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After the excitement of their first class Minerva gave the fourth year Gryffindors and Slytherins the rest of the morning off.
"I want you all to think deeply about the oath you made. For your own sake you need to follow it in both the letter and the spirit of the oath in thought, word and deed. I cannot stress how important this may be," Minerva said before she released them. "While you remain at school you will be reminded of the oath at the start of each year and the start of any term break, this is not because we don't think you capable of remembering on your own. We just wish to take every precaution and remember that the younger years have also taken this oath and may need help understanding all the potential ways it could be broken."
At lunch there was no food waiting for them on the tables. Instead Professor McGonagall told them she would be making some announcements as soon as everyone was present.
"I encourage any of you who knows of a class mate who was not planning to attend lunch to go and fetch them. The new rules I will discuss today will be enforced without exception from the moment I finish speaking and ignorance will not be an acceptable excuse.
Several Ravenclaws headed to the library to collect their housemates while Gryffindor sent someone out to check the quidditch pitch and drag the team in. All the Hufflepuffs were present but there were a few missing Slytherin whom nobody bothered to look for.
"From today onwards, Hogwarts will implement what is called a zero tolerance policy towards violence and bullying. Any student caught harassing another, be it physically or by ganging up on a student to ridicule them will be suspended for the rest of the year and have to either pass their end of year exams without having attended the classes or repeat the year. Any student caught stealing from another, or using dark magic or dark artefacts will immediately be expelled. As will any student caught bullying a student more than one year below themselves or ganging up three to one or more on a fellow student. House rivalries will be limited to house points and the quidditch cup and any attempt to illegally influence a quidditch match by cursing the players or their equipment will not only see the student responsible expelled but the rest of that year's Quidditch competition cancelled and that house banned from the following year's competition.
The word 'mudblood' and any other racial slur will lead to an hour's detention and a 20 point loss for every occasion it is used. We have put a modified taboo on the word and you will be notified of those punishments via owl if there wasn't a professor or prefect present at the time.
The school had been scoured from top to bottom for dark curses and dangerous artefacts while the wards were repaired, and we will make this a school that is a safe and welcoming environment for everybody.
One other practice that will be reinstituted are the yearly health checks. The first year Gryffindor students are directed to report to the infirmary at the end of lunch and the Slytherin first years at three o'clock. Older years please see the notice boards in your common rooms for your appointment times. Attendance to these appointments is mandatory. Madam Pomfrey will be delighted to have anyone missing them in detention cleaning bed pans after their assessment."
Minerva finished speaking and sat down clapping her hands to signal the elves to deliver the meal.
"Those slimy Slytherins better not start anything this year," Ron said cheerfully.
"I don't think they will without Malfoy here to start trouble" Dean said. "Besides they all took the vow too. They don't want you-know-who to return either," Neville said.
"Yeah, surprising that," Seamus said. "Guess they're not all as bad as we thought."
"Do you think professor McGonagall made all those changes so Harry and Hermione will come back?" Parvati asked.
"Do you think they will come back now things have changed?" Lavender added eagerly.
"How are they going to hear about the changes when nobody knows where either of them is?" Fred replied.
"You really don't know? I thought you were Harry's best mate?" Seamus said to Ron.
"He sent me a goodbye letter. Told me that it was safer if we didn't know where to find him. He reckoned Snape and Dumbledore had ways of forcing me to tell them," Ron said.
"But they're not here anymore, and with the new wards it would be safe for Harry and Hermione to come back," Neville said. "Are you saying none of us will ever hear from them again?"
"They wouldn't just forget me like that. Maybe I'll hear from them at Christmas," Ron replied.
-o0o-
Harry got in the habit of playing friendly quidditch after classes every Monday when he attended the last class of the afternoon, setting his wand to alert him when it was time to roust Hermione from the library in order to catch the train. Occasionally when the weather was nice she brought her books out to watch him play, though Harry almost wished she wouldn't because she'd scold him half the way home for the risks he took.
As news of his skills on a broom spread more people turned out to play with them, including the current school seeker, Damon Beckers.
Harry was pleased to meet him and even more pleased when he gave him some real competition in their pick up games. Tamara hadn't come since the first day Harry had played against her.
Harry still beat Damon to the snitch each time they played so far but it had been a Challenge to do so. Damon could have easily taken the seekers spot from Cho Chang, Cedric Diggory or Draco Malfoy, and Harry found himself trying harder and improving his game each time they played. He mentioned this to his new friend.
"I'm pleased to hear it! Though I must admit I'm glad you don't qualify for the team this year. I feel like I'm flying harder and faster too but I'm still not catching the snitch. If we're both improving that makes sense," he said. " I feel like I have a real chance at beating MAK's seeker and he's the best in the competition. Are you coming to the game?"
"Mac?" Harry asked.
"M. A. K. Mahi Atua Kura, the New Zealand school?" Damon explained.
"The game isn't here is it? Do many students go?" Harry asked.
"The whole reserve team goes and a couple of others," Damon said. "You need to put your name down at the office if you want to come. They won't let you if you've got a test on or an overdue assignment or detention, though."
"I don't have any classes that day. I'll have to ask Emma and Daniel if I can come," Harry said.
"I can't play Monday next week, I don't want to risk being injured before the game, this will be my last chance to play against Niko unless we both get selected to play on one of the club teams. Can we do this later in the week instead?"
"I'm here for Arithmancy on Thursday. I could hang around, what time do you finish class?"
"Three, but we'd only have an hour until training starts," Damon said.
"That's okay if we're only playing seeker's games, we should be able to get a couple in," Harry agreed.
"I have an international snitch if you want to try it," Damon offered. "It'll make up for not having bludgers and other players to avoid."
Harry's eyes lit up with excitement. "Yeah!" He agreed eagerly.
-o0o-
Harry was eagerly waiting when Damon arrived on Thursday. The two of them stared at each other while Damon counted to twenty after releasing the snitch and then took to the skies searching. They tried to feint each other but only half-heartedly, more intent on trying to find the international level snitch. Damon spotted it first and the chase was on. It was wicked fast and changed directions rapidly leading the two boys across the pitch, up and down. Harry ended up catching it the first time when it dropped like a stone, Damon unwilling to risk hitting the ground pulled up first allowing Harry to use a sloth grip roll and pluck the snitch from among the blades of long grass.
"Again?" he asked eagerly.
"Of course," Damon agreed. Harry let the snitch go again and they chased it for the rest of the hour. They were so involved in following the wickedly fast little ball that they didn't notice the rest of the team arrive and stand watching them with awe.
Eventually Harry caught the snitch again and the coach blew his whistle to call them down.
"Hey coach, have you met Harry?" Damon said excitedly.
"No, I haven't. I did hear that you played on your school team at home and wanted to try out next year," the coach said enthusiastically. "Pleased to meet you Harry."
"Pleased to meet you coach, but I didn't mean to interrupt training," Harry said shaking the coach's hand.
"Nonsense Harry, Beckers hasn't had a fight like that ever, it will do him far more good than our standard training," the coach dismissed. "Would you agree to letting Tamara join you as well sometimes?"
"Sure," Harry agreed.
Tamara fumed. She'd tried to dismiss the way Harry had beaten her the day they'd played, claiming it was a fluke and she'd just been having a bad day. But seeing the way he beat Beckers as well she had to admit that she would have to put up with being the reserve seeker for the rest of her school years unless the boy was injured in his crazy stunts. Her friends tried to sympathise with her but the team were all secretly thrilled that they had a great seeker to replace Beckers when he graduated.
Harry sat watching the training, getting the feel of how the coach was getting the team to work on things. He could see the advantage of having an experienced adult coaching rather than the captain. Oliver Wood was more enthusiastic about quidditch than anyone he'd ever met and was great at making sure his team worked harder than any of the other house teams but he was a keeper. He had pretty decent instincts on what made a good chaser play from having to combat them but he wasn't the best coach for seekers or beaters. Harry had mostly learned his skills on his own and he was looking forward to receiving some specific coaching.
"What is the most memorable piece of advice you got from your previous coach?" the coach asked him, once he'd set the team to their drills.
"Catch the snitch or die trying," Harry replied dryly.
"What!" the coach exclaimed in horror.
"In his defence, we didn't have an actual coach, Oliver was our captain and keeper and was only fifteen at the time and it was at the start of his first game coaching," Harry said.
"So had he ever been a seeker?" the coach asked.
"Not for the team. Maybe for pickup games but even then, he was mostly keeper or chaser," Harry replied.
"Did he actually teach you anything sensible?" the coach asked.
"Yeah, he showed me the quidditch balls and what each one did and explained the game," Harry said. "He started me off chasing golf balls before he let me chase the snitch and gave me a couple of books to read about quidditch and seeker tactics," Harry replied.
"You'd never seen a game before?" Coach asked astonished.
"No. I was muggle raised and we played the first game of the season," Harry replied.
"Why on earth did you try out then?"
"Well, I didn't really. During my first flying class this bully stole something from a friend of mine and tried to throw it against the castle and break it. I flew after it and caught it just in time so Professor McGonagall put me on the team," Harry replied.
"That's the most ridiculous story I've ever heard. To put a first year on the senior team without any proper coaching or supervision. It's a wonder you weren't killed," the coach said disgusted.
"I was nearly killed a couple of times, someone jinxed my broom in the first game and I nearly fell. And second year someone enchanted a bludger to target me directly, even after the game when I was lying on the ground after it knocked me off my broom it didn't stop, if I hadn't rolled quick enough it would have gone right through me, the hole in the ground was more than a foot deep," Harry said softly.
"You don't need to worry about cheating like that here, any scheme that has the potential to harm a student is treated extremely seriously. Not only would the person responsible be banned from playing, coaching, managing or even watching quidditch, the school involved will have their team disbanded for three years," the coach said.
"Actually, they weren't attempts to cheat. Quirrell was trying to murder me and the Bludger was enchanted by someone who wanted me injured enough that I couldn't return to school, me playing Quidditch just gave them the opportunity to attack me in a way they thought they could get away with it," Harry said. "That's one of the reasons I'm here."
"So exactly how much experience did you have on a broom before you were put on the team?"
"About ten minutes," Harry replied.
"And before your first game?"
"About six weeks of training eight hours a week," Harry replied.
"Forty-eight hours on a broom and you played on the senior team?"
"Yeah we only had one team per house. The teams aren't as competitive as the school teams here. There are only about 70 people in each house," Harry said.
"And how many other first years were on the teams?" Coach asked interestedly.
"None, I was the youngest player in over a century, there were a couple of second years and a few third years but most of the teams were fourth fifth and sixth year students."
"And no doubt a few seventh years that thought quidditch was more important than passing their exams, or hoped to play professionally," Coach said. "I don't know whether you're used to this or not but here at Bunyip anyone in danger of failing a class will be removed from the team until they get their grades back up."
"Nobody ever said anything like that to us but I'm sure my new guardians would be happy to hear it," Harry admitted.
Coach laughed, "Most parents are. You will find Quidditch here very different to what you are describing. Both training and the games are well supervised with every effort made to make this a safe environment, I tell you now that if you have a habit of putting yourself in danger to catch the snitch you either need to break that habit or you will not keep playing on my team. I will not have someone deliberately put themselves at risk like that. I'd rather lose than have a player injured to win."
"I don't think I take that many risks though others may disagree, Hermione certainly does. But I know my broom and my limits very well and flying is as instinctive as breathing to me," Harry said seriously.
"How close do you think you were to ploughing your broom into the ground on that last dive?" the coach asked to judge his newest prospective players level of risk taking.
"Not very I cleared it by about two feet. I knew I wasn't going to hit. I've been a lot closer," Harry admitted.
"When?" Coach demanded.
"Quite a few times. The two closest were during my second game, I ended up having to pull my feet right up onto the broom to avoid catching them on the turf and once by accident the first time I was on my broom after spending the summer on growth and nutrition potions. I'd underestimated the effect of my increased weight or overestimated the increased strength of my muscles. I've flown enough since then to test my limits and correct that problem," Harry admitted.
"You're telling me you regularly fly towards the ground that close and you've never crashed into it?" the coach asked.
"I've never crashed," Harry said.
"Never?" Coach asked disbelievingly. "Have you ever fallen off your broom?"
"Almost, in first year when it was jinxed, I fell off and was hanging from one hand when my friends managed to interrupt the jinx so I could regain control and climb back on," Harry replied. "I was also knocked off by the rogue bludger that had been altered to target me last year."
"Well I can't exactly blame your skills or lack thereof for those incidents," Coach said.
Harry grinned.
-o0o-
Harry was enjoying his new school and Hermione was enjoying the challenge of her new subjects, the same unfortunately could not be said about Draco Malfoy.
By the end of the month at the orphanage and Yorkshire school, Draco was prepared to suck up his pride and apologise to the muggleborn his mother's sister had married and their horrible daughter. Anything to get away from this place. He had planned to apologise and ask to be taken home at the end of the first week but he'd been angered by Andi's agreement with the Matron that he had deserved being treated like a child because he had behaved like a spoilt child letting his temper get in the way of the apology he'd planned to make. Now he was desperate. He couldn't bear staying any longer. He had no friends there, having been so insulting to the non magical residents that even their magical friends had taken offence and administered a muggle style beating the likes of which he'd never imagined, he felt that he was regularly being given the worst chores and missing free time to do them over when the matron disapproved of the quality of his work. His hands were no longer aristocratically soft and smooth and his muscles were constantly stiff and sore from overwork. School was no better, several times he'd been hit with tripping hexes in the corridors. He was tired of having to watch his back wherever he went.
The Yorkshire School of Magic didn't have many of the classes he was used to and the teachers weren't at all impressed by who his father was. He was struggling with the household charms he had to learn and had been placed in with the eleven year olds for most of his wand classes. The teachers were even less impressed when Draco declared he didn't need to learn these plebeian charms because he would always have house elves to take care of those things. He earned himself a detention and spent several evenings with the school elves learning to wash dishes, clean the silver and take care of the laundry from the infirmary. It irked him even more that he wasn't allowed to use these new found skills to complete his chores at the orphanage, Matron insisted on everything being done the muggle way.
His former favourite subject potions was ruined for him by the mundane nature of the potions they were asked to brew. Instead of complicated healing potions and obscure potions chosen to teach them a particular skill they were taught how to prepare large batches of simple potions and potion bases and spent hours preparing ingredients for others to brew.
The Yorkshire School of Magic didn't have a quidditch competition, and unofficial games weren't encouraged and were rare, primarily because few of the students owned their own brooms and none of them had a full set of quidditch balls. Draco did of course but they weren't among the things his Aunt had allowed him to bring to the orphanage. It wouldn't have mattered much, Draco's sneering attitudes had made him unpopular and he wasn't invited to join in the rare games they did have.
Andi was interested to visit the orphanage and see if they'd been able to knock Draco's overdeveloped sense of entitlement out of him and make him see the sense of following the rules and working with others. She sighed when Matron informed her that he still wasn't fitting in. His air of superiority over the squib residents had annoyed just about all the other children and teenagers, and his reports from school weren't much better. Academically he wasn't failing any of his magical subjects but he wasn't excelling in any area either. Even potions where he had received an 'outstanding' grade from Professor Snape he was barely managing an 'exceeds expectations' in spite of the easier curriculum. His muggle subjects were another matter. He was failing all of them and only partly because he wasn't completing any of the homework. It had become obvious to the teachers that he did not have the knowledge of mathematics and had no concept of critical thinking to analyse an idea, ideology or written piece for its accuracy and quality, he automatically took everything on face value unless it contradicted something his father had taught him.
"Aunt Andromeda, I'm sorry for being rude to your husband and your daughter. I'm willing to apologise to them and live by your rules if you will let me come home with you. I hate it here and I'm not learning any of the things I need to pass my NEWTs and take over my father's estate when the time comes. Please don't leave me here," Draco said as soon as he saw his aunt. He didn't want to be side-tracked by anything she or the Matron might say this time.
"Very well Draco you may come home. I still haven't heard anything from the French Malfoys about taking you into their custody," Andi replied.
"Can I go to Ilvermorny?" Draco asked.
"Yes, it is still possible but between your grades at Hogwarts and your grades here it's very clear you aren't ready to attend a school that teaches muggle subjects. I don't quite know what to do with you. I had hoped you would at least begin to catch up with your peers here, but it seems you've resisted learning any of the non-wizarding subjects. I will arrange for you to sit the placement exams for Ilvermorny as soon as possible, hopefully they will take you for the winter term and in the meantime, I will engage some tutors for you to try to catch up with your muggle subjects. You will treat the tutor with respect and do all of the work they assign you or you will find yourself back attending the Yorkshire School of Magic and making the best of it," Andi said severely.
"Yes Ma'am," Draco said scowling.
"Draco, I've been researching schools trying to find somewhere that would suit you better. Unfortunately, Hogwarts is the only English speaking school not to teach any muggle subjects, so I can engage a tutor for you to learn French or Italian as well as your muggle tutor but it will be an extreme amount of work and if you neglect your muggle studies then I will fire both tutors and send you back to Yorkshire to finish your schooling," Andi replied. "Go and get your things while I settle the details with matron."
"Yes Aunt Andromeda," Draco said springing up the stairs to grab his trunk.
"I can't say I'm sorry to see him go. He hasn't made any effort to fit in, here or at school, and his attitude is wearing on everyone," the matron said.
"I hate to say it but I'm sure his apology is more self-interested than genuine but he will have to change his game or I will be sending him back to the Yorkshire School of Magic," Andi said.
"I will of course take him back if he has nowhere else to go but I can't deny I would prefer not to have to," the matron said sighing.
"I will take that into consideration, but even though he owns a home I cannot allow him to stay on his own, and he may prefer to return here than deal with being grounded to his bedroom until he learns to use the manners I know his mother took pains to teach him," Andi said sighing.
They left the orphanage and instead of taking his hand to apparate him home Andi began walking towards the school. "Where are we going?"
"To withdraw you from school and collect your transcripts," Andi said.
Draco flushed in embarrassment ashamed of what his transcript would say. Andi had been scathing enough about his marks from Hogwarts.
A/N: Thank you to angelscatie, Krysania, katmom, julschristine975, Deathmvp, Melikalilly, mother oracle, Midnight Angels, SLYNNR, Princesakarlita411, jkarr, Tech Support, ObsessedWithHPFanFic, MyEdwardJacob, Arabella Lee Smith, Vukk, Bearmauls, aisa.32, mwinter1, kunoichi, i love new storys, Gime'SS, fraewyn, Guest, VizeerLord, CaseLC, Arabella Lee Smith, Fallow54 (Guest), guest (Guest), Fast Frank (Guest), Rori Potter, delia cerrano, tag0, gabrieljuarezl, silversongs, Ghost Dragon Master, starboy454, Cheryl (Guest), Firehedgehog, Guest, Arabella Lee Smith, Guest, Kairan1979, tacitblue1973, Soulless Huntress, Paddybee (Guest), Badbonita, Pennieyoung, zarkan, Peggie (Guest), T1962, Runecutter, naruto (Guest), crankypants16 and all those who followed and favourited for your support.