Rated: T

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

International Wizarding School Championship

Season 2, Round 8

School and Theme: Beauxbatons, Charing Cross: wizards blending into the Muggle world and coping with Muggle problems

Main Prompt: [Plot Point] Segregation

Additional Prompts: [Word] Superior, [Setting] Muggle playground

Year: 5

Word count: 2264

This is set in the late 1960s.

He gripped his trunk in one hand as he stood in front of the building, which looked much more intimidating than he'd imagined.

Breathe. Take a deep breath. You can do this. Living on campus can't be that bad.

Everywhere he looked, there were students. Muggles. He was a wizard—pure-blood, freshly graduated from Hogwarts. He had decided to continue his studies by going to university. That was either the bravest or stupidest decision that a wizard could ever make.

"Marshall," his friend Damien said, as he clapped Marshall on his back. "Are you sure about this?"

Marshall gave a brave smile. "Yeah."

Damien bit his lip. "All right then, let's get moving."

Marshall nodded, and together they stepped inside the building. Damien had been Marshall's closest friend all throughout Hogwarts. They had started out on the wrong foot, but eventually their rivalry dissolved, and they had become best friends. Damien was a Muggleborn, and he'd helped Marshall a lot in trying to get him used to a Muggle environment, so he'd be better prepared for university.

"Though nothing can really prepare you for university," Damien had told Marshall one day. "Even my Muggle friends are struggling."

The process was quick—Damien spoke to the Residence Director, who gave them a dorm room number and key and shooed them away so he could do whatever he wanted to do in peace. Marshall was lucky to get a single room—he'd requested for it since it would be easier for him to deal with his magic when he was alone.

They arranged his room and went out to get something to eat, but just before Damien left, Marshall suddenly felt more alone than ever.

"Okay…" Damien sighed. "You have my number. You know how to use a phone. Don't hesitate to call or text anytime."

"Right," Marshall said, looking down. "I'll see you." Then, he watched his friend disappear amongst the students, his dark brown hair mingling with the grey streets as he left the campus.

Marshall turned to walk back to his room, with the building looking more lonely now that Damien was gone.

It honestly felt horrible. Suffocating. Magic was something he'd used so much. He was used to hiding his magic from Muggles for short periods of time, but this was different. To put it into words: he was underprepared, very underprepared. Not only that, but the transition to uni was difficult for Muggle students as well. If the Muggle students found it difficult to adjust, then he was certain he must have it much worse.

Besides, there was the academic difference. The subjects baffled him and what universities expected students to know was very terrifying. He had studied so much when he was in Hogwarts, but being a student among Muggles made him feel more inferior than ever. He had to put a lot of effort to catch on all the years of knowledge he missed.

Marshall being so clueless about the Muggle society wasn't exactly well-hidden. Every time he would fumble with the AC buttons, or be confused about every other thing dealing with electricity, technology or basic general knowledge, the other students would snigger. Lately, they'd started treating him like a toddler, since he honestly didn't know anything. And just like that, rumours spread, and he started getting attention from unwanted people.

Marshall sighed as he started understanding the depth of his situation. Walking to his room, he noticed a few seniors coming his way—obviously to pick on him. He was already familiar with them, and his last encounter with them wasn't something he wanted to repeat.

Instinct took over, and the next thing he knew, he was in his room.

Marshall stood there for a moment in stunned silence.

And then he realised what happened: he'd accidentally Apparated to his room, in front of Muggles!

He cursed under his breath. Soon enough, the letter came from the Ministry charging him with breaking the Statute of Secrecy. In the letter, it was written, "We will send someone to keep an eye on you."

He slammed the letter on his desk and gritted his teeth. Stupid, stupid, stupid. What's wrong with you? Why did he suddenly Apparate? Apparating wasn't allowed in Hogwarts, so it wasn't like he did it a lot. Then why?

It was just… so difficult. So hard to contain himself. He wondered why wizards had to live in secret. It wasn't fair. What was so wrong about being a wizard, anyway? Just because they were born with magic doesn't mean that something was wrong with them. Then he remembered the witch killings a couple of centuries ago and how they had secluded themselves after that. Why did Muggle ostracise them again?

Wasn't it something to do with religion? Well, it made no sense because it wasn't like they produced magic. They were born with it. It was in them. And now they were always living in secret, scared of the Muggles, because the truth was that Muggles were actually superior to them.

The blood superiority cult out there that claimed that wizards were the most superior creatures needed to get a reality check and see what Muggles were capable of. Despite the fact that wizards had magic in their blood, Muggles had their own magic, something completely different to the wizards and completely unimaginable.

And while that was cool and all that, he didn't like the fact that wizards had to constantly hide their magic. The rules were too restrictive, and his life had become a mess. The whole situation was frustrating him.

Marshall needed a walk.

The air was fresh, and the park was green. It was a massive park, with several playgrounds in it. A lot of them were specifically designed for the students themselves, but some areas were for children too. There were several courts for all those different Muggle sports.

Marshall went towards one of the playgrounds. It was a playground he would come to every now and then. There were several climbing frames and Marshall had learnt to enjoy using them.

As he walked closer to the playground, he saw a small crowd that seemed to be thinning. People shook their heads, muttering complaints as they walked away from the scene. Curious, he went to look and immediately regretted it. His stomach churned as he saw the scene in front of him—two girls beating up another bruised girl.

His heart beat started accelerating. "H-hey," he stammered, and that caught the attention of one of the people. That's when he realised that the victim had already passed out.

"What do you want?" one of the girls, a brunette, asked.

"Why don't you stop?" Marshall asked politely. He had just run away from a group of bullies… It wasn't like he wanted to confront two more. "She's already unconscious."

"What's it to you?"

"Uhh ... to keep the peace of the playground?" he said, as if asking a question, stumbling over his words.

"She was ruining the peace," the girl said. "But you're right"—she nodded to him and the other bully—"Let's get out of here."

The two girls left the scene, leaving the playground empty. It made sense. After all, why would anyone want to exercise near such a bloody fight scene?

Marshall bent down and saw that the victim was still breathing. He looked at her wounds, dismayed. He had no idea how to clean wounds using that antiseptic stuff. However...

He looked around. Upon seeing no one nearby, he took out his wand and muttered some spells to produce a cooling effect on the bruise. He didn't have bandages, but he used his scarf, took out water from his bottle and wrapped the bruise.

After all that, he got up and sighed in relief. Her bruises were taken care of, and he was able to use healing magic safely while she was still unconscious.

Thank Merlin no one saw it, he thought. And he hadn't really broken the Statue of Secrecy… She may have been a Muggle, but she was unconscious. As he picked her up and laid her on a bench, he heard a voice, "You!"

Marshall turned to see a boy—most likely a student, with a bag and a cap on his light hair—frowning at him.

"What have you done to her?" he asked.

"Uhh ... first aid?" Marshall held up his hands in surrender. "I found her unconscious, and she was bruised so I tried to help."

"She was hurt?" he asked, as he pushed Marshall out of the way and looked at her.

"Yes, she was." Marshall looked at him curiously. "Are you a friend?"

He nodded and turned around. "I was told she'd be here"—his eyes trailed to Marshall's hand—"What is that?"

Marshall flinched. He was pointing to his wand. Internally, he cursed himself for being so stupid that he had forgotten to put it away. "Uhh … a stick?" he blurted.

"Right, a beautifully decorated one," the boy said sarcastically. A moment later, he spoke, "Isn't that a wand?"

"A what?" Marshall asked. "I mean, yes! It is a wand! I got it from this super cool toy shop—"

"Yeah right," the boy said. "That looks too real. Are you a wizard?"

Marshall was taken aback. He was silent, contemplating his answer. "Are you one?"

"I'm a normal human," the boy answered. "A Muggle. Some of my relatives are wizards."

"I see." Marshall felt relieved. "What's your name?"

"I'm Ryan," he said, as they shook hands.

"I'm Marshall, good to meet you," Marshall said.

"That's good and all, but I'm worried about Carol," Ryan said, frowning. "Do you know how she got hurt?"

"I—no." Marshall shook his head. Should he tell him? It was better not to know, right? "She probably injured herself somehow."

"Strange," Ryan said. "I'm pretty sure some assholes beat her up."

"Really?" Marshall raised an eyebrow. "What makes you think so?"

Ryan looked at him as if Marshall was stupid. "You seriously don't know?"

Marshall shrugged.

"She's black," Ryan stated.

"So…?"

"Don't you know?" Ryan asked. "Or do you wizards not have any racism?"

"You mean like blacks vs whites?" Marshall asked, to which Ryan nodded. Marshall continued, "We have it too, but it's not this bad. It used to be much worse before, but for the most part no one cares about your skin colour."

"Wow," Ryan said. "For once, you people are ahead of us. Barely any racism—imagine. Sounds good."

"No, I mean, we do have racism," Marshall said. "It's just not the same kind. People discriminate against half bloods and even more against Muggleborns."

"Really?" Ryan raised his eyebrows. "Why?"

"They think that the purer your blood is, the more superior you are," Marshall said. "They talk of a hierarchy with purebloods at top, then half bloods, followed by Muggleborns and Muggles at the bottom."

"We have a hierarchy, too," Ryan said. "Looks like your society is not very different from ours."

"We're humans. at the end of the day," Marshall muttered. "There's bound to be similarities. But I just don't get why people would treat others differently like that."

Ryan gave a hollow laugh. "Because it's fun? It's fun to think of yourselves as superior, isn't it?"

"I guess…" Marshall shrugged, and then he noticed Ryan looking at his friend in concern.

"She's not supposed to be here," Ryan muttered suddenly. "This park isn't for people like her, unfortunately. There was a sign forbidding them from entering, but it's broken. And the recent riots… must've given her the guts to walk into this park and get away with it by claiming that the sign is broken… She's so stupid—she could've just told us, or you know,just not come in here?"

Marshall watched as Ryan continued muttering to himself and pacing around.

"Do you want me to help take her home?" Marshall asked suddenly.

Ryan gave him a strange look that made Marshall feel uncomfortable. Was that a wrong question? "No, it's fine," Ryan said. "I'm calling some of our friends."

"Right," Marshall nodded as he got up to leave. "I hope she'll be all right."

He wasn't needed anymore. Their friends would come to take care of her. He nodded to Ryan, shook hands and left the playground.

As he walked back to his dorms, he finally noticed the signs. The signs outside every shop that said, "No blacks, no Irish, no dogs." And that when he realised something odd about his college: there wasn't a single coloured person there—everyone was white.

He wondered how oblivious he had been to not notice all the discrimination around him, but then again, the whole of wizard society was really oblivious to the rest of the world too.

"It's fun to think of yourselves as superior, isn't it?"

He remembered how Muggleborns were randomly attacked—even in Hogwarts, which was supposed to be a safe place. Some kids posed as Death Eaters and talked of joining You-Know-Who. And it seemed that things like that happened among Muggles too.

They were truly much more similar than he had thought.

I'd like to explain how I've incorporated the main prompt: segregation—which applies to both humans vs wizards segregation, plus the whites vs coloured part which was shown in the last part. The reason why Marshall was struggling throughout was because they were segregated the whole time. The reason why wizards thought themselves to be superior to the Muggles was because they have no idea how capable Muggles are.

As for the theme: Marshall was obviously trying to blend into a university, and he was facing college problems—I've shown him struggling to keep up with the academic work, missing home, and having trouble socially. I guess that can be considered Muggle problems? If not… hahahahha my points :))

The Muggle playground is important since that's where he actually learns of one more Muggle problem: racism, plus he realises that the two societies are actually pretty similar. As for the superior prompt.. I think it was pretty clear?

Also this is gonna be a multi-chaptered fic, so keep a lookout if you're interested.