Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 32: Half Truths
One month later.
McGonagall walked up the short set of stairs leading to the Headmaster's office and knocked on the door first.
"Albus. May I come in?"
There was no answer.
McGonagall exchanged a look with the woman right behind her.
"Is he okay?" Madam Bones asked after seeing the expression of concern on McGonagall's face.
"Yes, it's just… he has been a bit distracted lately." She knocked on the door again, and this time she got an answer.
"Come in…" Dumbledore's voice sounded deflated and tired.
The two women walked into the office and found the old wizard tinkering with some device on top of his desk.
"Why doesn't this work?" he muttered.
"Albus, what is that thing?" McGonagall asked.
"Oh this? It's just…" Dumbledore sighed and grasped his forehead before letting out a groan.
McGonagall frowned at seeing him like this. "Albus, you look exhausted. When is the last time you actually slept?"
Dumbledore brushed her off. "I'm fine. If I can just get this to work, then I will be able t—"
"Albus." This time, it was Madam Bones who spoke when it became obvious that the Headmaster was yet to notice her presence.
"Amelia?" Dumbledore looked surprised to see the woman. His eyes opened widely. "Do you have news? Did you find an—"
"No, Albus." She shook her head, looking deflated. "We are cancelling the search. I thought it would be appropriate to inform you in person, given how much you cared for this case."
"What?! No. You can't do that!" Dumbledore almost jumped from his seat.
"You are cancelling the search for Harry Potter?" McGonagall sounded almost as shocked as Dumbledore.
"It's been a month already. I had over half of my department working on this case alone, raiding every Collector's hideout in the entire country that we could find, arresting people, and interrogating them. And… nothing has been found. No other clue since that day at the alley. We even talked with many ex-convicts and informants in Knockturn Alley. The Minister of Magic offered a generous reward for any information, and still… nothing."
"We can't give up just yet. He must be somewhere," Dumbledore exclaimed. "Perhaps he was taken outside the country."
"That is a possibility we have considered and entered into contact with foreign Ministries. They all know what to look for and will inform us if something comes up." Madam Bones sighed. "Look, it's not like we will completely stop searching for the boy, but I cannot afford to keep half of my staff occupied in this alone. Other cases require our attention as well, and they are starting to pile up. This decision was not just mine, but also came from Minister Fudge, who agreed on this matter."
"No, this is not acceptable. We must find that boy! It is of utmost importance. You don't understand it yet." Dumbledore raised the tone of his voice.
"Albus!" McGonagall exclaimed. "You are being very unreasonable with Madam Bones. She has done everything she could over the past month. Can't you see how tired she looks?"
"Thank you." Amelia Bones smiled softly before turning her attention back to the Headmaster. "If I learn anything else, you will be the first one I will inform." Her eyes moved for a moment to the strange device on his desk.
There was something that felt eerie to her, but she decided not to comment on it at the time being.
The two women saw the Headmaster plummet back onto his seat and begin to mutter something under his breath while staring at the artifact in front of him.
"Well then, excuse me." Madam Bones saw no need to remain there any longer. It was obvious that the disappearance of Harry Potter had greatly affected Dumbledore, although she still didn't quite understand why this was the case.
She could tell there was something important the Headmaster was not telling them.
McGonagall gave Dumbledore one last glance of concern before walking outside and closing the door of his office.
"Unacceptable…" Dumbledore muttered while taking something from one of his drawers.
It was a grey shirt that contained many stains of dry blood on it.
Dumbledore waved his wand and pulled off some of the blood, forming a single drop, and guided it into the device.
He let the blood drop onto a metallic plate situated at the center and watched the glass needle hanging from the side, waiting for it to move and point him in the right direction.
"Come on… show me where Harry is." It had taken him a lot of effort to retrieve some of Harry's old clothes from the Dursleys' home.
He had found an alarming amount of clothes stained with the boy's blood.
Now he was trying to use it to locate Harry. This was already on the territory of illegal magic, but Dumbledore didn't care about legality at this point. He needed to find the Boy of the Prophecy at any cost.
"No…" he muttered as he stared at the needle.
Once more, it refused to react and point in any direction.
"How can this be?" The old wizard didn't understand it. He knew for a fact that the device worked, as he had used it in the past, but no matter how much he tried, he could not find any trace.
Someone else would have given up and thought that Harry Potter was dead, but Dumbledore was different.
"The prophecy will not let him die just yet… he can't die. So he must be somewhere under heavy protection." That would be the only explanation as to why his device was unable to find Harry.
Outside of his office, Madam Bones and Minerva McGonagall were having a conversation.
"I have never seen him like this. He has me extremely worried," McGonagall said.
"Why is he so obsessed with finding the Boy Who Lived? This seems like it goes far beyond the normal concern of a Headmaster for a future student. Not even for one this famous."
"The truth is…" McGonagall looked around to make sure no one was nearby. "When the Potters died, it was Albus who took custody of Harry and placed him in that Muggle house."
"I am aware of that much," Amelia said.
"The thing is… before leaving him there, Albus sent me to observe these Muggle relatives of Potter. I watched them for an entire day… they were awful people. Truly awful ones, and they absolutely hated magic."
"Hmm?" Amelia had not known of this little fact. "They hated magic? And did they know that Harry Potter was a wizard?"
McGonagall nodded. "I told Albus we should send the boy somewhere else. That I didn't think he would be well treated in that house, but…"
"But he insisted it had to be there." And Amelia knew exactly why. It was because of that blood protection that the Headmaster had mentioned before to her.
What he failed to say was the kind of treatment he received in that house. However, there was that one incident that landed the boy in the hospital due to a case of accidental magic.
"Was the boy abused in that house?"
McGonagall went pale. "Merlin! I hope not."
"So you don't know. But he certainly did. He even had some Squib watching the boy. Some Mrs. Figg, I believe."
"What?!" McGonagall sounded shocked. "He put that crazy old lady to watch Harry Potter?!"
"Old lady?" Madam Bones had assumed it was someone capable at least, so she asked no questions about it. "Tell me what you know about this Mrs. Figg. I may have to speak with her."
Her old instincts as an Auror were telling her that something was very off with this case, and the Headmaster had been hiding too many things.
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