.24.

Despite the upheavals that had plagued the school in recent weeks, life went on. Time continued to pass. The usual routines of lessons, independent study and extra-curricular activities continued normally. The most noticeable difference was that the loss of everyone's favourite Charms professor continued to cast a pall over the school. To Hermione's perpetual dismay, she continued to be ostracised and was shunned by the entire student body, as well as the staff. Many of the interdimensional students were somewhat more considerate and kind-hearted to her, but it was hard to feel generous toward her when she was presenting herself as so unsympathetic. After discussing her radical behaviour change with many of Hermione's classmates and former friends, many people concluded that after what she had gone through in the year before in the war, her brain had apparently snapped. Too much study and hard work, not enough rest and relaxation. It was far too stressful for her to live up to her own enormously high expectations and the immense pressure she put on herself had finally caused her to shatter. There were many, many theories about what had caused Hermione's so-called 'odd' behaviour this year. Hogwarts was essentially just one big old gossip mill, after all.

However, as the time continued to pass, it meant that the end of the school year was approaching, and with it the annual end of year exams. Unfortunately, none of the interdimensional students were taking the exams seriously. They would be returning to their own worlds, to their own lives and their kingdoms and territories as soon as the school year had ended, after all. But unknown to them, Headmistress McGonagall was expecting that their carefully laid plans would not come to fruition.

On the Monday, a week before the exams were to begin, Headmistress McGonagall stood up at the Head table in the Great Hall at breakfast time. Instantly a hush fell over the hall. The last time Headmistress McGonagall had delivered a message to the school, it was to announce Professor Flitwick's death. Everyone instantly panicked – who had died this time? Another staff member? Hopefully it was the cantankerous old caretaker who had died, if it was a member of staff. Or was it a student this time?

But Headmistress McGonagall was smiling broadly, as though she had a big treat in store for them all. Whispers immediately sprung up around the Hall – no one had seen Headmistress McGonagall look so happy since old Headmaster Dumbledore had died. Not since before the war had begun to escalate. It was more than a little unnerving.

"If all of the students from Erilea and Prythian could stand up for a minute," Headmistress McGonagall called out loudly. "I have a special surprise for you all."

Only once all twenty-eight of them were standing – seven at each House table – did McGonagall continue speaking. "I said that I have a special surprise for all of you, and I most certainly do. You have all spent the past year here in this ancient school, contributing to its store of arcane knowledge, studying with our students, learning about our way of life as we learned about yours. It was decided by the Ministry of Magic that once the school year was over, you would return to your own worlds and continue to live your lives there. But I believe differently. I never wanted you here in the first place. I thought that you would merely be a distraction to my students, that you would prevent them from healing after what they went through in the war. And needless to say, I have been proved right on this fact. Over and over again this year, the twenty-eight of you have been a big pain in my ass. I believe that I deserve compensation. So you will not be returning to your own worlds after all. You will remain here in Wizarding Britain and work to help the victims of the war until I consider your debt repaid. The Minister for Magic does not yet know about my plans for you, but I remain confident that Minister Shacklebolt will see the merit of it and will eventually agree with me. It might take a while, but I am certain that Shacklebolt will eventually see the sense of it. That is all. You may continue with your breakfast and then go straight on to your lessons. I will be extremely angry if I hear that any of you are slacking off."

With that, Headmistress McGonagall sat sharply, oblivious to the sudden uproar in the Hall. Even the entire staff was looking at her oddly, as though they could not believe their eyes or ears. No one could.

No one, that is, except Hermione. In the dead silence of the Great Hall she could be heard muttering to no one in particular. "At least Tamlin will be able to stay with me, and I'll finally be able to make sure that that bitch Feyre stays away from him. I hate the way she's always fawning over him."

At the sound of Hermione's offhand comments, every single one of the interdimensional students walked out of the Great Hall, up the marble staircase and all the way straight up to the Room of Requirement in silence. The Room looked exactly as it had months ago when they had been planning the lessons that they had given the rest of the student body, when they had been teaching them about the reality of their worlds… None of them ever thought that they would be back in this Room again… If only they could go back to that time… If only they could go back to that time… If only they had never came here to this pathetic castle that they called a school… If only everything could have been different… If only they could all go back in time… But, alas, that was no longer possible…

"She can't do this, right?" Elain whimpered. "That horrible old woman can't do this, can she? She shouldn't be able to do this. It's not right."

At the sound of his mate's distress Lucien gently wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "No, Elain, she shouldn't be able to do this to us. I know we all thought that the Headmistress was slowly starting to warm up to the idea of us being here, but I really think that she was just faking it all along. But no, she technically isn't allowed to do this."

"The Headmistress is a good actress," Cresseida said bitterly. "She was able to fool all of us, and seeing that the majority of us are Fae that really is saying something. There is no way in hell that she should have been able to pull this over on us. We should have seen it coming well before now."

"Did you hear what she said though?" Endymion said.

A couple of them shrugged or shook their heads. "To be honest, I stopped paying attention after the bitch said that she was literally forcing us to stay her indefinitely," Feyre grumbled resentfully, from where she had flung herself onto the couch next to Rhys. "I never much liked that woman, but I'm really starting to hate her now."

At that Endymion almost had to force himself not to roll his eyes. "The old bat said that the so-called Minister of Magic didn't know what she was doing, but that she was sure that he would agree, didn't she?"

"Get to the point, Endymion," said Dorian. "None of us want to be stuck in this room all day, anymore that we want to be stuck in this horrible old world for the rest of our lives."

"The point is," Endymion continued, unable to prevent himself from rolling his eyes this time, "is that she outright said that no one from the Ministry of Magic knows about what she's doing. This makes me think that she thought she would be able to continue to pull the wool over our eyes, and make us stay here, and then the Ministry would just have to go along with it."

"The only problem with that is that it has more black holes than a black hole," Eris said nastily. "Besides, did you see the way the rest of the staff were looking at the bitch? It's not just us that think the Headmistress is off her rocker. The rest of the staff thinks she's off her rocker too."

"She's not just off her rocker," Aedion said numbly. "She's gone bonkers. Beyond nutty. She's completely and utterly insane."

"How the hell are we all going to get home?" Aelin asked, near tears. "I already abandoned my kingdom out of cowardice once. I'm not going to make the same mistake twice. I have to go home."

They all started to 'wake up' at Aelin's words. How were they going to get home?

"Aelin makes a good point," Tarquin said softly. "It's not like we can give into the Headmistress's petty demands. Not when we weren't even responsible for the war here in the first place. She doesn't even deserve to call herself a Headmistress. Not when she doesn't care about her students the way a Headmistress is supposed to."

"But what on earth can we do to get home, Tarquin?" Nesta demanded. "It's not like we know how to get home by ourselves, and besides with Flitwick dead, our champion is dead. We can't even do anything about it – not with Flitwick dead."

"Don't you think that it's slightly suspicious that the Headmistress only mentioned this insane idea of hers after Flitwick died?" Azriel asked, speaking for the first time.

"What are you suggesting?" Rhys said sharply, his attention honing solely on to his spy master. "That the bitch who fancies herself a Headmistress was involved in the good Professor's death?"

"I'm not suggesting anything," Azriel murmured. "I'm just pointing out the coincidences. It's not my fault if you don't like where the coincidences are pointing."

"I don't see why you are all so upset about having to stay here," Tamlin said loudly, capturing everyone's attention. "Quite personally, I don't mind this world at all and would prefer to stay here rather than go back."

"You're only saying that because you're in love with that Hermione bitch," Feyre snapped angrily. "Personally, I think the pair of you suit each other to a T."

"But what about the Spring Court, Tamlin?" Rowan asked almost exasperatedly. "You have a responsibility to your Court, to your people. You cannot just turn your back on them, just because of some girl has taken your fancy."

"I don't care," Tamlin said stubbornly. "Without Hermione, my court means nothing to me."

"Why don't you just ask her to come back to Prythian with you," Feyre grumbled. "When we finally manage to get back there, that is."

"Why on earth didn't I think of that?" Tamlin moaned to himself. "I am literally so stupid. Sometimes I just hate myself."

"No kidding," Feyre grumbled. "I could have told you that. In fact, I think anyone in this room could have told you that."

"Anyway," Eris snapped, exasperated. "Getting back to the point, how on earth are we going to get back home in the first place? I hate this place. I don't want to be stuck here forever. What on earth are we going to do? What on earth can we do?"

A heavy silence hung over the Room at Eris's words. None of them could think of anything to say. After all, Eris did bring up a good point. What on earth could they do? They were, effectively stuck in a place that most of them still hated with a vengeance. What had this world done for them, after all? Very little, after all. They had been treated abominably by most of the student body before they slowly started to become accustomed to them. The one authority figure that had actually enjoyed their company – the one authority figure who had actually believed in them and had championed their rights was now dead, and was no help to them now. They were literally helpless. They were completely stuck. There was nothing – nothing at all – that they could do.

"But what about this Minister of Magic person?" Elain mumbled faintly. "The Headmistress said that he didn't know about what she was planning. Maybe we could try to appeal directly to him or something. From what little I've heard about him, he's a decent person. He might just listen to us. Or at least I hope he will."

"That's not such a bad idea, Elain," Endymion said thoughtfully, making her blush. "From what the regular students have told me, the man believes firmly in equality and fairness for all. At the very least, he likely will listen to our side of the story."

"We could try and start a petition and send it to him," Chaol said helpfully. "Try to get as many of the regular students on our side as possible. There were a lot of angry people in the Great Hall just now."

"I agree," Azriel said calmly. "We can skip classes today to work drafting our arguments for it. After what just happened I don't think any of us care about grades anymore."

A general murmur of assent went round the room at his words. But then, Amren who had been quite unusually silent until then let out an angry moan.

"What's the matter this time, Amren?" Rhys said in an irritated tone. "Don't like our plans to get you back to your safe, comfortable home?"

"No, it's not that," Amren groused in a discontented tone. "I think that the baby might be coming..."