22 Chapter 22: Assessment
(September 5, 1992)
(Savrin POV)
The first week of the new year of school had come and gone in seemingly a blink of an eye. Savrin had made sure to monitor the new teachers to make sure they were doing well with their new jobs, and unsurprisingly they were doing better than he could have hoped. Granted, his upgrades to the school had probably helped in that regard, but that was beside the point.
Even though it was only September, the frost would sweep over the school, leaving a chill in the air outside, letting everyone know that winter was soon approaching. However, unlike every other year before, the school was warm.
The previous year, Savrin had gone around the school placing warming runes on the halls and floors, as well as seal most of the castle, making it harder for the cold to seep in and the heat to seep out, and this year the students who were returning could definitely tell the difference. No longer were they wandering the halls with their coats on, and they were all smiling happily about the year to come.
The first classroom Savrin inspected was Potions, taught by Elise Winslow. Unlike the last decade where Snape had taught the subject in the dungeons, Savrin moved the Potions classroom back to where it had been since the school's founding, in the Library Annex. Being located there, the classroom was close enough to the greenhouses that they could get any resource they needed without having to trek across most of the school, and they were near enough to the library that they could go look up any recipes they needed or find any information that wasn't already readily available.
The classroom itself was also no longer underground, giving it some much needed ventilation, which would be much better for making potions. How the students had been succeeding in Potions before Savrin came along, he didn't know, nor did he care. What did matter was that the school was finally back on track to teaching properly.
Another addition to the Potions classroom, is instead of just one room, there were seven, each one dedicated to their own year of students. Savrin believed it would make it easier for the students to not get their things mixed up, and hopefully make it so they would be able to leave certain potions that took days to make to stay brewing without interruption.
Each room was identical, though the resources for each differed depending on which year attended which classroom. One thing to note about each room, no longer were they the dark dreary rooms people remembered from when Snape taught, but instead they were pristine bright white rooms made of mostly smooth marble.
The walls, floors, doors, and ceilings were all white, with a light grey trim around the edges to make everything stand out. Instead of having dimly lit candles to light the room, gemstones enchanted with 'Lumos' were placed everywhere, making it harder to not see than it was to see.
Savrin believed with the right stations and items, it would be possible to teach the students to make potions far above what he had seen in this world, so with some helpful advice from Elise, he modified the rooms to better suit what they would be doing.
According to Elise, chemists in the muggle world used rooms like this so nothing went amiss, something he would take advantage of. As for the lights, that was his idea. With the premise that magic and electricity didn't work well together, Savrin incorporated muggle ideas in a magical way, and he hoped the students who saw the lights would take inspiration and make more magical inventions.
As for the teacher herself, Elise was making great strides with the students, and already there was a marked improvement from the previous years. Mostly it was the fact that the students were no longer dreading Potions, but she was also an excellent teacher.
Savrin had observed her teaching the first-years, and he had to say she had the right of it. Instead of making them brew a potion for the first time by following instructions written on a blackboard, she went over items and utensils the students would be working with in their first year.
They were taught how to prepare their stations, the resources and items they would be putting together for the potions they would be brewing, and how to clean and store their cauldron and tools once they were done with a potion.
She explained the potion she wanted the students to learn, not just the steps to make it, but what it did and what areas it could be used in. She went into detail about preparing the ingredients, why they were prepared certain ways, and again how best to store them so they wouldn't spoil.
Most of what she taught them was new to not just the first years, but to most of the students in the school, and Elise herself. Savrin had created a number of storage containers that he had enchanted himself which would make so some items would never spoil, and would always stay perfectly fresh no matter how much time had elapsed after putting them in the container.
Savrin had spent most of August with Elise, teaching her tips and tricks that she wouldn't have learned in this world. On top of that, he went over his own Potions book, showing her more advanced recipes for potions she had thought she had mastered.
Given how each and every potion had step by step instructions on how to brew them, and seeing as how she spent every waking moment of her free time with her nose stuck in that book, Savrin believed she had already mastered it in the month she had to study it.
It being only the first week, there hadn't been any pushback or problems from the students about the fact that Elise was a muggle-born witch, but Savrin knew in time there would be some problems, if not from the students then their parents.
Arcturus would of course be able to handle most problems that would arise, but Savrin would step in if he was needed. Already he was on the lookout for some poor unfortunate student to be the sacrificial pawn who would instill it into their minds that crossing him and those who worked for him was the last thing the students wanted to do.
The next course he inspected was History of Magic. Unlike the previous years where students took this class to catch up on other class assignments or their sleep, Thomas Callahan had everyone's complete and undivided attention. Mostly it was because he recounted stories about witches and wizards who did incredible things, and discussed topics that happened in the last three hundred years, and didn't only focus on the goblin rebellions.
He talked a lot about the Ministry of Magic and how and when it was formed, the different branches of the Ministry, and so on. To really spice up the class, he had asked Savrin if it would be possible to arrange a field trip to the Ministry so the students could get the opportunity to see what he was talking about.
Savrin had thought the idea had merit and told him he would check with Arcturus. Of course he knew he would probably have to deal with Amelia Bones personally if he wanted to do this, simply for the fact that he would want Aurors there to monitor the students to keep them safe, but that was a problem for another time.
As for the students, when they heard rumors about possibly going on a field trip to the ministry for History of Magic Class, you can believe it became one of the more popular classes, especially when the children started asking if they could take field trips to other places of historic significance.
It was probably because of this that children were reading their history books more thoroughly to find cool places they would want to visit, which was sparking a very high improvement in attentiveness and the scores of History of Magic classes.
The third course Savrin looked into was Care of Magical Creatures. Silvanus Kettleburn was already an excellent teacher, but with his missing limbs returned to him, and with a teaching assistant that could handle any creature in the school, the class had improved greatly, though not to the extent of History of Magic.
The important thing to Savrin was that the creatures were doing well, which they were. He had seen to that. With his recommendation, Elise had brewed a number of potions for the creatures to make them healthier, live longer, and reproduce quicker. While it would seem he was only trying to help the creatures, the potions would actually make it better for him in the long run.
With more magical creatures in the world, the more they would affect their surroundings, in turn infusing magic into them, and hopefully increase the ambient magic in the air around them. There was also the fact that when the creatures did eventually die, Savrin could harvest their improved parts to make better and stronger potions, so it was essentially a win-win-win for everyone.
As for Kettleburn and Hagrid, they worked very well together, and with Hagrid being the one to administer the potions to the creatures, no one had to worry about losing a limb.
Arithmancy, an elective course beginning in the Third-year, was next on Savrin's list of classes to inspect. The teacher, Septima Vector was a rather strict woman, though she was competent at least. Savrin felt half of what she taught was unnecessary, but she was doing well given what she was teaching.
He himself would never take the course because of how useless he thought it to be, but that was just him. The only notes he made about the woman were to have her relax a bit, and maybe stop giving so much homework. After the first lesson for the third year class that had signed up for the course, she had demanded 3 feet of parchment on what they learned. Savrin didn't even think she had spoken enough words through the whole lecture to equal that much parchment.
'Come to think of it, why the hell is the school still using rolls of parchment instead of blank books?' Savrin wondered, finding that to be rather odd, especially when he thought about how annoying it was to store scrolls. 'I'll deal with that later.' He concluded before he moved on through his notes.
Next was Astronomy, one of the seven core subjects one was required to learn at Hogwarts, which was taught by Aurora Sinistra. Astronomy was the branch of magic and science that studied stars and the movement of planets, however, the wizarding world was far behind in what it should be.
Savrin firmly believed every witch and wizard should learn about the stars and planets in the universe so they could perform rituals better, find their way, understand the ebb and flow of mana, and so much more, but they weren't learning any of that here. They were to learn about the star locations and when they would align with certain stars, but that was it.
They were also using regular telescopes, which was sad. Magic had the potential to literally map out the universe, and yet these people barely used it to fly around on broomsticks. Savrin didn't blame Professor Sinistra for her lack of knowledge, as from what he could see, she knew more about the stars than most witches and wizards, though she did know far less than a few muggles he had read about. He would need to update her course for the following year.
Charms, another of the seven core subjects and a required class taught by Filius Flitwick was probably the best class Savrin had seen so far. Professor Flitwick taught the basics of the fundamental aspects of charms, then showed how one's imagination could change the course entirely.
Savrin firmly believed that the half-goblin was a prodigy in the art of charms, and was basically the perfect teacher. He taught in such a way that his students could easily understand the subject, and encouraged them to use their heads to advance. He was neither too strict nor too kind, and he didn't give an over abundance of homework.
There was nothing Savrin would change about the class for the present time, though he would introduce the man to an A.C.D to see if he could dissect how it functioned, and hopefully that would spur him into further advancing the world by getting his students to look more into creating magical devices.
Herbology, a required class taught by Pomona Sprout, was fun to watch, though Savrin had more than a few concerns. In the class students learned to care for and utilize plants, learn about their magical properties and what they are used for. Many plants provided ingredients for potions and medicine, while others had magical effects of their own right.
However, despite doing a good job, there were steps that were not taken, and ingredients weren't handled as good as they could be. Lots of the potential of the ingredients were being wasted, and Savrin could only wince at the waste. He concluded that he would just have to try and help the old woman better understand a few of the plants in the following years so this didn't keep happening. Other than that however, she seemed relatively competent.
Study of Ancient Runes, an elective course taught by Bathsheda Babbling was a let down to say the least. It was a mostly theoretical subject that studied the ancient runic scripts of magic. The runic scripts had so much potential for rituals, but they didn't use them for that. They simply studied them.
Savrin couldn't even blame the teacher, because it wasn't her fault rituals weren't allowed in Britain. He made a note to bring back rituals for her class, though he would have to limit it to a select few rituals that wouldn't be too much for this world. He knew the sheep of the world would revolt if the Ministry claimed he was trying to turn their children into monsters, something which seemed right up Fudges alley.
Transfiguration, a required class taught by Minerva McGonagall, was actually not too bad to watch. The woman was good at teaching, which was nice. She was equal parts terrifying and kind, making it so children weren't scared to ask her questions, and when they did she was able to answer in such a way that they understood.
Savrin believed she could learn a bit of the muggle sciences to help better understand her subject, but from what she taught, she knew inside and out. It was nice that she would be his second in command here, so he wouldn't feel worried about delegating certain tasks to her. Sure, he already knew of her competence from the previous year, but it was only fair he watched her closer this year so he could get a better understanding of her abilities.
Muggle Studies, an elective class taught by Gary Styles was mind numbingly boring. The course work was almost a century behind the times because wizards thought because they didn't advance, neither would the muggles.
There was no mention of the weaponry, the machines, the technology, the population numbers, and everything else. This was one subject Savrin planned on making a required course, though he would need to put some work into it to make it so people actually took it.
So far only muggle-born witches and wizards took the class because they wanted to do something they were actually good at, however given how far behind the school was, it was hurting them more than helping them.
Flying, an elective class taught by Rolanda Hooch was about as simple a class as a class could be. The woman looked as though she could relax a little more, but given how she literally had a broomstick on her ass most of the day, Savrin could understand. What he couldn't understand was the fact that the witches and wizards of this world rode brooms at all.
Most mages on Genesis just used enchanted capes for individual use or magic carpets for family uses. They were more practical, versatile, and comfortable too. The combat abilities alone made fighting on a broom stupid beyond comparison. Still, he doubted he would be able to change this aspect of the world, which is why he had gone with the flow and purchased the new brooms for the school.
Finally there was Divination, an elective class taught to third-year on up by Sybill Trelawney. Divination was a branch of magic that involved attempting to foresee the future, or gather insights into the past, present and future events, through various rituals and tools.
Divination was different from other branches of magic in that it required the practitioner to possess a natural aptitude for glimpsing into the future. One could not simply study hard and expect to get better at it. If a witch or wizard lacked any aptitude for divination, then they were doomed to fail no matter how hard they worked.
Back on Genesis, people who could glimpse into the future were called seers, though they were exceedingly rare, and were either coveted or killed because of their abilities. If they didn't join a strong clan that would protect them, everyone else feared they would use their powers in nefarious ways, thus, they were killed, it was as simple as that.
Savrin didn't like them, mostly because the future was never set in stone, and he didn't need anyone telling him about the past. Based on his observations, most people who took the course were simply taking it because it was impossible to fail. No student actually had the aptitude for it.
Discreetly, he had tricked Trelawney into touching a glass ball he had pulled from his storage dimension, and when she touched it, the ball had turned yellow. The ball itself tested one's aptitude with divination, the darker it got in color, the stronger aptitude one had. Yellow was the weakest aptitude one could have while having the gift, which was sad.
Savrin had wanted to get rid of the course altogether so children wouldn't waste their time on a subject they could never learn, but after discussing it with Salazar and the others, and Arcturus as well, he agreed to keep it in the school, though there would have to be massive changes.
At the end of the year during his end of the year speech, he planned on announcing the fact that not just anyone could attend Divination. If a student wanted to sign up for the course, they would have to light up the glass ball, which would be a new item he would have to introduce to this world. He wasn't looking forward to that.
As for who would teach the class, Savrin wasn't sure. Based on how crazy Trelawney seemed, he wasn't sure she should even be teaching at all, but that was still to be determined. A seer without the ability to understand her powers was liable to go insane, so he needed to do something in order to protect the school. If he couldn't whip her into shape by the end of this year, he would forget about everyone else's opinions and just drop the subject from the school entirely.
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Sitting in his office, Savrin was looking over the reports on the teachers so far, and he couldn't help but think the school was on track to righting itself. Granted, all of this hard work would be null and void if the Ministry and the pure-bloods drove the students to fleeing the magical world after they graduated, so they would need to be dealt with sooner than later, but Savrin was already working on a plan for that.
*Ding*
Savrin was interrupted from perusing through the reports when a soft chime rang about the room, letting him know about an incoming message from his new Watch unit.
After getting rid of Filch, Savrin needed someone to keep the castle clean and to patrol around the castle to look out for people wandering around the castle after curfew, and he needed people to make sure the students weren't using their magic in a bad way.
The house-elves were more than happy to take up the cleaning, seeing as how they did most of that anyway. Filch pretty much took care of the little things that he honestly shouldn't have been doing in the first place.
As for keeping watch over the school at night, he wasn't too bad at that, but seeing as how he was gone, someone had to take his place. Thus, the Watchmen were created. All of the empty suits of armor spread about the castle, Savrin enchanted them to be able to send him messages if certain things happened in their area of sight. He enchanted them to report to him should they see one of the things he programmed into them, and it would seem one of them was reporting now.
Looking to the suit of armor next to the door that exited the room, Savrin saw a light appear where its eyes were, and at once it began to speak, "A young boy collapsed outside on his way back from Care of Magical Creatures. He is being taken to the hospital wing by Rubeus Hagrid." After relaying its message, the suit of armor lost the light where its eyes were, going back to a simple suit of armor.
Savrin knew Madam Pomfrey could probably handle whatever was going on with the boy, but he decided it would still be a good idea to go there and see what was wrong. It wouldn't do well to ignore something that could potentially turn out to be a big problem. Making his way to the hospital wing, Savrin arrived a few minutes before Hagrid, who was carrying an unconscious boy in his arms. "
Headmaster, I don't know what's happened." Hagrid stated as soon as he saw Savrin. "Not to worry, Hagrid. You did well bringing him here so quickly." Savrin reaffirmed the half-giant, who seemed to swell with pride at the compliment.
Pointing a finger at the unconscious boy, Savrin made him levitate into the air before he floated over to the nearest bed and placed him down. "Headmaster, what are you doing here?" Madam Pomfrey asked as soon as she entered the room from her office.
"I happened to be passing by when I heard about a student collapsing. I thought I would check it out myself." He told the matron, who seemed surprised. Evidently Dumbledore never made it a point to check in on some of the students unless it was a serious matter.
Rather than assess what was going on himself, Savrin watched the medi-witch wave her wand over the boy for a few minutes before she seemed to come to a conclusion. "It seems Mr. Fareth here has been getting a little too close with one of the Puffskeins running around the school. Probably kissed its fur and accidentally ingested some germs his body wasn't accustomed to." Madam Pomfrey surmised after her inspection, then immediately went into another room before coming back out with a potion bottle filled with a brown liquid.
Wanting to test her hypothesis for himself, Savrin held his hand up to her before he also sent his magic inside the boy. Sure enough, after a few seconds of looking he found foreign particles floating around in the boy's lungs that were attacking his body.
"Does this kind of thing happen often?" Savrin asked after giving the witch the go-ahead to continue with her work. "Oh sure. Almost every time a new third-year attends Care of Magical Creatures for the first time they usually get sick, though not all of them lose consciousness like Mr. Fareth here. They come to me complaining about their breathing and the like." Pomfrey answered, earning a frown from Savrin.
"What do you mean, 'Almost every time'? Does every student get sick or are some excluded?" Savrin asked for clarification. "Well, most students from pureblood families don't get sick, but that's probably because their parents have already been given the cures. Their bodies have already gained a natural immunity to the germs from the magical creatures, however muggle-born students who come into contact with these new germs for the first time a more susceptible to them." Madam Pomfrey explained, furthering Savrin's frown.
"If this happens almost every time to new students, why do you not administer the potions to them beforehand?" Savrin asked the Matron, who looked confused at the question.
"Truth be told, Headmaster, it has been suggested before in the past to have all new students coming into the magical world to get potions that strengthen them against magical illnesses, but the Board of Governors forbade it. I believe the funding for the potions and items was brought up, and the school was told to only give the potions to the students who showed signs of the illnesses. According to the Board, some students might go their whole school-life without ever getting sick, and it would be too costly to waste potions on them after they left the school."
Savrin didn't like that, he didn't like it one bit. "I'll discuss this with the Board of Governors. The lives of the students are at risk if they don't get these potions. It doesn't matter if they don't ever come into contact with the illnesses, these potions will do more for them than they could imagine. Once I get approval, I want you to begin administering the potions to every student who hasn't had one." Savrin explained, causing the Matron's eyes to widen.
She didn't know why the new Headmaster was so confident in getting his way, but so far she had seen him accomplish things for the school that not even Dumbledore had been able to accomplish, so she wasn't going to doubt him. Instead, she was excited and couldn't wait to see what else he did for the school.
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(General POV)
The first week of school had passed by quite well for Salazar, and that was even considering the fact that he hadn't been able to clear his head since the sorting ceremony. The two days following the sorting he had looked for the blonde girl, but after no luck, he concluded he had just imagined seeing her.
He chose to keep it to himself that he was seeing ghosts that no one else could see, mostly because he didn't want to talk to Godric right now. The buffoon was in his element at school, surrounded by idiots that had no idea how the world worked. Salazar would never admit it, but he was jealous of Godric's ability to forget about their task, and to enjoy idiotic things. He for one wasn't willing to lose brain cells just so he could reach that level, but that didn't mean he couldn't watch Godric do it.
Still, despite feeling as though he was losing it mentally, the week was nice. He and Harry hung out quite a lot, mostly so he could teach the boy Parseltongue and all of the things he could do with it, but he also found that he enjoyed spending time with Harry.
With Harry getting a similar upbringing as his own had been, they usually had something to talk about, and Salazar would even go on to explain tips and tricks on how to make one stand out in Noble society.
One good thing about this week was the new teachers. Elise Winslow was brilliant, and Salazar had to admit that it was nice to actually learn something from someone else for a change. There was also the fact that History of Magic went from being the most boring subject in school to the most popular, and even Salazar had to admit he was looking forward to going on field trips to visit historic sites. It was a genius idea, one that would make Thomas Callahan a legend in the school.
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The dinner feast had just ended and everyone was about ready to go back to their dormitories when Salazar noticed a silver light appear next to Savrin's ear at the head table, and he couldn't help but wonder what it was.
Whatever the light was, it had only appeared for a second or two before Savrin's eyes widened, and ignoring everyone else in the room, he seemed to morph into a bolt of lightning before disappearing out of the room. He hadn't even bothered to put up an illusion to hide his disappearance, which just went to show how serious of a matter this was.
Salazar was barely digesting Savrin's disappearance when he heard something he didn't expect to hear. It was a voice, a voice to chill the bone-marrow, a voice of breath-taking, ice-cold venom. A voice that was all too familiar to him. {Come… come to me… let me rip you… let me tear you… let me kill you…}
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(A.N. Just thought I would add this in for those who didn't know.)
CORE SUBJECT:
Herbology
History of Magic
Charms
Transfiguration
DADA
Potions
Astronomy
ELECTIVE SUBJECT:
Care of Magical Creatures
Arithmancy
Muggle Studies
Flying/Quidditch
Study of Ancient Runes and Rituals (Rituals will be added to this, though currently they are not.)
Alchemy
Wizard studies (Not a thing yet, but it will be one in the later chapters. Just thought I would add it in now.)
ELECTIVE TUTORING:
Divination (Given how few students will be taking this course from now on, it will not be categorized in the subject section, but a tutoring section.)
