The Nice School of Magic
by Healer Pomfrey

All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.

When Minerva came to the Nice School of Magic six days later, she brought Pomona Sprout, Filius Flitwick, Rolanda Hooch, Irma Pince, Hagrid in the company of his dog familiar, Amelia Bones, Bill and Charlie Weasley and Remus Lupin with her, using a group Portkey.

HP

Albus Dumbledore sat in his office, deep in shock. An hour ago, right after the students had left, five of his colleagues had visited him in his office presenting him with their resignations - and that just one week after his most trusted colleagues, Minerva, Severus and Poppy, had already resigned from their posts. He could understand why Severus had quitted his job - yes, the Potions Master had all right to be more than angry at him. However, he wouldn't have imagined his almost complete staff including the other three heads of the houses to stand behind the Potions Master.

"Fawkes, I messed up, didn't I?" he spoke up, as he absentmindedly petted the phoenix' head feathers.

#Yes, you did,# Fawkes trilled. #All that because of a prophecy, in which no one but you and Voldemort believes. That was incredibly stupid. You better begin to search for new teachers and nestlings right away.#

"Yes, I'll do that," Albus agreed and rose from his chair in determination. "I'll also ask the Minister of Magic to not support any other magical school in Britain apart from Hogwarts. In my position as the head of the Wizengamot I am surely entitled to make such a request."

#Good luck old man# Fawkes trilled, seemingly amused.

HP

Alerted by the house-elves that his old and new colleagues had arrived, Severus motioned Harry to follow him and met everyone in the entrance hall.

'That man's very big,' Harry thought, staring at Hagrid with anxiousness.

"Welcome to the Nice School of Magic," Severus greeted the newcomers and led them into the dining hall, where the house-elves served refreshments for everyone.

"As you can see," Minerva spoke up, glancing around the table, our staff is almost complete. Eventually, we still need a teacher for Arithmancy and Latin. Until we find a suitable person, Bill suggested teaching Arithmancy and Ancient Runes in turns, as they're both elective subjects anyway. Irma will teach a few hours of Latin as elective subject besides being the librarian for the time being until we find someone suitable for either of her positions. Amelia will be my successor as Transfiguration professor, and Rolanda is going to teach Swimming besides Flying. Other than that, Poppy will give a few Healing classes to promising students besides her work as our healer. Hagrid will be our caretaker, and I have good news for him." She paused, glancing around to see if anyone had questions, before she looked at the half-giant, grinning.

"I have spoken with the French Minister of Magic concerning our school, our staff, etc. The Minister has guaranteed me her full support, provided that we accept students from France as well under the condition that they're able to follow classes in the English language. She has further decided that, as long as he is in France, Hagrid will be allowed to carry a wand, after I reassured her that no one who is aware of the events that happened almost fifty years ago believes that he has anything to do with it. Congratulations Hagrid."

Everyone applauded, while large crocodile tears appeared on Hagrid's cheeks.

"Thank you so much, headmistress," he said, teary-eyed.

"As to the students, the whole Gryffindor house, apart from the seventh years of course and Percy Weasley, have already registered for our school," Minerva continued, before Severus interrupted her.

"That Weasley boy has always been strange," he commented, rolling his eyes.

"That's true," Minerva agreed. "Especially since two of his brothers are teachers here. However, his eight-year-old twin brothers have already registered for our school." Pulling a small parchment out of her robe pocket, she explained, "Also sixty percent from Slytherin, seventy percent from Ravenclaw as well as the complete Hufflepuff house."

"Oh Merlin," Poppy blurted out, looking at her best friend in delight. "Albus is going to have a hard time."

Severus smirked, mumbling something like "his own fault for being a meddling coot."

"So that means," the new headmistress continued to speak, "that we don't have to put much energy in promoting our school to win new students at the moment. Most of our old students agreed to come here in order to follow their head of house. What we need to do though is to write to all magical children who are going to turn eight, nine, ten or eleven before the beginning of the school year. I shall do this during the following week."

"I can help you, Minerva," Amelia offered. "We still have two months of holidays, which should be enough time to make our lesson plans."

"Is there anything that we need to do about possible French students?" Severus queried.

Minerva shook her head in denial. "No, the Minister will inform us of new students by the first of August every year. We don't have to do anything except for accepting the students they suggest. I'm thinking about contacting the headmistress of Beauxbatons though in order to possibly arrange a cooperation between our schools."

Everyone else agreed to assist as well, and Minerva thanked her colleagues, before she addressed a different matter. "Severus' son Harry is only six or will be six next month, and we've been discussing who should teach him until he'll be old enough to enter the Nice school as a student." Glancing at Severus, she continued, "Finally, we've decided to try to let him attend classes together with the first years. Harry is an intelligent boy, and his magic is extremely strong for his age, so we resolved to give it a try. One a different note, when I spoke to Augusta Longbottom - my old friend from my own time at Hogwarts - about our new school, she asked me if I could accept Neville, so that he could grow up and go to school together with Harry, as she feels too old to raise a child and home-school him like she has done so far."

"Considering that the boy's parents were good and powerful students, I don't see a problem with it," Severus was the first to reply.

"And I believe that it'll be good for Harry to have someone of his own age here, even if they attend classes together with the students who are two years older," Poppy added, smiling.

"Minerva, why don't you invite both of them here for a few days?" Severus suggested."

"I'll do that," Minerva promised, before she turned to Harry.

"Now Harry, you're already at home here, so do you think you could show everyone the school?"

"Yes," Harry replied, grinning broadly.

"Also show them how to get to the city centre of Nice and to the portal please," Severus instructed his son, who returned an eager nod.

HP

During the following hour, Harry guided the new teachers, who seemed all very nice, around the school. He showed them the park and the beach that was white and twinkled in the sunshine, just like the blue sea that was spread out behind the beach.

"This part of the beach is magical," he informed the teachers.

"So Muggles can't see it and we can fly here?" Rolanda queried with apparent excitement.

Harry nodded. "Yes."

At the far end of the beach, hidden behind a couple of arranged palm trees, was the portal.

"This is the portal," the five-year-old explained, proudly. "My daddy told me that it's only visible to magical people, and it leads to the magical shopping street in Marseille. He took me there once, and it's huge," he added, smiling.

"Where exactly is the city of Nice?" Bill Weasley asked in a soft voice, when they were on their way back to the school.

"Oh right," Harry recalled. "It's in this direction," he explained, pointing in the direction of the city centre. "If you leave the school through the back door behind the library and turn right just before the new greenhouse, you get to a small street. It goes to Nice."

'I hope they understood what I meant,' he thought and, just to be sure, led everyone to the spot, from where one could already see the church of which he had thought as the beginning of the city centre, when his father had taken him to the town two days ago.

"Thank you very much for showing us around, Harry," Charlie said, warmly, gently ruffling the boy's head.

"Yeah, you did a good job," his brother Bill added, grinning.

"It's an amazing place for a school," Amelia spoke up. "I really look forward to living here."

"Have you been to Marseille yet?" Remus Lupin asked the child. "Does it take long to get there?"

Harry grinned. "No sir. You just go through the portal, and you're right in the middle of the magical shopping street. They have a really large bookshop."

"Do they have English books though, although we're in France?" Irma Pince asked with apparent interest.

"Minerva said something that Severus talked the owner of the bookshop into cooperating with The Ink Pot in London, so that not only the teachers but also the students would be able to get their books there," Pomona replied, thoughtfully.

"I also heard that there's a branch of Gringotts in Marseille," Filius threw in.

"That's very helpful," Amelia agreed. "I think and I'm going to suggest to Minerva that we install an additional class - French. Even if we live here at the school, the students might have contact to shop owners in Nice or Marseille, provided that we plan Nice or Marseille visits like the Hogsmeade visits at Hogwarts."

"We should do that," Remus agreed, immediately.

'Yay,' Harry thought. 'I'd love to learn French. It was very unsettling when only Dad could talk to the people in Nice but I couldn't understand a word. I hope they'll find a teacher quickly.'

HP

During the following weeks, the teachers prepared the school, their classrooms and their offices for their needs. Harry liked each single of the professors. Everyone was so nice to him, especially compared to his aunt and uncle, and he spent every morning helping all the teachers with their work. In the afternoon, he was allowed to assist his father in his lab for two hours, where Severus carefully taught him to prepare ingredients and always gave him two ingredients as homework, about which he had to remember the special characteristics as well as the ways of preparing them. Later in the afternoon, Rolanda Hooch took him to the beach flying, which Harry enjoyed very much, especially when the teacher brought a Snitch, which he was usually able to catch before she could even spot it.

"Harry, you're going to make a brilliant Seeker," the flying instructor commended him. "We'll see that we set up Quidditch teams for the different years."

When Rolanda also began to teach him how to swim, he was over the moon with joy. He just loved the sea that was always warm, and he did his best to not disappoint the always funny teacher, to whom he had taken a great liking.

Harry became quickly used to the fact that everything was different from how it had been in his former life and that the Dursleys' rules did not apply to him anymore. He felt happier than he could remember having felt ever before. Nevertheless, everything that he had learned in his previous home still remained at the back of his mind.

tbc...

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