"My main concern is the disappearance of all the patients that were in St. Mungos." Kingsley stated as several more Order members filed in to the table. "I hope that they turn up and that the Longbottoms are with them."
The old Headmaster frowned. "I wish that I had been able to ask Harry about that when he visited me a couple of hours ago."
Everyone in the room went silent as he voiced his wish and stared at him. "You saw Harry after the attack?" Hermione half-asked, half stated.
"Yes, Miss Granger. I did." Dumbledore replied as he gestured for everyone to take their places around the table and took his own. "Mr. Potter, or as we could say, Lord Polairix, paid me a visit at Hogwarts. He told me that I would lose my position as Headmaster if I expelled your fellow classmates."
"Did he say anything else?" Ron inquired eagerly. "Were you able to talk to him some more?"
Dumbledore shook his head sadly. "He would not let me talk to him. After telling me what I wasn't going to do, he promptly left." He deliberately left out that part about how Harry had Apparated through the Hogwarts wards. There was no reason to make them worried right now.
"How can he just walk in and do that?" Mrs. Weasley demanded, horrified at what Harry was able to do.
"He owns Hogwarts." Snape said snidely as he made a tardy appearance. "My apologies, Albus. I was unable to get away from the Dark lord until just now." The potion's master then took a seat.
Albus shook his head. "That's beside the point right now. There is nothing we can do about that. Our immediate concerns at this point in time are for the missing patients, and the Longbottoms. Not all of you understand the Longbottoms importance, so I'll briefly explain. Whoever has them might be able to use them to gain some sort of power if they were to make a recovery. Before the battle, they were noted to be making progress."
"I take it that's the reason You-Know-Who attacked St. Mungos." Arthur Weasley observed dryly.
"That's not quite accurate." Snape cut in. "The Dark Lord merely wanted the Longbottoms dead. Unfortunately for him, it doesn't seem like that is going to happen anytime soon."
Tonks grinned. "I guess Harry has more brains than you people would like to admit. Instead of seeing potential power as a threat, he chose to turn it into an opportunity. Let's worry about getting the patients to a safe place. Does anyone know where they are?"
"As I was just telling Albus, the Ministry has been unable to locate any of the patients or Harry's followers. Our tracking devices were unable to sense the magic that those sorcerers employed during the attack." Kingsley Shacklebolt explained to everyone.
The meeting continued on as everyone put forth their mostly useless ideas as how to recover the patients and save the Longbottoms. Finally, the subject that all those present had been avoiding was brought up by Ron. "This is getting us nowhere! We can't solve the 'missing patients' or 'Longbottom' problem right now. Let's move onto worrying about imminent threats. Potter for instance."
Everyone was silent as they carefully avoided eye contact with each other. The silence was shattered when Hermione spoke up timidly. "He helped us against the Death Eaters."
"Only so he could take the Longbottoms away!" Ron yelled unnecessarily.
"Shut up!" Snape hissed at Ron. He then addressed everyone present. "All right. Everyone here knows by now that Potter is the Lord of Polairix and consequently, the Earl of the North. Since his escape from Azkaban, Potter has taken a firm stance against the Ministry using his inherited position and immense magical power. Name something bad that he has done."
Glances were exchanged as everyone realized that after a month or so of freedom, Harry had yet to harm anyone. What little progress Snape had accomplished was ruined when Molly Weasley stood up. "He's tipped his hand now, hasn't he? There's no longer any reason for him not to do anything. Mark my words! People will be killed now, and it won't be the Death Eaters doing the killings. Assuming that he's hiding in the North, his followers will come begin a reign of terror."
Snape struggled mightily to control the seething bubble of anger that rose and threatened to engulf his normally cool mind. He stoop up abruptly. "If you'll all forgive me, there are things that I must attend to." He then left the room, nodding discreetly to Tonks and Moody.
"Maybe he's right." wheezed old Mundungus Fletcher, briefly drawing himself out of his habitual drunken stupor.
"Oh, shut up!" Mrs. Weasley commanded as she looked in the general direction of Dumbledore, not quite meeting his blue-eyed gaze. "Something will have to be done. The public must be warned that Harry James Potter is armed, dangerous, and ready to kill as are his followers who have yet to be solidly identified or named. They still don't even know about what he did over the Christmas holidays."
"It seems to me that the Daily Prophet has been saying that for nearly two years." Tonks declared, trying to make the whole thing sound ludicrous.
The young Auror's efforts failed however. Dumbledore nodded. "We'll have to come up with some way to let everyone know."
"What's wrong with the Daily Prophet?" Ron asked readily.
Dumbledore coughed nervously. "I believe that Harry owns it."
"Huh?" Ron exclaimed. "What do you mean?"
...
Join my P@treon.
And Enjoy 60+ advanced chapters from my novels along with exclusive content. (Free members get 2 chapters free.)
Join Right Now
Link: p*atreon.com/0LordSilvere0 (Remove the *)