Note: I do not own any of the characters and such, those are entirely JK Rowling's.
11. To prepare and plan
Stephanie woke early the next morning. She stayed in bed for a while and her thoughts went to an idea she had for a while for an extra class for the first years. If she was able to write everything down before the staff meeting at eleven, she might be able to discuss it afterwards with the headmaster, and hopefully get his permission.
Motivated, she got up and got ready for the day. She put on her dark gray trousers, a mahogany red jumper, and her new loafers underneath. The magical make-up was absolutely amazing. Muggle make-up also advertised with "waterproof" and "no smudge" but that was never really true. This make-up however...she felt like she could have an intense snogging session in a rain storm and her make-up would still be perfect.
In one of her muggle notebooks she wrote out her plans for "social studies", obligatory for all first years in which they would learn about both the magical and the muggle community and how they intertwined. She also made a note that the classes should be Slythering-Raveclaw and Gryffindor-Hufflepuff, to avoid fights breaking out, as she was sure they were going to discuss some sensitive topics.
Soon enough it was ten to eleven and Stephanie made her way down to the staff room, notebook and pen in hand. She made some small talk with the other professors, got a few compliments on her new look and soon the meeting started as Dumbledore arrived.
As Stephanie wasn't teaching yet, she mostly just listened and made notes of things that seemed important to her, such as students who stood out. Some got mentioned because they were smart (Hermione Granger), and some because they were causing trouble (the Weasley twins).
She was probably the youngest member of the staff, Snape was second. Stephanie thought he should be about 32 now. The rest were clearly much older, except for Quirrell but she knew he was not staying for long. She had actually no idea how old the man was, and to be honest, she didn't care.
He was going to die this year, and although that seemed sad, she wasn't really feeling sorry for him. He chose to follow Voldemort, and with that he signed his own death sentence.
After an hour and a half the meeting was over and most headed to the great hall for lunch. Madam Pomfry asked Stephanie if she could stop by in the hospital wing later today, just to check if she was still alright. Stephanie promised her she would come and see her after lunch.
Before he could leave Stephanie said, 'Albus, do you have a minute?' The headmaster turned towards her, 'Of course my dear, something on your mind?' Stephanie invited him to sit down for a minute and she quickly explained to him her idea for social studies.
He listened with great interest to her idea and asked to see her notes. Stephanie was somewhat surprised at how interested he was. Had honestly nobody thought of this idea before? It seemed so obvious. 'Tell you what Stephanie, if you don't mind, I will borrow your notes and look at them in my office. I think it's certainly possible, we just need to decide which topics we can teach in this class. Before the weekend is over, I will let you know what I think. Is that alright?'
Stephanie agreed with him, gave him her notebook and together they made their way to lunch. The food at Hogwarts was absolutely amazing, and for every meal there were multiple choices so everybody could eat something they liked. Stephanie loved good food but she always tried to eat somewhat healthy and not to eat too much, as her stomach easily got upset.
After lunch she made her way to the hospital wing. When she came in she saw madam Pomfry sitting in her office with the door open. The nurse had heard her enter and looked up as soon as she got in. 'Stephanie, good of you to stop by. I just wanted to do a check-up with you if that's alright? Just to make sure you're okay.' Stephanie was touched by her concern.
'Not a problem madam Pomfry. It's very kind of you to do this. You want me to sit down?' she said. Madam Pomfry pointed to one of the beds. 'Please take a seat, I'll just do some basic diagnostic spells, and please, call me Poppy.' she said as she started murmuring some spells, waving her wand every now and then.
Stephanie noticed some lights, beeps and one spell even produced a diagram in the air that apparently told the nurse all she needed to know. Stephanie was fascinated by the spells but she couldn't quite hear what they were. She made a mental note to look for a book on healing once she had the time.
'Well, it all looks good. Your magical core is slightly more stable than last week. Have you already started to use magic yourself?' she asked. Stephanie nodded her head. 'Yes, I have been reading all week and managed to use some spells for the first time yesterday.'
Poppy nodded approvingly. 'Good, you'll notice that when you practice more and more, your magical core will stabilize. Look at it this way: as an adult you have a larger core than a child, and the magic inside needs to be controlled, it needs to be used. If you don't, the pressure of your magic will build in your core. With more and more pressure, your core destabilizes. But as long as you keep learning and using magic, you will have nothing to worry about.'
This actually sounded very serious to Stephanie. 'What if the pressure becomes too much?' she asked. She noticed Poppy took a few seconds, before she answered 'Don't worry about it, just keep using magic.' Stephanie had a hunch what would happen, this was probably how someone became an obscurus. She would have to look it up later, if this information was even available in the library at all.
She agreed with Poppy to come back for a check again in two weeks, and with a thank you, she left the hospital wing. Once back in her chambers she was finally able to get to work. She took another notebook to write down her lesson plans for the muggle studies classes. Not a lot of students chose this elective so all houses were together in one class. She doubted if there would be a Slytherin at all. She vaguely remembered Percy Weasley took muggle studies and she wondered if there were any other students she would recognize.
Later that afternoon she went to the library to see if they had some good books that she could use for her classes. She nodded at madam Pince once she got inside. The older woman still looked incredibly sour but seemed to have softened a bit. Maybe becoming a professor had changed the librarian's opinion a little. She turned in Hogwarts a History, as she had already finished it.
She started browsing the shelves and noticed that the section on muggles was incredibly small. She found Home Life and Social Habits of British Muggles by Wilhelm Wigworthy. This was the book that had been used in the previous years and Stephanie found it was still recent and pretty accurate.
She also found three books that were absolutely rubbish. One was completely outdated and even mentioned that muggles still travelled with horse and carriage, one was biased (probably written by a pureblood) and stated that muggles were the lowest of the low and that they shouldn't be treated any better than a house elf.
The last one was simply too ridiculous to read. There was not one correct fact in this book and even claimed that muggle babies were brought to their parents by storks, who would carry them in a sack made of cloth after they had found the baby in a swamp or cave. She checked out all three, just to bring them to the Headmaster to tell him he should remove them from the library.
Once back in her chambers she took the book she would use for the classes and started looking through all the chapters. She took notes and wrote down which subjects she wanted to discuss in the different years.
After a quick dinner she spent some time studying herself. Albus was absent at dinner so she would have to discuss the ridiculous books later. She was now reading A History of Magic and noticed some of the magical events of the past had been noticed by muggles as well, but were given a completely different cause. It had also happened that great muggle historic events were noticed by wizards, but it hadn't affected them that much.
The next day she spent mostly on trying out some more spells. She had started making a list of spells she thought were very useful or important, which she wanted to learn as fast as possible. Spells that made the list were, among others, defense spells, such as protego, but also charms to fix and to clean.
She had also tried some transfiguration but found it more difficult than charms. She had taken a toothpick from her kitchen and tried to transfigure into a needle. After a few tries she had half a toothpick and half a needle, that still looked more like wood than metal.
She wondered if Minerva would be busy and she decided to just ask her if she had some time. She took some floo powder, said Minerva's name and threw the powder into the fire, which made the flames turn green and she stuck her head in. 'Uh hello? Minerva are you there?' she called into what looked like Minerva's private living room. Within seconds Minerva walked into view. 'Stephanie!' she said with a smile, 'can I help you with something?' she asked.
'Well, yes actually.' Stephanie said, while trying not to breathe in the ashes from the fireplace. 'Are you busy?' she asked. 'Not at all,' Minerva said, 'come on through.' she said as she mentioned for Stephanie to come in. Stephanie stepped through the fireplace, which was a very odd sensation by the way, and found herself in Minerva's private chambers. She looked around a bit, and based on the view from the window, she guessed Minerva's chambers must be very high up.
Together they sat down while Minerva made some tea in her kitchen. 'How do you do that by the way?' Stephanie asked as she watched Minerva using her wand to make the stove function. Minerva looked confused at the younger woman. 'What do you mean?' she asked. Stephanie explained that she couldn't use her kitchen as it required magic but she didn't know what to do. Minerva's lips formed a silent "Oh".
Minerva gestured for Stephanie to come closer to the stove. 'Take out your wand,' she instructed, 'and tap the stove while imagining it turning on, but also try to push a bit of magic through your wand into the stove.' Stephanie tried to do it, but she didn't understand how to "push" her magic out.
Minerva saw from her face that she struggled. 'Try to feel your magic flowing through your body and then imagine it going through your arm, hand and wand.' she explained. Stephanie closed her eyes for a moment to focus, when she thought she felt something, she tried to imagine pushing it out and tapped the stove. This time it worked and the stove started heating up.
'It worked!' she exclaimed happily. Minerva gave her a proud smile. 'Very good! You will notice that if you try to feel your magic flow with every spell, they will become much easier to cast. After a while you'll be able to do it automatically, you won't even notice anymore.
Stephanie was very pleased with her small success. They sat down with some tea and biscuits and Stephanie told Minerva about her day and how her preparations were coming along.
'How is your magic doing? Have you been able to perform other spells already, besides working the stove?' Minerva asked. Stephanie showed the older witch Lumos, Nox, and the levitation charm. 'I started trying some transfiguration today but I wasn't able to completely transfigure my toothpick into a needle yet. That is actually why I called you, I was hoping you could help me out, if it's not too much trouble.
Minerva went straight into teaching mode and for the next hour or so she explained the basics of transfiguration to Stephanie and showed her some spells. With the extra instruction, Stephanie was now able to transfigure her toothpick into a needle. Imaging her magic flowing through her wand had helped a great deal.
Stephanie tried a few more times to transfigure the toothpick into a needle and back again, and with each time, it became easier. Before they knew it, it was dinner time, and together they went downstairs to the great hall. It turned out Minerva's private chambers were indeed high up, as they were located in one of the towers, close to the Gryffindor common room.
The headmaster was also present at dinner, and coincidentally, they both requested to have a word after dinner at the same time. They would walk to Albus' office together. Stephanie assumed he wanted to talk to her about the idea she had for the first year classes. She would tell him of the ridiculous books and hoped he would remove them at once. She wondered how it was possible that, in this world where muggleborns were already looked down upon, Hogwarts' library would have books available full of lies. Had the headmaster not been aware of these books being present in the library? Or did he actually barely know anything about muggles himself? She would soon find out.