In Harry Potter as Neville Longbottom

Chapter 25: Albus Dumbledore - Unfit for Headmaster

Chapter 25: Albus Dumbledore - Unfit for Headmaster

Three days after the incident in the forest, Neville wrote several letters. Long letters and filled with little imagination to one particular journalist for the Daily Prophet. He included many theories and mixed them with the incident to present a case that highlighted the fact that security around Hogwarts was very poor and there was no proper measure in this regard.

To give the headmaster bigger trouble, he wrote several additional reports regarding the mismanagement in Hogwarts. From poor and broken flying broomsticks for kids to the latest case of sending first-year kids inside the Forbidden forest as detention. The gigantic castle is being cared for by a Squib in a wizard school.

The forest guard was an expelled student who was believed to be responsible for the death of a student in past. Even though he is acquitted, he loves dangerous animals like the three-headed dog - Fluffy and is solely responsible for the Acromantula nest in Dark Forest near Hogwarts.

Also, he might have spent some time in Azkaban and was now near kids.

When one of these letters reached the desk of Rita Skeeter, she was beyond ecstatic. She spent several hours reading it and filtering it and then 'rewriting' it properly.

As Neville expected, next week, the Daily Prophet carried the headline "Albus Dumbledore unfit for Hogwarts headmaster".

The reports included many key points that Neville presented and even included many questionable theories from our reporter. If the report in the paper was not enough, the letters that came in huge numbers in the morning for the headmaster and for kids overwhelmed the entire Great Hall in the morning.

Tens of Owls flying here and there. Some dropped the letters and packages directly on the food table and some landed on the headmaster's table.

"Enough!" Dumbledore moved his hands and all the owls just threw the letters at the same time and all the letters flew in order and stacked themselves in one corner.

"Now, let us have our breakfast in peace. Everyone can collect their letter later." Dumbledore said and then went back to eat the delicious food present in front of him.

Even though these reports presented a strong case against him but for someone like him who has gone through so many ups and downs in life, this was just another one of those things. Maybe some pureblood family members finally decided to launch a campaign against him or tried to remove him from Hogwarts since Harry Potter came here but he was not worried.

Hogwarts was his domain and he had spent years planning the life for Harry Potter. No matter who or what, his plans won't be stopped or ruined because of some reports in papers. Meeting a few of the board members will automatically silence any issue regarding his position.

No worries.

But this time Dumbledore miscalculated. Neville had written several letters and Rita Skeeter kept receiving them after a gap of two days for more than a week and the Daily Prophet had enough material to run the headline again and again for the whole month.

Some stories were based on facts and this led to many letters being sent by concerned parents of students especially when the history of Hagrid was exposed in papers.

----Professors Meeting in Headmaster Room-----

"Tell me headmaster Dumbledore, this report about Hagrid being single-handedly responsible for the Acromantula's nest outside in the forest is incorrect. Right?"

Professor Minerva directly questioned Dumbledore after reading the latest papers in the morning.

She already had issues when she compared the reports of the funds that were donated by the governing body to the school for proper facilities with the broken broomsticks used by the kids.

A large number of funds were given to the potion department but everyone knew Snape was biased against other houses and never taught other students properly. Then it was the funds allocated to the orphans and subsidies to the wand shop but was it necessary for everyone?

Surely those rich kids could afford the price of a wand from their own pocket. And now this! She always thought that giant spiders were part of the Dark forest but now, she finds that they were the result of Hagrid's actions.

"Calm down Minerva. Someone is trying to break the unity among us and is planting these seeds of doubt and suspicion. We must think rationally about all this." Dumbledore tried to talk his way out of this like the previous time but this time there were many against him.

"There is nothing rational about a nest of giant Acromantula near the school ground Dumbledore. I have lost a leg and hand while I am taking care of animals but even I will maintain my distance from those spiders. They eat flesh. They breed in large numbers and sooner or later, they will destroy the balance in the forest or attack a student.

We must eradicate their entire group. As the Care of Magical Creatures Professor, I believe I have the authority on this." Professor Kettleburn shouted loudly. This man, with one leg and arm, frightened everyone in the room.

Everyone knew they had their own departments and when it came to Magical creatures, no one had more knowledge than Professor Kettleburn.

"You have to know Kettleburn, Hagrid, just like you, love these animals. Don't forget your love for fire snakes or dragons that have given us very some serious problems in past." Albus reminded the professor a little about his own actions but Kettleburn was adamant about killing the spiders.

"Dragons are the most beautiful and amazing creatures Dumbledore. How dare you compare them with Acromantula? I was thinking about retiring this year or next year and leaving my post to Hagrid but this is seriously unacceptable. You can't risk the life of every other creature in the forest because Hagrid kept their leader as a pet in his childhood.

Give them a few more years and we will have a riot or large scale fight between all the animals against the spiders and Hogwarts may end up losing the entire forest. Certainly, you are not blind to this Dumbledore? "

Kettleburn roared loudly and Professor Minerva clearly felt more satisfied with her colleague.

" Then you must talk to Hagrid before taking any action against the Acromantula's nest. Professor Snape should be able to collect some precious venom from those spiders and that money will be given to Professor Minerva to upgrade our present Quidditch facilities. I think this might solve our various problems at the same time. Now, I want to take my afternoon nap. Goodbye, everyone."

Dumbledore smilingly threw everyone out of his office and went back to his seat.

" Who has suddenly tried to raise their head? Is it Malfoy? Someone definitely wants to create chaos but who? " Dumbledore thought silently and his eyes showed a little glint.

The recent events gave him enough issues to tackle one by one and he had to write so many letters to calm the panicked parents that he felt he underestimated the reaction of Malfoy and his group after the return of Harry Potter.

Sadly, only if he knew this was just payback by our Neville. For Neville, since you took away his peaceful first year then how can you enjoy yours!

It was a turbulent time for Hogwarts for the next two months. Their headmaster was questioned daily in papers and after repeated headlines of "Dumbledore unfit for headmaster" many students started discussing this in private.

Harry had his faith shaken and Ron complained that Dumbledore might have used all the funds meant for new Broomsticks to buy his candies. Hermione who was always a little smart than others could always read between the fictional stories and facts and even she didn't agree with many decisions our headmaster made.

It was only the final Quidditch match between the houses that brought some peace back to the Hogwarts.