Chapter 10
Harry's mood hadn't improved for his second-year class, but he was able to hold it in and not snap at anyone or dock points for overly silly reasons. All the same he hid in his office and sulked for thirty or so minutes before he was interrupted.
The door to the second floor corridor opened and in swept Minerva McGonagall.
"Harry, are you busy at the moment."
He sat up and then stood. "No, Ma'am."
"Good, then you have time to Apparate to the Ministry and register as an Enchanter, then?"
Harry scowled. "I take it someone contacted Dumbledore."
She smirked, which for McGonagall was a first, normally nobody would ever see her with anything but a stoic expression. "It seems as if a contingent of Aurors has found something that needs immediate attention and are unable to come collect you."
Harry stood up. "Is it about the Knights?"
"No, Harry." It was McGonagall's turn to scowl. "Minister Shaklebolt has informed the headmaster about your threat to his staff and would like you to come in peaceably. Apparently he was going to take you up on your offer to take you down a peg or two, but couldn't find anyone to volunteer. Your ever-lasting Popping Boil Hex has left an impression on their minds."
Harry suddenly found a quill on his desk that was demanding almost all of his attention. "Sorry."
"It is not me you should be apologizing to, Harry." She paused for a moment. What has angered you so much, or should I ask?"
He dropped down in his chair and sighed. "It's everything, well not everything ... just the Knights thing and ... I'm not used to people coming after Hermione. It's supposed to be me they're after."
She held her hand out to the armchair in from of his desk. "May I?"
He shook his head. "I'm sorry, Professor. Please, sit down."
"Thank you." She swept her robes under her and relaxed in the chair. "Now you get to experience what all of have for the last six years."
He looked up. "Come again?"
"It's very hard to see someone you care about in danger. Your friends have always been in peril in one form or another merely by associating with you. This is the first occurrence where you are not involved, taking the place of your friends and they in yours."
Harry twisted his neck to relieve some of the tension that had been building up. "So you're saying I should quit being mad over something I can't control?"
"No, I'm saying quit taking your anger out on those of us that have nothing to do with your problems." She pursed her thin lips. "Professor Snape has informed me of your treatment of one of his house."
Harry almost stood up again with indignation. "He what!"
McGonagall nodded. "Specifically singling out Pure-blood's with insulting remarks and exaggerated punishments."
Harry started laughing. "That's rich. Snape complaining about being mean to a student."
She looked like she was trying not to laugh.
"Did he also tell you about how this particular fourth year student was tormenting one of my first-years, calling her Mudblood and the like?" he said in defense. "I was merely pointing out that there are not a lot of Prue-blooded wizards left and to keep the livestock from being polluted they'd have to breed with one another."
She looked somewhat shocked. "Harry ..."
"And if you're wondering why this had to be pointed out in class, I made it specifically known that the last four dark lords had all come to power with these same idiotic views and prejudices. Their homework for the week delves into the this area, so it is not punishment."
"I see."
Harry stood up and grabbed his cloak off the back of his chair, swinging it around his shoulders.
"I will be keep a close eye on his treatment of my students and believe me I will be reporting every infraction that the 'Greased One' makes," he snapped. "If he wants to play this game I can play too."
"Potter," McGonagall said as she rose to her full height from the armchair. "I did not come here to be spoken to in such a manner and I'll remind you to whom you are speaking." The prim look on her face had returned and intimidation was beginning to radiate from her body language. "I was not pointing out the treatment as I am fully aware of the circumstances regarding the situation.
"I am, however, singling out Professor Snape's reaction as you will probably be hearing more about it as the news of the Prue-blood's family heritage reaches their ears. I wanted you to be prepared."
He leaned forward on his desk, not believing what he was hearing. "Are you saying I shouldn't respond."
"Harry, however inbred the Prue-bloods are I can assure you that they comprise a very influential portion of the Board of Governors and the wizarding community at large. I can almost guarantee you that pressure will be brought to bear on the headmaster for a formal apology and/or your dismissal."
"You're joking!"
"No, I'm not." she said flatly. "Considering the events of yesterday ..."
"Do you want me to quit?"
Her scowl returned. "Don't be stupid, Harry."
He looked down and shook his head. "They can collectively kiss my buttocks if they want an apology and I'll tell them so."
"I don't think that will be necessary, and I daresay Hermione might have a thing or to about you baring your buttocks to the Governors."
Harry stopped and noticed McGonagall's joke, as dry as it was. "You're trying to make me laugh ... it won't work."
She smiled and turned to the door. "I am trying to lighten your mood, Harry, for the sake of the Ministry of Magic, when you show up to register. Don't take your anger out on them." She paused before stepping out in the hall. "At least not on a permanent basis."
He walked over, opened a window leaned his head out and took a deep cleansing breath. Thinking about Dumbledore's lemon drops that he kept stored in the top drawer of his desk he whipped around and strode out of the office and downstairs to the front gates of Hogwarts. The walk over gave him time to clear his head where he thought about everything McGonagall said.
He wasn't concerned with the Board of Governors or the Pure-bloods of the world. For all their power they were only an inbred people that were slowly fading away. What he was concerned with was the Ministry of Magic and their apparent need to control the people around them.
He'd thought with Shacklebolt's appointment to the Minister's seat that he'd actually get a break from the politicking in his life. But things were seeming back to what they felt was normal. The next thing he might be seeing was his reputation being raked through the Daily Prophet once more. Not that he was ever worried about that.
The Prophet had tried their best before and during the war to make him out to be a crackpot or an attention seeker, but they could never hold it for long. Eventually the truth always came out and they would reverse their opinion. Maybe it was time to give Luna's father a call and do another interview to set things straight before news of his insults of the Pure-bloods got out of hand again.
At his approach, the gates to Hogwarts opened and he stepped through. Turning to make sure they closed thus insuring that the wards that surrounded the school were intact and working he Disapparated to the Atrium level of the Ministry of Magic.
The Atrium was much as he remembered it from previous visits except for the attention given to him by the security guard at the desk where he normally stopped.
"I'm suppose to confiscate your wand, Sir ... until you leave."
Harry's teeth ground together in response. "I'll tell you what ... if you think you can take it from me, I'll surrender."
"Er ..." the guard stammered.
"I thought so." He headed off to the lift. "Tell them I'm on my way up to register if you want. I'm sure to need a greeting party, I suppose."
He listened to the female voice indicating the various levels and their functions until he arrived at level two and the Department of Magical Law Enforcement which contained the Improper Use of Magic Office where he stepped off.
The floor was relatively quiet as he looked around. He was gripping his wand tightly in expectation of being attacked at any moment. He wasn't familiar with the exact location of the office, but seeing the rest of the floor on two previous occasions let him know it wasn't to the right so he chose to turn left and follow the hallway down to a longer extension noting several other offices on the way until he found his intended destination.
He closed his eyes and tried to relax before opening the door. As he reached for the knob an itching at the back of his neck unnerved him and he brought his wand up, whispering, "Protego!" and then, "Alohomora!
The door clicked opened and he reached out to push it the rest of the way. "Hello," he stayed at the door and called out. "I'm Harry Potter and I'm looking for Hopkirk."
"Stupefy!"
Harry didn't even flinch when the Stunning Charm rebounded off of his shield and struck the person casting it. Instead he raised his own wand and strode through the door. "Okay, who's the prat that tried to ambush me?"
A middle-aged lady sitting at a counter that ran the length of the room parallel to the hall looked very nervous at the figure standing before her. "That would be the Minister of Magic."
He looked left then right to make sure there was nobody else, and leaned over the counter. There laying on the floor, unconscious, was Kingsley Shaklebolt.
Harry showed his disappointment in his friend on his face and leaned in. "You'd be Hopkirk if I don't miss my guess."
She didn't answer which to Harry was answer enough.
"I'm here to register as an Enchanter."
She nodded and set a clipboard along with attached parchment on the counter. It mostly required statistical information: parentage, birth date, mentor, current residence and other useless facts that were well known to anyone who actually cared to look them up for themselves. When he signed his name at the bottom indicating that the facts above were to his knowledge true, blah, blah, blah, he heard a familiar clomp, click, clomp, click coming down the hall.
Harry dropped the quill and raised his wand. "Kloud!"
It was one of a few spells that rendered Mad Eye Moody's magical eye useless; all the ex-Auror would see upon looking into the office was a misty fog.
As an extra precaution he took two steps to the side of the door. The clicking of Moody's wooden leg stopped and his voice rose from the hallway. "I'm not here to arrest you, Potter. Just came to see what happened to Shaklebolt. He was supposed to be teaching you a lesson in humiliation right about now."
Harry laughed. "He's on the floor behind the counter, stunned."
He heard a raspy chuckle from behind the door. "Mind if I come in and not get stunned? Just got this new eye and I'd don't want to get it dirty rolling around all over the floor."
"Sure, just make sure your wand's tucked away, please."
The door cracked open and two hands popped through, wandless.
"Hi, Mad Eye," said Harry. "I was registering and about ready to leave."
Moody leaned over the counter and shook his head. "Told him not to rattle you."
Harry sheathed his own wand. "Just for the record, he stunned himself."
Moody shrugged. "Must be getting soft sitting behind his desk all day. So what's all this tripe about you getting a big head and going dark?"
Harry turned to Hopkirk. "Is that what she said?"
The middle aged witch lady behind the counter grinned half-heartedly and muttered, "A-heh."
He rolled his eyes. "She part of Fudge's old regime. Had it in for me since I was twelve. Every year it's something about how I've broken some obscure Ministry law and must be punished, have my wand broken, fined, and what was it this time ... thrown in Azkaban for not having completed some useless paperwork about where I live that I was never told to fill out in the first place."
Mad Eye's revolving eye stopped and centered on Hopkirk. "That about the size of it, girly?" Then he saw the paperwork that Harry had filled out still sitting on the counter. "Well then if it's such important Ministry business to know where Harry Potter is throwing his bunk for the night shouldn't you be filing that someplace where nobody will every look at it again?"
"Yes, Sir." Hopkirk grabbed the paperwork and scurried off to another room.
Moody leaned over the counter and pointed. "Do you mind?"
Harry shrugged and pulled out his wand "Ennervate!"
"Shaklebolt get up," hollered Moody. "You're embarrassing the Ministry." Then under his breath, "Not that it needs any help."
Harry kept his wand out just in case Kingsley got any bright ideas about a little payback. The large dark man scrambled up and appeared even darker once he caught Harry's eye.
"Is there a reason you wanted to stun me, Minister?"
Moody leaned on the counter, very interested in what Kingsley was going to say.
The minister's face soured briefly. "I was going to teach you a lesson in humility, but it seems to have backfired."
"Uh-huh," replied Harry. "I was ordered to appear before the Improper Use of Magic Office and register as an Enchanter. Right after classes, that I am also required to teach, were over I Apparated here and was told I had to surrender my wand."
"Never surrender your wand, Potter," Moody snuck in.
"Right, something you taught me well, Mad Eye. Anyway, it was register here or be thrown in Azkaban, so I did what was required and the Minister of Magic himself tries to stun me to teach me a lesson. Someone who I thought was my friend."
"Harry ..." Shaklebolt started.
"I'm done with you. I'm done with the Ministry. I was your weapon to kill Voldemort and I did. So leave me alone." Harry turned to the door. "If I so much as hear a hint of someone from this place thinking about interfering in my life again, ordering me to do something, or even inviting me to tea, I'll hex the lot of you."
"Starting to sound like me," snickered Moody. "And he's only seventeen."
He was about to grab the doorknob to exit when Moody stopped him. "Hold it, Potter." And then to the door. "Stand down, you lot. Anyone who raises a wand answers to me!"
They waited for a second and Harry got the okay from Moody to leave. There were four Aurors waiting for him. Apparently the disposition of their Minister was enough for four of them to volunteer to check out what was going on.
Harry eyed each of them in turn and spun back to the Minister. "Keep an eye out for the Quibbler, Kingsley. I think it's time for another interview."
Moody closed the door behind them and Harry was comforted with the clomp, click of the ex-Auror watching his back. When they reached the lift He held the door open as Moody stepped in and turned to face the front.
"What are you doing here anyway? I thought you were done with the Ministry."
He snorted in resignation. "Amelia Bones had to take some personal time off and Shaklebolt wanted me to watch over the department for a couple of weeks. Since he rose to Minister there's nobody he trusts enough and has more experience in law enforcement than me."
"So you got drafted?"
They rode down the length of the shaft where Harry was thinking on something hard enough to shut him up for a few moments, or at least until the doors opened again.
Moody led the way through security again and when they had arrived near the fountain Harry asked one more question. "Ever thought of getting back into teaching, or at least actually making it to a classroom to teach?"
"Me? Hah!"
Clomp, click.
"Most of the Board of Governors can't stand me ... put a few too many of their relatives away. Dumbledore only got by with it because he pulled a lot of proverbial strings. And look how that turned out."
Harry nodded. "So if the opportunity came up and you could teach a class the way you wanted ... you wouldn't shove the idea off?"
Moody became suspicious. "What are you angling at, Potter?"
He looked deep in thought again. "Hmm? Just thinking." He extended his hand and Moody took it in turn. "Thanks for the help. You going to be here for a bit, then?"
The ex-Auror nodded. "At least two weeks."
"Great, let me think on something for a little bit, run it by Hermione. I'll send Hedwig to you with something, and I'd appreciate you taking a look for me."
Both of Moody's eyes settled on the young man before him. "Watch your back, Potter. There's many a person that wants to put a knife in it."
"I know."
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