Title: Holding Court

Rating: PG-13

Summary: *WARNING: this story is an unabashed celebration of Harry Potter's uniqueness and powers. Anyone who would prefer to see another character glorified, turn away please!*

Hogwarts is divided amongst the four Houses. As physical violence increases, a Hufflepuff fourth year watches as her hero fulfills his destiny. Set in Harry's seventh year, doom approaches. But where is the real war; between the Houses or against the Dark Lord?

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

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Minnie walked through the door at the top of the column and into the Hufflepuff common room. It was calm, students were grouped around tables or sitting in any of the large armchairs near the fire. Hannah and the other seventh years were debating something or other under the large window, Hannah ensconced in the 'throne,' the others on poufs or sitting on the floor.

Minnie spotted a chair near one of the other windows, oh the luck, it was even near a corner. Perfect. She headed over, noting where the others in her class were sitting. Eleanor and Laura were on a couch not to far from the door from which she'd just entered. Tyler, the other girl in their class was curled up with The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 4, probably trying to memorize it again. Owen was in front of the fire with Kevin and Marc, playing Exploding Snap and laughing. Good, she wasn't going to be bothered. She made her way over to the empty chair and turned it so that she would be staring out the window instead of at the room.

She pulled out her Defense Against the Dark Arts text and opened it on her lap. She then leaned back and looked at the closing darkness. She could see out onto the lake and most of the gardens. Clouds were rolling in, rain or snow seemed eminent. The snow already on the ground created shadows in odd places, making it look as though Hogwarts itself were on a cloud. A cloud… the cloud she'd felt she was on ten minutes ago. His nearness, his very presence, the touch of his finger on her chin. His eyes… the green that was greener than anything else. The green of an eye that was even feminine in its shape, those eyes could almost talk on their own… and the reproach she'd seen there… reproach or cynicism. Cynicism? Why? He was one of the Kings, there was no reason not to support the way things were. Though the House separations had destroyed friendships, relationships and the low –stress atmosphere of Hogwarts, they had brought power to those who had been able to seize it. And power was something Harry had at his command, socially, politically, and magically. So why the cynicism? Did he not enjoy this? Did the Boy- Who-Lived sometimes have trouble at night because of the power he held in his command?

That, or… the other possibility didn't bear thinking about. But she had to check it. She closed her text and reached into her bag, pulling out her diary. She brought it up to her nose; it didn't smell of the outdoors, the edges of the pages weren't even curled by the humidity. And if they weren't, after having spent almost a full day outside near the snow, then it seemed logical to think that the book hadn't spent that whole time outside. And that meant that someone had to have had it. In that situation, it would have been impossible for Minnie to know what had happened to her book, much less get it back.

But she had it now. And that meant that the person who had had the book had given it back to her. Harry. He'd given the diary back to her.

The diary. A diary… a book in which one kept one's secrets, poured out one's woes and told of what one had seen. And someone had had that knowledge in their hands for almost a full day. Had they been able to access it? Minnie had created the charm that bound the book herself; she was rather proud of her charming abilities. She took a deep breath and touched her wand to the lock of the diary. It fell open. It wasn't the charm that she'd created. So someone had been able to open her diary. But her diary held one more obstacle to those who wished to read it. She'd also charmed it to appear blank to all those who could not say the correct password. The pages of the diary were still blank. Minnie breathed a sigh of relief, no words meant no one had read it. Unless… the feeling of dread was back. Oh why have chosen that particular password? she moaned to herself.

Again, she touched her wand to the pages and whispered, "Harry."

Words began to form at the tip of her wand, gradually spreading out to reach the margins of the paper. She turned to today's date. She'd written some words early this morning, about the events of last night. But, where her handwriting stopped at the middle of the page, a different one picked up.

What's the point of having a password if it's that easy to break?

Interesting charms you've enchanted this diary with. Did you create them yourself? The hex the locking charm provokes could be rather dangerous, you know.

A very interesting read, your diary.

I've long known that there were people who delighted in observing social proceedings here at Hogwarts. However, you seem to have both a talent and an eye. Consider something in journalism as a career. You seem to be a natural. I've learned things about my own behavior I've never known before. Thank you.

However, that which I find most interesting is the frequency of which my name appears in this work. I've searched through it to find similar studies of Draco, Terry, Luna or even of Hannah… in vain. Should I ever consider having a biography written, I'm sure you would do wonders. But then again, you have a single obstacle to overcome before you pursue your career. You have a tendency to give too much credence to rumors and over-interpret my reactions.

In the future, I advise you to keep your personal belongings in a safer place than your bag, unless you actually do wish for them to fall into the hands of those you likely would have wished not know of their existence.

The So Called Boy-Who-Lived

Minnie wanted to cry. He'd read through the whole thing. All four years of her stay at Hogwarts, all her inner most thoughts and desires, all of her discoveries that she'd made about Harry… he'd read them all. But, her disappointment ran deeper than that… she'd unknowingly betrayed Hufflepuff. Their plans, their activities, everything concerning Hufflepuff House, he knew them now. And if the King of Gryffindor knew, it was safe to say that all Gryffindors knew, well, at least all of the older ones. And they'd want to know how Harry knew all this. Harry had no reason whatsoever to lie or to shield her, they'd know what she'd done and, worst of all, they know that here was one lowly, worthless, plain Hufflepuff with a crush on their King.

But, Minnie realized, it could be about to get worse. Hannah and the others would be quick to wonder why the Gryffindors were looking and laughing at her. They'd find out why pretty quickly. And all she'd worked to accomplish in the past four years would be over with. She'd be thrown out of Hufflepuff, forced to sleep in the small room just outside the column where the exiles were supposed to live. She'd have to sit alone in class, or be paired up with people who wouldn't speak to her. She'd eat alone at the end of the table, with people's backs turned towards her. Minnie felt a tear run down her face.

What could she do? She could go to Hannah and admit everything. Or could she? Could she go to Hannah and tell her that Harry now knew the password into her very rooms? Could she show her the diary to prove that Harry had seen it? Could she then allow her to read even those entries preceding his note, those that were chock full of details about Harry? Even the words she'd penned above his words weren't all that complementary to Hannah and the Court.

She didn't have a choice. She loved her House and wanted it safe. They needed to change passwords now. They needed to move things and rearrange schedules. They needed to act. And that meant she had to confess.

"Are you okay?"

Tyler had been going to their dormitory and had thus walked past her chair. She'd seen the tears running down Minnie's face. Minnie knew Tyler was an okay person, she wasn't great friends with anyone, she spent all of her spare time studying instead of gossiping and hanging out. Eleanor hated her.

"No, I don't think so," Minnie managed to choke out.

"Can you tell me?" Tyler came around to kneel at the side of the armchair, resting her hands and her chin on the arm, looking up at her with some concern,

"I might as well… I'm going to have to tell everyone anyhow."

"This sounds interesting," said Tyler. Well, you couldn't accuse her of trying to play games with you, she was incurably straightforward. "What could be so bad as to make you cry but not so bad as to be told to everyone?" She looked a bit puzzled.

"It's bad. But if I have to say it, it's because it doesn't only affect me."

"Oh. It has to do with the House?"

"Yes."

"You know, I still don't understand the big deal. The House isn't that important you know." Tyler always hung on the fringes of things, she didn't hold with the whole House separations, she stayed alone at all times.

"Of course it's important!" Minnie didn't understand Tyler's views, for her, the House was everything social and political. It was essential to have a part in the House.

"Well, if you say so…." Tyler seemed to be losing interest. Minnie could almost see the thoughts in her mind; if she wants to cry over something so unimportant, let her.

"No, it's not exactly the House, as in the Court. It's the House as in the space we share."

"Oh. Can you be a bit more specific, maybe?" Tyler's puzzled look was back and she'd tilted her head to one side.

"Okay." Minnie was twisting her hands together in her lap. Tyler reached over and held them in hers, looking up at her expectantly. "I have a diary. I write everything in it, from my crush to what I see during the day." Tyler nodded, urging her to continue. Minnie took a deep breath, "Today, somebody found my diary and broke into it. They read everything in it. They know our passwords, our patrolling schedules and where the vault is. They even know that I've had a crush on them and they read everything I know about them, that which is true and the things that I've heard as rumors. They wrote a note at the bottom of the last page I'd written on. They even thanked me for the information!" Minnie broke down again.

"I see." Tyler was silent patting Minnie's hands. "This 'someone' you keep referring to… you know their name, right?" Minnie nodded, what did it matter, everyone would know. "It's someone from another house, right?" Minnie nodded again. "Would I be correct in thinking of Gryffindor?" Nod. "For you to be in this state, it would have to be someone we all know, someone you would really, really dread knowing this sort of information." Another nod and a sob. "You had a crush on him… it is a him right?"

"Yes."

"Well, Gryffindor has a lot of good looking guys," Tyler said, obviously deep in thought. Minnie was a bit shocked. Nobody talked of good looking other people if they weren't in their House, there was always some fault that you could find; too short, too thin, too much makeup… Minnie had even heard "too perfect" be applied to Parvati Patil.

"I… guess so," she managed.

"Of course you do, you've already admitted to it," grinned Tyler. Her smile made Minnie feel a bit better, her sobs ceased. "So, we've got plenty of choices… no one in our year is important enough to have this effect, well, maybe Dennis… the Creeveys are pretty funny… your 'someone' isn't in our year, is he?"

"No… he's a seventh year."

"Oh!" Tyler's eyes grew wide, "Oh my! Weasley… Finnigan… Thomas… Longbottom… or… Potter."

There was a moment of strained silence before Minnie decided to get it over with, "Potter. I've had a crush on him since my first year. Since the Sorting Ceremony, in fact."

But Tyler wasn't staring at her horror. She was looking pensive again. "Well, you have good taste. I guess I can understand why you wouldn't want to have to say this to the Court. They warned you away from him yesterday, didn't they?"

"How do you know about that?"

"I could see that the Court was waiting for someone who hadn't come up yet and they looked pretty grim yesterday. I wasn't sleepy so I waited," she shrugged, "I heard most of it. They sounded a bit tough, I can't believe how seriously you all take this."

Minnie didn't respond, so Tyler continued, "You know, in the Muggle world, they have things like this sometimes." Minnie looked at her, intrigued. "There are different levels of them. Some are in middle school or high school, like what we're in now, some are in college and some are secret, like myths sometimes heard at night. They're called cliques, or sororities or secret societies. Cliques are usually groups of popular people who don't allow people to join them," Tyler glanced at Eleanor and Laura, "Sororities are groups of college students who sort of help each other out between themselves during their college years. But for those, you sometimes pay, there are often hierarchies and it can get rather nasty. But then, the secret societies, those are the ones you hear about, how they're involved in politics, how they influence and sometimes kill or pay off people they don't like. Do you like Muggle movies?"

The sudden question brought Minnie back, she'd been immersed in what Tyler was saying and her tone of voice when she'd been talking. She'd sounded slightly sad.

"Well, yes. I've got a Muggle cousin and I often go to her house over the summer. We listen to her music, to the radio and watch a lot of television."

"Good, most wizards don't bother to keep in touch I've heard, so –"

"Why, 'you've heard'? Don't you know?"

"Not really, I'm Muggle born, remember?"

"Oh, I didn't know that… when did you tell me?"

"Sorry, maybe I didn't tell you… oh well… it's not that important. Anyhow, ask your cousin to rent some movies with these sorts of things, she'll know what to get. Go for different types though, I mean, everything from "Lara Croft, the movie" to "Men in Black" to "The Skulls."

Minnie had stopped crying. Tyler was pretty good at talking to her, giving her time to collect herself. "Thank you, I'll ask her."

"Good." She smiled at her again, "Now, what are you going to do for your diary?"

"I suppose I'll have to tell everything… they're going to exile me, aren't they?"

"Nah… they won't"

"Well, what I've done is so bad, it's such a betrayal –"

"They won't betray you because you're not going to tell them everything."

"I'm not?"

"Nope."

"Why?"

"Because, you're not the same person I am. I like being alone and spending my time studying alone. You need people. So, unless you really want to spend the next three and a half years as a loner, you're going to do as I tell you."

"I am?"

"Unless you have a better idea?"

"I'm listening."

Tyler grinned again and looked her straight in the eyes, "Now, you're going to go up to them tonight and say…"

Minnie listened avidly, this might actually work, and not all of it would be lies.

It was pretty late, all that was left were fifth, sixth and seventh years in the common room. Wait, no, Kevin, Owen, Mark were still by the fire. From the hand motions, it seemed as though they were talking about Quidditch. At least Eleanor had gone to bed about half an hour ago, she wouldn't be here to gloat. The seventh years, several sixth years and a fifth year were still cluttered around the 'throne.'

Hannah saw her approaching and gave her a friendly smile. The others around her turned to greet her.

"So far, I think we've been misjudging you, Minnie," she said with a smile. But, with Minnie's nervous look, she tilted her head and asked, "Is anything wrong?"

"Yes, actually there is."

The others all stopped their talking and looked at her intently. Minnie wished she could just talk to Hannah without all these others, but that wasn't possible. For one, you didn't ask for one-on-one conversations with the Queen if you were a fourth year, and besides, to change passwords, the others needed to know what was going on too.

"We need to change the passwords into the Chambers."

They all gaped at her.

"Can we know why we'd need to do this?" asked Daphne, incredulously.

"May I sit down?" Minnie asked timidly. Justin gave her a pillow, the same pillow she'd sat on yesterday. "I lost my diary today. After Care of Magical Creatures this morning, I spilled everything in my bag and I didn't put it back. I realized I didn't have it only after supper. I remembered that I'd spilled everything and I went back to the gardens." She took a deep shuddering breath, just like Tyler had told her to, "I looked for a while before finally finding it in the centaur's clearing," she looked at Hannah who nodded for her to continue. "Except someone had found it first…I… I hadn't seen him when I'd walked in, he told me that he'd found the book and waited to see whose it was… and that I was lucky it was him and not someone else… He left and I came back here…"

"So he read though it? Is that it?" asked Justin with a shrug.

"No, that's not it. Minnie, who was this?" asked Daphne, with a look of dawning comprehension.

Tyler had told her how to answer this question, "I write everything in my diary. And now… well…" she gave a big swallow, "Harry Potter knows the passwords to our Chambers." She drew her knees up and hugged them to her, allowing tears to fall.

Her words caused a commotion.

"What?"

"You mean he could walk in a destroy everything now?"

"We need to change everything immediately!"

"Merlin, we need to find new passwords, quickly. Who has the Random-Word-Quill?"

"How do we know if he hasn't started cursing things already? That he hasn't been here earlier?"

But their fury started coming back to Minnnie.

"Don't you know you're not supposed to write passwords down anywhere!"

"Completely irresponsible"

"Traitor"

"Look what you've done! I suppose he knows where the vault is too!"

"Silence!" Hannah's imperious tones cut off all noise. Everyone in the Common Room had congregated around them, they also silenced. "Minnie! How could you have done this? I'd placed such hopes on you, you've not only let me down, you've betrayed the whole House! A diary!" she said weakly, "A diary… you couldn't have taken any precautions with it? I mean, to keep secrets from anyone who might have stumbled over it! And to think that it's Potter…" she finished weakly.

"I had precautions. I'd charmed the lock and hexed it too. I'd even charmed the pages blank with a password. No one should be able to get through those." she said quietly.

"Minnie! Locking charms can be broken! And a seventh year would obviously get around anything you'd put on it!" yelled Justin. He looked incensed.

But that, to Minnie was going a bit too far. She was insulted, "No one could have known about this charm!"

"He's got Granger, you idiot. With a walking textbook like her, he's got to know it. Do you even think?" he yelled back.

"Not even she could! I created it! The Locking Charm, the hex, and the Password Charm are all mine! And if you think I've gone spreading them around, you're out of your mind, Justin!" Uh oh, she might have gone a bit far there, yelling at a seventh year!

But before Justin could say something back, Susan interrupted, "You created the charms?"

"Yes! So you see there was no way that -"

"From scratch? The spells weren't simply adaptations of others? Or a mix?"

"No! I keep telling you -"

"Hannah! She could do it!" Susan had turned and was in a very closed huddle with Hannah and Zacharias, gesticulating wildly and looking incredibly exited. What the heck? thought Minnie.

The others were slowly quieting down, looking curiously at the three who were now all three looking exited. Slowly, they realized they were being looked at and broke apart.

"Everyone, listen," said Hannah in an imperial tone, there was no question that everyone would obey. "Morag, you need to find the Quill and choose new passwords for everything, Daphne and Justin, you're putting up wards in front of the vault, Joseph," pointing to the Hufflepuff Quidditch Captain, "You and Ernie, establish a watch in the corridor and on the stairs for the night, we need to give the wards time to settle. Susan and Zacharias, you two are going to accompany me, we need to talk. The rest of you, go to bed."

Minnie felt tiny, but Justin hadn't stopped looking at her, "And what about her?" he said, pointing at her, where she was still huddled on the floor.

Hannah's gaze held no answer or promise, and neither did her response, "I have a punishment for her. I won't let her off the hook. Go now."

Everyone split up, heading for their given task or towards bed, muttering together. Hannah and Zacharias headed off towards Hannah's room. Susan started to go with them, then came back to where Minnie still hadn't moved.

She stood in front of her for a moment, looking forbidding, then crouched down, so she was almost eye level with Minnie.

"Minnie, we understand that what happened isn't entirely of your fault. But we are exceedingly angry at having to change everything, I think you'll find it logical that we punish you somehow, yes?"

Minnie gave a slight nod.

"Good. We aren't going to ask you to turn over your diary to assess everything that Potter might know. We're only going to ask that you read through it tonight and tell us tomorrow what we need to change, all right?"

Minnie nodded again, deeply thankful. Tyler had told her to try this path as it might mean she didn't have to turn over her diary and have them all realize how deep her betrayal was. Steering them around to acknowledge her charming ability had been a stroke of genius, even if it was a slight gamble.

Susan gave a shake of her head, telling her to go to her dorm, then rose and started walking towards the door Hannah and Zacharias had gone through.

"Wait!" called Minnie, confused. "Is that all my punishment?"

Susan stopped and turned around. The remaining students in the room also stopped what they were doing, in Justin's case that meant a table frozen in mid-air, and looked at the two of them. Susan shook her head and said, "No, that is most definitely not it. You will meet me in the Entrance Hall at six thirty tomorrow evening to begin your real punishment." She turned back around and went through the door from which exited voices were coming.

Minnie rose slowly, under the gaze of the eight others in the room. When she looked at Joseph, he turned away and continued to talk to Ernie and the others he was establishing a watch with. Daphne also turned back to her work. Morag bent back to the table where a large orange quill was writing. Only Justin held her gaze as she left the room and just before she stepped into the corridor leading to her dorm, he mouthed, quite clearly, "Watch your back."

***

A/N: Okay, so not much happened in this chapter. It's more to set up what's going to happen in the next couple of chapters, where we get to drool some more over Harry's magnificence and heroism. But I couldn't just randomly jump to that. I swear I'll get the next chapter up as soon as I get more reviews!

yellowpages: Thanks, you were the only person who reviewed! I hope I can meet your expectations!

For everyone else, don't let yellowpages be the only one! It's bad for my ego! And you won't get chapter 4 until I get more (I'll simply e-mail it to yellowpages). So there.