Harry Potter and the Skat-Hatokha Reaction

Chapter 1
The Notebook Paper Rejection

The sun shone through the clouds hazily that muggy mid-June morning. The life in a small, West Country village was just beginning to stir from the night's sleep. It was already warm, even though the true heat of the day had yet to take its effect. Down one particular street, there was one cottage known by everyone. Like all other homes in Godric's Hollow, it was a cosy house of red bricks, some appearing newer than the others. A small lawn surrounded it, the trees full and green and the flowers slightly larger than their spring buds. The memories of this place and what had happened there had held it in silence for many years. This morning, however...

"Ginny, have you seen my tie?"

"On the doorknob, Harry."

At seven in the morning, this had been the typical scene for several months. Downstairs in the kitchen, Ginny Potter would be alternating between cooking breakfast, looking over her notes from last night's Quidditch match, or taking care of one of a million other things she had to do in and around the house, including her young son, James. Harry, on the other hand, would be upstairs, getting a late start as usual.

Becoming more and more panicked every minute, he glanced at his watch and fumbled on the bathroom counter between the toothbrush and the comb, taking minimum glances in the mirror. At twenty-four, his hair still stuck up all over the place, something he now felt he would never outgrow.

When Harry and Ginny had first moved into his parents' old house, a lot of people questioned the wisdom of it. It had been left in disrepair as a type of monument to James and Lily for so many years. Some even called it disrespectful of Harry and his young family to live there. But whenever Harry heard this, he would just smile and explain that Voldemort had already taken too much from him in his life, and that it was high time he started taking back what was rightfully his.

Besides, once all the repairs had been finished, it really was a wonderful place to live. The house was snug, certainly a lot cheerier than Number Twelve Grimmauld Place.

"Morning, Ginny," Harry half-shouted as he scrambled down the polished wooden stairs. "I'm late, no time for breakfast!"

"Sit!" she ordered before he could pass by the kitchen, pointing at him with the spatula. "You haven't been home for more than five hours this week. Sit down and have breakfast with your wife and son."

As much of a hurry as Harry was in, he still found he could never say no to his wife. She had given him a beautiful son, and stood by him through a war and seven years of his stupidity.

With a show of fake reluctance, Harry sauntered into the warm kitchen and through to the dining room. The air was thick with the smell of both breakfast and dish soap. Harry removed his wand from his back pocket and took a comfortable seat at the far end of the oak table, allowing himself a few moments' peace allotted him for the rest of the day.

"I have an article I need to finish by the end of the day," Ginny told Harry as she piled the plate in front of him with fried eggs, "so I'll be dropping James off at Luna's...Don't make that face, Harry!"

"Well, what if she leaves him in the garden so he can play with the gnomes, and they carry him off?"

"That only happened once, Harry!"

"Three times," Harry muttered under his breath.

"And don't forget, Andromeda is dropping Teddy off here for dinner tonight. She'll be back to pick him up around nine."

"I won't," Harry assured her, taking one last bite of food to satisfy her. "Great breakfast, sweetie."

Harry was about to make another run for the front door, having to also double back for his wand when he remembered he had almost forgotten something even more important. In a blue highchair, set not far from where Ginny could keep an eye on him, was another of the most important people in his new life, right along with Ginny. James looked back up at him with his bright brown eyes, as though he also knew his father had forgotten something.

"See you, James," Harry said, kneeling down to eye level with his fifteen month old son. "Can you say 'bye-bye'?"

"Bye, Da-ddy," James smiled, shoving a fistful of cereal into his mouth.

Harry smiled and ruffled the mop of jet black hair on top of his son's head, almost tempted to forget about work entirely and spend the entire day playing horsie and peek-a-boo. One more glace at his watch, however, made him speed off like an rampaging hippogryff. Harry skid down the hallway, slidded past a cupboard under the staircase that, along with Ginny's help, Harry had boarded up almost as soon as they moved in, nearly running headlong into the front door before opening it and sprinting out.

***********

"Harry...HARRY!"

"Sorry, Ron. What is it?"

"What do you think is wrong with Hermione?" Ron repeated once again in a very frustrated tone.

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know! One minute she's going on and on about how happy she is that I'm finally an Auror, then she's yelling at me, saying I never come home anymore, and then she starts crying and saying she's a terrible wife."

"That's odd. But this career change is a pretty big transition, Ron," suggested Harry. "You've got to give her time to get used to it."

Walking through the Ministry of Magic on such a busy morning, Harry was surprised the two of them could even keep up a conversation, what with people whooshing in and out of the Floo, office doors opening and closing, lifts clanging, the Minister of Magic's latest speech being broadcast and nearly a thousand voices buzzing all around them. The entire Ministry was like one giant hive. Harry also wondered how he had ever been able to get used to it.

"How about tonight you bring her home some flowers and take her out to dinner so she doesn't have to cook?" Harry offered, feeling himself that this was pretty useless advice. "Maybe you just need to spend some time together to talk about things."

"They honestly don't expect us to swallow this-" shouted a cold voice coming from in front of them.

"Mr. Malfoy, please calm down!"

Harry and Ron instantly stopped in their tracks. Standing in front of them were two familiar people, one of whom they had come to simultaneously respect and fear in their years at Hogwarts: Minerva McGonagall. And she was arguing with none other than the infamous Lucius Malfoy.

Seven years after the fall of Voldemort, the Malfoys were free, but struggling to refurbish their family name, especially Lucius. With the family's money gone and their influence along with it, Harry knew there was no danger of Lucius Malfoy ever having power over anything every again.

But today, the normally calm and collected Lucius Malfoy was standing in the middle of the floor at the Ministry of Magic, red in the face and screaming his lungs out.

"You are the headmistress of one of the finest schools of witchcraft and wizardry in the world! Don't tell me that for one minute you actually see nothing wrong with this!"

Lucius waved a very battered and worn piece of notebook paper in front of Professor McGonagall.

"Why would I?"

"BECAUSE THEY'RE CRIMINALS!"

"Juvenile offenders, Mr. Malfoy." Professor McGonagall corrected, with a raised eyebrow at Lucius' last remark.

Criminals at Hogwarts? Now Harry had to know what was going on.

"Mr. Malfoy, I am not required to come to you with every letter of refusal I get. The System's act simply stated that these children have to actively pursue some form of education. It doesn't have to be Hogwarts. We have already received several letters of intent for other schools-"

"YES!" shouted Lucius, as though Professor McGonagall were as dense as a lead wall. "For Durmstrang, Beauxbatons, schools people have actually heard of! BUT WHAT FOR MERLIN'S SAKE IS THE SKAT-HATOKHA ACADEMY OF MAGIC?"

"I assume it is a school," Professor McGonagall explained frigidly. "You can tell because it has the word 'academy' in it."

Lucius Malfoy was rendered speechless for a moment, trying to recover from this latest insult to his intelligence.

"Professor McGonagall, that country has no history of even trying to keep a rein of control on-"

"Well, maybe they are trying to remedy that situation," Professor McGonagall interrupted, clearly becoming annoyed with the whole conversation. "Have you considered that, Mr. Malfoy?"

But Lucius Malfoy was refusing to let this argument go.

"If this school even is credible, how do we know the student who sent this letter has even been accepted there?"

Professor McGonagall answered this latest challenge by pulling several different parchments out of her robes and handing them to Mr. Malfoy.

"Delivered to my office this morning." she showed them to him. "Letters from the board of directors, a pamphlet containing information on the school and its courses of study; they even sent me a very nice coffee mug that I have sitting on my desk right now. I would say everything is in order, wouldn't you, Mr. Malfoy?

"And as you have mentioned before, Mr. Malfoy, I am the headmistress of one of the finest schools of witchcraft and wizardry in the world. So by the power vested in me," she annonced in a somewhat sarcastic tone, "I hereby declare this matter closed. Good day!"

Lucius Malfoy turned around in a huff and stormed past Harry and Ron.

"Good morning, Lucius," smirked Ron, incapable of suppressing a laugh.

"Shouldn't you be at work?" he snapped.

"Shouldn't you be in Azkaban?" retorted Harry.

Either Lucius Malfoy didn't hear him or simply didn't care, because he continued on his way, stomping against the dark stone floor. Professor McGonagall, on the other hand, stayed where she was, looking completely exhausted from the conversation.

"Professor McGonagall..." Harry softly tried to get her attention.

"Oh, Harry!" gasped Professor McGonagall, jumping slightly as she spun around. "I didn't even see you there. And Ron too, how are you both doing? And how are Ginny and Hermione?"

"Very well, thank you," Harry answered. "Professor McGonagall, if you don't mind me asking, what was that all about?"

Oh, it was nothing, really," Professor McGonagall assured him. "Mr. Malfoy was simply throwing a temper tantrum over a certain aspect of the System's Education Compensation Act that he doesn't happen to agree with."

"Excuse me, Professor," Harry interjected. "The what?"

"I'm sorry," Professor McGonagall apologized. "The System...well, think of it as a sort of International Wizarding Education Organization. They oversee various aspects and enforcements in international education. Hogwarts, luckily enough, as been able to avoid much of the scrutiny that the System is capable of handing out."

A proud, somewhat triumphant smile crossed Professor McGonagall's face as she paused for a moment.

"But meanwhile, the System has set their sights on the American Ministry of Magic and their current problems. And the Education Compensation Act is a law that the System recently passed in the United States giving 'certain' young people in that country the opportunity to attend schools such as Hogwarts. Mr. Malfoy has been very involved in this movement. I suppose in his twisted mind, it's some sort of good deed."

"Why don't they just go to schools in their own country?" Harry asked.

"Is there even a school in America?" asked Ron.

"There has to be, Ron," Harry said. "Don't you remember at the Quidditch World Cup when we saw those witches from the Salem Witches' Institute?"

"I remember veelas..." Ron replied, sounding slightly guilty.

"Well, there is a problem with that, Mr. Potter," Professor McGonagall told him. "It's true, there are many fine educational facilities in the United States: the Salem Witches Institute, the Bell Academy of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the Hardscrabble Creek School of Magical Arts, the Kailani Shamanic Institute, but it is not these schools that are causing concern for the System."

"Well, what is it?" Harry asked, feeling as though he were going deeper than he truly wanted to go.

"Well, as you may already know, all young wizarding children are kept a very close eye on in the United States. When they are of age eleven, they are invited to attend the school they reside closest to. But also, just like in Britain, children are not forced to attend these schools. Some wizarding children are taught at home, some students have families with connections overseas and are sent to school..., they have many options as far as their wizarding education goes. But it is the students that the System feels are in most need of supervision that are causing the concern. Students who have records that prove they are irresponsible with their magic."

"Criminal records?" Ron gulped.

"Some, yes," "Others are just labeled as 'people of interest', which can mean anything the American Ministy wants it to. Now, thanks to these new regulations, every little delinquent in the United States will become the problems of every school in Europe as well. Places of long histories and strong curriculums providing just the kind of stable environment the students need in order to reform and succeed."

It was becoming clear by the tone of Professor McGonagall's voice that she herself was not fan of these new regulations.

"But what was Mr. Malfoy so mad about?" asked Harry. "If he's been involved from the beginning and this Act is becoming a reality, isn't he getting exactly what he wants?"

"Well, a couple of weeks ago, Hogwarts recieved a letter sent to me personally before a professor could be sent as a liaison. I personally do not even know how Mr. Malfoy found out about it," she told him, showing him the crumpled piece of notebook paper from before. "It's a letter of intent to attend a school other than Hogwarts. The only problem is no one seems to have heard of the school.

"Another cause for concern is that this school has only invited the students under the juristiction of the Education Compensation Act, in other words, the young wizards records.."

Harry took the letter and held it up so Ron could read it too.

Dear Professor McGonagall,

I received your letter of invitation, and first of all, I would like to thank you for inviting me to your prestigious school of wizardry. I am honored that despite my somewhat questionable record you would still consider me as a student.

However, I regret to inform you that I will not be joining you this fall. I am however, aware of the new standards imposed by both the System and the Ministry of Magic in regards to students in my particular situation. That is why I am hereby sending my letter of intent to attend the Skat-Hatokha Academy of Magic. Please refer any further questions on the subject of my future education to the board of directors: Mark Dewey, Patrick Cheatham, and Joseph Howe.

Below, written in completely different handwriting, a name was signed.

Nathaniel Jacob Rivers

"Look, it spells SHAM," remarked Ron, amused, "S-H-A-M."

"Where is this Skat...place?" asked Harry. He had never heard of it either.

"I don't know, and quite frankly, Mr. Potter, I don't care!" Professor McGonagall huffed. "These new regulations have professors flying all over creation, and most of us are not greeted with the warmest of welcomes. Professor Flitwick went to go speak with parents of a wizard in Texas, and was shot at three times!"

"Is all this legitimate?" asked Harry. "I mean, we don't even enforce compulsory school for wizarding children in Britain. Can this System really enforce this kind of act?"

"Criminals, Mr. Potter," Professor McGonagall emphasized. "Children who have been in trouble with the law before they are even old enough to drink. For the most part, it's going to be an entire class of Potters!"

Harry could feel his face turn the slightest hint of red with that last remark.

"All this letter means to me," she continued, turning on her heels to walk away as she did, "is that young Mr. Rivers is no longer my concern."

And with that, Professor McGonagall left Harry and Ron to finish their day, allowing them the belief that the matter was closed. But even as he and Ron continued on their way, Harry could not stop mulling the conversation over in his head. No matter how hard he tried, however, he could not shake it. It wasn't as though matters of international education would intersect with his career as an Auror, so these thoughts should have been as far as they could be from his mind. Emphasis on 'should have'.