Chapter 16
Axestalker grinned as he settled back on an outcropping to one side of a particularly messy dragon pit. He made a show of snapping open his morning copy of the Daily Prophet and began to read out loud to one Albus Dumbledore, who was currently shoveling fewmets, the chains on his wrists and ankles preventing him from using his magic.
NEW HOGWARTS OPEN ENROLLMENT
The Founder's heirs have done it again, changing the rules that former Headmaster Albus Dumbledore set into place to hamper the education of children in Magical Brittan. Petunia Evans, Lady Ravenclaw, has announced that every child from the ages of five to seventeen who has magic or has a sibling with magic will be allowed to enroll in Hogwarts, either through the new day classes for younger students or the traditional boarding classes for older students.
That's right, even children who don't have magic such as a muggle sibling to a muggleborn or a squib sibling of a wix will be allowed to attend Hogwarts. The reason for the change is a simple one. Lady Ravenclaw is firm in her belief that this will allow for a greater harmony within the families of the children attending these classes.
"For the families of the muggleborn children there will be no jealousy that a sibling is being left behind while the lucky child gets to go an adventure into the wizarding world, while squib children will be able to get the muggle education they need if they choose to leave the wizarding world as an adult while still staying with their families. That being said, there are many professions within the wizarding world that do not require magic or much magic, such as art restoration, herb growing or accounting that a Hogwarts education can prepare a child for." - Lady Petunia Evans
That's not all. Hogwarts will also be opening it's doors to other magical children who have until now been barred from attending Hogwarts based on Dumbledor's so-called safety measures. It's well known that the former Headmaster encouraged certain children into abusive situations for his obscurus research. Starting this September those children, such as werewolves, hags, and those with creature ancestry to name but a few, will be allowed to enroll in classes. True safety measures, such a special dormitory for werewolf children and wolfsbane potions for the nights of the full moon, have already been put in place.
"THEY CAN'T DO THAT!" Dumbledore roared, interrupting the account manager's reading.
Axestalker grinned viciously at the old wizard. "Oh yes they can - because THEY own Hogwarts, you idiot." He flicked one of his long fingers at Dumbledore, and the shovel Dumbledore was holding flung up and a piece of dragon dung smacked the fuming wizard in face. "Get back to work, you've got a long, long way to make up for what you did." He went back to the paper. "Let's see what the Founder's Report is saying."
SLYTHERIN MYTH BUSTED!
Long have we been told of the fight between the four founders of Hogwarts, with Salazar Slytherin being kicked out of the school and his sealing of his Basilisk inside the Chamber of Secrets in order to purge the muggleborn from the castle. Today we reveal that the entire story is just that - a story. While it is true that the Chamber of Secrets held a Basilisk, it turns out that said creature was Slytherin's own familiar, and that the reason it was still in the castle was that Slytherin never left.
That's right, Salazar Slytherin's remains have been found inside the Chamber of Secrets, laid out in his bed. From what the healers who have been brought in have deduced, Salazar died of Dragon Pox, which is still a very dangerous disease today with a vaccine for the illness having only been recently discovered and made widely available.
As for the story, we've discovered from a translation of Rowena Ravenclaw's writings that Helga Hufflepuff insisted on telling their students that Salazar Slytherin had left the castle to travel and so they had sealed his Chambers for his return. This was done in order to prevent a panic. In fact they had sealed the Chamber in order to prevent the disease from spreading to the rest of the castle. The children of the time had simply expanded upon the simple story with gossip when Slytherin did not return, and handed the gossip down until today we have the story of the Chamber of Secrets.
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Dudley's birthday could have been the Ravenclaw family's first step into the high society of the wizarding world, but he, Harry, Petunia, Augusta and Neville had all gotten together and decided that Harry and Neville celebrating a combined birthday party would be a better time to invite the oldest families to a public meeting. Dudley's birthday would be just for their family, and the boys would celebrate Harry and Neville's birthday on Neville's birthday for all of their friends and Harry's birthday would be for the society party.
That was of course, taking advantage of the hype about 'The Boy Who Lived' crap, as Harry put it, but none of the boys were about to object to the ladies playing politics. It would put them in the spotlight, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. They would play innocent kids taking their first step into the wider world of adults, while the sneaky ladies of the group would be chatting up the rest of the important guests about the various laws that were up for a re-vote.
Minister Fudge had announced that the ministry was reviewing all of the laws that had passed from the time that Dumbledore became Chief Warlock. Any that had been passed by the number of votes or less that Dumbledore had, both by his position as Chief Warlock and by a surprising amount of proxy votes that he had been in charge of, would be up for a re-vote beginning in the September session of the Wizengamot. Harry was interested in particular about the laws regarding werewolves and other undesirables. After all, as he'd pointed out to Augusta, if a someone could not get a job legally, then they would be forced into doing things illegally just to survive. Petunia was interested in the laws that she said were holding Wizarding Brittan back in the dark ages, and as she was introducing Augusta to the wonders of the muggle world, Augusta was beginning to agree.
Dudley had chosen to go to an exhibition on wood carving through the ages at a London museum to be followed by pizza party and ending with a run through two book shops, one on the muggle side and one on the wizarding side for his birthday celebrations. He'd also insisted to Augusta that she and Neville counted as family.
Petunia was actually quite glad of his insistence on bringing the Longbottoms along. They had all left Privet Drive far behind them, but she'd been worried that Dudley would want to try and keep his oldest friend Piers. Now that the curses were off of them she was very aware of the fact that Dudley had been growing up to be a delinquent and that Piers is growing up to be the same. Now that Dudley had his magic and his new, probably life long, hobby of wand making, and as he'd told her he didn't want to try and keep in contact with any of those boys anymore, she was content that Dudley was making friends with Neville, considering him a sort of god-cousin as he was Harry's god-brother.
That was also a relationship that was preceding nicely as well, between Neville and Harry. The two boys had taken to studying together at the ice cream shop when they wanted to get away from all of the important responsibilities that had been dumped on them at the beginning of summer. Ron and Hermione had often joined them when her parents were at work.
In fact, all five of the children were there today - which meant that she and Augusta were free to go to London to meet up with the doctors that had been suggested to Augusta as possibly being able to help Frank and Alice. Petunia would be there as a moral support for her friend, and then after Augusta would do the same for her as she met with Dr. Rosenbalm, the squib therapist that she had chosen. Merlin, that was going to be hard.
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It had taken a full month, but finally, finally it was all settled. Minerva sighed as she slumped back in her desk chair. All of the new classes, and the old ones that needed it now had teachers and a full syllabus. The schedule was set, and the rooms, both class and personal had been assigned. Hagrid was back from his vacation and his tutoring and his teaching schedule was set up. The house-elves had finished purchasing the needed animals and the new gardens had been put in and were in full growth, so that everything they needed for feeding the children was right on track.
Last years Seventh Years had been contacted, as had those Fifth Years who would not be returning to the school, and a group of them had agreed to be employed as guides for those coming into Diagon Alley for the first time, both the new crop of First Years and those who would be attending the primary school and their families. The Book had been searched through and quite a few children under the age of eleven and their parents had been contacted to have their magic unlocked. This had been done on a case by case basis, as some of those children had been bound for good reasons.
All of which meant that the Letters could now go out on the earliest date in over a century. The Letters would also provide more information than just the basic invitation and supplies list that had been previously given. Now, the moment a child performed their first accidental magic the invitation would be sent to them, not by owl post, but by house-elf.
The house-elf would pop in, clean up whatever magical mess the baby or child had made, and hand the parent/s the invitation along with several basic pamphlets on the wizarding world. These detailed how it functioned, the who is who of the government, where the different shopping centers were and how to access them, and how to get in contact with The Bones' Guides, a group that Madam Bones had come up with. The Guides would help muggle parents interact with the wizarding world and the ministry of magic, helping out with things like how to get a lawyer, the various services Gringotts bank provided, how to navigate St Mungos, and other such important but not obvious things. Minerva knew that having the option of being able to call on someone to help with a young magical child would be a great blessing to most of the parents of young muggleborns. It would also help prevent such incidences like young Mr. Longbottom, whose accidental magic, like the boy himself, had all been of a quiet nature, resulting in the child being thought of as a possible squib.
"Alright Nolby, send them out," Minerva instructed to the elf standing beside her desk. With a big grin, Nolby set the Quill to writing.
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Meeting with the therapist was - hard. Not in the physical sense, as Madam Longbottom and Neville had gone with Harry to the therapist's office to provide some moral support, but... just talking about what was going on in his life was hard. They hadn't really even begun to get into the abuse that he'd lived with for much of his life. "Shouldn't this be easier?" Harry asked plaintively. "I mean, this is the good stuff. Aunt Petunia and Dudley have their magic back. That's a good thing."
"Yes it is a good thing, but Harry, it's also taken away your escape from a bad situation," Doctor Rosenbalm said kindly. "It's ok to have mixed feelings over that. One of your tormentors is going to be taking classes with you. Even knowing that it wasn't his fault or his mother's fault doesn't take away the fact that your cousin bullied you for years."
Harry nodded. He took a deep breath. "I still want to hide from him," he managed to get out. He sat for a few minutes, and he was grateful that Doctor Rosenbalm seemed to know that he needed time to get these things out. "I don't want to sit next to him. "
She nodded. "It's very natural to seek to escape from someone who has harmed you in the past. He hurt you, so you don't want to be hurt again. Even though you've been told that he isn't going to physically hurt you, there is still a part of you who doesn't believe that."
Harry fidgeted. "He said something the other day, not something really bad, but just ..... he mentioned hunting people and Aunt Petunia jumped on him with both feet."
"That doesn't sound very not bad to me, although I'm glad that your aunt told him off for his remark," she said.
Harry shrugged. "He didn't mean it like he wanted to hunt people, it's just that, well there was this book in the Ravenclaw tower about people hunting other people."
"And old, ancient practices aren't always nice," Doctor Rosenbalm said sardonically.
Harry grinned feebly. "Yeah."
"Still, it bothered you," she prompted.
"I don't want it to bother me," Harry said, frustrated. "It's just, how do you start over?"
"Very carefully," she said.
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Remus wasn't taking any chances. He'd set certain wards over all of the secret entrances that he and Sirius knew about, wards that would alert him to an animagus entering any of them. When the alert went off, he ran down the corridors to the Hogwarts side entrance and calmly walked down the hidden tunnel that let out in the basement of Honeydukes. The moment he smelled the long lost scent of his brother, he smiled.
"Hello, Padfoot," he said. "Don't worry, I'm not about to turn you over to anyone. However, there's some news I think you might not be caught up on." He settled down on the floor of the tunnel, looking directly at a set of glittering eyes in the shadows. Slowly, so slowly it actually made Remus wince, although he refused to show it, Padfoot slunk out of the shadows. "Welcome home, brother," he said, as he held out his arms.