Harry thought about where he would find his grandfather at this time of the day. He decided to flash around the likeliest spots. First he flashed Ginny and himself home – and was lucky: Through the open door of his room, he could see that his grandparents were just having tea with his parents, Remus, Amelia, Poppy and the kids. He quickly transformed back, and they went out into the living room, where they were greeted happily.

“Come here and have some tea,” his grandmother pulled him to a vacant seat just between her and his mother. Harry sat down, cleared his throat and said,

“I am sorry, but I have to discuss something with Granddad. I have an idea.”

Everyone laughed, and Harry, who just could not wait any longer, continued, “You know the Shrieking Shack, right? I showed it to my students today and thought about what a pity it is that we don’t use it. And then I had the idea to renovate it completely and found a primary school for wizard children there. It would be great as a school, and it is easy to access from Hogsmeade as well as from Hogwarts, and Grandfather could be the headmaster; he could start to teach his class he is already holding here, and when more students come, we could hire another teacher.” He glanced around to see the others’ reactions. For a minute, it was quiet.

Severus was the first to speak. “That is a very good idea, Harry,”

Minerva agreed immediately, “Harry, I don’t know where you always get your ideas, but this one is the best you’ve had so far. A primary school for wizard children – that is exactly what we need. As Harry said, we could start with one class and expand the school as the pupils increase. The only problem is a financial one, because we indeed have to renovate the shack completely.” Here Harry interrupted her and said,

“Dad, do you think I have enough money in my vault to pay for it?”

Everyone laughed again and Severus answered, “Yes, Harry, you have enough money, and you know that I have a lot of money I got for the wolves’ cure, so I will donate some money as well. Minerva,” he addressed the headmistress, “I think that won’t be the problem.”

Now Dumbledore jumped into the conversation. “Alright, Harry; thanks for a great idea. It is a pity that I can’t give you house points anymore. I agree with everything, and concerning the financial aspect I can tell you that I know several methods to obtain money for such a purpose. Does anyone have any objections concerning this matter? If not, I would like Harry to plan everything in order to be able to start the school coming September.” Everyone glanced at each other, but nobody had any objections. It was just a good idea. Harry spoke up once more.

“I would like to organize the whole thing; however as I don’t know anything about renovation and organizing a school, I will need the help of all of you. Will you help me?” Everyone gave him an approving nod, and Harry continued, “Alright, then I will think about how to proceed and where and when I will need your help, and maybe we can talk about it again in a few days. Will that be alright?”

A few days later, Harry presented the ideas he had come up with so far to the others.

Albus answered him, “Harry, your ideas are all very good, and everything sounds reasonable, especially having the kids travelling to and from school by portkeys. Concerning the renovation, you and I will make a visit to a friend of mine at Diagon Alley next week.” Harry threw him an inquiring glance.

“Alright Harry, then we will go to see my friend on Monday. Maybe you can think of a detailed layout until then?” Harry nodded affirmatively and spent the next days on planning the interior of the Shrieking Shack.

The lower floor would hold two bigger rooms, one as a dining room, where the whole school could have lunch together, the other as a multi purpose room with tatami matting on the floor, so that everyone could sit on the floor. It had to be large enough for the whole school to assemble, and it would even have a huge fireplace, which would be connected to the Hogwarts internal floo system. On the upper floor, Harry planned six small classrooms, which could accommodate up to ten students each. Apart from these rooms, they needed one staff room, not much bigger than the classrooms. Finally, he reserved some space for toilets and washrooms on each floor. The entrance door Harry planned should lead directly to the connecting street between Hogwarts and Hogsmeade. Apart from the entrance door and new windows on both floors, the exterior would not be changed at all.

He discussed the layout with Ginny and his parents first, and Severus suggested having a small potions lab on the second floor instead of the washroom, as there would be a washroom downstairs anyway, and toilets on each floor should be enough. Harry agreed immediately; yes, a potions lab could be useful, and if his dad would be willing to teach the kids simple potions – why not. He also thought of having a possibility to divide the huge tatami room but dismissed the thought, when he remembered that they could just conjure a wall if a separation was needed.

“Do we need a kitchen?” he asked his grandfather. “Or will the Hogwarts elves be able to prepare lunch for the school as well? And who is going to serve lunch at the school?”

Albus smiled at his enthusiastic grandson and confirmed, “Yes, Harry, the Hogwarts elves will cater for the school, and I will order two Hogwarts elves over to care for the school. They will also do the cleaning and will be there when needed.” Harry nodded contently. On Sunday at dinner, Harry presented the layout to everyone, but nobody had anything to add.

Finally, Harry asked, “What are we going to call the school? It needs a name, doesn’t it? I have thought about it, but the only name I can come up with would be ‘Hogkids’, but it’s not very good. Does anyone have an idea?”

Lily suggested, “Why not just ‘Hogwarts Primary School’?” After a few minutes they agreed on Lily’s suggestion, and when Albus and Harry walked down to Hogsmeade on Monday morning in order to floo from The Three Broomsticks, Harry saw a sign at the side of the Shrieking Shack, just about above from where the new entrance door would be, which said ‘Hogwarts Primary School’. Harry looked at his grandfather, who threw him an amused glance, his eyes twinkling merrily.

When they met Albus’ friend Colm and told him the reason for their visit, he frowned and shook his head. “I am so very sorry, Albus, but I cannot do that as much as I would like to. My son, who is living in Australia, wants me to come over for a few years to look after my grandchildren. Therefore, I am going to Australia on Thursday.”

Seeing the disappointed face of his old friend, he added, “I could only come for one day tomorrow and just arrange the rooms, but I am not sure if I will be able to finish every room in one day. As you see,” he pointed around the room, “I still have a lot of work arranging everything here.”

Harry thought for a moment and said, “Yes, if you could do that, it would be great. I have no idea how to make rooms and such, but everything else we should be able to do, won’t we, Granddad?” Albus nodded affirmatively.

“Um…,” Harry continued cautiously, “Would it be of any help if I came here with a few of my students to help cleaning up here?”

Colm was stunned for a moment, before he asked, “Would you do that? Then it would be no problem for me; I would just go over there with you now and start immediately, and the rooms should be finished tomorrow evening. However, it will only be naked rooms; everything else you have to do on your own.”

Harry let out a relieved sigh and said, “Alright, and I will come here the day after tomorrow together with a few students to help you.”

While Colm was working in the Shrieking Shack, Harry was watching him closely in order to learn as much as possible in case they had to change things later on. Colm had not promised too much – on Tuesday evening, the rooms were completed according to Harry’s layout. After dinner, Albus came down to have a look and thank his friend profoundly. It was hard to believe how such an old, neglected shack could be changed into a modern school building within such a short time. Before Colm left, he showed Albus and Harry a few tricks on how to do the interior, and Harry was confident that they would be able to complete the school on their own.

Directly after breakfast on Wednesday morning, Harry and all remaining students were taking a portkey to Diagon Alley. He had only thought of bringing two or three students with him, but when he cautiously asked in the common room the night before, everyone had wanted to come. Therefore, it only took them three hours to do everything Colm had wanted them to do. Colm was so happy to have his place cleaned and finished so early, that he waived any fees for his work on the school building during the last two days.

As they were not expected back at Hogwarts until dinnertime, Harry used the opportunity to invite his excited students to the Leaky Cauldron for lunch, which the students seemed to enjoy very much. When everyone had finished, he asked them,

“Shall we go back to Hogwarts now, or do you want to go for a walk around Diagon Alley? We still have time; however we have to stay all together.” Now everyone was shouting simultaneously, but it was soon very clear, that none of the students wanted to go home yet. “Alright,” Harry continued, “As I told you, we have to stick together. If someone gets lost, however, we will meet at 3 o’clock in front of Gringotts, the huge white building at the next corner. However, whoever gets lost, will be severely punished later; so please be careful to stay together.” To be on the safe side, he wandlessly transfigured the group members’ hair neon green, including his own hair. Everyone laughed and followed Harry out into Diagon Alley.

They took their time and visited nearly every shop, which could be interesting for students. Harry even found the time to buy a pretty bunch of flowers for Ginny. However, the flowers only looked real but in fact were made of chocolate and sweets.

“Wow, they are pretty,” some of the first year girls told him, when they saw him with the flowers.

Harry grinned and asked, “Do you think they smell well too?” They immediately tried to smell the flowers, and their faces, smelling chocolate and sweets, were priceless. Harry’s eyes twinkled happily.

When everyone had seen enough, he took the students to Fortescue’s ice cream parlour, where he bought the students a huge ‘Dragon feast ice cream’, Marina’s favourite, which they relished happily. Harry himself preferred an ice coffee. After eating and resting for a while, he activated the portkey, and soon they felt a familiar pull behind their navels only to find themselves back in the Merlin common room. Before he left the room to return to his quarters, he once again thanked the students for their help and reminded them,

“I know that you are full of ice-cream now, but please do not forget to attend dinner, because otherwise I will be in a lot of trouble with the Headmistress.” The students nodded and promised not to get him into trouble. One of the older students said,

“I will see to it; we won’t disappoint you, sir. And thank you very much for inviting us to lunch and ice cream and for the visit to Diagon Alley. I think everyone enjoyed it very much.” Harry grinned at them and left through the portrait hole. When he entered their quarters from his office, nobody was there; even his father’s potions lab and his parents’ offices were empty. Where could they have gone? It was still an hour until dinnertime, so he decided to flash over to the shack in order to start decorating the rooms.

He began with the classrooms on the upper floor and used wish magic to paint the walls in very light colours, choosing different colours for each room. The ceiling, however, was the same in every room. He chose to make it like the ceiling in the Great Hall, so that it reflected the sky, which he loved very much. Finally, he changed the doors to colours that were darker but matched the colours of the walls of the respective classroom. For the floor, he chose matching contrast colours and put tiles in a used look version of the respective colour on the floor of each classroom. Then he walked around the six rooms and examined his work. It looked really good, and he was very content with himself, when he proceeded to conjure desks for the classrooms.

About half through the classrooms, he noticed that his magic was starting to drain, so he just conjured the desks, chairs and blackboards for the remaining classrooms and decided to finish for the day. He flashed back to his room, transformed back and lay down on his bed to rest, because he was very tired. However when he was just drifting away, he heard voices from the living room and suddenly remembered dinner. With a glance at his watch, he was wide-awake and groaned: He had missed dinner; in fact, he was nearly an hour late. What would be worse, to be an hour late or not to show up at all? Contemplating this for a moment, he finally got up and went out into the living room, where everyone was still sitting at the dinner table having tea and biscuits.

He quickly sat down on his chair and before anyone could scold him said to his parents,

“I am sorry for being late. I went to the shack to start with the classrooms and lost track of time. May I have tea please?” Then he turned to his grandfather and told him, “I think you could start using the new school building from next week onwards, if you wanted to.” Several people gasped.

“What? But there is still nothing in it, is it?” Remus asked, and Harry replied grinningly,

“The classrooms are already finished. I will do the other rooms during the next days, and I think until Sunday everything will be done. Perhaps we could send owls to all wizarding families with children, who will be between six and ten on September 1, and tell them about the new school. And if someone wants to enter immediately, this would not be a problem, would it? If there are too many pupils, we could ask Molly Weasley, for example, if she would take over a class. However, we have to think about what we are going to do with the muggle born students. I could imagine proceeding like this: In case they have older siblings, so that the family is already aware of magic, we should just send them an owl now. However if they don’t know about magic, we should contact them later, maybe a year before entering Hogwarts and offer a special course for them, either during the year or during summer holidays, so that they will learn certain things about our world before entering Hogwarts.” Hesitantly, he added,

“Considering the fact that we will probably be in need of additional teachers, maybe it would be a good idea to try to keep Hermione Granger and Anna Lupin here at Hogwarts to teach, in which position ever, when they finish Hogwarts in a few months.” Everyone glanced at Anna, who blushed and nodded enthusiastically, before she said,

“Thank you, Harry. I would like to teach the children very much.” Harry grinned contently and said,

“Alright, so maybe we should send the letters first and wait for the reactions. If we can manage to have six classes – one for every year – we need six teachers, who do not teach one class all the time but specialize on one of the necessary subjects, which could be Reading and Writing, Maths, Wizarding etiquette, as well as introductions to Potions and Herbology, Charms and the Magical world in general. What do you think? And who is going to send the letters? Will you, Granny, as Headmistress of Hogwarts, be Headmistress of the primary school as well? Or should Granddad be the Headmaster?”

Everyone laughed when Harry finished his speech, until Minerva finally answered, “On one hand, Harry, yes, I think we should integrate the primary school completely into Hogwarts, which would make me Headmistress automatically, on the other hand, I would like you to become the Headmaster.” Albus and Severus voiced their agreement immediately, and Minerva continued, “Maybe we could have you as Deputy Headmaster for the Primary School, while your father is Deputy Headmaster for Hogwarts main school.”

Harry shook his head and said, “No, Granny, I don’t want to be headmaster, deputy or else. I promise to assist with everything concerning the primary school as much as I can, but I don’t have time to take any position in it. You know how busy I am; even now I only have time on the weekends.”

Poppy interrupted him and said, “Time he desperately needs to rest. Minerva, honestly, Harry can not take any more burdens.”

Ginny nodded affirmatively, and Minerva said pensively, “However, this is not because you don’t want to be responsible for the school, but only because you don’t have enough time, right?” Harry gave her a short nod, and she continued, “Alright, then I will arrange for someone to help you with the grading. How about asking the two Merlin sixth years, who have the best grades in Transfiguration, to help you with the grading of the lower classes’ homework?”

“I don’t know,” Harry said, feeling very uncomfortable with this solution. “No, Granny, let me try on my own first, and when I really get into trouble with the grading I will tell you, alright?”

Julia spoke up and asked, “I know that I am not very good at Transfiguration, but at least I had an E every year so far. Don’t you think I would be able to help Harry grade first and second years’ homework?”

Harry glanced at his grandmother, and when she nodded positively, he said, “Alright Julia, thanks. I appreciate your help very much.”

Minerva nodded again and said, “Alright, so Harry is the Deputy for the Primary school. I will send the owls out tomorrow morning and hope we will have the first positive answers soon.”

As soon as this discussion was finished, Harry excused himself and retired to his room, throwing an inviting glance at Ginny, who stood up and followed him immediately. They made themselves comfortable sitting next to each other on Harry’s bed and spent some time talking. Ginny suggested that they go and visit her parents the next day in order to ask her mother if she would be willing to teach if it was needed, and Harry agreed immediately, as he realized he would not be able to work in the shack for more than a few hours.

After a few hours, Julia knocked and entered his room. “Harry, are you not going to the common room tonight?” Harry glanced at his watch and groaned; he had forgotten completely, and it was nearly curfew.

He looked at his sister and asked, “Julia, I don’t feel very well tonight. Would you please go to the common room and ask the students if anyone has something urgent to discuss with me?” When she nodded, he added, “You can go through my office of course.”

She nodded again and asked, “No problem, Harry, but what is wrong with you?”

He shook his head and replied, “Nothing really, I just overdid my magic within a very short time, therefore I feel drained and tired, maybe a little feverish as well. I just have to sleep for a while, then I’ll be fine.” Julia nodded contently and left the room, while Ginny did a few checks on him and motioned him to get ready for bed.

“Yes, Harry, your magic is at a level of nearly 70 percent, and you have a slight fever. You will have to be more careful during the next days, if you want to be able to teach next week.” She stayed with him until he was asleep.

After breakfast, Harry went down to the Shrieking Shack together with Albus, Julia, Marina and Violet. Harry would have preferred to go just on his own, maybe with Julia, but someone must have asked his grandfather to accompany him and keep an eye on him. As Albus was the first teacher at the school, it seemed to be right that he could decorate the staff room just as he wanted. Therefore, Harry asked him to decorate the staff room and the toilets next to it. In the meantime, Harry conjured toilets, showers and everything else that was needed for the washrooms and toilets downstairs. Deciding to leave the decoration of the potions lab to his father, he continued with the dining room, where he conjured 60 tables and comfortable chairs, after he had wished the walls in very light rainbow colours and the ceiling like in the classrooms.

As his grandfather had not come down yet – he was probably showing the classrooms to the little ones – he continued with the large room and configured the four walls to show the outside of the shack. On one side, one could see the lake, on one side the castle, on one side Hogsmeade and on the last side the forest. It was beautiful, but Harry felt exhausted. However only the floor and ceiling were left, as well as the fireplace. He conjured light green tatami matting for the floor, wished the ceiling to be like everywhere else in the school and lay down on the floor to rest, leaving the fireplace for his grandfather.

In the meanwhile, Dumbledore had arranged the staff room, had visited the classrooms together with Julia and the kids, and had conjured plants for the corner of every classroom. He had also taught Julia how to decorate the windows a little. When they came downstairs to have a look at Harry’s work, he was fast asleep, and Julia worriedly asked her grandfather,

“Is he alright?” Albus nodded affirmatively and proceeded to wake Harry up.

“Harry, is everything finished here?” he asked his tired grandson, and Harry shook his head.

“No, Granddad, could you please conjure a huge fireplace for this room? I have already done too much magic I think. And maybe we need a small separate room somewhere for guests? I didn’t think about that before.”

Albus grinned and told him, “I have abandoned the toilets on the upper floor and have replaced them with a Headmaster’s office for you or Minerva to work and to receive guests. Would you like to have a look at it?”

Harry nodded and climbed up the stairs again to have a look at the office. It was in a corner of the building and had one huge window, which covered two sides of the room and as the room was situated just above the entrance door, one could see the castle on one side and Hogsmeade on the other. The opposite wall was charmed to show the lake, Harry’s favourite spot of Hogwarts. Inside the room was a huge desk with two chairs as well at a visitors’ table surrounded by four chairs. The whole room was decorated in white and blue. Harry liked it very much.

“Thank you, Granddad, it is beautiful.” Albus laughed at his grandson and said,

“Alright, that’s enough for today, we will come back tomorrow; let’s try to use the fireplace back to Hogwarts.” Harry gasped. He had not noticed that Albus had already conjured a fireplace and had even asked a house elf to connect it to the Hogwarts floo system. Anyway, it worked, and within a minute, they all found themselves back in the living room of the Snape quarters.

Harry decided to flash to the Hospital Wing to look for Ginny in order to ask her when they would be going to visit her mother. However, before he could leave their quarters, Ginny came to meet him.

Hello Harry. Your Grandmother wants you to come to her office. She told me she had a problem concerning the primary school. However, wait a moment,” she said, noticing his tired face. She quickly waved her wand over him and scolded him for not taking care of himself. “Harry, you may not do any more magic today. Is that clear?” she asked strictly, and Harry gave her a short nod before he took the floo to the Headmistress’ office.