Chapter Ten: Replan
"Mr Snow," said Dumbledore gravely, "what happened in the Great Hall while I was absent?"
Octavius Snow paused for a moment, then adopted a serious expression as he answered.
"These first-years abused the authority you gave them, Headmaster. They attacked me just for asking a question."
Dumbledore glanced enquiringly towards the Four, and Hermione answered him with a surprisingly recognisable imitation of Snow's voice.
"'So someone tell me, why exactly are we in thrall to a handful of firsties?'"
Dumbledore turned back towards Snow and raised an eyebrow, not even bothering to ask the question out loud.
On a whim, Neville answered her: "What's your name?"
Hermione replied in Snow's voice, and the two of them played out the rest of the exchange between Neville and Snow in the Great Hall earlier. By the end, Snow himself looked distinctly nervous. Dumbledore just looked disappointed. When he finally spoke, his voice was was sorrowful.
"Octavius Snow, you are relieved of your responsibilities as prefect. Your badge, if you please."
Snow paused for only a moment before meekly handing over his badge, apologising as he did so. He was a Slytherin, after all, and a tantrum here would be counterproductive. These upstarts would suffer for humiliating him, but he would have to be careful in how and when he arranged that. He left the Headmaster's office quietly.
After Snow had left, Dumbledore turned to the Four with a smile.
"So, which of you can tell me why I left you in charge?"
Ron and Neville exchanged a glance, and decided that Neville should take this one. He paused to collect his thoughts, then answered clearly and confidently.
"Well, for a start we should acknowledge the reason that has nothing to do with us - you have a reputation to maintain, Headmaster, and this is a perfect example of how you do that. Same with your welcoming speech and your general announcements at the Welcoming Feast."
Dumbledore nodded, looking both impressed and intrigued, and Neville went on.
"As for us specifically, you were testing us, challenging us. You wanted to see what we could do, and you wanted to push us beyond what we're comfortable with. You knew that you and the other professors wouldn't be gone for very long, and that Hagrid could deal with any serious trouble that might have happened. Actually you didn't even have to take all the professors with you - you could have left one or two of them to watch over the students, but instead you took the chance to test us. Oh, and you probably wanted to expose us to the rest of the students - we've been keeping to ourselves so practically no one knows much about us, and now we're probably going to get some very useful offers of help.
"Does that about cover it, Headmaster?"
Dumbledore smiled broadly, eyes twinkling.
"Correct on all points, Mr Longbottom - very well done!
"Now, I rather suspect that your lives will indeed change as a result of this. Can I help you with anything?"
Ron smiled.
"Thank you, Headmaster - we'll remember your offer, but right now we can't predict what we're going to need. I'll come to you if there is anything."
Dumbledore nodded, and after some pleasantries the Four left his office.
From the Headmaster's office, the Four went straight to their private classroom. Once they were inside, Ron cast Colloportus on the door. As the other three looked at him in surprise, he cast a lengthy series of privacy charms. When he was satisfied, he turned to face his friends.
"Guys, the situation has changed. We have actual enemies now - Snow won't forget this, and he must have powerful allies. Starting right now, we have to assume we could be in danger pretty much any time we're not around teachers that we trust. This is why I said we should learn to fight, and I'm glad we did. Well, one reason anyway - obviously we'll need to take down Voldemort eventually, and for that we also need to know how to fight. Anyway, we need to replan."
"Um," said Hermione, "when we do fight Voldemort, is there any reason why we shouldn't use Muggle weapons to even things up? I'd need to test it, but I'm pretty sure a Protego wouldn't stand up to more than one or two bullets."
The three boys stared at her - Ron and Neville were Purebloods and had no idea at all about guns, and even Harry had never seen one in person except for the one that Uncle Vernon bought when they were running away from Harry's Hogwarts letters. Hermione shrugged, looking embarrassed.
"Dad has a gun, and he's taught me about them. I was curious, so he even taught me to shoot."
Ron held up a hand.
"That's probably a good idea, and it's definitely not something I would have thought of, but it's not what we need to talk about right now. Remind me another time, and we'll talk about guns and maybe get some. For now, we need to make plans."
Hermione nodded, and Ron continued.
"We've all been doing everything, more or less, and that's good to a point. I think we're almost at that point now. We're close to the end of second-year work in pretty much everything now, and beyond that I think we should specialise - it'll save us a lot of time. So Neville is our Herbology and Potions expert - Neville, I definitely think you should go through to OWLs and NEWTs and maybe even Mastery in those. Harry, your spellcasting is brilliant - I think you should go through with Charms and Transfiguration. Hermione, if you don't mind I think we should work together. History of Magic is important - we need to figure out a solid and well-supported alternative to the garbage that Binns is teaching - and I think we're also the best people to go on with Runes and Arithmancy and do serious magical research. Um... What other subjects? Astronomy, waste of time. Divination, forget it. Muggle Studies, complete joke. Care of Magical Creatures isn't a complete joke, but I don't think it's really important enough for us to bother with. Oh, and we'll consider any special projects that any of us wants to try."
"I want to design a broomstick!" said Harry cheerfully, but even this barely rated a glance from the others before they all turned back to Ron.
Harry, Hermione and Neville were staring at Ron, who looked slightly embarrassed.
"Come on," he said, "I am supposed to be the strategic thinker here, you know! I've been thinking about this stuff for a while, and now suddenly it's a lot more urgent than it was. Anyway, what do you think?"
They all agreed that his plans made sense, but Hermione went further.
"It's fine for you guys sharing a dorm with the three of you and just Dean and Seamus, but I'm on my own with four girls who really don't like me. Not that they're actually mean to me, mind you, but it's like they don't even see me as human. It's not nice. Do you think we'd be allowed to move into a dorm on our own, the four of us? I mean, we're nearly two years ahead - we're not just bright first-years anymore."
"Let's talk to Flitwick," said Harry. "I mean, we'll need a professor arguing for us - it's not like Dumbledore's just going to let us have this much freedom."
"He did offer," said Neville. "We should talk to Flitwick, for sure, but don't count Dumbledore out - he knows what's going on with us, and he just offered to help us. The only thing is, we should work out what we want before we go and ask him for it - we'll need to be really clear."
They all agreed on that, so Ron took down his security on the door and they all headed to Flitwick's office.
Filius Flitwick was a highly intelligent individual, and he generally paid close attention to the world around him. The Four found him sitting in his office, thinking about their situation and waiting for them to arrive - he greeted them warmly when they did arrive, and waved them to the comfortable chairs he had conjured in advance for them.
"Mr Weasley," he said solemnly, "what do you four intend to do now?"
Ron grinned, no longer even slightly nervous about being singled out.
"Two main things, sir. The first is that we're planning to specialise once we finish with second-year material - we all want to know that stuff for all the subjects we care about, but past that it doesn't make sense for everyone to do everything. Neville's Herbology and Potions, Harry's Charms and Transfiguration, and Hermione and I will be working together on history and research."
"Research?" said Flitwick.
"Basically Runes and Arithmancy, and using them to discover and create new stuff."
Flitwick nodded, and Ron went on.
"The second thing is, we want a dorm of our own - living with the Gryffindor first-years isn't really working for us, especially Hermione. Is that a possibility?"
Flitwick leaned back in his chair, his face showing the sheer shock of it. He had expected something like their plans for specialisation, but this was a different matter entirely.
"I think I understand your reasoning," he said cautiously. "You want that extra level of focus and camaraderie, and you're ready to stop pretending that you're first-years in any meaningful sense. Am I right?"
The Four all nodded, and he went on.
"I think that's an excellent idea, but you'll probably have trouble getting permission. There are very strict rules in place precisely to stop boys and girls from sleeping together - I know you four are an exception to quite a few rules already, but you're likely to have trouble here. I think Albus on his own could go either way - it's often hard even for me to predict that man - but Minerva will be dead against it. Given that she is your Head of House, and also that Albus rarely goes against the advice she gives as Deputy Headmistress, I don't like your chances."
"Well," said Neville, "the Headmaster did just offer to help us in whatever we decide to do now - he might already be on our side. Do you think we could get it past him before Professor McGonagall finds out?"
Flitwick grinned toothily. "Good thinking, young man - good thinking. Let's go."
Together they almost ran to Dumbledore's office, where Flitwick muttered a password and they went straight up. The door opened as they reached it, showing Dumbledore sitting behind his desk.
"Come in, come in," he said, smiling genially.
"Headmaster," said Ron tentatively, "I think we're ready for that help a bit sooner than I thought."
"Anything I can do," said Dumbledore. "What did you have in mind?"
Ron paused. "Well, we have plans that we can take care of by ourselves, but there is one thing that really needs your approval. See, right now we're living in the Gryffindor first-floor dorms, and that's not really working well for us - Hermione in particular is finding it hard, living with four girls who she says don't even really see her as human."
Dumbledore nodded. "A problem, to be sure. What did you have in mind?"
"We'd like a dorm for just the four of us, and maybe not even in Gryffindor tower. Er, and it'd be nice if we could be exempt from curfew - it's a pain not being able to study in our classroom after that."
Dumbledore looked thoughtful.
"You know not what you ask, I fear, but it might be possible yet."
He paused a while longer, then smiled and continued.
"For reasons that I prefer not to discuss at present, student numbers here at Hogwarts have been declining for quite some time. The top several floors of the Gryffindor tower are presently unused, and I can easily turn the top one over to your use. I believe the rooms are empty - I shall have your beds and belongings transferred to one of the dorms. Hermione, would you prefer a dorm to yourself, or to share a dorm with the boys?"
Hermione floundered briefly at the unexpected question, but rallied quickly.
"I think I'd prefer to share with the boys, thank you Headmaster. I've felt so lonely in my current dorm - I don't want to leave it and then just be truly alone instead."
He nodded. "Very well, then. You may use the other rooms on that floor for your studies and research - I'm aware that you have a classroom set aside for your use in the main castle, but it occurs to me that you might like to have some spaces closer by."
The Four all grinned at that.
"That'd be brilliant, thanks Headmaster!" said Neville. "Um... I know that a greenhouse would be a stretch, but could I have Potions lab up there?"
Dumbledore winked at him. "Ah, I'm a step ahead of you there, Mr Longbottom. You most certainly can have a Potions laboratory up there, and I shall even see about having a greenhouse installed on top of the tower - I became curious some time ago as to whether the platform was seeing any use, and the ward I set has been disturbed only a handful of times in the intervening years."
Neville bounced up and down on the spot. "Wow, thanks Headmaster! And I could grow whatever I like?"
"You should talk to Professor Sprout before planting anything too dangerous, just to be sure, but in general I believe you know enough to be safe."
The Headmaster was as good as his word - by the time the Four reached Gryffindor tower again, they found their beds and belongings had been moved to a room on the highest level. They quickly explored the level, finding about half a dozen empty rooms and two bathrooms, before tiredness claimed them and they all tumbled into bed.