Title: Make Lemonade.
Author: lannamichaels
Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Rating: G
Archives: Archive Of Our Own, SquidgeWorld

Summary: Hogwarts isn't for everyone.



1.

Hang on, Harry realizes two days before his second year at Hogwarts ends. No one did any kind of head count on the train last year. And they certainly didn't do a head count on the train at the beginning of this year, and if they did, they didn't care that they were missing students who should have been there.

No one, Harry realizes slowly, is going to notice if he's not on the train.

And, Harry realizes a blink after that, Harry now has a place in Hogwarts where no one can get to but him.

Ah.

This changes things.

He tells Ron and Hermione -- because they would notice -- and then slips away in the chaos, down deep into the Chamber Of Secrets.



2.

Margaret Clifford and Aloysius Maxwell developed a Hogwarts Library System the first time they both had a research proposal approved. They would take one of the larger tables, sit on either end, and pile up books between them. You wouldn't think there would be so much overlap between wand construction practices and Potions theory, but you also wouldn't think half their sources would be stored in the Herbology section either. Hogwarts is Hogwarts. Accept it or leave.

True, both of them had left, but being former students did give them an edge in having their proposals approved for the summer sessions.

This is Margaret's third summer and Aloysius's fifth, but it's the first summer that they each independently thought they'd discovered a new Hogwarts ghost.

"It's got to be a new kind of ghost," Margaret says to Lillian, who is working over in Textiles. "Aloysius heard it sneeze the other day."

"Wild," Lillian says. "Who here is looking into ghosts?"

"No one this summer," Margaret says. "I don't remember anyone last year, either. Someone was doing interviews one summer back before my parents let me drop out, but her name escapes me."

Lillian shrugs. "I haven't seen any of the Hogwarts ghosts this summer at all. I assume they get holidays, too. Maybe they don't know about this one yet."

"I'd tell someone, but," it's Margaret's turn to shrug.

"Yeah, who cares, right?" Lillian asks. "We're just here to use the facilities, not care about the intricate workings of the Hogwarts ghost social structure."

There's a rush in the air, a breeze where there shouldn't be, and then the ghost stubs his toe and swears quietly.

Margaret and Lillian silently catch each other's gaze. Lillian turns back to her array and Margaret heaves some more volumes of Old Gurney's Potions over her shoulder. Somewhere in here is Gurney's thoughts on glue theory. It must be. She hopes.



3.

"Here, ghostie ghostie ghostie ghostie," Aloysius sings. "Come on, I don't bite." He'd followed a trail of crumbs into a classroom. "Look, kid, I won't tell anyone. No one here cares."

Aloysius couldn't see anything but he could see the stillness of invisible movement.

"Yes, I think you're a kid," Aloysius continues. "You are not the first student to want to spend summers in Hogwarts. What do you think the rest of us are doing here? It's so much easier to get work done when there aren't students around. I imagine even other students feel the same way. It's not like the school year is very conducive for learning anything. It's why I dropped out."

The stillness stops being still. A voice pipes out from in front of him, "what?"

"I dropped out," Aloysius repeats cheerfully. "I hated school and wasn't learning anything. Sitting in a classroom while a professor drones on and on and on, just talking at you the entire time, and then assigns you homework for you to teach yourself how to do, and grades you however they feel like it? Students bullying you with no consequences? Why bother? I started a wandmaking apprenticeship when the rest of the lot started third year."

"You can do that?" the voice asks. Aloysius can't tell if it's aghast or amazed.

"Yeah. My best friend lasted until OWLs but that's because her parents made her do it. She dropped out and started doing potions at a pharmacy. You can do that, too. What year did you just finish?"

"Second," the voice says.

"That's not too bad," Aloysius says. "What's your best subject?"

The stillness hesitates.

Aloysius decides to rephrase that. "What do you like the best about Hogwarts?"

"Quidditch," comes the immediate answer, followed by, "flying, really."

"Uh-huh." Aloysius is beginning to have suspicions. Perhaps even capital-S Suspicions. He reads the newspaper. "So it's just flying for you, then? Anything else you're passionate about?"

"I'm not really the sort to have that," says the voice that probably belongs to Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, and, from the state of the newspaper, the Boy-Who-Was-Heavily-Bullied-And-Ostracized-This-Past-School-Year. Aloysius is impressed with his ability to either cast invisibility charms or with his ability to own a really fantastic invisibility cloak.

"You know what you could do with that?" Aloysius asks. "Right now, not in some hypothetical future?"

"Nothing," says Harry Potter. "It's just a hobby."

"You could make a ton of money as a courier," Aloysius corrects him.

There is a movement like the stillness shakes his head. "That's what owls are for."

Aloysius does not laugh. He remembers what it was like to be one of the kids that the entire school has decided to take out all their aggression on. The gaps in Harry Potter's knowledge are not his fault, they are the fault of the student society that did not allow him to integrate and learn by osmosis. They are the fault of the teachers who did not teach him. They are the fault of the adults who raised him. Aloysius will not make Harry Potter feel like ignorance is a failure on his part. Too many people have probably already done that. "Owls can carry letters and small packages, but they can't follow complicated instructions or carry too much or also pass along verbal messages too sensitive to be written down. They can also be very very conspicuous. If you want to spend your entire life on a broomstick, you can be paid for that. The invisibility cloak will also help." Because if he's not passionate about charms, he's not casting advanced spells above his age level.

"I--"

"It's okay," Aloysius says. "It's fine if you want to keep it on. I don't mind. Like I said, none of us care. We're not responsible for making sure you're where you're supposed to be this summer. We're visitors."

"I hadn't known there would be visitors," says Harry Potter.

Yeah, Aloysius thinks he probably doesn't know a lot of things. Some kids are curious about everything. Some kids were never allowed to be. And someone who gets his name in the paper as often as Harry Potter does -- that's a kid who has to be careful what he knows and what he tries to find out.

And some kids just don't belong in Hogwarts. Hogwarts isn't for everyone, and they've never tried to change that. Hogwarts is the school everyone can go to. It doesn't mean everyone should. Aloysius is proof of that.

Does Harry Potter belong in Hogwarts? That's for Harry Potter for decide, but Aloysius wonders if Harry Potter leaving Hogwarts would make anyone wonder if Hogwarts itself is the problem, not Harry Potter.

"Hogwarts has a comprehensive library and well-regarded facilities," Aloysius says. "And it's not good for magical buildings like this to be empty for too long. The paintings would riot, they need people around."

"Uh," says Harry Potter, who has probably never thought about the needs of magical paintings, and why should he?

"So we submit proposals for what we'll do at Hogwarts and if they think that's reasonable, they approve it, and if they don't, they tell us to try again next year. I'm researching some fiddly parts of wand details. Yours is a standard Ollivander, I presume?"

"Yeah," says Harry Potter, who might not have known there were more wand stores in the world, and certainly didn't try any of them.

"Ever thought about how they got the core inside?" Aloysius asks.

"...No," says Harry Potter.

"Yeah, it's just magic, right?" Aloysius says. "Or how they sealed up the wood, or how they found the right wood or harvested it or got all the cores and what they did to prep the materials and how it all works together. It's Herbology and it's Potions and History and it's an awful lot of trial and error. Me, personally, I've got five wands I use just for making more wands, and a few more I use for specialized tasks in daily life. Your wand for cooking really shouldn't be your wand for household repairs. It's completely different core strengths you want for those."

"Oh," says Harry Potter. "So there's something wrong with mine?"

"No, of course not," Aloysius says. "Ollivander makes excellent general purpose wands. They're good enough to get you through school. Different wands for different classes might make those classes slightly easier, but you're not working at the finicky level where you'd need an Alchemy wand and a Transfiguration wand. If you decide you want to specialize, that's when you should get a specialized wand. Do you know about special muggle scissors?"

The stillness brightens. "Oh! Oh, that makes sense. My Aunt had these scissors I couldn't touch because-- well, because." He seems to hesitate. "My friend Ron, he has a wand that was his brother's, and I think-- I think he'd do better with one that was just his, but I can't tell him that, because they can't afford a new one for him. I bet your special wands are even more expensive."

If Aloysius was collecting evidence, which he might be, he hasn't decided yet, that would be evidence that, yes, the rumors are true and Harry Potter was raised in the muggle world, and also that he's been getting bullied so badly, his best friend is a poor kid, who is also likely getting bullied. Aloysius should talk to Margaret about this; she's always been than he is at figuring out complicated social questions, like why the rich kids at Hogwarts aren't lining up to kiss Harry Potter's currently-invisible posterior, since he's probably going to either be the next Dark Lord or the next great embarrassment, and at this age, who can really tell which. They should be hedging their bets and networking frantically, and instead they're, for some reason, not bothering to do that. Guess their bets are on next big embarrassment.

"That's why you're supposed to learn to make your own," Aloysius says. "That used to be what you did every year to prepare for school, you went and got your core and your grip and you would make your wand for the year. But modern Charms are too powerful for the kinds of wands 11 year olds can make. That's why Margaret thinks we should still be starting everyone with four years of theory first, but I think personally if Hogwarts started with four years of theory before you got your hands on a really good, professional wand, the transfer and drop out numbers would be even higher than they are right now."

"Theory's boring," scoffs Harry Potter.

"Theory's what keeps your spells working," Aloysius says. "But it's true it's not for everyone. But have you ever wondered why you need to pronounce a spell a certain way or make a certain movement with your wand for a spell to work?"

"You need to put your hands on a steering wheel for a muggle automobile to work, too," says Harry Potter, making the point with enough vehemence that Aloysius has even more suspicions about what kind of enemies Harry Potter has been making in his two years at Hogwarts. He'd taken one glimpse at someone willing to mention muggle things first, and embraced finally having someone with the same cultural background. "You don't need to be a mechanic to drive. You just need to learn how to do it. Isn't that what Hogwarts is for?"

"Hogwarts was not founded on any particular educational standard that's still in effect," Aloysius says. "It's really a matter of debate what Hogwarts is for."

The stillness blinks at him. "I have no idea what you just said but I think you just said there's no reason for Hogwarts. But if there wasn't Hogwarts, I'd be-- well, where would I be?"

"At a school that charges fees," Aloysius agrees, "most likely. Otherwise, independent tutoring or apprenticeships. I imagine some people are still self-taught but it's rare." Harry Potter is here right now rather than anywhere else, which means either he really wants the opportunity for independent study or he has nowhere else he wants to be. The first is unlikely, based on what he's said so far. The second means he has no welcoming home and no friends who will share the opportunity to host the Boy-Who-Lived. If his only friend's family is too poor for a new wand for a first year, Aloysius suspects Harry Potter did not even bother to ask. And so Harry Potter is spending his summer secretly at Hogwarts, instead of literally anywhere else. And so he likely values Hogwarts very highly, but only for his safety.

Based on what Aloysius has read in the newspaper, there is no reason for Harry Potter to feel safe at Hogwarts.

He wonders if the invisibility cloak is emotional armor. It can't be physical armor. The spellwork wouldn't let it.

"I never bothered reading Hogwarts: A History," Harry Potter says, probably to someone in his past. "Do you like the other schools, since you don't like Hogwarts?"

"I didn't go to any of them," Aloysius says. "They have their purposes. I don't know if you might like them or dislike them. They're an option if you want them, but you can ignore them if you don't."

"If there's expensive magical schools that don't just let everyone in, why's Malfoy here?" Harry Potter asks, finally naming a name Aloysius knows.

"Certainly because his parents want him to be," Aloysius says, "and possibly partially because those schools don't have to let in the son of a Death Eater if they don't want to, and they don't want to. Hogwarts has to let in anyone with magical talent in the country, they can't be choosy about who the parents are. That means people like the Malfoys can go to Hogwarts and make connections with other people like the Malfoys and with people who think it would be useful to know the Malfoys in the future. That use goes both ways, you know. Hogwarts is about connections and networking as much as it is about education. Personally, I wasn't getting a good education and wasn't making any connections. Hogwarts as a school was useless to me. It's only useful for me now for the resources it has and is willing to share."

"What's a Death Eater?" asks Harry Potter.

Aloysius freezes. He doesn't even mean to, but he does.

"Mr. Potter," he says as carefully as he can, "do you know anything about the former Lord Voldemort at all?"



4.

"Why are you having a panic attack, it's Hogwarts and it's the summer," Margaret grumbles, following Aloysius's message and trudging onto the little balcony Harry Potter knew about five doors away. It overlooks another part of the Tower and Aloysius is still gulping air.

Harry Potter has the invisibility cloak over one of his shoulders, so he looks even more like a ghost.

"It's my fault," Harry Potter says, twisting his fingers in and out of sight.

"It is not, you have been shamefully neglected by everyone around you who has been meant to teach you anything," Aloysius says, too sharp, and Harry Potter falls silent.

"Aha," Margaret says. "You've turned into your dad, so it can't have been too terrible. Sum it up for me."

"I asked him what a Death Eater was and he started breathing exercises immediately," says Harry Potter, who can identify breathing exercises on sight, so at least someone has taught him something, even if it's not extremely common knowledge in the magical world. How can he not know this? What else doesn't he know?

"Margaret, why aren't the rich kids being nice to him?" Aloysius asks, because he needs the distraction. "I know the newspapers say he's being bullied by everyone, including the newspapers, but this is ridiculous."

"Uh, I'm sitting right here," Harry Potter says. "And I'm not being bullied. I think I'd know."

"I don't know," Margaret says, "probably because they think in their heart of hearts that if they're dicks to him, he won't realize he could become the next Dark Lord if he wanted to. He might already have a claim to being the next one, since they tend to inherit it by defeating the previous one."

"I'm not the next Dark Lord," Harry Potter says. "I think I'd know it if I were."

"Then why were they calling him the Heir of Slytherin? Obviously they want him thinking about it." Aloysius snaps his fingers and a house elf appears with his medicine. "Thank you."

The house elf looks disapprovingly at Harry Potter and then pops out and back in with a full pie and three plates.

"Thank you," says Harry Potter to the house elf, like someone who has been illicitly fed by house elves this entire summer so far. Then he says to Aloysius, "stop talking about me like I'm not here."

"He's coping very badly," Margaret says to Harry Potter, being very mean to Aloysius but also being correct. "Let's do a quick overview. I'm willing to bet what happened was, everyone felt really awkward about talking about Death Eaters with the Boy-Who-Lived, so they all figured someone else would do it. Do you know about Sirius Black?"

"No," says Harry Potter.

Aloysius grips the chair beneath himself and starts focusing his magic on flowing like the breeze around them.

"Right, this is absurd," Margaret says. "You've seen mafia movies, right?"

"Yes," says Harry Potter. "Who hasn't?" And there's still that edge to it, because he has, in fact, been surrounded for two years by people who hadn't seen any mafia movies and don't think muggles are really real.

"So you know how in those movies, the scary mob boss surrounds himself with lackeys who can do anything they want to anyone, including murder, and get away with it because they're in the mob boss's inner circle? And sometimes the police can get to them but most of the time, they don't bother, and just get the lower level schmucks instead? That's the Death Eaters. They were the former Lord Voldemort's closest henchmen. He had several other layers, but a lot of the Death Eaters completely got away with it. Some of them did go to prison, including Sirius Black I heard a rumor he was your godfather--"

Harry Potter swears in the muggle style.

"Yeah, sorry, I don't know if that one's true or not. Black was supposedly the one who betrayed your family's location to the former Lord Voldemort and so is the reason both that they died and that you destroyed him, but that's all conjecture. What we do know is that after your parents were murdered, Sirius Black murdered a wizard and a whole lot of muggles, and that's the crime that got him life in Azkaban, since Aurors were on the scene immediately and it was a pretty straightforward open-and-shut case, so he couldn't wiggle out like everyone else did."

"Do you think he might have been a spy? For my parents, I mean? And the whole thing was a trap?" Harry Potter asks.

Margaret shrugs. "I have no idea. I doubt anyone could say now for sure either way, including him. But if he was the type to be on the side that was against murdering muggles, I don't see why he then went and murdered an entire street full of them. That's Death Eater behavior."

"But why can't we just ask him, since he's still alive?" Harry Potter asks, like someone about to fly off to Azkaban himself immediately.

Aloysius finds his voice. "Because Azkaban tortures all its prisoners into insanity on purpose. And that's the problem with Voldemort! There are so many parts of the magical world that are horrible and need to be fixed, but do they try to fix them? No! They just try to shore up their own power! Everyone agrees that Voldemort had incredible magical talent and could have done whatever he set his mind to, do you have any idea the kind of unsolvable magical problems that could use a talent like that? And all his followers! Couldn't they have turned their efforts to things that needed to be fixed, like Azkaban? But they don't want to do that! They just want to hurt everyone else! They don't want to build anything! We could have had a solution to Pack's Conundrum by now!"

Margaret pats Aloysius's shoulder comfortingly. "I think that covers everything, Mr. Potter. Anything else you want to know about Voldemort?"

"Er, yes, sorry," Harry Potter says, eying Aloysius carefully. "But everyone else except the Headmaster calls him You-Know-Who."

"That's because they want to make a point of not respecting him," Margaret says. "All Dark Lords are self-appointed, and Voldemort wasn't his name, it was the title he gave himself and demanded everyone call him. I don't have a problem using the title he chose for himself, because it's the name he's under in the history books, and using anything else just confuses the issue."

Harry Potter nibbles on his lower lip for a moment. "Sorry, this is really stupid question, but aren't there any Light Lords? Everyone just talks about Dark Lords like they're normal, and everyone knows all about them, and no one ever wants to talk about them."

"Yes, calling him You-Know-Who really does assume you know all about who we're talking about, doesn't it?" Margaret says kindly.

"Like nothing more needs to be said, and if you ask, you're the one who's wrong," Harry Potter says, like someone who tried a few times before learning not to do that. Why ask questions? It's not like this is a school or anything.

"A Dark Lord is a wizard who, frankly, calls himself a Dark Lord; darkness isn't an aspect of a lord," Margaret explains. "He's not Lord Voldemort who uses dark arts, as opposed to someone who is a lord who doesn't. They call themselves Lords to sound important and feed their ego. Say what you want about Dumbledore, but you'd never catch him going around calling himself a Lord. It's so muggle. It makes us sound like royalists."

"But the Queen's the Queen, though," Harry Potter says and follows it up with "...isn't she?"

"For muggles, sure," Aloysius says. "For the rest of us, the last royal we acknowledged was... which was the one who got his head cut off?"

"Charles the First," says Harry Potter, sounding momentarily fascinated.

"Sounds about right," Margaret says.

"There's been a lot of monarchs since then," says Harry Potter helpfully. "I had to memorize them when I was eight."

"That must have been so boring," Margaret says sympathetically. "I always hated rote memorization."

"Oh, yeah," Harry says. "He--," he points at Aloysius with his chin, "said you both dropped out."

"Aloysius Maxwell, and I'm Margaret Clifford," Margaret says, because Aloysius had forgotten that part in the midst of the rising horror that Harry Potter of all people did not know basic facts about his own life and what that meant about the care and education he had received in life. "And I did leave school, but I did it after OWLs. Aloysius was lucky and his parents let him do it early. I had to put up with Hogwarts for five entire years."

"Why didn't you like it?" Harry Potter asks.

"Aloysius told you why he didn't like it, right? It was terrible teaching for me, too, but I also really hated how they split up the classes. I remember my first day at Hogwarts and we walk into a classroom and we get told that Charms and Transfiguration are two different things, and even then, I knew that wasn't true. Then they said Defense Against Dark Arts had nothing to do with Charms and then they told us that Herbology wasn't Potions, even though they're two steps in the same process, and that's not even getting into what they did with Astronomy. They wanted everything regimented so it could be taught individually and tested individually, but that's not how magic really is. So they teach you wrong on purpose when you're eleven, and then you're supposed to get to NEWT level and get told, sorry, we lied to you the entire time, so now you have to unlearn everything we taught you."

"But you never took your NEWTs," Harry Potter says.

Aloysius laughs a little. Margaret smiles. "Nope. I am, in fact, currently suing the Department Of Magical Standards over my Potions Mastery, since Potions Masteries predate the existence of the NEWTs, so there's no reason for them to currently require a NEWT for a Potions Mastery when I've fulfilled all the other ancient and modern requirements. There's no doubt I'd pass the NEWT but I refuse to take it on principle."

"I don't understand either of you," Harry Potter says. "Hogwarts is amazing. I never want to leave."

"Clearly, since you're still here in the summer. But hiding in the mostly-empty school over the summer really makes it seem like there's not a single person in your life that you actually trust," Margaret says, "and I think that's part of why Aloysius is still shaking."

"I could be hiding out because I want to be doing independent study like you are," Harry Potter says.

"Absolutely," Margaret says. "What are you studying?"

"Quidditch," Harry Potter says promptly.

"Then what were you doing hanging around our table for the last three weeks?" Margaret asks. "We're nowhere near Quidditch."

"Stop it," Aloysius says. "Just stop it." He is, he realizes, still, actually, shaking a little, mostly in his hands. The medication needs a few more minutes to completely work. "Let him lie to us, he doesn't know us. He didn't want to go back to the muggles who raised him and he doesn't have anyone in the magical world who'll take him for the summer. Figure it out. Let him lie."

"He wants me to drop out and start working as a courier," Harry Potter tells Margaret.

"Not too bad an idea for right now," Margaret says. "At fifteen, you can start flying carriages. If you want to go into business for yourself, that's much more lucrative than couriering, because your own courier business means either you have one main client or a lot of small ones. A carriage business is more flexible."

"You're just focused on this because your wife does last mile delivery," Aloysius says.

"Did none of you ever get Stay In School lectures when you were kids?" Harry Potter asks them, sounding exasperated. Half the pie is gone and Harry Potter looks like he's contemplating demolishing the rest of it just on the principle of depriving them of it.

"Staying in school assumes school is a safe place to be and also isn't a complete waste of time," Margaret says.

Aloysius huffs. Harry Potter eats more pie.

Margaret continues, "even if the newspapers are padding in a lot of details, I don't think Hogwarts has been very safe for you. And if you're not learning, then, no, this isn't the place for you to be. It is wasting your time. You're, what, going into the third year? You could waste it here, or you could spend it at some place where you aren't in danger all the time and actually want to engage with the material. I'm sure Aloysius told you about the other options for schools."

"The options aren't stay in Hogwarts or go back to the muggle world, or stay in Hogwarts or get a job," Aloysius says. "There's so much more to the magical world than just Hogwarts. There's so much more to magical education than Hogwarts. You don't need to stay here just because you think the other option is worse. There's more than one other option. There's more than ten of them!"

"Why does he care so much?" Harry Potter asks Margaret.

"Because you're being hurt in ways that most people don't give a damn about," Margaret says. "And so was he. The difference is, he had family who were willing to look the easy option in the eye and yank him out of Hogwarts over many strong objections to it. Do you have that? Do you have people who care about you first, and about their reputation second?"

"Don't answer that," Aloysius says to Harry Potter at the same time Harry Potter says, "of course I do."

Margaret mercilessly asks, "and how old are they?"

"Twelve."

Aloysius closes his eyes and thinks back to when it was him and Margaret who were twelve.

"And they're good friends of yours?" Margaret asks.

"The best," Harry Potter says vehemently.

"Then they'll still be your friends if you drop out and leave, the same way I stayed friends with Aloysius when he went off on his apprenticeship and I had to stay behind," Margaret says.

"I love Hogwarts," Harry Potter says.

Aloysius opens his eyes. "I'm genuinely curious," he says. "Why?"



5.

Why? Why does he love Hogwarts?

Of course he loves Hogwarts! It's the only place that doesn't hate him!

Okay, some people hate him, but some people have always hated him, it's not like that's any different from his real life-- his muggle life. There's no Dudley to beat him up-- although there is Malfoy and his gang. And the teachers are magic, and magic is so cool.

And there's Quidditch. Harry has never felt more free in his life than when he plays Quidditch. He's been jealously watching the Hogsmeade kids play Quidditch on the Hogwarts Pitch all summer.

And who are these adults anyway? Harry can't get a good read on how old they are, because he doesn't know too many wizard adults, now that he's thinking about it, and it's different from muggle adults. Aloysius Maxwell has a black curly beard that covers his face and most of his neck and he's waxed it to look like a movie star might if a movie star was playing a magical wizard in a children's television show. His hat is sparklier than Dumbledore's. Margaret Clifford is wearing the same style of robes as Professor Sprout and has her hair pinned up in braids like Madam Hooch. Harry doesn't know what any of that means.

But they're the first people who aren't house elves who have talked to him since school ended, and even before school ended, there weren't a lot of people who wanted to talk to Harry like this, like he's-- like he's someone worth really talking to and trying to understand.

"Because it's Hogwarts," Harry says. "It's home to me."

"It's not your home," Margaret Clifford says. "It's an academic institution that doesn't love you back, or else you wouldn't be hiding in empty rooms underneath an invisibility robe when you're supposed to be on summer break."

"It is a home, though," Harry says. "I have the entire castle to explore, and the house elves feed me, and no one sh-- and no one bothers me. And I'm not lonely because I have the house elves and I have you to eavesdrop on. You all like the library a lot more than anyone else I've ever met except Hermione. What more do you need in a home?"

"That's an interesting philosophical question," Margaret Clifford asks, "but Aloysius will laser me into pieces with his eyes if I ask you what your actual home is like."

Huh? Why?

"They don't beat me or anything," Harry says. "They're just muggles. You can't blame me for not wanting to go back. How am I supposed to do my summer homework in a muggle house with the Statute of Secrecy in effect?"

Aloysius looks like another thought has pained him. "Right, it was the newspapers last year that you got a warning for doing underage magic in your home over the summer. I suppose that was homework?"

"No, that was a house elf," Harry says.

There is a long beat of silence. Harry does not try to interpret it. He drinks the tea that has just popped onto the table. House elves are great.

"Your muggles have a house elf?" Margaret eventually asks.

"No," Harry says, suddenly feeling happy about this turn of conversation. These two have been at times reminding him of himself and Hermione, and also at times bothering him by seeming like they know everything about his life just because it's in the newspaper. "Dobby worked for the Malfoys and he came to warn me not to go back to Hogwarts because someone was going to try to kill me, and to keep me from going back to school, he got me in trouble with the law and then physically prevented me from getting on the train. Me and Ron had to get to Hogwarts by flying his dad's Ford Anglia. He also then made a bludger attack me during Quidditch."

There is a much longer beat of silence. Harry watches in amusement as Aloysius opens and closes his mouth several times, no sound coming out.

Victory.

"It turns out Dobby was right, and the Malfoys had hidden a secret diary that Voldemort had kept when he was at Hogwarts, and that diary possessed my friend Ron's sister and made her open the Chamber of Secrets, and nearly killed her, but we managed to save her." Harry wipes his mouth with a cloth napkin. "So I do know things about Voldemort. I know he was born Tom Riddle and he looked a little like me when he was in school. He was pretty charming, too. But I beat him again, though, and then I passed all my classes."

"You need legal counsel," Margaret says, which is not anything close to what Harry had expected either of them to say.

"I beg your pardon?" Harry asks, very polite.

"No, she's right," Aloysius says. "You need that warning expunged from your record and you need to hold the Malfoys to account for using their house elf to try to get you expelled and in legal trouble. You might even have attempted murder on your hands with that bludger. Did the house elf admit it?"

"Yes," Harry says.

"You need legal counsel," Margaret repeats.

"What good is that going to do me?" Harry asks, because this all sounds ridiculous.

"You probably have a criminal case against the house elf and the Malfoys who employ him," Margaret says. "If that bludger happened on the Hogwarts grounds, Hogwarts might be negligent, too--"

"Dobby was just trying to help," Harry says, wondering why he's defending Dobby about this. "Anyway, the Malfoys didn't know he was doing it."

"And is that provable in court?" Margaret asks.

"You don't need to get the Aurors involved or go to court if you don't want to," Aloysius says, shooting a glance at Margaret. "But the point is, Mr. Potter, is that what happened to you is not acceptable, nor is it a normal part of magical life. It's not something to just brush off because that's how your life goes. Have you noticed how no one else's life around you is like yours?"

Harry shrugs. "I'm special."

"You're being targeted and ostracized and harassed and injured," Aloysius says. "You think it's normal because it's normal for you. I daresay the only classmates you talk to also think it's normal, because they're also being bullied. Hogwarts does this. Every class picks some students to utterly destroy. It's a systemic problem that Hogwarts is aware of and does very little to mitigate, because the bullies always pick kids no one cares about. I'm just boggled that they picked you as someone no one cares about."

Harry shifts uncomfortably. He wants to say people do care about him, but... they care about him as a symbol.

Even Aloysius and Margaret don't actually care about him, because they don't know him. They're just bored, probably. They've spent so much time in the Hogwarts library that they need something else to do, and that's bother Harry Potter and try to get him to leave the only safe place he's ever had in his life.

Maybe they're the Death Eaters.

Although... it's not like Draco Malfoy knows anything about muggle stuff.

Then again, it's not like muggles were safe, either.

"I can defend myself," Harry says. "I've survived, haven't I? I beat Quirrell last year and I beat Voldemort this year, and I think Quirrell was also Voldemort, somehow, too. So really I've beaten Voldemort three times."

He could get tired of these long pointed silences.

Aloysius looks down and then up again. "Mr. Potter, I understand you have no reason to trust me or answer me honestly. But I am insanely curious. Why do you like Hogwarts?"

"If it's that you enjoy being in danger and want to go thrill-seeking," Margaret starts slowly, and then stops herself when Harry shrugs.

"I don't go looking for trouble, it just finds me," Harry says, which he knows is a lie, since they absolutely went looking for the Stone last year, but no one really needs to know that. The Stone was an adventure. He didn't go into it thinking it would be Voldemort. He thought it would be fun. He thought it would be a nice change from the doldrums of being in school. "Why do you want me out of Hogwarts so much? It's the only place I've ever been safe."

"You've been attacked here by Voldemort twice," Aloysius says. "You've only been here for two years."

"None of those took very long," Harry says. "It's not like that's all I do at Hogwarts."

"No, all you do at Hogwarts is get harassed for being the Heir Of Slytherin so badly it makes the newspapers for months at a time," Aloysius says. He sighs heavily. If he were wearing glasses, Harry imagines he'd be taking them off and rubbing his temples. It's the same look one of his teachers had back when he was ten.

"We're not trying to force you to do anything," Margaret says, putting a hand on Aloysius's arm. "In a way, I think we're trying to reach back in time to ourselves when we were your age and let ourselves know that what happened to us wasn't within our control. But we knew we could leave. I wish you knew that, too."

"I know I can leave, I've nearly gotten expelled a few times," Harry says, which was absolutely the wrong thing to say, and anyway, at this point, he's not actually sure how much risk he's ever faced in getting expelled. Hagrid got expelled and Harry's not done anything that's even close to what Hagrid did.

Aloysius stands up. "Would you come with me to the library?" he asks. "There are fifteen researchers here this summer and at least four of them actually graduated from Hogwarts."

"Five," Margaret says.

"Are they also going to try to get me to risk my life by dropping out?" Harry asks.

"That right there is the problem," Aloysius mutters under his breath.



6.

Lillian looks up as Aloysius and Margaret come back into the library, dragging a teenager after them.

Ah. Not a ghost. A runaway.

"My dearest darling," Lillian says to Morgana's Spelltacular Weaving Folds, "if you would be so kind as to hold my place?"

The book obligingly places the ribbon in between the pages and closes.

"The house elves don't usually let stragglers stay long after the last staff member leaves," Lillian says.

"Lillian Prewett, please meet Harry Potter," Margaret says. "Mr. Potter, this is Dr. Prewett. She devised the system that made the fabric for your robes."

"Oh, that is a Malkin cut," Lillian realizes. "It's not so iconic when part of it is invisible."

"Nice to meet you," Potter says. He holds his hand out and Lillian shakes it. "I like the fabric, it's pretty soft."

"Is it tracking your growth well?" Lillian asks. "This is Type Peacock, it looks like," she takes part of his sleeve between her fingers and rubs it. "Hmm, only a little more elasticity is left. You'll need to replace these for next year. Peacock really is only good for the first half of Hogwarts. Ask Madam Malkin for Heron or Walrus and that will last you until your NEWTs."

Potter takes a deep breath and says accusingly, "they don't think I should take NEWTs."

Lillian looks at Margaret, who shrugs with one shoulder. "Every school offers NEWTs. He doesn't need to be ostracized by his peers and pilloried in the press for seven years before he takes them."

"Ah," Lillian says, and then looks closer at Harry Potter, who no one knows is missing, and who, from the look of his invisibility cloak, is not authorized to be at Hogwarts this summer. The house elves have been hiding him. How interesting. How... suggestive of his family situation. And no one has noticed.

She looks again at him and sees him looking at her with the weight of someone who knows this is the best situation he could be in, because it's the best one he's had to date.

"Do you want to learn more about how your robes were made?" Lillian asks Harry Potter, who loses that look of wariness around his mouth and nods.

He's a polite student. Lillian takes him over to her desk and sets up the model she uses for demonstrations. She takes him through the process from sheep to sale. He asks questions at appropriate times and she peppers in what spells are done at each step in the process from when the wool is still on the sheep to when his sturdy school robes are being sewn. She mentions how dyes are done with various potions groups. She shows him four fabric samples and lets him feel how Peacock robes prioritize getting longer for growing taller, but have to sacrifice long-term durability and certain styles of cuts. He can feel the difference between Heron and Walrus immediately, which is better than some novices she's worked with.

"What's my invisibility cloak made of?" Harry Potter asks her and hands her a corner of it to touch.

She rubs it back and forth between her fingers and frowns. "This was spelled into creation. If you'll let me examine it with magic, I could tell you more. It will likely be a mixture of fur and hide of a magical creature, with some additional fiber. It's a very specialized market and it's not one I'm in. Are you willing to tell me where you got it?"

"It was my father's," he says.

"Ah, then it's likely an antique," she says. "Probably a custom heirloom. It won't give up its secrets easily. If you want to know how to make one of your own, I can give you some leads to look into, but it really is such a small field."

"No, thank you," Harry Potter says politely. "But it wasn't made like my school robes?"

"No, your school robes had spells and potions worked into them at every step of the process of making them, but your cloak was created out of its constituent parts by one single spell. It makes it very durable and flexible. It has likely never needed to be mended or even laundered, even if it is several hundred years old. Your school robes, on the other hand, are durable enough, but the ones you can get buy when you've reached your adult height could last you decades. These won't last nearly that long, but they're not meant to; you're meant to wear them out around the same time you grow out of them, and then turn them into cauldron rags. I see you've already had to patch both of the elbows."

"That was magic," Harry Potter says, which can't be the case, and so likely it was repaired by the house elf who laundered it.

Their conversation has attracted Hugh Austin, who comes over, shakes Harry Potter's hand, and starts in about different hides that are commonly used for invisibility cloaks. Potter achieves true enthusiasm talking about magical beasts and then catches himself after the word "basilisk".

"But I bet you all know that from the newspapers," Harry Potter ends ruefully.

"No, I don't know anything about a basilisk," Hugh says. "Lillian?"

"No," Lillian says. "I'd love to meet one, though. With my eyes closed."

"It's not dangerous anymore, it's dead," Harry Potter says. "It's in the Chamber of Secrets. Uh. I'd be happy to let you see it, if you think you can make me anything out of the scales."

They agree with alacrity and the offer is made around the library, and eventually all of them follow Harry Potter down what he calls the side entrance. "It wasn't how we got in," he says, "but I found it while I was exploring and it's a lot more dignified." The entrance's password requires speaking the snake language, so Lillian assumes he doesn't care who knows where this entrance is; no one else can get into it anyway.

When they see the basilisk, Hugh whistles appreciatively. "That is a well-preserved specimen," he praises highly and takes his notebook out of his bag. His quill starts taking notes immediately.

"I think there's a charm in here," Harry Potter says. "I don't know much about the Chamber, but I found a book that says basilisks can't be a thousand years old, so I bet it was in stasis when no one had called it."

"Fascinating," Hugh praises. His quill has gone through four pages already. "I've never heard of one getting this big."

Vanessa Edwinson has yanked on her safety gloves and shoved her entire arm into the basilisk's mouth. "These fangs are enormous," she says. "It almost seems to a shame to disrupt the specimen, but think about all we could learn from it. Do you think Slytherin himself bred this or was it a descendant of the original basilisk? Everyone thinks they're sterile but what if we're completely wrong?"

"I don't know but I'd love to find out," Hugh says. He flicks his wand a few times and frowns over what he sees. "Mr. Potter, did you speak with the Hogwarts staff about ownership of the basilisk?"

"No," Harry Potter says, sounding bemused. "Didn't know anyone owned it, really."

"I don't know all the legends of the Chamber of Secrets but if Slytherin didn't include it in his will, there's a case to be made it belongs to either Hogwarts or to no one," Vanessa says. "In which case, by defeating it, you have the strongest claim."

"If you did own it," Aloysius says, "what would you do with it?"

"I'm not sure," Harry Potter says slowly. He walks around the entire basilisk, touching his finger to it the entire time like he's mapping the surface or thinking deeply. People are starting up their own conversations or trying different spells. Ogden ooohs excitedly as a spell bounces completely off the basilisk and hits him in the toe.

Lillian mutters a few half-remembered recorder spells and creates a small version of the basilisk to hold in her hand. The model is about the size of every basilisk she's seen, which aren't many. They're prized for potions ingredients but they're exceptionally dangerous. What a find this is. Think of all they could learn.

After an hour or so, they manage to get everyone to agree to leave the Chamber, with the understanding that they can come back later if they like. Someone worries over if Harry Potter has been staying down there, but he brushes it off.

"I found out that the House dormitories only have passwords during the year, so I've been staying in them," Harry Potter says.

That seems very sensible and even more of a sign that the house elves have been scheming. Well, that's not Lillian's business. Hogwarts is more than its professors and administrative staff, but not always more than its history, and Lillian didn't make it through seven years of Hogwarts without learning that the castle itself has its own way of doing things and its own way of playing favorites.

"There are empty guest rooms in our wing," Hugh says. "Why don't you stay near us?"

"They're empty during the year," Zachary Wilcox puts in, interpreting the undercurrents, "if you needed somewhere to sleep during the school year. Curfew only cares if you're in the halls, not if you're in your dorm."

"I've noticed," Harry Potter mutters.

"I spent half my seventh year sleeping in a hidden room off of the library," Vanessa reminisces happily.

Harry Potter frowns at this, clearly thinking something over, but it's not until they're all in the middle of dinner in the Summer Dining Hall that he puts down his fork, interrupting the lively conversation about transfiguring different types of glass, and asks plaintively, "why are you all in Hogwarts for the summer if none of you liked Hogwarts?"

"Personally, I have no problem separating my educational experience from the school building itself," Vanessa says, folding her napkin with a flick of her fingers. "And really, who actually enjoys the Hogwarts educational experience?"

"Oh, come on, some people like it," Hugh says. "Why else does the Board of Governors refuse to make meaningful changes to fixable problems? Because they had a good time here."

"As I see it, Hogwarts is an important magical institution that just so happens to house a boarding school for a few months of the year," Rog Netter says. "And the boarding school doesn't even use the entire grounds. Most of the castle lies empty most of the time. Why should I associate the school with the building? The school doesn't bother to."

"That's ridiculous," Hugh says. "Yes, of course, the castle was built before the school, but the castle only still exists because of the school. It would have fallen down centuries ago if the school had moved out." He gestures with his goblet. "If Hogwarts still was the way it was when wizarding was merely a profession, then Hogwarts wouldn't exist, and so that's why it doesn't."

"No, no, no, by all means, let's bring back the days when getting your OWL meant you went off to become the town wizard," Zachary says. "It's only what the building was meant for, after all."

Lillian snorts a laugh.

"But everyone should make their own wands," Aloysius pipes up. Everyone around the table collectively groans at him, because when Aloysius starts up on that, there's no stopping him.

Harry Potter narrows his eyes. "How long does it take to make a wand?"

"The one you use? Probably three months, including harvesting the core and preparing the wood," Aloysius says.

"And how long does it take to make my uniform robes?" Harry Potter asks Lillian.

She thinks about it for a moment. "Do I have to include the sheep being born?"

"No," Harry Potter says, like that wasn't a serious point to consider.

"About a year from start to finish," Lillian says. "That's not all active time, all steps require time to set. And of course no one makes one robe at a time of the kind you're wearing. Rog's were made individually. Rog, how long was that?"

"Too long," Rog groans. "We went back and forth on the styling for months." Someone kicks him under the table. "Oh, the time to actually make the robes from the cloth once we decided on the pattern? Couple hours. But my tailor's expensive. Do you want to go into fashion, Mr. Potter?"

"Not right now," Harry Potter says. He looks around the table and grits his teeth. "I just don't understand any of you."

"We're not much like your schoolmates," Rog says understandingly, "but that's because we're all at least twenty years older than you. We might have been like your schoolmates back then, but that was a long time ago."

"Are you all just normal wizards who hated school? Is that how normal wizards are?" Harry Potter asks.

"No one's ever called me normal before," Margaret says brightly. "Thank you, Mr. Potter. I think."

"There's more to the world than Hogwarts and Diagon Alley," Aloysius says. "That's what I was trying to tell you before."

"No, before you were trying to get me to destroy my life and drop out of Hogwarts," Harry Potter says.

"Sometimes the best of all bad situations is still a bad situation!" Aloysius returns.

Hugh coughs loudly. "That might not stop it from being the best choice." He looks uncomfortable. "The fact is, Mr. Potter. That there might. That this really might be the best option for you. To stay in Hogwarts, that is."

"Hugh!"

"Look, Al," Hugh says, spreading his hands. "Think about it for a moment. This is Harry Potter we're talking about. Hogwarts is a fishbowl, and this is how he's treated here. Imagine how he'd be treated somewhere where no one could see it. It could be worse."

There is an uncomfortable silence and then Rog says, "bullshit."

"You can't--" Hugh starts up heatedly, and then Harry Potter bangs on the table.

He looks angry and determined and like someone who had defeated a Dark Lord, which, come to think of it, he had. "No, he's right. So I'm going to take all of you up on it."

Before anyone could ask 'on what', Harry Potter continues, voice getting louder and louder. "I know that all the money and fame in the world can't buy me anyone who cares about me or a quality education, since it hasn't so far. But if you're all going to hate me being at Hogwarts and do nothing but tell me my life and everything in it is bad, then yes, I accept your offer of apprenticeship. All of you."

There is a more thoughtful silence and a few pointed looks around the table.

"We'll do it in rotation," Harry Potter says. "A month each? I don't care. And then if you're worse to me than Hogwarts is, I'll just come back to Hogwarts, since you think it's the last resort anyway."

"You've got a deal," Aloysius says before anyone else can say anything.



7.

Dear Hermione & Ron,

Don't worry about me, I'm doing a year away. I might be back next year or come back early, I haven't decided yet.

Hedwig will be able to find me.

Love, Harry



8.

Harry,

I've enclosed the Prophet, DON'T COME BACK EARLY, Sirius Black broke out of Azkaban to kill you!

Love, Hermione



9.

Dear Ron,

Sorry, I can't come to the Quidditch World Cup with you, I'd already agreed to fly to the preserve and see how they help dragons with scale rot. I'll tell Charlie you say hello, so please say hello in your next letter so I'm not a liar.

Here's some galleons, please buy me a souvenir! Sorry for such a short letter when I promised a long one to tell you about how to fix your wand. I've got to read six books of poetry and explain how they are relevant to my emotions after I accidentally turned someone into an aardvark (they got better).

Love, Harry



10.

Dear Harry,

I've decided -- if you can do it, so can I! I've been talking to the Beauxbatons girls who were here this year and my parents have agreed to let me transfer schools starting in the fall. Finally, I'll have the same Defense professor two years in a row! My parents had been thinking of moving to Australia, but they've decided for now to come with me. We can always do Australia later, my parents said.

Fascinated to hear about your poetry course, thanks for included samples. I've enclosed my own attempts. I've been saying I wish they taught this at Hogwarts, but it turns out, drum roll please, they have Literature at Beauxbatons! Please ask your instructor to pass along any helpful tips for me, I've gotten a load of books and I'm trying to study up, but I know I'll be behind. Why didn't I transfer after second year like you?

Ron is refusing to go to Beauxbatons with me, apparently he "doesn't speak French". I told him that's what studying is for. Maybe he'll listen to me next year. I suppose he's right that his parents would be disappointed if he did his OWL year anywhere other than Hogwarts.

I'll be busy this summer -- the Beauxbatons Literature teacher told me about a program where I can study Macbeth with actual witches! I've wasted so much time, I feel like I have to catch up all over again, while I was wasting my time with Divination and Care Of Magical Creatures (sorry but it's true, you didn't have to take a class from Hagrid). I'll stay in touch if you stay in touch!

All my love, Hermione

P.S. Ignore whatever Ron tells you -- I'm not running away, I'm running towards!

P. P. S. I will miss parts of Hogwarts but Professor McGonagall just slipped me the pamphlet they send out to potential visiting scholars for the summer, so who knows, maybe in twenty years, I'll also find a promising Hogwarts student and convince her to do just what the famous Harry Potter did and make her own path!