Disclaimer: I don't owe anything that you recognize.
Author's Note: This is my first attempt at writing a FFiction so please don't go too harsh on me. I do welcome constructive criticism though. And any compliments would be lovely, I do love those :P I apologize in advance for any grammatical errors you might spot because English isn't my first language – its Chinese. I would also like it if you pointed out any errors to me so that I will be able to learn from my mistakes. I appreciate a reader's opinion and I would love it if you reviewed with something that will help me with my writing in the future. Another thing, I like to pretend that book 4, 5 and 6 never happened, so I'm writing this from the view of Harry being in his 4th year.
Summary: (Books 1 to 3) Dumbledore gets a brilliant inspiration for a plan to pull the students of Hogwarts together and to attempt to stop the ever increasing rivalry between the 4 Houses. Not only does most of the staff member disagree, but, things don't always go the way you want to, do they?
CHAPTER ONE:
"- but Dumbledore, do you honestly believe that these children would…"
"This is simply ridiculous -"
"Pen-pals!"
"By doing this, it will only affect the children's studies and -"
"My Slytherins will not have time for such a … muggle thing to do and I will not …"
"I just hate to have to repeat myself but because I am in a current state of disbelief… pen-pals!"
"Silence."
After a clipped command from the usually passive Headmaster, the staff room fell silent.
"I was reading an article in the muggle newspapers about the pen-pal system they have in schools nowadays in order to encourage students to be more open minded and to make new friends without being judged by others," started Dumbledore as groans from disbelieving staff members ensued.
"Of course," continued Dumbledore, raising his voice a little, "the pen-pals that our students will have can choose to refuse to reveal their identity and remain silent about who they are for all eternity and it would not matter because that is not the main purpose here. No, the main purpose of this program is to encourage students to be friendly and get along with anyone – regardless the house they are in… or the purity of their blood. In fact, I must add that I thought that it was a rather excellent idea of mine to make sure that every student's pen-pal will have to be from a different house. Of course, I won't be telling that to the students as to avoid biased opinions on this matter but personally, I do not see the problem in this system. There are countless numbers of schools doing this nowadays -"
"Muggle schools," scowled Professor Snape.
"- and unless," went on Dumbledore and pointedly ignoring his particularly loud-mouthed staff member, "anyone finds a severe problem with this pen-pal system within the next 12 hours, I will be announcing this news to the students tomorrow."
"Albus," intoned Professor McGonagall, "I just feel it would not be fair to throw this … this new compulsory system to our students and just… just expect them to accept it without any problems. I mean, the students have a lot of homework from us and with the quidditch practices of …"
"My dear Professor McGonagall," interrupted Dumbledore, "I thought you would have loved this idea! How long do you think it would take to write a letter every seven days? 5 minutes? Half an hour at the most, but if they take that long, obviously they enjoy having someone to talk to without the person judging them about and that will be what makes this idea brilliant! Don't you see? No wizarding school has ever tried this before and I intend for Hogwarts to be the first!"
All the staff members in the room recognized the mad spark in the Headmaster's eyes that proved that he would do anything to get the students and the staff members to agree with him on this "brilliant idea". There were a few hushed discussions between a few of the staff and a healthy amount of exaggerated eye-rolling and snorts – mostly coming from Snape.
"Professor Dumbledore?" inquired Flitwick, raising his arm and bouncing a little on his chair to try and gain the Headmaster's attention, "Albus!"
"Yes?"
"I was just wondering," started Flitwick, "how exactly do you intend to make sure that every student will have a pen-pal that is not within their own House?"
"Excellent question!" explained Dumbledore, slightly clapping his hands, "I've been waiting for somebody to ask that. It was another one of my rather magnificent ideas actually."
"More like batty…" muttered Snape to Professor Sprout.
"A piece of parchment will be given out to every student in Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, where they will then proceed to sign their names on one side of the sheet. The parchments will be returned to the Head of House where they will be randomly distributed within the Heads of Slytherin and Hufflepuff," explained Dumbledore. "Upon receiving the set of parchments from the staff member from a different House, the Heads will then cast a simple illusional charm on the names on the parchment and give those particular parchments randomly to their students.
"The students from Slytherin and Hufflepuff will sign their names on the parchment that they were randomly given and return it to their Head," continued Dumbledore. "The Head of the House will then proceed to disillusionize the piece of parchment where they will see two names on it. One a student from their own house and another name – a student from a different house which will be their pen-pals. However, their pen-pals' names will not be disclosed to the students but kept confidential within the Heads of Houses and myself. This is how I intend to make sure that every student will have a pen-pal from another house. Now, wasn't that just the most excellent idea you have ever heard of?"
The Headmaster looked up and saw a whole room of gaping staff members staring back at him.
"I am sure that that is not to difficult to understand?" said Dumbledore as he looked around the room. He beamed as he spotted several staff members nodding their heads mutely.
"Albus?"
"Yes, Professor McGonagall?"
"How exactly do you propose," the elderly witch started, "we keep track of every single student in Hogwarts and to make sure that they are following the rules and writing their letters to their pen-pals once a week?"
"Ah! Another excellent question," exclaimed the Headmaster. "I have created a simple spell that will be cast on the piece of parchment with both students' names on it. This spell will automatically make the names of the students invisible to anyone but the caster – who will be me and the other Heads. This piece of parchment will be handed out to one of the student whose name is on it. However, after the student has written in it, the text on the parchment will be invisible to everyone else – save their other pen-pal.
"I have installed another room in the castle named the Letter Room where every student who has completed a letter to their pen-pal will leave the parchment in there. Their pen-pal will then head to the room once they think their pen-pal has replied and will be able to look through the different pieces of parchment already there. Every single piece of parchment will appear to be empty – save the parchment which has the letter written by their pen-pal. This is how the letter gets to the right owner.
"Now, obviously I will not be so foolish as to leave the room unattended where any student might just vandalize the letters there. I have created a timetable for the staff members which shows the different shifts you have in staying in the room and making sure that everything goes smoothly. There is another interesting thing though, after casting said spell, an automatic log of the student will be kept in my special spell book where the dates of the student writing on the parchment will be recorded. That is how I will make sure they are following the rules."
"And what happens," drawled Snape, "when one does not reply or write on the parchment to their pen-pals? How then will they be punished?"
"Why, an increasement of course," replied Dumbledore – with the air of someone explaining to a child why they have to go to school.
"An increasement?" echoed Snape, creasing his brows a little, "what is that suppose to mean?"
"It means," said Dumbledore delightedly, "that the student will have to write more often to their pen-pal. In this case, every time a student does not deliver the parchment within the week, they will have to write the letters to their pen-pals twice a week, and thrice the week the next time they forget and so on. Hopefully, this will teach the students to not be irresponsible and to follow the rules."
"I must admit," exclaimed Professor Sprout, "I am starting to quite like this pen-pal idea."
"I'm glad you agree," said Dumbledore pleasantly, while Snape stared disbelievingly at his colleague.
"So," continued the Headmaster, "unless someone has any objection to this new pen-pal system, I will be announcing the news to the students after the Sorting tomorrow. Thank you for coming to this meeting on such a short notice, my lovely staff members, and I bid you all goodnight!"
With that statement ringing in everybody's ears, Dumbledore stood up, turned and walked out of the meeting room with a dramatic swish of his dark cloak.
"Did you think he was serious?" exclaimed Hermione to Ginny Weasley as they pushed past the Hufflepuffs and tried to catch up with Harry and Ron. "What he said after the Sorting, I mean."
"Did I think who was what?" replied a sleepy looking Ginny, "sorry I didn't catch that, and I'm far too tired to think about anything at the moment."
Hermione rolled her eyes impatiently.
"I said, what Dumbledore announced about the pen-pal system, did you think he was serious about it, or was it some joke of his?" repeated Hermione as they caught up to the boys. "I mean, we're in our 4th year now! I have to study for the OWL's!"
"Hermione," sighed Ron, "We take our OWL's next year remember, not this year. Why are you already worrying about it?"
"I'm just saying that I won't have enough time to write some useless letters to some unknown pen-pal of mine with all the homework I'll need to do! Not to mention the revising!"
"What letters?" asked Ron.
"The pen-pal system!" answered Ginny, "Were you listening at ALL to what Dumbledore was saying after the Sorting?"
"No, I don't think so…" answered Ron, "I think I was off somewhere daydreaming about how much I would be able to eat since I was absolutely starving. And Dumbledore just kept talking… and talking… hey, it's natural for me to zone out a little."
"A little," scoffed Harry as Hermione tutted beside him, "Even I was listening. I must admit though, that was a pretty good idea of Dumbledore's. I wouldn't mind spending a bit of time to write a few letters and make a new invisible friend."
"I love the idea! Frankly, I thought that you would be the first to agree on it, Hermione. All that inter-house friendliness and stuff that you go on about," said Ginny. "Personally, I can't wait for them to hand out the parchments tomorrow morning. I am dying to meet someone new AND from another house after being confined to Gryffindor's 24 hours of the day," ended Ginny as she glared at her elder brother.
"Hey, what are you looking at me for?" protested Ron, "I promised Mum I'll keep an eye on you!"
"At the rate you're going, I should be expected to be on a LEASH now."
"What do you know? That's a bloody excellent idea; I wonder why I never thought about it before…"
"RON!"
"Kidding, I was kidding."
"Gillyweed," said Hermione suddenly.
"Excuse me?" replied Ginny and Ron simultaneously.
"Oh!" answered Hermione, "that's our new password for the common room, were you not listening?"
The two Weasley's looked up only to realize that they had already reached the portrait of the Fat Lady – which Harry was already holding open for them.
"Are you going to come in here or stand there gawking at the portrait all day?" complained Harry grumpily, "I kind of want my sleep."
The siblings muttered a hurried apology and went through the portrait where they proceeded to go into their assigned dormitories after a bid goodnight.
"Are you going to do it?" asked Draco Malfoy to his best friend as they walked down to the Slytherin dungeon.
"Do what?" drawled Blaise Zabini as he tried to stifle a yawn.
"That pen-pal thing that Dumbledore was going on about, duh!" came Pansy's sarcastic reply. "He was only going on about it for around 9 hours."
"I don't like the sound of the increasement rule," said Crabbe.
"You only like the sound of cutlery and food being served, Vincent," smirked Blaise as he nimbly dodged a punch from his large friend.
"I'm doing it," Goyle said loudly.
"That's great. We'll announce it to the media," sneered Malfoy as Blaise laughed beside him.
"Seriously though," said Pansy, "are you all planning to do it?"
"Why not?" Blaise replied, "Should be a laugh."
"I believe the term Dumbledore used was 'compulsory' and the little black mail he threw in about the increasement of letters per week hit the nail on the head," scowled Malfoy as he flicked an imaginary piece of lint off his cloak.
"I hope I get Cedric Diggory's!" squealed Pansy.
"Who?" asked all four boys simultaneously.
"Cedric Diggory?" said Pansy, "You never heard of him? Captain and seeker in Quidditch? Hufflepuff?"
"HUFFLEPUFF?" exclaimed Blaise.
"Never mind," muttered Malfoy, "I don't want to know."
To be continued...