Hey everyone! Well, due to popular demand, here's my second Dramione tale, Finding My Wings, up, online and ready for your enjoyment (hopefully, of course)! (: Once again, I apologize for how long I've made you wait, all my avid readers! And, if you've never met me before, HELLO! Thanks for checking out this story, why not take a look at my last Dramione story, Can't Stand Losing You, and tell me what you think? Just a bit of shameless self-promotion there, I'm a 15-year-old review whore, so I'm sure you'll find it in your lovely hearts to forgive me. Anyway, now that's all out of the way, without further ado...
Disclaimer: I own none of the ideas, places and characters relating to J.K Rowling's Harry Potter. Only the plot is mine, in this case.
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[This fic is set in our favourite characters' seventh year at Hogwarts. The war has been won, Voldemort is dead and the students are back to restart their final year and continue their magical education. Professor Dumbledore is still dead – Professor McGonagall is Headmistress of the school.]
Finding My Wings
Chapter One – Hopes and Dreams:
Rain lashed against the window of the compartment as the Hogwarts Express hurtled through the countryside, moving so quickly that the scenery outside faded from groups of defined trees, fields and mountains into vast, blurred patches of green, grey and brown. None of the students could remember a start to the school year with weather as terrible as this, not even any of Hogwarts' top year group – and these were the oldest pupils ever to be taught in the castle. The rise and fall of Lord Voldemort and his legions of Death Eaters the previous year had proved to be a monumental disturbance in the seventh year students' magical education to say the very least – many pupils and even teaching staff at the school had taken extensive periods of absence to spend time with their families during the crisis. When parents heard of Lord Voldemort's new educational regime, not to mention the vindictive Carrows, many pulled their children from school; some didn't allow them to return for the entirety of the year, while others had even threatened to take the matter up with a higher authority. At the time, however, there had been no higher authority. The Ministry of Magic had been infiltrated and the Headmaster was thought to be a highly-ranked Death Eater himself. Although the latter was later proven to be false, nobody could deny how large a disruption the almost-takeover had been and the impression it had left on the students at Hogwarts.
A month or so after Voldemort's death, when the minor cracks in the infrastructure of the wizarding world had healed and the Ministry of Magic reformed, it was decided that the previous Hogwarts seventh year would be asked to return to school and restart their final year of magical education. Their seventh year, after all, was N.E.W.T year – while O. gave them the firm foundation of magical knowledge they were assured would be required to survive in the big wide wizarding world, N.E., also known as Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests, were the examinations that would help them to decide which path their lives would take and exist as the evidence for their future employers that they were hard-working, dedicated wizards and witches with the ability to fully apply themselves whenever necessary. N.E. were vital, and Headmistress Minerva McGonagall would not allow a single student taught under the roof of her school to miss out on achieving the utmost success.
This is going to be my year, thought Hermione Granger gleefully, putting her feet up on the empty seat opposite her and pushing her tousled ash brown hair back out of her eyes. As much as she detested the sarcastic comments and cynical remarks made by her best friends whenever she raised the topic in conversation, Hermione had genuinely been looking forward to expanding her knowledge base by studying for her N.E.W.T examinations and, although she would never admit it to Harry or Ron, she had been slightly disappointed when she and her best friends planned to leave school and pursue their quest for Horcruxes the previous year. Of course, she would never trade the experience for all the Galleons in the world, but now, at the start of her final year at Hogwarts, she was both eager and excited to begin learning magic at a more advanced level than ever before.
Following her correspondence with Professors McGonagall and Flitwick over the summer holidays (she had spent the first two weeks enjoying a luxury vacation on the Ivory Coast with her affluent godmother and cousin of the same age before returning to the Burrow to catch up with Harry Potter and the Weasleys until they set off for school on the present day, the first of September), Hermione had spent the past month or so questioning herself, considering her future, deciding on which path she would choose to follow after graduation. Both Harry and Ron's dreams lay in the cavernous halls and elegant offices of the Ministry of Magic's Auror department. Lavender Brown intended to take on an apprenticeship with Madam Malkin at her bespoke robe retail outlet in Diagon Alley. Seamus Finnegan had made a plan to return to his hometown of Claremorris in Ireland and go into business perfecting and patenting new spells with his cousin Fergus. Even Draco Malfoy probably had a place reserved at the family firm. However, Hermione had post-Hogwarts dreams of a very different sort.
To Hermione's delight, Professor McGonagall had been only too happy to send her the prospectuses of the top-ranked magical universities in Europe to peruse and scrutinize before she began her seventh year at school, and Hermione had been leafing through them with fervour since the day her Headmistress's owl, a rich brown Tawny named Eupraxia, had dropped them through her window on the third floor of the Burrow. While all five prospectuses advertised schools that were excellent and prominent in the wizarding world in their own ways, Hermione knew in her heart of hearts that she would never be able to settle for second best – the only way she could go would be to apply for and, with a little bit of luck and a great deal of hard work, attend the most celebrated and highly-ranked post-Hogwarts school available.
The Wildsmith Academy for Post-Graduate Witches and Wizards was located on the coast of Syracuse in the south east of the island of Sicily. Shrouded in the thick pine forests and arid stone ruins Italy had to offer, the school itself was a striking Baroque castle that commanded its surroundings and acted as a viewpoint to the stunning Mediterranean panorama. Its founder was Ignatia Wildsmith, a witch of Italian descent that had been both bright and terrifyingly inquisitive in her day – she had left her home of Palermo to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry at the age of eleven. After being sorted into Ravenclaw house, Wildsmith had instantly shown her prowess in the subject of Potions and, after graduating from the school at the age of seventeen, went on to invent and create Floo Powder in large quantities. Her career was long and fruitful and, upon her retirement, she decided to lead post-graduate witches and wizards in continuing their magical education beyond Hogwarts by opening her own wizarding university in the place in which she had grown up. Wildsmith's had since become the world's most prestigious school of further magical education, and Hermione had fallen in love with the idea of it. Everything about it appealed to her – as well as being surrounded by the beautiful Italian countryside she had visited once with her parents as a child, the school was steeped in its own fascinating history that she dreamed of one day being a part of. Hermione was fully aware of how huge the tuition fees at Wildsmith's were but, as Professor McGonagall had assured her, a variety of scholarships and bursaries would be available to a witch of her stature and academic ability. A school of such standing would never put a barrier on a student's education because of their background and their lack of funds. 'It is not where you are or what you have done that matter,' Professor McGonagall had told her, 'but where you are going.'
After examining the prospectus for the Wildsmith Academy for Post-Graduate Witches and Wizards, Hermione had summarised the three necessary pieces of entry qualification criteria. The first had her both energized and apprehensive about the impending school year – it was imperative that all hopeful entrants to the school had a set of no less than twelve 'Outstanding' grades at N.E.W.T level. Hogwarts did not even offer this number of different courses to the majority of students but, as Hermione was the pupil with the highest prospects for the future in the school, the Headmistress had set it in motion for special allowances to be made. Between September and Christmas, Hermione would take not only lessons but also N.E.W.T examinations in four subjects, History of Magic, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Herbology and Ancient Runes. From January onwards she was due to study Charms, Muggle Studies, Care of Magical Creatures and Potions and, between Easter and graduation, she would follow the same routine with her best lessons; Transfiguration and Arithmancy, as well as the two new subjects she was set to take private after-hours classes in. These were Wizarding Law, the study of the history of magical law and order and the modern Wizengamot, and Formulating Magic, the practice of creating brand new, original magic and taking it all the way from a passing idea to a genuine, Ministry-authorised branch of wizardry. Formulating Magic, she had been told several times, was the most difficult subject available to witches and wizards while still at school – it took a great deal of skill, creativity and, above all, imagination to master it at an advanced level. It would take a lot of hard work, but Hermione knew how fantastic an N.E.W.T in the subject would look as part of her credentials and that, if that's what it took to gain a place at Wildsmith's, she would give it her all in order to achieve it.
The second piece of criteria was a shining set of references from a selection of highly-qualified witches, wizards and even Muggles – not only her Hogwarts teachers, but also her Muggle school teachers, an official from the British Magical Education Commission and, the most daunting of all, the Minister for Magic himself. As a thoroughly decent and committed academic, neither of these criteria scared Hermione Granger too much. She knew that, by applying herself as much as she had for the past six years, achieving success would be fairly simple. However, it was the third and final piece of criteria that continued to play on Hermione's mind.
She shut out the world around her, the scenery passing outside the window of the Hogwarts Express, the sound of her friends' idle chatter, as she clutched the Wildsmith's prospectus to her chest and re-read for the hundredth time the final piece of entry qualification criteria:
Any student hoping to qualify for a place at the Wildsmith Academy for Post-Graduate Witches and Wizards should be aware that our school values not only academic achievement but also success in vocations and sports. Therefore, it is essential that hopefuls have evidence that they have represented their class/house in the sport of Quidditch at some point during their time in compulsory magical education.
She sighed. This was going to be an interesting year.
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Thanks for reading guys! I'll try and get chapter 2 up at some point within the next couple of weeks – I'm a terrible procrastinator, so feel free to angrily PM me if you think things are getting out of hand! Please, PLEASE leave me a review and tell me what you think?
So much love coming your way,
Megan xxx