May 2nd 1998

The people who had been at the Ministry arrived back at Potter Manor visibly drained just after lunchtime.

Remus, who had been listening in via the bond, immediately handed Jen their daughter, and she held her close, fighting back tears of anger and betrayal.

Arabella, who had been waiting with him, was pale-faced. "Remus hasn't been filling me in," she said. "Was it …?"

Mandy crumpled, her knees buckling beneath her as she began to cry. Ron caught her before she could hit the floor and Arabella opened her arms for him to steer her best friend into them.

"You can watch my memory," Hermione offered.

"Later," Arabella said, stroking Mandy's hair. "She needs me right now."

Addie rubbed her eyes. "I've got to go to Hogwarts."

"It can wait, can't it?" Sirius asked.

"I've got a staff meeting," Addie said reluctantly, "and I'd rather tell them myself than have them find out from the papers." She hesitated. "I should probably tell Leona first, shouldn't I?"

"I can do that, if you want," Sirius offered.

Addie managed a weak smile. "Thank you, but I need to do that. I'm her sister."

Leona took it worse than Addie had, but then Addie had already known about Rookwood.

In the end, she had to leave Leona with Sirius in order to go to Hogwarts.

James lent her the family Pensieve, and she shrunk it down for the journey, apparating to outside the gates.

The repairs were going well. The gates were back to their usual impressive selves and the rubble that had littered the grounds had all been removed.

Instead of going straight to the school, Addie took a detour, heading for Hagrid's hut. She had invited him to the staff meeting, but something told her it was better to do this first and in private - she had time.

A very dejected Hagrid met her at the door. "Hello, Headmistress."

Addie wrinkled her nose. "You can still call me Addie, Hagrid; I like to think we're friends."

Hagrid managed a weak smile. "I guess you're here to tell me how this mornin' went?"

"I'm afraid so," Addie said, resizing the Pensieve. "Have you ever used one of these before?"

"No," Hagrid answered. "I seen Professor Dumbledore's, but I never used it."

"Okay then." Addie added the memory. "Just dip a finger into the liquid, and you'll be taken into the memory. I'm going to stay here, because I don't want to watch it again."

Hagrid hesitated.

"You need to see it," Addie said gently. "It's going to be in the papers tomorrow anyway. Do you want to see my memory, or read Skeeter's article?"

"Your memory," Hagrid said. "Least I know that's truthful."

Addie sighed as he entered the memory, sitting down to wait. Her hand settled on her stomach, beginning to show the signs of a bump.

Fang whined from his basket, and she gave a small whistle, patting her thigh. He trotted over and laid his head on her lap, and she smiled, scratching his ears.

"You know he's upset, don't you?" She murmured. "You'll need to look after him for me."

When Hagrid emerged, she immediately shrunk the Pensieve and tucked it back inside her robes. He was shaking, not with tears, she realised, but with anger.

"How could he?! I trusted him!"

"I know," Addie said, patting his arm. "There's a lot of that going around."

"James and Lily set up, Sirius left to rot, your family …" Hagrid suddenly stopped. "Your family. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Addie lied. "A lot of what I heard, we had already guessed, if not outright known. No hugs," she added, a little hastily. "I'll just start crying. And I'm pregnant."

Hagrid gave her a watery smile. "Congratulations! At least there's somethin' good."

Addie managed a smile as well. "I agree. Listen, Hagrid, I know you're upset and angry and rightly so, but we need to talk about Care of Magical Creatures next year."
Hagrid sniffled. "I know I'm not a very good teacher …"

"On the contrary," Addie said, "I think you're a very good teacher. Lesson planning, however, is another matter. So if you're agreeable, I would like you to continue teaching, but you and I will sit down together before next term and set out a plan, alright?"

Hagrid looked like he was either going to start crying or hug her anyway, so Addie promised to owl him with the meeting date and made her escape (she was running late anyway).

The other teachers were already in her office by the time she got there.

"Sorry I'm late," she said, resizing the Pensieve. "I was just having a quick chat with Hagrid."

"He won't be joining us then," Minerva concluded brusquely. "Neither will Sybil. I doubt she knows what day it is."

Addie shook her head, taking a seat behind the desk. "As you all know, it was Albus's hearing this morning." She cleared her throat. "It was … disturbing, to say the least. Poppy, what was the outcome of your meeting with the Healers?"

"No one here has any Memory Charms, to to speak," Poppy answered grimly. "But most of us have been under mild Compulsion Charms at one point or another. The only exception was Severus, who was Obliviated very recently."

"That one, I knew about," Addie answered.

"You did?" Snape asked.

Addie nodded. "You had a conversation with him that I was certain you would have told me about had you not been. The memory of the hearing is in that Pensieve; I would like you all to watch it, rather than read Skeeter's take tomorrow. Kady?" She called, as her colleagues entered the memory. "Can you get us some hot chocolate please?"

Kady curtsied. "Of course, Headmistress. Is you wanting anything else for your meeting?"

Addie sighed. "I don't suppose there's any firewhiskey in the building, is there?"

Kady fixed her with a surprisingly stern look. "Headmistress should not be having firewhiskey with babies."

Addie chuckled. "Not for me, Kady. Although I could use some. I meant for the others. They're watching something quite distressing at the moment."

Kady thought for a moment. "There is no firewhiskey, headmistress. But Kady be making special hot chocolate for shock Kady's mother used to make - it is being safe for the babies as well."

Addie beamed at her. "Oh, thank you, Kady. That would be wonderful."

The mugs appeared on her desk just in time for the others to emerge, most of them with tear-stained faces.

"Help yourselves to a drink," Addie said, taking her own. "Kady says it's doctored hot chocolate for shock that I can actually have." She took a sip and closed her eyes in sheer bliss.

Hot chocolate always had a special effect, but this seemed to have the warming effect of Butterbeer mixed into it. It seeped into her veins and slowly spread through her entire body.

"Do we need to give you some time alone with your drink?" Snape asked.

Addie pulled a face. "I've had a very stressful morning." She set her mug down. "Are you all alright?"

Minerva shook her head, dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief. "I just can't believe it. I mean, I believe it, but … Did you know?"

"We had guessed most of it," Addie answered, wrapping her hands around her mug. "The bit about my parents was a nasty surprise. I'm okay," she added, when it looked like Aurora would get up to comfort her. "Well, I'm not," she amended, "but I can fall apart when I get home."

"He must be senile," Pomona said. "He must be."

"I hope so," Addie said. "He's either senile or he is pure evil. Now the reason I called the meeting was not to discuss Albus, but the school. There are a few things that need to be addressed."

"I think there are quite a few actually," Minerva said.

"Absolutely," Addie agreed. "But I don't want to be that person that turns up and immediately changes everything. Change is something best received in small doses, I think. So right now, I want to focus on what needs to change immediately."

"That's probably a good idea," Filius said. "What are you thinking?"

Addie pulled a list from her pocket. "Okay, so first of all, I'd like to see some kind of consensus about what warrants points being given or taken. Some of you award one point for a correct answer, some of you give ten, some don't give anything. If we can agree a system, firstly the House Cup will be fairer and secondly we won't see the current belief system that some teachers are biased against certain houses." She glanced around to see they were all staring at her. "I'm not saying you need to do it right now, this second. But some time before September would be nice."

"That's brilliant," Aurora said faintly. "Why haven't we thought of that before?"

Addie shrugged. "I don't know. I thought about it when I first got here, since no one actually gave me any training. I just winged it." She cleared her throat, scanning the list. "Sorry, this isn't in any order and I'm just picking out the ones to address now. Oh, History of Magic."

"What's wrong with it?" Minerva asked. "It's an important lesson."

Addie looked up again to give her an incredulous stare. "Are you kidding me? Was it just me and Severus who were taught by Binns?"

Aurora and Septima, the only two young enough to have possibly been in his class, both nodded - they had both been Beauxbatons students, for various reasons.

"History of Magic, in its current form, is glorified nap-time," Addie said bluntly. "The only people who pass the course are the ones who have private tuition at home, or have very good friends who have private tuition at home. There is absolutely no point."

"You took History of Magic at NEWT level," Minerva pointed out.

"Yes," Addie agreed. "And I used it as glorified nap-time, since Lily stressed too much to use our actual spare lessons for that purpose. Severus, you agree, right?"

"I do," Severus said, a hint of reluctance in his voice. "And in addition to being a spectacularly boring teacher, I don't recall any lesson that wasn't about goblin rebellions."

"That too," Addie agreed. "I don't want to move Binns from the castle - he's welcome to stay. We can just move the classroom next door - he'll keep teaching anyway, even to an empty room. If any students want to attend a lecture of his, they can if they want."

Minerva frowned. "I'm sure it can't be that bad."

"Minerva, I am willing to bet," Addie said, "that if you go to his classroom right now, he will be there, telling an empty room about goblin rebellions. Next point: Divination." She smiled at Minerva. "You'll agree with me on that one."

"Of course," Minerva said. "But you're not going to make her leave, are you?"
"Absolutely not," Addie said immediately. "I'm not even sure she could function in the real world. She can stay and teach students with Sight, but is there any point in students without Sight taking the class in its current form?"

"Absolutely none," Aurora said, with feeling. "Her exams are based on practical, but the OWL and NEWT are based on theory. Have we had any NEWT students since we hired her?"

Minerva thought for a second. "I don't believe so. Speaking of the OWL and NEWT exams, Addie, do you know what your mother's research was?"

"No," Addie said. "I'm going to look into it. If she was right, and I never knew her not to be, then we need to approach it gradually, or we'll be setting students up to fail. So we'll find another teacher for Divination as it should be. Muggle Studies …" she took a deep breath, Charity's smile flashing in her mind's eye. "I'm looking. We need to do something about the class anyway - it was a century out of date when I was at school."

"No, it wasn't," Pomona said, disbelievingly.

"When Lily read my text book, she actually fell of the sofa because she was laughing so hard," Addie said. "Not to mention, I went out into the Muggle world last summer. We teach it like they're another species, not a different culture. I'd quite like to have a chat with some of our Muggle-born students and their parents as well, to see if we can help the integration, but that can wait until summer." She checked her list once more and tucked it away. "I think that's all of my urgent things. Anyone else?"

"Have the OWL and NEWT exams been rescheduled?" Filius asked.

"They have," Addie said. "Students will be asked to report to the Leaky Cauldron a week after the end of term, from where they will be escorted to the Ministry. They've arranged everything."

"And what about the Ministerial elections," Pomona asked. "Can you tell us anything?"
"I know nothing," Addie said with a smile. "I can tell you that someone nominated James Potter …"

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," Severus groaned. "I'm emigrating."
Addie laughed. "Well, you'll be pleased to know he rejected the nomination. He's still laughing about it."

"I wonder who nominated him," Minerva said. "He's been out of the picture for sixteen years."

"My money's on Jen," Addie said. "She did swear to get him back for nominating her for Chief Witch. The voting's not for another three days, but as far as I know, there are only two nominations - Amelia Bones and some guy I've never heard of who I assume is all the Dark side have left. If that stays the same, at least there'll only be one round of votes."

"Amelia will be a wonderful Minister," Minerva said warmly. "She's who we could have done with the last time."
"I agree," Addie said. "Are there any other issues we need to discuss today? If not, we'll return to the regular staff meeting scheduling of once a fortnight."

The others filed out to digest the fall-out of the investigation and Addie loaded her quill to mark the items on her list that she had discussed with them.

It was a few moments, before she realised Snape hadn't moved.

"Something wrong, Severus?"

"I would like to take this opportunity to formerly tender my resignation."

Addie sighed. "I knew you were going to do that. I'm not that bad, am I?"
"You're not the worst person to be headmistress," Snape admitted grudgingly. "But it has nothing to do with you. I never wanted to be a teacher; Albus did not leave me with any option. Enough is enough."
Addie sighed, setting down her quill. "Look, I would honestly love to accept your resignation. Unfortunately, Potions Masters are few and far between and I don't have another one to hand. So can you at least stay long enough for me to find someone?"

"Very well," Snape said reluctantly. "Have you considered Draco?"

"Draco?" Addie asked, startled. "I hadn't actually. Then again, I hadn't started thinking about it."

"He has the talent to become a Potions Master," Snape said. "He also has an understanding behind the ingredients that most of my students don't have."

"Okay," Addie said, "but he doesn't graduate for another year. And he might not even want to teach."

"Speak to him," Snape said. "If he does - and if you can find someone to teach first through fifth year - I will stay for one year. Just one."

Addie grimaced. Mandy would do it, she knew, if she could wrangle her away from the Ministry for nine months. "Just one."
"I know who you're planning to get in for History of Magic," Snape said flatly. "I refuse to stay longer."

"Fair enough," Addie said. "I accept your terms. I haven't actually asked him yet though."