The days of the summer had flown by and now Dumbledore was back in his office. It was where, by the looks of things, where he belonged most. It was where most of his possessions were kept for the greater period of time, and the whole room seemed strewn with odd little homely touches; a shelf of novels, a number of stray cushions and a rather battered looking phoenix. The bird in question gave the impression that, once it had restarted its cycle, it would be very handsome indeed. The office was totally undisturbed save for the negligible scratching of quill on parchment.
This silence was considered a rarity in the hallowed halls of the ancient seat of learning. Which meant when the atmosphere was disturbed Dumbledore knew there was someone outside his office. He had a knack for knowing such things, a sixth sense as it were. There was defiantly someone outside the office, also using his powers of deduction he knew that whoever it was would have known his password in order to be directly outside the door. It would therefore have to be a teacher, or a prefect, and also due to the fact the unknown person did not walk in, he could eliminate all staff save for Madam Simstra, a woman who thought such things as entering another's room without permission, was a bringer of bad luck.
But rather than waste time trying to deduce whom it might be at the door, it was much more convenient to invite the stranger in.
"Come in."
Upon seeing the young werewolf Dumbledore re-directed his attention from the work on his desk to the boy standing in his doorway.
"Ah Remus, I trust you are well, the moon not bothering you it is."
"No, not yet anyway. I'm not here at a bad time am I?"
"Not at all, I'm in the process of the rather arduous task of marking first year papers, and you seemed to have presented yourself at the exact moment I was taking a break to have a midget gem, very chewy muggle sweets, I've taken a liking to them of late. Would you care for one?"
"No thank you." Remus replied looking very perplexed.
"I assume you have come here for a reason, so please, do sit."
Remus found a squishy green velvet arm chair gently nudging at his heels until he half sat, half toppled, backwards into the cushions with a soft flumpf.
"So as I'm sure you were about to say before my chair so rudely interrupted. Mind of its own that thing."
"Well… err what I suppose I was saying was that you work in a school."
"Unless this has turned into a sanatorium, which wouldn't at all surprise me, I daresay I do."
"Do you get any funding from the ministry?"
"Yes of course, to a certain degree. The strain on money is not as massive as one might think. With the aid of the house elves much of the staffing costs are reduced, but we get money for teacher wages, books for the library, supplies for potions and so on."
"How would you go about applying for funding?"
"I'm afraid I'm not entirely certain. The ministry funded Hogwarts long before I was born. I should imagine however you would need to speak to the department for education. Why, I may ask, are you enquiring?"
"I was thinking of teaching."
"Well that shouldn't be hard, as long as you do well in your N.E.W.T's you would try to take an opening here. There are a few spots opening that I have to find replacements for. Also I see no reason why that would require additional funds, what where you thinking of teaching?"
"Werewolves, I suppose that's more of a who than a what but even so I was really hoping to set up my own school. Is it possible?"
"I'm sure it's possible, it's just getting people to support you. Having many werewolves all in one place isn't the ministry's idea of a cup of tea. I personally would support and help you where necessary but I am but one man, one man who doesn't control ministry funds."
"Then what can I do?"
"As I mentioned before, talk to the ministry of education. I recommend talking to Adela Matthews, department of educational enquires. She's very big on the teaching equality front, she was the one who supplied your case to the school. She's retiring soon so her workload has been reduced, it also means that she is most likely to have plenty of time for cases she finds an interest in. You may need to speak to others before you can contact her directly though. I shall write you a reference. You should work on preparing your proposal."
With that Remus thanked the teacher and left. He'd fully expected everyone to write it off as a bad idea, but Dumbledore didn't think so. Perhaps things were looking up.
This is dedicated to my first reviewer Bottlebrush Thank you for the advice. That's probably the best review I've ever received. Marshmallows for you!