The Mutt who Lived
by Teddylonglong
All recognizable Harry Potter characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story. I am merely borrowing the characters to play with them.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.
Warnings: Completely AU, partly OOC, Dumbledore/Weasley bashing.
A.N.: To those who are not friends with me on Facebook - Inu is neither a phantasy dog nor an Animagus. He is my own doggy, who agreed to play one of the major roles in this story.
Lily hurried back to Hogsmeade and, cradling Inu close, apparated right to Potter Manor. Ever since James' parents had died in an attack by Voldemort, they had postponed visiting the manor again; they knew, however, that the house-elves had renovated the place and the goblins had greatly improved the security on James' instruction, and she did not mind living here from now on let alone having their own school at the manor. 'The main point is that I'll be able to look after Harry and Neville… and Inu of course,' she added as an afterthought. 'We could have a primary school and play school with it to raise Harry and Neville together with their year mates,' she contemplated, feeling delighted at the prospect of being able to implement her own ideas into the new school.
When Lily and Inu entered the manor, Gina, the head house-elf of the Potter family, greeted her in the entrance hall.
"Mistress Lily, Gina is very happy to have Mistress Lily, Master James and little Master Harry here," the elf blurted out in apparent happiness.
"Little Master Neville is going to live with us as well," Lily lightly corrected her, "and I believe that you know Inu."
"Of course, hello Inu," Gina gently welcomed the canine, who sat on his behind to gently lick the elf's face, which he could just barely reach.
"Shall Gina accompany you to the parlour, where Master James and the little masters are together with Professor McGonagall?" Gina offered, and Lily gladly agreed.
When she entered the parlour, she could not help smiling. While James and Minerva seemed to eagerly discuss something, the two toddlers were fast asleep on the sofa, each with their head on Minerva's lap and lightly covered with soft blankets.
"Shall I take them to bed?" Lily asked, causing James to pat the spot on the sofa next to him.
"No love, sit down for a moment, please. We wish to discuss something with you first," he replied in a soft voice. "They're fine here for the time being."
Only when she sat down on the sofa, she realised that a plan of the manor was spread out on the table, onto which James or Minerva had added their own plans for a possible school.
They quickly explained what they had discussed so far, before James suggested for Minerva to invite her colleagues.
"James," Lily spoke up, frowning, "are they all included in the wards? Don't you have to add names to the book in your father's office, oh well, your office, to allow them entrance? At the same time, please delete Albus Dumbledore from the book."
"Oh, that's right," James replied, pensively, before he motioned Minerva to follow him into his office, which he had never used so far.
Instead of accompanying them, Lily decided to take the children to bed and called Gina, who immediately arrived and carried Neville upstairs, while she cradled Harry close.
HP
"Oh Merlin, everything reminds me so much of Charlus and Dorea," Minerva suddenly said, a small tear leaking from her eye. "They were wonderful people and good friends of mine. They were both classmates of mine, did you know that?"
"Oh, I wasn't aware of that, but yeah, the manor still seems like their place, not ours," James agreed, before he returned the conversation to the topic at hand. "Who do you think we should invite?" he enquired, readying his quill to write into the book of admissions.
"Severus, Pomona, Poppy, Flitwick, Rolanda, maybe also Remus and Sirius," Minerva suggested.
Only Pomona Sprout, Severus Snape and Filius Flitwick were missing on the list, and James quickly added them, before he crossed out the name 'Albus Dumbledore' and held out a small box in the form of a phoenix to Minerva. "Floo powder," he added on her questioning look, causing the witch to chuckle.
Pointing her wand at the box, she quickly transfigured the phoenix into a canine, which had the form of a Crup, before she accepted the floo powder and began to call her colleagues.
HP
When Lily returned to the parlour, knowing that all three babies were fast asleep in the nursery, Severus, Sirius, Remus as well as several people, who had been her teachers at Hogwarts, were assembled. To her surprise, even Gina, the head house-elf, was attending the meeting.
"James," Remus spoke up, after Lily had greeted everyone, "I won't be able to become a teacher at your school. Have you forgotten about my furry problem?" he asked in apparent disbelief.
"Of course not," James replied, smirking. "Have you forgotten about a certain room in the cellar, Moony?"
"Do you think that it's safe enough?" Remus enquired, seemingly sceptical.
"It is," Sirius spoke up in a firm voice.
"All right then," Minerva spoke up, glancing around. "Who would be willing to give up their current jobs and work here at our new school?"
To Lily's surprise, everyone raised their hands in apparent eagerness.
"All of you," the deputy headmistress of Hogwarts stated, contentedly. "So, we have Poppy as the healer, who is also able to brew potions if she has time and who could teach a Healing class for the upper years, preferably as an elective."
Poppy nodded, smiling, and Minerva continued. "Severus, if you don't mind, I suggest that you teach Potions. You're good at Defence as well; I know that, but Sirius and Remus are rubbish at Potions I'm afraid."
Everyone chuckled, and Severus nodded his agreement. "If Lily doesn't want to teach?" he enquired.
Lily shook her head. "At least not as long as Harry and Neville are so small," she replied, firmly. "To any other class, I could take them with me, but not to a Potions classroom. The fumes coming from dunderheads' cauldrons to speak with Severus could endanger them too much."
"Now," Minerva continued, "Pomona for Herbology, Sirius for Defence Against the Dark Arts, Filius for Charms or History of Magic, I'd like to continue teaching Transfiguration, James as the headmaster..." She slowly trailed off, giving her colleagues a questioning look.
"I could teach Care of Magical Creatures," Remus spoke up, questioningly.
"No," James suddenly blurted out, causing everyone to look from Remus to him in apparent surprise.
"Ah, sorry, Remus, yes, that would be brilliant, but I'm not going to be the headmaster. Minerva, would you be willing to become the headmistress please? You have decades of experience, while I'm completely new to this," he explained.
Minerva remained pensive for a moment, before she agreed. "If you are going to teach Transfiguration?" she enquired, giving him a sharp look.
"All right," James agreed. "Now for Lily, I suggest that you become the headmistress of our primary school. The primary school could be a simple day school with magical children from the age of four onwards."
"Only if we take muggleborn children as well," Lily replied, smiling. 'Oh Merlin, how I would have loved to attend a magical school instead of our muggle primary school,' she thought.
"Lily," Flitwick spoke up, "you were my best student in Charms over the last twenty years. Will you be willing to help charming the book of all magical students to alert us if any muggleborn student displays accidental magic? That way, we could talk to the parents at an earlier time and allow muggleborn students to receive the same primary school education as children from magical families."
Everyone agreed and decided to have the school begin from the following school year onwards, so that they were going to have nine months to prepare everything.
"When are you going to retire from Hogwarts?" James enquired, giving the Hogwarts professors a questioning look.
"Immediately," Minerva spoke up in determination. "After what Albus did on Halloween, I do not feel inclined to work together with him another day."
Her colleagues agreed – everyone except for Severus.
"I'm sorry," he spoke up, "but for me, the situation is not as easy, as I owe Albus greatly. He saved me from Azkaban, when all the Death Eaters were put to court."
"I will vouch for you," James spoke up in a clear, firm voice, "and my wife will also support you," he added.
Lily noticed how Sirius cast his best friend a surprised look, however, when she nodded in Severus' direction, he seemed to relax.
"I will," she added, verbally, just when Inu dashed into the room and stood in front of her, locking eyes with her.
"Do you want me to come with you, Inu?" she asked, gently, causing the canine to waggle his tail.
"Please excuse me for a moment," she apologized and hurried behind Inu, who led them into the nursery, where Neville seemed to be stuck in a nightmare. She gently woke the boy up and spoke with him in a soothing voice, gently easing him back into sleep. "Thank you, Inu," she whispered to the canine, who gently licked her hand and climbed back into Harry's bed.
"Poor Neville had a nightmare," she informed the others, once she was back in the parlour.
"We've just discussed that tomorrow morning, we're going to hand in our resignations to Albus and will come here, as soon as we've finished packing," Minerva informed her. "The first thing that James and I must do is to apply for the new school to the Ministry of Magic. Everyone, please think about a name for our school before we meet here, let's say at lunchtime tomorrow."
"We need a copy of the book of magical children," Severus reminded her.
Minerva nodded. "Yes, I know, and I'm going to unobtrusively make a copy, when I go and speak with Albus upon our return to the school. I will also send Malcolm to his office to copy all the information about our current students and their magical and possibly muggle guardians," she promised.
"That's good. I'll ask Cicero to assist Malcolm," Severus promised. "Perhaps Misty could help, too, although I suppose that she'll be busy packing your office, Poppy? Just as Cicero will be busy packing up my private belongings from my lab."
"Somehow, I feel sorry for our students though," Poppy spoke up.
"That's Albus' problem though. He still has Hagrid, Sybill Trelawney, Argus Filch and some others left," Pomona spoke up, smirking.
"If you wish," Severus said, pensively, "we could offer to take the current seventh-year students from January onwards. Perhaps we'd even be able to hire some good ones right out of school."
"Is one of you able to teach them in, for example, Arithmancy or Ancient Runes?" Minerva enquired, sharply.
"I could teach these two subjects," Remus offered, causing everyone to agree.
"Perhaps," Lily spoke up, pensively, "we could hire Neville's grandmother to teach the subject of Magical Etiquette to the muggleborn students, provided that there are any."
"Not only to the muggleborns," Minerva added. "Some children, who have grown up in a magical environment, need it as well. I'll speak with Augusta at the next opportunity."
"Do you want to have houses like at Hogwarts by the way?" Pomona suddenly enquired.
"No!" Lily and Severus replied, simultaneously.
"Thank Merlin," Poppy sighed, smiling.
"Definitely not," Minerva agreed. "Godric once told me that they merely divided the students into houses to be able to oversee them more easily, not to provoke the house rivalry Hogwarts has seen during the last decade."
"We should still put up one class teacher for each year as the responsible person, to whom the children can turn at any time," Poppy said, pensively.
"As long as we don't have many students, they can always come to Minerva and me as the headmistresses for the older and younger students," Lily disagreed. "Only if the number of students rises too much, we need to think about it."
"I hope that we receive about 90 percent of the current Hogwarts population," Minerva added, smirking, "even if Albus still has many friends."
"Lily," James spoke up, thoughtfully, "I believe we should inform the Daily Prophet about Albus' activities during the Halloween night."
Lily nodded, grimly. "Don't worry, James, I won't let Dumbledore get away with it," she promised in a firm voice.
"Oh, he won't, anyway," Minerva added, smirking, before she and her colleagues returned to Hogwarts for a last night.
HP
"This is going to be a lot of work," James sighed, when they were in bed an hour later.
"It's going to be great fun though," Lily replied, smiling. "I wished I could be a fly on the wall when Albus receives all these resignations."
"That's true," James agreed, grinning. "Oh, by the way, I asked Gina if we needed more house-elves, considering that Minerva and some others are going to bring their personal elves with them, and Gina told me that some of the elves wished to marry and have children, but that they couldn't do that without our consent. So, I promised her that we would renew the family bond with them and allow them to marry first thing tomorrow morning."
"All right," Lily agreed, sleepily. "Good night, Daddy."
"Good night, Mummy," James replied in a soft voice, gently pulling her into his arms.
HP
When Lily, James and the children were having breakfast, an owl brought the Daily Prophet.
'The Mutt who Lived defeats You-Know-Who', screamed the headline in red letters. Below was a huge photograph of Inu and another that showed his back with the scar in the shape of a lightning bolt.
'So far, if Lord Voldemort AKA You-Know-Who went to people's homes with the intention of killing someone, he always succeeded. Not this time, as there was this dog, Inu Potter, who did not only defeat the evil wizard in protection of his family but survived the feat with as much as a scar on his behind.'
The following article described everything about Inu's victory over Voldemort, pointing out that Inu – the Mutt who Lived – was the hero of the magical world.
"I wonder who told them so much," Lily said, frowning at the details of the article.
"Moody I suppose?" James guessed.
"Don't you think he should have asked us beforehand?" Lily replied, feeling slightly angry at the old Auror.
"Oh well, he didn't exactly take it well that Sirius and I quit our jobs, especially now with Frank and Alice gone," James replied, smirking. "Perhaps it was his revenge."
After breakfast, the Potter family explored the manor, on the one hand to show it to the children and Inu, on the other hand to see which parts could be used for what purposes.
HP
At the same time, Minerva and her colleagues visited the headmaster to hand in their resignations.
Dumbledore greeted them in surprise, seemingly overwhelmed enough upon seeing the four heads of the houses visit him together with Poppy and Rolanda to completely forget to offer lemon drops to the group.
"I came to hand in my resignation letter," Minerva was the first to speak up, placing a parchment in front of him onto the table.
"Me as well," Pomona added, placing her letter on top of Minerva's.
While the others continued the process, Minerva unobtrusively copied one of the large tomes residing in the shelf right next to her.
Albus stared at him in apparent disbelief. "You can't do that," he stammered, causing several of her colleagues to snort.
"We can do that, and we're just doing it," Minerva informed him.
"You have an obligation to teach the students," Albus protested. "You signed a contract."
"By dealing with the Potters like you did, you've shown us enough for us to know that we do not wish to work together with you any longer," Filius added in a strict voice.
"You can't do that," Albus repeated, looking at her.
"I'm sorry, Albus," Minerva replied in a firm voice. "You'll have to look for new teachers to replace us."
"How am I going to replace so many of you at the same time?" the headmaster enquired, giving her a pleading look.
However, Minerva remained firm. "That's not our problem. We're going to set up our own school."
"Or do you wish to retire?" Pomona enquired.
"No," Albus retorted in apparent determination.
With that, the group took their leave and returned to their private quarters to pack the rest of their belongings and step through the fireplace to Potter Manor.
"Godric, just in case there is no portrait of you at Potter Manor, I'm going to take you with me," Minerva told the founder, knowing that Poppy would also bring her portrait of Helga Hufflepuff.
"Why don't you take the painting of the four of us from the staff room?" Godric enquired. "We'd love to oversee your new school, and maybe at some stage, all of you can come back to Hogwarts, once Mr. Too-many-names-Dumbledore has retired."
Minerva agreed and sent Malcolm to fetch the painting and take it straight to Potter Manor.
By the time she stepped out of the fireplace in the entrance hall of Potter Manor, her colleagues were just discussing with Lily and James where to place the portrait of the four founders of Hogwarts.
"Let's place it into the staff room, just where it was before," she voiced her opinion, causing everyone to agree.
"Now my next question," Severus spoke up, "is what we're going to name the school?"
Silence followed, which was only broken by the arrival of an old barn owl that was carrying a series of red letters – one for each of them except for the children and Inu.
To Minerva's amusement, all of the Howlers began to shout at almost the same time, however, it was not exactly the same time, and it was simply impossible to understand as much as one clear word in all the shouting. The only thing that quickly became clear was that it was Molly Weasley's voice that did the shouting.
"Oh well, never mind," Severus sneered, once the Howlers had crumbled into ash and vanished into thin air. "I don't believe that we missed anything important."
"That woman," Minerva added, shaking her head in annoyance.
"How about the New Hogwarts School for Magic?" Rowena spoke up from the portrait that was still leaning against the wall next to the door.
"Rubbish," Godric bellowed from next to his wife. "There's only one Hogwarts. However, since Merlin was my grandfather, James is also an heir of Merlin. Why don't you name the school after him?"
After a longer discussion about a possible name, everyone decided on "Merlin Academy for Magical Arts (MAMA)", and Minerva and James headed to the Ministry of Magic to apply to the Department of Education for the permission to set up of their new school MAMA.
Griselda Marchbanks quietly listened to their explanation, before she replied, "I am very sorry, dears, but Albus Dumbledore in his function as the head of the Wizengamot has demanded that no other school apart from Hogwarts should be granted permission."
tbc...
Thank you so very much for the many kind reviews for the previous chapter. Sorry if this chapter was boring. Please let me know what you think of this chapter and what you expect from this story. Any ideas or opinions are welcome.
Next chapter: "The Merlin Academy for Magical Arts".