E2R is Royally Pissed Off

The next morning: Friday, 8th September, at 6 a.m Almost 27 days after Harry's trial

The briefing room of HM Special Projects Unit A unit of the British Army

Somewhere in the United Kingdom

On the wall behind the briefing-officer's lectern was an emblem. In the emblem, a man's right hand was holding a pistol, which was aimed to the left. The man's left hand was holding a wand, which was pointed up. The shaft of the wand crossed over the barrel of the pistol. At the top of the emblem were the words "HM Special Projects Unit." At the bottom of the emblem were the words "The Dragon-Pokers."

British Army Captain Edgar Thompson walked over to the lectern, cast Sonorus on himself and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, today you shall be given a chance to maybe use the special training you've been given. Today we shall pay a call on Hogwarts."

The magical soldiers of HMSPU grinned, hearing this.

Captain Thompson conjured a floating replica of the Hogwarts Great Hall that was five feet long, then he rotated the replica a quarter-turn along its long axis. Now "down" for the replica was towards Captain Thompson and "up" was towards his audience.

Thompson continued his briefing: "This is the Great Hall of Hogwarts, where professors and students eat together. This short table, that runs up-down instead of left-right like the other four tables, is where the professors sit. In the middle of this table, and always sitting on a golden throne, is Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts."

Thompson said solemnly, "Dumbledore is our objective."

****

Roughly two hours later: 8:15 a.m In the Great Hall, Hogwarts

Everyone present, both professors and students, was shocked when snowy-white Hedwig flew in and delivered a letter—to Gregory Goyle.

7th September 1995, evening Gregory Goyle,

Today Hermione and I aided the professors at MMA (Manchester Magical Academy) in defending their school against an attack by Death Eaters. The Death Eaters were led by

Demodocus Cooper, just as your letter predicted. Vincent Crabbe and Pansy Parkinson were part of today's attack-force and were dressed as Death Eaters, even though neither Vincent nor Pansy bore the Dark Mark.

Every Death Eater who took part in today's attack on MMA was killed. Vincent and Pansy, on my order, were killed by Hermione.

I myself killed no one, because I needed both hands on the broomstick to steer my broom for acrobatic flying. But Hermione on my broom was free with her wand, and all the spells she cast were deadly. All of Hermione's targets, she chose, except for Vincent and Pansy.

In your letter, you requested that I spare Vincent Crabbe's life. If I were merely Harry Potter, former Gryffindor student, today I would've shown mercy to Vincent (but not to Pansy). But

since 13th August, I also have been Head of House Crabbe and Head of House Parkinson, by Right of Conquest. Today Pansy intended to kill Head of House Parkinson (me) and Vincent intended to kill Head of House Crabbe (me)—well, by your lot's own rules (Pureblood rules), Pansy and Vincent each deserve death for that, so today they were killed.

For what it might be worth to you, I am grateful to you for your advance warning, because this advance warning helped save people's lives—including Hermione's life. Thank you.

Harry James Potter

Goyle did not know how to feel. He was angry at Harry Potter for killing his friend, and Goyle was pleased that Harry Potter showed Goyle respect by being honest with him.

The angry part of Goyle thought, "Helped save people's lives"? Potter didn't save Vinnie's

life, and he didn't save the Death Eaters' lives!

Then Gregory realised something: Potter doesn't see Death Eaters as "people," just as Purebloods don't see Muggles and mudbloods as "people." Potter is wrong—could we Purebloods be wrong too?

****

Meanwhile, at the Ravenclaw table

Randolph Ralston, a seventh-year Ravenclaw Muggle-born, had watched as Harry Potter's white owl had delivered a letter to one of the former bodyguards of Draco Malfoy— correction: to one of the former bodyguards of Draco No-Name. Randolph had to remind himself that wizard-raised magicals, unlike Muggle-borns, could lose their family name; and in fact, Harry Potter had taken away Draco Malfoy's family name before the blond boy had been killed last month.

Anyway, whatever Potter had written in his letter to the bodyguard-boy—Randolph never could keep straight which was Crabbe and which was Goyle—had the boy looking devastated. Randolph suspected that whatever had Bodyguard A looking so sad had something to do with the fact that Bodyguard B and Pansy Parkinson both had missed dinner last night and breakfast this morning.

It did not take a Rowena Ravenclaw to figure out why those two fifth-year Slytherins had missed meals: because yesterday they had gone to Manchester Magical Academy to cause trouble, but instead they had been killed.

According to this morning's Daily Prophet, Harry and Hermione, along with professors at that school, yesterday had battled Death Eaters at MMA. One Muggle-born professor had been killed, but the other Muggle-born professors, along with Harry and Hermione, had not even been injured—whilst the Death Eaters had been 100-percent destroyed. Afterwards, Potter was quoted as saying, "I believe all the Death Eaters now are dead."

Now the fifth-year Slytherins had three fewer in their number than they had last June. When Randolph looked around the Great Hall, he saw other gaps, where people who previously had been here were missing now; Randolph was shocked to realise that Harry Potter was the cause of every absence. Harry Potter and Hermione Granger had transferred themselves to MMA; also, Harry Potter (or his team) had killed Professor Snape and two Slytherin students

—three Slytherin students, if you decided that Potter had set up Draco to die. Besides Granger, thirty-four other Muggle-borns had transferred from Hogwarts to MMA this week, all because Harry Potter had opened his vault to make easy loans to thirty-four sets of Muggle parents.

How many Muggle-borns had transferred to MMA this week, varied by year. Because of MMA's rule that the school would ban a student from in-person school-attendance on their nineteenth birthday, no seventh-year Muggle-borns had transferred to MMA in the past week, ditto sixth-year-Muggle-borns; and only one more fifth-year Muggle-born had transferred to MMA: Justin Finch-Fletchley. On the other hand, all eleven Muggle-born firsties had left Hogwarts, less than a week after their Sortings; and all but one of the Muggle-born second- years had transferred out too.

Thinking about the younger Muggle-borns transferring out made Randolph sigh, as he thought about his own future. Once he sat his NEWTs next June, it would be difficult— almost impossible—to return to the nonmagical world for work or uni; but Randolph as a Muggle-born was so scorned and unwanted in Wizarding Britain. Randolph had been forced to make hard choices ever since he had received his OWL scores, a bit over a year ago, but these transferers to MMA would be spared those hard choices. God, Randolph envied those

Muggle-borns who had escaped this fraud of a school that pandered to Purebloods, every minute of every day.

Meanwhile, regardless of Randolph's own problems and woes, life for the rest of the school went on.

The Slytherin response to thirty-five Muggle-borns leaving Hogwarts had been to bully a half-blood Hufflepuff firstie, two days ago. Yesterday three Slytherins, of different years, had been attacked as they had stepped out of the Slytherin common room and into the dungeons. The attackers were rumoured to be Disillusioned sixth- and seventh-year half-bloods, all wizard-raised. All three Slytherins had been cursed badly enough to be sent to the hospital wing—and also had been Obliviated, so that they could not name their attackers.

Dumbledore's plea, last night at dinner, whilst looking all grandfatherly, had been that the attackers "do the right thing and turn yourselves in." Dumbledore's request had been ignored

—or at least, nobody had stood up in the Great Hall, either to confess their own misdeeds or to rat-up someone else.

Right after Dumbledore had spoken, Randolph had heard a male voice speak at the Hufflepuff table: "Isn't it funny how, when Slytherin Purebloods are the bully-victims, not the bullies, our esteemed headmaster suddenly is all 'These crimes shall not go unpunished!' "

Now Randolph thought, What a week. This past week since the Welcoming Feast has been, shall we say, eventful. But now things should settle down to normal—whatever the new "normal" turns out to be.

****

Seconds later

In the Great Hall, the Hogwarts professors ate at the High Table—so-called because the table and the professors' chairs set atop an eighteen-inch-tall dais. Between the dais and the seventh-years end of the four House tables was a gap. In 1969, before Voldemort had started the (First) Blood War, the gap had been only ten feet (so Randolph had read in Hogwarts: A History), but in 1995, the gap looked to be about thirty feet.

In the gap, five blinding-white flashes suddenly appeared. Three flashes appeared in front of the headmaster and on either side of him. Two of the flashes appeared on the left side of the gap, in front of Hagrid and Professor Tonks.

When Randolph could see again, he saw that where the four leftmost flashes had appeared, British Army soldiers now stood, in groups of ten, with each group of ten soldiers holding on to a rope-circle Portkey. But their rope-gripping hand was not in front of the soldiers, so that the soldiers were facing the rope-circle; instead, the ten soldiers each had his or her rope- gripping hand behind him or her, so that the soldiers were standing in a circle but facing outwards.

With so many soldiers facing the House tables, it was easy for Randolph to see that—

"Blimey, they're dressed like funny-looking Muggles," Hufflepuff seventh-year Georgia Johnson was saying, "but they're all holding wands!"

The soldiers indeed were holding wands. The soldiers were each wearing black combat boots, camouflage trousers and shirt with brown undershirt, a three-inch-wide olive-green belt, a bright-yellow beret and a pistol at the hip in a black-leather holster; but the soldiers also each were holding a forest-green wand.

The rightmost circle of soldiers had what Randolph thought at first were nine soldiers and a man in a suit. But the man in the suit was wearing a purple sash; Randolph recognised the Royal Wizard, Colm Maguire. Meanwhile, one of the soldiers in the rightmost circle, though only in his late twenties or early thirties, was dressed posher than all the other soldiers— Randolph realised he was an officer (though Randolph could not read his rank). Unsurprisingly, the young officer's forest-green wand had a gold band round it, three inches from the wand-tip.

The Royal Wizard looked at the headmaster and said, "Albus Dumbledore, you shall be judged today. Not now, but soon. Worry, because someone else has insisted on judging you herself."

Then the British Army officer yelled, "HMSPU, deploy to your stations."

The five rope-circles were dropped to the floor, and the soldiers all ran off in different directions.

Right then, the headmaster looked at the army officer and yelled, "Stop! Soldier, I insist you tell me who you are, and what is going on."

The army officer stood straight. "Who I am is Edgar Thompson, Captain, British Army. 'What is going on' is that the men and women of HM Special Projects Unit are obeying my orders."

Dumbledore said, "I insist you tell me what those orders are."

The young officer replied scornfully, "Mr Dumbledore, you aren't cleared for that information."

Professor McGonagall said to the headmaster, "Don't you hate it when people refuse to reveal secrets?"

Now Dumbledore was looking off to Randolph's left. "Why are your soldiers threatening my Slytherins?"

Randolph looked over to the Slytherin table. Ten soldiers stood to the left of the Slytherin table, and ten soldiers stood to the right of that table. All twenty soldiers were facing the seated Slytherin students. The soldiers were unequally spread across each side of the table: no soldier stood by the Slytherin firsties, and the second-years and third-years rated only one soldier per year-group on each side. But the fourth-, fifth-, sixth- and seventh-year Slytherins had two soldiers standing by each year-group, on each side of the table.

The soldiers—at least the ones whose faces Randolph could see—did not look threatening. Their faces were calm and they were not speaking to the Slytherins. Each soldier was, however, standing with his feet shoulder's-width apart, whilst holding his wand-arm in a position of readiness: upper arm at his side and vertical, lower arm horizontal, and wand pointed diagonally upwards. It was not a dangerous or threatening pose at all, Randolph thought; but if another person had his wand in his pocket or up his sleeve, this other person could not possibly draw his wand and point it at a soldier before the soldier would have his own wand already pointing back.

****

At the Slytherin table

Daphne Greengrass slowly and carefully moved her empty hands to the top of the table, on either side of her plate. After she placed her hands to show she was no threat to any soldier, she looked up the table, at the Slytherin boys who were her age or older. Seeing them, Daphne felt scorn.

It was obvious to Daphne that the Slytherins had been outmanoeuvred—overpowered before they could begin any attack. The Slytherin thing to do now, the cunning thing, would be to watch and to learn, just as Blaise Zabini was doing. Instead, several male Slytherin hotheads looked mortally insulted that a mudblood man would dare to point a wand in their general direction, and they looked to be only seconds away from drawing their wands.

Daphne scowled. Draco is dead, but his spirit lives on.

When Daphne took a second look up and down the table, she saw that Gregory Goyle, like herself, had his unwanded hands resting atop the table. When Daphne's eyes met Goyle's, Goyle shook his head slightly. I will not fight the soldiers, his head-shake said.

****

Back to Randolph Ralston's point of view

Meanwhile, Captain Thompson was replying to Dumbledore: "Any soldier who is acting threatening is going against my orders. However"—now Thompson raised his voice to carry

—"if any soldier is attacked, he or she will do whatever it takes to end the attack." Dumbledore said, "Your soldiers would kill students?"

Captain Thompson did not answer Dumbledore's question. Instead, Thompson turned to the Royal Wizard and asked, "Are you ready for receiving the others?"

Maguire replied, "I am. Will the circle be good enough? Shouldn't they be shoulder-to- shoulder?"

Randolph realised that, because he had been paying so much attention to Captain Thompson and the Royal Wizard, he had not noticed where the twenty-eight soldiers who had come with Captain Thompson and the Royal Wizard, had moved to.

Those twenty-eight soldiers had formed a circle that was about the same diameter as the gap between the House tables and the High Table's dais. Two of the soldiers had the toes of their boots pressed against the side of the dais, on either side of Headmaster Dumbledore; whilst halfway round the circle, another soldier had his legs close to a corner of the Hufflepuff table and a fourth soldier had his legs close to a corner of the Ravenclaw table. The "gap" that the Royal Wizard referred to in the circle of outwards-facing soldiers, was that there was about a one-foot distance between one soldier in the circle and the next, at the shoulders.

All the outwards-facing soldiers in the soldiers-circle stood in the same pose as the Slytherin- table soldiers: feet shoulder-width apart, the upper arm of the soldier's wand-arm down at the soldier's side, the forearm of the soldier's wand-arm horizontal, and the wand pointing diagonally up. The soldiers nearest to Randolph did not look angry or worried; but Randolph decided he did not want to find out what they would do if he drew his wand.

Now Captain Thompson replied to the Royal Wizard, "If I put the men shoulder-to-shoulder, it is impossible for them to dodge spells." After Captain Thompson looked about the Great Hall—paying particular attention to the headmaster and to the other professors at the High Table—he reached into his pocket and pulled out a white plastic square. As Thompson was pulling the plastic square out of his pocket, he was walking to the centre of the soldiers- circle.

Thompson touched the plastic square with his wand, then waited. After several seconds, the plastic square spoke with a man's voice: "Captain Thompson, report."

Thompson said to the plastic square, "Code Stratocumulus. Mark my position."

The plastic square replied, "Position marked. Move to the edge of the circle till Situation Aardvark, then carry out your orders."

Thompson said, "Understood. Thompson out."

Captain Thompson then put the white-plastic square back in his pocket, whilst he walked to the Hufflepuff-and-Ravenclaw-tables part of the soldiers-circle. Abruptly, Thompson did a crisp half-turn, so that instead of facing the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff seventh-years, now Thompson was facing the High Table from twenty-five feet away.

In the centre of the soldiers-circle came another bright flash. When Randolph could see again

—

—what Randolph thought in his head were the words Bugger me! What Randolph did was to stand up (as much as the bench and Ravenclaw table would allow) and to yell, "GOD SAVE THE QUEEN!"

Why did Randolph think this? Why did Randolph do this?

Now standing in the centre of the soldiers-circle, holding on to a much smaller rope-circle, were Minister for Magic Amelia Bones, Harry Potter—and Queen Elizabeth II.

Randolph bowed his neck to the Queen, even though her back was to him so she did not see.

"Look, Harry's back!" yelled the voice of a happy fourth-year Gryffindor witch.

****

For some reason that Albus could not begin to guess, all of Hogwarts's remaining Muggle- borns now were hurriedly standing up and nodding their heads to the three new Portkey- arrivals. But Albus was not concerned with the Muggle-borns' odd behaviour. Instead, Albus stared at the expensively dressed old Muggle woman who had come with Harry and Amelia, as Albus tried to figure out who she was.

Then Colm yelled, so loudly it hurt Albus's ears, "ALBUS DUMBLEDORE, WERE YOU RAISED BY TROLLS? STAND UP AND BOW TO ELIZABETH YOUR QUEEN!"

Albus was shocked. The Muggle Queen has come to my school?

Albus did stand up then—Minerva looked surprised—and bowed from the waist; but since the old-woman sovereign was a Muggle, Albus bowed only two or three inches. But Albus also gave Elizabeth his best grandfatherly smile, so she would not realise that she had been slighted.

After Albus sat down, he felt several seconds of panic. Elizabeth can speak that sentence from the treaty and I would lose my magic!

But then Albus thought, Remember, I know more than everyone else here, including the Muggle queen. Albus immediately relaxed.

****

The Queen ordered, "Sir Harry, tell Mr Dumbledore and everyone else here why We are angry with him."

****

At the Slytherin table

Daphne Greengrass had an irrelevant thought: The Queen has an accent exactly like Finch- Fletchley's.

****

Back to Harry's point of view

Harry said, "Sonorus. A few days ago, I received a tip that Demodocus Cooper and some Death Eaters would attack the new school that Hermione and I are attending, Manchester Magical Academy. Yesterday, Cooper and the Death Eaters attacked. Our side suffered only one death, but the MMA professors and Hermione killed Cooper and all of the Death Eaters. When I went through Cooper's pockets, I found this letter, written by Dumbledore."

Sonorused Harry then read the entire letter aloud.

Then Harry said, "What I found especially upsetting was the paragraph that says 'Target Hermione. Kill Hermione. Harry Potter will quit fighting then.' But that isn't true. If someone killed Hermione and I found out who it was"—Harry's eyes now bored into Dumbledore's—"that person would suffer a death as ghastly as Fudge's and Umbridge's. Quietus."

Meanwhile, Harry had handed the two pieces of the letter to the Royal Wizard, who had projected the letter onto the enchanted ceiling.

But now Dumbledore's eyes actually twinkled. "Harry my boy, you keep saying I wrote that awful letter. Does the letter have my signature? Or did any of my magical signature soak into the parchment?"

It was Minister Bones who answered the question: "The letter has no written signature, and has been scrubbed clean of any magical signature."

"Then, Amelia—"

Harry interrupted: "The same person wrote this letter and wrote the note that came with my Invisibility Cloak on Christmas Day, 1991."

Dumbledore was eye-twinkling again: "And was that 1991 note signed? I am sure it was not."

Minister Bones pointed to the sliced-in-two letter that was displayed on the enchanted ceiling. "Albus Dumbledore, the handwriting in this letter matches the handwriting in documents you have written as Chief Warlock. This is the opinion of a handwriting expert." Then Minister Bones added, "Gotcha, Albus."

Harry looked at Dumbledore then. Harry did not speak, he merely stared into Dumbledore's eyes—daring the bearded blighter to do passive Legilimency on him. Meanwhile, Harry was smiling a twisted smile at Dumbledore—a smile like a Weasley twin's, but a smile also with the cruel glee of Bellatrix Lestrange.

After a time, Harry broke his silence: "Albus Dumbledore, SPEAK-speak-speak-speak TRUTH-truth-truth-truth: Did you write the letter to Demodocus Cooper that advised him to attack Manchester Magical Academy and to kill Hermione Granger?"

"N-n-y-yes." Dumbledore contorted his face and his body shook, but he was unable to answer the question falsely.

The entire Great Hall, professors and students alike, murmured at this confession. Harry heard at least one Doesn't surprise me. Professor McGonagall looked sick.

Minister Bones pulled a rectangular piece of paper (not parchment) from her pocket, unfolded it, handed it to the Royal Wizard, and asked him to show it on the enchanted ceiling.

When Royal Wizard Maguire finished that task, Harry looked up at the enchanted ceiling. He thought at first he was looking at a black rectangle. Then Harry realised he was seeing a

picture with much black darkness; a picture of a weakly-lit man with a long beard and green- and-purple robes.

At the bottom of the picture was strange-looking text; the text was made up of tiny white squares. The text read, "1 SEP 95 23:38."

Minister Bones said to Harry, "An MMA security camera took this picture. Ask Dumbledore about it."

Dumbledore's eyes were not twinkling now, and he did not look overconfident anymore—in fact, Dumbledore looked panicked.

Harry was grinning savagely as he said to Dumbledore, "SPEAK-speak-speak-speak TRUTH-truth-truth-truth: Did you visit Manchester Magical Academy on 1st September?"

Dumbledore unwillingly said, "Yes, though I got only as far as the fence and the warning- wards."

Harry again heard murmurs from every part of the Great Hall.

"SPEAK-speak-speak-speak TRUTH-truth-truth-truth: So now you know exactly where Manchester Magical Academy is?"

Again Dumbledore unwillingly answered: "I know where one side of the school's Fidelius Charm is."

"SPEAK-speak-speak-speak TRUTH-truth-truth-truth: Why did you tell Cooper to kill Hermione Granger?"

"With Miss Granger dead, you would be free to sign another betrothal contract. I planned to Confundus you into betrothing Ginevra Weasley. Also, I intend to control your life through Confundus Charms and other manipulations, which never can happen so long as Miss Granger is there to watch you closely."

****

Students from all four tables turned to look at Ginny. (Except Ron, whose attention remained on his food.) Only one of the looks sent towards Ginny was friendly and sympathetic: that of Michael Corner, fifth-year Ravenclaw. All of the rest of the students, including the twins, looked at Ginny with disgust.

At first, Ginny was panicked and puzzled: Why was everyone glaring at her? Mind- whammying Harry Potter to betroth her, Ginny Weasley, instead of Hermione, was an idea that the headmaster had thought up on his own; it was not even slightly Ginny's idea.

Yes, sure, Ginny would never argue Harry out of his choice if he were to freely end his betrothal to Hermione, then would freely begin a betrothal with her, but this was not the situation here.

Then Ginny realised, with horror, why everyone suddenly hated her: Because of the headmaster's words, everyone in the school (except Michael Corner) saw Ginny as the next Molly Prewett.

Ginny's mother now was more hated at Hogwarts than You-Know-Who had been, and not only because of Molly Prewett's many Howlers. What Mum had been sent to Azkaban for, love-potioning Ginny's dad to marry her, was not only illegal (it was Line Theft), but to the witches of Hogwarts, what Molly Prewett had done was antiromantic.

Molly Prewett had stolen Arthur Weasley away from Ruby Bulstrode; so now the school believed that Ginevra Molly Weasley wanted to steal Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, away from Hermione Granger, the Girl Who Beheaded.

Very likely, what everyone, even Ginny's twin brothers, was thinking as they glared at Ginny was Ginny Weasley, Boy-Who-Lived fangirl, is the spoilt daughter of the Potions Queen, Howler Molly—of course Ginny sees nothing wrong with mind-whammying Harry Potter into marrying her. Because of who Ginny's mother was, because of who Ginny's youngest brother was, because of the Pureblood-princess attitudes that Ginny herself had shown in the past, because of Ginny's past obsession with the heroic Harry Potter of those children's books

—now (almost) everyone was sure that Ginny was a homewrecker who would eagerly break up the Harry-Hermione Golden Duo who had two-thirds killed Voldemort.

Amidst Ginny's feeling of panic, at the moment when the redhead girl had hit rock bottom, Michael Corner's warm look towards Ginny was a lifeline.

Ginny summoned her Gryffindor courage and said loudly, "What the headmaster said is his

idea, it isn't my idea. I'm not trying to break up Harry and Hermione." Michael Corner at the Ravenclaw table smiled at Ginny.

****

Back to Harry's point of view

Minister Bones announced to the Great Hall, "For anyone not paying close attention, the photograph on the ceiling was taken by a Manchester Magical Academy camera, and places Dumbledore at right outside MMA. This photo was taken only a few hours after Dumbledore was told that Lord Potter-Nott-Malfoy and Miss Granger were attending MMA, and was taken not quite six days before Demodocus Cooper and his Death Eaters attacked MMA."

Harry asked her, "Is there anything else I should ask Dumbles with my Merlin-power truth- spell?"

Minister Bones showed a mischievous smile that reminded Harry of Sirius Black. "Ask him what his real name is. I've heard rumours that what everyone thinks his name is, is a fake."

Grinning Harry turned to Dumbledore and said, "SPEAK-speak-speak-speak TRUTH-truth- truth-truth: What did your parents name you?"

Dumbledore snarled his face and twisted his body, but then answered, "Albus Percival Dumbledore."

Harry noticed that Professor McGonagall's face showed shock; because everyone "knew" that the headmaster of Hogwarts had five names.

Now Harry looked at Dumbledore. For ten seconds, Harry smiled his Fred-George-Bellatrix smile instead of speaking. When Dumbledore started to look nervous, Harry said, "SPEAK- speak-speak-speak TRUTH-truth-truth-truth: Where is Gellert Grindelwald buried?"

One minute later, Dumbledore's reputation, both as "the Leader of the Light" and as "the Defeater of Grindelwald," was utterly destroyed.

****

Seconds after that

Harry gave Dumbledore another Weasley twins-Bellatrix Lestrange combination demented smile as he asked, "SPEAK-speak-speak-speak TRUTH-truth-truth-truth: In 1981, did you set up the Potters and Longbottoms to be killed?"

Dumbledore's unwilling answer: "Yes. It was for the Greater Good in the end, as a not- obvious way to defeat Tom Riddle. James and Lily did exactly as I planned, except for protecting you by blood-magic. Unfortunately, Frank and Alice survived; but fortunately, they were left unable to raise Neville to be confident in himself. Augusta did an excellent job of ensuring Neville grew up believing himself worthless, and she sent him off to school with a mismatched wand; the lad was in no condition to vanquish Tom Riddle."

Harry recognised Neville's voice as he yelled from the Gryffindor table, "IF THE QUEEN DOESN'T ARREST THE WHISKERED WANKER, I'LL KILL HIM MYSELF!"

The listening Queen spoke now: "Albus Dumbledore, We have heard enough. Clearly you acted with intent to harm our knight, Sir Harry Potter—to harm him by causing mental anguish when his betrothed died. You went against Our order to do Sir Harry no harm. We are convinced you acted unworthy of your magic." Light flashed then, as though the Queen had spoken a magical vow. "Albus Dumbledore, now you shall face your Queen's judgement."

****

No! thought Albus, I won't let it end like this!

In an instant, Albus made a plan. It was a desperate plan; but fortunately, part of the plan involved a manoeuvre that Albus had much practise with.

The trick would be to draw his wand out of his right pocket without Minerva, who was sitting next to Albus at the table, noticing anything amiss. But Albus had long ago worked out a way to do this, without making the backwards movement of his right elbow that would be a clear giveaway to Minerva of what Albus was trying to do.

****

Whenever Albus wanted to cast spells on students from under the table, first he gripped the arms of his chair with both hands. Then he lifted his hips slightly off the seat and slid his hips forwards till his belly hit the edge of the table; then his hands let go of the chair arms. Albus moved both his hands forwards, to slide forwards over his upper legs.

By then, both of Albus's forearms were hidden under the table, as was his right pocket.

Albus bent his left elbow; and using his left wrist and fingers, Albus removed his wand from his right pocket. Then under the table, Albus's left hand gave the wand to Albus's right hand.

Albus then aimed the wand, under the table, at whichever student in the Great Hall that Albus chose to bespell for the Greater Good.

****

Except now Albus was not bespelling a student, Albus hurried to cast the Confundus Charm on the soldier who was standing in front of Albus, slightly to Albus's right. Albus nonverbally sent the command, Step a few inches to your left.

The soldier, who was slightly to Albus's right, stepped half a foot more to the right.

Then Albus quickly Confundused the soldier who was in front of Albus and slightly to his left, and commanded him to step a few inches more to the left.

Now there was a clear path between Albus's wand under the table, and the Muggle queen.

Albus nonverbally Confundused the Muggle queen: You believe anything Albus Dumbledore tells you.

Albus was cutting it close: the Muggle queen was reading from a slip of paper that the Royal Wizard was holding: "...Dumbledore, I am convinced you have betrayed your sovereign, or you have harmed your nonmagical countrymen, or you have acted greatly unworthy—"

"Elizabeth, stop," Albus interrupted, "you don't need to do this. Harry has suffered no true harm."

The Muggle queen nodded. "I should stop this. Sir Harry has suffered no true harm." Albus said, "Elizabeth, you and your people should leave here and never come back." The old Muggle woman nodded again. "I and my—"

Abruptly Harry stepped diagonally forwards, so that he now was directly in front of the Muggle queen and was facing Albus.

Harry pointed his wand at Albus's wand under the table and incanted—loudly enough for everyone to hear—"Expelliarmus!"

Albus was shoved backwards with such force that his golden throne was knocked off the dais. But much more worrisome to Albus, the Elder Wand was yanked out of Albus's hand.

As Albus was painfully standing up, and stepping back onto the dais, he heard Harry say, "Minister Bones, please cast the Auror spells-check spell on this wand. I'm sure that the last three spells cast with this wand were Confunduses; with the latest Confundus being cast on Her Majesty herself."

Albus heard gasps, of shock and dismay, from every part of the Great Hall. Minerva looked disgusted.

Albus knew he was in trouble now, likely facing some years in Azkaban. So Albus, as loudly as he could, yelled, "FAWKES!"

****

Harry had been afraid that Dumbledore would do something underhanded today; this was why Hermione was not within a hundred miles of this castle. When Harry saw the two soldiers who were standing right in front of Dumbledore move away from each other, without Captain Thompson ordering them to move, Harry thought, Dumbledore is up to something.

Then when Her Majesty started to act as though she were hypnotised, Harry at first was shocked into paralysis—Dumbledore would mind-whammy the Queen? Then Harry acted. Harry maybe perhaps deliberately overpowered his Disarming Charm a bit.

Soon afterwards, the red-and-yellow phoenix flamed in, heading straight for the bearded old wizard who had just stepped up to the High Table.

Harry yelled, "Fawkes! Dumbledore mind-whammied the Queen. This is treason. This isn't of the Light. Don't take him away!"

Fawkes made a discordant squawk, which to Harry sounded like anguish. Fawkes flew about the Great Hall but did not land.

Meanwhile, Minister Bones confirmed that the last three spells on Dumbledore's bumpy wand were Confundus Charms. Royal Wizard Maguire immediately moved in front of Her Majesty and undid the mind-whammy on her, and Captain Thompson moved behind his two Confundused soldiers and freed their minds.

Above everyone's heads, Fawkes was flying, seemingly without destination or purpose.

****

Albus had managed to step up to the dais, moving painfully. With his wand gone, he could not levitate his golden throne back up to the dais, so could not sit. Which was a problem, because after the fall he had taken, his hips hurt. The soldiers who were standing in front of him were looking murderous, now that the young soldier with the gold band on his wand had undone Albus's two Confunduses.

Albus yelled, "FAWKES! GET DOWN HERE, YOU BLOODY BIRD!"

Harry said, "Are you getting tired, Fawkes? You should land somewhere and rest your wing- muscles."

Fawkes now was flying just below the Muggle-made, unmoving picture of Dumbledore that the enchanted ceiling still showed. But then the phoenix glided down and landed—on Harry's shoulder.

Albus felt confused.

Surprised-looking Harry turned to look at Fawkes's face. For about ten seconds, the boy and the bird stared into each other's eyes.

Albus was in the midst of figuring out why Fawkes would do these things when Minerva hit Albus with the Body-Bind Charm. Since Albus had no wand at the moment, he could neither block nor undo the spell.

****

Harry had not paid much attention to the public life of Queen Elizabeth, but he could not recall her acting angry in public before. But clearly she was angry now.

"Captain Thompson, Royal Wizard Maguire," the Queen almost snarled, "when We have finished what We came to do, arrest this fool for treason. We order that his trial be held within seven calendar days—and that sentence be carried out immediately."

Captain Thompson saluted. "As you command, ma'am."

Then the Queen looked at the Royal Wizard and said, "Please show Us that paper again."

When the slip of paper again was held in front of the Queen, she turned to face Dumbledore and read from the paper in a merciless voice—

"Harken, O Albus Dumbledore, I am convinced you have betrayed your sovereign, or you have harmed your nonmagical countrymen, or you have acted greatly unworthy of your magic, so your magic is forfeit."

With the last word spoken, Dumbledore turned completely black for an instant—he briefly was a three-dimensional silhouette—then he screamed from within his rope-bindings.

Dumbledore's next words were "I do not feel well."

At the same moment, McGonagall said, "I have the wards! Am I Headmistress now?"

****

A minute later

Professor McGonagall's magical ropes that restrained Dumbledore had been replaced with magic-suppressing handcuffs (since nobody was carrying regular handcuffs). A rope-circle

Portkey had been used to take Dumbledore away, along with ten soldiers. The Royal Wizard had side-along apparated Her Majesty out of the Great Hall.

Captain Thompson and the rest of the magical soldiers were about to portkey out of the Great Hall, and Minister Bones was about to walk to the Hogwarts front gate so that she could side- along apparate herself and Harry to the Ministry.

(This last plan was changed slightly when Harry pointed out that, thanks to Fawkes the phoenix that was still on Harry's shoulder, Harry could take Minister Bones to the Ministry.)

Now Harry looked at Minister Bones and at Captain Thompson and said, "Captain, may I borrow two of your soldiers to act as Aurors for a few minutes, since Minister Bones has no Aurors here?"

Minister Bones asked, "Lord Potter-Nott-Malfoy, why do you think you need Aurors?"

Harry said, "I sense a Dark Mark in here. Someone has taken Voldemort's Mark over the summer."

A man stood up at the High Table; he was wearing red Auror robes. "I'm Senior Auror Nigel Grenwick, on loan to Hogwarts to teach DADA. How can I be of assistance, Lord Potter?"

Captain Thompson loaned Minister Bones two soldiers, then Harry led Minister Bones, Senior Auror Grenwick, the two soldiers, Captain Thompson and Headmistress McGonagall to the seventh-years part of the Slytherin table. There Harry revealed the Dark Mark on the left forearm of a seventh-year Slytherin, Sam Flint.

Grenwick, with the two soldiers there to assist, arrested Marcus Flint's younger brother, and the headmistress expelled Sam Flint then and there. When Flint called Headmistress McGonagall a "blood-traitor," Harry snapped, "Show respect to her, Inbred, before I pull your arm off and you bleed to death."

The next person to speak was not Flint, it was Daphne Greengrass: "Samuel Abraxas Flint, consider our maybe-betrothal ended!"

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