Myst at Hogwarts Part 6 (Patreon)

Tonks waited until they were around the corner from McGonagall’s office before she asked, “How are you doing?”

“Eh, I just keep expecting the other shoe to drop,” Myst admitted.

“Why’s that?”

“Because none of the complaints I filed against the Dursleys ever went anywhere, why should this be any different? I keep expecting Mr. Moody to hand Pettigrew over to the ministry and for them to screw things up.”

“No faith in the auror department?”

Myst shrugged. “No real faith in the Ministry. From everything I could find out, Voldemort had less than a hundred actual followers in the dark days before he managed to kill himself and yet he terrified an entire nation.”

“He was a very nasty wizard,” Tonks pointed out with a shiver.

“Sure, but his followers aren’t nearly as scary. The ministry had to know that Lucius Malfoy was guilty as sin, they should have grabbed him, drug him to the gills with truth serum then rounded up the rest of his followers.”

“It’s not that easy, there are rules and laws.”

“In other words the corrupt court wouldn’t get their cut?” Myst asked sarcastically.

“Basically,” Tonks admitted. She knew that the system was a bit broken but leaving it to the purebloods wouldn’t solve anything.

“Something I’m still confused about, one of the books mentioned the Dark Mark, how come they didn’t just have the ministry employees roll up their sleeves?”

Tonks shook her head. “You can’t just go around accusing people of being a Death Eater.”

“Why not? I mean it seems pretty simple to me, if the dark mark is on their arms, you simply have everyone roll up their sleeves at a meeting or something and hey look there’s a Death Eater, stun it.”

“Some people were cursed to do what they did,” Tonks offered weakly.

“Okay, that should be easy enough to deal with, simply take their bribe money then tell them they have two options, spend life in prison or swear an unbreakable vow that they were actually controlled for every horrible thing they did. I’m sure a team of intelligent wizards or witches could figure out a way to word the vow so that it wouldn’t screw them over moving forward. Still, one little requirement and Lucius Malfoy wouldn’t be free and bribing the minister.”

Tonks raised her eyebrows. “What makes you think he’s bribing the Minister?”

“What makes you think he isn’t?” Myst asked sarcastically. “He’s a rich pureblood and judging from his son, a piece of shit. I mean, I could be wrong but I doubt it.”

“He’s my uncle by marriage, you’re not wrong,” Tonks grumbled. 

“My condolences,” Myst offered. “If it makes you feel better, I’m probably related to plenty of idiots through my father.”

Tonks laughed. “Probably less than you’d think but you’d have to check your family tapestry.”

“I’ll be sure to look if I ever find it. Any idea where I’d find it?” Myst asked, fairly sure that it had ended up in the Potter family vault if it hadn’t been destroyed with the cabin or at least he was hoping it had gotten moved to the family vault. Of course, considering the stuff that had been left to rot in the books, he wasn’t holding out much hope that Dumbledore or Hagrid had made an effort to save anything. Hell, Dumbledore hadn’t even repaired the house, which was fairly damned criminal if the repair charm was even half as effective as Magical Beasts and Where to Find Them had shown it to be.

“Probably the family vault. Hopefully Sirius can help sort all of that out after he’s released.”

“If they don’t screw something up,” Myst grumbled.

“Don’t worry, Moody will make sure that Peter is brought to Amelia Bones directly, she’s the head of the Auror department. It will be nice to have some family other than my parents that don’t want to kill me.”

“I can relate,” Myst replied as they reached the portrait. 

“What’s the problem with the Dursleys?”

“Let’s see, Harry Hunting, trying to starve me, being locked in a cupboard for a decade when I didn’t have to cook or clean. Not to mention all of the punishments for accidental magic, not learning my name was Harry until I was five and went to school.”

Tonks blinked. “You didn’t know your name?”

“Nope, they just called me boy or freak or hey you. They’re not big fans of magic or me because I’m a wizard. A couple of teachers noticed the abuse and claimed they’d take care of it then they’d come back confused and the cycle would start all over again.”

‘That sounds like obliviate or confundus, I need to talk to Moody about this.’ Tonks frowned slightly. “Did their eyes look unfocused?”

Myst thought back, he wasn’t actually sure as it had been awhile since anyone cared enough to look into things but figured yes was a safe enough answer. “I think so, it’s been a while, they just seemed generally confused and didn’t know what I was talking about. One teacher even had a hard time recalling my name and had to look it up a couple times. I was always a bit confused about that considering the fact that he had a mind like a steel trap the rest of the time.”

Tonks shifted uncomfortably and quickly changed the subject, “So, what do you think about the magical world?”

“Magic is fantastic, but the culture is more than a bit odd. I don’t suppose you know of any books or people that could explain why all the wizards and witches seem to be insane?”

Tonks laughed. “If you find out, let me know.”

“So, that’s a no?” Myst asked with amusement.

“Pretty much. Then again, to be fair when you can make reality cry with a couple words and a swish of your wand, things like logical thinking stop being quite as… applicable,” she said thoughtfully. 

“I think I’ll keep my logic, thank you very much. Still, magic is pretty neat. What’s the most interesting thing you’ve done with it?” Myst asked curious about her studies and what wasn’t shown in the books.

Tonks smirked as her nose grew and turned into a beak. “Probably shape changing.”

“Wandless self transfiguration, that’s a nice trick.”

“Of a sort, I’m a metamorphmagus which basically means I can naturally change my appearance.”

“Huh, neat, I made my hair grow back after the Dursleys shaved it to punish me once. There were so many things that made sense looking back once I’d realized that magic was real, like ending up on the roof when Dudley and his friends were trying to pound my face in.”

Tonks frowned as she realized that something was seriously wrong with Harry’s situation with the Dursleys and that Moody should check into it. “Don’t worry Sirius will get his day in court.”

“Hopefully, I’m surprised that he wasn’t given truth serum in his first trial, that should have proven he wasn’t responsible.”

“Something to check on, I’m assuming you remember the password, right?” Tonks asked as she glanced at the portrait.

“Yes,” Myst replied with amusement as he walked over to the portrait and whispered, “Caput Draconis.”

“Right you are, now get to bed,” the Fat Lady scolded good naturedly.

“Thanks for the help Tonks,” Myst said, not sure what else to say to Sirius’ cousin.

“You’re welcome, don’t worry Moody is one of the good ones, he’ll sort things out,” Tonks assured him.

“Hopefully,” Myst said then walked into the common room. He grimaced slightly as he saw Percy sitting in a chair with a book, obviously waiting for him. He caught a glimpse of Hermione before she waved and slipped around the corner, having assured herself that he was safe. He’d taken half a step toward the stairs that led to the boys dorm when Percy opened his mouth.

“What happened?” Percy asked.

“The aurors took the animagus away, I’m not sure how much more I’m supposed to say. He might be a rather confused wizard or a dangerous criminal hiding, we’re not sure when he killed Scabbers and took his place.”

“Probably recently,” Percy said weakly, hoping that was the truth and that he hadn’t given his brother a deranged wizard as a pet because he didn’t want to spend a couple of sickles at the shoppe.

“I’m not sure what to tell Ron,” Myst admitted.

“Just tell him that it’s auror business and you’re not allowed to say anything, I’ll talk to him in the morning,” Percy offered, not sure what he was going to tell Ron either.

“Thanks, I appreciate it. I should get some sleep, it’s been a long day.”

“Same,” Percy agreed, relieved that he’d taken the box to McGonagall rather than trying to deal with it himself.

Myst headed up the stairs to his dorm then glanced around and smiled when he saw his bags next to a four poster bed by the window. ‘At least I’ll have a view though I’ll probably have to figure out how to cast a warming charm if I don’t want to freeze to death.’ He’d barely managed to make it halfway across the room when Ron jumped out of his bed and ran over.

“What happened?” Ron demanded.

Myst whispered, “They didn’t say much, just auror business. I’m not supposed to talk about it until after his trial or at least questioning.”

“So you can’t tell me anything?” Ron asked in a slightly quieter voice.

“Sorry. I’d rather not get in trouble and Percy should have more information in the morning which means I’m going to sleep, you should try to do the same, we have a long day tomorrow.” Myst turned and headed for his bed, knowing that it would probably take a couple nights before he was used to the bed and trying to sleep in a room with a bunch of people he didn’t know was something he hadn’t done since college.

0o0o0

Myst blinked as he walked into the common room and saw Hermione sitting in a chair reading a book despite the fact that it was barely light out. He walked over and sat down across from her. “Anything interesting?”

“Just rereading our charms book so I’m ready for today,” Hermione replied as she studied Harry’s face, trying to figure out if he was actually okay.

“I doubt any of the professors will expect us to have read more than the first chapter let alone the book.”

“That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t read ahead,” Hermione argued.

“I’m not saying we shouldn’t read ahead, I’m just saying we probably don’t need to obsess over it.”

“What if we miss something?” Hermione asked nervously.

“Then we miss something, at which point we look up the answers so we won’t miss things on the end of the year exams. The homework only really matters in that doing it lets the teachers correct our mistakes and keeps us from having detention.”

“It also shows that we’re intelligent,” Hermione argued.

Myst shrugged. “To a point sure but it’s a fine line between looking intelligent and coming off looking like you’re trying too hard.”

“What do you mean?” Hermione asked.

“Let me paint a picture, you’re a teacher and you have two hundred papers to grade, which type of paper would you want to grade, the paper where they wrote I am a fish twenty times, the paper where they wrote the bare minimum but everything was correct or the monstrous five foot essay that talks about the history of the problem when you asked them to answer six plus seven?”

Hermione blinked. “But what if the history of the problem is important?”

“Then they would have asked you to include the history of the problem. Most of the teachers have a couple hundred students in the various grades, that means they’re reading through a lot of essays. They want to be able to glance over the essay, know that it is correct and be able to move onto the next essay. You remember Malfoy’s trolls, right?”

“What does that have to do with homework?” Hermione asked.

“Can you picture them writing their names let alone writing a perfect essay?”

“That’s a bit mean,” Hermione argued, not sure it wasn’t accurate.

“Am I wrong?” Myst asked seriously.

“I can’t see them writing a perfect essay,” Hermione admitted.

“Exactly, I can’t see Ron writing a perfect essay either though I’m fairly sure he can at least write his name. The point is, we’re going to be at the top of the class because we won’t stand for anything else. That means that we can be two people the teachers don’t have to worry about, they can basically glance over our essays, write a grade then move onto someone that needs help. If we write too much, they’ll have to focus on what we said and it will tick them off because they should have been able to just glance at our stuff and move on.”

“How do we prove we know the extra material?” 

“That’s why they’ll probably ask questions in class.”

“Which means we can get points,” Hermione agreed.

Myst shrugged. “The points don’t matter.”

“What do you mean?” Hermione asked confused.

“The professor gets a house cup that they keep for the following year. We don’t get a party, we don’t get treats or a reward or anything other than our house colors being displayed on the wall during the next year. Other than that, the points don’t matter. It’s amazing how they get everyone to care about points that don’t matter when we should be concentrating on learning everything we can. The only thing that really matters are the OWLs in fifth year, the NEWTs in seventh and the general social connections that you make, both with the teachers and the other students.”

“What about the end of the year tests?” Hermione asked slightly horrified that her homework might not matter.

“What about them? You’re grades at the end of second year sort of matter for what electives you can get into without too much trouble but really at the end of the day the only thing people are going to be looking at when we’ve graduated are our OWLs and NEWTS. They won’t care what grades you got in Potions first year or in History second year or the fact that you dropped history after fifth year.”

“So you’re saying there isn’t any reason to answer questions in class?” Hermione demanded.

“Only if no one else can answer it.” Myst set his elbow on the armrest and sort of lazily raised his hand half heartedly. “Look at my hand, what does that say about me?”

“That you’re not making any effort to be called on?” Hermione asked, not really sure where he was going with his example.

“Exactly, it says that if no one else can answer, I can. That lets the teacher gleefully ignore me if they’re looking to see how many people know the answer. If we do our job right, they can call on us if they want a concise answer or they can ignore us because they want to see if anyone else knows the answer.”

“I should take notes,” Hermione said as she pulled her notes out of her bag.

Myst glanced at the clock then looked back at Hermione with a smile, hoping that a couple suggestions could help her avoid alienating everyone like what had happened in the books.

0o0o0

Myst blinked as he walked past the Hufflepuff table and caught a whiff of coffee. He turned to look at the other early birds. “Is that coffee?”

“Shh, it’s a secret,” one of the sixth or seventh year boys said in a whisper.

“Ah, say no more,” Myst agreed with amusement.

“Zeke Haskel,” he said as offered Myst his hand. “Pleased to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you,” Myst replied as he shook the young man’s hand, feeling no reluctance about using his fame to open doors unlike Harry.

Zeke glanced at Hermione who was hanging off Harry’s arm and tugged a forelock politely in her direction before turning back to enjoy his coffee.

Myst grinned and continued on his way, rather amused at the stares that followed them as they headed over to the Gryffindor table. He wasn’t surprised that the Hufflepuffs were already filling into the Great Hall in mass as they had coffee. He was slightly surprised to see a first year Slytherin walking toward them. He smiled politely as the girl stopped in front of them yet managed to avoid blocking their path.

“I’m Tracey Davis, do you have a second?” Tracey asked, curious about something she’d heard in the common room.

“Sure, what do you need?” Myst asked curious what she wanted as she hadn’t tried saying anything to Harry in the book.

“Did you really tell Draco that he was an uncouth barbarian?”

Myst shrugged. “Not in so many words but close enough. He barged into the compartment and started insulting people, I called him on it at which point he started ranting about his father and tossing insults my way without having a clue who he was insulting. I sort of tuned him out at that point which seemed to tick him off even more.”

“Seems counterproductive,” Tracey agreed, a bit annoyed that Draco was the first person that Harry ran into from Slytherin.

“I’m glad someone understands,” Myst replied, glad that everyone in Slytherin weren’t two dimensional, mustache twirling villains, like in the books. 

“I’m glad that someone called him on his behavior,” Tracey offered, not really sure what you were supposed to say to excuse the behavior of someone that you weren’t responsible for but was doing their best to sink the already tarnished reputation of your house.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to hold his behavior against you.”

“Thanks, see you around,” Tracey said then turned and headed toward the Slytherin table, happy that Draco hadn’t managed to make the Boy Who Lived into an enemy of the entire house. 

Myst wasn’t all that surprised that there were only about half a dozen Gryffindors scattered around the table as it was barely six thirty. He smiled at McGonagall who was standing at the head of the Gryffindor table with a stack of schedules next to her. 

“Mr. Potter, Miss. Granger,” McGonagall said as she handed Myst and Hermione their schedules.

“Thank you Professor,” Myst said with a smile as he sat down at the table and looked his schedule over. It looked normal enough for a Hogwarts schedule from what he could remember, classes at random times of the day and with various other houses. ‘Hopefully Quirrell's class isn’t that bad.’

“Looks like we have some double classes,” Hermione commented softly.

“Probably so they could fit all of the classes in.” Myst glanced at his morning classes then folded up his schedule and stuck it in his pocket so that he didn’t get any food on it.

“Have you already memorized your schedule?” Hermione asked in a whisper.

“Of course not, I just looked at the first couple of classes and the time. We’ll have plenty of time to try to find everything after breakfast,” Myst explained as he started loading his plate with food.