After Hogwarts

Chapter 9

Everything had settled down after the holidays, the powers that be in the DMLE, also known as Kingsley, decided that it would be a good idea to have a few of the older aurors come in for an update in training and a review of procedures. The new training facility, the old Malfoy Manor, would be used and since it had time compression wards on it then it would be no problem to do the updates in one day. Kingsley sent out a notice stating that select aurors were to report to headquarters on the 18th of January for an all day class starting at 7am. There were a few complaints about coming in on days off and such, but mostly nobody wanted to spend all day in class.

Meanwhile at Peaks, Lizzy was returning to her school also. She had really enjoyed the Christmas break, especially the weddings, but was ready for classes to start back. On her first night back Lizzy laid in her bed thinking about what all had happened and what she had seen over the holidays. Luna taking her to see real dragons had been the highlight of the time. Charlie Weasley had even been able to get a few of the younger dragons to "pose" in a picture with her, just wait until she showed those pictures to her friends.

FLASHBACK

Harry and Hermione had just left on their honeymoon when Lizzy turned to Luna and asked how they were going to get Charlie Weasley to take them to the reserve. Luna said the hardest part would be doing it without the other Weasleys boys tagging along. It turned out that all the Weasley boys except Charlie were out when the two got to the Burrow. Luna cornered Charlie and convinced him that taking Lizzy to see the dragons was a good thing. Charlie finally gave in and said they would leave from Hogwarts the next morning at 8am.

The next morning the two girls were ready and waiting when Charlie arrived. After warning the two again that these were wild creatures the threesome port-keyed to the reserve, arriving inside the small cottage that Charlie stayed in. Charlie got one of the elves to ask if the dragons would allow Harry's friends to visit, the elf returned and said that the leader seemed okay with them visiting. The first dragon that Lizzy met was the Ridgeback that was the alpha male of the reserve, boy was he big. The next thing Lizzy knew she was "attacked" from behind by a baby dragon, it only came up to her shoulder, as it tried to rub it's head against her and then Luna. It was at this time that Lizzy found out she could hear dragons, as she "heard" the big male get on to the baby and cautioning it to be careful and not hurt the girls.

When Lizzy mentioned hearing and understanding the dragons Charlie was amazed, but given she was related to Harry that might not be so surprising. After all that ability ran in Harry's family, so why not in this branch of the family. Luna just had a dreamy look on her face as Lizzy explained what she had "heard" and said the baby was harder to understand since his vocabulary wasn't as well developed yet.

"Charlie, the big male said he might know a way you could gain the same ability; but it is very dangerous. You would have to have a small amount of dragon blood injected into your. The danger is that he isn't sure which dragon you might be acceptable to having the blood from. If you try with the wrong blood then it would kill you as it would burn out you magic and act like a poison. Also it would have to be a very young dragon since their magic grows stronger as they age and the stronger the magic the greater the danger" Lizzy explained as Charlie and Luna just stood there with their mouths open.

It was decided that with the help of the male, Charlie would obtain blood from all of the smallest dragons and carefully mix it with a sample of his own blood to see the reaction. But that wouldn't be happening today as Lizzy wanted to see as many of the dragons as she could. The threesome had seen many different dragons and she had even been able to get pictures of a few of the babies and their mothers. The three had spent all day at the reserve and by the time they left Lizzy was ready for a nap, Luna wasn't far behind in that idea either. The three had decided that Lizzy should keep her new talent a secret, and also the idea about mixing dragon blood with human blood, until cleared with Harry and Hermione.

End Flashback

When Lizzy went to do her morning routine the next day she was surprised to see Cathy in the gym too. Cathy was usually still asleep at that time of the day. After her warmup Lizzy did her laps then was on her way to shower when Cathy came up and asked if Lizzy had had a good break, Lizzy said she had a wonderful break and if Cathy would come later that night she had some pictures to show her. The first day back in classes were mostly review so to get the students back in the habit of being in school again. It was during lunch that Lizzy approached the instructor of Magical Creatures and asked if he would help her identify some pictures she had.

"Mr. Applebumm, over the Christmas holidays I was able to visit an animal reserve and take a few pictures but I wasn't paying attention to closely and now I can't remember what each of these are. Would you help me label each of these so when I show my friends I can tell them what they are?" Lizzy asked as she brought out the pictures of the dragons.

When the instructor saw the pictures he became angry and accused Lizzy of trying to play a trick on him by showing pictures of fake dragons. Lizzy tried to tell him they weren't fake, but he refused to listen and said nobody would allow a child anywhere near a dragon unless it was dead as they were too dangerous. The instructor took points from Lizzy and said he would speak with her Head of House about her as he stomped off.

That night when Cathy came by Lizzy was down in the dumps about losing the points. When Cathy asked why Lizzy was so sad Lizzy told her and showed her the pictures she had shown Mr. Applebumm. Cathy was amazed when she saw the pictures, she knew that Lizzy wasn't the one to play tricks or pranks on teachers. When Cathy saw some of the pictures of the weddings she said she hoped if she ever got married she had as nice a wedding as Hermione's. That thought brightened Lizzy's mood quite a bit.

It was the next morning that Lizzy's Head of House came by and asked Lizzy to explain why Mr. Applebumm had taken points from Lizzy since she wasn't one of the students in that class. Lizzy explained that she had asked the instructor to help her identify some of the pictures she had so when she showed her friends she could tell them apart. When her Head saw the pictures of the dragons he too thought they were fake at first. But one of the pictures from the wedding showed Charlie standing beside Bill Weasley and the Head recognized Bill, that with Charlie in a few of the pictures with the dragons made him realize that these were real dragons. When the Headmistress heard about the reason for the point loss she asked if Mr. Applebumm had asked for verification of the pictures and he repeated his objection that no adult in their right mind would allow a child anywhere near a dragon. Alana told him that she had seen a couple of these dragons while at Hogwarts and that if the pictures showed Charlie Weasley then they were real dragons. The points taken were replaced and Lizzy was asked if it might be possible to have a dragon or two come visit Peaks, Lizzy said she could ask sending Charlie a letter to him at Hogwarts.

A couple of weeks later Lizzy was surprised at breakfast by her head of house, Alana, and Mr. Applebumm. Mr. Applebumm apologize for his reaction to the pictures, and Lizzy accepted; next Alana said she had a surprise for Lizzy and asked that all three follow her to her office. When the foursome arrived Lizzy was surprised to see Charlie Weasley there waiting in the office. After all the introductions were made, and Lizzy got a hug from Charlie, Alana said that Prof. Weasley had an announcement to make.

"After I received Lizzy's letter asking if it might be possible to have a few dragons visit her school, I spoke with Lizzy's family at Hogwarts – Harry and Hermione Potter – plus our own Headmistress, Minerva McGonagall, and it was decided that this might be a good chance to offer an exchange program between the two schools. It would be difficult to transport even juvenile dragons from England to this location, not to mention adult dragons. So, what we offer is to provide portkeys for some of your more senior students to visit Hogwarts the next time we have dragons visit there. The problem is that only happens once a year, usually, and has already been done this school year. Then the question was asked 'What does Peaks have that Hogwarts doesn't?', the answer as far as magical creatures goes is 'not much', in fact as to live creatures much less than Hogwarts has. That didn't seem right so, if you can provide the correct environments we will offer mating pairs of a few creatures to be housed at Peaks. For this to be successful we extend an invitation to Mr. Applebumm to visit Hogwarts and help select the animals, of course while there I might be able to introduce a few live dragons to him.

"Now, what would Peaks offer in return? What does this school have that Hogwarts doesn't? The answer, Peaks has people who know a lot about elemental magic. People who could help Hogwarts start instructing about that type of magic, not necessarily how to use it as much as what it is and how it works in every day life. Right now Harry is the only one who even comes close to being able to explain elemental magic on a level that the students understand; Hermione, bless her, knows more but has a hard time getting that knowledge across to students. It really should be either Harry or Hermione here doing this but since it was a magical creature that sparked this idea I was sent. Before I forget I want to thank Lizzy for her help just before she returned here. Lizzy your help was very timely, the experiment was a success, in fact your 'little' friend was the solution. One cc of his blood was the answer to the question. But the experiment needs to be kept a secret for the time being, the world isn't ready for that to be known yet – at least not until it has been evaluated more as to long term effects on the subject." Charlie explained.

Alana then handed Mr. Applebumm a small wooden box that contained several vials of a silvery substance. Each vial was labeled with the name of a different type dragon or creature. "Edgar, you will need a pensive to use these, they are copies of pensive memories for use in your class. I would suggest you obtain a solicitor pensive for use in class so the whole class can experience these, after you review them of course", Alana explained.

Lizzy and Charlie got to spend a couple of hours together after the meeting and brought each other up to date on what was going on. Charlie showed Lizzy recent pictures of her "little" friend and told her the dragon seemed to be a regular ham as whenever it saw a camera it wanted to be in the picture. "What do you say when a six foot high dragon demands something?", Charlie asked; both of them had a laugh at that. Charlie also had a couple of letters for Lizzy from Harry and Hermione that he gave to her.

Just as Lizzy and Charlie were finishing lunch Mr. Applebumm came over and asked if there was any way Charlie could give a guest lesson to the Magical Creatures classes before he went back to Hogwarts. Charlie said he could stay over night but he really had to leave the next day as he had work to do at the reserve. After the evening meal Alana stood and told the school that they were to have a special extra class for those in Magical Creatures, but everyone was welcome to stay and listen.

Charlie was slightly surprised when almost the whole school stayed for the lesson, the only ones not there he was later told were the nurse and three students who were in the hospital. Alana had obtained a special pensive so that Charlie could show the students his memories of some of the creatures he had worked with, especially the dragons. Mr. Applebumm had to be revived when Charlie showed a memory of the acromantula, and several of the students laughed at him. The highlight of the evening, at least for Lizzy, was when Charlie showed a few of his memories from the past Christmas break that showed Lizzy interacting with dragons. The kids around Lizzy looked at her with awe and a few decided that it might be a good idea to tread lightly around anyone who played with dragons – even baby dragons. Charlie explained that the use of memories was the safest way to observe dragons, at least for young students. When Charlie mentioned that there were a few openings for the coming summer for sixth year students to work with a few dragons there was much excitement in the room, Charlie promised to send applications to Alana along with the requirements.

As Lizzy was heading back to her room that night she was stopped by her ex-roommate, Ms. Abernathy. "I guess you feel so superior now, how much did it cost to get that loser to lie for you?" was the first thing out of Abernathy's mouth. Lizzy tried to tell her that Charlie wasn't a loser and that she hadn't paid anyone to lie. When Ms. Abernathy tried to pull her wand Lizzy put to use some of the skills she had been taught in the martial arts sessions and the other girl found herself on the floor, minus her wand. The noise of the disturbance drew the attention of several of the senior students, including Cathy. It was decided that this would be referred to the head of house since two other girls had seen Ms. Abernathy try to draw her wand first.

When the head of house heard all the statements he said this was a matter for the headmistress and the three of them would be meeting with her the next morning after breakfast. Ms. Abernathy was confined to her room and her wand was kept by the head of house. The next morning the hall was awaken by a scream, it was soon determined that the scream came from Ms. Abernathy's room. When one of the senior girls got there she found the student scratching furiously and that Ms. Abernathy had boils all over her face, and else where. After a quick trip to the nurse it was determined that Ms. Abernathy had fleas as well as boils all over her body. Lizzy was accused but an exam of the room door showed nobody had been in the room since 11pm the night before and there was no sign of any attempt to override the lock until the senior girl entered that morning.

Charlie had breakfast with Lizzy and a few of her friends before he had to leave to go back to the reserve. Following Charlie's departure Lizzy was escorted to see Alana by her head of house, Ms. Abernathy was already in the room when they arrived. Alana listened to both sides of the story from the night before and then listened to the report from the head of house.

"Ms. Abernathy, this is the third time you have accosted Ms. Potter and the second time that witnesses were present. I would be very interested in hearing your explanation and any reason I should not expel you here and now." Alana said.

Ms. Abernathy tried to say she was attacked first and was only trying to defend herself so she shouldn't be expelled. Alana just shook her head and told her to try again, just as she cast a truth spell. Unable to lie the young girl admitted she was jealous of Lizzy and her academic achievements.

"Ms. Abernathy I told you at the start of the year if you attacked Ms. Potter again you would be expelled, well I'm going to allow you to remain until the end of the year but all privileges are revoked and you are to serve detention every night for a month. I would take points but I see no reason your house should suffer because of your attitude and actions against another member of your house. But, if you are involved in another incident you will leave these grounds immediately and never return. Either your head of house or myself will take custody of your wand and it will only be available for the classes it is needed in, and all wand homework will be done under supervision of a senior student or you house head." Alana explained.

"Ms. Potter, I once again congratulate you on your actions in dealing with these attacks. Each time, since the first, you only responded with minimal force to defend yourself. If Ms. Abernathy spent as much time as you seem to studying her grades would be much better and her jealousy might be less. I also want to thank you for being instrumental in getting Mr. Weasley to come here and give that extra lesson in Magical Creatures, even I learned something new last night from him. Now I suggest you both get to class here are passes for your instructors", Alana finished.

A/N: I'm back and the Christmas break is over for our little group. What's next for our group? I don't even have an idea yet but something will happen, of that you can be sure.

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