Ramp up to Hogwarts Express
"Good morning, people. Welcome to the second day of Hell. Just kidding. But today will be a messy thing. Today we are going to be patching cracks and imperfections in the walls and, most especially, the floor. We need a completely flat floor by the end of the day – or as close as we can get it. This means mixing mortar and cement and it's a dirty job. When these dry, we will be casting Duro charms to ensure that it sets as stone. First step."
After Gary showed students how to clean out the cracks with a chisel and hammer, he showed other students how to mix the mortar and to fill in cracks and smooth the walls and ceiling.
Other students he showed how to mix cement and to apply it.
Luckily, the actual number of repairs were not that many – Hogwarts elves had done a fairly decent job. Only in a few places was repair required. By lunch, it was drying.
After lunch, Gary showed the students how to lay out the plates which held the tubing for the water that would be used to control the floor temperature. Soon, the entire floor was covered and the students began connecting the tubes. With a few spells to ensure they didn't break the floor was now covered by copper tubing which carried water to all parts of the room. Gary installed the manifold to feed the tubing and the device which would vanish the water at the end.
The students were amazed at the idea of controlling the temperature of the floor with simple water tubing.
Out of the proper trunk, bucket upon bucket of something called leveling cement was poured over the floor. The soupy mix quickly leveled itself and, with only a board at the door to hold it back, it started setting as a completely smooth surface fairly quickly.
To allow it to cure smoothly, the water controlled air-cooling and heating systems had also been installed and the room had a constant flow of dry air at a constant temperature of 68 degrees. Not knowing how it would affect the floor, the control of the tubing for the floor was turned off.
Gary showed the students how the still-slightly malleable surface could have runes inscribed which would become part of the protections against damage by spilled potions.
By the next morning, the floor was fully cured and Gary brought out the paint which needed to cover the walls. It was a special blend which would dry to an impervious surface so that potions residue would not seep into the stone.
Paint application charms were the order of the day and even Petunia found these easy. Severus, at first, protested the white color of the paint, but Gary argued it would show up stains more easily and therefore allow for easier cleaning and a safer environment.
Severus sulked about that the rest of the day. However, when he got over this when Gary showed him the green and silver chips that would be covering the floor with a special coating (Muggle epoxy but he didn't tell the Magical-raised wizards that) which would make the floor have a rougher texture so that shoes would not slip even if it was still impervious to potions seeping into it.
The Headmaster visited the room at the beginning of the next day (the fourth day) and was astounded at how far the room had come. That day saw the completion of the environmental systems including the installation of the stainless steel stations and air hoods which would draw fumes away and vanish them.
While some of the students worked on these, others worked on the large stainless steel sinks which would allow students to clean their cauldrons. Gary showed the students the etched runes which ensured the stainless steel would remain corrosion free for the foreseeable future no matter what spilled on them.
Getting all the burners set up, in addition to the emergency controls which prevented explosions from harming students, in addition to the reverse bubble head charms which would take away all oxygen around a cauldron in an emergency took the rest of the day.
The warding controls for the Professor was also a major project to install.
The large closet at the back was also a major work. This would allow cauldrons, in some instances, to be placed where they could brew for hours at a time where extremely long brew times were necessary. Each one had its own air hood so that one potion would not contaminate the others.
There was also twenty cubbies for cauldrons which, once put inside, would be held in stasis where the potion's instructions allowed for this. Each one had its own control set by wards as well as either glass coverings allowing the potion to be seen or opaque covers where extra light would harm the potion. This was also stainless steel.
An extremely large number of grease pencils were provided which would allow names, dates, and the potion name to be written on the stainless steel but easily washed away when finished.
Severus carefully inspected these grease pencils and conceded that such could easily be used to mark potions vials as well as glass cups holding ingredients once retrieved from the potions cupboard.
The Potions cupboard had large bins which could be sealed to hold non-volatile ingredients and glass jars with glass lids for ingredients which would damage the weaker bins.
For ingredients that had to be storied in darkness, several jars that were completely black glass rather than clear were also provided.
Some of the sealed bins were also completely opaque for the same reason.
Severus oversaw the careful transfer of the ingredients which had been taken out of student storage back into it. He also even more carefully oversaw the transfer of the Potion Master's storage which held rarer and possibly harmful ingredients.
Extra bins and jars for ingredients not present were stored away in one of the storage bays along one wall along with the papers, books and other things that were removed from the older storage cupboards.
There was a mirror which could be used to allow students to see how the Potions Professor handled certain ingredients or potions steps on his own station as well as mirrors above each station allowing the Potions Professor to watch a student or a pair of students without hovering.
These took some tricky placement but it got done.
When it was all done, the students were shocked and amazed at the transformation of the room. While it looked almost nothing like the Potions classroom that they had stared with beyond the basic layout, it was – even Severus admitted – a classroom for which he could see no way to improve.
For an added bonus, Gary paid the students to clean the old cauldrons which was a common detention using the new potion developed by "Severus Snape." To everyone's amazement, cauldrons which were known to be almost beyond hope were now clean and available for use.
A book detailing how the room was set up, how it could be used, a list of potions to clean equipment, stations, and even the students hands were provided.
The students were happy to receive 60 galleons each instead of the promised 45. Lily and Petunia, because they worked extra hours in the evening, were given 75 each, the price of Petunia's wand and holster being removed from hers (Lily insisted on sharing this cost). Severus received a total of 100 Galleons.
Severus, with his mother's permission, was given the day off and allowed to visit Diagon Alley to update his wardrobe and make a few extra purchases for himself. Petunia and Lily tagged along and got to see some shops that Lily had normally missed. They went home after this.
The next day, the Headmaster had invited – once more – the Board of Governors and the Wizarding Examination Authority to visit Hogwarts. Horace Slughorn was also invited to see the new addition at the same time. Poppy Pomfrey was asked to tag along so that she would be familiar with the new safety protocols.
Severus Snape, newly dressed in much higher quality clothes than he had previously worn, and under the supervision of Albus Dumbledore, Alchemist, toured them around the new classroom and showed everyone how everything worked.
The environmental controls and safety procedures were the most impressive to the Examiners, as well as the mirrors allowing the Professor to see each station from his desk. The Board was astounded at how much time and effort had been put into the upgrade.
Horace loved it all, including the controls which allowed him to alter the lighting to a more intimate environment or brighten it for brewing. His new storage closet was also a hit, with everything clearly marked. Severus had ensured supplies that were used had been refilled in addition to a bit more ingredients which would allow students more practice at some of the rarer potions.
The new unbreakable glassware was also quite appreciated. Slughorn was shocked that all the cauldrons had been cleaned. He was a bit put out that the new potion that allowed this was already filed as a patent with the Ministry even though he tried to hide it.
Horace Slughorn was somewhat amoral when possible profit was involved.
And finally, the item which surprised them the most: A closet which contained 100 white cotton lab coats. These were auto-sizing, charmed to be impervious, with temperature controls to ensure a student did not become too hot or cold. A very large box of hairnets was also present in this closet as well as very large bin of safety goggles which were also charmed to be impervious. In addition, these were charmed to return to the bin at the end of the day – lest a student inadvertently walk off with them.
The Headmaster explained that a homeless house elf had been added to the Hogwarts contingent and his job was to ensure that the equipment was maintained.
The lab coats had charms which would ensure that there were no openings for potions spilled to get into the hole which the hand came out of. As soon as it was tied, the sleeves would constrict enough to prevent it from accidentally dragging in ingredients when a student was working at a station.
When asked, the Headmaster explained that, although they were similar to Muggle lab coats, the design and charms for these were now available at Madam Malkins and other stores selling Wizarding clothing. They were called Potion Coats.
The safety goggles and hair nets were available where cauldrons and other potions equipment were sold.
After the enthusiastic comments from the examiners, the Hogwarts healer's definite approval of the idea, and the assurance that it wasn't Muggle trash, the Board of Governors conceded that it did seem to make for a much less accident-prone Potions classroom.
While this was going on, Gary was working with the Ancient Runes Professor and a team on correcting the issues that Gringotts had found with the wards.
Overall, it wasn't that they were all that bad. They just had been made overcomplicated by the constant tinkering over the centuries by various headmasters – some who were not as educated as others.
Some wards were interfering with other wards – the ward which detected Dark objects was virtually useless due to one ward which a Headmaster had added which was supposed to make castle even more unnoticeable but instead made Dark magic unnoticeable.
The various anti-apparition wards were redundant as all hell. Gary had suggested making two wards total: One to cover everything other than the Great Hall and one for the Great Hall alone which the Headmaster could disable for a set amount of time for instruction.
Gary was going to sneak in one additional set of wards – and let them find out about it later. He was going to make the ward against males entering female student quarters, save the staff as necessary, Castle-wide rather than individual wards – no Pureblood Slytherin could bypass the local ward even if they got a Head of House which had … ideas. Also, he put intent wards on the male dorms so that any female who was being forced would trigger an alarm. This was in addition to the anti-rape wards that were now in place.
He didn't want a bad definition of "rape" to allow a loophole.
As before, Heads of Houses could temporarily shut down the gender-based wards on an emergency basis, but only for a limited time.
And when the gathered Professors charged the wards, he tried to hide the fact that his contribution was, perhaps, a bit more permanent than if a mortal wizard had done it.
All in all, the time leading up to Hogwarts was fairly busy compared to what most people experienced. Gary's hope was that this particular year would spawn improvements in several universes as they split off or when split universes recombined.
Through experience he knew that one change could spark changes in many, many universes.
So it was with interest that September 1 dawned. Gary was going to have fun this year.
September 1 was the day that students from all over England and Scotland returned to Hogwarts aboard the Hogwarts Express. And so it was on that Monday Lily Evans was walking along the train looking for her long-time friend and new-found cousin Severus Snape.
Earlier that day, Lily had been there when Petunia went back to school. The girls, newly reconciled were teary at their goodbyes but they would be seeing each other in less than a week.
Finding Severus, Lily enthusiastically said hello. "Do you want to sit with me and my friends or do you want to sit with other friends?"
Severus gave a tight smile. "While your company is enjoyable, I would prefer to avoid the babble of teenage girls if I can help it."
Lily laughed. "Well, I'll see you at Hogwarts then!" Snape nodded and went back to the potions book he was reading.
Lily finally found her Gryffindor house mates and settled in before the prefects meeting that would take place right after the train left the station.
The Mauraders congregated in a compartment toward the back of the Hogwarts Express.
The first to arrive was Remus Lupin. The young werewolf found an empty compartment and put his trunk on the upper rack, waiting for his friends to arrive. At 10:45, Sirius Black arrived. Remus saw him come onto the platform and quickly enter the train before the rest of the Blacks arrived. Remus went to the door and waved his friend down.
"Remus!" Sirius grinned upon seeing his friend. "How are you?"
"I'm fine. How was summer?"
Remus helped Sirius with his trunk as Sirius gave him a grimace. "Another summer in Black Hell. I can't stand my family. They were going on about this wizard who would bring glory back to the Purebloods and put the mudbloods and riff raff in their place. I shut it out as much as possible."
"Was it really that bad?"
Sirius nodded. "Oh, yeah. My crazy bitch of a cousin Bellatrix couldn't shut up about him. Her and the equally nutty family she married into were all about regaining Pureblood honor and all that shite when they visited. I locked myself in my room as much as possible."
Remus shuddered. "I thank Merlin that I missed seeing her in Hogwarts by a year. Your Cousin Narcissa wasn't as bad as you describe Bella to be, but she was bad enough."
"Thank Merlin she graduated at the end of second year. I couldn't have taken more of dealing with my cousins. My mother over summer is bad enough."
The two were interrupted once more by the arrival of the most popular member of their little group. "James!" Sirius called out. "How are you?"
James Potter gave his easy grin which (he knew) caused girls' knees to go weak. "Great! I decided that this year I'm going to get Lily-Flower to go out with me."
Sirius and Remus rolled their eyes. They loved his confidence but that target of his affections was more likely to hex him than go out with him. "That's great," Remus said. "How are your parents?"
"Good." He sighed then. "Mostly. They are getting old and slowing down a bit. It makes me worried sometimes."
Sirius scoffed at that. "Your parents are that old. I'm sure they'll be fine for a long while."
"I hope so."
Then, the last member arrive. "Peter! Welcome back to the Express and Hogwarts. How was summer?" Remus asked.
"It was fine," Peter replied, not as confidently as the others. "I just got my homework done this last weekend."
Sirius gave another grimace. "I still have an assignment or two to finish."
Remus rolled his eyes at his friend. "You had all summer!"
"I was busy!" Sirius replied.
"With what?" Remus asked.
"Er. Avoiding my snake-like relatives?" Sirius said.
"You have no excuse. Which assignments do you have left?"
"Potions and History."
"Well, we're going to have to finish them tonight." The 11:00 sound was heard throughout the train and they all felt the train start moving.
Remus stood up. "If you'll excuse me, I have to go meet with the other prefects."
The other three boys all froze for a moment. "We forgot!" James said. "Congratulations."
Sirius barked a laugh. "I don't know. Now he's part of the people who enforce the rules. He might not want to prank with us anymore."
Remus gave a small smile. "I'm as much a Marauder as ever. I think Professor McGonagall gave it to me because she thinks I can control you miscreants."
They all laughed. Peter said, "You just don't get caught as much as we do."
"True. Prank smarter, not harder I always say."
James suddenly asked, "Who's the female prefect?"
Remus sighed. "Lily Evans."
James started pouting. "Why couldn't I have been the prefect? It would give me more chances to win her over."
Peter giggled as Sirius shook his head. Remus replied with a straight face, "I think it's the hundred or so detentions you've gotten since you became a student."
James grinned. "Well, yeah, that's true. Well, tell the lovely Lily I said Hello."
Remus rolled his eyes. "Like that's going to happen. After the hexing she left you with on the train last June?"
"It wasn't my fault that Snivellus was turned green!" James Potter was really trying to look innocent but it wasn't working.
"Whatever. I'm going." Remus quickly left.
Once the young werewolf was gone and they ensured he wasn't watching, the three remaining boys put their heads together. "Okay. Progress on meditating for our forms. What have we got?" James asked his two fellow conspirators.
Peter replied, "All I know is that I'm really small."
Sirius replied, "I have paws – I seem to be a fairly big animal. I hope it's a dog or wolf – I hate cats."
James smirked. "I seem to be the size of a hippogriff – or almost. But I don't think I have wings. So it's got to be something else."
The discussion continued. Finally, the trio decided that the meditation route was taking too long – they would go the potion route. Sirius, being a Black, had gotten away with going to Knockturn Alley and found the apothecary there willing to sell three doses of the potion.
He had even told his family he was going there "to explore" – they hadn't even batted an eyelid. There had to be some benefit for coming from such a Dark family and so far this was all he had found.
Sirius would sneak through the floo on the next Hogsmead weekend and then bring back the potions then.
The three continued talking until Remus came back. He would be patrolling at 3:00 for an hour.
After more talk, the group got bored. Sirius had an idea. "Hey. We haven't pranked Snape yet! Did you notice which cabin he's in?"
Remus looked at his long time friend. He was tempted to point out that he was being ridiculous, even as James and Peter seemed to agree with him, but then decided he was bored too. "Let me think …." Remus thought for a long moment. "You know? I don't remember seeing his greasy hair anywhere on the train?"
"Maybe you just weren't looking," Peter volunteered.
Remus thought about it. "While I didn't see everyone's face, I am certain I did not see his hair. Maybe he missed the train?"
James said gleefully, "Maybe he finally quit!"
Sirius said, "We aren't that lucky. Maybe he's sick or something from studying Dark magic."
Peter rolled his eyes as he said, "Or maybe when you Patrol you can look more carefully." Sometimes the other Marauders forgot that Peter wasn't completely useless.
Everyone nodded in agreement.
After Remus came back after his patrol, he looked shocked. "What?" Peter asked.
"Did you find Snivellus?" Sirius asked.
"Yes," Remus replied blankly.
"Well, then you just missed him. Where is he? We have a prank planned."
Remus looked at the others and said, "I didn't see him before because … well, his hair wasn't greasy at all. He's sitting in a compartment with 4 Slytherin girls from the upper years."
Sirius snorted. "Obviously kissing up to the dogs." There were definitely a few Slytherin girls who got the worst end of the defects from in-breeding.
Remus replied quickly, "No. He was sitting with this year's Sirens." The Sirens were the really attractive upper-year Slytherin girls who, according to Gryffindor legend, likely sold their souls for their looks. The Sirens lured you in with their beauty and then spat you out as a husk.
Slytherin really had a bad reputation with Gryffindor.
Everyone looked at him with wide eyes. "What were they doing to him?" James asked.
"Talking. Politely. And giggling at something he said."
The Marauders were tempted to go look, but the Sirens always included the more talented Slytherin females who had no compunction about hexing boys who annoyed them.
Peter finally said, "Must be under the Imperius."
No one had an answer. The four speculated for the rest of the ride to Hogwarts.