November 1994
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
The atmosphere in the Great Hall was clearly very tense. All the facade of calmness Dumbledore was trying to maintain was fading.
His traditional grandfatherly smile he always carried on his face had disappeared long ago. The twinkle and amusement in his eyes when he used other people as his puppets was long gone.
His expression was of extreme frustration. He had his fist clenched. For first time in years, he felt cornered. He found no suitable and reasonable explanation to all the words that had left Amelia's mouth.
It was clear to him and to the entire school that it would not matter if Harry was the one responsible for putting his name in the Goblet. His name was going to get dragged through the mud.
It was as Madam Bones had explained. He was the one who had fell short of his responsibility. It was under his responsibility that the name of a minor came out of the goblet.
On the other hand, Amelia had a calm expression on her face but inwardly she was smirking and giggling.
Dumbledore tried to explain in a low and very guilty voice, "It is indeed as you say, Madam Bones. I definitely failed in the responsibility that I had taken."
"But even so, I think you should try and focus to find out the person who was perpetrator of this incident," said Dumbledore trying to shift the focus away from him. He could not avoid the blame so he could only damage control as most. Feigning guilty he tried to gain sympathy of the students. He also talked about the perpetrator, trying to shift the focus back on Harry Potter.
Amelia did not respond to Dumbledore's explanation as her aim was achieved. She continued, "Now, let us move to the next question."
Dumbledore nodded while Amelia said, "Headmaster, you said that the magical contract used in the tournament has not been altered with and the same contract that had been used in previous tournaments was used?"
Dumbledore again nodded in agreement.
"Then came this time the Goblet gave out four names?" Asked Madam Bones. "Without alteration in the contract and the Goblet, how come 4 names instead of 3 came out?"
Dumbledore replied solemnly, "I have a suspicion that the Goblet was altered with."
"What kind of alteration we are talking?" Asked back Amelia.
"I am not very sure, but as my dear friend and retired auror, Alastor Moody also suspects, it seems a confundus charm was cast on the Goblet making it believe that 4 instead of 3 schools were participating in the tournament," replied Dumbledore.
"A confundus charm, quite plausible," said Amelia. "You must have searched the Goblet of any leftover magic then and recorded its magical signature?"
Dumbledore shook his head, "No. The Goblet was taken back to the ministry."
"An incident of such a measure occurs in your school. The person you all accused, Mr. Potter, adamantly denies his involvement and asks you to hold a proper investigation and call for DMLE," whispered Amelia in very low but heavy tone. "You refuse to call for DMLE saying you have capable people from ministry and yourself to conduct the investigation."
She gazed into Dumbledore's eye and said in same low tone, "And now you tell me that you sent the Goblet back to ministry without searching for any magical signature?"
"Then what the hell were you investigating?" Screamed Amelia and smashed her palm on teacher's table in extreme anger. The magic around her fluctuated wildly and a long cracked appeared on the strong wooden table while all the students flinched back in fear.
Seeing Dumbledore not speaking Amelia's voice boomed, "Can you tell me, headmaster? What kind of investigation were you conducting when you did not try to collect any evidence from the Goblet which was our best hope to get any clue? And now. after almost 4 days no trace of magic would have been left on the Goblet?"
"I do not want to say this but all things have started to point out as if you deliberately allowed all this fiasco to happen by taking half hearted measures to enforce the age now line and then did not call for the DMLE which should have been the most logical step even when Harry Potter asked you to do it. And then now it appears as if you again deliberately did not allow the Goblet to investigated and whatever evidence we could have collected from it to go to waste," thundered Amelia in rage.
"Are you doing all this deliberately, headmaster?" asked Amelia in low but extremely chilly voice.
Dumbledore was in extreme rage and only his high achievement in occlumency was preventing him from taking out his wand and killing Amelia then and there. He took deep breaths and calmed himself down. He knew he cannot take even a slightest wrong action as this would wash away whatever good image and respect he had been left with.
He kept quiet but Amelia said, "I am waiting for your response, headmaster."
Dumbledore sighed taking hold of the emotions, "Looking back and judging things of past is completely different than being in that situation. When viewing things of past, we have a different perspective. We have the advantage of the knowledge and tend to conclude that this course of action should have been more appropriate."
"At the time when Harry's name came out of Goblet, things escalated quickly. We had little time to react and definitely we could have had a better response," said Dumbledore.
"In all that chaos we missed about checking for a magical residue on the Goblet. I focused our investigation in a different path," finished Dumbledore.
Amelia scoffed at this weak and illogical argument, "Oh! Then let us move on to the next question. Please tell us about the different path your investigation took and what result it have yielded."
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