>>51826408"I could teach DADA as well. I'm better qualified than Snape. Honestly, the need to come to an 'accredited' school to be respected astounds me."
"I'm plenty qualified, Potter, and am willing to show you just how badly you need the education."
"Well by all means, I'm certainly happy to oblige if I've hurt your delicate sensibilities."
Snape sneered and stood.
"Severus," Dumbledore warned, giving Snape pause.
"That's right. Listen to your master. He's the only reason you're not imprisoned or dead." Harry sneered.
"What are you doing pup," Sirius muttered. Harry however, replied just loudly for the approaching Snape to hear, but too quietly for the other faculty to make out.
"Proving that just because you're proficient at the Dark Arts, does not mean you should teach students how to protect themselves from them." Then in a whisper, "And giving you an early Christmas present."
"Severus, don't raise to the boy's taunts." Dumbledore beseeched. "He's only a child. One with a guardian that had no love for you."
With visible effort, Snape clenched his teeth and sat back down, back rigid.
"Huh," Harry said for Sirius alone. "I guess I'll have to buy you a toaster or something."
Without waiting to be dismissed, Harry and Sirius left the castle, grounds, and soon appeared in their manor with a faint pop from one and silence from the younger.
"Will you let that little puke strut around this school like he owns it? Like he's royalty." Snape had taken Dumbledore aside as the other faculty filed out of the hall.
"I have a strong suspicion that both are true, Severus. For one, you know as well as I that Potter has claimed his title. As the head of one of the Sacred Twenty Eight noble families, he is as close to royalty as our kind has. Plus, he has had nearly twice as many articles written about him in the past 17 years than any of the British muggles have written about their ruling class in the last fifty years. Second, and much more concerning, I believe Mr. Potter may be the Heir of Gryffindor. If those suspicions are confirmed this year, it may very well mean that he does own this castle." That last would certainly lessen any control Dumbledore could eke out of the boy and would hamper his plans.
"But his utter ungrounded arrogance!"
Dumbledore stared pointedly to where Harry's transfigured statues stood unchanged in the middle of the room. Dumbledore would have struggled to transfigure something with such precision and attention to detail. If he had managed it, the spell would have begun to revert to wood and fade away within about an hour. Harry's had stood twice that so far and didn't show any signs of weathering. When Dumbledore probed it, he found that the effect had been loosely connected to the hearthstone of the castle and sealed in a way he wasn't familiar with. With a frown, he realized the monument Harry had created in may grace the Great Hall for quite a while.
At Snape's reserved sigh, Dumbledore circumvented the irked professor and headed for the door.
Severus had a point, but was focused on the wrong details. Harry's confidence stood to be a minor issue, but the biggest problem was the defiance. If Dumbledore had succeeded in keeping Sirius Black incarcerated, the Boy Who Lived would have been made pliable under the Dursley muggles. He would have been so grateful to Dumbledore for taking him from those people, so awed by his power, that he would have made a loyal, almost devout pupil.
More importantly, he would have made the perfect weapon. Eventually, when the time was right, he would have made a historic martyr for Wizarding kind and a rallying point Dumbledore could use the memory of to further his cause.
Alas, Sirius had more connections than he'd known of. Connections such as Amelia Bones, the director of the Aurors and one of the few incorruptible officials in the Ministry. She'd unburied the Potters' last will and testament, a feat Dumbledore was still flummoxed over. When he wanted somethi ng buried, it might as well never have existed.
Not this time.
Amelia presented irrefutable proof of Blacks' innocence as well as the will which expressly stated the boy was under no circumstances to be put under the care of Petunia. Worse still, Sirius had full parental rights and was the first listed guardian. There were five others listed as back ups. Not unheard of during the war.
Dumbledore was not on the list and the magi cal guardianship he had assumed of Harry was immediately invalidated.
Sirius had clearly encouraged him to be his own person.
Yes. Dumbledore certainly had damage control to do this year.
