Hogwarts was a mess, an absolute mess! Lian couldn't understand how Dumbledore let it get to this stage but one thing was for sure, it'd take a lifetime to fix everything. The budgets were falling apart to start with. He checked the books and noticed that Dumbledore had injected every bit of money he had into the school to keep it running. Is he for real? No wonder they couldn't afford new beginner brooms for these last 40 years..

He had to find ways to get things for free, and ways to make money to buy the rest. No way was he going bankrupt for a job, he could cut into his own wage though, he would be making money from his newly gained Wizengamot seat anyway. For some reason everyone who made a significant contribution, earning an Order of Merlin of at least the second order, was hired for life and earned a seat which their descendants would inherit. It was honestly a bad system, but Lian shouldn't complain when he would be earning some galleons from it.

Back to the matter at hand, funding. He instantly remembered that one of his close friends went straight to the Cleansweep Broom Company after graduation. Maybe she could get a deal with them, he actually had a very good idea on how to get it sorted. In fact he might as well contact her straight away, no time like the present!

Aurelian threw some floo powder into his fireplace, put his face in the embers and asked for his friend.

"Olivia Ollerton's flat"

A few seconds later he managed to open his eyes as he was accepted. What he saw was a young brown-haired girl with a pout on her face and her arms crossed.

"So now I'm good enough?"

Aurelian didn't quite know what she was talking about, but before he could ask she went on.

"Not a single letter in two years but as soon as I have a guy over you give me a floo? Fuck off Lian, you've lost your chance! Deal with it."

"Eh..Actually, this was about a completely different topic. I had no idea you were even interested in me.."

Silence reigned in the small flat. The two old friends looked at each other and moment by moment the girl became more flustered. She was just about to abort the connection when he felt like he had to shout out.

"I need your help!"

She seemed to contemplate it for a second, eventually she clicked her tongue.

"Fine, we'll talk. Just let me get dressed properly and tell Ivan what's going on."

"Come to the headmaster's office when you're done, alright?"

And then he left the fireplace to sit back with his list of tasks. All of the older headmasters were watching his every move and judging him, just as they had done ever since he got placed in the office to begin with.

A few minutes later, Olivia walked through the floo and looked around with surprise on her face.

"You know, when I heard you became the headmaster I assumed it was just some kind of joke. Does that mean you ACTUALLY got an Order of Merlin a few days ago as well?"

He opened the top drawer on his desk, took the medal out and walked over to hand it to her.

"All of those were true. Now, will you help Hogwarts? Or do you have to get back to..Ivan..?"

Ivan Rowle. That was a real piece of work. How Olivia settled for someone like that, he'd never know. But whatever made her happy, he supposed.

She gave the medal back and lumped into the nearby chair with a heavy sigh.

"So, what does Hogwarts want from me? Oh almighty Headmaster."

She was clearly teasing him. Olivia of all people would know he never wanted a seat of power.

"How would the Cleansweep Broom Company like to be Hogwarts' official Broomstick sponsor?"

He stood up for effect but it was clear that Olivia wasn't buying it.

"And why would we do that?"

Lian looked at her with a smug look which pissed her off.

"Oh dear Olivia. Has your father taught you nothing of the wizarding population?"

She was getting riled up, perfect. It was always easier to win against an angry Olivia. It was as if she suddenly actually started listening to your every word to find fault in it, which she wouldn't.

"If there is one trait most wizards share, it is that they are comfortable. They like to settle. They dislike change."

She was still annoyed but nodded at him to go on.

"So imagine this. What if an entire generation of wizards had their first flying experience on a cleansweep? You would get SOO many loyal customers it wouldn't even be funny."

The annoyed look on her face was gone. Olivia now sported her thinking face instead.

"Damn it. You're right. If they have their first flying experience on a cleansweep, granted it'd have to be a positive one, then many would want to stick to that brand later when they were going to buy their own broom."

Aurelian sat down pleased with himself, while Olivia mumbled the good and bad consequences of a possible deal. He wrote a simple contract which she could bring to her father, the current CEO of Cleansweep. It basically said that all Broomsticks at Hogwarts would be Cleansweeps, except for the brooms the students brought themselves of course. But if they at any point had to borrow a broom, it would be a Cleansweep. It also stated that it was Cleansweep's role to supply Hogwarts with regular updates, so that the students aren't dissatisfied with their first flight, which would have the opposite effect of course. That was basically it. The contract proposed a trial period of 10 years to see if it would be profitable. The minimum period of a trial would be 7 years since that would mean that the first people who experienced flying lessons with the new brooms, would have time to graduate.

He handed the contract to Olivia and shuffled her over to the fireplace.

"I'd love to catch up some other time, preferably without Ivan though, but I actually have far too much to do right now. Off you go!"

She turned around and wanted to explain something but before she could, he had already awakened the fire and thrown her into it.

Aurelian sat down and checked off brooms on his list. Time to move on to the next. He had to find and hire three new teachers during the summer.

One for Care of Magical Creatures, obviously one for Defence Against the Dark Arts, and finally it was time for Binns to go so he needed a teacher for History of magic as well. He was sure Albus would help with a lot of that, the man knew almost every witch and wizard in Britain. He'd know suitable people…probably.

He just considered the fact that Albus Dumbledore actually hired Gilderoy Lockhart, so maybe he'd take Albus' advice but he'd have to vet them a lot before agreeing. Speaking of Lockhart, he'd have to find that fraud and make him pay the families back which were forced to buy all of his books.

Aurelian sighed. A lot to do, but also quite a lot of time. He wouldn't be the one to make any house visits. He doubted any muggle families would become more comfortable with sending their kids off, when they heard that the Headmaster was some 20 year old with average grades and few accomplishments.

Looking down at his list, he realised that there was one more point on the agenda which he could knock out right now. He rose from his chair once more and stormed out of the office. He was hoping she hadn't left yet, and luckily he was correct.

All teachers at the school tended to take a couple of weeks off after the term was over. Some arrived back early because they were expected to lead some new magical families into Diagon alley and invite them to Hogwarts personally, but others were allowed to do whatever they wanted for most of the summer. Sadly, Lian had to ruin a couple of summers.

"McGonagall! How lucky I was to catch you before you left!"

She had just finished packing her last bag and made them small enough to carry in the inside pocket of her emerald robe. With a slightly annoyed tone, and a deeper than normal Scottish accent, she answered the new Headmaster.

"Indeed you did, Mr. Fudge. Is there anything you need from me before I can go back home?"

He raised his eyebrow. Aurelian was under the assumption that McGonagall didn't actually have any reason to rush home. She had no family left alive as far as he knew, and her best friends were the Madams Hooch and Pomfrey who both stayed at the castle at most times. He decided not to barge into her personal life though, she was allowed some privacy.

"I have come to inform you that I intend on taking away one of your titles."

Her eyes instantly tried to bore a hole through his head. He raised his hands to show he meant no harm.

"Because I don't believe it is productive for one person to have so many duties. Not because you don't deserve them. Dumbledore himself has agreed to this sentiment, which was why he let me take over in the first place."

She blinked several times. For every blink, more and more anger disappeared from her face.

"Personally I'd prefer it if you would stay on as Deputy Headmistress. You do an excellent job in that post, despite the circumstances being what they clearly were..You made things work around here, and for that I'll let you choose. There are pros and cons with both positions, as you well know. Head of House gets you closer to your lions, while Deputy Headmistress would probably let you make the school a better place for all students. It's up to you, but you know what I think."

Before she could answer, a rather husky female voice sounded out from the doorway.

"Come on Minnie, you know you should be the Deputy Headmistress. You're irreplaceable!"

Aurelian looked around to see Madam Hooch standing in the doorway with her broom over her shoulder.

"Rolanda, you know it's not that simple.."

She gave Aurelian a look, and then nodded.

"Give me a week, and I'll have the answer."

A smile shone on his face.

"Excellent! I await your owl. Now, I won't disturb you two ladies any further."

He made his way out of the door and closed it behind him. But before he left, he wanted to leave a message to Hooch as well. He opened the door a little bit once more.

"Oh and Hooch, I might have gotten us a Broomstick sponsor. I hope to see them arrive in a couple of weeks. I trust that you'd be willing to check them over and approve of them for school duties?"

She gave him a hearty laugh and that was all the answer he needed, so he closed the door and walked away. He wished to see Poppy as well before she left, and by pure coincidence he bumped into her just around the corner.

"Oh, I am so sorry Madam Pomfrey. I was just on my way to see you, though I wasn't expecting such a close encounter!"

He helped her up and gathered what looked like miniature bags which had fallen out of her pocket. She took his hand and gave him a gentle smile.

"Don't worry about it, Aurelian. Why were you looking for me? I'd wager it can't wait a couple of weeks right?"

He smiled at the woman he saw so many times through his years at the castle. To start with just because he tended to get into trouble, after a while because she had absolutely excellent taste in tea.

"Sadly not. But it's nothing massive. You don't happen to have the books on what potions you have to import, do you? I'm sort of trying to figure out the financial management of this place."

She wore a pensive look for a few seconds, before taking out one of her bags and expanding it. A couple of seconds later, he was handed a rough book called potions with various parchments sticking out at all angles.

"Thank you, I'll look through this and try to fix some things around here. You should always have full cabinets after all, how else can we even let the kids out on their brooms?"

She chuckled at him and put her hand on his arm.

"Yes. You'd know that very well if my memory is correct."

His eye twitched at that, confirming her statement.

"I wish you luck, but don't hate me for not expecting a miracle. Nothing has changed in the 50 odd years I've worked here. If you can change it even a little, it would be great."

He nodded at the woman who walked towards McGonagall's quarters.

"Oh and I left a bag of your favourite tea with the elves. Don't sit up too long looking at numbers."

She waved him off as she entered the room and shut the door after her. Aurelian now had some planning to do. He walked back to his office.

When he was flipping through the books, he realised just how many different potions she used during a single school year. She had to make quite a few of them herself as well by stealing ingredients from Snape.

There were some which she always bought though. And some of those were taking up a large part of the budget. The pepper-up potion was one such example, blood replenishing potion another. Skelegro was the most expensive potion she bought in regularly, but calming and sleeping draughts were so common it's insane. One positive thing was that he had a decent plan to reduce spending.

First he'd have to force Snape to have the students make those potions. The skele-gro is a great potion to practise ahead of Owls for example. Maybe he could implement a system so that the students get notified when their potion was used. A bit of proof that you've made a difference might help bring some pride to potion-making.

If he could get the students to regularly brew the potions the school needed, it would solve one of the issues. The other issue would be to get the ingredients.

Those potions required everything from the horns of Bicorns to lavender and dittany. He'd have to set up a very large space in order to produce those ingredients locally. He'd also need a massive workforce, and someone to oversee their work. For that last bit, Aurelian had quite a good idea.

Because of that good idea, Aurelian now stood by the open door to the kitchens. All house elves stopped their duties to look at him in surprise. There must have been well over a hundred of them, and Aurelian knew he had to bind them to him at some point during the summer. When he was temporary, they had still been bound to Dumbledore. That was about to change, and maybe he could convince them to add some other duties to their schedules.

Before they could all run up to him, Aurelian jumped up on one of the large tables. He quickly realised it was unnecessary, as he was so much taller than them that they could all see him anyway. He went on nonetheless.

"House-elves of Hogwarts. I am the new Headmaster of this school and I have come to introduce myself."

He gave them all a short bow, which caused whispers until he started talking again. Then they were completely silent.

"My name is Aurelian Fudge and I intend to bind you all to the castle, and to me, once more, as is tradition, but I have also come to propose something rather special."

They looked at each other, some excitedly, some wearily.

"You see, I highly doubt all of you actually have tasks to do most of the day. Don't you get restless? I understand that some of you are young, but it is also getting rather crowded in these kitchens."

Worry spread across most of their faces. They were afraid he would throw them out, and he realised that was their fear so he quickly raised his hands.

"Please forgive me, I didn't mean to scare you. I am not going to turn anyone away, I simply wish to offer you an opportunity. You see, I plan on creating a farm to the west of the black lake. And in that farm we will have loads of herbs, but also plenty of animals. Those are all needed as ingredients to keep the students safe, and that is where I wish some of you would help out."

He gauged their reactions and they seemed to be rather amenable. He seemed to have struck right with the thought that some of them were getting restless.

"Not only that, but I wish to create an elven village over there. A place where all will be allowed to start families, with plenty of space to expand. I know it may not seem like something great and extraordinary but-"

In the middle of his sentence, a few house elves started prostrating in front of him. And then more joined in. And then even more. Soon they all sat on their knees, with their faces to the ground. Seemingly praying to him like some kind of god. Finally, one older elf spoke up.

"Master Fudgy is too kind. Elves can not take much space, but more work is good. Many young ones are jumpy. We can keep students safe? Then we must do it!"

Aurelian was, in fact, not too kind. They would still be working very hard for very little, but he also knew that was the way of house-elves. They didn't want or require much of anything in return for their work. The satisfaction of a job well done was more substantial than any material gift ever could be to an elf.

"I want you all to be able to have families and free time though. For that to be possible you need more space. There will be an elven village, but how large the houses will be is up to you. I will mark out an area where you can build later. The goods you'll need will be supplied as soon as I've talked to Hagrid and Sprout. Until then, make plans."

He could see tear-filled eyes all around him which made Aurelian very uncomfortable. He decided to make haste to get out of there before there was an outburst. He had no idea what a monumental thing he had just started, it would grow to be the only Elven settlement for a thousand years. The last one had burnt down around the time of Hogwarts' establishment.

By now he assumed all teachers had left the grounds, so after he had written Sprout a letter asking for help in a few weeks, many weeks earlier than she would have expected, he went to talk to Hagrid.

The half-giant was currently taking care of the pumpkin patch outside his hut. When Aurelian called out to him it was received with a sceptical look.

"Headmaster, what can I do for you today?"

It seemed Dumbledore must have had a chat with him, he had never addressed Aurelian with anything other than his surname before.

"I actually have a couple of things to discuss with you, mind if we take it inside your hut?"

A second passed before he collected himself and shook his massive head.

"No, no. Of course not. Come on in! I'll set a pot of tea on the fire."

It was a couple of moments of silence later, that the tea was finished and they both sat with a cup in their hand. Aurelian figured it was time to approach Hagrid with his thoughts.

"As I'm sure you are aware, Kettleburn has decided to retire."

The large man let out a chuckle.

"Aye, he decided to keep what limbs he had left. A shame really, he was always kind to me."

Aurelian agreed heartily.

"He was a kind man overall, as a teacher whose job it is to take care of animals should be. That brings me to the topics I came here to discuss with you."

Hagrid straightened and listened with rapt attention.

"How would you like to replace him?"

Hagrid spat out his tea in shock. He looked at the new Headmaster with wide eyes, as if he simply couldn't believe the words had come out of his mouth.

"M-me? Teach? I didn't even graduate, I don't even have a wand!"

Aurelian laughed at the man, which Hagrid didn't take the best of ways. Hagrid hadn't had a good image of Slytherins since his own time in the castle, so now that the former Slytherin in front of him was laughing he assumed he was joking with him. He assumed that Aurelian had played with his emotions and was about to become angry when Aurelian started speaking again. What he said made sure that Hagrid remained stumped.

"Of course I want you to teach! You always took care of the animals anyway, heck you even taught half of Kettleburn's lessons for him! You'll hardly need a wand either so it doesn't matter. I personally can't come up with a better option than you, especially since you already know all animals around the grounds. I just have to get your opinion, and then work on convincing the board of governors. That shouldn't be terribly difficult though with the other teachers on my side."

He was mistaken! His own prejudice had clouded his judgement and Aurelian's words caused his eyes to tear up about as quickly as the elves down in the kitchen. He put his head down in shame. He had judged Aurelian without knowing two things about him, Dumbledore had even spoken highly of him earlier that day and he had still judged him poorly.

"There is one more thing though.."

And then he went on to explain his plans for the elves and that there would be a large farming area over there. Not only for plants though, as he planned to import a couple of the important animals for potion parts. He needed Hagrid to help the elves set it up. That had been the last straw keeping Hagrid together. He jumped up from his chair and enveloped Aurelian in a tight, warm, hairy, and honestly rather smelly hug. Aurelian hugged the man back because it seemed to be the right thing to do, though he obviously couldn't reach around him.

He soon excused himself and left. Hagrid would get the details in a few days when he had the full plans, they'd have to go talk to the centaurs together. Hagrid had his way of convincing them after all.

The next day, Aurelian woke up to the smell of his favourite tea. He had already gotten used to waking up in the headmaster's study. That wasn't a surprise anymore, like it was the first few months, but the surprise stood on his nightstand. Fawkes stood there, above the wonderfully smelling tea, with a letter in his beak. Lian stroked Fawkes' feathers gently and took the letter. There was no use getting fully dressed, since there were basically no people in the castle, so he took the letter and his cup of tea to his desk.

The letter was, of course, from Dumbledore. All it said was that he'd be out of the country for a week but would aid Aurelian from the point he got back. Aurelian silently made sure to himself that by then he'd set most of his plans in motion. Hiring the other new professors should be done with Albus' help but seeing as how he had obviously been terrible with money, Aurelian decided those decisions should be made without his old headmaster.

Ever since Aurelian had been instated as Headmaster, the portraits of the old headmasters had all been very quiet. They were silently judging whether he was worthy or not. Their requirements were obviously very different, but most agreed that as long as they could see that Hogwarts was better off with his actions, then that would be seen as rather acceptable. One who did not quite appreciate what was going on, was the headmaster who sat in the chair before Albus Dumbledore. Namely one Armando Dippet.

"Are you seriously hiring that bumbling fool as a teacher? He's a criminal you know! That's why he can't use a wand."

At first, Aurelian was surprised. He had never heard that voice before and he was sure he was alone in the office. After a few seconds contemplation he realised that it must have been the portraits who finally spoke to him. They were supposed to be helping the Headmaster, that was their sole purpose, so he had wondered why they had been so silent. He looked at Armando Dippet, who obviously was the one who spoke to him since he was the only one making eye contact.

"If you're talking about Hagrid, then yes. What crime could he possibly have committed? He's got the heart of an angel."

Dippet spluttered at that.

"Angel!? The man's a half-breed who murdered a student while he was at school!"

Aurelian simply raised an eyebrow at that, but none of the other portraits objected to it so he asked Dippet to go on with his explanation.

"In my time, the chamber was also opened. Or at least someone claimed it to be. We never found any kind of proof that was the case. What we did find was Hagrid harbouring an incredibly dangerous and poisonous spider. One of our prefects was lucky enough to know about his crimes and reported it to me. The attacks stopped as soon as Hagrid was expelled and then there was no more to that. If it was up to me, he wouldn't have gotten off so easily, but Dumbledore insisted we let him live on the grounds since he had nowhere to go."

Aurelian laughed, quite a lot actually. That was enough to bring more of the portraits' eyes toward him in confusion. Soon he gathered himself, but not before Dippet could question him.

"And what, pray tell, is so funny to you about a student being murdered?"

Aurelian raised his hands into the air in a calming gesture.

"Nothing, but haven't you kept up with the latest gossip at all? Haven't you heard about the conclusion to this school year? None of you?"

In fact, they hadn't. They had been so busy being grumpy about some young upstart becoming headmaster and wanting to test him, that they hadn't gathered any information from the school in months. They all looked expectantly at the boy to explain how that could justify his laugh. Aurelian levitated a copy of the prophet he had in his desk in front of their faces. He animated it to follow the orders of 'next' and 'previous' to allow them to read it at their own pace, and then went back to his bedroom to get dressed. He'd have to talk to Hagrid about this, this could be a very important issue for the big guy. If he lost his wand because of that incident then he should be proven innocent now.