The Return to Hogwarts

"When I was getting something from the locker, I took a look around. Professor Snape didn't prepare enough scarabs for each of the young wizards, you know? Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw still have classes, so he made the four of them share one set—"

Hermione glanced meaningfully at the stunned Harry.

“From first year onwards, Harry, when did Professor Snape ever warn you in class not to waste materials?”

Harry opened his mouth, following Hermione's advice, and began to think about the bizarre criticisms and targeting he had suffered in Potions class during his four years at Hogwarts, discovering that the truth was indeed as Hermione had said.

"what do you mean?"

Harry recalled the two kind house-elves who brought him food last night, and then remembered the much less impressive breakfast this morning and Professor McGonagall's sad expression as she looked at the young wizard. A guess began to form in his mind.

"Hogwarts is out of money."

Hermione calmly poured Harry's diluted armadillo bile into the cauldron, then carefully stirred it with her wand. With the third match approaching, she didn't want to waste time going to the Forbidden Forest to deal with the leeches.

After stirring clockwise ten times, Hermione reached out to Ron for a slice of ginger root. After a while, not receiving a response, she looked up at Ron and found the three people around the table staring at her in disbelief.

"Hogwarts is out of money?"

Ron repeated it, and judging from his expression, it seemed like this was the first time he had realized that Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry still needed money.

Hermione, annoyed, picked up the unevenly sliced ​​ginger from Ron's cutting board, tossed them into the crucible, and carefully observed the bubbling of the armadillo's bile.

“What’s so hard to understand, Ron?” Hermione sighed, her breath causing the orange flame of the alcohol lamp to flicker.

“In this school, the professors need to get paid, the young wizards need to eat, there are supplies for magic courses, and there’s the maintenance and repair of the castle. Everything costs money. Hagrid’s garden can only grow pumpkins, not gold. Neville, don’t stop, I need more scarab powder.”

Hermione said urgently.

Perhaps because no one wanted to go into the Forbidden Forest to deal with the leeches, or perhaps because it was their first time working together in Potions class, most people were working enthusiastically. However, Draco, Snape's former favorite, seemed a bit absent-minded, and he spilled half of the beetle powder that Nott had managed to produce.

The three boys around Hermione remained silent, not because all their questions had been answered, but because they were shocked that they had never realized this before.

Hogwarts needs money

Harry's frozen thoughts began to turn. He recalled the time when he first learned about the wizarding world and Hogwarts. When Hagrid led him into the wizarding world, he worried that he wouldn't be able to pay his tuition. But that worry was quickly washed away by the sum of gold his parents had left him in Gringotts' underground vault.

Looking back now, Harry suddenly realized that Hogwarts did not charge tuition for young wizards.

Their wands, wizard robes, cauldrons, telescopes, and even the textbooks used in class were all purchased by themselves from a list provided by Hogwarts. They did not pay Hogwarts even a single bronze knat.

However, their expenses were not small.

Just as Hermione said, nearly a thousand young wizards need to eat every day, and they consume a lot of magical materials while learning magic. Even if Harry doesn't know the actual value of those materials, over the years, it will definitely not be a small amount.

Where does Hogwarts get its money?

Ron, pale-faced, seemed to have come to terms with it. His parents were already struggling enough to send him, his brothers, and his sister to school, and he had to use secondhand items for many of his things. Hogwarts had to support nearly a thousand children, and just thinking about how much that would cost made Ron's scalp tingle!

"Oh!"

Before Hermione could answer the question, a painful scream suddenly came from the Slytherin students. All the young wizards looked over and saw that the scream came from Pansy Parkinson. Her hands were covered in boils from the scalding potion, and she was looking at the culprit, Draco Malfoy, with a pitiful and tearful expression.

"Go and take Miss Parkinson to the infirmary upstairs, Malfoy—"

Snape's brow twitched twice. He strode over and waved his wand to dispel the potion's slight, persistent, and mildly explosive effects. Then, he spoke to the somber-looking Draco.

"Also, after school today, you all need to come with me to the Forbidden Forest."

Malfoy was clearly surprised that Snape had actually been so impartial as to send him to the Forbidden Forest to catch leeches, but his aching Parkinson's left him no time to ponder the matter. He could only angrily grab his schoolbag, kick away his chair, and help Pansy out of the classroom.

"I understand. It's the school board—"

Neville, who had been watching Malfoy and Pankinson leave, suddenly spoke up. Harry and Ron both looked at Neville and saw that his eyes, fixed on Malfoy's retreating figure, were burning with anger.

"If the Board of Governors suspends its financial investment in Hogwarts."

Chapter 1023 Gratitude and resentment

2024-07-10

As is widely known, Hogwarts was founded by four great wizards a thousand years ago.

They are: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin.

The four great founders came from the most prestigious pure-blood wizarding families of that era. These four outstanding young wizards, who should have been conservative about the inheritance of magic, unusually possessed a broad mind and a forward-looking vision.

They recognized that the transmission of magic must be open, and that gifted Muggle-born children must be given the opportunity to glimpse the mysteries of magic (Slytherin also held different views), so that magic could flourish forever.

Thus, the four founders, sharing the same ideals, established Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry amidst the mountains and rivers.

When the school was first established, the four founders jointly managed Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. They taught their life's work to many other wizards of similar noble birth who admired their magic, and they also recruited students from the Muggle world.

At the beginning of the school's establishment, the four founders charged tuition fees to all students to support the school's operation, but they soon discovered a problem.

The tuition fees were not a problem for descendants of magical families, but many children with magical talent born in the Muggle world could not afford the tuition fees for Hogwarts. In response to this situation, the four great founders reduced or waived the tuition fees for those children.

While those children expressed their gratitude, they also brought about new problems.

The school's differential treatment sparked much discontent in the wizarding world. In an era where bloodline was paramount and teaching magical secrets to Muggles was frowned upon, such differential treatment subjected the newly founded Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to a barrage of criticism.

Therefore, after careful consideration, the four founders decided to waive tuition fees for all children, and all expenses would be borne by the four founders.

Years later, the three founders passed away one after another, and Helga Hufflepuff became the first headmistress of Hogwarts.

Helga Hufflepuff spent all her wealth to keep the school running, leaving her in dire poverty in her later years.

Helga Hufflepuff's successor did not come from a wealthy magical family and did not have much wealth to squander, so he had to reinstate Hogwarts' tuition system.

The tuition system remained in place for the next two centuries.

This directly led to the magical education becoming closed again, with magic only being passed down among pure-blood wizarding families and a small number of wealthy Muggle descendants. The Muggle descendants, unable to form a large number, always found it difficult to integrate into the magical world.

The changes occurred in the third century after the founding of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

A Muggle-born wizard became the headmaster of Hogwarts, and after taking office, he actively sought ways to give more poor but magically gifted Muggle children the opportunity to receive a magical education.

After careful consideration, the headmaster of Hogwarts sought help from several pure-blood families that were then enjoying great prestige in the wizarding world.

He exchanged the relinquishment of some of the Hogwarts headmaster's authority and Hogwarts' acceptance of leadership for the financial support of an ancient wizarding family.

Thus, the Hogwarts Board of Governors was established.

call!

After reading the lengthy section about the 'Board of Governors' in the thick book "A History of Hogwarts," Harry, Ron, and Neville, who were surrounding Hermione in the library, all breathed a sigh of relief.

The three of them exchanged glances through the flickering candlelight, each noticing the surprise, emotion, and gratitude in the other's eyes.

"I never thought of that."

snort!

As soon as Ron finished speaking, Mrs. Pins, who was sitting by the door reading a magic book about herbs, snorted and cast a sharp, hawk-like glance in their direction.

Ron was so frightened that he immediately shut up and lowered his head.

Hermione's slender fingers began to trace across the dark yellow paper again.

The members of the Board of Trustees are not fixed. In fact, due to the huge financial expenditure, the original members of the Board of Trustees had all been replaced within half a century of the Board's establishment.

To effectively control teaching costs, the successor to the Board of Trustees ordered the Hogwarts Headmaster to strictly control the teaching expenditures for all magical subjects and to review educational materials, removing a large number of powerful but costly spells passed down from ancient times.

Hermione let out a soft sigh upon reading this.

In the century that followed, the number of Muggle-born wizards in the wizarding world grew at an astounding pace.

This again led to dissatisfaction among pure-blood wizarding families. As a result, the Board of Governors ordered Hogwarts to control the number of Muggle students it admitted, but this was met with strong resistance from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Therefore, the Board of Governors suspended its financial support to Hogwarts. Hogwarts retaliated by ceasing to admit pure-blood descendants.

Finally, the Ministry of Magic intervened in the dispute between the Board of Governors and Hogwarts.

To prevent the extreme ideas of some radical families from affecting the normal teaching at Hogwarts, Hogwarts advocated expanding the Board of Governors from the original six to twelve.

In order to further curb the power of the headmaster, the Board of Trustees acquired the power to appoint and dismiss the headmaster of Hogwarts.

Under the witness of the Ministry of Magic, both parties signed a contract. The Board of Governors would have the power to recommend appointments and dismissals of Hogwarts' faculty and staff, as well as the power to appoint and dismiss the Headmaster. In return, the Board of Governors was obligated to ensure that Hogwarts' financial support would not be interrupted. This agreement was subject to the oversight of the Ministry of Magic.

Leaving the library and walking through the castle's ancient passageways, Harry still seemed somewhat dazed.

When people talk about Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, they always rave about its thousand-year history.

But how many people really know how many trials and tribulations Hogwarts has gone through in the past thousand years?

It's like a magnificent flower growing from a crack in the rock; its strength inspires awe, yet at the same time, its fragility is heart-wrenching.

"I see--"

The group walked home in silence, when Ron suddenly stopped under a brightly burning torch, a look of sudden realization on his face.

"What have you understood now?"

Hermione glanced at Ron and asked.

With Hogwarts facing such a crisis, Hermione couldn't possibly be in a good mood, especially since the school board, which created the crisis, could be said to have been formed in part because of her, a Muggle-blooded young wizard.

"Malfoy——"

Ron's eyes widened, his expression revealing an inappropriate excitement.

"Malfoy seems to be in a bad mood today. Oh, and not just him, the Slytherin students don't seem too happy either. Do you think they're afraid that if Hogwarts decides to retaliate, they'll do what history has shown and expel all the students from pure-blood wizarding families? Are the Malfoys worried about being expelled from school?"

Upon hearing this, Harry's emerald green eyes sparkled with a strange light. What do you call this, turning misfortune into blessing?

Hermione was too lazy to answer the question, and her shaking her head and sighing gesture provoked Ron's resentment.