Harry stumbled backwards from the pensieve and collapsed onto the bed.
"Harry!" exclaimed Susan.
"Are you alright?" asked Sarah, coming to his side.
It took Harry a couple of moments to pull himself together enough to state "You really were telling the truth."
"Yes," agreed Sarah. "There are plenty more memories for you do view. Do you want to see them?"
Harry nodded his head.
Sarah looked up at one of the Healers who had been waving his wand over Harry as he caught his breath.
"You'd better take a few minutes to rest, Mr Potter," he stated. "Then you can view the next one."
Harry nodded again and swallowed thickly, not noticing that Sarah, Hannah and Susan were all crying tears of happiness.
"Just how many students are we talking about, Griselda?"
Professor Jennifer Winston was a talk yet kind looking woman of about forty five. Her black hair was pulled back in a ponytail and her robes were a dark maroon colour with a golden trim, coincidentally and rather unintentionally, almost mirroring the chosen colour scheme of Gryffindor House at Hogwarts.
"Three hundred and nineteen," replied Griselda. "Numbers have been down since the end of the last war but have been picking up in the last few years."
"Yes, we did note Hogwarts dropping its tuition fees slightly in order to lure in a few more Muggleborns each year," commented Professor Winston. "And don't think that we haven't noted the drop in the number of Weasleys either. Seven children in total for Arthur, wasn't it?"
"I believe so, yes."
"And yet not one of them came here. Their cousins did, but somehow Arthur can afford to send seven children to Hogwarts."
"Well he did marry into the Prewitt family…" began Griselda, who did not yet know of Dumbledore's involvement in the Weasley's education.
Professor Winston eyed the older woman carefully for a moment before continuing. "Despite the downturn in numbers, three hundred and nineteen students are a lot to accommodate, even for a non-boarding school. What assistance will we get from the Ministry in this?"
"What sort of help would you require?"
"More teachers would be a start."
"Well we should be able to help you there. While Hogwarts is closed, its Professors for Astronomy, Arithmancy and Ancient Runes will all be needing employment. We will, of course, pay their salary using Hogwarts' funds."
"I'm afraid that we do not offer any of those three subjects here," said Professor Winston. "As I already mentioned, we are not a boarding school, meaning that the students return home every night. That rules out Astronomy. Arithmancy and Ancient Runes were both dropped from our syllabus several decades ago due to lack of interest."
"But there are Hogwarts students who are taking those studies," said Madam Marchbanks. "Surely arrangements can be made so that their education in those subjects is not too badly affected."
Professor Winston considered this for a few moments before nodding her head. "I'll see what I can do about finding space for Arithmancy and Ancient Runes. A night time class like Astronomy may be too difficult to include unless your Professor is prepared to simply teach theory for the duration of their stay here."
"I will speak with her," Madam Marchbanks assured her. "As for additional help, I'm sure that we can come to some financial agreement, and I'm certain that we can count on Hogwarts' Head Boy and Girl, along with the Prefects to assist in making the move as smooth a transition as possible."
"Very well. We will, of course, require some time to get ready. Give us a fortnight to prepare things, and then we'll have the Hogwarts Prefects come by for a few days to get used to the place before everyone else arrives."
"Excellent. Thank you," said Madam Marchbanks. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a few parents to write to."
"If you could send our receptionist a list of those parents we will send out a copy of our school syllabus so that they can make an informed decision. I understand how you would ideally like for all of those students to come here and remain together, but I'll not have students here who quite clearly do not want to be. And I'll be contacting you regarding our financial reimbursement."
"Of course. I don't suppose that I could take a copy of that syllabus for myself, could I?
Professor Winston opened a drawer on her desk and pulled out a twenty page booklet. A quick flick through showed photographs and text detailing the day-to-day lives of the school, a guide to each subject and a who's who for each member of staff.
Madam Marchbanks made sure to make a mental note of that too.
The Healer stowed his wand away and turned to the others in the room. Harry had only viewed five memories before becoming too exhausted to go on. Of course, given the varying lengths of the memories in question he had actually taken in a huge amount of information.
That, coupled with the fact that there was still so much that he did not know, accompanied by the shock of what had been done to him at Hogwarts had led to a highly emotional afternoon for the Boy-Who-Lived. He had wanted to continue on, but everyone else, with the urging of the Healers, had convinced him that he needed to rest for a while.
He had fallen asleep the moment his head touched the pillow.
The Healers had taken the opportunity to examine Harry's mind in order to see how well things were going.
"Well, so far there is no sign that the Obliviation is being undone," concluded the Healer. "However he is managing to build up a mental picture in his mind regarding the order of various events. The memories that you have supplied are by no means perfect fits, but they are helping him."
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief at that.
"Thank Merlin," muttered Hannah.
The Healer continued "Needless to say, you three are not the only ones to have interacted with Mr Potter during the past few weeks. If you could, write to everyone that you can think of and urge them to come to the Hospital as soon as they can.
"I'll go home and talk to Auntie Amelia," said Susan. "She'll have more than a few memories to add, and so will Mr Greengrass."
"I'll write to Padma Patil," said Hannah. "Harry will want to remember his date with her!"
.....
Can't wait to read more exciting chapters then what are you waiting for Join my p*atreon right now.
Get 60+ Premium chapters.
Link: p*atreon.com/Earthly_Writer (Remove the *)
2 Chapters for all free members.