Staying in magical Britain is a very big change for Augustus "Oggy" Blake. It was a big plan for the Peverells to return to Europe. Can you imagine that the Peverells have their own castle? A castle! It's not as big as Ilvermony or possibly Hogwarts (he hasn't visited that yet) but it is still considered a castle. Oggy was a graduate of Ilvermony, from the House of Pukwudgie which is a house of healers. Although it is common for graduates of this house to pursue healing-related careers, healing isn't just something about the medical field. There are many forms of healing. A walk in the park can heal a soul, making solutions that will help heal the environment or the people themselves, and much more. This is why Oggy thrives a lot in charitable activities, especially regarding children.
The OTOS scholar unity is the first step for Oggy to make the preparations to enter magical Britain. Immigrating here was a challenge. The Peverells have not been on the continent for hundreds of years. There is also the part that he is used to American culture and society and while their origins are in Europe, more particularly in Great Britain, he is often perceived as a bit lower class. British wizards and witches normally see their American counterparts (those with a history of their names in Europe) as branch families not as main families so many of the noble houses, think Blake and possibly his cousin when he arrives do not hold that much power to garner their interests. But that is for now. Oggy has a lot of work to do.
One of the steps is to secure the family vaults, estates, and inheritances which is no problem. The goblins handle that. Despite the many goblin wars in history, the goblins keep immaculate records even back a thousand years which is why many wizards and witches find it difficult to insult goblins despite them being non-humans as they hold one of the strongest magic in terms of security, lineage, and the creation of dungeons – a term to describe the space goblins create where they keep, store and secure their treasures.
The other part is to understand the wizarding community. The Peverells are a pureblood family – one that has a much older lineage compared to the current ancient and noble families in Wizengamot. The Peverells have a seat in the Wizengamot but have remained empty and have no proxy for hundreds of years (A/N: In this story, it is assumed that the Wizengamot has been existing longer than the 1500s as canon). They also hold the seats of other houses that have long been vacant and abandoned which are the Pendragon, Morgans, and even the Ravenclaw (they are direct descendants of this house as an ancestor of theirs married one of the direct Ravenclaw descendants). They could have a claim to Slytherin if they wish but Oggy and Iggy have checked their family tree, the one who has a direct relation to it is from the second brother of the legendary Peverell brothers, not the first in which Oggy and Iggy are related to. Someone still has a potential claim for it. Someone named Tom Marvolo Riddle. The Potters are the last direct descendants of the Gryffindor seat and what surprised Oggy is why they have not claimed it. It is possible for a family to have more than one seat in the Wizengamot and this can give them more voting power, although most have to hire proxies as managing too many houses is not very easy to do alone. Having a seat is very very expensive.
The only person with a lot of voting power in Wizengamot is Dumbledore and this is mostly because he proxies a lot of houses which to Oggy felt like an imbalance. After all, this means the man has more say regarding the laws in the region and he is very light leaning so that makes him prefer more light-related laws and regulations which is bad as it is very important to have some balance between different forms of magic (at least in Oggy and Iggy's opinion).
The British wizards are also very divided. One is the faction that believed in blood purity and is against anyone whose blood status they deemed unworthy which are muggle-borns mainly, the other is the one who believed in the integration of muggles and magic. Most others are mixed. However, it was the light faction who were supportive of such an idea of integration that scared Oggy. This side does not believe in actually revealing magic to muggles but that they are more open to muggle-borns. The only issue here is that to accommodate them, lots of changes are made that have resulted in a loss of magical culture just because they were deemed too scary or difficult to accept by muggle-borns. While the American wizards are not exactly very open towards muggle-borns, they have some sort of acceptance to them as long as they don't breach the statute of secrecy, they also do not support most dark magic but they only made some of the aspects of dark magic illegal and still keep a lot of the important ones. This is because the Native American wizards and witches are ritualistic in their magic and rituals were considered dark magic. The Native American wizards and witches have a very high standing in the wizarding society in America than their muggle counterparts.
This is a problem. A lot of muggle-borns are like that because they were never educated about the importance of understanding the new culture and lots of purebloods who promote purity are like that because they blamed the muggle-borns of a lost culture, although how such a belief that muggle-borns are blamed for stealing magic is beyond to Oggy. Could it be that many of these noble purebloods blamed the muggle-borns because they are having more squibs and fewer magical children even though many of the cause is due to them marrying cousins?
There are studies and books published about this but many of them were banned because they were considered controversial both the reason for the declining magical births among purebloods and the atrocities of muggles as they are seen to be hostile in either faction. There is a book published by Holliana Odol who is from the South American region and studied muggles in her book, asombro u atrocidades de muggles (A/N: Is this correct? I am not sure if I translated this correctly: the awe and atrocities of muggles). It was a not popular book and most people have not read or were even aware of it but it was banned in Europe because, to the purity factions, it made it sound like the muggles were better than them while the light faction believed that it would entice violence against muggles. Either way, you can't win.
But the one thing that bothered Oggy is the lack of thorough education in Great Britain. Of course, Hogwarts has a very strong reputation in the international magical world but due to a lot of bans and division between light and dark, a lot of information has been redacted and not to mention that there seem to be some gaps (not that Ilvermony has its gaps as well). But you would think that a school that has a very long history and is the center of the strongest ley line in the world would have so much advancement in magic. It doesn't seem so.
Oggy has reviewed a lot of laws and information about it. Hogwarts used to have more subjects: politics, wizard studies, warding, transportation, and even healing but none of that is present in the current curriculum. Many of these are now part of the master's or higher education instead. It made Oggy wonder why. He understands why warding was moved to higher education as this is a very dangerous form of magic for a teenager to wield (the last thing you want are teenagers breaking wards in the schools) and requires so many foundations to learn before one could be ready to enter that field, the others were essential.
With the growing number of muggle-born entering the magical world due to the growing muggle population and the fact that there is also a growing number of squibs being born mostly due to genetic issues, there also seems to be some biased or lack of support. Hogwarts is a magical school so it should be a must for muggle-borns to enter the school. The problem is that the school's tuition fee and other magical requirements are expensive for muggle families in terms of expenses especially since a lot of schools in the muggle world are free (mostly the public ones). This is why they pay less tuition fees than the rest. Magical orphans have the exemption as they pay zero on tuition and can even get money from the ministry to support their education. However, most students, have to pay the full fee which is very expensive.
He was surprised to learn that Hogwarts is in debt. This is why the school is lacking money to support a lot of its operations because they are paying it off. A former headmaster (at a time when the headmaster has more control in the school than today) has sold off some pieces of the school due to gambling addiction. The school continues to pay it off and this gives less money for the school to use especially as muggle-borns pay less tuition and magical orphans pay none at all. The concept of a scholarship is unusual in the magical world as many have not thought to use this. Blake may have Peverell's blood in him but he is a half-blood. His father was a muggle-born and has helped him expose the muggle culture.
This was the purpose of the scholarship. The scholarship through fundraising help pays for the school while also giving muggle-borns and magical wizards a chance to go to school without breaking the bank. Oggy was the one who asked to include the squibs as Magical Britain lacks a lot of protection on them. Squibs are so easily cast aside with nothing – not even anything that can help them transition easily to the muggle world. This scholarship is aiming to help them achieve that. They have 35 applicants approved already.
Oggy groaned on his desk. They have fewer magical applications because they were seen as "charity" and they didn't think it was appropriate for them to apply. Some orphans did apply – most of them muggle-borns and the only magicals who applied were from the Weasley family. Bill, Charlie, Percy, and now the twins passed the scholarship. He was surprised that an ancient and noble family was this poor. Although their father was just weird. He would speak on and on about plugs. He has a collection of them. Why? He does not know. How can a man be so fascinated about muggles but also very ignorant about them?
*****
Sirius Black glanced at his clock. He has been writing a report after an explosion happened in Knockturn Alley. Some bloke in the name of Mundungus Fletcher just pissed off a few people and someone tried to curse him. 'Dung was such a pain on his ass, he thought. The only reason Sirius didn't arrest him is that Dumbledore has something to say about it and most of the ministry is under his thumb. Plus the man is part of the Order to which Sirius formerly belongs. However, he is wondering why that man is part of the Order. What contribution does he provide to them anyway? The man was a thief.
He glanced back at his clock and then at one of the desks in the Auror's department. Potter was sitting on it writing his report. Sirius frowned. He still hasn't forgiven Potter for what he did. Whenever Sirius has free time, he would still try to look for Harry and Iris even if he knows the two children are heavily warded. He knew they were staying with Lily's sister, Petunia Evans, but the woman and the children were nowhere to be found.
Sirius remembers the muggle woman. She wasn't very nice toward Lily. He worries if she was capable of even raising Harry and Iris. Why leave them with her? That was the question Sirius has been asking for a long time. If a woman can be that mean, does Lily expect Harry and Iris to not be subjected to that woman's anger?
Sirius and Severus (yes he's on the first name basis with him now) were fully capable of raising them if the Potters didn't want them even if they were squibs. Sirius recalled his life when he was a teenager. He ran away and lived with Potter in the summer of their sixth year. His parents didn't want him and giving Harry and Iris away reminded him of his life especially one of his favorite uncles, Uncle Marius who was a squib. The man was kicked out of the family because of it. He thought the Potters were better but he was wrong.
Moony (Remus Lupin) is out of the country. His children's book, Timmy's Wandering Wolves has become a success in the muggle world and his muggle publisher has sent him off on a book tour in the U.S. Sirius has never been to the U.S. though he considered going there. Maybe Petunia Evans isn't Europe anymore. The man has been backtracking Britain and Europe looking for his godchildren.
Maybe he should visit and annoy Sevvie for a while, although Severus would kill him if he calls him that again. He loves annoying the dungeon bat by suddenly coming into his house without warning but the man didn't tell him to leave anyway, just complains and calls him names like "mutt", "annoyance" and "idiot".
When Sirius left the office, completely ignoring Potter whom Sirius knows is staring at him, he caught sight of Arthur Weasley's sons. If Sirius' recalled it was Bill and Curly Top (his nickname for Percy because he is the only one of the Weasley siblings with curly hair).
Sirius heard that the third eldest son was sorted to Slytherin two years ago. It was a first in the Weasley line. He remembered having a conversation with Arthur who was concerned that his son might get the wrong influence in that house.
Sirius has to talk to Arthur about not everyone in that house is evil. Sure, he would think that way back in the day but meeting Severus and several Slytherin graduates of Hogwarts redefined that notion in his head. Heck, the current head of the Auror department is a Slytherin! Of course, Sirius knows the feeling of being the odd one. Look at him! He was the first Gryffindor out of a line of Slytherins.
He told Arthur to love his son the way he is and never stop treating him differently. When the man mentioned Dumbledore, Sirius almost wanted to choke the man. "Are you seriously letting another person tell you how to raise your children, Arthur?" and he left the man pondering.
Sirius knows that Bill just graduated from Hogwarts. The boy did an internship in the ministry in his sixth year. He remembered Arthur trying to persuade the boy to work here but Bill just got accepted in Gringotts and an apprenticeship in warding and got a position at their Egyptian branch.
"...do you get to learn Gobbledegook too?" He heard Percy ask.
Bill chuckled and replied. "No Percy but I might learn a few words here and there."
"Aw." Percy pouted. "Are you really going to go to Egypt?"
"Yes, kiddo. I'll try to come by every Christmas and a break in summer."
"How was shopping?"
"It was okay," Percy answered. "The scholarship really helped."
Wait, what collar-ship? What is that? Sirius asked in their head.
"I was able to buy a better book this time. It's second-hand but it is more comfortable to read than the regular books we always have. They were always in tatters that my housemates made fun of me for it."
"Awww Percy, you should have told me. I would have hexed them for you." Bill said.
"No. I need to pull my own weight in my house, Bill. They'll never take me seriously if I need my big brother to fight my battles for me. Besides I have learned my fair share of curses and hexes."
"Still if they go too far, just know that you have Charlie with you. And possibly the twins this year."
"I also have Marcus. He scares a lot of people but he is fine with me."
Bill only smirks. "Of course, he is, little brother."
The two redheads turned a corner. Sirius pondered about this collar-ship thing but he didn't have any time to think about it for now. Maybe he should ask Severus. He was planning to roam Muggle London next week, hoping he could find Harry and Iris there at least. He does have to be careful. Muggles today do not take kindly to adults staring at children. There was an incident where muggle authorities questioned him because some muggles were concerned, he was staring at children at a park.