“And? What did they say?” he asked, as soon as the boy had left the room.
Minerva sighed and answered, “They don’t want to interfere except for in emergencies; This means they want us to solve the problem in any other possible way, and only if we really cannot manage to do anything, they will assign her a magical guardian and fight with the muggles.” She sighed and continued, “Albus will go and change her parents’ memories in a way that they will be happy with her being a witch and going to Hogwarts. Hopefully this will work.”
Harry threw her an astonished glance and asked, “Will granddad manage? Won’t it be dangerous for him? I would like to accompany him, as… I mean… you know I have lots of experiences with these kinds of muggles.”
Minerva laughed and said pensively, “Yes, maybe it would be good if you went with him. Maybe you can even do it with your wish magic. Afterwards you give her a sign; maybe a tickling charm or something, and she can try to talk about Hogwarts in order for you to know if it worked. If not, Albus can try the second time.”
Harry nodded eagerly and stated, “Alright, Granny; when she phones me tomorrow, I will make an appointment with her for one of the next evenings; we will ring their bell in order for her to let us in, but we will be invisible and just do our magic.” He glanced at his watch and excused himself. “Sorry, Granny, but I have to run; the lesson starts in a minute.”
When Judith called him the next evening, he told her the plan, and they agreed to implement the plan at about 8 o’clock the next evening.
Their job in Judith’s house was efficient to say the least. Everything went as it should, and when Judith timidly asked her parents if they would allow the nice teachers, who visited them nearly two months ago, to visit them again, so that she could ask them more questions, they agreed immediately. And when Judith told them, that she had heard they were even planning a summer’s course before the start of the school year, and asked if she might attend it, her father said,
“Why not; if you want to go, you may go,” and her mother nodded approvingly. Judith was the only one to hear a whispered ‘Merlin’s home’, when Harry activated the portkey, which took the two wizards home.
The rest of the school year passed too fast, and everyone was very busy with the preparation for the end of year tests. Harry of course had known that they were approaching fast and had started quite early, but with all the other arrangements he had to do, it was well into the week before the test week, when he finally finished his preparations.
Besides his classes at both schools, homework grading, Head of House duties, Quidditch and Yakkitch practise, full moon nights, visits with the Roonspoor at Hagrid’s hut, little sister duties, fiancée duties and hospital visits, he had organized several single events. A Saturday night dance ball for the whole school had taken place at the end of May as well as a few Saturday entertainment programs for the first and second years. Harry had just organized an early summer feast for the Primary school, which many Hogwarts students had joined as well; and finally he had invested much time to arrange the two summer courses for the soon-to-be sixth years and the muggleborn students. His yellow mobile phone never remained quiet; some of the ten new muggleborn students called him every week, others once a month either to ask questions or just to talk about the wizarding world.
Now Harry was looking forward to the test week; there would be no homework to grade, and except for the two lessons at the Primary school he did not have to teach but he just had to watch a few tests, as the OWLs and NEWTs would be supervised by ministry personnel, so he gained many free periods. Of course, he was sorry for the students, but nevertheless he would enjoy some quiet time. However, as so often, everything was different to his expectations.
On the first day of the tests, Violet came down with wizards’ flu and did not calm down with anyone near her but kept crying for Harry. As Poppy and Ginny could not manage to sedate her and she was too small for dreamless sleep potions, Poppy desperately asked Minerva to watch over Harry’s classes, so that he could spend some time with Violet in the Hospital Wing. He stayed with her three days and nights, until she was better and could return to her room she shared with Marina. Unfortunately, the potion Poppy had given Harry, so that he would not catch the disease from Violet, did not work for Harry, and he just managed to attend the last classes and the leaving feast, before he fell ill as well. Ginny had realized that he was feverish and not feeling well and while she tucked him into his bed teased him,
“You really seem to hate holidays, Harry, that you become sick every time they start.” Noticing how unwell he felt, she checked on him but apart from 41 degrees of fever, she couldn’t find anything wrong. “Sorry, sweetie, I don’t know what is wrong, I have to get Poppy.” She ran out of the room and fetched the healer, who could not diagnose anything either, until she called Severus, who asked,
“Could it be that he caught the flu from Violet?”
Poppy thought for a moment and contradicted, “No, he should not have; I gave him the Bania Potion, which should prevent it.” But when she checked on Harry again, her wand flared red – both times she waved it. She sighed, and turned to Severus again. “Yes, that’s it; the potion did not work on him. Can you please check why? Does it have anything in common with the Pepper-up Potion? Oh yes,” she answered the question immediately by herself, “it must be birch bark, mustn’t it? That’s the only ingredient, which you use for both potions, right?”
Severus nodded pensively and said, “Yes, that’s it. Harry, I am very sorry for you being ill again, but I think it’s a good thing because we have found the reason why the Pepper-up Potion does not work for you, and I will probably be able to brew a new, similarly efficient potion for you to prevent you from getting colds.” Harry only managed to throw him a tired smile.
Ginny stayed with him and cared for him nearly around the clock, and after the first week of the holidays, he was finally allowed to get up under the condition that he must rest as much as possible. However, as before, Poppy forbade him to do any work; he was not even allowed to enter his office and had to hand his mobile phone over to his mother. In spite of a temper tantrum and many fights and discussions with Poppy and Ginny, Harry also missed the ‘Career course week’, which he had organized, and which took place during the second week of the holidays. His father had taken over for him and had taken turns with Minerva attending the event. At least Harry was able to attend the personal career advice hours, which took place during the next week.
On the evening of the full moon, just before they left their quarters, Severus handed Harry a phial and gave him an encouraging glance.
Harry threw a confused glance back and asked, “What is this, Dad?”
Severus laughed and told him, “It is a new type of Pepper-up Potion, which I invented for you. It is nearly the same as the normal one, but I have exchanged birch bark with palm tree bark, and I hope it will work this time.” Harry gave him a hopeful look and downed the potion, which had the same effect as Pepper-up: Smoke was coming out of his ears, and Harry noticed that he was feeling much better than before, so maybe the potion would also work preventively as it should. This time, even Anna spent the night outside with the Marauders, Amelia and Ginny, as she was able to transform into a cute, white rabbit. ‘Would be cute if she were pink,’ Harry thought and giggled inwardly.
Unfortunately, Hermione had not managed to transform so far, but Harry had promised to continue teaching her during the holidays. Minerva had assigned her teachers’ quarters near Harry’s office, so that she would be able to join the Snapes anytime and did not have to stay alone in her quarters during the evening. Until the start of school, Harry intended to let the castle make a connecting door from her office to the second floor hall in the Primary school, so that she would be able to access her classroom quickly.
Fortunately, with the course for the muggleborn students he was luckier than with the first summer course, as he had volunteered to take over the students every afternoon, and he would have felt too bad if he needed someone to cover for him for such an amount of time. Ginny, Anna and Hermione had promised their help if he needed any, and they would join him and the students for lunch and if needed take turns staying in the school with him during the afternoons.
On July 1, when the day the summer course started, Harry flashed over to the first student and brought him back to the multipurpose room of the Primary school by portkey. Leaving him with Minerva, he flashed to the next student’s house. After about two hours, all students had safely arrived at the school.
Harry conjured comfortable cushions for the students and made them sit down on the Tatami mat floor. Then he threw a questioning glance at his grandmother and, receiving a nod, proceeded to greet the students.
“Hello and a very great welcome to Hogwarts. As you all know, you are here for a special summer course for muggleborn students, which means magical students whose parents are both non-magical. This course is intended to help you adapt to the magical world; it will last six weeks and will take place here in the building of the Hogwarts Primary school.” At this moment, he was interrupted by the entrance of Ginny, Hermione and Anna. He thought for a moment and continued with his speech.
“Alright, as three of my colleagues have just arrived, I will introduce them first. You already know Professor McGonagall; she is the Headmistress of Hogwarts, which means of the main castle as well as of the Primary school. This here is Professor Granger; she is muggleborn too. She has just finished Hogwarts and is going to teach here at the Primary school from September onwards. Next to her, you see Professor Lupin; she has just finished her last year at Hogwarts too, and will also start teaching here at the Primary school. And here on my other side is Healer Weasley, soon to be my wife. She is an apprentice at the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts. And finally, as you probably all know, I am Harry Snape-Dumbledore. I teach Transfiguration at Hogwarts and also for the last year at the Primary school.” He stopped for a moment and before he could continue to speak about the course, Professor McGonagall interrupted him and said,
“And Professor Snape-Dumbledore is Head of Merlin, one of the five houses of Hogwarts and also my Deputy Headmaster of the Primary school.” Harry glared at her and continued,
“Never mind. During this six-week course, you will have two lessons in the morning, which will be held by several Hogwarts teachers. Then we will have lunch together, and afterwards you have one hour of your own to spend either reviewing the notes you took in the morning or reading a book, which you may borrow at the Hogwarts library. Finally, you will spend the rest of the afternoon with me or one of my three friends; maybe we will even split the group sometimes. During this time, we will speak about questions you have about the lessons, about what you have read, or sometimes I will take you over to Hogwarts or other places within the magical world. When we have finished our class for the day, you will return home by a portkey, which I will provide for you today. Your portkey will also bring you back here the next morning.” Judith timidly pointed a finger into the air and Harry nodded at her enquiringly,
“Yes, Judith?” She sat upright, threw an uncertain glance at the teachers and asked,
“Um… Professor? Would it also be possible to just stay here during the night?” Harry was slightly shocked by this question but made sure that his face remained straight and did not show his emotions. Ignoring the gasps he heard from Anna and Hermione, he answered,
“I have to discuss this with Professor McGonagall. Maybe we can arrange something.” He turned to his grandmother. “Granny, what do you think? Maybe if Ginny and I stayed with them…” Minerva interrupted him and said pensively,
“From my side it is no problem. You could stay here in the multipurpose-room in sleeping bags, which would be provided by our house elves. And Harry, you don’t have to stay here; you could just arrange a connecting door from your room to this room, just for the six weeks. However, the decision about whether you may stay here lies with your parents, as they are your guardians. We will provide you with a parchment before you go home today, and when you bring the parchment back signed by at least one of your parents, you may stay here over the six weeks.” Judith nodded and said,
“Thank you very much, Professors.” Harry gave her a comforting smile and continued to talk,
“Today you will not have any classes. We will have lunch shortly, and afterwards talk for a while to make sure you get to know each other a bit. I want you to at least remember the names of your classmates. Later, I will take you for a walk around the grounds and into the castle, where we will have tea in the Great Hall, so that I can introduce you to the other teachers. Now, as it is already lunchtime, I am sure that our house elves will have prepared lunch for us; let’s go over to the dining room.”
During their introduction hour, Harry got to know that three of the students had younger siblings, who were an adequate age for attending the Primary school. If they would be magical too? He memorized their names in order to consult the huge book in his grandmother’s office, but then decided to check this immediately. Leaving the students to Ginny, Anna and Hermione, he excused himself for ten minutes and went through his office on the upper floor into Minerva’s office at Hogwarts. Together they checked the book and found two of the names. Both children seemed to be seven years old and thus belonged to the year of Marina and Violet. Harry went back and addressed the three students,
“I have just checked with the Hogwarts book of magical children born in Great Britain, and your siblings are listed there, Peter and Brian. However, I could not find the name of your sister, William. Either she is not magical, or she has not displayed any magic so far. I don’t know if you or your parents have noticed anything about her, but we can talk about this later if you want to. Peter and Brian, your sisters are both magical and will be able to attend Hogwarts at any time. If your sisters were interested and your parents agreed of course, they could start to visit the Hogwarts Primary school from September onwards, where they would be in the second year together with Professor Lupin’s and my little sisters. When you return home today, please talk to your parents about this, and if they were interested, I would visit them and explain everything to them.” Both students nodded eagerly, and Harry addressed all students,
“Alright, let’s enjoy the fine summer weather and go for a walk around the Hogwarts grounds. Please remember, what I tell you now: The huge forest you can see here through this wall is called ‘The forbidden forest’. It doesn’t have this name just for fun, but because it is very dangerous. There are more animals than you could ever imagine, many of them very poisonous and perilous. The forest is also a magnet for people wanting to hide from civilization because of their not too good intentions. Anyway, keep away from the forest; you are not allowed to even set a foot behind the first row of trees. Is this clear to all of you?” he asked sternly. The students, who were astonished to hear the nice professor speak in such a stern voice, answered immediately,
“Yes, Professor.” Harry gave them an encouraging nod and led the way out of the building. He showed the students the gate and told them that it was the end of the Hogwarts grounds and that nobody was to leave the grounds during their stay at Hogwarts, before he took Ginny’s arm and the two walked ahead in the direction of the lake. Half around the lake he gathered the students and warned them about swimming in the lake, explaining a little about Grindylows and other creatures that could be found in the lake. At 3 o’clock, he led the students into the Great Hall, where Hermione told them,
“The ceiling is charmed so that it reflects the sky above the castle; I know it is the same in the Primary school, I just think because of the size of the hall, it is even more impressive here.” They approached the Teachers’ table, where the teachers and their family members had already taken a seat leaving every second seat empty for the new students to sit between them. Harry proceeded to introducing the teachers and told the stunned students,
“I know that it must be very confusing to have three Professor Lupins, three Snapes and three Dumbledores here. To explain it shortly, Professor Bones-Lupin is Professor Lupin’s wife and Anna Lupin’s mother. Professor Snape is my father, Professor Evans-Snape my mother, and Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall-Dumbledore are my great grandparents. And in two months time Healer Weasley-Snape will be my wife,” he added grinning at Ginny. “We have several more teachers here at Hogwarts, but they do not stay here at the castle during the summer months,” he finished his introduction.
“Now,” Albus interrupted him, “during the school year, around 1000 people live in the castle, but as you can see, during the summer months were are reduced to about twenty. You cannot imagine how bored the house elves are during this time. Therefore they have been more than happy to have guests here today; so please enjoy tea and cake.” He clapped his hands, and the table was so full of delicacies that Harry had to try hard not to laugh too loud when he looked in the faces of the stunned students.
When everyone had finished tea, Hermione took the students on a tour through the library. In the meantime, Harry arranged for a letter to their parents, which explained that the students had voiced that they would like to stay at the Primary school during the six weeks of the course together with the parchment for approval the students had to let their parents sign if they wanted to stay. He met them at the library, gave each student an envelope containing the two parchments as well as a portkey, and advised them to use the portkey at 8:30 in the morning.
“It will take you to the multipurpose-room, where we met this morning. I will be there for you, and we can discuss if you are allowed to stay here during the six weeks and other questions if there are any. Your lessons begin at 9 o’clock, and I will hand you a timetable tomorrow morning. Now please take your portkey and activate it by saying ‘back home’. Tomorrow morning you activate your portkey with saying ‘to Hogwarts primary home’.” Within five minutes, the students were gone. Harry let out a deep sigh and turned to his three friends.
“Thank you, all of you, for your help. It would be great if you could take turns during the next days, so that always one of you would be with me and I didn’t have to leave the students alone in case I have to go somewhere to arrange something.” His three friends smiled at him, and Hermione said,
“Of course, Harry. We already promised you that, and we don’t have anything to do anyway. Preparing lessons for the children is not so much work.” Anna nodded eagerly, and Ginny gave him a smile and suggested,
“Let us go to your room for a while, you look tired. We’ll meet you at dinner at the Snapes’,” she told the others and pulled Harry out of the library, while Hermione went over to the restricted section to look for an interesting book.
During the evening, Harry’s mobile phone rang exactly ten times. All students rang him to tell the happy news that their parents had signed the approval sheet. Harry congratulated them and tried again to concentrate on the preparation of his lessons for the next school year. Finally, he gave up and joined his family in the living room, where once again most of the residents of Hogwarts had stayed after dinner for several rounds of tea. It only took him ten minutes to doze off, however the phone brought him back to reality two minutes later.
The summer course seemed to be very successful. All ten students seemed to be very interested in their lessons, and Harry had the impression they were more than happy to be together and to be at Hogwarts. The teachers were apparently very content with the eagerness of their students, as they were so interested and willing to learn. And as they only had to teach one and a half hours a week, they didn’t mind teaching during the holidays too much.
Harry had asked the castle to provide a permanent connecting door from one of the side passages to the Entrance hall in the castle to the Entrance hall at the Primary school. He put a notice-me-not charm on it, so that only people who knew about it could see it.
This door was not only for the teachers to be able to access the primary school quickly after breakfast in the Great Hall, but also for the ten students, whom Harry had invited to have breakfast in the Great Hall together with the teachers and their families. Lunch would take place over at the dining room of the primary school together with Harry and his three friends, and sometimes even the teacher of the second morning lesson joined them; dinner however the students had to eat in the dining room on their own. They also had to spend the evenings and weekends on their own, however Harry had arranged a connecting door from the multipurpose-room to his own room – of course at the school’s side under a notice-me-not charm – and Harry and Ginny often went over to the school in the evening to look after the students. They also tried to take the students on excursions on Saturdays whenever they had the time.
As the weeks passed, Ginny was getting more and more excited because of their fast approaching wedding. When she worried,
“I hope the twins won’t arrange something too crazy,” for the umpteenth time, Harry embraced her and said calmingly,
“Look Ginny, the main point for the wedding is that you and I are there, and that there is someone to wed us. The only thing I have asked the twins is that we have Granddad wed us. Therefore, I am sure he will be there. Nothing else is so important that we couldn’t rely on your brothers. Um…” He didn’t know how to ask this, but he had to, hadn’t he? “Um…, Ginny, about your wedding robes. I think we should visit Madame Malkins on one of the next weekends. However, as I don’t think I am the best to advise you, we should take someone with us. Whom do you want to join us, your mother, or my mom, Hermione, Anna…?” Ginny thought for a moment, before she asked,
“Eh… Do you think your mother would mind coming with me?” Harry smiled at her and said,
“No, I don’t think so, but let’s go and ask her.” Lily was astonished but agreed immediately. However, she asked Ginny,
“Ginny, are you sure that your mother would not mind? Perhaps we should take her as well. As you are her only daughter, she will have been looking forward to this moment for years. However, we don’t have to take Harry with us I think.” Harry nodded and added,
“I have already sent Madame Malkins an owl to tell her from which vault she should take the money for your wedding robes, so if you feel better going without me, it is no problem.” With Ginny’s approval, Lily went over to the fireplace and agreed with Molly Weasley to meet at Diagon Alley on Saturday morning to buy wedding robes for Ginny. To avoid any discussions in the shop, she told her immediately that Harry was going to pay for whatever Ginny would choose.
One day, Harry woke up and noticed immediately that he had overslept. ‘Oh no! Why didn’t the alarm clock ring? And why didn’t anybody wake me up?’ He groaned and went over to the living room, where Ginny and Lily were talking to each other.
“Oh, somebody is awake,” Lily said teasingly and earned an angry glare from her son.
“Could you please tell me why none of you was kind enough to wake me up? I should have looked after my students, and you know that,” Harry spat throwing angry looks at them. Ginny pulled him over to the sofa and said,
“You have been so tired for a while now, and I was worried about you; therefore, I told everyone to let you sleep in today. I have made sure that your students were fine and went to breakfast, don’t worry.” Oh yes, he now remembered that she had said something very late in the evening, when he was already dozing off.
Harry gave her a tiny bit of a smile and replied, “Sorry for yelling at you, and thanks for letting me sleep. It was just a shock when I woke up, because I feared I had missed something I should have done. But it really feels good to have slept so much.” He went back to his room, took a shower and was just ready in time to head over to the Primary school for lunch.
Ginny was still talking to his mother, but Harry interrupted them and asked, “Ginny, it’s time for lunch. Are you coming with me?”
However, Lily answered for Ginny and said, “Sorry, Harry, but I have to take Ginny with me to the Great Hall today, as we have something to discuss with Poppy and Granny. We’ll see you later.” Harry frowned. Something was strange today, but anyhow he had to go and see his students.
However, when he arrived at the school, nobody was there. He looked in every room on both floors, even the dining room, where the students were supposed to be, but they were all empty.