Title: Strings of Fate
Author: Knife Hand
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated
Spoilers: Nothing Specific, general for first few books.
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I do not own Hermione, or Luna, or Ginny, or Cho, or... I would buy them all but I am broke.
Summary: Being raised only by his Aunt, Harry comes to Hogwarts not only knowing about the Wizarding World, but with a kind of training no one at the school is expecting.
Harry walked into the library, immediately going to the table that his group had claimed as theirs, and slumped into the chair next to Susan with a sigh and running his hand through his messy hair.
Everyone was there, including the Weasley Twins, Katie Bell and Angelina Johnson, and they all were looking at Harry after his semi-dramatic, for him anyway, entrance.
"Thank you so much, Wells." Harry began, sarcastically. "For throwing me under the bus."
"Huh?" Hermione said, genuinely confused. "What did I do?"
"You told Director Bones the Castle speaks to me." Harry replied.
"Yeah, it does." Hermione replied. "I thought you might be able to help in an advisory capacity."
"Yeah well that went great." Harry snapped, then looked ashamed. "Sorry. I have just spent the last four hours with Diva's Aunt and this freaky, paranoid Auror with a disturbing fake eye. The first hour was trying to convince Director Bones that one of her Niece's best friends is not stark raving mad nor should he be locked up for everyone's safety."
Hermione winced at this and avoided looking at Harry.
"The rest of the time was spent trying to convince the paranoid asshole that I was not either guilty of committing the crimes or that I had all kinds of extra information and therefore knew exactly who was committing the crimes, how they were being committed and was therefore guilty of accessory for not preventing the crimes in the first place." Harry continued.
Hermione had almost sunk down into her chair as he spoke and even Daphne and Padma were looking guilty.
"How did you get away from them?" Katie Bell asked.
"Helena came in and starting ripping the asshole a new one." Harry replied. "She let them know that she had exactly the same access to the Castle's information as I did and she had already briefed them both on all the pertinent details. Director Bones seemed happy with that answer and let me go, but the asshole was not happy. I mean honestly, how do you explain to Law Enforcement that a thousand-year-old sentient Castle has the personality and humour of a sex obsessed teenaged girl with a three-month itch?"
"Get them on drugs?" Fred asked.
"No one is doping my Aunt." Susan shot back, point a finger at Fred.
By this stage, Hermione had started to sob and got up to leave, only to find Harry standing in her way.
"I'm so sorry." Hermione said, wiping tears from her eyes. "I ruined everything. I'll go, you'll never have to talk to me again."
"Oh Wells." Harry said, before pulling her into a deep hug. "Sure I was pissed, but it doesn't mean we want you to go. You are our friend."
"You don't hate me?" Hermione said, sniffling.
"Of course not." Hannah said, as she joined in on the hug from one side and Susan joined in from the other.
"If doing something bone headed was grounds for exile, we would have been kicked out in the first week of First Year." George said.
"Not helping." Angelina said, slapping George over the back of the head.
"See." Fred said point at Angelina and George, and earning himself a similar treatment from Katie.
"Hermione." Daphne began. "You just need to consider your words more carefully, like when we were outlining our research to those other two Aurors and you went way over their heads. We can see you did not mean any harm, but you did not consider the consequences before you spoke, so Ambassador had to spend four uncomfortable hours having his integrity questioned by one of the few adults in a position of Authority that he trusts and respects."
"Feeling better now?" Harry asked as he held Hermione at arm's length to watch her face, as she wiped away the last of the tears.
"A little." Hermione replied. "I'll make it up to you. Somehow."
"Simple, in the future just stop and think before you speak. Especially to adults in positions of power." Harry said. "Think of it like an essay. You plan out what you are going to say, look over all the counter-arguments and ramifications and then you speak."
"Ok." Hermione said, nodding.
"So… how was everyone else's day?" Harry asked.
Amelia Bones entered the Headmaster's office and saw that the four Heads of House were there as well. There must have been a meeting because she had not arranged her visit.
"Director Bones, how can I assist you?" Dumbledore asked.
"I need to know what the School's procedure is on contraband." Amelia asked. "Confiscation procedures, entry and exit screening, everything."
Professor Dumbledore outlined the procedure and Amelia sat there trying to supress the urge to strangle Dumbledore with his own beard. Finally, Amelia put up her hand to stop the old man.
"Ok, let's make sure I got this." Amelia said, rubbing the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger. "To summarise, when students arrive at the beginning of the school year, their belongings are given a cursory examination by a Squib. After that there are no searches of their room, no checks on what they bring in or take out during breaks or Hogsmeade weekends and contraband is only confiscated if a staff member sees the student with the contraband."
The four Heads of House looked concerned when she laid it out like that, while Dumbledore looked slightly confused by her words.
"If you wish to oversimplify it." Dumbledore said. "Is there a problem?"
"A big fucking problem." Amelia replied. "Big enough that it could potentially send a third of your students to do at least a few months stint in Azkaban, worst case scenario. We have hundreds of Ministry banned items we have confiscated of students, some minor but some are extremely dangerous, and we have only really begun to fully examine and catalogue them. Our priority is the petrifications, and many of the students may not realise how dangerous or illegal some of their stuff is, but you need to clean up your act, make sure this stuff never even gets into the school in the first place."
"Yes." Dumbledore said, nodding thoughtfully. "You are right. We will instigate a review immediately. I must admit the current Contraband Policy was inherited from the previous Headmaster and I have had no reason until now to review it, and there have been so many other pressing issues."
When Amelia left she had so many conflicting thoughts. A part of her wanted to throw every member of the staff and a bunch of the students into Azkaban and be done with it, but another part wanted to simply find out what was petrifying the students and get the hell out of Hogwarts. She supressed her urge drown he troubles in a bottle of Fire Whiskey. What she really felt like was spending a relaxing evening at home with Petunia Evans.
TBC…