Chapter 11

January 1989

January began with Dean heading for his very first day at The Salem Institute. Sam hated that Dean was leaving him there to go to school, but Harry understood and tried to cheer Sam up.

"Sam, Dean is going to learn from one of the best rune masters in the whole world. Don't you want him to learn something he loves from the best?" Harry asked.

Sam turned his puppy eyes to Harry, "Why can't we go too?" he whined.

Remus, Sirius, John and Bobby were standing in the hallway outside the room the boys were having their talk in. Waiting to see if there was something that they could do to make the youngest feel better about Dean going to school without the other two boys.

"We're both too young to go." Harry told him. "I don't want you to be this upset when I have to go to Hogwarts in two years." he told the younger boy.

Sam threw his arms in the air. "You're both going to be leaving me, and then what will I do?" he asked.

Harry went over and put his arm around Sam's shoulders. "Sammy, we're never going to leave you. We might go to school, but we'll always come back here for you. Maybe if Dean and I share everything we learn with you, you can start early." He pulled Sam into a hug. "Let's go and see if Uncle Remus can help us to learn faster, then maybe we'll both be ahead and Dean won't have an advantage."

The four men retreated to the kitchen, each trying to think of ways to help the youngest to deal with the older boys going off to school.

July 1991

"Harry! You have a few owls here for you." Bobby yelled up the stairs. A stampede of feet came down the stairs, ending with the three boys charging into the kitchen where Bobby was sitting. Another owl flew through the open window and landed on Dean's shoulder.

"My list is here." he said, taking the rolled up missive from Salem. "I wonder what I'm going to need this year." It was going to be the second half of his second year, and he had several new rune arrays that he would be finishing up when school began again.

Harry pulled the letters from the owls, looking at the seals on each one. "I got one from Hogwarts, one from Salem, one from Northeastern Academy and one from The Louisiana Bayou School of Magic." he told them. He looked over at his uncle and sighed. "At least I know that I have options if I don't like Hogwarts." he said.

Bobby ran his hand over his face. "Harry, you can go to any of the schools that you want to, I'm not going to tell you that you have to attend Hogwarts."

Harry sat down at the kitchen table while Sam pulled out milk and glasses, and Dean took the cookie jar from the counter and put it on the table.

"I have to at least give it a try Uncle Bobby. My Mom, Dad, Uncle Siri and Uncle Remus all went there, I want to at least say I went to the same school for at least a year." Harry told him, grabbing a few cookies.

Dean dropped into another chair at the table. "He can always transfer to Salem if he wants, the teachers there are great. A lot of the students there are considered absents by the other schools, and they graduate with the skills to work around the lack of magic. The teachers make sure that they find the things that the absents are best at and after graduation they're helping them find jobs."

Bobby looked at Dean in confusion. "What is an absent?"he asked.

Dean swallowed the cookie he was chewing on, "Non magical children of magicals, they call them squibs in England." He quickly drank half of the milk in his glass, sat the cup down, and wiped his mouth with his sleeve. "In England, they send their absents to special schools so that they can learn to live in the mundane world, they call it the muggle world. Over here, they are tested and educated like me. I'm considered an absent, but I have the ability to work runes like a magical. We will be able to work in the magical world when I graduate, if I want to. Squibs in England aren't allowed to work in the magical world."

"Harry is a magical, Dean." Bobby said.

"They teach magicals too, Uncle Bobby. "It's just that over here, everyone born into or related to a magical is tested for what their magical strength is. Salem's absent student department will be coming to test Sammy to see where his strength is in August. If he's not magical, and that's because I'm an absent and Harry is magical. Once they know if he's magical or an absent, they'll start testing to see where he's at with everything else. If he's ahead far enough, they might move up his entrance date for Salem."

Sam coughed and spit his milk across the table, "I might get to start school early?" he asked, wiggling in his seat.

Dean looked over at a grinning Harry and rolled his eyes. "Yes Sammy, if they think that you're up to the level they need, you might be able to start this year."

Mid-August 1991

"Sam, you have an owl." Remus yelled out the screen door.

Sam, Dean and Harry ran toward the house from where they were playing. Remus held the door open for the three to come through.

"Do you think that it's from Salem?" he asked.

Remus laughed and watched as Sam took the thick sheaf from the owl and looked at the seal.

"Salem Institute of Magic," he breathed out. He ripped open the envelope and started reading.

Harry and Dean stood there, shuffling their feet and watching the look on Sam's face.

Sam turned toward the coffee table and dropped the letter on it, then he turned around and threw himself at Dean and Harry. "I got in!" he squealed. "I start on September 8th, my school list is there and everything."

Harry and Dean squeezed the younger boy in a giant hug. "That's great Sam!" they both said, giving the youngest another hug.

Remus, who had picked up the packet of papers, smiled at the three boys. "Sam, I am so proud of you. I never even realized." he said.

This is the end of Uncle Bobby. It will continue from here in the next installment 'Hogwarts is what?' that I will be starting tonight.

Sorry for the small cliffie, and the long wait as well, but there's a poll on about whether Sam is a magical or an absent with a skill in one or two areas, you guys get to decide. If you're reading on AO3, post your choice as a comment from this question.

'Should Sam be magical or an absent with one or two skill areas?'