Chapter 21: Aftermath
"Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed;
Too severe, seldom executed."
-Benjamin Franklin-
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McGonagall's office on the first floor was already brightly let when Filch dragged Harry and Hermione inside.
"Another two students out of bed?" she asked before Filch could say anything. "Did the school day start early today and I was misinformed?
"Sit," she said coldly.
Harry looked around, but there were no chairs available. Padma and Parvati sat together in two and Allie had a third in front of McGonagall's desk while Malfoy lounged confidently near the door. Wizards and witches in Ministry robes filled the room which he was sure had been magically expanded to fit them all.
"Caught 'em wandering the corridors, I did," Filch said.
"Not in the Astronomy Tower, then?" one of the Ministry wizards asked.
"No," Filch said flatly.
"They were there. They had to be!" Malfoy said, springing up.
"Sit down, Mr. Malfoy," McGonagall said. She turned to the Ministry wizard. "As you can see, this is an internal matter, not a criminal one."
"We have evidence…"
"I have proof!" Malfoy cried. He reached into his robe pocket and came out with a scrap of parchment. "I tried to tell you, Professor. They really do have a dragon, or at least they did."
"Mr. Malfoy," McGonagall said. "I assure you, evidence or no, you are in quite enough trouble as it is for being out of your bed at this time in the morning. If you wish to find yourself in further trouble, then by all means, keep digging."
"Let me see that," one of the law enforcement patrol members said. He snatched the parchment up from Malfoy and began to read it.
Harry traded looks with his friends. The letter! But there was no way to get it back, no way to explain it.
"Which one of you is Ron?" he asked.
"Ronald Weasley is in the hospital wing," McGonagall said severely.
"Does he know someone named 'Charlie', ma'am?"
"His older brother," McGonagall said tightly.
"His older brother who works with dragons!" Malfoy said.
"And you, girl, are you friends with him?" he asked Allie.
"First," Allie said coolly. "My name is Elissa Blackthorn, not 'girl'. You may address me as Ms. Blackthorn."
"Answer the question."
Harry silently begged Allie to do just that rather than get herself into more trouble. But if she saw him or understood the message she ignored it for a moment, fixing the wizard with a frosty look before inclining her head slightly. "Ronald Weasley is a bigoted, opinionated little nit with an inflated sense of himself who doesn't like me because I'm in Slytherin. No, we are not friends…but we do have friends in common."
"Friends good enough to get you to illegally transfer a dragon for him?"
Allie surprised everyone in the room by laughing. "A dragon? Seriously? That's funny."
The wizard frowned. "You were found on top of the Astronomy Tower, at midnight, with a signal lantern."
Harry winced, the Astronomy Tower was strictly out-of-bounds except for classes.
"I have chronic insomnia so I thought I'd do a little astronomy revision," Allie said.
"And the signal lantern?" the wizard asked skeptically.
"I needed something to see by. The corridors are quite dark at this time of night."
"Are you being smart with me?"
"Me, sir? Never."
Harry heard a soft cough and glanced at McGonagall just in time to see her lifting her hand from her mouth.
"Why not use wand-light? If I remember correctly the charm would have been taught to you by now."
"I never did manage to get it to work correctly," Allie said. "Would you like me to demonstrate?" She started to lift her wand to point it at Malfoy.
"No!" McGonagall said, standing up as Malfoy took one look at Allie's wand and dived from his chair. "That…will not be necessary," McGonagall said.
The wizard looked at her, then at Malfoy who was sprawled on the ground before turning to Allie.
"Can't you at least stay on your chair, Malfoy? You're disgracing our House before the Puff," Allie said scathingly with a jerk of her head towards Harry who quickly had to smother a laugh of his own as Malfoy glared at him.
"I was in Hufflepuff," the wizard said.
"Congratulations," Allie said, "you can see what I have to put up with. As for my wand, it has a fwooper feather core. It can be a little unpredictable."
"I…see," he said slowly. "This letter, however, is pretty conclusive. You have a nice story but unless you have someone who can support your version of events…"
Harry started to speak up, but Hermione elbowed him in the side. Harry turned to her and she looked pointedly at Allie, then flicked her eyes at first the Ministry wizard, then Professor McGonagall. Both were watching the Slytherin with rapt gazes. He turned back to Hermione and nodded slightly. For now she had the attention of everyone in the room and they had been all but forgotten.
"Excuse me, ma'am," Allie was saying to the hatch-faced witch who was now examining the note, "but could I see that note for a moment?"
The witch turned to Allie with a sour expression. "You have something to confess, girl?"
Harry could see the fire that blazed in her eyes, but this time she didn't correct it. "I won't know without seeing that letter," she said evenly.
The magical law-witch regarded her for a moment before passing her the letter.
"How did you get this, Draco?" Allie asked.
"That doesn't matter," Malfoy huffed.
"It might," Allie said. She turned to the wizard, "You see, sir, I received a letter just like this one while I was helping Ronald Weasley revise his potion notes as a favor for our mutual friend. I haven't been able to find it since. By the time it occurred to me that he may have grabbed it by mistake, thinking it was for him, he was in the Hospital Wing and Madam Pomfrey wasn't allowing any visitors so I couldn't ask him."
"What does that have to do with this letter?" McGonagall demanded. "And why would you be getting a letter addressed to him from Charlie Weasley?"
"It's…complicated, Professor, but it wasn't addressed to Weasley and it certainly wasn't from his brother. You see, aside from lessons I spent the last year living in the muggle world. Master G thought it would be one of those 'good learning experiences' that Master-wizards of the old school like to inflict upon their apprentices," Allie said. "While I was doing that I got caught up in this game. It's sort of like being part of a theater production where the actors all know the basic plot of the play, but there is no script and instead all of the lines and characters are ad-libbed on the spot…if the production were done by mail, of course."
"You broke the Secrecy Statues?" one of the Ministry men demanded.
"Of course not!" Allie protested with eyes wide with unfeigned shock. "I set up an owl/muggle-post relay. The letters go to a specific place via the muggle-post, and then get transferred to an ordinary mail owl. When I send a reply I send the owl to the same address, and they forward it."
"But the letter specifically describes the Astronomy Tower and even says what species of dragon!" Malfoy said.
"Exactly," the law-wizard said.
"My character lives near a public observatory that is perched on a high hill. We've been calling it the 'Astronomy Tower' since before I came to Hogwarts. As for the dragon, if you notice the letter doesn't actually say 'dragon'. I rather suspect that she mixed up a Norwegian Lundehund with a Rhodesian Ridgeback; we've been using dog breeds to indicate various packages that our characters exchange so no one would get suspicious, see? But after the common breeds have all been used it can take some effort to find new ones and sometimes it can be hard to keep them straight."
It was all Harry could do not to gape at Allie. For every question she had an answer, and for every objection an explanation. It sounded bizarre, and he knew she just had to be lying, but it all sounded so maddeningly reasonable.
"What about Mr. Weasley?" McGonagall asked.
"It isn't addressed to him, it's addressed to Ron," Allie said. "It's short for Veronica."
"You use 'Ron' as a nickname for Veronica?" Hermione asked.
Harry looked at her, and it took him a moment to realize that she was playing along with Allie's story.
"Let's hear you try coming up with a good way of shortening Veronica, Granger," Allie said. She turned back to the wizard. "Ron, Veronica, is the name of my character. Actually in this case it's a person my character is pretending to be. It's a long and rather involved story. As for Charlie, it's short for Charlene. Her real name, the player I mean, is…Amanda though, I think, we don't exactly discuss our real lives inside the game you understand. I think she lives somewhere in Devon judging by the postal marks."
"You don't even know where she lives?" this from the wizard from the disposal of dangerous creatures unit.
"She uses a post-office box," Allie said with a shrug. "So do I; that's where it gets routed to an owl. For all I know it could be forwarded from there. Why, she could even be another witch, I suppose, if she has it forwarded with owl-post. What I'd like to know is how Draco got his hands on my post."
"It wasn't her, it was Potter!" Malfoy said.
The wizard looked at Malfoy, then turned and looked at Harry and Hermione. His eyes did that little flick Harry was starting to expect from wizards and witches, the one that drifted up to his forehead to take in his scar before snapping back down to his eyes. "Were they caught near the Astronomy Tower?" he asked Filch.
"No," the Caretaker grunted unhappily.
"Was it near midnight?"
"Nearly one," Filch said.
"Hmm…well, I suppose it would have taken a little time to…harness the dragon or box it up or however they would have transported it," the wizard said. "But was their path on the way to their dorms from the Astronomy Tower?"
"Not unless they became exceptionally lost," Filch said.
"And you, Professor, said that this Ron fellow who is in the hospital wing has a brother named Charlie?"
"That is correct," she said coolly.
"In that case, I think that what most likely happened was that this Ron saw a letter that seemed to be from his brother and took it after his and…Ms. Blackthorn's study session, and Mr. Malfoy, upon seeing this letter, alerted the Ministry to what he thought was illegal activity."
"But…"
"Sit down, Mr. Malfoy," the wizard said. "Be happy that I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt. If I were to think that you had done this deliberately as a hoax or some form of prank you would be much more unhappy dealing with me, than you will be dealing with your Professors."
He turned back to McGonagall. "I think you're right, Professor McGonagall. This seems to be a purely internal Hogwarts matter. I'm sorry for the disturbance, but I did have to investigate."
"Certainly," she said tightly. "Perhaps if I had known about all of the evidence sooner we could have discovered the misunderstanding more quickly."
The wizard held up his hands slightly. "I just knew that there was some intercepted correspondence, Ma'am. I got the call right from the Minister's office."
"Hmph," McGonagall said.
That seemed to be the end of it. The Ministry people began to shuffle out of the room.
"Excuse me," Allie said. "My letter?"
"Of course," the wizard said, handing it over. He nodded one last time to McGonagall, then followed the others out of the room.
McGonagall all glared balefully at them for what seemed like forever. "Ministry investigations," she hissed. "Studying. In all of my years of teaching…six students out of bed at one in the morning. Disgraceful. Ms. Granger, I thought you had more sense than this. All of you shall receive detentions—yes, you as well, Mr. Malfoy. Nothing gives you the right to walk around the school at night, especially these days, it's very dangerous—"
"With respect, Professor," Padma said. "Professor Dumbledore was most eloquent in his explanations about how safe Hogwarts was when he came to visit over the winter holiday."
For a moment Harry thought McGonagall was going to explode. "Hogwarts is safe," she hissed, "for students who stay in their dormitories after curfew and don't go wandering about places that are forbidden."
"We were told that Padma was attacked in the hall adjacent to the forbidden corridor, Professor, not the forbidden corridor itself, Professor," Parvati said coldly. "A place she was forced to retreat to by the rising flood waters, which is rather different than 'wandering about places that are forbidden.'" She stood, "If Hogwarts isn't safe I think—"
"Sit down, Ms. Patil," McGonagall cut her off in a frigid voice, "before you make yourself appear even more ridiculous. Do you honestly think that the Headmaster, or the Professors, or even the Board of Governors, would allow Hogwarts to continue if it wasn't safe for the students here?"
"We wouldn't presume to understand the Headmaster's thought processes," Padma said, placing a hand on Parvati's knee. "And I fully realize that I am not objective where any…perceived danger may be. I also understand how the Headmaster, and his Deputy of course, may not be willing to share certain privileged information with a first year. I think my father, however, should be in a much better position to assess the true amount of danger to myself and my sister. I'll write him tomorrow and let him know what you said, thank you, Professor."
For a moment Harry thought McGonagall might explode, but at last she gave a short, choppy nod to Padma and turned on Allie.
"As for you," she said. "Madam Pomfrey is a fine medi-witch. You will report to her in the morning. If necessary she will provide you with a potion for your insomnia, which you will take."
"The types of potions I need are proscribed for long-term use," Allie said.
"Regardless, you will see her and you will take whatever treatment she sees fit to assign," McGonagall said. "All of you will serve a detention. In addition your houses will lose fifty points."
"Fifty?" Malfoy demanded.
"Each!" McGonagall hissed.
Harry blinked. Against all expectations Gryffindor had quickly made up most of the points it had lost after the Weasley Twin incident. The sudden upswing fueled in part by manic effort on the part of Hermione, and in part by a few students who had recalled Harry's 'detention' for Quidditch. Harry didn't know all of the details, but there was something to the effect of them helping out around the castle in exchange for house points.
Filch seemed to be in two minds about it. On one hand he got students doing more and more of the things that he would have otherwise had to do. On the other, they were getting rewarded for doing it, something that did not sit well with him.
As a result, Slytherin was in the lead, but only by a narrow margin. Both houses' margin over Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw was much larger, though. Hufflepuff was very narrowly edging out Ravenclaw, mostly thanks to the Quidditch wins. Or that's the way the points had been.
With two Slytherins and two Gryffindors in the room, those two houses had taken a much larger cut than Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. Enough of a cut that Hufflepuff would now be leading in house points for the first time in student memory.
"You can't do that!" Malfoy shouted.
"Don't tell me what I can and cannot do, Mr. Malfoy!" McGonagall snapped.
"My father is on the Board of Governors," Malfoy hissed. "When he hears about this—"
"And that will be an additional fifty for coercion and attempted extortion of a Professor," McGonagall said. "Would you care to make it an even two hundred from Slytherin, Mr. Malfoy? No? Then get to bed. Now!"
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When Hogwarts came down to breakfast the next morning, no one seemed to know what to make of the sudden change in points. Gryffindor was out of the lead, which they took hard. On the other hand both Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff had lost fifty points in one go, but had actually had ended up with better position for the House Cup despite the loss and Hufflepuff was leading in point totals for the first time in student memory. And in any case, Slytherin was the one House all the others wanted to see lose. Even if Gryffindor was no longer winning Slytherin had taken a dive that was insurmountable, not this late in the year without any Quidditch games left to them.
Everyone knew that Harry Potter had something to do with it, but nobody knew quite what that something was. The other Houses debated rumors, point totals, and the last remaining Quidditch game (Gryffindor/Ravenclaw). There were a lot of backhanded compliments offered to Harry by the other Hufflepuffs and Thrace gave him a stern injunction not to inflict his 'win through losing' tactic on future Hufflepuff teams. Through it all, however, Slytherin sat huddled and smug at their table.
The next morning the rest of the school found out why the Slytherins were so smug.
"Do you think it's possible to be re-Sorted?" Allie asked sitting down across from Harry.
Harry ripped his gaze away from where the Slytherin hourglass was filled with tiny emeralds. All of the points they had lost had been regained. Allie, he noticed immediately, was not wearing her house badge.
"What happened?" Harry asked. "You're not wearing your house badge."
"I ripped it off," she said.
"What about the points?" Susan asked.
"Malfoy's daddy came through for him," she said, her voice dripping with contempt.
"I thought you didn't care about points," Harry said.
"I don't," she said flatly. "But that little wretch used me, the points I lost, to game the system. I really dislike being used."
"What are you going to do about it?" Susan asked as Harry, Ernie and Justin crowded in closer.
Allie smiled coldly. "Do you happen to know anyone who is a fair hand at duplication charms and glamours?"
"Why?" Susan asked.
"Tell them I'll pay ten galleons for three hundred copies of this," Allie said, setting her house badge on the table. Ten golden coins followed. "A third of them need a glamour of the Hufflepuff house badge, the others split evenly between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. I'll need them by lunch. Find out if it's possible, but wait for my signal before starting production."
"Duplication without something to copy the original onto won't last long," Cedric said. "A couple of hours, a day, maybe."
"More than enough."
"What will the signal be?"
"You'll know it," Allie told Susan grimly. She put five sickles on the table. "In case it doesn't work, that's for…whoever's troubled. If it works they can consider it a bonus."
Susan nodded once, and quickly pocketed the money and the badge and left.
"What are you going to do?" Harry asked. "Allie…don't get expelled."
"I'll try not to," Allie said. "Of course, people don't like it when you throw their hypocrisy in their face. I plan to shove it down their throats."
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Justin asked.
"No," she said. "In fact I'm pretty sure that it's a terrible idea." She looked at him. "Your family probably has as much money as Malfoy does. Do you think you could get your father to buy you a couple of school Governors as an early birthday present?"
"No," Justin said. "He really doesn't like corruption or nepotism."
"Pity."
Susan came back as the owls started to arrive with the morning post. "It's set up, but they say that the duplicates won't last long."
"Allie," Harry said, "What are you going to do?"
"Malfoy is an arrogant, conceited little snot who is used to his father buying him whatever he wants," Allie said. "Watch your back, Harry. He took your refusal of his gracious offer of friendship on the train back in September a bit personally. I'm simply a more immediate target since I'm in the same house as him."
She cocked her head and added thoughtfully. "I probably should have let him think that I didn't have a problem with killing him when he challenged me to that duel, but it's too late to change that."
"Why?" Harry asked. "I thought you didn't want to kill him."
"I don't, but he didn't need to know that," she said. "I won't kowtow to him, and he thinks I don't want to hurt anyone so he's taking cheap shots at me that he thinks I can't or won't effectively answer. The real problem is he's right. I'm not good enough to curse him without risking serious injury, and while my grandmother is scary—"
"She doesn't support you," Harry finished. "Could you, I don't know, come up with some sort of bluff using her?"
"And what happens when he calls the bluff? She won't reverse points or send the Ministry after us like Draco's daddy will."
The Hufflepuffs traded looks.
"What are you going to do?" Justin asked at last.
"I can't answer him, not by the rules he's playing by, so it's time to change the rules. Listen, Harry, if I'm expelled—"
"You can't be," Harry said.
She raised an eyebrow.
"You won't," Harry insisted. "Dumbledore needs me at this school for some reason."
"Don't piss him off, Harry," Allie said, toying with the front of her robes. "For one, he's been living a lot longer than us. For another, he's a really powerful wizard. You try to contend with him directly and you'll lose. And now I have to go or breakfast will be over."
"Allie, wait!"
But it was too late. She had already stood and was heading for the High Table.
"What do you think she's going to do?" Susan asked.
"Maybe ask to have those points taken away again," Harry said. "But I can't think of what she'd need to badges for…unless she was going to invite everyone to join Slytherin House."
Justin and Ernie traded grimaces and Susan looked disgusted at the idea.
"Allie might not be so bad," Susan said. "But share a room with Pansy? Ugh."
Harry nodded. "The thing is, if that was her plan, why the glamour?"
The Hall fell silent as people noticed her walking towards the Head Table.
"Can we help you, Ms. Thorne?" Dumbledore asked, his voice pitched so all of the Great Hall heard it.
"I've heard a number of rumors," Allie asked. "So I just wanted to know what Slytherin had done to earn a hundred fifty points over night."
"Those points were part of a bookkeeping error, Ms. Thorne," Dumbledore said levelly.
"Bookkeeping error?" she repeated. "How does one make a bookkeeping error, Headmaster, when points are tracked with gems in sealed hourglasses? Are these…magic points? Do they simply appear out of thin air?"
"Five points from Slytherin for your tone, Ms. Blackthorn," McGonagall said.
Eyes turned, but not one emerald left the Slytherin hourglass.
She turned back to them and asked something that Harry couldn't hear from his seat. Whatever the reply was, however, it was clearly not satisfactory.
Allie turned to face the Great Hall. "A couple of nights ago I was caught wandering the halls after curfew," she told them. "Professor McGonagall took fifty points from Slytherin and gave me a detention. Fairly deserved, I admit it. When I was in her office, Draco Malfoy was there as well. He had some story about a dragon being loose in the halls and Harry Potter sneaking it out of the castle."
"There was a dragon!" Malfoy shouted, standing up.
"Which was why you contacted your father, and he dropped a bag of galleons on the Minister's desk, and he sent a team from the DMLE and the DRCMC to come to Hogwarts yesterday. I hate to disappoint, but they didn't find a dragon, Malfoy. They didn't even find evidence of a dragon. But you went screaming 'dragon' up and down the halls in the middle of the night so you got a detention and lost fifty points like the rest of us—"
"I did not!"
"—and then lost another fifty when you tried to use your father's position on the Board of Governors to extort Professor McGonagall to return the points with the implication that she'd face being sacked if she didn't."
The Hall was silent. Professor McGonagall, who had started to stand, sat down heavily in her chair, her face gone a pasty-white, and Professor Sprout was quivering with outrage. The rest of the Great Hall was equally shocked. A student, a Slytherin, admitting before the entire school that they had deserved to lose fifty points? The same Slytherin accusing another of threatening a teacher? Everyone knew that Slytherins were supposed to be cunning, but to use family so blatantly to get what you were after? And then have someone get up before the whole school and call you on it? Things like this just weren't done. The way Allie described it wasn't exactly how Harry remembered things, but it was close and if Malfoy hadn't said anything at all about her being sacked, well, it was implied rather than spoken aloud. Right?
"Ms. Blackthorn," Snape said in a rasp. For a moment he stopped there, then he did something that no one thought he would ever do. "For your slanderous comments—"
"I've got witnesses, Professor, four or five of them," Allie said.
"—I am deducting twenty points from Slytherin "
Eyes shot across the Hall. The gems in the Slytherin hourglass remained stubbornly still.
"It seems your hourglass is broken, Professor," Allie said dryly.
Harry reached for his wand as Snape started to stand, but Dumbledore put a hand on the younger Professor's shoulder and stood himself.
"Ms. Blackthorn," Dumbledore said. "This is unbecoming of a Hogwarts student and a member of Slytherin House."
"I prize cunning and ambition, Headmaster," Allie said, her voice pitched so the entire Hall could hear her side of the conversation. "It goes with the House. Had Draco come up with some ambitious project to make up the points I would have been first in line behind him to push."
"I doubt it," Harry muttered. Except to push him over a cliff or off one of the towers, maybe, he thought, although Allie didn't resort to physical violence. Or at least she hadn't yet.
"Shh," Susan hissed.
"She's going to get herself expelled for sure."
"Certainly the Gryffs have shown themselves capable of that much. They've managed to make up nearly a hundred-point loss in less than, what, two weeks? Well done," she clapped lightly.
"Had he come up with some clever ploy to win the points back or wrest the House Cup from the rest of the Houses I would have cheered as much as any other Slytherin. Well…in all likelihood I would have cheered more, but that's neither here nor there. Instead he went whining to daddy."
She paused to let that sink in, but only for a moment.
"Personally," she continued, "I could care less about the points. If he had only had his hundred-point deduction reversed I wouldn't have cared. But he also got the fifty that I've admitted that Professor McGonagall was right to take. In doing so he involved me in this…disgraceful childish scheme, and the staff let him get away with it," her tone dripped with contempt.
She turned and addressed the Hall again. "So going on sale in the Entrance Hall after lunch, for two knuts a piece, are point-blockers. As long as you have one on your robes, no points can be taken from your House."
With that she walked down the Hall between the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables. The doors of the Great Hall slammed closed behind her.
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A bronze and blue badge hit the table and skidded down its length to come to a rest in front of Professor Flitwick who began to examine it.
"What is it?" Albus asked the diminutive charms professor.
"It appears to be a Ravenclaw house badge," Flitwick said idly.
"Exactly," Vector said. "It appears to be."
"What do you mean?" Albus asked, turning to the Master Arithmancer.
"That," Vector said, "is what happened to the points system and why Slytherin now stands at a negative one hundred and twelve points."
"It is hardly a topic for amusement," Severus said.
"Personally, I find it bloody hilarious," said the only other Slytherin professor.
"Language," McGonagall said severely.
"You would have done better in Hufflepuff with an attitude like that," Severus retorted. "And you wonder why the Headmaster made me Head of Slytherin."
"Hufflepuff? Really, is that the best you can do?" Vector asked scornfully. "A Hufflepuff could have come up with something better than that ham-handed way Malfoy made up the points. And after the last incident between him and Ms. Blackthorn you should have known that restoring the points she lost to disadvantage the other Houses would only infuriate her. Or did you know, and were so contemptuous of her that you didn't think she'd find a way to respond?"
"Enough," Albus Dumbledore said. Septima and Severus were the only two alumni of Slytherin House on staff and had very different views on how it should have been run. It didn't help that Septima had fully and rightly expected to be named Head of Slytherin before Severus had become the Potions Maser and the need for him to have close access to the children of his former Master's followers. Most of the arguments had been left in the past and the two tolerated each other with an icy sort of formality, but explosions still occasionally erupted.
Unfortunately, Albus thought, in this case Septima was right. Even if Ms. Thorne hadn't retaliated, the consequences of allowing Mr. Malfoy the kind of power he had just demonstrated would be catastrophic for the other students. That Lucius Malfoy had convinced the other Governors that the punishment was 'excessive' and 'clearly biased' didn't help.
"You have analyzed it?" Albus asked. "Then please, tell us how it works."
"It works like any other house badge, really," Vector said. "It's a duplicated Slytherin badge with an illusion or glamour covering it up. I'm betting glamour."
"Why do you think that?" Filius asked, examining the badge.
"Because I think that whoever duplicated this didn't know what they were duplicating," Vector said. "If she's as skilled with runes and arithmancy as you suggested, Albus, then she could have come up with something that would have made the duplicator not notice what he or she was duplicating. A glamour could have been applied to a duplicate badge with no one the wiser, an illusion—"
"Would have collapsed the effect. It could be applied to the duplicated object, but would not transfer from the object being duplicated the way a glamour would," Filius nodded slowly.
"Correct. If someone has their normal badge on, the points work properly. If they have this one on, all of the deductions, and additions, affect Slytherin's points instead."
"Surely they can't be that simple," McGonagall said. "The point system is tied into the wards themselves. That should be far beyond the capability of any student to affect."
"No," Vector said, "they aren't. Look, Minerva, there is an annoying tendency for people to use one term to describe multiple effects. Technically a ward is any and only defensive magic that is both non-mobile and intended to protect a specific place or area on permanent or, perhaps, semi-permanent basis. But we've taken to using the term 'ward' to apply to any area-specific defensive magic regardless of permanency or mobility, and even extended the term to cover virtually any continuous field-effect magic."
"Your point being?" McGonagall asked testily.
"I've done some experimenting. Did you know that you don't need to say what house you're giving or taking points from as long as you name the student? You don't even need to say what the points are for, except that point additions and deductions are logged for behavior-tracking reasons."
"No," she said.
Albus frowned slightly as Minerva turned to him.
"Surely that can't be correct, Albus."
"I admit it is not something to which I have previously given a great deal of thought," Dumbledore said mildly. "What happens in the case of siblings?"
Vector shrugged. "Unless you have twins you aren't likely to have a pair in the same class, are you? The Weasleys are both Gryffindors. I haven't had the Patils in my class yet, of course, but it would be a logical assumption that in their case you'd have to specify either which girl, or which House, the points would be going to or coming from. That would be the exception that proves the rule, really.
"As for the rest of your objection, Minerva, why can't it be just that simple? As far as points are concerned the badges are linked to the hourglasses. You say a person's name and the change in the number of points, that person's badge forwards the change to the hourglass linked to that badge. As far as points are concerned, each of the 'point blockers' Ms. Blackthorn sold are really just glamoured copies of the Slytherin house badge. That's all there is to it, really, simple and straightforward.
"The badges won't last long, and you'd be better able to predict that than I. But as you surmised, no, the higher level magics such as the enchantments on the badges that do interact with the wards, are not duplicated. I'm not certain that any of the functions other than the point-system were duplicated. Probably not since I suspect that these are actually copies made from a copy of her own house badge."
"Thank you, Septima," Albus said. He adjusted himself in his chair, it was a trifle high, and he made a mental note to find out what a 'Poobah' was and what a 'Grand High' one did. "And now let us consider how best to deal with this situation."
"We can start by expelling Blackthorn," Severus said. "Potter too, he most likely provided the support to create the things. She certainly does not have the capability to do so."
"Expulsion is a drastic step—" Albus began,
"And one that I will certainly object to taking in regards to Harry," Pomona said sharply
"And each case is reviewed before the Board of Governors," Albus finished. "I think Ms. Thorne meeting with them is something best avoided."
"We wait a suitable period of time to make certain that the fraudulent badges have decoalesced and then reset the points to what they were this morning," Minerva said. "I doubt they can last for very long."
"Impractical and wouldn't address the problem, unless you want to take back the fifty from Ms. Blackthorn and admit that what she said this morning was the truth," Pomona said.
Not unexpected, Albus thought. Only Minerva and Severus had been in on his discussion with the Governors about the points. The others had been informed of the magic on the hourglasses breaking down and that the 'bookkeeping error' in Slytherin had been what tipped them off to it. The realization of just what had happened had come as a nasty shock and she had been more than a little unhappy with him over his decision.
"We'd have to wait at least another day before we could start using the point system again. More to the point, if you didn't admit what the Governors did, it would leave us with the same situation that sparked Ms. Blackthorn to act this way. Whatever Severus feels aside, at least you Minerva should sympathize! To be threatened like that—"
"Mr. Malfoy did not threaten me," Minerva said. "He merely bluffed that his father could place pressure upon the board and staff."
"Pressure?" Pomona nearly shouted. "Pressure?" this time she did shout. "You caved in less than two days! And then to reverse only the points lost by Slytherin? The girl was right, Minerva. The whole thing really is a disgrace!"
"There are other ways, better ways, that the situation could have been resolved," Minerva agreed stiffly.
"Such as appealing to the Board of Governors?" Pomona asked scathingly.
"I'm not sure what we can do other than reset the points to what they were prior to the night before last," Filius said.
"And destroy our authority in the process," Pomona said. "You've let the entire school know that that Malfoy boy can adjust the points whenever he wants. All he has to do is call his father. That even justly taken points can be returned; as though it weren't bad enough the way you let Severus take points for breathing, Albus. And by now everyone has figured out that Ms. Blackthorn has figured out a way of manipulating the points. Or at least found a way of manipulating us to manipulate the points."
"After the way Mr. Potter manipulated Minerva into giving Hufflepuff the lead?" Severus asked. "A story about a dragon. Forged correspondence—you know as well as I that Blackthorn lied through her teeth about that letter. It just so happened that all of the people he regularly eats with were out in the halls after curfew. The way Draco was goaded into losing a hundred points on his own. And the whole of it timed so that Slytherin had no more Quidditch games in which to help make up the loss."
The Herbology professor was usually very easy going and of all of the Professors gave him the least trouble, but Albus could see she had built up a good head of steam and was well on her way to a truly terrific explosion.
"Wait." Albus turned to Professor Vector as the arithmancy professor cut in before Pomona could let loose. "Severus, you mean to tell us that you believe Harry Potter, whom you have frequently spoken about concerning his troubles in your class, planned, set in motion, and executed a plot to lose over three hundred points spread amongst all four of the Houses, including sabotaging the commanding position of two, all in an effort to make certain Slytherin loses the House Cup?
"Including—" she cut in as Severus started to speak "—getting Hagrid to slaughter a large number of chickens and order several casks of Old Tillman brandy and planting a letter for Mr. Malfoy to acquire—which he did by stealing another student's textbook, a matter I notice that has not been addressed. And you expect us to believe that he got two of the most studious students in his year to go along with it—including Ms. Granger who is the sole student in the first year how has yet to break even a minor rule. And in addition he convinced Ms. Blackthorn, who has spoken openly and disdainfully of the house point system, to go along with this as well?"
"Thank you, Septima, that will quite do," Albus said mildly. "I for one do not believe Mr. Potter planned any such thing. However, arguing about how we can to be in this situation will not alter the situation. And so the Chair will entertain suggestions for where we should go from here."
"The simplest solution would be to reset the points to zero," Charity said unexpectedly, she didn't usually speak up at these meetings.
Pomona shook her head, "as Severus points out there is only one Quidditch game left. Unless you wanted to discount the points from that game…"
Not unexpected, fair play was a Hufflepuff value. Equally unsurprising was Minerva's reluctance to discount Quidditch towards the House Cup.
Albus sat back in his chair to quietly observe.
Charity, usually another quiet one, noted: "Well, we can't simply reset the points to what they were two days ago, yesterday morning, or this morning. One undercuts our authority, the second would bring the Governors back into it, and the last is intolerable."
"We could recount the points deducted and awarded today," Severus said. "There are records. It would be tedious but straightforward to correct the injustice to Slytherin."
"Certainly, if Slytherin were to forfeit the one hundred and fifty points awarded to that 'bookkeeping error," Minerva said acidly.
"Outrageous," Severus hissed.
"Perhaps a compromise," Filius said. "We reset the points to what they were yesterday morning, and then award Ms. Blackthorn some points for taking a stand on a moral issue?"
"Award points? Filius, she's upset because we gave points back to her!"
"One hundred and fifty to Mr. Malfoy," Severus said instantly. "Potter may have the rest of you fooled, but there was a dragon on the grounds. Draco Malfoy's actions were…precipitous, and could have done with further thought, but he had only the best intentions and was motivated by concerns for the safety and welfare of his fellow students."
"Really, Severus?" Minerva asked acidly.
"No, hear me out," Filius said. "If we set them back to what they were yesterday morning, Slytherin would be down one hundred and fifty points of what they were the day prior. Then give Ms. Blackthorn fifty for taking…such a public stand on a difficult moral issue. If those are the only points awarded then it can't be said that her deduction was being used by Mr. Malfoy, it'd let the punishment for Mr. Malfoy's threats stand, it would set back the Governors so that they don't undermine us, and it would leave Slytherin with the same overall deduction as Gryffindor which would be only fair as both Houses had two students out."
"Assuming of course that the Governors go along with it," Minerva said. "I doubt the Governors would appreciate you throwing in their face that a first year student used them to threaten a teacher."
"The only 'threats' were those that one teacher wanted to hear and so chose to interpret as harshly as possible ill-conceived words spoken in a moment of shock," Severus said. "The boy had just lost his house the lead, Minerva, what did you expect him to say?"
"Thank you for your input," Albus said before either Minerva or Pomona could rise to the challenge. "The points will be reset to this morning. At supper Ms. Blackthorn will be awarded thirty points for taking a public stand against something she felt was unfair. A further twenty points will be returned to Slytherin on appeal. Mr. Malfoy's words were ill-chosen in the extreme, the loss of points will reflect this. At the same time it is my belief that no malice was intended…this time. You will council Mr. Malfoy, Severus, to use more temperate language when addressing Professors in the future."
"You mean yesterday morning," Pomona said sternly.
"Hmm? Oh, yes of course," Albus agreed.
\|/\|/\|/
The Professors decision didn't really satisfy anyone. Allie had usually eaten one or two meals a day at her house table, now she didn't sit there for any and refused to wear her house badge. Malfoy's talk about what his father would do for him was bigger than ever, and Harry knew that more than a few people believed it. The Professors seemed to have come to some silent agreement, for as long as Snape didn't harass Allie about sitting at the other tables and not wearing her badge, the rest were more or less content to let Malfoy alone.
In the aftermath of the days followed, Snape became even nastier than usual. It had been a rare lesson that Harry had gotten through without any points being taken, but now Snape was taking ten points or more a lesson. Harry wasn't the only person in Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw he was doing it to, but Harry was privately certain that the Potion Master wasn't stalking any of the others through the halls, taking points at every opportunity. Nor had Snape been satisfied with taking points. Ron reported that in his first lesson after being released from the hospital wing, Snape had given points to Goyle—who was almost at bad at Potions as Neville was, though less apt to make his cauldron explode—for showing 'acceptable effort', and gave Malfoy twenty points for his 'superior display of proper technique' of holding a stirring rod.
Harry's housemates rarely stood out in the way that garnered attention and points. Even with the deductions the Hufflepuff's had led Slytherin by less than sixty points. By the end of the day on Friday, the gap between Hufflepuff and Slytherin had shrunk to less than a dozen gems in the giant hourglasses that kept track of each House's standing and Ravenclaw had taken the lead while Hufflepuff edged out Gryffindor by a solitary point. Still, for three whole days they had led the school, something that hadn't happened since Susan's aunt had been a student.
That Saturday, Harry, dragging along a Ron fresh from the care of Madam Pomfrey, had led Hermione into the burrows, the twisting branching passages that led from the common room and the Hufflepuff sett proper out into Hogwarts proper. The halls had been lightly dusted with Peruvian instant-blackness powder. Only a trick rope Tonks had devised allowed him to find the way. One end was anchored at the Tower's door, while the other ended in a little wooden handle. The handle fitted on the rope, keeping it taut, and as they walked the rope disappeared behind them. Around and around and up and down the rope led them until they were all quite confused.
"What is this place?" Ron asked as Harry led them up past closed, and locked, doors.
"I know what this place is," Hermione said as they walked up into the main room. "This is the Tower of Turmoil, isn't it? You're part of the Hogwarts Lunatic Committee."
"The Hogwarts what?" Harry asked.
"Lunatic Committee," she said, blushing slightly.
"Hey, this sofa came from our common room!"
Harry and Hermione turned to where Ron was staring at the offending piece of furniture.
"Yes, Ron, it did," Harry said, walking over to Snape's former seat in the Staff Lounge. The man was a git, but he had good taste in comfortable furniture.
"Which one are you?" Hermione asked levelly. "I know you aren't the Baron of Banality, he wasn't one of the members listed."
"Oh, we have more members than those that were mentioned," Harry said airily. "But for your information, I am Janus, Master of Mayhem, et al, at your service," Harry said.
"But he's the head of the HLC!" Ron said. "He said so on Halloween!"
"Mmm hmm," Harry agreed. "I think it tickled the others' sense of the absurd."
"When you redirected that prank of Fred and George's onto the Professors, that was the HLC?" Hermione asked.
"More of an entry-prank for me," Harry said.
"What prank?"
"You remember, that one on the teachers that gave the women beards and all of them had striped hair?" Hermione asked. "I told you about following Parvati."
"Oh, yeah, that one," Ron said. He turned to Harry. "Why'd you ask us up here? Unless…"
He gave Harry an eager look. "You want to make us members."
"No," Harry said. "Not this year, Ron. There isn't time left to induct new members, bring them up to speed, and plan, formulate, and execute our next prank."
"Oh," Ron said unhappily. "Well, I suppose there's always next year."
"No there isn't," Hermione said slowly.
"Aw, Hermione," Ron groaned. "You aren't going to go off again about the importance of schoolwork."
"No," she said. "But the Patils were along for more than just guards. Or, if they were at the time, they didn't stay that way, did they Harry?"
Harry shook his head slowly. "No, Hermione, they didn't."
"Those Hufflepuffs you hang out with, Justin and Ernie?"
Harry nodded.
Hermione hesitated, glancing at Ron, before asking, "Blackthorn?"
Harry nodded again.
"You mean you allowed that-that—snake in before you even asked me!" Ron demanded, shooting to his feet.
"We were asked to join at the same time," Harry said. "Now sit down, Ron."
Ron glared at him, but he did sit down.
"I was planning on asking you both next year," Harry said. He had talked it over with the others already and only part of the reason he hadn't told them was to protect the secret. After Christmas, and the incident with the Mirror, he knew how much Ron wanted to stand out, and he knew Ron wasn't going to take hearing it well. "But Hermione is right. There are at least two good reasons for me not to. One of them is that you and Allie don't get along. Even during the past few weeks while we were trying to get rid of Norbert, unless Hermione or I was constantly reminding you about Hagrid, you'd snip at each other."
"The other problem is that most of the others are his friends," Hermione said softly.
"But so are we," Ron protested.
"Oh for Merlin's sake, Ron, think," Hermione snapped. "It's just like your chess strategy. You keep people occupied with your bishops and pawns so that they never notice your knights. If all of Harry's friends started to disappear at the same time, and pranks seem to happen shortly thereafter, it'd be more likely that someone would notice. Right now it helps that they're scattered among all of the Houses. But if we came in it'd be three of us in Gryffindor. It'd be harder to hide, and a lot of their success is because no one knows who they are."
"I suppose that makes a little sense," Ron muttered. "So why'd you ask us up here?"
"Because Hermione already saw it," Harry said. "We used it as a meeting place for Charlie's friends to smuggle Norbert out."
"Oh," Ron said. "Hermione told me about what happened, but I hadn't figured out what this place was."
"Neither had I until he told me." Hermione said with a grimace at the admission.
"So," Harry said. "Who wants the five-knut tour?"