When Harry, Colin, Hermione, and Ginny returned to Hogwarts, they found themselves smack dab in the middle of the Gryffindor Common Room.
The first thing they noticed was that Seamus and Dean were laughing their heads off at Ron, who seemed to have an ugly haircut.
As Harry, Colin, Hermione, and Ginny got closer, they saw the sides of Ron's hair had been cut in an ugly awkward way and that most of the hair on the top of his head had been cut off. There was just enough hair left on the top on Ron's head for some words to be carved into, into this bit of hair were carved the words Twins 1. Ron 0.
"Ohhhh, " remembered Harry, "Before we left Hogwarts for the Easter holidays, Fred and George warned Ron that they would prank him if he continued to pester them."
"I'm guessing, " said Ginny smugly, "That Ron did worse than just pester Fred and George for them to do something like this."
"Right you are, sis, " beamed Fred as he and George came to join the fray, "It happened just a couple of days after you lot left Hogwarts for the Creeveys house when-"
"We caught Ron trying to steal from us, " finished George with a smirk.
"How stupid can you be?" mused Ginny, "Ron knows perfectly well that both of you have bewitched your trunks so that an alarm will sound if someone attempts to steal from them."
"Let me guess, " said Harry confidently, "You two heard the alarms go off, immediately suspected Ron, and ran straight off to catch him."
"Mind works the right way Harry, " said Fred brightly, "Ron trying to steal from us was the final straw. "
"So, "grinned George, "We decoded to punish him with a prank."
"And we wanted our prank to be one that made it clear to Ron that we have the upper hand on him, " added Fred with satisfaction.
"Speaking of upper hands, " asked George, "Who won the Creeveys 1994 Easter Egg Hunt?"
"I did!" piped up Colin proudly, "Which meant that I also won several bets with Ginny, the biggie being that Ginny has to go into Hogsmeade naked on our first visit in October."
"You two are never going let me live that down, are you?" Ginny asked Fred and George.
"Of course not!" said Fred eagerly, "I can't wait October when we can go full blast ribbing, razing, and teasing you about that!"
"Yeah, " smiled George, "Hopefully Harry and Colin give you just as much ribbing, razing, and teasing."
"They will, " confirmed Ginny, "They've already said as such. That's all part of the deal when you're involved in a bet like that."
"To her credit, " said Harry proudly, "Ginny was a really good sport about being on the losing end of it all, Ginny is a great kid with a huge heart and class act to boot."
"I can take going to Hogsmeade naked and the embarrassment that comes from it, " said Ginny matter of factly, "Other people having fun at my expense isn't a bad thing. But I will admit that losing the birthday bet hurts like hell."
"Colin and Ginny both have birthdays on August 11th, " explained Hermione to Fred and George, "So, since they obviously can't both have thirteenth birthday parties. They made a bet that the winner of their Easter egg hunt would have a thirteenth birthday party at his or her house on August 11th. Colin won. Ginny was actually in tears about that yesterday when she first realized she had lost the chance to have a thirteenth birthday party."
"It genuinely hurts that I have to spend my thirteenth birthday at another person's thirteenth birthday celebration with no acknowledgement of it being my own thirteenth birthday. But, like Harry said yesterday, it was inevitable that either I or Colin would be in that boat. Colin won fair and square and I don't begrudge him that. I just wish Colin and I had different birthdays so that we could both have birthday parties, " said Ginny painfully.
"I sympathize with Ginny's plight in this case, " said Colin uncomfortably, "I myself wish we had different birthdays so that we could both have thirteenth birthday parties. I wonder if we could borrow a time turner from the Ministry for that one day so that we could do that day over. That would be the one way that Ginny and I could both have thirteenth birthday parties,"
"I doubt the use of a time turner would be granted for something that trivial, " admitted Ginny.
There were a few minutes and a few nanoseconds of uncomfortable silence.
At 8 A.M. Harry, Colin, Hermione, and Ginny walked down to the Great Hall for breakfast.
To their surprise, when Harry, Colin, Hermione, and Ginny entered the Great Hall for breakfast, they saw that the house tables were gone.
Instead, there a number of round white tables that could each sit seven people.
"Sit wherever you and with whoever you want!" called Professor Lupin happily from the staff table as the students streamed into the Great Hall.
Fred and George took a table with their friends Lee Jordan, Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet, Katie Bell, and Leanne.
Parvati and Padma made sure to sit at the same table, where they joined by Parvati's bestie Lavender Brown, these three were soon joined by Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas, who didn't care who else they sat with as long they were sitting with each other. This table was eventually filled out by Neville Longbottom and Oliver Wood, neither of whom cared who they sat with as long as they had a seat.
Ernie McMillan and his bestie Hannah Abbott soon chose a table to sit at where they were joined by their fellow Hufflepuffs Justin Finch Flecthly, Cedric Diggory, Megan Jones, Sally Anne Perks, and Heidi Macavoy.
Predictably, Harry, Colin, Hermione, and Ginny were joined at their table by Luna Lovegood. But that still meant there were two open spots at it.
Susan Bones of Hufflepuff came over and asked in a bit of a timid voice, "May I sit here?"
"But of course, " said Harry with smile and Susan took a seat.
Ron, meanwhile, found himself sitting alone because no one wanted to sit with him.
After their breakfast of sausage biscuits, hash browns, and Budweiser, Professor Lupin got to his feet and said, "My first announcement is that the new tables we used for breakfast today are permanent. The house tables are a thing of the past. From now on, we are using these tables for seven. And all students may sit with whoever at all meals with no regard to house affiliation. So, students who have friends in other houses can eat with them and I'm sure siblings in separate houses will appreciate this."
"WE DO!" yelled out Parvati and Padma in chorus. Having been extremely close siblings growing up, one of the things that Parvati and Padma most hated about being in different houses was not being able to eat any meals together at Hogwarts. The Patil twins knew and appreciated that this change would allow them to rebond with each other.
"Well, " said Luna in her usual dreamy voice, "I've been bending the rules a bit anyway. Now I don't have to worry about it. The house system is pretty divisive if you think about it.'
"Hey, Harry, Colin, Hermione, Ginny, and Luna?" asked Susan, "I would like to make a request. May I continue to sit with your group at mealtimes. While I can honestly say that everyone in Hufflepuff except for Zacharias Smith has always treated me with kindness and respect, I don't have any close friends and nor am I part of a circle of friends. Things just never broke that way for me. I've always been happy at Hogwarts and people have also been nice to me. But I would to take this opportunity to become part of a group of friends."
"I would like that very much, " said Harry brightly, "One thing I like about Luna is having a Ravenclaw be part of my circle of friends. I would love for a Hufflepuff to be part of my circle of friends too."
"Well said, Harry, " said Hermione approvingly, "Susan, we would love to have you be part of our group."
"That would leave our group with six, " smiled Colin, "So my brother Dennis could become the seventh member of our group next year."
"The more the house barriers get smashed, the better, " said Luna.
"I'm hoping this change will create more interhouse friendships over time, " said Ginny warmly, "For now, the opportunity to make a new friend is one I welcome with all my heart, welcome to our group Susan."
"Yeah, welcome, Susan, " said Colin happily, "I do wonder what led Professor Lupin to this decision."
"Well, " smiled Lupin from the staff table, "My main motivation for making this change was for the siblings. That said, if it does spur more interhouse friendships, then that will further prove it was the right thing to do. I hope the groups of people sitting together at meals becomes more mixed across the houses over time."
At their table, Parvati and Padma began chanting "Thank you Lupin! Thank you, Lupin," It was really sinking in on them what this change meant.
"Miss Lovegood is absolutely right about the houses being divisive, " said Lupin clearly, "It is against my own inclination to allow the house system to continue at all. However, the house system does provide for good organization of living arrangements and class schedules and each of the individual houses is steeped in tradition and history. But, to reduce interhouse tension between students, effective immediately, the House Cup is being eliminated. From now on, competition between the houses will be limited to the Quidditch pitch."
"That's bullshit, " said Ron with disgust, "The House Cup is one the most important things at Hogwarts. It allows Gryffindor to show we are the best house and that we are superior to those slimy snakes."
"No, " said Ginny wisely, "The House Cup only created unnecessary tension between the houses just so that one of them could have one night of glory at the end of the year. "
"Besides, " said Harry hotly, "The are bad witches and wizards in every house. The man who betrayed my mom and dad was a Gryffindor. Lupin's right. The house system is good for arranging certain things but there's really no good that came out the House Cup."
"The better the relationships between the houses, the better off we all are overall, " said Hermione with conviction.
Truthfully, most students either supported the elimination of the House Cup or were indifferent to it. It was only a small of students that were truly into the House Cup to begin with and even some of them realized that the House Cup had significantly damaged inter house relations.
"Next, " called Lupin, "The dementors have been removed from Hogwarts. Dumbledore once said that "I'm afraid that no dementor will cross the threshold of this castle while I am headmaster. I am here to tell you that no dementor will cross any part of the threshold of any part of this school while I am headmaster."
Harry and Ginny both let huge sighs of relief at hearing this news. Harry was relieved that he would not have to relive his parents dying moments anymore and Ginny was relieved that the dementors would not be able to force her to relive her ordeal with the Chamber of Secrets anymore.
"As was revealed to the Wizarding World over the Easter holidays, Sirius Black is innocent. Either way, dementors have NO place in a school full of children and teenagers, " continued Lupin, "What dementors are on the surface is bad enough: foul and vicious creatures that force people to relive their worst memories. Some of you have true horrors in your pasts that the dementors can feed on. What's even worse is that if a dementor lowers its hood and kisses you, it will suck out your soul."
Everyone shuddered at this.
"But, " said Harry in a freaked out kind of voice, "If dementors have the ability to suck out people's souls, doesn't that make them even more dangerous than witches and wizards such as Bellatrix, Grindewald, and Voldemort?"
"in a word, yes, " said Lupin bitterly, "Losing your soul is a fate than death. What also makes dementors extremely dangerous is that they will NEVER distinguish between the one they hunt and the one who stands in their way. I debated whether to tell you about the dementors kiss because of how truly terrible it is. But you all have the right to know about the danger you were in. Fudge has been beyond careless in using and aligning with the dementors and even Dumbledore, who opposed their use, grossly underestimated how bad they really are."
There was pure silence for two minutes.
Nothing more was said on the topic. Everyone was relived the dementors were gone but nobody wanted to talk about them, so they waited silently to see what major announcement Lupin would put out next.
"Now, " resumed Lupin, "There are a couple of changes to curriculum starting in September. First, Divination is being dropped altogether. Seers are incredibly rare and the ability to be a seer cannot be taught or developed. Either you have the gift, or you don't. Moreover, Divination isn't a valuable skill in any career path. Any student in third or fourth year currently taking Divination may either leave that period blank next year or take a different elective next year if they do some catch up work over the summer and pass a test to get into the new elective. Those interested in taking a different elective next year should contact their heads of house prior to the end of the school year."
Harry smiled at Hermione as he remembered her promise to help him catch up over the summer so he could take ancient runes next year.
Lavender Brown frowned at this announcement. Divination had become her favorite subject and she admired Professor Trelawney.
"Also, " announced Lupin, " Starting in September, Care of Magical Creatures will become a required course for first through fifth years with astronomy moving into the elective pool."
"Care of Magical Creatures absolutely should be a required course, " said Susan firmly. " After all, hadn't you better know not to insult a hippogriff? hadn't you better recognize a lethifold if you see one? hadn't you better understand why fwooper song must be enjoyed in moderation?"
"Exactly, " beamed Lupin, "Knowing what magical creatures are and what they can do is a very important part of witches and wizards store of knowledge."
"Finally, " said Lupin, "Hogwarts is undergoing a major shift in scheduling next year. Starting in September, we will be using a four day school week. The idea behind this change is that students can use Fridays to do their homework and study thus freeing up weekends to truly be weekends. Each class will be on either a Monday and Wednesday schedule or a Tuesday and Thursday schedule. To ensure that actually use these class free Fridays for homework and studying rather than just playing doodle jump, mandatory library time will be instituted on Fridays. All students will be required to take three hours of library time from 9 A.M. to noon and an additional optional hour would be offered after lunch."
"That's a very good idea, " said Harry approvingly, "Sometimes you need to get away from school and academics and live a little. Having Friday specifically for studying and homework will allow weekends to truly be weekends."
"This will lead to fresher students and less burnout, " said Cedric Diggory wisely.
"Would study groups be allowed?" asked Hermione hopefully.
"Absolutely not, " said Lupin at once, "ALL students will be required to do their own homework and studying. Study groups don't promote learning. What inevitably happens in study groups is that one dominant person does all the work while the others benefit in grades but not in actual learning. Doing one's own work ensures actually learning the material. Good grades mean nothing if you're not learning anything."
"I couldn't have said it better myself, " said Harry approvingly, "Everyone doing his or her homework by himself or herself is the best way to maximize student learning. This forces students to actually do their work and learn the material instead relying on others to get them through without really learning anything. Study time should be study time and not social time as well. If there are currently any study groups at Hogwarts and there any free riders in those groups, time for them to face reality next year."
"That's all for now, " said Lupin, "But bear in mind that I reserve the right as Headmaster of Hogwarts to implement more changes at Hogwarts if and as I see fit."