After the feast, Professor Kirke got back on her feet and addressed the Great Hall again.
"So, " said Professor Kirke in a clear but kindly voice, "The New Era of Hogwarts is stepping further into its future this year. I believe the time has come to jettison a very divisive event. In line with my wish for more interhouse unity, effective immediately, the House Cup is being discontinued. From this nanosecond forth, competition between the houses shall be limited to the Quidditch Pitch."
While there were a few inevitable grunts, groans, and frowns from the handful of students who were extremely passionate about the House Cup due to their extreme house pride, the news that the House Cup was going to be eliminated was well received by the majority of students in the Great Hall.
Most of the students in the Great Hall showed various levels of accepting of and/or agreeing with the discontinuation of the House Cup.
Some were nodding their heads in silence, some were smiling, some were making comments like "good idea" and "that's for the best" and some were clapping.
No one was applauding harder than Lily though.
"Our new Headmistress of Hogwarts is doing the absolute right thing in discontinuing the House Cup, " said Lily approvingly, smiling at Professor Kirke, "Let's call a spade a spade here, the House Cup greatly contributed to unnecessary tensions between the houses and students from different houses only so one house could have a few hours of glory at the end of the school year."
"Miss Potter, you get it, " replied Professor Kirke with a smile.
"Furthermore, " continued Lily clearly, "The House Cup also created intrahouse friction leading to circumstances some students in a house would demean, bully, or exclude other members of their house over the issue of house points."
"Exactly, " agreed Professor Kirke instantly, "Getting rid of the House Cup will lead to better and more peaceful relationships students both within houses and across houses."
"One thing I should clarify, " said Professor Kirke, "Is that I still fully expect BFFs to be in the same houses with each other because that's only natural. After all. you share meals, common rooms, and all classes with your own house. My mission, be it in arranging interhouse classmates as partners in classes that are shared between two houses, creating the monthly teams of one person per house to meet up on Friday nights, or jettisoning the House Cup, is the create better relationships between the houses. I want more interhouse friendship and less interhouse and interstudent rivalry. But besties are almost always going to come from groups of students who share the same house and that's okay. All the same."
Professor Kirke retrieved her wand from her right hand pocket with her right hand and raised it.
After performing a nonverbal spell, the Great Hall was awash in banners that featured the Hogwarts crest, which had all four house symbols surrounded by the letter H.
"Everyone's symbol is here, " declared Professor Kirke, "Now, Victoire Weasley graduated from Hogwarts at the end of the 2017-2018 school year. However, there are eight Weasleys currently at Hogwarts spread across the four houses. Would all Weasleys currently at Hogwarts please come up to the staff table?"
Hugo, Rose, Fred, and Roxanne roared up from the Gryffindor table, Louis galloped up from the Hufflepuff table, Dominque soared up from the Ravenclaw table, and Lucy and Molly slithered up from the Slytherin table.
In less than a minute, all eight Weasleys currently attending Hogwarts were at the staff table.
"As the Weasleys have students in every house, " explained Professor Kirke, "The are the perfect family to perform this next task and they know what to do because I owled instructions to each of them with their Hogwarts letters but with the instructions not to tell anyone of what they were being asked to do."
Next nanosecond, Hugo, Rose, Fred, Roxanne, Louis, Dominique, Molly, and Lucy all ejected their wands from their right hand pockets using their right hands.
Hugo, Rose, Fred, Roxanne, Louis, Dominique, Molly, and Lucy, in that order, each created three letters towards the top of the hall but not quite at the ceiling that formed a horizontal message with each letter a different color of four rotating colors of scarlet, yellow, blue, and green. This Message read:
WELCOME TO FRIENDSHIP HALL!
"Yes, " declared Professor Kirke happily, "From now on, this hall shall be known as Friendship Hall. I hope the name Friendship Hall will reflect the idea of all students being friends with each other. That'll never happen in the literal sense but the idea of Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin really all being Hogwarts as one is what the name Friendship Hall represents to me. "
There were nods of approval from most students in what was now Friendship Hall and Lily was actively applauding.
Professor Kirke was pleased to see that her ideas seemed to be well received by the overwhelming majority of the student body.
Later that night, as she lay awake in her bed, Lily kept the image over and over in her head of Hugo, Rose, Fred, Roxanne, Louis, Dominique, Molly, and Lucy dedicating Friendship Hall.
Lily was, of course, closer to Hugo than any other Weasley, but the image of all the next generation Weasleys except for Victoire, who had graduated, all join in a row together to dedicate Friendship Hall using all four primary house colors was a wonder to behold.
That moment reparented to Lily all that she thought Hogwarts should become. Students from different houses working together and a wide theme of acceptance and friendship.
Lily appreciated the realistic way Professor Kirke was going about things, acknowledging that BFFs/besties would naturally be students from the same house while still destroying barriers to interhouse unity and creating avenues for it.
Yes, Lily thought to herself. the New Era of Hogwarts was going to develop exactly the way it should.
