29

Chapter 29: Meetings and Slytherin's

It wasn't until May that Harry got his chance to talk to one of the Slytherins as he and Neville made their way back to the Den from yet another study session.

It was as they were exiting through a shortcut on the second floor that Harry had discovered that they ran into none other than Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini, literally.

"I am so sorry!" Harry gasped as he helped the Malfoy heir up from where he had landed sprawled out on the ground.

"It's okay," Blaise said with a smile as he helped Neville get back to his feet, "We just weren't expecting two people to burst out from behind a tapestry is all."

"Yeah, sorry about that," Harry said sheepishly as he rubbed at the back of his neck, cheeks burning. "I sometimes forget that this one lets out straight into a hallway and not just an alcove like the others."

"Ah, so it's a secret passage is it?" Draco asked interestedly as he began to examine the tapestry more closely.

"It's a possibility," Harry said with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. "Though if it is you are unable to enter it from here so that knowledge is really of no use to you."

"That answer was quite Slytherin Potter," Blaise said, impression clear in his voice.

"Not as much as my next proposal," Harry said, doing his best to channel the twins.

"Oh, and what is that Potter?" Draco asked intrigued.

"Simple," I want to try and make some friends in Slytherin and you no doubt wish for friendship as well, especially when said friendship is politically and socially beneficial. I'm offering a trial, one lunch. That's it. You accept and we see how it goes, you decline and that's it. No backlash what-so-ever," Harry said quickly and firmly, doing his best to ignore both his nerves as well as Neville who was currently snickering since Harry had been practicing this same speech every night before bed.

After a few moments of careful consideration and a shared look which consisted of a few raised eyebrows and shrugs the two finally turned back and faced Harry and Neville once again.

"Very well Potter," Draco said with a smirk before the two began to walk away as he called back over his shoulder, "See you at lunch then!"

The next day the great hall was abuzz with excitement as the two Slytherins sat at the Hufflepuff table with Harry, Neville, Ron and Hermione.

At first the meal had begun awkwardly, with every move the six of them made being watched by almost every person within the great hall, some glaring, others simply curious.

Finally the tension was broken through talk of politics of all things. What had at first been a series of snubs exchanged between Ron and Draco soon turned into animated conversation.

"If you think about it, the reason that the magical world is getting smaller isn't because of loss of tradition or inclusion of muggleborn's, it's because of the blood purity," Harry interrupted what looked to be the beginnings of an argument between Ron and Draco. "The muggles have done research on family lines and genetics and while it's true that our magic prevents the usual deformities and such that could occur from incest it does nothing to broaden our genetic pool as including new blood into the lines would have happened."

"What are you going on about Potter?" Blaise asked sounding exasperated.

"Inbreeding results in homozygosity , which can increase the chances of offspring being affected by recessive or deleterious traits. This generally leads to a decreased biological fitness of a population called inbreeding depression, which is its ability to survive and reproduce-"

"'Mione," Harry interrupted with a laugh as he took in the looks of shock and confusion on the purebloods faces before turning back to Hermione. "I don't they they're appreciating your expertise I'm afraid. Let's see if I can put it in a way they'll understand better shall we?"

"You can try," Hermione huffed exasperated.

"Okay, let's put it this way you guys, a genetic pool is like a pond. there are many things in this pond and it's made up of different things from everyone that's added to it previously. Now, some pools like say Hermione's would be nice and large with every new addition to the family adding new things to it. Now, let's take someone's family that upholds the blood purity beliefs, only marrying other purebloods, then there children marrying other purebloods and so on. Eventually nothing gets added to the pool and it all gets repeated. Overtime the pool gets smaller and smaller until there's barely enough left. That's what blood purity does to us. Do you understand?"

And so lunch continued on as, with open minds and open hearts, six children began to form a bond...

As May drew to an end and exams approached Harry began to be plagued with nightmares. At first they were nothing but odd dreams which would cause Harry to wake in a state of confusion but as time passed the nightmares grew worse.

With exams only five days away Harry's friends grew more and more worried for him but, despite their pleadings, Harry refused to visit Madame Pomfrey and ask for a sleeping drought.

Finally growing tired of watching his friend suffer Neville decided to act and, after dressing himself for bed he instead headed straight to Harry's and held his small friend to himself as sleep began to claim them.

"Thank you Neville," Harry said as he gave his friend a watery smile and for the first time in weeks he slept through the night without a single nightmare plaguing his dreams.

A week later Neville would receive a letter that would cause a grin to spread across his face as pride surged through his being.

Minerva McGonagall looked around her sitting room where she, Pomona, Filius and Severus had all gathered together.

"Just why is it Minerva, that you have called us together tonight? Surly it was not just for tea?" Severus asked from his position by the fireplace once pleasantries had been passed.

"You are correct Severus," Minerva said with a sigh as she though back to the decision she had made earlier that day. "As you all know the school year is nearly at an end and, with it, Albus' freedom. I thought it prudent to have a plan in action for when this happens. We can not just be left floundering with all of the choices at the last minute as we would otherwise be doing."

"This is true Minerva," Filius spoke up as he gently set down his cup of tea and pulled a small roll of parchment and a quill from his robes pocket. "What is it that you had in mind exactly?"

"Well, first would be to bring back some of the courses that Albus has taken out through the years. As you no doubt remember Filius, back when Armando Dippet was headmaster we had far more courses than we do currently, that's one of the reasons the school has so many classrooms."

"Yes, I remember well!" Filius chimed excitedly as he began to scribble quickly at the parchment in his hands. "There were clubs as well, quite a few of them in fact, dueling, gobstones, wizards chess to name a few."

"If we were to implement these how would we get the faculty? The schools budget has been strained over the years, and we certainly wouldn't be able to take on many new responsibilities either with how full our own schedules are," Pomona asked worriedly. These ideas were fantastic but she could see no plausible way for them to be accomplished.

"That's just it Pomona, the clubs were student run and organized. As long as they presented a viable plan to us and one of our prefects agreed to watch over them for us on occasion we weren't involved. Yes certain clubs had a staff sponsor who would help out on occasion but otherwise it was run by the students," Filius said with a smile. "Muggle studies used to take one trip a year that was sponsored by the parents of our muggle born students who would also come in and speak with the classes on occasion. The schools medi-witch would accept a small class interested in becoming healers, certain advanced NEWT level students would even be able to assist the professors with the younger years come exam time so that the professors could help the older years study. It was a very self sustaining system and, if I remember correctly, Minerva and myself were two of those lucky enough to assist our professors."

" indeed we were Filius," Minerva said with a smile as she looked at her small coworker. "You for charms and myself for transfiguration. If I recall you were also the head of the dueling club weren't you?"

"Says the chess queen," Filius chuckled before looking back down at his list. "Let's see, there were also other courses that were offered to the students as well as they became older and showed promise in said subjects. In fifth year the students begin to learn the basics of nonverbal spell casting. It used to be that come sixth year there was a separate class on it as well as one for wandless magic though that was far smaller."

"Why on earth were those ever taken away?" Severus asked, his eyes wide as he leaned forward in his seat.

"I am unsure as to why all of them were removed," Minerva said slowly as she leaned back thoughtfully. "Quite a few were removed by the time I returned to teach. I do know that Albus had removed the clubs due to supposed violations done by the students though I do not believe those excuses anymore however."

"I know that he petitioned the Board to remove the wandless and wordless magic classes claiming that they catered to a too small portion of the students and that it was not fair to the other students, he also ended the healing courses claiming budget cuts though I know that to be false," Filius included as he finally sat his parchment down and spelled the ink dry before pulling out a second page. "Now then, what other changes should be made? Let's focus on the current classes first and go from there."

"I have overheard some rather good ideas to improve Astronomy," Pomona chimed in with excitement as a large grin spread across her face. "I ran into young mister Potter and miss Granger in the library one day talking about it and I must admit that I was impressed. You see, the muggles study the stars as well but they are able to do so during the day using a device that projects the stars onto the ceiling much like the Great Halls ceiling. Miss Granger even suggested that it could be done by merely freezing the image of the night sky on the ceiling of one of the unused classrooms so that the astronomy classes could take place during the day and keep the students from being so tired during the class and during their classes the next morning. It was quite ingenious actually."

"That is an excellent idea, I have no doubt that our overall scores for the class would improve as well," Filius murmured as he began to write again. "Alright what next?"

"Divination," Minerva said quickly. "True seers are rare and, while I believe that they would need to be nurtured should they attend, we do not need a class fully focused on the art of divination when all it proves to do is frighten the students or put them to sleep."

"I agree," Severus said quickly before Pomona could say anything about Minerva's obvious distaste of the subject. "I have had dozens of students each year come to me with fears of their imminent deaths. It is an unneeded stress upon the students and only a small fraction ever even come close to passing their Divination OWLs. I suggest that we have a true seer that is willing come in and guide any who have the gift."

"Agreed."

And on the night went with the four dedicated educators planning for the future of Hogwarts and it's students.

Harry and Neville were slowly making their way back to the Den after separating from Draco and Blaise. Exams had just finished and the group had taken full advantage of the now empty library. In the time since that first lunch Draco and Blaise had incorporated rather easily into their group much to Harry's pleasure.

"So have you heard back from your Gran yet?" Harry asked as they neared the stack of barrels which hid the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room.

Just as Neville began to reply a bright red light streaked down the hallway and hit Neville in the back causing him to crumple to the ground in a boneless heap.

With his heart pounding in his chest Harry whirled around as he pulled out his wand fully intending an attempt at recreating that night in the forbidden forest. Before he could make out their attacker a blinding pain exploded in the side of his head and turned his world dark...