Albus Dumbledore had yet to sleep since his incendiary visit to the Potters the previous night. After notifying the ministry that his instruments had detected Voldemort in Godric's Hollow, his time over the rest of the evening was spent trying to ascertain what exactly had happened to Voldemort. Was he truly dead, or had some other dark magic interfered? He was certain the ministry would have the results of their investigations for him shortly, so maybe they would have more information for him. As if responding to his thoughts, a ministry owl swooped in his office window with a summons from Minister Millicent Bagnold, a former student of his. Rising, he walked to his office fireplace, gathered some floo powder, and stepped into the green flames.
The lobby was bustling with activity even though it was exhaustingly early in the morning. An uncountable number of reporters were scurrying about, hoping to get the next big scoop for this morning's paper, while cadres of aurors were going in and out of the floos, dodging around the reporters. Several squads of obliviators in their pajamas were taking portkeys, no doubt trying to maintain the statute of secrecy in Godric's Hollow. Several of the reporters eyed Albus as he stepped from the floo, clearly debating accosting him for information, but a quick glare from the man many of them still thought of as "Headmaster," and they all went back to chasing the aurors.
Passing the reception desk, Albus headed to the minister's office. As the Chief Warlock, he was magically keyed into all of the protections, which made entering the ministry less of a chore since he could avoid the hours-long screening process. Upon reaching the office, Dumbledore knocked and entered, finding Barty Crouch and Minister Bagnold waiting for him.
"Professor Dumbledore! Please, have a seat." Albus internally chuckled. Even though she had become the youngest minister for magic in the past three hundred years, Millicent had yet to get out of the habit of addressing him as "Professor Dumbledore." Millicent reached for the elegant china tea set on the corner of her desk as Albus sat down. After pouring everyone a cup and setting the sugar bowl and cream pitcher within easy reach, Millicent activated the privacy wards around the office and nodded to Barty. Albus steepled his fingers and waited to be filled in on the results.
Barty Crouch poured a little milk into his tea to help cool it before starting his report. "My aurors have been at Godric's Hollow since your owl, and they've put together a rough sequence of events. We definitely found traces of You-Know-Who's magic at the scene along with Auror Black's, perhaps explaining how You-Know-Who made it through the Fidelius charm. As best we can tell from the evidence the aurors have put together, You-Know-Who arrived and blasted down the front door before dueling and killing Auror Potter in the atrium. Then he ambushed Lily Potter, likely his original target due to her red hair, on her way up the stairs to the nursery. Not wanting to leave loose ends, he advanced to the nursery, where he found a visiting neighbor, Bathilda Bagshot, who was probably trying to escape with the Potter child. She was quickly dispatched as well, possibly by Auror Black, since only magic was found in the second story of the house. After that, though, we don't have many clues since the fire that started soon afterward consumed everything in the nursery."
The conversation paused as everyone sipped at their tea. Barty seemed satisfied with just a bit of milk in his tea, but Albus struggled not to pull a face at the taste of his. As Barty and Millicent watched, he put a few cubes of sugar into his tiny china cup, almost causing it to overflow as he stirred. Both hide small grins behind their tea cups at the Professor's legendary sweet tooth before Barty continued his summary of the investigation.
"Since most of the physical evidence on the upper level of the Potter's cottage was destroyed, we asked our scrying division to take a look. Their report is where things get really interesting. While scrying isn't an exact magic, they keep getting flashes of an Avada Kedavra striking a runic ward before rebounding onto the caster, who they claim is You-Know-Who. A massive explosion follows this, and then nothing. When the aurors looked for evidence of runes in the room, the only items they found were the remains of a set of runic building blocks; the same kind thousands of children across magical Britain grow up playing with. If these blocks were used to create a ward, it would explain why You-Know-Who didn't notice anything amiss, but such a simple toy shouldn't be able to hold enough magic to create such a powerful shield. Most perplexing."
Albus carefully stored away what Barty had said, thankful that the scryers hadn't seen his meddling; however, the runic ward the scryers mentioned was interesting. It would have to be extremely strong to interfere with an Avada Kedavra. In fact, it would likely take most of the magical energy of a powerful adult wizard to create something like that, probably leaving them a squib. Since both of Harry's parents had been dead before Voldemort had turned his attention to the boy, the conundrum of how he had survived remained.
After giving him a few moments to digest the news, Millicent continued the conversation, "That puzzle aside, let's move on to the main reason we called you here, Professor. Our aurors arrived on the scene soon after you notified us last night, and so far, we've managed to keep the situation under wraps. Our main worry is about You-Know-Who and the remaining Death Eaters. If the scryers are wrong, then it means You-Know-Who has gone to ground which isn't good news. If the scryers are right, once the Death Eaters figure out that their leader is gone..." Millicent trailed off.
Dumbledore had already anticipated this problem, "You are worried about what they might do to retaliate."
"Exactly. We could use your advice and resources to help us round up as many of the Death Eaters as quickly as possible, whilst minimizing the damages."
"Let's get to business then. I've been working on a few plans since my instruments informed me of Voldemort's disappearance last night." He continued on in spite of the flinches, "The first thing that we have to do is provide a safe house for as many of the prominent red-heads as we can..."
Sometime later, Dumbledore emerged from the Minister's office. Those hours of planning had taken a lot out of him, but they now had a press release and a plan to handle the next few days. It was certainly better than if the ministry was ignoring him or, even worse, looking for advice from someone like Lucius Malfoy. As he was reaching into his robes for a pepper-up potion, he saw the head of the auror office rushing down the halls.
"Professor Dumbledore, sir! It's awful news! We have just found Auror Black, and he's gone insane and started killing muggles!"
Dumbledore sighed and turned back to the minister's office with the auror. It seems as though he would be here for a while yet.
~~~~~~~~~~ Y ~~~~~~~~~
Much later that morning, Bathilda was roused from her magically exhausted sleep by a loudly crying baby. Slowly overcoming the fog of sleep, she got out of bed and walked over to Harry, who was now in an extraordinarily ornate crib that Albus must have transfigured. He could be such a show-off. Picking up the child, she rocked the boy in an attempt to quiet him, but he was inconsolable. Having never had any children of her own, she didn't know many spells that could help. Trying the only thing she could think of, she conjured a new diaper for the child and changed him out of the old one, but Harry's crying persisted. She was at a loss. She didn't have any supplies to feed him, and if he was missing his parents, well… She stopped her thoughts before she fully recalled the memories she was struggling to repress.
Bathilda hated to do it, but she put him back to sleep with another somnus charm. It wouldn't do to have someone hear a baby crying in the headmaster's suite and come investigate. When Albus returned, they would have to figure out how to keep the boy healthy while they found a home for him. She was supposed to be dead and was far too noticeable with her poor verbiage for a glamour to help. Albus couldn't blend into the crowd at Diagon Alley if he tried, and people would question why in Merlin's name he was suddenly buying baby supplies. The muggle world was also not an option, as neither of them were familiar with it and would surely draw too much attention to themselves.
Deciding to be useful rather than worrying about problems she couldn't solve, Bathilda wandered around looking for the Hogwarts student registry. She knew what it looked like, having seen it a couple of times during her tenure at Hogwarts, so it didn't take her long to find it on one of Albus' shelves next to a bowl of another strange, muggle candy that he was so fond of. Really, she wondered how he had any teeth left.
Setting the book down on Albus' desk, she flipped through until she found Harry's year. She frowned a bit at how small it was compared to past years, but during the past few dangerous years, many young couples either died or decided to put off having children until safer times. Since the names weren't sorted by blood status, she looked at the names of the parents. Many of them she recognized as old pureblood families: Longbottom, Malfoy, Greengrass. Some she knew from the paper or the wireless: Davis, Abbot, Bones, Boot. Reaching the bottom of the list, she copied down the six sets of parents she didn't recognize.
She started to flip backward through the book, hoping to cross off a few more names from her list. Looking through earlier years, she found the relatives for four of the names, leaving her with two remaining possibilities in Harry's year: Justin Finch-Fletchley and Hermione Granger. She noted down the addresses, and returned the book to its shelf, sneaking one of the candies from a nearby bowl. Enjoying the flavor, she settled down to wait for Albus to return.
She didn't have to wait long before a tired-looking Albus stepped through the fireplace. He walked over to his desk and sat heavily in his chair. "Why were you so tired?" she inquired.
"Sirius Black. Not only did he betray the Potters to Voldemort, but this morning he was found at the scene of a horrible massacre. He killed twelve muggles, Bathilda. Not only that, but he also killed Peter Pettigrew. A man who had been a close friend for most of his life, was reduced to little more than a finger. Sirius did nothing but laugh maniacally as the aurors took him away. I imagine he'll be sent directly to Azkaban, as Barty hasn't been worrying much about due process these days. Good riddance, I say."
"He was always such a hot-head boy, but I never think he would betrayed James." Bathilda sighed, before moving on, "I am finding all of the Muggleborns that are Harry's age. I find only two in the registry." Bathilda handed him the list. "We also need to decided what we are going to done with Harry. We don't have any supplies to fed him, and I couldn't just keep putting him back to sleep."
Albus sighed and pinched his nose tiredly, "Just a moment, Professor." He reached into one of his many pockets, pulled out a vial of pepper-up potion, and imbibed it quickly, wincing at the taste. Soon, the familiar steam came from his ears, and, with a bit more life in his eyes, he turned and glanced over the list. He was concerned with how short it was. If he stuck to the plan they discussed the night before, they only had two chances to find a family to take Harry, and he didn't like those odds. He might have to use methods some might find questionable to ensure one of them would take Harry and keep him safe.
Turning back to Bathilda, he answered her query, "I think we should visit these two families this morning. If one of them is willing to take Harry, then they can start looking after him, solving both our problems. Who should we visit first?" He rose from behind his desk, gathered up some of the papers that he had arranged while plotting last night, and put them into yet another pocket.
"Finch-Fletchleys are first on the list, so let's gone there." Bathilda also rose and walked over to Dumbledore. "How be we get there?"
Albus chuckled as he remembered what his dear friend had written in Hogwarts: A History about apparition not working in the castle. "Being headmaster has its privileges." Albus winked, "I'll open a small hole in the castle wards for our magical signature, and we can apparate in and out from here." Closing his eyes and concentrating for a moment, he adjusted the wards. He then walked over to Harry and cast a more powerful sleeping charm on the child, not wanting him to wake and cry while they were gone. "Alright. Let's be off, then. Hopefully, we'll return with good news for Harry."
Bathilda nodded, and, with a crack, they were gone.