That first night back at Hogwarts would prove to me a sleepless night for many. All of the students especially those in Slytherin who have received training from their families about their society and hierarchy were all writing home urgently with the news that the Malfoy Heir has now transformed in a bonefied prince and that the royal family has truly surfaced this time. The older students who knew their way around the castles were all sneaking out of their common rooms in continuous steams while the younger ones tried to figure out how to do the same without being caught.
The staff were not better off. An emergency staff meeting had been called as soon as the dinner was finished, and the teachers were slowly filling up the staff room. Dumbledore, for all of his planning never foresaw such an occurrence. He sat at the head of the conference table as the staff slowly trickled in, sucking away at a calming draught lacked lemon drop and staring off into space. He tried to think of when everything started going south and realised that it was since the appearance of the high king at Sirius' trial. Sirius, whom he was yet to find. He had tried everything from scrying to summoning and short of sneaking to the records room at the ministry and stealing his magical signature to trace him- something which would definitely land him in Azkaban regardless of who he was, he didn't know what else to try.
Speaking of the royal family, after the continued lack of appearance after Sirius' trial, everyone had thought it was a rouse set up by the law wizards hired. At first Dumbledore himself hadn't given it much thought. The Dumbledore line was a sacred one, but it wasn't particularly a high standing one in society. Except for himself and his brother there was no one left of the line and even though as a scholar he knew of the allegiance oath sworn by the British wizarding community to them, he just didn't know if his family had one. He also hasn't had time to check if there was any anomalies in his magic since he was so busy looking for Sirius and Harry Potter. And there was another issue, he didn't believe for one second that the boy was dead. Yes, Petunia and her family were no where to be found and it was as if they never existed and even though he couldn't prove, he would have to blind, deaf and dumb to not perceive the scent of very powerful magic at work. Especially, since the monitoring spells he had linked to the boy also somehow switched to the youngest Weasley boy. He could not help but think that someone was mocking him.
His stroked his long beard as he continued to think. The royal family were deeply entrenched into all aspects of the British wizarding community. They owned shares in almost all the prominent business and were also major deciders when it came to the workings of Hogwarts and the Ministry. He couldn't help but think that it was a terrible thing that a dark wizard such as Lucius has somehow managed to worm his way into the bed of the new king and done well enough for his son from a discarded marriage to be adopted as Prince. He shuddered at the thought that anyone associated with the Malfoys having a deciding say in his school. He would never allow it!
"Dumbledore!!" he jumped when he heard the shout accompanied by a palm slamming down on the table. In the following moment, his eyes focused on the faces of the multiple teachers in the room looking questioningly at him.
"Apologies, my mind was elsewhere" he smiled and adjusted his emotions, so he came across as sunny and mysterious as always.
"Evidently" he heard a silent voice filled with derision.
"Now, now my boy, a wandering mind is a curious mind" he turned his smile up a couple of notches as he answered Severus and hid his satisfaction as he watched the man turned way from him. Severus was a whole other case and a tiresome one at that. Now that Harry Potter was no where to be found and possibly dead no matter how much he did not believe it, the worth of the man to him was reduced by more than half. Plus, no matter how he approached Severus, he was a very distrustful person by nature and was not easily taken with his image. This sort of person, he did not usually keep but his unique relation with both of Harry's parents as well as the fact that he was a Marked death eater made him the perfect chess piece and so he was reluctant to completely write him off. Even if he could no longer be used to temper Harry, he could still be used to gather information from the Dark side. especially seeing as he was so close to the Malfoy family. If his memory served him well, he seems to have heard somewhere that he was the godfather of Lucius son so there was no way that he had no information on this new king. "Come to think of it, aren't you Young Draco's godfather, there is no way you were not previously informed of his changed status". He tried to hide it, but he knew that Severus more than likely picked up on his chiding undertones but the wasn't too worried because all the eyes in the room were now focused on Severus. He caught the glare the man quickly sot him before turning back to the room, but he just smiled in brighter.
"I was informed"
"Oh?" his belief in Severus went down a couple notches. It seems that he did not have as tight a hold on Severus as he thought. If the man could keep such a thing from himself, he shuddered at the thought of what else he was not telling him.
"But it was not my place to spread that information. Lucius has only just finally annulled his marriage about a month ago and the family was getting used to living together"
"So have you met the king?" Minerva asked from her place at the right-hand side of Dumbledore, plucking the question right out of Dumbledore's mind.
"On several occasions" Severus nodded, his hands crossed in front of his chest and his face filled with impatience, no doubt at their questioning.
"So, what's he like then?"
"Yeah, how come, he's not been out and about?"
"Yes, I would think that a wizard of his status would make some kind of announcement of his presence" the voices of the gathered staff started to rise as thy each bombarded Severus with their questions.
"If you would left me speak!" Severus raised his voice as bit as he gritted the words out like he was speaking to wayward students. No matter how much he enjoyed watching grown adults make fools of themselves by behaving like children, he did like children enough to watch it for an extended period of time. When all of them refocused on his, he took a deep breath before he started to speak again. "As I was about to say, despite knowing about the changed status of the Malfoy family, I was severely warned by His Majesty himself that it wasn't my place to disclose any information pertaining to his family to anyone under any circumstances without his permission" He wasn't warned, rather he was looking forward to enjoying the utter chaos the information would bring when the public was informed. And wow did he enjoy the chaos. Especially the look on Dumbledore's face as his entire word started to crumble at the edges. "In addition, although I have been exiled from the prince family, I am still of Prince blood and their oat still applies to me. I cannot go against his direct wishes, ergo, I did not inform anyone".
"Be that as it may, I would still like to see you after this meeting in my office" Dumbledore didn't think that someone as good as Severus at occlumency would not have measure in place that would allow him to circumvent such a weak oath. At this point, he would take any piece of information he could get on this potentially new threat.
"That aside, what are we going to do now? There hasn't been royalty in the British wizarding world in over 400 years, the procedures have long since fallen to the side if not lost. And the school board will convene at the end of the month, would his majesty be automatically appointed head, or will a vote still be needed?" Minerva questioned. Although she was the vice principle, she was actually the one who was mostly in charge of the running of the school as Dumbledore is always out doing something else for the greater good and she made sure that the man could sense the dissatisfaction in her voice as the prospect of adding more to her workload.
Dumbledore sensed it loud and clear and still he had the mind to be slightly embarrassed about it. "Do not worry, I will look into this Minerva". Despite saying this, Dumbledore was still a bit dissatisfied that she subtly brought this up now. Although the matter of the royal family was important, Harry potter and Sirius as well as Remus were still missing. The whereabouts of the Dark lord was still unknown, and he needed time to investigate his own magic now that his devices has been messed with. He didn't actually have time to do this, and he planned to put it off for a while. Besides he was Albus Dumbledore, defeated of the Dark lord Grindelwald, he did not think that his place in the mind of the wizarding world could be easily moved by some unknown person, no matter how anointed by mother magic they were.
"What I'm worried about is the lack of DADA professor. Even though Severus suggested that we all chip in, with this added stress, I think we need to up the search for a professor or maybe look into getting teach assistance that can substitute in for us while we substitute in for DADA. I just looked at the timetable that was send to me and I have been grossly double book" Filius added from his position. As a duelling champion he certainly had to worries about chipping in to teach defence, but he could not do it at the expense of his own subject.
"Albus?" Dumbledore couldn't maintain his genial smile as Minerva turned her sharp gaze back to him. This timetable had been left to him to organise after he agreed with Severus to postpone the search for a DADA professor. At that time, he was having difficulty talking the Flamels into loaning him their philosopher's stone and still was. In addition, he was also concentrating on introducing the now missing potter boy to the wizarding world and didn't have time to conduct an extensive interview required. He had hoped that he could leave the teachers to sort out the rota themselves while he concentrated on his task and hadn't anticipated Minera dropping a massive file on his desk and asking him to sort out the rota himself. He had taken one look at her murderous eyes and agreed. Once she left, he waved his wand let his magic do the work. In hindsight he should have checked the documents before sending them out, but his magic never failed him before. It seemed that his magic has indeed been somehow affected. This time, he didn't try to hide his from as he noted that he would look into it.
"On a final note, despite young Draco being a Prince, he is still just a student, and I would like to stress that he is to be treated as any other student that walks these halls. I am sure his parents would want to the same thing" ignoring the worry and warning bells ringing in his heart, he fixed his genial smile back on as beamed at the staff sat around him, trying to very hard to convey his I am a very caring grandfather image.
To the side, Severus snorted into the back of his hand. If only Dumbledore knew what Draco's parent really thought.
"Do not forget t forward the minutes to me for the record book Albus" Minerva sent over her shoulder as she followed the stream of professors out of the meeting room.
"of course, my dear" Dumbledore beam another smile and waved is wand, causing the minute parchment that had been floating above his head this whole time to descend. He took the parchment in hand and looked down to see that it was completely blank.
To the side, Severus hid another snort of laughter, this time as a slight cough.