chapter II
||
the daily prophet
Albus Dumbledore sat at his desk in his round office, peering closely through his half-moon glasses at the newspaper spread before him early in the morning. It was the Daily Prophet, the most widely-read newspaper in England's magical world. It wasn't quite always accurate or honest – no media was – but in this case, it had quite the interesting article.
Albus reached for the mug of tea on his desk, holding it with both hands, and bring it to his mouth to take a tentative sip.
Any second now….
The door suddenly burst open, and three people bustled in without preamble: Minerva McGonagall, Severus Snape, and Remus Lupin. They all looked pale, gasping for breath, Albus observed. They had obviously run all the way from their offices to his.
"Albus," Minerva said, abruptly sitting into a seat in front of his desk. "Is it true?"
Albus nodded quietly. "It is. Young Mr. Potter has certainly wandered past my wards. He is nowhere within the boundaries."
There was a long, dreadful silence, in which Albus aptly took the time to blow at his tea and take another sip.
"The little fool," Severus said, his voice lined with disbelieving fury. "That fool is going to get himself killed…." Severus' awareness seemed to snap back into place. "The Death Eaters, Albus! You know they won't sit still when they find out – which they most certainly have after this! They won't rest until they find him and…."
Albus nodded gravely. Yes, the boy was in great danger. He looked over at Remus Lupin, the only one who was silent. Raising an eyebrow at the young man, Albus prompted him with "Remus…?"
Remus' blue eyes were clouded with worry. "Albus…is it true what the article said? The speculation?"
Albus sighed, putting down the mug of tea, and idly knitting his fingers together. "Possibly, Remus. Quite possibly." He sat up now, looking at each person directly in the eyes. He made it quite clear that he was going to say something very serious.
"We must find him right away. The Ministry of Magic is sending out its best Aurors and agents to find him, but we need as many people as possible to help. The former Death Eaters will want to find him to avenge for their master, and we must not let that happen – if they had not been the ones to kidnap him in the first place. Minerva, if you could call upon the other professors. Cancel all studies, and send the teachers, and the Head Boy and Head Girl to search. Remus, talk to any Ministry officials you can find and try to gather as much information as you can. Severus – "
"I know my duty," Severus interrupted curtly, and abruptly swept away.
After a moment, Minerva nodded, stood, and left after Severus. Remus was still blankly staring at Albus, a deep regret surfacing in his eyes. Eventually Remus sensed the eyes on him and looked slightly apologetic.
"I didn't want this life for him, Albus," he tried to explain weakly, after a moment, gesturing vaguely with his hands to the newspaper article.
"None of us did, Remus," Albus replied gently. "But the sooner we find him, the better it will be. I will not send him back to his relatives again. He's obviously not very happy there, if he would wander off with a stranger."
Remus snapped his head up. "Then who will raise him? His parents are dead. His relatives are uncaring. His godfather is out of the question." Remus spat out the word godfather, as if his mouth constricted at the thought of forming the word.
Albus didn't answer, but steadily kept his gaze on the werewolf. Finally, "We will see when the time comes, Remus. Our first priority is to find him."
Remus nodded, and left, Albus staring after him. When the young man was gone, Albus turned to his fire. Throwing in some powder, he called out, "Cornelius Fudge!"
Fudge's portly face appeared in the fire, and Albus regarded him with a slight smile. Fudge barely looked up from the papers he was shuffling through on his desk to nod at him. "How are you, Cornelius?"
"How do you think I'm doing, Dumbledore?" Fudge replied, disgruntled. "It's only been a day and I'm losing my mind. Of course, that article in the Daily Prophet wasn't any help at all, either – I've gotten twenty-one howlers in the past hour alone, and over half of them were from foreign countries."
"Really now?"
"Yes, they can't seem to believe that the Ministry lost the most famous person in the magical world. Never mind that it was completely the boy's own fault, wandering out like that…."
"He's merely a boy, Fudge. And if Ms. Skeeter's article is true, then the boy had very good reason to want to leave."
Fudge gave a great heave of a sigh. "Well, no matter. We'll find him and then he'll have to go back."
Albus shook his head. "No, Cornelius, I'd rather not have him sent back there. I want him to stay at Hogwarts, under the care of the professors here."
Fudge glanced up from his papers, stopping the shuffling. "You're kidding, Dumbledore, the Hogwarts staff…?"
"We will work it out later, Cornelius," Albus replied. "How were your rounds of Azkaban?"
Cornelius shuddered at the words, but then said, "Oh yes, it was fine, fine. Everything is going orderly, the Dementors are doing their job right…. But there was one strange case."
"Oh?"
"Yes, Sirius Black, it was." Cornelius' brows furrowed in thought. "He was very…well, he was sane, Dumbledore. After three years in there – " he paused, struggling for the right words " – no one's lasted that long, Dumbledore. It's strange." Fudge paused, in thought. "He also mentioned a few times that he was innocent. When he found out that young Potter had been placed under the care of his aunt and uncle, he became very angry, though."
Albus frowned at this information, and took a steady sip of his tea, staring hard into the fire.
Fudge glanced up uncertainly. "You don't think Crouch could've made a mistake, do you, Dumbledore?"
Dumbledore frowned, deep in thought. "Mr.Black was given a trial. However, I am unaware of the state of mind he was in during it…."
"It wouldn't make a difference. We know he was the Secret Keeper." Fudge paused a bit longer, before shrugging and going back to his papers. "If you don't mind, Dumbledore, I've got quite a bit of work to do. I will speak with you after we have found the Potter boy."
With that, Cornelius' head disappeared from the fire.
Albus turned back to his desk, sighing petulantly. The sooner the boy was found, the better for everyone.
the daily prophet
||
end
A/N: Hm, not that much actually content in this chapter, just shows the concern and introduces the situation. Next chapter you get to see little Harry and the real story on his leaving Privet Drive. This is where the fun starts. Believe it or not, this IS going to be a humor fic. I think. I've had a horrible start on that, though. As always, this fic is totally dedicated to Christy!
If you would like to be notified of any updates to my fan fiction, please leave your e-mail address in a review or e-mail me so I can add you to my mailing list. Thanks!
~ Jedi Cosmos ~
Reviewers:
neutral – I'm glad you think I have the personalities down well :) It took a minute for me to get into the right mindset. Fudge is actually a fun character to write as, I think. Can't wait to someone else similar to him… hahaha, he starts out the next chapter. And yes, we do see a lot of Remus in here. Actually, I think we'll come across many familiar names and faces in this fic. Many. Argh. More personalities to try to get into.
Katzztar – Hehe, thanks for that. I usually take a long time to update, but not because I'm writing any better than usual (THAT's rare) but because I'm either trying to figure out what direction would be the best choice, whether or not I need to change something, or just because I'm lazy. Haha. So far I think I have a good record with "Hide & Seek" only a week between updates…. Let's hope it stays that way….
Alexa Black – Thanks! Yup, Phoenix Gate has been updated. I'm going to have more posts more often, but shorter chapters. It's just easier. Well, anyway, today's post is 10 pages. Oh well. Thanks for reading my fics :)
WeasleyTwinsLover1112 – Thank you! I aimed for darkness, but I never thought of it as scary. Hehe, sounds good :)
me – well, I appreciate your review all the same! Please, if you feel that I can improve my writing somehow, don't refrain. I won't say you've given me a bad review ;) I'd appreciate comments on how to improve my writing a lot!
clara200 – Thanks!
Shinigami – Dumbledore's definitely going to protect Harry, as always. Snape does play a role, as do many characters. Thanks for the review!
Von – Short is what I'm sticking to from now on ^^() I tried longer chapters for one fic, but I just can't pump them out very fast. So I'm sticking to short weekly chapters :) LOL, Sirius would do that, wouldn't he? Thanks for the review!
Moonywolf – Thanks! It will be several chapters, too….
(no name given) -- Thanks!
silverkonekotsukari – thanks!
Moonlight – lol, thank you for your enthusiasm. I appreciate it! Thanks!
MaggieDB – You'll see Sirius again soon, I think. You see Harry in either chapter 3 or 4! Thanks for the review!
Giesbrecht – Thank you very much :D And yup! I got more soon!
evil spapple pie – You'll find out what's up with Harry soon. Thanks for the review!
(no name given) – Here's more :)
Mrs. Moony – Thanks!
littleginblossom – Thank you!
asdf – Updated :) And will be again, soon….
Addie Riddle – Aw, thank you! I'm glad you like it! It'd be pretty hard to make myself keep writing if people didn't. I don't write for myself, I write so others can enjoy it, so hearing this is great! Thank you!
Liar – Thanks! I hope it'll be humor…. But I can definitely say it'll have a lot of humorous overtones.
Thanks! And REVIEW! *goes on an ego trip* ;D