Author Note: Harry Potter and company are not mine. I didn't create them and do not own them. They belong to Ms. Rowlings. As always I remind you this story is already finished. All I need to do is upload each chapter for you to enjoy. And I hope you do.
Chapter Thirty-Six: Time Turns
Albus sat in his office enjoying a lemon drop and hoping it would improve his mood. He was severely disappointed and unhappy. None of his teachers were following his proscribed treatment for the boy. The boy was supposed to be uncomfortable here. Miserable and alone making him eager for approval and willing to do anything to get it. He wasn't. He was alone, yes. But that seemed to be by choice. Not because no one wanted to be near him.
In fact, a great deal of his staff seemed to be angry with him. Including Minerva. He didn't understand. Yes, he'd been away from the Castle a lot this year but it couldn't be helped. He had responsibilities outside the confines of the school. She knew that and it had never been a problem before. Why was it now?
He'd counted on Delores targeting his pawn thanks to the special efforts of his chosen children to bring him to her attention. He just knew she would be unrelenting and cruel to him simply because he'd confirm Tom had returned which the Minister didn't want to believe. He was counting on her adding pain to his misery over being isolated yet again from his peers and having his three chosen children making mountains out of gnome holes to trash what was left of his reputation with all the other children. His children were supposed to be playing up Mr. Potter's bad behavior and riling up Cornelius' woman in every class so she would be certain to administer cruel punishment on the boy. The only snag to his plans for the boy this year seemed to be no one was acting as they should be. With Ms. Granger not there to egg on Mr. Weasely, Delores Umbridge had no ready target for her animus because Mr. Weasely was keeping his head down and his mouth shut. And so it seemed was Harry. He'd heard no rumors of Tom's return from the student gossip mill or even the Portrait gossip channels. In fact the only thing any one was talking about was some set-to that took place in the Library back in September.
But Madam Umbridge was quite happy with how easy her job was and how well the children were accepting her words to them. Even that boy the staff had said would be a problem for her was turning out to be no such thing. Though she did try to bait him a few times. Just to be sure because that cheater girl had said he told her He Who Must Not Be Named had returned. But with Harry's refusal to bite her bait, and all the other students taking their cue from him, she found no one willing to argue with her version of events or the Ministry's ability to take care of what mattered in their lives. Not any more at least. Not since the Granger girl had gotten herself expelled.
Naturally Delores thought it was because of her own amazing oratory skills. When instead it was because the children were following the direction of their chosen leader, Harry Potter, who had said not to challenge her. Harry honestly didn't care what she said since he had already decided on a course of action for himself. He'd already read her book and based on the assignments she'd given for the first few weeks of class, done all his essays. So now he spent his free time either in the library or his room reading the books that interested him and practicing his defensive spell casting and potion brewing under the watchful eye of Professor Snape. When he wasn't visiting with either Hagrid or Mr. Filch and Mz. Norris.
In fact with Hermione gone, a lot of things settled down in the Castle. Ron had quieted down taking his cue from his sister now. He was struggling to at least attempt to finish his homework assignments and to control his temper so as to get less detentions. It was hard for him but he was making progress. He'd also read the booklet as Ginny told him too and did a lot of thinking about how he'd feel if someone had done to him what he'd done to Harry. He'd come to the conclusion he'd have probably tried to kill the guy. And with that realization his anger towards Harry died a slow natural death. Now he just wanted to make it through the school year with as much of his pride intact as he could salvage. He wasn't ready to begin atoning yet but at least he wasn't angry any more.
Without Hermione stirring things up, the students tapered off shadowing Harry and running interference for him as Ron tended to avoid him and Ginny hadn't bothered him after Professor Babbling had explained her rune to her. The other kids, who'd at first sought to take advantage of the rift in the Golden Trio, had gotten the message from his wall and were also leaving him alone now. As for those kids who honestly did wish to be his friend, they too seemed to realize now wasn't the time to try. So he was left alone to recover from four years of abuse and mistreatment mixed with bad publicity and bad friends.
He and Severus had compiled a lot of information on the Headmaster and his time in the Castle since the end of October. The School Board used the month of December to determine for themselves how the school was faring under it's current leadership. Severus handed them, minus Lady Augusta, the packet of information on December the first and they dove into it. Lady Augusta already had the packet so they hadn't needed to give it to her. For the next two weeks, they came to the Castle quite often to ask questions.
They asked questions of both Professor Dumbledore and the other Heads of House. These questions ran the gamut of what had occurred at the school during various periods of time to missing courses and lowering overall grade averages. They even included questions about the lack of past time activities for the student body and how the lack of sufficient entertainment might be affecting their overall learning.
They also talked to Myrtle the Teenaged Ghost about how she had died and what involvement if any she believed the Professor had with her death. It turned out Professor Dumbledore had a lot more to do with events during her encounter than he had led anyone to believe he had. That it was he who had talked Headmaster Dippet into stopping the program of housing those who lived in unsuitable muggle homes from remaining at the Castle year around. Because Albus didn't like having students on campus all the time. He was also the one telling Headmaster Dippet the rumors of a Secret Chamber within the school was nothing but a myth and then when Myrtle had died it had been he who had called for the school to close it's doors and suggested Hagrid be expelled for killing her even though he knew Hagrid had done no such thing as he knew Hagrid's pet of the year was a baby acromantula and not a snake with a killing gaze.
Then they talked to Colin about his death and what the Headmaster had done regarding his demise. They discovered he had done the same thing to Colin's family as he'd done to Myrtle's. He sent a note telling them their child was deceased and not much else. Nor had he sent the body home so it could be buried in accordance to family custom. Just as he hadn't sent the body of Myrtle Brown home for her family to bury.
Finally, they talked to Hagrid who kept telling them Professor Dumbledore was a Great Man but he made mistakes just like everybody else. While at the same time admitting Albus hadn't even suggested helping Hagrid clear his name or regain his right to carry a wand. Not before Harry had killed the beastie he'd gotten expelled over or afterwards. Albus hadn't even suggested he continue studying magic he would've learned if his education hadn't been derailed as it had. Not even when he suggested Hagrid might like to take over teaching the Care of Magical Creatures classes here at Hogwarts had he suggested Hagrid spend the summer brushing up on his own learning. He proudly admitted Harry had bought him books to study and learn from. So he could be a better wizard and a better teacher. He even admitted he was licensed to carry and use a wand in France where he held a Beast Master's credentials and was working on a Potion Suppliers license. Thanks to Mr. Potter who had made the arrangements and put Hagrid in contact with the right people over there to get it done.
Those three discussions showed them nothing had changed in how the Headmaster handled events. And that history was repeating itself. Colin's death was almost exactly the same as Myrtle's had been and Dumbledore had done nothing different in handling the boy's death than he had in handling the girl's. Nor had he set Hagrid to rights though he had given the man a job and a place to live. By the same token, he had done nothing to punish the true guilty party while letting an innocent take the fall. In either case. Yes, Harry was still enrolled at Hogwarts but Dumbledore had done nothing to disabuse the students of the notion he'd been the one to get Colin Creevey killed. Nor had he set any kind of a punishment detail for Ms. Weasely who was also still enrolled at Hogwarts. By the time Yuletide rolled around they were ready to make their verdict.
Professor Dumbledore really didn't understand why the School Board was interfering now when they never had before and he certainly didn't like the questions they were asking. As far as he was concerned this could've waited until the children were out of school for the summer. If it had to take place at all. Which as far as he was concerned, it didn't. Right now he had things to do. Information to uncover and a student to get back control over. He didn't have time for meaningless fact finding missions into things that were over and done with. Especially with his back to back bank runs for funding all the time.
Professor McGonagal, however, did know where the questions were coming from. She didn't like it any better than he did since she seemed to be in a spot of trouble herself over it all. But her eyes were open now and she honestly couldn't say she didn't deserve it. She had ignored Harry. Repeatedly. First, for not being enough like his father and then because he was too much like his father. Then he'd been too much like Sirius Black. Then not enough. Too serious. Then not serious enough. She had jumped to believe everything Ms. Granger had said about him and anything that showed him in a negative light. And Ms. Granger had told her a lot of negative things about Mr. Potter.
Now she knew Ms. Granger was a liar. A cheater who portrayed herself to be smarter than she actually was when all along it had been Harry who was the smart one. Like Severus, she'd gone over the assignments all the Hogwarts teachers kept as a matter of course. Since he had said Ms. Granger exchanged her completed assignments for his,- (simply changing the names on the papers and using a very nifty charm to change the penmanship. She didn't know the charm didn't effect a permanent change in the penmanship) -it hadn't been too hard for her to see the truth once she'd gone looking for it.
Which really did explain why Harry had always done so well on his exams while Ms. Granger didn't. After all, Ms. Granger couldn't exactly grab his paper in the classroom changing his name for hers right in front of the Professor. She'd always put Ms. Granger's lower test results down to Exam Anxiety. But that wasn't it at all. Ms. Granger really wasn't that bright regarding things she couldn't glean from the pages of a book. She always wrote a marathon of words and answered every question. But that didn't mean her answers were right. And there was a lot of things about magic she simply didn't understand having not come from a magical background.
Severus had told her Mr. Potter told him Ms. Granger had a problem transferring what she read out of the textbook into every day applications. That she understood what she read and had an extremely high vocabulary but she couldn't paraphrase what her books told her. So when asked a question she would always parrot the book she had read dealing with the topic of the question. While she could follow a recipe and make a decent potion, she couldn't have told you why it worked either. Because that wasn't written down in a book for her to read. If it had worked because not all written recipes would work if the brewer didn't apply their magic at precisely the right point in the brewing. The recipes never told you that because that point varied from brewer to brewer. But because it wasn't written down for her, Ms. Granger would never be able to make those recipes at all. Nor would reading about magic application to Potion Brewing help her any since the time for her to add her magic would be different from everyone else's. And that was why she always failed on her exams and performed less well than expected on her written homework but always had the answer to questions asked in the classroom.
Between them, she and Severus had informed the rest of the teaching staff to the truth of Ms. Granger's abilities and all her teachers were now combing through their own records and piles of saved homework or exam parchments to discover the depth of the girls' cheating habit. It would take time but before the end of the Soltice Break they fully expected to have the class standings for her year fixed.
So when the Board members came asking uncomfortable questions, she grit her teeth and answered them as best she could. It'd do her no good to try and cover for Albus yet again. He had played her for a fool and for far too long she'd danced to his tune. For fifty years now she'd thought him to be a good man with only the best in mind for the British people. Someone who would never deliberately set out to hurt her people's children or play games with their heads and minds. But he had and he did. His lies and games were still hurting the children.
They had caused her to hurt her students and Harry, at least, would most likely never forgive her. Not that she expected him to. He'd all but left the tower and she knew even if she went to him and asked him to resume his old bed in the fifth year dorm he wouldn't do so. And not just because Ronald Weasely still had a bed in that dorm. It hadn't been his bed since halfway through his second year. If he'd even used it for that long considering the hell she and those three had made it for him to be anywhere near the Gryffindor Tower. Severus told her he was comfortable in his rooms and didn't miss the dormitory. Poppy had told her to leave it alone as well. So had Irma surprisingly enough. Even Mr. Filch told her not to bother him now.
Author Note: Please review. As always I hope you enjoy my story. Happy Reading. A short, time moving chapter. We're nearing the end of the story now but I ran into a problem on my master copy of this story so it's taking me longer to get each chapter uploaded. It seems when I saved the Master copy to my computer, somehow my chapter breaks disappeared and so did some of the story. So I'm having to rewrite as best I can remember.