Chapter 84
Lucius Malfoy paused as he reached the office door. He was visiting Hogwarts to talk to Dumbledore about the next year; the Governors had come to another defer-to-Dumbledore decision, and he was- again- the spokesman for the Board.
And of course, when he had sent Dumbledore a letter to request an audience with him and Hailey both at once… Dumbledore had told him to come meet him in Hailey’s office.
Her list of titles was quite impressive, he had to admit. She was the Head Student Instructor for Defense Against the Dark Arts, the Student Instructor Program Management Team Lead, and the second-in-command of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement!
He sighed. There were two lines on that plaque, placed between each of the titles he could read as if they were more titles, just written in a different language. And of course, as he looked at it, he realized they couldn’t both be the same language either- the styling was different.
Whelp. If the girl had five titles, then so be it. It would certainly explain her behavior during Silver’s birthday party the year before, and her ridiculous successes. He still found himself hoping that she was okay with having so many titles, and that she wasn’t losing out on her childhood because of them.
He raised his hand, and knocked.
“Come in,” a voice called. Hailey’s voice, he realized- it wasn’t one he recognized too quickly, having only ever heard it during Silver’s birthday party, but he did recognize it.
So he turned the handle and let himself in with a small bow. Even with just the titles that he could read, she was an incredibly powerful girl… and not quite fifteen years old. Her birthday was three days after Silver’s, which was still a week away.
He paused, mid-bow, as his eyes picked out an Order of Merlin, First Class framed on the wall behind the vacant desk. Next to it was a plaque declaring her to be a member of the Dark Force Defense League… and next to that was another one, declaring membership in the Order of the Phoenix, even though that was supposed to be a secret organization.
… She was fifteen. No, not quite fifteen. What on earth had she done to earn all that at such a young age?
The desk, however, was unoccupied.
“I’m glad you could join us, Lucius.”
He looked.
It was Hailey. Her office was huge, and evidently complex- so of course, in an alcove off to the side, she had set four comfortable-looking armchairs around a circular table. She was seated in the one across the table from the entrance- and as he watched, she started pouring tea into four identical teacups.
The chair to her right was filled by a second black-haired girl. She was younger, and her hair was much curlier- but, he realized, he recognized her too. That was Sadarina, the little girl that had accompanied her everywhere at Draco’s birthday party.
The chair to Hailey’s left, on the other hand, held Albus Dumbledore.
He nodded gently, approaching. “Do you really have that many titles?” he asked, gesturing back towards the door.
She nodded. “Yes. Every single one of them was earned fair and square, and comes with its own responsibilities.” She sighed, and leaned back in her seat. “Even the two you can’t read.”
He froze. “You… You know I can’t read them?”
She nodded. “I know exactly who can read each one,” she answered simply. “If you’re wondering about the medals and plaques behind my desk, I got every single one of them at the end of the Triwizard Tournament last year, after holding Junior accountable. I’m still not sure how I earned the Order of Merlin, but Fudge said I should’ve already had it.” She shrugged.
Dumbledore chuckled at his dumbfounded look. “Don’t bother asking what those other titles are, she won’t tell you.”
“Of course not,” Hailey agreed. “They’re both… a little bit ridiculous. But anyways, you requested an audience with us?” She gestured towards the empty armchair.
He accepted it slowly, at least a little bit stunned by the extremely casual atmosphere she- and her office- projected. “Yes,” he muttered, then took a deep breath. “Well. Over at the Board of Governors, we’ve received word that someone in the Ministry is using their influence to try and force their way into Hogwarts, but we don’t know who.”
“Delores Umbridge, a Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts with a teaching style even worse than Snape’s was before the Student Instructor Program helped him improve and with no willingness to improve, is going to be a headache this year,” Hailey told them.
“That woman?” Lucius asked incredulously- nobody talked about it openly, but behind closed doors, Delores Umbridge was one of the most self-obsessed and infuriating Ministry members… and she had a very powerful family, making it basically impossible to get rid of her. “Hangon, how do you know who it is?”
She shrugged. “I happen to know some of the most powerful Seers in the history of Earth and Equestria combined,” she told him. “But of course, I was digging around in the Records Department last night, and uncovered the perfect weapon to use against her.”
A third girl suddenly stepped up to the table next to Lucius, and placed what looked like a document on it, next to his tea. He glanced up… and it was Hailey.
“What the-?” he gasped.
“It’s a construct,” Dumbledore smiled.
“It’s not a construct,” Hailey corrected- both Haileys.
“Not…?”
“Of course not,” the one with the document answered. “I’m a visiting goddess that just happens to look like your Hailey. And go by the same name.” She chuckled. “I even have my own Sadarina.”
Dumbledore blinked. “So why…?”
“Why am I here? Because your Hailey has done something very interesting… which isn’t mine to tell you about.”
Lucius raised an eyebrow.
She shrugged. “What? With great power comes great responsibility, you know.”
The seated Hailey chuckled. “Though it is true, I use a multitude of constructs to meet all my responsibilities- though I understand my Divine friend here does not, instead preferring to be in as many places as she needs to be, all at once. Something she can do, but which I cannot.”
“That’s a copy of the original charter that established Hogwarts as a Ministry-funded school,” the Divine Hailey told him, sitting down in a fifth chair and picking up a fifth teacup, both of which he could swear hadn’t been there a moment before. “It specifically delineates the power of the Ministry and of the Governors- and you might be interested to know that, in matters internal to the School, the desire of the Governors overrides that of the Ministry. Well, unless they get the charter annulled by seventy-five percent majority in the Wizengamot, or simply by agreement of all the governors and the Minister of Magic himself. In either event, Hogwarts would merely become a privately owned organization that the Ministry has no say over thanks to the Private Industry Act of Seventeen Eighteen, and likely be required to charge tuition to stay afloat.”
“The Private Industry Act?” he asked.
The non-Divine Hailey nodded. “Hogwarts doesn’t hold a monopoly on education, so none of the antitrust and monopoly-busting laws would come into play, and the Private Industry Act protects against everything else.” She sighed. “I swear, Ministry politicians didn’t have a clue how to play politician back then, so it’s so poorly worded it works as a catch-all.”
“Yet this document…?”
“Rowena Ravenclaw is one of the signers,” she told him, pointing at the bottom of the document. “She’s under a different name, but she was the author of the document the Ministry approved- and she also happens to be a goddess of wisdom, and a Professor at the school even now. I daresay she knew how to play politician, and also how to guard against people that want to manipulate a vaguely-worded document for their own nefarious ends.”
“... Oh,” he muttered. “That… That certainly puts a lot of power in our hands.” He sighed. “And speaking of power…” He drew a scroll from the inside of his cloak. “The Governors discussed at length, and decided that, if you two are okay with it, the Student Instructor Program Management Team Lead… ought to have broad authority within the school and outside of the Student Instructor Program to match that within the program, up to and including the hiring and dismissal of Professors.” He held it out for Dumbledore, who examined it calmly.
“You would make her the next best thing to Headmaster,” the Divine Hailey observed, her amusement evident in her tone.
Dumbledore chuckled softly as he read the scroll, then handed it to the less-Divine Hailey. “What do you think?”
The girl hardly glanced at it. “I think it’s signed in blood,” she answered. “I also notice that this suggests that the Team Lead should be selected by the Headmaster, which the current structure of the position will not allow.” She glanced up. “Simply put, the Student Instructor Program is far larger than it appears to be. We have certain… resources beyond the walls of Hogwarts, that you might hear me referring to as our ‘support team’ or the like from time to time. Thing is, they’re actually top secret.
“I have access to them, permission to know about them, and whatever else, because of one of the coded titles.” She paused. “Both of them, actually, but that’s beside the point. On the other hand, some kid that some future Headmaster assigned to the slot would not have that access, and would not be able to properly discharge the duties therein. As such, the Program would lose some of its most crucial support structures, and the entire reporting and accountability system we’ve got right now would crumble in a matter of days, reducing the Program to little more than coordinated self-study.” She sighed. “The Hogwarts Student Instructor Program is, for better or worse, an Equestrian program, rather than a part of the School at all. As such, our primary oversight is actually the Royal Princesses of Equestria, rather than the Headmaster or the Governors- the school-wide authorities granted to it by the latter two notwithstanding.” She placed the scroll on the table. “As such, unfortunately, this order is impossible, as written.”
Lucius took a deep breath and let it out. “Yet… The Hogwarts Student Instructor Program…?”
“The primary goal of the Program is to help the school year go smoothly despite the numbers of students. To this end, our policy is to keep the Headmaster ‘in the loop’ at every step along the way, whenever possible, to help the school better work with us, and help make the educational experience as smooth and effective as possible. We also first received permission to form within the School directly from the Headmaster- and as it stands, even though the Governors have granted further powers to the Program beyond those initially granted by the Headmaster, the Program still exists by the authority of the Headmaster.” She glanced at the document. “An order such as this would grant the Program the official support of the School, such that even if the Program were dissolved by the Equestrian authorities, it may continue to exist within the School, albeit at much diminished capacity due to the loss of the Equestrian resources.”
He nodded slowly. “Well, the Board has already unanimously agreed to put our support behind the Hogwarts Student Instructor Program- we just, ahh, don’t particularly want to grant that level of power over the School without at least some oversight. But if we’d have to negotiate with a Princess…” He sighed.
“I have been granted broad authority to represent the Equestrian Royalty in these matters,” the local Hailey told him calmly, her expression nondescript- though her Divine friend was wearing an expression of the utmost amusement. “The Board need only negotiate with me.”
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Groups of three, out of four at a time, over a field, for some reason I keep thinking its not 4 million, but closer to Grahms cracker.
Your math of 4milion is off by a few orders of magnitude. Every group of 4 generate 5 request. With one million students there are 41666500000000 unique groups of 4
Now let's talk about groups of 5......
11655799
But there wouldn't necessarily be a request for every possible group of 4 or 5 or whatever, only the ones that might actually study together...
well each student generates a request for each of their classes and 7 classes assuming they aren't like Hermione taking ever class possible and not everyone will submit requests as studying is something they like to avoid like the plague. There easily could be over 7Million requests
11655998
first of all, for malicious compliance, everyone who will send a request will send as many as possible. ( that is how it works. ) even the original 10 from Harry's year can generate almost 1000 requests for every possible combination. ( and you can bet that Hermine will find a spell to write it easily, this is her type of protest. and if not a set of twins that likes a joke is very willing to help )
and we know that the toad lady will anger a lot of people. and this is a good way to vent some of that anger.
at this point, if you sit with a partner in the library and have a third join the table a request will be sent.
pony's doing this in groups of 10 is a low number. ( they are very social )
and mingling between years and houses is an option.
as a note with 11 people, you generate 2475 combinations. there are some exponential growths in there.
I desperately want to see Umbridge getting owned by Hailey and have a recreation of this incorrect quote
Great chapter, can't wait for the closing ones before on to the next installment
11656125
Yup, that was the idea for those "plans". I just never fully fleshed them out.
11656375
Alright, fair enough. My writing does that too sometimes. But you are a good writer, don't forget that!
Hailey must broke something akin to the 4th Wall there. Otherwise, how could both her local self and divine self both present at the same time?
11656789
... Sorta. Her "divine self" is actually a visit from Hailey from TGwDJL, another of my stories in which she happens to be an insanely powerful goddess... So sorta fourth wall, sorta just multiverse.