I do not own Harry Potter. However I own this story, and I own the series its a part of; believe me, if I were writing Harry Potter originally, I wouldn't have made him into a complete bloody wimp.

Anyway, I've got fanfiction, right?

Please let me know what you think.


The Hell of Fourth Year.

Returning to his office after his horrible meeting with Aberforth, Albus threw himself into his chair groaned. He was extremely tired, and he had gone to the Hog's Head to not only get some strong Firewhiskey, but also some conversation with the only family member he had left. Neither he nor Aberforth had children; Albus because he was gay and because the opposite sex didn't appeal to him, although he knew that was not a good excuse, especially if the Dumledores were as insanely obsessed with the preservation of the bloodline as other insane families.

And Aberforth… Albus looked down sadly, Aberforth had declared he would rather see the Dumbledore family go extinct than have children who'd become pawns of his brother and his sick games.

Albus shoved those unpleasant memories aside, especially since they mixed strongly with the memory of their sister's funeral and Aberforth had punched him hard in the nose so it now appeared crooked, and he focused on his new problems while at the same time wondering just how long he would have left. He looked around the Headmaster's office, wondering how long it would be before he was kicked out by both the magic of the castle and by the power of the ICW.

Traditionally the only power which could oust the Headmaster or Headmistress who was currently reining was if the castle believed they were losing their way and were harming the students. However, the Board of Governors could present the castle with the case, and that would break the bond between the castle and with the Headteacher. The only good thing about that method and this was where Lucius Malfoy's attempt to kick him out two years prior had failed, was the castle itself needed to be in agreement, and since the school was aware he had the means and the power to oppose the basilisk and protect the muggle-born students even if he had felt the castle's bond slacken a little, it hadn't abandoned him.

But now that bond was fraying and Albus knew he had crossed the line where the school was concerned. Soon, he would be replaced and he would be forced to leave while somebody else took the Headmaster position at Hogwarts, all because of everything he had done to Charlotte Potter.

Albus grimaced as he thought about the girl. He had little doubt the final straw for the castle had been when he had gotten the idea into his mind he should wipe Charlotte's memories which meant his connection was now a dim light compared to what it had been before, but over time before the girl's altercation with Miss Bones it had been fraying since the castle wasn't happy with the way things were going, and how he was obsessed with ruling Charlotte's life to ensure she fought Voldemort for the Greater Good.

He grimaced again, he had enough troubles as it was with the castle's bond with him fraying although he knew many in the magical world would enjoy seeming him lose his hold over the school.

It was bad enough Crouch Jr had been revealed as the Death Eater who'd placed the girl's name in the Goblet of Fire, which now not only cast considerable doubt over his ability to ensure the security of the castle, which was another reason why the castle was displeased with him since he had gotten vibes the castle wondered if he cared more for his plans than the security of the students, which was shared by the DMLE which was bad enough but by the ICW.

The ICW hadn't wasted any time. As soon as Crouch was led away, they had mobilised with the most ruthless Aurors in the profession and they had stormed the Ministry with a very intricate warrant, overruling Amelia's control over Crouch Jr although Dumbledore felt it was slightly overkill even by their standards since there was no way Fudge could do anything. Oh, Albus knew Fudge had tried to do something, the little fool was forever predictable, but the difference between the Aurors the ICW sent and the ones at home was, well the ICW Aurors were more powerful, and the people in command of them had made it plain to Fudge if he tried anything even remotely stupid, they would arrest him. Dumbledore hadn't bothered to interfere since he had problems of his own, namely making sure they didn't try to take Severus away while he was careful himself.

If there was one good thing about the public revelation (Dumbledore did have questions about how Charlotte found him in the first place), it was that there was too much scrutiny into the case, and if Fudge tried to silence Crouch Jr, he'd regret it.

But there was no chance of that happening. While a few of the hardcore of Fudge's supporters might carry out some of Fudge's insane and badly thought through orders, the ICW's control over Britain was strangling the country. Dumbledore hoped the pompous little fool and his army of 'yes men' were kicked out and they stayed out. In fact he had no problem thinking they would; the ICW commander was not renowned for her patience, but that was the reason she was chosen. Her task was to uproot the corruption in the magical world caused by the Death Eaters and to investigate Dumbledore's own misdeeds.

Dumbledore had needed to be careful with how he protected Severus since they were taking all the 'upstanding purebloods' who made up Voldemort's ranks and were questioning vigorously despite Fudge's protests.

No, the reasons for the ICW's mass arrests of the Death Eaters was because they had been waiting for an excuse to do it for a very long time. The ICW had learnt from the mistakes following the Grindelwald war, and when Voldemort had risen to power, Albus had needed to keep them at bay despite the yells saying the Death Eaters were on the verge of revealing their world to the muggles. Albus had claimed it was an internal affair, and nothing to worry about, but the ICW hadn't believed him. And they had pressured him on and on, and Dumbledore was sure Voldemort knew about it because he kept on attacking and attacking. It would have only been a matter of time before the muggles found out about them, and the ICW would get involved, and that was trouble Britain did not need.

When Voldemort was defeated by Charlotte Potter, the ICW had wanted the Death Eaters. All of them. They had wanted examples, people to punish. They wanted the population of Britain to understand the penalty for endangering the Statute of Secrecy, and that joining an organisation like the Death Eaters had consequences and would not be tolerated. They had planned to execute the Death Eaters and reduce the families to a cinder of the fire they had used to be, and they had wanted to make the British Ministry pay the price for their lack of true action while cleaning it out of corruption so another dark lord couldn't take control as easily.

While Albus could understand their views, it had been a fight and a half to stop it happening. They had needed to preserve the families of the country, which had already suffered as a result of Voldemort's genocidal campaign, but they had succeeded in keeping the ICW out thanks to the Imperius lie. That in itself had provided the leverage, but the ICW had never been comfortable with it, and since so many countries abroad had been preparing for the Death Eaters and their deranged psychopath of a master to come knocking at their doors, they had prepared their wards so if any of the 'repentant' Death Eaters came on holiday, they'd be captured and arrested and pumped so full of truth potion it would have reduced the lie to what it was, a lie.

Albus had always known the Death Eaters weren't under the Imperius; even a master of the Dark Arts like Voldemort could not concentre such a curse on a large number of followers for a long period. It was impossible. However, he did believe they could be redeemed, but only as long as they saw the cancer Voldemort was spreading. He had the long-standing hope the death of Voldemort would make them see the damage they were causing, and they would regret their actions which meant they could finally be forgiven.

But now the ICW was ruining those hopes, and Albus now knew they would soon be calling for the mass arrests of the Death Eaters, and very soon they would be wiping them out for good. Couldn't the ICW understand if they killed the Death Eaters, more magical blood would be spilt? That was the real reason he had ensured the Order didn't kill any of them during the war, and it was why he had worked hard to prevent this nightmare from happening in the past, and why he was determined for the magical world to unite.

He was also worried about Severus.

Albus had ensured the Potions Master obeyed him by tricking the man into making a magical oath. But Albus wasn't blind; he knew the former Death Eater was far from an innocent, after all, Crouch Jr's revelations he had known about. He had known the truth of the initiation of the Death Eaters, and he had known they couldn't have taken their marks through coercion. The depths Voldemort was willing to sink to and ensure others did as well were sickening him. However, he preferred to ignore it. Snape had been so desperate for him to keep Lily Potter safe, but since the man, and indeed the world, believed the stupid Mudblood was dead. The oath was the reason why the man was at Hogwarts in the first place. The revelations didn't turn Albus against Snape, however, they would attract the ICW, and he would need to concentrate on keeping them away from Snape. He simply knew too much, and if they got their hands on Snape, then they could make the Potions Master talk.

XXX

Charlotte shivered at the memories as she slowly walked out of Edgware Road Underground station, putting away her ticket and shoving it into her pocket. Damn it, I had to do this at night, didn't I? But since the thing I encountered that night, long ago appeared at night, I knew I had to come back at night.

She had known for a long time she would need to return here to face her inner demons - she even planned to return to Privet Drive, and…. To that House but she pushed those damn memories out of her mind to focus. The ICW's presence in Britain had been felt throughout the country, and Charlotte had been overjoyed reading the stories in the Daily Prophet of the Death Eaters being rounded up, and the corrupt bastards in the Ministry were being hunted down. The paper had been on their best behaviour since the ICW had made it clear to the paper if they printed anything derogatory about them, they would be arrested immediately, although personally, Charlotte would love to see the Prophet burnt to the ground.

She had been very busy recently, a nice little busy bee. She had been placing monitoring spells close to Umbridge's home so she could steal the information the foul bitch had hidden about her prostitution/slavery ring, and then hand it to the ICW and she had even broken into the place in order to get the lay of the land so she could form her burglary plan, using Umbridge's knowledge of the security of her home.

Umbridge's scheme for her home security was actually pretty good and yet it was absolutely useless; the idiotic woman had placed a dozen powerful wards on her property that were Ministry appropriate so they weren't considered 'dark' so they wouldn't attract attention - she had known the risk since sooner or later it would have happened. However underneath those layers were a few darker wards, but it was useless against Charlotte since she had the woman's passwords. At the same time, the woman hadn't bothered to key in recognition spells into the ward scheme, so any Tom, Dick or Harry could break in without any problems if they had the passwords. Umbridge was not only stupid, she was complacent and so arrogant to believe nobody could break into her home. It would only take a skilled witch or wizard with a strong knowledge of magic and warding to find out how the wards worked, and they'd get in without any problems.

Umbridge hadn't even taken the precaution of placing spells inside her property to detect intruders who'd managed to break through her wards. Charlotte had checked out for those thoroughly to be on the safe side, in case Umbridge had gotten it into her little brain wipe her own memory for security. Well, Charlotte did. It only took the teenage burglar five minutes to get in, and only two to reset the protection scheme on her way out.

Charlotte grimaced as she walked down the streets while she used her occlumency to mask her nervousness about what she was going to find, she remembered the hideous way the house was decorated. She had never liked pink, she despised dried flowers, and while she liked cats she despised those stupid kitten plates in Umbridge's house.

She had spent an hour in Umbridge's house. She had found the woman's safe, she had found out where she kept her money, but she had spent her time making a plan for getting in and getting out safely. Once she had finished Charlotte's immediate plan was to return home, back to the windmill so she could spend time with Nightstar…. And yet she couldn't. Ever since the Second Task where so many bad memories had been brought to the fore, Charlotte had been thinking of her past a lot more than she normally did. Charlotte always tried to look to the future since her past had been what had defined her, but since those memories had been torn through her occlumency barriers and everyone had seen Vernon Dursley rape her, she had been confronted with the idea of visiting those place where the worst things had happened to her.

Edgware Road wasn't the very worst thing that had happened to her in London, far from it; there had been numerous things which had shaped her life in this city when she had been a kid, but Edgware Road had been one of the eeriest things to have ever happened to her and she would prefer to deal with this rather than visit Privet Drive or that house.

Walking down the streets, Charlotte saw nothing had changed much, but she kept her wands firmly within her twin grasp. She had no idea what it was that she had encountered all those years ago, but she had no intention of going in there without some kind of protection.

She made her way to Bryanston Square. There was a park there, and that was where she had found the thing, and as she walked slowly into the park, she hesitated, but she pulled herself together; she had broken into the Louvre, the Tower of London, she had so far managed to survive two Tasks of the Triwizard Tournament; she could survive this.

She was halfway through the park, when Charlotte returned to the place she hadn't been in a long time.

Charlotte turned in a circle, waving her wands as she did and muttering in Latin. She placed up wards to prevent muggles nearby from seeing too much, and if they did well they would fall asleep as soon as her spells hit them. She also began scanning the park, scanning for the telltale signs of ghosts, spirits, vampires…. Anything.

And then she found something.

There were remnants of a ward on this part of the park. Charlotte frowned, and she continued her work to understand it, and it took her a few minutes of work, thankful Slytherin and Ravenclaw had both been teaching her the ins and the outs of warding, especially ancient level warding, which allowed her to scan the wards in this place. When she was finished she wasn't sure what to think.

The wards around the place were a muggle repelling ward, and it had been applied many, many times the magic had become so deeply imprinted on the park. There were also signs of recent portkey activity. But the most intriguing spell over the part of the park was a spell designed to terrify magicals, but there was no sign of any trace of who cast the spells in the first place. That made sense. It also made sense about the ward designed to terrify magical people; that was why she had been frightened out of her wits.

But her curiosity was aroused.

Why would someone come here and where did the portkeys go?

Charlotte lifted her wands again, and she prepared herself mentally. This was hard work, but she hoped whoever had cast the spells originally didn't notice any botch up on her part, well at least until she found out what all this was about. The problem was she had no idea if whoever the caster would come back any time soon, but she wanted to know who it was.

They'd gone to a lot of trouble to ward it off in this part of London.

She wanted to know why.