StoneTheLoner - I'm sorry you feel that way.
Arthorius - It also means when he's away he has to deal with squabbling politicians that it has just reached the point he believes every single time a student steps out of line, they are just pranking one another without giving a thought about what could really be happening.
The Treasure Hunter.
Things were tense in the Transfiguration classroom. The foreign students had been placed in the school's classes so they would have a firsthand taste of the standard of education Hogwarts was famous for hosting. However, the school headmasters, now knowing of the general bigoted opinion in some of the students, had wanted to pull them out, but it was impossible now for some reason. Nobody in Hogwarts had ever seen a class so divided before, with the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students isolating themselves from the rest of the Hogwarts students, but, and this was the ominous part, were the two recognisable teachers who were McGonagall's opposite numbers in the two schools, and judging from their manner they were not happy to be here anymore than their charges.
Not one little bit.
Harry took his seat as far from the European students - he had been tempted, as an act of defiance, to sit near one of the Beauxbatons or Durmstrang students to prove to them while some of the Hogwarts bunch were bigots, he was not, but he had decided against it for the time being; he wanted to see how the lesson panned out.
A very troubled McGonagall stepped inside. The old witch took one look around the room, at the foreign students who were separate from the Hogwarts students and their teachers who were not involving themselves whatsoever with her, and she looked like she was on the verge of crying her eyes out. However, the teacher pulled herself together quickly and she went straight over to where Malfoy was sitting in his chair.
"I understand Professor Flitwick has ensured you be put into detention, Mr Malfoy," she said, staring at the blond Slytherin with an unreadable expression on her face.
"Yes, Professor," Malfoy confirmed, glaring over at Harry who just sneered back at him. "It's a disgrace. When my father hears about this-."
"I have already spoken to Professor Flitwick, Mr Malfoy about your detentions," McGonagall spoke over him, her pinched expression making it more than clear to Malfoy she would not accept any interruption, "and he has agreed to split it with me. I need to teach you to be a respectful student."
"What? But Professor-!" Malfoy tried to protest, but McGonagall spoke over him again.
"No buts. Mr Malfoy. You brought this upon yourself, and as your professors, we are to blame for not putting you in your place and making it clear such language and views will not be tolerated. And don't even bother threatening me with your father; it is neither cunning nor is it showing the true qualities of Slytherin House. Honestly, Salazar Slytherin would likely be ashamed for the way you can't shut your mouth without first engaging your brain!"
Oooh, game set and match for McGonagall! I never expected her to say something like that, especially to a Slytherin who believes he's better than everyone around him simply because he is a Malfoy! Harry thought to himself as he, like everyone else, looked on. He might not like McGonagall all that much, but even he hadn't expected the woman to go for that kind of jugular.
Malfoy went pale while the other Slytherins in the classroom gasped at the insult, but none of them dared utter a word against McGonagall. She held all the cards, and they knew it.
"Now, you will attend detentions in this classroom when I can finalise the times with Professor Flitwick, and if you try to get your father to interfere with my actions… well, Lucius Malfoy has been allowed to get away with far too much. A lasting lesson is beyond overdue."
Malfoy was shaking, and he lifted his gaze and somehow his eyes flickered over to Harry, his eyes narrowing with hatred for his mortal enemy. "It's because of him, isn't it? Saint Potter-?"
McGonagall merely raised an eyebrow and glared down at the blond, although out of the corner of her eyes she noticed Harry watching the scene coldly, his emerald green eyes like green chips of ice. "No, Mr Malfoy. I am doing this because you have been allowed to get out of control, and if I have to spend the rest of your time at this school breaking you of your undeserved arrogance, so be it. Now, I have a lesson to start without wasting more time with you!"
McGonagall walked away from Malfoy, but try as they might - he would never be sure which, their eyes met but Harry's expression was set. It was going to take a lot more than a few last-minute punishments for him to respect her that much.
The lesson proceeded well despite the tension and the brief moment with Malfoy. McGonagall was not happy her opposite numbers from Dumstrang and Beauxbatons refused to let her teach their students anything, but she got over it pretty much. However, things did not really change that much in the other classrooms. The foreign students shared their classes and, as with the Transfiguration lesson, none of the foreign teachers was even thinking of giving the Hogwarts teachers even the smallest chance to prove only a few were guilty of the kind of racism Malfoy preached.
They taught their students separately as if their Hogwarts counterparts weren't even there. They had no intention of letting the teachers insult their students, and while it was seen by many as unfair because of the big mouth of one student, the smarter students understood precisely why they were doing it. Harry said nothing. He hoped this caused long overdue changes in how Dumbledore ran Hogwarts, and considering the Tournament was such a big thing internationally and how Maxime and Karkaroff were under no obligation to do what Dumbledore said and did, it would hopefully ensure pressure was placed on the old wizard so then he would be able to carry on with his plans. He also got the impression the Beauxbaton and Durmstrang teachers were truly, deeply disappointed they had to isolate their own students, instead of being taught by the Hogwarts teachers as they'd hoped.
At the same time, Harry hoped and prayed the diplomatic incident caused by Malfoy's inability to choose his words carefully would mean Dumbledore would be too busy to look over his shoulder.
He hoped so.
Harry knew he had made several decisions which would make the old wizard look more closely at him, although truthfully the old wizard should have known long ago, not everything would go his way. That was how life worked and even if he desired otherwise, even Dumbledore must have experienced setbacks to his schemes. The holiday to the Caribbean over the summer when he was meant to go to the Quidditch World Cup was nothing compared to how he had punched Dumbledore, but he had just been so angry that night. He had been angry because of how he had been chosen when he had plans to use the Chamber regularly as much as possible to practice how to be a wizard instead of the average shadow Dumbledore wanted. He had been angry because he had needed to put up a front with Dumbledore and his fake friends, not to mention the rest of the damn magical world and it had been put in jeopardy.
But truthfully Harry while he did regret standing out as he had, was not worried about Dumbledore looking at his grades; his behaviour had nothing to do with his grades, even if he had raised one or two red flags. But he had only learnt a few powerful spells and added them to his repertoire, but as long as he kept his facade of being an average student for a little while longer, then he would be able to escape to freedom and get away from the control freak who ran the school. The only concern he had was somebody now poking in too deeply.
But what Dumbledore did not want him knowing about was knowledge of the magical world, and he had gone out of his way to denying him access to the books he would need to begin to know, but thanks to his mother's knowledge and experience with the muggle-born books which were compulsory reading for muggle-borns starting out at Hogwarts, Harry already knew enough about the magical world. His problem was making sure Dumbledore never found that out.
Harry had plans of acing not only his OWLs but also his NEWTs without Dumbledore discovering what he was doing until it was just too late and he, Harry, was gone from Magical Britain for new pastures. He didn't feel bad about it, especially when there was a more interesting collection of places for him to visit, but he had known when he had researched ways of getting away from Britain on the whole, the best time he'd have the chance since Dumbledore had so many fingers in him for him to leave sooner would be when he was fifteen, which was when his OWLs would be done. It was one of the reasons he had gone out of his way to keep his head down, but while he knew he had punched Dumbledore and caused the man a massive international headache, he didn't feel bad about it. And since neither incident had much to do with the grades he had, Harry saw no reason why Dumbledore should meddle.
Teenagers were known for acting out.
The punch he had given Dumbledore had been out of annoyance the old wizard had invaded his private space and then later meddled in his confrontations with Malfoy, and as a result, it shouldn't make the old wizard look too closely at his grades, but he knew he had gone too far, especially with how he had shown mastery of the spells needed to project those memories, but he could always cover by saying when he had been studying up on mastering the Patronus charm whenever Lupin couldn't teach him, and he had taken the law into his own hands in order to practice the spell, and he had begun reading other spellbooks containing powerful spells in order to build up his power not many, but a few should anyone bother to ask him how he had mastered such a powerful piece of magic.
And he would be believed; the entire school knew how he had acted whenever the Dementors had come too close to him, it wouldn't be difficult to say he had practiced the Patronus relentlessly, and in that time he could tell them he had tried to expand his knowledge of the charm in order to make it easier for him to work with. Lupin would confirm he had done that which would mean that line of questioning would be shut down at once, but as long as his overall schoolwork did not show any signs of him being a magical genius with knowledge of the wizarding world, Dumbledore would not interfere.
But the old wizard would expect him to build up his spell repertoire anyway, thanks to the Triwizard Tournament. It was ironic, really; that Albus Dumbledore would organise the return of something that was already a bad idea and the one student he wanted to be limited would need to improve anyway to just survive.
For the Patronus charm, Harry had become so tired of the lack of progress he'd had in making the charm work despite the number of good memories he had to choose from. But it had been a spell which had drained him a great deal. So he had read as many books as he could find that related to the spell, so he could hopefully find a better way of understanding it.
So, if he had gone through different books in search for details about the Patronus charm, why wouldn't he have picked up on a few other spells? Not many, but a few. And truthfully he didn't see why it would be a problem; Dumbledore was trying to ensure he was kept at a specific level of knowledge and ability, but that didn't mean he couldn't have a varied spell repertoire.
Harry had considered somebody asking him about it, but in the end, he'd reasoned it wasn't a problem. As long as he presented himself as the average student and he still turned in average-graded work, who always stuck by the spies Dumbledore had assigned to watch him and make sure he didn't learn anything substantial, and he didn't do anything else that was suspicious, he would still be able to con Dumbledore. The old wizard might have questions but he had mastered the Patronus charm and that one was a complex spell, and so Dumbledore was aware he was capable of mastering some powerful spells, why should he only stop at one?
And he wasn't turning in anything but average work, and the old wizard was having problems mitigating the disaster caused by Draco's mouth, so as long as he continued to do the minimum amount grade-wise, the old wizard would not suspect anything. And if he didn't show any knowledge of the Wizarding World, Dumbledore would not interfere. And he would interfere if Granger and Weasley told him anything he did not like. That was the last thing he wanted, but Harry hoped the current mess which had started because of Malfoy kept Dumbledore occupied for a while. He also hoped with the changes forced on them the teachers would actually do the jobs they were paid for. He was still dismayed by how far the teachers had allowed the school to fall, but it was mostly Dumbledore's fault. As the Headmaster, the teachers had sworn a kind of fealty to Dumbledore, similar to how medieval kings and queens demanded fealty and loyalty from their knights and nobles, as well as their subjects, but the magical method was more insidious. Dumbledore presented them with magically binding contracts, and in the small print were notes which prevented them from sending word to newspapers about how things were at the castle. Harry had always wondered why nobody had bothered removing the Dementors from the castle last year, especially after the foul disgusting wraiths ruined that Quidditch Match and affected so many of the students, and why the Ministry themselves didn't do anything helpful during the mess with the basilisk except shove Hagrid into a prison cell.
To say he had been curious and even worried was an understatement. In the end, Harry had been left with a number of unpleasant, and very worrying questions.
Why had the teachers not bothered to notify the Ministry about the petrifications and source mandrakes which were ripe and ready; if they'd done that the students who'd been petrified would have revived ages ago, so why not take that step? Harry had come to the unpleasant conclusion that, to the teachers, the muggle-borns were worth less than nothing. He already knew how many people viewed them. He knew how, during his parents' time at Hogwarts, the prejudice towards muggle-borns had risen to unbearable levels.
Rapes, assaults, threats, attacks.. the muggle-borns had endured them all from the pureblood students who'd wanted nothing more than to join Voldemort's ranks as fully-fledged Death Eaters. Lily had been one of the few muggle-borns to fight back, although she knew if they had protested, the pureblood would paint the muggle-borns in the worst light. Lily had left dozens of scathing rants in her diaries about the stupidity behind the blood bigotry going on in the castle, and she had noted the disturbing but unsurprising opinion many in the ranks of the teachers had been sympathetic to the pureblood cause.
It wasn't encouraging. But back to the mandrakes, Harry knew if someone as sick in the head like Malfoy had been petrified, the school would have ensured he was up and about in minutes. The muggle-borns would be lucky to even receive a drop from the potion.
Anyway, the questions….
Why hadn't the Dementors been removed when anyone with three brain cells to rub together would know posting them at a castle full of children was one of the worst ideas anyone could come up with? Even worse, they had been assigned to protect him, Harry Potter, but he hadn't felt protected when they had stormed on board the Hogwarts Express where anything could have happened like one of the students could have been kissed.
When the first attacks took place back in Second Year, why had no-one bothered to send for professional investigators to look into the matter? Why was it left instead to rely on a couple of schoolchildren to do all of the work? What had Dumbledore been thinking of by hushing everything up? Why hadn't one of the more forward-thinking teachers bothered to contact someone on their own initiative? Why had none of the students told their parents (those who lived in the Wizarding World at least), and told them what was going on?
With those questions on his mind shortly after the Dementors had attacked him, and they had sparked an inferno in his mind since he would have thought Fudge would have rethought out his badly thought out plan of posting them near Hogwarts in the first place, Harry had looked into the Hogwarts bylaws and in Hogwarts, A History for some answers. Harry despised the latter book, it was so full of flaws that it just was not funny. He hated how biased it was, and since it was written by someone who was clearly a Gryffindor, they wrote about the Slytherins and the Founder like they were the scum of the Earth.
But he had learnt a few important facts, like how the Headmaster had control of the wards and he had contracts with the teachers. Once he had learnt that the puzzle fell nicely into place for Harry, and he had realised with the control over the wards Dumbledore could easily control what information left or remained in the castle, although how he could ensure the kids who did send out their owls didn't write anything provocative that would definitely be answered by their loved ones and wouldn't be openly curious and worried by the lack of any response, Harry had a few ideas although he hoped he was wrong. But something told him he was correct in his theories, but he had also recalled how Dumbledore had direct access to the Minister himself.
Covering up the truth would not be a problem, especially for a wizard who liked to see himself as a walking encyclopaedia.
As the day progressed, Harry noticed how more than a few of the students glared angrily at him, although many of them were looking at him with worry. Harry wasn't concerned about them, although he made mental notes of their faces so if they tried anything then he would be prepared. He had no trouble recognising Zacharias Smith, an unpleasant older Hufflepuff who had been one of many during his second year to make life a misery. Harry had noticed the scowl on the unpleasant boy's face although Harry didn't know if the idiot was angry because of the way he'd pulled the rug out from underneath Malfoy, or if it was because he himself shared the blond boy's views and he could no longer spread the bigoted shit about the foreign students anymore.
It would certainly not surprise him much if that were the case, especially since Zacharias seemed to want to start fights with everyone around him. Harry had seen it many times during his time in Hogwarts. At the same time he had paid close watch towards the other Hufflepuffs; many of them were looking at him with worry as well, especially those who had caused problems in the past. Harry decided to let them keep squirming in their seats. He did not give a damn about what happened to them, and as long as they left him alone then he wouldn't do anything to them in return. He wasn't asking for much, since he just wanted to be left alone and get a good enough education without being bothered.
If he was forced to work with them in class, he would then treat them neutrally depending on how they treated him, but truthfully he wouldn't do anything to them even if they pushed him; he had bigger fish to fry rather than worry about the likes of Hannah Abbott or Ernie MacMillan.
During lunch, he paid half of his attention to his food and the rest to the rest of the school. Potions was next, and he would need to have all of his wits about him. Snape was bound to be even more unpleasant than ever before, not least because Harry would be stuck in his classroom, but considering how fast the rumour mill in the school worked, the Potions Master would now almost certainly know from his colleagues how their opposite numbers from Dumstrang and Beauxbatons had gotten into their classes, and it would be logical for his own to also be supervised with a beady eye for any unprofessionalism; after Harry's own joke about the potions in the food and the way Snape had rushed out as fast as he could as if he'd expected the Aurors to be after him, the chances of Snape's classroom being ignored by the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons teachers were unlikely.
When lunch was over, Harry grabbed his things and made his way down to the Potion dungeon. When he saw the Slytherins, Harry was surprised when he saw them make sure Malfoy said nothing that would make things worse for himself. Harry was amazed they were capable of exerting that much power, and he met Malfoy's hate-filled glare with the indifference it deserved. When the foreign students arrived the corridor was packed, but the presence of the two foreign professors ensured nobody spoke out of turn.
Harry noticed how Malfoy was looking at them both and at the foreign students, even the Durmstrang mob as if he wanted to sneer at them, but the looks he was receiving from the teachers promised him a world of pain if he even quirked the tops of his lips. Harry said nothing, especially as Snape made his presence known.
Snape was just about to make the customary "In" before he noted the looks of contempt he was receiving from his opposite numbers, both of them warning him about saying anything stupid. Snape sagged a little and he stepped to the side. "Come in," he said with grudging politeness that to be polite. It failed miserably. What made it more interesting was how Snape seemed annoyed he couldn't, once more, vent his spleen on the students with the two professors there.
Harry sat down at a desk, and Ron was about to drop lazily onto the stool next to him when one of the professors suddenly announced to everyone something surprising.
"No, I think today all Hogwarts students should partner up with our guests from the two schools," the Durmstrang professor suggested. "May I ask for your opinions?" He added, glancing between his two colleagues.
"I have no problem with that," the Beauxbatons teacher said quickly, making Harry wonder why one of the professors seemed open to the idea, but he quickly got the impression from the way this professor was looking at Snape was visibly seething with rage, they wanted to give Snape and the rest of the Hogwarts students enough rope to hang themselves with.
Looking between the Durmstrang professor and his Beauxbatons counterpart, Harry could tell this had been preordained. Everything about the looks they were both sending each other while Snape didn't have a say was beyond amusing. After that, the students were shuffled around a little bit, and Harry found himself sitting next to a Beauxbatons student, a girl with strawberry blonde hair.
"Hello," Harry greeted her, although he was unsure how she would respond to him; he hadn't really gone out of his way to make friends with the students of the two visiting schools beyond answering their grim questions about his past, and he was unsure of how they viewed him now since he had launched a blow to Dumbledore's credibility so he was curious how this would go.
The girl smiled nervously at him. "Bonjour Monsieur Potter. I'm Celeste."
Harry smiled back. "Is everything alright?"
Celeste was about to reply when Snape, seeing an opportunity came over. "No talking in class, Potter," the Potions Master said, although the Beauxbatons potions professor stepped in before the Slytherin Head could say anything more.
"I find that a too silent potions classroom is too oppressive, Professor Snape," she said, emphasising Snape's title with contempt, "although I do take your point."
This was too much for Snape. "Excuse me, but I think you'll find this is my classroom, and Mr Potter," he spat the name out, "is my student-."
"Correct, and we are not disputing that. However, you seem to be forgetting there are students from two different schools-."
"As if I needed to be reminded."
"And they are under our jurisdiction, not yours. However, as you say, this is your classroom and we are not disputing it, and you will put the potion you wish brewed for this lesson. We will help you teach this class," the Beauxbatons teacher went on, although Harry mentally cringed as he realised what she meant by that; he had learnt from long experience people's personality was different behind closed doors, and while some teachers were nice, he had learnt some of them could become horrible very quickly. If this woman and her opposite believed Snape was going to be professional, she was in for a shock.
Snape looked like he'd have wished nothing more than to bully the other potions teachers out of the room and he would do the same to the foreign students. But he visibly pulled himself together, and spat out, "Very well."
Snape flicked his wand at the blackboard. Instantly the potion and the recipe for it appeared on the board. "Potion ingredients are in the cupboard, begin."
The foreign students and their teachers were shocked while the Hogwarts students were used to Snape's methods of 'teaching.' Harry stood up and he went to pick up a cauldron and the ingredients, memorising the recipe as he went closer to the cupboard. As he took them back to the workbench where Celeste was waiting, he noticed Snape in an argument with the other teachers. They did not look happy.
X
"Is this really your idea of teaching?!" The Durmstrang teacher snarled at Snape, but the greasy-haired wizard didn't care if he was unhappy or not. Snape was unhappy himself. As far as he was concerned the foreign students and their teachers were intruders in his domain. He had never even wanted to host them in his classroom in the first place. Unfortunately, Dumbledore had overruled his concerns and his issues, and he had gone ahead with the plan anyway.
Well, it was just yet another plan which had blown up in the old fool's face. Snape honestly hoped when the Dark Lord returned, he would finally end the Potter family and better yet murder Albus Dumbledore once and for all. But what made it worse was how that damn Potter brat had made a mockery of him, of House Slytherin, of Draco even though Snape himself had to admit the blond imbecile had largely brought it on himself.
Snape wasn't blind enough to dismiss Draco's faults. He was too realistic to do something so stupid. In any case, he had to bail his godson out of trouble nearly every day. Merlin knew the blond idiot had them in abundance; not only did he blab about things best left unsaid, he dragged himself into confrontations with Potter who was, despite Snape's opinion of him as a mediocre wizard, not only much more powerful but Potter didn't make the same mistakes Draco did.
Snape sneered at the two teachers - it was probably the worst idea he could ever have come up with, but Severus Snape had always viewed himself as smarter and more powerful than others, it was hard not to look down on others. Besides, these two intruders were in his home turf, and he was not happy about it. Not one little bit. Unfortunately, his arrogance stopped him from thinking both of these teachers who were on his home turf might be smarter but also better than him. "I don't care about your concerns relating to my teaching; if the dunderheads can't follow simple instructions-."
"Dunderheads!? Those are our students," the Durmstrang potions master spat in outrage, and his French counterpart was just as incensed, "do you not understand what that means? You arrogant fool! Those dunderheads as you call them are the future of the magical world! By giving them shoddy teaching, you are ensuring the art of potion-making is forgotten."
"You know, I've always wondered why the education system in this country is so terrible. Now I know," the Beauxbatons potions teacher's expression was stony with contempt, "it's because of you, and Dumbledore. Neither of you care about the teaching standards of your students."
"Who are you to criticise my teaching methods?! I know what I am doing!" Snape hissed angrily at her. He was furious with how this foreign mudblood was criticising him, and not for the first time he cursed Dumbledore for making him a teacher when anyone with sense would have seen he didn't like passing on knowledge, especially when he knew how stupid so many people were.
The Beaxbatons professor snorted at him - snorted, at him - and spoke while her very face was so stormy it stopped any prelude to an argument. "What teaching methods, you don't have them! I will definitely make sure you understand the depths of your mistake."
"And so will I," the Durmstrang teacher growled, gazing at Snape with contempt. "You know, I don't know whether to pity you or not."
"What do you mean, pity me?" Snape sneered.
"Every generation there are exceptional students; some of them might be brilliant in specific fields of magic, and they might not be excellent in potions, but some may have surprised you. But you don't care about that, and because of you the number of Healers and aurors over the last few years must have gone down and down, no?"
X
Harry walked out of the potions classroom pleased the presence of the two foreign teachers had managed to mitigate and prevent Snape's vitriolic sabotage of everyone who was not in his own house. In fact, the two had taken it upon themselves to help the Hogwarts students, moving from table to table, offering advice and patient tuition while they worked. Many of the diehard Snape fans hadn't liked it, but that was only to be expected, but otherwise, it had been the most informative potions lesson he had ever had, and he knew many of the others in the class had agreed with his outlook on the matter.
Even Hermione, who was usually prepared to fight tooth and nail to ensure Snape was given the respect he deserved felt the same, agreed. Ron might be one of the worst potion brewers in the world given how he never really seemed to read through the instructions even if they were crystal clear on the board, and without Snape hovering over him like a giant, malevolent vampire Neville had definitely improved slightly although how long it would last, he didn't know.
Snape had been incandescent with rage as he'd watched the other teachers undermine him in the class, but there was nothing he could do. Harry had seen the looks he had sent the Durmstrang potions master, and how the Durmstrang teacher had his wand out prepared for a fight; Harry did not know much about the school, but considering how much older he seemed compared to Snape, the other wizard was likely to be a powerful wizard in his own right.
And Snape seemed to have reached the same conclusion, although Harry wondered if Snape was going to make some stupid mistake which got his backside fairly handed over to him. Harry didn't know if it would happen, but he hoped it did. Snape needed to be put in a position where he would find very hard to get out of, but Harry doubted he would since Snape was too smart to make such a mistake. The good thing was with so many people in the room, including two teachers who weren't afraid to fight with him, Snape hadn't come near him or said a word. But that would change. Harry knew it.
