61 Chapter 61: The End and a Beginning
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I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.
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7 June 1992, Hogwarts
He definitely wasn't hoping that Longbottom would somehow finish him off. It was too farfetched for that to happen. Did he simply want to study the boy's protection by having it interact with Voldemort?
And most of all, could Harry even believe a word he said about the fire that killed his parents and razed an entire village off the face of the Earth?
Harry was consumed with these thoughts as he fell into the realm of Morpheus, still feeling tired from his encounter with Quirrell.
The day after officially waking up from his magical coma, Harry decided to just follow Madam Pomfrey's recommendation and not really stress himself. The matron had done a good job when he was in the hospital wing; the Potter scion felt like he was back to his best form, even if his body got sore whenever he cast a significant amount of magic.
So, he spent his last days at Hogwarts with his friends, who had welcomed him warmly. Although, for some reason, Daphne was particularly clingy ever since he woke up. He didn't really get it, to be honest. It was probably because she missed him or something, but Tracy wasn't acting the same, so he didn't really understand. It seems like in this life and his previous one, he would never make sense of what goes on in the minds of the fairer sex.
He had missed his second Hogsmeade weekend. It seems like he was cursed to not visit Hogsmeade this year. Considering what happened in the story at the end of the year feast, with Dumbledore giving away hundreds of points to the boy who lived, he was also not likely to visit the village in the next one either. It's not like he would really lose anything; anything interesting in the village would have an equivalent shop in Diagon Alley. Hogsmeade was originally a wizarding settlement. The whole business growth started because of the proximity to Hogwarts, whilst Diagon Alley was the veritable hub of Magical Britain. It showed in the stores that were in Hogsmeade; it had a few inns, cafes, stores to buy school supplies and a chocolate shop of all things. Yeah, it was obviously geared towards teenagers.
People were staring at Harry and his friends on his way there. Well, it was mostly Harry. Apparently, being attacked by the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor made him some sort of commodity. There were rumours about him being a secret Dark Lord and that he had duelled Quirrell when he had confronted him, hence why the man disappeared without a trace. There were rumours that they were planning on stealing whatever was in the forbidden corridor together and that they had greedily turned on each other.
Still, Harry slowly walked towards the Slytherin table and sat at his usual spot, his friends joining him. The entire room was decked in green and silver. The members of the House of Snakes were all smiling in victory at having won the house cup and all of the privileges that come with it. Of course, Harry knew what was about to happen, that their smiles were about to be turned upside down in a few minutes.
He was proven correct, when Dumbledore proceeded to his end of the year speech, and well, pretty much handed the cup to the Gryffindors. The utter uproar at the announcement was galling. Harry felt bad that at hard work of the fourth years and sixth years, who had made sure that the privileges that came with the house cup would be theirs the following year, was so easily dismissed with barely more than a second's thought. It was disgusting, and a quarter of the school was openly glaring at the headmaster. Of course, outside of the Gryffindors being overjoyed, the other houses didn't really care about the precedent the headmaster just made. Seriously, just deciding to give the house cup on a whim was making it meaningless, and that's not mentioning the sheer enmity that the man was building in a house where he was already fairly unpopular.
Honestly, the house cup was what prevented Hogwarts from falling into chaos. There were just too many students and too few professors. Adding magic in the mix just made this place a recipe for a ticking time bomb, or at least it would be if it wasn't for the house cup. The prize was enticing for older students, so they went out of their way to stop the younger ones from doing anything drastic. Without the credibility of the house cup, and the fairness of earning it, the older students wouldn't be motivated enough to care about it, meaning that Dumbledore had basically told everyone that it was meaningless, that to keep the boy who lived happily, he would gladly just hand it over to his house without even being discrete about it. If he does the same in the following year, the upper years will just stop caring about it, which definitely wasn't a good idea in the long run.
His friends were pretty grumpy about it. An hour after the announcement, Tracy was still grumbling, "I can't believe Dumbledore just gave the cup to Longbottom, just like that."
"Tracy, let it go," Harry retorted gently, "we all knew that he was very biased when it came to his little boy hero. Honestly, I would have been surprised if he hadn't done anything."
Blaise gave him a confused look, "I don't understand…"
Daphne snorted, "No surprises there, huh? Did you forget how much stuff he let Longbottom get away with this year? He got a spot in the Quidditch team even if he didn't deserve it, that's not to mention being caught with a live dragon in a school, which was a criminal offence that Dumbledore swept under the rug. Now, this? I'm not happy, but I can't say that I can't see him ruin the house cup as a way to reward Longbottom somehow."
Harry's eyebrow reached his forehead; this was definitely not something he saw Daphne, or any girl his age, really, understanding. It was a very good interpretation of the events.
The girl gave Harry a wink and continued with a joking tone, "What? Did you think I haven't learnt anything in the last year? I'm not thick like the other two."
Harry chuckled at Blaise and Tracy's protest. Yes, Daphne was very intelligent. She learnt things quickly and was dedicated when it came to any issue.
The issue dissolved into their usual friendly bickering, and they all quickly forgot about Dumbledore's injustice. Time passed very quickly, and it was almost curfew. The prefects had led them back to the Slytherin common room, and they quickly went to sleep, stuffed with food, and comfortable.
The following morning, all the first years gathered in the Great Hall for their customary end of year warnings, like no casting magic outside of school, or how much their summer homework was important. It really wasn't, since it was mostly just theoretical assignments that didn't necessitate any substantial research. From the looks of it, Harry could discern that it was a basic summary of the theory they had learnt in class, with a small introduction to the next year's curriculum.
As for the trace, Harry had tried to find anything to beat it but came up empty. Seriously, even his meagre wandless magic would be detected by the ministry. After all, the charm was on his person, not the wand, like many thoughts. The trace's purpose is to monitor spikes of magic in muggle homes, especially when underaged wizards and witches are concerned. The medium of magic just didn't matter, and Harry couldn't really find a charm on him using his Arcane Hearing. It frustrated Harry immensely, even if he could understand its purpose. The trace wasn't really made to be biased against muggleborns, but to preserve the statute of secrecy. Children and teenagers tended to be very unpredictable, and the ministry had to know when someone revealed their magic, be it on purpose or by accident.
So, Harry was stuck to staying in a place with enough wards to qualify as a wizarding home. Yeah, he was probably going to stay in Diagon Alley again, instead of a muggle hotel he could easily sneak into without paying a dime.
He already had a stock of ageing potions to fool the innkeeper of the Leaky Cauldron again and spend the entire summer there. After having a taste of magic, there was no way he was stopping for a day, let alone for two whole months.
After McGonagall's little speech, they followed Hagrid who took them back to the Hogwarts Express on the boats again. It was a nice touch, to leave the same way they came in, even if some of the wonder had worn off slightly.
As he boarded the Hogwarts Express, Harry found that he was going to miss the castle and its wonderous nature. Sure, he had copied a good part of the library during his nightly escapades using the cloak, so he wouldn't really suffer in terms of reading material, but there was just something about the castle that was just wonderful. It was hard to explain it. It was something at the edge of his mind that he could somehow listen to using his Arcane hearing, despite the ambient magical noise. It was something that felt like a sense of welcome, a smidge of affection, a home open for all those who wish to learn.
Harry sat in a compartment with his friends, wondering when the next time they would see each other again would be. It didn't really matter; if Harry was staying in Diagon Alley, it would be easy to meet them somewhere, but he didn't want any nosy adult to try to butt into his living situation. He sure as hell wasn't going back to the Dursleys, that's for sure.
Funnily enough, Gemma Farley walked up to their compartment in the middle of the train ride to give them a letter that could contain their final grades for their year.
Unlike his friend, he opened it without an ounce of hesitation and read its content. It had two pieces of parchment. The first read the following:
Dear Mr. Potter,
We thank you for your dedication this year and would like to sincerely congratulate you on all of your achievements. The entirety of the Hogwarts staff is eager to see what shall come next.
Yours truly,
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress.
As for the second piece of parchment, it contained his grades:
Passing Grades:
O = Outstanding.
E = Exceeds Expectations.
A = Acceptable.
Failing Grades:
P = Poor.
D = Dreadful.
T = Troll.
Harry James Potter Has Achieved:
Astronomy - O.
Charms - O.
Defence Against The Dark Arts - O.
Herbology - O.
History of Magic - O.
Potions - O.
Transfiguration - O.
It seemed like they just didn't count the Defense Against the Dark Arts practical, or just gave him full marks. What was the protocol when the defence professor tries to kill you anyway?
Underneath his grades were the end of year rankings, where Harry was unsurprisingly in first place, followed by Hermione Granger and Padma Patil. After his friends grilled him on his grades, he took a look at their own. They did pretty well all things considered. Daphne, the most diligent in her studies, got an Exceeds Expectations or Outstanding in all of her grades, and Tracy and Blaise almost did the same, both getting an Acceptable in History of magic and Blaise having one in Transfiguration while Tracy had one in charms.
They all bickered about their grades as usual. Harry got teased for being a bookworm, and he told them all off for being 'underachievers'. It was nice banter between friends, and the hours flew by quickly.
Of course, all good things must end, and a distinct voice spoke up around him, "We will be arriving in London in five minutes."
They all said their goodbyes and promised to owl each other during the summer break. While everyone went to meet their families, Harry snuck off to the other side of the platform, ready to take the Knight bus to Diagon Alley.
Of course, all of this completely froze when he saw a familiar obese figure standing on the other side of the platform. Vernon Dursley, in all his purple-face moustached glory, was there, glaring at Harry for some reason. He grumpily walked towards Harry, "Hurry up, boy, we haven't got all day."
Harry looked back towards the families exiting the platform. He didn't want to cause a scene here. The last time he spoke to the Dursleys, he had made it abundantly clear that he did not want anything to do with them again.
Choosing not to confront the man in public, he followed him to his car and was readying a small speech to give him a piece of his mind.
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AN:
Before you say anything, Harry will not be returning to the Dursleys, the next chapter will be a farewell, in a way, and for closure purposes, since I'm not planning on including them in the story again, so I thought it deserved at least a chapter, which will be officially the last one in the first year.
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If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr
I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.
