Chapter 7: A Strange and Curious Thing
Albus Dumbledore frowned as he popped a lemon drop into his mouth as he looked at the eviction notice he got from Gringotts, excuse him, Gold Bank.
This was unexpected and so odd.
Come to think of it, things have been sort of odd since he got back from Baden Baden.
He still couldn't believe the bank was foreclosing on the school.
It had really taken up more of his attention than he liked, especially when Lucius Malfoy had tried to go all-political on the board.
Seriously, who did he think he was, Frank Underwood?
Dumbledore admitted he had watched way too much muggle TV during the break. That show was so entertaining to binge on, especially when one was getting a massage by a cute piece of ass.
Dumbledore smiled as he thought about his massage attendant, Heinrich, such a lovely young man.
Alas, fantasy involving hunky German massage attendants had to wait as he tried to figure out how to deal with this whole foreclosure mess. None of his insiders at Gringotts…no, Gold Bank…were willing to help him if they were still at the bank.
He was going to have to go there and try to get an audience with the owner himself. He hated doing that.
Getting too overly involved always made him feel like he was making himself too visible.
Yes, visible.
As garish as the robes he wore might've been—today he was wearing a Lily Pulitzer inspired flamingo and palm trees printed number—he did like to be under the radar. That's why he never tried to get a position in the ministry, despite all the Dumbledore is Dope campaigns that many of his former pupils had had held.
In fact, there were only a few times that Dumbledore since his ill relationship with his ex lover had gotten involved in situations were when things called for desperate intervention.
Usually just a nudge or two from him would be enough to get others to do his bidding. Like James and Lily adopting Harry, and going as far as to making everyone think he was their own.
It really didn't take much.
Just a nice story about how he had rescued the child from a dark family, and how Lily and James could raise the child to follow the light.
And of course it helped that Lily Potter was completely infertile.
And it was sort of true.
Imagine if Harry would've grown up with his real parents.
Dumbledore shuddered as he thought about that woman—the spinner's daughter. And then there was that father.
The Dark One.
Praise to Merlin that that wizard didn't even know he had a son and lived in another realm, Dumbledore knew that he made Tom look like a first year when it came to terms of power. And if he knew what Dumbledore did…
But he didn't.
And Cora had no idea either.
Dumbledore had made sure of it.
If there was one thing about him, he was prepared, just like an American boy scout. He always made a contingency plan.
Though, there was no need with those two. Realm travel was next to impossible (Dumbledore himself had to go through a lot of hoops to get to that God forsaken place and back), and besides as far as anyone was concerned Harry Potter was Harry Potter. Dumbledore had even gone as far to help Lily and James prepare the necessary charms not to only adjust the boy's physical features but magic as well.
Of course, he didn't do this to make them feel like Harry was their own. He did this to keep everyone safe, because the potential that Harry had shown for the dark…that he still held for the dark.
Thank God, he had the right to veto that stupid hat.
He remembered last year, when the hat was going to send the boy into Slytherin. Imagine the horror had that happened. But because of his veto, the boy was a Gryffindor and was making nice and respectable friends.
The Weasleys were a good family. A bit dim since obviously Molly and Arthur had never heard of the wonders of contraception charms when you don't have enough to feed a family of four let alone nine, but still very loyal.
And then there was that Granger girl. A complete blank slate, a muggleborn. A stickler for the rules. She'd be very easy to mold into a nice ally later on, should the boy ever get out of line. But Dumbledore really doubted it. The isolation from his so-called relatives, seemed to have the boy feel like he owed the girl something for treating him like a decent human being. Especially when he developed such wonderful friendships.
Imagine the travesty that would've happened had he been sorted a Slytherin.
Dumbledore did not even want to imagine the consequences.
The wizard sighed as he put down the latest piece of post from the bank.
Yep, he was going to have to go.
He wondered how he should handle this. Lucius said he was going to take care of the matter, but he hadn't heard from the man and it had been days. Then again, Lucius might as well be in South America or somewhere without extradition rights at this point. There was a warrant out for his arrest; apparently, some illegal artifacts had apparently turned up at the ministry that were said to belong to him.
Strange.
But not that big of a surprise, since Dumbledore had always suspected the blonde had been hoarding Voldemort's old things.
Dumbledore sighed as he grabbed some floo powder deciding that it was now or never. Maybe after a pint of mead at the Leaky Cauldron he'd format better plan. Yes, mead and maybe some ice cream that's what he needed.
It wasn't that simple though.
Naturally.
He had his mead, all right. As usual the drink relaxed him, and he was sitting next to a fine looking Brazilian wizard that he was actually having a conversation with when he felt a tap on the shoulder.
He turned around to see Arthur and Molly Weasley, sans children.
Now this was unexpected.
The Weasleys going out like a normal couple? What was wrong with this picture?
"Arthur and Molly, this is a pleasant surprise." Dumbledore said trying to act like he wasn't upset that they interrupted their conversation with Alfredo.
"Albus," Arthur said. "Um…do you think we could have a word?"
Dumbledore looked longingly at Alfredo, but nodded. He could do better he decided. Alfredo wore such boring robes and had a pet toad. Dumbledore could never sleep with someone who was into toads.
But he had such a nice butt.
Pity.
Anyway, he had to keep up his dutiful headmaster who cares for all his former pupils act—even though he forgot most of their names as soon as they walked off of that graduation stage. So, he motioned them to follow him into a small alcove of the bar.
"Is everything okay?" He asked once they were settled.
Molly Weasley shook her head vehemently. God, Dumbledore hoped she didn't say anything. Sometimes that voice…
Wait, why wasn't she talking?
"Are you okay, Molly?" He asked since usually you couldn't shut the woman up.
"She can't talk." Arthur said. "I was wondering…we've gone to the healers and, well, the usual potions aren't working."
"I'm not a healer, Arthur." Dumbledore said. "I'm sure it will heal in time."
Arthur gave him a dubious look.
"I can give you a lemon drop. They open up the throat." Dumbledore said, "And maybe a reference to Madam Pomfrey. Now that woman is a healer. Why, she saved young Harry Potter's life at the end of the year."
Arthur sighed. "That's nice of you, but…well, we're starting to wonder if maybe this isn't laryngitis?"
Dumbledore raised an eyebrow.
"It just came down so suddenly," Arthur said. "And well, Molly Wobbles never gets sick."
He wanted to vomit in his mouth when he heard the term Molly Wobbles. Either that or he needed some more mead.
Yes, mead would be nice, and maybe a massage via Alfredo.
And then he'd get some of that ice cream.
The Weasleys were being ridiculous. Which he told them so, but he still did the usually curse diagnosis charm. And nothing was found. Well, none of the usual spells. Maybe if there was some Shut Up Molly Weasley spell that he didn't know about. If that was the case, he really did want to know about it since he head been trying to shut up said painted up biddy for years.
Seven children.
And the twins were like eight additional children with the amount of trouble they got into.
He was sure the woman would be able to talk again, and that was a pity.
"Well, how are you two despite the laryngitis? He asked.
"Good, good." Arthur said. "They have me looking at some enchanted toasters in the ministry. Really top notch stuff, that. Especially those electrical toasters."
"Yes, yes." Dumbledore said before quickly changing the subject. "And the children?"
"They are doing quite well." Arthur said before proceeding to talk about the activities of all of the Weasley children—Dumbledore was surprised he knew all of their names.
He really could care less about the Weasley twins dyeing poor Ginerva's hair green or the fact that Percy had decided to take on a summer internship with the ministry. Instead, he only wanted to hear about Ronald and perhaps Bill.
Mainly because Ronald was Harry Potter's friend and Harry Potter interested Dumbledore as a tool for the future.
Their savior.
Or more or less a pawn.
Although, he personally hated that term. It wasn't like he was set out to ruin Harry Potter's life. Far from it, he saved the boy a life of darkness and he was sure if James and Lily would've survived they would've been excellent parents.
And even though Petunia and Vernon weren't the warmest people, they certainly were better than his birth parents. And it seemed they were nice enough to allow young Harry to go the Ally. He guessed they were getting used to the idea after last year. Being scared by a half giant would do that to you.
But then Dumbledore heard something that concerned him.
The boy had come to the Ally with a friend of his guardians.
Friend?
He guessed he couldn't expect Petunia and Vernon to watch Harry all the time, but them to be friends with someone in the magical world that was very puzzling. And scary, since who knows what sort of influence such a person could have on him.
Being curious he asked Arthur who was with them.
"A woman." He said. "I wasn't there Molly Wobbles could tell you more but…"
"She can write." Dumbledore said as he pulled out a spare piece of parchment.
Molly Weasley avidly grabbed the parchment and started scribbling.
God, he forgot how bad her handwriting was. When she got done, he couldn't make much sense out of it. But there were some key words he did make out: Scarlet Woman.
Yeah, that one was used quite frequently. Inwardly, Dumbledore rolled his eyes. The Weasley matriarch was such a prude for a woman with seven children. And never mind how she was when she was at Hogwarts. He remembered there was always some rumor about who got golly with Molly—shudders.
He sighed, "So, Harry was being watched by a Scarlet Woman. Really, Molly, I doubt Petunia would let such a woman watch the boy."
But Dumbledore really didn't know. It wasn't that he kept tabs on the Dursleys—well that much tabs.
He did have Arabella, but that was more or less a failsafe. Honestly, there was really no reason to have hard-core surveillance on the boy. At least not yet. It helped that he was so young. Such a malleable mind. And Dumbledore could tell last year, that the boy respected him and trusted him.
A bit gullible, but when you grew up with Petunia and Vernon Dursley coldness, just the bit of kindness could make the difference.
He really didn't think a friend of the Dursleys was that much of a threat and quickly closed the conversation, despite Molly Wobbles incomprehensible written rants.
Instead, he decided to change the subject to the one other Weasley child he was interested in talking about: Bill.
"So, how is Bill enjoying working at the bank these days?" Dumbledore asked ever so casually.
At this Molly Wobbles grabbed the paper and begin writing furiously.
"Not good, I take it?" He said addressing Arthur.
Arthur sighed. "Well, it's not bad. It's just since the bank has been bought that that new company, well, reorganizing has been going on. They want Bill in actual field work rather than doing desk work, and Molly's not exactly happy about it."
"I still find it odd that someone bought the goblins out." Dumbledore said.
"Oh, it's strange isn't it?" Arthur said, "I honestly don't pay much attention to banks, but this is a bit unprecedented."
"So, Bill hasn't talked to the new owner?"
Arthur shook his head. "No, it's a corporation thingimabob. Is that some sort of dragon?"
Dumbledore shook his head. "No…it's a legal something, it doesn't matter. Does Bill know anyone who's highly ranked at the bank?"
"Well, his old boss is now cleaning up toilets. Bill said that management is really getting reorganized. Sorry, professor."
"No, no, that's okay." Dumbledore said even though it wasn't really. "Just trying to make small talk, that's all. Though when you do talk to Bill can ask him to give me a fire call, there's some things I'd like to discuss with him."
Arthur didn't even question what Dumbledore wanted to talk to him oldest. So loyal, that one, Dumbledore thought with a smile. He'd make sure he'd give him a high but useless position in the order if it was ever needed again—more than likely it would be via the prophecy.
After that, the Weasleys left and Dumbledore decided to see Alfredo for a booty call before heading down to the bank. But the Alfredo never happened, since the news broke that Sirius Black had escaped from Azkaban.