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Chapter 22
Dumbledore In-law
Albus Dumbledore groaned in frustration and annoyance as he was forced into a small muggle cell and the cuffs, he was wearing were undone so that they just looked like bracelets before the police locked him in so that he would have to wait until they were ready to 'deal' with him like he was a misbehaving child.
He looked to the cuffs to see a white glow around the edges, and one attempt at apparation was all he could manage before crying out and falling to his knees in pain. He felt as if his body had tried to split apart because of the cuffs that obviously made him hurt trying to get out. He needed to concentrate to apparate, and that was what some anti-apparation charms did – they made it so that trying to apparate hurt too much that you couldn't concentrate, but Dumbledore knew this was likely multi-layered as Harry wouldn't want to risk him escaping for the moment.
Albus had even had his wand stolen by the muggles, and now he couldn't escape. It didn't cross his mind that that was the point of being arrested. He was obviously facing foolish jumped up charges. He just had to find a way out of this as he knew he said the muggle Prime Minister would help them, but even he knew that wasn't true.
Harry had really stolen magic and gave it to everyone. Evans had made a wizards birth right a muggle child's play thing. How dare he… how did he think he would get away with this? It was frustrating.
Albus had lost some of his contacts in the ICW, and when he managed to get some information it was to find out his contacts had been arrested for aiding outside of the interests of ICW member states – in other words for assisting Dumbledore and the UK Ministry in pretending they had any power in the ICW, and it seemed that the ICW was cautiously working with Nergal and muggle authorities to start reincorporation, so they must be stopped.
Though, Albus had taken some relief to discover that MACUSA was still with them. MACUSA did not associate with muggles. They made it unlawful to breed with muggles – muggles were kept ignorant of magic, and that was how it would stay. Harry would never be able to make them change their ways, and that made Albus feel some relief to the magical world having some hope.
It all started when Minerva brought those muggle magic creating things back to the Order, and since then things had just gone downhill for the Order and the Ministry of Magic as neither of them could stop Harry Evans or his ridiculous company.
Then to make things worse, Voldemort had started keeping a low profile and hadn't once tried anything. This led Albus to the conclusion that Voldemort knew what Harry was doing and was keeping out of the way through either caution or just not caring right then. Maybe he hoped Evans, and everyone would forget about them while they had the Order to deal with.
However, Harry really began to get on their nerves and in the way of their world just a few months back. The weak, foolish little brat even had the gull to make fun of them, and to make them look like fools, somehow transporting them to Antarctica with those annoying helpful and polite Canadian wizards who loved penguins a little too much, and they had to get their help getting back to the UK.
Just thinking about that day Albus found something else that mocked him. Harry had been trying for years to get people to side against Albus, and now Harry had. He knew he should have done something to Rosette and Ginevra and gotten rid of that blasted Lovegood girl. He couldn't trust anyone! How could he have been so stupid as to trust Sirius, even? The man had never been as good and obedient as his best friend James.
This left Albus to wonder whether Remus was as loyal as James or whether he was only loyal because of the debt he believed he owed Albus for letting him, a Lykan learn magic at Hogwarts.
It was not going to look good for him if the truth about Lily was revealed. He let James get away with that. Albus would have helped do the same to Rosette once the opportunity presented, but somehow someone or something got in his way or distracted him, to make things easier. She would have had no choice but to accept her fate. However, now she was well out of his grasp. He had secretly suspected the Weasley girl and Lovegood girl weren't on his side, but he now knew that they knew to protect their minds, so now he realised many other members of the Order likely knew how too, which meant he couldn't trust anyone.
Albus had little doubt that under the muggle law Harry could take custody of his fourteen-year-old brother, and now the boy would be taken out of Hogwarts, and probably placed in a muggle school. The shame James would feel having his son grow up in a muggle school. Albus could only feel for his dear old student.
James already had to suffer the fact his daughter was going back to school after having graduated Hogwarts, now with muggles, and now this. Then if the muggles considered any of them to have used magic outside of the bounds and laws, they had set up they could either be fined or even jailed.
Albus sighed as he sat down on his hard cot and slumped a little when he thought of something. Fawkes, his phoenix. However, no matter how much he called his pet wouldn't come and the cuffs started burning. It was then he realised Harry really had thought of all kinds magical transportation. Therefore, he gave up as the pain wasn't worth it when he doubted Fawkes would even hear him. He still hadn't noticed that Fawkes had buggered off weeks ago and wouldn't come even if he could here Albus calling.
Shaking that thought away as depressing, Albus had to think more positive. It wasn't like the muggles could keep them without trial. After all, it seemed apparent that they had been legitimately arrested, which meant they were being treated like any other criminal suspects.
Though, that didn't mean the Order had really committed any crime while fighting against Harry. It did mean they could call in a lawyer to assist in sorting this out, and getting to the bottom of things, and pointing the finger at Harry where it belonged, as Harry Evans broke the Stature of Security.
Therefore, Albus was pleased to be soon seated in front of his magical lawyer, Mr. Stenbee. He was one of the best in the magical world, and a half-blood. So he would know a fair bit about magical, and muggle law. He was also a father of two young children, a boy and girl. His son was due to start Hogwarts come September.
They were seated in an interview room at the police station, and he told the middle-aged lawyer all about Harry Evans during school, and how during his final year he showed his true colours. Then all about his banishment for almost destroying Hogwarts to give all of the muggles magic. Then Albus went on to discuss Harry using muggle science to give the muggles magic, which broke the Stature of Security. Albus told his lawyer all about the things they found that created and used magic, and how Minerva had discovered it all because muggle-born children refused to go to Hogwarts.
Last Dumbledore told him about all of the police preventing the Ministry from forcing the muggle-born children into going to Hogwarts as was their right.
"O-kay," Mr. Stenbee said slowly with a look of horror that Dumbledore thought was in his favour and sympathy. "S-so tell me about this first meeting with Mr. Evans at his Nergal headquarters!" he asked nervously.
Dumbledore nodded with an annoying twinkle to his eyes. Though Dumbledore was annoyed the bracelets prevented him access to the lawyer's mind he went on with his story and told him everything from his first meeting to his eventual arrest.
"So you see why he has to be stopped!?" Dumbledore said with a wide grin once his long and highly exaggerated story was over. "He's giving the muggles magic, and it has to be stopped right away!"
Mr. Stenbee just looked at Dumbledore in pity after the old man told him how he got put in jail. "I'm sorry, Mr. Dumbledore, but you committed an act of aggression and terrorism against Nergal twice, and the second time a public stadium where you put people's lives at risk, and assaulted security," he said shuffling his notes as he had gotten paper work showing many of the charges against Dumbledore. "I doubt very much whether you'll get off with anything short of a very large fine, and some huge restraining orders if you don't go to jail!" he said thoughtfully.
Dumbledore's mouth opened wide in shock. "B-but he… he's broken the Stature of Security!" he replied in shock and horror. "He has to be stopped. He is dark and evil!"
"And where is your evidence of this dark and evil?" the lawyer asked trying to be patient. "Plus, this is the muggle world - they don't recognise your laws, and this dark and evil is storybook nonsense, and you're the aggressor – they don't think in your… dark and light ways, and neither do I really. To an outside jury you are the 'evil' one trying to take what is theirs, and what erase their memories? Take food and medicine from hundreds of millions of people?"
"Of course," Albus readily agreed. "I'm Albus Dumbledore. They have to believe me! They have to follow me!"
Mr. Stenbee sighed and rubbed his tired eyes as he stood up and headed to the door. However, before he left the room and the baffled old man, he spoke some last-minute words, and this time they held a cold anger to them that shocked the old man.
"Mr. Dumbledore, I cannot represent you," he said giving the old man a look of disgust. "We have a conflict of interests. You appear to want to wage war on the muggle world and I do not. The world seems to be heading in the right direction. I had never thought of you as a muggle hater until now. However, this has opened my eyes and I wonder why I've never heard of my muggle grandparents before, and I'll be sure to look into this further, and trust me, if the magical UK has a magical-hand in that, you will have a million lawyers on your doorstep, and there is nothing worse… thank you, and have a good day."
Then he left Dumbledore alone in the interview room where he shuddered. The old man sat with his jaw hanging open. He would never be able to find a magical lawyer who knew the muggle world who would willingly take his defence. However, he would seek a pure-blood lawyer known to be a Death Eater who would want to get back at the muggles.
It was unfortunate for Lucius Malfoy to think it would be clever to go against his master's orders. He was arrested seconds after entering the muggle police station, and charged with – well, the list was HUGE. It was with his arrest that no other Death Eater went against their masters orders when it came to dealing with the muggles any time soon.
To Be Continued…
