"Now, Barty, don't get in a huff," Minister Bagnold said indulgently as she checked her hair to see if it was dry. "We all know Hagrid means well and was doing his best. It's not like he has magic to call upon; his wand was snapped years ago," she said with a wave. "Albus, you know I support the things you do for us but you really should try to avoid these things. The Ministry's involved now."
"And using methods against our enemies which are far too harsh," Albus said mournfully. "These are our brothers and sisters. While we should strive to stop them whenever possible, we should be reaching out to them with love and friendship so they might see the error or their ways."
Lester snorted and Crouch didn't look convinced.
"Tell that to the people they've killed, to the children they've left orphaned, to the Obliviators I've had working overtime for months to cover for their - and your - actions," he said with a fiery gleam in his eye; Lester had forgotten how worked up the man could get before it all went to hell. "I for one think you all need to be brought to heel, and I'm happy to start with your group," the man told Dumbledore. "I intend to see charges brought against Rubius Hagrid for this serious breach of Secrecy, and on you for sending him there in violation of Ministry procedures."
"Barty, you can't go charging Dumbledore," Bagnold said, removing the curlers from her hair. "The public would have your head, and mine. Let it be," she ordered. "I am curious though how you knew to send him in the first place."
"Ah," Dumbledore said sagely, "when the Potters went into hiding for good, shortly after the birth of their son, I was instrumental in helping them erect certain monitoring charms," he explained. "So when Lord Voldemort-," Albus's eyes darted curiously to the Minister for a moment when she squeaked at the name and almost fell from her chair. "-attacked the Potter home, I was alerted at once. And while I am sad to say that help was unable to arrive in time to prevent their deaths, Hagrid was available to tend to the survivor."
"Survivor?" Bagnold asked shocked as she righted herself in her chair. "Y-You-Know-Who has never left survivors before."
"I do not believe there has ever been an attack like this before," Dumbledore said seriously. "The monitoring charms noted only one person arrive before the attack began, meaning that Voldemort went alone. Another charm noted a Blasting Curse, presumably to gain entry, followed quickly by a Killing Curse," the old man recited, his eyes losing a great deal of their customary twinkle. "Mere moments later: a spell was used to force open a barricade and two other Killing Curses."
"Two?" Crouch asked, making notes of his own. "A parent and child? How many children did the Potters have? And what happened to the assailant? He just decided to leave?"
"James and Lily had only an infant son, Harry," Albus said. "But as to what happened, that remains a mystery," he said nebulously. "Shortly after the last Killing Curse was cast a second person entered the house. This person entered and left quickly, leaving behind the survivor of whatever caused the house to become the ruin you described, Bartemius. I cannot say for certain what happened to Voldemort-"
Minister Bagnold inhaled sharply at the name, and Lichfield would've rolled his eyes if it weren't so commonplace, even today, more than a decade later.
"-But I can say this," Dumbledore continued. "Out of all the attacks, Harry Potter is the one boy who lived."
"Fascinating," Bagnold breathed, trying to hide her previous discomfort by fanning herself, as if it were the story itself that she'd been reacting to. "You'd make quite the storyteller, Albus," she said with a pat on the man's arm.
"Thank you," Albus said with a slight blush.
'I wonder if I could remind Skeeter of that before she goes to press, ' Lester thought as he poked a chair within the memory to see if it were solid enough to sit upon. It didn't have any give at all, but it seemed like it would do the job, so he sat.
"A second person?" Crouch asked with narrow eyes. "Who was it, why did they enter, and why would they leave the child?"
"To that I cannot say," Dumbledore said. "The spell was a simple one, merely intended to detect arrivals and departures. Though I said it would be prudent to have, they did not see the need for a more complex system in place since anyone who arrived would be an invited guest. That simplicity also made it more durable though," he explained. "Had they opted for one which relayed that specific knowledge to me, the spell may have ceased to function since the house was heavily damaged by that time, leaving us without this information at all.
"As to why this second person would be there," Albus went on to say, "to that I can only conjecture. Perhaps it was a friend who chose the wrong moment to stop by, though the timing would indicate otherwise," he said sorrowfully. "I believe this second person went there out of love."
"Love?" Bagnold asked curiously.
"Specifically, that of Remorseful Love, of Regret," Dumbledore explained. "I believe, though I am in no way sure, that this second person was the Potters' friend and betrayer, their Secret Keeper."
"A Fidelius?" the Minister asked. "That's a spell well beyond my-m-most people's abilities," she corrected herself. "The Ministry is most fortunate to have you, Albus."
Dumbledore opened his mouth to respond but once again Crouch's look turned cold.
"And wouldn't you have been Secret Keeper for this house, Dumbledore?" he asked pointedly, drawing bulging eyes from the Minister between them.
Albus looked at him sadly.
"While I offered my services in that regard, the Potters did not require my assistance," he replied. "James was quite powerful and capable of casting the charm himself, as was his wife. And though I offered to be the Secret Keeper for them, he was determined to use his best friend: Sirius Black."
"Black?" Crouch cried, as if things were suddenly making sense and whipped out a purple memo parchment. "We need an arrest warrant for him sent out immediately," the Ministry's top law enforcer declared. "There was a report almost two years ago about two dark-haired men on a flying motorbike. Black and Potter?" he asked Dumbledore pointedly.
"Ah, I do believe you could be right," Albus replied jovially. "Arrest might be premature though," Dumbledore said with a soothing gesture as Bartemius let his memo fly. "There are many questions to be answered, not least amongst them: was he the really the Secret Keeper and, if so, why did he betray his friends?"
"Was he really-?" the Minister asked flummoxed, and Lester sat back not too far from it. He hadn't expected Dumbledore to be Black's advocate in this. "How can you even ask that? You said yourself the Potters were insistent on it."
"And yet they could have changed their mind," Dumbledore pointed out. "They were a very clever group, and until we ask we can never truly know."
"Clever - or some might say stupid - enough to deceive the leader of their cohort?" Crouch scoffed.
"The Order of the Phoen-," Albus tried to correct the other man only to be overridden.
"Why would they lie to you when their lives were on the line?" he asked. "Asking such a loaded question only gives him room to wriggle away. We know enough as it is," Crouch said firmly. "I'll have him found and thrown in Azkaban by the end of the day. Such betrayal cannot go unpunished."
"Without a trial?" Bagnold asked. "The Wizengamot would never allow it."
.....
Want to read ahead. Then Join my P@treon 60+ exclusive chapters that are waiting for you.
Free members can get 2 advanced chapters FOR FREE.
Link: ptreon.com/Lotus_Lover
Join Right Now