CHAPTER TEN: INTERROGATION
~~~
A knock on the door to his classroom interrupted Albus Dumbledore when he was right in the middle of giving the third-year Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs a lecture two days after Armando Dippet's murder. Dumbledore had to hold his breath to keep from saying something inappropriate when the distraction caused him to transfigure the chair in front of him into a snowball instead of a snowglobe. He closed his eyes, silently counted to three, and then said, "Come in."
The door opened. It was Tobias Hawkins, the Minister of Magic. With him was Noah McCarthy, the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. "We'd like a word with you, Professor Dumbledore," Hawkins said.
"With all due respect, Minister, I'm in the middle of a lecture," Dumbledore replied, and changed the melting snowball on his floor back into its original form, the chair. He then walked over to the two men standing in his doorway. "I don't have time to argue about this."
"And we have a murder investigation," McCarthy quipped. "Are you going to come quietly?"
"Easy, Noah," Hawkins said gently, but firmly as well. "Albus, you know I wouldn't ask you to do this if it wasn't important."
Dumbledore motioned toward his class. "And the students? Who will run my class?"
"Minerva McGonagall doesn't have a class right now," said Hawkins. "We could ask her."
"Then get her, and don't attempt to remove me from my class without a replacement again."
~~~
Minerva was just as angry as Dumbledore, but unlike him, she showed it. "What do you mean, you have to ask him some questions?" she asked when Hawkins told her the reason they needed her to run his class for a few minutes. "What's so important that it can't wait until he doesn't have a class?"
"It concerns," Hawkins said quietly, "the murder."
Minerva stiffened. "What about the murder?"
"We just have to ask him a few questions, that's all."
She didn't like where this was going at all. "Like what?"
"Just let us do our job, Minerva," said McCarthy. "You want to help find out who killed Dippet, don't you?"
"Of course, but I don't see what interrogating Alb - Professor Dumbledore has to do with anything."
McCarthy was quickly starting to get frustrated with the woman who had once been his second best Auror. "Minerva, we're wasting time arguing about this. Dumbledore asked us to ask you to teach his class while we ask him our questions. Would you please be so kind as to follow his wishes so we can get this over with?"
"Ask me again, and this time, don't end your sentence with a preposition."
He groaned. Minerva's obsession with grammar was highly annoying. "Will you cooperate, damn it?"
A smug smile crossed her face. "That's better, and yes, I will cooperate."
~~~
Hawkins and McCarthy returned to Dumbledore's room a few minutes later, and they had Minerva. The Transfiguration instructor had no choice but to acquiesce to their wishes. "Do you know what this is about?" Dumbledore whispered to her as he walked over to the door.
She shook her head. "No idea. What lecture are you doing?"
"Snowglobe."
"Ah." He always named his lectures after a demonstration he performed while giving it. She glanced around to make sure no one was watching, and then reached for his hand. "Be careful," she warned him in a soft voice. "They have ways of twisting words around so you say what they want you to say."
He smiled at her. "I will," he promised, and gave her hand a gentle squeeze.
Minerva felt a knot in her gut as she watched Dumbledore leave with Hawkins and McCarthy. Something didn't seem right, and she wanted to know what. Apparently, she wasn't the only one, because as soon as the three men were gone, one of the Hufflepuff girls asked, "What's going on, Professor McGonagall?"
"I don't know, Miss Wilson," she answered, "but I'll tell you what. If you promise not to tell Professor Dumbledore, I'll find out."
The students looked excited at the idea of being sneaky, especially when someone as so strict about rules as Minerva McGonagall was suggesting it. The class agreed. She waved her wand at the chalkboard, and it became covered in writing. "Copy down these notes, and I'll finish Professor Dumbledore's demonstration when I return," she instructed them. "I'll be back in a few minutes."
A red-haired Gryffindor boy in the front row raised his hand. "Professor?"
"Yes, Mr. Weasley?" she said.
"How are you going to follow them without being seen?"
She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and transformed into a cat.
He slapped himself on the forehead. "Duh."
"Only you, Lyle," said another Gryffindor, and chuckled. "Only you."
~~~
Minerva could easily slip through the castle undetected in cat form, and it wasn't long before she caught up to Dumbledore, Hawkins, and McCarthy. They went into an empty classroom, and she slipped in through the door as McCarthy closed it behind him. Hawkins motioned for Dumbledore to sit down in one of the desks. He did, and the Minister of Magic and the head of the Department of Magical Law enforcement turned two desks around around and sat so they were facing him. Minerva watched them from the safety of a dark corner under a table.
Hawkins began the questioning. "Albus, we're going to ask you some questions regarding the murder of Armando Dippet. Do you agree to answer all questions truthfully to the best of your knoweldge and ability?"
Dumbledore nodded. "Yes."
So that's what this is about, Minerva thought. She almost couldn't believe it. Did they suspect Dumbledore of committing the murder? That was ludicrous.
"Good. We'll start with the basics. Were you and Professor Dippet on good terms?"
"We were friends, if that's what you mean," Dumbledore replied.
Hawkins scrawled something down on a piece of paper in front of him. "Were you aware of a romantic relationship between Armando Dippet and Minerva McGonagall?"
From her corner, Minerva could see Dumbledore stiffen.
"Yes, I was," Dumbledore said quietly.
"How did you feel about this?"
He hesitate before answering, searching his mind for the right words. "I was happy for them. What else could I feel?"
McCarthy began naming things off. "Bitterness, anger, rage, jealousy-"
"Noah!" Hawkins interrupted. McCarthy shut up, and Hawkins continued. "So you were happy for them."
"That's what I said," Dumbledore confirmed.
"Yes, but is it what you did?" McCarthy asked.
Hawkins glared at his partner. "Noah, if you cannot conduct yourself in a professional manner-"
"Sorry," McCarthy mumbled, and fell silent. They all knew he was apologizing to Hawkins and not to Dumbledore, and even then he didn't mean it.
Minerva wanted to scratch McCarthy's eyes out. He obviously thought Dumbledore was guilty. The bastard... He'd always been like that; performing his duties with such zeal that he would take out innocents on his way to get to the criminals. She sometimes wondered why Hawkins kept him around.
Hawkins continued. "Do you know how long Dippet and McGonagall were involved?"
"A little over a week," Dumbledore answered.
"When did it end?"
"The day he died."
"Armando Dippet didn't die, Professor," McCarthy snapped. "He was murdered, slaughtered, butchered, gutted and filleted like a fish."
Hawkins glared at him. "That wasn't necessary."
McCarthy folded his arms across his head and said, "My apologies, Minister."
Hawkins turned his attention back to Dumbledore. "So their relationship ended the day he lost his life."
"Correct."
"Do you think their relationship would have lasted longer had the tragedy not occured?"
"No."
Hawkins clearly did not expect that answer. "No?" he repeated.
"No," Dumbledore said again.
"And why is that?"
"Because it ended before his death."
Hawkins wrote on his paper again. "Do you know why it ended?" he asked, and set his quill down.
"Armando believed she was in love with someone else and wanted her to be happy," Dumbledore answered. "The decision to end their relationship was prompted by him."
"Is she?" asked McCarthy.
Yes, Minerva thought, but don't come right out and say that, Albus.
"Whether she is or not, it still ended on friendly terms," Dumbledore said.
If Minerva could smile, she would have. Good answer, she thought.
"Do you know the identity of the 'someone else'?" inquired Hawkins.
Well, so much for that. "Yes," was Dumbledore's answer.
"Who?" Hawkins asked.
"The man you've been questioning for the last few minutes."
"You?" McCarthy exclaimed. "You're with Minerva McGonagall?"
Dumbledore fought the urge to roll his eyes. "Yes, as you so crudely put it."
Hawkins sighed and looked at his partner. "Noah, come with me. Albus, we'll be right back."
Hawkins stood up and motioned for McCarthy to do the same. They stepped outside the classroom, and Minerva followed them. She had a feeling she would want to hear this.
"Why are you doing this?" Hawkins asked as soon as they were outside. "You've all but come right out and accused him of the murder."
"Think about it, Tobias," McCarthy spat. "I've spent my entire life in law enforcement. I know what a crime looks like. Someone would not kill Armando Dippet without a motive. Dumbledore was in love with McGonagall, but as long as Dippet was around, she would never be his. That's a pretty good motive, if you ask me."
Hawkins gestured toward the classroom and said, "Dumbledore just told us that Dippet was the one who decided to end what he and McGonagall had. Just because Dumbledore carried a torch for a woman that was off-limits does not make him a murderer."
"And yet he admitted that he and McGonagall are together now," said McCarthy. "I find that extremely suspicious. What if they were in it together?"
Hawkins had just about had enough of him. "I no more suspect Albus Dumbledore of committing the murder than I do Quinn Grindelwald," the Minister of Magic said. "Yes, I agree, it is suspicious, but why? They have nothing to gain."
"Not yet," McCarthy growled. "Grindelwald is headmaster now. If something happens to him, Rachel Revueltas takes over, and guess who the next one in line is? Dumbledore."
"But what about McGonagall? What's in it for her?"
"Are you familiar with Shakespeare's play 'Macbeth'?"
"Of course I am," Hawkins said. "You remember, don't you? We performed it here at Hogwarts. I was a sixth-year, and you were a fourth-year. I was Banquo and you were Macduff."
"Right," McCarthy said with a nod. "Anyway, as you know, in that play, Lady Macbeth convinced her husband to murder his way into power. What if that's the case here?"
"Now I don't follow," said Hawkins. "First you accuse Dumbledore, and now you accuse McGonagall?"
"I haven't accused anyone yet."
"Well, you sure as hell are moving in that direction. It goes deeper than what we're seeing. It could be Revueltas, for all we know. She's next in line behind Grindelwald, and perhaps she set it up so the suspicion fell on Dumbledore and/or McGonagall."
"Perhaps Dumbledore and/or McGonagall set it up to make it look like Revueltas was trying to set them up so we would accuse her of the murder because we thought Dumbledore and/or McGonagall were set up."
Hawkins blinked and scratched his head. "Come again?"
McCarthy sighed. "Never mind. Fine. We'll let Dumbledore off the hook for now, but if anything happens to Grindelwald..."
There was no need for him to finish.
Minerva needed to get back to the Transfiguration classroom before Dumbledore did. She began moving through the school in that direction, and changed back into herself once she was outside the door to the classroom. As soon as she came in, the students began bombarding her with questions. She held up her hand for silence, and once it was granted, said, "Minister Hawkins and Mr. McCarthy had to ask Professor Dumbledore some questions regarding the death of Professor Dippet."
"They think he killed Professor Dippet, don't they?" a Ravenclaw boy asked.
"That's ridiculous, Mark," another Ravenclaw said. "Why would they ever think that?"
Lyle Weasley let out a series of coughs that sounded a lot like "Professor McGonagall."
"Mr. Weasley," Minerva said warningly.
Lyle smiled innocently. "Is there any truth to the rumors that there's something going on between you and Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall?"
Minerva was saved from answering by the sound of footsteps echoing through the hall. It was probably Dumbledore. "Professor Dumbledore's coming," she told them. "Remember, you've all been working very hard the entire time. I hope, for your sake, that you did get those notes copied down, though."
Every head in the room nodded.
"Good." She pulled out her wand, pointed it at the chair Dumbledore had accidentally turned into a snowball earlier, and succeeded in transfiguring it into a snowglobe. "And that," she said, holding the snowglobe high as Dumbledore came in, "concludes today's lesson."
The students clapped, and a smiling Dumbledore walked up to his temporary substitute. "They never clapped for the snowglobe lecture before," he commented. Then he shrugged and said, "Must be the new teacher."
She smiled back at him. "Must be." Then, in a soft voice, she said, "What was that about?"
"I'll tell you later," he whispered back. Somehow, though, he got the feeling that she already knew.
~~~
A/N: Thanks to everyone who has read. I'm glad you're enjoying it. Sorry there was no Grindelwald in this chapter... hee hee, I love that guy almost as much as I hate him. If you think he's evil now, wait until later... *cackles* Okay, okay, I'm done. ^_^
~~~
A knock on the door to his classroom interrupted Albus Dumbledore when he was right in the middle of giving the third-year Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs a lecture two days after Armando Dippet's murder. Dumbledore had to hold his breath to keep from saying something inappropriate when the distraction caused him to transfigure the chair in front of him into a snowball instead of a snowglobe. He closed his eyes, silently counted to three, and then said, "Come in."
The door opened. It was Tobias Hawkins, the Minister of Magic. With him was Noah McCarthy, the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. "We'd like a word with you, Professor Dumbledore," Hawkins said.
"With all due respect, Minister, I'm in the middle of a lecture," Dumbledore replied, and changed the melting snowball on his floor back into its original form, the chair. He then walked over to the two men standing in his doorway. "I don't have time to argue about this."
"And we have a murder investigation," McCarthy quipped. "Are you going to come quietly?"
"Easy, Noah," Hawkins said gently, but firmly as well. "Albus, you know I wouldn't ask you to do this if it wasn't important."
Dumbledore motioned toward his class. "And the students? Who will run my class?"
"Minerva McGonagall doesn't have a class right now," said Hawkins. "We could ask her."
"Then get her, and don't attempt to remove me from my class without a replacement again."
~~~
Minerva was just as angry as Dumbledore, but unlike him, she showed it. "What do you mean, you have to ask him some questions?" she asked when Hawkins told her the reason they needed her to run his class for a few minutes. "What's so important that it can't wait until he doesn't have a class?"
"It concerns," Hawkins said quietly, "the murder."
Minerva stiffened. "What about the murder?"
"We just have to ask him a few questions, that's all."
She didn't like where this was going at all. "Like what?"
"Just let us do our job, Minerva," said McCarthy. "You want to help find out who killed Dippet, don't you?"
"Of course, but I don't see what interrogating Alb - Professor Dumbledore has to do with anything."
McCarthy was quickly starting to get frustrated with the woman who had once been his second best Auror. "Minerva, we're wasting time arguing about this. Dumbledore asked us to ask you to teach his class while we ask him our questions. Would you please be so kind as to follow his wishes so we can get this over with?"
"Ask me again, and this time, don't end your sentence with a preposition."
He groaned. Minerva's obsession with grammar was highly annoying. "Will you cooperate, damn it?"
A smug smile crossed her face. "That's better, and yes, I will cooperate."
~~~
Hawkins and McCarthy returned to Dumbledore's room a few minutes later, and they had Minerva. The Transfiguration instructor had no choice but to acquiesce to their wishes. "Do you know what this is about?" Dumbledore whispered to her as he walked over to the door.
She shook her head. "No idea. What lecture are you doing?"
"Snowglobe."
"Ah." He always named his lectures after a demonstration he performed while giving it. She glanced around to make sure no one was watching, and then reached for his hand. "Be careful," she warned him in a soft voice. "They have ways of twisting words around so you say what they want you to say."
He smiled at her. "I will," he promised, and gave her hand a gentle squeeze.
Minerva felt a knot in her gut as she watched Dumbledore leave with Hawkins and McCarthy. Something didn't seem right, and she wanted to know what. Apparently, she wasn't the only one, because as soon as the three men were gone, one of the Hufflepuff girls asked, "What's going on, Professor McGonagall?"
"I don't know, Miss Wilson," she answered, "but I'll tell you what. If you promise not to tell Professor Dumbledore, I'll find out."
The students looked excited at the idea of being sneaky, especially when someone as so strict about rules as Minerva McGonagall was suggesting it. The class agreed. She waved her wand at the chalkboard, and it became covered in writing. "Copy down these notes, and I'll finish Professor Dumbledore's demonstration when I return," she instructed them. "I'll be back in a few minutes."
A red-haired Gryffindor boy in the front row raised his hand. "Professor?"
"Yes, Mr. Weasley?" she said.
"How are you going to follow them without being seen?"
She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and transformed into a cat.
He slapped himself on the forehead. "Duh."
"Only you, Lyle," said another Gryffindor, and chuckled. "Only you."
~~~
Minerva could easily slip through the castle undetected in cat form, and it wasn't long before she caught up to Dumbledore, Hawkins, and McCarthy. They went into an empty classroom, and she slipped in through the door as McCarthy closed it behind him. Hawkins motioned for Dumbledore to sit down in one of the desks. He did, and the Minister of Magic and the head of the Department of Magical Law enforcement turned two desks around around and sat so they were facing him. Minerva watched them from the safety of a dark corner under a table.
Hawkins began the questioning. "Albus, we're going to ask you some questions regarding the murder of Armando Dippet. Do you agree to answer all questions truthfully to the best of your knoweldge and ability?"
Dumbledore nodded. "Yes."
So that's what this is about, Minerva thought. She almost couldn't believe it. Did they suspect Dumbledore of committing the murder? That was ludicrous.
"Good. We'll start with the basics. Were you and Professor Dippet on good terms?"
"We were friends, if that's what you mean," Dumbledore replied.
Hawkins scrawled something down on a piece of paper in front of him. "Were you aware of a romantic relationship between Armando Dippet and Minerva McGonagall?"
From her corner, Minerva could see Dumbledore stiffen.
"Yes, I was," Dumbledore said quietly.
"How did you feel about this?"
He hesitate before answering, searching his mind for the right words. "I was happy for them. What else could I feel?"
McCarthy began naming things off. "Bitterness, anger, rage, jealousy-"
"Noah!" Hawkins interrupted. McCarthy shut up, and Hawkins continued. "So you were happy for them."
"That's what I said," Dumbledore confirmed.
"Yes, but is it what you did?" McCarthy asked.
Hawkins glared at his partner. "Noah, if you cannot conduct yourself in a professional manner-"
"Sorry," McCarthy mumbled, and fell silent. They all knew he was apologizing to Hawkins and not to Dumbledore, and even then he didn't mean it.
Minerva wanted to scratch McCarthy's eyes out. He obviously thought Dumbledore was guilty. The bastard... He'd always been like that; performing his duties with such zeal that he would take out innocents on his way to get to the criminals. She sometimes wondered why Hawkins kept him around.
Hawkins continued. "Do you know how long Dippet and McGonagall were involved?"
"A little over a week," Dumbledore answered.
"When did it end?"
"The day he died."
"Armando Dippet didn't die, Professor," McCarthy snapped. "He was murdered, slaughtered, butchered, gutted and filleted like a fish."
Hawkins glared at him. "That wasn't necessary."
McCarthy folded his arms across his head and said, "My apologies, Minister."
Hawkins turned his attention back to Dumbledore. "So their relationship ended the day he lost his life."
"Correct."
"Do you think their relationship would have lasted longer had the tragedy not occured?"
"No."
Hawkins clearly did not expect that answer. "No?" he repeated.
"No," Dumbledore said again.
"And why is that?"
"Because it ended before his death."
Hawkins wrote on his paper again. "Do you know why it ended?" he asked, and set his quill down.
"Armando believed she was in love with someone else and wanted her to be happy," Dumbledore answered. "The decision to end their relationship was prompted by him."
"Is she?" asked McCarthy.
Yes, Minerva thought, but don't come right out and say that, Albus.
"Whether she is or not, it still ended on friendly terms," Dumbledore said.
If Minerva could smile, she would have. Good answer, she thought.
"Do you know the identity of the 'someone else'?" inquired Hawkins.
Well, so much for that. "Yes," was Dumbledore's answer.
"Who?" Hawkins asked.
"The man you've been questioning for the last few minutes."
"You?" McCarthy exclaimed. "You're with Minerva McGonagall?"
Dumbledore fought the urge to roll his eyes. "Yes, as you so crudely put it."
Hawkins sighed and looked at his partner. "Noah, come with me. Albus, we'll be right back."
Hawkins stood up and motioned for McCarthy to do the same. They stepped outside the classroom, and Minerva followed them. She had a feeling she would want to hear this.
"Why are you doing this?" Hawkins asked as soon as they were outside. "You've all but come right out and accused him of the murder."
"Think about it, Tobias," McCarthy spat. "I've spent my entire life in law enforcement. I know what a crime looks like. Someone would not kill Armando Dippet without a motive. Dumbledore was in love with McGonagall, but as long as Dippet was around, she would never be his. That's a pretty good motive, if you ask me."
Hawkins gestured toward the classroom and said, "Dumbledore just told us that Dippet was the one who decided to end what he and McGonagall had. Just because Dumbledore carried a torch for a woman that was off-limits does not make him a murderer."
"And yet he admitted that he and McGonagall are together now," said McCarthy. "I find that extremely suspicious. What if they were in it together?"
Hawkins had just about had enough of him. "I no more suspect Albus Dumbledore of committing the murder than I do Quinn Grindelwald," the Minister of Magic said. "Yes, I agree, it is suspicious, but why? They have nothing to gain."
"Not yet," McCarthy growled. "Grindelwald is headmaster now. If something happens to him, Rachel Revueltas takes over, and guess who the next one in line is? Dumbledore."
"But what about McGonagall? What's in it for her?"
"Are you familiar with Shakespeare's play 'Macbeth'?"
"Of course I am," Hawkins said. "You remember, don't you? We performed it here at Hogwarts. I was a sixth-year, and you were a fourth-year. I was Banquo and you were Macduff."
"Right," McCarthy said with a nod. "Anyway, as you know, in that play, Lady Macbeth convinced her husband to murder his way into power. What if that's the case here?"
"Now I don't follow," said Hawkins. "First you accuse Dumbledore, and now you accuse McGonagall?"
"I haven't accused anyone yet."
"Well, you sure as hell are moving in that direction. It goes deeper than what we're seeing. It could be Revueltas, for all we know. She's next in line behind Grindelwald, and perhaps she set it up so the suspicion fell on Dumbledore and/or McGonagall."
"Perhaps Dumbledore and/or McGonagall set it up to make it look like Revueltas was trying to set them up so we would accuse her of the murder because we thought Dumbledore and/or McGonagall were set up."
Hawkins blinked and scratched his head. "Come again?"
McCarthy sighed. "Never mind. Fine. We'll let Dumbledore off the hook for now, but if anything happens to Grindelwald..."
There was no need for him to finish.
Minerva needed to get back to the Transfiguration classroom before Dumbledore did. She began moving through the school in that direction, and changed back into herself once she was outside the door to the classroom. As soon as she came in, the students began bombarding her with questions. She held up her hand for silence, and once it was granted, said, "Minister Hawkins and Mr. McCarthy had to ask Professor Dumbledore some questions regarding the death of Professor Dippet."
"They think he killed Professor Dippet, don't they?" a Ravenclaw boy asked.
"That's ridiculous, Mark," another Ravenclaw said. "Why would they ever think that?"
Lyle Weasley let out a series of coughs that sounded a lot like "Professor McGonagall."
"Mr. Weasley," Minerva said warningly.
Lyle smiled innocently. "Is there any truth to the rumors that there's something going on between you and Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall?"
Minerva was saved from answering by the sound of footsteps echoing through the hall. It was probably Dumbledore. "Professor Dumbledore's coming," she told them. "Remember, you've all been working very hard the entire time. I hope, for your sake, that you did get those notes copied down, though."
Every head in the room nodded.
"Good." She pulled out her wand, pointed it at the chair Dumbledore had accidentally turned into a snowball earlier, and succeeded in transfiguring it into a snowglobe. "And that," she said, holding the snowglobe high as Dumbledore came in, "concludes today's lesson."
The students clapped, and a smiling Dumbledore walked up to his temporary substitute. "They never clapped for the snowglobe lecture before," he commented. Then he shrugged and said, "Must be the new teacher."
She smiled back at him. "Must be." Then, in a soft voice, she said, "What was that about?"
"I'll tell you later," he whispered back. Somehow, though, he got the feeling that she already knew.
~~~
A/N: Thanks to everyone who has read. I'm glad you're enjoying it. Sorry there was no Grindelwald in this chapter... hee hee, I love that guy almost as much as I hate him. If you think he's evil now, wait until later... *cackles* Okay, okay, I'm done. ^_^
