Rumours and Wars

“There is never any telling the changes and conflicts that will arise when cultures collide.”

General (ret.) Jigme Dorji Wengshuk

In the days that followed, Harriet found herself trying to figure out if life had gone back to normal. On the one hand, Rachel had not had any more night terrors yet, and Harriet didn’t find herself having any problems with their refugees. Neither did anyone else in Gryffindor House that Harriet could see, with the obvious exception of Percy, who despite no real problems seemed to be unable to bring himself to trust the new students. To Harriet, they seemed like ordinary Gryffindor students, except their accents.

However, Harriet couldn’t help but notice that this was not entirely the case elsewhere in the school. At the Slytherin table, in particular, Harriet noted that only two of the Slytherin refugees, Lauren and Danielle seemed to get along with the rest of the house. Others, like Kenley, looked to be mainly outcasts within their house, and usually sat by themselves. Harriet was pleased to see that at least Dora and Sae would sit with them, as would the other two first-year girls, Lexi and Lola, and two of the new first-year boys, Cian and Ardghal.

Harriet was surprised to note that it was almost the opposite amongst the Ravenclaws. According to Scott, in their house, it was the refugees who were putting up the walls to the other students, primarily lead by the austere Peyton. Though, as with Slytherin’s refugees, that wasn’t the universal case. Lindsey Gallifrey, by contrast, seemed to be on a mission to make herself the life of the house by trying to get to know everybody. Even more amusing was the fact that she was quite good at Transfiguration, to the extent that by the third day she was becoming something of an annoying shadow to Professor McGonagall, asking her questions and giving off the distinct air of hero worship.

Not all of the changes pertained to the refugees, however. The event that got everyone talking the second day of classes was the rumour of the heated argument Draco Malfoy had got into with the new first year, Cian Whelan. The stories were greatly varied as was typical at Hogwarts. Some said it was just an argument, while others insisted that it was a full-on duel.

Even what they had argued about seemed to vary from telling to telling. According to most, it was about bloodlines, but some insisted it was over the new refugees. Even though all stories said it took place in the Slytherin common room, somehow almost no one seemed to have witnessed what happened. Even Dora said she hadn’t seen what happened. In the end, the only thing Harriet did know for sure was whenever she saw the two over at the Slytherin table in the Great Hall, Draco and Cian did not like each other.

Harriet was finally starting to warm to Colin Creevey as well. The second day at lunch Harriet and her friends finally got their group picture together, with Scott and Dora, in front of the giant hourglasses that recorded house points. Colin looked beside himself with excitement at actually being asked to take pictures for them.

Harriet found it amusing to see how quickly things at Hogwarts could snowball. It took very little time for other groups of students to start asking Colin to take pictures for them. The equally amusing part was how quickly Fred and George capitalised on the situation by setting up a makeshift photo booth and charging for photographs. This almost came to an end when Percy tried to intervene, but finding there was no rule against it, he did make the two swear to give Colin one-third of the profits by threatening to write to their mother.

Even the staff got in the spirit and organised so quickly that by the end of the second day it was announced that the following Monday the students would all be gathered for the very first school photographs and yearbooks in Hogwarts history. This seemed to go over reasonably well with all but four people. The most benign was AJ, who mostly grumbled about finally having to be photographed wearing her uniform. Next was Percy, who seemed to have galvanised himself against any further changes to Hogwarts’ culture. And last were Professor Snape and Filch, the gruff, irritable caretaker of Hogwarts. Filch and Professor Snape, however, didn’t seem to like anything so Harriet was hardly surprised that they wouldn’t be too cheerful.

Outside of that, there didn’t seem to be too much different that Harriet could see. They got up, they went to classes, they talked and laughed with their friends between lessons, they studied and did homework at night, and they went to bed. By their third morning, Harriet found she was starting to take it for granted that the refugees were there.

“You know, I have a really good feeling about this year,” Ronnie said as the group made its way down to their first History of Magic lesson.

“Me too,” Harriet said.

However, as she said it, Harriet felt a small nagging doubt trickle into the back of her mind that she couldn’t quite place. She felt like she was forgetting something significant but just couldn’t think of what it was. Like a warning of some kind.

“Maybe you should borrow Neville’s Remembrall?” Ronnie teased as Harriet confided it to her.

Harriet laughed too and shrugged it off as the willowy, aged and transparent figure of Professor Binns, the only ghost professor at Hogwarts, came through the blackboard to take his place behind the desk, drawing out his ghostly notes to set to work in boring the entire class for an hour.

“Today we are going to discuss—” Harriet felt her eyelids get heavy at once “—the war.”

Harriet’s elbow slipped off her desk, and she snapped awake. So did everyone else in the room.

“Yes, I was going to discuss the circumstances regarding the Giant wars and their exile from the country, but the Headmaster requested most insistently that we have a guest speaker today instead.”

Around her, everyone began to mutter to each other in excitement. This might be the first interesting History of Magic Harriet had ever had. There was the sound of light footsteps coming down the hall, and everyone turned in anticipation to see who it was. The door opened, and a woman Harriet didn’t recognise strode in. Despite that, Harriet was left in no doubt as to who she was when Tori gave an uncharacteristic shriek of excitement and ran up to the woman. Even Rachel and AJ got to their feet and ran up to greet her.

“Mom!” Tori cried out as she and the woman embraced tightly.

“Hello, Tori dear. And Rachel and AJ my dears! Enjoying your classes so far?”

“Oh yeah,” Tori replied. “These are all my friends!” Tori went on and gestured about the room to everyone.

Harriet blushed in spite of herself at being called one of Tori’s friends. The woman looked at Harriet and saw the apparent flicker of recognition in her eyes, but she didn’t say anything about it and took in the rest of the class as well.

“A good morning to you all, I am Mrs Clemence Hoffman,” she said in introduction.

“Good morning, Mrs Hoffman,” the class replied almost automatically.

Mrs Hoffman smiled at Professor Binns. “Thank you for agreeing to let me speak today, Professor Binns.”

“Not at all, my dear lady,” Professor Binns said and gave a very deep bow, so deep he bowed straight through his desk.

Tori, AJ, and Rachel retook their seats, and Mrs Hoffman walked up to the front of the room, standing in front of Professor Binns’ desk and smiling around at them all.

“Well, as I’m sure Professor Binns told you, I’m here to explain the war to you all, what has happened and why my daughter and the rest are all here,” Mrs Hoffman said.

Harriet listened with rapt attention as Mrs Hoffman went on.

“Well, magical education is very similar in America, but it’s also different to what you know here,” Mrs Hoffman explained. “The subject matters are much the same: Transfiguration, Potions, Charms, History of Magic of course.” Mrs Hoffman went on giving a bow of her head to Professor Binns who bowed back graciously. “Where it is different is here in Great Britain you tend to teach magic in the nation as a whole. Back in America, it is a bit more complicated.”

“How so, Miss?” Kieran asked as he leaned forward on his desk, his brow furrowed.

“Well, North America is a vast continent. There is Canada which works a little like here, though it has two major schools that function as boarding schools like Hogwarts. In America, instead of regional schools, magical education is run by the states themselves. Our state was North Dakota, and in our state, we ran education much more locally. I was the principle of the little magical school that catered to our three towns: Belview, Rollen, and St James.”

“How many students?” Lavender asked.

Mrs Hoffman smiled. As she did, Harriet couldn’t help but notice it seemed a little more forced than before.

“Three hundred seven,” Mrs Hoffman replied.

The number hit Harriet like a kick in the stomach. There had been that many students, and only this many left? A collective shiver went around the class as Harriet realised the rest of them were thinking the same thing. Harriet gave a sideways glance towards Rachel, Tori and AJ, who were all looking at their desks quietly.

“My husband, Arnold, was the mayor of Rollen. Well, the magical mayor of Rollen,” she corrected. “It was he who organised the escape of as many survivors as he could find from the three towns towards the Canadian border. Yes, dear?”

Harriet turned to see Hermione raising a nervous hand into the air.

“W-well, Miss, I was just wondering, why… why did they attack like they did?” Hermione asked. “The stories of what happened are all just so… awful…”

Mrs Hoffman put on her sad, forced smile once more. “Well, that is more or less why I am here, to give some of the history and explain why things happened the way they did. To understand the nature of the war, we’re going to have to go back nearly five hundred years to the first European magical settlements on the American continent.”

As she spoke, there was a sudden ruffle of parchment and clink of ink bottles as students set up their desks for note taking, a task usually reserved for Hermione alone.

“The first settlers began coming to America with the Spanish shortly after Columbus landed in fourteen ninety-two. Contrary to most legends, Columbus did not discover the Americas, and magical records indicate Viking wizards arriving hundreds of years before he did, but it was Columbus who ushered in the era of colonisation of the continent.”

Mrs Hoffman pulled out her wand and drew a map of the United States in mid-air.

“I won’t discuss the Spanish very much. They were there first and colonised the vast majority of the continent at one point or another, but their impact was much more cultural than political.”

“How do you mean, Miss?” Marcus asked.

“Well, the Spanish settled large areas but mostly created missions, outposts, forts, and little towns. It was here in what we call ‘New England’—” Mrs Hoffman drew a circle around the northeast coast of the country “—that the biggest impacts on what is happening today started. Particularly English settlers, and to a small extent the French, but mostly it was the English.”

Her proclamation was met with mixed results. Some like Harriet leaned forward, eager to hear more. Others muttered quietly to each other, but all eyes were still focused on Mrs Hoffman.

“The English made full settlements and continued to spread out from them. As you can imagine, this didn’t go over so well with the Native populations of the areas already living there.”

“But I heard that the Natives didn’t believe in things like property?” Dean asked.

“A bit simplistic a stereotype,” Mrs Hoffman said. “Many tribes were very communal within their tribe. But they understood things such as hunting territory and farming territory as well. Indeed tribes were often at odds with each other over those boundaries.”

Dean nodded digesting the information.

“That started the general resentment between Natives and Europeans. The French were a little better about getting along with the Natives than the English. The French were more interested in furs, and magical plants and animals for trade than they were about settling, and they were not above adopting Native customs and living by Native rules. It was very common for French traders to take Native wives as well. That was quite unheard of amongst the English.”

“But if the French got closer to the Natives, how did England take over the continent?” Hermione asked without raising her hand.

“Well, the English did ally themselves with one Native tribe, rather a consortium of them. The most powerful in that region: the Iroquois. Through that alliance, the English came to hold a lot of power over the area and eventually won a war with the French for control of the continent. Even though this was after the Statute of Secrecy, and so most of these conflicts were Muggle affairs.”

“Then how did this war start?” Ronnie asked in a frustrated tone. “If the magical people withdrew and left everyone else alone?”

“But they didn’t,” Mrs Hoffman said simply and waved her wand, vanishing the map. “We withdrew from Muggle affairs, but we did not stop moving west with the colonists and settlers. Along the way, we continued to rub shoulders rather forcibly with the Natives. Native culture is very different than European and European-American magical culture.

“While we hid, the Natives maintained harmony between their magical and non-magical peoples. Magical people were revered by the Natives, who understood their use as healers and shamans and hunters. Their magical members did not wish to go into hiding. This upset European-American magical people, who saw it as a serious threat to magical secrecy. On top of that, the Natives were becoming very angry with the expansion and the fact European-American magical people were consuming all of the continent’s magical resources that they relied upon for their potions and other magical goods.”

Mrs Hoffman took a breath and went on.

“The question began to rise: what to do about the Natives? To the Americans of the time, the Natives seemed backwards, lesser, and were a hindrance to progress. In the end, it was decided it was “us or them” and war broke out in earnest to subjugate the natives completely. These wars lasted nearly fifty years and spread across the continent from Atlantic to Pacific, starting in the early eighteen-twenties and ending by and large by the eighteen-eighties. In the end, the population was put down and forced into reservations and isolated areas. They were forced to keep their magical members secret and were not afforded any rights of their own until they agreed to abide by the laws of the magical government. Hardly any agreed.”

Harriet bit her lip, starting to feel a little hollow inside.

“The magical population was… much harder on the Natives than the Muggle population. The Muggle population gave the Natives their reservations and semi-autonomy. Non-magical Natives can pass their laws, so long as it doesn’t interfere too strongly with Muggle American laws. Slowly, magical sentiments did begin to change. People started to feel sorry for the Natives—”

“They ruddy well should have!” Marcus growled.

Mrs Hoffman gave him a sympathetic look. “You’re right, dear, you’re right.”

“Well, it’s not like it was all one-sided!”

Harriet spun around to look at AJ who was looking a little indignant. “They killed lotsa us too!”

Harriet was surprised. AJ was a little rough around the edges, but Harriet was stunned to hear her talk like that.

Mrs Hoffman gave AJ a rather pitying expression. “Yes, you’re right, dear, there were terrible losses on both sides, and trying to allocate blame won’t solve anything. You’re right,” Mrs Hoffman said in a soft, soothing voice. “But perhaps put yourself in their situation, reverse the perspectives. Say you had been driven from your home and forced into near servitude? Yes, the settlers moving in needed a place to live, but without any deference to the people who were already living there?”

Harriet bit her lip again looking at AJ. AJ didn’t seem entirely convinced, but she looked as though Mrs Hoffman had given her a lot to think about. Mrs Hoffman smiled and went on.

“A compromise was later reached giving states the individual right to decide how many rights the natives could have. This wasn’t the best compromise, as naturally, the states that had experienced the harshest fighting between the Natives and the settlers were the most punitive. Texas, for instance, Arizona, New Mexico, North and South Dakota,” Mrs Hoffman said.

At the mention of Texas, AJ glowered again and muttered.

“In North Dakota we changed the law even further over time, allowing individual cities or towns to decide the matter amongst themselves. Our three towns afforded considerable rights to our native populations, and they became fairly well integrated. We think that is the real reason our towns were attacked so brutally. We held the seat of one of the major bands of the Chippewa tribe.”

Mrs Hoffman paused looking around the room. Even AJ was starting to look more troubled.

“So they carried out that whole attack, killing everyone, just because they hate the Natives?” Harriet found herself asking before she even realised she was speaking.

Mrs Hoffman’s mouth twitched. “Partly… my dear. It was strategic too. Our towns were the centre of power to almost the entire native population in the state. They wanted to cut the head off the Native chain of command so to speak, so they could carry out their genocide essentially unopposed with no one on the outside aware of what was going on. They wanted to knock out the area with a swift stroke so no one would see what was coming.”

Harriet swallowed. It was becoming more and more horrible the more Mrs Hoffman spoke, and the more Harriet thought about it. Before Mrs Hoffman could continue, AJ got up and stormed from the room, nearly running as she slammed the door shut behind her.

“AJ!” Rachel exclaimed and got to her feet.

“I’d… just let her go, dear…” Mrs Hoffman said in a sad voice.

Rachel frowned and sat back down, though she didn’t take her eyes off the door.

Mrs Hoffman looked at her feet, thinking hard as if trying to find the best words for how to continue. “I’m sorry if I’ve made this sound like it’s too black and white an issue. It isn’t,” Mrs Hoffman went on looking back up at the class. “I knew it was going to be a tough issue to explain to anyone at any level in only an hour meeting…”

“No please, Miss,” Hermione said, “Go on, I want to know.”

There was a wave of agreement at this. Mrs Hoffman smiled looking reassured.

“Very well then, well, this system continued until about twenty years ago. At that time Muggles were pushing very strongly for equal rights amongst all members of the American Muggle community, regardless of skin colour or creed.”

“Skin colour?” Dean asked again with raised eyebrows.

Mrs Hoffman sighed once more. “Yes, dear, I’m afraid while discrimination here has fallen largely along bloodlines, in America, it has been more, visual discrimination… people tend to discriminate by what they see.”

Dean gave a little laugh of disgust. “Well I’m in trouble no matter where I go then I guess,” he muttered.

Mrs Hoffman gave a little laugh. “Okay, that probably wasn’t the best impression to give, no. It’s just what’s so hard to get across, how very, very large America is. It’s… well… how to explain? There are very progressive areas, which support efforts like equality, and very regressive areas, that want to take things back but most of them are in between. It’s something of… how many of you have ever heard of a kaleidoscope?”

Most of the class raised their hands.

“Good, good, well, America is something like a kaleidoscope. You can look at the entire U.S. and identify distinct areas where people are more regressive, or more progressive, or more independent.”

Mrs Hoffman re-conjured her map of the United States in the air.

“These are just examples to illustrate my point but say, here is more progressive,” she circled a place on the map, “and here is a more regressive area, and here a more independent area. Now, let us narrow this down a bit.”

Mrs Hoffman tapped an area on the map. The rest of the map vanished, and the area she had touched grew large enough to be seen clearly. In spite of herself, Harriet barely suppressed a smile as she noted the way the area looked like a pair of mittens.

“Now, if we take this state here, we can say that there are progressive, regressive, and independent areas as well. Then narrow it down…”

She tapped an area in the lower right corner of the map, and it grew to block out the mitten.

“And here in a city, we can again identify progressive, regressive and independent areas. Sorry, this is getting a little off topic but, do you understand?” Mrs Hoffman asked solicitously.

Dean nodded, and Parvati piped up.

“Yes, Miss, it is a little like here. We have areas that hold more to old ways than others.”

Mrs Hoffman smiled. “Good, dear, yes, the point is you cannot always judge a nation and their people by the very worst they’ve done because there is always good there too. Yes, a terrible war has happened, and so many have died… but there is good too. There are families near the borders working with Canada and Mexico, helping sneak Natives from the country to safety, at great personal risk to their lives. All those states have rallied to the cause of equality. Just as with the Muggles a hundred and thirty years ago when they fought the war in America that abolished slavery amongst the Muggles, and just as the Muggles did a little over twenty years ago when they finally gave full nationwide rights to their peoples. It is good and bad everywhere and for everyone. You just have to know where to look to find it.”

* * * *

Everyone was good about giving AJ some space over the next few days. She didn’t seem to be upset or angry about what had happened. It was more like she was deep in thought the whole time. She even stopped complaining about the uniform. Mrs Hoffman had advised them all to give AJ some space until she was ready to talk about it. Harriet however, whose curiosity was always bubbling just under the surface, was finding it harder and harder to put it from her mind. She finally decided Friday night to ask AJ about it the following morning. On a Saturday with the day off classes, she thought perhaps there would be time to find her alone.

Unfortunately, that didn’t go as planned. The subject of AJ was first driven out of Harriet’s mind by Rachel having yet another night-terror. Harriet got out of bed to help this time, Tori once more holding Rachel from behind while AJ and Harriet held Rachel’s arms and whispered soothingly to her. Fortunately, Rachel calmed down much quicker this time and fell back to sleep after just under ten minutes.

“Thanks, Harriet, that went much better,” Tori whispered to Harriet and smiled appreciatively.

“Yeah, not getting’ slapped in the face is a nice change,” AJ whispered with a chuckle as she climbed back into bed.

Harriet smiled and lay back down to sleep. However, once more Harriet only felt like she had just closed her eyes when there was a hand on her shoulder, shaking her awake.

“Sorry Potter gotta get up, Wood’s orders.”

“Wuh?” Harriet managed to ask as she fumbled around for her glasses.

She managed to get them on and see Angelina Johnson leaning over her, looking just as tired as Harriet felt.

“What is it?” Harriet asked again, having not registered what Angelina had first said.

“Gotta get up, Potter, Quidditch practice.”

“Quidditch practice? But it’s—” Harriet picked up her clock off her bedside table. “—it’s six in the morning!”

Angelina sighed. “I know, Potter, not that thrilled either, but… you know Wood.”

“Yeah, I know Wood,” Harriet grumbled.

Angelina smiled and patted Harriet’s shoulder. “Good on you, Potter, see you in the Common Room in five.”

Harriet groaned as she wearily got dressed. Fortunately, by the sound of it, they hadn’t woken any of the other girls. Harriet grumbled to herself as she finally made her way down the stairs. Sure enough, Angelina was there waiting for her.

“You alive?” Angelina asked, rolling her eyes.

“Yeah,” Harriet replied, hoisting her Nimbus 2000 racing broom up over her shoulder. “Where’s everyone else?”

“Already headed down. Fred and George are just thrilled of course,” Angelina said with a laugh.

Harried smiled though she stifled a yawn as she and Angelina made their way

“Short night eh?” Angelina asked.

“Yeah, but not as bad as the first night,” Harriet replied.

Angelina sighed. “Those poor kids,” she said miserably. “I just can’t imagine what they went through to have attacks like that.”

“Me either,” Harriet muttered.

“Glad to see how well they fit in with us though; Gryffindor I mean, doesn’t look like they are so well in other houses,” Angelina said.

“The Hufflepuffs seem okay with theirs,” Harriet said, remembering the McGee twins from her Herbology classes.

Angelina laughed. “Well yeah, they’re Hufflepuffs, they love everybody,” she said brushing her long dreadlocked hair back. “At least we got the hot boy, yowzers…” Angelina muttered.

Harriet laughed. “Yeah, he’s… something alright,” Harriet said trying her best to sound casual.

Angelina fitted Harriet with a knowing look and grinned. “Told you boys weren’t all that bad.”

“Oh shut up, Johnson,” Harriet laughed though she yelped as Angelina playfully punched her shoulder.

Fred, George, Katie and Alicia were all changed into their Quidditch robes as Harriet and Angelina arrived. Harriet couldn’t help but notice how even though they all usually got on well, Alicia and Katie were sitting on the opposite side of the changing room from Fred and George. Both pairs looked as though they were only half awake, in fact, Fred had his head tilted back against the lockers, and it sounded as though he was beginning to snore. Harriet and Angelina got to changing as Wood came out of his office.

“All here, finally? Good,” Wood said, his typical manic glee in his eye. “I want to talk tactics with you all before we start. I’ve spent all summer devising new manoeuvres and want to run them past you all before we head out and try them out on the pitch.”

Harriet finally finished changing and stepped out to join the rest of the group with Angelina. Wood had crossed over to the chalkboard where he was drawing an oblong circle for a Quidditch pitch. He started chalking outlines and arrows and crosses with varying colours of chalk. Wood tapped the board with his wand, and the little lines and arrows and crosses began to zoom about the board.

Even after having walked all the way down and changing, Harriet was having a tough time staying awake through the briefing. Everyone else seemed to be having a hard time fighting off sleep as well. Fred had started snoring in earnest while George’s head had slid down onto Fred’s shoulder. Alicia, Angelina and Katie were all resting on each other with their eyes closed. It didn’t help that Wood took over an hour to finally explain all of his new tactics and manoeuvres. About the only thing Harriet was sure of was how hungry she was getting, and the fact that the hunger was probably the only thing keeping her awake at the moment.

Finally, Wood was finished, and after a brief spat with Fred and George who were still disgruntled over practice being so early in the morning, the team all made their way out on to the pitch. The sun had risen now, and Harriet jumped as she heard cheers from the stands. Harriet blinked in the sunlight looking in the stands. By the looks of it, half of Gryffindor House was in the stands, cheering them all on as if they had just come out for a game. Harriet smiled spotting Dora, Sae and Scott amongst them, along with Kenley who was sitting with her younger sister, Katy. Meanwhile, Fred and George made the typical spectacle of themselves, strutting about like gladiators in an arena as the little crowd whooped and cheered.

“Harriet, this way!” Colin called before starting to snap more pictures with his camera. Harriet could only give a forced smile and wave as she finally climbed onto her broom and kicked off. Harriet felt the exhilaration of flight snap her wide awake. Her hair whipped wildly behind her as she rocketed around the pitch.

They were just about to form up to when Wood shouted pointing down.

“Oy! What are the Slytherins doing here? This is our practice!”

Harriet glared, assuming Wood had spotted Dora, Sae and Kenley but she was wrong. The Slytherin Quidditch team was striding out onto the pitch.

“Get out of here, Flint, we’ve got the pitch this morning!” Wood called as he flew down to confront the Slytherins. Harriet and the rest of the team flew down, while numerous other Gryffindors started climbing down into the pitch.

“Room for all I should think, Wood,” Marcus Flint, the captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team called.

“Not the point, Flint, and you know it,” Wood growled.

Flint, who was even bigger than Wood, didn’t look the least bit intimidated. He looked over the oncoming Gryffindors before returning his attention to Wood.

“Sorry to disappoint, Wood, but I happen to have a signed note here from Professor Snape, giving our team permission to use the pitch today.”

Flint held out the note to Wood who nearly tore it as he snatched it from Flint. Wood read the letter thoroughly several times, his hands shaking with rage.

“Well isn’t that a happy coincidence he gave you the pitch the same day I had booked it for?” Wood muttered thrusting the note back into Flint’s chest.

“What? We’re not seriously letting them get away with it?” Fred asked appalled.

“Of course you are, Heads of Houses trump the flying instructor, don’t they, Wood?” Flint said grinning ear to ear. “Besides, your team and its, er, equipment,” Flint said giving disgusted looks at the Gryffindors’ brooms, “doesn’t look much changed from last year. On the other hand, we need to break in not just our new brooms, but our new Seeker as well.”

“New Seeker?” Wood asked. “Where?”

“New brooms?” George asked.

The Slytherins all smirked, and Flint stepped aside. As he did, Draco Malfoy stepped forward from behind him, and the Slytherins all held up brand new brooms. On the handle of each broom was gold inlay spelling the words Nimbus 2001.

“Brand new, not even a month old yet,” Flint said, his grin somehow getting wider.

“Yes, my father donated them,” Malfoy said, casually studying his broom. “Quite good, aren’t they? They certainly make a mess of the old Nimbus 2000 and well… I won’t even dignify those Cleansweep Fives with actually sweeping a floor.”

“Well gee, it’s so nice seeing our team requires buy-ins to play!”

Harriet spun around. It had been a girl who’d spoken, and as Harriet looked at the crowd, she saw Dora step forward, looking livid.

“You were second best, Flamel, drop it,” Flint growled dangerously.

“I wasn’t during the tryouts! I caught the Snitch faster than anyone! He didn’t even try out!” Dora yelled pointing a finger at Malfoy.

“I said drop it, Flamel, my word is final. Now, all of you clear off, or I’ll report this to Professor Snape who I’m sure would love a reason to give detentions and take considerable points from everyone here,” Flint said.

There was much muttering from the crowd as the Gryffindors debated his threat.

“Alright, fine… but I’m taking this to McGonagall too, Flint… you will not get away with this twice,” Wood said.

Flint merely continued to smirk as Wood turned and strode away towards the changing rooms.

Harriet and the rest of the team reluctantly followed. The rest of Gryffindor House fell in behind them. Surprisingly, Dora, Sae and Kenley were allowed to join the Gryffindors as they made their way up to the school. Harriet tried to slow down to talk to Dora. She wanted to ask Dora about her accusations. To Harriet’s surprise, the moment Dora realised what Harriet was trying to do she broke off from the group and headed off in the opposite direction, Sae following after her, bemused. Harriet didn’t know what the issue was; she had seen how well Dora could fly, it would have been really fun if they were both Seekers, even if they were playing against each other.

“You’re not seriously going to let them use the pitch, Wood?” Harriet heard Fred ask Wood, distracting her from Dora.

“I’m not going to start a fight I know Flint wants. The whole Gryffindor Quidditch team and half of Gryffindor House against just their Quidditch team? We’d win the fight, but we’d lose the war on that one. We’ll need a more subtle approach,” Wood replied, his hands still clenched.

To Harriet’s surprise, Fred grinned.

“Gryffindor, the Cunning, eh?” Fred asked.

Wood smirked. “Gryffindor, the Cunning.”

* * * *

After lunch, Harriet and her friends went down to Hagrid’s. They invited Dora along, as well as Scott, AJ, Rachel and Tori. AJ seemed to be in much better spirits now and agreed. As they reached the grounds, both Harriet and Dora grumbled at the sight of the Slytherins still swooping about over the Quidditch pitch.

Harriet still hadn’t asked AJ about what had upset her so much during the guest lecture. Adding to that she now had Dora on her mind. She’d hoped that after a year of having friends she would be better at figuring people out. However, she was sure; at least, that as a group heading down, talking and laughing, to Hagrid’s was not the moment to bring that up.

They had almost reached Hagrid’s hut when the door opened. But instead of Hagrid, it was Professor Lockhart who stepped out. Harriet squeaked in surprise and immediately ducked behind Kieran. Marcus and Scott got the hint and stood shoulder to shoulder with Kieran, blocking her from Lockhart’s view.

“Well hello there!” Lockhart called boisterously at the sight of them. “Enjoying the first day of your first weekend? Marvellous! I was just giving good old Hagrid here a little guidance in getting kelpies out of a well. Well, I’ll be off, enjoy the rest of your weekend!”

Professor Lockhart started to take a step when he stopped and looked at Kieran.

“Goodness, O’Brien, sprained ankle?” Lockhart asked bluntly indicating Kieran’s shillelagh. “Bit excessive for something as little as that isn’t it? You could just go up to the Hospital Wing; Madame Pomfrey would have it fixed in seconds.”

“Y-yeah, guess it is, Professor, I’ll, uh, do that…” Kieran said. His voice sounded calm and casual as ever, yet as she clung to the back of his robes, Harriet could feel Kieran’s body go rigid.

Before any of them could say anything more, Lockhart laughed and strode off towards the castle. Harriet breathed a sigh of relief though she blushed when she saw the look Kieran was giving her over his shoulder.

“Sorry,” she muttered, but Kieran just laughed and shrugged it off.

“Happy to be of service, love, even if it’s just as a handy wall.”

The rest of the group laughed but to everyone’s surprise, Hermione looked troubled.

“What’s up?” Ronnie asked.

“Nothing,” Hermione replied, too quickly to be entirely convincing.

“He… seriously hasn’t noticed you need that…?” Scott asked.

Kieran simply shrugged when Hagrid, who had apparently heard them, stepped out of his hut.

“There y’all are!” He said in his loud, cheerful voice. “Bin wonderin’ when yeh were gonna come see me finally. Come in! Come in!”

They finally filed in each getting their customary near-back breaking pat on the back by Hagrid as they entered.

The hut was very crowded with Hagrid, Harriet, Hermione, Ronnie, Kieran, Scott, Marcus, Dora, Tori, AJ and Rachel piled into it.

“Hey Hagrid,” Harriet said politely, nodding to AJ, Tori and Rachel. These are our new refugees, Rachel—”

Hagrid laughed cutting her off. “Oh I know them well enough alright, ‘specially you there, Rachel, followin’ yer friend Erica around.”

“Er, oh, right,” Harriet said, feeling foolish. She reminded herself that even if they were new to her, the refugees had in fact spent almost the entire summer here at Hogwarts.

“Well you and I haven’t met formally, however,” Dora said. She stood up and held out a hand.

Hagrid smiled and shook by way of holding out a finger for her to shake, given his sheer size.

“Definitely don’t need no one ter tell me yer name though Miss Flamel, right little hero you made of yourself with the others last Spring,” Hagrid said beaming.

Dora blushed uncharacteristically. “Oh, thank you very much, Hagrid.”

“So, how’ve you been, Hagrid? Good summer?” Scott asked.

Hagrid nodded. “Well it was a more i’nerestin’ summer than usual with you lot runnin’ about causin’ trouble,” Hagrid said giving a wink to AJ, Tori and Rachel.

The three girls all smiled giving each other conspiratorial grins.

“Well, we all just wanted to know what there was to see everywhere,” Rachel said cheekily.

Hagrid suddenly looked stern. “Now you lot, as I told yeh b’fore this summer, it’s downright dang’rous in them woods. I’m safe enough in ‘ere, I mean, look at me, but you lot, there’s plenty in there that’d fancy a nibble on summat little like yeh.”

“Oh, like what?” AJ asked, sounding far more curious than concerned.

“Well, last Spring Lord Voldemort was hiding there,” Harriet said.

Predictably, most of Harriet’s friends shivered at the mention of Voldemort’s name. Even Hagrid jumped and dropped the jug of pumpkin juice he was using to pour them drinks. However, while the refugees had shown excitement at learning Harriet was “famous Harriet Potter,” they showed almost no reaction to the name Voldemort. The biggest response was Tori, who glowered darkly.

The others looked at the refugees with amazement.

“What?” AJ asked.

“Y-you’re not afraid to hear You-Know-Who’s name…?” Ronnie asked.

Rachel, AJ and Tori shrugged.

“Voldemort—”again a shiver moved around the cabin “never really got that involved in America. We only ever just heard about him in History of Magic classes,” Rachel explained.

Ronnie continued to gawk.

“Then, why were you all so excited to hear who Harriet was?” Hermione asked.

AJ snorted. “She’s Harriet Potter! She survived the Killing Curse! That’s amazing!”

Harriet felt her cheeks getting very hot.

“Uh, th-thanks,” Harriet said muttering.

Hagrid was about to say something when there was the unmistakable sound of an explosion. The group all rushed to the door, pushing outside and looking towards the Quidditch pitch as more bangs and whistles filled the air. Tiny figures on broomsticks were speeding away from the pitch, chased by rockets and streamers, as what was unmistakably Fred and George’s remaining supply of Filibuster Fireworks erupted right in the middle of the Slytherin Quidditch practice.