Ch 50 To Summer Break
As always, great advice from Deb and Diane.
Harry, Ginny and little Minerva sat in their dining room hosting Ron and Hermione, enjoying a slightly more formal meal Tuesday May fifth.
"No speech for May Second Battle of Hogwarts Memorial this year," Harry observed. "I would have at least given a small speech at Hogwarts if not for this Covid-19 illness, and as usual the press would have covered it.
Harry sighed. He was used to the publicity he attracted by now, and had even learned how to use it at times, but he did not think he would ever covet it or quite get used to it.
"Your column on the Hogwarts Quidditch game was excellent, even though you were not there," Ron commented, looking at Ginny. "James, Lily and Scorpius all contributed?"
"James gives all the scores," Ginny explained, "But without much commentary. He has told me that he does not want to reveal too much about the players' strengths and weaknesses, so no one can use that information against him and the team. Reading James report you could not tell if the game was played in hot sunny weather or a blizzard, unless something in the weather interfered with a play.
"Scorpius gives you all the information about the setting that James ignores. His reports are good, but way too long to be used in full. They are prose, not poetry, written by someone who is trying hard to get all his facts correct."
Ron volunteered, "The more I see Scorpius the more I like him."
Harry kidded, "That is just because he plays chess with you, and you can beat him."
"He is never going to be as good a player as I am," Ron countered, "but he is getting harder to beat, and I've even lost a game to him. Scorpius wears well on you. I like him!"
Everyone looked at Ginny, who continued, "The real surprise is Lily. At her best she writes poetry, not prose. Listen to this." Ginny picked up her daughter's scroll and began to read it.
"Charles Koizumi sat confidently on his broom, the muscles from a year of strength training bulging as he flexed his bat. He expertly corralled the Bludger as he fended off the opposing Beater, waiting for the right strategic moment to wreak havoc on the opposition. Eventually he spotted the Quaffle heading towards a goal. Charles expertly aimed the Bludger at the Quaffle, deflecting the Quaffle towards his own Chasers, as he flew not towards where the Bludger was heading but towards where it would end up. By the end of the game Charles would save almost as many goals as the Keeper."
"That's Lily?" Hermione gasped.
Ginny nodded her head yes. "That's Lily. She is a surprisingly good writer. A little snarky at times."
"I wonder where she gets that?" Hermione laughed.
"I have no idea," Ginny innocently responded as the women smiled at each other amusedly.
"Snarky? What's snarky?" Minerva wondered.
"That is something you learn about when you grow up," Harry told his daughter, looking towards his wife, who had done an excellent job teaching him what snarky was.
"Have you heard any more about Daniel Tiger's grandfather?" Hermione asked, reluctantly turning the conversation to more serious matters. "We have all the legal work finished so Daniel can live with Nancy Weasley's family."
"Healer Kearney has a Muggle medical license, and he talks to the Muggle doctors," Harry answered. "He says Daniel's grandfather is gradually slipping. It does not look good. He is keeping Lavender informed, and Lavender tells me and the headmistress."
Harry, Hermione and Kingsley, along with healer Dr. Kearney and two other healers, were at a conference room at St. Mungo's talking to chief executives and healers from a number of other Ministries of Magic in the middle of May.
Dr. Pfister from Switzerland started, "It looks like most of the Western European countries are botching badly their handling of Covid-19."
Kingsley Shacklebolt complained, "I'm not sure the British Prime Minister is taking this illness seriously."
Cindy Edington, the North American minister, growled, "I am worried that most of the world is going to be bungling the response to this."
When the long conference was finished the six Magi continued their discussions on how to handle this illness in the community of Magi in Great Britain. It was going to be a difficult year.
Harry was grateful for the private Floo in his office. The Floo Authority had created a larger network of private Floo and Closet networks, to try and isolate the virus and keep people safe. Harry's private Floo only went to a fireplace in the Drawing Room of twelve Grimmauld Place. Over the last two months they had installed similar private Floo connections for many of the top people in the Ministry, including Harry's father-in-law, Kingsley and Hermione.
Mask wearing was strictly enforced in the Ministry, and they were doing their best to enforce it in Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade. They were trying to enforce mask wearing in communities like Godric's Hollow, where there were more Muggles than Magi, with some success. Getting all the Magi to take the illness seriously was still a problem. Far fewer Magi were becoming sick with this illness, and of the ones that were getting sick far fewer were dying, but none of the hospitals of the Magi in Europe or the America's were used to dealing with as many infections as they were now seeing.
"We saw something similar during other pandemics," Dr. Kearney told Harry at one meeting. "Magi have great immune systems, but they still get sick. When we do not get sick we have been persecuted for being in league with the devil or having some witchcraft that keeps us from getting sick. The witchcraft part is partly true. The Black Death and the Spanish Flu are just two of the many pandemics the Magi have confronted over the centuries."
Harry was a crime fighter, not a healer, but he was having to spend a fair amount of time on this deadly illness. It was frustrating.
Late in May Harry turned on the computer in his hidden, very private office in the lower level of Grimmauld Place, the same level just below the kitchen where the Potions Room was located. No radio signals, Muggle or magical, could penetrate this room, but he did have a wired internet connection. He logged on the Zoom, and waited for Steve to let him into the Hogwarts board meeting.
Minerva McGonagall entered the conference room in the Muggle Studies building. The quarantine was forcing most Magi to rely on more Muggle technology than ever before. The magical mirrors which could take the place of a Zoom call were expensive, and nowhere near as flexible or ubiquitous. Minerva was grateful that she had an IT professor as good as Steve. Putting up with his occasional absences due to his sick wife was a small price to pay, and his assistant, Velma Voortech, did a good job of covering for him when he had to be absent.
"Everybody should be able to log on except for Wendell Wilkes," Steve announced. "Wendell will not even travel to the shops we have set up in Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade, Godrick's Hollow and a few other places for Magi who do not have the internet to use.
"We always have a few students and parents who are almost violently opposed to Muggle technology, and with Covid and the quarantine it is getting to be more of a problem."
Minerva called the board to order, and they covered the normal business first. Finally, she announced, "I would like to send all the students who can go home back home for the summer holidays. We do expect a few students will have to stay here over the holidays. We want students to go home and come back by Floo. I understand that Robrecht VanDer Raaltee has a magical Closet at his business, so students can use that if they or their family prefer. Family can also meet the students in Hogsmeade or this Muggle Studies building to pick them up. We are going to schedule departures and arrivals over a two-day period.
"I have worked with the healers on a protocol for the students return. They will be tested, and then isolated in their dormitory rooms for a week. If everyone in the dorm room tests negative going into quarantine and before going out they can leave the dorm room. If any one of them tests positive, we will have tents set up on the grounds for a longer two-week quarantine."
"What are you going to do about the first year students, and the sorting?" Harry wondered.
"That is a problem," Minerva replied. "We are still working on that one.
"I have another matter I need to bring up. You know I hired George Hogg, our assistant librarian Harriet's husband, to take over as caretaker. August Filch was not in good health, and his helper Igor is an idiot, doing what August tells him, but no more. When I told August what I was going to do he and Igor disappeared on what we guess was a two week drunk at Muggle pubs, and both are in St. Mungo's with this Covid illness. They are not expected to survive; they were on death's door when they arrived."
One of the other board members suggested, "I thought Magi did not get sick with this illness?"
"Both August and Igor are Squibs," Minerva explained. "I have been told that most Squibs do not have as good an immune system as do Magi, and the healers at St. Mungo's are very pessimistic about the two. Their condition is tragic, but not my issue, although I may be responsible for funerals, or their care if they recover.
"My issue is plumbing. George and our contractors are the ideal people to solve the problem, but we need to run new water and sewer lines to the home being built for Thorn and Rose Hufflepuff. We also need to make some provisions for the quarantine tents. We can take care of most of the plumbing needs with magic, but after a couple of weeks using a tent without a place to send waste gets complicated. I wanted you to know because you will see some plumbing expenses on the next financial report."
The meeting went on for another hour, discussing various issues and solutions before Minerva closed the Zoom.
Albus, Cleo, Rose and Scorpius were doing homework in the Muggle Studies building, all of them typing on their tablets. Scorpius had no problem using this Muggle gadget, and even Cleopatra had learned how to control her magic enough to keep the tablet from crashing. She had ruined two tablets before she had mastered using one, but once Cleo learned something she never forgot.
Albus contacted his father both times to have his father procure new tablets, and Albus did learn that his mother had totally destroyed a very expensive laptop computer when she was first learning how to use one.
"Too much magic?" Albus had asked.
"No, she lost her temper with machine," Harry had laughed.
Albus knew it was not a good idea to get his mother mad.
"What are we going to do about summer vacation?" Albus wondered as the students had finished. "I have a hard time imagining we will all gather at the New Burrow and Potter's New Burrow. From what I read in the Daily Prophet, this quarantine is a real pain, and big gatherings are forbidden or discouraged. I cannot imagine our parents breaking quarantine. I know Dad thinks we need to always be good examples."
"I do not want to spend all summer at Malfoy Manor," Cleo griped. "I would be happy to stay here at Hogwarts, but I expect you both would like to go home." Cleo was looking at Albus and Rose as she said this.
"I would like to see Grandmother Malfoy," Scorpius thought. "We visit Mum's parents occasionally, and they are nicer than she is, but that is not saying much. I would not object to a year not seeing them."
"Your mother's parents hate me," Cleo mumbled, and Scorpius winced in sympathy.
"Mum takes me over to see her family occasionally," Scorpius remembered, "but it is always tense. Mum's brother married Miranda Merryweather, and changed his last name. The Merryweather family has run the toy store in Diagon Alley for a very long time, and Merlin is ashamed of the Greengrass name. He is working in the toy store now. His parents and my mother are furious at Uncle Merlin for changing his name to Merlin Merryweather. I like the Merryweather children. Daphne married a Harper, a Slytherin who is not that nice. I'm not very fond of Aunt Daphne's children."
"Maybe I'll just stay here at Hogwarts alone," Cleo sniffed.
"That's stupid," Albus snapped. "I will call my father. We will figure something out."
Harry, Ginny, Hermione and Ron were sitting in the kitchen of the New Burrow the end of May, talking to Arthur and Molly. Despite the New Burrow having a very nice living room, it was always more natural to have small gatherings at the kitchen table; that was just Molly Weasley. There was a modest distance between everyone, and they were all wearing the transparent masks that Ron had furnished.
"We need to decide how to handle this summer vacation, during this blasted Covid-19 quarantine," Hermione started. "We cannot just have everybody over here."
Molly brought out a list. "Victoire is working at St. Mungo's, Louis is going to be working for his father, and Dominique is going to be spending much of the summer in France. We do not have to worry about the Bill's family. I expect they will stay at New Shell Cottage.
"Roxanne and Frank Longbottom are going to get married the week after school is out, with just the parents as witnesses. They are going to stay in a suite at Longbottom Mansion. Roxanne is going to work in the greenhouses until the start of Auror training. Frank is almost finished with the formal two-year program.
"Lucy is going to be helping her mother and me with schooling, learning how to be a teacher. I do not think Lucy knows what she wants to do or be. She will keep living at home. The rest are married. The only children we have to worry about are your five, six with Minerva, and their friends."
"I know Albus and Cleo will not want to spend the summer apart," Ginny thought. "At least we can meet with them electronically, if they stay at Hogwarts."
"Rose has talked about taking the Floo to Hogwarts during the week to work with Professor Babbling translating and reading some of the oldest books, some in the school library and some in Bathsheba's private library. When I knew what she and Scorpius were looking for I purchased a few more books for them to look at."
"How many?" Ron cracked.
"A couple dozen," Hermione admitted. "I cannot read half of them."
"I expect that Lily and Hugo will want to come home," Ron suggested. "Can we figure that our two households are quarantined together?"
"We have not had a case we can trace to the Ministry since we have enforced mask wearing," Harry let the group know.
"We had one DMLE officer, and two other employees, who tested positive," Arthur added, "but they both caught this illness outside the Ministry, and they did not transmit it to anyone else. I feel safe."
"I do too," Hermione added. "Have you had any Covid-19 illnesses at work, Ron?"
"Everyone uses these stupid masks, so we can see you are wearing one," Ron explained. "We do not even let people in our store without our masks on if they are Muggle transparent, if they look like there is no mask. Our special Weasley's Wizard Wheezes transparent Covid-19 masks just let you see a person's face, but the outline and straps are visible if they are not in the Muggle Transparent mode.
"So far we have not had a single employee get sick, but we have made it very clear to everyone that our marketing is helped if no one gets sick."
"What about James?" Molly asked.
"He will probably want to spend time with Erica Lionheart," Ginny scoffed. "I'm not thrilled to give them a summer alone without supervision."
"Hogwarts has very strong spells keeping any girl from getting pregnant before they are sixteen, and the spells even discourage intercourse," Harry explained. "Are you sure James and Erica are safer here?"
"No," Ginny admitted. "I can talk to Donna Lionheart about almost anything, but suggesting that she take Erica to get birth control potions, 'just in case,' I'm not ready for that."
"I was," Molly told Ginny, reminding Ginny that Molly had her on birth control potions as soon as she knew that Harry and Ginny were a committed couple, well before they were married.
"Let us ask the children what they want," Harry suggested.
Harry's mobile rang, and he saw it was Albus.
"We were just talking about you and your crowd, Albus," Harry answered without a preamble, putting his mobile on 'speaker'.
"What about?" Albus wondered.
"Who wants to come home for the summer?"
"Scorpius and Cleopatra do not want to go back to Malfoy Manor, and I don't want to leave Cleo. Scorpius and Rose have a big project reading and translating old books. They even have a few old scrolls they are looking at. If Scorpius and Rose stay here I am not sure I want to leave them. The Professors Appleleaf have asked Cleo and me about studying how she sees Charms, since she seems to see the magic behind the magic.
"I want to come home and see everybody, but I want to stay here as well."
"This is Grandmum Weasley. I need to talk to Mrs. Narcissa Malfoy, and see if Scorpius and Cleo can even stay over the summer, Albus. If they can we can meet on that zoom-zoom calculating machine thing."
"Please let us know, Grandmum," Albus replied. "It is looking like we really don't have any good choices, just some that are better than others."
"We will try to call you back tomorrow night, Albus," Harry told his son as he ended the call.
Molly placed a Floo call to Narcissa the next morning, and a short time later Narcissa came through the Floo at the New Burrow, wearing one of the magical transparent masks.
"How are you, Narcissa?"
"I'm the same as always, but Draco and Astoria are in worse moods than normal. I do not think Astoria always wears a mask when she is out, and I have no idea what Draco is doing half the time."
"Do you want Scorpius and Cleopatra to spend the summer at Malfoy Manor?"
"Merlin, NO!" Narcissa snapped. "Cleo's grandmother always tells me what to do, not that I obey her, but she asked me what we were going to be doing about this Muggle illness. If I tell her that the children have to stay at Hogwarts they would agree, I think, just because they have no idea what they are doing either."
"We will still be able to talk to the students on my mobile. There is even some zoom-zoom calculating thing that they can set up for us," Molly suggested.
"I've heard about Zoom calls," Narcissa confessed. "I just wish I could get Draco to agree to come into the twenty-first century.
2021