Disclaimer: All characters belong to J. K. Rowling. I am only borrowing her characters to make Harry live a better life.
While others were busy with the Horcrux hunt or updating the Hogwarts curriculum, Hermione with Harry's help, wrote a letter to her parents to ask them about grafting as it had completely slipped her mind. She also suggested that with Dumbledore's permission, they visit Hogwarts to discuss this with Madam Pomfrey and bring some relevant medical paraphernalia to explain things better. She would in the meanwhile, with Prof. McGonagall's help try to find which of the other non-magical parents of the present and past students were doctors.
Harry suggested that on getting permission, Sirius could Apparate them to Hogsmeade. It would be a better chance for Sirius to get properly acquainted with them.
Harry and Hermione then waited for mealtime, and just as it was finished, asked to speak with the Headmaster and the Heads of Houses in the antechamber. There, they both told them that they had asked Hermione's parents, for advice regarding Harry's scar and requested the Headmaster's permission to have Sirius bring them here this time.
They were given permission but while exiting the antechamber, a thought came to Harry's mind and he asked, "Why does Hogwarts neither have a Parent-Teachers' Association, called PTA in short nor hold parent-teachers meetings periodically to discuss the progress of the children or any suggestions for improvements and grievances?"
"Such a thing has never been thought of, Mr. Potter." said Prof. McGonagall, then added, "I assume it's a practice in the non-magical schools?"
"Yes, Ma'am," said Harry while Hermione glanced once at Prof. Snape.
Snape noticed the look Hermione was giving him and asked her.
She said, "No offense, Prof. Snape but if such an association had been in place and such meetings had been held regularly at Hogwarts, then you would have been sacked from Hogwarts ages ago or put on probation until you changed your attitude and teaching methods. Your excuse of being a spy for the Light would not have protected you at all."
Prof. Snape chuckled at her blunt statement, which still took Hermione aback.
"What, Miss Granger? Can't I chuckle? I know that I am the dungeon bat of Slytherin but I am human too and with the things which have happened in the last few days, I now have the chance to act more human. All thanks to you, and Harry and all your cohorts setting things in motion." said Prof. Snape.
"Anyway, this suggestion of yours is another thing to add to the number of changes we are already trying to bring about," interjected Prof. Sprout smiling.
As planned, Sirius was roped in to bring the Granger parents to Hogwarts. He was also asked whether he would like to take on the role of DADA Professor once the curse on the position was dealt with. You see, Sirius had been an Auror along with Harry's father during Voldemort's reign of terror. He immediately agreed as it would also give him the chance to spend time with his godson. Prof. Snape did not comment on that.
While they were organizing this, Ron and Susan approached Prof. McGonagall to discuss the curse on the DADA position. She soon sent an owl to Bill Weasley who worked as a curse breaker for Gringotts. She wanted to have a Gringotts team go over the DADA classroom and office and remove the curse.
Soon, she received an official Gringotts owl with an estimate of the fees that would be incurred, considering the risks as the curse was placed by the Dark Lord. It was 3500 Galleons.
After learning this, she called all the kids who were part of the Muggle Studies Overhaulers and told them about it as Hogwarts did not have the necessary funds. Prof. McGonagall soon had to postpone the talk for the day though due to the classes. In the evening, she continued the meeting which now also included the Headmaster and the other Heads of Houses.
The school club had in the meanwhile expanded to include the magically raised too, as Susan had raised an insightful point. "Just as the magically raised need to know that the non-magical people are way ahead of us with their advancements and we need to learn to blend with them, the non-magically raised also need to learn our customs and traditions to blend in with us, so that they would be easily accepted by their magically raised peers into their midst and also not come off looking like upstarts. The normally raised try to fit their idea of the magical world into the normal world and while the magically raised don't do vice versa, they do scoff at the normally raised as the magically raised people have a superiority complex because of having magic. We need to bring the useful and positive ideas and values of both worlds together to stop the rise of any more Voldemorts or Grindelwalds."
This resulted in the group being rechristened as Magico-Normal Studies Club.
"Excellent, Miss Bones, twenty points to Hufflepuff," Prof. Flitwick had said (the staff sponsor for the now official school club) when he heard this, before continuing, "I admit to have not thought about that part of the equation. The normally raised need to learn our culture just as we need to learn theirs."
Pretty soon, the discussion on the fees quoted by Gringotts led to the kids suggesting that they owl their parents. That resulted in the next day's impromptu parent-teachers meeting related to just those children who were in the group.
This also gave the teachers a small taste of what a parent-teachers meeting felt like. The parents, especially the non-magical ones had a lot of queries about their children's progress and also suggestions and grievances, regarding Snape, Filch, Binns, the lack of Physical Education classes or outdoor sports, and so on.
Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Snape received the worst of the rebuke especially Dumbledore for his inaction in bringing changes. Snape had already come clean about his behavior and repeated his promise to turn over a new leaf.
Soon, Hogwarts received the donation, the lion's share of which (to the surprise of the magical parents) was covered by the non-magical parents.
This was another thing for the wizards and witches to wonder about, seeing that some of the non-magical parents were a hell of a lot richer than the magical ones.
The meeting also gave the Granger parents the chance to discuss Harry's scar with Madam Pomfrey. Prof. McGonagall who had in the meanwhile made a list of the medical professionals who were parents of current or former normal-born students, shared the list with them. On seeing the list, the Granger parents were quick to zero in on a plastic surgeon who was the father of a former student.
With the Grangers' help, Prof. McGonagall drafted a letter to Dr. Savant whose daughter had graduated a few years ago from Hogwarts and upon observing the bigotry and prejudice in the hiring practices here, had moved to MACUSA to pursue higher studies and better career, as there, she would not face such problems and moreover, everyone was knowledgeable about the normal world.
Prof. McGonagall and the Grangers would take the letter personally to Dr. Savant after the Grangers got an appointment on phone.
Now, back to the matter of the DADA curse.
In two days' time, a team of goblin and wizard curse breakers led by Bill Weasley and Griphook arrived at Hogwarts and immediately set to work.
Harry who remembered Griphook from his very first visit to Gringotts, greeted him warmly when he saw him in the Entrance Hall and introduced his friends before going to his classes. It pleased the visiting goblins that a wizard remembered one of their own and that too, very fondly.
Prof. Babbling, the Runes Mistress joined the team on the floor containing the DADA office and classroom to observe their work as she knew that Voldemort must have used runes to anchor the curse.
She was surprised to find Prof. Snape there, too. She looked at him with a raised eyebrow and he said, "Even if I don't have a Runes Mastery, I did take Runes at school and received an Outstanding in OWLs and NEWTs. Also, since the Dark Lord's first downfall, I did a further study of runes as the Dark Mark is similarly anchored. I wanted to remove it."
"Parseltongue obstacle?" she asked, guessing accurately why he had not been successful and now feeling more at ease with him especially as this was not the unpleasant Snape of old.
'How do you, … of course, you are a Ravenclaw. You would not say anything before thinking things through," said Snape smiling.
"And don't you forget that, Severus," said Bathsheda smirking.
The smile grew on his face on hearing that, especially as she had for the first time, used his first name rather than calling him Snape with distaste as she used to do in the past.
'Oh, what a nice smile and looking very handsome too….where did that thought come from?' thought Bathsheda while trying to hide her blush.
There was a yelp that drew their attention to the curse-breaking team. Gringotts was right, after all, in thinking that Riddle would not make it easy to find or lift the curse. It seemed that Voldemort had built some defenses into it if anyone but him ever tried to lift it.
Two huge, green serpents in the likeness of the Slytherin emblem had materialized out of nowhere to attack them. They seemed to be able to withstand curses being fired at them. Adding to that, they were devilishly fast. Everyone within the classroom scattered in different directions but did not go outside. Bill wisely locked it up to keep the snakes from escaping but the snakes were too intent on harming those within the room.
Not even the dark curses which Snape fired, seemed to be hurting them even one bit. One of those snakes came face to face with Bathsheda. She had situated herself on top of a desk like most of the people there. The snake rose at her eye level, unaffected by the increasingly dangerous curses being fired at it by Snape and half the team. Even the handheld weapons of the goblins only glanced off it. The snake hissed at those who physically attacked it and a small cloud of poisonous gas sprayed out of its mouth and into the faces of the goblins who had attacked it physically, making them dive out of the way and hurry to apply their version of a Bubblehead charm.
Returning its attention to Bathsheda, it leaned back and was just about to lunge at her neck.
Left with no option, Snape fired the killing curse in the nick of time. The snake dropped dead like a puppet, with its strings cut off. Seeing this, one of the goblins fired their own variety of a killing curse at the remaining snake and finished it off.
Snape approached Bathsheda to check up on her and suddenly, found his arms full of a sobbing, relieved woman.
Snape's arms went around her automatically and he sat down on the bench with his arms still around her, not knowing what else to do. He had never had to console a woman in years. So, he settled for just holding her gently while passively observing the team which had resumed their work.
He took a deep breath and inhaled the very pleasant scent of her shampoo.
'I wish I could keep smelling it forever, … what am I thinking?' thought Snape blushing.
Bill who was looking in their direction at that time, saw the reddening of his cheeks and shot him a knowing smirk.
Snape half-heartedly sneered at his former student, which made Bill smirk even more.
There you have another chapter. Hope you liked it. Kindly review and let me know.