A Lesson Learnt Too Well
by: Yidkirkin of the Warhammer
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
I'm so glad someone liked this story enough to follow on the first chapter! It seems I only ever get that on the one fic I'm not continuing, so seeing that was quite nice. I know a lot of people dislike OCs (myself included actually) so I've tried to make the tutor's involvement minor, as I try to do with most OCs in all of my fics.
Also FYI I headcanon Harry as East Indian and Hermione as black. If you don't like it then please disregard all hints to that effect, but I will say now that I don't really put much credence in describing it heavily, so there you go.
SPOILERS
Harry tried not to let his sudden freedom affect him for the first few days he was holed up in Diagon Alley. He tried to tell himself that at the end of the summer, he wouldn't be going back to Hogwarts and would instead be headed back to the Dursley's for an entire year, so he shouldn't get used to living in the Leaky Cauldron. But try as he did, the sensation was simply too great to ignore, and would be even harder to forget. He had never been able to go where he wanted or eat anything he fancied or not have to worry about chores or waking up on time. Really, all he had to do was not break his word to Fudge, and being that Diagon Alley stretched far beyond the fork where Gringotts was situated, it wasn't difficult for Harry at all.
Harry spent a leisurely hour each morning eating breakfast in the Leaky Cauldron, people watching and occasionally talking with Tom in the rare periods where business was slow. All kinds of people passed through the doors of the pub, which was both a drawback and a source of entertainment. After the first morning, where Harry had been accosted by a fair amount of patrons for being who he was, he tended to eat breakfast behind a privacy ward cast by Tom, rather than have to stop eating every five minutes to deal with an eager passerby.
After he ate, Harry normally went out into Diagon Alley for the rest of the day, taking his time exploring all the previously unknown shops and occasionally eating at whatever little cafe he saw once it got to later in the day. He especially frequented Florean Fortescue's Ice-Cream Parlour, not only because it was an ideal place to finish whatever homework he had, but also because the owner was quite knowledgeable in a number of areas and was more than happy to lend a hand if he needed it. Mr. Fortescue had tried to offer Harry free sundaes, but after his luck with the whole Ministry-not-expelling-him debacle, Harry didn't want to push it and only accepted the first one with no charge.
When he wasn't picking away at his homework at a table at the Ice-Cream Parlour, Harry would just walk around the Alley and look at whatever caught his eye. He learned about the newest broomstick, The Firebolt, and allowed himself a bit of time thinking about what it might be like to fly it. He ogled at the cage full of the Monster Book of Monster books, bought Hedwig her favourite owl treats and kept well away from Knockturn Alley. Generally, the days slipped by easily and without fuss, and Harry couldn't have been more content.
There was the issue of whether or not he was to buy his normal school supplies, but as the end of the first week drew nearer, Harry received a letter which contained a time and a place for him to meet his Ministry-assigned tutor, which also told him that the tutor would be the one to assign his books to him. As the morning of the seventh day he had been in the Leaky Cauldron went on, Harry dressed, tried to comb his hair to little avail, and headed out into the alley after his breakfast to do a bit of walking before he was to meet this tutor for lunch. When the time came, Harry made his way to The Whistling Portrait, a family run restaurant a few shops past Gringotts on the left street; upon entering he was immediately led to the table by the kindly older waitress.
"Mr. Potter. Thank you for arriving on time." Harry shook the older man's hand and sat down opposite him, feeling slightly out of place in the bustling restaurant. The tutor didn't speak again as he dug into his briefcase, leaving the younger wizard a bit of time to examine him.
'He looks almost as if he could be a muggle...' The man was probably in his sixties, had skin a few hues darker than his own, with a silver beard and hair that formed tight curls close to his scalp. He wore a pair of rectangular glasses and a grey and purple muggle suit, and when he finally emerged from his briefcase with a few papers in his hands, Harry could see that his eyes were a similar green to his own.
"Sorry about that, here, take these." The tutor handed Harry the papers and closed the briefcase with a resounding snap, placing it near his feet. The pair paused to give the waitress their orders and then the older man smiled lightly.
"My name is Walter Kopinak, you can call me Mr. Kopinak for now. Those papers I gave you contain our schedule for the first month, your supply list as well as a waver the Ministry needs you to sign." Harry nodded and folded the papers carefully, placing them in his side bag between the pages of his Transfiguration textbook from last year. "Now, do you have any questions about how this is going to work out?"
"One or two... uh- what am I going to do for my electives? I chose Care of Magical Creatures and Divination, but do those work with a tutor?"
"...No, they don't really. This system is just in it's testing stages, but it's original intentions were for muggleborn students who wanted to keep up with their non-magical studies. I suppose if you were open to it, we could use those slots for muggle subjects?" Mr. Kopinak took a long sip of his tea, made a face, and then reached for the sugar. Harry furrowed his brow; he hadn't really given much thought to keeping up with his muggle education, magic had sort of swept all of that under the rug from the very moment he had been introduced to it.
"But... aren't you a wizard? Muggle teachers need to go to school for all that..." Mr. Kopinak chuckled deeply, his shaking hands almost spilling his tea even after his laughter ceased.
"I'm a muggleborn wizard actually, and I moved here from Canada, which has a slightly different schooling system than the United Kingdom. Don't worry, I have the credentials." Mr. Kopinak's smile widened when Harry nodded contemplatively.
"Sure, why not. I'm guessing you're going to send me a list of other books to get?"
"I keep them here with me, actually. Just cross out the books you won't need on your first list." Mr. Kopinak trailed into silence as he rummaged through the papers in his briefcase again, and as the food came and the talk dragged on, Harry thought that maybe he wouldn't mind having a tutor so much if it was going to be as easy to get along with him as this. By the time they parted ways, Harry had warmed up to the man considerably, and resolved to owl him before their first lesson just in case the Dursley's might pose a problem to it. He deserved at least a warning, after all.
When Harry's second week in Diagon Alley began, he finally started to come across his classmates on his daily wanderings of the wizarding borough. He met Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan in Quality Quidditch Supplies, and stopped briefly to say hello to Neville Longbottom outside of Flourish and Blotts. All three were rather surprised that he wasn't going to be returning to Hogwarts, with Neville even promising to write to him since 'that's what friends do'. It made Harry regret not getting to know the other Gryffindor very well these past two years, and he readily agreed to the exchange of letters before Neville's grandmother insisted they move on.
The absence of Ron and Hermione in the Alley was a near constant itch in the back of Harry's mind, and even as he settled into a comfortable routine he found himself keeping an ear and an eye out for his friends everywhere he went. He hoped they hadn't chosen to buy their school supplies early in the summer; Harry did want to see them at least once before their communication was restricted to writing. So when the final day of the holidays appeared quite suddenly, Harry had resigned himself to explaining his absence from Hogwarts in a letter, and he made it all the way to lunch stuck in a depressed mood. Not even the prospect of eating at Fortescue's one last time could cheer him up, until, that is, he entered the patio and found himself very nearly bowled over by a figure with a head full of bushy, flyaway hair.
"Harry!"
Both Ron and Hermione were suddenly there, the redhead still sitting at the corner patio table and Hermione inspecting him closely with a worried expression on her face, presumably trying to ascertain his well being. Once he got a closer look at them, he noticed that both of his friends were slightly darker in their respective skin tones and lighter in hair, with Ron's freckles standing out starkly on his nose and Hermione's dark cheeks almost having a golden hue to them; Harry assumed it was due to their summers spent in sunny foreign countries. Harry smiled widely at the two of them, and relished in Ron's good natured pat on the shoulder as he pulled a chair up to the table in order to sit in between them.
"We've been looking all over for you, Harry! We went to Madam Malkin's and the Leaky Cauldron and even Flourish and Blotts but there weren't no sign of you at all!" Ron said all this very fast, almost reminding Harry of Hermione when they had first met her.
"I got all my school stuff just a few days ago." Harry explained. "How did you know I was at the Leaky Cauldron?"
"Dad." Ron answered simply, and Harry let out a noise of comprehension... and embarrassment. Mr. Weasley worked at the Ministry, and would have heard all about what Harry had done to his Aunt Marge.
"Please tell me you didn't really blow up your aunt, Harry." Hermione pleaded, partly serious but with a look on her face that Harry couldn't quite place. Ron snickered and Hermione shot him a deadly glare. "It's not funny, Harry could've been expelled, and even as it is-" Hermione sniffed miserably and Ron sobered quickly.
"I'm just glad I wasn't expelled. What I got was lucky, really." Harry said, trying to make the situation seem a bit easier. "Don't worry, Hermione, Ron. My tutor's a nice guy, and we can still send letters to each other during the year. Fudge even promised that I could go back next year even if they didn't catch Sirius Black."
"...What does Black have to do with you?" Ron asked lowly.
"Fudge said he was a big supporter of Voldemort- c'mon Ron, it's only a name- and that he broke out to get revenge on me. They were originally going to put guards at Hogwarts, but apparently the Dementors couldn't be spared or something." Harry paused as Ron went white as a sheet. "What's wrong?"
"Dementors, are they barking? Dad told me they suck out souls and drain out a person's happiness." The muggle-raised pair gaped and Ron shuddered. "If that's the alternative then I'm glad you aren't coming back... wait, that came out wrong."
"Ron..." Hermione sighed, but Harry only laughed.
"Oh right, Harry, we're staying at the Leaky Cauldron tonight too! Hermione's there as well. Maybe you can at least come to King's Cross with us tomorrow?" Harry nodded thoughtfully.
"I'll see what Mr. Weasley has to say, he is the only one around that I know works at the Ministry. Have you got all your books and things already?"
"Yeah, look here!" Ron said excitedly, pulling out a thin box from the inside pocket of his robes and revealing a thin, spindly looking wand inside. "Brand-new wand. Fourteen inches, willow, containing one unicorn tail-hair. We've got all our books- take a look at Hermione's bags."
Harry glanced down at Hermione's feet for the first time and only then did he notice not one, but three neatly stacked bags sitting under the table.
"I'm taking a few more courses than normal this year. Arithmancy, Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, Ancient Runes, Muggle Studies..."
"What are you doing Muggle Studies for?" Ron asked incredulously. "You don't need to study them, you already know all about them!"
"It'll be fascinating to study them from the wizarding point of view." Hermione said determinedly. Harry was about to ask if she was planning on sleeping anytime this year, but was cut off by the arrival of a very small, graceful looking owl that landed on his shoulder quite suddenly. Harry took the offered scroll and then rummaged in his pocket, soon revealing an owl treat that the bird gobbled down in earnest. Ron and Hermione stayed silent as Harry read through the missive, and then turned curious eyes up from the parchment as he gave a sigh.
"I've got to go talk to a Ministry person at the Leaky Cauldron about my going back to the Dursley's tomorrow. Do you guys have anything left to do?"
"I want to get Scabbers looked over. Egypt didn't agree with him very well." Ron replied, holding up his pet rat to emphasize his worry. Scabbers did look thinner than when Harry had last seen him, and he certainly wasn't as lively as he remembered.
"I've got a few extra galleons, so I wanted to buy an owl." Hermione said. "They're so useful, and I've always liked Hedwig anyways."
Harry stood, shouldering his backpack and stretching, causing the little owl on his shoulder to fly off without so much as a hoot. "Then how about you meet me in my room later? It's number eleven, just knock and I'll be there."
After a minute of helping Hermione balance her bags, the three split off, Ron and Hermione to the Magical Menagerie and Harry back to the Leaky Cauldron. It took him a while to get through the last minute crowds of school shopping families, but thankfully the pub was fairly quiet when he entered. He walked over to the wall by the bar and glanced around for whoever he was supposed to meet, but it wasn't until his eyes passed a table in the far corner that he caught sight of Mr. Weasley waving earnestly at him. A tad unsure, Harry walked over.
"Harry." Mr. Weasley started, smiling as he looked up at Harry from his seat. "How are you?"
"Been better." Harry admitted with a tired sort of smile. "Are you the 'Ministry Official' I'm supposed to meet about going back to the Dursley's?"
"Indeed I am. Why don't you sit down, we'll be here a while in any case." Harry did as Mr. Weasley suggested, dropping his backpack onto the empty chair beside him and becoming inexplicably embarrassed as Ron's father waved Tom over to their table so Harry could order something to eat. It was only after Tom had strolled away with a request for tea that Mr. Weasley set his newspaper down and smiled kindly at Harry; the green eyed boy only now noticed that the man looked far more tired than he had ever previously seen him.
"So, I was thinking that tomorrow you could come and see Ron and Hermione off from King's Cross, and from there I'd bring you back to your home. I was the one sent to tell your aunt and uncle about everything that's been going on, and they told me that later in the morning would be ideal over any other time. But I can bring you back beforehand, if you'd like that instead." Harry stared at Mr. Weasley in shock at the offer before breaking out into an ecstatic grin.
"I'd love to go to King's Cross Mr. Weasley, thank you." Tom wandered back over and deposited Harry's tea on the table without a word. "To be honest I'd rather put off going back to the Dursley's as long as I can."
"Yes, well, I'm sure you'll be back at Hogwarts before you know it. Why not go up and check you've got everything packed so you don't have to rush around in the morning? I'll send Ron and Hermione up when they get in." Harry nodded and stood, cradling his tea cup in his hands very carefully after shouldering his bag once more.
Ron and Hermione knocked on the door to room eleven not a half hour later, and in that time Harry had managed to pack all of his smaller things back into his trunk and finish his tea as well. The trio spent a few hours in the confines of the hotel room, helping Harry pack up, speculating about the new DADA teacher and talking about the courses Harry was going to be taking through his tutor. Ron had been a tad shocked that Harry was going to be taking what he equated to be Muggle Studies, just like Hermione was- and no amount of explaining could convince him they were any different. But despite that, and the unrelated rant about Hermione's new cat, Crookshanks, from Ron, all three were in an incredibly good mood when Mr. Weasley came up to fetch them for dinner.
After dinner, during which Harry had been fussed over by Mrs. Weasley, teased by the twins, avoided by Ginny and had a civil conversation with Percy, Harry spent another few hours in the company of his two best friends up in his rented room. Hermione spent much of that time going over his tutor's booklist in interest, trying to distract herself from the ever present fact that tomorrow she wouldn't see one of her friends for who knew how long. Ron, similarly, also tried to keep himself distracted of this, but did so by roping Harry into an in depth discussion about Quidditch teams. Harry appreciated their efforts and told them so; making both of them flush red at the blatant praise and semi-jokingly increasing their efforts until Harry was reduced to a sort of tearful-laughing fit.
When he finally fell asleep late that night, Harry found that he couldn't remember much in the way of specifics as far as his day had been concerned, but rather held a cozy feeling deep inside his chest. His stint of independence had put a few things in perspective for him, and most importantly of those was that he now realized it didn't matter if there were mass-murderers after him, or if he wasn't going back to Hogwarts, or if he had to put up with the Dursley's for another year. None of those things mattered because as long as he could even have one day like the one he had just had, then he would gladly go a year or more to try and experience that feeling again. In the end, it was his friends that meant the most to him, and if he had to choose, then not even his magic would be given a second thought.