Once the students were gone, Dumbledore turned his attention to the remaining matter. "Until we replace Severus, I will teach Potions. I would like all of you to give some thought over the next few days to who would be best to fill the post of Potions teacher. A Potions Master would be preferred, but they are few and far between, especially those of Professor Snape's calibre. I would like to try and replace him before the Christmas break if possible."
The teachers nodded and then all but McGonagall filed out of the Staff Room.
"Albus, I need to speak with you about Mr. Potter." McGonagall spoke up after closing the door and casting a silencing charm on the room.
"What about Mr. Potter?" Dumbledore looked old and tired.
"I am beginning to have my doubts about the wisdom of having him back at Hogwarts." Minerva told him honestly. "I know you want to try and get him to forgive those who wronged him last year, but I don't think Mr. Potter has any intentions of going along with your plans. He made it quite clear the day you and Severus were arrested, that this wasn't the only thing he had in mind."
Dumbledore nodded his head in acknowledgement of her concerns. "Yes, that young man has a lot more anger in him than I originally thought. Most of it unfortunately is justified, given our actions last year. All we can do Minerva is help him work through it."
"Headmaster, that plan will only work if the boy is willing to be co-operative," McGonagall pointed out. "And so far he has proven to be very rebellious. From what I and the other teachers have seen so far he has no intention of co-operating with us. He has racked up more detentions in the past couple of weeks than the Weasley twins did during any of the years they attended Hogwarts."
"We must wait him out Minerva." Dumbledore told her. "Maintaining that level of anger day in and day out will soon become very tiring for Mr. Potter and then we should be able to make headway in bringing him back to us."
McGonagall sighed. "I hope you are right, Albus."
..... .....
It was near the end of September that a note from Mr. Ollivander was delivered to Harry by a small barn owl, advising him that he would be there on Friday around noon with the completed staff. Harry had to admit to being slightly curious about what the staff would look like, even though the only use he would probably get out of it was as a walking stick, since there was no one at Hogwarts who would be able to teach him how to use it. He also had no doubt that as soon as the students and staff saw the staff in his possession the grapevine would be humming like a hive of bees since there hadn't been a wizard since Merlin who needed one.
Harry grimaced as he realised that his having a staff would undoubtedly make him even more desirable as a husband, given the fact that he had to be an extremely powerful wizard to use a staff instead of a wand to channel his magic. In fact he had already had a number of young witches from the other houses trying to get his attention over the past few weeks and this would probably make the foolish girls redouble their efforts in trying to snag Harry Potter: The-Boy-Who-Lived-And Destroyed-Voldemort as their husband.
Remembering the one and only time he had seen the Malfoys together Harry was willing to bet that in the old and influential wizarding families arranged marriages were usually the norm and that love was not a factor; power, wealth and influence were. However he now knew that he was now the target of some of those families having accidentally overheard a conversation a few weeks ago between several girls that he knew came from those proud old wizarding families. The girls were doing their level best to try and snag him as a husband obviously on the orders of their parents. Apparently they were willing to overlook the fact that his mother was a muggle-born, in favour of getting their daughter married to someone as powerful as he was proving to be.
In fact, several of them who never would've even looked at him before, had tried to get him alone in the past few weeks. They were apparently counting the fact that he was largely ignorant of wizard courting customs, to try and trap him into a situation where he would be forced to marry them. Ginny Weasley had been the most persistent of those trying to snag him as a husband, refusing to believe that Harry didn't desire her, given that she desired him. He had been very careful not to eat or drink anything she might have had contact with, just in case she decided to escalate matters and try a love potion. He still remembered the giggly conversation she and Hermione had had with her mother about love potions that summer before his fourth year when they were staying at the Burrow for a month.
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