Back to Hogwarts

Albus Dumbledore walked into the staff common room and took his usual leather chair by the fireplace, which illuminated his facial features. All the other staff members were seated around talking to one another, except, not suprising, Severus Snape who was sitting next to the headmaster's chair writing up what looked like a shopping list of potions.

The headmaster cleared his throat and the room went silent and all eyes fell on him. "Welcome back to another year at Hogwarts. I trust you all had a pleasant holiday?" Nods went around the room.

"Good. Well this year, my good friend Nicholas Flamel has asked me to keep in possession a Philosopher stone. As some of you might have heard, Hagrid had taken the stone out of his vault just before the vault had been broken into. Undoubtedly it was the work of Voldemort.' Most of the teachers flinched except Snape. 'I have decided that it will be placed in the third floor corridor. "Now to all those I have spoken to on this matter, do you know what you will do in order to protect the stone?"

Professor Sprout spoke up first. "I will be using Devil Snare."

"I charmed a key that will open a magically locked door to fly like a snitch. I've charmed a broom, so when you try to get the key, other keys will be attracted to the broom to distract the perpetrator." Squeaked Professor Flitwick on his pile of cushions.

"I made a chess set that they have to play across to get to the other side. It's wizards chess mind you, not the muggle kind." The deputy headmistress who sat on the other side of the headmaster stated her obstacle course.

"I have h-hired a m-mountain troll as m-my o-obstacle." Professor Quirrell managed to stutter.

"I have a bunch of potions and a riddle that needs to be solved in order for them to get to the stone." Snape didn't even look up, but all saw the evil sneer that formed his face. They all knew that most of the potions would be poison.

"Excellent! When that is done I will put my obstacle in and the stone should be safe. Now we have finished that, let us go to the next point. As Minerva kindly informed myself and much to the detest of his family, Harry Potter will be coming to Hogwarts this year." The teachers whispered in admiration. "We did have trouble convincing his family otherwise, but Hagrid persuaded them kindly, right?" The headmaster looked at the half giant who was the keeper of keys at Hogwarts.

"Uh, right you are professor." Hagrid smiled sheepishly, unknown to the others how exactly he had persuaded the Dursleys.

"He will have to be watched as Voldemort, when he returns will try and kill him. We all know the reason behind that. But the other factor is that he is James Potter's son. And if I am not mistaken, he will have a lot of characteristics of his father." Snape swore and muttered under his breath. "Severus, try to be civil with Harry Potter. He is not James Potter or any of the Marauders and should not be treated like them."

"Like father, like son." Snape sneered.

"Also, going on the lines of what Severus pointed out. Vincent Crabbe, Gregory Goyle, Neville Longbottom, Draco Malfoy and another Weasley, Ronald will be joining our midst."

All the teachers groaned. The Weasley family was a very old wizarding family with seven children. The two eldest children already had finished school. Charlie had left with the honour of being Quidditch captain and Bill, who was a year younger, left being head boy. Percy Weasley who was in his fifth year, was following his brother, Bill's footsteps. On the other hand, the twins Fred and George Weasley who were in their third year were pranksters and had been trouble from the first moment they got on the train to Hogwarts in their first year. They only hoped that Ron wouldn't follow in their footsteps.

"Finally, as I understand it, only Gryffindor will be needing a new player for their Quidditch team. Madame Hooch and Professor McGonagall will need to get together with the Gryffindor team to recruit a new member. Is there anything else anyone would like to discuss?" The room remained silent. Albus looked at his watch. "The train should arrive in five minutes so we all better get prepared." Albus watched as all the teachers disappeared, before getting up and heading for the Great hall.

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1 Broomsticks

The flying teacher entered the headmaster's office with a very excited deputy headmistress. "Albus, I have found our dream seeker!"

The headmaster motioned for them to sit down and smiled. "So who is the lucky person that will save you from the torments of Severus' taunting?"

"Harry Potter." Her enthusiasm decreased as she saw the old man frown. "You should have seen him Albus. Neville had broke his wrist after falling off his broom and while she was taking him to the infirmary, Malfoy and Potter had an argument and he chased Malfoy on his broom to get Longbottom's Remembrall. Malfoy threw it and Harry caught it after a fifty-foot dive without even getting a scratch. Please Albus. Not even Charlie Weasley could do that. I'll buy him a broom. The Nimbus 2000, I suspect. He's the only chance we've got at winning the cup."

The clocks in the old mans head was weighing the fros and cons and it seemed that the cons won. He smiled. "Alright Minerva, if you truly believe he is the saviour of the Gryffindor team, than I will bend the first year rule."



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Halloween

Dumbledore and the other teachers walked back up the stairs after their thorough search of the dungeons proved that the troll was not there. But they had just reached the bottom of the stairs, when the Deputy headmistress, Potions master and DADA professor came into view climbing down the stairs.

"We found the troll. It was in the girls bathroom on the third floor." McGonagall said crisply. "It is now unconscious. Its back in the third floor corridor."

Professor Sinistra of the Astronomy department asked, "Why was it unconscious?"

Snape sneered. "Potter and Weasley had to rescue Granger as she thought she could take the troll on her own. Weasley used the levitating charm and knocked the troll out with his own club. And Minerva had the audacity to award them for their stupidity."

"Well Severus,' Minerva replied curtly, "They did show bravery and loyalty to a fellow classmate."

"Alright, then. Let us go and finish the Halloween feast, shall we?" The headmaster led the faculty back into the Great hall.

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2 Quidditch

"Albus, someone tried to kill Harry Potter!" Minerva rushed in with Severus into his office, where he sat trying to get rid of a pile of work that had accumulated his desk.

Albus looked up abruptly. "Pardon?"

"Someone was cursing Harry Potter's broom to knock him off." Minerva was still shaky after watching her prized seeker cling onto his broom for dear life.

"I did a counter curse, but someone set my robes alight, but by then, Harry regained control of his broom."

"Do we know who cursed the broom?" The headmaster looked from the deputy headmistress to the potion master. They both shook their heads.

"That can only lead to one conclusion. Whoever wanted to steal the stone also wants to kill Harry Potter. That means one of our own is a traitor." Albus looked smug. "We will have to keep watch. Do not tell the rest of the faculty, as I do not know whom we can trust. Voldemort is most definitely behind this. But whom he has over powered remains a mystery. Very well if there is nothing furthur more, I really have to finish these papers for the ministry." And the two left with their own thoughts.

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3 Dragons

3.1 "Harry Potter? Never…"

"…Said he had a dragon…"

"Slytherin's got the cup for sure…"

"…Up in the Astronomy tower…"

Throughout the staff common room, whispers broke out about Harry Potter and his friends. Albus went up to the Astronomy tower and found Harry's invisibility cloak. He than visited Hagrid in his hut.

After settling down in his chair, Dumbledore asked, "So I heard you had a dragon."

Hagrid nearly dropped his big cup of steaming tea. "So does everyone know?"

"No, I just put two and two together. No one believes Draco Malfoy's story though. So how did you manage?"

Hagrid looked at his hands. "It was alright, besides the fact he kept breathing fire. I had to put a leash on him when I took him out for a walk. The only problem was when Norbert was born, Draco Malfoy had seen him and Ron, Hermione and Harry kept persuading me to let him go. After a week, Harry had an idea to send Norbert to Romania with Charlie Weasley. '

Hagrid blew his nose. His eyes had become very watery. "Then they told me Charlie agreed. Even Norbert was sad. Not making as much noise as he would usually would. So yesterday, we put Norbert in a crate with lots of food and brandy and his favorite teddy bear." He was now positively howling.

"That bite on Mr Weasleys hand would be from a Norwegian Ridgeback then?" Hagrid nodded unable to speak. "Well Hagrid, you know its illegal and I wouldn't be able to help you if someone out of the school found out. And I advise you next time you want an illegal pet, think how you are feeling now and how you will feel when you will have to let that pet go." The wise master got up patted Hagrid on the shoulder and paused on his way out to scratch Fangs ear, before heading back to the school.

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4 The Midnight Rush

Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of the most elite wizarding school, had just realized he had been tricked. He had received an owl stating he needed to go the ministry for some bungle the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge could not handle once again. But he only did realize it when he entered the empty ministry building. As he apparated outside the Hogwarts gates, he could feel something was wrong. Someone was trying to get the Philosophers Stone. He ran into the Entrance hall, spotting Hermione and Ron running down the marble steps.

"Harry's gone after him, hasn't he?" They nodded and he dashed up to the third floor. It took him awhile to go through the obstacles and in the end made it through the fire.

"Harry! Harry!" Dumbledore wrenched Harry's hands away from Quirrell, watched as Voldemorts shadow of a body escaped leaving a dead DADA teacher and carried Harry as fast as he could to the infirmary.

"Poppy! Poppy come quick!" The nurse rushed in pulling a bathrobe around her and quickly gave Harry a strengthening potion and that returned Harry to normal breathing. When Albus was sure Harry was out of danger, he called an emergency staff meeting.

Bleary eyed and all in bathrobes, looking very grumpy they listened to the very awake headmaster. "I have found out who the traitor was that set the troll free, broke into Vault 713, tried to steal the stone and tried to kill Harry Potter. It was Voldemort." The teachers were now fully awake. "He took over the now deceased Professor Quirrell to do his evil doings. But once again he has escaped. Harry Potter and his friends were able to get past the obstacles and Harry used his protection on Quirrell, which almost cost him his life. He is now in a stable condition, but has not woken up. Now if you excuse me, I have to write to Nicholas Flamel to discuss the existence of the stone. No doubt we will have to destroy it." And with that, he swept out of his room. After that the teachers did not get much sleep.

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Another year ends at Hogwarts

As the teachers rolled in, they couldn't help but smile. They had made it once again through another year at Hogwarts.

"Well, another year ends. You will have time to rest until September 1 comes rolling by once again. But alas! Where is our favourite potion master?" And as if on cue, a very angry potion master stormed in smelling of Bertie Botts every flavored bean.

He went and took his usual seat next to the headmaster, but looked past him, looking venomous at the Gryffindors head of house. "You know what you're Gryffindor twins decided to do? I was packing up and all of a sudden these beans poured out from everywhere covering the whole office. And on top of that, a bunch of gnomes came in and started eating them. Now everything smells of those beans and I didn't even get to punish them."

Though Severus Snape might have been furious, the others couldn't help but laugh and silently congratulate the Weasley twins for the prank they pulled on the greasy black hair man.

"Calm down, Severus. Rejoice! It's the end of the year. And as I stated at the beginning of the year, Harry Potter did prove to be a handful. From stopping the stone from being stolen to becoming a seeker, Harry and his friends managed."

Snape sneered at Minerva. "You might have won the house cup this year, it will be the last. Slytherin will always win."

"Well don't think to highly of your house, Severus. After all Ravenclaw did win the Quidditch cup."

"That was because Harry Potter was injured. If he did play, we would have given you a sound thrashing."

"Now, now. Let's leave on good terms. I hope you all have a safe and wonderful holiday. Please be prompt in returning and enjoy your holiday while it lasts. I have to go and write up an advertisement for a new DADA teacher." And they all got up heading for their own destinations.