RP: A Woman's Castle
Date: 31 August 1998
Characters: Minerva McGonagall, Bill Weasley
Location: Hogwarts
Status: Public
Summary: Minvera surveys the castle.
Completion: Complete
Minerva greeted the security guard at the gate of the school and spent a few minutes speaking with Lou, the short, jolly fellow with a baby face whom she'd hired to cover the morning shift. She hadn't particularly liked having to hire security, however she was far less comfortable letting people come and go as they pleased once the students were in residence as she was when the castle held only volunteers. With the N.E.W.T. Prep students needing to enter and leave the grounds, posting a guard simply made the most sense, otherwise Filch and Hagrid would never get anything else done.
After assuring herself that the grounds were secure, Minerva made her way back up to the castle. Her two day holiday with her sister Fortuna left Minerva happy to be back home. It had become a ritual for her the last week before school began to take some time to visit with the only family Minerva had left. Fortuna was her youngest sister -- a silly tea leaf reading, crystal ball gazing, flighty old spinster -- that Minerva forebear more for the sake of family than anything else. After a couple of days with Fortuna, Minerva always itched to return to the castle and even looked forward to the more isolated existence of the school term.
A change of robes and quiet cup of tea later, Minerva was ready to begin her final inspection of the castle to assure herself that all was in order before the students arrived tomorrow. She was not delusional. Minerva understood that it would be a difficult year for many of them. The youngest students especially had been particularly traumatized by the Carrows. She couldn't imagine the horror last year's first and second years felt being locked in a broom cupboard with a boggart for punishment and having no training on how to vanquish it. All her students had all exhibited their own unique brands of bravery over the past year. The challenge would be making them see that for themselves and keeping them from becoming bitter over the choices other people made that were different from their own.
Thankfully, the only student Minerva would not have been willing to let back on grounds had been lost during the battle. The light in Vincent Crabbe's eyes when he would see students walking around with injuries or bruises was truly disturbing. He had relished it. In a sea full of somber faces, with only an occasional defiant one tossed in, what really stood out was Crabbe's shining, happy face at the misery of others. Minerva might not have approved of Pansy Parkinson's attempt to rally students to restrain Harry Potter, but she understood it. Vincent Crabbe, on the other hand, had been horrifying. He did what he did not in an attempt to survive, as Miss Parkinson had done, but because he enjoyed the suffering of others. Both seeing it and causing.
The two counselors from St. Mungo's that would be working here this year to help the students had been quite helpful during their talk with the staff last week regarding things the professors should be on the look out for among the students. Minerva made a mental note to make sure that she informed the N.E.W.T. Prep students of the availability of counselors to speak with them as well if they wished.
Minerva returned to the ground floor and stood staring at the hour glasses. She and Filius had spent many hours over the years discussing Albus' idiotic biased awarding of points and Severus' occasionally irritatingly uneven handling. They'd even gone so far one evening when well into their cups to work out how to stop them. While the drunken ramblings had not been implemented then, it had given them both a basis to work from as they crafted the protections on the repaired hourglasses. They had quietly tested the new spells but Minerva wanted to make sure that they were still working.
"Five points to Hufflepuff for applying a clever consequence to an unintentional slight," the gems fell. "75 points to Gryffindor for tying your shoes," there was no change to the rubies and Minerva smiled. "10 points to Slytherin for an orderly evacuation of the castle," the emeralds dropped. "30 points to Ravenclaw for correctly answering the eagle's question," the sapphires shook for a moment, but remained where they were. Minerva waved her wand and cast the spells to reset the lot. She had one more thing to try.
"1 point to each student volunteer for every hour spent working on the castle since May 20th," the gems certainly told an interesting story. It appeared that Misters Zabini, Nott and Goyle had been even busier than she originally thought or they had help she was unaware of. Fortunately, part of the spells on the hour glasses recorded every point given and taken in detail. It would be interesting to see exactly where all those yellow diamonds, blue sapphires, red rubies, and especially lovely green emeralds, came from.
Characters: Minerva McGonagall, Bill Weasley
Location: Hogwarts
Status: Public
Summary: Minvera surveys the castle.
Completion: Complete
Minerva greeted the security guard at the gate of the school and spent a few minutes speaking with Lou, the short, jolly fellow with a baby face whom she'd hired to cover the morning shift. She hadn't particularly liked having to hire security, however she was far less comfortable letting people come and go as they pleased once the students were in residence as she was when the castle held only volunteers. With the N.E.W.T. Prep students needing to enter and leave the grounds, posting a guard simply made the most sense, otherwise Filch and Hagrid would never get anything else done.
After assuring herself that the grounds were secure, Minerva made her way back up to the castle. Her two day holiday with her sister Fortuna left Minerva happy to be back home. It had become a ritual for her the last week before school began to take some time to visit with the only family Minerva had left. Fortuna was her youngest sister -- a silly tea leaf reading, crystal ball gazing, flighty old spinster -- that Minerva forebear more for the sake of family than anything else. After a couple of days with Fortuna, Minerva always itched to return to the castle and even looked forward to the more isolated existence of the school term.
A change of robes and quiet cup of tea later, Minerva was ready to begin her final inspection of the castle to assure herself that all was in order before the students arrived tomorrow. She was not delusional. Minerva understood that it would be a difficult year for many of them. The youngest students especially had been particularly traumatized by the Carrows. She couldn't imagine the horror last year's first and second years felt being locked in a broom cupboard with a boggart for punishment and having no training on how to vanquish it. All her students had all exhibited their own unique brands of bravery over the past year. The challenge would be making them see that for themselves and keeping them from becoming bitter over the choices other people made that were different from their own.
Thankfully, the only student Minerva would not have been willing to let back on grounds had been lost during the battle. The light in Vincent Crabbe's eyes when he would see students walking around with injuries or bruises was truly disturbing. He had relished it. In a sea full of somber faces, with only an occasional defiant one tossed in, what really stood out was Crabbe's shining, happy face at the misery of others. Minerva might not have approved of Pansy Parkinson's attempt to rally students to restrain Harry Potter, but she understood it. Vincent Crabbe, on the other hand, had been horrifying. He did what he did not in an attempt to survive, as Miss Parkinson had done, but because he enjoyed the suffering of others. Both seeing it and causing.
The two counselors from St. Mungo's that would be working here this year to help the students had been quite helpful during their talk with the staff last week regarding things the professors should be on the look out for among the students. Minerva made a mental note to make sure that she informed the N.E.W.T. Prep students of the availability of counselors to speak with them as well if they wished.
Minerva returned to the ground floor and stood staring at the hour glasses. She and Filius had spent many hours over the years discussing Albus' idiotic biased awarding of points and Severus' occasionally irritatingly uneven handling. They'd even gone so far one evening when well into their cups to work out how to stop them. While the drunken ramblings had not been implemented then, it had given them both a basis to work from as they crafted the protections on the repaired hourglasses. They had quietly tested the new spells but Minerva wanted to make sure that they were still working.
"Five points to Hufflepuff for applying a clever consequence to an unintentional slight," the gems fell. "75 points to Gryffindor for tying your shoes," there was no change to the rubies and Minerva smiled. "10 points to Slytherin for an orderly evacuation of the castle," the emeralds dropped. "30 points to Ravenclaw for correctly answering the eagle's question," the sapphires shook for a moment, but remained where they were. Minerva waved her wand and cast the spells to reset the lot. She had one more thing to try.
"1 point to each student volunteer for every hour spent working on the castle since May 20th," the gems certainly told an interesting story. It appeared that Misters Zabini, Nott and Goyle had been even busier than she originally thought or they had help she was unaware of. Fortunately, part of the spells on the hour glasses recorded every point given and taken in detail. It would be interesting to see exactly where all those yellow diamonds, blue sapphires, red rubies, and especially lovely green emeralds, came from.