Chapter Text
"“HARRY POTTER!”
His heart sank faster than he’d just dived. Professor McGonagall was running toward them. He
got to his feet, trembling.
“Never — in all my time at Hogwarts —”
Professor McGonagall was almost speechless with shock, and her glasses flashed furiously, “—
how dare you — might have broken your neck —”
“It wasn’t his fault, Professor —”
“Be quiet, Miss Patil —”
“But Malfoy —”
“That’s enough, Mr. Weasley. Potter, follow me, now.”
Harry caught sight of Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle’s triumphant faces as he left, walking numbly
in Professor McGonagall’s wake as she strode toward the castle. He was going to be expelled, he just knew it. He wanted to say something to defend himself, but there seemed to be something wrong with his voice. Professor McGonagall was sweeping along without even looking at him;he had to jog to keep up. Now he’d done it. He hadn’t even lasted two weeks. He’d be packing his bags in ten minutes. What would the Dursleys say when he turned up on the doorstep? Up the front steps, up the marble staircase inside, and still Professor McGonagall didn’t say a word to him. She wrenched open doors and marched along corridors with Harry trotting miserably behind her. Maybe she was taking him to Dumbledore. He thought of Hagrid, expelled but allowed to stay on as gamekeeper. Perhaps he could be Hagrid’s assistant. His stomach twisted as he imagined it, watching Ron and the others becoming wizards, while he stumped around the grounds carrying Hagrid’s bag" -PSHP
Harry followed Ms McGonagall up stairs and through unfamiliar halls and eventually to a Gargoyle, his stomach in knots as he thought of all the things she might do now that she’s caught him flying, not even just flying, doing a dangerous dive to catch Neville's remembrall.
“Candy shrimp” she snapped at it somehow making the sweet’s name sound like a stern reprimand.
The gargoyle stepped aside letting the professor through, She strode up the stairs only glancing back once to make sure Harry followed. He did, skirting the gargoyle with wide eyes.
Harry was led into an office with swirling gizmos, a large desk, many portraits that watched him enter silently, and an empty birdcage. Oh, and the Headmaster sat in a spinny chair, eyes a-twinkle, and a curious grandfatherly smile.
“Hello Minerva and Harry, my boy,” He greeted kindly, “Not that I don't enjoy your presence and meeting my students, but I feel there must be something unpleasant afoot to see you both so soon into the term.”
Harry tensed as McGonagall said “Indeed not. I spotted Mr Potter trying to break his neck in a foolish dive without teacher supervision to boot!”
Harry butted in then, “It was Malfoy, he was trying to break Neville's remembrall! I was just catching it.”
“Ah, I'll handle this then Minerva, Thank you for bringing this to me.” Dumbledore dismissed the professor and she left with a sniff.
Dumbledore hummed, “I see, now why were you unwatched? Madam Hootch is still the teacher of flying classes unless I’ve started to go senile.”
Harry explained how Neville had gotten injured and shifted on his feet as the headmaster just nodded to himself.
“I will have to talk to her about better supervising her charges in the future… Now my Boy, unfortunately, you directly defied a teacher's orders.”
Harry felt a sinking sensation and tried to defend himself again “I was trying to do the right thing! Neville doesn't deserve to have his stuff stolen and shattered.”
“Indeed, he doesn’t, but that doesn't excuse your behavior, you endangered yourself.” Dumbledore sighed “I need you safe my boy.”
Now feeling guilty Harry muttered. “I'm sorry sir”
Dumbledore looked Harry in the eye and asked “How do you think you should be punished?”
Harry couldn't look away from his eyes feeling as frozen as a faun, “Sir?”
Dumbledore leaned back his chair reclining with him, “You have defied a teacher, endangered yourself and another student, and that needs correction now what punishment do you think is deserved?”
Harry's gut protests the “other student” part of the headmaster’s statement but he knew what his teacher had said before leaving with Neville. He knew what the planned punishment had been for what he’d done.
“Expelled…”
Dumbledore's eyes glazed over in thought and Harry felt his palms growing sweaty and the back of his neck grow cold.
He had to say something, anything, to keep his professor from sending him back. He would do anything to keep that from happening. He would do any- he paused and remembered what he’d thought earlier.
“But, sir, please,” He blurted, seeming to startle the Headmaster out of his silent compilation. The man blinked and eyes cleared, “I-” He halts trying to think of a way to convince the headmaster of his idea.
“I would be very grateful if you kept me on. Hagrid, he said you were a good wizard, a kind one. Could you please let me have the same deal he had and let me be his apprentice?” Harry said in a gust.
The headmaster stroked his beard and started nodding subtly, seeming to be warming to the idea, “Young man, It would be cruel to give one student such a chance and not another, and Hagrid would be able to keep you safe.”
Harry could have cried in relief, he wasn't immediately being sent back to the hell that was the Dursleys. Even if he was being expelled he could still be part of the magical world like his friend Hagrid.
“Now Harry, Usually, when a student is expelled their wand is snapped”
Harry suddenly felt faint at the idea, though he'd only had his wand for a short while he had an undeniable connection to it. It was his in the same way his lungs were his. To imagine it being snapped was tantamount to imagining his ribs shattered.
Before he could properly recover from his reaction Dumbledore hand out a wizened hand and said “Your wand, if you please, my boy”
Feeling like puking Harry stared at that encroaching hand and swallowed, he had a choice, he could give it over willingly and have everything to plan or he could struggle and have the mercy he's been offered revoked and his wand snapped. It was no choice actually. He vaguely noted how his fingers shook as he fumbled to grab his wand. In fact his whole arm was shaking, he could tell because as his hand held his external wooden limb his attached flesh one wavered. Finger by finger the wand was let go, to land softly in an old but steady palm.
Harry couldn't look away as the headmaster drew the wand back to himself and looked down at it holding it in two hands, his heart lurching as it was positioned to be snapped. His breathing stopped completely as the old man looked through his small spectacles at the wand and paused.
“Oh,” Dumbledore muttered, he stared intently at the wand then nodded to himself, “Actually, this seems to be quite a fine specimen of a wand, I think I will hold onto it, maybe a future student will find use in it.”
Harry felt relieved and heartbroken as the headmaster put the wand that was no longer his in a drawer at his desk. A wand that had chosen him, after dozens denied him, a wand entwined with his past, a wand that had been his future and a wand that was now meant for a faceless stranger.
“Now my boy, I will let your new mentor know you're coming over. I think to avoid students from gossiping and for you to be able to move on properly we’ll just say you're suspended and now serving out detentions with Hagrid. We don't want them giving you a hard time my dear boy, I’ll come up with a story for them later to keep them off your back. I know how cruel children can be.” Dumbledore said kindly, eyes sparkling.
Harry meekly nodded, “Thank you, sir.”
“On you get my boy, Hagrid should be able to make room for you to stay tonight. Ill send your things over, although…” Albus mused over Harry's appearance, “Your robes will turn neutral when the Expulsion has settled, you must wear your other clothes. For now this will do.”
He waved his own wand with a muttered spell and Harry felt like he had been brushed everywhere with a boar hair brush and suddenly was wearing plain tee and denims. He shuttered, hating the sensation and how the headmaster had been even able to do that in the first place.
Despite his discomfort he simply nodded again and headed out to Hagrid's hut.