Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Modern Student
"Talking"
"Thinking"
It was a nice day outside, the kind where a person should go and enjoy the sun. But as much as Neville wanted to do that, just take the day and go around the Hogwarts grounds like the students would, he couldn't. He wasn't a student anymore. He was a teacher and Head of Gryffindor House.
The door opened and Hermione stepped. "Hello, Neville."
He smiled as he stood up. "Hello, Hermione." They hugged as old friends did. "How's the family?"
"They're good. Rose can't wait for her Hogwarts letter. Last I heard from Harry, Sirus is the same way."
"Future lions?"
"Seems so." Hermione took a long look around the room, nostalgia crossing her eyes. "It's been so long since I've been back. Everything looks the same."
"Oh, it is," Neville agreed. "It's just the people have changed." Back when they were students, it had felt like the teachers would always stay the same (except for whoever was teaching DADA that year). Nowadays, it felt like the students were changing too fast.
While it was nice to reminisce about the old days, that wasn't why Hemione was here. She had gotten a letter from Neville asking her come to Hogwarts during the first week of January. Since that was the week teachers offered career advice to their students, she could guess she was here to show students what they could be after Hogwarts.
But it was strange that she would be here for that. Something else had to be the reason. "What's going on, Neville?" she asked as she took a seat.
Neville's smile vanished as he became serious. "There's a fifth-year. Matthew Cook. Muggleborn. When he first came to Hogwarts, he showed plenty of promise. Could've given you a run for being the smartest student in the first years. He's got such an amazing grasp over the theoretical and spellcasting." His smile returned briefly. "And he's got an odd sense of humor."
"How so?"
"Well, as an example, during his first year he kept insisting the view the new students got during the boat ride wasn't impressive. No one realized until the end of the year that he had taken the last boat and deliberately sat backwards." Neville could admit when he had been had and that was a good one. The whole staff had a laugh about it after the students were gone.
That sound good and all, but Hermione wouldn't have been asked to come in if the student was this impressive still. "Did something change?" she asked.
Neville nodded. "At some point, his grades started to drop. He would turn homework in half-complete and barely finishes any test put in front of him. The staff are getting concerned, McGonagall especially. They don't want to lose a promising student like Matthew."
While that explained the situation, Hermione still wasn't sure about he asked her to come. "Neville, why am I here?" she asked.
"Some of us believe that he is being pressured by the purebloods to slack on his work." If it was true, it greatly troubled him. Despite the work his friends did to revise the Ministry and the Wizarding World, there were still holdouts for how things used to be. And that traveled down to their children who could enforce it in school. "Others believe that Matthew isn't putting in the effort because he thinks there's no future for a Muggleborn after Hogwarts."
She scowled. "That's ridiculous. There's plenty of opportunities. He would just have to look for them." How could a student think that? His whole future was there, just waiting for him to take that step.
"And that's why I wanted you to come, Hermione. If Matthew doesn't believe there's a future for him in the Ministry, then you'd be able to set him right and offer encouragement." He glanced at the nearby clock. "He should be on his way right now. Take the seat beside me."
Hermione's first impression of Matthew Cook was how serious he seemed. His blue eyes latched onto them the second he walked into the room. While they knew who his professor was, they didn't know her and thus, was unsure of who she was. He didn't slouch into his chair but sat straight. "Hello, Professor," he said in a polite tone.
"Hello, Mr. Cook," Neville replied. "Now, usually I would start by asking about your future career choices, but there is something else that must be discussed."
"What?"
"Your grades and schoolwork. It's been clear that you've been falling behind, Mr. Cook. We know that you have promise as a wizard, your early records show as much. If you kept pace, you would certainly go on to become a great wizard. With your O.W.L.s coming up, that is more important than ever."
"I see." His eyes wandered over to the second adult. "And who are you, ma'am?"
"Hermione Granger." She waited for the typical reaction of her name. It was rather surprising when she didn't get it. Still, she pressed on. "I work in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement."
"Ms. Granger is my former classmate and a Muggleborn," Neville explained. "She's the brightest witch of her generation and, if I've heard the rumors correctly, on the short list to be the next Minister of Magic."
Hermione flashed him a look. "Neville, that's just talk. I haven't even considered it." He clearly didn't believe it. He, like Ron and Harry, believed that she would be a great Minister.
"The point is, Mr. Cook, that if you have doubts about your future, there are places in the Ministry that will accept, provided you have the correct aptitude. And if you believe your future lies elsewhere, they would consider your grades too. I'm not telling you this to make you worry," he assured the student. "Simply to assure that if you put in the work, you can bring your grades and set yourself up for a successful career after Hogwarts." His hands fell to the desk, ready to point out any of the pamphlets waiting there. "Do you understand, Mr. Cook?"
"I do, Professor," said the student. "And I know what I'm going to do."
He smiled. "I'm glad to hear it."
"I am not going to take my O.W.L.s, or my end-of-year exams, and fail with sinking colors."
The words didn't register with Hermione, at first. When they did, her smile froze. She shared a look with Neville. He had heard the same thing. "Mr. Cook," she said, "if you do that, you will be expelled from Hogwarts." Mr. Cook didn't react, so she went further. "They'll confiscate your wand and you will be prevented from using magic."
He actually smiled at that. "Perfect."
"Perfect?" Neville repeated. It was only thanks to years of being a teacher that he hadn't stuttered.
"Professor, I will be honest with you: I've been trying to get expelled from Hogwarts since third year. The way I see it, I've only gotten this far because the teachers were either feeling merciful or passed me out of pity."
Trying to get expelled from Hogwarts, on purpose? Hermione couldn't fathom it. "Why?" she asked Matthew.
As his look went from her to Neville, it turned serious. "My family lives close to Middlebrough. My dad's a political aide, so I tend to be aware of what's happening in the world, and my mum's a teacher. The first summer back from Hogwarts, after I told them how amazing it was, they took note of the education and found it was lacking. So, they hired a tutor to catch me up on what I missed." A small look of disgust and misery crossed his face. "A school year, crammed into nearly two months, and I've had to do that every summer since. The only chance I had to see my friends was on the weekends and that was if they didn't have something already planned.
"I hated it. but it also showed me something important: the Wizarding World? It isn't all that great." His hand came up, stopping the adults' words before they were said. "After third year, I read about how Prince William was marrying Kate and I was interested in how wizards saw it." His eyes were flat even as they showed his derision. "The grandson of the Queen was getting married, and that didn't even warrant a reference in the gossip section?" Neville and Hermione didn't have an argument about that. They had heard about the wedding, but only in passing. It wasn't that big of a deal for them.
"That lack of news, along with how technology is progressing and a few other things, it took off the glamor of the Wizarding World for me." He glanced at the typewriter placed off to the side on the professor's desk. "Nonmagical people have laptops and the internet, yet wizards are only just starting to use the typewriter? This isn't just behavior in Hogwarts. It extends outwards to everything else. And to be frank, the education in Hogwarts isn't top form."
Now that, Hermione and Neville took offense to. They were both Hogwarts graduates and had fond memories of their school years. "Mr. Cook, mind your words," Neville warned him.
But he was unrepentant. "I only speak what I consider the truth, Professor. Yes, Hogwarts teaches its students how to be wizards and witches. But that's all it does. Science is barely covered in Potions, History is solely focused on Magic and not the rest of the world, the only sense of a Maths class is Arithmancy, and there's no Literature courses. And don't get me started on Muggle Studies. That class is just insulting.
"As far as I can see, Professor, Hogwarts teaches us what we need to know in order to live in the Wizarding World without any consideration of the rest of the planet. If that's what my life will look like going forward, I will pass." He stood up from his chair. "So, thank you, Professor, for your concern about my wellbeing. Although, I will say that you came off as kinda elitist."
Elitist? Him? That was ridiculous. "That is not what I meant, Mr. Cook."
"But that's how it looked like to me. You, the pureblood wizard, telling me that I have a chance at a future if I only put in the work, and bringing in another muggleborn to show me a success story." He glanced over at Hermione. "A success story that only came about after she married into a pureblood family?"
Indignation sprouted fast in her, along with Hermione. "I don't like what you're saying, Mr. Cook," she said in an ice-cold tone. "If you're implying that I married my husband for his family's name—"
His hands rose up quick in surrender. "My apologies, Mrs. Granger. I know that you married your husband young, but you have to admit that it looks that way to some people. I can't be the only person who thought about it."
He wasn't. Hermione had heard such implications from other wizards and witches at the Ministry. She ignored them all. "I married my husband because I loved him," she told him. Matthew accepted it with a nod and said nothing else.
"Matthew," Neville said, "please consider what you're planning to do. It seems drastic."
He considered the professor for a moment. The emotions in his eyes were blurry mess. Then they settled on determination. "I have to leave Middlebrough before dawn to reach London so I can catch the train to Hogwarts, a ride that takes the whole day. I travel half the country, just so I can travel the full length. The same thing happens at the end of the year. And my parents have to take time off so they can take me. And that's not accounting for the shopping that has to be done in Diagon Alley as well."
Neville could see how it was a bother for a Muggleborn and his family. But there was also a simple solution. "Why not take the Floo?"
"My home doesn't have a fireplace and as far as I can tell, there are no other wizards in Middlebrough." One simple answer and it killed Neville's possible solution cold. "If the Express had a stop in Leeds or Manchester, it probably wouldn't be that big of a hassle for us." His thoughtful expression didn't last long. "That was the first thing we noticed wrong and it only grew from there. Sorry, Professor. But if it comes down to magic and a more fulfilling life, I'll take life." He shrugged without a care in the world. "Who knows, maybe I'll become Prime Minister and start dragging you all into the present."
He left on that note. The adults were silent for a long moment after he was gone. "I think the times are definitely changing, Hermione," Neville said. This was the first time he had seen a student who wanted to leave Hogwarts, leave the Wizarding World, behind willingly.
She nodded, only to turn thoughtful. "Do you think he was serious, about becoming the Prime Minister?"
"If he is, you'll probably be the first to know, being Minister of Magic and all."
They shared a chuckle at that little joke. Little did they realize how true those words would be twenty years later.
End
Author's note: Thank you for all the reviews you've sent me.
When I was a kid, I loved reading the Harry Potter series, and watching the movies too. It was easy to imagine myself in that world. But when I read them again as an adult, it was hard not to see what the flaws in that world were (fanfiction helped too, believe it or not).
It got me thinking, what if one of the students just decided it wasn't worth the effort anymore and dropped out of Hogwarts, walked away from magic altogether? So I wrote this story.
To start off, having a teacher as a parent helped shaped Matthew. From what I remember, whenever the parents of Muggleborns came up, none of them were teachers. So none of them would think something was wrong about Hogwarts' lesson plan. And she would take steps to fix that little problem.
Since her son would hate the fact he was stuck inside throughout the summer playing catchup, he would start think that regular school wouldn't be so bad. It would certainly mean he could have some freedom again and hang out with his friends. And it would help him see the difference in the educations.
And because he grew up Muggle, Matthew would start to dislike how wizards see the nonmagical world, like how they mispronounce words and think something can't be done without magic, even though the nonmagical world has already done it. He'd even grow to hate the word Muggle (which, now that I'm an adult, does sound rather offensive). At some point, something gotta give and he chose magic.
Matthew wasn't entirely joking about what he could do as Prime Minister. Let's face it, the Wizarding World is really behind the times. The books were set in the 90s, just as personal computers and the internet were taking off, and they were still using quills and ink. From the way things were looking, by the time wizards had figured out how to create an internet via magic, the rest of the world would probably already have functioning hologram technology.
So yes, I do believe he would do what he could to drag the Wizarding World into the present, maybe even out them for all to see. If he remained a wizard, they'd probably try and call him a Dark Lord. It would certainly make that first meeting between him and the Minister of Magic interesting if it's Hermione.
In regards to Matthew's nonreaction to Hermione, that's a part of his growing apathy to magic. Yes, she helped defeat a great evil and saved the world, but that happened nearly twenty years ago, and nothing hasn't really changed. So for him, it's just a flat "whoop-de-doo."
By the by, if any does want a Harry Potter story where the Wizarding World starts catching up to the modern world, I highly recommend A Study in Magic by Books of Change and The Chosen Six by Tribun.
I'll see you all next chapter!
