The Best Revenge

Chapter 6


Snape finally found himself able to leave the Dark Lord just a few days before the beginning of the school year. His whole summer had been spent playing nurse for Voldemort.

Ever since that fateful night, when his dark mark suddenly started to act out, he had been forced to stay at the Dark Lord’s bed side pouring potions down his throat after being practically kidnapped from the school grounds by Malfoy and Avery. He had been virtually cut off from the outside world and since he was still playing the part of faithful Death Eater, he barely came up with an excuse to send a note to Dumbledore saying that he needed to go away for personal reasons and even then there had been no way of sending a warning of what was truly happening.

Still, he counted his blessings. Due to his weakness, Voldemort had been remarkably quiet and not a single raid or assassination had taken place, to be perfectly honest, the Dark Lord had slept most of the time, which made the fact that he could not offer frequent updates on the situation of Voldemort’s return not as damaging as it could have been.

By his calculations, it would still be another four to six months before the Dark Lord felt strong enough to strike, it was only a small window of time, but at least they had some time to prepare on top of the almost three months they already had. At least that Potter brat was useful for something, even if it was just to raise the alarm.

The potion master flooed into the Three Broomsticks in the middle of the afternoon. The place was empty as expected, being too late for lunch and too soon for the afternoon tea, which suited Snape just fine, he was in no mood for pleasantries and almost three months late for a conversation with the headmaster.

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Twenty minutes later Snape finally reached the headmaster’s office. Albus Dumbledore was there, surrounded by papers, books and gadgets as usual. He raised his head and looked at his potion master with curiosity.

“Severus, dear boy,” he said smiling, “I didn’t know you were back already. I trust you solved whatever problem you had.”

“Whatever prob…” started Snape dumb folded, “Albus, are you telling me that Potter didn’t tell you? I always told you that brat was too big headed for his own good but you never listened to me and now he lost us precious weeks of preparations.”

“Severus, what are you talking about?” Dumbledore look genuinely surprised.

“The Dark Lord! Didn’t Potter tell anyone that he was back? What was that child thinking? He probably wants to go after him alone like he has done with whatever problem he has faced ever since he came to school. I told you, Albus, I told you that he needed to be firmly guided and not coddled like you did. Mark my words, that brat will find himself in more trouble than he can handle sooner rather than later and then I want to see…” Snape finally noticed the look of utter shock in his mentor’s face and mistook it for apprehension with the Dark Lord’s return, “I’m sorry, I got carried away. It doesn’t matter that the child said nothing, we still have some time to prepare, granted is not as much as it could have been but…”

“Harry Potter is in Azkaban,” said Dumbledore still shaken.

“What?” Snape nearly fell with the news, “What ever for?”

“The murder of Cedric Diggory,” informed Dumbledore.

“But… Wormtail killed Diggory. Didn’t Potter tell you that?”

“He did. He also informed us of Voldemort’s return,” Dumbledore’s expression was near desperation now, “but we didn’t believe him. Not one of us and… we… I…” he couldn’t go on. The enormity of the betrayal he had committed weighed heavily on him. The look of utter disbelief and betrayal that Harry had on his face came back full force on his memory. The look of an innocent child being abandoned by everyone he trusted.

“Good lord, what have we done?” Sighed Dumbledore. How did that happen? Why did he believe, even for a second, that Harry had been capable of such a thing? He knew Harry would never murder another person in cold blood, and yet…

Snape’s legs gave up from under him and he fell onto one of the armchairs. A wave of dizziness took over and his world spun, he never thought things could have gotten so out of hand in the time he was away. It was worse than anything he could ever imagine.

When he finally got himself under control again the headmaster was fastening his cloak around his shoulders. A determined look on his face.

“I’m going to the Ministry, I must speak with Fudge at once.”

“I’m going with you,” offered Snape also getting up, “you might need a witness to make that pompous fool believe in all this.”

“I’m afraid I must decline your offer, my boy. The Dark Lord still has eyes and ears in the Ministry. Your presence at my side would only compromise your position as a spy and Fudge still wouldn’t listen.”

Snape acquiesced, he knew Dumbledore was right, and without any further delays, Dumbledore left the office to try and fix the biggest mistake in the Wizarding World he could remember.

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Putting the matter to right, however, proved to be easier said than done. Fudge simply wouldn’t budge, refusing to even discuss the possibility of a mistake or the return of the Dark Lord.

Dumbledore finally had enough and snapped at him. The old wizard seemed to grow in stature and the air around him cracked with power, his face was dark and grave in his anger. That certainly caught the minister’s attention.

“DO NOT THINK OF ME AS AN ATTENTION SEEKING FOOL, CORNELIUS!” the white haired wizard said in a booming voice before adding in a more conciliatory tone, “This is not the time to pretend the world is as we want. Our enemy has returned and Harry Potter is our only chance of ever seeing the end of this threat.”

Fudge did some fast thinking, he had pulled all stops in order to get to the boy’s money and only the fact that he had no magical relatives left had allowed him to do so. The Minister shuddered thinking about the Black estates, it was too bad that when Sirius Black had gone to Azkaban his mother was still alive and he had missed the opportunity of seizing that nice pile of gold as well and now it would seem all too suspicious to do so.

The Potter estate, however, was a different matter. There was no one to file a complaint about what would happen to the money and as far as the public knew it went all to charity. If he declared the boy innocent now he would have to give back what he had taken… and the fact that part of that money had ended up in his account would come to light. No, that could not happen.

“Oh, please. Dumbledore,” he tried another approach, “even if all that was true, and there is no evidence that it is, mind you. What could a mere boy do against one so powerful as you-know-who? I’ll tell you what, find me the prove of this allegations and we’ll talk again, until then, there is nothing that I can do for the boy.”

“Cornelius, you seriously…”

“There is no evidence of HIS return. There is no evidence of foul play. Even you agreed that sending the boy to Azkaban was the right thing to do at the time. Nothing has changed, Dumbledore, there are no new deaths, no dark mark floating anywhere, no death eaters raid. All I have is the dead body of one student and Potter was the only one around him at the time of death. Any fool can see…”

“And that fool would be mistaken,” interrupted Dumbledore, “I’m telling you, Cornelius. Severus Snape can show you his arm. The mark is back, he is back! And the longer we take to remove Harry from Azkaban the longer it will take for him to recover. We must do it now. Release him under my care, I’ll vouch for him but Get. Him. Out. Of. There.”

“Now, now, Dumbledore, you know that without due process…” Fudge offered a patronizing smile but Dumbledore interrupted him again.

“Then what you suggest is that we wait for another two weeks until the scheduled public trial takes place and risk an even greater scandal than the one we already got on our hands. Is that it?” baited Dumbledore, knowing full well how much Fudge would hate to look like a fool in front of the whole Wizarding World.

That made Fudge pause. He hadn’t taken in account the trial already scheduled and there was no way the public would let that one go. This could very well be the end of his career.

“Perhaps you’re right, Dumbledore,” he agreed nervously, “I’ll schedule a preliminary hearing for the boy tomorrow, maybe even later today, and we’ll ask him a few questions with Veritasserum. We’ll decide what to do depending on his answers.”

Fudge reached for the door to call his secretary, but Dumbledore stepped in his way.

“I think,” the older wizard said wisely, “that due to the sensitive nature of this matter, that a more discreet way to go about it should be employed.”

“What do you mean?” blinked Fudge confused.

“If we were to bring Harry here to be questioned, the information could find its way in to the Dark Lord’s ear and Harry’s security would be compromised.”

“What are you suggesting, Dumbledore?” asked Fudge narrowing his eyes.

“My suggestion is this, instead of bringing Harry here and creating a potentially dangerous situation, we should be the ones going there, along with a select group of people we might need,” proposed Dumbledore.

“And who exactly do you think ‘we might need’ for this?” asked Fudge suspiciously, he was convinced it was all a plot from Dumbledore to make him look like a fool and take over the Ministry… maybe he was even considering aiding Potter in running away!

“One or two aurors, a mediwizard capable of administering Veritaserum… and the two of us, of course.” Answered Dumbledore easily.

“Of course… it makes sense,” Fudge was forced to agree. “Fine, we’ll go first thing in the morning.”

“Perfect, I’ll see you in the morning, Cornelius. Now, if you excuse me. I have to make arrangements for the night.” And with that, Dumbledore left the Ministry. He still needed to have one difficult conversation that day before doing what he should have done months ago, or would have done if he was not so adamant in sending an innocent boy to prison. It was time to re-activate the Order of the Phoenix.

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“I TOLD YOU HE WAS INNOCENT!” roared Sirius. Remus was barely able to hold his friend back so he wouldn’t tackle their old headmaster to the ground.

“As a matter of fact,” Dumbledore started in his most gentle voice, “You didn’t.”

“What?” both Sirius and Remus were facing the headmaster now with deep scowls on their faces, “What are you going on about, old man? Of course I did, I told you from day one that my godson would never kill another person.”

“Did you really, Sirius? or even you, Remus, by any chance?” asked the headmaster looking them in their eyes, “Or did you just demand a trial? Claiming that no matter what, everyone deserved a fair trial. Don’t you find it strange that even you two never uttered the word ‘innocent’ this whole time?”

“I…” Sirius stopped dead in his tracks, thinking about the previous weeks. His eyes went wide when the truth finally sank in. He hadn’t, not once, claimed that Harry was innocent. How could he have done that?

“We didn’t,” murmured Remus and then continued a bit louder, “not once the possibility of Harry being innocent crossed our minds. We just wanted the trial because of Sirius… but… how? He IS innocent. I know he is innocent. Harry would never…”

“I know,” Dumbledore said raising his hand to halt Remus tirade, “I firmly believe that Harry would never kill in cold blood. I know he is not capable of it and that he is indeed innocent of this tragedy, yet I spent the last two months devastated by the fact that Harry was a murder.”

“How could we all believe that?” asked Sirius chocked.

Remus sat heavily on the couch with his head on his hands. The past few weeks replaying in his mind while he went over all the small details he hadn’t paid attention to before. Dumbledore was right. They had been convinced that Harry was guilty, but how? It simply didn’t add up. Everybody had firmly believed, people that knew Harry, that knew he wouldn’t do something like that and should believe him no matter what, even if he said that…

“Voldemort is back!” he yelled jumping to his feet, “Harry said that Voldemort is back and we let that go unchecked for two months!”

“I know, my boy,” sighed Dumbledore, “and that might as well be our explanation. Voldemort must have found a spell that made us not believe Harry.”

“But how did he get all of us at the same time?” asked Sirius confused.

“He didn’t,” pondered Remus, “it would be impossible to get that many people at once and even if he could do it, the two of us were hiding. He had no access to us.”

“Remus is right,” Dumbledore added, “he could have placed the spell on Harry himself…”

“But how were Sirius and I affected?” asked Remus, “It makes no sense, to have such wide and strong effect the power behind that spell would have to be…”

Dumbledore sat down, pondering about this. Remus was right, of course, only an extremely powerful wizard could try such spell and chances were he would not be able to do it. Too many variables, too many people spread over too many places to be affected at once and, according to Severus, Voldemort was back, sure, but seriously debilitated, not improved and stronger.

If there was any difference on him, he was weaker, not stronger, and he wouldn’t be able to do something like this not even before his original body was destroyed. Was there a new force on this war? Dumbledore couldn’t help the shiver that ran down his back and hoped they were not too late to rescue Harry before something permanent happened.

“Gentlemen,” he forced himself to the things they could do, they were helping no one sitting around feeling sorry for the past few weeks, “unfortunately, there is nothing we can do for Harry right now, tomorrow I’ll go to Azkaban with Cornelius Fudge and do everything in my powers to bring him back with me, until then we must start preparing for the times ahead. Sirius, I’d like your permission to gather the old crowd here. We really have no time to lose.”

“Yes, of course, Albus. Maybe not all of them will be able to attend in such short notice but you’re right, we have to call them as soon as possible.”

The three men spent the rest of the afternoon writing notes to be delivered by owls and making fire calls. Surprisingly enough, all of those who knew Harry seemed to be expecting the call and they all mentioned a vague feeling of knowing that something was wrong but they couldn’t put their fingers on it.

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Author’s note:
Well, just one thing.
The scene between Dumbledore and Fudge is a total homage to Gandalf (The Lord of the Rings) when, in the movie, he is yelling at Bilbo, saying he is not to be taken as conjurer of cheap tricks.