Albus frowned at the class schedules in front of him. He almost had it all sorted out, if he could only schedule the third year Divination class on Wednesday at 9am, except that was at the same time as third year Ancient Runes, and there was precisely one student signed up for both those classes. Maybe if he changed the time of the third year Hufflepuff's Transfiguration class? But no, because then he'd have to move that class there, and then that class there, and then that class over there, and now sixth year Potions and Charms were at the same time, and that couldn't possibly work.

Albus sighed and pushed his paperwork away for now. It was a tedious task, and he lacked the concentration to work on properly at the moment anyway. His mind was plagued with a myriad of small worries that he lacked the ability to do anything about, so they merely sat there, nagging away at him and driving him to distraction.

Quirinus should by all rights be his chief concern, but nothing had changed significantly on that front for the past couple of months, so it began to fade somewhat to the back of Albus's mind. The last big revelation had been back in February, when Albus had granted Severus permission to use Legilimency on the man to see if they could uncover the specifics of what he was up to. Albus had been reluctant to allow it before, because if Quirinus had realized they had pulled information from his mind, his response may have been drastic, but they were getting nowhere, so Albus finally given in to Severus's request.  Unfortunately, Severus's attempts had been rebuffed by Quirinus's Occlumency, which was disheartening, but in retrospect not particularly surprising. Given the necessity for secrecy in the task Quirinus was attempting, it would make sense that he would have learned some Occlumency, or perhaps had been chosen by whoever he was working for, if Albus was correct in assuming that, because of a pre-existing talent for the craft. Not to mention, while Severus was a highly gifted Occlumens, his skill at Legilimency was probably best described as proficient

Then there was the issue of Severus himself. The more Albus thought about it, the more he became convinced that whatever issue the man had been wrestling with the night Remus had been appointed as Harry's new guardian, it had nothing, or at least little, to do with his and Remus's plans to unmask Remus as a werewolf. It was hard to articulate what, exactly, was different about Severus now as opposed to before that night, because the man had always been inclined toward a moody and sullen disposition, but there was a certain... indecision, maybe, about him that there hadn't been before. Albus had tried to get him to talk about it a few times, but Severus had been completely resistant to the idea. Then when Albus had mentioned causally in passing that Harry might be staying at Hogwarts for a few extra days at the end of the year, due to the full moon occurring immediately afterward, Severus had snapped at him.

Albus had dropped the matter completely after that. Severus had a tendency to lash out when emotionally discomfited, and while Albus could take it, he was worried that Harry might get inadvertently caught in the crossfire at some point. If that happened there was no telling the emotional havoc it would wreak on Harry and Severus both. No matter how much Albus thought talking about it would help, it certainly wouldn't if it were forced on him.

One possible explanation that occurred to Albus was that perhaps Severus had been considering putting himself forward as an alternative to Remus as a guardian for Harry. Ultimately, it wouldn't have made much of a difference if he had; there was no real legal reason for placing Harry with Severus, and for that reason Albus would have had to prioritize Remus as possibility. Something that Severus undoubtedly realized, which was why he declined to bring it up. Still, Albus wished that Severus would talk to him about these things. Or if not Albus, then talk to someone, at least.

 Then there was the problem with Harry. Albus supposed it was unreasonable of him to expect that Harry would continue his recovery at a steady pace without any backwards lapses, but things had been going so well that Albus had fallen into a subconscious trap of assuming that they would always continue to do so. And now, out of nowhere it seemed, Harry was acting nervous and secretive again. Albus, Severus, and Minerva had all made attempts at getting the boy to confide in them, to no avail. Though that might in part be due to the fact that none of them were pressing the issue too hard. Whatever it was that Harry was hiding, it was making him nervous, but not exceedingly distressed, and without any other cause for alarm, it seemed better to allow Harry his sense of privacy rather than forcing him to speak. Besides, Remus was going to be stopping by again the following weekend; perhaps Harry would be more comfortable opening up to his guardian, and someone who was as of yet not a professor, if Harry's secret involved some sort of infraction of school rules.

A light chime cut through Albus's thoughts, and less than a minute later Severus entered the office after a perfunctory knock on the door. "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" he asked, eyeing the stack of papers on the desk in front of Albus.

"Nothing that I'm not happy to have interrupted," Albus assured him. He was so looking forward to next year, when he could hand this particular task off to Minerva without feeling guilty about taking up her time.

"I've found out what Harry's been hiding," Severus told him, sporting look number 25, ‘Ha! He likes me better.' (Far from making Albus jealous, this was one of his favourite of Severus's expressions, as to Albus it really captured just how far the man had come.) "It appears Hagrid is up to his old tricks."

"Harry stumbled across Fluffy?" Albus asked. It would be somewhat relieving if that was the case; Albus had fully expected a handful of students to discover the beast at some point - some children seemed to take the promise of a very painful death as less of a warning and more of a challenge. Albus considered it something of a testament to how well-behaved the student body was in general that the whole school didn't know about the Cerberus on the third floor. Though perhaps next time, in the unfortunate event that something similar were to happen in the future, Albus would chose a wording that was a little less dire. After all, Fluffy was far too well trained to pose any real danger to someone just sticking their head in the door; he would only attack if someone tried to approach the trapdoor he was guarding.

Honestly, he just wished Flamel would hurry and get his own safe-keeping place for the Stone together. Yes, Albus owed Flamel a favour, but this was supposed to be a stopgap measure and one that only lasted a month or two, not three-quarters of a year. He would have to make sure to be more specific on the time window as well next time; in retrospect he probably should have realized that a ‘few months at most' meant something different to someone in his sixth century of life than to someone in their first or second.

"That's not what I was referring to. Apparently, as of this morning, Hagrid is the proud owner of a freshly-hatched baby dragon," Severus said.

"Oh dear." That was taking things a bit too far. Albus knew that Rubeus had a fondness for magical creatures, and a good deal of skill in the care and raising of them - personally, Albus considered his gift to be almost on par with Albus's own for transfiguration - and if Albus ever found himself in the position that he needed someone to raise a dragon, Rubeus would likely be his first choice. However, Albus did not need a dragon either now or for the foreseeable future, and keeping one on school grounds was dangerous in the extreme, not to mention very illegal. "How did Rubeus even managed to get his hands on a dragon?" Albus felt compelled to ask.

"According to Harry, he won the egg in a card game." One which had almost certainly been played down at the Hog's Head. Really, Albus understood, and even agreed with to a certain degree, Aberforth's inclination toward turning a blind eye now and again, but if it was to the point that he failed to notice a dragon's egg changing hands, he was taking things a bit too far. And if he had only been pretending not to notice... well, Albus was aware that the two of them weren't exactly suffused with brotherly feeling, but a little warning, for the sake of the children if nothing else, would have been nice.

"I had better go talk to Rubeus," Albus said, getting up. Well, he had wanted something more interesting to do than creating class schedules, which this conversation certainly promised to be. Be careful what you wish for, and Albus should really be old enough to know better by now.

"Headmaster," Severus said, and Albus turned to look at him again. "Harry was very anxious on Hagrid's behalf when he confided in me. In fact, he attempted to make me promise that Hagrid would not get into any trouble for his actions before telling me anything."

"A promise I'm presuming you didn't make?" Albus said. He wasn't planning on firing Rubeus, nor bringing any sort of legal action against him - especially not after Rubeus had been falsely blamed for the Chamber of Secrets incident and with Cornelius being as... excitable as he was - but Rubeus was certainly due for a reprimand, even if it took breaking a promise with Harry to give it to him.

"Of course not," Severus scoffed. "I just thought you should be made aware of Harry's feelings on the matter."

Albus smiled. "Thank you, Severus, I appreciate it. And I'm sure, were he aware of it, Harry would too."

"I don't do things for appreciation," Severus said bitingly.

"Of course not," Albus responded, subtly mimicking Severus's tones from a minute ago. He let the comment sit for a moment or two before completing it with, "You do it because you care."