A few days later, Dumbledore sat heavily in his large office chair, surrounded by his many gizmos and doodads, read the note he'd been delivered, and sighed. The last few days had been worry, alarm, relief, and unease. It had all started when he'd walked into his potions lesson to find Harry Potter sitting front and centre, in between Miss Greengrass and Granger on one side and Mister Malfoy and Miss Parkinson on the other. Potter still worked alone, but his new seating position-and the apparent acceptance of both the Dark and Gray children of it-had worried him.
Next had come the seating at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. No longer was the younger Potter twin the Slytherin pariah. He still sat in the middle of the Great Hall table, but he now received a steady stream of greeters, commenters, and meal guests.
So, he'd spent an afternoon piecing together what had happened through discreet legilimency on the few known non-occlumens in the snake pit and his worry had ratcheted up several notches. Images of Harry standing in the middle of the common room, conjuring way above OWL level, and receiving dignitaries from anyone who was anyone in the pit, gradually formed. Fear. Awe. Excitement. These were the primary emotions of all who'd witnessed it.
Then there were the stories. They flittered through the scraps of memories he'd seen like a torn up newspaper, no one piece giving him the whole, but together painting a picture that was unbelievable and frightening. He hadn't believed them. Oh, he'd been sure there was some truth in them, but no first year could take out an entire duelling team. Not even a first year Tom would have been able to. Not even he, Albus Dumbledore, could have managed that.
But even if there was only a glimmer of truth to the stories, there was only one place he could think of for such ability to come from - the soul fragment in Harry's head. He'd spent two days making contingency plans for what would happen when and if Tom suddenly burst forth from the innocuous visage of the Potter boy, only to be brought up short yesterday morning by a raving and out-of-breath Professor McGonagall.
She'd observed the Gryffindor duelling tryouts the previous night and the story she told was eerily familiar. John Potter had also defeated all six of his duelling teammates. Oh, the last fight had been more luck than anything else, and the boy'd been near exhaustion, but he'd managed it… just. He'd watched Minerva's memory of the event and it was clear the Gryffindor duelling captain was more skilled than John Potter, but he'd had just enough left in the tank and had pulled out a victory none-the-less.
It was incredible.
It also made it clear the stories about Harry Potter's turn in the duelling arena probably weren't as exaggerated as he'd thought.
Harry and John were twins. Their powers would be similar - their talents, too. Magic worked in strange ways. This wasn't a horcrux thing. This was a Potter twins thing.
That had been yesterday morning and he'd been fully ready to up the surveillance on both boys. Then, yesterday afternoon he'd been doing paperwork for the ICW when Trippy, the house elf he'd assigned to Miss Greengrass, had popped into his office crying hysterically.
She'd been caught.
Worse, she'd been caught while Lord Slytherin had been talking with both Miss Greengrass and Lord Jacob Greengrass about family business. Even worse, Lord Slytherin had then ordered the elf to disclose any other spying the elves did and had learned about the elf on John Potter. He didn't even know Lord Slytherin could command the Hogwarts elves.
Dumbledore now held a note informing him that a delegation from the board of directors would be meeting him in minutes. And did he have a story less leaky than the leaky cauldron? Did he hell.
The door opened and three men walked in - Jacob, James, and… "Lord Malfoy." He smiled, while inwardly cursing. "I hope you don't feel this matter affected you. I can assure you it didn't. Lord Greengrass, Lord Potter."
They all sat.
"Whether it affected my son and family directly is unimportant. I represent the interests of all the respectable families in our school."
"I hope, Albus," James intoned, "that you have a good explanation for this."
Jacob merely glared.
Dumbledore sighed. "My primary concern was their safety . I'm sure you can see after the incident with the troll that my concerns were legitimate."
"I'm offended that my son was not deemed important enough for such VIP treatment," Malfoy drawled.
Lord Greengrass scowled. "And you've had them on our children since the start of term, we know that. And while we know that safety was indeed a concern, that's not all they were doing. You have NO right to spy on the children in your care for political reasons."
"And if safety is a problem," continued James Potter, "Measures should be taken for the benefit of all students, not just a select few, regardless of my family being part of that few."
Dumbledore waved a hand. "James - John is the vanquisher of Voldemort-"
The flinches among the three Lords were far less pronounced than most people's.
"-You understand that he has special circumstances and that it would be impractical to give every student the same consideration."
James frowned. "Whatever that consideration may be, I want those considerations cleared with me first in the future."
"And I do NOT give my permission for you to spy on my daughter!" added Lord Greengrass.
"I feel," interjected Lord Malfoy, "That perhaps the headmaster has shown he is not able to keep his political responsibilities and his custodial duties separate, and that we should move to have him placed on probation."
Dumbledore looked towards James Potter who suddenly looked very uncomfortable. Jacob Greengrass shrugged.
"After-all," Malfoy continued, "how can we know that the headmaster will keep his word? It was only through luck that we found out about what's been going on for the past three months."
Dumbledore opened his mouth to protest but a voice from the doorway beat him to it.
"Now now, Lord Malfoy, let's not be too hasty."
He blinked. It was Lord Slytherin, standing there in his trademark emerald green and black mask. "Lord Greengrass, Lord Potter, Headmaster." Slytherin pulled up a chair and joined the delegation.
Malfoy frowned. "I was not aware you were on the board, Lord Slytherin."
Slytherin inclined his head. "I'm not… yet. However, as one of the people affected I felt I should drop by after clearing up some business, and it seems it was a good thing too. I'm sure we don't need to go so far as removing the headmaster now do we?"
Albus frowned. Lord Slytherin was defending him?
"Why not?" shot back Lord Malfoy. "He's shown he can't be trusted with the power he has."
"Ah, but that is exactly what I've just been seeing to. Making sure he is less able to abuse his power, that is. I've just come from the kitchens where I've ordered all the Hogwarts house elves that they are not to follow or gather information on any Hogwarts student."
Albus's eyes widened. He sat up straighter, "Now, see here, Lord Slytherin."
"Oh, you object? Headmaster?"
"You can't just-"
"-Can I not? But I am the only one apart from yourself who can, unless the board does indeed remove you. I assume that's not in your interests? And I doubt these gentlemen will see anything wrong with such an order?" Slytherin looked between the three other lords who all shook their heads, in the case of Lord Potter and Lord Malfoy, only grudgingly. "Well then."
Dumbledore saw that Malfoy looked like a brand new toy had just been taken from him. He shook his head. "Very well. But I must implore you to please speak with me first in future before taking such unilateral action."
Lord Slytherin nodded, rose, and left.
Over the next few minutes, the other lords left too, until it was only him and Lord Potter left.
He sighed. "I'm sorry, James."
James Potter grimaced. "Me too, Albus, I assure you I was not part of that little spiel of Malfoy's."
Albus smiled. "Lord Malfoy will use any excuse to try to get me out of here, you know that."
"I know, but you really set yourself up for that one, you know."
Albus nodded. "I know."
They stared at each other across the desk for a moment.
Eventually James spoke again. "So, how is John doing?"
Albus considered his words carefully. "Very well. He's far ahead of his peers, he's well liked among the other Gryffindors, and he just defeated all six of his duelling teammates."
James looked puzzled. "You mean… everyone in his year joined the duelling club?"
A moments silence.
"No. I mean he beat all six of his teammates from the other years that are going to compete in the duelling tournament in April, in order, one after the after."
"You're joking."
Albus sighed. "I am not joking."
"But… that's… incredible!" James shouted the last word with a huge grin on his face. "I knew I did something right! Hah!
Albus grimaced.
"What?"
"I haven't seen it for myself, but I understand that Harry did too."
The mood in the room fell faster than a defective bludger.
"He… he did, did he?"
"Yes."
"And is this… expected?" James's eyes darted from him to nowhere and back again. "I mean, is this part of what's supposed to happen? I mean not to go down that path, I mean the other, I mean-" He started to babble.
"-James!" he held up a hand. "All I can say is that we are doing what we need to."
James slumped back in his chair. "Are you sure it's not time for us to hear the prophecy?"
Albus slowly shook his head.
"It's just, what with him in Slytherin and all, it seems like it's all going wrong anyway."
"James, you know I already said that being in Slytherin was expected."
"Yes, but, you know, it's kinda hard not to… not to fear the worst."
Lord Potter continued to fret and it took another five minutes for Dumbledore to allay the young lord's fears and by the time the man left he couldn't shake the feeling of being the world's biggest bastard.
Why oh why couldn't it have been Neville?