As always, JKR owns all canon.

See Without Seeing

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Harry spread out a huge sheet of paper on the desk. On this sheet he had blocked out, but not to scale, the main house and grounds, including each path and flowerbed. He had all Winter to plan the gardens for Spring, but he wanted to get an early start - it was so much fun! He had a different design each year, always with a unique theme. His ancestors had done the same, and he had their drawings and notes. Sometimes he thought it would be fun to make a book, showing how the gardens had changed over time, how different plants had been more popular with different Potters - but always the lilies. All Potters always loved lilies. He loved the feeling of Family, of Tradition, of knowing he belonged.

First was the color scheme. He was going to put white flowers closest to the house, assuming Ginny would like those best, and then go through the rainbow all the way to the boundaries at the rear and sides. Short plants would be closest to the house, as well, for a more wide-open feeling. He lightly colored in the borders of each bed, pastels closest to the house and deep shades at the rear of each section. Age of the variety would matter, placing antique plants to the far left and more modern varieties of the same type to the right. This rainbow would actually be a relatively plain display; the gardens were often reproductions of famous paintings.

The rose beds would go on the South side, between the house and the river, closest to the new formal garden. This was practical - roses require deep bedding, and the soil in those beds would be removed to a considerable depth. He was going to put deep wicking underneath them, and a barrier layer, in case there was unfound poison deep underground.

The shrubs would have to be replaced, and they would be bedded the same way. Harry decided to put a second line of matching shrubs on the other side of the roses, setting them apart as another type of formal garden.

A third formal garden, a herbarium, would be composed of herbs and spices, including many potions ingredients. Since these were foliage plants rather than blooms, it would be a different treat for the nose. The section he intended to use for this had paths laid out in a meditation maze.

That left the medallions, the smaller beds set in the center of the intersections of the many paths leading from the rear of the house to the Pitch. They would all be low-growing plants, but he wanted to make each different. He started to make a list with designs featuring game pieces, (Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, and Trefoil) but had an idea - Chess pieces! A quick count confirmed he had more than enough medallions to lay out an entire chess board. Tagging each medallion and adding simple switching spells would allow an actual game of chess to be played! That would be a challenge to set up, but fun! He'd talk to Ron about it.

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On Monday evening, Ron and Harry met in the DMLE training center, as they did every week. Neville was there, without Hannah, along with most of the surviving DA who were not already in Auror training. They had other jobs now, but all were seriously interested in Defense. This was an informal training session, primarily aimed at people the DMLE would still like to recruit. They formed sort of an Auxiliary corps, getting training on a volunteer basis and keeping current on much Auror information.

There were a few recent Hogwarts graduates, too, who weren't quite up to the practical standards they needed to enter the program. This Monday night class exposed them to some surprising talent.

Ginny rather pushed Harry and Ron to attend, because she was sure they couldn't be happy unless they were chasing Dark Wizards. She was positive they would join the program eventually; that they would get bored with their current projects. She went herself, when she wasn't working, including tonight.

Tonight, they had been instructed to come in mundane daily wear. That meant the first half-hour or so was spent editing the clothing selections of wizards who had NO idea what that meant. Most had simply sent their elves into second-hand stores, and a few of the women had bought gowns from the PPParti Store. General hilarity ensued! Finally dressed in an assortment of mundane suits, blue jeans with sweaters, or dresses a secretary might wear, they assembled in the meeting room.

Madame Bones looked them over as they came in. She was wearing a flowered blouse with a below-the-knees green skirt, and sandals. Her signature monocle was replace by simple silver wire glasses.

"Tonight we are going to do an exercise Aurors call 'see without seeing.' We will be repeating this exercise regularly, in an assortment of situations. The point is to know what is normal in a given time and place, so you can see what does not fit in. You must learn to walk inconspicuously, so the people around you do not notice YOU, while you are looking at them.

To make this as strange as possible, we are going into muggle London tonight. We are going to do something mundanes do regularly - we are going 'mall crawling.' This means we are going into a large shopping district, a single building that has multiple stores, food courts, and open seating areas. We are going to just walk, repeatedly, around the halls and going in and out of stores. There will be a large map at each entrance. Look at it and see where all of the exits, stairs, and restrooms are, as well as the floor layout. As you walk around you will be looking at the behavior and clothing of the people around you. You will be walking in pairs, with a wizard-raised and a muggle-raised together, so the muggle raised can keep the wizard out of trouble. It's fine to talk about what you see, even about the funny hairstyles. In fact, this is quite normal! Also normal is buying a drink or small food item and consuming it while walking, but do not enter any stores until you finish it and dispose of the trash in one of the containers. Does everyone have some muggle money?

After you have walked through about three times, I will plant something 'wrong' for you to find. Do not show in any way that you have spotted it, but when you do you may leave the Mall and reassemble here. If you haven't found it by 10, come back anyhow. You'll start to spot the strange with more practice."

They paired off, and headed for the mall parking lot, entering from different directions. Harry and Ginny walked together. Harry was wearing grey dress slacks, his dragon boots, and a long-sleeved shirt open at the collar, looking like a businessman just after work. Ginny was wearing a soft green dress with scattered white flowers, with cape sleeves and a flaring skirt, and a pair of white sandals that matched her shoulder bag. She could have been a secretary, or a housewife. Walking around was almost a date. Harry bought them both frozen orange juice at a food court. On their second round they went into a toy store and Harry watched Ginny using her Gringotts card to buy Teddy a large bear, turquoise blue, which he had to carry the rest of the night.

Finally, at about 9:30, as they passed the cinema complex entrance, they spotted Amelia's 'strange.' The movie being advertised was a Star Wars, and there were multiple cardboard cutouts around the hallway. One wasn't a cutout. There, in full Auror red robes, complete with a staff, stood Shacklebolt! Right beside him, looking like a toy in similar green robes, was a wrinkled house-elf with particularly hairy ears. They really looked as though they were part of the advertising!

Harry and Ginny kept walking, left the mall to the parking lot, and from a small clump of trees apparated back to the training center. They were the first ones back. As they came in they were handed outline maps of the mall. "Write your name on the map, mark the entrance and exit you used, all of the other entrances and exits, and the bathrooms. Mark where you saw something wrong, if you did, and write a one sentence description at the bottom. As soon as you hand this in you may leave for tonight, or you may talk outside this room to others as they finish."

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Ginny found her Socialization project unexpectedly, at a Harpy publicity session set up at one of the orphanages. All of the teams visited the children's homes in rotation. One of the reasons was to publicize the need for families to adopt. There were 5 Homes in total, all created after the War. Homes for the babies had been relatively easy to find, so most of the children remaining were at least 6 years old, up to 18. Thus, the Homes were also residential schools.

The smallest was for Pureblood orphans who had no living family, or at least none suitable to care for them. These children were the ones it was easiest to find homes for, even when they had no assets or Trust Funds. The Ministry used them for Poster Children, and did things like guarantee their school tuition.

Second was the Home for Half-Bloods in the same situation. Harry found himself mentioned as the Prime Example of children like this. He hated the designation, though he agreed with the need for magical children being raised to know what they were. He thought all magical orphans ought to be raised together, regardless of Blood status.

Third was the Mundane/Magical Home. The war had been brutal, with the DE targeting families of 'muggleborn' children. Many had been at Hogwarts, only to be notified their families had been wiped out. Some younger ones had survived attacks on their homes with accidental magic outbursts. Gringotts and the Ministry were deeply interested in identifying any magical family these children might have, and a surprising number had been identified as squib-born descendants. Many of these were claimed by delighted magical relatives.

Fourth, and largest, was the squib Home. This was largest because many wizards, discovering a child was a squib, would willingly give them up, often at the age of 11 if the child did not receive a Hogwarts letter. These children were evaluated (many were lower-power Hedge Witches, not squibs.) Those that could be trained for ordinary magical jobs would be transferred to a magical Home. Not everyone had to be an Auror!

Actual low power squibs were taught to live in the mundane world, including being sent to decent mid-level boarding schools and colleges. Since the discovery of the many squib-born magical children, these would be kept in touch, aware of the magical world, and their descendants checked. Individual families may be old-fashioned enough to give up on these children, but the Ministry knew better.

The last Home was also small. Ordinary folk had been caught in the War. This left mundane children needing homes. Harry, and some others, had argued and won, that the wizard world should take responsibility for these orphans. This Home was completely in the mundane world, and considerable effort was made to get these children adopted. The staff of this Home was also active in searching muggle orphanages and the foster care system for children that belonged in the wizard world. Having such contacts made it easier to simply transfer 'found' children into the magical world, instead of having them vanish inconveniently.

The five Homes used much the same curriculum most of the home school families used. It was inexpensive, relying heavily on literature instead of textbooks. A family could buy one copy of a book and pass it down for years, instead of having to buy piles of workbooks for every child. The program was also advanced, meaning the children were kept challenged. By the age of 11 many of them could, and did, easily pass their first level GCSEs. Between 16 to 18 they could take their A-levels at the same time they took NEWTs. Their records were properly filed by Mr. Weasley's office.

Ginny talked to Harry as they had a quick dinner before Auror class. "It's brooms, Harry. The Homes don't have many for the children, not enough even to play children's quidditch. Our old professional ones are much too fast, much too big for children. They need older, slower, smaller models. They need trainers, beginner's brooms. The children love to fly with us when we come, but only two of the homes have a child's Pitch; the other two simply use the gardens. Second year children and up, going to Hogwarts, ought to have their own brooms, even if they were older ones, but there aren't enough to send with them. They have to use those old school brooms."

This was something Harry thought he could work on. "I'll talk to the company lawyers, but I think we might be able to offer a trade-in program on new brooms. While I could afford to simply buy them all, I think it would be expedient to open this up to the public. People do care, especially when there is something in it for them."

Ginny had a different idea. "Actually, I was thinking of hosting a Charity Ball, with the admission ticket price being either a suitable new child's broom, or a cash donation toward new equipment and the Pitches. We could even specify suitable broom models."

In the end, they went with both ideas.

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Harry sat in a large red leather chair, feeling the brass brads along the stuffed armrests. This old chair was one of his favorite places in the whole world, because it had been his Grandfather Charlus' personal chair. His body had shaped the stuffing, which fit Harry like a hug. Now it was in the sitting room in Harry's Haven, facing the portraits.

"Grandfather, please tell me about Balls that have been held in Potter Mansion. Are there any family Traditions? Ginny wants us to hold a Charity Ball for the orphanages."

Charlus blinked and stirred to life-like movement, seated in his painted version of the same chair. Harry knew the portraits were not real beings, only selected memories held in the paint. They were more than pensieves, in that they did respond to you instead of simply playing out scenes. They could tell stories and maintain conversations. In the end, they had no souls; they really were only memories. For an orphan who had no memories of family, they were precious beyond belief.

"Balls? The Potters have always held great Balls, usually one the beginning of the Season and often several smaller ones later. Ours were the Balls everyone else had to be held up to, compared with. Having a Charity Ball is an excellent idea. I always kept track of the expense and donated a similar amount, as well as whatever silly amount was raised. Dorea loved giving Balls and was always looking for a reason to do so. There was usually some War Relief program going, or a famine somewhere. Most of the Balls would have a theme, some simply 'Winter Wonderland', or a costume fete. The ladies love to have an excuse to wear fantastic costumes. I always offered them a special prize, usually a piece of jewelry that matched the theme, with the words 'Potter Prize" and the date on the back. My Journals have sketches of most of them. Surely some of the jewelers I used are still in business."

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Ginny was ecstatic - she was going to have a Ball! She knew planning the Ball would be as intense as planning a wedding, but the Season for Balls didn't start until the children returned to Hogwarts after New Years. There would be many parties and dances before then, of course, especially through the holidays. She had plenty of time to decide on a theme, and more importantly, pick out a dress! Meanwhile, it was still August and she had quidditch to play!

Gwenog met her, with an older lady. "This is Glynnis Griffiths, Wilda's mother. She trains all of our Seekers. I'm going to have you working with her all day, and spend a few hours a day after this with the other Seekers, as well as doing your Chaser practice."

Glynnis smiled. "It's a beautiful morning for flying, so we'll start with a few rounds of Seeker matches, so I can see how you work." Ginny should not have trusted that smile! Glynnis proceeded to completely trounce her, taking the Snitch 17 out of 17 times. Ginny had never felt so completely humiliated. Now dripping with sweat, stray hair dragging in her face, she pulled up in the air beside the still-smiling Glynnis, who was catch-and-releasing the Snitch.

"Not bad, not bad at all. You have good moves, and you know your Patterns. All we have to do now is teach you to Seek." That statement completely puzzled Ginny, who had won every game where she had been a Seeker at Hogwarts. The confusion showed on her face.

"Look around and tell me what you see."

Ginny, glad to do anything that didn't require movement, looked around. "I see our Pitch, grass and blue sky with tiny clouds. I see the A and B squads doing drills below us. I see the cheer team on the grass near the hoops. The sun is almost directly above us, so there are almost no shadows."

"Good so far. Keep going. What else do you see?"

"I see cleaners sweeping out the stands, collecting trash and wiping the seats. I see Gwenog talking on her phone in the entrance to the team locker room. I see shadows moving up in the Announcer's stand, perhaps someone getting the rosters laid out for the next game. The food stand vendors are loading boxes into their coolers and carts."

"Now you are getting it! Before every game you must come out flying with the Seekers, and identify everything normal you can find in that Pitch. If you get called in as a substitute you won't have time to look around - you must be ready to go! When you are Seeking, you don't really chase the flash of gold as much as you are looking for anything different, that wisp of movement you catch out of the corner of your eye that should hint at a pattern."

Ginny got it! "See without Seeing! If I know what to expect, something different is going to jump out at me! THAT's how you beat me all 17 times!"

"That's it. Now we will go inside and you can demonstrate your Arithmancy on the calculations for the next game. I want you to spend two hours every day - no longer - on each game, just as the Seekers do. Do NOT look at their calculations until after each game, when all of you will compare and figure out where you could have done better. You will turn in your calculations to Gwenog just before each game."

"I got my 'O' NEWT, of course. I know how to do the calculations."

"Yes, but have you been doing them for every professional game in the League since Graduation? I didn't think so! The current Seekers are way ahead of you. You have practiced on children's games. Now you are in the big leagues."

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Harry wanted to get some sort of trade-in program in place right away, while people were still buying new brooms for their Hogwarts students. He was perfectly willing to expand it to include graduating students upgrading to adult brooms, but he wanted the focus to be on trading outgrown children's brooms in for ones suitable for older students.

He sold a very suitable broom for school students, the "Norwegian Blue." It was quite popular, being nimble, fast enough for quidditch and racing, and came with every safety charm the company could fit on it, including one sort of like a safety harness where the child simply could not fall off. They could be upside down, or dizzy from corkscrew moves - it didn't matter. The rider (or an adult) had to give the release word, or set foot on the ground, to get off. This charm was on every child's broom Harry's company sold, and available for every adult broom as well. Many parents chose to have it for security when carrying small children with them.

Harry had thought of the charm, remembering trying to ride a hexed broom.

Therefor, on Monday morning there were new signs in the Dragon Broom Emporium:

Trade-Ins Accepted! Dragon Brooms will accept the trade-in of any child or student broom, from any company, applied to the purchase of a NEW Norwegian Blue Broom. We will also accept trade-ins of student brooms, including the Blue, applied to the purchase of your first adult brooms after Graduation.

These used brooms are not for the resale market. Instead, the best will be refurbished and donated to the Orphanages. Age, model and condition will affect the credit. See manager for details.

Harry had the same wording used in ads in the Quibbler and the Prophet, Witch Weekly, and many other publications. An assortment of reporters turned up at the Emporium to ask questions, and a few asked for interviews with him.

Harry knew some people would try to pass off very old or dangerous brooms. He was actually glad to get those out of the sheds and out of the hands of children. He was going to try to talk Hogwarts into trading in all of their old school brooms. While the quidditch teams still used the 2001s if they didn't have their own, the rest of the students learned and played on the rattletrap collection of brooms that had been left behind. He would love to burn them all!

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Story suggestion: ID # 7768541 A Cannon's Harpy, by st122

AND/OR ID# 6443580 Arithmancy