Survival Of James Potter

Changes at Hogwarts

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. Any names, places and other things you may recognise from the books belong to JK Rowling, not me.

It didn't take long for Harry to send word to James that there had been lots of changes at Hogwarts.

'Prongs, I haven't even been at Hogwarts a week and already so much has changed. The Ministry has assigned a DADA professor. She goes by the name of Deloris Umbridge and she's pure evil. She was one of the ones who was at my hearing that said I should be convicted. Something's going on. Hermione says the Ministry is interfering at Hogwarts. They won't let us practice magic in defence either. Will update you again when I know more. Miss you already, Harry'

James made his way down to the kitchen where the next Order meeting was about to take place. He sat down between Remus and Sirius, who were already at the table with Moody, Tonks, Molly, Arthur and a few other Order members. The room fell silent when Moody stood up.

"Right so, the kids have safely arrived at Hogwarts," He said, "Dumbledore has requested that we guard the castle and Hogsmead from the first Hogsmead meeting in a couple of weeks' time as a precaution. We will organise the rota at the end of the meeting. Any more points to add on that?"

Every shook their heads, except James, who stood up and pulled out the letter from his robes, "Harry has informed me of certain changes that have already happened at Hogwarts, and I think you'll want to hear them." He announced, "The new Defence professor was assigned by the Ministry, Deloris Umbridge. She was at Harry's hearing and he said was one of the ones who didn't want him to walk free. They've already had a lesson with her and they have been told they are not going to practice practical defence. I think the Minister for Magic is scared Dumbledore is going to take him down." He sat back down.

"That doesn't surprise me" Sirius said

"Nor me," Arthur agreed, "The Auror office has been partially cut off. We have no clue what is going on elsewhere in the Ministry. Especially the department of Mysteries. I hate to say it but Percy has been snooping around a lot."

"Well," Moody said, "Arthur can you keep us updated on that" Arthur nodded. "Good. I don't think there is anything else to discuss so it's just a case of creating a rota."

The rota was completed in 5 minutes, James down to patrol the forest when an emergency arose and with that the meeting was adjourned.

******

Term time passed slowly for James. Without the regular visits from Harry, life was a bit lonely and he was coming to understand how his parents felt when they sent him to Hogwarts.

People from the Order filtered in an out on a constant, updating everyone else and collecting new assignments. As no one outside of the Order knew James was alive, he couldn't do much but sit around. Most days Sirius was around to, looking after Buckbeak the Hippogriff and keeping Kreacher the house elf in check.

The pair would often play wizard chess if there was a spare moment or help to make the house a bit more homely. After all, it was empty for 12 years. They had finally countered the charm on Mrs Black and she was now wrapped up in a bin bag out the back, waiting to go on a bonfire.

Most of the walls in the house had been redecorated, making it brighter and inviting instead of dark and dingy. All the furniture had been replaced, and Sirius made the brave decision to remove everything from his brother's room, all but the plaque on the door.

His room had been cleared and various objects and posters had been removed and put in a box in the attic. A letter from Lily had been found on the floor, including a picture of them as a family. James made a mental note to give it to Harry when he returned, as he didn't have many photos of the three of them. The term continued to pass like this, chess, clean, chess, clean, and the odd meeting.