Madam Bones was exhausted. She had a pretty good idea who had sent those Dementors against the Potter girl...the problem was that the person behind it was too entrenched to arrest without a LOT of evidence to prove it. Nevermind the fact that when she wanted to throw the book at the toad that was Delores Umbridge, she wanted to put the hag away for so long her remains wouldn't even be dust anymore.
Which was why she was less than amused when Nimue Potter gave her a second project to deal with. One that she soon realized was long overdue.
She had thought looking for the trial records of Sirius Black would be a quiet distraction. She never expected to find yet another gross miscarriage of justice.
"What do you mean, they're missing?" demanded Amelia.
The Auror corps were a tad nervous about attracting her ire...Fudge's stunt with the trial had Madam Bones in full Ice Bitch mode.
So her asking for trial records to hopefully garner some goodwill for the Ministry with the Girl Who Lived should have been a simple matter.
Instead the records keeper had earned the ire of the Ice Bitch because they couldn't find the records. Not a single slip of paper, which was highly suspicious.
The reason Madam Bones was out for blood was simple. Having the paperwork misfiled was one thing...not having any paperwork was a pretty big flag that Black had never gotten a trial in the first place.
And considering he was part of the Sacred 28, regardless of how he felt about the matter, that was a major deal. If he could be sent to the maximum security area of the worst wizarding prison in England without a trial, then anyone could.
Madam Bones did not like the implications of that in the least, and was going to do her damnedest to insure it never happened again.
Nimue felt satisfied about the fact she had set the niffler in the vaults when it came to Sirius' case. She had phrased her request to imply that she might look more favorably on the Ministry despite the recent snafu regarding her use of the Patronus charm. Madam Bones had naturally latched onto this, and had agreed to look for the trial files without asking too much into why Nimue wanted them.
She had come back apologizing and saying it might take a bit...all with a thunderous expression on her face.
It was only a matter of time before Madam Bones found out the truth...and Sirius was exonerated.
She could care less about Susan being named the prefect for Hufflepuff, or the almost guarantee that Hermione had been chosen for Gryffindor. She wasn't interested in the position to begin with...too much work policing the other students for no benefit for herself.
Besides, she honestly didn't see the point of the house cup since the students didn't get anything out of the arrangement besides the fact that their head of house got to have the cup in their office and bragging rights until the start of next year.
Never mind the fact she fully planned to use the twins to earn some coin on the side. Helping them to open up a joke shop sounded like an excellent investment. The two were brilliant and had such innovative minds, but she would have to look at their business plan before she gave them any coin.
To that end, Nimue decided to spend the train ride with the twins and go over their business plan. Madam Bones had taken one look at the book assigned for defense and had urged Nimue to start a study group immediately.
She was already working on ousting Fudge as the Minister, since his incompetence became too glaring to ignore anymore (Lucius was already pulling back his support), but until then they had to put up with his crony as the defense teacher.
Nimue...did not make any promises that Umbridge would survive the year after hearing even a fraction of her past behavior. It was clear from the get-go she would not get along with the woman, at all.
"Tell me, have you guys ever heard of a small business loan?" asked Nimue cheerfully.
"A what?" said George.
As Nimue explained the details, she saw the interest in their expressions grow.
"Wait...are you saying you'd be willing to fund our dream of opening a shop once we're out of school?" asked Fred.
"You have the innovation, the skill and to the lesser extent the experience needed, but you're lacking the capital and the lesser know-how of running a business," explained Nimue. "The first part I can solve with my inheritance, but the second can only be obtained through experience as well as trial and error."
"What about the shop?" asked George seriously.
"Shops can come and go, the thing we need to work on is helping you obtain experience in running a business. It can also double as a way to gain contacts that would acquire less than legal or highly restricted components," explained Nimue.
Fred and George looked at each other.
"We'd be willing to take you on as our official third partner for an equal share of the business for your help and funding."
They weren't idiots...they knew perfectly well Nimue had basically taken over the shadow side of the school and had a massive number of contacts with the other pure blood families. Families who would look down on them because of their father's lack of clout and the fact he worked such a low, almost forgotten position at the Ministry. Arthur could get promoted to a much higher and better paying positioned, but he liked his post.
That being said he did have allies, but very few would help him out unless there was something in it for them.
Which meant odds were most wouldn't help the twins at all unless they were willing to make compromises they wanted nothing to do with.
In that respect, leaving that sort of thing to Nimue made far more sense.
It was about the only good thing that came of that day, as the second she sat down in the Great Hall and saw that pink hag at the head table, it went straight to shit.
And no, she was not exaggerating this. It was clear Umbitch (as she was already mentally calling her) loathed children and teenagers and thought all of them were beneath her because she was an 'adult' and a 'valued Ministry employee'.
Nimue could already foresee the headaches this trash would give her and that it wouldn't take long before she turned almost the entire school against her.
If there was one perk to being a Ravenclaw, it was that they had connections in the academic side of things that sometimes trumped the political connections of the Slytherins.
Nimue wanted out of Hogwarts, and since this was her fifth year she knew she'd have to make a massive showing if she wanted to get an apprenticeship and opt out of standardized schooling. It meant she'd have to find a niche and stick with it, but the benefits far outweighed the cons.
To that end, she decided to focus on alchemy which Flitwick was all too happy to assist her with by providing an almost unlimited access to the restricted section.
Hermione... was almost annoyed that Nimue had a free pass to the restricted section.
"If you're going the alchemy route, then why not ask Professor Dumbledore? He's known to have connections," said Hermione.
"Absolutely not. Dumbledore's more of a politician than an alchemist, and I want a quality teacher. Never mind the fact it's been years since he's likely transmuted anything on his own," said Nimue flatly.
"What do you mean?" asked Hermione.
"Look at how much he dumps on McGonagall. She has so much paperwork to do because she's not only the lone teacher for a homework heavy subject like transfiguration, but also the deputy headmistress and the head of the Gryffindors which are by far the most rambunctious and rowdy of the four houses. Case in point, the twins alone must be giving her gray hairs," said Nimue.
Hermione thought that over and conceded her point.
"Fair point," she admitted.
"So no, Dumbledore is not a viable option if I want a proper alchemy teacher. Odds are he wouldn't have the time for it and would likely spend it trying to use what influence I have for his own gain," said Nimue shaking her head. "Nevermind that the sort of teachers I'm looking at all have one thing in common."
"What's that?" asked Hermione.
Nimue grinned wickedly.
"They all hate Snape and are willing to hear a relatively unknown fifteen year old witch out depending on how my grades turn out in my OWL's just to snub him," said Nimue. "One in particular is intrigued and works at a higher level magical school teaching alchemy, potions and herbology."
Divius Crewel was all for one-upping Snape, even if it meant bringing a girl apprentice into an all-boy's magical college.
Apparently the two had an unofficial rivalry, and he hated Snape for a myriad of reasons...including his deplorable fashion sense.
Crewel had given Nimue a 'task' that she had to accomplish before he would even consider her...and that was before he took into account her OWL grades.
She had to create something using alchemy to present as a sample of what she could accomplish. He wanted to determine her skill level and whether it was worth taking her on.
Nimue couldn't wait, mostly because she really, really wanted to see Snape's face when he realized who she apprenticed to if this worked out. She didn't care she'd be stuck in an all-boy's school, anything had to be better than this.
That and what she was able to dig up about Night Raven College said that it was leagues above what Hogwarts could offer her.
She had a fairly good idea of what to send him...from what she read, "Liquid Luck" was one of the hardest potions to make as it required insanely expensive ingredients, a strict brewing schedule, and a high level of concentration for someone who was only fifteen. It was the sort of potion that not even Snape could make on a whim.
Considering the effects, she fully intended to make a decently large batch of the stuff along with a diary of the brewing process to send to her potential Master.
It was a good thing she had accidentally realized the reality warping potential of the Come and Go room, otherwise it would have been insanely awkward to brew this potion without Umbitch ruining everything.
Nimue only felt calm when she was underwater. It had become seriously annoying in the castle, and swimming had become her go-to escape. There wasn't any actual rule stating she couldn't swim, just common sense because of how insanely cold the water was.
As usual, the deeper she went, the more her lower half had this odd...itch...that she couldn't adequately describe. It had become worse once she figured out how to swim, and she was glad that the merfolk hadn't mocked her yet for how ridiculous she looked starting out.
As she dove deeper into the lake, avoiding the merfolk village on principle, she explored the bottom. It was really fascinating the sort of things she could see down under the water even though she wasn't using any spells at all.
When she came up via the Chamber, she made sure her clothes were sufficiently dry enough not to leave anything on the floor. Umbitch couldn't complain about her using the girl's loo since she was a girl and honestly Myrtle had never bothered her to begin with. She was just glad for the company.
"Nimue, you seriously need to ease up on the studying. Your hair is starting to go gray," said Hermione.
Nimue blinked and checked the mirror. Sure enough, her previously black hair had almost silver roots. It wasn't obvious at a distance, but when you were close enough you could see that the scalp was a bit lighter than it should have been.
Nimue wasn't one for vanity, which was why her only reply to that was "Well if I go prematurely gray, then it'll be easier to dye my hair whatever color I please. Honestly, the bolder colors like purple or teal are nearly impossible to do on dark hair anyway."
After an hour or so, her hair went back to normal. Nimue wondered if it had anything to do with that weird 'itch' she felt whenever she was deep, deep in the lake where no human could reach without specialized equipment and training.