"If anyone else wants to help feel free to meet at the head table when Harry is finished." Hermione sat back down.
"Professor did you have anything to add?" Harry turned to Minerva.
"Remember to get a judge for each game to make decisions." Minerva nodded.
"The chess games need to be someone who is out of the tournament but knows chess. For this first round I will volunteer to judge one pair since I'm not playing yet." Flitwick added.
"I'll judge a pair." Ron volunteered, "You know I won't cheat because I like the competition."
Pretty soon all the judges were picked for the first round and the games began. Many gathered around the chess boards watching the competition. Hermione's group gained a few others as they gathered at the head table. Harry sat with them as they made a list of games and tournaments that could be added.
"Harry what about defense of the castle and such?" Hermione asked.
"Patrols will continue as assigned." He shrugged, "As more people come we'll add them to the rotation. If someone is scheduled to play in a tournament they'll have to find a patrol replacement and make sure it's on the schedule."
It took three weeks before anyone from the ministry requested a meeting with Harry. A group of twenty, which included Kingsley, arrived at the gates and was escorted in by four professors. The extra table was back in place and they were sat at it again. Harry was already in his chair when they all arrived. Kingsley had already informed him of what was happening so he was prepared when the announcement came.
Daniel Greengrass approached the podium they had asked for, "Good evening. The Wizengamot has decided to keep the law as written. It has also abolished the school of Hogwarts. The charter…"
He didn't get any farther before he was hit with a lightning bolt from the ceiling. Harry glanced down at the man and then back up to Kingsley.
"Did he really think the school would allow that to happen?" Harry asked.
"He didn't believe you." Kingsley shrugged, "Most of the Wizengamot doesn't. Does he still have magic?"
"He does for now." Harry answered, "However if he tries again the school will do more than get his attention. Just for you information I didn't cause that lightning. Hogwarts will protect herself. The government cannot abolish something that existed hundreds of years before it did. It was either Dumbledore's lack of knowledge that allowed Umbridge to be placed at this school or it was his intent to have her here to turn us against the Ministry."
"Shall I wake him?" Kingsley indicated the man still unconscious.
"You can try." Harry nodded, "I don't know how powerful that bolt was, it may take some time for him to be able to wake. What else was he going to say?"
"Kept the law, abolished the school, the charter will be rewritten to something reasonable and arrest you for treason." Kingsley ticked off each item on his fingers, "I think that was all."
"What was the vote?" he asked.
"Twenty seven to twenty." He offered.
"How do I file a request to see who voted on this?" Harry asked.
"Why?" Kingsley wondered.
"So Hogwarts knows whose magic to take when they try this again." Harry explained, "If I don't get the list Hogwarts will assume you all voted for it."
"Don't they have to be here?" Kingsley asked.
"I'm not sure how close they need to be." Harry shrugged, "London may be close enough. If not the next one who comes to announce it will be punished. Eventually they'll run out of people and you can change the laws as we want. Hogwarts and her Charter won't recognize any changes unless you are here to state it. And if you state it she will assume you support it."
"So if they try to make me close Hogwarts I'll lose my magic." He made sure he and those with him understood.
"Exactly." Harry nodded, "I think you can wake him now. I'll give you a privacy bubble so you can explain it to him."
A flick of his wand produced a slightly blue bubble around Kingsley and Daniel Greengrass.
"Harry, will he really lose his magic?" Daphne asked.
"Yes, I can't stop it." He added, "It's part of the school's Charter."
"If he becomes a squib I'll be the head of the house." She tipped her head sideways, "That wouldn't be a horrible thing."
"You'll have to remove him from the house." Astoria pointed out, "He'll try to tell you what to do if you don't. You know that will be annoying."
Harry grinned at the girls and decided he had to get to know Daphne better. She was on the list after all. The Ministry staff left after dinner with no new announcements to be made. The room began to move to the games and Daphne Greengrass approached Harry.
"If Father becomes a squib I'll have to leave to deal with taking over the family." She sighed, "Would I be allowed back?"
"Yes you would. Of course you would also be able to take his place on the Wizengamot and become one more voice of reason." Harry suggested, "You could come back between meetings."
"I like that idea." The two of them sat and talked during that night's Chess matches.
During the day they had quidditch, football, tag, and many other outside physical activities. After dinner the chess and other sit down games had their tournaments or play time. Some watched the matches and others participated in things like card games and muggle board games. Some were introduced to muggle games for the first time.
The next morning after breakfast the werewolves approached Harry. One man seemed to be chosen to speak for them all, "Do you have a place for us to go tonight?"
"We have a plan." Harry agreed looking over the four downtrodden individuals, "Are you familiar with the Shrieking Shack on grounds?"
"No." the leader shook his head.
"I saw it when I was at school here." One woman spoke up, "It's the most haunted building around I think."
"That part is a myth." Harry grinned, "Remus Lupin came to school here after he had been bitten. It was created so he would have a safe place to transform. He was the one haunting it. But its ready for you and Minerva will take you down tonight. Everyone else will be instructed to stay away."
That night was successful and there were no injuries amongst the students, though the normal injuries were found among the wolves. Over the next few weeks Harry saw more and more mingling among the house groups. The newer arrivals mixed in well too. By the last game of the chess tournament Harry was happy to see Hermione dating a Ravenclaw two years older than her. Ginny was dating Dean again. Luna was happily single and Neville was seeing Hannah Abbott.
Harry was rather happy with his own new relationship. Daphne was like a breath of fresh air. Ron hadn't liked her at first but when she had nearly beaten him at chess he decided she wasn't all that bad. Hermione had only asked what number she was on the list, when he admitted that she was first Hermione had nodded and said she wasn't surprised. He had worried the most about Ginny but she had given the other girl a once over, nodded and said she'll do. As for Daphne's friends all of them just shook their heads at her and said they weren't surprised.
"Ron." Harry called to his friend.
"Harry?" he replied back.
"Are you ok?" he asked.
"I'm fine." Ron looked bewildered, "Why?"
"You aren't dating anyone." Harry pointed out, "Is there some reason you haven't been looking?"
"I'm trying to win a tournament." Ron answered with a huff, he had expected Harry to understand, "I don't want any girls trying to distract me so someone else can win. I will be Hogwarts chess champion."
"Oh, good." Harry had patted him on the back.
The final game was between Ron and Sue Li. It was set to be an intense game. Harry hadn't even signed up for the tournament. He had thought he was terrible at the game. But after watching the two of them tear through the competition he didn't feel quite so bad. They had already been playing for hours when Babble informed him that the Minister's office was in his floo. Minerva, Daphne and Hermione accompanied him to his office.
"Dawson, is Kingsley coming through?" Harry asked.
"Yes Mr. uh Head…" the auror stuttered.
"Harry is fine." He corrected him, "Come on then."
Dawson came through first and Kingsley followed, "Harry!"
"Kingsley, how goes everything?" Harry indicated for them to sit.
"Good." He took a chair and grinned, "The marriage law was repealed today."
"About time." Harry huffed, "Any others?"
"I convinced them to make a list of the most recent years new laws and who presented them." Kingsley offered, "I pointed out that the most damaging laws were presented either by Death Eaters or Madam Umbridge. I got them to overturn them all."
"That's good." Harry agreed, "Anything on the restriction of magic on muggle homes?"
"Not yet." He admitted, "I have been given a list of laws that are left on the books. Actually it's a collection of books." He pulled a bag from his pocket and dumped two dozen small books on his desk, "I'll leave those shrunk. Each tome is large and cumbersome."
"We'll go through it." Harry stacked them up, "Are these copies and can we write in them?"
"Yes they are official copies made for you and you can do whatever you want." He agreed.
They talked for a little while longer before Kingsley left. Harry enlarged one of the books and thumbed through it before addressing the females, "What would you think about having a political exercise?"
"What do you mean?" all three of them asked.
"Debates." Harry explained, "For each law allow a team to debate it. People can sign up to provide pros or cons on each law. They have to have solid data no conjecture."
"You know what conjecture means?" Hermione asked.
"Yes, guesswork or rumors." He answered, "I want them to give good reasons to keep or dispel each law. Some we may not need to debate. For instance if there is a law against killing people I can't imagine anyone wanting to debate for killing."
"Ok, but he left us two dozen books." Hermione pointed out, "That will take a long time unless we can group them somehow."
"Why don't we make two dozen groups? Those groups will each take a book and give us a synopsis of all the laws in their book." Daphne added, "They can break them down into laws too old to matter, laws that make sense and questionable ones. Put people of all types in each group. Make them come to an agreement on which section they go in or put it in questionable."
"Then each group can present their ideas to the group at large. We can either debate further or go with what they decided." Hermione nodded, "Then the questionable ones will be given to groups to find more information and debated again."
"I want as many participants as we can get." Harry agreed, "Everyone should be worried about what our laws are, including the professors."
"Do we participate or act as mediators?" Minerva asked.
"Participate and let people take turns at being a mediator." Harry instructed.
Harry carried the one expanded tome and the other three carried the shrunken ones. The chess game was still going on when they returned though there were far fewer pieces on the board. The other games had been abandoned and everyone was watching. Someone had made a projection of the board so they could all see.
"Checkmate." Sue Li said as she moved her piece.
"Merlin." Ron groaned.
"I think if we had other sides you would have won." She grinned at him.
"Thanks." He grinned back, "How about a rematch tomorrow?"
"You're on." She grinned.
As quick as that Harry was sure Ron had found the girl for him. The room filled with cheers and everyone patted the two of them on the back or shook their hands. Hermione gave him a hug from behind.
"Well that took forever." Hermione chuckled.
"You weren't even here for most of it." Ron accused with a laugh, "I'm sure it was the distraction of you two abandoning me that made me lose."
"Couldn't be helped mate." Harry said as he pulled away from the group, "Everyone, take a seat I have an announcement to make. Is anyone not here?" No one replied so Harry joked, "I hope that means you looked around and found everyone you know and not that you're waiting for the missing ones to answer."
A chuckle rippled through the crowd while Minerva did a counting spell, "Everyone is here."
"Good, the reason we bailed on you Ron was to talk with Kingsley." Harry offered.
"I hope he had something better to say than the last time." Draco huffed
"He did." Harry grinned, "The marriage law has been repealed along with a lot of the more recent laws. The bad news is this." He dropped the tome on the head table and they got everyone's attention, "He has brought us a copy of all laws. We need to look through and see what is left. The sanctuary is not closing until all unjust laws are off the books. If we wait for them it will never get done."
"That's a lot of laws." Seamus sighed looking at the large tome.
No one had paid attention to Minerva, Hermione and Daphne as they had walked up to the head table and placed the small books across it. Harry grinned wryly at Seamus before he waved his wand and the rest of the books returned to normal size causing the head table to creak at the added weight.
"It's worse than you think." He looked across the room with a very serious face, "If any of these laws were to be broken we could go to Azkaban. Who could even begin to know what laws are even here?"
"Blimey." Ron huffed.
"With the marriage law gone you who are only here for it may leave knowing you can chose your own spouse." Harry continued, "But if you want a say in what kind of laws we should be held accountable to then you may stay and participate in our next venture."
"Noooooo." Draco hit his table with his fists, "I was so looking forward to going home for a little while but now I have to stay. I refuse to live by what an evil Gryffindor like you thinks is right or wrong."
"Me? Evil?" Harry asked, "Since when?"
"Since all this started." Draco huffed, "I consider it evil of a Gryffindor to actually have some sense."
"And you've been a horrible Slytherin for staying and defying the government at the drop of a hat." Harry chuckled, "Snakes aren't supposed to be that brash."
"So we are at an impass." Draco held up his hands.
"And we must put our horribleness and evilness aside." Harry agreed.
"We have to fix this world to be something worthwhile." Draco agreed.
"Merlin I hate it with Gryffindors and Slytherins agree." Ernie chuckled from his spot, "Is anyone insane enough to leave?"
"I'm going." Pansy began to stand.
"Shut up Pans and sit down." Millicent pulled her back down, "I won't let you do something so stupid."
"We need twenty four groups. Each group must have a muggleborn, halfblood, and a pureblood, werewolves will have to join several groups." Minerva started, "We want as much diversification in each group as we can achieve. Each team will take a tome…"
Over the following weeks the groups met and worked. As new people arrived they were added to the existing groups. Some people who arrived only wanted to help with the laws. They couldn't stay but they did make the vow in order to participate. Students were writing home to get material to argue for or against certain laws. It was chaos, it was havoc, but it was working. School had begun by this time but as much free time as could be spared was allotted to defining the laws. It was nearing Halloween when the first of the twenty four groups approached him at dinner one night.
"Well we have to say it has been a learning experience." Padma sighed as she faced him, "We have found laws about things that don't make sense. One of our laws states that you can't use a metal rod to stir a potion. As we know some of our potions can only be made by using a metal rod. After that we found laws that contradict themselves, laws that say exactly the same thing and laws that are targeted at one person because they made someone mad. And it doesn't just stay in one book. We found out, after questioning each group, that some laws are in all the books and some are in just one. There is no order we have no idea how our society has been able to function without collapsing before now."
"Agreed." It seemed as if everyone said it at the same time.
"So what do we do now?" she asked.
"Have you made your list?" Harry asked.
"We have." She agreed.
"When we receive all the lists we'll begin to combine the lists." Harry explained, "Two groups will merge and combine their list we'll keep that up until we have one list. Then we can proceed to make a list of reasonable, relevant laws. Looking at the mess I would also suggest that we rethink our government. A body that messes up this badly shouldn't be allowed to continue."