Albus sat in his office enjoying a lemon drop and hoping it would improve his mood. He was severely disappointed and unhappy. None of his teachers were following his proscribed treatment for the boy. The boy was supposed to be uncomfortable here. Miserable and alone making him eager for approval and willing to do anything to get it. He wasn't. He was alone, yes. But that seemed to be by choice. Not because no one wanted to be near him.
In fact, a great deal of his staff seemed to be angry with him. Including Minerva. He didn't understand. Yes, he'd been away from the Castle a lot this year but it couldn't be helped. He had responsibilities outside the confines of the school. She knew that and it had never been a problem before. Why was it now?
He'd counted on Delores targeting his pawn thanks to the special efforts of his chosen children to bring him to her attention. He just knew she would be unrelenting and cruel to him simply because he'd confirm Tom had returned which the Minister didn't want to believe. He was counting on her adding pain to his misery over being isolated yet again from his peers and having his three chosen children making mountains out of gnome holes to trash what was left of his reputation with all the other children. His children were supposed to be playing up Mr. Potter's bad behavior and riling up Cornelius' woman in every class so she would be certain to administer cruel punishment on the boy. The only snag to his plans for the boy this year seemed to be no one was acting as they should be. With Ms. Granger not there to egg on Mr. Weasely, Delores Umbridge had no ready target for her animus because Mr. Weasely was keeping his head down and his mouth shut. And so it seemed was Harry. He'd heard no rumors of Tom's return from the student gossip mill or even the Portrait gossip channels. In fact the only thing any one was talking about was some set-to that took place in the Library back in September.
But Madam Umbridge was quite happy with how easy her job was and how well the children were accepting her words to them. Even that boy the staff had said would be a problem for her was turning out to be no such thing. Though she did try to bait him a few times. Just to be sure because that cheater girl had said he told her He Who Must Not Be Named had returned. But with Harry's refusal to bite her bait, and all the other students taking their cue from him, she found no one willing to argue with her version of events or the Ministry's ability to take care of what mattered in their lives. Not any more at least. Not since the Granger girl had gotten herself expelled.
Naturally Delores thought it was because of her own amazing oratory skills. When instead it was because the children were following the direction of their chosen leader, Harry Potter, who had said not to challenge her. Harry honestly didn't care what she said since he had already decided on a course of action for himself. He'd already read her book and based on the assignments she'd given for the first few weeks of class, done all his essays. So now he spent his free time either in the library or his room reading the books that interested him and practicing his defensive spell casting and potion brewing under the watchful eye of Professor Snape. When he wasn't visiting with either Hagrid or Mr. Filch and Mz. Norris.
In fact with Hermione gone, a lot of things settled down in the Castle. Ron had quieted down taking his cue from his sister now. He was struggling to at least attempt to finish his homework assignments and to control his temper so as to get less detentions. It was hard for him but he was making progress. He'd also read the booklet as Ginny told him too and did a lot of thinking about how he'd feel if someone had done to him what he'd done to Harry. He'd come to the conclusion he'd have probably tried to kill the guy. And with that realization his anger towards Harry died a slow natural death. Now he just wanted to make it through the school year with as much of his pride intact as he could salvage. He wasn't ready to begin atoning yet but at least he wasn't angry any more.
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