Chapter 13: Setting the Hogwarts Stage
The last two weeks of the summer passed without much fanfare. Sirius won the national dueling tournament with no problem and Gemma Farley won the youth dueling tournament. Sirius used that as an opportunity to advertise his new dueling dojo, which Remus was left as its main teacher, using loopholes in order to circumvent undersecretary Umbridge's anti werewolf laws. The Hogsmeade Times newspaper started its circulation as well and was slowly gaining traction.
September first came, the ride in the Hogwarts express that didn't have any big news aside from Gemma Farley being Head Girl.
Harry observed intently the people that were being sorted in the ceremony, he wasn't familiar with many of them, but he was curious of who are the ones he could recruit.
After the first few sortings, there was a sorting that finally caught his eye.
"Coote, Ritchie."
"GRYFFINDOR!"
Harry was happy, because he was going to convince Oliver of making a reserve team, and having Coote there would be great.
The sorting continued until the next name of interest,
"Frobisher, Vicky."
"GRYFFINDOR!"
Vicky was the keeper he and Ginny recruited after their final year, when Ron decided to not go to Hogwarts. Harry was going to tell Ginny to recruit Vicky and inform her about the next summer quidditch camp, he didn't want to deal with Cormac McLaggen in this timeline.
The next sorting to catch his interest wasn't a Gryffindor,
"Greengrass, Astoria."
"SLYTHERIN!"
In the other timeline Astoria was another outcast in the house of snakes like Tracey. Astoria was different to the other outcasts because unlike the other outcasts she was of an old pureblood family and had an older sister at Hogwarts. Harry remembered that in the other timeline Astoria was disowned because she participated in the side of the defenders in the Battle of Hogwarts. Ginny in the other timeline adopted Astoria as a younger sister after the war.
The rest of the sorting didn't really catch Harry's attention. He realized that the stalker from the other timeline Romilda Vane was sorted into Gryffindor like last time as well. Harry only hoped that he wouldn't catch her attention like last time.
After the sorting finished, Dumbledore made his routine opening speech. Like in the last timeline, professor Kettleburn had retired and Hagrid was the new teacher of care of magical creatures. Unlike the last timeline, Gilderoy Lockhart was still the Defense professor.
As soon the presentations finished and the feast began, the Slytherin table had some movement. Terrence Higgs, the seeker that was displaced by Malfoy buying his place on the team, stood up and cast a sonorous charm, "Marcus Flint, in the name of the beautiful game, my new team and I are challenging for the right of being the true Slytherin quidditch team. We are tired that you sully Slytherin's reputation with your cheating ways".
Marcus laughed mockingly, "Do you think you have the right to challenge me?"
Tracey stood up and said, "You must accept the challenge, Flint, or," Tracey took a blue folder, "I'll show everyone this."
Flint flustered said, "Fine, what are your terms?"
Higgs proposed, "It will be the best of three matches. Unless one team beats the other with a difference bigger than six hundred points."
Flint smirked, "Deal, and the first match will be tomorrow after dinner".
Higgs then said confidently, "We'll see you there".
Snape walked down from the head table and bellowed with his baritone voice, "Higgs, I don't recognize your challenge to the legitimate Slytherin quidditch team. You are breaking Slytherin's number one rule, Slytherin problems are solved within the walls of the dungeons! We must present a united front because everyone else hates us!"
Ginny from the Gryffindor table yelled, "The united front is the main reason we hate you. If you punished your pet Slytherins, we would like you."
Snape then looked at the freckled redhead, "Of course it would be Potter's little girlfriend the one that that is bullheaded enough to disrespect her betters. You are learning the wrong things from your talentless boyfriend. For your own good I'd suggest you break up with him. You shouldn't feed that pampered brat's ego. You should be with someone like Draco Malfoy."
Ginny narrowed her eyes defiantly, she grabbed her wand under the table and muttered an incantation she wanted to use for a long time, "kafé nóta," a very low pitched sound resonated around the great hall, and then one by one the students started to twitch their bodies and then started to blush in embarrassment, then the professors did the same, finally a foul odor started to taint the great hall. Everyone that was in the great hall, both students and staff, had shat themselves.
After being stunned by the scene, Dumbledore ordered everyone to their common rooms.
Harry used the chaos to send a message to the Hogwarts renegades to use the room of requirement to clean themselves and then meet in renegade tower. As he left the great hall, he could hear Snape screaming Harry's name, he wanted blood.
One hour later, everyone had taken a shower and are organized in a circle in the renegade common room. Harry was at the center of the stage scanning the faces of everyone there, and he recognized someone that wasn't a renegade.
Harry narrowed his eyes, "It looks like there is someone that isn't a renegade," then he smiled, "someone that isn't a renegade, yet," he commanded, "Neville, present yourself to the group".
Neville shyly replied, I'm Neville Longbottom, a third year Gryffindor, my best subject is herbology, and I am a member of the debate club".
"Neville, welcome to the Hogwarts renegades."
Changing the topic, Dean asked, "The shitstorm, did someone here do it?"
Ginny lifter her hand, "I did, this was the forbidden spell, from my book. I needed to take the heat off the Slytherins".
Seamus commented, "Snape's face was hilarious. It was worth shitting myself".
Tracey observed, "I'm pretty sure that the more stuck up Slytherins are probably looking for a way to find the culprit. They are super proud and would want revenge."
Ginny yelled, "Let them look for revenge!"
Lee said, "the best part of this is that Lockhart was also humiliated!"
"Hey, we need to get rid of that blond ponce!" yelled Katie.
"About that. We have a plan," said Fred Weasley.
"We are going to make his life impossible," continued George.
The renegades continued scheming until their members that were prefects like Cedric and Penelope, joined them. The next one to join them was Percy that had received a stern talking by the professors and was asked to find the culprit of the shitstorm. The final person to join them was Gemma Farley, that wasn't alone, she was with Terrence Higgs, some random Slytherin upper years and some Slytherin first years with Greengrass being one of them.
Gemma approached Harry and reported, "The new Slytherin quidditch team and some Slytherin first years are joining us".
Harry made his introductions to the new Slytherins. Then he talked with Ron, Dean, Seamus and Neville about all moving to Renegade Tower.
One thing Harry could say about the first day of class was that it was interesting. The first incident was during their first arithmancy class.
Harry and Ron were sitting right in the middle of the classroom, in order to blend in in the class. Hermione Granger entered the classroom and spotted them.
Hermione angrily screamed, "What are you doing here? This class is for smart people. You failed second year!"
Harry replied, "Granger, if you saw the class rankings, you'd be able to see that we aren't failures."
Hermione huffed, "I don't need to see the class ranking to check what a fraud you are, Potter, if you didn't fail it is because that snake prefect helped you, you don't deserve to be here!"
The bushy haired girl was going to rant more, but the teacher arrived. The teacher was a tall pale raven-haired woman with blue eyes that was in her mid-thirties, she presented herself as Septima Vector. The class itself was very interesting, it was basically applied math mixed with numerology.
The next class was transfiguration where most of the class looked at Harry worried. Harry mentally noted, that probably means my death is being predicted again, a similar conversation from the previous timeline happened where McGonagall assured that Trelawney always predicted someone's death.
The next highlight was after dinner where the entire school was interested in the first match that would decide the fate of the Slytherin quidditch team. Harry, Ron and Ginny took the best seats to see the match. Higgs' team was all dressed in silver uniforms with green highlights. Ron pointed at the team, "Harry look, Gemma and Tracey are there."
"I hope all the special training I gave Gemma works out," said Oliver that was sitting behind them.
Ginny then teased, "Snogging isn't training."
Oliver said flustered, "Shut up, little redhead."
Lee Jordan's voice started to be heard, "Here we are Ladies and Gentlemen, to see which team will represent the snakes in the interhouse quidditch cup, as the defending team in green, Bletchley, Bole, Derrick, Warrington, Montague, Flint and Malfoy!"
The majority of the Slytherins plus the children of ministry employees in that are under Malfoy's influence cheered at the presentation.
"As the challenging team in silver, Farley, Wolfe, Ray, Davis, Arnold, Hale and Higgs!"
The Hogwarts renegades plus some people that hated Malfoy cheered.
The game started and Higgs being bigger physically than Malfoy started hovering as close as he could to Malfoy without touching him, blocking his view and blocking his flight, letting the rest of the team play without pressure. The two silver beaters focused their efforts in nullifying Marcus Flint, so the greens couldn't get anything done.
After half an hour the score was 340-80 in favor of the silvers. Two hours later the score was 850-280 in favor of the silvers, that was when Higgs stopped blocking Malfoy and sprinted to catch the snitch, ending the match 1000-280.
As the crowd, with the exception of the Malfoy faction, cheered. The silvers were flying their victory lap, which ended with Gemma Farley kissing Oliver Wood. On the other front Malfoy was rolling up crying in the most pathetic way.
The Weasley twins using Harry's cloak, stunned Draco and hurled him one of their prototype prank projectiles. The projectile hit Malfoy creating a smokescreen. When the smokescreen dissipated, Malfoy was almost naked wearing only a diaper and a baby cap. Everyone that hated Malfoy burst out laughing, while the people that sympathized with him were forming a circle around him to protect him from the onlookers.
Harry was leaving with Ginny to walk back to renegade tower when he was rammed against a wall by Snape.
"Harry Potter! Stop mocking the noble house of Slytherin!" Snape yelled.
Harry using his more derpy face asked, "What are you talking about?"
Snape snarled, "You know what I'm talking about, Potter. You are just like your father, a spoiled arrogant brat. You strut around holding hands and kissing that Weasley strumpet."
"Change your routine, professor, you sound like a broken disk. Oh right! You don't know what a disk is. You are pathetic, sir." Harry walked away with Ginny.
"Potter, detention! Next time I'll make sure you get expelled for your insolence," Snape declared
The next day, Ron and Harry were excited about the care of magical creatures class. Ron was excited about the story where Harry had ridden a hippogriff in the last timeline, and he wanted to volunteer for the class this time. They were placed in the second group, so their class is in the second block. They made their way to Hagrid's hut in order to attend the lesson. When everyone arrived, Hagrid was nowhere to be seen, and after fifteen minutes, Dumbledore himself walked into the class and announced, "Due to an incident in the previous class, the Board of Governors has dismissed Professor Rubeus Hagrid. You are dismissed."
Harry then got a realization. He noticed that his group was paired with the Hufflepuffs instead of the Slytherins. That also meant that Slytherin had their class before him.
Harry then looked at his friend and said, "I know what happened. I can't believe I forgot about this. In my origin timeline, Malfoy insulted the hippogriff, and because those are proud creatures, the hippogriff attacked him. Then he milked the incident to an extreme."
Ron said, "I hope nothing else happens. But with our luck and with how influential is the Malfoy ferret, the toad hag will intervene Hogwarts."
Ron was tempting fate, because when they went for lunch, they spotted the senior undersecretary Dolores Umbridge on the head table. When everyone was on their places, Dumbledore made a similar announcement than what he did in front of Hagrid's hut, "Because of an incident in the first lesson of care of magical creatures for the third years, as a resolution of the board of governors Professor Rubeus Hagrid was demoted to just gamekeeper of Hogwarts. In other announcement, the senior undersecretary of the minister of magic Dolores Umbridge is going to do inspections of all the classes during the next week."
The pink toad then did her signature cough, "Ahem, standards at Hogwarts had decayed since I was a student here, I'm here to impose order and raise Hogwarts to a higher level. That means dealing with unruly children," Umbridge looked at Harry when saying that, then she looked at Flitwick, "and dealing with undesirables."