Harry shouldn't have been surprised by now that there were still things in the magical world he had no idea about. When he had been a first and second year, there was so much information to take in that it was almost too much, and by the time he'd been through third and fourth year, he thought the outpouring of new information would even out, and it had a little. Now he was just finishing up his fifth year, and here he sat in the Headmaster's office, surprised yet again, though he shouldn't have been.

"It's a very good school Harry. Very prestigious. You're friend Miss Granger has been working diligently since she arrived here to be admitted and already has the seven signatures she needs."

"And- and you want me to go there sir, to the Tree academy?"

"The Academy of the Gemini Trees Harry, and considering the circumstances with Voldemort's recent return to power, I believe it would be a good idea to give you a leg up, yes." He slid a piece of official looking parchment across the desk to Harry, who took it and scanned it.

"That is a list of the courses they're offering this year. At the top you will note the three defensive courses, and also Magery and Occlumency."

"You want me to take all of this over the summer?"

"What you take is up to you. They only recommend taking three courses, but I believe miss Granger is looking forward to six."

"She would," Harry mumbled. His head was spinning. If Hermione had been preparing for this for the last five years, you'd think he would have heard of it by now. This... prestigious summer school. He wasn't against going, not at all. Anything would be better than going back to another summer of torture at the Dursleys, but he was still trying to wrap his mind around all of this.

"It's hard to get into then?" he asked. "If Hermione's been preparing for so long?"

Dumbledore steepled his fingers. "Sixth and seventh year students are admitted who show a love of learning, a penchant for hard work, and a desire to learn more. Students who have had stellar academic performance. This is why each student must be recommended by six teachers and the headmaster of their school. You of course have my approval, and I think you will find you will have the approval of your other professors Harry."

"My school work hasn't exactly been... stellar," he pointed out, thinking about potions and divination.

"Not in all of your subjects, but you are passing all of your classes, and doing extremely well in many of them. You are I believe, top of your class in defense."

Defense is easy, Harry thought, I live for it. I have to.

"You will also have to pay your own way Harry. I realize this is asking a lot of you, but I cannot pay your way from the school coffers. It is forbidden."

"How much is it?"

"One hundred Galleons."

Harry stilled. That was his entire vault, he was sure of it, maybe even more. Every Knut his parents had saved. He'd have to owl Gringotts to find out, but he was positive a trip to this Gemini school was going to clean him out. How would he afford his school supplies for his sixth and seventh year?

"You do not have to go Harry, but I highly recommend it."

"Do you know who else is going sir?"

"I do not have the full list yet, but so far five of your peers are attending."

"Can I think about it?"

He nodded. "Of course dear boy."

Harry stood up with the course list in hand and turned for the door, but was stopped by, "Oh and Harry..." he turned.

"Sir?"

"One of the six signatures you must get is Professor Snape's. He will be one of the teachers at the school this year, and it's required."

"I don't have to take his classes do I?" Harry wiped a sweaty palm on his too small jeans, and suddenly felt anxious, like he was being forced into something.

"No. As I said, the courses you choose are entirely up to you."

"Ok. Thanks sir." He left and quietly closed the door behind him, almost positive he wasn't going to go.

Hermione had other ideas however when she spied the list sticking out of one of his books at dinner later that evening.

"You've been invited to attend haven't you? Even I wasn't invited Harry."

He raised his brows. "What do you mean?"

"Usually you have to apply, very few students are invited. It's an honor you know. They say you can have almost any Ministry posting you want after school if you've gone to the Academy of the Gemini Trees."

"What are Gemini Trees anyway?" Ron asked with a mouth half full of baked potato.

"They're a special tree that only grows in one place in the world... the Isle of Coll. That's where the school is. Oh Harry, are you going to go? It's not anything like Hogwarts you know."

"What do you mean?" Harry and Ron asked together.

"Well there are no houses... and it's not in a castle. It's set up on these really pretty cliffs above the ocean and each student stays in their own one room cabin. There are several small buildings around the grounds where they hold classes. There's no headmaster and as far as I know, there's no punishments. The only punishment they can give is releasing you from the school, and to do that they have to have the signature from all of the teachers.

"Professor Dumbledore said Snape is going to teach there," Harry said.

"Yes, it's different every year. Professors from all of the attending schools go."

"How many schools are there?" Harry had only ever heard of Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang, but he knew there had to be more.

"Five. There's Hogwarts, Durmstrang, Beaxbatons, Boden from Sweden, that's a really small school, and Khar from Mongolia, another small school. Khar is a monestary and they teach wandless magic there. I read that they admit students starting at the age of six, and they study all sorts of things we don't get to learn here. That's what's exciting about getting to go Harry, you get to learn things you wouldn't otherwise get the chance to."

"What's a monk going to teach you?" Ron asked.

"Well, I don't know who's teaching which subject yet, I only just received the subject list this morning, but I would guess healing spells and magery... wandless magic," she clarified mistaking Harry's thoughtful look for one of confusion.

"I wouldn't mind learning magery," Ron said then in an almost dreamy voice. "Just think of the ways I could get back at Fred and George, and they'd never hear me spell one thing out."

"Yeah but its a hundred galleons," Harry said, and Ron choked.

"Oh, well then, kiss my dreams of magery goodbye. Do you have that kind of money Harry?"

He shrugged. "Well if I had the funds, I'd go," Ron said, and Harry pulled the list out to look at it again. The only thing on the list he didn't think he'd care to learn was magical and Muggle law, though he was sure that Snape would be teaching Occlumency and he knew that if that was the case, he wouldn't be taking that either. He could see why Hermione was going to be taking six courses.

"Another thing that's different," she said, "is that if you want to take more courses than the three you have, but don't want to be graded, you're allowed to sit in on any other course. You can choose to participate in it or not. Its set up so that you can see what you might be interested in for study after you graduate, or if you go next year. Sometimes the students with well-off parents have tutors that come to tutor them on weekends during the school year in the other subjects they didn't take during the summer. It's really all meant to give an advantage."

An advantage. Hadn't that been what Dumbledore had said. Voldemort was out there and Harry needed an advantage.

"I'll have to get Snape's signature," Harry said with finality, although he wasn't sure if his mind was made up yet or not.

"That could be a problem," Ron said with a dark look up at the staff table.

"Have you gotten the other signatures yet Harry?"

"Professor Dumbledore said I had his."

"It's a start."

"How about you get all the others, then in the middle of dinner, when all the other staff is there, go up to Snape and ask him for his? That way if he's a jerk to you, they'll all see it," Ron suggested, and Hermione was about to object, but stopped before she did.

Harry raised his brows at her and she clamped her mouth shut. "I think Hermione wants to tell me not to do it, but she knows it's the only way," Harry said out loud, and Ron smirked.

"Do it mate."

Hermione pulled out her admittance form and copied it and handed the copy to Harry.

"Be nice about it," she said to him, and Harry stood to go find Professor McGonagall, who was not yet there for dinner.

* * *

Harry sat nervously at the breakfast table the next morning. McGonagall, Hagrid, Flitwick, Sprout, and Hooch had all signed his paperwork and congratulated him, and all he needed now was Snape's signature. According to the fine print, he wasn't even allowed to ask for Dumbledore's signature until he had the other six.

"Going to do it then?" Ron asked, nudging him in the ribs.

"Yup." He was trying to gather his courage before he went up there. Snape could always say no. He'd been up all night thinking about the chance to go to this school and learn all kinds of defense though, and the chance to escape the Dursleys for the entire summer and weighed those possibilities against emptying his vault and spending the summer near Snape. Going to school won out in the end. Really, anything that would take him far away from the Dursleys and the misery he would endure there would win out.

"So, going to get on with it then?"

Harry grumbled something that sounded like ‘now or never' and got up from the table with the paper. He made the mistake of making eye contact with Snape as he made his way to the front table, and the man tried to glare him down, knowing exactly why he was walking directly up to him.

"Potter," he said through gritted teeth.

"Professor, sir," Harry added just to be nice, remembering Hermione's warning. "I have the chance to go to the Academy of the Gemini Trees, and I need your recommendation to go sir. I was wondering if I could have it. I would really appreciate the chance sir." Maybe he'd overdone it with all the sir's, but Snape was looking positively fierce now as Harry had gathered the attention of the other staff seated there, even though he'd spoken in very low tones. He glanced at Dumbledore for a boost of courage and got it when the man gave him a wink and a smile. He turned back to Snape, who gave him another hard glare, before startling Harry as he snatched the paper out of his hand, conjured a quill and scribbled his name before thrusting the paper back out to Harry, all in the space of two seconds.

Harry looked down at it. There were his six signatures. "Thank you sir," he said, and Dumbledore held out his hand for the form before giving Harry a nod and smile to dismiss him back to his seat. Back finally turned to Snape, Harry couldn't help but let a grin creep over his face. He was going to be Dursley free for the summer. An entire, injury free summer.