Chapter 1
Albus was very frustrated.
While he'd been investigating Pettigrew's death, the Board had done an inspection. Now all the wards were at full strength, his staff was being paid properly, the school's finances weren't lining his own pockets but paying for better brooms and an updated library, and the teachers he needed for his plans had been fired!
Madam Pince, who had been keeping students from checking out books so they wouldn't get too smart, had been replaced by Max Trelawney-White -- Sybill's brother-in-law -- and he was kind, intelligent, and free with his books.
Cuthbert Binns, who had only been teaching students about Goblin Wars, had been replaced by Remus and Sirius. Argus had been fired and arrested, and had been replaced with Max's brother Gordon, who had magic and was much gentler with children.
Hagrid wasn't supposed to get a full education as a half-breed, but not only was he getting special tutoring now, he was getting a Care of Magical Creatures Mastery!
Minerva was no longer his deputy; instead, Aurora was the deputy headmistress. She didn't favor any House over the other, treated every child equally, and listened. She was also clever and patient. Albus didn't want the snakes to be treated equally!
Poppy had been given two assistants, which stopped Albus' plans for abused children to be ignored. And one of them was a Black! (He ignored the fact that Sirius was a Black; Andromeda had never trusted him.)
The worst part was that Sybill had been sacked and replaced with her brother, Onyx Trelawney-White, who was an actual Seer. He needed her to sell the prophecy!
At least he knew where she was, given she'd been kicked out of the family for pretending to be a seer; he could still use her if he needed to.
Albus could care less about Kettleburn being replaced by Grubbly-Plank and Lockhart being hired as the Defense professor. Care of Magical Creatures was rarely a popular class, and it didn't mess up his plans. And Gilderoy was obviously a fake, which would make sure the students didn't do well with Defense, and Albus could still have awe and respect with his knowledge.
Luckily, Albus wasn't technically in charge of the school finances, so he was only being investigated for hiring terrible teachers, not giving Poppy assistants (as per the school charter), and not realizing how bad the wards were. They didn't think Albus would deliberately sabotage Hogwarts' defenses, so he was safe with that as well.
Albus had explained Poppy's lack of assistants and hiring sub-par professors away with the fact he didn't have enough money to hire the best ones, leaning heavily on the fact that he hadn't been in charge of the school's finances. Since the Board and Gringotts had already fired (read: beheaded) the goblin in charge of the school finances, Albus was off the hook.
He could still use most of his plans, even with the new teachers, so Albus headed to the Ministry to 'talk' to Lucius Malfoy and suggest to one of his Auror friends that their manor needed a visit.
Lucius was furious and panicking. His Manor was being raided again, which was supposed to be illegal without Madam Bones' signature! But noooo, Albus had stuck his nose in again and now he had to hide the Dark Lord's diary, among a few other things.
Luckily, the raid was scheduled for the day after Draco would leave for Blaise's, so all Lucius had to do was sell off most of the Dark objects and hide the diary somewhere until the Aurors had gone.
Lucius took the bag of items to Borgin, then stuffed the diary under a shelf in Flourish and Blotts. He cast a few discreet charms so no one would see it, then left.
He didn't know that the charms were removed as soon as he'd gone, and the diary was picked up by a girl with blond hair....
"Have you finished getting your books, Susan?"
"Yes, Auntie. Could we go home now? I'm starving...."