Chapter ten

Minerva McGonagall, the deputy headmistress of Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry was staring at the handful of letters that was sitting on one side of her desk. Normally at this time of the year the pile was larger, a lot larger. It was the acceptance letters from the new first years, but it seems many didn't accept their place at Hogwarts, just as many had been turning down their places at Hogwarts over the last ten years.

She knew Hogwarts was losing new students, she had a feeling many were going to the school in Ireland that she heard about. No one could get any information about the school, the few that tried found no memory of ever speaking with anyone from the school, nor did they know if they visited the school. Minerva knew there were powerful wards that could erase a person's memory of a location, it was for security reasons. It seems this other school wanted to keep people out, only allow in the ones that accepted their place, which was most of the ones that would normally come to Hogwarts.

The other pile of letters had Minerva confused, she would get to them, but first she needed to see which students would be starting at Hogwarts.

Minerva opened one letter after another, 'All pure-bloods, not one half-blood or muggleborn accepted.'

She sighed then began to open the other letters, 'Oh my,' every letter she opened was from a half-blood or muggleborn that already was a student. They were pulling out of Hogwarts. It was their official letter stating they would not be returning.

Minerva hurried to her file cabinet, she pulled out the book that lists every student in attendance at Hogwarts. She matched the names in her book to the names on one of the letters.

'It is now officially a pure-blood school, but will it remain open with only quarter of the students?' Minerva sent her house elf to speak with the other teachers, to ask them if they would join her in her office for an emergency meeting.

Minerva kept pacing her office, when one of the staff arrived she pointed to a seat then kept pacing.

'We are all here Minerva, now what is going on?' Rolanda asked.

'This,' she picked up the two piles of letters, 'The ones in my right hand are every muggleborn and half-blood turning down their place at Hogwarts,' she lowered that hand and lifted her other hand, 'These are letters from every half-blood and muggleborn that are currently students, withdrawing from Hogwarts. There will only be around sixty students at Hogwarts once the school year begins and all pure-bloods.'

'Doesn't Hogwarts have to keep a certain number of students to remain open?' Aurora asked.

'Yes, the lowest number we can have and stay open is three hundred. One letter I expected to find was not amongst them, he is a half-blood, but he did not reply.'

'Who?' Filius asked.

'Harry Potter, Albus has not been receiving any response to his letters.'

'Where is the boy living?' Poppy asked.

'With James' half brother, he got custody straight after James and Lily were killed. I never found this out until a year later when I asked Albus how Harry was. Originally Albus left Harry with lily's sister, but it seemed Evan Potter used blood magic to find his nephew. I did not agree with leaving Harry with the muggles but you know you cannot argue with Albus. I did not believe those muggles would be right to raise a magical child.'

'from what I heard, Petunia despised Lily because she was a witch, she was often cruel. So it's good to hear that he is with family who is magical. So if there has been no response it means the-boy-who-lived is not going to attend Hogwarts,' Rolanda said.

'No, he won't be,' Minerva sighed, 'I believe Evan Potter has enrolled Harry in the Irish Educational Institute.'

'He probably is but we have more important things to worry about, we all might be out of a job. I doubt they will want to keep Hogwarts running with only a handful of students that three teachers could take care of. The castle would take too much to run without all those students tuition,' Aurora said.

'The tuition would not even pay half our wages. Do any of you know if Albus has returned from the ministry?' Every staff member shook their heads, 'I will keep you inform, but as of now I would say we will close.'

'Do you believe all those students are going to this school in Ireland?' Roland asked.

'I believe so but I honestly don't know. If I found out, I could speak with them to find out why they turned down Hogwarts.'

'From what I've been hearing about this school in Ireland, it does not cater to pure-bloods, yet there are pure-blood students attending. Everyone is treated as equals and they do not separate the students into houses. But the main thing I did hear is that they combine magical and muggle education for those that may want to work in the muggle world. I heard many students over the years complain that they had to give up almost everything when they arrived here,' Filius said, he knew the truth, he had stayed at Hogwarts to listen in. Now might be the time to take Evan Wiseman Potter up on the position at his school.

It was a few days after Minerva spoke to the staff that she explained the cold facts to Albus. He was talking to a few of his contacts to try and find out just why most magical children were deciding on the other school and not Hogwarts. Hogwarts was known as the premier school in the magical world. Albus had not checked the records in years, if he did he would find out that the Irish Educational Institute was now the number one school in Europe and Hogwarts had dropped down to number eight.

Albus called a staff meeting ready to give them the bad news. He waited until they took a seat but noticed that Filius did not join them. As the last one sat down a letter appeared on Albus' desk.

'It seems Filius has left us, he was offered a position as the charms professor and duelling teacher at the Irish Educational Institute,' Albus sighed, 'I just came from a meeting with the governors, the school will not open, which means all of us must leave the castle. They have given us a month to find somewhere to live, then the castle will be sealed.'

'Why is this happening?' Minerva asked.

'From what we have found out, the Irish ministry do not discriminate. If someone applies for a job it goes on their test scores and their aptitude test, not on blood status. We also found out that the graduating students from their school either has good jobs waiting for them whether it's in Ireland or overseas, or they continue their muggle education. But the school offers more education if a student wishes to become a master. After some more digging, we found out that the school offers muggle sports along with quidditch. It offers a muggle activity called martial arts, it has a heated indoor swimming pool, along with an indoor quidditch and sports stadium. There are separate building that are connect to electricity so the students can use things called computers and have movie nights once a week. Parent's of all the students can visit once every three months to see how their child's education is going. The students can chose whether they use quills or muggle pens, also, they do not wear robes or hats but a school uniform. There is more though, all the students who attend that school buy their supplies in Ireland. They don't have to buy things like books, the school supply them as part of their tuition. Another thing, the students can go home every second weekend, but they can even stay all year round, if they wish. I checked on some of the magical orphans, they are all now living in Ireland, and the school starts from the age of five. But if an orphan is there that is younger, they are in a separate part of the school where nannies look after them. It seems the Irish Educational Institute is now the number one school in Europe, as they offer a dozen more subjects than Hogwarts do. Before you all leave, I should tell you that if Hogwarts ever does open again, I will not be returning. It seems the governors have blamed me and how I ran the school which drove the students away.'

'They are also to blame Albus. They made any student not a pure-blood pay more in tuition, then you have the ministry who would not allow someone as smart as Lily Potter to work there just because she was a muggleborn. I believe with the school closing and shops doing a lot less business, the ministry in this country may close as well. It will be their own fault if it does,' Minerva stood up, 'There is no use staying, I will be gone within the hour.'

One by one the staff all left the office, Albus had no idea how any of this happened, but it seems that all his plans began to go wrong the moment James and Lily Potter died. Maybe their souls knew what he planned for their son and made all this happen, to punish Albus. There was nothing left to be done, so Albus called a house elf to pack up his office, but no house elf appeared. It seems even the elves had left Hogwarts. Albus had not done much work for years, it was magic or a house elf, now he had to pack his own belongings.

Evan looked up when Sirius walked into his office, with a huge grin on his face, 'Alright Padfoot, what have you done?'

Sirius laughed, 'Nothing, but I got word that Hogwarts has officially closed and this school is now the number one school in Europe. Congratulations…pup.'

Evan grinned, 'Hard to believe that it turned out so well. I never set out to open a school, I just knew I didn't want young Harry near Hogwarts.'

'You also wanted to stop students being bullied, also students who would not reach their potential because of the bullies, that was done by the pure-bloods and supported by the staff.'

'It also helps that our students can get work based on how well they do and not blood status. I received a letter yesterday, I had to see for myself, so earlier today I paid a visit to Hogsmeade and Diagon alley. Half the shops are now closed. The Irish government believed their economy is booming all thanks to this school being started which allowed them to form their own government,' Evan held up a letter, 'Filius has agreed to take up a position here, as the charms master and duelling master. He has also agreed to teach all about goblins and how most of what Hogwarts teaches is fabricated, lies or facts twisted to make it sound like goblins are always in the wrong. When he agreed to this, I decided to add another class, on house elves. I believe our students should know more about the magical beings that we share our world with.'

Sirius grinned again, everything seemed to be turning out for the best, not just for them, for Harry, for the students, but also for magical beings. He did wonder if Evan would eventually bring centaurs and other magical creatures to the school.