Harry Potter and the Secret Treasures

From the age of seven to eighteen, every child was now required to attend Hogwarts — which, frankly, sounded rather like a Muggle school policy.

Generally, in the Wizarding world, parents were more accustomed to raising and educating their children under eleven years old at home rather than sending them to boarding schools like Hogwarts. This was partly because young children lacked self-care abilities, but more importantly, because everyone’s magical awakening occurred at different times. Some children might experience magical outbursts in infancy, while others might not until ten or eleven.

For young wizards who hadn’t awakened their magic or whose magic hadn’t fully developed, attending a magic school was useless.

They couldn’t learn magic; what would be the point of going to school, just for moral and ethical education?!

Even Beauxbatons, which offered lower-year classes, never made attendance compulsory. It was entirely voluntary.

For children whose magic had already surfaced, Beauxbatons provided some basic education, not in long, continuous school terms lasting more than six months, but through periodic gatherings. On the day of the call to arms, parents and children would be invited to Beauxbatons to tour the school and be taught some basics of controlling magic.

By contrast, the British Ministry’s current policy essentially turned magical education into a form of mandatory schooling.

Forcing all eligible young wizards to attend Hogwarts served no purpose other than facilitating Voldemort’s control and education of these children; he seemed to intend to cultivate his own reserve army in this way.

It had to be admitted that Voldemort did have long-term plans, which was one of the differences between him and other Dark wizards.

This major educational policy almost changed the history of Hogwarts. Before this, attending Hogwarts had never been compulsory, and Hogwarts had never accepted students so young. Although almost all wizards and witches in Britain eventually graduated from Hogwarts, parents still had the right to choose to homeschool their children or send them abroad if they felt it was better for them.

Now, all Wizarding children would grow up under Voldemort’s nose, from infancy to adulthood.

They would be subjected to Voldemort’s brainwashing education as soon as they learned to speak and read, before their values had even formed.

From the cradle, they would be taught to see becoming a Dark wizard as the ultimate goal in life.

This was horrifying!

Given a few short years, the number of Death Eaters would multiply rapidly.

At the same time, as a complementary measure to the Ministry’s Muggle-born Registration Commission, this educational decree also served as another means of purging Muggle-borns. Before admission, every applicant would have to present proof of blood status for verification by the Ministry — to determine whether they possessed “legitimate” Wizarding ancestry.

Starting this year, one could easily imagine the tragedy: eleven-year-old Muggle-born children, cheerful and excited, boarding the Hogwarts Express with their new spellbooks and luggage — only to never reach Hogwarts. They would never see the castle… and perhaps never see their families again.

Waiting for them on the train would be Death Eaters, ready to seize them and declare their very existence illegal…

These children, who might have only just set foot into the Wizarding world, would now be locked away in Azkaban forever.

That gloomy and terrifying Wizarding prison and the even more terrifying Dementors would be their only impression of the Wizarding world.

“As long as Snape and the Carrow siblings are there, Hogwarts is bound to become a complete mess. It won’t be the school we knew anymore,” said Elaine sadly, as though recalling something painful.

“Don’t be upset, Elaine. The remaining professors and students won’t give in so easily. Changing Hogwarts won’t be that simple,” said Evan. But as Elaine had pointed out, chaos at Hogwarts was inevitable. He didn’t doubt Snape’s loyalty, but Snape’s teaching philosophy might have many similarities with Voldemort’s — especially when it came to the Dark Arts, to Muggle-born students, and to those traditional Slytherin beliefs.

The new Headmaster Snape might not be as radical as Voldemort, but he would certainly be different from the tolerant and open-minded Dumbledore.

This term, Hogwarts would be unlike any Hogwarts they had ever known.

“As soon as Dumbledore returns, everything will change…” Evan repeated.

At that moment, Hermione stepped into the kitchen again.

“I remembered this,” she panted.

She was carrying a large, framed picture, which she now lowered to the floor before seizing, from the kitchen sideboard, her small, beaded bag — one of the beaded bags she had enchanted with an Undetectable Extension Charm over the holidays —. Opening it, she proceeded to force the painting inside, and despite the fact that it was patently too large to fit inside the tiny bag, within a few seconds it had vanished, like so much else, into the bag’s capacious depths.

“Phineas Nigellus Black,” Hermione explained as she threw the bag onto the kitchen table with the usual sonorous, clanking crash. “Snape could send him to look inside this house for him so he’d know we’re here, maybe even learn what we’re doing. But let him try it now, all Phineas Nigellus will be able to see is the inside of my handbag.”

The painted image of Phineas Nigellus Black was able to flit between his portrait in Grimmauld Place and the one that hung in the headmaster’s office at Hogwarts. And as the new Headmaster, Snape could order the previous headmasters’ portraits to do his bidding. He might send Phineas Black back for a check.

Hermione’s considerations were quite comprehensive, although Evan felt that since Harry had mentioned Voldemort’s name, the Dark Lord and his Death Eaters had probably already confirmed their presence at Grimmauld Place.

“Can’t hurt to be cautious,” said Evan, stretching. “No idea when Sirius will be back. If there’s nothing else, we’d better start looking into the information about the Cup and the deed right now.”

“I think I’ve more or less pinpointed the location of the land left by Slytherin. It’s in what is now northern Greece, in an area near Mount Olympus,” said Hermione, pulling out a map covered in runic symbols. “That mountain was the sacred home of the gods in ancient Greece, and it’s full of old magical ruins. Even today, it remains one of the main sites studied by Wizarding explorers. If Herpo the Foul’s lair was once there, then the ruins he left behind might still be untouched. We’re bound to find something inside. But I’ll need to narrow down the exact location first. If we do find it… are we going to Greece?”

“Hmm, we’ll see. If it becomes necessary, then yes — we’ll go to Greece,” said Evan.

Ancient Greece and Egypt had been the most prosperous centers of magic — the very heart of the previous magical era. Anyone seeking clues related to evil gods would have to go there. Not to mention, that was likely where Herpo the Foul’s spatial coordinates would have been left behind.

The only problem now was time — Evan could only hope that Voldemort would spend long enough in Germany, distracted by his hunt for the Elder Wand and the realm of the evil gods. …