I neither own nor profit from the world of Harry Potter.

I'm ashamed to say that I've often enjoyed stories on here without reviewing them, but I've really appreciated all the comments, thank you all! I'll respond when I have more time and more WiFi.

Chapter 2

There was a shocked silence after Severus had finished. Albus suddenly looked very old, and Severus could feel Minerva shaking beside him. After a moment, Amelia stood, her movements economical and unhurried. She moved to stand behind Severus' desk, and after a brief study picked up the parchment detailing the students affected.

"Susan." It didn't take her more than a moment to locate her niece's name, almost at the top of the list. Pomona gasped and hurried over, taking it from Amelia and running her finger down it. "It looks like almost all of Potter's little group had detentions with her" she said after a moment. Amelia quickly took the parchment back as a corner started to smoke, and Pomona visibly calmed herself. Amelia's wand vanished the fire, but Severus saw that her hand was shaking, and he guessed that her apparent calm was hiding her horror.

He nodded. "Apologies for not warning you, Amelia. I believe that all but Potter were given the line Magic, Ministry, Mastery! to copy out, though the fact that many were half-bloods or pure-bloods meant that she stopped short of permanent injury."

"Unlike Mr Potter." Minerva's voice was tight with rage, and Severus realised for the first time that ice had crept from the legs of her chair and up the wall behind her, coating the stone wall. Albus seemed to notice too.

"Minerva-" he started, but she interrupted.

"You are the headmaster of this school, Albus. I am deputy headmistress and our children were tortured! How could none of us have realised?" The ice behind her cracked loudly, splintering into dangerous looking shards, and Albus flinched, looking as though he were trying to gather his words.

Filius squeaked too. "Minerva the charm used will have been strengthened immeasurably by the inclusion of the children's blood. They could not have told us." He turned to Albus. "However I think it is fairly clear that we need to be more proactive in security and care for our pupils Albus. The last few years have seen the death of both staff and student in mysterious circumstances and though we understand that the return of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and your other positions within our society place your time under serious pressure, do you not think that this means you should share the burden? You told us that you had the situation with the Basilisk under control, for goodness sake, yet it was mere luck that nobody was murdered!"

"Basilisk?" asked Alastor sharply. "What Basilisk?"

Amelia scoffed at Albus. "I'd like to know more about this myself. Several years ago, Alastor, my niece and other students came home with stories of petrified peers and threats from the so-called Heir of Slytherin. Naturally-" here she glared again at the headmaster "-we believed these to be exaggerations, encouraged by Lucius Malfoy to cause trouble. When I was a student there were two Heir of Slytherin hoaxes, for Merlin's sake, but if it was real!" She broke off. "Susan is at this school, Albus. I can't lose her too, you know that."

Alastor's eye swivelled around the room, pausing only in the corner where Severus knew his imprisonment to have taken place. He growled at the headmaster. "You kept a school open with a Basilisk on the loose? Why the fuck didn't you bring in the bloody aurors? Or the squad for the suppression and control of dangerous creatures?"

Albus looked ashamed. "I had set a number of traps for the beast - however none were successful. I was also wary of bringing the public's attention to the fact that both the chamber was open and that young Harry was a parsletongue. We had no chargeable 'heir' to blame for the horrors. An innocent - perhaps Mr Potter - would likely have been implicated. No - it was an unpleasant situation that ended most fortunately for all involved."

Minerva sighed. "I believe that Mr Potter still has nightmares about the creature, Albus. The dormitories don't have portraits for privacy reasons, but his dorm-mates are incautious about where exactly they worry about him."

"The boy faced the snake? He's only, what, fourteen!" Barked the auror.

"He was twelve at the time Alastor." Said Pomona. "Sixteen now."

"Twelve." Alastor shook his head. "You're bloody lucky that the boy survived Albus. Twelve! And then you didn't notice that I was locked in a goddamn trunk for nine months, nor that Umbridge was torturing your pupils?"

Albus looked to retort but Amelia beat him to it. "You will step down from your position as Chief Warlock, Albus, unless you wish to resign from the school." She fixed him with a stern glare. "You are entrusted with our children, Professor, and while I trust nobody but you to keep Voldemort from gaining entry, I fear that your negligence has endangered the students. Since Susan arrived there have been mysterious deaths, kidnappings, torture, successful break-ins by supposed mass-murderers, and the first wild Basilisk seen in Britain for at least two centuries!"

Severus interjected. "Most of these incidents have been linked to Potter too, Madame Bones. Will you inform him that he must resign as a student of the school for the safety of his friends? Perhaps the Chose One can concentrate on his other duty, ridding the world of the Dark Lord!"

Minerva was furious. "Harry Potter has survived rather than provoked these incidents, master Snape." Severus flinched. She hadn't called him that since his days as a pupil. "I will always regret that I have not protected Harry or the school better, particularly in recent years, and I will be resigning as Head of Gryffindor to ensure that both that duty and the position of Deputy Headmistress are given their due. However it is all of our responsibility to ensure that odd behaviour from students is noticed and attended to, and we have failed at that. You cannot blame the students." She turned to Alastor. "As Deputy Headmistress, I would like to request a comprehensive security review of the school." It was a mark of how angry she was that she had not consulted the headmaster, to whom she now looked. "I second Amelia's suggestion that you delegate more, Albus." Her voice thawed slightly. "I will take up the position of Deputy Headmistress in full, allowing you the time to concentrate on the Order as well as the school. I suggest you nominate Andromeda as your replacement as Chief Warlock. Her head for politics is second-to-none."

Alastor grunted. "Supreme War-lass? Supreme Witch?" If Amelia looked him sharply, Minerva almost appeared ready to pounce, feline in her poise. Alastor appeared to realise his mistake. "She is the best witch - best person - for the job, of course." He said hurriedly. Filius hid a chuckle behind his hand, and Pomona shared a smirk with Minerva.

Albus' whole body seemed to collapse slightly. "I believe you both to be right, of course. I had thought that by declining the position of Minister for Magic I had avoided the trap of too much power, and yet I find myself with more responsibility than I can keep up with; something I should have recognised sooner."

Severus let out a breath of relief. If truth be told, he had been unsure as to how Albus would react when the demand came for him to relinquish any of his positions. There had been a moment when the headmaster's eyes had flashed dangerously at Amelia's words, but that seemed to have faded. Having one's titles removed by one's enemies - as had happened the previous year with Supreme Mugwump and of Chief Warlock - that was almost a badge of pride. But to have them removed by one's allies? Severus knew he'd have managed with far less grace.

He spoke up. "Perhaps we could get back to the matter on hand? What is our best course of action against Madame Umbridge?"

Amelia nodded once to Albus, acknowledging his capitulation, but turned to Severus. "Madame Umbridge will never see the outside of Azkaban. The evidence in this room alone would be enough to convict her for life."

"Can we use veritaserum on her? What more might she have done that we don't yet know about?" asked Pomona.

Amelia shook her head. "Veritaserum is only used when requested by a suspect." She said. "No person may be compelled to incriminate himself or herself under current law unless the situation is classified as the highest of emergencies, though they may request that the potion be used to strengthen their testimony in court. Further, recent studies have shown that those proficient in the art of Occlumency can frequently overcome the compulsion to speak the truth, particularly when aware of the dose. I cannot condone it's use on an unknowing or unwilling participant, however much I would like to know the answers."

Severus' lip curled. "How do you expect us to win this war Amelia? Would you limit the aurors to leg-locking spells, and remove the Dementors from Azkaban on the grounds of kindness?"

She fixed him with a glare. "Without getting into detailed policy discussions, I do not believe that we should abandon due process or human rights at the first sign of violence."

Severus rolled his eyes discretely, but he knew that he was unlikely to win this argument. Not in present company. "So we have enough evidence to convict her. How about Fudge?"

"Fudge?" squeaked Flitwick. "I don't think that any of us see entirely eye-to-eye with the ex-Minister, but I doubt he knew about the quill. He's too much of a politician to directly condone that, and too much of a coward to take such offensive action."

Severus inclined his head respectfully. "That is true - but he did sign off all of Umbridge's decrees last year, and Fudge has just been publicly proved a fool regarding the return of the Dark Lord."

Alastor muttered under his breath. "Dark Lord." Severus ignored him.

"The oversight of Umbridge was with Fudge, not with Albus." He said silkily. "Surely we can cement our position and ensure that the ministry leaves the school alone with this leverage?"

Amelia raised an eyebrow but nodded. "While I hope that your inclusion of Alastor and myself this afternoon implies that we are not all to be completely distrusted, and while I am still not sure that leaving the school entirely under the control of the current administration is wise, this revelation could certainly gut Fudge. The question is whether you want to go after the ex-Minister, which would in essence be a personal vendetta as the man is disgrace already; whether you want to go after the current administration, which might fatally lose the public's remaining trust in the Ministry; or whether you have a more productive goal." Amelia looked steadily at Severus. "You all say that you want autonomy from ministry interference. Is that all?"

Severus had to admire her ambition. "Did you have anything in mind?"

She shook her head slowly. "Nothing specific. But Rufus can be intractable and this is strong leverage."

Albus nodded. "I hadn't dealt much with the new minister before he gained the title, but he is pleasingly straightforward. Do you have any insight, Alastor?"

"Rufus was a good auror, but he's impatient. Many of us in the corps are stronger in combat situations than in social situations." Minerva was unsuccessful at hiding her titter. Alastor glared at her half heartedly. "He will make a decent wartime politician, but he will struggle to control the Wizengamot. He has little knowledge of or respect for the niceties that the old families like, nor time for anybody who is not prepared to fight."

"So we want Rufus to take a back seat politically" said Minerva. "I think we can get that anyway though. If we can get Andromeda the position of Chief Warlock then the Wizengamot is in sensible hands. And I think Andromeda has a good shot. She understands the purebloods; she was brought up a Black and is a formidable witch. But she married a muggleborn. She's unquestionably on the right side of this war, but knows the tradition, the families, and the politics inside out." She shared a look with Amelia, who nodded. "But Andromeda will have to at least appear to be neutral. We need a political leader on the Light side as well, to counteract Lucius and his compatriots' remaining influence. I'd suggest we speak to Augusta."

Pomona smiled in genuine happiness. "Your group always were formidable, even at school." Amelia smirked, and Minerva looked, to Severus, like the cat who had the cream. Severus shivered, countering it with a sneer as Minerva eyed him with amusement.

"If only Dorea were here" said Amelia. "Although I can imagine her asking why it's taken us quite so long."

"If we're done with ousting the world of testosterone, might I add another suggestion?" said Severus, his voice sour. Amelia inclined her head. "What Umbridge's actions illustrate most clearly is the corruption within the ministry. This provides us with an opportunity. I believe we should demand that further corruption is investigated in all departments. We can cut off at least some of the Dark Lord's influence. I know of a number of Death Eaters and sympathisers in almost every department, and their positions have only grown stronger in the last fourteen months."

Amelia smiled. "That's a good idea."

Flitwick stood. It didn't make much difference. "I agree, but I think we can ask for more. The ministry injured Hogwarts' students. I think we can secure additional resources for the school. There are classes that haven't been run for the last twenty years because of funding cuts and obstruction from the ministry. I would like to see basic healing classes and duelling to return as a minimum. Enchanting, linguistics, and spell crafting should also be open to the upper years."

Minerva was nodding. "The curriculum has stagnated." She said. "I'd like to revamp History of Magic as well, and remove Divination as an elective. Runes would be a much more suitable subject for so many careers. I see many Gryffindors unable to progress without taking remedial runes after OWLs because they took Divination in third year." Severus resisted pointing out that if Minerva advised her students on the relative merits of the subjects before they chose their electives then this would be less of a problem, though he supposed that she had just confessed that being both Deputy Head and Head of House had been too much for her.

"Who will replace you as Head of House, Minerva?" he asked.

She pursed her lips. "I thought we could invite Remus Lupin to return." She said. He stiffened. "I appreciate that you dislike him, Severus, but he is an instinctive dueller and would make an excellent Head of House."

"I suppose that without his mutt he might be more bearable." He said sourly. Minerva glared. "Don't worry Minerva, I'll play nicely."

Alastor nodded. "Lupin would be good for the students, and it would probably benefit the boy to have a parental figure around."

"Now that we've worked out what we can get from the torture of students, should we turn our attention back to the students themselves? We can return to staffing matters in due course." Pomona said, somewhat tartly.

Amelia summoned the parchment with a flick of her wand. "We have a total of sixty-two students affected. Approximately half of those are members of Potter's defence group, and most of the remainder are muggle-born."

"We will have to make home visits, I think." Said Pomona. "We owe it to the families to give a full explanation, and we owe it to the children to recognise their experiences. I recommend that each Head of House make the relevant visits, accompanied by a healer with some training in mind-healing."

Albus nodded. "I will accompany you on the visits to those most affected. Amelia, will you and Alastor want to interview anybody or will the evidence already collected be sufficient?"

The two ministry officials looked at each other for a moment, then Amelia spoke. "Technically we have plenty of evidence to convict Umbridge. But our political goals will be far more attainable with a human interest angle, distasteful as the idea is. I recommend that interviews are recorded, and that we request that some of the students who are over-age be asked if they would give formal testimony in front of the Wizengamot."

"Potter's testimony would be the most impactful" grunted Alastor. "You said the boy probably has a permanent scar, and he's already a powerful and somewhat tragic figure in the minds of the public. On the other hand, Potter is a special case. The public think of him more as an adult than a child; they may be more outraged by the testimony of a random innocent rather than somebody so politically charged." There were nods around the room. "I would however like for Potter to be interviewed and checked by a healer as soon as possible. Those quills are savage items, and the boy has been through a lot this year."

Amelia nodded, but was distracted by a chime from the pocket watch attached to the belt of her robes. She glanced down and frowned. "We need to go, Alastor." She said, and turned to the rest of the room. "Albus, I will expect your resignation imminently, though preferably after Minerva has spoken to Andromeda." Both nodded, Albus wearily and Minerva sharply. Amelia turned to Severus. "As your students were least targeted by Umbridge I would like you to coordinate the interviews Severus." He sighed, but agreed.

Alastor raised a hand in farewell to the room at large, but paused facing Minerva. "I'll be in touch about that security scan Minerva." He said gruffly. He looked almost vindictively around the office. "Don't doubt that I will be thorough. You seem remarkably incapable of keeping out Death Eaters, Albus." The Headmaster bowed his head. Amelia waved her wand at Severus' desk and the parchments of lines were neatly sorted into conjured evidence bags along with the detention slips. She was careful not to touch the parchment with her bare hands. The bags glowed blue and, with a tap, disappeared.

"I'm sure I'll see much more of all of you over the next weeks." She said, before stepping into the fireplace. Alastor followed and the staff were silent for a moment, the parchment of names back with Severus.

Minerva sat up abruptly. "I would like to visit Harry first. The amount of time he spent in detention... I'll take Poppy and go this evening, and I'd like to bring him back here for a full examination and possibly some additional training and emotional support from Remus and Poppy."

Albus raised a hand. "I must insist that you do not, Minerva. Harry must remain at his aunt and uncle's for his own safety. We can conduct Harry's examination when he returns."

"Are you mad?" Severus stared at Albus. "He's been there all summer, what difference will a few days make?"

"Pomona joined in. "I agree Albus. Why does the child need to spend so much time with his aunt and uncle? He doesn't go home for either of the holidays - I rather get the impression he prefers it here - I vote we go and bring him to Poppy for a check-up and ideally a mind-healer as soon as possible."

Albus shook his head. "Harry has survived so far. We will schedule a check-up with Poppy for his return in September."

"Harry has survived so far?!" Minerva's accent was more pronounced than ever. "Our goal is not for Harry to survive, Albus! Our goal is for Harry to be happy and well and safe! And might I remind you that he has survived more than any child should be expected to survive."

"I agree with Minerva's point, if not the sentiment. Potter's talent for getting out of life threatening situations is only marginally less irritating than his talent for getting into them." Minerva glared at him, but turned back to the headmaster, who sighed.

"The wards are weak" he admitted. "I am wary of encouraging Harry to think of anywhere else as his home."

Filius frowned. "The wards? I think that I may be missing something here Albus."

Albus nodded. "Harry is protected from Voldemort and from his followers by a set of blood wards anchored by his mother's blood. He has to consider his aunt's home his home until he comes of age."

Pomona's voice rose. "And he feels so distant from his family that he does not automatically consider their house a home? Even though they were his only family for a decade? You don't think that that's a worrying sign?"

Severus privately thought that this was a good point. Potter had clearly spent very little time with his aunt and uncle since he started at Hogwarts, though with a sluggish feeling in his stomach it occurred to Severus that Potter's aunt was Petunia Evans. Still. How bad could even she be to a child she herself had raised?

"Harry's family are not the warmest people, it is true, and they have found it difficult to come to terms with the idea of magic, as happens in many muggle families." Albus' tone was placating. "But I see no reason to put Harry's life in danger because he prefers to spend the holidays with his friends than with his cousin."

Minerva's voice was strained. "I suggest that, in that case, we make a home visit."

Albus shook his head. "I have Order members watching the house, but I promised Petunia that there would be no other involvement from our kind." He looked pointedly at Severus and Minerva. "I also have specific wards up to keep out anamagi, as Pettigrew is still on the loose, and the blood wards that protect against Voldemort also serve to keep out those with his mark, as they sufficiently recognise his magic. I must ask you both to wait to speak to Harry until he returns to school."

Minerva pursed her lips but nodded. Severus nodded stiffly also. Why Albus couldn't perform a home visit himself was beyond him, but he supposed the headmaster must have his reasons, and it was only a short time until term was due to begin.

The remainder of the meeting dealt with the logistics of the home visits, and of the proposed staff changes. There was in fact only one Slytherin on the list - a third year half-blood who had largely passed below Severus' radar. He couldn't imagine what the child had done to provoke Umbridge. The other teachers though... it was going to be a difficult week, particularly for Minerva.

"Thank you for alerting us to this, Severus." Minerva sighed as she left. "The only thing stopping me from flying to the Ministry tonight is the idea that we might help the children more by strategising." She lowered her voice, though Albus had already disappeared, muttering about the need to appraise Poppy of the situation. "I am concerned that Albus is not taking the news about Harry seriously either. I realise that you dislike the child Severus, but even you were concerned about him at lunch."

Severus shifted uncomfortably. "I wouldn't go so far as concerned, Minerva."

She eyed him knowingly. "As you say."

"What do you want me to do Minerva?" He said stiffly. "Neither of us can enter the property, and while I would rather get Potter's drama out of the way before we have classes to worry about I can't see how another week at his family's home will cause an emergency of greater than usual proportions."

Minerva patted him on the arm. "I can't see any way to remove Potter, but please try to consider that he is not his father." Her voice was low. "He is Lily's son too, and she would be horrified at his life thus far, as am I." Her voice broke slightly.

He looked down. "Fine." He muttered sulkily. "I'll try."