"They learned that the size and quality of the crystal determines how good a picture they get on the mirror. The cheap, little crystal they used gave a blurry image. Our crystals are larger and of good quality so we get good images on the mirrors. Plus, the crystals take images from all directions around it and above and below it. Even if you're not seeing it on the mirror you can go back later and see the rest of what was picked up by the crystal." Harry's friends looked impressed with the abilities of the new mirrors.
"How do you control what images people are going to see during the challenge?" Ernie asked. Harry grinned.
"That we stole from the telly. We took over an unused classroom and turned it into a control room. It's entirely staffed with house elves. They are acting as the directors and stuff to control what is seen on the mirrors. Then the images of course are captured by our very own elven flying corp."
Hermione looked indignant over the use of house elves. Harry caught her expression and added, "All the elves are volunteers. They've been having fun and we promised them they could keep the brooms when we were done. You should have seen their faces." Ron and Ernie smiled at the mention of the elves and the brooms.
"Do they all fly like Dobby?" Ron asked.
Harry snickered. "Padfoot wants to create a house elf Quidditch league. Moony yelled at him for it but he just keeps talking about. The elves got excited about the idea. It's a little scary to see Sirius being followed around by a small horde of excited elves. I think they were feeding ideas off each other."
The others laughed while Ron just shook his head. Harry asked him what the problem was.
"England just managed to survive the Dark Lord, I'm not sure we'd survive a Prank Lord with an army of house elves at his command." The other stopped laughing as they considered Ron's comment.
Ernie gestured towards Ron with his bottle of butterbeer and said, "Bloke's got a point."
Harry made a waving off gesture as he leaned back into his couch with an evil grin. "Ah, it's far worse than that." Harry turned and made eye contact with Ron. "You know that prank shop your brothers have always dreamed of opening?" Ron nodded warily. Harry's grin grew wider.
"A couple of days ago they were telling Sirius and Remus about their plans. Padfoot decided to become their financial backer. So now the Marauders and the Weasley twins are business partners."
Harry chuckled at the scared looks on his friends' faces at that concept. It would make life interesting to say the least.
....
20 May 1995
It was the last Hogsmeade weekend of the school year. An early spring had come to Hogwarts. It had rained much of April and early May but had been dry for the past several days. This gave the students a beautiful warm weekend surrounded by the new green foliage. It was not an opportunity any of the students were likely to waste.
Harry and his friends had broken into the respective couples to enjoy the magical village. On the advice of Remus, Harry took Padma to a small restaurant that was outside the area the students normally visited. They had a nice lunch together and Harry mostly listened as Padma discussed her plans to become a Healer after leaving Hogwarts. She was particularly interested in the growing field of combining magical healing with new advanced Muggle surgical techniques.
"Yes, we do have a potion that can remove an infected appendix, but it takes 24 hours for the potion to completely work and it's rather messy for the next two days as the body expels what's left of the appendix. Muggles can now make a small incision, take out the appendix, stitch it back up and have you home the next day. If we could do the removal and then give a general healing potion you would be able to leave in the same hour!"
For Harry's part, he simply enjoyed the lunch and nodded in the appropriate place. He liked Padma's enthusiasm but he could do with a little less detail. He spent enough time in the hospital wing for his own injuries without having to know all the details. But it made Padma happy so he was willing to deal with it.
After lunch the young couple roamed around the village for a bit before heading to the Three Broomsticks to meet their friends. As they approached their meeting place they saw a small crowd gathered just outside. They heard a familiar voice yelling from inside the crowd. They quickly made their way through the crowd. Standing in the opening in the centre of the crowd was Hermione with Ernie standing behind her with his wand at the ready. The witch was confronting Draco Malfoy and his bookends.
"Let me ask you a question, Malfoy. What percentage of the Hogwarts students is Muggleborn?"
Malfoy sneered at the question. "Why would I want to count vermin?" Snickers were heard from the surrounding Slytherins.
"It's about 30 per cent; half-bloods makeup about 45 per cent with the rest being purebloods. When Voldemort started the first war, Muggleborn only made up 20 per cent of the Hogwarts students. Do you know why that per cent changed?"
"Obviously, the Dark Lord missed a few and you breed like the vermin you are. I guess we need to do some housecleaning again. "
Hermione ignored Draco's comment. "In absolute numbers we have one more Muggle-born in Hogwarts today than we did when Voldemort started his attacks. So if our numbers stayed the same but a percentage went up what does that mean? I'll tell you what it means; it means the number of purebloods is what went down. How many old pureblood families died or are down to only a few members left? The Potters, the Bones, the Blacks, the Longbottoms, the Crouches, the McKinnons, the Wilkes, the Prewetts; all of them are gone or down to one or two family members. Then you have the families where all the child-bearing age members in in Azkaban- not that that is any great loss. At the rate the Death Eaters were going there would be no one left in the magical world that was a Pureblood. Today, the average Pureblood family has 1.4 children - even less if you take out the Weasleys. That means you Purebloods aren't even reproducing your own numbers let alone making up for those lost on both sides in your Master's war. Meanwhile, new Muggle-born are born every year at the same rate as before the war. And every new Hogwart's class is left with have fewer Purebloods."
.....
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