For the Want of a Horse-shoe Nail

For the want of a nail, the shoe was lost

For the want of a shoe the horse was lost

For the want of the horse, the rider was lost

For the want of the rider, the battle was lost

For the want of the battle, the kingdom was lost

And all for the want of a horse-shoe nail

Disclaimer: I own the rights to nothing of the Harry Potter stories, movies, merchandise, sexy underwear, or other paraphernalia, which are owned by J.K. Rowling and her associates – I am definitely not her, nor them. I have written this for my own entertainment and hopeful the amusement of some others as well. I have invented some characters of my own, so any blame for those does rest with me. Absolutely no money being made in any fashion at any time from this exercise in ravings of a lunatic.

Rating: T. Seriously AU. Warning, some character deaths, some character bashing. Horcruxes

Chapter 4: Revelations

Much to his surprise and relief, Harry Potter awoke in his usual bed in the infirmary wing of Hogwarts castle. To his surprise, at his bedside was his Head of House, Minerva McGonagall. She had a profoundly disgusted look on her face, and a number of letters in her hand. She smiled slightly, and said, "Welcome back to the world of the living, Mr. Potter, in spite of your best efforts. We need to chat, you and I."

Through his insulted throat, Harry rasped "What happened?"

The professor scowled and said "Apparently, you had a small piece of Voldemort's soul lodged in that scar of yours. Something the Headmaster has suspected for some time, but did not see fit to tell any of those who thought that he had complete trust in them, who trusted him, and who might have been able to help. Those such as myself, although I apparently was flattering myself."

"Since around a year or two before the time of your birth or your first encounter with the Dark Lord, the Headmaster has been, shall I say, in failing mental health. Perhaps a number of small strokes, perhaps not. Personally, I have suspected that your parent's murder came as a complete shock to him, and may have precipitated a moderate or major stroke on top of whatever was going on before – after all, it was he who had advised them to hide in Godric's Hollow, and he cast the Fidelius spell that was supposed to have protected them, and you."

"I am not quite seventy years old myself, and I am already finding the cold winter winds in this castle are starting to make my bones ache. Harry, none of us last forever, and Albus Dumbledore is over a hundred and fifty years old. Even for a very powerful wizard, he is a very old man. He has been worthy of great respect in the past, but his greatness is past. Unfortunately, his reputation is such (and not without reason, given his past worthy actions) that no one until now has called him out on it."

"He has kept claiming that Hogwarts is the safest place in Britain, and you must be here or at your family's house, for your protection. Yet there you were abused by your family, and he did nothing in spite of my original warning that they were completely unsuitable. And here, you have been attacked, and almost died last evening."

"It turns out that Professor Quirrel was partly possessed by Voldemort's spirit. And the great Professor Dumbledore never detected it. Fortunately, it seems that the portion of the Dark Lord inhabiting the back of Quirrel's head was extremely weak, to the point where it could push him to do things, but not completely overwhelm the man's inherent caution and timidity. Thus, he could not attack you directly, but he was the one who let the troll into the castle. The 'bad pinky' the young troll spoke of."

"One sign that the Headmaster had finally lost it completely was that he showed absolutely no curiosity about who had let the troll in. Another was that he brought that artifact, that you and Mr. Weasley correctly deduced was the Philosopher's Stone, into a school filled with innocent students that he was charged to protect, to try draw the Dark Lord's shade out into the open."

"Harry, last night, I had it out with Albus Dumbledore. I have served as a teacher at this school for fourty years, and fought by his side through the first war against Voldemort. I was his second-in-command, and yet he failed to trust me with important information, and he stood there and lied to me about the nature of your scar!"

"When I complained about his actions, or lack thereof, repeatedly putting you in danger, and suggested that you be sent to somewhere outside the country for your own protection, he told me that there was a prophecy that you and the Dark Lord were destined to confront each other, and so you had to stay here. You haven't met her yet, but the prophecy was made by Sybil Trelawney who is our Divination professor – she is a complete incompetent in my opinion. I don't know if she cast a Confundus spell on him, or flattered an old man's fancy, but he bought it, hook, line and sinker."

"As Deputy Headmistress, it should have been my job to check her credentials, but Albus had hired her immediately after her making her prophecy to him. A prophecy which was overheard in part by a young Death Eater who passed on the part he heard to the dark Lord, who then believed it. It was his belief that gave the prophecy whatever power it has."

"After she was hired, I did check her background. She has my sympathy for her troubles, but certainly no respect. It turns out that she was a complete drunk, a total fraud and charlatan. Her meeting with the Headmaster came after she had been fired from her job as a fortune-teller by every circus in Europe, for incompetence. They told me they caught her practicing the eyes rolling back, the raspy voice and all the signs of a real prophet making a prediction, and then laughing about it. Getting a position here was her last hope for a steady job, and so the Headmaster had to be given a 'true prophecy'. Anything less, and she would be out on the street, another hopeless pitiful drunk peddling whatever she had of value to whoever was paying."

"I wouldn't wish that future on anyone, but that does not qualify her for a teaching job. A pension in a nursing home perhaps, but not what Albus gave her. His hiring her just made the prophecy appear even more genuine to the Dark Lord. And the Dark Lord's belief in the prophecy is what led to your parents' murder and the incapacitation of Mr. Longbottom's mother and father!"

"When I pointed out all these facts, Albus tried to 'Obliviate' me! Fortunately, the magic of Hogwarts itself blocked his spell. The castle's magic recognised my years of loyal service, and that I spoke the truth. However, his action broke my last trust in him."

Handing Harry the letters she held, she said "Harry, I am leaving Hogwarts, and I suggest you do so too. Here is a letter from the Headmistress at Beauxbatons school in France, inviting you to come there - that is where your friend Miss Granger has gone. They have also offered me a teaching position there, which I am going to take."

"These other letters are invitations from other schools around the world, should you decided to go elsewhere. "

"Mr. Potter, or Harry if I may be so informal, I need to ask you a rather personal question. However, in order for you to provide a properly informed answer, I must tell you a little of your personal history. Please hear me out first."

He nodded, apprehensively.

She began. "Well, about twenty years ago, among the other students entering Hogwarts, there were five young wizards and one beautiful and brilliant young witch. For those who think such things matter, the witch was muggle-borne, one of the wizards was a half-blood and the other four were pure-bloods. Contrary to what most of the pure-blood believers would think would be a given, the half-blood wizard was sorted into Slytherin House, where due to the rampant bigotry there, he kept his heritage a secret from his housemates. The four pure-blood wizards, again contrary to the prejudiced view of things, were all sorted into Gryffindor, as was the young witch. I had just been made Head of Gryffindor, and I took some pains to get to know my new charges.

The half-blood wizard and the witch had been childhood friends, but in his hunger to fit in with his housemates, he started spouting off the same pure-blood drivel as his cohorts, and eventually went very bad. Because of this behaviour, and the inter-house rivalries, his friendship with the young witch fell apart. I suspect that he still harbours feelings of lost friendship and jealousy for the man she eventually married. After graduating, he took the Dark Mark of the followers of Voldemort – to be granted this 'honour', you have to commit a cold-blooded murder."

"The four pure-blood wizards became renowned pranksters and bullies. They became known as 'The Marauders', and tormented students from Slytherin, including the half-blood lad. They were extremely close, as close as brothers. One of them had the misfortune of having been bitten by were-wolf as a child, and was turned himself. The other three, out of loyalty I suppose, studied hard and learned to become animagi, like myself. One could become a stag, one a large dog, and one a rat. In these forms, they could keep their friend company during his monthly periods of transformation."

As time passed, these students grew up, and their behaviour became more reputable, if I can call it that. One of the Gryffindor lads and the witch fell in love in their last year here, and married soon after. They were your mother and father, Harry. The other three attended the wedding, which was near the start of the first war against Voldemort."

"Your father and two of his friends, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew, joined the fight against Voldemort by joining the Aurors. Due to their prankish nature, they were all assigned to the Hit Wizards group, which were the ones who carried out the more dangerous raids and rough-and-tumble jobs. I believe in the muggle police, they would have been called members of the SWAT team."

"When you were born, Sirius Black became your godfather."

Harry was shocked. "I have a godfather. Why did I have to live with the Dursleys then? Why did he abandon me?"

The professor smiled sadly. "I'm getting to that." She sighed.

"As Hit Wizards, they led the fight against Voldemort. Your parents, and Sirius, also joined a group called The Order of the Phoenix, under the leadership of Headmaster Dumbledore. I was a senior member of the Order as well. As members of these groups, your parents and Black were under threat from the followers of Voldemort, who call themselves Death Eaters."

The war was brutal. This school was built to hold up to a thousand students, yet only about three hundred now attend. More than two-thirds of the wizarding population could be said to be 'missing'. Our people had not really recovered in numbers from the First World War, after which there were entire villages with no young men for many years – had my own father not been working in the shipyards on the Clyde in what were considered essential services, I probably would not even have been born. Now a goodly number of magical people did emigrate to escape the war, but the war claimed almost a third of the magical people in Britain. Most of these were massacred by Voldemort and his cohorts.

This is why Voldemort's name was so feared that almost no-one dares speak it to this day. And this is why you were so famous, because you put paid to Voldemort, and effectively stopped the war and the murders, however it happened – our people were ecstatic that a mere babe had somehow defeated the worst Dark Lord this country had seen in centuries.

"When you were just over a year old, we learned of a specific threat against your family as well as the family of your classmate Neville Longbottom. It turns out that the Dark Lord learned of the phony prophecy and he believed it. Neville's parents were also in the aurors and the Order, and you both were born near the end of July, fitting the conditions of the prophecy."

You and your parents went into hiding, supposedly protected by the Fidelius spell, which was cast by the Headmaster. This spell prevents anyone knowing whatever secret is being protected, except those who have been told the secret by the secret-keeper. The Headmaster was going to do the same for the Longbottoms, but the Death Eaters got there first, and tortured Neville's parent into insanity."

"It turned out that one of your father's group of friends had been secretly recruited into Voldemort's ranks. Against the expectations of most who knew them, Peter Pettigrew had been the secret-keeper for the Fidelius spell, and not Sirius Black. Sirius had been the closest to your parents, and everyone who knew of it expected he would be the secret-keeper. He thought that he was far too obvious a choice for just that reason, and so Peter was chosen. Peter betrayed the secret to Voldemort and he attacked your family, killing your parents."

"We believe that he tried to kill you, too, but somehow failed. No-one knows exactly how. That is where you got the title of 'The Boy-Who-Lived'. He had used the killing curse, but somehow it failed to kill you, but it gave you that scar."

"When your parents died, the Fidelius failed, and we suddenly all knew where your family was hiding. "I don't know why the Headmaster expected something to happen or why he assigned me that specific task, but he had me watch your aunt and uncle for a full day, on the day your parents died. Lately, I have been wondering more and more about why he had me do that, and I don't like some of the answers I am coming up with."

"Anyway, after the Fidelius failed, the Headmaster, Hagrid and your godfather immediately went to the house, and found you in the wreckage. In spite of your parents explicit wishes that Sirius be given custody of you, and failing that, that I should take care of you, and that under no conditions should you be given to your aunt's family, the Headmaster insisted vehemently that you must be given to your aunt to look after."

"He refused to say why he was adamant that you go to those people, which I told him clearly were the worst sort of magic-hating muggles."

"Your godfather was furious at Dumbledore, but could not budge him. I was told, by Hagrid later, that they had drawn their wands and were about to duel, when Sirius declared that if he couldn't look after you as he had promised your dead parents, he was at least going to avenge them. He gave his motorbike to Hagrid, and took off after Peter, as he knew Peter had to be the traitor, and he knew where Peter tended to hang out."

""Well, he found Peter Pettigrew in muggle London, and they dueled. I guess when trained hit wizards duel, it can get very messy. In the fight, twelve muggles were killed, and it appeared that Peter had been obliterated, leaving only a finger. Sirius was arrested and immediately thrown into Azkaban prison. In the uproar after the murder of your parents, and the seeming destruction of Voldemort, he was thrown into prison without any sort of trial. Knowing them as I did, in spite of not being present at the events in question, I knew in my heart that there was absolutely no way that Sirius could have ever betrayed your parents, because if he had, the oath he took taken when he became your godfather would have killed him!"

"Although Professor Dumbledore knew that Sirius was innocent, in spite of him being in a position to remedy this injustice, he did nothing. Nothing! So instead of taking you into his care, Sirius Black has been in Azkaban prison for the last eleven years, and as the story of the Boy-Who-Lived grew, so did the public assumption that Sirius Black as a multiple murderer."

"One other very disturbing fact about this is that no other wizard has ever been imprisoned, or even arrested, for killing muggles. Among the more stogy of our world, muggles are considered certain less than human, or even vermin. Consider for example how your friend Miss Granger has been treated, for being muggle-born even though she has the makings of a very powerful witch. Now, unless the very first humans were magical, we all had muggle ancestors, in spite of what some of the pure-bloodists believe."

"Anyway, your godfather has not been in any kind of position to look after you, and I was informed in no uncertain terms that you had to be left with your relatives. When I pointed out to the Headmaster that your mother had explicitly wanted me to take you, should your godfather not be able to do so, he said that he would use his considerable political power to block any of my attempts to establish guardianship of you. He said he had his reasons, but would never explain why."

McGonagall took a deep breath and sighed. "Harry, your mother was one of my favourite students, although I really didn't care much for your father. She and I became good friends, and when she married your Dad, I officiated at the ceremony. I loved her like I love my own granddaughters. She asked me, that if anything happened to her and James, and Sirius was not in a position to do so, that I look after you. When they were murdered, I tried to take custody of you, but I was overruled by the Headmaster, who insisted (for reasons he would not divulge at the time and still will not say) that you be placed with your relatives, and we know how that worked out."

"Harry, if you agree to it, I would like you to come to Beauxbatons with me, and allow me to formally adopt you, so no-one can take you away from me again, in spite of the Headmaster's political clout. His influence is rather less outside Britain. I promised your mother I would take care of you, and I would like the belated opportunity to fulfil my pledge to her. Will you allow that?"

Harry thought for a moment and then said "Yes, I will. Gladly. But Beauxbatons? I can't speak French. How can I go to school in that language?"

Professor McGonagall smiled. "Let me tell you about the universal translation spell. It lets you understand any language. Some of our older muggle-borns call it the 'Babel Fish' spell, for some reason." Then looking around the room rather sadly she added "I have spent the better part of my life within these walls. I thought to be here my whole life, but no more. It is time to go."