Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction ❯ McGill ❯ Memories That Last ( Chapter 16 )

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Memories that Last

October 2, 1991
Kingston-Upon-Thames
McGillis House
Den

Carmus frowned as he looked at the notes he had written down. The plan was complex but coming together nicely. Yet, he was sure he was missing something. Sighing, he stood up and crossed to a large dark wood cabinet. Opening it, he pulled out a tray, a tray labeled with this current year; it held twelve columns of 20 vials each. Each column labeled with a month. He selected two and walked over towards the large freestanding earth globe. Opening it, he revealed a pensieve. Carefully, he looked at the label of the first vial.

September 14, 1991 Governor's Meeting. Golden Dove.

He poured it in and lowered his head

Saturday
September 14, 1991
The Golden Dove
London
11:20 a.m.

Carmus stood and held up his hand to attract the attention of the two witches who had just entered the restaurant. Andrea Pengel and Cassandra Wiley have been friends ever since they were sorted into Ravenclaw together. The Pengels are historically a Dark family as the Wiley's were traditionally Light family. The two girls were as different as night and day, Cassandra was short and dark from her hair to her eyes to her skintone. She had a serious mien though a wicked sense of humor. She managed the import and export of restricted items. Next to her stood Andrea, she was tall and willowy as a Malfoy though her color was healthier. Her hair was the color of wheat with eyes the color of her hair; she seemed to be on the verge of being blown away. Those distant eyes hid the sharp intellect that made her one of the most feared judges of Wizarding Britain.

"Ladies, an honor it is to see you today. The rest of the Governors Board is already in the private room."

Cassandra smiled gently. "Mr. McGill, long has it been since you last gave input to the board. I hope that next year, your name will be on the ballot?"

"Of that, I am not certain, I am but a naïve young man compared to those of refinement on the Board." Carmus smiled depreciatingly.

"Oh, your charm," Cassandra shook her head, "tell me, does anyone ever fall for it?"

Carmus stretched and used a finger to direct the memory back into its bottle.
Carefully, he checked the second vial.

September 19, 1991. Royalton Banquet Hall. Alumni Association Meeting

Thursday
September 19, 1991
Royalton Banquet Hall
10:15 a.m.

Dr. Ellen Granger stared out at the filling banquet hall. The few wizards that McGill had asked to help had really done a wonderful job. There were sections for alumni from the muggle world, alumni from the magical world, and parents of former, current, and future students. She turned and watched at the clock clicked to 10:20 and the doors closed with a slam. Bright flashes went off attracting attention to the stage. A wizard stood up, and pointed his wand at his throat.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, please take your seats. My name is Albertus Pengel and I am pleased to welcome you to the first Hogwarts Parent Association as well as the Hogwarts Alumni Association." He waited for the sliding of seats to finish. "Thank you. As you have all been made aware, most of you or your children have been deprived of certain rights and deliberately left blind about certain responsibilities. This has been a concerted effort on the behalf of Dumbledore and possibly unknown associates.

"I will be giving a short presentation of what we know he has been doing then we will split into various groups to talk about how it relates to you and your choices and options. This program is part of an idea to reform our world. We have suffered under an impression that the muggle born students despised our world and wanted to force us to become more like theirs which quite frankly terrifies us.

"It's true. The wizarding world doesn't have atomic weapons or suitcase nuclear bombs. We don't have guns and our drug problem is minor. One weapon we fear above all else is a curse that kills one person at a time without a mark, so can you imagine how these brutal incidents that you have absolutely terrorizes us? We are quite advanced in other realms though we tend to have a veneer of antiquity. A witch or wizard living in the wizarding world, whether muggle born or not, can expect to live for 150 years. Therefore you do understand that we take things at a slower pace than you. Understandable, is it not?

"Now, is time to lay to rest this boogie man of fears through misunderstandings and instead educate ourselves about both worlds so that we will never again fall prey to a manipulation of this magnitude. Let's begin."

Yes, sometimes all it takes is a change of perspective to see what was hidden before. Carmus grinned. And all the better to play with you!

October 5, 1991
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Seventh Floor
11:30 am

"So last meeting, we went through the meaning of different wizarding holidays and had a short discussion of a traditional autumnal equinox ritual. So any new questions?"

Hermione sat impatiently waiting for a fifth year Muggleborn Ravenclaw to sit. She knew the purpose of this particular meeting to explain the muggle world to the magical students but she was ready for the vice versa part.

Finally, when he sat down a quite a few Slytherins stood up. They moved toward the center of the room. A few of each year from the other houses joined them. They sat, with their backs to each other, facing out towards the others.

Hermione held her hand up for the ball. Draco shrugged and tossed it to her.

"Recently, you and Ron Weasely had words. You told me to ask about it at the next meet."

Draco nodded. "Yes, let me ask you a question, Granger. Do you have godparents?"

"Yes, my godmother Aline and my godfather Lysander."

"What purpose do your godparents serve in the Muggle world? Serious question."

"Well, in the past, godparents were supposed to sponsor a child in a particular religious faith, promising to take over the religious education and if necessary to take in and care for the godchild if the parents could not. My parents, while people of faith, are not deeply religious. My godparents are like my parents in that they are deeply faithful. Lysander, even has a degree in Theology. He's a Philosophy and Religions Professor at Sumter College. Aline is an adjunct professor, by that I mean she doesn't teach full time. She owns a business. Several of them, actually. In her spare time, she teaches. The college considers themselves very lucky to have her."

"Our, by that I mean the magical community, consider godparents in a very similar way except that there is a ceremony that we conduct in which the godparents give a piece, a small piece of their magick to their chosen godchild. Their magick will recover but it changes the child's magick enough so that the family magicks recognize the child."

Nott nodded. "To give a better example. The Nott family, like most old pureblood families, have certain places or heirlooms that only a blood member of the Nott family can use. Some of those places and artifacts base their decision on who is and who is not part of the family based on the taste of your magick. Now during the Godparent Ceremony, the godparent gives you a part of their magick which makes you part of their magickal family. You will appear on their family tree with a thread of bronze. Gold descent lines are for direct blood descendants, silver is for magickal descendants, and bronze is for godchildren. This entitles you to much influence, rights, and responsibilities in the magickal world. Inheritance, jobs, networking, and so much more."

Ron Weasely nodded, "When I insulted Professor Snape as Draco's godfather instead of just complaining of him as a teacher, I crossed a line. Much as if I had insulted his parents. I can and do dislike Professor Snape, I do think he gives too much preference to his snakes, I think he's the worst teacher here and that's okay. I can think that, but I didn't insult him over that. I called Draco's godfather an overgrown bat. I called Simon's godfather an overgrown bat. How much would you like to hear someone constantly denigrating your father, Hermione?"

Hermione shook her head, "I understand. Can we talk more about magickal family and relations? I think we actually do have much in common but it can't hurt to understand.

"You mentioned that the godchild appears on the godparent's family tree, does that mean if something happens to the parents, they take the child in? What if there is more than one child? We sometimes have different sets of godparents for each child."

Fifth year Nathan Pengel turned towards her. "No, in our case, it's a bit more serious than I think muggles would do it. I mean, it's obvious that you are close to your godparents but with our ceremony, the godparent becomes truly and magically a second family. Considering that, if you have a large family like the Weasley's or even three children like my family, you don't want to have six new people and if the parents should die then you don't want to split up the children. It used to be that sometimes each child would have their own godparent but that was mainly because sometimes it was safer to split up the children. Now that we have our own lands, we no longer do that.

Another hand to the left shot in the air, the ball wrenching itself from Hermione's hands to the other person.

"So can you tell us…"