17. Too many games being played
The small group of Death Eaters captured at the World Quidditch Cup Final wasn't jailed for much time. Dumbledore wanted too much for his apprentice to receive an Order of Merlin, and as Fudge was hard on the negotiation, he was forced to concede with a hand while taking what he wanted with the other, as his support base was severely diminished by The Quibbler's articles. And what he had to concede was that, although Crouch Jr. was a serious menace, the group masked as Death Eaters were just some good people who had a little too much alcohol during the celebrations and were induced to participate in a misguided prank. They reimburse the damages and paid some heavy fines, but were released in hours with no marks on their files. Crouch Jr. received the dementor's kiss and Crouch Sr., having helped breaking his son from Azkaban and continuously applied the Imperius curse on him, was sentenced to life in the prison.
Albus knew that the respect and support of the common wizards and witches that he had until recently came much more from his jovial and grandfatherly contact with them as Hogwarts's students than from being the powerful but inaccessible hero who defeated Grindelwald. Having been denied entry to Hogwarts was a heavy blow for him. As there was no prospect of this decision being reversed, he had thought long on the matter and came to the decision of start his own school. Maybe one day he could be so revered as the founder of this new school as the founders of Hogwarts were today, a thousand years after its beginning. He really liked this idea, and with his personal student wining an Order of Merlin, and with the Tournament soon to occur, maybe he could pull a sizeable fraction of Hogwarts' students to his new school. Even better, it would guaranty him the right to return to Hogwarts as the headmaster of one of the competing schools, at least for its duration. As the tournament was mainly an event under Ministry control, Harry Potter would be obliged to accept him or bear the bad reputation his denial would cause him. A perfect win-win situation for Albus!
Lost in his plans, Albus failed to perceive that not all Weasleys were his allies any more. All had being treating him with civility, but only Molly and Ronald were faithful to him. The twins were doing their best to keep away from Dumbledore, only seeing the old man at meals. Bill and Charlie had returned to their jobs abroad, while Ginny, now knowing that Hogwarts's wards could have easily detected and alerted about the evil in the diary, was making use of her talents as actress to hide her real feelings about him while spying his every move.
.o0o.
In Wiltshire, Lucius Malfoy received the visit of two of his friends to discuss the events at the Quidditch Final.
"Was it the Crouches' capture that made you give up on our little fun at the Cup's Final, Malfoy?"
"Yes. I could see something was amiss, Nott. According to my son, the Weasley boy was a pathetic student. He pissed himself during the commotion with Junior, by Merlin's balls! And Dumbledore didn't realize what was happening until Junior was already stunned by someone that didn't claim the merit, so he just made use of it to burst the fame of his… 'apprentice'. A risk movement, but it worked."
"Yes, my son said me the same about the boy: 'If Weasley is a hero, I'm Merlin!' he said."
"What happened by your side, Nott? I thought you would cancel the activities after I sent my warning."
"Once the guys were excited by the prospect of some fun there was no way to stop them."
"We were ready to apparate away at the first signal of trouble. The problem was that we had no signal! We were having our fun, burning tents, making people scream and run, approaching the muggles to torture them a little, and then… we woke up in the DMLE's cells!"
"None of you saw the stunning spells approaching, Parkinson? They should have been even more visible at night!"
"There was no spell to be seen, Malfoy, I'm telling you! Whatever put us to sleep was no common stunner!"
"That's true, Malfoy. Some of us in the middle of the group couldn't be targeted by any way before taking first the others around us. But there were no lapse of time: we all fall at the same time!"
"I don't know of any magic able to accomplish such feature."
"Neither us, Malfoy. We had some hours to discuss what happened while we waited to be released from the cells. None of us had any clue! I really don't know what Dumbledore did."
"Oh, you're in mistake believing Dumbledore was the one who captured you! When I heard the commotion, I apparated near to see what was happening. You had already fallen when I arrived, and I heard and saw Dumbledore and his pupil arriving some seconds after. They only bound you all in chains and claimed the victory."
"But, then… who? And why let Dumbledore take all glory?"
"That I don't know. Maybe an ally of the old fool? Whoever it was he only used stunners in both cases. That's well in line with Dumbledore's methods: never harm or kill, just capture."
"Could it have been Moody or Potter? They are Dumbledore's most famous and powerful followers."
"I don't think so. Moody never showed this level of skill. And Potter will just start his fourth year at Hogwarts and probably was the responsible for Dumbledore's fall of grace, at least according to my son."
"The articles in the Quibbler?"
"Yes. Who could have imagined that poor excuse of magazine would be able to do so much damage?"
"What about the article about our Lord being the son of a muggle? I couldn't find any fault in their logic. What do you think about?"
"I investigated it myself and couldn't disprove any of their affirmations. But we must remember how powerful our Lord is and that he seems to be the heir of Salazar Slytherin."
"Do you think he will return? I know the presence of the mark tell us he is still alive… but how? Where could he be? And what happened to him? I never found any clues."
"I'll not waste my time in such questions until I found some new information. What is really important is if we wish his return and if it isn't time for us to act by ourselves. Dumbledore always was our main opposition, and he is now quite weakened. I think we must make use of the opportunity to reinforce and deepen our conquests. Fudge is in our pockets, the situation never was so favourable."
"What are you really proposing? Just more of the same: cut out our taxes, raise taxes to every one else, cut the rights of half-blood and muggleborns, raise our rights over them… Or is there something different you want to pursue?"
"Both, I'd say. But first I'd like to propose some emergency changes to take advantage of the opportunities this World Tournament would bring."
"Umph! I heard they will let all kinds of ragamuffins come to see it! Low life foreigners and even creatures! Can you stop this nonsense, Lucius?"
"No, I can't. It's too late, and changing it so close to the start of the event isn't recommendable. But we can make some arrangements to difficult things for these beasts… like, any of them outside of Hogwarts can be captured and disposed of as the captor sees fit. I wouldn't mind to personally kill some half-breeds just for sport. Or, in the case of veelas, capture some for my own pleasure."
"Ha, ha! That's a good idea, Lucius, especially if we can keep it from being widely publicized so we could have some unweary disobeying it without realizing it. Are you thinking of using the old excuse of protecting our peaceful citizens from 'dark creatures' and included some other dispositions to camouflage what is really important to us?"
"Yes. It would facilitate to pass the law."
.o0o.
Harry's group also had some decisions to make but, thanks to the communication devices, they didn't need to meet in person. That was really good, as they were currently scattered around half the world.
The group debated long about the easy way of the Death Eaters back to freedom. There were voices in favour of punishing the Death Eaters for their disregard of the laws and the security of other people as well as Fudge for his blatant corruption and favouritism. They decided against a very harsh reprisal, but that some form of warning must be directed to them.
Another decision they reached was about continuing as Hogwarts' students or just live in the castle but studying independently. Before the holidays they have thought to continue pretending being normal students, and just make their advanced studies in secret. Then they received last minute intelligence from Ginny about Dumbledore's plan in the last week of August.
Knowing about Albus' plans, the group had discussed the matter and came with a new plan. First, the article presenting the concept of zero, half and full magicals would come out of the drawer to the presses. Second, Harry Potter was elected the first headmaster of FUMA, or Full Mages Academy, and would enrol FUMA in the Tournament. Third, each girl in the group would be free to chose between being a Hogwarts or FUMA student, maybe causing a sensible withdraw of students from Hogwarts. Fourth, they selected who would be their representative in the Tournament: little Maeve MacDougal, just ten years old. That was deliberated. She was already an amazing witch, but not even at age to buy her wand yet. She was also a half-blood. She wining the Tournament would be a major blow against pureblood superiority, Hogwarts' education and the efficiency of wand magic.
They hadn't planned to make such bold move so soon, but they decided that they need someone in the exact same position Dumbledore will have, so no excuses would be acceptable for Albus to meet the other headmasters without Harry being involved too.
They also congratulated Daphne and Astoria by their initiative and resourcefulness. They had accompanied their father on some visits to the ministry and were able to implant the fake invisible mark in several high-ranked officials, including minister Fudge himself, his undersecretary, the new head of DMLE Rufus Scrimgeour and several non Death Eaters members of the Wizengamot. No one suspected the two charming and 'innocent' girls.
With so many foreigner students and spectators coming to Hogwarts, the acromantulas needed to be dealt with to avoid problems. To deal with these creatures would be dangerous business, but also a good test for those who wanted to take a more active approach to the problems to come. They would put to use their magical and combat train, and test their ability to remain calm and to function well under stress and danger. Few volunteered to go, and even fewer were selected.
.o0o.
The next edition of The Quibbler brought another explosive article in its section 'The Lies we were told':
Witches and Wizards are not at the top of the pyramid
You are used to the idea of a magical world isolated and hidden from the muggle world. Now let me tell you a shocking news: there is a third world of humans out there.
They call themselves full-mages, in contrast with the zero-mages (muggles) and half-mages (you and the wizarding world as you knew it). The logic of this classification is simple: you're a zero-mage if you can't do any magic; you're a half-mage if you only can do magic with help from a tool like a wand or a staff, and you're a full-mage if you can do common magic wandless. The same way that zero-mages and half-mages have their own governments, so do the full-mages.
If they have been hidden from you all this time, why do they are now revealing themselves? Well, this is caused by some recent laws approved by your Wizengamot. You see, the same way you half-mages share space with the zero-mages, so do they full-mages. While you have mostly adopted laws that only affected yourselves and only circumstantially the zero-mages, these recently laws will not only affected more the zero-mages than before, but they could also affect the full-mages, and they aren't happy with this development, considering it an invalid intromission on their businesses.
As the full-mages didn't interact with the two other worlds until now, they hadn't created laws to regulate these interactions so far. But, as you half-mages have extrapolated this frontier, they are in need to create such regulations. So that you half-mages cannot consider the laws adopted by them as one-sided and unjust, these laws were based on your own under the principles of equality and reciprocity. Let's look at an example to further clarify this point.
As an example, let's considerer the following law (Relationship Code of Muggle Relations, section III, paragraph 17o.): "Article 1: If a muggle is captured in the act of committing a serious crime against a wizard or witch, involving physical harm, rape, kidnapping or attempt against life, any wizard or witch witnessing the act is allowed to interfere in any way deemed necessary to stop or punish it, including taking the life of the perpetrator; Article 2: If the perpetrator is captured in some other opportunity after the crime, it'll be punished with death through veil after due trial."
Well, under the above mentioned principles, it's only fair that the full-mages now have their equivalent: "Article 1: If a zero-mage or half-mage is captured in the act of committing a serious crime against a full-mage, involving physical harm, rape, kidnapping or attempt against life, any full-mage witnessing the act is allowed to interfere in any way deemed necessary to stop or punish it, including taking the life of the perpetrator; Article 2: If the perpetrator is captured in some other opportunity after the crime, it'll be punished with death after due trial."
Shocked? I wonder why. You weren't shocked when your Wizengamot approved the one giving you such rights over the zero-mages, why would you be shocked now that full-mages adopted a similar law over you half-mages? The answer is simple: hypocrisy. You're okay subjugating others for your benefit, but feel indignant with others approving laws subjugating you to them.
Well, as I said, full-mages adopted the principles of equality and reciprocity. If you tone down your laws they'll probably reciprocate. If you don't, you'll be subject to their counterparts to your laws. This means a wizard or witch can (and will) be killed if he aims his wand at a full-mage.
Understand this: you have stepped out of your jurisdiction, and affected others you have no right to interfere with. This is never done without consequences. You have two options: retreat or suffer for your mistake.
I think by now you have two main questions in your head: 1) do these full-mages really existed and are they really so powerful to face our Ministry?; 2) which laws of ours had caused this situation and why?
The second question you'll find detailed in several articles in this edition. Let's see what we can do about the first one.
This year Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry will be hosting a Tournament open to all schools of magic, the World Wizarding Wrangle. Coincidently, the full-mages have a school of magic also in Scotland. This school will be signing up for the tournament. This will prove not only their existence but also their power and skill levels. To keep the tournament interesting they agreed to only submit as champions students with less than two years of training. Let's see what happens.
The Prophet didn't waste time. Next day they printed an article affirming that, according to the specialists consulted by them, including Dumbledore and Bagshot, it was 'highly improbable that such full-mages exist, probably being just a resurrection of old myths and fables', and that was no reason for panic. But the common people weren't in panic, as many of them were parents or relatives of some full-mage, or were informed about them by those who were.
Fudge and Malfoy were quite discontent with the calm of the common people. They were expecting a massive public support to outlaw any such full-mages and hunt them as criminals and rebels, but instead of indignant letters encouraging them to act against the full-mages, the only letters they received were asking if it wasn't prudent to reconsider the laws the full-mages had mentioned as unacceptable, to at least mend them to not affect this other faction.
Fudge was indignant with this situation. He saw it as a challenge against his control of the British magical world. And being called a half-mage! That was an outrage! He was a pureblood wizard at the top position and refuses to being called half anything! Lucius had trouble to control his puppet, not that he would ever call Fudge that at his face, but these full-mages were still an unknown enemy. Better let them show themselves first, then they will know who and what they would be confronting. They need to know their strengths and weaknesses before any plan, much more any action, could be made.
.o0o.
"Headmistress Sprout, thank you for accepting this meeting."
"It's my pleasure. May I call you Harry? Thank you. So, call me Pomona then. Hannah, Sally-Anne, nice to see you two. I'm sure you have some serious matters to discuss with me, but we can do it in a friendly and informal atmosphere, right?"
"Sure. Well, as you know I own Hogwarts. What you don't know is how much we have learned and done this last year. Let me tell you a summary of what have been happening."
And so Harry told Pomona about his first two years at Hogwarts, confirmed the problems caused by Dumbledore and revealed about his discoveries and progresses in magic during last summer. Then he explained the cancellation of the mail redirection, him answering the letters and making friends, and how he had united and taught the girls that now were his partners, aiding him by doing their own researches and discoveries.
"Did you received notice of the two new schools added to tournament?"
"Yes, yours and Albus'. I received the communication yesterday. Please tell me you're not abandoning Hogwarts and practically taking with you all the girls."
"As far as you keep open the option of letting the students do self-study instead of frequent every class I think it wouldn't be necessary."
"Will you start to teach this new magic to the boys, too?"
"Yes, we will, but I can't guaranty it'll be offered to every boy."
"I understand. Some of them are too prejudiced and too favoured by the unbalanced state of things. But please, try to give them a fair chance to change."
"I will. I also have some businesses proposes to you. Hope you don't mind making some money to help put Hogwarts in the right path of greatness."
"Well, I'm curious. We are in need of money for several projects, like a good history teacher, some new and safer brooms for the flight lessons, a better potions lab and maybe even a new greenhouse or two. What do you have in mind, Harry?"
"Sally-Anne will explain the first opportunity."
"With the Tournament being host by Hogwarts we'll have a lot of visitors here this year, at least for its three tasks. We could have even more if we take advantage and offer some additional attractions to raise both the number of days attracting visitors and the number of visitors each day. We could invite the schools to not only bring their upper year students, but all of them. If each school could help with two teachers, we think we can provided all of them with classes here at Hogwarts. We need to keep the castle's safety, but the grounds will be opened to the public in general at weekends. Each weekend we can transform Hogwarts in an amusement park, and profit from the sales of food, drinks and souvenirs and from tickets to the attractions. Do you know what an amusement park is, Pomona? Wonderful, so you know what kind of event I'm talking about! If Hogwarts agrees with an exclusivity contract with our company we can pay you half of the profits and your part in all is just allow it to happen, we'll take care of everything! What do you think?"
"Well, it sounds too good to be true! But I don't know if I have the right to decide this by myself."
"You have. We investigated all the relevant laws. Between Harry being the owner of the place and you as headmistress, we're covered. The Board of Governors don't need to approve because it will not incur in expenses for Hogwarts, just profits. And you, as headmistress, is free to make all kind of decisions that not incur in significant expenses."
"Well… in this case… What about that part about the schools bringing all their students? Would they be willing to change plans so close to the date? And would they all agree?"
"Harry talked with them. Most were really happy with the opportunity! The few who had some objections were easily convinced when Harry showed them how much the kids would like the experience, how we could provide them with everything they would need and how it'll cost them nothing."
"Well, good. If all you need is my approval, you have it. But could you please give me details about what specifically you plan to offer? I need to be informed of everything as I'm sure I'll be asked about it by some… 'concerned citizens', you know."
"Sure. I'll give you a detailed list tomorrow, okay?"
"That's good enough. Now, Hannah, you've being too quiet. Do you just came for moral support of your friends?"
"You know me too well, headmistress. I'm here to present the second business opportunity, as you probably have guessed. It started when we discovered a serious defect with the plans for the tournament. You see, the Minister wishes it to be a success. I know you can't comment on the tasks, but knowing what they'll be, how you think you'll like them if you're just seating in a fixed point while they occur? How much will you see of what happens?"
"I didn't… Well, now that you mentioned it, it's quite clear that the public will be bored and will not see much of anything, right? And the judges? How could they judge the competitors if they're unable to see what each one did in the task? Oh, my! If I didn't know you've already a solution for this, I'd be seriously worried now. Well, tell me, what you suggest?'"
"Just to mention another point. Even with so many more competitors, our Minister, in its infinity wisdom, refused to raise the prize or to award more prizes than just to the winner. Well, our plan starts with an offer of 500 galleons, half of the winner's prize, to every competitor who agrees to use a special bandana of our own design during the three tasks. These bandanas would transmit image and sound to a special device that will retransmit it to individual glasses that will allow the user to see and hear whatever a competitor is seeing and hearing. The glasses will allow you to switch between the different competitors at will. Each of the judges will have one free, but the spectators will need to pay for rent of one of them each task."
"Do you really can do it? Sorry, sure you can. It's amazing! But… I don't understand. What you need from Hogwarts and how Hogwarts will profit from it?"
"Well, we don't need anything from Hogwarts, really, but we would like to have a contract with Hogwarts allowing us the use of these devices here and the right to collect and transmit the data from here. It's a precaution against those 'concerned citizens', you know. In exchange, we offer Hogwarts a 20% of all rent fees from the devices."
"Do you expect to rent a lot of them?"
"How would you know what is happening otherwise? And think, you don't need to be here to use the device! We will have rent posts not only here, but also Hogsmeade, Diagon Alley, Saint Mungos and, if allowed, the Ministry building itself! And, if we could solve a technical point in time, we'll be offering them abroad too!"
"Oh, what an ingenious idea! Well, consider it done! I'm so happy! For a moment I had feared to be in charge of a broken, near bankrupt school, and you just assured me I'll not only keep the current students but will have the money to provide them a better education! It was a very productive meeting! Do you have something more to discuss with me?"
"Unfortunately, we have, and this one is unpleasant. Did you know that the Forbidden Forest is home to the biggest colony of Acromantulas outside their homeland in Indonesia?"
"What!? But Albus… that old fool, he told us it was just one, a pet of Hagrid."
"It was, until Hagrid felt his pet was too lonely and found a mate for Aragog."
"What you suggest? We can't have them so close to the castle!"
"We have a plan, but we'll need your help with it. Your part is simple: we need you to give some errand for Hagrid to do away from Hogwarts in the weekend. It'll we be difficult enough to deal with the acromantulas, we don't want Hagrid to know what we would be doing until it would be too late for him to interfere."
"Do you plan to kill them all in just a weekend? And who are this 'we'? You're just students, and still so young."
"No, we're not just students, Pomona. Our group has members of all ages from everywhere in the world. We want you to know more about us, but until everything is ready for the tournament, both you and we will be too busy for all that. Please, trust us in this. We can deal with the acromantulas safely. And we have an idea of how to keep Hagrid away for the entire weekend."
"And what is your idea, Harry?"
"In my first year Hagrid hatched a dragon's egg. I helped to remove the baby dragon from the castle and send it to the reservation in Romania. I'm proposing you give him a fully paid trip so he can see the dragon again. I'll pay all expenses, but I ask you to say that it was a gift from an anonymous person."
"Hum, that'll work just fine, I think. But he'll discover that his pet had died as soon as he comes back. What will we do about it?"
"Well, we'll kill all acromantulas only if they didn't accept our conditions. We'll try to negotiate a deal with them first. We'll fed them and respect their nest if they provide us with some of their silk and venom, and agree to be restricted in their movements by wards we'll install around their nest. They'll have an easy life if they don't reproduce too much."
"I wish you luck. I hope their instinct of survival be stronger than their need for freedom."
"So do us."
"Pomona, who'll be the new head of house for Hufflepuff? If you don't mind the question..."
"Don't worry, Hannah, your curiosity is understandable. I choose professor Babbling for the charge. I think you'll like her in her new position. Anything else in your agenda?"
"No, ours is completed. Do you have something you would like to discuss with us?"
"First, I'd like to congratulate you all for the discoveries you've done, and the measures you took to keep all of us safe. Thank you! Pity I can't enjoy all these advances myself, but I'm happy for you and your success. For so long I've being hopeless with the state of the wizarding world! It's good to see that your generation have the disposition and determination to make progresses. Second, I'd like you to think of me as an ally. I've some limitations in what I can do for you but, please, keep me informed and count with me if you need my help."
.o0o.
"Hermione, was it another invitation from the Weasleys?"
"Yes, mum. Another one."
"What is happening? You always expected them with anxiety, but this summer you're receiving them and refusing… Open to me, honey. What happened?"
Hermione looked conflicted for a few moments, but finally making her decision she ran to her bedroom shouting a "Just a second!" behind. She soon returned with a folder titled 'Dumbledore' that she gave to her mother. Inside, Evelyn found articles from a magazine called 'The Quibbler'. She read them one after another while Hermione waited in silence but visibly worried.
"So, he was sacked and Hogwarts now has a new headmistress. Well, this is the only reason I'm not asking you to leave it right now. But… what about the Weasleys? Why are you refusing to visit them?"
"Because Dumbledore is living there and I don't know… I don't think I'd like to see him now. And they have been so insistent! It's not their usual way. They also mentioned that Dumbledore wants to see me. It's a little suspicious, at least. I don't want to be involved in the politics of the magical world. And there is also Ronald..."
"What is there about Ronald?"
"He was always so immature, lazy and envious, and suddenly he is famous and received an important medal and is called a hero… He became arrogant and presumptuous… He seems to think I want to be some kind of fangirl of him… The worst is the way he puts it… Like he would be making me a favour to concede me some attention… I fear what kind of attention he's expecting!"
"Oh, my! At least now I understand your reasons to keep away from them! What about this new school year? Would they try to contact you at Hogwarts?"
"Dumbledore was barred from the castle. Ron, as his apprentice, would probably be with him on the grounds, but I can easily avoid him if he enters the castle. I don't foresee any problems."
"Good! Now, something I was expecting a chance to ask you. What about your grades this last year? The first two years you was telling us about how good you was academically as soon as you arrived home, but this year I didn't hear a single word about it. What happened?"
"I failed! No, not failed like that! I mean that I lost the first position in our year, and by such a wide margin! I don't know how it happen, I tried so hard! And, still, I drop from first to eighteenth position. It's so unfair!"
"But, honey, how could your grades drop so low so fast?"
"That's is the point, mum. My grades this last year were still close to the two years previous. It was the others' grades that went up a lot!"
"I'm not understanding, dear. Even the girls in your study group showed such improvement?"
"I… I don't have a study group. I study alone. I used to study sometimes with Harry and Ron, but Ron is so lazy he barely make any study at all, and Harry… I don't know what happened… We kind of separated… He was so different at the start of the year! He didn't told what happened, or how he met so many new people, or… nothing! And then that little girl, calling me a bitch, twice, just for asking Harry! I'm… I was his friend, I had a right to know!"
"Honey, how much of yourself did you tell Harry?"
"I… Well, not much, really. But I'm not that interesting anyway! And I always demanded to know everything about him and he always complained! Why could he changed so much in just a summer?"
"You're teenagers, dear. You change daily."
"But… Oh my! Do you think I screwed up everything by not allowing him his privacy?"
"I do. But what worry me more is that you spent the year alone, without friends, and trying to do better in your studies without relying on the help that a study group could provide you. Honey, you're a smart girl. Think about this: Why people live together in cities instead of scattered everywhere?"
"You're telling me that a group have synergistic effects that allow its members do more than any single individual would be able to, don't you?"
"Yes, that's exact what I'm saying."
"But… To such an extent? Is it really so better to work in group instead of alone? It seems the effects are too much in this case..."
"I don't think so. Try to put it in a spreadsheet. How much time do you expend really acquiring new knowledge and skills? And how much do you expend in activities which are only accessory, as searching for information, revising, doing homework which didn't give you new knowledge, and so on?"
With that last comment Evelyn let her daughter with her thoughts. Growing up was so hard! She wasn't concerned about Hermione's breaking relations with the red-headed boy, as she didn't like much what she saw and heard of him, but the Potter boy seems to be such amazing boy! He could help Hermione, if her daughter just stop with her bossing attitude. Well, she would need her daughter thinking about everything for a while before talking with her again. If some one-on-one time can help Hermione have a better year, she owned it to her daughter.
.o0o.
"Okay, people! I just received confirmation that Hagrid took his international portkey to Romania. Ready to go? We depart in five minutes, hurry up."
This mission was one Harry had expected to do for a whole year. He didn't like the idea of such huge colony of giant carnivorous spiders so close to the castle. They need to go or be put under control, that was inevitable. But he really doesn't want it to cost him his first friend in the magical world.
Harry didn't remember so well where the nest of the acromantulas was, but the centaurettes knew quite well, as they all learnt it still very young so to avoid it, as did Hinata, who had scout it for them and prepared everything in advance. With that knowledge they made a portkey to near Aragog's cave. The group was small. Besides Harry, it included the vampire Edelweiss, the kitsune Hinata, the nekos Aya and Asami and the witches Rosalyn, Hestia, Flora, Susan and Katie.
As soon as they arrived the witches made a circle of fire around them while the nekos with their bows and arrows covered them from any attack from above by the trees. Harry then called Aragog who took his time coming to them. The senior acromantula was old, blind and very debilitated. He kept his promise to Hagrid about not attacking the children, but he seemed close to death and who knows if their next leader would respect the truce?
"I remembered your smell, friend of Hagrid. You made a huge mistake coming here again, and with such delicious company!"
"No, Aragog. You committed a serious mistake two years ago showing me how dangerous and traitorous your specie was. Now I'm here as the owner and protector of the castle, to inform you that you have to accept the deal I'll offer you or be exterminated."
"Do you dare challenge me in my own domains, little wizard? You'll need to prove your value before I hear more from you! Children, feast on them!"
Hinata, Luna and Edelweiss had predicted with accuracy what tactics the acromantulas would use, based on their knowledge of the animals and their great sense of pride and honour in battle. A small part of them rushed to attack them from above, but the main part threw themselves into the fire, knowing they would die but leaving their bodies as bridges for the next waves to cross Harry's group's defences. It could have worked, if that initial circle of fire was all they had.
The nekos used their arrows, which had explosive arrowheads, and put down the nearby trees with the acromantulas that were climbing them, while the witches plus Harry expanded the 2 metres wide walls to 10 metres wide outwards, burning not only the first wave of acromantulas but the three rows behind them too. In just a few seconds, near two hundreds of Aragog's offspring were decimated. Keeping the fire wall at 10 metres wide, Harry's group started to push it outwards from them, treating to burn still more acromantulas, when Aragog, advised by his wife of the turn of the events, called for a halt.
"Well, it seems the children have some power, after all. I'll hear your proposal now. If I fell insulted by it your tricks will not save your lives, be sure."
They had killed many spiders, but much more had congregated around them since they had arrived. Harry instructed the girls to keep the wall of fire as it was, and walked until the border closer to Aragog.
"I offer you safety inside the wards I'll erect around your nest, the right to hunt inside these wards and a continuous supply of food enough for your actual numbers. I required of you to accept be confined inside these wards and to supply us with your silk and venom to pay for the food. It would be your responsibility to keep your number for growing too much so to not starve. What do you say?"
"Now we are free, can have all the meet we can hunt and don't have to pay you anything. Your deal is shit!"
"You had all those things, but you don't have them any more. You have only two choices: accept the deal or die."
"I choose… you die!"
Kitsunes are the ninja masters of the wizarding world, specialized in subtlety, espionage and walking around undetected. Hinata had scouted the region the previous Saturday and returned during the week to install the ward-stones that would keep the acromantulas trapped in the region around their nest. When Aragog gave the command for the attack, Harry portkeyed the group just out of the borders and activated the wards. Amplifying his voice, he shout to Aragog: "You are now enclosed in a limited region of the forest. Any of your kids who is found out of this region will be killed. You'll not be able to live without suffering an excruciated pain until you die. Good luck keeping yourselves alive with what little prey you'll be able to find in this small region. Even with you being an asshole I'll still keep my promise of food for silk and venom. I'll return tomorrow to hear your final answer. Be aware that I'll not kill you, I'll just let you all starve to death."
With that the group returned to the castle, lamenting that sentient beings could display such unreasonableness.
.o0o.
Next day the group made a new visit to Aragog, keeping themselves outside the wards. The old acromantula finally accepted defeat and capitulated. As punishment for his stubbornness and petulance Harry proposed a deal where he would receive 2.5 times the quantities of silk and venom he was originally wanting to propose per cattle or sheep delivered.
Susan Bones was such an amazing girl. Those who prefer the super-thin models may call her fat, but Harry thought she was the perfect incarnation of what Aldous Huxley called a 'pneumatic girl' in his book 'Brave New World': a little less and she wouldn't give that impression of fullness, a little more and the harmony of forms would be broken. But her physical attributes, as amazing as the boy thinks they are, weren't her only notable attributes. He loves her sweetness, compassion and jovial personality.
That night, after the deal with Aragog, she was on his lap, and she had something bothering her.
"Harry, couldn't we have activated the wards from outside the spiders' region before talking with them? Wouldn't that save many of their lives?"
"We considered it in our planning sessions, Susan. The acromantulas used to hunt on a large area of the forest. Our presence in their lair was immediately communicated to them all, and they return there to defend the place. Without it, a great number of them would be out of the wards and would still need to be hunted and killed individually, with more work and more risk for us."
"Thank you for having considered it, Harry. I like the way you try to avoid unnecessary killings, even of a species that is so unfriendly and uncooperative."
"We all considered it, Susan. I know you think Hinata and Edelweiss are a little too cold and objective for your liking, but they also tried to minimize the suffer and casualties. There is another point we considered in our plans that maybe you're unaware. Acromantulas are a very proud and warlike species. If we had won without a fight they would be less tempted to accept our deal. We wouldn't had won their respect. We might have been forced to annihilate them completely because they would probably prefer death over infamy."
"Hum… Thank you for explaining it to me, Harry. Did you think I behave well there? I felt so many emotions while there: fear, anger, excitement, sadness. I was a mess! Did I do something wrong?"
"No, Susan, you were wonderful! It's natural to feel all that, we can't avoid it. What we must do is keep our head focused in what we need to do, and do it the best we can, don't letting these emotions distract us from our mission. And you were amazing there! You really kept your focus notwithstanding your emotions. You deserve a prize, and you can choose which one!"
"Oh, thank you, Harry! I know exactly how you can reward me."
.o0o.
September 1st finally arrived. Harry was there for the trip in the Hogwarts' Express, but under his invisibility cloak, just for safety. And it was good he was hidden, as Dumbledore boarded at the last moment with his idiot of a pupil alongside him, parading with his undeserved medal in his chest and a goofy smile in his face. It was a Monday, and the visiting schools were expected to arrive only at the Saturday, but obviously the pretentious old man expected to be treated differently just because of who he was. He still didn't accepted that his image was so damaged to the point that his name was now reason of mockery instead of admiration.
As the Express was leaving London behind, the two started to visit every compartment in the train. With Harry's cloak no longer carrying the tracking charms, they never realized he was there too. The girls soon put in practice a diabolical plan: they kept every compartment occupied by them filled to the limit, and they persisted in talking between them, ignoring their presence when visited by the two annoying crashers. Dumbledore was a master in concealing his emotions, but Ron wasn't, and his frustration about not receiving the attention he so much crave for from the girls was increasing at every stop they made, and was quite visible in his face.
Hermione hadn't the same luck. She was alone in a compartment when the two came in. Ron, seeing her, felt he was finally going to have some luck with a girl. "Mione!" he said, opening his arms and coming for a hug. A hug that never occurred.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Weasley, Mr. Dumbledore" was the cold answer they received. She didn't look at them, keeping reading her book. The two tried to establish a conversation, but the girl had decided that excessive formality, monosyllabic answers and a total disinterest for whatever they said was her best way to keep herself safe from their machinations, whatever they were. It took the two fools more than twenty minutes to finally leave with no progress at all.
.o0o.
Harry really didn't know the way Albus' brain works. It seems he had thought he would be welcomed back at Hogwarts! He and Ronald shared a carriage which they noticed was being overtaken by all the others and found it strange, but there wasn't anything they could do about it. The carriage stopped at the school's gates, which were already closed. Albus called for Hagrid to come and open the gates with a patronus messenger. They waited for more than twenty minutes until the gentle half-giant finally arrived.
"Good evening, professor Dumbledore, Ron..."
"Hagrid, it's imperative that I talk urgently with Pomona and Harry. Could you please call them for me?"
"Sorry, professor, but headmistress Sprout is conducting the Welcome Feast and would not come. She told me you and Ron were on the Express, but that you would only be welcome here at Hogwarts together with the other schools on Saturday. Until then I'm not allowed to let you enter."
"But, Hagrid, surely if I could talk with..."
"No, professor. Sorry but I need to be back to the feast myself. I have my orders, sir. I'm really sorry."
Hagrid didn't wait, walking back to the castle. He was really sad to be forced to bar entry to his protector, but he have his orders and Hogwarts was the only real home he ever had, so he wouldn't jeopardize his own stay there.
Albus and Ron apparated back to the Burrow as soon as the old man recovered from the shock of being barred from what he still considered his home and his school.