"Have a good afternoon then, Headmaster." Harry left the office and headed to a courtyard where he pulled out his phone and dialed Sirius.
"Black."
"Hi. I just got out of a meeting with the Headmaster."
"What did you do?"
"Nothing. Yet. But I don't appreciate someone trying to tell me who I can and cannot be friends with. I think I want to teach the goat a small lesson. "
"I'm game, what have you got in mind?"
"I'm thinking a quilted technicolor dream coat, well robe actually… I'll send the specific embroidery patterns and spells as soon as I work them out. Of course I can think of a few other things as well"
"You know I could almost find it in my heart to pity him. If he hadn't tried to kill me, I probably would. Your daddy would be proud. Need anything?"
"To know when you're coming so we can deal with the basilisk in the chamber. I've retrieved the diadem which just leaves the ring.
"Which we're currently scheduled to go after over the Christmas hols."
"Cool."
"How's flying class?"
"Boring. We have got to replace the brooms over half of them are in absolutely pathetic shape. Nev almost had an accident if Draco and I hadn't responded the way we did he might have been hurt. He was one of many who had trouble with rickety brooms."
"So, so far the list is?"
"Planetarium which will also be the most challenging because you'll have to adapt a projector and a computer to run it. Brooms. New history teacher, Binns can haunt his class room and we find another one if we can't convince the board to exorcise his ghost. The potions lab could stand the introduction of modern ventilation hoods, oh and a gym. This place desperately needs a honest to goodness gymnasium. I've glanced over the muggle studies texts in the library that's another place that desperately requires an update those texts are from pre nineteen forty. There no mention of computers or rockets or TV and it is from them magicals are supposed to learn how to blend in? I think not. And don't even get me started on the uniform.
"This place needs more options for activities. Students fight and or slip of to the broom cupboards because there's nothing to do and us teenagers have to put those hormones into use somewhere and there are not enough healthy outlets. I'd like to introduce football, heck, other sports, just something. I've been tempted to introduce the concept of pickup games for quidditch and quadpot, then there's all the other things. I mean they have gobstones club, why not chess, or a magical equivalent of boy and girl scouts, or a maybe even a choir, just something. Maybe we could start a monthly movie night, or a book club for those inclined to literature, The room on the seventh floor put together a decent gym but the room has so many more potential uses it can't be kept open as a gym. Oh and a common room not attached to a house so friends from different houses can get together without irritating the librarian or the house elves.
As far as the academic side If it were up to me I would try to create a standardized test to be sure base educational skills are in place before entrance to Hogwarts. Math through pre-algebra, English writing skills, first year Latin, PE, history both magical and non, civics, geography, basic biology, and basic chemistry. There is just so much necessary information and basic skills some of the purebloods don't have or perhaps I should say they don't have enough of, it's hard. The study group has been leaning heavily on getting the base skills of studying mechanics, essay writing into everyone. Oh another thing this place needs is more teachers. In the core classes, transfiguration, charms, potions, herbology the teachers may be leaders in their fields but most of them are behind the times on educational theory. I love Aunt Min, but she only seems to present the lessons in one learning style and she relies on repetition to teach the lesson rather than present it in different formats to cover other learning styles, which makes for a lot of repetition. Flitwick is the same. Jack broke it down to the simplest level and then allowed me to build from there.
"Yes, but kiddo you have to remember you have a distinct advantage over your peers. Your core is absurdly strong and has been stable for years. Most of your peers are just stabilizing and it would be easy for them to burn themselves out by trying to go too fast."
"I suppose so. But that doesn't excuse Snape. He may be the youngest Potion Master since Paraceleus but the man cannot teach. Sprout knows her stuff but she doesn't go into the biology of the plants at all just the uses and the mechanics of how to care for them and stay safe. There's other stuff I'd like to learn like native environment or this is how they reproduce or the actually botany of the plants we're learning. And don't even get me started on Defense. Charlie would either die laughing or bury himself from shame for merely having the title defense teacher in common with Quirrell."
"That bad?"
"I could probably take him out blind folded with one hand tied behind my back, he's so bad. All of them are overworked. Not one has enough time to give the struggling students one on one time and they are so busy teaching their subject they can't really support anything that would enrich the students experiences. Either that or they don't have the expertise to address the students that have real educational issues. The study group is helping, but I swear two kids are dyslexic and are struggling with reading let alone writing. Their magic maybe mature enough for them to be here, but them as students not hardly. I'm trying to see that they are getting paired with a tutors for every class but we're just kids and we're not really equipped to help them. I really wonder about how far the testing authority has dumbed stuff down so people pass and how Hogwarts can maintain its reputation.
"I met a couple of pranksters that idolize you and Remus. They are very creative but they need guidance and there's no one here willing to give them true guidance. Because the teachers are either too swamped with work or they're too disinterested in shaping the minds of the next generation, these two are getting in trouble and blowing off studying in their classes rather than having their energy redirected and focused.
"They have your old map ."