Chapter 15: Cornelius Fudge
The weeks after Valentine's Day passed quickly, filled with blushes and hand-holding, as well as secret kisses where no one could see. This held true for both Harry and Draco, and Fred and Hermione, while the other members of their friendship group simply rolled their eyes or teased them. Their planned Ravenclaw prank went off without a hitch, although it was rather chaotic, as they hadn't planned for Peeves to decide that the Great Hall was the best place to ambush the victims. It had been dinnertime, and there still hadn't been a sign of Peeves' prank, and Harry and his friends were starting to feel uneasy. Then, all of a sudden, there came a loud cackling from behind the doors, and the poltergeist barged in with a sackful of the paint-balloons. He spotted the Ravenclaw table, yelled out, "This is for Looney!" and immediately started hurling the paint-balloons. Harry was glad they'd thought to add Luna's bullying from an unknown number of Ravenclaws to the note they'd left him, otherwise there was no clue how many people would have been filled with paint. The reason they'd written that was because even though Peeves was crazy and his only goal in life involved mass pranking of all Hogwarts inhabitants, he actually had a sense of fair play, and a fierce protectiveness for them. If he heard about someone being bullied, he would hunt down the bully and mercilessly prank them. However, if he found troublemakers out after curfew, he felt it was his duty to make sure they were put safely back in their common rooms at least. It didn't really make sense, but then again, neither did the rest of him.
The weeks passed quickly, and before they knew it, April had arrived. Harry had mixed feelings about April. The good bit was that on the first, it was the twins' birthday, and they were holding a party in the common room. He knew that 70% of the food and drink there would be pranked in some way, but everyone knew, or at least suspected this, and so it was accepted. The bad part was that after the fourth of April, the restraining order he had against Lockhart would no longer be valid. Harry also wasn't sure whether or not it would be worth it to renew the order, since there would only be three months left of term. At least they wouldn't have to have Lockhart as a defense teacher, since luckily Dumbledore had agreed, albeit reluctantly, that switching teachers with so little of the year left would be detrimental to their education.
By the end of the twins' birthday, everyone in the common room had been turned into a giant canary at least once, had their skin coloured in red and gold stripes that wouldn't fade for another ten hours, and had an enormous amount of fun, which is really the only thing that matters.
Luckily for Harry, the fourth passed by without remark or word from Lockhart, but it was three days later when disaster struck. Harry, Draco, Neville, and Hermione were happily eating breakfast, when Neville just happened to look towards the Slytherin table when an owl landed in front of Blaise. He was about to look back at his food again, when he noticed how the blood drained from Blaise's face as he read the letter the owl had brought.
"Draco, look at Blaise," he muttered in a low voice.
Draco did so, and immediately noticed the lack of colour in his friend's face. Just as he did so, Blaise stood up hastily and ran from the hall, the letter clutched in his hand.
"I'm going after him," said Draco, and rushed out. Harry, following his boyfriend's lead, ran out of the hall as well, trying to catch up to him. He heard Neville and Hermione close behind him. When the four of them caught up with Blaise, they found him in an alcove not far from the entrance to the Slytherin common room, and he was close to a panic attack.
"Blaise," called Draco gently, kneeling before his friend and putting his hands on the shaking shoulders, "It's okay, Blaise. I'm here, just breathe."
Blaise didn't respond much beside his eyes locking with Draco's. Harry pulled out a Calming Potion from his bag. He'd made it a habit to carry one around after Draco's panic attack at the beginning of last year, since he hadn't known if he might have an episode again. He pushed it into Draco's hand, and while he gave Harry a funny look, he quickly turned back to Blaise. "Okay, Blaise, I've got a Calming Potion here. You're going to need to swallow it, and then you'll be able to breathe again. I promise."
Draco opened Blaise's mouth and poured the potion down his throat. Blaise swallowed, then inhaled greedily. His head fell back into the wall with a dull thud as he continued to breathe deeply, and after a few minutes he had recovered enough to notice the three other people standing anxiously at the entrance to the alcove. "Sorry," he said quietly.
"There's nothing to be sorry about," insisted Draco. "We saw your reaction to the letter you got, and went after you. We're your friends, Blaise. Friends stick together."
Blaise smiled sadly. "Thanks. The letter said that Mother's badly ill, and I just can't handle this, not after losing my stepfather such a short time ago. What if… what if the worst happens? What will I do?"
"It won't happen," Draco said.
"You can't know that for sure, though. That's just what you want to happen."
Draco looked to Harry, who said, "I don't know either, you'd have to ask Luna. The relationship between mother and son would be valid for her gift, since Blaise is our friend, and his mother is only one more relationship away."
"Should I go get her?" asked Neville.
"Wait, what gift? Why'd you look at Harry?" asked Blaise, confused.
Hermione took it upon herself to explain. "Harry has Magesight, and Luna has Conspicuum Magesight. Luna's gift allows her to see the truth and some other similar things in people, but only up to three degrees' of relationships away from Harry, Draco, and Neville."
"The only problem she's had so far is in the Slytherin common room and dorms, since there seems to be something stopping gifts like ours to work properly there," said Harry.
"Oh," said Blaise. "That might be the protective enchantment that Salazar Slytherin placed there. It specifically protects every Slytherin student's privacy in magical matters. It even blocks out the Sight, apparently, so no Seers can directly See anything if it happens in the Slytherin area."
Hermione got that gleam in her eyes that Harry knew to mean that this was something that she was going to research as soon as possible. He stopped her train of thought. "Should I get Luna?"
Just then, the warning bell rang, and Blaise stood up. "No, don't worry about it. I've got Charms now. I've got a free period in third, though, how about then?"
"No," said Neville. "We've got that free too, but Ginny and Luna have a free in fourth."
Harry, Draco, and Hermione looked at him strangely, and he flushed. "It's not my fault. I just pay attention."
Hermione shrugged and pulled out a Muggle plastic folder from her ever-present shoulder-bag and flipped through it. "The first time all of us have free is in two days, in fifth period. We should meet up in the RoR then."
Blaise just blinked, then shrugged. "If that's the earliest, then sure. How did you get my timetable, anyway?"
Hermione blushed. "By paying attention. I took note of which classes we've got with you, then I asked Luna which classes she had with the Slytherins, since the houses each house shares its classes with is the same, no matter the year. Then, I listened to the complaining the Slytherins in our year did and discerned which classes they had before or after the class they shared with us, and finally I put the timetable together. Simple."
Now, it was the four boys' turn to blink. "Maybe you could just give Hermione your timetable next year?" suggested Draco, and Blaise nodded, stunned.
They made their separate ways to class, and when the time came for their free period, they made their way to the Gryffindor common room to do some homework. However, just before they reached it, Hermione suddenly stopped in the middle of the corridor, her eyes wide. "That's… that's got to be it…" she mumbled.
"Hermione?" Harry asked, waving his hand in front of her face.
She shook her head and blinked as she came out of her trance-like state. "I've got it! I think I know what the monster is! I'll be right back, I just need to get it from the library!"
She raced off, unheeding of Harry's call of, "Hermione, wait! The Room is closer!"
Exasperated, he turned to Draco and Neville, who simply shrugged and walked to the Fat Lady's portrait. Harry felt uneasy about letting Hermione go to the library alone, but shook the feeling off as paranoia and followed Draco and Neville into the common room.
However, after fifteen minutes of his unease just growing and causing him to be unable to study, he said, "It wouldn't take her this long. It's just to the library, finding the book she apparently knows the identity of, and back up. That would take ten minutes, tops."
He stood up and started pacing, debating whether to go after her, and Draco said, "Harry, calm down. Nothing's going to happen to her. She probably just got caught up chatting to Madam Pince or something."
"No, that's not—" Harry suddenly felt cold all over, and cried out as he fell to the floor.
"Harry!"
He breathed harshly and tried to overcome the sensation, finally realising the unease had been his Magesight trying to tell him something. Draco and Neville helped him stand up, and he quickly rushed to the common room exit. "Hermione," he said in explanation, and he heard their gasps just before he knew they were following him.
His feelings led him to a corridor near the library, where he found her crouched next to a corner, a mirror in her hand. He reached out to touch her, and discovered to his horror that she was as hard as stone. "Oh no," he breathed.
Draco, out of breath, asked, "What? What's wrong? Hermione?"
Harry swallowed. "She can't hear you, she's been petrified."
oOoOo
The trio, along with Fred and George, sat in the common room, not making any of their usual noise. Fred had bloodshot eyes, and was leaning on his twin's shoulder, who was absentmindedly rubbing Fred's arm in an attempt to comfort him.
Neville had run to fetch a teacher as soon as he'd heard what Harry had said, and when McGonagall had shown up with him, she'd demanded they return to the common room at once. Not too soon after, they'd heard this same order broadcasted across the whole school.
Draco and Harry were sitting, fingers interlocked, next to the window. It was Draco's proximity to the window, and a timely glance out of it, that allowed him to notice that there was two figures, one unmistakably Dumbledore, and the other wearing a lime-green bowler hat, walking towards Hagrid's cabin. He nudged Harry and pointed them out. Harry's eyebrows furrowed as he watched them get let into the cabin, then they both gasped when they saw Lucius Malfoy striding across the grass, also in the direction of Hagrid's cabin. "This can't be good," said Harry.
Not too long afterwards, the three men, plus Hagrid, were walking in the direction of Hogwarts' gates. The two boys were unsure what to do, but when Fudge Apparated away, taking Hagrid with him, Harry sprung into action. He rushed upstairs to his trunk, pulled out his communication mirror and said, "Padfoot."
The mirror misted over, but the mist quickly gave way to Sirius' face. "Hey there, pup. What brings you to call this early in the day?"
"Fudge has taken Hagrid somewhere, and Dumbledore's left Hogwarts… well, I don't know that last one for sure, but Draco and I saw him, Fudge, and Malfoy go to Hagrid's cabin, and Fudge Apparated away with Hagrid, then Malfoy went, and then Dumbledore. Hagrid's innocent of opening the Chamber; he was last time as well!"
Sirius' eyes were wide as he took this in. "I'm in the office now anyway, so I'll check what's going on, and call back when I find out."
Harry walked downstairs and found his friends looking at him expectantly. "Sirius said he'd call back when he knows what's going on."
He sat down next to Draco again, and waited. Twenty minutes later, none of them had moved very much, but that stopped when Harry's mirror vibrated in his hand. "Okay, so Fudge had arrested Hagrid and transferred him to Azkaban, then bragged about it in the Ministry Atrium. I told Madam Bones, who said Fudge couldn't do that without a trial, so she authorised Hagrid's return to Hogwarts after she told off Fudge. She said there wasn't any evidence this time or last time that Hagrid did it, so he had to be let go. Fudge was furious, but she was brilliant!" finished Sirius.
"Wow," said Draco. "That sounds like some sort of conspiracy. Wait, what about Dumbledore and my father?"
"Dumbledore's been suspended. Malfoy was there on behalf of the Board of Governors."
"They might as well close the school today," said Neville, shocked. "With Dumbledore gone, there'll be an attack a day."