Welcome all of you to chapter 14 of The Glacial Ones!
To start off, reviews!
Jonnywolf: Thanks for this suggestion. I had a look at the gauntlets in question, since I don't know the series, and have to agree that they are very appropriate and would easily give the idea that they were made from a danger beast for the sole purpose of getting close up and bloody. I may change the colour scheme though and add some golds or oranges to fit Fals colour scheme. Thanks for the idea!
Tabue2000: I'm not entirely sure how to respond to that, but no problem.
Silent Lurker: Sorry but for some reason I go your last review about chapter 12 after I had posted chapter 13, so sorry about not responding to you. Anyway for Teigu I'm thinking of giving Fal some kind of kinetic energy enhancing gauntlets but the rest are all open and any ideas are welcome. Thanks and sorry!
PLEASE NOTE that this chapter has very little impact on the story until after we return to the Wizarding World. Since people seem to want me to write the Wizarding Worlds reactions, and I feel like taking a break from the main story line, this chapter will be focused mainly on the Wizarding World, starting in 1991 and going to the start of 1994.
So anyway, onwards to the story, and I hope you enjoy it!
I do not own, in any way, shape, or form Akame Ga Kill or Harry Potter.
-T.G.O-
Chapter 14: Of Wizards and The-Boy-Who-Vanished
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, 1991.
Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, and Grand Sorcerer, as well as far too many other titles to be healthy, was having a rather good day so far. He woke up to phoenix song from his long-time companion Fawkes, had an especially wonderful breakfast made by the Dumbledore family house elf, Mepsy, and was now sitting in in his large, rather impressive office finalizing his plans for the start of the school year.
Currently, he was questioning whether or not he should properly defend the Philosopher's Stone that he was about to have hidden in his school, or use it as a method of testing young Harry who was due to begin his wizarding education that year.
Poor, poor Dumbledore, his plots falling apart before he's even made them.
On one hand, he would be putting not only the Stone at risk, giving Voldemort the chance to resurrect if he was indeed still around as Dumbledore believed, as well as putting the lives of both Flamel's lives in danger.
Though to be honest he suspected that they actually have a second stone hidden away.
On the other hand, he would be able to get a unique insight into not only Harry's skills and potential, but also his personality and temperament that would be vital for moulding him into the next Lord of the Light.
Of course, if Harry ended up actually killing someone in defence of the stone, he may have to take a more active hand than he had wished.
It would not do for the next leader of the Light to go about killing people without giving them a second chance. And a third chance, and…well you get it, Dumbledore is a second chance addict.
It could only be the twisted humour of some kind of incomprehensible, infinitely powerful being that wasn't quite real that at the moment Dumbledore was thinking these thought, in another world entirely Harry was destroying his first small bandit camp under the watchful eye of a homicidal maniac known as Esdeath, who was most certainly not a good influence on the supposed future leader of the light side.
Unfortunately, or fortunately for Dumbledore slowly decaying sanity, he did not know of this cosmic joke at all his hopes for the young Harry, so he continued to plot away as he sucked on a lemon drop, one of his favourite muggle inventions.
Of course, he really should have known, such a good start to the day could only mean something bad was about to happen. Fate, or some other conceptual being, did so love playing those kinds of games.
So it was then, just as he was reaching for another lemon drop, that McGonagall chose that moment to enter the room, looking suitable annoyed.
"Dumbledore! Explain this to me, please!"
Dumbledore looked up at her, then turned his gaze down to the letter she was waving in his face. A horrible feeling began to settle in his stomach.
"I'm afraid I don't quite know what you are talking about. Why don't you sit down for a moment and explain what is wrong?"
McGonagall leaned back, visible taking a deep breath moments before she slammed the letter down on Dumbledore's desk.
Her voice was a hiss.
"This!"
Dumbledore looked down at the letter she had slammed onto his rather expensive, not that he cared, and very old, which he did care about, desk.
"I don't see what the prob…"
Mr H Potter.
Unknown.
Unknown.
Unknown.
…
Oh dear.
"Oh dear."
He stared down at the letter in a kind of horrified fascination as McGonagall slumped back into the chair opposite him with a sigh.
"Oh dear, indeed. I only found it because the owl refused to take it anywhere. I take it this was not you're doing then."
Dumbledore nodded distractedly, staring down at the letter before him.
This was bad. Well, it could actually be two different things. Bad, or really, really bad.
There was only three ways that the Hogwarts letter couldn't find someone who had already been registered.
Option one was that Harry was dead. A quick glance at one of the few small devices that he had monitoring Harry brought a small amount of relief to him. Harry was alive.
Option two was that Harry was not in one place long enough for the spell on to get a lock on his magic core. That was bad, as that meant that either Harry had been removed from the Dursleys, most likely by a muggle as the blood wards that another device confirmed were still going, though deteriorating, would have kept any wizards with negative intent away.
On the other hand Harry may have run away with from the Dursleys and was currently living on the streets and, though Dumbledore was well aware of their dislike for magic, he did not think he had misjudged the Dursleys so much that their actions would drive young Harry to run away at such a young age.
Technically he was correct in that assumption. The Dursleys didn't drive Harry to run away.
They drove him to accidentally tear a hole in reality and hurl himself across the dimensions into the arms of one of the single most sadistic and homicidal people in either dimension, Voldemort included.
And then fall in love with her, not that anyone knew that yet.
But the point remained.
Option three was that Harry was currently under wards powerful enough that Hogwarts couldn't penetrate them. That would mean wards almost as powerful as Hogwarts own century old ones. Like the ones Numengard once boasted.
That meant that Harry had been found by either a wizard or a witch, and, considering how low the chance was of a wizard or witch to not recognizing who he was, the fact that he had not heard anything from this possible person suggested that they were either a dark family who thought it would be good idea to raise the Boy-Who-Lived as their own, or someone who was at the very least not currently supporting him.
That could be very, very bad. He needed more information on this situation, and quickly. How could he plot if the centre piece for all his plans had wandered off somewhere?
Pulling his aging frame up from his rather comfortable chair with a slight groan, Dumbledore reflected on the fact that it had been such a good start to the day. He really should have known that something was about to go wrong.
McGonagall looked up at him before heaving herself out of her chair.
"Well? What are you waiting for, Albus? We need to find where Harry is."
Dumbledore winced slightly in his head. He was hoping that she wouldn't come with him to investigate. That way he could have just done the old legilimency on the Dursleys find out what had happened and then obliviated them of it. It wasn't something he did often, other than surface legilimency to keep track of what was going on in his school, but he was needed to find Harry quickly so he would have been justified.
Unfortunately it looked like he was going to have to interrogate them the old fashion way.
Nodding towards McGonagall he turned towards his fiery companion of many years.
"Fawkes! You don't mind taking us to 4th Privet Drive do you?"
Fawkes looked at him, giving Dumbledore his best what-the-fuck-do-you-think look, which was rather impressive when you consider that while becks were all well and good for lots of things, facial expressions wasn't one of them.
He just had lots and lots of practice. Even he admitted that Dumbledore wasn't always quite all there in the head at times.
Fluffing up his feathers when he realised that Dumbledore had completely ignored his look, he let out a quick trill of phoenix song in confirmation.
"Oh, good."
Dumbledore reached over, placing his hand on Fawkes rather warm feathers as McGonagall walked over and did the same did the same.
There was a flash of heatless fire and the Headmasters office of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was empty once more.
-T.G.O-
The two magicals appeared in a small alley just off Privet Drive. Flicking off some spells to avoid attention and transfiguring their clothes into more muggle one, as not to aggravate the Dursleys more than necessary, McGonagall wasting no time in strolling towards their location, Dumbledore a step behind.
They approached the front of the 4th Privet Drive, stopping a moment to look at how different it looked compared to the last time they had seen it. It had none of the old order and symmetry that it used to, and many of the other houses still did, have.
Ringing the door bell, Dumbledore stopped back beside McGonagall and waited.
The door opened and Dumbledore opened his mouth to speak, intending to give the Dursleys no time to think. Than he saw who was in the door and a pit began to open in his chest.
The man standing in the doorway, glaring at them suspiciously, was what they would later recall as a bit like what they imagined a muggle Mad-Eye Moody would be like. He was an elderly man, well into his seventies, but by no means frail, his face lines and scarred as he glared out at them.
"What do ya want? And if you're 'ere to sale me somethin' I'll 'ave you out one yer arses before you can blink."
McGonagall looked slightly affronted at his language but bit down a reprisal. It really wasn't her place to tell him off.
Dumbledore, finally getting control of himself once more, went to answer his question only to be cut off when a woman, somewhere between forty and forty-five years of age, showed up behind him.
"Father! What have I told you about harassing the sales people? Remember what happened last time?"
Blinking at being cut off before he could even begin, something that didn't happen often when you were Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Dumbledore quickly cut in before the man could respond.
"Actually, we aren't here as sales people. We were actually looking for Petunia Dursley and her husband, Vernon Dursley. You wouldn't happen to know where I can find them, do you?"
The man peered at him for a moment before speaking gruffly.
"Petunia an' Vernon Dursley? Can's say I've ever 'eard of im before. Why ya want to know?"
The woman, his daughter, reached over and tugged him out of the way.
"They were the previous owners of the house, remember? You know, the reason why no one goes into the cupboard under the stairs anymore?"
McGonagall looked slightly confused, just letting the conversation play out as she watched.
Dumbledore felt the pit in his chest grow as the man nodded.
"Ah, I remember now. Right ol' bastard that one. 'Ope they put im where 'e belongs. I 'eard their court case was goin' to end soon. What ya want im for?"
Dumbledore practically felt his stomach fall out as he translated the man's rough language. He could practically feel McGonagall's glare burning its way through the back of his head.
"Court case? What happened? Where are the rest of his family living right now?"
The man peered at him again, his daughter standing beside him.
"Ya don't know?"
His daughter took over.
"Both Petunia and Vernon Dursley were taken to court on charges of child neglect and child abuse, as well as forced child labour. Last I heard the case was being dragged out because the local police force were looking for evidence to pin a murder on them, since the kid vanished and all. Last I heard of their kid he was at a rehab centre for obese children."
Dumbledore's face had grown progressively paler as she spoke and was now almost paper white. He had known the Dursleys disliked magic but had thought that they would simple hide it from Harry and maybe treat him a little more harshly than normal. The fact that they really were the only relatives of Harry in Britain that he could use the blood wards on meant that the fact that they would have made Harry a little more mouldable was just a bonus.
He hadn't expected this! Not abuse, nor forced labour, at least not on the level that it would be taken to court!
McGonagall's' glare could have incinerated armies if someone had found a way to weaponize it. It was the kind of glare that would have impressed Esdeath. That said a lot.
Dumbledore snapped his attention back to the man in front of him when he realised that he was talking.
"I was in World War Two, I've seen some shit in my life, an' I've done some shitty things, but God 'elp me if I 'ave ever raised my 'and against another without reason, let alone a child. Whatcha wanting with scum like them anyway?"
Blinking, Dumbledore battled down the feeling of horror inside him.
"You, ah, wouldn't happen to know what happened to the boy that they were…abusing."
The last word was said with an honest grimace.
The man went to answer, her daughter cutting him off.
"He vanished a couple of days before the Dursleys were brought in after one of the kids teachers came over to find out why he wasn't at school. Apparently he spotted the cupboard the kid had been sleeping in and called the police. Poor kid himself hasn't been seen since, which is why some of the more zealous of the police force are trying to pin the Dursleys with murder. Why do you want to know?"
Opening his mouth to answer the question, Dumbledore was quickly interrupted by McGonagall.
"Thank you for telling as, and I apologize for taking up your time. We were friends of Harry's parents, and had only recently learned his location. Again, I apologize."
With that she turned away, dragging one of the greatest wizards of his time as she did, Dumbledore giving no resistance, cowed by the terror that so many feel prey to when faced with feminine fury.
Dragging him back to the alley they had arrived in and just barely remembering to throw up some notice me not charms before she rounded on Dumbledore in rage.
"I told you! I warned you, right as you placed Harry down on their steps with nothing but a heating charm and a note that they were the worst kind of muggles! But did you listen to me? No, because you are Albus bloody Dumbledore and you can't ever make mistakes can you!?"
Waving his hands in a placating manner, Dumbledore tried to calm his deputy down. He briefly played with the idea of using Fawkes to phoenix flame him away till she calmed down and he gained control of the situation, before dismissing the idea as it would just make her even more angry, and since she was his deputy he couldn't exactly evade her for long. Unless he fired her, which he was most certainly not doing.
"Please, Minerva, calm down. I admit you were right and that I obviously made a mistake trusting the Dursleys with young Harry, but they really were the only people I could properly cast the blood wards over to protect him."
She laughed scornfully.
"Blood wards? You mean the ones around us right now that will have collapsed before Christmas?
He winced.
"And so what if they protected Harry from other wizards and witches? They sure as hell didn't protect him from the Dursleys did they? And now we have a missing Harry Potter, who has been gone for months without your knowledge and his caretakers in the muggle court for child abuse and a pile of other charges, a mere month before he should be entering Hogwarts and returning to the eye of the Wizarding World."
Dumbledore flinched again. He couldn't argue that logic. That was also going to do damage to his reputation if he didn't get control of the situation quickly. It wasn't anything he couldn't survive, but still, his reputation was very important for upholding the Light and keeping the Dark at bay.
With a final sigh McGonagall turned away from him
"I'm going to go have a strong scotch to calm myself down. I will be informing the rest of the staff of this."
With that she apparated away, leaving Dumbledore to sage slightly sigh in relief now that he was no longer the focus of her rage. Then her second comment arrived in his brain and he bit back a curse. He couldn't have the news leaked yet! He had to get control of the situation! It was vital that he came out of this in the best possible light.
With that in mind he turned around, apparating away to plot his next move.
-T.G.O-
Despite Dumbledore's best efforts, the news still made it out long before he was ready, his attempts at coming out in the best light possible only casting him further into the darkness of public opinion. For course, Dumbledore was still a very influential and much loved man, so the most damage he sustained beyond bad publicity, which he hated, was his loss of the position of Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot after Malfoy Senior rallied the other dark and neutral families against him.
While the blow stung, and dropped his political clout by a fair bit, the fact the he got to see Malfoy's face when Augusta Longbottom got the job made it all worth it. While she wasn't one of Dumbledore's conies, or one of his first choices, she was firmly in the light and was capable of keeping things in hand.
His position as the Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation was only question once, again by Malfoy who was shot down by some pointed statements that not only was he not part of the council, but he seemed to have a rather intense grudge against Dumbledore for a supposable former Imperiused Death Eater.
He shut up after that.
Dumbledore's position as the Headmaster of Hogwarts was not even questioned, much to his relief.
The first few days after the information had been leaked the Aurors had to be called out no less than thirteen times as wizards and witched tried not only to find the fabled boy-who-lived but also get back at his abusers, some more violently than others and in some cases the wizards and witches in question finding themselves targeting other random muggles in the name of retribution.
For a total of eight days, Wizarding Britain was in various states on anarchy and madness before the public fervour towards those they were holding responsible, who actually were responsible in the most part, which was odd for the normally sheep like wizarding folk, finally died down.
And far away, in another dimensions entirely, Harry Potter began his life devoted to the most sadistic, homicidal maniac either dimension had ever seen in a long time, unaware of the anarchy and chaos he left behind him in a world he didn't even know existed.
Four years later the Wizarding World would get its wish for their precious Boy-Who-Lived to return. A pity that he was no longer the boy they expected.
It was even more of a pity that he came in a package deal with Esdeath and three mini Esdeaths.
Poor, poor wizards and witches.
Poor, poor Britain.
-T.G.O-
And that is chapter 14 done, showing how Dumbledore first discovered how Harry was gone. More on the goings on between 1991 and 1994 while be covered when thy first return to the Wizarding World.
Anyway, what did you think for my Dumbledore? I was trying for a genuinely good and kind man who wanted what was best for his people but has forgotten that he is human too and that other people aren't chess pieces for him to use and throw away. We'll see more of Manipulative Dumbledore, when he tries to split up Harry and Esdeath, poor fool, because, really, who can honestly say that Esdeath is a good influence on Harry?
Finally, as always, please feel free to tell me all your likes, dislikes, constructive criticism and ideas. All reviews are welcome and appreciated!
So please, review!
Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this little detour from the main story line.
Goddbye and see you next chapter!