Disclaimer:
I solemnly swear that the literature and works of the Harry Potter Verse belong to JK Rowling, Bloomberg and Warner Bros. The only thing I own are the one-shot ideas that popped into my head and whatever OCs I would create for them. This is a work of pure fiction made solely for fun, constructive reviews will be welcomed, flames will be ignored. Any references to characters in real-life or fiction are purely coincidental. If I could make money out of my ideas, it would be nice...
Mischief Managed Damn It!
Title: Book 1, Chapter 17
Posted Date: May 07 2023
(January 2, 1992)
The sounds of different devices chiming and puffing away filled the office as a certain wizard looked out the window, the lovely scenery not improving the frown on his face as he considered all that had happened for the year. The first term could not be any more disruptive than he could have conceived and nothing had gone to plan.
In his youth, Dumbledore shared a dream with someone who understood him. That the world needed guidance to achieve a greater tomorrow for all magicals, for the muggles to be under the rule of wizards and witches. But he realised that the best way to bring about true peace was not through violence, but through the youth, the minds of those that would come after them. It was further proven on the day he lost his sister Arianna over the argument on how they would bring about the Greater Good.
To that end, Dumbledore went to apply for a position in Hogwarts, landing the position of Transfiguration Professor after the last one retired and he had impressed Headmaster Dippet with his work and words. Through a helping hand and a word in the ear, he slowly influenced the youth to his way of thinking, and he continued once he got the position of Deputy Headmaster, and later took over the headmaster position when Dippet retired. With that in his grasp, Dumbledore then worked to keep matters under the carpet that could see his position in jeopardy.
For the most part, it was good that the pureblood mentality came into play when it came to muggle-borns and half-bloods; all he had to do was say some words, slapped the wrist of said purebloods and maybe punish a few other students (mostly the muggle-borns) to get the matter settled, along with the odd charm to ensure compliance. For some of the more serious cases, a few memory charms, a couple of potions and some information embargo would do the trick. The more he portrayed the castle was safest under his rule, the more the populace would trust him and leave their children under his care so that he could mould their minds and their behaviours to him alone. And in the process, he could influence the way they would see other families as 'Dark' for their practice of magical crafts that were deemed hazardous to their lives, some of which he made sure to outlaw as they could be harmful to his goals. The positions of Chief Warlock and Supreme Mugwump were nice, but it was the role of being the teacher that was his greatest asset.
An asset that was currently threatened more than the usual political attacks he would expect over the past few years.
With the incident of the troll, the academy's failing status and that debacle with Voldemort having invaded Hogwarts, Dumbledore was now under scrutiny by both the British Ministry and the ICW themselves. It was only through judicious use of favours, exchange of gold and a fair amount of blackmailing and threats that he was barely keeping a hold on the position of headmaster. He would have liked to hold on to the position of Wizengamot as well, but the role of headmaster was too important to lose at this point in time. He needed it to ensure that Hogwarts was under his control and to keep an eye on Harry Potter.
With all that had gone on in Hogwarts, Dumbledore did not know that Sirius Black had evidently been out of Azkaban and in protective custody for roughly three years until Dumbledore saw the broadcast of the trial in the Wizengamot courtroom. It was an oversight that Dumbledore was trying to understand when he went about checking if his contacts within the DMLE department had been compromised since he had no word of Sirius getting out. He did note about the appearance of Jeremiah Gothwald visiting Amelia a few times along with the one time Arcturus Black had come at the request of Amelia, but there had been no indication of the man's release since she kept it quiet to a select few.
Of course he knew about the innocence of Sirius Black, he was told by James about Sirius's appointment of being godfather before the will was written. He could not afford for the man to raise the Potter brat to be independent and knowledgeable about the workings of the British Society, he needed the boy to look to Dumbledore for guidance to his ultimate destiny. For all his hate for his blood family, Sirius was still a Black who knew how to circumvent laws and preferred to take down his opponents in a more permanent manner, something that would not go well for his plans. Dumbledore had played with the idea of charms to get him out of the way, but ultimately it was all done by Sirius himself having lost himself to despair and rage, thus keeping Dumbledore clean of accusations that he may have spelled the Black sheep to go after Pettigrew.
That Black's long overdue trial was done at the ICW Courts of Magic and broadcasted to all countries affiliated with the ICW, with emphasis on Britain, meant there was no way for anyone to claim that Sirius was a criminal who got off on a bribe and that there was a serious miscarriage of justice that required answers from the previous administration of the British Ministry. Ever since the new management took over the Daily Prophet, the newspaper was doing its part to ensure no one could mistake the case as being bogus, and Rita Skeeter was doing her usual "reporting" while still within the new guidelines of keeping it truthful and ensuring he and the old administration were getting the punches. The ICW court using the Baba Yaga's Cauldron was a stroke of genius on their part as no one could dispute the actual story from the soul itself, even if the audience watching the broadcast had to see it by a different method since the potion would only work on people in the immediate vicinity. Ultimately Sirius Black was meant to have a trial to prove his innocence in the first place as Dumbledore was reminded multiple times before he lost his position of Chief Warlock.
Peter Pettigrew was another sore spot for Dumbledore. He had suspected the man was in Hogwarts under his crooked nose when the wards were alerting him during Percy Weasley's first four years but he left it alone since the Animagus identification ward was not comprehensive even on the best of days and he could consider his ideas later when Harry was in the school; if he had focused on that, he would have gotten rid of him early on to make sure that Sirius would not get out of Azkaban without constant doubts from rumours he would spread to keep him away from Harry. He could then control the information flow on both ends to ensure both sides would do what he wanted.
With Pettigrew still under the custody of the ICW Aurors, they had already established that he was a Death Eater working as a spy to take down multiple people and was the main reason the Potters were almost wiped out during the war, including the late Fleamont and Euphemia Potter whom the man had evidently leaked the location to the Death Eaters as a way to spite James. He was currently having all information regarding the Death Eaters taken out from him before the ICW Aurors would consider what to do next. That was likely to result in an exodus of the different people who had pleaded the Imperious Curse, while the few small handful would be scrutinised.
The indignity did not stop after his dismissal. In the latest Wizengamot session, Arcturus Black made his return to the political battlegrounds, causing much distress among the different groups and factions who looked upon him like he was either the Dark Saviour by the Dark Families, or Satan Incarnate by the Light Families. Lucius Malfoy for one looked ready to bolt when the old man paused midway to look him in the eye for a few seconds before moving on. When the discussion moved to the selection of Chief Warlock, Arcturus made an impression as he stated the need for power checks and suggested that the role be represented as a panel consisting of at least three individuals to ensure not one person can get away with it like he did. His words were welcomed and it took a few minutes of discussion and voting to have two from each of the unofficial factions to step up and swear under oath and under the watchful eyes of the ICW officers. None of them were the types that he could charm with words or bribe easily, and with the oath, they would not let him or others go unchecked.
Dumbledore should be happy that he now had proof that Voldemort was alive, that way he could look through different contacts to get members for the Order, but even that bit of news was being monitored by the ICW who had not been impressed with Britain's handling of Voldemort and the Death Eaters during the last war and how Cornelius's initial reaction to the news was to deny everything and attempt to smear the reputations of multiple people. They made it clear to the present administration that if they wanted to keep silent on the appearance of Voldemort to avoid panic in the populace, they had to increase their security forces and boost the security of the places of interest, and the ICW will keep watch on them. Amelia was sickeningly smug about the former as she finally got the necessary budget to boost training and numbers, while the latter was being handled by some security group that came out of nowhere and apparently approved by the ICW. They started to set up wards and perform checks on people who got rejected by them, bringing them to a holding area to test for compulsions or other markers that would trigger.
As one might imagine, those with dark marks were most put off by them, especially when they were tagged before they could enter the facility. And there were also a few who were ejected when the wards came up supposedly because of ill-intent. The director of the hospital was torn between wanting to kick the apparently unfaithful healers to the curb or to scold the security for their exuberance. One of the said Healers had to be granted a special visit by Dumbledore to ensure his secrets were secured before the security group could go to him.
On the home front, Dumbledore had minimal control over Hogwarts; the school was now mostly cleared of the residues of magic that made the students agitated, and the purifying effect of the crosses from the Great Hall had started spreading outwards. He even started seeing similar crosses and markings on alternating pillars and the inspectors were pleased about them. The lesser ward stones had all been destroyed and from what the warding crew had checked with the permission of Hogwarts some help from the Potter brat, the actual wardstone was still safe with the entire set of the original wards fully activated and were almost to full charge. The alternate controls were now in the hands of the newer ward system that was made by the Potter brat and were kept away from all as the castle had taken to moving that particular system all over the place if someone tried to go towards it with a few exceptions. It was only with Potter that the ward experts were able to add on to the existing protections with more emphasis to the Dark Magic Detection Ward and the Taboo Control Ward. For the former, at least Severus had the reprieve of being granted the exception provided he did not do anything to endanger students, which meant he could not go back to his old teaching methods to avoid the penalty.
His demands to be granted access as his right of being headmaster had been denied each time, with the last attempt forcing Dumbledore outside of the castle with a splitting headache and said castle pulling what could be a raspberry. Him, the Headmaster of Hogwarts!
With the revamping of the wards, the supposed DADA curse was removed, although the warders had warned that the curse had years to go on so the position needed to be monitored. The decision came from Amelia Bones who went with the idea of rotating the Aurors who were either recovering or close to retirement, ensuring the students had a more up to date curriculum for the subject. Cornelius with the ICW watching agreed to that, partly to get better publicity from the Black Trial. This was currently done for the rest of the school year until he could get someone to take over, else they would continue with that system.
Finally, the results of the inspection on the professors and their respective subjects had been compiled, and suffice to say, no one from the education departments, either from the Ministry or the ICW, were happy with the initial results.
On the whole, Charms, Herbology and other subjects were safe for the most part. Filius was perhaps the one with the greatest security of the professors with his teachings and his tenure, followed shortly by Sinistra, Vector and Babbling as they made sure to teach their subjects well. Care for Magical Creatures was fine, but the inspectors had told Dumbledore that the current professor needed to be relieved soon if only to keep him alive for the near future, and even Dumbledore could not argue on that point. He was wondering if he could get Hagrid into the role so that he could maintain control over the students through the professors.
Transfiguration on the whole was okay, but there were comments that Minerva was too strict and unapproachable for enquiries. Outside of that, the inspectors could see that she was too busy to properly manage her duties and told her upfront that she had to decide whether to keep teaching or give up her other positions. She tried to put up an argument on that, but quickly folded when they showed formal complaints and recordings that she was not performing her house duties as intended, and much of her actions were being questioned. It certainly did not help that much like him, the wards did not go to her as intended during the tests of the wards when doing a transfer of controls, which meant she was not worthy of being headmistress.
With a heavy heart, Minerva gave up the Gryffindor Head of House and post of Headmistress, content to be a teacher. The two positions were now open for others to take over, although the officers were considering letting other adults take the head positions to allow the teachers to focus on their work. Something Dumbledore did not want them to do as that meant the students would be closely monitored when they did not need to. He was delaying them on that part for as long as he could to gather support, but the Board of Directors were nibbling at his coattails, and Lucius for one was looking for some people to put in place.
Griselda had the complaints for Binns and his History lessons that were constantly reported by the students and parents, only for Dumbledore to put them aside and forget them for their non-importance to his goals. Muggle Studies were a joke to the ICW monitors for being so outdated, so for the time being, they were doing what was being done for Potter's advancement course and bringing out a history Pensieve for the lessons, something that intrigued many of the students. Charity Burbage was given a full year to bring herself up to standards if she wanted to continue teaching, or be tasked to create a course on Muggle History since hers were outdated history.
Potions was a divisive subject on grounds of Severus and his teaching methods, but it would appear that they were considering alternatives while allowing the man to continue there since he was one of the small handful of Potion masters in Britain. That was good for Dumbledore as he needed the man by his side when Voldemort would no doubt rise again from the shadows. He could have done it without the monitors sticking around for another month or two to look at the situation though.
All of these happenings were intolerable, and one factor was present in most cases.
Harry Potter.
Not for the first time, Dumbledore cursed the schedule he had with the ICW in his previous position that saw him out of the country for a few weeks, weeks that could have been used to track the boy down faster when he disappeared from his spy network. Seeing what he could do against a half-grown troll and Voldemort's wraith, Dumbledore had the confirmation that the boy was holding back in some manner. Some of the spells the boy used reminded Dumbledore of the shamanantic arts from the Tibetan schools of Magic, while others appeared to be his own creations, a fact that made the man fearful of the boy's talents. The boy was learning from other schools outside of Hogwarts, yet the education department did not see fit to restrict him to Britain's approved lessons.
His choice of companions was also a bother. There were a few whose parents were the ones who Dumbledore could not work with without some form of arguments or agreements that would be problematic for him. Then there were those like Amelia Bones who never followed his words as they should, always demanding more information than they were prepared to handle. And then there were the children whose parents made up the Neutrals, people who would see the pros and cons of both sides before making a move to benefit everyone.
Hmph, as if they could be neutral. There were only two sides in this battle, and anyone not following the Light, his side, were deemed 'Dark' and thus labelled his enemies.
On the subject of Dark Factions, the ones that really rankled Dumbledore were Malfoy and Nott. The two sons evidently made inroads with Harry Potter and that was not acceptable in Dumbledore's ideas. Harry should not be fraternising with them, they were meant to be mortal enemies with them to be eliminated for the path of his dream. He would have considered potions and spells but the inspectors were on high alert for any mischief given the complaints from students regarding free hexing and cursing, along with the Weasley pranks. Not helped when one of the inspectors got the prank in front of everyone by accident when he ate some of their tainted food. The look on his face was enough to cow the Weasleys into submission. The elves themselves were freed from his control and Hogwarts's new wards had extended the protections to them, so he would need to consider other options.
Dumbledore had tried to track down Harry and Sirius during the Christmas period, but they were out and about visiting others both in and out of the country. He could not afford the boy to leave the country where he could not see him. The boy had to be monitored, and to be under his guidance. He was still considering how to test the boy and whether to hand over the cloak for the year. And there was the issue of the boy's advancement to the upper years that left a sour taste in the man's tongue since that meant the boy could potentially do his OWLs early, and that was something Dumbledore could not allow to happen. At least they did not jump him straight to fifth year, but it was still too soon in his opinion. The longer the boy was in the school, the more time Dumbledore would have to exert his will over him and hopefully be able to guide him to his destiny. He still needed to test him with the Mirror of Erised in order to know what his desires were to plan ahead.
That much he thought as he watched the Hogwarts Express appear in the distance with the smoke coming from the engine, his eyes focusing on it like he could sense the boy onboard the train.
He had to find a way, all for his Greater Good.
~ooOOoo~
(February 5, 1992)
Lucius Malfoy was in his private office at home, taking a well-deserved break from all the paperwork that was from the Ministry. Being a politician was hard work, with lots of paperwork that needed to be done to get things moving, and when handling the buffoon of a Minister, there was even more paperwork to be done to at least justify the laws being made to aid the purebloods keep in power.
Lucius, for all of his admitted bigotry, saw the signs. Births from pureblood families were diminishing more with each passing year, in stark contrast to the rise of births from either muggleborns or half-bloods. The latter was more problematic as there were signs that a good number of the half-bloods were born from wedlock, often the bastard children of his fellow purebloods who wanted to indulge in some fun with the women whom they would later obliviate the memories of and just plain forget them. He along with a couple of others managed to push through a law before the resignation of Millicent Bagnold that required children of certain blood types to be granted parental permission before they could do an inheritance test. This ensured any orphans who may be related to his men could not gain anything once they passed their majority. It was, if he were to quote Dumbledore, for the greater good.
Speaking of whom, Lucius was very pleased that the old man was finally getting knocked down a few pegs of the societal ladder. The man had too much power on his hands and just sat on his bum to see their world go to the deep end. He knew that Dumbledore had more than enough political favours to move things around but was content to play house, and while it was useful in some cases such as letting his group of friends get away with small actions that were illegal in all but name, it was also aggravating that the man would also stop them from protecting their traditions and ways of life. Not all rituals had to use questionable ingredients for their work and end up being outlawed because of that. Not all traditions had to be abandoned if some people wanted those muggleborns to come to their world, not that Lucius would mind them leaving.
There was the bit about having to protect Severus from the commission tasked to evaluate the teaching standards of Hogwarts. Thankfully, that did not take too much since most of the complaints were from Gryffindors who accused the man of favouritism, something that all the heads indulged, although Snape admittedly took it further than most with his constant point taking. But if you compare them to Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff, Severus did have the right to be a little stricter since the Gryffindors were more than willing to play hard ball with a few of the Slytherins and throw whatever was in their hand into their cauldrons. Lucius still recalled the 1986 Potions incident that had the students in the hospital along with the Auror sent to teach DADA disfigured on the left side and wanting to punish anyone for the slightest transgression with extreme prejudice. All while flipping a Galleon with one side scratched out to indicate the type of punishment he wanted to give.
That was really problematic, and the paperwork was awful.
Speaking of said paperwork?
Lucius looked at the pile on his table and gave a grimace. Perhaps he should take a walk around the house to get his mind relaxed. Yes he should do that, his legs were getting tired of sitting at the desk and he needed to move about to check the house. He was not doing this to delay his paperwork.
Honest.
The man got off his chair and proceeded to move about the house, letting his feet lead him about the house as his mind wandered about. It did not take much for him to stop in front of his son's room and he was curious (and bored) enough to go inside to check the room. The room was still clean from the last housekeeping and Lucius could see the small stack of books on his desk. He moved closer to see the title off the top of the stack, humming at it.
"Foundations of Wizarding World, and How it Came to be." Lucius looked to the parchment that had several words scratched out or circled, clearly showing the boy's thought patterns. That led his mind to his son who was currently in Hogwarts.
Draco had changed somewhat pleasantly in the three months at Hogwarts even though his two companions were sorted in another house. Lucius would not deny the slight apprehension that he had on his son's mentality and sorting, he was aware of his son's shortcomings and how he could be brash like a Gryffindor at the worst of times, but given what was told from his letters and others, he had enough of the cunning and ambition to get into Slytherin, as any proper Malfoy should be, even if the sorting took a few seconds longer than it should. Draco seemed to have taken his friends' placement in Hufflepuff fairly well and supposedly took advantage of it by stating that they were in a different house altogether to help get more contacts outside of Slytherin that would have been tapped out by that point.
Lucius had to thank his use of Occlumency to restrict his reaction to a smile at the sight of the Crabbes and Goyles strutting around proudly at the supposed cunning, it made his burst of laughter in the privacy of his home a lot louder than needed. Narcissa, for all her stiffness, actually snorted into her drink when he reenacted the scene. The hexing from her embarrassment was a little much, but so worth it in his opinion.
Draco had managed to cultivate something of a professional relationship with Harry Potter as intended, and they were exchanging ideas and opinions about the wizarding world and the muggle world, both bringing out pros and cons of each side, and what could be improved. Draco for his part was really getting motivated and had been reading these books along with some advice from Narcissa to write his thoughts out for each of their sessions in Hogwarts, something the woman was happy to help with since she did not get a lot of opportunities to help with his education outside of proper etiquette among social circles. At the same time, Draco was getting some ideas about businesses that could prove useful and he was even reaching out to others for ideas. He had certainly gotten better at politicking and Lucius hoped to see that prosper. Something he got confirmed when they started getting progress reports from Harry Potter of all people.
His mind drifted to the boy in question, and he had a frown as he walked out of the room and went to another room to ponder.
Harry Potter was an enigma that had the man admittedly stumped. He would have thought the boy to be a follower of Dumbledore if not for the restraining order he had gotten news of a few years back, and then the whole news of the boy being harassed by the old wizard who tried to use creative use of laws and bills to bring the boy under his control, with the added bonus of getting any other heirs under his wing. Lucius had wanted to hex the man when he got the full understanding of the bill that had the loophole of letting Albus become the unofficial heir to any family fortune if the child got expelled or killed without any notice. Given their interactions, it would not take much for Dumbledore to pull something over him and get Draco expelled to do that.
This would be one of the few occasions that Lucius was grateful to a half-blood.
Anyway, it was thanks to his son and others that Lucius heard of the boy's sorting into Ravenclaw, and all that had gone on in Hogwarts since. Lucius could not recall the last time his school years were ever that exciting even with the war going back then. Brooms going out of control, trolls in the castle, ICW inspections and some wraith that attacked the school before the holidays, and if what his contacts said were true, said wraith was the spirit of Voldemort trying to find something in the castle that Dumbledore had brought in to lure the dark lord.
And that terrified him. Lucius may have enjoyed his time attacking muggles and mudbloods, but he knew all too well the type of cruelty the Dark Lord was willing to inflict on his own followers if they were found wanting, or worse, to betray him in any manner. Regulus Black went missing shortly before the Dark Lord's defeat, and word on the grapevine was that the boy had tried to back off only to be slain by Voldemort. Lucius did not doubt that.
Second to that fear was the realisation of Arcturus Black being alive and active after his years of isolation. He had hoped that the man had passed away from old age or the malpractice of the healer meant to care for him, but Arcturus was still healthy and willing to play hardball with the Wizengamot. That he had connections with Harry Potter meant the man had his eye out for a possible heir to the Black Family. Lucius Had to admit that Narcussa had a point in not telling Draco about the Black heirship until it was confirmed all possible heirs were gone before claiming the seat. It was a good thing that at least Lucius did not really dip into the Black vaults, but he had played with the votes and he was not looking forward to Arcturus finding out. With Sirius Black out of Azkaban, odds were high that Draco's chances of being the Black Heir would be diminished, but given his association with Potter, perhaps there was a chance.
And this was yet another reason why he was a little frustrated with the last Potter, because he had made plans to deal with a Harry Potter raised by Dumbledore to be a reckless Gryffindor, always going headfirst without any plans. This Potter was a Ravenclaw with the cunning of Slytherin to temper the reckless courage of Gryffindor, waiting for the opportune moment to strike. This one was also neutral in the standings so he would not be easily influenced.
He would need to consider more plans.
'Pop!'
The man turned to find the one of the house elves under their employment with her head bowed down. "Master, more papers have come from the Ministry with the note stating to be done by the end of the day. They are in your office, Master." She then popped away, leaving Lucius to palm his face at that news.
Sigh~ Time to get back to the paperwork.
~ooOOoo~
(March 1992, Ministry of Magic)
"Lord Thornwood." It was only thanks to the Occlumency that Albert maintained a puzzled expression turning around while screaming inwardly in frustration at the umpteenth time someone called him for "one quick chat".
He had been bothered by so many of these damn politicians for the past couple of months on account of him being the guardian of Harry Potter. Arcturus was currently handling another issue that came up from his checks on matters that had involved his family name since his self imposed isolation after the Blood War, so he was left to handle the piranhas hoping to make connections with the new lord and by extension, Harry, or having to deal with the reporters who kept trying to catch a word from him. Rita Skeeter was certainly persistent and he had to be creative in moving about the Ministry.
Two of his main headaches with people trying to get to Harry through Albert were from Cornelius Fudge and Albus Dumbledore.
The former was, pardon his language, an absolute ass-kisser who wanted to keep his job and had been trying to put out some of the fires that came about from the recent incidents in Hogwarts and the open trials of Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew. The man was very indecisive and needed a firm hand to get things going, but he was not as bad as that undersecretary of his. Albert never thought that he would develop such a hate-on for the colour pink, kittens or fake laughs until he met Delores Umbridge. That woman was really disturbing, and she was not so subtle with her words about him and Harry to tread lightly if they were to avoid getting into trouble with the Ministry.
Albert wanted to use a certain word to describe her, but his mother raised him better than that. He could however use her latest moniker from the Quibbler to call her that in his head.
The second headache that was Albus Dumbledore was a very persistent one. Arcturus, Jeremiah and Lady Bones had warned him about the man's stubbornness and insistence that he was in the right, and Albert did see the results of it in the few years he held guardianship of Harry Potter, but Albert had clearly underestimated the old wizard's tenacity to regain his hold on Harry. Ever since his name was known to the public, the old wizard kept trying to figure out who he was in hopes of contacting him to get back the guardianship. The day he came to Hogwarts to handle whatever happened with the broomsticks during the flying lesson was the day his face got plastered on the Daily Prophet, and it felt like everyone and their grandparents were trying to get to him, and by extension Harry. Some bloody red-haired harridan kept badgering him to return the guardianship to "The Great Dumbledore" at least thrice per week in person before he went to file the complaint with Amelia.
It still did not stop whoever that woman was to keep coming after him with those blasted Howlers which were thankfully deactivated by the wards.
Then recently, someone from the Magical Children Services came along to check on him, claiming that he had proof on good authority that Albert was abusing Harry. It was just lucky that Amelia Bones was around with Arcturus, so the duo went to check on his claims. The fool in question got suspended for not bothering to check his sources and Amelia was now on the hunt. The three adults knew who was the one that gave that claim but they had no proof.
He just wanted this to stop!
Thankfully for his dwindling patience, this person was one he could talk to.
"Madam Bones." Albert nodded his head to her. "What can I do for you?"
"A moment of your time to keep you updated on what is happening." Amelia motioned with her hand. "Shall we convene in my office?" Albert looked about and saw a few people hoping to contact him, before giving a nod. She led the way to her office and let him through while asking Cynthia for some tea. After a minute, the tea set was delivered and the doors were shut. Amelia went to secure the doors properly before returning to her seat.
"I had the feeling you were being harassed by the others, so I brought you here to relax before leaving through the Floo." She offered the tea to him, something that after a quick check for potions and the like, took appreciative sips of the beverage.
"You have no idea how many people keep coming after me." Albert placed the cup down gently while letting out a sigh.
"I can imagine a little." Amelia nodded as she took a sip of her cup. "Everytime there is a case that involves certain people, I always have people at my doorstep demanding answers."
"Let me guess, someone with a hat or the assistant with pink?" Albert's lips curled at the last part.
"I see you have met the Undersecretary." Amelia remarked.
"You think?" The flat tone made her snort in her tea. She wiped away the tea from her face with a light cough and a blush from that action.
"Fair enough." Amelia placed her cup down. "How is Mister Potter if I may ask?"
"Harry is doing fine so far in the advancement program." Albert answered as he leaned back in his chair. "He has been going through the third and fourth year curriculums quite thoroughly, and he enjoys the challenge. I understand your niece is also in the program."
"Yes. Susan has been inspired by Mister Potter and a couple of others to try out the advancement program. Currently she is doing the second year curriculum with an additional subject of Ancient Runes." Amelia sounded proud at her niece's achievements. "From what I understand, she has been trying to understand Mister Potter's work and has gotten interested in the subject of warding."
"Oh that is a good area for her to work in once she graduates." Albert mused. "Most of his friends are also getting into the advancement program. Quite a number of the first year students are doing this."
"Including a couple that I would not have thought possible." Amelia let out a sigh. Alvert's tilting of his head and raised eyebrow made her answer him. "Draco Malfoy and Theodore Nott."
"You do know they are children and not their fathers?" Albert gently chastised her, something a little funny given that Amelia was at least double his age.
"I know. Just old habits." Amelia raised her hand to calm him. "I do try to remind myself not to judge children by their parents. My experience comes from Abraxas Malfoy and currently Lucius Malfoy, not to mention Lord Nott and his other members of the family. So to hear that Mister Potter has made some tentative connections with the sons is a little jarring for me."
"You and a few others I would imagine." Albert spoke. "I know that Harry has been getting flack for just talking to students from Slytherin house, but really, to base everything on the manner you were sorted is just silly. And outside of Malfoy and Notts, the other students in question are neutral to both sides."
"Prejudice runs deep." Albert snorted at her answer.
"Yeah, some of the students seem to have that in spades. Some kid called Weasley has been harassing Harry on his choice of friends and trying to latch on to him."
"Ah yes, Ronald Weasley, Arthur's son." There was a dangerous glint in Amelia's eyes. "I recall Susan and Hannah writing to me about the boy's tendencies to call anyone rather insulting names or descriptions. The boy has called my niece a few words that made me wonder if he had any input from his mother." Albert had to wince at her expression. He would almost pity the boy if not for the reports from Harry's impressions of him. That boy had no filter whatsoever and it was a wonder that the boy was not getting punished more.
Then again?
"From what Harry has told me, it would seem that Dumbledore is a little insistent to have the youngest Weasley boy off the hook from punishments." Albert remarked.
"Oh right, you are still new to this. The Weasley Family are among the strongest supporters for Dumbledore, especially Molly Weasley. You need a lot of luck and a pair of earmuffs if you want to argue against her." Amelia reached for an ear to rub it before pausing and putting the hand down as though it was automatic. "One of the reasons is that he had let the other children go on sponsorships to attend Hogwarts, although I have yet to uncover the paperwork for that." Albert paused before placing the cup down with a frown. "Something on your mind?"
"I would need to talk shop for a while. You do recall some of the charges that are being levied against Dumbledore, correct?" Amelia nodded. "Gringotts had reached out to me about some of the audits done on the vaults that belonged to the Potters. Thankfully the main family vaults were not touched along with some of the personal vaults from his mother, thanks to the security measures that were implemented along with paranoia from the late Fleamont, but evidently James Potter was a little careless with the money during the previous war, supposedly to help fund some group Dumbledore had, an order?"
"The Order of the Phoenix." Albert blinked at the tone before flinching at the glare in her eyes. Amelia noted that and took a deep breath to focus on her Occlumency. "Sorry about that. I have some issues with Dumbledore's group of fighters. They are a resistance group created by Dumbledore to oppose You-Know-Who during the war in the 1970s, much of it was information gathering to hit the camps where the Death Eaters were gathering muggles, muggleborns, half-bloods, anyone deemed a traitor to purebloods or insignificant. A good number of them are still around, but there were casualties." Amelia looked at her cup like she wanted something stronger. "My brother was once a member of that group, but he got killed by Dolohov before the bastard went to Azkaban. I never liked the fact that Dumbledore had a lot of information on his hands, yet he held back a lot of it with the aim of getting the big fish. He claims that he wants to protect his spy, but does it justify letting some of those scum free to run round killing and raping victims all over Britain?!" Her cup slammed down on the table with enough force to break the handle. Albert went to get a cloth to clean the mess while Amelia shook her head to clear her thoughts before using her wand to fix the cup. "Sorry about that."
"No need. It is my fault to get you into that mood." Albert decided to move past the awkward moment. "In any case, outside of the vault meant for that Order, the headmaster had been a little loose with James's personal vault, along with the trust vault that James Potter had set aside for Harry. Much of the money was sent to a vault registered to a Molly Prewett, who is…"
"Molly Weasley." Amelia was tapping her finger on the table. "How interesting."
"Based on the audits, the money that had been syphoned was introduced as scholarships for the Weasley children currently in Hogwarts. Further audits seemed to suggest that Dumbledore has been doing this with other vaults and other selected orphans over the years, but Harry's case seems to be most severe with the amount he had withdrawn from the trust vault before the closure four years ago." Albert mentioned.
"And when you consider 'that item' in the vault, it makes things very suspicious." Amelia hummed before draining her cup of tea. "We can speculate so much, but it means nothing if we can't prosecute Dumbledore. You would have better luck betting the Chudley Cannons on winning the Quidditch World Cup than getting Dumbledore charged."
"On my end, I know that Dumbledore is still hanging on, but Bagnold and Crouch are supposed to be charged, right?" Albert asked.
"Bagnold is definitely charged and getting a trial, but Crouch is barely hanging on." Amelia admitted. "He has as many enemies as he has allies, and he has quite the pull to hold on, although Fudge is bumping him down the social ladder supposedly to keep him under control, but everyone knows that he is trying to keep potential rivals from his seat. Crouch can't take another hit to his reputation."
"Well, that is problematic. At this rate, ICW may decide to intervene again. And I get the feeling plenty are afraid with Baba Yaga's Cauldron." Albert scratched his chin a little at that thought.
"That method is arguably more terrifying than plain Veritaserum in its effectiveness." Amelia would not lie that she was a little hesitant about that particular interrogation method. It was soul magic at its core, and she had grown up listening to horror stories from her childhood, and then found out from her job that said horror stories were the least of her worries. Using something similar for getting the truth was different, and it did make sense that it would be more trustworthy since nothing could affect the soul outside of horrendous acts of magic that honestly would mean the person in question was guilty of something.
It would make her job easier though since there was no known antidote for that.
Albert checked his watch and winced. "Oh dear, I really wish I could stick around but I need to get to Gringotts, and I know those people are out there waiting for me."
"You can take the DMLE Floo outside of my office." Amelia offered as she stood up to remove the wards and unlock the door.
"That would be very helpful. Thank you." Albert was very appreciative of that gesture.
"This is a one-time deal. Don't get too used to it." Amelia's mouth twitched at that while opening the door. Albert thanked her and the secretary on his way out while going to the fireplace to leave the area while avoiding the busybodies. With his mind on other things, Albert did not notice a water beetle leaving his pocket right as he was entering the Floo.
~ooOOoo~
(May 1992)
In the small town of Haggletown, most people were asleep or at least staying indoors thanks to the mild drizzle that was going on in the evening. Hence why no one would have noticed two people appearing out of nowhere with the soft popping sounds covered by the rain.
"My lord, where are we?" Mattias asked cautiously while looking about the area with slight disgust at the general roughness of the area.
"The small town of Little Hangleton." His companion had the hood up to cover his face, leaving only the crimson eyes to be seen under the shadow of the hood which gave him a very scary look. "This land used to belong to an old family line, but was ultimately taken over by the muggles who saw fit to pollute it with their filth."
"Which family if I may ask?" Mattias asked as the duo walked along the path that led to a beaten down track. Mattias's hands were itching for his wand at the sight of all the overgrown grass and shrubs, an insult to the nice garden back in the premises.
"One that I am happy that they squibbed themselves to oblivion." Mattias was not certain, but he would swear that the Dark Lord was hissing harder in agitation, like the family was an affront to him personally. "The family used to be a minor branch of another family supposedly of Slytherin's noble line, but they were too weak and too ill to realise how far gone they were to be in this place."
"They were actually related? I did not know that." Mattias tried to think of all the possible names from the history books.
"As I said, they were very minor, and with how far around the bend they were, that may be a good thing." The duo stopped when they noted a few muggles around the hedges that was evidently where they were meant to go. With his instructions, Mattias cast the Imperius Curse on them with a different wand he had bought on the sly for occasions like this, before bringing them along for the trip, granting some time for Mattias to consider all that had happened.
Despite the proclamation a few months back, Voldemort did not immediately set off for whatever he wanted in the beginning. He had spent the time reading up old tomes and scrolls that were in the Brownbard library along with whatever Mattias had purchased on his orders. Mattias tried to get some idea of what the dark lord was planning based on the purchase but they were a myriad of topics that mostly pertained to body and magic restoration. He supposed that the wizard wanted to regain his body and was looking into multiple ways to determine the best course of action. It was still nerve-wrecking due to the wizard's presence, and Mattias kept expecting the Aurors to come knocking at the front door.
"Clear this part of the road." Mattias quickly shook his thoughts and directed the muggles to clear the hedges and shrubs in their way, eventually coming to a rundown shack that had certainly seen better days. "We have arrived at our destination, this was where the last of the family had stayed before they died in infighting or were sent to Azkaban. Pathetic, isn't it?" Voldemort remarked upon seeing his face.
"You are right, my lord. It is a good thing they are gone." Mattias had to wonder what type of family it was that would live in such a hovel. Even the small apartment he had lived in during his school years was better than this, and so much cleaner!
Mattias waited along with the Imperiused muggles as he watched Voldemort disable the multitude of traps that were laid there, shivering when he heard the dark lord use the language of serpents to tell the snake guardians to let them pass while summoning multiple animals for them to feed on for their services. The traps extended all the way to the front door where instead of going through, Voldemort went to the side of the shack to open up the wall. After waving his wand some more, Voldemort turned to Mattias.
"I require two of them." Mattias directed the older pair to move forward and follow Voldemort into the shack while he stood guard with the other Imperiused muggles. From where he was standing, his lord was doing something to the decrepit floor before getting the muggles to break it up even more to find something. After a while he gestured to one of them to bend down to grab what looked to be an old jewellery box. He was not sure what it was, but clearly it had an effect on the muggle as the body shuddered with one of the hands reaching for the lid. Voldemort quickly pointed a wand at the muggle, supposedly to reinforce their control over him to stop his actions. He then casted a bubble ward around the box before getting them to move back.
"What is that, if I may ask?" Mattias took a few steps back from the muggle holding the box, some innate instinct blaring at him to get away from it even though it was likely contained.. Even with the bubble, something was working on the muggle as the hands were turning red with giants of blood dripping out from the fingers. Voldemort paused to look at him and the box after restoring the wall and a few of the traps, pointing the wand at the box again to reinforce the bubble.
"Something that would aid me to get a body sooner, and make me a little more whole again." Mattias did not know what he meant, but something about that last part terrified him in some manner. "We may as well bring the muggles with us, they have some uses for us."
Pardon his language, but what the bloody fuck did Mattias get himself into?
(Author's Notes)
Going to be doing the time-skips for first year so that we can get to second year. Until next time.
And I put my pen down for now...