Chapter - 74 : The Legacy of Hogwarts

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"You've only been a part of our world for a very short while," Susan added gently. "And even then all you've seen is Hogwarts - and Diagon Alley as well I suppose. It's hardly surprising that there's a lot you don't know."

Hermione flushed under their combined rebukes and fell silent, but Harry got the impression that she was still convinced she was in the right.

"S-she does have a point about the muggle accidents though," Neville spoke up hesitantly. "I mean, Harry Potter was killed in a car crash, wasn't he?"

"Oh yes! We should certainly put that down," Ernie said. "Good show, Neville!"

"Everyone else is sure to also mention the Boy Who Lived though. He was famous after all. Maybe we should use something less obvious?" Nott twiddled his quill thoughtfully.

Harry felt decidedly odd hearing his counterpart's death spoken about as an answer to an essay question, but was relieved that his treatment at the hands of the Dursleys wasn't being dragged into the discussion. The Dursleys hadn't abused him exactly, but they'd still done their best to make him miserable and he'd always been very aware that he wasn't considered a part of their family. 'Harm' encompassed both mental and physical injury after all. He supposed the Wizarding World must never have found out about the cupboard under the stairs and Dudley's game of Harry Hunting.

"It's strange to think that he would've been in our year," Susan mused. "I wonder what he would've been like?"

"Who cares," Nott said. "I just still can't believe Harry Potter lived with a bunch of muggles. Another one of Dumbledore's bright ideas - no wonder there are all those Daily Prophet articles questioning his sanity."

Ernie puffed up his chest importantly. "Really it just goes to show that muggles have no business raising wizard children in the first place."

Hermione immediately rounded on him. "What! How can you say that?"

"Easily, Granger," Nott said as he lounged in his chair with one arm slung over the backrest. "If the children aren't being abused or belittled by their families, then they're dying in car accidents or from filthy muggle diseases."

"Children belong with their parents! Wizards have no right to simply swoop in and steal them away!" Hermione was incensed. "Orion! Surely you don't agree with them?"

Harry hesitated. He thought of his own childhood, and Snape's abuse at the hands of his muggle father, and how Tom Riddle grew up in an orphanage.

"Well, I don't think muggleborns should be taken from their families unless there's clear evidence they're being abused," Harry said at last. "As you said, they belong with their parents and I don't think they'd necessarily be any better off here in our world, what with the general disdain for muggleborns and all that. When it comes to magical orphans though… their muggle guardians wouldn't have blood-ties or parental affection to stop them from lashing out when confronted by accidental magic."

Ernie nodded approvingly. "Well said!"

"Not that there are that many magical orphans - I mean ones without any extended family in the Wizarding World, seeing as so many purebloods are interrelated." Susan put in. "Harry Potter was a special case, what with Dumbledore involving himself and, er, well, Sirius Black in Azkaban... Sorry Orion, I don't want to bring up any unpleasant memories for you."

Harry smiled at the Hufflepuff girl, who was clearly worried she'd upset her new friend. He wondered what she'd think if she knew he was actually Harry Potter. "Don't worry about it."

Hermione did not look any less angry. "Even if - on the very off chance - a child was being abused, it could be dealt with by the proper muggle authorities! I don't see why the Ministry of Magic or any other wizards should have to get involved."

"Look, think of it this way," Harry tried to put his views into logical terms that she might accept. "The muggle world is basically a foreign country. It's got its own laws, its own government. Sending a magical child to be raised by muggles while surrounded by a completely different culture doesn't make any sense."

Hermione dismissed his argument with an impatient gesture. "The muggle and wizarding worlds aren't that different - they're both British. Wizards just have to move with the times, that's all."

Her pureblood classmates were vocal in their outrage at this statement; even Neville looked angry.

"Where do you get off telling us to -"

"It's muggles who're the ones who need to change -"

"I say, Granger, that's frightfully unfair -"

The argument continued and only rose in intensity, with Hermione refusing to back down and the wizard-raised students all angry at her unwillingness to listen. Harry tried to interject, to calm things down, but that only lead to Hermione storming off, saying he was "just like all the other Purebloods!"

"Good riddance," Ernie said once she'd gathered up her school things and left. "She might be academically intelligent, but really! Going on about 'human rights' when everyone knows merpeople and centaurs and that lot get awfully offended at the mere idea of being considered human. Next she'll be saying that House-Elves should be allowed to vote! And really, what do we need all that muggle technology nonsense for when we've got magic?""

"It's only her first real week in the Wizarding World," Harry said. "She's probably just feeling uncertain and so clinging on to what she knows."

Nott wasn't prepared to accept such an excuse. "That's no reason for her to insult us. She dismissed centuries of wizarding achievement and development just because it doesn't match her notions of so-called muggle progress."

"She w-was rather rude," Neville said.

Harry could see he wouldn't be able to convince any of them and frankly wasn't sure if he really wanted to try. He'd been behaving as a pureblood - learning their history and culture and traditions - for long enough now that he found himself agreeing with their views more than he sympathised with Hermione's. Of course, he could hardly forget his own heritage and that his mother was a muggleborn witch, but unlike Hermione he realised that most muggle ideas and values just weren't applicable in the Wizarding World. Magic brought with it it's own unique set of challenges. He hoped Hermione would soon come to accept that the only thing her strident defence of muggles was going to achieve was her total alienation from her wizard-raised classmates.

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