Harry Potter and the Ghosts of Hogwarts

Chapter 1

Summer Learning

When Harry came "home" for the summer holidays, he was looking forward to the break from school and study. He wouldn't have to start his summer homework for a while and he felt that he needed that break to sort out the jumble of problems that clouded his mind. Unfortunately, Uncle Vernon had another idea. While he was at school his relatives had been plotting. They were set to making Harry's life miserable.

At the term when Dudley's teachers sent home a grade report, the Dursley's had received some unfortunate news. The Dudley's marks were so poor and he bullied others so often that Smeltings threatened to expel him. They said that to come to their academy again he would have to take summer classes in all subjects. This had not blown over well with Aunt Petunia. She fell into a state of self-denial. She insisted to Vernon that he was just a slow learner and he needed extra help, but since summer school would be extra help so she finally agreed to send him there.

If the matter had ended there Harry would have been fine. It would in fact have been a better summer for the lack of Dudley around the house. But Uncle Vernon found a way to make Harry just as miserable as his dull son. He read an article in the newspaper explaining about how many children were staying to live with their parents for years after finishing school. It even gave warning signs: trouble in school, bad grades, lack of skills, lazy temperament... the list went on. Uncle Vernon saw this and decided that these fit Harry, ignoring the fact that Dudley fit more than Harry did.

So on the first morning after Harry came home from Hogwarts, Aunt Petunia woke him up by forcefully shaking him out of sleep.

"Wake up lazy bones!" She said in her shrill voice. "You have to be ready in ten minutes to go to school or you'll go in your towel."

"School?" Harry said sleepily still coming out of his deep sleep. "I just finished school."

"TEN MINUTES!" Aunt Petunia repeated emphatically, "I won't have you making Vernon late for work!"

Harry pulled himself out of bed, still not understanding why he had been woken. Aunt Petunia continued to fuss at him until he shut the bathroom door in her face.

"Oh, make the ringing stop." He thought grumpily.

He took a two-minute shower because Dudley had already taken all of the hot water, and he tumbled down stairs holding his rucksack parchment and quills. His bag was filled with the books needed for his first classes on Monday and he was unalterably confused.

Aunt Petunia handed him a piece of stale toast and looked at him angrily. "Fix your hair, what will people think?"

Uncle Vernon looked over the top of The Guardian to see Harry. "I won't have you making trouble at school boy. No funny business or I'll lock you in the cupboard for the rest of the summer."

"What school?" Harry said still not knowing what he was getting at.

"You," Uncle Vernon said with great satisfaction, "Will be taking summer classes with Dudley."

"Why?"

"To learn of course, are you dull?"

Harry felt sure that this had to be a nightmare; his summer could not have ended so quickly, only one night had gone by and it was already over.

"Don't think that you taking classes is going to get you out of chores either." Aunt Petunia said, smiling evilly. "You get home at four and if you do not finish your chores you won't get dinner. Our garden is in such disarray that even Mrs. Figg's garden is more appealing with all of its little weeds she calls herbs."

Aunt Petunia went on about Mrs. Figg's odd ways and sent Harry threatening looks whenever she could. She handed Dudley toast with raspberry jam on it and gave him a half of a grapefruit. The nurse still had him on the diet though Aunt Petunia was more lenient this summer than last. From all of the dieting Dudley had lost a grand total of seven pounds. Aunt Petunia was so happy that she bought him ten new computer games and a new computer so that he could play two at once if his slow mind could learn to work that quickly.

Uncle Vernon finished the story he was reading and got up to leave. Dudley had already crammed all of his food down his mouth and was eying Harry's untouched toast hungrily. Harry realized this and though the bread looked extremely unappetizing he felt spiteful toward Dudley for making him have to go to summer school, so he took the piece and ate it without chewing so as not to get the old taste of the bread.

As they walked toward the door Vernon noticed Harry's rucksack.

"What is this boy?" He said suspiciously, pulling a quill from the outer pocket.

"My quill to write with." Harry said.

Uncle Vernon noticed the weight of Harry's bag and grabbed it, finding all sorts of magical supplies within.

"What were you planning to do with all of this?!" He pulled Harry's bag toward the cupboard and Harry along with it.

"Sorry, it was a mistake." Harry said defensively as he was tugged down the hallway.

"You won't be using this sort of thing this summer." He was pulling out the all too familiar key to the lock on the cupboard door.

"Unhand my school things." Harry demanded, digging his heels into the carpet. "If you don't I will write my godfather!"

This threat was taken very seriously. Uncle Vernon halted and turned, bearing over Harry angrily. He did not like getting ordered around by his nephew.

"Fine." He said unhappily, "but these things don't leave your room until you go with them."

Harry took his bag back upstairs and then he came back down and left. The summer classes were at a small school near Grunnings where Uncle Vernon worked. When he came back downstairs he discovered that Aunt Petunia had found his old school bag that had formerly been Dudley's. It had gone out of style because it was blue instead of green and thus Harry was given it. Of all the things that were handed down to Harry over the years the backpack had been one of the best-kept items. Dudley had never been much into school and he would constantly forget to bring his books or even his whole backpack so Harry didn't mind using it even though he preferred his rucksack to anything else. Inside he found chewed on pencils and a stack of recycled paper.

Sitting in the first class that morning he noticed that Piers Polkiss was also taking summer school. Harry gave him a sly smile when he looked up and saw him. When Dudley noticed Harry and Piers he shrunk in fear. Piers walked over to Harry in the cocky manner that he had always possessed in his younger days, grinding his fist into his palm in a menacing manner.

"So we meet again, ready for a fun summer? It will be just like primary school, right Dudley?"

He then turned to look for the big mean leader of their gang, but Dudley had shuffled over to the far corner and was trying to seem busy. Piers did not yet understand that things had changed since they last saw each other.

"I beg to differ, Piers," Harry said with a hint of danger in his voice, "Plenty has changed since primary school, just ask Dudley."

This confused Piers. The leader of his gang was cowering in fear to the cousin who he formerly beat up. Lucky for Dudley the teacher came in and everyone started finding a seat. Harry took a chair in the middle wanting to not seem rebellious, but not be a teacher's pet at the same time. Dudley and Piers sat in the back.

Harry looked around the classroom to see what kind of people were there. The ones in the front were the smart kids who had gotten sick during the school year and had didn't want to get held back a year because they had mononucleosis. The ones in the back were those that didn't do their work and are only there because they were too lazy during the school year. The ones in the middle were a mystery. They could have been sick, they could have had family problems, or like Harry, mean guardians could have forced them into it. Anyway that you looked at it Harry was sitting with the kids that would interest him the most.

A boy sat down next to him and stared blankly at the teacher. He seemed as bored as Harry was. The teacher was talking about how they had to behave in the class or he would fail them. Harry decided that he couldn't go all summer without making a friend, so Harry said in a low voice, "What are you in for?"

The boy looked over at him and gave a wry smile.

"Just moved to England and my mom wanted me to be caught up in the m- British history. You?"

"Just taking extra classes, my Uncle thinks that I need to learn more so that I won't mooch off of him for the rest of my life." Harry was glad that this kid hadn't blown him off. "What's your name?"

"Thaddeus Rankle, but my friends call me Tad. You?"

"Call me Harry." Just them the teacher rapped his ruler on the desk and called for silence, pointing straight at Harry and Tad.

"We are now going to take a competency test to see where all of you should be placed. Take this test seriously or you'll end up with the kindergarteners."

The tests were handed out and they all were silent. Harry could hear Dudley chewing on his pencils in the back of the class.

The questions were hard. It had been four years since Harry had taken muggle courses and much of it had been lost or warped by the magical perspective. The first question was: "What started World War I?"

Harry had no clue as to what the answer was so he took his best guess from the multiple choices. He got all of the math section and he did well on the science because it wasn't too far off from potions at Hogwarts. Everyone was given three hours to take the test and the next day they would be given their schedule according to their needs.

After school Aunt Petunia was picking them up because Uncle Vernon had to work the rest of the afternoon. Dudley was standing next to Piers waiting for her to come while Harry was with Tad talking in the corner.

"Do you want to come over some time so I can show you some really cool tricks?" Tad asked.

"That sounds fun, but I would have to ask my aunt and uncle if I can get out on probation." Harry said in only the lightest of tones, he couldn't let Tad know that he had really been barred inside of his bedroom before.

Aunt Petunia pulled up and Dudley waddled over to the car as quickly as possible. It seem like he wanted to get out of there before something terrible happened. Aunt Petunia blasted her horn and Harry said goodbye to Tad walking in a slow manner as though he hadn't a care in the world.

* * *

Harry had a lot of work to do. Even though it was vacation he had housework, summer homework, and summer school work to do each night. The test had shown that he was far behind in history and math so he was given the classes that taught several years worth of information at once. This meant that he had three hours of summer school homework to do each night. The lucky thing was that Tad was in the classes with him, so Harry wasn't alone. The unlucky turn of events was that Dudley was in the classes as well.

For the first couple of nights Aunt Petunia had tried to help Dudley with his homework but she wasn't much of a student herself and she didn't know what to do. Uncle Vernon was too busy with work to give Dudley the extensive help he needed so it fell to Harry to make sure Dudley understood the information. This made the homework take an hour longer because Harry had to constantly stop and help his dunce of a cousin. He would get up to his bed at nine at night and he would still have to do his summer work from Hogwarts.

Tad was becoming more and more of a close friend. Harry had never had a good muggle friend in his life and he liked Tad far more than he had expected, they only talked about light inconsequential topics and these sorts of things kept Harry's mind off of the complicated situation that he left behind when he left for Privet Drive. Harry had thought the summer would be a good time to think over what happened the year before, but he found that it was a great time to forget all the problems that he would return to in September.

Tad was also constantly asking to visit Harry's home. He didn't know that anyone who liked Harry would be unwelcome in the Dursley household.

They were sitting in the classroom and Tad asked him one of his usual questions (for some reason Tad was always questioning Harry).

"So how are you related to Dudley? Is he your brother?"

Harry almost felt insulted that Tad would think Dudley was so closely related to him. "No, Dudley is just my cousin."

"Then why do you go home with him everyday, why doesn't your mother pick you up sometimes?" Tad usually asked about more generic topics.

"My parents died when I was a year old, so I live with my relatives." This topic made Harry feel nervous. He didn't want to lie to Tad, but if he asked how his parents died

Harry couldn't tell him the truth.

"Do you have any siblings?" Harry asked hoping to divert Tad's attention away from the fact that he had no parents.

"Yeah, I have a sister. Well actually she's my twin."

"Really? Why isn't she here at summer school?"

"Just because we're twins doesn't mean that we're connected at the hip," Tad said indignantly. "She said she had better things to do than sit in extra classes, but my mother got her all of the text books that we'll need next year and she has to do assignments from them. If you ever come over to my house you'll get to meet her, but be forewarned- she can be a real snot."

"What's her name?"

"Victoria Theresa, but she goes by Tori."

The strict professor was eying them once again so they stopped their conversation before Tad could ask any more questions.

After class Harry stopped in the bathroom before going to wait for Aunt Petunia. When he came out he found that she and Dudley were waiting for him like usual, but the unusual thing was that Tad was over by the car talking to them.

Harry marched over to the car to find out what was going on. Tad saw him, said good-bye and as he passed Harry said under his breath, "See you on Saturday."

Tad winked and walked off toward his own mother who was waiting for him.

Inside the van Harry found out what they were talking about. Tad had struck up a conversation with Aunt Petunia when Harry wasn't there. He had asked if it was okay if he came over that Saturday to study with Dudley. Dudley had been to afraid to say anything, so Tad was coming over on Saturday and for the first time in Harry's life he was going to have a visitor.

1