Ch 32 The Hogwarts Board of Directors
Again thanks to Deb and Diane for their help with this chapter.
Harry Potter was in his office with Mary Lou Creevy and one of her assistants, trying to finish some paperwork one Tuesday mid-July when TT Cheng from China and Bill Edington from North America appeared. Mary Lou popped her head outside the door and let the two wizards know, "We will be through with Harry shortly. I know he has dinner and a Hogwarts Board meeting tonight.
Mary Lou passed a small notebook back to Dobedo, Harry's Elf shadow and guard. "I've duplicated your latest notes," she informed the Elf.
"We are having dinner at my house on Grimmauld Place," Harry told the two wizards as they entered the room. "Ginny will meet us there. The children are all at Potter's New Burrow with their cousins. I am not sure who is cooking or where they are eating, but between Molly Weasley and Victoire Weasley they will make sure no one starves." TT and Harry smiled remembering the feast that the women could prepare.
The three wizards and Dobedo took Harry's private Floo to twelve Grimmauld Place. Mabel met them at the Floo, telling them, "Mistress is in the dining room, working." Mabel turned up her nose when she said "working," like Ginny did not need to work all that hard.
Harry could hear Ginny on the phone as they entered the hallway that lead to the Potter's dining room, but she was finishing her conversation. As everybody walked in Ginny was turning off her laptop.
"The Chudley Canons have made another stupid trade," Ginny informed Harry with a sigh. "Nothing new there.
"I'm glad there are other people watching the children, because I am going to be interviewing people the next two days." She turned and smiled at their visitors, "Hello, TT, Bill. I see Harry has recruited you to be on the Hogwarts board."
Both of the men greeted Ginny, and they exchanged some pleasantries about everyone's family. The table was sized for eight, about as small as it could comfortably shrink. Harry sat at the head of the table, with Dobedo on one side and Ginny on the other. Mitzi sat next to Ginny, and TT and Bill sat across from Ginny.
Dinner magically appeared on the table, first for the Magi, then for Mitzi and Dobedo. Ginny explained, "Mabel is still upset that Harry and I eat with Elves. She finds serving food to Elves eating with Magi extraordinarily distasteful. I told her that she could magic the food to us using the same magic the Hogwarts Elves use."
"I've been here before, working with Hermione Granger-Weasley," TT let Bill know. "The Granger-Weasley family lives right next door to the Potters, and Mabel guards both house Floos and the shared Closet. She has made it very clear that she is a house elf, not an Elf."
The six beings spent a little time talking about Elves and house elves, before Harry brought out a list of all the Hogwarts board members. He tried to give TT and Bill a little insight to who the board members were.
At the end of dinner, they took the Floo to Hogwarts, entering Professor McGonagall's office. "I will meet you at the Board Room when the last board members arrive, Harry." the old professor announced.
Harry took his two long time acquaintances down the spiral stairs and over a few doors, and they entered a moderate sized inside room. There was a large table and enough chairs, but there were no windows in the room. The lighting seemed to be magical, although much of the lighting that shone on the tapestries that lined the room were actually LED lights. Harry was grateful that they were not trying to light the room with candles. It took work to hide the two big windmills that furnished electricity to Hogwarts, but with Muggle and a little magical technology they were able to modernize the castle.
A few minutes after Harry arrived, Minerva entered the room with the last two board members.
Minerva McGonagall called the Hogwarts Board to order, and turned to Harry, saying, "Harry has proposed two new board members. I will let him introduce them, and he will explain why he wants to add them to the board."
"Thank you, Minerva," Harry replied. "Hogwarts ended the formal education after seven years for most of its existence. We now have students in advanced studies for an eight and even ninth and tenth year. We need to make that process more formal and regular. Both in North America and in China there are Magical Universities, and we are proposing to create one here at Hogwarts.
"Students from the continent have studied in China and North America for many years. I have gone to school there, and send our Aurors and others to study there. Minerva and her staff is {are} working with the institutions of higher learning to expand and formalize our program.
"The bylaws of Hogwarts do not allow us to add the management of any other schools to our board, or the head of any Ministry. Minerva and I do think that it would be good to have a representative of North America and a representative from China on our board. Therefore, I am proposing we accept TT Chang, the author along with Britain's own Hermione, of by far the most popular Potions textbooks, and Bill Edington, the husband of the North American Minister of Magic, to the Hogwarts board."
With little dissent but much formality the two wizards were added to the board. As is typical with most boards, there was a rather standard format that covered finances, personnel, classes and curriculum. This meeting had an extended discussion on potential new or revised classes.
As the meeting was drawing to a close, and by prior agreement, Theodore Nott announced, "The Slytherin board members need a meeting with our Head of House. Per the bylaws of the board, we have two new members, because they have descendants in Slytherin, TT Chang and Bill Edington.
"NO, wait a minute," Wendell Wilkes protested. "They did not graduate from Hogwarts. They were never in Slytherin! What is going on?"
"It is in the rules, from when Hogwarts started and no one had graduated from Hogwarts," Minerva insisted. She brought out a book and pointed out the pertinent passage.
"I move we invite Minerva to take part in our meetings as we change the rules that Slytherin has been operating under," Theodore continued. "Under the bylaws that will take a three-fourth's vote of the Slytherin board members."
"I move we approve the change," Bill jumped in with.
"I second the change," TT added.
"All in favor?" Theodore asked. Bill, TT and Theodore all replied loudly and firmly, "Yes!"
"Well, that's decided," Theodore remarked.
"What about my vote?" a horrified Wendell wondered
"Do you want us to record that you objected to the vote?" Theodore wondered. "You can object to everything we do, and if you do we will probably remove you from the board as just being an irritant." The man sat back with a glower.
"The rest of the board is dismissed,' Minerva announced. Harry promptly took his leave. He had no desire to be part of this meeting. He knew that Minerva, Theodore, Bill and TT had met before, and that what was going to follow was to formalize major changes in the way Slytherin related to the rest of Hogwarts, removing any hint of special status.
A week later Minerva asked Harry to come to her office when he had a chance, and Harry made sure he had a chance within the next day. "You wanted to see me, Minerva?" he asked when he entered her office.
"I think we need at least one more Slytherin board member on our side," Minerva replied. "Someone from Great Britain."
"How about Tom Gudgeon?" Harry suggested. "His uncle was a Death-Eater, but he has become a valuable member of the Domestic Affairs unit. Lavender and I would both trust him with our lives."
"I will contact him, and ask him," Minerva responded. "We need new prefects for Slytherin. I would like to know if Albus and his friends have any candidates they can recommend."
"I will ask him," Harry replied. Minerva gave Harry a list of Slytherin students in oldest three years, along with a note who the prefects were currently.
The next day all four of the friends were together down in the potions room. Quite a number of students and parents had asked Albus and Cleo for soap, shampoo and perfume, and they were working on making them. Harry found out that they were in the potions room the middle of the afternoon by looking at the map of the Grimmauld Place complex he usually had on him. Harry left work, took the Floo to twelve Grimmauld Place, and went down to the level under the kitchen where the potions room was located.
"Hi, dad," Albus greeted Harry. "We are just making soap, shampoo, and perfume. To be precise, we are taking unscented soap and shampoo and putting in scents and spells."
Harry looked at what they were doing, before asking them, "We need to choose prefects for Slytherin, and Professor McGonagall wanted me to see if you had any ideas?"
Albus thought, "Orion Ollivander is already a seventh year prefect. He is on our side, an excellent prefect. You do not have all that many potential candidates. Rickie Nott is a beater on the Quidditch team, and from talking to her she should be acceptable.
"For sixth year, Ruth Sanford, the daughter of the Professors Sanford, would be ideal. Katherine Wilkes is currently a prefect, but she is just horrible. Victor Valsey is also on the Quidditch team, and we can live with him. I guess it is hard to have someone be a prefect one year and not the next, but Katherine is really just horrible."
Cleo jumped in with, "I've examined her to make shampoo and soap. It was tense. I do not like her, and I could tell she did not like me or Albus.
"That is going to be a hard one," Harry admitted, "but I will see what I can do."
"I think Delores Hanley would be ideal for a fifth year prefect," Albus suggested. "Her father is one of the Pure Blood fanatics, so you would think he would approve of his daughter being a prefect."
Rose added. "We have met with her here often enough. She and her mother are still living in their apartment in the housing for wives escaping abusive husbands here on Grimmauld Place, so we see Delores from time to time here."
Harry knew that Delores and her mother had fled the family home, and suggesting that Niles Hanley would approve of his daughter as a prefect was at least a gross oversimplification.
"I would choose Richard Gudgeon for the other prefect," Albus suggested. "He has always been on our side, unlike his cousins.
The three other students agreed.
Mid-July there was another Hogwarts Board meeting. TT Chang and Bill Edington had each been to Hogwarts several times between the last board meeting and this one, getting a private tour of the facilities and meeting one on one with many of the staff, so they told Harry they did not need him to accompany them to the board meeting. So Harry arrived in Minerva's office with just Gus Gudgeon in tow. Harry led Gus down to the Board Room, and as the rest of the board members were arriving Harry introduced Gus to the other board members.
Minerva first called the board to order. "We have another candidate for the Hogwarts Board, so we will have two Slytherin board members from Great Britain, Mr. Gus Gudgeon," Minerva announced. "I would also like to add another board member for Gryffindor, Nora Jordan. Nora is retired; it seems that Lee is well compensated by Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, and Nora has been spending some time here helping me and meeting with parents. It would help if she was a board member. All in favor, say 'yes' please."
"Are we not going to discuss this?" Wendell Wilkes protested.
"Does anyone have any objections," Minerva asked, obviously a little peeved by Wendell's objections.
"It looks to me like you are packing the Hogwarts board against the, the, …"
"The what, Wendell?" Minerva snapped. "You cannot complain about the prominence of the parents of the latest crop of Slytherin students. The Gudgeon family has been represented in Slytherin for generations, and even on the board in years past. Gus has dealt with some of the most sensitive and difficult matters the Ministry of Magic has to deal with."
Wendell looked down. He had not really been a leader, leaving that to Niles Hanley, and since Niles had been removed from the board he was out of his depth.
"All in favor, say 'yes' please," Minerva repeated.
Everyone except Wendell said 'yes.'
"Do you want to vote 'no,' Wendell?" Minerva questioned giving him a flat stare.
"Not really," Wendell muttered, wincing as he looked away remembering that stare too often as a student.
At the end of the meeting Minerva told the board, "I need to meet with just the Slytherin board members."
When only the Slytherin board members were present Minerva gave them each a piece of paper. "We have a conflict in who we want to be prefects this year in Slytherin," Minerva explained. "Usually the Slytherin board and the head of house chooses the prefects. This year the entire staff assembled. I disagreed with the choices of Professor Ollivander, and we agreed that we would take it up with the Slytherin board members.
"We agreed that Rickie Nott would replace the deceased Tabitha Bainbridge as the seventh year prefect.
"We want to replace Katherine Wilkes with Ruth Sanford. Katherine has been obnoxious, and many of the students are upset at how she has behaved. I've had my problems with her, and I want her replaced as well. The position went to her head and she began acting unbecoming of a prefect.
"Professor Ollivander wants William Wilkes and Morgana Rosier as fifth year prefects, but I want Richard Gudgeon and Delores Hanley."
"I think we need to side with our headmistress," TT Chang remarked.
"I agree," Theodore Nott replied.
Bill Edington added, "I have worked with, and for, my wife for many years. You never vote against the head of an institution without an excellent reason. I am more than ready to take her word for it."
Wendell grumbled, throwing up his hands in frustration, "Railroaded. Record me as objecting but not voting against."
Minerva was always surprised when she used her Magic/Muggle Mobile, as often as she did use it. "Albus's prefects were easily confirmed," she let Harry know that same evening, shortly after he had arrived home.
"Is Louis Weasley going to be a prefect?" Harry wondered. "I hear rumors."
"It has not been announced, but yes. I would not be surprised if he is head boy someday."
"He will really have to fight off the girls if he is head boy," Harry observed.
"He already has that problem, and it can be a curse. He is by far the handsomest wizard, the, most attractive boy to the girls, we have at Hogwarts," Minerva sighed. "I have had to break up several fights between girls fighting over him. I had no idea what was going on until Fleur explained that his X genes are Veela genes, and he is a 'Veela boy.' I do not know all that went on at Beauxbatons, but from talking to Fleur I get the impression that being extremely attractive is more trouble than it is worth."
A week later Harry went back to his office as the fourth Slytherin family was escorted out of the Ministry.
"Suffering the wrath of the public again," Mary Lou Creevy commiserated when she looked at him as he passed her. "You are the easiest and most public Hogwarts board member people can yell at."
"I really think that should be one of the jobs of my administrative assistants, Mary Lou," Harry kidded.
"We have enough trouble managing your schedule and finishing your paperwork," Mary Lou admonished, referring to herself and to the other administrative assistants. At one point Mary Lou had shared her job with one other witch, but that witch had quit in frustration. Managing Harry was a challenge. Instead of sharing a job, Mary Lou had a couple of full time assistants, a young witch and wizard, who had not quite made it as DMLE officers but who knew Law Enforcement.
The next day Harry was reasonably free, and he told Mary Lou, "I am going to do a little managing by wandering around." Harry had read a book that gave him a name for what he naturally did, often peek into the cubicles of the staff of the DMLE, paying special attention to the Aurors. You could learn much by just nosing around, and listening. He found Theodore Nott alone in his office going over some notes.
"How are you doing, Theodore," Harry wondered.
"Let me finish this note," Theodore replied. He finished writing the note, put down his biro, and touched the piece of paper with his wand. It folded up into the shape of a paper airplane and flew off.
"I just need some old records," Theodore sighed. Harry knew that all the new records were computerized, available at the touch of a keyboard. The older records had to be searched by hand, and some of the older witches and wizards who knew how to find the old records were, it seemed, impervious to modernization.
"I had no idea what trouble I was getting myself into when I joined the Hogwarts board," Theodore Nott complained to Harry. "I've insisted that anyone who wants to talk to me in person meet me at the Ministry. Some of the Slytherin families are violent. Taking the prefect honor away from Katherine Wilkes was like stealing a dragon egg.
"Are you going to kick Wendell off the board?"
"I do not think so," Harry replied shaking his head. "We have enough votes, and kicking Wendell off the board is too much like just getting rid of everyone who disagrees with you. Hanley was a different degree of evil, and I am glad we kicked him off the board, but I think we can put up with Wilkes."
2020