Bab 47: The-Plans-In-Motion
~~Headmaster's Office, Hogwarts~~ (July 3rd, 1994)
Albus Dumbledore stroked his beard with a soft smile as he stared outside the window… His plans to bring back Harry to Britain were finally complete. All of the pieces were in place now he only needed to put his plans into motion. His plans to bring Harry back to Britain started back on March 16th, 1993.
September 11th, 1992 was the day he acquired Tom Marvolo Riddle's diary from Ginerva Weasley, the only daughter of the Weasley Family. In an attempt to disgrace Arthur Weasley, Lucius Malfoy planted the diary on Miss Weasley. It was a sound plan and it would have probably worked if he hadn't done anything.
The diary would have been a good test for Harry, but unfortunately, the boy wasn't here… As soon as Miss Weasley crossed the Wards, he knew that the girl had brought something extremely dangerous to the school, but he didn't act instantly. He decided to take the wait and see route… Meanwhile, he decided to investigate how Miss Weasley came in possession of such a Dark Artifact.
It didn't take him much time to discover how the diary came into her possession and he decided to snatch it as soon as he discovered that the diary belonged to Tom Marvolo Riddle… Taking the diary from the girl wasn't that hard, and he simply needed to use a few well-timed words to make sure that the girl kept the knowledge of the diary to herself.
Ginerva Weasley was quite young, but she was still a Weasley. Molly Weasley's and Arthur Weasley's influence would never allow any of them to betray his trust, at least, not knowingly. Even Lucius Malfoy won't be able to make a move if the diary went missing from her possession. Albus was glad that he was able to spare the girl from any suffering…
He was also able to learn quite a few things about the diary from the girl and he was horrified to learn that the diary had its own consciousness. What horrified him even more was the fact that the person answering the questions introduced himself as Tom Marvolo Riddle… At that time, Albus had no idea what sort of sorcery Tom could have performed to create such an artifact, but he was determined to discover its secrets…
Albus also realized that there was a subtle Compulsion Charm placed on the diary, which would make the person in possession of the diary want to write in it… Albus was easily able to ignore the Compulsion, but someone like Miss Weasley who didn't have mental defenses wouldn't be able to ignore the Compulsion, so he didn't blame her for giving into the temptation and writing in the diary.
Albus was also glad that he decided to acquire the diary when he did because the diary gave off the same reading as Harry's scar, but on a much higher scale, which made him realize that the diary could probably reveal the mystery behind Harry's scar… He could feel dread welling up in the pit of his stomach for what he was about to discover, but this could be probably the biggest breakthrough against Voldemort…
It took him months to finally discover what sort of artifact the diary was and to say that he was horrified would be putting it lightly… He has long mourned for the man Tom could have been, but the existence of the diary made him mourn for Tom's humanity… Apparently, Tom had mutilated his own Soul to create a Horcrux.
As long as the Horcrux remained, the maker of the Horcrux, in this case, Tom Marvolo Riddle, would remain anchored to the world of living… To create a Horcrux, one must perform the vilest act… They would need to commit murder in cold blood to fracture the Soul. Albus was sure that there were other steps involved in the process, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to know them.
Through this discovery, Albus finally discovered how Voldemort was able to survive that fateful Halloween Night and it also revealed the mystery behind Harry's scar… Harry Potter was also a Horcrux and his very existence was keeping Voldemort anchored to the world of living… That probably wasn't the worst of it, he didn't even know if the real Harry Potter was still alive or not…
Albus cried the whole night when he came to that realization… He never mourned for Harry since he still believed that he could still guide the boy towards the light, but the day he discovered that Harry was a Horcrux, he mourned for him…
He hadn't been able to find any records of a person being turned into a Horcrux and he wasn't planning to ask anyone… He would never trust anyone with such delicate and dangerous secrets. So, Albus was flying completely blind, but he guessed that there was a huge chance that Voldemort was able to take over Harry's body… After all, Harry did murder his family in cold blood, something Voldemort would have relished in…
Then there was also a chance that his mother's protection was still protecting young Harry… Lily sacrificed herself so that her son could live, her Love protected the boy from the Killing Curse cast by Voldemort and reflected it back at the caster… Love was probably the most powerful Magic and he believed that the 'power the Dark Lord knows not' to be Love since Tom had long lost the ability to love…
At that time, Albus decided to shelf the issue since he didn't have all the facts… Half of his mind was telling him that it was Voldemort parading as Harry Potter, while the other half was telling him that it was still Harry Potter and the boy could still be saved… He didn't have enough facts to support either of his theories. He realized that he would need to watch the boy closely to make a conclusion…
The Fate of the whole Magical World was resting upon Harry Potter and he needed more than theories to make a decision… March 16th, 1993 was the day when he started to weave his plans to bring Harry back to Britain…
He was so busy with his research that he completely missed the fact that Harry won the Under Thirteen Dueling Tournament… It wouldn't have mattered even if he had seen the headlines as it would have been still too late for him to act and he also had other important things to deal with… Such as his research on how to destroy Horcruxes… He knew Tom pretty well and there was no way that the man would have settled with a single fail-safe.
Harry's scar was proof enough, which meant Tom could have made more Horcruxes… Albus also knew that Tom was an extremely vain person, so there was no way that he would turn something random or mundane into his Horcrux… This made his task of looking for Tom's Horcruxes much easier… While it would have been better if he knew how many Tom was planning to make, he knew a person who might know.
On the other front, his plans to bring Harry back to Britain were progressing rather nicely… He finally discovered a foolproof method to bring Harry back. He decided to use the Goblet of Fire… Yes, he would need to re-establish the Triwizard Tournament if he wanted to use the Goblet of Fire, but this was something he was willing to risk… After all, everything he was doing was for the Greater Good…
Albus was expecting Tom to make a move back in 1991, but Tom never made his move… He didn't even try to infiltrate the school, but he couldn't blame Tom for not even trying anything. After all, Tom didn't have any reason for trying to slip into Hogwarts. First of all, Harry Potter wasn't at Hogwarts and Albus also didn't try to use the Philosopher's Stone as bait.
While his plans were coming along pretty well, he still didn't know how to bring back the Triwizard Tournament… He could use his own political clout to bring back the Tournament, but he wanted to avoid any sort of direct involvement with the whole re-establishment of the Tournament.
For that, he needed to use someone high up in the Department of Magical Games and Sports. A few names came to his mind, but he realized that he would still need to work on his plans before making a move…
He had been working on his plans for quite some time and during this time he developed a habit of walking through the halls after curfew… He caught a lot of students during this time, but he always failed to catch the Weasley Twins… From the portraits, he knew that the two of them were out of bounds after curfew, but somehow the two of them were always able to avoid him.
This piqued Albus' interest and he started to keep an eye on the duo using ghosts and portraits… He discovered that apparently, then two of them were using an ingenious map created by the marauders to avoid him. The map was somehow able to pinpoint everyone's location in the castle… It was an ingenious piece of Spellwork and it saddened him when he remembered the fate of the marauders.
Albus called the Weasley twins to the office to ask them if he could borrow the map for some time… It was an ingenious object and he wanted to see how it worked. The Weasley twins happily handed over the map when Albus promised to reveal the identities of the marauders to them. After having the map for only two days in his possession, Albus discovered the name Peter Pettigrew on the map…
This made Albus freeze in shock and surprise… Albus knew that Sirius wasn't the Secret Keeper, but truly believed that Sirius killed Peter during the confrontation… At first, he didn't know if should trust the map or not. After all, the map could have made a mistake, but after some consideration, he decided to address the issue. Casting a Disillusionment Charm on himself, he made his way toward the Gryffindor dorms.
He arrived inside one of the rooms of the second year boys and started to look around… According to the map, Peter Pettigrew was still supposed to be beside Ronald Weasley, but he didn't find anything besides the boy except for his pet rat and then realization finally dawned on his face. Peter Pettigrew was a rat Animagus… Albus flicked his Wand in the air and Stunned the rat.
Albus had deactivated the Animagus Ward as it kept pinging him about Minerva all the time, but now he realized that he probably needed to re-activate that particular Ward. Abus levitated the Stunned rat and made his way toward his office. After arriving inside his office, he placed the rat on the floor and cast the Animagus Reversing Spell. He wasn't surprised when the rat turned into Peter Pettigrew, but he was surprised to find Tom's Wand in Peter's possession.
With this development, Albus realized that he needed to modify or completely scrap some of his plans… He could get Sirius out of Azkaban and the man would be grateful to him for his actions. Having Sirius on his side will also help his plans a lot… Sirius will be able to claim legal guardianship over Harry and the Black Family fortune will also help them to fight the war. Severus won't be happy, but winning the war was more important.
Then throughout last year, Albus has been busy extracting all the information he could from Peter Pettigrew. The man turned out to be a treasure trove in that regard and then he spent the last month modifying Peter's memories as he couldn't allow anyone to know that he interrogated the man on his own… He also removed some of the delicate memories from the man's mind as he couldn't have those memories ever coming to light.
While interrogating Peter, Albus also realized that Peter could help Voldemort regain his body, which also meant that he couldn't have Peter rotting in Azkaban, but that would come later… Before that, he needed to put his plans into motion… Albus sighed as he turned around and made his way toward the Floo. He grabbed some Floo powder and tossed it inside the fireplace.
When the flames turned green, Albus placed his head inside the fireplace… "Good morning Amelia, while I would have loved to chat with you, something urgent has come up and I would be glad if you come over…"
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