A/N: Another chapter of this light-hearted fic...

And I wonder if anyone can point me to a story: Harry and friends spend summers in a special trunk in the room of requirements. For the life of me I can neither remember the title of this excellent story nor the author. Any help to point my nose would be welcome!

Chapter 3 – To Reshape a School

Two days later, most of the newly resurrected people were able to leave the hospital. They were swiftly replaced with more people, as Amelia had kept all the wands of the Death Eaters behind and, once brother wands were found the Aurors went through the Priori Incantatem spell again.

It was, of course, chaos. So many people had to be reintegrated into the society! They had to find their places again. To avoid problems with families, where money had to be returned from the inheritances, the new Minister, Amelia Bones, suggested that there would be a collection from the public, like a temporary tax, which would be used to re-establish all the people who had come back. Many people added to this tax, which was put into a special foundation, from which those who hadn't enough resources were then subsidized. The Ministry also called onto the help of the public, hiring a lot of people to help within the Ministry and Saint Mungo's. The response was massive, most people actually volunteered, but were given a little gift in any case for their help.

The Death Eaters were mostly sentenced to the Dementors' Kiss and then put through the Veil of Death in the Ministry. The rest of the magical world was sick of them reigning supreme over the society after they learned more about what they all had done. It had been like a great catharsis for most of the people, even some of the more conservative families were glad to see the back of them.

At Hogwarts, Dumbledore was fired to retirement by the reconvened School governors, among which were a few more progressives, even before the Yule celebrations were to start. Minerva McGonagall had put them up to it, because she had seen a few things she thought were not conducive to a healthy future of the school and the students as long as the old man was still in charge. She was promoted to headmistress and she immediately hired Sirius and James to co-teach Transfigurations. Both were prodigies in the subject, which would be good for the students. Both were young and could get along with the students just fine. She took them on in her classes for a few weeks and by the time she had moved into Dumbledore's now renovated quarters, they had found their footing and happily taught class. Of course, being Marauders meant that there was quite a bit of harmless fun with the odd prank here or there. They lifted everyone's spirits and there was quite a bit more laughter around the school and a lot less sneering.

Sirius took Regulus to Gloucestershire, where Melania was over the moon to have her second grandson back as well. She immediately asked her daughter, Andromeda and her family and the Potters to come visit them. A family meeting was then held, during which much was discussed and planned. James had to go to Gringotts, where he got his family insignia to reopen the old country estate. It was in the mountains near Caerphilly, not too far from the Gloucestershire home of the Blacks. James called the Grangers, asked them for permission, then fetched Harry and Hermione from Hogwarts to introduce them to the old family home. It wasn't exactly in disrepair, but the old spells that held it up were starting to fail. James quickly went over them to save his home. He smiled. As much as he missed his parents, he still loved the big house and the large woodland and park around it. Harry and Hermione were suitably impressed. They looked around the entrance hall and Harry remarked:

"That alone is as large as the Dursleys' entire ground floor…"

"We're going to need the help of some house-elves to get this up to speed," said James and sighed.

Harry didn't need to stop Hermione anymore; she could see where James was coming from; this house wouldn't keep itself. Harry grinned and told his dad:

"I can help you with one of them at least, Dad!"

"What?"

"Dobby!"

A little popping crack brought Dobby in. Harry introduced him to his parents:

"Here's my housewarming gift to you, Mum and Dad. Dobby used to be the Malfoy's house-elf, but I helped free him and now he wants to be with me – well, I'm sure it would be US, wouldn't it, Dobby?"

"Master has his family back! Dobby is so very pleased. Is this Harry Potter's house?"

"It's my mum and dad's house, Dobby. Would you mind calling Winky, who you said is also at Hogwarts and wants a family? There's easily enough work for the two of you, don't you think?"

"Dobby likes how Master Harry's mind works. I is bringing Winky, but Winky might be a little drunk. She's been having too much butterbeer. Is pining for her old master…"

"But he was cruel to her and he sacked her for no reason!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Winky does know that but is deep within her. Her family has been in the Crouch's service for generations, and now is difficult not to be anymore."

"Well, there are no Crouches left now, are there?" Hermione said with a certain bite.

"Bring her here anyway, Dobby, if she has been in the Crouch family, she's bound to be a very good elf!" said James.

Dobby smiled at him thankfully and vanished, returning only minutes later with a frail looking little elf, who looked really sad. At this time she wasn't exactly drunk, so she could be talked to and James and Lily asked her:

"Hello, Winky, it's nice to meet you! We are James and Lily Potter and we're Harry's parents. We would need a good house-elf to bring our home up to speed again and we heard you would want a new family to serve. Would you like to come to us as our house-elf?"

"Winky wants to but is not deserving! Winky is disgraced elf, would Master and Mistress really want a disgraced elf?"

"From what little I've just heard you've been given clothes even though you did everything right; therefore, you are certainly not a disgraced elf, not in our eyes and not in the eyes of those who you'll meet in this house either, Winky. Yes, we would very much like you as our house-elf. Dobby is already Harry's elf, but the two of you would both work here. Do you wish to come into our service? No butterbeer for you anymore though, if it does you so badly!"

"Winky would very much like to enter into service with the Potter family. No butterbeer anymore."

James was really pleased and engaged Winky on the spot. Since she wasn't in any active bond, he was happy not to have to go out and buy an elf. Lily wasn't too fond of that idea either, but even with magic they would have a really hard time to keep the house in good order without some help. Both did not like to think about 'buying' a living, sentient being. Finding two free elves who willingly entered in the service for the Potter family was an outstanding bit of luck.

"Okay, you two, now go and look for some nice rooms for the two of you. There are a lot of little rooms up on the top floor. I order you to pick one for each for you and it must have a window and you have to make it nice and homely, however you need and want it. Then you go and get some fabric and make yourselves something nice for clothes to wear. I won't see either of you in tea cosies or pillowcases. You will wear proper clothes. Is that clear?" asked Lily.

"Yes, Mistress."

Then Harry and Hermione asked if they could put in some ideas about standing orders:

"Mum, Dad, could we give them the order never to punish themselves? Especially Dobby has been used to do that, I don't know about Winky, but I wouldn't want to see them punish themselves for every little bit they regard as a mistake."

"That's an excellent idea, Harry," replied James.

He immediately passed on that order to Winky and a further standing order to them both was that they were to eat with the family. Hermione beamed when she saw that both elves accepted, though both still with a bit of reluctance. They were both used to 'not be seen'.

The formalities done, the young ones in the family were made familiar with the house. Harry and Hermione were also asked to find a room they liked. James showed them where he and Sirius used to live. It was an upper floor in one of the two wings of the house, where there were four bedrooms in a row with two bathrooms between them. Harry told Hermione to choose the corner bedroom, while he would take the next.

"Splendid. We'll have this completely renovated in the next weeks, so we can come back at Christmas to spend some time together here…" said James.

"Can I invite Neville, too?" asked Harry.

"Of course, if he wants to come… I'm his godmother, and I'll take contact with Neville's gran, to ask if they will come and stay with us for a few days."

Before they returned to Hogwarts, they chose the rooms for James and Lily as well as one for Remus and Sirius. The Potters chose the master bedroom and would have a whole suite with a nursery as well. Remus and Sirius took the room that was directly above the master suite. Their room also had a bathroom attached and that was a Jack and Jill bathroom leading to another nice room, which they would use as a private living room.

With Sirius, Remus also returned to the school. They were together again and deliriously happy. Remus soon found things to do, mostly in the library, but Minerva offered him the job of a History teacher. He started with a few classes, just to see if the students accepted him, but it didn't take long until he had much more to do, because students who looked in at the beginning soon noticed that this was now a fun and really informative class. Soon, not one student sat in Binns' class anymore, they much rather learned from Remus. Most of them had already liked him as a teacher before. Even the Slytherins checked that this was history taught as it should be.

Interestingly enough not one student complained anywhere that he was a werewolf. He put the information on his classroom door, when he was out due to the full moon and that was that. The faculty decided that his classes didn't need to be covered by a substitute teacher.

As he was always well organised, Remus noted down meticulously what he had taught. Minerva simply passed copies of these notes to the examination authority where the history OWLS and NEWTS were newly established according to the subjects that had come up. With time Remus produced a whole new book, which was then published and sold through Flourish and Blotts. Until then he made lesson plans up as he liked, covering wizarding history and also a lot of Muggle history, things that often ran parallel.

He wanted to coordinate with the Muggle studies teacher, but soon had to learn that the woman who taught the subject really had no idea about that side of the world. By the end of the school year she would be out of her job, and Minerva started to look for a Muggle-born teacher, preferably one that still lived in the Muggle world. She had quite a few applicants out of which she chose a former Ravenclaw, one Quentin Smith, who was just about ten years older than the Marauders, but turned out to be rather similar minded.

Sirius and James had split their classes. Sirius took the Gryffindors, and because he got their favourite house, he also took the Slytherins. James took over the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw classes. They had it fairly easy, because they could work from the meticulous lesson plans Minerva had kept. But they both set up more fun parts in their lessons, going more into the intuitive workings of Transfiguration.

But before all that they had just settled in, Lily moving in with James, of course, and taking the opportunity to work closely with Filius Flitwick to deepen her knowledge of Charms, they met the students, and among the students – their now fourteen years old son.

It was moving to see how the child took to his parents. It was all he had ever wished for, he got it and he couldn't be happier. In this family's case the parents were well off, because they were reinstated also by the Goblins to be the owners of their family's vaults. Harry was still a minor, which meant his parents could simply take their own family vaults back, while he still had his school vault, where James and Lily kept filling up a certain sum of money every year. Harry saw more than enough in that amount. He was filled with wonder learning that he would have a sibling at around his own birthday's time.

Of course, him being Harry and as he had been socialised by the Dursleys it took him some time to get closer to his parents physically. He learned quickly that he didn't need to apologise for every little thing. But they also learned, seldom directly, but through his mannerisms, his often trembling voice and the anxieties they could clearly see and feel, that they would have a long path ahead of them to get close to their son. On the other hand, there was Hermione, who helped a lot with that. She was unafraid to voice her interest, once it was clear to her that it was there on his part. Hermione and Lily talked a lot and Lily had recommended that Hermione should take the lead in her relationship with him, at least until Harry had caught up. As it would be shown, Harry could be a very fast learner.

The first classes with Sirius alone were great fun for the Gryffindors. The Slytherins entered the classroom with much more trepidation. Sirius was well known for not exactly liking Slytherins. But he soon made it very clear that he didn't have bias when he taught class. On the other hand, when Malfoy tried to bring out his worst sides, Sirius cut him down right away. But Malfoy being Malfoy didn't back down. He was therefore subjected to numerous detentions with Filch and Hagrid and lost more points than the Slytherins could rack up. Snape was absolutely livid, but Sirius was able to prove every single case as rightful punishment. Snape pulled Sirius in front of Minerva, but he landed flat on his face. Minerva, who already had cut his ability to give or deduct points and who had cut back numerous point deductions was at the end of her tether with Snape. She cut right to the centre of the problem:

"Severus, if you cannot grow up and if you can't be peaceful like the rest of us are, then why do you insist on staying around? I've had countless complaints even from many Slytherins about you lately! You are hindering, not helping. You are bullying, not teaching. You are ruining children's lives without even giving shit about the kind of damage you do to them and to society. You do not belong into any school room."

"I have a contract and I do what's in my contract."

"You may have a contract, but it's the same as everyone else has. You do not what's in your contract. For that alone I can sack you. You have a student who cannot behave in any class and you still try to protect him? This doesn't teach the student a lesson nor does it help him. It's not Sirius' fault that Draco Malfoy doesn't learn the lesson he's taught. If the two of you cannot play by the rules then I'll have to have the two of you removed. You both have one month to redeem yourself. Any relapse into current behaviour will have you sacked, and Malfoy expelled, Severus. Is that clear?"

"I should have known you would take Black's side. That's favouritism right there."

Minerva's reply came quick and with an ice cold voice:

"YOU dare talking to me about favouritism? Should I collect all the points you've given Slytherin and taken from the other three houses since you started here? Would I not see blatant favouritism right there and fourteen years of breeding new Death Eaters? You will not 'teach' one class more! And again, talking about favouritism, haven't you noticed that the Slytherins get as many points as the other houses in Sirius' class? The only one who has ever shown blatant favouritism is you. Get out of my office, Severus Snape and think about what you just said. I am taking that decision back to give you another month. Consider your contract terminated. I'll have the confirmation from the School governors in the next days. Enough is enough!"

All of this was said in a low voice with cold rage and years of having had her inputs declined by Dumbledore, who had allowed Snape free reign. She was not having a moment more of it. Minerva even asked Hogwarts to supervise Snape in all his moves and to hinder him should he put one toe out of line.

Sirius was in awe of his boss. She had given James the headship of Gryffindor house and she was still discussing the Deputy position with the teachers. Sirius had quietly told her that Remus would be perfect for the job.

The morning after saw another change. At breakfast, Minerva stood up and informed the school:

"Students, this is an announcement that for the time being you are exempt from Potions lessons. Severus Snape's working contract has been rescinded last night and we are awaiting the decision of the School governors later today to confirm my decision. I am sorry for yet another disruption of your school year. We hope to have gone through all the possible storms now. A new Potions teacher will be found. I already have a substitute in mind until a new one can be appointed."

Snape hadn't shown up for breakfast and he didn't turn up for any other meal. Minerva didn't mind and she had the reply from the School governors the very next day. It was a 10:2 decision to hold up her termination on Snape's contract. The Governors added a condition to the termination in forbidding Snape to ever enter the school grounds again. He was not allowed closer to Hogwarts than 100 miles. Minerva alerted Amelia that Snape was now hers to prosecute if she wished to do so. She was still fuming about the accusation of favouritism. No one had been stricter with her Gryffindors than she had been herself. She was especially happy with the way Sirius, Remus and James gave points to every house and how few they had to deduct. Even most of the Slytherins made lots of points with them, which had given many of them some of their good faith in the fairness of the teachers back.

Once Snape was gone, Minerva asked Lily to substitute for a few months. Lily loved Potions and was great at it, but she held no mastery. Nevertheless, she introduced herself and a brand new classroom on the ground floor of Hogwarts a week later and took the students by storm. Naturally gifted and with a sometimes very dark wit and dry humour she taught them the potions that were in the lesson plan as well as some she thought would be good for them to know and fun to learn. She quietly dropped a few of the less useful potions from the plan. Being as meticulous as Remus in her notes, she made a list of the potions she taught and gave it to Minerva to the hands of the Wizarding Examination Authority.

The first time she had Harry's class was on Friday of that week. By then Harry had already heard from many sides, how much the students liked his mother as a teacher. It was no wonder, as she had introduced herself to the older students with a fun potion that gave many of them the giggles, when they were allowed to try it on each other. The little ones had mostly been treated to a good basic lesson of how best to handle all their equipment.

Harry's class of Slytherins and Gryffindors were treated to another special potion. As this was unexpected, the Slytherins knew as little about it as the Gryffindors. Lily put the list of ingredients on the board, but contrary to Snape she didn't just order them to brew, she went through the individual ingredients and gave advice on some of the brewing steps and what to look out for. When the class then collected the ingredients and started to brew, she watched how they proceeded. The collection of ingredients was rather a chaos, so she noted down the first change in these classes. She held the students who already had their ingredients back until all students were back from the stores, so they all started at the same time.

"In future, the ingredients will be handed out by one student per ingredient, that will make this much quicker. They will go in and collect the ingredients, then hand them out to the students," Lily announced.

As the students began to prepare their ingredients, she interfered a few times, giving advice on how exactly to use their knives on some of them, or how better to shred. She noticed that the Slytherins were much more adept at this.

"Oh Sev, what have you done?" she murmured, not for the first time this week.

She helped where necessary. It was nice to see that the Gryffindors took to learning fast, once they were taught correctly. Towards the end of the double lesson, as she walked through the class, she could see that there was hardly a difference between the potions, they all looked well done.

"I'll grade the classwork, if you like. Please leave a sample in the big basket at the entrance, labelled as usual. For homework I would like you to read up on these five ingredients on the board. I will quiz you at the beginning of the next class."

At the end of the week, she reported to Minerva:

"It is absolutely appalling to see what Snivellous has done to these students, Minerva. Most of them did extremely sloppy work in cutting, slicing, cubing or otherwise treating their ingredients. Hardly any of them knew how to properly shred ingredients. They didn't know how to introduce ingredients safely. That is – all the houses except for the Slytherins. They were still half decent at it. Gryffindors, Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs are terrified in that class, it took me quite a while to get them to believe I wouldn't breathe down their necks and making fun of their mistakes. There were a few noticeable exceptions, the Weasley twins, Hermione, a few Ravenclaws, a few Hufflepuffs. But the rest – including my own son, I have to say – are simply traumatised after years of that treatment."

Minerva sighed. She noticed the use of the hated nickname of Snape's, which Lily had usually strongly disliked. But one week of classes had been enough to learn that her erstwhile friend must have lost the plot completely.

"That's what I feared. I wasn't allowed to reign him in and he did what he wanted. Dumbledore never stopped him. He thought it *healthy* that the students aren't pampered. HEALTHY! I'm so glad that this episode is over. Hopefully we can still catch the students up."

"A new teacher will have to be very considerate for these traumas. Not everyone has the nerves of Fred and George Weasley, or the stoicism of Hermione Granger. There's a third year Ravenclaw, Luna Lovegood, who seems to be very isolated, by the way. Can you have Filius look into that a bit closer? I've heard extremely biting remarks towards her. She's a lovely girl, but a bit different than others and they seem to pick on her."

"Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I wish I could engage you, but we do need another Slytherin teacher on board."

"Why not ask Rebecca Bones? She was a potions mistress AND she was in Slytherin. I know, she's pregnant, too, but I think we might substitute each other or share the work for a while, so that we can look after our little ones… in the Muggle world that's called job-sharing, effectively what Jamie and Siri are doing, too."

"You are brilliant, Lily! I never thought of that! She was brilliant, as you say, and she has a very good sense of humour. Maybe all the students who have begun to shun those lessons recently will be brought back in! Did you say the Weasley twins turned up in yours?"

"Yes, they did. Lovely boys, both of them, very charming and they seemed to have great fun brewing that potion I asked them to."

"I'm asking, because I doubt they saw the Potions class room from the inside for at least a year. They're fantastic in everything practical, in Transfigurations, too, but unfortunately very sloppy in their theory work. Gives them not so good marks, but they are very gifted boys, I'll admit to that."

Lily smiled. She told Minerva, that maybe James would be able to pick them up for their remaining two school years.

"It takes one to see one and the first time they heard Sirius, Remus and James use one of their nicknames they almost sank to their knees in adulation. They will pick up a lot from my three boys. Pranks may go up a bit, I'm afraid, but so long as it's good fun and not malicious I wouldn't mind."

Minerva smiled, too. As much as she had to punish the Marauders for their misbehaviour, they had been good students. The Weasley twins would be good students, but their main talents lay in their practical skills. They were, much like Sirius, sheer natural forces. The two had their practical talents and they knew very well how to make use of that talent. Lily went on:

"James has decided to get to know the Gryffindors a bit better, so he spends the odd evenings in the common room and he learned from them that they would like to open a joke shop after school. He's recommended for them to learn about shop-keeping then and all there is to know about book-keeping and so on. I think they have caught on. He'll look for the learning material for them."

"Excellent."

"And – if you don't mind – I'd like to speak to my classes about Sev. I knew him better than most people did. Before he changed, that is. He always thought he loved me, but I know he didn't, not really. He loved the tiny Lily he could impress, but wouldn't accept my free spirit when I grew up, something that Jamie does perfectly. So I can really let them know what happened with him and why he was a bad teacher. The Slytherins need to know that as well as the other ones. Once they understand that he is a half-blood and that he, a Slytherin and I, a Muggle-born, were friends they might come around. I can also say that most of the Slytherins I taught in the last week were fine young people. I heard no really horrid things, apart from a very few."

"I'm glad to hear that. I hope, Rebecca will want to come teach, they would certainly respect her."

The organisation for the Yule Ball was undertaken by all the young people, who could already count on some preliminary organisation through Bagman's department. It had already been announced to the school a week after the first task. But now, two weeks before the event, emotions were running fairly high in the school. There were last minute attempts to find a dancing partner by some boys who had dilly-dallied. One of them was Ron, who was now bad-mouthing Harry, because Harry had asked Hermione early on, but neither had answered his questions with whom they would be going. In the time since the first task and Yule, the two had been mostly recognised as a new couple and some money was exchanged from the twins' pool. There weren't many people in the school who weren't happy for the two, but Ron certainly was among them. James and Lily certainly liked their son's new girlfriend.

Ron was definitely one of the losers of the developments. He stubbornly stuck to his idea that Harry was a cheat and he tried to tell everyone what a lousy friend Harry was. His bad luck was that the days when Harry could be bad-mouthed seemed to lie in the past, because the only ones who would still do that were Malfoy and his cronies. Ron was also jealous of the praise Harry, Neville and Hermione had received for bringing Pettigrew to the Ministry. And worst of all he was absolutely livid that Hermione wouldn't even look at his homework anymore, let alone practically doing it for him. His marks had gone down drastically, even in the four months since they had come back to school. Ron was now the worst Gryffindor student and one of the worst students in the school, just above the two Slytherin bullies, who had more or less been carried with by Snape.

Minerva would have liked to open the Yule ball to a wider public, but the Great Hall already went almost overboard with all the students and the guests and keeping the dancing area free. But she was very happy with the welcoming decoration, the beautifully set up round tables and the dais, on which the bands would play. A guest performance of the Weird Sisters was expected, which would please everyone, as the band had been a success since the late 60s. On the other hand she mused that she could possibly go on having regular dance opportunities for the students.

In any case, as soon as they had come on the plan, Sirius and Remus offered dancing lessons for the students who didn't know one dance step from another. On the two Saturdays before the ball they cleared the Great Hall of the tables and benches, set up a speaker system to play music from a record player. In no time the Hall was full of interested students, Harry, Hermione, Neville and Luna were among them, taking the opportunity to get a bit more familiar with each other. Remus had dug in the big box of old vinyl records he still had, his own and the whole collection from Lily and James, and even some of his mother's, which were more the classic ballroom dance music from the 40s and 50s. To these they taught the formal steps, but the last three or four numbers they switched to all the rock music from the 70s, to which the Marauder generation had grown up. Thus, the students – and some attending teachers – could dance freely and become accustomed to being on the dance floor.

Fred and George, who had asked Angelina and Alicia to the ball, were there as well. All four of them were completely uninhibited, they danced around with as much aplomb they used on everything else they did. Both girls being tomboys happily played along with them. They came out fully to all things Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, the disco music from the late 70s. Remus then put on a live version of Dire Straits' 'Sultans of Swing' and set the Hall alight.

After the first time there were even more students who came to learn. While there were mostly those who already had a partner on the first Saturday, it became known that the two were really cool teachers and that they learned loads. Sirius and Remus had always loved to dance and were quite accomplished ballroom dancers. Their best dance was a quick step, of which they gave a demonstration that had many of the students, mostly girls, giggle with excitement. Even Sirius, after all these years of doing absolutely nothing physical, soon found his steps again. It looked as if they flew around the Hall. Minerva was there as well as most of the other teachers and everyone smiled, remembering the two from almost twenty years ago, when they had first started going out and dancing together.

The two enjoyed these lessons immensely. They taught the students the basic steps for waltz, foxtrot, tango and cha-cha-cha, then had them exercise these until they could do it easily. One Hufflepuff student was so enamoured that she went to ask McGonagall if these dancing lessons couldn't be continued after the Christmas break. She promised to ask the two men, since they were doing this on their own volition.

She did so and Sirius and Remus agreed to chaperone an informal dancing night every two weeks on Friday evening. They would set it up the same way, about an hour of formal dancing lessons and then free dancing until midnight. This would then be for all years.

It was one of these things that Minerva was mulling around when she thought about the future of the school. She was aware that Hogwarts had stagnated under the last three or four headpersons. Luckily, it was one of her oldest and best friends who was responsible at the Ministry. Elizabeth Montgomery headed the small but fine Department of Education at the Ministry, which was responsible for all things education in the magical world, from the school system to the Wizarding Examination Authority to the apprenticing system. Masteries were gained from apprenticeships with masters, but the Master title was handed over after theoretical and practical examinations through the WEA.

And when Minerva came to speak to her old pal, she found open ears. Elizabeth confined in her, that she had been battling Dumbledore for far too long on several issues. She was all for modernisation.

"What would you suggest, Minerva?"

"I'd like a transition year that starts after New Year's Day and lasts until exams the year after. For the students it would mean an extra year, but then we'd have ample time to work on the lesson plans as they exist for the time being. I'd like to introduce new core subjects, condensing existent subjects, especially Charms and Transfiguration, where I notice we could move a lot faster, to make room for the extra subjects. In these core magical subjects we could also let go a bit on the theory to much more practical. We do have a subject of magical theory after all. That's where all the in-depth theory of Charms and Transfiguration could go in. One period more of this per week and that's enough, I'd think. We're losing far too much time on essays and such things, where quizzes would help the students to absorb the theory much better, so reduction of written work outside of classes and maybe two a month per core subjects would do. But I would like more formal language classes for English, Latin, French and German. These would be giving students enough opportunity to hone their writing skills. And I would like more space for social activities and maybe some more magical classes as well. That transition year could give us chances to find out if there is interest, I thought of inviting guest lecturers on several subjects, which could be offered on a course basis that maybe only consists of an age-adequate module? Certainly not things that will need exams, like some basic household and healing?"

"Wow. Sweetheart, you've arrived in the late 20th century, congratulations. AND you have a few very, very smart ideas. If you don't mind I'd like to take this up with Amelia. She's going to start a few new things in the new year as well, apparently whispered to her by Arthur Weasley, who seems to know a bit more about the Muggle world than the rest of us after all…"

Minerva laughed.

"If not for his house dragon I'd think he's quite the patented man," she said.

"Oh, let me tell you that the people who underestimate Arthur Weasley in this house are rather numerous. They are all on the wrong though. As for your transition year, I think that should be doable, I'll take it to the School governors for you, if you want me to."

"That would be nice! We'll work the details out later."

"I think it's a brilliant idea."

O

Meanwhile things were running quite well at the Ministry. Amelia was appointed by the full Wizengamot and by all Department Heads a day after the first hearing. She was introduced to the wizarding public immediately as the new Minister of Magic. She took office the very next day, much to the displeasure of the Senior Undersecretary, Dolores Jane Umbridge, who had turned up again, livid about the change of personnel at the top.

Umbridge absolutely hated Amelia Bones. Amelia represented everything Umbridge wanted and couldn't ever have or be. She was intelligent, rich, well-positioned, perfect pure-blood family record, fairly wealthy, well-liked by everyone. She had strength of character and she was very, very light and fair. Amelia couldn't stand Umbridge either and she was now in a position where she would be able to overpower the person that had terrorised half the Ministry for a few years already.

Tensions rose right on the first day. When Amelia arrived in the morning to take over her new office, she summoned the team through the assistant and once they were assembled, she questioned them on their jobs to find out what she needed in terms of staff. Right from the start Umbridge was renitent and rude. Gone was the simpering tone she had for Fudge. She even went as far as blaming Amelia for his death.

"I know that you were around just before he died. Whatever you did killed him. I'm going to prove you're his murderer!" she hissed.

"My dear Dolores," Amelia said sweetly. "You can watch my memories of the whole encounter with Fudge before he's offed himself. Of course, I've told him some very uncomfortable truths. There was no need to take that form of exit, but who knows, maybe there was a lot more on his conscious that made him choose suicide. I'm really sorry about it, but there is nothing you can blame me for. Just remember, Dolores, you're now my subordinate. You put one toe out of line, and I'll crush you. In fact, you would do very well to look for other employment. You have single-handedly caused trouble in this house for far too many people and disrupted proper work in service of the wizarding public with your crazy schemes."

Those were clear words. Amelia had to watch her back, because she wouldn't have been astonished if Umbridge went that step too far to kill her. And indeed, Umbridge was seething after the dressing down. She did hatch plans and decided to use the most female of all tricks, poison. Unfortunately for her, she was observed by the second assistant, who had arrived at the office just as Umbridge tried to be inconspicuous putting some powder into the Minister's tea.

Barbara Wilson had been Fudge's and was now Amelia's personal assistant, and from the first day she liked her new boss a lot more than her old one. Amelia had talked with her and had learned that she had already thought of leaving when Fudge offed himself.

As she now watched Umbridge putting some unknown substance into her boss's tea, she kept silent and when Umbridge tried to get out of the room inconspicuously, she still kept quiet. But the moment Umbridge was gone, she said:

"Let me take the tea to the Minister, Kirsten!"

"Fine with me – it's ready!" her colleague replied.

Barbara lifted the tablet and took it to Amelia's office. Her boss looked up.

"Ah! Tea! Yay…" she said.

"I'll have to disappoint you, Amelia, unfortunately I've just watched Umbridge put something in it… I'd suggest calling the Aurors instead."

"Oh! She's THAT dumb? I wouldn't have thought…"

Two hours later two Aurors arrested the Senior Undersecretary, Dolores Jane Umbridge in her office.

"Dolores Jane Umbridge, surrender your wand, you are arrested!" said Kingsley Shacklebolt calmly.

Of course, she screeched immediately:

"And on what charge, you brute?"

"The charge is an attempt on the life of our new Minister by using poison. I'm afraid you were seen when you put it in and the tea was tested. Surrender your wand now!"

She pulled it, but she tried to use it instead of surrendering it and cast a spell on Kingsley. He sidestepped it coolly and grinned.

"Well, you asked for it… Expelliarmus!"

Umbridge's wand flew out of her hand and she flew against the wall behind her desk from Kingsley's spell. She sank to the floor like a sack of flour. Kingsley picked up her wand, stunned her and levitated her to the Auror headquarters. Soon she found herself seated in an interrogation room opposite Joanne McGovern, who was livid.

"You have been a nuisance since you set foot into this house, Umbridge, but you've gone too far now. Trying to poison Amelia is not only bloody plump, it's infamous! Who do you think you are?"

It took Veritaserum to bring it out of Umbridge. She was taken into custody and put before the Wizengamot two days later. Three questions later she was done for. The verdict was a hard one – she got 50 years in Azkaban for it. She wouldn't survive eight months of it.

That left Amelia free to choose her own team. She kept her personal assistant, Barbara Wilson, but the other one was replaced in another department. A new second assistant was hired and then Amelia coaxed Arthur Weasley out of his little office and into the big wide world. But Arthur turned out to be an excellent Senior Undersecretary. He was able to anticipate Amelia's thoughts and she hardly needed to say anything after only a few days, they were so in sync. Together they discussed what needed to be done, and in cooperation with the DMLE they organised the working schedules to go over the law code. In a first step they invited lawyers from all around Britain (there weren't that many) to convene and decide on the team that would be working on it.

The next steps would be going through the laws to analyse the code for anything that was redundant, blatantly discriminating or outdated. The third step was to isolate these laws and bring them before the Wizengamot, where they could be rescinded or renegotiated. And the last step would be the proposal to replace what needed replacement.

O

Meanwhile at Hogwarts, Minerva called for a staff meeting on Saturday morning just before the Yule ball. She wanted to see all adults in the castle, even though it was Christmas Eve.

"I'm not going to hold you for long, but I want to use every moment I can get! I need your creativity, my dears. Elizabeth Montgomery and the school governors have just granted me leave to implement an idea I've had. I want to reform Hogwarts and its curriculum from the roots to the top. For that I'll be heavily relying on your expertise as well. And to give us ample time for this work we'll put in what I'll call a Transition Year. This transition year will mean an extra year for all students, who are currently at Hogwarts and those who will start Hogwarts, meaning that the current seven years and next year's first years will actually have eight school years here. Also, Amelia has kindly doubled the budget for Hogwarts at the WEA! That means, we can hire a good number of teachers for several new subjects.

"For the students it will mean limited classwork, but still classwork, homework should be minimal. OWLs and NEWTs won't be held at the end of this year. Thus we can spread the schoolwork over two years, adding a bit of extra content. In that year I wish for a lot more formal socialising for the students than they usually have. A lot more informal across the houses, too, I hope.

"For us it means that we work over lesson plans, requirements, extra subjects and what will be asked for these extra subjects. As I've told Lizzie, I intend to make language classes for English, Latin and one foreign language further core subjects. I will add a Muggle science class, which will cover mathematics, physics and biology, also as a core subject. These will help more to understand modern Muggle life better than any Muggle Studies class we've had so far. I'll also make a mixed Muggle and Magical Studies a mandatory subject. This will include practical sides of both ends only, taught ideally by one pureblood and one Muggle-born teacher. Remus will take up History more in depth and will cover both sides in one class. Mixing these classes will make it absolutely natural and the students won't think that something is just forced down their throats. I'm sure they will enjoy these subjects, even if they think they're useless at the beginning. But as they will be mostly practical and especially for the Muggle/Magical Studies class there will be no exam. Maybe an OWL and NEWT, but no exams in between.

"That seems to be an awful lot. But frankly, at the moment our children live in the late 20th century and are educated perfectly for a life in the 16th century. That has to stop. I don't want to see one magical child wondering how the Muggles get by without magic anymore. If they're inclined to use a Discman they should do so, because it's fun, not because it's a Muggle device. They should be able to discover how useful computers are, how far they can get with a bike and that it doesn't make a difference if you have a kneazle at home or a cat. This way they will blend in so much better and they will stop thinking they're so much better. They should recognise that they're different, because they have magic, but that's all."

Minerva let that sink in for a moment. She knew that her current staff was very open-minded, but most were still of the opinion that they did much better staying away from that other world, that much larger world out there.

"In short, I want to see the next generations growing up not thinking that they are 'venturing' out there when they have to go amongst the Muggles, just that they're going somewhere."

"Well said, Minerva!" said Lily and smiled.

At the moment she was the only Muggle-born witch on the staff. She had no problems going back to her world and she had pulled James, Sirius and Remus with her often enough, that none of them had any problems either, especially Remus had spent a lot of his time in the Muggle world since 1981, so they all were very interested in what Minerva had to say.

"I'm really looking forward to that, Minerva!" said Remus.

"I thought you would be. – Now, you are to go through your curriculums and look for things you might change – also to change the routine. Educate yourself next year for influences from the Muggle world. Don't advertise them, just quietly bring up subjects within your subjects that have a relation in the Muggle world. I'll bring in people who can help us doing that. Try to go for more practical wherever you can. Have them study up on the theory for homework and use classes more for the practical work. Reading is not something that should be done in class. Our field is a mostly practical one and we've cluttered it with all that reading and theory in class because we've had to fill the time. I want to cut at least one lesson per core subject, in the upper two years I'll cut even two. That means we can go for one double lesson per subject per week in the five core subjects. Fills less than half of the students' weekly class load. Then we add a double lesson in science, Muggle and Magical Studies and astronomy, one lesson each for the three languages and we have 19 lessons for the main schoolwork, leaving ample lesson time for electives. I'll up the minimum number of electives to three, adding another certain six lessons, if we allocate double lessons for those, which means the average student will have 25 lessons per week. That's six lessons for four, and seven lessons for the fifth day. Enough space for the odd further elective and certainly enough study time."

"I don't think that's too much. Also more than enough time for homework," admitted Pomona Sprout.

"Exactly. Now for the two upper classes. NEWTs years mean more concentration on the chosen subjects. We should also up the minimum number of classes for the NEWTs to seven, currently they're five, with which we would get to 28 lessons per week. That should work well with the older years.

"If we look at the workload that gives the teachers with a core subject a minimum of 24 or 28 lessons, if we keep taking two houses together. Sirius and James split their classes along the houses, but naturally they keep the same number of lessons, unless they teach their classes together, then it should be halved. For the moment they're still separate for each house. What do you think about the current workload, Sirius? James?"

"It's fine. But it does make me wonder how you did all this alone without a time-turner!" James remarked.

"Never mind that. Would you prefer to teach both your respective houses together?"

"Actually no! I think it's better to have smaller classes. The teaching quality is higher and one can move much faster with fewer students. I remember we had classes with another house and I was often horribly bored in some subjects, just because I had to wait for those in the class who weren't as quick as myself," James admitted.

"A good observation. Now that you can see the other side, I'm not surprised you noticed that."

"I always knew. But it's a pleasure to get on with more in a shorter time, because in a smaller class you have prospectively less children who need the teacher more than others and everyone profits. You might consider it for some of the other core subjects. And, depending on the number of interested students, for some of the electives, too."

"I would love to. Of course, it's a budget question, but as I said, Amelia just doubled our budget at the WEA – that's who's responsible for the teacher side of the costs, that's where our salaries come from. There are other discussions, especially on the side of the tuition fees. So far, there were unfair tuition fees as half-bloods and Muggle-borns paid considerably more than the purebloods. These will be straightened out and I plan to suggest that we will set up a fund. Hogwarts already has a lot of antiques that are never seen by anyone and one of the things I plan to do is an auction next summer, where we can hand these things out. There are several Gringotts vaults full of paintings, furniture, even jewels, lots of other antiques, these should be seen and used! I will also set up an account for donations, and with the income from that auction I'll set up a fund, from which costs are going to be covered in the future. On that basis I hope to reduce the tuition fees. We have to see, what we can do in this regard. Hogwarts doesn't have high overhead costs apart from our salaries. We have some outlay in the Potions department, the hospital wing, materials in general and food. Most of our food comes from the farm that belongs to the school. What we need to buy is the more special stuff.

"All of that leads me to the hiring of several new teachers. As you know, James and Sirius share the job – they also share the income for it. Lily is going to do the same with Rebecca Bones, once Rebecca joins us. I would offer a similar agreement for you two as well, Filius and Pomona. How you split your classes, in upper and lower years or between the houses is fully up to you. If we hire teaching assistants, you can be ascertained of 75% of your salary at half the work."

Filius and Pomona looked at each other. They were both getting on in their years, Pomona a grannie of seven grandchildren already and Filius reaching his 100th birthday in just a few years.

"Will you let us some time to think about that offer, Minerva? – I know that for me it's not the salary, it is the workload rather than that. I truly enjoy my teaching and my classes, but I'm not the youngest anymore," said Filius.

"Of course, you can take time to think about it, it is rather spontaneous, isn't it? First thoughts from you, Pomona?"

"For me, it would be the time that gets freed – the money is fine, I have more than enough for the rest of my life. I never needed a lot, spending almost all of my time here. But I'd be able to see my grandchildren more often, they're all still small and won't be coming to Hogwarts yet."

"One month enough time?" Minerva asked.

"Yes, more than ample, thank you very much!"

"Good. Now then, we still have an important position to fill. I suppose I'd best turn to our younger staff members, because the position comes with another little load of work. I need a Deputy head-person. Who's it to be?"

She looked towards the younger staff members, including Professors Vector and Sinistra and immediately five of them pointed at Remus and Remus pointed at Lily.

"Seems to be a vote of confidence for Remus right there, what do you all think?"

"Me? But I can't possibly…" Remus started, but he was interrupted by Carla Vector, who exclaimed:

"Who cares about your furry little problem – and yes, James, I know very well that that's how you refer to it – we all know that you are excellently organised, correct and fair! What's more to want in a deputy headmaster? For the full moon nights I gladly offer to cover for you."

"Thanks, Carla…" Remus mumbled.

"So, again, what do you all think? Are you okay with Remus as your chief of staff?" asked Minerva.

There wasn't a single dissenting vote, so she smiled and said:

"Congratulations to a shedload more work, Remus! I'll inform the concerned authorities correspondingly."

"Thanks… I think," said Remus again, but he beamed.

It meant the world to him to be so fully accepted by all his colleagues. The ones who had known him as a student knew he was reliable and the ones he knew as friends simply loved him for who he was.

Sirius asked for the word:

"Minerva, you mentioned before that you would like more socialising for the students. May I suggest that we create more rooms for them to meet across the houses, not only the Great Hall. I'm thinking of rooms where they can study or just meet up or play. As far as I know this house has lots of unused rooms. We could redecorate them to be like little common rooms."

"Yes, I had been thinking of that as well, good suggestion, Sirius. Would you accept the job for the redecoration? I know you're very creative…"

James and Remus sniggered. Remus blew his lover a little kiss.

"Yeah, I know I'm gay… you needn't remind me," Sirius moaned, but he accepted the job, because he'd have a lot of fun with that.

"I'll give some courses for interested students, then they will know a few spells for that…" Sirius said.

"Sounds like a very good idea to me," confirmed Minerva.

After the meeting the teachers joined the general population of the school again, looking forward to the Christmas feasts that would take place on all three days. Of course, the Yule ball on Christmas day was the highlight of the festivities.

After breakfast the children that would not stay for the ball and the break were sent home. Two thirds of the students were taken to the train by the carriages.

The decorations throughout the main areas of Hogwarts and in the common rooms were spectacular as usual. But on Christmas day the kids were all thrown out right after lunch, to prepare the Hall for the ball. It also needed to be magically enlarged considerably. Everyone not involved with the decorating was encouraged to go outside. James, Aurora, Lily and Remus organised a big snowball fight, to which they pulled in everyone. It was massive fun, especially if one threw in the deviousness of the Weasley twins paired with the deviousness of the Marauders. In the end it was a clear tie between the two groups that had been mixed thoroughly.

Reviewing the match it was interesting to see how badly split Slytherin house was. There were students of all years who didn't mind to mingle with the others. Students of all four houses were in each of the two teams that had played along, but there were more than just a handful of students from Slytherin that were conspicuously absent from the fun. From the older years it was the complete Quidditch team. There were the children out of the most notable Death Eater families. For many of them it was understandable, whole families had been reduced by the active Death Eaters within. The Parkinsons, Malfoys, Averys, Crabbes and the Goyles had children at school, but also the Notts, though Theodore Nott, the current heir to the family, was steadfastly coming out with Blaise Zabini and took part in the fun.

Theo wasn't the only one who kept a light heart. He had taken the lesson from seeing and hearing what all these people had done and wanted nothing of it. He was one of a good handful of students. Even though it was his father, he'd shouted after him that he was glad his father would pay for his crimes. Back at home he'd claimed that what he'd done was just doing what was needed in the service of the Dark Lord. Theo now understood just what was included in that service.

He wasn't alone. In his class, there was also one Millicent Bulstrode, not the nicest kind of girl, but one with good manners and a good heart. She'd not come from a dark family. Then there was Daphne Greengrass, from a good neutral family and Tracy Davies, from a family with a half-blood father.

About thirty Slytherin students were still intermixed with the others and noticed that they were easily accepted. George and Fred took good notice, because these Slytherins would not be pranked hard anymore. Though at this time James and Remus had vigorously separated the twins and put one on each team. The twins took to it and delivered each other the hardest blows!

Altogether a lot of fun was had by all.