30th June 1976

I don't know why, but something that has been bugging me every year is how the headmaster always manages to scrounge up some extra points for each house, and awards them to specific people. I mean, really, how is making everyone laugh worth 150 points? Doesn't he realise that by picking out people and houses he's just building resentment from the houses that aren't blessed by his grace. I'm sure that favouritism is also one of the talking points of the people that Snape's fallen in with, as it seems to be very rare that those points are granted to anyone in Slythrin.


Over the next week the hour glasses that held the students points fluctuated wildly, before settling out into minor shifts here and there. Harry also noted that the Headmaster seemed to be absent more often again. Professor McGonagall had told the school that he had embarked on a new strand of academic research so he sends his apologies for his absence.

Harry had had his 4th mind healing session yesterday and the healer said that she should try to do more activities that she enjoys in her male form, so that he built a positive relationship with his male body. He wasn't looking forward to the next step that he'd have to do once the healer felt he had enough positive experiences, which will be to do the hard/not nice things in his female body. So here he was trying to participate in the chatting circle without turning back into a girl, and he was finding it so much harder than he thought it would be. Finally she gave up and just joined in. Eventually the subject came round to the new quidditch teams, and as they were discussing things she had a thought about the meditation they did in the evenings.

"Fay?" She calls across the circle loudly.

"Yes Harry?"

"You know the meditation we do in the common room with Neville? Do you think that would count as a club?"

"You know, I don't know."

"Professor McGonagall is over there talking to Professors Flitwick, Sprout, and a teacher I don't remember the name of."

"That's Professor Babbling, the Ancient Runes teacher, she's…" Hermione speaks up and trails off after someone puts a hand on her arm as she looks to be ready to give a brief history of the teacher.

"Sorry…" She says quietly, to a chorus of "It's ok from around the circle, we all know it's just you." She give a small smile as Hannah goes over to ask Professor McGonagall. Everyone's a little nervous when all of the teachers come back with her and take a seat in the circle.

"Relax, student's we just thought Hannah's question was an interesting one so we came over to find out more. Yes you could certainly set up a meditation club, though you'd need to choose a student rep for it." Everyone pointed at Harry, who blushed almost the same colour as her hair.

"Now, what's interesting is that this is already an informal club. After all, what else is a club but a group of people coming together for a common interest." A lot of the girls looked around at each other with wide eyes as they hadn't even considered that.

"What I'd like to know is if any of you have any other ideas for clubs that could be done."

Harry shrinks down into her chair and shifts to her male form as she expects to be shouted down for this suggestion, "While I'm not sure about clubs, why not have some non-standard sports like chess, and then have a tournament at the end of the year to find out who's best. Then give the top few people points."

"I think that's a good idea Harry, you could also introduce other things we have in the muggle world as magical sports. When Mum and Dad were looking at muggle schools for me, Kent college had a debating, snooker, chess, dance, archery, yoga, and cooking clubs. I bet snooker could be played without cues to make it something that takes magical skill, and I bet the same could be done with archery."

Flitwick starts to babble excitedly "I think I know a few charms that could be used for archery, the lower years could use a simple paint spot charm, while the upper years could use transfiguration and banishing to make arrows, with the top students using conjuration instead. Then we could have a timed competition where the person to score the most points in a minute wins, accuracy at different distances."

"Flitwick, Flitwick, Flitwick! Write it down and we'll discuss it over the holidays."

Megan from Hufflepuff timidly suggests "You know the twins do loads of pranks, maybe we could have a club for creative use of magic, and they could put on a show or something so that we don't come down to breakfast smelling of pee occasionally, or have mustard coloured hair."

Millicent from Slytherin added, "How about a personal grooming club where we share fashion tips and spells?"

"That sounds like a great idea." Lavender and Parvati say in unison, causing the rest of the circle to laugh, the conversation then becomes much more free with discussions splitting of on what could be a club, and how some of the clubs could work. This drew in some of the older years, which drew in more students and suddenly it became a school wide informal meeting with the teachers milling around listening in and making suggestions on spells or options that some students may not know about.

Eventually curfew arrived and McGonagall let off a whistle with her wand. "This has been one of the best evenings I've ever experienced in this school outside a formal event. You all came together to come up with ideas for making your experience here better in the future. I'm going to overlook the few heated disagreements that came up because that's as far as they went. Instead I'm going to give everyone that was involved 5 points. There were too many ideas for everything to become a club, otherwise they'd only have 1 member each, however over the summer holidays we'll have a meeting and decide between us which clubs we believe we can support. Now for the first and second years, it's time for you all to go to bed, so off with you and sleep well."

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The next morning the whole school came down to see that the hour glasses were now empty. A susurration of speculation went around the tables as they saw the headmaster slumped in his throne with a sour expression on his face. Professor McGonagall stood up once it became clear that Albus wasn't going to. "Good morning students today is the last day of term with the leaving feast tonight. Traditionally, today was a free day, given to you so that you could ensure that all of your belongings were packed ready for the morning, and exchange contact details with your new friends. This is a tradition that I am happy to say we are reinstating as of this year. As you can also see behind me, the house points are now closed, that doesn't mean that you won't be punished for an infraction. Instead of point losses today you will be confined to your dorm with a simple meal provided by the kitchen." A sense of understanding went around the older students as they suddenly realised just why the headmaster was looking so glum, then suddenly someone at the Ravenclaw table stood up and started clapping, followed by someone from the Slytherin table and then soon all of the 4th years and above were standing with a few 3rd years as well, the rest looked a little confused at what was applause worthy.

Once the applause died down, McGonagall fanned her face with her hand and continued, "Well, I wasn't expecting that. As things seem to be going so well, I have two more pieces of news. For my Gryffindors, I am sorry to say that this last week has brought home just how over stretched I've been. You have my most sincere apologies for not being there for you in the past and allowing my duties as the Transfiguration teacher and Deputy Headmistress. As such I am passing my head of house title over to Professor Babbling, I will still be around next year as the assistant head of house. Professor Sinistra has agreed to assist House Ravenclaw, Professor Vector has agreed to assist Slytherin, and Professor Salman has agreed to assist Professor Sprout." Professor Snapes already sour expression falls even further with that announcement.

"Madam Hooch has also agreed to manage the scheduling and allocation of clubs in the coming year along with her duties coaching the quidditch teams. Finally, the second announcement is for the formation of a student council next year, we will be taking 1 third and 1 sixth year student from each house, and they will form the council. On the first Sunday of each month they will be taking our places at this table, and it will be time for you to have your say about how things are going in the school. What we will be trying to do is recreate what happened last night, where most of the school were involved in discussing clubs and activities that could be done.

"With that…" She paused as Madam Hooch walked over and whispered in her ear.

"Madam Hooch has just reminded me. Any clubs that form next year that have an element of excellence to them will also have an end of year tournament, the winning team or individual will earn 40 points for their house or houses, the next placed 30, then 20, and finally 10, disqualification will cost your house 20 points. Go on, I will see you all later, enjoy your day and remember to pack. That means you Weasleys." The whole of the Gryffindor house laughed at that.

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The rest of the day passed in a blur as Harry was overwhelmed with the number of people he'd actually spoken to and knew at least a little. He was even surprised to find that he even knew a couple of the boys in Slytherin, as he thought he'd only met the girls. Granted most of the boys outside Gryffindor seemed to be somewhere between they don't care about him one way or another, and they outright don't like him. It got to the point where all he wanted was some space where people weren't wanting to talk. He didn't even remember most of the feast it bothered him so much. The only part that stood out due to the eye watering colour of the robes the headmaster was wearing was the declaration of points.

Albus stood up in his robes that he'd charmed in lovely fluorescent colours that he'd seen muggles wearing in London one night earlier in the 80's. The green polka dots moving around and bouncing off of blue rectangles and purple triangles. The orange background showing off the patterns they made nicely.

He cleared his throat and started his speech. "Normally this would be the time of the feast when I'd announce any additional points that people had earned for specific deeds. However, as you can see the points have already been calculated and finalised. So in fourth place we have Gryffindor with 470 points."

The Gryffindor hourglass filled with rubies at this, and as he continued the other hour glasses filled in order, "In third place we have Slytherin with 472 points. In second place is Hufflepuff with 480 points, and for the first time in 11 years in first place we have Ravenclaw with 485 points."

There was a moment of stunned disbelief as the Ravenclaws couldn't believe what they'd just heard, and then the first years started cheering quickly followed by the rest of the house.

With that the hangings changed to match the Ravenclaw house and food appeared on the table. Once the headmaster sat down, Harry noted that the Heads of houses didn't seem to be that comfortable sitting next to the Headmaster. Snapes customary Sneer deepened showing his utter distain for the headmasters clothes evident on his face as he found himself trapped sitting next to the headmaster when McGonagall got up to take the place that the defence professor would have sat and engaged Sprout and Vector in conversation. Trelawney seeing the free space moved over to complement the headmaster on his clothing choice, and started prattling on about the things she could see in the patterns the shapes formed. Flitwick engaged Babbling in conversation, despite the fact that she wouldn't look at the headmaster, and thus at him.

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Petunia sighed as she waited on the platform with Karen, the Weasleys, and the Grangers as well as the two children and four house elves. The last few weeks had been manic, and now she had a new business to run that she was calling Muggle Tours. This came about because she'd needed to take Molly and Arthur to the local DoE branch in Guildford with Ginny and Dudley to prove that they'd been teaching both of them appropriately. The crash-course on how to use a biro for Molly and Arthur had been a bust, so she shelled out for a couple of cheap fountain pens. Then she'd needed to outfit them as they didn't have anything muggle appropriate, finally she had to coach them with a trip to Little Whinging high street so that they got their Gawking out of the way somewhere not so busy.

On the day of the test the children were fine, Ginny having being young enough to adapt to the muggle world quickly. It was the adults that were the problem, she'd had to threaten to take Molly's wand from her if she even thought about drawing it. They'd eventually managed to get to the office without looking like they were foreigners, and the test went surprisingly well. Dudley scored well but not too well, and the examiner congratulated both of them for making the right decision to hold him back a year. Ginny didn't do so well, and they were given some recommendations for things they could do to shore up her weaknesses.

No it was when they got outside and Arthur decided it was time to go home. He drew his wand and if she hadn't snatched it out of his hand he'd have teleported away with Ginny in front of 20-30 muggles and a security camera. As it was he ended up just looking silly as he turned on the spot.

The only bright spot was that Aityo was now linked to Ginny so she was spending most of her time with Molly at the burrow, and wasn't that a surprise, both of them had a magical purity in the 80's with Ginny's slightly higher than Dudley's. Ginny's magic had matured early.

Ginny's excited squealing brought her out of her thoughts.

"I can see the train, I can see the train, can we go and get Pizza soon?"

That's what she'd forgotten, they'd promised the children that they could go to get Pizza with Luna if they did well. Speak of the Devil, her favourite and most hated project was coming towards them, at least he looked like a hippy that forgot the 70's ended over a decade ago, what with his tie-dye trousers and shirt, along with the red John Lennon glasses. Luna was a little better in a summer dress she found in one of the charity shops on the high-street, and dyed herself, and some cheap semi-precious gem jewellery, though she was still wearing the radish earrings.

The train pulled into the station and students started to pour off the train, lugging their trunks with them. Harry and Hermione were almost unrecognisable from the children that they saw off to school back in September, chatting easily with a group of girls and helping them off the train with their luggage.

As the children all split up to go to their respective parents, Ginny became more and more nervous, and was almost a stuttering mess by the time Hermione got to them. She quickly ran up to Harry and hugged her before hiding behind her and stammering "Hi Hermione, good year?"

The moment was saved by Luna crying out, "Daddy, Daddy, she's got a Nargle too."

Xeno looked at Chirpy sitting on Hermione's shoulder, "I can see that honey, though it's rude to point."

"Oh, sorry." Luna looked momentarily repentant.

Hermione took him off her shoulder and handed him to Luna, who looked as though someone had just made her year.

"Xeno, how is it that you can see that?" Arthur asked, having been around Nixie too much to disbelieve Luna.

"Oh, I enchanted these glasses the same way I do the spectra specs we give to new subscribers. Do you want to try them?" He takes off his glasses and passes them over.

"Wait, they actually work?" He puts them on and can suddenly see Chirpy as a bright red creature sitting in Luna's hands.

"Well yes, we wouldn't want to sell dodgy stuff. Everything that we print has at least some level of evidence for it's existence."

Ron, the Twins and Percy all turned up around that point and Arthur heard Ron say to Fred or George, "'Ere, I thought Ginny had a thing for Harry, how comes she's hiding behind her from Hermione?"

Petunia let everyone catch up for a bit, and hugged Harry when she came over to see her. Eventually though she decided it was late enough and pulled out a handful of rubber wristbands with a runic design on them.

"OK, everyone that has a wand needs to take one of these. Place your wand on the circle here and channel some magic into it, this will activate the runes and store your wand in an expanded space. To get your wand out again you can either wait a couple of hour or snap the bracelet. We are going to get Pizza for dinner before we all go home, so if you don't you're going home and will need to fend for yourselves. Yes Percy, that means that you'll have to cook your own food, from scratch."

"Mum, where did you get these from?" Harry asked.

"Oh, Xeno drew up the runes for me while he was explaining a couple of ways I could do tours for witches and wizards without needing to deprive them of their wands. We did a couple of tests, and found out that carved runes using nothing more than a needle could work, but they wouldn't hold magic for long, so it's more like a short term one use charm. So I use the business pages at the library and found a place that makes bands for concert entry and amusement parks. 500 quid later and a few tests and we have our custom bands that have Muggle Tours printed on them along with the moulded runes. I've got a dozen boxes at home with 1,000 in each, so if there's a bad one I just hand out another one. Give it a go."

Harry did, and to everyone's amazement his wand was sucked into the circle.

"now just snap it and you'll have your wand back." He did, and he did.

"Ceeley, could you make the children's look like they've just got back from school."

"Oh, make the twins look like they came back from Smeltings." Ginny interjects before she does, Dudley snickers behind his hand.

"Gred?"

"Yes Forge?"

"Two questions. Why do I think that we're about to be the victims of a prank?"

"Probably because we are."

"And why didn't we take Ancient Runes?"

"We wanted to have more time to devote to our pranks."

"Right, just wanted to be sure."

With that they all went out and celebrated the end of the year with Pizza Hut.

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Fin.


The next book is up and can be found here s/13753505/1/Harry-Potter-Secrets-of-the-Dream or on AO3