p class="MsoNormal"Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, sat exhausted in his office, his faithful companion Fawkes trilling every so often. Although if it was simply for the joy of making music, or to cheer his old friend up, Albus was none the wiser./p
p class="MsoNormal"As old as he was, Albus couldn't help but grin slightly at that stray thought, how long and how often had he, even in the sanctity of his own mind, realised that he just didn't emknow /emsomething. No more or less than any other man, wizard or not, he supposed, but with the burden of titles and responsibilities, he had to at least be able to emfind out/em. Half the time that was all that knowledge boiled down to, how good one was at finding out things./p
p class="MsoNormal"Fawkes trilled again, perhaps sensing that the old headmaster was treading down the familiar paths of regret and guilt./p
p class="MsoNormal""Ah thank you Fawkes, I needed that." He truly smiled now as the phoenix began his customary flights around the large office space. From years of experience Albus knew that Fawkes would enjoy the company, and so he decided to stay at the desk, even as he could nearly feel the stacks of parchments and paperwork growing larger. To distract himself, and to please Fawkes, he began humming a half forgotten, half invented tune./p
p class="MsoNormal"Bliss however was all the more pleasing for how rare it was, no more so than when Severus began making his way up. Archibald Dereaux, an old headmaster in the 17supth/sup century gleefully informed the current occupant of his chair. Like many portraits in the room, Archibald had definite opinions on the current Hogwarts staff and curriculum, and never hesitated to make it known as often as possible. Fortunately Severus was 'firm and fair' enough to maintain Archibald's fondness, both men disliked long winded or idle chatter, especially from students./p
p class="MsoNormal""Albus" without preamble, Severus entered and began speaking before the door was even fully opened. "Have you seen Quirrell's lesson plans? How on earth could you approve them especially this year, they have no substance." The black-clad potioneer determinately made for the open seat opposite Albus' own./p
p class="MsoNormal""Severus, you know as well as I do that the position-"/p
p class="MsoNormal""Yes Albus, the difficulties are known to both of us, but that should be no excuse for such blatant rubbish. The third years now would barely be able to recognise a Grindylow, let alone know how to deal with a Red Cap. What he emdoes /emplan to teach them would be difficult enough to understand with his emstammer/em." Like many teachers, both knew that a stammer, especially when delivering a demonstratable class like Defence Against the Dark Arts, was a definite hurdle to overcome. More so when the similarity between curses, jinxes and their counters was factored in, Albus winced as unbidden thoughts of masses of teenagers casting emdiffindo/em instead of emdefentro/em. But the certainty of his choice, especially when factored against the other applicants, gave some comfort./p
p class="MsoNormal""We both know that Quirinus was the most suitable candidate, there is no escaping that."/p
p class="MsoNormal""We emalso /emboth know that expanding the teaching staff would ease pressures on all of us. Albus couldn't you get emsomething/em out of the ministry for this?" Severus looked as irritated as Albus ever remembered. Yes, they both knew the innumerable benefits even one extra teacher could bring, even with the system of having certain NEWT students helping with the more arduous tasks, teaching was not easy. One qualified teacher was worth at least 4 NEWT students regardless of their enthusiasm and skills. Getting the money for a teacher, rather than a tutor however, was fraught with bureaucracy./p
p class="MsoNormal""The Ministry believes that the current system is more beneficial to students, especially final years, and we both know that elements there consider Hogwarts an emunreliable /eminvestment." No more needed to be said about which elements those were. Whilst Albus maintained his smile, Severus couldn't help but scoff./p
p class="MsoNormal""Surely you could perhaps find some dunderhead willing to sign off at least a half-stipend for this year." Unsaid was that both knew the more… agreeable witches and wizards that Severus often labelled dunderheads would be all to happy to help, and then promptly forget about it. Or forget to renew the paperwork. After all the one thing worse than having consistently overworked teachers was having teacher being overworked, then underworked, then overworked again at random intervals. At least by now all the staff had developed their own measures of dealing with it. Albus was fairly certain there was a Muggle saying that 'Wisdom is the ability to cope', which would make the Hogwarts teaching staff amongst the wisest in Europe./p
p class="MsoNormal""I am sorry Severus, but we can try for next year, I'm afraid that this year it is simply too low down on the Ministry List."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Both men knew that, muggle or magical, paperwork was the one curse that couldn't be countered./p
p class="MsoNormal"As old as he was, Albus couldn't help but grin slightly at that stray thought, how long and how often had he, even in the sanctity of his own mind, realised that he just didn't emknow /emsomething. No more or less than any other man, wizard or not, he supposed, but with the burden of titles and responsibilities, he had to at least be able to emfind out/em. Half the time that was all that knowledge boiled down to, how good one was at finding out things./p
p class="MsoNormal"Fawkes trilled again, perhaps sensing that the old headmaster was treading down the familiar paths of regret and guilt./p
p class="MsoNormal""Ah thank you Fawkes, I needed that." He truly smiled now as the phoenix began his customary flights around the large office space. From years of experience Albus knew that Fawkes would enjoy the company, and so he decided to stay at the desk, even as he could nearly feel the stacks of parchments and paperwork growing larger. To distract himself, and to please Fawkes, he began humming a half forgotten, half invented tune./p
p class="MsoNormal"Bliss however was all the more pleasing for how rare it was, no more so than when Severus began making his way up. Archibald Dereaux, an old headmaster in the 17supth/sup century gleefully informed the current occupant of his chair. Like many portraits in the room, Archibald had definite opinions on the current Hogwarts staff and curriculum, and never hesitated to make it known as often as possible. Fortunately Severus was 'firm and fair' enough to maintain Archibald's fondness, both men disliked long winded or idle chatter, especially from students./p
p class="MsoNormal""Albus" without preamble, Severus entered and began speaking before the door was even fully opened. "Have you seen Quirrell's lesson plans? How on earth could you approve them especially this year, they have no substance." The black-clad potioneer determinately made for the open seat opposite Albus' own./p
p class="MsoNormal""Severus, you know as well as I do that the position-"/p
p class="MsoNormal""Yes Albus, the difficulties are known to both of us, but that should be no excuse for such blatant rubbish. The third years now would barely be able to recognise a Grindylow, let alone know how to deal with a Red Cap. What he emdoes /emplan to teach them would be difficult enough to understand with his emstammer/em." Like many teachers, both knew that a stammer, especially when delivering a demonstratable class like Defence Against the Dark Arts, was a definite hurdle to overcome. More so when the similarity between curses, jinxes and their counters was factored in, Albus winced as unbidden thoughts of masses of teenagers casting emdiffindo/em instead of emdefentro/em. But the certainty of his choice, especially when factored against the other applicants, gave some comfort./p
p class="MsoNormal""We both know that Quirinus was the most suitable candidate, there is no escaping that."/p
p class="MsoNormal""We emalso /emboth know that expanding the teaching staff would ease pressures on all of us. Albus couldn't you get emsomething/em out of the ministry for this?" Severus looked as irritated as Albus ever remembered. Yes, they both knew the innumerable benefits even one extra teacher could bring, even with the system of having certain NEWT students helping with the more arduous tasks, teaching was not easy. One qualified teacher was worth at least 4 NEWT students regardless of their enthusiasm and skills. Getting the money for a teacher, rather than a tutor however, was fraught with bureaucracy./p
p class="MsoNormal""The Ministry believes that the current system is more beneficial to students, especially final years, and we both know that elements there consider Hogwarts an emunreliable /eminvestment." No more needed to be said about which elements those were. Whilst Albus maintained his smile, Severus couldn't help but scoff./p
p class="MsoNormal""Surely you could perhaps find some dunderhead willing to sign off at least a half-stipend for this year." Unsaid was that both knew the more… agreeable witches and wizards that Severus often labelled dunderheads would be all to happy to help, and then promptly forget about it. Or forget to renew the paperwork. After all the one thing worse than having consistently overworked teachers was having teacher being overworked, then underworked, then overworked again at random intervals. At least by now all the staff had developed their own measures of dealing with it. Albus was fairly certain there was a Muggle saying that 'Wisdom is the ability to cope', which would make the Hogwarts teaching staff amongst the wisest in Europe./p
p class="MsoNormal""I am sorry Severus, but we can try for next year, I'm afraid that this year it is simply too low down on the Ministry List."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Both men knew that, muggle or magical, paperwork was the one curse that couldn't be countered./p