Three's a Charm

Calanthe throws the doors to the Chamber open, Hermione, Cedric, Percy, and Penelope hot on her heels. She smiles in vicious satisfaction as all the adults in the room turn to her, "Oh wonderful, you're all here."

Lucius Malfoy raises his nose at her as he glares down it at them, "Miss Potter, this is a meeting of the Board of Governors. You do not have the right-"

Her smile turns predatory, "Potter-Black. And I'd shut up if you don't want to lose five hundred thousand Galleons(1) and your spot on the Board of Governors which you will subsequently be banned from." He rears back as if slapped and her smile widens, "I have your attention now, don't I?"

She sweeps her gaze over the confused, murmuring Board and the Professors attending the meeting since while they don't have any power, it's their chance to bring issues to light, lodge complaints, and if nothing else they of course want to know what's going on with the school.

Seeing Malfoy start to muster himself, she preemptively cuts him off, "And no. That isn't an idle threat." She holds up the first set of parchmentwork that she'd walked in with, "I have here an official copy of the legal agreement that originally saw the formation of the Hogwarts Board of Governors when Hogwarts was in a time of financial crisis acquired directly from the Ministry Hall of Records."

She holds it out to Flitwick, "Which I'm sure Professor Flitwick will be happy to make copies of," He gets the hint thankfully, "so you can see for yourself rather than take my word on its contents, but the relevant section is 3-1-A, the summary of which essentially states that while in return for the funds from the Board they would be allowed to have a certain degree of power, if they ever began to do such an unsatisfactory job or such damage as to cause more than a quarter of the students at the school to collectively leave Hogwarts, then not only would it fall to the Board to refund tuition fees, but that they would also be required to reimburse the school whatever the modern equivalent is of a certain amount of Galleons which nowadays would work out to the five hundred thousand I mentioned, as well as being both kicked from the current Board and barred from ever returning to it."

She glances back at Hermione as she holds a hand over her shoulder and is promptly handed another stack before she turns back towards the Board and gathered Professors, "I have here a signed agreement from four hundred and thirty seven of the six hundred and ninety four students currently attending Hogwarts that if our demands are not met, that we will all collectively terminate our Hogwarts enrollment. Which on top of the five hundred thousand, would also be an additional one hundred and fifty Galleons per student per year(2) they've paid for, since I would also like to remind you that some students have their entire tuition paid in advance. And for the record, everyone who signed that was made fully aware that it was worded in such a way to be a magically binding agreement, which means you cannot ignore us because we aren't our parents or guardians."

Breaths are sucked in sharply, and her smile becomes vicious once more, "And now I have your full attention as you've realized the gravity of the situation. Fantastic." She hands that to the numb Flitwick as well, though thankfully even if it's almost absently he does begin making and distributing copies, "Now, it was discussed that perhaps we should make a speech, but that would just district from the point. Quite frankly, some of you, such as Malfoy and Dumbledore, have been turning Hogwarts into another political arena. It is not. Hogwarts is a school. One that on top of the aforementioned, has also suffered rather severe mismanagement."

She holds another hand over her shoulder and is handed the next parchmentwork without even needing to look back, dropping her gaze to it, "For one thing, given how the Board of Governors was started, its membership is decided based on money given. Your positions are essentially purchased, which isn't bad in general, as for most of you, it's a matter of both supporting Hogwarts as well as having a say in how its run due to a genuine vested interest. This is not we of the student body attempting to shame any of you, especially given how much the twelve of you give to this school collectively. We are bringing this up, because between that and the tuition for each and every student the school pulls in quite a sum. And while the statements of cost are not public, even going with a high estimate, not even half is being used. So where is the rest going?"

That has both the Professors and the Board giving each other confused, alarmed looks, "It's certainly not going into things like replacing the dangerous brooms Madam Hooch teaches with," She holds up a hand, fingers towards the ceiling with her palm towards Hooch, "which isn't a comment on you Madam Hooch, we are aware it's not your fault nor choice.” She gestures with that hand, “But Madam Hooch's request has been denied every year for over a decade with a citation of lack of funding listed as the reason. When there should be plenty."

"And that's before bringing up such issues as the so-called History Professor. He was assumably a good teacher when he was alive, I wouldn't know, but he isn't now even before you take into account that at this point he's over a century out of date, and recent history is a thing. Not to mention the fact that going through records tells us that history grades have gone down forty three percent since he died since he's stuck on the same lessons he was teaching before his death over and over. And for the record, we wrote to a number of Alumni to gauge how much self study they had to do, and by our estimate it would be more like sixty two percent if students just took his lessons at face value as what can be expected to be on tests, assuming they could even stay awake for them, as death has not been kind to his ability for keeping students engaged."

"There have also been some questionable choices made for the positions of Professors for other classes," She pauses to stare Snape down, "and I don't just mean for the revolving door that DADA has become."

Snape bristles, but she ignores him, "Speaking of, there have been zero attempts to rectify the problem with DADA. It's said that there is a curse on the position, but we consulted a curse breaker to make sure we had the right idea,” Ron's oldest brother Bill had been more than happy to help, even having turned down her offer to pay for the consultation, “and they verified that the only possible way for such a vague curse that doesn't drag others into it would have to be anchored on either the room that is the DADA Professor’s office or personal quarters, or the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor specifically.”

“By name of the position that is, and therefore canceling the class and bringing a new simply named 'Defense' class, as well as changing the rooms assigned to the Professor, including the classroom just to be safe even though it likely has nothing to do with it, should reasonably sort out the problem. Although, given the reputation that leaving the problem to fester for so long has created, it will likely unfortunately take a few years of yet more Professors of unknown teaching ability coming and going before someone suitable could be convinced to try."

Her gaze returns to staring down Snape, "Though that doesn't help with other Professors that should be replaced."

McGonagall shifts, "Miss Potter-Black, that is the second time you have made a comment at Professor Snape, but even if you don't like him, that's no excuse to be disrespectful, he's still-"

She looks at the parchment Hermione had handed over, then cuts her off, "With absolutely well earned respect Professor, per the Disciplinary Record, which is available in the library for public perusal, Snape has removed points for such infractions as: breathing too loud, answering questions, not answering questions, being a know it all, being a dunderhead, not paying attention while writing notes, and not taking notes when they pay him and the Board attention, just to name a few."

McGonagall face had turned redder and redder as her face twisted with fury the more she read, from the way she whips towards Snape, looking ready to make him rue the day he was born, she's confident that it certainly isn't at them for pointing out Snape's many flaws, but she continues, "And as much as we would all love to see you rake him over the coals for his abominable behavior, we did come here for a reason. As far as Snape goes, he has long since proven that he is, quite frankly, nothing more than a bully to the very students he is supposed to teach."

McGonagall had turned back to her when she continued further, and she smiles sharply, "Not to mention that he's not even good at teaching. Grades have dropped by thirtyseven percent since he gained the position, and while it's difficult to say how much of that is due to his teaching and how much is due to his bullying, it doesn't change the grade average nor the fact the number of people going into professions that require a passing NEWTs in potions has also dropped, though in that case it's by forty nine percent. Every student that does not pass their NEWTs is a prospective Healer, Auror, or Potions Master that we lose to his bullying and poor teaching."

McGonagall goes slack with shock, and she can see her slowly mouthing the words 'forty nine percent'. She hands over the parchment of Snape's infractions to Flitwick who numbly works on distributing it, and clears her throat, getting McGonagall and the others to refocus, "Furthermore, I would like to open the next statement by saying by and large, the vast majority of the students have nothing but the utmost respect for you Professor McGonagall, even if you can be a bit scary, though less in a bad way and more in the way of a mom, but quite frankly, between being the Transfiguration Professor, the Gryffindor Head of House, and the Deputy Headmistress it's leaving you heavily overworked which, no offense, leaves you somewhat neglecting your Head of House position."

McGonagall straightens, though after the way she tore down Snape she looks more wary than angry, "In what way?"

She nods at Flitwick and Sprout, "As you know, it's somewhat standard for the Head of House to check in with their House periodically. Not in a full blown House meeting unfortunately, even though we feel that could only be a benefit, but they do check in with individual students whose grades are slipping and pop by the House common room every now and then. However, we wrote many a Gryffindor Alumni, and since you were given the Deputy Headship, not a single one can remember you coming in for anything but an announcement that for one reason or another wouldn't be made at dinner, for an emergency, or in the case of something like a Quidditch victory party getting out of hand. And the only students you've set up meetings with were ones who were already on the precipice of failing a class, rather than stepping in earlier like the other Heads do.”

McGonagall brow furrows, and she gets a distant look that says she's likely digging through her memories, her expression getting more and more distressed as she does. Eventually she places her head in her hands, "What sort of failure have I become…"

She hums, "We aren't calling you a failure Professor, as I said, even the Gryffindor's have nothing but the utmost respect for you. But being a Professor and being a Deputy Head are both basically full time positions, to add something of a part time position of being a Head of House on top of that… I took the liberty of looking at your school scores while we were going over the declining qualifications of the DADA professors, and you have a NEWT in Arithmancy, so I doubt I need to lay out the math on that for you.”

“No one wants to lose you as a Transfiguration Professor and it wouldn't be fair to ask you to give it up given that you seem to be somewhat passionate about being a teacher, and people can hardly fathom the idea of it not being you that meets new students and gives them a welcome speech which is done by the Deputy Head and would also be unfair for you to give up given that you absolutely deserve it, and the Gryffindor's certainly don't want to lose you as their Head of House and given how protective you can be of them when necessary we don't believe it would be fair to ask you to give that up either. It's a crap decision to be made, we are fully aware of that, but things are not working out at the moment, even before one takes in just how overworked you likely are."

McGonagall nods as she straightens, "The Deputy Headship."

She blinks quickly in surprise, "Pardon? Don't you want time to think about it?"

McGonagall shakes her head firmly, "No. You're right that I adore teaching the youth, so I could never give that up, and I'm too protective of my Lions. Quite frankly, while it was an honor and when I initially took it I thought that maybe I could help the school in general, it's mostly just administrative in nature. You are absolutely right that I need to rebalance my schedule and let one of them go, and out of them, I'd prefer to let go of the Deputy Headship."

She nods, and gets another parchment from Hermione and drops her gaze to it, "Though we were under the impression you may need time to think, we did put together lists for each of the positions depending on which you chose to give up. If it's the Deputy Headship, we would like to point out that picking any of the other Heads of Houses would be the same problem unless they were inclined to give up one of their other positions."

There are firm headshakes from Flitwick and Sprout, so she continues, "As such, we would personally suggest Professor Vector. Not only is she the Arithmancy Professor and therefore by nature good at problem solving, but when we were looking into it to see who would be good candidates, we also found that her family owns a business and she has experience helping out with it. While running a school properly is a bit different if done right, it gives her experience in administration."

Professor Vector points at herself with a flabbergasted expression, but doesn't contradict her. She hands that parchment off to Penelope since there isn't much point in distributing it, "All that being said, it has become abundantly clear that this school is not being taken care of properly, and as such our demands are thus: rather than the Board of Governors having the majority of the power in how Hogwarts operates and the rest being left up to Dumbledore, who is at best so overworked by being the Headmaster, Chief Warlock, and Supreme Mugwump that he's doing an incredibly poor job in the administration of the school, we are demanding that it turns into a checks and balances system of sorts.”

“Namely, that the Hogwarts Staff are officially recognized as a legitimate body with power, and that the student body has an elected Student Council which also has power, and that any motion put forth by any of the three can be vetoed via majority vote by the other two but either no motion may be submitted during the month Student Council elections are taking place or that once they are done they can retroactively put forth a veto, and that furthermore the matter of the funds either have a proposal of their use be made public to all three groups and only be used when at least two groups approve it, or be handed off entirely to a combination of the Deputy Head and the two students that would hold the Council positions of Funding Organizers, which was in fairness, part of the reasons we were suggesting Vector."

Malfoy bristles, "Right. Because that would be so fair towards Slytherins, who the majority of the school hates. As though it wouldn't mostly be made up of Gryffindor's."

She stares him down, "Part of the fault of which lies on the head of Snape, and on the fact Dumbledore continues to try and put classes of them with Gryffindor's despite the ever increasing tensions between them. But that is not how we are proposing the Student Council to be run."

Flitwick blinks rapidly at her, "How do you mean?"

She nods and receives another parchment, "The proposal for that is as follows: each member will hold their position for a year, barring getting removed from it due to infractions such as abuse of power or neglect, beginning in November so that each position will have someone both at the end of the year as well as the beginning instead of having to wait for elections, as well as the fact they will already have the position when the funding for the next year requires approval, though depending on how its done, it may require the students to portkey or floo into Hogsmeade and go to Hogwarts. Though to that extent, between the way we are setting it up and the fact we do not wish to cut into the time of the seventh years as they study for some of the most important tests of their lives, they are barred from the positions related to funding at minimum."

"There would be four House Delegates, one for each which may or may not be able to hold a different Council position in tandem as that's still being voted on and whose main role is to bring up issues a House has in general to the Student Council, a Head and Deputy Head, and then twelve other positions in pairs for the six jobs, which may not be held by two people from the same House, of Funding Organizer, which we have already covered the purpose of, Event Planner," She looks at Dumbledore, "which means things like All Hallow's Eve and Yule would be taken over by the students as well as any others that may occur once the funds are properly sorted out and everything is back up to snuff if there is additional left over that doesn't get put towards something else."

She looks back down at her parchment and continues, "Club Organizer, Class Evaluator," She gives Snape a mean smile at that last before turning back to the parchment, "whose purpose is not to Evaluate the necessity of the class or such, but how well its being taught and handled, Professor Delegate who will attend the Teacher meetings so that we may be on the same page as well as to bring up any issues we may have."

She glances up briefly, "For the record, for similar purposes we welcome, and even encourage the Professors to select either standing members or implement a rotation of them that will attend Student Council meetings. And finally Research, which will look both in general for ways to improve the school as well as being in charge of polling the student body. This makes for a total of fourteen positions that are not the House Delegates of which no House can hold more than four of discounting the House Delegate to the Student Council position.”

Malfoy sneers, "And I suppose you'll be this Council's Head?"

She smiles meanly, "Actually, as the Professors no doubt remember, the majority of the students seemed to disappear over the course of five consecutive weekends. This was because the student body was having meetings regarding the issues we had that led to the proposal of the Student Council, the agreement to sign the pledge to make you listen to us, and even holding the elections for some of the more key positions in the Council."

"Strictly speaking, I'm technically the Deputy Head of the Student Council, but it was widely decided that the Board of Governors may be more inclined to listen to me for a variety of reasons, and as such the duty of it was handed off to me." She glances at the parchment, "As things currently stand, we have Hermione here as the Council Head, and her campaign to swing it despite her age was impressive, myself as Deputy, Percy Weasley as one of the two Class Evaluators, Cedric Diggory as one of the two Professor Delegates, and Penelope Clearwater as one of the two Funding Organizers."

She hands that off to Flitwick, who looks down at it in fascination as he absently makes copies for distribution.

She gives both the teachers and Board, who barring exceptions like Snape or Malfoy were all looking over the parchment copies with interest, "Quite frankly, we are aware that most of you are on the Board either because you have family in Hogwarts or a vested interest in the care of your Alma Mater, but quite frankly you are a bit out of touch with the school. We are not trying to remove your power, as if you push something through and a majority vote from the Professors agrees with it, it would go through regardless of whether or not we students agree with it."

"As I stated before, what we are demanding is a checks and balances system so that some people," She stares right at Malfoy, before turning her gaze back on them in general, "cannot abuse the power of it. And also, for that record, we have a secondary demand that all votes be anonymous so as to cut down on anyone attempting to…" Another brief stare at Malfoy, "coerce other members to agree with them, since they will have no way of knowing who agreed and who didn't unless it's unanimous.”

There are murmurs around the table of the Board, which Malfoy cuts into with a scoff, "As if we could agree to such nonsense. You'll have to come up with a more reasonable 'demand' to put to us. We aren't just going to hand Hogwarts over to you! Hogwarts isn't yours!

She smiles meanly once more, "This isn't a negotiation. Either you agree via magically binding documentation, or we leave. And for the record, while there were some more… extreme proposals amongst the student body to take away the Board's authority entirely, we are not doing so."

Then her eyes sharpen, "And as for the ownership of Hogwarts that you are implying, it certainly doesn't belong to you. Furthermore, given that at its core the purpose of a school is education of the students, technically if it's anyone's, it is the students’. But as stated previously, we are not attempting to take it over entirely. For one thing, we have no guarantee that even if we did, the subsequent generations of the Student Council would take good care of it and take their duties seriously, for another we acknowledge that the oldest of us have just reached adulthood, and that we would be foolish to ignore our elders and their input on the school."

A moment later, Lady Longbottom snorts, "Besides Malfoy, you're just mad because they're cutting off your power plays because honestly," She sweeps a gaze across the rest of the Board, "they aren't asking for too much when you think about it. They are not trying to remove us, they are merely putting their foot down on the severe mismanagement that has been occurring, as well as the fact some of us," She also briefly stares at Malfoy, "are attempting to turn it into a political battleground. If not having already done so, and she is entirely correct that a school is not the place for it."

"Furthermore, given the fact that they are wanting the School Staff to have their own Council or Board or whatever you wish to call it and the way they are wanting veto to work via two of our groups saying no, then they are essentially asking for the Student body and the Professors to be able to tell us how ridiculous particular motions are, because we are somewhat out of touch."

Calanthe flicks a quick look at Dumbledore's tense form without moving her head as it seems like the Board will capitulate, but she has him and they both know it, even if he's unaware she was explicitly working against him as well as people like Malfoy. But if he tries to interfere, it makes it seem like he's okay with all the students who signed losing their magic. If he tries to pull the 'disappointed' card, it makes it seem like he's okay with his students' education being sabotaged and them suffering the abuses they rose against. So there's nothing he can do.

There are thoughtful looks which turn into murmurs of agreement from the other Board members, somewhat reluctantly in a few cases, then Lady Longbottom nods firmly, "All those in favor of granting their demand of an officially recognized Board of Hogwarts Staff, vote now." Wands are lifted, end lit, and after a beat Lady Longbottom continues, "Motion passed with ten votes in favor. All those in favor of granting their demand of an officially recognized Student Council, vote now."

Again wands are lit, and after another beat she continues once more, "Motion passed with ten votes in favor. Motion of granting their demand by in some way making the voting of the three bodies of the Board of Governors, Board of Hogwarts Staff, and Study Council anonymous, with a caveat of a grace period of a month to find the best way to do it, vote now."

More lit wands though one less than the previous one and the usual pause, "Motion passed with nine votes in favor. Motion of granting their demand that the funding be done by a submission of the planned use of funding being submitted to all groups consisting of the Board of Governors, Board of Hogwarts Staff, and Student Council and only being approved by minimum of two of three agreeing to the funding proposal, vote now."

Glowing wands and a pause, "Motion passed by unanimous agreement. Motion for Headmaster Dumbledore to submit a report of the year's funding so we can get to the bottom of this discrepancy between the money that's coming in and what's actually being used, vote now. Motion passed by unanimous agreement. Motion of removing the power to plan and submit the proposal of the funding used to be taken from the position of Headmaster and granted to a collaboration between the Student Council and a selected member of the Board of Hogwarts Staff excluding the Headmaster position, vote now. Motion passed unanimously."

"Motion of granting their demand to make official decisions regarding the school be under the jurisdiction of all three groups consisting of the Board of Governors, the Board of Hogwarts Staff, and the Student Council in which any motion passed by one must then be reviewed by the others and can be vetoed by the other two groups, with the caveat that motions made by the Board of Governors or Board of Hogwarts Staff, barring entirely internal items such as motions to begin though not all are in attendance and motions to end, may not be submitted during the month of Student Council elections, vote now."

She nods at the last lighting of wands, "Motion passed by vote of ten in favor." Then she turns an amused smile on Calanthe, "I would suggest that you finish the Student Council elections soon, since otherwise things will grind to a halt."

She smiles, "Actually, while the students who were not amongst the four hundred and thirty seven students who were part of the student body meetings for one reason or another will need to be brought up to speed, the election of the five of us means we already have a decent idea of how Student Council campaigning and elections will go. With the addition of the fact our positions will be up for reelection by next November, we are projecting being able to get everything finalized with the Student Council that will be in place from now until then by the end of February.”

Lady Longbottom nods, "Good."

She nods, "Also, while I can understand why you didn't bring it up in this meeting, especially since everyone needs time to think everything else over, you'll need to consider who will be officially gaining the Deputy Headship soon."

Lady Longbottom nods in agreement, then she sweeps her gaze at her somewhat stunned silent colleagues on the Board of Governors, "I suppose that ends today's meeting, since while discussions could take place, no motions can be put forward." A wry smile crosses her face, "And I do believe we could all use some time to process the series of changes that just took place." She smiles back, and Lady Longbottom shakes her head, "Motion to end the meeting?"

All the Board of Governors wands go up, and Lady Longbottom nods, "Motion passed, this meeting is adjourned."

Without hesitation, she and the others turn to go inform everyone of their success, as well as bring the other two hundred and fifty seven students up to speed and get the elections finished up. Even as they head out, she hears Professor McGonagall, "Well… The Sorting Hat wasn't kidding when it said she'd shake things to the foundations."

She just barely catches Professor Flitwick's bark of laughter, “Right? She's still in her first year, at this rate…”

She doesn't catch the rest as they exit earshot and Penelope giggles, “You know, Professors McGonagall and Flitwick aren't wrong.”

She makes a haughty little sniff, “This school needed shaking up.”

Cedric laughs, “Yeah, but I don't think any of us who were hoping it would happen was expecting a first year to be the one to do it.”

Percy nods, “Indeed. While these changes so far are very welcome, it is surprising what their source was.”

She huffs, “As I told Cho, one of my soulmates got one taste of my temperament when I was eight and immediately gave me the nickname Xiǎolóng.” She flicks a look at the confused Percy, “It's Chinese for Little Dragon.”

Cedric elbows her in a friendly manner, “Dragon indeed. So, what's the agenda after we get the elections finished? I mean, obviously we need to review the budget for this year to see where things went wrong, and we have to do something about Snape and Binns, but…”

She flicks hair over her shoulder as she grins at him, “It's inadvisable to tangle with a Dragon, or to rile one up. And shouldn't you be directing those questions at our illustrious Council Head here?”

She's not mocking Hermione, her tone is entirely teasing, and Percy snorts in humor, “Oh please. Like she hadn't impressed you with her brilliance so much that you snatched her up as a Retainer right in the Gryffindor common room for us all to see that time she, Ron, and Neville brought you over, which while she has plenty of power of her own, kinda makes her like your Wizengamot Proxies but for the Council since while you're participating, you're too busy for the full Headship.”

The other two giggle and chuckle as Hermione pouts at him, and she sniffs, “I haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about with these baseless accusations. Now if you'll excuse me, I promised Susan I'd help her set up her campaign for the Hufflepuff Delegate and general Student Council position depending on which she settles on wanting.”

Their laughter follows her as she flounces off.

She taps her lips thoughtfully. Brightblade had sent her a copy of a proposal that had been brought to Gringotts from someone wanting to start up a broom company based on some ideas he had. He didn't have the funds though, so he was looking for investors, offering shares of the company in return.

No one had gone for it, and after checking it was genuine and not a scam, Brightblade had figured he could forward it to her to decide. While she needed money for other things, she did have two Heir vaults, and they were set aside both for situations like hers, where a Heir had to take care of things before they could access the family vault, but also for them to learn the ins and outs of investments if something like that didn't come up. Obviously she was in that position, but with two Heir vaults, there was no reason she couldn't allocate funds for investing anyway.

She's gotten some experience with it from the handful of years since she'd gotten access to her inheritance and run away from the Dursleys, and the proposal doesn't look bad. Honestly, the only reason she can personally see for why other people turned it down was a combination of being wary of competing against such well established companies as Nimbus and not knowing for sure whether his broom design idea would actually pan out.

She shakes her head, then starts drafting her return letter to Brightblade to go ahead and invest the ten thousand the man was estimating he'd need to get everything started. It's a decent chunk of her yearly budget, being a twentieth of her full yearly funding, but honestly, as long as she didn't do a bunch of bigger investments like that, even if it fell through, it wouldn't really affect her that much. And if it panned out, given she was offering the full ten thousand rather than splitting the investment, she'd get a full half of the company and any profits it yields.

Once she's sent off the approval, she looks over the specs for the broom the man was proposing. She really hopes it pans out, and not just from a monetary perspective. Maybe Hei had hit the nail on the head more than he realized with her nickname, but she adored flying, and the specs on this Firebolt … They quite excite her.

She shakes her head as she turns back to something else she was looking into. She had recently purchased a sizable plot of land on the outskirts of Hogsmeade. It had gone up for surprisingly cheap purely because someone had snatched it up when things seemed like Hogsmeade may become more popular with the intention of developing on it as it started to boom, but that had never happened. So after a few decades, they'd cut their losses and placed it up for sale. There was a vague idea brewing in the back of her mind that may actually see that boom take place if it pans out, but for now the biggest appeal for it for her lay in looking into getting cell phone and internet signals out here.

She'd imagine that it would require a more local signal tower, hence the appeal, but she was even considering how best to preserve the esthetics of Hogsmeade, since people actually liked the sleepy little village-look it's got going for it. As far as she figures, it's as simple as putting an illusion over it to just make it look like a big tree or something unless you have something keying you in to see the actual tower. Which was necessary for maintenance, but if they tied illusion key-ins to employee badges or something…

She was currently working on how to go about getting that all to happen, especially since if nothing else it'd be useful as all hell to be able to switch back to virtual schooling rather than having to use the owl method her non-magical school currently has in place. And that's without even taking into account being able to do things like call Remus or just go online in general.

She really hopes it pans out as well.

She drops the file to the large circular table in what had become the Student Council room, then looks around at the various members that have been elected. Fourteen in total, since the student vote had deemed that the House Delegates would be selected from the members of the Student Council. She runs her fingers through her hair with a sigh, “Hell of a first meeting to kick things off.”

She scans the students as they all shake their heads in disbelief or just stare at their copy of the submitted funding use in confusion. Unfortunately, the fact they kind of had to let them have a say in the Student Council means that more than one… unpleasant Slytherin had been elected. Draco Malfoy, for instance, despite being a first year, had managed to swing being one of the Funding Organizers as well as the Slytherin Delegate. There's nothing much she can do about that but hope Penelope can keep him in line as the other Funding Organizer. The same went for Susan who had lost the in House election of the Hufflepuff Delegate to Cedric, but won the school wide election for one of the two Event Planner positions and was unfortunately paired up with Pansy Parkinson.

There was a surprising number of the lower years actually, but from what Penelope, Cedric, Percy, and Daphne had told her, for all that she had convinced them to sign the agreement to force it and their other demands through, it was mostly done to get the Board of Governors and the teachers to listen to them that things needed to change. Most of the older students still weren't sure if the Student Council would actually be able to achieve anything other than pointing out problems to them, so not many of them had run in the elections. Actually, Percy and Penelope were the only two above third year.

Hell, between Hermione as the Council Head, herself as Deputy Head, Susan as an event planner with Parkinson, Malfoy as one of the Funding Organizers, Hannah who had snagged one of the two Club Organizer positions, and Daphne who had taken one of the two Research positions, the first years alone held half of the Council. Cho Chang had been elected as the other of the Council Researchers with Daphne, and weirdly she was the only second year to swing it, even though others had put their names in.

The third years had the second highest amount of students on the Council, with Cedric(3) as one of the Teacher Delegates, and unfortunately paired up with what she's been told was one of the unpleasant Slytherins in the form of fellow third year Cassius Warrington, Roger Davies had shot for and scored being Percy's partner in Class Evaluation, with a shocking turn of events having Lee Jordan going for one of the two Club Organizer positions and winning, leaving him paired up with Hannah. Penelope and Percy were the only two students older than that, being fifth years, and were also respectively the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor Delegates.

Percy purses his lips, “This… It has to just be an error. I mean, Dumbledore is so busy, what with being the Chief Warlock, and Supreme Mugwump on the International Confederation of Wizards. He's a great man, but he's no more perfect than anyone else.” He wavers slightly, “Right?”

Seeing Malfoy open his mouth, and not wanting them to be driven back to Dumbledore when they're just starting to question him between the disaster All Hallow's Eve could've been and now this as well by pure virtue of the person speaking against him being a Malfoy, she quickly speaks up, “Hard to say.”

Though given he'd been helping himself to her Potter Trust vault for years before they'd cut off his access, she has a sinking suspicion he was just pocketing the lost funds. But most of them aren't ready to entertain a notion like that, so she can't say it, “Regardless, there isn't much we can do right now barring figuring out how we'll rebalance the funds next year. That's mostly Penelope and Malfoy's area, but that doesn't mean the rest of us can't make any suggestions in general. For one thing, we're spending more on food and growing less than any of us anticipated. We could probably cut costs there if we got another greenhouse and started growing more, and since it's just food rather than anything intended for potions and the like, we could make it a space expanded one so as to only need the one. Perhaps taken care of by House Elves who know their way around that kind of stuff.”

Cedric gains a thoughtful look, “Overseen in general by Professor Sprout? If it'd be mostly dealt with by House Elves, she'd just need to keep a vague eye on things to make sure nothings going wrong and be available to step in if things do.”

Penelope nods, “That's not a bad idea. And if we could grow most of the food and really just be purchasing meats, that would cut down on costs quite a lot. Heck, I'm not sure how we'd go about that, but we could even possibly look into setting up Hogwarts becoming independent in that regard too, though it would probably be more of a long term pay off then a short term one.”

Daphne tilts her head, “That's not a bad idea. I mean, the Forbidden Forest is on the grounds and belongs to Hogwarts. It shouldn't be too difficult to clear out some of that for it.”

She presses the side of her forefinger to her lips in thought, “Mm. Does mean that idea I had for expansion will probably have to wait a couple years.”

That draws attention, and Percy leans forward in interest, “Expansion? In what way?”

She waves to the castle in general, “There's an awfullot of unused space in Hogwarts. And while it may have made sense back when magical populations were lower, the one on one apprenticeship style of doing things doesn't work as well in modern times with the substantially larger populations. There just aren't enough Masters for people to apprentice to, even if they take a few at once and continuously do so. I was thinking of proposing using some of the unused space for higher levels of education like Masteries. A… Hogwarts University, if you will. But we'd have to hire Masters for each of those classes, and given the terrible state of the budget and the fact it will likely remain that way for a few years I don't think it can be done anytime soon.”

She shakes her head, “Especially since there are things that have been put off that we need to get around to, like replacing the brooms, since the ones Hogwarts has are not just a safety hazard but an outright danger. I mean, just this year, Hermione tells me that in the Gryffindor and Slytherin first flying lesson, Neville went flying out of control and ended up breaking his arm. And Madam Hooch said that while he was nervous and that lead him to kicking off early, he did not do so nearly hard enough to shoot off at the speed he did, at which point he immediately lost control and ended up falling off of it when it was practically bucking him and slamming him into walls.”

The older years give her horrified looks, and Cedric shakes his head, “It was only two years ago, but even in my flying class… Merlin, have they really gotten so old that the spellwork has gotten that sensitive?”

The first years all collectively nod, even the ones from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw that weren't in the class to see what happened with Neville. She taps a finger to the table, “Which is precisely why they need to be replaced as soon as possible. Doing so has to be at the top of the funding priority list and get done before next year's flying lessons, else we see far worse than a broken arm.”

There are nods and agreeing murmurs all around, and Penelope taps her chin in thought, “Well, it's not like we need top of the line brooms, actually if anything those would be a detriment to flying lessons. So while it'd probably be a better long term investment to get new brooms instead of used, regardless of their condition, given as long as they're safe and work, cheaper brooms will work perfectly well for what they're used for… It actually shouldn't be too expensive to do overall, right?”

She directs the last at Cedric and Roger, which is fair since given they're both on their Quidditch teams, they'd probably be the best resource for broom questions immediately available at the drop of a hat. Roger tilts his head thoughtfully, “That's a good point actually. If we just need safe and reliable… Bluebottle brooms are literally designed for that rather than being racing brooms, which a flying class does not need in the slightest. They're designed for casual use and with the idea that both adults and younger kids could end up riding them, and those go for, what, fifty a pop even brand new? If I'm remembering the price listing at the shop on Diagon right anyway.”

Cedric nods, “About yeah, and hell, even without taking into account the money we get from the Board, a single year from a lone student's Hogwarts tuition pays for three of them, so I really don't see any reason we wouldn't be able to budget those in.”

She hums, “Particularly when you take into account that the fifty would include the stores mark up from what they got them for so they actually make a profit on them. If we wrote to whatever company makes them directly we'd undoubtedly get them cheaper. Especially since we'd be doing a bulk purchase and those are sometimes cheaper as well.”

Roger nods, “That's true. And hell, it'd be too much to ask for a donation obviously, but the Blue Moon broom company, which makes the Bluebottle, is actually a local company. They may be willing to give us a discount given what we're wanting them for. Couldn't hurt to ask anyway, right?” He looks over at Penelope, “You'll probably wanna write them soon and get a quote, since we need to figure out what the budget we're working with is gonna look like next year, given just how much we need to straighten out.”

Percy nods along with what he was saying then turns to her, “While that's all well and good and obviously something we need to get to as soon as we can, we've gotten a bit distracted. For the expansion idea, could we put together a proposal for the Board and ask for a one time higher budget approval to get things kickstarted? I mean, once we have the Masters hired the student tuitions should be able to keep paying them.”

She hums, “There is that, but while obviously we know there are a lot of people looking for Masteries out there, I think we'd need something more concrete like a poll to show how many there are and how many would be willing to pay whatever the tuition is set to.”

Surprisingly cordially, Malfoy leans forward a little eagerly, “We could put something in the Daily Prophet. There have been polls in there before, and they always get a lot of responses, since they're always just enchanted so all a reader has to do is tap their answer with their wand.”

Hermione tilts her head, “Would it just be classes, or would it be room and board like it is for us? And if it's the latter, where would we even put them? Because yes, there's a lot of room, but a full dorm, or multiple broken up dorms, would still require some thought.”

She shrugs, “Absolutely. And we could do a bit of both. Have different student plans for just classes, classes and room, and classes and room and board. Hell, while that would mean we wouldn't use as much of the unused space as the dorms would take up, if we can find the budget for it, we could maybe even give Hogwarts it's first proper building expansion and build dorms if we can't work out how to get them in the castle itself.”

That was actually the other part of why she'd perchanced that land in Hogsmeade, for people who wanted to live close by while they attended the university, since she'd already been planning on proposing it even before she thought to look into land for sale in the area. Her motivation wasn't in the profit she'd get from the rent, both from apartments and inevitably other establishments a higher level of traffic would need since The Three Broomsticks and everything else certainly wouldn't be able to cater to that many people, but if she was already going to propose it, there was no harm in profiting off of it. Hell, a good amount of space expansion and illusion spell abuse, and they wouldn't even need to screw with the aesthetics of Hogsmeade with bigger or more modern looking buildings.

There's a mixture of excitement and displeasure. Parkinson, one of the displeased one's, gives her a dirty look, “We can't change Hogwarts!”

Malfoy, surprisingly, gives her a look right back, “Why not? The founders wanted Hogwarts to do well and grow. We're doing exactly that with this proposal.”

She seems even more shocked then her, which is fair given how much the Malfoys were traditionalists, losing the dignity an Heiress would be trained to have as she sputters, “W-what? Draco, how could you possibly be on board with this?! Grow, yes, but add to something as old as Hogwarts?”

She nods, “Why not? There's nothing in the rules they wrote that say they can't. And besides, you realize the greenhouses wouldn't have been here in their time? That's why I said a proper building expansion, since it wouldn't be the first expansion in general.”

Parkinson scowls, “That's different.”

She raises an eyebrow, “How so?”

Parkinson all but shrieks, “Because that has a specific purpose, namely for the use of a specific class! It's not- It's not-”

She shakes her head, “And this would also have a specific purpose. Namely, it's the housing for students in this proposed Mastery University that want to get room as well instead of just the classes.”

Parkinson sputters some more, but Hermione clears her throat, “Right now it's just a suggestion. We need to look into it if we go forward with the proposal for the Hogwarts Mastery University, or whatever it's going to be called, but we don't have to come to any final decisions immediately. Especially since we need to hammer out the funding and all the rest of that.”

There are murmurs of agreement, so she takes her friend’s attempt to change the topic, “We should also see if we can get the Hogwash wards checked as well.”

Percy gives her a puzzled look, “What? Why?”

She raises an eyebrow, “Have you forgotten that troll incident?”

He winces, then his brow furrows, “That's… an excellent point. That thing should not have been able to get inside of Hogwarts.” He shakes his head, “That would require hiring warders though, and where are we supposed to find the funding for that? I mean, maybe if the Mastery University was up and running we'd have enough additional funding for something like that, but…”

She tilts her head as she hums mildly, “Given their species’ wide regard for children, maybe we could work something out with Gringotts? I don't know if even with that angle if they'd do it for free, I doubt it actually, but maybe they'd give it to us cheaper and let Hogwarts make payments?”

Penelope leans forward, “Well, depending on how much they want and if they will accept payments, we may be able to swing that then, but I have no idea where to even start with that.”

She hums, “I'm actually on better than average terms with my account manager. I could ask him about it?”

Cedric nods firmly, “You definitely should. Something like that cannot happen again. If dinner was already done before Quirrell spotted it… It could've easily turned into a massacre.”

Eyes darken all around the table, even from Slytherins like Malfoy and Parkinson, if only with the latter because they're thinking of their own safety and that of other purebloods.

She supposes something like that is one thing they can all agree on, even if they have different motivations for doing so.

She smiles in complete satisfaction as she eyes the final product after lowering the report. It had taken her significantly longer than she thought it would, but it was finally done, and more importantly, it was working.

She knew it was, because she'd had some of her clinic workers, after signing contracts both for confidentiality as well as not to try to take the patent, take it and test it on patents who were offered to have their visit be free or at least discounted, depending on what they were in for but the agreement was essentially worth a certain amount of Galleons, if they signed the contract as well and let them be tested on them after the explanation of what it did and was for.

They were an upgraded version of the medical pouch she'd given Hei so long ago, which wasn't standard at all. Nor was there anything like it. Hell, she already got a patent for the mail delivery pouches, since she hadn't come across anything like it since the only thing that had existed up until then had been the boxes, which were public domain and she'd basically just tweaked the rune work on, and while they didn't even have something vaguely related like the mailboxes to the pouches, it was basically the same situation with the medical pouches that could keep potions stocked up, as long as there was a supply on the other end.

Those had already been quite the hit with both emergency medical personnel as well as Aurors, since it meant they had a whole spread of potions on hand. This would likely be even more popular. It had rune work that essentially worked like a program, with a complete list of injuries and their priorities, as well as the information on what potions worked fine together and what didn't, and with a magical scan would figure out exactly what someone needed.

A full healer was still preferable of course, given that if two high priority injuries were occurring that had potions that didn't mesh, while it would do it's best, it couldn't decide entirely on its own that the listed priorities weren't right in those circumstances, and the listed lower one was actually more important at the moment. There wasn't anything she could do about that as far as her creation though, beyond including the ability to override the Rune work and tell it to prioritize something else yourself and recalculate the potions based on that, and a copy of her potion graph for manually working out the potions needed if necessary. She'd made it as perfect as possible, at the moment anyway, it could always end up being upgraded later. And the final report from the clinic on how well it was working made it abundantly clear it was doing its job, and it was doing it well.

Enough so that she finally felt comfortable submitting the patent for it, and far more importantly, the whole reason she had invented it to begin with and had put it through such thorough testing, it was finally ready for Hei. She trusted that after so many years in such a dangerous profession that he would know if it wasn't prioritizing the correct injuries, and it would save him the time and trouble of figuring out what potions to use regardless of if he had to override it or not. And if those injuries were muddling his head and making it difficult to do that work to begin with, it could very well end up saving his life.

At least she hopes it'll be useful to Hei. Especially with how dangerous his life currently was.