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Minerva sighed as she scrawled another name to her, thankfully short, list.
Since the beginning of the war, when children would return to school, sad and broken as their parents had been killed, Minerva had made a list. A list which, with Albus’ help, she would use to assign guardians to orphans or even those who struggled and had a strained relationship with their parents or guardians.
She had a second list, a list containing magical guardians for muggle born or muggle raised students who may need an adult who can give them time, time where they could ask questions, and learn about magical traditions.
“Minerva?” A voice called, as a knock sounded on the door frame of her open office door.
“Filius, come in.” She said, her eyes rising from her desk.
“Thank you.”
“What’s the matter Filius, you look troubled?”
“I’ve been speaking to one of my first years, Miss Michaels, and she’s had… trouble with the relationship with her parents.”
“Miss Michaels? Muggleborn?”
“Yes.”
Minerva sighed once more, and quickly scrawled Leah Michaels name to the list.
“How serious is it Filius?”
“It’s not… good. I’ve been speaking with Albus, and we’re going to come up with somewhere for her for summer holidays, and the aurors are working with the muggle police force to deal with it.”
Minerva nodded.
“I’ll speak to Albus, I’m sure a few of the Guardians may be willing.”
“Yes, I believe so.”
“Any unusual ones on your list this year?”
“No, most of them are expected, there’s very few orphans that have no one which is a plus. Mr Longbottom I might add, but I want to look into it a little more, I’m not sure quite yet. Miss Bones has her Aunt Amelia and she has already told me she’s completely fine and doesn’t require it. So, mainly muggle borns for magical guardians, and two for the emotional and magical guardians, three now that we have Miss Michaels. There is someone on the list though, someone I didn’t want to be on it, but…”
“Who may I ask?”
“Harry Potter.”
“Harry Potter, really?”
“Yes. I did originally say to Albus that they weren’t suitable as guardians but…”
“So he’s on both, not just the magical guardian one?”
“I’m afraid so.”
“Will he be returning to his guardians?”
“Albus insists he must for his own safety.”
Filius shook his head sadly.
“Lily and James would be disappointed.”
“Yes, Lily never wanted Harry to end up with her sister, of that I’m sure.”
“That’s where he ended up?”
“Yes.”
Flitwick shook his head.
“Ridiculous. Any idea for the guardians you’re going to choose this year?”
“I’m thinking Andromeda Tonks for Mr Potter, Mrs Diggory for Miss Fletcher, she’s a first year Hufflepuff, and for Miss Michaels perhaps Mr Edgecomb.”
“Marrietta’s father?”
“Yes.”
“Might work.”
“I hope so.”
Hphphp
“Mr Potter, can you stay behind?” McGonagall asked as she watched him and Ron Weasley get ready to leave the classroom, smiling as they chatted.
“Want me to wait?” She heard Ron Weasley ask as Harry paused.
“Nah, it’s okay. I’ll see you in the Great Hall?”
“Sure, see you mate.”
Harry approached the desk, looking slightly nervous as he did so.
“No need to look so concerned Mr Potter, you’re not in trouble.”
“I’m not?”
“No, no. Would you like a biscuit?”
“Erm, no thank you Professor.”
McGonagall nodded, putting her tartan biscuit tin back into her desk.
“Now, you must be wondering why I asked you to stay behind.”
“A little bit, yes.”
“There is a select amount of students at the school, ones whose parents are no longer around, or their guardians aren’t quite up to… scratch, and there are a few things we do for them.”
“Oh.”
“Yes. The group, which I lead with Professor Sprout, have a variety of things we do. One of which is we provided a sort of emotional guardian, and magical guardian for the most part to be there for the student, whether it is with questions, emotional support of any sort, and just general questions.”
Harry twiddled his thumbs slightly as he considered what she was saying.
“So, I have a magical guardian?”
“And an emotional one, yes. All muggle raised students get a magical one, but from what Hagrid has revealed about your home life, we have added an emotional one too.”
“Thank you.”
“It’s part of my job Mr Potter, but you’re welcome. We also arrange trips over the holidays for students in this programme. In total, there are twenty three of you across the seven year groups.”
“What sort of trips?”
“Well, a few times we have done magical bowling, we do trips to different magical shopping centres, such as Diagon Alley, and we visit a cafe or something of the sort there. We’ve also done some to muggle places as students have seen fit, last year we visited a muggle them park, and we went to a beach in Yorkshire, one Professor Sprout chose.”
Harry looked astounded.
“And- and I get to be involved?”
“You do. We do one trip on average for the Yule holidays, and one for the Easter ones. For the summer holidays, we try to do one every two weeks or so.”
“And… how much does it cost?”
“Mr Potter, it doesn’t cost the students anything. Hogwarts has a charity set up with generous benefactors, and some money from the Ministry that help fund such opportunities. They also have a system in place, so toiletries for students with no guardians or guardians who aren’t willing to buy them, or students from lower economic households have them provided.”
Harry seemed astounded as if he had never heard of anything of the sort.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Now, toiletries are delivered to your bed once every two weeks, however, if there is ever any point where you need more before the two weeks are up, you must let me know as head of your house, okay?”
“Yes ma’am.”
“Perfect. Now, I’ve arranged a friend of mine, Andromeda Tonks to be your guardian. The three first years in this programme will accompany me to Hogsmeade, the village near the school, this saturday to meet their guardian.”
“Are muggle raised students going to be this weekend too?”
“Not this weekend, instead magical guardians come up to the school next weekend to meet students, there are too many to be taken straight to Hogsmeade.”
Harry nodded.
“Right, now, you’ll need to be in the entrance hall at ten am on Saturday. We will likely be out in the village until late afternoon.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Now, run along, I imagine Mr Weasley is waiting for you in the Great Hall.”
Harry nodded, bidding her goodbye before rushing out of the classroom, rushing to meet up with his friend.
McGonagall smiled as she watched him go, he so reminded her of his Mother, and her friendship with Marlene McKinnon. The two had quickly become fast friends and for their entire years at Hogwarts had been inseparable.
Hphp
Saturday morning dawned bright and early, the last rays of summer sun covering the grounds yet not quite fighting off the cold breeze that swept around the hallowed halls.
“Good morning Professor McGonagall.”
“Ah good morning Miss Michaels. Do you have any warmer clothing than your jacket?” She asked, sadly eyeing the girl's slightly thin jacket.
“No Ma’am. I- well…”
“No need to apologise dear.” McGonagall flicked her wand a few times, transforming a small rock into a hat, another into a scarf, another into gloves. She then flicked her wand for a fourth time, turning the girl’s jacket into a warmer one.
“Thank you Professor.”
“No problem. Those will last for today, and I’ll speak to the Headmaster about getting you some warmer clothing.”
“Thank you.” She said, a blush covering her cheeks.
“No problem. Ah Miss Fletcher! Miss Fletcher, over here.”
“Ah, thank you Professor McGonagall.”
“No problem, we’re just waiting on Mr Potter, and then we’ll be on our way.”
It took five minutes, of the girls chatting happily with each other, and clearly bonding together, as they waited.
“Ah Mr Potter, are you ready to go?”
“Yes Ma’am.”
Once again, McGonagall had to transform some small rocks into warmer clothing, as the clothes that Harry was wearing were hanging off his body, clearly meant for someone much larger than Harry was. She once again took note to mention to Albus that Mr Potter also needed some new clothes.
Hphp
Albus Dumbledore watched as McGonagall led the three first years down to Hogsmeade village.
At first he had been unwilling to allow Harry to take part in such a system, but he had stopped himself. If Tom Riddle had someone to talk to, he might have been better, might have had more support, and might not have gone as bad as he did.
He didn’t want Harry to fall into a similar pattern.
He had spent ten years living with the Dursley’s, and he would still remain with them, but having someone keeping an eye on him might elevate the love that Harry might have.
Hphp
“Ah Mr Potter, this is Andromeda Tonks.”
Harry looked up from where he had been chatting with Leah Michaels and Kimberly Fletcher. The three had seemed to be getting on pretty well, which McGonagall was happy for, and neither Leah nor Kimberly seemed to put any stock into Harry being the Boy-Who-Lived.
“I’ll talk to you guys later, okay?” Harry said to the two students.
“Of course!” Kimberly ‘Call me Kim’ Fletcher.
“Definitely!” Leah agreed.
“Great!” He smiled, a genuine one, which made McGonagall smile too.
“Andromeda Tonks, nice to meet you.”
“Harry Potter. You too.”
“Good, shall we go get a table?”
Harry nodded.
Hphp
As the two sat, Andromeda ordered them both a butterbeer, as well as a slice of cake each from Madam Rosmerta, who smiled before tootling off to get them.
“So Harry, what do you like to do in your free time?” Andromeda asked, knowing she shouldn’t ask about anything that might make the boy uncomfortable outright.
It was Andromeda’s first year doing this, she hadn’t done it the year before, as her own child, Nymphadora, had still been in school. Now that her daughter had moved out, and was doing well, she wanted to be there, and help someone.
“Erm, I’m not sure. I like quidditch, I just joined the Gryffindor quidditch team.”
“As a first year? That is very impressive!”
Harry looked embarrassed.
“Thanks.”
Andromeda didn’t say anything as she sipped the butterbeer that Rosmerta brought them.
Seeing how comfortable Andromeda was, Harry sipped the drink, and his eyes widened.
“This is so good!”
“Yeah? My daughter loves it.”
“You have a daughter?”
“Yeah, Nymphadora. She graduated last year, she was a Hufflepuff. She’s friends with Charlie Weasley. I think his brother might be in your year?”
“Yeah Ron. Ron’s my friend, he’s great!”
“Yeah, what do you and Ron do together?”
“Ron loves chess, so we play that a lot, and exploding snap.”
“What about you?”
Harry paused.
“I like exploding snap, but I’m terrible at chess. I like drawing a lot, and reading can be fun.”
“Yeah? Have you tried any wizarding fiction books?”
“No, I didn’t have much time to look around much when I was in Diagon Alley last time.”
“Well, next time we meet I can definitely bring some. Nymphadora has loads, she loved to read in her free time, not that she’d tell anyone that.” Andromeda told the boy with a wink.
“That would be great, but don’t put yourself through any trouble.”
“It’ll be no trouble at all, don’t worry about it.”
“Thanks Mrs Tonks.”
“Dear, you can call me Andy.”
“Thanks Andy.”
She smiled.
Hphp
For the rest of the day, Andromeda and Harry wandered around Hogsmeade together. They bought sandwiches at around half twelve from a small bakery in a small side street in Hogsmeade, which both Harry and Andromeda enjoyed.
From a small clothing store, Andromeda insisted on buying Harry a coat, hat, scarf and a pair of gloves as she was worried about him catching a cold, as warming charms just weren’t as same and comfortable as actual warm clothing.
Half an hour before they had to meet McGonagall at the Three Broomsticks, Andromeda took the small boy to the three broomsticks, and helped him choose some sweets that he could share with the other boys in his dorm.
“Now Harry, I’ll see you in two weeks either at the school or in Hogsmeade depending on what your Professor McGonagall decides.”
“Okay, thank you for today Andy.”
“No problem at all, it was fun. Now, don’t forget to send me letters okay?”
“Okay.”
“Good.” She said, squeezing his shoulder lightly as he ran off to meet McGonagall as she watched from a slight difference.
She smiled at Mrs Diggory and Mr Edgecomb, who smiled and nodded back to her respectively, before as the children started to walk back to the school, she disappeared with a pop.