In This World And The Next (Completed)

Chapter 25

Minerva McGonagall was renowned as a witch who was not easily impressed. Minerva McGonagall was currently calling on all her considerable experience of dealing with difficult parents and wayward students to stop her jaw hitting the floor and drool running down the side of her mouth. Astonishment, amazement and awe combined didn't come close to how she was feeling at the moment. For the first time in her life Minerva appreciated how parents of muggle borns felt upon hearing that magic was not only a reality but their child was a witch or wizard. Minerva was so far beyond what she considered normal that she had no frame of reference to compare it with. Thankfully for her state of mind, the shocks had built up until her present circumstances, this was the only reason the stern headmistress was able to project the appearance of coping with the situation.

Her eyebrows had first been raised when they left the Leaky Cauldron, the muggle coach was certainly eye opening. What was even more impressive though was how the children just accepted this as the norm, the few who hadn't been on the theme park outing were soon settled in as their friends looked after them. Watching while Charity used a device that allowed her to speak to everyone on the coach reinforced Minerva's belief that she'd made the correct decision by travelling with this group. She had no intention of becoming an unapproachable figure like Dumbledore and there was clearly much to be learned on this adventure. It was only old dogs that couldn't be taught new tricks, felines were a whole other matter.

Heathrow Airport was mind boggling. You could fit Hogwarts, the ministry and probably Diagon Alley too inside the massive building. Young Mr Thomas was something of an aviation buff and Minerva was hearing facts her mind was having trouble accepting. This was apparently only one of the terminal buildings the airport boasted and in excess of thirty million people passed through Heathrow annually. The organisation required transporting that many people and their belongings between destinations as far apart as Aberdeen and Adelaide was too much for the administrator in Minerva to comprehend. She knew how difficult it was to run Hogwarts, the enormous scale of this operation staggered her.

When Auror Tonks appeared with their documents, including completed tags for their luggage, Mr Thomas went into absolute raptures about some business class they would be taking. Minerva had never seen a child so excited about learning. Their luggage shortly disappeared into a hole in the wall and they were all led through to a very nice lounge, complete with free drinks and snacks as they awaited their departure time.

Minerva was currently relaxing on a very comfortable seat, a seat that could change positions at the push of a button, while a young lady served her tea and biscuits. There was no sensation of being over a mile high and travelling at a speed no broom could ever hope to match. There were moving pictures displayed with sound being accessed by placing small items in your ear, she had lighting and temperature controls at her fingertips and not one bit of magic had been used anywhere. Minerva was having the absolute folly of ignoring this world undeniably driven home, anyone who thought the magical world couldn't learn anything from muggles must be mistaking their beer for befuddlement draught.

Observing as her students coped admirably with these astonishing surroundings filled the headmistress with pride. Not so much at any achievement of hers, more how the children of muggle backgrounds all helped their friends enjoy the whole experience. Minerva's gaze was drawn to three girls sitting together with the things in their ears, heads swaying in time as they obviously listened to music. That this was Miss Greengrass, Miss Davis and Miss Parkinson, Slytherin purebloods all, was almost beyond comprehension.

Something about them listing to music triggered a long forgotten memory from her childhood, playing at her best friend's house. Morag's mother had a wind-up gramophone that they played all the time, one of the songs they used to listen to repeatedly now fired off in her mind. 'How ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm, after they've seen Paree' was nothing more than a catchy tune to the two little girls. For the adult Minerva McGonagall, this was the inspiration behind her epiphany that could actually change the magical community of Britain. She had later understood the lyrics were aimed at American soldiers who had fought against the Kaiser, hinting that after seeing the bright lights of Paris they wouldn't be content with returning to farming. Minerva had no problems drawing parallels with the current situation, she would bet her salary and pension those three girls weren't listening to Celestina Warbeck.