Harry expected fireworks at the staff meeting that afternoon and wasn't disappointed, Minerva's volatile disclosure caused eruptions amongst everyone but an atomic explosion measured in kilotons had Dan Granger as it's delivery system.
"You mean to tell me that not only was my daughter receiving a sub-standard education but we were being vastly overcharged to subsidise some red headed pureblood so the bastard could brew a potion to have his way with my girl."
Dan stormed from the room and Emma was about to follow when Hermione put her hand on her mum's arm, "I'll go mum."
She found her father standing gazing out over the bay, He didn't turn round as he spoke to her, "I'm sorry princess, it's not about the money. Your mother and I wanted the best for you and thought Hogwarts was it. Instead we find that you never had a chance, that the dice were loaded from day one and even your life was put in danger. I'm beginning to understand why Harry was so angry about being lied to, parents are being asked to make decisions beyond their knowledge and the few facts they are given are lies. I'm finding it hard to look Minerva in the eye at the moment."
Hermione hugged her father from behind and could feel the tension start to leave his body, "if I hadn't attended Hogwarts I would never have met my Harry and I'll never be able to thank you enough for that. As to the rest just try what Harry and I do, don't waste your energy getting angry – use it to get even!"
Dan turned and held his daughter, "I'm sorry I failed you as a father, when I heard you say you nearly didn't come back it almost ripped the heart out of me. You have been loved since the day you were born and it wasn't your fault that I could never show it, that young man who loves you more than life itself should prove that."
Hermione kissed his cheek, "This is our second chance dad and you can be the best grandfather in the world, our children will have a couple of crazy uncles but only one granddad."
Dan gave her a shocked look but Hermione continued, "that's the only reason we came back, I hope to have our first child before I'm eighteen."
"Well if we can agree that you wait until you're at least seventeen to give me time to get used to the idea I'm happy for you," laughed Dan, "now I'm assuming that you and your other half have a plan to deal with these bastards robbing parents blind." Hermione's smile gave him all the answer he needed.
Back at the meeting three former Hogwarts heads of house were joining the dots to form the picture of why there were no Weasleys in the Institute and Dan wanted to kill at least one of them, glances in Harry's direction brought confirmation.
"We made the discovery while they were still at the planning stage otherwise there would have been a body count." Harry got a slight nod from Poppy and continued, "Ginny wasn't directly involved but she's a smart girl and probably had her suspicions."
Another nod from Poppy delighted Harry, this was not because they were proved correct but that Ginny had someone she could confide in. if Poppy Pomfrey couldn't keep Ginny on the straight and narrow then no one could.
Minerva, Pomona and Filius were more convinced than ever they had made the right decision to come here, that these two had pulled out all the stops to help Ginny after what her family was going to attempt spoke volumes for the character of their new employers.
Harry comforted Emma, "it's ok, they're having a father and daughter chat."
She gave Harry a peck on the cheek, "I can feel him calming down already."
Father and daughter re-entered arm in arm and took their seats as Harry began speaking, "I came up with the name of the Institute as a joke but we have now discovered the purebloods have been taking the piss for years. Muggle borns are not only charged extra for board and tuition at Hogwarts but every single item they buy in Diagon Alley as well,"
This seemed to be news to everyone there so Harry continued, "when the Grangers enter into magical world the first thing they need to do is exchange money, being charged commission for the privilege. Paying for robes in Madam Malkin's using my ring got me a twenty percent discount yet in the magical shops of Naples they accepted Euros, Galleons, my ring and even credit cards with the same price being accepted for all. As you can probably work out purebloods are paying about a quarter less than muggle borns for everything in the entire alley."
Dan was barely controlling his temper, "please tell me you have a plan."
Hermione took over, "it's been made abundantly clear to me that muggle borns aren't wanted in Britain so we propose to bring them all here and make sure they don't spend a Knut in magical Britain. We will be targeting these students, telling their parents the truth and offering them an alternative."
Minerva flinched, "that would bring Hogwarts financially to its knees in no time."
"The purebloods want everyone who isn't one to leave, I'm proposing we show them the consequences of that, bearing in mind sixteen students left that Monday morning and twelve abandoned children of death eaters will be going to Salem. What would be the impact if we took another thirty or so of the highest paying students from first and second year."
They all recognised Minerva as the expert and awaited her answer, "Albus has no idea how to balance the books, and removing over fifty students would have a very serious impact. If some of them were in the top fee bracket they would run out of money to pay salaries by the New Year."
Pomona added, "I think we also must take into consideration the boy-who-lived has very publicly quit Hogwarts as well as the senior staff and the amount of students who left with him. If I was a parent I would be asking serious questions as well as looking for alternatives."
Harry nodded at the sense behind this statement and offered to clarify their position, "We are not banning purebloods from attending the institute as not everyone buys into the dogma, our best friends for instance but the bigotry preached by most will not gain a foothold here. Bigotry of any kind will not be tolerated."
Filius actually asked a question that concerned a few of them, "what will become of Hogwarts?"
It was Hermione who answered, "Hogwarts is an idea more than a building, it's the idea that all magical children deserve the right to a magical education irregardless of blood status. Hogwarts is dieing but if it ever got so bad we would purchase the castle and maintain the building for the day when the founder's ideas could once again prevail allowing their school to reopen. The purebloods would have to find an alternative as being uneducated combined with inbreeding is not a recipe that's going to produce the next Merlin."
Harry handed Minerva and Pomona two folders, "the blue one is the Institute start up account, this is for purchasing major equipment, supplies and furniture that we need to get the place up and running." Both women baulked at the number of galleons in this account and the trust that was being placed in them.
"The yellow one is for running costs, you will see a list of supplies each pupil will have provided and their board and tuition cost are set."
Minerva couldn't hold back any longer, "Harry this is going to cost a fortune! This is way more than Hogwarts provides and cheaper than the purebloods pay."
"We're restricted by the size of the Institute as you know and are limited to sixteen students per year group, this means our numbers will be a maximum of sixty four students come September. Are the totals at the top of the ledgers insufficient for these numbers?" Hermione asked.
"No I think they're more than adequate but we could charge a lot more."
Harry answered his former head of house, "we're using 'donations' to subsidise these children's magical education. Considering the origin of these 'donations' we can't think of a better use for it."
Remus just couldn't hold his laughter with the thought of Malfoy's millions being used to pay for muggles magical education, it was a prank worthy of a marauder.
"Now you have the details we can get letters out to our students right away and invitations to potential students who can meet us in London on Saturday. We'll arrange to hire a function room at a hotel and anyone interested can visit the Institute the following weekend. We have some business that needs taking care of in Britain and hope to complete it the same weekend. With a bit of luck we might even be able to free up most of August." The way Harry looked at his bride to be left no doubt why he wanted to free up the time.
Pomona had to ask just to be sure, "Harry do you really want us to have control over that much money? Don't you want to be consulted?"
"The cheques need both you and Minerva to sign them with the upper limit set at fifty thousand galleons, anything over that amount has to be countersigned by Hermione or myself. We are making a political statement here but that doesn't mean this is a short term measure, we want our own children to attend the Institute so it has to be the best there is." Harry was well aware these people had years of experience running a school, he was just providing death eater gold so the job could be done properly.
Everyone now had loads to do and the Grangers were actually looking forward to spending the weekend at their own home, with Harry and Hermione staying and both of them armed with automatic pistols in invisible holsters they should be safe.
....
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