Ten Years Later (2)

As both children and parents learned how to deal with their active magic, accidental outbursts decreased, and the statute of secrecy actually became easier to maintain. Much to the surprise of everyone but the Heirs, Luna Lovegood, and Helena, the tracking system identified many magical beings who were not children. These were the muggleborns who had been unable to afford Dumbledore's Hogwarts, so-called squibs with passive magic, and many apparently muggle relatives of muggle-borns who had passive magic.

Thanks to Luna, Harry had been proven right; his Aunt Petunia had self-healing, animagus, language, and spectral magics – all passive. Even more surprising was that Dudley also had all but the self-healing. It was a very smug Harry who found his former family and informed them of their own freakishness.

Most of the others, however, were eager to explore their magical side. And thanks to the age-barriers that Neville had fought to dissolve at Hogwarts, no one objected to these older students. For their own comfort, however, the adults were taught at a newly established "Lily Potter Adjunct School" in Hogsmeade. Offering classes at night and on weekends for those who worked, it was a place for adults to study their newly discovered passive magics. Even many living in the wizarding world took advantage of the sensors Harry and Luna had developed to discover their own passive abilities.

Hogsmeade had thrived, coming to resemble the bustling village of the past that the trio fondly remembered. Several teachers at the Lily Potter school had moved there, bringing their families along. A few other families of the Hogwarts' professors had also moved in. Another pub and café sprang up to deal with the increased load from the students. Now that the electronics ward was gone, the family of muggleborn Stephen Cornfoot had expanded their electronics chain to a branch in Hogsmeade, which the students eagerly visited. A dozen other shops sprung up to support the burgeoning community, including a student-staffed stall where they could sell extra produce and preserves from Hogwarts. It was part of the Heirs' internship push, and students could work there for business experience and a little pocket money.

Returning to a fully supporting partnership with the school saw Hogsmeade's popularity rise with renters, too, and several recent graduates chose to leave the nest and take up a flat in the village. The promise of the same wards that kept Hogwarts safe from Dark Wizards was also a draw; soon it was just as populated as Diagon Alley and Godric's Hollow.

Not that safety was as big of a concern as it had been during the last war; though it would have been had the heirs not inadvertently prevented a second one during their first two years at Hogwarts.

When the Curse Breakers were going through the dark items that had been picked up in the initial sweep of the castle, they discovered a piece that matched the signature from the possessed Quirrell and the DADA curse. When another sprang up at Gringotts during the reappropriation of the Malfoy fortune, the Goblins started to hunt for more. Their Curse Breakers looked through every Death Eater vault and house, finding another in the Lestrange vault, one amongst Regulus' things at the Black House, and a third at the Gaunt shack, home of Riddle's mother. Despite searching the length and breadth of the Isles, the Goblins could not find more than those five.

Helena was able to identify them as horcruxes, like the one that had been removed from Harry's scar, and between her and Hermione they were able to cleanse the items. Interestingly, as soon as they finished, the spirit of Voldemort trapped in St. Mungo's shrieked in pain and dissolved. A check of the few Death Eaters left alive in Azkaban revealed that their Dark Marks had disappeared, leaving large scars.

This was quietly celebrated by those in the know as the second defeat of Voldemort. None of them were aware of the fact that, three years later, during a routine check, an Unspeakable discovered a darkened orb in aisle 97 of the prophecy room and filed it as "filled."

oOo

The parents of muggleborns embraced the changes at Hogwarts. Parent-Teacher Boards, regular reports, Parent-Teacher conferences, and Advisors were concepts that they were used to, and they dragged the Pureblood families along for the ride. They were also thrilled with the parent weekends once a month that let them see this foreign world their children had entered.

The idea of starting as day students also appealed to the parents of the younger children. Those who had older students at Hogwarts often proclaimed how wonderful it would have been to have seen their children more frequently, instead of being told their child was magical and then having them whisked away to an inaccessible boarding school a month later.

As the students acclimated to the changes, they began to spread them outside of Hogwarts. By the fifth year of the Heir's rule, Wizarding Cricket, Football, and Rugby leagues had sprung up. There were only a handful of teams in each league, and their fanbase was miniscule compared to Quidditch, but it was a start. And of course a new store sprung up in Hogsmeade to sell supplies, team gear, and souvenirs. Hogwarts volunteered their fields for the first two years, but dedicated players soon built their own. Five years on, and there were now almost a dozen teams in each league.

Muggle astronomy was light-years – as Harry often joked – ahead of wizarding astronomy, and as soon as that was realized, students immediately sought out the Professor in charge of internships to ask about working for NASA. As it turned out, the Russian program was easier to access, thanks to a half-blood Durmstrang student with a family connection. One tour and look through their powerful telescopes had Sinistra swooning.

She requested – and received – a summer sabbatical to learn everything the muggles knew about her topic. Within two years, Hogwarts had some of the most advanced OWL and NEWT Astronomy students in the world – second only to those at Hawaii's Kilokilokula, who had long collaborated with their muggle counterparts.

This advance was proudly touted in the next year's prospective student brochure at Hogwarts. They were also near the top of the pack for sustainability and integrated potions/herbology/creatures studies, thanks to the work of Harry and Neville. Between the lake, the forest, and the ability of Harry and Hagrid to speak to or tame just about any creature they encountered, Hogwarts quickly gained footing as a premier school to study plants or creatures. As a byproduct, their potions students had access to ingredients that other schools simply couldn't afford, and their OWL and NEWT scores soared. With Snape gone and competent teachers in place, plus the science class priming the students, Hogwarts was finally becoming as wonderful a school as Dumbledore had advertised.