Chapter 116

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Tim looked in awe at his first sight of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The Castle was beautiful and much bigger than anything he had imagined with its towers and turrets. He could see places that had to be held up with magic, there just wasn't any other possible explanation. Hadrian had brought him low over the lake by broom while Neville brought the children up by carriage so he saw it from almost the same angle as Hadrian had the first time. Of course, the empty castle in the sunshine wasn't quite as warm and welcoming as the sight of the castle against the evening sky with every window lit (even if in hindsight Hadrian realised that it had to have been an illusion, much of the castle wasn't used at all in his time there) but that couldn't be helped. The lake shining calmly underneath them and the intense green of the valley surrounded by mountains was breathtaking even after spending two weeks looking at castles and the highlands. Instead of following the path of the boats right up to the dock built into the edge of the castle, Hadrian veered off and landed on the bank where he and his friends used to sit, then called an elf who popped in carrying Teddy, followed by Neville walking across the grass carrying Rosie.

"I thought you'd like to see where I went to school and my favourite hangouts as a teenager, as well as seeing the differences between Salem and Hogwarts. Where your biological parents went to school too, Teddy. Neville's on the board for the school, he's offered to let us in so I can show you around, it will feel a little odd closed down for the summer but you'll get some idea of the place," Hadrian said.

"I'd like that," Tim said gently, hugging his husband. He knew how hard it was for Hadrian to face some of the memories of things that had happened here. And to look back and have to face how much of the support he had depended on back then had turned out to be conditional on his following their plans for his life even if those plans would make him unhappy.

Neville led them through the front entrance using his magic to open the doors. "You might want to start with Gryffindor, you'll need me to open the portrait, and then I can leave you to explore on your own a bit." he said.

"Who is here in the castle?" Hadrian asked.

"Professor McGonagall's probably up in the head suite, she rarely leaves the castle overnight since she took control of the wards. There may be some other teachers visiting and of course the groundskeeper will be somewhere around, nobody else stays all summer these days," Neville replied.

"The stair cases aren't moving, have they stopped permanently?" Hadrian asked.

"No they still move when the students are here, they absorb the ambient magic from the hallways so if you started casting spells they'd soon start again but I wouldn't recommend it unless you want McGonagall to investigate," Neville replied.

"You mean they normally move like escalators, how do they know what direction to move?" Teddy asked.

Neville looked a little confused, while he had spent time in the muggle world none of it had been in large department stores or shopping complexes. Hadrian chuckled, "No not like escalators, do you see how all four corners seem to have a landing sticking out on each floor even where there are no stairs connected? The staircases swing around from one landing to another, sometimes the top of the stairs and sometimes the bottom, randomly," Hadrian replied.

"If they really like you, they will move to help you but if they don't approve of what you're doing they might swing away to make getting where you're going more difficult, but most of the time they seem to be moving randomly. They were a great help to us in my seventh year, adding to the rumours that the castle is sentient, but it made it awfully hard to learn how to get to classes on time in first year," Neville added, casting a couple of cleaning charms at the staircase they were on to make it move.

"It doesn't help that the classrooms are attached to the professor's offices and their private quarters and I think each professor originally got to choose their classrooms so classes are spread out all over the castle, potions in the dungeons, all the way up to Divination on the ninth floor in spite of the fact that a lot of the space isn't used anymore. The school must have been much larger at some point," Hadrian said.

"The school was a sanctuary for magical folk during the witch burnings, whole families used to live in the castle," Neville said.

"I never knew that. I'm surprised Hermione didn't mention it," Hadrian said.

"I'm not it wasn't in the more recent editions of 'Hogwarts: A History' the editors a couple of hundred years ago removed it because they didn't like the idea of witches and wizards hiding from muggles in fear. They like to pretend that the statute is because we are so superior to muggles," Neville said.

Hadrian laughed.

"One thing for sure, the stairs would keep the students fit," Tim commented.

"I'm glad I don't have to climb all these stairs every day," Teddy said. "Where are we going?"

"You get used to the stairs, we hardly noticed them after the first few weeks and it's just as well they were there to make us do some exercise there is no PE classes and other than the four house quidditch teams no organised sports. There were always some pick up games but less than a quarter of the students played. We are currently heading up to the Gryffindor common room and dormitories where I used to live when I was at school," Hadrian said. "The school is sorted into four houses and each student lives in the dormitory and attends classes with their house. Some classes are shared with another house and the senior classes have students from all four houses but it did limit who you really got to know and hung out with. The houses all have their own Quidditch team and as well as the Quidditch cup they compete for house points which can be earned by answering questions in class or extraordinary good behaviour and lost for breaking rules or fighting or not handing in work or being late to class. A way of using peer pressure to encourage good behaviour."

"Did it work?" Tim asked incredulously.

"For some, yes. You'd certainly be ostracised if you lost enough points but I think the people who took it most seriously were the one's who would've followed the rules anyway. It never seemed to stop Harry," Neville replied.

The Fat Lady greeted Harry like an overenthusiastic fangirl, making Tim and Neville laugh. Neville introduced Tim, Teddy and Rosie to the portrait and gave her the password, she swung open and they climbed through the hole to see a large comfy room cluttered with couches chairs and the odd table for studying. The room was cool in spite of the warmth of the day but Tim could see several large fireplaces along the walls.

"Were the fires lit all the time the students are here?" Tim asked.

"Not during the day during the warmer months but it was a rare evening that didn't have at least one of them lit. Our uniforms had multiple layers even in the summer," Hadrian replied. "There are also coal stoves heating each of the dormitories and the bathrooms which were lit most nights even in the summer term."

"Why don't they use the climate control wards you have on our home?" Tim asked.

"You know, I have no idea. There's plenty of ambient magic here and the school doesn't care about muggle raised children not being able to use their electronic gadgets so there's no reason not to, they probably do have some climate control because these fireplaces wouldn't be enough to warm this whole space in the dead of winter and I don't remember it ever being cold," Hadrian said thoughtfully.

"Our room was up this way," Hadrian said leading the way and peeping into every room, leading them into one with five beds. "We were on the level above this but there were five of us so this is what it looked like. This was my bed and Neville was over there, Ron had this one next to me and you haven't met Dean and Seamus who had the other two beds. I can't believe I never asked you what they're doing now, do you ever see them?" he asked Neville.

"Seamus married a girl from back home who went to the Irish school of magic and they run a pub in Ireland so I rarely see him but he's doing well, and Dean works in one of the shops on Diagon Alley, he also does some paintings which his boss lets him sell in the shop, they're quite good. We stop for a cuppa or a pint occasionally if we meet in the street and neither of us is in a hurry but not often. He'd probably like it if you caught up with him though," Neville told Hadrian.

"Does he do magical portraits?" Hadrian asked.

"I don't know, he might take commissions, I've never asked him. Most of the paintings I've seen for sale are views of the castle or magical animals, they move but can't leave the frames," Neville replied. "Magical portraits are only really popular with people who own manor houses and have unused rooms to keep them in so they're not in your face commenting on your lifestyle and decisions all the time. There isn't a huge market for them."

Tim looked around the dorm, the beds were nice and the privacy curtains were a great idea but there really wasn't much personal space. "How many people share the common room?" he asked.

"It varied from about 60 in our first year to more than 100 in sixth year, our class was the smallest in decades and then a lot of people didn't come back for what was our seventh year because of the war," Neville replied.

"That room is huge but it's nowhere near big enough for 100 people to hang out in it, much less to spend hours everyday in," Tim commented.

"It did get a bit crowded but the room seemed to grow when there's more of us, there was always a spare table or set of chairs when you wanted one. Lots of people study in the library before curfew and on their beds in the evenings and we all pretty much clear out if it's sunny, there's also lots of empty classrooms if you want to get together in a group to study or practice or play games or just to meet with someone privately, and after curfew there'd be people hanging out up in the dorms," Hadrian said.

"That must have been a nightmare to try to supervise everybody," Tim commented.

Hadrian and Neville looked at each other but didn't say anything. It would've been a nightmare for anyone trying to supervise the students properly but nobody even seemed to try when they were students.

"Maybe that's why they don't use environmental control wards, they believe that the cold makes couples less likely to strip off in broom closets and unused classrooms," Hadrian suggested.

"Anyone who believes that has never been a teenager," Tim scoffed.

"Or was a teenager more than 100 years ago, like the headmaster," Hadrian replied.

Teddy wasn't impressed with the dorms or the shared bathrooms. Hadrian took them up to the room of requirement. "I don't know how well it works since the fire but this was the most magical room I've ever seen, it can become just about anything you can imagine, you walk up and down three times like this thinking of what you need the room to be. He made the room into a copy of their lounge at home and then into the balcony at their house in Hawaii. It looked real but the children soon found that they couldn't leave the balcony unless Hadrian came with them and then they couldn't return to it without him either. The beach looked and felt real, it even smelled and sounded like the sea but there were no birds or insects around and the rock pools were empty of wild life.

"I wish I'd known it could do all this while we were at school, we should have experimented with it more," Hadrian said.

"Me too, we found it did a lot of things in seventh year to protect us, opening doors into corridors all over the castle and of course the tunnel to Aberforth's but we never really experimented with it just for fun. It would've been good to know it would give us outdoor areas while we were hiding out in here most of the time," Neville replied.

Tim was delighted to find that he was able to command the room and used it to show Hadrian and the children several of the homes he'd grown up in and favourite spots where his father had been posted to various Naval Bases.

Hadrian showed them the library full of huge old books that smelled dusty in spite of not a speck of dust seen anywhere, and then the great hall with the enchanted ceiling where the students and staff all ate together before taking them out to see the Quidditch pitch. as they toured it became obvious that both Teddy and Rosie preferred the more normal classrooms and sports fields and play areas at Salem. Hadrian had to admit that he wasn't surprised but Neville was shocked at some of the comments the children made about the school not having separate areas for the year levels to congregate together and the science, music, art, drama and computer facilities in their own schools.

"I know you aren't planning to send them here because of the differences in educational standards and the prejudice against werewolves, but I thought they'd at least love the castle." Neville said a little sadly.

"I've told you that Nev, it's not just that the 'Salem Academy of Magic' teaches non-magical subjects as well so they can go to college and get a job in the non-magical world if that's what they want to do, they get to come home every night and the few students who do choose to board all have their own rooms with attached bathrooms. Teddy has already started learning a lot of the theory behind magic and runes and arithmancy, he won't fit in here as a first year by the time he's eleven. While Salem would let him defer for a year and try attending Hogwarts without giving up his place at Salem if he wanted to, I am glad that he doesn't, I'd rather have him home at night than attending my alma mater" Hadrian replied.

"I just have difficulty believing that the two schools could be so different," Neville said sighing. "How can Hogwarts claim to be the best school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world, if they're not prepared to keep up with the changes in schooling elsewhere. I've been butting my head up against the ministry and the board of governors for years and they won't budge. I wish some of them were here to hear your comments."

"They've been claiming that since your Gran was a student and maybe it was true back then but the whole of magical Britain has turned its back on changes in the rest of the world, magical and non-magical. I doubt any of them had even heard about the changes the Americans made to their educational system in the 1950's until you started trying to implement some of it here," Hadrian said bluntly. "I'd be happy to arrange for you to tour Salem next time you visit us so you can see the differences for yourself."

"Yeah, I think that I should if I'm to do my duty on the board of governors then I need to really see and know what needs to change to bring our standards up to the rest of the world's," Neville said.

They headed back down to Hogsmeade where Hadrian showed them Honeydukes sweet shop and Zonko's joke shop, and they had lunch in a private room at 'The Three Broomsticks' before heading home. Tim liked the old world atmosphere of the town but he couldn't see himself being content to spend hours there on a regular basis as a teenager, or it meeting all the students' needs if it was the only shopping centre they had access to during term. He didn't say so to Hadrian but it was clear to see that as a parent used to entertaining children Hadrian had also found the town lacking in amenities he normally would look for. 'Were wizarding children in Britain really so isolated that they would find enough to occupy them all day in a town this size without finding trouble? Perhaps why they were only allowed out of the school a couple of weekends per year,' Tim thought.

-o0o-

"We should try to meet with Draco in person while we're in the country," Hadrian said.

"Do you trust him enough to have him come here while the children are present?" Tim asked.

"I think that I do, we can warn the elves to pop the children to safety if he intends us any harm," Hadrian replied. "I'll invite his wife and children too. It will be good to get to know Astoria a little better and meet Scorpius."

They contacted Draco who was keen to meet the children and to introduce Harry to his own son Scorpius, and they set up plans to bring the children to meet each other. Understanding that Hadrian might not feel comfortable meeting at Malfoy Manor since he hadn't been there since being abducted by the snatchers and nearly murdered by Draco's insane Aunt Bellatrix, he even offered to meet somewhere in the nonmagical world as long as it wasn't somewhere too crowded.

Tim suggested that Draco might feel more comfortable under protection wards and suggested one of the new villages they'd visited last time they were here.

It was a lovely day so Hadrian arranged to meet them for a picnic in the park. He sent Draco apparition co-ordinates to a property that the tenant had just moved out of and warned him that the entire village was muggle, so they'd need to dress and act accordingly.

Hadrian met them in the flat while Tim took the children out to set up the picnic blanket and run of some energy.

"Hadrian I'd like you to meet my son and Heir, Scorpius Draconis Malfoy," Draco said formally.

"Hadrian Potter-Black-McGee, pleased to meet you Scorpius," Hadrian said holding out his hand.

"Hello," Scorpius said shyly.

"Do you live here?" Draco asked looking around the cosy little house in astonishment. "Where are your children?"

"No we live in another country, we have an apartment in London for when we visit, but this is an investment property. The whole village is built on property I own but the houses are rented to muggles. The new tenants for this house will move in here next week," Hadrian replied. "The kids are with Tim at the park?"

"You let this place out to muggles? What about the wards?" Draco asked.

"Muggles don't feel wards so they don't breach the statute of secrecy, even the few muggles who are sensitive will just feel a sense of peace and safety. There are wards to prevent the house being easily destroyed and to reduce wear and tear but most of them are intent wards. Anybody who means harm to anyone in the village won't want to enter the area and those that do live here will feel safe and content. The same wards have been on all the Potter rental estates for decades," Hadrian explained.

"Do we look okay for muggles?" Astoria asked.

"You look lovely Storie and perfectly appropriate for a muggle picnic," Draco said fondly.

Astoria smiled but continued to look at Hadrian questioningly. "Draco's right, the dress is a bit more formal than a lot of the other people you'll see but you look beautiful and it won't stand out as wrong, muggles wear a wide variety of fashions," he replied. "Scorpius looks fine as well."

"You told us to bring him in clothes he could play and get dirty in," Astoria said.

"Yes, it's no fun having to try to keep your clothes clean and tidy all the time, and we won't be able to spell him clean while we're at the park," Hadrian said.

He led them across to the park where his own children were happily climbing on the equipment, with Tim trying to look in all directions as he kept an eye on all three of them from where he was sitting in the toddler play area with the twins. Though he knew there were also elves invisibly keeping an eye on them he needed to be able to react to anything that happened before the elves thought the children were in danger and revealed themselves.

Hadrian introduced Scorpius to Tim and the Malfoys to the twins before calling the older children over.

"Teddy this is your cousin Draco, his wife Astoria and son Scorpius. Teddy is your Aunt Andromeda's grandson, and our oldest son, and the girls Rosie and Daisy, Rosie is the elder," Hadrian introduced.

Scorpius was shy at first and quite hesitant about the muggle play equipment but Teddy and the girls were used to that from playing with Rose Weasley and Franklin and Ellison Longbottom and soon showed him how to climb and play. He loved the swings and slide, though Draco rolled his eyes at Hadrian when he was shown how to push the swing.

Astoria watched anxiously as several muggle children came up and joined in the game the children were playing. "What if he mentions magic?" she asked.

"Don't worry. As long as none of them do any magic close enough to the adults for them to realise something out of the normal happened, the nonmagicals will just think he has an active imagination. It isn't unusual for children to pretend things they've seen on the television," Tim said.

"Soccer moms heading this way," Tim warned.

Hadrian groaned.

"What's wrong?" Astoria asked alarmed.

"Nothing dangerous. We've just found that being an unknown group of men with a large number of children who clearly don't all have a wife here with us encourages women dissatisfied with their own lives to approach us to flirt. Some of them can be quite persistent and they're usually worse in a pack. Hold Draco's hand to let them know he's taken, Astoria," Tim reassured her.

"You can't do the same?" Draco asked.

Hadrian leaned over and lay down with his head in Tim's lap. Tim immediately started carding his fingers through Hadrian's hair. Draco noted that his new position didn't prevent Hadrian from keeping a close eye on the children's game.

"That's appropriate in public?" Astoria asked.

"Yes, anything short of actually snogging, sexual petting or removing clothing will be accepted between most heterosexual couples. There are some bigots who might have a problem with it because we are both men but in general other than the bigots people are coming around to the idea that being different is okay," Hadrian replied.

Tim kept an eye on the women, "We should call the kids over for lunch before one of them decides to create a scene by pulling their children away from ours and upsets them," he suggested.

"The wards should prevent true bigots from being here but people do stupid things when they think they've been rejected," Hadrian said, sitting up and started helping Astoria unpack the lunch while Draco and Tim collected the children all ignoring the now frowning women nearby. He sighed, "I just wanted one normal picnic without any drama."

"You've always created drama wherever you go," Draco said overhearing him as he returned.

Hadrian sighed dramatically making Tim, Teddy and Draco laugh.

-o0o-

"You know that werewolf proposal is never going to go through. Why do you and Longbottom keep beating a dead hippogriff?" Draco asked.

"Because every time we bring it up in the Wizengamot the press report on how I'm helping werewolves leave the country for better lives in more tolerant parts of the world. When that happens more British people with Lycanthropy approach me and are resettled. I keep hoping that eventually someone is going to have the sense to realise that if I'm helping Werewolves leave the country because of the bigotry and discriminatory laws I'm not going to be bringing my adopted son, whose birth father was a well-known werewolf back to Britain to live," Hadrian replied. "Then when they complain that I'm depriving my children of their birthright and turn on me for rejecting my homeland I can counter with the argument that I have been campaigning for years to make this country a safe place to bring my son home to and been denied. And I'll also be able to prove that I've been proposing changes necessary to bring Hogwarts up to the standard of education my children are receiving elsewhere. It's their own fault that I haven't been able to make this country what I need it to be to feel comfortable living here. It won't convince the more stubborn idiots but hopefully it will help."

Draco laughed admiring the dark haired wizard's cunning.

"So do you actually want those changes made?" he asked.

Hadrian shrugged. "Changes to the werewolf laws won't make any difference unless they're fully embraced by the wizarding world as a whole and even if that happened I wouldn't return to this country until all my children have finished school unless radical improvements are made at Hogwarts and I really can't see either happening," he said evasively.

"How many werewolves have left Britain?" Astoria asked.

"Nearly seventy," Hadrian replied.

"The number of registered werewolves hasn't dropped that much," Draco objected.

"No because only the naïve and those that cannot avoid notice register with the ministry, and most of them don't trust the ministry enough to go in and inform them that they are leaving," Hadrian replied.

"Why wouldn't they register? Isn't it the law?" Astoria asked naively.

"Why would they, they don't gain anything by it, the ministry doesn't offer Wolvesbane potions or protections of their rights and the registry is far too easily accessed by potential employers, neighbours, healers, shopkeepers and just about anyone else you rely on to treat you fairly. Most of those I've spoken to, will tell you that life is more than twice as hard in Britain once your name is on that registry," Tim said.

"The number of werewolves leaving hasn't made Britain any safer, there are just as many people admitted to St Mungo's with werewolf bites," Draco said.

"I'm not surprised about that, the only condition I make before helping people with Lycanthropy resettle in a new country is an oath that they have never and will not deliberately bite anybody and have done and will continue to do their best not to be in a position to bite anyone accidentally either. Most of the werewolves responsible for biting witches and wizards, do so deliberately or through lack of preparation to prevent coming across other humans which would be criminal negligence in most other countries, they wouldn't qualify for my help, nor would they be accepted for emigration on their own," Hadrian said.

"So you help the werewolves who are already keeping themselves locked up on the full moon and keeping others safe. The werewolves we don't even know about and Britain is stuck with the troublemakers," Draco said. "Thanks a lot Potter."

"I'm trying to help those werewolves who don't get a fair chance for a career and family and peaceful life here, the troublemakers as you call them deserve the restrictions the ministry place on them and more, but the others deserve my help," Hadrian replied. "If the werewolves I encouraged to emigrate started causing problems in their new country then that country would stop allowing werewolves to emigrate, and would tighten their own laws which would disadvantage the werewolves already living in those countries."

-o0o-

At the next Wizengamot meeting Hadrian attended, Draco smirked when Hadrian brought up Werewolf rights, but chose not to argue for or against the petition. Instead, he'd made sure that there were new bills on the docket that the press would be able to sensationalise to ensure the maximum press coverage for the meeting.

Surprising everyone, he argued as hard as Potter, Bones and Longbottom for the Education reforms that Longbottom was proposing. When questioned by the press afterwards he reminded them that he had a young son and that no decent parent wanted their children to receive a second rate education.

A/N: Thank you to all those who reviewed followed or favourited this story for your support.

A/N2: Has anyone else noticed that sunset in Scotland on the 1st of September is 8:14pm, it wouldn't be full dark until after 10pm, which makes the scene in the first book where the students as young as eleven arrive at school in the dark, catch a boat across the lake and are then sorted before being fed their dinner before starting classes first thing next morning ridiculous? Especially as that would make the journey ten or eleven hours and there seem to be only sweets and cakes available on the train.