"Not to worry Minister, it is not a policy that I'd like to propose," He said with reassurance, "I have been drawing up plans for a new summer program for young women. I've nearly completed the details, but I wanted to pitch you the idea first." Granted, the coming out ball wasn't the most appropriate place to discuss it, but Barnabas wasn't one to turn down an opportunity when it was presented to him. It was difficult to get an audience with Minister Ross. The man was understandably busy. Barnabas also suspected that he'd told his secretary to make it difficult for him to get an appointment. He couldn't imagine why, but the man seemed to dislike him. Likely, Ross felt threatened by him. Barnabas had nearly beaten him in the elections, after all.

"With the tragedy that befell Miss Scrimgeour, it had me thinking what could have been done differently --- and then I landed on the idea that we run a program specifically for young women who want to learn how to defend themselves. It would focus on simple, defensive wandless magic, but also some more advanced defense spells with wandwork. I had thought we'd have several aurors as instructors, perhaps the defense against the dark arts professor Nikolai Sleptov would also be interested."