38 Dumbledore

August 1994

The Great Hall, Hogwarts School

All the students arrived in the great hall with a buzzing excitement and took their seats on their respective house tables.

Harry took his seat in almost the middle of at the end of the fourth year. To his left was Hermione Granger followed by other fourth years. To his right was Katie bell, a fellow Quidditch player and one year senior than him.

"Hello Katie," he greeted warmly.

"Hello Harry, hope you are doing well." Came the reply from Katie.

Harry answered, "Yes, I am doing well. Tell me how are you doing?"

Any answer Katie was going to give Harry was interrupted by sound of hurried footsteps.

Professor McGonagall came marching with her usual strict expression with somewhat nervous and excited looking first years, quickly following behind her.

Harry could not help but feel amused at the tactics of Professor McGonagall. She on the first day itself solidified her image as the strict, no nonsense type of woman.

One by one the sorting began and Harry found two people from the High table staring in his direction. Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape.

(POV DUMBLEDORE)

Dumbledore was a man of power and influence. He held three important positions in the Wizarding world.

He was the headmaster of the most premier school of magic in Britain.

He was chief warlock of the Wizarding council called Wizengamot.

He was the Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards.

He was also decorated with Order of Merlin, First Class.

His political power was higher than any other. His combined total votes in Wizengamot were 13 vote, Hogwarts Headmaster- 3, Chief Warlock- 5, Order of Merlin- 3, Most Noble house of Dumbledore- 2, which was more than double than that of second highest wielder of votes.

Along with the help of people and families loyal to him he wielded a massive influence in the council.

People said that in greatness he had rejected the post of minister of magic few times. If only they knew how foolish they were.

If he became minister of magic, he would have to give up all his other posts.

His total votes would be reduced to 11, 6 from being minister of magic, 3 for order of Merlin and 2 from Most Noble house of Dumbledore.

Though notably his biggest loss would he his control over Hogwarts. This was a school which almost every wizard and witch of Magical Britain attended.

In Hogwarts he imprinted his greatness in the minds of younger children, who would later serve the ministry and all its departments. These wizards and witches served him as his eyes and ears and were his loyal followers.

For decades he had been the true leader of the Wizarding world. No one dared to defy or go against him.

But in the past few months, things had not gone the way he had wanted.

Firstly, that damm Sirius had escaped from his prison. He had played a major role as a chief warlock in sending Sirius to Azkaban without a trial.

He had raised Harry as he had wished and turned out him to be the perfect puppet he had wanted.

Even so he had turned the things in his favour and subtly made Sirius remain a fugitive and had not allowed him a proper trial.

His difficulties not ended there. Only few days later in the summer vacation, his elder wand, his deathstick disappeared. He had no idea what had happened to wand. He tried to find every possible answer for the disappearance of the wand but no logical conclusion came out. His only hope remained asking Harry if something similar, have happened to his cloak.

And thinking about the cloak only increased his frustration. He had wanted the ownership of the cloak. He could have wielded two Deathly Hallows but James was smart.

It was hard to persuade James Potter to give up on his cloak specially when a mad man was chasing you. It took a lot of convincing and logic like that Voldemort would not be fooled by a simple cloak and his research regarding the cloak might help Dumbledore devise some substantial method of hiding, for James to give up on the cloak.

But even so James has stubbornly made him swear a magical oath to return the cloak to Harry if something happened to him and Lily during his first year at Hogwarts. For 11 years Dumbledore had searched method to gain the true loyalty of the cloak but he failed.

Even so he was not worried about the cloak after all he would have it back, if not now then later.

Then came the news from Weasleys about Harry announcing himself as Lord apparent Potter and Lord apparent Black. Dumbledore had done his best to keep Harry away from his heritage. He had forced Harry to stay in the muggle world completely cut off from the Wizarding society in the name of Blood wards, but he could only curse Sirius now. Other than Sirius writing this information in his letters, Harry had no other source of knowing these things.

He needed to have a chat with Harry and convince him to 'enjoy his childhood' and to not worry about these things. What his family left for him, he has no use such wealth and influence.

And damm those Potters, even if he had forced himself as Harry's magical guardian, he got nothing. He had very limited access only to the trust vault and even if he was the magical guardian, he could not take over Potter's vote as regent as the Potters have firmly engraved in their family law that only a blood relative could become regent for a minor Lord apparent.

The last thing which also made him most anxious was the sudden appearance of a powerful wizard. He had seen the memories of few spectators who had witnessed the wizard killing at least 3 death eaters and injuring others. A single wizard doing that was problematic. No ordinary wizard could have done that same thing. Dumbledore could feel the power that the wizard radiated.

He was a complete unknown element and Dumbledore had no idea where that element will choose its place.