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Chapter 3
The last few days in France without the elder Grangers went well enough. Harry and Hermione moved into the Potter holiday home that was only called a Chateau on the technicality that it had a vineyard. The did spend a day arguing for the sale of a lot of the wine that had been produced since his parents' death and that the gold would be used to pay off all the debts the property had wracked up. A side effect of living just behind the Delacours home was that even though Fleur was still sleeping in her own room, she was still up with them almost at the crack of dawn. The French witch would walk up the small but steep hill that was the Potter vineyard and join them before breakfast. There were still certain lines that couldn't be crossed with Fleur, given that she was of age and Harry and Hermione weren't. There was, however, plenty they could do, and the three teenagers took full advantage of having a little separate holiday home of their own.
They took most of their meals with the Delacours, in part so that the adults could see that Harry and Hermione were fine but also so that they all could get to know each other better. Fleur's little sister Gabrielle, who was starting Beauxbatons next year, had taken to following them around as much as she could, chatting constantly with Hermione and Fleur. At first Hermione and Fleur went out of their way to translate back and forth between Harry and Gabrielle, but it soon fell by the wayside.
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Soon it was almost Harry's birthday, and they had committed to spending that in the UK with Sirius, Remus and Harry's friends. Travelling magically back was even easier than travelling to France. They Floo'ed into the French ministry with Monsieur Delacour, and it was a quick trip through customs. Fleur had given her father a big hug and a hurried goodbye, and then the three of them had to pass through the checks governments require for you to enter or leave their influence. Fleur had to join a different group than Harry and Hermione, as she was a French citizen travelling abroad instead of a visitor leaving France. They regrouped quickly enough and after a portkey to the British ministry they then did the bureaucracy again in reverse.
Dan was waiting for them with the car when the three of them came tumbling out of the phone box. Luckily for them, Fleur could legally do magic and she had shrunk down their bags, letting the three of them climb into the car without worrying about getting heavy suitcases into the boot. When they got home, Harry was surprised to find not just Emma waiting for them but Sirius, Remus, and Hermione's grandmother Jean, who were all sitting around drinking tea.
Hermione instantly forgot about everything else and threw her arms around her grandmother before squeezing her in one of her hugs. "Gran, what are you doing here?!"
"Well I haven't seen my favourite granddaughter since Christmas, so I wanted to see you again and Sirius was kind enough to offer his services teleporting me back and forth." Jean said, smiling. Her statement earned Sirius what might just have been his first Hermione hug.
It was amusing to watch Fleur in a completely non-magical home. Magical France was much more in touch with their mundane counterparts, so Fleur wasn't completely unfamiliar with using electricity; however, many modern conveniences were not needed in a magical home. Why not have a wood burning stove when you can fill it with fuel and set it going with a few flicks of your wand? Magic made the older, more antiquated ways of doing things far more convenient than they were for mundane. Why develop a machine to knead your bread or mix up your cake batter when a spell would make dough knead itself or a whisk beat the batter on its own? Fleur's only big mistake was putting the electric kettle on the stove. The house was filled with the smell of burnt plastic before anyone realised. Luckily a few good cleaning charms from Fleur were enough to fix the cooker, but there was nothing that could be done for the poor kettle. Fleur was apologetic, but the Grangers shrugged it off. They were only concerned that Fleur wasn't hurt.
Harry woke up on his birthday sandwiched between Hermione and Fleur. Fleur couldn't join him and Hermione for any of the more fun bedroom activities, so for the most part she and Harry didn't share a room, but last night both of his girls had decided to cuddle up to him, and were now already awake and waiting for him. "Happy birthday Harry." The two of them said in unison before they both leaned in and kissed a cheek each. The kissing didn't stop at a light peck. Fleur continued to press little light kisses along Harry's cheek until she claimed his lips. Hermione's kisses went the opposite way and led to Harry's ear, on which she started to nibble and suck. Hands started to roam and Harry was in heaven. After some unseen signal, Fleur abandoned his lips and went after his other ear while Hermione left the ear she was lavishing attention on and she claimed his lips.
The three of them stayed like that for an hour before getting out of bed. Unlike the year before, both the doctors Granger had to go in to work even if both of them were only taking a half day. So when the trio finally went downstairs, Dan and Emma had already left for work. Harry tried to make breakfast, but both Hermione and Fleur told him to sit down and they would do it. Harry was a little apprehensive; Hermione had so far refused any of his offers to teach her how to cook, and he had never experienced Fleur's cooking.
Fleur, it turned out, knew what she was doing as far as cooking was concerned and mostly wanted Hermione's help with the mundane kitchen. Fleur combined the British and the French flawlessly by making them each a croque monsieur, only she replaced the ham with British bacon and added a fried egg, combining the French sandwich with a British bacon and egg sandwich. It was delicious.
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Once the Grangers were home, Harry was informed of the plans for the day. They were going to be holding the party at Harry's house in Hogsmeade, and Harry was just glad that Remus lived there, as between Sirius and Dobby things could and would get ridiculous quickly. He shuddered as he had a vision of Dobby covering every wall with large tapestries featuring Harry's face and Sirius jinxing them to change to a collection of embarrassing baby photos of Harry half way through the party.
The party wasn't due to start until six, so naturally all the women in Harry's family wanted to be there by three to give them the time they needed to get ready. Harry thought that they would Floo from the Leaky Cauldron but apparently Sirius had a house in London, and because it wasn't in the middle of a commercial area parking was easier. Sirius was waiting on the payment outside his home, which, by what must have been magic, had a parking space right in front of it.
Sirius gave Hermione and Fleur permission to pass through the wards as the Head of the House of Black. Harry, as Sirius's heir to the Headship of the Black Family, didn't need permission as the wards already recognised him. Dan and Emma, though, as mundane people, couldn't be granted permission in the same way. To let them into the property, they had to be escorted by either Sirius or Harry. Sirius escorted Emma leaving Harry to escort Dan as he followed Sirius into number twelve Grimmauld Place.
The inside of the house was dark and dreary. It looked to Harry like a home for dark witches and wizards who wanted everyone to know about it, though there were signs that things were changing here. There were squares of the wall that were clean and the wallpaper or paint were less faded, patches of carpet that showed the depression of a piece of furniture that was no longer there, and a large box of fresh cleaning supplies on a nearby table.
Harry shot Sirius a questioning look and his godfather provided answers. "This is the main residence for the House of Black. I grew up here. My parents were silent supporters of You-Know-Who and my family were as dark as they could legally get away with for generations. I don't particularly like being here, but in my family's paranoia they did one thing right. This house is warded enough to keep any unwelcome people out, and after what happened to you a few weeks ago I thought a nice heavily-warded property in the middle of London would be useful." Sirius gave Dan and Emma a significant look, both of whom were caught by surprise. "So Moony and I have spent the last couple of weeks trying to get this place livable again. No has lived here for over a decade, and because there were all sorts of dark artefacts here it attracted all sorts of magical pests. Add to that just years of neglect and it's not good. Still another week and we think it will be ready to switch from making it safe to making it comfortable."
Dan finally butted in with a question. "Why did you look at us like that?" His tone was friendly, but there was a hint of worry on his face.
Sirius looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights for a moment before he took a deep breath and explained. "You're Harry's guardians and his girlfriend's parents. Of all the people around Harry that he cares about, you are also the least protected. There is a possibility that Harry will be targeted again after what happened to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. We can't put wards on a muggle home, even with half the people living there being magical. I spoke with Amelia about it, but according to her her hands are tied. So, as this place is mine and has all the wards already, I am formally inviting you to stay here for as long as needed."
That surprised everyone and earned Sirius his second Hermione hug in less than a week. The Grangers agreed to think about it. Soon everyone was Flooing to "Potter House." Harry decided at the last moment that he wouldn't Floo and instead concentrated on the spot just in front of the Floo fire at his home in Hogsmeade, and Apparated directly there. He made it there in one piece but felt like he had run the whole way there. Apparently using magic to travel between four and five hundred miles was more draining on his magic than he had expected.
Hermione noticed that he hadn't come through the floo and, worried, came over to check on him. He assured her he was fine, and a few moments later Fleur came through the floo also worried about him. Once the two girls were convinced he was fine and only a little fatigued, it was time to start getting ready for the party. The girls dragged him up the stairs to the master bedroom where either Dobby or Sassy had laid out robes for them. The first thing Hermione did when she got in the room was to remove her hair band letting her cat ears be free, followed quickly by her jeans and tail sock before she stretched them out. "I love the freedom the hair band and tail sock give me to travel around the mundane world, but it feels better to let my ears and tail free." Hermione said as she stretched out her tail and flexed her ears.
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Harry was stuck waiting by the Floo fire for an hour to greet his guests as they arrived. Apparently he had to be there for half an hour before the time people were meant to arrive till half an hour after. Guests arriving outside that time was considered an insult to Harry under British wizarding culture unless there was an acceptable reason or other arrangements had been made previously.
The first twenty minutes were quiet with no one coming, but at ten to six the first guests started to arrive. First was Daphne and Tracey along with Daphne's mother Loreal and her sister Astoria. Daphne and Tracey each gave him a hug, wished him a happy birthday, and placed a birthday gift for him on the table that Sassy had set out ready for them. Next came Neville with his grandmother, then Fred and George with their elder brother Bill. Then came Tonks, who was alone. The big surprise to Harry was when Ali came through the Floo and gave him a hug, but the smug look on Fleur's face as she came to lead her friend to the function room told him exactly who had planned that surprise.
The party itself was fun. Sirius had made what he called mock-tails. Like the mundane drinks that shared the name, they were not alcoholic. However, each drink was laced with a magical effect that lasted about 30 seconds. Five out of six of the drinks had a fun effect for the drinker, such as the effect of being hit with a cheering charm or everything tasting like honey for the duration. However, one in six were mild pranks, like the next time you tried to speak you would belch instead or you would float off the ground unable to move for thirty seconds. Everyone was told that the drinks were charmed and the odds of getting a pranked one, and they had the option of butterbeer instead if they wanted it, but all of the teens quickly got into the spirit of it and were drinking the mock-tails. The Weasley twins thought they were amazing and spent most of the night talking to Sirius and Remus about how it was done, along with future prank ideas.
Food was arranged by Dan and Emma, who Floo'ed back to London at half past seven to collect an order of pizzas they had arranged to be delivered. There were ten fourteen-inch pizzas split between the seventeen of them, and given that half of the people there were hungry teenagers it wasn't long before all the food was gone. The teenagers, the Grangers, and Sirius spent the night of Harry's birthday at the house in Hogsmeade, just too tired to bother with travelling back to London. As they were eating breakfast the next day, Harry and Hermione got their Hogwarts letters.
"Harry, Harry, look at this!" Hermione sounded excited as she held up something for Harry to look at. Harry looked over at what Hermione was trying to show him only to see her holding a shiny new Prefect badge. "Quick, Harry, check yours, see if you have the other one!"
Harry finished opening his letter, and to be sure a red and gold badge with the word Perfect slid out of the envelope. Suddenly Harry was holding an excited Hermione in his arms while Fleur was grinning, happy for them both, and Sirius and Remus were letting off showers of red and gold sparks from their wands in celebration.
Dan and Emma came in, in a bit of a rush. They had already eaten and had rushed back to their room to finish getting ready for the day as they had to get to their dental surgery within an hour. "What's all the commotion about?" Dan asked.
"Harry and I have been made Prefects," Hermione said excitedly.
There was a lot about Hermione's (and later Harry's) education that Dan and Emma were never going to really understand, however school prefect was something they understood without any additional explanations, and the two pulled Harry and Hermione into a big group hug and told them how proud they were of them.
Sirius picked up Harry's letter and read it through, then after spotting something, he picked up Hermione's as well and checked it." I think the two of you need to read your letters," he said as he held them out to each of them.
Harry took his letter and started to read.
Dear Mr Potter,
Congratulations on reaching your fifth year of education at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. You will not find a list of your results this year as is customary, as due to your involvement with the Triwizard Tournament you were exempt from all testing and examinations. I did speak with your professors and each of them assured me that your knowledge and work were of sufficient quality to pass to the next year, with some going so far as to say that they expected that, should you have taken the tests, they expected you to score an Outstanding.
It is with this in mind that, and your record of going above and beyond for your fellow students (even earning yourself an award for services to the school) that I name you as the fifth year Gryffindor male prefect.
Further, after our chance encounter in Diagon Alley during last year's Muggleborn orientation, I have decided to officially request that you (and Miss Granger) attend the orientation that is scheduled for the second Saturday of August, 10:00 at Trafalgar Square. Can you please send me an owl telling me if you can make it or if I should ask another muggle born student?
Yours sincerely,
Professor Minerva McGonagall
Acting Head of Gryffindor
Headmistress of Hogwarts
Hermione was all for helping out the new first year mundane-raised students, in fact she was rather excited by the idea. She ran off almost immediately looking for something to write with and started listing out things she wished she had been told as a first-generation witch entering an unfamiliar culture. Things like the Knight Bus and that you need to be careful what magic you experiment with, lest you wind up with a tail for the rest of your life.
Harry went back to looking at what else was in his envelope from Hogwarts. There was a list of books Harry needed to buy for their next year and a notice that the Hogwarts tuition was increasing by 10%. According to the letter, Dumbledore hadn't raised the tuition in decades and it left the school in a tight financial situation, as the tuition hadn't tracked the devaluation of gold in the wizarding economy. Goblins were far better at finding and mining gold than any mundane, and the gold they added to the economy was spread among a relatively small population. As gold's value is linked to how rare it is, the value of the Galleon slowly fell over time.
Harry wasn't worried about the additional cost; he had a lot of gold set aside that he could only spend on his education. He would also pay Hermione's tuition if it was needed but knew the Grangers could pay it. He did feel a little sorry for the Weasleys, with four of them currently in Hogwarts that was going to be an extra four hundred galleons (almost two grand in pounds) that the family would have to find. At least it was the twins' last year, so their bill would drop next year. And it's not like they hadn't managed before, in Harry's second year there had been five of them at the school.
Dan and Emma had to leave straight for work and didn't have time to drop the teenagers back at their home, so they said that they would swing by Grimmauld Place to pick them up after work, but if they made their own way back or made other arrangements then Hermione knew the number for their work phone. Before they disappeared through the Floo to Grimmauld Place, they gave all three of them a quick hug and offered Harry and Hermione congratulations again for being made prefects. It was surprising to all the magicals just how quickly Dan and Emma had accepted wizarding travel. In the space of a few months they had taken four portkeys, two of which had been international, and had used a Floo maybe three times as much. Yes, the dentists complained a little about how uncomfortable they were, but plenty of magicals also did that (though none more so than Harry).
Not long after the Grangers left Remus's copy of the Daily Prophet was delivered and the headline caught everyone's attention. Hermione took the paper and started to read it out loud.
BIG CHANGES AT HOGWARTS
Will your kids be safe?
It will come to little surprise to many of our readers that Hogwarts, that wonderful Hall of learning that most of us have incredibly fond memories of, is under new management. The previous headmaster, Albus too-many-middle-names-to-keep-straight Dumbledore, was found to be negligent in his handling of one of our nation's treasures, Harry Potter. The governors of our beloved school felt that it was unacceptable to have an employee of a school with such a failing on his record and asked him to step down once they reached the end of the last school year.
The new Head of Hogwarts is none other than Professor Minerva McGonagall, Master of Transfiguration and until recently the Deputy Headmistress and Head of the House of might have assumed that as the Deputy Headmistress for so long there would be very little change to the school under her care, however you would be wrong. The stern teacher many of us remember fondly wasted no time in putting into place what she called when I spoke to her, "much needed improvements that have been waiting far too long."
"Many times I brought some of these issues to Albus but he was convinced that nothing needed to change. However, for example, we have a ghost teaching history of Magic who has taught the students more about falling asleep than history. We also until last year had two staff members with just too much work on our hands, and I hate to think just how much was missed, because when we are supposed to be monitoring students we were too busy with parchment work. This is why I am making some changes. First, no Professor can hold more than two positions at a time. Albus was the Headmaster, Chief Warlock and our representative to the International Confederation of Wix. That affected the time he could devote to the school. As deputy head it was left to me to do the bulk of his administrative work, and that had an effect on my head of house responsibilities. So from now on, professors will only be allowed one additional role to go with their teaching responsibilities, and any professor who has significant responsibility outside the castle will not be considered for an additional role."
That's right readers, no more will the school deputy head be one of the Heads of House, at least not whilst Headmistress McGonagall is in charge. And given her reasonings she may have a point, will a more relaxed workload for some key staff members mead a better education for our children? Only time will tell.
However, the restructuring of how the school is run is by far not the only change that is being made, and it's by far not the most controversial. Professor McGonagall is opening up the school to a wider group of students; Hogwarts is now officially accepting werewolves. Notorious for the monthly rages during a full moon, werewolves are considered a danger by many. When asked about this, here was the headmistress's answer.
"People cursed by lycanthropy are normal people save for the nights of the full moon. These people still need to be able to earn their gold to buy a home and put food on their table. If you deny them an education so that they can do it honestly, then in desperation they will turn to other methods to survive. No one who is suffering from this curse will be in the castle during the full moon. After looking through records of the schools assets, I found that the school has an island in the Outer Hebrides, and before the first of September that island will be warded so that the only way on or off is by a portkey created by myself, my deputy, or our successors. Hogwarts has had a couple of students and one professor during my time here who were infected with lycanthropy. In all that time, not one student has been infected, and both of the lycanthropy sufferers who were students (and later a professor in the one case) had never bitten anyone at all.
The idea that werewolves will be attending classes with our children will upset many, but will the assurance that they won't be anywhere near the school when they transform be enough for some parents? Add to this that Headmistress McGonagall is also hiring a werewolf to teach. Professor R.J Lupin was a professor at the school for one year as the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. I spoke to a few students without revealing his status and found that the idea that he would be returning to the school was positively received.
Will this work out for the new headmistress? Or will it all come crashing down? We will have to wait and see.
By the time Hermione finished, Harry was staring at his honorary uncle, unsure if he should congratulate the man or demand to know why he was learning of the new job in the paper rather than the man telling him himself.
"Does this mean you'll be our Defence professor again?" Hermione asked excitedly.
"Ah no. I will have additional duties to help the lycanthropy students, so Professor McGonagall doesn't want to risk me being gone in a year. I will be replacing Professor Binns teaching History of Magic."
"Why didn't you tell us?" Harry couldn't keep the tone of accusation out of his voice.
"I only signed the contract yesterday and I didn't want to interrupt your party," Remus admitted.
Before Harry could say anything else, Hermione started bombarding the man with questions. "Who's going to be the new Head of Gryffindor? Oh is it you? You were a Gryffindor! Oh, and who's the next deputy head? And what are you going to cover in your lessons this year? Are there any additional books you recommend I get? What do you mean you have extra duties for the students suffering from lycanthropy?"
Fleur pulled Hermione into a side hug, surprising her and getting her to stop asking questions. Fleur gave her a quick kiss and said, "You need to give him an opportunity to actually answer your questions." Hermione blushed, causing everyone to laugh.
Then Remus answered her questions. "Well I am definitely not the new Head of Gryffindor. I will be like a second Head of House for the lycanthropy students. There is plenty of stuff that they will feel more comfortable talking to me about than any of the other professors. I think Professor McGonagall said she was going to offer the Gryffindor Head job to Professor Babbling. Professor Flitwick will be the new Deputy Headmaster as it is traditional to select the new deputy from the Heads of House. Before you ask, I think she was going to ask Professor Sinistra to take over as Head of Ravenclaw." Remus suddenly looked like he was considering keeping something from them but decided to tell them anyway. "Professor Vector is also being offered the head of Slytherin position."
"Wait, she sacked Snape?" Harry couldn't keep the hope and glee from his voice.
"No, he is still the Potions professor, but that's all. Professor McGonagall already had to look for a new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor and a new Transfiguration professor, though she is more than willing to teach the class until she finds a suitable replacement. Apparently she was already doing most of Dumbledore's duties on top of her ones as Deputy Head, Head of Gryffindor, and teaching, so just doing the Headmistress's work and the teaching would actually be less work for her than she was doing until now. Also, Snape is proficient at brewing wolfsbane, and given the circumstances it's a skill that's incredibly important to have at the school," Remus explained
Harry understood, he would have preferred that Snape was gone but he knew why he was needed and would just have to be satisfied with the fact that the man lost his Head of House position. Maybe Professor Vector would be able to control some of the Slytherin students who were more Death-Eater minded. Remus went on to talk about what he would be teaching over the next year and giving Hermione the names of several books that would be good background reading. Then he suggested that she and Harry check out the Potter library before rushing out to buy them. That ended the breakfast for Harry and Fleur, as Hermione dragged them upstairs to Harry's library to look for the books their new history teacher had recommended.
A/N
Trafalgar Square is not far from Charing Cross Rd and is an easily recognised location to meet a group of people within easy walking distance of Charing Cross, where the Leaky Cauldron is meant to be hidden. Trafalgar Square is also one of the few easily recognised places where the names haven't changed in the few decades since the time when the books were set. After all, I doubt there was a KFC on the road in 1995.