Chapter 14: Bludgering spinning inquisition.

It was Ginny's first leave for the special training with the Holyhead harpies. Ginny had training leaves every Wednesday afternoon and Friday afternoon with Demelza Robins in order to train with the team. The goal of the special training made by the league was to have the young players be already integrated with the club culture by the time they fully join the team. The special training also guarantees that the players will be starter level by the time they fully join. Harry had his training with the Falcons Wednesday morning and Friday afternoon, Ron had his training with the Cannons at the same time as Harry's with the Falcons.

Coach Bonney approached the two girls and stated, "Welcome to your first day of training for the Holyhead Harpies, you probably both remember me from the summer quidditch camp, I'm coach Tatum Bonney, the flying coach here. You both were considered good enough for a special contract. But here good enough isn't enough. Because of our signing philosophy we need the best women we can have in this team," she took a breath and pointed to the pitch, "here is an obstacle course you both must complete in a certain amount of time, I won't tell you how long because I want you to give your best. You'll use your cleansweep 7's for this test, if you approve, you'll be allowed to use the new firebolts from here in the next practices. Get set, go!"

The redhead was dumbfounded by the command, until she realized that Demelza already started moving, so she rushed to the place she had her broom and quickly mounted it, the first obstacle was that the beater coach and the two reserve beaters were trading bludgers at the entrance of the obstacle course. Ginny quickly took off and did a barrel roll avoiding the bludgers, then she raced around the obstacles set in the pitch until some magical walls appeared and surrounded her, she started to fly up but a roof also appeared blocking her exit. Ginny desperate scanned her surroundings looking for an exit until she saw light below her. The small redhead dove with the highest speed possible towards the light, successfully leaving the box. She then had to avoid some stinging hexes thrown at her by the girls in the team, until she reached the finish line.

"Excellent time, four minutes and fifty seconds," praised coach Bonney.

Then an older woman with white hair approached her, "Miss Weasley, welcome to the Holyhead harpies, I'm Dorothy Raven, your head coach," then she smiled warmly, "the girls are waiting for you at the dining room, behind this door."

Ginny slowly walked up the door and opened the door. When she finally opened the door completely, she was swarmed in hugs.

Gwenog then smeared a pie on Ginny's face, "Haha! Welcome to the team little redhead!"

Ginny then took her wand and cast her signature bat bogey hex on Gwenog, "Seriously! Everyone that plays quidditch that isn't my boyfriend or my brothers are calling me 'little redhead'. My name is Ginny!"

The rest of the team laughed and then shuddered in fear.

Two minutes later, Demelza entered the room shirtless with only her bra on, she was also swarmed in hugs. Ginny noticed that Demelza was full of bruises on her arms and torso.

Ginny asked worriedly, "Mel! What happened?"

Demelza smirked and said, "I decided that the best way to confront the bludgers was to just tank them, so I tried to do that."

Gwenog commented, "Ginny, your friend is mental, not even the bulkiest beaters can tank bludgers without ending injured."

"Hey! At least talk to me! I want to revolutionize this game as well in my manner," Demelza declared.

The welcome party lasted for a while and then the first special training finished with a quidditch match.

Ginny returned to Hogwarts happy for her first day in training. When she arrived at Renegade tower, she saw Harry, Ron, Tracey and Natalie sitting at a table, approached them and greeted them.

Harry asked, "Gin! How was your training?"

"Great!" Then Ginny told him about her afternoon in Holyhead.

"That was great! In my case, the Falcons didn't test my flying skills because in their opinion, 'They don't need to test me to know that I was a madman'"

Ginny laughed, "So, what did you do?"

"We played quidditch on foot, using a very heavy quaffle, and having electrified bludgers and a snitch that was invisible and could only be perceived by its sound. They made me play in every position, they wanted to see my proficiency at everything, not just being a madman."

Ron commented, "Your teams are mental. We just trained the classic way without weird obstacle courses and electrified bludgers."

Tracey commented, "Now we know why the cannons are last place this season."

Natalie on the other hand said, "I'm glad I don't play quidditch. You are all madmen, even you Ron and especially you Harry!"

"Hey! We are not madmen!" complained Oliver Wood that was sitting in another table.

"I retire my words, Harry isn't the biggest madman, Oliver is, he is probably taking ideas from what you are saying," said Natalie.

Oliver replied, "Hey! But you are right in one thing. I already am looking for ways to enhance our training. I asked Percy to enchant a quaffle so it gives you an electric shock if you hold it for more than five seconds. Your conversation gave me more ideas, but I don't think Percy would be more open to spend more time enchanting quidditch gear."

Harry suggested, "Ollie, maybe you should ask my godfather, or maybe Fred and George would be open to that. They know a lot of magic, but they just use their knowledge on pranks and joke items. Also, are you going to recruit a reserve team?"

"The twins weren't open to enchanting quidditch gear, they already think I went crazy. Only you and Ginny have shown enthusiasm for this training. I'll see about asking your godfather for help. About a reserve team, I already thought of that. I think our practice will benefit of having a reserve team to play against. I already published the recruitment pamphlet in the Gryffindor common room."

Andromeda Tonks was in Sirius' brewery, experimenting with magical potions ingredients in order to craft magical beers. Sirius planted a statue that has a muggle repelling charm in the courtyard that hides the entrance to the magical section of the brewery.

Sirius entered the room with his girlfriend Aoife, looking worried. Andy noticed him and asked, "Sirius. What happened?"

"Some days ago, your dear nephew insulted a hippogriff. That gave Lucius a pretext to make the ministry intervene Hogwarts. That foul woman, Dolores Umbridge is now checking 'the standards of quality' of every teacher," explained Sirius, "I think she is looking for a pretext to increase the ministry's intervention at Hogwarts".

Andy looked at her brewing pensively and decided, "I think the best way to deal with this is to let her take over Hogwarts. Harry is still a parselmouth as far as we know, we should use the basilisk in order to cause an uproar and turn the general crowd against her. The DMLE wouldn't be able to do anything because the Auror department is seriously short staffed. Nymphadora is one of the few people that entered the program in the last few years. And the normal DMLE patrol is very talentless in magic."

Sirius replied, "Harry told me that he won't be antagonizing Umbridge and the Malfoys for the time being, he is focusing now in the special training with the Falcons in order to keep killing the boy-who-lived. About that, he learned to fly so erratically he is being called a madman." Andy and Aoife giggled.

Aoife asked, "Andy, what are you brewing?"

Andy replied, "I'm making some experiments with ashwinder eggs. They are one of the main ingredients in love potions, I'm trying to make a beer that acts as a lust potion."

Aoife worried questioned, "At least here in the muggle world, having sex under the influence of alcohol is a no-no, because of consent issues. Also beer is already almost a lust potion, how it is."

Andy assured, "Those are only going to be sold to couples that are on their first drink, don't worry."

At that moment, an owl with a letter arrived and perched itself on Sirius. Sirius took the letter and read it, when he finished, he barked a laugh.

Andy asked, "What happened?"

Sirius replied, "Those Weasley twins, asking me for ideas to prank their quidditch captain. What the hell happened in the league, that they now have all those whacky training exercises. The entire team has been in the hospital wing at least once this week. Their captain himself asked me to enchant some quidditch gear. I already sent him some equipment."

Aoife asked, "Was that weird ball that freezes you when you touch it?"

Sirius confirmed, "Yes, that was one of the developments, a frozen bludger. Something about encouraging avoiding bludgers. One of Ginny's friends thought she could tank those bludgers, this is to teach her how to dodge."

Andy interjected, "What? Those quidditch players are barmy now. Why did Harry have to like that dangerous sport?"

Aoife laughing said, "Harry is a special kid. He found out that I do tattoos for a living and he asked me if I could do him a tattoo of a dragon he called a Hungarian Horntail on his chest. I told him I'd do it next summer. He also said that his girlfriend would love that tattoo".

Sirius explained, "Haha, the thing is in the other timeline they joked about a tattoo. That tattoo is basically a symbol of their relationship. Oh! About that, I also sent a special something to the quidditch team, some golden snitches with a cute enchantment. I know that Harry loves to give the snitch to his girlfriend after catching it, I enchanted some snitches so they open and reveal a conjured flower when they are given after being caught."

Andromeda smiled, "That's super cute, I'd pay to see that."

The weeks passed and everything settled into a routine. All of the students with special training had their normal leaves twice a week. Oliver for Gryffindor quidditch practice formed a reserve team as well. The Gryffindor practice, aside from the professional training methods, was less intense than last year. Oliver calmed down because he was already scouted by Puddlemere and because he already gave glory to the Gryffindor quidditch team the previous year. The fact that the entire first team was also having special training with clubs from the league also helped.

Umbridge tried to take the post of professor of care of magical creatures, but Dumbledore foresaw that and hired Wilhelmina Grubbly-Plank. Umbridge inspected some classes, but she didn't have enough authority for anything else. She was mostly watching the classes Harry was in, looking for a reason to increase her authority to more than just an inspector.

Malfoy was subdued, he during those weeks he didn't try to taunt Harry, he didn't even look at the Gryffindor table. He was also overplaying his injury from being attacked by the hippogriff. Now Malfoy walked around Hogwarts surrounded by his roommates, adding Nott and Zabini to his normal bodyguards, Crabbe and Goyle. Pansy Parkinson, Daphne Greengrass and Millicent Bulstrode cornered Ginny a few times threatening her because of her association with Harry.

But the biggest problem wasn't Slytherin related, it was Hermione Granger. Tensions with Hermione were high because she didn't feel that Harry and Ron deserved to be in a class for smart people. She was more hostile towards Harry than towards Ron, Harry suspected that she already is seeing Harry as someone dangerous that shouldn't be trusted and an arrogant attention seeker. Ron reported to Harry that Hermione was less hostile towards him, Harry suspected that Hermione's crush on Ron was already developing.

A conversation with Lavender and Parvati one day triggered some alarms in both Harry and Ron. It was lunch in the great hall when Ron noted that Hermione wasn't at her usual spot eating, Lavender commented, "You aren't taking divination, so you don't know, but Hermione was exasperated by something the teacher said and declared that the class was 'useless' and that the teacher was 'a fraud' but then she stormed off".

"When was that class?" Ron asked.

"Today first period," Lavender answered.

"Harry, weren't we in arithmancy that period, and as far as I remember, Hermione was there," Ron noted.

Harry on the other hand facepalmed, "It looks like your brother didn't talk her out of taking all of the electives. And that makes sense, he told me that she stopped attending debate club."

Ron replied, "Now I'm worried. How did she cope last time?"

Harry said, "She didn't cope. She burned herself out. I remember that we also had a big fight with her and almost cut our friendship with her. But I fear that our presence now in arithmancy would be more stressful towards her. Is like our existence there is taunting her or something".

Ron proposed, "We should try to talk with her next arithmancy class, offer her the support she needs." Harry nodded.

Two days later before the next arithmancy class, Ron approached Hermione, "Hermione, are you okay?"

Hermione annoyed replied, "Yes, I'm okay!"

Ron then said, "We realized that Arithmancy and Divination are at the same time and you are in both of them."

Hermione then yelled, "Stop talking to me!"

Some minutes later the lesson started. As Vector was lecturing the importance of the magically strong numbers and how they interact with spells and enchantments.

The professor asked, "Mr. Potter, we need to secure an artifact with a ward anchored by enchanted runestones. Which arrangement will get a stronger protection, a square arrangement with four runestones, or a triangle arrangement with three runestones".

Harry answered, "The triangle arrangement will allow the runestones to amplify their power because of the magical properties of the number three, allowing it to be stronger that it would have been with four."

Vector replied, "Correct. Now, we'll do some practical work. You'll all work in groups."

The class all sat into many groups with Granger being the odd one. Ron and Harry sat with Lisa Turpin.

Professor Vector said, "Miss Granger, you'll sit with Mr. Potter's group."

Granger begrudgingly sat with Harry, Ron and Lisa.

Vector passed each group a sphere and explained the assignment, "Every group has a paper sphere. You should enchant the sphere with the basic hardening charm in a way that the sphere can be kicked against a wall with full force without losing its shape. Let's begin!"

Granger first said, "Lisa, we'd have to do the work without those two. They aren't smart and serious enough for this assignment".

Ron complained, "Hey! Leave your grudge against us for another while. We should discuss the best way to enchant the sphere. Also, we know that you are taking all electives, we don't want you to burn yourself out."

Granger's face was full of anger, "Who told you that? I'm not burning myself out," and she collapsed.

Ron quickly ran to the hospital wing to tell Poppy Pomfrey about Hermione's collapse. On the other hand, Lisa and Harry told Professor Vector.

The following day, Ron visited Hermione in the hospital wing. Hermione was shocked by Ron's visit.

Hermione crying said, "Why are you visiting me? I thought you hated me!"

Ron replied, "We don't hate you. We tried to invite you to our things all the time. And if the thing is about Ginny's friends; I can tell you that you should have given them an opportunity."

"B-But t-the thing is that she wasn't needed in our friend group. Now you don't need me in your friend group."

Ron smiled, "Being a friend is not about being useful, is about being supportive when the other person needs you like now, is about enjoying the other's company."

"Ron, I had a heart attack. I won't be able to overexert for the foreseeable future"

"So what? You needed to take things slowly."

Ron kept Hermione company for a while, until Harry and Ginny arrived.

Harry gave Hermione a coin, "Hermione, you are now one of the Hogwarts renegades! And before you say something, Percy, Penny and Neville are also renegades. Enjoy life a little."

Harry and his Weasleys then left the hospital wing and walked to the great hall for lunch. As they started to fill their plates they saw Cornelius Fudge, Lucius Malfoy and Dolores Umbridge walking towards the head table approaching the headmaster.

"Why would they be here?" asked Ron with his mouth full.

Harry furrowed his eyebrows until he got the answer in his mind, "They are here because of Hermione's heart attack with the time turner."

Harry glanced at the Slytherin table and saw that Malfoy didn't look scared and submissive like during the last two months. He had a smug expression and was confidently talking with his roommates.

Dumbledore was arguing with the ministry officials about something. When they finished talking, a resigned Dumbledore took the word and announced, "The minister of magic, Cornelius Fudge, has an announcement."

Cornelius strutted to the middle of the great hall and cast a sonorous, then he took a big scroll of parchment and read, "Because of an incident involving a student with a restricted ministry artifact, and some irregular incidents reported by both the senior undersecretary Dolores Umbridge and the chairman of the Hogwarts board of governors Lucius Malfoy. We announce the creation of the post of the Hogwarts High Inquisitor. The High Inquisitor has the power of hiring and firing teachers and the power of applying discipline to the students as they see fit. I Cornelius Oswald Fudge, minister of magic, name Dolores Jane Umbridge as the first Hogwarts High Inquisitor," he stopped reading and then announced, "I give the word to our new High Inquisitor."

Umbridge did her signature coughs and said, "Thank you minister for giving me the word. I have two announcements to do. First now you'll all refer to me as Inquisitor Umbridge. Second, I announce the High Inquisition, all of the students here, one by one, will receive a public disciplinary hearing here in the great hall. The inquisition starts now!"