cloudy with a Chance of freedom

chapter 24

Albus Dumbledore was puzzled. So many changes were happening and Harry Potter... no, Black, he had to keep reminding himself... was at the center of it.

The boy had a charisma that was impossible to ignore. Much like Tom when he found his footing, he had managed to collect a small group of trusted individuals that by all rights would have very little to do with each other.

Every time he looked at the boy, he kept seeing the child Tom Riddle had been before he took to using the dark arts.

That charismatic personality that seemed to draw everyone in, making them pliable to his venomous words and lies.

Dumbledore sighed.

How was he supposed to lead these poor children to the Light when his control over them was slipping with each passing year? It was for the Greater Good that he lead them away from the temptation of dark magic.

The damage done to his reputation was having a massive ripple effect throughout the magical society. He was no longer considered a paragon of Light and all that was Good.

In fact several witches and wizards who had opposed him were beginning to speak up once more against him. Their voices were far louder and reached more ears than ever before, as the shadowy third group that had begun to rise in power began to gather them in greater force, making it harder to ignore them.

The thing he simply could not wrap his head around was who the leader of this third faction was and how they were able to make the likes of Lucius Malfoy work together with Augusta Longbottom without spells being cast on either side. Considering what his sister-in-law did to Lady Longbottom's son and daughter-in-law, the two shouldn't have been able to join forces so easily.

And yet they were holding civil conversations and working together without any sniping comments or veiled barbs from either party.

Someone was moving the pure bloods from the shadows, gathering the muggleborns cast out by the older families and somehow getting them all to work together for a common goal.

And he had no idea what that goal was, which was the most troubling thing of all.

Dumbledore looked at the devices monitoring young Harry. Most of them had gone silent rather abruptly over the past few years, and others were beginning to fizzle out as well. He genuinely feared for young Harry, as it seemed far too much like the shard of Riddle in his scar was slowly but surely taking over.

"Ugh. Another school year over with, and this time I can't go gallivanting around the world looking up rare and unusual creatures! I hate politics!" said Skull.

"Suck it up, princess," said Blaise. "It's your own damn fault for managing to gather the old families to deal with Dumbledore's incompetence once and for all without making the entire magical society collapse."

Skull flipped him the bird. Fon chuckled.

"Look at the bright side... at least you won't be alone in dealing with the soon-to-be former Death Eaters," said Camellia, turning another page in the mundane newspaper in her hands.

"True. Why does it not surprise me that when it was spelled out to them exactly how much Riddle screwed them over and that there was someone willing to give them a proper second chance within reason that they jumped ship so easily?" chuckled Skull darkly.

After the number of revelations he had dumped on the pure bloods as the "Midnight Marauder" spelling out exactly how badly Riddle had failed to keep up his so-called 'end goal' and exactly how far the English magical enclave had fallen compared to the rest of the world, even the most hardened Death Eater had been willing to listen to him.