He looked up as Moody and said "Send word to Kingsley. Get him to see what he can find out about this." He gestured to the large stack of parchment that had come from Gringotts.
Moody nodded and stood up saying "I'll catch him in Diagon Alley. He should still be on patrol as he doesn't get off shift until midnight."
The aged Headmaster nodded his head and asked "What of the map and the cloak?"
Moody took both the Marauders' Map and the invisibility cloak of of his pocket and placed them on the table.
It was a shame to do it, but with Harry acting out, it was currently not in anyone's best interests for him to be able to sneak about the castle easily.
"Have Sirius send me the activation password for the map," said Dumbledore.
Moody nodded and, knowing that he was dismissed, he got up and stomped out of the office.
Dumbledore remained sitting at his desk for quite a while after this, making no effort to continue forging a letter to Gringotts.
It seemed that he might now have proof of where young Mr Potter had spent the last few weeks of the summer holidays. His choices were between two families, either Harry stayed with the Amelia Bones and her niece Susan and got to know Sarah Abbott that way or he stayed with Sarah and her daughter Hannah and he remained in contact with Amelia following his trial.
Something needed to be done about this. He needed to deter the Department of Magical Law Enforcement from finding out just what was going on with the Potter accounts at Gringotts. He also needed a way to make all of that evidence disappear.
Thankfully he had his spies and, if things played out the way that they were meant to, there would soon be enough pandemonium at the Ministry that one of those spies could slip in and dispose of that evidence.
He opened a drawer on his desk and took out a bowl of sherbet lemons. He helped himself to two of them, popped them into his mouth and placed the bowl back into the drawer. Those were his private stash. The ones on the desk which he offered to visitors were laced with a few mild potions that calmed nerves and made people more accepting to what they were told.
At the moment Severus was brewing two rather large cauldrons full of the latter potion. So long as the timing was right, the potion would be distributed with breakfast the following morning, allowing people to simply accept what they would otherwise see as a large attitude shift in Harry Potter.
Having been stunned in his quarters Harry would have been taken to the Hospital Wing where Madam Pomfrey was. There the matron would examine the boy for all controlling potions before adding ones of their own to his system. Following that Dumbledore himself would provide the appropriate memory modification spells to ensure that Mr Potter would be back to where he as needed to be, pliable, unquestioning and listening to only one voice – Dumbledore's.
A small part of him hated to do this, but people were just so bad at doing what they were told that he had to resort to extreme measures such as these.
Dumbledore was of the opinion that people, in general, were pretty poor when it came to making their own decisions, especially the big decisions. Given half the chance people would squander their gifts and fade away into obscurity.
People needed to be guided, to be told what they should do, be told what was right and what was wrong. They needed to be guided, cajoled and, yes, even outright manipulated into doing what they should be doing if the magical world had any chance of remaining stable.
Gellert Grindelwald had helped him to see this. Back then of course, Dumbledore's opinion had been that the wizards should be on top of the pile, leading the muggles about as required. Magic gave them superiority over the muggles, and the muggles ought to be made to respect that superiority rather than live in ignorance as the wizards hid themselves away.
Not now though. Since then Dumbledore had realised that Muggles and Wizards were simply better off staying away from each other. But he still held that those who were powerful magically should lead the rest and that the rest should follow unquestioningly.
It was not through war that you gain that power but through influence, and defeating Gellert Grindelwald in battle had certainly given Dumbledore influence in spades. Slowly through the years Dumbledore had extended his influence, claiming the titles of Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards before finally securing the position of Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
And with all that influence, Dumbledore had slowly nudged the world closer to his view of it. He did not need the title of Minister for Magic because they ultimately came to him, seeking his advice on every matter. His influence on the Wizengamot was strong, with only a few ready to reject his counsel. And, most importantly, he had the Order of the Phoenix to help him tighten his grip on his power. The Order was made up with people who either did not know how to say "no" to him, like Molly and Arthur Weasley and Remus Lupin, or who knew better than to do so, like Moody, Minerva and Poppy Pomfrey.
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