Chapter Ten
“There is a lot more first years than last year,” Harry commented as McGonagall lead the group of eleven year old into the hall.
“It’s because of the post-war baby boom,” Hermione said.
“Baby boom?” Harry asked as the Sorting Hat began singine
“The war ended on October 31st, 1981. With Voldemort gone, everyone wanted to start families when they had previously put it off because they didn’t want children in a war. Add nine months for a pregnancy and the first wave of children begin being born in August and September of 1982. The school age cutoff is September 1st so most of those kids would have their eleventh birthdays in September of 1983 and later and begin Hogwarts now, September 1st, 1994. Hence all the kids,” I said.
“There was also a lot of increase in last year's class from all of the kids who would have been conceived right after Voldemort was defeated and born in August. The second year class has 51 kids whereas Ginny’s year has 32, the lowest in several centuries, and ours is 38. This class must be over 70,” Hermione said, as the first child sat down on the school.
“I bet there are a lot of kids named Harry,” Ron said as Harry Bell got sorted into Hufflepuff.
Sure enough, there were six children names Harry, two children names Harrietta, three named James or Jamie and two named Lily. There were also three girls named Hope and three named Joy.
“I can’t believe people named babies after me,” Harry said in embarrassment.
“Do you know who that is?” Ron asked, pointing at a fat, jovial old man drinking from a goblet.
“Huh, if Moody is DADA and Lupin is History, then that’s probably Slughorn. Dumbledore must have brought him in to teach Potions,” I surmised.
Once the first years were all sorted, Dumbledore bade us all to ‘tuck in’ as the feast appeared from below.
“House elves did a great job with this feast,” somebody said from lower down the table.
Hermione froze like she was struck with an epiphany.
“The house elves!” she exclaimed.
“Yes, the house elves who make the food,” Ron said, gnawing on a chicken leg.
“Does Hogwarts pay their house elves? And give them sick leave and time off? How did I not think of this before. I mean, I’ve known there were house elves this whole time, but I never actually thought about their worker rights,” Hermione said anxiously.
“House elves don’t want sick leave and payment,” Ron snorted.
“Hogwarts has the most fair and kind employment for house elves in all of Albion,” I said, before Hermione could go into a full panic attack. “Working at Hogwarts is a dream come true for most house-elves. You can ask Dobby after dinner, you know he’s honest about house elf rights.”
“Still, the treatment of house elves in the magical community is essentially slavery. They’re not allowed to leave, they don’t get paid and they get beaten for the smallest errors.”
“Can’t we propose a law to fix that?” Harry asked.
“House elves do get room and board and most don’t want payment. A house elf labor rights act, allowing elves to leave their place of employment if they are dissatisfied might be possible. We’d have to look into the laws surrounding house elves,” I mused.
“It’s not enough!” Hermione insisted.
“That’s going to be hard enough to get through the Wizengamot as it is. But if we word it right and say that it’s just to give house elves an out against the worst abuse, which is illegal anyways just not enforced, it could pass. Then they have the option to leave, just not the means. I don’t think the Ministry is going to set up a house elf rights office, but we can offer an alternative. We offer paid jobs with fair contracts to any house elf who wants it. House elves will probably be necessary for the safehouses I’m setting up. Then most house elf employers will probably start being nicer once they realize that their free labor can get up and walk away whenever they want,” I proposed.
“There are a bunch of unused Potter properties, or barely unkempt ones with old house elves. Some can go work there. We should probably start using them anyway for the war,” Harry said.
“How hard do you think it will be to get a law passed?” Hermione asked.
“You should work on leading this. Start a movement. Youth generally tend to lean liberal, so start here. Talk to Andromeda on creating a bill. Once the movement gets large enough, Rita can publish an article and you can start campaigning among the Wizengamot,” I suggested. “Just make sure you have a firm platform, good branding and come up with an acronym that isn’t SPEW.”
“Okay, I can do this,” Hermione said, abandoning her dinner to begin scribbling on a piece of parchment.
“I understand that house elf rights are really important but in the grand scheme of preparing to defeat Voldemort, are we going to have time to do war preparations, house elf rights and school?” Harry asked.
“That’s why Hermione is leading house elf rights and I’m leading war preparations,” I said.
Shortly after we finished dessert, the dishes disappeared and Dumbledore rose to his feet.
“So, now that we are all fed and watered, I must once more ask for your attention, while I give out a few notices.”
There was the standard mention of what Filch had banned since June, the reminder that first and second years couldn’t go to Hogsmeade.
“It is also my painful duty to inform you that the Inter-House Quidditch Cup will not take place this year.”
“What?” Harry asked, looking devastated.
“"This is due to an event that will be starting in October, and continuing throughout the school year, taking up much of the teachers' time and energy, but I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely. I have great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts-”
With maximum dramatic effect, the doors of the Great Hall boomed open to reveal a hooded figure. Hogwarts sent a bolt of lightning across the enchanted ceiling. Moody removed his hood to reveal a scared face and a bright blue eye that practically glowed. He walked up to the Head Table, exchanged a few words with Dumbledore before sitting down and beginning to eat his food.
Once it became clear that everyone was more interested in the grizzled old Auror than the mystery event that half the hall knew about anyway, Dumbledore changed tracks.
“May I introduce our Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Professor Alastor Moody. Professor Remus Lupin has kindly agreed to stay on as our new History of Magic professor. Professor Horace Slughorn has agreed to resume his old post as Potions professor,” Dumbledore said, indicating each of the professors.
Dumbledore continued on, announcing the Triwizard Tournament and explaining what it was. I watched Professor Moody intently. While Crouch Jr had been arrested, there was always the possibility that he had either escaped or another Death Eater was disguised as Moody. The problem would be figuring out whether our new teacher was the real Moody or not.