"Dumbledore's currently, once again, in one of my holding cells," replied Bones.
Marchbanks sighed, put down her quill from where she was holding it while writing her list of topics, sat back and said, "Tell me."
"Almost an hour ago, he tried to apparate into a property that's the home of one of your muggleborn students - Hermione Granger," explained Bones. "He has a pretty fair idea that's where Lord Potter is currently staying. He's right.
"What he didn't know was that Lord Potter caused to have set up wards on the property. And those of my aurors, who I've detailed off to bodyguard him for the moment, have added temporary and further alert wards to those."
"That would have come as a shock," smirked Marchbanks.
"Dumbledore tried to apparate right into the property and smacked into the wards pretty hard," Bones grinned back. "He dislocated his left shoulder in the process."
Marchbanks cackled and said, "That's the second time, today, he's smacked into a set of wards while trying to apparate in."
"Second time?" asked Bones.
"He tried to apparate directly into the castle from wherever he got to this morning; very soon after he must have felt the wards shift from him to me and tried to apparate back," she explained. "It left him bruised and battered. Our medi-wizard had to heal him up."
Bones laughed.
When she calmed down again she said, "Well, Lord Potter was being quite clever with having those wards erected on the Granger residence. He had the wards erected one yard in from the property boundary."
"That's different," said Marchbanks. "What made it clever?"
"One of the problems we've always had about charging people with trespass who've tried that sort of stunt before, is that we can't charge them because the wards blocked them from actually trespassing. It's not illegal to attempt to trespass.
"By setting the wards up one yard in Dumbledore actually had to cross that one yard before he hit the ward. Therefore, he actually trespassed."
Again, Marchbanks cackled. "My!" she wheezed. "That is actually clever.
"Do you think Lord Potter realised that you would be able to charge someone with trespass if he set the ward up one yard in?"
"There is no doubt in my mind that he knew," grinned Bones. "That boy has been spending the past almost two weeks making the rest of us look like idiots."
"So I hear," she smirked.
"Anyways," said Bones. "Taking a leaf out of Lord Potter's book, I'm here to ask you to do something for me."
"Oh?"
With a grin Bones said, "I need you to tell me, to tell Albus, you're not happy with him and you'll be having words with him about his behaviour, together with the fact he's not at the school where he should be, once I release him on Monday after lunch."
"Amelia, dear, what a dastardly thing to do," grinned Marchbanks. "Very well. Madam Bones, when you next talk to Albus, please tell him I'll be wanting to have words with him, immediately after he's released by you on Monday afternoon, about his behaviour. I'm not happy he won't be here in the school, come that morning, where he's required to be."
"Thanks, Gris," said a happy Amelia Bones.
"Now, perhaps you can tell this old lady how it is you're going to manage to hold him until Monday afternoon?" asked the older witch. "If I recall, you're supposed to release him within twenty four hours for such a trivial offence."
"Ah!" said Bones. "Well, you see, Miss Granger's father, Doctor Wendell Granger, is also what's known as a Justice of the Peace. In the muggle world he has the authority by the Queen to dispense low justice. But, more importantly to this issue, he has the authority to issue Warrants of Arrest.
"As part of asking if he wouldn't mind giving me one related to Albus, he included in that warrant the authority for me to hold Albus for up to seventy-two hours while I investigate matters. He was happy to comply."
"And you were able to use that because the Granger residence is in the muggle world," said Marchbanks. "Very clever, dear."
"Thank you," smirked Bones. She never said anything about how it was covered under a Thirteenth Century law because that could draw things out too long to explain. And she was busy.
_β_
β==(oIo)==β
Λ
Back at the DMLE a little later, Madam Bones walked into Dumbledore's cell and grinned at him.
As he rose, he said, "Finally here to release me, are you? It's about time."
"Nope!" she happily replied.
Unrolling the 'scroll' he didn't see in her hand until then, she glanced at it and said, "I have here a Warrant of Arrest for one Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, signed by a duly appointed and authorised officer of Her Majesty's courts. It also grants me the authority to hold you for seventy-two hours, while I carry out and complete my investigations into your actions relating to your alleged Trespass of the property of one Wendell Marcade Granger and Monica Temperance Granger.
"Further, I also have here a formal sworn affidavit from Doctor Wendell Marcade Granger stipulating a formal complaint against you for trespass of property. Lord Potter, acting as magical guardian, has co-signed it."
While rolling both back up together again she grinned and said, "Take a load off, Albus. You're going to be here for a while."
"I bounced off the wards!" he snapped back. "Therefore, I did not trespass!"
"Ah, but that's where you're wrong," she retorted. "You see; in setting up the wards, whoever did it was being very clever. They set the wards you bounced off one yard in from the property boundary. And, since you just confessed to bouncing off the wards, that means you had to have entered the property. Thank you for that, Albus."
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