The tension in the hotel room was high that last morning of summer vacation. Harry was nervous about seeing former friends, building relationships with new friends and classmates from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw (and hoped he remembered their names). And then there were his regular adversaries who would immediately attack his character and family – Draco Malfoy and Professor Severus Snape.
There was one problem as Harry prepared to dress; the whole of the morning, his elves declared that their wizard must wear formal wizarding robes and possess a trunk that shrank at the touch of his finger (or unshrunk as needed). Harry had refused and ordered the elves to lay out the muggle clothing with the quality outer robe he thought would be loose enough to allow freedom of movement if he had trouble – when he had trouble – with Weasley or Malfoy on the train.
The elves continued to push for the formal robes until Harry raised his voice and yelled, "But it's important that I remain incognito!"
"What's be this incognito?" demanded Winky, growing distressed as quickly as Molly Weasley ever did, and casting multiple diagnostic spells on Harry.
"There's be potion or ten that cures it," Kreacher assured the little elf while Dobby wailed that his wizard had caught a deadly muggle disease while staying in a muggle infested hotel and eating muggle food twice a day!
"Guys! Incognito means undercover! Below the radar!" Harry replied, exasperated but concerned that his answers only caused more distress.
"Be youse going back to bed? Winkys already mades the bed!"
"Dobby not knows radars…be that muggle medicines?"
Holding onto his temper, Harry explained very carefully that incognito meant he didn't want anyone to look closely at him and see changes.
When he finished this monologue, Kreacher sniffed and said, "Dobby be rights. Master Harry be too easy to pranks. Dogfather be very disappointments with his godson who supposed to be able to pranks.
Harry blinked, trying to understand.
Winky sighed and mourned, "Three little elves pranked Mr Harry Potters, Lords Potters and Blacks…very sad, sadder, saddest."
The teenager stared at his elves with wonder and disbelief.
"And elves did masterfuls prank with just words…no magics," Dobby said as he shook his head. "Dobby hopes Mr Harry Potters uses common senses at Hoggiewarts Hotel once a week at least."
The young wizard gaped at his elves, his mouth hanging open. Then he laughed loud and long. When he could breathe again, he declared, "I have the best elves in the whole of Magical Britain! Thanks guys! I needed something to take my mind off this morning and you succeeded."
"Kreacher, Winky and Dobby learnings to be experts in care and feeding of Mr Harry Potters-Black," Dobby assured his wizard before they left the bedroom to allow him to dress in peace.
With his mum's book bag around his shoulder and the trunk now on wheels and almost feather-light to make it easy to pull and manoeuvre, Harry hugged each elf before he departed the hotel room. He checked out at the desk and headed for the nearest tube station. The hotel maids appreciated how clean one room was that morning – young Mr White's suite was immaculate and even though they weren't aware, not a single hair or skin cell remained in the rooms.
The three elves popped out for other duties – Winky checked on Alastor Moody who remained in residence at No 12 Grimmauld Place (and argued with Albus Dumbledore each day). Kreacher popped ahead to Hogwarts to search the fifth-year boys dorm room in Gryffindor for listening or watching spells. He found ten listening charms but none to capture images of the boys. The creative little elf studied Dumbledore's work and very carefully duplicated each charm four times and placed them in the same relative locations in the dorm rooms for the seventh-year boys, sixth-year boys, fourth-year boys, and third-year boys' dormitories in Gryffindor. When Dumbledore attempted to listen to the conversations of Mr Harry Potters-Blacks, the whiskered one was going to get five conversations at once.
Kreacher considered duplicating the charms once again and placing them in Slytherin or Hufflepuff but decided that was too much – 'overkill' – as Mr Harry Potters-Blacks would describe it. Then he set to work in the kitchens helping to cook the welcoming feast and preparing lemon tarts for the headmaster's dessert.
Dobby's job that morning was the most difficult – he shadowed his wizard as the teen traversed through the crowds of London and rode the underground to Kings Cross Station. The elf was forced to admit the train hurtling through a tunnel in the ground was safer than the cars on the streets or wizards riding brooms in the sky. There'd not been any pureblood wizards in the crowds and only a few muggleborn witches and wizards who were dressed like muggles – and from Dobby's observations, they were all going about their own business and didn't pay attention to a teenage boy headed for school.
CHANGE SCENE &&***
The ExpressThe only person Harry recognized on the muggle side of Kings Cross Station was Justin Finch-Fletchley. The Hufflepuff wizard walked from the entrance to the carpark toward Platform 9¾ with a well-dressed couple and several guards. His trunk had wheels like Harry's and seemed very easy to move around.
When they made eye contact, Justin nodded his head to Harry but didn't stop and speak to the Gryffindor. Harry moved through the station and pulled his trunk (almost feather-light) behind him. Hedwig's cage was shrunk and inside the trunk and Harry smiled knowing his owl was winging her way to Hogwarts on her own schedule with breakfast, lunch and snacks to be caught along the way.
It was almost ten o'clock and Harry hoped to get on the train and pick out a choice compartment before the crowd got too large and boisterous on the platform. Grimacing he admitted he wanted to avoid any unpleasant scenes with Mr and Mrs Weasley.
'They always come late,' he remembered and prayed that they didn't change their habits for once. And he wondered who the prefects were for his year. 'Hermione would have been the girl's prefect – no doubt.'
Ignoring the regular people around him – who wouldn't watch him because of the Notice-Me-Not charms on the portal – Harry stepped through the brick wall with confidence.
Platform 9¾ looked the same as it did just over two months earlier when he'd left with Hermione to find her parents. Almost completely deserted here before ten o'clock, Harry saw the head boy (Ravenclaw) and head girl (Hufflepuff) talking to the other prefects. Harry didn't remember many names of the prefects or the heads. He did recognize a few faces; the Hufflepuff prefects were Susan Bones and Ernie McMillian, and the Slytherin prefects were Draco Malfoy and Daphne Greengrass. Again, he wasn't certain of the names of the Ravenclaw Fifth Year prefects. He easily recognized Parvati Patil who was Gryffindor's Fifth Year Girl Prefect but there wasn't a boy.
Harry moved forward and slipped into one of the train carriages and found a great compartment near the back with a good view of the platform. It was only a minute before Parvati came through the compartment door and greeted him, "Mr Harry Potter! Were you going to walk by and pretend you didn't know me?"
Stepping back from lifting his trunk into the overhead, Harry smiled, bowed his head politely (like a pureblood) and returned the greeting, "Good morning, Miss Patil. Congratulations on being selected as prefect."
The lovely young witch grimaced, motioned to the pin on her robes, and replied, "Thank you, but we both know this pin would look much better on Hermione Granger's robes. My parents are pleased, and my sister was very jealous until we heard that Mouth was picked as the boy's prefect for fifth year.
"What? Ron Weasley is a prefect?" Harry replied. "Really? Well, then where is he?"
"Peter – the head boy – went spare about it twenty minutes ago. Ron will get a write up against him before he even makes it to the platform. Prefects are supposed to patrol almost the entire trip to make certain nothing happens to the little kids."
"What's different this year?"
"All the muggleborn kids and their families who disappeared this summer – lots of purebloods are excited that the 'muddies' have vanished. There were incidents in Diagon Alley where some purebloods assaulted a couple half-bloods thinking they were muggleborn."
"Was any of that in the Daily Prophet?" asked Harry. "I don't remember reading about it."
"No, which only makes the gossip worse. And the leading merchants visited the minister and shouted at him about him not protecting their customers. Father heard all about it and told us during dinner."
"Are you going to be alright?"
Parvati smiled, "I have some charmed items on me to help protect me and the head boy and girl are good with their wands – stupefy and incarcerous are their specialties after training by Professor Sprout and Professor Flitwick."
"Be careful around Malfoy," Harry said. "I don't think you should trust him."
Smacking Harry's arm, Parvati replied, "Potter! I know that! And Greengrass has already had words with him about his behaviour. Daphne threatened to cast a charm to leave him bald until Christmas if he acts out today and embarrasses Slytherin House."
"Okay," Harry said. "I must concede that witches are prepared to knock pompous robin back if he sings too loudly."
After Miss Patil left to start her prefect duties, Harry indulged in people watching. Three Slytherin girls came out of the floo room in the station together; Tracey Davis and Millicent Bulstrode walked with Patsy Parkinson, who was teary-eyed. With the window down, Harry could hear Patsy whine that she wasn't the girl to patrol the halls of Hogwarts with Draco this year. The other Slytherin girls from fifth year greeted everyone correctly and passed along the train hallway to empty compartments in another car.
Alone in the train compartment for the moment, Harry missed Hermione terribly. She would know a thousand different facts about prefects, the train, and traditions of the first day of the new term for witches and wizards. Then his thoughts turned to something impossible to comprehend – Ronald Weasley as a prefect. A thought struck him and made sense immediately, 'This is something Dumbledore is doing to placate Molly Weasley…and he's trying to rehabilitate Ron. I don't understand parents thinking their kid wants sex when they're grown.'
He snickered a bit when he decided, 'Maybe Mrs Weasley just objected to seeing Ron bumping uglies with Dora. Even I wouldn't want to see that!'
About 10:30, Seamus Finnigan and Neville Longbottom arrived and joined Harry in the compartment. After helping get their trunks overhead, Harry asked if he should stand in the hallway and draft someone to fill up the fourth seat so that Prefect Weasley couldn't force himself into their company.
"Ron's not been saying anything nice or even neutral about you the last couple weeks. I saw him in Diagon Alley, and he ranted about you being so high and mighty," Seamus told Harry. "Why do you think he'll come here?"
"I know Ronald Weasley pretty well, or I thought I did anyway. I doubt Miss Brown and Miss Patil will share their summer assignments with him. Every September on the ride north, Ron always begs notes and drafts of our summer essays off Hermione and me. With Hermione being gone and him being on the outs with me, he'll be desperate for something to turn in as his summer assignments."
Neville groaned and confessed, "He wrote a letter asking about the herbology essay, and I sent him a clipping from a magazine about Glazed Orange Grass. He'll probably copy it word for word and turn it in."
"Yeah?" Seamus laughed. Last week, he wrote me about the transfiguration essay, and I referenced the appendix in last year's textbook that mentioned stone to glass transfiguration, but it doesn't answer Professor McGonagall's question."
"I imagine that's two of the four essays," Harry said. "He'll just have to steal – uh – get help from someone's charms and potions essays."
CHANGE SCENE &&***
GossipOnly ten minutes passed since Neville and Seamus joined Harry when the compartment door was thrown open once again and Parvati escorted Lavender Brown inside.
"See, I told you I knew the best place for you to sit until I get some time to gossip," Patil told her best friend. "Potter, Finnigan and Longbottom will keep you entertained, and you can practice your news by telling them everything."
Harry rose and said, "Miss Brown, will you join us please?"
He and Neville lifted her heavy trunk into the overhead while Parvati left, and Lavender sat beside Harry. She immediately talked about her summer, new robes, and who kissed who at the party at the ministry the previous week. Harry didn't recognize any of the people mentioned but he thought Neville knew everyone that Lavender named.
Then she got down to business with the serious Hogwarts gossip about Hogwarts. Lavender was excited as she said, "There are eight students missing since the end of June – not just missing but gone and vanished – and their entire family with them. Five of the missing are girls and boys from Gryffindor – two muddies who would have been in sixth year, Granger and the two creepy boys from the muddy side of the portal."
His face reflecting disgust as the witch grew excited, Harry asked, "Miss Brown, were you always so against the muggleborn before this September?"
Uncomfortable for only a moment, Lavender blew off Harry's question and replied, "I guess so. But they're all vanishing now so what difference does it make?"
Seamus and Neville blinked but said nothing and Harry turned his head back toward the window to continue watching the wizards and witches arrive with their children for the express. Lavender continued, "And there were three Puffs, and one girl from Ravenclaw who would have been in her sixth year."
"The best piece of news I have this morning, is that Draco Malfoy is wearing old robes this morning for the ride on the Express. They're the same robes he wore home last year for spring break and then at the end of the year."
None of the boys seemed to catch the significance of this misstep until Lavender explained, "Malfoy is rich – he wears robes multiple times, but he must maintain his reputation by wearing new robes at every significant social moment. At Hogwarts, Draco is practicing being an adult."
"And what does this faux pas signify?" asked Harry, impressing Lavender that he knew and used the term properly.
"It means that Draconis Malfoy – or his father anyway – doesn't have unlimited galleons to spend this year," Lavender explained tartly. "His spending on the first Hogsmeade weekend will be sharply curtailed, and he won't get preferential treatment at Miss Puddyfoot's Tea Parlour."
Neville noticed that Harry's reflection in the window smiled just a little bit with this news, but then he gave his full attention back to Lavender who continued with her gossip.
"And there's some witch from the Ministry for Magic at Hogwarts this term. She has already expelled Hagrid from the castle! He will not be the instructor for Care of Magical Animals any longer."
"Why not?" asked Seamus. "Hagrid knows his stuff when it comes to magical animals."
Smirking, Lavender replied, "He doesn't have a wand and never graduated from Hogwarts. How could he be a professor if he doesn't have a wand or even completed school?"
"Professor Hagrid knows the animals," Neville agreed. "But if he doesn't have a wand, he can't cast spells."
Harry remained silent, disappointed to hear that the half-giant was in trouble – maybe with the ministry again. But he'd let the adults handle the problem as best they could before he said or did anything. He smirked and thought, 'As if Dumbledore would do anything to help someone…'
"Now, my last bit of news is very interesting," Lavender said as she leaned forward, and whispered, "Parvati confirmed with me as we came into the car, none of the firsties are muggleborn or muggle raised. They are all purebloods or half-bloods who were raised on the right side of Platform 9¾."
"The right side?" asked Seamus Finnigan who had been raised in muggleland. Frowning at Seamus and Harry for just a second, Lavender looked at Neville for support, but she found none. Longbottom was frowning with disapproval and Brown felt uncomfortable.
"Everyone needs to take a moment and remember that we are Gryffindor House. We are not mindless minions like Hufflepuff or lost brainiacs like Ravenclaw," Harry told his companions. "We have enough adversaries at Hogwarts without…"
"Harry's right," Seamus said. "Gryffindor's missing our resident genius and our artist. Hermione's points kept us in the race for the house cup every year and Dean's artwork kept everyone laughing when he posted funny drawings of the professors on the walls."
"I agree," Neville confirmed. "Miss Brown, please don't misunderstand, there is much truth in your stories, but I find it offensive to hear pureblood prejudice delivered with sugarcoating and sweetness."
The train left the station on time and the first thirty minutes passed quietly with Harry leading the others into a discussion of their classes for the coming year. Neville was anticipating working with Professor Sprout on special projects in the greenhouse with carnivorous plants, Seamus looked forward to arithmancy and astronomy, and Lavender planned to work diligently in charms – clothing design for witches depended on permanency charms to hold stitching and pleats in place.
Harry listened carefully and agreed that he looked forward to herbology, transfiguration, and charms classes. He had several questions about arithmancy and astronomy and how the two disciplines worked together.
And he wanted to practice asking questions about their subjects that he could then repeat with the professors to fill in some gaps of information he had about Magical Null Space and his mum's spell, Improved Finite Incantatem.
Then the pleasant conversations in their compartment ended – the door opened, and Draco Malfoy stood there, his wand in his hand and pointed at the other students, with a smirk plastered on his face. Behind him, Harry could see Daphne Greengrass looking as if she hoped the wizard burst into flames.
"Pureblood traitors and half-bloods…I could smell the stench from up the hall," the Slytherin bully announced. "Things are going to be different at Hogwarts this year! The muddies are disappearing. Wonder who is finally taking steps to rid our world of the mudbloods?"
Proving that she was correctly sorted into Gryffindor, Lavender shook her head and said, "Malfoy, the smell you're complaining about is you. You're wearing last year's spring fashions – not this autumn's new robes. Longbottom, Finnigan, and Potter are dressed much more appropriately than you."
"What! No! No one is more fashionable…better dressed than me! Not a wizard or a witch!" Draco shouted, drawing the attention of Ron Weasley who was patrolling with Parvati Patil from the other direction.
"See here, Malfoy! You can't be stirring up trouble with the firsties!"
"These aren't firsties, you twit!"
"Who you calling a twit?" Ron demanded to know.
Unwisely, Lavender poked both dragons, "Weasley, make certain you tell Draco the best way to avoid problems with wearing last year's fashions. Malfoy's father must be having financial problems because he sent his son to Hogwarts in last year's robes."
Ron's smile gleamed as he asked, "No money, eh Malfoy. What happened? Did daddy make a bad bet at the Quidditch match and lose your inheritance?"
"Weasley, after the mudbloods are all gone, someone will come after the blood traitors like you and your tribe!"
"And who would that be, Malfoy?" shouts Ron. "Your Dark Lord What's His Poop?"
Two prefects squared off and threw hexes back and forth in the hallway for almost thirty seconds before the Head Boy (Ravenclaw) petrified Draco as the Head Girl (Hufflepuff) petrified Ron.
Cursing in three separate languages, the head boy levitated both prefects down the hallway while the head girl checked on Patil and Greengrass, and then the four Gryffindors in the compartment. Everyone was fine (because of shields that Harry's lordship rings threw up to block hexes).
Before she closed the door, they heard the head girl addressing Patil and Greengrass, "Can you make your patrols together?"
"We can work together without any problem Miss Cranford," Parvati assured the head girl. The compartment was silent for a moment, then the conversation began again.
"Why McGonagall thought that Ron Weasley would make a good prefect is…I just don't understand it," Lavender Brown confided with the three boys.
Harry didn't say anything, but Neville opined, "The headmaster probably interfered. How else do you explain Ron Weasley AND Draco Malfoy as Fifth Year Prefects?"
"But what do you think Harry?" Lavender insisted on knowing.
"Miss Brown, it is not for me to express an opinion about the selections made by our professors. We must simply observe and report to others the results of these selections. If Mr Malfoy and Mr Weasley were already petrified and confined in locked compartments before the train is an hour of out Kings Cross Station, people might take notice."
The confusion about the meaning of Harry's words was evident on the girl's face, so Neville leaned closer and whispered, "Send a note to Rita Skeeter. She'll steal the headlines in the Daily Prophet tomorrow and might even give you credit as the source of the information."
"But don't use my name anywhere," Harry said coldly, making Lavender sit back before nodding. Then the girl pulled parchment and a muggle biro from her purse, wrote a letter, and rushed out of the compartment, looking for an acquaintance with a postal owl.
The rest of the ride to Hogwarts was uneventful though each of them was hungry by 2:00 PM because the snack lady with her cart of goodies weren't present on the train, and Harry had no interest in summoning an elf for food. That would have provided more gossip for Lavender without a doubt. Fortunately, the ever-vigilant Dobby slipped a large paper bag into Harry's book bag while his wizard searched for a book.
"Hey, what's this?" he asked pulling out the bag. Inside he found a thermos of hot tea, bags of homemade biscuits, fruit and some cubed cheese.
"Did you forget you had food Potter?"
"I…a wonderful cook must have slipped this into my bag when I wasn't looking this morning," he declared while the four of them shared.
After they finished eating and Lavender left to walk about and gossip with Parvati, Seamus Finnigan told Neville and Harry something interesting. "The lady that pushes the snack car along the train – she's a muggleborn and never got any better job than pushing the cart along whenever the train is in use. I bet she got up and left."
"Where'd she go?" Neville asked though neither friend answered him.
CHANGE SCENE &&***
Changing and Staying the SameWalking into the Great Hall, Harry was struck by how much he had changed in two short months of the summer break – his suspicions about the adults in his life – muggle and magical – being worthless had proven valid.
He'd found the goblins to be a source of valuable advice though they couldn't 'help' him directly. He'd resorted to blackmail to force Cornelius Fudge into détente with him, and he continually defied the wishes and demands of Albus Dumbledore. As Lord Potter and Lord Black, he'd accepted the responsibilities of being an adult while still a teenager. There was no going back now.
'I expect the headmaster will ask to speak to me tonight after the welcoming feast,' Harry mused. Sitting with Neville, Seamus, Lavender and Parvati, Harry waited for the sorting to begin.
Ron argued with the twins about something, walked by the fifth-year students to argue with Ginny who blew him off, and then returned to stand with the other fifth year students. He motioned at Neville and said, "Move over."
Neville looked back, pointed on the other side of the table, and said, "No. There's plenty of room for you there. You didn't want to talk to Harry and now you think he wants you to sit beside him."
"Take a seat, Weasley," Lavender said. "That way Parvati and I can move out of firing range."
"Huh?" asked Ron as he climbed over the bench to sit down from Neville.
Smirking, Brown explained, "We don't want to be in the way of the Quaffles that get fired out of your mouth while you shovel in food."
Having heard the same complaint for years, the insult didn't bother the wizard who simply replied, "I'm a growing boy and need the food to grow big and strong."
"Yeah, right," Parvati replied.
"Well, this summer I learned that a wizard has to have stamina to satisfy a witch!"
There was silence from the fifth-year students and the nearby fourth-year boys. Finally, one of the fourth-year wizards asked what Ron meant and so during the sorting, Ron provided a highly edited version about his 'conquest' during the summer. He would whisper parts that made the younger boys stare wide-eyed.
Neville had looked at Harry early in the conversation and asked, "Know a good silencing spell?"
"Yeah," replied the teen.
"Please?" Longbottom begged. With a surreptitious flick of the wrist, Harry cast the first spell since the last day of the spring term and Ron's descriptions of his adventures with a witch were silenced.
'That felt good,' Harry decided. Then his resentments against the pureblood privileges rose up and demanded his full attention. The sorting hat sang the usual lame song about unity and magic in the castle of learning, while Harry considered how the purebloods (and privileged half-bloods) were able to use their wands while behind the strong wards that surrounded their homes.
'But the boy-Who-Lived has to be circumspect and keep his wand cleared of all spells even though he was behind the wards at Grim-Old-Place.'
'How many other students had their wands checked for casting spells this summer?' he complained silently. 'None.'
Professor McGonagall called out names and sent the firsties to their new houses after their turns under the sorting hat, but one teenager wasn't paying attention. Finally, Harry noticed that the new students were mostly sorted into Hufflepuff – a dozen became badgers and three became members of Ravenclaw. He had to look twice to make certain he was right – none of the firsties were sorted into Slytherin or Gryffindor.
When a bemused Dumbledore spoke about the unusual sorting for three minutes after the ceremony was over, with the privacy charm dissipated, the other fifth year students heard Ron chuckle and congratulate himself.
"What are you so happy about Ron?" asked Neville.
"My idea worked! I am a great strategist!"
Lavender Brown tilted her head to one side and asked, "What strategy was that, Ron?"
Parvati blinked to prevent any other reaction on her face from showing – was her friend flirting with Ron Weasley?
"On the train, when I first got on, I made sure to find all the firsties and warn them to stay away from Slytherin and the evil snakes. Then I told 'em not to ask for Gryffindor unless they were willing to fight with trolls and giant spiders at Halloween."
"Why would you do that Ron Weasley?" growled Parvati. "We didn't get any of the first years!"
"Exactly. Fifth year prefects spend all their time showing the little kids were where the dorm is, where the loo is on every floor, helping them get to the Great Hall. Merlin, we probably have to help 'em cut up their food!" Ron was proud of himself when he concluded, "Now, we don't have to do any of that stuff."
"And we'll not have any kids for one year for all seven years…"
Waving away the complaint, Ron snorted, "Not my problem."
Harry tuned out the argument and hoped that Lavender would remember Neville's suggestion about writing to Rita Skeeter with information about Ron's behaviour being a reflection on Dumbledore's decisions. Instead, he spent a few minutes evaluating the persons seated at the staff table:
Professor Sybill Trelawney looked pickled as usual – nothing new to see there.
Hagrid was missing from his usual seat in the next place. His overly large chair was gone as well.
Professor Aurora Sinistra looked neat and professional like always. Her subject was astronomy and Harry had sometimes wondered if the witch was at least part vampire because she was only seen in the late afternoons and evenings.
Professor Septima Vector who taught Arithmancy to the purebloods and ignored the talented muggleborn and half-bloods.
Professor Filius Flitwick was being his usual jovial self when an observation became clear Harry – goblins never told jokes. The time Sowsbreath tried to laugh, the goblin had to eat dirt to repair some damage inside.
Severus Snape, the potions master, looked conflicted probably because there weren't any new Slytherins. (Harry would never refer to the man as 'professor' casually.)
In the centre was Headmaster Albus Dumbledore who was devoting himself to hanging onto his positions of power while Minister Fudge fought him tooth and nail to lose every position.
Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Slave Master and instructor for transfiguration. (Another authority figure that Harry would never refer to as 'professor' again).
Next to Judas Goat sat a witch the teenager could only describe as a toad draped in pink robes that were as bright as Dumbledore's most eye-searing robes. The headmaster introduced the woman as Dolores Umbridge, appointed to the position of High Inquisitor by Minister Fudge. Harry wondered if the inquisitor's dismissal of Hagrid explained his absence from the staff table.
Professor Pomona Sprout who taught Herbology and maintained the greenhouses that produced bushels of potions ingredients each week – that always seemed to get used up by someone.
Professor Rolanda Hooch who taught everyone to fly in their first year and then spent the rest of her time coaching the four Quidditch teams.
Professor Bathsheda Babbling taught the rune classes that Hermione had enjoyed. His best friend had encouraged him to do self-study of runes and see if he could take the OWLS for the class after his sixth year.
Professor Charity Burbage taught muggle studies though she proudly told everyone that she'd never met a real muggle in her entire life, let alone visited muggleland.
And last there was Poppy Pomfrey the infirmary matron who handed out potions for every aliment and complaint.
Harry mused, 'How do fourteen adults control all these students? With wards and tonnes of rules that aren't enforced.'
'The prefects are necessary like the bobby on the street…and the head boy and head girl are the master sergeants dispatching officers to handle small crimes,' he decided. 'Getting skipped as prefect is a plus for my studies this year.'
Dessert was being served and Harry noted the happy surprise on Dumbledore's face – lemon tarts on a Friday were a treat. The teen decided that Kreacher deserved a sincere thank you; after indulging in the tarts, the headmaster would spend much of his night in the loo.
The next day, Saturday, Harry walked around the castle careful to stay in the areas of high-traffic, the library, and the Gryffindor Common Room so Dumbledore wouldn't have any complaints about the Boy-Who-Lived disappearing into forbidden areas of the castle. But no summons came and even Judas Goat avoided him in the Great Hall. Sunday night, Harry wondered if the headmaster had decided to ignore the Boy-Who-Lived to unsettle him.
'Good,' Harry decided. 'I can work with this strategy.'
CHANGE SCENE &&***