me right up until the booth reached the ceiling and replaced the one above ground. I stored the things I had in my hands and then switched my clothes back to my muggle appearance as I changed my face and hair back to look like Atlas.
I stepped out of the phone booth and wondered what to do next, then closed my eyes and thought about Remus Lupin. My clairvoyance power showed me where he was and it was a surprise. He was in a bed with four women, all werewolves, and he had several kids running around. The house was a fairly nice one, obviously magically made, and I checked his mind.
A snarling beast met my intrusion and I cast calm on the mental projection and offered him a nice rare steak. The beast accepted and occupied itself as it chewed on the tasty treat. I rummaged through the things Remus had gone through and found out he had been turned as a boy, just like in canon, except he had been given up by his family and joined Fenrir Greyback's pack.
Instead of complying like the others, he watched and waited, then he struck at his tormentor when he least expected it and took over the pack when he was barely a teenager. He hadn't been offered a spot at Hogwarts when he was eleven, because he wasn't a part of a respectable family.
Remus still had magic though. He just had to go to the continent to buy an illegal wand, since creatures were not allowed to own a wand in England. Because he had always had a penchant for studying, he either bought or stole enough books to educate himself in both the real world and the magical world, and he passed that knowledge to those willing to learn.
Funnily enough, the werewolf packs were more than willing to let him give them more power and in return, fell under his protection and authority. He ran them much better than Fenrir ever could and made them more respectable and surprisingly much more dangerous. Unlike unguided monsters once a month, they were calculated, meticulous, and succeeded where brute force usually failed.
I wasn't biased about him, either. He had actually made something of himself and also had a huge family that accepted him, which a law-abiding Remus would have severely balked at. Here, he was considered a notorious criminal in several circles, especially the werewolves, and that made them even more loyal to him instead of shying away like they should have.
I walked off down the street and thought about who else I could check on to see how they were doing, before I went to do what I came here to do, namely step from here to where my other self was currently living a charmed life.