Hermione's choice
Thank you to all the people who reviewed, favourited or followed chapter three. I was amazed and humbled by the response. I will be updating on (or around depending where in the world you are) the 15th of each month.
Rant beginning. While I do not mind receiving CONSTRUCTIVE criticism, unfortunately there are some cowardly people who will only criticize (often rudely) or abuse others from the safety of anonymous reviews. As such I am no longer allowing them, good or bad. This will apply to all my stories from now on. Any that are sent will be ignored and deleted. Additionally, if you ask me a question in your review please have your PM activated so I can reply. I refuse to answer reviews in the story, OK? Rant over.
As always I do not own Harry Potter or his universe. All hail J.K Rowling, the true owner.
Chapter 4
After an eventful day at Hogwarts Lucius Malfoy strode into the Great Hall at dinner time, followed by what appeared to be over half of the parents of Slytherin houses students. He approached the Head table with all eyes watching him.
"Headmaster," he said curtly, with a small bow, "Owing to the biased and discriminatory rule changes that you have made to this establishment, changes made without the advice or approval of the Board of Governors I might add, I wish to withdraw my son from this, ahem, school. Could you please fetch the parchment work so that this can be made official and so that you can return the unused school fees to my Gringotts account? I believe that there are a few others who wish to do the same as I for their children."
"Mr Malfoy, although I hate to see any student withdrawn from Hogwarts, I will be happy to assist you with the parchment work as soon as the meal is concluded. Unfortunately, however, I will not be able to refund young Draco's school fees to you." Professor Dumbledore said calmly.
"What! Why on earth not?" Lucius exclaimed.
"A new rule was passed by the Board of Governors last year. A rule that you sponsored, I believe. If I may quote? 'Students must pay the appropriate fees and charges for all seven years of boarding and education at Hogwarts School after acceptance of a place at said school but before the beginning of the child's first term of education. This money is in no way refundable other than in proportionate amounts in the event of the child's death or a partial payment may be made in the event of the student's total failure in all subjects undertaken in the Ordinary Wizarding Level examinations'." Dumbledore answered, quietly enjoying seeing the sneer fall from Mr Malfoy's face. "So I am afraid my hands are tied on this issue."
"What are you playing at Malfoy!" Mr Parkinson shouted. "Unlike you, I can't afford to send my Pansy somewhere else if I don't get that money back!" Many other parents voiced their agreements.
Lucius was worried as well. He was not as rich as he pretended to be and the burden of Draco's school fees elsewhere would be financially disastrous for him, especially as the Hogwarts fees were paid for by his wife's family. The Black family would only pay for Hogwarts, not Durmstrang like he originally wanted Draco to attend.
"I see. If that is the case I would not like to see my son isolated from his friends as many of their families would not be able to afford such a financial strain in moving their children. I will leave Draco enrolled here for now."
Without another word he and the other parents turned and walked out.
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As desert was served Percy Weasley changed seats and sat next to Ron at the table. He sighed, knowing the hard task ahead of him, and started to explain what Ron would have to do to stay in Hogwarts.
"You have a lot of work ahead of you. I was told that you haven't handed in any homework yet, have you even done it?"
"No, I thought it was like at home, you can practice if you want, but it's not important. Mum never asked for it."
"That was to try and teach you what you would be expected to do here." Percy sighed. "You have six essays that you need to write and hand in for this week and several chapters that you need to read to understand what the teacher is showing you. I have the list of what you need to do, so after dinner we are going to the library and you are going to complete ATLEAST a first draft of one of the essays and you will read one chapter of your text books. We WILL be doing this every night and all day, every day on the weekends until you have caught up with your work."
"Don't I get a say in this?" Ron whined.
"No, you don't. I am having to give up some of my own study time to do this so suck it up and do as you are told! Or do you want to go to Aunt Muriel's? You do know that she wouldn't just be your tutor, you do know that you would have to live with her too."
Ron paled so quickly Percy thought he was going to pass out.
Faintly Ron said "Ok, library after dinner."
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At eight o'clock Professor McGonagall entered the Gryffindor common room for the first House meeting. She could see that most of the students were there, 'I will have to chase up the others later.' She thought. She was about to start speaking when Ron and Percy ran into the room.
"Sorry Professor." Percy apologised. "Ron's homework took longer than I expected."
"You are tutoring your brother Mr Weasley?" She asked pleasantly surprised.
"Yes Ma'am. You should start getting his late homework by Monday."
"Good. Please be seated." After the latecomers settled themselves she looked at the students. They were a mixed bunch covering all 'blood' types and many ethnic backgrounds. She took a deep breath and began.
"Good evening. Thank you for remembering that this meeting was to happen tonight. I know that today may have been hard for you but I was pleased with what I saw. In future this meeting will be held every Friday during term and is to be a place where you can tell me about any concerns you may have about the school or teachers or even how you feel that things can be improved here in Gryffindor House or the school in general. The suggestion box outside Professor Dumbledore's office is a permanent fixture now so please feel free to place a note in there is you do not want to talk in front of everyone else or to me in private."
She paused and took another deep breath. "I am generally pleased with the way that you all settle into this house. Overcoming the differences that you face so well will be good for you all in the future. However, the issues raised last night has brought up concerns that I had not realised were affecting us all. I will begin by asking if anyone had noticed any changes today. I know that it was only one day but I would like to hear your initial impressions of the changes we are making."
Several students said how they had noticed everyone was on their best behaviour but it was too soon to say anything else. They would all have better ideas of how the new rules and changes would work for the students by the next meeting.
"To finish up tonight does anyone have any concerns or comments you may wish to make?" McGonagall asked.
Fred and George stood up and George spoke. "We had a long talk together and we want to apologise to everyone that we targeted with our 'pranks'. We thought we were being funny but didn't realise that other people wouldn't think the same as we did. We are sorry we were bullies." The twins then sat down.
"Well said Mr Weasley!" Professor McGonagall approved with a small smile. "It takes courage to admit that you were wrong and even more to say it publicly, well done. Anyone else?"
Harry raised his hand shyly.
"Yes Harry?" She asked.
"Um… I'm not too sure how to say this." Harry began nervously. Hermione squeezed his hand reassuringly.
"Take a deep breath and then just let the words come out." Professor McGonagall encouraged with a smile.
Harry took a deep breath and then said "All the teachers call everybody Mr This or Miss That but most teachers call me by my first name. Why am I different?"
Professor McGonagall startled, as though a pin had pricked her. Had she…? Oh dear.
"I apologise Mr Potter. You are correct that we teachers are meant to address all students formally. The only reason I can think of for myself is that once they finished school your parents and I, and several other teachers here, became friends and I often saw them, and later you, in less formal circumstances. I was so used to thinking of you as 'Harry' I forgot myself when you arrived here. If it is acceptable to you, perhaps we could discuss this in private tomorrow?"
"Yes Ma'am," Harry nodded.
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Once curfew began and the students were settled for the night the Heads of House met in Professor Dumbledore office to discuss how the first day with new rules went.
Dumbledore placed the new suggestion box on his desk, it was the size of a shoe box but had feather light and unlimited expansion charms of it. As he tipped the notes out on to his desk everyone was surprised that the desk was soon overflowing and it appeared there were still many more to come.
When the torrent finally ended everyone sighed. It would be a long night. "We best get started. Please place them in piles related to classes, teachers, students and general suggestions." The Headmaster said resignedly, creating several tables to sort the notes onto.
After a solid hour of sorting there were several large piles but none larger than the complaints about Professor Snape and his classes. They needed a table to themselves to hold them all.
"Incendio" Snape snarled, pointing his wand at the piles concerning him.
Professor Flitwick quickly raised a shield around the notes.
"That is quite enough of such childish behaviour Severus!" Snapped Professor Dumbledore. "You may not like what is written here, none of us like to be criticized, but we will read each and every one of these notes and then discuss them like the rational adults we are. We will begin with the notes concerning you and your classes."
As the professors read the notes they noticed a disturbing pattern.
"Points taken for blinking too often? Taken for asking questions? GIVING points for greeting a teacher!" squeaked Professor Flitwick.
"I have about thirty notes here that complain that Severus just puts the potion recipe on the board and that you then ignore the class when they ask for help." Cried Professor Sprout.
"It's not my fault if the little twits cannot follow instructions." Severus sneered.
"Putting instructions on the board and then ignoring the class is not teaching!" McGonagall snapped back at him. "Listen to this, 'I am a Slytherin student and I am sickened by the actions of our Head of House. He provides us with private potions tutoring in our common room each night but during his scheduled office hours (which he rarely attends) or in class he will not even acknowledge members of the other houses when they have questions or ask for help. The only time I see Professor Snape interact with non Slytherin students is when he verbally abuses them or blames them for a Slytherin's actions. It's no wonder that the other houses hate us.' This is from one of your own Snakes!"
"Supposedly." He snapped. "It could have been anyone saying it was one of mine. But if it says something bad about me you will just eat it up."
"Severus, you are a man, now in your thirties. Such 'poor me' behaviour did not become you as a student and does not become you now. Do yourself and us all a favour and grow up! You are no longer a helpless school child no matter your attitude." Snapped Professor Dumbledore.
Snape stormed over to a chair and sulked at the latest reprimand.
"Now that we have finished sorting let us get to the real work. I think we will deal with these one subject at a time. If we have multiples of the same complaint please say so but we will treat them as one problem. I would also like to hear your ideas on how to fix the problems. Shall we get started?"
"I will go first." McGonagall offered "I have several complaints about my style of teaching in Transfiguration. They all say that I am going too fast for the students to keep up and I explain the theory more than most can understand, not leaving enough time to practice in class so that they can ask for help. Another said that I need to help those with different accents to annunciate better to get the proper pronunciation of the spells and finally, one scamp said 'You always look sad. You need to smile more'." She finished with a small smile.
"Well then, that wasn't so bad." Dumbledore smiled. "We can look at getting someone in to help with the accent problem. I believe muggles call them 'speech therapists' that should help both you and, I dare say, Fillius. Also, during the Grindelwald war I knew a man who entered competitions for speech, he called it 'elocution' I think. Perhaps we could try something like that as well?" He saw three of the heads nod at the suggestion. "I agree that a bit more practical class time cannot hurt and the extra theory can be done as homework. I also agree with your 'scamp', you should smile more often, it lights up your whole face. Who is next?"
Pomona Sprout said "I only have a few here about me and my classes. Several students want to be able to have their own little spaces to grow things as a hobby. I would love to do that but we just do not have the room to allow it. We would need another greenhouse just for the hobbyists!"
"We can make an appeal to the Board for funding and if that fails then we can appeal to parents to help fund a new greenhouse and supplies. Next?"
"Another asked why all the after-hours and weekend assistant positions were taken by my Hufflepuffs. I had not realised that they were all my Cubs, but I will say that to be an assistant the students must apply to me in writing each week and only those with good grades in herbology will be accepted. I will tell each class this at the end of each years' next lesson. The last few notes all ask variations of 'why is the school not more self-sufficient. We all know Hagrid grows the giant pumpkins for Halloween, but why can't we grow more of our own vegetables?' Again, it comes down to room. To supply the school it would take another two or three greenhouses that would be exclusively for food production. And then there would be the question of who would care for them. I am already stretched for time and I don't see how I could take on such a project along with my other duties without me neglecting something else."
"Perhaps combining the hobbyists with the growers to start with? Later it could be supervised by upper years." Dumbledore suggested.
"Or perhaps, if we could get the greenhouses, it could be a work/study programme? I read of a school that used the gardens as a way for students to earn some pocket money as the vegetables grown were saving the school so much money. It worked out to only a few sickles each weekend per student but in the course of the school year the school still made a healthy profit with the savings they made! Could we try something like that?" Sprout enthused.
"I think the Governors would like to hear the word 'profit' involved with this. If you could get some prices for the materials needed and an approximation of how much can be grown verses bought I will present it all to the next meeting when I make the requests. It could also be a productive way of assigning detentions. Anything else?"
"No, that was all for me."
"Fillius? You next?"
"It's getting late and we still have to do Severus so I will make this quick. I have had the annunciation problem several times. That we have already dealt with. I have a few who have pointed out that they are left handed and as such need a bit more help as the wand movements are slightly different. I can begin a club or study group to help these children. I did not realise that they were having such problems." Flitwick said quickly.
"That sounds adequate to me. Next?"
"I have been asked to 'move to the centre of the tiered classroom and rotate' as I demonstrate a spell so that everybody could see me, and the wand movements, more clearly. I don't see a problem with that, but the phrasing could have been better. I almost thought the note writer was suggesting I do something rude!" He giggled.
They all smiled at that.
"That's it for me. Severus?"
"Nothing that you haven't already seen." Snape said petulantly.
Dumbledore pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Severus, we are going to have a long talk about your attitude in the near future. We will work out a time later. For now let me see those papers… hmm… To sum them all up; ignoring students, only giving recipes on the board, not explaining the different cutting methods 'I got 20 points taken for slivering instead of slicing but Snape wouldn't tell me the difference between the two', points taken unfairly, wilful blindness during student altercations, bias to your own house, bullying both Neville Longbottom and Harry Potter in each class, examples are listed here and seem very consistent! Quizzing the students on ingredients and potions that are above their year levels, encouraging students to sabotage others work, incomplete or incorrect recipes given to students and blatant rudeness to all, including your house. Does that sound like what you have read?"
"Yes, now get on with it! Some of us want to see their beds tonight." Snape growled.
"Very well then. After reading these notes I have no hesitation in doing the following. I am going to investigate each of these notes. For each rule proven to be broken you will receive a warning or a report. If there are more than three reports for any major rule violation we I will then consider using the financial penalties, should there be more than five reports for any major violation you will be suspended without pay until the matter is resolved. If I find that there are even more reports then I will have no choice but to dismiss you from your employment with the school. Do you have any questions?"
Snape had been getting whiter by the second. He knew that his behaviour would not stand any scrutiny. Instead he took what he felt to be his only option.
"I understand what you have said. As to save us all a lot of time and bother I am submitting my resignation, effective immediately. It is Friday so you will have all weekend to look for a temporary substitute. If that is all?" He finished saying standing to leave.
"Very well," Dumbledore said, not surprised but saddened by the response. "You may stay in the castle until Sunday afternoon to give you some time to organise everything. Do you have somewhere to go?"
"Yes, I do." Snape replied while thinking 'like I'm going to tell you where you nosey old codger!'
"I am sorry to see you go like this. May I wish you good luck in your future endeavours?"
"Thank you. Now if you will all excuse me, I need to start packing. Good night." Snape said as he swept from the headmasters office for the last time.
'A good night indeed' McGonagall thought victoriously. What was that song running through her head? Oh yes… 'Happy days are here again'. She would be humming it for days to come.
"On that note I think we can leave the rest of the notes until the morning. Good night my dears." Dumbledore said quietly.
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