One Day They'll Know Your Name

The Names of Others - Minerva McGonagall

Minerva sighed and removed her glasses, leaning back in her chair. Albus, as usual, had created a mess and left her to deal with it. Luckily this mess wasn't as big as some of the others she had had to clean up. She distinctly remembered the year of '91 when he had managed to not only get her and several other professors to set up traps for the Dark Lord himself, but he'd also managed to leave her with getting everything out of the corridor, including the Cerberus Hagrid had so lovingly named Fluffy of all things.

No, this year's mess wasn't as bad as that year. No, Albus had just decided that it would be a brilliant idea to set up a death tournament that had been rightfully gotten rid of years ago in hopes that it would increase international standings. One of these days Minerva was going to retire from her post at Hogwarts and watch Albus flounder without her. She would enjoy a nice bottle of scotch as she laughed at him.

She sighed again and glanced at the paperwork littering her desk. Now that Albus had gotten his little plan approved, she had to deal with all the messy paperwork of writing to the other schools to formally invite them to Hogwarts, getting official authorization from the Department of Magical Artifacts to borrow the Goblet of Fire, and finding some way to keep underage students from entering their names. Albus had suggested an age line, which would do fine as a first line of defense, but there needed to be a foolproof way of not letting students younger than seventeen enter their names. Minerva had no doubt that the Weasley twins at least would attempt to find some way around the age line, and they would eventually think of just throwing in the paper from outside the age line. No, there needed to be a way that the Goblet itself would just not accept paper put in by an underage wix. She sighed again and reached for her wand. She needed Filius' input. Maybe there was a charm that could be done. She thought for a moment, then decided that Bathsheda would also be a good person to ask. Her mastery in Runes meant that she had had some experience with wards, and a ward was probably what they would want. She flicked her wand, sending a charmed note to each of the professors.

***************

Several hours later, the three professors had come up with a semblance of a plan, and they were reasonably sure it would work. They wouldn't know for sure until they tried, but everything was a gamble with these ancient magical artifacts. Now she had to deal with the mess that was Alastor "Mad-eye" Moody. What exactly Albus had been thinking hiring the retired Auror Minerva wasn't sure, but she knew that at least the first years would be terrified out of their minds by the man. And to give the man permission to cast Imperio on fourth years! What was wrong with Albus? Minerva understood that learning how to resist Imperio could save a life, and not just their own, but to start with fourth years? If it must be taught at school, it should be taught to sixth years and maybe seventh years. But if anything went wrong with the charm or the fighting of it, it could cause brain damage. For a NEWT student, that was the end of it, no second chances, at least not that year.

She sighed again and pinched the bridge of her nose as she pulled the paperwork for hiring Moody in front of her. She needed to find time to make sure he didn't permanently scar anyone, physically or mentally. She mentally cursed Albus for shoving so much work at her. She didn't have time to be the Deputy Head, the Head of Gryffindor, and the Transfiguration professor. And she certainly wasn't getting paid enough for it.

She cast a quick Tempus and sighed again. After she finished going through this last stack she was going to be done for the day, no matter what Albus threw at her.

*****************

The next morning, Minerva strode to Albus' office to drop off a stack of papers. He had still been eating breakfast in the Great Hall when she had left half an hour earlier, but hopefully he would be here by now. Luckily he was, and he took one look at her face and motioned for her to sit.

"What can I help you with, Minerva?" he asked calmly, wordlessly offering the bowl of sweets he kept on his desk.

Ignoring the offer, Minerva leaned forward. "I want you to tell me what on earth you were thinking hiring Mad-eye Moody for the Defense position. The man is paranoid and insane and you're letting him cast Imperio on fourth years! Do you have a method to your madness, or have you finally gone 'round the bend?"

Albus looked put out. "I have told him I will think about it. I have not given him permission yet. And I was thinking that having a paranoid Auror will be a good way to keep the students safe during this tournament. If I have him give the statistics on how many people have died it might help fewer underage students try to put their names in. Not to mention he does know his defensive spells, and he has taught several Aurors in training and they have all lived to tell the tale, and were usually the best of the bunch. Take young Nymphadora Tonks for example."

"All of his students were of age and had decided that they wanted a career in chasing down criminals. Moody's brand of teaching was good for them. And Miss Tonks is just as crazy as Moody, in a different way. And you still haven't given me a good reason why you're thinking about letting a paranoid, insane man cast Imperio on fourteen year olds!"

Albus sighed and leaned back in his chair. "Because Harry Potter is a fourth year now. It would be wonderful if we could wait until he was older to teach him how to counteract Imperio, but I'm afraid that events are moving more quickly than I had hoped. At least this way, he gets to learn with his friends instead of being pulled aside and being taught one on one. I don't trust Moody with a child that much. He is a good friend, but he could do more damage than good if he was to teach a student to resist Imperio in one on one lessons. This way young Harry might be able to gain a resistance, as might his friends, which will make them much safer in the long run as well, and it will be in a controlled environment."

Minerva finally sat back and thought for a moment. When she spoke, her voice was soft. "Very well. But if he is allowed, and even one of those students comes to the least bit of harm, he will no longer be allowed to cast that spell on any student."

Albus nodded in agreement and a little bit of healthy fear. Good. He should be scared of her. Nothing was more frightening than a mama lion watching over her cubs. With a nod of her own, she stood. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to go finish the preparations for my classes this year. I'll see you at dinner." With that she swept out of the room, smirking as the door closed behind her before sobering again. She really did still have a lot to do yet today.