61 Chapter 61: The School’s Year Ends

Hogwarts Castle, Somewhere in the Scottish Highlands

June 25th, 1993, 07:03 PM - Friday

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Erik was again sitting in his seat at Ravenclaw's table. The Great Hall was in a festive mood. It was the last feast of the year. The school year had passed by quickly after the second semester began.

Luna Lovegood, the little blonde that was his supply of daily smiles, had managed to gather support from a lot of students and founded, again, a newspaper dedicated to the students and staff of the school. They named it 'The Hogwarts' Voice'. Erik, with his wives' help, of course, had arranged and furnished an unused classroom to be the office of the new newspaper. Selena was responsible for providing the tech equipment for it, and now The Hogwarts' Voice office had seven magical computers where the 'reporters' could write their articles and piece the newspaper together. After ready, the master edition would be printed, and then it would be put through a machine that Erik had got with the help of Xenophilus Lovegood, Luna's dad, that would make duplicates of it. The first edition of the newspaper hit the school on March 1st, and was a big success between the students and staff alike. The newspaper had then been released as it's prior one, every second week. Seeing Luna happily talking with other students brought joy to Erik. He knew that the little bundle of blonde joy was having difficulties in socializing and even being harassed by other students, but it had stopped after the wards designed to combat specifically that were reactivated. Even so, she still had difficulty interacting with other students, and Erik noticed that she needed something in common with others. And he offered it to her in the format of the newspaper. Luna's pieces to the newspaper were the most looked after, and her housemates started to see the little blonde for she really was, a genius girl with a very intuitive and curious mind. Erik thought that she would become someone of great power in the future if she kept her mind open and didn't limit herself to the Wizarding Community.

The rivalry between houses was still present, but it was much more tame. It was now more like a friendly rivalry instead of a hostile one. This was mainly because of the black metallic hooks that were retrieved from each Common Room. A more thorough investigation of them by a curse breaker hired by Director Bones revealed that they had the purpose of making people distrust other people that were not under the influence of the artifact, making so when the students were in their common room, they were being influenced to be distrustful of everyone but their housemates. Who had put the artifacts there was still a mystery for everyone, but the important thing is that now they were out of the school.

The new staff members were received very well by the students. The classes of History of Magic were now really teaching useful stuff and it was not anymore a disguised free period where one could nap or do the homework of other classes. Professors Horus and Hooch gym was a success. Initially, only members of the Quidditch House Teams were frequenting it when instigated by their captains. The gym was a much better training spot than the snow and cold wind of Scotland's winter, so they started to use the equipment in the gym to train with the help of the two Professors. They went there because their captains were nagging them for training, and ended up staying because of the ambient. Soon, students that were not part of the teams started to appear too. Most were curious about the gym. Their muggle-born and muggle-raised housemates had told them what the non-magical gyms were used for, so they went there out of curiosity. They exited the place with flyers in their hands, and most ended up coming back for some exercise. The flyers were an idea from Professor Horus. They described the relation that a strong and healthy body had with our body's magic, that healthier and fit people tended to have stronger magic. The flyers pointed some reference books too to the subject. The books were all new additions to the school's library made by Professor Horus.

Healer Watson too had become famous between the male populations of students. He was the one to talk to if you had some problem that was embarrassing to talk with a female Healer. The teachers had noticed that the male students were much more calm during the second semester.

But maybe the most important thing didn't come from inside the school. During the pre-easter meeting of the Wizangamot, Chief Warlock Albus Dumbledore had proposed the revision of the Anti-Rituals laws. He said that, after some heavy research on his part with the help of colleagues from the International Confederation of Wizardry, he had noticed that some rituals are not dark at all and they even prevented bad things from happening, and so the law needed revision. And so, with a huge support from all the factions inside the Wizengamot, a committee was put together to analyze books on rituals and choose the ones that were permitted to be made. A month later, the Wizengamot revised the law officially and altered it to allow a high number of Rituals to be made. Together with it, a list of rituals that were explicitly prohibited was released to the public too. If anyone wanted to make a ritual that was not listed in any of these two lists, they would have to contact the Ministry about it. This result was one that made both, traditionalists and progressives, happy inside the Wizengamot for once. With that, Erik already had plans to reintroduce an extra class that would have as an objective to introduce Ritualistic Magic to the students. The class would happen during the first weekends of the year and the participation would not be obligatory but heavily recommended to those students without a magical background.

Erik's attention was brought back to the present by the feeling of his hand being squeezed. He looked at it and saw the delicate hand of Selena, his first wife. Erik followed the hand up with his eyes until he met the eyes of a smiling Selena. He took in her smile and basked on it. His eyes inadvertently traveled down her body, more specifically to the small baby bump that was well hidden by her dark blue robes. She was pregnant. After a lot of tries, she got pregnant. Not that he was going to complain about the tryouts process, it was extremely pleasurable for both of them. And it was not only her. Of his seven wives, all of them were pregnant. The first one being Musashi, and the last one being Calypso. She had said that she had gotten pregnant last on purpose, explaining that this way her little boy or girl would have a lot of older brothers and sisters to protect him or her.

Erik smiled at Selena and took his hand from her hand and brought it to her belly. He then terderfully caressed it. Selena, seeing all the love that her husband was showing them, brought one of her hands down and put it over Erik's hand, and smiled bigger back at him. They stood just like that for some more moments before Erik, reluctantly, took his hand back and stood up from his seat. He then walked up the elevated platform where the staff's table was and stood there, waiting for the students to calm down. The students, like before, calmed down quickly and, soon, the Great Hall stood in silence, waiting for Erik to talk.

"One more school year has passed, and what a year this one has been. So much had happened but I remember like it was yesterday that I was called back to Hogwarts."

Erik spoke loudly, starting his speech to the students.

"I really hope that you all have learned something new during this year and that you will join us again next year to learn even more. The staff, my wives and I, would like to congratulate the graduating students and we wish you all a lot of success in this new stage of your lives."

Erik said again to the students.

"Now, I understand that it is a custom to announce the winner of the House Cup. And as so, I am proud to announce that this years' House Cup will be going to… Hufflepuff."

At that announcement, the badger's table exploded with celebration and giant banners with the house's shield appeared through the Great Hall, embellishing the place.

"Now, let's feast!"

Erik said again when the Hufflepuff's table calmed down and the feast started to appear on all tables. He then walked back to the table and joined his wives for the feast.

Two hours later, when everyone was well fed, Erik stood again and walked up to the elevated platform. The students were quicker to go silent this time.

"I hope that the feast was well liked by you all. Now, before we say our goodnights, I just have a last announcement to make. This one is only for the students that were graduating. When you go back to your rooms, you will find a gift from the school to you all. Some of the more prestigious schools around the world have the custom of gifting the graduating students with something special, and I would like to start this custom here too."

Erik said to the students of the Great Hall while smiling.

"Now, off you go to your beds. The train will depart early tomorrow. Have a good night."

Erik said to the population of the Great Hall, and a throng of students got up and started to leave it. He was then joined by his wives in the elevated platform in watching the Great Hall. After everyone was gone, leaving only them and some of the staff, Erik parted with his wives from the Great Hall to his chambers.

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Hogwarts Castle, Somewhere in the Scottish Highlands

June 26th, 1993, 9:24 AM - Saturday

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Erik was, together with other teachers, watching the students enter the school's new carriages. He had already renovated them when he saw the state that they were in before. It was then that a group of graduated students passed by him and thanked him for the gift.

"Thank you, Lord Ravenclaw."

The young man said and was chorused by his friends. He was wearing the gift right now. It was a heavily enchanted black jacket made of acromantula silk. The jacket had the school's shield together with the student's house's shield embroidered over its chest, one in each side of it, together with the graduating year that was, in this case '1992-93'. It had a hood attached to it too. The material for the cloth was, of course, 'kindly' provided by the acromantulas of the Forbidden Forest while his own acromantulas were still growing.

"You're welcome."

Erik replied to the ex-students, who started to walk again to embark in the next carriage.

"It was a wonderful gift, Lord Ravenclaw. And a custom that I very much want to see being kept."

Minerva McGonagall said to Erik.

"And a useful one too, Professor. If they go to the non-magical world wearing the jackets, they will not be out of place. Like I said yesternight, a lot of prestigious schools have their own jackets. The non-magicals would just take them as regular people that graduated."

Erik explained to the stern woman, who went silent again while watching the students leave. They stood there in silence while all students embarked the carriages that would take them to the train station. Some time after all the students had left the castle, they heard a train whistle far away. The Hogwarts' Express was departing. Erik and Professor McGonagall were the only ones left still watching in the distance.

"So, Headmistress, are you ready to take your new position?"

Erik suddenly asked the woman. He had offered her the job after having known her a little better. Selena had agreed with his choice too, and after some days of thinking and reading it fully the School's chart, Minerva McGonagall had accepted the position of Headmistress. She would have to pass on the position of Head of Gryffindor House, but with the new old system of three teachers she could continue to teach the NEWT classes of Transfiguration. After, she had until now taught seven entire years of student while still doing her job as a Deputy-Headmistress and being Head of house Gryffindor. Minerva McGonagall continued to look at the distance.

"I am."

She replied to him, full of resolution in her voice.

"Good. Enjoy your vacation then, Headmistress. We will meet again in two weeks to finish the last arrangements for the new school year."

Erik said to Headmistress McGonagall. He then walked inside the castle to meet with his wives that should all be up by now.

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