Facing the Truth

Albus Dumbledore was currently in his office, he was pacing back and forth, a habit of his. When in his office if he wasn't working then he would relax by looking out the window to appreciate the beautiful scenery, or perhaps he would read a book or spend time with Fawkes.

But as of now he was deep in thought, his thoughts were currently focused on one Harry Potter. Dumbledore had read the article from the Daily Prophet, then he reread it, then he read it once more and then -as if it could possibly change something - he read it once more.

Harry was abused.

The Dursley's had abused him, Dumbledore knew they weren't likely to shower the boy with love, he knew it would be a hard existence, but to shove the boy under a cupboard? To treat him like a house elf and tell him that James and Lily were drunks? How could they?

Dumbledore realized he had severely underestimated the cruelty of those muggles, Dumbledore thought at worst they'd treat him like a burden, not this. He didn't want this. Albus was able to avoid Minerva since the article had come out but knew that a conversation between himself and her - more likely her shouting at him for several minutes - was inevitable.

She had tried to stop him from sending Harry to the Dursley's, she was very much against it and would remind him of that fact for years to come, whenever she got the chance she would remind him about how she objected against it, now with the article out he knew that years worth's of 'I told you so' would rain down on him.

At the time Dumbledore had ignored her concern because surely those muggles couldn't be too cruel to family, could they? He thought that even though Petunia Dursley didn't get along with her own sister, she wouldn't be cruel enough to channel her hatred at a child.

He also thought that the blood wards were worth it, after the deaths of the Potter's Dumbledore had created blood wards around the Dursley's house, the wards would protect Harry from anyone meaning to harm him as long as he called the place home. Harry had to stay with his aunt for the wards to work as she was his only blood relative, they worked but unfortunately didn't seem to protect Harry from the people inside the house.

The blood wards were invaluable, when Voldemort returned - and it would be WHEN because he did not believe that Voldemort was dead - then the blood wards would protect Harry from him. If possible then Dumbledore would have liked to help the Dursley's and Harry work through their issues but he knew he couldn't.

After that article it was all but guaranteed that Harry would be in a different home, Dumbledore couldn't inform people of the blood wards as he doubted it would make much difference seeing as the public wanted him removed from there, the wards where also illegal so he wasn't looking forward to explaining that to people. So as much as he would have liked for the blood wards to stay, he gave it up as a lost cause, he couldn't force the boy to stay there and make an enemy out of him and the wizarding public.

The next problem was where Harry would live when he was not at Hogwarts, ideally he could go to the Weasley's. Arthur was a kind and hard working man, Molly loved children, the pair of them could treat Harry like family and their lack of wealth would help remind Harry how lucky he is. Also, if Dumbledore remembered correctly, they had a daughter who would be starting at Hogwarts next year.

Who knows, perhaps in the future there could be Potter children with green eyes and red hair? Sadly that was unlikely to happen as not only were the Weasley's a poor family, which left the argument of if they could afford more children, an argument that others would most definitely use, but the youngest Weasley son clearly did not get along with Harry, something the article made very clear.

For now, all Dumbledore could really do is stall the decision until he found a suitable family for Harry. Since Harry was a Slytherin it was very likely that many of the more darker families would try to claim him, especially as he was a parsletounge. That was the last thing Dumbledore wanted.

Dumbledore wasn't so much of a moron to think that all Slytherin's were evil, only a complete moron would think that, but he was aware that most of them were followers of Voldemort or at least the ideas that he was pushing. It was very possible that they would want to adopt him for the sole purpose of getting revenge for their former master, or if they believed in Voldemort's return then to at least have access to Harry so they could kill him and/or present him to their master.

No, Harry needed to stay with a safe family, someone who would care for him and love him. While Dumbledore didn't think Harry was evil for being a Slytherin, he still worried about him. Dumbledore knew he went wrong with Tom Riddle, if he had been better then he could have stopped the boy from growing up to become Voldemort, if Harry followed the same path then it was possible for him to be much worse or at least equally as bad as Voldemort.

"Albus!" McGonagall shouted as she came in, the Daily Prophet in her hand.

"Minerva." Albus sighed before moving behind his desk and sitting down, this was going to be a very long conversation.

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