Chapter 33: Dumbledore's Gambit
With the talons of a phoenix gripping tightly to the back of his robe and flames generated by said phoenix swirling around him as the bird transported him to his next destination, Harry came to the conclusion that there was, in fact, no method of magical transportation that he liked (with the exception of broomstick flight, of course.)
If Fawkes was trying to disorient him, the bird was doing an exceptionally good job. The spinning was worse than any trip by floo or port key Harry had ever taken and he had the distinct feeling that whenever they got to their destination, the first thing he would do would involve the projecting vomiting of every meal he had eaten in the last two days.
He hoped he got most of it on Fawkes.
Fortunately for the bird, when they reached their destination, Harry did not throw up. Unfortunately for both parties, however, their arrival was less than graceful and the moment Harry's feet met solid ground his left foot twisted painfully and he went crashing to the ground, resulting in a crack appearing in the right frame of his glasses. Meanwhile Fawkes was sent scrambling across the room by Harry's right arm, which he had struck the bird with quite hard as he threw out both arms to try and steady himself before hitting the ground.
Fawkes squawked indignantly flapped his wings frantically and gracelessly in an attempt to right himself while Harry rested his forehead against the floor, eyes tightly shut in an attempt to get the world to stop spinning.
Finally the bird managed to flap up to its perch and take a seat, looking as regal as ever within moments.
Harry's eyes snapped open when a familiar voice spoke nearby.
"Thank you, my friend. I will not ask you to go back to the Ministry to retrieve those of our number who still remain there, but if you would be so kind as to go to St Mungo's Hospital and retrieve Minerva…?"
Fawkes trilled and vanished in a flash of flame.
From his position on the floor, Harry realised that he could feel the position of his wand near his hip. The fingers of his right hand were near the handle… If he was quick…
In one fluid movement he rolled onto his back, and aimed his wand "Petrificus tot-"
"Expelliarmus!"
With one spell, Albus Dumbledore send Harry Potter's wand sailing through the air and out of reach. A second spell resulted in Harry being forced to sit in a wooden chair and a third conjured a rope that tied Harry to said chair.
"I had hoped that you would not feel so hostile, Harry," said Dumbledore, with way too much familiarity for Harry's liking. "Alas, it is as I feared. Your involvement with the Ministry of Magic has had a most regretful effect on you. We will have to work hard to correct that lest you turn to the same path as Lord Voldemort."
Despite his situation, Harry was determined to not back down. "If anyone here is like Voldemort, it's you," he spat. "Look at you; you've got your own inner circle of sycophants who do your bidding without thought. You do what you want with no regard for the law or the rights of others. You rely on your name to intimidate others into doing your bidding and when that doesn't work you lie, cheat, coerce… you even kidnap people to get your own way."
Dumbledore sighed and adopted the expression and posture of a put-upon grandfather who was trying to be patient with a particularly argumentative nine year old. It was one of his favourites.
"You have fallen further than I feared. We will have to act fast."
He was interrupted by a burst of fire which signalled the return of Fawkes and Minerva McGonagall.
"Ah, Minerva," said Dumbledore, turning to their newest arrival. "I'm glad you could join us my dear. I trust that your stay in St Mungo's wasn't too traumatic?"
"It was dreadful, Albus," she replied, and Harry noticed that she both looked and sounded a lot older than she had before her arrest. "They didn't do anything to me but run a few tests, but the things people have been saying, Albus… The things that they have been saying about you…"
"Yes, yes…" replied Dumbledore in his gravest voice. "I am afraid that the Ministry has succeeded in its endeavour to disgrace my name."
"They didn't have to do much in the end," growled Harry. "Your actions did most of it for them."
"Be silent, you ungrateful whelp," spat Snape. "After all we have done for you-"
"What you've done for me?" retorted Harry, incredulously. "You lot have never done anything for me. I'm nothing to you other than another one of Dumbledore's puppets. To you I am nothing but a pawn on a chessboard to be sacrificed at the right time!"
Snape's face contorted into a sneer "Why you insolent little-"
"Calm down Severus," piped up Flitwick, his squeaky voice drawing all eyes too him. The diminutive charms master rounded on the former Headmaster.
"Albus, you need to stop this now. Your actions are doing nothing more than painting an even larger target on all of our backs. Let the boy go."
"I am afraid that I cannot do that, Filius. Young Harry has a destiny that he must fulfil. It is imperative that he remain with us so that we can prepare him for what he must do." Dumbledore turned back to Snape.
"Severus, I have managed to procure my father's old wand. If you would, I should like you to assist me in assessing if the Ministry has carried out any further alterations to Mr Potter's mind."
"The Ministry didn't alter my mind," growled Harry. "It was you, remember? Or are you that senile that you have forgotten?"
Dumbledore ignored him and handed Snape a wand.
Snape, however, was not in the mood simply to invade Harry's mind. He had spent a long time in Ministry custody, being interrogated until all of his deepest, darkest secrets came spilling out. If he were caught by the Ministry again he was all but guaranteed a death sentence. As was usual, Snape was willing to blame everyone but himself for this turn of events and as far as he was concerned, the Potter brat was the centre of all his problems.
Snape snatched the wand from Dumbledore and, without missing a beat, cast "Crucio!"
Harry screamed in agony as the spell connected, causing him to writhe in his seat, feeling as though every nerve ending in his body was on fire.
But there was division in the Order now. With so many of Dumbledore's secrets now out in the open, many members of the Order no longer felt like they owed Dumbledore anything. Their secrets were out now, meaning that Dumbledore had nothing to hold over many of them. Before now many of them had thought that they were perhaps the only one being coerced by Dumbledore, but now they knew that they were not alone. That knowledge diminished their fear.
Thus Harry's pain was quickly ended when Kingsley tackled Snape to the ground. Harry's vision came back into focus just in time to see Kingsley's powerful fist break Snape's large, hooked nose. A second later there was a flash of light and Kingsley was thrown off of Snape and into a wall, where he slumped into an unconscious heap as Dumbledore lowered his wand.
Still trembling with the after effects of the torture curse, Harry managed to grind out through clenched teeth "Would've been nice if you'd been that fast to stop the greasy bastard…"
"Now Harry," began Dumbledore, switching over to lecture mode. "Severus has had a tough time of it as of late and I am sure that he did not mean-"
"Like hell he didn't…" retorted Harry, angrily.
Dumbledore took a calming breath before carrying on. "Nevertheless, it is imperative, Harry, that you learn to find it within yourself to forgive others for their-"
The glob of phlegm that Harry spat from his mouth splattered against Dumbledore's left cheek and would also have gone in his left eye were it not for his glasses.
With a deep, saddened sigh Dumbledore took off his glasses and cleaned them with a flick of his wand, commenting as he did so "I had hoped that you were above such displays of childishness, Harry. It saddens me to see that I was wrong."
"Yeah?" asked Harry "Well, I'm getting a little fed up with hearing about what you expect from me. And if you think that I will ever forgive that disgusting piece of troll shit for what he did to me and my parents then you are far more senile than I thought."
"What do you mean?" asked Flitwick. "What does Snape have to do with your parents?"
The wide grin that appeared on Harry's face was more than a little reminiscent of the one Peeves wore back when he had revealed to Dumbledore just who had slashed the Fat Lady's portrait back in Harry's third year at Hogwarts.
"Oh dear. Did the Headmaster not see fit to tell you all that Snape here…"
"Harry, stop this at once!" interrupted Dumbledore. "I forbid you to reveal that information!"
But Harry continued unabated "Snape here is the reason why Voldemort went after my parents! He's as responsible for their deaths as Peter Pettigrew."
Turning from the shocked expressions of many of the Order, Harry focused his eyes on Dumbledore. "Madam Bones decided that it was in my best interest to learn all that her Department could get on Snape directly from her rather than hear about it in the trial. Of course, his role in the deaths of my parents isn't all she told me about."
"Harry, I implore you to say no more. You do not fully understand the situation," said Dumbledore, letting his magical aura flare in an attempt to intimidate Harry, but the boy kept on going.
"Oh, I understand plenty, you old coot," snarled Harry. "I understand much better than you think."
He turned back to the Order. "Does the name Mary MacDonald ring any bells here? How about Marlene McKinnon? Dorcas Meadowes and Benjy Fenwick? Edgar Bones, perhaps? Or maybe-"
At this point Dumbledore could take no more. He went for his wand and cast a silencing charm on Harry. The teenager's mouth was still moving as he rattled off several more names of people whose deaths Snape had in one way or another been involved with but no one heard him.
But for many they had heard enough.
"Did you know this, Albus?" asked Sturgis Podmore, rounding on the aged wizard furiously. "Did you know that Snape was involved in those deaths?"
Dumbledore's tone was a placating one as he said "Severus has undeniably made some unfortunate choices in his life, however he has since seen the error of his ways and joined our side. He has endeavoured to make up for his past mistakes by working for the Light."
"He's right," interjected Moody. "I may not like the bastard, but some of the information that he has provided us over the years has been invaluable."
"But most of those people Potter just listed were members of the Order," protested Emmeline Vance. "That we've been expected to work alongside him is disgusting."
"To say nothing of forcing Mr Potter to take lessons from him," added Pomona Sprout. "Really, Dumbledore, we've all done things that we are not proud of but what in Merlin's name were you thinking allowing this man to become a teacher?"
"Now really!" interjected McGonagall. "I've never heard such rubbish. Professor Dumbledore trusts Severus. That should be good enough for all of you."
Harry raised his eyebrows at that. That sort of attitude was typical of Minerva McGonagall – Dumbledore says so, so that should be good reasoning for everyone.
It was interesting to watch as the scene played out before him. Moody, Doge, Diggle, McGonagall and Snape (who was arguing from his position on the floor) were clearly on Dumbledore's side of the matter while Flitwick, Podmore, Vance and Sprout were furious. While they had each done some pretty damning things in the past, Dumbledore had finally asked for too much of some of his pawns, as he had done of Harry back in the summer.
Then there was the fact that what they had done under Dumbledore's command was going to get them in more trouble that the crimes and scandals which were being used as leverage against them, it was fair to say that Dumbledore had lost their allegiance entirely.
As for the rest of The Order, they were doing their best to keep as quiet as possible. For some this was simply because they had no opinion to offer. Some others were too afraid to say anything after seeing Kingsley blasted into the wall by Dumbledore for going against him.
Harry also noted for the first time that not everyone from The Order were present. Arthur, Molly and Bill Weasley, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, Nymphadora Tonks, Hestia Jones, Rolanda Hooch, Arabella Figg and Argus Filch (or whatever their names were) and perhaps a dozen others had not been grabbed by Fawkes. Rubeus Hagrid was absent too. Clearly even Dumbledore did not know where the half-giant was.
Finally Dumbledore put an end to the argument for now. Raising his voice loudly to be heard over the shouting he said "Enough. Now is not the time to be turning on each other. Alastor, would you kindly assist me in examining Harry's mind?"
Although it was phrased as a question, it was clearly a command. As Moody stomped forward to take the spare wand from Snape, Dumbledore erected a shield to keep the rest of the Order back. Flitwick and several others protested loudly but without wands there was nothing that they could do.
Dumbledore gave a flick of his wand in Snape's direction, repairing the man's broken nose and then turned to join Moody in raising their wands and taking aim towards Harry. Still under the effects of the silencing charm and bound tightly to the chair he was sat on, Harry settled for glaring hatefully back at them, mentally bracing himself for what was to come.
"Legillimens!" barked two voices in unison.
Harry's body went rigid as his mind was invaded by the double attack. Memories swirled through his mind so quickly that it was enough to induce nausea and a headache, but it did not last long.
Unlike Snape, who had apparently been a match for the wand, Moody quickly found that the wand of Dumbledore's father was not well suited to him at all and within moments the spell that he cast broke off. He tried again with even worse results – the legillimency probe didn't even begin that time.
Dumbledore meanwhile continued to rifle through Harry's mind, trying to locate the places where adjustments would have to be made. Quickly he realised that it wasn't just Harry's memories of the past few weeks that he would need to alter – there were the memories of memories as well. This meant that the task of obliviating Harry would take much longer than he had initially thought. He began to dig deeper to assess just how much he would have to erase.
Harry, meanwhile, was starting to get extremely worked up. The last time Dumbledore had pulled this stunt, Harry had been unconscious for the whole thing. This time he was not only awake, he was fighting back.
The events of the past few weeks had left him angry, confused and scared, and that was before you factored in everything else he had been through in his life. None of this was a good combination. Being kidnapped, tortured and having his mind invaded only made things worse and things were rapidly approaching boiling point.
Harry had not been this close to unleashing a burst of anger-fuelled accidental magic since the summer holidays before his third year at Hogwarts, when his Aunt Marge's continual berating of him and badmouthing of his deceased parents resulted in her being inflated like a blimp and left bobbing helplessly against the dining room ceiling of Number Four, Privet Drive.
Fawkes the Phoenix sensed the waves of anger radiating off of Harry and flew in to sit on the back of the boy's chair, where he began to trill a soft, calming tune.
It didn't help. Harry could hear the phoenix's song well enough, but in Harry's mind phoenix song was something that was associated with Dumbledore and right now there were few things in this world that Harry hated more than Albus effing Dumbledore!
Things were quickly reaching boiling point. Albus Dumbledore was too engrossed in rifling through Harry's mind to notice when the glass in the windows began to rattle ominously, but the rest of the Order, except the unconscious Kingsley, did.
And so did the Ministry.
The Ministry of Magic was in pandemonium following the snatching of Harry Potter right from the heart of the Ministry building.
Aurors and Law Enforcement Officers were doing their best to control the panicked crowds of people while Amelia had her best people running around trying to find anything that would lead them to finding out just where Harry Potter and two thirds of the Order of the Phoenix had been taken too.
Workers from the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures were going through book after book and file after file to try and gather absolutely everything they could on Phoenixes while people from the Department of Mysteries had broken out the scrying spells to try and get a reading on any of those snatched from the courtroom.
People from the Department of International Magical Cooperation were putting out alerts to as many other Ministries as possible across the globe as well as alerting the offices of the International Confederation of Wizards.
The first breakthrough, however, came from Mafalda Hopkirk and her colleagues in the Improper Use of Magic Office.
"What have you found?" demanded Amelia as she, Fudge and Scrimgeour entered the office after receiving a hurried message.
"It might be nothing," replied Hopkirk "However our underage magic sensors keep going off. The trigger is minor and it blinks out before we can get an accurate reading. But-"
At that moment every alarm attached to the Improper Use of Magic Office went off.
Hopkirk rounded of her deputy, Elizabeth Summerby "Who it is?"
"Hold on…" replied Summerby as she waves her wand over a large sheet of parchment, upon which runes were starting to appear. Several of these runes lit up and a name appeared in the middle of the sheet of parchment.
Harry Potter.
"Location?" asked Fudge.
Hopkirk was waving her wand about over the giant map of the UK and Ireland which hung on the wall. "Central England… West Midlands… Warwickshire… Mould-on-the Would? I thought that village was abandoned. No one has lived there in decades."
"Rufus get a team together, now," barked Amelia. "We'll need the finest Aurors and Hit Wizards you can locate. Mafalda, get those coordinates over to the Department of Magical Transportation. We need a dozen port keys to Mould-on-the-Wold as quickly as possible."
As Scrimgeour and Hopkirk hurried out of the room in order to carry out those commands, the Minister for Magic turned to the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and handed her a rolled up sheaf of parchment, held closed by a red ribbon and a red was seal which bore the official logo of the Wizengamot.
"The Wizengamot has agreed to this," he stated.
Amelia opened it and discovered that it was an authorisation form.
"Killing curse?" she read.
"Ideally we would want Dumbledore brought in alive and dosed with enough veritaserum to make him spill even his darkest secrets," explained Fudge. "However, if all of this has proven anything it is that Albus Dumbledore is a dangerous man who will do whatever he feels is necessary to see that things go according to his plans. I don't want there to be any messing around, especially with the life of Harry Potter at risk. If you can't bring Dumbledore down with standard Auror tactics then you are authorised to put an end to him for good. Just understand that this applies only to you, Scrimgeour and a few of the other more senior Aurors and Hit Wizards."
"Understood," replied Amelia. She wanted Dumbledore questioned as much as anyone, but she had no qualms about putting a permanent end to the man if the situation called for it. Good Aurors were hard to come by, after all.
The Weasley family was gathered together in Arthur's former office. No one was currently permitted to leave the Ministry and the family had felt the need for some alone time so they had settled for the relative privacy offered by the small office room in a far corner of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.
Hermione was there too. She didn't really want to be there but had just ended up getting shuffled along with the crowd. The day had been a very trying one. After all, it's not every day that many of those whom you trust implicitly are revealed to be so horribly corrupt.
It was enough to give anyone a headache. She had, of course, heard a few of the things that had been coming out following the arrests of so many members of The Order of the Phoenix, but it was one thing to read a few newspaper articles and quite another to hear it all and more in a massive courtroom.
Respect for authority, especially your teachers, was something that had been driven into Hermione Granger's mind from an early age. To have those figures of authority then go and betray their students and the country at large to such an extent was a difficult pill to swallow.
To make matters worse, it now looked like many of those betrayers of her trust were going to avoid their punishments. On top of that, after taking a good number of The Order away, Fawkes had gone and taken Harry too.
Despite their differences, she hoped that Harry was alright. She also hoped that Dumbledore would choke on one of his lemon flavoured sweets and die before he and The Order could get too far away.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, Hermione made a mental note to find out if a certain Mr Newt Scamander was still alive. If he was, she wanted to have a word with him. After all, his book, Magical Beasts and Where to Find Them, clearly stated that a Phoenix was a creature that associated with the light. There was clearly nothing light about Dumbledore, yet Fawkes still associated with the man and even did his bidding.
When they had arrived in the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office, all of the Weasleys gathered around each other in one massive group hug, offering support and comfort to each other as a family. As a result, Hermione was left alone, standing by the door to the office as Aurors, Hit Wizards and many other employees of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement bustled hurriedly about.
This gave her a very good vantage point when Scrimgeour marched in and began issuing orders.
"Potter's been located. He managed to trigger the underage magic detectors in the Improper Use of Magic Office. Port keys to the location are being made as we speak. I want all field units ready to go within the next three minutes."
Upon hearing the commotion outside the office, Ginny and the twins came over to Hermione's side.
"What's going on?" queried George, looking around.
"They've located Harry," replied Hermione. "He managed to set off an underage magic alarm somehow."
"Looks like they're sending in everyone with even the slightest bit of combat experience," observed Fred.
"Good," said Ginny, firmly. "I hope they reduce Dumbledore to a bloody pulp."
"If they get there in time," said George. "Anything could have happened since Harry set the alarm off and it's going to be a couple of minutes yet before this lot are ready to go."
Ginny sighed sadly and leaned against the door frame. "If only there was some way to get Harry out of there faster."
A moment later Hermione's eyes widened as Ginny's words caused a thought popped into her head, a thought that quickly became a plan.
Dumbledore's ears were ringing as he sat up. The last thing he could remember was skimming through a memory in which Harry apparently broke up with one of the Patil girls and then had a heart-to-heart with the Abbott girl when all of a sudden he was being thrown through the air.
Normally wizards of Harry's age did not have bouts of accidental magic, and if they did the results were usually not that powerful. But then most wizards Harry's age had not been through so much as a fifth of the crap that Harry had had to put up with over the years.
Looking around, Dumbledore took stock of the situation. Everyone was sprawled out on the floor, including Harry. The magical burst he had emitted had smashed apart the chair beneath him as well as blowing the glass out of all the windows. The magical barrier Dumbledore had created to keep the rest of The Order at bay while he and Moody went through Harry's mind had collapsed while the wards that surrounded the property in a protective bubble were failing fast.
Moody sat up, looking for his magical eye which had fallen out of its socket and rolled away. As he looked around he commented "That blast will have triggered every alarm the Improper Use of Magic Office has. Aurors will be here soon."
A sudden squawking caught their attention and Dumbledore looked over to the corner where Fawkes was thrashing about in a panic. The previously resplendent Phoenix did not look so regal anymore. Its gold and scarlet feathers were replaced by green and black ones. The previously swan-like body was now more like that of a vulture and the once melodious voice was now a mournful sound.
Albus Dumbledore knew that his long-time friend and ally was useless to him now. With the Ministry likely on their way, he did not have time to change the appearance of the bird. Decades spent perfecting this one particular project had been undone in a matter of moments.
Getting to his feet, Dumbledore grabbed a dusty old lamp and pointed his wand at it, muttering the incantation "Portus!"
"Severus, Alastor, grab Harry. Minerva, Mundungus, Dedalus, Elphias, Poppy, grab hold of this portkey. It will take you to a safe house in Germany."
Snape and Moody made their way over to Harry as McGonagall, Pomfrey, Fletcher, Diggle and Doge took the first portkey. In the blink of an eye they were gone as Dumbledore began making another portkey out of a cushion.
Harry glared up at the two men as they approached him and growled "Get away from me," revealing for the first time that the silencing charm that Dumbledore had placed on him had been broken.
"Come on Potter," said Moody, stomping over and grabbing Harry by the front of his robes. Snape mirrored his actions and together they pulled Harry up off the floor. Following his magical outburst, Harry was too exhausted to put up much of a fight.
"Bring him here," commanded Dumbledore, holding out the cushion portkey.
"Get off," groaned Harry as he attempted to pull himself out of the grasps of the two men. In the end what he managed was the equivalent to a shrug of his shoulders.
"Stop fighting Potter," snapped Snape. "And walk properly!"
As Harry tried once again to break free, three things happened at the same time.
First, the wards around the house finally gave out entirely and collapsed. Second, several battalions of Aurors and Hit Wizards led by Amelia Bones and Rufus Scrimgeour arrived in a ring around the house.
Third a high pitched voice cried out "You shall not harm Harry Potter!"
There was a pulse of magic and both Moody and Snape were thrown away from Harry who promptly dropped to the floor, partly out of instinct, partly because he was too exhausted to stand up under his own power.
Severus Snape was thrown towards the stone fireplace and hit it with a sickening crunch. Moody landed at Dumbledore's feet.
Dumbledore's eyes locked onto the small assailant and raised his wand, but with a snap of his fingers, the aged wizard's opponent disarmed him. Dumbledore could only watch in horror as the wand that he had been using sailed through the air to be caught by his much smaller adversary.
A moment later Aurors and Hit Wizards stormed the building. Dumbledore ducked beneath the first wave of spell-fire, grabbed the front of Moody's robes with one hand and grabbed the cushion portkey with the other. A split second later they were gone.
As the Aurors and Hit Wizards ensured that every member of The Order of the Phoenix left behind was bound and gagged, Harry rolled over to see who his saviour was.
With eyes the size of tennis balls, ears like those normally found on bats, an old pillowcase for a robe, three bobble hats perched on his small, bald head, two poorly knitted scarves around his neck and more pairs of mismatched socks on his feet than should be possible, there was only one person that this could be.
"Dobby…" Harry said in a low voice, unable to speak any louder. "What are you doing here?"
"Dobby is coming to save Harry Potter, sir," replied Dobby, moving closer to Harry as the Aurors began searching the building.
"How did you know where I was?"
"Dobby could sense where you were, sir," explained the House Elf. "Dobby would have come sooner, sir, but Dobby did not know Harry Potter was being in trouble until Harry Potter sir's Grangy was telling him."
"My Grangy?" asked Harry, completely baffled. "Wait… do you mean Granger? Hermione Granger? She sent you?"
Dobby nodded his head vigorously, causing his large ears to flap. "Dobby and Miss Grangy have been talking much since the school year started, Harry Potter sir. We is bonding over trying to help Harry Potter sir but only making things worse. Miss Grangy saw a way for her and Dobby to make up for past mistakes."
Harry couldn't help it. He grinned. In spite of everything, the trauma, the aches in his muscles, the emotional and physical exhaustion, he grinned. After all, he was in no doubt that had Dobby not arrived, the Aurors would have been seconds too late to stop Dumbledore from whisking him away once again.
"Thank you Dobby…" he rested his forehead on the floor. "Thank you Hermione…"
As the team of Auror-healers took Harry away to St Mungo's for treatment for magical exhaustion, Amelia thanked Dobby profusely and asked that he go and pass on news of his triumph to Miss Granger. She had already sent people back to the Ministry to report in.
"Ma'am," said Dawlish, coming up behind her. "We have an Augury here."
Amelia turned and followed Dawlish over to the corner where the green and black bird lay under the influence of a stunning spell while Proudfoot ran his wand over it.
"Seems to have been subjected to a myriad of very powerful enchantments," explained Dawlish. "We believe that this may have been Dumbledore's Phoenix."
Amelia frowned and asked "So Harry's magical outburst transfigured it?"
"No, ma'am," replied Proudfoot. "While the bird has undoubtedly had magic cast on it in the past, there are no enchantments upon it now. I suspect Potter's magic cancelled what was there."
"Do you mean to tell me that Dumbledore's pet Phoenix was nothing more than a transfigured Augury and that Harry somehow broke that enchantment?" queried Amelia.
"Near as I can tell, yes," replied Proudfoot. "Though there was much more than just transfiguration at work here. There were charms, potions and runes as well."
"How?" asked Amelia.
Proudfoot shrugged and got to his feet. "No idea. All I can say is that Dumbledore is one of Britain's best in the art of transfiguration. Giving the Augury the appearance of a Phoenix would not have been too hard for him. He's had decades to perfect the rest of it; the songs, the healing tears, the flame-travel and the burning rebirth…"
"Are there any potions that can mimic Phoenix tears?" asked Dawlish.
"Couldn't tell you," said Proudfoot. "But if there is such a thing it will be invaluable. We might need to search Dumbledore's office at Hogwarts again. It might also be a good idea to have a magi-zoologist come in and take a look at the bird. See if they spot something I can't."
"Perhaps old Newt Scamander can be convinced to do an afternoon of study for us," said Scrimgeour, coming over to the group.
"Good idea," agreed Amelia. "In the meantime, we get everyone back to the Ministry and question them on everything that happened."
Everyone agreed and soon the first group, consisting of Snape, Flitwick, Kingsley and Sprout were being taken by port key back to the Ministry.
Scrimgeour turned to Amelia and asked "Disappointed?"
"That Dumbledore slipped through our fingers? Yes. However, Harry is safe, most of the Order, including that bastard Snape, have been recaptured, no one on our side was injured and Dumbledore appears to have been deprived of that blasted Phoenix. I'd say we've done fairly well."
"Aye," agreed Scrimgeour as Dawlish took Emmeline Vance away. "All things considered, this could have gone much worse."
"Remind me to ask the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures just what awards for bravery we have available for House Elves," commented Amelia. "The list of those deserving special recognition keeps getting longer and longer."
Well, there we have it. Sorry if it seems a little short, but there we are. For anyone wondering about Harry's magical outburst, this is something that has been building up within him since the third task of the Tri Wizard Tournament, if not before then. Everything that he has been through just built and built until it finally burst free, the results being what you see here.
And before anyone asks, yes, Dobby catching that wand does indeed mean what you think it means. I don't know if it will ever play a major role in events to come, all I know is that I wanted to deprive Dumbledore of his wand. To be honest, I forgot what the significance of that was until the moment I wrote it.
I know that many of you are annoyed that Dumbledore is still free, but, as with Voldemort, that is the last we will see of him for a while… unless we get a very brief update at the end of the next chapter. If that happens, then that will be the last we see of Dumbledore for a while. For now that arc of the story is pretty much closed.
I know that this "Dumbledore Strikes Back" arc hasn't been everyone's cup of tea and that a number of people have dropped the story because of it. Those of you who have stayed, thank you. Hopefully you will enjoy what lies in store next.