(REVISION, change of Hogwarts internal geography, April 27th, 2014: See Author Notes)

Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling. I do not own Harry Potter.

Note: As with the previous chapters, the following is by way of a teaser/piece of background material for the 'Saint Potter' crossover story I'm working on, and continues to feature events at the school on September the first, 1991, as the staff prepare for a new school year.

This is set in an alternate universe which was impacted by The Saint, and some characters and events have diverged from canon.

"Ah, Filius." the headmaster glanced up from the sheet of parchment he was currently doodling on with a quill. "I was just readying my speech for this year's feast. You have something you wish to say?"

"The Express is running late, headmaster. They've run into poor weather north of the Midland Valley, and had to slow down for safety reasons with the reduced visibility of lineside signals."

"The season of mists is upon us, and I had already heard that news from Minerva, but thank-you nonetheless, Filius." The headmaster glanced at the head of Ravenclaw shrewdly. "You must have suspected I had already heard. Was there something else you wished to say?"

"You are going to warn the pupils to keep out of the old defence suite, aren't you?" Professor Flitwick sighed. "Warn them in a manner which is actually effective, and doesn't cause them to go snooping?"

"In a school full of children, the urge to snoop will be unfortunately irrepressible in some, I suspect." the headmaster said. "However, I intend to be sufficiently frank in a manner calculated to hopefully minimise visits by the curious. I do not enjoy having to do what is being done here this year, Filius, but the goblins have been leaning on me, and Remus Lupin, within the past hour or so, brought me tidings that I fear confirm that there is a malevolent entity out there – most likely Voldemort or some lieutenant who escaped Azkaban – seeking for one thing in particular."

"Headmaster. Some of the things we've put in place at your behest are outright lethal. I have no idea precisely what Richert's done, but I know that he's been corresponding with Professor Singh over the summer for lore regarding some Indian entity known as Kali. And I have seen the jungle Pomona's planted and that alone looks bad enough. I sincerely hope that the pupils will stay out."

"I am certain that between Fluffy and a rotating guard shift of members of staff when Hagrid takes Fluffy out for 'walkies', that no pupils will get further than the trapdoor. I am confident that even if any do lift it and take a quick peek through that what they glimpse will convince them to find other things to entertain themselves with. Since the only thing which might lead them to believe otherwise is an incautious word from a member of staff – which I hope will not be forthcoming from anyone – the pupils should all remain perfectly safe and out of our deathtrap."

"I still don't like it, Albus."

"Neither do I, Filius, my old friend, but you of all people should know what goblins can be like. And they are most insistent that if I do have any traitors on my staff who may have played a part in the Gringotts raid, that I take all steps necessary to make them show their true colours and to turn them over to the appropriate authorities. Although to be quite frank, Filius, I would hope I would have found it in myself to have taken steps even without any goblin pressure. A rogue member of staff is at least as dangerous in the long-term to the well-being of our young charges as a series of well-alarmed rooms filled with hazards might be in the short-term. You must remember what it was like during the seventies with some of the defence teachers we had back then."

"All too well, sadly." Professor Flitwick shuddered. "I spent enough months trying to pick up pieces after yet another defence teacher had disappeared under a cloud. I quite agree that if we have an untrustworthy colleague we need it out in the open. I just wish we could do this an alternative way."

"I considered the alternatives, and found none of them any more palatable. Any teacher involved at Gringotts will know the raid failed and that the goblins must be on the warpath. They will have measures in place sufficient to fool the most obvious tactics of legilimency or veritaserum unless I wish to be absolutely brutal in the use of such, and such brutality might well damage half a dozen perfectly innocent members of staff before I uncovered one guilty one. This way, where any guilty party exposes him or herself, is considerably better – especially given the steps I have been able to take this year to ensure that staff cannot coerce or force children into aiding any schemes."

"Well if you'd like to run the relevant section of your speech past me, it would still set my mind greatly at ease." Filius said.

"Very well then." the headmaster sighed. "Since you are one of my longest serving members of staff I shall trial it out on you:" He cleared his throat. "First and foremost, a section of the Empire Wing of the castle has been closed off, apart from one access gate, since a large quantity of dangerous vegetation turned up in the old defence suite over the holidays. For the safety of pupils…"

Author Notes:

Revision, 27th April, 2014:

Canon and associated sources are (as of April, 2014) vague on many details of the precise layout of Hogwarts. Whilst (in the period since I originally posted this chapter) fleshing out a history and maps of Hogwarts for my own use for the 'Saint Potter' universe, I included a (mostly disused) section of the school called the 'Empire Wing'. And then it made sense to me on several counts to retrospectively reallocate what Albus is hiding in the castle to the 'old defence suite' of the Empire Wing, when previously I had used the generic 'third floor corridor' subsection of canon. As with canon, various things have been set up in this location. The Hogwarts teachers know that there's something valuable that the headmaster has hidden there for the duration of the coming school year, but are under strict instructions not to tell the pupils, and Albus' plan as regards the pupil population is to pass it off as just a boring plant infestation since Pomona Sprout's contribution is a wide variety of highly hostile plant lifeforms (and any pupils who do get to sneak a look under the trapdoor will be able to see for themselves that there is indeed a lot of dangerous greenery down below...). Albus is counting on not many pupils being enthusiastic gardeners and wanting to investigate that sort of thing any further. In theory it ought to work.

References to the 'third floor corridor' will be amended in the main story to correspond with the revised situation within the next couple of weeks.