Here's the newest chapter for the "Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord", enjoy!

* Review response:
The Swordslinger, Naginator, Orchamus, obsessivegirl73, Impstar, ElementalMaster16, god of all, .owered, Penny is wise, twilightnemo, awsm125, jafr86, reven228, FF-loverHP1, JPElles, thank you for your reviews, folks!
enapace, no, not a chance... though... at the very end, the possibility of expanding the pairing from Harry/Draconica to Harry/Draconica/? will be discussed by the characters themselves (yes, this is a major spoiler).
Sasparilla89, do I have to remind you that we all (well, most of us) grow more calculative and patient as we grow up? It was said somewhere, that if sorting was held, when the characters are 15, 99% will go into Slytherin.
Kyukon, well, I'm sure that you'll like what I have in store for chapters 41 & 42. Be patient for a tiny little bit more.
Awsomeness7, that will happen in the chapter 42, oh the impatient reader of mine. =)
Super-Saiyan-3-Vegeta, no, Astoria will play no role in that break up. But she will be considered as a possible lady Potter at the end of the story. ^_^

* Disclaimer: I DO NOT own "Harry Potter" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"
"wraith speech"
'human thoughts'
"powered speech / true prophecies by the seer"
"spells / parseltongue"

This chapter is not beta-read yet.

chapter 40: DMLE solution

Draconica sighed as she dropped on her bed in her personal room in the Slytherin dorms. Why, oh why, everything had to be so difficult in the real life? Especially the last couple of weeks. When she first heard through the rumor mill that Harry got himself a girlfriend, she a bit sad that he had chosen somebody else, but ultimately more than OK with it.

That was not the case, though. When she saw the young lord Potter with his girlfriend, she became jealous, really jealous, of Katie, and wished to be in her place. Even if she knew well that she shouldn't let this happen, and not only because of the contract she was bound by... So, in hopes that this will pass, Draconica decided to distance herself from the green-eyed wizard, but with the classes Gryffindors and Slytherins had together, and DS on Saturdays, it was really hard for her to keep her distance from him. And with Harry still being as friendly as always, despite her sudden change of attitude towards him...

The blond witch shook her head. Today, during the Hogsmeade visit, she once again had to endure watching Harry and Katie together, and this only increased her desire to be the one with the green-eyed wonder-boy. And to make the things even worse, her body once again had that annoying itch down there, and it wasn't going away on its own anytime soon, especially with how her thinking of Harry was making it worse.

If the things continued like this, Draconica wasn't sure that she won't lose control over herself and do something embarrassingly stupid. She really needed to resolve this situation, yet she couldn't think of anything but oblivation that would make her forget her feelings. And who said that she won't get them the second time around? No, she needed something else... Yet, there seemed to be nothing.

She could also give in to her desires, before her body did that for her, but... She couldn't do that because of her contract, and she really didn't want to come between Harry and Katie, especially with how it could backfire at her. Damn, it seemed that she was caught in a corner, she saw no exit form...

The blond witch sighed and buried her head deeper into the pillow wishing that her problems would go away. But even she herself knew that this will not happen, no matter how much she wanted it...

~/ *** \~

Griselda Marchbanks was a witch three full decades older than Albus Dumbledore himself, yet she was still lively, despite her age. Madam Marchbanks was the head of the Educational Committee and the Governor of Wizarding Examinations Authority, occupying these posts for almost a full century now, and it was her task to ensure that the new generations of wizards and witches got a good education. While normally she collected all of the data she needed during her yearly visits to Hogwarts, when she administered OWLs and NEWTs to the students there, it didn't mean that she ignored her job for the rest of the year.

So, when on Monday, 13th September she found letter from Hogwarts waiting for her on her desk, she opened it right away: it was not usual for her to receive letters from students, so this one was something important – otherwise the wards wouldn't have let it in in the first place. And the contents of this letter made her frown. It looked like the quality of the DADA professors that Dumbledore had hired over the years had hit the new all-times low. The simple fact that majority of all four of the Hogwarts houses had signed under this open letter was a good indication of how bad the things were.

Still, not the one to rush the things, madam Marchbanks decided that she should do a small research to see what was going on with DADA at Hogwarts. And if she found the new DADA professor lacking... then she'll act.

It took madam Marchbanks whole two weeks to make her evaluation of what was going on at Hogwarts with the Defense Against the Dark Arts. And she was not very happy with her findings. While the textbook the current professor was using wasn't very bad per se, it definitely wasn't suited for the school children... The professor, though, was far worse than the books she was using: madam Umbridge was actually doing nothing to help the Hogwarts students learn DADA. If anything, the witch was doing the opposite, which was a crime in the eyes of madam Marchbanks.

Of course, the channels she used to get the information might have being faulty, so the commission was needed to be sent to observe the DADA lessons. And the head of the Educational Committee would have gone to Hogwarts herself, but, unfortunately, her old body didn't let her, and she had to delegate this mission onto the wizards who worked under her in the Committee.

Those men, though, weren't quick, and it took them another week to prepare, before they finally left London to investigate the situation at Hogwarts.

~/ *** \~

The last three weeks weren't easy for Harry, with how Umbridge tried to remove any and all of his privileges for reasons that were as stupid as 'breathing too loud'. And, of course, with him now being just Harry Potter, no one really bothered to check, whether his punishments were just or not. And what was worse, so far Susan got no response from the Educational Committee, so no one really knew, whether they would come with an inspection or not.

That question was answered on Wednesday, 6th October, when a group of three wizards with badges for the Educational Committee arrived to Hogwarts near the end of breakfast. Of course, neither Dumbledore, nor Umbridge herself were happy to see the inspection, but as sending them right away would be detrimental to them, there was nothing they could do to prevent them from doing their work (or at least making an impression of them doing their work).

And, unfortunately, the inspection didn't do their work for real, as they left during the lunch that very day with their pockets all but overflowing with gold, making it obvious that they just took a bribe to write that everything is all right in their report, no matter what the reality was.

~/ *** \~

Despite his fears, Umbridge didn't 'attack' Harry immediately, but the green-eyed wizard, even if he wasn't the one to actually send the letter, didn't have to wait for her retaliation for too long: on Friday, during DADA lesson, the toad-like witch gave him a detention with herself, something she hadn't done before, so the young Potter was understandably apprehensive. And it turned out that he had a reason for that...

"Do come in." Professor Umbridge said in a way that made it clear that Harry will not leave her office soon. "Sit." She ordered then, pointing at the desk with a long roll of parchment on it that stood in the corner of her office. Once the green-eyed youth was sited, she continued, still using that nasty sickly-sweet tone of hers. "I want you to write lines with this special quill of mine." The toad-like witch said, while handing harry a dark-red, almost black quill.

'This is a blood quill, class D restricted item.' Harry thought as he recognized the item. While not harmful when used to sign a document or two, the blood quill could cause permanent scaring, if used to write the same thing over and over for hundreds times. This way, it could be categorized as a torture device. Still, despite this, the young Potter decided to go on with his detention: if he got the evidence and contacted DMLE, the chances were, they would remove Umbridge from Hogwarts. Maybe even send her to Azkaban for this.

"I want you to write 'I must not undermine the authority of the Ministry'." Meanwhile, the senior undersecretary continued. "You will write this line for as long as it will take the message to sink in." Nodding – no reason to make the witch suspect that he was on to something – Harry wrote the line for the first time, doing his best not to hiss in pain as the words were carved on the back of his non-writing hand. Yes, this thing indeed was a blood quill, and Umbridge was using it to torture him. DMLE will definitely have to come to investigate this, and with madam Bones there – Susan's aunt will surely be there as well, at least to get out of her office – Umbridge won't be able to use bribes to buy her freedom...

For the next four hours Harry had to endure the pain of the words being carved onto the back of his left hand over and over again, till that actually created a bleeding wounds. In the end, at about nine in the evening, the senior undersecretary decided that she was sick of him being an eyesore, and let him go.

And once he was free, the green-eyed wizard all but ran back to the Gryffindor tower, determined to get the evidence he needed to proceed with his plan to deal with Umbridge... In the doors to the common room, though, Harry ran into Katie, Hermione and Neville, who all were worried about him. While showing them the result of his detention with the evil witch that was their DADA professor did nothing to calm them down, the young Potter managed to explain the trio his plan. And while they were far from happy with it – they didn't want him to get hurt – they agreed that this was the best plan they had, now that the Educational Committee proved to be full of bribable bureaucrats.

With his friends calmed down a bit, Harry went to find Colin Creevey – the second-year boy had the camera that the green-eyed teen needed. The boy in question wasn't hard to find, as he was playing wizarding chess with his younger brother Dennis in one of the corners of the common room. And since he didn't need his camera at the moment, the young lord Potter easily talked him into lending him the camera...

An hour later Harry was sealing his letter to Violet, asking her to redirect the photo of his detention-wounds and his statement about what had happened (both today and on Wednesday) to DMLE, preferably to madam Bones.

~/ *** \~

Madam Bones, as always, acted quickly, and on Saturday morning, just when the breakfast was in full play, she rolled up to Hogwarts along with a small contingent of aurors.

"What's going on there?" Madam Umbridge asked from the professors' table, when the DMLE operatives, led by the head of the department herself, entered the Great Hall. Amelia marched up to that table.

"Dolores Jane Umbridge, in accordance with paragraph 138, section C, and paragraph 89, section A, you are under arrest for illegal use of class D restricted item with intent of torture and for giving bribes to ministry officials. You have the right to remain silent. Everything you can say can, and will be used against you in a court of law." The head of the DMLE said, while signaling her aurors to arrest the witch. Of course, the toad-like wasn't about to let herself be arrest, but, really, what she could do against four fully-trained wizards?

So, a minute later, Umbridge, already handcuffed and silenced – aurors didn't want to listen to her rant about what the Minister would do to them when he hears about this – was escorted out of the Great hall... Amelia, though, wasn't done yet.

"In accordance with Hogwarts charter, paragraph 107, section A, I, Amelia Susan Bones hereby restore all house points unjustly taken by Dolores Jane Umbridge." The witch declared loudly, and moments later rubies, one hundred and twenty of them, began falling into the lower part of the Gryffindor hourglass, signifying that all of the points that Fudge's senior undersecretary had taken from Harry were restored. "In accordance with Hogwarts charter, paragraph 107, section C, I, Amelia Susan Bones hereby lift all unjust bans placed by Dolores Jane Umbridge on Hogwarts students."

Now, this concluded her business there, and, after asking for forgiveness for interrupting the breakfast, Amelia Bones left Great hall of Hogwarts.

It was about an hour after the arrest of Umbridge, and Harry was reading one of his tomes in the common room, when Oliver Wood, along with Fay Dundar, approached him.

"So, you are now free from those bans?" The captain of the Gryffindor quidditch team asked, getting a nod from the green-eyed youth in response: madam Bones in her act today had lifted all of the bans Umbridge had placed on him, including the one that prevented him from playing. "Good." Oliver continued. "I want to try to get back your position of our seeker." Fay nodded behind him – she wasn't exactly great at being a seeker, even if she was the best among those, who had tried out.

"OK." Harry said with a nod.

"Then I expect you to be at the pitch at nine in the morning tomorrow." The resident quidditch fanatic of the house Gryffindor said, before turning around and walking away, no doubt to rethink the team strategies for the event that they'll have their star seeker back.

"You aren't angry, that I may take your place on the team from you?" Harry asked Fay then. The witch just shrugged, before replying:

"It's your place. After all, I'm better as a beater, aren't I." She said with a light smile on her face that showed that her words were true.

"Thank you." The young Potter said. Fay nodded and, turning around, headed to the other end of the common room, where her friend was sitting with several books about divination in front of her.

~/ *** \~

Like it was two year ago, when Harry had first joined the team, the seeker try outs consisted of Oliver Wood releasing a group of snitches, while the Weasley twins played the role of the beaters of the opposing team. And while the green-eyed wizard had to admit that Fay was good, like she had said him, she was more of a beater, so, while she made it quite challenging for him, the young Potter won his place on the team back before it was the lunch time.

The afternoon of that day passed pretty much uneventful for Harry, as he was doing a catch-up on his potions homework – professor Snape told them to write whole two feet of parchment about basic poisons and their antidotes...

After the dinner, though, things became much more fun, as Gred and Forge smuggled a couple of bottles of fire-whiskey to the Gryffindor common room from somewhere, and began celebrating Harry's return onto the team. And the prankster duo was quickly joined by the Alicia and Angelina, along with the freeloaders who wanted some alcohol. The young Potter himself, though, didn't want to get drunk and so didn't join the Weasley twins the co.

"You won't be joining them?" Katie asked as she sat down next to her boyfriend. "They are celebrating in your honor, are they not?" The green-eyed wizard shook his head.

"Nah, don't want to suffer from hangover tomorrow morning." Was his reply. The witch just shrugged, before suddenly moving into his lap and, after pinning him against the back of the armchair he was sitting in, proceeded to kiss the hell out of him.

"Welcome back to the team, Harry." She said once they broke the kiss. Then she continued snogging him. And the green-eyed teen was thoroughly enjoying the attention his girlfriend was lavishing him with.

~/ *** \~

The third year Hogwarts students filled into the DADA classroom. Despite madam Umbridge being arrested, the lessons weren't canceled, nor there were any rearrangements in the timetables, which meant that some substitute professor was found... And, indeed, just as the bell rang, a wizard in his early twenties entered the classroom. He was tall – six feet and then some – and it looked like he could fight with his fists as well as he could with his wand. He had very short dark-brown hair and steel-gray eyes, that clearly told everyone that he was dead serious.

"Good afternoon." He greeted the students there. "I'm second year auror trainee Samuel Stone, and on madam Bones' orders I will be teaching you Defense Against the Dark Arts for the time being." The wizard said. "It appears that you had no competent professors, so you'll have to work extra hard this year to catch up with what you should know." While several of the more lazy students groaned at the prospect of having to do more work, most were happy that they finally got someone who will teach them DADA for real.

That's all, folks!
Leave me a review.