Harry was surprised when Dumbledore invited him and his wives to attend the trial of Sirius Black. He was quite worried too, and neither the headmaster nor his wives could change that much. He calmed a bit during the trial when he found out that the only accusation that could hold was of being an unregistered animagus. Sirius was found guilty of that and sentenced to one year at Azkaban, deductible from the time he had already spent there without trial, for which he got monetary compensation.
Once It was over, Harry was the first to run to Sirius and grab him in a tight hug. "I'm so glad you're finally free! I no longer need you as my guardian, but I really need my Godfather."
"You mean Dogfather, don't you?" Sirius replied with a wink, hugging him back. Soon enough, both Hermione and Fleur joined the hug, and then Remus managed to push himself in as well.
Dumbledore approached more sedately, once the group hug dissolved. "I'm very happy to see you finally free. Is there anything I can do for you now?"
"Just let Harry visit me every weekend," Sirius replied.
Dumbledore chuckled. "As a Lord, he doesn't need my permission. He can come and go as he likes, along with his wives."
Sirius's eyes lighted, and Harry felt sure that he was thinking of all the chances for teasing this situation was giving him. Harry wasn't looking forward to being on the receiving side of that teasing. It was still a very happy group that left the Ministry to find a nice restaurant for celebrating Sirius's victory.
\/\/\/
Harry felt worried about the infamous DADA curse. While he was previously only bothered due to having a new teacher each year, some of whom were quite unworthy of the position, with Fleur taking that position, Harry felt that the rumoured curse was now a personal matter. He first tried to discuss that with Dumbledore.
"Have you tried to find the alleged curse on the DADA position, to either remove it or disprove it?" he asked.
Dumbledore dismissed his concern. "It's just a rumour, nothing more. No need to bother about it."
Harry insisted. "Still, no DADA teacher served for more than a year since that alleged curse was cast. When was it?"
Dumbledore sighed. He didn't like his authority or his opinions questioned. "Tom Riddle applied for that post in the forties. I didn't accept him. He then started the rumour to frighten away any candidate."
"Had any DADA teacher served for two or more years since?"
Dumbledore gave it some thought. "No, but the problem started a few years earlier, maybe even while Tom was still at school or even before that. Most Defence teachers stayed for no more than two years and we always had a problem finding good ones. It only got worse after the rumour started."
Harry shook his head in disappointment. "Wouldn't it have been easier and served the school better if you engaged a team of curse-breakers to look for that alleged curse and any other that might linger in this ancient castle?"
Dumbledore refused the idea. "Curse breakers need to be paid, you know, and the school budget is very limited. I can't even raise the pay for the more talented teachers, as I'd like. We lost some to other schools due to that limitation."
Harry thought that with Malfoy and his like serving on the board of directors, it was no surprise. Such people would rather put that money in their pockets than spend it on the school.
He then had an idea. "I'm willing to pay for a thorough search of the school to find and remove any curse, not only that alleged one. In return, I expect that any valuables found during the search will become mine."
Dumbledore didn't seem to like the idea. He grimaced, gave it some thought, and finally nodded quite reluctantly. "That's the common reward for such jobs, although I doubt there will be much to find."
Harry had the impression that the headmaster didn't think there was anything he didn't know about in Hogwarts, but after the Chamber of Secrets, Harry was sure there were many more hidden places. Thinking of that, he realised that even that chamber may contain much more than he saw during his single visit there. When fighting for one's life, one is not expected to pay much attention to anything that isn't immediately relevant to the fight. He had a feeling there was a lot to be found and that he'd actually gain quite a bit from this.
"Then, I'll have a contract drawn for that, to make sure that all is done lawfully and all is well documented, and we shall then sign it, before I bring in the curse-breakers."
Just by watching Dumbledore, Harry was sure that the old man preferred things to stay undocumented and didn't care much for legality. He wondered why. Such behaviour was normally associated with the more questionable members of society, not with renowned leaders, especially ones assumed to be "light". Well, some of what he'd found about the old man didn't paint him "light" either.
Dumbledore sighed and nodded. "That seems to be a good way to proceed."
\/\/\/
It took only a few days for the contract to be ready. Since the Potters had several solicitors on retainer, it was even professionally written, although that only made it look more complicated. Dumbledore read it attentively but could find no fault in it. He then signed it with a sigh. Harry added his signature, without sighing, before the magical contract duplicated itself, leaving one copy for each and the original was transmitted to the solicitor.
A day later, a team of Gringotts curse-breakers arrived. Harry was a bit surprised to find that Bill Weasley was one of the team. "I thought you were still working in Egypt," he told the redhead.
Bill smiled and shook his head. "They thought I had enough experience there and I need some different experiences now. Here, it's a different culture and different magic, or a different set of runes and spells, to be exact. What are we looking for? Our team leader told us nothing. I'm not even sure he knows."
Harry smiled. "I'll let you all know in a moment."
Harry led the team to an unused classroom and then addressed them all. "I'm very content with the prompt response from Gringotts. I asked for a team of curse breakers to search the castle for any curses on it or on items within it. My main concern is the alleged curse on the DADA position, since my wife is now holding that position. That curse was allegedly cast by Tom Riddle, better known now as Voldemort, when his application for that position was rejected. Presumably, he left the curse on his way out. This is the route I plan to search first. Still, as a young man, he could easily take a different route, visit a classroom, a loo, or even the Slytherin common room. Although he knew where the Chamber of Secrets is and had access to it, going there takes much longer, so that place is not a priority."
The curse breakers, most of them goblins, looked mildly interested at the mention of the Chamber, but Harry had some more to say.
"I've been too busy to do it, but I suggest you start by interrogating the house-elves about all the secret rooms and passages they know. Since they keep the castle, they know best about such places. With their input, I suggest you start at the Headmaster's office and go out from there, along the possible ways out, considering all the secret rooms and passages. Once that option is exhausted, we should check the rest of the castle."
The team leader nodded. "Well said, Lord Potter. We shall act as suggested."
\/\/\/
Dumbledore wasn't happy to let the curse-breakers search his office. He even contemplated disallowing that, but then he remembered the contract. His signature on that damned contract forced him to fully cooperate and to let the team into any place in the castle it might consider a potential hiding place for dark magic and curses.
He didn't think he was hiding anything dark, but some of his possessions were not what one would expect of the "Leader of the Light". His regular wand was the one he had won in a duel. He had hidden his original one under his desk, where he could easily access it, unseen by others. He also kept in a side room some family grimoires of a few families that had been wiped out during the war. He hadn't even tried to find some more distant relatives and to pass those books to them.
He also had his collection of photos, most of them of pre-pubescent nude boys. No image could be traced to any living wizard, but that was also something he would have liked to keep secret.
The goblins were very efficient. Within a minute or two they found all his hiding places. They said nothing about most of their finds, though, not even in their own language. Well, they probably knew he could understand it, although he couldn't quite speak it.
They only got excited about one item. "Where did you find this?" the goblin asked him, holding Tom Riddle's diary.
"It was brought to me from the Chamber of Secrets." They didn't need to know who brought it, or so he thought.
"What happened to it?"
"It possessed a student. Another student found out and stabbed it with a Basilisk fang, destroying it."
"A Basilisk? Its venom doesn't destroy curses. It only destroys soul-jars. Was this one?"
Dumbledore nodded reluctantly. This information was too important to disclose, but he couldn't hide it from these meddlesome creatures.
"It still contains some remnants. We need to check it before removing all remnants of dark magic."
Dumbledore sighed with relief when they left his office. They had found nothing dark there, as expected, but the breach of his privacy was extremely annoying.
\/\/\/
Harry tried to stay away from the curse-breaking team and continue his life as usual. He managed to do it for less than two days. The second evening, he was asked to meet the team leader after supper.
"We acted as you suggested and asked the house-elves about all kinds of hidden places. One of them sounded interesting, but since it wasn't on any of the normal routes one would go from the headmaster's office to the gates, we didn't check it immediately. We only reached it this afternoon, shortly before dinner."
Harry had the impression that the goblin was quite excited, despite it trying to keep its indifferent façade.
"The place we found is huge and is full of stuff that people hid or lost for centuries. A quick scan showed a multitude of cursed items, but also jewellery, books, wands, staffs and other items, not all as valuable. The few jewels I've seen there, once cleansed of curses, may be sold for much more than the cost of this expedition will be, and there are many times that amount in there."
This was of little interest to Harry. "Have you found the alleged curse?"
The goblin shook its head. "Just checking everything in that room may take a few weeks. Even if the curse is located close to the door, it may still take quite a few days until we can find it. That place reeks of dark magic, curses and hexes."
"So, you believe it's there?"
The goblin looked less sure. "It could be. We won't be sure until we finish checking that hall. Would you like to see it for yourself?"
Harry nodded.
This resulted in his first visit to the room of lost things, as some of the elves called it. One glance was enough to ascertain that the goblin didn't exaggerate. The room was HUGE and it had multiple rows, each containing various stuff in mixed mounds. Sorting and arranging the stuff could take weeks all on its own. Checking for curses and removing them could take about the same.
He also noticed a small pile of items that were already cleansed, ready to be moved to his vault, and another pile of stuff that was waiting to be cleansed. He could see mainly jewels and precious stones in both piles, but had no idea how much they were worth.
The goblin noticed his glances. "The cleansed pile is worth about two months of our team's work. The other pile would probably double that sum, and it's only stuff we found no farther than four feet from the door."
It made the Headmaster's decision not to try and find the curse look very stupid.