The Muggle Solution Chapter 2: First Day of Classes, a harry potter fanfic

The Muggle Solution
by Teddylonglong

All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.

Completely AU, partly OOC. More warnings might come up in possible later chapters.

The four soon-to-be apprentices met in their living room at seven o'clock the following morning to head down to breakfast together.

"Perhaps we should sit at a different table each time," Harry suggested, "considering that we don't belong to one specific house."

"Yes, that's a brilliant idea," Hermione immediately agreed, and Daphne and Dudley nodded their consent.

Upon reaching the Great Hall, Harry spotted four seats together, and the four first-years made themselves comfortable at the Slytherin table. Seeing the surrounding students stare at them, he quickly introduced themselves.

"Hello, we're Hermione, Daphne, Dudley and Harry, the apprentices of Professors Pomfrey and Snape. Are we welcome to sit here? As we're not sorted into a house, we thought we'd change tables at each meal," he said in a soft voice.

"Feel free to sit here," an older girl replied, smiling. "We're just surprised, as usually no one willingly associates with us Slytherins."

Harry shrugged. "I don't have a problem with Slytherins." Giving his three colleagues a questioning look, he enquired, "You?"

Daphne, Hermione and Dudley shook their heads. "Not at all," Hermione spoke for them all.

"That's good," the girl replied and introduced herself as Mary Smith from fifth year and the boys next opposite of them as Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle, three first-years.

Hermione used the opportunity to ask several questions about Slytherin, and Mary and Draco were willing to share their knowledge about their house.

When Snape came around to hand out the timetables, he spared the four of them, informing them that he would give them their timetables during their meeting afterwards.

When Draco asked why they were apprentices and not just normal students, Harry quickly replied, alert, that they wanted to specialise on Healing and Potions, not giving Dudley or Hermione the chance to give out certain information about Dudley by chance.

Seeing that Snape strode behind their table towards the door, the four apprentices quickly excused themselves and hurried back to their rooms, not wanting to make the professor wait for them.

'They were as nice as the students at the Gryffindor table last night,' Harry thought, as he followed the others.

At exactly one minute before eight o'clock, Professors Pomfrey and Snape entered their living room, where the four of them were waiting, looking at them in expectation.

"You wish to become our apprentices," Snape began to speak in a soft voice that sounded very soothing to Harry's mind. "Is that so?"

A quadruple "Yes sir" followed, and Snape continued. "There are a few conditions, however."

'What?' Harry thought, feeling extremely upset. 'I thought it was already agreed upon.' He knew better than to voice his thought, however, and proceeded to listen to the professor's voice.

"You will do as Professor Pomfrey or I tell you."

He quirked an eyebrow in silent question, causing another quadruple "Yes sir."

"You will not question our decisions, even if they differ to what you expected."

"Yes sir."

"You will keep everything that we speak about private to others. This includes any private secrets of any of the six of us."

"Yes sir."

"You will not lie to us."

"Yes sir."

"You will inform us immediately if you're ill or for some other reason not able to fulfil your duties."

"Yes sir."

"You will attend classes together with the students of the four houses as specified by us."

"Yes sir."

Harry noticed that an eager expression appeared on Hermione's face and could not help inwardly chuckling.

Apparently, Snape was through with his conditions, as he enquired, "Do you have any questions?"

"Yes sir," Hermione was the first to comment, causing Harry to grin. "What other classes are we going to attend, sir?" she asked with obvious eagerness.

Snape nodded in apparent understanding, pulling a couple of parchments out of his robe pocket.

"Mr. Dudley Evans," he addressed the boy, handing him a timetable, "you will attend the following classes: Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, Care of Magical Creatures and Herbology."

"Yes sir," Dudley replied before asking, "Excuse me, sir, could you please call us by our given names, so that we don't get confused, at least Harry and myself?"

"Me too please," Hermione spoke up.

"I'm fine with that, too," Daphne added, smiling.

"Very well," Snape replied, nodding in confirmation. "Now then Hermione, Daphne and Harry, you will attend Transfiguration, Charms, Herbology and Ancient Runes," he continued, handing them their timetables.

"Yes sir," the three of them replied, however, Harry noticed that Daphne cast Dudley a curious look.

"Professor," he asked in a soft voice, "would it be all right to tell Daphne why Dudley has to take different classes?"

Snape cast Dudley an indifferent look. "If you wish so," he drawled.

"I'm a muggle," Dudley informed Daphne in a small voice. "Please keep this to yourself though."

Daphne nodded. "Thanks for telling me, and yes, we'll keep everything to ourselves anyway."

"Professor Pomfrey is going to teach the four of you Healing, and I'm going to teach you Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts. When Dudley is unable to practise together with the others, he will watch."

"Do you agree to everything?" Snape finally asked, provoking a quadruple "Yes sir."

"Every day after curfew, we will meet here in your living room to discuss matters of the day. We can speak about any questions you have about your classes, any problems or just anything you wish to talk about. If you're too tired to stay up until then, you don't have to. This meeting is not mandatory."

"Yes sir," everyone chorused.

"Do you have any questions?" Pomfrey enquired in a soft voice.

"Will we also learn things like Apparition?" Daphne enquired.

Snape nodded. "A valid question. As soon as you finish your first year and have become used to everything, I will begin teaching you Telepathy, Occlumency and Apparition. If something else comes up, we will inform you at due time. When you finish your second year, successfully, I shall inform you about our first research topic, and we will begin doing research beside your other classes."

"Now I believe that it's time to head to your first morning class," Pomfrey spoke up, casting a quick spell to add a permanent magical time display to one of the walls. "My house-elf Misty will take the three of you to the Transfiguration classroom, while I shall accompany Dudley to the Care of Magical Creatures class," she informed them, before she called Misty and instructed her, accordingly. "Misty, please come and join Dudley and me, as soon as you have taken them to Minerva's classroom."

Misty was very friendly. She was not only the healer's house-elf but also the healer of the elves, and she readily answered a dozen questions coming from Hermione, as she accompanied the trio upstairs to the Transfiguration classroom.

'I've never seen a house-elf before, even if I've read about them. She's really nice, and I like Professors Pomfrey and Snape, too,' Harry thought, as he lowered himself into a seat in the second row, inwardly smiling, when Hermione and Daphne sat on both sides of him.

"The Care of Magical Creatures class is an elective class from third-year onwards as are Ancient Runes and Arithmancy," Pomfrey informed Dudley, as they walked over the grounds towards Hagrid's hut. "However, in order to efficiently be able to do research even if it's in the fields of Healing and Potions, it is important that you learn as much as possible about the magical world and magical contexts. On top of it, none of the three classes afford much magic."

"All right, Professor, thank you so much for the information," Dudley replied, smiling.

"This is the first class for Professor Hagrid. So far, he only worked as the Keeper of Keys and Grounds of Hogwarts; however, during the summer, he got in a huge fight with Professor Kettleburn, our previous Care of Magical Creatures professor. Professor Kettleburn was not ready to retire in the first place, however, he left in a huff, when Hagrid made a herd of hippogriffs settle on the grounds. Oh well, Hagrid is a really nice person, even if a little careless, when it comes to creatures."

Dudley was startled, when Misty, the elf, appeared out of nothing standing in front of them.

"Misty, this is Dudley, and he is unable to do magic," Pomfrey informed her elf in a small voice. "Please watch over him as much as possible and help him in case he needs it."

"Yes, Mistress Poppy, Misty will see to it and will also speak with Cicero about it," Misty promised, smiling, before she excused herself and popped away.

'Cool,' Dudley thought, smiling.

"Cicero is Professor Snape's elf," Pomfrey informed him, before she left him to his first class and headed back to the castle.

Hagrid was huge. That was Dudley's first impression of the Care of Magical Creatures professor. From the whispers around him, he learned that their instructor was a half-giant. 'Wow,' he thought in amazement that turned into scepticism, when Hagrid introduced them to a hippogriff.

He instructed them to bow and gain the animal's trust, before they could come near the large beast, and Dudley carefully followed his classmates' example.

'I hope he knows what he's doing,' he thought, feeling just a little scared, considering that he could not do magic in contrary to everyone else.

He was so engrossed in his musings that he missed Hagrid's next words and only looked away from the hippogriff noticing that the class had become absolutely quiet. Realising in shock that he found himself alone in front of the animal, as everyone else had stepped back from the scene, he cast Hagrid a horrified look.

"Well done Dudley, well done, now bow to Buckbeack," the half-giant beamed, causing Dudley to stare back at the animal in horror.

However, realising that there was nothing he could do to help his situation but complying, he deeply bowed to the animal like he had seen Misty bow to Pomfrey.

A moment later, the hippogriff bowed back to him, and everyone applauded him.

'Thank Merlin, that's done,' he thought; however, before he realised what happened, Hagrid had picked him up and sat him onto the hippogriff's back, and an instant later, he found himself flying over the lake.

However, all of a sudden, his entire feelings of fright vanished, and he just felt wonderful. 'Flying is just brilliant,' he thought, thoroughly enjoying his ride on the hippogriff. The thought 'I'm probably the first muggle riding on a hippogriff' popped up in his mind, and by the time Buckbeak landed on the ground, he was beaming with joy.

"Thanks Hagrid, that was absolutely brilliant," he blurted out, when the half-giant placed him back onto the ground, where the other students now surrounded the large animal, bowing and smiling and not afraid anymore after seeing his reaction.

'Even among wizards, there seem to be stupid people,' Harry thought, when a red headed first year managed to arrive ten minutes late for the Transfiguration class. However, he became soon distracted by realising that the cat that had occupied the teacher's table was none other than Professor McGonagall.

'That's totally amazing,' Harry thought, resolving to become an Animagus himself. 'I'll need to ask Daphne and Hermione if they're interested as well, even if I'm sorry for Dudley, because he won't be able to manage the Animagus transformation.'

He was abruptly brought back to reality, when the class was instructed to transfigure a match into a needle.

'This is not difficult,' he thought, as he perfected the transformation; however, realised soon that others thought otherwise.

"Ms. Granger, Mr. Malfoy, Mr. Evans, well done," the professor commended them and offered five points to Slytherin, before muttering, "I'll have to see to it that the apprentices get their own hour glass, so that we can award points to them as well."

"Thank you, Professor," Hermione commented, eagerly, causing Daphne and Harry to grin at their fellow apprentice's apparent enthusiasm.

Their second morning class was Ancient Runes, and Harry smiled, when Dudley joined them taking a seat next to Daphne.

Suddenly, voices addressed them from behind.

"Just tell us…"

"… why four first-years…"

"… are attending our third-years' class of Ancient Runes?"

Harry looked around, seeing the Weasley twins sitting in the bench behind them.

"As you know, we're apprentices and can't attend all classes but have to do others…"

"… and this one was on our timetables," Dudley completed the sentence for him.

"We're happy to be allowed to attend the class though," Hermione added, eagerly. "Runes can be very important to extend or improve healing spells or potions, and…"

"Perhaps they can even…"

"… improve prank potions," the Weasley twins continued the conversation.

"Why would you want to brew prank potions, and what can you achieve with them?" Hermione asked, eagerly.

"Ah, so many options…"

"… like teaching our little brother a lesson or…"

However, the conversation ended abruptly, when the professor entered the classroom shutting the door with a bang.

'The twins seem nice and also interesting,' Harry thought, when they said good-bye to the boys and returned to their living room for Professor Pomfrey to fetch them for their first Healing class.

Pomfrey taught them a diagnostic spell, which she let them practise on three dummies that were suffering from one different ailment each. However, difficult as the spell was, she did not expect any of the three apprentices to get it right during their first class.

For Dudley, the healer had prepared a book 'Healing through the Ages', where he could search for all the illnesses that the others diagnosed with their spells.

"Professor," Dudley shyly spoke up, "what good will it do that I study this at all? I'm not much use without magic."

"Nonsense," Pomfrey replied in a firm voice. "You're mostly going to study the theory behind the healing spells and behind the potions, maybe even a tad muggle biology. One of our goals could, for example, be to find out what the difference between muggles and magical people is. Don't worry, your input will be as valuable as theirs," she reassured him, smiling.

"Thank you, Professor," Dudley replied, thinking that Professor Pomfrey was really nice, even if the Potions Master was scary. 'Still, he was the first to offer me the apprenticeship,' he thought, feeling very happy to be at Hogwarts, even if he still slightly felt out of place.

When the four apprentices and two teachers met after curfew, Dudley told everyone about his ride on the hippogriff. "It was just amazing," he said, smiling happily.

"It sounds a bit scary, but I can imagine that it feels well to fly," Hermione commented, eagerly.

"If you wish, I can take you flying sometime during the weekend," Snape offered. "Each of you can try on a school broom, and I can take Dudley with me on my broom."

"Thank you, sir, that would be so cool," Dudley was the first to agree, causing Snape's mouth to bend to a small smile.

"That reminds me of something though," the professor continued, pulling a small box out of his robe pocket. "Now as you're our apprentices, Poppy and I are your guardians." He looked at Daphne. "This is not only during the ten months out of twelve, when Hogwarts is running, but during your whole apprenticeship."

Seeing the girl nod in apparent understanding, he handed each of them including Pomfrey a silver chain with the pendant of a lynx. "The lynx is my family's animal, and the pendant is charmed, so that everyone knows when one of the others is in trouble and can let the pendant take him or her there. This also works for Dudley, through the magic in the pendant. At the same time, it will also work as a Portkey back here into the living room. Just say 'Lynx's den' to activate it."

"Thank you, Professor," Hermione was the first to respond.

"Thank you, sir," Harry and Dudley echoed, before Daphne added her gratitude.

"Thanks for including me," Poppy replied, smiling.

"Thank Merlin I didn't have that today or I'd probably have used it, before the hippogriff could take into the air with me," Dudley commented, chuckling.

"Only use it when you're in real danger," Snape said, smirking, "as we others don't want to suffer a heart attack for nothing."

"Agreed sir," Dudley promised, grinning.

"Professor," Hermione spoke up, eagerly. "Professor McGonagall promised to try for us to get an hour glass, so that we can collect points like all the other students. Did she tell you…" She slowly trailed off, seeing that the professor rolled his eyes.

"Yes, she told all teachers about the matter, and of course, the headmaster has given in to her request. Let me tell you now, however, that it's going to be difficult to compete with four people against four houses each accommodating many students."

"Yes sir," Hermione replied, letting out a deep sigh.

"I'm sorry, Professors, but I have a question," Daphne spoke up, hesitantly. "What's going to happen if people like Lucius Malfoy find out that Dudley is a muggle? I mean, he's on the Board of Governors, and his son is a first-year. It won't be difficult for them to find out."

tbc...?

Thank you so very much for the reviews for the previous chapter. Please let me know what you think of this chapter and what you expect from this story. Any ideas or opinions are welcome.