16 Summer Vacation

With the tournament behind him, Harry felt as if a heavy burden had been taken off his shoulders. As Lord Hogwarts, he had doubled the prize money for the other three champions to share. He even threw a private party for the champions and their close friends, to celebrate the fact that nobody got killed during the various tasks, not even badly injured.

What he hadn't been able to do due to his involvement with the tournament and his three new wives was to start changing the school. He knew he would need to discuss all the changes with his wives and then overcome some obstacles, mainly Dumbledore's reluctance to change anything, but he didn't need to hurry. He had two months of summer to think about all that and quite a bit more.

Then, on the way back to London, aboard the Hogwarts Express, he started having new doubts. How could he divide his time between the families of his three wives? Won't the other feel offended if he chose whom to visit first? Where would they stay, if not with family?

Hermione was feeling his concerns. "You don't need to worry. My parents invited the other families to join us. They will even go on vacation with us, I believe."

Harry's worries changed. He was wondering how he would be able to be intimate with his wives if all the adults kept a watch on them.

None of his wives would let him worry, though. They all cuddled closer, letting his hands roam a bit, making his worries fade away. With three girls wanting some attention, no boy his age (or even older) could stay grumpy.

Of course, nobody would leave them alone for the whole ride. Neville came first, shortly after the train started moving. "My Gran wants me to check if you can visit Longbottom Manor during the summer. I'd really like you to visit. I get quite lonely there, with only Gran for company."

"Don't you have other friends or family visiting?" Hermione asked.

Neville grimaced. "Everybody else in my extended family is at least ten years older. Susan and Hannah used to visit once or twice each summer, but now, I don't know…"

Hermione smiled reassuringly. "I'm sure that Hannah wouldn't miss a visit or two. I think she may have some long-term plans concerning you."

Neville blushed furiously. "I hope they fit mine…"

Indeed, Hannah came to chat a few minutes later, while Neville was still there. Hannah sat at his side and even moved much closer than usual, as if to make room for Susan to sit at her side. Neville blushed again but seemed to enjoy her proximity.

They had a less welcome visit about halfway through the ride. Draco Malfoy came with his two bookends, as usual. Harry expected Draco to try and belittle Hermione, at least, so he acted in advance. As soon as he saw Draco at the door he started speaking, "Scion Malfoy, thank you for coming. I'm sure you wanted to congratulate my wives and me on our unexpected marriage. I'd also like you to tell other, less knowledgeable members of your house about House Protection Magic, the one that will protect members of the house and punish anybody who tried to harm, even only verbally, such members."

Draco wasn't sure what to do. He already knew about house magic but was sure that Harry didn't know. Just by mentioning it, the protection was invoked and he knew he should speak politely or suffer the consequences. Almost automatically, he started saying, "When my father…"

Harry interrupted him. "Oh, your father also wanted to congratulate us? Thank him on my behalf. It's really nice of him to let bygones stay bygones."

Draco seemed too overwhelmed to talk. He just nodded, bowing minutely towards the three girls and quickly left.

"That was quite Slytherin of you," Susan told him.

Harry smiled. "Well, I'm Lord Slytherin, as you know. Besides, the sorting hat also considered putting me there. I insisted on going somewhere else, mainly due to Malfoy."

Susan smiled. "Serves him right!"

–..–

Madam Bones was not content. Not at all. She wasn't surprised, though. She had known what the leak could lead to. At least nobody had been harmed, or worse, and yet she felt quite sure that the resurrection ritual had taken place that night, according to Voldemort's plan, only somewhere else, and not using Potter for the ritual. It gave her some minor satisfaction. She had come to like Harry, despite marrying her niece in such a rash way. She could see that he made Susan happy, as well as the other two girls.

Back to Voldemort, though – if he had to compromise in some way, he may have turned less powerful and easier to vanquish, eventually. She had to gather as much intelligence about his supporters as she could. It would not be easy, but she wasn't one who shied away from challenges.

–..–

Albus wasn't happy either. Snape had informed him of Voldemort's resurrection as well as his greatly diminished powers. While this was good news in more than one way, it was also troublesome. Without a strong leader to unite the dark families, each would be advancing its own agenda, making it more difficult to counter. Yet a stronger dark lord could become too tough a challenge for Harry, whom he still considered crucial in defeating Voldemort.

Albus didn't like situations that he had no plans for. He had never been the type of person to improvise and make plans on the spot, and certainly not at his age. Yet he had no plan for this new situation. Should he try to unite the dark forces, so that they could all be beaten in one grand move, or should he let them stay divided, allowing him (or Harry) to defeat each on its own, using the division to his benefit?

Albus sighed. He still considered himself the most knowledgeable and the best person to lead the light faction, but he was also becoming aware of his diminishing abilities in some areas, like accommodating change. Well, he'd have to do his best.

–..–

Several distinguished members of the Inner Circle assembled at Malfoy Manor to discuss their options.

"His Crucio felt nothing like before. It was a bit painful, but not much worse than an overdone tickling charm," Avery testified.

"And he seemed unable to even hold that for any length of time," commented another.

"Yet he's still The Dark Lord, our master, and he came back from the dead. We can't dismiss him. He may only need some more time to gain his strength, after staying in a different form for too long," Lucius Malfoy cautiously said.

"He seemed to get tired just talking to us," another said.

Some other murmurs seemed to express even worse impressions. Malfoy lifted his hand to quiet them all. "Let's wait a few more weeks. Our tasks only involve information gathering and a bit of financial help. We can easily do all that. If he stays weak in another month or two… Well, we can discuss it then."

He wasn't sure himself. The resurrected Dark Lord was nothing like Voldemort before his demise. He felt quite sure that no matter how long they waited, the man (if that form could even be called a man) would not turn much stronger either physically or magically. Such a weakling could not lead the Death Eaters and certainly not inspire new recruits. If that was the case, wouldn't he be better off if he let the DMLE handle that abomination? Well, he could wait a few more weeks. He had planned a nice vacation for the family and wouldn't like anything to spoil it.

–..–

The Potters had a great summer vacation. They first stayed for about a week at the Granger residence, along with the Patil family and Madam Bones. They then left for a two weeks vacation in France, one of them at a beach resort, followed by another week in Italy, and then a Mediterranean cruise for ten days. They returned to the Granger house with three weeks to spare before the start of term.

It wasn't all just fun, though. The Potters also talked about changes they wanted to do at Hogwarts and in magical Britain in general. Some were long-term plans, but quite a few, especially ones concerning the school, could be implemented almost immediately.

"We need to completely change Muggle Studies," Hermione stated. "It's so outdated that even our grandparents would find it ancient."

"And we must get a proper Potions professor," Padma said. "Snape doesn't even try to teach and can't stand most students. He may be a great potions master but he's certainly not a teacher."

"We must also remove Binns. His lessons are as dead as he is," commented Susan. "I think that my aunt has some recommendations for teachers."

"And we must also find a proper DADA teacher, but we should also remove the alleged curse on that position," Harry added. "Shouldn't we hire a team of curse-breakers for that?"

"Auntie told me that the best curse breakers are employed by Gringotts, and their goblin curse breakers are even better," Susan informed the others.

Hermione was writing everything, as had always been her habit. She then looked at her list and took another parchment. "We should make a plan, or we may forget some things. I suggest we contact Gringotts for removing the curse as soon as we're back. We can then look for replacement teachers. I think we shall also need a new one for Muggle Studies. The one currently at the job is a pureblood who had never spent more than a few hours in the muggle world."

She then put the lists aside. "Now, I think it's time for Harry to cuddle with us. Isn't it so?"

–..–

Their plans, although not fully formed, came in very handy once they were back in Britain.

Hiring a Gringotts team was easy. Persuading Dumbledore to cooperate was much more difficult. The old man seemed to find every possible excuse to delay it until Harry decided to put an end to it. "Albus, you're not the owner and it's not your prerogative to allow or deny them access to the castle – it's mine. You can either cooperate or resign. That's your only choice."

Albus sighed. He didn't really have a choice. "Of course, Lord Hogwarts. I'll make sure to welcome the team and give whatever support it needs."

"That's what we expect and we're going to make sure it goes that way." Harry didn't even try to make it sound less of a threat. He was sick of all the manipulations the old man was so fond of. "Do you have any suggestions of where to start?"

Dumbledore thought for a moment. "The alleged curse is supposed to have been cast after Riddle was not accepted as a Defense teacher. He left the castle soon after the rejection, so he didn't have time to search for a hiding place. It should be somewhere easy to access, at least for him. It could be the chamber of secrets, or maybe one of the classrooms or the Slytherin common room."

Harry was suddenly getting a picture of another room in his mind, and he knew it was on the seventh floor. He also knew that the house elves could easily access it. He had a weird feeling that the castle itself was putting that image in his mind. Looking at his wives, they also seemed to be a bit confused, probably due to getting that same information. He tried to return to reality.

"Fine, we'll let them check those places first. We also need to ask the house elves. Since they do most of the cleaning and the maintenance, they should know best of any hidden or secret rooms," he said.

Dumbledore looked surprised, as if realizing that he'd never used this source of information. Harry had another subject to tackle. He took a sheet out of Hermione's bag and put it on the desk.

"Here's a list of teachers that we need to find. The old ones should be removed."

Dumbledore checked the list, shaking his head. "You can't fire them all."

"Why? Is there a reason not to fire any of them?"

Dumbledore sighed. "Professor Binns has been teaching for generations and nobody complained." Evidently, he started with the simplest problem.

"He was also your teacher, wasn't he?" Harry asked.

Dumbledore nodded reluctantly.

"That means that he hasn't updated his lessons for more than a century. While other subjects may not advance rapidly, history changes. What we live today is tomorrow's history. It means that there are no lessons about the war against Grindelwald, nor about Voldemort. There are probably more events that I'm not even aware of that aren't included. History should be taught in an up-to-date fashion, or it's useless. With all due respect to Goblin rebellions, what happened since I was born is much more relevant to our lives now. Don't you agree?"

Dumbledore nodded reluctantly. He then looked at another name. "Professor Snape is a highly accomplished Potions Master. Why do you want to replace him?"

"He may be a genius at brewing, but he's less than abysmal as a teacher. He can't stand the students, he's a bully, he's as unfair as they go, and one can simply not learn anything in his classes. Luckily, we follow the book, and we can learn from it, but that's not what we have a teacher for."

Dumbledore tried not to show his feelings. "But he's…"

Harry interrupted him. "Have you ever tried to monitor one of his lessons? He explains nothing. 'The instructions are on the board. Take your ingredients from the cupboards and start brewing. You have one hour.' That's what he teaches. We need much better than that!"

Dumbledore sighed. "I'll start looking for new teachers, although this is quite late for that. You should have told me even before the end of the last term."

"It's your fault, you know. Had you not made me a champion at the tournament, I could have spent my time on this. You can only blame yourself for the delay."

Dumbledore sighed once more. He knew he'd have problems finding the right people. It would also be very difficult to sack Snape, but it could not be avoided. His own position would be at risk if he opposed Potter.