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Chapter 198 - Ch.198

Dumbledore's eyes locked onto the small assailant and raised his wand, but with a snap of his fingers, the aged wizard's opponent disarmed him. Dumbledore could only watch in horror as the wand that he had been using sailed through the air to be caught by his much smaller adversary.

A moment later Aurors and Hit Wizards stormed the building. Dumbledore ducked beneath the first wave of spell-fire, grabbed the front of Moody's robes with one hand and grabbed the cushion portkey with the other. A split second later they were gone.

As the Aurors and Hit Wizards ensured that every member of The Order of the Phoenix left behind was bound and gagged, Harry rolled over to see who his saviour was.

With eyes the size of tennis balls, ears like those normally found on bats, an old pillowcase for a robe, three bobble hats perched on his small, bald head, two poorly knitted scarves around his neck and more pairs of mismatched socks on his feet than should be possible, there was only one person that this could be.

"Dobby…" Harry said in a low voice, unable to speak any louder. "What are you doing here?"

"Dobby is coming to save Harry Potter, sir," replied Dobby, moving closer to Harry as the Aurors began searching the building.

"How did you know where I was?"

"Dobby could sense where you were, sir," explained the House Elf. "Dobby would have come sooner, sir, but Dobby did not know Harry Potter was being in trouble until Harry Potter sir's Grangy was telling him."

"My Grangy?" asked Harry, completely baffled. "Wait… do you mean Granger? Hermione Granger? She sent you?"

Dobby nodded his head vigorously, causing his large ears to flap. "Dobby and Miss Grangy have been talking much since the school year started, Harry Potter sir. We is bonding over trying to help Harry Potter sir but only making things worse. Miss Grangy saw a way for her and Dobby to make up for past mistakes."

Harry couldn't help it. He grinned. In spite of everything, the trauma, the aches in his muscles, the emotional and physical exhaustion, he grinned. After all, he was in no doubt that had Dobby not arrived, the Aurors would have been seconds too late to stop Dumbledore from whisking him away once again.

"Thank you Dobby…" he rested his forehead on the floor. "Thank you Hermione…"

As the team of Auror-healers took Harry away to St Mungo's for treatment for magical exhaustion, Amelia thanked Dobby profusely and asked that he go and pass on news of his triumph to Miss Granger. She had already sent people back to the Ministry to report in.

"Ma'am," said Dawlish, coming up behind her. "We have an Augury here."

Amelia turned and followed Dawlish over to the corner where the green and black bird lay under the influence of a stunning spell while Proudfoot ran his wand over it.

"Seems to have been subjected to a myriad of very powerful enchantments," explained Dawlish. "We believe that this may have been Dumbledore's Phoenix."

Amelia frowned and asked "So Harry's magical outburst transfigured it?"

"No, ma'am," replied Proudfoot. "While the bird has undoubtedly had magic cast on it in the past, there are no enchantments upon it now. I suspect Potter's magic cancelled what was there."

"Do you mean to tell me that Dumbledore's pet Phoenix was nothing more than a transfigured Augury and that Harry somehow broke that enchantment?" queried Amelia.

"Near as I can tell, yes," replied Proudfoot. "Though there was much more than just transfiguration at work here. There were charms, potions and runes as well."

"How?" asked Amelia.

Proudfoot shrugged and got to his feet. "No idea. All I can say is that Dumbledore is one of Britain's best in the art of transfiguration. Giving the Augury the appearance of a Phoenix would not have been too hard for him. He's had decades to perfect the rest of it; the songs, the healing tears, the flame-travel and the burning rebirth…"

"Are there any potions that can mimic Phoenix tears?" asked Dawlish.

"Couldn't tell you," said Proudfoot. "But if there is such a thing it will be invaluable. We might need to search Dumbledore's office at Hogwarts again. It might also be a good idea to have a magi-zoologist come in and take a look at the bird. See if they spot something I can't."

"Perhaps old Newt Scamander can be convinced to do an afternoon of study for us," said Scrimgeour, coming over to the group.

"Good idea," agreed Amelia. "In the meantime, we get everyone back to the Ministry and question them on everything that happened."

Everyone agreed and soon the first group, consisting of Snape, Flitwick, Kingsley and Sprout were being taken by port key back to the Ministry.

Scrimgeour turned to Amelia and asked "Disappointed?"

"That Dumbledore slipped through our fingers? Yes. However, Harry is safe, most of the Order, including that bastard Snape, have been recaptured, no one on our side was injured and Dumbledore appears to have been deprived of that blasted Phoenix. I'd say we've done fairly well."

"Aye," agreed Scrimgeour as Dawlish took Emmeline Vance away. "All things considered, this could have gone much worse."

"Remind me to ask the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures just what awards for bravery we have available for House Elves," commented Amelia. "The list of those deserving special recognition keeps getting longer and longer."

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