1990

The Daily Prophet front page headline on September 7, 1990: Renowned Professor of History of Magic in Australia to Speak at Ministry Next Week.

Professor O'Malley, the renowned magical historian from Australia will be speaking at a special meeting being sponsored by the Ministry of Magic this next Thursday, September 13.

The Australian Ministry of Magic has begun changing their own courses at the Queensland Institute for Magic since he began lecturing on the history of magic. Many leaders from the ICW have commented about how this professor's views have been both challenging and enlightening. His theories on magical power and magical inheritance are noteworthy for his stressing the fact that magical strength is something that nature itself can imbue into different families, not unlike the theory of genetic mutations leading to evolution as postulated by certain muggle scientists over the past 100 years.

1.1

The following week, there was a large gathering of magical people to hear the professor speak briefly on his theories. Several prominent pure-blood members if the Wizengamot had already publicly denounced Professor O'Malley as an attention seeking muggle-borne loving fool. Minister Fudge had been convinced by some of his staff that bringing the outspoken Australian professor to Britain would help his image, particularly as magical Britain continued to try and recover from the trials and devastation of the war with He Who Must Not Be Names and his followers, the Death Eaters. His undersecretary had warned against bringing in someone to speak at the ministry who was clearly so divisive but Fudge had more than a couple of aides telling him that hosting a talk with Professor O'Malley would show him to be a leader who is concerned for the future of magical Britain and increase his popularity.

With an unusual amount of confidence for himself, Cornelius stepped up to the podium as the scheduled talk was about to begin. They were gathered in the large atrium at the entrance to the Ministry of Magic. Reporters and dignitaries and members of the Wizengamot were all present.

"Wizards and witches, friends and neighbours, lords and ladies, proud members of the Wizengamot, and all people of our dear magical society," began Fudge, "I present to you a man whose reputation precedes him. A man whose teachings have begun to revolution the magical education system for our brothers and sisters in Australia. A man whose unique perspective on our history is a story that we all should take the time to hear."

There was polite applause from those who were gathered as a tall grey haired man with a thin salt and pepper beard stepped up to the rostrum. As the applause started to die down, the man began to speak, "Thank you, Minister Fudge, for your kind introduction. People of magical Britain, I greet you all with the warmest wishes as I look forward to my time among you as I learn about your country."

He paused briefly as the crowd politely applauded once more. "I am not sure that my theories are as revolutionary as some would have you believe, however I am quite sure that some of the things which I have taught in Australia and spoken about elsewhere, are not exactly popular with all members of any magical society."

A heckler called out from amid the crowd, "That's right you muggle lover."

Fudge started to signal to an Auror to deal with the individual in the middle of the crowd who was creating the disturbance, but Professor O'Malley waved them off. He smiled genially as he then began to speak to the unknown person from the crowd. "I believe you have me at a disadvantage sir, as I do not know you nor do you know me and everything about me. But let me reassure you, and the others, that I am not here to speak about the wonders of muggles. Let me be perfectly clear that I completely support the Statutes of Secrecy, that I completely agree with concerns that the muggle world would be a serious threat to our way of life if they learned about us. But, our society, our world, has been too isolated from the muggle world to truly understand the threat they pose to us if they were to learn of us. I am a historian. And as a historian, I cannot forget the tragic stories of witch hunts long years ago. But I also know that we must not hold hatred to the muggles of today for the actions of their ancestors hundreds of years ago. Actions taken out of fear and confusion and in some instances hatred. But mostly actions taken out of fear. Too much of the magical history we teach our children, the wizards and witches of our future, is based upon wrongs committed years ago, hundreds of years ago. Too much of the history we teach our youth, too much of what we were taught ourselves, focuses on how we or more precisely, our ancestors were wronged. Whether it be the goblin rebellions, the witch hunts, the giant wars, all of these have multiple sides."

"You love freaks and creatures more than wizards and witches!" called out another voice.

The professor grasped the sides of the podium and looked down momentarily as he shook his head. Then looking in the direction of where the voice called out, he calmly replied, "Once again, you do not listen to my words. I have not taken sides on any issue in history. My goal is to help us all learn that we need to view our past with a more open mind. Lets start by considering the goblin rebellions. We learned in school of the history of the goblin wars. We learned of the toll on wizards and goblins alike. We even learned of the concessions made to end those wars and rebellions. But how often do we consider the events that lead to those very same wars and rebellions? If the goblins chose to close their banks as they did in 1343, which lead to one of several rebellions, we often look at the events after the doors to the goblin caves being closed, the ensuing battles, and the supposed victories. We rarely, if ever, examine the events that lead to the anger on the side of the goblins that resulted in the rebellion in the first place. All I say is that we need to understand history so that we can avoid the same mistakes that led to a problem in the first place. Take the recent war with Grindelwald that affected much of Europe not too many years ago. Maybe it is ancient history to those of you who went to school in the 1960s and 1970s, but to those who had to deal with the magical supremacy mantras and the deaths of loved ones that time is not too far back, and clearly not nearly as ancient history as a goblin rebellion from 1343. We need to understand what motivated a man such as Grindelwald to try and take over the magical world, even by working with muggles in their own war against each other, so that we can prevent the destruction of our world by another of the mindset of Grindelwald. We want our society to prosper, and with magic at our hands, there is no reason why our society cannot prosper in the midst of the much larger muggle society. Economic reforms to enable our businesses to work within the muggle world, thereby increasing viability and profits, will only lead to a stronger magical economy and a stronger magical world. If we can learn from the actions of those who stopped the rebellions, or even look at the times in history when rebellions and wars were averted, then we can learn to be a better society for all of us."

Cheers broke out from several places around the atrium which finally culminated in a much louder round of applause.

Fudge was feeling very uncomfortable with how the evening had progressed so he stepped up to the podium in the midst of the cheers and the clapping and Professor O'Malley stepped aside.

"Thank you for such interesting and enlightening ideas, Professor," said the Minister for Magic, not so subtly dismissing the guest speaker for the evening.

Then he turned back to face the crowd. "I am sure we can all agree that we look forward to a stronger community and healthier magical economy for the betterment of all of us!"

Fudge's makeshift summary brought another round of cheers as he thought to himself how skilled he was to put an end to any potentially rebellious ideas being put forth by the professor while at the same time appearing supportive and garnering his own praise from the crowd.

Concluding the scheduled speeches of the evening, Cornelius added "Thank you all for coming tonight and joining us, and please, enjoy some refreshments at the back of the hall," as he pointed to a series of tables set up with juice, wine and horderves.

The next day the Daily Prophet ran an article on the third page praising the speech made by Professor O'Malley while the front page was dedicated to more information about what a wonderful leader Cornelius Fudge had proved to be over the years as well as results of the latest Quidditch World Cup matches, which were being held later than usual due to being moved from the Middle East to South Africa due to muggle unrest and threats of war.

1.2

Friday afternoon at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry found the faculty meeting with their headmaster.

"Did you read what the Daily Prophet had to say about that Australian history professor?" Pomona Sprout asked Filius Flitwick who was seated next to her.

"Of course, of course," replied the diminutive half goblin charms professor. "He even spoke of the goblin rebellions without saying any words that could have been construed as provoking the goblin nation. That, I'm sure, will make it back to the head of Gringotts Bank."

Snape scoffed, "Why are we wasting our time discussing a muggle loving unknown supposed academic from afar? What does an Australian professor of magical history professor have to do with us?"

Minerva glared at her fellow professor while the others were too embarrassed by the outburst from the head of Slytherin House to respond.

Headmaster Albus Dumbledore leaned back as his eyes twinkled at his colleagues. "Now, now, Severus, my boy, there is much I think we can learn from this professor. In fact, I am not unawares of the grumblings of some of the students about having a ghost as their instructor for History of Magic, and I was considering speaking with this Dr. O'Malley to see if he might consider relocating to Hogwarts next year to become our new professor for that class. I think it is well past time for Cuthbert to move on, don't you?"

Severus was openly surprised by the comment from the headmaster. "You are actually considering doing away with Binns?"

Albus' eyes twinkled again. "It is probably past the time for Professor Binns to move on to the next great adventure. I am sure that some students will miss his unique teaching style."

"They'll have more problems getting caught up on their sleep," muttered Septima Vector, the arithmancy professor.

Albus Dumbledore raised an eyebrow at her comment, then spoke again to the faculty. "Nevertheless, I will be meeting with Dr. O'Malley this evening to open up discussions about his joining our faculty."

He then dismissed the faculty meeting, but Minerva McGonagall stayed behind. Once the others had all left, she spoke quietly to Albus. "So, next year he should be attending Hogwarts, finally returning to the magical world."

Albus blinked at first then spoke comfortingly to his transfiguration professor, "Why, yes, of course, I am looking forward to Harry attending here."

Minerva raised an eyebrow at the headmaster's comment. "You have been checking on him regularly? He is doing fine with those muggles, isn't he?"

"Of course he is, Minerva. I have been having him watched over by a neighbour that no one in the community knows is actually part of our world," he added with a smile.

Minerva still was frowning at the headmaster. "I suppose you wouldn't tell me who it was, even if I asked."

Hearing no response to her question, she forced a smile before saying good day to the headmaster and heading to her quarters, still worried about the orphaned son of two of her favourite students.

Albus was momentarily concerned about the response from the head of the house of Gryffindor, but he knew he had to get to Diagon Alley for his planned dinner with Dr. O'Malley to open negotiations about him joining the faculty at Hogwarts. To Albus, it simply would not do to not have the best available professor on his school's staff, and until Dr. O'Malley became a well known entity in Australia he just had not found anyone who knew and understand magical history than the late Cuthbert Binns, alive or dead. Maintaining the reputation of Hogwarts being the elite school of magic in Europe, if not the world, was important to Albus, despite the watering down of the curriculum they had seen over the years. He also did not anticipate any real difficulty getting the man approved for the post, despite expecting opposition from certain members of the Hogwarts Board of Governors.

Author's Note:

I have never read any stories about Draco travelling in time. I have read (and even written) stories with time travel with Harry and others. If this story seems similar to others, that is no intentional. To those who have accused me of being a Draco fan, I simply find him an interesting character. This story is an attempt on my part to write a story where the protagonist is someone other than Harry. Yes, of course Harry will be a main character, but we will see how this story unfolds with a different focus, with a different motivation for helping to change the events of the books. It will probably not be nearly as long as my longest stories, it may not even end up being more than ten chapters, but we shall see. Depends on how many twists I throw in during the middle of the story and towards the end of my planned plot….