When one individual panics in the spring of 1992, he triggers a cascade of changes to the events of Harry Potter's second year. The results are tragic for Magical Britain.
DISCLAIMER! This Harry Potter story was written for fun. All rights belong to the wonderful lady (JK Rowling) who gave the world Harry Potter to read and enjoy.
~~~*** Author's Note: Children are dying in the Middle East. The world has moments of great pain. I think that's where the darkness in this story originated.
~~~*** CHANGE SCENE
Mental TortureIn his office/cell high above Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore studied the chess board before him. He'd conjured five chess sets rather successfully and proceeded to play against himself, rotating the board and moving to the next game to allow his mind to hide the strategy he'd adopted in the previous game. He kept his copy of Hogwarts, a History, open to the latest chapter he'd finished the previous night, and his personal copy of Potion Secretes (1794 edition).
The wizard spent hours reliving his past accomplishments during the night hours because he found sleep eluded him.
After almost three months of imprisonment, he'd abandoned all theories about who or why he was being confined and once again believed he had been injured.
'I am simply lost in my mind because my body was damaged beyond repair.'
Then the torture began with the delivery of a copy of a magazine – the Quibbler – with his evening meal. Desperate for something new to read, Albus ignored the food to grab the paper and stare at the cover with the photo of Severus Snape's attack on the Basilisk. He read the article that recorded the wizard's blasts against the monster and Snape's death. The next article detailed Minerva's contributions to the fight and death. The photo of the giant spear was fascinating to the old wizard.
'Transfiguring that spear cracked her magical core,' Dumbledore decided. 'Death was a blessing for that brave witch.'
Looking at the third article and picture of the contribution of Hagrid, Dumbledore congratulated himself for keeping Rubeus Hagrid at the school for fifty years as the simple game and gate keeper. He wondered, 'How do I spin that into something I can receive credit?'
Before morning, Dumbledore had convinced himself that the deaths of the staff members would elevate his status.
With his breakfast, Albus received the second magazine that included the contributions and deaths of Sybill Trelawny and Aurora Sinistra, followed by an acknowledgement of the contributions by Filius Flitwick. The half-goblin professor survived the battle by being covered by the bodies of the other professors.
A stack of ten magazines were delivered with supper and Dumbledore read through the photos and names of dead students without any reaction. The elderly wizard kept the magazines in a neat order on his desk so that he could reference them. After five days, he pulled out parchment and quill to record the names of all the students who died. He was interested in which house had suffered the most deaths. And he grimaced when he found the names of Ronald Weasley and Ginevra Weasley.
'Perhaps my solitude is a reward. Molly is distraught and proving she has banshee ancestry somewhere in her ancestry,' Albus concluded.
The wizard found himself relieved when his parchment list of dead students totalled 300 without listing Harry Potter or Neville Longbottom among the dead.
'The prophecy remains in play,' he decided. That night, Dumbledore's dreams were disturbed by visions of Tom Riddle's victories over the Boy-Who-Lived, Hogwarts in flames, and dead students covered by clean white sheets in the Great Hall.
~~~~**** CHANGE
RampageThe next morning, there wasn't a copy of the magazine delivered with his simple meal. While Albus drank his tea and ate his toast with butter and jam, he glimpsed through several editions of the Quibbler and began to worry that Magical Britain had forgotten him.
'I'm not mentioned anywhere,' he fussed. 'The ungrateful peons have already forgotten me.'
Once his breakfast was complete and the tea service, tray and dishes vanished, the morning's Daily Prophet appeared on his desk – Dumbledore's eyes were drawn to the date first – 15 July 1993.
'Three full months,' he grumbled. 'I've been confined…'
His mind raced and the wizard realised he was imprisoned within his tower by someone, and not lost in his mind.
'Who is powerful enough to do this? To control the wards so completely?' he worried.
Then he glimpsed at the headlines and forgot about his state of imprisonment. The Wizengamot without his guidance had just awarded the Order of Merlin First Class to all the professors who died in the Great Hall. Even the half-giant was given the award. And Flitwick was granted an Order of Merlin Second Class.
'No one is supposed to get that award,' Albus complained. 'Now I have to share it with them.'
'At least they're all dead.'
For the first time in several days, the wizard ignored the magazines on his desk and turned his attention to the five chess boards. He blocked out all memory of the games and began analysing the boards as though walking into a tournament with fresh eyes.
In the middle of the afternoon, with three games settled against himself, there was a bell that sounded as tea was delivered. Moving back to his desk, Dumbledore found the tea pot and treats to include lemon biscuits, so he poured the tea and indulged his love of lemon flavoured treats.
After drinking three cups of tea, he suspected the liquid had contained something extra. He lifted the lid and sniffed the remaining fluid and decided his captor had dosed him with a calming potion this afternoon.
The tea service disappeared. After a long moment, a previously unseen copy of the Quibbler with the headline – "The Villains of Hogwarts!"
The photographs of the Rat-man and young handsome Tom Riddle surprised Albus. Then his eyes settled on his photograph – Albus Percival Not-Wulfric Nor-Brian Dumbledore was listed at the third villain.
The once powerful wizard's magic flared out of his core, and he rampaged through his office – the few portraits that remained on the walls were demolished. The mostly empty bookcases were demolished into kindling and scattered about the room. His books were shredded, the copies of the Quibbler listing the names and photos of the dead were blasted into confetti and filled the air.
Albus was about to turn his ire upon the desk in his office when his magical core reminded him that he wasn't a young wizard any longer and he fell backwards in the chair.
Lowering his head into his hands to weep, the elderly wizard cried for a few minutes and then exhausted, fell asleep seated in the chair.
~~~*** CHANGE
ReflectionWhen he woke and managed to stretch his form enough to rise and move about again, Albus found his supper sitting on the desk he'd been contemplating destroying before he fell asleep.
'I need the Elder Wand back,' he decided. 'It would never let me get old like this.'
After eating the meal, Albus returned to the magazine and stared in disbelief that he was named as a 'villain' in the disaster. He snorted and grimaced, 'Equal responsibility? They're blaming me just like Pettigrew and Riddle?'
'Of course, I didn't catch Peter – he was in the castle for almost ten years, and I couldn't reveal that he was here and keep Sirius Black in Azkaban.'
He smirked, 'What will the public think when I reveal that it was Ginevra Weasley who had the diary, and SHE is the one who released the basilisk and killed her classmates?'
Dumbledore didn't think about how making such a statement would confirm his guilt. The young witch was dead.
'What a shame that Peter was caught up in the massacre,' the wizard thought. 'If Peter had escaped, the public would be wondering who and how the basilisk was released.'
He frowned, 'I knew something was loose in the castle, but I didn't know it was a basilisk.'
He kept reading and thought, 'Of course, I left when the beast burst through the door. What would they have done? If they had portkeys, they'd have jumped away too!'
Dumbledore ignored the fact that the staff had succeeded in killing the beast while he decided, 'No one could kill a basilisk not one that was a thousand years old.'
Continuing to read the article, he swore to have words with his brother in his seedy tavern for daring to claim his name wasn't Albus Percival 'Wulfric Brian' Dumbledore. Dumbledore snorted when he read that the ministry admitted he had broken no laws. But he fussed, 'How dare they call me a coward?'
Reading on, he found another objection.
'My gold! How dare they think I owe them my money!' he raged though he managed to contain his temper so that he would not collapse again. 'And every parent has joined this nuisance suit!'
'Ted Tonks – I remember that boy in Hufflepuff, but I don't remember the Proudfoot boy at all.'
Reading the last paragraph about a duelling platform, Albus felt his resentment grow. 'Does anyone think they can defeat me in a duel? I'm the most powerful wizard…'
'And my name…why are they denying 'Wulfric Brian?' he complained.
~~~~**** CHANGE SCENE
ReleaseInvisible elves delivered letters from Lady Hogwarts to the ministry desks of Director Amelia Bones, Head Auror Alastor Moody, and Minister for Magic Ogden. At the Daily Prophet, a similar letter appeared on the desk of Editor Greengrass.
Alastor Moody moved without orders once he read the letter. He left for Hogwarts with a full coven of Aurors and sent Shackleford to update Director Bones.
At Hogwarts, Madam Pomphrey was informed by the head elf that her presence at the castle would no longer be mandated once Albus Dumbledore was 'discharged' by Hogwarts. The elf explained, "The wards be changing once evil lemon whiskers gone."
"Can we still get things from the school using elves?" she asked. "The new school needs many things from the kitchen and library."
"Yeses Madam Poppyseed," the elf replied. "Hoggiewarts wants to help students at new schools with books, dishes, and anythings you needs. There's be lots of potions and medicines youse can take to this new schools."
Poppy paused and then asked, "What's going to happen to the castle?"
The elf paused before she replied, "Lady Hoggiewarts be thinking 'bout different things, but she not decided yet. Maybe different types of school."
Feeling the Aurors arrive at the gates, Poppy rose and asked the elf to pop her to the front door. There the infirmary matron welcomed the Head Auror and his thirteen Aurors to the entry hall.
They had barely entered the room before Poppy announced, "Reporters, the Minister for Magic and Director Bones are coming up the path now too."
~~~*** CHANGE
When he woke that morning and bathed, Albus went to dress and discovered that the only robes available for him were the ones he'd worn that day in April. The robes with the dancing unicorns looked good and after promising himself to block the memory of that day from his mind, he dressed quickly.
"I need an elf," he called out, but none appeared.
Dressed at last, Albus went down the stairs to his desk and chair to find the usual plain breakfast that he sat and consumed without hesitation. All debris from his rampage the previous evening had been cleared. There was nothing in his office but the desk and chair.
After finishing the meal, the wizard didn't feel any effects of potions from the tea so decided he had not been dosed this morning.
When the breakfast dishes vanished, Albus dreaded a boring morning but the door to his office opened. No one appeared in the doorway, so Dumbledore rose, hurried across his office to descend the winding staircase. The hallway was deserted and the gargoyle protecting the doorway appeared to be sleeping or fully converted to stone.
Stopping to listen carefully, Albus couldn't detect any sounds; there were no children laughing or arguing, no professor chiding stragglers, and no elves babbling about dust and dirt.
'Well, it is July,' Dumbledore reasoned. 'The castle is supposed to be empty.'
Walking along the well-known hallway, Dumbledore realized the charms he'd cast on his shoes to be silent had expired – his footsteps echoed back from the stone walls.
A portrait on the wall, Headmaster Armando Dippet shouted disparaging comments about Albus Dumbledore's parentage and intelligence. Dippet's portrait continued, "The worst decision I ever made in my entire life was to hire you as a professor!"
The Grey Lady floated through the wall, moaned, and said, "Never in a thousand years has there been a worse head at Hogwarts! A thousand years!"
Dumbledore thought about retreating to his office to hide but when he turned back, the gargoyle slid into place and sealed the door shut. More ghosts appeared through the walls including Moaning Myrtle who screamed and circled closer to the wizard making him uncomfortable. Peeves the Poltergeist laughed and threw dung bombs at the man – and the shield the wizard cast failed to block the nasty hex from that smeared the foul-smelling substance down one full panel of his robes.
As Albus tried to move forward, the ghosts kept pace with him, chiding him. More voices rose from other portraits as the former headmaster passed their place on the walls.
Armando Dippet followed from portrait frame to the next one, continuing to voice his opinion that Albus Dumbledore should never have been hired at Hogwarts.
The portrait shouted, "You're the reason Tom Riddle went evil! He was dark but dark didn't mean evil until you made that so in everyone's mind! You're the one who was evil from the beginning!"
The abuse continued the entire path down seven sets of stairs that remained frozen in place. When he glanced at the various hallways in every direction, statues or suits of armour blocked any possible escape from the abusive portraits and ghosts.
When the final staircase stood before him, Albus paused and stared; at the bottom of the staircase stood Alastor Moody, numerous Aurors, Amelia Bones, Lord Ogden, and a wizard with a camera and an unknown witch.
He noticed that every Auror, Bones, and Ogden held their wands in the ready position to fire spells. Behind the crowd stood the matron from the infirmary. He wondered, 'Why is Poppy here in summer?'
"Keep your hands where we can see them, Dumbledore!" ordered Moody. "Don't make any sudden moves or say anything."
Of course, Dumbledore could not remain silent as he descended that last set of stairs. He smiled, his eyes twinkling, "Alastor, Amelia! Thank you for rescuing me!"
"Someone confined me to my office since April," Dumbledore continued. "This morning the door opened, and I came out expecting to take up the wards again."
Ogden frowned and looked toward the Aurors, but Alastor motioned for the men and women to hold their spell fire. Amelia Bones stared at the man – she recognized the robes as the same ones he'd worn that day. As he reached the foot of the stairs, Albus turned up the sparkles in front of his eyes and hid his dismay that no one looked him in the eye. There were no smiles to be in his presence.
Suddenly, a young woman dressed in the robes of a thousand years before appeared between Dumbledore and the visitors. She stood with her hands on her hips and hissed, "Albus Dumbledore! All Magical Britain knows you are a coward and spineless!"
The figure waved a hand and a trunk appeared at Dumbledore's feet. "Here are your belongings! Shrink the trunk if you can and depart my halls! Never show your face here again or I will end you with extreme prejudice as the muggles say!"
"Who are you?" Albus asked, confused and willing to show it.
"Dumbledore, she is the Spirit of Hogwarts," Alastor growled. "And I told you to remain silent!"
"This is my castle, and I shall decide…OWE!" shouted Albus and slapped one hand against his left butt cheek.
"Your trunk," Ogden said to move the conversation along.
"Lord Ogden, why are you here?" Dumbledore asked curiously before Amelia Bones cast a silencing spell on the elderly wizard. Protesting the spell by stamping his foot, Dumbledore attempted to turn around and climb the stairs.
Albus was petrified by invisible elves and levitated out the front door. His trunk floated in the air behind him though once beyond the gates, it dropped to the ground along with the prone wizard. The crowd of visitors followed along, the doors of castle closing and locking behind them.
Beyond the gates, the visitors heard the lock flip into place before the entire castle vanished from view. Bones sighed, wondering when or if she would ever see the beautiful castle again. The group waited for Dumbledore to wake naturally and struggle back to his feet.
"Where are we?" he asked.
Alastor pointed toward Hogsmeade and the Forbidden Forest and said, "Look around Mr Dumbledore. We are outside of the wards of…the castle that doesn't desire your presence any longer."
"Ogden, why are you here?" Albus asked again, grasping at any straw.
Alastor stepped closer to Albus, blocking the older wizard's view of the others, and said, "Minister Ogden came to witness your release from confinement by Hogwarts. In April you ran away when the basilisk attacked."
"And?"
"You've been dismissed from all positions," Alastor continued. "But the DMLE has many questions we want to ask you today before you can get on with your life."
"I am headmaster…"
"No, you're not," replied Amelia.
Puffing up, Albus stated, "I am Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot
"No, you're not," stated Ogden.
"I am Supreme Mugwump of the ICW…"
"No, you're not," Alastor told him.
"How did these events happen? I wasn't there!"
Ogden laughed and said, "The world spins without you Mr Dumbledore. Bones, carry on as you see fit. Make certain the Daily Prophet and the Quibbler get all the data."
The minister for Magic and his security team departed via portkey. Amelia Bones instructed Head Auror Moody to transport the person of interest to the DMLE offices for questioning.
Dumbledore was naturally stupefied – unbelieving – what was being said and ordered regarding his person. Alastor Moody grabbed the wand from Dumbledore's hand, ordered another Auror to slap cuffs on the man and transport him to the Ministry for Magic. An Auror shrank the trunk and left with the others for London.
~~~*** CHANGE SCENE
