Summary:
Hogsland goes public.
Beta read thanks to Tanguera! Reviews are very much appreciated!
They had a stroke of luck. It was two weeks before someone in the media noticed a self-updating map had rearranged its boundaries around a small piece of Scotland, and was now labelled Hogsland. By then they had the Quibbler release an exclusive edition detailing the new Hogsland boundaries, council, contacts, immigration and trade laws. The renovations on the Shrieking Shack were largely finished when a frenzy of reporters descended upon the gates of the expanded cottage holding the Hogsland Council Offices with an attached wing for the designated Ministry of Magic consulate. Luna sighed as she watched the anti-Apparition wards bounce bodies back from landing at Hogwarts' gates to the separate entrance and waiting room of the MoM consulate. She stood patiently at the podium in front of the empty offices and two conference rooms.
"Now, if you refer to the Quibbler Hogsland Edition page two paragraph four. Apparition and access is prohibited past Hogsmeade unless you hold Hogsland citizenry, or have been personally vouched for by a permanent Hogsland citizen. Students attending Hogwarts only hold temporary citizenship for the duration of their education until they seek residency or employment." The resulting roar of redundant questions made her wonder if there wasn't a mutant infestation of Nargles that stole brains. They had spent hours with Pucey, meticulously writing the Hogsland Quibbler, which contained all the answers to their questions clearly indicating their literary skills. Another question. "Page three paragraph six." Luna watched several reporters sneak out the door to round the house.
Ginny stood at the Hogsland podium, with a security officer standing politely two steps back to her right. The wards were set to prevent wily photographers from breaking past the lobby, presumably to run up two flights of stairs to the Minister's Office on the third floor. She hoped Neville wasn't planning on making a break for it, by the tunnel in the basement back to the Whomping Willow.
"Any additional enquiries not addressed by the Hogsland edition of the Quibbler may be forwarded by post or Floo to the following addresses." As if summoned, Neville trotted along a balcony towards the elevator, but staggered back as he was momentarily blinded by the camera flashes. He quickly stepped into a random office and blinked rapidly, knowing he was staring at a taupe wall but his flash-fried eyeballs insisted on adding strange designs and colours. He heard a house-elf pop that sounded like Neefa. He felt a leathery hand cover his eye briefly.
"Missy SPEW ask me to fetch youse. She thought you would want a visit." The hand lifted and Neville breathed a sigh of relief, he wasn't permanently colour-blinded. "Missy SPEW also asked Neefa to give this." The house-elf placed a caramel into his hand, which Neville promptly popped into his mouth, then hooked a finger into the crook of his elbow to apparate them across town. He felt the calming draught kick in and upon arrival, his new Senior Undersecretary shoved a butterbeer into his hand. Blaise retook his seat at the poker table set up in Flume's office. Theo gestured at the empty chair as Flume shuffled and Snape set out chips. Neville could see the dark swarm of media on the hill, shifting at the entrances of the former Shrieking Shack. Flume dealt.
"Minister Longbottom, Blaise has informed me of your abysmal poker face. We need to remedy your affliction with haste. I speak from my experience as a successful entrepreneur, and Severus of course with his previous occupation as a spy." Blaise picked up his cards and cleared his throat before addressing Theo, clearly continuing a conversation.
"I can only think that Jonas delegated the task to someone else, the construction supply order was severely underestimated. And now -" Blaise made his bet. "Whatever order we submit has been on standby until the Ministry signs or responds to the proposed trade laws."
Below the office, Hermione was stirring a large cauldron of clear fluid. She stood beside the returned Neefa, who was squeaking out orders of the day to her grand-niece dutifully taking notes. Enormous baking mould sheets laid out on the counter in front of them, carefully spelled with uniform food colouring as Neefa had instructed by elf magic and adapted to wizard wand techniques. With a wand sweep, Hermione directed the cauldron to pour the agar gel into the moulds. After a few swishes and flicks to cool, the sheets flipped neatly. Hermione smiled at the pretty gelatin cakes. The colouring depicted a weeping willow tree by a water bank. A distractingly creative antipyretic to cool fevers, and deliver a vitamin punch warding off quick symptom return once the gelatin cake lost its immediate effects. Neefa inspected both batches carefully and huffed.
"Missy SPEW must take out extra flick, colour off. Darker. And temperature five degrees too high, good but not best wiggle." Hermione quickly made notes in her spelled private recipe book.
"And the effects? How do you think they differ?"
"Taste same. Feel same. More heat and won't keep shape. Missy SPEW test acid please."
Hermione used her ph meter to measure Neefa's control batch then her own.
"Hmm, yes there is pH drift from overheating as well. Thank you Neefa, I think another two batches will perfect the technique."
"Good. Neefa has list Missy SPEW requested of house-elves." Neefa's grand-niece dutifully placed a thick scroll into Hermione's hastily wiped hands. The gryffindor's eyes flitted over the summarized number of elves categorized by specialty, all of them displaced or abandoned after their masters or households were destroyed. Neefa had broached the concern haltingly, but after much coaxing Hermione and Blaise had discovered that there was no actual oversight being provided by the department supposedly responsible. Hermione switched books, and magicked the scroll into her planner.
"Do you think Winky would be amenable in offering employment to all of them?" Neefa nodded gravely.
"Winky knows pain of being freed. Neefa also has map." Hermione finished her notes, while Neefa's grand-niece also wrote on her clipboard before stepping forward with another scroll. Hermione studied the magical map marking coloured dots throughout the forest. "Many trees dying, bowtruckles need new homes. If not cleaned, forest will burn." Hermione shifted and uncovered the legend in the corner identifying the most dangerous to needing monitoring. Her planner opened another section as she added the map, asking Hagrid to oversee the tree replacement and removal, with Grawp and selected Forester refugees experienced in the area. The fire hazard was indeed high, but Blaise would be pleased with the unexpected wood supply that could be used until their construction supply orders were delivered. Hogsmeade residents would be delighted to use the unusable pieces for heating. Her notes changed to add Luna's elegant handwriting, suggesting her pixies would provide the sparkle and a pack of nifflers could dig the holes for any tree planting crew unable to use magic. Hagrid had Fang but there was at least one other refugee whose magic was too volatile to reliably plant a tree, without blowing up or setting fire to any nearby.
It took several games, but Severus was relieved that Longbottom's incompetence in the potions lab did not crossover to political subterfuge. The distraction of Blaise and Theo's constantly vibrating planners tested the Minister's ability of selective awareness. The two younger slytherins had grinned at the latest entry. Theo bet and muttered, "Trust Neefa to solve it." Blaise nodded and added notes to Pucey on drafting timber acquisition laws, then grinning at the less than polite answer to go fuck himself.
"I think Adrian will need more headache and Pepper-Up potion, Sir." Snape snorted.
"Instead of courting overdose, he needs to decide on who will be his fourth assistant. But on that note, I should check on the potions downstairs." He drawled with a gleam in his eye, "I may not return." Flume hid a smile behind a tumbler of firewhiskey and folded.
Severus floated himself and his wheelchair down the stairs into his half of the potions lab, where several cauldrons stood simmering in various stages. He could brew this batch of potions in his sleep, automatically adding ingredients and bottling finished products, all the while watching Hermione flutter from one cauldron to the next taking notes. When he finished, he wheeled through the spelled air barrier and waited for her to set the pen down before pinching her bottom. She squealed,
"Severus!" Neefa snorted then disappeared with a pop.
Severus pulled Hermione into his lap, floated them out of the lab to the fireplace,and Flooed to his quarters at Hogwarts to work on their latest potion journal critiques. He took a few kisses as payment for transportation.
McGonagall massaged her temples. Her pile of mail had dramatically quadrupled upon her published status as one-fifth of the Hogsland Council. Currently, there was a hold on any immigration applications for the next year while the housing and employment situation was sorted out. Already, she had a stack of over fifty letters requesting new citizenship in the first month of Hogsland existence. They hadn't even voted on their flag yet, for heaven's sake. An enormous wheeled box by the door contained neutralized daily arriving Howlers. All with the same contents: They were treasonous. Traitors. How could they abandon the children? A little harnessed kneazle padded quietly into her office, an owl fluttering down to perch on the box of Howlers, and trotted out with the magically lightened box pulled behind it by a cord. Ginny had the repetitive task of sending a politely worded note in response with an information brochure. Even a few patronuses had shown up, responded to by Neville and Hannah, as Theo and Adrian were all for just ignoring the wispy animals.
The transfiguration professor signed the letter informing her stand-in that the position was now permanently his. Minerva was just too busy trying to show that standards at Hogwarts were actually rising, she had just convinced the international Confederation of Wizards that the students weren't affected in the slightest, transitioning from one magical community to the new Hogsland territory each year. She pulled out two bottles of red ink, and settled in to edit the several scrolls of parchment that would detail the benefits of field experience with an embedded apprenticeship and exchange program. It was rather refreshing to act, instead of waiting for whatever power struggle amongst governors to finish before a decision could be made.
Aberforth finished his rounds. Meeting with the local residents and proprietors, speaking with them on their concerns. He found their reserved booth in the Three Broomsticks and ignored the pop of his knees, as he took his seat across from Jonas Grimp. The man was already halfway through a butterbeer. "Dumbledore."
"Grimp. Any problems with the Foresters?"
"Wards are holding. Meaders doing alright?"
"Two new bed and breakfasts starting up, property value on the rise, wards holding on our end, all's good." The two nodded over their drinks. Savoring the silence for a few moments before bending over the map Jonas had out, to discuss placement of a new rows of cottages in Hogsmeade. It would ideally cross the boundaries so residents could use the wards on half their home, and essentially make the backyard or kitchen an impromptu safe haven from non-Hogsland intruders. Hogsland law enforcement reported several Ministry curse-breakers wandering around the edges of Hogsmeade unsuccessfully testing the wards' outer perimeter. Those with actual knowledge of the Sacred Twenty Eight grimoires were quiet, most likely frantically researching the original spells and untangling the modifications.
The array of intertwining magic were layers of modifications devised from unspecifically questioning Flitwick, advice from Neefa on loopholes goblins and house elves used to complete their tasks, in depth conversations with past headmasters and founder portraits, and various comparisons between wards of significant public institutions to the Fidelius or Unplottable. Flitwick and Minerva had been staggered by the amount of power and detail, the Charms professor had twittered himself into an exhausted state the first thirty six hours trying to diagram the work. However, the other residents behind the wards merely shrugged and went back to business. The proprietors of Hogsmeade had obeyed with alacrity to warnings at the town hall meeting, to lock down supplier and vendor contracts. They even welcomed the added business and possible employee pool of the refugees in the Forest district. It was through much coordination between their leaders that the Foresters and the Meaders were cohabiting and expanding, rather than fighting amongst themselves.
Review Reply: In no particular order…
Amarylle, ndavis77, pgoodrichboggs, JM2010, .fantastic: Thank you! I hope it continues to be exciting, hope you enjoy this chapter.
LittlebigmouthOKC: lol, Neville's certainly got the looks and pedigree for the job! I know that Trudeau is wily as a fox in politics, don't know if Neville's quite there yet. As you can see, I used the Quibbler as Hogsland's publication of choice!
Sunset oasis: It was just a round of "Not it!" and Neville had no clue. Standing up to a person of authority is daunting, Blaise and Hermione attacked it like they do everything, with logic!