Chapter 10: The Lectern and the new Council

The Potters have a pleasant meal together and when everyone has cleared the hall, the couple walks up to the front to meet with the headmaster and the other Professors.

"You wanted to see us Headmaster?" they ask in unison.

Professor McGonagall groans," Not the twins again."

"Whatever do you mean?" they say in unison again to the amusement of everyone.

"We've been able to do that since we were bonded. Drives our parents crazy while being great fun for us," Hermione says smiling," What can we do for you?"

The headmaster says," First of all, I wanted to say thank you for helping Severus, and the other wonderful things you both have done today. I feel much better now with the new wards."

The headmaster looked around and noticed Quirell wasn't there.

"Is something wrong Headmaster," Harry asks?

"No, not really, I guess our defense professor isn't interested in why I called this meeting. Oh well it's his loss. There are two things I want to ask you Mrs. Potter. First, Professor Sinistra has a cousin that is in the Wood Crafting trade and wants to get permission to use your design for the Lectern in Professor Flitwick's class to craft more to sell. They would be willing to make a contract with you to share any profits from sales. And second, would you make one for here in the great hall," he asks?

Hermione just laughs, looked at professor Sinistra and says," That design is not really mine. I just remembered a picture I saw in a catalog and used that to conjure the one for professor Flitwick. The picture didn't show all the details since it was just a flat two sided view, so of course I had to fill in a few details as I pictured what I thought it should look like. All lecterns have the same general design and are used in the muggle world by churches, schools and businesses that have large meeting rooms for the speaker to stand behind to do his or her presentation. He can look at that one and get ideas for his own designs. They can be anything from a fancy design to a stick with a flat board on top to hold your book. No contract is necessary."

She turns back to the Headmaster and puts her finger on her chin while thinking.

"I know what kind of lectern we need here," she says brightly," we need one anyone can use."

She takes her wand out for appearance sake and points it to where the lectern needs to be. There is a bright flash and a beautiful mahogany lectern appears where the Headmaster always stands to make his speeches. The lectern is about three feet wide and five feet tall with round gold colored hand rails going up the back. On the front was the Hogwarts crest with a blank gold name plaque above it and right below the top. The plaque was to display the name of the current speaker. The top was slanted slightly so the speaker could glance down at their notes easily with raised sides to keep a breeze from blowing the notes away. The standing platform had a cushioned pad on it for comfort and was adjustable for the person using it.

Hermione looks it over and says," I hope I got it high enough to see over the heads of the students. The platform has a permanent levitating charm on it that will raise and lower you to the desired height you need. The charm uses the schools magic to stay charged."

She looks over at Professor Sinistra and asks her," Is there a way to keep a charm charged in a public setting?

The professor thinks for a minute and says," Yes. I believe there are some runes that would work for that. Since you can make them permanent, we might need that contract after all."

Hermione says," Fine, any profits can go to the school. You just need to show us what to do."

Hermione looks at Professor Flitwick and asks," Would you mind being the guinea pig for testing?"

He laughs and says," I'd be delighted." He walks over and stands next to the lectern.

Hermione says by way of instruction," The standing platform has two parts you need to be aware of. The back section here is not padded and has a line to show you where to stand," she points to the back section which has the line showing where to stand," To start the lifting process, take hold of the hand rails so you don't lose your balance and step onto the line. When you have reached your desired height, step on to the padded area and you will stop rising. This should make is easier to give your speech or lesson as you will be able to see all of your audience while they can see you. When you are done, step back on the line again and you will come down. Be sure to hold onto the hand rails for safety. Each time you step off the line and back on again the direction will change. Go ahead and give it a try professor."

Professor Flitwick grabs the hand rails and steps onto the line causing the platform to start lifting him up. When gets where he wants to be, he steps forward and the lift stops. He looks around and claps his hands and says," Well done Mrs. Potter this is perfect. Now I can give lessons in here without standing on the head table to be seen, wonderful."

He steps back onto the line to come down while grabbing the rails and when he gets down everyone else gives it a try. After they were all done they gather around Mrs. Potter to congratulate her for a job well done. The Headmaster clears his throat to get every ones attention.

He looks at Hermione and says." Do you have any idea what you have done is called?"

She looks at Harry who just shrugs his shoulders and looks back at the Headmaster and says," I didn't know it had name other than conjuring."

The headmaster smiles and explains," Permanent conjuring is called enchantment. Very few wizards or witches can do it and even then, not in this detail. This type of enchantment takes a lot of power and control. Quite remarkable for one so young, although, after what I saw this morning not so surprising."

Hermione just blushes and says," Harry and I have only been doing magic since his birthday at the end of July. We bought a lot of advanced books about various branches of magic and tried the out the spells found in them. They all worked for us. In one of the first advanced books we looked at after finishing our course books we read that magic is all about intent. If you know what you want to do with your magic and have the power, you can do anything. I guess we have the power because everything we have tried so far has worked."

The headmaster thinks this over and nods. He says," I still don't understand how you have that much power in such small bodies."

Hermione thinks to Harry while looking at him," do you think it's alright to tell them?"

Harry considers it for a few seconds while looking back at her and thinks," We will really need the help of adults for guidance until we grow up and mature."

"But which ones do we pick? We want a well-rounded council of advisors," Hermione thinks to Harry.

"I would suggest each head of house, plus the Headmaster. We know we can trust them as they are the permanent staff of the school and will be here until they retire." Harry thinks back to Hermione.

"That sounds good to me. You ready to give them our decision?" Hermione thinks to Harry.

Harry says out loud," Yes let's do it."

While they are talking Minerva whispers to Albus," Look at them, they are having a discussion in their heads about what to do next."

He just nods and whispers back," Let's just see what they come up with, shall we."

Harry looks at the Headmaster and says," There is an explanation, but it is something that is very private to Hermione and I, so we would like to request the four heads of house to retire to the Headmasters office for this discussion."

"Very well Mr. Potter, let's retire to my office. Everyone else is dismissed, thank you for your time away from your evening." The Headmaster says.

As they walk up towards the Headmaster's office the gargoyle moves aside with no prompting allowing everyone to proceed up the stairs. Once in the office Harry points his wand toward the corner and duplicates Fawkes perch for him so he can come home.

Harry says," Hedwig told us Fawkes came back. I'm glad for you sir."

"Thank you Harry,"Albus says.

Albus conjures some nice chairs in a circle for the meeting and everyone but Harry takes a seat. Harry sets privacy wards around the immediate group so the portraits can't hear anything and anti-intruder wards around the room to prevent unwanted entry. The Headmaster raises his eyebrows, but doesn't say anything.

Harry looks over at Hermione for reassurance. She nods so he starts," I picked the heads of house and you Headmaster because you five are more or less permanent employees of the school. Before I start, I would like to ask if you are willing to give oaths of fealty to me and Hermione as we don't want this to ever get out of this room until we say so. It is not dangerous to any of you unless you were let it slip what we are. This would fall under the Queens state secrets act if we were muggles."

He looks around trying to gauge their reaction. He reaches over and grabs Hermione's hand. She stands up next to him and holds on tight.

Harry says," the oath could be worded like this: 'I ,your name, swear on my life and magic that I will not reveal The Potters secrets, nor will I ever betray them, so mote it be.' We are not trying to make you servants or anything. We just want you to keep our secrets, and also be our advisors in case anything major comes up that we can't handle due to our lack of experience or that our unique abilities might solve. We are still children and need adults in our lives until we grow up and become fully mature. We would consider you five our council of advisors. "

Everyone let out a breath of relief and agreed to give oath for those reasons. After oaths were given and accepted all around Harry continued with Hermione standing at his side:

"First, have any of you ever heard the legend of the Elders?"

The Headmaster says," there are legends of mages that could do wandless magic and pretty much whatever they wanted with magic itself. I believe Merlin might have been one."

Harry nods," That might be possible. Headmaster, since the Prophesy has a large role in this; could you replay it for the council? It will help everyone understand what I am going to tell them."

"Of course Harry, if you think it is important." He takes his pensive out and places it on the table and pulls the memory for viewing and deposits it in the bowl."

He swirls it around and everyone sticks a finger in the bowl to enter the memory.

They find themselves in a room with a younger Dumbledore and Trelawney.

"This was my interview with Professor Trelawney for her job at divination."

Harry says," She is descended from a group of oracles that crash landed their spaceship here millennia ago, most of the seers are. The ship was damaged beyond repair with no way to call for help. There may have been a few that were native to this planet, but who knows. Look, she's starting."

The young lady that is now the Divination professor's eyes glaze as they watch over and she throws her head back and recites:

"The one to vanquish the dark lord approaches. Born as the seventh month dies. Born to ones who have thrice defied him. With his soul mate by his side, they will have powers the dark lord knows not. Powers from Heaven and Earth not understood by mortal man. Together they will bring the world into peace and harmony. The one to vanquish the dark lord approaches."

When her eyes re-focus the memory ends and everyone finds themselves back in their seats.

They all look at Harry as he says," That was a true Prophesy which was originally heard on a planet called Thebes in the Magnus galaxy. Everyone here knows what a galaxy is right?"

Everyone nods," Sorry, I'm not trying to contest your intelligence. It is just the Magical world in England is at least two hundred years behind the muggle world in society and government. If the general muggle public ever finds out about us we are doomed. There are at least one thousand of them to every one of us. Voldemort seems to think muggles are beneath us and almost exposed our world with his last war. Indiscriminately killing muggles for sport is NOT a good idea. It focuses too much attention on us. The pureblood bigots out there like the Malfoys have no concept of the difference between our worlds. They think like Voldemort as far as muggles are concerned. For example: The Malfoys have a nice, large mansion that is protected by very good wards against attack by wizards. They probably have muggle repelling wards that won't allow muggles to see their house, much like Hogwarts. I promise you that if the muggls were to put their best scientific minds to the problem, they would find a way to see the house, even if it was just a blank area on the radar screen that should have something there. All that is needed to destroy their large home is a single bomb dropped by an airplane twenty thousand feet high in the air and guided by a laser aimed by a soldier on the ground and the bomb will hit the house leaving nothing but a crater. They also have single bombs that can destroy whole cities. Thank Merlin they have only been used on two cities in Japan to end the muggles world war two. Albus may know something about that."

He nods to confirm Harry's story.

"I know that was fairly long, but all of that is part of the reason we were created and sent here," Harry explains.

"Hermione and I are not one hundred percent what people of Earth would call human. We were both born here on Earth by mothers who couldn't have children of their own. The only thing Earth human about our DNA is we look like our parents and have the magical blood line of our ancestors. The rest of our DNA has been enhanced by magical technicians from another planet in the Genova Galaxy a few million light years from here. If I'm talking over your head, don't worry about it as it really doesn't mean anything other than we are part alien from another planet sent to save Earth from itself."

"It all started with the Prophesy being received by the recipient oracle on the planet most of our DNA is from. They extracted two eggs from two different mothers on our planet and the seed from the fathers on this planet, manipulating and enhancing the DNA to insure success; along with adding Nano-probes to help our bodies cope until they matured enough. Maturation of our bodies happened to each of us when we turned eight which is the age most witches and wizards start manifesting magical powers. The probes are also the reason we have perfect recall, they record everything. Hermione's parents knew about the procedure as they volunteered for it. They were desperate for a child and Earth medical technology couldn't fix her mother's problem. They had found an ad in a medical journal they subscribed to and paid a visit to a small clinic. Once they arrived at the clinic a scanning device that was discreetly hidden in the door traced their bloodlines back to two of the founders of Hogwarts which was perfect for fulfilling the Prophesy. Hermione is not a muggle born like everyone thinks. My parents were chosen because their ancestry was a matter of record. They were visited in the night while they were sleeping."

"What planet are you from Harry?" Dumbledore asks.

"The planets name was Solust but it was destroyed sometime around my birth when its sun went nova. We call Earth home since we were born here. There are uncounted numbers of other planets in the twenty eight known galaxies and we are here to bring Earth into the Intergalactic Community of Planets which will probably take a few years. We have to unite the governments of Earth first. Hopefully that will happen during your lifetime. Hermione and I are Elders, like the ones of legend, but being born here on Earth under the radiation from a medium "G" type star with our different DNA has had one side effect that was unexpected by our medical technicians."

"What was that," Severus asks?

"The Prophesy that started all of this was actually from the Creator of all things and made us immortal when we bonded." Harry says.

Everyone gasps and look at them in awe and then gets down on their knees with their heads bowed.

Harry says," No need for that, we are not gods. We are immortals and the DNA from Solust makes us invulnerable so we can't be hurt. We have other powers that we haven't discovered yet and are still children with children's needs. We need love and affection, which we get in abundance from our parents, but we need guidance, which is what we seek from this council. We trust each of you to do what is right instead of what is easy and if you see a situation that our unique abilities will help correct, we will help if we agree with your reasoning. Hermione and I will be here for a very long time and will be glad to be a part of your lives. I think this should be enough information to get the council started on discussion of procedures and other things such as ranks and specialties if needed. We would like for Albus to be in charge as he has the most experience in magic and please keep this secret. By the way, you each get a twenty five percent increase in pay for doing this as compensation for your time. Hermione and I are going to bed. It has been a long day."

They all look pleased at the raise. The extra gold is welcomed by everyone.

"Thank you for still believing in me Harry," Albus says smiling.

"You can thank Fawkes for that. When he came back to you, I knew you had changed to warrant the trust. Goodnight sir."

"Goodnight Harry." Albus replies.

Harry and Hermione walk through the common room to their bed room and after changing into night clothes fall instantly asleep in their bed. (I wish I could do that)

Back in the headmasters office the council is sitting around having tea and biscuits discussing what to do next. They are still in awe that two immortals are in the school.

Albus says," We each have our own unique abilities so I don't think we need anything like ranks for the council. We will all contribute equally according to our talents. This is definitely a new way of thinking about our world after what Harry said about the muggles abilities. This makes the statute of secrecy even more important. Fudge may be aware of some of the muggle's abilities as he has a direct connection with their prime minister, but I don't think he has a clue of the overall picture. We will have to keep an eye on him and the wizengamot to make sure they don't pass any laws that will be a danger to exposing our world. I know the minister's undersecretary is like the Malfoys in her beliefs, only she carries it over to magical peoples like the goblins and centaurs and she thinks muggles are less than animals. We will have to keep an eye on her as well, along with teaching the Potters politics. Harry holds three seats in the Wizengamot while Hermione holds two, which can be voted by proxy till they reach their majority by someone they trust. We will sit back, observe, and advise the Potters as best we can."

Everyone agrees and Albus calls an end to the meeting so they can all retire for the evening.

ooOOoo