Chapter 10
Authors Note:
Magitech: thank you for catching error. I didn't even notice it. I have gone back and changed it, thank you again.
Please read, review, and enjoy this next chapter.
MEANWHILE AT HOGWARTS
It's 8am on Monday November 3rd, and Albus begins his day as any other, he wakes up and starts getting ready for the day. Since he always showers at night before he goes to bed and uses various beauty charms and hair potions to keep his beard and hair perfectly untangled, he never looks in the mirror before he leaves his office for breakfast. This morning though, Albus feels like he has gotten up on the wrong side of the bed, feeling angrier than usual. The main reason for this, he finally received the owl from the Tonks' accepting the temporary positions.
"I told them I needed their answer by yesterday morning, not 8:00am this morning before I've had a chance to wake up and have a bloody cup of tea." Albus grumbles. What Albus doesn't know is that Ted and Andromeda did have their replies sent in by the appointed time, but the house elves decided to hold his mail for the day, so he could have a day off, and only placed it on his bedside table this morning.
"Why didn't Fawkes bring their replies? I'm sure I ordered him to wait for their replies and to bring them back as soon as possible. I don't like surprises."
As Albus continues to grumble while he prepares for the day, he doesn't realize that his beard has changed colour overnight, from its usual silver-grey to neon pink, again thanks to the house elves and a notice me not charm targeted at Dumbledore. This way, when Albus looks down to put his favourite robes on, his beard looks its normal colour, but the colour change will be noticeable for everyone else.
A short time later, Albus hears his floo chime and heads to the main section of his office to answer it.
"Good morning Albus, its Ted Tonks, may my wife and I come through the floo? We are looking forward to meeting the students this morning. I already have a few lesson plans penned out. So, may you let us in?"
"Oh, hello Ted, so sorry about the delay, I'm not fully awake yet. Of course, you and Andromeda may come through, once you two are here, I will give you a rundown on the finer points of your duties." Albus says, and quickly but reluctantly opens the floo, wishing he could have found anyone else to take over the positions, but beggars can't be choosers. Once Ted and Andromeda step into the office, Albus finally makes a pot of tea, and pours all of them a cup. "Thank you for agreeing to cover for Minerva on such short notice, now, do you have any questions before we head to the great hall for breakfast and introductions?"
"I have a question Albus, why have you not hired someone sooner to help Minerva with her jobs? Every time I see her, she looks as if she has aged 10 years, that should only happen when she gets older, or ends up having children. Not because of a job." Andromeda pipes up.
"Ahh yes, well unfortunately, there has never been enough in the budget to hire additional staff, and Minerva agreed to take on the responsibility when I offered her the promotions." Albus sweetly says. "Alas, we cannot control the hands we are dealt, and since there still is no extra money in the budget to hire both of you, you will have to split the salary between yourselves."
"Andromeda can keep the salary to herself, I got a decent signing bonus with my new firm, which will last me until the end of the school year since we all know that room and board are included in the contract." Ted pipes up. "Now, I don't know about you honey, but I would love to get down to the great hall and see our daughter's face once she realizes that her parents are now her teachers?"
"Sounds like a wonderful idea Ted, Albus, shall we head for breakfast? You were the one who said that we need to meet our students, and I'm starving." With that, Andromeda gets up and begins walking towards the door, Ted quickly following, and Albus bringing up the rear, not knowing what else is going to happen during breakfast.
LATER THAT NIGHT, AT GRINGOTTS BANK.
"Ladies, thank you for coming on such short notice. The reason I have called you both here is for you to help me straighten out an old man's beard, and Augusta, it's fine that you brought Neville with you, Minerva has been bringing her son by the past couple days, and it doesn't upset us in the slightest. Now, earlier today, I sent Amelia a couple of memories and we need to get you up to speed, because we need your backbone of steel in the Wizengamont. Albus Dumbledore needs to be taken down." Rockgrinder begins.
"I agree that he may need to be taken down a peg or two, but why completely?" Augusta asks.
"For decades, Albus has been bribing the board of governors to turn a blind eye to the thousands upon thousands of galleons he has been pocketing from the school budget. He completely lost his temper when Minerva handed in a leave of absence on Saturday. He attempted to leave Harry on the doorstep of his mother's sister's place in the middle of the night. He has done nothing to try and get Sirius Black out of Azkaban, even though he is the Supreme Mugwump and could demand that the arresting auror bring him back to the DMLE to interrogate him under veritaserum. Yet he has done nothing but hide in his office drinking firewhiskey and sucking on some stupid candies." Rockgrinder explains.
"That is horrid, I know that James and Lily wrote a will, they told Frank and Alice, who in turn told me, where is it?" Augusta demands.
"Settle down Augusta, when Minerva came here Saturday, she demanded that the Potter account manager read the will and found out that she was on the short list of approved guardians. Also, on that list were, Sirius Black, your son and daughter-in-law and Remus Lupin."
Augusta takes a small step back, shocked that James and Lily put so much faith in her family. "Well, I would be happy to help in the Wizengamont, what do you need me to do and when do you need me to do it?"
"Will this Saturday be too soon? I understand you are coping with the loss of Frank and Alice, but the sooner we can drop the hammer on Albus, the less chance he has of bribing members of the Wizengamont to save his ass." Rockgrinder declares.
"It will be difficult to find a sitter for Neville, but it is manageable. Amelia, do you have any idea on a babysitter?" Augusta asks Amelia.
"Why not send an owl to Minerva? Since she has taken a leave of absence from Hogwarts, and now has Harry in his custody, she would be perfect, and the best part is, Neville will have someone his age to play with. I may owl Minerva herself and see if she would allow young Susan to join them as well. Her parents would love to have a kid free day." Amelia suggests.
"That's an excellent idea. Now, shall we start fine tuning this plan Rockgrinder?" Augusta asks.
"Yes, we shall. Now, Minerva has provided me with the budgets she approved before Albus changed them afterwards. Amelia, I will give you copies of these budgets for you to show the Wizengamont. Augusta, we will need to take over Albus' job in that session, since he will be the one on trial. Once we get him on the stand, I need you to call for a motion to use veritaserum on him. If he tries to sweet talk you into forgoing the veritaserum, Amelia will have the right to silence him and give the Wizengamont time to vote. Hopefully, with us keeping it within our small circle, we will shock everyone and the motion carries. Sound good so far?" Rockgrinder begins.
"It sounds manageable, thankfully I keep my station at work well warded when I'm not there, but I will keep the documents and the memories locked in my office at home until Saturday." Amelia replies.
"I would personally shove the veritaserum down his throat, I can't wait to hear him sing like a canary. I wonder what other secrets he has kept close to his chest." Augusta agrees. "What if the Wizengamont denies using veritaserum on him?"
"Then Amelia can ask for a vote to view the memories, since the charm Minerva applied to the vials won't wear off until Monday at the earliest. Let's hope they approve the viewing, otherwise Augusta, you may have to overrule the objection and allow Amelia to show the memories. Once the Wizengamont sees them, I have little doubt they will change their minds about using the veritaserum. Best of all, Albus will be sitting there wondering how we got the memory of him in his office choking on candies." Rockgrinder finishes.
"Rockgrinder, will they accept a memory from a house elf? And which memory should we start with?" Augusta asks.
"As long as the memory hasn't been tampered with, they have to accept it. If you two can agree on an unspeakable to prove the memories are authentic, you can ask him or her to come into the session to prove it. As to which memory, I believe chronologically is the best bet. Start with Minerva's memory of what happened on the night of November 1st, so the court can see how many marbles Albus has lost." Rockgrinder replies. "Now, it's getting late, and I think Neville is just about ready for bed. If anything else comes to mind regarding this upcoming weekend, feel free to owl me anytime."
With this, Amelia and Augusta bid their farewells and head for home, looking forward to hopefully stripping Albus of his power.