Chapter 29:

It was September first, 1996, and I was starting my 6th year at Hogwarts. On the train ride, those of us in the Advanced Study Group were in a few different cars, and each visited each other. I asked Colin Creevey how his internship at Nikon-M was. He said it was a lot of work and he learned a lot about the engineering working environment. When I asked him about future plans, he didn't seem that enthusiastic about returning there. He said, he might look for something in Kazakhstan or USA.

Walking in the train corridor, I noticed Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy passing by each other. They had a brief but friendly conversation with Draco wishing Harry success in his Starfleet job. I knew that the subtext was that Draco has happy that Harry Potter was going to be somewhere other than Britain, but it was still a vast improvement over their interactions on the same train this year in canon, when Harry Potter did not emerge unscathed from the train. Another difference from canon, was that Draco was not sporting a dark mark on his arm, or needing to fulfill a seemingly impossible mission.

I previously checked the clearance level that Hermione had about the inventions that I was told about in Japan. Starfleet Headquarters was insistent that research be shared, so they do not all have to reinvent the same wheel. That applied also to research in magical companies, if the research is either relevant to the Starfleet mission or affiliated with Starfleet. Therefore she could be freely told about those inventions.

I told Hermione, "My future father-in-law was very impressed with the document reader your company had sent him. Ancient books are no longer a rare item in the wizarding world, but can be copied on portable devices."

Hermione replied, "There are many forms of magic used to protect a book from being copied. However, the fact that the reader needs to be able to see it and understand it, provides a wedge to break copy protection."

I continued, "The ICW also agreed that information needed for Starfleet could be copied from copy protected books, overriding any earlier laws in the various ministries. Almost all the ministries, that had any such laws, changed their laws to make it legal to copy books if one was able to, and the owner allowed it."

Harry Potter said, "I've been slowly going through all my family grimoires. While they legally can be copied, family law does not allow it. Hermione can read them of course, but otherwise they are knowledge accumulated by centuries of Potters, just as the other families have their own special knowledge, for the benefit of their families."

I wasn't going to debate this point and said, "The law only makes it legal to copy them, not requires the owners to allow them to be copied."

I told Hermione about the computer that switches between magic and non-magic automatically. She said, "The method it uses has been published, but it takes a huge engineering effort to have it work quickly and to continue to run the same programs. We are working on it, but Toshiba and Kyocera are going to have it at mass production a lot earlier than us."

I asked her, "How has the recruitment of ex-Soviet and Eastern European engineers and scientists has been since the start of Starfleet Russia?"

Hermione answered, "It slowed, but is still continuing, and almost noone goes back. We have especially recently, have been getting extremely smart people from Hungary. Once a wizarding nation goes traditional, even the non-magical scientists and engineers can see that the opportunities are better elsewhere. Starfleet USA tried a different approach that has also been working. They have been recruiting engineers and scientists in Hungary that remain in offices in Hungary that have good internet connections."

Luna said as a statement, not a question, "It does not bother Hermione when she meets someone smarter than her."

Hermione, appeared amused and answered, "Why should it? Who can I learn from, if not those who know more than me?"

The sorting feast was very similar to last year. No staff members left, but there were some additional part-time teachers to cover new available electives. In part of his speech, Dumbledore said, "The class Wizarding Culture is now required for all students, unless they pass a test. You can schedule a test with Professor Marchbanks, for this and any other class you think you have already completed the knowledge of. Until then, all students will attend Wizarding Culture.

The class formerly called Muggle Studies is now called Non-magical Cultures. Its emphasis has now been changed to teach the rapidly changing non-magical cultures, and the different cultures even within Britain. To fit in, and not cause undo attention to oneself, one must be aware of not just clothing styles, and devices, but types of behaviour and vocabulary. You will also learn how it is not generally appropriate to try to fit in to the every culture, only to have a believable non-magical cultural identity, and act appropriately to the identity you are trying to portray when you are among non-magicals. I encourage you to take this elective."

This year I was in mandatory Wizarding Army Training. Commander Bryne Moyle was a veteran of the war against Grindelwald. He had the demeanor of a drill sergeant and yelled at us, "Many of you know how to duel. That is not what we will be doing. You will fight for Wizarding Britain, you will fight for the guy next to you who you don't like, you will fight for your homes!

You all have read about squad formation in your books, and have been issued your squad groups.

Squad formation!"

We all fell in a particular arrangement that gives some advantages to both offense and defense.

"Prepare to defend. Anyone hit by a color beam does pushups until I say, at ease. Defense members of the squad setup shields, or blocks, offense tries to destroy the enemy dummies. Everyone dodges when necessary. Hold your ground, no advance nor retreat."

The attack dummies got gradually faster and more numerous, until eventually we were all hit.

"5 minutes, 22 seconds. Next week we will repeat the exercize and do better. Then we will add many new elements, and after that we will combine the 6th and 7th years."

Harry Potter told me that Wizarding Army Training was frustrating for him, since his methods were so much better. He said "I could defeat these 85 trained like this with 25 that I train. They have no concept of what is above and below them. No use of drones. No indirect fire. They are not even taught how to not be visible and how to infiltrate to unexpected places, although I am pleasantly surprised that they are taught to detect invisibility."

The rest of my classes were challenging. However, silent spell casting was not new for those of us in the Advanced Study Group, so all of us in the 6th year had that advantage.

Dumbledore advised me and Luna to try to get good NEWT results, that it would help our credibility. This year Luna was studying for some of her OWL's, but had already taken some of them early.

We had a Section 31 meeting at Dumbledore's office. He asked, "Would you like an office in Hogwarts for reviewing Starfleet materials?"

Luna answered, "A fixed location is a vulnerability. Any physical materials we'll keep in expanded storage on our persons at all times. Any location we use for Starfleet business, we'll ward when in use. We carry charmed devices to help setup the warded areas. It is far more secure than permanently warding an office."

Dumbledore answered, "I tend to agree. Normally I would suggest a Fidelius protected location, but that cannot work within Hogwarts wards. Actually, I could override Hogwarts wards, but then those wards wouldn't work properly if a Fidelius protected location were within its wards."

I read from a paper, saying, "I'll read the Section 31 personal security report.

There are no known plots against Section 31. There is some resentment, especially in the directorates of Russia and Dakar, but not rising to the point of wanting revenge or considering that an attack would improve matters in their view.

The Kazakh directorate takes it for granted that those employees who went to Hogwarts in this decade, are likely also working for Section 31. As far as we can tell, no magic was used to determine this, only common sense. Director Morozov does not seem bothered by this, and actually jokes with the people involved, saying things like: Write this down for your Section 31 report.

While there are no known plots against Mr Picard or Miss Lovegood, Director Dumbledore has a large number of enemies, unrelated to his Starfleet activities. We recommend that he conduct himself as if he were still in the middle of a war."

Headmaster Dumbledore was noticing that there were too many classes, occupying too much of the week for many of the students. He held meetings with all professors, to see if some of the new electives could be added to the existing subjects, such as transfiguration, charms, defense, potions, ancient runes, or astronomy.

Another idea he was discussing was that after first year, there be two tracks based on ability. Instead of having 2 classes, each with 2 out of the 4 houses, there would be 2 classes for 2 different learning paces.

Meanwhile, the ICW was being petitioned by traditionalists in Britain and other nations, to encourage the formation of international schools that would teach both wizarding subjects, but also techno-magic, and basics of non-magical science and engineering. One suggestion was that Starfleet could add this to their academy, so that students from age 11 could not only learn these subjects, but could continue with even more advanced subjects.

While, most could figure out that they just wanted to have these students leave their lands for both education and careers elsewhere, it still was an idea that made sense to many. It could help provide better qualified Starfleet employees in the future.

For different reasons, there was an agreement to form a committee to put together a detailed plan for the school, probably as part of the Starfleet Academy. There would be detailed recommendations, and a decision to be made in August 1997, and if approved, for the school to open in September 1998.

I was talking to Colin Creevey. He was describing his upcoming summer internship at Starfleet US. Magical camera development wouldn't be with a company, since Starfleet US directly makes and sells technomagic devices. The term technomagic started to become popular in 1997. Starfleet US sells products for both local and global markets to help fund itself.

During this school year, there was a lot of planning in the background, but not much going on in the foreground at Hogwarts. There was still almost no inter-house hostility. The only annoyance was that many Slytherins said almost the exact same friendly and encouraging speeches, to those who one would assume that they do not like, about opportunities in the Starfleet directorates.