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The Lozac Academy of Magic (Académie de Magie Lozac) in Quebec, Canada, was known for all the wrong reasons. Well, not quite. Up until recently, it had been quite well-known for its good results; it had quickly moved up ranks among the best magic schools in the world, eventually dethroning Hogwarts in the school results. Of course, in this ranking in particular, Hogwarts hadn’t been first. Unlike what some people would like you to believe, it had been a few decades since Hogwarts had been first at anything. Oh, it was still the most popular ones, according to an unofficial poll. It was also ranked very high for their Charms classes, thanks to Master Flitwick.
The truth was that Hogwarts had been falling down the magic schools ranking for quite a while now, and people in the Ministry were only starting to piece it together now. If you looked at it from the DADA class ranking, then you’d see that Hogwarts had damn near hit rock bottom. Not quite. That was an exaggeration, but it wasn’t even in the top 50 anymore.
Hogwarts was supposed to be the finest school in the world! What a bloody lie.
Recently, the Lozac Academy had been the talk of the Magical communities, and not for good reasons. It had been discovered that teachers were abusing the kids there; that training – the physical training, because Lozac had always been more… military oriented than a lot of schools out there- was brutal. Extremely brutal. Military might not be the proper term, but they trained their kids to survive. Apparently, that meant training for hours with very little rest and not much food until the end of practice.
Miles didn’t know who thought putting two schools with (currently) terrible reputations together was a good idea, but he’d like to have a few words with them.
See? Someone had thought that Lozac, the school that let teachers mistreat kids, and Hogwarts, the death trap that paraded as a school should take part in some sort of exchange program. A brilliant idea? Yeah, no. Miles could already tell it sounded like the beginning of a bad joke. Lozac Academy was combat-oriented while Hogwarts was… well, a normal school of magic. Even Durmstrang wasn’t as combat-oriented as Lozac, although they certainly taught more Dark Magic.
Then again, Miles thought, nobody really knew what the kids studied at Lozac, apart from the normal branches of magic every magic school taught, alongside some physical education. Of course, by ‘physical education’ he meant martial arts discipline as well as full-contact sports. He wasn’t even sure they had a Quidditch team; having fun didn’t seem like a priority in that school.
The deputy head of the school once said that their school “taught their students survival” when questioned about their methods, after Lozac had first started making the headlines for its abusive tendencies.
If he wanted to be honest, Miles was kinda curious to find out more about that school, so that exchange program may not be such a bad idea, after all. From what he had heard, they would get seven exchange students as well as a teacher, one who had been completely cleared from the Lozac Case. Even so, Miles remained sceptical. He wasn’t sure having a teacher from Lozac was a good idea, even if they were ‘innocent’. Then again, Hogwarts had some suspicious or downright bad teachers in the past, and they had yet to depart from Snape, so really… They couldn’t talk.
“When’s dinner starting?” Graham complained. “I’m starving.”
True. It was already 7:10 p.m and McGonagall had yet to arrive. That was unusual.
“Terence, stop eating the bread. You’re going to be full before dinner even starts,” Adrian scolded their former Seeker before turning his sights on Miles. “Miles. Elbows off the table.”
The Keeper rolled his eyes, but complied without protest. Adrian was such a mother hen.
“Yes, Mum,” he mumbled, because he couldn’t help himself.
This earned him a warning look from Adrian, but Miles was used to it. Next to him, Terence let out a mournful noise as he looked sadly at the piece of bread in his hand. For a moment, it looked like he would disobey, but eventually, he let out a sigh and put the bread down next to his empty plate.
The next moment, McGonagall walked through the open doors of the Great Hall, accompanied by a man and followed by a group of teenagers.
A hush fell in the room as heads turned to follow the movement. Whispers started again as soon as the Deputy Headmistress walked past them with her entourage and led them to the front of the room.
The teenagers were clearly wearing a uniform, but it looked so different from the Hogwarts robes! Now, Miles hadn’t grown in the Muggle World, but he could hear Terence mumbling excitedly in his ears. Something about tactical trousers and combat boots.
“Oh, that’s a high-collar combat shirt. They look so cool.”
They certainly wouldn’t get tangled in their robes during a duel. The way they dressed, the way they moved. They weren’t showing off; they were moving in an efficient way, not doing too much, not showing anything. Even their faces were mostly closed off.
They almost looked like soldiers. It made Miles swallow down the bile that rose. He didn’t want to think about the newspapers. Or about the harsh training they most likely had to endure to end up like this. Even now, they were tense, on their guard. They didn’t look around in anxiety, but they were ready for an attack.
“Your attention, please,” she said clearly, loudly as she turned around to face. “As you can see, your fellow young Wixen from the Lozac Academy have arrived. They will stay with us for the duration of the year. They are accompanied by their Offensive Magic teacher, Master Zoran Stanovich, who shall stay as well. We will now begin the sorting,” she explained before focusing her attention on the new visiting students. “When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted.”
Wait, Miles thought as he exchanged a stunned look with his Housemates, feeling giddy. Were they going to be sorted, too?
“Anderson, Linda.”
A short brunette with her hair in a loose bun stepped forward. Unlike Hogwarts, it seemed like Lozac didn’t offer a different uniform based on gender. Or, at least, every student here wore trousers.
“Hufflepuff!” the Sorting Hat exclaimed after a moment.
Applause echoed in the room. Despite how confused and excited the Hogwarts students felt (they didn’t know what to expect from the Lozac students, after all), they welcomed them as warmly as they could. The Puffs, as usual, welcomed their new Housemate with large grins.
“Campbell, Sara,” McGonagall called as Anderson left the hat on the stool and walked to her table.
The girl who followed was a bit more chubby than the slender girl who had sat on the stool before, but she was also has a stocky built. Her face was hard lines, and a mean scar ran down the length of her left arm. Something or someone had gotten her, and she looked determined not to let anything else get the drop on her.
“Gryffindor!”
Miles applauded distractedly. His eyes were fixated on the Head table. Snape was staring at the new students with a level of attention that felt… unsettling. Unlike the Potions Master, the Headmaster appeared almost disinterested. He hadn’t been the one to encourage this exchange program, from what Miles had gleaned. Apparently, the Ministry almost forced that on him.
“Gauthier, Maxiliarmus.”
He could have sworn he heard a boy in the visiting group mumble, ‘Oh, God, not the full name!’ before turning to one of his fellow students, a boy slightly smaller with long black hair gathered in a ponytail. He let his hand caress the other boy’s arm for a moment before stepping away with a nod and walking to the stool.
Strange, but whatever.
“If he keeps it up, he’ll be a hatstall,” Adrian commented lightly. “Miles, elbows off the table.”
Looking down, Miles realised that, yes, somehow, at some point, he had started using his elbows again to lean on. Huffing, he put his elbows down and gave the older Slytherin a pout.
Adrian, of course, ignored it.
“Slytherin!”
That guy who walked off the stage was attractive, because, of course, he was. His dark hair, which probably stopped just above his shoulders, was gathered in a messy cadogan, with wild streaks escaping from it. His traits were soft, softer than the girl from before. He looked cute, but there was this aura of danger around him, just like with the rest of his schoolmates.
It was just his luck that the guy sat down next to Lucian when Peregrine slid over to make some space.
He nodded at him in thanks before greeting them softly.
They didn’t start hounding him immediately. First, because they weren’t savages, and secondly, because the Sorting wasn’t done yet. He wasn’t sure they would get any more students in Slytherin, but one could hope. Besides, Miles wasn’t even sure how they would start questioning them. They’d been told to avoid hounding the exchange students about everything that was going on with their school, but it would be foolish of the teachers to think all of the students would listen. Still, they were Slytherins. They would be subtler than that.
“Kadyrov, Pierrot.
A boy, perhaps a bit older than Miles, stepped from behind the boy in a ponytail and sat on the stool. Not even a minute later, the hat had sorted him into Ravenclaw.
“Well, there’s one for each House,” Cassius remarked.
“And we’re not done yet,” Marcus added.
True. There were still two students who had yet to be sorted. Two boys who stood close, but not too close.
McGonagall opened her mouth before pausing, round eyes focused on her list. She seemed… shocked? Yes, she looked shocked.
She drew a shaky breath and intoned clearly:
“Potter, Harry.”
The sudden silence felt heavy. That… Miles had not expected this, he thought, as the boy from earlier, with a long ponytail, stepped forward, face closed off.
In the shock and confusion that followed, he saw Dumbledore’s eyes widen. Ah, so the old man truly hadn’t known where the kid was all this time. It’s not that Miles hadn’t believed it – Dumbledore, after all, had looked really sour when he had to publicly admit he had no idea where the Boy-Who-Lived was, but you never know. He might have played it off that way.
Apparently not.
“No way. Surely, I heard wrong,” Terence whispered, eyes a little bit wild.
Whispers erupted as they watched the boy walk to the stool and put the hat on his head.
“He doesn’t look like in the articles,” a Gryffindor mumbled.
“Of course he doesn’t. None of those who described him had seen him since he was a baby,” his neighbour argued.
“He’s smaller than I thought he would be,” a Hufflepuff said.
Really? Miles thought. Sure, the boy wasn’t the tallest of the bunch, and yeah, maybe Miles expected him to be taller, but he wasn’t particularly short, maybe just slightly below average. That didn’t make him look any less intimidating.
When he sat down and the hat covered his head, they could still see green eyes, almost glowing, staring straight ahead. It wasn’t freaky, but it was a bit unsettling.
“He’s… different than I expected,” Adrian whispered.
The newt student, Gauthier, snorted.
“Bet you didn’t expect him to be a Lozac student.”
The ‘especially not since the latest news’ wasn’t said out loud, but it was heard all the same.
Miles didn’t flinch, but it was a close thing.
Adrian stared at the exchange student.
“No,” he finally answered. “We didn’t.”
Gauthier smiled. It wasn't a nice smile, but it wasn’t a mean one either. He reached his chin with his hand to rub it, and Miles saw the rings on his right hand. He doubted they were family-related, probably more of a fashion statement, but the signet on his left hand caught his attention. He didn’t recognise it, but then again, he didn’t know much about pureblood lines outside of Britain. Were the Gauthiers an ancient line?
“Slytherin!”
Shit!
Miles abruptly looked back at the front of the room, only to see Potter put the hat down and walk towards them, uncaring of the stunned silence that followed his Sorting.
Terence stood up first and elbowed him in the side as he started applauding the newly sorted student. Others followed up, looking just as stumped as Miles felt. A Potter, in Slytherin? Surprising, but not unheard of. The Boy-Who-Lived, in Slytherin? Yeah, that was… something.
The boy walked to their table and took a seat beside his schoolmate.
Then, and only then, did his expression thaw slightly. It wasn’t very expressive, but it wasn’t as closed off as it was before. Miles saw him swallow, then Gauthier put a steady hand on his shoulder, and they nodded at each other.
Figuring that whatever was going on was over, Adrian spoke up to welcome them to their House and introduce himself, as well as the closest Slytherins. Then he spoke to Potter in particular:
“I’ll introduce you to your fellow 4th-year housemates after supper.”
“Harry might be with the fifth year, actually,” Gauthier explained. “We’ll have to see with Zoran and your deputy headmistress.”
Zoran? They called their teacher by his first name? Seeing the confusion on Miles’ and his friends’ faces, Potter elbowed Gauthier, and the older boy blinked.
“Right. Zoran is our dorm… how do you call it… He supervises our dorms and makes sure we’re okay. He has a room in our wing. We know we can come to him if we have problems. Sara called him our ‘Dorm Dad’, but she’s just teasing.”
Teasing? Miles wouldn’t be so sure. Master Stanovich certainly kept a protective eye on his charges. He wondered how the kids could have been abused under his nose if he was so protective, but then again, there were more than one teacher, and not all of them were involved in the abuse. So blaming the guy was idiotic. Besides, from what Miles had gleaned from the articles, professors at Lozac Academy had to sign a cutthroat work contract. The details hadn’t been shared with the press, but the journalists did hint that it might have been why the abuse hadn’t been revealed sooner.
“5th year?” Graham repeated, perplexed.
Potter cleared his throat, speaking for the first time.
“We’re not sure,” he said.
His voice was rough, as if he wasn’t used to speaking. He might not have been. He looked quiet, reserved… shy. He looked different from the way he did before, with his face closed off.
“We are… We’re placed on different levels depending on the – on the subjects studied in class.”
Gauthier’s hand drifted to the boy’s neck, massaging it slowly. It felt both intimate and not. It was… odd.
Potter didn’t look at his schoolmate but nodded in thanks, and the older boy dropped his hand before looking up to face them:
“We’re in… normal classes for the most part, but some of us are in AP classes.”
Miles blinked. AP? What in Merlin’s name did that mean?
Seeing the blank looks levelled at them, Potter poked Gauthier in the arm.
“Err, it’s a… It’s College-level classes that Secondary students – I mean, High school students can attend to.”
Now, Miles hadn’t grown in the Muggle World, but he knew a bit about Muggle schools, so he knew that the guy was referring to Miles’ age range by saying ‘high school’. Although… he could have sworn he heard another term… Probably some cultural differences between continents. Something about college not meaning the same thing, perhaps. Eh, never mind.
“So you guys have those ‘AP Classes’?” Marcus asked, and Miles was flabbergasted to find him actually interested in the conversation.
“We do. I’m in AP… Err… I’m in my NEWT year for Transfiguration, and I got my NEWT for Potions. I’m in AP for Botany. Harry, here,” he said, bumping shoulders with Potter as if they wouldn’t know who he was talking about, “got his Potions NEWT last year, mainly because he hated that subject and wanted to be done with it,” he said with a smirk as Potter rolled his eyes fondly.
Miles could barely begin to process a 14-year-old getting their Potions NEWT (not unheard of, but still), but studying so hard on a subject one hated because they couldn’t stand it? That was some dedication.
“He’s also on advanced placement for DADA, Charms and Care of Magical Creatures. He might end up with the 6th year for DADA, though.”
Miles blinked.
Right. Lozac Academy might have made the headlines for scandals of child abuse in the past year or so, but it was still known for its results and how advanced the kids’ education was. Miles wouldn’t be surprised if the kids were all placed a year above what would have normally been their year.
“Isn’t that… a bit much?” he asked hesitantly.
He didn’t want to imagine the amount of work it required for a kid his age. He especially refused to think about how much work the teachers forced on the Lozac kids.
Potter’s lips twitched. Gauthier snorted.
“Believe it or not, Harry’s not the one signed for the most AP classes. In fact, Lochris,” he said, pointing at the boy who had been sorted last and was sitting among the Ravenclaws, "has an even bigger workload. The other four declined participating in this exchange, because they were too busy with their studies.”
Ouch.
While Miles was certain the guy didn’t mean it that way, he understood that they thought less of the Hogwarts education. They weren’t wrong.
Potter cleared his throat with an awkward look on his face.
“I’ve heard a lot of good things from Hogwarts.”
It would have probably sounded more credible if he hadn’t looked so awkward.
Sweet, though. Not something he expected to think about the guy with the ponytail when he had first seen him.
“Oh yeah?”
Right, Cassius had seen right through the lie.
“Like what?”
Hopefully, it wouldn’t embarrass the kid. Unexpectedly, Potter’s face lit up:
“The herd of Thestrals you have in the Forbidden Forest.”
Thestrals? He was excited for the Thestrals?
Miles shook his head and handed him a plate of mashed potatoes. Potter grabbed it with a grateful nod, and Miles noted the black finger-tips protector the boy was wearing.
Strange.
It didn’t seem to be part of the uniform, seeing as the other exchange students didn’t wear those.
“Harry loves Magical Creatures,” Gauthier explained when he saw the blank looks directed at them.
Right. Well, to each their own.
“Max will most likely join the 7th year for Botany. He would normally be… a 6th, no, 5th year,” Potter added before grabbing his fork and starting to eat.
Max? … Oh, right. Gauthier. Maxiliarmus Gauthier.
Potter didn’t have much on his plate. Gauthier, who still seemed to eat less than most of them, had more. Miles tried not to focus on this.
He looked away.
“Well, I hope you won’t find Hogwarts too boring,” Adrian said with a teasing tone.
For a moment, when both Gauthier and Potter opened their mouth to talk, Miles feared they would make a joke about all the incidents and attacks that happened at Hogwarts, but no.
“With Thestrals and Acromentulas in the forest? No way.”
Three guesses who said that.
“With Master Flitwick and Professor Sprout teaching here? I don’t think so.”
And that was Gauthier.
Miles chuckled.
As weird as this whole thing was, he was starting to think that maybe the whole exchange program wasn’t completely doomed.
If anything, he quite liked the two sitting among them.