Chapter 22: August 26, 2015 – Change the World

Chapter Summary: Buffy chats with Cole and Gideon about how she'll change the British Wizarding World.

Challenge: for the livejournal 2015 August Fic-a-Day Challenge

Timeline: Storywise – June 1982

Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. HP characters belong to JK Rowling. Charmed characters belong to Constance M. Burge and the WB. Criminal Minds characters belong to Jeff Davis, The Mark Gordon Company and CBS. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.

Staff lounge

Taking a rare moment to kick back and relax a little, Buffy found herself in a somewhat deep conversation with Cole and Gideon.

"I'm rather impressed with the way you're trying to change this society," Gideon began. "You aren't shy about demanding some changes outright, but you're sneaky about some of the others."

She quirked an eyebrow at that. "What do you mean?" she asked.

"Like insisting on having non-magical staff members and encouraging more studies that don't focus on magic. You're willing to stand up to the board members on overt things like that," Gideon explained.

"Yeah, I got that…I meant, what do you mean about being sneaky?" Buffy clarified.

"The way you are slowly subverting the pureblooded students. Well, maybe subverting is the wrong word since I don't think you have evil intentions," he corrected himself before she could object. "You're changing their views about those without magic without demanding they change their beliefs overnight. Like how you switch between the terms 'Muggle' and 'non-magical'. You are weaning them away from the use of a term that's barely a step up from 'mudblood'…and it includes anyone and anything that's non-magical – such as squibs…another racist term."

Buffy felt better about his observation once he explained it better. "I can't remember the exact quote or who said it, but I remember something about how if you want to change a society, you have to change the children first. It may take a few decades, but I'm hoping that it will happen."

"I think that you have a good chance," Cole said. "At least as far as the students are concerned. The adults may still want to get rid of you, but the students already respect you because they believe you're fair."

"Really?" she asked, feeling insanely proud of that.

"They know that blood status doesn't matter to you," Gideon confirmed. "If somebody is causing trouble, you'll punish them. Same goes for praising them for good work or actions."

"The interesting thing is that there are two actions that won you more respect than anything else you've done here," Cole mentioned. "First is how you handled Severus' situation and second is how you plan to change the houses next fall."

Although it was repetitive, Buffy asked again, "Really?"

Because he was closer to Severus, Cole explained, "Almost all of the students didn't like him as a teacher, but respected him as a potions master. The students from his house felt like his favoritism towards them only served to isolate them more from the other houses. If he remained a teacher and head of house, it wouldn't take long before they could only be friends with other Slytherins…which would make for a very lonely life if they didn't believe in the pureblood doctrine.

"While you could have tossed him out on his ass, you gave him a job he excels at, yet still benefits the school. You improved the school experience for them while showing compassion for him. It makes them hopeful that you care about all of them, not just the ones you like," Cole told her.

Gideon picked up from there. "Which brings us to your plan to change the house system. While some of the older students are leery of the change – and we'll have to watch for trouble in their dorms – most of the students approve. Most of that approval is due to Lorelai and Luke. Lorelai pointed out that you weren't trying to ignore the Founders and their place in history; you are just trying to take the best lessons they taught while setting aside the harmful.

"Luke then reminded them that it was the cooperation of the four Founders that created the school. If the Founders were as competitive as the houses are today, the school would never have existed."

"Huh, that's a good point," Buffy said. "I hadn't thought of that."

Gideon appeared surprised by that. "Why did you change the houses then?" he inquired.

She shrugged. "It just seemed stupid to me to label them for the rest of their lives because of a single trait that they may or may not have at the age of eleven. Seriously, how many people have the same personalities as they did when they were that age? And think about the pressure they're under to 'live up' to the standards of their house. What if a Gryffindor isn't 'brave enough' for their housemates? Or a Ravenclaw thinks there's more to life than just book-learning? School is hard enough without that added crap."

A/N: Assuming Musie doesn't take me into a different direction tomorrow, I'll probably hit on either healing or phys ed.