As he raised his wand the headmasters' private floo erupted, startling him. "What??"
"Ah! Dumbledore-san! I haven't interrupted you in the middle of anything important have I? The time zones are so tricky to manage," an asian voice called.
As Dumbledore looked into the green fire he saw the face of an old Asian man, complete with a wispy white mustache and an elongated beard. "Deushi-san! What a pleasant surprise. You didn't interrupt anything important, just getting the last letters ready to send out to the new students for Hogwarts. How are things at your magical school?"
Deushi smiled. "Oh they are doing fine, the classes are full, the teachers willing, and the students eager to learn. Can a headmaster ask for anything more?"
Dumbledore chuckled as he popped a lemon drop into his mouth. "Indeed we can not, eager young minds to shape into the leaders that will serve the wizarding community of the future. "
Deushi nodded before continuing. "Actually that's why I'm flooing you now. And I'm glad I got to you before you sent out your school's letters."
Dumbledore blinked and nodded curiously for the Japanese headmaster to continue.
Seeing the unspoken permission Deushi began to lay out his problem. "As you may or may not have heard, there has been a recent boom in the number of magical children in the Asian territories as of late. Now many of them are reaching their eleventh birthday and are ready to begin their magical education. The problem is that our ministry never authorized the funds to expand our school to accommodate the increased number of students. As a result we have far more potential witches and wizards than our school can accommodate."
"I see." Dumbledore stroked his beard as he thought. "That is quite the dilemma."
"Indeed Dumbledore-san. I suspect that our lack of funding has been a rather deliberate ploy made by the local blood purist families, who are now petitioning the ministry to have us exclude muggle-born students from our schools and the wizarding world. 'In order that our schools can effectively teach the young children entrusted to them', of course."
"Oh dear." A frown crossed Albus's face as he shook his head in disgust.
"Mmm... well the ministry hasn't yet formalized any such laws. Still the fact remains that until we get more funding or the current boom dies down, we simply do not have the facilities to teach and train this new generation of magic users effectively. So long as that remains the case the blood purists will have a legitimate point, however distasteful their solutions are." The Asian headmaster sighed, then his face crinkled in a smile. "Fortunately I have found a relatively decent compromise."
"Do tell Deushi." Dumbledore leaned forward.
"I have been trying to emulate the muggle student exchange programs, so to speak. Asking schools in other wizarding communities if they can take on a few students for their wizarding training. True they may not get the Asian wizarding world culture like normal students, but it is a better solution than just binding up their magic and forgetting about them. Don't you agree Albus? I've managed to find schools for the majority of the potential students, but I still have a few left and I was wondering..."
Albus's eyes twinkled madly as he matched the Asian headmaster's smile. "Deushi I would be delighted to take several of them on at Hogwarts, we have plenty of space for a few extra students here. It will be no trouble at all to add them to the invitation list. Will they be needing translation charm badges?"
A sigh of relief went through Deushi's mouth. "Thank you Dumbledore-san. I'll send the list right through. There should be about ten names on it, if you can't take them all just let me know. Oh and do not worry, we will be providing translation badges for the non-English speakers among the muggles."
Dumbledore nodded and accepted the list that popped out of the floo. He casually glanced down the list while he chatted with the Asian headmaster, discussing arrangements and details for the new first year he would be adding.
As he came to one name, the elderly wizard shivered a bit as if he could feel Fate's gaze join his own. After a moment he shook it off as nothing more than his imagination, moving on down the list. He gave no more thought to the name of the Japanese student he had just read. The name of...
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