"Albus Dumbledore lied as often as he could in order to ensure things went his way," said Porpentina. "I certainly would not put it past the man to lie to his old colleague in order to keep the philosopher's stone for his own."
Scrimgeour nodded thoughtfully before turning his attention back to Newt and asking "Mr Scamander, perhaps you could tell me exactly what you relationship with Albus Dumbledore is, or was."
Newt sighed and drew his wand. With one flick he conjured up a comfortable looking armchair for his wife and then another for himself. As the he and his wife sat, he gestured that the two aurors do the same.
Scrimgeour and Dawlish each conjured their own seats and sat down to listen.
"At one time," began Newt "I considered Albus Dumbledore a friend. An ally. A confidant. When I first started Hogwarts, Dumbledore had not been there long, about five or six years. He taught transfiguration then and, though I was a Hufflepuff and he usually had more to do with the Gryffindors, he seemed to take an interest in me. I wasn't particularly good at transfiguration, but when the time came that I could take part in Care of Magical Creatures, he really encouraged me. He told me he saw great potential in me, that he thought I would make a great magi zoologist one day
"Then one day near the end of my sixth year, we all got outside for our lesson, only to be informed by Professor Brown that Professor Turpin was ill and that we were to take our books out and spend the lesson studying. That is when I made my mistake.
"We had been told by Professor Turpin in the previous lesson that we were going to be studying the Graphorn and I knew that Professor Turpin had had a live one brought in for us all to see. I was so sure that I knew what I was doing when I led the class over to that paddock, but because of that, Archibald Dearborn couldn't walk for the next three months. It was only the timely return of Professor Brown that prevented the Graphorn from killing Archie outright.
"Obviously I was expelled. I mean, really, how could I not have been? But Dumbledore was against it. I remember him marching into the meeting Professor Dippet was having with myself and my parents, arguing vehemently against my expulsion."
Newt paused for a moment, looking down at the floor before continuing "I was so grateful at the time to have someone on my side that I didn't even question his actions. Looking back though, in light of what has been revealed lately, it seems that I was lined up to be the first of his collection. "
"Yes," said Scrimgeour. "That does sound rather like some of the tales we had heard from the various members of The Order of the Phoenix. Did he ever ask you to join up?"
"Oh he tried," answered Newt. "But by then the bridges between us had been well and truly burnt?"
"How so?" queried Dawlish.
At that Porpentina gave a light laugh and said "Well, I suppose it all started with me. Or rather, it started with Newt's decision to marry me. Albus Dumbledore never exactly approved of me."
"Why?" pressed Scrimgeour. "Our records show that Albus' mother Kendra was an American, so I fail to see how he could object to a friend marrying an American witch."
Porpentina smiled and quipped "Ah, but it isn't the 'American' part that he had trouble with."
After allowing the two Aurors a few moments to let her statement sink in, she continued "Yes, dear Newton here goes all through Hogwarts and more than a decade after, chasing after magical beasts seemingly without any interest whatsoever in the females of his own species. Then he ventures off to New York for a couple of months and then comes back with me on his arm. Poor old Albus was most disappointed. Though admittedly, that was only the start of the breakdown of their friendship."
"What put an end to it?" inquired Dawlish, who wasn't entirely comfortable with the subject just discussed.
"Dumbledore and his publishing of the Twelve Uses for Dragon's Blood," said Newt. "I begged him not to do it. I pleaded with him. But Albus Dumbledore does what he wants with little to no regard for anyone else. 'It's for the Greater Good' he said in that insistent way of his.
"If all twelve uses were medicinal then I could understand, but only half of them are. I mean, really! Why bother advertising the fact that dragon's blood makes a good oven cleaner when a scourgify spell does the job just as well?"
"Within a year there was a massive black market in dragon blood and now, forty years later, two species, the Catalonian Fireball and the Portuguese Long-Snout are extinct while the other ten are confined to what the International Confederation of Wizards like to insist are called 'reserves' when we all know they are actually 'farms'."
"Dumbledore likes to preach about how wizards should treat our fellow magical creatures with the care and respect they deserve, but ultimately he is just as thoughtless as most."
With a flick of a wand the small golden cup floated up into the air and began to rotate. At the right angle, the image of a badger could be seen.
"What do you think?" asked Cyrus Greengrass.
Next to him Saul Croaker gave a nod. "Oh, yes. It's a horcrux alright."
"Can you be sure that it's his?" asked King Ragnok from his seat on the opposite side of his black marble desk.
"According to our investigations, a cup like this is one of the items that was reported missing by the Smith family shortly after the death of Hepzibah Smith. Assuming that the Smith family's claim of being directly descended from Helga Hufflepuff is true…"
"It is," confirmed Ragnok.
"Then it seems that we can confirm that Tom Riddle did indeed steal this from her," finished Cyrus. "It is unlikely that he would have given it to someone else, therefore it is safe to assume that the fragment of soul contained within belongs to him."
"Have you a way to destroy it?" asked Ragnok.
"Fiendfyre will do it," answered Croaker. "However, that is not an easy spell to contain once it has started."
Ragnok thought for a moment before getting out of his seat and walking around his desk.
"Come," he said. "We will take it down to one of our empty high security vaults. They are designed to survive a great deal of damage. If they won't contain the flames until they run out of things to burn, nothing will."
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