Chapter 15

Dumbledore's Dilemma

Azkaban Prison

Auror James Fogarty pulled his cloak tighter and shivered. He hated this place. He started hating it the day that he had been transferred here when the Dementors had abandoned their posts, and his hatred had only gotten more intense as time went by. He knew that he had screwed up somewhere, the Ministry only sent you out here if they wanted you out of the public eye. Azkaban had as many misfits patrolling the corridors as it had behind the bars.

As he sat at a desk filling out paperwork in the high security/unredeemable wing, he gave little thought to the prisoners he was tasked on guarding. He only had 5 prisoners in the whole wing. Four of them were mass murderers who, if the Dementors had still been there, would have lost their souls to the foul creatures. The other prisoner was a former hero of the wizarding world, Albus Dumbledore. Fogarty thought that a great injustice had been done in the case of the former Hogwarts headmaster. He remembered Dumbledore as a kindly grandfather, the man who had convinced him to strive to be his best, the mentor who had encouraged him to become an auror. Fogarty spent many hours talking with his former headmaster, trying to encourage him. It was only fair after all the man had done for him.

Fogarty was startled out of his musings by the door to the cellblock opening and two people entering. One was a woman in her 50s, the other was the warden of Azkaban. Fogarty jumped to attention.

"Sir, what can I do for you?"

"We need to see Albus Dumbledore. He is to be released. The Wizengamot has heard his appeal and granted him a new trial. He is to be released to the custody of his niece on bond until the new trial."

"That is great news, sir. I always thought that he got a raw deal. Follow me, I'll take you to him." As the trio walked down the cell, Fogarty thought that the justice system worked, even if it was sometimes slow. He was sure that Dumbledore would be exonerated, although it was a shame that his magical core had been burnt. Coming up to the cell, he unlocked it, allowing the woman to enter.

"Uncle Albus? It's Violet. I'm here to take you home. You have been granted a new trial." The aged prisoner looked at her in disbelief, then a small smile came on his face.

"Do you have something besides prison garb for me to wear? I want to shed all memories of this awful place."

"I brought a robe for you. It is not as nice as what you have had, but it is better than what you have now. It is in the warden's office. You can change there." As they left the cell, Dumbledore spotted Fogarty and grasped his arm.

"Thank you for being the one bright spot in this miserable place. Were it not for your encouragement, I might have already gone insane or died. You will somehow be rewarded." The group walked over to the cellblock exit, then the warden and the Dumbledores passed through, leaving Fogarty with the first happy thought he had since coming to the prison.

Thirty minutes later, Fogarty made one quick round to check on his prisoners before going on a quick break. He locked the cellblock behind himself, then hurried down the corridor to the lunch room. As he entered the lunchroom, he received an awful shock. Scattered around the room were the bodies of the other guards. Every one was dead. Gagging, he ran out of the room toward the warden's office to report. Not bothering to knock, he burst through the door to find the warden sitting behind the desk with his throat slit from ear to ear. At that moment, other than prisoners, James Fogarty was the only person left alive on Azkaban.

Out at sea, Albus Dumbledore shivered as he thought of his sudden change of fortune. He would not rest until everything he lost had been restored to him. He had no doubt that this would happen. He was somewhat surprised that the warden of Azkaban was personally delivering him back to the mainland, but he thought that it might be due to the fact that the Wizengamot felt they were so wrong that he deserved the VIP treatment. He tapped his niece, Violet's shoulder to say something to her, but as she turned toward him, her featured began to blur. They reformed into a face that had given him nightmares, Bellatrix Lestrange. She smiled at him. Whipping his head around to see the warden, he was shocked to see the warden also blurring into someone else. Lord Voldemort.

"Hello Headmaster. Isn't polyjuice wonderful stuff?"

Albus Dumbledore Escapes Azkaban!

Warden and Guards Murdered!

Dumbledore Niece Wanted for Questioning!

Exclusive to the Daily Prophet

Staff Writer Horatio Winding

Earlier today, the notorious "Evil Lord of Light", Albus Dumbledore, with the apparent assistance of his great niece, Violet Dumbledore, escaped the high security of Azkaban prison, murdering all but one of the Ministry Aurors and the warden in the process. The only Auror left alive was one James Fogarty, a five year veteran of the Aurors who was actually guarding the cellblock. Auror Fogarty, originally suspected of assisting in the escape, was questioned under Veritaserum as to the events at the prison.

Apparently, Ms. Violet Dumbledore, great-niece of the notorious Albus Dumbledore, convinced the warden that her uncle had been granted a new trial, something that the Wizengamot strongly denies. After freeing Dumbledore from his cell, one or both of them massacred all of the ministry personnel on the island other than Fogarty before making their escape.

The Ministry has placed a 50,000 galleon reward for the capture, dead or alive, of Albus Dumbledore, and is offering a 10,000 galleon reward for the live capture of Violet Dumbledore. Readers are warned to call the aurors if these fugitives are spotted, they are considered armed and desperate.

At that moment, the two most wanted fugitives in Britain were tied up, back to back, in a cellar of a derelict house in Wales. This place, formerly owned by the muggle family of a Hogwarts student witch, was Voldemort's new base of operations. The muggles, along with their magical child, were murdered in one of Voldemort's rampages against 'mudbloods' the previous year. Voldemort thought it fitting that he was using the spoils of war from which to operate. The house was in a rural area, secluded from other dwellings in the area. No local people would go near it since the murders, and prospective buyers were scared away by its reputation. The real estate agents would not even show it anymore.

Violet Dumbledore was an innocent bystander caught up in the Dark Lord's plot. She had been shopping in Diagon Alley when Bellatrix Lestrange had captured her. Violet was using the dressing room at Madam Maulkin's when Bella, wearing a glamour, had followed her, stunned her and portkeyed out of the shop. Since that time, she had been held in this cellar while Bella used polyjuice to create sightings of her around Britain. Voldemort had actually done Albus Dumbledore a favor, albeit for selfish reasons. When Albus was sentenced to the multiple life sentences, the DMLE had put a soul tracker on him so that future incarnations would have to serve the multiple life sentences. Voldemort had removed the soul tracker so that the ministry could not track Dumbledore down to Voldemort's hideout. Should Dumbledore die, his soul at least would be free.

One of Voldemort's Death Eaters, a former Auror named Dawlish, was using polyjuice to impersonate Dumbledore. Whenever Voldemort made an appearance, "Dumbledore" was with him, either side-apparating or using a portkey. Since the real Dumbledore had his magical core burnt out, Dawlish would cause mayhem with a muggle Uzi submachine gun. These were random raids, with random targets, killing 2 or 3 people at a time, then disappearing. Most of the victims were muggles, but some were the families of magical people, mostly students at Hogwarts. The muggle authorities were chalking the killings up to either random crimes or terrorist attacks by religious extremists. The Ministry of Magic was trying its best to keep the lid on, censoring the papers. This was marginally successful until the armoured car robbery.

Voldemort was desperate for cash since his support from the pureblood families like the Malfoys had dried up. Many of the random killings had been made to look like robberies, the victims wallets and other belongings taken. Voldemort was no longer paying in wizarding gold, he had been forced to resort to muggle pounds which his followers could convert, for a price, at Gringotts. One of the random attacks had been on a busy London street where an armoured car had been making a delivery to a large department store. The fake Dumbledore had appeared with Voldemort and started spraying people with bullets, hitting and killing the armoured car attendant as he was taking the bags of money into the store on a dolly. It was almost an afterthought that the Death Eaters grabbed the bags, thinking that there might be something in there they could use. Voldemort was overjoyed to slice open the bags and find them stuffed with muggle money. His followers were paid for the first time in many weeks, and Voldemort began to plan other robberies to get more cash.

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Office of the Headmistress

"I don't care how many sightings that they have had, the Violet Dumbledore who I met would never act like that! I also don't believe that Albus would join ranks with Voldemort, its just too far out of character."

Harry Potter-Black, the very person responsible for putting Albus Dumbledore in Azkaban, was in the unusual situation of defending the former headmaster to people who had known Dumbledore much longer than he had. Minerva McGonagall, Mad-eye Moody, and Remus Lupin had taken the Daily Prophet at face value, something that they all should have been old enough and wise enough not to do. "Albus is a scheming, double-dealing scoundrel who got greedy and got caught, but he would never cross over that far. He believes that the end justifies the means, but the ends he worked for were on the side of light."

"Harry, don't you think that his time in Azkaban could have pushed him over the other way"' asked Remus.

"Absolutely not. He would have believed he was still right, and would do everything possible to convince the world. There is no way that he would join Riddle. Tom has been greatly weakened by the purebloods deserting him and pulling their money. He has had to resort to common crime, murder and robbery. And that whole bit with the machine gun? I doubt that a 150 year old wizard would know which end of the thing that the bullet comes out. Moody, if anyone here would know, it should be you. People are not necessarily who they seem to be."

Harry embarrassed Mad-eye, reminding him that he spent almost a whole school year locked in his trunk while Barty Crouch, Jr. impersonated him using polyjuice. Mad-eye's motto of CONSTANT VIGILANGE had failed him the day that Crouch had kidnapped him. He could see Moody and the others nod in agreement at that.

"Minerva, could you send for Jennifer Dumbledore? I believe that she could shed a lot of light on this."

"Certainly. I will send a house elf for her. I also want to check something else." McGonagall summoned an elf, gave him some instructions the others could not hear, then turned back to the others. "I have also sent for Violet Dumbledore's transcripts and test results. We should be able to settle some of this quickly."

A moment later the elf popped back into the office. "Jasmine had given Miss Dumbledore the message that Headmistress wants to see her. She is on her way. Here is other thing Headmistress wants." McGonagall took the parchment from the little elf. Scanning it, she began to frown, then dismissed Jasmine. She was just about to say something when there was a knock at the door. Minerva waved it open and admitted Jennifer Dumbledore. It was obvious that the girl had been crying, but she also had a stubborn, determined look on her face. Harry recognized the look, he had seen it much of his life when he had looked in a mirror. His heart went out to her.

"Miss Dumbledore, thank you for coming," Minerva said. "I would like to ask you, if it as alright, a few questions about your mother." She was not prepared for the girl's reaction.

"She didn't do anything!" Jennifer fixed a glare upon the group, but mostly at Harry. "Are you trying to destroy what little family I have left?" Books and other objects began rattling on shelves as waves of accidental magic started radiating off the teen.

"Calm down!" Minerva began to say, but just then there was a flash of fire and Fawkes, missing since Albus' trial, appeared and, perching on Jennifer's shoulder, began to trill a soothing song. The magic began to ebb and Jennifer burst out in tears.

"I know it looks bad, but Mother could not have done the things they are saying! Even if she went completely insane and crossed to the Dark, she would not have the magical power to do these things. Mother was a very weak witch, almost a squib! She had trouble with basic household spells, that is why we always had a house elf, even though we really could not afford it." As the girl began to quiet down, Fawkes rubbed his head against her cheek, then hopped off her shoulder and over to Harry to allow him to pet him.

"I believe you, Miss Dumbledore," Minerva said. "I have your mother's transcripts and test results here. Although she went to school at a very exclusive school in Switzerland, Albus kept a copy of her transcripts. She was excellent in non-magical subjects such as potions and History of Magic, but had it not been for Albus' intervention, she would have failed the school due to her poor showing in magic using classes.

"Fawkes," Harry asked, Do you know where Albus and Violet are?" Fawkes nodded and trilled. "Can you get to them to bring them here?" Fawkes mad a sad sound and shook his head. "Is the place warded against Light Creatures?" Another nod. "Can you take me there?" Fawkes danced on the desk while nodding.

"Harry! You cannot go in there alone!" Remus exclaimed.

"I had not planned on it. If Fawkes can take one of us to the area so that person could create a portkey, then we gather forces together and the next time that Voldemort stages a raid, we go in force on a rescue mission."

Mad-eye stood up. "It will have to be me. No one else here can make an untraceable portkey. If Albus and Jennifer's mother are being used for polyjuiced Death Eaters, then it is even more personal. Besides, if anyone is there when the portkey is being made, I have the best chance of coming out alive." Mad-eye picked up a decorative tambourine off McGonagall's office wall. "A nice round object. Makes for a good multi person portkey, Fawkes?" Fawkes flew over and Moody grabbed his tail. They both disappeared in a flash of fire. Less than a minute later, they reappeared in the office with Moody holding the portkey and grinning. "All set, they never saw a thing." He hanged the portkey back up for use at a later time."

"Jennifer," Harry said. "I need you to keep quiet about all of this. When we are able to rescue your relatives, the truth will come out. Until then, you just need to hold it in and keep your regular routine. I believe that the Headmistress should contact your brother and Aberforth. They should have the option of going on any rescue mission and clearing your mother's name." Minerva nodded agreement. "May I escort you back to your dorm?"

Jennifer tilted her head back and looked at Harry in a new light. "Thank you, Lord Potter. That would be very nice of you."

After the two teens left the office, Remus said, "She seems like a very nice girl, but the way she looked at Harry just now, well, I've seen that look before." At Minerva's quizzical expression, Remus continued. "The last time I saw that look was when Lily Evans decided that James potter was not quite as bad as she had thought. That was the same day that the courtship started. Of course, at that time James was totally willing, where Harry doesn't seem to have a clue." There were smiles and snickers all around.

Flickaxe turned off the monitor showing McGonagall's office with a sigh of relief. The Ministry had been making noises about seizing Dumbledore's assets, or at least freezing them so that none of the money could end up in Voldemort's hands. Clearing Violet Dumbledore's name, and in a lesser part, Albus', at least of these latest murders, would go a long way toward shutting them up. Since his assistant, Warcry, was out doing errands, he sent a memo to him to glue himself to monitor screens watching key players, and the moment that a rescue raid began, to assist the raiders in any way possible that would not be obvious. Goblins were very good at that.