Dumbledore was entirely unsure just what the meeting with Madame Bones would be about, but as always he tried to be as prepared as best he could. Madame Bones was a lot more formidable then most people he had to deal with, especially in the Ministry.
Most of the time they were blundering fools like Fudge, who were easy to manipulate, but unfortunately were also easy to manipulate by others as well, such as Lucius Malfoy for instance.
Madame Bones however was very much her own person, she didn't allow anyone to take advantage of her, including himself and was smart and powerful enough to accomplish most things she sought out to do.
This had at least earned his respect for her, and he assumed she for him. This mutual respect as well as often having the same goals had allowed for a very profitable relationship for them, as working together they had managed to control a good deal of the Wizengamot, as well as persuade others to their side. The fact that they did not always agree or that she had proven to be unwilling to do what was necessary for the greater good had been something that he had so far been able to get around.
When she came in however, her normally friendly disposition towards him seemed to be in jeopardy, she looked furious, and took no time for pleasantries.
"Dumbledore, I want to know, and I want to know right now, did you or did you not allow Harry Potter to be abused by his relatives?" Madame Bones asked.
To say that he was stunned was an understatement, he was almost never caught off guard or surprised by any information but this certainly stunned him, and his usual unreadable expression slipped as his jaw fell.
"I'm afraid I haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about," he told her truthfully.
"Come on Dumbledore," she told him, not having it, "either you knowingly allowed Harry Potter to be abused by the muggle relatives he was living with, or you totally failed in your role as Harry's magical guardian to check on him and make sure that he was living in a secure and healthy living environment, both I'm having trouble believing that you would do, but those are the only two possibilities I can come up with unless you can provide me with another explanation."
"Perhaps you could explain why you believe that Harry Potter was abused?" Dumbledore asked of her.
She then related to him what Harry had told her about the many times that the Dursleys had apparently abused him, along with the many scars that she had found on his body confirming his story.
"Harry was extremely reluctant to tell me, and he's still worried that something bad might happen to him since he told me," Madame Bones said, "and my niece Susan is very distraught over finding out as well. It's my duty to make sure that the law is being upheld, and this is a very classic example of failure to take the precautionary steps in order to prevent heinous lawbreaking. A helpless child was hurt, and on top of that, a child who was already endured incredible loss. I assume partial responsibility as I feel that if I had made sure that someone from the ministry in child protective services had done regular visits to ascertain the circumstances of Harry's living situation growing up this could have been avoided. Instead I listened to you as you told me that if I did so it would compromise the safety of Harry from those wishing him harm. Under the circumstances I chose to trust you as you promised that you had everything well in hand, and I also was concerned about Harry's place of residence becoming common knowledge. Now I feel that my trust was misplaced."
This was definitely not what he had been expecting, especially an admission of guilt from her. Such admissions he felt showed weakness in most cases, but in this it only made her position stronger, as it also suggested that she could no longer trust him. He realized that this issue was certainly a hot spot for her, and he would need to smooth things over if he was to continue to enjoy a profitable relationship with her.
Fortunately for him however, he had plenty of plausible deniability. He could quite honestly say that he had no idea about the abuse, but he wasn't entirely surprised by it either. The fact of the matter was he simply didn't care about Harry's physical well being as long as he stayed with his muggle relatives and retained magical guardianship of Harry so he could still hold onto Harry's seats in the Wizengamot.
As long as that continued to take place he was happy with the way things were.
It was actually Snape who had in fact insisted on being the one to check in on Harry and since Snape had loved Harry's mother so much, he assumed that he would want to make sure that her son stayed safe. If he didn't however out of hatred for James Potter, he didn't really care either so long as the boy stayed alive, Snape while a truly despicable person would not go as far as allowing the murder of a child. That was good enough for him and since he had been still eager to please Snape at the time he agreed.
He had even come up with a plausible backstory for his reasoning in doing so.
Since he had known that Severus Snape and Lily Evans were childhood friends, who also used to play together with Lily's sister Petunia, and the fact that he knew of nobody else who really knew Petunia, Snape had seemed a logical choice to ask if he was to choose her to be the one to raise Harry. He had then asked him if Lily's sister would be a good person to have Harry be raised by.
Severus had given a glowing review of her, promising that she would be a wonderful foster mother to Harry, despite the fact that she was a muggle. This seemed to be confirmed in part with him finding out that Petunia had a son about Harry's age, and he had hoped that Harry would have a friend and playmate in his cousin growing up.
With Severus' recommendation this seemed to be a good idea, as it would provide Harry with everything he would need in order to become the great savior of the wizarding world he was destined to become. A stable home with a relative that he could use to enlarge upon the protection Harry's mother had given him and keep him safe from any still at large death eaters. It would also be a place away from the influences of the magical world where he would no doubt become too caught up in his fame. Having Harry grow up in an abusive home would never have done anyone good, as even if it might temporarily cause Harry to become even more grateful and more loyal to him in the short term for getting him away from such circumstances, Harry was bound to find out eventually that in fact it was he who had placed him there, and he who would had failed to check on him to make sure he was safe. He'd lose far too much to try something like that, he'd then suddenly have him turning against him, and there was no telling what he might do if he did. He hoped that that hadn't happened already.
"What does Harry think?" he asked her finally.
"He's just scared and confused, and not sure about anything as I would expect him to be," Madame Bones explained.
Relieved that he wasn't yet blaming him for anything, he tried to smooth things over.
"I wish to assure you, with utmost sincerity that I had no idea about Harry being abused," Dumbledore explained, "I would be willing to swear a wizard's oath to that effect."
Swearing a wizard's oath was not entirely the same as proving himself in court or presenting evidence, but it at least would go a long way in reassuring Madame Bones. Since he really had no idea about the abuse and never bothered to look into it closely enough, he could make such an oath and be entirely honest.
He picked up his wand and said, "I Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore swear upon my magic that I did not know that Harry Potter was being abused, so mote it be."
After doing so, he created a bouquet of flowers which he promptly handed to Madame Bones, demonstrating his ability to still use magic.
She took the flowers, but immediately placed them upon his desk in front of her, and turned back to him, still focused on the situation at hand, and unwilling to let him distract her from purpose.
"Then I'll need to know just how Harry could have been abused like that and have it not noticed, just one impromptu visit would have revealed that Harry was at the very least living in a cupboard under the stairs instead of in a room. Harry tells me that he was moved into a bedroom only shortly before attending Hogwarts, a room that he easily could have moved into at any time had his relatives opted to allow it. Before then however, it wouldn't have taken much to find out the truth. You also promised me that such visits were occurring."
"I was led to believe so as well," Dumbledore admitted, "I am just as shocked by these events as you are, as I had a couple different people I believed to be monitoring Harry. One goes by the name of Arabella Figg, a squib, who lived near Harry. She told me that the family he lived with didn't seem to be a very nice family, but didn't have enough contact with him to be entirely sure. However I chose to disregard this as she did in fact confess she didn't have enough contact to be absolutely certain and even what she did conclude didn't appear to give any real reason to cause any undue alarm. Also I felt that such a vague conclusion was unfounded as it completely disagreed with what I was told by the other person I was using to check on Harry, who conducted monthly visits on my behalf."
"Just who was this person?" Madame Bones demanded.
"I'm afraid that I can't let you know that information until I've conducted an investigation of my own and found out their side of the story," he informed her.
"I think that keeping things to yourself and not letting me do my job is what created this problem in the first place," she reminded him, "as the head of the DMLE I must insist that you give me the name of your informant."
Once again he was unaccustomed to dealing with people who were so demanding of him, usually they were easily controlled either through awe of being around the great Albus Dumbledore, or if necessary through less than legal means. Madame Bones would be impervious to any such means, nor could he see that she would let the issue go so easily.
He finally realized he would be forced to tell her.
"Severus Snape," he confided.
"Severus Snape!" Madame Bones said, her voice raising as loud as he had ever heard it, "you let a former death eater be the one to check on Harry Potter?"
"Please allow me to explain," Dumbledore told her, "he knew Lily and also knew her sister Petunia, they grew up together as children. I figured that since he already knew Petunia it would be a good idea for him to be the one to check on him regularly. After asking him about Petunia and if he thought she would be a good person for Harry to go live with, which he assured me that it was, he even offered to be the one to check on Harry, as the least he could do for Lily."
He then briefly explained his reasons for choosing Snape as well as the Dursleys.
"What was Snape telling you then about what was going on with Harry?" Madame Bones demanded.
"He continually assured me that everything was going fine, and that such visits proved that Harry appeared to be doing well," Dumbledore told her.
"I'm pretty sure that if such visits occurred Harry would have told me, and would have certainly recognized Snape when he came to Hogwarts," Madame Bones concluded, "that can only mean one thing, Snape has been lying to you."
Well, no duh, Dumbledore thought. He had suspected that Snape had been lying to him, but he also hadn't cared enough to find out the truth.
Obviously he couldn't confess this to Madame Bones of course.
"I'll be discussing it with Snape personally," Dumbledore promised.
"I want to be there when you do," Madame Bones announced.
"Very well, then I believe I can accommodate you for that," Dumbledore agreed, "however I must confess that Snape isn't here. I would imagine that he's still on Christmas holiday."
In reality Snape was away procuring rare and illegal potion ingredients in Germany, but it was still basically true.
"I suppose I shall just have to wait until he returns then," She suggested.
"That would be perfectly acceptable," Dumbledore agreed.
Madame Bones however was not done.
"Very well since you've proven to be cooperative it will make things easier to prove that you really did have no knowledge of this," Madame Bones told him.
"I would be happy to provide you with any further assistance in your investigation," Dumbledore answered.
"Then I suppose there is only one item of business that I would like to get to today," Madame Bones then said, "I want you to sign over guardianship of Harry to me."
"Do you no longer trust me and have I not already been helpful in your investigation?" Dumbledore countered.
At his suggestion of failing trust, her expression seemed to slip ever so slightly.
"It isn't about that," She tried to explain, even if he was pretty sure this actually might be a factor, "I just want to make sure that Harry is safe in the future and the best way I can do that is handle it myself."
"Are you sure it isn't so you can get Harry's seats in the Wizengamot?" Dumbledore suggested, "if I were to transfer guardianship over to you, I'm sure you know perfectly well that would be what you are getting. I would however hope that you aren't actually using a case of a poor innocent boy being abused for your own political agenda."
That ought to strike a nerve with her, he figured.
Apparently he did, because she insisted, "That is entirely not what this is about to me! I just want him to be safe with me. Susan is obviously quite fond of him, and honestly so am I, I couldn't hope for a better young man for Susan. I feel that it would be a good place for him.""
"If that is truly the case, then I would suggest a compromise," He recommended, "I would be willing to give you custody, yet still retain magical guardianship."
It was a good deal, he reasoned. Madame Bones would get what she wanted in keeping him safe, he would retain magical guardianship, and she would likely be more willing to trust him and get off his case if he was the one to make such a gesture.
She seemed to mull this over before finally saying: "Agreed."
He produced a custody document from one of his filing cabinets he kept for just in case (it never hurt to be prepared) and handed it over to her.
After she had had time to look it over and agree that it was the standard document used in such cases and also amending it slightly so that it would work exclusively with Harry, she finally signed it.
He also then did so clutching the document and quill she gave him and looked it over before signing it with a flourish.
"Harry Potter is now in your custody," he said.
Author's Note: Okay, there you have it. Its been interesting to read of numerous people's assumptions on how Dumbledore would react to the abuse, and even more interesting to know that they were all wrong in what I was planning. Having evil Dumbledore allow, encourage or even force the Dursleys to abuse him is incredibly cliché so of course I can't blame anyone for thinking that that was what he would do, but it would of course result in the exact same problem in stories where this takes place, Harry finds out and revolts against Dumbledore and whoever else was involved. The evil genius that they are trying to cast Dumbledore as I find hard to believe would make such an oversight. Canon Dumbledore I find equally difficult to believe did not know about such abuse. This is my own idea of explaining how such abuse could have taken place without Dumbledore knowing about it or failing to have someone check on him.