The Nice School of Magic
by Healer Pomfrey
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.
This story is COMPLETELY AU. If you don't likt it, don't read it!
Harry saw a lot of unknown faces, before he noticed two well known redheads in absolute delight. "Susan, come. The twins," he shouted in excitement and ran over to greet his friends, only slowing down upon realising that the twins were together with their parents and two younger siblings.
"These are Harry Snape..."
"... and Susan Bones," the twins introduced them to their family, before they introduced their parents as well as their brother Ronald and their sister Ginny to their friends.
"Welcome to the Nice School," Susan said in a soft voice, smiling at the children.
"Are you already students here?" Ronald asked in disbelief. "You don't look older than me."
Apparently realising that Harry and Susan slightly hesitated, the twins told their siblings that Harry had his father and Susan her aunt at the school and that they had been attending classes with them already for two years.
"Oh Mum, Dad, may I attend the Nice School too, even if I'm a year younger?" Ginny spoke up in apparent excitement. "I've got two brothers teaching here."
Before anyone could reply to the girl's outburst, the headmistress called all children together and announced that Harry, Susan and the older siblings - which, as far as Harry could make out, were none other than the twins - would give the children a tour around the school, while the teachers were ready to speak with the parents. To Harry and Susan she said that she expected everyone in the Hall Magnifique for lunch in two hours' time.
'That's a lot of time,' Harry thought, feeling very relieved when the twins apparently decided to lead the group.
HP
"Show us the tree house," Ronald demanded, causing the twins to cast him furious looks.
"Shut up Ron..."
"... which part of being a secret did you not understand?" the twins asked, sounding uncharacteristically upset.
"It's all right, Fred and George," Harry threw in, calmingly, and informed the twins about the new tree houses for all the younger classes.
"Each class has its own tree house?" a blonde boy queried. "That sounds like a lot of fun."
"It is," Harry confirmed, smiling. Turning to the twins, he suggested, "Shall we show them the park first then?"
Everyone agreed, and Harry ushered the perhaps-to-become new first years into the first years' tree house, where the twins motioned everyone to sit down and introduce themselves.
Harry learned that the blonde boy who had spoken up earlier was Draco Malfoy. He had heard the name before, because his father had told him that he was the boy's godfather, but that he didn't dare hoping that the boy was going to attend the Nice School, since his father was the new headmaster of Hogwarts.
'He seems nice though,' Harry thought and listened with interest how Seamus Finnigan, Blaise Zabini, Terry Boot, Ernie Macmillian, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Hannah Abbott, Lavender Brown, Mandy Brocklehust, Lisa Turpin, Millicent Bulstrode and Pansy Parkinson introduced themselves, before he became distracted when Barkymort caught up with him and began to lick his face over and over.
When the thirty eight-year-olds were finished with their introductions, the twins led the whole group through the greenhouses into the school building and showed them the library, the classrooms, the first years' common room and dormitories, before they finally brought the whole group to the beach.
They explained about the Quidditch tournament as well as the class competition and emphasized, proudly, that so far their class had won the class competition twice.
Sooner than Harry had expected it, it was time to lead the children to the Hall Magnifique, where they explained that Professor Flitwick had charmed the ceiling to look like the sky outside.
"This place is amazing," a boy, who had introduced himself as Blaize earlier, spoke up. "Why should I wait three more years to get into Hogwarts, when this school seems at least as interesting?"
"That's true," several others immediately agreed, causing Harry to smile.
'We're going to have Defence together with them,' he recalled. 'But they all seem to be nice. I hope they'll all decide to attend our school.'
Only after the visitors had returned home, the headmistress announced that twenty parents had immediately registered their children for the Nice School, while ten others had informed her that they'd consider the matter and would possibly send an owl before the deadline that was fixed for 31 July.
HP
By the time school commenced at the first of September, there were 25 new first years. During the first week, Harry, Susan, Hermione and Neville took turns spending some time in the first years' common room or tree house to get to know the first years and help them adjust to the school.
Harry could not help enjoying their Defence classes together with the first years. 'They're really all very nice,' he thought, 'maybe apart from Ron Weasley. He keeps complaining about things the whole time, and I don't like that he fights so much with the other students, especially with Draco.'
Sometimes, he even had the impression as if Ron was jealous of him, because he was already a third year in spite of being of the same age and because of being best friends with the twins. However, Harry did not care, and he merely chose to ignore the other boy's tirades.
HP
Like during the previous year, the now third years spent most of their free time in their greenhouse, to which they had added a corner for Barkymort and the cats to play and rest. Seeing how much fun their classmates had with their familiars, half of the students had brought cats with them at the beginning of the school year. Fortunately, Barkymort got along with the cats well, however, whenever he spotted different cats, who were not familiars of any of Harry's classmates, he always barked at them.
Once again, the school year passed peacefully and uneventfully - except for the Christmas holidays, during which Severus and Amelia informed Susan and Harry that they had decided to get married in the summer.
"I think it's absolutely cool," Harry blurted out, when he and Susan had retreated into the tree house together with Barkymort like they often did, even during the holidays.
"Yes, I think so too," Susan replied, smiling. "Then we're a real family, aren't we?"
Harry merely nodded, happily.
HP
Finally, the school year ended with the third years winning both awards once again.
On the one hand, Harry was glad that the end of year test were over, and he was looking forward to spending some time with his family, to which he already counted Amelia and Susan, however, on the other hand, he was sad to see his friends return home for two months.
The first week of the holidays passed quietly. As in previous years, Harry spent the morning assisting Severus in his lab, and sometimes even Susan joined them. During the afternoons, Harry and Susan, who were always together, spent much time roaming not only the grounds, but also the surroundings of the school together with Barkymort.
HP
One day, they went to the nearby Muggle beach and bought ice creams, which they took to the magical beach and made themselves comfortable on the low wall next to the portal leading to Marseille.
"Look what I brought for you," Harry told Barkymort, smiling as he produced a bone out of his jeans pocket.
The dog happily waggled his tail and began to busy himself with the bone, while Susan and Harry began to discuss what in the world they could give their parents for their wedding that was going to take place in two weeks' time.
"I don't have a clue," Harry groaned. "It's not as if we could brew fruit drops or such a thing for them like we do for our friends."
"I don't have an idea either," Susan added, sighing. "Maybe we should ask Professor McGonagall or the Weasleys or someone."
Harry remained thoughtful for a moment, before he became distracted when Barkymort suddenly began to bark, letting his bone fall into the sand.
"Barkymort, what's wrong?" Harry asked, alert. However, he could not see anything out of the order.
"Look, over there," Susan whispered, pointing in the direction into Barkymort was dashing away.
"Draco's father," Harry recognised the man who was striding over the beach in a fast pace. "What's he doing here? Maybe something happened with Draco. Barkymort, come here," he called back the dog - inefficiently.
Barkymort was now walking right next to the tall man, growling and barking at him. However, Malfoy stepped right in front of the children and spoke up.
"Mr. Potter, I heard that you have become good friends with my son Draco?" he asked, looking at Harry in expectation.
"Yes sir, I'm Harry Snape though," Harry replied in confusion. 'Barely anyone knows that I was Harry Potter before,' he thought.
"I do not wish my son to be friends with someone like you," the older wizard continued to speak. "Maybe this will help you remember this." With that he raised his wand and pointed it at Harry, mumbling an incantation that they could not fully hear let alone understand.
Malfoy just finished casting his spell, before Barkymort attacked the evil wizard, hurting him badly. However, Malfoy still managed to apparate away, leaving the children alone on the beach, stunned.
"Harry, are you all right?" Susan finally asked, horrified.
"Yes, I'm fine. I've no idea what that spell did to me," Harry replied, not feeling any different from before. "Thanks Barkymort for hurting Malfoy. He's really evil."
"Anyway, I'm going to take you to your father now," Susan said in determination. "Maybe he or Professor Pomfrey can assess what the spell did to you and how to counter it."
Harry grudgingly agreed, not feeling in the mood to enjoy the rest of his ice cream on the beach now anyway.
"We should ask the professors to ward the beach, although Malfoy's the father of a student, so maybe they can't keep him out," Harry said, thoughtfully, while they returned home.
"Parents don't have to be able to come here except for special occasions though. Let's speak with the adults about it," Susan said in a firm voice.
HP
During the rest of the afternoon, Severus and Poppy cast all possible diagnostic spells at the boy, however, neither of them was able to found out what the spell was that Malfoy had cast at Harry.
"When you feel any different, you must come to see me again immediately," Poppy instructed him in a strict voice. "Maybe if you show any symptoms or effects, we'll be able to find out something."
"All right," Harry replied, obediently, feeling it very unsettling to know that he was probably going to have problems in the near future.
HP
At breakfast the following morning, Harry received a letter from Draco.
'Harry,
I must warn you. I told my father that we have become friends, and he was very upset and told me that he don't want me to be friends with scum like you and that he would harm you so you remember to stay away from me.
I don't care what he wants, so I'm going to remain friends with you, but please be careful. If he sends you a letter, don't open it, as it will surely be poisoned.
Your friend
Draco'
Frowning, Harry handed the letter to his father.
tbc...
Thanks to the kind readers who reviewed yesterday's chapter.