Part 6

Poppy Pomfrey wept as she finished reading the exposé on Albus Dumbledore. "I know in my heart that it's all true. Albus had us all in thrall to him. He was the puppet master and we were all his puppets," she said. "I knew there was a reason I hated those damned lemon sherbet drops."

"At least the children are safe." Minerva McGonagall said quietly. "The students who had homes to go to went home this morning. Madame Longbottom and some other Noble families have agreed to open their doors to the magical orphans. It's mostly Slytherins and Ravenclaws that have no adults at home now. I'm told the orphans will have goblin wards on them that will report abuse to the DMLE in the event the foster families aren't the upstanding citizens we think they are.

"The non-magical ones we sent to St. Mungo's even though there's nothing they can do. Our society has no place for them. And neither does muggle society."

"What about Potter? You can't have sent him back to those horrible muggles," Pomfrey protested.

"Miss Granger's parents have agreed to let him stay with them until his particular situation is sorted out and the curse breakers no longer need his help to find hidden rooms." McGonagall finally recognized how haggard the Hogwarts' matron looked. "How bad…?"

"Incoming students haven't had their intake medical checks since Albus took over as headmaster. None of the Newbloods received their proper immunizations. I gave Albus full access to medical files that he had no right to, that should have been spelled to be completely confidential. There were listeners in my infirmary! There were injuries and evidence of abuse I was ordered to ignore! Potter wasn't the only one. Severus used to report abuse when he saw it in his snakes. He probably thought I was ignoring his concerns just because they were Slytherin."

"Severus was smarter than that," McGonagall assured her. "I'm sure he had suspicions about what Albus was doing. And I'm sure he would have contacted the DMLE if he'd been allowed. If Albus hadn't made sure none of the rest of us noticed what was going on with the students. The bullying, the hatred between houses.

"The Founders never meant it to be that way. I don't remember it being that way when I was a student. But I remember it being that way when Severus was a student and I remember rewarding James Potter and Sirius Black for being bullies because they were clever about it. I know I never called them out on how mean many of their pranks were."

"Like the Weasley twins got rewarded for being clever, even when their victims didn't think it was just a prank?" Pomfrey asked gently. She took a shaky breath. "It's a wonder I have a mind left after what that bastard did to me. I'm going to need to see a mind healer before I'm allowed to deal with students again."

"We all need time with mind healers and I'm not sure any of us will be allowed to work with students once the dust settles." McGonagall sighed. "Augusta Longbottom is one of the few Hogwarts governors' board members left. She's asked Gringotts to do a full accounting of Hogwarts' finances going back to when Albus was appointed headmaster. Apparently the staff here weren't the only people he charmed into ignoring things that were wrong. She's requested the British Education Department to do a full inquiry. Apparently, on parchment, we have twice as many classes and teachers than we have in reality. And some of the teachers we do have aren't qualified to work here."

"And the wards?"

"Madame Longbottom told me she distinctly recalls signing off on having Gringotts ward masters come out to check the wards before the start of each school year. But they haven't been here since Remus Lupin was a student and possibly even before that."

"At least they're here now," Pomfrey observed.

"Yes. And curse breakers. Apparently Albus undid nearly all of the wards except the light show and the anti-Muggle wards. The wards that turned on yesterday were the oldest ones. The one's the founders cast. And the curse breakers are going through every room they can find to locate and dispose of dark and cursed objects that should never have been in a school."

There was a quick rap on the office door. Bill Weasley, one of the Gringotts' curse breakers, stepped in. "The ward masters have finished and will be leaving right after lunch." He grinned. "Even in times like this Hogwarts sets a fine table. And the elves are anxious to show their appreciation for having the wards back in working condition."

"And any dark or cursed objects?" McGonagall asked.

"We're still working on that, Professor," Weasley admitted. (He wasn't cleared to tell them what his team had already found: Amortensia potions in the 6th & 7th year girls' dorms, lost family heirlooms, whole libraries of books many of which Dumbledore himself had banned and ordered burned, and a horcrux with Tom Riddle's magical signature. Weasley was fairly certain that the horcrux found in the diadem of Ravenclaw would lead the team to more of Riddle's foul creations. Harry Potter himself was scheduled for a checkup with Gringotts' healers to see about removing the soul shard in the lightning scar.)

"Although with the old wards up, Hogwarts herself is opening locked and hidden rooms for us and apparently she's letting the elves know where the dark and cursed objects are so we can get rid of them for her. Not to mention, Harry opened Salazar Slytherin's chamber for us. You know there's a dead basilisk down there? We asked the appraiser to look at it and even in the state it's in, it's probably worth millions. If you ask nicely, Lord Potter might share it with Hogwarts."

"Lord Potter?" McGonagall echoed weakly.

"Apparently his magical guardian never bothered to have Gringotts do an inheritance test on him," Weasley told her. "Or if they did, they never bothered to act on it. And apparently, Harry Potter is also the Lord Black and the Lord Peverell."

"James Potter was one of my lions," McGonagall said in confusion. "And I know he was an only child, so how did I not know that Harry Potter was the Potter heir?"

"Why did none of us realize it?" Pomfrey asked. "Even Severus didn't make the connection."

"I can only speculate that some very strong mind altering magics were used," Weasley told them. "The 'cleansing' that turned on the wards here and turned off the mind altering spells and potion affects all over… well, the stronger the affect, the harder it is to overcome the thought habits."

"And if Potter'd had his heir rings, his mind would have been protected against compulsions and obliviation," Pomfrey added.

"If Albus Dumbledore wasn't already dead, I'd kill him myself," McGonagall spat. "I hope he's rotting in hell."

A/N:

A shout out to FMPTrumpets and their many (freely borrowed) 'Dumbledore is actually evil' ideas.

Let's face it - Dumbledore was NOT a good person.