Chapter 14
Harry v. Albus, to the Death
Still 1 September 1991, still evening at Hogwarts
Ten minutes later, during the Welcoming Feast
Ron Weasley had been Sorted into Gryffindor. Percy decided that the reason that Ron had been put in the same House as the rest of his family was that Ron was brave enough to speak his poorly-reasoned opinions to anyone, anywhere.
As for the other Weasleys in Gryffindor, Percy was a prefect now, and the Twins were—well, the Twins.
Oddly, after the Pettigrew Incident, Percy saw the Twins no longer as nuisances and menaces, but as geniuses.
It was amazing how the Pettigrew Incident had changed Percy's life.
When Percy had been in first year and second year, his big ambition had been to become a Gryffindor prefect in fifth year, and Head Boy in seventh year. Indeed, in those long-ago days, pompous "perfect" Percy had purposefully pursued the path towards procuring prefectship.
But in third year, Percy had captured the escaped Death Eater animagus Pettigrew, who had been Percy's pet rat, and Penelope Clearwater had called Percy "brave and clever." In this moment, Percy's attitude had changed and his ambitions had changed.
Nowadays, Percy did not care whether he was a prefect, and Percy did not care whether he became Head Boy in two years. Percy's attitude had made him more relaxed and mellow, and friendlier since third year—which ironically had made him a sure bet for the prefect badge.
Now Percy's thoughts were interrupted when he was tapped on the shoulder. Standing next to Percy was a first—correction, second-year Gryffindor boy. "Prefect Weasley?" the boy asked. "Can you do something about your brother?"
"Which one?" Percy asked. "Fred or George?"
"Not them, your firstie brother. He's eating like a pig, and it's disgusting."
Seconds later, Percy was standing on the other side of the table from Ron. Ron was trying to talk to the other first-years, whilst he was chewing—
Garbled words—"H'ry Po'er"—garbled words—"Gryf'n'or."
Bits of food were spraying everywhere, and the other Gryffindor firsties looked disgusted.
Percy said coldly, "Ronald Bilius! Eat like an human."
Ron replied, "Sha 'p. Ye'r na' Mum an' sh'izn' he'." Shut up. You aren't Mum and she isn't here.
Percy pointed his wand at his brother. One Stinging Hex coming up! "Acer Dorsus," he incanted.
"Oww!"
"Eat like an human, Ron. Talk or chew, don't do both at the same time."
"Ye' no' Mum." You're not Mum.
"Acer Dorsus."
"Ow!"
Ron, showing that he had intelligence enough to win chess games, chewed, swallowed, then spoke: "Mum will Howler you, you know she will."
Percy did not tell his youngest brother he had received zero Howlers from his mother in the almost three years before the Pettigrew Incident, and three Howlers in third and fourth year after the Pettigrew Incident. How odd, when Percy had told his parents that he no longer was sure about working for the Ministry after he sat his NEWTs, that suddenly Percy's mother had found plenty of nitpicky things to criticise him for.
In short, Percy expected to be Howlered within a few days for not coddling "ickle Ronnikins." But gaining his mum's approval now was lower priority for Percy than gaining Penelope's approval, and Penelope would want Percy to do a proper job as prefect.
Meanwhile, Ron had just threatened Percy with his mother's wrath.
"Acer Dorsus," Percy incanted. "That's for threatening a prefect."
Ron flinched when the third Stinging Hex hit him.
Percy added, "Post owls come after breakfast, Ron. Mum can only ruin my breakfast; I can ruin your breakfast and lunch and dinner with Stinging Hexes. Besides, I can write Dad."
Ron looked at Percy in horror.
"So what's it going to be, Ron? You eat like an human, or you get stung three times a day?"
"Fine, you win," Ron said. He deliberately tipped over the salt shaker as though it were his king on a chessboard.
Percy watched Ron for half an minute, to make sure his youngest brother was showing basic table manners. Then Percy turned to walk back to his piece of bench amongst the fifth-year Gryffindors—
—to find Professor McGonagall and the ex-convict headmaster silently standing in the Gryffindor-Ravenclaw aisle. Dumbledore was staring at Percy, not smiling; Professor McGonagall looked conflicted.
Looking beyond them, Percy saw his girlfriend Penelope, who was sitting amongst the fifth-year Ravenclaws and who herself wore a prefect badge. Penelope, unlike Dumbledore, was smiling at Percy.
The headmaster gave Percy his disappointed-grandfather look. "Mr Weasley, was all that necessary? Your mother—"
"Necessary, you ask? Yes. In my father's absence, it is up to me to enforce the family rules my father would want enforced."
Then Percy walked past Dumbledore and returned to his meal. As he sat down, he heard Professor McGonagall taking five points from Ron for "lacking table manners."
Over an hour later
After afters (dessert), Dumbledore was giving a speech to the students about rules of the school. He ended the speech with—
"...And finally, I must tell you that this year, Classroom 3R3, off the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side, is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a most painful death."
"WHAT?" Professor McGonagall yelled.
Dumbledore still was standing at the lectern so couldn't see, but Percy saw that behind Dumbledore, every professor at the High Table was glaring at him.
Percy wondered what was happening between the professors and the headmaster.
Meanwhile, Percy glared down the Gryffindor table at the Twins. "Behave," he commanded, hoping they actually would behave.
Ten minutes later (8.57pm)
Albus had dismissed the students. Four Houses' worth of fifth-year prefects led their House's first-years to their new homes, whilst the older students headed to their common rooms without guidance.
The professors, meanwhile, left the High Table for their personal suites. No professor wished Albus a good night.
Albus had learnt the hard way, and the portrait-headmasters all agreed, that it was a waste of time to try to accomplish any meaningful work after the Welcoming Feast. So sleepy Albus decided to go to bed.
But as he was passing through the Headmaster's Office on the way to his suite, he decided to check his Harry Potter blood-based doodads—
—but then he remembered that he did not have those doodads anymore, because Minerva had destroyed them.
Then Albus thought, Or did she destroy them?
Albus called for Wrinkly, the Hogwarts head house-elf, and told Wrinkly to find anything belonging to Albus that was in the professors' suites, the Deputy Headmistress's office, the Gryffindor Head of House office, the Transfiguration office or the Transfiguration classroom.
In less than a minute, all the doodads were piled atop Albus's desk. In a magically-locked drawer in the professor's desk in the Transfiguration classroom, Wrinkly had found all of the doodads—including the pointer-doodad.
The pointer-doodad's purpose was to point to Harry Potter. Before Albus's arrest and imprisonment, the doodad always had pointed south, towards Little Whinging, Surrey. This doodad had always pointing in the exact same direction, so that Albus had quit paying attention to it years ago.
Tonight the pointer-doodad pointed southwards, but in a different direction than towards Little Whinging. Albus did not need to look at a map to know that the pointer was not pointing towards Manchester, and towards MMA in Manchester.
The pointer not spinning meant that Harry was not under a Fidelius right now.
Gotcha, Harry! Albus thought.
Albus's sleepiness vanished instantly. He pocketed the pointer-doodad, then Apparated out of the headmaster's office.
Minutes later: 9.06pm
In the dining room of the Granger house, Crawley
The dental Grangers did not work tomorrow; and the Granger daughter and Sirius's godson had a big day tomorrow—their first day of magical school at MMA. The three Grangers, plus Sirius, Harry and Remus, were enjoying a leisurely dinner of two delivery pizzas, supreme and double pepperoni. (Sirius and Dan had split the cost of the pizzas.)
BANG!
"Harry my boy," said a voice Sirius knew well. The voice dripped with condescension. "Incarcerous. It's time—"
By now, Harry was out of his chair, had dodged the Ropes-Binding spell, and was facing the old man. Unfortunately for Harry, his wand was back at Black Manor.
Sirius and Remus also were standing and, their wands in hand, were facing Dumbledore—but Sirius knew that both he and Remus were outclassed.
Meanwhile, Harry was yelling, "POTTER ELVES! DOG-CAT-CAT!"
P-p-p-pop.
Three Potter house-elves appeared by the three Grangers, then elf-popped the Grangers and themselves to Potter Manor before Dumbledore could point his wand at them. P-p-pop.
Meanwhile, the fourth Potter house-elf, head house-elf Greyclay, clicked his fingers and all framed pictures on walls, photo albums on bookshelves and the Granger parents' LP collection were elf-popped to Potter Manor.
Greyclay clicked his fingers again—and Harry's wand appeared in Greyclay's hand. Greyclay handed the wand to Harry—who, instead of holding his wand, shoved his wand down the waistband of his trousers.
Harry caught the looks that he was getting from Sirius, Remus and even Dumbledore. Harry gestured towards the wand in his waistband and said, "What? I haven't been taught any spells yet."
Sirius almost smiled. Did Dumbledore catch the Dumbledorism that Harry just had spoken? It was true that no professor, teacher or other adult had taught any spells to Harry—but both Harry and Hermione had been reading ahead in their MMA books, and had practised what they had read.
Pop. Now Greyclay, after sharing a look with Harry, disappeared; so the only beings in the house were Sirius and Remus, Harry—and Dumbledore.
What neither Sirius nor Dumbledore could see, but what Sirius knew was happening right now because Sirius knew the plan, was that after Greyclay sent the Grangers' sentimental items to Potter Manor, Greyclay would tell the Bones house-elf Tibia to tell Amelia, "Come to the Granger house and bring Aurors! Dumbledore is causing trouble for Harry tonight."
Everything that had happened since Dumbledore's arrival, had happened almost instantly—only ten seconds of actual time had passed.
"STAY AWAY FROM ME!" Sirius heard Harry yell. Dumbledore flew backwards—Blam!—and hit the wall hard that was five feet behind him.
"Harry my boy, stop that. I am disappointed in you. Now come along—"
Harry said nothing; Harry did not gesture. But Dumbledore flew forward ten feet, wandlessly and wordlessly summoned; then the old man stopped, but his head snapped forwards from momentum. Then Dumbledore shot backwards again and hit the wall again. BLAM! Sirius heard something snap.
"Aggh!" Dumbledore yelled.
"I can keep this up all night, old man," Harry snarled. "Leave or suffer, your choice."
Harry did not pause to give Dumbledore a chance to blather. Dumbledore was magically yanked forwards again, then was magically slammed into the wall again. BLAM! Sirius did not hear a bone break this time, but Dumbledore screamed again.
Harry said, "Sometimes Uncle Vernon liked to throw me against the wall, just like I'm doing to you now. Hurts, doesn't it?"
"Incarcerous!" Dumbledore incanted, and a spell raced towards Harry—
—but a transparent-blue shield appeared in front of Harry, and the headmaster's spell was reflected back at him. The injured headmaster did not dodge it. Ropes appeared from nowhere and tied up Dumbledore.
Harry said to Dumbledore, "I'm asking you politely to go away and to stop trying to kidnap me. Will you do this, will you leave?"
"Harry my boy, you need to be at Hogwarts. It is for your own good."
"I ask you again, please leave me alone. It's against the law for you to be here."
"No, Harry. You need to attend Hogwarts, under my wise guidance."
The transparent-blue shield disappeared. Harry said, "Bullshit. You intend to kidnap me for the second time."
Sirius demanded, "Do you intend to keep him a prisoner at Hogwarts? I bet that's your plan. To bring him to the castle and make him 'attend school,' but then you'll find reasons why Harry never can leave the castle, even during Yule hols and summer hols."
Dumbledore replied, "I am disappointed in you, Sirius. During school hols, I shall not keep Harry in the castle, I shall pass him to a Light-sided family who will teach Harry Light values; with parents who have not been exposed to Dark creatures for years, or who are Dark creatures."
Sirius saw Remus's eyes flash yellow at the insult. But when Remus spoke, his voice was calm: "Your plan won't work, unless your 'Light' family hides Harry from other people seeing him, and lies when Aurors come to the door. Amos Diggory is your lapdog in the Wizengamot, but he won't lie to Aurors."
"But Molly Weasley would," Sirius said, feeling horrified. "She'd not only hide Harry from Aurors if Dumbledore said to, she'd lock Harry in a silver werewolf cage if the old man said to."
Harry asked Sirius, "This Molly Weasley, is she the wife of Arthur Weasley? Does she know how to cast mind-whammies?"
Sirius said, "Nowadays, she's known to be a great cook. But before Bill was born, she earnt a Potions mastery."
Sirius now was thinking of the invalid Harry-Ginevra betrothal contract, and Sirius could tell that Harry was thinking about it too. Clearly Harry just had realised, as Sirius himself just had realised, that either through wand-movements or potions, it was Molly Weasley who had compelled Arthur to sign that awful contract.
And Dumbledore wanted to not only kidnap Harry, but also to hand Harry over to Molly Weasley from time to time? Bugger that!
Clearly Harry felt the same. Harry yelled, "Buggering bloody fuck NO! You intend to hold me prisoner at Hogwarts, don't you, like Vernon and Petunia did whenever I pissed them off. I bet you expect me to be grateful if I'm not made to sleep in a boot cupboard under the stairs. You haven't promised not to starve me. NO! Nor will you hand me over to Molly Weasley for her to mind-whammy me. You WON'T take me to Hogwarts, old man, hear me? AND IF YOU DO TAKE ME TO HOGWARTS, YOU SURE THE BLOODY BUGGERING HELL WON'T KEEP ME THERE!"
Harry wandlessly and wordlessly yanked tied-up Dumbledore forwards, abruptly enough to almost snap Dumbledore's neck.
Harry and tied-up Dumbledore were now only a foot apart. Harry glared at the old man.
Then abruptly Dumbledore zoomed backwards and hit the wall again. BLAM.
Dumbledore screamed in agony, then he yelled, "YOU STUPID BOY, I HAVE KEPT THE DARK LORD GRINDELWALD LOCKED UP IN NURMENGARD FOR FORTY-SIX YEARS, SO HOW HARD WILL IT BE TO HOLD ONE ELEVEN-YEAR-OLD BOY?"
Silence.
Then Sirius said, "Bloody hell, I was just yanking his chain, there in the Wizengamot. But he didn't kill Grindelwald. He earned his Order of Merlin fraudulently."
Dumbledore said, with a twinkle in his eye and in a smug voice, "You three will forget I said that, I shall make sure of it."
Remus was angry now; his eyes were yellow. He sneered at Dumbledore, "Good luck Obliviating a werewolf, fraud."
"What does he mean?" Harry asked Sirius.
Sirius said in an angry voice, "He intends to wipe our memories of him revealing his scandalous secret. To wipe our memories either before or after he kidnaps you."
Harry looked thoughtfully at tied-up Dumbledore. "Asking nicely doesn't work with you. I see only one way to prevent my kidnapping, my imprisonment at Hogwarts and Molly Weasley mind-whammying me. I see only one way to prevent the three of us getting our memories messed with. I've one more problem with you, old man: You put me with the Dursleys, and many times they almost killed me. I owe you for all the times I almost died. How do I pay you back for all the times I was almost killed by a Dursley? How do I prevent all the problems in the future that you want to cause me, to cause us? I see only one way."
Harry drew his wand from his waistband and pointed the wand at Dumbledore. Then Harry's voice took on a creepy, dangerous tone: "How? I kill you, old man."
Sirius did not understand what Harry was thinking. Harry knew only the spells that he and Hermione had taught each other. Harry had ordered all four Potter house-elves to leave! Harry was facing the most powerful wizard in Magical Britain. Yet Harry acted angrily confident that if he wanted to kill Dumbledore, the old wizard would die.
Remus said, "Harry, you can't just kill Dumbledore. There must be another way. We're Light wizards!"
Harry rolled his eyes. " 'Another way,' really? He kidnapped me once before; now he wants to kidnap me again. If he gets me into Hogwarts Castle, it's game over. Have you read Hogwarts: A History, the defences the castle has? Once he gets me in there, you aren't bringing me out and Ms Bones isn't bringing me out. If I'm dragged in, I'm not coming out till Ex-Convict Father Christmas lets me out. Which he'll never do with Aurors sniffing about, because the minute he does, he'll get arrested. I need a real plan, Moony, not 'But we're Light, we have to act nice.' "
So saying, Harry summoned Dumbledore, then silently and wandlessly slammed Dumbledore against the wall again. BLAM. Dumbledore screamed for a time.
"Harry my boy," tied-up Dumbledore said with theatrical sadness, "you are turning Dark."
"That sounded insulting," Harry said to Sirius.
"He's saying you're turning evil."
Harry stared Albus down. "If I am, whose fault is that? Who put me into an house with three hateful bullies? I was never hugged. I was never praised. Many times I would've been killed. You put me there. So you die today, old man."
Dumbledore replied, "No, my boy, today you shall be spanked. Spanked now."
The ropes all about Dumbledore vanished, without him speaking words or waving the wand that the ropes had held in place. Dumbledore now was free to act against Harry.
Dumbledore shifted his stance to again face Harry, and Sirius saw that gone was the kindly-grandfather face, gone was the disappointed-grandfather face. Now Dumbledore wore the expression that Lucius Malfoy had worn whenever Lucius had felt disrespected: homicidal fury.
Dumbledore spoke no incantation and made no wand-movement, but suddenly Harry's wand flew into the old man's hand.
Yet disarmed Harry showed no worry.
Dumbledore snarled, "I am told the Prophecy is fulfilled. If so, Harry my boy, you no longer are needed. But if I am right and Tom still is alive, I am sure I can handle him—after I deal with Sirius and Remus."
Dumbledore glanced at Sirius's left hand, undoubtedly confirming the presence of the Black Head of House ring there. After Dumbledore confirmed that Sirius could not be mind-whammied, suddenly—
—the old man pointed his wand at Remus's head. Dumbledore spoke the words quickly: "Lupinotuum, verba mea obedite." Werewolf, obey my words. "Remus, Killing-Curse Harry Potter."
Dumbledore then incanted, "Stupefy."
"Moony, no!" Sirius yelled, even as Sirius dodged Dumbledore's Stunner.
But blank-faced Remus was not listening to Sirius. With werewolf quickness, Remus spun in place to face Harry and brought his wand up. "AVADA KEDAVRA," Remus incanted—
—As Dumbledore smiled.
Sirius saw Harry turn to face halfway between Remus's direction and Dumbledore's direction.
Then a transparent shield appeared in front of Harry. But this shield was not blue, like the shield of a minute ago; this shield was pinkish-purple. Magenta, Lily would have called it.
The magenta shield barely had time to form before Remus's Killing Curse hit the shield. Then the Killing Curse bounced.
The reflected Killing Curse raced straight for Dumbledore. Who dropped limp to the floor—still with a self-satisfied, triumphant smile on his face.
Dumbledore's bumpy wand fell to the floor with a clatter.
Suddenly there were loud noises coming from the back door. "AURORS! WANDS DOWN!"
At the same time, angry Remus yelled, "That bearded, bloviating berk mind-whammied me!"
Amelia Bones handed Harry's wand back to the boy, after discovering that the six most recent spells on the wand were all first-year spells. Harry Potter promptly shoved his wand into the waistband of his trousers.
Then Amelia picked up Dumbledore's bumpy wand to drop it into an evidence bag. Amelia got a surprise when her hand, however briefly, wrapped round the handle of Dumbledore's wand.
Amelia paused only a few seconds—tempted, then resisting the temptation—before dropping the bumpy wand into the evidence bag. Amelia then put a special, special sealing spell on the evidence bag, so that only she or a future DMLE Director could unseal this bag.
Amelia knew that since Dumbledore never would be brought to trial, this evidence bag, and the Elder Wand inside this evidence bag, would languish unseen in the Evidence Room for one hundred years, before being routinely destroyed.
Meanwhile, Sirius was asking, "What the bloody hell just happened? The Killing Curse—mmph!"
Harry had slapped his hand over Sirius's mouth.
Then Harry drew his wand from his waistband and pointed the wand at the ceiling.
Speaking lowly, so that the Aurors in the Granger house would not overhear, Harry said—
"In April of last year, Amelia Bones promised that she wouldn't tell anyone who didn't already know, the truth about how Lucius Malfoy died. I ask Magic to change her promise so that it's okay if she tells the truth to Sirius, Remus and Hermione. The End."
Light flashed in the room, then Harry restowed his wand.
Sirius said, now looking even more confused, "I say again, what the bloody hell just happened? And what does Lucius Malfoy have to do with it?"
Harry frog-marched Sirius, Remus and Amelia into the Granger kitchen. Then Harry asked Amelia, "Would you put up a super-duper silencing spell, please?"
Amelia did, then Harry looked at the three adults.
"What I did to Lucius Malfoy, it looks like I'd already done to Voldy—the pinkish-purple shield that reflected the green killing-spell. Tonight, Dumbledore mind-whammied Remus to cast the green killing-spell on me, but I brought up my pinkish-purple shield. My pinkish-purple shield was angled so that the bouncing green spell would hit Dumbledore. Dumbledore was hit by the spell, he died."
Sirius grinned. "My godson Harry James Potter, the Boy Who Lived Three Times!"
The Aurors soon left without arresting anyone, even though Remus had cast the Killing Curse at Harry. The Aurors took the corpse of Dumbledore with them.
Amelia, before she left, murmured to Sirius and Remus, "We'll talk later."
Then Sirius and Remus cast Reparo on the wall that Harry five times had slammed Dumbledore against.
Next, Harry's house-elves brought the Grangers home. Hermione ran to Harry and gave him a NEWT-level Hermy-hug.
This was the official Auror report about that night—
.
INCIDENT: Untimely death
DATE/TIME OF INCIDENT: 1 September 1991, 9.15pm
PLACE OF INCIDENT: omitted (it's a Muggle house)
VICTIM(S): Albus PWB Dumbledore (110)
ARRESTEE(S): None (I would've arrested Dumbledore if he weren't already dead)
WITNESSES: Sirius O Black (31), Remus J Lupin (31), Harry J Potter (11)
DESCRIPTION OF INCIDENT: Dumbledore tried to murder Harry J Potter, and his plan backfired spectacularly. (Details omitted.)
ARRESTING AUROR'S NAME/RANK: Amelia Susan Bones, Director of the DMLE
Soon afterwards
Auror First Class Hestia Jones asked to speak to Amelia in her office. As soon as the door was shut, and Auror Jones had put up anti-listening charms, the red-robed young woman said, "Ma'am, I've been a fool."
"Go on," Amelia said.
"I was in the Dursleys house soon after Malfoy was killed there. I know the truth how Malfoy died. I know what an awful life Harry Potter led after Dumbledore put the boy there. When you arrested Dumbledore, Dumbledore deserved to be arrested, because the Boy Who Lived was starved."
"Dumbledore deserved far more than what he got," Amelia said. "But go on."
"Soon after Dumbledore got out of Azkaban, he ran into me. At the time I thought it was an accident. You know he's good with words, right?"
Dreading the answer, Amelia asked, "What did Dumbledore say to you?"
"That Sirius Black was Harry's guardian, but this wasn't good for Harry because Black was mad from years of Dementor exposure. The two of them, Black and Potter, were hiding somewhere in Diagon Alley or in Hogsmeade, and Dumbledore needed Mundungus Fletcher and me to find them. Dumbledore told me he had learnt his lesson, and this time he would put Harry with a family that was good for him. Ma'am, when Dumbledore talked, it all sounded believable."
"I'm not surprised," Amelia said. "The man does have a silver tongue." And a willingness to use Confundus Charms, according to rumour, Amelia mentally added. "Did you ever find Black and Potter?"
"They visited Fortescue's once in September of last year, then they vanished again. And ma'am, I'm glad I wasn't able to tell Dumbledore, 'Harry Potter is at such-and-such place.' " The young woman shuddered.
"Why glad?"
"Wherever Sirius Black and Harry Potter were, Sunday night, somehow Dumbledore found them. Rumours in the"—Auror—"bullpen say that Dumbledore came there to kidnap Harry Potter and to imprison him in Hogwarts. He mentioned no such plans to me! Anyway, soon after Dumbledore arrived at that place where Black and Potter were, Dumbledore died. None of the investigating Aurors, including you, are saying anything about how he died, or who might have caused his death."
Amelia asked, "What do the bullpen rumours say?"
"There aren't any rumours, ma'am. Not one rumour. Someone made a joke that the ghost of Gellert Grindelwald showed up and strangled Dumbledore with his own beard, but that's all I've heard. I've a theory, but you're the only person who'll ever hear it."
"The theory being...?"
"That Harry Potter did to Dumbledore what he did to You Know Who and to Malfoy, and Harry Potter is the Boy Who Lived Thrice."
"I'm pleased you have wisdom enough to realise you shouldn't blather this theory about. Because now, Auror Jones, I order you to tell no one your theory."
"Yes, ma'am, I obey. Since it's just the two of us here, will you please tell me whether my theory is correct?"
For a while, Amelia was silent. Then she said, "Dumbledore did not cast the Killing Curse. But someone else did, on Dumbledore's order, and Harry Potter reflected the Killing Curse so it hit Dumbledore. Dumbledore, like Voldemort and Malfoy, was a would-be murderer who got what he deserved."
"Thank you for confiding this to me, ma'am," Hestia Jones said. "Ma'am, If Black and Potter had been living in Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade, and Dumbledore had kidnapped Harry Potter because of something I'd told the old man, I'd be an accessory to kidnapping! Should I hand over my badge and blue wand?"
"No," Amelia said. "But if Dumbledore were alive now, even if no kidnapping happened, you'd be frozen out of promotions for a while."
"Like Shacklebolt."
Amelia nodded. "Like Senior Auror Shacklebolt. But unlike him, you realised your mistake and admitted it before I called you on it. But the main reason your honesty won't hurt your career is that silver-tongued Dumbledore is dead and beginning to stink. You won't make that mistake again!"
Auror Jones sighed in relief. "Thank you, ma'am."
The meeting ended then. But whilst Auror Jones was removing her anti-listening charms, Amelia said to her, "I'll repeat something you were told in the Auror Academy. When you're an Auror—it's the same truth whether you're an Auror Second Class, fresh from the Academy, or you're the Director of the DMLE: Everyone who talks to you, wants you to do something for them. By 'everyone,' I include other Aurors. Anyway, most people who talk to you, want from you what you think they want from you—to solve a crime that they were the victim of, for instance.
"But some people who talk to you, want you to break the law to their benefit, even if this ruins your career. And by 'some people,' I include other Aurors. If another Auror says something to you that sounds dodgy, jump the chain of command, if need be, and tell me about it."
Auror Jones nodded.
Amelia continued, "But going back to Dumbledore—if you'd been arrested as an accessory to kidnapping and had been tossed in a holding cell, bound for Azkaban and with your Auror career destroyed, Dumbledore's conscience wouldn't have bothered him one wee bit. Blah-blah, 'Greater Good,' Remember this in the future."
"Yes, ma'am, I'll definitely remember."
"Now, before you do anything else, I the Director of the DMLE order you to go see Healer Malkin," the DMLE Healer. "I want you to get an OPCC&I scan," a scan for mind-whammies. "Only Merlin knows what sorts of mind-whammies Dumbledore left in your brain."
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is the first of my stories in which Harry tries to kill Dumbledore and Dumbledore tries to kill Harry.
In "Hermione's Prophecy," Dumbledore intended to kill Harry, but Harry intended only to avenge a nasty injury to Hermione that Dumbledore had caused. Harry won the duel but did not kill Dumbledore.
So why is Harry's attitude different here?
In canon, before Harry even steps into the Great Hall, he's read his Hogwarts letter (which lists Dumbledore's titles and accomplishments), and has read Dumbledore's Chocolate Frog card (which lists more Dumbledore accomplishments). Throughout the series, whenever Harry and Dumbledore speak together, Dumbledore acts like a kindly grandfather (which is helped by his long beard). Dumbledore never says anything like a Bond-villain soliloquy; the evil motives of fanfic-Dumbledore must be inferred in the case of canon-Dumbledore.
In this story, I do not show whether Harry even sees his Hogwarts Letter that arrives at the end of Chapter 12. Harry never sees Dumbledore's Chocolate Frog card or walks through any part of Hogwarts whilst Dumbledore is Headmaster. This Harry has no reason, or little reason, to feel awe towards this Dumbledore.
On the other hand, this Harry knows this Dumbledore as the wizard who sent Harry to live in an almost-deadly house of horrors, and who never checked up on Harry in eight and an half years. So I can believe that Harry's attitude, when Dumbledore enters the Granger house uninvited, would be I've politely asked you twice to leave and you refuse to leave. It looks like my only remaining choice is to kill you. I'm more than okay with this, old man.