Hogwarts One Half
Chapter Ten

by Lionheart

I O I O I

Potions class was being held in a quickly renovated room on the fourth floor, that had once been a potions classroom before Snape insisted on basement dwellings.

House elves had been busily employed cleaning out the dust and cobwebs, furniture had to be righted, or in some instances repaired. A party of off-duty teachers led by Madam Hooch, the flying instructor, had gone off to purchase ingredients for the student's supply cupboard that Professor Sprout couldn't just pull out of her garden. Snape was said to be in the basement salvaging what he could of the devices and instruments down there. That he was expected to arrive on time for class spoke eloquently about how little there was down in his former office to recover.

Ranko and her friends led the procession into the new, brightly lit room. It had a nice high ceiling to help protect from lighter-than-air fumes and avoid concentrating explosions, with windows designed to open magically, instead of breaking, to diffuse any blasts. The desks were wide and had their own water spigots, cutting boards, note tables, drawers and sinks; the whole chamber set up auditorium style so no one's view could be blocked by pillars or the back of someone's head before them. And between each station were high, invisible splash screens so no one had to suffer from any other student's failure sending out droplets affecting them or contaminating their own potion. That also limited opportunities for mischief or tampering with another's ingredients.

A quick look at the teacher's desk showed controls for triggering firefighting measures, winds from gale to breeze to help disperse gasses, rains either of water or flakes of some kind of dampening foam, and so on up to stuff whose purpose was not immediately identifiable.

It was, in short, a room in every way superior to the damp, cramped and obstructed room in the basement that had none of those safety measures. About the only thing the dungeon had that this room didn't was that it was dark, very dark, and the curtains in here were a bit moth eaten.

The dozen girls who'd studied and had a sleepover together entered and found places near to the front, all grouped together, while Ranko was explaining, "While they look nice on their own, we wear the aprons and gloves for 'messy work', like Potions or Herbology, and sometimes other subjects like the occasional Defense or Magical Creatures class. Aprons allow full body protection from the front, which should be anything we are working on, and gloves up almost to the shoulder keep our arms safe from anything that dragon hide could stop, which should be most everything they want students doing."

"Not to forget hats!" Shampoo added enthusiastically.

"Yah, Ranchan. Tell them why we are breaking with fifty years of fashion to wear our pointy hats. Everyone's been looking at us all morning like we were crazy or something." Ucchan groused cutely.

Ranko shrugged, her off-the-shoulder dress showing this off beautifully. She then touched the wide brimmed, tall pointed hat she wore matching the color of her frilly body garments. "Simple practicality in this case, just like the gloves. Anything dropping on us from above has another layer of dragon hide to get through before it can ruin our hair. Mom also added a veil all of the way around, you'll see. It's nice and transparent, even more so from this side, but it's also dragonhide enchanted to look gauzy and alluring. So if anything blows up in our faces it also gets stopped. We've got fresh air charms on the inside and could swim under water in these things. Plus, the veil magically adjusts so we can leave our faces free most of the day and only put it down for messy, potentially dangerous stuff, when it will guard all our bits from the collarbone up, down to the tips of the ends of our long hair. It's like the visor on a helmet, but cute so girls can wear it openly."

"And there other charms also!" Shampoo enthused.

"Yah, but I don't think we need to get into them." Ukyo demurred. "I think it's enough that we have our own face-shields. Nobody else has any, and today we're working on a boil curing potion. Those are famous for blowing up in your face over tiny mistakes, and the drops will give you horrible, ugly, painful blemishes if they hit your skin. If you get hit by much you'll look like a hag."

All of the non-hat-equipped girls were now staring dubiously at their empty cauldrons, as if they might rise up to bite them (which they could, if the lesson went wrong), and wishing they had veiled hats to protect their precious skins.

"For a first potion attempt this does seem an awfully dangerous one," Ranko agreed. "Why choose one known for exploding over simple errors? There are plenty of easy potions we could do that don't have any dangers at all, much less ones as bad as that."

Any further conversation got cut off as the door banged open and admitted Snape, who had a small armful of beakers and measuring tools with him, and as he entered he used his wand to close all of the window curtains before him so he was not struck by even a single ray of sunlight.

Since the room was much longer, some of the surprise of his loud entry was ruined as he had to go much farther to cross over to the head of it. The Professor stopped well before the teacher's desk, dropping his load of tools on the empty row before the group of girls and turning about to face the rest of them from there. "Put your wands away. You won't be using them in this class."

Though he seemed to mean that to the whole class, his scowl was directed at Ranko, who was seated barely the width of a desk away from where he stood towering over her.

"On the contrary, Professor." She replied calmly. "Hogwarts syllabus for Potion Safety as submitted to the Board of Governors says that you are to instruct us to have our wands ready in case we need to use any number of basic protection or cleanup charms it says you will begin this lesson by teaching us."

"Put. Them. Away." He leaned in close to be more threatening, and bumped his nose hard against the invisible splash screen. He reared back, glinting hate in his eyes. "And twenty five points will be taken away for talking back to a professor. Another sixty if you aren't prompt about obeying my instructions! Put the wand away!"

She put her wand in her holder, and gazed at him innocently over folded hands, her potion setup all assembled neatly and correctly before her, with ingredients already measured out.

Snape ignored that to stare offended at her mirrorshades, which the girls had put on under their protective veils when they'd heard him enter.

"Take off those glasses. How do you expect to see anything with those on? And meet me in the eye when I talk to you." He gave the order he'd been wanting to since breakfast.

"You know Professor," Ranko stood up to him calmly, making no motion to remove her shades. "For a known Legilimens to order someone to make eye contact is very similar to a known rapist ordering a young girl to strip naked. No authority a school is capable of granting gives you the right to do so, and Dumbledore could go to prison for letting you."

"Take. Them. Off." He repeated, in even nastier tones.

"But basic eye protection is recommended for all potion brewing. It is unsafe to order me to remove them." Ranko replied in reasonable tones.

Snape reached out to pull them off himself, and jerked his hand back in shock as the veil she wore dumped what looked like a lightning bolt into his hand the moment he made contact with it. Holding his now pained and smoking limb, he scowled at her. "Sixty points for failing to obey my instructions, and another hundred for your trap."

"It's only an anti-rape charm, professor, designed to prevent anyone from undressing me by force with intent to harm. Such charms are specifically allowed by name under school regulations and student dress code."

"Another ten for your cheek." Snape ignored his topic to berate her for a solid hour, before beginning to 'teach' which was more insults and humiliation, this time for everyone. He then penalized the whole class severely for not finishing the potion on time when he'd given them considerably less than half the period to do any actual mixing.

There were plenty of accidents, which Snape would then sneer about, only then informing them of what ought to have been done to avoid them. It was plain this period he was after revenge for his wounded pride, and everyone had to suffer along with Ranko, who stayed unruffled and by doing so fueled Snape's anger even more.

It was obvious that he hated the larger room as it made the class more spread out and he could not intimidate them by invading their personal space all at once. By the time he was done Gryffindor was down by five hundred points, and Ravenclaw by four-fifty. That was a record even by Snape's standards, and it was only his first class of the day. Most of those points came from Ranko objecting, calmly and reasonably, when he made demands he did not have the authority to make - and she pointed that out to him.

Ranko, Shampoo and Ukyo were the only ones to finish their potions in the much reduced time frame and when they put them on Snape's desk for grading he casually swiped them off to break on the floor. "Zero points for this assignment, all of you."

"That's enough!!" Two female aurors removed their invisibility cloaks from where they'd been hidden by the door. Both were in their early fifties, one newly sound of body. "This isn't a class, this is an abuse session for a sadist and petty megalomaniac! Severus Snape, you are under arrest!"

The teacher shot up from behind his desk in shock and surprise, and the female auror chose to take that as a threatening action, and stunned him on the spot.

The other auror was shaking her head in wondering disbelief. "Professor Snape has a legal obligation to act like a Professor, including living up to certain standards of behavior, setting a positive example, and obeying rules of conduct. How long has this flagrant violation been going on? And is he really a Legilimens? If so, he's unregistered, and the punishments for being an unregistered Legilimens are some of the worst we have on the books. It's worse than being an unregistered animagus. This is a farce! Who let that monster near students?"

"That would be me. Ennervate." Dumbledore appeared at the door to cast an awakening charm on his potions teacher. "And would you mind telling me what you are doing in my school?"

BANG!!

Everyone's eyes were drawn to Professor Snape, who'd begun to climb to his feet only to get beaned by a cauldron in the back of the head - one traveling with enough force to crush in the back of his skull and take him down far more seriously. He'd be incapacitated for much of the rest of that week even with magical aid.

Strangely, all eyes had been on Dumbledore and the aurors, so no one had seen who'd thrown it. Frankly, the aurors were too upset to care, and neither dared to turn their backs on Dumbledore, lest he Obliviate them. They'd been warned that he was awfully protective of Snape, and his appearing suddenly to interfere in their arrest by ennervating the man bore that out.

"Albus Dumbledore, you can get out of our way or be taken in for questioning." An auror seethed between her clenched teeth. "This man's 'teaching' is inexcusable, and we were brought in by the invitation of your Deputy Headmistress to observe this so-called lesson. No wonder my daughter gave up her plans to become an auror! She used to love potions until this 'teacher' of yours got ahold of her! And I'm of more than half a mind to bring you in for not disciplining him years ago!"

The other auror was equally mad. "We will get to the bottom of this, I assure you!"

Ranko, scowl on her face, walked up to the aurors holding out one of three Recording Pads she'd had active under her desk; a charmed item used by aurors to gather testimony in the field and legally admissible as evidence. Dumbledore frowned when he saw it.

"Is there a problem, Headmaster?" Nodoka appeared behind him, silver sword naked and gleaming in the dim light.

Dumbledore gave up on his plans to resist this arrest and Obliviate everyone involved. He'd seen Nodoka move, and she'd taken down Moody like the best auror in service was an infant. She could very well take his arm off if he raised a wand here. "No, I believe not, Nodoka. I was just about to volunteer to go with these officers as they took Professor Snape in for questioning."

Nodoka smiled with false politeness. "I'll go with you."

The gleam in her eyes told him that it wouldn't be his arm he'd lose, it would be his head. He vowed silently to take this problem on through official and legal means instead of more expedient methods, which all seemed to have been countered for now.

They left quietly, two aurors with a levitating Snape keeping an eye on Dumbledore who was also closely watched by Nodoka. Once they'd gone, Professor McGonagall appeared and spoke softly to Ranko. "Miss Malfoy, would you be a dear and accompany me? There is a staff meeting about to start and we would appreciate your testimony."

I O I O I

Professor Minerva McGonagall entered the staff meeting room with Ranko carefully in tow. "I am sorry for calling you all here on such short notice. But according to school rules we may specifically review point awards or penalties to judge if they are unfair. Last period Snape took off a total of nine hundred and fifty points from two Houses, and gave close to sixty detentions, forty five of them to one student. Ranko Malfoy is here to plead her case."

All eyes focused on her, many disbelieving. The trust they had in Dumbledore transmitted to many of their minds over to Snape, seeing as how their Headmaster protected him so much. Seeing that wall of disbelief, Ranko slumped. She'd far rather not have to go this far. But her mom had also told her to be ready for opportunities, and if she failed here then the staff would remain on Snape and Dumbledore's side for a good long while to come.

"I don't think I could describe it adequately. It's better if I show you. Here is a legal recording pad I had under my desk, you can all read the transcript there. When you're done reading I have a set of omnioculars that was running during the lesson. You can see for yourselves the period as it happened. Mom tweaked the playback so it goes by faster than it seems."

Using martial arts speed she pulled off one of her earrings and used a handy, built in charm to transform the jeweled pendant into a set of golden opera glasses with dozens of knobs and dials - a fairly standard appearing set of omnioculars. The speed at which she did so made her viewers think she'd pulled the set out of her pocket, and most failed to notice the missing earring. It was best if most didn't know she wore a set of recorders everywhere. They carried them because the girls were not yet skilled enough to use wands to make pensieve memories on their own.

First the transcript was passed around, faces going from doubt to dismay as they read it, some over each other's shoulders. Legal Recording Pads were used by the Ministry and individually marked and numbered, though some were for sale to the public. Their contents could not be altered without destroying the pads, and could not be fooled by polyjuice. As evidence, they were close to iron-clad, but rarely used because of their expense.

As teachers finished reading what had happened, those got the omniocular set and saw for themselves. Dismay went to disgust in short order. The entire staff, minus Filch (who was out keeping tabs on students), Dumbledore, Snape and Nodoka (who were out dealing with law enforcement either as advocate, suspect or witness respectively) got to see his appalling conduct and subsequent arrest.

Most of them had a great deal of respect for Dumbledore die as they saw what his servant was up to under the aegis of his personal protection.

"Well, that explains why Slytherin has won the House Cup the last ten years in a row." Professor Sprout, who was the last to view the omnioculars, had to wipe tears of disgust from her eyes.

"Inexcusable," Sinistra muttered.

Hagrid was merely shaking his head in shock, unable to believe that Dumbledore had been supporting that kind of abuse. Nor was the gentle giant the only one of the staff so affected.

McGonagall cleared her throat for attention before speaking. "I think we can all agree, then, that those punishments were awarded for unjust causes and personal malice, and therefore need to be revoked?"

She got a chorus of low spoken 'Ayes', most regretting they had dismissed similar charges over the years for lack of evidence, and assumptions that fellow staff members were correct unless proven otherwise.

Snape had ceased having that in their eyes during that meeting. The evidence had been overwhelming and the behavior they'd witnessed appalling.

"McGonagall," Hagrid mumbled, tears in his eyes. "If I can, I'd like ta move that Professor Snape be suspended fer gross misconduct."

"All in favor?" McGonagall asked, getting another chorus of 'Ayes'. "Then Severus Snape is no longer a teacher at Hogwarts until his conduct can be reviewed by the school's Board of Governors for disciplinary action, including possible removal from his position, which I shall put down as our recommendation. Thank you all, you may return to your classes. Ranko, if I could speak to you a moment, please?"

The redhaired student lingered behind as the staff evacuated the chamber, heads down out of shame and embarrassment, mostly stemming from having ignored a problem this long, even if that had been at Dumbledore's direct orders.

Standing before McGonagall, she heard the Deputy Headmistress address her in kind tones. "Well, I had not expected you to have enough legally admissible evidence on hand to convict in a court of law, my dear. It was well that you did, however. I had not anticipated so strong a resistance when we got here. I guess I'd not ever thought before that my own admiration of our Headmaster was far from the only support he'd achieved among the staff during his tenure."

"What happens now?" Ranko met her teacher's eyes guilelessly.

"Well, if I know our Headmaster, he is using his influence as head of the Wizengemot to get charges against his disgusting creature dropped, or failing that suspended for further investigation. However, as he is striving to keep him out of Azkaban we have already seen to it that Snape is no longer a professor and has no post here to return to, though I am far from sure that Albus won't think of something. Since he has Minister Fudge in his pocket for the moment I think this will be far from the last battle fought before we can remove Snape from our staff permanently. So, dear, I had wanted you to give me your honest opinion on something. Do you think your mother, or grandmother, would be more suitable to a post as interim Potions Mistress for Hogwarts?"

Ranko's brow furrowed prettily in thought. "Both could do it. Mom's got more projects on the side she wants to do, so Cologne probably has more available time."

McGonagall smiled. "Then could you find her and send her in to me? It is safer for all of us to have matters already in place and taken care of before the Headmaster returns from saving Snape's worthless hide. That way he'd require misconduct on our part to remove or review an already complete judgment, and we'll try to avoid giving him that chance."

"Yes, ma'am." Ranko skipped out of the staff lounge. She had Cologne back there in two minutes, and everything done and sealed up in time for lunch. They had a makeup Potions class scheduled for before dinner, and announced that to the school at lunch. Then she had Charms class right after.

Cologne began busily taking over Snape's classes on a more or less permanent basis.

I O I O I

The Potions classroom was the same as earlier that day, only this time the drapes were all pulled back to let in the glorious fading sunlight as it became a multicolor sunset. While it was pretty, the students filed in nervously, recalled the very traumatic experience of earlier that day.

Cologne wasted no time in putting their fears to rest, smiling and happy and wearing a hat and apron of her own. "Okay, young ones, enough with the hesitation. I know how bad the last teacher was. I can assure you than nothing will be exploding during this lesson, and that includes me."

"What are we going to make?" Hermione ventured enough bravery to ask.

Cologne smiled brilliantly. "Well, something simple and basic that teaches you all of those lessons you need to know, while being actually fun to make. Today we are going to start on a delicious, creamy fudge that just happens to be a deep blue and glows with internal stars, and every one of you that follows my directions correctly gets to keep what you make. How does that sound?"

Everyone hurried to their desks.

To undo some of the harm from suffering under Snape's hostility and crass behavior (often leading to students of many years hating his subject because of him) Cologne had planned a season where the students all made a wide variety of magical sweets, they also made their own enchanted fudge and enormous blocks of chocolate.

It taught Potions skills and got pupils interested in learning again, especially since they got to keep everything they'd made correctly. More to the point, it was a severe enough change to completely eliminate Snape from their minds after a number of lessons closely linked to how long they'd had to suffer under his brutality.

Against all odds, revulsion for that previously hated subject quickly began to reverse among the older years, and for the younger ones Potions joined History and Defense as their most beloved courses.

Nodoka, out of her own seemingly bottomless pocket, bought an extra textbook for every Potions student, and so they all got copies of "Cauldrons of Plenty, Sweets and Treats For Every Occasion", listing thousands of recipes for magical treats and substantially adding to their enthusiasm to take the course.

It was a book that Molly had wanted for years, but could not afford. Only Nodoka gave her one as a personal present when the new Housekeeping Professor voiced as much.

Interestingly, most really loved that part of the course, and anyone who could mix up a real wizarding floating upside down cake with actual rainbows for streamers and built in stars for sprinkles and sparkles could whip out most cures and OWL level potions, no problem. And it was vastly easier to want to learn if you started on the cake.

Once again, NEWT level students who had dropped that subject got encouraged to take advantage of opportunities to attend and see if they liked the course under a competent instructor. Most did, and Cologne declared that she was willing to take ANYONE regardless of OWL grades, if those slower students were willing to attend an extra period to catch up on what abuse and brutality had caused them to avoid learning the first time. It was actually surprising to Cologne just how many had given up on ever achieving anything because the teacher said they were worthless, when the truth of the matter was some had surprising gifts and virtually all of them were at least capable, once properly instructed.

She carefully made notes documenting those cases and got on with de-traumatizing them so they could catch up on what they ought to know. A simple, "But Professor Snape said..." was usually countered by, "Bah! I've been mixing potions for over three hundred years and I say you've got the talent. Who are you going to believe?"

Most often that argument worked, especially given that she looked sixteen. And that gave her teaching skills a chance to do their magic.

The young matriarch proved to be just as skilled a teacher of Potions as she was at History, and perhaps even slightly better as her students caught an enthusiasm for the subject that had not been seen during Snape's entire tenure. Some of the magical candies she had them concoct were really quite complicated and difficult (and consequently better or more unusual than anything they'd ever bought in stores), while others were quite easy. It gave her a useful gauge of their skills, and when students failed she let them have a taste out of her own batch, both as a sort of consolation prize and to let them know what they were missing so they'd try harder the next time.

The only homework was when a student voluntarily chose to mix up another batch of a bit of delicious wonder they'd previously missed out on by not getting right, or making a new batch of something they'd already eaten to revisit that flavor, all of which taught them more than any essay they'd even been given as homework assignments.

Honeydukes Sweet Shop in Hogsmead suffered a dramatic drop in business, however, as students began brewing their own batches of every assorted sweet.

The youthful amazon teaching was not slacking off, though, and she usually had the students brew something useful during the same periods. And like her candies, if they got that right they could keep it. Cologne was always sure to brew something they could use, and told them how it could be valuable to them, plus how much they'd have to pay to buy a dose in the stores. Again, once allowed to use their creations they paid more attention and often did extra study on them in between classes to satisfy their own curiosity - a curiosity that had not existed under Snape.

The practicality of those lessons began to really reach those hearing it, and they looked to have a bumper crop of eager Potion enthusiasts graduating in a few years. Even many seventh years who'd dropped that subject resurrected dreams of becoming members of careers requiring a potion NEWT and signed on.

Cologne vowed that she'd hold extra courses for those students so they could make up for lost time and at least reach Acceptable grades, more if they were willing. With the current job market so open for anyone with a Potions NEWT, an Acceptable grade was enough to get in to most careers requiring that particular qualification, and a few were even getting jobs with a Poor NEWT score.

A lot of dreams crushed by Snape were given fresh life by this announcement, and the subject began to revive under the tender amazon matriarch's care.

I O I O I

Dumbledore didn't come back til late evening, and when he did he got a nasty surprise. All day long the core of his arguments for releasing Snape had been that his skills at potions were indispensable and irreplaceable (he had not been able to say Snape's skill at teaching potions was great, as he had before, because of the plentiful evidence to the contrary now in the law's possession). Unfortunately for him, he came back to the school to find that Snape had already been replaced, and the students all abuzz speaking with some enthusiasm about how much better their new teacher was - and incidentally shredding his best defense of Severus' life and position.

Dumbledore had an outraged Wizengamot bogged down in procedures as the only way to prevent them from dosing Severus with Veritaserum to confess to his many crimes as it was. Getting him out without that additional evidence to support the case against him would be difficult, with it in their hands it could prove to be impossible. Already his trusted friend was under Dementor guard at Azkaban, wand back at the Ministry with aurors watching the vault while Snape lay shackled to his damp cell to await the investigations Dumbledore had hoped to delay. But time, it appeared, was not on his side.

It had apparently escaped his attention these many years how many Hufflepuffs hated his Potions Master, then went on to join the judiciary system. But in numbers they were not a few.

As Dumbledore entered his beloved school once more Minerva had stared him in the eye, over the shoulder of the Ministry woman she continued talking to about how wonderfully the new Potions Mistress was working out after her first full day of classes, and how much more enthusiastic the children were over the subject now that they were not being constantly abused - as she had witnessed over Snape's many years of tenure; but unfortunately her voice had been kept silent by the Headmaster.

Seeing the Deputy Minister of Magic and her entourage nodding during this discussion, and many students of all years who voluntarily came forward on their own to support the switch, or tell tales of Snape's abuses (which a trio of Ministry employees were writing down), plus the hateful gazes of his own staff and students, not to mention aurors keeping a keen watch on him as he paused nearby, and the scowls he'd gotten from every corner in the Ministry earlier as he'd done his best work to save Snape; the fact of the matter at last struck Albus that he was losing this fight so far.

Dumbledore had thought he was strong in politics, in this school, and in public opinion. Any previous threat to his stature in one of those areas could be countered by his mastery of the other two. Now he was under successful attack in all of those arenas with no safe haven to draw strength from while he fought in the others.

The papers revealing his role in the treatment of Harry Potter had given a near death blow to the esteem in which the public held him. That was a reversal, of course. However, should things have gone on as they had before he could have ignored that setback easily enough, safely sheltered at his school and pulling strings at the Ministry until the event had blown over, with just a few strings tugged here or there to cast doubt over the entire issue, until he could overshadow it with some public work and reclaim his reputation in full.

However, school was no longer the shelter it once was to him.

True to her word, Minerva had now turned against him. Nodoka was already a powerful force at the school and firmly set against him from the beginning. Though he was sure he could count on the rest of the staff to support him, Snape was his most loyal adherent and that aid was now denied him, leaving him vulnerable to his Transfiguration and Defense teachers, and those who knew or liked them on the Board of Governors.

That meant Hogwarts was currently a battleground, one at which he was sure to eventually win, of course, but hardly the bulwark he needed to restore the public's fading confidence in him. Yet even that he could have overcome if he were still strong politically.

At the courts Dumbledore had been surprised, astonished, and heavily dismayed to find that one of his oldest acquaintances, and fellow colleague going all the way back to school when they were classmates together, and a judge he was sure felt sympathetic to him, had threatened to clap him in irons, locking the Headmaster up in the cell next to Snape for the 'obstruction of justice' in defending his man.

Albus had been certain for years that he and the cranky old Hufflepuff had gotten over their school days rivalry and distaste for each other. And for years he was certain they had, but it had gotten explained to him during their meeting that the judge regarded the last century of Hufflepuff students as surrogate grandchildren, and the last ten years they'd suffered under Snape's cruelty had been unbearable for the well-regarded gentleman of the courts, awakening every old grudge he'd once held against Dumbledore until he could hardly stand the old classmate's presence.

Living and working as that old rival did among the courts and legal offices, he had much more pull there than Dumbledore could ever hope to achieve and had clearly decided that this was the moment to pull his old rival down. (His help might have pulled the Head of The Wizengamot seat out from under Dumbledore's ass in the mainline, helping Fudge when he turned against the old schoolmaster. Instead that influence was being put to use now.)

And, as if to underscore the general public's lack of confidence in him, as Albus had gone for a walk down Diagon Alley to greet some old allies, get some ideas or suggestions, breathe some fresh air and clear his head, he had been an object of disgust to the shoppers in general and many of his old friends among the shopkeepers had refused to chat or even be seen with him, shooing him out of their stores so they did not lose customers streaming out at his presence. It would appear getting caught disguising the shocking treatment of the Dursleys toward Harry Potter had gotten some speculation going that Dumbledore was himself a Dark Lord, hiring Death Eaters and torturing innocents.

It occurred to him at last as he headed, dejected, back to his office, that sacrifices might have to be made if he were to retain any of his positions of power at all.

I O I O I

Author's Notes:

Official scrutiny is the bane of people like Snape, and Albus too if you go by certain interpretations of his character.

But back to teaching methods, if you could learn the same thing by doing boring stuff, or doing something you loved, would you not rather do the thing you loved?

One again, motivated students learn! Unmotivated ones don't!