Two decades ago, the Wizarding World had been in the grip of war against Lord Voldemort. This had played very nicely into Dumbledore's hands for Tom Riddle, who had always seen Hogwarts Castle as the only true home that he had ever know, had never attacked the place. This had made it very easy to both begin and promote the rumour that Voldemort feared Dumbledore, something that only served increase his influence of many of those who attended the school at that time and now it was their students who were coming into the castle, a whole generation who had been raised to believe that Albus Dumbledore was infallible.
Of course, playing modest only made that image all the stronger.
There were, however, those who ventured outside of Dumbledore's influence. The traditionally dark families would oppose him whenever they thought that they could get away with it, though most had kept quiet between Voldemort's downfall and his rebirth.
But there were two other groups who caused him problems. The first were the Muggleborns. They were the ones who saw the injustices in the Wizarding World for what they were and realise that Dumbledore was not all he was made out to be. If they were not swayed by the notion that Dumbledore was the champion of Muggles and Muggleborns, most would eventually leave. The ones who remained could normally be kept quiet, learning that their opinions did not matter. Some could not be silenced. Some gained influence.
Sarah Abbott fell into that group, having married into the influential Abbott family, an ancient, light sided family who nonetheless did not buy into Dumbledore's way of looking at things. She also became a well-respected Healer for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and obtained mastery in potions.
She was also a friend of Amelia Bones, who fell into the other group to cause him problems. That group consisted of people who simply refused to buy into the Dumbledore mythos. Usually these people were of an older generation who were not friends with him at school or they were people like Amelia, who had lost family in the war with Voldemort and were not entirely convinced that Dumbledore had done all that he could to end the war sooner.
These people were the wild cards whom needed to be silenced, either through manipulation or removing them outright.
For years Sarah Abbott had been kept quiet by a Wizengamot ruling that Dumbledore had helped to push through. Amelia was kept quiet because she had no evidence.
Now things were slipping out of Dumbledore's grasp at the worst possible time. The Ministry was refusing to believe that Voldemort had returned and, in their desperation to discredit him, they were turning Hogwarts on its head and the Governors were allowing it. Amelia Bones was obviously collecting evidence against him and people were starting to ask questions that Dumbledore did not want answered.
Sarah Abbott had found a loophole in the Wizengamot ruling, allowing her to contact Harry, causing the boy to slip slowly out of Dumbledore's sphere of influence and was now giving the students a voice, something that the Ministry and the Board of Governors were using to bring down the Headmaster of Hogwarts and all that he had worked so long and hard to establish.
Tonight, however, would be the night that the Headmaster reclaimed his school and, before long, the Ministry would fall into line as well.
Voldemort may be keeping a low profile, but that did not mean someone else could draw attention to him.
Severus' task for tonight was to ensure that the students of Hogwarts would not be asking questions. Tomorrow night he would be committing murder, all in the name of the Greater Good, of course.
Harry Potter awoke in a bed that was not even slightly familiar to him. It was not small and lumpy, so that ruled out both the cupboard under the stairs and Dudley's second bedroom at Privet Drive. The sheets were not white and the blanket was not grey, so that ruled out the Hospital Wing. And the hangings were not dark red trimmed with gold, ruling out Gryffindor Tower.
He flung the covers back, swung his feet out of the bed and sat up.
His head really hurt. He reached out and groped blindly for a few moments before his hand found his glasses. He grasped them and shoved them onto his face before looking around blearily.
He did not recognise the room at all, despite having spent the last seven nights sleeping there.
His eyes landed upon a small ampoule sitting on his bedside table. It contained a green coloured liquid, and a hastily scribbled note next to it red "For the headache."
Harry found this rather strange, but a particularly nasty throb in the left of his temple had him snatching up the bottle and unthinkingly downing the contents.
His headache disappeared instantly, along with any thought regarding how odd his current situation seemed.
He got off the bed and made his way to the bathroom. That he found it too easily for someone who could not recall ever being there before never entered his mind.
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