Chapter 1: We've Tried!

The Original One-Shot Summary: An older Muggle-born tries to explain to Harry and Hermione that they have tried to get Binns and Snape fired and also update the curriculum.

In a lot of fanfics, including my own Harry Gets Angry, Harry has done something to get Snape and Binns fired. I don't think that, after fifteen years, no one has tried before. I also know that Harry and Hermione weren't friends until Halloween, but it works this way.

Thanks to my betas, darrelldeam and LadyLini, for all their help making this easier to read for you, my readers. All mistakes are still my own. I've made a few additions that are not betaed, so there may be some mistakes, since I am dyslexic and type way to fast.

This is going to be a short story based upon a few one-shots that were in 'Little of this, More of that' (which has been deleted and split up into many one-shots, go ahead and give them a read). It is eight chapters long and more than likely will not go past first year, but who knows if there is enough demand (which there hasn't been) it might.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, that pleasure belongs to J.K. Rowling, and all the people who she gave permission to use it and make her rich. I just play in her sandbox. This is the disclaimer for the entire fic.

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Harry and Hermione were sitting at the Gryffindor table, going over their first week at Hogwarts. They weren't trying to keep their conversation to themselves. Hermione was trying to get Harry to eat more as they complained about the horrid teachers they had so far.

"Honestly," Hermione said, exasperated, "I don't know why they keep Professors Snape, Binns, and Quirrell here. I mean, I have a lot of respect for professors, but we aren't learning anything in their classes. How am I going to pass my OWLs if I'm not learning anything?" she asked as she scooped some eggs onto her plate. "Eat more, Harry." She put some eggs on Harry's plate. She didn't understand why he didn't eat much. Most boys she knew ate like they were never going to eat again.

"I don't know, Hermione," Harry said, glancing at the unappealing eggs. He had try to explain to his new friend that he just couldn't eat more, but she was not raised as he was and couldn't understand. "I can't even stay awake in Binns' class, and Snape hates me," he said, taking a bite of his toast to appease her. "Quirrell is just plain useless. I can't understand how he got the job. His class makes my head hurt." He rubbed his scar for emphasis. "I'm not really hungry. I promise I'll finish my toast and eat more at lunch." He shoved away the plate of greasy eggs. They were making him queasy just looking at them.

"That'll have to do I guess but promise me you'll eat more than just a sandwich. And it's Professor Binns, Professor Quirrell, and Professor Snape, Harry," Hermione corrected him. "Besides, I'm sure Professor Snape doesn't hate you. He's a professor. That would be unprofessional of him. Though," she mused, "he really doesn't act professional." She shook her head. "But that is beside the point. He is still a professor, and you should treat him with respect."

"Respect!?" Harry all but shouted as he stared in wide-eyed shock at his friend. "How can I respect someone who talks to me like that? Were you even in the same class that I was? There is nothing there for me to respect! He's almost as bad as my uncle, and I have no respect for him. I think we should find a way to get them removed." He nodded his head decisively as if he just come up with a brilliant idea.

A seventh year Muggle-born girl sitting next to Harry heard their comments and turned to them with a small smile. "Do you two firsties honestly think we haven't tried? Do you really believe you're the first? We've been trying to get Snape and Binns fired since the first year I got here, and I'm sure it's been tried before us. Snape is mean to all Gryffindors and the other two houses, though much harder with us. If he acted like that in the Muggle World, he would have been fired on the spot. And if you think that is bad, wait 'til your third year, when you have your electives. Then you'll see some really bad professors." She held out her hand to the older of the two young students. "Millie Foster, nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too, Millie," Hermione said, shaking her hand. "What do you mean you've tried? I mean, what have you done so far?" Her mind was racing, considering all the ways they could get someone fired in the non-magical world. There just had to be something the older students hadn't tried, she will not have her education so impaired by bad teachers. "And what are you talking about our electives? Aren't they supposed to help us get better jobs when we graduate?" she asked hoping that there won't be other barriers in her way.

"Hi," Harry said, shaking Millie's hand. "I'm Harry, and this is Hermione. Forgive her. She's on a tangent."

Hermione apologized softly, then perked up, looking at Millie expectantly.

"Everyone knows who you are, Harry. Nice to meet you too, Hermione," Millie said with a smile. "As for what we've done… well, we've petitioned the Governors, we've talked to our Head of House, and we've even talked to the Headmaster. Some of us have talked to the Ministry, but none of it has worked," she gave a small shrug as if to say 'What can you do?'. "The Weasley twins even tried pranking Snape for about a month, hoping that he'd quit, but that just made him meaner," she said with a sad shake of her head, remembering the terror of that month. They lost more points then than ever before, for things like breathing and other made up infractions. The twins quit soon after and swore they would never prank Snape again. She shook her head and got back to the discussion. "I'm not saying all the electives are bad… just be careful what you pick. Read the course descriptions carefully before you decide. But you have a few years before that, so don't worry about it now. Just keep that thought for then, yeah."

"Have you written to the parents?" Hermione asked, wondering how so many avenues hadn't worked.

"Yeah," Millie replied. "We're not stupid you know, but since they're mostly muggles or Muggle-born, no one listened to them. The ones that are Pure-bloods are seen as blood-traitors, so they weren't listened to either. Some of us even tried to leave the school, but there's a spell on the invitation and when you reply, you're effectively making a contract that states you'll stay at Hogwarts until at least your OWLs or your wand will be snapped and your memories wiped. They said, if we left, they'd also bind our magic," she finished, shaking her head in disgust. She had been one of the few that had tried that. The fight that ensued left her disillusioned with the magic world. The things they had said to her and her parents were vulgar and unnecessary. She vowed then and there that she would help as many people she could to get out of this place with the skills they needed to survive in the non-magical world. She already had a great network set up and she was not afraid to use it.

The two firsties looked at each other in shock. They didn't know about this. Hermione wondered if her parents knew. She was sure that if they did they would have told the school to bugger off and never looked back. This bit of information also lessened the prestige she held the Headmaster in. How could he approve of entrapping children this way? He was supposed to be the fore-fighter of Muggle-born rights? Were the Pure-bloods also so restricted?

Harry was sure his relatives wouldn't have run from the letters if they knew. It would have been one way they could have 'stomped the magic out' of him.

"What did the Headmaster say?" Harry asked quietly.

"He said he trusts Snape explicitly and that we were exaggerating. I'm not sure how he came to that conclusion when the points counter backs our story, but there you have it," Millie said with a resigned shrug. "After the last war there were trials for the Death Eaters. Death Eaters are followers of You-Know-Who," she explained, seeing their blank faces. "Anyway, Snape was a Death Eater, but Dumbledore stood up for him at his trial and said he was a spy. Most of us here think he is keeping Snape here to protect him from the other Death Eaters that were never caught or got off." She shrugged again. "So, the chances of him getting fired are very low."

"And Binns?" Hermione asked quietly, while wondering if she really wanted to know. "How do they justify Binns? Or Quirrell, for that matter?"

"Well, he's tradition, isn't he? He's been at Hogwarts for so long that they think of him as a fixture," the older girl replied. "Quirrell use to teach Muggle Studies, and then went away for a year and came back like this. He was actually a really good professor back then— he didn't stutter. But I wouldn't worry too much about him. The DADA position is cursed, so he won't be here next year." She waved off her last statement as unimportant, hoping that she hadn't scared the kids too much. However, they really needed to know this stuff.

"This is horrible," Hermione said as saddness filled her brown eyes. "I gave up going to a prestigious school to come here. Just because Professor McGonagall said that it would be harmful for me not to. She told my parents that I could be great in the wizarding world." Her dreams of being high-up in the magical government seemed to be crashing around her, and she wasn't sure how to handle that.

"She lied," Millie said bluntly. "Muggle-borns are second-class citizens in this world—the sooner you realize that, the better off you'll be." Her voice softened at the devastated look forming on the resident bookworm's face. "However, I recommend you learn all you can, and then tutor yourself with Muggle studies in the summer so you don't fall too far behind. Then, you can make your way to the top of any profession you want outside of this backwards place. It's kinda like thumbing your nose at these stuck-up bigots, yeah." A twinkle forming in her eyes, it was what her plans were. Screw these Pure-bloods, she was going to use their education and make her own way.

"Well, that leaves me out," Harry said sadly, his shoulders slumping in defeat. "There's no way the Dursleys will let me study in the summer. They keep me too busy for that anyway," he said, hanging his head. Depression was hitting him hard. This was supposed to be his way out of his relative's house. Now, he wasn't sure what he would do.

"Don't worry, Harry," Hermione said, putting aside her own worries to comfort him, and giving her friend a one-armed hug. "I'll talk to my parents, and if we can't get you out of that house, then we can at least visit or have you visit us often. I'll find some way to help you keep up with your studies. My dad can be pretty intimidating when he wants to be—he'll scare you relatives straight," she said, smiling encouragingly. It was a promise she meant to keep, come what may.

"Thanks, Hermione." Harry gave her a small, shaky smile. It was good to have friends.

"Actually, I'll talk to some of the other students that live in the Muggle World." The older girl figured out immediately what they were not saying. "I can get a group of us together, along with our parents, and we'll make sure you're treated right. No one should have to suffer for being magical. We'll think of something," Millie said, giving the sad boy a hug on his other side. "I'll start tonight, and we'll start writing home to see what can be done," she added, deep in thought. She looked at the small boy in front of her and asked softly, "They're not hurting you, are they? Because that's against the law, and we can get you removed from that house if they are."

With his eyes tearing up at the caring the two girls surrounding him showed, Harry answered, "No. They just don't feed me a lot and give me loads of chores. But no, they don't hit me." He decided to keep the part about the cupboard to himself for now. It was something he never wanted anyone to know. Now that he had been moved to the smallest bedroom, it was in the past anyway.

"Okay, Harry," Millie said, turning back to her now lukewarm breakfast and hitting it with a heating charm, doing the same to theirs. "I'll start things rolling on my end," she said again, and then was hit with another idea. "You know, I'm graduating this year, so I'll have plenty of time to drop by your house and tutor you. You can pay me if you like. Actually, that might be better—then I can tell your relatives to sod off, yeah." And oh, she had plans brewing in her head for those bastards. Millie never could abide child abusers, even if it was only mental abuse. However, she knew that that was a lot harder to prove than bruises, and by the time Harry left Hogwarts he would be fattened up enough that malnutrition would be almost impossible to prove.

"Thanks, Millie," Harry said, feeling better than he did when he first sat down. He grabbed another piece of toast and took a bite, then wondered how he would pay his newfound friend. "I'll get some galleons from Gringotts, if you can take me to the Alley. I can pay you for the whole summer in one go, if that helps. Do you need it in galleons or pounds?" he asked, after he had swallowed his toast, turning to Millie with a questioning look in his eyes.

"Pounds, if you please," Millie said with a smile. She could put off her plans for a few months, and maybe they'd work something out to keep it up for the next few summers as well. "I really don't plan on coming back to this world for a long time. Now, getting back to what you were talking about before, I suggest that you get as many firsties together as you can and create a study group. I meant what I said about learning as much as you can, and the only way you're going to do that is by independent study, yeah. If you can, get them from every house. I'd also suggest you meet in an empty classroom to protect the students that might be bullied for hanging out with you. Set a rotation schedule so you're all not seen leaving at the same time."

"I'll work something up," Hermione said, already going through her timetable. She had a vague idea on who would benefit, but she really didn't know the other students enough to invite them quite yet. She would have to figure out how to do that.

"I also suggest you get some Pure-bloods in your group, like the Weasley boy, or the Longbottom kid. They'll be able to tell you more about what is happening in the government and what laws apply to you. They'll also know more about the so called 'creatures' you'll find here and how they are treated," Millie said thoughtfully, tapping her finger on her chin. "We've got some neutral families in our group, and they've helped out a lot. I'm gonna keep in touch with them after I graduate."

All three turned back to their breakfast, thinking about what was going to happen to them during the rest of their time spent at Hogwarts. The younger two were sad that their dreams had been ripped apart, but they also had hope for the future, assuming that what Millie had suggested came to pass.

So, with that in mind, Harry and Hermione made a pact in which they agreed they would do their damnedest to prove that this biased world wouldn't hold them back.

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Just a quick note on grammar. Now, some of my grammatic errors are mistakes, but some of them are not. I do know the difference between 'Harry and I' and 'me and Harry', and 'would have' and 'would of'. If it is in narration then it is my 'street learning' showing. If it is in conversation then it is on purpose, to add character to the person talking, like Millie's 'yeah'. However, by all means if you think it's my 'street learning' showing, then please point it out.

This is not quite a rewrite, more of a correcting thing, and fluffing it out a bit. I am thinking of added an epilogue, and I need to make sure I catch everything. I got a lot of reviews that gave me tons of ideas, so I'm going to see if I can incorporate some of them. 7/20/2018