Chapter 6 The second half of first year
When everybody came back from holidays, Harry got a very pleasant surprise. Justin, Kevin and Hermione had talked to their parents about his reluctance to spend the whole summer holidays at his relatives' house and between them they had agreed to let Harry come and visit for the last three weeks of August. In fact, the Finch-Fletchleys were inviting all the muggle-raised first-years.
The rumour mill turned up three more interesting tidbits over the next months, all involving Hagrid. First, he let slip to some Gryffindors that the thing that was hidden in the third-floor corridor involved Nicolas Flamel. Hermione had concluded that the only artefact that was important enough that someone would break into Gringotts trying to steal it was his Philosopher's Stone. And the second was that Hagrid had illegally hatched a dragon egg in his hut, and had only agreed to give up on the madness of trying to keep it when it had grown so much that it threatened to kill his boarhound and burn his hut down. The third thing was that something or someone was killing unicorn in the Forbidden Forest.
It made the first-year muggle-raised students question what kind of madhouse they had become inmates of. They went to Professor Flitwick and reminded him of his suggestion to come back when they'd had a few months of classes, and he convinced two third-year Ravenclaws to teach them duelling.
During the weekend, a week before the end of year exams, Sally-Anne got all the muggle-raised first-years together for some sad news, "my parents are not letting me return next year. They think Hogwarts is too dangerous."
Hermione, who as usual knew all the details, said in a shocked voice, "but they will bind your magic and make you and your parents forget about everything."
Sally-Anne only nodded. She had already been told this by Professor McGonagall.
Harry spoke up, "Professor McGonagall told me that you can be home-schooled." Thinking on his feet, he continued, "maybe you could study the minimum number of classes that are required in addition to your muggle school. I think we should go talk to Professor Flitwick."
Hermione objected, "but Sally-Anne is a Gryffindor. We should ask Professor McGonagall."
Harry thought differently, "I've talked to both of them, and Professor McGonagall will ask Professor Dumbledore, who is too busy to think of a solution. Professor Flitwick," Harry wanted to say he was more cynical and not as easily upset about breaking the rules, but that would only make Hermione put her foot down, so he changed tack and said, "Professor Flitwick has experience with both goblin and human society, so he is more used to finding solutions that are acceptable to two different societies."
That did the trick. Professor Flitwick told Sally-Anne that she would need to pass at least one wand-based class, and at his prompting Sally-Anne confirmed she did better in Charms than Transfiguration or Defence. However, the problem would be getting enough spell practice when she was expected to pass each year's exam while she was still underage, and therefore not allowed to do magic. Harry pointed out that the trunk-shop owner had told him that magic performed in a trunk with a space-expansion charm would not be detected. Instead of acting horrified that Harry would propose something that was illegal, Professor Flitwick told them that the Improper Use of Magic office would want to know how Sally-Anne was going to practice, and that they would not accept that solution. Harry asked if they could have some magical adults tell the office that they were teaching her, whether that would be acceptable. Professor Flitwick agreed that that would probably be accepted. He admitted he was too busy to take on the whole task himself, but that he could go and collect her for the exam day, and go and teach her for an afternoon three times during the rest of the year, and if they could find two more adults to teach four afternoons each year, then Sally-Anne should be able to do the rest with self-study if the other muggle-raised pupils would owl her her homework. When the other eight agreed they could take turns doing that, Professor Flitwick asked for Mitsy the house-elf, who appeared by magic, and asked him to see if there was a trunk with a space-expansion charm, large enough for a person to stand in, that had been left behind. Mitsy warned that there were a lot of old trunks, so that it would take him a while to check for one with a space-expansion, so Professor Flitwick sent the pupils off, and before the day was out Sally-Anne had her trunk for practicing magic at home. Justin came up with the bright idea that graduating muggleborn students were more likely to be willing to help than the parents of their classmates, and indeed, they found two who were willing to help.
In the last week of school Harry went to speak to Professor Babbling. He explained that partly because he would have a lot of time on his hands and not a lot to do over the summer, and partly because after an attack by a troll, living in a school where visiting the third floor corridor would lead to a painful death, and where Professor Quirrell could disappear without a trace with no-one able or willing to say what had happened, that Harry would really like to press forward with his Ancient Runes studies, and could she tell him what would normally be the fourth-year curriculum and could he do the exam on the 2nd of September and attend the fifth-year classes next year?
Professor Babbling gave him the curriculum and said that he could take the exam, but warned him that she would be travelling through Southern Europe in July, and therefore an owl would take time to travel to her, and she couldn't promise that any questions he sent her would be answered promptly, nor could she promise that it would be possible to schedule the fifth-year classes at a time that he didn't have any second-year classes, but that she would ask.
Harry also went to speak with Eleanor McCubbin, one of the 6th year quidditch players, who might be next year's quidditch captain because the present captain was graduating, explaining "I'd like to try out for the quidditch team, but don't want to spend a lot of money on the best broom if I'm not going to be on the team, so I'm wondering if I could borrow someone's broom for the try-outs?"
"You should ask someone from another house, because they won't need their broom during the Ravenclaw try-outs."
"Duh. Of course, I should have thought of that." He might have, if he hadn't been preoccupied with Sally-Anne and fourth-year Runes.
Cedric Diggory, the third-year Hufflepuff Seeker, at first was a bit hesitant, saying "if it gets damaged, I can't afford to buy a new one."
But when Harry ensured him that of course, if it did get damaged he would buy him a replacement, Cedric agreed he could borrow it.
Harry had calculated the total points given and taken by Snape, and had looked at the House point hourglasses, so when Dumbledore awarded the House Cup to Slytherin, he immediately said, "what he means is that Snape awarded the House Cup to Slytherin. If you sum the points awarded by the other 11 teachers, Ravenclaw would have won, and Slytherin would have been third."
