Karen watched as all of the first years came into her class. Rather than having a traditional layout she'd opted to place them into a circle instead. She was also only going to be working with 1 first year house at a time.
"Good morning everyone, I'm guessing that you're all wondering what this class is going to be about. To start with what is philosophy. If we take the word itself it means 'love of wisdom', in a practical sense though it is the activity of thinking about ourselves, the world around us and how it all relates together. Non-magical science used to be considered part of philosophy called natural philosophy.
"In this class we're going to look at different ways to think about the world. In the coming year you're going to be talking about Leadership, Ethics – this is the group version of morals, Justice, Freedom and Social Contracts, Friendship, Prejudice, Epistemology – How do you know what you know, and identity. We'll be covering some of those from different angles in different lessons.
"The other class will all be about critical thinking. You'll find that both subjects are very related, but the critical thinking class will be dealing with how to judge a source of information. The reliability of Statistics, and how to gather reliable statistics. Finally, that class will be dealing with logical fallacies. It will involve a fair bit of maths, which you'll find you also need in many of the electives you can take at 3rd year. In the next class one of the thing's we'll be doing is looking at yesterdays paper. For now, let's talk about what philosophy is for the next 20 minutes. After that we'll discuss something known as the trolley problem."
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Karen looked around at the heads of the houses and Minerva after their first week of classes, "I've asked you all here so that we can have a short discussion about the staff before the main staff meeting later. What seems to have been the general reception to the new classes and teachers?"
Flitwick hummed, and Sinistra nodded at him.
"I've had some complaints from my Ravenclaws that the new History teacher is unwelcoming of differing opinions. Now at this stage it could mean anything from they all had their pet interpretation of various historical facts, and he shot them down. To, they had very well sourced arguments against something he was teaching and he refused to hear them quite rudely. They all think he's a vast improvement over Binns though."
"OK, can everyone keep an eye on the first year's and see what they think, as apart from Mr Creevey none of them have any experience with another history teacher. If a significant number of them have an issue with his class then we need to quietly audit the class. I am not going to have another Snape on the staff, I don't care how knowledgeable you are about your subject, if you can't impart it to the children then you have no business being here. Any comments about the other teachers, even myself?"
Bathsheba laughed, "I think that Professor Bell and Minerva are going to have to repeat their finale as pretty much all of Gryffindor heard about it from Lavender and Parvati, so expect the class to be full next time."
Minerva laughs, "That's a good problem to have. We were worried that they class would be undersubscribed."
Septima went next, "I think you'll have a few more Slytherins as well, maybe enough to split the class by tier. I've had a complaint from Mr Malfoy that they're not learning enough in second year. However, his proficiency with levitation seems to be lacklustre."
Minerva cocks her head, "How's he getting on in combat?"
"He didn't have anything good to say about it."
The only other complaint of note was that Ronald Weasley would only do work under supervision. He hadn't made the sort of progress with the levitation spell that the first years had made in just a week. Let alone his peers. He was just about managing to make basic utensils at dinner. And while he wasn't alone in that, Goyle was actually trying to improve and had taken to the structured play with abandon. They didn't think he'd ever be better than an average student, however they could already see that there would be a couple of areas he was well above average in.
When the rest of the teachers arrived, the first thing that happened was that Master Healer Gosling turned the air blue with deprecations about one Potions Master Snape. It turns out that the reason none of his students got good grades, is that he had never actually gone over the basics. The first few lessons where he should have demonstrated the basic techniques and results before assigning a simple potion, just didn't happen. Everyone remembered their boil cure potion, and that shouldn't have been taught until a couple of months in.
Azaria was broadly happy with the first and second years. The History teacher was broadly unhappy with the first and second years.
The meeting continued into the evening with a couple of rounds of fire whiskey as it turned into socialising.
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The next morning, Karen was surprised to receive an ISA [International Schools Association] post owl. Taking the letter she opened it and the read it. Slumping back into her chair she passed the letter to Minerva, who read it and went bone white. Getting nonverbal agreement from Karen, she passed the letter to Flitwick who also went pale.
Walking around the teachers table, Karen conjured her lectern and stood behind it. As if on cue the entire hall went silent as everyone looked at her.
"Everyone, I have some news that has just come in. Looking at the reactions of the senior staff, I assume it's mixed news. I have been invited to a meeting about our participation in the Tri-Wizard Tournament. While I'm sure most of you are as mystified about what this means as I am. What I do know is that we will be hosting to Tournament next year. History club, would you be able to research the Tournament, and maybe interview Hogwarts to see if she remembers anything about it. Next Saturday I'd like you all to give a presentation to the school about what you've found. I will need to be out of the school on Monday the 13th for a meeting, I will be back as soon as I can be."
She returned to her seat leaving the school looking thoughtful.
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Classes started to fall into a pattern over the next week as the third years and a few fourth years started to settle on the classes that they wanted for the rest of their time there. Unsurprisingly, Philosophy and Critical Thinking was poorly subscribed. If it wasn't for the fact that Karen was the Headmistress she'd consider sacking herself. What was surprising was that a few fourth years moved over from history, and she was better subscribed than History for the 3rd years. The combat, natural world, and structured magic department had a good spread. Healing was a undersubscribed, but given the sheer amount of bookwork involved that's hardly surprising. All in all, everyone was pleasantly surprised by how things were going. Though she'd had a few complaints from the Hogwarts house members saying that Hogwarts was been too hard on them. Karen smiled and pointed out that she doesn't give homework. They'd need to revisit this at Christmas, but it was looking like coordinating their classes so that they pointed out how interrelated all the disciplines were was also working. She'd had a couple of Ravenclaws asking if they could take more than 10 subjects + magical theory, and she'd had to deny them.
Karen looked up from her paperwork as Madam Pince came in.
"Can I help you?"
"Yes, we're due to do the presentation to the school tomorrow, and, well, I thought you should know what we've found out."
"I take it it's not good news."
"The Tourney was cancelled because they used a Cockatrice in the last one and it killed all of the competitors and half the audience. It is little more than a blood-sport dressed up in glitz and glamour."
Karen pinches her nose, "Has there ever been a competition where the hosting school wasn't a participant?"
"There have indeed."
"I have an idea of what to do on Monday then. Hogwarts, next time you see any of the Magi students, would you be able to ask them to train Ginny to step. She only needs to be able to take two people to Romania to visit Charlie.
"What I'm going to try and do is show them just how badly they'd be outmatched if they let Hogwarts compete. So I'm going to bring them all back here and ask Ginny to take Harry or Hermione and one of the people present at the meeting to Charlie's reserve and then have them bring back a dragon. If we can get Hagrid and Nigel here with their classes for an impromptu lesson that would be great too.
"I'd also like you to tabulate the data so that it's listed by tournament and says how many grievous injuries there were, how many deaths, and whether the tournament finished. Maybe you could do the total for both injuries and deaths, then split it out into competitors, judges, and audience. Ideally, I'd like to have some charts breaking down the fatalities, grievous injuries, and others. Maybe with the number of Tournaments where there were no serious in a pie chart with at least 1 fatality and at least one serious injury. But I appreciate that it was only adding computers that allowed people to do this easily, so unless you want to ask Zach if he would mind taking you to Little Whinging and use our computer to do the table charts and graphs, don't worry about it."
Taken aback by the things she was being asked for, Madam Pince simply said, "I'll do my best."
The next day, the presentation went well. By some miracle Zach and Madam Pince had managed to put together all of that data, and the charts she'd asked for. They had all been printed out in black and white, and the tables sorted in a couple of ways. Each table had 5 photocopies of the reports stapled together, while Karen was given 6 original sets. It made for grim reading.
She was a little annoyed that she needed to announce 4 more Magi, as Luna, Ginny, and Dudley had all chosen to progress while she was dealing with stuff with only Nicole and Hogwarts to supervise so that she could learn to step from Hogwarts. There was however a large cheer for Ginny from the first years.
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The meeting organiser opened the door to the meeting room, "Good Afternoon everyone, if you would all take a seat I'll go around and do the introductions."
As she took a seat, Karen looked around the room and saw that one of the attendees was as large as Hagrid.
"I'm Ludo Bagman, I'm afraid that Albus Dumbledore couldn't be here, as he's currently in the Bulgarian hospital for some reason. We have Karen, you've not given us a last name dear."
Karen smiled sweetly, "That's because I'm Magi Karen. I doubt you'll be confusing me with anyone else. And albus was looking sickly at the emergency ICW meeting a couple of weeks ago. I suppose that he tried to weasel out of checking into a hospital on his own, as the Bulgarian Minister promised Magi Minerva that he would see that he got treatment."
"Oh mon dieu." The large lady said.
Ludo looks uncomfortable, "Yes well, next we have Madam Maxine, Headmistress of Beaubaxtons."
"Bonjour."
"Lastly we have Headmaster Karkaroff from Durmstrang."
"Pleased to meet you." Karkaroff said in heavily accented English.
Karen made a deliberate push to take control of the meeting, "Mr Bagman, I understand that we are here to discuss things about the Triwizard Tournament. I think that the first thing we should discuss is the history of this Tournament, and whether we want to keep to the old format and everything that entails, or do something that genuinely pits students against each other. Our history club did some research on the Tournament that I think you should all take the time to read before we get started. This is a summary of the History of the Tournament, and this is the data contained in that document laid out in tabular and graph format."
Karen passed out the documents before Ludo could object. Seeing the pretty pictures, Ludo didn't think to object before everyone was already reading. While they were absorbed in reading she unobtrusively moved them to a room at Hogwarts.
Madam Maxine sounded a little incredulous as she asked, "Are these all correct? As it seems to be far too dangerous for something spoken of with such joy."
Cheerfully Karen answers, "Why don't we go and ask Madam Pince? Come on, the library is this way."
Ludo looks up alarmed, "But how? When? What?"
"Well, if you'd rather talk about that, we can do. I transported us to Hogwarts as I thought that you would prefer to speak to the researcher yourself, and see the source documents too. As for how, I believe that I mentioned that I'm a Magi didn't I?"
Madam Maxine looked thoughtful, "Maybe you could explain what a Magi is."
"A Magi is someone that has travelled to world that are far more magical than this one. Due to the increase in the ambient magic in those worlds, our own magic expands accordingly. We also train to be able to travel to those worlds we've been to with ease that means that as long as we're not pushing our boundaries it's safe for us to move between worlds. You may have heard of the recent finds in Magical Egypt, they were discovered by Magi Ginny, she decided to push ahead and move up from warlock last weekend. She was in the daily prophet as Ginevra Weasley at the beginning of the summer. None of us use a Roman Wand, and often do most of our magic without any focus' whatsoever. Now would you like to see Madam Pince while we're here or shall we move the discussion forward?"
Karkaroff said carefully, "Maybe we should move on, and we can look at the Library later."
"Mr Bagman?"
"What? Oh yes."
"Very well, you may not be aware, but Hogwarts is once again independent of the British Ministry of Magic. As this competition is supposed to be between 3 National schools, I propose that Hogwarts takes on the duties of Hosting and Organising the event. We can provide accommodation if needed, and you have the opportunity to invite a competitor. I would also like to have 3 tiers of competitions so that the rest of our schools don't feel left out. As long as none of you have the Dark Mark, or are named Albus Dumbledore, I can show you where we would hold the events, and you'll see that unless you're a member of our school, and have been trained, you will not be able to get there without assistance."
Karkaroff puts his hand on his arm, and looks sick, "I used to be a death eater, though I turned on my fellows and gave information for my freedom."
"I'm sorry to hear that. So far as we know, there's no way to remove that mark. Additionally, an entity known as the Crawling Chaos has taken an interested in the person that made those marks. Leaving the safety of Earth would be a death sentence for you. That won't change where we're going to hold the events, you'll just have to use some Omnioculurs to view the event after the fact."
Madam Maxine asks simply, "Why should we let you do this?"
"Why don't we all go outside and I'll show you." Karen gets up and opens the door.
Feeling like they have no other choice, the other three people get up and follow Karen out to where the first years are playing.
"Why are your first years not in classes?"
"Every afternoon is set aside for structured play, so that they get to run around and practice the very basics of magic. None of the equipment they're using out here has been provided by us, we just give them those wooden blocks to transfigure. Magi Ginevra, would you be able to come here please! Magi Harry, and Hermione too if you're around!"
Ginny, Luna, Dudley, Nicole, Harry and Hermione all turned up, as did all of the first years and most of the second years.
"Yes Headmistress?"
"Do you think you could take Harry or Hermione, along with the two headmasters here, to see your brother and borrow a dragon for the afternoon?"
With an impish smile Ginny nods and disappears with all four people specified.
"Well Ludo, would you care to play catch with my first years? The only rule is that you're not allowed to touch the ball. Isn't that right children?"
"Yes Headmistress!" is chorused back.
A very frustrating hour is spent by Ludo finding out just how out of practice he was at the levitation spell before everyone gets back with a dragon and a couple of dragon handlers, one of whom can't be anything except Ginny's brother, that look absolutely disbelieving at what's happening.
"Ginny, what did you tell your brother?"
"Actually, it's my fault Karen." Hermione admits.
Karen just shakes her head, "Tell them to send a letter to Victoria or Minerva to see when our next slots are open. How's your dragon doing gentlemen?"
"He's remarkably docile at the moment, we were expecting him to be all aggressive, but Harry just walked up and did something and it's like that."
"I just spoke to it and told it what we were doing." Harry added.
"Fine, whatever. Hagrid and Nigel are probably waiting for you, so once the lesson's over get Azaria to place a tracking spell and let him fly free in the Armoury for a while."
Harry translates for the dragon who seems to perk up at that.
Turning to the other Headmasters Karen said, "Well, do you want any other proof, as I can pull out the whole of the Hogwarts house, where we've got a few more third years, a fifth year, three sixth years, and 4 seventh years. Though I'm sure that come Christmas we're going to have a whole bundle of first years."
"What sort of timescales are you looking at for your NEWT students to be able to do what they just did?"
"If they really push it, and risk their lives more than they should, they could probably reach the sanctuary in around 3 months. We do a summer crash course for warlock training in two weeks over the summer, and my teacher lives in the Sanctury."
"Karkaroff, I think we need to talk to our governments, as we've already agreed to participate. Headmistress Karen, would you be amenable to allowing us to visit with our government representatives?"
"As long as you give me enough notice to have our Magi Ambassador here, feel free. If you wish to contact her, you can send post here for Magi Victoria, or to 13 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey, United Kingdom." She conjures a couple of business cards and hands them to the Headmasters.
"You may also want to get them to ask the MoM to assign someone more competent and also juggling less balls than Mr Bagman is, or Dumbledore for that matter. Hell, Ginny's father Authur Weasley would be better, and he's not had any training."
"We will be in touch. Would you be able to return us to the meeting room?"
"Certainly." Karen does so, assuming that Bagman can make his own way home from Hogwarts.
