Let's Try Again

Chapter 20 : Third Year (Part 1)

Peverell Manor - June 30, 2003

Hadrian was sitting by the pool, watching his sisters swim as he slowly read a book. He wanted to be prepared for the electives that he had decided to take. What was worrying him was the number of new classes he would be taking.

Students were required to take a minimum of 2 electives, but Hadrian had already decided that he was going to take 9 of the 14 electives. Although he would be self studying a few of them.

Thankfully, he wouldn't have to do all the assignments for the classes he chose to self study. Because they were electives, and not required courses, he could just make a formal request to take the exam at the end of the year. The grade he got on the exam would be the grade he got in the class. The only reason he had had to do all the assignments when he had been studying DADA the year before was because it was a core class.

They had been given an electives sign up sheet before leaving school at the end of the last year. He had signed up to take alchemy, care of magical creatures, arithmancy, ancient runes and phys-ed. He would be self studying magical theory, magical law, comparative religion, and politics. The only classes that he wouldn't be taking were muggle studies, wizard studies, divination, language, and english.

While magical theory, and muggle and wizarding studies were all required for first and second year, they became electives during third year and up. The muggle and wizarding studies class also separated and became two different classes allowing for a more in-depth look at each of the different cultures, rather than the basic overview that the students got during the first two years.

Hadrian already knew a lot about runes. He had spent years studying them as a way to calm his magic as a child, but he wanted to take the class anyway. Although the first half of the year would be dedicated to learning different runic languages, the second half would start on the practical applications, and that was something that he hadn't had the chance to learn. Or, that was what the course description said anyway.

Now he was second guessing himself. He was worried that he had overestimated his own capabilities and that he would fail. When his papa had noticed how worried he had been, he had sat him down to talk. After he told his papa and dad what was worrying him, they had encouraged him and had also reminded him that if it was too much he could always just drop the class or switch to self study. That had eased his nerves slightly, but he still wanted to try his best.

The constant studying also gave him an excuse to avoid certain people. It had only been two days since the end of term, but he was already getting multiple letters per day from the bad Weasleys. Molly had even sent his parents and uncles a howler, demanding that they send him to The Burrow for the summer.

Both Ron and Ginny had also already sent him multiple letters each. All of them encouraging him to tell Remus and Sirius that he wanted to spend the summer at The Burrow. Ron went on and on about how they could play quidditch together, while Ginny was going on about how they could have so much fun with each other.

There was no way Hadrian was going to go there. He remembered just how jealous Ron got whenever he had anything that he didn't. And Ginny, well, there was no way he wanted to spend anytime alone anywhere near that girl. The good thing was that she was still in her shy phase, so he had been able to avoid her for the most part.

Ministry of Magic

Percy slowly made his way through the halls of the ministry, heading towards Gerald Greengrass's office. He had gotten a letter the day before requesting a meeting. Percy was a little confused by that. It had taken a lot of work the summer before, but he had sorted through almost all the outstanding paperwork. It shouldn't have taken more than a few hours a week for a few months to finish off what was left.