"This is totally unacceptable," McGonagall said.
I was sitting in the Headmaster's office facing Dumbledore, Snape, and McGonagall Millie was beside me, and so were the two bullys. They hadn't taken their eyes off me the entire time.
"I was protecting my roommate," I said. "What more do you want me to say?"
"These boys deny that they did anything wrong; they say that you simply attacked them out of the blue."
"And why would I do that?" I asked. "I've been here two weeks and I haven't attacked a single Gryffindor. I actually pushed for better school brooms that would help keep some of them safe."
"There have been... incidents between the Slytherins and the Gryffindors," she said.
"And since when have I cared about house politics?"
I found myself getting irritated despite myself. This was feeling a lot like one of my visits to Blackwell's office, where nothing I said made any difference if it didn't fit the party line.
"Even if what you say is true, you should have come for a teacher," McGonagall said. "Not dangled a student at a height that would have almost certainly killed him, and broken his wand."
"She kicked me in the face and broke my tooth too," one of the boys said.
"And what would have happened if I'd gone to a teacher?" I asked. "They'd have lied and said they hadn't done anything; for all I know they'd have been the ones dangling her off the side of the stairs, and then they'd claim that she was lying, because of course Slytherins always lie."
"You shouldn't have resorted to physical violence," McGonagall insisted. "We have been making allowances for your... situation, but there have to be limits."
"Because Gryffindors are always pure and good, and Slytherins are always evil?" I asked.
Considering that two of my judges had been Gryffindors, I doubted that this was a good avenue of attack, but I found myself getting irritated by the injustice of it all.
"Because a student could have died," she said. "And this isn't the first time."
There was that. Sooner or later I was going to find a student whose robes weren't up to snuff, and that would be that.
"There's no proof I was involved in that last thing,' I said quickly.
"But plenty of proof that you probably were," she said. "These boys have accused Mr. Longbottom of giving you the password to the Gryffindor common room. Is that true?"
"He has never said anything about that to me," I said. "And I haven't used him to get any information of that sort."
"We shall see," she said grimly. "You should know that it is an infraction for a student to be found in the common room of another house."
"More serious than being accused of attempted murder?" I asked, with an eyebrow raised.
Snape was watching both of us quietly. I suspected that he had conflicting feelings about this situation. He genuinely seemed to dislike the Gryffindors; I had no idea why. Maybe it was the result of his having years of them acting out in school and causing explosions, maybe it was something from his own school days.
It didn't matter.
Despite his appearance of indifference, he seemed to empathize with, and want to support his snakes. The fact that I'd done so, even to a half blood like Millie had to push some buttons with him.
However, he'd told me time and time again that my violence was going to get me killed or imprisoned.
The way he was handling this so far was to stay quiet and to simply observe what was happening. Maybe he hoped it was going to resolve itself without his input.
There was a knock at the door.
Snape spoke for the first time. "When I first heard Miss Hebert's story, she mentioned that there might be some witnesses. She described them, and I sent a prefect to summon them."
The door opened, and Gemma entered with the three Hufflepuffs that I had seen.
"I've brought them," she said. "Hannah Abbott, Susan Bones, and Wayne Hopkins."
The three looked tiny and they shrunk back as they saw everyone's eyes on them.
"Miss Abbott," Snape said. "Please tell us what you saw occur an hour ago between these four students."
She swallowed and then looked at all of us. "The big ones had backed the Slytherin girl against a wall. They were saying some... pretty mean things to her. They called her a pig and a snake, and said some other stuff. They started to push her, and the other one came around the corner, and warned them off."
"She didn't attack first?"
"No," Hannah said. "He did."
"What happened then?"
"She got hit in the arm with a stunner, and she kept coming. She hit him with a spell sending him flying, and then we decided to go look for a teacher."
Everyone was quiet for a moment.
McGonagall gave a cold, hard stare at the boys, who had the grace to look guilty.
"Do any of you have anything to add?" Snape asked.
The other two shook their heads.
"You are dismissed," Snape said.
The Hufflepuffs left, but Gemma remained, standing quietly against the far wall. I wasn't sure why she was here for this; did prefects have something to do with discipline? In that case, shouldn't it be the Head Girl standing there?
Once they had left, McGonagall said, "You did not say that they attacked first."
"Would it have made a difference?" I asked. "Either you believe me or you don't."
McGonagall turned to the boys. "Return to your rooms. We will discuss your punishment in the morning."
They got up to leave, glaring at me as they passed by. I ignored them.
Dumbledore had been silently sucking on a piece of candy. He seemed neither amused nor angry.
"It is possible that Miss Hebert went too far in protecting her classmate," he said. "But she was the one who was attacked, and she defended herself. Yet threatening his life was unnecessary and dangerous, and isn't behavior we should encourage."
"They each outweighed me by sixty pounds... I don't know how many stone it is, or whatever weight system you people use. If I had a lot of power, I could choose to be merciful. But because I don't, I have to fight back ten times as hard, and I have to make sure that anyone who does come after me regrets it."
"The professors are here to protect you," McGonagall said.
I chuckled bitterly. "And when you aren't there? Who's going to protect me or any of us in the dark hallways when no one is around?"
Millie spoke up.
"Nobody's ever stood up for me before," she said. Her voice was almost imperceptible.
"What was that?"
"My own family thinks I'm ugly and stupid," she said, more loudly this time. "And when those boys started saying all that... it's nothing I didn't hear at home. But she stood up for me, and that... I don't know... it's important."
"It's good that she wanted to protect someone," McGonagall said. "But hurting people isn't the way that things are done here.You are dismissed Miss Bulstrode."
As Millie got up to leave she gave me another look; I wasn't sure what it meant."
I chuckled again, and McGonagall gave me a sharp look.
"Your situation is already precarious enough with your house, Miss Hebert. If I start taking points, it will not do you any favors."
"Perhaps Detention," Snape said. "One session with each head of the four houses, and one session with the groundskeeper. I have been unable to pierce that thick skull of hers, perhaps one of the other heads might have better luck."
"I'm sure Pomona will be happy that you volunteered her," McGonagall said dryly.
"I think Flitwick likes me," I said brightly.
"These will be punishments, and not ways for you to learn yet more creative ways to cause destruction,' Snape said.
I stared at him, even though I didn't feel particularly betrayed. Five days of detention for essentially threatening to murder a student was probably lenient, considered that I'd almost murdered a different student a couple of weeks ago.
It might not even have happened at Winslow; the administration would back up whoever caused them less problems. However, I'd heard of schools where even taking weapons to school would get a student expelled, or even jailed.
A third of the students at Winslow had been armed at one time or another, so expelling them all simply hadn't been feasible. Everyone here was armed.
"I suppose that's fair," I said. "Unless the Gryffindors just get a slap on the wrist."
"They will be punished," McGonagall said grimly. "But that is none of your concern. It is not your job to police the halls."
"I think that's the problem," I said. "When things that are wrong happen, everybody says that it's not their job to fix it. So what happens when everybody stands by and waits for the people in power to save them?"
"You are a child," McGonagall said. "If you want to seek justice, become an auror when you are older. Perhaps by then you will have learned that every problem is not solved by hitting it."
"The pure bloods solve their problems with money," I said. "I just use mine differently."
McGonagall gave me a long, cold stare. I suspected that she wanted to take house points, but she suspected correctly that something like that wouldn't bother me at all.
"Perhaps you should have Miss Farley to take Miss Hebert to her room," Dumbledore said.
Snape nodded.
"Miss Farley?" Snape said. "Make sure that Miss Hebert reaches her rooms, and that she does not leave them until tomorrow morning."
Gemma nodded.
She gestured, and I rose to my feet, following her.
We walked in silence for a couple of minutes. Finally, Gemma spoke to me in a low voice without looking at me.
"We're not all like that, you know," she said.
"What?" I asked.
"Not everybody in Slytherin is a muggle hater," she said. "Not even all the pure bloods."
"That's... surprising," I said.
"Well, a lot of people don't really like them, but wanting to hurt them? That's something completely different."
So low level racism instead of hard core. I could work with that. I was unlikely to change the opinions of the most die hard of them, but the rest, I might have a chance.
"There are those who do, though. The ones who are tend to come from powerful families," she said in a low voice. "And there have been... disappearances from the families of people who tried to fight back. The rest of us have learned to keep our heads down."
"You think that's an option for me?" I asked. "They are offended that I'm in Slytherin at all."
Finally, she looked at me.
"You need to stop making waves," she said. "Or you'll make everything harder for the rest of us."
"And why should I care about that?"
"Because right now you've only got about a third of Slytherin and whatever Gryffindors you've offended against you. If you keep acting mental, it'll be all of us."
"I've got to defend myself," I said. "And watching people get bullied...I can't abide by that, Maybe if you prefects were doing your job..."
"We can't be everywhere," Gemma said impatiently. "But if I'd known what they were trying to do that first night, I'd have stopped them."
"You'd have tried."
"I'd have succeeded," Gemma said. "Ordinary people follow the rules, even when they are inconvenient. Gryffindors don't, but Slytherins learn to work with the rules."
"Because Slytherins are the ones who make the rules," I said dryly.
I thought she was being a little naive. Those boys had intended to hurt me, and I'd been researching the spells that Wizards used to maintain their secrecy. There were apparently memory charms that could make memories inaccessible; the aurors used them all the time on muggles.
She might have tried to stop them, but she might not even have remembered what happened next.
She shrugged. "If you don't like it, change it. You were chosen to be in this house, so there has to be more to you than just a low level thug. You've got a brain; use it. If you go around snapping people's wands and beating them, one day they'll be the ones dropping you off a set of stairs, and nobody will be sorry that you've gone."
"I'll quit when they do," I said. "If they leave me alone, I'd be happy to keep my head down and learn magic."
If it weren't for the Death Eaters, I might actually be able to enjoy this world as a retirement. As a Wizard who knew the muggle world, I'd lack for nothing. I'd be able to supply almost all of my own needs and I'd probably be able to live in relative luxury.
"We're already in a low level war with Gryffindor," Gemma said. She shook her head. "This is going to start things up again after last year. We can't afford this; if they start coming after us, we'll give you to them rather than starting the whole thing all over again."
"And what happened last year?"
Gemma glanced at me. "Things got ugly. You-Know-Who is back, and there's a faction of pure bloods who think that means it's only a matter of time before things are returned to their rightful place."
"Rightful place?" I asked. I suspected I knew, but I wanted her to spell it out for me.
"With Wizardly boots on muggle necks," she said. "And the muggleborn out in the cold."
"That's not going to happen," I said. "There's six thousand muggles for every Wizard, and they'd got weapons that could chew through Wizards before a single muggle got within Wand range. Your whole species would be extinct in a year."
"Our whole species," Gemma said. "I'm not one of the pureblood supremacy idiots. I'm half-blooded myself, and I grew up around muggles. I knew how stupid the whole idea is, and so does the Ministry, otherwise they wouldn't put so much work into the whole Secrecy thing."
We were walking down the final set of stairs heading for the dungeon.
"But there's a faction that believes that Wizards have been cheated of their rightful place. They like to pretend that Wizards were once the rulers of the world, when the truth is there were never enough of us to do that, even back in the old days. There are actually fewer Wizards and Witches now than in the past, due to the last war."
"And it's starting over again."
"People are scared," Gemma said. "And when people are scared, they get angry. They tend to lash out at people who are the closest to them, and against whom they already have grudges."
"Is that what happened last year?" I asked.
She shook her head. "I'm still not clear on what started it. I think a lot of people were picking up on stress from their parents, and they brought it here with them. That's why you need to calm down; this place is a powder keg waiting to explode, and you are a match."
Her being a half-blood seemed likely if she was making that kind of analogy.
"So what do I do?" I asked.
"Stay out in public," she said. "Never walk alone. Don't make people angry. I'm going to try to talk to the prefects of the other houses to see if we can defuse the situation, and maybe keep the Gryffindors off your back. I'll make sure that the prefects know what actually happened... I'm sure those boys are probably saying all kinds of things that aren't true."
"It may not help," I said.
"Then we'll deal with it the right way," she said. "I've been watching you, and it's like the little remarks don't really bother you. That's good. If your feelings were easily hurt we'd have a lot bigger problem."
"For the remark to hurt, I'd have to value whatever person was saying them," I said. I looked at her coldly. "And frankly, I haven't talked to anybody here who seems worth getting upset about. You want to help me? Fine. Keep people off my back, and I'll make your job easier. But if they keep coming after me, then I'll hurt them until they learn to leave me alone."
"I'd take points for you talking like that," she said after a moment of silence. "But you really don't care, do you?"
"Why would I?" I asked. "If I had friends in Slytherin, I might care. If there were even people helping me instead of standing by, I might care. But people who stand by and do nothing when they know something is wrong... that's cowardice."
Gemma stopped.
She turned to me. "I've got a little sister; she'll probably be in Hogwarts in a couple of years. I love her more than I love anything. If I act like I love mudbloods, there's a chance that I'll wake up one day and find out that my sister, or my Mom or my Dad has gone missing."
"It's easy to talk about being courageous when you have nothing to lose. You're an orphan who barely has any friends... the only thing they can do to you is to kill you or hurt you. Me...they can kill my family. You don't get to look down on people who have nothing to gain and everything to lose from helping you."
I stared at her coldly, and she finally shook her head and escorted me to my room.