Well, more people left. Oh well, there are plenty more people still reading, including a whole bunch of newcomers. However, I have changed the summary of this story to warn of Evil Dumbledore, Sheep Order/Staff and Good Guys Don't Get Everything Their Own Way.

Also, I am, according to many reviewers, a bastard of the highest order for leaving three cliff-hangers in a row. Unfortunately I have checked and my parents were married at the time I was conceived, so that's the end of that. :P

On with the show!

Harry Potter: Junior Inquisitor.

Chapter 26: They All Fall Down

"So why are we not going back up to the castle?" asked Harry.

In order to calm down little Natalie, who had appeared to be on the brink of tears, Harry had sat down in the Quidditch stands with her and Luna. It was now fifteen minutes later, and the second year girl seemed to have calmed down enough for Harry to question their behaviour.

"Dumbledore's being a very bad man!" replied Natalie, firmly.

Harry stared at her for a moment before turning to Luna, hoping to get a better answer from her.

"The Headmaster has quite lost his capabilities of rational thought," replied Luna in a voice that those who knew her would be quite surprised to hear coming from her. "It seems that your recent rebellion has frightened him and in response he had decided to strip all students of their basic rights."

"When did I rebel?" asked Harry, genuinely puzzled.

"Ever since term started last week," replied Luna. "Though the wrackspurts say that it began long before then."

Harry thought for a moment before shaking his head and replying "I'm sorry, but I don't remember any of that."

"Of course you don't," said Luna. "Dumbledore caught you and used mind spells and potions to make you regret rebelling and force you to comply with his wishes."

Harry shook his head again, this time in outright disbelief.

"I'm sorry," he said. "But this is just ridiculous. This is Dumbledore that we're talking about, and you're making him out to be like Voldemort but in disguise."

Natalie flinched at the name, but Luna, surprisingly, did not.

"They are not entirely different people, Harry, if you think about it."

"This is crazy," said Harry. "You're crazy. I'm going back up to the castle."

"No!" shouted Natalie, grabbing him by the arm again.

"Get off me!" he snapped, shaking his arm in an effort to make her let go.

He succeeded in wrenching his arm out of her grasp and turned to leave, but he didn't get more than five steps away before he tripped and fell flat on his face.

With a grunt Harry forced himself to roll onto his back. Looking down at his legs he saw that they were locked together. He glared up at Luna who had her wand out, having cast the leg-locker curse on him.

"I'm sorry, Harry Potter, but you were doing too much good for me to just let you walk back into the castle."

"What good?" demanded Harry. "I don't have a clue what you're talking about."

"Then lie still and I will tell you," replied Luna.

Amelia Bones arrived in the Head Auror's Office at the DMLE and addressed her second in command.

"What news Rufus?"

Rufus Scrimgeour looked up from the notes he was making to reply. "Snape is currently locked up down in the Department of Mysteries where they are seeing to his wounds. He should be ready to talk in about another ten minutes or so."

"Excellent," replied Amelia. "I've waited a long time to wring a few truths out of the greasy bastard."

"You're not the only one," said Scrimgeour. "How were things at St Mungo's?"

"Messy. The healers can't work out what the spell he hit her with was or how to reverse its effects. If it weren't for the House Elf putting her under a stasis enchantment after tying up Snape than she would probably have bled out and died before we even got there."

"Yes, well, I for one will never underestimate House Elves again. Incidentally I had to call in your friend Cyrus Greengrass."

"Why?"

"Well, when Snape was brought here, a search revealed that he had a talisman of sorts upon his person. At first we assumed that it was an emergency portkey, but now we're not so sure so I asked Greengrass to take a look."

"Do you think it might be what caused the wards to fall?"

"It is," said a voice from the doorway. Amelia spun around and saw Cyrus Greengrass standing there "Forgive me," he said "but I couldn't help but overhear that last part of your conversation."

He approached Scrimgeour's desk and placed the talisman upon it. It was a disc made entirely of gold with a precious stone set in the middle. The stone was in a perfect circle and resembled the symbol of yin and yang, except one half was ruby red and the other emerald green, and did not have the dots in the larger ends. Around this central stone was a ring of sixteen smaller stones which ran in the order of sapphire, diamond, pearl and crystal before going back to sapphire again. A similar ring of stones was found along the edge of the talisman and on the back. A golden chain was affixed to the top.

"This thing causes wards to fail, you say?" asked Scrimgeour.

"It does, but only when activated which it currently is not," replied Greengrass. "And even if it were, we wouldn't have a lot to worry about here in the Ministry. This thing is far from strong enough to bring down the wards surrounding this building. I would imagine that it took several attempts for it to bring down the wards around the Abbott House as well."

"But it still did it quicker than a whole team of curse breakers," said Amelia. "So where did Snape get this thing?"

"Well I had some people down in the Department of Mysteries look it over to see if there are any traces of a magical signature on it" said Greengrass. "And they've come up with a name."

"Who?"

"Voldemort."

Six Aurors stood guard along the bare walls of the room, two on the west side, two on the east and two one the south. Four Unspeakables stood guard by the door which opened in the north wall.

In the middle of the room Severus Snape sat in a wooden chair, barely coherent but certainly conscious. Thick black chains secured him firmly to the chair, which was affixed to the floor, and strong ropes were bound around the man's torso and legs.

A knock sounded at the door and one of the Unspeakables opened it. In came Amelia Bones, Rufus Scrimgeour, Cyrus Greengrass and Head Unspeakable Saul Croaker, along with two more Unspeakables and three more Aurors.

Croaker turned to the two Unspeakables who had entered with him. "Lower his Occlumency protections."

The two Unspeakables nodded in reply and drew their wands. When they pointed these at Snape, the man's body suddenly became very rigid as his mind instinctively tried to fend off their attack. They were not attempting to read his mind, but were instead working to lower his Occlumency defences just enough to enable the use of veritaserum on him.

The legality of this action was highly dubious, which was why it was being done off record by the Unspeakables. Officially Amelia, Scrimgeour and the other Aurors were not in the room and they had all been sworn to secrecy.

Primarily, any information gleaned from Snape during this session would be used purely to allow them to act. If they then chose to use this information in order to prosecute anyone, it would have to be presented by the Unspeakables rather than the Aurors. An annoying technicality, but that's politics. Technically they couldn't just use whatever means they wanted in order to wring the truth out of the man, but the term "information acquired by the Unspeakables" usually shut up all the naysayers.

Quite suddenly, after about ten minutes of the Unspeakables fighting against Snape's willpower, the man went limp, almost as if he had been stunned.

Croaker turned to another Unspeakable and asked the man to administer the truth potion.

"And remember to give him six drops instead of three."

The Unspeakable did as asked and, once the potion had taken effect, Croaker conjured up a seat opposite Snape and sat down on it before beginning his questioning of the man.

Starting with the standard questions to check that the potion was working properly he asked "What is your full name?"

"Severus Tobias Snape," came the barely lucid reply.

"What is your date of birth?"

"9th January 1960."

"Where do you live?"

"Hogwarts castle."

"And when not at Hogwarts?"

"17 Spinner's End, Cokeworth."

"And your occupation?"

"Potions Professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

At this point Croaker looked over to one of his subordinates standing by the door. The man had a sheet of parchment in his hand which he was currently using to check Snape's personal details.

The Unspeakable gave a nod of his head, confirming that everything that Snape had said was correct, and Croaker turned back to Snape.

With the potion obviously working, Croaker got on with the real questions.

"Why did you attack Sarah Abbott in her own home?"

"I had orders to kill her."

"Orders from whom?"

"Albus Dumbledore."

The others in the room exchanged dark looks.

"Why did Dumbledore order you to kill her?"

"To eliminate her influence upon Harry Potter and to draw attention to the Dark Lord's return."

Again the people in the room exchanged looks. They were a few of the handful of Ministerial employees who knew the truth about Voldemort's rebirth several months ago.

Filing way the bit about Harry Potter for a moment Croaker instead asked "And how would this have drawn attention to the Dark Lord's return?"

"I was to cast the Dark Mark in the sky above the house after completing the murder."

"How did you break through the wads surrounding the Abbott House so easily?"

"The talisman. It was designed specifically to bring down wards with ease. Rookwood designed it towards the end of the last war, and the Dark Lord used it to bring down the additional wards around Potter Cottage when he attacked it."

"How did you end up with the talisman?"

"I was there that night, waiting outside. When part of the roof caved in and the Dark Lord did not emerge I went inside. I took the talisman and the Dark Lord's wand."

"And how did the wand get from you to him?"

"Wormtail arrived at my house shortly after Wormtail brought the Dark Lord back to England. He had the Dark Lord and his snake with him and I handed over the wand."

"Yet you kept the talisman?"

"They did not ask for it, so I kept it for myself to use."

"Were there other talismans made?"

"Not to my knowledge. Rookwood could probably make more if he were ever freed from Azkaban."

"I see," said Croaker before changing his line of questioning. "Why does Dumbledore not want Sarah Abbott to influence Harry Potter?"

"Dumbledore says that Potter has a destiny to complete. A destiny that only Dumbledore can guide him towards. He says that Harry must not be subjected to outside influences."

"What does Dumbledore believe Harry Potter's destiny to be?"

"To die by the hand of the Dark Lord, completing the prophecy that ties them together and allowing Dumbledore to step in and kill the Dark Lord himself."

"What else has Dumbledore done to prevent Harry Potter from being influenced by others?"

At that question Snape suddenly began fighting against the effects of the potion and the magic that was working against his Occlumency.

As Snape fought, a third Unspeakable came forward and raised her wand. A few moments later Snape went limp again, the task of fighting off three assaults on his defences as well as the truth serum wearing him down quickly.

Croaker repeated his question again.

Snape, as it turned out, had a lot of answers to give.

Over an hour passed before Amelia, Rufus, Cyrus and Saul were able to head into Amelia's office and go over what they had learned.

"I think that we've got more than enough evidence to bring Dumbledore to his bony knees," said Amelia as she went through a list of all the ways that Snape had revealed Dumbledore controlled and manipulated Harry Potter's life. There was everything from controlling his mail to dosing him with potions.

"You realise that every student in that castle is currently dosed to the gills, don't you?" asked Cyrus.

This had been a particularly disturbing fact to learn. The idea that all the students at Hogwarts had, on Dumbledore's orders, been dosed with a potion that would force them to blindly accept what they were told or what they saw without question was utterly vial.

Worse, when asked why Dumbledore thought that he could get away with such an action, Snape had replied "He has done it before, on several occasions."

It was Croaker who replied to Cyrus' question "As distasteful as it is we cannot make that our first priority here. We must first deal with the Order of the Phoenix before Dumbledore gets wind of what we've found out and has them all go to ground."

Despite the fact that her niece was at Hogwarts and was likely under the influence of Dumbledore's little scheme, Amelia took Croaker's side "The potions will wear off in time without regular dosages. With Snape in our hands, Dumbledore has no one to make the potion for him. If this was any other criminal that we were dealing with, I would send a team straight to Hogwarts, but this is Dumbledore that we are dealing with. We need to destroy his power base and hit him with everything that we have."

Rufus pulled out a long sheet of parchment and began reading it before commenting "Well, we had better begin with our own employees. Kingsley Shacklebolt of the Auror Office, Emmeline Vance of the Law Enforcement Patrol, Arthur Weasley of the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office, his wife Molly and his son William, Sturgis Podmore of the Floo Network Authority and Dedalus Diggle of the Muggle-Worthy Excuse committee all seem like a good place to start."

Amelia nodded and said "You organise raids against them, I'm going after Moody."

"And what about Sirius Black?" asked Cyrus.

"He's hiding behind a Fidelius charm," replied Rufus "There is nothing that we can do for him right now."

Discovering that Sirius Black was innocent of the crimes for which he had been convicted had been a surprise to most of those in that room, but Amelia already knew that little piece of information, having heard it from Harry back in the summer. Until now her hands had been tied on the matter, and until they could get the man into the Ministry to question him, Amelia still had not action that she could take without setting alarm bells ringing within certain circles.

She was also rather reluctant to make a move in the man's favour anyway. Clearly he was one of Dumbledore's men and he had abandoned Harry twice now, once on that fateful Halloween night back in 1981 and again over the summer when he had taken part in the communication block that Dumbledore had imposed upon Harry.

Although she had left Hogwarts School two years before the Marauders had arrived, Amelia had learned plenty about them from her younger brothers, Edgar and Alfred. She had also met Sirius at various points during the two years he had spent in Auror training. She had not found herself liking him then and the higher ups had shared this view, which was why Sirius did not complete his third year at the Auror academy.

She would do what she could for the man when she had the time, but for now the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement had bigger fish to fry.

During his meeting with the Head Boy and Head Girl, Dumbledore had taken the time to note down all the names of those students who had been in the room on the seventh floor. Even now, several hours after the bulk of the students had been caught there were seven names unaccounted for, five girls and two boys.

Dumbledore had been scanning the castle on the Marauder's Map for quite some time now, but as yet he had seen nothing to suggest where Pansy Parkinson, Astoria Greengrass, Natalie McDonald, Katie Bell, Luna Lovegood, Stewart Ackerly or Kevin Whitby had hidden themselves.

He had Filch and several members of the Order searching the secret passageways out of the castle in the hopes that the wayward students were hiding just beyond the edges of the map, but so far they had found nothing.

His eyes scanned the grounds again and this time he spotted two things that brought a large smile to his face. He turned around as addressed two of the Professors who were in the room with him and the captured students.

"Minerva, Nymphadora, it seems that Kevin Whitby and Stewart Ackerly have secluded themselves away within the Quidditch changing rooms and Luna Lovegood and Natalie McDonald are using the stands around the Quidditch Pitch to hide themselves. Kindly go out and retrieve them, and do be quick as the girls appear to have young Mr Potter with them."

Tonks scowled at the use of her first name but followed Professor McGonagall from the room.

"You're not going to get away with this!" said Susan.

Dumbledore smiled patronisingly at her and replied "Quite the contrary, my dear girl. The Ministry of Magic is soon going to become too busy to worry about what I do within my own castle."

Susan felt a chill go down her spin and Hannah shuddered next to her. The old man's words did not bode well.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

"Alright, alright!" grumbled Arthur Weasley as he hurried down the stairs of The Burrow, pulling on his dressing gown.

He made his way over to the back door of the house pulled it open.

"Rufus?" he asked in surprise as he saw who was standing at his door, and with five other Aurors no less. "What on Merlin's name brings you here at this hour?"

Like parents the world over who found themselves being awoken like this, he began to panic. "Is something wrong at the school? Is it the twins? Is it Ron? Ginny?"

"Something is very wrong at the school, Arthur," replied Scrimgeour, grimly. "However we currently have no reason to believe that any of your children are at risk."

"Then why are you here?" asked Arthur "What's going on?"

"We've come for you, Arthur," said Scrimgeour. "And Molly. You're both under arrest."

"What for?" demanded Arthur as two Aurors stepped forwards to arrest him.

"Arthur? Who's at the door?" asked Molly as she came down the stairs. She took in the sight before her and her tone changed from one of concern to one of anger.

"What's going on?" she demanded.

"Molly Weasley, you are under arrest," said Scrimgeour and he nodded to two other Aurors who moved to arrest the woman.

"Surely this must be some kind of misunderstanding," protested Arthur.

"Perhaps," said Scrimgeour. "But I doubt it. Is your son William at home?"

"No, he's… at work." replied Molly, faltering.

Scrimgeour raised an eyebrow. "Rather late for someone with a desk job at Gringotts to be working, isn't it?"

Without waiting for an answer he went on "Well, we'll just have to send a team to the bank. Now, I assume that you are both going to come quietly?"

"Very well," said Molly. "Please let us contact Dumbledore though. I'm certain that he can straighten all of this out."

"I somewhat doubt that, Mrs Weasley," replied Scrimgeour. "After all, you are being arrested for being members of his illegal vigilante group."

The shock of that statement silenced both Weasley parents better than any silencing charm could. Arthur found himself needing to lean against the table for a moment, no easy task when you're hands are bound behind your back.

Molly dropped to the floor in a dead faint.

Harry did not like the situation that he was in even a little bit. Luna had, according to her, told him everything that had been going on up at the castle during the past week, but Harry could recall none of it and none of it made any sense to him.

After all, everything seemed to centre on his rebelling against Dumbledore, but Harry could think of no reason as to why he would rebel, and Luna certainly did not know the answer. He could think of nothing to rebel against, except Snape and his slimy snakes. Apart from them everything was fine at Hogwarts.

He attended the best school of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the world and that school was currently being run by Albus Dumbledore, the finest Headmaster that the school had ever seen. The teachers were the best in the world, and there were no safety issues to kick up a fuss about as Hogwarts was the safest place in all of Wizarding Britain.

To Harry's mind, both Luna and Natalie had to be wrong.

But he couldn't do anything about this situation because his legs were still locked together and Luna had so very kindly taken it upon herself to steal his wand.

His thoughts were interrupted by Natalie whispering "Hey, look!"

Harry turned. They were sitting in the uppermost row of seats at Luna's insistence. She thought that they could keep a lookout for any approaching teachers and move off before they were caught.

Natalie was standing on the back bench and looking over the wall at the back. Luna stood up to get a look as well and, after some awkward shuffling on his part, Harry was able to get upright enough to peer over the wall too.

Professor McGonagall and Professor Tonks had come down from the castle and were now approaching the doors to the Quidditch changing rooms.

Thanking every deity he could think of that there was finally someone nearby who could help him Harry opened his mouth and shouted, but no sound came out. He frowned and turned to Luna who was pocketing her wand, her eyes still fixed upon the scene below.

Harry turned back to watch as Professor McGonagall raised her wand and unlocked the door. She and Professor Tonks went in.

A few moments later there was some shouting and the sound of spells being fired. Then suddenly a boy burst out through the door and began sprinting across the lawn. He didn't get very far before Professor Tonks appeared and brought him crashing down with a stunning spell.

Harry had to concede that that was rather odd behaviour for a teacher, even one dealing with wayward students.

"We have to move," hissed Luna, and she and Natalie downed down behind the wall.

Harry felt his legs free up, then Natalie grabbed his hand and began tugging in his arm, trying to get him to follow her and Luna towards the opposite end of the stadium.

And for reasons that Harry could not fathom, he followed.

"We've got Arthur and Molly Weasley detained downstairs," said Scrimgeour as he entered Amelia's office "William wasn't at home though. They claim he was at work, but we have contacted Gringotts and they have confirmed that there are no wizards on duty tonight."

"Then he's probably at Hogwarts with the others," replied Amelia. "Mad-Eye wasn't home and neither were Shacklebolt or Diggle. However Dawlish successfully apprehended Emmeline Vance, Proudfoot arrested Sturgis Podmore and Savage just got back with Arabella Figg."

Just then another appeared at the door and said "Sorry boss, but Lupin's place was empty. Doesn't look like it's been used in months."

Amelia nodded. "Very well, thank you Williamson. Stand by for further orders."

After the man had gone, Scrimgeour said "So, it seems he's also at Hogwarts."

"Or their Headquarters with Black," responded Amelia.

Over the next half hour several more Aurors came in. Rhobards had successfully apprehended Elphias Doge but apart from him every other team came back empty handed.

This meant that Hestia Jones, William Weasley, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Alastor Moody, Dedalus Diggle, Mundungus Fletcher, Remus Lupin and fourteen others were either at the Order's Headquarters or more likely at Hogwarts assisting Dumbledore and the other staff.

The only ones not likely to be at Hogwarts were Charlie Weasley, who was known to still be in Romania, Rubeus Hagrid, who had been unaccounted for since around the start of the recent summer holidays, and Sirius Black, who was likely to be maintaining a low profile at the Order's Headquarters.

They were now going to have to hit Hogwarts and hit it hard.

This meant summoning in every Auror, every Hit Wizard and every Law Enforcement Officer that could be found in a short space of time and who could be trusted.

Croaker volunteered the services of the Unspeakables to aid the DMLE in making the arrests at the castle and Amelia agreed.

Cyrus Greengrass, meanwhile, went off with two other Unspeakables in order to examine the talisman more closely.

The raid would begin in forty minutes.

"Luna, where exactly are we going?" asked Harry as they traipsed along in the dark.

"I don't know," replied Luna, honestly. "We just need to keep you safe."

"We've been wandering about in the dark for over an hour!" Harry complained, but Luna ignored him.

He was right. They had been going around for that long, and Harry's recollection of why they were moving around was beginning to slip. The incident at the Quidditch Changing Rooms was already hazy in his mind.

They had succeeded in giving Professors McGonagall and Tonks the slip and were just nearing the front gates of the school when they heard a strange hissing noise.

"Psst!"

The three paused and looked around.

"Psst!" the sound came again, this time followed by a voice "Up here!"

Harry looked up into the branches of the tree nearest to him. "It's too dark," he replied. "I can't see you."

Suddenly a pair of legs swung down from one of the branches and someone jumped down.

"Katie!" exclaimed Harry upon recognising his Quidditch Teammate. "Finally, a familiar face."

"Oi!" said another voice as a second person jumped down. "What am I then, Potter? Chopped liver?"

Harry eyed Pansy Parkinson wearily. A moment later a third girl jumped down, this one also a Slytherin, but younger than Pansy and whose name Harry did not know. Well, he did know it, he just didn't have the ability to remember ever knowing it.

"That's it!" he said, a little too loudly for the comfort of the others. "There are snakes involved in this. I should have known. They probably put the imperius curse on the rest of you to get you to go along with this. Come on, let's get up to the castle and Dumbledore can sort this out."

He reached out to grab Katie and Natalie by the arms but both wrenched themselves out of his grasp.

"Harry, they did nothing to us," retorted Katie. "It's Dumbledore that's the problem. He's-"

"Oh, spare me!" snapped Harry "I've already heard enough of this crap from these two. I've had enough of it and I'm going back up to the castle."

He turned to go, but Katie grabbed a hold of him.

"Get off!" shouted Harry, causing the others to freeze.

A few moments later there came the sound of hurried footsteps, and then they were blinded by the light of two wands.

"Well, what do we have here?" asked a gruff voice.

Recognising the voice, Harry squinted his eyes against the light and asked "Professor Moody?"

The man lowered his wand a little to allow Harry to see him better as he answered "I ain't your Professor anymore, Potter, not that I ever got around to teaching ya much. Right Bill, come on. Let's get this lot up to the castle."

"We're not going anywhere," said Katie, defiantly.

"You'll do as you're told," barked Moody "It's not safe to be outside the castle at this time of night."

"Katie for Merlin's sake!" exclaimed Harry "Let's just get up to the castle and we can get this whole thing sorted out."

"Harry, we can't go up to the castle, I told you," said Luna.

"Enough, Luna," replied Harry. "That's enough."

"Come on you lot," said Bill "Let's go."

Katie squared her shoulders, determined to go down fighting, but then she caught sight of McGonagall and Tonks hurrying towards them and her shoulders slumped.

They had lost.

"Oh, Alastor," exclaimed McGonagall. "Thank you for finding them."

She rounded on the students and went into lecture mode "Well, I don't know what you lot were thinking wandering around the castle at this time of night. You've had your Heads of House in a real panic. Rest assured, you will be severing detention for this. Now come on. Off we go."

Harry began walking without a fuss and, after sharing a look with the others, Katie bowed her head and followed on, Luna behind her with Natalie at her side and Pansy and Astoria bringing up the rear.

They hadn't gone very far when Moody's magical eye spun around to look through the back of his head and saw the threat. He turned and blocked the first few spells, but with thirty wands aimed at him he was only going to last a few moments before hitting the ground.

Harry instinctively spun around and grabbed Natalie, dragging her to the floor as Katie did the same for Luna and Pansy for Astoria.

In no time at all, McGonagall, Bill and Tonks joined Moody on the floor.

Harry looked up and saw the group of people running towards them. He raised his wand and fired a stunning spell that was easily deflected. A moment later he was disarmed and many hands were pulling him and the girls to their feet.

"Get off them!" he shouted, reaching out to grab Luna out of their clutches.

An arm wrapped around him and a female voice said into his ear "Calm down Harry. We're here to help you."

Harry rounded on the woman, took one look at her and spat "Who the hell are you?"

Worst fears confirmed, Amelia gestured to Savage for him and two others to get the six students out of there.

The girls allowed themselves to be escorted offsite without a fuss, but Harry was rather vocal in his displeasure.

Dumbledore had seen the whole thing on the map and, with a sinking feeling he knew that his time was almost up. Despite his best efforts, news of what had transpired at Hogwarts over the last day or so had obviously reached the outside world and the Ministry had decided to take action.

His actions had been a gamble, and Dumbledore knew that he had just lost.

Amelia Bones and her team had just taken down four of his best wands and "rescued" six of his students near the front gates of the school.

A team being led by Rufus Scrimgeour were just approaching the main viaduct that led to the Entrance Courtyard and Gawain Rhobards was just leading his team onto the covered bridge.

Nearly one hundred wizards and witches, made up of a combination of Aurors, Hit Wizards, Law Enforcement Officers and even Unspeakables were now moments away from storming the castle.

If he allowed them in of course.

He drew his wand and incanted "Colloportus totalem."

Around the school every door and window that led outside swung shut and locked securely.

Satisfied that they would be held off for quite a while, Dumbledore retreated to his office to gather his things. Once he was inside the office he checked one of the many silver instruments that sat upon one of his tables. After a quick examination he confirmed that the tracking charms the he had placed upon the boy the previous evening had already been discovered and removed.

Harry Potter had been moved beyond his grasp, and without Harry Potter his latest actions were all for nothing. Worse, the Order had now been compromised.

Dumbledore was well aware that his actions could see him placed in Azkaban by overzealous Ministry officials, but Azkaban was not somewhere that Dumbledore intended to go.

It was time to leave.

The front doors of Hogwarts castle creaked and groaned under the strain that they were being put under. Upon finding all points of entry to the castle to be locked, Madam Bones had ordered for the doors to be broken down. As such, three doors were now being put under immense strain by the wands of the Ministry wizards gathered outside. Amelia's team was attempting to get in through the door near the Herbology Greenhouses, Rhobards' team was working on the door that stood at the foot of the Clock Tower and Scrimgeour's team was blasting away at the front doors.

With a crack the doors to the Clock Tower finally gave way. A few moments later the door near the Greenhouses went the same way and two of the three teams stormed the castle.

Dumbledore saw this on the map, and watched as Rhobards' team encountered Kingsley and Mundungus. Both men were taken down easily.

For a moment, Dumbledore considered bringing the statues and suits of armour within the school to life and have them confront the raiders, but ultimately decided against it. He shrunk his gathered belongings, stowed them away in one pocket, put his wand in the other and called for Fawkes.

The Phoenix launched itself off of his perch and soared towards Dumbledore. Clasping onto the collar of Dumbledore's robes, the Phoenix disappeared in a flash of flame, taking his passenger with him.

In his haste to leave, Dumbledore forgot to take one important item with him.

The team led by Scrimgeour finally brought down the front doors to the castle and they stormed in. Any member of staff or member of the Order of the Phoenix found within was quickly brought down and arrested.

Amelia's team were the first to locate the students imprisoned in classroom 7B and Scrimgeour's team were the ones to gain access to Dumbledore's office.

Scrimgeour looked about the office, his feelings a mixture of anger and dismay. Dumbledore was gone.

He was just about to order his group to leave the office when one of the Law Enforcement Officers drew his attention to the Headmaster's desk.

The Head Auror approached and picked up the piece of parchment that lay there. It was a map of Hogwarts, one that showed the location of everyone within the castle.

Dumbledore had witnessed their every move and escaped with ease.

When this got out, the press would have a field day.

A/N: Well there you go. It's shorter than the last few chapters have been, but I tried making it longer in places but ended up repeating myself so left it at that.

I know that Dumbledore getting away will please no one, but honestly what did you think would happen? He had the map and he had Fawkes so they stood no chance of catching him.

On the bright side though, the Order is ruined and the students are free. Next chapter will deal with the aftermath and see the Order and Staff being questioned.