The Wall of Stone

This Harry Potter story was written for fun. All rights belong to the wonderful lady (JK Rowling) who gave the world Harry Potter to read and enjoy.

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Chapter 22 Troubles in the Great Hall

The trip from London to Hogsmeade was better than most students could remember. However, Ron Weasley spent most of the journey in a locked compartment when Deputy Headmistress Heppner caught the rising Fifth year Gryffindor refusing to leave Prefect Potter alone. Weasley kept demanding that Harry tell him where the boy had hidden all summer and how he'd managed to go to Paris with all the Veela from Beauxbatons for his birthday.

Heppner arrived just as Weasley yelled, "I spent the whole summer sitting with your criminal godfather in his filthy, muddy house in London! I didn't get to fly one minute! Why didn't you take me with you, you worthless muddy half-blood bastard?"

With a week's detention assigned before the train crossed into Scotland, Ron steamed the whole time. He didn't have the opportunity to pester Hermione for copies of her summer homework either. The first day of school wasn't going to be fun.

When the Hogwarts Express reached Hogsmeade, that mean witch waited outside the compartment and she escorted Ron to the carriage where he and two other individuals where stuck to the seats during the trip to the castle. Fred and George were caught passing out new candies to the firsties, but other children warned the new kids not to try the candy. The head boy brought the terror twins to the deputy headmistress for punishment.

Ron and the twins never noticed the red smudges of New Management's magic sliding through the train, examining every trunk and bag left by the students for the elves to move to their dormitory rooms. And they didn't notice when smudges of that magic also visited each child and the items on their person.

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Everyone made their way inside the castle and hurried into the Great Hall. The prefects helped get everyone settled though Ron kept blowing raspberries at Harry and Hermione who refused to give him copies of their summer homework. Seamus, Neville, Dean, Lavender, and Parvati also denied Weasley's request. Ron was worried enough to approach Fred and George for a candy that would make him sick or give him duck feet for a day or two so he could stay in the infirmary.

The enlarged staff table was filled with many new faces and the students at the four tables were talkative, but no one was unhappy – yet. The new deputy headmistress led the firsties in and the children laughed and waved to their siblings and new friends made on the train ride north.

Headmaster Emeritus Albus Dumbledore arrived via Port Key (the long walk from his office tower was too far for the elderly wizard still recovering from the Acromantula poisoning). He made his way slowly to his seat in the middle of the table where the elves would stick his plate to the table. An elf would also cut up any meat the headmaster emeritus selected for his meal.

What hurt Dumbledore most was that none of the students seemed to notice his arrival, the loss of his arm, or the poor state in which he found himself. And despite a few kind words from several of the new professors, the veterans (Pomona, Filius, Bathsheba, Septima, or Aurora) had nothing to say to him.

The Sorting Hat's song was joyous about restoring Hogwarts to greatness. New Management's red magic flashed in every corner of the Great Hall while the ghosts danced through the air. Then Deputy Headmistress Heppner began the sorting when she called out the name 'Lynda Anderson'.

Harry applauded each firstie when they walked to their house table. He'd enjoyed the three-day preview of the New Management's classes and staff while showing the firsties around the castle and helping them learn where the classrooms were located. He also gently teased Hermione because she kept disappearing into the library where Madam Pince had almost two hundred new titles on the theories of magic, potion ingredients, and transfiguration for the upper year students to check out.

With a grin on his face, Harry thought, 'This is going to be a great year! Thank you, New Management!'

When the meal was finally served, Ron Weasley noticed the other fifth year Gryffindors sat together though Potter and Granger both rose to check on the firsties. This happened just as Ron began eating his third serving (when everyone else was finishing pudding).

Without any concern, Ron watched Ginny rise and approach Harry with the package of chocolates that Mum made and wrapped carefully for her to gift to Potter.

'Mum wouldn't give me any,' Ron remembered before he gave the chicken drumsticks his attention. 'Somebody needs to magic up a chicken with a dozen legs. It's a shame the birds only come with two.'

He'd sucked the meat off only two chicken legs before there was some ruckus at the end of the table. Ginny was fussing at Potter to return the package, but he'd called out to Andrew Carter, the new head of Gryffindor. The wizard hurried over and Ron returned his attention to the chicken legs still piled on his plate.

When the other students left for their dormitories, Ron was beginning to eat his way through four large biscuits he'd hidden in a pocket of his robes for dessert. He finally looked up when his cup of pumpkin juice was empty. That's when he noticed the twins still sitting at the Gryffindor table. And a tearful Ginny was stuck to the bench at the end of the table with Professor Carter and Headmaster Bennet. (Ron thought that was the wizard's name).

Everyone else was gone. Pushing back from the table, Ron discovered that his robes were stuck to the bench, and he couldn't get up. He shouted, "Oi! Who stuck me to the bench? I gotta pee...uh use the loo."

Bennet waved his wand and Ron was unstuck. Professor Carter escorted him to the loo and waited inside the room while Ron took care of business. The ginger was creeped out by the professor 'watching' him. Then in a surprise, the professor made Ron return to the Great Hall and sit down again.

When he noticed, Ron found there were three Aurors in the Great Hall and the trunks of the four Weasley children were lined up on the Ravenclaw table. Ron was bored but found himself concerned when his parents entered. Molly immediately moved toward Ginny, but an Auror intercepted the witch and forced her to sit with her husband at the Slytherin table.

Ron wondered, 'Why are they keeping us apart?'

Headmaster Bennet and Professor Carter spoke to Arthur and Molly with two Aurors watching and listening closely. The third Auror had his wand in his hand at the Ravenclaw table. Then Ron noticed the package of chocolates Ginny brought for Harry in Carter's hands. The package was placed on the Ravenclaw table and that Aurors began to cast a spell on it.

Suddenly, Molly's wand was out and firing a spell to banish the package. However, an Auror's shield deflected the spell up into the enchanted ceiling. The first Auror cast a strong stupefy spell that pushed Molly off the bench and on the stone floor.

At first, Arthur was angered by the Auror casting a spell on his wife despite her strange actions, but then the man was shocked by the Auror's report. Ron heard his father shout, "Search everything! Yes, search everything!"

Fred and George grumbled but remained silent while the Aurors searched Ginny's trunk, then Ron's and finally the trunks of the twins. There was a large pile of forbidden items and questionable potion ingredients stacked up beside Fred and George's trunks.

And Ron's package of Quidditch magazines and his chess set.

Arthur reviewed all the items found in the twin's trunks and motioned for the Aurors to banish everything. When his father found the chess set and Quidditch magazines, Arthur's frown turned in Ron's direction. Watching his son's face, Arthur banished those items himself.

"No!" Ron shouted. "Not my chess set!"

Ignoring Ron's protests, Arthur spoke to Headmaster Bennet and learned that Ginny was being expelled.

"But she didn't know…" Arthur argued but then looked at his daughter and noticed she wouldn't look at his face. "Ginny, did you know about the potion?"

Her reaction was to begin wailing, echoing her mother's bellows. Arthur cast a silencing spell on his daughter, and this made Ginny angry, but she couldn't do more than stomp her feet and then sit down.

"My daughter is just beginning her fourth year," Arthur said nervously. "There's no way she brewed that love potion."

"What about those two?" Headmaster Bennet asked, motioning toward the twins. Fred and George slowly shook their heads and Arthur sighed, "No. They didn't do it."

Bennet looked at the Aurors and said, "Gentlemen, I believe that Heir Potter was the victim of attempted Line Theft with a mind and mood altering potion brewed by someone unknown. Perhaps you should question Mrs Weasley away from Hogwarts. Mr Weasley will be leaving with his daughter immediately following this meeting."

"Dad! No! I don't want to go back to that place in London," protested Ginny.

"We moved back to the Burrow this morning as soon as you were on the train. Pack your trunk…hurry!" Arthur ordered while the Aurors levitated the still unconscious Molly from the Great Hall. Arthur didn't speak to his sons before he left with Ginny. Professor Carter released the sticking charms and motioned for the Weasleys to pack their trunks again.

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