Interlude-Staff Meeting

Six weeks had passed since the start of term at Hogwarts. Students had time to settle in and teachers now had a good enough grasp of new students for the Headmaster to call in Staff Meeting.

All head of Houses arrived in Headmaster's office, and the meeting began.

"I must say, this year started off as more interesting than usual." Dumbledore began the meeting, "So are our new students settling well?"

All head of houses replied positively, drawing a chuckle from him, "Good, any problems with students so far?"

Snape immediately spoke, not giving other heads any chance, "That club is making problems again. More of my snakes were..."

"Come on Severus, not again!"

"Every year you complain. There is no such club, you are being paranoid."

"Be serious Severus."

Snape was cut off by other heads of Houses, who had enough of him moaning about this non-existent club every year. Snape looked disgruntled but he stayed silent.

Minerva spoke, "My lions are great, only Ron Weasley is giving some problem but he too is coming along nicely. Another one that is being difficult is Harry Potter but he mostly keeps to himself."

Dumbledore leaned forward, his eyes twinkling with interest, "How so Minerva?"

"Just on the first day, Severus deducted fifty points from him, and he was not too happy about it."

"That imbecile deserved it, disrespecting his teachers, he should be thankful he is not in detention for the rest of the year."

Ignoring Snape, McGonagall continued, "Rest of the House did not take well to seeing their house points in negative," completely skipping her reaction was not the best either, "It made him a bit standoffish, trusting neither teachers nor students. He made no friends and he never even interacted with anyone other than occasional talk with miss Granger or Mr. Longbottom. Even in class he barely tries, and his essays are lackluster as he is not be bothered to put any effort in them."

"I can second that," Flitwick, the diminutive charms professor added, "Even in my class he barely puts forth any effort and his essays are barely passable. ii think his first week killed any drive he had for learning magic."

Snape was now trying hard to not grin, satisfied to know Potter spawn suffer at his hand until Flitwick's next words took all those feelings away, "Of course it could be just that he is bored. His practical work is impeccable, so good that I could say his talent for charms is on par with if not even better than Lily."

Dumbledore's eyes lost his twinkles, "Oh, that good?"

Flitwick nodded, "Hmm, it took him one try to cast every first-year charm with perfection."

Snape snorted, "He must have practiced earlier."

"So what, his spells were perfect regardless. I doubt even Ember was that good at first."

Suddenly silence descended in the room at the name Ember. To compare Harry to her was not something most of them were comfortable with.

After few moments of uncomfortable silence, Dumbledore spoke, "It is good that a student is talented but without hard work, it is useless. If he did not want to work for it, leave him be."

Flitwick nodded but felt bitter inside. Headmaster effectively said leave Harry alone, whether he excels or fails is up to him.

Soon conversation moved to other students, but both Dumbledore and Snape's minds were not fully into the discussions, focused on coming up with new machinations, to weave a new web, to ensnare the prey.