CHAPTER 3 - The calm before the storm
A/N: My special thanks to mab70 for beta-reading. I'm impressed with how many unnecessary uses of 'that' he found in the text. Will need to police myself about that.
05 / October / 1991, inter-house meeting room, early afternoon
Hermione Granger looked around the table, checking the girls present against the list in her hands before starting the meeting.
"Great, we're all here. I declare open the first meeting of the Harry Potter's Brides Association. Before we start the normal agenda, does anyone have any urgent matters to propose?"
"I have one!" said Tracy Davis. "We need to find a way to convince the other girls in school there are no more vacancies in our group. There are already too many of us, and I don't know how to respond girls asking how to join our Association!"
"But do we have the right to decide who enters or not?" asked Susan Bones. "Wouldn't it be Harry's decision ..."
"No!" protested Morag McDougall. "Harry has a heart of gold; he would never be able to say no to anyone. It's already hard to divide him between us. Will we allow all the Hogwarts girls to come in, too?"
"But what can we do?" Hannah Abbott asked. "We don't want to turn them against us. We may need them."
"I guess for now we should keep shielding Harry against their approach," suggested Lilith Moon. "At least six of us should always be standing by him, so they cannot have direct contact with Harry. I do not see what else we can do."
"Any other suggestions?" Hermione asked. "No? Then we will adopt Lilith's idea. I'll check our schedules and set up a relay agenda. Any other urgent matters?"
"Yes, we need more people to work for us," said Lisa Turpin. "We have already recruited practically every Hogwarts student to work for us and yet we are not able to handle all the requests for products."
"This is a difficult problem," commented Padma Patil. "We cannot leave Hogwarts to hire more people, would an announcement in the Daily Prophet solve it?"
"I think it's risky," said Daphne Greengrass. "First, we don't know what kind of person would respond to the ad; second, the headmaster would hardly allow strangers into school; third, we would draw much attention upon ourselves and our secrets would be revealed; fourth, I don't think we'll get the necessary amount of people this way."
"What if we try other schools?" Su Li suggested. "I have two cousins studying at the Beijing Magic School and one in Hong Kong."
"Good idea!" agreed Amanda Gutierrez. "I can contact my cousin at Beauxbatons!"
"Great!" said Megan Jones. "If we can hire people abroad to take care of foreign demand, we can use our Hogwarts staff only for sales in Britain and we save a lot on international freight!"
"It's decided then," concluded Hermione. "Any other urgent matters? No? So we move on to the first subject on our agenda: Harry Potter."
"Just out of curiosity, where is he?" asked Katie Bell. "Is it safe to leave him alone?"
"Don't worry, Katie," Sally Ann answered. "He's with his elf friends. He said he was going to study with them. In fact, I think he is preparing Daphne's birthday party."
"Oh! We're training this boy so well!" commented Susan. "Let's make him an example for all other guys!"
"I still cannot believe how he has accepted the situation so easily!" said Mandy Brocklehurst. "And he's been trying so hard to keep us all happy! I think I'm seriously falling for him!"
"We were very lucky he didn't have any serious male influence in his life to corrupt him with chauvinist garbage," said Susan.
"How so? Did you find out something about his life, Susan?" asked Padma.
Susan's reaction was immediate, blushing and staring at the floor. Her roommates did not miss the opportunity to add to her discomfort, as they were a little annoyed by the advances the little redhead had made with Harry.
"Susan had nightmares about the troll. We couldn't calm her down. She just wanted her hero," Hannah said.
"She ran into the boys' dormitory and didn't come back until the next morning," Sally-Ann continued.
"She slept all night in Harry's bed," Megan revealed. "And it wasn't just that one time. She did the same thing two other nights already!"
"SUSAN!" shouted several of the girls at the same time. From then on the meeting was spent on discussing limits and rules on interactions so none of the girls felt betrayed or wronged. Only much later did one of them remember to return to the original subject.
"Susan, you've discovered something important about Harry, haven't you?" Morag asked.
"Yes," replied the girl timidly, still embarrassed by the previous discussion. "After his parents died, Harry was abandoned at the door of his Aunt's house by Dumbledore, in the middle of the night. His relatives didn't like having to look after him at all. Life was difficult for him until he was about five and a half years old. It was January, and it had snowed. His cousin, who was a little older than Harry, saw an ad about a new sweet on something called a TV and had the biggest tantrum he wanted to try it at that very moment. So much so Harry's uncle went out with the boy to buy the chocolate. On their way back home, there was an accident. They didn't survive."
"Wow! That must have been such a shock to Harry!" Lavender commented.
"Not so much, they didn't get along very well. Harry didn't give many details, but I think he was mistreated by them," Susan explained. "Harry's aunt went into a deep depression and only survived because Harry took care of everything for weeks while she did nothing but cry."
"What do you mean, he took care of everything? He was not even six years old!" commented Mandy.
"He took care of cleaning and maintaining the house, did the shopping and prepared meals, paid the bills using his uncle's money and kept everything in order until his aunt recovered. When she realized how much the boy had struggled, and how well he had managed to get through it, she came to accept him better," concluded Susan.
"This boy is worth his weight in gold," Katie commented. "He deserves to be happy."
07 / October / 1991, Defence classroom, afternoon
Harry watched his Defence teacher leave the classroom sad and crestfallen. In a way he felt sorry for the man. Lupin was a good teacher, and he seemed to be a good person as well, but he was too attached to Dumbledore so Harry couldn't accept him unreservedly.
The teacher had barely begun the conversation before asking when Harry would return Fawkes to the headmaster. As if Harry was holding the bird trapped in a cage! Harry respected Fawkes, the bird was free to do as he pleased; if he preferred Harry's company to that of the headmaster, how was it his fault?
Lupin then made his second mistake in trying to use emotional blackmail against the boy, speaking of his parents' aspirations for his future. As if children did not have a life of their own to live, and were obliged to fulfil the destiny imagined by their parents, without a right to their own opinion and will!
And that bunch of thugs called 'The Marauders'? Was it so hard to understand how different Harry's rebellion was to group of troublemakers without a cause? Harry fought for his freedom; and for better conditions for his friends. The Marauders only wanted to have adventures, sow confusion, gain fame, and shame whoever stood against them.
Trying to entice Harry with lessons about turning into an animal was not a bad idea at all, but would it be wise for a teacher to suggest lessons in pranks? Very strange!
However, something Lupin had said about animagus and the Marauders was bouncing in his subconscious. There was something odd about it that he could not understand.
12 / October / 1991, castle entrance, morning
After his humiliation in front of almost the whole school, Draco had left Harry in peace while he concentrated his new infallible plan to defeat the boy-who-lived. Quite frankly, it was like a cartoon thing, with the archenemy making mind-boggling plans that only go wrong.
Draco and his gang, now without Pansy, who chose to back off because she was still uncertain as to the snob's actual preferences, harassed Harry and his ever-present female company again at the foot of the grand staircase. His brilliant idea was to challenge the boy to a broom race next Saturday just after breakfast. Draco having chosen the date and 'weapon' for the duel, Harry accepted, but demanded to choose the course.
"Hey scarhead, do you want to give up already and save yourself the humiliation?" asked the Slytherin upon arriving for the race. "Look at this! The new Nimbus 2000, the most advanced broom in existence. And what will you use? One of those mediocre school brooms?"
Draco's broom was beautiful, with a handle in richly ornate wood, and the bristles in twigs selected by hand. But Harry was not worried at all. Opening the box at his feet, he removed a broom people not used to Muggle products were impressed to see. Aluminium and plastic were unknown materials in the magical world. And Harry's broom had a silver-aluminium handle, with bright-yellow plastic bristles gathered in a head of solid green plastic.
"What is this?" asked the blond boy, his eyes bulging, seeing something so different from what he had expected.
In a tone reminiscent of a teacher answering a stupid question, Harry said with forced calm, "It's a broom, Draco. Come on, it's not so different from that wooden toothpick in your hands. Even you should have noticed the resemblance."
"But ... it's not fair ... that's not the type of broom ..." he tried to argue.
"You asked for a broom race, and it's a broom. If you wanted to limit it to brooms of a certain type, you should have been more specific. Now stop complaining. It's going to ruin your make-up," Harry countered as he handed the boy a small map. "Here is the route of the race. It is simple enough not even one with your serious limitations will be able to get lost. Ready?"
"But ... this course ... is all inside the castle, and full of right-angle curves, in narrow, low corridors. How are we going to fly like this?" the mighty Malfoys' heir objected again.
"Who told you we would fly?" said Harry. "You wanted a broom run. We'll run. How's your breath, Draco?"
12 / October / 1991, fifth floor of Hogwarts, night
Harry looked at the girls who called themselves his brides, and smiled in satisfaction. It took a lot of work to take care of so many girls, but it was also rewarding. He had almost memorized their preferences for tea, other drinks, and food, but there was still some confusion with colours and flowers.
Another weekend was going very well for the unprejudiced Hogwarts students. After again humiliating the purported leader of the purebloods at school, Harry had spent an afternoon learning to skate on the makeshift ice rink the elves provided.
Those elves were really fantastic. They were always ready to help and had such skill with magic! Harry was learning a lot from them. He really wanted to be able to do more for his little buddies, but it was hard to get them to accept something in return. There were times when Harry thought all they wanted was more work to do!
While resting a little, Harry walked around the game rooms, and had a great time watching students jumping on the trampoline. Today was the day to introduce the magical world to the deliciousness of hot dogs and soft drinks. Another great success! And tomorrow, at his suggestion, the meals would begin to vary: each lunch and dinner would contain one or two foreign dishes, and students could vote on which ones they liked the most so they could be repeated often.
October 13, 1991, headmaster's office, night
Albus Dumbledore drank a glass of firewhiskey as he thought about the events of the year and their main instigator: Harry Potter. From his teachers', and his own, direct observations, it seemed the boy had the magical power and knowledge of an average Hogwarts' first year student. How then to explain that he had been able to kill a troll and defeat Severus in legilimency, not to mention the strange case of Quirinus? Although he found no evidence linking the boy to the teacher's death, Albus didn't rule out the possibility. The remains of the enchanted harp found in Fluffy's room were proof the defence teacher had discovered how to get past the three-headed dog and, without someone's intervention, he should have been successful in moving on to the next step in his quest for the philosopher's stone .
And where did that stone go? Albus even searched Harry's belongings, but found no stone. Who else could have gotten to it? The headmaster had no other suspects.
In giving in to muggle books and paraphernalia at school, Dumbledore was sure only the few pupils coming from this environment would make use of them. How wrong he had been! Even the telescopes used in Astronomy were now almost all of Muggle origin! Aurora was radiant with her new reflector telescope that she swore to be at least twenty times more powerful than the magical equivalent, and with none of the aberrations they were plagued with.
Not to mention the inter-house space, where study groups gathered at every opportunity to study Muggle arts and sciences. It was fortunate Hogwarts had too much magic for electronic equipment to work, or he was sure his ears would be suffering from those noisy styles of music Muggle youngsters were so fond of!
At first, getting Harry to agree to become a regular school student seemed to have been a major victory, especially with Albus reinstated as headmaster and the new Defence teacher, Remus Lupin, a former friend of the Potters, to try to create an emotional bond with the boy. But Harry had shown little interest in giving in to Remus' attempts at approach, and worse, the boy was now the undisputed leader of the school, more obeyed and respected than the headmaster himself!
This was something Dumbledore couldn't allow. He would have to do something to regain control of the situation. And such was his need he even thought of trying to take the lead on the boy regarding innovations. Surely that would make him loved by his students, but there were two problems there: Albus did not have the necessary knowledge about the Muggle world nor the proximity to the students to hear from them what they wanted. Moreover, it was his opinion too many changes had already been made, and too quickly! Not that he had anything against the Muggles, but he was a conservative at heart, and wanted both worlds to keep their distance.
Having totally released the students' correspondence, which was inevitable, Dumbledore at first came to think he could benefit from the fact. With Harry receiving the flurry of letters from admirers and fans, once blocked, he hoped the boy would begin to get a taste for being the famous boy-who-lived, and would be too busy to continue interfering with the school. But somehow, the boy was able to respond to his correspondence quickly and not let the constant praise go to his head. And worse: he was influencing the minds of his future students, as evidenced by some letters he had received from young children asking for even more changes at the school!
At least Severus had recovered enough of his health to return to teaching the class for the last two years, though he remained weak and, to be honest, even stranger than his normal. But what worried Albus here was the revelation that Harry had been able to reverse Severus' attack and read his mind. He now knew of the prophecy and the role of Severus in Voldemort's attack on the Potters! Maybe it was time to tell him the whole prophecy and offer the boy some special training to fulfil his destiny, then possibly Albus could bring the boy closer to him and influence him.
But a doubt still lingered in the old man's white-haired head: having magic at their disposal to do whatever they wanted, why were so many students doing physical exercises in the morning?
October 16, 1991, fourth floor hall, afternoon
Harry was going to dinner with six of his friends when he saw his way blocked by six Slytherins of the older years. A quick glance back showed six other Slytherins blocked the way they came. With all the Slytherins with their wands in their hands, pointed at them, and the angry faces they displayed, even Crabbe would be able to see their intentions were not at all friendly.
"Stay close together and hold each other tight," Harry murmured to the girls as they watched the Slytherins approach. He was already thinking about how to proceed, and a quick glance at the phoenix on his shoulder confirmed the help he needed was available.
Identifying the leader of the Slytherins, Harry set out for the attack, but only verbally.
"Hey, Flint! You also decided to take a little walk with your girlfriends?"
'Oh, I hit a nerve' Harry thought at the immediate reaction of the Slytherins in front of him. Their faces turned red with rage, and it was clear they were about to start casting spells on the first-years.
"You've gone too far, Potter. You will learn a lesson and remove all this muggle trash from here, or suffer..."
"And how do you and your pack of idiots expect to accomplish this? Have you learned any spells more advanced than Lumos?" interrupted the boy, preparing for action.
"ARRRGGGHHHH!" grunted the Slytherin before shouting "NOW!"
Harry and the girls saw several spells being thrown at them just before they disappeared, reappearing on the seventh floor, thanks to Fawkes's powers. They didn't see the result of the spells, but only learned later eleven of the twelve Slytherins would spend one or more nights in the medical wing of Hogwarts, recovering. Interesting, none of the Slytherins had ever noticed before, casting spells from opposite directions can be dangerous if your enemy isn't there to receive them. The spells will continue their path and end up hitting your compatriots.
Thanks to his elven friends, the fame of the already well-known boy-who-lived rose to new heights with the story of how he alone had faced and defeated a dozen older students without even a scratch. That's how the story came to the Daily Prophet, thanks to Rita Skeeter, increasing the boy's fame outside the castle as well. And 'outside of the castle' now meant the whole world, since Skeeter was selling her special revelations about the boy-who-lived to newspapers beyond Britain.
19 / October / 1991, Quidditch Field, Morning
It was becoming routine to have a face-off with Malfoy every Saturday morning. This time the blonde had decided to challenge Harry to a duel, and chose the Quidditch pitch as the locale. And he'd summoned the whole school to watch. How much humiliation could he still bear?
"Here they are," said Harry, putting two boxes on the two small tables the elves brought to the centre of the field.
"Here's what? What are you up to this time, Potter?" Draco asked.
"The guns, you prat," explained the boy with the lightning bolt scar. "You issued the challenge and selected the location, date, and time. At the very least you'll have to let me supply the weapons. And here they are."
Draco opened his box, and had no idea what to do with those pieces inside it. Meanwhile, Madame Hooch, invited to referee the event, shouted "Ready, Set, Go!"
Draco was still staring blankly at each of the pieces when he heard Harry say, "Ready? Here it comes!" He just had time to raise his head to the boy before being struck on the forehead and falling on his bum, having been hit by a bullet of yellow paint from the paintball gun Harry had quickly assembled and loaded.
October 22, 1991, Great Hall, over breakfast
At Harry's request, Susan had asked for her Aunt to return to the school, accompanied by some aurors. She was a little hurt he was asking for a favour while refusing to tell her the reason. All he had said was that it would be a big surprise to everyone.
As soon as Madame Amelia Bones arrived, Harry went to meet her and asked her to wait just a moment while he invited two other people to accompany them, and then went to the teachers' table, completely ignoring the headmaster who tried to question him about the interruption.
"Professor McGonagall, do you remember me asking you about ways to check if an animal is indeed an Animagus? I'd like your help with a case if you can join us. Professor Lupin, I would like you to come as well, you may be able to help us identify a person," said Harry to the two teachers, who then joined Amelia's entourage, plus the angry headmaster, who kept glaring at the boy and the phoenix on his shoulder.
Reaching the picture of the fat lady guarding the entrance to the Gryffindor tower, Minerva could not help asking, "What are we doing here, Mr Potter? And how did you find this entrance?"
"Professor, please," the boy asked. "That's not really important. Could you lead us to the first-year boys' dormitory? I'll answer your questions as soon as we deal with the main problem."
What ensued caused such confusion that Minerva took days to question the boy again. Peter Pettigrew alive and hidden in Hogwarts as Ron Weasley's pet rat! Remus was fit to burst with the happiness of knowing that Sirius Black was innocent and would soon be free, and the anger of knowing he had been imprisoned for so long without trial for that Peter's betrayal that Remus had come to regard as a hero! But Dumbledore was not happy at all. The release of Sirius meant the end of his guard over Harry. He needed to meet Harry's godfather urgently and bring him to his side before things took off in unplanned and unwanted direction.
22 / October /1991, inter-house meeting room, late afternoon
"Harry, how did you find out about Pettigrew?" Susan asked.
"Easy. Professor Lupin gave me almost all the necessary information. He told me about the group of students called Marauders he had attended school with, which included Pettigrew, my father, and Sirius Black. He also told me how these three became animagi, and the forms of each. As soon as he told me the story, I knew there was something important there, and that I needed to remember something else to solve the mystery. It took some time, but finally I remembered one of my elf friends had commented on Weasley's rat, that something seemed to be wrong with the rat and it smelled of human. Then I just joined the facts and prepared the catch."
"Very well, Harry," said Hermione, "Now we need you to sign some more documents for us. You can rest assured we have already returned all the money we borrowed from your vault, and business is going well. Want to see the exact numbers?"
"Are we making a profit?" he asked.
"Oh yeah! We're making a great profit," happily replied Hermione.
"That's enough for me. I trust you, all of you," he replied, gaining a show of affection and recognition from the girls for his confidence.
"Have you planned what to do over the weekend, Harry?" Tracy asked. "A girl needs some time to get ready for this kind of event, you know."
"Oh, yes, I have everything planned. It will be best if you come in pants or shorts, something sporty, with which you can move freely without risk of revealing more than you want. You will learn two new games: Twister and Dodge Ball," Harry replied.
"What about the food?" Mandy asked.
"Popcorn! You'll love it! And also cotton candy, caramel apple, salted peanuts, potato chips and ice cream!" said Harry, happy with the choices.
26 / October / 1991, Great Hall, morning
Gringotts had a special type of vault for use by underage wizards and witches, called a trust vault. The head of the house stipulated an amount, up to 50,000 galleons, and an annual date of deposit. Each year, by the stipulated date, the child's vault was filled up to its limit from the family vault, and the child could withdraw from their trust vault as long as there was an available balance.
Draco had insisted a lot, and his father had yielded and used his influence to get Draco's vault to a particularly high limit: 200,000 galleons. Lucius had only agreed because Draco had promised never to let the balance of the vault fall to less than 150,000 galleons, and that the higher limit was only to impress the other Slytherins.
In fact, his plan was to try again to humiliate Potter, and get financial redress for the times the boy had bested him. During breakfast, Draco decided to provoke his enemy by shouting from his table: "Hey scarhead! Your family must be very poor, judging by the kind of clothes you have and the company you keep!"
Harry took a deep breath and prepared to respond to the snobbish boy when Daphne, to his right, put a hand on his shoulder and said in a whisper, "Please leave him with me this time."
After receiving an affirmative nod from the boy, Daphne began to prepare the trap for the pathetic Slytherin.
"Hey, little Drakey, are you going to protect yourself behind Dad's fortune or are you just comparing what you have in your personal vault?"
"Ah! As if I needed help to beat this pathetic street kid!" Malfoy replied.
"Do you want to bet then? The contents of your personal vault against his, for which of you has most deposited in the bank?" proposed the blonde girl.
"Deal! Professor Snape will be the judge!" determined Draco, lifting and pulling out his Gringotts bank statement from the inside pocket of his robes, not for a moment suspecting the girl had cooperated too easily with his plan.
"All right!" said Daphne, also standing up and walking calmly to the Potions master as she took Potter's bank statement from her backpack.
"And why is Mr Potter's bank statement in your possession, Miss Greengrass?" Snape asked as she approached him.
Assuming an air of importance, the girl put all the arrogance she could in her reply: "Because Mr Potter is too busy to pay attention to such trivial matters and agreed that I should take care of them for him."
Both students handed the bank statements to Snape. Looking first at the paper delivered by Malfoy, the teacher smiled at his godson as he realized he had succeeded in expanding the traditional boundary of the under-age vaults. But as he looked at the statement delivered by Daphne, his jaw dropped. Unlike Draco, who only held in his vault the money he received from his father, Harry's vault contained all the income from the Potter's Brides Association, which was now surpassing seventeen million galleons.
Snape removed his wand and performed some spells confirming the authenticity of the document before turning to his female student, asking confusedly, "How?"
"Mr Potter is not a mere waste of family fortune, like certain others," replied Daphne, casting a disdainful glance at the Malfoy's heir. "He knows how to earn his own money and invest his earnings profitably so he does not have to live on parental charity."
Draco was forced to fill in a transfer of funds right there and send it to Gringotts. He was seriously considering whether it would be better to stay at Hogwarts this Christmas, and maybe a few others. Explaining what had happened to nearly two hundred thousand galleons for his father could quickly become a very painful experience.
03 / November / 1991, special rooms on the Fifth Floor, afternoon
Finally a Saturday without having to face some dispute against the professional loser of Slytherin! Could the arrogant blonde have at last learned his lesson, or just hadn't been able to prepare some wonderful plan in time? This was the doubt that crossed Harry's head as he watched the girls perform the first play at Hogwarts: George Bernard Shaw's 'Man and Superman'. And the next one was already being announced for the month of December: 'Waiting for Godot' by Samuel Beckett.
It was not that thinking of Malfoy was in any way interesting, but Harry was concerned about a new development in relation to his self-proclaimed brides: they were now going further than kissing his cheeks. Not that they were doing anything more than a quick kiss on the lips, or that he didn't like it, but Harry was a complete newcomer to girls and relationships, and he was terrified of doing something wrong. He had discovered he was utterly incapable of saying no to a girl if she gave certain kinds of looks they had to spare: the look of an abandoned puppy, the crying face, the cute pouts, the little seductive smile, the shy helpless little girl look, the nervous 'teeth over bottom lip'; all these were deadly weapons!
But how their friendship was worth it! They had made him a multi-millionaire, and they still encouraged him a lot, in every way. His studies were going very well, only he had decided not to show the teachers, and especially the headmaster, how great his progress was. Most of all, he didn't want anyone to find out how much he'd learned from the elves. Their way of using magic was so much more natural and simple! It was amazing no one had ever bothered to really learn and appreciate it.
It was difficult, but at last he had obtained the permission of the elves to teach his girls their form of magic. In return, they had to take an oath not to reveal anything to anyone without the elves' permission and never to mistreat them. A small price for such power, as they soon all realized, giving the oath promptly.
Harry had been very happy with their decision. Soon they would be able to defend themselves and, together, there would be few things they couldn't do. Harry was full of plans, and he began slowly to share these plans with his friends, testing their receptiveness to his ideas and asking for their collaboration to further improve their dream for a better world.
05 / November / 1991, headmaster's office, night
Albus Dumbledore was worried. Never before had his school been so little his. In the last weeks he had only counted on the presence of his phoenix for a few days, and only because it preferred to return to its perch for its 'burning'. The elves still obeyed him as long as he did not ask anything about Harry Potter and the bunch of girls who accompanied him. The paintings had nothing to tell him about the boy, it was as if they were frozen and insensitive each time the boy approached them. The ghosts of the castle refused to cooperate. The castle itself refused to cooperate! The charm that warned him whenever Potter left the castle was still active, but everything else failed without explanation. Charms to listen when Harry spoke or inform him of the boy's position inside the castle stopped working within seconds of being applied. It was a conspiracy, but Albus saw nothing he could do.
The purists had taken the bait, and happily accepted the creation of the post of Grand Inquisitor of Hogwarts. However, they were being cautious, something rare for this group of egocentrics, and instead of immediately appointing someone to the post and initiating changes, they had postponed the Inquisitor taking office until after Christmas, so that Dumbledore's and Fudge's agreement with the students would not be broken. What's more, Albus was certain that in the coming weeks some new laws would be proposed by them regarding magical education, so they would take over the role with broad legal backing. Dumbledore would have to closely monitor any proposed laws voted on in the near future so the purists would not gain excessive power over the students or his plan would fail.
Sirius was causing some delay in Albus' plans. The man had been seriously weakened by his long stay at Azkaban, but now he was recovering quickly. At least it had not been hard to convince him of the need to keep the boy at Hogwarts, and Albus had not even needed to reveal the prophecy to the Marauder, keeping that weapon for another time.
