Gobbledygook
"Thank you, Sirius, I will write him and tell him how I expect him to act from now, hopefully Severus will agree to keep an eye on him for me... and his retraining will start over Christmas break." She said with a genuine smile, one rarely seen by anyone other than her son in private. Sirius grinned back, and just like that, the Black Lord was gone, replaced by her fun loving cousin again.
"Now, tell me what I've missed over the years in your life. It can't all have been spent being a dutiful Pureblood wife." He said with a mischievous grin, one matched by Narcissa.
After lunch, Harry discovered that he really, really hated camera's. And fan-boys. But, what he hated the most, was a camera, in the hands of a fan-boy.
He hated them, and, while this would die down eventually, at the moment, his hatred for them ranked right up there with his hatred for Dumbledore.
Especially when said fanboy with a camera asked for his autograph (rather loudly) within earshot of both Malfoy and Lockhart. So, here he was, trapped against Lockhart's side while the man made his way through the halls. He could really kill Colin Creevy right now.
When they finally made it to the Defense classroom, with Harry struggling the whole way, Lockhart finally released him and Harry went to the desk farthest from the front and set about stacking books up in front of him so he didn't have to look at Lockhart. He loved that his bag could hold so many books, it came in handy at the moment.
When the rest of the class finally came in, (with Hermione looking torn between pity, amusement, and jealousy and Ron with a sympathetic look in his eyes) Harry could tell right away that they were the first class of the day for him. Either that, or they were just the first class he had that day that actually had a chance to visit the Owlery, and it was clear none of them mentioned the recall if that was the case.
Because the first thing he did after introducing himself was to ask if they all had his books. And, of course, only Hermione hadn't sent hers in... yet.
"There was a recall on the books, we just got the letter this morning, along with the book Professors Snape and McGonagall chose for us." Hermione said hesitantly, raising her hand. Lockhart turned to her and blinked, he looked lost for a moment, and Harry thought his features looked rather weak and wobbly without his blinding smile.
Then, the smile was back, looking a mix between hopeful, confident, and nervous. "Ah, but of course, you still have the books I assigned, right? You wouldn't just send them in?" His smile dimmed when the entire class started looking around at each other before everyone, except Harry (he never bought them to begin with) and Hermione, confirmed that they mailed their books back not an hour ago. Again, he looked lost.
Finally, he blinked and reached for a stack of parchments by his desk, plastering a smile back on his face and forcing some cheer back to his voice. "Not to worry," he said, "I will speak with Minerva and... Severus," he shuddered slightly, and Harry had a feeling his godfather did something to him... and he wanted to know what."I will also write to Flourish and Blotts, I'm sure this is all a terrible misunderstanding." He assured as he started to hand out the papers. Harry scowled when he saw Hermione looked relieved.
He'd been hoping the letter earlier would shake some of her belief in authority and books.
"Now, this is just a little quiz, just to see how much you've read from my books. Don't worry, it won't be graded, it is just for me to see." He said cheerfully when he noticed the students disgruntled looks. They did not appreciate a quiz the first day. "You have half an hour, begin!" After letting them start, he went back to his desk and pulled some parchment and a very ugly looking quill and started writing. Harry suspected it to be a letter to Flourish and Blotts. Probably about the recall.
Harry looked at the quiz on his desk and almost gagged in disgust. The first question was...
1. What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favorite color?
2. What is Gilderoy Lockhart's secret ambition?
3. What, in your opinion, is Gilderoy Lockhart's achievement to date?
... the questions finally ended with,
54. When is Gilderoy Lockhart's birthday, and what would his ideal gift be?
If this was the kind of quiz he could come up with over how well they read the books, then he was very glad he didn't waste money on them. It also didn't fill him with a whole lot of enthusiasm with the rest of the year with Lockhart as the teacher. And looking around the room, he wasn't the only one. Especially among the guys.
When the half hour was up, Lockhart set his letter to the side and collected the papers to rifle through them. "Tut, tut- hardly any of you remembered that my favorite color is lilac. I say so in Year with the Yeti. And a few of you need to read Wandering with Werewolves more carefully... once I get you your books back anyway... I clearly stated in chapter twelve that my ideal birthday gift would be harmony between all magic and non-magic peoples- although I wouldn't say no to a large bottle of Ogden's Old Firewiskey!"
Harry frowned when he mentioned harmony between magicals and Muggles. From what he read during his lessons on wizarding politics and law, Muggle-baiting and the like, while illegal, wasn't exactly punished in Britain unless the Statute of Secrecy was put in jeopardy. Otherwise nobody cared. Besides, there were the witch hunts to consider...
Lockhart gave them another roguish wink. Ron was now staring at him in disbelief; Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas, sitting in the front row, were shaking with laughter. Harry noticed all the boys were in various stages of copying the three Gryffindors, while the girls seemed to be bordering on being unsure, and fangirling on him. Hermione was the only one who was listening with rapt attention, and she started when he mentioned her name.
"... but Miss Hermione Granger knew my secret ambition is to rid the world of evil and market my own range of hair-care products-" Harry snorted. Everyone knew the Potter family currently owned the market on hair products. With their hair, how could they not? "-good girl! In fact," -he flipped her paper over- "full marks! Where is Miss Hermione Granger?"
Hermione raised a trembling hand and Harry and Ron both mentally groaned. This was going to take a while.
"Excellent!" beamed Lockhart. "Quite excellent! Take ten points for Gryffindor! And so- to business-" Harry pouted when Lockhart didn't mention his paper. Or even appear to have read it. He had made sure to be as sarcastically insulting as he possibly could, after all. He patted his bag with the copy that he'd discreetly made of his finished quiz before Lockhart collected them all. At least Severus would get a laugh out of it. After he ranted for a while about how useless Lockhart was.
At the front, Lockhart had taken out a large, covered cage from behind his desk. Harry looked at it warily. This couldn't be good...
"Now- be warned! It is my job to arm you against the foulest creatures known to wizard-kind!" Harry frowned, he could have sworn Severus told him that they didn't learn about Dark Creatures until third year... "You may find yourselves facing your worst fears in this room. Know only that no harm can befall you whilst I am here. All I ask is that you remain calm."
In spite of himself, Harry leaned around his pile of books in curiosity for a better look at the cage. Lockhart placed a hand on the cover. Dean and Seamus had stopped laughing, and they along with Neville leaned away from the cage warily.
"I must ask you not to scream," Lockhart said in a low voice. "It might provoke them!" As the class held its breath, Lockhart whipped off the cover.
"Yes," he said (too) dramatically. "Freshly caught Cornish pixies." The silence was broken by Seamus' snort of laughter that not even Lockhart could mistake for a scream of terror.
"Yes?" He smiled at Seamus.
"Well, they're not- they're not very dangerous are they?" Seamus choked. Harry frowned and pulled out his wand. He had a bad feeling about this... although he did agree that they didn't look very dangerous... but appearances could be deceiving.
"Don't be so sure!" said Lockhart, waggling a finger annoyingly at Seamus. "Devilish tricky little blighters they can be!" Now Harry's bad feeling was getting stronger and stronger... especially the more he watched the pixies.
The pixies were electric blue and about eight inches tall, with pointed faces and shrill voices, it was almost like listening to a lot of budgies arguing. They had started jabbering and rocketing around, rattling the bars and making odd faces at the closest people as soon as their cage was uncovered. Harry really hoped Lockhart wasn't about to do something stupid, like...
"Right, then," Lockhart said loudly. "Let's see what you make of them!" and he opened the cage.
...that. Exactly like that.
It was pandemonium. The pixies shot in every direction like rockets. Two of them tried to sieze Neville by the ears and lift him into the air, but his magic reacted and the two creatures were blown off of him, landing unconscious on the ground. Several shot straight through the window, showering the back row with broken glass. The rest proceeded to wreck the classroom more effectively than a rampaging rhino. They grabbed ink bottles and sprayed the class with them, shredded books (thank goodness for Mipsy charming his stuff against damage) and papers, tore pictures from the walls, up-ended the waste basket, they even grabbed bags and books (good thing Neville and Harry grabbed theirs before the cage was opened) and threw them all out the window... it didn't take long for half the class to be sheltering under desks and for Neville to make his way to the back of the room by Harry.
Both of them were reluctant to use magic on the pixies, they didn't want them to blow up after all, or accidentally hit a classmate. Harry's control was better, but he still had problems, as evidenced by the overpowered water spell that morning. That, and Lockhart was useless, so he wouldn't be able to reverse what they did.
"Come on now- round them up, round them up, they're only pixies," Lockhart shouted. He rolled up his sleeves, brandished his wand, and bellowed, "Peskipiksi Pesternomi!"
Predictably, it had absolutely no affect; one of the pixies seized his wand and threw it out the window, too. Lockhart gulped and dived under his own desk, barely avoiding the falling chandelier that one of the pixies finally succeeded in loosening.
The bell rang and there was a mad dash for the door. In the relative calm that followed, Lockhart straightened up, noticed Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville at the back of the crowd, and said, "Well, I'll ask you four to just nip the rest of them back into their cage." He swept past them and shut the door quickly behind him before they could escape.
"Can you believe him?" roared Ron as one of the remaining pixies bit him on the ear.
"He just want to give us some hands-on experience," Hermione said, immobilizing two pixies at one with a Freezing Charm and stuffing them back into their cage.
"Hands on?" Harry asked incredulously, as he tried to grab a pixies dancing out of reach with its tongue sticking out. He still didn't want to risk magic on them. Yeah, they were extremely annoying, but this was their nature. And it wasn't their fault they were here. "Hermione, he didn't have a clue what he was doing-"
"Rubbish," Hermione replied. "You've read his books-" she seemed to have forgotten that Harry hadn't even bought them, "look at all those amazing things he's done-"
"He says he's done," Ron muttered.
"Yeah, have you already forgotten the recall? Didn't the letter say it was for false information?" Neville asked as he took a book and swatted at a pixie.
"But he said it was a misunderstanding!" She protested.
"Of course he did, he makes money selling those things! If there is a recall, nobody is going to buy or sell his books anymore!" Harry said, he was starting to get annoyed with her now.
Unsurprisingly, Hermione had no answer for that.
Amelia Bones sat in her office, going over paperwork. She had just finished sending out copies of the list of laws proposed and pushed through by Dumbledore, along with a few that they suspected Dumbledore to have been involved with, as per Harry and Daniel's request.
If he hadn't been the Potter proxy illegally, they wouldn't have ever had a chance of getting these laws looked into like this. They would be looked over again, and put to a vote again. This time, with everyone on the Wizengamot actually belonging on the Wizengamot, so if they passed, they would actually pass legally. As of now, the laws themselves were illegal and any actions taken since they were passed to uphold those laws, was also illegal. Which meant, if they didn't get re-passed, she would have to go through the case records and possibly bring disciplinary action down on some of her Aurors. She wouldn't punish them harshly, at worst it would be simply paying families compensation or something. After all, they were only doing their jobs and upholding the law as it they knew it to be.
Sadly, this meant that about ninety percent of the laws put in place since James and Lily died over a decade ago, were now being called into question.
No wonder Magical Britain was going to the dogs.
At least Dumbledore never showed any interest in taking over the proxy for the Potter families seats on the Muggle House of Lords. Sure, the Potters weren't nearly as influential in the Muggle world as they were in the Wizarding, but Dumbledore was a smooth talker when he wanted something bad enough. He could have easily taken over the Muggle government given enough time.
Now, she was going over the monthly budget, which had taken yet another cut, when she heard yelling from out in the Pit. "What in Merlins name...?" She muttered. When she opened the door, she was somehow not surprised to see Dumbledore there, she had been expecting a visit from him since the last Wizengamot session. What she was surprised to see, was all her Aurors standing in lines, with their wands drawn, preventing him from coming any further inside.
It took her a minute to remember that when she posted the list of laws that were now in question to all her Aurors, she 'accidentally' left a copy of this months budget, cuts and all, among the papers. And those papers were now on every Aurors desk. Since she knew several of her Aurors had a habit of dropping everything they were doing to read her notices and the like, she figured that once they found the copy of the budget, they must have spread the word. Because it seemed like every Auror knew about it, even those that she knew usually saved her notices for later, when they weren't working a case or when they went home where they could have a chance to study it in more detail.
Another interesting thing about the budget cut lists, they always included the name of the one who originally proposed the cuts. And, of course, they were always signed by the Minister and Chief Warlock. Which meant Dumbledore's name, was on there twice. Both as the one to make the proposal, and as the Chief Warlock.
A fact that the entire Department of Magical Law Enforcement now knew.
Oops.
Deciding to play ignorant for now, she quickly made her way between her ranks, feeling very proud of them as she did so, and Dumbledore. She pointed randomly to one of her Seniors, Kingsley, and demanded to know what was going on. Wordlessly, he summoned his copy of the budget cut and handed it over.
"Albus Dumbledore is no longer welcome in this office. If he really thinks us so useless that he won't fund us, then I don't see why he has any business being here." Moody said, clomping over from his spot in the corner. Amelia blinked. She hadn't even seen him there. Dumbledore, too, looked surprised, and even a bit betrayed. He obviously hadn't been expecting one of his oldest friends to go against him like that.
Acting confused, Amelia glanced at the paper Kingsley handed her, even though she already knew what it must be. "Oh, I'm sorry, this must have gotten mixed in with the list of Laws I handed out. You know, the ones being called into question for being illegally passed and being put up for a re-vote. I know the budget is supposed to be for my eyes only, by order of the Chief Warlock no less!" She could tell that none of the Aurors bought her act, good, if the smirks spreading across their faces said anything.
"But," she continued, "I suppose its a good thing your here, saves me from tracking you down, again. Because now I can remind you, again, that this is the Department of Magical LAW ENFORCEMENT. Which means, we enforce the law. How do you expect us to do that properly, without the proper funds. Funds for training, to pay my men's salary, to pay for new recruits, new uniforms, hospital bills when one of my men gets injured on the job, detection equipment, etc. etc. As you can see, this department has a lot to pay for it you want YOUR laws enforced, not that they will be YOUR laws for much longer mind..." She looked behind her at her men. "If you ever call for the Aurors, I can't promise any of them coming to YOUR aid." She finished.
Of course, if it were Hogwarts that called, they would still answer no problem. As long as Albus Dumbledore wasn't the one making the Floo call.
Dumbledore snarled and seemed to forget where he was and the fact that he was still being held at wand point by over fifty well trained Aurors. Aurors who used to trust him. He pulled his own wand and was about to curse Amelia with the worst he knew when he suddenly found himself frozen in place, disarmed, and silenced. The Auror who disarmed him came forward holding it tightly in his hand, looking confused and worried about something.
"What's wrong?" She asked him.
"When I caught his wand, I felt it make the connection." Dawlish said.
She frowned, "Odd, I've never heard of a wand switching allegiance so easily like that. Well, except for one... but that wand is supposed to be a myth... we'll have to go and consult Ollivander later. If it is what I suspect, then we may have to involve Gringotts as well." She told him, then she turned to Dumbledore.
"You know, you just tried to attack the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement in front of her own Aurors, in her own offices. Seeing as how you are the Chief Warlock, that is not enough for me to arrest you... yet. But, it does give me enough cause to open up an investigation. So, consider yourself being investigated. Also, consider yourself on probation. If I learn of any other incidents like this, you will be arrested and thrown in a cell faster than you can blink. I would confiscate your wand, but its just chosen a new owner. The standard ten Galleon compensation fee will be in your vault by the end of the day so you can get yourself a new one if you need." She motioned Moody and several other Aurors over.
"As of now, Mr. Dumbledore, you are hereby restricted access to the Ministry of Magic. You can no longer come and go. You are only allowed in the building for Wizengamot sessions, or if you have received an official summons from either myself or the Minister. These gentlemen will escort you to the nearest Floo. Good day." She said, and turned to her Aurors still standing behind her, many of them trying not to laugh as they watched the great Albus Dumbledore being slapped in magic-restraining cuffs and dragged away, yelling.
She turned to Kingsley, "I want the standard procedure on this wand. Priori Incantantum, the works. Dawlish, don't forget to go to Gringotts later and take care of Mr. Dumbledore's compensation." She turned to one of her older trainees, "Tonks, you are in charge of the official report on this, see Kingsley later for the wand-work and to get it checked over for mistakes." Tonks nodded once, then scurried over to the desk she shared with Moody, her main trainer, to start writing. Amelia noticed that her usually vibrant pink hair was now a mousy brown. Usually a sign that she was extremely bothered by something.
She didn't even have to wonder, she knew Tonks had practically worshiped Dumbledore. He was her inspiration for joining the Auror Corps in the first place.
Amelia, on the other hand, was over the moon. Especially when she noticed the Daily Prophet reporter in the room. They were usually hanging around, getting information on the various ongoing cases that the public should be made aware of for their own safety, naturally the details of such cases were classified while the investigations were ongoing, but they could at least get general information. She needed to owl Sharpaxe and Griphook with this latest development, and warn Severus and Harry. This could speed up their plans, now that Dumbledore was officially under investigation and his access to the Ministry restricted. Something witnessed by over fifty Aurors and one reporter! This was great!
She went over to Kingsleys desk, where he was just finishing up with Dawlish's new wand. "Don't forget, Tonks is writing up the official report, Dawlish, we're going to Ollivanders. I would rather do this now." She said. He nodded and got up, grabbing the wand, as soon as Kingsley said they were done. On there way out, Amelia turned to Kingsley, "Oh, and Shack? There is a folder on my desk, the extremely thick one. I think you will find it... beneficial to starting the investigation into one Albus Dumbledore. Oh, and if you would be so kind as to get the memos sent out that Dumbledore is restricted access, that would be great too." She said with a smirk. Kingsley looked worried, but nodded.
When they got to the Atrium, Amelia wasn't surprised to see people watching them and whispering. Dumbledore had, after all, just been dragged through here just moments ago by several of her Aurors, who knows what they heard Dumbledore yelling on his way out.
"Ah, Madam Bones, Auror Dawlish, do you need a wand identified?" Ollivander asked when he saw Amelia walk in with one of her Aurors close by. It was a fair guess, considering he was sometimes asked to do that. With his legendary memory for wands, as well as the fact that he provided ninety percent of all Wizarding British citizens with their wands, he was the man to go to when they had a wand and wanted to know who it belonged to. Of course, there were the times when he didn't make it, so he couldn't help them there.
"Sort of, Garrick. We already know who it belonged to, although it has now changed its allegiance." She explained what happened, although she left out her suspicions on what the wand was. Dawlish added in with what exactly it felt like when he caught the wand.
Ollivander looked thoughtful before he asked to see it. When he held it, he looked amazed. "I never thought I would see this wand... last any historian traced it, Gregorovitch had it, but his shop was broken into not long after he claimed to have it, and the wand stolen." He said, holding it reverently.
"What's so special about this wand?" Dawlish asked, while Amelia had a feeling she had been right.
"You, of course, know the Tale of the Three Brothers?" Ollivander asked. When Dawlish nodded, confused, he continued. "But what you don't know, what few people know and believe, is that the story is true. Oh, of course details have been added and embellished over the centuries depending on who was telling the tale at the time, but the basic facts, are true. Three brothers, historians tell us they were the Peverell brothers, gained three powerful magic objects. The Cloak of Invisibility, the Resurrection Stone, and the Elder Wand." He said, holding up the wand in his hand. "Of course, the only way we can ever know just how they got these objects, is if their descendants come forward with any personal journals they may have had." He finished.
"The Elder Wand? That's real?" Dawlish asked.
Ollivander nodded. "Yes... although I must warn you. Historians and wand-lore masters have theorized that the wand will only be truly loyal to one of the Peverell bloodline. Oh, it will give it's allegiance to anybody," He said quickly when he saw the confused look on his audience's faces. "But it's true loyalties, will always lay with its creator's bloodline. This is the theory because as little as wand-makers have been able to study it before it has been stolen and disappeared again, it is made out the wood of an Elder Tree, and a Thestral feather, dipped in Thestral blood. Now, the Elder wood is extremely favors loyalty above all else, while the Thestral, can only bond with one wizard in its life. Of course, not many do form a bond since Thestral's are thought of so poorly in Britain. Once that bond is made, it is unbreakable. But, that bond can also be transferred to that wizards blood. His family. Not to quite the same extent as the original wizard, mind. And, just holding it, I can confirm what its made of." Ollivander said, running his wand hand over the wand, feeling with his magic what it was made of.
"So, that could be considered a lost family heirloom?" Dawlish asked, glancing at his boss really quick.
"It could be." Ollivander said with a shrug. "You would have to visit the Goblins to know for sure. Are you sure you would want to give something like this up?" Ollivander asked carefully. No matter what the man decided, it was none of his business, he just wanted to be sure. This wand had a long, bloody history, after all. Not that it was the wands fault, it was the idiots who had it in their possession that couldn't keep quiet about it, and it was those greedy enough to kill for it.
Dawlish looked at it for a moment, before pulling out his own wand, his original. "Nah, I've been doing pretty well with my own wand. I don't need some 'unbeatable wand' to do my job and be good at it." He said after a few moments. "Besides, if it will only give it's true loyalties to a Peverell descendant, I don't want to risk being on a case, it suddenly recognizing one of those descendants, and suddenly stop working for me when I need it the most." He added.
"In that case, I think we should take it to Gringotts. They will see to it that it gets put in the correct vault and the owners of that vault notified. We should go there anyway so you can get ten Galleons transferred to Dumbledore's vault. Might as well do it while we are here, and I need to speak with some of them anyway." Amelia said.
"Does that have anything to do with the file you told Kingsley to get off your desk?" Dawlish asked her after they thanked Ollivander for his help and stepped back out into the sunshine. All he got was a smirk.
Dumbledore was fuming.
First, Potter is taken from his house by an unknown party. He claimed it was his families elf, but... there was no way such a useless creature managed to get past the blocks he placed to keep her from finding her master.
Then, the Potter Heirlooms he took from the vault disappeared. Including the Grimiore. Oh, how he wanted to get his hands on that kind of magic, he would have truly been unstoppable.
Then, after a nice conference where he reminded everyone that he was Albus Dumbledore and he knew best (they were probably laughing at him the whole time because they all thought he was an idiot), he comes back to find that the Potter Wills had been read! He lost the proxy seat, the brat got his godfather back, and now he knew of his inheritance. Luckily, any independence he had managed to gain was now squashed by the potions.
But, oh, the Howlers. He had managed to destroy all but one. That one just. Would. Not. BURN. If he ever managed to find out who sent that one, they were going to die. It was as simple as that.
And then, of course, the brat didn't fly in the car with the youngest Weasley brat. They were supposed to come together in the car, so he could come, be the hero, and get them out of trouble (not really, but hey, it would have been a nice illusion to give them).
And now, his access to the Ministry was restricted, and he was under official investigation. Of course, he doubted they would actually keep him out of the Ministry, he was Albus Dumbledore! They wouldn't do that to him, he was their hero! And it would just take a bit of gold to get the investigation lifted, or at least redirected. He just had to find out who Amelia gave the case to. He would just give it a couple of days to let things at the Ministry calm down. It wouldn't do to be hasty and make things worse for himself.
Although, the worst part of it all, was that he lost his wand! He, Albus Dumbledore, lost the Elder Wand to some stupid no-name Auror! But wait, they were going to go to Ollivanders with it... the Auror certainly wouldn't give something like that up willingly, he would just have to send somebody to... persuade the Auror to give it back. Until then... he better search his old house for his original wand... if he even bothered to keep it after winning the Elder Wand from Gellert.
Hmm... he should make another visit to his old friend... See if Gellert might not be willing to cooperate with Dumbledore's methods and plans this time... hopefully. He did miss his old friend. He had tried to tell Gellert before he started the war, that fear wasn't the best method to rule by. No, the best way to rule was to make them adore and worship you, only then can you manipulate things in your favor. It was the slow way to get things done, but it was the... less risky way. Less risk of rebellion and people fighting back.
The problem Gellert had, was that he was too impatient. So, he 'dueled' him, and at the end, he locked him up inside the prison they built to cool down and learn patience. Meanwhile, he, Albus, would take care of getting the world back to how it should be. Once things were ready, and Gellert was willing to play by his methods... then he would let his friend go free again. And things were almost ready... there was just a small hitch in the plan... a hitch named Amelia Bones.
Luckily, the Potter brat had been brought to heel, now to take Bones out of the game... but how to do that without getting caught...
Sitting on his perch, Fawkes narrowed his eyes and started planning how to get word to Amelia Bones and her Auror and warn them.
"I need to see the Goblin in charge of the Peverell accounts, please? It's regarding a possible missing family heirloom that just came in our possession." Amelia said to the Goblin at the desk. "And, afterwards I need to see Sharpaxe about our project."
Dawlish blinked at her, confused, but decided not to say anything when it was obvious that the Goblins nearby knew exactly what he was talking about. The project, just so happened to be the unofficial investigation she'd been running on Dumbledore with the goblins assistance. Of course, it was only recently that Severus brought a few things to their attention, that they managed to uncover a few accounts that somehow drained into Dumbledore's vault without anybody realizing it.
"Alright, I will let Sharpaxe know you wish to see him later, and I will find out who manages the Peverell accounts. Wait here." The Goblin said before he left his desk to go find out who they needed to see.
It took almost ten minutes before the Goblin returned. And only the fact that Amelia had been working with Sharpaxe and Griphook for so long let her see the amusement on his face. "Sharpaxe will see you now." He said, and gestured for them to follow. Amelia was confused, was it taking them a while to figure out who had the Peverell vaults? She knew that vaults tended to be merged together when families merged or married out.
In Sharpaxe's office, she was surprised to see Griphook there. She bowed slightly at the waist, "Thank you for agreeing to meet with me. Although I was not expecting it until our other business at the bank was concluded." She said.
Sharpaxe raised an eyebrow. "It just so happens, Madam Bones, that I am the one who is in charge of the Family account that includes the Peverell vaults." He said.
Amelia stared at him for a moment, "Well, that is one mystery solved, I guess." She muttered. "Not to worry, this knowledge will not leave the office, will it Dawlish?" She asked her Auror lightly. Dawlish could hear the order and slight threat in her words though.
"No, ma'am. I quite like my job." He said. He had read the plaque loud and clear, and he already knew that Sharpaxe was the Goblin in charge of the Potter accounts. If you asked him, though, this was only further proof of the proud legacy of the Potter family.
"Well, I guess this means we can do both at once, since I won't have to deal with two separate Goblins. Earlier today, Dumbledore came into the Auror office to see me. However, when I handed out the latest notices and copies of laws that are being put up for a re-vote, I must have... accidentally, included the latest list of budget cuts." She could tell that nobody believed that she did anything accidentally. "And the list just so happened to have Dumbledore's name on it as the one responsible. So, my Auror's weren't letting him in. When I went to find out what was going on, and remind him that we need funds to do our jobs, he attacked." Griphook and Sharpaxe grinned ferally. "As such, I have opened an official investigation, and restricted his access to the Ministry. However, during the attack, one of my Auror's disarmed him. Upon catching the wand, the wand immediately switched its allegiance to him." She gestured to Dawlish, who put the wand on the table.
"We have just come from Ollivanders, where he tells us that this is the Elder Wand, and that it is a lost Peverell heirloom." She finished.
Sharpaxe hummed, and picked up the wand. Dawlish tensed, it was against the law for any magical creature to be in possession of a wand, but Amelia put a hand on his arm and just let Sharpaxe be. After examining it for a moment, he got up to retrieve a file from one of the cabinets in the corner. It took him a minute to flip through it before he found what he was looking for. "Hmm, yes, this is on the list as being a missing Heirloom. It is also the first Heirloom since the Potters created their Blood Magic to have been recovered." He looked at Dawlish. "Are you returning this?"
"I am."
Sharpaxe nodded. "Alright then, there is a standing award on file for anyone who returns a missing Heirloom. 500,000 Galleons will be added to your vault. And we will withdraw and deposit ten Galleons into Dumbledore's vault for the standard compensation relating to loss of a wand." He said with a nod.
"500,000 Galleons? What?" Dawlish asked, with his jaw dropped.
"The Family likes its Heirlooms, they are very protective of them. Especially Heirlooms that contain or have been made with the Families magic in mind. Therefore, they pay very well in gratitude when one of those Heirlooms has been returned. It is why all possessions of the Family today has the Family Blood Magic used on them, so that if they go missing or are stolen, the Family can easily and quickly get them back. They did not want to run the risk of somebody examining an object made by them and... how do the Muggles put it... reverse engineer, how it was done. They were a very secretive Family." Sharpaxe explained.
Dawlish blinked. "Yeah, I'm beginning to see that."
Sharpaxe nodded again, and made some notes on a piece of parchment while Griphook finally spoke up.
"Now that Dumbledore has gotten himself in trouble officially, we need to discuss how we are going to go from here and how much of our plans we need to move up." He said, and both Goblins and Amelia smirked ferally. Dawlish barely had time to wonder what he got himself dragged into this time, before they started plotting and scheming.