Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.

Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.

Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.

Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.

Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.

Notes: Hermione shows off her trophy.

Chapter 9: The Woes of Mrs Weasley

The leaving feast was unusually subdued this year, perhaps because of Professor Dumbledore's speech in which he explained that they were not just saying good bye to those of their number who had completed their education and were now heading out into the world to hopefully have long and productive lives of usefulness, but also to their new friends from Beauxbattons and Durmstrang who would return to their home countries most likely never to visit again and most of all to Victor Krum whose so very promising young life had been cruelly cut short by You-Know-Who. That, the headmaster explained was a tragedy they all had to keep in their minds now that You-Know-Who had returned to threaten the wizarding world once again.

"But what can we do?" Harry asked his friends. They were prefects now after all. "We are only children. What can we do to fight an adult?"

"Well, I don't know about an adult as powerful as You-Know-Who himself," Hermione replied pulling a glass jar out of her pocket. "But we will turn sixteen soon. After that adulthood won't be so far away. And as for right now ..."

She put the jar on the table and looked at them triumphantly.

"Do you see what I have got here?" she asked when they both only looked at her expectantly.

"A fat beetle," Ron stated unimpressed.

"That," Hermione announced proudly. "Is Rita Skeeter in her unregistered animagus shape. I defeated her all alone even though I am only a child. So maybe once I am an adult and with the help of some other adults I will be able to take on even You-Know-Who ... or at last a Death Eater or two."

It sounded like rather tall talk to Harry, but perhaps Hermione had a point. Maybe once they were adults some tasks wouldn't look quite as impossible as they did now. They didn't have to start by taking on You-Know-Who himself after all. With a little luck they might not have to because he'd already be defeated and safely kept in Azkaban by the time they left the institute.

It was only later, after the feast, that Harry thought to wonder what Hermione would do with her prisoner. Surely she'd already been missed by her employers at the Daily Prophet and the Aurors had been alerted. Surely capturing an adult in a jar was wrong. What would happen to Hermione once the other adults found out? He'd have to discuss it with her in the morning.