Chapter 10
Three Potters Talk to People

Still Friday, 26th July
Still morning, but an hour later
Still Gringotts

Director Ragnok's door sounded, BAM-BAM-BAM. "Enter!" Ragnok yelled.

Two armoured goblins, Goldshaper and Bloodbather, stepped in and bowed. Bloodbather, the goblin with less-dented armour said, "The fat brat who was sentenced to the iron mines two days ago, Harry Potter's cousin, he's dead."

"How?" Ragnok asked. "What happened?"

Goldshaper, the goblin with more-dented armour, said, "Dursley pushed Nelson," another prisoner-miner, "who's old and feeble, to the floor. The brat then stole Nelson's breakfast tray. Nelson had just sat down, so his breakfast tray was full when Dursley stole it."

Ragnok asked, "How much had the boy eaten of his own breakfast tray when he stole Nelson's?"

Goldshaper said, "All of it. All the while, he was whingeing about us 'starving' him."

Bloodbather scoffed. " 'Starving,' right. That human boy was almost as round as an eglukak ball."

"Tell me how he died."

Goldshaper said, "We decided that we'd let Dursley eat two spoonfuls of Nelson's eggs, then we subjected Dursley to goblin law. We didn't check to see if he had a laying hen under his bed, but we're sure about those two spoonfuls of eggs: that he stole them and couldn't pay them back."

All three goblins knew a key rule of goblin law: If you stole something and you could not pay it back to the theft-victim, you were beheaded. Even if the something stolen was two spoonfuls of eggs.

Now Ragnok asked, "What about Nelson, the old prisoner-miner who got his breakfast tray stolen?"

Goldshaper shrugged. "We gave back what Dursley didn't eat, but by then the breakfast tray and part of the table was covered in blood. Nelson didn't want the tray back."

Ragnok looked at the clock; the prisoner-miners' shift would start in seven minutes. "It's not Prisoner-Miner Nelson's fault. Give him a new, clean breakfast tray, of the same food or better, and give him half an hour to eat it all. He'll start his shift at least a half-hour late, but it's okay."

Goldshaper and Bloodbather bowed themselves out of Ragnok's office.

Once Ragnok was alone, he dashed off a letter to John Potter, telling him that now all three Dursleys were dead; also, Ragnok's letter said that Gringotts now had "Wanted: Albus P Dumbledore" posters put up where they could be seen both inside and outside the bank.


Meanwhile, in Potter Manor

John, Paulina, and Harry were eating breakfast. Harry still ate quickly, as though his plate would be snatched away from him if he took more than X minutes to eat.

John looked at Harry and sighed. "I have bad news for you. Paulina and I need to run some errands today, but they won't be successful unless you come with us. But as soon as we set foot anyplace in Wizarding Britain, you'll be hit with all the 'There's Harry Potter!' hoopla, and I apologize in advance for this."

Harry was silent a moment, then he lifted his chin. "You're me but older, right? And I'm you, but from a new 1991, right? If you can fight Voldemort, I can handle people asking me for my autograph."

John thought, Keep that up, younger self, and your Sorting into Gryffindor won't be because you're a legacy Gryffindor.

Aloud, John said, "But remember, you can't tell anyone that I'm older you, or that Paulina also is from the future. All three of us need to pretend that I'm your American cousin, and my American wife also has a cousin in Britain who's your age."

Harry smiled. "Not a problem. I like outsmarting people."

John thought, I wonder if the Hat again will try to talk him into Slytherin?

John smiled at the other two. "Thanatos urged me to be proactive. Today Paulina and I will be proactive like crazy."


A half-hour later
Entering the Daily Prophet building

The front receptionist said, "Good morning, can I...?"

She did not finish her sentence. She did not glance at the two young adults who just had entered through the front door. She stared in shock at the ten-year-old boy who just had walked in.

John was smiling in amusement as he said in his American accent, "Good morning. I'm John Potter, this is my wife Paulina, and it seems you recognize my second cousin Harry. We'd like to speak with your editor-in-chief"—John pulled a scrap of parchment from his pocket and glanced at it—"Barnabas Cuffe."

The receptionist jumped up from her desk; all the while, she was eyeing the rat's-nest hair of both John and Harry. "Not a problem, Mister Potter. I'll take you straight to Mister Cuffe, right away, no waiting, please follow me."

As the three Potters followed the receptionist through the newsroom, John heard two different people say, "That's Harry Potter!" John noticed Rita Skeeter watching young Harry like a hungry cat would watch a water beetle.


Barnabas Cuffe made it clear at first that he had no interest in talking to two Americans whom he had never heard of. John and Paulina could wait in the employee breakroom for all Cuffe cared, while he talked to Harry Potter alone.

That's not happening, John said with more words, and with much more force.

The deal that Cuffe, John Potter and Paulina Potter worked out was that Cuffe would not interview the boy, Harry Potter, no matter how much Cuffe wanted to. Instead, Cuffe would interview the adult Potters, while Cuffe asked no questions of young Harry; but if John or Paulina said something that was incorrect, Harry would speak up and would correct the error.

Barnabas Cuffe clearly did not like making this deal, but once John Potter's Regent ring was pointed out, Cuffe agreed.

All the while that Cuffe and John were negotiating, while Paulina and Harry added a few comments, Paulina was doing something with documents that she pulled from her beaded handbag.

After John and Cuffe shook hands, Paulina slid some copied parchments across the desk. Paulina said to Cuffe, "When we took Harry to Saint Mungo's yesterday, their Dicta-Quill's listing of Harry's medical problems went on for three pages."

Cuffe choked.

Paulina continued, "However, what I'm giving you shows only the first five lines; your readers don't need to know the rest. On page 3 is also a listing of when Harry visited Saint Mungo's previously; the last time Harry went to Saint Mungo's before yesterday, one of his parents took him there."

Cuffe stared at Paulina in shock.

Paulina said, "Before John claimed the Potter Regent ring, which was the day before yesterday, and claimed magical guardianship of Harry, the headmaster of Hogwarts had tricked his way into being appointed Harry's magical guardian, even though Harry's parents' wills said otherwise."

Paulina pulled a Gringotts-certified copy of Lily Potter's will and a Gringotts-certified copy of James Potter's will from her beaded handbag, and slapped the wills on Cuffe's desk.

Paulina said, "When Dumbledore was Harry's magical guardian, he shifted every galleon he could from Harry's trust vault to his own vault. Here's a copy of the Gringotts report on Harry's trust vault."

John said, "By the way, James Potter's will shows that Sirius Black, who's in prison for betraying James and Lily, is innocent of that charge. 'Dead' Peter Pettigrew was the Secret Keeper."

Cuffe's jaw dropped.


Cuffe started the interview by asking, "31 October 1981—what happened that night?"

John asked Harry, "What do you remember?"

Harry said, "The night my parents were killed and I got this scar? I don't remember anything. My earliest memory is of me in my dark cu—my dark bedroom."

Cuffe said, "That's disappointing. So we still don't know."

John said, "Paulina and I have four theories. One, James Potter performed a Potter family ritual beforehand; two, James and Lily performed a Potter family ritual together; three, Lily Potter worked something with runes that was sheer genius; or four, Harry worked accidental magic that night, of a kind that never has been seen before or since."

Cuffe looked at John. "You think the explanation might be a Potter family ritual? Don't you know? You're a Potter, so you can read the books in the Potter Library and can read the Potter family grimoire."

John chuckled. "True, but I've had access to those books only for the last two days. And believe me, during those two days, I've had to spend my time on many more important things than looking through the Potter Grimoire for a spell or ritual that might not be there."


A few minutes later

Cuffe still was interviewing John and Paulina, as Harry listened in.

Paulina was saying, "...So there we were, just married, honeymooning in Britain. We were in Britain because we knew that we each had a British second cousin who was magical, and who was about to start Hogwarts."

John said, "My cousin was of course the famous Harry Potter."

Harry snorted. Cuffe gave Harry a puzzled look.

Paulina said, "Three days ago, we met with my cousin and her family. She's a delightful young lady, and scary smart; I predict you'll be hearing much about her during the next seven years."

Cuffe asked, "What's her name?"

John said, "We won't tell you now, to keep the girl safe; but you'll definitely learn her name on September first."

Paulina said, "Anyway, our visit with my cousin went off as planned. We expected to do the same thing with Harry: shake his hand, have dinner with his family, Harry and John would exchange contact information, then John and I would hit the road again. That was the plan, anyway."

Cuffe said, "But...?"

John said, "But two days ago, we went to visit my famous cousin Harry and his family. That's when everything turned to sh—"

"Language, John!" Paulina exclaimed.

Harry shrugged. "For me it started out as a normal day."

Cuffe asked, "What went bad?"

John replied, "Mr. Cuffe, you've seen those books that are supposedly about Harry. Did I believe that my cousin named Harry Potter had saved an entire Hungarian village from a vampire attack? No."

The eyes of the real Harry Potter went wide with surprise.

John continued, "I believed no such thing. But I did believe that Harry lived in Wales, in a fancy house—maybe not a 'blue palace,' but still fancy—and he lived with George Potter, Rowena Potter, and a house-elf. But even when I was living in the USA and was attending school at Ilvermorny, I saw a problem with that story."

Cuffe asked, "What was the problem?"

"My dad had never heard of British relatives named George or Rowena Potter. Neither had Gringotts New York heard of those two British Potters, and wouldn't Gringotts know?"

Paulina said, "Two days ago, John used Potter family magic to tell him exactly where Harry Potter was living. The result was another red flag."

John explained, "Harry Potter wasn't living anywhere in Wales. Family magic said that Harry Potter was living in Surrey County, England. When Paulina and I apparated to near where Harry lived, he wasn't living in a blue house in a magical neighborhood—Harry Potter was living in a no-magic house in a no-magic neighborhood. A little later, Paulina and I would find out that Harry was living with his mother's nonmagical sister, and the sister's husband and son."

Cuffe sputtered, "Harry Potter was raised by Muggles?"

Harry said, "I don't know that word."

Paulina explained, "Nonmagical people, honey. The American word no-maj or no-magic says the same thing, without being insulting."

Harry looked at Cuffe and said, "I didn't know I was magical till John told me. This was two days ago. I'd done magical stuff before then, but I didn't know it was magical. But whenever I did 'freaky stuff,' my aunt and uncle punished me something awful."

John growled, "They beat him and they starved him. For doing accidental magic."

Cuffe blurted out, "They beat and they starved the Boy Who Lived?"

Paulina said, "We arrived for Harry's visit less than a minute after he had received his Hogwarts letter. The letter was addressed to 'the Cupboard Under the Stairs.' "

Cuffe shook his head. "I don't understand what this means."

Harry said, "That was my 'bedroom' for as long as I can remember. Whenever I did something to anger my aunt or uncle, they'd make me go to my cupboard, then they'd lock me in. Everything magical that I did, always without planning to do it, angered my aunt and uncle."

Paulina asked Cuffe, "Now do you understand why we couldn't leave a ten-year-old boy with those people?"

John said, "Two mornings ago, I didn't wake up planning to claim the Potter Regent ring, or to claim magical guardianship of Harry Potter, or to negotiate with that family for Harry's nonmagical guardianship, but that's what I wound up doing."

Paulina said angrily, "Harry's aunt and uncle demanded we pay them a thousand pounds before they would sign the form that transferred nonmagical guardianship of Harry from them to John and me." She huffed; "I declare!"

John said, "But it turned out that his aunt and uncle weren't the only rat bastards in Harry's life." John talked about what he had learned after he had claimed the Potter Regent ring, then he had talked with the Potter account manager at Gringotts London. What John had learned: Dumbledore had stolen money from Harry.

John then told Cuffe that John and Paulina were told by Axefrenzy that Albus Dumbledore was not merely stealing from Harry Potter's trust vault, Dumbledore was emptying that vault.

And speaking of Dumbledore—all the times that Harry was being starved and hurt by his relatives, Dumbledore never showed up to warn the Dursleys off, Dumbledore never rescued Harry, and Dumbledore never took Harry to Saint Mungo's.

John and Paulina had thoroughly trashed Dumbledore's reputation by the time John told Cuffe, "I can't in good conscience let my ward Harry attend Hogwarts, so long as Dumbledore is the headmaster there. So on August 25th, Paulina and I will be taking Harry Potter to the USA, so that Harry will begin his magical schooling at Ilvermorny, which is a much better school."

Cuffe stared at John. "Instead of Hogwarts?"

"Instead of Hogwarts."

Cuffe looked shocked. "But Harry Potter's parents went to Hogwarts! And his grandparents. And on back in time for hundreds of years. You'd truly remove Harry Potter from Hogwarts before he attends even a single day there?"

Paulina said, "John honey, we forgot to show Mr. Cuffe the letter." She pulled an envelope out of her beaded handbag, pulled a letter out of the envelope, duplicated the letter, then slid the duplicate letter over to Cuffe.

John explained what Cuffe was seeing: "Dumbledore didn't hand toddler-Harry to his aunt, he didn't ring her and her husband's doorbell, nor did he knock on their door. No, Dumbledore left toddler-Harry in a basket on his aunt's front doorstep, at night, with only a blanket to protect the fifteen-month-old against the cold November night. Petunia didn't find Harry till the next morning—Dumbledore left Harry out in the cold all night."

Cuffe stared. "All night?"

John nodded. "With Harry in the basket was that letter. Which used pretty, pretty language to say 'Hey, no-magic sister of Lily Potter, your sister and her husband were murdered but her son survived. You'll be raising that son now; and no, you're not allowed to refuse.' I despise Harry's aunt and her family, I saw all three of them be arrested by the goblins—and rightfully so—but Petunia did not deserve to be treated so disrespectfully."


Later, at the Ministry of Magic

After John and Paulina finished their press interview at the Daily Prophet, they took Harry to the Ministry. Specifically, John and Paulina set course to take Harry to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, to meet with its Director, Amelia Bones.

In the Ministry Atrium, while the two adult Potters were getting their wands scanned—John's wand was holly and thunderbird heartstring, eleven inches—some onlooker recognized Harry. Soon the three Potters almost were mobbed, until Senior Auror Nigel Grenwick offered to escort the trio directly to Bones's office.


John did not kid himself: The only reason that he and Paulina got to meet with Director Bones was because One, he had the Boy Who Lived with him; and Two, John was wearing the Potter Regent ring.

Like in the Daily Prophet editor's office, Paulina pulled several documents from her beaded handbag and duplicated most of them. But this time, instead of handing Director Bones all the documents at once, Paulina slid them over to Bones, a few (or just one) at a time—

James Potter's will and Lily Potter's will (certified copies). John pointed out that both wills referred to Sirius Black as "Harry's oath-sworn godfather." Both wills named Amelia Bones as third in the list of Harry's guardians, behind Sirius Black and Alice Longbottom. Both wills said that Petunia Evans Dursley and her husband were never ever to be given guardianship of Harry. James Potter's will also mentioned that Peter Pettigrew, not Sirius Black, was the Secret Keeper. Albus Dumbledore was mentioned nowhere in either will except as a witness.

The report of Harry Potter's 25 July 1991 medical examination at Saint Mungo's. Unlike with the Daily Prophet copy, the duplicate medical report that was given to Amelia Bones was unredacted. Director Bones could read for herself, three pages' worth of the boy's injuries and other medical problems, both old and new. On the last page were listed all of Harry's previous visits to Saint Mungo's—none were listed after Dumbledore had assumed "guardianship" of Harry.

Gringotts London's Activity Report for Vault 687, going back to 31 October 1981. Harry himself had yet to remove one knut from that vault, but Vault 687 had had steady outflows since Halloween 1981, and Harry had not benefited at all from any of those spent coins. The Dursleys had been arrested by the goblins for their part of the thefts, but Dumbledore still was living large.

Albus Dumbledore's letter to Petunia Evans Dursley, written 1 November 1981; letter read on the morning of 2 November 1981. Dumbledore's letter basically said, "You must raise this magical boy whom I can't be bothered to talk to you about. By the way, your sister was murdered. Don't expect to hear from anyone who's magical before 1991."

After the documents were passed to Director Bones, John and Paulina told their story. They were American magicals who just had married, they had decided to honeymoon in Britain and, two days ago, they had visited Harry Potter's house for what they had fully expected to be a one-time, one-day visit.

Instead, John and Paulina had been so horrified by what they had found in Harry's house, they had hurried to Gringotts so John could claim the Potter Regent ring, then could claim magical guardianship of Harry. The Dursleys had signed the form that granted John nonmagical guardianship of Harry Potter, only with the agreement that John would pay Harry's aunt and uncle a thousand pounds (G200). The Dursleys afterward had all three been arrested by the goblins, who did not believe in wrist-slap punishments.

Director Bones asked Harry if he had ever been visited by anyone from a nonmagical-government child-welfare agency, by Wizard Child Services, or by Dumbledore. Harry replied, "No, the only people who've ever tried to help me were in primary school, two teachers and a nurse. The teachers changed their minds and the nurse lost her job."

Paulina said, "Obliviations, I bet. Or Confunduses."

Director Bones nodded. "Boudicca Grenwick, Director for WCS, should never have let Harry Potter, of all people, fall through the cracks. This needs investigating."

Harry said, "I wish somebody had come to visit me. After a while, the Dursleys figured out they could do whatever they wanted with me, and nobody would speak out."

Director Bones said, "Dumbledore never came to visit you?"

"Don't know. What's he look like?"

John answered, "He has a gray beard that goes down to his belt, has gray hair that is just as long in back, wears brightly colored choir-robes with moving designs on them, and he offers students candy whenever he first starts talking with them."

Harry asked, "Does he drive a car? In primary school, we were told that if you see someone like that, he'll try to trick you into getting into his car."

Director Bones facepalmed, then conjured a picture of Dumbledore.

Harry looked at the picture, then said, "No, never met him. I'd remember someone like that if I'd ever seen him before."

John said, "I want to point out something, Director. You look at the wills, and Dumbledore never should've had custody of Harry, not for one minute. Also, Dumbledore took Harry from somewhere or from someone where he was supposed to be, and gave him to Petunia Dursley, whom both wills say Harry should never have gone to. It seems to me that Dumbledore kidnapped little Harry. Also, it seems awfully strange that Sirius Black, who should've been Harry's guardian, was thrown in prison for at least one crime he didn't commit."

Paulina said, "Maybe Alice Longbottom's 'unfortunate' coma wasn't truly unfortunate. Maybe she was taken out."

Director Bones wrote something down, then looked at the three Potters. "I was never told what the wills said. I was never told that if Sirius Black and Alice Longbottom couldn't take custody of Harry Potter, that I would get custody. Dumbledore never even hinted as much."

Harry said, "Wow, ma'am, you could've been like my mum?"

"Not quite, but I would've tried to act like a mum to you. Just like what I'm doing with my niece Susan, who's also an orphan, and the same age as you. You would've been like a brother to her, and she'd have been like a sister to you."

"Sweet," said Harry.


As John, Paulina and Harry were about to walk out of Director Bones's office, John said to Bones, "In my mind, Dumbledore has caused Harry much more harm than Voldemort has. If someone told you that Voldemort was teaching at Hogwarts this year—Defense Against the Dark Arts, say—would you send Susan to Hogwarts? No, you'd send her to Ilvermorny or that French school. But Dumbledore is worse than Voldemort, at least for Harry. So you can understand why I'm enrolling Harry in Ilvermorny, not in Hogwarts?"

"Please tell me you're joking," Bones said.

John said, "Isn't Wizarding Britain the place where Death Eaters, whose guilt can be proven with much evidence, claim 'I didn't mean it, I was Imperiused,' and they're told 'You're free to go'?"

Director Bones, instead of answering, made a face.

"Madam Bones, I'm sure you'll work hard to gather evidence against Dumbledore, but even I know—someone who doesn't live in your country—that Dumbledore will never spend a day in your prison. The only thing I can do to keep Harry safe is to take him someplace where Dumbledore can't touch him. Hogwarts is not that place."

With those words, the three Potters walked out of Director Bones's office.


Amelia Bones immediately and personally visited the DMLE's Records Division, to learn more about Sirius Black's trial. The first thing she learnt was that Sirius Black never got a trial.

What little parchmentwork was in the folder said that Sirius Black's wand had been collected; but Amelia discovered that the wand was not stored where it should have been stored.

Amelia had been in the DMLE long enough to know that if an Auror destroyed evidence and this could be proven, the Auror was destined to be a prisoner in Azkaban; but if evidence were "misfiled," the Auror would receive at worst a written reprimand.

So Amelia got creative with Accio spells and Point-Me spells, then she eventually found Sirius Black's wand—halfway back in the Archives, amongst evidence from 1944 trials.

Amelia tested Sirius Black's wand for spells used. The sixth- and fifth-from-last spells were Cleaning Charms. Three Point-Me spells came after that; the last spell that had been cast with this wand was Stupefy.

Amelia was gobsmacked. Everyone "knew" that Sirius Black had committed crimes, had been convicted and had been sent to prison; but now some of what everyone "knew"—all of what everyone "knew"?—was in doubt.

There was also the small, minor complication that, before Sirius Black had been tossed into the Dementor Hotel, he had been Amelia's serious boyfriend (pun intended).


Fifteen minutes later, in Azkaban Wizard's Prison

Sirius Black was gaunt, his hair was filthy and he needed a shave. He also was staring in shock through the bars of his cell.

"Amy? Are you real, or are you some sort of Dementor dream?"

"I'm real, Siri. And I'm so sorry for what I haven't done for you, these last ten years."

Then the Director of the DMLE threw all her pride away, to make a lengthy apology from the heart.

At the end of Amelia's apology, Sirius Black was staring at Amelia Bones in even greater shock. The two Aurors who were standing behind Director Amelia Bones looked to be in shock as well.

It was Sirius who got down to business. "So, Amy, why are you here?"

"Today I was visited by Harry Potter, by his cousin John Potter, and by John Potter's wife Paulina."

"Wait, 'cousin'? Harry didn't have any—"

"In Britain, you're right. But John and his wife are Americans. Two days ago, John Potter claimed the Potter Regent ring, and immediately afterwards he claimed guardianship of Harry Potter. In the process, he took guardianship of Harry away from Lily's sister and her husband, and from Albus Dumbledore."

"Hang on, Petunia was raising Harry for the past ten years?"

"Petunia and her Muggle husband, who apparently is as much of a witch-burning bigot as Petunia is. Dumbledore didn't lift a finger to stop those two from hurting Harry. Worse, Dumbledore was stealing from Harry's trust vault."

"And I couldn't do a thing to stop any of that! Amy, I feel awful."

"Early this morning, the three Potters came to see me, dumping bunches of documents on my desk. Documents that included Gringotts-certified copies of the wills of James and Lily—by the way, the Wizengamot copies of those wills were sealed by Chief Warlock Albus Dumbledore. After the three Potters left, I went to look at all the evidence we'd gathered for your trial—"

"Except I never got a trial."

"Yes, I discovered that—today. I also did a spell-trace on your wand when I finally tracked down the wand; your wand had been 'misfiled.' " Amelia rolled her eyes. "You didn't kill anyone and you didn't blow up anyone. You didn't betray James and Lily because you weren't the Secret Keeper, Peter was, and I can prove all this."

Sirius grinned. "So what happens now?"

"Now these two Aurors escort you to the prison's interrogation room, and I interview you formally. You're a Pureblood"—meaning, Sirius could refuse interrogation by Veritaserum—" but I hope you'll agree to Veritaserum during your questioning."

Sirius laughed. " 'Agree to' Veritaserum? Merlin, Amy, I insist on Veritaserum! And go see whether you can borrow a pensieve from somewhere, because I want you to take my memories too."


As Amelia, the two Aurors and Sirius were walking through the prison to where the interrogation room was, Sirius said, "Tell me about Harry. What's he like now?"

Amelia sighed. "I can't say what his mind is like, because he let John and Paulina do almost all the talking. But he's short for his age, he's as thin as you are now and, according to the Saint Mungo's medical exam, he's suffered many broken bones. Harry in 1980 and 1981 was a happy baby; Harry Potter now is quite sombre, and was wary of me at first. I could've raised him, Sirius, alongside Susan—but no, 'the Leader of the Light' had to meddle."


Meanwhile in Gringotts, in the office of Director Ragnok

Gringotts had been not-posting Albus Dumbledore's Gringotts mail for three days now—mail which all said some version of "Dumbledore, you're in big trouble!"

Ragnok had really hoped that Dumbledore, unaware of the bank's anger towards him, would have strolled into the bank sometime in the last three days, and would have been arrested. Alas, such a happy event had not happened (so far).

This morning, the Daily Prophet had asked Gringotts, "What's going on with those 'WANTED: Albus P Dumbledore' posters?" In reply, Ragnok and Ironsmelter (the public-relations goblin) just had written a prepared statement.

Ragnok decided that tomorrow morning, he would release Dumbledore's Gringotts owl-post to be sent to him—after the bearded idiot had read in the Prophet, "Gringotts is angry at Dumbledore, for many reasons."

Ragnok thought, I wonder what Dumbledore is thinking now? I'm sure he's thinking that all is well in his world.


Meanwhile, at Hogwarts
In the headmaster's office

Albus Dumbledore was a happy and hopeful headmaster.

He had worried, when Minerva had sent out Harry Potter's Hogwarts letter, that Harry's aunt and uncle would interfere somehow. But this had not happened. Within hours of Harry's Hogwarts letter leaving the castle, Harry's positive reply had been owled to Hogwarts. Harry's reply-letter, which had been written in a child's hand, had thanked Minerva for "aksepting" him to Hogwarts, and had promised to be at the school on the first of September. Albus thought, What a relief.

Life for Albus was good in other ways. Rather than having to hunt high and low for a DADA professor this year, Quirinus Quirrell (the Muggle Studies professor before he had gone on sabbatical) had applied for the DADA position. When Tom Riddle inevitably showed up—lured to Hogwarts by Nicolas Flamel's Philosopher's Stone, which by September would be hidden somewhere in Hogwarts Castle—Albus hoped that Quirrell was up to the challenge of duelling the Dark Lord.

In five days, Harry Potter would turn eleven. If the boy showed up at Gringotts, Bronzedagger (the Potter account manager) would make sure that the ignorant boy would cause no problems for Albus's plots and schemes.

In a bit over a month, Harry Potter would arrive at Hogwarts as a first-year. Severus had already been fast-talked into hating "the Potter brat" on sight, and Poppy already had been Confundused into not noticing any before-Hogwarts medical conditions that Harry Potter had. Minerva, as usual, would squawk whenever Albus would give her an order that went against her girlhood religious teachings, but then would promptly and fully obey Albus's every command.

In short: For Albus Dumbledore, on this the 26th of July, 1991, all was well.

For Harry Potter, who would be killed by Tom before Harry sat his NEWTs—and most likely would not survive one year at Hogwarts, much less seven—all was not well, Albus knew.

But Harry Potter's death, which was allowed by Sybill's prophecy, would be for the Greater Good—

Only Albus Dumbledore had a vision of where Wizarding Britain should go in the future. And the bearded wizard who became "the Defeater of Grindelwald and the Defeater of Voldemort" would be given carte blanche to carry out his vision.


A few hundred yards away from the headmaster's office
In the Forbidden Forest

Three days ago, Antonia the angel had given orders to John: to apparate to such-and-such coordinates, and to use what he would find there to remove the diary-horcrux that now was inside heavily warded Malfoy Manor.

Foo-foop.

Just-apparated John and Paulina now found themselves in the Forbidden Forest. John saw that between two trees, twenty or thirty feet away, stretched a giant spider web.

"Behind us," Paulina said.

John turned around. Now Hogwarts Castle was a hundred feet in front of them. Extending out from the bottom of the castle was a six-foot-inside-diameter tube—made not of concrete, but of cut stone.

At the Forbidden Forest end of the stone tunnel was a metal gate, made of crossbars. The crossbars were close enough to each other that nothing bigger than a young kitten could have stepped through them.

The crossbars-gate was painted a bright white that was rust-free, even after a thousand years. In the middle of the crossbars-gate was painted an undulating green snake with big yellow eyes, and with the snake's forked tongue sticking out. The entire green snake, including its forked tongue and its yellow eyes, was outlined in silver.

John said, "Now we know how the basilisk feeds itself."

Paulina asked, "But how does it get out of the tunnel? It has no hands."

John said, "Let me try something. §Open.§"

After John hissed, the white crossbars-gate slipped upward, with no sound at all. The Potters now could enter the tunnel.

Paulina took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, then took a step forward. "Gryffindors charge ahead. Though I declare, I really don't want to meet a basilisk today."

John grabbed her arm. "Hold on. We have another problem besides facing a basilisk. Somewhere between this end of the tunnel and the other end, there might be a wards-boundary, which would notify Dumbledore when we enter the castle through this tunnel. I don't want Dumbles knowing we're nosing around."

Paulina nodded. "We need some way of knowing when the headmaster is out of the castle, or of tricking him into leaving the castle, then exploring the Chamber of Secrets when he's elsewhere."

John said, "And once we know he's left the castle, we need a plan for exploring the Chamber of Secrets, so we can find what Antonia wants us to find."

Paulina sighed. "Sounds like there's nothing we can do here today, except to wait for a better opportunity."

John said, "Yeah. §Close.§"

The white crossbars-gate with a green basilisk painted on it, silently lowered itself till it again had closed off the stone tunnel.

John and Paulina apparated back to Potter Manor.