Chapter two:
Saturday June 11th 1988, 7:25pm.
Remus stood in the doorway to his spare bedroom, well Harry's new bedroom, and watched the kid as he slept. He looked so cute curled up in the bed. He tried not to think about The boy's surprise at being given a room and a bed.
They had spent two hours shopping together that afternoon and it had exhausted Harry. Playing with so many toys, trying on different clothes, and the experience of going to a shopping centre in London, or anywhere, had been such a novel experience for Harry it had been a truly magical afternoon. On the flip side however it had helped wear him out which led to the unconscious boy he was watching at the moment.
With a quick flick of his wand he tidied up the mess that Harry had made, appearing to have played with every single one of his new toys in the short period between finishing his dinner and falling asleep. While Remus was good with money, he was happy for his credit card because he had splashed out of the kid. Not that it was cheap without all the toys, a complete new wardrobe for Harry saw too that.
Closing the door after casting a simple detection spell to alert him if the child awoke, he went to the kitchen to finish the dishes. While it was possible, and very easy, to do the dishes with magic, not to mention quicker, he preferred to do them by hand. He found the simply chore relaxing. It also afforded him a chance to plan what he had to say, and who to.
After all Harry Potter was famous and would be noticed missing soon. Remus didn't want to be arrested for kidnapping, he would be lucky too spend the rest of his life in Azkaban, but would probably get a death sentence. Between Harry being who he was, and Remus' furry little problem, it would not go well for him. 'I guess I should start with the Boss, he will understand and know what to do.'
Having finished the dishes, Remus checked on Harry one more time before apparating to his work building, a nondescript office building near Canary Wharf. Given that it was a little before 8pm on a Saturday the apparition room on the ground floor of the building was empty. The lobby was empty except for the watchman.
"Good evening Lupin, your working late. Had a good day?" As a squib he was well aware of magic, and knew the purpose of the apparition room.
"Yes it hasn't been bad. It has been interesting though. Can you let me up? Thanks George." The pair walked to the elevator together.
"It must always be interesting working here though?" A tapped hidden button and a spoken password brought four new floor buttons to the panel. Remus knew that the password changed every 5 minutes, and only the on duty guard knew what it was, and how the next password was chosen. Remus had long wanted to know more about the process, but also knew it defeated the purpose of all the layers of security. It would also be hard to explain to his boss that it wasn't because of anything malicious.
"Well it can be that, George. I'll see you later." He waved at the squib and pushed the button for the corresponding floor.
/
Knowing that his boss would be in his office, Remus didn't even stop at his desk and walked straight to the door his target was behind. Knocking and waiting several seconds to be acknowledged he turned the handle and walked it.
It was a spartan room, with a simple desk, two chairs in front and the occupied chair behind. The walls were bare, lacking even a single window. It showed with how pale the single occupant was. He looked up, his pale red eyes meeting Remus'.
"Lupin, you're late. We expected you to report back hours ago, and I was just contemplating sending out a team to search for you. Did you run into trouble?" Bartolommeo Friulano said to the man who had just entered his office. A slightest hint of an accent betrayed his heritage.
"The mission went smoothly. I got in and added the extra ward, without anyone looking at me twice. It was afterwards when I was on my way back that things got complicated." Remus shuffled a little on his feet, wishing he had been asked to sit down.
"Yes, and?" Bartolommeo's time was valuable, he didn't want to have to jump through hoops to get answers.
"Well, I came across a smell, a scent from my past, as I was walking towards Delta. I decided to take a quick detour, just to reassure myself that I was wrong. I found Harry Potter, being bullied, living in the non-magical world. He had no knowledge of the world he belongs to. He was living with his mothers sister, who hated Lily and despises magic. I haven't looked yet, but he has obviously been emotionally abused and potentially physically. It gets worse." Having given up waiting to be asked to be seated, he crossed the room and sat down anyway.
"Are you sure? I know you knew he parents well, but you can't let your emotions cloud your judgement." Bartolommeo had watched many a good man let emotions cause them to make mistakes.
"Yes. I believe he has been an experiment by Albus Dumbledore. Albus said back in '81 that he was going to make sure Harry was looked after and would be safe from Deatheaters, and I admit putting him in the normal world would do that, but… Lily never wanted her sister anywhere near Harry, knowing she couldn't be trusted. Also my many gifts that I have given Albus to pass on haven't been done so. Harry has never received a present, and his cloths were obviously the wrong size and second hand. I talked with him, showed him pictures of his parents which was a first for him, and then asked if he wanted to ever go back to his relatives. He said no. I took him home with me." Remus trailed off.
"Shit! This could be bad, for both of us! Dumbledore will do everything in his power to track Harry down. If he catches you… Azbakan or the veil, and I won't be able to protect you. What do you want?" Bartolommeo had stood up and started to pace.
"Your friend, the judge? Get me a appointment with him in his office. I'll present the evidence and ask for custody of Harry. Make it legal. I won't let him return to them!" Now that he had a plan of attack, Remus was feeling much more confident.
"I'll set it up. Are you sure you want to do this? With your job, it's not easy to raise a kid. You will also make a powerful enemy, even if he doesn't know it's you." While he approved of Remus' course of action, he had to make sure he knew what he was getting into.
"I'm all he has left! His parents are dead. Sirius… Well Sirius did what he did. His relatives obviously are suitable to raise any child, let alone Harry. I have to step up, even with my problem. I also am getting an uneasy feeling about how this all is going down. What was Albus thinking? He knows about Lily and her sister. Also why didn't he pass on my presents? Harry hadn't even heard the name before, if he was his guardian why isn't he checking in on him? Why isn't he talking with Harry, telling him about his parents, about magic, about everything?" By this time Remus was also pacing.
"There is something you need to see." Bartolommeo stood up and walked to the left side of the room before putting his hand on it. The section of wall slid back and to the side, creating a door way.
The pair walked through into a hidden room that Remus had never seen before. The walls were covered with diagrams, journal articles, pictures and hand written notes. All of which branched away from the picture in the middle of the back wall. Albus Dumbledore.
"What is all this?" Remus was fascinated, moving from one area to another, reading everything his eyes scanned.
"You know why we were started?" It wasn't the question Remus was expecting.
"Of course. All employees do. The government and Crown weren't confident in the ministry of Magic and its ability to stop the rising threat of Voldemort. So they created the MI-M, to work from a non-magical side to protect the entire kingdom. Through trial and error it became obvious that while it was a great idea, magicals were needed and it changed into a Non-Magical Government controlled agency run by magicals." Remus was proud to work for MI-M, even if only a handful of people who weren't employees had heard of it, and he could tell nobody where he worked. Not that he had people to tell anymore.
"Yes. One of the first things we realised is just why the Ministry couldn't handle Voldemort. They didn't want to. And Dumbledore was the reason for that. We don't know why, but we assume he has some master plan. Everything we have gathered is here." As he said this he indicated around the room.
"Why am I only just learning about this?" Remus was shocked.
"Your belief in Dumbledore is well known. We understand how grateful you are for him letting you into Hogwarts, but it wasn't until you came to your own realisation that he was up to something that I decided you were ready to know." Bartolommeo didn't seem bothered about keeping such a big secret from Remus.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" Remus seemed ready to let his other side rip Dumbledore limb from limb.
"Look after Potter. In the future we will see. There may be an opportunity in the future for you to take a job at Hogwarts which would be perfect, but for now stick to regular duties." Allowing Remus a quick final look, he directed him back to his office. "Go back to the boy, I'll get the ball rolling here."
With that they shook hands and went about their business, one writing notes to several different people, the other going to check on a 7 year old child.
/
Albus Dumbledore was not having a great day, and it had started so well. A piece of legislation that he wanted to pass, at least in private settings, had passed restricting goblins from being able to purchase land in the U.K. While he had publicly criticised the idea, he had pulled the string ensuring it would pass.
After that he had a staff meeting to discuss the year, in which he made sure that nothing to serious would change for the next year at Hogwarts. With the end of the meeting in sight things had started to fall apart.
First a single instrument, one of the many he had scattered around the office, started to spin. It was a minor alert, simply telling him that a magical individual was within 2 miles of where an important chess piece was. As the meeting progressed he kept an eye on the instrument next to it which would tell him if that individual was within a mile, believing that unless that went off he wouldn't have to leave to make sure nothing would happen.
The meeting wasn't going overly well, his deputy kept insisting that he discipline Snape. The other heads of house also backed McGonagall and Dumbledore had consented to promising to talk to Severus and some other such nonsense he had any intention of doing. Then chaos broke out.
A half dozen instruments started to whir, rotate or some other type of motion, with another letting of a klaxon, and two flashed every colour of the rainbow. Something in regards to Harry Potter had just happened, and it wasn't good for his plans. Without even saying a word to the staff, he stood up, crossed to his fireplace and disappeared in the floo.
He was soon storming up to the door at 4 Privet Drive, throwing it open without even knocking. "Where is he!" Albus bellowed out.
A scream from the kitchen echoed him, followed by the sounds of a very heavy individual heading towards him. Around a corner came Vernon Dursley, red in the face. Whether it was from anger or from the effort of walking, Dumbledore couldn't tell.
"Get out of here freak! We don't want anything to do with your kind!" The fear was evident in his eyes, even as he yelled back. Petunia was just visible behind him.
"Where is Harry! What have you done to him this time?" Panic, for the first time in decades, coursing through Dumbledore.
"We haven't seen the freak all day. Like every Saturday he left this morning. Now get out of here!" Finally feeling brave Vernon started to advance on Dumbledore.
Taking a second to read the mans mind, just to ascertain the truth, Albus turned and left the house. Casting a quick tracking spell he found that the trace spells he had attached to Harry had been dispelled, meaning he worst fears were coming to fruition. Somebody magical had found Harry Potter.
Was it somebody in Law Enforcement or power who could cause problems for him? Was it somebody who took the chance to kidnap the famous Harry Potter? Was it somebody who though they had kidnapped a muggle born wizard? Was it a deatheather? Too many possibilities, not enough answers.
As he was wandering aimlessly around the neighbourhood, hoping that there would be something to give him a clue as to what happened, he heard something that caught his attention. "Dudley, lets go back to the park. The freak will be alone now."
It came from a group of six boys, and Dumbledore just knew they were talking about Harry. Following the group to a park, he managed to get a glimpse into several of the boy's minds, learning what had occurred not long before. The problem was the redheaded individual did not look familiar to Albus. Meaning either it was a nobody taking an opportunity, or somebody hidden with polyjuice or self-transfiguration.
Looking around the park, which the boys were quick to leave upon discovering that Harry had left the area, there was nothing for him. So he turned on the spot, disappearing to arrive in Hogsmead for the long trot back up to the castle.
Now he was sitting in his office, nursing a large tumbler of firewhiskey. Dumbledore didn't usual drink, given the tendency for individuals to lose control of themselves under the influence of alcohol, but this felt like a drinking occasion. He had lost Harry Potter.
The public would demand his head when they found out. It wasn't something he could hide or cover up, it was just a matter of time before it came out. That time being the 2nd of September 1991 at the latest when it came out that Harry Potter was not at Hogwarts. He had made a big deal when the Potters died that only he would be able to keep the boy safe, said as much to the Wizengamot, and he had failed.
All that he had done. All that he had achieved. All that he had planned. It would all mean nothing because of today. Disputed it all, only a dozen years away from achieving his ultimate goal that had been a century in the works it had all fallen apart. And the worse part was he didn't know who was responsible.
"Albus, what is going on? You never drink! The staff is worried about your disappearance earlier, you need to tell me what happened." He was so distracted he didn't even notice his deputy's arrival. It was only Minerva speaking that alerted him to her presence.
"Harry Potter is missing. Those were supposed to keep track of him, tell me how he was doing, and when they all went off during the meeting I knew something was wrong. He has disappeared and the only clue I have is a person who given magic I can't even tell you their gender. I as good as dead." He took a swig of his drink as he lazily pointed to the instruments around the room.
"Harry is missing? How did this happen! How did you let this happen!" Minerva lost control and almost sent a curse his way.
"He went to a park a little over a mile from his house. I hadn't planned on him going that far so young, so didn't have strong enough safety measures in place that far out." The alcohol was making him admit things he probably wouldn't otherwise, even to a woman he trusted as completely as Minerva.
"There are ways to find him Albus. Put a tracking charm on a letter and post it to him. Or a portkey. Or Fawkes, use Fawkes to transport you to him. Get to Aurors to help, it's what they are trained for. Ask the Unspeakables, they might have a trick or two." Minerva said every idea that came to mind, knowing none of them would work.
"Brilliant ideas Minerva. I will try them all in the morning when…" he didn't finish his sentence as he passed out, falling and hitting his head on the desk. He really wasn't used to alcohol.
Minerva shook her head as she turned to leave. 'What a waste of good firewhiskey.' she thought seeing the liquid spilled on the floor.
A/N: Here is the second chapter of TWATS, the acronym I am using for The Wolf Amongst The Sheep, mainly because of that twats I'm going to be bashing in this fic. Hope you all like this chapter, and I hope it's beginning to answer questions started in the first instalment. The MI-M is obviously based off MI-5 and MI-6, with the M standing for Magic. In case you can't tell between this and my other fic I believe McGonagall a badass, despite her mistakes, and she will play a major role in both. Daniel6, no I won't be bashing Hermione. Please review and tell me what you think, and please follow and favourite the story!
Apprentice.