The Cupboard Series 4: The Fourth School

Chapter 31

The silence of the large circular office was broken only by the flicking of parchment and the scratching of a quill. Occasionally, the noise would cease as the owner of said office glanced once again at the copies of the Prophet sitting on the side of his desk and scowled.

As hard as he tried to ignore them, the articles in the newspaper continued to mock him. He would have loved nothing better than to incinerate the lot, but for now, they needed to stay where they were – their purpose still had not been fulfilled.

Each article dealt with his greatest focus, greatest annoyance and greatest failure: Harry Potter.

The first covered the success of the Yule Ball. The success, that is, apart from the fact that Harry Potter hadn't attended. The second refuted the first, at least in terms of the boy. It seems that young Harry had indeed attended the ball, albeit in disguise. The article then went on to outline the lengths that Harry was going to educate himself and to gather magical power – metamorphmagus abilities, parselmouth, and even the beginnings of becoming an animagus.

It was the third article that really showed that the boy was thinking and planning ahead: each and every one of his skills were being honed in preparation for the possibility of battle. And that had never been in Harry's future. At least, an able Harry in a battle had never been in the boy's future.

But then, there was the evidence of his scar to consider.

Albus Dumbledore was still waiting to confirm his suspicions about that. If what he thought had actually happened, then his plans were going to need to be altered. Even with the prophecy, it wasn't now necessary that Harry die at Tom's hand; preferable, yes, but necessary, no.

There were still the other pieces that needed to be found and dealt with, of course, but the piece that was Harry still needed to be confirmed and the only way that Albus knew how to do that was with a diagnostic spell, a spell that he could only perform in the presence of Harry Potter. The Ball would have been the perfect opportunity to perform such a spell, but the boy had tricked him. He'd been suspicious of the older blonde, Hadrian, when he'd arrived, but his specially charmed half-moon spectacles hadn't detected any active magic, leading him to believe that Hadrian was who he said he was.

But that piece within Harry was the key to his plans. He had no intention of moving forward with any of his plans until he knew its status.

The sudden flaring of the flames in his fireplace, coinciding with them turning green, brought the smallest of smiles to his face. This, he hoped, would bring Harry to him.

"Ah, Minerva, welcome back to Hogwarts," Albus said, rising from behind his desk as the elderly witch stepped from the fireplace whirling her wand to vanish the ash and soot from her robes.

"Headmaster," she greeted.

Albus waved to the seat in front of his desk, at the same time managing to pick up the bowl of sweets that he kept on the desk.

"Lemon drop?" he asked.

"Thank you, no," she replied, sitting primly in the closest chair.

"Thank you for coming today, Minerva," Albus said as he retook his seat and allowed his eyes to sparkle.

"It's my pleasure, Albus. After the success of the Yule Ball, it left me feeling a tad more favourably towards the remainder of the TriWizard Tournament," she replied.

"Speaking of the Yule Ball," Albus said, allowing his twinkle to fade, "I must admit to feeling disappointed by the trick that you and young Harry pulled that evening. As you saw, there was no need for it; he, and everyone else, were perfectly safe."