The Power of a Proper Education

Set in Seventh year. Harry is engaged to Hermione Granger and has been making waves. He's the Head Boy and she Head Girl. One evening, the two reminisce about the events leading up to their current project, the Revitalization of Hogwarts' Education.

Prologue:

Harry Potter's re-entered the magical world at age eleven, raised by his magic-distrusting maternal aunt and uncle Petunia and Vernon Dursley, with the mindset that he needed to learn all he could so he would be able to leave Privet Drive and make something of himself and make his family proud of him. (The Dursleys are not abusive.) As a result, he was Sorted into Ravenclaw much to the dismay of a secretly manipulative Dumbledore. That intelligence served young Harry as he was able to use the logic and critical thinking he learned in muggle Primary to see past the setup and traps that Dumbledore had installed within the school to test the boy. It was during his first trip to Gringott's that Harry learns of his family's past and power. He convinces Hagrid that a longer and more in-depth search of the bookstore is needed. Armed with thick books on the etiquette and history of magical Britain and the Potter's place within it; Harry is ready to take on what comes.

(Because Harry was Sorted into Ravenclaw, he and Severus Snape never had their problems over the past history of Harry's father and a young Severus.)

In his First year, Harry and Hermione bond over their love of fiction books and the fun of comparing muggle fantasy magic to actual magic. After a few ill-fated attempts to curry Harry's favor, Ron Weasley is summarily rebuffed and told in no uncertain terms that the red-head will never be friends with him. Ron tries once more so Harry takes charge and writes a scathing letter to the Weasley Head of House and demands that the youngest son be 'educated properly' or he as the Head of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Potter will have to enact sanctions against the Ancient House of Weasley. The result was spectacularly embarrassing for the members of the red-headed clan. Ronald was pulled from the castle and homeschooled. Draco Malfoy is also initially rebuffed but told that he came across too strongly and if he was willing to try again in a month or two to allow Harry to acclimate himself, they could see if introductions could be re-attempted. This leads to Draco being friendlier to Harry as well as Hermione, especially after Draco finds out that Hermione never had the opportunity to learn the proper etiquette and history.

Harry learned about the Philosopher's Stone being held within the castle. After getting caught by Filch on the Third Floor after the stairs mysteriously dumped him off there and stranded him, he researched everything he could about the Stone. Curious as to why Nicholas Flamel would entrust said stone to the Headmaster to be kept within the school, Harry wrote the legendary alchemist a letter requesting clarity. The result was a very angry owner who descended upon the school and demanded the stone back. The fallout was intensified when the Head of the DMLE arrived with a team of Beastmasters, Aurors and a couple of Unspeakables to investigate a letter they'd received from an 'anonymous concerned student' who wondered why there was all these traps and animals in the school. Needless to say, Albus Dumbledore was not a happy camper. The traps were dismantled, Quirrel vanished and the rest of the year was quiet.

In his Second Year, Harry and Hermione meet Luna Lovegood, a somewhat flighty and distracted new student who has interesting views of 'undiscovered' creatures. The three bond over the topic of new information and potential discoveries in magizoology. Harry is discovered to be a Parselmouth. Rather than retreating, Harry gets ahead of the curve by holding a Question and Answer session with anyone who wants to know more about the ability to speak with snakes and other reptiles. He ends up having to hold it in the Great Hall due to the huge amount of interest. He describes the ability as nothing more special as being able to speak another language like Spanish, French or Mandarin. Hermione joins him on stage and points out that there are many countries and businesses around the world that would drool at the opportunity to recruit people who could speak to animals. She cites Gringott's as being a potential employer with their high security dragons along with Saint Mungo's Creature Bite Department as having a standing order to hire any Parselmouth. Zoos and other animal sanctuaries are another mentioned.

This leads to a greater discussion as to whether or not, the language could be taught to other people. Harry figures it couldn't hurt to try so he sets up a time once a week to at the very least, teach others to understand the language. It turns out that the language is magically incapable of being taught to being spoken by others not born with the talent. No one complains too much as they're at least able to understand the simple phrases that they're taught.

It was revealed later in the term that Luna's been bullied by some of the others within Ravenclaw for her unorthodox views of magic and magical creatures. After a bit of research, Harry puts forth the option of placing Luna under the protection of House Potter. Luna accepts after a brief discussion, Harry then takes action by involving their Head of House, Professor Filius Flitwick about the bullying. Flitwick puts an immediate stop to it by pointing out that everything that the Ravenclaws hold true in their books at one point were considered unorthodox by the establishment. This unassailable logic calms things down and raises the opinions of others in Luna's research.

The problem of getting the story out of Dobby regarding the mystery of the 'bad things will be happening' is solved by having the stressed elf tell the tale to his reflection in a mirror with Harry listening to the story. Dobby praises Harry for being "sneaky-sneaky." After speaking with Hermione, they contact the Department of Mysteries' Unspeakables and explain what's happened. The Unspeakables use the information and track down not only the Diary but also the Basilisk within the Chamber of Secrets. After dispatching the snake, they dispose of the Diary through the Veil. The carcass of the snake is rendered down and sold with the proceeds split between the DoM and Harry. The Unspeakables also mention a Prophesy in existence regarding Harry and the Dark Lord. After hearing the contents of the prophesy, Harry and the Unspeakable Chief write up a contract for the Department of Mysteries to act as Harry's 'hand' in disposing these vile creations.

Harry's Third Year was relatively quiet in comparison to the prior two years. The announcement that 'notorious mass murderer' Sirius Black had escaped Azkaban Prison was met with skeptism by both Harry and Hermione. Something about the backstory didn't make sense to them. Harry meets with his family account manager in Gringott's to get their side of the story. When asked why, Harry explains that the Goblins are known to not 'beat around the bush' and are honest and trustworthy. This results in the tale of how the magic signatures just don't match the actions of the two players on the day that Sirius intercepted Peter Pettigrew on that muggle street.

Given her love of muggle crime novels, Hermione contacts Amelia Bones, the Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and asks for a sit down discussion of the whole known story as well as the chance to air any questions or investigations. What they discover was that Sirius Black had never been given a trial after his capture. Director Bones tries to get the Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge to green light an investigation but the coward refuses to do so. After hearing that, Harry takes to publishing a scathing letter to the Daily Prophet newspaper outlining that if anyone had the right to hear the reasoning behind the supposed betrayal of his parents by Sirius Black, it was their son. The cowardice by the minister would suggest that he's being manipulated into hunting down a potentially innocent man and Heir of the other Noble and Most Ancient House of Black and having him Kissed by Dementors.

The Trial of Sirius Black vs. The Ministry for Magic is the most heavily attended trial of recent memory. In it, it's discovered that Sirius was acting as a decoy to the Potter's Secret-keeper Peter Pettigrew as stated in the Potter Will. The Prosecution stated that the Will was sealed on the executive order of Albus Dumbledore and therefore could not be accessed. With a smirk of vindication, the Defense pulls out the Gringott's copy and proceeds to tear the Prosecution's case apart. It's also revealed that Albus Dumbledore was the Witness to the creation and signing of the Will and knew that Harry was never supposed to be raised by Petunia and Vernon Dursley. Upset by this, Harry mentions that those two were in fact who raised him. A separate injunction and trial was set up to prosecute Albus for failure to follow the instructions of the Will.

Sirius is eventually cleared of all charges and remanded to the rehabilitative care of Saint Mungo's. The Dementors are sent back to the prison.

Harry meets Remus Lupin on the train ride north to the school and gets reacquainted during the trip. Harry learns why it was that Lupin wasn't part of his childhood and says that as long as the older man doesn't try to eat him, convert him and promises to remember to take his medicine; Harry has no problem with the fact that Remus is a werewolf. The Weasley Twins hand over the Marauder's Map after they learn that Harry is the Heir to their heroes. In return, Harry introduces the Twins to Moony. Minerva McGonagall swears that if the Marauders and the Weasley Twins team up, she's going to retire immediately.

(During the intervening summer between Third and Fourth, Peter Pettigrew in hiding as the Weasley rat 'Scabbers' disappears and starts making his way to find his former Master.)

In Harry's Fourth year, he used that brilliance of his to get himself disqualified from his supposed entry into the Tri-Wizard Tournament by utilizing the loopholes within the original contract. Albus tries to get Harry to participate anyways but is summarily rebuffed. The school has a Champion in Cedric Diggory and Harry would be damned if he tried to cheat his way in. During the ruckus at the end of the Third Task, Harry is kidnapped by a Death Eater posing as Alastor Moody and used as the unwilling blood sacrifice to rebirth Lord Voldemort. Harry manages to escape after being forced to 'duel' with the reborn Dark Lord by being quiet and hiding behind the tombstones until he finds the exit to the graveyard. He summons the Knight Bus and heads to the Department of Mysteries to share the memory with the Unspeakables his recent brush with death.

The Unspeakables send a team out to recover anything that might've been left behind after the ritual and to determine if there might be another Horcrux in the area. They find the Resurrection Stone ring and after some experimentation, are able to separate the stone from the ring. (The Withering Curse was within the band of the ring). The Horcrux within the stone is removed and disposed of and the rest is chucked through the Veil.

In his Fifth year after being tormented during the summer by recurring nightmares of a particular hallway in the Department of Mysteries and of Sirius being captured and tortured at the Ministry for Magic, Harry manages to defeat Voldemort once and for all thanks to the brilliance of his girlfriend. Hermione had found an obscure spell in a book deep within the Room of Requirment that would reach out through a ritual and capture a person's soul and encapsulate it in a shard of enchanted amber. Through diligent research, they discovered the fragment of Voldemort's soul within Harry's scar and used it as a base for the ritual. In addition, Hermione worked out a portable ritual circle and inscribed it onto special runic tablets.

The Battle was hard fought and they did lose a few people but Harry was lucky in that during a pitched battle with Dolohov, Harry managed to block the banishing curse that Bellatrix used on Sirius by intercepting the curse by summoning Dolohov into its path. Sirius was then able to focus on his fight with his deranged cousin and take her out using a family spell that caused the crazy witch to fall into an enchanted sleep.

Voldemort makes his appearance and tries to fight Harry, only for Dumbledore to make his grand entrance. The old man nearly wrecks everything in his grandstanding. During that skirmish, Harry sets up the ritual circle and enacts the plan he and Hermione came up with. When Voldemort tries to possess Harry, the runic circle is activated and pulls the essences of the original as well as all the other hidden soul shards into the prepared amber. This is then chucked through the Veil of Death with the Minister, the Chief Unspeakable as well as the rest of the Aurors and a ministry reporter witnessing.

[Because Harry never tried to claim to the public about Voldemort's reappearance after the resurrection ritual in the Hangleton graveyard, Umbridge never set the Dementors after him and his cousin Dudley nor did she get the position of DADA professor/High Inquisitor. The position went to Sirius Black instead after being cleared by Saint Mungo's of his mental and physical health.]

When Albus learns of all that has happened, he's incredibly upset and vocal that Harry didn't try to negotiate and redeem the Death Eaters from their lawless ways. Sirius gets angry and punches Dumbledore in the nose, demanding that the old goat stay away from his godson. Albus is arrested for interfering in a DoM operation for the hunt and capture of Voldemort and his Death Eaters and is incarcerated for evaluation. The Board of Directors is informed and decided that enough is enough; Albus is fired as Headmaster of Hogwarts.

Harry and Hermione's Sixth year is by far the quietest of any of their previous school years. Aside from the trial against Dumbledore, there's no madman trying to kill Harry or some crazy "Greater Good" plot from the former Headmaster. As a result, Harry settles down and does his best to get good grades and be the best boyfriend to Hermione. The two discover the Room of Requirement's Room of Hidden Things and are astounded by the treasure trove of potential history and knowledge contained within. Hermione discovers a stash of jewels and sends a few off to Gringott's to be appraised. What she learns kicks off an inkling of an idea on how to improve the standards of education within Hogwarts.

The two sit down at their table armed with reams of fresh paper, plenty of ink and quills. Hermione is quietly reading the report from Gringott's as Harry enters carrying a tray of cups of tea and some nibblies.

"Caught up on everything, Hermione?" She nodded without looking up and flipped to the next page, clearly involved with what she was reading and not really paying attention.

Harry smirked and pulled out a fresh sheaf of paper and began marking down the classes that Hogwarts offered as well as the ones he'd like to see.

Core Classes: Offered

Astronomy

Beginning Flight

Charms

DADA

Herbology

History

Potions

Transfiguration

Electives: Offered

Ancient Runes

Arithmancy

Care Magical Creatures

Divination

Muggle Studies

Quidditch

Harry sighed as he looked over the rather paltry list of classes. He felt Hermione reach out and take his hand in silent commiseration as he bent back over to write down the new list of classes that should be offered.

Possiblities:

Advanced Flight

Advanced Muggle Studies

Animagi Studies

Apprenticeship Training

Apparition

Beginning Healing

Business

Diplomacy

Dueling

Enchanting

Finance

Head Boy/Girl Prep

Mind Arts (Occlumency/Legilimency)

Magical Cartography (Portkey)

Prefect Training

Professorship Training

Technomancy

Warding

"Why didn't you include the Arts, Harry?" Hermione quietly asked as she peered over his shoulder.

Harry looked back and gave her a quick kiss on her lips, "I wanted to give that its own list. It'd be too big to put it under this one." She nodded and turned back to her own reading.

Magical Arts and Crafts

Beginning Acting

Dance

Metalcraft

Music

Painting

Pottery

Printing

Sculpture

Textiles

Woodcraft

Voice (Singing)

With a loud sigh, Harry flopped back in his chair and ran a hand through his hair. Hermione chuckled quietly at the familiar sight.

"Well, it's probably not everything but it should be enough to share with Headmistress McGonagall and the Board of Directors, especially in light of the amount of money that could be acquired by the sale of those gems and the other items within the Room."

Hermione stood up and gathered up all the paperwork and held out her hand to her fiancé, "Let's go then. Let's see what sort of waves we could create with this."