Title: The Good Student
Author: P.L.S.
Rating: Mild and Slightly Bitter Salsa
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Wendy's Fast Food
Summery: An American student of wizardry ponders his parent's hatred of his magic and his little witchy sister's future.
Author's Note: This just hit me as I was trying to brainstorm for chapter 7 of The Bridge to Beyond. I figured that the US's wizarding educational system would have to be different from the British one. I just don't see the US having very open privite schools like Hogwarts. Feel free to use the tests and the ideas.
He sat watching the ducks play in the pond. It wasn't much but it did help now and then to just forget that he was supposed to be some kind of perfect student. This was his escape from his school and from the pressures that were now being put on him now that he finished his Cerified Accademic Tests, or the CAT's.
In the next two years he'd under go the trials of the Omnibus Randomized Battery, the newest testing system the Untied States of America's Department of Magical Education desided to try out on his grade level. the ORB's were a set of rather random tests that would happen throughout the last two years of public school which would be graded on age, previous scores, averages of the whole of the US, and a bunch of other things that made him think that maybe the DoME was made up of old accountants who now had nothing better to do.
The school was looking to him and just a few others to pull the scores of the school up like he did in the CAT's. He could see it in the eyes of the teachers and from the meetings with the guidence counsilor who was now pressuring him to start filling out college applications and scholorship requests. His fellow students resented him or used him, and he hated it.
Because it was a public school, as opposed to the more prestigious and exspencive privte schools like the all-girls school Salem Witches Institute, the students were mediocre to poor, or just didn't have the means to afford the privite institutions that rarely gave scholorships away unless it was determined very early on that the kid was very powerful. It was unfair, many kids' magic would grow in perportion to age and puberty, his own magic was only this strong because he had to prove his parents wrong.
Yes, the prefect student was laughed at by his parents for years as he studied magic. His mom was a squib who hated wizards and ended up spending he nights in a bottle. His dad was a lawyer who was sure that his heir would take on the family business like he did, and now was growing bitter because year after year he finished off his grades at the top of his class. They always told him that he'd never find a job, that no real college would take a kid who lived in a fantasy world.
Sure, they still made sure that he had clean clothes, ate, and was in by curfew, but they hadn't touched him on purpose in five years, they never said kind words to him, they wouldn't even stay in the same room as him anymore. His little sister was confused by this and really tried to bring the family together, but just a week ago she did her first act of accidental magic in from of everyone.
For years she did little things like animation charms on her toys when she was alone, transfigurations when she hated the food, or just small cheering charms on him when he was feeling very low. But the explosion of the vase on the coffee table was too much to ignore. At that point both his mom and dad walked out of the room and two doors slammed.
Holding his sister as she cried because his parents couldn't accept them for their magic was like a blow to the chest with a sledgehammer. He could take the coldness, but his sister thrived on attention and affection, if they gave her the cold shoulder, no doubt it would lead to nowhere good.
So, now he was sitting and watching the ducks, thinking about the future. In two years he'd be eighteen and able to leave his parent's custody. Maybe they would give him custody of his sister if she followed in his foot steps. They could get a place near the school and he could work full-time for Starling Press, which was right next to the school. He already had a part-time job as a goffer there. He could go to the community college at nights and his little sister would be able to go to school with a caretaker who was supportive and who loved her with all his heart.
No, they wouldn't survive the first month. He'd apperate to see her when ever he could, even if he was going to school in Hawaii or Alaska. But he wouldn't be able to support her.
He skipped a stone across the pond, scattering a few ducks.
"Boy." said a deep voice with a slightly German accent. He rolled his eyes and saw the older man in dark robes. He was bald but had a rather good gottie. His face was lined with wrinkles and his eyes were tired.
"What?"
"I need to see Fredrick Rosier, the headmaster of the public wizarding school here."
"Oh, you mean Principal Rosier. Just go down Park Street, left onto Radiford. Number 4200. You can't miss it." He said pointing as he explained the man nodded and sighed.
"Thank you. Why aren't you in class?"
"Free period, then I'll skip the rest of the day. Hey, how could you tell I was a wizard?"
"I taught for years and was headmaster of a school in Europe. I know when I see a wayward student and a young wizard at that." he said with a slight laugh.
"Cool. Bye." and he walked off to go to the Wendy's down the street for a real lunch as opposed to the gross stuff they tried to call food in the school cafeteria.
He'd worry more later.
-- End