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Chapter 163 - Ch. 162

She'd been on her way to breakfast with a full head of steam for whomever had removed all her belongings from her rooms when she suddenly found herself on the wrong side of the Castle Gates with her packed trunks and bags at her feet. When she'd finally gotten her bearings enough to look around herself she headed for The Three Broomsticks where she flooed straight to the Ministry to complain to her dear Cornelius. She brushed right by the aurors who had just exited the floo without noticing them.

Albus never showed up at the Castle for his belongings which the elves had gone through before packing. Many of the items found in his private rooms and office did not in fact belong to him at all. And more than a few had either the Potter name, crest or emblem on them. All of those items were turned over to Harry as he was the last of the Potters and no one believed he had given them to Albus. What was left was moved to the Come and Go storage room where it would slowly begin to gather dust equal to what covered everything else in the room.

Neither Ron nor Ginny had gone home for the holiday being too afraid to face their Mum with their scarred faces. But the twins had gone home after agreeing to pave the way so they could go home at Spring Break. They didn't want to but Harry had talked them into it because they'd have to go home sometime. Maybe if Molly had the rest of the school year to get used to the idea and was only exposed to their marks briefly during the Spring Break, by the time they went home for summer she'd be over the worst of it and actually do something constructive to help them deal with it.

Almost reluctantly, Augusta had moved into the private rooms of the Headmaster position and taken over the office. She was only reluctant because she had grown used to living at Longbottom Manor and had hoped this wouldn't be a long appointment. But even with the mere month she had been looking into Albus' handling of the school, she knew it would take a few years before everything could be straightened out and Hogwarts brought back to it's former glory. Because the Albus she was beginning to see through dealing with everything he'd been doing here was nothing more than a crook. A conman and a swindler who saw everyone as nothing more than a potential mark for him to fleece. Like the flimflam men of lore he talked a good game but that's all it was to him. A game and the only winner was Albus Dumbledore. Much to her disgust, one of her first visitors in her new job capacity was Molly Weasely.

On the day the twins told her about the rune markings, Molly had stormed the Castle. She was determined to see for herself what Harry had done to her babies and force him to remove the brands. She also wanted to deliver her own brand of justice on him for daring to mark them at all. She'd even brought her spoon to punish him for his atrocious behavior in marking her babies like that.

But Augusta refused to let her see any of them. Her own children didn't need to be exposed to her angry tirade when they were only just now beginning to come to terms with their disfigurement and Harry had had every right to mark them as she and Albus had put them into a place where they were his responsibility and everything they did reflected on him as their patron.

Augusta coldly informed her, "If you'd done a proper job of parenting them in the first place those runes wouldn't now be on their faces. As you didn't, they mistakenly thought they could do as they liked. Now they're paying for it when it turned out their patsy, who's also their patron, didn't like the game they'd been playing."

Augusta then pointed out that she was in no way Harry's parent or guardian and therefore had no right to punish him at all. One unkind touch from her upon Mr. Potter's person and Augusta would be forced to call the aurors to have her arrested for child abuse and assault. She didn't deny Harry had marked Molly's children. Nor did she point out the fact he did indeed have the right to discipline them as Albus and Molly together had given him that right by paying the children from Harry's vaults behind his back. She simply pointed out Molly didn't have the legal authority to do anything to Mr. Potter about his actions.

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