Chapter 20 I Am So Screwed
Severus turned to Bill, his face reflecting the amazement he felt. "How on earth did she do that? No one can apperate in or out of Hogwarts."
Shadow smirked, "She didn't apperate."
At the confounded looks on the two's faces Shadow said. "Remind me and I'll explain later. Now, where's Dumbledore." The voice he used when he asked that question was cold and emotionless
"He's at Gringotts right now Shadow. He should be back sometime this afternoon. So, what are you planning to do now?" Bill asked.
Shadow, without batting an eye said, "Free my father and kill that old bastard."
"As much as I agree that Dumbledore needs to be taken down I don't think your killing him is the correct way to do it. Many will see you as bad as if not worse than he is. He just has to large of a following to do something like that with out consequences." Snape explained.
"So what do I do? Allow him to get away with his crimes?" Shadow shook his head no. "I will not. I cannot let him get away with this. You know he needs to be stopped before he does more harm than he already has."
It was at that time that the floo came to life. Snape answered and found Raveark at the other end.
"Dumbledore is back at Hogwarts now. How are things going there?" Raveark asked them.
"Well, other than Shadow trying to turn himself into a homicidal maniac things are great." Bill quipped.
Ravearks face paled. "What do you mean by that?"
Snape reached out and slapped Bill on the back of the head. "Its just Weasley's idea of a poorly thought out joke Raveark. Shadow is naturally very upset about his fathers arrest but he isn't going to kill anyone without some careful thought first."
Raveark sighed in relief. "Fudge is coming to the school this evening about dinner time. He plans on bring his whole entourage with him as well as members of the press. According to Madam Bones he wants to get in some free press with the Boy-Who-Lived. Some goodwill stuff. If Mr. Shadow can contain his blood thirsty nature till then that might be the time to confront Dumbledore with his wrongdoings. With that many witness's it will be hard for him to sweep it all back under the proverbial rug again. I understand that Fudge always travels with several top ranking Aurors?"
"Of course he does. You never know when a death eater or a just plain disgusted with ineptitude citizen will jump out of the wood work and confront our esteemed Minister." Snape snickered at the mental picture that produced for him. "Of course some of his 'normal' entourage are death eaters but Fudge was convinced by their money that they were just a little bit weak willed and so were subject to impervious for years without going mad. Isn't it wonderful what money will do?"
"Shadow, just promise me that you won't do anything till the minister gets there. I'll be there also with a little surprise myself. Will you wait till then?" Raveark asked Shadow.
Shadow just nodded to the goblin.
"All right then. You need to get back to class young man." Snape said.
Shadow went to his afternoon classes and received a note at the end of his last class. The note instructed him to return to his room, bath and change into his good robes. He was apparently invited to have dinner in the great hall tonight with some special guests. The minister of magic and his personal assistant as well as a few members of the press. Perfect.
After Shadow had showered he changed into some plain black jeans and a black long sleeved buttoned down shirt. He clubbed his hair back with a black ribbon and put on some ankle high black boots. Grabbing his staff he left the room to go to the great hall. He hoped no one was really very hungry tonight because he was fairly sure that after he got there no one would be eating much.
Shadow made his way to the great hall and stopped in the middle of the room. With a quick sweeping motion of his staff and a mumbled word that no one heard he caused the four student tables to vanish. With another sweep and mumbled word all of the students were pushed against the walls. Shadow began to glow as he turned his eyes directly to the headmaster.
Albus wand in hand quickly stood up and began making his way around to the front of the staff table. His face was red with anger as he glared at Shadow. When he got close enough to almost touch the boy he hissed in a low voice, "Understand me, this behavior will not be tolerated. Understand me, give me that staff."
Expecting to be obeyed he was shocked when Shadow reached out and grabbed his wand and with a quick twist of his wrist broke it across his knee. "Unless you want to die now you had better get my father out of prison old man."
Several things happened after Shadows words.
A short man who was sitting at the staff table lurched to his feet. Eyes wide in surprise he crushed what looked like a lime green hat in his hands. "Holy shit Albus, what's going on here?"
The several people in uniforms standing behind the man drew their wands and pointed them at the two in the middle of the floor as they moved closer to the short man.
A toad like woman who had been sitting beside the man with the green hat gave a wide grin as she watched the confrontation between the old man and the young boy.
Another woman with an outrageous hairdo and clashing robes started digging in her humongous bag for something talking to herself the whole time.
Snape got up and moved toward the two opponents.
Professor Flitwick fell off his cushion and last but not least another man fairly nondescript got up and with a wide smile on his face began to make his way around the staff table also.
The tubule held for a few seconds before Dumbledore stumbled back away from the boy and said. "Harry, calm down. If you have some issues with me this is not the place to air them. If you will come to my office we can talk about it."
Shadow did not take his eyes off the old man but he did raise an air shield around the two of them before he shook his head no. "I will go nowhere with you old man. Do you think I'm that stupid to trust you again?"
By this time Snape was just outside of the perimeter of the air shield that Shadow had erected. He brought his hand up and gently pushed against the shield. Turning he shrugged his shoulders. "Some kind of a shield although I don't recognize it." He informed the rest of the room.
Several of the students took the opportunity to make a quick exit from the room and Minerva McGonagall seeing this decided that was not a bad idea. "Severus, help me get the other students out before they get hurt."
Severus cast a sonorous charm and instructed the rest of the students to return to their common rooms. The students filed out with many backward glances and several of the adults at the staff table made motions like they were going to leave also before the main door framed an assembly of about 8 goblins dressed in battle armor who made their way into the great hall. At this all of the adults froze except the woman who had been digging in her bag. She was talking softly and a quill was busy writing on a pad of paper on the table in front of her and the nondescript man who had been making his way slowly toward the two surrounded by the shield.
The man who had been approaching the shield stopped at Snapes side as the goblins made a semi-circle behind the boy. Snape glanced at the man standing beside him. "Mr. Jonathan Felis why are you here? Children's protective services were not called according to my information."
Felis smiled at the potions professor. "I was invited by the headmaster to meet his ward." According to the file I read about the boy he was severely traumatized and abused by his adopted father." Felis raised an eyebrow at Snape. "What do you think? Is my information wrong? The boy is acting like he has been traumatized although the question I must now ask is who did it?"
Felis grinned at Snapes gobsmacked expression before turning back to the two encased in the shield. "Shadow, stand down now." He ordered the youth.
Shadow glared at the man before looking back at Dumbledore. That was such a stupid demand that he didn't even feel it was necessary to answer.
Felis elbowed Snape in the ribs as his grin got wider. "You gotta love that boy don't you?" he said in an aside to Snape before he again ordered Shadow to stand down this time adding the totally incomprehensible phrase, "metamorphmagus, remember son?"
The change in the boy was instantaneous. His staff dropped along with the shield and he threw himself at the man. Tears ran from his eyes as the man pulled the boy in a close hug. "It will be ok son, I'm here." The man rubbed his hand up and down the boy's back, "Shhh, I'm here with you. It will be ok now."
Shadow only said one word as he closed his eyes and burled in closer in the embrace. "Dad."
Dumbledore, mouth hanging open watched in surprise as his charge was held and comforted by his old friend Jonathan Felis. What the hell was going on here? He stooped to grab the boy's staff but was stopped by several growls from the goblins standing behind the two hugging men. Raveark shook his head no. "I wouldn't touch it if I were you old man."
At the warning Dumbledore froze once again before standing up straight. "Why are you here Raveark?" he asked. "None of this concerns you."
Raveark flashed a feral grin at the man and said "Don't count on it."
The group in the center of the room had totally forgotten the others till the short man with the crushed green hat once again drew their attention by slamming his hands down on the staff table and demanding to know what was going on here.
Felis and Shadow turned to the staff and Shadow wordlessly summoned it back to his hand. The two then slowly started walking toward the table side by side. Those gathered at the table watched in stunned surprise as Felis morphed into a taller man with sandy blond hair and blue eyes. Chandos Kane dropped his hand on his son's shoulder as his gaze took in those at the staff table.
"What's going on here Fudge is kidnapping, illegal use of magic against a minor, theft, manipulation of a minor, false charges being levied against innocent people, false arrest, slander, falsifying documentations, endangering a minor, mind control of several people including said minor, fraud, forgery and if you give me a little bit more time I'm sure I can think of some more charges to add to that list." Chandos spat with a glare at those on the other side of the table. "I left this country because I did not like what passed for justice here. My son was brought here against his will so that he could learn first hand why I hate this country."
Albus, thinking fast tried to redeem the situation by ordering the aurors to arrest Chandos. "He is an escaped prisoner from justice."
Fudge held up his hand to stop any aurors that were inclined to move. "Hold." Looking at Chandos he said "I am assuming that you can supply proof of these charges you are accusing; I would guess the headmaster of?" At Chandos nod Fudge demanded that the room be cleared of the teachers unless they were a part of this investigation as well as the press and anyone else who didn't need to be there. As he said this last part his eyes darted toward the goblins.
Chandos smiled as everyone except Snape, the goblins, Dumbledore, Fudge, Umbridge, the aurors, McGonagall, himself and his son exited the room. As the woman with the bad hair passed him he leaned over and said, "Stick around till this is over Rita, I'll have a statement for you then."
After the room was cleared Chandos said, "We will supply pensive memories of what has been going on here. I will also testify under Veritaserum if you require it. There are several others that have information about what has been going on here including your own head of magical law enforcement, Madam Bones.
"Make a list of your witnesses and I will have them summoned here." Fudge said. "Albus I don't know yet what you are playing at but you seem to have gone to far this time." He shook his head and closed his eyes briefly. "Even you are not above the law Albus" was the softly spoken words.
Umbridge never lost her smile as she studied the boys scarred forhead. "Cornelius, I believe I have one more charge to list although I'm not sure who it should be leveled against. Remember when we were talking about Potters famous scar? Well this boy's scar is on the wrong side of his forehead. He is not Potter."
Albus whipped around and stared at the boy. Oh hell, the scar was on the wrong side. How had he forgotten that? He shifted his eyes to each one left in the room. This did not look good. Closing his eyes he tried to think of how he could do damage control here. Nothing came to mind. 'I am totally screwed' was the thought that went through his head. With that thought he reached out and grabbed Snape with one hand and reached into a pocket of his robe with the other. Pulling out a small silver medallion he quickly whispered "Portus" and with a soft pop and a look of surprise on Snapes face the two vanished.