Hi everybody. I hope you are all well and will have a great start into 2023. This little one-shot is my contribution to make the time until then go faster ;)

As always, I own nothing about Harry Potter, I just play in JKRs wonderfully magical sandbox.

I Quit

Harry Potter and Hermione Granger stood in front of the office of Professor McGonagall. They had talked about the unfair points deduction that their head of house had performed and they had decided that they wouldn't simply take the abuse of the other students silently anymore. While they could accept that being out of bed after curfew was against the rules and justified some points taken, the number and the way McGonagall acted afterwards when she had to notice how badly the other Gryffindors treated them, but especially Harry, wasn't fair at all.

Thus, they were now here to set the record straight. And if she didn't help them, well, both of them had ways to show what they thought of Gryffindor. It certainly wasn't like a good family, like McGonagall had claimed before they were sorted. Hermione knocked on the door and they were called inside.

"What do you want, Mr Potter and Miss Granger?" she asked, clearly displeased at them being there.

"Seems like I was right, Hermione, she doesn't even want to listen. We should have simply gone through with the plan," stated Harry, looking at Hermione pointedly.

"I had really hoped that you were wrong. I mean, she is a teacher and our head of house," sighed Hermione.

"What are you talking about?" demanded McGonagall to know, only to be taken aback when two sets of eyes glared at her, one far too similar to a previous student who had given her the telling off of the century. Coincidentally, Minerva McGonagall still remembered how Lily Evans had exploded over the incident where Severus Snape had nearly been killed.

"Well, let's list what grievances I have, Professor," stated Harry snidely, "First, supposedly, it is forbidden to hex other students in the school, well, this rule certainly doesn't apply to those hexing me, over your totally unfair deduction of points. Poor Neville also doesn't have any protection against bullies, as he was sent to the hospital wing twice already. I'm just better at dodging than him."

"You broke the rules," McGonagall interrupted him.

"And you didn't even give us a chance to tell you what really happened," snapped Hermione, shocking her head of house, "Yes, we were outside of the common room at night, but you never even bothered to ask why. You just assumed that we wanted to prank Malfoy. Have I ever given the impression that I like to bully others or set them up for detention? Do you think I would support Harry in something like that?"

"I," started McGonagall, clearly she hadn't thought about things at all from that point of view.

"No, you will be silent for once and listen to the end," insisted Hermione, "That is the least you can do after causing that much damage and then not even making sure that things aren't taken too far."

She glared heatedly, which the older witch had never expected from a model student. It only showed how angry the girl was.

"Thank you, Hermione. Well, Professor, let me tell you what really happened. And Hermione has looked up a way to force you to believe that I tell the truth. I am sick and tired to be called a liar when I did nothing to deserve it. I Harry James Potter, swear on my magic," here the Professor cried out to stop him from doing something this foolish and dangerous, but he continued, "that what I am going to tell Professor McGonagall during the next sixty minutes will be the full truth as far as I am aware of it. So mote it be!" A flash of yellow light rushed out from Harry's body, signalling the acceptance of the vow.

"That was stupidly dangerous, Mr Potter," protested the witch, "how can you do something like that?"

"You refused to listen to me or believe what I said before. I am done being called a liar. I had enough of that with my abusive relatives that convinced the whole neighbourhood that I was a criminal, even if I never did anything to deserve that. Now, the reason why Hermione and I were outside that night was that Hagrid had won a dragon egg in a game of cards. He hatched the dragon in his hut. We tried countless times to convince him to send the dragon away, but he refused until even he couldn't deny anymore that it was impossible to keep the dragon here. I don't know if he realised the trouble he would be in or actually understood the danger for the students, but that isn't important for this.

"Ron's brother Charlie works at a dragon preserve and we managed to convince Hagrid to let his baby dragon be taken there, as it would grow up with other dragons. But the delivery would be done at the astronomy tower and we would hand over a crate with Norbert the dragon to some friends of Charlie that were in the country. To get rid of the dragon, as Hagrid was useless in doing it himself, we sneaked out to carry the crate up to the astronomy tower. Mr Filch caught us when we were too careless over being relieved that the dragon was finally gone.

"And Neville, well, he wasn't part of this at all. He only sneaked out to warn us that Malfoy, who had followed us and had seen the dragon one day, had planned to get us in trouble. That is the full story. I never planned anything against Malfoy, I was just cleaning up a mess that I knew would be dangerous and no matter if Hagrid was in the wrong and should have sent the dragon off himself, he is a nice guy and my friend and I didn't want that he got in trouble with the Ministry, as they wouldn't be open to listen as he's a half giant," ranted Harry.

McGonagall wanted to claim that he was making that up, but the vow prevented her from doing so. She had truly done them wrong.

"Now that you have the full story, let me tell you what your deduction of one hundred and fifty points in one night, over the supposed crime of breaking the rule of being out after curfew, which I know you only took twenty off from Malfoy for the same thing, as we heard you while we were on the way to the astronomy tower, cost us," snapped Hermione.

"All of us are shunned by the Gryffindors, most of all Harry, who is famous after all. None of the teachers decided to do their damned jobs of protecting the students from unfriendly attacks by other students. No, you seemed to think that Harry had disappointed your image of him and deserved to be punished further than the points already taken unfairly. Hogwarts charter clearly says that with points deduction and possibly detention a broken rule is punished enough. Seemingly that doesn't apply to Harry Potter. No, he has to feel the anger of a whole house over a stupid cup.

"I have written down any spell I recognised that was used against him, both of which hit him and which he dodged. Same for Neville. You may read it when we are finished. I know you probably won't act, as I have sadly come to realise that the teachers here are useless at being fair and doing what they should be doing. After all, how else would Professor Snape be allowed to actively abuse students without repercussions? He insults Harry's dead father nearly constantly and nobody ever even tells him off for that. I don't care if he and Harry's Dad were school enemies, which I concluded after looking up some yearbooks, but Harry doesn't deserve that, as he never got to know his parents. It's especially tasteless, as I also found out from an old Prophet article that Professor Snape was a Death Eater before he switched sides and worked for Professor Dumbledore as a spy," she glared at McGonagall heatedly

"Yes. I should send a letter to the Prophet and the ministry to complain about his intolerable behaviour," nodded Harry, "But back to our complaints. Not only am I constantly targeted by students from Gryffindor, both during Quidditch training and outside of classes, the other houses have joined as well, and nobody, especially not the prefects, cares about other students hexing me in the back, feeling that I clearly deserve to be abused, as I enabled Slytherin to basically have already won the house cup. Which, I might add, they do every year anyway, as none of the other teachers cares to step in with Professor Snape's biased taking and giving of points. Hell, he even deducted points for breathing too loud when we were brewing or standing too close to the cauldron in winter, when it was freezing cold in the Potions classroom. You can check that on the points register, which is located in the headmaster's office, according to Hermione's research of how points are recorded to be confirmed or denied.

"Well, I am telling you now, that I won't take this abuse any longer. I have had enough. First things first, I am hereby quitting the Quidditch team. If they think they can shun me, accuse me of shaming Gryffindor and the Weasley twins using me as target practice for bludgers, they are dead wrong. Second, I claim that I am no longer safe in my dorm, as Seamus and Dean have joined the abuse that most of the house shows me. I demand to be given a bedroom where I can be safe and where my possessions aren't wilfully destroyed, like I found Seamus do with my Charms homework."

"Surely," started McGonagall, but Hermione interrupted her.

"He can't lie right now, you better believe it happened," she snapped, "and I was there, as I don't let Harry go anywhere on his own, as somebody has to cover his back. Ron tries, but he is too intimidated by his brothers and the other Gryffindors to really help much. Neville suffers similarly, but not in the same dimension, as everybody focuses on Harry having wronged all of Gryffindor. And all over some stupid points!"

McGonagall didn't know what to say. She wanted to deny it, wanted to say that her house wouldn't do that, but she reminded herself of the vow she had seen being taken. The boy currently couldn't lie at all. She had to face that her house was bullying one of their own over some lost points. Points she had taken. Which she now that she had the full story, which was still unbelievable but nonetheless true, left a bad taste in her mouth. She also hadn't wanted to believe that her colleague would actually abuse a student like that. And again, the boy told the truth.

"You can't simply demand another bedroom, Mr Potter," McGonagall started, only to be interrupted again by Hermione.

"That's incorrect. Hogwarts A History clearly states that in case of a student not being safe in his dorm anymore, he can be relocated to another dorm of his age. The only reason why it is a bit more impractical these days is that due to the low student numbers, there is only one dorm per year group and gender currently. But in the past, it was common to have four to five dorms for boys and girls each. Meaning, the rooms are there, they just need to be prepared," stated Hermione clearly, "And if you believe that Harry shouldn't get a room of his own, well, I'm sure Neville would be happy to share it with him, as he suffers just the same."

Again, the older witch was stumped by the things the younger witch threw against her. This hadn't been a spur of the moment thing; this had been researched for a while.

"I will talk to the headmaster about what can be done," she relented.

"I will say this, Professor, I won't take the abuse anymore. If nothing is done, I will retaliate in any way I see fit. I am allowed to do so according to the laws of this country as heir to the Potter family. So nice that Hermione and I had to research this on our own, when it was Professor Dumbledore's duty as a government official, as he is Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, to tell me everything that is involved in that position. But I already realised that Hogwarts isn't the great school Hagrid claimed it to be when he got me from the Dursleys and took me shopping for supplies. Know this, if things don't change drastically until the end of the year, I will look into changing schools. That is possible after all, and there are other schools for magic in the world. As long as I switch to one of them, I am safe from repercussions by the ministry and their stupid, biased laws, and yes, we researched that part as well," declared Harry, "you have one chance to get things cleaned up here, or we are gone, with a full interview to the Prophet why the Boy-Who-Lived decided that Hogwarts and Great Britain weren't worth his time. Good day."

The two turned around on the spot, walking away from the shocked witch, who needed a moment to work through what the two first years had told her and made painfully clear. She hurried after them, but they were gone already. Deciding that something had to be done, she went to the headmaster's office. Clearly they had gone too far for Harry Potter to simply take things silently anymore.

Dumbledore listened to what McGonagall reported. He frowned. He hadn't expected for Harry to react like that. But it was clear that the boy had been driven past a line and there was no going back. He had already got a report from Professor Sprout that informed him that when a Hufflepuff student tried to hex Harry, he had returned fire, with a lot more magical power in the stinging hex than was used against him. And the boy refused any detention Sprout had tried to give him.

He declared that he wouldn't be a punching bag, seemingly a muggle term for being the target of the ire of others, anymore and if they thought they could hex him without repercussions, he would hex back with more power. She had tried to talk to both students, but Harry refused any compromise, saying he didn't trust any teacher at the school to do the right thing. If he was on his own, he would act accordingly.

Sadly, Harry had a lot of magical power and if this continued, he might drift off into darkness, considering it his right to use magic to harm others. That was a catastrophe. He had thought that letting things go without interference of the teachers would just train Harry to deal with some adversity, but it was clear now that it didn't make him harder and learn to forgive others, he was harder and decided to not be a victim ever again. Perhaps it was also due to his upbringing. Harry had broken over the treatment he got. He wasn't willing to forgive others just because it was the right thing to do.

"Albus, what are we going to do? Things are escalating," asked McGonagall.

"We need to do something, but the question is what. Harry is also refusing to attend any detentions that he feels are unjust. He already stormed away from the one with Hagrid that was set after the incident and Hermione and Neville followed him. Draco of course just went to his common room, not accepting to be the only one to be punished," sighed Dumbledore.

"The problem is, after knowing what really happened, my punishment was too harsh," admitted McGonagall, "But honestly, who could have thought that Hagrid was that irresponsible? That the story about the dragon was actually true?"

"I admit, I didn't think he would be that stupid," acknowledged Dumbledore, "But Harry is getting out of control and we have to prevent that."

"But how? The boy doesn't listen at all. And I know he got Mr Longbottom to also write to his grandmother with the full story and now Augusta is on the warpath as well, harping to me how I dared to have her grandson treated like that when he was just doing the right thing, something his father would also have done for his friends."

"I have to think about it. One thing we can do to deescalate the situation somewhat is giving Harry and Neville their own room, perhaps young Ronald would also benefit from sharing that room, if their roommates are behaving that childishly and sabotage their homework. I believe letting everybody calm down a bit will help as well. But we have to stop the behaviour of the other students. While it is better to let the students solve their problems on their own, we can't risk driving Harry down a dark path. He is too powerful to be allowed to fall into the dark over something this silly," decided Dumbledore.

"What about Severus' behaviour? It can't be that he insults James all the time in front of the students, but especially James' son. I know they couldn't stand each other, but Harry has nothing to do with it," asked McGonagall.

"I will talk to him," resigned Dumbledore.

He had thought that cementing Snape's position with the dark faction would be the best way to go and for that reason he let him be nasty to Harry. But if Harry complained to the right people, people that Augusta Longbottom knew, then it might cost him his spy, which was too high a price. Hermione had sadly found the articles about Snape's trial and Dumbledore's support that got him out of punishment but if he now behaved like a typical Death Eater towards the Boy-Who-Lived, well, the ministry would get involved and possibly force Snape to be fired. There were too many complaints about his conduct in classes to be relaxed that he could prevent it. And Harry only had to speak out and things would spiral even further out of control. Why did the boy have to be so much like his mother? When driven too far, Lily Evans could be a vindictive witch. And Harry, supported by the smartest witch her age, the well-read Hermione Granger, had the influence to cause huge trouble for his plans.

Predictably, the change in behaviour of Harry Potter didn't please the students, but contrary to what most believed would happen, the teachers didn't punish him for it, but investigated each incident that the other students complained about fully, which only led to the actual instigators ending in detention and losing points. Somehow Professor Snape also didn't have the means to support his own house with his bias like before, and while he was clearly furious, he was keeping his acid tongue in check in classes now.

Harry Potter, Neville Longbottom and Ron Weasley were also relocated into a different dorm room by Professor McGonagall, according to Hermione Granger that was due to their other two dormmates feeling it acceptable to destroy Potter's homework and being caught at it. Granger meanwhile had somehow managed to cow her dormmates into simply leaving her alone, the means weren't spoken about, but both Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil were clearly weary of the muggleborn witch now. Well, with the girl knowing as many spells as was clear she did, perhaps she had shown them her displeasure about their behaviour as well.

The Gryffindor Quidditch team meanwhile tried to bully Potter to take his position as seeker back, but he loudly refused, calling them all traitors, bullies and hypocrites and that he wanted nothing to do with them ever again. He told them to find a new seeker that took their bullshit, as he wasn't their punching bag. It took some muggleborns to explain the term, as the wizard-raised students didn't know what he was talking about. It certainly was a different Boy-Who-Lived that now walked through Hogwarts, only talking to his closest friends, which now included Neville Longbottom but excluded all other students in Gryffindor and most students from other houses, as he clearly didn't forgive anybody the behaviour they had shown him previously.

The worst part came when after a long article in the Daily Prophet, where the whole story about the behaviour of the students was printed, howlers were sent by their parents that they were to stop behaving that despicably over some lost points for being out of bed at night, as they had been raised better than that. Threats of cutting pocket money and punishments when they returned home stopped the smarter ones from making their own situation worse.

Harry watched satisfied how Gryffindor lost the last match of the season by a high margin against Ravenclaw. The replacement seeker was far worse than him in the position. The fact that the other Gryffindors clearly blamed him for the high loss and the loss of any chance to still win the house cup didn't bother him at all. He didn't care for the house pride or success anymore. Hermione and Neville agreed with him, Ron was a bit difficult, but then again, he was raised by a Gryffindor family to be proud of being in that house and he hadn't suffered the same abuse the other three did. Not to mention that he declared Harry barmy for quitting the team. The two boys in the end agreed to drop the topic, as Harry simply didn't care about Quidditch as much as Ron did, not when the other team members were that nasty to him. It simply wasn't worth it for Harry and Ron had stood by him over the mess otherwise.

Still, he didn't plan on returning to Hogwarts next year. After exchanging letters with Augusta Longbottom and telling her exactly what was happening at the school, she explained to him just how he could switch schools. She wrote down the details of how Harry, since he was the last Potter, could become emancipated with some restrictions to his rights. He would be able to cut all influence of his muggle relatives or any possible magical adult that claimed to be his magical guardian off, meaning he didn't need their permission to switch schools, as abusive muggles didn't have any right to restrict a wizard child and as Harry didn't even know who supposedly represented his rights in the wizarding world, that guardian was certainly useless so far. And the Potters had houses all over Europe, meaning Harry had options of moving in there once he was through the emancipation process.

He wouldn't be allowed to use magic outside of school and wasn't allowed to apply for his apparition licence until he had passed his OWL exams though. But he could live on his own, as he was deemed old enough for that, as long as there was an adult witch or wizard checking on him regularly. Harry would allow Neville's grandmother to do just that, if it got him out Privet Drive. All he needed to do was visiting Gringotts as soon as school was over and claiming his status as Heir Potter. His emancipation included choosing his school as well, which the Ministry would hate but they didn't have the legal right to stop him. And he had already checked which school would work for him.

As most people would expect him to stay in the country, he would go abroad. Hermione had also written to her parents and they had decided that they wouldn't allow that behaviour towards their daughter and rather move to another country where she could get a proper education, both magical and mundane. As only Australia had the options in their school curriculum, well, at least for countries where both children could speak the language, they would enrol at The Outback Institute of Magic. The school offered languages, maths, history and science for mundane subjects next to a more extensive selection of magical subjects.

After convincing Neville's grandmother that he would also benefit from changing schools, as he had stood by Harry all the time and suffered for it, he would also join them. Ron wasn't taken into the know, as he was too stuck on his opinions that things would calm down and that Gryffindor was the best house and Hogwarts the best school in the world. Not to mention that the Weasley parents would never agree for him to change schools. Well, they would see if he would stay in contact by letters, but they would be gone and not miss Hogwarts at all.

Dumbledore read the three letters with dread. He had thought that the changes he made sufficed to get Harry to calm down and quit his rebellious behaviour, but instead the boy had made his threat true. He had got his emancipation, curse Augusta Longbottom for telling him that the option existed, and quit Hogwarts. The same was true for Hermione Granger, whose parents withdrew her, stating that due to them moving to another country, their daughter would be educated at a magical school over there. Neville Longbottom's grandmother snidely wrote that Hogwarts' education had fallen far since her son was educated there and she wouldn't tolerate the treatment her grandson had experienced there. She also complained that her request to let her know if Neville's use of his father's wand worked out hadn't been fulfilled. Had she been informed that the wand wasn't a good match, she would have taken him to Ollivander early into the school year to get a different one. But due to underage wizards not being allowed to use magic at home, she had relied on the teachers, only to be disappointed that they would let a child struggle with a badly matched wand.

He didn't like being put on the spot like that. Honestly, why should the teachers deal with that? It was the job of the families to give the child workable wands. Still, this had cost him the second candidate for the prophecy. And despite rushing to Little Whinging to stop Harry from leaving, he was too late. The boy had seemingly used his invisibility cloak to sneak past his waiting relatives to Gringotts and got his emancipation. Then he had left as well and he didn't know where and in which country the boy might live. He also didn't know which school the three children would attend next year. It was a debacle. He just knew that his opponents would use this mess to try and get rid of him and contrary to the past attempts, it would cost a lot more favours to keep his influence. Harry Potter was a special topic for the British people. He really didn't look forward to the rest of the summer.

Time Skip

Harry Potter watched how his best friends Hermione and Neville kissed each other for the first time as husband and wife. He was best man and his own fiancée Claudia stood opposite of him, being Hermione's maid of honour. It was two weeks after they had finished university. Harry and Claudia had lost the coin toss about which of the two couples would marry first. They had been close friends since Harry, Hermione and Neville had come to the Outback School of Magic for their second year. And they had soon realised that they had to catch up on a lot of things, even Hermione who had been ahead of the others in their year at Hogwarts.

But thankfully the teachers were understanding and helped them with tutoring lessons in the subjects they needed to be better at than they were. After half a year of intense catching up they were at the same level as their classmates and could enjoy school a lot more than before. They started attending clubs they liked and made new friends. Claudia had been part of the swimming and broom racing clubs, which Harry had also joined. Swimming at the beginning because he finally wanted to learn how to do it, and then he had lots of fun and found out he could swim really fast once he had the techniques down properly.

Hermione and Neville were also part of the swimming club, but they joined different divisions. Neville found a love for water volleyball and Hermione for water gymnastics. As the school let the students do all kinds of water sports under the roof of the swimming club, it all worked out. Broom racing was something Hermione and Neville didn't like, despite the school helping them to learn flying on a broom properly, without the drama it had been at Hogwarts. Harry was a speed demon on a broom and found a kindred spirit in Claudia. It was thanks to that thing they had in common that they got closer and closer until they started dating in their fourth year.

None of the former Hogwarts students had ever regretted leaving the British school. They were a lot happier in Australia and wouldn't return to Great Britain except for a holiday. Neville had moved to Australia after he turned sixteen, as he was sick and tired of Dumbledore always bothering him during the summer break, when he returned to live with his grandmother. And Augusta, proud of how well he was developing at the Outback Institute, allowed him to move in with Harry, who had a house in Australia, where he lived with two house elves taking care of everything around the house while he went to school.

For the wedding, which was held in Australia to avoid Dumbledore interfering in a ceremony he had no business being present for, just because he couldn't take the fact that his own inactions at Hogwarts had lost him the trust of the Boy-Who-Lived forever, Augusta and the closer members of Neville's family had travelled with a portkey. Though none of them had known the destination. Augusta had only told them that Neville was studying abroad, and to deny Dumbledore knowledge, nobody but her would know which country the children were in.

Now each of them had gained their chosen masteries. Harry and Claudia planned to marry in three weeks, after Neville and Hermione were back from their honeymoon. After that, they had jobs waiting for them. They had intentionally arranged to start after all weddings were done and they had had nice honeymoons.

Harry would be starting at the magical hospital in Canberra. He had his masteries in Healing, Potions and Charms as qualifications. Hermione had gone into the area of Enchanting, Ancient Runes and Arithmancy, which were her masteries. Neville was a master of Herbology and Charms, next to having a doctorate in Botany. Claudia went into fashion design and had concentrated on Charms, Potions and Runes for her masteries. All of them were happy about their career choices and had passed all subjects with great marks.

Great Britain held no interest for them. No matter how often Dumbledore tried to bring them back. They had gone as far as requesting and being granted Australian citizenship. It helped block the idiotic Ministry in Great Britain from forcing them back, once it became known that their hero resented them and didn't want anything to do with them. Well, their problem. They were happy with the lives they now had and saw no reason to change anything. Quitting the school had been the best decision they ever made after seeing how little the other students and teachers cared for them as people.

A little one-shot of what might have been. Happy new 2023!