New And Improved Harry Potter

McGonagall's POV

Minerva straightened her shoulders and cleared her throat, which had gone dry at the last words the Head Chairperson had spoken. "We have not broken any rules," she said defensively. "What we did for that child was protect him from his own foolishness. When he disappeared, we searched for days to find him…"

"Which, to my understanding, you stopped classes to do so," the Chairperson interrupted sharply, reading the papers in front of her, which had all the rumors, complaints and downright accusations on them. "Where in the charter does it say that the education of the many must be stopped to retrieve one student?" she asked with the lifting of an eyebrow. "Harry Potter should not have been so special that the other children's education was disrupted. The Aurors should have been called immediately, and then you should have waited for the investigation to be complete. Furthermore, there was no reason we should have been paying you for the week you did not do your job. I find it reprehensible that this was not handled as it should have been."

"We were concerned that the boy had hurt himself, yet again. I cannot tell you how many times that child has done something that should have been left to the adults," McGonagall almost snapped, making her voice sharp and crisp, as if speaking to a student. "He is a disobedient and unruly child. We had no choice but to look for him. If it had gotten out that the school was responsible for his ailment, then we would have been having this conversation much sooner, and it would have been much different. Albus felt it was for the best," she ended with a clipped tone, thinking that would stop the inquisition.

"You would do well not to speak to me in such a manner," Sterns said frostily. "I am not one of your students." She then calmed down and shuffled a few more papers, looking more important than she actually was. "You seem to be under the misconception that Albus Dumbledore is the final say in that school. You are incorrect. It is the Board that has that say. He took it upon himself to play god once again, and disregarded rules and laws as he saw fit. As for you, we informed you once the boy finished the first task that he was to remain in Hogwarts. There was a very good reason for this, yet you disregarded it. What do you have to say to that?" She wasn't about to voice that the reason was that they simply wanted to keep him in the school so that others wouldn't pull their children, as they were threatening to do now. Like it or not, Potter was an icon, and the public felt that Hogwarts had done him wrong. It was making them look bad, and the money they would lose would be astronomical. Why, they might even have to take a pay cut, which was something they were loath to do.

"You do not understand the trials that we have had to put up with because of that boy," the transfiguration teacher sniffed, standing tall and proud. Her head was held high and her stance was stiff and formal. She still did not understand why they were still talking about this. It had been explained already. "Why even in his first and second years, he spent days in the Hospital Wing, after going somewhere that was strictly forbidden to students," she stated, once again to see if they would just listen to her.

"Ah yes, the Philosopher's Stone and the Chamber of Secrets," was the smug response, pulling a parchment from the middle of the pile and glance at it. It was a letter from one of the students that had been raving about what a hero Harry Potter was, and all that had happened during his years at Hogwarts. The girl who wrote it, one Ginevra Weasley, was angry that McGonagall had kicked him out and she wanted the Board to know all the good Harry had done. The Weasley child knew of the Stone, only because the children, including her brother, weren't as discrete as they thought they were. She did not, however, explain how she knew about the Chamber, or what happened there. The Board had heard rumors on both, but Dumbledore covered them up very well. Sterns had been waiting for the Stone to be brought up. To her is was one more nail in Albus' coffin. "There is nothing we can do about the Chamber, though is wasn't handled correctly either. However, whose idea was it to hide such a dangerous item, such as the Stone, in the school?" she inquired, looking over her glasses with a lifted eyebrow. Again, she wasn't going to mention that they were a bit at fault for the Chamber, letting Malfoy bribe and threaten them as he did.

"Well, Albus', of course. There is not place safer than Hogwarts," Minerva stated confused as to why this was an issue. Albus had assured her that the Board had known all along that they were housing the Stone that year.

"And why was it not brought up to the Board?" was the question that threw her off.

"You will have to ask the Headmaster. He assured us that you knew," the professor stated, miffed that her friend had lied to her.

"He is no longer the Headmaster, I assure you," Sterns said loftily, shuffling the papers and pulling one from the bottom. "The Aurors tell us that You-Know-Who was discovered to be teaching there that year, while possessing a professor. In addition, one of your professors, the one rumored to have housed You-Know-Who, disappeared under mysterious circumstances. None of this has been explained to our satisfaction. We were under the impression that Mr. Quirrell had left on his own accord, much like all of the Defense Professors."

"I have no idea what you are speaking about. You-Know-Who teaching, indeed. In addition, you cannot hold us responsible for the curse on the Defense Against the Dark Arts class. We have appealed to you for years to bring in a curse-breaker. It is you who have left us under that curse," McGonagall chastised them with a glare. "Every year Albus has to find someone to take the class. The applications are getting fewer and fewer. Why, these last two years he has had to call upon acquaintances to come and teach. Were it not for that, the students would have been uneducated in that field. The rest of us cannot cover both classes." She was getting a bit concerned that her long-time friend was hiding things from her and the staff.

"Perhaps," the Chairperson conceded. "However, that does not explain why one of the most feared Dark Lords has been rumored to be in the school at least twice. And why the Potter child has had to drive him away each time. He is but a boy and should not have been anywhere near those situations."

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