To be honest, Harry Potter had an extremely terrible last couple of days. Marietta Edgecombe ratted them out to Umbridge. Umbridge and her Inquisitorial Squad raided the Room of Requirement and captured Harry, along with the list of DA members, which had been just left out in the open. If it had not been for Kingsley's quick thinking and Dumbledore purposely falling on the sword, Harry and the rest of the group would likely be expelled. But, now Dumbledore was gone and Umbridge was the Headmistress of Hogwarts.

Oh, he had a falling out with Cho over the entire Marietta thing and Harry did not know quite how to deal with Cho, because she was an emotional trainwreck. Then again, so was he. This had been a terrible year and things were not improving at all.

Harry thought how badly everything had gone. And he realized if Kingsley did not modify Marietta's memory and if Dumbledore did not take the blame, their goose would have been cooked.

Umbridge knew everyone who had been involved. So everyone who had been involved was under close watch for any further sedition.

Of course, Harry thought Umbridge was not as smart as she liked to think she was. Because, she really could do some damage with her "a group is a regular meeting three or more students" rule and split Harry, Ron, and Hermione up.

Never interrupt the enemy when they are making mistakes. About the only useful thing Harry ever heard out of Uncle Vernon's mouth.

Harry had plenty of time to think, after his last, and likely final, blow up with Cho. He almost ran into Hermione as she exited the library.

"Hermione," Harry said. "We need to talk. In private."

Hermione looked around nervously, and saw no one was watching them.

"Right," Hermione said.

The two made their way into an unused classroom. Harry put the necessary charms for privacy before Hermione could even blink. Hermione just shrugged.

"Nasty charm you put on that list," Harry said. "Impressive work. Everyone knows what Edgecombe did, don't they?"

"Yes, it was, although I can't believe she snitched on us like that," Hermione said.

"The problem is, the charm didn't actually stop her from telling Umbridge in the first place, did it?"

Hermione blinked.

"I'm sorry?" Hermione asked.

"She went to Umbridge and told her about the group," Harry said. "Told her where she could find us. You might have embarrassed her with those disgusting pimples, but Umbridge knew where to go and how to find us."

"She did, but Dumbledore fixed it, didn't he? Hermione asked.

"The problem is, Dumbledore's gone and she's the Headmistress," Harry said. "What would have happened if Kingsley wasn't there? Or if Umbridge decided to take me to the Ministry? What then?"

"She didn't though," Hermione said. "She…"

"She could have, Hermione," Harry said. "Marietta might have trouble getting a date, she might be highly embarrassed. Cho was right. You should have told us that you jinxed the list. And to be honest, you should have put a better spell on the list, that actually would have stopped someone from jinxing on us in the first place."

"Look, I did the best I could," Hermione huffed.

"Remember the spells at the Quidditch World Cup?" Harry asked her. "How if a Muggle came across the stadium, they would just happen to remember an urgent appointment."

Hermione nodded slowly.

"What was to stop you from doing the same thing? Making sure if anyone thought about going to Umbridge, they would have remembered how they needed to be somewhere else, anywhere else. Why didn't you do that?"

And now Hermione looked gobsmacked.

"That's actually a good idea," Hermione said.

"Yes, although I wonder why you didn't think of it," Harry said. "And I remember what you told Ernie. Remember? How you just wouldn't leave the list lying around. Tell me again, what happened?"

"I…I left the list," Hermione said in a small voice.

"And Umbridge and Malfoy could read it, all of our names were signed on the list," Harry said. "You should have password protected the list like the Marauders did with the map. Not had it hanging out in the open where anyone could read it."

Hermione's eyes closed and she sighed.

"Maybe it's my fault, for assuming you wouldn't be so careless," Harry said. "You wouldn't be so sloppy. Edgecombe ratted us out. The damage was done. It's like locking the door to the hen house after the fox already came by, that little jinx. Impressive, but utterly meaningless. I put my neck in the line because you thought I should teach people how to defend themselves. And you couldn't even think of a couple of basic security measures."

There had been no response for a while until Hermione finally found her voice.

"It's already done, we can't change things now," Hermione said.

"No," Harry conceded. "We can't. The damage has been done. And you're lucky there wasn't more. Thank Kingsley the next time you see him. I know I will. We owe him the fact we were not expelled. A fate much worse than death, if I remember correctly."

Hermione cringed at Harry dredging up that past remark of hers. She still felt compelled to defend herself.

"Harry, we had no idea…"

"Not now, Hermione," Harry said. "I didn't have to do this. But, I did. And if we did all get expelled, Voldemort and his followers would have had no trouble killing us all. And they were looking for any excuse to get rid of me. They did get Dumbledore. We got to live with that."

The stare of Hermione grew cold although Harry did not falter.

"You really are pinning all the blame on me, aren't you?"

"I told you, I take responsibility for overestimating your competence."

Hermione winced at that deep cut.

"You're not always right."

With that Harry walked out to leave Hermione pondering out all that went wrong. Along with the grim realization things could have been a bit worse.