Chapter 93 — End of Year
Chapter 93: End of Year
Prizes awarded, exams taken, and here I sit in the staffroom among the other professors at the final meeting of the academic year.
"Well then, colleagues, the time has come to take stock. Who would like to begin?"
Silence was the only answer, so Dumbledore sighed wearily, stroked his beard, and nodded to Snape.
"Severus, would you start, please."
"Right."
Snape gave a perfunctory nod and began in a thoroughly flat voice.
"This year, the herd of dim-witted sheep..."
"Young man."
Slytherin's voice from one of the former Headmasters' portraits made him stop short.
"If you dislike children so deeply, what exactly are you doing as a professor and Head of my House?"
Those words visibly threw Snape off balance.
"I have complete trust in Severus..."
"Whether you trust him is not what we are discussing. We are discussing his attitude towards his students. I would point out that none of the other professors present here have the same difficulties with their students. Or rather, they have difficulties, naturally, but by all appearances, nowhere near as many as you, and that is simply because they do not refer to children as a herd of dim-witted sheep. Children, you will find, are very sensitive to how they are regarded."
"They're simply..."
"Be quiet, young man. I taught the great art of Potions in my time. Helga taught it as well, and neither of us had difficulties of this kind. Perhaps, then, the problem lies with you?"
"I hold a Mastery, and..."
"I do not doubt your Mastery. I doubt that you are suited to teaching. A private laboratory would be the proper place for you, St Mungo's, perhaps, working as a staff Potioneer. Not with children."
"Unfortunately, there is simply no one to replace Severus."
Dumbledore spread his hands.
"Yes, yes."
Salazar nodded with apparent understanding, while the other Founders on their respective portraits only smiled.
"Of course, ever since Mr Snape took up the post, the number of students choosing to pursue further study in Potions has fallen sharply."
"Ahem. I rather think we have a somewhat different subject to discuss at the moment."
"As you wish."
Salazar shrugged, and I looked at him thoughtfully. It had been a good year's work on my part: the Founders could now appear not only in their two portraits in the Great Hall and the Room of Requirement, but in every portrait in the castle.
"In any case."
Snape attempted to set Salazar's words aside and resume the report he had never quite managed to begin. And the picture he painted was a bleak one: no capable students, everyone apparently dedicated to ruining their potions, the occasional faint glimmer of promise, but so very faint.
It was deeply unpleasant to listen to, because several of the students he mentioned were genuinely talented, by my estimation at least. Having to sit through insults aimed at them (not that it was only because he had taken a swipe at Penny, though that alone was enough to make one want to throttle him) was galling, because the students at Hogwarts were, for the most part, genuinely bright.
"Well, I honestly wouldn't know."
Once he had finished his litany of complaints, I decided to continue.
"I have no such difficulties with my students. The first through third years that Mr Snape has complained about so thoroughly are diligent, and they study well beyond the required curriculum."
"Of course they do, given the prizes you hand out."
Snape could not help himself.
"And what's stopping you? Brewing a cauldron's worth of something genuinely useful over the course of a year and distributing a vial each to your best students at the end of it, and you might just find your subject regarded with the same enthusiasm as mine or Transfiguration."
I shrugged.
"Or will you tell me that Professor McGonagall is also bribing her students?"
"Draco, enough." Dumbledore cut me off.
"We have already understood that you share the others' dissatisfaction with what Severus has been saying about the students."
"It isn't merely dissatisfaction. I find it infuriating that a person like this holds a teaching post, for reasons I cannot begin to fathom. But that, of course, is your concern as Headmaster. I am simply pointing out that the students at Hogwarts are intelligent, conscientious, and hungry to learn, and if someone..."
I let my gaze drift briefly towards Snape.
"...is unable to make their subject interesting to those students, that speaks to their caliber as a teacher, and nothing else."
"I said enough."
Dumbledore's voice grew somewhat harder, and I simply shrugged and fell silent.
"And I quite agree."
Pomona gave me an approving smile.
"I give my students nothing, well, nothing except the use of the empty greenhouses throughout the year. And yet, there they are: studying, reading books beyond the syllabus entirely of their own accord."
"Enough. I understand that all of you are dissatisfied with Severus's remarks. Severus, I ask you, going forward, to express yourself with somewhat more... restraint."
"Very well."
Snape was forced to agree, though the look on his face made it abundantly clear he was deeply unhappy about this turn of events.
Frankly, I have serious doubts that anything will actually change, and that Snape will begin treating students with any greater respect. The fact that he has at least stopped insulting them during lessons is already something. To demand more from a man of his character would simply be foolish.
The other professors, for their part, did not attack Snape as openly, but each of them, in recounting their own year, highlighted the strengths and diligence of the very students he had deemed most hopeless. This made Snape grind his teeth.
Dumbledore said nothing.
He understood perfectly well that his loyal hound had gone too far in his remarks about the students, and that the other professors, prompted by one of the Founders and met with the silent approval of the rest, were not prepared to let it pass. At least this time they were going about it rather more gracefully, which gave him nothing to interrupt and no occasion for a reprimand.
"Good. There remains only one matter to discuss: namely, how we intend to work on Hogwarts over the summer."
"Well."
I shrugged and decided to speak first.
"I've already arranged things with the Founders. I'll be coming here every afternoon and working on the enchantments and charms that need restoring, as well as conducting the rituals. We've drawn up the program for the entire summer already, and it is extremely full."
Yes, extremely full, much like the program for my own education. Summer was going to be very demanding indeed.
"I've also put together a program with the Founders' help," Flitwick said, tapping his fingers thoughtfully on the table. "I'll be restoring one of the castle's protective circuits. Should be finished by the end of summer."
"Though the work is considerable. There are so many foreign patches and breaks in it that..."
"Don't worry, I'll be covering the cost of some of the more expensive ingredients that will help speed up the restoration of the enchantments."
Well, the Basilisk would be covering it, strictly speaking, and naturally I wouldn't neglect my own needs in the process. After all, I had the defenses of my quarter to think about, and it continued to grow both in territory and in population.
"Right, you have the list, so I'm counting on you."
"I'll see to repairing the Golems."
McGonagall gave a thoughtful nod.
"The enchantments on them are beyond my ability to restore, which will need Filius, but I can manage the Golems' physical integrity."
"I'll help you with the enchantments."
Dumbledore took the floor.
"I sent word to Fudge yesterday. I am no longer Supreme Mugwump. I also wrote to the International Confederation of Wizards to resign as its Head. So from now on I am only Headmaster, and I can give my full attention to the school."
"At last."
Candida shook her head.
"At last you are being a Headmaster and caring for this school, rather than pursuing yet another title."
"Ahem."
Dumbledore colored very slightly.
"Well then, if the enchantments and the Golems are to be repaired, we should also address the Forest. I think the time has come to deal with the Acromantulas that have taken up residence in the Forbidden Forest, and to remind the centaurs that they are on school grounds and are therefore bound by the old agreement."
"Agreement?"
Dumbledore and most of those around him looked rather lost.
"The agreement."
Godric nodded.
"They were meant to protect the school, not to allow creatures to breed unchecked in the Forest. Did you imagine we simply allowed a community of beings, some of whom were openly hostile to humans, to settle on our land for nothing in return? The merpeople, the Grindylows, and the Giant Squid still fulfill their duties to this day. But these others..."
"Forgive me, duties?"
The Defense Against the Dark Arts professor interrupted Godric, who threw him a mildly irritated look.
"Good grief, and he calls himself a professor. How much magic is generated within these grounds? How much of it do the children release into the surrounding air? Without the large house-elf community absorbing that excess magic, these grounds would be absolutely overrun with magical parasites."
Godric shook his head.
"The same applies to the lake. The merpeople, the Grindylows, and the squid prevent parasites from establishing themselves there."
"I see."
A thoughtful silence settled over the room.
"No, you don't see anything. The knowledge you have lost regarding this castle is so staggering that I find myself astonished it hasn't simply collapsed into rubble."
"We have maintained it, after a fashion."
Dumbledore attempted to say something, though in my opinion he would have been wiser to stay quiet, as the look Godric and the other Founders turned on him made their precise assessment of that particular *maintenance* entirely clear.
"We may need to wake Kirila."
"Kirila?"
Everyone looked at Candida in surprise.
"Yes, Kirila. My bone dragon. She sleeps in one of the spatial folds, and reaching her is no easier than reaching Salazar's Basilisk."
"Basilisk?"
"The Basilisk."
I shrugged.
"How do you know about that?"
McGonagall looked at me with unconcealed suspicion.
"I found her at the start of the year, after the attack on Argus's cat."
I nodded to the caretaker, who was sitting quietly in the corner of the staffroom.
"I helped lift the compulsion that caused the attack, and together with the Professor,"
I nodded to Flitwick,
"set a trap for whoever had put it there."
"And you caught them?"
"Yes."
I nodded in answer to Dumbledore's question.
"It was a student from Slytherin, but,"
I raised a hand, stopping Filch before he could react,
"he too was under the influence of a Dark artifact. The artifact is currently contained in a specialized case and stored somewhere secure, awaiting the day the Founders determine a way to remove the curse without destroying the artifact itself. We would rather not destroy Lady Ravenclaw's Diadem."
Every person in the room stared at me.
"And you said nothing?"
"Why ruin the boy's life? He's already going to have to repeat a year because of what happened to him."
I shrugged.
"But you've decided to tell us now."
"I thought, since today seems to be a day for candor, it wouldn't hurt to draw back the curtain slightly. On another note, Headmaster, do you have a method for locating a Horcrux if one happens to have several of them already in hand?"
"A Horcrux?!"
Dumbledore was half out of his chair.
"Oh, come now, as though you don't know what one is. Or are you simply surprised to learn that more than one exists?"
"Tom. What have you done?"
Dumbledore dropped his head into his hands and shook it slowly.
"And incidentally, Snape's memory will need to be modified."
"As though I would agree to that."
Snape's lip curled with contempt.
"You don't have a choice. Because your master will find a way to return eventually, and I have no wish to learn that you told him everything and he went and made several more."
"How many?"
Dumbledore raised his eyes to mine.
"I have four in my possession. I know of one more."
I looked at Dumbledore meaningfully, and he gave a small nod to show he understood which one I meant.
"How many more there may be, I have no idea."
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