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It was an early Saturday morning when seventeen year old Harry Potter sat curled up in the Room of Requirement on a comfy black sofa in front of a massive fireplace which was lit, fire crackling merrily, a mug of warm tea nestled in his hands as he stared of into space.
It was his seventh year at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry and he was contemplating on what to do with his life after school finished in a few more short months. Everyone expected him to become an Auror, marry Ginny Weasley and have at least ten kids in a home with a white picket fence. After all, he was a national hero, The-Boy-Who-Killed-You-Know-Who! It was his duty to live up to their standards and expectations.
Harry snorted at the thought before taking a swallow of tea and putting the mug down on the ground in front of him before running a hand through his shoulder-length raven locks. “Duty,” he muttered, “I did my duty, now I want to live my life.” But what would he do?
“Always fancied myself a good teacher…” he said softly to himself, “I liked teaching…and working with kids…” remembering the times where he had helped out in Mason Elementary School during the past three summers. His Uncle Vernon had demanded he get himself a job after Harry had come home from his Fourth year at Hogwarts, and after a bit of searching, Harry found a job helping teach kids at the local Elementary school in Surry, only a few blocks away from Privet Drive. Of course, he had the chance to study a bit himself as well during that time too. Summer school was a lovely thing.
That’s when the idea hit him, “I’m going to get my muggle education first…or else this will never work.” he said to himself before grabbing his book-bag and pulling a notebook and a pen out.
Dropping the book-bag beside the sofa again, Harry took the notebook and placed it on his lap, pen in hand he turned to a fresh page and began to write to organize his thoughts.
Education and beyond
Everyone (in Hogwarts at least) gets to learn the basic things on subjects like: History of Magic, Herbology, Ancient Ruins, Arithmancy, Defense against the Dark Arts, Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, Charms, Transfiguration, Potions.
However, even the so called ‘advanced’ courses are not as advanced as everyone would have us seem to think. In fact, students are left with just enough knowledge to get by. The standards of education are mediocre at best. What about getting our muggle educations? There are a limited amount of options of things to do when you graduate. Yeah, you can become a healer, or a master in a field (like Potions or Transfiguration) but you need to apprentice a master if you want to do that. You could work in the Ministry…or become a “sports” star in Quidditch…but what else is there? What about those that want to get muggle jobs? It’ll be muggle-born for sure, but we started school at age eleven, we never finished our muggle educations!
Harry hadn’t noticed that he had said everything he wrote, aloud. The room had given him a stack of books on various subjects. A few titles caught the teen’s eye.
1. Wizarding schools around the world and what they offer
2. Finished School? Jobs you can do!
3. Apprentices: Become a Master.
“Interesting…” Harry thought with a grin before picking up the first book and beginning to read...Skimming was more like it.
Twenty books and five hours later Harry came to the conclusion that the Wizarding World was full of idiots. Honestly, the only half-way decent schools that you could get something out of (in terms of a well rounded education. Both muggle and magically) was Salem Institute of Magic in the USA and Hiroko gakkoo tejina o suru (Hiroko school of performing magic) in Tokyo Japan. There weren’t even any Wizarding Universities for crying out loud!
Going back to his notebook, Harry began to write again.
What people really out of a school, is a place where they can learn any subject (both Wizarding and Muggle) at all levels. This is also for any age and any blood status (Squib, Muggle-born, Pureblood, and Creature). Courses should be offered from Basic Beginner level strait to Highly Advanced level in all areas. We need proper muggle studies classes for those raised in the wizarding world and wizarding studies classes for those raised in the muggle world. I mean, the purebloods know so much more than we (muggle raised) do when it comes to customs and what not.
The teachers should all be competent and really know their fields. Look at Bins! He’s a ghost and can’t teach! Snape shouldn’t be teaching beginners, he should be teaching advanced students at the University level. I think he’d be happier doing that and his own research than what he’s doing now. Defense teachers…enough said.
What we need is a school that teaches everything properly, that teaches nearly anything, that teaches nearly everyone, and is affordable for even poorer families like the Weasleys.
Snapping the notebook closed Harry stood up and stretched before packing away his things in his book-bag and walking out of the room of requirement. He had things to study, NEWTS to sit and then…well, he had to plan a few more things out but he had a good idea of what he wanted to do.
Six months later, Harry wrote the last of his NEWTs before he disappeared from the Wizarding world. No one would see or hear from him again for eight years.
8=8=8=8=8
Twenty years old Harry Potter was sitting in Gringotts, more importantly, his financial manager’s office, Griphook being said manager, looking through his financial portfolio.
“Everything looks great Griphook, I must say, I didn’t think I was this rich!” Harry grinned as he looked up at his manager.
“Yes well, a few good investments don’t go amiss, and it doesn’t hurt that you inherited from a number of wealthy families. “
Harry nodded. He had not only inherited the Evens (through his mother) Potter (Since his parents were dead) and Black fortunes (since Sirius Black was dead), but also the Gryffindor and Slytherin fortunes: Gryffindor because he was a descendent of that line, and Slytherin by right of conquest (having killed Voldemort in his sixth year).
“And here is the list of properties you asked for,” Griphook said, handing a sheet to Harry.
Looking over the list, Harry began to chuckle before putting the sheet on the desk and pointing at one of the descriptions. “I do believe I’ve found what I’ve been looking for.”
Griphook looked where Harry was pointing and with a toothy grin he replied, “Indeed, I do believe you have.”
“And the best part is the ministry has no control over it, its private property.”
Griphook and Harry grinned deviously.
8=8=8=8=8
Harry stood in the giant foyer of Potter manor. Now this was not the Potter manor which his father had grown up, no, this was his great grand parents had lived. This was the second Potter manor…which happened to stand on Potter Island. The island itself was roughly ten miles long and fifteen miles wide; and a small forest spanning most of it.
“Vain bunch weren’t they.” Harry muttered.
“They liked their seclusion.” Griphook commented idly as he glanced around the foyer.
“Yes well, this is as secluded as things get isn’t it. I mean, it’s an Island!”
“Sarcasm doesn’t become you.”
“As you’ve said before Griphook my friend, come on, we have work to do.”
8=8=8=8=8
It had taken a year but Harry and his contacts (Goblins) had managed it. Potter manor on Potter Island had originally been a three floor mansion, with sixty massive bedrooms, three studies, sixty-three bathrooms, a dining room, a tea room, a drawing room, a music room, two libraries and an outdoor swimming pool. And let’s not forget the two level dungeons below it. There of course were also the vast gardens and greenhouses included.
After they were done with it there were additions everywhere, and the entire mansion was renovated. Since the island was ten miles by fifteen miles Harry had a lot of room to work with. He had to admit that he had drawn up a pretty nice school though.
The mansion itself had been expanded drastically, tripling its size and adding an extra three floors. Where there had been sixty ridiculously large bedrooms, now there were three hundred smaller bedrooms (which were capable of housing four students each). The second level dungeon had been transformed into small apartments for the hundreds of house elves that had been hired to work on the island. The first level dungeon contained the massive kitchens, and laundry room of the manor.
The first floor was made up of a huge dining room (big enough to fit at least fifteen hundred), one of the entrances to the library (which had entrances on each of the six floors since it was a six story library), a large foyer and the large ballroom where parties and such could be held. There was also an entrance to the medical wing building (this building also was made up of six floors and it too had entrances from the main manor on each floor).
The second floor contained an entrance to the library, the entrance to the staff housing wing, the headmaster’s and administration offices. Several smaller rooms on this floor were quiet study areas for students.
The third floor: entrance to the library, entrance to the hospital wing, massive common room where everyone can hangout. The fourth, fifth, and sixth floors contained student housing, entrances to the hospital wing, and entrances to the library.
Back on the first floor there were entrances to glass roofed walkways leading from the main manor to a number of other buildings.
If you were to take one of the walkways from the left side of the manor you would end up to a massive five floor building which contained classrooms and lecture halls along with the respective offices of the course instructors. There was another slightly smaller building connected to this one. It was only a one floor building but it contained several labs; Three potions labs (one for Beginners and one for Advanced and one for Research and Experimentation), a Chemistry lab, a Physics lab and an Alchemy lab. The Biology lab could be found in the Care of Magical Creatures building which was only one hundred feet away from the Lab building nestled a little ways into the forest which grew on the island.
On the opposite side of the manor, the glass roofed walkway lead towards a small glass building which had has entrances to other glass roofed walkways which lead to other places, one of the walkways lead to the medical wing; another to the three floor Computer labs building (a total no-magic zone thanks to some nifty wards Harry had created) which was connected to the Dance studio/hall. Another walkway leads to the three floor art department building (one floor of which was a gallery of student artwork), which was connected to the three floor music department building. This building also has a walkway to the fitness and recreation building which contains the gym, an indoor pool, fitness rooms, changing rooms, an indoor basketball court, dueling rooms (both magical and muggle) and a martial arts room. This building is connected to the outdoor tennis court, outdoor pool and outdoor basketball court. Of course it also leads to the indoor ice rink as well.
Now, behind the manor you would find massive gardens and the stables along with the indoor and outdoor riding arenas, four green houses, the Quidditch Pitch and Sports field (where students can play Soccer, Football, do track and field, and more). Of course there were also bike trails, riding trails and hiking trails around the entire island along with the beach if the students were inclined to do any of these activities.
After having drawn up the plans for the island, Harry who had just finished four years of muggle schooling at a British University (one semester spent upgrading everything he didn’t know), getting a Major in English, and minors in Art and Music; set out to find staff for his school, but also draw up paperwork to make his school an actual legal wizarding school in the eyes of the law.
8=8=8=8=8
Harry began by putting ads in muggle news papers and on the internet, for applications to fill a multitude of positions. He needed a multitude of teachers in various subjects in various levels for Math, Science, English, Foreign languages, History, Physical education, Art, music and more.
Then he started researching masters in various magical fields and sending those people letters. He needed professors for Transfiguration, Charms, Potions, History of Magic, Divination, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, Care of Magical Creatures, Defense of the Dark Arts, Dark Arts, Alchemy and more. One person he immediately sent a letter too was one Severus Snape.
He was quite surprised to receive so many applications for the muggle positions. He spent four weeks interviewing people for muggle classes, and another four weeks for those with magical positions.
8=8=8=8=8
Severus Snape growled as he entered his quarters once again. Damn Albus for interrupting him once again when he was in a critical stage of brewing. A week of work, gone, wasted, ruined because the old meddling fool wanted him to attend a staff meeting, where Albus reminded everyone that there would be first years this year. There were always first years! Blast it!
It was at that moment that an owl flew in through on of the owl tunnels connected to his room for mail owls. This owl held a letter in its talons.
Taking the letter from the bird, Severus sighed and wondered just who would be writing him. Opening it he began to read, his eyes widening more and more as he continued to read. A smile wormed its way onto his face before he began to grin and then finally laugh.
If anyone would have seen him at this moment they would have been shocked silly to see the usually stoic man act the way he was.
Summoning a quill and a spare bit of parchment, Severus wrote a reply and tied it to the leg of the mail owl that was sitting on the back of his sofa and sent the bird on its way.
Severus walked out of his quarters and headed for the headmasters office. He had to hand in his resignation. Severus never noticed the letter flutter to the floor.
8=8=8=8=8
Dear Professor Snape,
How would you like to work in a quite environment, a giant lab all to yourself, away from meddling old headmasters with lemon drop altered brains who love to interrupt your work? You can research and experiment to your hearts content! Those dunderheads you teach, you can wave them all goodbye.
Ever since I first entered your classroom in first year, I got this feeling that you were not happy working at Hogwarts…or at least with children. You seemed as though you’d rather teach those competent few who have talent.
I make you an offer. Come work at my school. You’ll be the secondary Potions professor and only teach those few talented enough to make it into your advanced class. I have a feeling that that class will be quite small.
You don’t have to accept of course…it is merely an option. And even if you do not wish to teach, you are still welcome to live at my school and work to your hearts content on your research. There are a number of things you can do.
You spent so long saving my rear end from danger; I wish to do something for you in return.
Sincerely
Harry J. Potter
8=8=8=8=8
Twenty-four year old Harry Potter smiled from his seat in his office. He had successfully created a school which taught everything a student needed to know to get an extremely well rounded education.
This was the fourth year that his school was running, having taken over five years to plan out every detail, and a year to build the entire school itself. The first year there were only around one hundred students who accepted invitations to the school, which was called Snitch’s school of Magic and Mundane. Half of them were muggle-born; the other half was a mix between pureblood and half-blood.
The second year the school was open, double the amount of students accepted. By the time the fourth year came around, there were over eleven hundred students. With the way things were looking up, Harry decided that he may build another building close to the manor which would be capable of housing at least nine hundred more students.
Of course, since his school also catered teaching adults who had their own homes and some even having families, there was a giant floo room built just off of the foyer in the main manor so that they could travel back and forth every day. Of course, the floo was password protected so that no one that was not welcome could come to the island. Each student’s password was their student ID number.
8=8=8=8=8
(At Hogwarts)
“Albus, another thirty students have declined invitations to Hogwarts.” Minerva McGonagall announced at the “three week before school starts for another year “staff meeting, “and twenty more have withdrawn from Hogwarts to transfer to that new school: Snitch’s school of Magic and Mundane! This can’t keep up; we’re loosing all our students!”
There were gasps and mutterings from all the staff at this. Over the past four years, more and more students were choosing to attend Snitch’s instead of Hogwarts. Where there had once been over six hundred students, now there was only three hundred attending at the most.
“This is worrying…maybe its time we visit this new school…and see what is so good about it.” Albus Dumbledore said seriously, not even feeling in the mood for his lemon drops.
“I’ll write a letter to Snitch’s immediately then.” McGonagall nodded before leaving the room.
8=8=8=8=8
(At Snitch’s School of magic and mundane)
“Headmaster, we have a request from the staff of Hogwarts to meet with you.” Laura Sanders said as she entered Harry Potter’s office.
Harry looked up from his computer with a raised eye brow, “Really now? When do they wish to meet?”
“As soon as possible sir,” Laura admitted.
“Alright, let them know that they can come by tomorrow if they wish, send a port-key with the letter.”
“I’m on it!” Laura grinned before leaving the office and heading for the administration office next door.
Harry sat back in his chair, placing his glasses on his desk and turning to the window. With a sigh he stood up and put the glassed back on his nose and headed out the door. “I best be telling Severus, he’ll get a kick out of this.”
8=8=8=8=8
Albus Dumbledore and his staff: Filius Flitwick, Minerva McGonagall, Pomona Sprout, Poppy Pomfrey, Bathsheda Babbling, Rolanda Hooch, Aurora Sinistra, Septima Vector, Irma Pince, and Ron and Hermione Weasley arrived by the Port-key Harry had had sent with the letter.
The port-key dropped them on the cobblestone walk that leads from the beach to the manor. Of course, the port-key dropped them in between the two destinations.
Dumbledore and staff dropped their jaws at the massive size of the school…from what they could see of it of course.
Gasps of “amazing”, “wow” and more were heard among the entire group.
Just then a young woman of twenty-three or so came rushing up to them from the main manor. She had short brown hair that was sticking every which way and blue eyes. She stood at five foot six inches tall.
“Hello!” she greeted them brightly, “my name is Laura Sanders, the headmaster is deeply sorry that he wasn’t able to welcome you first, I’m afraid we had a little accident in the fitness building, something about paintballs and hockey sticks! But if you come right this way I’ll take you to his office and he’ll be with you in a few short minutes. If you have any questions along the way, feel free to ask me.”
Everyone chuckled at the exuberant young woman whose mouth ran a mile a minute. They started up the walk.
“So, Miss Sanders, just how big is this school?” asked Albus curiously.
Laura smiled, “I would say quite large, the headmaster has often compared it to taking your school Hogwarts apart and laying each floor side by side in the shape of a giant square. Currently we house 800 students from around the world on the island, along with 209 members of staff, 180 of which are professors here. There are another 300 or so students which floo into the school daily to go to class. They usually end up being adults who live off campus. “
Everyone gaped at this. “What kind of classes do you teach?” another member of staff braved.
“Nearly anything you can think of. However you must be aware that we teach both magical and mundane classes. Students study here year round, going home for a week every two months to see family and relax. The students can stay for as many years as they wish, though to get a general magical education they should stay for up to nine years. General admission age is nine years old for a first year and they spend a year learning extensive theory in all the core subjects. Each student is required to take the core subject courses in both Magical and muggle subjects: Transfiguration, charms, Potions, Defense against the dark arts, Math, Science, English and History for each year they are with us, unless they have passed the advanced courses already. These core courses are all that a first year student is able to take. In second year they can take what ever they want as long as the core courses are among them and they manage to keep up their marks. Depending on blood status and where you were raised (wizarding world or muggle world) students must either take the muggle studies or wizarding studies course in their first, second and third year.”
They had finally reached the front steps of the manor. “Follow me, right this way.” Laura opened the front doors to the manor and led them in. Inside was a mad house, there were students everywhere. Laura led them through the chaos and up the stairs to the second floor and strait to the headmaster’s office.
Knocking on the door Laura heard a faint, “Come in.” and she led the Hogwarts staff into the headmaster’s office.
When the Hogwarts staff caught sight of Snitch’s headmaster they gaped in shock. “HARRY!”
“Hello everyone,” Harry just grinned.
8=8=8=8=8
“This is your school?” Hermione cried in shock when Laura left the room.
“Yep, what do you think of it?” Harry asked with a smile.
“Simply amazing my boy.” Albus chuckled. There were mutters of agreement from everyone.
“Well, I guess you want me to explain why I started my own school.”
“It would be nice,” Minerva McGonagall frowned.
“Alright, well, to cut the story short, I decided in my seventh year that I didn’t want to become an Auror and looked around for other options when I realized that there was nothing I was really interested in. So I went and looked at muggle courses and went to the University of Britain for four years. I realized that there were only two schools in the world that actually offered a decent wizarding education and wanted to fix that. See, every other school teaches only the basics of the subjects offered. If you want to know more, you have to apprentice a master to teach you more. I wanted to give everyone the chance to do their best and learn what ever they wanted. I wanted to give them a great education at an affordable price. So I built this place.”
Everyone was silent. Harry continued, “This school is the only one like it in the world. It teaches both muggle and magical courses, at all levels. The teachers are all masters in their fields, and are both muggle and magical alike. Of the 180 professors, 97 are either retired Auror or Unspeakable or are literally Masters of their field of study. We teach Transfiguration, Charms, Potions, History of Magic, Divination, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, Care of Magical Creatures, Defense against the dark arts, Dark arts, Alchemy, Healing, Wizarding and Muggle studies and a slew of other magical courses that you can think of, alongside Maths, Sciences, English, twenty foreign languages (including: Gobbledegook, Latin, Elfish, Mermish, Greek, Japanese, Dutch, French, Spanish, and German), History, Sports, Martial Arts, Dueling (both magical and muggle), Art, Music and other muggle courses.”
No one could believe their ears. Suddenly Albus spoke, “You wouldn’t happen to employ Severus Snape would you?” he asked.
Harry chuckled, “He’s one of four heads of the Potions department here at Snitch’s. He teaches Advanced Potions two times a week in shifts with the other three Potions masters. He’s prefers teaching the Potion’s Experimentation and Research class three times a week, where he acts as a mentor to a grand total of four students.”
“Snape actually likes to teach?” Ron asked in shock.
“Don’t believe me? Well, come with me and I’ll show you…I may as well give you a tour while you’re here.”
And so, that is the story of how Harry came to create and run the best school in the magical world.
Albus Dumbledore retired from his post of headmaster at Hogwarts a year after seeing Harry’s school, coming to Snitch’s to work as a mentor to those with a love for Transfiguration.
Minerva McGonagall – who was now headmistress of Hogwarts -- sat down with Hermione Weasley and they decided to reform Hogwarts. The school offered a few more courses than it did before along with new teachers.
Others like Filius Flitwick, Pomona Sprout, Aurora Sinistra, and Septima Vector all continued working until McGonagall found suitable replacements for them before they headed over to snitch’s working either as mentors in their fields or taking on an apprentice.
Harry went on to get his Masters in Defense against the Dark Arts and Ancient Runes believe it or not, and at the age of 29 he asked Laura Sanders to marry him. They raised four children (two boys and two girls) which they named: James Sirius, Seth Mark, Lily Rose, and Luna Jane all of which attended Snitches’ and eventually got their own Masters and Majors before teaching classes in the school.
The End