Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I'm just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn't going to get you anything but tears.
Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. This fic also references canon war crimes. Feel free to back out if need be.
Author's Note: So, I hate everything about the Hogwarts situation in the books. Have some feels about that. Reminder that if you do not like aspects of my fics, you are free to back click without comment.
Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Hogwarts (Term 15); MC4A (Year 4); Whumptober 2021
Individual Challenges: La Vie Boheme; Gryffindor MC; Hufflepuff MC (x2); Ravenclaw MC; Slytherin MC; Magical MC (x7); Professor MC (x3); Neurodivergent; Rian-Russo Inversion (x6); Ethnic & Present (x3); The 3rd Rule; Ship Sails; Lunar Era; Old Shoes (Y); Bucket Listing; Divinity; Short Jog (Y); Two Cakes (Y); Eating Cake (Y); Green Ribbon
House: Slytherin
Assignment No.: Term 15 – Assignment 10
Subject (Task No.): Aquatic Studies (Task#10: Write about someone sarcastic and blunt.)
Other Hogwarts Challenges: Yearly Scavenger Hunt [09](5 Same Emotion)[x1]; 365 [261](Honey); Fantastic Beasts [128](Minerva McGonagall);
Other Challenges: Whumptober [D 31] (Prisoner)
Other MC4A Challenges: Set [4A](Riot);Ship (Badgers)[SpMed1 (Trapped Together); SuBig (Hair Stick/Comb); SuMic2 (White; Yellow); FaBig (Talking); 1C (Educational Date)]; Hunt [Fa WD (Vodun/Santeria)]; Chim [Alcium] (Crimson; Hurt/Comfort; Life/Death); Fire [x3](Remember Remember; No Mayo Here; Sapphic Paradise); Garden [More Favs (Seer Luna Lovegood)]; Hang [Phrase 04] (Outside Challenge/Competition)
Representation(s): Haitian Creole OC (Morgana St. Juste); Jewish Hannah Abbott/Susan Bones; Hints of Hannah/Susan/Neville; Seer Luna Lovegood
Primary & Secondary Bonus Challenges: Under the Bridge; Where Angels Fear; Getting On; Second Verse (Bechdel Test; Ladylike; Not a Lamp; Persistence Still; White Dress; Found Family; Nontraditional; Zucchini Bread; Middle Name; Unwanted Advice; Clio's Conclusion; Three's Company; For the Vine; Lovely Coconuts; Lyre Liar; Most Human Bean; Muck & Slime; Rock of Ages; Casper's House; Hot Apple; Bad Beans); Chorus (Odd Feathers; Pear-Shaped; Wabi Sabi; Machismo; Peddling Pots; Fire Song; Mouth of Babes; Tomorrow's Shade; A Long Dog; Eternal Boredom; Larger than Life; Unicorn; Creature Feature; Abandoned Ship; In the Trench; Surprise!; Piper Mix; Turtle-Duck; Forked Path; Sitting Hummingbird); Demo 1 (Sweetest Burn); Demo 2 (Sailor Delight)
Tertiary & Generic Bonus Challenges: SS (Schooner; Sanctuary); SHoE (Sorority); War (Monomania; Orator; Obstruction; Sanctuary; Ennui); Mea (Ennui; Rampant)
Word Count: 2203 words
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St. Justice
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Hogwarts had been taken over.
Per the school's charter and the resulting treaties that the founders and sequential headmasters had negotiated and maintained with the Ministry of Magic for the British Isles, Hogwarts was actually a sovereign territory in its own right. Thus, taken over was technically invaded and conquered, which would have been a fairly accurate description of how things felt under the administration of Death Eaters. The school had never truly been safe, at least not under Dumbledore, but the manipulations and conditioning of those days had been far and away from the outright torture and harassment of present.
Those who had managed to get out of the Isles before the Death Eaters took over the Ministry were the lucky ones, even if they have now been essentially exiled. Those who hadn't managed to get out were stuck. One of the first things that Voldemort did after installing his administration was close the borders, warding against any travel in either direction.
Then he mandated that all magical children of the correct age had to attend school or prove medical reasons why not. To further that end, the Ministry was waived the standard Hogwarts tuition costs as well as had gone so far as to provide all required supplies, including uniforms and outerwear for every student.
Even with the sudden removal of any Muggle-borns from the enrollment roster, there had been a population surge. The new students had previously been homeschooled or educated through other organizations. The social balance had shifted in multiple and sometimes unpredictable ways.
The biggest clash was between the now-increased-amount of Death Eaters on the staff and the new students. Education standards outside of the hallow halls of Hogwarts tended to include historical events that were more recent than the adoption of the Statute of Secrecy. The three Death Eaters on staff, their sympathetic caretaker, and the other adults affected a blindness to the violence publicly while lending at least nominal aid to the students privately were, as always, outnumbered by the student population. However, unlike how it had been under Dumbledore's reign, this time a significant amount of those students had grown up learning about resistance movements and political activism.
The inevitable explosion happened on a very recognizable day.
It wasn't planned, at least not completely. The new students had been carefully sowing the seeds of discontent since the first day of term. A bunch of them had started training in secret shortly afterwards. They were all children, yes, but it had been made clear that the adults around them were barely more than useless. They were officially the only ones who were willing to do anything about the situation, or at least about this corner of the situation.
Maybe it was coincidence that the tension simmering in the school boiled over when it did. Maybe it was destiny. Maybe it was Hogwarts herself having finally had enough of foulness happening within her walls.
Whatever the reason, when the students filed in for dinner that fateful evening, the tension in the atmosphere was as thick as the air before a storm. No one was happy that the Head of the Muggle-born Registration Commission was visiting, after all. Dolores Umbridge was no one's favorite person, no matter how well her views and opinions aligned with those of her allies. Even the Carrow siblings (who had spent the term so far torturing students and forcing other students to also do so) were visibly uncomfortable with her presence at the head table that night. Seated in the throne of headmaster, Snape looked like the lemon he had swallowed was particularly sour as he listened to whatever the woman was saying.
Then a pied raven swooped into the Great Hall. The orange light of the setting sun turned its white feathers a rich honey color. The resulting mixture of amber and black was fitting as the raven carried its crimson burden to the Hufflepuff table. The students at the table looked vaguely confused the Abbott family raven delivering a Howler instead of a care package or simple letter. Zillah Abbott never sent her daughter Howlers. Those who knew the Abbotts were very familiar with Zillah Abbott's opinion on yelling at children, and many of the students currently attending the school had at least a passing familiarity with the woman as she was the primary healer who specialized in pediatric healing magic. If they didn't get their annual checkup from her, they got it from her partner Ted Tonks.
Hannah looked pale as she took the Howler from her family raven. Sitting beside her, Susan Bones was equally wan. She placed a shaking hand on the shoulder of her fellow Hufflepuff as the crimson envelope began to smoke. Hannah took a deep breath before opening it just enough to trigger its transformation.
"They're culling the patients," the Howler announced to the filled Great Hall. There was no anger in Zillah's projected voice. There was only a firm and unrelenting determination, as steadfast as any promise made by a Hufflepuff and as final as a grave. "I love you. I'm sorry."
The Howler shredded itself after it delivered its message. The red confetti rained down onto Hannah's empty plate like drops of blood. The blonde stared down at them as if she was staring at a corpse. Everyone knew that in a way, she was. Zillah would not have allowed them to just take her patients. She would have protected them as fiercely as any sow would her cubs.
Susan's hand tightened on Hannah's shoulder.
Then Hannah raised herself to her feet. Susan stood with her. Her honey brown eyes were practically gold with the fire lit within them. They burned with her rage as she looked towards the Gryffindor table. Neville's face was carefully blank as he met Hannah's gaze and raised to his own feet.
The cut down the left side of his face, the one he got from defying the Carrows' order to torture a first-year in detention, was dark red around the edges. It was surely infected from the lack of professional medical treatment in the week since he had gotten it. It also had a few crusty spots of greenish-yellow gunk in it that should probably be cleaned out. The wound was deep for the area of his face it was located on.
It would scar.
All of this would.
"Hem, hem," Umbridge interrupted. Her voice was as falsely sweet and high-pitched as ever. Those who bothered to look would see that she had also risen to her feet. Beside her, Snape was flushing with rage at the twin embarrassments of unruly students and Umbridge's assumption of command over those students. "You need to sit down now. You're disrupting everyone's dinner."
"Yeah, Abbott," called one of the new seventh-years from the other end of the hall. She had skin as dark as midnight with eyes to match and she had left her black curls untamed for the most part, only pulling them back during Potions and Herbology with silver combs encrusted with sapphires and rubies. By her robes, she had been sorted into Slytherin, but she wore them open so that the red and blue geometric pattern of her silk dress could be seen. It was just over two months into the term, and she had already gained a reputation for her pointed tongue and even more pointed wand work. "Don't let the news of the latest crime against humanity upset ya. It's bad for the digestion. Much better to be a good little lemming and do as yer told."
"You need to hush as well, Miss…" Umbridge trailed off as she realized that she couldn't recognize the student despite her age. The seventh-year grinned, her teeth shining brightly against her dark face. The expression was as mocking as it was threatening, like a fox toying with a mouse. Umbridge huffed in annoyance when the student didn't immediately offer her name. "Well, what is your name, child?"
"Ain't no business of yours," declared the student. Her voice rang with an authority beyond her years. She shifted so that she was sitting on the table with her feet on the bench that she had been sitting on. She had her wand out now and was twirling it between the fingers of her left hand. "But the Book has me down as Morgana St. Juste, so that's what you and your fellow toadies can call me." She tapped the pale tip of her smooth wand to her chin thoughtfully. She gave a little hum that echoed with an unseen power. "I don't suppose you be willin' to call me 'your highness', non?"
"You are disrupting dinner, Miss Juste," Umbridge scolded. St. Juste rolled her eyes and went back to flipping her wand back and forth over her fingers. Umbridge's beady eyes moved over the assembled students. "All of you need to return to your seats at once! This behavior is most unbecoming of students at the finest school in the world."
"That's a right crock there," the Slytherin commented dryly. Her dark eyes flashed over the trio of the other students who had been standing. Then they moved just as quickly over the House tables between them, noting without drawing attention to how the younger years were quietly disappearing from their seats. Only then did her gaze return to the three. "I know that Longbottom there is a legacy and the Dowager would never let 'im go anywhere else, but tell me the truth: if the Jewish school was still open, ye both would have gone, non? Abbott and Bones? Yeah, ye would na be at this brackish bogtrap pretendin' to be a school."
"Miss Juste," snapped Umbridge, obviously frustrated at being ignored, "stop spouting this slander at once and return to your seat! All of you! Return to your seats this instant!"
"Remember," Luna announced from the Ravenclaw table. Her silver eyes seemed even paler as she stood from her, wavering in place like a sunflower in the wind. Still sitting on the Slytherin table, Morgana St. Juste smiled again. Luna continued in a singsong voice with an eerily flat affect. "Remember, remember, the fifth of November, gunpowder, treason, and plot! I see no reason why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot!"
"The little songbird there knows what song needs sung," St. Juste said. "Meybe it's time for the People to be singing a different song." Umbridge glared from on high. St. Juste stood on the bench before stepping up on the table. She addressed all of the room. "They have turned what should have been a sanctuary for all into a torture chamber. They keep us—all of us, even those beyond these stone halls—trapped like prisoners and slaves, no more than animals awaiting slaughter. Now they dare to go after St. Mungo's?"
"Sit down," Umbridge ordered sharply. St. Juste snarled at her. Hannah smacked her hands on the table in front of herself, drawing attention back to the Hufflepuffs.
"You sit down," Hannah countered. She raised her chin defiantly. Beside her, Susan had her wand out in the ready dueling position. The Gryffindors were starting to stand up around Neville, as were the other Hufflepuffs. The Ravenclaws and Slytherins were watching the room with sharply measuring gazes. "St. Juste is right. We have already made too many compromises. We cannot make another one, not about this. The line must be drawn here. We must not let this continue further.
"You are welcome to leave now," Neville picked up. He was clearly addressing the Death Eaters and compliant adults at the head table, but he swept his gaze over the student body as well to include them in the offer. "No one will be made a prisoner here. Not by us." His gaze returned to the head table. "But make no mistake about who is in charge here. Hatred has tainted this school for too long already, and it will be purged. Either you leave by choice or you get throw out. Those are your only options."
"We can't just leave," McGonagall protested into the beat of silence that followed Neville's declaration. "You are just children!"
"We are," Luna agreed, wavering a bit as she stood up. Her gray eyes glowed in the fading sunlight, reflecting back the flames of the lighting candles floating in the air like stars. Her voice took on another echo, something deeper and more resounding than even the power that had been St. Juste's voice. "We are just children. This should not have been allowed to progress to the point that we were forced to take action. It is a failure of the adults who should have protected us—those who had vowed to protect us—that we must be the ones to do this."
"The dragon had been sleeping," St. Juste commented almost idly, "but you didn't heed the warnings." St. Juste leveled her wand at the head table. "You just had to tickle it."
None of the adults at the table could think of anything to counter that.
That was okay.
The students were tired of their excuses anyway.
They were all exorcised from the grounds within fifteen minutes.