A World Divided

Chapter Two - The Dueling Club

Monday, September 2, 2002

"Audrey! Audrey! You're never going to believe what happened to me!" said Genna to Audrey, who had just joined her in a train compartment.

Genna hadn't seen her best friend all summer. While Genna had spent most of her time working with her father at the store in Hidden Alley, Audrey had spent the summer at her aunt's summer house in Gaspésie. Ever since they had met, it was the first time they had spent such a long time apart.

"What?" asked Audrey.

"I'm Quidditch Captain!"

"No way!"

"Way!"

"Wow!"

"Isn't that unbelievable? Who would have thought I would end up Quidditch Captain?"

"About everybody in our House," answered Audrey, rolling her eyes.

Genna had joined the Quidditch team in her second year at St. Leandre. When she had shown up at tryouts with an old school broom in one hand and her crutch in the other one, everybody had laughed at her. 'How can this crippled girl be any good?' they had wondered. However, as soon as she had sat on her broom and chased the golden snitch, nobody had laughed anymore. She had been by far the best Seeker the Fire House had ever had.

Her father had been so proud of her that he had bought her a Firebolt as a birthday present. Ever since, she had been the dread of all the other teams and she was yet to lose the snitch to an opposing Seeker. Some even spread rumours that she may be as good as Viktor Krum, but somehow Genna highly doubted it. Viktor Krum was world renowned after all... and she was only the Fire House Seeker.

"Stop selling yourself so short, Genna," said Audrey. "You are that good! The Headmaster would have been completely out of his mind if he hadn't given you the captaincy. You more than deserve it."

Genna grinned at her friend.

They were on their way to a sixth year which was rather promising to Genna. She had Quidditch and her study would take a turn for the most interesting. Sixth year was when wizards began to specialize and Genna had decided to remain at St. Leandre instead of transferring to a Muggle college or further her study in another wizarding school outside of the province, like a lot of other students at St.Leandre did.

The province's Muggle schooling system was set in a way that after five years of secondary school, students would go to college for two years and then move on to the University. Students could also remain in college for three years and get a technical degree. Wizarding students who wished to pursue certain career paths were encouraged to pursue a Muggle education. It was the case for instance for wizards who wanted to pursue law. The Canadian wizarding community strongly believed that in order to be effective in most wizarding professional positions, especially within the Ministry, wizards needed to learn the same basics as Muggles. Besides, one of Canada's most prestigious university, University McGill located in Montreal, was founded by one of the most illustrious Canadian wizards of all time.

If a student chose to attend a Muggle school, the St. Leandre diploma was converted to the equivalent of a Muggle secondary school diploma from a private school. To this date, no Muggles had ever had any reasons to doubt St. Leandre Secondary School Diploma was anything but legitimate.

Some other fifth-year students also decided to return to their province or state of origin and study further magic there in apprenticeship or at other school of magic.