Of Monsters, Of Men

Chapter 29

A day turned into two, then three, then a week, then a couple more. Tom and Harry slowly acclimated to their life outside Slytherin, fending off increasingly bold attacks by disgruntled Slytherin students.

The six decided upon a schedule for dueling: Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. From basic dueling forms and the preliminary tests, Tom and Harry progressed to teaching the easiest dark spells—jinxes, then introducing a couple moderate hexes they'd used in school before. Then, they began including more hexes that they hadn't seen before.

While they taught Lawrence, Myrtle, Polly, and Nina the Dark Arts, they advertised the First-Generation Student Organization to their muggleborn peers through the grapevine. Lawrence, Myrtle, Polly, and Nina told their friends and acquaintances, who then told their friends and acquaintances, and so on until the whole Hogwarts muggleborn community was more-or-less informed of the club. The wider Hogwarts community was starting to catch on, too.

So, the six founders planned their first club meeting, an informational session about the club, its goals, and other logistical knowledge.

"Welcome all." Tom smiled brightly, his teeth gleaming. He clapped once. "We are so happy to introduce FiGS to you!"

Lawrence, Myrtle, Nina, and Polly passed out a flyer to each student in the auditorium, going down each of the four rows before returning to the front to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Harry and Tom. The yield at the first meeting comprised most of the Hogwarts muggleborn population with sixty to seventy students in attendance out of a total eighty-seven muggleborn students across all years. There were also a couple non-muggleborn students present, most likely convinced by their muggleborn friends to attend. Professor Dumbledore sat in the front row, keenly inspecting Tom and Harry. Harry would have preferred that he didn't attend, but club sponsors were required to attend the first club meeting, unfortunately.

Harry inspected the faces of the students staring back at him. He beamed as he stepped forward, accepting the microphone from Tom. "The First-Generation Students Organization, better known as 'FiGS' is the pride and joy of my friends and I," he said. "When we began attending Hogwarts, we all noticed something missing from our experiences that other students had. Specifically, we didn't have the resources and support that would have helped us acclimate to Hogwarts' environment. I'm sure many of you can relate."

Heads nodded in the crowd. Harry handed the microphone to Tom.

"That is why we founded FiGS," Tom said, his free hand gesturing to the six of them. "We wanted to create a safe, inclusive space where all first-generation students could feel welcomed into the Hogwarts community. We want to grant you all the capabilities to not just survive but thrive." He handed the microphone to Lawrence.

The audience clapped politely.

Lawrence smiled nervously before beginning, "Our plans for the remainder of this school year and the next are to hold informational sessions about how to utilize Hogwarts resources, such as asking counselors about muggleborn-specific scholarships and programs, as well as creating muggleborn and first-generation advocacy groups." He paused before saying, "Not all club meetings would be like this, though. In addition to career and academic workshops, we would also hold community-building events and charity drives. We also would like to ask you all if you would be willing to help us over the summer and participate in different activities and sessions that would introduce the Wizarding World to incoming first-years."

Someone in the middle raised their hand. Lawrence nodded at them. A girl with shoulder-length chocolate waves asked, "What would the time commitment be? I love FiGS and its mission, but I'm not sure how much time I could realistically contribute with my heavy workload."