-8-

"So, Dumbledore gets away with it because of his favours and connections?" Harry summarised in a deep sigh.

In the enchanted mirror, Uncle Isaac sighed, "Yes. He pulled enough strings behind the scenes, so when Holly's memory was shown, the old bastard had enough people claiming the memory of a young witch wasn't enough evidence, and they made it out he and the Potters were being impersonated."

"That's bullshit, and you know it!"

"Harry, don't lash out at me. We're doing the best we can, and you can't deny you're in enough hot water as it is," Isaac cautioned.

Harry scowled.

It had been three days since the Second Task of the Triwizard Tournament. Three days. In that time a lot had happened, and not all of it was good. Harry had been tempted to leave Lily Potter in the lake, uncaring if she actually drowned but the last thing he wanted was to be guilt-tripped and he also didn't want to be arrested for murder even if he had saved Holly and Little Gabrielle Delacour. But what he had done in the lake against the merpeople had been used against him. Seriously, wizards were hypocrites. They were more than happy to deride merpeople and centaurs, taking their human features, and despising them, imposing unfair laws. But at the same time, they were glad to ignore those facts and go after anyone who harmed them.

It was worse in Britain where they followed the top dog, who in this case was Albus Dumbledore.

The truth was you needed to be immensely stupid to not see that Dumbledore was using his actions against the merpeople to put people off him, and it was working. Harry had been destroying Howlers left and right for the last 24 hours. The good news was in a few more months, nobody would care as even Dumbledore's minions would see the loss of a small number of merpeople as inconsequential. Wizards didn't like the magical creatures and beings that surrounded them, even if they were useful and provided wand cores.

His uncles had warned him when they had taken the memory of Holly waking up and finding Dumbledore and Lily and James near her it might not be enough, and thanks to Dumbledore's favours and political connections which he had spent his entire life accumulating, there were so many loopholes the MACUSA, who were already up in arms about the unexpected security breaches in Britain, were having trouble getting justice for Holly. But Dumbledore had enough friends in the MACUSA, and he had to be pulling so many favours there to cause enough problems that would eventually cause the Potters to just give up in the end.

Dumbledore had done the job too well. He had gotten the help of a House Elf to bypass the wards, get Holly and then put the sleeping enchantments on her before putting her at the bottom of the lake, and it was just blind luck Holly had woken up in the first place, but even that little grain of hubris wasn't enough to get the old bastard indicted.

"I don't care what people think about me, Uncle Isaac," Harry said, "but if they think I'm just going to stand back and let them try this again…"

"They probably won't, Harry," Isaac yawned as he had to adjust to the time difference. "Besides, there's good news."

"Oh, do tell?"

Isaac glowered at him. "While we can't make Dumbledore pay for what he did, there are now enough people worried about their homes being broken into, especially in America. Many people are putting wards around their homes so only authorised wizards, witches, house elves, and so on can pass through."

It wasn't much of a silver lining, but it would do. Harry shook his head as he moved on. "I just don't understand them, Uncle Isaac," he sat on the edge of the bed, shaking his head as he thought about them. "Why they abandoned us like that and then play this sick game."

"Your parents?"

Harry scowled at the reminder. "I can understand the need to keep family safe, but I don't understand how dumping a child on a muggle doorstep in the middle of the night is going to help, and I don't see why abandoning another child in the same way and then kidnapping them, and then putting spells on me to make me rescue my so-called mother and leave Holly down in the lake, so Charlus could save her although, from his attitude, he would do the opposite and swim off and leave her there, would mean all would be forgiven while a wedge was driven between me and Holly."

They had hoped to use the remaining signature of the spells placed on him as further evidence, but for some reason, it got lost.

"We don't understand it either, Harry, and we've even contacted Nicholas Flamel, who was Dumbledore's master when Dumbledore left Hogwarts to become an apprentice alchemist for some degree of insight into what would make Dumbledore think such a crackpot idea would work."

Harry frowned, recognising the name of Flamel. He had always believed the legend of the philosopher's stone was nothing more than a fairy tale since he had problems seeing anything capable of creating two magical potions from one central potion would work. "Why would he help?"

"He reached out to us," Isaac said simply, "he was horrified by what Dumbledore had done, and he read between the lines."

The news such a legendary wizard had seen through Dumbledore was a godsend, but it still wasn't enough.

"What did Flamel say?" Harry asked.

"He's said the Dumbledore he knew and taught magic extensively as a young boy and the version operating today are totally different people, although Flamel acknowledged Dumbledore has always had this belief about family always looking out for family, but anyone with sense knows it is not always the way."

"No, it's not. What else?"

"Not much. Flamel is currently helping us to try to find ways of stopping the law from indicting Dumbledore. But it doesn't look too good, Harry. Dumbledore has a lot of power, and too many powerful friends to add to that power. If we do find something, we'd be bound by too much red tape to really do any good."

"I want to leave, Uncle Isaac, I've had enough of Hogwarts, Magical Britain."

"You know you can't, kid," Isaac said. "The fact your name was written in blood and then mixed with the magic of the Goblet of Fire is worrying. We've been keeping in contact with the Unspeakables for months. And what they've told us if you were to leave right now means if you do, your magic could be ripped out of your body, killing you."

Harry was horrified by this news. "Why didn't you tell me? I mean, you did tell me enough that it was dangerous, but not that dangerous."

"Miranda didn't want you scared, Harry. We know how much you love magic. Jasper and I believed you needed to know. She was only doing it because she hates the thought of you being hurt."

Harry looked down. He and Aunt Miranda had formed a cordial relationship very quickly. She had taken the place of Lily Potter in so many ways. But the best thing about Miranda was she hadn't forced herself on him and Holly, and she had taken to the woman instantly. It helped he and Holly knew the woman would need a lot more to convince her to abandon two children, and even then she would likely kill anyone who suggested something as sick as what Dumbledore convinced his parents to go along with.

"So I have to keep going along with it?"

"Yes, and we need to find out how they got hold of your blood in the first place," Isaac said. "We have already checked Number 4, Privet Drive. There were still enough blood splatters there, but it would have taken months of work to synthesise enough of the blood, concentrate it down and then use it for something like this."

"But that's no guarantee. How would they even know where to find blood? You and the Unspeakables know what to look for because Holly and me told you?"

"Exactly, which means they must have found a way of getting your blood from the MACUSA, but that wouldn't be an easy task either," Isaac said. "Harry, we need to be serious; the chances of finding out who's responsible for this mess are remote until you finish the Tournament. Now we don't care if you win it or not, but please try to be careful."

"I intend to. How's Holly?"

"A little bit shaken. She's scared to go into her room, but we can't blame her. She's currently sleeping with me and Miranda," Isaac whispered.

Harry just smiled. "That's a relief. I'm going to keep in touch with her every single day. To hell with lessons. I can't let her think she's going to be left out again."

"I think she'd appreciate that," Isaac replied.

-8-

Lord Voldemort was reading the newspapers. He was left cursing his homunculus form as it made living and moving around so difficult and he yearned for a body once again. The Dark wizard was enjoying the chaos going on in the magical world right now, knowing that Dumbledore was likely drying up much of his political capital after what happened with the youngest Potter. It never failed to amaze him how Dumbledore's plans, outwardly seen as examples of the old man having the best of intentions, just blew up in his face.

But even Voldemort had never imagined Lily and James Potter would just abandon two of their three children, keeping the third because of the prophecy. He had assumed they had more sense than that, but he truly didn't care since he could exploit the Potter children to cause problems with their parents in due course.

Right now preparations for the ritual are still ongoing. It had been a nightmare with his limited resources to get the blood from the second twin, and then sneak both phials into Hogwarts to put into the Goblet of Fire, but soon he would have the blood he needed. Theoretically, Voldemort could have used both samples to restore his body, but the ritual - frustratingly enough - needed the power of the date, the power of the moon, to restore his body to its former strength. Tricky things, magical rituals.

It also didn't help that the blood wouldn't be fresh enough.