Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter

...

Susan sat in Transfiguration, only half paying attention to what Professor McGonagall was discussing as she contemplated just what was happening at Hogwarts. While what Dolores Umbridge had laid out her plans for everybody to hear, she sincerely doubted that was all that she was here for. Undoubtedly she was here to do try and shut down any clubs that didn't fit within her own headspace of what was acceptable behavior by the students of Hogwarts but for her to come herself was surprising. After all, she was the Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic. Such a position meant that she had some aspect of power and coincidentally she had forsaken it, if temporarily, to cleanse a school of what she felt was unworthy.

Biting at the inside of her lip, Susan knew that Umbridge didn't view Harry in a positive light after their encounter back in first year. He had pulled a prank on her, choosing to dress in one of her yellow dresses when Dolores had instructed him to put some of Susan's own clothes on. While that had been the start, Susan now knew that that act alone had not drawn the true ire of the woman.

It had taken a bit of research on her part when Amelia had first informed them of what would possibly be changing at Hogwarts this year but it had been worth it. A number of newspaper clippings and some questions asked of her aunt painted Umbridge in an interesting light. Quite frankly, for Pureblooded members of Wizarding society she was their beacon. A number of laws that could have passed, ensuring easier transitions for those who didn't have magical families, failed to do so because she spoke up against it. Spoke wasn't the correct word there. In certain situations, Susan had heard that Dolores had done everything in her power to ensure that specific laws that would benefit Muggle born witches and wizards barely made the Wizengamot floor.

That had merely been the start. Purging through years worth of Daily Prophet articles, Susan had found that not only was she ruthless in her belief that anybody not of a pure wizarding background was beneath them. That wasn't restricted to Muggles either. Centaurs, Werewolves, Giants and all other sentient beings had been poorly spoken of and verbally belittled as being creatures of near human intelligence. While the giants would likely ignore such comments, were Dolores to say something like that while in the presence of a Centaur, Susan knew that the consequences could be disastrous.

While she didn't know what else Dolores had planned, the fact that she was so set in her bigoted ways meant that nobody in Hogwarts was truly safe. She would hunt down everything in the school that she felt would jeopardize the future of Wizarding Britain, even if it didn't make sense to anybody else. Susan knew of two such groups that she was actively part of that would have to be cautious in regards to how they acted. Both of them were linked to Harry and given how much Umbridge disliked the teenager, if either of them were found then it would not end well.

For the Potter Fan Club, after having been caught the previous year by Professor Lipler they were still permitted to gather round and talk about Harry or any other topic of conversation. The sheer fact that she could openly communicate with members of other houses and year levels without and sort of fear was something she believed wouldn't have been possible a decade ago. Thousands of students would have gone through Hogwarts without so much as interacting with members of other houses outside of lessons and here these students were doing so without any repercussions.

However, she sincerely doubted that Umbridge would see it that way. The sheer fact that they were titled under Harry's name made them a huge target. If they got the chance to meet they would have to come up with some sort of strategy to ensure that they weren't disbanded. Susan already had a couple of ideas in mind but she would need support in order to get the job done.

Potter Club, that was undoubtedly Umbridge's biggest target. Once more, they were named after somebody whom she held a grudge against and were actively bringing entertainment into Hogwarts. She could already imagine the woman exclaiming that school was a place of learning but would never contemplate the idea that they were learning advanced spells to effectively have fun with magic.

The real issue was if they chose to target Umbridge. She couldn't deny that it was tempting, very tempting to do so. If she wished to shut them down then why couldn't she be the target of one of their pranks? Susan knew however that if they managed to meet up without getting caught, she would have to advise against it. While it didn't seem important, preventing such a thing from happening was nearly crucial. If she understood the woman as well as she did then she would proclaim that any attack made on her would be an attack on the Ministry.

If that happened, Susan knew that nobody would escape unscathed.

...

Draco Malfoy felt off and had felt in such a way ever since that woman had introduced herself to him, simply stating that she wished to meet the son of such an impeccable member of society. Draco had composed himself well when interacting with the Undersecretary, acting as he had been taught from a young age. He knew that the woman held a position of power and those in power could always be used to one's advantage if they acted appropriately. If anything, his father would likely applaud him for having hade such a connection.

For her to give his father such praise however had sickened him. She clearly didn't know that Lucious had spent much of the early part of the year searching for, and finding, the Dark Lord. However he couldn't shake the feeling that even if she did know then nothing outside of their interaction would have changed. The woman was a leech who latched on to the highest point of power to use for her own gains and it reminded him of his father far more than he wished.

Draco had grown up in a household where he knew just what kind of man Lucious was. From the sheer pain and torment her put their old house elf through to the discussions he had with other members of the community who had been 'Under the Imperious.' His father was well respected in both the Ministry and the Dark Lord's inner circle and whichever benefited him most would be the side that he sided with.

A small nudge to his side reminded Draco that he was still in class, standing outside where the newest member of the Hogwarts staff was introducing them to a creature. A large one at that.

"This 'ere is Buckbeak," announced Hagrid, introducing the class to the animal in question.

Draco had to admit that the creature looked fierce in a way that would intimidate anybody who wasn't knowledgeable about just what it was. He listened carefully to the man he once upon a time referred to as an oaf. A very different time when he had a very different thought process. He would have called the creature a disgusting brute and the man controlling it a disgrace to Hogwarts.

It was time to show that he was no longer that boy.

Hence, when Hagrid asked for a volunteer there was a sheer amount of shock and horror from those around them when Draco Malfoy stepped forward away from his peers. He could hear the whispers coming from behind him but he paid them no attention.

"Alrigh' then..." started Hagrid, slightly perplexed by the person whom had decided to volunteer. "Very well, now easy does it. Yeh've got to keep eye contact before yeh bow."

Again, the sheer thought that he would bow to such a creature would have been completely farfetched many years prior. He could picture his father standing over his shoulder, telling him that he shouldn't bow before such vermin. He could picture Umbridge declaring that he had disgraced his father's good name by acting in such a way.

Draco hated that.

Hence, Draco bowed to the Hippogriff. Seconds ticked by without anything happening before Buckbeak bowed in return. With that single moment of recognition from an animal which could tear through his flesh with one of it's talons, Draco knew that he had decided he was going to march his own path.

...

"Boy, a word."

Harry paused, turning to face the woman he knew would be targeting. He knew that Dolores had called him a belittling title in an attempt to draw ire from him. Sadly for her, he had expected such a thing well in advance and had no intentions of reacting the way in which she wished. "Why Madam Umbridge, how have you been? I feel it's been far too long since last we met."

"If I could go the rest of my life without you in it it still wouldn't be long enough," declared Umbridge, not hiding her distaste of Harry. Harry in turn felt that these words were only being said due to the sheer fact that Umbridge had managed to catch him alone. If there were more people present she would be likely have approached the conversation in a much more passive tone. "The sheer fact that I have to speak to you is beneath me."

"In which case, why are you putting yourself through such trauma? You could just not talk to me," said Harry with a shrug.

"I am merely going to ask you what you know about the club that is named after you, surely you know something about where they meet up," stated Dolores.

"While I thank you for believing that I am capable of doing such different feats of magic, I must admit that I have little to no knowledge of who the members are or where they meet up. I missed the first ever act they did while being locked in the Hospital Wing after having taken a rather nasty fall from my broom. Later that school year, I was also targeted by the members and frozen in place so that some older students could paint a picture of me. Last I heard those paintings are currently..."

Before Harry even got the chance to continue his statement, Umbridge turned on her heel and walked away, not even bothering to give him a farewell knowing that she wouldn't be getting any relative information from him. Once she was sufficiently out of sight, Harry looked to his left where Hermione took off the invisibility cloak, popping into sight. "So that's our enemy then," she said, handing Harry back his father's cloak.

"Very set in her ways," admitted Harry. "Doesn't mean that her ways are right but there's a very slim chance of changing her mind."

"From the sheer way that she addressed you then left once she realized you weren't going to tell her anything that she wanted to hear," said Hermione as the two of them started walking towards the Common Room. "I've overheard how she approaches other students as well. There isn't quite as much hostility as what I just witnessed but they are older so I assume she's giving them a bit more respect since they're close to graduating."

"It makes sense that she's targeting older students. It means that she sees the magic being used as advanced to the point where it is only capable of being done by students in sixth or seventh year," analyzed Harry, politely waving to a couple female students who had been preparing to ambush him. With their hiding spot having been discovered, they chose to flee for another time as oppose to facing him when he had already found them.

"Is what we doing truly that advanced?" asked Hermione.

"It's not so much that it's advanced, well, certain aspects at least. A lot of the spells can be found in the library but since it's not part of the curriculum, nobody looks at them," stated Harry as he and Hermione started ascending a flight of stairs. "We just use those spells a bit differently than intended, tweak it to our liking and go from there. I mean just using the spell to make images move is something used every day in the paper but we just did it with drawn pictures. Same spell, different intent, weird and obscure result which creates entertainment."

"I mean it makes sense, especially in regards to what can be found in the library. There's a lot of theory but the spells in there are sound. If it's not required for an assignment, nobody is going to put the extra time in learning something that isn't needed. Seems a shame, knowing just how much knowledge is sitting in there not being utilized," said Hermione.

"It is a shame but there's not much that can be done about it," shrugged Harry nonchalantly. "The main issue with it is mostly the spell casting itself. Remember back in first year charms when Seamus set his feather on fire when trying to make it float?"

"Of course, he wasn't doing...oh," said Hermione as she realized what Harry was referring to.

"Everything we're doing comes with a hint of danger and a good chunk of the stuff I teach I practice well in advance, last thing we want to do is injure ourselves trying something unsupervised."

Hermione could only nod as the topic changed to more mundane things but she made certain to remember that everything she tried to learn on her own needed to be triple checked. Last thing she needed was to end up in the Hospital Wing because she mispronounced a spell or made the wrong wand movement. No wonder people didn't learn unnecessary spells.

Well, in Harry's terminology they weren't quite unnecessary, just waiting to be used in an alternate setting.

...

After the first week had produced minimal results in Dolores' hunt for the truth as to what was happening at Hogwarts. She knew that it would be a while after her announcement for somebody to make a move but finding no leads had been disheartening.

Hence, when she spotted a group of young boys spending their Sunday afternoon kicking a quaffle sized white ball around she found herself a suitable target. The ball wasn't floating, it wasn't flashing different colors or making the grass it ran over greener. It was just a ball. A Muggle item that needed to be destroyed in order to prove to the students that she was not to be trifled with.

Marching forward, she took aim and without a word of warning shot forth a Diffindo and pierced the ball as it was in mid movement. The swift deflation of the item boosted her feelings and without the need to explain why she had done as she had, she marched back towards the castle and pondered as to how best to next approach her task.

With her back turned however, she was unable to see the vindictive glares being sent in her direction.

...

"I'm not sure if this is a good idea."

"It isn't but we can't live in fear of what one woman wants."

"But that's just it, she's not just a woman, she's a member of the Ministry."

"And we are students of a school who have the right to enjoy whatever we want in our spare time."

"I mean, I can't really fault that."

"So, are you with me?"

"I am."

"Good."

And with that, the two Hogwarts students pinned up their announcement on the Common Room noticeboard. When they got the chance, they knew that they would have to give the same information to members of other houses who would put it in their rooms accordingly. The message was a simple one but it needed to be told to as many people as possible, regardless of their age, gender or house.

Triple M, the Muggle Music Members, would be hosting their first jam of the year the upcoming Tuesday after dinner for a quick session before curfew. They were willing to play their hand, now they would witness just what would come of it.

...

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