They arrived in a very small room, which had only space for about four people to stand close to each other, and it was surrounded by the normal castle’s stonewalls. Before Harry could ask Nina where they were, a woman’s voice penetrated his ear.

“Welcome to my point of origin, Harry. I am Hogwarts. I have been waiting for you to come and see me for a long time.” Harry frowned; he felt very confused. Whom did this voice belong to? Was it really the castle speaking to him? He decided to ask,

“Sorry, but who are you? I mean, are you the castle itself?” The voice laughed and told him,

“It is not the castle ‘itself’ but ‘herself’, as you should be able to recognize from my voice. I am a lady, and I am Hogwarts, the castle, as I told you a minute ago. Anyway, now you are here. You must know that I can only speak to people who are descendants of at least two of my founders, and you are the first in several hundred years apart from your mother and your grandmother, but your grandmother is a squib, and your mother has never visited me so far. Anyway, as you are especially powerful as the first and so far only descendant of all four founders, you will even be able to communicate with me from any point within the castle.” Harry, who had just been listening and trying to understand so far, suddenly interrupted her,

“Wait! I am the descendant of all four founders? My great grandfather is a descendant of Gryffindor, and my father is a descendant of Slytherin, but that’s all I think.” The voice let out a small laugh and continued to speak,

“No, my dear boy, that’s not all. Your great grandmother, Minerva McGonagall-Dumbledore is a direct descendant of Rowena Rawenclaw, and your father of your old time line, James Potter, is a descendant of Helga Hufflepuff. However, as it was you to come to me for a conversation, I assume that you have something you want to talk about?” Harry, who hardly could be more confused as he was now, stammered,

“Um, yes. Eh… You probably know that we have founded the Hogwarts Primary school down in the Shrieking Shack, don’t you?”

“Yes, I have seen that. However, if whatever you want my advice about, concerns this daughter school, there will be only one possibility for you in order to achieve my help. At the moment, I have no connection to this tiny building and the school in it. However, you can give this building as a present to me. In this case, I will take over the building, the outer walls will change into my normal Hogwarts walls, the building will be under my protection and care, and I can advise and help you with all matters concerning rooms and walls just in the way as I can do here. And of course, we could add a cellar to the building and directly connect it to the dungeons for the students to walk over. Or we can, for example, add a connecting door from your office here to your office there. Everything we can do here, we would be able to do there.” Harry was stunned. He just couldn’t believe what he heard.

“Is this really true? If yes, how can I give you the building?” The voice laughed and told him,

“Can you do wish-magic? I am asking, because as the heir of all four founders you have to be very powerful; therefore, it could be possible for you. Anyway, if yes, you just wish the building to be mine and imagine it with my walls, belonging to the main castle as a little daughter.” Harry still could not believe what he was told but tried to oblige nevertheless. He closed his eyes and summoned all the wish magic he possessed. And… YES… he could feel it. He could sense the castle extend her hands; she reached out for the smaller building and embraced it. Slowly the outer walls changed into those of the castle. Harry was just slowly drifting over into unconsciousness, when the voice called him,

“No, Harry, don’t drift away! Put your hands on my walls, both hands, you can do it.” Like in a trance, Harry managed to move both hands against the stone walls and felt how magic flew through his hands into his body. Suddenly he did not feel drained or tired any more; the castle must have given him of her magic. Very confused but relieved he pulled his hands away and said,

“Thank you very much, Hogwarts. Did everything go well?” The castle answered,

“Yes my boy, thank you for your present. The daughter school is mine now, too, and when you need me to change anything, you can just touch one of my walls, wherever you are within the castle, and we can talk to each other. Did you need something immediately?” Harry nodded and replied,

“Yes, please. First of all, could you add a connection door from my office here to the office there, and one more door from the Headmistress’ office here to the office there please?” After a short moment, the voice said,

“Done. What else?” Harry sighed and told the castle about the too small classrooms, which they would need in about three times the size. This time it took a few minutes, while Harry was impatiently waiting, wondering if the castle had heard him at all. But suddenly the voice spoke again.

“All classrooms have three times the size now, as well as the rooms on the lower floor. The potions lab and the washrooms are enlarged as well. The house elves are just adjusting the interior. I hope you will like it. Remember, whenever you need to have something adjusted here or over there, just touch a wall with both hands. Good-bye Harry.”

“Good-bye and thank you very much,” Harry managed to say, before Nina took his hand and popped him back into his office, from where she disappeared immediately.

A glance at his watch showed Harry that it was time to go over to the common room. The moment he opened the door to exit his office, he noticed that a new door had appeared just behind his desk. However, he dismissed every thought about what had just happened and hurried over to see his students, who as usual had a lot to talk about with him. It was quite a while after curfew, when he returned to his office. Now he had to speak to Minerva. He tried the new door in his office and entered the Headmaster’s office of the Primary school, where he could see another new door besides the connecting door to his own office. After a short knock at the other door, he tentatively opened it and hesitantly entered Minerva’s office, where his grandparents were having tea.

“Harry!” his grandmother exclaimed surprised. “Where are you coming from?” Harry laughed and said,

“Sorry, Granny, I did not want to give you a fright, nor did I want to enter your office uninvited. However, I have news to tell you and just couldn’t wait. Do you see the door here?” Minerva turned around and threw the door a confused glance. Harry quickly explained his experiences of the evening, and Albus said,

“Congratulations Harry. I have never been able to directly speak to Hogwarts, I always have to ask Twinkle to talk to the castle when I want to have something changed. But for you everything will be very easy now, Hogwarts will support you with all her means.” Harry interrupted him and told them about the magic the castle had sent to him just as he had been starting to fall unconscious. “Anyway,” Albus continued, “shall we go and have a look at the school for a moment?” Minerva nodded eagerly, and the three went through the connecting door behind Minerva’s desk.

The interior of the school looked exactly as it had before, just that the classrooms were much larger. Each classroom held twenty desks now instead of ten, and there was still room for ten more desks. Only the exterior of the building had changed very much, and it looked like a miniature version of the huge castle next to it. When the three teachers returned to the small castle and closed the door behind them, Harry put both hands onto the wall and asked,

“Can you hear me, Hogwarts?” After a few seconds, he could hear the voice,

“Yes, of course. What’s wrong now?” Harry laughed and said,

“Nothing, I just wanted to thank you again. The small castle is just brilliant. My grandparents seem to be as happy with it as I am. Thank you!”

After he could hear a “You’re welcome, Harry,” he pulled his hands away from the wall.

When he returned to his office and entered the living room with his grandparents in tow, his parents and Ginny were having tea, obviously waiting for him.

“I am sorry for being so late,” Harry apologized to Ginny and pulled her into a hug.

“That’s alright, Harry; we were just a little worried, because we didn’t know where you were,” Ginny replied calmly, and Harry proceeded to telling his parents and Ginny the whole story.

When he had finished, Severus asked, “So if you wanted, you could ask the castle to make a connecting door from your room over to Ginny’s room in the Hospital Wing, right?”

Harry thought about it for a moment and nodded affirmatively, before he turned to Ginny and asked, “Shall I ask the castle to do that?”

Ginny sighed and said, “On one hand, that would be nice; on the other hand I suppose that we will be living together after the wedding anyway, won’t we?”

Everyone laughed, and Harry answered, “Of course, Ginny, we will live together when we are married. However, I don’t know where. I would like to just stay where we are, apart from Ginny staying with me in my room, maybe enlarge our room a bit. What do you think, Ginny, and what about you, Mom and Dad?”

Ginny smiled at him and said, “Harry, you know that I am used to a huge family; therefore I would like very much to live here together with you and your family; however I don’t know what your parents think, especially when we will have children.”

Lily and Severus glanced at each other, before Severus gave a short nod and Lily explained, “We would love to have both of you here; and it doesn’t matter how huge our quarters get; we can add as many additional rooms as we want, and it will even be much easier now, as Harry is able to ask the castle by himself. Later, when you all have children, I mean Julia, Marina and Violet as well, and in case they are all living here, we could always change your rooms into your own quarters and just keep the living room as the common room for all of us. Just like Granny and Granddad access the living room from their own quarters.”

“However,” Harry interrupted his mother, “when you are living here, we really should make a connection door to Poppy’s office, so that you can easily get there and back again.” He winked everyone to follow him and went over to a free spot on the wall and put both hands on the wall. “Hogwarts, can you hear me?”

“Hello Harry, are you disturbing my sleep again? What is it this time?”

Harry blushed and everyone threw him an astonished glance, until he replied, “I am very sorry to disturb you, and I promise it will be the last time for today. Could you please make a connecting door from here to the hall behind Madam Pomfrey’s office in the Hospital wing?”

It only took a few seconds, and the castle’s voice answered, “Alright, Harry. Step away from the wall, and I will make a door. Good night.” Harry stepped away and motioned the others to join him and watch. After about two minutes, suddenly a white door appeared where the wall had been before. He opened the door and found himself in the hall just between Poppy’s office and his former room. He went into the office and told the astonished healer, where the new door led.

“Oh, that’s good; then it will be much easier to check on you,” Poppy said smirking.

Everyone, who had followed Harry, laughed, and Lily said, “That’s very good indeed, and it will be easier for you to attend our holiday’s dinners or to just come and join us for a cup of tea as well.” Harry put his right hand on the frame of the new door, sent his wish magic into the frame and told the door not to let anyone through apart from members of his family including Ginny and Aunt Poppy.

With a tired sigh, he let go of the door and told the others what he had done, before he asked, “Can we go back and have tea now?”

Everyone followed him to the Snapes’ living room, where Dobby brought tea and biscuits.

Harry, who was sitting on his favourite spot on the sofa with Ginny in his arms, was just drifting away, when Severus addressed him, “Harry, sorry to wake you up, I have something to discuss with you. You know, this Saturday is a Hogsmeade trip, and Pomona, Filius and I were in charge of it. However Pomona has been taken ill and cannot come with us, and I need one more person to come to Hogsmeade. Would you be willing to come?”

Harry sighed and said, “Yes, Dad, of course I will.” He turned to Ginny and asked, “Will you join me, Ginny? Maybe we could visit your brothers.”

Ginny fondly smiled at him and answered, “Of course, sweetie.”

Harry turned to Minerva and asked, “Sorry, Granny, I know we had an appointment on Saturday morning to write the letters to the muggleborn students; could we meet on Sunday morning instead?”

His grandmother nodded affirmatively, but Severus asked, “Will you be awake on Sunday morning, Harry? Aren’t you coming to the Marauders’ night on Saturday? I thought you would come and bring Ginny for the first time.”

Harry sighed and said, “Dad, you cannot believe how much I would love to, but I just don’t have the time; I am so busy that I really don’t know how to finish everything in time. But I will try to come. When I manage to finish the tests, I will come. Sorry, but I think I am going to bed now. Good night.” He took Ginny’s hand and pulled her with him into his room, fell onto his bed and was asleep. Ginny tucked him in and went back into the living room, where everyone was still worriedly talking about Harry.

On Friday night, Harry was twenty minutes late for Quidditch practise, but he had finished preparing all tests except for the one for the first years, which would not be needed until Thursday. They had extended their team to the teachers of the Primary school, and therefore Mr. Potter and Mrs. Weasley were playing as well, so that the teachers had two small teams playing against each other. Ginny flew over to Harry as soon as he mounted his broom and asked if everything was okay, and Harry gave her a short nod, before he began to look for the snitch. However, he was so tired, that Severus, who was playing seeker for the other team, nearly managed to beat his son to the snitch. When everyone came down, Madam Hooch, who had as Deputy Captain led the match, ended the practise for the evening, although it was still earlier as usual. Harry apologised to Ginny, flashed home and was asleep before the others even entered their quarters.

When Harry and Ginny visited the twins during their trip to Hogsmeade on Saturday, they were having a special sale event in front of their shop because of their first anniversary. Fred and George seemed to be very busy, and they could only exchange a few words, but Ginny and Harry invited them to visit them at Hogwarts during the Easter holidays, which would start in a week. As Harry had to survey the students, they had to stay in Hogsmeade until the last students left, which was shortly before dinner. Harry now could imagine why the teachers were not too fond of the Hogsmeade visits.

Apart from a short dinner and another short visit to the Merlin common room, he spent the rest of the evening preparing the last test and finished just in time to head out into the forest. Normally Harry had always taken a ride on Lily’s shoulder on their way out, while the others were walking, but today Ginny was there as well, and as they were already a little late, because everyone had waited for him, Harry decided to just flash them into the forest.

When they arrived in the forest, everyone was already assembled; even Amelia was there for the first time.

“Alright, welcome to our Marauders’ full moon night. As you have certainly heard, our outings have a tradition, which goes back to our Hogwarts time,” Severus told Ginny and Amelia, before Harry introduced Ginny as his fiancée to James and Sirius. They spent the night as usual, however this time Ginny joined Lily and Harry when they started for their flight over Hogsmeade. Harry really enjoyed their flight – he was very happy; flying together with his mother and his fiancée was a memorable experience. As usual, they ended on the roof of the castle, from where they visited several windows peeking in curiously.

Finally, they sat down next to the lake for a huge picnic Dobby had provided for them. Noticing that Ginny was shivering, Harry took his warm Weasley sweater off and pulled it over her head wrapping himself into his robes and trying not to let the cold show in his face. Ginny gave him a grateful hug and asked worriedly if he was warm enough. Harry smiled at his fiancée and leaned into her arm, where he relaxed and drifted off to sleep after only a few minutes. However, he could not sleep for long, as Sirius took an empty cup, leaned over to the lake to fill it with water and splashed it into Harry’s face. While Ginny was very angry with him, Harry was now wide-awake and grateful for the cold splash. The Marauders’ night was too valuable to spend it asleep, especially when Ginny was together with him.

As it was the first time for Amelia and Ginny to be with them, Sirius, Severus and James told many stories of old Marauders’ nights – most of them Harry had not heard either, because they happened during the eighteen years he was missing. Much too fast it began to get light and everyone had to return home.

Harry flashed home with his parents, but did not join breakfast with them, but went to sleep for two hours until it was time for his meeting with Minerva. Together they wrote a letter to the ten Muggle families who had magical children that were expected to attend Hogwarts from September onwards. The content of the letter was, that they were a private school in Scotland and would like to visit the family on a certain date during the next three weeks in order to speak about special abilities their child seemed to have. Later in the letter, they offered a fixed time for an appointment. The letters would be sent by owl to the Post Office in Hogsmeade, from where they would be delivered with normal muggle mail.

However, “How can the muggles answer us, Granny?” Harry asked suddenly. “Wouldn’t it be better if I went to buy a mobile phone, so that they could just phone me?” Noticing Minerva’s enquiring look, he patiently explained what a mobile phone was and how it worked.

His grandmother thought it was a good idea, but, “Will it work here at Hogwarts? You know, such things don’t work here.”

Harry thought for a moment and said, “Yes, I know, but I somehow think it will work. Maybe I’ll be able to make it work with wish magic; I can try anyhow, and if I don’t get it to work, I will ask the Weasley twins to do something about it. They will surely manage to get it to work.”

Minerva laughed and asked, “So, where do we get a mobile phone?”

Harry thought for a moment and replied, “Let me just floo over to the Leaky Cauldron and walk a little into muggle London; it won’t take me long, and then I have the whole afternoon to play with it,” he added smirking.

His grandmother nodded but said, “However it is nearly lunchtime, and as you have already missed breakfast, your parents don’t want you to miss lunch as well; so please eat lunch and go on your trip afterwards.”

A few hours later, Harry was back with a small, yellow mobile phone. He had asked many questions in order to know enough about how everything worked; now he only had to find a way to make it work at Hogwarts. He spent two more hours trying several spells and wishes with and without batteries, until he had the impression it could work. However, he had nobody to phone, so he decided to ask Hermione for help. Maybe they could try to phone her parents. He asked Dobby to search for her and ask if she would be willing to help him for a few minutes, and within a minute Dobby returned together with Hermione. When Harry had explained everything to her, she got very excited and held her hand out for the phone in order to try to phone her parents. And although she had not really expected it to work – as she had read Hogwarts a History at least a dozen times – she was indeed able to talk to her father. Harry was very pleased.

“Here, Hermione, take this.” He handed her a small piece of parchment containing a mobile phone number. “You can give your parents my number, and when they want to talk to you, they can call me; it only took Dobby a minute to get you here.” Hermione thanked him with a huge smile and left his office in order to get back to her studies, while Harry went to look for his grandmother. As he could have imagined, he didn’t have to search far: his grandparents were just having tea with his parents and sisters in the living room.

“Granny, it works,” Harry shouted happily, and Minerva threw him a relieved glance. She had already regretted burdening Harry with even more extra work; however, he didn’t seem to mind at all.

Harry then asked, “Do we have the phone numbers of these families? Maybe it would be easier just to phone them instead of sending a letter.”

Lily agreed immediately, and Minerva suggested, “Maybe you can make them visible by wish magic.” She handed him the list, and Harry concentrated and sent the wish magic he could summon at the moment over into the list asking for the telephone numbers. It took about two minutes until the telephone numbers of the ten families came into view. Harry relaxed immediately; he had already used so much wish magic during this weekend that he had to be careful.

Minerva and Harry went over to his office in order to phone the ten families and make appointments. As his grandmother did not know how to make a phone call, Harry called the first family.

“Hello. This is Professor Harry Snape-Dumbledore from Hogwarts School in Scotland speaking. We are a school for specially gifted children with special abilities, and your daughter Evelyn seems to have these special abilities. Therefore our Headmistress and I would like to make an appointment with you and your daughter in order to explain everything about her abilities as well as about our school.” Here he was interrupted,

“I don’t think that my daughter has any special abilities.” Harry frowned and asked,

“Has she never done anything and you thought, ‘How did she do that? I cannot do it’?” The father Harry was talking to remained silent for a minute, before he hesitantly answered,

“Yes, once or twice she has done strange things. Once, for example, she has repaired a broken cup just by looking at it.” Harry sighed contently and said,

“This kind of things is exactly what I mean. Your daughter is a witch, just like I am a wizard. I know this comes as a shock; therefore, we would like to visit you and explain everything to you in order to help you to understand and do what is best for your daughter.” They agreed on a visit on Friday evening, as they would be leaving for holidays on Saturday, and with a Good-bye Harry finished the conversation.

They took turns phoning the other families, and not all were so easily to convince that their children were special. Therefore, it was already dinnertime when they finished their phone calls.

The test week passed very quietly, and Harry was happy not to have any homework to grade. He started to grade the first day’s tests, while he was supervising the students on the second day, but it was good to know that he had two weeks of holidays to finish with the grading. During his two classes at the Primary school, the first after lunch on Tuesday and the last class before lunch on Friday, Minerva supervised the tests in his classroom.

During his lesson at the Primary school on Friday, Harry noticed that he was not feeling very well. In fact, he had not been feeling too well for at least a week, but now he really had the feeling he was coming down with something. ‘Of course, the holidays are going to start tomorrow, so it’s time to get sick,’ Harry thought, when he went over to his office after the lesson. He decided not to attend lunch, but to wait in his office if someone wanted something from him. Fortunately, nobody wanted anything except for Albus, who came to ask why Harry didn’t attend lunch, but Harry just told him he was not hungry because he was too tired.

Just in time for the afternoon classes, Harry went back through his office to the classroom. Fortunately, he had only one test left – however, it was the practical test of the seventh years, where he had to test each student separately. He made each student do five spells, two easy ones and three difficult ones. One of the spells was so difficult, that everyone who would be able to do it, would probably get an ‘O’ in the test. When it was Hermione’s turn about half through the lesson, she asked him,

“Are you alright, Harry? Shall I get someone to help or replace you?” But Harry only shook his head and gave her a grateful smile. Anna however was not so nice. She told him,

“You are ill, Harry, right? Why don’t you call Professor McGonagall to replace you? I know that this class is nearly finished, but if you don’t get your grandmother to do the next class and go to bed, I will personally call Ginny or Pomfrey and send them here to see you.” Harry frowned and said,

“Sorry, Anna, I just don’t have time for this now, there are three more students to test. And I’m fine, everything is alright; this is my last lesson today anyway. Now, please let me finish this.” Anna reluctantly obliged and stood aside. When the lesson was finished, Harry went over to his room to sleep for two hours until his next appointment. He asked Dobby to wake him up in time, and naturally, the house elf was happy to comply. Harry dressed in muggle attire and went to his grandmother’s office.

“Ah, there you are, Harry, just in time. Do you think you are able to apparate? Albus told me you were tired again. Harry cleared his throat feverishly thinking about other means of travel, before he replied,

“Is there any other possibility? If so, I would prefer anything else today.” They agreed that Harry would flash them to their first appointment, which was at 5 o’clock, in just ten minutes. The second appointment was at 7 o’clock, so that there could be more time, for example to take the Knight Bus. Harry flashed them near the place of their first appointment, which was difficult, as he knew neither the people nor the environment he had to flash to. A few minutes later, Harry rang the bell at the entrance door. Everything reminded him very much of the Dursleys, however the people were really nice. They had a son and had always wondered what was wrong with him. Therefore, they were very glad to get to know about his speciality. They talked for about an hour and arranged that Marc would attend the summer class at Hogwarts Primary school in summer. Harry gave them his mobile phone number and told them, if they had questions or problems or just wanted to talk, they could always call him in the evening.

When they left the house, Minerva called the Knight Bus and asked to be taken to the Leaky Cauldron as fast as possible.

“Of course, Headmistress McGonagall, we will be there in five minutes,” was the reply. Minerva made Harry sit down and eyed him worriedly, before she finally asked,

“What is wrong with you, Harry? Are you ill?” Harry frowned. He thought he had been doing very well, but of course, his grandmother knew him too well. He hesitantly told her that he had been feeling unwell for the day. She felt his forehead and said,

“You seem to have a fever. Do you feel well enough for the next visit?” Harry nodded, and Minerva continued, “Anyway, we are already at the Leaky Cauldron. Let’s have dinner here; as Albus told me that you have missed lunch, you will have to eat something. Then we can take the bus to our second appointment; however if you want to return home, I can go there alone.” Harry shook his head and said,

“No, Granny thanks, but it’s fine. We will go together.” The second visit was very different from what they had imagined.