The Son of Lord Voldemort

Chapter 72

The Great Hall was void of any students, the head table was the only table with any occupied seats. Dumbledore sat in the center of the table, his golden throne like chair shining bright as his thoughts consumed his attention. He didn't hear a word of what McGonagall, Snape, Flitwick or Sprout were talking about. All of the other professors were absent, spending the evening devising lesson plans or doing something else to prepare for the upcoming school year. Dumbledore's thoughts were grave as he tried not to think about his lack of progress into the whereabouts of Harry Potter. Ever since he learned of the boys survival his thoughts had been predominately focused on him. Dumbledore wondered how Harry survived when he had seen the body of Harry Potter laying in his crib. Many theories had formed: Tom had kidnapped him and Harry had spent the past twelve years locked away somewhere, Sirius Black had taken him and hidden the boy away before he had gone and killed all of those Muggles or someone else had taken the boy to raise. Dumbledore prayed it wasn't the first, he didn't want to think about what a monster like Tom would do to an innocent boy. For a fleeting moment he had considered the possibly that one of Voldemort's Death Eaters had been tasked to raise the boy, but Dumbledore didn't think Voldemort would allow Harry Potter to prosper. Not when the boy had been prophesied to be his downfall.

Dumbledore had subtly inquired at the Ministry of Magic and had used his influence to investigate everyone who had a son the same age as Harry. None of them seemed suspicious, he had concluded that the boy had never set foot in Hogwarts. He was as of now assuming that Harry was either locked away as a prisoner or being home schooled. Dumbledore had told McGonagall, Moody and Elphias what he had discovered and the three were doing everything they could to find anything out. McGonagall had many friends she could subtly get information from, Moody knew almost everybody and he knew how to be subtle, and Elphias was exceedingly intelligent. Dumbledore knew that one of them would eventually find some hint of the boys whereabouts. One small piece of information was all he needed to be led to another piece of information. So far besides knowing that Harry was alive, he knew that Harry hadn't accessed any of his vaults. As Harry's magical guardian Dumbledore had been able to access his records, the Potter vaults hadn't been touched since 1981. Other than that he knew nothing and it was both frustrating and worrying.

Dumbledore needed to find Harry, he needed to bring him to Hogwarts where the boy could be trained and educated to fight Voldemort. Twelve years ago when Dumbledore learned of Harry's death, he had been forced to change all of his plans. With Harry dead it fell to Dumbledore to defeat Voldemort, something he wasn't confident he would be able to do. Voldemort had grown more powerful than Dumbledore had predicted, and Dumbledore needed someone with a sure chance to defeat him. Dumbledore would of course fight Voldemort with his last breath, the man needed to be defeated in order for the war to end. Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix had recruited new members but it was hard finding people to willingly defy Voldemort. It was one thing to not join Voldemort, but most people were too scared to fight him head on. If Dumbledore found Harry he would be able to train the boy to fulfill his destiny. However Dumbledore knew that there was a chance he might not find the boy, not that he would ever stop looking. But Dumbledore needed to continue recruiting members to the Order and educating young witches and wizards. If Harry wasn't found someone else would need to defeat Voldemort, and that wouldn't happen by sitting idly back.

Dumbledore had spent the past twelve years studying Voldemort and doing everything he could to stop him but it hadn't been enough. Voldemort's power grew, as did his ranks while Dumbledore's Order of the Phoenix members were killed off. Death Eaters didn't fight fair, and the light side was out numbered. Dumbledore still wasn't sure why Voldemort hadn't staked his claim on Britain, Fudge may be blind but Dumbledore wasn't. The light was no closer to destroying Voldemort and his Death Eaters, in fact they were worse off now than they ever were. Dumbledore knew Voldemort had enough power to take over Britain which made him wonder why he hadn't. Dumbledore dreaded the answer, he had several suspicions but he hoped none of them were true. There had been rumors that Voldemort was recruiting in other countries, if that was true it would explain why over the past decade less wizards and witches had been killed. Before the Potter's had died, those on the light were killed left and right, as were Muggles. After the Potter's deaths, Death Eater activity didn't stop but it slowed down exponentially. People had slowly begun leaving their houses again and the fear everyone felt lessened slightly. But recruiting in other countries would mean that Voldemort didn't find Britain to be enough, that he wanted to take over more. And as the killing of Muggles began once more increasing Dumbledore feared that Voldemort had even more Death Eaters, in even more countries than anyone had imagined.