Chapter 1: We've Tried!

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.

Hphphp

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. They didn't feel the need to. it wasn't as if what they were talking about was a secret.

"Honestly," Hermione said, exasperated at what she was feeling, "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. But 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 just as frustrated. "I can't even stay awake in Binns class, and Snape hates me," he said, taking a bite of his toast just to appease her. She was right he did need to eat more, but the thought of it made his tummy hurt. "Quirrell is just plain useless. I can't understand how he got the job. His class makes my head hurt." He put his toast down. "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," she said with a sight. "And it is Professor Binns, Professor Quirrell, and Professor Snape, Harry," Hermione corrected him a bit pompously. "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." She gave him one of those 'you should know better than that' looks.

"Respect?" Harry 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 in? 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 didn't even know how she could think there was anything about the man to respect. The man was dour and just down right cruel.

A seventh-year muggleborn 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 my year got here and I'm sure it's been tried in before us. Snape is just mean to all Gryffindors. 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 till third year, when you have your electives. Then you'll see some really bad professors." She held out her hand to the two young students. "I'm 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 muggle world. "And what are you talking about our electives? Aren't they supposed to help us get better jobs when we graduate?" she asked, already wondering what jobs awaited her in the future.

"Hi," Harry said, shaking Millie's hand. "I'm Harry, and this is Hermione. Forgive her. She's on a tangent." He was very fond of the bushy-haired girl, but she did get on to a subject like a dog to a bone and didn't let go until she knew everything.

Hermione apologized softly, then perked up, looking at Mille 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, and we talked to our Head of House. We've even talked to the headmaster. Some have talked to the Ministry, but none of it has worked. The Weasley twins have tried pranking Snape for about a month, hoping that he would quit, but that just made him meaner," she said with a sad shake of her head, remembering the terror of that month.

"That sounds like it was fun," Harry said with a snicker. He didn't know the twins well, but what he'd seen in the common room and what Ron had told him, they were quite some good pranksters.

"It was," she agreed, thought she shook her head exasperated. They lost more points that month than ever before for things like breathing and other made-up infractions. The twins quit soon after that. She shook her head again and got back to the discussion. "Still, it didn't work."

"What about out electives?" Hermione asked, getting back to her favorite subject academics.

"I'm not saying all the electives are bad, per se," Millie said, looking at the two firsties, "just be careful what you pick. Read the course description 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." She didn't want them to be caught flatfooted like she and quite a few others almost had. Who would take a class like Divinations of purpose?

"Have you written to the parents?" Hermione asked, wondering how so many avenues hadn't worked. Going back to getting rid of the professors now that the electives were taken care of.

"Yeah," Millie replied, giving her a condescending look. "We're not stupid, you know, but since they're mostly muggles or muggleborn, no one will listen to them. The ones that are purebloods are seen as blood-traitors, so they aren'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 OWL's, 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 two firsties looked at each other in shock. They didn't know about this. Hermione wondered if her parents knew. Both were now wondering just what they had gotten themselves into.

"What did the headmaster say?" Harry asked quietly. He didn't like the fact that he was effectively a prisoner here until his fifth year. Sure, he thought of this place as home, but now it was a gilded cage.

"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. She didn't trust that old man after that. Well, the contract was a give away too.

"Oh," was all the two younger students could say.

"After the last war, there were trials for the Death Eaters. Death Eaters are followers of You-Know-Who," Millie 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." She didn't' want them to get their hopes up.

"And Binns?" Hermione asked. "How do they justify Binns? Or Quirrell, for that matter?" She was desperate to get these teachers gone. Her career in this school depended on it.

"Well, he's tradition, isn't he? He's been at Hogwarts for so long that they think of him as a fixture," Millie replied in a quiet tone that brooked no argument.

"What a lousy tradition," griped Harry, as he nibbled his toast.

"Quirrell used to teach Muggle Studies," the older girl said, flipping her hair and smiling at the two firsties, "and then went away for a year and came back like this. He was actually a 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. "It's debated, but so far there hasn't been one that's lasted a year."

"This is horrible," Hermione said as sadness 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." She felt devastated, like her life had just taken a turn for the worst and there was nothing she could do about it.

"She lied," Millie said bluntly.

"What do you mean?" the bushy-haired girl asked, hoping for the best but fearing the worst.

"Muggleborns are second-class citizens in this world—the sooner you realize that the better off you'll be," the older girl said firmly. 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."

"You think that will help?" Hermione asked, hope once again in her tone.

"Yes," Millie said, smiling at the girl. "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 purebloods, she was going to use their education and make her own way.

"Well, that leaves me out," Harry said sadly, 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.

"Don't worry, Harry," Hermione said 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 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.

"Thanks, Hermione." Harry gave her a small, shaky smile. It was good to have friends. He was glad he made friends with her on the train.

"Actually, why don't we talk to some of the other students that live in the muggle world? We can get a group of us together, along with the parents, and 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.

"You'd do that for me?" Harry asked in awe. No one had ever done anything like that for him. His plight had been ignored for all his life. Now he had two friends and hopefully more to come. Maybe, just maybe, he could make something of his life in the future.

"Yeah, I will. I'll talk to a bunch of people tonight and we'll start writing home to see what can be done," she said, 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." She wasn't going to let the boy suffer if they were hurting him.

With his eyes tearing up at the caring of the two girls surrounding him, 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 doubtfully, turning back to her now lukewarm breakfast. "I'll start things rolling on my end. 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." 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 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 would work something out to keep it up for the next few summers as well.

"What are you plans when you graduate?" Hermione asked, hoping to get a clue as to what she could do after school. If the wizarding world didn't want her, she wasn't going to let it stop her from succeeding in the muggle world.

"I really don't plan on coming back to this world for a long time. I was thinking of going into teaching, so helping Harry helps me," Millie said, thoughtfully, waving her wand and heating up her breakfast. She then did the same to the kids' food.

"Thanks, Millie," they said, digging in.

"Now," she said, forking up some eggs and taking a bite. When she swallowed, she continued. "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 independent studies. 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."

This was something she and her classmates, and those muggleborn before her had done. It had been going on for a long time. Ever since the beginning, actually. Once the pureblood bigots had taken over the government, the muggleborn had grouped together and formed their own groups to protect their arses. They just did it covertly. Well, a covertly as they could in a boarding school.

"I'll work something up," Hermione said, already going through her timetable. She started making notes out to people that could benefit from such a study group. Intending to pass them on to their recipients either in class or after. If she planned it right, this could really work.

"I also suggest you get some purebloods in your group. 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 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 reheated 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.