Minister's Club (1)

A/N: I'm posting two chapters today. Enjoy.

By the way if this fanfiction was a movie Charlize Theron would play Lucinda.

A few days later Montague was found in a cabinet. Apparently he had been in limbo between Hogwarts and the infamous Borgin and Burkes. Hermione had a talk with him and explained that the Weasley terrors were not be messed with.

"Who are you to tell me all this?" he asked condescendingly.

Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle and Nott went pale behind her.

"Graham, was it? I'm the new Head Inquisitor appointed by Headmistress Umbridge." She stood behind him. "Feel free to express your opinion, Graham."

Her tone had been her normal tone like she was really asking, but seeing the look on Draco and Theodore's face was begging him to shut up.

"We have been looking for you for two weeks. My Inquisitors could have spent their time for something more useful." She continued. He "Yet we couldn't neglect the disappearance of a colleague while he was on duty"

"Lestrange, insisted on finding you as soon as possible." said Nott, "You sir, should be thankful."

"I think Headmistress would like to see you alone." said Hermione.

"I don't think that's necessary, Lestrange, is it?" said Nott pleadingly.

"I agree with her, he should see Headmistress." said Malfoy.

Hermione took Montague to Umbridge's office. As they entered Dolores Umbridge stood up.

"Ah, Hermione, I see that you found Mr Montague." she said with her sweet voice. "Has he thanked you, dear?"

"Thank her?" said Montague incredulously, "How did she even get to become the Head Inquisitor?"

"Would you please sit down, Mr Montague?" she asked him casually. "Hermione dear, would you like some tea as well?"

"Of course." she accepted a cup from Umbridge.

"Mr Montague, while you were gone Hermione has taken over the Inquisitorial Squad. Minister appreciates her efforts to keep the school under control. We've faced much less resistance since we've given her authority. She's an asset to the Ministry." she paused and took a sip of her tea. "You on the other hand got yourself in trouble and were missing for two weeks. If you cannot follow Hermione's wisdom, then I'm afraid I have to ask you to hand over your badge."

"I believe Montague deserves another chance Headmistress, perhaps a week to decide before we take any actions." Hermione suggested as she looked into Umbridge's eyes.

"Of course dear, whatever you say." she beamed at her.

And then Montague knew what was happening. However, There was no way he could prove it. In that moment, he understood why his friends were so afraid of Hermione Lestrange .

"I think I can cooperate with Lestrange." he said as he gulped.

"Good." Umbridge said. "You can leave. I have a personal word with Hermione."

Hermione's policy was encouraging normalcy in Hogwarts. Under her influence, Umbridge simply concentrated on gathering information from students and spying. Hermione didn't stop her from questioning students under Veritaserum. She simply made sure she wouldn't ask Harry ever again.

"You must establish good rapport with the boy, Headmistress." she had reasoned.

Her other achievement was convincing Umbridge that Dumbledore's next target was going to be the Ministry of Magic.

"He will try to break in hoping to find something to use against Minister." she had said.

So it didn't surprise her that Ministry was putting more protections in place. Hopefully that would deter Voldemort as well.

A week later, Harry and Snape mutually agreed that they didn't want to have any more sessions. That happened when Harry accidentally saw a memory of his dad bullying Snape in their fifth year. He had asked Snape to show him the complete memory and surprisingly he had. Harry, of course, was emotionally disturbed by the revelation.

"My dad was a bully. I saw it. They did Snape like Dudley would do me. The difference is that they did it with magic." he told her tearfully. He had calmed down only after an hour of hug therapy by Hermione.

Consequently, Harry avoided talking with Sirius to the point that it started to concern him. One evening when Hermione went to the room of requirements to have a talk with him he voiced his concern.

"Hermione, would you care to tell me why Harry isn't calling me anymore?" Sirius asked desperately, "Is something wrong? I'm going crazy. I might just come to you guys."

Of course something was wrong. What did he think to himself?

"OK Sirius, let's - let's do nothing irrational. Look, Harry has had a lot to process recently." She explained. "Unfortunately, his relationship with Cho Chang is in a bad place. He ... He also saw something in Professor Snape's head."

"Oh?" he asked as he hadn't expected this, "What - what exactly did he see?"

"He saw a memory where you guys… uhm ... bully Professor Snape." Hermione said uncomfortably, "I've seen it in his head and it was awful. How could you guys be such horrible gits? Did you know Harry was bullied when he was a child?" she said, berating him.

Sirius remained silent with a look of shame in his eyes. After a full minute he talked. "We were dumb, Hermione. We were young, rich and proud, while Snape was poor, smart and witty. His worst crime was that, plus being in Slytherin. We took his dignity and his best friend from him."

"You mean Lily?" Hermione asked. "I saw Snape use the M word, but she surely got over it."

"She didn't get over it. Not until she had Harry. She and James had some problems then and ... Keep it to yourself but I think she wanted to get a divorce. She told me earlier if it hadn't been for Harry she would have done it. James was being a bit stupid," he gritted his teeth. "so I won't blame Lils if she wanted to go with Snape."

"No wonder professor Snape hated Harry so much." said Hermione.

"He doesn't hate him very much now, because I'm available." said Sirius. "Merlin, I hope Harry can forgive me."

He cut the connection without saying goodbye.

"OK, he said some things I really didn't want to know." said Hermione as she put the mirror in her bag.

Umbridge had promised her that Minister would pay them a visit and he did. On a gloomy Sunday Hermione met Fudge in person. She was surprised to hear he had no problem with the fact that she had been a member of DA. He seemed to have great confidence in Umbridge. Hermione found out soon that Fudges was quite fond of Lucius Malfoy.

"Draco says his father is a close friend of yours, Minister." Hermione said with a delightful smile, "Is that true?"

"Ah yes, Hermione dear. He's said a lot of good things about you. He says you're the top student of fifth-years."

"Here it comes, it's now or never." she thought to herself,

"He's very kind, Minister. I do have competition though. Neville is just brilliant at Herbology and Harry and I go neck and neck at Potions."

"Ah, Is Mr Potter that good at Potions?" asked Fudge. He was obviously disturbed by his name.

"Yes, he's been working hard. He's doing much better now that element of negative influence is gone for good." She had to apologise to Dumbledore for that unwarranted insult.

"Ah yes that criminal, Albus Dumbledore, is gone." said Fudge happy of her description. "Dolores says his behavior has improved."

"Yes, Minister, he is rather confused about the matter and doesn't like to talk about it much." Hermione said with fake concern. "He feels deceived, you see. Harry says he was with you when Dumbledore confessed what Dumbledore Army was really about. Most students had no clue what that club was going to be, and they had participated in it based on Headmaster's approval."

"It makes me angry that he abused his power to deceive innocent children." He said angrily.

"We're fortunate that Headmistress was aware of his activities. She wisely chose to rely on theory of defense only as Dumbledore was here."

Minister nodded approvingly. Now if she'd done her job last night Umbridge would propose an idea that she had silently planted into her mind.

Umbridge didn't disappoint Hermione. "Speaking of that minister, I think it's time we did our own club."

"Our own?" Hermione and Fudge asked with interest.

"I'd hate students thinking that we're stagnating their education. We must have something that counters Dumbledore's club."

"You want a defense club Dolores? But I doubt you could ... I mean..." Fudge didn't know how to say it without insulting her.

"What minister wants to say, is that you're busy with your classes in addition to running the school smoothly." said Hermione calmly, "You'd have to appoint someone to supervise Minister's club."

"Minister's Club. What a brilliant name, Hermione my dear." Fudge smiled approvingly.

She gave him a pleasant smile. "It was Headmistress who gave us the idea."

"Uh that's right . You always have the best ideas." he said smiling fondly at Umbridge.

When he left Umbridge sat and poured herself some tea.

"Hermione, you are literally a source of inspiration, darling." she praised her happily.

"Is it alright if we put Draco and Harry in charge? I would like Millicent to be there, too. She can teach a lot about how the Ministry functions and what it's goals are." Hermione suggested.

Umbridge was too happy to disagree.

When Hermione brought it up to her friends, Harry was very much against the idea, but surprisingly Neville defended her.

"Harry this is DA in disguise." Neville said excitedly. "And this time they know the price of betrayal."

"No, I don't think that's the case Neville. I think this is DA with Slytherins." Harry protested. "We need the real DA not this Minister's Club."

"Could you be a bit more reasonable, Harry?" Hermione begged. " I worked really hard for this."

"Sign me up, Hermione." said an unexpected voice, "It's time to join the Dark Side." said Ronald Weasley sarcastically.

"I didn't know you ever watched Star Wars." said Hermione in astonishment.

"Pardon?" Ron asked goofily.

"Oh, nothing. The fabric of reality is safe." said Hermione.

"I've watched it." said Neville like it was nothing.

"No, it's not Hermione. Neville, you watched Star Wars? Where? I've been living with muggles and I never got to see it." asked Harry incredulously.

"Well what can I say? Gran really loves cinema." Neville smiled.

"Weasley, will you really join the Dark Side?" Hermione said with a smirk.

"Oh, I was serious about joining your club. If Slytherins are learning, then we must keep up." he said, "I don't want to be beaten by Malfoy, when I get to fight him as a Death Eater."

"Umm, so that's your reason." Hermione thought for a second, "Actually, that's a very good reason. Welcome to our club Weasley."

"Um... Could you call me Ron again? It's weird when you call me Weasley." Ron asked shyly.

"Of course, Ron." said Hermione with a beaming smile

She had never felt happier.