The reason for this was funny in a way; the Headmaster or Headmistress of Hogwarts could only be removed from their position by the collective might of the Hogwarts Board of Governors.
And for such a meeting to 'officially occur' and for their decision to have the power to remove her, all eleven school governors had to be present for the 'removal' vote. Other matters could be decided without every member present, but the removal of the current head had to be with the full Board. A rather convenient rule in this case.
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And to her good fortune, the school's governors had acted swiftly and rather rashly to save their combined hides by dismissing Lord Malfoy from his role as governor as soon as the scandal surfaced, in a bid to seemingly distance themselves from the rapidly unfolding national scandal that was making everyone even remotely connected to the man nervous, particularly his allies on the board.
This meant that there were only ten official governors on the board at this time, exactly one member short of what was required to hold the necessary vote for her dismissal.
Fortunately for her, whilst she did not have the power to dismiss already appointed school governors from their positions, only she could put forward names of new candidate members to join the board, thus preventing a vote for her removal from being held as the board only had ten members and would continue to only have ten until she decided otherwise, which could be for a while.
In short, she could not be removed, at least not by the governors for the meanwhile, allowing her time to secure her position and gather allies and public support. Of course they could always pressure her to step down willingly, without the vote, by causing problems, but they had nothing to use against her, since all the faults of the previous administration rested squarely on Albus' shoulders, and she had all the current staff on her side, except Severus and Hagrid, but that was to be expected.
After all, time was on her side, which was something that Albus understood quite well, based on his increasingly frantic attempts to remove her from her new position.
Every day that passed meant she would gradually be accepted more and more as the school's rightful Headmistress, her bond with the school's wards and magic steadily deepening and her appointment being accepted by the wider world as perfectly normal and legitimate, whilst Albus' moans and groans about the injustice of his removal would slowly become less and less effective as the whole incident involving Lord Malfoy was gradually forgotten about and was replaced by yet another scandal.
In time Albus' own powerful rivals, normally assembled behind Lord Malfoy, would find a new leader and regroup to present a new path of resistance to the Chief Warlock's reinstatement as Headmaster. Besides, there were other rules that worked in her favour if push came to shove, but for now, she was relatively safe.
Naturally, she had some candidates in mind to fill the free position on the school board, initially she was going offer the free seat to Lord Black, since her former pupil had given several large donations to the school in the last year and more importantly at the moment, wasn't on good terms with Albus, which would have been to her advantage in securing her position from being usurped.
But, Filius had argued against the idea, since it could be seen as a possible bribe to buy their silence and support by the wider public and Albus would surely use his influence within the Prophet to portray it in such a way, even if bribes were commonplace in high social and government appointments.
Taking her seat behind her new, but old desk, she considered her candidate options for a long moment. She needed an ally, one that she could rely upon in the Ministry to support her rightful claim, someone neutral and well respected by all the political factions that made up the Wizengamot, someone who wouldn't be pushed around by Albus when he inevitably threw his weight around again.
She pushed the candidates' names to the back of her mind since it wasn't a matter that could be rushed; this was something that needed some careful consideration, her future as headmistress depended on it. Besides, she had plenty of time before she had to pick a candidate, and there were several names in the forefront of her mind, such as Madam Bones, the strict but fair head of magical law enforcement who had never bowed down to Dumbledore.
Reaching the top of the stairs, she opened her office door. Her office held many of the same key features as it had under Albus' leadership, since it was the same room, with the only changes being in terms of its atmosphere and the aura the room now projected as a whole.
During Albus' 50 year reign as headmaster the room had had a bubbly, welcoming atmosphere of an old, erratic scholar, with the clear intention of putting visiting students at ease, but now that friendly easygoing aura was gone and had been replaced with the aura of a stern, organised disciplinarian, who you didn't want to cross.
After all, the only reason a student should even be in this office, as far as she was concerned, was if he or she was in trouble and their own head of house felt it was necessary to require her personal attention.
That being said there were some minor, almost trivial changes in the decoration, the clutter and junk gathered from the decades that Albus had called this office his own had been removed, the bookshelves were now filled with her own chosen books and ones gifted to the school, but there was far more space on the shelves so it didn't look like she was some kind of hoarder.
The priceless artefact that was the Sorting Hat had been placed on a lower shelf where it was visible to all, rather than being left on the top shelf to gather dust next to the portraits of the former headmasters. Plus, with it being in her direct line of sight, hopefully she would use it as an aid, something to bounce ideas off. After a thousand years the Sorting Hat likely had a lot of knowledge and experience it could impart, if only asked.
The left behind silver candy bowl that she simply couldn't remove from the desk, despite her very best efforts, was now filled with her own choice of sweets, toffee mainly, merely because it had to be filled with something otherwise it would look stupid if left empty. But, unlike Albus' lemon drops, the toffee wasn't dosed with various potions to drug her pupils, like Albus did.
Whilst she understood the reasoning behind such morally questionable actions, somewhat, she just didn't agree with the principle of drugging her charges just to get some easy answers and save a few minutes of her time. She gave a disapproving shake of her head at the very thought. Naturally, that wasn't the only thing Albus had been drugging during his term in office, it turned out the student meals had also had a weak contraceptive potion mixed into them every other week.
Once again, she understood why such an action was done, even if she disapproved of it, since it would be a newsworthy scandal if one of their young charges got themselves 'knocked up' as it were. Especially if it was a couple outside of an official marriage contract or if it caused another marriage contract between a pair of houses to be terminated due to an unexpected pregnancy.
After all, the school was 'responsible' for their charges' safety and wellbeing, so the blame could fall directly upon her own shoulders and the schools, and they would be expected to pay compensation for their lack of 'care,' which amused her at the sheer outrageousness of the idea that the school would be held responsible for such events.
Despite her prudish and very conservative nature, she had been teaching at this school for over 40 years now. She knew quite well that if her teenaged, hormone driven students wanted to have sex, she couldn't do much about it, short of locking up the whole school population in enchanted chastity belts for the duration of their education. Even at the reduced student population levels after the war with Voldemort, there were just too many students for the teachers and prefects to stop a couple of amorous students from finding one of a few hundred broom closets or empty classrooms in this large school.
Whilst she understood the weak contraceptive potions was a possible solution, it seemed crude to simply drug the whole student body without their knowing consent, rather than teaching them to be responsible for their own sexual health and wellbeing. That would serve them far better in the future, outside of Hogwarts after all.
An evil, but brilliant thought suddenly crossed her mind, but her thoughts suddenly shifted as a puff of smoke appeared on her desk to reveal a sealed letter with the crest of the Ministry of Magic on the front. She didn't even need to open the letter to know that this was Albus' doing somehow, as she reached for the letter opener on the desk.
Throwing the envelope into the waste bin with more force than she originally intended, she carefully unfolded the official letter.
Dear Professor McGonagall, Acting Head of Hogwarts,
'Acting head?! What audacity! The board of governors confirmed my appointment weeks ago, you old bastard!' She mentally proclaimed, as she resisted the overwhelming urge to throw the letter into the open fireplace. Taking a calming breath, she realized the opening greeting had been intentionally chosen to anger and annoy her, meant as an insult and open challenge to her authority as Headmistress.
It has came to the Ministry's attention that the school board of governors does not have a complete rota of members as it is required to have under the Hogwarts-Ministry Education Agreement of 1656, (Subsection 6, Paragraph 9 Subsection 5) with their being one empty seat that needs to be filled immediately if Hogwarts wishes to continue to receive financial support from the Ministry of Magic.
'That manipulative old bastard, he can't force a removal vote so he's going after the money,' now realizing Albus' plan to force her to pick a candidate sooner than she had intended. It was a good move. After all, she couldn't run the school without any gold! And it would be just the excuse needed to forcefully remove her. 'I need to check the school's Gringotts accounts, I also need to find out more about this Hogwarts-Ministry Education Agreement.' She felt another headache gradually developing, wondering where the original agreement document even was. She didn't even know such an agreement existed before this moment.
Turning her attention back to the letter that was the source of her current headache, she knew her headache was about to become even worse.
Furthermore, a Ministry inspection of the school and its staff is required to ensure the school is meeting the rigorous standards set by the Wizarding Examination Authority, under the Education Agreement (Subsection 5, Paragraph 6 Subsection4). Failure to meet the required standards will also lead to reduced funding.
'Inspection?! There hasn't been a Ministry inspection of the school in the 40 years I've taught here! This is Albus' doing!' Once again she knew beyond any doubt that this was all the former headmaster's doing. She definitely needed to get a copy of this damn agreement.
If it had things to attack her with, perhaps it also granted her powers she wasn't even aware of. And considering this inspection had never happened in all the years she had taught here, perhaps there were other mandates that Albus had conveniently avoided or broken while headmaster. Two could play at this game!
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A/N : if we get 400 power stones by the end of the week, I will release an extra chapter ;)
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