Snape strode through the halls heading for the old staffroom. McGonagall had called an unofficial staff meeting, to discuss "The actions submitted to peer review." One of those having been the extremely long night detentions his godson had earned. Snape had been waiting by the Gryffindor table that morning, hoping and praying that the idiot boy wasn't being so stupid as to have followed his family's orders in broad daylight. Unfortunately, Snape had been disappointed.
While Snape knew that Draco had been told to ally and endear himself to Umbridge, he would have thought that the boy was old enough to realize that subtlety would be key here.
He carefully locked those feelings, and the personality that made him "Uncle Sev" into its display case in his mind and flipped a layer two veil over it. He then opened the display case that held "Professional Professor-teacher edition," and brought it to the forefront of his mind. Tired irritation fell through him, as his list of priorities switched around again.
He admired the ingenuity of whichever professor had invoked the Professor Rights, and cursed them at the same time, for this could have ended horribly.
If Umbridge caught a single sign of this, she would insist on being part of the peer review required for any large actions done under this right, even though Hogwarts herself did not consider her a professor.
She, at best, was considered an interloper by the sentient castle. At worst, a political enemy they couldn't just throw out on their arse.
Snape stalked past the new staff room that Umbridge thought they used. They only used it when she planned on "overseeing them" She had already filed the paperwork to watch over the 3rd quarter meeting for the first semester.
That was the brilliance of following the bureaucratic system. Lady Hogwarts was delighted in throwing all the stonewalling paperwork at the women that she could.
He could still remember McGonagall shrugging at Umbridge, saying "The Headmaster had to file lots of paperwork, everything had to be documented. I can show you his filing system, but I don't know all of what he had to sign and file. But this does look to be official." Umbridge had been stupid enough to shriek as soon as she was out of sight.
He slowed as he passed the statue of one-eyed crow sitting on rock covered in runes coated in a thin layer of silver that kept the runes from activating. This kept the display from blowing to smithereens. He counted 10 bricks. Tapped the next one with his foot. The third brick after this one received the same treatment.
Snape turned sharply, and a brick in the center of the wall glowed a soft purple. He took his wand and tapped a short circle around it. He turned around again.
On the other side of the hall a door had unveiled itself. This was the Slytherin entrance to the old staffroom. The other houses were also well guarded and far away. All had their own way to get there.
The corridor was short, and portraits of old Slytherin Heads lined the walls. He let himself through the Victorian style door with a silver snake head for a knocker and dark green accents. It was elegant, just to the side of ostentatious. The old staffroom was filled with beanbags and a fire roared in the fireplace that had been grated off. The carpet was as soft as a cloud and a deep purple with white accents like stars dotted here and there.
The coffee table near the fireplace already had most of the Heads settled around it. He was the last one to arrive, though that was to be expected, Snape reflected.
He had been the one left with the duty of distracting Umbridge which was slightly more difficult for him than McGonagall. She had the option of just pointing the Weasley Twins at the Ministry Toad.
He had to act like he was helping Umbridge, to both her and the Slytherin House. He had no desire to be questioned by Lord Demort because he had alienated one of their few allies that was able to work in public.
He had asked the house-elf Teera to replace her sugar with a healthier one that he had concocted. It was mostly sugar but had blended in powdered asphodel petals into it. Her favorite tea contained wormwood to promote her health, which would react with the asphodel petals to create a strong drowsy feeling. There was not enough magic in it to be classified as a potion. However, it wasn't powerful enough to send her to sleep on its own.
Teera had been happy to replace Umbridge's chair with a comfier version and to tend to the fireplace, making sure that her office was comfy.
He had suggested to her this morning to spring a pop quiz on the class about the last unit to test if the class was ready to move onto the next one. It had taken some finagling, but he had managed to convince her that it was a good idea. She usually drank tea while grading, and all the previous factors would lead to her struggling to pay attention to grade the pop quiz, and it would take her an extra hour at least.
He had come right after confirming with Teera that Umbridge was grading papers in her office. Teera had happily agreed to keep topping up Umbridge's tea.
He sat down in between Flitwick and McGonagall, Flitwick sending him a sympathetic glance before straitening for the meeting. McGonagall was the picture of annoyance; her lips were pursed, and her eyebrows had lowered and slightly scrunched together.
"I'm not going to speculate who it was that decided on this course of action, as we know it is not worth it." McGonagall kicked off the meeting, first stating the obvious. By the inherent magics behind the Professors Rights, the one who invoked it, is unfindable until they choose to reveal themselves. This was first put into place to keep bias out of the judgement of all the actions submitted to peer-review.
Privately Snape had his own list of who the suspect was even as he knows that the fact that he was considering them at all probably meant that they weren't it. McGonagall continued, pressing on to more pressing matters.
"Does Mr. Malfoy deserve these ridiculous detentions?" She turned to Snape as she asked, a hard look in her eye telling him that she had a good idea what the answer was.
"More than likely, he knew I was there and proceeded to call Ms. Granger and Mr. Weasley ugly things and deducted points from Ms. Granger for breathing. He likely says worse things when there are no students or professors that he respects around. Mr. Malfoy called Ms. Granger mudblood and very likely does that on a regular basis to all the muggleborns" McGonagall's glare increased in intensity as her nostrils flared. Snape was completely unsurprised.
Beyond the fact that the swear word was regarded in the Wixen World as harshly as the n-word was in the muggle-world, McGonagall had confided that Ms. Granger reminded her a lot of herself when she had been a student roaming the halls. The diligence and sometimes overzealousness of completing assignments and the slight struggle with connecting to other students their age was something McGonagall had struggled with as well. This was compounded by the fact that Ms. Granger was one of her precious cubs that she had been entrusted with for seven years.
McGonagall had been the Head of the Lions Pride for over 70 years. She had long since developed the parental instinct to her house that Lady Hogwarts bestowed upon the Heads of House. Any and all children who had even been Lions for over 50 years where her children; whether they liked it or not.