Bab 105: Chapter 105
The breakfast turned out to be such a welcome after his long stay in a holding cell, Dumbledore actually stayed a little longer than he planned. It wasn't until the mail owls all streamed in that he realised how late it was and was quick to leave again.
However, this time he left by way of the main doors into the room, so the students could see him and know he was back. That way was a little longer to get back to his office so he could apparate out to McGonagall's ancestral lands in the Scottish highlands, but the walk helped to get his blood pumping and his mind sharpened.
Almost as soon as he walked into his office he apparated out. He never noticed the owl-delivered scroll, sealed with red wax and stamped with the Hogwarts Seal, sitting on his desk with the rest of his 'redirected' mail.
He appeared a long moment later on the outskirts of a small Scottish settlement that was the home village of the Stewart Clan, Minerva McGonagall's ancestral clan seat. He had to apparate in quite a distance out as the village was, like most such magical settlements in Scotland, under one massive anti-portkey anti-apparation ward schema, to name two of the wards over the area. Only those of Stewart blood could portkey or apparate directly into the village. He knew her small home to be among the private residences just beyond what could passably be called the Village Square.
As he walked in and made sure he did not seem threatening at all, quite a few of the Highlanders of Clan Stewart stopped to watch him for a few moments before then deciding to ignore him and get on with what they were doing. He was, after all, only a Sassanach - an Englishman.
It was almost twenty minutes before he was through the centre of the village and out into the homes on the other side. And half that time later he was at the front gate of McGonagall's home.
Barely pausing in his stride, he opened the gate and walked up the short path to her door.
A firm but polite knock on her door and he waited, mentally reviewing what he needed to talk to her about and his plan for getting her back into the castle as his deputy, once more.
Almost before he realised it, the door was yanked open by the very witch he wanted to see. However, it was instantly apparent she would not be welcoming him.
Minerva McGonagall stood there with an expression of great fury on her face and her wand in her hand.
"Minerva?" he politely asked. "Whatever is the matter?"
That triggered it.
McGonagall immediately launched into screaming and verbally cursing him in a combination of Gaelic Scottish and English Scottish before she started flinging curses and animated transfigurations at him. If it wasn't for her opening with invective first, he knew she'd have likely killed him.
"Ye glaikit bludy buggerin' auld rockit!" (You stupid bloody buggering old fool!)
Her wand whipped up and she cast a banishing charm at him. One he didn't have his own wand out and ready to defend against. The curse sent him flying backwards, back to and through her front gate.
"Ah lost mah jab, fur ah trusted ye!" (I lost my job because I trusted you!) she screamed as she stalked out the door and after him.
Then she began to transfigure various rocks and garden decorations into almost fantastical beasts she then sent after him.
"Tha thu dad ach fèineil, suas Sasannach fhèin le delusions fèin airidheachd!" (You're nothing but a selfish, up himself Englishman with delusions of self entitlement!) she screamed.
By then he'd managed to get himself to his feet, drawing his wand as he did so, just in time to destroy and banish away the animated transfigurations.
"Bi falbh còmhla riut! Chan eil riamh dorcha mo gan rithist, tha thu geal-whiskered wanker!" (Begone with you! Never darken my stoop again, you white-whiskered wanker!)
The next few attacks came by way of curses, followed up by the transfiguring of some other piece of detritus out of the 'street' that attacked him from behind. He'd managed to spell swat the curses aside but was nearly bitten on his leg by the tin lion that came at him from outside his peripheral vision. He was lucky it only managed to get a 'bite' of his robes.
He banished that but had to dive out of the way of her follow up 'grey' curses she'd sent at him while he was dealing with the lion.
She screamed at him, yet again, "If ye ever come 'ere again ah will demand Chief 'Amish declare blood feud oan ye 'n' yer brother!" (If you ever come here again I'll demand Chief Hamish declare blood feud on you and your brother!)
As Dumbledore rapidly retreated back the way he'd come, he was glad the woman had stopped at her front gate. He knew that if he attacked her in the settlement, the wards based on ill-intent against a member of the Stewart Clan would quickly deal with him. She had once told him that any outsider acting with ill-intent in the village quickly found themselves stunned, bound, waking without any magical item that was on their person and in the only secure cell they had - the settlement's short-term gaol.
Once he was far enough away from her he felt safe enough to turn around so he wasn't dodging backwards, he was met by hostile stares of those who'd come out of their homes to see what was going on. Of the adults they, too, had their wands out and were glaring at him. He could see mothers chivvying their children back into the homes or away from the street between the buildings.
"Errr... Good morning," he tried to cheerily say. "It seems my good friend―"
That was as far as he got before one of the burliest of the men standing there and frowning at him took a step forward, raised his off arm and pointed to Dumbledore's right. "Th' ward line's closest tha' wey," he growled.
"Ah, yes," replied Dumbledore. "But the apparation point is that way." And gestured with his own hand behind the man.
His face turning from frown to anger, the man firmly pointed in the same direction again and said, "Wance ootside th' wards ye kin donder aroond." (Once outside the wards you can walk around.)
Not wanting to push it in a place he had no hope of being able to properly defend himself if the villagers developed a mob mentality, Dumbledore sighed and quietly said, "If you wish. I am disappointed you feel it necessary to force one of such advanced age as I to make such an unnecessary trek."
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
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