Chapter eleven

Harry got smiles from all the staff as they stepped into the room, but he noticed Severus Snape hesitated when he saw Harry sitting behind the headmaster's desk.

'You can't be serious.'

'If you are referring to me Severus, yes, I am the new headmaster. We can get to your objections soon if you wish, but for now let's start this meeting,' Harry snapped his fingers and a house elf appeared with a tray of tea cups, a tea pot, milk jug, biscuits and sandwiches, 'Help yourselves then we can get started.'

'I would like to ask Severus if you ever read the original book, Hogwarts: a history?' Minerva asked.

'I skimmed it.'

'Then you might know that the four founders came up with a way to choose who should be head of this school. Harry was chosen, so he is the rightful person to be headmaster.'

'I always felt a connection to this place from my very first day here and that has only become stronger over the years. Even with everything that has happened here, all the danger, my feelings for Hogwarts has never changed. But we can still discuss that soon if you wish,' Harry smiled at Minerva as she handed him a cup of tea, 'Okay, first, when I was with the minister at the department of mysteries the other day I was shown the magical worlds version of a computer. The minister ordered fifty for Hogwarts which will arrive in two days. Now Irma, I know you are not sure about having these in your library, but I can assure you that these machines will not take your place. They will, on the other hand keep all those wonderful old books from being handled so much or in some cases, being destroyed.'

'So they won't take my place?'

'No, the library is yours and always will be. This will just make it easier for students to access information, like when one student has a book another student needs, then the computer will come in handy. Naturally there will be one computer set aside for the restricted section and a spell from you will activate it for the required aged students. If you think about it, some students have accessed those books when they were too young, now they will not be able to without your permission and of course a permission form signed by a teacher.'

'Some students fooled me with forged forms, so is there a way we can make sure the form I am given is from the actual staff?'

'I'm sure we can work on something Irma, give Harry and I a few days and we'll let you know. But Harry, when you mentioned students too young, are you referring to yourself and your friends?'

Harry chuckled, 'Twice, first year using my cloak I snuck into the restricted section. I was trying to find out who Nicholas Flamel was. In my second year, Hermione got a signed permission form from Lockhart, we needed to make polyjuice potion to get into the Slytherin rooms to question Malfoy. We didn't read many of the books, just a few that we thought would help.'

'All those rules you broke,' Minerva smirked.

'With good reason,' Harry chuckled, 'But seriously, those books are not meant for eleven and twelve year olds. Now the department of mysteries is sending someone with the computers to set them up and explain how they work. I want the whole staff in there at the time so they can understand. Even though I did use muggle computers, these are different, but they are also very simple, a lot simpler than muggle ones. You use your wand and speak, it's that simple. They come with an orb which is for scanning the books. Now so you don't get upset Irma, the orb just sits on the book cover, that's it, and it takes about a minute for the orb to transfer the whole book into the computer. All the computers are linked so the information can be accessed by each one even at the same time.'

'It sounds so…modern,' Pomona said.

'That is what we need Pomona, so many students now are involved in the muggle world in one form or another, we need to keep up,' Minerva said.

'It's like me, Hermione, Seamus, Dean, Dennis, so many of us were brought up in muggle homes. Now I love the magical world and we do need to keep most of our traditions, but there are some things from the muggle world that my friends and I all want to incorporate into our everyday lives. Let me explain this as well, Hermione said that her home would be muggle, not magical, which means she would not be able to use magic in her home. Now she even said that there could be a chance that working in the muggle world might suit her more because of how much easier some things are. She loves to work, you've all seen that yourselves, but say you want to research everything there is on the castle, she would need to sit and go through book after book, along with talking to the portraits and maybe even some retired teachers. Using a muggle computer means she would have the information within seconds, right there in front of her.

'If we don't listen to people like that then they will leave and we can't afford that to happen. I was originally going to have a home built and make it a muggle home so I could have certain things. I did not want to give up my magical heritage, I did not want to work in the muggle world, but there are a lot of things in the muggle world that are actually better. We don't need to change too much, just give the young people the choice of using magical equipment that derived from the muggle world or use stuff from the wizarding world that is from centuries ago. The ministry is also going to be outfitted with these computers.

'Another example, but it is a choice, a pen over a quill. So many times my inkwell spilt over my homework and I had to start all over again. I do like using quills but during times like homework, tests, anywhere you don't want any little mistake, then pens are better. Remus told me once that he preferred a pen after the wolf nights because his hands were very sore for a few days and pens are easier to hold. You don't need to refill them, and you can get ones designed for people who have injuries or something wrong with their hands. There is no need to sharpen them, nor do you need to buy ink as the ink is inside the pen. All were doing here is just changing enough so the young people stay part of the magical world and not give up their magical heritage just because they can't access certain things.

'Helga Hufflepuff had a dream that after a war that lasted years that Hogwarts ended up being deserted. We found out that some well-known prophets have seen our world dying out because the younger people preferred what the muggle world offered. So we are adapting certain things that will keep the younger people entertained that won't interfere with their magic.'

'Why is that, there has to be more to this than just the younger people want muggle gadgets?' Horace asked.

'Our world is made up of more muggle-borns and half-bloods than pure-bloods and the pure-bloods that still want to keep that line going are slowly dying out. If we don't incorporate the muggle world into ours then our world will die. As Harry said, we're not changing a lot; none of our traditions are being changed. We are magical and we are proud of that, but as Harry said, he grew up a certain way, seventy nine percent of the students that are returning are involved in the muggle world in some way and they like it. If we don't try and show them that our world can have things the students want, just a magical version of it, they will leave. Yes I was sceptical at first, but Harry has shown me or explained to me some changes and it will help us and help the students. Why don't you explain one of the changes for the staff Harry?'

'I used to see all of you go to the Three Broomsticks, sit and have a drink, enjoy your time without having to worry about which student is breaking the rules. So I had an idea and discussed it with Minerva, twice a month all the staff will have off. There is a room here set up like a night club, a bar that has everything you could want, tables, soft arm chairs, blazing fires, music using a magical version of a jukebox, there's even a dance floor if you wish to dance. All of you work hard, all of you deserve a night to yourselves, but it is up to all of you if you wish to use that room. The room of requirement is an amazing room and it helped us learn when the ministry was interfering at Hogwarts. It also saved the lives of many students when Voldemort had control. This room can become whatever you want it to, so I think it's time the staff get to use it as well.

'This is just one idea and the options that the staff can now have, have a drink with work colleagues, listen to some music or you might like to curl up in your bed with a good book. But we are doing something similar for the students, once a month where they can let their hair down, listen to music, dance, have fun and not think about homework or house points, or even teachers. Sometimes a night like that will be exactly what the student needs to rejuvenate themselves and they work better for it. Adults are the same. Kingsley spoke to me and said he loved having one night off, then the next day at work, he could concentrate better. Mr Weasley told me the same thing. He always went back to work feeling better because he had that time off.

'Now with the dance night, some students might not like that type of thing; that is again their choice. So we're trying to give the staff and students time to enjoy their lives and if you think about it, all of us here could have died that night. Don't you think now is the time to live and I mean really live. We can finally enjoy our lives and our freedom. Yes we work but that doesn't mean we can't have fun once in a while, away from the eyes of students. That way they won't see the real you when you let your hair down, so to speak,' Harry smirked at Minerva as he glanced up at her tight bun on her head making most of the staff all laugh.