Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything to do with the franchise.
A/N: First of all a big thank you to Cam, for sending me a copy of my King Of Dementor work. Secondly a big thank you to all my loyal readers, who have taken the time to read and review my work. All of your support is appreciated. This Chapter we will see just how far Dumbledore is willing to go for power. I am also planning to bring in a concept I used for one of my other stories for the next few chapters. A way to bring Harry and Rose up to speed. I will be utilizing the time bubble mechanic I used in Heir of Pendragon. This means the Greengrass home will be stuck in a time bubble, allowing Iris and Clyde to help Harry and Rose. (one day outside the time bubble, will equal 1 year inside.)
Hogwart School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Albus Dumbledore Headmaster of Hogwarts witchcraft and Wizardry, slayer of the Dark Lord Grindelwald, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and leader of the light smiled down on the student list. Two names stood out for him Harry Potter and Rose Potter. Harry because he was the boy-who-lived, and Rose, well to be quite honest Dumbledore didn't care about the girl. But due to their blasted mother, neither could be separated, so if he wanted Harry then Rose would have to come along too.
While the boy and girl had been at their relatives, Dumbledore had time to scheme and prepared. He wanted Rose to influence Harry as little as possible, and so had decided to split them up at the Sorting. Long as the twins were in the same building then separating them would cause no harm. It would also give him the opportunity to take control of the boy's life. He would lead the boy to his death and then he would sweep in and take the down Voldemort, in doing so he will be revered throughout the magical world as the only Light Lord who had defeated two Dark Lords. Not even a feat Merlin could say he had done. He would have completed his goal sooner had it not been for his mistake in underestimating one of his students. A boy by the name of Tom Marvalo Riddle, also known as Lord Voldemort. Dumbledore had originally planned to make Tom the perfect Dark Lord. Until the boy had slipped from his grasp.
Tom was an orphan, his mother had died in childbirth, and when his father realized that he had been tricked with love potion he refused to raise his son. His father disgusted about falling in love with a witch, then took his own life. Tom was dumped in a muggle orphanage where he was abused by others and shut away from the world. However, Tom didn't sit around being idle once he had learned that he had powers, he terrorized his fellow Orphans and the matrons. They didn't know what to do with the boy. As a Powerful Wizard, the boy received his Hogwarts Letter.
At the time Dumbledore had been nothing but a simple Professor of Transfigurations as the headmaster at the time was Headmaster Dippet. The boy refused to reply to his letter so it was left to good old Dumbledore to visit and convince the child to attend. Which he did and Tom grew up to be a powerful wizard who loved to delve into the dark arts. Sometime during the years that followed. Tom had learned that he was descended from Salazar Slytherin, and had discovered the fabled Chamber of Secrets where he had let loose a Basilisk on the school. He like Salazar believed those who were not purebloods were unworthy and he targeted those who were not with the basilisk. that was until eventually one of the mudbloods had been killed. After the death, Dumbledore had intervened. He knew who was responsible but Tom had covered his tracks by accusing a young Hagrid that one of his pet spiders had killed the girl. Tom knowing that he was going to be watched more closely sealed the chamber.
Seeing the cunning and ambition of the boy made Dumbledore take him as an apprentice, but Dumbeldore had a dark future planned for the boy. He would become his pawn and second Dark Lord. That was of course until the boy started to self-study. He came across a branch of Magic that even the great Dumbledore wouldn't touch. The boy had discovered the secret to immortality through splitting his soul and storing the pieces in various items called Horcruxes. Dumbledore knew then that killing the boy wouldn't be so easy.
Once Tom left the school he started his conquest of the wizarding world by leading a group of followers he had befriended at school. He called them Death eater, soon their numbers grew and the wizarding world found itself at War. The boy created a name that he knew would strike fear into every man, woman, and child. Voldemort. With Dumbledore plans in tatters, he had no choice but to take up the banner of Lord of Light and lead those who refused to bow down to Tom against him and his followers. It seemed like the war would last forever however on a cold January night in the year 1980 at Prophecy was revealed to him.
The Prophecy revealed that one would rise up against Tom and defeat him. The one destined to defeat Tom would be born at the end of the seventh month, and to parents who had defied the Dark Lord three times. This child would have powers that the Dark Lord knew not. And the Dark Lord would mark the child as his equal. and either must die at the hand of the other and neither could live while the other survived. Dumbledore knew the exact meaning of that part of the prophecy, while Tom had his Horcruxes he was immortal. He also had a good idea about the last part. and he intended to see it come to fruition.
Just as the Prophecy had predicted two boys born to magical powerful families had been born at the end of July. Neville Longbottom, on the 30th of July and Harry potter born on the 31st of July alongside his sister Rose Potter. What made the matter more interesting was both sets of parents were members of the Order of the Pheonix, a group that he himself had created to combat Tom and his death eaters. Dumbledore didn't know which boy was the chosen one, however, he assumed Tom being Half-blood would target another half-blood. Harry was just that. A Pureblood father and a mudblood mother.
Dumbledore knew he had to force a confrontation between Harry and Tom, so he devised a scheme. He would convince the Potters to leave the wards of Potter Manor, and ask them to hide in a smaller property. He would then cast the fidelus charm and make one of the Potter's friends secret keeper. One who could easily be reached by Tom and his followers. Dumbledore already knew Tom had heard part of the prophecy. So Dumbledore carried out his plan he used a confundus charm on the Potters making them leave their home. He cast the fidelus charm on their home and selected Peter Pettigrew as their secret keeper. Someone Dumbledore knew who already carried the Dark Mark. Now he just had to wait.
It was a cold dark evening on the 28th of October 1981, that things started to move. Dumbledore had met a former student of his called Severus Snape. It had been Snape who had heard part of the prophecy and had then told Tom. However now the man was pleading with Dumbledore. Snape had been in love with Lily Evans who had gone on to become Lady Potter. He had been informed that the Dark Lord would target both children on the 31st of October 1981. Snape had asked the Dark Lord not to harm Lily but Severus didn't trust him. In return for saving Lily's life, Severus was prepared to become his spy within Tom's ranks for life. Both men had sworn an oath, but Dumbledore had worded it cleverly so that he didn't actually have to save Lily.
Dumbledore smiled at seeing a broken Severus on the night of the Potter's murder, he had just dropped off the twins. Snape hated him, but because of the oath he had sworn, he could do very little except play as his bitch. Dumbledore had thrown the man a bone though, he would stick up for him, and make sure the man was never sent to Azkaban. In return, Snape would work as a Professor at the school teaching Potions.
It had been nine years since he had left the twins on the doorstep of their relatives. Dumbledore had hoped that this had been long enough to leave both twins broken and meek, easy lapdogs for him to control. The Potters were a very important family in the magical world not just because of their wealth but their political power too. Dumbledore at the minute held Proxy over both Potter and Black votes, which gave him enough votes to see a bill passed or rejected. He would make sure Harry knew nothing of this, just in case this caused a problem in his upcoming plans.
Dumbledore smiled thinking of his excellent plan in forcing Sirius away from the twins. The dumb mutt had got himself caught after cornering Peter. Dumbledore had then used his influence to make sure Sirius could never tell anyone of what had happened. He had sent him straight to Azkaban, at least now he was out-of-the-way for good. Dumbledore used a quick tempus spell to check the time with his wand. He was surprised how late it was. Minerva should have been back by now. Dumbledore had not wanted Minerva taking the twins for their school supplies, he felt she had been too close to Lily and James, and no doubt would try to be a grandmother figure to both twins. She had already insisted on a number of occasions for him to pay a visit to the Dursley to make sure the twins were being looked after, and to stop the old bag complaining Dumbledore had promised her he would. Of course, he never did.
Albus felt his ward tripped it seems Minerva had finally returned. He used his fake smile and the fake little twinkle in his eye. He heard the door as it was knocked. "Enter" Albus was standing from his chair ready to greet his deputy's head "Welcome back Minerva, I trust you had a lovely time, and both twins are okay?" The twinkle in the Dumbledores eyes was bright as ever. However, his face slowly started to change as he noticed Minerva was looking straight at him, hands-on-hips. this was never a good sign it always meant the old bag was about to shout at him about something.
"How Could you! How could you let those poor children stay in that environment! You promised me that you would watch out for them. You gave me your word Albus! I was horrified when I saw the twins today. clothes three times the size of them, dirt, grime all over their clothes. both skin and bones. while the fat muggle could be mistaken for a bloody whale! How could you!"
Albus frowned, this is exactly why he didn't want Minerva taking the twins to the alley. She was too close to Lily and James and already had a soft spot for the twins, so she would immediately notice if they had suffered a hard life. Dumbledore had wanted Hagrid to take them, the half-giant was so dumb that he wouldn't have even noticed the small little details Minerva had. Now though he needed to think about damage control, he had to try to pacify the screaming Banshee.
"Minerva I assure you both twins have come to no harm in that house. True they may have had to live a hard life, but what do you expect from a muggle family who the main breadwinner brings home so little money. The house is only small so it was more than likely the twins would have second-hand clothes. he had hoped that had helped to calm her boy was he wrong.
Minerva stalked towards the headmaster's desk. "Second-hand clothes you say, yet according to the Goblins you were paying those muggles money, so they could provide for Harry and Rose. From what was withdrawn, it would have been more than enough to see them clothed and feed correctly. So Albus tell me now, what the money was being used for. If not for Harry and Rose's upkeep."
This had the headmaster confused, what money? just where had Minerva leaned all this. He had paid Axehandle handsomely to keep everything on the down-low "Excuse me Professor but could you just explain that statement. I wasn't aware that the Dursley had received any money, what made you come to that conclusion?" Albus needed to know just how big the leak was so that if need be he could use damage control to smooth everything over, however from the dark smirk his deputy was giving him, that was going to be of little use to him.
Minerva for the first time in her life saw fear and confusion on those blue eyes. She was going to enjoy this, make the old fool sweat. "The Director at Gringotts informed me that you had been making some rather large withdrawals from Potter's vault while acting like the twins' magical guardian. He had assumed the money had been used on the twins, however, when he saw them and the state they were in, he decided that you must have used the money for something else. He did say he would be investigating personally." Minerva smirked at the horror now written all over the old man's face. If it was one thing you never did, was steal or mislead a Goblin."
Dumbledore lounged back in his chair, concern written all over his face, he needed to take control of this now. how had Minerva seen the director? She had both vault keys all she had to do was hand them over to Axehandle and he would have taken the twins down to their vaults. Without even worrying the director of their well being.
"Minerva could you please tell me why you took it upon yourself to see the director when I gave you direct instructions to just see Axehandle. He would have taken the twins straight to their vaults and that would have been the end of it."
Minerva smiled, it seems Dumbledore plan had hit a little hitch, she was going to take great pleasure in pointing this out. "Well Albus, I did exactly what you told me to. I went into the bank, walked to the center counter and presented the Goblin on duty with both Harry and Rose's keys. However the Goblin on duty was not Axehandle and he immediately noticed the state of both twins, also the fact that their keys were not on them, which as you know is a serious offense in the eyes of the Goblin, especially when the children in question are the offspring of the Potter family. He took both keys and then told us that he needed to speak to the director. So we spoke to him, and he himself was disgusted with how the twins were presented and ordered that they were taken to the infirmary and treated for Malnutrition and to make sure they had suffered no other abuse, at the hand of those awful muggles."
Dumbledore was not pleased, Axehandle had promised that he would be on duty today. Now because he was not, Dumbledore had the Goblins investigating and taking an interest in the twins, this would not do. However, Dumbledore kept his anger in check, after all, he didn't want to alarm Minerva anymore than she already was. "I see, did anything else happened?"
Minerva took a seat. "Well, both twins bumped into their Maternal Godmother Iris Greengrass. As you can imagine when she discovered what had happened to her godchildren she wasn't amused. She also mentioned that Lord Greengrass would be looking into the matter urgently. The twins took a liking to Iris right away and asked if they could spend the rest of the holiday with her and the Greengrass family. Of course, I verified her claim through Gringotts first. Through an inheritance ritual, it was revealed that she was the Godmother of both Harry and Rose. Both twins are also now aware of their heritage Here is the parchment, stamped by Gringotts."
Dumbledore snatched the paper out of the hands of Minerva, his blood was boiling, that Banshee had ruined everything. He had intended to keep Harry ignorant of his inheritance, but now the boy knew. What was, worse both twins now have met their Godmother. The thought that Lord Greengrass would now be looking into his actions just made it worse.
Minerva smiled on the inside, "So naturally I didn't want the twins going back to those awful muggles, so I allowed Iris to take both twins home with her. She has promised me that she would complete their school shopping tomorrow."
Dumbledore rose from his chair, the twinkle now truly gone. "You had no right to make that decision Minerva! I am the twins' Magical guardian, I will decide what is best for their well being. You're dismissed I need to repair the damage that you have done today"
Minerva had been surprised by the outburst. It made her wondered if he had planned for the twins to suffer at the hands of their relatives, to make sure neither Harry or Rose knew anything about the magical world or their parents until he decided otherwise, After all, he had not visited them and certainly did not care about the conditions they were living in. Minerva decided she would keep a close eye on Dumbledore, something just wasn't right about the old man. For years she had followed his lead without question, but seeing the state of both Rose and Harry, after he had made a promise to check upon them, and how he was reacting now, was really making the professor doubt that Dumbledore had twins' best interests at heart.
Minerva stood up and turned to leave the office. "I will take my leave now Dumbledore, Harry and Rose had every right to go with Iris, after all, she is their Godmother.£ Minerva closed the door leaving the Dumbledore to try come up with a countermeasure to this setback. He needed to get the twins away from the Greengrass family before his entire plan unraveled before his eyes.