Taking Charge

A Harry Potter Fanfiction

by Drauchenfyre

A/N: I've received reviews (including unsigned ones, which irritates me) about the Founders' Heirs I alluded to in the last chapter. I will currently say four things about this subject:

1) All three missing Heirs will be identified by the end of my fic,

2) This will have little to no bearing on the main plot of destroying Voldemort,

3) Harry is NOT one of the Founders' Heirs (personally, I think that's been done to death),

4) Slytherin's Heir will be a Muggle-Born (not Hermione), just to p*ss off the likes of Riddle.

Anyhoo, moving on to the next chapter-

Chapter 10: A Trial of Errors

16 January 1992

Ministry of Magic, Hall of Records

Albus Dumbledore was frustrated. This was not a normal state for him. He glared at the records clerk, one Sturgis Podmore, and saw the younger man squirm.

"I-I'm sorry, H-Headmaster, but I c-cannot g-give you the trial transcript f-f-for Sirius B-Black."

"And why not, Mr. Podmore?" Albus may not have been this man's headmaster for over a decade, but he could still make him feel like a misbehaving firstie called to his office.

"B-Because there is n-no transcript. Sirius B-Black was n-never given a trial."

Albus ratcheted up the glare another notch. Sturgis struggled (and barely succeeded) to not wet himself.

"Are you telling me that an Heir to an Ancient and Noble House has been in Azkaban for over a decade and he wasn't even given the common courtesy of a trial- a courtesy extended even to Bellatrix LeStrange?"

"I-I didn't discover th-this until l-last y-year, sir, and n-n-nobody I t-talked to w-wanted to h-hear it. Mr. Crouch th-threatened to p-put me in A-Azkaban m-myself if I didn't dr-drop it."

Albus sighed and released his glare, causing Podmore to visibly relax. "I apologize, Sturgis. You just caught me by surprise with some rather horrifying news."

Albus had come to the Hall of Records today to unseal the Potter Will, hopefully to help determine the best home for young Mr. Potter (though, to be fair, Lucius Malfoy would have been a better choice than Petunia Dursley- Lucius would have just killed the lad rather than subjecting him to a decade of torment). The fact that James and Lily's joint will had declared that Sirius Black was not their Secret-Keeper, and that Peter Pettigrew was, had been an unwelcome shock to the aged wizard. That the Potters had left Pettigrew an inheritance of thirty silver sickles would have seen Pettigrew executed on the spot at the will reading in Gringotts- it was a symbolic outing of a traitor and request for his execution, which the goblins would have gleefully carried out, a tradition harking back to the infamous betrayer Judas Iscariot, who had accepted a payment of thirty pieces of silver to betray Jesus Christ, the Great Mage-Healer of Nazareth, to Roman Witch-Hunters for his execution.

Subsequently finding out that Black had never been questioned, let alone given a trial, just made the migraine blossom behind his left eye. Albus was starting to wonder if he would succumb to an aneurysm before he fixed all the mistakes he'd made while under the Elder Wand's influence, and once again silently thanked his nephew for freeing him of its curse.

Excusing himself from the Hall, Albus made his way up to the office of a Ministry Department Head who might be able to help him. Pushing through the door into the Foreign Relations Office, Albus knocked on a door labelled

D. Cresswell

Department Head

Goblin Liaison Office

"Enter!"

Albus entered the office to find Dirk Cresswell, the only Muggle-Born Director in the Ministry, sorting through a pile of parchment on his desk. Judging by the heraldry that Albus could see from the door, it had little to do with the man's official job.

"Did I catch you at a bad time, Mr. Cresswell?"

"Professor!" The normally-cheerful man looked a little frazzled. "Can you believe this? Twenty years I'm not marriage material, one Inheritance Test at Gringotts and suddenly I'm being pitched every unmarried Pureblood daughter under the age of ninety!"

It had caused an uproar when the goblins had announced that the supposedly Muggleborn Cresswell was the Heir of Slytherin. When the Pureblood Supremacists had decried this, the goblins had delineated his descent from Ignatius, the second son of Salazar Slytherin. Tom Marvolo Riddle, the last surviving descendant of Salazar's firstborn Caradoc, had been the Heir until the death of his body in 1981. Magical Inheritance did not follow the magic, soul, or mind- it followed the blood. As the Gringotts spokesgoblin Ironshaft said, "It is immaterial if some form of Tom Marvolo Riddle, the self-styled Dark Lord Voldemort still lingers. On October 31st, 1981- his heart stopped beating, his blood stopped flowing. For the purposes of Heritage, he is dead. As he left no Heir of his own, the Heirship of Salazar Slytherin has passed to the seniormost surviving cadet line, of which Dirk Andrew Cresswell is the only living Magical."

Snapping out of his reverie, Albus twinkled at the man and said, "If you could, I would like your assistance in righting a wrong- that is, if you could tear yourself away from your marriage prospects?"

Dirk tossed the parchments in his hand down on the desk and replied, "Gladly! I swear, the inbreeding is evident in some of these pictures- some of these women couldn't get laid in a Navy port. I mean, ugly is one thing- but calling some of these women trolls would be insulting the trolls!"

"This is a situation where both your status as Head of a Founder's House and Head of the Goblin Liaison Office would be useful. Sirius Black, the Heir of an Ancient and Noble House, has been in prison, without trial I might add, for a crime he did not commit. Considering it was Barty Crouch who committed the wrong-"

"Ooooh, yeah, tough one. Sirius is currently the Black Family Head, even if he hasn't officially claimed it-"

"In prison?"

"His Head of House, his grandfather Arcturus, never disowned him- in fact, he was still named Lord Arcturus's successor in his Will. Caused a bit of a hullabaloo back in April of last year when old Archie died. The Ministry, no doubt encouraged by Malfoy's money, tried to have the Will invalidated and Sirius declared ineligible- probably because that son of his, Draco, was supposedly next in line. Gringotts refused, though."

"Supposedly next?"

"Well, this is only the gossip mind you, but absent a valid will or acknowledged surviving male descendant of Arcturus, the next in line would have been Harry Potter."

"How?"

"Arcturus had two siblings that were not disowned by his predecessors- his older sister Dorea and his younger half-brother Sagittarius. Sagittarius fathered Cadmus, who fathered Narcissa, who is Draco's mother. Dorea however, married Charlus Potter-"

"Harry's grandfather?"

"Yes. On the Black Family Tree, Harry Potter is one full generation closer to the direct line than Draco Malfoy, therefore his would be the senior claim."

"Interesting. But back to Mr. Black-"

"Let me guess, the Heir of Slytherin publicly calling for justice for a wrongfully-imprisoned man, backed by the very vocal support of Gringotts, and maybe we topple that bastard Crouch in the process?"

"I believe I can even get Cornelius behind such a maneuver, if I spin it right- after all, it was not his administration that stripped an innocent man of his rights and cast him in that hellhole."

"You realize they're going to scream for Bagnold's blood as well, don't you?"

"Then I wish them luck in convincing Brazil to extradite her and her ill-gotten gains."

"Fair enough. So, I believe I have some goblins to speak to, and a press release to write."

"Thank you, Mr. Cresswell. And may I give a belated congratulations to your promotion- even if I'm a year late?"

"It had little to do with my politicking, Headmaster- apparently, the goblins requested me by name."

"Oh? Why is that?"

"I'm not sure. Every time I ask, they give me the same reason- one that I'm sure is a joke."

"Oh?"

"They claim I have a perfect goblin name."

"Dirk?"

"It's a short knife used for stabbing." Albus chuckled at the man's rueful grin.

CHAPTER END

A/N2: About Judas and Jesus- If you read the Gospels in the New Testament carefully, you realize that Jesus denied being the Messiah repeatedly- to crowds, to his apostles, even to Pontius Pilate and Herod, where it could have saved his life. My stance is that, unlike the early Christians, the wizards chose to believe Jesus when he claimed not to be the Messiah, and labelled him a very talented Healer.