Hermione sadly shook her head. "Live in? No," she replied. "Want to live in."
Before things got out of hand, Harry said, "Hermione, Daphne; this is not to be spoken about outside of this group until such time as Mister Nott makes good on his threat. I order it."
Neville, not daft, immediately said, "As do I."
"And that puts paid to that," said Susan. "That just leaves us with coming up with a plan to deal with Nott, or who it is he connives to do it for him."
"Already working on it," said Daphne. "This is what I think we can do..."
And they discussed it for the next five minutes, before they believed they needed to make their move down to breakfast.
Thankfully, Nott did not make his move at that time; as they truly were not ready yet.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
After breakfast Harry kept looking at Nott down to the very occasional glance. Though, as the owls streamed in, he did pay a bit of closer attention to the other boy, as he knew the boy would be looking to the owls to see if he could spot his own family owl in among them.
Surprising Harry, not only did Hedwig come down and drop off his copy of the Daily Prophet as expected; but a second owl, this one wearing the red anklet band of a Ministry owl dropped off a small package.
He was quick to deal with Hedwig and her load first, lest he earn her ire. Then turned his attention to the Ministry owl.
Freeing it of it's load and offering it a strip of bacon - accepted - he scanned the package, finding it free of anything but a slight impervious weather repelling charm and the shrinking charm.
Unshrinking it and snapping open the Ministry seal with his wand tip, he allowed the contents to slide out on the tabletop. Another couple of detection charms and he felt safe enough to handle them with his hands.
He was surprised to discover it had a list of all those who owned one of those owls that had sent mail to Daphne. They had seventeen of nineteen names. For each it also included what the mail contained.
Of the nineteen letters/packages sent, fourteen were sent to Daphne - five were of congratulatory messages from important families, seven were anything from reproachful to abusive, but two were booby-trapped. One of those was yet another of bubotuber pus linked to a mild explosive hex. And one of the abusive ones was of an owl belonging to someone who swore an oath they had no idea how their owl was 'used to do something so disgusting as abuse one of the ladies of that wonderful young man'.
Of those, aurors had already been to speak with all those who sent abusive mail with the two who sent the booby-trapped mail arrested on the spot and 'dragged' to her holding cells. She would be questioning them throughout the day and, 'It is highly likely both will be charged and front the Wizengamot at the February session for their crimes.'
The other for whom they had no idea of ownership actually was a Ministry owl and also one of the abusive ones. And, until then, who used the owls was not recorded. Madam Bones could only posit that someone sent it 'from work within the Ministry'. It was one sent to Harry.
She would be working towards having permanent charms set on all the Ministry owl anklets that tracked who sent them from within the Ministry. Harry had no idea how she'd accomplish that, but mentally wished her luck.
The third booby-trapped mail item was sent to Harry. Madam Bones had moved to personally arrest that person; a minor Heir of one of the dark families, who was using the opportunity that he knew would be a confusing time when all the owls arrived, to attempt to curse Harry with a compulsion potion that could be absorbed through the skin.
That person, as soon as they realised they'd been 'busted', fought back and was killed by one of the aurors while resisting arrest. An auror witch had been hurt, but Madam Bones was quick to assure him she was recovering well in St Mungo's with no expected long-lasting effects.
The other mail to Harry was also either outright scathing of his decision to accept a relationship agreement with Greengrass, or questioning him and begging him to see a healer to discover what potions or other illicit compulsions he was under.
She then went on to beg him to allow the DMLE to handle the entire matter as per the laws that applied to all; and not go after 'anyone' as One of the Seven - even though she knew he could and she could do nothing about it if he did. She promised she would not be asking for a reduced sentence or similar and would be asking for the full penalty to be applied in each case.
She also informed him that his concept of applying tracking charms to the owls was so successful it would be entered into the DMLE procedure rulebook for aurors and be taught at the Academy. Harry thought it was a clear 'bribe' on her part for him not to go after the main culprits.
Harry thought he'd let her have this one, but also warned her that 'next time' the gloves will be off and 'people will die by my wand or hand'.
Yes; it was blatant threat. But, not to her. He wanted her to be able to tell all and sundry he'd told her that.
Once he finished going through it, he handed it off to Daphne.
And, once she went through it with a frown of anger on her face, she looked up and said, "Do I ask Dobby to see to pressing your duelling robes?"
"Actually, I don't have any," he replied. "Something for me to see about soon. And something I'll be very public about doing when I do, I think."
She smiled back in slight amusement and said, "Very Slytherin."
"And, don't worry," he said. "I will be discussing with your Lord what to do about these people before I act. I believe he has a right to voice his opinion, first."
She gave a slight nod back and said, "Thank you. I believe he'll appreciate that."
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