A/N:
The next day after his visit with the centaurs, the dark lord had been called away to the capital. The entire process of influencing the minds of the wizzengamot was long, constant stops and starts. During one of the stops this day, the Dark Lord had received a missive from his contact at Greengots in Diagon Alley. His requested blood analysis on Mr. Dursley's blood was finished and waiting for review with the director of geneology. Anyone could get a blood test for anyone else, as long as your able to get a hold of a decent blood sample. The only drawback, was that all documents created had to stay within the walls of Greengots. Protected and monitored when out of its filing vaults. Geneology was important to wizards and goblins, it was the end all for vault and inheritance disputes. Or, in a case like this, someones curiosity.
The dark lord made his way, via diagon alley to the bank. Not many people would dare approach him out in public, but the few who would were intolerable. So with a heavy hooded cloak as his aid, he made it in less than 10 minutes. The dark lord was greeted at the front doors of the bank by a page goblin, waiting for him in order to take him into the back of the bank where the offices were held and where he would be able to view the results.
The inner offices of greengots looked and functioned similar to the upper levels of the ministry. One large central room, an atrium in style was filled with multiple rows of desks, occupied by goblins. all feverishly working to process different things for Greengots. The outer wall of the room was littered with doorways, some open other closed. The open ones, held what the dark lord could see to be offices, filing cabinets, lounges and meeting rooms.
Arriving at the back of the large atrium room, the dark lord was escorted into a small cozy office. The door, held a plaque declaring it the offices of the director for Geneology. No one was in the room, so the young page boy beckoned him to take a seat in front of the large mahogany desk. Three minutes passed before an old, graying goblin entered. Holding a large rough edged scroll, the larger the scroll the older the geneology test was able to document. The boy was labeled as muggle born, how ever clearly some sort of mistake must have been made. Muggleborns always ended up with a blank small piece of parchment, containing usually just one name. Their own.
After tackling the task of sitting himself behind his desk, the goblin gave the dark lord a brisk greeting before getting to the point of the visit. Quickly unrolling the large scroll, the dark lord was presented with a scroll that was so large that it hang over the edges of the desk. Centered on the paper was Mr. Dursleys name. traditionally, each parents name would show up on either side of his name and from each of those names lines would be drawn connected them the names of peoples alive and dead whom they were related to. It was an ingenious bit of magic, goblins guarded it just as closely as they did their gold.
What the dark lord saw, was not what he expected. In brackets under the boys name was another name, indicating a name change. Harry James Potter was written in golden script, and to either side the names of his past adversary and former members of the order of the pheonix. James Potter and Lilly Potter under her name in brackets was her maiden name evans. From the fathers side, typical pureblood names sprouted. Potter being the first then black, a weasley, a malfoy and so on. The magical purebloods had a habit of intermarrying amongst the upper echelons of society. So it was expected from the potter line. But towards the edge of the paper, the dark lord found names in patterns that he had seen on this same test many decades before. He had found his link to the boy, he shared the jointed lineage with him from the peverelle bloodline. So in a way they were cousins, many generations removed. But it would explain the parceltongue gift.
Lilly Potter, was a talented muggleborn. Often used as a centerpiece to explain that muggleborns werent inferior to purebloods. He would be happy to burst the next persons bubble who attempted to use her. She had one parents that was muggle, and the geneology ended for that person since they didnt have any magical blood. But for her father, it listed 2 names. One was in italics, suggesting adoption. But in bold letter were names not traditionally seen in pureblood magical society. They were fae family names, so it would seem that Mr. Evans had been duped.
His answers and curiosity was finally sated, the curiosity that was Harry Dursley ne Potter was solved. How ever it had dug up information that could prove troublesome. He was Harry Potter, one of the prophesied children. The dark lord always took prophecy with a grain of salt. Decisions could always change it, making them faulty. The future was fluid always changing. The prophecy, labeled the boy as his equal. Six years ago, he had viewed him as a threat. But after being hit with his own rebounded killing curse, he had found himself being more critical of the information given to him. The boy was labeled as his equal, surviving his killing curse proved that. But it didn't necessarily label him as his enemy.
At the moment the child was within his grasp and easily studied. So for now, he chose to step back and do that. Study him, closely. He would have to have lestrange remove him from the pool of available children up for adoption. If the boy ever did go to a new family, it would have to be one of the dark lords chosing.
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Decision firmly set, the dark lord made use of the Greengots flu system. Flooing into Snapes office at Hogwarts, the dark lord discovered Snape sitting behind his desk. Staring at a goblet of wine, he didn't even acknowledge the Dark Lords arrival. Irritation was pushed aside at the moment, something wasnt rite. Not only did Severus not drink wine, but the man was wearing his robes from last night. Infront of snapes glass was a second glass also filled with wine, but unlike snapes wine. This goblet was still full.
The dark lord began to curse in parsel tongue, Snape had been drugged by someone. Taking quick action the dark lord floo called the auror department, requesting immediate troops to be sent to Hogwarts via the floo. Once his orders had been taken down, he cut the floo call and brandished his wand. The scan he conducted came up clean on the door, so he walked out wand still brandished in his left hand. Who ever had drugged Severus might still be on school grounds. The floo system was a flaw that would have to be investigated. He would have registered the arrival of someone entering the castle, unless they entered via the floo system.
Walking down the stairs, the dark lord encountered the gargoyle. It was open, normally it would close blocking the entrance to the stairs once someone had entered or exited. Scanning the gargoyle and surrounding area, the dark lord detected a spell holding it in place. Further scans detected charms over the paintings in the halls, all frozen in place. The dark lord didn't remember even seeing the people in the paintings in Severus office. Only a headmaster could dismiss them from their frames, so most likely someone had entered via floo. Someone severus knew, and Severus trusted. So he had sent the headmasters portraits away for privacy. Hopefully once the antidote was given to him, he would be able to get information from the Headmaster. This was turning out to be a serious breach.
The Dark Lord continued down the hall, fallowing the trail of frozen paintings. The trail stopped several floors down, in front of Bellatrix personal quarters. He had many options available to him, entering and taking the occupants by surprise. He could wait and see when someone left. Or he could send some one else in to see if anyone was even inside. Voldemort summoned Butterscotch, instructing the elf to enter the quarters, search for any occupants and then report back.
The dark lord waited outside, wand pointed at the door. Butterscotch returned in under thirty seconds time, the only occupant she found was Mrs. Lestrange.
Voldemort pocketed his wand and entered without knocking. He found Bella, sitting on her sofa, staring into the fire. It took her over a minute to turn her head and look at him. Immediately the dark lord took notice of the glazed look in her eyes. She was clearly under the impirius.
With a simple flick and swish Bella was released from the curse that had held her for who knows how long. Immediately her body began to relax and her eyes water. She was and had been aware but unable to stop what ever she had been doing since her initial cursing.
"Bella, would you please be so kind as to enlighten me, what has been going on around here since I left this morning?" By the end of his question, Bellatrix had begun to visibly shake, tears had started to make tracks in her cheeks. She attempted to compose herself, taking a deep breath before beginning to recount her experience. Bellatrix had cursed woman in the past for showing such week emotional behavior, What ever her experience it must have disturbed her greatly in order to have caused this emotional reaction from her.
"I returned to my rooms after our meeting last night my lord. I was just about to have my evening tea when I head a nock at the door. I opened it without thought, my rooms are in the school so it never occurred to me to answer the door armed. Once I opened it I found a male in black robes brandishing a wand towards me. He cursed me before I could retrieve my wand, i couldn't do anything."
The dark lord listened, taking it all in. So someone had drugged Severus, in order to get to Bella?
"Bella, what have you been ordered to do? Did you complete the order? do you have any idea who the male was? Any?"
Bellatrix began to visibly shrink back at his questions, shoulders shaking as even more tears ran down her face and chin.
"He ordered me to go about my day as normal. He ordered that if someone came for Mr. Dursley, for me to approve them no questions asked. He told me to see that the paperwork was immediately processed. He then ordered me to continue on as normal after until I receive additional instructions"
The dark lord asked one more question, his own panic now showing on his face.
"Bella, has someone come to claim Mr. Dursley? Where is Mr. Dursley Bella!"
His question became a shout towards the end, causing Bellatrix to flench back as if physically hit. His displeasure was physically palpable, his magic causing the pressure in the room to rise.
"2 people actually came to take the boy my lord, Mrs. DeWinter and a Mr. Remus Lupin. Mrs. DeWinter arrived first and has taken Harry with her. Mr. Lupin arrived after they had left the grounds. I told him that Dursley was gone, he then wanted to know where and who had taken him. I told him that he would have to wait for the official announcement in the mail like everyone else. That it was private until he just left. Thats all my lord, I went about my normal duties until now"
So Amalthia had harry, that was at least a small bit of good news. Better Harry with one of his ally's then with this Remus Lupin. But now what to do about this entire situation. Bella said she had seen to the processing of the paperwork. So the adoption was complete and therefore final He couldn't retrieve Harry from DeWinter. So his plans for manipulating and molding him would have to wait. What was another 5 years? After all once the boy turned eleven he would be back here to attend classes.
Bella would have to be demoted if not reassigned. He couldn't reveal to the public the break in at the school. So he would have to chalk the breach in protocol to her negligence. Wizards were allowed to adopt magical children during the first three months, fae and other creatures weren't allowed until after that. Giving a sigh as his only clue to the end of his visit. The dark lord turned and exited Lestranges rooms, heading back to the headmasters office. He needed to arrange a full discreet investigation. Hopefully they could find the intruders magical signature for analysis and identification, and of course look into Remus Lupin. His name did sound familiar. But first, he would stop on the third floor bathroom, in order to retrieve Nagini from the chamber of secrets. she always had a way of motivating people around him to do their best even when he wasnt present.
A/N: woo I will have to check, but I think thats the longest chapter so far! I actually wrote this twice, the program closed again erasing half of the typed work. I hope you all enjoyed reading this, and I hope you will review. Reviews always brighten my day and help fuel my creativity. Thanks again for reading.