Eventually the four Heirs managed to get back to their common room, exhausted both physically and emotionally, flopped down into the comfortable sofa and armchairs. Since they had been unveiled the press had spent at least an hour barraging them with questions. They mainly focused on how they felt about the revelations and especially focused on John's feelings on being the Heir of Merlin. They also got repeatedly asked what they would do with their new found powers and one odd man with long blonde hair from 'The Quibbler' had asked them each for their favourite flavours of ice cream.

"Well that could have gone worse." Daphne said.

"Yes, I've seen my aunty do lots of press conferences and they weren't nearly as hard on us as they are her." Susan agreed.

"To be fair, we are only children." Harry pointed out.

"True, but it still could have been worse."

John nodded in agreement.

The students had taken it rather well as well. Dumbledore had given them a lecture about how the heirs were still students and how their power was limited while they were students and it should still be the staff they approach with any problems. The students mainly reacted with excitement. The house pride that was instilled in all students was on show as they watched the heirs answer the questions from the press. The four students had been nervous before the event but had comfortably settled into the routine of being asked a question, and unless it was directed to a certain person, taking turns in answering.

Since they had found out their status they had unconsciously made a point of staying up for a little while in the common room to talk. Sometimes they talked about things they had learnt that day, other times about their life before Hogwarts. The four were soon becoming fast friends. Tonight, after talking about the press conference and discussing the reactions of the students, they talked about the meeting at the Wizegamot the next evening.

Personally John found that nearly as daunting as facing the press, and he knew the others felt similar.

o-0-o

The next morning they walked into a classroom on the sixth floor to find there were only four desks there, rather than the normal classroom full. Instead, there was a duelling platform set up. This led the four of them to wonder if they would be duelling today, which would be a surprise as they barely knew any spells. Effectively all they would be able to do would be to shoot sparks at each other. They had just sat down when Professor Flitwick hurried into the room as fast as his little legs could carry him.

"You're all here on time. Good. I must say I'm excited. It's been a long time since I last taught duelling. I've spoken to Master Merrmann and we have come up a plan. He will teach you hex's and curses in one of his lessons, I will teach you duelling charms and jinxes and how to use all the spells in a duel. One lesson you will be learning spells, the next week you will be learning how to use them in a duel. However the first two weeks will be spent teaching you the Knockback Jinx and a basic Shield Charm."

The students thoroughly enjoyed their lesson with Professor Flitwick. He was a good teacher and went over the theory of the Knockback Jinx before showing them the wand movement and incantation and letting them practice on conjured dummies. Though it was a weak spell, even the most powerful of wizards would struggle to get it through a good shield charm, it was simple and they all had it learnt competently by the end of the lesson.

Although Professor Bagshot was a more interesting teacher than Professor Binns, none of them still found History of Magic of much interest. Professor Bagshot had wanted to teach them about early British magic, but as the curriculum said the first year was based on Goblin rebellions, that's what she had to stick to. The four heirs felt like a better first year course could be designed. Perhaps this, they felt, was something they could exercise their new powers in.

Transfiguration expanded the theory of turning a match into a needle and how the principles would apply to the reverse transfiguration.

Healing was a class Susan had been looking forward to. Healer Simpson greeted Harry and John with some enthusiasm, having previously met them. John had been right in his earlier assumption that the man had been a teacher. He had previously been in charge of teaching the first module student healers learned when they started training.

The class started with Healer Simpson talking about what could and couldn't be healed by magic. Most diseases and all injuries caused by non-magic means could be healed with magic. Some magical diseases could be cured with magic. But any injury caused by magic, couldn't be healed by magic.

He gave an example of a broken arm. An arm broken by being hit with a bludger in a Quidditch match could be healed with a simple Bone Knitting Charm, the specific charm depending on the type of break. However an arm broken by a Bone Breaking Hex could not be healed with a Bone Knitting Charm. The bone would either have to be left to heal naturally, the preferred option, or vanished and regrown with a potion called skele-grow.

After the explanation Healer Simpson started talking about basic anatomy, specifically about the skeletal system. Apparently most magical injuries were based around bones in some way, either the primary cause of injury, such as a broken bone, or part of a more complex magical accident, such as a transfigured limb.

When the bell rang the four heirs sighed a little in disappointment. Healer Simpson was a good teacher who had grabbed their interest and not let it go throughout the lesson. The regret at the end of the lesson continued through charms. Master Therin apologised the fact that it would be a boring lesson, but promised them they would start with casting magic in the next lesson, most specifically the wand lighting charm.

Moving down to the Great Hall the four of them felt fairly sick. While during the day they had been distracted by lessons, now the full force of their nerves for the Wizengamot meeting was kicking in.

o-0-o

At six o'clock the four of them made their way to Professor Dumbledore's office where they nervously sat as he told them how the meeting would go. It had already been in the papers that morning that they were the heirs to the founders and Merlin so that would not be surprise. Dumbledore, in his role of Chief Warlock would open the meeting and ask for any business, as they waited in Dumbledore's Chief Warlock office. When Minister Fudge said there were new members to be introduced a house elf that worked in the Ministry would let them know it was time and they would make their way to the Wizengamot chamber. They would then nominate their proxy while they were unable to vote, before Professor Dumbledore closed the session and escorted them back to Hogwarts.

After they spent time with Professor Dumbledore reviewing their lessons so far he eventually took them in the direction of his fireplace. One by one they entered the fireplace inside his office and exited the fireplace inside his Wizengamot office.

This was one of two fireplaces inside Hogwarts that was permanently connected to the floo, the other one being inside the Hospital Wing. However, the one inside the Hospital Wing could only be opened by the school nurse, the headmaster or one the four heads of houses.

As John walked arrived through the fire place he let out a short laugh at Harry crumpled up on the floor, obviously having fallen on his backside during the floo trip. Looking up he saw Dumbledore waving his wand and four comfortable armchairs appeared out of thin air. Motioning for them to take a seat Dumbledore sat in his chair and called for a house elf, Twinky, to fetch some tea and pumpkin juice.

"Now I will shortly depart in order to start tonight's session. I must please ask that you not touch anything while you are alone due to the sensitive nature of some of these papers. Expect to be summoned in approximately ten minutes."

As Dumbledore left the room the four of them sat in a nervous silence. John took advantage of the silence to look around the room. Though it was fairly grand, as one would expect of a Chief Warlocks office, it was obvious Professor Dumbledore spent as little time as he could in it. It was not as homely as his Hogwarts office, and though there was a perch for Fawkes, it was not as worn as the one in Hogwarts indicating it was not used nearly as often. The paperwork was also more numerous, and though neatly stacked, took up most of the desk. Indeed, there was little room for the tray of tea and pumpkin juice.

Eventually conversation broke out about what they knew about the Wizegamot meetings. Naturally Susan knew the most, as she was far closer to taking over the Bones seat than Daphne was to taking over the Greengrass seat.

"From what my Aunty said it should be reasonably simple. We walk in declare who we are, light our wands up and say the Wizengamot oath before nominating our proxy."

"But how do we light our wands? And what's the oath we have to say?" Harry asked, being raised by Muggles.

"It's quite easy to light up your wand. You can try it now. You just push a little bit of power through it and maintain it. It isn't even a spell and isn't shown on Ministry records if you do it outside Hogwarts. It's different from the Lumos charm we learn as the light never leaves the wand, making it useless for finding your way in the dark." John replied.

Harry took out his wand and did as John instructed, and mustering up his power, channelled it through his wand, blinding all four of them.

"I think you need a little less power Harry!" Daphne said as Harry toned the power down to where his wand was lit at a far more comfortable level.

Just as he managed to get the brightness of his wand down, Twinky popped in and spoke before immediately popping back out.

"Old Master Chief Warlock summons young masters to the chamber please."

As John followed the others out the door he caught sight of a portrait out of the corner of his eyes. It was of a man in claret red robes who looked exceedingly old. Indeed he made Professor Dumbledore look young. His long flowing hair matched his beard in the dirty grey colour. As John looked at him the portrait winked at him with one of his bright blue eyes. John just nodded his head at the portrait, not sure who the portrait was of.

Making his way down the marble floor John quickly caught up the other three and they made their to the Wizengamot chamber. Walking through into the chamber the four were immediately over awed with the opulence of the chamber. The floors were a shiny marble. So shiny in fact you could shave in them. The benches on which the members were sat were made of oak which was nearly as shiny as the marble floor and upholstered in a deep red leather.

Looking at the benches John could clearly see a hierarchy. The Ancient and Most Noble Houses, as denoted by the crests which were carved on an oaken board rising from the benches were at the top of the chamber, looking down upon the lower houses. At the bottom was the Noble houses. In front of the of the benches, which were arranged in a semi-circle sat a stone pedestal, upon which there were three grand chairs, two of which were occupied. One of these was Professor Dumbleodre, in the central chair denoting him as Chief Warlock. To the right of him sat Cornelius Fudge, in the Ministers seat. The chair to Dumbledores left was empty, and John had a feeling that would be the chair he would sit due to the fact that the emblem that was above of it just happened to match the heraldry of the House of Emrys.

Standing, Dumbledore spoke to them, looking down upon the group from his greater height.

"You four stand before this Chamber, ready to take our oaths and fulfil the duty of governing Magical Britain. One by one please step forward , light your wand and say the oath which will appear in front of you. If you do not accept this responsibility you may leave now with no stain upon your character. Will Miss Susan Bones please step forward."

Susan stepped forward rather nervously, but looked determined at the same time. She lit her wand and said her oath followed by Daphne then Harry.

As John stepped forward and lit his wand his heart beat furiously in his chest.

"I, John Williamson, Head of House Emerys, Head of House Ravenclaw, Archmage of Great Britain do hereby swear to uphold the laws of this chamber and endeavour to maintain the Staturate of Secrecy. I swear to never work to overthrow our sovereign and help the people of Magical Britain to the best of abilities. I swear this upon the name of Merlin, the first guardian of Magical Britain"

After he finished his oath he moved to take the seat on Dumbledore's left, as Dumbledore motioned. He felt rather in the spotlight with the whole chamber looking upon him, around one hundred and fifty people in total.

The next order of business was to nominate the proxy. Susan and Daphne held no surprises, nominating their aunt and father respectively. Harry provided a surprise when nominated Andromeda Tonks, who Dumbledore stated would be summoned to the next meeting of the Wizengamot in order to take her place as the Potter and Gryffindor proxy. John couldn't help but smirk at the irony of having a former Slytherin as Gryffindor proxy and he noticed a few other smirks around the room as they realised.

There was some debate when John nominated his father whether an auror could sit as proxy or if it would be a conflict of interest. Dumbledore, in his role as Chief Warlock stated as long as he took no seats in judicial trials it was within the laws of the chamber.

John breathed a sigh of relief as Dumbledore dismissed the session without anyone really raising any objects to them taking their seats. He decided they all must have checked the Wizengamot laws beforehand and found that it was allowed and realised there was little point objecting. For that, all four of the young heirs were relieved.

o-0-o

The next day they walked into a classroom to be greeted to four very comfortable looking armchairs arranged in a semi-circle around another armchair, in which sat Professor Dumbledore. The four armchairs were in the corresponding colours of the Hogwarts houses, and all sat in the chair that matched the house they were head of.

"Good Afternoon. I hope you enjoyed your transfiguration lessons and lunch?"

The students nodded enthusiastically, mainly at the lunch. Transfiguration had mainly been theory work today. While all recognised the importance of such lessons, Harry after an explanation of how magic can go wrong, they were rarely interesting.

"Good, good. Now this afternoon we launch ourselves into the murky waters of mind magic. Can anyone tell me the two branches of mind magic?"

"Occlumency and Legilimency." Daphne answered.

"Yes very good. Now can someone tell me what each of them do?"

"Occlumency allows you to protect your mind from Legilimency which allows someone to penetrate another persons mind." John answered.

"Yes exactly." Dumbledore started before pausing as Harry raised his hand.

"Yes Harry? You have a question?"

"If someone penetrates your mind what can they do to you?"

"Many things Harry. Someone with only a basic knowledge of Legilimency would be able to view your past memories. Someone who is somewhat competent in the art would be able to access your thoughts and desires. An advanced practitioner would be able to implant thoughts, memories and dreams inside your brain."

Harry had a look of shock on his face.

"That sounds really dangerous.

"It can be. But Occlumency is rather tricky to learn. Legilimency is even harder to learn. In our school there are only two advanced practitioners of Legilimency on staff, and four others who could probably read your thoughts. All staff have at least basic Occlumency defences and those of us who are practised with Legilimency are under magical contract not to use it on a student without their permission unless for instruction purposes."

All four nodded at that, relieved that a potential avenue for future staff to harm students was closed off.

"Now with what the mind arts actually are out the way I will tell you what I expect from each of you in terms of progress. As I said these are tricky subjects to learn. By the end of the year I will expect you to have some rudimentary defences and to be able to tell if someone is trying to access your mind. I wouldn't expect you to be able to beat back the weakest of attacks until the end of second year. I hope to have you all fully versed in Occlumency and be able to hold off attacks by the end of your fourth year before moving onto Legilimency. Any questions?"

Seeing there was none, Professor Dumbledore moved onto explaining how to form defecnes. Apparently the quickest, but hardest way to learn was to clear your mind of all thoughts and emotions. But as Professor Dumbledore explained, humans were naturally emotional creatures, making this approach incredibly difficult. Instead a better approach was to meditate and look inwards and find something all magical people had, a mindscape.

A mindscape was the place where the brain met magic. All thoughts were formed here, and all memories were stored here. It was not known whether muggles didn't have one, or if magic was just needed to access it.

Once they had accessed their mindscape at their will, Professor Dumbledore would be able to teach them the incredibly tricky task of building defences around it. He anticipated they would not be able to access it at will until Christmas at the earliest, and left them homework to practice it. Their weekly lessons would be him checking on their progress and giving them advice on accessing it.

Their politics lesson with Tiberius Ogden was nowhere near as interesting. He set out the main parties of the Wizengamot. There were three main sides that an individual could take in the Wizengamot. First there was there the Tradionalists, those who believed things should stay the way they were. Blood Purists believed that only those from magical lineage should hold positions of power or influence. These two groups would sometimes vote together. The last group were Progressives who believed that blood status didn't matter and the world needed to move on.

Harry found him siding mainly with the Progressives while the other three felt like they would alternate between the Progressives and Tradionalists, depending on the issue. Tiberius told them that most people did float between the two positions, though the politicians tended to lean more towards Tradionalist. Overall the teens found the lesson rather boring, but understood the importance of it once they took up their seats fully without proxy.

o-0-o

Potions seemed to drag the next day as they all looked forward to their first Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson. The three who had grown up in the wizarding world were excited at the opportunity to be learning from a battlemage while Harry had read about the subject and found it incredibly interesting.

Walking into the classroom they were surprised to each be hit by a spell which made them squawk like a parrot. Looking round they saw the culprit sat at the teacher's desk. He looked to be of average height with short blonde hair but was extremely well built, muscles rippling under his robes has he moved. He handled his wand with a practised ease and stowed it into his wand holster at his hip.

Standing up he barked at them to sit down and listen, his German accent obvious, though his English was perfect.

"You have just learnt your first lesson. Always be prepared for an attack. You will never know when someone might try to attack you."

He threw them each what looked like a small leather tube with a hook on it.

"Put these on your belts. If you don't wear a belt hook them onto the waistband. They are wand holsters, enchanted so your wand won't fall out. Look after your wand, it is your second greatest weapon. Your greatest is between your ears."

The lesson carried on in much the same way. They started by Master Mermann showing them the correct way to draw their wand quickly and while moving into a duelling stance. He also showed them how to sheath it without fumbling around looking for the holster. He then moved onto different ways to grip a wand and the advantages and disadvantages of each grip. Apparently the best wizards would swap grips at different times depending on what the situation demanded.

Overall the four of them really enjoyed the lesson and was looking forward to the next day when Master Mermann would talk about what constituted a hex and teach them a basic stinging hex.

By comparison the next lesson was boring. Master Ardwyad was a good teacher, but with their currently limited knowledge on runes, there was little he could teach them.

However the same could not be said for their last lesson, the next day. Alchemy with Nicholas Flamel is what John had really been looking forward to.

o-0-o

Walking into the classroom in which they would have their alchemy class they were greeted by a man who looked to be in his mid-fifties with long sandy brown hair which was starting to grey. The winkles around his face tightened as he smiled at them.

"Come in. I'm Nicholas Flamel and will be teaching you the mostly lost art of Alchemy. Please take a seat."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Sir." John said, having looked up to Nicholas Flamel since he was young. He could only imagine how much knowledge he'd amassed over the years?"

"Sir? Please call me Nicholas. When you've lived as long as I have being called Sir gets rather tiring."

John just nodded at this as the other looked on a little awed by the legendary figure in front of them.

"Can anyone tell me what Alchemy is?" Nicholas asked, to blank looks.

"Alchemy is the art of permanently creating or changing an object, mostly through mixing transfiguration and potions. Transfiguration doesn't allow changes to be permanent, though they can often last many years if performed by the right person. Potions often have a defined limit for how long they will work for. Alchemy allows us to combine both Potions and Transfiguration to change something permanently. It also allows us to make things we can't normally make, such as gold. This first year will focus on the main principles of alchemy and safety procedures. By the end of your seven years here you will have the basic knowledge of how to make a Philosophers Stone, though it would take many more years of study to actually make one."

The four students were incredibly excitedly excited and interested in how much knowledge they would be learning. Nicholas started the lesson by explaining how the spells of Transfiguration would mix with Potions that would create the Alchemical concoctions. The potion would provide the base for the transformation, while the spell would do most of the actual work. Nicholas said the potions used in Alchemy were tricky to make, but if you could follow instructions not impossible to brew.

All in all the four of them loved the lesson. Though there was little alchemy Nicholas could teach them before they started learning more of the principles of potion making and transfiguration, but he never the less made it interesting, talking about what alchemy was capable off.

After their dinner they went up to the common room, all thinking about their weekend plans. They had a meeting with Professor Dumbledore the next morning to discuss how they had found the lessons before spending the rest of Saturday reading in advance for the next weeks lessons.

Sunday was the day they were really looking forward to however. That was the day they would explore Hogwarts, looking for the Founders Private rooms.