Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. JK Rowling does. I'm just an avid fan.

Word Count: 3211

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Chapter 27: The Scandal Unfolds

He was no Seer but, James had the foreshadowing feeling that today was not going to bode well for him. He knew that the very second he entered the Great Hall for breakfast the next day. The moment James walked into the Great Hall, hundreds of students turned around collectively and stared at him. His heart skipped a beat. It was quite unnerving when you were being stared at by loads of people without knowing the reason for it. As James made his way to his seat at the High Table, he noticed that almost every single student or staff was clutching a copy of the morning Daily Prophet. If they aren't holding a copy, they are sharing it with their friends or duplicating one. They glanced at the newspaper and back at him, pointing and whispering, "Cheater."

Feeling quite paranoid now, James urgently snatched the morning edition of the Daily Prophet and scanned the headlines. Potters Reputation On the Line After Caught Cheating. His eyes darted through the article line by line, each time his face redder and redder. He flipped quickly to the next page and saw Bagman Accused of Accepting Bribery from the Potters. The next page sported the large bold headlines that read Karkaroff Skulks Along For the Ride.

With a sudden fit of anger, James slammed the Daily Prophet down on the table, rattling everyone's silverware, which startled his colleagues. He looked around to see his colleagues scowl at him with disdain, mumbling about manipulative people trying to get their ways. James' head spun, how did the Daily Prophet get hold of the truth? He had been careful not to be seen but not enough. What did the letter say?

You either admit upfront to everyone that you cheated and be humble. Or I will have no chance but to expose this scandal to Dumbledore and some of the other neutral organizers as well as the Daily Prophet.

James froze. Anonymous Fire had warned him what was coming and, he was too stupid to heed those words seriously and prevent everything from happening. Oh god, what would Lily say about all of this? She would be furious with him for not informing her of the letter earlier when they got the chance to come clean.

What about Albus? James isn't certain that he could meet Dumbledore's eyes after indirectly dragging the Headmaster into this mess. Glancing up, James saw that Albus' eyes turned dull and sharp and, he was no longer smiling. That was when James knew he was in deep trouble. To avoid further attention, James nervously sat down on his chair and stared at his empty plate. He didn't touch anything until breakfast ended, and everyone was off to their lessons for the day.

"James. Lily. I would like to have a word with you two in my office."

Albus spoke in a thunderous tone that made both of them shrink into their chairs and tremble slightly. Albus got up from his chair swiftly and strode briskly through the staff doors with his robe billowing behind him. Dejected and ashamed, Lily and James lumbered after Albus up the various staircases and around corners until they reached the West Tower where Albus' office was.

"Hershey Bars," Albus barked as the gargoyle leaped aside to reveal the moving spiral staircases. They stepped onto the stone steps of the staircase as it started to bring them up to the door. Albus pushed the door open and entered. Lily and James stood aimlessly in front of Albus' desk as he settled down on his throne-like chair. Albus gave a deep sigh and gestured for the two of them to sit down. They complied.

"I cannot express how disappointed I am with you two" Albus stated. "Although I know you had no bad intentions by doing these deeds, I cannot condone what you have done." There was a moment of silence.

"Bribery" Albus bitterly spat, "is one of those deeds. You have brought shame to yourself and family by partaking in corrupt actions, illegally soliciting with an official organizer to receive confidential information. Do you have any idea how serious this matter is?" James and Lily bowed their heads with guilt. Albus ran his fingers through his beard angrily.

"Albus..please. You have to understand we wanted to help Jamie get past the first task. If we never told him about the dragons..he could have died!" Lily pleaded.

"You could have voiced your concerns to me, Lily! Do we not have several highly-trained professional Aurors and dragon handlers on the scene? If he had any sign of being in danger, it would be those dragon handlers with years of experience to save your son! The whole world now knows how corrupt our country is!" Albus sternly said, his eyes flashing with annoyance.

"What good would that do, Albus? Our boy was in danger, and you are fine with letting Jamie's life be in the hands of some dragon handlers? That's some bs right there," James retorted. "How will Jamie ever be able to fight off You-Know-Who if he is under the threat of dying in some stupid tournament?"

Albus's temper struck at James' arrogance. This was not the time for James to bring up fantasies of his son being the one to defeat Voldemort. However, Albus kept his frustration in check and breathed in and out. He found that the best way to calm his nerves was to count to 10 and breathe steadily.

"I find it quite amusing, James, that you don't trust your colleagues like Kingsley enough. Has Kingsley ever failed to finish any mission given to him?" Albus questioned.

"No," James replied irritatedly.

"Has he ever made you want to lose trust in him?" Albus pressed.

"No," James said.

"Has Kingsley ever failed to save someone?" Albus added.

"No, not to my knowledge" James responded.

Albus crossed his arms and gave a sad frown, "And yet these are the areas that you do not succeed at, James. Kingsley is completely trustworthy and still, you have no faith in the young man." James gritted his teeth but did not answer. He knew Albus was right even if he condescendingly presented the truth.

"We will discuss this later, James. You should know that people might cry for your punishment and it would cause lots of conflicts. I am here to see to it that you two do not receive unjust and cruel punishments - preferably none at all" Albus affirmed.

Lily silently prayed that they would be understood. They should understand that they did it for a good reason and had no other intentions other than trying to let their son have a better chance of surviving the first task. Giving Jamie a week of early advantage allowed him to effectively study and learn the necessary spell to get past his dragon.

"What do we need to do, Albus? I cannot afford to lose this job and be away from Jamie when you still have this unknown assassin in this school" Lily implored.

Albus sighed, "There is no other valid explanation besides you two looking out for Jamie Potter because he is the youngest champion with the least amount of experience. Lying will do you no good."

There was a long moment of silence, which increased the volume of Albus' humming trinkets and the crackling of the fireplace. James opened his mouth to propose another idea but couldn't because someone knocked sharply on Albus' office door.

"DUMBLEDORE!"

The door opened, and in came a group of wizards dressed in Ministry robes tagging behind a man everyone knew as Cornelius Fudge, the Minister for Magic. He was clutching the same edition of the morning Daily Prophet in his right hand and a black bowler hat in the other. Cornelius saw that Albus had company and looked distastefully at his assistant.

"Weatherby, why haven't you told me that Mr. Dumbledore was busy?" The red-haired adolescent fumbled from his files and blushed red from embarrassment.

"You said we needed an urgent arrival, sir. I had no time to inform Mr. Dumbledore of your presence" the red-haired young adult replied. Cornelius made a face as he walked forward and slammed the newspaper on Albus' desk.

"What is the meaning of this, Dumbledore? I thought that you had all of your staff under control and now...we have this horrendous cheating scandal. It's not going to look good for us, especially when we don't have an established stable relationship with America!" Cornelius ranted, angrily waving his hands in the air.

"Cornelius, I do have my staff under control. It is under my impression that Lily and James were merely looking out for Mr. Jamie Potter's welfare, nothing more" Albus noted as he folded his hands together in an inviting manner.

"That-" Cornelius appended, "still does not warrant Mr. Potter to commit bribery so openly and involve a member of the Tournament! While Jamie Potter is our society's savior, these types of favoritism will stain our reputation."

Albus peered at Cornelius solemnly, "Be that as it may, you cannot afford to see anyone harmed in the Tournament. Jamie Potter is our youngest competitor, which means he is at a disadvantage. If Lily and James didn't risk their dignity to protect Jamie, he would be severely injured, and I'm sure you do not want blood on your hands, Cornelius."

Cornelius opened his mouth to argue, but he didn't know how to respond to Albus. To be fair, he saw that Albus did have some logic in his statement. Jamie Potter is their country's savior and icon, if he got hurt, people would be after the Ministry for letting harm fall upon the boy-who-lived. If Cornelius didn't act correctly, he will be out of his position as Minister.

"Yes Albus, you are right. However, something must be done for this fire to be put out. I believe Mr. Karkaroff has already faced his punishment, but the main offenders are the Potters. One of them has to face the consequences" Cornelius half-heartedly said, not looking at James Potter, who was sitting in front of him.

"My proposition, Minister…" Lucius Malfoy drawled, "is to remove Mr. Potter from his position as Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor. The Board of Governors has...received several letters of complaint from his students voicing their frustrations of improper teacher conduct and poor teaching. Plus, Mr. Potter was put on probation because he deliberately attacked one of the Harvard students, Mr. Cadmus Flamel. This will not sit well if the Madam President of the United States found out we have freed an offender twice from punishment."

Albus could see the gears of Cornelius' brain turn as he worked out a response. Albus had already given it his best to weasel James and Lily from punishment; the worst Cornelius could do was to fire James from Hogwarts. After all, Cornelius still has a soft heart for James Potter because he is a well-known public figure. James' influence and status would boost Cornelius' popularity as Minister and help him win re-election.

"Yes yes, that is an excellent idea, Lucius. It would only make sense for Mr. Potter to be fired from Hogwarts to prevent further difficulties. As for Mrs. Potter, I believe probation will suffice for now. Now, if you would excuse me, Albus, I will need to tone down the disorder in the Ministry and have a stern word with Ludo" Cornelius said in a final manner. Cornelius adjusted his bowler hat on his head and spun on his heels to leave Albus' office followed closely behind by a smirking Lucius Malfoy and the Minister's bodyguards.

As soon as the door closed, Albus let out a deep sigh and rubbed his aching forehead. "Well, I'm afraid this is it, Lily, James. I did the best I could do."

James growled, "The best? I could've done it better; we could've gotten away scot-free from something that shouldn't even matter!" Albus had enough of James and jumped to his feet angrily.

"James, be thankful your popularity has saved you or else who knows what could've happened to you! At least you aren't stripped of your magic like what corrupted offenders receive by law as punishment! Now stop acting like an overgrown child and wake up!" Albus bellowed, shaking an angry fist at his old pupil. He had tried so hard today not to let his temper get the better of him but James had gone too far.

James tried to jump out of his seat and gave a yell at Albus but Lily quickly grabbed James by the arms and restrained him. "James! You ought to be glad Albus was helping you. After all, he usually isn't supposed to get involved in matters like this." She turned to Albus and gave him a grateful smile before she forced James to leave the office. When they left, Albus collapsed into his chair, exhausted from all the yelling and anger. He was getting old with age and didn't know how long he had until he could finally find some peace.

"Attention students! You all may know that a certain issue has been brought to light today, but I am here to inform you that everything is handled. James Potter is no longer a staff of Hogwarts amid the scandal. As a result, our younger year students do not have a defense professor" Dumbledore announced to the students that gathered at the Great Hall for lunch that afternoon. A cacophony of whispers and whistles rang out, many pleased while others upset.

"That means our Professor Moody will be taking over all defense lessons until we can find a proper teacher for our younger year students" Dumbledore concluded as he returned to his seat.

"Tough luck," Casper remarked as soon as they returned to eating their lunch. Jacob and Daphne both nodded silently. Cadmus hummed. He was looking closely at Jamie Potter's reaction to the news. He looked deathly pale being surrounded by his classmates that stared at him with disgust. Cadmus almost felt bad for Jamie when he teared up a little after breaking under pressure from his classmates. It almost seemed like he didn't want to be involved with his parents' scandal.

"Hey Cadmus, you never told us how Moody's class was like" Daphne noted curiously. Cadmus hummed and turned around.

"For a good reason, Daphne. Moody's personality seems off the moment the Tournament started" Cadmus replied, narrowing his eyes at the militant ex-Auror. Jacob laughed jovially; he didn't seem to take Cadmus' statement seriously.

"He served in the British Auror Force for over 20 years, of course, he's going to be paranoid and peculiar. I can't blame the man either; my aunt thinks he's gone mad after rounding up Death Eaters since the end of the first wizarding war" Jacob explained but Cadmus wasn't listening. Instead, he set down his fork and got up.

"Where are you going, Cadmus?" Daphne asked as they watched Cadmus grab all his things.

"Um, I think I need to use the restroom" Cadmus muttered, as he left the Great Hall in a hurry. Casper shared an uneasy glance with Daphne, who studied the retreating back of Cadmus suspiciously.

"I don't have a good feeling about this," Daphne remarked.

"Relax Daphne, the poor boy needs to relieve himself, nothing else" Jacob commented, stuffing a small portion of his cut steak in his mouth.

Daphne scoffed. "Doesn't it seem odd that Cadmus left the Great Hall the second after Jamie Potter does? Can't be a coincidence, can it? Whatever Cadmus is doing, I better hope he's not doing something bad."

Cadmus quietly strolled through the corridors following Jamie Potter's hasty departure from the Great Hall. He knew that infringing on other people's business was immoral, but a note delivered by a house-elf personally to Jamie Potter warranted some skepticism. After all, house-elves are rarely allowed to interact with the students, unless they are personal elves. What made the whole thing odd was that the Potters didn't own any personal house-elves so one of the school elves must have been sent.

Just as Cadmus was going to give up on finding out what Jamie Potter was up to, he turned the corner and reached a door that was left slightly ajar.

"Curse Anonymous Fire, I should have listened when I could" the voice of James Potter started but then immediately cut off. Cadmus' ears perked up at the sound of his anonymous name so he leaned closer to the door to listen.

"Anonymous Fire? Who is this person?" the voice of Lily Potter asked.

"No one Lily. Umm, just this person who sent...some...fan mail" James stuttered in response hurriedly to cover his slipup but Cadmus knew he was lying.

"James," Lily said in a warning tone, "WHO is this Anonymous Fire person? You better explain right now, or I swear to god I will force the truth out of you." Cadmus could hear James Potter gulp loudly and back up to a wall.

"James, I know you lied to me. Tell me the truth!" Lily growled.

"Lily, please forgive me. I-I thought that it was all a lie and a hoax. I didn't t-think that Anonymous Fire had proof of that n-n-night…" James stammered out in fright. The sound of paper getting snatched out of someone's hand told Cadmus that James had just shown Lily the anonymous letter.

"Are you meaning to tell me, James, that you knew that someone had dirt on us and disregarded the warning? What the heck James! I thought that you smartened up after you graduated Hogwarts!" Lily exclaimed loudly.

Hearing enough, Cadmus decided to leave for his dorms. He walked down the corridor slowly and looked around. This was fortunate because the next moment, the three Potters had emerged from the room. Cadmus gave a cheerful sort of whistle as he strode past several portraits of famous Hogwarts alumnae.

"Mr. Flamel!" James Potter called out to him.

Cadmus whirled around and gave him an innocent smile. "Yes, Mr. Potter?"

James narrowed his eyes at the foreign student, "What are you doing here?" Cadmus smiled brightly.

"Why, I am heading to my dormitory, Mr. Potter. Is there something I can help you with?" Cadmus said a little bit too sweetly. James Potter blushed red and quickly shook his head before Cadmus nodded and continued to proceed to his dorms. He turned a corner but hung back to hear what James Potter was going to say about him.

Thinking that Cadmus Flamel was out of earshot, James growled, "That Flamel boy is too secretive for his good. You need to keep an eye on him while I'm gone, Lily. He is going to cause trouble, I just know it."

A/N: Hey everyone, thanks for reading. What did you think of the punishment I gave the Potters? Too light? Too harsh? How would you have punished the Potters/Bagman/Karkaroff? This chapter is showing Cadmus' Slytherin side a bit, but the next chapter will show his Hufflepuff side! You guessed it, the Yule Ball is coming! As always, I appreciate all the love and support you guys give this story. We have a new record high 6.03K views in a day, that's just bloody amazing! Thank you. As always, please review, favorite, follow, share, and all that goody. They just make me super happy in quarantine.

Stay safe and happy,

mintloveme523

PS: Would you mind if I take like a week off to rest? Being creative does make you tired sometimes. Hehehehe