Chapter 6: Chapter 6 - The magic of it all 1/2
"Does Albus know about this, Ash?" Minerva looked around the snowy landscape once outside again.
"Uh, I never really thought about it. Did I need to get his okay to alter the grounds of Hogwarts like this Minerva?" Ash was a little nervous, he totally forgot that he might need prior permission for his project.
"Hmph, I thought as much you little troublemaker. No worries though, these grounds next to the lake were entirely unused before, so as deputy headmistress I grant you the required permission. Do hand in a detailed report for the next board meeting though and I'll handle informing Albus." Minerva graciously offered her support. It seems she was quite enthusiastic about the hot spring herself.
"Remember to tell him about the obscuring fog spell that Ash showed. What fascinating charm work that allows you to have the fog cling to a person but leave the head free from it. If you require it, I would like to help you to permanently enchant it on a ward stone. Even Albus might offer his help, truly a most curious spell," Filius excitedly chimed in from the side.
"Yes, a fine addition to the spell that will keep the boys and girls separate for the big bath house. It will help quell the possible backlash we might receive from those families most noble." Minerva herself was a rather strict, stern and 'proper' lady, but she would never call herself a prude. Especially not when it came to being prude for prudeness sake.
"Any plans for a water park? Like the muggle kind, with slides and towers to jump from?" asked Remus from the side.
His suspicions about the Hufflepuffs has been greatly reduced, now that he knew the bath house was just that. He had checked everywhere for secret passages, his extraordinary senses were a big help there.
"I thought about it, it would certainly give Fred and George an entirely new avenue for jokes and pranks. Ultimately, this is still a school though. A hot spring may help students unwind, but a water park is too distracting." Minerva nodded with a pleased smile, Ash might be a little willful, but he still thought this through.
"I'm thinking of creating a bigger magical hot spring close to my family estate though near Tywyn, south of Snowdonia Park in Wales. Combine that with a muggle spa enhanced by magics AND the water park idea? Sounds like a place for relaxation, recuperation and fun for the whole family. I'd certainly be able to create quite a few jobs with that."
"So this is your test run, Ash?" Minerva took back her earlier thoughts, Ash was still too willful.
"Hey Professor Lupin, did you find the hidden headquarters?" Suddenly the professors were brought of their thoughts by an excited shout from the side.
Turning towards the voice, the four professors saw an excited Luna running in their direction with the wand behind her ear and an all too colorful notepad and quill in hand, ready to take notes.
Ash turned to Remus with a raised eye brow, though he should have expected shenanigans like that from his little cousin.
"Uh no, sorry Ms Lovegood. There was no sign of any hidden chambers or such sort," Remus explained with an embarrassed smile.
First a little dejected, Luna immediately perked back up. "I see, I see. Either it is hidden so well, that even you cannot find, suggesting superior knowledge of magic or they knew of our intention and hid every trace or them being there. Which means they somehow spied on our conversation. I will need to investigate this further, daddy entrusted this matter to me after all."
Luna scribbled some notes down in full concentration, leaving the professors astonished about her thought process. Especially Remus, who thought his plight was finally over, but whose paranoia kicked back in in full.
"Your cousin truly has an inquisitive mind Ash," Filius said with a mirthful twinkle in his eye."Very glad it also carries over to her academics, like yours her grades are truly excellent," the twinkle in his eyes turned proud.
Ash turned to the charms professor, "I'm just glad she seems to fit in a little better, especially after that whole unpleasentness last year." Filius seemed to deflate a little. Nobody except for the twins and Hagrid came out looking good after that.
"Too bad she isn't a Badger. We could have ruled the world together," Ash said a little louder, barely loud enough for it to not escape Luna's and Remus' hearing.
Remus opened his eyes wide, freezing on the spot. Luna however excitedly turned to her cousin.
"Can I quote you on that?" Ash's response was sticking his tongue out playfully, while winking towards Remus.
"Is that a yes? Please say yes, daddy would be so happy that his weird conspiray was unexpectedly true!"
Minerva could only shake her head with a content, amused smile.
She scoffed a little and said what Filius next to her had in his mind.
"Children..."
The next morning at breakfast, the mood was very good, even compared to other times on a weekend. The reason for that were the first years who were excited for their extra lesson with Ash. They were so excited in fact, that even the professors were infected by it.
"Say Ash, are you planning anything extra for todays lesson with the muggleborn?" Betty asked from the seat next to him.
"Nope, the little first years who are interested in the common sense of the magical world will get the same lesson, as the one in my last school year," Ash admitted with a bright smile on his face.
"Are you by chance more excited about this lesson, than your potion lessons Ash?" Pomona asked from the seat on the other side.
"Huh? Hmm, I don't know, but I don't think so. It's a little different, because these lessons were my first time teaching others outside of helping out in study groups. It holds a special place in my heart, especially because I hope it will make a big difference," Ash explained with a fond smile while staring ahead at the tables to observe the first years who were getting last minute information on what to expect from their second and third year seniors.
"Certainly. I am also under the impression that your lessons will bridge the divide in our society a little," offered the headmaster a few seats over with a grandfatherly smile.
Albus Dumbledore truly enjoyed the excited smiles on his young students. Days like these are the reason he stayed headmaster of Hogwarts, instead of focusing on politics. He was glad he allowed Ash back into Hogwarts, even if it strained his relationship with Severus.
The mood this year was truly at an all time low and Ash taking over some potion classes already raised the mood by a lot in just a week. A result even the wise headmaster didn't expect.
Pleased with the high praise for her protegée, Pomona nodded in agreement. "My Ash certainly brightens every environment he enters."
"Oho, your Ash Pomona?" Minerva chimed in from the side.
"You should know best that I thought of Ash as my grandson, ever since he came to this school," Pomona explained with an upturned nose, not at all bashful about the teasing tone of her long-time colleague.
It wasn't long until breakfast ended and Ash moved towards the entrance of the hall. He stood close to the statue of the Hogwarts architect, the same statue he lets his patronus rest, until the students assembled.
"Okay, I think we're complete - Fred, George, impressive use of the shrinking potion, you got the dosage just right. But you are not fooling anybody. I will only allow you to attend if you promise me you won't be playing jokes or pranks."
"He found us without even looking brother." "Yeah, how did he do that? We were hidden so well." "Must be the hair, we should have colored it to another color to be less inconspicouos."
The twins looked at each other's hair. It was red, but it wasn't the typical red their family was known for. It was a blazing fire-like red that would have fooled nobody, they must have wanted to be found out.
""We agree to be your teaching aides Most Venerable Professor Starkey,"" the twins said at the same time.
Shaking his head at their antics, Ash continued, "like I said, we seem to be complete, so lets head to the classroom."
Once inside the potion classroom, the students noted that the usual workstations were all lined up along the wall neatly and instead the big half circle was outfitted with slim, but comfortable looking arm chairs in two rows, that had a little table coming from the side for their notebooks.
Ash moved to the front, the shorter, even more red-haired than usual Weasley twins right behind him. In front of his work station, there was a similar looking armchair, but with no little table. Ash took out his wand and conjured two of the same armchairs for the twins to sit in.
"Okay, welcome all of you to the first of three lessons I planned for first years that grew up in the non magical world. Please make yourself comfortable and raise your hand if you got a chair with the table on the wrong side - I should have made the proper amount of tables for left and right-handed students, but you never know. This is certainly a bigger turn out than I initially hoped," Ash began once everybody found a place to sit.
Seeing that nobody raised his hand to complain, Ash continued, "Even some Slytherins found their way here, that is a first, but a welcome surprise. Please note beforehand, none of what I am about to say is meant as an offense."
The three Slytherins Astoria Greengrass, Benedict Tuffletwig and Lucilia Moon nodded with smiles gracing their faces.
"Uh, usually I started these lessons with offering every student to call me by my first name, which usually every student reciprocated. As matters stand, I'm afraid that offer will have to wait until you graduate. If you wish for me to call you by your first name now though, please raise your hand."
Immediately every hand shot up, even the three Slytherin students. Some first years had already wondered when the way Professor Ash would address them would change.
Ash looked around and into the face of every student present as to commit their faces into memory.
"Okay you may put your hands down. Now you may have already heard from your seniors what we will be talking about, but let me summarize again. In this first lesson, we will talk about magic itself. This will include a bit of history, some speculation, but most importantly traditions and viewpoints of those that grew up in the magical world."
Ash looked around the faces of the 67 students present, this school year was certainly bigger than the last two considering this was only between two thirds to half of the students of this year. His school year consisted of barely 75 students all together.
This was possibly the case because students of this school year were born right around the end of the war, when tensions lowered and normalcy returned to Magical Britain. That in turn led to higher birth rates. Well normalcy is stretching it and tensions are still high...
"The second lesson will talk about what I found was apparently the most anticipated of the topics we will talk about. Magical families and bloodlines, what is part of the usual magical household and family magics."
"Once that is done, we will meet one last time to talk about your future. That sounds weird, I know, but we will talk about politics - something I personally dread myself - and I will talk about how you, those born outside of the magical side of the world, will fit into it once you graduate," Ash explained, though this time he got a few confused and displeased frowns in return and it gave him to pleasure to talk about his topic.
"This lesson will include information about the other magical communities around the world, though I will keep it relatively short and point you in the right direction to find out more on your own. For different reasons I will explain at a later date, a lot of those born in the non-magical world will leave Magical Britain eventually. So pay attention," Ash, now finished with the explanation, stood up with wand in hand and with a flick put a piece of parchment in front of everyone.
"Now we start with history, magic and speculation," Ash started, once everybody was finished looking at the blank parchment in front of them.
"Why do we have magic, while non-magicals don't? Where does it come from and how did we learn to wield it in the first place?" Ash waited a moment for every student to contemplate the questions a little.
"We who are raised in the magical world are taught, that we who possess it are blessed by Magic itself. That's why we have several traditions where we give thanks to magic. Some traditions are forgotten, some changed meaning over the years. Most holidays for magicals, that are still celebrated, have in some way an origin as a thanks to magic itself. That is a fact," Ash stated calmly.
"But what does it mean to be blessed by magic? And why would it bless non-magicals or forsake some magical families and have them give birth to children without magic, those called squibs? Fortunately or unfortunately I cannot offer you facts for those questions."
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