A Different Halloween

Chapter 39

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In a small hut outside Glengarry, a certain old wizard was also almost crying too, but for a very different reason. Albus was quite comfortable in his tiny cottage and had all the comforts of home, all except one. It had been over three and a half years since Albus Dumbledore had spoken to another human being.

Like everyone who worked in education, Albus had two calendars in his head. New Year might still be the first of January but a more important date would always be the first of September. That was when the real New Year started, a new year at Hogwarts! That he wasn't going to be there again this year to influence those young minds left Albus feeling sorry for himself, the isolation of his not so new life was beginning to wear him down.

He was still faced with the same old problem though, until Voldemort returned Albus Dumbledore was forced to live as an exile in his own country.

His eyes glanced over to the gilded framed front page of the Daily Prophet that was the only item hanging on the cottage walls. Albus couldn't remember the words but that didn't matter, he was willing to bet no one else could either. That's because the caricature that dominated the page simply demanded all your attention.

Throughout history, caricatures had been used to destroy reputations and even help bring down governments. The one of Albus Pariah of Witches and Babies Dumbledore was devastating. It portrayed him as a kind of psychotic Stromboli, the most evil puppet master ever to walk on the planet. Being a magical caricature meant it not only moved, but changed scene too.

A leering giant Dumbledore towered over a scene that was obviously the Potters confronting Voldemort with Albus pulling all the strings. That the paper had no idea what happened that night had never stopped them printing whatever they wanted before and didn't seem to matter here either. The Potters puppets broke their strings and escaped, leaving Voldemort and Dumbledore enraged.

The scene then revolved like a stage play to that of the Longbottoms confrontation against the Lestranges, again Albus was working all the puppets until the Longbottoms snapped their strings too. When the puppet master then presided over the Wizengamot, the string pulling reached a frantic level.

That single cartoon destroyed over a century of good works. That piece of shit would be all anyone in the magical community would ever remember about him and that was unacceptable to Albus.

It hung framed on his wall for two reasons, one was to pull him out of a funk on days like today. The other was to have it handy when he eventually defeated Voldemort and made his triumphant return to wizarding Britain. He intended to ram the vile cartoon right up Peter White's arse without removing it from the sturdy frame. Albus would then take a picture of that and it would then have pride of place on his wall. He might even consider selling it to the Prophet, see if it could boost their sales! 'Editor Framed' was a headline Albus dreamed about. To be honest, he'd nothing else to do.

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