Changed teachers - Harry's Dilemma
From Tuesday on, the students noticed, that not only Professor Snape was different, but Professor Lupin was as well. He was less mild-mannered than before. He thankfully did not become the angry, hateful bully, Snape had been, but he was very decisive and strict when someone misbehaved. Fortunately, he stayed a great and fun teacher.
Most amazing was, that the two men seemed to become friends now when they had been like water and oil before!
And McGonagall was changing as well! She became more approachable and even smiled sometimes at them and at pranks! At least, the funny ones which did not humiliate someone.
It became consensus, that the headmaster's absence was at 'fault', and all felt validated in their shunning of the man. Even those, who had not participated. The changes were just too good after the man was indisposed and stuck in the Hospital Wing.
Another difference for Harry was, that firstly, the Gryffindors in his year became a cohesive group. The four boys hung out and had fun and the girls did as well, which was even more unusual. One might come to the conclusion, that Ron had been the dividing factor in their group. Secondly, he started to hang out with Hermione and the two Slyth girls, Daphne and Tracy. And after a while, Blaise Zabini and Theo Nott joined the group, as well. The two Gryffindors were coached by the Slytherins in all things wizarding, and they taught the others about the muggle world in return. Theo really wanted to visit the movies now, and Blaise a planetarium, after Hermione had gushed about her visiting one once.
More News
On Wednesday evening, Madame Bones visited again, but after she ate with the staff, she and the Heads of Houses disappeared, and no one was any the wiser.
Until Friday morning the Prophet proclaimed,
Dumbledore, a Thief!
By Rita Skeeter
Last Wednesday evening, Madam Bones, Head of Magical Law Enforcement, visited Hogwarts once again, after the historic events on Saturday, where the students shunned their Headmaster.
This time she came on the invitation of the four Heads of Houses Minerva McGonagall, Pomona Strout, Filius Flitwick, and Severus Snape.
She learned, the staff had discovered, that the Potions Master had been told his services as the supplier for the Hospital Wing were included in his salary, but that Madam Pomfrey had been told, that he was paid handsomely for that service. So, they investigated.
The four Heads showed Madam Bones the Hogwarts Ledgers and the inconsistencies in the finances the books contained. Normally the Headmaster is the only one allowed to handle them, but since he is indisposed at the moment, a Head of House is able to open them as well. What the ledgers showed, was horrifying. They revealed that the headmaster has been redirecting money for
- The salary meant for the Deputy Headmistress (see page 2 for more)
- The salary meant for the Potions Master supplying the Hospital Wing (see page 2 for more)
- The salary meant for the History teacher (see page 3 for more)
- The salary meant for the Care of Magical Creatures teacher (see page 3 for more)
- All the difference between the starting salary each teacher was paid and the actual salary, they should have been paid, after the automatic raises.
- The money for new brooms
- Half of the money for equipment for each subject
- Money/Salaries for classes, long abolished by the current headmaster but paid for and required, according to Hogwarts' Charta
- Miscellaneous smaller amounts
All of this went into his own coffers! hundreds of galleons, each month! How can that be? How did we, as a society, misjudge that man so badly? He is the Defeater of Grindelwald and had a hand in all the younger generations' education. He was our Chief of Warlock and represented us internationally at the International Confederation of Wizards for decades until this summer! It really boggles the mind!
Anyway, his accounts and vaults have been frozen until further notice, as well as the ones of Hogwarts, except for the most basic expenses, like salaries and groceries.
"We decided, to ask the goblins of Gringotts for help, as they are the financial geniuses of our world. Hopefully, they will resolve these matters quickly and we get as much of the money back as possible. As Hogwarts and individually." Professor McGonagall told us.
"Mr. Dumbledore is now in our holding cells, where he is receiving all the medical attention he needs. We are still investigating, but his flight risk is too great. Unfortunately, our cells are packed already, but needs must." Madam Bones added. "Additionally, there are more charges, which need to be investigated. But you know the procedure, I cannot tell you, until we have irrefutable evidence, and no one is put in danger by the publication of our evidence."
There is more? And this man is in charge of our children? I for one demand with conviction, that he be let go of his job! And where are the governors in all of this? Isn't it their job, to look at the headmaster's fingers to prevent exactly this scenario? I hope, the Investigation will bring that to light as well!
Additional to the article, there were four pictures of Dumbledore in all of the functions he was known for. (Mugwump, Warlock, Headmaster, and Defeater of Grindelwald/Order of Merlin 1st-class recipient.)
This time, the second and third pages of the paper were in high demand as well, as they contained information about the Hogwarts staff.
There was an article about Minerva McGonagall who apparently never got a contract for working as deputy headmistress because working as both a Head of House and a Deputy excluded each other. One could not do three full-time jobs after all, especially if they did not always align. She had apparently resigned from the third job, stating that she had neglected her Gryffindors for much too long already and that she planned on changing that, as soon as things calmed down a little.
The next article was similar, Severus Snape did 3 full-time jobs and luckily for him, they did align but were much too much for one person, even if he had somehow managed. But there was money in Hogwarts coffers set aside, especially for the potions needed and he never had received any of it. He had been exploited for more than fourteen years.
The article about Binns asked, how long that man was teaching and where his salary had gone, since his death. It went on to question the quality of his lessons and quoted some statistics about how many were taking the NEWT in history. Very few. It asked if the education of the students really had to suffer, just to cater to the greed of one old man.
The last article was about Hagrid, who worked as Keeper of the Keys, a more ceremonial position, as the groundskeeper, and had a full-time job as the Care of Magical Creatures Teacher. But he only got a small salary for the first two, not the last one. The article asked as well, how someone having been expelled from school in their fourth year, was allowed to teach, even if they had experience in their subject.
The students had so much to discuss now! Harry was feeling good, that this stuff had been discovered and pulled into the open to hopefully bring changes for the better, but he was sad about Hagrid, too. He was rather confused about his loyalty to his friend on the one hand, and his agreement with some of the points made about Hagrid's lack of qualifications on the other.
Hermione was equally torn. Especially as she really enjoyed the lessons, they had with Professor Grubbly-Plank now. They were so much more structured and concise, and not all over the place.
But that Dumbledore had been arrested for theft boggled all their minds. He had been seen as the second coming of Merlin after all!
And now they had neither a headmaster nor a deputy! What would happen now? The article about McGonagall said she didn't want to take the job. Either one. She loved teaching and wanted to be a better head of house. Those were her goals, apparently.
In the end, the students shrugged. Except for meals, no one really saw the headmaster, and no one knew, what he did anyway. Must be behind-the-scenes stuff, someone said, and all nodded wisely.
Poppy
The day before, on Thursday morning Poppy put her Wing to rights and sent out the notes, she had wanted to, since Monday. And now, that Albus was gone, she could ask those two here!
Harry Potter came by first and she rounded in on him at once, for taking potions each lunch, which she hadn't approved, first.
He said, "I don't know, why you are so angry. I saw a healer on Sunday, and he prescribed them?"
"He should have cleared it with me and your former healer! You can't just change healers and let them prescribe potions to you without a check-up first! Don't you know anything?"
Harry started to get angry, "No, actually I don't, and since when do you care anyway?"
"What do you mean? I always cared!"
"Did you? I mean I was here often enough, and you never noticed that I never had a check-up before!"
"What? That can't be! Wait here I am getting your file! It surely cannot be as you say!" She bustled off to her file cabinet and started rummaging.
Harry waited angry and confused. Ted had been quite incensed, that Harry had seen so little medical attention except for the most imminent emergencies.
Madam Poppy came back with a file, which she quickly opened and started reading while frowning.
"Here is a remark, that you saw a healer every year in summer, and everything had been taken care of. But it was written by Albus..."
"Yeah, not the most trusted person anymore, right?"
"No," she sighed. "I am sorry, Mr. Potter. I jumped down your throat, before getting all the facts. That was quite unprofessional of me!"
"I forgive you if you check all of your files whether he wrote more remarks like that in the files of others."
"Yes, I will! Oh, dear! Thank you for pointing that out! And could you give me the name of your healer, so I can contact him?"
"It's Ted, uh, Edward Tonks."
"Oh, he became a healer? That is nice to know. Well, that was all Mr. Potter, thank you for coming by."
Potter ran off, and Poppy decided to visit the goblins later like she had planned, to see if they could help her with the memory charms and started to look through all files, she had on her students. Soon it became clear, that nearly all of the muggle-born and some half-blood students with one muggle-born parent and one muggle one had such a note from Albus in their files. Did that really mean, they had never seen a healer outside of her Hospital Wing? That was incredibly irresponsible and needed immediate attention. If one of them caught a disease they had not been vaccinated against and infected the others, there would be hell to pay!
She immediately contacted St. Mungo's via floo and asked for a healer who specialized in teens.
That healer came out of her floo rather quickly expecting an emergency. Why else would Hogwarts contact them otherwise, right?
He sure found an emergency, but a rather different one, than he had expected. He agreed that they had to react quickly, now that they knew of this mess.
"How did he actually do that? And why, for Merlin's sake?"
"He always had the files in his office until the new school year, so that could not have been hard, but the 'why' stumps me as well. What benefit does he get in not having healthy muggle-born students?"
"You don't think..." The healer trailed off.
"I try not to. I mean the stealing and some other stuff he did is bad enough, but this is possible murder by willful negligence! Does something like that even exist?"
"I think so. Well, it must be reported, that is for sure. Why don't you go on looking through the files and I write up a report that includes all the names? And I will start calling in the of-age students for their check-ups. What do we tell them? If I remember correctly, news travel fast at Hogwarts."
"I am unsure. I don't want to lie. Maybe, that we overlooked, that muggle-raised students don't see a healer automatically as the others do? That we are modernizing?"
"That would be the truth in a way. All right."
"But why only the of-age students?"
"Well, we need the permission of the younger one parents, first, obviously?"
"We never thought of that with muggle-born students. How can we contact the parents? An owl might not be feasible."
The healer looked at Poppy strangely, "You write them via muggle mail? Every owl post service offers that and the setup of a mailbox. Don't you know that? How do you inform muggle parents if something is wrong with their children?"
"We don't. We had muggle-born students in here for months and the headmaster said, it was not necessary to worry the parents."
The healer looked at her in horror and said after a moment of gathering himself, "I see, well this will go into my report as well. Unfortunately, you might face some backlash for this. You should know that you have to inform the parents of minors, even if they are muggles."
Poppy looked shocked, she always tried to do everything perfectly. To blunder so badly..., "I understand. Was this always the case? I never heard of it during my training."
"Well, no. I see. So, your actual problem is that you didn't keep up to date with changes in the law and not that you knowingly broke it."
"I always kept up with achievements and developments in the healing arts. It never even occurred to me that I needed to do so for changes in the law as well."
"Well, usually it's your employer's job, to keep you informed... "
"Somehow it always seems to come back to one man, but this one is my fault as well."
Well, nothing to it. You probably will get off with a warning. Now, let's start."
Late afternoon Remus came by, still looking rather tired and unhealthy, so Poppy told him, she would like him to get a full check-up and healing, which he readily agreed to.
He stayed for the night and felt so much better the next morning!
Moony was content now, after 20 years of snarling in the back of his mind and his body felt as good as it was possible with magical healing! He thanked Poppy profoundly, as he was extremely grateful, and went on his way.
A/N: I must confess, I always wondered why Poppy ignored Harry's issues in canon. Either she was negligent at best, or there must have been another reason!
Well, this is a possible one, that I could think of. Together with a memory charm and some suggestions after casting them. The reason for it all will become clear at a later date.