A-Meeting-Long-Awaited (II) [Chapter 155]

~~Headmaster’s Office, Hogwarts~~ (A couple of minutes ago)

The room was completely silent and then all of a sudden the Floo flared up as the green flames spewed out of the fireplace, waking up some of the sleeping portraits of the previous Headmasters. Moments later, Albus Dumbledore finally stepped out of the fireplace before removing the soot from his extravagant purple robes… Albus slowly made his way around his table and took his seat before releasing a tired sigh.

It has been a long day for him… First, he had to deal with the long and stressful Wizengamot meeting where Harry’s new guardian was decided. Then he had to deal with Severus, who seemed to be worried about Lily Potter’s boy even though he would outright deny such a thing, and finally, Albus had to track down one of his unsavory supporters before paying them a surprise visit.

It took a lot of convincing, but Mundungus Fletcher finally agreed to carry out the task of grabbing Harry Potter and then bringing him back to Britain. The man was a petty thief and thanks to that, the man had experienced the hospitality of Azkaban. That was why he was reluctant to accept the job at first as if he got caught during this job, then his sentence would be much severe, but Albus knew how to bring a man like Mundungus Fletcher in line.

Albus simply needed to promise a handsome reward for the job to make Mundungus accept the job… Mundungus would be leaving after midnight along with a couple of his friends using the Portkey Albus provided them with. To be honest, Albus only trusted Mundungus, and he would have preferred if the man went alone, but subduing Harry might be too much of a task for Mundungus alone, and the job would become even more complicated if Harry was in the company of Jacklyn Harper.

Albus had given Mundungus all the information he could about the duo, but still, he wasn’t sure if Mundungus would succeed or not in the first place… He would have been more confident if he could have sent Severus or if he could have gone there himself, but either of their absence would have been noticed. Alastor would have been a good choice too, but he had ruined their friendship and Albus suspected that Alastor was working with the Bones woman. Hence, his options were severely limited.

Albus unlocked his drawer with a tap of his Wand and pulled out a worn-out parchment before placing it on his desk. Albus tapped the parchment with the tip of his Wand. “I solemnly swear that I am up to no good” He muttered the password and the map unfurled on top of his desk. He had to admit that the map was a work of pure genius.

He had been using the map to keep an eye on Nymphadora Tonks since the day she arrived at Hogwarts. The girl was playing her role so perfectly that Albus wouldn’t have known of her presence in the first place if it wasn’t for the map. Tonight Nymphadora seemed to be lurking near the Ravenclaw Tower. Albus wondered how long she was going to be in the school. With a sigh, he decided to close the map and call it a day, but he stopped when his gaze focused on another name on the parchment.

He immediately shot up from his seat with a frown on his face… “Hadrian Potter” Albus read the name from the parchment in a low tone. He knew that the map never lied, which meant Harry was really here, at Hogwarts, and his real name was Hadrian Potter, but the biggest question that came to his mind was ‘How?’. Yes, Albus was surprised to his core, but he quickly regained his bearings as a plan started to form inside his mind.

Only a few moments ago, Albus was worried if Mundungus and his friends would be able to capture Harry or not, but now he no longer needed to be worried about such things… He could capture the boy himself. He didn’t know why or how the boy was here, at Hogwarts, but this was a blessing in disguise for him. Albus watched as Harry came across Mrs. Norris before coming across Barty Crouch.

The name made him freeze for a second… Recently he had noticed the man going around his school quite a lot, but he didn’t pay it any mind as the man was managing the Tournament, but something felt off… He wondered why Mrs. Norris was doing rounds on her own while Argus Filch was still in his office. Argus loved getting students into trouble, so it made him wonder why the man was skipping his duties.

What happened during the next few seconds was quite confusing for Albus as he wasn’t able to make any heads or tails of the situation until all of a sudden, Barty Crouch disappeared from the map. Albus gasped in horror believing Harry had killed Barty. He realized that he needed to start moving before anyone else could confront Harry… It was clear that Harry was walking down a dark path, but the boy was needed if they wanted to beat Voldemort.

“Fawkes!” Albus exclaimed sharply and the Phoenix flew down over his shoulder while trilling. As soon as his familiar landed over his shoulder, they both disappeared in a pillar of flames.

Moments later, Albus arrived inside the hall in a pillar of flames where Harry had killed Barty. He turned his head until his gaze finally focused on Harry. “There is no use in hiding anymore, Harry, or should I call you Hadrian?” The man asked smugly, surprising Harry for the second time… Albus turned his gaze, looking for the body of Barty, but found nothing except for some rubble.

It was quite obvious that a fight took place here recently as the Magical signature was still fresh. There were no Wards in Hogwarts that could inform the Headmaster or the Professors if a fight broke in the halls, but there were Wards in Hogwarts that could sense if anyone cast Dark Magic, but Albus had turned off those Wards to protect the Slytherin students.

Slytherins were known to use Dark Magic, after all, it would be plausible deniability on his part. He didn’t want to condemn students for their upbringing. Albus couldn’t help but blame the parents for such an upbringing and the students were still very young, which meant that they could be redeemed. Then there was the fact that Albus needed to protect Severus, so if any of the Slytherin students came under fire, then by extension, Severus would be under fire too.

So, in case any fights broke out, Albus was completely dependent on portraits to inform him or the Professors, which wasn’t so bad, but it wasn’t perfect… For example, there were no portraits in this hall, so the fight would have gone completely unnoticed if he didn’t see it on the map or until someone stumbled upon the scene. Though in this case, the lack of portraits in this hall was a blessing as the other Professors were blissfully unaware of the fight.

Harry wasn’t surprised that he was discovered, after all, he caused quite a bit of commotion with the fight, but he was surprised by the fact that Albus Dumbledore had somehow managed to learn his name. Since Dumbledore already knew where he was, Harry saw no reason to hide anymore. So, he simply dropped the Disillusionment Charm and stepped forward.

“Well, you caught me” Harry declared with a grin before a frown replaced the grin on his face. “How did you find my name?” Harry asked as he inclined his head questioningly.

Though instead of answering, Albus simply looked around and frowned. Fawkes thrilled sullenly before jumping off from Albus’ shoulder. “What did you do to Barty?” Albus asked in a grave tone.

“I do not know what you are talking about” Harry smoothly denied. To be honest, Harry had no idea what Dumbledore was blithering about. He kidnapped the man posing as Argus Filch, but there was only one Barty Harry knew about and Rita had seen Barty interact with the person posing as Argus Filch, which meant that the man he kidnapped couldn’t be Barty.

“There is no use in denying it, Hadrian… Your parents would be rolling in their graves if they could see you now” Albus said in a disappointed tone as he shook his head.

“That is not going to work on me” Harry declared.

“I am saddened my boy that you don’t know what type of people they were” Albus shook his head. “Hadrian, my boy, I implore you to listen to me… The path you are walking down will only lead you to ruin” Albus said with a pleading look on his face.

“You don’t even know the path I am walking on” Harry pointed out. “Are you stalling for time with your useless words?” Harry asked and once again, Albus shook my head.

“No, my boy, I am simply trying to explain what you are doing is wrong…” Albus would have said something more, but Harry decided to cut him off with an annoyed look on his face.

“I am leaving” Harry interrupted Albus’ spiel.

“I am afraid I cannot allow that” Albus sighed in disappointment as he looked at Harry. He wondered how he was going to fix Harry. This Harry could never be their savior.

“And how are you planning to stop me?” Harry asked curiously. He already knew what was coming. He knew this was going to happen from the beginning, so he simply decided to hasten the process instead of listening to the heap of hippogriff dung Albus was spewing from his mouth.

“Forgive me, my boy” Albus apologized before casting a Body-Binding Curse at Harry…