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.
This story is COMPLETELY AU. If you don't likt it, don't read it!
Just a few days later, Severus asked Susan and Harry to come home for a moment after the last afternoon class.
The two fifth years exchanged a surprised look, wondering what they had done, as it was not normal that their parents called them home during the week. However, from their parents' expressions, they realised soon that their visit in their quarters had nothing to do with any kind of punishment.
"In the summer," Amelia began to talk, smiling at the children who were sitting close to each other on the sofa, "you're going to have a small brother."
The silence following her announcement lasted a few seconds, before Susan spoke up in excitement. "Really? That's too cool, isn't it, Harry?"
"Absolutely," Harry agreed, smiling, happily. "When is he going to be born, and have you already decided on a name?"
Amelia and Severus laughed, seemingly relieved at their older children's reaction to the news.
"He's supposed to be born at the beginning of the summer holidays," Severus replied, "and we don't have a name yet."
"We thought we could ask you to find a nice name for your brother," Amelia added, causing Harry and Susan to exchange a glance of excitement.
"We'll think about it," Harry promised.
"What about Felix?" Susan suggested right away. "It means lucky in Latin, and I think our little brother can be very lucky to be born into a family with two parents, a brother and a sister who all love him very much, don't you think so, Harry?"
"I absolutely agree," Harry replied, grinning.
"I like the name," Amelia spoke up, giving Severus a questioning look.
"Very well," Severus agreed, before he made the children promise not to speak about the matter with anyone.
HP
On the first day of the summer holidays, Susan and Harry pestered their father to take them to Marseille, because they wanted to buy a teddy for Felix.
"We can simply conjure a teddy," Severus replied in apparent surprise, causing the children to groan in annoyance.
"No Dad, we want one that has several kind of charms applied to it..."
"... for example that it can play music..."
"... or say the baby's name," the children contradicted in firm voices.
"Very well," Severus said, rolling his eyes in apparent annoyance, "if you promise to stop speaking like the Weasley twins."
Harry and Susan laughed. "Why would we..."
"... We think it's funny," they replied, grinning.
"Sorry Dad, we'll try to not do it in your presence," Harry finally promised, not wanting to anger his father.
Severus gave him a sharp look. "Are you feeling well enough to go?" he queried. "The full moon is in two days' time."
"As long as I don't do magic, I'll be all right," Harry reassured him, and when Amelia confirmed that she was well able to remain alone in their quarters for a few hours, Severus grudgingly agreed to make a short visit to Marseille.
Unbeknownst to his wife, he made a short detour to the headmistress' office and asked Minerva to visit Amelia for a while just to make sure that Felix did not decide to become born during the next two hours.
HP
Two hours later, Severus, Susan and Harry returned with several items for Amelia and the baby shrunken in their robe pockets. Susan and Harry had spent all of their pocket money that they had received but not spent during the last school year for the teddy for Felix. The teddy was light blue, however, when the baby pushed its belly, it would change its colour. It said the name 'Felix', randomly in Harry's or Susan's voice upon noticing that the baby woke up, and it played music upon noticing that the baby was in some kind of distress. They had also applied a charm that would notify the parents whenever the baby was in distress, sick or any kind of danger.
Amelia thanked them profusely and made the teddy play music, which was possible by pressing one of the paws, before she laid the toy on her stomach for Felix to hear. "Now Felix, this is your first present from your great brother and sister. You're really a lucky baby," she cooed, making Susan and Harry feel very proud.
HP
Two days later, Felix was born. While Severus spent the evening of the full moon in the hospital wing with Amelia, the headmistress kept Harry and Susan company in their living room. Even if Harry was much better off than usually during the full moon, since he had barely done any magic during the last few days, he was still sick, and Severus did not want him to be alone just with his sister, who was only a few months older than himself.
"Granny Minerva," Harry spoke up, pensively. "I've already spoken with Dad about this and he said there was nothing we could do about it, but do you perhaps have an idea how we could help Draco? His father wants him to attend Hogwarts, but Draco wants to remain here." He gave the headmistress a pleading look.
The old witch let out a long sigh. "I've heard about it, and I'm very sorry for Draco, but your father is right," she said, sounding sorry about the matter. "There's nothing that we can do about it, because Mr. Malfoy is his father and guardian. Even if Draco ran away from Hogwarts, we wouldn't be able to keep him here, as his father could accuse us of child abduction," she added.
"Okay," Harry said in understanding, feeling very sad for his friend.
"If he continues being a Death Eater, he'll perhaps end up in Azkaban sooner or later," Susan threw in. "Then Draco would be able to come back. He once said that his mother didn't mind him attending our school."
McGonagall was unable to hide a grin. "Let's hope that he'll have to go to Azkaban very soon," she said, smiling, just when Severus strode into the room.
"You may come now," he told the children, casting Harry a concerned look, before he thanked the headmistress for looking after the children.
"It was a pleasure," Minerva replied, smiling. "By the way, congratulations, Severus."
HP
Felix was just cute. He was the spitting image of his father with black hair and onyx eyes, and Susan and Harry very hesitantly took turns holding the little tyke for a short while, before he began to whimper and was given back to his mother to be fed.
During the following two months of the holidays, Susan and Harry felt very big when they helped Amelia change Felix' nappy and bathe him. They also cuddled with the baby and read him stories from the many baby books that he had received from their parents' colleagues.
At first, Amelia was very hesitant about letting Barkymort near the baby, however, once, when they woke up in the morning, Barkymort was lying in the baby's cot next to Felix, and they were peacefully asleep, cuddled against each other. Ever since then, the protective mother did not mind Barkymort near Felix, especially after witnessing how careful the dog was to not harm the baby.
'I can't wait until he's big enough to walk,' Harry thought one day. 'Then we can take him with us to the common room or even into the tree house.'
HP
It was on Harry's eleventh birthday, two weeks away from the next full moon, that Harry suddenly felt a sharp pain in his scar, which lasted for about two minutes, before he lost consciousness.
One thousand miles in the North...
Albus Dumbledore was standing in the Transfiguration professor's office at Hogwarts, gently stroking Fakwes' head feathers.
"I hope the spell worked," he said, sighing in exasperation. "I also hope that it didn't overly harm Harry. I wouldn't want to ruin his birthday party. Oh well, Fawkes, I believe that it's time for me to retire from Hogwarts. Don't you think so?"
#I fully agree, old chick,# Fawkes replied, fluffing his feathers. #I can imagine much nicer nests than this one turned out to become. There are too many bad eggs in here nowadays.#
Dumbledore nodded his agreement. Pulling a parchment and a quill out of his drawer, he wrote his note of retirement addressed to the current headmaster of Hogwarts, before he called Twinkle, his personal house-elf.
"Twinkle, from today onwards, we're going to reside at Dumbledore Manor," he informed the elf. "Please gather some of the elves from Dumbledore Manor and take all my personal belongings to the Manor, before you take this letter to the headmaster," he instructed the elf, who had already been his elf for a very long time and was able to understand him without many explanations.
Leaving the library book, from which he had cast one of the most important spells that he had ever cast in his life a few minutes earlier, open on his desk, he held out his arm to Fawkes, who landed on his arm, before he flashed away instantly.
It was a few hours later, when he was sitting in his favourite armchair at Dumbledore Manor, Fawkes perched on his knee, that he witnessed the following conversation through his portrait in the headmaster's office at Hogwarts and the one in his Manor.
Lucius Malfoy leaned into the fireplace. "Bella, I need you here now," he shouted.
An instant later, Bellatrix Lestrange stepped through the fireplace. "Bella, I need you as the new Transfiguration professor from September onwards. The old coot has left," Malfoy informed her, seemingly happy.
"All right," Bellatrix cooed. "I can move in immediately. Are the office and the quarters empty?"
"Husky," Lucius called his house-elf. "Check the office and the rooms for the Transfiguration professor."
"Yes Master Lucius," the elf replied, bowing deeply, before he vanished and popped in again, handing his master a book.
"Master Lucius, this book was open on the desk in the office," he informed the headmaster, before he was dismissed and popped away.
"Maybe it wasn't wise to let him in on what I've done," Albus said to his portrait in concern. However, it was too late to change anything now.
"Bella," Lucius spoke up, thoughtfully, after studying the spell for an instant. "We need to speed up. We can't wait until Halloween."
"All right, Lucius. I'm in," Bella promised.
'Oh no,' Albus thought, feeling extremely annoyed at the whole situation. 'Oh well, I can only wait and see. Thank Merlin for my portrait in the headmaster's office and that Lucius is too stupid to turn it around before having his Death Eater meetings.'
With that, he turned away from his portrait and headed to the library to do some research.
tbc...
A huge thanks to the few but kind people who commented on the previous chapter!