Chapter seven
It took almost a year with a lot of plans, but the school opened with seventy five students that ranged from the age of five up to seventeen. Evan, Andromeda, Ted and Sirius believed that sending children to the school early would benefit them. They would learn what they needed, like reading, writing, and history of both worlds and all the other subjects that they would need in years to come. But having the children start early meant that the children would have life long friends from a young age. There were no sorting at the Irish Educational Institute. The students were housed with their age groups. Harry and Neville were already close and spent a lot of time at each other's homes. Frank and Alice were also spending a lot of time with Evan, Sirius, Andromeda and Ted. Both were aurors, but Evan was hoping they might decide to leave the department of magical law and come work at the school. They have already agreed that Neville will go to the new school instead of Hogwarts.
Evan never heard from Snape but he did find out that the man left Hogwarts one day and disappeared. All Evan could find out was that he moved overseas, but no one has seen him or heard from him since.
Evan had spoken with the Granger's about their daughter Hermione, he explained first about the blood purists and how the magical world was run, in England. Since Hermione was a witch she would still need to learn how to control her magic even if she wished to work in the non magical world. Magic was part of her now, nothing could stop that. But Evan also explained that even with gifted or overachievers they had worked programs so the children will play and interact with each other. They could still read, since Harry Potter knew exactly what Hermione was like. Evan wanted the Granger's to know that Hermione needed more than just learning, she needed to mingle and make friends. They agreed as they always believed their daughter could do so much if she would just interact with other children.
Evan had different speeches for the different parent's of muggleborns or half-bloods who lived in the muggle world. He also knew which parent's could afford a good education for their children and which would need a scholarship. Hogwarts was lacking in so much that Evan's school covered. But one thing Evan made sure of was the students would need to buy things like pens or quills, their potion ingredients but they did not have to buy books or robes. The school had basic trousers, skirts, shirts, shorts, jumpers and jackets. Evan did that as he remembered how he hated robes when he was at Hogwarts, but he also hated having to give up things in the muggle world just to learn magic. He preferred pens, but he knew it would be up to the individual student to decide. Evan also thought about all those people that found it hard to buy expensive books. Even though he hated Ron, Ginny and some of the Weasley's, he did know they struggled. Not as much as he was lead to believe, since Albus Dumbledore was paying them and paying for their tuition to Hogwarts, as long as the family supported him.
Another thing Evan did, he made sure any orphan that was a witch or wizard would live at the school, permanently, with everything paid for. They could even remain for a year or two after they finish their education until they found work or decided to go to muggle university. Evan believed Voldemort would not have been as dark if he could have been raised by a good family and not in an orphanage that would have seen him as strange and abnormal whenever his magic showed itself. They would have feared him, believed he was the devil. Being raised by good people could have made a difference. Evan didn't know for sure how Voldemort would have turned out if things were different, it was just his belief that Voldemort might not have become the dark lord if he had people that cared for him, raising him.
One thing that Evan worked on for the school, the children could stay, like a boarding school, or go home to be with their families every second weekend. That seemed to be popular, it also helped with parent's who worked. Whatever way they decided meant it would remain that way for the entire year. They could not just change halfway through as it would put too much work on the staff.
It was five years after the school opened that Evan called Sirius into his office. It was time to tell his godfather the truth.
'What's up Evan?'
'Have a seat Sirius, this will take a while.'
'I know you always seemed more serious than James, but right now you even look it.'
'What I need to tell you and show you is very serious. I know you were wary about making that unbreakable vow when we first met, I get why, but I think now is the time you found out the truth. I always trusted you but I also know you sometimes went off without thinking, especially if you had a few drinks. I had to play this my way for Harry's sake.'
'I get it Evan, I finally saw for myself that Albus has many faces, thanks to Harry's cloak.'
'Which he will get when he's a bit older. If he is anything like his father I do not want him turning this school pink or have insects attacking the staff.'
Sirius laughed, 'Well, we were young when we did that. Okay, so has Albus done something else I need to know about?'
'He's done many things Sirius, but this is…' Evan sighed, 'I wasn't completely honest with you when we first met, I have a good reason but at the time I had to think of Harry's safety. Lily wasn't a seer Sirius, the information about future events came from me, only because I lived through it.'
'Evan, mate, no one can time travel more than a few hours.'
'True, but with the help of a brilliant potions master he invented a way. It took him ten years to make this work, but only for me and it could only take me back to twenty four hours after I was hit with a dark curse,' Evan moved his hands over his face to remove the glamour that hid his scar, then removed his contact lenses, he lifted his hair as he looked at Sirius.
'I am Harry James Potter, from the future. I came back to stop hundreds of deaths that Albus allowed and to stop this Harry from being abused as a child. Sirius, I know this is hard to believe, but I have proof. You never got released from Azkaban, you broke out when I was thirteen. You were in that hell hole for twelve years, almost out of your mind, but thanks to Padfoot, you kept your sanity. Albus left you there, along with people like Remus. I was left with my mother's muggle sister, Petunia, her husband Vernon and their son Dudley. I wasn't given a room, I was locked in a cupboard. I was a human version of a house elf. I was beaten at least once a week, sometimes more often, I was starved and I was told I was worthless. My cousin had a gang, they would go Harry hunting, yet he was praised and given anything he wanted from his parent's and I was punished. Albus Dumbledore sentenced me to sixteen years of hell, he manipulated me into believing I had to die so Voldemort to finally be destroyed for good. He had paid Ron and Ginny Weasley to be my friends, to spy on me, to make sure I never learned what I needed. He set up test that almost killed me every year I was at Hogwarts.'
Harry/Evan got up and opened his cabinet which held his pensieve, 'I have a dozen memories here for you to look through, I also have a dozen journals that you can read. It's basically my life story from the time my parent's died to just after I killed Voldemort when I was seventeen. Sirius, you were killed, Remus, Dora, Fred Weasley, Mad-eye, hundreds and hundreds died all so Albus fucking Dumbledore could be once again respected and thought of as the greatest wizard in the world. He planned all this the moment he heard the prophecy, yet he never did anything to stop my parent's being killed. He found out that I would be more powerful than him, he couldn't have that. So he made sure you weren't in my life, but made sure I suffered, then I was grateful to the kindly old man who rescued me from the abusive muggles. You need to see the truth for yourself then I need you help to stop Voldemort returning. I will leave you to watch these, the journals you can take your time reading.'
Harry/Evan stopped at Sirius, 'Don't do anything foolish, please, I lost you once, I can't lose you again,' Evan didn't wait for an answer, he just left his office to his godfather.
Evan wandered around his school, he still found it hard to believe he opened his own school. But he did and young Harry was having a normal life learning and playing with true friends. Hermione was growing up better than she did, she had friends, she played but she still loved to read. She lost her bossy attitude and never tried to outshine anyone. She became close friends with Neville and Harry. Evan was glad to have Neville, who in the future proved to be a true friend and a loyal one. Right after Frank and Alice said that their son would be going to Evan's school, Evan had three greenhouses erected on the grounds. He approached Pomona Sprout during the holidays and was pleased she took up the post as herbology and potions teacher. It only took a year before Frank and Alice hung up their auror robes and took the teaching positions at the new school.
Even ended up outside sitting on one of the benches staring around at the school and the children who would playing during their break. He could see Harry running around kicking a ball with his friends. At first he didn't notice that someone had sat beside him, until he turned to look at another part of the school. Sirius was staring, he had tears in his eyes. The moment Evan looked at him he was in his godfather's arms. He knew right then that everything would be alright, that little Harry would have Padfoot, but so did he.
Over the years the school that catered to magical and muggle education was building up and was gaining a big reputation. More and more parent's of muggleborns or muggle raised children asked to attend the school. The Irish Educational Institute was expanding more than Andromeda, Ted, and Sirius believed. They now had a full staff, so none of them had to double up, unless they wanted to. Alice might have left teaching when she became pregnant, but she knew there were plenty of baby sitters if Evan required her to help out at the school. Dora had finally realised how much better the new school was compared to Hogwarts. Having a muggleborn father and a pure-blood mother taught her about both parts of the world, now the school was doing the same.
It took Evan going through his memories of his sorting and the sortings over the following years to get the names of students. Andromeda had researched and narrowed that list down to muggleborns, half-bloods that did not have a good life at Hogwarts when Harry was there. Also a few pure-bloods that were ostracised or bullied because they did not believe that being a pure-blood made them better than any person who had the gift of magic. One thing that all the staff agreed on, since there were no houses, points were awarded to the student. The student who had the most points at the end of the year would get a reward, some money they could spend on whatever they wanted.
When Evan first said there would be no sorting into houses, the others weren't sure it would work but they were willing to see if it worked. The children would all be together so they would never be any house rivalry like at Hogwarts. They put on friendly games of quidditch, as well as a lot of muggle sports, but the children would play for one side during one game then the other side for the next. They weren't sure if it would work at first, but the children were happy so they decided their way of doing things was a lot better than Hogwarts.
Traditions were all well and good, but not at the expense of a child education nor the child's happiness.