Chapter 19 The Mage Awakes
(Hogwarts)
The next day Bill Weasley came to the school to drop off a file from Gringotts with paperwork pertaining to the Potter accounts. He had statements for the trust fund set up by Harry's parents for any educational and cost of living expenses incurred by their son during his growing years as well as an itemized list of the content of the three vaults that Harry would inherit when he reached his majority. Bill also had a copy of the one document that Albus did not want anyone else to see ever. A copy of the Potter will. More specifically an unaltered copy of that will. The one that clearly stated that Attorney Warren held executive control of the Potter estate till the minor child Harry Potter reached his 15th birthday at which time he was to be given lessons by someone appointed by Mr. Warren in wizarding finances so that when the minor child Harry Potter reached his majority he would be able to take over the care of his own inheritance. This was same will that stated that the child Harry Potter was to be given over to the guardianship of his Godfather Sirius Black and/or his Godmother Alice Longbottom should his parents become unable to raise their son due to either death or disability.
Albus was livid. How had Gringotts gotten a copy of that thing? He was very sure that he had the original and any copies of the original had been altered by himself personally before anyone else had seen it. Where then did this copy come from? Albus worked at controlling his temper as he went through the file paper by paper till he got to the last official document. An order to investigate the tampering of the Potter Last Will and Testament.
No. A thousand times no. Albus would not allow all of his plans to crumble because some shifty goblin found a copy of the original will. Albus began to make plans. Something to circumvent this. Something to make it seem like a goblin or perhaps a death eater was trying to get his hands on the Potter estate. If Albus was very careful he could turn it into a stronger case for himself claiming custody of the boy to protect not only the boy's health from those who would see him dead but also to protect an innocent child's inheritance from those who would exploit him.
In the middle of his plotting Albus received a firecall from Jonathan Felis, "Albus, we got him. The ruddy bastard had the nerve to waltz into my office asking to see me. I called the Aurors and they came and picked him up. He's in a holding cell in Azaskaban even as we speak."
Thinking fast Albus asked "Has anyone else been advised of this development yet?"
"No, I don't think so. Why? Do we need to tell someone? Does he have any relatives that need to be informed of his arrest?" Felis asked.
"No" soothed Albus. "To my knowledge the man has no family at all."
"Good because I think he is being kept in solitary confinement because of the nature of his crimes. I know the Aurors don't want him to have any contact with the outside world till the trial. Something about protecting him from harm if you can believe that load of crap."
Albus smiled. "They would call it protective custody because child abusers are considered the lowest of the low in the criminal world and for the child that was abused by this man to be Harry Potter…well, if he weren't protected he might not live long enough to come to trial."
"And that would be a bad thing?" Felis asked amazed. If the man was killed by another inmate it would just save the government some money in housing an animal was Felis' firm belief.
"Prohaps not a bad thing but certainly an illegal thing." Albus answered. "Jonathan, I need to go. I have some things I need to take care of now but do keep me advised of any new developments in this case won't you my dear boy?"
"Of course headmaster, of course." With that Felis broke the connection.
Albus sat back in his chair and contemplated this new development. How could he use this to his best advantage?
He began to smile as he made plans never even realizing that he had finally made the one mistake that would lead directly to his downfall. He had endangered the father of a protective, loyal and powerful young elemental mage.
(Gringotts later that same day)
"I'm assuming that this report is accurate." Snape said.
"He was processed through about three hours ago. From what information we can gather they plan on leaving him in prison for a few months before they bring him to trial. They want him sufficiently softened by the dementors before he comes to trial." Raveark said.
"Has his wife been notified yet? Does Madam Bones know what's going on here?" Snape dropped the arrest report back on Raveark's desk. "We can't just let him sit there. You know what the dementors can do to a human especially if they are directed to pay close attention to a prisoner. He could be insane before he even comes to trial."
"Ms. Bones was the one that got me a copy of the arrest report. Apparently she has been told to keep her hands off this case by the Prime Minister himself. I have the floo address of the Kane family but I have not contacted them yet. I thought it would be better if a human did that. Some humans don't take well to goblins and I'm not sure if the Kanes are one of those groups of people or not." Raveark squared up the pile of paperwork on his desk and asked quietly, "What about the boy Severus? Do we let him know about his father?"
"I don't know. He has so much that he is trying to deal with at this point that I am fearful of adding anything else to his plate. You said the Bill thinks he knows the password Dumbledore used on the blood ward? Can he break it then?"
Raveark shook his head no but he gave an evil grin to his friend. "Break…no, redirect it? Now that's another story. Bill thinks he can change the key phrase into something else which would render the blood ward ineffective." Raveark started to laugh. "We were trying to come up with another key phrase to activate the blood ward and we were thinking of something along the lines of 'I am the evil brother of a goat fucker.' I somehow don't think our headmaster would ever accidentally stumble across that new phrase do you?"
Snape started laughing. After he regained control of himself he said "I'll call LeAnn now. She is up-to-date on what's been going on here with her son isn't she?"
At Raveark's nod Snape walked over to the fireplace and threw in a handful of floo powder and called for the Kane house. Jonaus answered a few seconds later and after exchanging pleasantries with Snape he called the rest of the adults into the room so they could all hear this latest update. Snape explained about Chandos being arrested and being held in Azaskaban till his trial. He also explained about how Bill thought he could change the control phrase for the blood ward that Dumbledore had used on her son.
"I guess what I need to know now is what you want us to do to help in this situation." Snape said. "You know you can count on us to do whatever we can to get Chandos out of prison. Do you want us to hire a barrister for him?"
LeAnn looked thoughtful for a moment before she answered. "Not yet Severus. I'm bringing my family over there tomorrow. This has gone on long enough and its time to end it. If you can arrange a meeting with my son for me I would be grateful. I'll need to meet with your curse breaker first though. Can you do that for me?" Snape nodded his head yes.
Raveark said, "This small group that we have gathered together to try and bring down Dumbledore includes me, another goblin named Griphook, Bill Weasley our curse breaker, Amelia Bones head of magical law enforcement and Severus Snape who you of course know already. Would you like to have all of us at this meeting or just Mr. Weasley?"
"Can you arrange for everyone to be present? I don't want to tip our hand to anyone else just yet." She said.
"If we meet before the first class of the d…Wait. Severus, can you get some time off from your classes. Prohaps tell Dumbledore that Voldermort called you for a meeting?" At Snapes nod Raveark said "Good, if we work it just right we can use that as an excuse to get you alone with your son too."
Snape raised his eyebrow in question. "Would you care to explain how we can do that?"
"Simple, I sent a copy of the unaltered Potter will to Dumbledore today. It gave me an excuse to keep the freeze on the vaults for the time being. You can return from your 'meeting' with information that a death eater in the ministry of magic gave Gringotts the copy of the will and that as a courtesy we sent him a copy to inform him of our intent to investigate. Tell him that we informed the man that we were not convinced that the copy was the original at all. That we have seen another copy of the will and it does not say the same thing at all. Dumbledore will have to come here to try to convince us that the copy we sent him is the fake and the copy he supplied is the real one. Since he doesn't know that we have the original will and everything else is nothing but a copy he will think that we are dealing with two copies and he still holds the original." Raveark smirked. "I'll see him at lunch time. That gives you an hour and a half for a family meeting."
LeAnn asked, "Will that work Severus?"
"Yes, I believe it will" Snape said.
(Ministry of Magic, Prime Ministers Office same day)
Umbridge smiled at Minister Fudge and said in a simpering little girl voice. "Cornelius, have you heard any rumors about Dumbledore finding the Potter heir?"
With a self important smirk on his face Fudge nodded. "Of course my dear. I was informed right away."
"I knew he had to have told you. After all you will want to host something to welcome a returning hero back into our fold. Perhaps a dinner party and a press conference? It would do wonders for your image with the voters to have you on good terms with the Hero of the wizarding world. We can arrange for some pictures in the paper of you welcoming back a hero." Umbridge opened the book she had on her lap and stabbed her finger at a sentence written there. "If you stand behind the boy when the picture is taken it will show the famous scar above his right eyebrow." She looked up from the book and smirked. "That's what it says right here in Wizarding Hero's so everyone who sees the Prophet that day will know who they are looking at. The scar is above his right eyebrow."
"Yes, it would be a good idea at that. I think I'll go to Hogwarts to meet the boy first. He should know that he has friends in high places." Fudge answered.
The next morning Snape dismissed his first class of the day early and rushed to his private quarters. Clutching his arm he firecalled the headmaster. With a grimace on his face he announced "Albus, I've been called. I need you to find someone to take my class till I get back or cancel them. I have to go." Albus gave the younger man a concerned look before he dismissed him with a caution to please be careful.
Snape gathered up his death eater robes and mask and walked swiftly past the wards so that he could apperate out. Appearing in a secured room in Gringotts with a small pop the potions master made haste to Ravearks office where the others had already gathered.
After going over in detail what had been going on with Shadow for the past few weeks LeAnn had only a few questions. "Bill, can you modify the blood ward and remove the blocks and tracking spells that are on my son?"
Bill thought for a few seconds before he answered. "We think the key phrase to the blood ward is Understand Me. If we are correct then yes I can." He smiled. "That one's the major one. The rest are easy."
LeAnn nodded her head in agreement and turned to Raveark. "Is his staff here?"
Raveark motioned for Griphook who left the room for a few seconds. When he returned he had Shadows staff in his hands.
LeAnn sat back in the comfortable chair she had been given and sighed. "You all need to understand something about Shadow. He is not a normal 14 year old boy. He is an elemental Mage. He is slow to anger and will seldom act in his own defense but you don't harm his family. Well Dumbledore has done that by engineering the arrest of his father. Bill, I need you to modify the ward for him today. After that's done I need all of you to just stay out of his way." She looked at the shocked faces of the people around her and smiled. Her smile sent chills down even Snapes back it was so cold. "Severus, get Bill and I to Hogwarts as soon as the headmaster is out of the school."
"What are you planning to do after the ward, block and tracking spells are gone LeAnn?" Snape asked.
"I plan on giving him back his staff." Was her answer.
It was decided that when Dumbledore floo'd to Gringotts that the curse breaker and LeAnn would use Dumbledores office to floo into the school. Raveark would delay the return of the headmaster to the school to give Bill time to complete his work before he allowed Dumbledore to think he had convinced the goblin that the will was a fake.
(Hogwarts)
Snape returned to Hogwarts and went directly to the Headmaster with his (report) on the meeting he had just attended.
"I am sorry that I did not get the name of the official that delivered the copy of the will to Gringotts for you but his name was not mentioned." Snape said.
"No matter my boy. You said that according to the report delivered to Voldermort that the goblins are not convinced the will is a true copy? Well, that makes my job a little bit easier because I have the original here in my office. I can just take it to Gringotts myself today and put this issue to rest." Albus was now in a better mood than he had been in since he had received the copy of the will. "Well done my boy, well done."
With that Snape left his office to gather up Shadow for their afternoon work.
After Snape had Shadow in his quarters he was firecalled from the Headmasters office by LeAnn. "Are you ready for us?"
Snape grinned, "Come ahead."
Bill and LeAnn stepped out of Snapes fireplace and LeAnn turned to her son. Opening her arms she caught the boy as he launched himself at her. Bill and Snape looked away to allow the two as much privacy as they could as the two engaged in a tearful greeting.
"Mom, am I going home now?" Shadow brushed the tears from his cheeks as he hugged and kissed his mother.
LeAnn pulled back and brushed Shadows hair out of his face. "Soon I think. Bill is here to modify the blood ward on you to make it useless to Dumbass, and don't you tell Tracy I said that or I may get my mouth washed out with soap"
Shadow snickered before he turned to Bill. "What do you need me to do?"
"Just lie down on Severus bed and relax. If you can doze off that's even better. The calmer you are the easier this will be." Was the answer.
Shadow nodded and went to Snapes bed and lay down with his eyes closed as he practiced the relaxation techniques he had learned over the years. Bill started chanting over the boy's body and Shadow did manage to fall asleep for a short time as Bill worked.
Shadow woke to his mother's gentle nudges and with a grin he sat up. "Wow, I feel great." He grinned at Bill, "Did it work?"
Bill smiled and nodded. "It worked. I also removed the blocks on your magical core and I removed the tracking spells."
LeAnn stood up and walked over to the corner of the room and picked up Shadows staff and held it out to the boy. "Shadow, your staff." Shadow bounded over to his mother and took his staff with a huge grin on his face.
"Can we go home now Mom?" Shadow asked.
LeAnns face took on a grim look. "Before you say anything else I need you to shield. I have something to tell you." Shadow's smile vanished as his face became emotionless. A shimmer enveloped the boy as he stood there watching his mother. "Your father was arrested on trumped up charges. He is now in Azaskaban prison awaiting trial. Albus Dumbledore is responsible." At LeAnn's words the boy began to glow with power. The anger radiating off the boy was almost palatable.
With one sweep of his staff everything in the room vanished except the humans. Shadow said only two words. "He Dies"
LeAnn ordered the two shocked men to get out of the room now! All three quickly left and shut the door. LeAnn quickly cast a shield across the wall that joined the two rooms and then sat on the bed which was now in Snapes livingroom. As a matter of fact Snapes whole bedroom suit was crowded into his livingroom.
Bill looked around in wonder. "I've never seen someone move a whole room full of furnishings like that before. Why did he do it or was it you LeAnn?"
"Shadow did it. He's fighting for control right now and didn't want to damage any of Severus things in his anger." LeAnn explained.
The three felt a popping in their ears as if the air pressure had suddenly and rapidly changed and the shield LeAnn had put up fell. The door to the bedroom warped with a quick gong sound and then the door simply crumbled into sawdust. Shadow walked out of what was left of Severus bedroom and with a sheepish look at the potions master conjured a new door and with another sweep of his staff the bedroom furnishings returned to the bedroom.
Shadow walked over to his mom and hugged her. "Go home mom. Dad and I will be there soon."
With a quick nod she kissed her son and popped out.