Part 5
AN1: My apologies for the delay but some of the reviews had my thoughts trying to outdo an Escher print in convoluted dreams of expanding this short little piece into one with a grandiose plot line such writers as: Janara, Kinsfire, Lisa Roquin, Radaslab, Caliadragon and so many other brilliant writers have produced. I decided however that whilst I have part written stories that I hope do match those dreams one day my story writing skills don't seem up to doing them justice – to many years reading, filling in and writing government reports I suppose.
Since I had actually finished writing the entirety of this limited story before I posted the first chapter I decided I'd simply post this fifth and final part as originally written.
AN2: It was noted that on more than one occasion in previous parts of this story that I referred to Fudge simply as Minister rather than as intended as Junior Minister. Fudge didn't become Minister until Bagnold stepped down just before Harry started at Hogwarts. I can't remember exactly in which story I first read Fudge been referred to as a 'Junior Minister' but it was a few years ago but in it Fudge was mentioned as being a 'Junior Minister' appointed as Head Obliviator - presumably in the dual role of 'makee learnee' and 'out of sight while hopefully not causing any trouble'! Rather than correct each document please take it as written that I meant Junior Minister Fudge in this story.
AN3: in Chapter 3 section Case file: 750978 St Mungo's Auror Station Sheet: 28 point 10 …period October 1st [Halloween] 1981… should read …period October 31st [Halloween] 1981… Sorry but I do know better despite Halloween not really been celebrated in Australia – the merchandise is sold but its pretty much a merchants excuse to sell more junk to kids. I don't even remember it been mentioned little alone shops selling anything until the '90s. More American influence I suppose.
AN 4: Inland Revenue is the centuries old name for the English/British Taxation Department. Presumably in contrast to overseas or foreign revenue sources
On with the story…
Sheet: 40
October 14th 1987 Daily Prophet
Hogwarts Board of Governors Mandates Changes to Hogwarts
By Alexi Henty
Following the recent convictions of Albus Dumbledore (on various child abuse charges amongst many other serious charges) and his Deputy Minerva McGonagall (for collusion in leaving a 15 month old wizard unattended on a muggle doorstep at midnight) followed by the subsequent series of interviews with current and ex-students and staff - which reportedly resulted in some very heated Board of Governors meetings and later some additional charges against Albus Dumbledore – has resulted in several long needed sweeping changes to how our premier school is to be staffed in the future.
The Board announced the following staffing changes:
The Formal removal of Albus Dumbledore as headmaster and from any and all positions under their ambit;
Mandated henceforth all Deputy Headmaster/Headmistresses can NOT simultaneously be a Head of House and a Department Head;
Demoted Minerva McGonagall from Deputy Headmaster and removed her as Head of House, placed her on probation for 5 years - she has retained her position as Transfiguration Professor;
Mandated henceforth all Deputy Headmaster/Headmistresses can however continue teaching if they choose;
Promoted Professor Filius Flitwick to Headmaster vice acting Headmaster and Ravenclaw Head of House;
Promoted Professor Lord Severus Snape to Deputy Headmaster vice Slytherin Head of House - he retains his position as Potions Master;
Promoted Professor Sinistra to Slytherin Head of House - she retains her position as Astronomy Professor;
Promoted Professor Vector to Ravenclaw Head of House - she retains her position as Arithmancy Professor;
Promoted Madam Hooch to Gryffindor Head of House - she retains her position as Flying Instructor;
ordered Professor Binns to be exorcised and replaced with a competent living teacher;
Additional Job requirements:
Muggle Studies professor to be have spent at least 5 years living in and preferably been at least partly raised in muggle Britain. Henceforth all textbooks to be modern muggle ones no more than 10 years old and which meet the approval of the muggle Ministry of Education;
Wizarding World Studies professor to be have spent at least 5 years living in and preferably at least partly raised in Wizarding Britain;
All other new hires to have verified Mastery in their subject or to be apprenticed to a Master working at the school;
All Department Heads to have at least one but preferably two assistants or junior teachers;
The Headmaster & Deputy Headmaster to have or to share a non-teaching administrative assistant.
Finances:
Expanded the current complete audit of all the schools finances and assets to cover the period since Albus Dumbledore became a Hogwarts staff member;
Gringotts to cross reference ALL deductions to Hogwarts from any source to ensure they were properly accounted for;
Hogwarts Gringotts account manager to report directly to Board of Governors but to co-ordinate expenditures and budgets with Headmaster/Headmistresses and Deputy Headmaster/Headmistresses;
Authorised Headmaster Flitwick to hire curse breakers to remove the so-called 'Dada Curse';
Authorised Headmaster Flitwick to find and hire required new staff;
Board member Lord Malfoy is quoted as saying "…it is long past time for Dumbledores stultifying effects on our childrens education to be removed. It is embarrassing to visit other countries schools to find them offering more effective courses…"
Board member Dowager Lady Longbottom stated "…it is a shame that Dumbledore has so blatantly and deliberately failed not only the young Heir Shea Potter-Snape but it begs the question of how many others has he deliberately failed? My son Frank often complained of the bullying by Gryffindors of the other Houses - particularly of those students from Slytherin or the so-called Dark Houses - that Dumbledore condoned but when the culprits were caught he frequently failed to punish!"
Sheet: 41
October 14th 1987 Daily Prophet
Wizengamot rules on Potter Inheritance
Shea Harold James Severus Potter-Snape acknowledged as true Potter Heir
"As the final will of James Orsini Potter and the amended Birth Certificate [which only Lord Potter could and did amend] indicated that Lord James Orsini Potter was aware that he was NOT the biological father of the child Harry James Potter born by his wife Lily Raveena Potter nee Evans. Lord James Orsini Potter then knowingly Blood adopted the child and designated him his heir in all matters.
Thus it is the Wizengamots declaration that by the wishes of Lord James Orsini Potter the child formerly known as Harry James Potter is designated the Potter true heir.
It is also known to the Wizengamot via the use of the Cognoscere Quis Sit Parens (Identify Parents) that this child formerly known as Harry James Potter is the son of Severus Tobias Snape who was either NOT advised of his childs birth or who was obliviated of this knowledge. Severus Tobias Snape has since regained custody of his child via a codicil of the childs mothers will which stated that in the event that both Sirius Black and Alice Longbottom are unable to take custody of my son as per my husband's wishes, then the permanent custody of Harry James Potter (and siblings) is to go with especially fond memories of his love and kindness to Severus Tobias Snape to be raised as his own, to the best of his not inconsiderable love and talent. Potion Master Snape has since subsequently been granted custody of his son by Senior Judge Iain Anderson and renamed him Shea Harold James Severus Potter-Snape.
Thus it is the Wizengamots declaration that by the wishes of Severus Tobias Snape the child formerly known as Harry James Potter is designated also the true heir of his biological father potions Master Severus Tobias Snape who retains full custody of his son.
Sheet: 42
November 17th 1987 Daily Prophet
Sentence Suggestion Furore
Public Debate Rages
By Staff Reporter Annie Jones
Today the public debate is raging hotter than ever regarding what combination of sentences are appropriate
for the series of heinous crimes committed and condoned in the name of 'THE GREATER GOOD' by Albus Dumbledore.
But the question still remains what constitutes Justice for them?
So folks give us your thoughts - HOW much time in Azkaban at what security level and or the Dementors Kiss.
Please folks do not send any more Howlers. The guilty are incarcerated and can't receive any owls!
And it's impossible to publish your thoughts if they're howlers.
So far we here at the Daily Prophet have received 237 howlers and 1,244 letters on this subject!
The former muggle guardians of Shea Harold James Severus Potter-Snape aka Harold James Potter have already been tried by the muggles and sentenced to Prison – 25 years each in maximum security for wilful neglect, theft of his carers allowance, abuse, child endangerment, grievous bodily harm (he was badly beaten – 6 broken ribs, both legs badly broken), attempted murder (taken to Woking and dumped in an isolated and secluded spot) and making false taxation claims. They were each placed in widely separated single gender prisons.
Following their conviction all their property was sold to repay the Crown monies defrauded by the Dursleys, their court and legal costs and to repay the Potter Estate money they misspent on themselves and their son.
The remaining money has been placed in a trust account - to be overseen by Gringotts - for their child care.
After investigation showed his paternal aunt would also be an unfit guardian - she in fact condoned and encouraged
her brothers abuse of a defenceless child! - Their son has been partially obliviated and fostered by another muggle family
elsewhere in England!
It is expected that under his new families care and guidance he will grow up to be a healthy and productive Englishman!
Case file: 750978 DMLE Sheet: 43
Date: 17/11/87 Time: 11.27am
Auror 1: Senior Auror Cecilia Hesle Auror 2: ~~
Report: Trial results and secondary effects
The boys former muggle guardians - Petunia Mae Dursley nee Evans (maternal aunt) and her husband Vernon Japhet Dursley are already in HM Prisons – 25 years each in maximum security for simultaneously been an accessory to and colluding with each other in the wilful neglect, abuse, child endangerment, causing grievous bodily harm (the victim had been repeatedly beaten and was found badly beaten – 6 broken ribs, both legs badly broken), attempted murder (taken to Woking and dumped in a secluded spot) and defrauding Inland Revenue. They were each placed in different prisons.
Their son Dudley was in the muggle foster home system after investigation showed the aunt would also be an unfit guardian.
Albus Dumbledore had his wand broken and his magic bound then he was sentenced to serve 6 years in maximum security in Azkaban before been Kissed. His younger brother and heir Aberforth Dumbledore was ordered to pay restitution to his victims (the lawyers and Gringotts were having a field day sorting that mess out as well as the resulting criminal cases to sort out resulting from the restitution claims).
Minerva McGonagall was reprimanded for her inactions and was ordered to attend several muggle Ministry of Education certified courses on recognising bullying and other anti-social behaviour in students and her legal, moral and ethical obligations as both a teacher and citizen.
Arabella Theresa Figg was sentenced to five years with no time off for good behaviour in HM Prisons for knowingly colluding with Albus Dumbledore in the continuous abuse of the child Harry James Potter. Note: Muggle records were age adjusted to ensure she wasn't released prematurely.
Cornelius Oswald Fudge was sentenced to serve 50 years in maximum security in Azkaban.
Dolores Jane Umbridge was sentenced to serve 40 years in maximum security in Azkaban.
Jacque Dawlish was sentenced to serve 10 years in medium security in Azkaban following his dismissal from the auror corp.
Arnold Peasegood was sentenced to serve 10 years in medium security in Azkaban following his dismissal from the auror corp.
Gilderoy Lockhart was sentenced to serve 5 years in medium security in Azkaban and to supply pensieve evidence of his victims for their blood price and restoration of memories wherever possible.
Case file: 750978 DMLE Sheet: 44
Date: 18/11/87 Time: 11.27am
Auror 1: Senior Auror Cecilia Hesle Auror 2: ~~
Report: Case closure file: 750978
Sitting in her newly appointed and relatively luxurious office Cecily Hesle was reflecting back on the start of the entire political and legal mess she had become embroiled in as she reviewed the entire case file and organised the various appendixes and photographic evidence prior to sending the closed file and attachments for the Records clerk to file them away. She thought of how Supervising Auror Dawlish had sneered as he gave her what he thought was yet another end of shift, parchment heavy minor case in the hopes that she'd resign in frustration. He'd made it abundantly clear that he didn't believe in having someone from a suspected Death Eater family as an auror, particularly not a female ex-Slytherin who had, apparently inadvertently, but very publicly shown him up to be a bigoted, brown-nosing idiot and forcing his transfer from being a high and mighty Ministerial bodyguard down to supervising the aurors of St Mungo's nightshift.
She grinned savagely to herself as she thought of the idiots current address - sitting in a DMLE isolation cells somewhere underneath the Ministry of Magic with the cells alongside him intermittently occupied by ex-Junior Minister Fudge, ex-clerk Umbridge and ex-Chief Warlock/Headmaster Dumbledore. All had been tried and convicted but were being held for further questioning and witnesses in the resulting secondary and tertiary trials.
Oddly enough, the new father of the original victim at the centre of the entire mess had little to say publicly except that the Kiss seemed a kindness to such Dark wizards and witches.
Four months later she could now finally close that case file knowing that justice was most certainly being done and that her distant cousins were finally safe and in their rightful home. Looking at the plaque on her wall that she'd copied from the Surrey Police Station when she visited with her oldest sisters pre-Hogwarts squib friend Sharon who was now a muggle Detective Sergeant attached to the Home Office.
Nodding decisively she signed the COMPLETED space on Case file: 750978: Cecilia Hesle, Senior Auror in Charge
18 November 1988
Royal Hotel,
Somewhere in England
Cecilia Hesle met Gordon Derwood and Sharon Forster at the Royal Hotel where she formally informed them of the cases resolution over a meal off the pubs 'Specials' menu board. Some creative cursing later and they spent a long and intense evening trying to drink each other under the table. Once the pub closed they left, walked around the corner away from any security cameras and swallowed a 'sober up' potion before heading home each satisfied that at least in this case justice was not only done but seen to be done.
8 December 1988
DMLE
MoM Britain
Internal Departmental Notification:
To: Auror Cecilia Hesle
Effective immediately for outstanding performance under trying circumstances you are hereby promoted to Senior Auror;
You are hereby temporarily reassigned to Auror Station Stirling, Scotland vice Senior Auror Sean Ramm;
Position: deputy supervisor;
You are hereby authorised 3 weeks relocation leave and allowance on full pay;
Report to Lieutenant Callan Stewartt 0900 hours December 29th 1988;
Authorised by: Madame Amelia Bones
Deputy Head
Department of Magical Law Enforcement
April 3rd, 1989
DMLE
MoM Britain
Internal Departmental Notification:
Re: Personnel Transfer
To: Senior Auror Cecilia Hesle
Effective as of April 17th 1989 you are hereby appointed as Deputy Watch Commander, Special Investigations Office;
You are hereby authorised 3 weeks relocation leave and allowance on full pay;
Report to OIC Day Watch Supervisor Warramunga 0800 hrs April 24th 1989;
Location: Brook Drive office adjacent to Imperial War Museum, Lambeth;
Authorised by: Auror Lieutenant Padraigh O'Rourke
Officer in Charge
Special Investigations Office
15 June 1989 Daily Prophet
DMLE announces discovery of Body
Yesterday afternoon the new owners of the house and land formerly belonging to the convict Bartemius Crouch Senior reported to the DMLE that they had found a body hidden under an invisibility cloak in a concealed room in the attic of their home. Our readers will remember that Bartemius Crouch Senior was arrested after a struggle at his then home in August last year
Upon investigation by aurors Earle Page and Joe Lyons the badly decomposing body of a male person was found to have been concealed on a mattress under an invisibility cloak. Further detailed investigation on site established that the concealed room had been outfitted as a makeshift prison cell and had apparently been used as such.
Forensic investigation is under way and aurors have been dispatched to Azkaban to interrogate Bartemius Crouch Senior.
The owners who wish to remain anonymous reported that after some considerable difficulty they had tracked down a persistent stench to the attic where they had found the remains…
21 June 1989 Daily Prophet
DMLE identifies body as Bartemius Crouch Junior
Spokeswizard Edward Grey handed out a statement: 'During the interrogation of Bartemius Crouch Senior last week at Azkaban Crouch stated that "…at the instigation of my dying wife I procured a quantity of polyjuice potion and we took it to Azkaban Prison where she used it take our son Bartemius Crouch Junior place while I removed him from the prison disguised as my wife. Having died whilst under the influence of the potion she was buried as our son. …bound by my oath to my wife to see him free from Azkaban but unable to let a fanatical follower of his Dark Master be free I kept him concealed in the attic where the house elf Winky tended to his needs. … to ensure he didn't escape I constantly kept him under the Imperio…" DMLE Forensic investigators have confirmed the body found was in fact that of Bartemius Crouch Junior who apparently died of a combination of starvation and thirst whilst under the influence of the Imperio.'
Spokeswizard Edward Grey went on to state that Bartemius Crouch Senior was now facing additional charges including that of casting the imperio on his own son between a 500 to 3,000 times i year period.
As our readers know the Imperio is an Unforgivable and each use on a human being results in an automatic life time sentence to Azkaban.
The End
Appendix for the curious regarding name derivatives:-
Shea Harold James Severus Potter-Snape
Shea – Admirable (Gaelic) also a West African food tree
Harold – Champion or General (Anglo Saxon)
James – Supplanter (Hebrew)
Severus - Strict or Severe (Latin)
Potter – maker of earthenware items
Snape – an English place name which is also a shipbuilding term: to bevel the end of a piece of wood, or cut it at a sloping angle, so it fits against an inclined surface
Vernon Japhet Dursley
Vernon – Flourishing (Latin) also a French last name for 'alder tree'
Japhet – May he expand (Hebrew) – this just amused me considering the characters girth in both the book and movies
Dursley - A city in Gloucester County, England
Petunia Mae Dursley
Petunia – Flower (Latin) specifically a British annual flower with delicate, bell-shaped flowers
Mae – Kinswoman (Anglo Saxon)
Dudley Alfred Dursley
Dudley - Dudda's Meadow or Dudda's Lea, from the obsolete Old English personal name Dudda and lēah (wood, clearing, meadow, enclosure); dry field (Old English); peoples field (Old English); Also a town in Worcestershire, England
Alfred – Counsellor (Teutonic)
Sean Ramm – (pronounced Shorn Ram) I actually know someone with a similar name – HE was NOT amused by his parents joke!
Personal Notes: I'm not now nor have I ever been a police officer nor a civilian employee of any police force. I'm just someone who has had to read, write and file far too many official reports working in a 'Fix up the stuff-ups' section of a semi-government department.
The idea for the story started with my completed dissatisfaction with the manner in which Dumbledore gained guardianship of Harry Potter and the events of those few days. So facts and suppositions:
Voldemort required Pettigrews assistance to locate and enter the Potters residence due to the fidelius charm
Some sort of alarm notified Dumbledore of trouble/deadly danger at the Potters yet Dumbles sends only Hagrid - someone who doesn't have a wand or apparently the ability to apparate – to collect 'young Harry' – where did Dumbledore go? What was he doing? Who removed the fidelius charm?
Hagrid arrives – portkey? - and could enter the intact but damaged house without apparently having been made privy to the secret of the fidelius charm – Hagrid later describes the place as 'swarming' with muggle emergency services – police, firies and ambos – none of whom would've known the secret.
Sirius Black arrived after Hagrid and as the both the first auror (police officer) and as Harrys godfather Hagrid should have given Harry into Sirius's custody upon his demand BUT Hagrid refused to hand Harry over (thus effectively kidnapping Harry) as the Headmaster had ordered him to take Harry somewhere else before taking Harry to Little Whinging the following night
At this point Dumbledore whether in his political positions of Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot (Speaker for Parliament), Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards (head of the UN), as Headmaster of Hogwarts (premier boarding school - Eton Rugby) or as leader of the militia group Order of the Phoenix Dumbledore would have NO legal right to take custody of Harry.
Suppositions: I would imagine that by this stage of the war (year 11) immediate and long-term custodial procedures would be well practised by the relevant Ministry departments and Gringotts until a will is read granting custody or a legal hearing is held to determine the issue.
Can you imagine a young married couple with a rugrat in tow – I don't care what their socio-economic background - who KNOW they are being targeted by a terrorist organisation and NOT having multiple copies of an up to date will along with a stack of alternate guardians in case the worse happens?
Also in the books the Potters were living in Dumbledores childhood home when Dumbledore cast the Fidelius charm to hide the house. Dumbledore made Sirius Black the original secret keeper, and as the caster wouldn't he have had to have been the person who at some point in October redesignated Peter Pettigrew as the replacement secret keeper?