The Best Revenge

Chapter 07


Emotions were running high at 12 Grimmauld Place that night. Snape was able to attend after he spent a few hours resting and was sitting at the table, not his favorite place, he would rather be at the corner and not attract any attention, alas tonight that was not a possibility.

Albus Dumbledore stood at the head of the large dinner table and took a look around the room. The Weasleys were uncharacteristically quiet and everybody could understand that, Harry had been like another member of the family and they hadn’t even blinked before turning on him. McGonagall was pale and shaking, she hadn’t said a word for the past five minutes and Amelia Bones was doing her best to calm the poor woman who couldn’t understand why she had behaved towards Harry like she did.

Remus and Sirius were talking quietly in one corner, not sitting at the table like usual. They were also unusually quiet and it was a testimony of how affected they were that the two of them had greeted Snape when he came in.

Dumbledore sighed; he could understand the odd behaviors from his friends. When he told them about Voldemort’s return it was like a light had gone on behind their eyes. They all started to demand Harry’s release from Azkaban and none of them could understand what had convinced them that Harry was guilty in the first place. Not a single one of them believed in Harry’s guilt anymore.

Tonks, Moody, Shacklebolt, Flitwick and a few others were tossing theories back and forth of what kind of spell could have such wide effect and so far they had come up with nothing. The sheer amount of power needed was ludicrous, too ludicrous to even be considered possible, there had to be another explanation. To Dumbledore that was a small relief for it meant that there was no new power sided with the Dark Lord, still not knowing was… unsettling to say the least.

“Headmaster,” called Arthur Weasley, “what is being done to release Harry?”

“Tomorrow I’ll go to Azkaban with the Minister and a couple of aurors to ask a few questions to Harry under Veritaserum. Once the necessary proof of Harry’s innocence is acquired I’ll demand his release under my custody and bring him here where Poppy and Severus will be waiting with all the necessary potions and care. Hopefully Harry will be well enough to return to Hogwarts on the first of September.”

“Is that wise?” asked Arthur, “I mean we are already at the end of August, it’s not a lot of time for him to recover.”

“I know,” sighed Dumbledore, “but Harry has been locked in that horrible place since the end of June and he will need a lighter atmosphere to recover. At Hogwarts he will be surrounded by people his own age and will have lots of space and fresh air. Besides, even with all that has happen, Hogwarts still is the safest place for him.”

“And that is what worries me,” muttered Tonks. She looked around to see questioning looks directed at her, “Hogwarts is the safest place for him and look at all that has happened there to him so far. That kid has the worse luck.”

Dumbledore really had no reply to that.

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Fate’s twisted sense of humor made itself known the next day through the weather. It was a beautiful sunny day, the kind of day that led you to believe that the summer could last forever and didn’t reflect at all the mood of the small group who gathered at a seemly abandoned pier to wait for the boat that would take them to the island where Azkaban was built. Less then twenty minutes later a medium size gray boat approached the shore and the group quietly boarded.

Fudge was nervously shifting from one foot to another. He had just received the news that would be almost impossible for him to replace the money he had ‘borrowed’ from Potter’s vault since he had already spent most of it. He was still glad that all he had been able to obtain had come solely from the trust fund the Potter family had established for its heir. The goblins had some stupid rules about not releasing the family vaults while it was still possible for a family member to be alive, even so, he found himself in need to give back a lot of money.

Dumbledore was quiet. The old wizard was lost in thoughts still trying to understand how could he have done such a horrible thing to a boy he loved as member of the family. More importantly, would that happen again? Since they had no idea of what happened there was no way to prevent it from ever happening again and that could cost them the war… if it hadn’t cost it already.

Healer Ethan Derwent was not happy either. It was his third visit to Azkaban and he knew what was ahead. He hated everything about it, the boat ride where he always got sick, the almost bare island with some sorry looking trees in the distance, the dementor’s presence lurking just out of eye sight, the damp corridors, the filthy cells, the insane inmates and the nightmares he was sure to have later at night. No, he was not a happy healer that morning and his mood only got worse as a wave of nausea hit him.

Aurors Tonks, Savage and Shacklebolt kept their thought to themselves and tried to concentrate in doing their jobs. Their stony expression was the only indication of how uncomfortable they were to be there.

The trip always seemed to be over too quickly as no one was ever anxious to reach the gloomy island and today was no exception to that rule. The group proceeded to the dark wooden gates where they were met by one of the few human guards of the place who let them in.

The same guard led them through the maze of dark corridors until they were standing in front of an old and rusty set of bars. On the other side, sitting in a corner and covered in filth a small figure muttered constantly nonsense and showed no signs of noticing them.

“Harry,” called Dumbledore, “Harry, my boy, look at me. It’s Albus Dumbledore, son, how are you?”

The figure inside the cell paid no attention to the old man and continued to mutter to himself, rocking back and forth on his corner.

“He seems very affected by his stay here,” Derwent said feeling a bit stupid for stating the obvious but anxious to get things moving so he could get out of the island, he turned to one of the aurors who had come with them, “open his cell so I can make a proper evaluation of his condition.”

The noise of the bars swinging open sounded exceptionally high in the dark corridor and a few of the inmates started to laugh and yell. The group tried not to pay attention to it and concentrate on the boy inside the cell they were about to enter. His clothes were torn and filthy and they couldn’t even see his skin under all the grime.

A few scourgify spells later the healer was ready to begin his work.

“He is malnourished, quite a few cuts are infected and I can detect a few mended bones – badly mended bones, I might add. What did they do? Toss him in his cell to heal by himself?”

Nobody answered that one, the aurors however had the strong suspicion that that was almost exactly what had happened. Fudge noticed that Dumbledore looked crestfallen.

“I’m sure they provided some Skele-gro if he needed.” Offered Tonks.

“Yes, they did,” added Savage, “It’s right here in the prison log.”

“That can’t be right,” said Derwent still checking the prisoner over, “there is no sign of accelerated mending.”

“Could it have been a faulty potion?” asked Fudge worried about this new development, the Ministry could not do with the extra bad publicity if they really did neglect an innocent prisoner.

“It’s possible,” agreed Derwent looking at the nearly unconscious prisoner’s face, “but we should really do something about all these scars on his face, I’m not sure I can even get rid of them now, after so long, but they still need treatment as they are severely infected.”

The healer rummaged through his pockets and produced a dozen vials of potions. They moved the poor boy to the small cot in the cell and started to pour the potions down his throat. The boy was completely unresponsive.

“That is enough,” the healer said to the aurors helping him, “let him rest for a few minutes while the potions take effect.”

Dumbledore produced a blanket and covered the raven-haired prisoner before retreating to the corridor with Fudge. They had a few minutes to wait. The aurors split up, with two of them remaining with the healer, Fudge and Dumbledore and one going to the check the prison files for information on the potions they had.

Fudge looked around making sure nobody was listening to them, the healer was writing his patient’s progress on a parchment and the aurors were a bit further down the corridor. They all looked far away enough and seemed to be paying attention to something else. It was high time he had some answers.

“Very well, Albus,” Fudge said keeping his voice just above a whisper so no one else heard them, “I did all you’ve asked me to do. We are here with the aurors, the healer and the Veritaserum you asked for. Now, why don’t you tell me what is this really all about?”

“The boy is an innocent child, Cornelius, I was hoping to right a wrong done to him and bring him back to his family today, but he is far more affected by this place than I expected. It may take a long time for him to recover, a time I don’t know if we have.”

“What do you mean ‘a time you don’t know if we have’? If the brat is innocent we take him to St. Mungu’s. It’s tragic that he lost his mind but it is not the end of the world.”

Dumbledore paused for a minute looking at Fudge intensely as if he was considering something and then sighed, making up his mind.

“Cornelius, there is something you need to know about Harry Potter and Voldemort…” pulling the minister closer to him Dumbledore made sure to cast a silencing spell around them and proceeded to tell him about the Prophesy. There was no point in hiding from the minister now as they would have to… go around a few laws in order to help Harry.

Cornelius Fudge was a coward and he knew that, he also knew he was not the wisest or most prepared man for his job; that was why he feared Dumbledore so much. He feared there would be a day where the old wizard would simply demand the position of Minister of Magic and he would be booted out of the office, now that sounded like the best case scenario.

If what Dumbledore was telling him was true, they could have just lost the war before the dammed thing had even begun and as Minister of Magic he was just a big fat target sitting right on the line of sight for the whole world to see. There was no question about it, the Potter kid had to be cured… and fast. Putting on his best political smile he patted Dumbledore on the shoulder in what he thought it was a reassuring manner.

“Albus, don’t be so pessimist. Healer Derwent is very good at what he does, I’m sure Harry will be back to his normal charming self in no time. You’ll see.” Fudge tried to hurry back into the cell, the Potter boy’s mental health was suddenly a much more important matter that it had been just five minutes ago, but Dumbledore seized his arm holding him in place surprisingly easily for a man of such an advanced age.

“Let’s hope you are right, Cornelius, but there is a small matter left to resolve.”

“Oh, really? What is it?” a sudden chill ran down Fudge’s back when he looked at Dumbledore’s stern face.

“I’ll need a wizard’s oath from you, Cornelius, that nothing of what I just told you will be repeated – ever!” Dumbledore demanded very seriously.

“Oh, of course. Of course,” relaxed Fudge pulling out his wand, an oath was a reasonable thing to ask under the circumstances.

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Healer Derwent checked the results of his spells again, the potions were not working. The boy was no more healed now than he was before he took the potions. Something was very wrong here and it was not the potions, he had checked them all this morning. A small suspicion started to grow in his mind, it was not the first time a potion had fail to work on this particular patient, one time could be something wrong with the potion, twice could be coincidence but more than that could only mean one thing, there was something wrong with the patient.

Derwent pulled his wand again, this time to cast a whole different set of spell on his patient. The results he got left no margin for error. There was no magic on his patient, none what so ever.

“Minister, I believe we have a situation here,” Derwent called the attention of the two men outside the cell.

“What is it, Derwent?” asked Fudge with an oily smile, Merlin, how he hated politicians.

“Is there a problem with your potions, Healer Derwent?” asked Dumbledore in a more polite manner.

“Not with the potions, sir, they are fine.” Started Derwent a bit worried how these two powerful figures would react to the news he had, “It’s the boy. He is not magical.”

“Somebody ripped Potter’s magic?” yelled Fudge paling, “Who turned him into a squib?”

“Not a squib, sir,” Derwent hurried to explain, “this person, whomever he is, was never a wizard. That is why the potions are not working on him and he is so affected after so little time in Azkaban, this boy is a muggle.”

Dumbledore hurried to the cot and started casting spells of his own on the boy. All of his readings confirmed what the healer had just said, this boy was not Harry.

“How did this happen?” he asked the aurors. Shacklebolt was checking the copy of Harry’s file he had in his hands.

“This boy was seen leaving the hospital where Potter was suspected of being, he was wearing Potter’s clothes and ran when the aurors told him to stop. He was chased for a few blocks before being hit with a stunner which unfortunately put him on the path of a speeding bus that hit him and threw him on a large window, rendering him unconscious. That is where his cuts came from I suppose. Then he was taken to the same muggle hospital where he had run from and identified as Potter… I believe it was because of his clothes and no one was able to see the mistake because his face was so heavily damaged. He was taken still unconscious back to Azkaban and no one has come to check on him again.”

“So…” Fudge said slowly putting together the pieces of information he had just heard, “Potter was never recovered after the car crash. Is that it?”

“Yes,” answered Dumbledore, “Harry is still out there running from us and we have no way of telling him that he has to come back, he would never trust us enough to do it anyway.”

“Not to mention that he is still wanted for murder,” muttered Tonks.

“We can’t let anybody know of this,” said Fudge. His mind working out all the new complications they would have to deal with now. Potter was not about to come back, he had nothing left in the Wizarding World and if anybody spotted him they would curse first and call the aurors later to receive the reward. The Dark Lord would also be pleased to know that Potter was out there defenseless. No, nobody could know about Potter not being there. But what about the trial?

It was a nightmare, the only plus side was that now he had more time to replace the money but still, there was an innocent under age wizard on the run charged with murder and as the Minister of Magic it would be his fault. Once the wizarding world got wind of how their precious savior was thrown in Azkaban they would want Fudge’s head on a pike. Fudge started to feel sick.

“The Minister is right,” agreed Dumbledore with his best I-am-a-teacher-and-you-better-listen-to-me voice, “It would only cause panic if the news of Harry’s disappearance was divulged. The general public would never believe that he is innocent or if they did they would panic because Voldemort is back. No, we have to work in secret to find Harry and bring him back. Once he is back we use Veritaserum on him, clear his name and do our best to get him to forgive us. Meanwhile, we have a dark lord to fight.”

While Derwent and the aurors were preparing the mysterious muggle to be transferred to St. Mungu’s; Fudge and Dumbledore hastily made plans of who would know about Harry being gone, what to do to find him and how to prepare to fight Voldemort.

Their only hope was that they could find Harry soon, before it became too late to save the Wizarding World.


Author’s note:
Coming soon – Draco’s POV, Sunnydale, Anya’s POV and much, much more…

Gee, didn’t that sounded just like one of those sleazy adult shows?