Chapter 43

Dumbledore did not like people looking into his dealings too much. Only he, after all, had the ability to see the big picture. Only he could see how things should be done in order to attain the Greater Good. What others would see as being heinous crimes were actually, in the grand scheme of things, nothing more than necessary evils.

Too many people would fail to understand such things, of course. They would fail to see how keeping Snape within the castle was more important than giving students a fair and decent learning environment for their potions lessons. They would fail to comprehend how imperative it was to bring the Philosopher's Stone to Hogwarts in order to lure out Voldemort. They would fail to understand why he sent Harry Potter off to live with his neglectful relatives, and why he sent him back there every summer.

They would fail to understand because they had no concept of the Greater Good.

And that failure would ultimately lead to disaster if they were allowed to go through with their plans.

So Dumbledore had back-tracked a little. He had withdrawn his comments about Voldemort's return, and allowed Harry to take the fall. In this way he had gotten the Ministry, the school governors and the International Confederation of Wizards to back off, allowing him to covertly reform the Order of the Phoenix without raising suspicion.

Unfortunately allowing Harry to take the fall without telling him had since backfired, and quite spectacularly so.

Firstly the boy had somehow talked his way out of his trial. And then he had simply disappeared! He did not return home to his Muggle relatives in Little Whinging. He did not go to the house of a friend. There had been absolutely no sign of him in Diagon Alley all summer long, and there wasn't even a record of him leaving the Ministry that day.

Dumbledore had found several leads, but all of them turned up absolutely nothing. Worse, both Minister Fudge and Madam Bones appeared to be in the know and they weren't telling, no matter how much he insisted. Neither could be swayed by adulation of him, and neither could be intimidated by his power.

It was frustrating.

Then to cap it all, one of his spies within the Ministry, a young Auror named Nymphadora Tonks had gotten herself caught snooping around outside the courtroom where Harry's trial had taken place and had subsequently been kicked off of the Auror force.

That had actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise, though. When the Minister had attempted to crowbar his lackey Dolores Umbridge into Hogwarts using the vacant Defence Against the Dark Arts post, Dumbledore had been able to block his attempts by giving the role to Tonks.

Unfortunately this had not stopped Fudge. Somehow he had gotten Griselda Marchbanks of the Wizarding Examinations Authority to go against him and remove Professor Binns from his teaching position at the school.

Not only that, they had also created legislation to guarantee that Umbridge would take over the vacant position of History Professor after Binns was removed.

Since then Dumbledore had been dreading the damage that Umbridge would be able to do to his carefully laid plans, and he had worked hard to come up with a few contingencies.

There was one thing, however, that he had not been prepared for. Harry Potter working for the Ministry, in a role that they apparently sponsored, was not something that he had seen coming even in his wildest speculations.

For whatever reason the Ministry had seen fit to give Harry a position of power over not only his fellow students, but also over the prefects. It was a position that was almost akin to Head Boy, only apparently more-so.

Dumbledore had, of course, planned to confront Harry as soon as he returned to the school, but this news changed things, especially as it seemed that Harry had already been exercising his newly obtained power against his enemies.

He would have to tread carefully here, as he had no real grasp over the entire situation. Antagonising Harry too much might result in more interference from the Ministry, but at the same time Harry could not be allowed too much free rein, as he had the potential to be just as damaging to Hogwarts as Umbridge.

If not more so.

Harry's desired meetings with both Professor Flitwick and Professor Snape meant that both of those men were now in the Headmaster's office with Dumbledore so that all three meetings could be held at once.

With any luck their combined force, along with that provided by Professor McGonagall would be enough to derail Harry in his mission without doing too much damage.

A knock sounded at the door and Dumbledore put on his best grandfatherly expression before calling out "Enter!"

His grandfatherly expression quickly dropped when Minerva entered his office accompanied not only by Harry Potter, but another eight students and the newly instated Professor Umbridge.

Deciding to deal with the main problem first, he addressed the woman in pink.

"Professor Umbridge, what brings you here?"

"Mr Potter requested my presence," she replied in her sickly sweet tone of voice "To assist him the first time he deals with a head of house regarding the discipline of a prefect. Or in this case two."

"And what biased drivel had Potter been spouting as he attempts to victimise the students of my house?" asked Snape, his lip curled in a sneer.

"I'll be the first to admit it," said Harry "in this case there were Slytherin victims. However, it was also Slytherins who were the antagonists."

He gestured towards Padma and continued "Prefect Patil here discovered Malfoy, Parkinson, Crabbe and Goyle behaving in an intimidating manner towards the Greengrass sisters and Miss Davies. Malfoy even went so far as to hit Davies. When Prefect Patil went to intervene, as was her responsibility as an on-duty prefect, they behaved in a very disrespectful manner towards her. When I joined them, the four antagonistic Slytherins decided to take things to another level, with Parkinson getting into a physical confrontation with the other girls. Crabbe and Goyle attempted to join in while Malfoy went for his wand."

"And how was the situation resolved?" questioned Professor Flitwick.

"I took it upon myself to stun and bind all four of the antagonists, and had Prefect Patil escort the other three girls to a separate compartment before rounding up a few other prefects to assist me with dealing with the remaining Slytherin students. In the end all four of them were escorted to separate compartments, and other prefects kindly gave up some of their personal time to stand guard over them."

Snape was seething "You cannot go around treating students in MY house like that!"

"Actually I can," replied Harry "They were judged to be a threat and so I co-ordinated the prefects in neutralising them for the remainder of the journey. As I just explained to Malfoy down in the Great Hall, their solitary confinement was not for their punishment, but for the protection of the other students. Their punishment is what a wished to discuss with you, Professor Snape."

Seeing that the man was about to bite out a verbal attack against Harry, Dumbledore cut in, asking Padma "Would you agree with Mr Potter's version of events, Miss Patil?"

She was obviously a bit nervous at being questioned by Professor Dumbledore directly, but Padma still managed to reply "I would, Professor. The emotional and physical well-being of the three girls to my left was clearly at risk when I decided to intervene. I am lucky that the Student Advisor arrived to offer me some assistance, as it was clear that the other four had no intentions of backing down."

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