Off somewhere in a disillusioned, heavily warded run-down safe house, a small baby, just barely old enough to sit up by himself is screaming out in frustration.
"Blast that crazy fool, I bet he got himself caught! What an idiot!" breathing heavily the infant, who's voice was much too deep for the body it came out of, yelled out a command in a hissing language, to which a large snake slithered into the room to respond.
"Naaaaaginiiii" hissed the baby, "I require your asssssissstance."
"Yessss brother how may I helllp?" the snake hissed in return.
"I need you to track down sssome of my fffaithfull fffollowerss, twooo in particularrr.."
The snake nodded in reply and slithered out of the rundown shack in pursuit of the two-legged people that his brother requested, armed with a portkey to just outside the run down shack, the activation code in parseltongue, and a note written with magic to give to each of two-legged's.
Back at Hogwarts an argument was winding down in the headmasters quarters.
"Albus, you know I cannot give away any information on a trial ahead of time so you're wasting both our time right now!" Amelia said sternly, she couldn't believe the arse, doesn't he know by now that I'm not going to be swayed by his long ass name nor his titles?
"Amelia, as the Supreme Mug…"
Albus started but was cut off by an angry head of aurors.
"I don't give a damn about your titles nor your name Dumbledore. I have to follow certain procedures; those procedures include not divulging certain information on a trial before the said trial is to happen. You have the same letter, the same information as the rest of the Wizengamot, deal with it!" Amelia stood up to leave grabbing her traveling cloak off the back of the chair she was sitting in.
"And before you think to try and force me into divulging any information, I'm well aware of your prowess in legilimency and I level with you in occlumency. Don't try me Albus, you won't like the outcome." Turning on her heel she exited his office, having gotten nothing accomplished.
Once the door to his office closed Albus, for the first time in a long time, lost his cool.
"WHO DOES SHE THINK SHE IS!" he yelled out to the empty room.
"DOES SHE NOT KNOW WHO THE HELL I AM, WHAT I'VE ACCOMPLISHED?"
Albus stood up from his chair to start pacing, thinking extremely hard to figure out how so many things have changed in such a little space of time.
Where was the respect his name once carried? Where did his influence fly off to?
Never once did it occur to him that many of the secrets he's held close to his chest were in fact dished out to the very people he withheld them from.
Who was this wizard that let loose in the alley way? Was he a new threat to Albus or the wizarding world? What were his aims? These were all questions Amelia Bones refused to answer, even worse she had some of the strongest occlumency shields that he's encountered.
Albus took pride in his legilimency skills, being able to dive down into a mind ever so subtle so as not to arouse suspicions. True, he would not be able to do a full mind probe, but he could go past the general skimming that the aurors are trained to do.
Mostly he used this technique on the students, they were a wealth of knowledge if you knew what you were looking for, and most haven't perfected their occlumency if they had any at all. Sure, there were exceptions, like everything else, he would never attempt to fool the Weasley twins, their rebuttal would be too imposing. Not only that, but they also have a keen sense of awareness to anyone trying to garner information from them, much like the original Marauders.
Then there was Luna Lovegood her mind, although not protected by occlumency, was as unique as the young lady herself. Only a first year yet she had a defense mechanism in place to handle even the most experienced legilemens. Luna's was more of a natural occlumency, instead of compartmentalizing everything into different boxes or rooms, she let her mind roam free, pure chaos; which to many was too much of an assault to their organized mind.
And of course, you then have anyone from a Noble house. They would have been taught from a young age how to detect a mind probe and would know the legalities and actions to be taken against the person penetrating their mind. Although not entirely true with every noble family, it wasn't worth the risk to find out.
But seeing as ninety percent of the student population didn't fall into those classifications, he had a wealth of information at his wand tip. Harry was still an open book at least, thank Merlin, however Albus expected that to be coming to an end with Remus and Sirius back in his life.
Thinking back not testifying for Sirius was a regrettable mistake, the Black family had many riches and magical artifacts that could have helped during the war. Albus regretted losing both Black brothers, the female Blacks of the family alluded him. Narcissa and Bellatrix were both, at the time, under Tom's thumb and Andromeda was always untrusting of him.
He thought Regulus would be more careful in the mission he sent him on, his initial spy behind lines. Not only did he fall during his mission, but he never succeeded in getting the horcrux out from the basin, and Albus wasn't fool enough to drink the potion alone.
He never sent back anyone else, who else could he trust with such knowledge, not even Regulus truly knew what he was after. Oh, sure he had a general idea, he foolishly thought the locket was the only thing keeping Tom tied to the earth, Albus being ever so cautious never educated him that he was in the wrong.
No Regulus was lost to the lake in that cavern. Albus was faintly aware of the possibility that Regulus was not strictly dead, in fact he believed him to be in a petrified like state in a spot below the inferi. The problem was trust.
Albus didn't trust anyone enough to let them know where abouts the cave was, what if they found out about the horcruxes? Even more what if they beat him to solving this 'Riddle' that Voldemort left?
No. Regulus will need to remain dead, at least till he became the hero once more.
"THEN I will rightly look like a hero." Albus said out loud to no one.
Once more thinking to himself, maybe just maybe then I can get Sirius on my side and my hands on some of the Black family riches.
Back at the Auror safe house, Sirius always thought he was the first person to break out of Azkaban, at least in the timeline the kids told him about, not that he was supposed to be there to begin with but now it looks like he wasn't the first in either time line.
He remembered the day they hauled Barty Crouch Jr.'s lifeless body out of the cell adjacent to his. The high security wing got eerily quiet after that, with only his cousin Bellatrix cackling every once and awhile.
Barty was always the loudest one in the wing, always spouting off his plans of making his father pay for locking him up or berating the other death eaters for not trying hard enough to escape. Then he had gotten sick after his parent's visited him, he became really quiet, the illness set on so fast. That should have been a clue.
Shaking his head Sirius once more focused on the syllabus that Remus had made up for him. Harry had nothing but good reviews of Moony's teaching skills, many labeled him the best DADA teacher ever, it was a lot of pressure to follow up that kind of expectation. Blimey, I think he's better than our DADA teacher, Sirius thought to himself while looking at the way his friend laid out his teaching plan.
The kids would have a lot of fun while still learning. No wonder they liked his class, he couldn't wait for what ultimately would be a magic version of paint ball without the annoyance of pain from getting pelt with a paintball. Basically, the students would be hitting each other with colored paint blobs, much like the ones that landed in Remus' teacup over the holidays.
Not only would this improve their spell casting and aim, but it would also help them out with moving targets and strategy. He basically took an auror training exercise and made it fun. McGonagall would also be pleased as punch with the students learning the color changing spell early as he planned this exercise for all year groups.
Sirius remembered back to when Lily took them all out for a rousing game of paintball. It was the most awesome, painful experience of Sirius' life. With the way old Moony had this arranged each year will partake, different expectations for each grade level were the only difference.
"Thanks Sirius, after the battle yesterday with all the information afterwards I think I was mentally, magically, and physically exhausted. Those six hours of sleep worked wonders!" Shack said while stretching, pulling Sirius out of his notes.
"Is that Remus' class syllabus?" the tall auror asked curiously.
"That it is my friend, quite a brilliant idea if I do say so myself, care to take a peek?" Sirius said while handing over the syllabus.
Shack shuffled thru the small stack of notes, laughing by the end of it. "Those kids will love it, no matter their age. You're right it is quite a brilliant idea."
Nodding Sirius yawned. "Did you need anything else Shack? Amelia said she would bring escorts with her to transport this fella to the trial."
"Not that I can think of. Did she say when the trial would be?"
Gathering his things Sirius responded, "She sent a patronus around five am, said she booked court room ten for ten o clock." Glancing at his watch he finished up his thoughts, "so she should be fairly soon."
As if he had called for her Amelia appeared. She looked as tired as Sirius felt, he doubted she got any sleep. "Speak of the devil" he said with a small grin.
Her only response was a weak smack to his chest, kissing him on the cheek right afterwards. "Get to bed you mangy mutt, you have classes to watch starting at noon."
"Yes ma'am" was his only reply as he apparated out before she could smack him again.
"You look tired Amelia; did you get any sleep?" Shack asked, keeping a distance away so as not to be treated like Sirius was.
"Some." She said as she yawned, "I wanted to make sure I was ready for today, I'm sure Augusta will be out for blood on this one."
Nodding the pair left the safe house via portkey with a shackled and stunned Barty Crouch Jr. directly into the secured holding cell area of the Ministry.
Shack would remain as the primary patrol, with two others at the door to stop anyone attempting to get in. Amelia wasn't taking any chances.
"Wotcher Harry?" Tonks said as she passed him and Hermione in the hallway. "I didn't expect to see you both so early, it's barely six in the morning." She said this as the twins walked up behind them, eyeing the group up, "where are you lot headed?"
Smiling Harry explained they were plotting a prank against Sirius and roped the twin in to help. Oh, good one dear Hermione thought over to Harry.
"I see. Well in that case I don't know nothing but let me know if I could assist. That mangy mutt still hasn't let go of the Nymphie name." Tonks rolled her eyes as she said this.
The group knowing her dislike for her first name just laughed and told her they would let her know if her services were required and headed off to the seventh floor.
"Are we really pranking Padfoot?" Fred started
"Because that's a dangerous game to play," George added before pinging back to Fred
"the retaliation would be brutal…"
"He'd probably get Moony involved" gasped George.
"Calm down you two." Hermione said while laughing, "It's too early to talk with Forge... individual minds for a bit yeah?"
The twins laughed, never hearing anyone call their mind link 'Forge' before but thought it was a brilliant name as they often referred to each other as Forge or Gred.
Harry meanwhile was thinking of exactly the type of room he required, when the door appeared the group walked in and nothing seemed amiss. The normal replica of the Gryffindor common room appeared to be just like it always was in prior uses.
Hermione wanting to get this ball on a roll decided to ask the first question after confirming with Harry that the room was set.
"Hey, you two which one of you is Fred?" Hermione asked innocently enough.
In the past the menacing duo would avoid out right telling you who was who, she didn't even think Mrs. Weasley knew who was who exactly. They claimed it helped when people couldn't name who was who, and in the past Hermione remembers George telling her after Fred died that he felt like it was a Freddie day, but he couldn't bring himself to do it, it was the saddest she had ever felt, seeing the gut-wrenching pain cross Georges face.
Harry saw her inner thoughts; she didn't attempt to hide them. It was more difficult when it had an emotional tie to hide what you were feeling. That won't happen this time love he thought lovingly over to her. She nodded right before Fred answered.
"I am today, but to be honest we don't really think along those lines, some days just feel like a George day and so I want to be George." Fred answered truthfully.
Hermione had to make sure to school her facial features so as not to give it away, Harry had asked the room, very specifically, to encourage the people within to tell the truth unknowingly, if Harry or Hermione gave away a tell the spell would be broken as they would know what to look for. She also had to try hard not to tear up as that played right into what she was thinking.
And so, she continued, "I see, that does make sense. Who do you test all your new pranking products on?"
"We initially test them on each other" George now answered.
"Yeah, we wouldn't give them to anyone if it caused them harm." Fred finished.
George then said, "Yeah, and then it's normally Ron or Percy who get the honor to see if it's funny."
Laughing Fred finished, "And then off to the masses, oh Georgie I can't wait for our own shop!"
I guess they really couldn't help finishing each other's sentences.
Let's try to get some dirt, shall we? Hermione thought. "Do you two have any wicked plans for pranks coming up?"
"Of course we do!" Fred said rather perturbed.
George finished with a "When don't we have something planned?"
"Of course, of course. What are these plans?" Harry asked innocently enough.
"Well… there's the plan we had for Parkinson, but with everything that happened with her father" Fred started.
"Her mother had to pull her out of school." George once more finished, but then started the next go around. "It seems like all our targets find themselves leaving the school…"
"Before we can prank them. We had some good ones for Lockhart too!" Fred finished.
And so, it continued. Harry and Hermione found out all about their plans for Lockhart, Parkinson, Ron, and Filch. Harry in particular enjoyed their ideas for Mrs. Norris. They even got the scoop on a few ideas the twins had for them before telling them about the room.
They were aghast at first but ended up shaking the Potter's hands at a job well done. Hermione warned not to do their prank on them as they wouldn't enjoy the outcome of retaliation.
Both twins blanched a little and agreed with her. Messing with Hermione's hair was now listed as no go territory.
"So, you two plan to bring Dumbledore in here and what?" Fred asked.
"Interrogate him?" George finished.
"Exactly!" Harry said. "Last timeline he basically gave me just enough information that if I was lucky, I would survive, on the off chance that I lived thru a second killing curse."
"Harry no longer has that piece of Voldemort hidden behind his scar as a scape goat. We need all the information, and we need it now, while he's weak!" Hermione said sternly.
"What do you plan to ask him?" Fred asked curiously, for once his brother stayed silent.
"Hmm…" was all that Hermione said out loud.
That's a good point love we didn't discuss what exactly we want to ask him? Hermione thought.
Well, that's what we have additional help for dear. Harry responded.
"You make a good point you two, we haven't thought that far out yet. Would you mid skipping History of Magic to help us out? We have a free period before DADA." Harry asked.
"We would be honored my fine chap" George said while playfully bowing to Harry.
"Not like we pay attention in that class anyway." Fred finished.
Even though several classes within Hogwarts improved greatly, Potions being one of them, History stayed pretty much the same. Shack offered his opinions to the ghost of a teacher, but Professor Binns simply ignored him and continued on with his same syllabus that he's been going on with for centuries.
Dumbledore already had a suitable replacement for him, they just couldn't start until next school year; and with this year almost complete it didn't make sense to agitate the situation any further. Study materials were provided based on the tests to all students of OWL and NEWT levels.
Dumbledore knew he wouldn't be able to stop the professor from teaching, so he simply decided to hold the new History of Magic classes elsewhere. It's not like Binns would notice that he had no students, he never noticed when anyone skipped or slept during his class.
The group sat down on the couches in front of the fireplace, Harry put in a call to Neville to have him meet them in the room, while Hermione pulled up Amelia.
"Neville is on his way up love." Harry said before calling Sirius.
"Amelia is heading into trial but will call us tonight." Hermione said as she was setting up for her last call to her parents, she expanded the screen and stuck it above the fireplace.
"Oh, hello sweetheart, hi boys!" Jean waved from the spare bedroom mirror. James and Lily in the background waved as well.
Neville walked in with Sirius, his first class of the day would be second years with the kids, and to their surprise Remus followed behind Sirius.
"It sounded important, so I didn't want to miss it, I have strength enough for this don't worry." Remus said to the raised eyebrows as he took out a piece of chocolate and nibbled on the corner while taking a seat in a plush armchair.
"I thought you had an escort?" Harry laughed.
"She was needed for the trial" Remus shrugged, "She handed off her duties to this old mutt."
Sirius played along by waving making everyone laugh, but you could see the concern in his eyes. Last night's transformation was rough, Andi was looking into different ways to tweak the wolfsbane potion in order to give Remus some pain relief while also being able to keep his mind.
"Okay you lot, the reason we called you all here today is because Harry and I have discovered something amazing about this room." Hermione started.
"So amazing that it got these crazy blokes to tell us the truth without them knowing they were telling us the truth!" Harry said proudly.
"Oi Freddie, do you see these Potters showing off their prowess?" George laughed.
"I do Georgie my boy, we agreed that her hair was off limits but there are other ways to strip a broomstick." Fred replied.
"Enough you two we are on a time crunch." Hermione said while shaking her head smile on her face.
"So, you basically have veritaserum without having to make the person you want to interrogate ingest it?" Sirius asked amazed.
"Basically." Harry answered.
"So besides finding out the twin terrors pranking schedule what else do you have planned?" Neville asked no longer afraid to speak up in this group.
"You want to interrogate Dumbledore, don't you?" James asked from behind Jean.
"Exactly Papa Prongs, we just need to figure out what to ask him." Hermione replied, not realizing she not only made James' day, but her comment made Sirius fall out of his chair and Remus chuckle.
"Oh, I quite like the sound of that! Lily, remember that for when the kids have babies!" James said excitedly.
Hermione blushed, Harry laughed, Jean and Mick looked pleased as punch and Sirius sat straight up looked to the kids and asked. "What would I be called?"
With a straight face Harry replied, "Paddy whack, now can we get back to the questions… limited time after all … Professor."
Remus chuckled so hard at that one he had to grab his ribs in pain.
"Oi, I don't get it." Sirius said while looking concerned at Remus.
Remus, who was in no shape to remember to breath and talk just simply looked over towards Lily, who responded with, "Knick knack paddy whack give the dog a bone." And Remus was off laughing again, Sirius not far behind him.
Both Potters just rolled their eyes, Neville was the first to speak up with an actual question for Dumbledore.
"I'd like to know if he intended for my parents to get harmed." He said solemnly.
"Good one Neville, I'd like to know if he used his wand to get us out from behind the Manors wards? We were unplottable here, why leave to go to Godrics Hollow?" Lily asked.
Sirius once more sat up, with an air of adultness rarely seen, he added in his own question "Did he know I was innocent?"
Remus, being the brilliant thinker that he was, thought everyone's personal questions were brilliant but wanted a broader range, one less refined so that Albus would be his own undoing. "Ask him what he doesn't want others to know."
The room went silent.
"That's actually kind of perfect." Hermione said amazed at its simplicity.
"He would tell us things we wouldn't think to ask about. We could build off from there." Harry said nodding.
The group talked about a few more specific questions to really pinpoint what they wanted answered but the all-encompassing question would be the start of things that they could branch off of from there.
Do you think this is going to work?Hermione asked Harry thru their bond on the way to DADA.
I hope so, you never know with Dumbledore, he's holds so much knowledge that it's possible he would know what we are trying to do. Harry replied.
After class the second year Slytherins and Gryffindors had to head back to their commons for a change of clothes. Even though the spell was supposed to wear off after a few minutes it seems some of the Slytherins tweaked the spell to last for hours instead, with Gryffindors thinking the same thing everyone was a mess that even a scourgify couldn't handle.
Courtroom 10 – Ministry of Magic.
"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen to the trial of …" Dumbledore paused. "Well.. I'm not really sure, I was given just as much information as the rest of you, which if you haven't noticed doesn't list a name of the accused." He looked around to see if anyone else was as appalled by this as he was.
He saw no one even so much as bat an eye in caring, has the value in his name really dropped that far?
"I will turn the trial over to Madam Bones." Albus finished.
"Thank you Chief Warlock" Amelia said while taking her place on the podium.
Amelia took a deep breath and then started in on her opening statement.
"A few weeks ago I was handed some information anonymously about a Barty Crouch that caught my eye. As many of you know he has been showing signs of illness in the past few months and even more so the last few weeks of his life."
Amelia looked around the chamber, everyone knew that Barty had died, many didn't know the cause.
"I undertook the investigation personally as he was a high-ranking ministry member, upon arrival at his house I found him dead." Amelia paused for dramatic effect, one thing she learned from Dumbledore that did go a long way in trials.
"Naturally, I called for backup and we began an investigation. That investigation caused multiple questions to come to the surface. The biggest being that Crouch's house was not set up to live alone."
Amelia then took a sip of water, this next piece was going to make the chamber fly out of their seats.
"Now, we know that Mrs. Crouch had passed away a few years ago, along with his son in Azkaban. We also know that Mr. Crouch, still very much grieving the loss of his wife hasn't started dating again, so obviously we were curious. While looking through the house we ran across Crouch's elf, his elf informed us about the extra occupant of the household."
Again, Amelia paused, but by this point she had the entire chamber in the palm of her hand.
"It was Barty Crouch Jr."
The chamber promptly erupted.
"That's impossible!" came a shout
"Is he really alive?" Augusta cried.
"We need to catch him" another call this time from the public stands.
Amelia set off a noisemaker spell to catch the attention of the chamber once more.
"If you would all settle down please, so that we may get the actual trial underway." Amelia said calmly and the chamber listened, much to her surprise.
"Now, we are here for the trial of Barty Crouch Jr." as she said this the floor opened up rose Barty Crouch Jr. fully restrained with magic inhibiting cuffs.
Shack also rose up from the floor with him and would stand guard through the whole trial. Multiple gasps popped up from around the chamber, many people were yelling at the same time. Amelia let them have a few moments to get the shock out of the way, paying close attention to those who Harry and Hermione listed as death eaters as well as keeping an eye on Dumbledore.
Albus was fuming. How the hell did this fly under his radar? Albus observed the accused closely, Barty had the same ticks from the first trial, the maniacal licking of his lips, head twitch, and those crazy eyes scanning the room, landing on several members who were thought to have ties to Voldemort.
How the hell did Amelia pull this off? He thought bitterly to himself. If there is one thing Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore hated more than the thought of his fame waning, was being upstaged by her or anyone for that matter.
Amelia had given the chamber roughly three minutes to let out their frustrations, she witnessed many of the known death eaters blanch, Albus look royally pissed and Augusta was out for blood.
"Amelia, do we know how this piece of scum escaped Azkaban?" Augusta Longbottom asked bitterly.
Barty Crouch Jr. was one of the three death eaters that attacked her son and daughter in law, to say she had hatred for this wizard was putting it lightly.
"We do know, and measures have already been implemented to prevent this from happening in the future." Amelia nodded to Fudge who nodded back.
Even though he didn't know the circumstances to why Amelia wanted to make such drastic changes, Cornelius figured that it couldn't hurt to tighten up the security around the prison. Now he's glad that he chose that route, it led for people to see him in good light, he should start listening to her more often.
"I was advised by a unanimous source that Barty Crouch Jr. was in the Alley making purchases at the apothecary. I was also advised that he would be disguised and was given a description of what his cover looked like. I acted immediately and used elf assistance to pop down to the apothecary to apprehend the suspect."
Looking towards Shack, Amelia nodded and added, "Before leaving I called out of my office for Auror Shacklebolt to grab a group and meet me at the apothecary expecting the suspect to not want to cause a scene was a mistake that I take full responsibility for. I'm happy to report that no one was seriously injured in the crossfire."
Searching the public balcony Amelia met the eye of Minerva and Poppy, "If it wasn't for Professor McGonagall and Madame Pomfrey being a few shops up and coming to my rescue it could have turned out drastically different."
Nods of approval and murmurs of praise could be heard throughout the courtroom. Several other spectators in the public galley reached to shake their hands.
"Once we had him neutralized, we ensured to follow everything with proper protocol. I had Kingsley Shacklebolt use an emergency port key to a secure housing facility with the suspect still stunned, he was then placed in a high security holding cell with restraints still in place. Auror Shacklebolt then continued with placing monitoring charms and locked the disguised in his cell."
Amelia at this point had the chamber eating out of the palm of her hand.
"Now, we have already questioned the suspect under veritaserum, however I wish to walk this chamber through a few of the more important questions. Madam Phelps if you would..." Amelia asked of the healer they had on the side ready to administer the correct dosage to Barty.
By the end of the questioning Amelia once more took stock of the death eaters in the chamber, quite a few were white, Amelia assumed they weren't prepared to hear about their Dark Lord returning from the dead. Amelia struggled over having this information out to the public, however it was necessary in order for her to gain the backing to increase her Auror teams and training.
Albus couldn't help but agree with her, no matter how much he loathed giving out information, it was imperative that the public knew about Voldemort, this wasn't exactly how Albus would have thought about persuading them, however he couldn't contest that it was effective. For a brief moment Albus considered working with Amelia to bring Riddle down, but his lifelong aversion to sharing information stopped him.
In the end the chamber found Barty Crouch Jr. guilty of all additional charges on top of his original charges. The chamber also agreed with Amelia on her punishment.
Barty Crouch Jr, was given a dementors kiss followed by being passed thru the veil of death.
Albus walked up to Amelia after the trial was over, "Aren't you worried about all the lives put to rest by your hand? It's a lot for a soul to bare."
"Albus that is the biggest load of tosh I have ever heard, these individuals were put to death by their own hand, and even if they weren't, I would much rather have a witch or wizard who would open fire with killing curses in an open alley way with children present pass thru the veil than get the chance to potentially harm an innocent person." Amelia looked towards Albus with contempt.
"I see your point Amelia, well I should be off, I have a few things to handle at Hogwarts today before heading off to the ICW.
Amelia rolled her eyes; she will never understand Albus Dumbledore. Turning on her heel she walked back to her office to call Sirius and find out what the kids wanted.
A few weeks later, the day before the students left for summer holidays to be precise, the Potters put their plan into motion.
Sirius had agreed to get Dumbledore to meet with them. Harry, who had the room set up like an empty classroom, was hoping Dumbledore wouldn't ask too many questions about the room itself. In fact, Harry requested that the door to the room replace the actually empty classroom he was planning to duplicate.
Not knowing if this was going to work or not, they asked Sirius to test it out beforehand. Turns out it did in fact work, Hogwarts truly was a special place. Only thing left was to put their plan into motion, the Potters heard Sirius outside the classroom, he led Dumbledore in, they greeted the Headmaster and thanked him for meeting with them.
"No problems I hope?" Dumbledore asked politely after Sirius left.
"No sir, we just wanted to ask a few questions, what with Voldemort on the lose some place I want to learn all I can, and I figured the best place to start was with someone with such a vast amount of knowledge." Harry said while putting on an act of being in the presence of greatness to sweeten him up.
It worked like a charm. Dumbledore smiled softly his eyes all a twinkling. Let the games begin. Harry thought.
"Of course, my boy, I will try to answer to the best of my vast knowledge. I will however have to ask your apologies if it is something I do not know of or feel that now is not the right time for you to have a particular piece of knowledge." Dumbledore said in his grandfather voice.
I can't believe it, that's pretty much the same thing he said to me when I asked him about Voldemort at the end of first year!
Hermione's voice in his head kept him steady, yes, my love but I don't think he will feel that it's not the right time today.
Nodding ever so slightly Harry began a few innocent questions so as not to arouse any curiosity on the headmaster's part but also testing to see if the room would work its magic on him as well. Harry asked a few questions he already knew the answer to.
"I was hoping Headmaster, sir, if you could possibly tell me a bit about my parents? Sirius and Remus fill up with so much hurt when they talk about them, I hate to ask." Harry started with a sad emotion.
"Ah yes, I suppose that would be true, they were all quite close growing up. Especially after the three found out about Remus' condition." Albus said in a fondly matter.
"Did you know about Remus' condition before he started school or afterwards?" Harry asked, not a planned question but curious none the less.
"I did yes, his father was quite vocal about the werewolf community, Fenrir's attack made headlines at the time. I felt bad for the poor lad, he was so young, and had done nothing wrong. Not to mention it would help me tremendously to make inroads with the packs, taking in one of their own." Albus didn't even realize that he gave away more than he ever intended to.
Harry and Hermione, to their benefit showed no signs of shock or surprise. Schooling their features, they moved on.
"How did having Remus attend school here help you with the packs?" Hermione asked nonchalantly.
"Well Miranda, the mate of the Irish packs Alpha, helped me get Remus all squared away in his safe room at the shrieking shack. I was introduced to her when asking about safe room features, the Irish pack take every precaution to not infect anyone else with the disease. I've done many a research for her and she now owes me plenty of favors that I will call in when the time is right."
I knew there had to be a reason that not another single lycanthrope was enrolled here, he already got what he needed. Hermione thought to which Harry nodded.
"Who else owes you favors?" Harry asked.
"Oh plenty of people my lad, plenty of people." Albus answered but didn't go into detail.
"Like who? Anyone I would know?" Harry probed.
"Well," Albus thought about it a bit, "I greatly discount the Weasley's tuitions, they know this, and in exchange they help with the Order of the Phoenix, that's my group that I made to help me defeat Tom Riddle's gang of death eaters." Albus explained.
"Molly cooked for everyone, and Arthur still provides me with inside knowledge from the Ministry, even though sometimes he doesn't know he does." Albus said this with a wink.
Harry was getting angry, but Hermione's voice once more kept him calm.
She asked the next question while Harry tramped down his anger.
"What about Sirius? Does he owe you anything?" She asked casually.
"No, sadly enough, I never thought to use Sirius. His brother Regulus was much easier to manipulate into helping me, Sirius always marched to a beat of his own drum." Albus chuckled at his little jab at Sirius.
"What did you manipulate Regulus into doing?" Harry asked, breathing a little heavy now, still trying to gain his composure.
"Oh, he was the perfect spy. Not as high ranking as Severus mind, but that's what made him the perfect spy, Voldemort would never guess it was Regulus giving me all the inside knowledge." Dumbledore was stroking his long silver beard now as he continued, "Regulus' only downfall was that he couldn't finish the last mission I sent him on."
Dumbledore looked like he was rather far away. "You see, he was supposed to get me a horcrux out of a basin in a cave where Tom hid it. But instead, he got himself trapped, petrified so to speak, under the lake of inferi."
"He's still alive?" Hermione asked, not being able to hide the shocked look on her face when she caught on to his phrasing.
"I believe he is, yes." Dumbledore said while puffing out his chest. No doubt thinking that she was more shocked at his knowledge than glaringly angry.
"Why wouldn't you go get him out?" Harry asked now too preoccupied trying to keep Hermione calm to rile himself up again.
"Well, poor timing really." Dumbledore said while thinking deeply again.
"That happened very close to when your parents died Harry, and after that ordeal, a man coming back from the dead would look too suspicious. Especially if Sirius found out." Dumbledore paused for a brief minute, "No, he's better thought dead."
"How would you get him out?" Hermione asked ready to leave Dumbledore now and go get Sirius his brother back.
Dumbledore explained his theory on summoning Regulus. You would need to either have a powerful witch or wizard, or several average witch or wizards, as you would have to fight off any inferi that made it onto shore before Regulus' body got there. Once his body touches the island he would wake up from his enchanted sleep, the same age and in the same state that he went under as.
Hermione was taking multiple mental notes, she planned to revisit this conversation with Sirius and Amelia later.
"What can you tell me about Neville's parents?" Harry asked. "I am to understand that his mum is my Godmother, which is why I had to go to the Dursley's as both my god parents were indisposed of."
"Oh yes, that was a tricky bit of doing." Dumbledore started and Harry could already tell it was going to be a difficult discussion, keeping both of them calm for this one would be rather hard. Hermione was already ramping up.
"I needed you to go to your Aunt and Uncles house for your own protection Harry, I couldn't do that with Sirius and Alice still in the picture. I had to get rid of them." Dumbledore sounded dark and scary saying those words.
The once grandfather like appearance no longer pertained to him, now all Harry could see when he looked at him was some sick twisted old goat, who really needed to be put away.
"What do you mean get rid of them?" Hermione asked trying to stay calm.
"Well Sirius was easy, after I found out Peter was the death eater who gave your parents location away, I simply wound him up and pointed him at Peter. Sirius was always the type out for revenge. It really did surprise me when I found out that he didn't manage to kill Peter, even more surprised that Peter played a fast one on Sirius and got away with it."
Harry looked toward Hermione to get her opinion on this when he found her taking deep breaths and counting to ten.
"Being the leader in everything, and the most powerful wizard in magical Britain has it's uses, once Sirius was arrested, I ensured that he would be placed in Azkaban without a trial."
Albus Dumbledore, the greatest dick in Magical History. Could be a Lockhart book. Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Frank and Alice were even easier; I knew that Alice would come for you right away after hearing the news. I used Severus to slip this information to the right people, Bellatrix was out for blood at the loss of her beloved Master, and in turn it was a little like payback since the Black sisters didn't want to join my Order. "Albus laughed at that.
"Serves her right to be in Azkaban." He finished.
Harry was beyond livid. How could someone who personified as the leader of the light, be just as bad as Voldemort himself. Dumbledore was only in it for the power and the fame. He didn't care about anyone except himself.
"Don't you feel bad about the amount of life lost by your hand?" Hermione had spoken with Amelia after the trial, and she remembered her mentioning her conversation with Dumbledore. How ironic that he asked her this very question when he himself has done horrendous damage to innocent people.
"No one died by my hand, everything I did was for the greater good." Albus said without pause very sure of himself.
"I see, I am quite curious about something that happened a few weeks back," Harry started, "I found a book that was from your family's library, do you happen to know how it ended up in the school?"
Harry pulled out the book from his bag and handed it to Dumbledore.
"My word, I haven't seen this book in what must be close to fifty years." Dumbledore spoke while thumbing through the book. "The last time I remember having this book was when I was teaching Transfiguration, there was, if I remember correctly, a chapter in this book I was using for my dragons blood research. Wherever did you find this?" Dumbledore asked curiously.
Harry, not wanting to tell Dumbledore about the room, lied by saying he found the book wedged in an cushion in one of the many alcoves the school had.
Dumbledore seemed to think on that for a bit before moving on to the following questions the Potters had for him.
They pretty much got all their questions answered and more. But had gotten a little sidetracked. Harry had one final question to ask, but was there even more that they didn't already find out? Hermione was guessing yes but couldn't believe there to be more with all the stuff they already heard.
Harry did the honors, "Was there anything you know about, that you don't want other people knowing about?
Albus thought long about this one, it made the Potters a bit nervous, thinking that he might have figured out their plan, each of them had their hands in position to quickly grab their wands. They were seated a little bit away from each other on purpose to make it hard for him to get off a memory charm on both of them at the same time.
"I love Gellert Grindelwald." It was a statement that both Potters knew about but could see that Albus was slightly embarrassed by.
"Oh, okay" Hermione said trying to hold in a giggle. "Anything else?"
Dumbledore admitted to a few other things that they found interesting. He did in fact have several more artifacts from Harry's Grandparents, which was how he got around Minerva's questioning. He also had several artifacts from other prominent families, a list that Hermione took mental notes of for Amelia to follow up on.
Overall, they got WAY more information that they thought they would get. When asked they found out that he did in fact put memory charms on Minerva and Poppy to keep Harry weak and dependent on him. Just one more thing for Amelia to follow up on.
He explained that he didn't actually want people to die, he thought that every magical life lost was a waste. He showed actual remorse to Harry's parent's deaths, mainly because it brought about so much other work for him to do. He didn't however, care about ruining people's lives like Sirius, Regulus, Alice and Frank.
Harry and Hermione walked out of the 'classroom' with the headmaster and bid him good night after thanking him for his knowledge. It seemed that Albus didn't have a clue that he just spilled all of his secrets out to the very wizard that he never wanted to know them.
Sirius and Remus walked out from a secret passageway to the left of the door after Dumbledore was several corridors away.
"Well? How did it go?" Sirius asked.
Hermione in response pulled him in to a tight hug, leaving Harry to answer his question.
"We need an emergency meeting; I don't care what you have to do but get us out of this school tonight and behind our wards at home. I want everyone who knows our secret to be there by tomorrow night since obviously we can't get the twins and Neville out of school."
"Shite" was said in tandem as the pair of Marauder's got to work carrying out Harry's command.