A knock on the door interrupted Dumbledore in his work and he cancelled the enchantment on the quill and set it aside as one of the silver instruments sitting on the nearest of the spindle-legged tables emitted a burst of white smoke which quickly formed the word "MOODY" before dissipating into thin air.
"Come in Alastor!" Dumbledore called out.
The office door swung open and the battle-worn form of Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody stomped into the room.
"One of these days I'm going to figure out how you do that Albus," the former Auror said in a growl as the door stung shut behind him.
"You, Minerva, Severus, Filius and everyone else," replied Dumbledore with a chuckle "So, how did it go?"
"I got him," said Moody "Poppy's working on the lad now."
"Might I inquire as to how you got into that room?" asked Dumbledore "Did you guess the password?"
Moody shook his head "Didn't need to. I just waited in the corridor under my invisibility cloak and waited for the lad to turn up. He let me in himself without realising it."
"I'm surprised that Severus had the patience to go along with that."
"He didn't. He lost his temper trying to guess the password and took it out on the suit of armour that guards the door. In the end I had to send him away. The portraits were shouting abuse after him and I had to freeze them in order to shut them up. That nearly blew it. Potter noticed something was wrong when he arrived and took out his wand. He also noticed something wrong with the suit of armour. I think I forgot to give it an axe after Severus destroyed the one it had."
"He still went inside?" asked Dumbledore, sounding surprised "Well, he is only fifteen I suppose."
Left unsaid was that that sort of incautious behaviour was exactly what Dumbledore wanted the boy to display.
"I'll give him credit though," said Moody "He kept his wand up at all times and searched all his rooms for signs of disturbance. Only one he had checked to make sure that he was alone did he attempt to use the floo network."
This surprised Dumbledore "He still tried to use the floo even after finding nothing in his rooms?"
Moody gave a nod of his head "Aye, he still tried to use the floo. I tell ya Albus, that kid is smarter than you give him credit for."
Dumbledore nodded thoughtfully. It seemed that Harry wasn't quite as incautious as he would have liked. Finally he said "Well, at least we have him. Did you destroy the complaints from the students?"
"Every last one and the boxes they came in," replied Moody "There were quite a few against Snape, mind you. You really ought to rein him in a little more Albus."
Dumbledore ignored this comment and instead asked "What about evidence? Did you find much?"
Moody reached into the front of his tattered leather jacket and pulled out a stack of parchments which he set down on Dumbledore's desk "Statements from Gringotts for every month dating back to November 1981, a listing of all Potter family investments and properties, a written apology from the Director of Gringotts himself and a promise to do an internal investigation of the situation whilst Harry works through the paperwork, all your worst fears in one nice, neat little bundle. I found it at the bottom of his trunk, hidden by a notice-me-not charm."
Dumbledore began riffling through the stack of parchment, the seriousness of the situation becoming steadily more dire with every sheet that he glanced at.
Moody placed a gnarled hand on top of the parchment to stop Dumbledore's riffling. When the Headmaster looked up at him, Moody held out his other hand. In it were the wrappings that had been required in order to deliver such a large amount of parchment.
"See that name?" the ex-Auror asked.
Dumbledore peered at the address and saw that the parcel had, in fact, been delivered to Amelia Bones rather than Harry.
"The Ministry know about this, Albus," growled Moody "The Department of Magical Law Enforcement is likely to be conducting their own investigations as we speak."
Dumbledore pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. The situation was clearly more out of hand that he had assumed.
At length he asked "Was there anything else in the way of evidence?"
"Not particularly," replied Moody "Just these."
He took out another two sheets of parchment and placed them on the desk. Dumbledore looked them over and saw that the first one was only the contract that the Ministry had given to Harry when he had agreed to take on the role of Student Advisor and the second one was a copy of Educational Decree Number 25. In other words, nothing that Dumbledore didn't already know.
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