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Chapter 14: The Return to Hogwarts

By the time the students returned to Hogwarts for the start of the third year there had been a number of changes within the institution and with some of the students. The magic of several students had been unbound during the summer and it had resulted in a rapid growth in them. Harry had had some intensive potions to address his malnutrition and now did not need glasses but had them anyway with a clear lens. Why give up the advantage to the potential attacker? Harry had also had a considerable growth spurt and he bulked up.

The goblin healers treated the cursed scar and Harry felt considerably better along with having better emotional control. Hermione had her magical binding released and she felt better than she had done in months since she had been un-petrified.

The relationship between Harry and Sirius had developed and the Maison had been a lovely base for the healing and renewal that everyone needed post the trials and tribulations. Emma and Sirius had consulted Andromedia to find a mind healer for Harry and he was seeing this therapist on a regular basis.

Naricissa had got her marriage dissolved with the assistance of Sirius and, he took her and Draco back into the family Black. Andromedia and Nymphadora had been returned to the family and Ted Tonks had been acknowledge as a family member giving him the protection of the Noble and Ancient House.

Settlements for Andy and Dora had been made as is their rights as members of the House Black. Sirius as the Head of House had also gone in to bat against his enemies and Bella was outcast from the family eternally after her marriage was dissolved from Rodolphus Lestrange. As part of the retrieval of the Black dowry from the Lestrange vault the goblins found the dark object with the Class 9 curse similar to what they had removed from Harry. As a result of the object, the Hufflepuff cup, being found in the Bank the goblins had confiscated the rest of the vault contents and the Marauders' vault had been topped up with a share of the dividend after paying for all the legal services.

Sulk in the internal security unit of the bank had identified two goblins that were on the take with certain wizards and they found that they had summary justice as dragon feed.

Gringotts now had a first generation magical unit that had both Emma and Dan consulting for them. They also proceeded to negotiate and plan the open a new part time private dental practice on Charing Cross Road not far from the Leaky Cauldron. This way they could continue to keep their hand in while providing dental treatment for those in the wizarding community who found that magic did not fix their problems. Once the new clinic was open in September it was expected that it would not be long that many of the first generation school families would end up on their client list and it was suspected that many a first generation witch would be dragging her children in for the six monthly checks with Drs Granger.

The academic staff at Hogwarts had a bit of an influx. Remus Lupin was tracked down and frog marched by Sirius Black and Minerva McGonagall into the Defense against the Dark Arts position. Narcissa Black agreed to come and be the acting Head of Slytherin while teaching in the new subject replacing Muggle Studies called Society Politics and Government. This new subject was a social studies subject where the different society groups and their traditions would be studied. The new subject would be team teached by specialists in specific areas and it was now compulsory for all year groups. Narcissa Black would also assist in potions. While Severus Snape was still detained by the Ministry of Magic Andromedia was going to step up and cover the potions with the assistance of her sister while the school tried to recruit a full time potions professor.

The new board of Governors was really a breath of fresh air. The removal of the four death eaters from the Board of Governors suddenly freed up funds available for the school budget. Lucius Malfoy was found guilty of numerous crimes that he had committed as a death eater and many more since then. Since he and others were going to be kissed their vaults were confiscated. An allowance was made for the family but the rest went in reparations. For Lucius and the other three school governors that meant their ill-gotten gains went into a special vault for underprivileged children attending Hogwarts and other capital projects for the development of the school.

The goblins had done some further inquiries with their dragon mucker outer better known as the former headmaster Albus Dumbledore. Sirius had done some investigation with Remus and they both agreed that if there were more than four of these items it could be five or seven items if they were talking magical numbers. The key here was how many of these things did old Moldyshorts gotten round to making before his run in with the Potters.

The school had recruited a trained Historian who was going to teach more than just the goblin wars of 200 years ago. Sirius was joining the faculty as the second Transfiguration professor to support Professor McGonagall as she had been made Headmistress and Professor Flitwick was her deputy.

Sirius and the Grangers had come to an agreement that Harry needed to have a stable home life and that by working together the adults were going to provide that to both the children whom they cared for. Grimmauld Place was currently undergoing a major renovation led by Kretcher. The committee of Kretcher, Emma and Sirius were radically addressing the dark home to make it a new home for all of them. They agreed to a joint custody of Harry until he was older and for that they were going to share the house and main family celebrations.

Xxx

It was strange for Harry to be returning to Hogwarts after the Summer he had. He had freedom and he had found a family that truly cared for him. He had connected with Sirius and really felt that he belonged with the Grangers and Hermione. Sirius had reviewed their shopping and helped to kit them out for the 3rd year. He was such a prankster.

In the train compartment there was Neville, Hermione, Harry and Susan Bones. It was strange how he had more friends than before but Harry suspected that this was the result of not having Ron round. It seemed that Ron was angry with Hermione and Harry for the whole media circus that had occurred when the abuse case had gone to court. He was also apparently in trouble cause it was Hermione's family that had he had fled to not Ron's.

There had been a terse note from the boy to both of his best friends and he had said some rather hurtful things. Both Hermione and Harry looked at the compartment door when it opened to be disappointed that it wasn't Ron but his brothers the Twins.

Xxxx

The year settled down and Ron seemed to be talking to the pair of them again but there was not the close friendship that they had before. Everyone seemed to think that Harry and Hermione made a nice couple but the reality was they were best friends more like very close siblings.

The first interesting event of the school year was the storming out of divination of Hermione Granger lets say storming Norman had not a fly on Miss Hermione Jean Granger. Her movement and strategic strikes (several aerial bon mots describing the complete waste of space that was the subject) was spectacular and memorable.

It was not a few weeks later before Harry was speaking to Professor Lupin as his new Head of House about dropping the same subject. His dogfather was there present and supported Harry in his decision to drop the subject as he had picked up Ancient Runes at the start of the year after talking to Sirius during the Summer about his subject selection. Harry felt that he could pick up Arithmancy as he had been good at maths in primary school and could follow Hermione's homework so far. He just could not stand having another lesson were the hippy bat of the divination tower with all her beads and glass balls prophesied his death with as much doom and gloom. It was depressing and he had enough darkness in his life.

Xxxx

The families came together at Christmas and it seemed that some of the Marauder pranks were dusted off to play on a new generation. Dan Granger and Sirius worked together and against each other to play a range of pranks. It was a battle royale between non-magical and magical pranks. At one stage both men were in the dog house with Emma.

Everyone of the Black family joined Remus, the Grangers and Harry in celebrating Christmas in the newly refurbished 12 Grimmauld Place. A key commentary from those who had been there before it was a radical improvement. The trio committee for the redecoration had made it a lovely homey mix of magical and non magical technology and furnishings. Harry was overawed by his new room. Hermione was pretty happy about hers and her mini library. It took some serious orders from Emma to pry Hermione out of the Black Library when she found it. Sirius and Kretcher had removed the dark books to a secure vault and the goblins had been engaged to remove all the dark objects from the house as part of the refurbishment. There were a number of comfortable seats in the Library in which many a night of the Christmas Holidays was found Sirius and Remus talking about old times. Dan and Emma had their own suite of private rooms and they could escape the kids or the rest of the house guests if they wanted. Emma and Andy went into overdrive to make this Christmas the most spectacular event and they with the assistance of the two house elves seemed to have made the high standard they had set themselves.

On Boxing Day there was another party where the Longbottoms, the Bones, Sharpspear and King Ragnor joined with the Grangers and Blacks to share good food and company. Madam Longbottom, Amelia Bones and Sirius had frequently sat together in the Wizengamot as they were working to address some of the archaic pureblood bigoted legislation. The interaction between the goblins and the purebloods had improved thanks to Sirius and Sharpspear and other legislation about the inter magical races were improving.

Madam Longbottom had gotten to known the new Defense against the Dark Arts Professor and recognized that he was highly knowledgeable and skilled in the subject despite his furry little problem as Sirius referred to it. There were plenty of teachers willing to cover his classes and even the bat of the dungeons Severus Snape was not too bad after his release. Severus was required to do community service with the research and development teams at St Mungos and this meant that he could only see the 7th year students. As it was it worked out well Andy took the 5th and 6th years and Narcissa got everyone else. Harry felt that he was grasping the concept of potions more than he had the previous two years.

Draco had warmed up to the Gryffindors over the semester and had not used that detestable word to Hermione. It seemed he was growing up and starting to think for himself. Additionally the interhouse rivalry in the school was considerably restrained to just Quidditch and the House cup. The new social studies subject and the change in ethos thanks to Minerva McGonagall had improved the school environment. The more even mixing of the different houses in the classes had resulted in new friendships and better understanding. Madam Pomfrey was much happier as there was less hexing in the corridors that she had to deal with.

The Grangers in their practice and the consultations with the goblin nation and the school also improved the status of first generation magicals in the wider UK wizarding world. Harry had most of the house quidditch team over during the holiday break and the Twins were brought to Grimmauld Place by their father who seemed to go into overload with the amount of muggle devices he saw. It was then that Emma pointed out that the term Muggle could be seen as highly offensive especially since Arthur was the so called head of a ministry department the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office.

Xxxx

The return to Hogwarts just brought more classes and homework for Harry and Hermione. There were trips to Hogsmead with a bunch of friends from different houses and age groups. Hermione and Harry seemed to survive Valentine's Day but it appeared that there were pranks being shared between the teachers. Professor Lupin went bright red over something Professor Black said to him at the school dinner table. Madams Black and Tonks laughed with Professor McGonagall and it appeared that both male professors were in her dog house.

The school governors had been particularly radical during the year and now were expanding the new ideas to include a parents association to improve intersociety integration. The Grangers were exceptionally active in promoting the improvement of non magical parents inclusion into the world of magic as it would help improve relations between parent and child. With the assistance of Harry the Governors had sold the basilisk carcass off to the goblin nation for a very tidy profit that would help supply the school potions ingredients requirements along with the new refurbishment that was planned in the Summer when the students were off the grounds.

At Easter there was an announcement from Dan and Emma there was going to be a little Granger later in the year. Emma had a Christmas pudding in the oven. Hermione was thrilled at the thought of a younger sibling but it was a little disconcerting as there was going to be a bit of an age gap. Harry seemed to happily accept this latest news for his blended family relatively easily. There was some more gossip that Emma had for the teenagers and it was that Dora Tonks was seeing Remus Lupin. Apparently it started at Christmas and the young Auror was not taking no from the werewolf.

In the Hogwarts Library there had started a mixed house homework group and it was through this that Hermione got to know the Ravenclaw Luna Lovegood much better. Ron had been a prat again to Hermione and Luna and the Twins went out of their way to make their dunderhead of a little brother pay. It was during one of the general study session Luna had mentioned that she was doing some research for her father's summer project to build a replica of the Ravenclaw Diadem that caught Hermione's attention. Talking more to the Ravenclaw girl Hermione found out that the Diadem had been lost for quite a while but the Grey Lady the Ravenclaw ghost was the daughter of Rowena Ravenclaw.

So it was on one Sunday afternoon she knocked on Sirius's office door to advise him about the Ravenclaw Diadem. Dobby was spending his time between the Grangers and Harry but this afternoon he was with Kretcher having afternoon tea with Sirius. Hermione joined the afternoon tea party and brought up the fact that Moldyshorts might have used the diadem for one of his cursed objects. There was a bit of brainstorming between the four of them when Dobby mentioned it could be hidden in the Come and Go room. After being taken there Sirius thought he should have a chat to Minerva and Dan about sorting out the contents of the come and go room.

The Black professors with the assistance of mainly Remus, Severus, Minerva and Dora Tonks worked their way through the mountain of old possessions in the Room of Requirement to the great delight of many including Madam Price thanks to the number of Library books they returned to her care. The old broomsticks were carefully identified and some were auctioned off to add more funds to the school scholarship reserves. Eventually the cursed item was found and a goblin team came in to remove it and several other dark items that were found in the room.

Other objects in the school were identified that raised concern for student safety and that included the single vanishing cabinet. With some investigation Dora advised that Bergen and Burkes had the other cabinet and Sirius asked Kretcher to purchase it for 12 Grimmauld Place. The Hogwarts cabinet was placed in Sirius rooms in the castle.

Sitting on the train back to London at the end of the School Year Harry and Hermione both reflected on how much their lives had changed since the start of the last summer.