Chapter ten
'Neville explained that even though he doesn't like to play quidditch, or fly, he would like to do some type of sport where it would help get him fit. Swimming was one of those ideas and many other magical schools do have swimming pools and work on competitions against other schools using swimming instead of quidditch. At Hogwarts, it could be just competition against other students. Due to there only being seven players on a quidditch team is the reason we came up with the racing league. It is becoming very popular in almost all the other schools and they hold competitions against other schools every two years. Now there is no age limit and you can do it just for fun, or like I would, go for the win. There will be competitions as well. I have been asked if I could help design the course for the racing league, as it will need obstacles.' Harry said.
'Again, for those that might not want to fly or swim, we are working on another sport. Students will race through an obstacle course but they will need to dodge spells, harmless spells, which will hit them with a colour so they will know how many times they were hit. They lose points for every hit. They will also have to cast spells at targets. It doesn't just go on who is the fastest, it also goes on how often they are hit and how close they came to the centre of the target. They will need to get past things like devil's snare or they need to collect a charmed object. For the older students they will need to be able to pass a hippogriff. No student will be put in danger and there will be people standing by if a student looks like they might end up in danger. We have been trying to come up with ways for the students to have fun, get fit and compete at the same time, with magic thrown in so it keeps them learning. All muggle schools have a sports day, we are going to do the same just change it to suit us. Again, this earns them points which ends up earning them a gift at the end of the year.'
'How are we going to sort the teams for quidditch if there is no house system?' Pomona asked.
'We're still sorting this out but we have a couple of ideas for that. One is a random draw of their names along with the name of the team they will play for. The other is using the first initial of their last name. So, say people with the last name starting with A through F will play for one team. We are still deciding what the team names will be or if we should keep the founders names. As we are going to be using the founders names for things like study rooms, we will probably name the teams after something else as you will get some who will want to play for Gryffindor and not Hufflepuff. One idea was to name the teams after magical creatures, such as dragons or unicorns.'
The governors decided to give all the information to the staff so they could take their time and read up on the changes happening at Hogwarts from the time it opened. They decided that while the teachers were reading all the information on the changes to Hogwarts, they would begin their tour to work on where to put things like the racing league area and where they could have vegetables and fruit trees, which would help lower the cost of food at Hogwarts.
Over the following months, Hogwarts was almost finished being repaired and the new stadium has been built and pool had been installed. Harry had finished the designs for the racing league circuit. He also had shown the governors and staff the room of requirement which could be used for the sport during winter, or bad storms. That had also been changed. No quidditch when there are bad storms. It was just too dangerous for the students playing, but it wasn't much fun for the spectators either. No other sport that has to be done outdoors will be played if there is a bad storm.
While the repairs were going on the governors along with the teachers worked out where the students would soon be housed. First years would be on the first floor, second years on the second floor and so on with the seventh years on the seventh floor.
There were common rooms spread through out the castle to be used by everyone. But there were designated study rooms for fifth and seventh years that no other student could enter. This would give the ones studying for their owls and newts more time to study, but also they wouldn't have to put up with younger students making a noise. The study rooms will have bookshelves with an index book. The student just needs to write in the book the name of the book they wish to borrow and their name. Designated house elves bring the books to the rooms. The index book which will have the list of all books in the library. Also, the common rooms and study rooms will have designated portraits who will notify a teacher if someone causes trouble. All the portraits in Hogwarts will also act as a witness. No longer would the teacher not have the fact or punish the wrong student. So many times the victim was alone where the one causing the trouble had friends with them who would support their friend and say the victim was the one causing problems. That will not happen anymore.
One other major change was the prefects and head boy and head girl. They believed the students should not be placed in those types of situations where they had to discipline other students, which could cause problems. Also, they are studying for their newts and owls. They really should not have their time taken away to deal with misbehaving students. There was going to be more budget so the school could hire two people who will patrol the castle after curfew. With so many dying and some many vaults not being claimed, which the ministry did, to use to update and upgrade not just the ministry, but St Mungo's, Hogwarts and Diagon Alley, there was enough money for Hogwarts to hire more teachers and hire people to act as security. The budget will also mean each year will have a designated person, like a head of house, but they are not a teacher, they are just there for the students. One for the first, second and third years. One person would see to the forth, fifth and sixth. Only the seventh years will have their own head of year.
Harry and Sally were becoming closer. They saw each other every night and Sally had begun to spend the odd night with Harry at his home and in his bed. Sally had been surprised that Harry had been a virgin. Harry had also been surprised that Sally was a virgin. They loved the fact that their first time was with the other. Their feelings were growing and even though both loved the other, they had not actually admitted how they felt, yet.
Harry had spent a few days with the quidditch players from Great Britain and planned to meet up with quidditch players from overseas. He had spoken to Victor Krum who was organising the other players. They had worked it so they could have their photographs taken at the same time. The teams had individual pictures taken but also team shots taken, Harry would then have them duplicated. A form was signed by all who had agreed to have their pictures taken that they can be duplicated for the use of Hogwarts. They were going to offer other schools the pictures as rewards as well. Sally helped Harry organise the signings and how many should be signed and how many would just be pictures without signatures. She also worked on team jersey's, again some signed, some not. She gave Harry ideas for the gifts to use for the highest points winners.
One thing Sally and Harry discussed was seeing if the shop owners in Diagon alley and Hogsmeade would implement gift cards. They decided to pay a visit to some and explain what a gift card was and how it worked. They brought along some gift cards from different muggle shops to make it easier to explain.
Apart from his hobby of making brooms, Harry decided to make the communication mirrors. He not only made them like his father and Sirius, two mirrors that connected. He was also able to connect up to ten, so far. When he explained to Sally, she was excited and said many first years would benefit from being able to speak with their parent's using the mirrors. Naturally they would need to make some rule so the student doesn't slack off from their work by using the mirrors too often. They would have to make sure they could not be used when they were having tests. If a child is hurt or sick, then being able to speak with their parent could be just what the child needs. Poppy Pomfrey would also be able to speak with the parent while she was treating their child.
Once Harry had the first lot of mirrors made, he showed them to Amos. Sally again helped by having her father with one so Harry could call him to show Amos how they worked. It only took an hour before Kingsley asked if Harry would make them for the ministry. He would be contracted and paid, all they had to do was work out how much to pay Harry for mirrors for every department and in some cases, all persons in the department. It was like the aurors, they could all have some so they could call for back up if it was needed. They would have the mirrors that connected ten. It would be similar to the minister's office. The minister and all his staff would have a set. Kingsley believed the mirrors would really help the ministry.
Amos was voted in as the new Hogwarts headmaster. He told Harry that instead of allowing all the students to keep hold of the mirrors during the week, it might be best if the head of each year keep them then they can hand out of an evening for half an hour, then the student could also have them for the entire weekend. It would also help so students weren't spending too much time using the mirrors to speak with someone outside of Hogwarts instead of doing their homework, or researching for their homework. If their marks begin to suffer then the mirrors could be confiscated or the student might only be allowed to use them on weekends. Harry agree, he thought it was a good idea. He knew some kids would skive off homework by spending time speaking with family or friends that weren't at Hogwarts. They might also use the mirrors to get an older sibling to give them help with their homework.
Kingsley had told Harry that he had put together a team that worked on a way to spell muggles so the could not mention their world in any way. Another team worked on the spells to make sure no one could bring any type of muggle weapon to Diagon alley, along with the ministry or St Mungo's, that included biological weapons. Two unspeakables were connected to the muggle world so they knew just how dangerous the muggles could be. No other minister ever wanted to hear that muggles could be dangerous to the wizarding world, now they had a minister who listened.
Now the teams were going around using the spells on muggles who were related to a witch or wizard. The Dursley's had been the first. Kingsley explained to Harry that they had used veritaserum on the Dursley's before using the spell. They found out that Vernon had spoken with someone in the military and told them he knew who was responsible for all the weird mist and the bridges collapsing. They had decided to obliviate all knowledge of magic from the four Dursley's. They even made Petunia forget she had a sister who was a witch. All she knew was her sister, Lily, had died years before. They also sent a team to the muggle military. They knew that would take a long time but they were determined to get every person who knew of the wizarding world. Kingsley thanked Harry for the information that just might save their world from the muggles.
Arthur, as Kingsley's assistant, had sent letters to all muggleborns and muggle raised so they would know about these spells that would be used on their families and why it was being done. It would not hurt them and they would still be able to discuss magic with their parent. The ones who weren't magical just couldn't speak with anyone that didn't already know of the wizarding world. Everyone felt a little safer now they had begun to stop the muggles from being able to discuss magic with anyone not in the immediate family of a muggleborn or half-blood. No one wanted to go through with a new version of the witch trials.