Waxwings School for Magic was located on the edge of the mostly magical village of Puddlemere in the Piddle Valley area of the county of Dorset. The School Building itself had once been the local primary school for the immediate area, having been built in 1750. A little over sixty years ago the local authority had decided that they could not justify having a school at Puddlemere as well as one at the nearby Puddletown, so the Puddlemere school had closed.
The building had been put up for sale and was purchased by a young wizard named Magnus Winston with the intention of opening a magical school aimed at providing an education for the poorer Lesser and Clan families, as well as poorer Muggleborns.
Waxwings, as it had been named, had soon risen in esteem and before long was outdoing the Frogspawn Academy, the original establishment with the same aims. Frogspawn Academy had been victim to years of mismanagement by richer purebloods who liked to boast about their involvement in "Giving the poor a chance" while at the same time actively keeping the standards low so that their own children would face less competition when it came to finding work.
Within five years of Waxwings School for Magic opening, Frogspawn Academy had closed down due to lack of student numbers. Since then Waxwings had gone from strength to strength, providing excellent education for those who simply could not afford Hogwarts, another institution that had been hijacked and led astray by the pure-bloods – Hogwarts having originally been intended for everyone now served the richer side of the wizarding world, no matter what others said.
It was to this school that Griselda Marchbanks was now headed. She and the two others with her walked over the wooden bridge that crossed the River Piddle (for which the area was named) and stepped onto Waxwings' grounds. Unlike Hogwarts, Waxwings did not have a lot of ground surrounding it. A short pathway ran up through a sloping lawn at the front of the school and large garden area used for Herbology could be found to the back of the school, but that was about it.
But then, the school did not specifically require a huge amount of land. The home pitch of the Puddlemere United Quidditch Team, along with their two training pitches, was within easy walking distance and the students of the school were granted permission to use the training pitches for their own practice. The village itself also had a large recreation ground, complete with a cricket pitch, a football pitch, a basketball hoop, two slides and a swing set, giving the students plenty of options.
The group passed through the front doors of the school and were met with a sign that read;
"All visitors must report to Reception."
Underneath those words was a decorative black arrow pointing off to the left. Turning that way they saw an office behind wooden framed glass walls. The door to it was open and a sign above the door read Reception.
Madam Marchbanks led the way into the office. There was no one sitting at the reception desk, instead the receptionist was standing by a filling cabinet, rifling through one of the drawers. When she did not look over at them, Griselda rang the bell on the desk.
"One moment, please," said the receptionist as she pulled a file out of the cabinet and shut it. She approached the fireplace in a corner where a disembodied head of a man was floating in the flames.
"The code is JJ713-2Q, Mr Knight," the receptionist read from the folder.
"Excellent," said the man. "I'll have the forms in the post this afternoon. Thanks again, Mrs Brydon."
With that his head disappeared from the fireplace and the flames died away.
The receptionist, now identified as one Mrs Brydon, returned to the filling cabinet and put the folder back before taking a seat behind her desk and addressing the three newcomers.
"Good afternoon and welcome to Waxwings School for Magic. How may I help you?"
"I'm Griselda Marchbanks from the Wizarding Examinations Authority. This is my co-worker Mr Russell Johnson and this is his assistant Miss Elisabeth Prang. We have a meeting scheduled with the Headmistress."
"Oh, of course; I was told to expect you. If you don't mind, we just need to give you some security clearance. Madam Marchbanks, if we could start with you…"
Griselda Marchbanks was stunned. Security clearance? She was the Head of the Wizarding Examinations Authority.
Sensing her surprise, Johnson came to her rescue. "I should probably have informed you before we got here, Griselda, but this is standard procedure at here at Waxwings. The examination administrators have to go through this every year here."
Griselda gave a nod of acceptance, now regretting never having visited Waxwings in person.
"What do you need for this security clearance?" she asked Mrs Brydon.
"Well to start with you will need to prove who you are," explained the receptionist. "Your Ministerial identification badge should suffice."
As Griselda opened her purse to locate her badge, Mrs Brydon went over to the wall and pulled a metallic handle that hung down from the ceiling. Somewhere nearby a bell chimed and not a minute later two men arrived. One was a rather tall and well-muscled individual in his mid-thirties while the other was a slightly overweight man in his forties.
Both men were dressed in grey robes and each wore golden badge with the word "Security" written on it.
"Robert, Gordon," said Mrs Brydon. "We have three guests requiring security clearance."
Robert, the younger of the two, nodded and held out his hand "Your badge, please."
Griselda handed over her Ministerial Identification badge and he looked it over before taking out his wand and tapping it a couple of times.
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