Chapter 29

thought that Fudge was going to wait until just before the start of term to make this particular move," said Harry.

"That was the original idea," acknowledged Sarah "But your arrival at the Ministry on Friday did not go entirely unnoticed. The glamour charms did work, but apparently someone thought that the unknown young man being escorted through the building by the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement warranted further investigation. Dumbledore spent all of that Friday sniffing around the Ministry, calling upon every one of his contacts in each department, as well as a few other people, in an attempt to discover who you were. Madam Bones had a word with the Minister and they agreed that Dumbledore's attention needed diverting, so they called a Wizengamot session for last night, keeping Dumbledore out of the loop. By going after Binns Fudge was able to tackle a weak point, with even some of the staunchest Dumbledore supporters having to concede that something had to be done. There were only a handful of cases like old Elphias Doge's."

"So it's going ahead then," said Harry "the whole plan?"

Sarah gave a nod in reply before saying "You have meeting with the Minister to attend on Tuesday afternoon, so that everything can be finalised."

Harry nodded, fully expecting that to be when the Minister would ask him to be the student who assisted Dolores Umbridge in her Hogwarts mission. He still felt a little unsure about taking up such a role, but it had been he who had played a large part in creating this situation, and while he no longer had any doubts about Hogwarts needing a severe inspection, he knew that an overzealous Ministry bureaucrat like Dolores Umbridge was likely to do more harm than good. The students of Hogwarts, no matter how Harry felt about many of them, would need protecting, and if it fell to Harry to do so, then he would. He just needed to do it in a way that ensured that once Fudge and Umbridge came crashing down (as they would when the truth about Voldemort's return was finally revealed for all to see) that he, Harry, would not be dragged down with them.

He also did not entirely know what he wanted to ultimately happen to Dumbledore. He was sure that the man would be very useful in the inevitable war against Voldemort and his wicked forces, but at the same time Harry had had his eyes opened to the real man behind the grandfatherly mask, and people needed to stop believing that all of their problems could be solved by that one man. It was detrimental to society. He had never thought about it before recent events, but there very much as an attitude at school, especially amongst the Gryffindors, that anyone who did not believe that the sun rose in the sky because Dumbledore willed it to was obviously a dark wizard or witch of the highest order.

That attitude in the least had to go.

Albus Dumbledore was beyond furious. In fact, he could not remember the last time he had been this angry.

How dare that bumbling buffoon Cornelius Fudge, the supposed Minister for Magic, attempt to interfere with his running of his school?

What hurt worst was the fact that there was nothing that Dumbledore could do to stop it. The Wizengamot had voted, with the vast majority voting in favour of the action.

There were, of course, some members that Dumbledore expected this kind of thing from, for they and their families had long sought to supplant him. But that the likes of Griselda Marchbanks had voted in favour of this move was a shock. He counted such people as friends, and their not trusting him to run his school in a suitable manner was as unexpected as it was unacceptable.

This could easily be the start of a long and slippery slope, as anyone with an above average level of brain power would be able to turn this to their advantage. With his running of Hogwarts being called into question, the public would begin to doubt him and others within the ranks of the Wizengamot would gain the courage to make further attempts to go against his will.

This was exactly what he had hoped to avoid when he had retracted his statements about the return of Lord Voldemort. The earlier attempt to force Dolores Umbridge onto the staff through that educational decree had been a nuisance, sure, but had thankfully been avoided by simply filling the post of Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor before the new school year began. This time there was nothing that Albus Dumbledore could do to prevent that woman coming to Hogwarts, and he knew it.

If he attempted to block her placement in the castle, then the Ministry would accuse him of refusing to co-operate with their review of the History of Magic class, and that would only cause the public to doubt Dumbledore even more.

Obviously the Daily Prophet would then ask the key question of "what did he have to hide?"

Too much, was the answer to that. Dumbledore simply could not afford to have the Ministry snooping around Hogwarts castle, reviewing the staff. In fact, the four members of staff that they were most likely to want to get rid of (and in one case already had) were also key pawns in his on-going chess game, which featured the whole of wizarding Britain as the board.

Cuthbert Binns had been essential in keeping the students, particularly the Muggleborns, ignorant about the truths of their world. By keeping the focus of the History of Magic lessons on Goblin Wars, the Muggleborns were left ignorant of the fact that the pureblood run society was stacked heavily against them. Most would struggle to find work after their school years, and inevitably those who did not get stuck in menial positions at the Ministry, or were not fortunate enough to land an apprenticeship with a more open-minded individual (of which the wizarding world contained few) would inevitably end up returning to their roots in the Muggle world, moving in with their parents and working in low-paying jobs in order to put themselves through adult classes.

Those Muggleborns leaving the wizarding world after their schooling did not worry Dumbledore – they had served their purpose and were free to leave. The thing was, Hogwarts School could not be run without Muggleborns. No Pureblood ever liked to hear this, but it was the truth. Hogwarts needed Muggleborns because Hogwarts was not funded by the Ministry. It relied heavily, almost solely, upon admission fees to survive and, of course, Purebloods were not overly fond of parting with their money, especially as for most of them their family name along could get them a well-paying job, whether they were qualified to do it or not. Many Purebloods sent their children to Hogwarts in order for them to "network and connect" with the education being a secondary desire.

Charge the Purebloods too much and they would leave. Therefore Muggleborns paid around three times as much in tuition fees, as it was the only way to keep the school financially viable. If those Muggleborns learned the whole truth about the magical world before their time at Hogwarts was over with, then the mass exodus that was sure to follow would cripple the school's finances and force it to be closed.

Binns was needed in order to keep them ignorant until after their schooling was done.

Sybil Trelawney was also needed in the castle. Not for keeping people ignorant, but for her own safety, and to ensure that Dumbledore maintained the upper-hand against Voldemort.

Before that fateful Halloween night when Harry Potter received his famous scar, Trelawney had made a prophecy to Dumbledore, one that linked Harry Potter to Lord Voldemort, the latter of whom had heard only part of it and reacted by attacking the Potter family. After the events of that Halloween night, Voldemort was sure to be looking to hear the entire thing, and keeping Sybil Trelawney secure inside Hogwarts Castle was best for everyone, even if the quality of Divination classes had to suffer for it.

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