Hi, I'm back with the new chapter. Thanks for all those reviews you left. I mean 400 revs for 9 chapters, wow. This one is a bit shorter, but after it the first changes will be noticeable at Hogwarts. I'm still writing on that part, so it could take some time for the next update, it depends on how many ideas I have.
Now I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Starting Changes
It was the last day of the year where the Wizengamot met before the Christmas break started which would last until the second week of the new year. Christmas was only two days away and the last political decisions for the year had to be made. The atmosphere was light and many only thought how they would spend Christmas this year. Lucius Malfoy though had his own plans that he wanted to start before the break would give others the opportunity to think about their contributions for the Hogwarts program that was the main topic all over the wizarding world at the moment. Nearly every witch and wizard had been taught at Hogwarts and important changes to their old school were of interest to all of them. Everybody wanted to be involved when the school was changed to work better in the future. And all parents wanted that their children got the best possible education.
As Lucius was also on the Board of Governors and intended to use his influence to be elected as one of the representatives again, normally he would go for one of the two spots the noble houses had, but it would serve his interests more if he was elected as representative of the current parents, he had the perfect opportunity to position himself with a speech that supported the changes. Normally the Wizengamot didn't have much to do with Hogwarts, it operated independently, but there was the budget of 50,000 galleons that the Ministry gave to the school every year to support it. He had to make sure the money stayed at Hogwarts to make his plans possible. The money would over time be used for projects that so far had been dismissed because of shortage of funds. But he had his own ideas what exactly those projects could be for which he needed the money.
He and Narcissa had discussed what kind of projects would be most beneficial to mould the younger generations to their liking. But they could only start in a few years after the first changes had become normal. He was really glad that his wife was a true Slytherin through and through. It was fantastic to be able to bounce off his ideas with somebody who was as intelligent and cunning as himself.
"Honoured colleagues,…" he started his speech "…today, the last meeting day before we start into our well-earned Christmas holidays, I want to take up a topic that has been talked about much during the last weeks. The educational changes that have been suggested by a group of witches that are highly interested in making the education our children get the best in the world. For their effort and creativity I wish to exclaim my admiration." He said, getting agreeing murmurs from others.
"I have taken the time to thoroughly study the suggestions that were made in the rough draft my wife was given by Lady Diggory, who is also a supporter of the program, and I am thoroughly impressed how much the school we all went through in our youth could be improved. I am completely supportive to the suggestions. If we manage to get the children to understand both worlds, we can only profit from it. How often did we have problems in the past because of misunderstandings? How often do we need to send out obliviation squads because some witches and wizards stood out too much?"
He let the question stand without giving an answer.
"The group of witches with whom my wife discussed the ideas came up with a sound suggestion to make it fairer for all children, to have muggleborn children have mandatory lessons in Wizarding Traditions instead of Muggle Studies. I say, do both. With the funds to finance it freed by the new supply system of the school, employ someone who is well respected in his or her knowledge of our traditions and customs and have them taught to all children. Don't separate them more than they already are by the houses of Hogwarts. Unite them in learning about our world.
"There are differences between the muggle world and the wizarding world that need to be taught to the children from a young age. Only then we can heal the rifts that exist. I say, take the benefits the muggle world offers, but don't give up our way of life that got us through the persecution we have always been shown. We need to keep our world a secret from the muggles; otherwise they will hunt us down because they fear us. But that doesn't stop us to benefit from their discoveries which we can use. We have a historical chance to give our children the tools to succeed in life by improving their education. I ask you all to put your support behind the new educational program. Thank you for your attention."
He sat down in his seat taking in the applause of the others. Step one success.
Augusta Longbottom wanted to cackle. Lucius Malfoy had just opened the way for the support of the dark houses of their educational program at Hogwarts. The idea to have all children learn Muggle Studies and Wizarding Traditions was a good one. But that it had come from a stout supporter of pureblood supremacy was fantastic. It was clear that Lucius wanted to position the house of Malfoy positively for the years to come. He had also informed Minerva that the Malfoys would supply ten house elves for the program. He was a sly bastard, but the Conspiracy had already foreseen something like this before Chiana had invited Andriana Zabini, Gabriella Greengrass and Narcissa Malfoy over to the Diggorys'. The concept intentionally had some openings where the dark families could think they could influence things.
The main intention was to stop the dark influence. The belief it was alright to kill and torture those that didn't follow the same beliefs you followed. The wizarding world needed to be changed to adapt better to the changes of the world around them. Muggles developed better ways to get things done all the time. To have Lucius Malfoy say that they should take some things from the muggle world that were useful but keep their traditions was a chance to open up the minds of the children to things they never knew about. Two hours per week was more than enough to learn more about that world. Especially as the plan was to have Muggle Studies a mandatory class for the first five years.
You could get much done in five years. Lucius obviously underestimated the leverage those classes would have. But she wouldn't inform him about it. If this worked out right, even a return of Voldemort wouldn't change things. He had only been as powerful as he was because the pureblood supremacy front was too unhappy with how things were. They had lost power thanks to dwindling numbers and more muggleborns coming into the wizarding world and building successful lives for themselves. It was all connected to the change in the muggle society as well. There had been massive changes. The image of the housewife was getting more and more overturned. While most witches had worked somehow, be it in a job or in managing the family estate while their husband had another job, in the muggle world the idea of women working had only slowly been accepted.
The radical changes had influenced the mentality of the muggleborns. They thought they could change the wizarding world like the muggle world was changing and some forgot that it was a totally different culture. On that ground Voldemort had built his rise to power. The frightening thought about it was that if he hadn't shown his hand too early, if he had refrained from using violence he would have been Minister now. No, the plan of the Witches' Conspiracy was much more promising. A soft revolution furthered by those that really held the power in their society. The witches. All families were managed by the witch. The men were normally out for work most of the day. Sometimes the witch was working too, but traditionally she was taking care that everything at home worked swiftly.
And with how cheap things were in the wizarding world, about a third of what you would have to pay in the muggle world, even large families got by on one salary. The Weasleys were a really good example for that. Molly and Arthur grew most of their supplies at the land around the Burrow which reduced costs for the family immensely and they held chicken for eggs too. Yes, magic allowed for easier management of things. While with seven children Arthur's salary only just got them through, they didn't have to go hungry or anything. Just supplies that they couldn't make themselves had to be carefully calculated. And Molly was great in keeping control of the finances.
All children first listened to their mothers and the father only was involved if the mother needed a bit of extra authority. Now if they got both parts of their program started, the children would change the wizarding world in about ten years. They would simply live the change from a young age. Muggleborns would move naturally within society. Some would try to protest, but if a whole generation already lived a certain change, the elders had to accept it. Quality would speak a very clear language. Augusta contently kept watching how others also claimed their support for the program. Nobody wanted to stand back behind a Malfoy after all.
Harry and Sirius sat in the kitchen of Grimmauld Place and were looking through catalogues with furniture, tapestries, carpets and tiles. They planned to completely renovate the house to make it look friendlier.
"I think I would like to have the rooms restructured. While some things will stay with their current use, some could be better used. The ground floor should be for any official things, like greeting guests, throwing parties, doing business and the likes. There is no need to keep the music room there. I was also never really good at playing an instrument, so I don't think I will miss it much. While I like listening to music, I don't have much need to have a room where I can play. Do you want to keep a room for playing music?" Sirius asked Harry.
"I'm not that inclined to play an instrument. While I am not rubbish, it's not one of my favourite pastimes." Harry said shrugging.
"Good, then we will take out the walls between the dining room, the music room and the study and rebuild the layout of the ground floor. The kitchen and the storage will stay as they are, but the kitchen will get a connection to the other rooms. We will form the dining room and the majority of the music room into one big room to have guests over." Sirius told Harry pointing out the rooms on a map of the house. I think next year I might host a summer solstice party. It is in the middle of the summer and would be a great opportunity to show you some traditional rituals. While I hate that whole pureblood supremacy crap, I am not against good traditions. And doing certain rituals on certain magical dates helps your magic to develop. There are reasons they were developed in the first place after all." Sirius explained.
"Yes, Mrs Figg taught us about some of them in our Wizarding Traditions classes. We also did one ritual at Longbottom Manor when Neville, Hannah, Susan and I were ten on Yule." Harry said.
"Ah, yes, the passage ritual. The Yule before you go to Hogwarts, meaning normally with ten or for some with eleven, you do a ritual that strengthens your magical core to prepare it for the regular use of big amounts of magic. A hundred years ago Hogwarts offered muggleborn students or those students whose parents didn't let them do the ritual before coming to Hogwarts to do it on their first Yule at school. But with the Ministry starting to interfere more and more rituals got the label of being dark and were forbidden to be done at Hogwarts. Therefore only the wizarding families that know about them let the children do the ritual before going to Hogwarts." Sirius said.
Harry nodded, having heard about that in his lessons too.
"Well, back to the restructuring. I would use the rest of the space I get for a new study with included an area to conduct business. Having seen the fortune my family left me as the last remaining male Black, I probably will be busy enough to let my money work for me. I also have some ideas what kind of business would be a profitable new enterprise." Sirius explained.
"That sounds good. Do you want to keep the old furniture or get completely new ones?" Harry asked curiously.
"For the office I can keep some of the old furniture. The desk and the bookcases are okay and look impressive. Give the room a light painting and you get a nice place to work at. For the new room for big events I think we will get new furniture to make it less dark. All that black furniture doesn't make for a nice atmosphere. I think beech-tree would look nice. Comfortable easy chairs with a beech-tree table for the dining area, some cupboards for tableware in the same wood. We will renew the parquet flooring in a lighter tone than it is now. The walls will be painted in a warm light yellow." Sirius told Harry.
"I think that would look good. For your study you should use a light blue on the walls. I have read that blue calms people, so it would be good for doing business." Harry commented.
"Good idea." Sirius said and wrote it down. "I think that is it for the basics on the ground floor. Next is the first floor. The library will be cleared of all dangerous books and I will place those that aren't cursed, but not for children's eyes in a special area that only I can give access to. I thought about taking out all the old bookcases and the floor. I want the room to become more comfortable. Therefore I want carpet on the floor and then lighter coloured bookcases. Perhaps we can paint the old bookcases, because they are perfectly okay except that they are too dark in colour." Sirius said.
"I would like a dark blue carpet with golden stars on it. And the bookcases could be painted in beige. Those colours would go well with each other. The walls in white with a hint of blue. So that they appear to be white but not exactly." Harry tried to explain it.
"I think I know what you have in mind, Harry." Sirius replied and wrote the suggestions down. "And for the study area we can get some upholstery in warm colours. Perhaps a yellow that nearly goes into orange." He pondered.
"I think the old classroom is not needed, especially if the new wizarding Hogwarts pre-school is realized. Places to study in the library will be more than enough." Harry commented.
"You are right. I'm sure we will think of some better use for the room. The bathrooms are next. They will all have to get completely remodelled, because I can't stand all the snake and Slytherin motives." Sirius declared. "I thought for the bathrooms on the first and second floors, which would also be the ones for guests, we could use blue and silver tiles with normal white sinks and toilets, and for the family bathrooms we could vary with red, gold, white, violet and blue. Just that they look friendly and warm." Sirius described and handed Harry an example from the catalogue.
"I want one in dark red with silver." Harry said looking at a picture in the catalogue he held.
Sirius nodded and put it on the list.
"I think we should also keep the guest rooms in a normal white with some colourful accents with carpets and bed-linen. Perhaps a few pictures as well. After all, they wouldn't be inhabited for more than a few nights at any time. And for the family rooms, well, at the moment we only need two, yours and mine. So we could probably best keep the rooms neutral until we know for whom we would need them." Harry told his ideas.
"Yes. Probably that would have to wait for some years anyway. I can't have children for the next four years at least. After-effects of the dementors. The healers expect that I will be able to have children of my own in five years, but until then I have to wait. Well, I would need to marry before that anyway." Sirius said with a slightly sad tone in his voice.
The news from the healers, while not horrible, had been hard to take. He had feared he had become infertile, but thankfully his ability to turn into a dog, had protected him somewhat. He needed to get a potions regimen for the next year to undo the damage the dementors had done to him. It would never heal his psychological problems fully, nothing could do that, but the physiological effects could be countered. When he was twenty he hadn't really thought about having children of his own, there had been more than enough time left. But now after having lost ten years in Azkaban, he had thought about marrying and having children.
Harry noticed the das tone in his godfather's voice and hugged him to cheer him up. Sirius returned the gesture.
"If you want to, I can be your son until you can have children of your own." Harry said in a small voice, hoping his godfather would accept that.
"I would like that very much, Harry." Sirius said touched. "I will do my best to be a good father for you."
Harry was really happy. He had wanted a parent so much for all his life and now Sirius was willing to be his father. Tears of happiness ran down his cheeks. This was the best Christmas present ever.
How did you like it? Any suggestions for what should be done first? As I am just starting writing the next phase, I'm open for constructive suggestions. until next time.