A/N I'm alive? I am alive! still trying to wrangle my muse to get this going again, but it is NOT abandoned, just... slow to update for now.
49 Interludes and Traps
"You look… upset," Hermione commented to Harry late one night.
"I'm just… It's hard not to act when she's doing all this. It's like I'm failing to protect my friends," Harry grumped, maneuvering the contraption they were moving into position.
The device, which appeared to be a very large bin attached to a long tube with several legs to hold the whole thing up, was their latest brainchild. The latest 'Educational Decree' had effectively given Umbridge carte blanche in Hogwarts. The Ministry had basically pardoned her in advance for anything she did in the name of 'improving the educational environment', which also hamstrung Amelia from interfering unless she actually had proof that Umbridge broke the Law not covered in her little educational reform, since all the actual laws she had broken up until now were covered as 'educational improvements'. Even punishments were covered as long as they weren't violating laws. Even worse most laws didn't apply if the victim was of muggleborn, or even halfblood, status.
After the sneers and severe lack of help from the Headmaster, and him going so far as to prohibit any other staff from interfering, Hermione had set her sights on the Head of their magical government. The Cludge, as Harry called it, was the result.
Based loosely on the growing paintball trend muggles had, it was effectively a ball launcher. The bin was a hopper, providing ammunition for the barrel. The barrel was exactly like that of a muggle gun: a guide for the projectiles to travel along and shoot out of. The rest of the device was stabilizing the structure. The area where the hopper met the barrel was heavily enchanted with runes, which Hermione was very proud of. It was a cluster constructed to load a single ball of ammo into the barrel, then propel it out the end of the barrel with explosive energy in less than a second upon the contact of the magically charged trigger.
Then there was the ammo itself: one of Hermione's banes as a child were the rubber bouncy balls the other kids would occasionally throw at her. Because they would bounce away, they were not only reusable, but devilishly tricky to predict and control. A few simple spells and every one of the marble sized bouncy balls in the hopper would ignore Newton's law of momentum. In other words, Hermione, with Harry's help, had created ever bouncing bouncy balls.
Part two of the plan was more tricky, and the reason they were up at one in the morning aiming the Cludge at the fireplace in the common room. While it was common knowledge that they could not be used for people to travel without passwords that were closely guarded, they could, however, be used to send small items through like forgotten clothes or homework. It was that ability that they were going to use tonight. They had determined that it was impossible to restrict only one direction, so if parents could send forgotten items through, so could items be sent out. Small items like bouncy balls.
"Even if you would want to do more, we can do this right now," Hermione reassured Harry, hefting a bag and dropping hundreds of unactivated balls into the hopper. They had learned the hard way to have the gun activate the balls on launch, rather than activating them beforehand.
"Yeah, but will it accomplish anything? You know she's going to instantly deny they had any involvement," Harry adjusted the base slightly, fine tuning the aim.
"You expect more?"
"Not really, and at least it will start to cast doubt in their minds but still." He handed her a third bag of balls. "We are still framing Draco though, right? I owe him for his attempts to sabotage my potion yesterday. Why he thought an erumpent horn would be a good thing to toss in a boiling cauldron I'll never know."
"Idiot."
"Yup." He glanced at her and shuddered at the predatory grin on her face. "Sure you want to use this on the Ministry? We could wait for one of our other ideas to pan out."
"Nope, they sent the bitch here, they need to learn."
"Think they will?" Harry pulled a small bag out of his pocket. During the last trip to Hogsmeade he had used his invisibility cloak to purloin a small quantity of Floo powder. One of the security measures of the common Room Floos was that no floo powder was available anywhere. Each professor had a small locked tin for their personal use, but those were closely monitored, hence the purloining of the powder from Hogsmeade.
"Some might, I hear a few of the aurors can actually think for themselves," Hermione joked, then stood behind the Cludge and readied her wand.
"Well, as long as it makes you happy," Harry smiled at her, earning a smile in return before turning back to the fireplace and tossing some Floo powder into it. "Ministry of Magic Atrium."
Beside him, Hermione activated the Cludge.
Half an hour later, they exited the stone archway leading to the Slytherin common room under the invisibility cloak, the Cludge shrunken in Hermione's pocket, and Harry's Floo powder bag hidden in a deserving enemy's trunk.
"Cornelius, what are you doing here?" Umbridge's surprised call had everyone looking up from their meal as she moved with the Headmaster to greet the Minister and the half dozen red robed figures behind him. It was lunch the following day, and honestly it had taken the Ministry longer to figure things out than either Harry and Hermione had expected.
"Official business I'm afraid," the Minister answered sadly. "I'm afraid I need to search the Slytherin dorms."
"Whatever for?" Confusion was evident on both professors' faces.
"The Ministry was vandalized last night. Some kind of endlessly bouncing balls. Had that been the end of it, it probably wouldn't have come to this, but it wasn't. The balls were so fast, almost every piece of glass or delicate item in the Ministry was destroyed. When magic was used to stop the balls from doing more harm, they exploded. Thankfully it wasn't anything deadly, but most of the halls are covered in paint with slogans like muggle graffitis over top."
"Slogans?" Dumbledore looked horrified.
"POTTER!" roared Umbridge, rounding on the Gryffindor table. "Detention for the rest of the year!"
"What? Why?"
"You did this, I know you did!"
Harry swore he saw spittle coming from the Defense professor's mouth as she accused him.
"Headmaster? I believe the Minister said it was the Slytherin dorms he had to search, not Gryffindor's. Could this be a ploy to shift the blame from her favorite house?" Harry asked, fighting the grin he felt coming as he saw Snape almost foaming at the mouth from his place at the head table.
"A valid point, Mr Potter. Why the Slytherin dorms, Minister?"
"A Floo connection was used to introduce the little things into the Ministry. The other end of that connection was the Slytherin common room's Floo. It was the only other Floo active in the castle at the time of the attack and it was active for exactly the duration of the attack."
"That is rather circumstantial," Dumbledore tried to equivocate.
"Yes well, the slogans also point to that particular group," the Minister sagged, knowing there would be no way to prevent the information from getting out. "The milder ones were ones like 'Potter stinks', 'Claws have books but Snakes have looks', 'Snakes rule, Gryffs drool' and 'Puffers are duffers'. They get worse from there, including derogatory slanders like 'The only good mudblood is a dead mudblood.'"
"Headmaster!" Hermione spoke up, standing to be seen and heard. "One of those slogans was from Draco Malfoy's disgusting pins last year, and he's told me that last one multiple times."
"Now Miss … er Mrs Potter, that kind of accusation is most unbecoming…"
"It's true Headmaster, I've witnessed him spouting such on many occasions," Harry intervened.
"Lies! Mr Malfoy is a model student, unlike you Potter," Umbridge snarled.
"I'm willing to submit an oath to back up what I've said, are you?" Harry returned, then drew his wand slowly and aimed it at the ceiling. "In fact, because I know you will formally accuse me of doing it even if you tried to issue me detentions before a word was spoken, I don't want to take any chance. I, Harry James Potter, do swear that I was not the one to send these bouncing balls to the Ministry."
A small flash surrounded Harry before he sat back down, raising his eyebrow at Umbridge in defiance as he lit the end of his wand to prove the oath had not robbed him of his magic.
"Thank you Mr Potter, though I doubt that was necessary. Of course, the detention issued by Professor Umbridge will not need to be served. Very well Cornelius, search away, but i insist that a member of staff accompany you. As he is the Head of Slytherin House, I suggest Professor Snape."
"I shall do it, Headmaster," McGonagall stood. "I am free of classes this afternoon, while Severus has his seventh year students. Besides, this sort of task falls under the remit of the Deputy Headmistress."
"Very well," Dumbledore sighed, sagging back into his chair.
It was several hours later when the fifth year Charms class was interrupted.
"Draco Malfoy, come with us please."
The class turned as one to the doorway and to the pair of red robed figures that filled it. The taller one Harry and Hermione recognized as Kingsley Shacklebolt from their time at Grimmauld Place. His pink haired partner was none other than Tonks, and she looked incongruously stern as she moved towards the blond ponce.
"Why? I've done nothing wrong," sneered the boy, turning back to the class.
"You are wanted for questioning in regards to our investigation. Gather your things and come with us." The auror placed her hand on Draco's shoulder.
"Release me, you bitch! When my father hears of this you'll be out begging on the street!" Draco shrugged the hand off his shoulder and shoved her, then squealed as he was hauled up and magically tossed to the ground.
"You were wanted for questioning, now you're under arrest for assaulting an auror," her anger tinged words resonated in the classroom as she placed binding cuffs on his wrists. "I'm sure Daddy will be really happy with the size of the bribe he's going to have to pay to get you off, wonder what he'll do to you for causing all this trouble? Either way it will be on your record that you were arrested for it."
"Excuse me Auror Tonks, but why was Malfoy wanted for questioning?" Hermione's question cut through Draco's ranting before Kingsley lost patience and silenced him.
"I suppose it will come out anyway, knowing Hogwarts' rumour mills," she winked. "We found Floo powder and some scraps of notes on runes that could be used for the attack on the Ministry in his trunk. It was in a magically hidden area, so that was suspicious enough. The fact that it was possibly related to the attack makes it worse."
As the rest of the class clamored at what they had just seen, Harry smirked at his wife, who had a beautiful smile on her face.
"Think it will stick?" Harry asked softly.
"No, if Umbridge doesn't get him off his father will. Huh, Umbridge and Malfoy, that's a disturbing pair."
"I'd rather not have that mental image thank you very much," Harry huffed, then turned back to his work.
In the end, Hermione was right. By dinner Malfoy was back at the Slytherin table, his chest puffed out like a peacock as he told the story of his battle with the aurors and how he was exonerated, just as he knew he would be.
Oddly enough, the investigation into the attack on the Ministry shut down shortly afterwards. In their next letter from Madam Bones, hand delivered by McGonagall, they found out why. After Lucius' son was arrested, the whole thing blew up in Fudge's face since he had not actually involved the DMLE, merely grabbed half a dozen aurors and went straight to Hogwarts. By not involving Amelia, the Minister caused all evidence to be inadmissible, and therefore the DMLE had nothing to go on.
Umbridge of course loudly and repeatedly praised Draco for his cool demeanor under pressure and highlighting how his faith in the Ministry was justified. This had the opposite effect that what she intended: it caused even the slowest students to begin to doubt the Ministry, especially once the truth about Draco's auror encounter made the rounds.
The really infuriating part for Harry and Hermione was the fact that despite everything, the suspicion of vandalism, the assault of an auror, and the previous abuse of power he had displayed, he was still a prefect. They had been there when Minerva strode into Flitwick's classroom and began to rant. Apparently not only had Snape denied her authority as Deputy Headmistress to remove him from that post, Dumbledore had backed him. His statement that 'Severus had his complete trust' was infuriating. Really, who trusted a former Death Eater over one of the premier educators of the age?
Then, to make things even worse, Umbridge had stopped by to inform her she would not see any repercussions placed on young Draco 'For the unfortunate misunderstanding that had happened when she wrongly supervised the search of the dorms'. The bitch had the gall to insinuate that McGonagall should step down, since she apparently had issues being unbiased in her interactions with students. The Ministry appointed saboteur who would hear no evil of any of the children of the dark families, especially friends of the Minister, thought she was biased?
It was rare to see McGonagall in such a fury, yet there was no other way to describe the witch. Even worse, when she finally saw the pair watching her pace, she slowed, and a smile began to grow on her face.
"It's almost Christmas, and we have enough to do over the break, but when you return the gloves come off. I am declaring war on Umbridge and her minions. You can recruit whoever you want, I recommend the twins but that will be your call. Drive her insane. Prank the knickers off her, do what you have to but get her out of my castle."
Harry turned to Hermione, slow smiles spreading over their faces. It was time for war.