Albus Dumbledore was in a bad mood as he sat at his desk in his office. In front of him was a book that contained all of rules and bylaws that governed how things were supposed to be run at Hogwarts. He had been hoping to come across something that he could use to stop Sarah Abbott from coming to Hogwarts in order to tutor Harry in potions brewing but he had found nothing.
Her coming to Hogwarts in order to tutor Harry instead of Severus was entirely legal and above board. It even circumvented the Wizengamot ruling that he had forced through thirteen years ago that prevented the woman from ever contacting Harry. Given her position as a healer he had, of course, been forced to concede that there was the chance that one day she would need to work with Harry in her official capacity, but he had planned to get around that by having Poppy treat him for everything, even when the best action would have been from him to go to St Mungo's. He had not counted on the bitch taking on part-time employment in order to get close to the boy.
Ever since Severus had been employed in the castle Dumbledore had had to dissuade at least fifty percent of the student population from employing the services of a private potions tutor and he had, by and large, been successful in that endeavour. Ok, so the numbers of students carrying on their potions studies into their N.E.W.T years were at an all-time low, but in Dumbledore's opinion that didn't matter. By working in the castle, Severus was slowly redeeming himself of past crimes and if the little snots didn't like it then that was their problem. If they couldn't put up with Severus' methods for an extra two years then clearly they didn't have the mentality required to master the subject.
But now all of that had been thrown clear out of the window by Harry Potter! He had gone directly to the Ministry in order to get a tutor, and the Wizarding Examinations Authority had gone out of their way to please him. They had suggested Sarah Abbott, Harry had agreed and the Board of Governors had approved.
There was nothing that Dumbledore could do about it.
Well, not in his role as headmaster, anyway.
People had accidents all the time, and perhaps a body, with the dark mark hanging in the sky over the dwelling of the House of Abbott would have to make an appearance sometime in the near future.
But not just yet as to do so now would only cause suspicion. Suspicion aimed at him.
Dumbledore was rapidly coming to the conclusion that Harry's disappearance over the last few weeks of the summer holiday had something to do with Sarah Abbott in some way. He had already realised that Amelia Bones had been involved and slowly the pieces were fitting together to show that the Abbott family had played a part as well.
He had watched Harry at mealtimes, and kept an eye on how well he got along with those whom he sat with. He got along with Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott a little too well for his liking, especially given the unsteady relationship that Harry had had with the whole of Hufflepuff house in the past.
Obviously Harry had spent his time away in a place where he met with both girls frequently, perhaps even at one of their homes. This did not sit well with Dumbledore as, although both the Bones and Abbott families were firmly in the light, none of their current members were strong supporters of Dumbledore and, he was honest enough to admit, with reason.
Amelia's brother Edgar had been a member of Dumbledore's Order of the Phoenix before he and his family had been murdered by Death Eaters in the previous war with Voldemort. That Edgar had been on a mission for the Order when he was captured by the Death Eaters made Amelia suspicious.
She would never know, of course, that it really was the Order's fault. Peter Pettigrew had been passing information from the Order to Voldemort for a year before the war ended, and some of that information had led to Edgar being captured. The Order had been suspicious of a spy in their ranks, but hadn't done anything about it. Dumbledore had had access to veritaserum but had not thought to use it. In fact, he would not even had needed to use it, just the threat would likely have found out the spy as everyone but the spy would have agreed to taking the potion.
So Amelia was distrustful of Dumbledore. Sarah Abbott, of course, had her own reasons for not liking Dumbledore. With Harry's parents dead and Sirius Black in Azkaban, Harry was meant to have been placed into her care. She did not understand Dumbledore's stated reasons for putting Harry with the Dursley family and certainly would not have like his real reasons if she ever discovered them, and so she had pushed the matter until Dumbledore had been forced to attempt to cut her off for good.
He also knew that Severus still being alive and free did not sit well with the woman.
Dumbledore sighed and closed the book in front of him. He had put a lot of effort into making himself look good back at the start of the summer when he had withdrawn his statements about Voldemort's return. Luckily he was an expert at faking humility, but now the world seemed to have turned against him again. He did not fully understand why, but he was certain that Harry Potter, Amelia Bones and Sarah Abbott had worked together to turn the Minister against him.
And now the school was under unofficial investigation, Professor Binns was out, Severus had lost his role as head of Slytherin while the rest of his duties were on the ropes, Harry was independent of him, the prefects were being watched, the students were getting the impression that their complaints mattered and Dumbledore's standing with the Ministry was in tatters.
Who would have thought that Harry Potter being at the Ministry for one poxy day could have caused all this trouble?
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