This Harry Potter story was written for fun. All rights belong to the wonderful lady (JK Rowling) who gave the world Harry Potter to read and enjoy.
Albus Dumbledore and Amelia Bones make deals, students are injured and sent to Saint Mungo's, and the older muggleborn students begin to realize that they are not welcome in Magical Britain after graduation. This realization will result in long-term consequences to Magical Britain.
Chapter 21: Visitors, Understanding and Planning SCENE: Amelia Bones Visits HogwartsThe next morning, Susan told her friends they should expect a letter from her aunt but among the dozens of owls, there wasn't one from Director Bones. This left the young witch with a frown on her face as she tried to figure out why her aunt hadn't replied.
The answer came when during the middle of breakfast, , Dumbledore suddenly stood and drew his wand while at the staff table. Students close the table heard him mutter something about someone crossing the wards into the castle. Then both doors to the Great Hall opened as Director Amelia Bones and a dozen Aurors poured into the Great Hall. Conversations stopped as every head turned toward the woman leading the Aurors.
"Dumbledore, what's this about a troll in Hogwarts?" she demanded to know. Her question was loud and heard by every student in the Great Hall, much to Dumbledore's chagrin.
"Amelia, everything is fine. It was merely an illusion of a troll," the headmaster replied, smiling with his eyes twinkling as though laughing at a good joke. "The children were scared by a mere shadow…"
The director of the DMLE stared at the headmaster and then her eyes swept across the staff table and found the witches and wizards there frustrated by the headmaster's claim. She glanced at her niece who frowned with a slight shake of her head, denying the headmaster's statement.
During her seven years as the Director of the DMLE, Amelia had developed the ability to think quickly on her feet and this was an opportunity from Hecate if she ever saw one. She smiled brightly as she turned back to Dumbledore and said, "An illusion? Marvellous, headmaster. Then you will have no hesitation or excuses against immediately showing me this hallway on the third-floor."
She motioned to the veteran Aurors behind her, "My instructors can bring their trainees here this morning to investigate the hallway and show them how to cast spells to detect dark creatures and how the results will all be negative."
"I'll take them there now," Alastor Moody announced. "No reason to inconvenience the headmaster with a climb to the third-floor."
As the peg-leg DADA instructor led about ten of the Aurors out of the hall, Amelia smiled at the headmaster once again and continued, "While the Aurors setup the test and then show their trainees what negative results look like, you and I can discuss this new class on illusion magic you will add for fifth-, sixth- and seventh-year students beginning in January. Anyone with 'O's in transfiguration should be eligible."
Dumbledore frowned, mustering his arguments against both demands when Amelia added, "The return of this class to the curriculum may be enough to end the controversy about all your positions for another year. The governors vote tomorrow you know…"
She paused and then smiled even brighter as she added, "We'll add back the class for Magical Customs as well for all muggleborn students – this will prove that you do care about all your students Dumbledore."
*(+++++)*
The Aurors found ample proof that there'd been a troll in the secured room for almost a month. As they investigated the room, they found a trap door that led into a maze. There they found two injured third-year Gryffindor boys – Fred and George Weasley.
While everyone was still in the Great hall, two white shapes arrived in the Great Hall; the eagle went to Healer Troutman and the dog went to Professor Burbage. Both staff members rose from their chairs and ran from the hall. Having heard the message for the healers, Deputy Headmistress McGonagall hurried to a floo to summon additional healers from Saint Mungo's.
Overhearing the messages as well, Madam Pence frowned as Professor Sinistra fought back her tears. Remus Lupin pushed away his breakfast and finished his tea as he looked across the room at the students.
'This is a school, not Dumbledore's bloody playground,' he stated in his mind. 'Fred and George are marauders for certain but there shouldn't be anything here that can hurt them.'
Returning from the floo in the room off the Great Hall, Deputy Headmistress McGonagall ignored Dumbledore and Bones as she directed students to begin their day. She encouraged Sinistra to carry on and she nodded at the query on Lupin's face.
"We can talk later," she told the wizard. "For now, we must make certain the children are calm."
*(+++++)*
One of Amelia's guards hurried into the Great Hall to give his boss a more detailed report. When informed by the Auror that two children had been found near death in Dumbledore's maze underneath the troll's chamber, the headmaster denied the news.
"That's not likely. What children?" he asked.
The Auror explained, "Troutman identified them as Fred and George Weasley, third year Gryffindor students."
Shaking his head in his matter-of-fact way, Dumbledore said, "I am certain our infirmary will have the boys patched up and back to class tomorrow."
The Auror looked at his boss and shook his head, "One boy will have to have his left leg regrown and the other lost most of the blood in his body. They both have been moved to Saint Mungo's for emergency treatment."
"No! Hogwarts handles all medical problems within our walls. We have a potion master who can brew any potion needed!" argued the headmaster.
Amelia interrupted, "Dumbledore, you just lost my vote at the Governor's meeting tomorrow. The healer is in charge of the injured and his rulings cannot be over-turned by you or anyone on your staff."
As the last students left the Great Hall, Minerva McGonagall joined the headmaster and his unwelcome guest to inquire about news but Dumbledore turned on his deputy.
"This is all your fault!" he declared in a loud voice.
Looking surprized for only a moment, Minerva asked, "What is my fault?"
"If you'd stayed as head of house for Gryffindor, the Weasley twins would have been in the dorm last night instead of investigating the third-floor corridor!"
"Bullocks! It's your shenanigans with some treasure you've told the children is hidden on the third floor! I didn't bring a troll into the castle! I didn't set traps of whatever kind hurt those boys!"
The deputy headmistress cocked an eyebrow as she said, "And if you think I am going to be the target of Molly Weasley's ire over this, you're missing too many ingredients to make a complete potion! She'll tear you to shreds!"
Amelia nodded. "Molly Weasley will turn the full blast of her magic upon you, Dumbledore. Even the strongest wards here at Hogwarts won't protect you from her Howlers. And if she shows up in person, you'll be missing teeth, your beard will…"
"I must get to my office!" Dumbledore insisted as he fled the Great Hall.
*(+++++)*
"How are we going to get him out of the castle permanently?" asked Amelia Bones of the Deputy Headmistress. "A Cerberus in summer and a troll in fall?"
"Muggles would have retired Dumbledore years ago," Minerva explained. "But we lack common sense in our world. The headmaster knows too many dirty deeds by too many members of Wizengamot to be thrown out. I believe it will take three years to get him to retire."
"Marchbanks wants him gone but she's the only one on the board that's not afraid of him."
"Even you?"
"He can get me fired in one afternoon," Bones explained. "I can't cross him."
*(+++++)*
SCENE: Saint Mungo's PrejudiceWhen Molly Weasley stumbled from the floo into Saint Mungo's entry hall, she was crying and incoherent. Seeing the distressed witch, the on-duty medi-witch immediately approached her.
"Madam, are you injured?" she asked in calm voice.
"What? No," she stated. "It's my… My twins are here… from Hogwarts… I want to see them.
"Yes, ma'am," the witch agreed with a calm expression on her face. "Come with me and I will take you to your husband. He arrived just a moment ago."
"Arthur's here already? Take me to him! Hurry!" demanded Molly, taking the witch by the arm and leading her down the wrong hallway.
"This way, please, Mrs Weasley," the witch said, dragging Molly down a different hallway. The office supervisor watched silently and ordered calming potions for both parents.
When the door opened, Arthur Weasley rose from the chair where he'd been talking with a healer about George's blood loss and Fred's damaged leg. Molly swept into the room, bursting into uncontrollable tears as she sought the comfort of her husband's arms.
"Molly, dearest, we must be calm," Arthur said.
"A floo call… Dumbledore said… he said George and Fred were playing in a forbidden part of the castle. The Aurors came and took them away…"
"Mrs Weasley," the healer attempted to interrupt the woman who was working herself into hysteria.
But Molly babbled on, "He didn't know what happened or why they took them away from Hogwarts but he said… that he'd cover all the costs here at the hospital."
The healer brightened at the woman's words and asked, "Mrs Weasley, you've had a serious shock. Please sit…"
Another medi-witch came in with two potion bottles that the healer took and gave to Arthur and to Molly. "Now drink these calming potions and I can update you on Fred and George and their treatments for the next few days."
Arthur palmed his potion but opened and helped his wife drink the entire contents of the potion bottle in her hand. The healer noticed that the husband kept his potion in reserve but said nothing.
Once Molly stopped crying, the healer explained that the boys were both in surgery. Fred's left leg was being removed and then spells and potions applied to grow a new leg.
"He'll be walking again by Yule and able to run again by spring," the healer said. "And his brother will be with us for at least a week as we make certain there were no parts of his body that are damaged by blood loss. His brain appears to be functioning normally already and we'll be testing his heart and lungs next."
"Thank Merlin!" Arthur swore. Molly was consumed by tears again.
"It's just like losing Gideon and Fabian all over again," she cried into her husband's shoulder.
The healer asked, "Mrs Weasley, you said that the headmaster said he would cover the costs of treatment for your sons."
She nodded slowly and the healer smiled.
"May I take a copy of the memory of that conversation? It will be a good as a magical contract and Saint Mungo's can simply send the bills to Headmaster Dumbledore without ever bothering you."
"Arthur, what do you think?" Molly asked her husband for once.
"As Albus likes to say, Molly, 'it is for greater good'. We'll let him pay for the treatments and get our boys back."
The witch nodded as she broke a long-term compulsion on her to keep Dumbledore's interest ahead of her own. Her husband had broken the headmaster's compulsion when a healer called him at the ministry and told him two of his children were injured and in surgery.
"Let him take a copy of the memory and then all we have to worry about is getting Fred and George well."
*(+++++)*
Outside the surgery wing, the healers met with the hospital administrator.
"The procedures for each boy are expensive and the family is poor. This will really hurt our budget for the year," the administrator announced.
"And what is the alternative?" demanded one healer insulted that budgets came before healing a patient. "Do we want people to think we're leaving a pureblood thirteen-year-old with a peg leg because we don't want to serve the community?"
"No," another healer argued.
The wizard who'd talked with the parents walked up with a portable pensive in his hand.
"Spare no expense!" he announced. "Best potions and best treatments for both boys!"
"How can we pay for that?" demanded the administrator.
"The boys have a wealthy patron who agreed to assume all expenses," the healer said, offering the pensive to the wizard.
The man took the pensive, stuck his finger into the device and withdrew it a few minutes later, a grin spreading from ear to ear.
"I love it when there's some justice in the world," the administrator said. "Albus Dumbledore states clearly that he will cover the costs of treatment for the Weasley boys. I'll register this memory with accounts receivable now."
*(+++++)*
SCENE: Dumbledore's PlansAlone in his office, Albus sighed. He'd dodged a couple strong spells in the last two days with the escape of the troll and the injuries to the Weasley boys. Fawkes had returned but only to sit sullenly on her perch and judge every movement that Albus made. The headmaster ignored his phoenix.
The floo call to Molly Weasley was some of his best deflection work – he'd appeared sorrowful and worried through the flames and her immediate collapse into tears allowed him to direct all her future anger at the twins.
'With a peg leg, we'll be able to tell one from the other from now on and he won't get around very quickly,' Albus mused. 'I can ask Alastor to help the boy learn how to use the leg when he returns in a week or so.'
He paused and considered how to continue with the rumours about the hidden treasure. The school was ripe with the story and with speculation about which dark wizard was after the stone – Snape or Lupin.
'I might arrange a friendly duel between the two old rivals,' Albus decided. 'That would show their darkness to the students.'
Now his thoughts turned to the Potter boy – spells showed that he was a real wizarding child. Troutman refused to share the boy's medical records and even a late-night trip to the infirmary failed to gain the information – not every ward in the castle bowed to the headmaster and Fawkes refused…
He glanced at the phoenix and the bird turned her back on the headmaster for a moment to lift her tail and make a deposit on the papers under her perch…
Glancing at the papers, Dumbledore began to rise from his throne. 'Wait! Are those my vault statements? How did…'
Fawkes turned back around and ruffled her feathers, threatening to flame out of the room, a move that would burn the papers into ashes in seconds.
'I don't know why anyone thinks a phoenix is good familiar.'
Sitting back in the throne's comfortable pillow, Dumbledore returned to thinking about Harry Potter – he was certain he was a fake boy-who-lived.
'His mind is blocked to me. I wonder if the owl is the source of his mind protection'
The headmaster rose from his desk to pull a book from his private library but then frowned remembering that his 'private' library burned to ashes in the fire in August. He moved to a stained-glass window and opened the sash; a ward prevented the cold air from entering the office but he could stare out at the sky.
'What I remember, magic will protect the owl – violently – if I attacks.'
The owl usually carries mail south almost every day,' Dumbledore reasoned. 'I shall have to approach him during the day. And I must look at that wand. Why did Ollivander give him the wrong wand? The brother wand to Tom's is the one the boy must have!'
He chuckled, 'And I worry about nothing. He can't be the true son of James and Lily Potter… can he?'
*(+++++)*
SCENE: Muggleborn Truths and PlansFilius Flitwick looked up when a knock came on his office door, and declared, "Come."
The door opened and one of his favourite muggleborn students, Jesse Coleman entered his head of house's office, a letter in his hand.
"Professor, I must speak with you."
"Certainly, Mr. Coleman. Come and sit with me." The head-of-house for the 'claws proceeded to cast multiple spells in his office that froze each magical portrait and deafened the headmaster's ease-dropping spells. For ten minutes, no one could hear the conversation in his office.
The seventh-year Ravenclaw excelled at arithmancy, charms and transfiguration. Flitwick knew potions challenged the boy but then almost every student except for the purebloods was disadvantaged by Severus Snape in years past.
"I received a letter from Henry Small this morning. I know you remember him."
Flitwick smiled, "How is Mr Small? He was at the top of the graduating class last spring. Has he found an apprenticeship yet?"
"No sir," Coleman said. "He wrote that every healer at Saint Mungo's turned him away. None of the purebloods want to teach a muggleborn to be a healer."
Flitwick sighed, "I knew the healers had become hesitant to take muggleborn apprentices…"
"It's not just healers sir!" Coleman insisted. "Henry can't get any potion shop to give him a job, and he was the best and brightest potion student in the last ten years. You know that Snape refused to give him a recommendation!"
"What do you want me to do, Mr Coleman?" Flitwick asked sharply.
"Tell muggleborns the truth when they have career counselling with you. I've wasted two years thinking I can get a job as a charm-maker with one of the broom manufacturers. But I am muggleborn and now I know that all of my friends from last year in Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Gryffindor are going back to the muggle world without any job prospects there!"
The seventh year looked devastated and the charms professor felt his soul diminish just a bit for the role he played in deceiving the child.
"Mr Coleman, listen to me very carefully," Flitwick said. "You are in possession of dangerous information."
"Dangerous? How?" asked the teenager.
"The purebloods and the wizards in power will not thank you to spread this story. The ministry likes everyone to think that Magical Britain is a welcoming place of opportunity."
The boy snorted.
Flitwick asked, "If you were to stand up in the Great Hall and tell this news, imagine what would happen."
Responding to his head-of-house, Coleman explained, "The Slytherins would laugh, the purebloods in my own house would sneer, the Hufflepuffs would not believe it, and the Gryffindors would ignore me."
"And the headmaster would probably corner you at some point and obliviate the knowledge from your mind."
The Ravenclaw looked shocked for a full five seconds before he buried his true emotions behind a mask as he'd been taught by his pureblood classmates.
"So, I should pretend that nothing is wrong and I have a great future ahead of me," stated the young wizard.
"Until the moment you return to London after graduation and step through the portal into muggle London again, everyone here must believe you are a studious Ravenclaw. They must all believe that success with yours NEWTS at the end of this school year is your sole concern."
The charms professor saw that his student was considering his options. "The Slytherin side of your intelligence will help you cope with this development and you can spend your time between now and then preparing for your future."
"But why hasn't anyone said anything before now?" Coleman asked. "I can study my muggle subjects again but it'll take at least two years to pass all their tests to get into university to study engineering."
"We're not allowed to warn… discuss the future employment opportunities with the muggleborn." Flitwick paused, "And if you talk with the other muggleborn 'claws and 'puffs; just do it quietly. Professor Burbage and Professor Lupin have begun an 'English' club for several of the other muggleborns and I will arrange for you to attend the meetings."
"I heard they are reading 'Oliver Twist'," the student acknowledged. "And they have to justify their understanding… they have to argue with the professor."
*(+++++)*
In the Hufflepuff dorms, Harry sat on his bed, his knees pulled up to his chest as he did some thinking about the day's events.
"What's flying around in your head, Harry?" asked Neville. "I can hear the wings beating the air in your skull from across the room."
Justin grinned but then turned sober at the look on Harry's face as the boy nodded his head.
"I think Hogwarts is dangerous," the dark-haired boy explained. "That troll almost got loose and that club would have made short work of the professors and then any student it stumbled across."
Neville moved to stand at the foot of Harry's bed and grabbed onto the corner post to lean against.
"If I told my parents about the troll, they'd probably pull me from the school," Justin agreed.
"They can't," the Longbottom boy stated.
"What do you mean, Neville?" asked Justin.
"Once you begin Hogwarts, there's a magical contract in place that makes you stay here until you pass your OWLs at the end of your fifth year. Even then, you still can't use your wand until you turn seventeen but you can get tutors if you can afford them."
"So, we're stuck here even if the headmaster brings in trolls?" Justin asked.
"My grandmother says that Dumbledore is impervious to scandal and punishment. He's been in the government for so long he has dirt on everyone."
Shaking his head, Justin said, "How can the headmaster get away with a troll in the castle? Back in the muggle world, if a headmaster brought something like a dangerous dog into a school, he'd be sacked the same day!"
*(+++++)*
The boys went to the common room where they found Susan, Hannah and Zach working on assignments for transfiguration.
"Susan, why didn't your aunt arrest Dumbledore today?" Justin asked.
"Arrest Dumbledore?" Zach asked, his eyebrows climbing up. "Who would dare?"
Hannah nodded and looked at Susan who kept her eyes on her parchment, seeming to ignore the conversation until she said, "The DMLE is a department in the ministry. Dumbledore has great power in the ministry and my aunt can't fight the headmaster."
"So, he doesn't have to follow the law?" asked Justin.
It was Dora Tonks who stopped their conversation from going further.
"Finch-Fletchley, you're a firstie and there are many things you need to learn about magical society," she said cheerfully but she squeezed his arm to make him be quiet.
"Yeah," agreed Zach. "Dumbledore is a great wizard and we're lucky to be here in his school."
Dora placed one finger against her lips signalling for the muggleborn students to remain silent as the purebloods returned to their assignments.
When they started down the hall to their dormitory again, Dora followed the three boys and asked if she could speak with them in their room. Once she closed the door, Dora pulled out one of the desk chairs and looked the three of them over.
"It's hard adjusting to the world run by the purebloods. My father says that purebloods don't want to think for themselves because they've been taught not to. My mother – who is a pureblood – agrees. She has embraced the muggle world and both of my parents want me to go to muggle university next year, not go into the Auror program at the ministry."
"Why did you come to Hogwarts?" asked Justin. "Professor McGonagall made it sound like I would be welcomed with open arms and have great opportunities here."
"The laws states that all magical children must attend Hogwarts until they pass their OWLs at the end of fifth year." Then Tonks shrugged and added, "I think all the professors are in on the scam or their magical contracts force them to tell muggleborns all the same story."
"Harry and I are both 'half-bloods' and that means we have some opportunities. Of course, he's the 'boy-who-lived' and also heir to the Potter fortune so some pureblood princess will chase him down and marry him after graduation."
"Huh?" asked Harry and Tonks giggled to see the look on the eleven-year-old boy's face.
"Neville, you're not saying anything," Harry remarked. "Is this true you think?"
The pureblood wizard nodded his head and sat on his bed.
"My grandmother never said anything about muggleborn students from her years here. All the people she knows are purebloods. I never met a muggleborn or even a half-blood until you guys brought me into your cabin on the Hogwarts Express."
"Really?" asked Harry, the questions in his mind. "Never at Diagon Alley while you were growing up?"
"We always went when it wasn't likely to be any muggleborns in the alley."
"Tonks, how did my…" Harry began to ask but then fell silent again.
"How often does a muggleborn marry a pureblood?" asked Justin, guessing his friend's question. "Harry's parents…"
"Like my own parents, they met here at Hogwarts. My muggleborn father met my pureblood princess mother and they fell in love. If the professors had realized they were growing close, Dumbledore probably would have expelled my father."
Tonks grinned, "My mother and father eloped the week after graduation. My mother's family disowned her and threatened to sue the school. But Mom is very happy with Dad and doesn't want to come back."
Harry, Justin and Neville were quiet as Tonks concluded her visit by saying, "Now, keep your conversation here in the dorm room. Talk with the other muggleborns but do it quietly."
Once the seventh-year witch was gone, Neville asked, "Will you guys still be friends with me?"
"Of course," Justin replied instantly. "You're our friend! We don't care about blood crap like Smith."
Harry sighed and walked over to Neville. "We're friends and I never had any before I came to Hogwarts. I love magic and won't abandon it but I'm not going to put up with dangerous creatures. What if someone had been killed by that troll?"
"So, what do muggles do after school?" asked Neville. "My grandmother planned to send me to them as a squib. It sounded scary but I don't think it is worse than in Magical Britain."
*(+++++)*
"Harry, can we talk?" asked Hermione with her friend Padma at her side. The 'puffs and 'claws were seated around several tables in the library as they worked on homework. Harry looked up from an essay for history class; he immediately noticed Susan Bones lower her head back to her book while Hannah and Zach ignored the muggleborns.
"Sure, Hermione. Here or in the hallway?"
"Let's find a quiet classroom," interjected Padma.
Harry made to leave his parchment and books where they were but Hermione helped him pack everything.
Glancing toward a curious Neville and Justin, Harry explained, "Going out to talk about…"
"…Miss Hedwig," Padma said to complete the boy's statement to his friends.
"See you back in the dorm," Justin said.
"We'll look for you!" insisted Neville.
"Quiet!" commanded the terse librarian. Madam Pince had noticed how quiet the muggleborn had been for the last two days and kept her thoughts to herself. She'd apply for more muggle studies books again though the headmaster would veto the request.
The trio walked down the hallway from the library and Padma insisted they choose a dusty classroom without any portraits or other paintings. They left the door open though Hermione cast a spell that would cause a bell to sound if anyone invisible walked through the door, and they stepped to the far side of the room where Hermione pulled out her copy of Hogwarts, A History.
"Do you need a history lesson?" asked Harry. "You're better off asking Hedwig for history."
"No, this is our cover in case anyone walks into the room," Hermione explained before she and Padma exchange glances, and then began to explain their worries.
"Harry, we're worried that the school isn't safe. Events like the troll happen almost every year," Padma explained.
"We asked students in every year and they all remember things that left someone injured or even dead," Hermione confirmed.
"And no one does anything about it!" Padma insisted though Harry could tell the girl was insulted by such stupidity.
"Padma, you're a pureblood…" Harry said as an opening to see where the girl stood on these matters.
The girl shook her head, "But I still have common sense. I was born in India where magicals work in the muggle world many days each year. My mother loves muggle cookery over magical pots, and my father works with the muggle government in India and the United Kingdom on security matters. He's appalled by Magical Britain and wanted Parvati and I sent back to India for school. We asked for a year at Hogwarts to test the waters."
"And now the magical contract that traps you here?" asked Harry.
"Who told you about the contract?" asked Hermione. She'd been ill when she first learned that she was trapped here for the next seven years but she feared to tell the others thinking someone might panic.
"Neville. He was worried we'd try to leave without him. I told him I love magic and not going to give it up," explained Harry. "I just don't know what to think Hedwig will say. She'll make me tell Felicity about the troll in my next letter home."
"Apparently we're stuck here for seven years," the Indian girl admitted.
"No, just five," Harry explained. "A seventh year told us that once we pass our OWLs at the end of fifth year, we don't have to come back to Hogwarts. We can hire tutors to pass our NEWTs but can't use our wands until we're seventeen."
"That is a little better," Hermione said, actually relieved with a better option after the fifth year.
Padma nodded, "And until then, we'll make up for the missing subjects with self-study and summer classes. But my father and mother will send my little brother and sister to school in India for certain."
"Someone said that Professor Lupin helped organize an English club for some of the upper year muggleborns. Maybe he can help us with maths and English for firsties," Harry said, hopeful of changing the subject.
"We'll ask tomorrow after our class in the greenhouse."
"I can't believe that no one arrested the headmaster for bringing a troll into the school!" Hermione said. "And I can't tell my Mom and Dad about this!"
*(+++++)*