January 1996
Hermione was tired of Umbridge. She'd completed the required four hours of homework the night before, helped Harry arrange the defence schedule for the month, and had time to work on fixing the Puking Pastilles with Fred. She was exhausted. Break hadn't given her much relief either. She was also fed up with the rhetoric being spewed from the lectern every class period. Harry wasn't lying when he said that Adara and Rigel were far more advanced than any student who relied solely on Umbridge would be.
"Everyone turn to chapter four in your Standard Book of Spells: Grade 2, if you please. There will be no need to talk." Umbridge smirked from the front of the room.
"More like no need to think." Hermione groused.
"What was that, Miss Granger?" Umbridge turned on her.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Did I not enunciate clearly? I said, more like no need to think. Was that clear enough for you?" Hermione snapped, wondering where this bout of Gryffindor courage was coming from.
"Miss Granger, would you like to clarify that statement?" Umbridge challenged.
To Hermione's horror, she found herself answering, "I would like to, but you would be incapable of understanding the clarification, as you are too dim."
Umbridge, and the whole class, stared at her for a solid minute before Umbridge snapped. "Detention, Miss Granger. Every night this week or until the message sinks in."
"Better schedule the rest of the month, then. You're horrid teaching has dulled my senses." Hermione retorted, apparently needing to have the last word.
Umbridge just stared at her, losing the appropriate timing for a response. The class went back to reading their textbook, everyone unwilling to even breathe loudly. Umbridge, sensing a mild shift in power, started penning a letter to Minister Fudge. She needed more control.
"Hermione, what the hell?" Harry asked in the corridor after class was dismissed. "I don't know whether to be proud of you, or to turn you into Aunt Minnie."
"That was ballsy, real ballsy. I loved it!" Ron cheered, wrapping his arm around her shoulders.
"We're all gonna have to watch 'er back. That's fer sure." Seamus commented, catching up to his roommates.
"What are you doing here, Seamus? I thought Harry was a right tosser in your books?" Ron asked, glaring at him. Seamus just glared back.
"What's going on with the ikle fifthies?" George asked, falling in behind the fifth year Gryffindors.
"And why is your arm there?" Fred asked, forcibly removing Ron's arm from Hermione's shoulder and replacing it with his own.
"Hermione's got detention!" Harry announced nervously.
"But, you just came from Defense." Fred stared down at his girlfriend with concern.
"Is it weird that you have my schedule memorized?" Hermione looked up at him, avoiding the unasked question.
"She just- she snapped!" Harry continued, wanting the news out at quickly as possible.
"What happened?" Fred asked Hermione, wanting the story to come from her.
Unfortunately, Harry didn't understand that. "She mouthed off! She told Umbridge, twice, that there was no need to think in DADA. It was amazing! Then she got a month of detention."
"A month?" Fred exploded, turning on Ron as George held their little brother in place.
"Oi! It's not my fault! No one could have stopped her once she got started! Umbridge only assigned her a week! Hermione assigned herself a month just to take another jab at her!" Ron defended himself.
"Would you all quit acting ridiculous?" Hermione asked with a roll of her eyes. "Fred, you and George were in and out of detention on a near relational basis. Harry practically gets off on the pain and Ron has only stayed out based solely on the fact that Angelina will kill him if he manages to get kicked off the team. So, explain to me why you seem to think that I can't handle it but your baby sister can?"
Fred tried very hard to form an answer that wouldn't be construed as sexist by his wonderful, if slightly terrifying, girlfriend. He ended up making the same mistake as Umbridge, he waited too long and lost the opportunity to respond.
"That's what I thought. I did this to myself. If I didn't know my own mind so well, I would assume that I was cursed, what with the ease that the words came flying out. But no, I'm tired, I'm stressed, and Harry is right, I snapped. Now, I have to face the consequences." Hermione hugged her books tightly to herself for reassurance. "Now, let's go, all of you. It's time for lunch."
Hermione's luck didn't get better. By the time their motley crew entered the Great Hall, Ginny was laughing at something Luna was telling her before Luna flitted off to the Ravenclaw table.
"What's this I hear about the Hermione Granger, prefect extraordinaire, mouthing off!" Ginny asked in an over-the-top manner. "Welcome to the dark side, sister. We've got biscuits."
"Well, you're officially more supportive than your brother." Hermione huffed sitting down beside Ginny.
Fred blustered as Ginny replied, "Well, he loves you and want to keep you safe. If it were regular old detention with, like, paddles, he'd-"
"Don't finish that statement." Hermione growled through gritted teeth, slapping her hands over Ginny's mouth.
"Ooo ob ee!" Ginny mumbled under Hermione's hand.
"I do not." Hermione huffed, but she pulled her hand away before Ginny decided to lick them or something.
"You understood that?" Harry asked, looking between the two.
"Of course. You didn't?" Hermione scrunched her nose at him.
"Um no. No one but you did." Harry responded, wide-eyed.
Ginny and Hermione shared a look of derision before saying in unison, "Men."
"So, moving on to other business." Ron glared at the pair. "Are we not going to talk about the fact that Occlumency has done nothing for you, Harry?"
"What are you talking about?" Harry asked, mouth half-full of chicken.
"Are you shitting me?" Neville asked, glaring at Harry. When Harry shook his head and swallowed his bite of food, Neville added. "You were shrieking all night about the corridor of shelves again."
"I was not." Harry argued.
"So, it only lasted until three, that's still a lot of night for you to be screaming." Ron said, taking a bite of his food.
"I did not scream until three." Harry argued again, taking a bite of food emphatically.
"No, you started screaming at three. You were just kickboxing your bed into submission in the meantime." Neville shrugged. "Sounds restful to me."
"Look, I know you don't want to, but you've got to practice Occlumency." Ginny advised.
"Ginny, shut up." Hermione's face paled as she looked up from the Daily Prophet.
"Hermione, what's so important that you can't wait till I'm done with Harry?" Ginny asked, whipping around to face the other girl.
"Draco." Hermione sat the Prophet down. "His father is out of prison."
"How?" Ginny screamed.
"Prison break. Ten high-ranking Death Eaters were busted out last night." Hermione's voice was rough with emotion. "And a man name Bole was strangled to death in St. Mungo's."
"Well that explains the manic laughing fit Harry had this morning." Ron stared.
Draco chose that moment to storm out of the Great Hall, pace face red with anger. Hermione and Ginny shared a look before Ginny ran out after him.
Ginny turned to see a blonde head headed down the stairs to the dungeons. "Draco!" She called when he didn't stop.
She picked up her pace until she finally caught him outside of the Slytherin common room entrance. "Draco," She said, pulling on his shoulders to make him face her. He looked her in the eyes for a moment before looking away, trying to appear detached.
"What?" He said with a shaky voice.
"I'd ask how you are, but that would be stupid." She said throwing her arms around his waist.
"Then I'm glad you won't ask," he said returning the embrace, his voice muffled by her hair. She held him there, slowly letting him sob into her shoulder.
"You're safe," Ginny whispered to him, kissing him gently. "You are safe here at Hogwarts and you're safe at home. You're safe with me."
"I know," he said, pulling away from her. "I know that, but when that all fades, I'll have to face him."
"And when you do, you will be brave," Ginny told him, wiping a tear from her own eyes.
"What if your definition of brave is different than mine?" He asked, putting his forehead to hers.
"How can it be?" Ginny asked with a small smile. "You can face this. You can face anything. I have faith in you. When the time comes to finally face your father, then you will know what to do."
Later that night, Hermione had her first detention. When she arrived in the common room dangerously close to curfew, she was in tears.
"Mione!" Fred's voice was too loud in the quiet common room. "What's the matter?"
"Nothing. Just… didn't realize how it felt." Hermione wiped at her eyes, holding her wounded hand to her chest.
"The pain?" Fred asked, motioning for George to get some of their stash of Essence of Murtlap.
"The humiliation." Hermione clarified. "Having to carve out your perceived sins for someone else's pleasure. I don't know how you've done it for all those months."
"Combination of things, really. But mostly, George and I let things roll off of us easier than most do. And also, we're Purebloods." Fred shrugged. When Hermione bristled, Fred added, "Sure, we get the obligatory 'blood traitor,' but other than that, no one really cares. You get it all the time. II must not question authority is way less degrading than, let's look, I must not… Are you shitting me? I must learn my place? What the hell?"
"She said it's because I was trying to be the professor, not a student. But I think we can both understand what she meant." Hermione sniffed back some tears as George returned with a bowl. She dunked her hand in and felt instant relief.
"Yeah, we can." Fred muttered darkly, massaging her hand. "Anyway, I'm not saying it's gonna get easier, but it will get better."
After that, things didn't get easier, but the did get a little bit better. The DA was coming together to learn new spells. The fourth years' study plan was implemented almost school-wide, causing an insane amount of inter-house unity. Even Hagrid was keeping himself off the radar and away from Umbridge's wrath.
Umbridge, as always, remained the dark spot. She'd declared all sorts of new rules. Students of opposite genders weren't to be closer than eight inches apart. Students weren't allowed out of the castle, which made Hermione's life difficult as she snuck around helping Hagrid with some secret project. Her total and complete control over the situation.
As January faded into February, things seemed to plateau. Nothing too horrible happened, but neither did Dumbledore or the Ministry make moves to restore balance and students' rights to Hogwarts. All in all, a typical winter in the Scottish highlands.
February 1996
By February, most of the students had forgotten the rocky political atmosphere beyond the school walls. Love was in the air, and the students of Hogwarts were enjoying every minutes of it. Except for three girls.
"What do you mean you want to take Neville to Hogsmeade this weekend?" Hermione shrieked. "Since when do you want him?"
"I don't. But I'm not going to take either of those two. It'll cause more problems than it will solve." Ginny sighed, flopping onto her bed.
"You could go with me." Luna suggested airily. "I'm not going with anyone and the boys will respect it better."
"She's got a point." Hermione pointed in Luna's direction.
"Oh, what do you care? You've got Fred." Ginny glared.
"Is that going to be as terrifying as I think it is? Or is he going to try to surprise me?" Hermione cringed, not really wanting an answer.
"Why are you so scared of having a boyfriend on Valentine's Day?" Ginny laughed.
"I had one on Valentine's Day last year as well." Hermione sniffed.
"No, you had Viktor bloody Krum for a Valentine's last year." Ginny reminded her. "You know what you should do? You should wear that jersey Viktor gave you to remind Fred that you have other options. He's lucky to have you."
"He is lucky to have me, isn't he?" Hermione smiled at Ginny, tossing her hair over her shoulder.
"What are you going to get Fred?" Luna asked, shaking her head at the two girls.
"I have absolutely no idea." Hermione huffed.
"Good thing you're friends with his baby sister." Luna smirked. "That should make gift giving easier."
"Speaking of, what do you want for Valentine's Day? I promised Fred I would subtly get him some intel." Ginny asked.
After that conversation, the next two weeks passed quickly, and February 14th found Hogwarts' upper level students wandering around Hogsmeade. They were all in varying shade of love, lust, and jealousy.
"Why is Ginny with Luna, again?" Harry asked, spying the two girls giggling as they ran into the quidditch shop.
"Because, you prat, she doesn't want to give either of us false hope or disappointment." Draco rolled his eyes, leaning against the wall and pointedly refusing to spy.
"The real question here is why is Fred taking Hermione to Madame Puddifoot's? I thought the boy had some notion of pride." Ron wondered out loud, pointing to Hermione and Fred strolling arm in arm down street.
Hermione was wondering the same thing as Fred continued to lead her towards the pink-infested building of goo. As they neared the door, she finally broke and asked, "What on earth do you think you're doing?"
"I thought I was taking my lovely girlfriend on a date. Is that wrong?" Fred smirked.
"If you listened to your sister at all, you prat, you'd know I don't celebrate Valentine's Day." Hermione scoffed.
"Yeah, she mentioned something about half priced sweets day." Fred nodded, irritating Hermione.
"It's a muggle tradition. Market sweets specifically for the holiday, then sell the remnants for much cheaper the day after.
"It's the same here as well," Fred smirked, continuing towards Madame Puddifoot's.
"Fred, I will murder you if you think we're going in there." Hermione glared at him. At that, Fred laughed loud enough to call the attention of the many couples streaming in and out of Madame Puddifoot's.
"I had no intentions of taking you in there. I just wanted to see what you would do." Fred doubled over, clutching his stomach.
"Well thank Merlin for that." Hermione rolled her eyes at the scene he was making.
"Let's get you to the Three Broomsticks for your appointment." Fred laughed, slinging his arm around her shoulder.
"Yes, let's. Then, let's talk about you owling Honeydukes for sweets tomorrow, since sneaking out is no longer an option." Hermione smiled, slipping her arm around his waist.
"Brilliant." Fred agreed. "You can owl away some for me as well."
"What? Going to reverse engineer them so you have the recipe?" Hermione smirked.
"You bet." Fred smiled. "Now, to Rita Skeeter."
Rita Skeeter, it seemed, was not pleased with being blackmailed into giving an interview for the Quibbler. She was pouting, pouting, at a table in the back of the Three Broomsticks. Hermione and Fred approached her as Harry and Ron came flying to the table.
"Harry! Where have you been?" Hermione cried.
"I was with Cho Chang." Harry blushed a bit.
"Why were you with Cho?" Ginny cocked her eyebrow at him.
"She needed some closure, okay? She needed to talk to someone about Cedric, and since I'm the only one who knows what's going on there, I decided to be helpful. Is that really a crime?" Harry said defensively.
"No, it's not." Ginny smiled at him. "It's very mature of you. And very selfless."
"I want to know what's going on." Rita Skeeter said, breaking the potential moment. "I've been summoned here by my new master, so I better get a good story out of this. Even if I don't get a good paper to publish it in."
"You'll be fairly compensated based off of the number of issues you sell with your headline." Luna informed her airily. "And remember, unlike the Prophet, the Quibbler demands honesty over issues sold."
"And no Quik-Quote-Quill." Hermione glared as the reporter pulled one out of her bag.
With that, Rita started asking her questions and Harry started giving her answers. It was a grueling afternoon, but both Hermione and Luna assured him that it would be worth the effort.
It was another two weeks before the Quibbler came out. In that time, Gryffindor lost to Hufflepuff. Angelina couldn't blame it on Harry's absence from the field, much as she would like to, because Ginny had caught the snitch in a spectacular dive that put Harry's stunts to shame. It wasn't enough, though, and the Lions lost.
Their disappointment was short lived. By the next Monday, the Quibbler released their March issue. Harry had used some of his inheritance to buy copies for most of the student body. Not everyone could get a copy, but there was enough to ensure that everyone read his side of the story. The interview with Rita Skeeter was well written and very factual. Everything that Hermione had required. Students were buzzing with the news. Everywhere, even in Slytherin, students were talking about Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
Harry smirked as he heard Umbridge's voice over the loudspeakers.
"By Order of the High Inquisitor, Educational Decree Number Twenty-Seven: All students found to be in possession of the Quibbler will be expelled at once."
It had worked. Umbridge had made sure that every student would read that Quibbler. She'd effectively started bringing about her own downfall.
Gabs: Um, yes, so. Valentine's fluff to celebrate a holiday that neither of us celebrate.
Kat: Yeah, we aren't Valentine's day people...at all. In case you haven't noticed, time in the fic is going to speed up a little bit! Just like it does in the book! Yay!
Gabs: That being said, there is a 98% chance there will not be an update next week. Someone has a thing to do. *cough, cough, Kat, cough, cough*
Kat: And Gabsy being Gabsy will be there to sorta support me.
Gabs: From another room.
Kat: *blinks several times* duh. Comment, Review, love on us!
Gabs: We own nothing. Thanks to all the new reviewer, and the old reviewers, and the followers, and the favoriters (I hope that's a real word). We love you!
XOXO
Gabs & Kat
