After the first couple of days, they took Harry to the old classroom and proudly showed him what they were doing. Inside, he saw about a dozen students from the various houses diligently working away. He was stunned by the amount of activity going on. Daphne introduced him to a pair of senior year Slytherins and a Ravenclaw, who were carefully scanning each and every item for malicious traps, enchantments and the like. That was all being set aside, unopened, into a set of what looked like plastic tubs.
The 'enchantment checkers' were then passing on the clean mail to a pair of younger years - two Hufflepuffs - who were opening each item and cataloguing each into a pair of ledgers. They were sorting the mail into suspected age groups of the sender for suitable responses. They also had a large bin with anti-odour shields around it that was being filled by rotting perishables and the like.
The mail was then passed on to the next station where four students - two Ravenclaws a Hufflepuff and a Gryffindor were organising and writing responses using Muffliato charms and dicta-quills.
The mail then went to the next station where the responses were checked and the non-perishable gifts were separated out. The gifts went to a young Slytherin who was making decisions as to what to do with them, while the responses went to a pair of Gryffindors. The Gryffindors then organised the responses into what to send and when.
Being led from station to station, his two bondmates described to him what was happening; and introduced Harry to each and every one of those working. When he was finished they showed him the various gifts, where they were being stacked onto a separate set of shelving, plus all the formal documents that had been sorted out, separately.
"This is..." he tried. "Wow!" Looking to his bondmates, full of emotion, he said, "Thank you. Thank you, both, very much."
That earned him a double-hug and kisses to his cheeks.
The girls led him over to a table where a stack of letters was sitting in an 'In' tray with an empty 'Out' tray sitting alongside it.
"This stack represents all the letters where a gift was sent that requires you to actually sign the response in your own hand," showed Hermione.
With a frown, Harry asked, "There are letters being sent out that I'm not signing?"
"Yes," she replied. "There's so much there's no way you can possibly just sign everything, let alone actually write the actual letters. So, instead, letters are being written that are not signed. Instead, the name 'Harry' is simply being written at the bottom on your behalf."
Taking another look at the racks loaded with mail, Harry sighed and said, "You're right. I couldn't possibly even just sign each and every letter. I'd still be at it for far too long."
With a look of relief, Hermione accepted the statement, happy Harry hadn't needed to be fought over it.
"Whose owls are we using?" he suddenly asked.
"They're hired," replied Daphne. "There's a service you can contract owls from to take care of major mailings. They're the owls often used by those businesses that have mailing lists and want to send out updates or new catalogues. We have them for the time being. We lose them for two days in a week to another contract, then they come back here."
"You can bulk hire owls?" asked Harry, surprised.
"Yes," replied Daphne. "How else did you think bulk mailings were sent out?"
"I thought the Owl Mail Office handled those sorts of things," he replied.
"They do," she returned. "The company we hired these from is a commercial arm of the Owl Mail Office."
"Ah," he exclaimed. "I wondered."
"All you'll need to do, at the end, is decide what to do with all the gifts that you received over the years," advised Hermione. "A great many of them are age appropriate to the age you were when the gifts were originally sent. I doubt you'd want to keep, for instance, a stuffed toy dragon that'll fly around your bed for you."
Harry laughed and replied, "No. However, I may want to keep some pretty odd things... Actually, have our handy little industrious beavers sort the gifts into two separate piles of what is shop bought... manufactured... and what is hand made. For instance, any handmade cards by children I'd like to keep. I think I'd like to put them into an album, or something."
"You want to keep the hand made gifts?" asked Daphne, curious. "Why?"
With a shrug, Harry replied, "Anyone can go and hand over anything from a few knuts to a heap of galleons for a gift for someone. It may take gold, but it also takes little effort. However, taking the time to make a handmade gift shows true commitment. That's the sort of thing I'd be more likely to cherish."
The two girls thought about that for a few moments before Hermione sniffled and said, "He's right. My parents still have finger paintings and similar I made for them while in early primary school stuck to the fridge. My very first finger painting, my very first drawing with crayons and my very first with pencils my parents had framed and now adorn the walls in their dental surgery.
"I used to be embarrassed when I went in there and saw them. Now, though, I know it's a symbol of their love for me; for their pride in me." "You want to frame them and display them on your walls?" asked Daphne.
"No," he replied. "I want to... put them on display, somewhere. At first, that may be in my home. Later, that may be in a museum concerning the war... wars. I may detest my fame; but, that doesn't mean it cannot be used to create a museum. It also means I do not... dislike... that small children look up to me. Of that, I'm grateful. It's the adults who should know better.
"A museum is a wonderful way to force people to remember their history. And, hopefully, help them come to understand what leads to war; what leads to the creation of dark lords. And, in turn, what has led magical Britain to have such an extremely low population right now."
Deep in thought, both girls nodded at Harry's explanation. Hermione said, "That's actually a brilliant idea. Those who fail to learn from history's mistakes are doomed to repeat them. Or, something like that... I think."
"Exactly," smiled Harry. "That's what makes museums so valuable. It's not the art within them; it's the knowledge they retain and give to successor generations."
"A worthy goal," mused Daphne. "So, you want to build and house a museum. That'll be expensive."
.
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