Hermione woke up to the heady feeling of not having to be anywhere, and therefore not having to leave the comfort of her bed. It was Saturday, and unless there was an emergency, she didn't work weekends, but now she had the added bonus of knowing that she wasn't just having a weekend lie-in. Her maternity leave had officially begun the previous day, and now time was hers to do with as she desired.
Reaching for her husband, Hermione frowned when she found Draco's side of the bed deserted. Her husband wasn't a big morning person, and rarely missed the opportunity to spend a few extra hours in bed with her. But this morning he was gone, and he hadn't even woken her up.
Pouting at the desertion, Hermione was just about to haul herself out of bed when the bedroom door opened and Draco entered, carrying a lavish breakfast tray. As lovely as the breakfast looked, Hermione was rather more distracted by what lay beneath the tray Draco was carrying as he was still naked.
"See something you like?" Draco asked with a smirk.
"Always," Hermione confirmed with a smirk of her own.
Laughing Draco carefully placed the breakfast tray onto the bed and climbed back in beside Hermione. Pressing a quick kiss to his wife's head, he urged her to eat while he flicked through the morning's papers. As she devoured her wholemeal toast, lavished with her favourite blackcurrant jam, Hermione was pleased that her brief spell of morning sickness was long past. It was nice to be able to enjoy breakfast, especially since the baby seemed to have developed a liking for blackcurrant jam, and she found herself craving it several times a day.
"You will never believe this," Draco remarked with a low whistle. "Turns out you're not so crazy after all."
"Crazy?" Hermione frowned, wondering just why her husband was calling her crazy.
"When you thought you saw Potter the other day," Draco reminded his wife, knowing full well that she would have forgotten all about it as at the moment her memory wasn't exactly firing on full cylinders. "Turns out you were right; he was at the Ministry."
"What?"
Not even bothering to see if Draco had finished with the paper, Hermione reached over and grabbed it from her husband's hands. There on the page in front of her was an old picture of Harry, taken some time after the end of the war, and a headline announcing he was back. Eager to find out what was going on, Hermione settled back against the pillows and began to read.
After five long years, Harry Potter has returned to Wizarding Britain. Five years ago Harry departed Britain with his childhood sweetheart, Ginny Weasley, and showed no sign of returning to his native homeland. However, he's now back and seems to think the people he saved from darkness owe him something in return.
Ginny Weasley spoke exclusively to a reporter from this paper and revealed that since his return, Harry has been snubbed by both the Ministry of Magic and Hogwarts. As readers will surely recall, before his departure, Harry had begun Auror training. However, he left before sitting his end of year exams and therefore failed to pass his first year's training. Understandably, he decided to go back to his training, but according to Miss Weasley the terms were not to his liking.
"It's an absolute disgrace," she told our reporter. "Harry is expected to start his training right from the beginning. He is expected to repeat an entire years' worth of work. He should be able to pick up where he left off."
Miss Weasley spoke fiercely about the unjustness of Harry having to repeat training he'd already done. But that wasn't all she had to say, and she had a swipe at the Minister for Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt, for not doing more to support Harry.
"He is the saviour of our world, after all. And who better to be an Auror than Harry Potter," she raged. "Kingsley should be bending over backwards to have Harry working for him. And everyone knows he has way more potential than the other mediocre morons he was initially training with."
Miss Weasley failed to acknowledge that her previous statement slighted her brother, Ronald, who was one of those 'mediocre morons', Harry was initially in training with. Although maybe she doesn't realise that her brother is considered one of the best Aurors in the department and is expected to have a glittering career ahead of him.
But the Ministry of Magic wasn't the only institution to come under fire from Miss Weasley as she also turned her wrath on Hogwarts, and the Headmistress, Professor Minerva McGonagall. After failing to return to Auror training as if he'd missed no time, Harry sought work at Hogwarts as the Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor but was turned down as the job is already taken.
"What does it matter if someone already has the job?" Miss Weasley raged as she spoke to our reporter. "This is Harry Potter for Merlin's sake. He defeated the darkest wizard our world has ever known. There is no-one more qualified to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts. Harry is far superior to anyone else who might have the job. Hogwarts and McGonagall are failing the students by having someone substandard teaching them when they could have Harry."
Yet again Miss Weasley seemed unconcerned that she'd insulted one of her brothers, this time the eldest Weasley, William, or Bill as he is commonly known. Bill Weasley has been teaching at Hogwarts for several years now and is a well-liked and respected member of staff. He is also responsible for some of the highest exam results Hogwarts has seen in Defence Against the Dark Arts for years.
The Daily Prophet contacted both the Ministry of Magic and Hogwarts for their version, and while neither would comment on a particular case, both Minister Shacklebolt and Headmistress McGonagall issued us with statements.
The Minister's statement read - "We treat all trainees the same, regardless of who they happen to be. Anyone is welcome to join one of our training programmes, and if for some reason they leave, they are welcome to restart their training from whatever stage they'd passed. In the case of Auror training and end of year exam is required to access the next year's training. Anyone who fails to achieve that end of year result, will have to retake the entire year. That rule is in place for everyone, and everyone must abide by the rules."
Meanwhile Professor McGonagall declared – "I am delighted with the staff I currently have and am assured that they are all fully qualified for the positions they teach. Anyone who applies for a job at Hogwarts is kept on record and they will be contacted if a suitable vacancy comes up. However, a member of staff who is very good at their job will not be let go in favour of another candidate, no matter who they are."
Now The Daily Prophet wants to hear from you. What does the general public think? Were Minister Shacklebolt and Headmistress McGonagall right or wrong? Should Harry have been able to restart his Auror training from where he left off, despite never taking his end of year exams? Should he have been given the post of Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor based on his history? Or was it right that he was treated like anyone else and not given preferential treatment? Please let us know and we'll share the public's response in a few days' time.
"Oh my god," Hermione whispered as she came to the end of the article. "Please tell me I imagined that horror show."
"It was all real," Draco chuckled.
"How could she do that?" Hermione gasped. "Ginny has just thrown Harry under the bus. She makes him sound like a right egotistical jerk."
"She doesn't exactly come out of it squeaky clean herself," Draco snorted. "She insulted two of her brothers, and virtually demanded Bill be sacked in favour of Potter."
"This is going to be trouble," Hermione predicted.
"It's certainly a unique way to announce your return," Draco remarked. "How do you think the Weasleys will take it?"
"Badly," Hermione guessed. "It's bad enough they came back and didn't say anything, but to then be sneaking around trying to oust Bill from his job, and to top it all off, Ginny sounds off to the press, making them sound like entitled arseholes."
"They're certainly going to have their work cut out for them making amends," Draco said. "I certainly wouldn't be feeling very forgiving if I were Ron or Bill. I'm not exactly impressed either, considering I was one of those, what did she call them? Ah yes, 'mediocre morons', Potter was training with."
"They've certainly dug themselves a hole," Hermione said with a shake of her head as she looked back down at the story.
And it wasn't even going to be the end of it, as no doubt The Prophet would in fact print people's reactions, and Hermione couldn't see Harry and Ginny gaining much sympathy. A war hero Harry might be, but that didn't entitle him to special treatment when it came to Auror training. And it certainly didn't entitle him to want Bill sacked so he could take his place. Hermione was guessing that when the verdict came in, the tide of opinion would go against Harry and his big-mouthed girlfriend.
"Ginny!"
Harry's angry cry was loud enough to wake the whole street, let alone his slumbering girlfriend. But Ginny was the only person he was interested in waking as he stormed into the bedroom, waving a copy of The Daily Prophet in the air.
"Oh, it's arrived," Ginny cooed, spotting the paper in Harry's hands. She'd spoken to the press a few days ago in private, and even though she hadn't told Harry of her plans, she was hoping he would appreciate the show of support she'd given him.
"What were you thinking?" Harry demanded.
"I wanted everyone to see how unfairly you were been treated," Ginny replied hesitantly, suddenly realising that Harry looked angrier than she'd ever seen him before.
"By slagging everyone off?" Harry snorted. "Nice one, Gin. We come across as two complete and utter arseholes. Especially given who you were making snide remarks about."
"What are you talking about?" Ginny snapped. It was true that she had said a few harsh things while she'd been talking to the reporter, but she'd been assured that nothing like that would be used, and nothing would be taken out of contest.
"Read it for yourself," Harry snorted, throwing the paper at his girlfriend and stalking across the room to be as far away from her as it was possible to get.
The paper was already open on the page where she needed to be, so Ginny eagerly jumped into the story. Almost instantly she could tell the tone of the story was not entirely as she'd planned, and there seemed to be a distinct lack of sympathy for how Harry had been treated. But then came the mention of Ron, and she looked up at Harry in horror.
"Ron didn't drop out of Auror training," she whispered.
"No, he's clearly done quite well for a 'mediocre moron'," Harry retorted sarcastically.
"Don't give me that look, you also thought he'd failed," Ginny countered.
"Yeah, but I didn't go running to the papers and call him names," Harry countered. "But read on, Gin, it just gets so much better."
Not sure how it could get much worse, Ginny returned to the article and very quickly discovered just how bad it was. It had been bad enough that they'd used a derogatory quote that could be used against Ron, but she'd then pretty much called for another of her brothers to be sacked. It didn't matter that she'd had no idea that Bill was teaching at Hogwarts. It was done now, and in the eyes of the world, she'd advocated her brother losing his job to benefit her boyfriend.
"Bill," she whispered, wondering if her eldest brother would ever forgive her.
"I can't believe it, Ginny," Harry cried, slumping down on a nearby chair. "I had no idea Bill was a Professor."
"Nor did I," Ginny admitted. "And if I'd known, I never would have suggested he be replaced. This makes me sound as though I don't think he's good enough for the job. And I bet he's a brilliant Professor."
"What are we going to do, Ginny?" Harry asked. "Not only do we look like selfish arseholes, but now your family know we're back, and we haven't told them. Did you even think of that?"
"No, but I never imagined it would turn out like this," Ginny wailed. "Most of those quotes were said in anger, and I was assured they wouldn't be used. Most of what I said was reasonable and would have put our side of things across properly."
"Do we have a side of things?" Harry snorted. "Because reading that, I suddenly saw how entitled I thought I was. Why I should I be any different to anyone else who wants to return to a training programme? Why should Kingsley make special allowances for me? I knew what I was doing when I left. We could have waited a few more weeks and I could have taken my end of year exam. But I selfishly thought I could just waltz back in and pick up where I left off. And as for just expecting McGonagall to give me a job, well that was just utter madness."
"No, it wasn't," Ginny interjected. "You would have made a brilliant Professor, Harry."
"Then maybe I should have thought about it before we left," Harry said wearily. "Maybe I should have taken steps to gain some extra experience. But most of all, I should have checked there was even a job before approaching McGonagall. It was wrong to assume that there would be a job I could simply walk into. And after this, who is going to hire me now? I doubt George will give me a chance after you've insulted two of your brothers."
"But that was me, not you," Ginny argued. "Let me fix this, Harry. I can sort everything."
"I very much doubt that," Harry snorted as he got to his feet and left Ginny to ponder just what sort of mess she'd made of things, and how on earth she could even begin to fix it and make things right.