Gobbledygook
"Agreed. Mr. Zabini, if you do not answer truthfully, you will be scrubbing bedpans under Filch's supervision for the next three months, am I clear?" Minerva said sternly. Zabini's eyes widened slightly before he managed to recover his Pureblood Slytherin mask, but he nodded his understanding along with a small, 'Yes, ma'am.'
"Good, how many students have asked you, or another student, to forge a note from a teacher." Pomona asked first.
By the time Tuesday came around, and with it Harry's first training session with Severus since returning to school, Harry was tired. Tired of school, of the other students following him around, trying to get his attention, and tired of everyone whispering about him as if he was deaf.
The only thing interesting that happened since Saturday morning was when most of Slytherin House second year and up, about half of Ravenclaw, and even a few Gryffindors were put on probation for being involved in the forgery ring that the teachers discovered after the Slytherin team interrupted their Quidditch practice. And that was with rumors that Dumbledore had tried to 'make the teachers see reason'. Evidently, he had tried to fight with the teachers regarding their punishment, he said probation for a little teenage rebellion and boys being boys was a little harsh. Ignoring the fact that over half his school was involved, and they weren't all boys. Also ignoring the fact that this punishment was perfectly acceptable under the school by-laws, as laid out by the Founders. (What nobody knew except the ringleaders and those actually writing the notes was that McGonagall contacted the Aurors to investigate their parents. They wanted to make sure the students hadn't picked this up from their parents. Those were some GOOD forgeries.)
Naturally, when the Hufflepuffs found out about it, they returned to their common room and basically shunned the rest of the school. They only came out for meals and class. (They only came out for meals because Professor Sprout ordered the House-elves to not take them food in the Common Room.) And the only students they spoke with during class outside of their own House were the ones who weren't on probation. If they spoke with those on probation, it was because the teacher partnered them together, and even then they only spoke the bare minimum required for their class work.
And if they were still a little frosty with even those students not on probation... well... And really, considering they were the House of Hard work, Loyalty, and Fair-play, it made sense that something like this would be so insulting.
The Quidditch teams, minus Slytherin, had also been called to Madam Hooches office on Sunday morning. There, they had been informed of the Slytherin teams fate, and warned that such actions (sabotaging another team) would not be tolerated and that should any of them be caught doing anything similar, they would meet the same fate. What happened Saturday would also go on their record, meaning that no Quidditch scout would ever consider them for the professional teams. They didn't want people who would sabotage other teams and potentially ruin their teams reputations and/or risk getting the team kicked out of the league for unsportsmanlike conduct.
He was now dragging Hermione, under the Cloak, up to the seventh floor where Severus told him they were to meet. She had not been happy about being dragged away from her homework, especially without being told what was going on, and she was trying to fight him to get her answers. She just would not accept the explanation that he would tell her when they got there, he didn't want anyone to overhear. When he told Ron about it, Ron had asked if he could come with, but Harry hadn't been sure if Severus would appreciate that, so he told his red-haired friend that he would ask. He made no promises though.
He had asked her to take a walk with him, and she protested at being taken away from her homework, but he got her out of the common room anyway. Which is when he pulled out the Cloak and she started to fight him, she didn't want to be dragged away from her homework just to go around breaking rules. When they finally arrived, he finally had enough and, noticing that they were alone in a corridor with no portraits, pulled off the Cloak and yelled at her to just stop asking questions for once and just trust him. "I told you, you would get your answers when we arrived, and weren't in a crowded common room where everybody thinks they have a right to stick their noses in my business." He finished with, annoyed.
She just stood there, stunned. It didn't last long though, she had just opened her mouth to tell him off when Severus arrived. "Good, alright, just let me access the Room, and I will explain about it once we are out of the open." He said, somewhat distracted. He was busy casting his magic out to scan the area and make sure they weren't followed, detected, or otherwise being spied on. When he found nothing and nobody, he started pacing in front of the wall, causing the two pre-teens to look at him oddly. Hermione gasped when the door appeared out of nowhere, which made him turn to smirk at her.
"Welcome, to the Room of Requirement." He said, opening the door and letting the children in first. When they went in, Harry wasn't surprised to see it looking something like the training room in his trunk. Minus the Muggle equipment and plus a Potions area in the corner... although he was curious about what this room was and where it came from. Hermione looked confused, what was up with the training room? Why did Harry drag her here, and why was Professor Snape here?
Severus looked around in satisfaction. Yes, this would do nicely. He quickly asked the Room for some chairs and conjured up some tea. Miss Granger was stubborn, this conversation would probably take a while. "As I said, this is the Room of Requirement. The Elves call it the Come-And-Go-Room, because it is only appears when it is needed. It will appear as whatever you need it to be. Potions Lab, training room, Lily and I used to ask for a lake and we would go swimming in here all the time." He informed Harry. "I believe it has been used as a Quidditch pitch in the past as well." He said, thinking about how James and Sirius once had a Seeker battle (despite neither of them being Seekers) while he, Lily, and Remus watched, (Pettigrew was in detention for something) and watched as Harry's eyes lit up in interest.
"What is going on?" Hermione asked quietly, she didn't want to be demanding of one of her teachers, but she was really confused and really wanted to know what was happening. Why did Harry drag her up here, and why was Professor Snape here? Last she checked, Harry and Professor Snape hated each other.
Severus looked at the girl and studied her for a minute before he sighed. "We are here, Miss Granger, because there have been concerns voiced that you are the kind who trusts blindly and refuses to consider that those who are in charge are anything less than perfect. I suppose you could call this an intervention, of sorts." He said, and when she only looked more confused, he continued. "You have been told repeatedly of things that are happening, you have read the Daily Prophet and refuse to believe any of what it says about Albus Dumbledore. Even when Harry and Mr. Longbottom have both said it was true. The concern here, is that as long as you continue to blindly trust him and defend all his actions, you can not be trusted with important information regarding your friends. There are things happening, things that Harry is currently involved in, things that have been set in motion that, if discovered by the wrong people before we are ready, will put a lot of people, Harry especially, in a lot of danger." He said, watching Hermione.
It took her a moment to start protesting. "But, Professor Dumbledore is a great man, a great wizard! He's done so many amazing things, and he's the Leader of the Light!" She protested. "If he did anything, then he did it for a good reason, besides, I'm sure its all a misunderstanding, and if someone would just ask him, he would explain!" She insisted.
"That's exactly it, right there. You won't even consider the possibility that he's not great and good, that he's not the kind of man he likes to portray." Harry said softly. Hermione turned to him and opened her mouth to berate him, but stopped when she saw the pain and hurt in his eyes. "You trust him over us, over me, your friends. When he has given you no reason to, while we have given you every reason to." He said quieter.
Hermione started, then blinked, then tried a different tact. "But, he's the Headmaster. An adult, we're supposed to trust him. Besides, if he wasn't good, then why is he in charge of Magical Britain's children?"
"Simple, he manipulated, schemed, and put on a facade. Miss Granger, one thing you have to learn, is that just because somebody is an adult and is in a position of authority does not mean they can be trusted. They may have gotten there through dishonest means, or maybe after they got there they let the position go to their head and started thinking of themselves as above the law. In Dumbledore's case, its the former." Severus said, watching Hermione, just from her arguments, he found her to be a little naive and extremely sheltered to the way the world worked.
The girl stared at him for a moment, and in that moment he was tempted to use Legilimancy to figure out what the girl was thinking, but then she looked away and said, "Say you are right, why should I trust you then? Obviously Harry does, for some reason, but how do we know that you aren't tricking him like you are claiming Professor Dumbledore tricked everyone else?"
Severus nodded in approval while Harry frowned, the girl was thinking for herself for a change. "Simple, I am Harry's godfather, and I have also been helping the Goblins and the Head of the DMLE run their quiet investigation on the old man for years. The investigation that has just been officially opened? It has been unofficially ongoing for going on eight years now. Unfortunately, all we have so far is financials." He was still annoyed by that, but now that there was an official investigation, they would be able to look into his past outside the bank now.
Hermione frowned again, "Your not Harry's godfather, Harry's godfather is Sirius Black." She said suspiciously, she then started slowly inching towards Harry, watching Severus carefully.
Severus smirked. "You honestly think, that with everything going on, that it was safe for that kind of information to be handed out to the public? Especially when both Harry and I are both in the same castle as Albus Dumbledore? I have been working with Amelia Bones for years now, she knew not to read that information out when she read the wills in front of the Wizengamot." He watched her carefully again. It looked like she was ready... "Now, would you like to hear the full story?" He asked. Hermione stared between the two for a moment, struggling with herself.
On the one hand, Harry was her best friend, and she trusted him. On the other, this kind of talk against the Headmaster went against everything she'd ever been taught growing up. She was taught to trust adults, to trust authority figures. Which, Professor Snape was an authority figure, but... he wasn't the highest authority in the school. She looked at Harry again, saw the hurt in his eyes that she even had to consider this... when she realized that it wasn't even a question. She could always trust Harry. And Harry obviously trusted Professor Snape. Now, she would have to see the full copy of the Wills later on, just to verify for herself and so she could start to plan, but...
She nodded. She wanted to know. She wanted to know everything.
Arthur sat at his desk in his study at home and sighed. Honestly, he should have written this letter weeks ago. As soon as they learned the truth about their Family Vaults and the fact that Charlie was likely the Heir to the Prewett line. But, he kept putting it off. Whether it was work, or trying to organize some of what Quickjaw sent him when it became clear that he wasn't going to be able to get off work for a while. And then, the whole thing with Sca- Pettigrew happened... He just kept putting it off. He kept putting off Owling Charlie and asking him if he could take some time off to come home and take care of some Family business, he honestly wasn't sure if he just didn't want to take his second eldest away from his beloved dragons, or if he just wanted to crawl in a hole and hide until the world regained some semblance of normalcy and sanity again.
The past few weeks had been long, and exhausting.
Amelia had gotten with him earlier that morning to let him know that she had an idea on how to find out where those missing reports went to. Because, honestly, it didn't matter how small the reports, or how much they didn't seem to matter (Boy, did they matter, not only was Muggle-baiting dangerous for the Muggles, it put the Statute of Secrecy at risk!) but the fact that reports and files weren't making it to her desk where they were supposed to be, pointed to one of two things.
1. A cover-up. Somebody was stealing files to keep somebody else out of trouble. And if it was happening with Arthur's reports, then who knows how many other reports have gone 'missing' over the years, and what they were about. Another possibility with this was that somebody within the department was getting 'supplemental pay'. Which was a serious offense and would result in their immediate job termination, followed by a full investigation and possible imprisonment.
2. A possible hole in department security. Either somehow they were getting stolen by somebody outside the department before reaching Amelia's desk, or they were getting stolen right off her desk before she had a chance to see them. Which was bad. Obviously. And if they were getting into office, then they had to figure out how they knew when certain reports would be there, and how they were getting in past all the Aurors outside.
So, tomorrow he had to deal with that. He sighed again and picked up his quill and frowned, he was going to need to get a new one. He meant to pop into Diagon on his way home and grab a new quill set, but decided not to. He was hungry, he was tired, and he had just wanted to come home to his lovely wife's cooking. After which he was planning to spend a quiet evening with his wife, but then he remembered he yet to Owl Charlie. Or rather, Molly asked if he did it yet and wouldn't let him eat until he wrote. He was just pulling a piece of parchment towards himself (he was going to have to get more of that, too, they were running low) when there was a quiet knock on the door.
He frowned, but called for them to come in, thinking it was Molly. This was the only room in the house where she wasn't really allowed, mostly because some nights he ended up bringing his work home with him, and sometimes his work was sensitive and for his and his department Head's (Amelia's) eyes only (his office was in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement after all). He didn't want her accidentally seeing something that could get her in trouble, so he just asked her to stay out and knock before coming in. This was the only room in the house that anybody knocked before coming into.
He was surprised when, instead of Molly, it was Charlie. He blinked for a second before glancing at the quill and parchment in his hand and looking back up at his son, who was watching with a raised eyebrow. Finally, when his brain caught up with what he was seeing, he got up and went to hug his son. "Charlie! I wasn't expecting you to be home, I thought you were still in Romania." He said.
Charlie grinned and hugged his father back. "I got an Owl from Bill asking if I could take some time and come home for a bit. He said you had been meaning to write, but that a lot has been happening lately? But he refused to write about it, said you would tell me when I got here."
Arthur stared for a moment, before he snorted and shook his head fondly. "That boy," He murmured and huffed a laugh. Ever since Bill graduated, he'd been finding little ways to make things easier on his father. Even when his work took him to Egypt. He didn't try to send money though, mainly because he knew his father would just send it back. But they all knew that a couple of Bill's paychecks could easily see them able to buy all knew clothes, fix up the house like new, and still have plenty left over for a couple of family vacations. Goblins may not like wizards much, mostly because of the lack of respect wizards in general had for them, but they paid their wizard employees well.
Charlie grinned knowingly and shook his head before coming further into the room and closing the door behind him. "So, what has happened? Bill hinted at something to do with our Family vaults?" He asked. He was a little confused, because the last he knew that his grandfather lost those vaults.
"Yes." Arthur sighed as he sat down. He debated briefly, and decided to give his son the quick version. "Turns out, we never lost the vaults gambling. They just... dried up very suddenly, no explanation. Of course, now we know how it happened, but... My father's memory was modified, after the fact, making him believe he lost it all gambling. In reality, he borrowed money from the Malfoys to pay off the debts that appeared with the drain, and to keep us afloat until the vaults recovered, which they have. Now that we have access to our Vaults again, we also have the our Lordship back. Of course, I'm still meeting with people about getting the Wizengamot's decision regarding our family overturned, we should never have been kicked off... and to get the Ministry out of our Family seats." He scowled. "So, Bill is officially Heir Weasley, which means you get the Prewitt family Heirship. And then the Lordship whenever you are ready." He finished.
Charlie sat there gaping at his father. When they lost their seats on the Wizengamot, they were knocked out of the running for the Prewitt family Lordship, even though it belonged to them by birth since Molly was the only child left of the last Lord Prewitt. When the family was kicked out of their Family Seats, it became forbidden for anybody bearing the name Weasley to ever sit on the Wizengamot again, no matter what seats they were using. They hadn't even been able to change their name so they could still claim their Prewitt seats since they made sure that loophole was closed. Arthur couldn't even go in his capacity as the Office Head for the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office. Instead, he had a trustworthy Auror assigned to him just for the purpose of proposing his laws to the Wizengamot.
Their Aunt Muriel had been sitting as the Lady Regent Prewitt since her husband died not long after the Weasley's lost everything. With the rightful Heirs unable to claim the title, seats, and vaults, she had nobody to pass it on to, and she refused to give it to some of the cousins. According to her, she would rather let the line die out and the fortune be locked away until the goblins reclaimed it than let any of 'those greedy pigs' get ahold of it.
Arthur smiled slightly at his sons expression. "Yes, after you claim it, you will need to speak with your Aunt, if you want to claim the Lordship, you will probably have to wait until I get the House Weasley reinstated on the Wizengamot, just to avoid the headache some of them will try to cause. Of course, you should probably also learn how to be a Lord... speak their 'language', so to speak... that way you don't embarrass yourself... or accidentally start a feud..." He said thoughtfully. He had taught his oldest boys about politics (the younger four hadn't been interested), of course, and he taught Bill all he could about the proper etiquette and all that stuff... since Bill was the Weasley Heir, even if at the time Arthur thought that that would never mean anything ever again. And all his other children knew how to behave of course, but there was a way of speaking, of holding yourself. And of course, every conversation had the potential of becoming a verbal war-zone.
One wrong word at the wrong time, or taken the wrong way... Blood Feuds had been started in the past over one word. Or one statement taken wrong or out of context.
"But, what about my dragons? Would I still be able to work on the reserve?" Charlie asked. He didn't want to give up his job just like that!
Arthur blinked, then he chuckled, he had forgotten about that. "Of course. If you want to do both jobs yourself, that would be up to you, it would mean you would have to get a permanent Portkey to and from Magical Britain, of course. Or, if you wanted you could appoint a proxy, someone you trust, to handle most of the political work while you just pop in once in a while. No, you don't have to give up your dragons. Don't worry, I know that has always been your dream job." He said with a reassuring smile. As much as Molly disapproved of and worried over one of her sons having such a dangerous job, she wouldn't stand in the way of him doing something he loved. Now, if only he could get her off the Twins back about their dream of opening a joke shop... he knew she was just worried that it would never work, which would leave them jobless, and broke.
He personally thought they would easily be able to put Zonko's out of business when they were older. And, of course, now that the Weasley fortune was back, he would be able to provide start-up funds.
Charlie nodded. "Alright, then. I'll go to Gringotts tomorrow. Who should I ask to see?"
"Ask to see Quickjaw. He's the Weasley Account Manager." Arthur told his son.
Charlie nodded, then grinned and stood up. "Well, I don't know about you, dad, but I'm hungry, and its been a while since I had any of moms cooking." He said with a slight smirk. Molly had told him when he came in that Arthur wasn't allowed to eat until he wrote that letter to Charlie. His father growled at him playfully before following him to the kitchen, wrapping an arm around his shoulders as he went.
Tonight, he would spend with his family. Tomorrow, he would go back to work. House Weasley was going to make a come-back, and they would take their rightful place again within the Potter Alliance as Secondaries. If Harry would have them, of course.
Albus Dumbledore was furious.
The Board of Governors had just left his office. They had apparently spent the last few days talking, and debating about what to do. What to do about HIM. And they had finally come to a decision.
He, Albus Dumbledore, Leader of the Light, Defeater of Grindlewald, Hogwarts Headmaster, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, and Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards; was now forbidden to be alone in a room with a student, and any and all authority pertaining to punishments was now stripped. And then they informed him that they were considering probation if he didn't prove to them that he wasn't a danger to the students and that he could do his job properly.
How dare they try and tell him what they could and couldn't do in his own school! They couldn't dictate him like that, they were his students, he could do what he wanted with them! (What he didn't know was that Fawkes had heard the whole conversation and relayed it to Hogwarts. She would make sure Albus followed the Board's orders. Whether he liked it or not. Unfortunately, even doing this little amount strained the bindings Albus had on the Phoenix, and he needed to sleep for a while and recover his strength.)
They said they had read the Prophet, both article about Black's unlawful imprisonment and the one about Albus drawing his wand on Amelia Bones (honestly, if they had just asked him, he would have explained that he was just trying to erect a privacy ward, not that that was what he was actually doing...), they had then spoken with Bones about the incident, as well as a Mind Healer, and they had come to the conclusion that the Prophet raised too many disturbing questions for them to ignore. And then, of course, they heard about the forgery ring found in his school, and his attempts to make the other teachers let the students off with just a warning.
They seemed to feel that the safety, well-being, and behavior of the students came before any personal feelings they may have for him! Ridiculous! (Especially with men like Lucius Malfoy also on the Board. If that man wasn't so useful to his political work... not that Lucius knew it was Albus Dumbledore he was doing so much legwork for, of course).
At first, he had thought that they were there to reinforce his position that half the students being on probation for a bit of teenage rebellion was just too harsh, but then they started going on about how the other teachers had the right of it and he should just leave them be! About how if they weren't punished for it now, then they would grow to learn that such behavior was acceptable in society, and that to be on probation now, was better than them ending up in Azkaban later.
Half those students were just as Dark and evil as their parents, and if they refused to come over to the Light, then all they were was pawns in the grand scheme of things. Really, Azkaban was the only place the Dark and evil deserved. So, they would still be ending up there eventually.
But still! How dare they go against him! First the issue of Black getting his trial and the Potter Wills being read, then the Prophet started questioning him, then all of a sudden they ALL started questioning him!
He sat down at his desk and put his head in his hands, outwardly looking like a tired old man to anyone that would bother coming in (not that they would), and tried to think about what he could do to stop all this nonsense of questioning him. Maybe he should dose Potter again, and even up the dosage of the Loyalty and Compulsion potions. Just to be on the safe side. Yes, that would do for a start. And of course, he still had to arrange an accident for the Auror that took his wand, he had to get the Elder Wand back! (He had finally found his original wand, but it didn't work for him as well as it used to when he was younger.) Then, he would let everything die down before he made his next move. He also needed to look into having Sirius Black silenced... permanently. The Goblins had refused to let him in to see the man (he needed to check that his charm-work was still holding and reapply what was needed, but if he couldn't do that, then he would just have to get rid of the man. He couldn't have him influencing the Potter brat away from him. Besides, he needed access to the Potter vaults. There were things in there he needed, books that only he would know what to do with, that he couldn't trust in the hands of the Potter brat.)
He would play along though, and be obedient... for now. But they would soon learn that one did not go up against Albus Dumbledore.
Even half-asleep, Fawkes still glared at the old man in front of him, and made a mental reminder to get a warning out somehow. Later, for now, he was tired.
Hermione sat quietly, trying to wrap her mind around what she just heard. What they just told her, was absurd! It was insane! Why would Professor Dumbledore do anything like that?! But, she never knew Harry to lie to her. And, what reason could he have for lying about this? The only thing she could think of was if Professor Snape was tricking him into believing all this, but... if he had the goblins and the Head of the DMLE in on this too... and everyone knew how shrewd the goblins were and how much they detested thieves and lawbreakers. They were very intelligent creatures, even if the Purebloods liked to think otherwise.
She couldn't believe this, this destroyed everything she thought she knew about the Headmaster. She had seen him as a kind, grandfatherly figure ever since she saw him at her Sorting Feast. She wanted to deny everything, continue living in her little bubble, defend the Headmaster, but she saw the truth in Harry's eyes.
She saw the anger, the hurt, the betrayal. She could see it all. And she knew that if she tried to keep defending him, she would hurt Harry, and they might never be the same as they were right now.
It made her stop and think about everything she had ever been taught by her parents growing up.
1) Always trust authority figures unless they give you every reason not to. She realized that when she was defending the Headmaster, without even stopping to think, she had defended herself by saying that her parents taught her to trust those in authority, but she forgot to think about whether or not everything in the papers was reason enough for her not to trust him.
Now that she thought about it, it wasn't reason. It was every reason for her to turn away from him. Instead, she had trusted and defended him blindly. The very thing her parents taught her NOT to do.
2) When you find true friends, never turn your back on them. In trusting the headmaster blindly over him, she was turning her back on.
3) Never abandon your family. She was coming to see Harry as a brother-figure, and she almost abandoned him.
4) Always think for yourself. She liked to think she thought for herself very well, but since the troll incident, since she became friends with Ron and Harry, she could admit that she was probably a little to dependent on books for her answers sometimes.
There was more, obviously, but those were the big lessons, the ones they instilled in her probably even before she could understand language.
Finally, she looked up at her best friend again. "It's a little hard to believe, but... if you're obviously caught up in all this... and you've never lied to me before... What is being done about him?" She asked.
Harry smiled at her, and she almost broke seeing the relief in it. He had really been worried over this, and that made her mad at herself for putting him through that. Severus smiled slightly too, just enough for her to see it, which of course made her have to recover from the shock of seeing him smiling, let alone at her and Harry.
"Well, for now we are leaving it all up to the newspapers. After the investigation is over, Madam Bones will act, and we want to make sure his supporters are gone, that way he has less chance of worming his way out of trouble." Harry started.
"I am also making sure that, if he tries anything to get control of the situation back, that our people are safe. I wouldn't put it past him to be planning a few disappearances, to make all this go away. He has done it in the past. Whenever somebody starts to raise questions, he arranges something, makes them disappear, or, if they are too public a figure, makes them forget they ever questioned him and then convinces them back to his way of thinking. Or, he outright blackmails them or threatens their family if they don't play along. I am also training Harry, both in things he should already know if he had grown up with Sirius and I as he should have, and in honing his natural talents." Severus said.
"Hence the training room." Hermione said. She was reeling over what Severus had said about Albus Dumbledore arranging accidents and disappearances. She was a little naive about the way the world worked, but even she knew what that meant.
Severus nodded before he checked the time. "It is getting late. Harry, did Mr. Wood give you a schedule yet?" Harry nodded and handed it over. His practice days were mainly going to be Saturday mornings, Mondays, Tuesday before dinner, Wednesdays, and some strategy in the common room on Fridays. Plus whenever Wood decided to hold strategy meetings outside of that. They had Sunday and Thursday off, probably because Minerva wouldn't allow Wood to work his team every night. (She had actually threatened his captain-ship if he didn't give his team at least two nights a week to themselves. So they could do some homework and spend time with friends.)
He nodded again. "I will see you in here on Thursday after dinner then, we will start with testing your Occlumency shields, so make sure you work on them before then. Well, you should always be working on them, I will see you in the Great Hall tomorrow for breakfast. I have the latest batch of your nutrient potions brewed, Mipsy will, as usual have it beside your plate." He said as he led Harry and Hermione to the door.
"Ok, night Uncle Sev." Harry said as he slipped the Cloak on over himself and Hermione, who was lost in thought.
"Good-night, Harry. Get some sleep." Severus said before he swept off back to the dungeons.
Kingsley Shacklebolt sat back in his chair and sighed before running a hand over his head. So far, all he had been looking through for the past few days was the information that the Goblins had apparently supplying Madam Bones with, which was just financials. Just one of these reports on his desk was enough for Albus Dumbledore to be sentenced to the Mines for life in the Goblin courts. Unfortunately, (or fortunately, depending on who you asked) his status as the Chief Warlock and Supreme Mugwump protected him from that fate.
Once he was done going over the information from Gringotts, he would still need to start investigating things from the wizarding side. The Goblins may have been documenting his actions for years and giving them to Amelia, but without it being an official investigation, all Amelia could really do was hold onto the reports and wait until she found an opportunity to open up an official investigation, she couldn't even ask a few unofficial questions without risking word getting back to her superiors that she was asking around about such an important member of the community, or worse, Dumbledore himself.
After reading these financial reports of several cases of Dumbledore draining entire family fortunes dry, he didn't even want to imagine just what lengths Dumbledore would go to in order to silence somebody asking questions he didn't want. Honestly, he just got done reading the report about Dumbledore draining the Weasley Vaults!
Everyone in the wizarding world knew they lost their vaults gambling, they even got kicked off the Wizengamot over it! Septimus Weasley even confessed under Veritaserum! But, these reports said otherwise. Which meant... memory charms and modification.
Memory modification was almost impossible to detect. At least, by wizarding Healers. The Goblins could detect it no problem, but none of the Wizengamot, at least not the Dark and even most of the Light, would ever allow a Goblin to check them for anything. Memory charms were rather easy, mostly because the memory was still there, it was just locked away. Any skilled enough Legilimens would be able to find it easily. It would be breaking through that was the hard and dangerous part. Dangerous for the patient, not the Legilimens. But memory modification... that took a memory, and twisted it. It was still there, and anybody looking would never be able to spot the difference unless they were there in person and what they were seeing in the memory didn't match up with what actually happened. So, because there was nothing obviously wrong, it was more difficult to detect.
So, that was at least Septimus Weasley and Lucius Malfoy (Abraxus Malfoy's father, the current Lucius Malfoy's grandfather) that had their memory modified. Because even the then Lord Malfoy had testified that Septimus Weasley had been gambling, that the Malfoy family had lent money, and that even that money had been gambled away. But, according to the reports again, yes, the Malfoys lent money. But, that was through an agreement and understanding that it was only to pay off the sudden debts that came out of the vault suddenly being drained. The debt had been paid off over the years, and the Weasley Vaults were now running fully.
Kingsley ran his hand over his face again and prepared himself mentally for a long investigation, with little to no time spent at home with his wife. When he went home that night he would have to explain that, because he was usually home for supper every night unless an emergency popped up, Amelia was really good about trying to make sure those in her department that had families still got time with them. Well, it seemed he wouldn't be home for supper a whole lot in the coming months. He would have to plan something to make it up to her... probably take her on that vacation she'd been wanting for a while now. If he asked, Amelia would probably give him time off for it after this whole mess was over. Probably as a mixture of apology for taking him away from his family and a thank you for all his work.
Then he frowned. He would also have to speak with her about getting some new wards set up around his home and possibly a protective detail. Once word got out that Amelia had put him in charge of this investigation, and judging from these financial reports, he wouldn't put it past Dumbledore... he would also have to go and review his vault security measures with his manager, and make sure Dumbledore couldn't somehow get in and drain HIS vault dry. Because, also in the reports, was the constant question of how Dumbledore did it. Oh, they knew it was him, they managed to track the money trails, it took them a long time, and they had to backtrack a lot to straighten it out, but they finally tracked where the money all went, but what they couldn't figure out was HOW.
He glanced at the time and swore. He was late for supper, again. He better get home, he had told her that he was in charge of the investigation, but when he told her that, he hadn't thought there would be so much information. He narrowed his eyes and thought for a minute, that jeweler in Diagon should still be open... he would stop in, buy an apology gift. Hopefully he wouldn't be on the couch tonight for missing supper without telling her, again.
He knew how much she worried when that happened.