What if He had a Choice?

Watching His Fall

Tom could not help but watch with bright gleaming eyes, a small smirk on his face as Lucius Malfoy strode to the front, facing the Minister. He glanced over his shoulder at the Council and the Wizemagont. Lucius had something planned, Tom must know. He would not simply take such a position and say nothing, at least, Tom would hope not. Just as he hoped, Lucius did say something. 

"Minister, fellow members of the School Council, I am honored for your trust in...in my abilities, but I fear I am simply unworthy of such an esteemed position. Would not Terry be a better option in this circumstance?"

"None sense, Lucius, you have been a wonderful help."  The council member who had spoken earlier said simply. Dumbledore smirked with his head down, undoubtedly thinking Lucius was nervous about going up against him, unaware that the other was merely endearing himself to the court at his humble attitude. 

"Very well, I shall do my best to represent everything as it should." He said with a small inclination of his head, eyes fluttering under his lids, joy within them, hence why he hid them. 

"Dumbledore. I think, perhaps, we could start with Professor Quirrel. It has come to the attention of the school council recently that not only did you suspect he had connections to voldermort prior to his time at the school, but you even had a fellow teacher keep an eye on the man and pass threats onto him." Lucius said, his eyes slightly wider then normal. "With the next teacher you employed, this last year, as a matter of fact, a Professor LockHeart, apparently it is known and many complaints were issued about the man's incompetence. The first quiz was all questions about his own self, reportedly. Do you deny any of this? Or should we call the witnesses?" Dumbledore swallowed, staring straight at Lucius.

"Now, Lucius, I am sure..." 

"It is a yes or no question, Albus," The Minister said sternly, when Lucius looked back at him. 

"I had my suspicions of Quirrel, of course, that is why I had Severus watch him carefully. however, he was still qualified to teach."

"Something which did not seem the case with LockHeart. The next teacher you hired." Lucius said with a small tilt of his head, "Have your students learned anything to do with actual defense in the two years they have gone to school. That is, practical defense. After all, I think all the wizards and witches here can agree that Defense Against the Dark Arts is supposed to be primarily practical." 

"they have learned the information needed to apply the spells in questions if necessary. In the second year we had a dueling club." Lucius nodded approvingly.

"It has also come to my attention that in this dueling club not only were several students incapable of applying a simple expellarimus, but that several students ended up severely injured because of the fact that LockHeart was incapable of ridding the area of a snake. Something most would know if they are a teacher of a defense class. The spell is quite simple for the skilled enough wizard. I also..." Lucius continued, turning to the Wizemagont. "Have evidence that this LockHeart ended up attempting to heal a student's arm, rather then taking said student to the infirmary where they could get quality care, and as a result the student ended up loosing all of the bones in their arm." Lucius turned back to Dumbledore. "The processes was then pained exponentially for the student." 

"Well. I..."

"So, as it would seem. Not only within the last two years have you hired a teacher suspected to be a death eater, or at the least very recently in line with the Dark Arts and actively partaking in such things so much that you had a professor watching them at all times, but also a professor who was ignorant of the basic spells required to aid oneself. These are the teachers the Headmaster chooses to teach our children? At what is supposed to be the greatest school in London?" Lucius asked, a frown on his face.