Chapter Five: Dumbledore Gets A Clue

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Dumbledore was carefully examining the piece of toast on his plate to see if the raspberry jam had been evenly spread when McGonagall threw down her copy of the Daily Prophet. "Albus! How could you?"

Dumbledore peered placidly over the top of his half-moon spectacles at her. "I believe that I could better answer that question if I knew what you were talking about. Until you tell me, I'm going to have to go with 'it was for the greater good.'"

"Now you don't even have to know what someone's talking about to assume your actions in the matter were for the greater good?" Snape asked skeptically.

"When one always strives towards attaining the greater good, that's a reasonably safe assumption to make," Dumbledore returned. "Well, Minerva?"

"You told me that we were leaving Harry Potter with those horrible muggle relatives of his!" McGonagall burst out. "I watched them for hours and then have spent the last ten years worrying about what kind of a shoddy childhood they would give him!"

Dumbledore frowned. Surely she wasn't still on about that? "Minerva," he began delicately. "You know that I greatly respect both you and your opinions. Just the same, I made that decision ten years ago and you agreed to drop the matter nearly three years ago."

"I'm not talking about that," McGonagall protested. "I'm talking about the fact that you told me that Harry was being raised by those people when it clearly wasn't true and that I had to find out from that horrible Skeeter woman of all people!"

And he had been having such a lovely breakfast, too. He almost didn't want to ask but if something had gone horribly wrong, like McGonagall was implying, then not only was it his duty to fix it but he might very well be the only one who could. "What, exactly, is Rita Skeeter saying about young Harry? And are we sure that it's true? You know how she is about facts; she seems to think the very idea of checking them is beneath her."

Snape leaned over and eyed the paper in McGonagall's hands. "There appears to be a picture of a miniature James Potter posing with Gilderoy Lockhart of all people."

Dumbledore choked. That…had not been what he had expected to hear, to put it mildly. "Do you mind if I see that?"

Wordlessly, McGonagall tossed the paper to him.

Boy-Who-Lived Found At Last!

By Rita Skeeter

One of the greatest mysteries since the downfall of You-Know-Who nearly ten years ago is what became of our tiny savior. Fifteen-month-old Harry Potter was spirited away from the ruins of his once-loving home and, despite enthusiastic efforts, no trace of him has been found…until now.

Potter's mother, Lily, was Muggleborn and survived by a muggle sister whom Harry was sent to live with. Being without magic herself, she soon found herself quite incapable of meeting the demands of raising a wizard and within a month had him put up for adoption. Now, any number of truly horrible people could have taken in our savior but fate intervened.

We all know Gilderoy Lockhart: author of a series of best-selling books detailing his various adventures, the four-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile award, the recipient of two Orders of Merlin Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defense League. He heroically stepped in and saved Potter from the mercy of the British Child Services.

The article continued but scanning the next few paragraphs revealed that Rita went on quite a bit about how wonderful and philanthropic Lockhart was as well as what a terrible decision sending Harry to the Dursley's in the first place was.

"She managed to heavily imply that you were senile, trying to enslave us to the muggles, attempting to have Harry raised with nothing in his life so that he'd be your perfect little puppet, and that you were being negligent by just putting Harry on the doorstep all night in November with just a note and then not staying to see that he was taken in safely all without managing to actually say anything that would be considered libel," McGonagall informed him. "In all honestly, I can't say that I disagree with that last one and you know how much I hate to agree with that woman about anything."

Dumbledore nodded at that. He could still remember how enraged McGonagall had been when Rita had genuinely complimented her robes and how she made the reporter pay to replace it since McGonagall had immediately changed and then set her complimented robes on fire.

"Well? Do you have anything to say for yourself?" McGonagall demanded.

"I must confess that I'm rather interested to hear the answer to this as well, Headmaster," Snape spoke up. "Why on Earth would you consider it a good move to send the obscenely famous child of an attention-seeking prat to the magical world's single biggest attention-seeking prat in living memory?"

"That's right!" McGonagall realized. "You specifically said that you were sending him to the muggles so that he could avoid having that happen to him."

They both stared expectantly at him.

For once, Dumbledore was at a loss for words. According to the article, Petunia had only had Harry for a single month before Lockhart took custody of him for almost ten years now. He would be the first to admit that he wasn't perfect – though good luck finding anyone other than Aberforth who believed that – but this was perhaps the single biggest oversight he'd ever been involved in.

"I don't know what to say," he admitted at last. "Neither Petunia nor Lockhart informed me of the change in Harry's living arrangements."

"I really don't want to say 'I told you so', Albus, but what's to stop his enemies from coming after him there? If Lockhart could find him, I'm sure someone else who wanted more than just Harry's fame could have as well!" McGonagall exclaimed.

"Oh, no, if anyone tried to harm Harry at all then I'd be alerted," Dumbledore assured her. "I put charms on him."

"But not a tracking charm?" Snape queried.

"I…had assumed that if he weren't in danger then I didn't need to know precisely where he was and it wasn't like I expected him to spend every night under the roof of 4 Privet Drive," Dumbledore protested.

"Albus, if those people could so easily give Harry away and you were none the wiser then clearly you weren't watching him well enough," McGonagall said sternly.

"My dear Minerva, please try to remember that I'm a major voice in several different governmental bodies and I run a school in my spare time. It's not like I didn't have things to do besides stalk Harry Potter while he was supposed to be growing up with his Aunt. Really, if I had the time for that then I might have adopted him…"

While he knew that it was impolite not to announce his visit ahead of time, he didn't want Lockhart to have a chance to take Harry and run or prepare himself for this confrontation. The window was open and so the conversation floated outside for Dumbledore to hear.

"What's a nine-letter word for lie?" a child – presumably Harry – asked innocently.

"Now Harry, you know that I don't know anything about lies," Lockhart rebuked lightly.

"But 'falsehood' doesn't start with an 'm'," Harry complained.

"I believe the word you're looking for is 'mendacity'," Dumbledore said helpfully.

"Hey, that does fit!" Harry cheered.

"Harry, go see who's at the door," Lockhart instructed.

Dumbledore waited a few moments until he heard a lock opening and then the door swung out to reveal the boy the newspaper had identified as Harry Potter. It wasn't like he wouldn't have been able to tell anyway, though, with the strong resemblance he bore to Lily and – especially – James Potter. "You look just like your father except you have your mother's eyes."

Harry's expression turned tolerantly amused. "So I've heard, or at least the bit about my Dad…or wait, you mean my biological father, don't you? James Potter?"

"I do," Dumbledore confirmed. "I must confess that I don't feel you to bear a great resemblance to Gilderoy Lockhart, if indeed you are talking about him."

Harry shrugged. "Dad put a glamour on me whenever I went out in public. He said it was so I would be protected in case anyone wanted vengeance for You-Know-Who's death or was unstable and thought killing me would either solve their problems or make them famous."

"Call him Voldemort, Harry," Dumbledore instructed, a little disappointed but hardly surprised. Older and wiser wizards than he had flat-out refused to call Voldemort that even now so many years after his disappearance. "Always use the proper name for things. Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself."

"I don't actually believe that that's his proper name," Harry objected. "And my father said it's French."

"Well, no, that's not technically his proper name," Dumbledore conceded. "Little known fact: Lord Voldemort is the alias of one Tom Marvolo Riddle."

"I could call him Tom Riddle, I suppose," Harry said slowly. "But then no one would know who I was talking about so I'd have to explain and it would just make things take far longer than they would if I called him You-Know-Who."

"Or Voldemort," Dumbledore hinted.

"It's not that I'm afraid of saying 'Voldemort'," Harry explained. "It's just that other people tend to be shocked and offended by it and they've had good reason to be afraid and lost a lot. I don't want to insult them."

"Very well. I can respect that reasoning," Dumbledore said reluctantly.

"Harry? Are you quite alright? I heard voices," Lockhart said, appearing in the doorway beside Harry. "Ah, Headmaster Dumbledore."

Dumbledore noted the rather conspicuous fact that he hadn't been invited in. Clearly they hadn't been looking forward to this visit. "Gilderoy Lockhart." He said nothing else, just waited for Lockhart to crack and start speaking.

"I see you saw Rita Skeeter's article," Lockhart said eventually.

"I did," Dumbledore agreed curtly. "It took me by surprise, I must admit, as I had rather been under the impression that Harry was being raised by his loving aunt and not in your care for the past ten years."

"Petunia Dursley didn't feel up to raising a magical child and apparently has some deep-rooted issues with magic in general," Lockhart defended.

"Strange how in ten years I never heard this from either of you," Dumbledore said, his tone turning steely.

"According to Petunia, you didn't give her much choice about taking Harry," Lockhart countered. "She said the whole thing seemed like you were obsessed with keeping Harry with her even though that was hardly the best place for him. She was afraid that if she contacted you, you'd find some way to get Harry back with her."

That was actually a pretty accurate prediction of how he would have reacted. "And what about you?"

"I feared the same thing," Lockhart admitted, looking down. "I don't quite know what authority gave you the power to hide Harry away from everyone and place him with his mother's estranged sister but Petunia Dursley was either the legal guardian of Harry in which case she legally signed his custody over to me or she wasn't and Harry had been legally kidnapped by you ten years ago."

Another good point. Dumbledore wondered just how long Lockhart had been planning this. It might have been years…

"Harry's mother died to save him," Dumbledore found himself saying. "His aunt and cousin are his only blood relatives on his mother's side. Staying under one roof with them was the only way to keep him safe."

Lockhart turned to Harry. "Harry, don't be afraid of hurting my feelings now. Answer me this: Do you feel safe?"

Harry nodded. "Of course I do."

"You can't possibly expect to keep custody of Harry," Dumbledore said dangerously.

"By what right? Either I have legal custody or you'll face charges of kidnapping," Lockhart pointed out. "You can't cover this up because it is in print. You could find different housing for Harry but there's no way the Wizengamot will take him from me and put him with muggles and if you're not going to place him with his family then there's no reason not to let him stay with me and I'm sure the Wizengamot will see it my way. As for my future employment, the DADA contract's been ironclad for years so neither of us can get out of it."

Harry tugged suddenly on Lockhart's robe. "We're going to be late."

Lockhart checked his watch. "What do you know? I'm dreadfully sorry to cut this short, Headmaster, but we really must be going." He shut the door and then Dumbledore could hear the tell-tale crack of Apparation.

Dumbledore hadn't been quite sure what he had expected but it wasn't that. Who would have thought that shallow, superficial Gilderoy Lockhart would have actually put together a case defending his custody of Harry? Maybe Dumbledore should have waited a bit before going to confront him. He knew that he didn't know enough to find grounds to legally remove Harry from Lockhart's care and Lockhart was right about why he couldn't do it without a court order. Still, all was not lost, not nearly. Both father and son would be under his watch next year at school and he could carefully observe them both and how they interacted. He might even get a chance to try to explain just how dangerous not living with the Dursleys were.

Yes, he might have failed to notice this problem for several years but now that he knew about it, he was confident that he could straighten it all out soon enough.

The moment Dumbledore returned to his Hogwarts office he found Sirius and Remus waiting for him. He wistfully eyed the staircase he'd come up, knowing that there was no real way he could escape.

"Dumbledore, do you remember when I asked about seeing Harry and you convinced me that it was quite impossible?" Sirius began almost sweetly.

"I do," Dumbledore admitted grudgingly.

"Well, I was never happy about that by I accepted that it was for Harry's safety. Now I see today's issue of the Daily Prophet and realize that Harry wasn't actually living with his aunt and uncle after all? You said we couldn't visit him because Petunia would reject him but she did that anyway and we were never told!" Sirius thundered.

"I can understand your concern-" Dumbledore started to say placatingly.

"And if Harry was going to be removed from the Dursleys then why wouldn't he go to Sirius?" Remus cut in. "Sirius is Harry's legal godfather and sending him to Lockhart is no way to keep him from growing up fully aware of his fame."

"I'm not any happier about this situation than you are," Dumbledore insisted. "And I'm looking for a way to remedy it right now."

"Why would you wait so long to fix it?" Remus demanded. "The article says that Harry's been with Lockhart for nearly ten…oh."

"Oh what?" Sirius asked.

"When, exactly, did you find out that Lockhart had Harry?" Remus inquired.

Dumbledore wasn't quite sure what to say. He really didn't want to spread the story of him finding out from McGonagall a few hours ago any further than it already had. Snape and McGonagall could reasonably be counted on to keep a secret but something told him that Remus and Sirius wouldn't keep something this personal quiet.

His silence apparently said enough.

"He's right, isn't he?" Sirius accused. "You only just found out! Dumbledore, what kind of security is that?"

"Lockhart couldn't have wished Harry harm and taken custody of him and, in fact, I've just been to see Harry. He seems perfectly healthy and content," Dumbledore revealed, trying to appease them.

"Gilderoy Lockhart, of all people," Sirius grumbled, shaking his head. "This is a complete and utter disaster. He may be healthy and happy but who knows what Lockhart's done to him? He was in charge of raising my precious godson!"

"Sirius!" Remus chided. "You know that he's the one that saved you from going after Wormtail and making a mess of things all those years ago."

"Yeah," Sirius conceded. "But that doesn't say anything about his attention-seeking tendencies or child-raising skills. And for that matter, why did he 'just happen' to be there?"

Remus sighed. "Don't tell me that you're going to start being suspicious of him taking you to St. Mungo's!"

"All I know is that I don't remember being attacked and the healers said that I was missing a few minutes of memory. Lockhart said that he found me already collapsed but who knows what really happened?" Sirius challenged.

Remus rolled his eyes. "What are you saying? That Lockhart attacked you, erased your memory of this attack, and then took you to St. Mungo's thereby accidentally saving you?"

"I don't know, maybe!" Sirius cried. "Him saving me was accidental no matter what as he had no way of knowing about Wormtail and I certainly wouldn't have told him."

"Him saving you from prison, maybe," Remus agreed. "But not his saving you from the elements and being left vulnerable outside. And what purpose could Lockhart possibly have for erasing your memory?"

"I…obviously don't remember," Sirius declared. "That fiend."

"You know, when we finally do get a chance to meet Harry, he's probably not going to appreciate you maligning his father," Remus pointed out.

Sirius glared at him. "James was his father!"

"His adopted father, then," Remus amended.

They had almost seemed to forget about Dumbledore and he reluctantly drew their attention back to him so that he could get rid of them. "Lockhart and Harry Apparated somewhere right as I was leaving but I'm sure that they'll be back at Lockhart's house before too long. If you'd like, I can give you the address…"

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