As they gathered sleepily out on the grass in front of the dining hall, waiting for the teachers to be ready to take them to Beauxbatons, Harry noted that some students had brought notebooks and pens to take notes with, but he wasn't interested in taking notes. He wanted to relax for the next two days. They were done with classes and he was looking forward to the prospect of exploring the other schools and seeing how other people lived. The school he really wanted to see was Boden, but Hermione was excited to see Beauxbatons and Draco really wanted to see Durmstrang.

Snape came up to their group of Hogwarts students with the same portkey book they'd first used to come here and told them all to take hold. The other professors were doing the same with their groups of students. This time the words Snape spoke to the portkey book were different. "To the palace of shooting stars." Harry felt the familiar hook behind his navel and they were gone.

He kept his footing when they landed and sucked in a deep breath of fresh mountain air. There was a serene high mountain lake in front of him with a jagged mountain rising up behind it in the distance. The lake wasn't nearly a sixth of the size of the Black Lake at Hogwarts and he doubted very much if it was deep enough to support merpeople or a giant squid.

He heard Hermione ooh beside him and turned around to see a large palace like castle with pristine lawns and dozens of tiny turrets. He could tell it was old like Hogwarts, but looked newer because it seemed better maintained. The stones were off white instead of Hogwarts large gray stones and it had hundreds of grand looking windows overlooking the lake and grounds.

Within moments the other groups of students portkeyed in around them, and Adeline and Professore Camille stepped up to organize them into groups. Harry ended up in a group with Axle, Basia, Snape, Hermione, the youngest boy from Kahr and two older boys from Durmstrang that Harry hadn't much spoken to. Adeline lead off giving them some history about how the palace was built and about rules for being out on the grounds. The grounds compared to Hogwarts were compartively small. Behind the palace Adeline said there were gardens but that was as far as the grounds stretched that way. In front the grounds went to the other side of the lake. In the winter the entire lake froze solid, she said, and they offered ice skating classes as well as classes about how to form and shape ice by magic. The inside of the school looked as pristine as the outside. Instead of one grand staircase leading up into the school there were four smaller but no less grand looking staircases with light blue sparkling carpet up the center leading to different areas. They were lead past the staircases and into the heart of the school to a dining hall that was about the same size as the Great Hall at Hogwarts. There were no floating candles here. Instead there were sparkling chandeliers hanging over every table. There were ten long white tables with benches and under each table was a long blue carpet that matched the carpets on the stairs.

Harry sat down with his group and some adults in light blue unifofrms came out with trays of food to serve them.

"Is it always like this?" Axle asked, and Adeline nodded.

"Yes. The school employs almost one hundred people to serve the students and keep the palace and grounds."

"We have house elves," Harry said.

"We employ people to provide them work. Many of the people have other family that teach at the school and it is considdered an honor and privelage to serve the students and teachers."

They served some breakfast foods Harry was familiar with, and some he wasn't, but he enjoyed the meal. The servers came back to take their plates and the food that hadn't been eaten as Adeline motioned that they should all rise to start their tour. "The food that we do not eat is taken to the nearby Muggle village. There is an orphanage there and all food not eaten goes to the orphans. They never want for anything."

"I like that," Hermione said quietly to Harry as they were lead in a tour of the classrooms, which were mostly on the ground floor. The second floor also had classrooms but not as many, and the third floor had only ten classrooms. It was explained to them that first and second years used the ground level classrooms, third and fourth years used the second floor classrooms, and fifth, and sixth years used the third floor classrooms. The students of different age groups didn't really interact except at meal times and out on the grounds.

"Students start school here at twelve as a first year and finish at seventeen. There is a lower part of the grounds on the other side of the lake half a mile down the mountainside where there is a smaller school building that is two stories. Ten and eleven year old attend there and are called pre-students. They attend classes on the first floor and all living quarters and common areas are on the second floor. Some students stay there and others return home in the evening via floo or apparation. Every student who attends Beauxbatons must graduate the lower level school with top marks or else they will be denied entrance."

In the main school, where they were touring now, students were divided up by year, not by house. First years had a set of rooms on one side of the castle on the third floor, and second years had a set of rooms on the other side of the third floor. Third and fourth years had the entire fourth floor to themselves, fifth years had the fifth floor to themselves, and sixth years had the smaller sixth floor to themselves. There were staff rooms scattered around the castle and each staff member was in charge of a set of rooms. In first and second year there were 4 students to a room, and in third and fourth year there were 2 students to a room. When a student graduated to fifth year they were granted their own room, and sixth years got to decide if they wanted a room mate or not and were allowed to have a room mate of the opposite sex if they wanted. Hermione looked shocked at this information but Adeline explained that there were cultural differences in the way people viewed romantic relationships and said that most who shared a room in their sixth year with someone of the opposite sex ended up getting married to that person after school.

"Can you imagine sharing a room with Ron by yourself this year?" Harry teased her, and her cheeks turned red.

"No actually, I can't."

Harry raised his brows, unsure what she meant. Maybe she just wasn't ready to move in with Ron and his dirty socks that were always on the floor, Harry thought.

They were taken to see some of the student rooms (which were currently empty because it was summer), and Harry was interested to see how plain the first through fourth year rooms were compared to the more lavish fifth and sixth year rooms. It wasn't big differences, but the differences that were there were interesting. The first through fourth year rooms had wood floors and the fifth and sixth year rooms had light blue carpet. The first through third year rooms had plain stone walls, and the upper year rooms had wallpaper or paint and had crown moulding on the ceiling. There was the size difference too. The rooms for the first four years were just big enough for two bunk beds and two desks, and the upper year rooms were double the size for a single bed and a desk, and often had extra chairs or couches.

They looked at some of the classrooms, which were about the same as Hogwarts classrooms only with the lighter stone, and Harry listened to all the classes they had that were different than Hogwarts classes. Some of the courses were the same, like Potions and Charms and Transfiguration, but there were ten or more classes devoted to the arts like drama, literature, law, painting, and music. Apparently the lower years studied the things that they learned at Hogwarts, but once they hit fifth year they were given a choice of two tracks to take in school, one geared towards the arts, and one geared towards mastery of the subjects Hogwarts students covered in thier OWLs and NEWTs.

At noon they went back out to the grounds and after a headcount was done by the teachers to be sure they had everybody, they portkeyed to Durmstrang.

They appeared on a small rock outcropping with a low stone wall on the edge of a cliff.

"Whoa," Harry said, stepping back from the edge. Thousands of feet below them was a deep blue fjord surrounded by towering mountains that still had snow on top despite that it was the middle of the summer.

Harry turned and was impressed with the towering stone castle that was behind them, carved right into the face of the mountain. Even craning his neck he could not see all the way to the top of the castle, but he could tell that there was snow up there on some of the highest turrets, and in his t-shirt he was chilled in the cool mountain air. It wasn't a pristine school like Beauxbatons, and wasn't even in the condition Hogwarts was in. The stone had crumbled in several places and when Harry looked back down the nearly vertical mountain he could see that the school extended below them as well and that there was at least one area that had crumbled down the side of the mountain altogether.

"Incredible," Draco said in awe. Draco had once said that his father had wanted to send him here. The view was awesome, Harry had to admit, and he was eager to see inside the school. Others portkeyed in around them in the narrow area and Snape ushered them inside the grand wooden door to make room for the others. Inside was a stone hall and Harry could see that his assumption about the whole place being carved from the mountain face was right. Where Hogwarts was laid stone by stone and Beauxbatons brick by brick, every inch of this piece was solid rock.

Blazhe and Emiliaya divided up the students and staff into a group of girls and a group of boys, explaining that there were certain areas of the school only for boys, and certain areas only for girls. After that the group of boys was split in half and the group of girls was split in half and the students from Durmstrang divided up and took the four groups off on a tour. Blazhe and Iva took the teachers on a separate tour where they could privately discuss disciplinary and teaching styles.

Harry was in a group of about 7 boys which included Axle, Draco, and Ernie and was lead by Nikolas and another boy he couldn't remember the name of.

They took them to the Great Hall to eat lunch, where girls had to sit on one side, and boys on the other. "Don't you intermix at all?" Ernie asked.

"During classes and free time," Nikolas said. "Meals are not free time."

"When is free time?" Draco asked.

"Saturday and Sunday all day. For one hour after breakfast each day, for one hour after lunch, and two hours after dinner. We eat breakfast at five am, and free time is until six. At six in the morning we meet with our advisors in the classroom and regular classes start at seven. Lunch is at noon and classes resume at two and go until seven. Dinner is at seven and free time is from eight to ten. Everyone must be in bed by ten."

"Where do you spend your free time? Are there common areas?"

"There is a library, an outdoor common area at the lowest part of the castle, there is also an outdoor area at the lowest part of the grounds on the fjord. On the girl's side of the castle there is a common area and a dueling room for girls, and on the boys side there is the same. In the very center of the castle there is another common area for all to share, and when meals are not being served the Great Hall serves as a common area."

Lunch appeared on each of their individual plates and the other boy leading their group, 'Aldor', explained that they had two or three hundred house elves that did the work here. He also said that you didn't get to choose what you ate for meals, you ate whatever the house elves put on your plate, and if you got in trouble the teachers would tell the house elves and they would only serve you disgusting or bland food until they felt you were repentant.

Harry ate quickly and was eager to move on, but the Durmstrang boys at their table seemed to be in no hurry. "We cannot rise until the girls are finished," Aldor said. "It's tradition. When the first one rises to leave, we may leave." Harry thought it was strange, but watched keenly for the first person to stand, and finally one of the girls from Durmstrang stood to lead her group on the rest of the tour and they got up as well.

"There seem to be a lot of rules about girls and boys," Axle observed.

"It is our way," Nikolas said. "We have respect and courteousy for the girls, but they are to defer to us in many things. It is their way of showing us respect. They do not defer to us if we are younger than them, only if we are the same age or older, and not in all things. In some things, we follow their lead."

"Like?" Draco asked. Harry was curious too. He had seen the Durmstrang boys bossing the Durmstrang girls around several times at Gemini.

"In your culture the boy makes a romantic gesture first, in ours we do not show romantic interest to the girls as it would disrespectful, we wait for them to ask us to court. And before we say yes we must get permission from a staff member first because they want to make sure our intentions are honorable."

Harry frowned. He couldn't imagine having to ask Snape's permission to go out with a girl, especially if she had asked him out first.

They were lead to the various common areas first, including the library, which went straight up for four floors and had small study areas on each floor and a hollow center allowing you to look straight down to see who was on the other floors. It wasn't very big lenght and width wise but was dizzyingly tall, Harry thought. Most of the school was inside the mountain, so there weren't windows, though all of the classrooms were along the outer edge and had windows. From where they apparated in, they were lead up through nine stories of the school in the mountainside and shown to the boys side of the school where there were corridors with dorm rooms and common areas and a dueling room with a long platform just for the boys to use.

"We hold dueling competitions every month," Aldor explained. "The boys duel the boys, and the girls duel the girls. The boy who wins duels the girl who wins. If the boy wins the final duel, the boys get special privelages for the month. If the girl wins it, the girls get the special privelages."

"What are the privelages?" Harry asked.

"Better food at meals, desert at meals, an extra half hour to stay awake to study, and private use of the fourth floor of the library for the month."

"Where do you play Quidditch?" Harry asked.

"We do not have a pitch. We play on the fjord. The rings hover in the air over the water and the students go out in boats to watch the game. There are big boats and boats as little as kayaks. There are two all boy teams and two all girl teams. All four teams play each other but are not allowed to play on the same team. There is more than enough space on the fjord for two teams to practice at once or for two games to go on at once."

"That sounds interesting," Draco said.

"You may not play on a team unless you pass the Quidditch class and you may not play on a team if your grades drop below second tier."

"What's that?"

"First tier is full marks, second tier is ten percent below that, third tier is twenty percent below first tier, and fourth tier is failing. There are awards at the end of each school year for those who have stayed in first tier for the entire school year, and improvement awards for those who have moved up one tier and stayed there for at least four months."

They had just enough time to take the narrow outdoor staircase down the side of the mountain to the fjord (Harry didn't think he liked it because there were no rails and it was a long steep drop if he were to fall). There was a forested area at the bottom and at the waters edge there were four docks and two boathouses (one boat house for the girls and one for the boys). There were also two Quidditch buildings, one for each sex. Harry thought it might be fun to take a kayak out and learn to use it, but they didn't have time, and almost as soon as they got to the docks they had to start their trek back up the side of the steep mountain to the castle. Nikolas showed them a spell however to make their body lighter and their feet faster and it seemed like they practically flew up the stairs. Harry, Draco and Ernie found Snape and waited for the girls to show up before they took hold of the portkey and went back to Gemini. It was past dinner time and Harry was hungry, but he didn't mind waiting half an hour for his meal as he sat in the dining hall chatting with his friends about the schools and all of the differences between them and what they were used to.

"Boden is first thing tomorrow," Axle said, and Harry was more than excited. There was no bonfire that night, as everyone was too tired from the tours they had taken, but as Harry returned to his cabin he found that he didn't want to go to sleep. He had too much to think about. He liked how pristine Beauxbatons was, and the beauty of their school grounds high up in the Pyrenes mountains, but Durmstrang was cool too, though it seemed a lot darker inside and he imagined that it was probably cold and damp inside the mountain during the winter. He knew that part of the red Durmstrang uniform was a fur coat and hat, and Aldor had said that the boys had to kill all the animals for their fur coats at the start of the school year, and that it was a sign of love for a boy to kill one for a girl he liked and give it to her.

It was past midnight when Harry fell asleep, and if he wasn't so excited to see Boden and show people around Hogwarts, he would have taken it as a personal offense that Snape was knocking on his door at sunrise the next morning.

Harry opened his door excitedly and hurried down the side of the hill to meet with the others, Draco right behind him.

"I'm going to show them the room of requirement," Harry told him.

"The room of what?"

Harry gave him a look. "That place where you and your gang of Umbridge helpers tried to take us down last year."

"Lets not talk about Umbridge," Draco said, and Harry nodded. He didn't want to think about her either.

Everyone was eager to get started, so they portkeyed to Boden. Harry barely had a chance to look around the hillside meadow they'd landed on before August was dividing them up into four groups. There were only three students from boden, so they each took about 9 students and August took the teachers into a group.

Harry and Ernie went with Axle and unlike the other groups that moved away towards the small castle set on a hill for breakfast, Axle kept their group in the meadow. "This is my favorite place," he said. "In the spring it's full of wild purple and red flowers and a lot of people come out here to study. He started walking slowly towards the castle, far behind the other three groups. A lot of people study out in the forest too. There is nowhere on the grounds that we're not allowed to go. The castle is small, but the grounds are big. If you stay to study in the summer, the river is a nice place to cool off and there's two streams in the woods where people like to get in and swim." He pointed in a vague direction of the woods. Someone asked if he was going to take them to breakfast, and he said, "If you will let me show you a small bit of the forest, I promise breakfast will still be waiting for you when we get in." He had a mischevious look and Harry wondered what he was up to.

They followed a well worn path through the hillside meadow and around the side of the castle into a pleasant looking forest. There were wooden benches and tables scattered around and small footbridges across shallow streams. There was moss everywhere and Axle lead them into a smaller meadow surrounded by trees that was still full of purple and red wildflowers.

"There is a secret," he said. "If you pick wildflowers and take it to the cook, you will get a special desert."

He bent down and started picking wildflowers and so did Harry and the others. Then Axle lead them down another path that lead to the castle and an entrance in the side of the little steep mountain it was on right at the edge of the forest, explaining the boundaries of the grounds as he went. "The boundaries go up this hill behind us and down the other side. There's a pond there where a troll lives with his family."

"A mountain troll?" Harry asked.

"No, those are big. A bridge troll. The pond belongs to him and if you want to swim in it you have to pay him a fee. He takes trades for interesting things though. Once I traded him a pack of chocolate frog cards to let me swim."

"Why not just swim in the river or streams?" someone from Kahr asked, and Axle smiled.

"Bridge trolls can't swim, so he doesn't used the pond anyway. But there are precious stones at the bottom. If you can dive down deep enough you can pick one up and bring it back to sell to a jewler. Some parents send their children with things to trade to the troll so they can dive down and get the stones. The troll has magic and he only lets students dive down to get the stones."

He lead them inside and down several corridors and to a wooden door. "This is the kitchen. We will present our flowers to the cook." He knocked and after a moment the door opened. Axle grinned as a woman opened it and looked shocked to see nine students with bunches of wildflowers. She took Axle in a hug and covered his face with kisses then.

"Oh," she fussed over the state of him and pulled him inside the kitchen and the others followed.

"This is my mom," Axle said with a grin and the others started to laugh, realizing what he had done. He had tricked them all into bringing flowers to his mother and surprised her. She took all of their flowers and put each bunch in their own vase and then gave them each a desert and sent them through a door in the opposite side of the kitchen. On the other side was the dining hall, which was only half the size of the Great Hall at Hogwarts or Durmstrang. Snape and some of the other people watched with interest as they came out of the kitchen, Axle's mother's laughter filtering out behind them. They were all smiling as Axle lead them to one of the four large square tabes in the space, the only empty one left. A few minutes later, just as they were finished eating the little cakes they'd been given, Axles mother and three other women came out and served them food.

"Hey," Draco said from the next table, "you've got something different than the rest of us."

"We took flowers to the cook," Harry said. The dining hall was small enough that everyone could hear the conversation. "And besides, I think we get preferrential treatment since the cook is Axles mum."

Draco rolled his eyes and the other two Boden students and August laughed.

"Does your dad work here too?" Harry asked. He remembered that Axle said a lot of the staff had their families there at Boden with them.

Axle leaned in and whispered to Harry, "He does, but I don't think you'll like it when I tell you who he is."

Harry raised his brow and Axle glanced over at August.

"He's your dad?"

"Yes."

"How come you didn't tell me?"

"I did not want your relationship with him to affect our friendship. I did stick up for you with him in private though. He said he apologized to you."

"He did," Harry said, re-evaluating the man's apology now that he knew he was Axle's father. He watched August across the hall for a few minutes and then wondered that he'd never thought to ask Axle for his last name.

They ate quickly and left the dining hall only shortly after the other three groups did despite that they'd started their breakfast a lot sooner.

"Where do you want to see?" Axle asked. Ernie asked him about the library so he took them there first. It was only one story but it was a big room. Axle told them that when it was too cold to study outdoors, people studied in the library. In the winter the dining hall was used for students to play games together, and it was the main indoor common space they had. He said the large classroom corridors often also filled up with students studying or playing games, and because of this and the small number of students that attended each year (only 200) that the school was very close knit and that all of the staff took a personal interest in each students success and wellbeing, often acting like their own parents would to look after them.

In the center of the school there was one stairwell that lead up to the other four floors, and Axle showed them the space where the river ran right through the school. Harry was in awe of the bridges that went over the river on the ground floor and above their heads on the other floors. Axle opened one of several closets in the corridor with the river and revealed fishing poles and tackle. "We fish for our own food. We eat a lot of fish in the winter. We also eat a lot of elk and deer. In the summer there are rabbits and birds that we eat. The school has a garden and each student must tend to it for a certain number of hours a month, as we grow our own vegetables too. There is a class just about growing food with magic and preserving it with magic. Each first year has to take it.

"How many years do you go to school?"

"Seven, like at Hogwarts, "but some students stay here all summer to study. Sometimes students come and go in the summer, studying for one month then leaving, or leaving for a few weeks and coming back to study. In the summer we are allowed to choose our own topics and the teachers help us to put together a course and grade us on our work.

Axle showed them one of the boys dorm rooms. Like Durmstrang boys lived in one area of the school and girls in another, but there were large dorm rooms that fit 5-7 boys each. Each dorm room had bunk beds and desks, couches and tables.

"If you don't like those you share a room with, you can ask to transfer to another room, but you're only allowed to change rooms one time per year, so you have to be sure you are going to like who you move in with. Some people live with their families who work here. There are ten houses behind the school on the hillside where individual families who work here live. We call it Hill Village. Every few years another family builds a house there. The Quidditch pitch is behind Hill Village in the forest. Not too far away there is a village of the People. They know we have a magic school here, so there are no barriers placed to keep them out. We live in harmony with them. There is no doctor in the People's village, so when some one is sick they send someone to fetch a healer here. Their village and Boden are so remote however, that they don't get many outsiders, so our secret stays safe. Some students who go here even live in the People's village.

Before they left, Axle said goodbye to his mother and Harry tried not to watch as August kissed her goodbye in the corridor outside the kitchens. They turned to leave but Axle's mother reached out and gently put her hand on Harry's wrist. He stopped and looked at her and she seemed to be searching in his eyes for something. She looked up at his scar and he felt uncomfortable for a moment.

"You are the boy who saved Alvar from the water."

"Yes."

"They say you could have died. It was very dangerous."

"Yes," Harry said, hoping she wasn't going to tell him off for it too. Adeline had only recently started talking to him again and he didn't want to bring this up yet again.

"Thank you," she said, and like she had done with Axle and August, she pulled Harry into a hug.

"Um, you're welcome," he said, and she released him.

"You are a good boy. Now go before they leave you behind. Hurry now!"

Harry flashed her a grin and hurried to the end of the hall where Axle was waiting for him.

"My mom, she likes you."

"Heh," Harry said, and they hurried to the meadow where the others were waiting to Portkey to Hogwarts.

"You are late," Snape observed when he jogged up to the group, the last to arrive. He didn't seem angry.

"I was being appreciated," Harry said, thankful that someone approved of what he had done.

"Hm."

He grabbed the portkey and Snape said, "Where four houses reign," and they were gone, reappearing in the middle of the grounds on the path leading to the castle.

Snape didn't care who was in what group. He told Harry and the others from Hogwarts to spread out and then told the other staff and students to join a Hogwarts student to lead them on a tour. August and Axle went to Harry's group and so did Basia. Nikolas also came over to Harry's group, though he didn't look happy about it, and Harry lead off. He wondered if Hagrid was there during the summer, and lead them to Hagrid's cabin, thinking that they could get lunch after and that if they didn't see the grounds first, they wouldn't have time to later.

"That's the Black Lake," Harry said. "There's a city of mer-people that live at the bottom of it, and a giant squid that likes to sunbathe himself when it's nice out. The Forbidden Forest is over there. We're not allowed to go in without a teacher and even then most students never go inside. There's acromantula's in there and Cenataurs who don't like humans very much."

"Are we going there?" August asked, since Harry was leading them directly towards it.

"No, I want you to meet my friend Hagrid. He teaches Care of Magical Creatures and he's the keeper of the grounds." As they approached the cabin, Fang started barking and came running around the side to greet Harry, covering him in slobber, and Hagrid came out from around back as well.

"'Arry! Yer back!"

The others stared up at Hagrid and seemed impressed by his size, and Harry let Hagrid tell them all about his class and the Thestrals that they sometimes studied. Harry told Hagrid goodbye and they headed towards the castle. Harry pointed out the Quidditch Pitch and the green houses, and Axle was interested to know that they only grew magical plants there and not their own food.

Inside the Entrance Hall Harry pointed out the entrance to the dungeons and the corridor that lead to the Kitchens and to Hufflepuff house and then took them into the Great Hall. They sat at Gryffindor table a little ways away from Hermione's group and Harry talked about the separation of the four houses and how they each had their own common rooms and how they were different from each other.

"Students are allowed to visit the other houses?"

"No," Harry said. "I think it happens sometimes but they discourage it. If you have friends from other houses you're supposed to spend your time together outside of the houses, like in the library or out on the grounds. Sometimes students sit at tables at meal times that aren't their own house table, but they don't like that either even though the teacher's never stop it."

Harry showed them the library and the room of requirement (which impressed them), and then lead them on countless secret passages (Axle and Nikolas were fascinated by this) to Gryffindor tower, where he told the Fat Lady an expired password, but she let him in anyway. He showed them the common room and the dorm he shared with the other sixth year boys and explained that they had the same dorm and bed year after year until they graduated.

As Harry showed them some of the classrooms and introduced them to Professors McGonagall, Flitwick and Sinistra, he also told them about Hogsmead and about Hogsmead weekends. He talked about their grading sytem, how Quidditch games worked with the four houses, about house points and the giant hourglasses in the Great Hall, and about the Tri-Wizard tournament and how he'd had to swim to the bottom of the lake and fight with the Mer-people.

"You won the tournament?" Nikolas asked, and Harry nodded. He was surprised the boy didn't know since he went to Beauxbatons. Maybe they didn't tell other students about it since they didn't win.

"And-" Nikolas hedged. Harry could tell he wanted to ask something else but wasn't sure if he should.

"Yes?" Harry asked as they came out of another secret passage outside of the Hospital Wing.

"After the tournament, you took a portkey and fought He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named in a graveyard?"

"Yes. Cedric Diggory, the champion from Hufflepuff went with me. We didn't know it was a portkey and Cedric died. I barely escaped."

"You were a fourth year?" Nikolas asked and Harry nodded.

Nikolas didn't ask any more questions, but seemed sufficiently impressed. Maybe now he wouldn't think Harry had just skated into Gemini without deserving to be there. He introduced everyone to Madam Pomfrey, and just as Hermione's group with Adeline and Snape came in, she told Harry that she was glad to see him there for a social visit and not a medical one. Harry turned red when he turned and saw that Adeline had heard her proclamation and quickly hurried his group out.

On their way back down to the Entrance Hall (they still had a little time and Harry wanted to show them the Quidditch Pitch), they ran into Dumbledore, who beamed at Harry and shook hands with the four touring the school. He tossled Harry's hair, told Harry to take them down the West corridor on their way back to the Entrance Hall, and then walked away smiling. Harry wasn't sure why he'd been told to take them that way, it was the long way around, but he did as he was told.

Portraits talked to them along the way and when they were halfway down the long West Hall, Axle stopped and said, "Harry. This one's got your name on it!" Harry frowned and turned to see what he was talking about and then realized that they'd been passing by all of the trophy cases where Quidditch trophies and school awards for special service were displayed. Harry went to look. "That's from the Tri-Wizard tournament."

"What about this one?" August asked, pointing to one next to it.

"Er... that was from when I fought the basilisk in the school basement and stopped Voldemort from coming back to life. My friend Ron helped, see, he's got an award next to it."

"There's one in this case," Basia said, and they went to look.

Uncomfortable with all of the sudden attention, Harry turned red and said, "That was in my first year. Ron and Hermione and I stopped Voldemort and Professor Quirril from getting the last Philosopher's stone."

"I don't see one with their names on it," Axle said, and Harry looked around wildly thinking it must be in another case. "It's here somewhere. I wouldn't have gotten far without them."

"The Hermione who went to Gemini this summer?" August asked, and Harry nodded.

"Ron would have come too but he's still saving money to go next summer."

He tried to usher them down the corridor but Nikolas stopped and said, "There's a big one here with your name on it. It says Dumbledore's Army." There's a picture.

"Erm... there was an evil professor here last year whose in jail now.... she wouldn't teach us defense and banned anyone from learning it so Ron and Hermione and I started an illegal student club and I taught everyone who wanted to learn Defense Against The Dark Arts."

"You, taught?" August asked.

Harry turned red again. "Yes, in the room of requirement."

"What did you teach them?" August asked. He seemed interested.

"Patronuses, defensive shields, jinxes and hexes, that sort of thing."

"You taught people how to cast a patronus?"

"Yes."

"There are no students that I know of at Boden that can cast one. It is very advanced magic."

"I learned how in third year to deal with the Dementors. A professor that was friends with my parents taught me. I think about thirty students can cast one now."

"That is impressive," August said.

Harry hurried them down the hallway past the Quidditch trophies as fast as he could, not wanting to tell them about helping to win the Quidditch tournaments for several years, and finally lead them out to the Quidditch Pitch.

"What kind of broom do you have?" Nikolas asked.

Harry sighed and looked unhappy. "I used to have a Firebolt. My Godfather gave it to me. But I had to sell it to get the rest of the tuition for Gemini."

"Who has it now?" Axle asked.

"Draco. When we get back to school I'm going to ask him if I can buy his old Thunderstruck so I can keep playing on the Gryffindor Quidditch team."

"A lot of people at Beauxbatons have Firebolts," Nikolaus said. Harry thought he might have said it just to make conversation, but it didn't make him feel any better. He looked at his watch and lead them back to the place where they would be apparating back to Gemini. No one else was back yet though, and Harry thought it might have been because they were still touring the school.

Axle and Basia stepped away from the group to sit under a shaded tree, and Nikolaus wandered off a little ways to get a better look at the covered bridge that went from the castle over the gulch to the upper grounds. Harry didn't want to intrude on Axle and Basia's private moment, so he stayed with August.

"It seems as though you have done quite a lot here," August said after several uncomfortable silent minutes.

"I guess."

"You must have many friends."

"A few in Gryffindor."

"And Draco Malfoy."

"We just became friends this summer."

"Because he gave you some of his school supplies?"

"Yes. And he stuck up for me."

"And you are friends with my son. What did he give you?"

"His friendship," Harry said, trying not to watch as Axle kissed Basia and she giggled.

"I wish to apologize again for my behavior. I should not have chosen a side without researching the other side of the argument. It is not in my nature to do such a thing or to act in such a way, and I am embarassed by my foolishness."

Harry looked up and met his eyes. He seemed sincere, and here at Hogwarts, on his own ground, he didn't feel afraid of the man, especially not now that he knew he was Axle's father.

"It's ok," Harry said. "I'm frequently told how foolish I am."

"By Professor Snape?" August asked, and Harry flashed him a grin.

"He told me I was foolish for going in after you."

"It was... rash," August agreed. "I would not have allowed my own son to do such a thing. However, I am glad to be alive, and the fact that I am alive because of you only underscores my own foolishness. I will not make the same mistake again. To think that you deserved to be where you were, had in fact earned it and payed for it to the point of giving up all that you had, and I treated you so badly. I am filled with anger at myself."

"What if I hadn't earned it?" Harry asked. "What if everything Professor Snape said was true? Would I still have deserved to be treated like everyone treated me?"

August seemed taken aback by the question. "I-"

Harry gave him a serious look. "Everyone deserves basic kindness and respect, even if they haven't lived up to someone's standards. Someday someone is going to go to Gemini who's parents paid for them to get in even if they don't deserve to be there, and if they're treated badly they'll have no motivation to try to be better than they are. I would hate to see that happen... what happened to me, happen to anyone else. I've lived through it a few times, I wouldn't wish it on anyone, not even once."

"A- a few times?"

"Even people that know me sometimes forget who I am because of what I did when I was a baby. The news will post an article with lies in it, and they all start to hate me, like I've done something wrong when I haven't. Most of the school hated me when a Death Eater put my name in for the Tri-Wizard Tournament, thinking I'd done it to get more fame and glory for myself. No one understands that I don't want fame or glory."

Harry turned away because he could feel his cheeks heating up again. The words that he'd said stung like little bees trying to get at his heart. Yes, it had happened before Gemini, and it had even happened before Hogwarts at the Dursleys.

"What do you want?"

Harry looked back up at him as Nikolaus started to make his way back and as other groups started to come down the path from the castle.

"Basic kindness and respect," Harry said. That was all he'd ever wanted: for someone to just see him as himself and to treat him with kindness and respect. Ron and Hermione and the Weasleys had done that for him, Remus and Sirius had done it, and recently so had Axle, Draco and Gan. People that were willing to be nice to him when others weren't, they were the ones worth being friends with.

August looked like he had a lot on his mind as they portkeyed back to Gemini, and wasn't at dinner that evening. Harry was reserved through dinner and through the bonfire down at the beach that night, the last one they'd have before leaving the Island of Coll for good.