Chapter 30
MONDAY, APRIL 3rd, 1995 - HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY - THE SOUTH WING.
"Because of me, Harry?" Dumbledore replied after a few moments. "But that makes no sense."
"You asked why we did this," Harry replied, "and ultimately the answer is because of you. But the real question is how did we get to that answer. Hermione?"
"None of this made sense to me," Hermione began. "I knew Harry wanted nothing to do with this Tournament and would never have tried to get in. Once his name came out of the Goblet of Fire, I knew something was up. I wanted to know what! I wanted to know how that happened - something we haven't figured out yet - and why he had to compete against his will - something we believe we have. I wanted to know if I could get my best friend out of this nightmare and, if not, I wanted him to be prepared as much as he could be so he wouldn't die! Right off, I went to Professor McGonagall about all of this and she gave me permission to help Harry and permission to help him train.
"Most of the school seemed against him in one way or another including most of the Gryffindors and I assumed it was just me and Harry. Apparently not. I spent a huge amount of time in the Library and one by one, or in pairs, each of these young women approached me and asked if they could help. Like me, none of them believed Harry was in this by his own choice and they all believed something was up and it was not good!. Our Beauxbatons contingent did not do so until after the Second Task, but the rest had even before the First.
"They all knew enough about Harry. He had few real friends and such and they weren't on that list and … well they couldn't or wouldn't approach him directly."
"It's true, unfortunately," Harry said.
"So it was all through me," Hermione said. "I organized and coordinated the research projects. A few were delegated to spell research, although unless and until we knew the task Harry faced, it was all guesswork. The others dealt with the bigger issues, the how and why of it all. Daphne and Lucinda both convinced me we needed to also learn Occlumency. Since few of us knew it at all, we all started to learn. I coordinated the research but merely approved or disapproved of the other's recommendations - mostly approved. I didn't ask for many details. I most certainly made no effort to put it all together and believe me that was hard!
"Christmas came around, and several of our 'members' were going home. I knew we had exhausted some of what this school could offer and they wanted to access 'other sources' which I approved. My biggest concern before they returned was Padma and Parvati. They had been with us from early on and … at least from my perspective, they stayed here and had lousy Yule Ball dates and I thought they'd blame Harry who all but put them up to is. They did not. They blamed Ron and were as onboard as before, if not more so.
"Our friends who did go home … most of them had family in the right places as it were. They went home on document hunts. They came back with piles of material. We have selected records from St. Mungo's, records from the Ministry of Magic and specifically: Wizengamot Administrative Services and Court records, to include trial transcripts, the Wizarding Records Office, Magical Archives, and DMLE. In the last case we have personnel files on several Aurors, Hit Wizards and such from the relevant time frame, employment records, assignment records, and certain relevant interrogation records. In the latter case, much of the information never made it to trial. We had piles of documents! And then there was our own Andy Lee… Her father is a Muggle Solicitor in County Surry … where Harry lived. He got us loads of information from there, including complaints and such, school records, medical records, you name it about Harry, he got it under subpoena in many cases. Turns out, someone had a lot of stuff suppressed. Paid some hefty bribes to do so. The officials involved were eventually exposed, charged, tried and convicted and now are serving terms in the Muggle prisons. That all happened in 1992. Directly or indirectly, we now suspect you were behind the bribes!"
"Me?" Dumbledore began.
"We didn't know the details until after we went forward with this," Harry said. "But on Thursday last - in your time - I met with my Accounts Manager at Gringotts. A thousand Quid a month had been paid out for my care under your authority! If that lot spent fifty or a hundred a month, I'd be stunned! Through that, they had the resources to pay the bribes needed! They could and did treat me like dirt despite the Muggle laws which should have landed them bankrupt and in prison. I can't do the prison thing now. But Grigotts hates thieves of any sort. Their Muggle solicitors will soon demand an accounting! Unless they can so account, I'm told they may well lose most everything they have. Certainly they'll lose the house. If they're lucky, my Uncle Vernon might not lose his job for being a thief. Regardless, my cousin Dudley will be out of his school Smeltings and off to a Comprehensive."
"You will ruin them," Dumbledore said in something that could be taken as either a question or statement.
Harry just shrugged. "They ruined themselves," he said. "Hermione?"
She nodded. "Now, until we were somewhat confident in our occlumency skills, each of our research teams worked largely independent from one another. This was intentional. The less any one person knew, the less likely that information would be of any value to anyone else. While I was arguably in charge - since I was the one helping Harry directly at the time - I knew few of the details. My role with the other teams was mostly organizational and occasionally advisory, but I knew few of their details. My role was training Harry. My research was into spells and warding, as we were given permission to ward the classroom to prevent intrusion or eavesdropping and prevent people from stealing our stuff.
"Now almost from the start I had been looking into time manipulation. While Harry is top of our year in Defense and pretty high up in Charms as well, over all he's right around the middle. And he's only a Fourth Year. The other three Champions are at or near the top of their respective classes and are seventh years. Harry was at a significant disadvantage in education, training and physical and magical maturity. He needed a lot of time to even hope and try and catch up and, as he was not excused from attending classes, that time just did not exist. He made it through the first two tasks more on determination and luck than any particular skills advantage."
"His use of his broom in the first task…" Dumbledore began.
"A last minute idea for I was coming up with nothing," Harry said. "It that hadn't worked, I had no back up plan and it's a fair bet if Viktor had thought of it, maybe even Cedric as well, they would have done just as well. And the second task, it was Dobby who got me through that. Again, I had nothing and he gave me some Gillyweed just before the start."
"Who is this Dobby?" Professor Snape asked.
"One of the Hogwarts House Elves," Dumbledore said and Harry decided not to correct him at this time. "Is there a problem Severus?"
"Some one has been stealing from my personal supplied. I had thought it was Potter. But if it was a Hogwarts Elf, I am well aware that it must have been authorized. Still, I can only wonder what Mr. Potter needs with Boomslang skin and Lace Wing Flies. I know you've denied it Potter, but I am still convinced you and your friends are intending to make Polyjuice Potion."
"And why would I need Polyjuice Potion this year?" Harry asked.
"This year?"
Dumbledore actually chuckled for a moment. "Mr. Potter, Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley have actually made that Potion, Severus, but that was over two years ago and I dare say you did not seem to notice the missing supplies then."
"Actually, Hermione brewed it," Harry said. "'Bout all Ron or I could do was read her the directions."
"And steal those ingredients!" Snape shot back.
"That was Hermione as well," Harry said. "She nicked them while you were yelling at Ron and me about something. Can't remember what, though."
"You knew about this, Headmaster?"
Professor Dumbledore nodded. "It would seem the three of them wanted to know if Mr. Malfoy knew who the Heir of Slytherin was. Naturally, if Mr. Malfoy knew, he would not have told them. But he would surely tell his associates Mr. Crabbe, Mr. Goyle and Miss Bulstrode. Unfortunately, while the potion worked, Miss Granger mistakenly used a cat hair and wound up in the Hospital wing."
"You punished them, I assume?" Snape said.
"On what grounds?"
"Theft for one! Surely there were other rules violated!"
"There was no reported theft. As you are well aware, we cannot punish them now for something they did two years ago. I did not feel the need to inquire as to where they acquired their ingredients as they were available by mail order. Furthermore, as the Potion was used during the Christmas Holiday and not in a manner that violated any of the Holiday rules, I saw no need. Besides, I felt that the three weeks Miss Granger spent in Hospital recovering from becoming a Cat Girl was sufficient admonishment. You were talking about time manipulation, Miss Granger?"
Hermione nodded. "At first, I thought about a Time Turner, but ruled that out immediately. I doubted we could justify one, but … Neither you nor Professor McGonagall adequately told me of the risks."
"We most certainly did!" Dumbledore protested.
"Legal and temporal risks," Hermione said. "But not the others."
"Others?"
"For classes, studying and later helping Hagrid with Buckbeak, I figure I was using the Time Turner between five and six days a week and between four and six hours a day. I know I averaged a full extra day each week. But I was not compensating for the additional time. I was not eating more - and as it was all awake time I probably needed to eat the equivalent of nine days of food each week - and I was not sleeping more. I figure now, I should have been sleeping about ten hours a night instead of the seven or so I was getting. I lost weight that year when I should have gained at least some as I did grow a bit. I stopped having my period, but as I was not sexually active - and to be honest didn't miss it really - I thought nothing of it and I should have. But the worst problem was the prolonged sleep deprivation. It caused constant fatigue and stress, mentally, physically and magically. I was less able to think or do anything as before. My reaction time was severely impaired. It's one thing to just be a student and attend classes, another to be a Tri-wizard Champion where you need all your wits and abilities about you. What good would it be to do that to Harry so he could learn more magic only to leave him weak, confused or worse when he had to put those skills to use? It could very well have killed him!
"Time Compression seemed a better solution in many ways. Instead of a few extra hours a day, we could get extra days, weeks and months without the sleep deprivation issues. I created my first such ward back in January in the classroom we were using and it worked. But there were other issues, namely those associated with the temporal rift between outside and inside time. For simple molecules such as air and water, it's not barrier. Anything significantly complex - or larger for that matter, and the temporal rift can rip it apart and this includes any life form including bacteria. It's an amazing defensive ward as no one can get through it alive. But it's a double edged sword. They can't get in and you can't get out."
"Surely you could deactivate the ward?" Dumbledore asked.
"It doesn't work that way," Hermione said. "Unlike most all wards, it's not up all the time. The ward itself is merely a framework upon which the time manipulation magic attaches. The books call the process of activating the ward 'charging' although I think 'programming' is a better term. To activate the ward, I go to the master warding stone. With my wand, I can set the desired Time Compression Ratio and then duration, based upon minutes, hours, or days at that ratio in compressed time - not outside time. Once set, the ward can be activated but it cannot be stopped. It will have to run it's full, programmed course before it shuts down.
"As useful as Time Compression seems, you must understand you are totally cut off from the outside. Nothing can come in practically. If you plan on days, weeks or months under Time Compression, you must have everything you need: food, water, supplies, everything! Admittedly, if water existed through plumbing and such, that would not be a problem, but the other problems remain. I figured that if Harry and I wished to spend lets say a month in that classroom under Time Compression, we'd have to fill most of it with supplies and water barrels - as there was no plumbing. Goodness knows what we'd do for a loo! I tried tossing a chamber pot out the door and wound up wearing it - at least the solids!
"Hence the South Wing," Hermione said. "As there is only one entrance, it was easy to ward and had plenty of space for storage. I made my initial wards by the beginning of March and my basic Time Compression Ward at the same time. It was easier just to do the whole Wing. Now my problem was not storage. We have plumbing in here and I wouldn't need barrels and barrels of water. My problem was everything else. You lot don't teach us about the magical world, really. I figured I either had to nick the food and supplies or buy it and I'm not talking about a little. I knew nothing about Food Distribution and such and I was not thinking Elves. How could I get the necessary supplies? Even if I could, how could I get them here? We eventually figured that out, but until then I was stuck and Harry remained at risk!
"If I had not learned of a way around our logistics problem, I probably still would have used to ward to a limited extent. Even few months extra training would have been better than none, although not nearly as useful as the two extra years he has received. My plan was that beginning around the middle of March, Harry and I would use this space under a compression ratio of one outside hour to a full day inside. We would not need nearly as much in the way of supplies, just three meals per inside day which I felt we could probably get since there would only be two of us. I was even thinking of letting Professor McGonagall know about that."
"Actually, she did Albus," McGonagall said, "although somewhat belatedly. Professor Sprout, Flitwick and I were told on what for you was Saturday and for us was fifteen months ago. All of their parents know of this as well and all but Molly Weasley were here as well for that entire time. Whatever these young people uncovered, we all know. And this list of people includes a newspaper man, the Headmistress of Beauxbatons, the Deputy Minister for Magic of France, and the Heads of British and Italian DMLE and I might add a very, very annoyed Sirius Black. And, while what they ultimately have done might seem … extreme … I dare say once all the information was made available to us, we agreed with what they had done, albeit reluctantly in some cases."
"On March 11th," Hermione continued, "eighteen of us met here almost where we are seated. Aside from the basic wards, nothing else had been done to this wing yet. We met here because it was time to lay all of our pieces on the table and see if we could solve the puzzle. Even though we spent the better part of ten hours going over stuff, we could not go over everything in detail. That we would do later over the course of twelve months in Time Compression as we renovated this Wing. But that first day, we all came to the same conclusions for which there was only one possible solution and from then until our twelve months were up, we went over everything trying to disprove our conclusion or prove there was another way out. The bottom line, short of you dropping dead, this was the only solution."
"Solution to what?" Dumbledore asked.
"You are - or were Harry's Magic Guardian. From the beginning, at the very least you have consistently acted in a manner detrimental to your Ward's best interests, neglecting your responsibilities to such a degree that you could be found unfit and in breach and consistently showing a lack of both common sense and sound judgment. At worst, the facts also support the possibility that you took this position for personal gain even including Line Theft and conspiracy to commit murder."
"I can assure you Miss Granger…"
"Silence!" she said. "The facts support in varying degrees any number of motivations, but without exception, you've been unfit to serve as Harry's Magical Guardian probably from the beginning. Your legal and moral duty was to always act in the best interests of your ward, yet the facts show that most often the exact opposite occurred. To allow you to continue in that role only leads to Harry's death at a young age. And were that to happen, all would be lost."
"I am certain, you cannot be aware of all the facts…"
"If there is anyone here unaware of all the facts, Albus, it is you!" Minerva said. "Continue Miss Granger."
"Although there are some events before that are relevant," Hermione said, "the trigger event that leads to everything occurred in June of 1980 with the Prophecy."
"And what Prophecy would that be?" Albus asked, but his confidence appeared shaken.
Harry then quoted the entire Prophecy verbatim.
"That was unwise…" Dumbledore began without denying it.
"Why? 'Cause Snape's here?" Harry said. "We told you we have interrogation records from DMLE. We know that at the time Snape was still a full blown Death Eater and not working for you in any capacity. That came later. We know he overheard the first part of the Prophecy while Trelawney was making it to you in a room at your brother's tavern in Hogsmeade and that he reported what he had heard to Voldemort as soon as he could. True, there's a chance this might get back to Voldemort someday. I honestly don't care. It won't change a thing as far as I'm concerned because he's already trying to kill me. He tried to do so two or three times my First Year and at least once my Second. And we believe he's somehow connected to my being in this Tournament. There are, after all, two known Death Eaters in this Castle and quite probably a third."
"A third?" Dumbledore asked.
"Snape was on about missing potion ingredients earlier, specifically two that are only used together in Polyjuice Potion. We made a batch for the three of us Second Year nicking those two ingredients from his stores and he never noticed. Yet now he does? My guess is far more has been pilfered recently than during my Second Year which suggest far more of that potion is being made. Why would someone need multiple doses? In particular, that potion is dangerous because it can be addictive and lethal if taken often enough over a long period of time. Someone is risking their life about something. If we assume that someone is now a Death Eater in disguise, getting me dead might be worth that risk to him."
"How did you learn of the Prophecy?" Dumbledore asked.
A document appeared on a screen. "I nicked this from your office First Year," Ginny said. "You left me alone there for a while when you went to fetch my parents. I summoned your files on Harry. You should have known better. I'm a smart, curious, somewhat mischievous girl and a Weasley and in that I am more like Fred, George and Bill than my other brothers. I didn't know what this was or what it had to do with Harry, but somehow it seemed important so I copied it and kept the copy. Parvati knew what this was immediately and also had a copy of Trelawney's Seer Certification from the Department of Mysteries dated the same day which tell who she made a certified prophecy to, but not what it was."
"This was the starting point for a lot of our research," Lucinda said. "We're pretty certain you don't know much about prophecies, Professor. Your record suggests it. You never took Divination in school nor is there any suggestion you studied it to any degree later. Your opinion of that magic was a matter of public record in 1980. As Headmaster, you always sought to end its instruction here and as Chief Warlock end its instruction throughout Britain. You also argued against it in the ICW on numerous occasions. Hardly a year went by without one of your public denunciations. Then, after June of 1980, you were suddenly silent on the matter. Most thought you had given up on it. We think you had begun to accept it to a point.
"But in many ways your former position was not mistaken. Most of Divination is barely magic at all and definitely not reliable. It's best use is in conning gullible Muggles. Seers and prophecies are the most respected, but even they are by no means reliable. No prophecy is ever certain until after it has come to fruition completely, and that is rarely the case. Prophecies are merely a statement of possibilities that if they come to pass may lead to a foreseeable outcome. Only a gullible fool takes them at face value and even those who strive to interpret them need to always consider all the possibilities that could be out there and rule them out. You seldom if ever are able to do that.
"Every word or term here, while important, merely suggest possibilities, not probabilities and not certainties. Power, for example could mean a lot of things. We think it means Magical Potential, for the language does not suggest the One will ever come into it. We think it's magical potential because some of us are capable of measuring it. Harry's the most potentially powerful wizard in this room followed closely by Neville. You, Sir, are a fairly distant third at about a little over half their potential. Again, we're not certain. But this would explain what happened. Voldemort couldn't kill Harry because he's even behind you in magical potential and that curse does not work if the target is significantly more powerful that the attacker. A Killing Curse from anyone certainly could mess these two up, but it won't kill them.
"Their magical potential, their parents war record and their dates of birth for now suggest one of them is the One. We checked the birth records, war records and such for every wizard born within the last thirty years and their parents. In the end, these two currently are the only matches."
"Headmaster," Snape said, "they are clearly deluded somehow. Longbottom's barely more than a Squib!"
"You would be too, Professor," Ginny said, "if instead of your wand you were trying to cast spells with a stick of wood. For the last four years, Neville's been getting by with an unmatched and incompatible wand. In other words, what magic he has managed was borderline wandless magic, a branch of magic only very powerful witches and wizards are capable of developing to any extent at all!"
"And now?" Dumbledore asked.
"During our first day in time compression," Hermione replied, "we learned this and that Neville was a near match for Ginny's wand. He used that during his first nine months of training under Time Compression. Thursday, we went to Diagon Alley and Grngotts and among other things, Neville bought a matched wand from Ollivander's."
"You said Harry and Mr. Longbottom are currently the only match for the One in the Prophecy." Dumbledore said. "I'm afraid I must disagree. It's only Harry."
"That is by no means certain. It is a possibility and no more than that. Assuming Voldemort is the Dark Lord referred to of course," Lucinda continued. "Assuming that, if Harry and Hermione have a son born at the end of July, that boy would also meet this criteria has the two of them have probably defied Voldemort at least three times each."
"Specifically," Hermione said, "twice First Year. First when Quirrell tried to curse Harry's broom during his first Quidditch match and finally when we stopped him from getting the Stone. We believe Second Year counts as well."
"However," Lucinda continued, "while we rule nothing out, for argument sake we will assume it's either Neville or Harry, especially because you and Voldemort believe that to be the case at least in regards to Harry and this is what that is all about. Assuming that, unless Voldemort marks one of them as an equal, this Prophecy means nothing."
"The scar," Dumbledore began.
"May very well be nothing more than a scar. Remember, he survived the Curse because in terms of magical potential, Voldemort is barely above a squib in comparison. As Neville is almost as powerful, had Voldemort attacked him first the result would probably have been the same. And, as it turns out, Voldemort's plans that night were to attack both families. Harry's were chosen first. They were the more exposed of the two families. The ensuing chaos would give Voldemort time to get through the Longbottom's defenses and do them too."
"But he speaks parsletongue," Dumbledore began.
"As do most the descendant of Slytherin," Harry said. "No, I am not his heir, just the head of a Cadet Line, but he is my ancestor. Many Potters had the ability although they kept it hidden due to the notoriety. I, of course, knew nothing about any of that."
"We believe that if the preconditions of this Prophecy come to pass - and we will not say that they have - only the One can Defeat the Dark Lord. Neither is immortal. They can physically die in numerous ways. But if the One kills the Dark Lord, that defeat is final and absolute. That's another reason we're not willing to say Harry's been marked. If he was when Voldemort attacked his family and died trying to kill Harry, the Prophecy should have been fulfilled but that does not seem to be the case at all! The only way for the Dark Lord to win is to kill the One. Until one kills the other, neither side can lose, but neither side can win. It's winner take all."
"We are fairly certain you don't see it that way," Hermione said. "We believe you believe Harry must die. The phrase about dying at the hands of the other should not be read literally. We believe it means to cause, facilitate or be the cause of the death. Assuming this Prophecy is about those two, if anyone kills Harry because of Voldemort, whether it was another Death Eater or someone who believes Harry's death is essential in dealing with Voldemort, we lose and he wins! And as we believe you interpret this Prophecy as requiring Harry to die to defeat Voldemort, you must be stopped lest you hand over our world to him! We believe that in addition to your numerous other failings, your inability or refusal to do even basic research is inexcusable!"
"I am certain I am right about this," Dumbledore began.
"Certainty in many matters is either the result of irrefutable proof or a sign of foolishness, ignorance, immaturity or insanity! Since there is no proof you are correct, it must be one of the others! But even arguing your point, it does not explain or excuse most of what you've done! Your errors in judgment are too numerous and inexplicable even if we concede your point, and we do not because while we are not certain of the truth, we are certain you're wrong! You believe Harry must die because of the Prophecy, but your actions before October 31st are mostly inconsistent with that statement. Not long after Harry and Neville were born, you overruled DMLE's refusal to grant their fathers and indefinite leave of absence - their mothers were already on one - and this was at a time when the Aurors and Hit Wizard arguably needed every wand! You then placed both the Longbottoms and Potters under the Fidelius. If you truly believed back then that either boy was the One and his death was necessary, you probably would not have made it that difficult for Voldemort and the fact that Frank and James requested a leave of absence suggests you told them of the Prophecy, which you would not have done if you believed it could only be fulfilled through their sons' deaths. Why give them protection?
"Following the death of the Longbottom's Secret Keeper Fabian Prewett, you recommended changing both secret keepers. Your judgment at that time was seriously lacking in many respects, but that is also inconsistent with desiring their deaths unless you knew Pettigrew and Crouch were Death Eater spies. You didn't even recommend Pettigrew. That was only after Sirius suggested him after you demanded the Potters change. You said Sirius was too well known and too exposed. You didn't know he was a dog most of the time and was actually safer than you were. And according to interrogation transcripts, Fabian's death was unrelated to his being a Secret Keeper. He was killed because his Combat Team was a major pain for the Death Eaters. Moody was also targeted at that time.
"No, your bizarre pattern of behavior began after Harry's parents were killed. Sirius was the first on the scene and found Harry. He had ample time to kill the boy, but didn't. Harry's power might protect him from a Killing Curse, but not strangulation, suffocation, or having his head bashed in. You arrived sometime later. After Sirius told you all he had found out, you allowed him to take Harry to St. Mungo's for treatment as he was injured. We have his records. It says nothing about Harry surviving a killing curse or defeating Voldemort, only that he was a victim of a Death Eater attack on his home. Only you and Sirius may have suspected that and Sirius remained at St. Mungo's for some time. But it was all front page news the next day before Sirius and Harry left the Hospital!"
"The wizarding world needed to know…" Dumbledore began.
"That Voldemort was gone? I can buy that! But the specific circumstances of his demise? Harry's a minor! You were under no obligation to reveal that fact, particularly without proof! Also, that very morning you had yourself installed as Harry's Magical Guardian under the Orphan's Act. Rather odd that! Sirius Black was not in Azkaban and as Harry's Godfather had a superior claim to the Head of the Wizengamot. Harry's Grandfather was still alive! There were other trustworthy surviving magical relations all with superior claims namely the Weasleys and the Tonks! The only way you could legally and properly claim that status was if there were not qualified magical relations left!"
"I felt expedience was necessary…"
"Which gave you only temporary authority. Under the law, you had to later step down if a superior claimant came forward and three did: the Weasleys, Tonks and Harry's Grandfather!"
"I felt with all his fame…"
"Which was your fault entirely, wasn't it? Only you could have spilled the beans at that time. Without you doing so, Harry would have only been a kid with a scar on his head, not the bloody Boy-Who-Lived!
"Then, you finally arrive at St. Mungo's and convince Sirius to hand Harry over so you could find a safe place for him. SIRIUS TRUSTED YOU! Then you had Hagrid take Harry to the Dursleys on Sirius's motorbike and Sirius headed off after Pettigrew, and the Dursley had already been a part of your plan as we know McGonagall had been stationed at their house since not long after dawn! Even under emergency authority, that was beyond what was allowed, leaving Harry with Muggles!"
"It was necessary for his protection," Dumbledore began.
"Which was only necessary because your foolishness placed his life in unnecessary danger. And don't go on about the wards! They were not the only option! And blood wards are borderline dark to begin with! You won't condone killing animals like the Death Eaters, and yet dabble in borderline dark arts? Some leader of the light, you are! Then Sirius gets chucked into Azkaban. Before you say it, we are very familiar with the Emergency Acts and know it was not in and of it self suspicious. But at some point after the Acts were suspended, his case was supposed to be reviewed. Maybe it just slipped through the cracks. But of the several who were also incarcerated without investigation or trial under the Acts, he was the only one who never received a review! What is even more suspicious is that after Mr. Crouch was forced to resign as Head of DMLE, your good friend and loyal follower Deadalus Diggle became head of DMLE and remained such until Sirius escaped. Madam Bones replaced him and wanted to reopen his file, only to be stepped on by Fudge, quite possibly with your initial backing although that's just a guess. Perhaps the only decent thing you truly have done for Harry in all of this is allow him and me to help Sirius escape Fudge and his Dementor fetish last year!"
"I knew it!" Snape sneered.
"SILENCE!" Hermione shot back.
Snape would never have stood for that at all. But something prevented him from responding.
"Following Sirius's being thrown into prison," Hermione said, "which at least until such time as he was released disqualified him despite the fact that even without a Will as Harry's Godfather his claim to Guardianship is the most senior, no less than seven challenges to your Guardianship were filed against you. Three were from Pureblood families with no family connection to Harry and Death Eater connections so they were properly denied. One was by Lucius Malfoy. His wife was a cousin and had a claim, but again his Death Eater affiliations were sufficient to disqualify him. The other three were withdrawn, all under at least somewhat suspicious circumstances. One was by Harry's Grandfather, although giving you the benefit of a great deal of doubt, the withdrawal was after he became ill, an illness that would later claim his life. The other was from another magical cousin Andy Tonks. She had no Death Eater connection, but one of her sisters was one and the other married to one so that might explain it. The last is less explicable. It was by the Weasleys and they were very persistent for a time. Then, they too withdrew their challenge.
"Then again, you did pay them a rather hefty bribe…"
"I most certainly did not!" Dumbledore protested, although his conviction was already failing.
Another document appeared on the screen. There had already been several, proving they had the evidence to support their facts. This one was the Betrothal Contract for Harry and Ginny. Dumbledore really did not know how they found it, but knew it was real enough.
"A betrothal contract is not a bribe…" he began.
"No? Ginny may be a Pureblood, but her family has little wealth, connections or political pull and Harry was the Heir Apparent to a very wealthy, Ancient and Noble House. It's a fine match for the Weasleys. While Ginny has managed quite well on her own in terms of marriage, this contract is highly out of the ordinary based solely upon the Bride and Bridegroom. That it's not open ended is also suspect. A contract like this, while technically legal, hasn't been seen in over a hundred years, the last one was well before even you were born. They are to marry before Ginny turns fifteen, which even under contract requires the Bride to be pregnant. The contract authorizes magical means to bring it to fruition, including potions. Ordinarily, use of those kinds of potions on an adult, much less a minor is illegal and would earn all involved a sojourn in Azkaban. This does fall within a legal loophole, but it's still morally repugnant. Finally, there's the fact that the Weasley's effectively received around twenty-four thousand galleons for their baby. Fourteen were in tuition reductions and the rest up front. That was more than three times what they were making at the time and far more than by custom Ginny was worth at that age since it was still too soon to know precisely how she'd turn out. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it usually is a duck.
"Now back to Harry. Under Muggle law, when the Dursleys found him they were supposed to report that to the authorities. They have no legal guardianship papers and just because they're relatives, it does not give them any absolute rights over Harry. They needed those papers! But no report was made for years, not until Harry was to be enrolled in Muggle Primary School. They apparently claimed to have just found him, despite numerous reports of a boy like Harry in their neighborhood describing him accurately and as a homeless or vagabond child. To the Muggle Authorities, this looked like a kidnapping but they lacked evidence to go forward! The Dursleys also lacked the required health records, most critically immunization records that the Muggle require for all school aged students. He got his shots and an exam. The exam found his condition was consistent with prolonged physical abuse and neglect and he was suffering from malnutrition. This was properly reported to the Muggle Authorities whose report said that they believed the Dursleys had only recently taken Harry in and the abuse was from another source. But this was not the only report.
"Reports of new and ongoing abuse were made practically up until Harry started Hogwarts. His school filed no less than fifteen over the years. He never had the same healthcare provider. Apparently, every single one filed a complaint. Finally, his neighbor Mrs. Arabella Figg filed no less that twenty-three herself."
Dumbledore visibly paled.
"According to Harry, he was often left with her when the Dursleys wanted to go out. If they hired a sitter for his Cousin, he still wound up with Mrs. Figg. She was a retired school teacher and had been a highly respected child welfare advocate and had taught courses on detecting possible child abuse to other educators. Her reports should have been considered credible.
"We now know, she's actually a Squib and was a member of the Order of the Phoenix - your organization - during the last War. No doubt, she also reported this to you as she probably knew who Harry really was."
"I considered her reports exaggerated," Dumbledore said. "She was always somewhat fanatic about that and … well such abuse doesn't happen in our world."
"It does," Hermione said, "it's just not as well known or common, although it's uncommon in the Muggle World as well. Still, whether you believed her or not, as Harry's Guardian you were at least morally if not legally obligated to follow up and, if it was happening, remedy the situation even if that meant removing Harry from that home wards or not! In my world, you could be prosecuted, tried, convicted and imprisoned for abuse and neglect simply because you allowed it to happen as Harry's Guardian!
"We also know, that aside from the first report of abuse when Harry was first being enrolled, none of the others were even investigated even though the law required it. The local officials charged with those investigations were arrested in 1992 on charges of extortion and accepting bribes. The Dursleys were not implicated, but given that they've received twelve thousand Pounds a year for his care and spent hardly any of it on him, it suggests they may have paid bribes. Either that, or someone paid on their behalf. Harry's case is consistent with the ones that went to trial and there were several. The bribe payers are also in prison now having been sold out by the bribe takers in hopes of a reduced sentence. It was the extortion victims who ultimately brought this to light and some of them lost a lot as that allowed competent authorities to reopen the abuse investigations and at least some were found to be legitimate cases. The Dursleys escaped … until now. Once Gringotts Muggle Solicitors get involved, this will come out and in addition to losing almost everything, they might well find themselves in prison as well!"
"I said before, you will ruin them," Dumbledore said. "It is imperative that this does not happen."
"No it's not and no we are not! Muggle law will ruin them and they only have themselves to blame. And you should pray they don't implicate you, 'cause the Muggles would be after you too! You mean to say Harry needs to return to the Dursleys. We not only disagree, we firmly have no faith in your borderline incompetent warding schemes! A fidelius charm? Useful, but as this history has shown, it's far from fool proof! Compared to wards, charms are easily broken or breakable! This wing is under a ward, not a charm. While Ginny is our Secret Keeper, the secret does not lie within her, but within the Ward. She can't reveal it to anyone! Not unless the Ward Master - and there are actually six of us - let her! Even then, unless we decide to key you into the Wards, the secret will be lost to you forever once you leave this Wing! We have multiple layers of wards on this place beyond the ones we've mentioned. The Hogwarts Wards are the outer defense, but even if they were to fail or fall into the wrong hands, we still have layers and layers! To get in, you have to either gain control of our Wards or break them. And, as our Wards are an integral part of the Wing itself - not one exterior Ward Stone - you can't break them unless you get in. Even then, our six Ward Masters are the only ones who can find the specific ward stones, as they are a part of the very walls, and none of us know where any of the ones we did not create ourselves are! They are all hidden. They can't be broken from outside and even from inside, it would take Ward Breakers months or years to find them all and deactivate them which is what this scheme requires! You relied on standard home wards and the Fidelius Charm for the Potters and Longbottoms and a questionable Blood Ward for the Dursleys. We are not so foolish. We have no less than thirty-five wards if you include what we know of Hogwarts, each one must be defeated. If Hogwarts is truly the safest place in Britain as you maintain, but my first three years here contradict, this is even safer! If Harry is in danger, this is now his redoubt. Our defenses are not totally foolproof, but we are the only ones who can make a mistake and let the wrong sort in. Given the fact that Harry's no longer legally your Ward and as Headmaster you otherwise have no authority over him outside of school term, he will never return to the Dursleys."
"They'd rather I'd not," Harry said. "And their house is tiny. There's no way my wives and I and our children would fit and there's no way I'd go there without them. Add into it the fact they may well lose their house and might even be sent away to a Muggle prison, there really is no point in it."
Dumbledore still believed he was right. He still knew things they did not and could not. But he said nothing. At the very least, he knew he had been outmaneuvered more effectively than at any point in his life that he could recall.
"Harry's first experience with the magical world and his first few years at Hogwarts are also suspicious," Hermione went on. "He was Muggle raised. Under school practice and policy, his Hogwarts letter would be hand delivered by a Professor…"
"Hagrid…" Dumbledore began.
"Showed up finally about two weeks after the first of hundreds of letters were delivered by Owl Post. No Muggle Raised student has received their letter by Post that we've been able to find and not even the magically raised received more than three and in those cases it was because there was reason to believe the earlier ones had not been received at all. And Hagrid was not a Professor then. We've since learned that Professor McGonagall and Professor Sprout deliver the news to Muggle Raised students. And then Hagrid shows Harry his vault, also totally unnecessary and unusual as even the Pureblood children generally are not taken into the Gringotts Vaults at that age. And Hagrid never told Harry how to get to the train! According to Harry, Hagrid told him when they took the train from where his relatives were hiding from your owls, that he'd never been on one before! That means he was never on the Hogwarts Express and couldn't have told Harry how to get on Platform Nine and Three Quarters even if he wanted to! Our first two years were highly suspicious as well. But they don't point squarely at your actions as Harry's Guardian, only at your judgment as Headmaster so we'll leave that be. We already discussed Third Year, although I think you were merely throwing Harry a bone!
"This year's another thing entirely! Even if Harry had somehow managed to trick the Cup and put his name in, it was irrelevant! The old rules - supposedly avoided by this years age line but apparently not - did not allow that to bind any underage witch or wizard to compete! Only their parents and magical guardians consent could! In other words, the only reason Harry is competing in this tournament at all is because YOU consented on his behalf! As Harry's Guardian, it is your JOB to look out for his best interests always and always above any other considerations! You have utterly failed him! We know you're fond of justifying your actions to others for some Greater Good. Legally and morally, as a child's guardian, their good trumps any and all other possible considerations! You're Greater Good, whatever it is, cannot justify your actions this time! If your Greater Good was so damned important, you should never have taken on the role as Harry's Guardian!
"So, for Harry's Greater Good and we believe the Greater Good of most all, you had to be taken out of his life, or at least out of control over it, Professor Dumbledore. We all believed it then. Everyone we've explained it to is in agreement even if they did not accept our solution at first! Killing you was an option, but in addition to believing we'd fail, we did not want to risk Azkaban or a Dementor's Kiss unless it was the only option."
"If it was the only option, I'd have given it a shot," Harry said.
Dumbledore visibly paled.
"We also doubted you'd voluntarily emancipate Harry or step down as his guardian even with this evidence," Hermione continued, "or that legally challenging you would succeed. Ginny was all but convinced she and Harry would be potioned up this summer in the hopes that they'd go at it like bunnies and get a bun in her oven by the end of this summer. We now know that was your plan thanks to our time with Mr. Weasley. We also know he and Mrs. Weasley were opposed to it and tried to refuse. They managed to keep Professor Snape out of it. While you may trust him, they don't. Certainly not with their daughter's welfare and we now know that Mrs. Weasley used her permissions to Harry's vault to withdraw five thousand Galleons a few weeks ago, most likely to hire a Potions Master whom they could trust. Hence, Harry would have to emancipate himself as soon as possible and before this Summer in any event! The only realistic option meant getting married, which meant getting his bride pregnant first and which meant a bride other than Ginny! Were Ginny to form another binding marriage of her own, that contract would be voided!"
"It seems rather rash," Dumbledore said hoping to regain control of the situation.
"Rash?" Hermione asked. "Rash would be taking action without bothering to collect as much information as possible and without considering all possible ramifications, something you've been doing consistently and given that you've had thirteen years to gather the information and question and test your original assumptions, it's gone from rash to reckless! For example, you never bothered to check the Ministry Records Office when you entered that betrothal contract for Ginny on Harry's behalf, did you?"
"There was no need," Dumbledore said, "as his Guardian, I could effective void any pre-existing contracts."
"WRONG! You could void MOST kinds of pre-existing contracts. But you're merely his Guardian, not the Head of the Ancient and Noble House of Potter. Your status does not allow you to void a pre-existing betrothal contract between two Ancient and Noble Houses!"
Another document was now on the screen. It was a copy of the Line Continuation Contract between House Potter and House Abbott. "You are aware of Line Continuation Contracts?"
"I've heard of them," Dumbledore said. Hermione then explained what they were just to be sure. "As you can see, unless there was a wizard out there somewhere willing to give up any and every claim or right he had including his name, this contract would go forward. It allows Harry to sire the next generation of House Abbott and it allows him to take a wife of his own for House Potter. This contract would be binding upon Hannah's twenty-first birthday when she became old enough to take the Abbott seat in the Wizengamot. It could also be enforced anytime prior once Harry married his Lady Potter.
"And, by legally taking two wives, it triggers the Plural Marriage laws. Even if Ginny had been forced to marry Harry, this would still have happened and we know you never considered this possibility because you made no arrangements for it. Harry could then be forced to take a Half-Blood and a Muggle Born wife! At first I wondered why a Muggle Born might agree to this. Now I know many would jump at the chance to marry into an Ancient and Noble line given their prospects in our society otherwise. It's the Half-bloods that should have concerned you. There are eligible, half-blood witches at this school, like Millicent Bulstrode, whose families were supporters of the Death Eaters during the last War, if not Death Eaters themselves! By not planning to close that door, you were potentially giving the enemies of House Potter access, influence and maybe control of the estate and, more importantly its seat and votes in the Wizengamot!"
Dumbledore looked visibly older and deflated.
"That explains Potter," Snape said, "and no more than four wives. It does not explain Longbottom or why they each have nine wives."
"While Dumbledore has arguably continually misused Harry, he's ignored Neville altogether. As we believe it's not certain Harry is the One, this means Neville may be the One. Dumbledore is betting our worlds future on a single role of the die! We are not! Then there's the fact that to void Dumbledore's contract, Ginny had to marry someone else. Neville was the only real option. Finally, there was also a Line Continuation Contract between House Longbottom and House Bones, equally binding on Neville and Susan as the one on Harry and Hannah.
"As for the nine wives, we agreed each of us would decide both if we'd marry and who we would marry. While we made our initial decision early on, it was not binding. We all had over twelve months to think about it and change our minds. The only ones truly stuck were Ginny, Susan and Hannah, and they didn't see it that way. For the rest of us, we could back out anytime before we actually got pregnant. The Muggle Borns did not because we knew by then we'd have few opportunities in this world unless we married very well and we can no longer realistically go back to the Muggle world and do much better. For many of the others, there were betrothal agreements out there they'd rather avoid or their families were under increasing pressure from the Death Eater factions for betrothals. By marrying Harry or Neville, in addition to ending such pressure for them it places their families under Longbottom or House protection. Their younger sisters are off the market as well.
"In the case of Michelle, there was a betrothal agreement she wanted out of. Then there's Gabrielle. She had no such agreement, but she's Veela. We think someone tried to kill her for that reason. The 'order' to use her as a hostage came from our own Ministry and was not passed on to her Headmistress and, as a Veela, full immersion in water can destroy her magic. Had Harry not rescued her, she would have surely died. That triggered both her change and her Bonding. Her magic bonded with Harry. That means she either had to marry Harry or not at all! We consider it a good thing in the end. Given that both Michelle's and Gabrielle's fathers are very senior officials in foreign Ministries, to act against us will be considered an international incident.
"We all made this decision of our own free will. That being said, without Time Compression, it could not have been possible. We could have been caught even prior to conception. There are not exactly a lot of places in this school to get that intimate, and we all would have to be intimate with Harry or Neville just about every day. That surely would have been noticed at some point. Even if not, we can't skip our monthly appointments with Madam Pomfrey and she would have noticed at the very least that we were off the contraceptive potion and taking fertility potions, assuming we weren't already pregnant. We still do not know your motivations, sir, but we know you are powerful both politically and magically and believed you could have stopped us if you knew about this early on. Most likely, had we done this in normal time and assuming you could not convince us or our parents to annul the marriages, you could have amended the marriage code to eliminate that option or, at the very least, eliminate the automatic emancipation. Our plan was not safe from your machinations unless we gave birth to healthy, magical babies and bonded with them, which can occur as late as four months after birth. Until then, our plan was vulnerable. With Time Compression, however, we girls only needed about fourteen or fifteen hours to go from where we were a week ago and where we are now. We used this Holiday, because it gave us more than enough time to do that and take care of business in Diagon Alley. It also allowed us to bring our families here to be with us. They were with us for fifteen months, through most of our pregnancies and since - and for many of us, our mothers' pregnancies as well. I won't say they were overjoyed to learn of this, but once all the facts were before them, they accepted it and came to support it and us. Another layer of defense. You won't find them eager to support you."
"I will agree your marital situation is now unassailable," Dumbledore said. "I will even agree you may have felt you had good reason to take this action. But, while you have many facts, some are missing. While I might concede you may have learned more about prophecies than I bothered to, I am still not convinced that my error was simply a question of linguistics. There were other facts involved. Facts which support my conclusion that Harry is both the One and, while destined to defeat Voldemort, cannot hope to survive the encounter."
"And you are again wrong," Hermione said. "We are almost certain as to why you think that way. If we are right, then you are totally wrong. It would be, in fact, a failed homework assignment which even the most liberal teacher would be forced to consider giving you a Troll for a mark!"