Albus Dumbledore had tried everything he could think of to open the entrance to his office all to no avail. After almost three hours he was still standing glaring at the obstinate Gargoyle that simply refused to obey him. Finally giving up he called for the Hogwarts head house elf, he needed the elves to prepare one of the guest suites for him, he would have to sleep there until he could work out what was wrong with the Gargoyle.
It was several minutes before Albus noticed the elf had not appeared when he had been summoned, he was about to call out again when he was joined by Minerva again who was returning from her last class of the day.
"Albus are you ok, surely you haven't been standing here all this time?" she asked as she looked at his flustered red face.
"I was trying… and then I called Pappy but… I mean I'm the head master," he muttered giving the Gargoyle an evil snarl.
"Pappy," Minerva called.
A slight cracking noise disturbed the peace of the corridor, "You called mistress M-Gongull?" a small ancient house elf asked from her side.
"Ah Pappy, could you prepare one of the guest quarters for me?" Dumbledore asked the elf.
Pappy looked at Minerva for some guidance "Silver whiskers isn'ts to remain in the Hoggywarts castle with out master say yes?" he told the deputy head quietly, "did you's ask the master?"
Albus was very quickly beginning to lose it again as the old elf refused to help him "You's not a teacher so you's should leave the Hogywarts," was all that either he or Minerva could get the elf to say each time they declared that Albus was the head master. It was not to long before the whiskered old man found him self once more at the mercy of Poppy Pomfrey and her calming draught. While two of the Hogwarts elves waited to escort the old man from the grounds, his belongings packed in his trunks and waiting by the main entrance.
Potter Retreat
Harry and Hermione were sitting out in the garden under an old oak tree, they were discussing how Helen not being a witch would be able to teach them what they needed to know, it was Harry who finally came up with the answer. "Hermione, it's so simple, I can't believe why we never thought of it before," he looked at her confused face and then continued "how do we learn charms? You show me the wand movements and tell me what to say and then you show me how it works, well mum can do it too but without the demonstration."
Hermione who had been surprised a little that she had not thought about it first, agreed with Harry that magic was not actually needed to teach spells charms potions or any other type of magic they might need. She was still a little disappointed that they would not be attending a school where they could be with other magical children, still staying at home to be taught might not be too bad.
Hogwarts School.
Albus Dumbledore stepped off the Hogwarts grounds feeling really confused, he had been hustled cajoled, pushed and shoved by the castle elves. Slowly but surely they had forced him off the school grounds, as the elves vanished with slight popping sounds he wondered what had gone wrong. He had plans, and they could not be allowed to fail.
Two minutes after the school gates had closed and refused to open for him as they had always opened over the past fifty years, first as a teacher and then as Headmaster, he decided he would need somewhere in Hogsmeade to stay while he and the school governors figured out what was going on. That meant he would need some money because even his brother Aberforth would not feed and provide a bed for him for nothing, without another thought Albus Dumbledore disapparated, reappearing in the Hogs head inn, after a quick word with his brother Aberforth asking him to take care of his belongings he apparated once again and arrived just out side Gringotts bank in Diagon Alley, London.
An angry Albus Dumbledore walked into Gringotts bank with a strut looking like he thought owned the bank, marching up to one of the tellers he placed his false grandfather like smile on his face and after he nodded to the Goblin sitting in front of him he spoke in a very authoritive voice, "Ahem… I would like to access my vault, quickly if you please."
"Just a moment sir, I'll see who is available to take care of you," the Goblin said with a smile that looked rather sinister but was missed by the old man.
Two minutes later having been informed he needed to talk to a senior executive in regard to a small problem with his finances, Albus Dumbledore was being lead toward an office of some sort by what seemed to be a very polite Goblin who kept smiling and grinning at him alternatively. Without saying a single word to the tall wizard the Goblin lead the way through the corridors of the bank, the little being resisted the urge to rub his hands together and sneer at the old fool who was following him.
It did not take them many minutes to reach their destination, the Goblin ushered the old man through the door to what was supposed to be an office. Dumbledore took only a few seconds to realise where he was, he turned to leave just seconds after the door shut behind him. Leaving him to figure out he was standing in the Goblin court room, things did not look so good for the old man.
"Ah Mr Dumbledore, do take a seat, I can assure you it will not take us long to find you guilty of the crimes you have committed. Now where shall we start?" an ancient looking Goblin said as he rubbed his hands together a look of glee in his black eyes.
It took but a fraction of a second for Dumbledore to reach into his robes for his wand, but it took a little less time for him to feel the points of multiple goblin swords, axes and pike staffs poking him at various points of his anatomy, slowly he withdrew the wand and offered it to the nearest goblin guard, who just happened to have a rather sharp long knife pressing into Albus's neck.
Albus did the only sensible thing he could and sat down in the chair. A rather tall Goblin stood and walked toward Dumbledore, pausing as he reached the old man with the gaudy robes and long silver beard.
"Hello Mr Dumbledore, I'm Hawktooth, your prosecutor and today I will be sending you to one of our cells in the Dragon training operation headquarters. I should inform you that no one has ever returned from that place, now for your crimes how do you plead?" the Goblin said in a very cold voice.
"Might I know what the charges might be? knowing what I am accused of would help me to form my defence," Albus said in his grandfatherly voice.
"And what defence could possibly offer to mitigate your crimes against Mr Harry James Potter, and several other orphans that were supposedly in your care. I only wish we had a law for the cruelty you had Mr Potter subjected too by placing him illegally with those hateful muggles. You have already been proved to be guilty of theft from several vaults in the past twenty years, so how do you plead?" Hawktooth asked.
"All I ever do or did was for the greater good, I demand to be placed before the Wizengamot for these totally false and preposterous charges," Albus said as calmly as he could manage.
Hawktooth simply pulled a copy of the Potters will out of an inside pocket of the waist coat he was wearing, "Do you recognise this piece of parchment, you should do it was found when your vaults were emptied."
Albus looked a little odd as the calming draught he had had from Madam Pomfrey was wearing off "Harry Potter must be made to attend Hogwarts school, that is why I hid the will," he said his face getting red with anger.
"Ah, I see and why would no other school be acceptable, as Mr Potters parents wished?" Hawktooth asked smiling a Goblin smile at the crazy old fool.
"Potter needs to be where I can control him, er… I mean help him… yes that's what I mean… help him," Albus said as he slowly lost control again.
Hawktooth turned to the Goblins behind the huge desks in the room "I think that we were correct in finding Albus Dumbledore guilty of the crimes he is accused of. What say all of you?"
Every Goblin in the room even the guards on the door stood and said just one word "Guilty."
One hour and ten minutes later Albus Dumbledore found him self on a small island that seemed to be over run with Dragons and Goblins, there were several other humans there as well but none of them looked to healthy. The scratchy and rough bright green robes Albus had been forced to wear were Goblin made with a built in magic suppressing charm, and there was no way to remove them without the help of one of the Goblin guards because of the magic needed. The old man resigned himself to spending a long time on this desolate and apparently barren rock some where north of Scotland, if he lived a long time that is, he knew as well as anyone else, it was impossible to control a Dragon without some form of magic so his future did not look to rosy, he wondered if maybe he could be lucky and find some way to escape, he would have to keep his wits about him to ensure he did not miss any opportunity that might present itself. As he lay on the little wooden bed that first night as a prisoner he cursed the day, as his phoenix had it seemed deserted him, he then fell into a rather troubled sleep.
Potter Retreat
Thanks to Hermione being able to teach Harry about both the spells and charms she knew from her no longer remembered past life, both Harry and Hermione were doing quite well in learning the ancient spell crafting and charm weaving without the use of a wand or incantations, Helen was teaching them a form of magic that had been in use for thousands of years before wands were invented. The magic was based on using powerful thoughts to control their magic and to use the ambient magic around them to increase the power output. The house elves were also helping to teach the two children because the Goblins and elves still used the same ancient form of powerful magic, they and the Goblins had never had to use a wand, preferring to use the old ways.
Helen had asked for the elves to teach her children about concealment and stealth which the little beings seemed so good at, the very first week end after they started those lessons Harry and Hermione were leaping for joy after their first successful journey using the methods that the elves used to travel great or short distances with pin point precision. The elves called it Popping but as Harry and Hermione both did it silently they renamed it and called it locating. Potters Retreat was becoming something like an advanced school of magic for the two young children, in between their lessons Hermione was helping Harry, using her rather unbelievable notes to teach him all she knew.