Chapter Sixteen: Announcements and Answers

"Attention! Attention!" Verdona sighed, having failed to garner the students' attention. She whipped out her wand, her grandchildren had convinced her to get one if only for symbolism of it, and said, "Sonorus" while pointing it at her voice box. Magic with a wand was so much more convenient actually. It wasn't so taxing.

"Attention please!" The students stopped talking and turned to the strange old woman.

She smiled, "Thank you. As you may have noticed there have been some staff changes—"

"Where's Dumbledore?!" someone shouted.

Verdona halted, "Um…do you want a lie or the truth?"

"We want the truth please." A girl replied and there was the sound of general agreement.

"Alright. Albus Dumbledore has been arrested by the Plumbers and charged with several crimes relating to the back-story of Harry Potter. Because this is an ongoing investigation I, or any of the staff, am not allowed to talk about it."

There had been several gasps of shock, a few kids were crying, but most were too stunned to talk.

"I," Verdona continued, "have been asked to become the new Headmistress…My name is Verdona. For right now I am going to be reviewing everything about this school. In the Muggle World it is the twenty-first century, in here it seems to be the…eighteenth, tops. This school has been running at subpar and deplorable standards for far too long. There will be changes, big ones, and we may lose and gain a few things, people. But I promise you, I promise you this. Hogwarts will be the finest school for magic in Europe once more. Now, my door is always open and I'm looking for any suggestions…But I'm not going to kick out the Muggle-borns or the Slytherins, I am not going to bring back corporal punishment, and I am not going to get rid of this Quidditch sport of yours…Enjoy your meals…Quietus." She left her podium and returned to her seat at the staff table, observing the students.

"Harry," Gwen said lowly, "you have to eat…"

"I didn't mean to get you all upset…" he mumbled.

"We're not mad." Hermione told him.

"You arrested Dumbledore and Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon!"

"Because what they did to you was very bad," Ben explained easily.

"Yeah, nobody should beat on a kid," Kevin added, "and nobody should let it happen. Dumbledore knew they were hurting you and let them hurt you…"

"That's why we got mad—" Fred said.

"At them, not you." George finished.

"You did nothing wrong." Ginny said softly, "We're not mad with you."

"So eat."

Mollified by the explanations given, the truth, Harry tucked into his dinner with gusto.

(He was such a skinny boy, due no doubt to a combination of genes and malnutrition, but mostly malnutrition, they were hoping that they could make up the lost nutrients from his real childhood with a proper diet and living environment from this second albeit short one.)

He was then fed desert. After dinner they went back up to Gryffindor where he was indulged his every whim. This turned out to be only the wish to be held.

"What's the matter Harry?" Gwen asked softly, gently.

"I've got no family," he mumbled, "Nobody but Aunt and Uncle and Dudley…And they're gone too now right? They hated me but we were family…"

"Ya know, there're different kinds of families."

"Really?" Harry looked up bemusedly and a bit hopefully.

"Oh yeah, first off not everyone has two parents…"

"Like when people get divorced…a lot of kids at my school have parents divorcing…"

She smiled; for six years old he was pretty smart, "Yep. But sometimes one parent or the other dies…or just leaves…"

"Why would they leave on their own?" that got Harry bit angry.

She frowned, "Because sometimes it's what's best for the kid and remaining parent, sometimes they're scared of being a mom or a dad. Sometimes they just don't care about their family…"

"But there're other families right?" Harry said quickly, sensing a trouble bothering Gwen.

"Wha—Oh! Yes, yes, well there're girls who like girls and boys who like boys right?"

"Yeah…Uncle Vernon says they're going to hell for being fa—" she clapped a hand over his mouth, saying hurriedly, "Well he's wrong, very wrong. And that last word's a very bad word, a very mean word. If I ever hear you say it I'll wash your mouth out with soap, got it?"

"Yes Gwen."

She relaxed, "Okay, so girls can like girls and boys can like boys…so sometimes they love each other so much that they want to share that love with a kid…"

"But girls can't have babies with girls and boys can't have babies with boys!"

"Right. So they adopt. Do you know what that means?"

"Like what you and Kevin did with me and Draco? Gave us a home…"

"Exactly. They adopt kids that don't have homes…And then we get the families without shared blood…"

"What do you mean?"

"Well you have families like the Weasleys and the Diggorys, the Tennysons…we share blood right? The same DNA…But then there're people who don't share blood but consider each other family…"

"Why?"

"Usually it's because they're such good friends, would do whatever it takes to help each other, who would sacrifice their own life to save that of their friends. That is the family you have…can you list them?"

"There's you and Kevin, the mum and dad, Julie and Ben, aunt and uncle, Draco, brother, Grandmas Verdona and Jen, Grandpas Max and Frank, Aunt Sandra, Uncle Carl, Uncle Ken, the Weasleys, aunts and uncles, or are they cousins, Cedric, uncle, his dad, uncle, Mione, aunt, and Luna, aunt…" he ticked off on his fingers, having to double and then sometimes triple count fingers.

"Don't forget everyone in Hufflepuff and Gryffindor…" Gwen added brightly, "So, do you really have no family, none at all?"

"I have lots of family!" Harry exclaimed happily, eyes bright once again. He wasn't alone!

"Right." She nodded, happy that a small crisis was averted.

Harry was about to continue his train of thought when Draco landed in Gwen's lap beside him. His hair was bright, bright, bright pink. Flamingo pink really. The boy wasn't quite sobbing but he was definitely terrified of something. Or someone.

"Who colored your hair Draco?" she asked tiredly. She had a gut feeling as to whom…She'd kill them and only leave enough behind for them to assemble one body for burial.

"Lavender and Parvati!" he shook.

She blinked in shock, "Lavender and Parvati did this to you…Not Fred and George…?"

"No, Lavender and Parvati did it!"

"Right," she nodded, saying as she stood up and set the boys into the chair, "Hey Mione! Can you reverse hair coloring?"

The girl looked up from her homework pile, "Of course."

"Can you fix Draco's hair while I go kill a couple of fourth years?"

"Sure…?"

"Thanks…" with that the angry redhead stalked up into the girls' dormitories, drawing her wand, rolling up her sleeves, and contemplating the various hexes she knew and whether or not the incident would be worth the points lost and the detentions assigned. It was so worth it.

Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil were sent to the Hospital Wing that night, cursed to speak in a language no human, non-Plumber human anyways, could understand, covered head-to-toe in rainbow fur and angry cussing boils, and with their memories of who cursed them modified to only reveal a ghostly image of someone they had never even met (Charmcaster).

McGonagall had checked the wands of every Gryffindor but did not find the culprit.

"How did you do that?" Hermione demanded of Gwen, knowing that she was behind the hexing but confused as to why her wand came up clean.

Gwen let out a smirk, saying, "Spell my grandmother invented, gives a wand a clean slate. No record of any spell cast before the wiping…" she leaned over and whispered the incantation to the brainy brunette. Hermione nodded, memorizing the words. "The spell itself will come up only as a simple benign charm," Gwen added softly, "but you can't teach it to anyone…if it fell into the wrong hands…"

Hermione paled, "Right. Okay. I'll never teach it to anyone…"

"Good."