Hermione and Dorothea enjoyed a rather hearty meal and found themselves conversing about all matter of topics. Dorothea, being an Opera singer, had become intrigued by Hermione's description of the works of Shakespeare. Hermione, although she had often attended various plays as a child and had been very familiar with them from a young age, had found it difficult to recount the intricacies from the plot purely from memory. (The magical community had very different interpretations of Shakespeare's work) They had talked a little bit about Hermione's namesake, the first two acts of Romeo and Juliet, and were in the midst of discussing the plot of Hamlet when Dorothea suddenly sighed.

"Oh, how I wish I could see your world!" She sighed. "It sounds so…. Wonderful." She waved her hand around. "I can scarcely imagine…"

"It's not that wonderful." Hermione said defensively. "We have our problems…"

"Do you?" Dorothea challenged. "You're a commoner, aren't you? Yet you were accepted into your school and excelled. That would never have happened here."

Hermione opened her mouth and shut it again. Dorothea seemed almost completely unable to grasp the concept of the Statute of Secrecy, the Muggle World, and the way the Wizarding Society treated Muggle Borns. She seemed to view her background as more of a class based one than it actually was. Ron, who was Pureblood, was much less well off than her. She had had no problems converting her parent's muggle money into gold at Gringotts when she first arrived at Diagon Alley. And it was true that Hogwarts did not discriminate against her due to background. But plenty of students, particularly the Slytherins, had an open disdain for her that she had been aware of since she had first started school. She had not understood why, of course, but the open hostility and attitude among these people was far worse than anything she had experienced at Garreg Mach.

"Well, it's a different culture." Hermione said, trying to think of how to get her to understand. "We're not… I mean, we don't have royal families. We don't have a prejudice against people in that way…" She paused. "However, people find… new ways to consider themselves superior."

Dorothea was staring at her. "Is that so?" She said. She looked somehow cautious and apprehensive. "I've long thought that royalty is to blame for our problems…"

"They probably are." Hermione said quickly. "But… even if they were to just… go away, something else would fill that void."

Dorothea nodded. She seemed somehow grim. Hermione imagined it must have been soul crushing for her to admit this to herself.

"I don't think… getting rid of the royals would fix whatever problems you have." Hermione said. "I think the best thing for you is to make a good, fulfilling life for yourself. Whatever that may be."

Dorothea looked taken aback for a minute, before smiling. "You're quite a smart girl, Hermione." She said. "But tell me this. How does one make a great life for themselves when they have nothing?"

Hermione faltered a little. "I…. don't know." She felt abashed. Dorothea smiled at her, and now Hermione rather felt that Dorothea thought that she didn't understand her perspective either.

"Tell me more about your problems, Hermione." Dorothea said. "What problems does Hogwarts have?"

Hermione swallowed. "Well…" She said. Her first thought was of Dolores Umbridge, and how overbearing she had been ever since she had taken her position. She thought of Snape, who been unfair to her and her friends since the first day of class. And she thought of Harry Potter, and everything he had gone through.

"It's a long story." She said slowly. "I'm not sure where to begin." She tapped her fingers against the table. "Oh, I wish how I could show you some of my books!" She sighed dramatically. "Well, I made do with Shakespeare."

Dorothea laughed. "You tried your best, sweetie."

And so, Hermione tried her best. She tried to explain Voldemort, his rise to power, his control over society, and his lingering influence. She left out Harry, and his role in all of it. When she finished Dorothea was silent.

"Hm." She said. "That sounds like our Flame Emperor."

This has not been the reaction she had been expecting at all. "The Flame What now?"

"The Flame Emperor." Dorothea repeated. "A mysterious foe that has been plaguing our Church for some time now… he seems to have some kind of interest in destabilizing the Church, so we've encountered him in battle once or twice."

Hermione marveled at the casual way she admitted to going to battle against a Voldemort like figure before she realized that Harry had been doing the same since he was a year old. He didn't think of himself as a hero at all, and neither, did it seem, did Dorothea.

"Emperor?" Hermione repeated. She frowned. "Isn't Edelgard the Emperor's…?"

Out of the corner of her eye she noted Hubert poking his head out to look at her. She froze. He was staring rather intently at her.

Dorothea laughed. "Oh no no." She said. "There's no relation, I'm sure." When she stopped laughing, she noticed Hermione's expression and turned around. Hubert had vanished. "What is it?"

"I… nothing." Hermione said. "I mean, if the Emperor isn't related to Edelgard at all…"

"Yes, that would be confusing, wouldn't it?" Dorothea pondered. "Yes, I understand what you mean. But no, the Flame Emperor isn't associated with the Empire itself as far as we know. Mind you, we know very little."

"Well, what do we know?"

"Next to nothing." Dorothea said gloomily. "Nothing about these people make any sense… The Church is working all they can to find out more, but nothing has turned up. If we hadn't encountered them in battle, they may as well not exist."

That did sound an awful lot like Voldemort. How he was hiding in the shadows, waiting for his ideal time to strike. Still though. Hermione thought. She had to admit that she was considerably less intimidated by this Flame Emperor than she was by the idea of Voldemort. Perhaps it was Dorothea's attitude about the whole ordeal.

"Oooooh." Dorothea said, as she got to her feet. "Look who it is!"

Hermione turned, and saw a group of students that she had never seen before walking into the room. They were chatting amongst themselves idly as they took their seats.

"The Blue Lions." Dorothea whispered to her. "See that blonde man there? That's Dimitri."

The man she had indicated was a handsome young man. When Hermione looked his way he looked her way and met her eyes. He looked away again, and then back towards her, as if not believing what he was seeing. Hermione turned back around.

"What's his deal?"

Dorothea giggled. "He and Edelgard… well. He probably hasn't been told about you yet. The real Edelgard would never have even looked at him like that." She leaned in. "You like him?"

Hermione shook her head. She hadn't spoken to him, after all. How would she know?

"We'll let Professor Byleth explain what happened." Dorothea said, as she got to her feet. "Come on. I'll walk you back to your room. You've had a long day."

…

Edelgard descended the staircase of the dormitory fully dressed and ready to tackle the day. She found Ron and Harry waiting for her.

"Good morning." She greeted cordially.

"What did Dumbledore want last night?" Harry asked her. Edelgard saw no reason to be dishonest with him.

"He wanted to speak with me about how I handled the Umbridge situation." She said. "He didn't appreciate it much. I think I caused trouble for him."

"Edelgard…" Harry said slowly. "Maybe… you're being just a little…. Reckless.. about this whole ordeal."

Rob looked at him as he couldn't quite believe what he was saying. "You're starting to sound like Hermione, mate."

Edelgard nodded. "I understand your concerns." She said. "But I… that is to say… We.. have everything well in hand." She raised her hand to show off the neatly folded scroll filled with signatures on it.

"We will be sending one of these complaints to the Ministry every day." She said. "Until Umbridge is removed. I've already had tomorrow's and the next day's duplicated."

"Won't they just ignore you?" Harry asked anxiously. Edelgard chuckled.

"They will try." She said. "But with every house refusing to take lessons? No, they will have to do something. And I suspect that something will be rather extreme."

Ron looked rather green. "And… That means what, exactly?"

"It means we're doing the right thing." Edelgard said smoothly. "They want us to cower, to stay submissive. To do as they say. We need to show that their methods are not acceptable."

She moved her way past them and towards the front of the hall. There was a small crowd gathered outside the board.

"What's all this?" Edelgard asked. The crowd stepped aside as Edelgard reached the board and read the notice placed several times across it.

"All Student Organisations, Societies, Teams, Groups, and Clubs are henceforth disbanded. An Organisation, Society, Team, Group, or Club is hereby defined as a regular meeting of three or more students. Permission to re-form may be sought from the High Inquisitor (Professor Umbridge). No Student Organisation, Society, Team, Group, or Club may exist without the knowledge and approval of the High Inquisitor. Any student found to have formed, or to belong to, an Organisation, Society, Team, Group, or Club that has not been approved by the High Inquisitor will be expelled."

Edelgard reached forward and ripped the pamphlet from the board.

"Could someone set this on fire for me please?" She asked, as if making light conversation. "This is exactly the kind of behavior that we are looking to put a stop too."

"You're not just going to ignore it?"

"Of course we're going to ignore it." Edelgard said. "What, do you think they're going to just expel everyone who stands up to them? No, these demands will keep getting more and more extreme. We need to nip this in the bud now." She ripped more of the papers off the wall and threw them to the ground. As per her request, someone dutifully set them on fire. They burned into a crumpled mess as Edelgard turned to the crowd.

"Our first order of business." She said. "Is to involve the other Houses. We don't tolerate censorship, we don't tolerate authoritarianism, and we certainly don't tolerate Dolores Umbridge."

That last bit seemed to strike home a lot further than the first points had. Students who were looking rather wary and unsure of themselves seemed to firm up when it came to that.

"Our demands remain unchanged." She said. "In fact, I think I shall amend tomorrow's letter to the Ministry to include our objections to this change. We will not allow Dolores Umbridge to dictate what we can and cannot do in our school!"

She turned and marched out. Harry and Ron hot on her heels. And the rest of the crowd followed.

….

A/N

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