It took Harry a while to wake up and get ready for the day. He had come back late the night before and didn't get much sleep. Unfortunately, he had to get out of bed because he and Susan were meeting with the MMA staff that day. When he entered the kitchen, he saw that everyone else was already there. They all greeted him, and soon he was sitting at the table, munching on his breakfast.
"So Harry dear, any plans for today? I hope you won't be working today," said Mrs. Weasley.
"Unfortunately, I have a lot to do. First, I have a meeting at Hogwarts at 10, and then I am going to Potter Manor to check on the condition of the building."
"I thought you were supposed to take a long weekend off work," she said, frowning. She was really worried that he was overworking himself.
"Yes, but an important matter came up. Unfortunately, it looks like my next whole week will be busy. I just hope that I will be able to do most of the work while being here. Those meetings are draining me," Harry replied.
"What will you be working on?" asked Bill.
"I need to take care of my finances. Both Potter and Black's estates were frozen for almost 18 years, so there is quite a lot to do there. Also, I have a second project, but I can't talk about it yet as I need permission from someone else. Though I think that in about a week, everything should be out," he explained.
"Please Harry, try to take a break. You need to rest for a bit," Molly pleaded.
"Hopefully, in about two weeks, things should be easier for me. Also, I am thinking about hiring someone to help me manage my finances, so it will ease my workload as well."
"You need to hire someone to take care of your money?" exclaimed Ron. "How rich are you then?" he asked with a bit of jealousy in his voice.
"Ronald, that's enough. It is not our business. Besides, you can't be surprised to hear that. Harry is the head of the two Most Ancient and Noble Houses. It should have told you something," Arthur cut into the conversation.
Ron mumbled an apology, and everyone went back to their meal. When they were done, Harry said his goodbyes and left for Hogwarts. He was supposed to meet Susan there as they wanted to discuss a few things before the meeting. This time, though, he apparated to Hogsmeade instead of flooing. At this moment, Hogwarts was almost empty, as all of the teachers had decided to take a break for the rest of the week to recover a bit and look at things from a different perspective. So even though the meeting will take place in the Headmistress's office, the floo was extinguished for a time, forcing him to walk from the village. The road to the school did not take him long, and he soon entered Hogwarts.
Harry decided to take a look at his post before the meeting. He was expecting to hear from Barchoke, as he was supposed to get information about the broker that was taking care of his investments. Also, he was hoping that Lord Greengrass had sent him a reply. When he entered the antechamber, he realized that the pile of fan mail was still growing, but he was not focused on it. When he segregated the letters, he was happy to see that both letters he was hoping to get were there. He started with the letter from Lord Greengrass.
"Dear Lord Potter,
My company would be more than happy to help you with all legal matters you need help. A meeting between us is something I am very interested in. But besides your legal matters, there are a few other things that I would like to discuss with you. Because of that, I would like to invite you for lunch with my family tomorrow at my ancestral home, where we will be able to discuss everything. Please let me know if that proposition is acceptable to you.
With regards,
Cyrus Greengrass,
Head of the Ancient and Noble House of Greengrass."
Harry was curious about what Greengrass wanted to speak about but decided to agree to lunch with them. He wrote a reply, and after sending the letter, he went to the Headmistress's office. When he opened the door, Susan was already waiting for him.
"Hi, Harry. How are you doing?" she greeted him.
"Hi, Sue. I am doing fine, glad that the funerals are over."
"I know that feeling. So before they arrive, what are your plans for this meeting?"
"I want to check what their expectations are. While we are making changes here, and I am willing to compromise on some matters, I don't want them to come here so they could walk all over our heads with demands. I want to make an agreement with them on basic matters and talk about the rest of the things next week at the meeting."
"Good plan. I am glad you don't want them here at all costs. Setting up boundaries with them will be very important."
They spoke for a few minutes and then they both felt the whirl announcing an upcoming portkey. After a few seconds, a group of about fifteen people landed in the office. When they gathered themselves, a tall, broad-armed man around forty years old went ahead of the group and spoke with a deep voice.
"Lord Potter, Lady Bones. My name is David Craig, and I am the Headmaster of Manchester Magical Academy."
"Headmaster Craig, I would like to welcome you and your teaching staff to Hogwarts. My name is Harry Potter, and with me is Susan Bones. Please take your seats," Harry welcomed them. When they sat down, Susan spoke.
"Headmaster Craig, could you introduce everyone?"
"Of course. Starting from my left are: Isabelle Murphy, Charms Professor, and Deputy Headmistress, Edward Bennett - Transfiguration Professor, Matilda Miller - Potion Mistress, Benjamin Chapman - Ancient Runes Professor, Ezra Hunt - Arithmancy Professor, Imogen Gray - Science Teacher, Eleanor Campbell - Mathematics Teacher, Edith Foster - English Teacher, Stanley Holmes - History Teacher, Amber Parker - administrative worker, Ralph Moore - Head of Security, Clara Lloyd - Head Nurse, and on the end are Emily Graham and Henry Edwards, who are representing parents."
"Once more, welcome everyone. As you all know, we are here to discuss the Ministry of Magic's idea to merge our schools. Before we start, I will answer a question that all of you are asking yourself. Why are you meeting us instead of the headmistress of Hogwarts? The answer is very simple - Lady Bones and I are the owners of the school, and we will make the decision on behalf of Hogwarts."
"Forgive my question, Lord Potter, but I thought that the Ministry owned the school," asked Craig.
"The history of that is very complicated, so I will shorten it a bit. When the school was created centuries ago, the founders decided that all decisions made by them must be agreed upon by at least three of the actual owners, be they or their heirs. In hindsight, it was a very bad decision, as one of the lines had died with a founder, and the rest of them were in conflict. As they couldn't agree on anything, the actual headmaster was the one who was making the decisions. Centuries had passed, and heirs still couldn't agree, so everyone forgot that they owned the school. Meanwhile, the Ministry had stepped in, and the Board of Governors was created to supervise the school. That situation had carried on for all those years until the 2nd of May when one of the founder's main lines had died out, leaving only two of us as owners, so we had stepped in."
"And why was it not announced publicly?" asked Isabelle Murphy.
"We will do that soon, but first, we want to decide on plans for Hogwarts."
"Sounds reasonable," replied Craig.
"So let's begin with our main topic. Do I understand correctly that not everyone from your teaching staff is here?"
"Yes, you are. We decided that for this meeting, it would be best if teachers with the most seniority would represent the rest of them. Though every teacher who is not here is teaching a non-magical subject."
"Thank you for your information. So here is how the situation looks from our side. We have talked with our professors, and they have all agreed that the Ministry's idea has some merits, but we have seen a few problems. The first one is most obvious - our school's main teaching focus is different. At Hogwarts, we focus solely on magical education, while you at MMA are more focused on mundane education with a smaller part of a magical one. And while we are open to introducing non-magical subjects into our curriculum, the focus needs to stay on magical subjects."
"Can you elaborate more about introducing non-magical subjects here at Hogwarts? We are all aware that you want to focus more on magical subjects, and we will agree with that, but we don't want to push away mundane education as it is very important to us," asked one of the parents.
"We want to introduce that slowly, as it will be a very big change. Maybe an hour on each Math, English, Science, and History. I am aware that it will not be enough for your students, but we can offer those subjects as voluntary weekend or afternoon classes."
"Why only an hour a week? You can't do a lot of curriculum in that time," replied Craig.
"The lack of time is the main issue. You see, we already have five magical subjects in Hogwarts that you do. We have Herbology, Astronomy, History of Magic, Divination, and Defence Against the Dark Arts. And we are thinking about expanding that list. So those few hours a week are the most we can do. Especially as there will be a not insignificant part of our society that will think that we should not add mundane subjects at all," explained Harry.
"The main problem for us, Lord Potter, is simple. We are afraid to focus on magical education, as that education can end up being useless as they will not be able to find a job in the magical world."
"I understand your fears, but I believe that your students can have a brighter future in the magical society than you think. Our country is changing a lot since the last war when a large part of the pureblood society was arrested or killed due to blood purism. This ideology will now be met with hostility as everyone remembers how much damage it caused. Moreover, as we have lost so many citizens, no one will be able to complain when muggle-borns start to immigrate to Britain," Susan elaborated.
"We will still be risking a lot," pointed out Craig.
"That's true, but if you ever want to truly join the magical society, there will never be a better opportunity," replied Susan.
Silence fell upon the room. Everyone from the MMA looked at each other, having a silent conversation. It took a moment, but finally, Headmaster Craig spoke up.
"Lady Bones, the arguments you have given us are not unfamiliar to us. When we had a general meeting with all the parents and teachers present, we discussed what joining here would mean for us and our students, and your points were something we discussed. And we made a decision. If Hogwarts does everything in its power to ensure that our students have a chance to have a good life in the magical society, we will take that risk. We haven't told you this before, but we wanted you to give us Hogwarts' stance on that matter by yourself."
"You have our word on that. Hogwarts policy is simply zero tolerance towards racism and blood purism," Harry said.
"Glad to hear that, as it can take us to our next point of concern. We have several students who are part-veela, or part- goblin. Also, we have a few students that are infected with lycanthropy. We need to know on what terms they will be admitted into Hogwarts, and what precautions will be taken against bullying."
Harry and Susan were very surprised by that news. Kingsley had not let them know about part-veelas and werewolves. They looked at each other, and after a moment, Harry spoke.
"Forgive our initial reaction as we were not informed about that beforehand. And the way I see it is very simple. Part-veelas are prohibited from using any of their power to ensnare the students. Werewolves will not be allowed to spend full moons at school. We will prepare a location where they will be able to transform safely and maintain their dignity. In return, any student harassing either veelas or lycanthropes will be severely punished, with detention or suspension, depending on the severity of the bullying," Harry said, looking cautiously at Susan. He was relieved to see that she agreed with him.
"Our policies were very similar to that, so we can easily accept that. The next point we want to talk about is our jobs. We want to know if all our staff will be hired at the same conditions."
"Yes, they will. Everyone who was working in any capacity in MMA will be hired at Hogwarts."
"I am glad to hear that," Craig replied and looked at his companions. When no one had spoken, he nodded his head and spoke again.
"Lord Potter, Lady Bones, those three points were the most important to us. As we have a tentative agreement on them, we would like to know what the next steps will look like."
"Of course. So our plan is simple. Your joining Hogwarts has coincided in time with our plan to do a major revision of how Hogwarts is working. If you decide to merge with us, you will all be participating in a meeting where all of Hogwarts' teachers and some parent representatives will be present. During that meeting, we will be going through every process that is going on in the school, such as policies, curriculums, rules, and everything you can think of. Also, all the teachers were instructed to bring some ideas about what could be added to the school so it could work better. We will then take every point and discuss it collectively."
"Why did you decide to make the changes?" asked Edward Bennett.
"Both Susan and I had attended mundane school before Hogwarts. Having that perspective, we see some flaws that this school has. So we decided to make changes in areas that were flawed or archaic," Harry explained.
"It sounds very reasonable to me. So I will tell you how the situation looks on our side. While all of my companions and I think that merging the schools is a good idea, we want that decision to be taken by everyone. So today, we will have a gathering with all parents again. If the majority agrees, then it will be our official decision to join you at Hogwarts."
"And we can agree to that as well. In that case, please inform Minister Shacklebolt about your decision today after the meeting. If the answer is yes, then I will send you details for the aforementioned meeting with Hogwarts teachers about the future of the school."
"Let's do it that way," Craig agreed, and after a few minutes of small talk, they said their goodbyes and activated their portkey to leave the school.
Harry and Susan sat in silence for a minute, sighing deeply. "Don't you think it went well?" Susan asked.
"Yes, it did. But I swear I will murder Kingsley," Harry replied.
"Add a kick from me, please. I don't know if he really forgot or if he intentionally hid it. Either way, he messed up. Luckily, you kept a cool head and handled it great."
They spoke for a few more minutes before deciding to leave and wait for the MMA decision. Harry left Hogwarts and used floo powder to get to the Ministry of Magic. He wanted to speak with Kingsley about his decision to hide important information. When he arrived at Kingsley's office, the Minister's secretary let him in.
"Harry, good to see you. How was the meeting with Craig?" Kingsley greeted him.
"It went pretty well. We'll have their decision tomorrow, but I think it will be a yes," Harry replied.
"I'm glad to hear that," Kingsley said.
"But I have one question. Why did you hide information about half-breeds and werewolves from us?"
Kingsley sighed deeply and looked tired. His reaction showed Harry that he had intentionally kept the information from them.
"Honestly? Because I had no idea how to deal with that problem. I don't have a problem with werewolves or half-breeds, but the public opinion does, and I wanted you to take care of that problem for me."
"Kingsley, for Merlin's sake, you should have just told me! We could have prepared for that!" Harry took a deep breath and continued. "But we have already dealt with it as a school matter, and I have an idea of what to do, so the public won't go crazy. But please, in the future, talk to me about things like this. I want to cooperate with you, but you can't leave me hanging like this."
"I know, Harry, and I'm very sorry. I'll never do that again," Kingsley said, relieved. "And how do you plan to take care of public opinion?"
"You'll find out soon. This will be your punishment," Harry replied.
Kingsley accepted that answer, and soon they ended their talk. Harry then left the Ministry and went to Diagon Alley, where he needed to purchase official clothes for the meeting with Greengrass the next day. He visited Twilfitt and Tattings to get new dress robes, and then returned to the Burrow in time for lunch. After his meal, he spent the rest of the day outside, thinking about tomorrow's meeting and planning for Hogwarts' future.