Disclaimer:
I solemnly swear that the literature and works of the Harry Potter Verse belong to JK Rowling, Bloomberg and Warner Bros. The only thing I own are the one-shot ideas that popped into my head and whatever OCs I would create for them. This is a work of pure fiction made solely for fun, constructive reviews will be welcomed, flames will be ignored. Any references to characters in real-life or fiction are purely coincidental. If I could make money out of my ideas, it would be nice...
Mischief Managed Damn It!
Title: Harry's Alternate Education 2
Posted Date: July 23 2023
Tags: Slightly abused Harry, reasonably smart Harry, Harry not going to Hogwarts, Muggleborns / Mundanes common sense, manipulative Dumbledore
Harry wondered if this was how animals felt being under scrutiny of people in zoos, at least if they could feel anything related to emotions.
Harry was currently in a very fancy restaurant that at a glance was the type that Vernon would love to patronage and boast of his 'great standing', where the white-collar adult, one Mister Douglas Finch Fletchley, had requested a private room for himself and his other guests to have their lunch and their private discussion. Harry inwardly mused about how most of the adults were intimidated by the wealth around them while the remainder and the children were nonchalant about it, though he himself could understand the former given how he was raised.
It made him wonder again about his own inheritance and how it might look to others.
For the most part, they were greeting each other and telling a little of their business or relations, while the children interacted with each other and asked about anything that popped into mind. From what he had gathered, the majority of the children and adults were part of a previous excursion to Diagon Alley by a different guide, and wanted to know more on their own time, hence their appearance that day. Harry found himself sitting next to one Sally Ann Perks, partially to get away from all the questions that made him feel uncomfortable considering they were on matters that he did not know very well due to his upbringing. Someone had deduced his identity sometime after his introduction, but thankfully the parents saw how uncomfortable he was and lightly scolded the child for harassing him.
Sooner than expected, the table got cleared of the plates and everyone was seated with their drinks at hand and looking to the end of the table where Harry and Douglas were seated. Said adult stood up from his seat and looked to the others with a smile.
"Now that we are all fed and more or less acquainted with one another, shall we start with our meeting?" The man asked before turning to Harry. "The floor is yours, young man."
"Thank you Mister Fletchley." Harry took a quick breath to steady himself before nodding his head to the others. "I will be honest, I had no idea that I would be giving a lecture today, so forgive me if my explanation sucks." The adults and children chuckled in good nature as Harry pulled out the folder he was given by the goblins and started handing out the documents to be passed around. "Here are a set of documents and statistics on Hogwarts when compared to other schools, along with the current environment of Magical Britain. As for how I got them, let me start from the beginning."
"Three days ago, I learned about my powers from Rubeus Hagrid, my guide at the time. He brought me to Diagon Alley to get my items for the school year but kept rushing me when I wanted to ask more questions. There was only so much I could gather from the books, hence my return to the alley to find some answers. The books in the stores were informative to a certain extent, but from what little I have gathered from them and some chit-chat from the locals, it did not paint a decent picture. I got further confirmation when I went to Gringotts to ask about their services and an inheritance that was apparently left by my late parents." A few of the adults sympathized with him on this which made him a touch uncomfortable and pressed on.
"Perhaps the more noticeable issue is how the denizens seemed to view people of different circles and walks of life. You may have noticed some of the attitudes in the alley?" A few nods and grumbles were his answer. "From my understanding from the various conversations and readings, the people around here have views regarding the birth rights of those who wield magic. It is split into these main groups: pure-bloods, half-bloods, muggle-borns, and Squibs. There are others like half-breeds or creatures, but for this conversation, the four will be used."
"I have a bad feeling about this." Mister Perks, a rather big fellow with a mustache that Vernon could only dream of having, but considered a teddy-bear by his daughter Sally, rumbled while crossing his thick arms.
"Pure-bloods are people who have at least three generations of wizardry blood without any muggles, or people without magic. Half-blood magicals like Dean and I are essentially born between one wizard and a muggle or a muggle-born, the latter being magicals born between 2 muggles, and Squibs are the exact opposite of muggle-borns, people born between two parents with magic but have no access to their own magic whatsoever." Harry explained while pointing out the parts. "This labeling has persisted over the years and from my understanding, only gotten worse within the past century due to a civil war pertaining to the ideology. Many to this point in time still have this thinking."
"That stinks of bloody Nazis!" One man near the back called out before getting smacked in the arm by his wife for the language.
"He does have a point on that." Douglas answered in his stead. "It is essentially tagging us as the inferiors. And considering the bank records you have for us, I have the feeling that we are paying a lot more than others." Harry nodded at that.
"From my understanding, the purebloods pay a certain amount depending on their circles. Based on current conversion, the more influential would pay roughly 450 pounds per term, while the less wealthy pay maybe a quarter or so more. The half-bloods like myself need to pay at least double to five times the amount of the less wealthy pure-bloods for their terms, again subjected to the ideology and circles. The muggleborns are the worst off, they end up paying upwards to ten times that." Plenty of eyes seemingly want to bulge out of their sockets at that proclamation as hands scrambled to find the document with the pricing tags to see for themselves if he was telling the truth. Those with banking experience soon found that Harry was actually understating the situation as they did some quick calculations in their heads to see how much they were paying.
"Are you telling me that I have been close to paying a quarter of a hundred thousand pounds for my kid for the first year alone?!" Samuel Wilkins barely held back his volume, but the rage was evident on his face and shared by the other adults.
"If we are going by these records, it would appear so." Douglas looked through the documents with an expert eye for numbers. "And that is the minimum if the bias is true."
"If that is the case, we should not be going to Hogwarts." One of the parents announced. "Why on earth did that McGonagall witch not tell us?"
"That is where I need to discuss the next issue." Harry took a breath to steady himself for what to say. "The school is funded by the ministry for the upkeep of both the curriculum and the building. Hogwarts is heavily subsidized based on the number of students they can bring into the academy. From what I have gathered, the academy has seen numbers drop for the past few decades. Now most of it could be attributed to the two wars that had hit Britain."
"Wars?" The adults blinked at that.
"The first one was around the time of World War 2. The second was roughly a few years back, more on the civil war among British magicals." Harry started talking with aid of a history book he got from the bookshop. "The purebloods have been in power for a long time. The majority of them believe they are better than those without magic in many ways. Hence, they tend to look down on those of common birth or those like me, born between a pureblood and a muggleborn. The thing is, the pureblood numbers have been falling rapidly while half-bloods and muggleborns are increasing at almost the same rate. To a good majority of the purebloods, we are the invaders that could take away their power and wealth, but at the same time, they need fresh blood to inject into their society."
"So they purposely limit information." One of the parents voiced the thought out. "Get our children into a society where they are effectively forced to sink or swim. If they can't make it, they leave, else they would be made to stay and integrate themselves into that group of people."
"But that sounds like social conditioning." One of the other adults commented.
"What about you, boy?" One of the other men asked with a frown. "Why tell us all of this? Aren't you allowed to go to this school?"
"What I just told you stands for one reason. The second is because," Harry paused to look at the girls and mothers, "pardon my language for this part. Everyone and their bloody grandmothers would be after my ass in school because of being the only child and the last of a long family line with an inheritance. I have unwanted fame for surviving an attack that killed my parents, and I found out that the headmaster of Hogwarts was the same fellow that got me stuck at my relatives when I should be living with someone else."
"He circumvented a will?" One of the parents who was a barrister bristled at that. "That is illegal."
"Try telling that to other wizards." Harry shrugged. "From what I was told, Dumbledore has a fair amount of popularity from the populace along with three posts that grants him different levels of power. Said posts include the head judge of a group of people handling the laws of this country, so he can say that the information was confidential and needed to be sealed away without anyone even looking at it."
"What are your plans then?" Douglas asked.
"Right now, I am trying to find other alternatives." Harry answered. "I was told of other schools in Europe, and there are others overseas. Depending on the situation, I could try tuition, but I want to look at all my options before I make my decision."
"Something tells me you need to do it sooner than later." Mrs Thomas placed a hand on her cheek. "If you are someone the people had been looking forward to bringing back, odds are good that they would do whatever they can to force you into Hogwarts."
"Yes." One of the other parents nodded. "My wife is not here right now, but she has told me a little about the young lad here. Given your fame, I think you can expect some company in the future. And I don't mean the good kind." Harry groaned at that.
"We would need to pick up on this on another day." Douglas looked at his watch to check the time. "The room is only let out for another hour, and we still have a lot of food and drink. Let's get that out of the way." Everyone agreed and they went to continue with their meals, Harry taking the chance to enjoy the fare as much as he could since he knew his relatives would never let him get such good food.
After a two hour lunch, they broke up into their groups and went their separate ways, but not before the adults shared phone numbers to contact each other. Harry ended up in the car with the Fletchley family with Justin to talk with while they drove him back to Privet Drive. Tried as he night, Harry could not help going quieter the closer they got to his residence. Something the adults noted with increasing concern and prompted the car to be stopped a few blocks away.
"Harry, is something the matter?" Martha turned to look at him.
"It's nothing." Justin could not help the scoff despite the look from his mother.
"No offense, but you are looking like you are heading for the gallows." Harry only gave a small smile before it disappeared as he looked out the window, missing the looks exchanged by the family.
"Young man, are you in trouble with your family?" Douglas asked with a concerned tone. That got Harry to stiffen briefly before forcing himself to keep calm.
"They are my relatives, we don't really get along well." Harry spoke simply. Before the adults could ask, they were interrupted by a loud call.
"Boy!" Justin, being the one next to Harry, noted his tightened expression and clenched fists at the sound of what had to be the biggest fellow he had ever laid eyes on standing outside one of the blocks and glaring in their direction. Like the man was trying to imitate sumo wrestlers but had none of their honorable traits, not to mention with the mustache, it made him look more like an overweight walrus.
"I got to go." Harry gave an empty smile before exiting the vehicle and made his way to the man who briefly looked in their direction and gave a polite, if not tight smile, before clamping a hand on Harry's shoulder and moving him towards the house the man evidently came out from. It was brief, but all three of them could see the grimace from when the man grabbed his shoulder to turn him around and somewhat forced him to move.
"Dear, you don't think." His wife looked at him in slight apprehension.
"I hope not." Douglas saw some movement at the corner of his eye and turned to find a woman watching the area with her cats moving about her feet. Maybe he was getting wound up from everything, because Douglas would swear that said cats appeared to be looking at the house and at them, nowhere else. Even the woman seemed to be keeping an eye on them for some reason.
"Best to do some investigating."
~ooOOoo~
(One week later)
"THUD! THUD! THUD!"
"Boy! Get the door!"
Harry sighed as he got off the chair and slowly made his way down the stairs, gingerly moving to ease off the weight from his bruised leg. To say that Vernon was angry with the situation was an understatement; they had to spend a fair amount of time and money to remove the pig's tail from Dudley, and Vernon had to do a fair amount of damage control to ensure no one heard about that. Needless to say, Vernon was stressed out, and Harry was his usual target for the week, though it was restrained to some extent as they did not want trouble from other freaks as they put it now that they were apparently being monitored.
All thoughts were broken when he opened the door to find one of the adults from the impromptu meeting along with 2 police officers.
"Good morning, Harry." Douglas Fletchley nodded his head. "Hope we did not catch you at a bad time." Harry was thinking it might be the case when his uncle hollered from the kitchen.
"Boy, what's taking so long! Who is it?" Harry winced at that and the hardened expressions of the officers when they heard Vernon. The big man came out of the kitchen only to pause briefly at the sight of the police officers.
"Are you Vernon Dursley?" One of the officers stepped forward, his blank expression clearly showing how much he wanted to let loose on the fat man. The latter took a few steps back from the taller and obviously fitter man, directing a brief glare at Harry before looking back.
"I am, officers. What seems to be the problem?"
"We have been informed by some citizens that there was an incident that needed investigation. May I ask if there are any other residents in the house? We would need them to be in one spot." The leading officer pulled out a sheet of paper to hand over. "We have a warrant to search the general premises." Vernon could not deny the warrant so reluctantly let them in, with Harry getting slightly pulled back by Douglas to keep the younger boy behind him and away from Vernon as 3 other officers came from behind.
It did not take long for Petunia and Dudley to be brought into the living room, their son throwing a temper tantrum over something that the "freak" did, words that made the adult Dursleys wince and the others narrowing their eyes. It likely did not help their case with one of the junior officers noting all the photos in the room and along the way showing only Dudley as the child and not Harry. Vernon's attempts to explain the difference between Dudley's room and Harry's room fell apart under the questioning, and then one of the officers found the cupboard under the stairs with the padlock.
Words were exchanged with rising tempers, and Harry found himself held back again by Douglas while watching Vernon getting dragged away by the bigger policemen, a sobbing Petunia moved by a female officer, and Dudley ranting about how it was all the freak's fault as he got moved into a different car by a very harassed child services officer. All while the neighborhood was out to see them getting dragged to the police cars.
"Sir?" Harry was getting understandably overwhelmed by what was going on.
"Sorry for the surprise. When we last met, I had concerns about your relatives and the general area, so I asked a private investigator to help me check. Those concerns became real when I got the replies and well, you have seen the results." Douglas motioned with his hand. "And this time, I made sure to go to the top since for some reason, every other officer seems to have developed amnesia." He paused before leaning forward to whisper, "or perhaps made to forget." Harry stiffened at that possibility. He had considered it since his introduction to magic, but getting it heard from another was something of a confirmation for him.
"For now, we are getting you out of this house and to somewhere else." Douglas paused for a moment before continuing, "Almost forgot, one of your neighbors is also being monitored. We suspect she may be one of the reasons you have been stuck here despite the social workers coming to check on you." Harry blinked before going through his head on possible neighbors who might be involved. That list was small given how bad his reputation was because of the Dursleys, and the only one he would have more contact with would be…
"Mrs Figg?" Harry could not help the skepticism in his tone. Okay, the old lady was perhaps missing a few screws in the head and kept too many cats to be legal around the area, but she was the last person one would think of being involved to keep him in the Dursleys.
"Arabella Figg has a few unusual circumstances that the investigator found suspicious, including the oddity that she had no actual job but was able to pay taxes." Douglas answered. "The investigator had found letters detailing what you were doing along with the recipient's remarks that you can't be moved at all costs. We are not sure how she would answer him, but there had been strong indications that she was doing it for money that was promised to her in some manner." Harry felt his mind going numb at that, not able to process it enough that it took Julius gently moving him to his car by the shoulder to get him away from the house and the neighborhood.
Harry had no idea what was going on anymore.