That Will Not Fly Even With a Broom.
It was six weeks before the end of school and Hermione Granger had had enough. Of everything. Of everyone. Of this school. Of the students. Of the teachers. Every single bit of it. She might save two of them, maybe, if she was being generous. And she was usually generous. And forgiving for some reason. But not today. She hexed Ron in the library, making him start to shriek but she silenced him immediately.
"Stop. It." She glared and he backed down with a nod. "We have five weeks until comprehensive final exams for the year and our final grades are set by that, Ron. That means things from the first day can show up on the test. Things from yesterday, things from the day before the test, may all show up. Do you want to face your parents down with failing grades?" He shook his head, still silenced.
"Then I would put some effort into studying." She gave him a pointed look. "Here, somewhere else you want to study, just somewhere that you're not annoying us who intend to get good grades. Okay?" She took off the silencing spell and got back to her current homework and making notes to study for the tests.
She had them already started and had a good list of what she might need to go over again already. Some things you used so often you didn't have to remember them too hard. Some, you only read about them and never practiced in the class. And that was what was probably on the test. It would be what most of her former teachers would've done to make sure they paid attention.
"You know, the upper years said that they didn't allow non-purebloods to get the best grades," Ron told her.
She stared back. "If they're that petty, they can last through a lawsuit. Because I work hard for what I earn and I'm expecting my grades to be correct or else I'm helping Mum find a lawyer." She smiled. "I'm sure there's many who've been frustrated with the Ministry over that sort of thing, Ron." He shrank down again.
She sighed, going back to her list and her homework. She would ask their head of house later on if that was true, because if it was, her mother could find her one sooner instead of later she supposed. After she sent home all her graded things so her mother could have proof of the wrong doing.
Then again McGonagall would lie about it. She had to protect the school and the school wanted to protect the purebloods. She'd ask Snape instead. At least he was honest about his bigotry. After she sent her mother all her graded things. Just in case.
Ron looked at the others studying nearby from their house, hoping for help. They all ignored it. Even Harry. Who was reading something that looked boring.
***
Hermione looked at Professor Snape that weekend. "May I have a moment please?" she asked him quietly but politely.
"Why?"
"I wish to verify a rumor that teachers are intentionally messing with grades due to blood status instead of the work you put into them."
He stared at her. "Some may," he admitted. "I do not."
"I didn't figure you did, Professor, you just give your own house extra pity points if they're not doing well," she said dryly. "Which teachers are prone to that so I know who to quote if I have to sue the school?"
He blinked. "That would not be allowed by the ministry."
"Who said I'd ask for permission to find a lawyer?"
He snorted. "They wouldn't do that."
"And yet....there'd be proof."
"All your papers from this year are destroyed as you walk out the doorway by the spells on the door."
"And if we need our notes?" she asked dryly. "To refer back to for OWL or NEWT testing?"
"You can make new ones."
"Well it's a great thing I already brought home all mine." He raised an eyebrow. She smiled. "And they're just fine. I filed them already. They're not at home but they're all filed." She smiled. "Thank you for confirming that rumor, Professor. I hope I have as much fun next year as I had this year."
She walked off making plans. With a stop at the owlry to alert her parents. This was not going to be allowed. If they tried to allow it, she'd move. Completely. She could probably find another magical school somewhere. If they didn't allow that she'd figure it out somehow. She was smart, she could do that. Her parents would support that. It might even be a cheaper school, which left her more money for college.
Severus Snape sighed. "They'll stop you from doing it," he said quietly but smirked. He wanted to see her try that. "They'd never allow one like you to get so uppity." He sipped his water and didn't feel the need to warn any of the other teachers. If they had that very bad idea that was on their own heads. And the headmaster's because he never stopped it. It had been reported every single year. Nothing ever stopped it.
***
Hermione looked at Harry on the train. "Want to come over this summer?"
"If I can," he admitted. "I've got to go back to their house."
She nodded once. "We'll see what we can do to get you somewhere else sooner, Harry. Look for constant letters."
He smiled. "That'd be nice. Didn't they tell you they couldn't?"
She nodded. "Yes but there's the post. They can't interfere with the post very easily I'm figuring."
He blinked a few times. "That's a good point, yeah. My aunt won't like it."
She shrugged. "I can hex an aunt just like I have Ron." She smiled at him then at Harry again. "If I don't hear back of course I'd just show up." He shuddered. She grinned. "But we'll see how that happens, Harry. I'm feeling a bit militant today."
"I can tell," he agreed quietly. "Then what happens?"
"Well, I'm looking at transferring. There's got to be better schools out there." She sighed. "But we'll see what happens." He nodded at that. Ron gave her an odd look. "What?"
"The Ministry won't allow that."
"I'm a free citizen of the UK, Ron. I can move any bloody place I want to move as long as my parents agree with that. No government has any right to say any single bit about where I live as long as my parents agree and I'm safe there." He looked so confused. She smiled.
"The UK government, they're not nice about it when they're screwed with. There may be treaties, but that probably doesn't cover things like social workers." Harry shuddered. "Hmm." She went back to reading. She was completely and totally done with this whole school.
Transferring after her first year wouldn't look so odd. Many students made a horrendous choice with their boarding schools and switched to a better one. She could do the same thing. And drag Harry with her so he was safe. Somehow. Even if she had to force the issue somehow.
Harry let her plot. He knew that sort of stubborn determination. He'd seen her doing it before with her homework. He wasn't sure who'd win but he wasn't sure if she could take on a government at her age. They were just kids. Sure, they were kids who had beaten someone evil a few weeks earlier but still, they were just kids.
***
Hermione smiled at the representative for the country she wanted to go to school in. It was the magical one, she had looked it up through the Ministry, supposedly for a vacation trip. She smiled, holding out a hand. "Hermione Granger, sir."
"Why did you want to see me, Miss Granger?" He shook her hand and waved at a chair. She sat down properly. "It's not often we see students of your age."
She handed over a letter. "I was once invited that school and then Hogwarts popped up it's ugly little bigoted head." He winced. "How do I transfer there or to a better magical school?"
"The local one won't allow that."
"I don't care what the bigots allow as I'm not covered under their laws. I'm not a pureblood by any means. That law only covers pureblood students. As does the law that says that teachers should grade down non-pureblood students." She handed over her transcripts, her graded papers folder, and her letter from the school with her grades. "You can see they did it that time and I'm not happy." She smiled.
"Frankly, I do not care what the blood based bigots want or don't want. Their laws don't even pertain to me as a muggle born student. Only the statue of secrecy has us written into it and some very biased laws about binding us when we're not in school." She handed those over as well with a smile. "I have myself and a friend I wish to attend. I know I'll have to pay tuition for us both. I do have a small educational trust. Is that school magical perhaps?"
"You seem quite upset."
"Yes, I am." She smiled at him. "I'm two years ahead in my muggle classes. Well, I was before I went there and found out they had none so I had to take private study." He winced. "So I'm probably about a class behind in that right now. That's also in the transcripts, the second part." He looked and hummed, nodding at that.
"As their laws don't pertain to me they cannot stop me from going to an appropriately difficult and astounding school like the one I nearly attended. And I wish to bring my friend Harry with me. He is a good student, when he's not distracted by an evil going on. I'd like him to be safe, me to be safe, and us to not be in England. That school is one I'd still adore to attend. It had most of what I wanted, though it had no sports with horses." She smiled. "I do like horses at my age."
"I can see why," he said with a nod. "Was he raised in the community?"
"No." She smiled and shook her head. "He's an orphan, dropped on a relative's doorstep and ignored. He went to local schools that were free."
"What if the local ministry doesn't want to allow you to transfer?"
"Well, I have started a lawsuit over that grade tampering." She smiled. "In the international court as I have dual citizenship. I was born while my parents were on holiday you see. Still within the Commonwealth but I was born in Ireland." He winced at that. "Their ministry doesn't allow that at all. Their ministry has rules covering all that and allowing students to transfer to a good school. I can lean on that one if I must."
"Would your friend have that same problem?"
"Frankly, if I have to I'll kidnap Harry." She shrugged. "At least then I know he'd be safe and healthy. Not trapped living in a closet." She smiled a bit. "After you I'm going to see a social worker about that. The ministry has been tampering there too." She shrugged with a slight smile. "I've told Harry about this already. He hasn't been allowed to get any letters or send any. For all we know his relatives have killed him."
He blinked a few times. "Is it that serious?"
She pulled out a picture to show him. "That's his back, I asked his permission to take that picture to show my mother to see if there was a way we could heal that one scar a bit as it was swelling greatly. No one seemed to care that it was bothering him enough that it was harming his sleeping." He took it to look at and winced.
"Exactly. Which is why I'm in a fierce mood about all this. I do not want to go back to Hogwarts. Ever. I don't want Harry to go back there, where the teachers compare him to his parents. Constantly. And me to his mother. Constantly. Where they're biased against both of us, him for his parents dying and saving him and me for my parents being perfectly great parents but not magical." She smiled. "So how can I do that and is that school magical perhaps?"
"It is not but they do have a sister school that is."
"Wonderful. Can I do the application with you? My French is fairly good but I only speak a smattering of German and Spanish. Mostly enough to read tourist signs."
"Let me check on that first. Give me a moment." He went to call from his boss's office so he heard. He brought all that with him too so it was all noted. He understood who Harry actually was, and this could get rather messy. Or very messy.
The school saw her former application had been accepted and why and agreed she'd be a great student, they accepted transfers, Hogwarts wasn't the best school out there but they were sure she could do a few remedial lessons to catch up within a year.
If not, she'd be allowing herself to be held back or something they supposed. Harry's grades were included and they were decent enough, and they agreed that she could easily protect her poor orphaned best friend by bringing him as long as someone paid the tuition.
His boss jumped in to talk about that lawsuit in the international courts. They had heard and applauded it being her that had done that. She had a good reason. She had given proof. It served those bigoted ones right for being so problematic with good students. Real teachers never did such things. Nor real schools. They appreciated good students who wanted to get somewhere in life. They often helped the school later on in their lives by sponsoring students or offering scholarships.
Hermione got her father in when he came in with the application for them. She filled out Harry's while her father drove over. Then hers. She handed it to him. "I'm transferring to near my original choice and I'm bringing Harry."
He sighed. "I know you talked about that," he said, staring at her. She nodded. "Bringing him may be a problem if social services gets involved."
"Or they could offer him emancipation," she offered. "He's young but he's got family money."
He blinked. "I didn't realize that."
"He admitted that he had a trust vault for schooling. That would probably go to that school and if not I'm the sort that'd get scholarships later on or I'd figure out how to get my college done. Somehow." She stared at her father.
"There's days you remind me very much of your mother, Hermione."
She smiled. "Thank you. I'm sure she'd be thrilled to be so complimented."
He nodded. "Probably. She's really livid at your present school."
"That makes many of us. We should form a support group."
"I think you already have one." He looked over the application, nodding at hers. "How did you get Harry's things?"
"I helped him fill out something before the holidays."
"Oh." He nodded, going over it with a nod. "Yes, that looks complete. All but the essay." He looked at her.
She smiled at him. "I can figure that out. Would his aunt really mind if he disappeared from England to an auspicious boarding school in Switzerland?"
"I wouldn't even if I hated the kid. It'd be something she can brag on."
She nodded. "I can visit that social worker tomorrow and go talk to her today." She looked at the diplomat who was still amused. "I will protect him. He deserves it, he's a good friend. He stuck up for me even when the whole damn school decided to bully me. Even our other friend." He nodded at that. She looked at her father. Who nodded at that. "Can we?"
"We can," he decided. "Is that a good school? Better than her present one?"
"Yes. It is." He smiled. "It's also very hard to get into. It's the sister to her original one." Hermione beamed at that. "It's amazing she got into that one."
"Well, I was ahead," she admitted. "I have to catch up this summer to be where I should have been if we had normal classes."
"Good. We look forward to seeing you've done that." She smiled and nodded.
"Though, she should not be doing chemistry homework over breakfast. She does need to eat," her father warned.
"Yes, Father."
"Good girl." He gave her a hug. "If I had known how bad it was I wouldn't have let her go to Hogwarts. At all. I would've asked that school to see if they had a magical track or found you somewhere."
"It's a difficult thing to find the hidden magical areas inside most embassies."
"I asked our Ministry here about who to talk to about what I needed to take a holiday trip," Hermione quipped with a smile.
"You are a bit crafty, Miss Granger. That's very good for you in the future I'm sure." She beamed at him for that. He sent over both applications. "Get him to write that essay on why there."
"I can do that today. We'll go visiting him." She smiled, standing up and shaking his hand when he held it out. "Thank you for your help in this matter. I hope many other students have that same opportunity." She and her father left with all that paperwork and the copies of the application they had made for her. She looked at her father, who nodded at that. "I'm being a fierce defender, just like Mum is, but I.... can't let that go on."
"No, you can't. I know you can't and wouldn't, Hermione. We both realized it when you told your mother about that stuff." He took her to the car, taking her to Surrey. They found the right house and Hermione straightened herself out as she got out of the car with him following. She knocked politely and smiled. "Hello, I'm Hermione. Harry's best friend. We have an idea to make sure that no one like those teachers comes anywhere near Harry or your family ever again. May my father and I come in please?" She smiled at her.
"I....what sort of idea?" She let them in before the neighbors got curious.
"I'm transferring schools to a prestigious Swiss school. Harry is welcome to go with me. Harry, write an essay quickly on why you want to go to Switzerland." He nodded, blinking a few times but sitting down to do that. Hermione looked at the older woman again. "I got in on my own merit before they told me about the great school here, which is unfortunately full of bigots who keep comparing me to your former sister.
"Apparently it's only the female muggleborns who study up there." She winced. "They also tanked our grades. I went from a top level school, second in the school score, to middle of the road. So I'm suing them." She smiled.
"Harry is more than welcome to come to that prestigious Swiss school. They've already agreed. We'd make sure it's paid for. You'd get to brag. Harry won't probably need to ever come back here. Housing during off terms can be figured out I'm sure." She smiled.
"They could hear and stop you. Or that lawsuit, dear."
"Or I could've filed it in the international courts. Which are not through the local Ministry, which has that same bias and I'm not covered under most of their laws. At all. Muggle borns are not listed in ninety-six percent of the laws so therefore not covered." She smiled. "So I'm using a tiny little loophole."
"And if we don't agree? They could come back."
"Then I can easily go talk to my father, who is a dentist." She smiled at the realization. "I'm doing this for Harry's benefit. He's my best friend. I want him safe, healthy, and out of England. Do you really wish to keep him here?"
"No, we don't," she admitted, looking at the boy, who was writing a good eassy. She went to look over his shoulder then sighed. "Write a real one, Boy!"
"I am." He showed her the first page. "I'm figuring out if it's too militant." He looked at Hermione. "You about need a uniform."
She nodded. "Perhaps if I need to pay for college that way. We'll figure that out." She smiled at him. "Though I do plan on diplomatic work." She walked over to hug him around the shoulders. "They have sports there beyond quid. They have soccer and cricket and all sorts of sports.
"They have international students, including some from the US. It's a great school. It has college preparatory classes. It has regular classes, unlike ours I've had to take privately. We'll have field trips." He looked at her. "If you really don't like it after a year you can come back to Hogwarts, Harry."
"True, I could. What about Ron and his family?"
She shrugged. "They'd want Ron to try at his homework. I would've thought about offering for him somehow but they expect top level grades and trying to learn things and doing the homework. Not having someone remind you every weekend."
"You did nag."
"Yes and that meant he passed. Barely in one class." He winced at that. "Can you imagine the fit if he hadn't?"
"Unfortunately," he agreed with a sigh. He finished up the essay, handing it to her to proofread. She did that and then sent it to the same person via a spell. She had his business card and it had a spell to send him forms on it. She got back a note saying it had been accepted, they were looking forward to them attending. Their letters would be sent in a week. She showed him that note, getting a nod. She showed it to Petunia, who grimaced but nodded. Harry looked at her. "Are you okay?"
"Just really peeved at the bigots, Harry. I hate unreasonable hatred for any reason. You know that."
"I do, I've seen you fighting against them. All of them." She nodded. "We can still write to Neville and Ron."
"We can," she agreed happily. "It'll be great to have penpals." They shared a grin and looked at Petunia. Who sighed but agreed he could go. Her father was happy with that and they brought Harry with them to free him of that area for the rest of the summer. They brought all his things with him because otherwise they'd be burned by her husband, she had said to. So that solved a lot of problems.
***
Hermione came down to breakfast a few days later. "Hello, Errol," she said, petting the old owl. "How are you this morning?"
"Ron wanted us to come over soon."
She shrugged. "I leave that up to you. I have to finish some of the private study work. Chemistry is killing my brain."
He nodded. "It looks really hard."
"It is." She smiled and nodded. "But a class I had to take anyway." She got to work on breakfast with him. "Is the other letter here yet?"
"No. Not yet. When do we tell the others?"
She shrugged. "As we travel?"
"That could work but that means they'll probably show up being mad."
She nodded. "That could be. Maybe. Don't care but maybe." They shared a look. "Did you see if they counted your grades down too?"
"Three percent in two of the classes. Yours?"
"I had the second best grades in the school until the final ones came out." He winced. "Behind the head boy actually. And I went with proof to the lawyer." He nodded, patting her on the arm. "I wonder what their uniforms look like."
"Don't know. I hope they're warm. Switzerland has mountains."
"Yes, we'll be halfway up one." She smiled. "But they have a lot of things. Including pens and typewriters and electricity."
He snickered. "That's good. That'd be a nice change." They settled in to do the summer assignments just in case they had to send them in. Because one never knew who'd demand they fill out things for them. They got their official letters a few days later. The same day their Hogwarts letters came. And Molly Weasley showed up. Hermione was slicing an orange so looked up at her appearing. "Hello, Mrs. Weasley."
"Hermione. Dear, you could've come over."
"I'm busy doing a lot of private study work for my actual classes I'll need for college. I didn't have time. Chemistry is so very annoying at times." She smiled.
"College?"
"Yes, to get a good career it takes college," she said. "Which I plan on attending so I can have a good future career." She smiled, eating a bite of orange. "Don't the children have college plans yet?"
"No. They're expected to work for the Ministry like their father."
"Oh, that's great then. I'd do that but I don't like dentistry that much. Maybe some other medical field but not dentistry. Mouths can be so icky." She grimaced, eating another slice of orange.
"Is Harry not here? We heard he was."
"He's still asleep. He was up late last night working on something for an assignment. I leant him my algebra book so he knew what it was for his own college entrance tests later on. They're ever so difficult if you don't get through calculus. That's three classes later than algebra." She grimaced a bit but ate another piece of orange.
"Ours don't require that. They just require NEWTs," she explained.
"Yes but they're not accepted in other colleges if I need a secondary degree. If I go into medicine I'd need test scores that would be accepted by the medical school. As I'm a legacy there, it might be easier but I can't count on that standing up for me. Even being two years ahead of my muggle studies levels."
"You're what?" she demanded.
"I skipped two grades early on." She smiled. "It was quite an accomplishment but I was well beyond first form and third form when I got there." She shrugged some but smiled at her. "I just found the things I was reading interesting. I had a whole engineering phase in there and an astronomy one. It helped getting skipped from third to fourth." She ate another bite of orange with a smile.
"We've never seen anyone who did that."
"I was skipped with six other students that year," she admitted. "It's more common in primary school I suppose. Easier to get ahead. If I hadn't gotten the call from Hogwarts I would've been in an exceptional boarding academy overseas already." She shrugged. "But then all that popped up. So I'm doing private study to keep up those studies so I can pass into college."
Molly swallowed. "We don't do that the same way apparently, dear."
She shrugged. "I'll pick a college I want to attend."
"Many won't allow a non-pureblood to attend at all."
"Why would I look at those schools then? I'm already getting offers from Cambridge for summer sessions, Mrs. Weasley. I have my pick of most of the colleges on earth. I'll find one I like the looks of and the degree I want in there." She smiled. "I'm not hampered by having to go locally."
"The scores may not transfer. Our NEWTs don't transfer in every country."
"Which is why I'm taking the regular tests as well," she agreed happily. "So I'm not hampered by the ideals of someone who hates my parents for being absolutely wonderful but not magical." She shrugged.
"I suppose you could do mediwitch classes."
Hermione raised an eyebrow. "No, I'd go to medical school to be a physician, not a nurse. Nursing school is often at the regular colleges. It's a four year plus a masters program these days. Medical school is a regular college and then medical school for four years." Molly grimaced at that. She smiled.
"The same as dental school was for my parents. You do pre-med and then medical school." She cut more segments of the orange to finish her snack. "But I really must get back to chemistry. I keep getting my bases and acids mixed up." She smiled at her. "Tell Ron we said hello."
"We're doing our shopping today. It's list day."
"No, not today. I'm being girlish and I hate shopping during that."
"Why are you doing that at your age?"
"Most of the muggle born girls are doing that at my age, Mrs. Weasley. Most of us have it by the time we're thirteen these days." Molly looked horrified. "I'll go after my appointment in two days. I have my yearly medical exam then so I'll pop around to the alley then." She slumped but nodded. She listened, looking up there. "Harry?" she called. No answer. "He must still be asleep. If he wakes up soon I'll let him know you wanted him to go shopping with you and the family so he can hurry over."
"That'd be good of you, dear. Are you sure?"
"Yes, quite. I don't want to travel too far away from supplies and a restroom today. It's just not safe. Thankfully they make medicines to take care of that problem." She smiled.
"That would harm your magic."
"Really? The mediwitch I see didn't say that. Hmm. I'll have to ask her. Thank you for telling me." She smiled, eating another bite of orange. "I hope Ginny never has one like mine started, just suddenly out of nowhere one day." She grimaced. "I sneezed and it was suddenly there." She grimaced and sighed, putting an apple in front of her to slice up too. "I'm making a morning snack. Want some?"
"No, dear. Thank you anyway." She left, going to shudder at the very thought of her daughter having her monthly. Maybe she didn't want to mentor the young muggleborn woman after all. She was fairly...blunt. And poor Harry, being talked into taking extra classes for no reason. He didn't need those to work for the Ministry. She'd have to let him know that.
Hermione looked up. "She's said if you wake up you can go with them," she called.
"Not today. I'm being girlish," he called back. She giggled. He came down to get half of her snack. "Do we go to Madam Malkin for our uniforms?"
"I don't know," she admitted. She opened their letters from the new school, which listed which clothier had theirs. Not Madam Malkin. Theirs was down by Harrod's. That was excellent. A very safe area most of the time. And almost no Hogwarts students probably. Which would be nice. They could slip off and no one would notice.
***
Harry looked at the banker he had asked to speak to about his trust vault. "I'm going to a better school," he said once he had greeted him.
"Not Hogwarts?"
"No." He handed over that letter. "Is that going to be a huge problem with what was left to me?"
"No, Mr. Potter. Not at all actually. They're actually a bit cheaper." He looked at him. "How did you come to their notice?"
"One of my classmates is going."
"Oh. That's interesting." He nodded at that. "You'd need to transfer some money over in their native one. Or in the Euros they're going to soon."
"I figured I would. Can I move that there cheaply?"
"That may depend," he admitted. "But we can allow access from there. There's a small fee attached."
He winced. "That's what I'm worried about. I'd like to be able to afford school."
"You probably can." He stared at him. "There will be a fit started."
He nodded. "That's great. They still cut my grades down based on my parents' birth." The goblin winced at that. "I don't really appreciate that. I'm sure my mother wouldn't have either."
"No, she probably didn't if she had heard. We heard she tried to sue them over it."
"So did that classmate. In the international courts." The banker looked stunned. "She has dual citizenship and realized that they'd never hold a fair trial here."
"Oh, dear. That's going to cause an even bigger fit."
"Probably. Maybe it'll get fixed for later students. She also pointed out a lot of the laws don't actually pertain to her. They only talk about purebloods and mixed bloods."
He considered it. "That's a good point. I hadn't considered that." He smiled at him. "I'll figure out how best to do that."
"That'd be great. We're going for uniforms in a bit."
"That would be a necessity." He let him down to his trust vault. Harry did take most of it with him in a charmed bag he had bought for a small fee at the desk for that. He had some changed for today and would set up a new account over there somehow. That way it'd be automatically translated without a fee.
He met Hermione in the pub and they left to find the bus to go to Harrod's. They were both nicely dressed enough so they wouldn't get funny looks. The clothier was easy to find, they got near there and the shop appeared. They went in.
"Hello," the shopkeeper said with a smile. "New students? First years?"
Hermione handed over her letter from them. "First year there, second year of schooling this way, ma'am. We're transferring."
"Oh, that's wonderful." She smiled. "Do you have winter clothes?"
"Actually I do. Harry will need to see what he'll need later on."
"I'll need to find a jacket," Harry admitted. "The cloak we had before always left me chilled."
The shopkeeper smiled. "That's fully acceptable, dear." She showed them the uniform options they had for them and let them pick. Harry could have chosen a kilt look but he decided to stay with pants. Hermione got a few skirts, some pants, and a few extra sweaters. Plus boots. They both needed boots. It was part of the uniform. So was the extra warm jacket.
They paid and went to gather their books at that store and then head home once they had practical things like pens they could like to use and notebooks with regular paper plus binders to put them in later. A new bag to carry things in because it was easier to carry a backpack than a cross-body sort they had used before.
It was great to have a sensible shopping list for school.
***
They got to the right train station thanks to the plane and then a short train trip. They were met by someone from the school. "Ma'am. Hermione Granger and this is Harry Potter."
She nodded, shaking their hands. "Good afternoon, children. Who is that?"
"This is Hedwig. She's my familiar," Harry said with a smile. "She's a great friend."
"I'm sure she is. We do allow it. We know that your ministry is a bit...backwards about some things. So that's fine, dear." She looked at him. "You look pale."
"Something on the train bothered my scar. Which....I'm aware is *something* but not what."
"By what you were told, it had something to do with how your mother protected you," Hermione reminded him.
"True. So I'm a bit worried. I had headaches all last year from the defense teacher and his extra passenger."
She frowned. "Really?" He nodded. "What extra passenger? His familiar?"
"He had a ghoul on the back of his head."
"Oh, dear. Why?" Harry shrugged. "Is it still loose?"
"Professor Quirrel went to ash when I touched him because of some sort of protection I have on me. The ghoul flew off whining and probably ate another unicorn. He had eaten about six over the year." She grimaced. He shrugged. "He's evil."
"Point. I...need to ask about that. Our protections on the school would probably catch that. Let me ask someone." She called someone on her cellphone, which made Hermione happy to see. "Yes, dear, we have technology."
"Oh, thank any God you care to," she moaned. "I hate quills so much." The woman laughed as she hung up. An auror appeared with a pop. Hermione focused on them, stepping in front of Harry since he had his wand pulled. "Do not pull a wand on a child. That's fairly bad." He stared at her oddly. She stared back. "You're threatening a second year?"
He put his wand up. "We were told something was being bothered by the wards, dear. You?"
Harry waved a hand then pointed at his forehead. "I'm aware it's something. Something my mother did to protect me from You Know Who."
The auror blinked. "Okay, back up. Who're you?"
"Harry Potter."
"Oh. Okay so that suddenly makes more sense. Let me look at this protection, sir." Harry pointed at his forehead. "That's weird but clearly a curse scar." He frowned then touched it gently with a fingertip then took off his glove to do it again, which made Harry shiver. "That's definitely a something. Has anyone like a mediwitch seen it?"
"Madam Pomfrey at Hogwarts," he admitted.
"She should've reported that."
"They counted down our grades due to blood status," Hermione told him dryly. "Our last defense teacher had a ghoul on the back of his head. You'd think but common sense is apparently a rotted corpse in Hogwarts. Probably thanks to the moving staircases trapping it somewhere."
The auror snorted. "I've heard about those." He tested it again. "Okay, so you're not a problem." Harry smiled. "But that thing is."
"I'd really love to get rid of it. It's how a lot of people tell who I am. It's like a huge target in some ways."
"I can see why, yes." He nodded. "That'll probably take the bank's cursebreakers."
"I'm in to start school here with Hermione."
"We adore that," he agreed with a smile. "Our schools are wonderful. I went there myself." He looked at her.
She smiled. "Hermione Granger." He smiled and shook her hand. "Should I stay with him?"
"Tonight. You don't get sorted until tomorrow anyway. Today and tomorrow are travel days," the teacher told her. "I can pick them up tomorrow?" The auror nodded. "Good children. Oh, that's his owl." She pointed at her.
"She's pretty, Harry."
"That's Hedwig. She was my first present I got from anyone after my parents died. Hagrid gave it to me just before school last year."
"You were said to be a toddler when you were orphaned," he said with a frown. Harry nodded. He looked at Hermione. She was a huffy seeming teenage girl. "Do we have to watch out for kidnaping charges?"
"Nearly." She smiled. "But this let her not have him around and gave her something she could brag about."
"That works," he decided, taking the kids and their bags with him. They had aurors standing by in case some incoming student had things like problems or forbidden objects with them. Hedwig got fed a mouse after being checked for evil taint.
Hermione summoned one for her and made sure it wasn't poisoned. That was great of her. She kept Harry calm too and talked about how soon the other students would realize they weren't there. Ron had probably realized on the train. That let the aurors know that their old school was not going to be pleased but oh well. They were their students now!
Their school didn't have teachers with ghouls on their heads.
***
Harry woke up from the in-depth exam, looking at someone that looked sort of familiar. "You're related to Ron, aren't you?"
"Sure am," he agreed dryly. "Why're you here?"
"Going to school."
"Oh." He nodded. "Why? You were at Hogwarts."
"They tanked our grades on purpose."
"Oh. That reason. That figures, yup." He sighed. "Want the truth?" Harry nodded. "That's a nasty thing in there, Kiddo."
"Can it go away?"
"It might hurt you a lot."
"Modern medicine means he can be revived," Hermione offered from her spot reading in a corner. She smiled. "I can do CPR. I'm sure the healers can as well."
"Probably," one agreed. "How did you get that in there, sir?" she asked Harry.
He shook his head. "I didn't. Something my mother did meant that I survived the killing curse and that appeared. I know it's a protection. I ran into the same being's ghoul and the body he was using went to ash when I touched him."
The healer blinked. "Only one person...."
"I'm Harry Potter."
"Oh. They never said that." She grimaced. "Okay, so not your doing." Harry shook his head with a grin. "You want it gone?"
"Please, Merlin, yes."
She smiled. "You don't have to swear for Merlin. We accept multiple Gods."
"Great." He grinned. "I had to keep self censoring before."
Bill Weasley nodded. "We all did." He looked at her. "It'll take a containment team."
"Is that going to be expensive?" Harry asked. "I've only got my school vault."
Bill frowned at him. "Doubt that. Your family had money, Potter."
"I could only get into my school vault. I was told it was my entire trust and was for my education and later expenses."
"Doubt that. But I'll ask for you."
"And I have most of it here with me so I can set up a new account. That way I don't have to pay transfer fees."
"I like that a lot. It makes good sense. Using one of our bags?" Harry nodded. "They have a two week limit then it goes back to the vault."
Hermione counted. "Two weeks is in three days."
"We can do that later," Bill decided, going to find someone to start that paperwork and to ask about that. If that was true, someone had done something with some records. Or there was an age clause or something. They could tell the kid that. He came back with a senior cursebreaker, who looked exhausted. "His mother's protection led to him having a trapped horcrux."
"That's a word we haven't heard," Hermione said, hopping up to come over. "Is that why he's a ghoul? Can it help us end him for everyone? Before it comes back again?"
"Again?" Bill asked.
"Last year, Dumbledore had a stone of some kind in a mirror that he wanted. I made it through the tests to get it instead and fought him off. The ghoul flew off."
"You're a second year," Bill said. "Right?" Harry nodded. "Why did you do that?"
"No one else was," Hermione said. "I got him past a logic test that was in the way. Ron got him past a chess match."
Bill stared at her oddly. "My brother Ron?" She nodded. "Does our mother know?"
She shrugged. "Would Ron have told her?"
"Not if he's smart!" The other cursebreaker laughed at that. "Oh, gods, what is going on up there?" he muttered, looking up. He looked at his boss. "We need to get the thing outta his head. He starts school tomorrow."
"We can do that. It'll be a mess. We'll need a containment chamber." He looked at the kid. "You wanted to start a local account?"
"That way I don't have to pay transfer fees or to have money changed over?"
"That's not a bad idea. Though they shouldn't have had you paying a transfer fee to bring it here."
He shrugged. "I asked the banker."
"We'll....work on that while we gather what we need to remove that thing."
"Thank you."
"Welcome, kid." He stared at him. "Are you like the papers say?"
"No. Nothing like them. I'm not spoiled. I'm not cherished and pampered." He grimaced. "Maybe if I had been raised by my parents but no. Not anymore." Hermione gave him a hug. He patted her on the arm. "I'm okay."
"We should sue those books with all those fantastic stories about you and your parents."
"That'll take forever," Bill told her. "There's like ninety of 'em." She grimaced. "Yeah. Including some kids books where you go out and do adventure stuff."
"Had enough of that at school," Harry and Hermione said together.
"I wonder if that made my father lose the rest of his hair," he said, walking off again. He had to talk to Ron first then his parents. When he got some time for a trip home. Maybe near the holidays. His mother would be thrilled if he could.
He got the account person for the kid too. He was amused at what was in the records he had been asked to look at. Very amused. He went to talk to the boy, taking that bag to count up what was still in there and put it into a new account. Plus figure out where the missing half of it had went. You didn't spend that much to outfit a new student.
***
Harry limped into the school, nodding at the headmistress. "Sorry it took them so long."
"That's fine, Mr. Potter. Medical problems must be handled." She led him off talking to him about things. They did have houses, he'd be with Hermione in that house. They didn't have a sorting hat, they drew names from a hat. Since she had gotten him there they had stuck them together, which he was pleased with. She gave him the first day schedule for testing what they already knew.
Especially with their scores being downgraded that way. Hermione and a lot of other students had the same things going on. If he needed some remedial tutoring or a few classes they could build that into his schedule. He asked about quidditch and noted he had been playing seeker. She smiled at that and assured him they had a team so he could try out in a few months as long as he was in good academic standing.
Harry had to spend that night in the infirmary but he found a note on his pillow from Hermione in the morning with a piece of sugar free peppermint candy. He smiled at that and Hedwig when she flew in to sit on the foot of his bed and stare at him. He petted her gently and that was nice for a few minutes. He got up to shower, put on his new uniform for the first time, and then go to his testing. Hedwig went to the owlry he guessed. Or went to hunt mice maybe. As long as she was safe and happy he was happy.
***
McGonagall went to visit Hermione's parents. "Where is your daughter?" she asked.
"She probably sent you a note saying she transferred," Hermione's mother said.
"That's not allowed."
"Looking at those laws, they only note pureblood and mixed blooded students, not non-blooded students." She smiled at her. "According to the lawyer we talked to he agreed that she's not covered under that."
"It's all students."
"No it is not. Not by your law books." She found the lawyer's card and handed it over. "This is our lawyer. You can ask him. Also about the lawsuit." She smiled again just like her daughter did. "She's in a good school that doesn't grade based on blood history."
"That's still not permitted by the Ministry."
"According to your ministry, and the law books it wrote, it's illegal for her to have been born. So therefore she's somewhere safer and better. Somewhere that will encourage her to study and get further ahead of her studies. Thankfully she mostly kept up with where she had been when she went up there. The private study was hard on her. We didn't appreciate that for her anyway." She stared at the older woman.
"What private study?"
"She was taking the classes she'd need to pass her formal tests for college admittance, Professor. Didn't you know that? Girls like Hermione go to very good colleges and we're looking forward to that."
"We have our own."
"Which also apparently grade and admit on blood status." She smiled again. "Which we don't appreciate. At all. So when Hermione did the research and came to us about that, we wholly agreed she should transfer to a school that was more academics and reality heavy than just spell work.
"That is the standards set by other schools beyond a few bigger named ones in Europe apparently. She's in a very prestigious school." She smiled again at her husband, who came in to help with this talk. "She may not have gotten the nice letter saying Hermione had transferred."
"That figures. It takes an owl a bit to get anywhere that far away probably. It sure did when her letters to us got sent. Probably checked over too. Which is fairly wrong. She's not a prisoner." He stared at the professor.
"They might have checked to make sure she didn't talk about anything she shouldn't."
"We're her parents. We know most everything our daughter does," he told her. "That's how good parents are. Didn't your mother know what you were doing?"
"Well, yes."
"Did you tell her things from school?"
"Yes, of course."
"Then why was our daughter stopped from that?"
"It could violate the secrecy rules."
"We do know about that stuff. We're her parents." Hermione's mother stared at her. "We already knew. We knew she was having some weird things long before you showed up to talk to us and Hermione was on the way to figuring out how to make sure it quit happening when she wasn't wanting it to. She had pretty good control for an eleven year old girl."
"Oh. I was not aware of that. She didn't note that."
"No, you didn't seem interested when she asked you about lessons in meditation and things."
"It's not something we tend to do."
"Well, it works for her." She shrugged but grinned again. "She's fine where she is. We've gotten an email from her saying that the new school is appropriately hard. She only has to make up one class that they have that we don't have here. She had skipped earth science in favor of chemistry.
"So she's got both this year. They'll help her finish her private study of chemistry and send in the results so she can close out that file with the government and just have the other scores. They'll include that in her file, she asked if she needed to get transcript copies for later on."
"Oh. I had no idea she was taking extra classes. She had a lot to do with her present ones. She was always ahead."
"Yes, so she had time to do the other things and any fun things she wanted to do, though they were limited up there apparently. Thankfully her new school has things she likes to do. She just wishes they had horses because she likes horses and animals."
Professor McGonagall nodded. "How did she learn of that other school? Did they contact her?"
"No. She went to see someone about the school she would have attended if you hadn't popped around," Hermione's father told her. "They told her it wasn't magical but they did have a sister school that was and she arranged to apply there. They agreed she was a good choice for their program. So a prestigious school and one where she's actually challenged to do things. Plus not having to nag anyone to study so they don't flunk."
"Oh. Is Mr. Potter with her?"
"Yes, he is." He smiled. "She handed in his application as well. He did write his own essay and they agreed he's a good choice as well after meeting with him. He's got a few extra things to catch up on, his former primary wasn't all that academically strict, but he's doing good doing that already. I think they'll both thrive there greatly."
"Oh. I see. His parents would want him here."
"His parents would probably like him to be in a school that doesn't push down his grades because of who his mother was."
She winced. "A few did?" He nodded. "Oh, dear. It's thought to protect them from upsetting others who think they should get top scores."
"Then those sort should work for their top level scores, not take them due to family history. If they're jealous, there's nothing stopping them from studying harder."
"We try to tell them that."
"Well, leading a horse to water and all that I guess," Hermione's mother said. "I'm sure we'll all be happier with her in that excellent school. They were most happy she had been skipped two grades in primary."
She cleared her throat and nodded. "I wasn't aware of that or I would have suggested Seacrest. Is she local still? She could probably go there."
"No. She's on the mainland."
"The Ministry may try to say she's not in an appropriate school and have her bound for that."
"Then we'll go visit her instead of letting her come back here," Hermione's mother told her. "Just to keep her safe."
"I can understand that urge," she admitted. She cleared her throat again. "Well, I'll let the headmaster know. Are you sure it's a good school?"
"Yes. It's exclusive and very good," her father said. "And cheaper. Plus it has more things for her when she's done studying. Things that she can get into, clubs, activities. Even some school field trips. She does enjoy those. She most happy they had an art history class mandatory that went to a few museums."
"Oh. I didn't know any did. So not Beaubaxtons?"
"No. She's not in France."
She nodded. "I can understand that urge but many of those smaller schools aren't looked on as highly later on in magical colleges."
"Why would that matter? She'll pick her college based on her wanted track, not if they just do magical studies or not. She's not sure if she's going to medical school later or possibly diplomatic work. She had no intention of working for your ministry."
"Many children don't but they end up there."
"Yes, there's more opportunities in the muggle world," she agreed with a nod. "There she'd be forced into a narrow little box that would never fit her. She can do both. They do teach you that."
"That's good." She nodded. "Well, tell her the students are missing her."
"I can send that to her with my next email to her." She smiled. "They'll still probably write their friends."
"That's kind of them, yes." She nodded, going back to the school to talk to the headmaster. She stared at him. "They left due to the blood grading policy you let them do," she said. "They're in an exclusive academy that does have magic and muggle classes mixed apparently. That way she's not taking two different schools at once. As she apparently did last year. Harry got his own admittance on his own merit. They're not in France at all apparently. They mentioned prestigious, small, and exclusive about it."
"I loathe those uppity schools," he said pleasantly. "How did they manage that?"
"She noted that the laws don't cover non-blooded students. Then referred me to the lawyer they checked that with." He winced. "So apparently it is legal in some circumstances." She walked off to sulk. Which would be interrupted by Ron Weasley asking if she had heard anything.
She told him they had switched schools due to the blood issues that had gotten them both downgraded in scores. He pouted about that. She sighed but oh well. She did note they'd probably still write to their friends. He could easily write her a letter. Owls would deliver it without a proper address.
He nodded, going to do that. She had a sip of sherry to calm herself down. They had lost a fantastic student and Mr. Potter both it seemed. Probably for good. It was something Lily had tried but she had been stopped from going. Which had meant she got with James. Who helped destroy the ones who had stopped her from going to a different school.
***
Hermione was called up to the office. "Yes, Headmistress Yeager?" she asked with a curtsey. "Is there a problem?"
"No, dear. Just a bit of a note. Your lawyer called. The lawsuit was won without you having to be there."
"I told him he could call me and I'd excuse myself from classes for a bit but I'm happy to hear that. Did they fight long over why they had to hear it?"
"A bit. They realized that no fair trial could be gotten in the UK thanks to their ministry." She grimaced.
Hermione sighed but nodded. "I realize why. That's why I transferred."
"That's a good reason, yes." She stared at her. "How are you settling in?"
"I'm wonderful." She smiled. "It's great to not be doing it on my own so I can ask questions when I have them. Especially in chemistry. He managed to explain something that had stumped me for weeks. Three whole chapters finally made sense!"
"That's excellent." She smiled at her. "How is Harry doing?"
"He seems fine. He hasn't noted any problems to me. There's been no bullying, he's sleeping well. He hasn't asked for help with studying beyond asking if I could lend him a pen one day. His was out of ink and he didn't have his spare."
"That's fine. You are both doing very well, Miss Granger." She beamed at that. "The magical classes are perhaps a struggle?"
"Not, not for me. I mean, potions is very different without a lurking teacher staring at you like you're stupid. Just daring you to screw up because he hates your house anyway. Am I not doing okay in those?"
"No, you're doing fine. This is the usual new student check in, dear. Relax. It's not a talk about a failing grade."
"Oh, good," she sighed, smiling again. "I always try my best."
"It's great that you do and we do appreciate that in our students. Aren't your parents medical professionals?"
"Dentists, ma'am. I do not want to follow them before you ask. Mouths are rather gross to me."
"That's fine. Medical studies beyond that?"
"Perhaps. Not sure yet. I have that idea, perhaps something like diplomatic work, perhaps something like a history degree on the side. I do like history but I don't want to teach it so it might be a minor. I'm most thrilled that we're getting art appreciation lessons tied with cultural history. It gives me a fuller idea of why they painted that subject and why it was seen as popular. And I haven't heard a single thing about a goblin rebellion yet."
The headmistress stared at her. "We do not call them that," she said firmly.
"We don't?" She looked horrified. "Oh, dear. That's all we heard them called in the school. Oh, I hope I didn't make a huge misstep there. Oh, dear. I'll let Harry know."
"Your ministry calls them that?"
"Yes. It's in the official treaties even. Plus the history books and all that mess."
"Oh," she sighed, shaking her head. "They're so bad. All right. You can try a title or something like artificer as they are great craftsmen."
"Thank you! I can do that." She nodded. "I wonder if that is due to Fudge's being in that department first," she said, frowning at the window. "There's a car landing, ma'am."
She got up to look then grimaced. "That's our ministry."
"I hope it's not me and Harry. We just want to study and do good so we have a future."
"I hope you do as well. I hope we all do." She stared at the man being let into her office by her assistant. "Yes, Head Auror Carlisle?"
"Headmistress, there's been some weird things. You have a student who had a dark artifact on him?"
"If it was Harry, that was how his mother protected him," Hermione said. "That's how he survived the killing curse. He realized it had something but not what."
He blinked at her. "Who're you?"
"Hermione Granger." She smiled. "I transferred in from Hogwarts this year, sir."
"Oh. So you know Potter?"
"Yes." She smiled and nodded.
"Oh, fine then. He's not here, I mean in the country?"
She looked then pointed. "There he is." He looked then looked stunned. "We transferred in together due to the blood bigotry of Hogwarts. They cut my grades in half due to my blood status. He lost three percent."
"Oh, that's sad. The thing on him, was it destroyed?"
"Removed from his forehead."
He blinked. "What?"
She opened the window slightly. "Harry," she called then waved, getting a nod back. He came up a few minutes later. "This is the head auror locally, Harry. He had no idea about your scar thing but someone told him you had brought one here."
"Oh, that's great. Paperwork mistake?" he guessed, staring at him.
"No explanations actually, young man. Are you Harry Potter?"
"I am."
"Your headmaster said you're still in England."
"No I am not and I'm not interested in going back to Hogwarts."
"That's good. Why are you here?" He pointed at Hermione, who grinned at that. "She...kidnaped you?"
"It was an option I considered," she said with a smirk. "But I know Harry wants to be in a good school as well."
"He's doing good." Harry grinned at that. "I was going to call you up later to check on you and how you were settling in, Mr. Potter."
"It's great. We have pens and typewriters. There's no ink pots to spill. There's no ghost teaching history. No lurking teachers who hated my parents. It's great. Thank you so much for allowing me to attend here."
"You're most welcome." She smiled. "That's the second time I've heard a teacher lurking."
"Potions," Hermione told her with a slight nod then a sigh.
"Oh. That's... what if that caused an accident?" the auror asked.
"Then we got points taken off, called some names, and cleaned it up," Harry said. "Usually with detention."
"If he caused it you should do that to him," he told the kids.
"We don't need to be in the negative points for the house," Hermione said. "He hates our house. There's a rivalry."
"Oh. That's charming." He looked at the headmistress.
"Also, their books and the treaties apparently use the term goblin," she told him. He winced. Hermione and Harry both nodded. "Try their job title, Mr. Potter."
"It figures that Fudge had been in that department so he made everyone use slurs against them. I'm shocked they haven't started a new war," Harry said dryly.
"Well, the magical communities would have less easy ways of being attacked," Hermione admitted. "No electricity to cut off. No transportation systems to take out. No use bombing like in the last world war, a blitz would just get fixed." She considered it. "So it'd have to be by hand and would that really work? I saw one treaty had a firm limit of how many were allowed in the country at once."
He looked at her. "That doesn't shock me," he admitted with a sigh. "So glad we're not underneath Fudge."
She nodded. "Yes I am. By the way, she told me that we won the lawsuit."
"I hope they fix our former grades then." They shared a smile then looked at the two adults. "I'm just happy there's no ghoul on a teacher's head giving me a headache this year."
"Or him bringing a troll into the school," Hermione agreed. She tightened her pony tail. "I have gym next so I should probably go get changed soon, ma'am. Do you need me for more checking on us?"
"No, dear. I'll check in again in a few months. We'll do Mr. Potter's checking in now." She nodded, going to do that, she looked at him. "Are the classes too difficult, too many of them? Anything like that?"
"No. I'm a bit confused by some of that but the teachers are great to explain."
"Good. Have you signed up for your art history spot?" His eyes went wide. She smiled. "You can do that through next year, Harry."
"Okay, good." He sighed with a smile. "That'll be neat. Hermione said they went to museums?"
"They do and it's intertwined with cultural history at the same time."
"That's actually interesting sounding. I tried very hard not to nap to our former history classes. Professor Binns wasn't a great speaker. Not very energetic but he is a ghost so I guess he couldn't be."
"Probably not," she agreed with a smile. "Any problems with the other students?"
"I'm a bit worried why a few asked if I was in a marriage contract."
She blinked. "Some of your people are known for them. We find them rather archaic."
"Well, yeah, but the pureblood community is really small in England."
"Oh, that reason. Yes, that means no one marries a first cousin again."
Harry nodded. "Hopefully. I can't be sure with how some of them are but I have no idea and really don't want to know. Not my business."
"Good way of thinking of that." She nodded. "Have you been flirted with?" she asked.
He shook his head. "Not that I'm aware of. Not that I'd probably realize it. The only girl I know is a girl is Hermione and she's like my sister. So if a girl really wanted to flirt she might go to her to have Hermione tell me she's flirting."
"That can happen when you're not used to being around a lot of people. Headaches?"
"No. Not in the least. No weird dreams, no bad feelings, nothing like that." He grinned. "It's so nice!"
"Good. Has the nurse done your mandatory physical yet?" He winced. "What?" she asked patiently.
"No?"
"You should let her tonight, Mr. Potter. Just in case there's something that can be treated." She stared at him. "I'm aware the ones raising you weren't....good at it in your case I'll say, but there may be things that we can help you get, like allergy medicines."
"I only have a few to some cleaners."
"We need to know those so we don't set them off," she said. "That wasn't on your application."
"I never told Hermione about those I guess." He grimaced. "I've used them before anyway. I can do that most of the time."
She stared at him. "We are not like that, Harry. At all. Never were." He blushed, ducking his head. "We need to know so we don't accidentally expose you to something. That's a liability against the school if we don't."
"I'd never complain."
"I realize that." She walked around the desk to give him a gentle shoulder squeeze. "We're not nosy but we need you to be as healthy as you can be. You can't do your best if you're about to fall over. All right?" He nodded. "She won't make many notes about things like scars."
"I wish she would. I have one that keeps swelling. Hermione looked it up for me and said that I might have to lance it to get the fluid out. The mediwitch just suggested I quit using salt. They didn't like the students using muggle medicines."
She nodded. "That's sad. It really is. We don't mind at all. If it works better, go for it." She gave him another shoulder squeeze then smiled at him. "Relax. I'm not the mean one here. That's your last two years' history teacher. He's very firm about things." He nodded at that and made himself relax. She looked at the auror. "Did you need to look at his forehead scar?"
"Please. The other scar, Mr. Potter?"
He looked at him. "My cousin is spoiled by his parents as their only child. They loathed magic and anything weird. I'm not there and not going back there, however we can work that out for summers and breaks. I will disappear to live in the woods if I have to so I don't have to go back there."
"No, we have places you can stay." He tested the forehead scar that so many made noise about. "That is well cleaned. It just feels like normal skin, no magic now." Harry grinned at that. "They did good."
"Ron's brother was one of the cursebreakers."
"That's good. Who's Ron?"
"Our other mate. He's still back there. Ron doesn't like homework stuff. He's better at learning by doing stuff."
"That makes sense that you didn't bring him then. He wouldn't have thrived here," the headmistress said with a smile. "Though we do find you very nice as a student and Miss Granger as a bit pushy but able to be reasoned with, as many young women turn." He grinned and nodded he agreed.
"Well, we'll work out the summer holiday housing things later, Harry. Closer to spring break." He nodded and looked at the auror who nodded at the door so he left them. "I would've hated to see either of those two ruined by such old living schools. They still use quills there."
"That's disturbing." He grimaced. "At least schools like yours offer a safe refuge when someone runs from the eleven old style schools." She nodded. "Good luck with all that if you have to face Dumbledore."
"Oh, I've met the man. He does not thrill me in any manner as a headmaster. I have no idea why he prefers hand written papers. Half of them probably aren't readable. Especially among the younger students."
"No, probably not. My own handwriting's pathetic though so I'd have been one." He left, going to add a supplement to that report. That way when it went up higher it made a lot more sense and filled in that worrying gap about that artifact. He checked on what was going on against the British ministry. It wasn't looking pleasant but he wasn't sure if the Brits realized that mess was heading their way. They didn't often look outside their own boundaries because they didn't want to see anything but their own ways.
Their own very old ways.
"Quills." He shuddered. "Not even fountain pens."
***
Dumbledore showed up at an education conference one weekend, not finding any of the headmasters he was used to from the eleven schools that were on par with Hogwarts. So that proved that none of these were good schools. He kept his sneering to himself when he went to talk to one. "Hello. I'm Albus Dumbledore."
"Yes, we're aware," one of the headmasters told him. He looked like he was about to break out in sarcasm as well. "You run Hogwarts, which is so old school it's over a century behind. Your books are at least ten years out of date for modern magical students and in most areas you lag even farther behind because your history texts are over three decades out of date.
"It doesn't even cover the Falkland's War, Headmaster Dumbledore. Were you looking to attend this conference to talk about modern things that could help your students, like typewriters perhaps? It would be much easier on your students to keep notes and turn in readable papers."
"No, we have no need of such things."
"Hmm. Then why are you here? This is a conference on the upcoming textbook versus testing standards we have to deal with. Some of the idiots on high have been tampering with textbooks and putting inaccurate information into them where we teach real facts."
"We need to see if those of us with typewriters need to upgrade to computer systems," one told him. "Our students are interested in it but I'm not sure if any of them are looking at things like programming them." She sipped her coffee. "Also about vocational tracking if we can? We do have a *few* for the higher end degree programs but there's students interested in other lower degrees who could use it. Do any of you have a business track inside your studies?"
"We do," one agreed with a smile. "Always have. If you're talking a business track, there's simple additions that could help. Things like accounting one, so they can test out of that later. Business ethics and those sort of classes are partially covered by others probably. Statistics for the science or humanity level ones."
She nodded. "That'd only add three classes with just that. We already have an ethics class so I could have the teacher include a section on business ethics if they don't already have one. I haven't glanced at theirs and probably don't really need to as all the students pass ethics and good citizen classes before graduation."
Another headmistress nodded. "Ours don't have it mandatory, but it is suggested. Though, if you're from certain areas we do request it quite strongly." She looked at him. "So why did you show up, Headmaster Dumbledore?"
"Two of my students had the erroneous idea that they could transfer. We don't allow that."
She smirked at him. "According to the world court that law of yours only covers purebloods and mixed bloods by designation in the law. It's not written to cover anyone else. So they legally changed by that decision."
"What decision when?"
"Just two weeks ago," she told him. "It was part of that lawsuit on blood politics changing grades to keep down the ones without long bloodlines. They agreed it was archaic, wrong minded, and against international laws." She sipped her coffee, staring at him. "So apparently it wasn't a wrong thought, it was simply them escaping the bad system that would penalize them."
"One was of mixed blood."
She grimaced. "That poor child but I doubt you'd find them. None of us are going to talk about our students."
"They can't be getting a good education there," he said patiently. "They need training in magic, not business things."
"Magic is only a small part of our lives, Dumbledore. The rest of it, we have careers and lives. Magic is something we are, not our career of choice. There's no court magicians any longer. These days, magicals work in normal jobs and their magical lives are just part of who they are." He grimaced at that.
"Many of us live in mixed communities and in mixed neighborhoods. We can hide it from them easily and still pass the senior level testing that the ICW demands of all of our students. Didn't they make you up your NEWT level tests for that? I heard they were going to make you conform to international standards."
"We would never want our students to expect to live among those that aren't like them."
"That's a problem then. Because the world's getting tighter and closer," another headmaster told him with a shrug. "Magicals only make up ten percent of the world. There's more homosexual people than there are magicals in the world these days. So they have to be able to blend in. So said the ICW. Aren't you England's representative to them?"
"Yes, I sit directly behind their director."
"Then you should already know of that edict that came out ten years ago." He stared at him. "None of us have the fairytale history that your school does but most of ours are over a hundred years old. Only two are younger than seventy and one younger than fifty years."
"Yes but we're specialist," she said with a smile for him. "For those going into scientific and those sort of fields. That's why we're wondering about adding computers for programming classes. It could be a fascinating topic for our students. Think of the games and programs they could create. Ones that could help with spell crafting by taking proper notes and noting the runes and the like that were used in the components."
A few nodded. "That is a great idea. Plus the game idea. Many seem to be set in a fantasy environment. Our students would know more about that than others." She nibbled a bite of her toast. Then she looked at the old one.
"As for your students, we have not heard of any who transferred and escaped. There's a few that aren't here for this conference. I know the one in Geneva isn't." She looked around the room then at him. "Some of the smaller, more private ones didn't get to send someone. I don't see Fairley here either out of England."
"We were only told they were exclusive and supposedly prestigious. One of the ones that transferred is listed as a runaway from his proper family."
She stared at him. "Then I'm sure our ministries would get into that to settle who should be where. That's what social workers are for." She stared at him. "Though if they left a family that way they probably had a good reason.
"One that most of us would agree that hiding in a school could help cure by not being near whatever problem that caused the running away. Most of our schools have at least a teacher who can counsel as well, if not a full time therapist in a few cases. They could also help such students. And if there was something there to repair they could do that as well."
"One must be with his family or else the protections on him will fail."
"Hmm. Or he could be protected by not being in England. Where whatever could find him. You do manage to keep most of your nasties in your own borders at least." She stared at him, making him grimace again. "None of us would violate student confidentiality and privacy laws by telling you if we had taken them in, Dumbledore. That would harm our new students if we had them.
"In fact, most of us, as long as we're paid their tuition, we don't care who their parents are or aren't. Or how they got to our school. We just know that they met qualifications, which are stiff and very demanding in most cases. Your students doing your OWL exams don't pass our first year tests. So they had to be exceptional." She smiled.
"And the ICW decision the other day said that was just fine with us gathering new students that way. They went to a school that was better for them academically." She smiled at the others. "I had three apply and all got into the Sorbonne.
"Four who applied and three got accepted into the Business School in Geneva." They all beamed at her for that accomplishment. "For having an acceptance rate of half a percent that's exceptional of my students." She stared at him. "We had many who go to many fine colleges. All of us do. Including Cambridge and Oxford of yours. They both came to actively recruit some students this last year for the ones starting next year. How many did you get?"
"They do not have magical programs."
"Why would that matter? Magic isn't a career choice these days. No one's the old woman doing potions in the woods that the locals fear and love for healing them." She waved a hand in the air. "We're all doing regular jobs and magic is just part of our lives." He grimaced at that. She stared at him.
"You won't get any help from us, Dumbledore. It's great a *few* of your students could live up to our standards." He humphed and stomped off. "Have a good day." She smiled at his back, sipping her coffee. "That poor old style school circuit. They'll have to catch up some day." The others nodded at that.
***
Dumbledore stopped in his office at the ICW building, seeing all the pitying looks in his direction. So it did look like something had happened. Something he hadn't been told about by anyone. He saw the announcements waiting on him and stared at them. That was really, really bad. Though it proved who had 'handled it' because it was Fudge's personal attorney friend. He blinked, taking them back to hand to the Wizengamet when he called an emergency session.
They gave him odd looks and some came in complaining but he waved a hand. Fudge sneered at him. "Thanks to *someone* handling cases at the ICW without alerting me there were a few going on, the ICW has all but negated our government." He handed the one taking notes the judgements to copy and hand over.
"There is an appeal process. We should probably use them fairly quickly before someone gets an idea to audit our government. They do have that right at any given point in time but it's a lot of trouble to go to if they don't think they'll find something. Right now, we're sure they're going to find something." He glared at Fudge. "Or someone."
The copies got handed around. "But we won these!" Fudge complained.
"No we did not. Those are the official judgements. England did not win a single case in this round. That's all our cases in front of them by the way. Every single one. We lost nine cases, six of which we were protesting on our own behalf that they were being too pushy. I believe those may have been decided after the education case however."
"Then they should be gotten back where they belong!" Fudge said firmly, glaring at him.
"The court sided with them, not with us. We have no recourse in that one. That one is not appealable. The ways you wrote those laws were blatantly in violation of the overseeing charter laws. The judgement in that case noted that someone should audit our laws to make sure they were in line with general ICW guidelines." Fudge went pale.
"If they take that suggestion, we're without a government within days, Cornelius. Because the way you wrote many are biased and not equally meted out. Everyone is equal under the law." He looked at the others. "We need to decide today if I am going to file appeals in any of those that can be appealed. Which is six of the nine." They nodded at that, starting with the education one.
Lucius grimaced. "Who transferred out?"
"Granger and Potter. No one will admit which school they're in but they're not in the same circle as Hogwarts and the other sacred eleven schools. All I've heard is exclusive, prestigious, and no one's going to talk about it for their privacy. And if someone suggested one was kidnaped they could find a social worker to talk to them about that to make sure of those facts."
"Well, I'm sure my son is happy then but I hadn't heard that news," Lucius complained. "Interesting." He grimaced, going on. "She protested.... they counted down her grades due to her blood status?" He looked at Dumbledore. "I loathe mudbloods and no-bloods as much as the next pureblood does but isn't that a bit extreme, Dumbledore?"
"That is not my doing. That is officially allowed under Ministry policy. I have noted it is not good to do. Especially as that means that this sort of situation comes out. She argued that putting it in that court was necessary as ours could not and would not give her a fair hearing about that.
"I'm fairly certain she's correct about that. So she outed some of the ministry's dirty laundry. Then cases that have withered for over a year suddenly got decided on. I can only assume why," he finished sarcastically. "I was not even aware of cases being filed."
"How have others not done the same sort of lawsuit?" Augusta asked.
"They can't bring home their papers. It's not allowed to leave the school."
"No, you burn them as they head for the train," Lucius said. "That doesn't preclude them sending them home with an owl. Many of us did with our notes once we learned that so we'd have them for OWLs and NEWTs. Which is another stupid decision by the way."
"It's meant to keep down the chance of anyone finding evidence of our school if they do not know. Siblings and the like."
He nodded at that. "Still dumb." He went back to the other ones. "Oh, that's charming. That puts the other eleven traditionalist schools on notice as well. Could actually shut two of them. And possibly Hogwarts." He glared at Fudge then at Dumbledore before going back to reading with a head shake. "Is that... our laws are against their laws?"
"Yes. There's a law code that we as ICW members should fit within. We're allowed our own laws but certain things are all agreed upon that they will not be allowed. They found us in violation of that at least six times. Mostly from the same cause of 'everyone should be equal under the law'. It's written above the doorway to the courts. Even if it is a lofty goal that isn't always reached. We apparently go above and beyond violating that by that decision."
Augusta Longbottom sighed at that, rubbing her forehead as she read. "Can we hang him in the middle of the alley?" she asked.
"Seconded," Lucius said with a glare at Fudge, who was shuddering. "Though I'm not sure which end of him should be in the noose. Hanging him by his feet means he'd survive for days of people seeing his disgrace." He went back to reading. "This one violates our fundamental laws!"
"Yes, it does," he said with a nod. "Which we were ordered twenty years ago to update to fit within modern law framework. Or lose our ICW membership. Which would mean that we had no treaties, no trade pacts, nothing like that as they were all brokered through the ICW as two member nations negotiating. It kept bad clauses out of them. If we were to renegotiate, we'd be open to any clauses being in there and we may be forced to accept them to get things like food and fuel in."
He winced at that, nodding some. "Charming to know." He went back to it. "Perhaps I'll send Draco overseas so he's safe from some of the hell coming up," he muttered. He made a copy of all those and had a house elf bring them to Narcissa so she could make plans for their son. They needed him to live to adulthood. Somehow.
Dumbledore grimaced. "We can summon at least one back. Mr. Potter is not an unblooded student. He is a half-blood by technical means."
"By this case, no we cannot," Augusta said. "They said there's no reason to prevent students from transferring out of the country."
Dumbledore sighed. "I can appeal that part."
"No we cannot," she said. "Not without looking like lunatics who're keeping our students hostage. That would bring even more scrutiny to us."
"Why else would we not allow children to go to good schools," Lucius agreed.
"We have the best schools," Fudge complained loudly, getting up. "None of that matters!"
"They have all but effectively taken out our law book from underneath us and rendered us in time-out because they think we're incapable of being sensible," Dumbledore told him simply. "Yes it does matter. Unless you don't want to be able to heat your house this winter? Or get food in?"
"They can't do that!"
"They can do that. All those things were built on the back of the ICW membership. If we're not members, the pacts and treaties are canceled."
"They'll want us to buy it anyway!"
"They have many others who could buy most of those things. If they did allow us to buy them the prices would surely go up. It being built on the ICW membership meant that they can't favor one country over another for prices. Without it, our fuel would go from ten dollars a barrel to eighty dollars a barrel. A barrel lasts a normal house about two weeks probably."
Fudge looked sick at that idea. "It was more advantageous to build them on the back of the ICW membership. You ruined that for us and it's going to ruin a lot of things that we were still having access to. Did you mean to ruin our whole way of life? Because you have effectively done that, Cornelius. If you had told me I could have put some pressure to make sure that case never got heard at all. I could have gotten our students back here."
"I motion that Minister Fudge leave his office for good," someone in the back row muttered. "Before my wife kills him." He went back to reading, shaking his head.
"We can seem to give in and not do so," Fudge said. "I have plenty of times."
Dumbledore blinked. "Which is surprising as we're still considered a country of our own. If they knew that we'd be removed already and banned. Never to be allowed back. Which means that everything goes to hell." He looked at the others. "Though I second that motion. We need someone in the office who has some sense, political and otherwise. Someone who can repair our reputations."
Lucius stared at him. "I would welcome trying," he said smugly.
"You can't do that," he said. "They know about you." Lucius huffed at that. "And all the others with certain leanings. They did a hearing on that situation when it was all done with. The ones who were under compulsion and all that were noted as cleared as soon as he died." Lucius winced at that. "You would be a rather suspect choice. The same as Bagnold was seen as one because she was leaning in many directions."
"I am one of the best we've had," Fudge said happily.
"They think you're a moron with a hand up your arse because you're a puppet," Dumbledore told him. "They just don't know whose hand it is." That got a splutter from that man and a few hidden laughs from the others. "How do we want to handle this?"
"Time travel," one of the darker family representatives said dryly. "I really wish we had some time travel right now."
"Me as well." He shrugged. "I cannot do that. So we must handle it now. Make plans, fix things, all that. I'm sure they'll be here within days now that I'm aware of all this going on. They have to give us notice. Me picking up those decisions from my office up there was a way of doing that. They've done that before to Germany. If I had known I would have summoned that desk folder and not tipped them off. I only heard about there being a lawsuit earlier today."
"How far did we lower her grades?" Lucius asked. "And she's a what year?"
"She would have been a second year Gryffindor. Miss Granger was in the top ten percent probably. I did not pay attention to that. That's Minerva's job."
"Call her and find out. If it was a few placement points I doubt she would have done this."
Dumbledore sighed but did call her to come hear that news and report on that.
Minerva McGonagall had taught most of the people in this room, they knew that look she gave them as she came out of the floo. "What did you do this time?"
"The ICW is coming, Minerva. We got sued over a few teachers and their grading problems."
"I told you it was only a matter of time," she said blandly. "I'm going to assume it's Granger's doing?" A few nodded at that. "Ah. Good. She went from third in the school, though she said second for some reason, and was put in the middle group of fiftieth percentile students."
"So you cut her grades in half," Lucius said. "She probably put a lot of work into them. I would have sued as well." He stared at her. "How many teachers do that?"
"Six. Though I do not know what put her past the head girl." She grimaced. Dumbledore handed over that lawsuit's decision which outlined the problem and why it had happened. She frowned. "I was not aware she had ...oh, she noted that each semester was equally applied and they should be, yes. With final scores from year end tests.... that would have put her second." She tossed it onto the desk. "Lacey got a low grade on one exam that brought her down. I thought they were just going on classwork not final grades."
"So this has been going on all along?" Lucius asked.
"Probably. I don't know how she didn't realize with the winter grades. Or if she did and just worked harder somehow. She was always in the library and always had a book, always willing to tutor. Did you find where they went?" she asked her boss, looking at him.
"No. They won't admit to it."
"Her parents said the same thing." She grimaced. "Well it looks like the blood status bias is finally biting some bums and I can't say as I'm unhappy with that. Every student should be treated the same way, as the stupid little morons they started out as until they can prove otherwise." She looked around. "As all of you were." She went back to the school to call a staff meeting. She did come back to get that decision to bring with her then went to call that staff meeting.
She nodded at Severus when he came in. "You were right. They're going to audit us and the government." She tossed that decision on the table. "Thanks to those who blood bias grade," she said with an evil little smirk. "The ministry has all but lost ICW membership. Thank you greatly. I expect they'll be here to audit classes and files within two weeks at the most." She looked around. "I do hope you're happy with that." She smirked again. "I'm not but I can retire."
Severus shuddered. "Do not leave me in charge," he muttered. He took that to read. "Oh, she had her papers that were graded and all her written grade statements. Interesting. She went in with proof."
"Which is how you win against bias," Madam Sprout agreed. She took that to read after him, frowning as she read. "That would upset me greatly as well. She did try very hard to do her best." She handed it to Flitwick, who read it over with a sigh of annoyance. "Where does that leave us?"
"I'm hoping without our Minister and possibly with Dumbledore begging and groveling with his coworkers up there." She waved a hand toward Europe. "Otherwise, I have no idea. I'm alerting you that we'll probably have an audit by people who are very amused at our traditional ways and would probably even have been waiting for years to do such a thing."
The teachers nodded at that. "Though that decision does remove the transfer refusal laws so other students could transfer out as well. We'll probably lose some more to that as well. Probably many muggleborns. If only so they can type papers instead of using quills." She sat down while the others read it, fanning herself lightly because the meeting room was always stuffy. They had the floo shut off and blocked off just in case for safety reasons.
"If they close the school I can go into private research practice," Severus told her. "Any word on the other student?"
"Probably with her. All her parents said was it was exclusive and private. Prestigious."
He nodded. "So they're in a good boarding school outside of our circuit." She nodded at that. "Charming. I'm sure they'll be happier there. I wouldn't have been but I was raised here."
"Why leave the country?" Sprout asked.
"If they had went to a boarding academy here we could have pulled them back," McGonagall told her. "Against their wills and charged them with leaving the school by snapping their wands if it wasn't a fully accredited magical school. Of which we're the only one in the UK. The others have some magic classes but others we don't have so are not considered accredited."
"Oh. That reason." She nodded. "At least they're probably safe."
"I 'ope 'Arry has Hedwig," Hagrid said quietly.
"I'm sure he does, Hagrid," McGonagall told him with a smile. "He does love her quite a lot."
He nodded. "I'm happy I got 'er for him." He looked around. "Am I gonna have problems?"
She shrugged. "Probably not. I can't see as you have. You barely do grades at all because Creatures doesn't really lend itself to concrete grading." He nodded at that, perking up a bit. He'd still be the groundskeeper no matter what, even if they shut the school. He and Filch would still have a job because someone had to take care of the castle and her grounds.
The other teachers were talking about how to hide certain things in their records but that was probably not possible. McGonagall wouldn't burst their hopes and dreams over that. They may succeed but she doubted it greatly. Though, retirement was sounding like a delightful thing right about now.
She did have a small cottage she had bought about twelve years ago that she could go to. She could enjoy not having students around all the time. Maybe take more naps in the sun until she became bored and found a research project to work on.
***
Story notes:
Your Something New for the new year.