DISCLAIMER: That part of this world and those characters you've seen before belong to their Creator: JKR. The rest is mine - although I cannot quit my day job as I make no $$$
SATURDAY, MARCH 18, 1995
"What will cost a fortune?" Daphne asked.
"The food alone!" Hermione replied. "Then there's the potion ingredients. I was thinking of getting those two up to speed in potions through the end of this year during the first day Compression among other things, but that's a lot of ingredients we would need."
"There's way more than enough in the School's open locker," Lucinda said.
"What?"
"Doesn't your Common Room have an attached Potions lab so you can practice?"
"Not that I know of," Hermione said.
"It does," Ginny said. "Aside from Fred and George, no one uses it. I guess everyone assumes it's not allowed."
"It's in the rules," Daphne began. "Any student may brew year appropriate potions in their dorm lab for practice. Snape tells us all that at the beginning of First Year. Although, it does say that the lab's use is at the discretion of the Head of each House and the Potion's Master."
"Who probably said the rest of us can't," Susan growled.
"Anyway, there's an open locker so you can get whatever ingredients you need. So long as it's not a restricted ingredient which you only use for N.E.W.T. levels, anyone can access them and there's loads and loads of them."
"Probably because they buy enough for the whole school," Hermione said.
Daphne could only shrug.
"And the ingredients for the Fertility Potion are not restricted ones," Lucinda said. "Basically, as long as we're talking those ingredients, they're ours for the taking – literally. Now if we move to more advanced stuff, that's another matter as none of us are N.E.W.T.s yet. But we don't even need to worry about that until the Holiday, by which time we're all married, emancipated and have unrestricted access to our personal vaults. Basically, I doubt there's anything we'll need to buy until after that Wednesday."
"What about food?" Hermione asked. "Bog rolls? Those sort of things?"
"You can get forty-eight bog rolls for a Galleon. I've got over a hundred Galleons left from my personal spending fund alone. That's forty-eight hundred rolls. If I called my elf here, I could have them here in a couple of hours."
"I couldn't ask you to…"
"An odd purchase, but you must admit it's for a good cause," Lucinda shrugged.
"Well, I'm sure the food will cost a lot more than a hundred Galleons."
"You eat caviar and truffles and the like with every meal, Hermione?" Daphne asked somewhat jokingly.
"Of course not!"
"You don't pay for food."
"What? Okay I know it's part of our tuition but…"
"Aside from luxury foods and certain rare imports, no one living in the magical world pays for food!"
"But the restaurants in Diagon Alley," Hermione began, "the Three Brooksticks? Honeydukes? I've even seen a bakery! You have to pay there!"
"You're paying for the service," Daphne said. "You're paying for someone else to cook it. The basic ingredients are free in our world."
"That makes no sense! You can't conjure food! That's a fundamental law of transfiguration!"
"You're correct. Food cannot be made magically. You can summon it. If you have it, you can transfigure it into something similar, but that's it. Where does food come from?"
"Farms!"
"Unless it's fish," Luna said.
"Then it's caught."
Daphne shook her head. "I'm sure you've thought of this, but they really should teach people how the magical world works. I'd bet even a fair few Purebloods have no clue and they really should. Let me ask you this: how many students from magical families do you know whose parents are farmers – not gardeners, farmers or fishermen for that matter?"
"Um … none?"
"There might be the odd eccentric out there," Daphne conceded, "but that's right. A farm is hard to hide from Muggles. That and many magicals consider such things beneath their abilities. Magical plants and animals are another thing, of course. But we generally don't eat those. All of the food we eat comes from the Muggle World, or at least that's where we get all the ingredients."
"Wait! We get most all if not all our food from the Muggle World and yet we don't have to pay for it? You're not saying we steal it, are you?"
"I won't say it never happens," Daphne said. "I won't say there's some wizard out there who won't nick a Sheppard's pie left unattended, but no, we don't steal our food. However there was a time a few hundred years ago when we did, at least to a large extent."
"Why?"
"First of all, and I know how much you like to do well in class, but if you want to know the truth or at least what is more likely the truth, forget almost everything we've learned in History of Magic. That stuff is Pureblood rubbish of almost the worst sort and is mostly a self serving pack of half truths and lies. Having said that, and unlike what Binns teaches, until about the Fifth Century A.D. the magical world and Muggle World got along about as well as any collection of peoples. We've never been numerous. Even today and including Muggle Borns, there's only about one of us for every thousand Muggles and, for the most part, that ratio is normal. In ancient times, we served as priests and priestesses – for those religions focused on nature and the stars which we were believed to have a certain affinity for. We were also scribes, as in the dawn of writing that was considered a magical art. We were craftsmen, mostly working in metals and woodworking. We were counselors and teachers of wisdom, mainly due to our much longer lives. We kept the oral histories. And we were healers and teachers.
"Not all of us mind you. There always have been evil witches and wizards. And we were to keep them in line as well. Moreover, before Hogwarts, just being magical did not mean you became trained at all. You needed to be chosen as an apprentice or the like. We did not farm. There were far too few of us and we were spread out far too much to make a go of it, unless we wished to be totally subject to Muggle authority (as magicals who did not own land or farm, we were paid in food – if money was scarce – or money and generally were exempted from taxation.) There were those who became wealthy, usually as warrior-wizards during successful campaigns where the looting was particularly lucrative. But mostly we lived lives better than most our Muggle neighbors, but not at the absolute top.
"This, as I said, began to change in the Fifth Century."
"Christianity," Hermione nodded.
"Actually no. There was the odd cleric here or there, but the Church itself was one of the last to give us organized trouble. Not, it was the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the economic and political chaos that followed. A region hard pressed by invaders or their pillaging might blame their fate on magic and hunt for magicals to kill. A victorious warlord would want to get rid of the local magicals so they could be replaced by those loyal to him. Every once in a while, some catastrophe might be blamed on the works of Satan or a local cleric might want to stamp out whatever was left of the pre-Christian religion. But these pogroms were always fairly local and, after a while, not too effective. After all, once the witch or wizard you did know either got killed or fled, it's not like the new one was about to stick his head up too much. Fortunately, there was a lively black market even in the worst of those bad times that allowed our people to make some living, although that was also when we began our on again, off again association with the Goblins and seeking fortunes Muggle could not – unless they found out and they'd then kill us just for the gold. We were really persecuted when it was politically expedient for the Muggles, or when there was gold or such to rob.
"Now, one of the things we were often accused of was using magic to destroy crops and livestock. I won't say that never happened. There were Dark Wizards who did that from time to time. I will say, if things got bad for the local magicals, they might turn to stealing food which they could do far more easily and with less risk of capture than Muggles. On paper, it should not have been too big a deal. It should not have resulted in tens of thousands or more deaths over the centuries. After all we're outnumbered a thousand to one. If I went to a field and took one shaft of wheat for every thousand standing, that would be my share in an equitable distribution and the farmer would never know there was a loss. If I stole one sheep out of a thousand, same thing. Except, it's not easy to do that. A whole field would disappear or a whole flock. That wheat and mutton may well feed a lot of magicals for a year, but the loss is hardly unnoticeable. Until things really got bad, if we caught you stealing crops, we accused you of sorcery, bore witness and left you to your fate with the local Lord.
"It all started coming apart for good in the Fourteenth Century. What had been isolated witch hunts would grow into the Muggle equivalent of Quidditch. Again, the underlying cause was economic now coupled with true fear. In the early part of that century, the weather changed for the worse throughout much of Europe and no we didn't do it! Crops failed almost every year after several centuries of large harvests. Famine affects everyone, us included. At the same time, the Kings and Lords were consolidating power and war was becoming both constant and ruinous to all. Widespread famine was averted only because the Black Death wiped out a third of the mouths in need of feeding. We fared better than the Muggles, but not by much. They estimate that by the end of the century, the total depopulation was around fifty-percent. Ours was about half of that. Naturally, who are the Muggle going to blame? If there weren't any Jewish communities conveniently close by, it had to be witchcraft! Admittedly by then we were much better at hiding than we were centuries earlier, but now even our black market economy with the Muggles was falling apart. It was only at this late date that the Roman Church declared witchcraft was per se heresy and witch persecution received a church wide blessing of sorts."
"Of sorts?"
"The Muggle masses were out for blood. The Church was out for souls. Even if they caught a real witch, if she confessed and sought absolution, they might let her off. Even if not, the catchers wanted to see a good burning that day. Church law was never expedient and if the burning did occur it might be months or even years later (things were so much quicker before when it was just a rogue cleric who did not have to consult with Rome or the Inquisition about such things.) A real witch fearing capture was more likely to turn herself over to the slow working Church than the fast working local authorities as there was more chance of escape."
"But didn't the Church torture?"
"Everyone did then. Either way you'd be in for it. With the Church, however, it was not over once you confessed. With the locals, your next visitor would probably be your executioner. With the Church, it was some higher up and if you recanted, they'd actually do something almost like a real investigation and trial. That's why it took so long."
"The Protestant Reformation was an even bigger disaster."
"Why?"
"They made the Roman Catholic Church look like cute little kittens. They adopted a book written by a couple of Catholic priests who had been in the Roman Inquisition. The two men had left to teach or study at a university and requested permission to write the guidebook on unveiling and dealing with heretics. Both the University and Bishop thought they meant Protestants so when they submitted a book on witch hunting for pre-publication approval, one which openly defied accepted practice and church law, they were told no. They submitted it higher in the chain and were told no. They then forged an approval, sent it to publication and were caught. They were excommunicated and convicted of heresy, and the Pope himself banned him book as a work of heresy the mere possession of which could result in excommunication. It had such wonderful ways of proving a woman was a witch such as if she had any warts or blemishes on her skin or a black cat or cursed at her husband. The Protestants – or at least enough of them – who could care less what the Pope said, loved it.
"The result was we had to find a creative way to get food as any connection with Muggles was potentially deadly. Food brokers (always from Muggle Born lines who kept a Muggle like existence) came into being and were able to buy food for resale in places like Diagon Alley. Of course, it was much more expensive than before, so less scrupulous brokers simply stole the food to undercut the competition, feeding the fires as it were. The economic crisis fomented the worst anti-magic campaigns ever and triggered the Conference which led to the Statute of Secrecy. One of that conventions key provisions was that each signing power had to ensure no magical had cause to steal crops, livestock, flour or such from Muggles again.
"The Ministry of Magic did not exist before 1692 and our ratification of the Statute of Secrecy. It's sole Charter then was to enforce that Statute. However, Magical Law Enforcement was not the first Department formed. The first was the Department of Tariffs, Trade and Revenue. Could have caused an uproar, but everyone knew it was that or we could cease to exist. We magicals had no formal system of taxation before. Basically, whatever money the Wizengamot had to play with came from fines or fees of various kinds, which were not constant and seldom a lot. Immediately after taxes started coming in, the Department of Economic Affairs began operations. Although it does more now, as does the Ministry, its job was to buy as much food as was needed to support the magical population. Food was 'rationed' then to prevent hoarding, but within a couple of years, even the poorest Hedge Witch had no need to steal food. Thanks to Stasis Charms, the Ministry has always bought as much as it can based upon the budget – which is always more than it absolutely needs – and food availability. Magical Britain weathered the Irish Potato famine (as Irish magicals were affected by it although not nearly as much as the Muggles) and the shortages of the Muggle World Wars because we had built up huge stockpiles. It's not uncommon these days for families to keep a year's supply of food just in case, assuming they have room."
"And we can get all we need?" Hermione asked in disbelief.
"Probably not in one day," Lucinda said. "By my calculations, including elves we need a total of about 130,000 rations for your renovation, our Harry and Neville time and the fifteen months with guests. That's less than a day's supply for the country which, unless bought all at once, won't even raise an eyebrow in all likelihood. If we get the elves started on that, say, today? They will be doing the menus and such, then I'd say we get 13,000 rations a day from now until we start the Spring Holiday. With all our elves involved, that's less than a thousand per elf per day or food for a family of four for two and a half months or so, which really would not look odd at all."
Hermione shook her head. "A government doling out food?"
"Remember, that does not include what the DEA considers luxury items. There's a couple of specialty shops that sell those. But, what we normally eat here – some of the French dishes might have had some regulated ingredients in them – that's all government issue," Daphne said. "This isn't the Muggle world. Magic is free after all. We aren't paying for a military or roads or public improvements or stuff like that. Things like the Floo don't cost us anything to set up or maintain. That's actually a money maker as there's a small annual fee to maintain a general connection and a decent warder can set up a dedicated connection between two locations at no cost to them or the government. Food purchases account for about half of the budget. Aside from the salaries for the Ministry employees, about the only other major expenditure is St. Mungos, and about half its budget and almost all of Hogwarts is from donations by the very wealthy to cut down their taxes."
"The current system which has been working for over 300 years probably saved us from oblivion. In 1692, most witches and wizards who remained in this world were dirt poor. There were few jobs because there was little money. Food was expensive. Olivander's sold wands, as always, but if it weren't for some sympathetic old families who had money, aside from Muggle Borns, few families could afford a wand for their child. You didn't buy course books unless you were both rich and showing off. You didn't buy much of anything except for your wand. My family journal talks about using cauldrons that were probably old and dodgy when Hogwarts was founded. Hogwarts was about the only thing magical Britain had to brag about and, even with the witch hunts in the Americas, a Hogwarts student would more likely than not be on the next boat heading that way when he finished. Most of Diagon Alley was not even shops, just cheap slums. Within a hundred years it was the thriving Alley we know – although not all the shops are the same. Jobs were plentiful and paid better than ever. Everyone was making money if they wanted to and were willing to work."
Hermione shook her head. "They really should teach this stuff."
Tracy nodded. "Gits like Malfoy might then learn we mess with Muggles at the risk of everything even if they do nothing! The Muggles call the period from the Fall of the Western Roman Empire through about the reign of Charlemagne as the 'Dark Ages.' It was a period of economic and political turmoil and intellectual stagnation or decline. For us, I'd say that began around 1350 and continued until about 1750. Magic was lost, forgotten and certainly not advanced much during that time. There were exceptions. But more magic has been invented since then than had been since the beginning of Hogwarts up to that point. Back then, people were too busy trying to buy bread or keep a hold on what their ancestors had made to worry about such things. The Malfoys were among those too busy trying to buy bread."
"Had the Death Eaters gotten closer to success," Daphne said, "it would have ruined us all."
"Okay," Lucinda said, "we've seemed to solve the issues of time, food, potions ingredients – er – guest lists and bog rolls. Anything else on your list?"
"Books. Not just course books but anything we can think of that might be useful. I'd rather not have no library."
"Guess that puts Flourish & Blotts on the must shop list," Ginny chuckled.
"We could also get the elves to help us copy," Daphne said.
"Copy?"
"We find books in the Library or remember some that were useful and get one of our elves to copy it. They conjure a blank and somehow can copy the real thing."
"Really useful for restricted books," Daphne said, "not that I've done that."
"But isn't that illegal?"
"Only if the writer is alive and you try and sell it. I hear Muggle laws are different."
"And school rules?"
"Like we care at this point?"
Hermione shrugged.
"We could also see about books in our family collections – aside from family magics of course," Susan added.
"Anything else?" There were more things. Hermione and the others than discussed what kinds of rooms they might want, what things they thought Harry and Neville could or should learn and anything else that came to mind.
TUESDAY, MARCH 28th 1995
Hermione sat in a comfortable chair in the Library of the wing they now called the Clubhouse. There was a book in her hands and a few of the others were in the Library as well reading. Hermione only looked like she was reading. They had five days left before the Time Compression ended and they could 'go back to Hogwarts' as had become the expression. It was the first time since they started this project that they had so much down time as it was finally mostly complete, although Hermione still thought there were things that could be done here and there as did many if not all of the others.
When she first thought up the use of Time Compression and even though she had planned to use most if not all of the Wing, she figured it would not take all that long to reconfigure the floors as they wanted once Dobby and Winky were helping. Yet even with fourteen House Elves and eighteen young witches, it had been a lot harder and slower work than she had thought. She planned for ten hours of time Compression, one hour each day starting on the twenty-first and running through today with one day where they would not need to be here at all. She also figured that maybe aside from the first and last day of the project, they didn't all need to be here every day. She was mistaken. Magic can do a lot of amazing things and the Clubhouse was just that, but it can still take a lot of work and time.
That first Sunday, the group of them entered Time Compression right after lunch. Thirty days compressed time later, their hopes of being able to return and not sleep on camp beds or eat camp rations were unfulfilled. It took two weeks just to sort through all the junk deciding what could be reused and what would be material for transfiguration. It was only after they had finished that that they could even begin to get the wing ready to being any renovations. Of course, at least by then they had agreed on a lot of possibilities for their finished project.
When she first thought of this, she thought it would be a simple matter of turning an existing room into another use. Naturally, it was not that simple. She also thought with elves it would be a snap. Again, it was easier – the fact was it could have taken years in Compressed Time to do it otherwise given that the elves knew the magic and they did not. But it was still a lot of work. It may have been easier if the elves – or even many of them – had done this before. Only Dobby had and that was as a worker. But as odd as Dobby was, he was also very, very smart and observant in Hermione's opinion. Years ago, he had been one of the elf workers on a major renovation of Malfoy Manor. The renovation was headed by a team of Goblins as many such renovations were. But Dobby had paid attention. As such, thankfully and by default, Dobby was for all practical purposes the Foreman and the girls' "expert" on the project and redesign.
Hermione's plan was to renovate one floor at a time. Dobby agreed that was best. Hermione's plan was to clean the floor, renovate it and then move on starting with living spaces and moving from there. Dobby disagreed. Dobby suggested they picked the floor they would renovate last (one of the Guest Floors), move the junk from that floor out, gut it, move all the junk from all the floors into it, sort it, then gut the rest of the wing all the while working on the details of the renovation plan. He then suggested the storage and kitchens be the first, as they would be on camp rations until the kitchen was up and running and they could not even hope to bring in regular food stores until there were storeroom. Then they could renovate the other Guest floor so the Girls could have real beds instead of camp beds and some semblance of privacy before moving on to the rest of the wing. They went with Dobby's plan.
The Wing was like a long finger extending from the south wall of the castle on a rocky peninsula out into the Black Lake. The end of the wing that attached to the castle which was the northern most point in the Wing they called "Hogwart's Side." The southernmost end they called "Lake Side" and there the two side walls bent in upon each other forming a round, half circle wall. They called that part, the round end of the Wing, the "Roundel."
The Wing's dungeons had no windows. This was where they planned to put the storerooms and Kitchens and that plan did not change. It was actually at the same level as the Castle's Ground Floor, which was where the main entrance to the Castle was, the entrance to the stair leading to Dumbledore's office, the Hogwarts Kitchens and entrance to Hufflepuff House, and the Defense Against the Dark Arts Classroom. (The "real" dungeons held Slytherin House and their Potions class.) If there had been a doorway to the Castle, it was long since bricked over and they had searched for it.
The Wing's "Ground Floor" was even with the Castle's First Floor. In the Castle, this was where the Great Hall was located as well as the Transfiguration and History of Magic Classrooms. This floor would be their educational and training floor and again there was no connection to the rest of the Castle.
The only connection was from a corridor on the Second Floor of the Castle, the Wing's First Floor. The Girls had taken to calling this "The Floor With The Door" or "The Main Floor". This was where they had been meeting and where they lived all through the first Compression time. In the Castle, it was the same floor as Moaning Myrtle's Bathroom and the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, the Charms Class Room and the Arithmancy Classroom. A balcony some twenty feet wide extended out from the Roundel on the Lake Side.
The Wing's Second floor would become House Potter private apartments. It too had a balcony extending out from the Roundel, as did all of the floors above it, although this one was only ten feet in width. It was actually even with the school's third floor which held the corridor where Fluffy had guarded the trap door leading to the hiding place of the Philosopher's Stone, the bathroom where Hermione had nearly been killed by a troll, the Hospital Wing and the Ancient Runes Classroom.
In the rest of Hogwarts, the Fourth Floor was where one found the Muggle Studies classroom and the entrance to Ravenclaw tower. For the Wing, this was their Third Floor which would become Longbottom Apartments. The Hogwarts Fifth Floor had the entrance to Gryffindor Tower and the Prefect's Bathroom. In the Wing, at first this was their junk room, although it would become guest rooms. The Hogwarts Sixth Floor had the Astronomy Classroom and the trapdoor leading to Divination. This was the second guest wing in the Club House and the highest floor in the wing. Hogwarts' Seventh Floor held rooms for a few of the school clubs and, Hermione now knew, the Room of Requirement. For the Wing, this was the attic and would become "Neville's Greenhouse."
The past several days or months had been an education, even if it was not one Hermione expected. When she first came to Hogwarts, she had never heard about House Elves. She first heard about them Second Year as Harry claimed there was a House Elf trying to get him to leave school. She had never really looked into them after that, nor thought about them until the end of the previous summer when she saw the summary dismissal of Winky. As she now knew, she "went Muggle" and applied non-magical ideas and standards so a purely magical situation: namely their plight and working conditions. Now, she "owned" a House Elf and was not the least bit concerned for she knew Winky was well treated and happy.
Now she had also learned about magical construction. She had read about it somewhat absently in Hogwarts: A History. The construction of Hogwarts Castle was the subject of the sixth chapter; the first five dealing with the lives of the Founders before Hogwarts and how they came together and why they decided to build "the world's first" formal school of magic. To be honest, even though it was magical, construction was too "normal" and lacked the legendary feel of the rest of the book. She was more interested in the fact that Goblins had been a major part of the work force than how it was actually built.
The Castle (and presumably this Wing) was completed around 950 A.D. Aside from the current Great Hall (built in 1410), Greenhouses (1578 – 1867), and Quidditch Pitch, (1710) and the specific uses of the interior spaces, there had been no significant changes to the appearance or lay out of the structure since it first opened. She knew magic was used to build it, but upon a re-reading (she brought this and a few other books to read when she had time off), she realized she had glossed over many details. Then again, she never thought she would be rebuilding a whole wing.
If someone asked her what Hogwarts looked like and she could not show them a picture, her best description was it was somewhere in between Windsor Castle and the Cinderella Castle she had seen pictures of at that park in the States. It was impressive and imposing, dominating Hogsmeade Valley and fanciful and strikingly beautiful at the same time. One could say it was both very masculine and very feminine at the same time. The walls were of cut stone, rough hewn on the exterior and finished almost to a polish on the interior. The interior gave one the impression of a Gothic manor, chapel or cathedral, depending upon where you were with the light, pointed arches. The soaring windows in the Great Hall truly reminded her of a cathedral.
What she now learned again was that Hogwarts was impossible without magic. Built with stone and mortar, appearing strong and enduring, if the magic imbued in the Castle ever failed, the laws of gravity would take over and it would collapse. But that was all but impossible. It was built on a natural, magical antipode. This was similar a magnetic pole. But while the Earth had but two magnetic poles, it had scores if not hundreds of magical antipodes. Hogsmeade Valley was the largest and most powerful in all the British Isles and it was the inexhaustible abundance of naturally occurring ambient magic that took the place of buttresses, tapering walls which were much thicker at the foundation than at the top, structural steel or reinforced concrete. It also meant that aside from magic, nothing held the stone floors up. There were no true "load bearing" walls. After dealing with the junk, the first thing they had done was to remove all of the interior walls on all the floors. By the time they had finished, the only "walls" left were the stalls for the toilets where one of the "Main Floor's" bathrooms had been. It was surprising how vast and empty the place looked.
They then removed all but one of the fireplaces. The wing did have three real smoke flews on either side that extended from the basement to the chimneys towering above the roof. But these had nothing to do with the placement of the fireplaces. Those essentials of heating were a "permanent" form of transfiguration, not a real hearth. The elves could cancel it and when they did it was if they never had existed. The fireplaces were connected to the flews by magic, which allowed them all to draw smoke even more effectively than a real one. The only one that was left was on the main floor where their camp beds, work tables, chairs and dining table was located.
There had been a staircase just next to "The Door" that linked all the floors save the Attic, which one accessed by a ladder apparently. Once the wing was gutted, two new ones were added. The first was at the corner of the West Wall and Hogwarts itself and went from the Basement all the way up to the attic. The second was on the East wall just north of the Southernmost Roundel Section. It accessed every floor except the Basement and Attic. When these were installed, the old stairs were removed and there was soon no evidence they had ever existed. It was only then that the real renovations could begin and it had taken the lot of them twenty-three days to reach that point. Fortunately, the elves were able to complete the renovations of the Basement in the time that remained. The Basement Roundel became the Kitchens. Along the east wall, a four foot wide corridor extended all the way back to the castle wall, where it turned left leading to the stairs. The remaining space was dived into ten rooms. The one next to the Kitchen was for dishes and cleaning. The next one would serve as the Elf Barracks. The next five were for food storage. The last two were for general supplies, such as the bog rolls.
But their second week in Compression, while now eating the first of their cooked meals from their new and growing food supplies, found them still camped out on the Main Floor. The renovations moved to the top of the wing. The Attic, expanded magically several times over, was turned into a huge greenhouse pretty quickly, although no one would be able to tell from the outside. There were growing tables throughout and a watering system. There were also a couple of work tables, upon which were tools and several boxes containing seeds and cuttings, all labeled, of just about every plant in the Hogwarts Greenhouses and even a few that were not. There were also some rose bushes, already planted and being tended as Ginny and some others knew Neville loved working with those none magical plants but that they took too much time to mature from a seed.
The floor below became the Upper Guest Wing. The Roundel was turned into a sitting room with huge windows overlooking the countryside. The rest of the flood was turned into 22 suites, eleven on either side of a wide corridor. The suites included a bedroom, with a fireplace on the center of the outer wall flanked by two windows. In addition to a large bed, nightstands, dressing table and chest of drawers, there was also a small sitting area for reading or relaxing. Each suite also had a private bath (with window) and a large closet. The suites were also magically expanded to ensure more than enough space. They reminded Hermione of very nice hotel rooms and the girls finished their last week of time compression in real beds, with a private bath and out of the Main Floor.
During the last week and part of the next Compression, some of the girls worked on decorating the Guest Floor. The real work was now on the floor just above the kitchens. This work would take seven weeks compression time. The floor would be their "school." The Roundel became a magical training and dueling gym. Heading towards the castle, there were then to locker rooms with showers, one for boys and one for girls. Then there was another gym, this one for physical training. Next to the gym was a swimming pool. This floor a wall separated this part of the magically expanded floor from the rest. On the other side, the castle wall was the far end of their Research Library. Beyond the rows of books shelves were tables for reading and working. A corridor led away from the library. On the right hand side were three classrooms the same size as an average classroom. On the left were two bathrooms, one for girls and one for boys. Next to that was their potions supply room and then a large potions lab, almost the size of their Potions classroom back in the school. The far end was their Hospital wing. It had large windows and a total of eight beds. The Healer's office, supply room, a delivery room and Nursery were just beyond that. This floor was the most magically expanded of all the floors.
Much of Hermione's spare time over the next months was spent in the Library which she found more relaxing and light and comfortable than Hogwart's own. Before each Time Compression, more books arrived. Many had been copied from the Hogwarts Library and many more from the various private libraries they now had access to. She, Winky and some of the others were going though all the books, categorizing and shelving them. Hermione hoped within these books there would be answers. She hoped there would be knowledge here that would help Harry survive this tournament and prepare for the future beyond. From Lucinda's family there were several books on Dark Arts, although these were not how to books. These were how to defeat those arts books. There was one on necromancy that intrigued her for that sounded like it might have magical that would explain Voldemort. There was also a manuscript on dueling written by a man named Caldwell about 300 years earlier. She and Padma had found it behind some unrelated books in the Library and, as it had no Hogwarts stamp, nicked it. Susan heard of a Caldwell who had been the greatest duelist of his day who, it was said, achieved a level of proficiency no one had ever approached. That seemed promising too. But, much as she wanted to, Hermione had little time to read. There were quite literally thousands of books to catalog, sort and shelve for later use.
They tackled the main floor next. It became their Common Room, for lack of a better word, although it was really several rooms. Castle side was turned into a huge foyer and sitting room with large windows east and west and two huge fireplaces. There were then two bathrooms followed by two Salons, smaller sitting rooms each decorated in a different fashion. Beyond that was their main dining room, a ball room, a recreation room (which had game tables and some Muggle games as well, namely pocket billiards, a couple of dart boards and a foosball table. Hermione did not want to know how the elves got those and hoped they were transfigured or something.) and what she called a "Recreational Library" which now contained over a thousand books from her own home (copies Winky had obtained) including her own literary favorites. The Roundel was a huge sunroom that looked almost like it was all glass. It had a piano, another item Hermione hoped was not nicked from the Muggles.
The next two floors were laid out identically, but were very different in their final décor. One would be "Potter House" and the other "Longbottom House." The Roundel on each opened onto a private balcony around the Roundel. The Roundel was the "Master's Bedchamber." Off the bedchamber was a huge bath and closet. The door from the bedchamber opened on a corridor that led to the Castle Wall. The master study was on one side, just beyond the stair. Beyond that the floor opened into the Family Common Room, Dining Room and kitchen. And beyond that, another corridor continued heading towards the Castle and the other stair. On either side were nine suites for the "wives" each with a large bedchamber, private bath, large walk-in closet, sitting room, study and the nursery.
The final floor was finished during Monday's Compression. It was identical to the Guest Floor above in lay out but instead of Guest Suites numbered 601 – 622, these were suites 501 – 522. Aside from being used as transfiguration materials, little of the junk that had been on the floor was reused. They kept some swords, shields, pikes, and battle axes – mainly for decorations on the Main Floor – and four suits of armor, again to give their Clubhouse a Castle feel even though it looked more like a manor on the inside. There were also four busts which they identified as being those of the Founders which also found new homes on the Main Floor.
Today's time compression had been mostly about finishing touches. Everyone wanted the place to be special. Each girl spent days working on their personal suites and each family days on their House. They all worked on the Main Floor and guest floors as well. The wing would be unrecognizable with all the new window they cut, although many might not be visible as they were in expanded rooms. From the inside, though, you could not tell. All the windows could open to allow a breeze. But early in the construction during their down time, Hermione was reading and advanced book on wards. Even before the first hole was cut, she had figured out the Fidelius Charm and cast it on the Wing. It took several tries to get it right, but somehow she did. Ginny was the secret Keeper and once cast, the South Wing of Hogwarts Castle passed from living memory. It now only existed in the pages of books.
The lighting was installed throughout as well. Every room had magical candles in wall sconces, chandeliers or other fixtures. These candles burned with a magical flame that lasted for years of constant use and, while giving off more light then normal candles, gave off virtually no heat and no smoke or soot. And they were all charmed to light on command or when someone entered the room or corridor after dark. No dreary torches in this wing!
Mentally, Hermione worked through her list of things to do as she always did and finally it seemed her list was empty. The storerooms were filled with food and supplies. Aside from a change of clothes, all her things were now up in her Suite. They might make some additional changes, but all the major work was done. She could not think of another book she might need, but she had a catalog of every book in the library and one she could carry with her in her purse as they did plan to go to Diagon Alley. Harry had agreed to spend the Holiday training and seemed eager. He did not want to be trying to figure out how to survive the last task the day before like the last two times. They had even completed the arrangements for most of their weekend guests, at least those who would not otherwise already be at Hogwarts. They sent out letters the week before that were actually invitations. Everyone, it seemed, was planning on coming. Her parents were excited to have a chance to see her school and Winky would bring them here. Other elves were assigned to provide transport to the other families and a special floo connection would be available for the magicals. The letter was keyed to all th guests and only they could read them or use them to pass through the wards. Over the last several months, other wards had been layered on the existing ones. Hermione was pretty certain they could apparate within the wing if they knew how and she hoped they could get one of the adults to teach them. It turned out, Rosie's Dad worked in Magical Accidents and could deal with splinching. Sirius and Remus would actually be arriving the night before. Hopefully, Hermione would have a plan by then on how to keep Sirius from winding up arrested as one of the guests was the Head of DMLE. As for the Guests who already were at Hogwarts, they would deal with that problem on Thursday or Friday.
It had been hard work, but Hermione was glad they had done it. Even if they suddenly decided not to go forward with their plan, all of them had learned a lot of magic. The last few days were being spent relaxing. The Clubhouse Girls were all now close friends, although each had their own smaller group of best friends. The contraception potions had all worn off by now and no one had a meeting with Madam Pomfrey between now and the end of the Holiday. They had worked out "lesson plans" for Harry and Neville for "tomorrow." Soon, Time Compression would lift and they would return to reality. They would leave in time for dinner and sleep in their "former" dorms. At breakfast "tomorrow," Hermione and Ginny would eat with Harry and Neville and tell them about their great, new training room and bring them here. Beginning at nine, Time Compression would activate "trapping" them in here. There could be no going back after that. One by one, each of the girls' "Time" would arrive and they would have to make the same choice: continue or go back. There was no going back for Hermione or Ginny. Susan and Hannah were also certain to continue. The others? Only four others need to, provided they were the "right" four. "Tomorrow" had become a taboo subject. Each girl was left to her own thoughts by silent agreement. Hermione was not dwelling on ending the Holiday a wife and maybe a mother. Her thoughts were when was she going to tell Harry the truth about what was going on and how was she going to do it?
