In Which Molly Weasley Plays Dumbledore
"Molly, I wish to ask you for a favor," Albus said gravely as the redheaded Weasley matriarch flooed into the headmaster's office. She frowned a little as she sat in one of the squashy chairs before Dumbledore's desk.
"What kind of favor?" she queried softly, blue eyes narrowed suspiciously.
"Do not worry so," the headmaster reassured kindly. "I would not ask you to do anything that would be too objectionable. I just need you to brew a few special potions. I have the recipes here," he handed over a sheaf of parchment to the plump woman, who eyed them skeptically, "and I need them done as soon as possible."
"Why isn't Severus brewing these?" she questioned him.
"Severus is too close to the problem," the old man replied with a smile. "He has shown that he cannot be trusted when it matters most."
"What are they for?" she asked after she had looked through the pages, eyebrows permanently in her hairline at the lists of questionable ingredients that met her eyes.
"You do not need to know that, my dear," Albus told the woman condescendingly. "Just know that they are for Harry's health and well-being."
"I've never seen any of these potions before, and I've researched them all," Molly snapped angrily. She was afraid of what the headmaster had up his sleeve in regards to Harry, and it made her a little waspish. "I will not be giving Harry anything that would harm him."
"Very well," the old man sighed irritably. "They are potions to ensure that Harry cannot hide anything from me." At the redhead's reddening face, Albus hastily continued. "I need to know that he is not plotting with the wrong people, and conspiring to overthrow the Light. I need to be able to converse with him, and have him tell me the truth. I need to be able to protect him from himself by preventing him from making catastrophic mistakes.
"I need to maintain my level of control and guidance over him, so that he will do his duty when the time comes. Lately he has been chafing at my attempts to bring him to heel, and I fear that he will turn his back on the wizarding world at a most crucial time. The potions will not harm him; they will only alter his personality and obedience enough to allow me to continue to mentor him unchallenged."
"I don't know, Albus," Molly said uncertainly. "I don't like the idea of taking all of Harry's control away from him. It's not right."
"I understand your fears, Molly, my dear, but I must entreat you to look at the bigger picture. Harry is becoming more of a liability than a warrior. Would you be as concerned about his well-being if he took your children down with him? If he sacrificed their lives for his own gain?"
"Harry wouldn't do that," Mrs. Weasley snapped angrily. "He's a good boy and loves my family with all he has. He would never throw them away like that."
"You haven't seen what I have, Molly," Dumbledore replied gravely. "He is consorting with the Slytherins, and most specifically Draco Malfoy. I can see his influence more and more every day. I need to nip this in the bud now, before he turns Hogwarts into a killing ground."
There was a tap on the Potions Master's door, startling the occupants for a moment. Severus opened the portal, ebon eyes widening in shock at the face that greeted him. "Hello, Severus," Molly said quietly. "May I come in? I have something rather urgent about which to speak to you." Snape stepped back silently and pulled the door open wider, letting the Weasley matriarch into his private rooms.
"Mum? What are you doing here?" Ron asked softly, sliding slightly away from Draco. Molly saw the movement and gave a gentle smile.
"I just had a visit with the headmaster," she replied as she stepped up to her child and kissed him on the forehead. She then moved to Draco and gifted him with a kiss, before moving to Harry. The raven instantly popped up out of his chair and hugged the older woman enthusiastically, earning a soft, wet chuckle from her.
"You...you accept my choice?" Ron asked tremulously, taking Draco's hand and squeezing gently.
"I do," she answered. "Draco is a fine young man, and the changes to our world since Lucius has been in charge are a long time coming." She turned to Harry with a wide smile. "I've always been on your side, child, and that is why I'm here." She pulled a sheaf of parchment from her robe pocket and handed it to the Potions Master. "I was given these potions recipes to create, so that Albus can maintain complete control over Harry. I've never seen them before, and some of the ingredients have given me pause. I would like you to research them, to see what they actually do."
Severus looked over the recipes, noting some of the more elusive and dangerous ingredients with a scowl. "I will need to brew these potions to see what their mode of operation is, as well as their efficacy and dangers. What did Albus tell you they were?"
"He said that he needed to maintain a certain level of control over Harry, as well as ensure that he's always truthful when meeting with the headmaster," she said with a frown. "I balked; I want no part in controlling or changing Harry in any way, but I expressed this as a concern to his safety and well-being. Albus reassured me that the potions wouldn't harm him; that they would ensure that Harry couldn't harm my children by using them to further his 'goals'."
"I would never," the raven gasped, aghast. Before he could wind himself up, Molly was there and hugging him, rocking him back and forth as a sudden storm of tears erupted from the teen.
"I know you wouldn't," she whispered in his ear as she soothed him. "It's Albus' way of convincing me that what he's doing is the right thing to do. He knows how protective of my children I am, but he forgets that I consider you one of mine, and I will protect you as viciously as I would any of the others." She pulled away and used her thumbs to wipe away the lingering tears. "I love you, Harry, and would do nothing to jeopardize your life."
"Thank you, Mrs. Weasley," the teen sniffled. "I couldn't ask for a better mum."
"Then why don't you do that, and call me Mum," she told him with a smile. The enthusiastic nod was the only reply she needed as she drew him into another squeezing hug.
"The potions would render Harry completely compliant. He would not be able to tell anything but the truth when Albus asks, and he would have no will of his own. He would become a true puppet martyr," Severus told everyone several weeks later. It took that long to hunt down some of the ingredients, and the brewing process itself was long and arduous. Albus had called Molly to the castle several times in those intervening weeks to ask her about her progress with the potion. Severus knew that the old man would be anxious, and kept the redhead informed of his progress, so that she could relay it to the headmaster. "Of course, he would have to add a drop of his blood to each potion, so that Harry would be keyed to him."
"Well, now that they're finished, what do we do?" Ron asked worriedly. "We can't give them to the headmaster; he'll find any opportunity to poison Harry as soon as he can."
"Dobby," Harry chimed in, smiling when the little elf popped into the Potions Master's private rooms.
"What is the great and wonderful master Harry Potter being needing from Dobby?" the little creature asked excitedly, punctuating his query with a couple of bouncing little hops.
"The headmaster wishes to poison me with some advanced compulsion and veritaserum potions he'd created," the raven told his little champion. Dobby's large green eyes narrowed, and fury overtook the little elf's face.
"He is not being able to being poisoning Dobby's Harry Potter," Dobby snarled, making everyone in the room jump in startlement.
"That's good to know," Tom said from the shadows. He stepped into view and looked at Dobby with new eyes. "You have chosen to bond yourself with Harry?"
"Dobby is being happy to being bonded with master Harry Potter," the elf chirped, anger gone. "Dobby is not being able to being completing the bond because there isn't being a strong enough wizard to being bonding Dobby to master Harry Potter."
"Why do you need a strong wizard?" Neville questioned with a quirk of an eyebrow.
"Dobby is being one of the only elves being descended from the Dark elves," the little being replied with a wide, toothy grin. "Dobby's magic is being stronger than most house elves is being, and so a bond is being needing a strong wizard to being completing it."
"What about Harry?" Draco asked. "I mean, we all can practically see his magic churning around him in helices. Why can't he perform the bonding ritual?"
"Because he is being a good and kind wizard, and is being telling Dobby that he is being wishing for Dobby to being free. But Dobby is wishing to being bound to master Harry Potter because Dobby is being loving master Harry Potter."
"I'd be honored to have you as my bonded elf, Dobby," Harry told the little creature. "I wish you would've told me this sooner; I don't want you to be sad."
"Master Harry Potter is being wanting Dobby?" the elf asked, tears welling in his large green eyes.
"Of course I want you," Harry said with a wide smile. "You've been one of the best friends I've ever had."
"Great!" Mrs. Weasley said with a clap of her hands. "Now we can continue to 'do' Albus' bidding without worrying about any sort of ramifications to Harry."
"I've finished the potions, Albus," Molly said as she stepped into the headmaster's office. She carried a small crate that clanked with potions vials, which she set down on the edge of the headmaster's desk. Before bottling the elixirs, Severus had asked Molly to infuse the brews with some of her magic, so that Albus would believe that she had actually brewed them. He wasn't concerned with the potions' reactions to the foreign magic; after all, they were ensuring that none of these potions would ever touch Harry's lips.
"Wonderful, my dear," Dumbledore chortled happily. "I am very glad that you had completed your task so well. Unfortunately, I must obliviate you, so that you cannot spill my secrets." He pulled his wand and cast the spell before the woman had a chance to react. Fortunately, Tom had given her, as well as the rest of Harry's allies, charms in the form of jewelry that would repel any mind magics. This was to ensure that the old man couldn't use legilimency to discover anyone's betrayals. That it would repel obliviates as well was a bonus.
Molly deliberately let her eyes go blank and foggy, and listened with amusement as Dumbledore laid out the scenario that would supposedly result in the huge gap in her memories. "You were shopping in Diagon Alley. A Dark wizard recognized you as one of my allies and cast a crucio on you. He held you under it for quite a few moments before someone else came in response to your screaming, knocking into the wizard and breaking the curse. Before the wizard could be apprehended he disappeared with the use of an untraceable portkey.
"The length of time you spent under the unforgivable has damaged several of your long-term memories." He released her from the spell and sent her on her way, chuckling lowly as she appeared to stagger out the door. "Now that I have these potions, I will be able to gain complete control of Harry, and he will do everything I say, even if it means the death of one of his friends."