After dropping off Harry Potter at his common room and warning him not to go anywhere alone, Flitwick hurried to Hogsmeade to begin his self-imposed mission. The Aurors had removed the fireplace connected to the floo network after the first week, the board of governors declared it too much of a security risk. Despite what the ministry was attempting to claim, a decision by the board of Governors at Hogwarts was absolute. So it was done despite the ministry’s reluctance to lose the ability to flood the school with hundreds of Aurors at a moment's notice.

Filius Flitwick reached the proper location and apparated to the Longbottom’s home. Before he did anything else, he would have to get their support. Even with that, getting Harry away from his Aunt and Uncle was not something that usually could be accomplished in under two weeks. Filius felt the parchment in his bag burn in his mind as he walked quickly to the Longbottom’s front door and knocked.

All the horrible things that boy had experienced, everything itemized and written down in one big list… it was truly sickening. Filius had heard of worse cases before, but none of the victims were even remotely comfortable in talking about it in a meaningful way. Harry Potter… had not been that way. He had openly answered Filius' questions smallest details, details that others would consider deeply personal Harry stated with casual disregard.

The door opened and Alice blinked as she looked down at him, “Filius?” She asked, “What are you doing here, aren’t you supposed to be finishing up things at Hogwarts right about now?”

“Can I come in?” Filius asked, “Is Frank home? I have something rather important to discuss with you two. It’s… it is rather unpleasant. I would brew some tea ahead of time, I’m sure it will be quite a shock to you both. It is still shocking to me how this could be allowed to happen.”

Alice stood to the side and ushered Filius inside, now looking worried. “Filius, what is this about?” She asked, “Frank is at work, should I get him to call out sick and come home?”

Flitwick thought about it for a second, and then nodded decisively. “Yes, please do. I won’t tell you a word until he arrives, I’m sorry. You will become far too upset and you will need Frank to comfort you.”

Alice hesitated for a moment before summoning a patronus. She whispered to it for a moment before it shot off to find Frank. It would relay her words to him.

“You really can’t tell me?” Alice asked.

“I’m sorry, Alice,” Flitwick replied, “You should really make that tea, would you like help?”

“No, no, Filius,” Alice said, “Sit down, I can make it. Just tell me, is anyone hurt? Did something happen to Harry Potter again?”

Flitwick hesitated, “It is about Harry, but he is fine at the moment. No one is hurt right now. That’s all I’ll say about it.”

— — —

Frank came through the door, “Alice?” he called out, “What’s going on?” He saw Flitwick sitting drinking some of the excellent tea Alice had just finished brewing, “What, Filius?” Frank said, “What are you doing here?”

Flitwick carefully put down his cup of tea and Alice glanced at him, still nervous.

“Please sit down, Frank,” Flitwick said, “I have something very disturbing to show you both in regards to Harry Potter. I had to come here as soon as I was made aware of… his home situation.”

Frank came over and sat down next to Alice looking intently between Flitwick and his wife. Alice only had eyes for Flitwick as he slowly reached into his bag and hesitated for a long moment. He steeled himself and then drew out the stack of parchment and put them on the table in front of him. He knew how much this would hurt the both of the Longbottoms, but it had to be done.

“Harry came to my office today asking for a way for him to not go back to his Aunt and Uncle’s home over the summer. After questioning him farther, he told me about all the abuse he had suffered while under their care.”

Alice gasped and put a hand over her mouth as Frank clenched his jaw in anger at Flitwick’s words.

“With the boy's memory, he remembered each instance and so I had him record it down on this parchment. I warn you, it is… not pleasant reading. I want to do everything in my power to ensure he is shifted into your care before the summer and before the ministry forces him to return to live with these people.”

Alice reached for the seven large pieces of parchments covered in writing, but Frank grabbed her hand to stop her.

“Dear, I think… you shouldn’t read this first,” Frank said, “We both know how… animated you can get. If Filius is this off balance, then I don’t want to know what lengths it would drive you to.”

Alice swallowed, but drew back her hand. “Fine, you read first Frank,” she said, “But I’m reading it right after, no matter what.”

“Are you…” Alice glared at Frank and he shut his mouth after a second, “Yes, dear,” he eventually said with a sigh.

He picked up the seven pages and began reading. His eyes widened as he read through and he flipped through them rapidly, surprised by the pure volume of writing on these pages.

“Alice, you…” Frank swallowed and paled slightly as he started reading, “You shouldn’t read this… just know that Harry’s Aunt and Uncle were very… abusive. Punishing a three year old by locking them in a dark closet… And Harry remembers it all.”

“What?!” Alice shouted, “They did what?! Give me that.”

Before Frank could react, Alice snatched the parchments from his hands and started reading. Her face went ashen as she read them through. She stared at the paper like she wanted to burn a hole through it with her eyes.

“Alice?” Filius said hesitantly, “Careful with the parchment. I don’t want to ask him to write it again. Despite his calm exterior, who knows what he feels right now…”

Alice took a shaky breath and put the parchment down on the table carefully and straightened them so they were all in a perfect stack.

“Did Dumbledore know?” she asked with deadly calm.

“I don’t know,” Flitwick answered, “But at the very least he didn’t check on the boy’s situation even once. All I had to do to get Harry to tell me about all of this was ask him a few questions. He told me about it the same way as one might discuss the weather…”

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Frank leaned forward, his brows scrunched in confusion, “How is that even possible? I understand him being a generally calm boy, but what you say is beyond even that. How could he not be upset about this?”

Filius took a deep breath as Alice watched their conversation in silence. But Filius could see her fists clenched white at her sides and gritted teeth as she sat there and seethed.

“I think from my short time talking with the boy about this and a few comments that he made-” Filius began, “That he has taken the abuse as a matter of course, as if it was the way the world was meant to be. That all people are naturally like his Aunt and Uncle. When I spoke with him he was surprised at the concept that a teacher could possibly help him outside the classroom. His old teachers certainly did him no favors there, covering for his uncle whenever he went to them for support. His cousin forced all of Harry’s classmates to outright ignore or bully him. I asked him, and he could barely list on both hands the positive interactions he has had with an adult for longer than a few seconds before he came to Hogwarts. It was almost like Harry was happily surprised that there were people at Hogwarts that weren’t horrible scum like his Aunt and Uncle. Exceptions to his rule. It didn’t even cross his mind that telling anyone about what had happened to him would accomplish anything, or that there was anything particularly abnormal about what had happened to him at all.”

Harry was so casual about how horrible he believed the world to truly be at its core. It was almost frightening for Filius to see someone act like that.

“What- truly, Filius?” Frank said, “-you think that is his view of the world? The boy that healed me and my wife with barely a second's hesitation from what Alice says?”

“I think so,” Flitwick said grimly, “Which is why we have to stop him from going back and getting hurt even more. He needs an example of what caring adults in his life should be like. Frank, you were an Auror for a long time. How should we handle this to get approval by the Ministry in two weeks?”

Frank hesitated, “Well, the quickest way would be direct approval by the minister. But I’m not impressed by this Cornelius Fudge fellow in office right now. I’m not sure what he would do. He might try to transfer custody of Harry to himself now that Dumbledore is weakened politically. Otherwise… no, if things are the same then even the first court date discussing the transfer of custody would be in at least a month. And Dumbledore could make things go even slower if he used some of his remaining influence to stall the process.”

“Harry’s not. Going. Back there,” Alice said pointedly, “Ever. So if we have to convince the minister, then that’s what we have to do.”

Frank stood, “I’m not connected enough to get a meeting anymore. But I know someone who is. Arthur Weasley. If we get his help then we might be able to do it. But I don’t know how he will react if this pits him directly against Dumbledore.”

“Screw Dumbledore!” Alice said, slapping her palm to the table for emphasis. “How could Arthur read that and still support him! If he can ignore this then he’s not the man we knew ten years ago.”

They all stood. “Well, no reason to delay,” Flitwick said, “Let’s go visit Arthur in the ministry.”

— — —

“Professor Flitwick, I- you swear that everything on here is true and what Harry told you?” Arthur said, still staring at the parchment in shock.

Flitwick nodded, “Deadly serious. We want a meeting with the minister to get custody transferred to the Longbottoms as soon as possible, so Harry doesn’t have to go there over the summer.”

Arthur looked up with an awkward expression, “Have you considered just… asking Dumbledore to sign the papers for the transfer first? If you wait in my office here, then I will do so right now. Maybe you won’t have to dive into the mess sharing this with the minister would cause.”

“Mess? What mess?” Alice said sharply.

“These papers represent more than one boy,” Arthur said, “These are a powerful and crippling blow to Dumbledore in his upcoming trial. The minister will want to keep them as secret as possible before fully blindsiding Dumbledore during the trial. A trial that is happening over the summer. And handing these to the minister... it is as good as seeing Dumbledore thrown in Azkaban.”

“Good,” Alice huffed to Arthurs shock, “He deserves it for what he allowed to happen. Did you even read the same thing as I did? This is more than negligence, Arthur. Dumbledore deserves to be in Azkaban for this. You know that I was in the Order of the Phoenix too during the last war. But I’m still saying it.”

“Fine,” Arthur said slowly, “I’ll talk to Dumbledore about this, try to convince him to transfer the guardianship. If that doesn’t work, I promise I’ll do my best to get a meeting with the minister.”

— — —

After a very tense two hours of waiting, with Alice pacing angrily around the room, Arthur finally returned with a haunted look in his eye. “He refused to even consider it…” Arthur said hollowly before sitting down heavily in his office chair, “Barely even batted an eye at the accusations, only tried to tell me how no death eaters could attack Harry while he was living with his relatives... The minister it is, I suppose.”

— — —

A week later, Flitwick, Frank Longbottom, and Arthur Weasley walked into the minister’s office. Much to Alice’s displeasure, she had been left behind at home due to how volatile she had been these last few days. She hadn’t even been able to promise she wouldn’t curse the minister if he didn’t immediately try to help Harry on the spot.

“Ah, Arthur Weasley, Frank Longbottom, Professor Flitwick,” Minister Fudge said affably, “Quite the trio. You know, I was rather curious when I saw a meeting with you three on my schedule.”

Arthur stepped forward, “Minister, this is an extremely sensitive matter regarding Harry Potter. New information has been uncovered. We would like to request your signature in transferring his guardianship over to Alice and Frank Longbottom to live with them in the future and especially this summer.”

Minister Fudge was surprised for a moment before he leaned back and a calculating glint entered his eyes. “And what is this information exactly? Why are you being so vague, Arthur?”

That was Flitwick’s cue. Arthur gestured to Flitwick and allowed the charms teacher to take his position in the front. “Minister,” Flitwick began, “I have a document that is written by Harry Potter himself that accounts for every single account of abuse he has suffered in the muggle household in which he was raised.”

He handed the parchment to Minister Fudge who had blinked at Flitwick's words. Clearly that had not been the answer he had been expecting. Minister Fudge skimmed the parchment and his eyebrows shot into his forehead as he read farther and farther.

“This explains so much…” Fudge muttered to himself, “No wonder Dumbledore never wanted the ministry to directly interrogate the Dursleys. He knew about all of this and wanted to cover it up.”

Everyone in the room stiffened as the implications of the Minister’s musings struck all of them. Fudge kept muttering to himself as he kept reading through the document before he finished and let the room fall into silence as he stared into nothing.

“Minister?” Frank asked, breaking the Minister out of his trance, “About the guardianship?”

“Oh, yes, yes,” Fudge said, “On one condition. I want the boy to directly testify against Dumbledore regarding his experiences. This document is good, but without access to the Dursleys to verify anything it is not enough to be credible in a trial. Oh, and the ministry will be keeping these documents. They are important evidence despite not being verified.”

“We expected that with the documents. But regarding testifying, that’s something to discuss with Harry directly,” Frank said carefully, “From what Filius has told me he is not shy about what happened to him, so he likely would do it. But I can not force him to do something like that without even consulting him.”

Fudge stared intently at Frank for a long moment before leaning back again and returning to his affable persona. “Ah, I suppose that’s all I can ask for then. I’ll make the pitch to him myself when it comes time. You’ll have your signature. Do you have the transfer papers?”

Arthur took out the stack of documents, only the minister's signature left to finalize everything. Fudge took out a gold inlaid quill and with a flourish signed it.

After some final pleasantries, they left the office and all let out a collective sigh of relief. It had worked, Harry now could live with the Longbottoms in the future.

Arthur clutched the stack of papers, “Sorry, Frank, Professor Flitwick, that I have to go,” he said, “I’ll go personally to make sure that these are properly filed. Have to make sure there isn't a single mistake with something this important...”

Flitwick and Frank left the Ministry in high spirits, sure that they had succeeded. But Dumbledore had made his own plans to counter them, even from within his holding cell in the Ministry…