"These people didn't know what was going on any more than you did," Harry explained. "So why make them feel horrible about not knowing when it's not going to do any good? And since everything is going to come to out into the open eventually anyway, I might as well let them hear about it from someone neutral rather than shouting at them."
McGonagall looked at him as if trying to determine if he was having her on.
"That's a very - mature way of handling this, Mister Potter," she said finally as he looked over to see Hermione's smile of approval. "I would hope this maturity doesn't go to waste though," McGonagall continued.
Suddenly his mind was full of visions of the mountains of notes she'd be expecting him to take in every class, how scoring nine-out-of-ten on a test would be seen as him falling short of his potential, and how Oliver Wood's desire to win the Quidditch Cup would be nothing besides her fixation on them doing the same. Harry swallowed; maybe this was going to be a truly terrible year at Hogwarts after all.
"There isn't going to be any more little adventures out of you two and Mister Weasley, are there?" she asked wearily, deflating the tension and sounding as if she wanted just a nice, quiet year.
"Well, we didn't exactly plan on having the last one," Harry said in their defense. And nobody had been thinking of it as an adventure when they were sneaking past Fluffy to stop Lord Voldemort from getting the Stone in the first place; they were far more worried about getting out of there alive.
"And we did try to warn you beforehand," Hermione added in a please-don't-send-us-to-detention kind of way that made him smile.
It did at least until her eyes snapped to his in a way that instantly let him know what she was thinking. They hadn't warned anyone at Hogwarts about Dobby's warning. While 'Tell Professor Dumbledore' might be crossed off their list for obvious reasons, it was impossible to make the case not to go with the second option: 'Tell Professor McGonagall,' when she was standing right in front of them.
Explaining Dobby showing up at Privet Drive to deliver his warning and how he sussed out that it was the Malfoys he was talking about proved an easier thing to do a fourth time around. Last night, while Ron, Fred, and George had thought it was great he tricked Malfoy into selling Dobby to him, they were of the opinion that he'd been trying to prank him into staying home in the first place. McGonagall reached a similar conclusion.
"Aside from continuing the feud between you," she said with a look speaking to how useless it'd be for her to even try to get them to set their differences aside, "I really don't see what sort of trouble a Second Year could cause. Of course," she continued after a moment, "I would have said the same about a group of First Years last year. I'll pass your warning on to the other members of the staff, but I doubt it'll amount to anything besides the vague threats of a disgruntled boy. There are rules even young mister Malfoy cannot break with impunity."
"Do you think it could be Malfoy senior Dobby was talking about?" Hermione asked the professor. "Draco's always threatening to go to his father when he doesn't get his way and he did have a fight in the street with Mr. Weasley yesterday."
McGonagall stared briefly into space for a moment as she attempted to imagine that.
"I find that very hard to believe," she said finally. "Not that I doubt your veracity, Miss Granger," the professor went on to clarify, "I find it puzzling why anyone from the Ministry would become physically violent with someone with so much influence there and I can think of no reason for Lucius Malfoy to do the same. Nevertheless," McGonagall continued, "he has even less reason to cause terrible things to happen than his son does, since that would put his position on the Board of Governors at risk."
"He's on the Board of Governors?" Hermione asked shocked.
"He's the Chairman of the Board of Governors," their professor replied.
"What's the Board of Governors?" Harry asked confused. Hermione had mentioned it earlier but had never explained what they did.
"They're Dumbledore's bosses," his girlfriend explained crossly. "They oversee the general management and well-being of the school. Our tuition goes to pay his salary."
"No wonder Malfoy walks around like he owns the place," Harry agreed. He didn't like the idea of a Malfoy being in charge any more than she did.
"While that's essentially true," McGonagall said in a tone that attempted to regain control of the conversation. "There are actually a number of families with spots on the Board."
"Rich pureblood families who all think mine is lower than dirt," Hermione muttered mutinously to herself. Harry was starting to get a little concerned about her; whatever had sparked the change in Hermione was clearly gaining steam.
With a quirked brow McGonagall glanced over to him, sending his stomach plummeting to the floor. What Hermione said perfectly described at least one of his ancestors, and maybe more besides. It really made him feel the lack of information he had about his family in a new way. Lichfield had said he didn't want him to get a big head about things but what exactly wasn't the old man telling him?
"No matter what more recent times have made of things," McGonagall said, addressing Hermione again. "Hogwarts was not established to be an instrument of discrimination and bigotry. There is a limit to what one person - even one as influential as Mr. Malfoy - can do on their own. I can't see anything he could hope to gain by causing trouble at Hogwarts, except…" she trailed off thoughtfully.
"Except?" Harry prompted.
"-Except I don't think it appropriate to discuss Hogwarts internal politics with you," she responded quickly. "Not at this time."
If he hadn't been looking for a hint of it Harry would have completely missed it.
'Oh crap, ' he thought. 'I'm going to be a Hogwarts Governor. ' At least he probably would be as soon as they considered him an adult when Lichfield won the case. 'What's the point of learning to do magic if I'm going to be stuck in meetings for the rest of my life?' Harry mentally groaned.
Out of spite he thought of letting Barchoke do it for him just to make things as unpleasant for Malfoy as possible. He was starting to think being a grown-up was highly overrated.
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