Meanwhile, while Devon, James, Hugo, Ainsley, Samantha, Stephanie, and Lily were off having fun in Honeydukes, Headmistress McGonagall was holding a key meeting in the staff room with the Heads of House, Professor Longbottom for Gryffindor, Professor McMillian for Hufflepuff, Professor Flitwick for Ravenclaw, and Professor Brew for Slytherin. Despite having been a Ravenclaw in his days as a Hogwarts student, Professor Brew had agreed to become head of Slytherin when the position was open. This made Professor Brew the first head of house to have ever not been in that house when he or she was a student.
"Good Morning Professors Longbottom, McMillian, Flitwick and Brew. I have called this meeting to discuss and vote on the ideas that Mr. Potter presented me with after the most recent meeting of the Hogwarts Planning Club."
"How many ideas did Mr. Potter present you?" asked Flitwick.
"I asked the Hogwarts Planning Club to present me with between three and six ideas. As it turns out, Mr. Potter did not have to come up with any suggestions of his own because every other member of the Hogwarts Planning Club was able to provide him with a reasonable suggestion," explained McGonagall.
"I'm really proud of my students," said Longbottom, "Remember that all seven members of the Hogwarts Planning Club are Gryffindors. I'm guessing that some of their suggestions will prove extremely helpful to Hogwarts."
"No doubt about that," said McGonagall with a smile, "The first thing I'd like us to discuss is very straightforward. Mr. Dursley really enjoyed our BBQ feast last year although it was overshadowed by the fact that it occurred on the night that the Hogwarts Writing Competition winners were announced. Well, that night was the Friday before Easter and Mr. Dursley has suggested that Hogwarts hold a BBQ feast on the Friday night before Easter every year."
"I enjoyed the BBQ feast too, especially the great BBQ chicken," smiled Longbottom, "I could see it becoming an annual event."
"Let's not do it too frequently though," said Flitwick matter of factly, "Keeping it rarer keeps it special."
"That was a point that Mr. Potter's younger brother apparently made when the Hogwarts Planning Club was discussing this idea," explained McGonagall, "Let's take a vote on it. There are five of us. three votes will be needed for an idea to pass. Raise your hand if you are in favor of Hogwarts hosting a BB feast featuring BBQ hot dogs, hamburgers, and chicken on the Friday night before Easter every year."
All five people in the room raised their hands and McGonagall declared, "Motion passed."
"That was easy," smirked Brew.
"I somehow don't think the rest of our discussions will be so easy," said Macmillan wryly.
"Certainly not," admitted McGonagall, "Mr. Potter was confident that this idea would be approved and told the Hogwarts Planning Club as much. He also knew that some of the club's other ideas would be up for much more discussion. This next one is serious."
The attentiveness level in the room increased sharply at that.
"Mr. Potter's younger brother expressed some serious concerns with regard to the library," said McGonagall firmly, "And I think his concerns are valid."
"Shouldn't we call Madam Turpin in here if we are going to be discussing library policy?" Flitwick asked Professor McGonagall.
Hogwarts longtime librarian, Madam Pince, had retired a few years after the Battle of Hogwarts and Lisa Turpin, a former Ravenclaw student who had been a seventh year when the Battle of Hogwarts had occurred, had taken over the position. Madam Turpin, while not warm and affectionate, was far less snarly and gentler towards the students than Madam Pince had been.
"Hogwarts librarians have never played any role in setting policy," said McGonagall matter of factly, "They only enforce the school's library polices."
"This is the New Era of Hogwarts," said Brew, "Shouldn't Turpin at least get some input into the polices that affect her job?"
"You're right, Professor Brew," conceded McGonagall and McGonagall quickly sent a paper airplane memo to Turpin. Fortunately, Turpin responded immediately and was in the staff room within five minutes.
"Madam Turpin," said McGonagall seriously when Madam Turpin, "Today we are discussing potential changes at Hogwarts thanks to suggestions put forth by the Hogwarts Planning Club. One of the things we are discussing today is library policy. As the school librarian, you should have the right to give input on decisions involving library policy. "
"Thank you for including me," said Turpin humbly, "But I think I'll only give input if I strongly object to something. Otherwise, "I'll let the higher figures set the policy and go about executing it the best I can."
"The very reason you should be here," Brew told Madam Turpin clearly, "Is that library policy is directly related to your job and if you are against a potential change to library policy you should therefore have the right to voice your dissent."
"We'll see how it goes," said Turpin simply.
"Here's the issue that has caused us to need to look into library policy," explained McGonagall, "Mr. Potter's younger brother has noticed that some Ravenclaw students are book hogs."
"I strongly disagree with that observation," insisted Turpin, "In my time as Hogwarts librarian, I have never had a student come into the library and check out an enormous stack of books."
"And I have certainly never seen one of my students carrying an unreasonably large stack of books," added Flitwick.
"No," agreed McGonagall, "That's not the issue. The issue is book hogging with regard to specific books."
Professors Longbottom, Flitwick, Brew, and McMillian and Madam Turpin all exchanged confused looks at this statement.
McGonagall went on, "Here's the rope. Mr. Potter's younger brother brought it to the attention of the Hogwarts Planning Club that a handful of Ravenclaw students are book hogs in the sense that they circumvent the due date system."
"In my experience," said Turpin clearly, "All Hogwarts students are very good about bringing library books to the library on or before their due date."
"I have no reason not to believe that" replied McGonagall, "But have you ever had students bring books back to the library on their due date only to check them out again that same day."
"This is not an overly common occurrence, but it does occur periodically," acknowledged Turpin, "And it IS usually Ravenclaws when it does happen. Hogwarts policy allows this. I always thought the point of having due dates was to make sure all library books and materials remain accounted for."
"That IS a good reason to have due dates," agreed McGonagall, "But it should also be noted that the spirit of the library is that library books are meant to be shared. Circumventing the due date system by repeatedly checking out the same book(s) goes against that spirit."
"You know, even if you don't have a plethora of students doing that, for less common books it only takes a handful of people being book hogs to create an issue," realized Longbottom.
"Come to think of it," realized Turpin, "Even if we were to change the library policy to require books actually be returned on their due dates, students could actually still keep books for any length of time they wanted because students choose their own due dates and it would very easy to pick a way out there due date when checking out books."
"Mr. Potter's sister saw that issue and realized that changing the policy on due dates themselves would only carry weight if due dates were harder to begin with," said McGonagall.
"So, are there actually going to be any changes to Hogwarts library policy?" McMillian asked Professor McGonagall.
"That's what we're going to discuss now," answered McGonagall, "Madam Turpin, since you are the librarian, I'll let have the first say into how long the due dates should be."
"I think an appropriate policy would be that when a student checks out a library book that the due date shall be two weeks after the checkout date. So, if a student checks out a book on the 14th of a month, it would be due back on the 28t," suggested Turpin,
"That's more than fair," agreed Longbottom, "A fortnight should be sufficient time to read any library book."
"It would also lead to students using more discretion in choosing which library books to check out and when," supplied McMillian, "That can only be a good thing."
"Students DO need to understand that Hogwarts library is NOT their own personal library," piped up Brew.
"For whatever reason, Ravenclaws have never been great at sharing in general," admitted Flitwick.
"Mr. Potter's younger brother also suggested that we cap the number of times a student may check out any particular library book at once per semester. That would limit any individual student to having any particular library book to two times per school year," McGonagall informed them.
"That's a good idea," said Turpin clearly, "But I say we limit to one time per school year per book."
"There was a consensus amongst the Hogwarts Planning Club that, hey, how much can you gain from reading the same book over and over again and even with books that are stories, how many times can you reread the same story. They all agreed that zero people would be hurt by this policy." McGonagall told the others.
"So, you think they would be in favor of reducing the limit from the once per semester that they proposed to once a school year."
"I do," answered McGonagall simply.
"I would support the once per school year limit," chimed in Flitwick, "Because it would encourage students to expand their horizon. Study more topics instead of always reading about the same topics. Study more aspects of the same topic. Read more and more varied stories instead reading the same stories over and over again. That's all good for a student's education."
"Okay then," said McGonagall, "We're going to put these ideas to a vote. If you approve of implanting a hard due date system for library books of two weeks after checkout, requiring books to be actually turned in on said due date, and limiting any student's ability to check out any particular book to once per school year, raise your hand."
Every hand went and every head nodded.
"Why didn't I think of this before?" said McGonagall aloud. James had been right. McGonagall thought she should have seen this a long time ago now that it had been brought to her attention.
"Up next," said McGonagall, "is that Mr. Fred Weasley had the idea that Hogwarts have a different kind of competition every year. Last year we had the Hogwarts Writing Competition. Mr. Weasley's idea is that the Hogwarts Planning Club would come up with an idea for a different competition every year and that year's competition would be announced at Thanksgiving. The timing of announcing the winners can vary from year to year. It is Mr. Potter's belief that as long as these competitions don't take up too much of the teacher's time that we will approve it."
"The teachers don't have to act as judges or be very involved in every possible competition," said the still present Turpin reasonably, "Fellow students can act as judges, people on the internet can act as judges, some competitions will naturally have objective criteria. Personally, I'm in favor of more competitions at Hogwarts as it allows students to have some fun while striving to find the best within themselves at the same time."
"I'm in complete favor of it," said Brew, "I'm a firm believer that competition brings out the best in people."
"That is 100% true. Even those participants who don't place can find out a lot about themselves just by participating, "said McMillan supportively.
"It can also bring the worst in people," said Longbottom warningly, "Friendships and even relationships between siblings and cousins could become strained because how they are both after the same prize."
"There is a such thing as an overly competitive person," admitted Flitwick, "I say that if we do implement these yearly competitions that students should banned from betting against each other on the outcome."
"Well, there should be no betting at Hogwarts, period, " fretted McGonagall, "Gambling is a horrible vice. Furthermore, I have seen more than one friendship at Hogwarts ruined by bets gone bad either by the loser backing out of the bet and the winner resenting that or even just disagreements over what the terms of the bets were in the first place. But I'm in league with Brew and McMillian here. I think competition is good for students. Let's vote on it. If you are in favor of a yearly competition at Hogwarts with the betting ban included, raise your hand."
Everyone did. Flitwick and Longbottom were placated enough by the ban on betting to go along with it.
"Mr. Hugo Weasley and Miss Roxanne Weasley presented related ideas to the Hogwarts Planning Club," said McGonagall matter of factly, "Mr. Weasley feels that students should be allowed to retake any or all their exams one time in early August if they are unhappy with their results, especially considering the high stakes nature of exams such as O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s. Miss Weasley, meanwhile feels that too much weight is given to end of year exams. In fact. as it is, the end of year exams are all that decides pass vs fail. Miss Weasley would like to see students who don't do so well on exam day be able to pass if their homework and assignment grades are consistently good. Here's the rope though, no change to exam or grade policy can made by the staff alone. To implement either of those changes, we would have to get the approval of Hogwarts Board of Governors because the Board of Governors ultimately have the final say on all exam, curriculum, and grading policies. We would have to have discussions with the Hogwarts Board of Governors on these ideas and then they would have to approve them in order for us to implement them. The staff can change things like the Quidditch schedule, feast schedule, library policy, visitor policy, hospital policy etc. on our own. But the Hogwarts Board of Governors has final say and final vote on all grade, curriculum, and exam related issues. My question to the rest of you is whether we want pursue such discussions at an upcoming Hogwarts Board of Governors meeting?"
"I think it's a discussion worth having," said Flitwick firmly, "I think we're always looking to improve education policy at Hogwarts. There are reasons to and not to make such changes but I'm all for discussing things."
"We could each take some time before said Hogwarts Board of Governors meeting to consider on own views on these topics," said Longbottom matter of factly, "This is one of those things where there may need to be a bit of dialogue and give and take before we find a solution but we've got to be open minded about this"
"In the New Era of Hogwarts, I support giving the students options and opportunities, "I intend to vouch for these changes at said Hogwarts Board of Governors meeting," said McMillian fiercely.
"Students are expected to prepare well for their exams and take them seriously and are fully aware of their impact and consequences," said McGonagall slowly, "I'm not a huge fan of these ideas. But if there is sufficient support for them, I'll back them."
"Education policy should never be changed hastily," said Brew, "But it should be discussed frequently."
"So, are we all agreed that we will present these ideas at the next Hogwarts Board of Governors meeting?" asked McGonagall.
Every hand went up and there was one idea left to discuss.
"Miss Potter believes we need more inter house unity," said McGonagall.
"Won't confuse her with the middle Potter," said Brew wryly, "He hates my house."
"Because he is too closed minded," said McGonagall sharply, "But Miss Potter has suggested that, in class situations where students have to "pair up", that, if the class is shared between two houses, the teachers should pair up students from different houses. I like this idea, I agree with Mr. Potter, who feels that this is a good first step towards building more interhouse unity."
"I'm against the idea," said Brew, "If more interhouse friendship and unity is to occur, it needs to happen naturally."
"True," added Longbottom, "It means nothing if it's contrived."
"The only way for interhouse friendship to have any staying power is if it happens of its own accord," said McMillian decisively, "It would just vanish if it was forced in a disingenuous way."
"Sometimes a little push can help things get started," insisted Turpin, "I say we do implement this policy."
"No," said Flitwick sharply, "To force interhouse relationships on the students could lead to resentment and thus further strain interhouse relations. It has to happen organically if it's going to happen."
"Raise your hand if you are in favor of the policy that teachers will pair students from different houses together in class when possible," said McGonagall.
Turpin and McGonagall put up their hands. Flitwick, Brew, Longbottom, and McMillian did not.
"Idea rejected four to two," said McGonagall simply, "I will inform James of our decisions tomorrow morning and he can inform the Hogwarts Planning Club of the results at the next meeting of Hogwarts Planning Club."
McGonagall then informed Turpin of the decision that had been made before she had come to host a BBQ feasts on the Friday night before Easter every year.
Turpin was all for it.
"MMM" said Turpin happily, "That BBQ chicken was awesome last year, and the hamburgers and hot dogs were damn good too! To have that feast every year is a win win."
McGonagall now adjourned the meeting and she, Longbottom, Flitwick, Brew, McMillian, and Turpin headed off to lunch.