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Chapter 6 – Schemes Gone Bad

The Order had been assured that Harry Potter would be found. Of course they might not have been so certain had Dumbledore mentioned that all of his tracking devices were missing and despite the spells he had cast, he had not had any luck in finding any of them.

Sirius Black was been difficult to control since the little bastard had gone missing and until Potter was found, Black would not cooperate. He was insisting that he be "allowed" to search for his godson. While casting the Fidelius on the house, Dumbledore had added a few other extra "protection" spells. He had basically imprisoned Black "for his own good" so that the Marauder would not be reckless enough to leave the protection of his own home.

At first Dumbledore had convinced Black to leave the country until he had regained his strength and Dumbledore had managed to "calm things down at the Ministry" so that they would ease up on their efforts to find the escaped wizard. In reality, although Black needed to physically recover from his years in Azkaban and the year he was living rough to be near Harry and attempt to capture Pettigrew, Dumbledore didn't want him around Harry.

Black wanted to give the boy a home and a better life. Black would tell Harry about all the things which Dumbledore had prevented the boy from learning, such as his powerful political heritage and his true wealth. He would also insist the boy get a physical and then everybody would find out about the abused the Dursleys had done to him. Also the blocks on Potter's magic would be discovered and even the great Albus Dumbledore would have problems explaining why HE had placed the blocks on brat and why the boy had all those illegal potions in his system.

The logical thing to do would be to see that Black "had an accident" during his recuperation. However, Dumbledore knew something about Black which few people knew. He had made Harry Potter is heir shortly after the boy was born. He had been made the boy's godfather and when Black found out that he was sterile, he legally adopted the boy as his heir.

While he was safely ensconced in Azkaban, he was unable to fulfill his duties as Potter's guardian, so Dumbledore had stepped in and appointed himself. While Black lived, Dumbledore could, in his position of the guardian of the Black heir, use the Black vote in the Wizengamot, just as he did for the Potter vote, which he had also grabbed. Dumbledore had never expected Black to live as long as he had especially maintaining his sanity.

When Harry Potter turned the legal age of 17, he would inherit not only the Lordship House Potter but of House Black, even if Black still lived because the man was "unable to use his Lordship due to being a convicted criminal" so the heir could take full control of the Lordship.

Black was not "a convicted criminal" as he had never had a trial and that had been the only thing preventing the Malfoys from claiming the Black lordship for Draco and hence Lucius being able to use the vote on behalf of his son.

Thus unless Snape could brew the highly complicated heritage potion based on Petunia Dursley's blood to find Harry, their chances of getting him were slim – at least for the moment.

They were missing two vital ingredients – basilisk venom and phoenix tears. Although Petunia had the blood of the Evans running in her veins, as had Harry, something a bit more unique was needed which could track the brat. The potion was blood-based so unless a "fresh" untainted sample of Harry's blood could be acquired, the potion would be almost useless.

However, Harry had been bitten by a basilisk and then cured by Fawkes' phoenix tears in his second year. A tear from Fawkes and a few drops of basilisk venom could be used in conjunction with Petunia's blood to track Harry. Ideally the venom from the actual basilisk should be used but hopefully they could just use any basilisk venom – if they could find some, as basilisk venom was a rare and expensive commodity at least in Europe.

Dumbledore knew where a basilisk was – in his very own school. Only someone who spoke parsel tongue could access the entrance to the chamber and he just happened to have two people who could – or he had.

Harry spoke parsel tongue and knew the Chamber of Secrets location but Dumbledore had charmed Harry to be afraid to access the Chamber. This would keep the boy from going down to investigate or look for the books Hermione Granger would no doubt figure out had to be down there. It wouldn't do to obliviate him as then he couldn't enter the Chamber when and if Dumbledore needed him to. But the charm could be removed and then Harry would remember and could access the Chamber.

After Harry's second year Dumbledore now knew where the Chamber was. He thought he could enter the Chamber any time he wished because Fawkes, his familiar, now knew its location and could just flash him there, but he had been wrong. He had been busy for the few months after the Chamber's opening so he hadn't had the time to explore and acquire the many treasures which the Chamber no doubt contained, but he had plenty of time or so he thought.

It was during Harry's third year after he had placed the charm on the boy, when he decided he wanted to enter the Chamber. It was then that Fawkes had informed him that he could only access the Chamber if Harry was in it – it was just the way the magic worked.

Then the Sirius Black incident happened and Dumbledore had other plans to make and things to take care of so he let it go. He didn't want to uncharm Harry due to Black's being on the loose as he feared Harry might sneak down into the Chamber for either safety's sake or to look for some sort of weapon he could use to kill Black, as Dumbledore himself had placed a hex on Harry to hate Sirius Black.

It had been unfortunate but as the old Muggle saying went "he who hesitates is lost" but no matter, ONCE THE BOY WAS FOUND, he would force him to open the Chamber and the entire basilisk would be Dumbledore's. But for now he would just have Snape acquire the venom even if it meant he had to send him to Africa or even India to get it.

But then that damned article came out not only exposing everything, but Snape had disappeared, probably called by Voldemort. There was a very real possibility that Snape was dead but also Tom could just be torturing the hell out of him before sending him back to spy.

Fudge, Lucius and the remaining Dursleys were all in Ministry custody and Albus expected to be called in for questioning at any time. He was mobilizing all of his forces, calling in favors and obliviating any and all people who would be called in to testify. All the Weasleys had returned to the Burrow and had their memories of their time at Grimmauld Place wiped.

Since he was at it and couldn't risk anything else being revealed, he took advantage of the situation and erased the memories of many of the promises he had made to the Weasleys. Molly had too big a mouth and too many issues concerning Potter and Ron was…well he was a disaster walking and had inherited his mother's propensity to brag and "spill the beans" and total lack of discretion.

Ginny only remembered that her mother had always said that since she was so beautiful and so talented a witch that someday when she finally met Harry Potter he couldn't help but fall in love with her and definitely would marry her when they became of age. That sounded like a dream any girl would have and he let Molly remember her telling it.

Unfortunately all Aurors who were in the Order had already been exposed and questioned under Veritaserum and told they had to make a choice – the Order or their job. Hestia Jones and Emmeline Vance had no personal fortune and their job was their only source of income. To keep their jobs they would have to swear an oath to leave the Order and never rejoin. Amelia Bones was quite familiar Dumbledore's talent for getting around oaths and the way the oath was worded there would be no assisting the Order in any way once the oath was sworn.

Moody was retired but had volunteered to return to active duty and Amelia was eager to have him. He had isolated himself so that his old friend Albus wouldn't be able to "convince" him to stay in the Order instead of actively fighting Voldemort Dumbledore's way.

Moody had been one of the very few people to constantly disagree with Dumbledore's methods and he had been furious when he had found out just how far Albus had gone to control the boy and mold him into such a perfect pawn. Since Moody trusted no one and had become even more paranoid than before since his capture and imprisonment by Barty Crouch, Jr., Albus would never have the opportunity to potion, spell, curse or hex the wily old Auror if he didn't choose to remain an Order member of his own accord.

Kingsley Shacklebolt was still deciding. He enjoyed his career as an Auror and was one of the best. He had a small but respectable inheritance so he could live off of that for several years if he resigned. The only reason he had joined the Order had been because he loathed Fudge and hated the corruption at the Ministry.

It had infuriated the man that so many like Lucius Malfoy had escaped justice due to bribing their way out of Azkaban and that they still controlled most of the Ministry and saw to it that laws were passed which only benefitted themselves while disenfranchising others. He knew that it "was the way of the world" but that didn't mean he liked it. He had joined Dumbledore's Order because he had wanted to make a difference and trusted the Leader of the Light to actually "do something" to fix Magical Britain.

But after the war, despite being Head of the Wizengamot and gaining more power, it seemed that he had done nothing relevant. He could have, should have, but didn't, insist that Lucius and his ilk be given Veritaserum. Anybody with a brain knew Malfoy and his minions were Death Eaters but Dumbledore had let them slide because he believed in "second chances" and he thought they would change their wicked, wicked ways if given another chance.

But in Kingsley's view, they were still torturers, rapists, thieves and murderers, and it was evident within the year that they hadn't changed and never would. Then there were the laws which Dumbledore should have, could have and again didn't, enact or even fight for when others did. Kingsley hadn't a clue as to why he had coming running to re-join the Order but he had.

After some intense thinking he chose his work as an Auror and asked if Amelia Bones would periodically check him for…changes of heart.

She agreed it was a good suggestion and said she would do it to the other Aurors, but things were getting out of hand and she didn't have the time to do the checking or assign it to someone else. It would be much later when she was checked for spells that she found out why.

But that was Dumbledore for you. He was just too tricky and always got his way around most things, which was why he survived the crisis and still kept some of his power. But would he survive the next one?