CHAPTER : 12

Hermione didn't want to listen to reason. She wanted answers and she wanted them now. She yanked her hand out of Ron's grasp and was about to start hammering on the door again when it suddenly opened and she found herself looking straight into the twinkling eyes of Albus Dumbledore. Behind him she could see Molly Weasley who looked like she had been crying and Sirius Black who looked furiously worried and a whole bunch of other people, only some of whom she had met before. All of them were currently staring at her.

"Yes, Miss Granger, whatever can I do for you?" asked the venerable old wizard.

"I-I-I" stammered Hermione, "I just wanted to find out if anything has happened to Harry. Is he okay?"

"Yes, of course. I'm sorry for not realising sooner how distressing this must be for you," answered Dumbledore. "Very well, just this once, you may sit in on a meeting," he said as he ushered her and Ron into the room and made them sit down.

"Must you coddle them, Headmaster?" said Snape, disapproval stamped clearly upon his face. "Surely they can wait until after our meeting to be filled in."

Ron glared at Snape, as usual the Prince of Snarkiness had managed to get under his skin with minimal effort.

"Now Severus, I'm sure they will be no bother. Now as I was saying, before I was interrupted, we have a bit of a crisis on our hands. The full picture of what exactly has occurred is not yet clear but these are the facts as I understand them - Some time earlier today Harry and his relatives left Privet Drive for parts unknown. We do not know yet exactly how it is related but someone also knocked out Mundungus Fletcher and left him tied up under a hedge. He is currently being treated for a rather severe concussion at St. Mungos. Kingsley and I made our way to Privet Drive where we were almost immediately attacked by Dementors. We managed to drive them away of course but..."

"But what about Harry? Where is he? Why aren't you out looking for him?" asked Hermione in a hysterical and strident tone.

"Miss Granger, please do not worry, I will soon track Mr. Potter down. I am simply waiting for Alastor. As soon as he is here I shall be able to locate Mr. Potter without delay. Now...Where was I?" asked Dumbledore.

"Aah yes, as I was saying, the Patronus Charms that Kingsley and I used to drive off the dementors were wrongly attributed to Harry by the Ministry. Cornelius Fudge seems to have rather prematurely seized this as an excuse to expel Harry from Hogwarts."

"He's been expelled?" shouted Sirius. "What the blazes is Fudge up to?"

"How is that even possible?" asked Hermione. "I thought the trace only monitored underage magic. How could they have thought that Harry was the one performing magic? Shouldn't the trace have shown that it was you and Kingsley?"

"Calm down Sirius. Miss Granger, the trace is also set to monitor muggle areas and if magic is detected in an area where an underage student is living then it is assumed that the student is the one performing it. Sirius, I have of course already filed a report that the Patronus Charms were cast by Kingsley and me and as such I was able to have the Ministry's decision immediately overturned. So there is absolutely no need to worry upon that part. Now all we need to do is to wait for Alastor and we shall soon have Harry back with us, absolutely safe and sound. If I'm not mistaken that is probably Alastor at the door right now" said Dumbledore as the doorbell rang.

"Blast," said Sirius exasperatedly. "How many times do I have to tell them not to ring the doorbell?" A horrendous cacophony of screams and threats could be heard from the drawing room.

"Stains, of dishonour, filthy half-breeds, blood traitors, children of filth..."

"There you go, they've managed to set her off again," Sirius said as he hurried off to silence his mother's portrait.

Dumbledore hurried to the door. He was impatient to get his hands upon the deluminator. Unfortunately for him, the first person through the door was not Mad-Eye Moody but Arthur Weasley who immediately clutched at his arm.

"Albus, we have a problem, the owl I sent to Harry to let him know that the expulsion order has been overturned came back. It came back with the letter undelivered. Undelivered Albus, undelivered. Why would the owl not be able to find Harry? Something has happened to him. At the very least this means that Harry is out there somewhere thinking that he's been expelled. There's no telling what he might do," said Arthur Weasley.