With Knowledge Came Help

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The first group of people to show up Friday morning at Hogwarts was the Board of Governors, with two extras in tow.

“Dumbledore, meet your new History and Divinations professors. This is Professor Greg Stevens and Professor Clair Belladonna, respectively,” Sirius said as he entered the Great Hall, he pointed to each as he introduced them.

The whole student body and teaching staff stopped whatever they were doing and stared at the group. The students broke out into whispers, and some cheered a bit, though they kept it in check as to not miss any of the drama playing out before them.

“What ever do you mean?” the old man said, sitting in his throne like chair. “We have a History and a Divinations professor,” he added as if he was speaking to someone simple.

“And we’ve had complaints on both of them for over a decade,” Sirius said, indicating the group behind him, who all nodded along. “As of this moment they are being replaced by these two,” he added, pointing to the two people he had brought with him.

“I only recognize two of the people with you, who are the rest?” Albus asked, peering over his spectacles. He had a bad feeling about this. He knew that Sirius being free was going to bite him in the arse one way or another. He thought it was only going to be over the guardianship of Harry Potter though. He didn’t think that Black was going to throw his weight around.

“This is the new Board of Governors. The last board was found wanting. This new board will be following the charter and not what you think is best, hence the new teachers. Binns and Trelawney are no longer employed here at Hogwarts. It is your duty to let them know since neither seem to be here,” Sirius said, a smug smile on his face. He so loved the look of defeat on the man’s face. It had only been there for a moment, but it had been there.

“Students please leave and get ready for your classes,” McGonagall said, shooing the children and teens out of the Great Hall. She knew this was going to get ugly. She had never seen anyone stand up to Albus before, and she didn’t want the students to see what could happen. It might get dicey.

The student body left, though there was a lot of grumbling and whispering and looks back. It wasn’t until the doors were closed that the headmaster decided to speak again.

“You cannot just arbitrarily fire my staff,” Dumbledore stated, standing to his full height, as if that would make them cower. “This is my school,” he said with a great deal of authority.

“This is not random,” one of the other board members stated, moving to the front. She was one of the new ones. She was a smart looking woman, who was dressed in a muggle pants suit. “We have spent the last few days going through all the complaints and you are lucky that we aren’t getting rid of Snape with extreme prejudice,” she said, sneering at the potions master, who had made her life at Hogwarts hell.

“Severus has my complete confidence,” Albus said, looking at the new group with trepidation. He didn’t think he could control this board like he had the last one.

“That doesn’t mean he can teach. Which brings us to our next item on the agenda. There will be an audit on all classes. It will be random and undetected.  You won’t know we are there or when we will be there,” Sirius said, putting a hand on the woman’s shoulder and gently moving her back.

They had already discussed it and mirrors would be used. Sirius was going to whip them up and put them in all the classrooms above the doors. No spell would detect them, and they would be disillusioned. They would then be monitored every day for a week. They would do this next week, and all classes would get a week to get their act together.

“You can’t do that,” McGonagall said, having heard quite enough from these upstarts. “We all earned our place here,” she snapped, knowing that wasn’t quite true, but she was damned if she was going to lose her position that she had worked hard for.

“You will find, if you read the charter, that we can,” Sirius said, holding out the charter and duplicating it for all the teachers. He then floated it to each one so they could read it for themselves. “The next thing to talk about. The goblins are coming here at noon to render the basilisk for Harry Potter. You will not interfere with them,” he said, staring at the headmaster, only to have Snape stand and start yelling.

“That snake belongs to the school,” the potions master all but bellowed. He wanted to get down there and get all those ingredients for himself. They were worth a fortune. He was not going to let Potter have them without a fight.

“No, Harry Potter killed it, it belongs to him. It is the law,” one of the board members said. This was a middle-aged man who was a new member. He was a relative of one that left the prior meeting. He was dressed as a proper wizard should dress, in nice green robes.

“Like I said, they will be here at noon,” Sirius said, still smirking at the defeated look on the old man’s face. “A contract has been signed, there is nothing to discuss,” he added since he signed it this morning before he came here.

“Perhaps as Harry’s guardian you can speak to him about donating some of the proceeds to Hogwarts,” Albus said, trying to gain some control over the conversation.

“Nope, he risked his life to kill that beast and all you did was give him points and an award. He should have gotten an Order of Merlin first class,” Sirius said, looking at Albus as if he had messed up again. “He saved the school full of children for Merlin’s sake,” he added as if that was a given.

“I did not think young Harry wanted the attention that would bring him,” Dumbledore said, trying to play off Harry’s aversion to his fame.

“That is neither here nor there,” Sirius said, waving his hand about as if that didn’t matter. “He still should have been given that medal,” he added, then turned to Hagrid. “There are people coming to clear out the Acromantula. I know you think they are harmless. However, you will not live forever. The leader told Harry that once you die, or he dies, they will run amuck. They will go on a killing spree, and the closest food is the kids,” he said to the gentle giant.

“But,” was all that Hagrid said, then he thought about what Sirius just said. He knew that if he wasn’t there, there would be no one to control the spiders.

“In this case, the funds that are derived from the sales of the Acromantula, either by selling the live ones, or the dead ones, will be halved. One part going to the Ministry, and the other will go to the school. Under our control,” Sirius said, indicating him and the Board.

“You cannot just come in here and make all these changes,” Albus said, getting very upset. He even lost his grandfatherly look. His twinkle was not to be seen anywhere.

“You bet your wrinkled arse I can. This school should never have fallen as low as it has. We, the board, are going to bring it, kicking and screaming, back to the top. If you don’t like it, you too can be replaced,” Sirius said, nodding to the two new teachers to stay as he and the Board turned and left.

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The second group that showed up was the goblins, about twenty of them, accompanied by Bill and Alastor. Albus and Severus met them at the gates.

“That snake belongs to the school,” Snape said for the second time that day.

“Blow it out your ear, Snape,” Alastor said, pushing the man aside and stomping up the pathway to the school. “You know, and I know, the law states it’s the kid’s.”

They continued up to the school, Albus and Severus trying to get them to see their point of view, with little luck. They made it to Myrtle’s bathroom, where Harry and Remus were waiting for them.

“Potter,” Alastor said, holding out his hand, “I’ve wanted to meet you since I heard of you slaying this great beastie,” he said, shaking the boy’s hand. After he had read all the books, he had a great deal of admiration for the boy. Even the first two showed the kid had spunk.

“Okay,” Harry said, not knowing what else to say since the man hadn’t introduced himself. “Um, thanks, sir,” he added, shaking the man’s hand.

“Harry, this is Alastor Moody,” Remus took care of the introductions. “Bill Weasley, and I don’t know the goblins. If they want you to know their names, they will have to introduce themselves,” he said, pointing out those he knew.

“I am Bragrast, your manager at Gringotts,” one goblin said, handing him a contract to read. “Your guardian signed this this morning. I thought you’d like to read it.” He didn’t really care if the boy did or not. He was too young to do anything about contracts.

“Thanks, Bragrast,” Harry said, tucking the contract into his back pocket. “Nice to meet you, sir,” he nodded to Moody. He then turned to Bill and smiled. “Ron talks about you all the time,” he said, offering his hand to Bill, who shook it.

“Can we get on with it?” one of the unnamed goblins asked, not wanting to wait any longer. Time was money, and they were wasting it.

“Um, sure,” Harry said, turning to the sink and hissing the word, “Open.” The sink creaked open as it spread apart, leaving a large gaping opening that led to a dark downward tunnel. “Stairs,” Harry hissed as a thought occurred to him. A long-spiraled staircase appeared out of the tunnel. It looked steep. And dark. “Lights,” was the next hissed word, and lights lit up from the walls, unlike anything Harry had ever seen. They were just bright spots on the walls. They weren’t very bright, but they did show the way.

“Well, let’s go,” the unnamed goblin, who seemed to be in charge, started down the stairs. They all followed down and it was a long trek.

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Albus did not follow them down. He had to go to the Wizengamot, but first he had to greet the third group that showed up to Hogwarts this day. The Acromantula hunters. Amelia Bones and fifteen of her stouter Aurors, Prickle and ten of his men, and Steenbras and his group of thirteen were all there. It was by far the largest group that was on the grounds.

“Remember, we are culling the nest to half. Then we are capturing the rest and selling them to the Acromantula farms around the world,” Steenbras stated, hoping the nest wasn’t large, or this was going to be a long day.

“I think, we’re going to want to cull more than half,” Bones said, directing her men on how to use the flamethrowing spell. They were in charge of killing only. The other groups were in charge of capture. She wasn’t risking any of her people in capturing XXXX creatures. She had told them all about the spells they needed yesterday and had them practice all morning.

“We’ll circle around the nest and start from the outside and work our way in. If you get to the leader, kill it on sight,” Prickle said, hefting his wand a bit, like it was a weapon, which today it might as well be. His group was more in for the killing as well, though they would be helping with the capture when that started. “It will be the only one that can speak,” he added for those that didn’t know.

“We’ll kill any stragglers,” Amelia said, not wanting any going to the school. “If you see any break away, kill it.” She pointed towards the school.

“Sounds like a plan,” Steenbras said as they started to the forest. “Oh, and if the centaurs are around, let them alone. They might decide to help, or not. One can never tell with them,” he added, nodding to the area he knew the horsemen resided.

Hagrid could be seen crying by his hut. He knew it needed to be done, but he didn’t have to like it. He might go and help with the capture, now that he knew they weren’t going to kill them all. He had heard them planning all the way from his hut. His hearing was that good.

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The goblins had shored up the cave in, and they made it to the doors and Harry let them in. He really didn’t want to see the snake again, but he was needed there, just in case. In case of what, he didn’t know, but here he was.

The goblins fell on the carcass like fleas on a dog. They were swarming all over it with knives that were made of some unknown to man material that seemed to be cutting the skin with no problem. That was why they were the ones to render the carcass and not the humans. They had stuff that could do things that wizards couldn’t, and they weren’t sharing.

Harry got a little queasy at the sight. There was blood, which was blue in color, everywhere. They were really going to town on the dead snake. But they seemed to have a method to their madness. The skin was cut off in sections of large portions, big enough for armor for a human sized robe. The meat seemed to be cut in portions of steaks, or rump roast. The venom was collected in some type of ceramic container, in pint size increments. The bones were kept intact.

Harry didn’t know the value of each of these measurements, but the goblins seemed to know what they were doing. That and Remus and Bill seemed to trust them. The Moody man didn’t seem to trust anyone.

Harry knew that he was getting the bulk of the money from the sales. He didn’t know how much that would be, and he did wonder if he should be sharing it with others. But he didn’t understand enough about money to make those types of decisions. He would have to ask Sirius about that when he talked to him in the mirror tonight. After all, he was his guardian now, and wasn’t that weird.  He never had one that cared before.

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Amelia’s group wasn’t doing as well as the goblins. They were having a harder time cornering the spiders since there were more of them then they thought. She had warned them, but without telling them about the books, she could only say what rumor was, and no one believed rumor. There must be over a thousand of the damn things. If not more.

Just then she heard a honking, and a Ford Anglia came tearing through the trees. It stopped next to her and opened its door. She got in and it started spinning in circles. She leaned out the window and fired the flamethrowing spell, and created a circle of fire around her and the car, killing all the spiders that had had her pinned in.

She lifted her wand and got the ones in the trees too. Sure, the branches caught fire, but she put the fires out once the spiders were dead. The spiders were more flammable than the trees. They went up like very dry tinder.

The car took off and went to the next man pinned in and they repeated the process. It was fun to be sure and they were winning. Amelia was glad the car had gained a conscience. She was still going to have words with Arthur about this car, but maybe not quite as harsh ones. Soon enough the outer rim of the nest was all dead and they were working inward. The spiders were agitated and getting more aggressive.

Aragog, the leader was giving orders to kill them, and they were taking exception to that. Amelia fired off a killing curse at that monstrous spider and fell him with one shot. There was no way she was going to let him live. She knew his mate was already dead, so she didn’t have to worry about her.

It was rough going, but the flamethrowing spell from the car was brilliant and did well. Soon enough her and her men stepped back and only took care of the stragglers.

There was only a few hundred left, and they were the babies. The rest had been too aggressive to keep. The rest of the crew were putting the baby spiders in cages to be transported to farms around the world.

Prickles men was winding up the webbing to be sold. It would bring in some revenue which would be shared with Hogwarts.

She and her men were just keeping watch. Her work was done for the day, and she hoped everyone else’s was too.