Chapter 35

Draco Malfoy felt his stomach plummet as he watched Professor Snape throw the door to his office open and order Hermione Granger to join them. The last thing he wanted was that Mudblood bitch getting involved. She'd told him flat out that she wouldn't hesitate to lie if that's what it took to protect Weasley. And the fact that Weasley didn't balk when Snape threatened to bring her in the room just clinched it. He was in deep shit.

He never should have gone to the hospital wing. All he'd wanted to do was having his bruises healed. How was he supposed to know that Snape would come swooping in and demand to know what had happened. Draco of course had said as little as possible, but it didn't matter. Snape already knew about the fight, as well as who was involved, and he was hell bent on pinning the entire thing on Potter's little sidekick. Under different circumstances Draco would have been all for it. But Granger wasn't one to make idle threats. There was no doubt in his mind about what she'd accuse him of if her back was to the wall. He had to admit to starting the fight. He had no choice.

Fighting was a minor offense as opposed to sexual assault. There was no way he'd be able to worm his way out of that one with McGonagall in the room. Not if it was Saint Granger, teachers pet, making the accusations. She had a torn shirt and several prefect witnesses to back up her side of the story. Not to mention Weasley's brother and Mad-Eye Moody, who were obviously on her side.

What did he have? Nothing. Nothing but the truth, for all the good it would do him. She might be a Gryffindor, but that little bitch could lie as well as any Slytherin he'd met. He'd seen first hand how convincing she could be when she tricked Professor Umbridge the year before. Once she started in with her version of what happened and threw in a few of those fake tears, even Snape, as lenient as he was when it came to the members of his own house, wouldn't be able to look the other way.

He'd probably wind up being expelled and Weasley would come off as the hero. There was no way Draco was going to let that happen. He had no choice but to take the blame. It was the only way to prevent her from making good on her threat. But he wasn't going to forget this. Oh no. Weasley and Granger were at the top of his list, right along with Potter, who had put his father in prison.

You're going to pay, Draco thought, narrowing his eyes at Hermione as she entered the room and followed Snape to his desk. All three of you. Just you wait. I'll get you back for this.

"Well, well, well," Professor Snape said to Hermione as he slid back behind his desk and took his seat. "It would seem you three had a rather eventful trip. Mr. Weasley and Mr. Malfoy have given us their version of what happened. Now I'd like to hear yours."

"I didn't te..." Ron started to protest.

"SILENCE!" Snape cried loudly, effectively cutting him off. "You will keep your mouth shut, Weasley. Is that understood?" he asked, his cold black eyes locked on Ron as if daring him to speak again. "IS IT?"

"Yes, sir," Ron spat out angrily.

"Five point from Gryffindor for speaking, Weasley."

"WHAT!" Ron bellowed, spinning around to appeal to McGonagall. "Professor, you can't just let him..."

"I suggest you shut up," Snape continued, despite McGonagall's disapproving look, "before I make it ten points?"

Ron's mouth instantly snapped shut, but it didn't stop him from growling as he spun back around to face the Potions Master.

One look at Ron was all it took for Hermione to know he was struggling to keep his temper under control. Not only was his face red with rage, his ears were starting to match. A sure sign of trouble. Snape was goading him on purpose and Ron was falling for it.

"What happen on the train Miss Granger?" Professor McGonagall asked somberly. "Who started the fight?"

"I already told you that...," Draco tried to interject before Hermione could respond.

Unfortunately, Snape had no intentions of letting him finish his sentence. The resounding bang caused by the Potions Master slamming his hand down on his desk effectively cut Malfoy off and drew Hermione's attention at the same time. "Professor McGonagall asked you a question, Granger," Snape snarled while glowering at Draco. "Answer it. Now!"

However, rather than respond, Hermione just turned to the left and glanced at Ron uncertainly.

"There is no point denying it," Snape pressed her. "Mr. Weasley already told us that he started it."

What? Ron thought as his mouth dropped open in indignation. He was so shocked that he couldn't have spoken even if he'd wanted it. It was a lie. A bald-faced lie and they all knew it. All of them except Hermione, that is. Snape was trying to mislead her. He was trying to trick her into revealing something she normally wouldn't and McGonagall was going along with it. That was the most shocking part of all.

"I'm sorry?" Hermione replied, almost as if she didn't think she'd heard him correctly.

"You were there, were you not?" McGonagall asked. "You witnessed the entire fight?"

"Yes."

"Then, as a school prefect you have a responsibility to...," Snape started, but the rest of his speech caught in this throat when Hermione unclasped her prefect badge and tossed in on his desk.

If Ron thought he had been shocked before, it was nothing compared to what he was feeling now. He wasn't the only one with his mouth hanging open either, Malfoy had joined him, and Snape wasn't all that far behind.

"Miss Granger?" McGonagall whispered, clearly as stunned as everyone else in the room. She knew the young woman in front of her was headstrong and loyal to her friends, but this was taking things a bit far. Malfoy had already confessed. There was no need for her to give up her badge. "Severus," she said, snatching Hermione's prefect badge up off his desk. "May I have a word with you?" she asked, stalking over to the door and throwing it open, "In private?" she added, motioning for him to follow her out into the hall.

"Whatcha do that for?" Ron asked Hermione the instant Snape's billowing black robes cleared the doorway and he shut the three prefects inside his office. "Have you completely gone around the bend?" he continued, looking both awed and horrified at the same time.

"If he thinks he can use the fact that I'm a prefect as a means of coercing me into...," she fumed. "Then he can go to hell and he can take that badge with him."

"Hermione?" Ron cried, moving past horror into full-blown admiration. "You didn't have to do that," he said, still trying to wrap his head around what he'd just seen her do. She'd just chucked her prefect badge at Snape. She'd all but told him to sod off. Even if she didn't say the words to his face, her intention was clear. But it wasn't just her prefect badge she was giving up, it was her shot at becoming Head Girl. She'd thrown it all away, just like that, for him. She'd given up her dream; the thing she'd spent the past five years working for and she hadn't even hesitated. "What have you done?" Ron wondered out loud as the enormity of it all hit them both.

"Oh god," Hermione groaned, the color draining out of her face as she fell into one of the chairs in front of Snape's desk.

"I'll make this up to you," Ron cried, sinking down on his knees in front of her and placing his hands on the arms of her chair. It was a feeble attempt at consolation and he knew it, but it was all he could think to say. "I swear, I will. I don't know how, but I'll find some way to..."

"A bit off your game tonight Granger?" Malfoy drawled out.

"SHUT THE HELL UP!" Ron roared, turning on the smirking Slytherin the instant he remembered he was still in the room. "THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!"

"How's that?" Malfoy asked, meeting the redhead's angry eyes and glaring right back. "I took the blame didn't I? I told them that I started the fight. You heard me do it. It's her own fault she was stupid enough to give up her..."

"RON! DON'T!" Hermione cried, jumping out of her chair and clutching his arm the instant he lunged for Malfoy. "This is exactly what got us into this mess in the first place," she hissed as she pulled him backwards. "Do you seriously want to have another fight right here, in the middle of Snape's office?"

"Sorry," he muttered, but he continued to try and stare down Malfoy even as he apologized to Hermione.

"Oh for heaven sakes," she sighed, pushing him into the chair she'd just vacated. "Just... calm down and let me think for a minute, will you?"

"Yeah," Draco sniggered. "Let's see you think your way out of this."

"Mr. Malfoy," Professor McGonagall's harsh voice cut through the room, startling the blond Slytherin so much that he actually jumped as he spun around to face her "You are free to go."

"WHAT!" Ron cried in outrage as Malfoy all but ran for the door. "Professor, you can't seriously believe..."

"Mr. Weasley, please," McGonagall said, closing the door the instant Draco was through it and then approaching the two Gryffindor prefects.

"But that's not fair," Ron whined. "You can't just let him go. This is all his fault. He even said so."

"Be that as it may," McGonagall replied tartly. "It is up to Professor Snape to decide Mr. Malfoy's punishment."

"Meaning he gets off scot free while Hermione loses her prefect badge?" Ron shouted, rising up out of his chair. "She didn't even DO anything. It's not fair, Professor. You can't."

"That will be quite enough Mr. Weasley."

"Here," Ron said, plucking the badge off his robe and offering it up to McGonagall. "Take mine instead. If one of us has to lose their badge it ought to be me. I did it. I started the fight."

"Ron," Hermione hissed beside him.

"Well I did."

"No you didn't," she protested, pleading with him to shut up with her eyes. "Malfoy started it."

"He provoked me, but I threw the first punch."

"Mr. Weasley," Professor McGonagall said, coming around and leaning against Snape's desk. "You are not a child any longer. It's time you learn how to control your temper or it's liable to get you, and your friends," she added holding up Hermione's prefect badge as if to prove her point, "in serious trouble. Fortunately," she added, handing the badge back to Hermione, "there was no lasting damage done today. But in the future, it might be wise to think about the consequences of your actions before you react. Miss Granger can't be counted on to stop you every time someone like Draco Malfoy tried to incite you into acting rashly. If you truly have aspirations of becoming an Auror you are going to have to learn to control those impulses yourself. You'll never make it into the Auror Training Program, or the Order," she added in a near whisper, "if you go running off half cocked every time someone provokes you."

"Yes, ma'am," Ron sighed, looking down at his shoes uncomfortably. "I'll try."

"See that you do. Now about your punishments."

"PUNISHMENTS! Both of us? But Hermione didn't even do anything."

"Mr. Weasley?" McGonagall warned, pursing her already thin lips even further.

"Sorry, Professor."

"You don't think McGonagall would actually expel them do you?" Ginny leaned over and asked Harry softly as they watched Draco enter the Great Hall behind Snape and swagger over to the Slytherin table as if he didn't have a care in the world.

"Doubt it," Harry replied, glaring at Malfoy who had just settled down on a bench between Crabbe and Goyle and reached for the food.

"Then where are they?" Ginny whispered.

"I don't know," Harry replied, trying not the let on that he was just as worried as Ginny.

"Maybe McGonagall isn't through lecturing them yet."

"But they've been gone for ages," Ginny argued, "They've missed the sorting, Dumbledore's speech and most of the feast."

"Maybe McGonagall isn't going to let them come," Harry replied, scanning the staff table again to see if she'd shown up herself. "Like that time Ron and I took your dad's car. We had to stay in Snape's office."

"Reckon we ought to nick them some food?"

"Naw, she'll feed them herself if that's what happened. And if not, Ron can take my invisibility cloak and go down to the kitchens later."

"Oh yeah," Ginny said sarcastically. "There's a brilliant idea. Ron's already in trouble. The last thing he needs is to get caught roaming around the halls after hours."

"All right. I'll go then. If I get caught," Which I won't, Harry added silently, "I'll just say that I wanted to visit Dobby."

"Or we could just bring some food back with us," Ginny replied, grabbing one of the cloth napkins off the table and loading it up with chicken. "You'll have to do it though," she said, shoving the napkin in Harry's direction, "because I have to escort the first years to the common room and I can't exactly break the rules in front of them. Not on my first night as a prefect, anyway. Hermione will kill me, even if the food is for her."

"Noticed she was in a foul mood, did you?" Harry asked, taking the napkin full of chicken out of Ginny's hand.

"Are you kidding?" she chuckled. "It was kind of hard to miss the way she was snarling at Ron."

"At least things are back to normal," Harry replied with a slight smile. "I never would have thought that I'd actually miss those two bickering, but it was just.... strange the way they were going out of their way to be pleasant to each other all the time. Honestly, I'm surprised they made it as long as they did without having a row."

"They had plenty of rows before...you got there," Ginny said awkwardly. "Just ask Ron to tell you about the one they had after he jumped that reporter in the field. It was so bad Dad had to shield the kitchen."

"George told me about that," Harry replied. "He said she even yelled at him."

"Oh yeah. She told George to sod off,' she laughed. "Although he deserved it. Waving that official warning she'd received from the Ministry under her nose like that."

"He forgot to mention that part when he told me the story," Harry chuckled.

"Figures. Look," Ginny said, nodding her head towards the doorway her brother had just stormed though. "Hermione's not the only one in a bad mood," she whispered to Harry as the two prefects approached the table.

"That old bat," Ron snarled as he flopped down on the bench beside Harry and reached for a platter of pork chops.

"Ron!" Hermione admonished with a scowl as she sat down herself.

"Let me guess," Harry sighed, turning to Hermione who was sitting on his other side. "Malfoy went straight to Snape?"

"Actually," she replied, rolling her eyes at Ron, who had loaded up his plate and was now stabbing his potatoes viciously, "he went straight to the hospital wing."

"Bloody baby." Harry heard Ron mutter under his breath. "Who goes to the hospital wing for a black eye?"

"Madame Pomfrey probably told Snape."

"Well you're still here, so McGonagall obviously didn't expel either of you," Ginny said.

"No," Ron grumbled. "She just gave me detention."

"You've really got no one to blame but yourself," Hermione chided.

"I can blame Malfoy."

"Oh he made you shout at McGonagall, did he?" Hermione asked sarcastically.

"Well, she had no right giving you detention too."

"You got detention?" Ginny asked, looking at Hermione in shock.

"A bloody months worth," Ron cried incredulously.

"Ron, don't curse. What if the first years hear you and..."

"The first years are way down there," Ron cut in, pointing down at the end of the table where the newest Gryffindor were seated. "They can't hear a word I'm saying."

"That's not the point."

"Yes it is."

"Here we go," Ginny said, rolling her eyes at Harry.

"You got a month of detention?" Harry asked, his eyes jumping from Ron to Hermione. "Each?"

"Waste of breath, mate," Ron replied. "She doesn't even bloody care."

"Of course I care," Hermione shot back.

"Then why aren't you upset?" he countered.

"Well I deserved it, didn't I?" she replied. "She shouldn't have given me back my badge."

"What?" Ginny asked, looking at Ron uncertainly. "McGonagall took away your prefect badge?" she asked, her eyes wide with shock.

"No," Ron said, smiling for the first time since he'd entered the room. "Snape tried to remind her that as a prefect it was her duty to rat me out, so she chucked her badge at him. It was bloody brilliant," he rhapsodized. "It was almost worth getting a months detention to see the look on his face. The only thing that would have made it any better would have been if you had bounced it off his greasy forehead."

"It's not as bad as he's making it sound," Hermione assured their friends. "It isn't a solid month. It's just one night a week for a month."

"Yeah, Saturday nights," Ron grumbled. "The one night I have when I don't have to worry about finishing my schoolwork."

"You don't do any schoolwork on Friday nights either."

"That's not the point. She's ruined my weekends."

"No, you ruined them," Hermione argued. "You could have been expelled," she scolded. "You got off easy."

"Easy?" Ron moaned. "McGonagall is going to write my Mum tonight. I wouldn't be surprised if she sends a couple howlers in the morning. Laugh it up," he added when Hermione rolled her eyes at him. "She'll send you one too. Just you wait and see."

"Now who's the baby?" Hermione muttered into her napkin.

"OY! I heard that."

"Ever hear that saying about being sorry what you wish for?" Ginny asked Harry with a chuckle. "Tired of the bickering yet?"

"Nope," Harry replied with a smile, leaning back and making it easier for his two best friends to see one another as they squabbled.

"You will be," Ginny warned.

"Probably," he agreed, "but still, it's good to be back."

"So what'd we miss?" Ron asked, turning away from Hermione and glancing down towards the new first years."

"You missed the sorting, obviously," Harry replied.

"And Dumbledore's speech," Ginny added.

"Wait. What?" Hermione asked, prying her eyes off the staff table and locking them on Ginny. "Dumbledore already gave his speech? Before the feast? But he always does it afterwards."

"Not this year," Harry replied.

"He said there was no point holding it off," Ginny explained. "Since we all knew about 'the events' that occurred over the summer and had probably surmised who was missing by now."

"What did he say about the attacks?" Ron asked, lowering his fork before it reached his mouth.

"Not much," Harry replied. "Nothing we didn't already know."

"Except the names of the other victims," Ginny replied.

"Euan Abercrombie?" Hermione asked, after a quick scan of their table. "They weren't all Gryffindor were they?"

"No," Ginny replied sadly. "They got Orla Quirke from Ravenclaw. And Kevin Whitby. He was in Hufflepuff."

"So every house except Slytherin?" Ron asked. "Imagine that?" he muttered, glaring at the Malfoy.

"He didn't say anything else?" Hermione asked, her eyes glued to the staff table again. "About the attacks?"

"Nothing we didn't already know," Ginny repeated. "He had us stand and drink to their memories and then proceeded to the usual announcements. Oh yeah," she added, turning to her brother. "Quidditch tryouts are in two weeks. You should probably be there, so you better talk to McGonagall and make sure it doesn't interfere with your detention."

"All right," Ron said, glancing over at McGonagall who was seated next to Dumbledore at the staff table. "What about the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?" he asked, scanning the rest of the table and realizing there were no unfamiliar faces. "Please tell me he didn't give the job to Snape."

"He didn't," Hermione replied as she picked at her food.

"How do you know?" Ron asked.

"Because I saw the new DADA teacher on the train," she replied.

"When?" Harry asked, obviously as surprised by this news as Ron and Ginny were.

"When I went to the back of the train and had Tonks boost the charms she'd placed on my hair."

"Where is he then?" Ron asked, looking at her skeptically.

"She," Hermione corrected. "And I have no idea."

"A witch?" Ron moaned.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ginny snapped.

"It means we're going to learn everything from books, just like last year."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that if I were you," Hermione chuckled.

"You know who it is, don't you?" Harry asked.

"Well," Ron demanded, when Hermione smiled. "Who is it?"

"I already told you," she replied, dropping her voice to a near whisper. "It's Tonks."

"Seriously?" Ginny cried loudly. "That is so cool."

"Wicked," Ron said, smiling right along with Harry and his sister.

"Apparently Dumbledore thought it would be a good idea to have an Auror around," Hermione explained. "And since Fudge mucked things up so badly last year, he bent over backwards to accommodate him. But Tonks said we shouldn't let on how well we know her, so try and curb your enthusiasm a bit," she warned her ginger haired friends.

"Right," Harry replied.

"Wish we had DADA with the Slytherins," Ron said, glancing off into space and completely missing the bewildered looks Harry and Hermione shot his way. "I'd love to see her take on Malfoy."