During the break, everyone exchanged opinions about the announced changes. Harry and Susan listened to the positive feedback from the others, which gave them more confidence that they were doing the right thing. When the meal ended, they returned to the headmaster's office to continue the meeting.
"Alright, now that we are fed and watered, we can carry on with our meeting. The next point we want to raise is the security of the castle. In past years, we have had too many successful attempts to break in, and there have been a few accidents when students snuck out to Hogsmeade. Here is how we plan to address these issues. Firstly, every secret passage that exists will be permanently blocked, as they are currently only sealed. Secondly, patrols throughout the castle will be increased. So far, we have had patrols during the nights by prefects and teachers. That duty will now fall to our security team. The third change will pertain to the usage of the Floo Network, which we can split into two possibilities.
The first one is using the Floo Network for transportation. To either enter or leave the castle, everyone will need to go through the security room. We will note who leaves the castle, who enters, and so on. This means that barring any emergency, every fireplace in the castle will be connected to the transport room only. If there is a danger, teachers will have the ability to declare an emergency that will unlock the option of Flooing out of the castle. The second scenario pertains to using the Floo Network to call other fireplaces. In that situation, every teacher is allowed to Floo call anyone, and those conversations will not be monitored." Susan explained.
"So, the teachers who live outside of the castle will also come to the security room after using the Floo, right?" asked Isabelle Murphy.
"Yes, they will. But after we confirm their identity, they will be allowed to go instantly," replied Susan.
"How will you check that?" asked Sprout.
"First, we will install a small version of Thief's Downfall. That will eliminate the option of someone using Polyjuice."
"You had mentioned situations when someone other than a teacher will want to enter the castle. Can you elaborate?" asked McGonagall.
"Of course. Firstly, families will always be allowed to enter the castle. We believe that families should have the opportunity to see their loved ones attending Hogwarts. Separating them for months with only letters as a method of communication is unnecessary and cruel. And it is the same for teachers. I can't imagine even one good reason why, for example, the grandkids of Professor McGonagall could not visit her during the weekend. With tightened security, this will pose no danger to the students, and it could raise morale.
"Glad that you agreed with that, Professor. But families are not the only examples of potential visitors to Hogwarts. And this will also be a pretty significant change. From now on, every teacher will be encouraged to organize guest lectures."
"Finally!" exclaimed Flitwick.
"I agree with your sentiment, Professor. Guest lectures are a wonderful way to broaden the horizons of students. But also from now on, we want you to organize outings from the school for students. Visiting 's, Ministry, or Gringotts can be not only educational but also a way for them to see possibilities that they have."
"Will I be allowed to take students into the Muggle world?" asked Stanley Holmes, muggle history teacher.
"Of course you can."
"And what if I would like to take them to a place where everyone will need an entry ticket?" Holmes pressed a bit more.
"The school will pay for tickets and transportation fees."
"Oh great, I already have a few ideas!" he said happily.
"Does anyone have any questions about security, visitors, and outings?" asked Susan.
"I have a few," said Isabelle Murphy. "If I were to invite a guest to a lecture, does it have to be for all my classes?"
"No, you can invite someone even for one class. There is no point in forcing others to listen to topics that are too advanced for them."
"Alright, and do the lectures have to be closely related to my subject?"
"No, they don't. You can, for example, cooperate with Professor Flitwick and invite an enchanter, a profession related to both charms and transfiguration. Or you can even invite someone outside of the topics we are teaching, like Aurors, to have them talk about the law."
Isabelle Murphy smiled at them, indicating that she had her answers, and she was satisfied with them. When no one else had more questions, they carried on.
"The next matter we want to discuss is school discipline. Right now, in Hogwarts, we have two main punishments: detention and losing House Points. And there are a few problems with them. Up until now, we didn't have a good place for the students to serve detention. Clearing the trophy room was a useless task, especially since house elves could do this much faster and better. So from now on, detentions will be served on the farm. There are a few tasks that have to be done manually, and they will be punished by working there.
"As for House Points, I have personally had a bad opinion about them as they were not fair. Hermione Granger could earn twenty points in a whole day for her hard work, just so it could be lost by me for breathing too loud at Potions. But as much as I originally wanted to get rid of that system, the House Cup is a Hogwarts tradition. So, we came up with the following idea. The House Cup will stay in an unchanged version, but we will add a second point system. And this one would be individual. Here is how it will work. Every student will start with some number of points. Like always, they will earn them in class or lose them for bad behavior. So when Professor Sprout gives Miss Bones five points for helping her, Susan's account will get five, and Hufflepuff will get five. The amounts of individual points will be monitored by the Head of House. If Susan loses half of her points, her Head of House will talk with her and give her a warning to improve her behavior. If the number drops even more, her parents will be notified, and she will lose some of her privileges. But it will also work the other way around. If she gains a lot of points, she will get additional privileges that will stay with her as long as she has that number of points."
"What number of points are we talking about?" asked Headmaster Craig.
"We haven't decided on that yet, as we have a task for you that needs to be completed first. As mentioned before, there have been instances where different teachers have given different amounts of points for technically the same thing. Therefore, we would like all of you to prepare a list where you will detail every situation where a student will lose or gain points and the amount their balance would change. We want you to do this because we don't know what values will be optimal."
"Will all of us be working on that?" asked Sprout.
"This task will be one of a few that we will give you. As you can imagine, it will not be our only meeting, so you will work on them in between. Headmaster Craig will be tasked to divide the work between all of you."
"Alright, sounds fair," replied Sprout.
"In that case, let's move on to the next matter. And this matter will be the curriculum. There are a few changes in subjects that are taught at Hogwarts. First of all, Divination will no longer be an elective. Second-year students will undergo a test that will show if they are a seer or not. If they are, we will contact a tutor who will teach that student. It is useless to teach someone without sight Divination techniques."
"That should have been done a long time ago," said McGonagall, and all Hogwarts professors chuckled, knowing her hatred for this subject.
"The second subject that will change is Muggle Studies. As time passes, Muggles are becoming more technologically advanced. This forces us to teach how to blend better with them. We realized that this was becoming a big problem, and we decided to combine the solution with another problem. You see, Muggle-borns who come to Hogwarts have a big disadvantage, as they know almost nothing about the Wizarding World. They are given an outdated book and are expected to learn the rest themselves. So, our idea is simple. We will create a new subject called Wizard Studies. Every student will now have to pass two years of both new subjects, as well as Muggle Studies. But, as some of you can realize, it is pointless to teach Muggle-borns about Muggles, and vice versa. So, in the very beginning, they will take a test. Passing that test will release them from the obligation of passing that class. If there are lucky Half-bloods who were raised in both worlds, then they will have a free period."
"Are Muggles close to finding out about us?" asked a surprised Babbling.
"If we do not change our behaviors and keep disregarding them, I give us 30, maybe 40 years max."
"Then we need to start working on that," replied McGonagall.
"We are. Next, we want to talk about new subjects that will be introduced to Hogwarts. We will begin with Muggle subjects. Every student up to OWL level will need to take one hour a week of every basic Muggle subject. If anyone would like to take more of those lessons, they will be allowed to study them during evenings and weekends."
"Is it a part of the solution to the earlier problem?" asked Cyrus.
"Yes, it is. The better we understand their way of thinking, the more chance we have to keep the statue of secrecy."
"Alright, it makes sense," Lord Greengrass replied.
"But Muggle subjects are not the only new lessons we will introduce. After passing the OWLs, students who have chosen their career path will be able to learn the basics of their jobs while in Hogwarts. Introduction to Curse Breaking, Healing, and Basic Auror Training are examples of new subjects. But also, we will have new, not closely related to any job, such as Alchemy and Spell Crafting.
"Are there any requirements for the students to be accepted to those classes?" asked Craig.
"They need to pass OWLs with certain grades to be accepted."
"Seems fair."
"And the last thing on that topic is subjects that are already in the curriculum. We want you to work on the syllabus for those classes. You need to decide on what exactly to teach and how you will split the work between you. You can divide yourselves with one teacher taking years 1-4 and the other one 5-7. Or, you can decide on individual topics and who is better suited for each one."
"How much time do we have?"
"I don't think we should rush anything, so a few weeks."
"Alright, so now I will give you a last task. I want to take a good look at the rulebook here and prepare a report on what rules are outdated and what rules are missing."
"We will take care of that," replied Craig.
"Good to hear that. Now, I would like to ask you all, is there something else we should work on?" asked Harry.
"I think that Hogwarts should have a place for students from different houses to meet with each other. We either had to meet in the library or unused classrooms."
"Very good idea. We will create some common room for every house. Any other ideas?"
"What about more sports competitions? Some tournaments in chess or Gobstones could be interesting. And we can also introduce Muggle sports into Hogwarts."
"Again, very sound ideas that make a lot of sense. Is there anything else?"
It was silent then, and Harry decided it was time to end that meeting.
"In that case, I think we should end for today. We have done a lot, and I think we all need to think about it all. About the next meeting, I propose to meet at the beginning of June to give ourselves time. Any objections?"
No one had any, and they all then started to rise. After discussing a few minor details, all of them left, leaving Harry, Susan, McGonagall, and Craig in the office.
"You know Potter, I had anticipated many things today, but you exceeded all of my expectations. And luckily, you and Miss Bones did it in a good way."
"Thank you, Professor."
After a moment, the teens said their goodbyes and left the office. Harry went to the gates and portkeyed to Potter Manor. He went into his office and sat heavily on his seat.
"How was the meeting, Harry?" asked his mother. She was an inspiration for a few of the ideas.
"Very good. They all took our ideas well, even though the topic of werewolves was a bit hard."
"It will take a lot of time till they will accept them," Lily said sadly.
Harry only nodded his head and thought for a second. He remembered that he had to contact his broker to find out about his investments. He was done with this task when Kooby popped in with a letter for him.
Dear Harry,
First of all, I need to thank you once more for what you did on Sunday. Even though my parents and I aren't still as close as we were, we are on the way to getting there. And this is all thanks to you. I don't have words to express my gratitude.
But now to tell you some good news: We are coming back to England. In a lucky course of action, my parents' competitor offered to buy their practice. So in the last three days, they have worked on all the paperwork and are ready to come back to the country. So on Monday at 1 A.M, we are landing at Heathrow, ready to begin a new chapter here. I am so excited! We will stay in a hotel until they find a home for us to buy. I am so excited! I wrote that before, but never mind. I am so happy that I don't care. So now, I am ending this letter, and I will contact you on Monday.
Love,
Hermione
Harry was very happy that Hermione was coming back; he missed her a lot. He decided to invite Hermione and her parents to Potter Manor to stay until they would find a home for themselves. He wanted to write to her, but he knew that an owl would never come there fast enough. After a second, he realized he had another way to send her mail, so he took a parchment and started to write.
Dear Mione,
You do not have to thank me for anything. For the last seven years, you saved me so many times, and I will never be able to pay you back.
You have no idea how happy I am that you are coming back with your parents. I am missing you terribly. But the reason I am writing to you so fast is different.
I would like to invite you and your parents to stay at Potter Manor until you buy your own home. There is no point in you spending money on hotels when I am living alone in a multi-bedroom mansion. You and your parents will have a place here, and hopefully, you will be able to heal the damage in your relationship. Of course, I will understand if you don't want to stay here. But I want you to know that I will be very happy to have you here.
Love,
Harry
P.S. I know that you will murder me for having more house elves, but I will explain myself when you come back.
P.P.S. I forgot to mention that I have a big library here.
Harry sealed the letter and called his elf.
"Mimsy, can you come here?"
"Yes, Harry?"
"I need you to take that letter to Australia to Hermione Granger. Will you be able to do that?"
"It is no problem for me. Should I wait for the reply?"
"Yes, please. And thank you."
Mimsy nodded her head and disappeared. Harry then left his office to have dinner. He was almost done with his meal when he received a reply from Hermione.
Harry
You are dead. First of all, you have more house elves. Secondly, you used your elf to send me a letter without thinking about the time difference. I almost had a heart attack when she popped into my room! Luckily for you, my parents were not sleeping as they spent the whole night packing so we could make it in time."
"But now, to reply to your letter, I talked to my parents and we would like to accept your invitation. They were a bit skeptical at first, but I assured them that you would not have invited us had you not wanted to. So, yes, we would love to stay in Potter Manor."
"I cannot wait to meet with you, even though the first thing you will get from me is a slap on the back of your head.
See you soon!
Hermione
Harry was very satisfied with her reply. In a very good mood, he decided to relax for the rest of the day, as he was tired after today's work.