Amanda Granger was having the time of her life helping wizards and witches learn to blend into her world while she was experiencing the world her grandmother had spoken so longingly about. Amanda had no doubts that she couldn't return to her old life and with four grandchildren on the way, all of them magical, this was her life now and she couldn't be happier. After working in the mini mall she then helped with explaining the workings of the fully equipped flat to second years after Ted Tonks had explained electricity to them. Ted had a course curriculum all worked out but the difficulty was trying to explain computers to students who'd never even seen an electric light bulb. There was an orientation course that was being implemented with the older pupils, especially the Slytherins who had not been 'encouraged' to have contact, far less befriend, non-magical children.
The annex had been a brilliant success, purely because of the way it was presented to the students. At no time was judgment passed on the difference between the two systems, the facts were presented and people were left to draw their own conclusions. The whole ethos of Hogwarts had shifted in this direction, the world didn't need more sheep who would believe everything they were told, it needed people who would question, investigate and form their own opinion, and this was something that all the Grangers believed passionately in.
Sirius couldn't believe how much he enjoyed teaching, Remus had told him of the buzz obtained from imparting knowledge into eager young minds. Taking into consideration that he was replacing one of the most hated professors in Hogwarts history, Sirius would have to have been really terrible not to be an improvement on Snape. The calm, relaxed style of his classes was a million miles away from his predecessor's method of teaching potions. Encouragement replaced punishment and sneers had become smiles as the new Head of Gryffindor was quickly becoming one of the student's favourite professors.
Minerva was sitting at dinner on Friday night with Filius, Poppy and a mixture of students from all four houses wondering if she was some sort of dimensional traveller who'd just appeared at another Hogwarts. Make no mistake this was a different Hogwarts from the Dumbledore led abomination, she even heard students talking about how they had enjoyed their history of magic lesson. Although there had only been two days of lessons, the school had become something entirely different, she was reminded of an amusing saying from her childhood, 'I didn't know you drank until I saw you sober.'
They had not realised how bad Hogwarts had been until they experienced the new improved version, not one point had been deducted or punishment handed out and, apart from a few muscle strains, the only thing Poppy has had to deal with was a broken nose. Michael Corner had "apparently' walked into a wall at the sight of Miss Greengrass in her swimwear, Mr Corner fancied himself to be something of a ladies man so whether that 'wall' was named Crabbe or Goyle she really didn't need to know. Minerva had noticed the way members of House Potter looked out for one another and thought that they were closer than house members, being more like family members, and woe betide anyone who messed with them.
Having almost all her paperwork now being dealt with by Percy freed her time to do what she loved best, teach. When she was not in front of a class Minerva was assisting her new staff in ways to improve their lessons, being an expert on a subject did not automatically mean you could teach it with Hagrid and Severus immediately springing to mind. The headmistress would be the first to admit she was still learning as Ted Tonks idea to Augusta Longbottom proved, combining non-magical footage of the war against Hitler with the story of Grindelwald was brilliant and something the students really enjoyed. It also had other staff enquiring if the annex could be used in the teaching of their own subject.
Bringing parents into the school was a touch of genius, Albus had always avoided anyone coming to 'his school' but the new policy of openness was winning the 'hearts and minds' battle of the wizarding world. Being able to trust what appeared in the Prophet was an added bonus; she hated to think what Skeeter would have done with a picture showing a goblin with a sword attacking students. Fencing classes were a massive success and a club was being set up to offer fencing outside timetable, even talk of a tournament being held.
The new Tri-Wizard Tournament also had the excitement levels sky high with eighteen teams now competing in tomorrow's elimination heat and the familiar gleam in the former Marauder's eyes told their old head of house that the spectators would be in for a treat. Harry's laughter when she had asked how he managed to get the competition changed annoyed her until he explained, "the people responsible for organising the original tournament are almost all dead or in disgrace, Fudge and Karkaroff dead, Barty Crouch was given his son's old cell in Azkaban while Ludo Bagman is ruined due to gambling debts and lets not forget the manipulative old bastard. Only Olympe is untarnished and with the completion of the first task the contractual obligations of the goblet were fulfilled, we had taken part and the cancellation of the original tournament did the rest."
Minerva, like almost everyone else in the hall was really looking forward to tomorrow.
The only two people who it seemed were not looking forward to tomorrow were now lying entwined in each other's arms trying to sleep. Harry and Hermione had a sense of dread that they just couldn't shake off, they had already decided they would be returning home after dinner tomorrow if everything went as planned. The last few days had been an outstanding success but both had the feeling of the calm before the impending storm, tomorrow was the first big event on the new Hogwarts calendar and, with invited guests there as well, an inviting target for Dumbledore. Neither Harry or Hermione were afraid of facing him, quite the opposite in fact, but both knew there would be no frontal attack, the old bastard was much to sneaky for that.
...
The said 'old bastard' was currently pacing up and down while going over the plans in his mind, phase one was completed earlier on tonight and phase two taking place tomorrow. It was the final phase of the plan set for Sunday that Albus kept going over, looking for flaws and not finding any. Albus Dumbledore, unlike Tom Riddle, was not afraid of death, what really terrified Albus was not being remembered. His boggart would probably be a witch or wizard asking 'Albus who?' but this plan would ensure that never happened, by Sunday night he would either be ruler of the magical world or the reason for its downfall. The world would remember the name of Albus Dumbledore and that was all that mattered.
.....
Want to read ahead by more than 60 chapters. Then join my p@treon Right Now.
Link: p*atreon.com/BookReaderBoy (Remove the *)
Also Free members get 2 advanced chapters for Free as well.