Chapter 28 - Bullying at Hogwarts

Now I could easily pass my life in Hogwarts and follow my schedule without any worries. So the days went on with me following the schedule to heart. The growth in the strength I achieved during this time was many times more than what I used to get when I practised at the orphanage due to the high amount of ambient magic present around the castle.

As my magic reserves increased, my daily practice of depleting it and then restoring to increase the reserves was becoming too time consuming so I needed to find a possible solution soon.

Since I was a centre of attention in the castle and being monitored by pureblood heirs and faculty, I could not stay in ROR for a long time. So the Room was mainly used at night time when everyone thought I was in my room. During day I spent most of my time in the library reading books disguised as first year or general books as I did not want others to know what I was reading.

One thing I found very disturbing was the amount of bullying inside the school. I mean I have seen a lot of Bullying in my high school but they were all done in secret and hidden from the teachers but here it was all out in the open. The bullies stop harrassing their victims when they see a teacher but they are not afraid of getting punished for it. Bullying was rampart in the school and the professors I think were forced to turn a blind eye towards it. Muggle borns were bullied the most. Except Hufflepuff, every house had bullying inside the house but Hufflepuffs were the most bullied in the school. No teacher helped them out. I could see some sadness in the eyes of some teachers like Flitwick and Sprout when they saw bullying in front of them but for some reason they only took a few points and left the issue alone. McGonagall was too busy to even notice the bullying in the school while Snape I think did not do anything since most of the bullies were Slytherin and the victims Gryffindor and Hufflepuff.

I wanted to know why the teachers did not do anything, so I took the risk and asked my Head of the House about it after class. When everyone had vacated the class, I stayed behind and waited for him to notice me.

Flitwick "Mr. Falken, what can I do for you?"

I replied, "Sir, there is something about this school that has been bugging me for a long time and I wanted some answers."

He looked at me and nodded for me to continue.

I asked, "Sir, isn't the Bullying of students inside the school too much? And why are the teachers not taking actions against the bullies? I have seen that you are not happy about it sir but even then you are not punishing the bullies. May I ask why? I am fortunate enough to not get bullied due to my status but I don't want others to go through it."

Flitwick had a solemn face while he thought for some time after hearing my questions. He finally sighed and said, "I know that you wise for your age. So I am trusting you with some things but I hope you do not take react badly. You see even us teachers do not like the bullying that has been rampart in the school for some years. It has been there at Hogwarts for many years but only recently has it been increasing a lot. You see the Headmasters of the Hogwarts including Albus and Armando Dippet before him have the belief that bullying is a part of growing up for children and they must learn to face it so that they can become strong people. So they asked all the professors to leave Bullying and pranking alone and let the students take care of themselves. We were okay at first as students must learn to face some problems in their life so that can survive in the outside world but when we saw the extent to which bullying was going on, we were very worried for the children. So we asked the Headmaster to take some action but he always says he will look into it later or children were just having fun and never took any action. When we decided to act on our own, we were told to stopped by the Headmaster and told not to do it ever again. So all we can do is sit back and watch while hoping that the children survive their difficulties."

I nodded and asked, "Why has it increased nowadays?"

Flitwick "You see after You-Know-Who was defeated, Albus said that the students of other three house will take revenge on the Slytherin house due to the actions of the dark side so he asked us to show Slytherin House some favouritism. That started out well as it calmed the school down after the war but the favouritism continued and now it has come to a point that the Slytherin house take it for granted and expect favouritism from us. With Severus as the Slytherin Head, they get more freedom to do what they want as Severus does not take any action against them for bullying. Hence it has come to this stage and we cannot act against Severus as for some reason Albus trusts Severus more than us."

I sighed and asked, "Is there anything I can do to stop the bullying?"

He replied, "I don't think there is as the ones who are bullying have high political power and can act against you. Since you are still a minor, your political power is limited so if you are caught doing something to them you will be in a lot of trouble."

I nodded and mischievously replied, "I guess there is only one way I can help them."

Flitwick "What?"

I smiled and said, "I heard that the Weasley twins are starting Hogwarts next year and from what I heard they are famous for their pranks. So I guess I would have to ask them to prank the bullies by providing them some incentives. And since Weasley's are loyal to Headmaster Dumbledore, I don't think he will ever let anything bad happen to them."

Flitwick smiled and said, "It will not stop the bullying but at least the people hurt would not be of only one side. It may divert the attention of the bullies or discourage bullying altogether if done in the right way. I hope one day we can do something to stop it altogether though. It was good talking to you Mr. Falken. If you have any other questions, please feel free to come to me."

I thanked him and left the room. I had my answers but the professor left one thing out. Even cases of severe harm earned the perpetrator only a few detentions. These incidents were to be judged by Dumbledore and since the perpetrators were mainly of powerful families, he did not take action against them and just left them with a warning and few detentions.

I decided I must do something about it but since the perpetrators were children with high status I had to be careful about it. I needed to make sure that it would not be traced back to me. So needed to prepare a lot for it. For now, I would have to leave it to the twins while I finish preparing the fool proof way of pranking as I need something to hide my magical trace.