What if someone was willing to stand up against Albus Dumbledore
by Teddylonglong

All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.

Warnings: Completely AU, partly OOC, Dumbledore / Weasley bashing

Severus Snape carefully stirred the concoction 28 times counter clockwise, before he sat back onto his stool, as the potion had to simmer for five minutes.

'I wonder if I should join Albus in this school in Germany,' he thought. 'So far, only Albus was able to keep me safe from Azkaban, however, seeing that he's supposed to be in prison as well, he wouldn't be much use if the Aurors came after me. Perhaps I should better change to Potter's side.' He remained deep in thought, while watching the potion slowly change its colour, only to realise, 'With Amelia Bones, it was Potter's side, who fired me.'

Thoroughly annoyed at the fact, he swiftly finished the concoction before joining Albus in the library.

"I'll accept the position at the Kilian's School for Magic," he informed his mentor.

"That's very good news indeed," Albus replied, reaching out for the small box on the window sill. "May I offer you a lemon drop to celebrate your decision? Sometimes, I find that a sweet can help clearing our minds."

Ignoring the old wizard's statement for the time being, Severus enquired, "Albus, when are we going to move?"

Albus sighed. "In Bavaria, the state, where the school is located, the summer holidays are late compared to other places. They begin at the first of August and last only six weeks. Therefore, school is going to commence on the fifteenth of September. It's the same at the Kilian's school, and I've agreed with headmaster Hehl to join them on the first of August," he explained, pensively.

"Then we still have some time left," Severus replied, somehow feeling relieved.

HP

At dinner, Amelia introduced four new professors, Pandora Lovegood for Potions, Miranda May, a young witch, whom Sirius and Remus knew from their own time at Hogwarts, for History of Magic, Remus as the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor and Newton Scamander, a fairly old wizard, for Care of Magical Creatures.

"Unfortunately, none of the new teachers was in Slytherin," Amelia sighed later in the evening, when Sirius, Remus, Amelia, Minerva, Pandora, Harry and Susan were having tea in the founders' quarters. "We still need a new head of Slytherin."

"May I suggest something?" Remus spoke up, seeming hesitant.

"Of course," Amelia replied, looking at him in clear expectation.

"I don't know what the general opinion is, and I know that it hasn't been done before, but why don't you hire four new witches or wizards as the heads of the houses? That way, the heads won't have to teach classes and really have time to care for the students in their houses. They could help them with all kinds of problems, academic and private…" He slowly trailed off, glancing at the others.

"I believe that's a wonderful idea," Minerva was the first to comment, "provided that we're able to hire adequate heads."

"As for Hufflepuff," Susan spoke up, pensively, "maybe Mrs. Greengrass could be convinced to become the head. She's really good at teaching all of us, and I like her very much. She'd make a good head of house, and she told us that she was in Hufflepuff, when she was a student. Perhaps she could still continue teaching us a few hours per day."

"A wonderful choice," Amelia commended her niece. "The only minor problem is that we have to convince her to accept the position in the first place."

"I'm sure Astoria will be able to convince her. She is a bit persuasive," Harry spoke up, grinning. 'Especially if it'll give her a chance to come to Hogwarts earlier, too,' he added to himself.

"I'll ask her tomorrow," Amelia promised. "Any ideas for the other houses?"

Remus let out a long sigh, before he spoke up, thoughtfully, "Maybe it would be good to have two female heads and two males. I can imagine that girls would sometimes prefer a female advisor and boys a male head."

"Bill Weasley would make a good head of Gryffindor," Minerva said, pensively. "The question is if we can convince him to take the position. Let me go and ask him right away."

With a speed that did not give out her age in the slightest, the deputy headmistress left the founders' quarters and strode to the Gryffindor common room.

"Well, everyone else, please think about the matter," Amelia said, stifling a yawn. "I believe that at least for the children, it's time to go to bed, and I'm quite ready to call it a night as well."

HP

Arthur Weasley let the twins' letter sink into his lap. 'These twins are amazing,' he thought, feeling very proud of the two of his children, whom his wife always called trouble makers. 'They're brilliant and completely right,' he thought. 'It won't do to give up. That they managed to get the support of Lord Black was really well done. It was only a couple of days ago that I read that he claimed the lordship.'

He remained pensive for a long time, pondering this and that, before he made two decisions.

'I'm not going to return to Molly,' he decided. 'I won't divorce from her, and I will still send her as much money as I can, but I'll look for a small room, where I can live for the time being.'

Ever since he had heard of the plans that Molly had made with Albus Dumbledore, stealing money from little Harry Potter and risking his children's education, when the whole plot backfired, he had not returned home but slept in his office at the ministry. However, that wouldn't do infinitely.

'I'm also going to look for a new job,' he resolved. 'I'm doing a huge load of work, and the payment is absolutely rubbish. Maybe I can find a better paid job elsewhere. I don't care anymore that Molly wants me to remain at the ministry because it sounds good. I'm going to look out for myself now.'

Feeling extremely grateful towards the twins, who had managed to bring him out of his week-long stupor, he left the ministry and headed to Diagon Alley with the intention of buying the Daily Prophet to have a look at job openings and room offers.

Just when he stepped into the alley, he ran into Andromeda and Ted Tonks.

"Arthur, long time no see," Ted was the first to greet him, seemingly delighted to meet him.

"How are you?" Andromeda enquired, giving him a critical look.

"Looking for a place to live and work," Arthur blurted out. After a couple of nights of sleeping under his desk in the office, he was too groggy to even properly think.

"What?" Andromeda blurted out, looking at him in bewilderment.

"Arthur, are you all right?" Ted asked in apparent concern. "What happened?"

"It's a long story," Arthur said in a small voice.

"Let's go and have dinner then," Andromeda replied, resolutely. "Then you can explain everything from the beginning."

Arthur tried to protest, however, the couple was determined to help with his problems and led him out of the alley and into muggle London, where they entered a small restaurant.

"It's our invitation here," Ted whispered in a voice that allowed no contradiction.

For a few minutes, each of them busied themselves with the menus. Only after they had ordered their meal and the waiter bustled away, Andromeda instructed Arthur, "Now tell us everything. Right from the beginning."

Arthur let out a deep sigh, pondering if he was supposed anyone about Molly's mistake. 'I must tell them; otherwise, they won't understand,' he finally decided. Looking around the slightly dark room with oak tables and extremely comfortable white plush chairs but nonetheless void of any other guests at that time in relief, he began to explain the whole story.

"So apart from a place to live, you're now looking for work in either the magical or the muggle world?" Ted asked, pensively.

"Yes," Arthur replied. "You see, I somehow need to pay for my children's education. I don't want my wife to home school them, considering how stupid and irresponsible she was, and the ministry doesn't pay enough for all the work I'm doing. I've never thought about working in the muggle world, but if it's necessary in order to provide for my children, I'm more than willing to take on the challenge."

"I think I know something," Ted said, slowly. "Can you give me a resume and your NEWT results and whatever is needed for an application by tomorrow?"

"Of course," Arthur replied with a combination of surprise and disbelief.

"Fine, let's meet at the Leaky Cauldron at lunchtime, and in the afternoon, I'm going to see one of my clients. He might be interested," Ted promised.

Once they were finished eating, Andromeda suggested, "Arthur, until you find a new position and know how much you can afford to pay for a room, you can as well stay with us. We have a big house with many empty rooms. We can send our elf to fetch your belongings, and it doesn't matter if you stay for two weeks or six months. Ever since Nymphadora has begun her Auror training last summer, she barely comes home but very late at night."

Arthur tried his best to refuse, however, Andromeda and Ted were not willing to accept any answer but a positive one, and in the end, Arthur ended up staying in an extremely comfortable guest room in the Tonks' home.

HP

Too soon for Harry's liking, the school year ended, and the students were packing their belongings to travel home first thing in the morning.

"I'm going to miss you," Harry said to the twins. Even if he was spending the days training with the Unspeakables, he always ate dinner in the Great Hall and sometimes even breakfast. He had even devoted some time during the weekends to watching the house teams play Quidditch, and only two days ago, the twins had taken Susan and him for their first broom-rides.

'That was the best thing I ever did,' Harry thought, as he recalled how much fun they had flying around the Quidditch pitch trying to catch the Snitch. The funniest thing about it all was that it was always Harry, who managed to find the beautiful little ball, even if the twins had much more flying experience and were good enough to play on the Gryffindor house team.

HP

Even if the castle was deserted apart from a handful of teachers and Susan and Harry, he did not have time to feel lonely, as the Unspeakables kept him busy. By the time he was up-to-date with the Hogwarts first year curriculum in Charms, they began to teach him Defence.

The training room could be changed, for example, into a jungle full of dangerous magical animals, a desert with smaller yet poisonous creatures and many other, equally scary scenarios.

By the time Devil finished his training and let him go for the day, Harry was absolutely exhausted and – after dinner and a few quiet conversations with Susan, Amelia, Minerva, Sirius and Remus – could only crawl into bed.

'Thank Merlin that I don't have training in the weekends,' he thought on Saturday mornings and slept as long as Sirius and Susan let him.

One Saturday, Susan woke him early in the morning. "Harry, wake up," she whispered, sounding excited, "they're going to take us into Hogsmeade."

"Hogsmeade?" Harry asked, lazily opening his eyes.

"Yes, come on and get up, so we can go right after breakfast. I can't wait to go to Honeydukes," Susan added, eagerly.

"All right," Harry agreed, inwardly groaning at the in his opinion untimely excitement. After a quick shower, he appeared at the breakfast table, mumbling a "Good morning."

The two Marauders greeted him, grinning broadly. "Harry, we're going to take you to Zonko's joke shop," Sirius explained, while Remus rolled his eyes in apparent annoyance.

"Harry," Amelia spoke up in a firm voice, "it's only a couple of days until your birthday. Is there anything that you'd like for your birthday?"

Harry looked at the kind witch in surprise, before he turned into auto-mode and replied, "I'm good."

Letting out a long sigh, Susan informed him, "Harry, Auntie would like to buy a present for you for your birthday, and I'd like to do the same. That's why we want to know what you'd like."

"Harry," Remus addressed him in a soft voice, "did the Dursleys never give you anything for your birthday?"

"No, I didn't have birthdays," Harry replied, matter-of-factly, "only Dudley had."

"Harry, remember Daphne's and Luna's birthday," Susan said, beseechingly. "Everyone gave them a present. You gave Luna the ear rings for her birthday and I the matching shawl."

"Oh," Harry replied, recalling how Amelia had taken them to Diagon Alley to buy gifts for Luna. "I don't know," he continued, as to the earlier question. "I have everything I ever wanted. I have you all as my family, I have friends, I even have a job plus a brilliant school to attend in a year's time," he thought aloud. "Maybe a Snitch if that's not too expensive," he finally decided. "We can always use the school brooms, but we can only get a Snitch to play if we find Madam Hooch and ask her," he added, causing Susan to nod, eagerly.

"That's true," she agreed. "I don't have a chance catching the Snitch against Harry, cause he's absolutely amazing at it, but it's a lot of fun," she explained to the others, grinning.

"We'll see about that," Sirius promised. "Now, shall we get ready and spend the day in Hogsmeade for a change?"

Everyone agreed, and thirty minutes later, Harry and Susan roamed the main street, while the adults were doing their own shopping, until they would meet at the Three Broomsticks for lunch at twelve o'clock. They checked each of the shops along the main street, and by the time they headed to the pub to meet the adults, their robe pockets were full with sweets, joke objects and other souvenirs, and both children were grinning happily, their cheeks red from excitement.

"That was much fun," Harry blurted out, when he pulled a small, black liquorice dog out of his robe pocket and handed it to Sirius. "For you," he added, grinning, before he gave Remus his present, a small chocolate teddy. "They didn't have wolves," he added, apologetically, causing everyone to either snort or laugh.

"Thanks Harry, and please believe me that a teddy bear is much better," Remus replied, chuckling.

HP

Harry's birthday was on Thursday, and when he woke up, feeling very excited to be ten and a big boy, everyone else in the founders' quarters was still asleep.

"I'm going to floo to the training room for breakfast," he decided, knowing that at least Ra, Raros and Devil were always up and having breakfast early in the mornings.

To his surprise, the three older wizards were not only present but also fully aware of the fact that it was the youngest Unspeakable's birthday.

For the first time in his life, at least as long as he could remember, people congratulated him, and each of them handed him a present.

Harry eyed the three presents, which were wrapped in colourful wrappings, with apprehension, just when Croaker arrived and placed a fourth present onto the table.

"Open mine first," Raros instructed him, and Harry hesitantly unwrapped the first present indicated by his teammate.

It was a small phial filled with a dark green liquid. He eyed the phial in confusion for a moment, before turning his eyes to his cousin, who smirked.

"It's the Animagus potion," he explained. "If you drink it, you're going to transform into the animal, which you're going to become if you manage the Animagus transformation. It'll only take five minutes, before you're going to change back automatically."

"Please note," Croaker spoke up, "that it won't make you an Animagus. It'll only show you what animal you might be able to become if you manage the transformation at all. There might even be multiple possibilities, considering how strong your magic is."

Harry's eyes lit in excitement. "Thank you so much," he blurted out. "May I try it out right away?"

The four older wizards nodded, simultaneously, and Devil pointed his wand at the floor next to the cafeteria, transfiguring the floor panels into a soft underground.

"Sit down there, before you take the potion," he advised him.

"Please note that the transformation might hurt," Ra added in a firm voice.

"All right," Harry replied and eagerly stood from his chair to sit on the soft underground, before he uncorked the small phial in excitement. 'It would be so cool to be an Animagus,' he thought, as he slowly lifted the phial to his mouth, 'just like Sirius.'

A short while later, he felt as if his body was squashed and pressed into a small form, and his vision failed completely. When he could see again, he felt that everything around him was much bigger than before, and he heard that his colleagues were laughing.

'What am I?' he thought, somehow feeling devastated upon realising that his form could not be so very inspiring. He carefully glanced down his small body, only to see red fur. 'Is that red or brown?' he wondered, when he heard someone say, "A squirrel."

'I'm a squirrel,' he realised in disappointment. During the next few minutes, he raised himself onto his four feet and tried to walk around, which was difficult. He kept stumbling and ended up on his belly multiple times, and when he felt the transformation commence again, he was not sad but in fact looking forward to being in his human form again.

However, by the time he opened his eyes again, he realised immediately that he was not back to his human form. His vision had expanded greatly, and he saw a lot of white feathers.

"A dove," one of his colleagues informed him, causing Harry to nod in understanding.

'At least, I only have two feet,' he thought, feeling accomplished, when he managed to walk a few steps on his bird feet.

He was still checking out his form, when the transformation set in, and this time, he changed back in his human form.

"Having two possibilities for a form is good," Devil informed him, giving him an appreciative look.

"But a squirrel and a dove?" Harry replied, feeling somehow unenthusiastic.

"A dove is not so bad, as at least, you'd be able to fly," Raros commented, grinning.

'I wonder if it's worth the effort,' Harry thought. 'Be able to fly without a broom would have its merits though.'

He was brought back to reality, when Ra handed him his gift. "Harry, please try this next," he said, smirking.

Harry's eyes widened, when another phial with another dark green liquid came out of the package. However, the colour was slightly different from the other, mainly because it was glimmering with small silver bits and pieces.

"What is it?" he enquired.

"This is the magical equivalent to the Animagus potion," Ra informed him. "Most people aren't able to become a magical animal; however, considering how powerful you are, even if your Animagus forms didn't show it, it might be possible for you. Go on and try it out," he suggested.

Without much excitement due to his earlier disappointment, Harry nodded and gulped down the potion, noticing that it did not taste bad.

tbc...

Thank you so very much for the overwhelming reviews for the previous chapter. I appreciate them very much. Please let me know what you think of this chapter and what you expect from this story. Any ideas or opinions are welcome.