AN: This was written as a response to a prompt from Reddit.

The Prompt:

11-going-on-12-year-old Harry Potter shut the door to his room and collapsed on the bed.

Then he got up again. There was something that felt like a magazine underneath his head. Harry picked it up. It wasn't a magazine at all, it was a brochure...a magical brochure, given the moving picture on the front. "Beauxbatons Academy of Magic wants you?" he quietly read aloud.

Harry started to flip through the brochure. Beautiful castle, check. Top quality magical education, check. Friendly staff and students, check...oh my, make that very friendly students. And at the end of the brochure, someone had scribbled, in childish block letters, 'ABSOLUTELY NO DARK LORD'S, EVIL PLOTS, OR MALFOYS'.

Hidden in the garden, below Harry's window, a house-elf crossed his fingers and hoped.

"Please work, please work, please work..."

Contrary to Hermione Granger's opinion Harry was actually a pretty decent student, he just didn't like to stress about it. He loved his bushy haired best friend, he really did, but he loved her in the same way you love a little kid. She was cute, and smart, and had a lot to say, but at the end of the day his existence didn't depend on her. That might not be fair to her though, Harry was a loner in the end, something about growing up in a dark cupboard with nothing but his own thoughts to keep him entertained made him pretty self entertaining.

But yes, Harry was a decent student, after all even though Professor Snape hated his guts for absolutely no reason, he still managed to get an Exceeds Expectations in the class, which is about as high of praise as you could possibly get from a man who wanted to murder you. In fact he was third in his whole year, that was why as he sat staring at the brochure in front him he was honestly really really tempted by the offer.

He liked Ron, and he liked Hermione, but they were basically his only friends, and even he knew they were basically his friends because of what he did for them, not really the other way around. Even better, Beauxbatons had a Summer program that he could attend for focused education on certain magical subjects. That meant if he wanted he could be free of the Dursley's today and never see them ever again.

Compared to one year in a school where one professor hated him, another tried to kill him, and Dumbledore was absolutely completely weird, he was more than just really tempted. Mustering up what little courage he had, he tramped downstairs, looked his Uncle right in the eyes and said, "What would you say if I had a way you would never have to see me again and all you had to do was let me have my stuff out of the cupboard?"

Uncle Vernon looked at him with an intensely hateful look for a second before the information made it into his thick head, and his eyes widened a bit. "How?"

"I switch to Beauxbatons in France for my ability-that-shall-not-be-named and I can attend year round all the way until my majority. If you want I'll even let you watch me the whole time I use my things and we can put them right back in the cupboard when I'm done."

Harry waited patiently while he watched the gears turn in the meat bucket's head. It took quite a while, long enough that Harry had started to wonder if he could feel his hairs grow if he concentrated hard enough. Uncle Vernon responded with a simple nod before he moved like a slug out of the living room and into the hallway slowly opening the cupboard. Harry quickly grabbed his things, and filled out the small application, it didn't even need an owl as it was a type of portkey that once he signed the page and tapped it with his wand, it disappeared with a pop.

Harry looked at Vernon before saying, "Okay all done, we might hear back in a month or so on whether I'm accepted or not."

Just as he finished saying it a knock came at the door. Vernon moved to answer the door and soon found himself gaping at the most beautiful woman he could remember seeing. She looked about her mid twenties and was literally radiating beauty. Harry's eyebrows raised at the fact that she was basically glowing, and Vernon actually fainted, bouncing off his own fat on the ground.

"Harry Potter?" the lady said with a musical voice that made him feel warm inside.

"That's me." He said working his mouth slowly in response.

"I am Madame Neva, one of the three Deputy Headmistress' of Beauxbatons, we received your application and wanted to inform you immediately of your acceptance."

Harry looked at her and his mouth fell open, "I just sent it."

Neva smiled at him famously, "We may have only taken the time to confirm it wasn't a prank, fame does have its virtue's Mr. Potter."

Harry nodded up and down in shock before he pushed the conversation forward, "Am I still able to join for this summer's course?"

Neva raised an eyebrow at the question clearly wondering why an 11 year old boy would want to go back to school during the summer, but she ignored it before responding, "Yes, our summer time is more like an apprenticeship of sorts, you work directly with a Professor of your choice mostly helping them with preparing for the next school year, and directed projects that they assign to you. Right now, everything is full but for our Potions Master, Professor Madeline. She has room if you want to join her. Are you certain you don't want to enjoy your summer vacation Mr. Potter?"

Harry looked at the open cupboard, thought about the bars on his windows upstairs, looked at his Uncle Vernon who had started to snore on the ground, spent a moment remembering that he hadn't eaten in over day, before he responded, "Could I leave right now?"

Harry couldn't shake the notion that he had made someone very happy at just that moment.