Chapter 172

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of JK Rowling's or Criminal Minds fabulous characters. I do however own this story; I wrote it and I do NOTgive permission for anyone to post it anywhere else. If you want to share it post a link.

To:

From:

Dear Spencer,

Scoil Draiocht has four students to a room, most people share with their friends in their class but you can choose to share with any three other people of the same gender as long as they all want to share with you and each other. They're kind of small, with 2 bunk beds with a desk at each end, but each room has its own toilet and bathroom. I still share a room with Dean and Seamus, like last year. Our fourth bed was empty but Patrick asked if he could move in with us since he's had a falling out with one of his roommates. Seamus and Dean aren't thrilled about having a fourth person, but they've agreed, since we're the only room in our year level with an empty bed and if the teachers get involved, we won't get a choice who gets moved in with us, and we'd all rather have Patrick than the other guy. I'm assuming that their other two roommates would also rather keep Patrick so it's best we agree so it's sorted out before it gets to the professor's attention. I'm kind of glad to have more time with Patrick and it's nice not to be the third wheel in Seamus and Dean's friendship all the time. The rooms are actually spelled not to let anyone who doesn't live in it not to be able to get in so we will have to formally request that the ward is altered for Patrick. So, whatever happens I'm safe in my room at night, which is more than I could guarantee at Hogwarts.

My new classmates are actually getting more friendly not less, Rose and I aren't at the top of the 4th year class but we're both fairly close, close enough for other people not to groan when they're paired with us, but will still do their share of the work. I'm more than happy with that but it's starting to stress Rose out. She needs to jump classes to be able to complete her A levels before she has to leave school but jumping ahead makes it harder for her to excel, and she needs to excel to convince the professors to let her jump more classes next semester and to get the best possible marks on her A levels to get a scholarship to continue on to university, she says that the tuition itself will be free for her, but she needs a scholarship to pay her living expenses so she can convince her parents to let her work part time for them and study. I actually like working with this level, when they're focused on something other than dating or who they want to snog, I feel like I can relate to them better than most of the kids in my Hogwarts class.

You're right about the bullying, the school actually enforces their no bullying procedures, the professors crack down on it really quickly and because of the time delay the minimum suspension is five days (one real time day) without any extensions on homework assignments for a first offence, ten days for the second and the rest of the semester for the third. They also don't allow magical pranks like the ones the Weasley twins like to pull. They pointed out that it's too dangerous to give people unknown potions because there's no way out of here to get a healer if someone has a reaction the mediwitch can't manage, or to call in parents if a child is seriously injured or ill.

I asked my History teacher about whether she'd done a teaching course and she told me that all the teachers at Scoil Draiocht had to have at least a muggle university degree in secondary Education, since there's no standard education qualifications for teachers in the magical world. Even Professor Flitwick who's probably the best teacher at Hogwarts couldn't get a job here because he doesn't have one. I don't think that Flitwick could actually get a muggle degree if he wanted to unless he knows enough about computers and knows that you can make one work around magic to study online. He doesn't look entirely human. When I mentioned that to my teacher, she said that teaching courses have so much practical work involved that you couldn't get a degree online, but that he could use a glamour charm to attend classes if he'd wanted to. The glamour charm would have to be quite extensive if he wanted to look like he was the same size as a normal young adult, but my teacher said that it is possible to do, and that Professor Flitwick is well known on the duelling circuit and definitely has the power to maintain a glamour like that all day. The glamours I've managed to case so far change the colour and shape of my hair or eyes, or I can give myself a tan or freckles but I can't change my size at all, let alone make myself over twice as tall as I am. This conversation has inspired me to keep working on it though.

I also asked the professors why they didn't try to approach the muggleborn in Diagon Alley to let them know about the alternative to attending Hogwarts during the school year. The truth is that the professors have the parents sign a legally binding agreement that their witch or wizard will attend Hogwarts until they've completed at least three OWLs or have their magic bound, before they take them to Diagon Alley to buy their school supplies. We knew that my introduction to the wizarding world with Hagrid was different but I didn't realise how different. I'm sure Vernon and Petunia didn't sign anything. Of course. I remember Hagrid boasting that I'd been enrolled since the day I was born, so my parents could have signed the agreement, but I wouldn't have thought they'd want to commit to a school like that, eleven years ahead of time unless they absolutely had to. Especially as there was no guarantee whether I would have magic or be a squib, from what I've read there's no way of testing it so parents don't know for sure until they see their child perform magic or they get their invitation letter when they turn eleven.

I suggested that they could still approach the muggle parents and explain the situation with the discrimination and all that and how Hogwarts doesn't teach any of the stuff needed for GCSEs or A levels, and that their school was a good way for their children to keep up their nonmagical education and get some extra instruction over the summer if they're struggling with a subject like potions. The professor I spoke to said that they'd discuss it with their colleagues, but that he thought most parents wouldn't want to commit to a second set of school fees, or to have their children away for most of the summer after a whole year at boarding school, and their children would probably not want to come. I got the impression that while they allow students like us to attend, that isn't what they've set up the summer semester for and they're not actually keen to have too many more students who only want to study nonmagical subjects, or perhaps students like me who they worry about the strength and control of their magic. I know they get around it with me by not letting me take magical classes and I haven't had an accident using magic since I started using it purposefully, and I don't think that Hermione or Dean have either, but Seamus still blows off his eyebrows a couple of times a year, mostly outside of classes and Neville had quite a few spells go wrong on them.

Seamus and Dean grumbled a bit about coming back to school this year but not as much as last year since they were looking forward to seeing some of the friends they made last summer, and they could see how the potions tuition and learning to write an essay made things easier. Seamus seems to actually like staying at school after classes when we have to more than he enjoys going home and having chores to do. Dean said that as much as he misses his mum and dad and his sisters during the term, and was glad to see them, it's quite odd to go back to living with them and having to ask for permission to do things after being able to decide for himself all year. I assume Seamus feels the same or even more so since he's by nature more of a rule breaker than Dean, though we have more freedom to do what we want when the chores are finished at the Finnegans than at the Thomas's or I did at the Dursleys so it isn't that, or at least not just that.

I think after everything that happened with the Basilisk that Mrs Finnegan would prefer to send Seamus to Scoil Draiocht full time with Meaghan instead of letting him go back to Hogwarts. If he she does manage to transfer him, I think Dean would want to join him, though like I said he wouldn't be allowed. Hell, I would want to stay here too but they won't accept me, I'm just glad they let me come back this summer even if they won't let me in any of their wanded subjects. They accepted Meaghan even though she got a Hogwarts letter so they'd probably accept Seamus, though Dean's parents would have signed the contract to stay at Hogwarts or have his magic bound so he wouldn't be able to come here. I can see the difference between the strength of our magic but I didn't realise it was still obvious to other people, I'm always careful to use my fake wand like I couldn't do magic without it whenever there's any chance of someone seeing.

I was worried when I heard that the Finnegan's had decided not to send Meaghan to Hogwarts that it would make Dumbledore realise that Seamus had noticed the way I was treated and how unsafe the school was and he would try to potion Seamus, but Mrs Finnegan reminded me that his vassal amulet would protect him. I also think that Dumbledore won't bother if I'm not there.

Batman says his powers come from the fact that Earth has a yellow sun and Krypton has a Red sun. But that's bad science, our sun isn't yellow it just looks like that from on Earth because of the way the light refracts on the atmosphere.

Your friend always

Harry

A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed followed or favourited this story for your support.