The Marauders: Year Four

Tick-Tock

Tick-Tock

The Order of the Phoenix meeting on Saturday proved to be quite informative. The Marauders presented what they had figured out about Harold Minchum - the animagus information and that he had worked with Lyall Lupin at the Ministry for Magic (and presumably, therefore, also Charlus Potter, though Charlus had yet to answer James's letters inquiring about his experiences with Minchum) - but the stuff they had found proved to be only a tip of the iceberg that was Harold Minchum's life. The others had found out things as well.

Minchum had grown up in Godric's Hollow, Marlene McKinnon said, and he'd been in Gryffindor when he attended Hogwarts, only a couple years behind Albus Dumbledore. Minchum had been friends with the headmaster's brother, Aberforth. Apparently, Aberforth Dumbledore and Harold Minchum had got up to some mischief in their time, according to the files that Frank Longbottom had managed to knick from Filch's office, mostly attempting to prank Albus it seemed from the records... though the old caretaker from that time hadn't been as tedious or thorough with his notes on offenses committed by students as Filch was, so it was hard to say exactly what it was Harold and Aberforth got up to - only that their names appeared quite frequently in tandem throughout the file - at least during Minchum's first four years at the school.

However, despite being a frequent visitor to detention, Harold Minchum absolutely excelled at school - especially in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Alice Prewitt and Lily Evans had found his name on a trophy in the trophy room for a dueling club five years in a row. He'd been a prefect, head boy, and top of his class as well in his fifth through seventh years.

It seemed, then, after completing his time at Hogwarts, Harold Minchum had taken lessons in becoming an auror. He'd passed the classes at university with highest marks, but chose instead of immediately entering the entry program at the Ministry to instead take a year teaching at Hogwarts. Harold Minchum had taught at the school at the time that the man that became Voldemort had studied at Hogwarts, a fact that Jasper Odair had learned from talking to Rubeus Hagrid. Minchum had been a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and one of Voldemort's least favorite teachers, second only to Dumbledore himself. "I don't think Hagrid meant to tell me all he had," Jasper said, "Hagrid always says more than he means to... Right easy to get loads of information out of him if you ask in just the right way."

"So Harold Minchum knows Voldemort then, the same as Dumbledore does," James said, "That's rather interesting."

"Seems anyone from that generation ought," answered Jasper, "But Hagrid wouldn't tell me anything more and I couldn't find any record of anyone named Voldemort at the school at anytime at all. Seems Minchum taught sometime around the late thirties, though."

After teaching a couple years, Minchum returned to the Ministry to complete the auror training program and had excelled at that, too.

Harry Warbeck's tale of Minchum had come as a story he'd heard from his aunt, Celestina, who was a famous singer. In his early years working as an auror, Harold Minchum had been a member of the security detail that had seen Celestina safely to a performance for the Ministry Official Cheer Operations - MOCO - an organization made up to boost morale amongst the the wizards working tirelessly in the first wizarding world war, when Gellert Grindelwald was at his highest power. Celestina had told a tale of the young Minchum tirelessly seeing to it that she was safe, even as the auditorium she was performing at came under attack... The ceiling had suddenly been lifted off the very walls, and Celestina and her audience had suddenly been showered upon with a barrage of dark magic, wielded by the followers of Gellert Grindelwald. Harold Minchum had leaped between Celestina and several others, taking spells meant for them, fighting off imperius and cruciatus curses, and gone against the lead attacker face-to-face, miraculously winning the resulting duel, saving everyone in attendance. There were no casualties - but only because of the bravery shown by Harold Minchum.