Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or other works that may be familiar in the story. I only own the idea and the words that go into making the story.

Crusade

Chapter 2

Not a moment after they landed in the backyard of her parents' house, Hermione was engulfed by a frantic mother; "we were so worried, dear" she exclaimed before unceremoniously dragging them both into the well-lighted living room.

Inside the room and surrounded by her family and her friend, Hermione felt a bit irrational at her thought of welcoming her death just a few minutes ago. Then again, if not for Stan, she would have been playing the harp by now. She thought herself to be a Christian in not only her beliefs but also in actions, and so she was quite sure that Hell would not have been her destination.

"Oh! Mum, dad, Stan helped me out in a bind tonight and guess what, he is a wizard."

By now both Hermione and Stan had removed their masks and the elder Grangers could see that it was indeed Stanley Smith, the young man who they suspected had captured their daughter's heart. After greeting and thanking the young man enthusiastically, everyone settled around the table. It was nearing midnight but the adrenaline high for the two teens and the anxiety for the two adults would keep them awake for a bit longer. Stan was urged to stay back for some time and he agreed, he also had a motive to do so.

Stan began to fidget and it was quite noticeable, the three Grangers were quite interested in the reasons for Stan's nervousness. They did not know the young man for long, true, but the short time they interacted with him, Dan and Emma were impressed. Reading between the lines in Hermione's letters to them, Emma was quite sure that Hermione was infatuated.

"Hermione," Stan tried to gauge the mood of the one person he was most interested in, "Before we go any further, I have a confession to make."

After such an opening, there was no chance for any of the Grangers to divert their attention. Hermione had a small panic attack, 'Is he going to breakup with me?' the thought was irrational because, primarily, Stan was not even dating her!

"My name is not Stanley Smith," he said without preamble, "I am Harry Potter."

The elder Grangers were surprised, not because of the false name given to them, but that Harry Potter was sitting before them. They knew about Harry Potter, may be not really well, but their daughter did tell them about the most famous wizard after Albus Dumbledore in the modern era.

As for Hermione, she was shocked. She of course knew who Harry Potter was.

…..

Hermione's story of her stay at Hogwarts

Even before Hermione boarded the train to go to Hogwarts, she heard that Harry Potter was coming to Hogwarts. After the sorting, the only thing she heard was why Harry Potter did not come to Hogwarts. Several reason were tossed about but her favourite, started by a few muggle-borns in Ravenclaw house, was that Mars needed heroes and who better than Harry Potter?

Even though the topic of Harry Potter's absence at Hogwarts was on everyone's tongue and even after the paper picked up on it, there was no word from either the Minister of Magic or the headmaster. Frankly, the lack of any reaction would not have been out of place but for the fact that it was Harry Potter that was missing. Apparently, he was not seen for ten years and the only one who saw him recently was the groundskeeper Hagrid. Hermione was surprised that a half giant who was banned from using magic was sent to bring the hero out into public eye.

Rumours began circulating that Harry Potter was being trained in secret. Why would he need training if there were no more death eaters according to the Minister of magic?

A few said that he was disgusted by the treatment of non-pure-bloods and so left the country. This was surely by a muggle-born.

Then there was one that Harry Potter thought himself so high and mighty that he did not want to interact with the common masses and so did not want to attend Hogwarts. He was already so learned in magic, why would he need to attend school? This was probably from a pure-blood or a death eater sympathizer.

Then there was one that he lost his magic on the day he defeated 'You-Know-Who' and so was residing in the muggle world.

Evidently, Dumbledore was hounded for answers and the headmaster was either refusing to or unable to give them.

Through all of this, Hermione was unable to feel at home in her new school. Her old tormentors seemed to have returned even in the magical world with new faces, ostracizing her for her drive to excel at academics. Her desire to show herself knowledgeable had the same reactions from her peers as those in her primary school had. Meaning that she was friendless.

Unfortunately for Hermione, the magical world added a new dimension to her friendlessness. It was bigotry and she happened to belong to one of the select group that was on the receiving end of torments. It was never physical and never in the sight of someone who could put a stop, but Hermione was a constant target of verbal bullying.

Hermione's desire to be the best at her studies meant that the house where the studious and the intelligent resided, Ravenclaw, turned their backs to her plight. Her own house Gryffindor, the so called family, the house of courage and chivalry turned a blind eye. She was not the sole target of bullying, almost all of the muggleborns and a few half-bloods were too, but she certainly one of the most frequent targets. Apparently, the lack of Harry Potter in their midst gave the bullies courage and the staff and the 'light' side were depressed.

Things came to a head, at least for Hermione at Halloween the first year at Hogwarts. While the world outside was celebrating the downfall of 'You-Know-Who', she was crying her eyes out in a stuffy bathroom on the second floor. The verbal bullying by the Slytherins and sometimes the Ravenclaws was bearable as long as she held onto the hope that her family, her house, would come to shield her when needed. When one of her own house mates, one Ronald Weasley, called her an annoying 'Know-It-All' and mocked her being friendless because of that, Hermione could not take it anymore.

The result, sequestering herself in a bathroom and have a good cry. She was still the naïve little girl who wanted to impress her teachers and her fellow students, only that she was now twelve years old and on the cusp of being independent. She thought that she could impress the 'Boy-Who-Lived' with her knowledge and become his friend. Hermione was not gullible enough to think that she would be popular, but at least she would have had a few friends. She had demanded the sorting hat to put her into Gryffindor house, because honestly, where else would Harry Potter go?

Turned out that it was one of her biggest mistakes. The house was supposed to be family, but it turned out that even family members could not tolerate her. Hermione could readily admit that she could be overbearing and pushy sometimes but the extent of verbal bullying left her shocked. Her devotion for Professor McGonagall came crashing down when the woman did not bother to come into the common room even once, let alone ask the first years about settling into the new environment. How could she stop bullying, if she did not know about it? How could she know about the bullying if she never cared to look for it?

Sometimes Hermione wondered if there was a hidden agenda. Everyone, even the staff, could see that Professor Snape was goading his students to torment others and sometimes even he would do it. None of the other professors curbed his tendency or stop other students from bullying.

Crying her eyes out finally gave Hermione the perspective she lacked so far. She understood that everyone was interested in their own comfort and ascendance, even the teachers and the so called 'leader of light' Albus Dumbledore. Unless something impacted them directly, they were not going to take notice or interfere.

There was no one to protect the weak and those that needed protection, and that was the reality of life. The police force or in this world the auror force was bogged down by many rules and red tape. They apparently could not enter Hogwarts without the headmaster's permission and he wanted to keep the school from the ministry's interference. On the other hand, the minister himself was discriminatory and rumoured to accept bribes to get things done even if they were against the law of the land.

Hermione realized that the cycle of bigotry was started at Hogwarts and abetted by the attitude of the ministry. It would take a genuinely good person to break the cycle of lethargy and a serious lack of will in the ministry.

Maybe this Harry Potter would have done that or others would have rallied around him to get things done, but that was not going to happen.

There was no point in crying as there was no one to dry her tears. With that Hermione ran a hand over her cheeks to clear away the tears and the stain they had left. She resolved to do better, be better and not care for what others thought about her.

Though it was not a welcome shock, Hermione finally understood her parents' stance that, yes it was good to have friends but it was better to cast them away if those friends were dragging you down. In her case, her classmates and house mates were actually working against her to make her life miserable. There was no use for fair weather friends and that was what most of her classmates were. She was visible only when they needed work done or to earn points.

Hermione resolved to duke it out. She was going to make the same people who looked down at her, take note of her actions. Why should she bow down to the whims of a few immature children? But when it came to bigotry based on blood status, she knew that it was a more serious problem, one which she could not tackle that easily. If she could not fight it, she was going to live with it and even ignore it when she could. When the time was right, Hermione hoped that she will be there to lend a hand.

Until now, the bushy haired girl tried to keep out of everyone's way just so that she could escape the taunts but found out that it helped only to some extent. Hermione had to get back to her dorm and that meant she had to cross the common room and had to live with her dorm mates. Then there was the library where she had to go to complete her assignments and that was also a spot that the Ravenclaws also hung about. Whatever she did, she could not escape by being meek.

From now on she was not going to take any flak from anyone. The other houses, were not vicious but the Slytherins could physically hurt her. She could not dodge them, she had to meet them on equal ground and for that she would have to learn to defend herself. Her focus had to change to more physical aspects, she had to get a little better in her fitness, either to stand her ground and take any blows or to run away.

Until the time she developed enough physical strength and magical power, Hermione decided to keep her head down and not attract any attention to herself. If that meant that she did not win any points for Gryffindor house, she would not lose any sleep over it. It was time that the other members of her house learnt a lesson in payback.

Learning all she could became a priority for Hermione and performing in class took a back seat. Oh, she would give her all during the tests but that's all. If her housemates were to end up losing for that, she would just shrug her shoulders and go about her day. That was what they did to her plight after all, she was just going to give them all of that back.

What Professor McGonagall told her parents was that passing the O. was a rite of passage in the magical world. It meant that one has enough control over their magic not to be a danger to others. What Hermione learnt subsequently was that passing a few O. gave a witch or a wizard the right not to continue their education if they so wanted. It also meant that a muggleborn could leave the magical world without losing their memories or magic and that was what she was going to do. The rest of Hogwarts and the magical world could go up in flames for all she cared.

It was not just out of a sense of revenge or out of spite that Hermione resolved not to contribute to the magical world. A hard look at what Hogwarts offered opened her eyes to some stark truths which Hermione did not want to admit to herself. All in all, Hogwarts which was supposed to be the premier institution for magic in all of Europe and more importantly, the only one in the UK, was not all that great.

An education institution that was sub-par in the quality of education was a joke. Hermione could honestly say that only Professors McGonagall and Flitwick were doing justice to their positions. Professor Sprout may also be, but the subject itself was not that challenging, at least in the first year. Then there was Snape who oozed hostility against anyone not in Slytherin house and who thought that writing instructions was enough for a class that was mainly practical. Astronomy did not come anywhere near to what was known in the muggle world.

History was current to the time the teacher died, which was more than a century ago. Defence Against the Dark Arts was taught by a stuttering fool who was afraid by his own shadow. How was he supposed to teach students to defend themselves?

Then there was the headmaster who was more worried about a student who probably was smarter than herself by electing not to come to Hogwarts. Later on, Hermione learnt that the headmaster was forced to kill their DADA teacher for trying to steal a priceless artifact from within Hogwarts. She was not sure if it was only a rumour, but the warning about not going to the third floor corridor being removed, told a different tale.

To make matters worse, there was no replacement teacher for that subject, those who were willing to study had to rely on books while those like Ron Weasley who felt that Christmas had come twice did not bother.

No, Hermione was not impressed at all.

Her second year at Hogwarts was even worse than her first.

It all started with the newest DADA professor who was a very handsome wizard. Hermione along with every unattached witch had a crush on that wizard. At least for Hermione, that crush died a terrible death right in the first class with the new professor. In the first class, Hermione was suspicious of the professor's ability and by the next two, she was disgusted. The man was inept to the highest degree, if Hermione did not know better, she would have thought that Gilderoy Lockhart stole other people's achievements and made them his, rather than her current thoughts that his exploits were works of fiction.

Then things really started to go weird from Halloween onwards. First the caretaker Mr. Filch's cat Mrs. Norris was petrified on the same day that was celebrated all over Britain as a day of good triumphing over evil. If it was just a petrification, no one would have bothered, but the chilling message left on the wall in blood could not be ignored. The next month saw two more petrifications, this time they were wizards. With one of the two being a muggleborn and the other a half-blood, Draco Malfoy who considered himself a Slytherin prince, began strutting around the castle claiming that it was time to cleanse the wizarding world.

Hermione was not a direct target as she took to using the shadows and a few silencing spells very effectively in staying out of sight. If whoever was doing the petrification was intent on targeting the muggleborns, then Hermione was going to make sure that she would be doubly cautious.

One thing that really bugged Hermione was that the staff knew how to reverse the petrification but even the headmaster did not know what was causing the petrification. The logic in that argument was lost on the bushy haired witch. The other point that did not sit well with her was the total lack of urgency in treating the two boys who were petrified. The school nurse was apparently waiting for the Mandrakes the second years were rearing to mature. Was there no crop from the last year? Did the last year's students not do the same exercise they were currently doing? If so, then did they know that the mandrakes would be needed this year? That was a chilling thought and Hermione chastised herself for being paranoid. How about buying the ingredient from another source? It was not as if the Mandrakes were seasonal, that was why the greenhouses at Hogwarts were separated from each other, magic can make seasons immaterial.

It was the lives of two students that was on the line and the headmaster was apathetic to their plight. How was that permitted? So many questions went unanswered according to Hermione, she did not dare put them across. Not that she was afraid but she was unwilling to be in the limelight?

Could she write an anonymous letter to the Daily Prophet? The thought stayed in Hermione's mind for a long time but finally, she did not have the courage to do so. Instead she spent the time scouring the library for information on not only the cause for the petrification but also for increasing her knowledge base.

Just a few days before Christmas holidays, Hermione came across a wailing, not moaning, Myrtle. The ghost was up to her normal tricks of flooding the bathroom but apparently she had a reason this time. Myrtle was hurt because someone threw a diary through her and that injured the teenage ghost's sentiments.

Hermione was at least sympathetic to the ghost's plight; they were given the same treatment after all. Ignored if they were lucky or bullied if not. Myrtle took her revenge by flooding the girl's bathroom and not allowing anyone to use it, Hermione did want revenge and it would not be so simply, but she did not have that chance for revenge yet. She did try her best to placate the wailing ghost and took away the diary which was blocking the drainage out of the bathroom.

The diary was nothing special. It was a plain one with black leather cover with the initials T. M. Riddle on the back cover. Surprisingly, there was not even a single word written inside it. Hermione did not really have time to think about the diary as it was time for the final class of the day before going home for Christmas. She simply put the diary in the bottom of her book bag and promptly forgot about it.

When Hermione got home for the holiday season, she got a dragon hide book bag with charms for weight and for expandability. It was during the process of transferring all her books from the old bag to the new one that Hermione first felt something wrong with the diary, it was calling to her to write in it. and Hermione was ready to write in it too; she had a decent enough control over her mind, but Lord Voldemort was not going to be stopped by some school girl's occlumency.

Thankfully, the call for brunch came at that time from her mother and it was enough to snap Hermione out of her compulsion. She immediately recognized the danger of the diary but not what the diary actually was. This time, Hermione took some time to wrap the diary carefully in the old book bag and put it at the bottom of her closet, hidden well enough among her old books and such, so that her parents do not accidentally come into contact with it.

Hermione did not know enough of magic to study the diary, but it will not always be so. With that resolved, she pushed the matter of the diary to the back of her mind and enjoyed the rest of the holiday with her parents.

The resumption of school brought its own strangeness. Hermione learnt that Ginny Weasley had to undergo treatment over her unhealthy obsession over a diary and strangely enough an imaginary guy called Tom.

Hermione suspected that Tom was not really imaginary and was linked to the diary. She felt a little guilty at not surrendering the diary to the authorities; Hermione feared that nothing constructive will be done with it or even worse inadvertently set off whatever was causing the petrifications from within the diary. She was no longer the authority loving young girl, Hermione knew that she would keep it safe. That justification she gave herself was enough not to surrender the diary. Her own experience with the school authorities was not that stellar. Hermione determined that nothing would be done to help the school children and she was proven correct. Colin and Justin had to suffer until the end of the school year to be normal again. They lost almost a complete year and neither the Ministry of Magic nor the headmaster Dumbledore felt anything wrong about that.

The authorities did indeed breathe a sigh of relief that there were no more petrifications and the matter was promptly forgotten by everyone. What irked Hermione was that the families of those affected were not even notified. Would that have happened if one of those affected was a pure-blood? Hermione was sure of the answer.

Hermione's third year at Hogwarts brought with it its own strangeness. It was almost as if strange was the new normal in this world. The consequence of that year was the total destruction of Hermione's faith in the authorities of the magical world.

This time the danger started even before she got to Hogwarts. Sirius Black, who was supposed to have betrayed the Potters to their death, escaped from the high security Azkaban prison and was apparently on the way to Hogwarts. The reason, apparently, to kill the last Potter. The man may not have seen a newspaper in the prison, and so may not know that Harry Potter was not at Hogwarts, but what surprised Hermione was the total lack of any response from the Ministry, either in words or in actions.

The reactions of those in power showed that the world revolved around Harry Potter. Sirius Black was targeting Harry Potter and was apparently coming to Hogwarts, but Harry Potter was not there at Hogwarts. So what does the Minister for Magic do? He ignores the danger all together! There was no Harry Potter for Sirius Black to target and therefore there was no reason for the Ministry to interfere in Hogwarts affairs, after all, it was Dumbledore's responsibility to take care of Hogwart's security. There were more than 250 school children who could not defend themselves against a seasoned killer and since the main target was not there, there was no need to protect the others. What kind of logic was that?

Well, the ministry did respond to the threat in one way. They sent the undersecretary to the minister, Madam Dolores Umbridge, as the DADA professor.

If one witch was the answer to a deranged convict, then the witch would have to be excellent in practical defence. To Hermione's disgust, the new professor turned out to be a colossal waste of time. She was a ministry representative for sure, not to protect or prepare the students, but to actually hinder their education. The professor was interested only in forwarding the Minister of Magic's agenda to make everyone dependent solely on the ministry for every need, not that the ministry was doing a great job in that.

Hermione learnt that the professor did not encourage using a wand in the class to learn the spells, instead the students were forced to read. Normally, this would have been right up Hermione's alley, but one look at the subject matter told her that even reading the book was a waste of time. Hermione was dismayed to learn that the same book was in the hands of every student irrespective of the year they were in.

The book was a ministry prescribed defence text which could be summarized in three sentences; you do not know how to defend yourself, you cannot defend yourself and finally, you must not defend yourself. The ministry apparently has aurors standing by to attend each and every compliant from the wizarding population. It was strange in a way that the book asks the witches and wizards to rely on the ministry for their troubles when the first chapter was dedicated to stress the point that there would not be any problems in the magical world that require the intervention of the aurors.

Perhaps that was the reason why the auror force was so small and the finding to the aurors was being reduced every year!

According to the ministry of magic, their view of utopia in the magical world was actually vindicated by the Sirius Black incident. The man was not a threat to the wizarding world in general, no, he was a threat only to Harry Potter and so there was no need for the Ministry of Magic to intervene. Even though the guards heard Sirius Black muttering about Hogwarts, the Ministry of Magic did not deem it as a threat, but rather the ramblings of a mad man. The minister was so confident that Black would not harm the students at Hogwarts, that he did not sanction a auror guard to the school.

Hermione was aghast. Sirius Black was a fugitive, and was a notorious mass murderer and the minister was confident that he would not harm any of the children? Thirteen muggles were killed in the collateral damage when Black killed Pettigrew, a fact that seemed to have slipped from the minds of the authorities, Hermione thought with a scoff. She wondered if the fugitive was even sane, almost everyone in the British magical world knew that Harry Potter was not at Hogwarts. If the man was sane, then why was he mumbling that 'He is at Hogwarts'?

It was not something that Hermione wanted, but that particular thought would not leave her alone for quite some time. Thankfully, the time turner was a boon. Professor McGonagall gave it to Hermione with the understanding that it would be used to attend the extra classes, Muggle Studies and Divination, that Hermione was taking up.

Only a few days into the term, Hermione understood that both the subjects were a huge waste of her time. Hermione had to keep up appearances in order to prevent McGonagall to confiscate the time turner and so attended the classes religiously. She was present in the classes only physically but gleefully used the time to expand her knowledge in subjects of interest to her Transfiguration, Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, and Charms. Of course, DADA was added to the list after a couple of weeks of Madam Umbridge.

Halloween that year was something to remember to everyone in Gryffindor house. Sirius Black was in the castle and apparently attacked the fat lady's portrait to gain entrance to the Gryffindor dorms. Hermione was surprised that even after more than two months of escaping, Black did not know that Harry Potter was not at Hogwarts. But then the man might be quite insane and would not have access to papers when he was in prison. Why did the man specifically target Gryffindor tower and that too when no one was around?

That was another mystery that went unanswered.

All the students were ushered into the great hall and sleeping bags provided to sleep for the night while the staff members swept the castle for any signs of the man. Everyone was terrified but obeyed the teachers and slept in the open for the night. What surprised Hermione was that none of the students remembered the incident or that they were asleep in the great hall, the next day.

Hermione asked about and found that almost all the students thought that she was deluded when asked about Sirius Black's presence in the castle. She realized that the students were somehow made to forget the incident. Were they obliviated? It made sense that all the students were at the same place and so it was easy to modify their memories en masse. Hermione did not know how that was done but why was she unaffected? Did she have some resistance to such memory modifications? Hermione did not come across any references to a defense against mind wipes, but she was determined to find out.

The important question though was who was responsible for performing the obliviations? Was it Umbridge on the orders of the ministry or was it a member of the staff on Dumbledore's orders?

Any one of them had enough of a reason to do it. The Minister of magic was facing flak regarding the security of Azkaban. If one prisoner was able to escape, then any number of the others could do too. The minister no doubt wanted to suppress the news of Black's presence at Hogwarts to prevent another backlash from the public.

Dumbledore obviously wanted to continue the charade that Hogwarts was the safest place in Britain barring Gringotts. That a murderer was in the castle and could have encountered the students blew the claim out of the water. The headmaster obviously did not want to face irate parents or give the ministry more leverage to interfere in Hogwarts' matters.

While both arguments had some merit, it was the response to the Black sighting that was unacceptable to Hermione. Instead of increasing security around the castle or making an attempt to apprehend Black, the victims were made to forget the incident and thereby increasing the danger the students were in. Without the knowledge that Black was seen inside the castle, the students may become complacent and not take adequate measures to protect themselves.

Meanwhile, away from the public eye and in the political field, the ministry wanted to take control of Hogwarts. With the blessings of the Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, Umbridge was appointed as the High Inquisitor of Hogwarts giving her power over even Dumbledore.

However, the move was severely contested by Dumbledore stating Hogwarts sovereignty as mandated by the founder's charter. The headmaster had enough cult following that the appointment was retracted and Umbridge was left to lick her wounds. The woman's ignobility was further increased when the end of year results in DADA was announced. The OWL and NEWT scores in DADA were apparently the worst in the history of Hogwarts leaving the Minister of Magic in complete shame for his role in overruling the headmaster.

It was his move to appoint Umbridge to the post of DADA professor and it backfired spectacularly. That incident added credibility to Dumbledore's argument of leaving Hogwarts' matters to the headmaster and staff and not have the ministry interfering.

While there were rumours, perpetrated mainly by the Weasley twins about Black's continued presence in the castle or within the grounds, he was never seen by the student population again until the fateful day of her fourth year. So, the novelty of a prisoner of Azkaban in Hogwarts faded away and things went back to normal.

During this time, things came to a sticky end in her interactions with fellow Gryffindors. It started with Ron Weasley's accusation that her half kneazle, Crookshanks, ate his pet rat Scabbers. Ron never took care of his rat and if his words were to be believed, never wanted the rat in the first place. But when he thought that the rat was killed, his first accusation was against Hermione.

It was a strange argument since, Crookshanks was not the only cat or kneazle within Gryffindor dorms. Moreover, her pet never entered the boy's dorm. Hermione argued that there was no evidence of her pet eating Ron's pet and even if he did it, it was only natural that a cat would eat a rat. It was Ron's responsibility to care for his pet and that he should get over it. It was probably a tad insensitive but Hermione was beyond caring at that point, since most of the students began taking the redhead's side of the argument.

The argument became more than just the cat killing a rat and turned to matters academic and her refusal to help Ron with his homework. Ron had most of their year and his brothers supporting him. Their year mates probably wanted Ron to win the argument and get help with their own academics. Hermione would have none of it though and even though she practically had no support, stated categorically that she was not going to help whatever may happen.

Since that incident, Hermione stopped caring for others and only wanted to get the best out of Hogwarts, finish her education and get out.

It was only Harry Potter's letter that forced her to think about her attitude. How could she forget the vow she made right in her first year? Why was she going to abandon her path and take the easy way out? Yes, all that had happened and the apathy shown by both Dumbledore and the Ministry was discouraging, but that was why she vowed to do her best and take the opportunity to change the world for the better. When did she give up?

That was the reason why Hermione decided to smuggle the list of muggleborn students. She had to warn the others about the possibility of further persecution in the wizarding world. Luna Lovegood, a Ravenclaw who was a year younger than her and whose father managed the wizarding tabloid Quibbler, talked about the new plot by the Minister of magic to control Hogwarts. An auror named Dawlish was going to be appointed as the new DADA professor and that this man was even worse than Umbridge. Dumbledore could not stop the appointment as there was no other applications for that position. Moreover, the headmaster's position was a little tenacious as the DADA professor he himself appointed turned out to be Barty Crouch Jr, an Azkaban escapee, masquerading as Alastor Moody.

Luna's father apparently was suspicious of Dawlish. He thought that the auror was actually a death eater and may use the position to further discriminate the muggle-born and half-blood students with the intention of driving them away from the wizarding world. Even though he was a ministry employee, Dawlish may have his own agenda to take the position. With the events at the Quidditch world cup during the summer before Hermione's fourth year, where several muggles and muggle-born students were targeted by a group of death eaters, Mr. Lovegood was apprehensive that death eater activity may be on the rise.

No one believed Luna's words and dismissed them as mere ramblings, but Hermione was prejudiced enough to believe it. What compelled Hermione was the rumour about the deplorable acts that this Dawlish may have performed under 'You-Know-Who's' command. Such atrocities may again see the light of the day with Dawlish being in a professional role within Hogwarts.

Hermione's resolve strengthened when she heard about the possibility of the dark lord or 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named' was not really dead. There was a very good chance that the increased death eater activity was a preparation for bringing the dark lord from the dead or even under a newly resurrected Lord Voldemort. Susan Bones whose aunt was the head of the law enforcement department was the source of these whispers. They were fueled by the Weasley twins whose father was not only a ministry employee but also apparently, a part of a vigilante group led by Professor Dumbledore. That the group was reformed led to speculation among the twins' circle that there would be dark times ahead.

Hermione thought that the other muggle-born students should enter the magical world with their eyes open to the possibility of discrimination and bigotry. She may not be able to stop them from attending Hogwarts, but she was going to try her best to ensure that they enter with their eyes open. That was her stated reason and it was enough for her to try and steal the list of muggle-born students and their addresses from the ministry.

What an eye opening experience that turned out to be.