Chapter 15: The great Inquisition.

After Inquisitor Umbridge's announcement, students scrambled to look for their friends and housemates so they didn't get in trouble with the inquisitor. Ron ran to the hospital wing to tell Poppy about the inquisition. Poppy assured Ron that if the inquisition went to Hermione, she'll defend her.

Half an hour later almost all the students were sitting in the great hall in the respective house tables. Slytherin table looked interesting with the renegade Slytherins leaving an empty space that separate them from the other Slytherins. Similar to the sorting ceremony, there was a stool in the head of the great hall, designated to the student that was going to be subject to the inquisition.

Umbridge then took the word, "This school has many undesirable elements we need to trim out. I was thinking of first trimming the staff, but then I decided that they need to witness the error of their ways. When I call your name, you'll sit here," pointing at the stool, "the professors will all give me a review of your behavior and performance, then your peers will have the word, then everyone will vote if you stay or you get expelled," some gasps were heard around the great hall.

"You can't do this!" protested Dumbledore.

"I can, I'm the senior undersecretary to the minister of magic and the Hogwarts Grand Inquisitor, and according to minister Fudge's decree I can decide the students' punishments without consulting you," retorted Umbridge, "Now, let's start, "Abrams, Janine."

A small blond girl quickly sat down on the stool.

Umbridge started the inquisition, "Name?"

"Janine Talia Abrams."

"Blood status?"

"Muggleborn."

"House."

"Hufflepuff."

"Now, your teachers will all give their testimony."

Most teachers had good things to say about Janine, with the exception of Snape of course. Her friends had all good things to say about her. So, it was a surprise for her that when the vote came and all of the non-renegade Slytherins, plus some people sprinkled in other houses, plus the High Inquisitor herself, plus Snape, all voted for her expulsion. The rest of the school voted against her expulsion.

Harry wasn't surprised, he knew that blood purism was a disease that was present, killing Voldemort in the other timeline didn't do anything about it, the old structures were still there.

Ginny in the other hand was planning her most horrible revenge against the purists.

Ron was incensed, he vowed to himself that he would openly defend the muggleborns he knew like Colin or Hermione.

The inquisitions continued. All the muggleborns received votes from the purists for their expulsion, but the votes of the rest of the students allowed them to stay. Snape voted for the expulsion of everyone, including the Slytherins. Harry witnessed how Dumbledore's disappointment started to show more in his face with each inquisition.

The next inquisition that caught Harry's interest was Astoria's. After Astoria was given the review by the teachers, it came the student review where her sister Daphne took the stage, "My little sister has no wizarding pride, she is a shame to the family. She decided to consort with people that aren't of her status. I believe she should be sent to Durmstrang so she learns how to behave like a proper witch."

Astoria angrily retorted, "If having 'wizarding pride' is just being an asshole. I'm glad that I don't have any wizarding pride. Please, ask the person you call father to disown me, I'm ashamed of being in a family of bigots." Most of the great hall gasped at the declaration, the Hogwarts renegades all beamed proud of Astoria. After the vote where Astoria received the mudblood treatment, both Harry and Ginny sent Astoria supporting messages with their coins and offering their homes in case she is disowned.

The rest of the first-year inquisitions continued as normal, with no other interesting case during that year. The second-year inquisitions started with the same trends as the first-year ones, until Colin's inquisition started, "Name?"

"Colin Noah Creevey."

"Blood status?"

Colin showed what is to be a Gryffindor and with all his bravery he blurted, "Mudblood and proud of it!"

All muggleborn students cheered and clapped to Colin's declaration. Harry and friends joined in as well, proud of Colin. Harry noticed Snape's scowl and also noticed how angry were the purists to Colin's declaration, they are realizing that they are losing of their weapons against the people they don't like.

Colin received more votes for expulsion than the others with some people that weren't exactly blood purists but still looked down on muggles voting for that as well.

The next notable inquisition was Luna Lovegood's, where Kim Sheringham, one of her roommates said her declaration, "She is a loony, the first time we met she started talking about weird animals. Then she became a coward and stopped sleeping in our dorm."

Ginny then jumped to Luna's defense, "The main reason Luna stopped sleeping in Ravenclaw tower was because YOU and your friends attacked her one time for defending Harry that week where Ravenclaw declared war on Harry, she had all her limbs broken."

Umbridge coughed, "Sleeping outside your designated dorms is against the Hogwarts charter. She must be expelled just for that."

Ginny then retorted, "Lady Hogwarts gave us her blessing to sleep in a safe place. Roy helped us!"

"Stop telling lies, little girl. Hogwarts doesn't have free will. Who is Roy? Another one of your delusions?"

As Umbridge stopped talking, Fawkes flamed into the great hall carrying Roy, dropping him on the head table.

The hat said, "I'm Roy. I'm not just a sorting hat, I'm Hogwarts' spokesman, and what lady Ginevra said was true. Hogwarts is angry with this inquisition."

Umbridge interrupted, "Shut up stupid hat!" Then she held her wand and cast "Incendio!" but before the flames touched Roy, Fawkes took him and flamed away.

Then the voting started and some Ravenclaws her year and the year above, plus Malfoy's inner circle voted yes to her expulsion.

The Inquisitions continued as always until Demelza's came, with Umbridge interjecting, "Why does she have the privilege of leaving school twice a week?"

Minerva explained calmly, "Miss Robins, alongside Miss Weasley, Mr. Potter, Mr. Diggory and the three younger Messrs. Weasley, all have special contracts with teams of the British and Irish quidditch league and will become pro when they finish school, or even before, but not before they take their OWLs."

Umbridge huffed, "The ministry doesn't recognize those trainings as valid. I'm pretty sure that those trainings are against the Hogwarts charter."

Minerva responded, "Yes it does! The quidditch league answers to the department of magical games and sports, and not only that, the Hogwarts charter recognized that students that have manifested talents outside of Hogwarts can have the privilege of polishing them."

Umbridge grunted, letting Demelza's inquisition to continue.

When Ginny's inquisition came, she wearing a scowl on her face sat down defiantly glaring at the High Inquisitor.

"Name."

"Ginevra Molly Weasley."

"Blood status?"

"Only people that are scum care about blood status!" Ginny then stood up and yelled, "I'm a blood traitor and proud of it!"

"Insolent girl! You now started with fifty points in favor of your expulsion. Is a shame that a family like the Weasleys fell so low, you have no wizarding pride!"

Ginny's inquisition continued with praise of most of the teachers for being friends with people of different houses. Snape on the other hand was the opposite, "She is only here to feed the pampered Potter brat's ego."

Then the student testimonies started with Malfoy taking stage, he feigning injuries and almost crying, "She is a bully. She always comes to the Slytherin table to mock me and always kissing Potter in order to mock me!"

Natalie Fairbourne stood up and quickly defended her friend, "You are a blatant liar! Ginny never approached Slytherin table and always minded her own business. She considers bigots like you beneath her notice."

Daphne then took stage, "She is one of the ones corrupting my sister! For the good of Hogwarts she should be expelled."

Astoria replied from where she was sitting, "She didn't corrupt me. She just gave me a safe space where I wouldn't be attacked by the likes of you!"

The voting came, some of the children of ministry workers were angry at Ginny's declarations over being proud of being a blood traitor and also didn't like how Ginny raised her voice against a high-ranking ministry worker this adding to the fifty votes Umbridge added to her expulsion, the vote ended 235-201 in favor of her staying.

Harry perceived something was coming and stealthily called Sirius on the mirror, so Sirius ended listening what was happening at Hogwarts.

The third year inquisitions came with the first notable one being Tracey's, where again Draco Malfoy tried to disparage Tracey for being friendly with Harry and breaking the Slytherin united front by participating in the usurper quidditch team. Tracey received the same number of votes as the muggleborns.

The following inquisitions continued as normal until the Grand Inquisitor called Hermione Granger's name, no one appeared. Umbridge called Hermione's name again, and she hadn't appeared, "So disrespectful, that's instant expulsion."

Minerva defended Hermione, "She is in the hospital wing."

Umbridge's eyes brightened, "HA! So, she is the one that had the accident with the time turner! That's instant expulsion!"

Ron considered what he said to Hermione when he visited her in the hospital wing and stood up and walked up to Umbridge, "Why are you expelling her? She did nothing wrong. The only thing she did was wanting to learn everything. If someone should be blamed for her accident, it should be the person that gave her the time turner in the first place."

Umbridge thought for a minute and responded, "I agree. The teacher that gave her the time turner is now in probation. Now, as you are so willing to defend Hermione, you are taking her place in the chair during her inquisition, her fate is in your hands!" then she started the interrogation, "full name of the person you are defending?"

"Hermione Jean Granger"

"What's her blood status?"

A voice resonated on the walls of the great hall, "Mudblood and proud of it!" Everyone looked at the entrance of the great hall to find the origin of the voice and saw Hermione on a wheelchair being pushed by madam Pomfrey. They approached Ron and relieved him of having to take her place.

"Now is the time for the teacher review."

"She always had a big intellectual curiosity and good performance in classes. This is why I thought she would be able to take all the electives without burning herself out," Minerva commented.

The rest of the teachers also gave good reviews with the exception of Snape. The student review started and with that Zacharias Smith was the first one to say anything about her, "She is an annoying know it all. She also was one of the ones that ruined the house cup our first year. I want to know what crime did she commit in order to get fifty points deducted."

"We were helping a friend to not get in trouble with the law!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Which friend, Potter?" Zach asked.

"It wasn't Potter."

"Who it was?"

Harry decided to just tell the truth, "It was Hagrid."

Professor McGonagall frowned and asked, "Which problem did Hagrid have?"

"He got a dragon egg, but he didn't want to get rid of it. The dragon hatched and started to grow very quickly. As I said, Hagrid didn't want to get rid of the dragon, so we had to smuggle it late at night."

"There was really a dragon?" Minerva asked shocked.

Umbridge smirked, "Oh! Thank you! Another incident I must investigate!"

Hermione looked at Harry disappointed. Harry quickly wrote a message to Hermione in his coin asking her to trust him.

Draco also tried to attack Hermione in the testimony, but was quickly shut down by Neville and Ron.

Hermione's personality traits didn't endear her too much to the general Hogwarts population, the end result was of her staying but barely, with 197 people voting for her to stay and 189 voting for her expulsion.

When it was supposed to be Draco Malfoy's turn, Umbridge remarked, "This inquisition is unnecessary. Draco is the son of an upstanding citizen. He has shown to be an upstanding young man in ministry functions."

That was when Ron shouted, "If he is so upstanding, he should be able to pass the inquisition without trouble!"

Susan Bones from Hufflepuff seconded his motion, "He is right! Draco should be subjected to the inquisition as well!"

Umbridge grumbled, "Okay. But he begins with fifty votes in favor of him staying."

The teacher review started with Snape praising him, "Mr. Malfoy is one of the only students that perform well in my classes, and one of the few students that doesn't feed Potter's ego."

The other teachers gave somewhat neutral statements about him.

The first student to give a statement about Draco was Theodore Nott, "Draco Malfoy is a big referent in Slytherin house. Students older and younger want to be like him." Daphne Greengrass, Pansy Parkinson, and Blaise Zabini also made good statements about him.

The first student to attack Malfoy was Ron Weasley, "Malfoy is weird, he has a weird obsession with Harry. I remember when we were in our first trip in the Hogwarts express and this guy went to try to befriend him, but he insulted me making Harry reject his friendship. Then he was so sore about that, he started to make schemes to get Harry expelled. This is just one more of those schemes."

Many of the Hogwarts students snickered to that declaration.

Neville took the stand next, "He always demeans me and calls me a squib. I was sometimes hexed by him and my housemates had to help me."

Harry and Ginny decided to not say anything in order to have some good standing for Harry's inquisition.

The voting came, with the end result being 219-217 in favor of him staying. Malfoy was the only student so far Snape voted in favor of staying.

The next six inquisitions didn't have any moments that caught Harry's interest. He was only interested in responding to his name and getting done with that. When Umbridge called "Harry Potter," he quietly sat down for the inquisition, "Full name?"

"Harry James Potter."

"Blood status?"

Harry declared, "My father was a blood traitor and proud of it. My mother was a mudblood and proud of it. I'm proud of them too!"

"Only you can be proud of your talentless father, Potter," Snape sneered.

"Potter! For your insolence, you start with fifty points in favor of your expulsion," Umbridge commanded

The teacher review started with the teachers with the exception of Snape praising his branching out with befriending more people. McGonagall praised him because he started going in a different path to differentiate himself from his parents.

Snape on the other hand made the biggest rant, "Potter since he stepped into this institution always flaunted the rules and mocked my classes and my Slytherins."

Dumbledore that had been quiet and disappointed with the developments of the afternoon interrupted, "Severus, your enmity with Harry's father is clouding your judgement."

"Is not clouding it. I knew his father and he is just like him, an arrogant pampered brat."

Harry couldn't resist talking back and replied, "And you are a childish abusive git. Just like your father!"

Snape the shouted dramatically, "See! He is insolent against authorities!"

Ron then shouted, "No, he is just saying the truth!"

Umbridge then took control again, "Potter and Weasley, you two get thirty points more added to your expulsion.

The other interesting review Potter received was Lockhart's, "I just want to guide Harry to stardom, but he refuses to listen to my advice! He can be a star as great as I am but he isn't doing that! His biggest claim to fame, the scar, is fading!"

"Good, I don't want to be reminded of the day my parents die every time I look myself in the mirror!"

In the student review, Malfoy didn't say anything because of Ron's statement during Hermione's defense and he used the little cunning he has to realize that talking would be falling to Ron's bait. Harry received defenses by the four youngest Weasleys and Oliver Wood. At the end of the vote, exactly the same people that voted for Ginny's expulsion voted for Harry's, ending his vote 235-231 in favor of him staying.

The rest of the inquisitions passed in a blur, with Ron, Fred and George having similar results as their younger sister. Snape voted for the expulsion of everyone, in the end of the day the only person he didn't want expelled was Draco Malfoy.

Even if no one was expelled, Umbridge found the inquisition satisfactory. She showed the students the fragility of their stay at Hogwarts, she found some more dirty laundry on some of the staff she didn't like and most importantly she undermined Dumbledore's authority completely.

In the renegade tower common room, the Hogwarts renegades inner circle, which now includes Hermione, who only knew that the time travelers were from a bad future, met with Sirius and Andromeda in mirror conference in order to see what to do about the inquisitor.

Sirius was explaining the course of action he took considering the things he heard from the inquisition, "For the quidditch players, I talked to the chairmen of the teams of the quidditch league, and with the exception of the Appleby arrows and the Wimbourne Wasps, they all accepted the motion of allowing you to play in case you get expelled." The quidditch players all celebrated.

Hermione in the other hand had other thoughts on her head, "Harry, Ron, why did you have to throw Hagrid and Professor McGonagall under the bus in my defense?"

Harry replied, "This has to do with Andy's plan, we need to make sure there is no decent people on staff at Hogwarts, so the next part of the plan can come into fruition."

Hermione asked, "What's her plan?"

Andy answered, "We need to let the Malfoy associates take over the school, so we can fabricate a threat and expose them as bad authorities so everyone rebels in the most violent way."

Hermione understood, "Aah! Now I can see the plan!"

Harry then added, "We are going to make some moves that you'd think make no sense, but it would be a very roundabout way to protect everyone that is on our side from the crossfire."

"I think they'd make sense for me, if the plan is to accelerate Umbridge's influence!"

On the other side of the room Ginny approached her oldest brother at school, "Percy! We give you authorization to invite the debate club to the renegades".

Percy replied, "We were just talking about how much the Malfoys were influencing the politics from the shadows for the last two generations. Tomorrow's session will be a great opportunity!"

Ginny then whispered in Percy's ear, "We have another mission for you. A mission so secret only Harry, Gemma, Penny, Oliver and Sirius know its implications, We need you…"