Chapter Seventeen: Late Supper
The train had come to a stand-still, and it was time to disembark. Leaving their belongings on the train as per usual, Ron and Hermione made their way to the horseless carriages. Ron and Hermione took one to themselves before the carriage began to move. They spent the journey up to Hogwarts sitting close together but neither speaking nor kissing, instead just keeping each other warm. It was not a long time before they were back in the Great Hall and sitting down at the Gryffindor table. They then watched as other Gryffindors filed in with other students from the other three houses.
Ron allowed his attention to drift while the new students were sorted, instead he took the time to stroke and squeeze Hermione's thigh under the table before the food appeared. He and Hermione shared a polite conversation while watching the rest of the Gryffindors out of the corners of their eyes.
Once the food was eaten, Albus Dumbledore got to his feet and began to welcome them all, before giving out the usual start of term notices, until he was interrupted by the pink-clad woman who had been sitting at the staff table. Ron and Hermione had already guessed that she was the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. They listened to what she was saying and what she was not saying, although Ron would have happily dropped off to sleep as she droned on with her unimpressive speech about reform. It was also difficult to suppress the thought that something about the new professor wasn't right at all. This was confirmed when they heard Harry whisper to Neville that she worked for the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge.
Finally, Professor Umbridge stopped talking and sat down once more. The Headmaster managed to give out the rest of the notices without being interrupted and was able to bring the feast to an end. Ron and Hermione got to their feet quickly to escort the new first year Gryffindors to Gryffindor Tower.
'Miss Granger!' called Professor McGonagall.
'Go on, Ron, I'll catch you up, okay?' Hermione told Ron before going over to Professor McGonagall.
Ron led the new Gryffindors to the tower without lecturing them along the way. Once inside the tower, Ron told them all which staircase led where, before telling them they should all get off to bed as lessons would be starting in the morning. Ron then made his way up to the fifth floor of the tower. He was looking forward to having his own room, which was definitely a perk of being a Prefect, as he now didn't have to worry about his former roommates' habits any more. However, on his way to his room he heard raised voices coming from the fifth year boy's dorm, so being a Prefect, he decided to investigate so he went inside. He found Potter and Finnigan trading insults.
'What the hell is going on in here?' he asked.
'Seamus was calling Harry a mad liar,' answered Neville.
'Harry was insulting Seamus' mum,' said Dean Thomas.
'I see, well, I shall have to report this to Professor McGonagall, so I suggest you all calm down and go to bed, goodnight,' said Ron, before going to his new room. He walked up another flight of stairs before finding the room marked "Fifth Year Prefect", and went inside.
Ron might've been impressed with the room but was more impressed with the fact that Hermione was waiting for him.
'Hi,' he said.
'Hi, where have you been?' she replied.
'Potter and Finnigan were getting into it, so I intervened, why?' replied Ron as he approached her and slipped his arms around her waist.
'Just wondering, and besides, we need to see Professor Dumbledore right now, that's why Professor McGonagall wanted to speak to me,' said Hermione.
Ron groaned and said, 'Bloody hell, what does he want?'
'We won't know until we find out, will we?' Hermione said.
'Wait, before we leave, I need to kiss you again,' said Ron, before he lowered his lips to hers and she kissed him back passionately.
Once the kiss was over, Ron murmured, 'Later, I'm going to fuck you …' he then gave her backside a swat and pinch, making Hermione smile and giggle before going to see the Headmaster.
The walk to Dumbledore's study did not take long, Hermione gave the password, 'Sugar quill,' before the gargoyle moved to allow them to climb the stairs up to the Headmaster's office and knock on the door.
'Enter,' called Dumbledore's voice.
Ron and Hermione did so and found Dumbledore sitting behind his desk, however, he was not alone as he was joined by Professor McGonagall.
'Good evening to you both,' greeted Dumbledore.
'Good evening, Professors,' replied Ron and Hermione in turn.
'Would you both like to take a seat?' offered Dumbledore as he indicated the two empty chairs.
Ron pulled the two chairs closer together before inviting Hermione to sit before taking his chair.
Dumbledore began to speak, 'I was very sorry to hear of the demise of your friendships with Harry Potter, I feel that no matter what others feel Harry needs you both more than ever, so I am going to ask for your help.'
'You want us to help you help Harry Potter, you mean?' said Ron.
'Indeed I do,' replied Dumbledore.
'Do you have any idea what Potter did to me?' asked Ron angrily.
'Yes, I do, Mr Weasley,' replied Dumbledore apologetically.
Ron could hear the apologetic tone in the old man's voice, and a part of him wanted to tell Dumbledore that as far as he was concerned Harry Potter could burn in hell, but the voice of his conscience spoke to him, it told him that he, Ron, would be helping Albus Dumbledore, one of his boyhood heroes. Ron also couldn't help notice the voice of his conscience sounded a lot like Hermione's voice.
'I would like to help you, Professor,' said Ron, before he stood up and removed his cloak and tie, and then continued, 'for the duration of this meeting neither Hermione nor I are Hogwarts students, and we will speak freely, okay?'
'Very well,' said Dumbledore.
'The first thing I want to know is why you have allowed an idiot from the Ministry to take up a position here?' asked Ron.
'I could not find anyone to take over the Defence position for this year so the Ministry passed an Educational Decree saying that they would appoint a suitable candidate if and only if I was unable to find one,' Dumbledore told them.
'Suitable candidate, what are Madam Umbridge's qualifications?' asked Hermione, 'furthermore she had no right to stand up and make a speech to the students during the start of term feast; it's a clear violation of Hogwarts' Protocol.'
'You should have shut her up before she got started, Headmaster, because technically she is your employee now, what happened instead made you look weak, and we cannot have that. You see, it's just you should know that you are a hero to many of the younger students and to a fair few of the older students too, you are still Albus Dumbledore, the greatest wizard of the age and you don't take crap from anyone,' Ron told him.
'I agree with Mr Weasley, Albus,' said Professor McGonagall.
'No, I am Ron, Mr Weasley is my dad, Professor,' Ron corrected.
'You are quite right, Ron, I should have cut her off at the pass before she attempted to put the students to sleep with her propaganda,' said Dumbledore.
'I don't know about putting students to sleep with her crap, I think they were more shocked that a fat toad could talk, and while we're on the subject of Umbridge, you cannot allow Potter to be alone with her for any reason whatsoever, you see I think she's dangerous, and yes, just as dangerous as Voldemort, but in a different way, so you and the rest of the Professors need to keep an eye on her,' said Ron.
'You think she would harm Mr Potter?' asked Dumbledore.
'I think that she thinks she can do no wrong while she's here, even above the law, speaking of the law, I heard from Percy that Potter was brought up on charges before the Wizengamot, what happened exactly?' replied Ron.
'Mr Potter and his cousin were attacked by Dementors in August and Harry used magic to fight them off, at first he was expelled by Fudge, but I reminded him that the Ministry does not have the authority expel students from school, so a hearing was arranged, it was supposed to be heard by Madam Bones, the Head of DMLE, but Fudge changed the time and place to courtroom ten and the case was tried by the full court with Fudge as judge,' said Dumbledore.
'That's illegal for a start!' exclaimed Hermione, 'in the absence of the Chief Warlock, the Head of DMLE should preside, how much notice did Potter receive when the time and place was changed?'
'He was informed when he arrived with Arthur Weasley,' answered Dumbledore.
'That's illegal, too, Potter was supposed to receive at least twenty-four hours' notice about a change in time and or place,' said Hermione.
'What happened after they attempted to low-ball him?' asked Ron.
'I can show you both the trial from my memory, that would be easier,' replied Dumbledore, before getting to his feet and collecting what looked like a stone dish with runes alone the side.
'This is called a Pensieve, it will allow you to view my memory,' said Dumbledore, before drawing his wand and placing the tip to his temple to draw out a silver/blue string, he then placed the string into the Pensieve and invited Ron and Hermione to view it by touching the substance and were sucked downwards into the courtroom.
When it was over, Ron said, 'That's another law Fudge violated, he began the hearing while an under-aged wizard was unaccompanied by an advocate, not to mention he tried an underage wizard as an adult for a juvenile crime, that whole thing was a bloody farce! But more importantly I think it was Umbridge who sent the Dementors to Little Whinging.'
'You think so?' asked a shocked Professor McGonagall.
'Yeah, I watched her pretty carefully, and that ridiculous high, false laugh of hers makes my skin crawl, she did it, I know she did,' said Ron, with a tone of absolution.
'You are probably correct, Ron, but without any proof there is nothing that can be done,' said Dumbledore.
'What about Voldemort, what is he doing?' asked Hermione.
Dumbledore smiled at the fact that both Ron and Hermione were using Voldemort's name and answered, 'He is staying in the shadows while rebuilding his army, recruiting new bodies, and most likely planning to break open Azkaban before trying to obtain something he thinks he needs to defeat Harry Potter once and for all.'
'What are you doing to stop him?' asked Ron.
'I have reformed the Order of the Phoenix; it is a resistance group I founded during the last war, we are doing all we can but as the Minister is not doing anything, our efforts to stop him are unaided. We are few and the Death Eaters are many …' said Dumbledore.
'It sounds like you really need our help, we will do all we can to help you help Potter but you cannot let him or anybody else know that we are, the reason for that is that we have a truce with Draco Malfoy and hopefully he'll let slip some things, the next thing is that as Voldemort won't exactly wait until Potter is seventeen to attack him, you need to start really preparing him and others, maybe start a Defence group, but let him run it, even if it has to be done under the nose of that toad, every student needs to be prepared for what's coming, another thing we want is that Snape better not treat us like crap any more, he has made Hermione cry at least once for the last two years, if he gives us any crap, I'll break him, also, we are going to need a free reign in how we do things because anything could happen and we might not have time to consult you on a solution,' Ron told them.
Dumbledore merely said, 'I agree to your terms.'
'Very well,' said Ron, 'I would also like to make a change to my timetable, and that is to drop Divination, unless you have the sight, the subject is a complete waste of time, so I will be dropping it.'
'I agree to your request, anything else?' replied Dumbledore.
'Not right now, but in the future, you'll owe us a favour, okay?' Ron said.
'Very well, so long as the favour you ask of me is nothing illegal …' said Dumbledore.
'No, it definitely won't be,' said Ron.
'I think now would be a good place to end our meeting, we all have an early start in the morning,' said Dumbledore.
Ron stood up and collected his cloak and tie, and said goodnight to the two professors, along with Hermione, and the two of them left to go back to Gryffindor tower. When they got there, they went up to Ron's private room, and due to the late hour, they simply got undressed, got into Ron's bed together and fell asleep in each other's arms.