Chapter 11
A/N
For the reviewer who said that the first day of classes (in chapter 10) was boring to read about, was it is the subject matter that you didn't like or the way I wrote it? This is a school. So of course there will be classes. Also this chapter is another filler chapter, again going into details of classes and such like. I have to get through the first year (Halloween and Corridor) without skipping over too much. If you don't wish to read about boring classes, you do not have to read this chapter. You will not lose too much from the story. Oh and there will be some Hermione bashing as well.
Chapters will be slowing down, but will continue. I hope to do at least two chapters per month from here on out for this story. I have to edit and tidy up my Nanowrimo novel, and I am also now writing in another (new for me) genre as well, which takes up a lot of research.
Professor Dumbledore swept into the staff room for the first staff meeting, set two weeks after the new school year began.
"Good morning everyone. Please sit down. Let's get started." As usual he began with the NEWT classes so that those teachers could leave early. "Are there any problems with any of your NEWT students?" the teachers looked at each other, shrugged and shook their heads.
"Good. The NEWT teachers may leave. The staff were disrupted as several teachers who taught only NEWT classes left the room. "What about OWL students? Any problems with the fourth and fifth years?"
Again, there was silence, and the staff shook their heads.
"Good, good." So far, this meeting was going exactly how Dumbledore wanted. It may have only been two weeks since classes began, but as long as there were no early problems, he could concentrate on the more urgent issues of where Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom were.
Second and Third year classes were dealt with easily. Those teachers who only taught the electives from third year and above were also allowed to leave at this point.
"And finally we have the first years. I am interested in the fallout from that letter supposedly written by Harry Potter, the day after the sorting ceremony. I contacted the Daily Prophet and asked them who delivered that letter to them. I am certain that letter is a fake. They claimed the letter was delivered to them by Harry's Lawyer, Mr Dempster Wiggleswade. I went to see him as well. I told him that since I was Harry's magical guardian, he was required to tell me where the boy was so that I can take up my Guardianship duties. Wiggleswade just laughed at me."
Dumbledore's thoughts went back to that meeting. It had not gone well at all.
"You claim to be Harry Potters guardian? Well, then if you can show me the paperwork written by his parents that says you are his guardian, then I will fix it right now." Wiggleswade chortled.
Dumbledore had to think fast. He knew that James and Lily had written no such approval for him despite his frequent requests for them to do so before they had passed away.
"It was a verbal agreement, an oath on their part. They must have died when they broke the oath, and gave the guardianship to someone else. But that's OK. You can just return guardianship to me and we'll say no more about this." Dumbledore's eyes were twinkling madly.
Wiggleswade thought about this, and then replied.
"Or, we can charge you with the murder of James and Lily Potter since it was supposedly an oath between you and them, that got them killed when they supposedly went against your agreement and wrote who they wanted for guardianship in their wills. By the way, Dumbledore, I have read their wills. I am well aware of whom Harry was to go to and it was clearly NOT YOU!"
Dumbledore had to think fast. He knew that he was not listed as guardian. He had sealed their wills and the wills could not be opened by anyone who was not a Potter adult. Harry Potter was still just a child.
"Well, it could not have been Sirius Black. Harrys Godfather. He was in Azkaban for betraying his best friends to You-know-who."
"Yes. About that. I wonder who refused to allow Lord Black a trial. Hmmm? Was it not your job as the Chief Warlock to give the man a trial and yet you did no such thing?"
Dumbledore sputtered. "He was clearly guilty. He kept saying, 'I killed them, I killed them.' He seemed to be confessing."
"And how did that circumvent his right to a trial? A trial to which he was entitled, especially as the heir of a Noble and Ancient House! He was in shock. He would have been happy to have been tried by veritaserum." Wiggleswade pounced.
"But that is no longer a problem." The lawyer continued. "He has had his trial. He is now working on getting back into society. And no he has not taken up his guardianship duties. He is aware that he is not in the best of health. The boy is more than happy with the guardians he has now. Black is happy to be just a godfather to him."
"So who are Harry's guardians? I must go around and see them and find out if they want any help. I knew James and Lily very well." Dumbledore was getting desperate. He could not browbeat Black if he was not the boys guardian. So then who were they? Dumbledore tried to use legilmency on the lawyer. He wouldn't know. Dumbledore was wrong.
Wiggleswade roared out unexpectedly and Dumbledore jumped.
"No, you will not! You know nothing of James and Lily Potter. Their wills indicate that you did nothing to help them at all. In fact you demanded that they stay at Godrics Hollow and YOU got them killed. They should have been at Potter Manor behind the strongest wards of all. Your wards were nothing, old man. You got them killed. I have no intention of telling you anything about my client Harry Potter, and I demand that you leave my office. NOW! AND STAY OUT OF MY HEAD!"
Dumbledore was forcibly evicted from the office and told never to return for any reason whatsoever.
All this had gone through Dumbledore's mind in just seconds as he waited for his staff to answer the question.
"The chatter about Potter's letter died down in just a couple of days and no-one had said anything else. Potter stated his opinion on the matter. He told us to forget about him, so that is what the children are doing. Forgetting about him." McGonagall replied. "It is sad too, but since the children never really knew him, and he said that all the books are all fake, then we don't really know anything about him at all. I do sometimes wonder where he is and what he is doing." She sighed. The other female teachers were nodding their heads.
Dumbledore was getting frustrated. He wanted the boy to be a hero. He needed the Potter boy to be a hero. Harry instead preferred to go into hiding. Dumbledore turned his attention to Neville Longbottom.
"Does anyone know anything about Neville Longbottom? I went to see Augusta Longbottom a few days ago, and she pretty much bit my head off and threw me out. She has a new heir now. Draco Malfoy-Longbottom. She claims Neville was a Squib and that she was forced to disown him from the family. So she has gotten herself a new heir. Does anyone know why she chose someone from the dark side as her heir?"
Dumbledore was not at all happy with this turn of events.
"Augusta was telling me, earlier in the summer, that she needed someone from the Black family to continue the Black family line as well as the Longbottoms. Draco was the closest Black cousin available. He will be required to have at least 3 sons minimum when he gets married. One each for the Malfoy, Black and Longbottom names. Of course, this assumes that he will inherit the Black lordship after Sirius dies." McGonagall commented out loud.
Dumbledore frowned at this. It went some way to explaining why the son of death eaters was now a light side heir, but Dumbledore was not happy about this change in events. The prophecy could no longer be made to come true when both of the protagonists were now in hiding and no longer available to be trained by Professor Dumbledore.
He shook his head and continued with the rest of the meeting.
"Are there any problems with the first year classes? Is everyone settling in?" he asked.
"As I'm sure, you all know. I have a pair of cheaters in my first year potions classes." Severus Snape complained. "Those two boys, Selwyn and Black. They refuse to follow my instruction and follow the recipe on the board. Instead they have the gall to tell me, that I am wrong. Me! A master of potions! How dare they tell me what to do in my own class. I demand that they be expelled, They are upsetting my classroom. They have passed out copies of the more recent edition of the required textbook and everyone now works from that."
"And what is wrong with that Severus." Professor Sprout snapped. "You know they are only doing what your snakes do. You give the same newer edition to your snakes, which is why they don't make those same mistakes and therefore don't lose any points. Selwyn and Black are just evening things up. You are just upset that they caught onto your little secret so early and did something to change things. Good for them, I say."
Dumbledore look around. "Anything else?" he asked.
"They laugh at me in Astronomy." Sinistra complained. "Those same two boys, Selwyn and Black. They sit there twiddling their thumbs and laugh at me. Every time I try to tell them something about astronomy, they contradict me, telling me that I am so out of date, it is not funny. They even tried to claim that the muggles have sent men to the moon. I told them that it was impossible to breath in space because there was no air up there. They agreed with that. So when I asked them how did they breathe in the space, they replied that the men have air packs on their backs. Air packs, Pshaw! Have you ever heard of such a dumb thing." Sinistra giggled. "The worst thing was that all the other muggleborn children agreed with those two boys and the more I tried to tell them that noone could go into space, the more they tried to tell me that it was not true because the muggles are supposedly doing it every day."
"Perhaps you might need to look into the truth of the matter, Aurora, and find out if it is true or not. You are supposed to keep up to date with your subject, and if the muggles are ahead of our knowledge, and the muggleborn children are aware of this, then I think you need to listen to them and find out the truth." McGonagall spoke gently but firmly in her capacity as deputy headmistress. Sinistra slumped in her chair. She had hoped to find some support, but to be chastised by the deputy headmistress like this, was just not nice.
There was an awkward silence for a few seconds.
"How are those two boys doing in herbology, and in your house, Professor Sprout?" McGonagall asked.
Sprout began gushing. "Oh they are wonderful boys. Black loves plants and herbology. He is such a wonderful and patient boy. He helps everyone to understand why we do things one way and not in a different way. Selwyn is doing well in herbology, but it is clearly not his favourite subject. Their essays are always so interesting as well. Not like that Granger girl, She does nothing except repeat what the text book says. And she is constantly going over the length limits. She refuses to admit that the length limits are there for a reason and that she needs to show off her own understanding of the subject, and not just regurgitate the textbook. I dread reading her essays. Those are just so boring."
Most of the other teachers were nodding. They had the same problems with Grangers essays as well.
"As for the House," Sprout continued, "Those two boys continue to shine. They are helpful to anyone in the first year, no matter what house they are in. Yes, Snape, they even help your first year slytherins - those who ask for help anyway. They are really racking up the points for house unity. If they continue being this nice to everyone, Hufflepuff might even have a chance to win the house cup this year." Sprout sat back, very pleased with her first report.
McGonagall was next. "The first years are settling well to my classes. There seems to be rather a lot of competition between those same three children, Granger, Black and Selwyn. I'm not sure why. But those three invariably are usually the first to master any of the class lessons. Yes, Severus, they are even faster than your snakes in their transfigurations. And like Sprout says, Grangers essays are over the limit and just repeating the textbook, while Selwyn and Black keep to the limit and write interesting essays."
Flitwicks report was similar to McGonagalls for a first time wanded class. He too reported the feeling of competition between Granger on one side and Selwyn and Black on the other. And he had the same complaints about Granger and her overlong essays as everyone else.
"How is she doing in your house, Filius?" McGonagall asked.
He frowned and shook his head. "Not good. I think she has been picked at the first year victim for this year because of her incessant hand waving."
Snape snorted. Everyone knew that he detested and ignored know-it-all students in his class who insisted on waving their hands just to get attention.
Dumbledore looked over at Quirrell, the last teacher to report in. Well, he was not actually the last teacher, but since Binns the History teacher never attended these staff meetings, for all intents and purposes, Quirrell was the last teacher.
"How are the first years doing in your Defence classes, Quirinius?" Dumbledore asked gently. He was fully aware of who was possessing his former muggle studies teacher, but had allowed him back in school in order to test the Potter boy. But things had gone off course now that the Potter boy had refused to enroll at school. Dumbledore was not sure what to do with Quirinius now.
"Th-th-they have on-on-only just be-begun using their wands. Th-they have no-no training yet. Th-th-they have a lot to learn. We are do-do-doing mo-mostly theory and-and his-history of the th-the dark arts."
Quirell stopped speaking. and once again silence reigned.
Snape stood up. "I have some potions brewing that I must get back to. Are we done here?" he asked.
Dumbledore nodded and Snape quickly left the room. That was the signal for everyone else to slowly drift out of the staff room as well.
In early October when the leaves on the trees were starting to change to their fall colours, the first years had their flying lesson. They were to be tested on how well they flew a broom.
All the first years were told to attend the mandatory flying class on a Thursday afternoon at the beginning of October. The brooms were all laid out on the ground, in a square, ten brooms to each side.
Draco Malfoy-Longbottom had received a Remembrall from his new guardian in the owl post at breakfast on the morning of the flying lesson. Ronald Weasley decided to poke some fun at Draco's lack of memory as he walked past the Slytherin table. He had snatched the remembrall out of Draco's hand and held it aloft.
"Hey, look. Draco has forgotten something important. I wonder if he forgot his brains."
"What are you doing, Mr Weasley?" his head of house asked him in a stern voice.
"Nothing, Professor McGonagall." Ronald hated being challenged by anyone in authority, especially in public, and the great hall was the most public place at Hogwarts. He dropped the remembrall back onto the Slytherin table and slouched off back to the Gryffindor table where he belonged.
Later that afternoon, Draco and Ronald faced each other across house lines as they battled to be the best flyer in the year. Hermione Granger fell off her broom after Draco flew past her too closely. She landed awkwardly and broke her wrist. She was taken to the infirmary by Madam Hooch to have her broken wrist repaired. The rest of the class were told specifically by Madam Hooch to not move at all. Draco decided not to wait while she was gone, but instead he kicked off and went flying. As he did so, he did not notice his remembrall falling out of his pocket to the ground. Ronald Weasley picked it up.
"Look!" he shouted as he picked it up from the ground. "Malfoy's lost his remembrall! I think I will leave somewhere for Malfoy to find. If he can remember. How about up in a tree?"
Ron got onto his broom and rose up to face Malfoy in the air. Both boys were already good fliers.
"Hey Malfoy. Did you forget something?" He waved the remembrall in the air.
Malfoy said nothing. He was not one to plead and beg, and for now the weasel had the drop on him. Malfoy headed for the ground, while Ron threw the remembrall high up in the air. If Malfoy didn't try and catch it, it would break and his new Guardian might have something to say about that. Draco really had no choice but to try and catch that remembrall.
Unfortunately Draco was just seconds too late as the remembrall landed in the branches of a tree, as did Draco who got all caught up in the branches and ended up hanging upside down. Madam Hooch had to come and rescue him once she returned from the infirmary. By that time Ron was back on the ground and Draco was the only person in any trouble for not staying on the ground after the class had been specifically told to not move at all.
The rest of the class was kind of tame. Henry and Archer both behaved more like muggle borns than purebloods. They were both perfectly comfortable riding on brooms, but with all the hassles of Ron and Draco, they really did not want any more attention upon themselves so they did not show off at all. They did just enough to prove that they could fly safely and then were told to get off the brooms.
Ron was pleased with himself, for getting Draco into trouble. Draco now saw all of the Weasley brothers currently at Hogwarts, there were four of them, as new enemies of the Black and Longbottom families, and vowed to get his revenge. So the next day, when Draco called Ron out to a duel at midnight in the trophy room, Ron immediately agreed. Typical for Draco, he made the deal but then stayed in his dorm room, while Ron was chased out of the trophy room, and ended up in the third floor corridor with the locked door. His friend, and second, Seamus Finnegan, yelled alohomora and waved his wand to unlock the door before Mrs Norris the cat could find them.
Both boys froze when they turned around to discover the large three-headed dog watching them.
The boys were both still frozen and stuck to the door several hours later. Both boys had been scared shitless, and both had soiled their clothes, literally.
It was not until breakfast the next morning when the older Weasley twins began asking where they younger brother was.
The Gryffindor first years put their heads together and finally agreed that Draco had challenged Ron to a duel at midnight in the trophy room, and that Ron and Seamus had left the dorm room at 11.30 PM the night before. Neither of them had returned. The twins took this news to their head of house, Professor McGonagall, who immediately cancelled classes for the day so that the teachers could look for the boys.
Draco flatly denied being involved and swore that he had not left his dorm room all night. Class assignments were given out and everyone was herded back to their common rooms, including those students who were already sitting in classrooms waiting for their lessons to start.
When the boys were finally found in the forbidden corridor, Seamus was scared but still coherent. Ron on the other hand, was pretty much catatonic. He had to be sent to St Mungos for treatment.
Several weeks later on the day of Halloween, Draco was overheard to be telling the muggleborn know-it-all Ravenclaw, Hermione Granger, after a Charms class, "You are a nightmare, honestly! No wonder you don't have any friends." Hermione ran off crying while Draco just smirked. He was slowly working his way through getting rid of all the undesirables in his year. First the weasel, and now, hopefully the mudblood.
At dinner later that evening, the DADA professor ran into the Great Hall and stammered out his message that there were trolls in the dungeon, and then he performed a fake looking faint onto the floor. Henry was quite sceptical. He did not trust the DADA professor. That stammer was not natural, and sounded like a fake. Henry had also heard the man several times, muttering in perfectly normal English with no stuttering at all.
When Professor Dumbledore stood up and announced that everyone needed to return to their Common rooms and dormitories. Henry immediately stood up on his table and contradicted the headmaster.
"Excuse me Headmaster. Are you trying to kill half your school? Why on earth would the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs return to their Common rooms, which are in or close to the dungeons by the way, just to possibly be attacked by this troll which he said," Henry waved his hand at the DADA professor still lying on the floor, "was also in the dungeon? Are you trying to get us killed? We have been told over and over again to get a teacher where there is a situation developing. Well, he says there is a situation developing and I demand that you teachers do your jobs and go find that troll. I am going to stay right here in the Great Hall."
Henry stepped down from the table and sat down. All the members of Hufflepuff sat down right alongside of him. Slytherin house also sat down. Archer looked at Henry as he sat down and raised his eyebrows. "What happened to staying below the radar? We are only first year students. You sure do have balls to be telling the headmaster what to do!"
Henry shrugged. "I just know that I do not want to be wandering around in the dungeons if there really is a troll down there."
Ravenclaw house also sat down and soon the buzz of noise from that house began to rise. Henry heard a few students mentioning the name of Hermione. He quickly looked along the Ravenclaw table and could not see her at all.
The students of Gryffindor house had a quick vote, and they still chose to be brave and leave the great hall because their common room was up on the seventh floor, and they figured that the troll would not get up that far.
Henry was wondering just why no-one was freaking out about how a troll had gotten into the castle in the first place. Someone had to have let it in, and Henry had his suspicions about who that person was.
Everyone was ignoring the DADA professor. Henry was even more suspicious as he watched Professor Quirrell quietly get up from his place on the floor, and disappear out of the main doors. A few minutes later the teachers left the great hall to go deal with the troll, leaving Hagrid, Madam Pince the Librarian, Madam Hooch the Quidditch coach, and Professor Sprout in charge of the students staying in the great hall.
Henry was not to find out until several days later, but Hermione Granger turned out to have been hiding in the library and so missed all the excitement. She and Draco Malfoy were now declared enemies and every time they were in the same room or class, they were often seen throwing death glares or insults and sometimes even hexes at each other.
Noone else was injured while the trolls were strolling around the school, but then again, no-one owned up to or admitted to allowing them into the school in the first place either.
Henry thought that security was clearly quite lax on the headmasters part. He was supposed to be keeping this school safe, but allowing several trolls to wander around, without taking any steps to prevent it from happening again, did not bode well for the school or the students.
Professors Snape and Quirrell were both spotted over the next few days, with unusual injuries. They were both limping and both had bandages wrapped around their forearms. Quirrell had 2 black eyes, while Snape had just one black eye.
The rumours flying around the schools said that both men had been in the forbidden corridor and had had ended up in a huge physical fight, not one with wands, and that the fight was possibly over some kind of treasure.
Henry and Archer were finally given permission to hire private tutors in Potions and History of Magic, thus allowing them to do their independent study. The tutors they hired however, were refused permission by Headmaster Dumbledore to add any other students or new subjects to their tutorial sessions, much to Hermione's disgust.
Quirrells stuttering got worse and DADA class eventually became another class to sleep in. Since Henry and Archer were both already at 4th year levels in both history and potions, it did not take them long to get their studies and homework done. Their tutors were soon persuaded to teach the boys the first year defence curriculum.
As for sports, neither Henry or Archer were on any quidditch teams. Although they knew how to play quidditch and were rather good at it, they had chosen to not partake of this sport while they were "in hiding". Besides, first years were not really allowed to play anyway. Instead they got together with other muggleborn boys, and some of the muggleborn girls, and started up a new football club (Soccer), where the only equipment needed, was a ball and some open space.
Eventually there was enough interest for 3 soccer teams of 11 students, one from each house, to start up an informal league of soccer. Naturally Slytherin house did not lower themselves to play any mundane sports. Each team played every other team twice and was given 3 points for the win, 2 points for the draw and 1 point for the loss.
By the time the students were into the winter month of December, Hermione Granger's marks had slipped down to around 3rd position in the year. She was so used to always being first in her class, she was astounded and then furious. Hermione had assumed that as she would always be at the top of the class, since she clearly the smartest witch of the whole entire (first year) class because she had the highest IQ of everyone else, including the not-so-smart wizards.
While Henry Selwyn and Archer Black no longer attended potions class, Hermione could still see the extreme bias that Professor Snape paid towards his Slytherins despite everyone now using the same edition of the potions textbook. In the last week before the Yule tide holidays (Christmas), Hermione Granger decided that she needed to do something to take back her rightful place at the top of the class.
Hermione had just discovered that her final marks for the end of the first term at Hogwarts had her in 3rd place - behind Henry and Archer. She deserved to be in first place. She had worked very hard to be in first place and she was not going to be denied.
Hermione was getting very upset. No matter how hard she tried, Henry and Archer were always ahead of her, and they always had all the right answers, without even trying. She was sure that they were somehow cheating, and Hermione was determined to find out how.
What made things worse was that those boys were not even Ravenclaws. They were Hufflepuffs and everyone knew that Hufflepuffs were the leftovers who didnt fit into any of the other houses! If they were truly as smart as they seemed, then why were they not put into Ravenclaw?
Hermione decided that it was time to see her head of house and make an official claim of cheating. Maybe their marks would be repudiated and she could end up in her rightful first place. After all, she had done this before.
After knocking on the door of Professor Flitwicks office, she opened the door upon hearing his cheery "Enter".
Flitwick was peering at the door, waiting to see who would appear.
"Miss Granger. How lovely to see you. To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?" he asked while conjuring up a chair for her to sit on.
"Professor, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I feel that there are some students on the first year who are blatantly cheating and I don't think they truly deserve their high marks or their rank in class." Hermione was twining her hands around each other as she spoke.
"Who are these students, what house are they in and what proof do you have that they are cheating?" Flitwick demanded.
"I'm talking about Henry Selwyn and Archer Black. Between the two of them they are first and second in pretty much every single class, and they dont even seem to be trying. In fact I have seen them sitting back, yawning, twiddling their thumbs and even sleeping in class - and yet they still get high marks. I seldom see them in the library and yet I am there every day, because I have to study in order to keep up my grades."
Filius was shocked. He only had those boys in his charms class, but they were both very good in charms and both very powerful young wizards as well. He didn't see anything wrong with their efforts in class.
Their essays were always a delight to read, filled with interesting details and anecdotes, whereas Hermione seldom put any original effort into her essays. She constantly regurgitated the textbook, never rewrote anything in her own words and frequently went over the length limits. Her essays were quite frankly, rather boring to read.
Filius doubted that Miss Granger was even a true Ravenclaw. She never challenged anything she read or heard. She always accepted anything she read in books as the gospel truth. She seldom challenged anyone in authority at all. If someone from her house did challenge a teacher, Hermione could often been heard ranting at that student after the class and demanding that they didn't challenge anyone anymore because they would lose house points and she wanted to be in the winning house. She was a very competitive person and was desperate to be first. She was known as the bushy-haired know-it-all by all the other houses and even within her own house, she was not very liked at all. Consequently she did not have any real friends.
All this went though Flitwicks mind in just a few seconds. "Can you give me some recent examples of when you saw Mr Selwyn and Mr Black slacking off and then getting a correct answer or a good mark in that same class?"
Hermione sat up, pleased that someone was actually listening to her.
"Defence class yesterday. In our DADA class, Professor Quirrell asked for some examples of spells that were both good and bad, Henry said Wingardium Leviosa. Everyone knows that is a light spell. But Henry said that it can be used for the dark side as well. He said that he can lift up a rock or a piano and chose to drop it on someone's head. That is a light side spell being used for the dark side. I demanded to know why someone would want to do that. He just shrugged and said, 'Because they can?' The Professor gave him 5 points for that answer. Archer said that the Cruciatus curse, which is an unforgiveable, can be used for good. I don't believe him. He said it could be used to shock the heart into restarting, if the heart ever stopped beating. He was given 5 points as well.
"Would you have objected if the points had been given to Ravenclaw?" Flitwick asked.
"No of course not. We are after all the most INTELLIGENT students in this school." Hermione sniffed. Her tone was quite arrogant.
Flitwick nodded. "And you dont think that Hufflepuff deserved those points?"
"No. Everyone knows that all the smart ones are in Ravenclaw. If those boys really are that smart, they should have been put in Ravenclaw and not with all the other losers and left over kids in Puff Town."
Flitwick was not at all happy to hear a first year speaking in such an arrogant and superior manner about other children. So he nodded his head and made his decision.
"Leave this with me, Miss Granger. I will do some investigating over the Yuletide holidays and find out what the story is and then perhaps let the Deputy Headmistress deal with this? I should be able to give you a reply after the next term begins. Is that acceptable?"
Hermione nodded her head. At least now SOMETHING was being looked into and maybe those cheating boys might even be expelled. That would leave the way clear for Hermione to regain the top marks in her class!
Hermione left Professor Flitwick's office with a smile and a lighter heart.