Un-Nerved by Umbridge

"Harry?" Hermione exclaimed, and she turned round but saw only Luna standing behind her. "Did you hear something?" she asked the blond.

"I heard several things" Luna replied. "I heard the sounds of students having breakfast, students quickly running round the castle and you asking me if I had heard anything" Luna finished.

"Did you hear Harry speaking?" Hermione asking.

"No…" Luna said slowly.

"Oh never mind" Hermione said, "I'm still adjusting to not seeing Harry, that's all. I thought I just heard him speak"

"I bet you did" Luna replied. "You've been thinking about Harry so much that you are thinking about him a lot more then normal. It's only natural to think that you heard his voice" Luna tried to re-assure Hermione, but Hermione was only more worried in case it meant that she would see Harry again.

"I guess you are right" Hermione said.

"Now forget about Harry for a moment, you have a Quidditch match to win" Luna said.

"I didn't say if was going to play" Hermione reminded her, but headed towards the doors and the Quidditch pitch. If Hermione was looking forward to a nice game, then she was very shocked at what was to happen after the match.

# # # # #

"SHES DONE WHAT?" thundered Angela that morning.

"Shussssh" Hermione said, "You have the teachers over in a minute" she advised.

"Sorry" Angela apologised. "I just can not believe that she dis-allowed the result and gave the match to Slytherin. We did everything right and proper that we could. What reason did she give?" Angela said.

"Basically that we almost knocked off the Slytherin keeper" George said.

"If I knew that, then I would have knocked him off for real" Fred growled darkly.

"And that isn't the worse thing" Katie Bell said, dropping into a seat on Angela's left.

"What now?" Angela asked.

"She's banned all of the Muggle Born students from playing Quidditch at Hogwarts" Katie said, and everybody's faces just simply dropped in astonishment.

"When did she decide this?" Hermione asked quietly.

"This morning" Katie replied. "She had Filch put up the notices before most students woke up. I spoke to the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw teams and they are so pissed at Umbridge. They are planning something, but I don't know what it is" she added.

"Whatever they plan, Umbridge is sure to be annoyed about it" Lee Jordon said. Lee was right, but nobody expected the news that spread through the school. Both the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw teams had resigned in protest of the new decree. As a result of that, the Quidditch cup was awarded to Slytherin by Dumbledore and Umbridge. According to various students, Dumbledore didn't look entirely upset at what had happened. And Umbridge looked like the cat that got the Canary, Cream and Mouse all in one massive pie. Nothing major happened until a few days after the resignation of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff when Ron had a confrontation with Hermione.

"I'm taking Harry's broom" he said simply.

"But its mine" Hermione told him, but this didn't go down to well.

"It's mine, bitch" Ron said forcefully, shouting loud enough for the entire common room to hear. Everything went silent as Hermione went as red as the hair of her opponent, and the Weasley twins both looked daggers at Ron.

"What did you call me?" Hermione asked.

"You heard" Ron snarled. "Now hand over that broom. Harry would have wanted me to have it. I was his best friend"

"And what am I?" Hermione asked.

"A plaything" the red head spat back.

"Theres only one way to solve this" Hermione said, and then she scanned the common room for somebody. "Parvati? Could you get Harry's broom for me please?" she asked, and the dark skinned girl nodded and headed up the stairs returning only a few minutes later. "If you want to argue about it, let's ask a Ministry official to decide upon the issue" she told Ron.

"And who do we see?" Ron asked, laughing coldly.

"Delores Jane Umbridge" Hermione said, smiling brightly once again.

# # # # #

They both walked in silence to Umbridge's office, and entered when she told them to.

"To what do I owe this pleasure?" she asked, and pointed to two large and pink armchairs and Hermione and Ron sat down.

"We have a problem about Harry's Firebolt" Hermione said.

"What is the problem?" Umbridge asked.

"Now that Harry has 'gone', I think that I should have it as his best friend" Ron said. "Its what he would have wanted" Ron added.

"But the broom belongs to me" Hermione protested, "And Ron shouldn't get to have it"

"If this is all the matter is then I might just confiscate the broom" Umbridge sighed.

"I can prove that I own the broom" Hermione said, and reached into a pocket in her robes. She rummaged around for a few seconds, and came out with a piece of parchment.

"What is that?" Umbridge and Ron both demanded at the same time, but Hermione only paid Umbridge attention.

"Before the end of summer, Harry made a kind of will. It left everything that he owned to me in the event of his death" Hermione said.

"Let me see that" Umbridge asked, and Hermione handed over her copy of the will that Harry had made before summer. She read it again and again for almost ten minutes and then put it down on her desk and gazed at Ron and Hermione in turn. "First of all I have to say that I am disappointed that you could not sort this out yourselves. However…" Umbridge went on "It is clear that Mr Potter made this will under his own free will. Because of that, I am returning the broom to Miss Granger, along with everything else that Mr Potter has given her" and Ron's face dropped in amazement.

"Don't I get a single thing?" he asked, sounding shocked.

Hermione gave a small smile because Ron was angry. It made her happy to see that. She had always thought of Ron as the sort of person who is a fame and glory follower. She had never said it to Harry because she never would want to cause an argument, mainly because she would never want to lose points for Gryffindor – she was too smart for that! However… things were not going to be so enjoyable when Hermione learnt about Umbridge's new decree in the morning.

A/N:

Well theres Chapter 5, so read and review please.

First of all, I want to say that "friends" will be updated sometime this week, and will be back to regular service sometime soon.

As for "A Year Without", I'm going to let you decide the direction of the next Chapter. Will Umbridge continue discrimination against Muggle Borns, or be vindictive to Gryffindors in general?

Reviews and Pms in the normal manner,

Regards:

Robert