A/N: Thanks to all those who have reviewed, followed, and favorited this story. I'm glad that people have been enjoying it. And a special thanks to Bonnie and Mainsail for beta reading this and thus improving on the original. If you have questions or concerns about what's going on, feel free to include them in a review or a PM — I'll try to answer.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, JK Rowling does.
Recommendation: This chapter's recommended fic is "Call Me Moriarty" by Professor Scrooge. This is a delightful story in which Jasmine Potter comes out of her abusive childhood with more than few a sociopathic tendencies, not to mention an interest in taking over Wizarding Britain. Her role model isn't Voldemort, though, it's Professor Moriarty, and her intellect is both matched and challenged by Hermione Granger, whose role model is Sherlock Holmes. And just to complicate matters, they manage to fall for each other as well.
Italics: a person's thoughts.
Chapter 15 - Witches Are Doing It For Themselves
Thursday, September 2, 1995. Evening.
Jasmine looked around the Room of Requirement at the young witches and wizards who made up their study group. They'd only started meeting last term, but they'd quickly formed strong bonds of friendship that had gotten stronger as the Spring term wore on. Despite how often Jasmine expressed an interest in just abandoning Britain to what she suspected was a well-deserved fate, every time she thought of these people, she had more and more trouble believing her own threats.
Against all odds, each of these witches and wizards was becoming a friend, and every one of them had shown just how important the group was to them by getting so much work done over the summer. Susan and Hannah had obtained an auror handbook, gotten extra defense training, and produced a booklet that explained how Death Eaters typically attacked homes. The one thing they couldn't manage was getting portkeys — they were too tightly regulated, according to Susan's aunt.
Daphne, Tracey, and Blaise had created a booklet about eavesdropping spells and how to counter them — basically, a manual for how to spy and how to avoid being spied on. Padma had written a booklet on the best ways to defend a home from attack. Neville had surprised everyone by coming to the first meeting with a list of laws that resulted in disadvantages for witches in British magical society — laws that S.P.E.W. would have to target for change or repeal in the coming years. He even included an outline of how to best go about dealing with them and offered to launch the effort once he came into his political inheritance.
He was quickly given bone-crushing hugs from every witch in the group, prompting a blush that hadn't quite dissipated even half an hour later.
Everyone had worked hard to contribute something that would be useful. Jasmine and Hermione made multiple copies of each and handed them out to everyone with instructions to read them and write down any corrections or suggestions. The original authors would then use the notes to create final versions that would be duplicated for all members of S.P.E.W. and the DA.
Next, there were a few organizational issues to deal with before moving on to practical training.
"Jasmine and I were talking," Hermione started out, "and we realized that while our study group, S.P.E.W., and the DA are all separate, keeping them separate may not be possible in practice. So we should just accept that we'll discuss S.P.E.W. and DA issues during study group time."
"So?" Hannah asked.
"The problem is that there's too much work for too few people," Jasmine said. "The solution is to bring in a couple more students to help manage S.P.E.W. and the DA, but that means they'll need to be part of the study group, too."
"We'd like to bring in two people we know and trust," Hermione went on. "Ginny Weasley, as another witch to help with Gryffindor, and Luna Lovegood to help Padma with Ravenclaw. We'd also like to bring in Gabrielle Delacour — not to help manage the groups, since she may only be here for a year, but she's had extra defense training and could help us with the DA. Her sister, who's our new Defense professor, may help with that as well."
When there were no objections, they sent Dobby and Winky to fetch the three fourth-year witches, and within a few minutes they joined everyone else in the Room of Requirement.
"So, the biggest issue facing us is defense," Jasmine announced. "With the Azkaban breakout, it's clear that things will be getting more dangerous. We'd like to help everyone, but Hermione and I can't teach the entire school."
"So we had the idea that Jasmine, Gabrielle, and I would train you with what we know," Hermione continued. "Plus Susan and Hannah learned some things from Mad-Eye Moody which they'll show everyone here. Once we're all comfortable that we have a solid foundation, you'll start training members of your houses who want to join the DA and learn defense." Everyone agreed that that would probably make the most sense, though some of them were uncertain about their ability to teach.
"During the tournament, Hermione and I would train three times a week," Jasmine said. "We'll continue to do that, but one or two sessions will include training you. You would then train your housemates two or three times a month, and maybe we'd all meet for one big session once a month." That made everyone feel a lot better about what they'd be expected to do.
"So, let's get started," Hermione said, organizing the study group into a line so they could start practicing accuracy. Defense classes at Hogwarts taught students how to cast basic offensive and defensive spells, not how to best survive magical combat, and they all recognized that they'd have a lot of work to do.
This first session of practical training went on for a while, and Jasmine and Hermione used some of the time to answer questions about what happened to them during the summer. Of course, everyone wanted to hear again about the attacks on their homes, especially the fate of Draco Malfoy.
"Quite a few people are happy to see him gone," Tracey said, "but unfortunately Nott is trying to take his place. He even has Crabbe and Goyle following him around like Malfoy did." She rolled her eyes.
"Nott's been insufferable," Daphne added. "He acts like we should all be bowing to him, which is basically how Malfoy behaved, but he's even less competent than Malfoy was. I honestly didn't think that was possible."
"It's more annoying than dangerous," Tracey assured them, "but we're watching each other's backs."
"We're not sure what to do about Parkinson," Blaise said. "With Malfoy gone, she seems lost. She hasn't recanted all of the awful things she's said, but she also hasn't gone to Nott for protection or support."
"At the end of last term I started talking to her," Tracey added, "but she never opened up to me, and she's been avoiding me so far this term."
"We'll both keep trying, though," Daphne said.
Everyone was quite tired by the time they were done, but they all made progress and could tell that they were learning important things that might save their lives.
Friday, September 3, 1995. Late Morning.
Fleur Delacour was a nervous bundle of firsts for Hogwarts. She was the first female Defense professor for as long as anyone could recall; she was the first French professor in living memory; and she was the first veela professor in the entire history of Hogwarts.
Fleur already had plenty of reasons to do a good job, but being the first in so many different ways put an extra burden on her. She knew that if she wasn't outstanding, she might well be the last member of any of those groups to have that job. It was unfair, but she knew that it was how the world worked.
As she watched the fifth-year Gryffindors and Slytherins file in, she wondered about why those two houses were paired together for a class as dangerous as this. To be fair, any magical class could be dangerous, but Fleur knew that it would be safer if they were paired in classes like Astronomy and Herbology, not Defense — not a class where they'd already be casting spells, sometimes at each other.
"Good morning," she said once everyone was in their seats. "As you know, I am Professor Delacour, and I will be teaching you Defense Against ze Dark Arts. Your last four years of classes were… inconsistent in zeir quality, which is a problem since you will be sitting for your OWLs at ze end of ze next term. After going over ze lessons from ze past few years, I have decided zat you will need an accelerated course if you are to have any hope of passing zat important exam."
This was greeted with a chorus of groans and complaints from most of the students of both houses. By far the most negative reaction came from Nott — he remained silent, but the hostility in his eyes was unmistakable. "I am sorry," she continued, "but it is necessary. I will not make it any harder than needed, but all of ze work you do will involve spells and knowledge zat has been part of OWLs in ze past." Once she was satisfied that they all understood, she said, "Up out of your seats! Grab your wands!"
When everyone was standing, wands in hand, Fleur waved her own wand, causing all of the desks and chairs to stack up against the walls. "In ze class, we will focus on ze practical aspects of defensive magic. You will be responsible for reading ze text on your own time. You will have essays every week to show that you have read and understood ze material."
This, too, was greeted with groans, but she spoke over them, telling them to form two lines on either side of the class. They spent the rest of the class practicing Expelliarmus and Protego, yet even with these basic spells, all but the students who had been working with Jasmine and Hermione were woefully far behind. Still, she felt she was already seeing progress by the end of the lesson, which gave her some hope.
She noticed the girls themselves were quietly giving pointers to those around them and trying not to look too bored at such remedial work.
Once the week's essay had been assigned and the class dismissed, Fleur motioned Jasmine and Hermione to stay behind. "I know you have lunch and I won't keep you," she said once they were alone, "but how do you zink I did?" Despite having appeared confident and self-assured during the lesson, it was apparent that Fleur was just as nervous as anyone else would be on their first day at a new job.
"Great!" Hermione said with a smile. "I think this will be the best Defense class we've ever taken, once everyone gets caught up."
"I could do with less homework," Jasmine said with a hopeful look, "but…."
Hermione elbowed her in the side. "Don't listen to her, it's fine. We need that in order to be prepared for the written portion of our OWLs." Jasmine rolled her eyes but didn't say anything.
"Do you have any zoughts on ze private training we need to do?" Fleur asked.
"We met with our study group last night," Jasmine responded. "The two of us plus Gabrielle will train them, then they will train their housemates. So we were hoping that you and Gabrielle would work with us a couple of times a week, and maybe one of those times would be when we are working with our friends?"
Fleur frowned and thought for a moment. "Zat eez possible, but our focus must be on you, not on your friends. Maybe a couple of evenings each week with ze four of us and one weekend morning with you and your friends?"
The girls nodded in agreement. "How about Sunday mornings, starting this weekend?" Jasmine asked.
"I'll be zere," Fleur said with a broad smile. "Now go before you miss lunch."
Friday, September 3, 1995. Evening.
Even if Hermione hadn't been friends with Ron for nearly four years, she'd have been able to tell that he had something on his mind. He clearly wanted to ask something, yet he spent the whole meal trying to work up the courage to do it.
"What is it, Ron?" Hermione finally asked in exasperation. "What do you want to know?"
Ron's head snapped in her direction, his fork still mid-way to his mouth. At first he looked surprised, then embarrassed, and finally resigned. Putting his fork down, he sighed and said, "It's just that… well… I was wondering how you two got so good at Defense. I know you trained together a bunch for the Tournament, but... it still surprised me that you were so much better than I was in class today. I mean, all through our first three years, we were pretty similar in what we could do."
Now it was Hermione's turn to feel surprised because she hadn't been expecting this. I should have, though, she admitted to herself. Even if Ron didn't have jealousy issues at times, I should have realized that he'd notice how much Jasmine and I have progressed and that this would bother him, at least a little.
Before she could respond, Jasmine spoke up. "That's actually something we were thinking of talking to you about. A lot of what we can do is because of the work we did for the Tournament, but our intention is to help others get better too, so they can defend themselves against Death Eaters and their sympathizers."
"You mean, like those who broke out of Azkaban?" Ron asked, looking a little paler.
"Yes," Hermione answered, "as well as those who escaped justice last time, and those who join up this time."
"Hermione, Gabrielle, and I will be teaching our study group — you remember, the group we worked with last year from all four houses?" At Ron's nod, Jasmine continued, "They, in turn, will be teaching members of their houses. If you want, you can join the core study group in defense training, too — we'll be meeting a couple of times a week to train, then you'll have to help train other Gryffindors a few times a month."
Ron frowned. "I'm not sure. That sounds like an awful lot of work."
Jasmine nodded. "It is, and it isn't even as much work as Hermione, Gabrielle, and I will be putting in personally — the three of us will be doing even more training sessions each week on top of that."
"Why?" Ron asked, shocked that they would be putting in so much work for just one class.
"Because, you ninny," retorted Ginny, who had been listening in on the conversation, "You-Know-Who is back and is going to come after her. Obviously his followers will keep coming after her, too. She has to do this in order to survive."
Ron's face reddened at having to be reminded of that. "It's sad, but true," Jasmine said. "I don't like it, but I can't simply put my head in the sand and pretend that everything will turn out alright."
"Who else is doing this, again?" Ron asked.
"Daphne, Tracey, and Blaise from Slytherin," Hermione said, eliciting a scowl from him. "Susan and Hannah from Hufflepuff, Luna and Padma from Ravenclaw, and Neville and Ginny from Gryffindor."
Ron's head swivelled back and forth between Luna and Ginny. "You two are doing this?" he asked incredulously.
"Of course," Ginny replied. "I don't want to be an easy target for Death Eaters. I've spent far too much time here being a victim — like Jasmine, I refuse to be a victim anymore."
"It'll be a lot of work, Ron," Luna said while looking closely at him, "but I think it'll be worth it. I'm sure that extra defense practice will chase away some of those wrackspurts that are nesting in your ears. I'm just starting out, too, so we could help each other, if you'd like."
Ron looked doubtful as he turned back to Jasmine and Hermione. "I'll have to think about it. I'm already feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the work the professors are giving us, and it's only the second day. And that's not even taking into account how much they keep harping on our OWLs, even though those are months and months away."
Hermione tsked and was about to berate Ron about the importance of revising ahead of time, but before she could get started, Jasmine put a hand on her arm and gave a very slight shake of her head. Hermione realized she was right: scolding him would only make things worse. She'd spent a lot of time during their first three years pushing him, and he'd pushed right back the entire time… except for when homework was due or the night before a test. Last year she'd left him alone because of how he'd treated Jasmine, yet even without her pushing, he'd still passed. Maybe I need to let him sink or swim on his own, she thought ruefully.
"That's fine, Ron," Jasmine said, "the invitation will remain open. Just know that the longer you wait, the further behind you'll be, so it will be that much harder to get involved."
"Come in," Fleur called out in response to the knock at her door. She'd been going over her lesson plans for the next week and was surprised to receive a visitor so late on a Friday night. Her surprise wasn't diminished when the door opened and Filius Flitwick entered. "Good evening," she said with a smile as she rose from behind her desk. She led him to a small table and chair set that had come with the Defense Professor's office and offered him some tea.
When he declined, she asked, "What brings you here zis evening, Professor Flitwick?"
"Please, call me Filius," he said warmly. "I was just wondering how your first week — or partial week, I suppose — went here at Hogwarts."
"Oh, very well," she said. "But I am glad it was a short week. It makes ze transition to teaching easier. And please, call me Fleur."
Flitwick nodded in agreement. "I hear you have an ambitious agenda for your classes, especially your fifth and seventh years."
"Oui," Fleur said with a sigh. "Zey are woefully behind on what zey need to learn for zeir OWLs and NEWTs, so we must play catch-up, which means a lot of work."
"That is unfortunate," Flitwick said sympathetically, "but I may be able to help." He pulled a sheaf of parchment from his bag and handed it over to her, saying, "These are all charms I can teach, categorized by year, which have uses in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Usually I leave them to the Defense teachers, but I can put some focus on them in order to take a bit of the load off of your classes."
"Oh, zank you!" Fleur said with genuine appreciation as she flipped through the parchment. "Some of zese will be very, very helpful." Looking up, she said, "Can I get back to you on which ones would help me ze most?"
"Of course," Flitwick responded. "If you let me know by Monday, I can start inserting them into my current lesson plans as early as next week."
"Excellent," Fleur said as she put the parchment on the table. "Was zere something else you wanted to see me about? Something zat would require a bit more privacy, perhaps?"
"Quite right, my dear," Flitwick responded as he pulled his wand and began casting privacy spells on the door, walls, ceiling, and floor.
"Zen I was right," Fleur observed. "You are my contact here."
"Indeed," he responded. "It should be obvious, but most witches and wizards miss the obvious, I find." Once he finished with his privacy spells, he sat back in the chair and continued, "Now, I was given a rather strange message. It was so strange, in fact, that I've memorized it simply due to the sheer number of times I've reread it in an effort to make sense out of it. According to my contact at Gringotts, I'm supposed to work with you so that the goblin and veela nations can secretly assist two underage witches in Hogwarts overthrow worldwide wizarding culture as we know it. I was also informed that you'd explain what this means, and that I'm supposed to say the word 'Predire' to you as proof that I should be told whatever it is that is supposed to explain all that."
Fleur smiled with amusement at the diminutive Charms professor as she began to speak.
Two hours later, Filius Flitwick slumped in his favorite chair in his private quarters. He poured himself a rather large measure of firewhiskey, then drank most of it in one gulp. Once he expelled the fire from his mouth, he sighed in exhaustion. "I'm really not getting paid enough for this," he muttered to himself.
Saturday, September 4, 1995. Morning.
Jasmine arrived at the Room of Requirement just as the S.P.E.W. leadership meeting was ending. Part of her deal with them was that she wouldn't have to be involved in the regular management of the group: Hermione would keep her informed about what was going on, and she'd attend meetings where she was needed, but otherwise she would keep her distance and use the time for other pursuits.
Now that that meeting was over, though, it was time for everyone to begin the next practical defense session. Hermione and Jasmine had been run ragged the previous evening, not expecting their veela shieldmaidens to start out focusing on physical fitness and endurance. Despite the jogging they had both done early in the summer, they hadn't been able to continue after moving to Grimauld Place; even so, it wouldn't have been enough to prepare them for what Fleur and Gabrielle had put them through.
What was more, Fleur and Gabrielle insisted that they had endured much, much worse every day after the second task. The two Gryffindor witches didn't want to believe it, but after getting a good look at how fit and muscular the veela were, they couldn't doubt it, either. Hermione hadn't noticed any of that over the summer and was informed that almost every veela around her and her family at the time had been Amazzi, highly trained warriors whose skills and fitness levels made the sisters look like couch potatoes.
That didn't make the girls feel any better about themselves, so they had decided to pay it forward by putting their DA leadership group through a tough workout, too. Misery loves company, after all.
Saturday, September 4, 1995, Evening.
"Dear Maman and Grandmere," Fleur wrote, "I know Gabrielle already wrote to you about our trip and her sorting, so I'll just say that she seems to be enjoying her classes so far. She isn't struggling with English much and even appears to be handling the lack of physical contact better than I did. I'm enjoying my classes as well, though I have yet to get over being nervous when standing in front of the students. I've come to realize just how much is resting on my success, and it is quite daunting. I promise, though, that I won't let any of you down.
"I've met my contact, and we will start working together soon. I'm including their report on the current state of the forest — evidently it has continued to flourish. By any possible measure, it is vastly improved over what it once was, and the centaurs are happier than anyone has ever seen them. I haven't had a chance to inspect the area myself, but I'm looking forward to it. I find myself wondering if how this forest looks now is what the world once looked like — magical and non-magical plants and animals flourishing together in harmony.
"With the Azkaban breakout, training will be even more important than ever before. The morning the breakout was announced, I could see fear in many students' eyes. I've agreed to help Jasmine and Hermione train some of their friends, so my schedule will be even busier than I had expected, especially since their previous Defense classes were so horrid. Tell everyone else how much I miss them! Love, Fleur."
Sunday, September 5, 1995, Early Morning.
Jasmine grumbled the whole way from the Great Hall to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. That morning, the Daily Prophet had published yet another article about the Azkaban breakout, this time highlighting all of the aurors who were killed and attributing their deaths to Sirius Black personally. A separate article reported a sighting of Sirius in London and promised that there would be increased patrols among both muggles and magicals in order to capture the heinous terrorist as soon as possible.
Jasmine knew it was all rubbish, but she feared for her godfather — especially since he was indeed in London. Any extra attention on that city only increased the risk to him since she was sure that he'd be going stir-crazy in that house and wouldn't be able to remain cooped up forever. "Don't let it get you down, Jas," Hermione said in an effort to reassure her. "He's safe for now, and there's nothing you can do anyway. There are, however, important things right here that you need to focus on."
"Yeah, yeah," Jasmine responded. "I know. I can't help it. I wish I knew what mental illness Fudge is suffering from, though."
"Cranial-Rectal Inversion?" Hermione offered with a smirk.
There was a beat while Jasmine processed that, then she snorted in amusement. "Oh, yeah, that's definitely him," she said, chuckling. "I wonder how his lime green bowler fits, though."
Fortunately Myrtle was gone when they finally reached the bathroom, so Hermione called Dobby and Winky while Jasmine opened the sink entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. As planned, the elves popped in with two large bags of supplies and Jasmine's broom. "Are you two ready to go?" Hermione asked. Both looked nervous but nodded gamely.
Hermione didn't like riding brooms, but it would make this trip far easier, and she would never be high off the ground. As the two witches glided down the pipe, the house elves stayed close by to be safe.
Once they cleared the cave-in and reached the sealed door, Jasmine gave the parseltongue password, and they all stepped cautiously inside. The basilisk was indeed still there, and at first glance it looked to be in decent shape, but the odor of rot made it clear that its looks were probably deceiving.
Hermione gaped in shock at the size of the beast. "Jasmine, I know you told us how big it was, but hearing about it and seeing it are completely different things. I can't believe you faced this thing alone!" Jasmine was quickly wrapped in a tight hug by her girlfriend while the elves followed the plan they'd worked out earlier. The first step was to magically preserve the corpse in its current state so that it wouldn't get any worse, which they achieved by using charms similar to those used by elves to preserve food. Second was to search the Chamber of Secrets for any potential threats, such as further cave-ins or any other "beasties" which might have moved in in the basilisk's absence. Finally, they were to look for additional exits.
At no point was either elf allowed to work alone — they had to promise to work as a pair so that if anything happened to one, the other could help.
After Hermione had calmed down enough to let Jasmine go, the two of them walked gingerly around the basilisk to gauge how bad it was.
"This… is disgusting," Hermione announced, wrinkling her nose. "Completely and unambiguously disgusting."
"The skin seems to be alright," Jasmine observed, "but something inside is definitely a bit worse for wear. I wonder why it looks so good, though?"
"Given how old and large it is," Hermione said, "it probably absorbed a lot of magic, which probably has at least some preservation qualities. Also, the poison might keep bacteria and scavengers away."
"I suppose that makes some sense," Jasmine responded. "Witches and wizards live longer and are more resistant to injury. I guess it shouldn't be surprising if magical creatures are similarly resistant to… well, decay, as gruesome as that sounds."
After the girls had wandered around for a few minutes, the two elves popped in next to them and reported that while the Chamber was safe, they hadn't found any obvious exits.
"Okay, then," Jasmine responded as she pulled out a magical tent from her bag. "Here's your new home while you're working on this. All your other supplies and the shrunken storage crates are in these bags. We'll come by every morning to check on you — first at the sink entrance, then at the main entrance here if you don't show up after a few minutes."
"Oh, you must be coming here," Dobby interrupted. "Winky and me be trying several times, but we can't be popping past big parsley-mouth doors."
Hermione snickered at the elf's word choice and Jasmine smiled when she responded, "That's fine, we'll come here to see if you need anything. If you manage to find another exit, come find either one of us and let us know, but only if we're alone." Both elves nodded vigorously, then immediately got to work.
Sunday, September 5, 1995. Afternoon.
Hermione smiled as she waited for Professor McGonagall to pass the sugar. Although neither she nor Jasmine had spoken about it aloud, both witches had sorely missed these get-togethers and had been looking forward to this for weeks. They didn't realize it, but their Transfiguration professor felt the same way.
"So," Minerva started out, "according to Miss Granger's letters, you two have had an interesting summer." Jasmine snorted at that understatement, and the two filled in the older Gryffindor about the things Hermione hadn't included in her letters, and once more recounted the terrible events of the night they were attacked.
After all of that had been covered, Minerva asked, "Did anything else interesting happen? Here at Hogwarts it was fairly boring most of the time."
Jasmine and Hermione exchanged a meaningful look, then said in unison, "Jasmine Potter and Hermione Granger share a soul bond." They timed it for just when Minerva was taking a sip of tea, with predictable results. This caused the girls to giggle — mission accomplished.
"I suppose you figured out that I already knew, or at least suspected?" Minerva asked as she used her napkin to clean up the mess.
Jasmine nodded. "We also know why you couldn't say anything. That doesn't mean we aren't annoyed that so many people other than us seemed to have been aware of it — and it doesn't mean that we aren't going to get a few of them back for that, too."
Minerva scowled at them, though without any genuine anger. "Just so long as it's a one-time thing," she said. When the other two agreed, her expression softened as she continued, "So, now you know. How do you feel about it?"
Jasmine and Hermione reached out to grasp each other's hands. "It was pretty overwhelming at first," Hermione admitted. "We spent the better part of a day or two just sitting and talking about it."
"We're happy, though," Jasmine said with a smile. "It makes us feel even better about our relationship than we already did."
"Why is it that you were able to guess that we were developing a soul bond?" Hermione asked. "Have you ever known any other soul-bonded couples?"
Minerva pursed her lips, and an expression of sorrow seemed to flash across her face before she quickly said, "No, I have never known anyone who was soul-bonded. Unfortunately." She took a deep breath. "I happen to have read a great deal about various sorts of bonds, however, and while there isn't much information written down about soul bonds, there is enough to notice when one is occurring… if you are perceptive enough."
Jasmine and Hermione suspected that there was more to the story than their professor was letting on, but before either could think of a way to ask, Minerva changed the subject.
The atmosphere of their tea break was far less light and relaxed after that, and the two younger witches, sensing that their professor's mood had taken a turn for the worse, bid her an early goodbye with the excuse that they still had some homework to complete before classes the next day. There was more that they'd intended to tell her, but that would have to wait for next week.
Sunday, September 5, 1995. Evening.
Jasmine, Hermione, Ron, Neville, and Ginny were all sitting around a table finishing their homework when they were interrupted by a tapping at a nearby window. Another Gryffindor opened it, letting in an owl that made straight for Ron. Surprised to be getting anything at night, he carefully took the letter from its leg. "Hey, this is Percy's handwriting," he said as the owl flew back out the still-open window.
"Percy?" Hermione asked. "I thought you said he had a huge argument with your parents and basically walked out over the summer?"
"He did," Ginny said. "Why is he writing to you?"
"Dunno," Ron answered with a shrug as he opened the envelope and began reading. It was a long letter — two full pieces of parchment, in fact, — and Ron just kept getting redder and redder as he went. Finally he exclaimed, "That git!" as his fist hit the table. "I can't believe him!"
Ginny grabbed the letter out of Ron's hands before he could tear it up and started summarizing for the others. "Let's see," she said. "He mentions talking to the Minister, which is his way of boasting about how highly placed his new friends are. Apparently the Minister knew that Ron had been made a prefect." The girls gave each other significant looks — clearly Fudge had some source of information about what went on in the castle.
"He says he's proud that Ron is a prefect and encourages him to keep up with following all the rules and being as big of a brown-noser as Percy himself was," Ginny continued, eliciting snickers from all who were listening, which now included the twins, who had come over to see what Ron was complaining about. "Next, he warns Ron to stop associating with both Jasmine and Hermione because they're dangerous and violent — something that he claims was proven at their trial this summer and which would have put them in prison if they hadn't gotten off on a technicality."
Hermione just gaped in shock, but Jasmine growled, "So, defending yourself against soul-sucking dementors and homicidal bigots is a mere 'technicality' in Percy's mind? Wait until I get my hands on him. I'll take a 'technicality' and shove it so far up his—"
"What's more," Ginny interrupted, "he says that things will be changing at Hogwarts — that Dumbledore may not be in charge for much longer. There will be more information in the Daily Prophet tomorrow, which Ron should read carefully, and if he has anything to report — any violent or suspicious behavior on the part of Dumbledore or any of his supporters, especially Jasmine and Hermione — he just needs to speak to the right person… and that person will apparently be obvious after tomorrow, too."
Her voice positively dripped with scorn as the letter reached its conclusion: "He promises that he will accept the apologies of our parents and the rest of the family as soon as they 'see the light,' blah, blah, blah… and admit that they made a mistake in hanging around with criminals like Dumbledore, Jasmine, and Hermione…?!"
"Gah!" Ginny cried out as she slammed the parchment down on the table. "That git! That… that… oh, I'll hex him six ways from Sunday when I see him next!"
The twins shook their heads sadly. "How could any Weasley turn out like that?" one twin said.
"Didn't we drop him on his head a bunch of times when he was a baby?" the other asked.
"Nah, that was Ronnikins," the first answered.
"Maybe he was secretly adopted?" the second twin suggested.
Both nodded and said in unison, "That seems much more likely."
Ginny made to tear up the letter, but Jasmine put her hands over Ginny's and said, "Why don't I take this to Professor McGonagall? She might know what's coming, but if not, she deserves to be warned."
"No, I'll do it," Hermione said. "As a prefect, I'm allowed out after curfew if I have a good reason. And this reason," she added with a significant look at Jasmine as she gathered up the letter, "is better than most."