Chapter 107

Another member immediately said, "I move that, 'Lady Griselda Anne Marchbanks, currently of the WEA, be considered for the position of Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and be immediately confirmed into that position."

"I second," said another.

The chair-wizard immediately looked to Marchbanks and asked, "Lady Marchbanks, do you accept being considered for the role?"

"Of course I do, Bart," she snapped back. "It's been about all we've talked about for the past three days."

"Griselda," the Chair-wizard sighed. "You know we have to do this by the numbers and exactly by procedure, or Dumbledore will use it as way to have it overturned."

"Very well," she grumbled. "I so accept."

"Thank you," he said. "With the acceptance of the nomination for the position of Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry by Lady Griselda Marchbanks, do we have another?"

No one made a sound.

After leaving it for a good five seconds, the Chair-wizard said, "Being no further nominations for the position of Headmistress or Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, I seek a mover of a motion for Lady Marchbanks to be accepted in the position of Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

Another member who had remained relatively quiet to this point, a wizard well-known for his leanings towards the Light, stated, "I move that, 'Lady Griselda Anne Marchbanks, currently of the WEA, be accepted and appointed to the position of Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, effective immediately."

"I second the motion," said another Light witch.

"Do I have a speaker against?" asked the Chair-wizard. When he was again greeted with only silence, he said, "There being no speaker against the motion I move to the vote."

With yet another unanimous decision in the affirmative Lady Griselda Marchbanks became Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as of that moment - Headmistress Lady Griselda Marchbanks.

"Congratulations, Headmistress Lady Marchbanks," said the Chair-wizard "On behalf of the School Board of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry I bid you success in your role and look forward to hearing from you of the great strides you are making in bringing our school back to a fully functioning educational entity."

The entire Board rose and applauded her. Marchbanks sat there, took it and grumbled about 'uppity youngsters'.

Moving on to the position of Deputy, the School Board were unsure of who to appoint to the position at that time, but knew it would not be Dumbledore or Flitwick. They considered offering the position to Sprout, but decided to leave it to Marchbanks to figure out whom that would be.

Less than fifteen minutes later and as planned prior Marchbanks flooed into Sprout's office and, accompanied by the Herbology Mistress, walked from there to the Great Hall. They were met by most of the staff still in attendance, who had been contacted earlier by Sprout by notes delivered by house elf and told to be there. Missing were Dumbledore, Trelawney, Hagrid and Filch.

There were quiet groups of students in 'street' clothes sitting in small groups at the four House tables all wondering why most of the remaining teaching staff bar Dumbledore, Trelawney and Sprout but including the new medi-wizard, had gathered in a group behind the head table.

When they saw the little elderly witch who used a cane slowly walk in, accompanied by Sprout, they knew something was in the wind. Many knew the little witch to be Lady Griselda Marchbanks of the WEA, so knew something big was about to occur.

Marchbanks, after quickly greeting the staff, stood at the head table at the Headmaster's position and quietly declared, "I, Lady Griselda Anne Marchbanks, having been appointed to the position of Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, hereby take up that position effective immediately. As I say, so must it be, so let it be written."

There was a tremendous flash of light of a powerful just-taken wizarding oath that centred on the little witch. And the castle seemed to shudder just a little. The latter was almost unnoticeable to those not in the room at the time. It was unnoticeable to those who were almost blinded by the flash of light.

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―==(oIo)==―

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While the trip from the apparation point to McGonagall's home took him almost thirty minutes, the trip back was almost an hour and ten. It was even longer for Dumbledore than it could have been, due to him starting to feel the effects of McGonagall's attacks upon his body. He knew he had to have at least bruised his tail bone and possibly his right ankle. If he didn't want to further injure himself he had to walk carefully and, therefore, his pace and length of stride were slowed and shortened.

All up, from the time he first arrived to the time he began to approach the apparation point it would be almost two hours

From where he was trudging towards the apparation point from almost ten minutes away, a particular sensation shot through Dumbledore's body. The effect caused him to stumble so badly he almost fell flat on his face. He had just felt the wards of Hogwarts shift away from him as if ripped from his soul.

Utterly shocked to his hand-knitted woollen socks, Dumbledore regained his balance and stood there for a long moment, horrified. "No!" he exclaimed.

Then he put on a burst of speed and almost ran the remaining distance to the apparation point. It took him almost three minutes to reach it, rather than the ten it would have taken at his current pace.

He barely paused before he apparated out and away, only to feel himself bounce off a powerful ward and end up sprawled on the cobbled path just outside the front gates of Hogwarts. Both the collision with the wards and the undignified landing hurt.

Stunned almost unconscious, it took him a moment to realise what had happened and, slowly but painfully, rise to his feet. He'd just bounced off the wards of Hogwarts. And that confirmed what he dreaded; he no longer had control of the wards of the school.

"No!" he again exclaimed in horror.

He whipped his wand out and began casting diagnostics on the wards, wanting to believe there was something wrong with them, rather than he losing control of them. However, the diagnostic results all came back the same. The controller of the wards was now someone else, not he.

He had no idea he'd been seen by some of those in Hogsmeade, or that he'd been cursing up a storm as he waved his wand at the wards.

In the castle, Marchbanks had quietly said a few words to the rest of the staff and organised a meeting for later that day in her office, before leaving through the Professor's entrance and making her way towards said office. She had some 'cleaning up' to do.

However, she'd only made it a small partway there, a couple minutes, when she felt the wards inform her someone powerful had just tried to apparate into the school, but crashed into the wards.

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