Chapter 4: August 4, 2015 – Designing Hogwarts, Part 2
Chapter Summary: Xander explains the new layout of Hogwarts to Buffy
Challenge: for the livejournal 2015 August Fic-a-Day Challenge
Timeline: Storywise – Winter break of Buffy's first year (1981-1982)
Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. HP characters belong to JK Rowling. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.
Rowena's chamber
"So what have you got for me, Xan?" Buffy asked.
Xander had been going over building schematics for the past couple months, getting input from the teachers about what they needed and/or wanted. He was grateful that after Sunnydale High was rebuilt, his foreman suggested that he do some night classes to learn architecture and CAD. He wasn't an architect yet, but he had a better idea of needed to be done. For the stuff he wasn't sure about, he asked professionals for help.
"The good news is that once we get the plans loaded into the building matrix thing, the castle will build itself," he started. "Before that can happen, the castle has to be empty. By empty, I mean even the basilisk has to be out, and everything has to be packed up and moved out. Anything that's left in the castle will be used as material for the renovations."
"That's a lot of stuff to move out," Buffy hedged. "Where can we store it all? And how long will it take the castle to renovate itself?"
"We can't be sure about how long it will take because there hasn't been this massive of a change since the school was originally built. However…" Xander held up his hand when it looked like Buffy was going to say something. "Based on the formulas for other changes, the math geeks have determined it should take about 2 months, give or take a week or two."
She bit her lip in nervousness. "That's cutting it awfully close. Even if we can get the castle emptied by the time the students leave for the summer, that doesn't give us a lot of wiggle room for when they return. Have you talked to the elves and asked them how long it would take them to pack everything?" she asked.
"If they concentrate solely on packing, they think about a month. Now I know that doesn't give us enough time to do everything during the summer, but there's a lot of unused space in this castle. If they can pack up the empty parts during the school year, they could finish the rest within a week," Xander promised.
"Where would we store all the moving boxes once the castle was completely packed?" Buffy asked. "I kinda doubt the Wizarding World has heard of self-storage facilities."
Xander looked excited at her question. "Okay, you've seen the expandable trunks, right?"
"Yeah, but I don't think we can afford to buy enough of them to pack everything in them…even if there were enough to buy," she said.
"Doesn't matter, we'd only use trunks for the fragile items like books – and yeah, it sounds weird saying that books are more fragile than dishes or other stuff, but I've been told those are the items we have to be the most careful with when packing them away," he explained. "Anyway, there's something similar to those trunks called wizarding tents…meaning they're bigger on the inside than the outside."
"Like the TARDIS?" Buffy asked, cringing as soon as the words left her mouth. "Please don't tell Giles I know that," she pleaded.
Xander's grin was decidedly evil and she knew she was going to be blackmailed over this for weeks or months to come. "Yes. Anyway, I went to the makers of those tents and asked for a moving box version; instead of an apartment, there would be several compartments which you could store your belongings together while keeping them separated in whatever fashion you want. I would suggest storing all the furniture in however many it takes to fit everything in the castle. One compartment can be the furniture from the infirmary, another from the Great Hall, and so on."
"How much do they cost?" she inquired warily.
"Since I gave them the idea – as well as the suggestion they market it to businesses for exporting/importing as well as families who want to move – they agreed to let us rent the first production run for one galleon per unit per month instead of buying them. Figure an average of three units per floor, seven floors plus two basements – so actually nine floors – for at least three months, some of them possibly up to five or six months…somewhere between 81 and 162 galleons?" he said.
"And you really think you'd only need three per floor? How big are these things on the inside?" Buffy asked.
"They have about the same storage space as 3 semi-trailers," Xander answered.
Buffy mulled it over in her head for a few minutes, then asked, "How soon can they get them to us?"
"They're already in production and should be ready by the end of February," he said.
"So we'll have a bunch of tents on the castle grounds?" she wanted to know.
Xander shook his head. "They're stackable like the trunks – but obviously bigger – so we could cordon off an area and keep them there under a weatherproof tarp."
"How big are they?"
"Outside, they're just under 10x10x10 feet. They're actually 3x3x3 meters. About one-third the size of a semi-trailer…approximately. We can stack them three high, so we'd need a space about 20x50 feet," he explained.
"Given the circumstances, that sounds reasonable," Buffy admitted. "Go ahead and tell them we'd like ten of those things, and I'll let the elves know that as soon as they arrive, they can start packing up the unused portions of the castle. I'll tell the students tonight what's happening so they don't freak out if they see stuff disappearing over the next several months. Now wow me with the design of the new castle," she demanded.
"Well, it won't be that 'wow', unless you're thinking, 'Wow, that's logical!'" Xander said. "To start with, we're leaving the Chamber of Secrets basically alone; it won't be part of the school plans. We just have to remove the basilisk during construction because the Chamber will get a spruce up and we don't want her converted during the renovation.
"We're only adding one level to the school, and that is a rooftop garden area, so conservation of materials should work in our favor. Each class year will have its own wing, as well as the staff."
"Eight wings? What does this look like?" Buffy interrupted.
"Okay, so wings isn't the right term, I guess," Xander admitted sheepishly. "Let's call them corridors instead, and there are actually ten. It looks sort of like a stop sign from above, but with ten sides instead of eight.
"We'll keep the idea of two basement levels; one mostly for storage, but Snape's potions lab and living quarters will be there, too…at his request. There's also a 2-level kitchen in the center. Next up from that are the elves' living quarters and the upper level of the kitchen.
"First ground floor will have the formal Great Hall – 2-levels high - surrounded by classrooms, the main infirmary, administrative offices and a swimming pool. Second floor continues the classrooms, but starts the staff living quarts in one corridor, the 4-levels-high library and a 2-level gym – which is on the opposite side of the school from the library.
"The only change on the third floor is that the center area is a 2-levels high auditorium/planetarium. Fourth has a theatre on the corridor where the gym and pool were.
"Fifth is the beginning of the living quarters for the students…sort of. The center is a common area for all the students surrounded by common areas for each house. This is where the school store will be. Sixth floor will be the boys' dorms surrounding the informal 2-level breakfast hall. There'll be a smaller infirmary there, as well as the first level of the owlery.
"Seventh floor is obviously the girls' dorms and the second level of the owlery. Last, but not least is the rooftop. There's a courtyard area in the center for all the years to enjoy, surrounded by areas for each of the houses. Staff gets their own area, too.
"To make it easier to get around, there's a walkway on each floor separating the center area from the outer ring. Each corridor will have their own staircase, elevator and floo connection. Those floos are for internal travel only – like if you had to get from the breakfast hall down to Snape's lab. The only external floo connections will be in your office and the infirmaries. Each floor will have eight bathrooms; four girls and four boys.
"To keep some of the charm from the current design, there'll be bridge connecting to a clocktower over the boathouse – with an escalator-ish stairway up to the castle level. Those first year kids are tired and hungry when they get here and don't need to climb a hundred stairs or more," Xander finished his spiel.
"Sounds good. I'll let you know if I have any changes," Buffy said.
A/N: Can you think of anything 'Xander' missed? Let me know if I need to add/subtract anything. I will be keeping the shape of the school unless you do an awesome job of convincing me…like 'selling heaters to people in hell' convincing.