New Beginnings

Chapter 11

Dumbledore sat behind his desk, a low growling almost escaping. 

Everything had been going beautifully, the pre written script followed down to every last word, nothing had gone wrong. Maybe he'd become to cocky, to arrogant to see the impending disaster, but Dumbledore had made sure his plans went perfectly and up until September they had.

Harry had been so easy to manipulate - a couple extra spells not hurting either - the boy had latched onto Hogwarts and the Weasleys quicker than he'd imagined but he guessed the Dursleys had been more effective than he'd originally thought.

Getting two friends for the boy to follow went easier, two power obsessed kids who wanted everything without actually working. Their ambition only grew per year.

The love interest was sorted, from birth she was told about how she'd be Mrs Potter, how she'd get the vaults and everything she could dream off.

All three fell for it hook, line and sinker.

So how had everything gone so wrong?

Ron was missing, his sister and Hermione falling apart. And now a letter lay on his desk. Gringotts crest innocently staring at him.

He must've re read it thousands of times but the contents never changed. Every item he'd stolen was being recalled, not because Harry had found out - like he feared - but because there was a bank wide re audit. Usage of Potters vaults were blocked. Dumbledore couldn't get a knut out of it without the Potter Lord there.

Angry letters from the Weasleys had arrived, the matriarch running her whole family off of Potters money and he'd even gotten one from the Dursleys, the letter somehow finding him.

No money, no artefacts, no grimoire.

Dumbledore was well and truly screwed.

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Ron wasn't exactly a gold mine when it came to information. Although he'd already expected that.

Two more days of torturing Ron had brought nothing new to the table, minus some information about how much the human body bleeds depending on torture method.

The few names Ron had produced were that of his family or some very vague descriptions of others. Hermione had stood out, as had Sirius and Remus however a "old wizard with a weird hat" sound much to like Dumbledore to be taken seriously.

The castle was completely hung up about Rita's article and there was another one coming. Technically it wasn't new information, it'd made the headlines decades ago, however there was little doubt that no one of his generation knew. Or maybe even the generation before.

He'd spent so much time digging through old newspapers, a lot of which looked like they'd crumble if he wasn't careful. He'd spend weeks pouring through every archive in the world if it meant destroying them.

The small matter of Voldemort would pose a problem, but only if the man tried to start another war. Then he'd probably have to be the weapon Dumbledore wanted and Harry hated proving Dumbledore right.

With only a few days to the holiday and infinitely more free time to spend, Harry was definitely going to end the holidays with a bang.