Ch.18 - Seventh Year in Hogwarts

Alex had reunited with Katie and Clay at the Hogwarts ECh.18 - Seventh Year in Hogwarts express just as they did in the past years. It was the last year of their schooling finally. Alex was actually excited.

He was not selected as head-boy despite his performance in the last term. That distinction went to Bill Weasley who had a more consistent academic record. In his earlier years, Alex avoided the top spot of the class, except in Charms. He wanted to appear as a smart muggle-born student who was still learning. He steadily increased his performance every year. And, he was successful in that regard based on his observation.

Alex, Katie, and Clay were excitedly talking about their plans after Hogwarts. Then suddenly, Angus and his entourage had barged in their compartment uninvited.

"Excited on your last years in Hogwarts, Mudbloods?" said Angus.

"Sod off, Travers. Get back to your own kind," Said Clay.

Despite Alex being the one who had humiliated Angus multiple times. It was Clay and Angus who had a bigger rivalry between them. Clay used to be meek and gullible, and Angus was the treasured son of the Slytherin House. Now, it was Clay who was the prince of his own Hogwarts House and Angus was the outsider. He envied Clay, who was also the heir of his family and leader of his own house. Unlike him, who was the second son and the topic of humiliating rumours among the Slytherin students.

"You best be careful, Rosewood. Or you'll be known as blood traitor like your father," said Angus threateningly before shutting the door close leaving.

"Why would he call your father a blood traitor?" asked Alex.

"I don't know, he's just spouting nonsense," said Clay.

"What's a blood traitor, exactly?" asked Katie.

"In the classical meaning, it means a pureblood witch or wizard who married a non-magical person. In the past Wizard War, the Dark Lord and his followers had used the term liberally on any purebloods who didn't share their beliefs," explained Alex.

During the welcoming feast, Alex and the gang were enjoying their dinner when a first-year student interrupted them. It was a little boy who was wearing Hufflepuff colours. On his hands was a journal and a quill.

"Excuse me, Alexander Grey. Could I have your autograph?" said the boy.

Everyone who heard the boy had to stop and look at what was happening. The article that the Prophet and the Observer had published about Alex was popular among the younger readers and quidditch fans in the wizarding world. Apparently, the boy in front of him was one of his fans.

"Um… Sure thing, kiddo. What's your name?" he said.

"It's Cedric Diggory, D-I-Double G-O-"

"I can spell, Cedric," he said with a laugh.

"Sorry," said the nervous boy. He felt embarrassed as the crowd laughed at him.

In the journal was a news clipping with the article about him from the Observer. He had let them take better pictures of him. He signed the opposite page, "To Cedric Diggory, future quidditch star. He who asks is a fool for five minutes. He who does not is a fool forever. Best, Alexander Grey".

"What does it mean?" asked the boy.

"It's an old Chinese proverb, it means, do not be afraid to ask questions. You were embarrassed after you asked me for an autograph, but if you didn't ask me, you would have never gotten it," said Alex. He was totally playing the part of a wise senior student. Clay and Katie was smiling at his act.

On the next day after class, he was called into by Prof. Sprout's office. She told him that Headmaster Dumbledore had decided to offer some select students an introductory course in Alchemy. Should enough students express their interests in the course, the classes would take place every other Saturday. Alex said that he was interested. Learning alchemy from Dumbledore was a precious opportunity. There was no reason to say no.

In their first class, it turned out that only eight students chose to take the course. It was probably the bare minimum of students required. Bill Weasley was there and so was Katie. It looked like having an O in both Potions and Transfiguration O.W.L.'s were required for the class.

The lecture took about four hours. Alchemy had become an obscure subject in the wizarding world. It wasn't even a core class offered at Hogwarts. Practitioners of Alchemy are concerned with experimentation of substances to discover their inherent magical properties, permanent transmutation, and creating panacea. Unlike Potions, however, it's processes where less methodological. It relies heavily on the metaphysical attributes of the substances rather than their actual observable traits. It was certainly an interesting area of study and Prof. Dumbledore waa a great teacher, however, Alex couldn't see using the knowledge anytime soon in his life.

Alex was walking along a known shortcut from the library to the Hufflepuff common room when he overheard two people were having a heated discussion. One of the speakers was Clay.

"How would you even know that?" said Clay.

"I had my ways. You don't know the kind of powerful people that my family is connected to," said the other haughtily who turned out to be Angus.

"Well, it's not true! You're lying!" retorted Clay.

Angus laughed. "You think anyone, especially your father, could deny the Dark Lord? Do not be naive. Everyone has to take a stand. It's already happening. My father had received some words. It is time to fight back and drive them off from our world, Rosewood. Don't make the same mistake as your pathetic father and grandfather did. You are now the Lord Rosewood, pathetic though your family may be. If you make the right choices, you could restore your family's wealth and prominence. How many generations has it been since the last Rosewood occupied a seat on the Wizengamot or become a department head in the Ministry? It could be you," said Angus not realizing how insulting his words were.

"Shut up, Angus. You don't know what you're talking about. You've never accomplished anything on your own. You think success and glory will be yours just because you're from the right family? Many families have fallen and risen in our long history. You are the one being naive. And do not ever talk about my family ever again!"

"The consequences will be on your head. Remember who was the one who tried to warn you! Soon enough you'll learn where your loyalties should be," Said Angus before leaving in a hurry.

Alex stepped out from behind the corner wall. He looked at Clay with a raised eyebrow not even bothering to hide the fact that he was eavesdropping on their conversation.

"What was that about?" he asked.

"Oh. It was just Travers being the usual ass. I swear I don't know how he could even strut about so haughtily. Isn't he bothered by the huge prick up his ass?" said Clay, clearly trying to avoid the topic with jokes.

Alex decided not to press anymore, but, there was something that Angus said that bothered him. The Slytherin was clearly assured that 'something' was about to happen, a certain agenda at play. Cooperating could help the Rosewood family and, undoubtedly, it had something to do with muggle-born and pureblood relations.

He would have to investigate this, perhaps he should order Mr Grant to assign some people to shadow all the members of the Travers family. If he remembered correctly, there were only Angus's father and older brother. Alex was confident that his people could trail the Travers family without being spotted.

The 'Arms' had more than 50 capable wizards and witches, and, each of them was at least as competent as a trained Hit-wizard. Some were even specialized in working in the shadows. And, there were more recruits still in training each year.

"Well, you shouldn't be meeting with him alone. You know what he's like," said Alex.

"I know. I know. It was just something stupid," said Clay weakly.

"Try to always stay with your cult when you are outside the common room, okay?"

"It's not a cult. It's more like a student outreach group, completely innocent."

"Speaking of which, are you thinking about who would take over the leadership of your group after you graduate? You should really formalized that so they would fall in line next year."

"No, not really. Do you have any recommendations? I know that you pay a lot of attention to us. Always making sure that we don't do anything stupid."

"Anything 'too' stupid, you mean. How about Tonks? She has been part of your gang ever since her second year, she's a fighter, and, she got enough friends to support her."

"But shouldn't I entrust it to a younger student. Someone who would become the leader for more than a single school term. She will be graduating after us."

"They won't be respected like you. You were able to convince the older students to follow you because you started the group from nothing."

"I guess that's true. I guess I should make it so only 7th years can lead. But, what about after Dora?"

"How about writing a by-laws that can help decide the group's leadership in the future. It should also have a list of rules for all members to follow. I'm planning of doing the same with the quidditch team. It will include guidelines and traditions that will be observed by future members. Hopefully, it can help the Hufflepuff team to stay dominant in the future," explained Alex.

"Yeah, that could work. I will get started on that as soon as I can."

[AN: Even with a Hogwarts education, not everyone has the aptitude for fighting. From my understanding, Hit-wizards are like medieval city guards who were law-enforcers and defenders of the Ministry. Aurors are more like knights or agents of the realm who specialize in hunting dark wizards or doing anything the Ministry requires them to, therefore they require a more diverse set of skills, like knowledge of Potions and disguising abilities.]

After Christmas break began, Alex checked with Elysium Housing Corporation, his housing company that was started about a year ago. Everything was going smoothly in that regard. They had apartment buildings all throughout the U.K. even Ireland. All transactions and inquiries were done through the office in Diagon Alley. At the current season, they were renting out about 200 apartment units, the prices of which range from 30 Galleons to 90 Galleons per month.

The business had also sparked some competitions with other enterprising people with wealth to invest. Soon enough, housing will be less of a concern for all citizens of Magical Britain.

As for the new Hermes Telecommunications Company or HTC (^_^), the initial sales of the mobile communicators were outstanding. The first and currently only model of communicators was on sale for 20 Galleons. It was a rectangular 1/4 inch thick slab of frosted glass that was about 5 inches diagonally in size.

The glass communicators functioned by voice command of whoever was holding it. They simply had to give the command and say the 5 character designation or the saved contact name of the intended recipient of the call. Answering the device was also done with a voice command, so as blocking unwanted callers. A security lock was also available for those who chose to make their artefact private. It was also enchanted to be hard to break and to be unnoticeable by muggles. After that was the layers of protective charms that prevent anyone from learning the core enchantments or tampering with the artefact in any way. A self-destruct charm would be triggered should any of the protective charms fail. Production of the artefacts was carried out by trained enchanters that were hired from the Association who all signed a very strict contract to prevent the leak of any information about the company and its products and services.

Using the services of HTC required a subscription of 7 Galleons and 7 Sickles. With that, a person could connect to anyone with a communicator as long as they know the right designation. They could talk face to face with the person on the other side of the connection. The connection facility was hidden and untraceable as part of their trade secret. A crystal ball in the centre of that facility that was about half of a yard in diameter made all the connections possible. It could handle about a hundred thousand calls simultaneously, although he doubts that the calls would reach that volume anytime soon.

Alex had bought a communicator as well. It would be the one he would use as Alexander Grey. As for his Order communicator, they were connected to a separate network that was inaccessible from the rest. Its physical form was also different as it was discreetly hidden as the glass face of a pocket watch. The same watch was given to every member of the Order.

With these two businesses, he knew that he was well on his way to becoming the richest man in Wizarding Britain even without counting his muggle businesses. Should the time come that he had to reveal himself as the leader of AIM, he would make sure that he was too big to mess around with. But, he had no desire to let that happen anytime soon. Being hidden behind his 'Grey' persona gives him the opportunity to accomplish many things without many obstacles. It was peculiar to actually use his birth name as the mask to hide away his 'real' self.

During the later week of January, Bill and Alex were studying together. They were reading some materials for their Ancient Studies class.

"Hey, Alex. Can I ask you a question?" said Bill cautiously. He thought that he might be opening a discussion that could be a sensitive issue with Alex.

"Of course, Bill. Just ask away," Alex said.

"Um… It's like this. You've probably heard about AIM, right? Do you think anyone can become a member of that organization? Even those who are not muggle-born?" said Bill.

"Of course. Anyone can register as long as they are not against promoting equality among all wizardkind. I'm already a member, so as my friend Clay Rosewood. He's pureblood."

"Really? Rosewood is a member? How does a member benefit from the Association?"

"They have a library, quite useful for students during the breaks. They also host a lot of seminars where anyone willing could get started on learning a trade. Also, they can connect you to available jobs or apprenticeships. Most of them are available to any members, some seminars and lectures have an admission fee, but they are not expensive," said Alex. He hoped that Bill would become a member of the order, but, he also knew his entire family was attached to Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix.

"That sounds good. Actually, it's my father who is thinking about becoming a member, but my mother said he should think it over some more. They had an argument during the break over it," said Bill obviously expecting his opinion.

"Why is your mother against it?"

"No! I didn't mean it like that. She just worries that dad might endanger his position at the Ministry. He works as the Head of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office. To be honest, there is a general suspicion regarding the Association in the Ministry according to my Father. My mother is worried that he may end up isolating himself in the Ministry if he joins the AIM."

"I don't think he had anything to worry about. I don't know how much they pay him in the Ministry, but there are a lot of jobs available in the Association especially for an experienced Ministry worker like your father. Your mother might also find something in there for her. Maybe you could write to them about it."

Bill thought about what he said. Hopefully, he would write to his father about it. Alex knew that the Wesley's were not wealthy based on his old memories. They also had seven children to look after. It is one of the reasons why Bill was so hard working in school, so he could help out as soon as possible in their house.

If Mr Weasley becomes a member of the Association, Alex might be able to help his friend's dad. Later on, he decided to write to Mr Baxter, telling him to inform their people from the Association so they could keep an eye for Mr Weasley.

The end of the school term was quickly approaching. For the seventh-years, it meant the N.E.W.T.'s. A lot of students were dreading it. It might just be the most important test in their entire life. Even if remedial tests were allowed, the first result would still be in their records.

Alex had finished his preparations and was already thinking about graduations. He had already compiled a guidebook for the Hufflepuff quidditch team and the Charms Club. He was also satisfied with his chosen successors in those clubs.

When the day of the exams had finally arrived, he signed-up for Charms, Transfiguration, Potions, Herbology, Astronomy, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, Ancient Studies, and Divination. A total of 10 exams. There was no exam offered for Alchemy.

Passing the N.E.W.T. exams were equivalent to partial mastery in the subject. Other tests not offered in Hogwarts were available at the Wizarding Examinations Authority.

For the seventh-years, the examinations took an entire week. The professors of Hogwarts acted as proctors for the written portion of the exams. For the practical portion, some representatives from the W.E.A. were sent as the evaluators. He performed well in all of his exams but, he still could not be sure of his results until he got his evaluation card.

After a week, all the students got their exam results via post. A summarized result was also posted in the common room of each house. For Alex, he got an E.E.'s on Astronomy and Herbology, O's in Transfiguration, Potions, and Ancient Studies, and O's with distinction in Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, and Divination. It was an amazing result, probably one of the best records in Hogwarts's history.

Katie had eight N.E.W.T.'s, Clay had six, which is not bad at all, and Bill had 9. They all performed greatly. Alex and Bill had the best record for that school year.

END OF CHAPTER

Author's Note:

Ancient Runes is the study of runes, hieroglyphics, pictographs, etc.. Ancient Studies is about the cultures, methods, inventions of ancient magical societies, like ancient Egypt. Bill became a Curse-Breaker straight out of Hogwarts because of his N.E.W.T. result in this subject, probably.

Disclaimer:

This work is not for profit. No copyright infringement intended. All recognizable characters, plot, setting, etc. are the property of J. and/or Warner Bros.