The Boys Who Lived

CHAPTER 17

It was getting to be that time of year, when spring was just around the corner and that meant end of the semester tests were right around the around the corner. With all the studying they were doing days became weeks, and weeks became months, and before you knew it, it was two weeks before the end of semester and they were looking at end of term pre-tests and practice quizzes from teachers all over the place. It was horrible.

The charms class wasn’t that bad they learned Carpe Retractum from it, and that was fun. What it did was created an magic or invisible rope and pulled whatever you aimed at, to you. I know it sounds confusing but think of it like your throwing out a fishing line and reeling in what ever you catch, that is what it was like, ha ha ha. Harry caught Luna on his first try and she squealed not exactly knowing what the feeling was it surprised her and then she ended up doing the same to him. They had people pulling each other around the room all over the place during the class right and left. Some people were real good with the spell and others needed a little help but our four needed no help at all, Pavarti had a lot of fun pulling Neville off his feet when he wasn’t looking and surprising him. It was like a game to her, and she played it well.

They also covered Ascendio, which Harry seemed to master in one try. Ascendio allowed the caster to lift or hover in the air. Harry figured out if you combined the two then you could have one person running and the other person pulling them along without them ever touching the ground, and now all they needed was a feather light charm and it would be effortless on that person and they could go for hours like that. Talk about strategic advantage if necessary. Harry and his strategic thinking.

Then came potions class they finally did the Fire Protection Potion that Harry thought they were going to cover a long time ago thankful no one made a mistake on that one. It really is a straight forward potion to tell you the truth.

And then they did something everyone needed right about then, Headache Potion level two. They had done level one last year and this one was just a harder, more advanced version of that one, plus it is a stronger one for worse headaches. Finnigan messed his up and had to redo his, but that isn’t abnormal either. He just forgot to keep stirring his potion when he added his ashwinder eggs and it melted his cauldron.

In Transfigurations class they learned Crepundicacatulus it was hard to say but easy to perform really. And it turned a stuffed kitten into a real kitten for a limited time frame. And Luna had a ball with that one, she was surrounded with cute and cuddly kittens that just loved to lick and cuddle with her. It was so cute, Harry decided he was going to get her a real kitten for her birthday this year. The way she was giggling and laughing she would love it.

Then they learned Crystallumconcrum and turned a standard crystal into a crab. Everyone had a different style of crab to choose of course, and everyone knew they were going to be doing the spell. So they had looked up the most weird crab they could find. Harry went with the Spider crab, Neville went with the Chesapeake blue crab, Pavarti went with the Ocypodudae crab, and Luna went with the Flower crab for their first crabs. Then for their second crabs they decided to have some fun and took a standard Dungeness crab and turn it all kind of interesting colors. But Luna’s rainbow Dungeness crab seemed to be a hit and so did Pavarti’s snowflake Dungeness crab. This got everyone in the room making all kinds of Dungeness crabs, Malfoy had a particularly beautiful one that had the midnight sky with realistic stars on it and got twenty points for his effort on that one. The kids had made crabs before so they didn’t get points but Pavarti did and she got twenty points for her deep rich blue crab that had little moving snowflakes on it too. Although even she couldn’t figure out how she got the snowflakes to move, she just said that’s what she wanted it to do, so it did. This got everyone trying to make something that moved on their crab and so Harry made one that was aquatic and had little fish swimming by, and joked no one would ever see that crab now. In the end it was a real fun class, hard to pronounce but a fun class.

In History of Magic the first week of reviews they did nothing but study all the laws they had covered for the last year, the underage laws, the squib laws, the werewolf laws, the muggle laws, the laws of secrecy, how laws were made, punishments for breaking the laws, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

Then Professor Lupin thought they needed a break so he invited more guest speakers. This time it was Theodor Tonks who is a Barrister. Andromeda Tonk who is a Healer. And finally Kingsley Shackelbolt and Nymphadora (Tonks) Tonks who are Aurors. The class had a lot of fun asking all kinds of questions and didn’t want the class to end. And everyone said they would love to come to the other second year class as well, so they stayed around and appeared for the Slytherin, Hufflepuff class as well.

In Defense Against the Dark Arts they studied Erklings, little elf like magical beast that are about three feat tall that like to lure children to them with their high pitched laugh and kill them then eat them. They also enjoy throwing darts at people. They are a class XXXX magical beast but they are easy to kill by using Carpe Retractum or bashing them over the head with the closest heavy object. They appear to be made of roots, thorns and vines so anything that will kill that, will also kill a Erkling as well, so fire works just as well. A good Incendio would do a would of good against them. And that is exactly what Harry put on his list, Carpe Retractum and Incendio.

In Herbology they had the Chameleon Carnations which could change color depending on what was near them, making them very sought after in bouquets by florists. They learned how to repot them and give them the best nutrients to help keep their color changing ability at it’s peak, and how to harvest them without harming them so they would maintain their color changing ability even if they had been harvested. All in all it was a fascinating plant.

For Care of Magical Creatures they had a Moke, silly little thing that it is, is a lizard found only in Great Britain or Ireland and is about ten inches long, not including it’s whip like tail, when it is full grown. A Moke has one unique ability, it can shrink it’s size at will, this makes it’s hides very valuable, Moke skin bags are frequently used to make money bags or purses in the Wizarding World. Mokes are very fast and hard to catch but other than that they are easy to farm if you have a Moke License that is. It lives mainly on bugs but it will occasionally go for some nice juicy larva when it finds some. They make fair pets but cost quite a bit to get them live so don’t expect to be getting one on your birthday or anything.

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With the last week of classes finished it was time for testing to start and no one felt they were ready for that, well except for the regular four, they had been studying and working hard for almost a month now. Even using the Room of Requirements and setting up their trunks as potion rooms and working on potions together, of course they included Susan in everything, hoping she wouldn’t feel left out, of course that was when they could pry her away from Cedric, Hell they even invited him to most of their study sessions as well. And let him borrow Neville’s trunk while Neville and Harry worked in Harry’s trunk together on potions, after all he had all those potions books in there anyway. Their books really helped Cedric with his studying too so he was thrilled to up there with them.

Test week started and unlike the rest of the school our group was excited about the tests. They had studied and were well prepared and had even spent last night playing music and dancing the night away with the whole band included. Even prickly Percy came down for a break, just to get to play guitar with Cedric again before the summer started, who knew when they would get another chance to play together would be. They had a blast, the room was set with the acoustics just right and the echo was perfect. About half past ten the adult came to check on everyone and caught them dancing to the Wizarding Wireless and joined in on the fun and had the elves bring down refreshment to the room too. It was close to curfew when the gang finally stopped playing and dancing, everyone so had needed that stress relieve, Percy wouldn’t admit it but it probably did him more good the reading all night anyway.

Monday from 9:00a to 12:00p Transfiguration
Monday from 1:00p to 4:00p Charms
Tuesday from 9:00a to 12:00p History of Magic
Tuesday from 1:00p to 4:00p Potions
Wednsday from 9:00a to 12:00p Herbology
Wednsday from 1:00p to 4:00p Defense Against the Dark Arts
Thurday from 9:00a to 12:00p Care of Magical Creatures
Thurday from 1:00p to 2:30p Astrology part 1
Thurday from 9:00p to 10:30p Astrology part 2

The test schedules were handed out at breakfast on Monday and Harry realized it was going to be a lot like last year. With only a couple exceptions. Once again Thursday was loaded and Friday was free. Thankfully.

First was Transfigurations, it was basic matching the name of the transfiguration with the result for the first half of the test, then it was fill in the blank for the other half. For the practical they had go all the way back and turn a block of wood into a flower. Thankfully they had practiced that one right along with all the rest of the newer ones that they had learned.

Next was Charms and it was mostly fill in the blank, with three essay questions at the end, with the history of Tarantellegra, Expelliarmus and Scourgify which the kids did great on. Those were easy to remember since they made such a big impression on the four of them. The practical was Tarantellegra where you had to make a pineapple dance. Harry got extra points because he made his pineapple do the cha cha perfectly.

Tuesday started off bright and early with History of Magic was mostly about the laws they had studied, it was fill in the blanks for twenty questions and matching for another twenty then the final ten was were essay questions that were based on the visitors they had had come in during the year. There were two extra credit questions that they all filled out as well they were completely subjective but interesting anyway.

Then it was Potions, it was all all matching which would have been easy but you had to match the ingredient list to the potion. They had three essay questions on the history of three different potions and, then their practical was the Smoke Screen Potion so that was a breeze for them as well.

Wednesday was starting off so well then they had Herbology and had a to prove they knew how to feed Leaping Toadstools properly, which of course they all did, and the how to properly prepare a Tiger Lily for harvest into potion ingredients. Then they had a twenty question quiz on various plants they had explored during the year with some extra credit on a couple they had talked about but hadn’t had a chance to really explore yet, just to see if anyone had gone and looked up the information on those plants and of course thanks to Neville they had looked them up and knew all about them.

Defense Against the Dark Arts was was fill in the blanks and was basically that list that they had been working on all year. If you had filled it in and studied it then you knew all the answers. There were five essay questions at the end about Lethifolds, Crups, Red Caps, Dementors and Pixies. Then the practical was to see if you could do a Flippendo properly, and for extra credit if you could do Expecto Patronum (even a good mist got you at least partial points).

Thursday, the last day of tests, thank goodness. They started with Care of Magical Creatures and with that there was a simple twenty match the creature to it’s most prominent fact about that creature. Then he had them draw a picture of a Demiguise and label it’s parts for their practical.

The Astrology practical for the first part was to match the star into the correct constellation, then there were five ’simple’ astrological constellations and you had to label what constellations.

Astrology part two was the actual practical and for it, there were five telescopes set up to certain stars and you had to tell what constellation it was set up to, and the second part you were given a choice, to choose from ten different constellations, you chose to find it with a telescope then name each star in that constellation.

Friday morning they all gathered out at the grassy knoll by the Black Lake and just relaxed in the sun for awhile, well most of them relaxed. Hermione was still going through books seeing if her answers had been right or thorough enough and fretting over that, but that was normal for her so everyone over looked her behavior and just laid back in the grass and relaxed anyway.

“That History of Magic test was the hardest I think, what about you?” Neville asked.

“Yeah. I think so, all those subjective answers, who knows if we got them right or not.” Harry stated.

“And the extra credit questions, geez I don’t know about that, I just kinda put anything I could think of down.” He said.

“I think that is pretty much what everyone did, I think that is what the question was for. One of those, there is no right or wrong answer questions, only opinions.” Harry had to agree with his brother, the questions seemed to be there only for your opinion and nothing else.

“I think he wanted to know where we all stood emotionally and psychologically, in comparison to some of his other classes. He is always saying we are so much more mature than others and so I think this was his sneaky way of getting the answer without asking the question.” Luna stated dreamily.

“Yes, it seemed pretty obvious he was fishing for information, and he knew we couldn’t pass up extra credit questions, so why not put the questions right there. I mean he could ask everyone and get a comparison of how everyone would answer it and see just how mature we really were by answering those questions in comparison to the others, simple.” Pavarti stated.

“I think I missed those questions, I think I was too clinical and not enough of my answer was actually an answer to the question at all.” Hermione fretted.

“Hermione you got a perfect on the rest of the rest of the questions so why worry about the extra credit questions or not?” Susan asked.

“It may make the difference between getting an O and an O with honors, and I am shooting for the moon this year. After last years card my parents know how good I can really do, they expect only the best. That is what they kept saying all summer long, ‘We expect only the best out of you, young lady, and we know we are going to get it.’ And they would just beam with pride and love. I want to make them proud of me and happy so I try so hard to do so.” Hermione was practically in tears by the time she finished.

“Calm down Hermione you are going to give yourself an ulcer before you reach puberty if you continue like this.” Pavarti said.

“I know but I can’t help it, if I don’t do well they will be crushed, and demand to know what happened how am I going to explain that two good friends were kidnapped and tortured for ten days until they escaped and then another one was murdered and one more almost died in the same brutal attack right inside our school. How do I explain all that? Oh sorry Susan! That was cruel to say…”

“Perhaps, but it is true, how would you explain this to parents… I mean they wouldn’t understand all this. I mean my parents, if they had been alive probably would have pulled me from school when the whole thing with Bellatrix happened. Then the issue with Hannah never would have happened and she would be alive today. Maybe.” Susan said sadly.

“Look Susan there are thousands of what ifs out there and none of them we have control over because we will never know. All we know are the here and nows. Maybe if I hadn’t been lazy and escorted you all down to the bathrooms then Pansy never would have had the nerve to start something and none of it would have happened. Or she would have said it and I simply would have put her to sleep and left her locked in the loo for the rest of the trip. Who knows, we will never know. But the fact remains that none of that happened we have you, and we are glad we have you, we thank the gods every day that we have you still, we miss Hannah with all our heart but we thank the gods that we still have you too.” Harry said. And everyone else nodded.

“Well isn’t this touching. Thought you all could get away with it after breaking up our quidditch team did ya’ ?” Miles Bletchley asked.

“Go away Bletchley your stench is starting to wilt the grass around here.” Harry stated. He now noticed that Bletchley didn’t come alone, he had Graham Montague, Peregrine Derrick and Lucian Bole, most the other members of the Slytherin Quidditch team had come down apparently to talk to them.

“I don’t think I will, I have a word or two to say to you all, and you are going to listen whether you like it or not. We are not going to stand by and let you get away with this, sending our best players to Azkaban for nothing, using one curse each on a damn half blood, and it was all Bones’ fault for not knowing her place with her betters. She should have just stepped aside and let Parkinson into the bathroom ahead of her and nothing else would have been said, but no she had to punch her for no reason, Parkinson just pointed out the truth, their blood status, no way to hide it, you can’t put pretty little names on it and make it all sound sweet and innocent…it is still the same no matter how you call it. She called them names, so what, Bones didn’t have to hit her. Bones is the one responsible for all of this and Flint, Parkinson, and Pucey are the ones paying for her actions.” Montague stated.

Lucian Bole nodded and continued, “Yeah it should be her that is going to Azkaban, not the three of them. She started it all. A little harmless name calling and it ended up with our people in house arrest or Azkaban. She is responsible, and we intend to see that things are settled here right now. We’re going to make sure your whole little group never sees the light of day again either but in a whole different way.”

Peregrine Derrick who had been quiet up until now, finally spoke and said, “That’s right, we are going to mess you up permanent like and make sure you and your friends here leave our people alone for good. We’re tired of you getting favoritism and getting away with everything just because your related to the teachers.”

“We don’t get away with anything, because we haven’t ever done anything to get away with. And you are not going to mess her or anyone else up.” Harry looked over to Neville and said “Dark Green?” His brother nodded and said back “and Orange.” And before the other boys could so much as breath both Neville and Harry were shooting colored balls at them, both dark green (sleep) and orange (binding) balls were being hurled at the boys and doing their job masterfully. When all the boys were out cold and tied up all nice and neat, they sent of patronus messages to the Headmistress, Professor Lovegood, Sirius Black and Amelia Bones.

It took all of five minutes for them all to arrive and find the Slytherin boys that were going to attack them asleep and bound on the Hogwarts grounds, and the kids just fine a little shaken up, especially Susan, but otherwise just fine.

“What is the meaning of all of this?” The Headmistress asked, looking straight at Harry for an answer.

Harry glared at her for a minute. “Your bullying procedures at work once again Headmistress, this time we managed to cut them off before it went too far. Let me guess, a months detention for both Neville and I for preventing them from Killing Susan like they just stated they were going to do?”

“There will be no detentions until we know what happened here, will someone kindly fill me in?” Amelia asked.

“I’m not saying anything until I have the Headmistress’ word that I won’t get detention for protecting Susan and the rest of us.” Harry stated, still staring only at the Headmistress.

“Same here.” Neville said.

“Susan?” Amelia tried.

“No, unless we get a guarantee from the Headmistress we aren’t opening our mouths, not this time, not ever again. It’s not worth it. You can go with what you see here and what you can get from them with Veritaserum for all I care. But it won’t come from us. She likes to take the aggressors word over the victims anyway, so it should be something she is comfortable with, and something she prefers.” Susan shook her head at her Aunt. She hated to be so assertive towards her aunt but she just wouldn’t give in this time, not after what happened last time.

“Very well, I will do nothing until I hear the whole story. And no detentions if it proves you were only acting in self-defense.” The Headmistress said. She didn’t like herself being pushed into a corner by a bunch of stubborn students but they had to have answers and they weren’t getting them this way.

“Very well, Jeeves!” Harry shouted. Jeeves popped onto the grounds of Hogwarts right in front of Harry and asked how he could serve Harry.

“Could you go get my pensieve from my trunk and bring it here please.” And with a snap that is exactly what he did, in a few moments he brought back the requested item and created a podium on which to place the pensieve and then Harry placed his memory of the recent events into the pensieve and put it on broadcast so that everyone could see them at the same time.

As they watched the memory the Headmistress’ lips drew into a strait line and seemed to disappear. Sirius growled low and frowned and Amelia glared at the memory then over at the boys that were blissfully sleeping away on the ground.

“Very well, self-defense, no detentions, no points taken. Now we need to do something about them. Threatening to kill multiple students is a little more than wanting to punch someone’s lights out, they had every intention of killing these children, so what do we do? They were stopped before they could follow through with anything so who should handle this?” The Headmistress turned to the Bones, Lovegood, and Black for advice this time before she acted.

“Terroristic threats is still a crime, one that will get them three to five years in Azkaban even at their age. And we have all the proof we need for that. Multiple witnesses and pensieve memories will see those charges placed and stuck. I think it best if we approach this from a completely legal point of view, what they did was illegal and now they are going to pay, if their Barrister manages to talk the Wizengamot down to one year in Azkaban that is not your problem. The only thing you must think about is whether to expel them or not?” Amelia stated rather matter of factually.

“It has always been school policy if the student commits an infraction great enough to require legal action being taken against them then their wands are snapped and they are expelled from Hogwarts. If at a later date their Barrister wished to petition for reentry into Hogwarts he would of course have that right, but it would go before the full school board and need to be approved of before them. I believe I will follow your suggestion and follow that mandate, the boys clearly threatened the life of multiple students with intent to kill said students. Those actions have legal ramifications. The boy’s wands will be snapped and they will be expelled as of today. Boy’s if you could wake them up please. I believe we have some young men to take to my office for a chat, then Madam Bones will be escorting them off property if I am not mistaken.” The Headmistress looked over to Amelia who nodded who sent off a Patronus Message for backup, since there were four boys, she would have to escort to the department in a few minutes.

Harry and Neville woke up Miles Bletchley, Graham Montague, Peregrine Derrick and Lucian Bole and soon the boys were looking around wondering what was going on and how they got on the ground and tied up. Yelling profanities at Harry and Neville since they were the closest ones to them, apparently they couldn’t see the Professors standing just a few feet away.

“That will be quite enough out of you four.” The Headmistress stated. “We will be going up to my office where you will hand over your wands and you will be expelled. Your actions today proved you are unworthy to wield such dangerous implements and therefore they shall be snapped and you will be handed over to Madam Bones from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement who will be taking you in to file charges of Terroristic Threats made to multiple underage individuals. A crime that carries between three and five years in Azkaban.”

Graham Montague immediately started shouting, “I demand to speak to my father, I demand to see my Barrister!”

“And you shall, after your wand is snapped, and you are expelled from Hogwarts of course. You are all welcome to call whom ever you wish to go with you down to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. But you are being expelled and your wand is being snapped. If at a later date you wish to try and reenroll in Hogwarts you will have to go to the Board of Governors and get their approval, but I can tell you this much, if you get reentry into the school you will be on probation until you graduate, which means you step out of line even once, your grades falter in the slightest, your attitude is abusive in any manner and you will be expelled permanently. Now are you going to come quietly or does Madam Bones have to body bind you and we escort you that way?” The Headmistress was taking no prisoners this round.

It was decided just to leave them bound for now and float them up to the Headmistress’ office like that then and floated them along the grounds with the other kids following alongs. Since their memories and testimony still needed to be gathered.

Once in the Headmistress’ office they locked the door and unbound the boys who immediately tried to run, but soon realized it was futile. So they stood glumly in front of the Headmistress’ desk and handed over their wands one by one. As she explained what rules they had broken and the ramifications of said rules they nodded in understanding with silent tears falling down their cheeks, wincing as she broke their wands.

Then each boy was allowed to go over and call a parent or parents to come through the floo Darrion Montegue came through the floo and with a look of discuss as he dusted off his robes, then turned to his son.

Peregrine Derrick’s mother, Andorra, came through the floo looking extremely annoyed at being disturbed at that time of day. She too looked to her son for an explanation.

Kevin Bletchley strode out of the floo looking flustered, he looked around and found his son then went up to him and said.”What did I say, you are not to call me unless you are being expelled or your dying…your not dying are you boy?”

“Are you being expelled? Well tell me boy are you being expelled? I’m busy, I have a meeting and I need to get back to it, are you being expelled?” Kevin Bletchley grabbed his son by the front of his shirt and started to shake him.

“Actually Mr. Bletchley he is.” The Headmistress stated.

“What! What have you done now boy? What trouble have you caused? How could you go and get yourself expelled! What did I tell you boy!” And with that he slapped Miles across the face as hard as he could, knocking the boy to the ground. Sirius went over there and grabbed Mr. Bletchley and wrapped his arms around his back before he could strike Miles again. Miles was curled up in a fetal position on the floor with his arms over his head, trembling as if waiting for he next blow to hit.

“Mr. Bletchley perhaps you would like to meet Madam Bones, the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.” The Headmistress stated. This announcement caused the man to quit struggling with Sirius and focus on the three women in the room.

“I see that I have your attention, Mr Bletchley, I am of course Minerva McGonagall the Headmistress of Hogwarts, this is Amelia Bones the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and this is Persephone Lovegood his head of Slytherin house. And Sirius Black our Transfigurations Professor as well as Harry James Potter Black’s father.”

About that time Havgard Bole joined them in the room, just as confused as all the rest of the parents. Looking to his son for an explanation all he got was a view of the top of his son’s head when he wouldn’t even lift his head to look his father in the face.

“I know you all want answers and I wish to give them to you, Harry if you would please.” The Headmistress once again indicated to the pensieve and Harry floated the pensieve over to her desk and set the pensieve to project once again and again it played a picture of the event that had triggered the snapping of the wands and the expulsion of the four boys.

After the memory played Mr. Bletchley came back with “That was just some boys joking around, and you expelled them for that, I will have you sued for this!”

“Considering Terroristic Threats are a crime that maintains a penalty of three to five years in Azkaban, Hogwarts is mandated to expel these young men for their threats, even if they didn’t have the opportunity to go farther than words…what you would have preferred they have been allow to kill someone first then they be stopped?” The Headmistress asked.

“That’s not what I’m saying, but it is just school yard stuff, bluffs, no more. They would never have done it.” Mr. Bletchley tried again.

“We just buried one twelve year little girl two months ago on something that started with mere words, and one of the children that was being threatened was a survivor of the very same attack. We almost lost her as well. They threatened to kill her this time for good all because the ones that murdered that poor child were made to face their own actions. Your son was stopped before it could go that far, for a very good reason. And he has been expelled for the same reason. If you and your Barrister wish to petition the School Board for reentry into Hogwarts after they have served their time in Azkaban then by all means do so, but I should let you know that the crime the threats they made are not taken lightly and are very real in nature. We have multiple witnesses and multiple memories of said event as you just watched one of those memories. They will be charged for their crimes as adults undoubtedly since they are all sixteen and seventeen. That means they will be facing those one to three year sentences.” The Headmistress stated.

“I want those boys that raised their wands against my son also charged with something. I want them charged with assault!” Demanded Andorra Derrick.

“That is impossible, since no wand was used. Harry James Potter Black and Neville Longbottom used a form of spell ball that is not illegal to use or reregistered as a form of magic on any books that we currently have on file.” Amelia started.

“Dragon dung, I bet it is just some fancy wand work and fake lights. I want them charged!” She demanded again.

Harry and Neville both handed their wands over to the Headmistress then turned and looked at each other, “Purple?” Neville asked. Harry nodded “And orange.” Harry added. And with that they turned and two spell balls were hurled at Mrs. Derrick knocking her to the ground with a shreik.

“And that madam were spell balls, curtesy of Harry Black and Neville Longbottom, no wands as you can see, just spell balls that they create. They have been doing them since they were less than two years old. They captured Bellatrix Lestrange both times with those spell balls, and they captured Albus Dumbledore as well. So they have been registered in the Magical Court of Law several years ago, therefore I wouldn’t go the route of saying they used a wand on your boys because no one would believe you, when the boys tell them they used spell balls.” Persephone Lovegood stated.

The boys released Mrs Derrick from her bindings and helped her up, which she accepted, surprise, surprise.

Once back on her feet she seemed to have a new respect for the boys and nodded to both of them, acknowledging both of them and thanking them both. They simply nodded back and left it at that. Not wanting to embarrass Mrs. Derrick or anything.

“Alright people enough of this, the prisoners are going to be going down to headquarters with me for booking and formal questioning, if you wish please follow, if you wish to contact a Barrister please do so once we get to the Ministry of Magic’s Legal Offices.” With that Amelia gathered up the memory from the pensieve and nodded to Shackelbolt to place the portkey on each handcuffed prisoner that would take them to separate holding cells that were already prepared for them.

Amelia was so glad that Minerva had figured out how to alter the Wards to allow some very limited portkeys through the wards and the list was very short indeed. That list included a portkey created by one of Minerva’s staff, herself or Amelia. And those are the only ones that could get through. And even those only specific staff members are allowed the ability to create a portkey. That included the four head of houses, Professor Longbottom, Professor Lovegood, Professor Black, Professor Lupin, and Madam Pomfrey. And of course herself. McGonagall had trained each one on how to make a portkey and each one had agree to use the ability wisely.

Soon the boys were gone and Amelia, Shackelbolt, John Dawlish, and trainee Nymphadora Tonks along with her mentor Alastor Moody came through to take control of the boys now stepped back through the floo to go tend to their prisoners and prepare them for questioning.

It turns out that Marcus Flints father, Orion Flint, had contacted the boys and offered then one thousand gold each to kill Susan and her friends. Their confession took the charges of simple terroristic threat to attempted murder.

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It was lunchtime when they received their grades back and everyone was in an uproar to see them, well all but Hermione she was too afraid to look.

Harry got all O’s with Honors in Transfiguration, Charms, Potions, and Care of Magical Creatures but With Distinction in Defense Against the Dark Arts and History of Magic. Number one in the year.

Neville got all O’s with Honors in Potions, History of Magic, Charms, and Defense Against the Dark Arts, and With Distinctions in Transfiguration and Herbology. Number two in the year.

Luna got all O’s with Honors in History of Magic, Astrology, Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts, and with Distinctions in Potions and Care of Magical Creatures. Number three in the year.

Pavarti got all O’s with Honors in History of Magic, Care of Magical Creatures, Defense against the Dark Arts, and Potions, and With Distinctions in Charms and Astrology. Number four in the year.

1.) Harry James Potter Black
2.) Neville Franklin Longbottom
3.) Luna Selene Lovegood
4.) Pavarti Patil
5.) Padma Patil
6.) Susan Amelia Bones
7.) Hermione Jean Granger
8.) Draco Lucian Malfoy
9.) Daphne Elizabeth Greengrass
10.) Anthony Webster Goldstein

Pavarti looked at the list and smiled, “Padma made it up three slots to number five this year, she must be so proud of herself, I am so proud of her. I can’t wait until I tell Mata and Papa. They will be beyond themselves.”

“And there goes Luna to tell her parents about her grades, bet a gold on a happy dance again.” Harry started.

“No bet.” Neville stated.

“Sucker’s bet.” Pavarti laughed.

“Yep. Happy dance, here we go, death by chocolate ice cream.” Harry smiled. “Hey, I want some of that caramel, toffee, nut fudge ice cream they had last time we went there. That was brilliant.”

“I will stick with my Hawaiian special, thank you very much. Wow delicious.” Neville smiled and licked his lips.

“I liked that hot fudge, lava brownie that I got that one time, maybe I will try that again. It’s no death by chocolate ice cream but it’s close enough.” Grinned Pavarti.

Everyone was smiling and laughing until Hermione came over and wanted to compare her grade cards with their’s since they were the top four.

So it appeared their four wiped the board with the With Distinctions this year. This really upset Hermione since she didn’t get a single one.

They explained that they had been working almost non stop for more than the last month and quite honestly they deserved it. She said she though it was favoritism, and that the tests were wrong some how.

“First, the tests are not scored by the teachers here, they are sent out to the Ministry to score just for that reason alone, to guarantee equality and impartiality on all fronts. The tests are done totally blind, all the people grading the test know is a number, no names. When they are returned that is when they match the scores to the name and that is how they figure out who made what score. So say all you want about your scores but you can’t say the system is faulty since they have used the same system for over a hundred years with success. If you are upset that we happen to get all the ‘With Distinctions’ and you got none? We are sorry, but we worked our asses off to get those scores, and we deserve them. If you still feel that you were robbed, go talk to the school board and ask to speak to the person that graded the extra credit questions for that particular class. See if you got full marks, or what you could have done to get full marks. That would be the only place we could have differed.” Harry said.

With that Hermione gathered her things and left in a huff.

“What is she griping about she got all O’s with honors in Potions, Charms, Astrology, Transfigurations, and Defense Against the Dark Arts, that’s saying a lot right there. Honors if five subjects, why is she griping?” Harry asked.

“You know her, if we had Honors in two subject she had to have it in three, if we had With Distinctions in one she had to have it in two. It is all some form of competition to her, and of course she has to win. I know that Padma will be upset that she couldn’t get any With Distinctions either but then again she will be so proud of mine she will not care very much, I know she will have several with Honors on her’s that I will be thrilled for her anyway.” Pavarti stated.

Luna nodded, “Unfortunately, that is very true for Hermione she sees our success as her failure. Instead of being happy with us, she is mad at herself for not doing better so she is demanding to know why she wasn’t given a higher score, so she doesn’t have to feel like such a failure any more. Last year when you two came up with two new Transfigurations she just had to try and do one too. She tried all summer to come up with one and none of hers worked, she spent her whole summer miserable at her failures instead of enjoying her time off. This summer she will probably try and figure out how you make spell balls and see if she can conquer that one. Anything to make herself your equal, or your superior I should say.”

“I like competition, but only when it’s fun, not when I feel like I am out to prove something or better yet when I have to prove something. Then it becomes a chore and those are no fun. I have to say I am glad I have no more classes than I do with her, she is always trying to out shine us when we talk, trying to expand on what ever we say or point we make, why can’t she come up with her own ideas, or talk about her own suppositions, it makes no sense to me. It’s like she just wants to outshine our own instead of coming up with something unique on her own. If I say the Minister for Magic is a good Minister because he has ratified more crime based judgements during his ten-year. She will add and he has done so in half the time of his predecessor. If I state he has more werewolf laws ratified during his rein, she will jump in and state that his predecessor had none. Why can’t she state that his seriousness towards law enforcement has upheld in crime prevention but he needs to update and enforce better laws surrounding the care of prisoners in Azkaban as well, since laws pertaining to prisoner in Azkaban haven’t been changed since the early nineteen hundreds. Why not do something like that? Why not come up with her own thought?” Harry asked, Hermione was one person he just couldn’t figure out and he wasn’t quite sure he wanted too. He decided a long time ago he would just accept her the way she was and forget her idiosyncrasies and go on about his business, but times like this it makes it hard to over look some of them.

“That is just the way she is, she is afraid her idea might not be what the teacher is looking for or not be on the right subject or get the right response. So she piggy backs on your idea and adds to your idea hopping to get browny points for doing it. But don’t worry, the teacher just sees it for its worth, trying to out do the rest of the class, not actually participation in the class. That is why her class participation score is always an average grade and not outstanding. That is probably why she doesn’t get her With Distinctions she wants so bad. Class participation and original thought. Oh she can regurgitate an entire book for you but where is the original thought in that. Her scores on her extra credit questions will never reach their highest point until she learns to write her suppositions with some form of original thought in them. Maybe it is some wild and unimagined hair brained idea like mine sometimes, but you have to admit, it is original.” Luna smiled sweetly.

“That is one thing people have to admit about you Luna, your nothing if not original.” Harry laughed.

Luna giggled “Thank you, that is the sweetest thing you have ever said to me.” And she blushed so sweetly that it made Harry blush.

Neville just rolled his eyes and shook his head. His brother didn’t even realize how bad he had it for Luna. And how bad she had it for him. At least he realized how much he was beginning to feel towards Pavarti, oh yeah he was very aware of his feelings. And he looked over to her as she watched him watch them. This caused him to blush, well damn. Okay now he was doing it. Have to think of something else.

“Did Professor Lovegood say when he thought Ventus and Tonitru were going to foal?” Okay so it was the first thing he could come up with, so sue him.

“Late June early July from the looks of things. I can hardly wait. They are already beginning to start to nest. They have each picked out a stall they like and are beginning to fix it up the way they like it, we put extra bales of hay in there for them to rip apart and build a nest bed for their foal. We are also mucking their stalls more often, it seems to make them more happy. And so does the massages we have been giving them. Fred, George, Susan and Cedric have been coming down to visit them almost every day, now that they are getting so close to foaling and the girls don’t seem to mind at all. Which is strange because they are really being short tempered with everyone else. I wonder if that means anything?”

Not giving Neville a chance to answer she rambled on. “But who knows with Darcorns? It could mean something real important or it could just be they think they are really nice and they like our friends.” Pavarti stated after thinking about if for a moment or two. “I’ve been going down twice a day and brushing Tonitru and giving her a rubdown, she love her rubdowns. I think it helps with the heaviness she is feeling from the pregnancy, and I have been giving her snacks, lots of boar meat goodies while I am there, on top of her regular meals. Luna and I have been walking Ventus and Tonitru around the Lake in the afternoon, I take a little bag of boar chunks and rabbit chunks for her to nibble on as we go. She seems to really enjoy getting out of the stall and just taking the slow walks around the lake seems to help her some, well both of them I mean. Luna has been giving Ventus rabbit and deer and she just prances right along sniffing the bag every now and then and Luna hands her a piece of meat from it. She is really enjoying her pregnancy I can tell you that, Ventus is on a deer and rabbit kick and and Tonitru is on a boar and rabbit kick.” Pavarti said.

She continued. “And get this from what Padma says Fulgura is also on a boar and rabbit kick as well, although Procella is on a deer and buffalo meat right now although she was going though a stage of wanting therestral and bear for a week or so go figure she nearly broke out of her pen to go after a heard of therestrals she wanted one so bad, and we had to get some therestral meat for her, which is very, very expensive mind you. And then she got picky with deer and decided she wanted bear instead, something with a little more fat on it but sweeter. So we had to find someone that sold bear meat, we had to go to the Americas for that. That Darcorn fits her rider to a tee, out doing everyone in someway or other. A little more unique, a little more different, a little harder to find, a little more difficult to work with. It is always something. You would think Hermione would get the hint but all she does is praise her Darcorn and turn around and spoil her rotten. But then again I do with Tonitru too so I can’t fault her for that.”

Neville knew once he got her talking about the Darcorns that there would be no stopping her but good grief…

“How have Thunder and Storm been, from what I can see they go around strutting and acting all big and proud out in the corral when ever there are any visitors as if to say, see what we did? We did that. Four mares… that’s right four mares. And especially Storm, you would think his is the head rooster out there. He prances so proud of himself. Good lord he is ridiculous some times, it is adorable to watch how he will heard together his three and nuzzle and love on all three of his, like saying I played tag with all three of these mares and won, see there’s the proof. Thunder isn’t quite so bad, but he still has his moments, he gets his tail swishing and his steps get high and he starts throwing his head all about, as if he is saying you may have three but look at my little beauty over hear…just look at her. Procella just goes nuts when he does that. She gets all prance and sweet, she nuzzles up to him and whinnies, they end up just rubbing their necks together and whinnying together for so long, I think it does Procella a lot of good to have Thunder so attentive to her. I’m kinda glad she was picked separately instead of one of several like Tonitru was. Tonitru has fun playing with the other mares and teasing Storm, vying for his affection, to her it is like it is a huge game and she won it. She is waiting for the delivery of her prize now.” Pavarti giggled as she described her Darcorn.

“Yeah like Hermione, I don’t think Procella would do well if she had been picked by Storm after he picked the twins, she would feel left out all the time or in constant competition and be moody or grumpy instead of happy and playful like Ventus, Fulgura are Tonitru. She would have been depressed and probably sick most of her pregnancy and who knows about the foal. No she is definitely after a one mare stud.” Neville observed,

“I think so too.” Pavarti nodded.

By now they all decided to head out and take the Darcorns some real treats, they had some exquisite elk meat they had just brought in recently, see if the the Darcorns wanted it as a treat they cubed it up nice and big and added a little bear meat that was left over from the other shipment just incase Procella was having a craving or something. Then headed out.

—————————————————————

Everyone was sitting down for dinner in the Dining Hall when Hermione came in in a huff. At first everyone ignored her attitude but eventually Padma asked and she told her why she was in such a mood. “The Headmistress refused to demand a recount of the scores of this years tests, she stated that they are perfect as normal. If I had a question about a specific one they can look into it, but they are not asking for a complete recount of all tests across the board. That the Department of Education is not responsible for who makes what scores only for scoring the tests appropriately and sending the number they were given back with the test results. They then match the test results to the student. She went through each test result on my insistence and checked to see if there was an error anywhere and there was not. The grades stand, she said.”

Padma looked at her confused, “So what’s the problem, you got five With Honors, that is an incredible feat. You should be thrilled with that?”

Hermione shook her head, “But I didn’t get a single With Distinction…”

“And neither did I, plus I am fifth in the school when you are seventh in the school, if anyone should be upset about not having any With Distinctions it should be me. But do you see me getting all bent out of shape? No. And why not? Because I got four With Honors and I am thrilled with that and all straight O’s.”

“See it doesn’t make sense! I have five With Honors! I should have a higher place than you! I demand that my points be reexamined! I should have fifth place, not you!” Hermione stated, not really realizing just how bad her voice was carrying.

“Miss Granger. For the last time, your points are correct. Your overall points lead to you being in seventh place while Miss Patil’s points lead to her being in Fifth place. No we will not tell you what the overall points of another student’s are. That is their perforative if they wish to discuss that with you, but that is their business. Not any of yours. If you wish to write to the School board about the process we have here about our scoring system then feel free to do so. But the listing stands. The scores stand. The rating system stands. And your grades stand. Now please quit making other students miserable or feel upset over their own success because of your rating, it is petty and annoying. More so than normal, and from you that is saying quite a bit, now sit down and allow others to eat their meal please.” The Headmistress stated. Apparently she had grown tired of Hermione’s behavior to the point of being annoyed herself, so she put her foot down, before this got to the point of bullying.

Hermione looked at the Headmistress in almost shock, didn’t they realize they were wrong here? Didn’t they want to correct their mistake? Didn’t they want the chance to put the right person in the right slot? Well she would see about that. She would write to the school board and tell them about this. And she would just tell them about how the Headmistress refused to listen to her as well. It might get the Headmistress in trouble but she had tried to be nice about this and now she was just going to have to be a little more assertive. She would not let them take her hard earned slot, nor her With Distinctions away…she bet they were in Transfigurations and History, those were always her best classes. She hated to do that to Harry and Neville but they wrongfully got credit for her hard work, and she demanded that she get her With Distinctions as they were deserved. In fact without those two With Distinctions on their grade, Harry and Neville may drop down on the placing to below her and she would move up to third place and not fifth after all. She would have to talk to the School Board. Hermione got up and hurried out of the dining hall and rushed to the Owlery to write that letter.

Padma just watched as Hermione left, and shook her head, once that girl got something in her head she was worse than a badger, she wouldn’t let go of it no matter what. She wasn’t going to listen to reason, and she wasn’t going to listen to facts, she was going to embarrass herself in the end and Padma just hoped that Hermione was ready for the embarrassment this petty behavior was going to cause her. The Headmistress was right, all this demanding a recount and all that was plain and simple pettiness. Her overall points were lower that someone else’s, it happens. Get used to it. That is life. She didn’t get a single With Distinction either, but she got four With Honors and all O’s, she was thrilled with that, and she knew her parents would be as well. Yeah she would have love to have gotten one With Distinction, oh well maybe next year. She didn’t get one last year, and this year she moved up three spaces on the placing, that says a lot…I mean a lot! She was ahead of both Hermione and Susan Bones this time. And Hannah…poor Hannah. Draco had moved up one slot and she had moved up three. Susan had gone down one slot, but you could expect her to have had some problems with school work since she missed so much during her time in the hospital.

Maybe she should feel bad about taking Susan’s spot, but honestly she didn’t. She had worked side by side with Pavarti this year during studying and they had worked their asses off to get the grades they did. Those With Honors were well earned. Her placement was through studying, sweat and tears, a lot of cocoa and a lot of sleepless or almost sleepless nights. But Hermione thinks she is the only one that studies and the only one that is smart. Padma had an Eidetic memory, they just had to find the right information for her to read for her to get the good grades and poof there it was. But like Harry and Pavarti had said, it is all about imagination and supposition. The answers couldn’t be just regurgitating the book, like what Hermione does it had to have some imagination and a new point of view, something to make the person who was grading the test stop and say WOW! That is an interesting point of view. Grab them and don’t let go. That is what Harry and Pavarti said and their scores proved them right, so next year that is exactly what Padma is planning on doing all year long. She is going to get herself one of those With Distinctions…he he he. Oh she had a plan, (evil laugh) and now she just had to see it through.

She know her sister is smart, and it was fun competing with her this way, she liked seeing Pavarti being able to work up to her potential and be acknowledged for a change. With her memory she was the one that always got the accolades and awards at school, she hated to admit it but she was kinda glad that Pavarti was getting better grades than she was right now. It was about time. She knew her sisters potential, even if her sister didn’t know it herself. Pavarti may not have an Eidetic memory but her memory was as sharp as a tack, and Pavarti had a fabulous sense of imagination so she could come up with ideas that Padma would never even think about. They made a brilliant team together, Padma list out the raw facts and Pavarti came up with the brilliant solutions. They were hard to beat we they got going. And together no one could win against them when they were together on a team.

But the four of them, Harry, Neville, Luna and Pavarti… now that was and unbeatable team. Together they could master any subject on any topic and come away from any battle without a scratch. Leaving their opponent with nothing left but a dirty pair of underwear and a pile of goo. Padma couldn’t help but chuckle at that imagery, her twin, the kick ass one now, who would think it. She was so proud of her. With Distinctions in Charms and Astrology, two of the harder subjects too.

They had been talking and it looks like everyone is taking Arithmancy, Runes and Care of Magical Creatures next year as electives. She thought about taking just the two, but she really does love Creatures class, and the adores Professor Lovegood, he makes the class so interesting and fun to learn. Yeah it was an easy O, but who cared, it was fun and interesting, and it was a subject that she actually enjoyed so she didn’t mind the extra work to take that class. And Runes and Arithmancy were an absolute must for just about any subject she was wanting to focus on later. She was actually thinking about the Ministry and doing research in the Department of Mysteries. After that Mr. Green had come to their class she was so excited about it, when Hermione would shut up and let the man talk that is. Only thing that would bother her would be not getting to let the knowledge out into the general public, but he was right some knowledge is too sensitive and must be released at the right time under the right conditions. Although Hermione kept on and on about knowledge should be shared no matter what and it was their duty to share what ever they discovered with the general public etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Why she practically got up on a soup box and chewed out the head of the Department of Mysteries for hoarding information, could you believe it?

In some ways she is almost as annoying as Lavender Brown used to be, only Lavender Brown was just plain lazy and blamed her bad scores on everyone else. Hermione isn’t lazy, she just doesn’t know how to answer a question right so that it catches the teachers attention and gives her the better grade. She feels facts are better than supposition any day. Supposition is just your original ideas based on the facts that are available to you, or the facts that you yourself have uncovered. The facts in the books that Hermione is always quoting from are nothing more than the supposition belonging to someone else based on the facts they had discovered and that were available to them at that time. And her quoting books all the time is nothing more than forming a supposition on a supposition based on facts available to an individual at the time in question. Without original thought or imagination her logic is flawed, her concepts are circular and her basis are unfinished. She can’t win a debate on faulty and partially complete statements or logic. It just won’t get her the grades she is seeking. But you can’t tell her that, she won’t listen.

Oh well, enough dwelling on Hermione, everyone was going to gather together in the RoR and have a music session it was only two more days before they left and they needed the break anyway. Percy and Cedric especially needed the break, with Cedric taking his O.W.Ls this year and all he needed a break really bad she was sure. And Percy always pushed himself so hard, about the only thing that would get him away from studying was a jam session. Everyone knew he was trying for the head boy position next year, and he had a real good chance of getting it too. Perfect scores his entire time here, never a detention one, and always top of his class. Oh yeah, he was going to be head boy or heads were going to roll.

It was almost one o’clock when they had agreed to meet in the Room of Requirements, so Padma got up and left the Dining Hall and headed upstairs to the seventh floor and sure enough met Cedric and Susan on the way there. They were laughing and joking about some of the stupid questions on their tests so far. And Padma joined in on the ones she thought were stupid. So they all three were laughing and snorting as they walked down the hall and into the RoR.

“What’s so funny?” Harry asked curiously looking at his friends.

“We were all laughing at the last question on the History exam and thinking of all the possible ways to answer that and it still be the right answer. We came up with some doozies.” Padma giggled.

“Yeah, I couldn’t believe the Professor left it so open ended like that. Wow the answers he must have gotten. You’re right, that is hilarious,” Harry laughed.

“Yeah I thought about putting down a bogbear breeder just so I could see what they would say, but I didn’t. I put down I had three that I was trying to choose from, Department of Mysteries, I want to work on new and upcoming items for the Aurors and there was no place like there to get a look at the most recent information. The Aurors department, although I would prefer to work as a Detective than a beat Auror. I know you have to work your way up to that though. And Transfigurations Teacher, while I am working on independent research and developing new transfiguration spells.” Neville stated as he got out his violin and began to tune it.

“That is pretty much what I put down too my brother, and we didn’t even talk about it before hand. Weird.” Harry smiled at his brother and continued, “I think that what ever we do, we will probably end up in it together though. It is just a feeling I have. I don’t think that either one of us would be happy working too far away from the other one. If we couldn’t be hired at the same time, we probably just wouldn’t accept the job, end of story.”

“That’s how I feel too, I just wouldn’t like it if you weren’t there with me. If we took a position here at Hogwarts maybe it could be like I take Transfigurations and you take Defense, then we could both be teaching at the same time. Maybe we could like take over for our dads, but in reverse, you take over for my dad, and I take over for yours. When they retire that is. We could always work for the Department of Mysteries until our dads want to retire and then take their place. Who knows they may want to work here until Lilian, Sebastian, and Astraea graduate and that will be seventeen years from now. So that gives us a while anyway. I mean we don’t graduate for five years anyway. Then twelve years of working at the Department of Mysteries or with the Aurors or both, work with one but be on lone to the other kinda, I guess. The only thing I worry about the Department of Mysteries is they would want to rip us apart to figure out how we make those spell balls and we honestly don’t know, we have always been able to do it. You made it first then I just copied what you did. And could do it too. It’s always been that way, you do something and I copy it, I do something and you copy it. It is just the way we work. I just worry that they would want to put us under a magnifying glass and study us to see if they could figure us out or something.” Neville stated, pondering the idea.

“Not if we put it in the contract he wouldn’t, Mr Green…cough, cough…croaker…cough, cough…. Definitely wouldn’t want to loose us once he had us. So he would do anything to keep us. And if we put it in the contract that we were not to become a part of any study or research project and leave the end date open, then we can make sure that they won’t be poking and prodding us while we are there or use any information they gather about us in a research project regarding us.” Harry pointed out and then smiled.

“I think we are thinking too much, let’s play some music. What will it be, tonight?” Neville asked tuning up his violin.

Harry laughed and turned to his piano and thought for a moment then all of the sudden he started with a Queen melody. ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ by Queen just had to make it’s way out of Harry’s piano and voice and he was having a blast with it. And soon the twins were pounding away with it too. Before you know it the whole gang was laughing and going for it and having a blast playing the song, then next idea ran through someones head and they were off and running, Like they always did they took turns playing what each other wanted to play, and it didn’t matter it if was Chopin or White Snake if it was music. Joan Jet had just as much chance getting played in their little corner of the universe as Beethoven and they all loved it that way, they loved all music, any music, as long as it moved your soul it was music. And they loved to play it.

Tonight seemed to be an especially happy time because they were playing light and happy songs, all deep and depressing songs were out the window tonight, they even played some American Country songs, like Walking in Memphis, Old Time Rock and Roll, and Unchained Melody. But of course Dancing Queen and Bridge over Troubled Water, and Wild Horses all made it on the more popular musics. Then Strauss’ Blue Danube, Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, and Traditional: Greensleeves was played along with Chopin’s Nocturne people were really enjoying the day today. A lot of violin and flute music tonight with a backup on the piano which was just gorgeous together.

Susan and Neville were really getting a workout, but then again so was Luna. The only thing that Harry could think of was that Hannah should be here, she so loved the choices that they had made, she knew them all by heart. He was kinda glad when someone would pick a country or rock song so that they would get off the classicals that were Hannah’s expertise. They ended with Harry singing the Gambler, one of his new favorite songs, he loved the guy who sang it, his voice was so cool. Kenny Rogers was his name. He just had a way of singing that was different somehow, almost magical. He couldn’t help but wonder if he was a Wizard? But the song, reminded them of playing poker and that was always fun, so after the song they hauled out their cards and played several hands of poker.

They didn’t know Cedric and Percy knew how to play, so that made it that much more fun, they were going to have to make this an every time event. After they play music they play poker for a while if they aren’t dancing that is. Since Cedric and Percy didn’t know they were going to play poker Harry and Neville let them borrow some Every Favor Beans and the game was afoot as it were. After about two hours of that the girls got board and turned on the wireless and then the dancing started. Harry called for Jeeves for refreshments and had some sandwiches and juice sent up and everybody ate lunch in the Room of Requirements and danced with the music until almost dinner time, then headed down to their dorms to take a shower and change for dinner.

Everyone on their table was talking about the music and dancing when they heard a big argument starting over at the Ravenclaw table. It seemed to be between Padma and Hermione, Padma actually got up and walked over and sat down with Pavarti and the rest of the gang and started making a plate that appeared for her on the table.

“Want to talk about it?” Pavarti asked.

“Hermione is now saying that the Transfigurations and History of Magic With Distinctions should be hers and not Neville’s or Harry’s and since they would only have one With Distinction appease at that point and she would have two that would put her in third place and they would be in fourth and fifth place. And in reality she should be first since that would give her two With Distinction and five With Honors and that is more than anyone else so she should be in first place. I told her to get real, the numbers don’t lie, and she said that apparently they do since she knows for a fact she was suppose to get the Transfigurations With Distinction and the History of Magic With Distinction so you two will just have to live with the adjustment of her being first and you being fourth and fifth. She refuses to listen to anything anyone is telling her, no one can get it through her head, no one.” Padma stated as she put some chicken and rice on her plate.

“She is going to be so embarrassed when this all blows up in her face,” Harry shook his head and bit down on his fried chicken.

“Yeah, we earned those grades, and nothing she can do at this point can take them away from us. It was hard work and a lot of it that got us those grades. Hell if she wanted us to take the bloody thing again just to prove a point I would, but by damn that would be the last I better hear of it.” Neville stated.

“We are not taking the tests again. We took them once and once was quite enough thank you very much. She wants to get a Barrister that demands that we retake the tests then sure we will, but that is the only way I will, is after we have been through a court of law and been instructed to do so by the court. Otherwise she can just go annoy someone else with her drivel. Preferably teachers, so that they inform her of the impossibility of what she is saying.” Harry continued. “She wants to claim favoritism, well one of the classes that she is claiming favoritism from has no association with us at all, so how can we get favoritism there? Hmmm? Why does going to school have to have such drama? First Lavender Brown with her jealousy, then Pansy Parkinson with her bullying, then Marcus Flint with their attack, and later Miles Bletchley and those others, Now Hermione and her hysterics of pettiness and competitive nature. Drama too much drama. I just want to go to school and learn, play some music, have my Darcorn and grow up some while I am doing it all. Is that too much to ask?” Harry picked at his chicken, eating bits and pieces now and then.

“Apparently so, because here comes Hermione.” Luna stated as she made a sculpture with her mash potatoes.

No one looked but they all knew she was right when a new shadow hit their table.

“I’m sorry you felt you had to move Padma, just because you can’t accept the truth doesn’t mean you had to move.” Hermione stated her nose in the air.

“I left the Ravenclaw table because I did know the truth, it is you who won’t accept it. Facts are facts. It is all right there in black and white. All the numbers are there, you just will not accept it. You have talked to the Headmistress who upholds the facts, you have contacted the School Board who have stood by the numbers. You have sent off a letter to the Educational Department and haven’t heard back yet, but what are you going to do when hey say that everything is correct and that you are mistaken. What then? Accuse everyone of lying and some major cover up? Demand that Harry, Neville and you all take all the tests again, just so you can see if you can get a better score? Not happening. They should not be punished because you can’t accept that you didn’t get a simple With Distinction award. Neither did I. Neither did a lot of people. Next thing your going to do is demand that I take all the tests again because I shouldn’t have a higher slot than you since I have five With Honors and so do you so why did I get the higher slot and not you? Get real, it is your score… nothing but your score… your overall score that made the difference as to what slot you got. And as far as your With Distinction those were hard earned, those two boys worked their asses off for it. It is not their fault that they worked hard all year long and then did perfect on the test. You’re nuts if you think they are simply going to step aside aside and let you have their award and their slot simply because you are throwing an embarrassing temper tantrum in the middle of dinner.” Padma stated.

“I am not throwing a temper tantrum, I am merely pointing out that the scores are wrong and that Harry and Neville should be gentlemen and hand over their awards and step aside and let me have my rightful place in the first place slot and they should be in the fourth and fifth place slots.” Hermione stated.

“I beg your pardon? The fact that I refuse to give up my hard earned standing has nothing to do with whether I am a gentleman or not, and you insinuating it does is insulting. The facts are simple, what you want is something for free. Something that you didn’t earn. Well I am not giving you my slot, so you can just attempt to bully your way into a better slot or more awards some other way. Have your parents’ Barrister floo my father’s Barrister if you wish to continue this conversation otherwise please refrain from speaking to me until you wish to apologize for your inappropriate actions concerning this situation. Other than that I no longer wish to converse with you Miss Granger.” Harry stated and he wiped his hands on his napkin and placed it on his dinner plate and picked up his bag and left.

“Please follow the same instructions for me as well, Miss Granger. Good day.” And Neville did the same.

Then Padma and Pavarti also followed suit and so did Luna giving the exact same instructions to Hermione also using her last name instead of the familiar.

With that the whole crew went down to the kitchen and sat down to eat, it was much quieter and the elves were happy to have them, and Hermione didn’t know how to get into the kitchens so they were safe from her here.

“I hated to be like that to her, Hell to anyone, but especially to a friend, or someone I thought was a friend.” But the way she is acting now he wonders if she ever really was a friend at all. Harry hated situations like this, he had never had a time that he had to question a friendship, or doubt someone he called a friend. It made him feel very hollow inside, and he didn’t like that feeling.

“The Darcorns say she is a friend, although right now she is immature. She’s just incredibly self centered, and stubborn.” Luna stated. Which was surprising she rarely said anything negative about anyone, no matter the situation. I guess the whole situation of trying to force Harry to give up his first place slot and his hard earned With Distinction award was just a little more than their sweet little Luna could tolerate.

“You’re right on that one Luna, I guess the Darcorns can see things we can’t and so we will have to wait and see about how this all turns out though. But the other points, yep, yep and yep.” Harry agreed whole heartedly.

“I have never met someone who can be so intelligent and say things so stupid in my life. Basically she was saying that we should give her those awards because she thinks she is smarter than we are and so we should just hand over our awards and take a lower standing because she said so. Well she can go kiss my a…” Neville started.

“NEVILLE!” Pavarti stopped him before he could finish that sentence and smacked him on the arm.

Neville grabbed his now bruised arm and grimaced, “Well, what do you expect me to say, sure here take two awards while you are at it, they only clutter up my wall anyway?”

“Of course not, but there is no reason to use that type of language. You can be correct and proper at the same time you know.” She smiled and leaned over onto him to let him know she was teasing him.

That just made him blush, his arm still hurt but who cared, it really didn’t matter after all did it. “You’re right, I’m sorry, that was in poor taste. I’m sorry Luna, Padma. The disrespect was not intentional.”

“Forgiven, and if she tries to kiss your behind can I take a picture?” Luna asked. This brought about a whole lot of laughter which is exactly what they needed right then. She said it so innocently too, good grief she was good.

It was about twenty minutes later when one of the elves came over and told them that the Headmistress is wanting them up in her office at their convenience, and that the password is ‘the Highlands’. Since the elf didn’t specify who all should go they decided they should all go, and they all grabbed their bags and through them over their heads and headed up to the Headmistress’ office.

———————————————————

The Headmistress had seen Hermione Granger just make an absolute fool of herself right in the middle of the Dining Hall and what is worse is the girl doesn’t even realize what a fool she is yet. Oh but she soon will, she soon will.

“Miss Granger, I thought we had discussed this and I had made myself perfectly clear, the scores are correct. They will not be changed. Your placement in the listing will not be altered, you will remain number seven no mater who you try to bully or threaten. I am tired of your innuendoes that those two boys cheated somehow. Or that members of my staff cheated for them. What you are doing is slanderous, which is against the law, if they wished to press charges they could. With as many people you have contacted and letters you have written they would have no problem proving their side of the slanderous charges. Continue to harass Mr. Harry James Potter Black and he very well may get an Order of Protection against you. Which will state that you must stay a certain number of feet away from Mr. Black at all times. Which means that when you are in class together you will have to have your class moved to the other time slot, since you are the offender. So instead of taking your Charms class with the Ravenclaws you would be taking it with the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs. The same with any class you had with him, and Dining Hall, you would have to eat in the anteroom so that you make sure you meet the distance requirements. The hallways would always be a problem but you would just have to do your best not to encounter Mr. Black. Do you understand the severity of what I am trying to describe to you yet?” The Headmistress asked.

“Yes Ma’am but I still think that when the Department of Educations responds they will agree with me. My scores throughout the year prove it. The Transfigurations and History of Magic With Distinctions should have been mine. And if I manage to get those returned to me the fact that I have five With Honors, which is more than anyone else mind you. That would put me in first place, because then Mr. Black and Mr. Longbottom would then be lowered to spots four and five since they would only have one With Distinction each. It is as plane to see as the nose on your face. As soon as I get those two awards returned to me that is.” Hermione stated, still looking as if she had one of those she was right and Mcgonagall was wrong, she just didn’t realize it yet, looks on her face.

McGonagall looked as if she wanted to explode. She took a couple of deep breaths and turned toward the teachers table and requested Black, and Lupin to join her in her office oh and Flitwick may wish to be there as well. Then she stated that Miss Granger was going to be joining them in her office to continue this discussion. Once there she called a house elf and had him send for Harry and Neville at their convenience of course. She knew they were probably eating and didn’t want to disrupt their meal. The others had just finished arriving when Harry and his group also arrived. They followed right behind Sirius into the Headmistress’ office.

“Ah Harry, Neville I am glad you could make it so promptly. Although I am unsure why the rest of you are here?” McGonagall looked perplexed.

“Headmistress, Miss Granger states that IF she gets the With Distinctions in Transfigurations and History of Magic that she should be placed in first slot on the board. Because she has five With Honors, and Pavarti and I have four. This would mean giving not only would Harry and Neville loose their spot as first and second and be moved to fourth and fifth but instead of our moving up to those two spots which is what should happen if the spots were vacant, that she would jump from seventh spot to first spot just because she has one more With Honors than we do, not taking into account our overall scores what so ever at this point. So she is talking about displacing the four of us not just Mr. Black and Mr. Longbottom. But also myself, Pavarti and Padma Patil as well.” Luna stated.

“I see, very well. I believe we are in need of one other person, if you all would wait one moment.” Then she went over to the fireplace and made a floo call, in a short while The Headmistress returned with a short but sturdy Madam Marchbanks, Harry knew who it was before he even looked that way.

Clip, step, clip, step, clip, step. Harry could recognize that sound anywhere and he turned around with a grin on his face and sure she was getting up there in age but she had more life left in her than most people half her age. Harry thought. Madam Marchbanks was not someone you wanted to mess with, she may only be four foot nine inches tall but she was a stick of dynamite ready to blow if she got flustered. The only thing you could do is hope you were out of the blast zone when she went off, and prayed she wasn’t aiming that temper of her’s at you.

“Madam Marchbanks, it’s wonderful to see you. Are you going to let me take you out on a date yet?” Harry teased.

“Young man you are as bad as that father of yours, he he he. Now you behave yourself and quit your tomfoolery, before I have to come over there and give you a good pinch for my troubles.” She laughed.

“Ma’am, yes Ma’am.” Harry saluted her and sat down on one of the couches as did Neville, Luna and Pavarti, Padma grabbed a nearby chair and quickly sat down as well.

“I wish I could get him to behave that well, what’s your secret?” Sirius whispered to Madam Marchbanks.

“A good strong pinch to the arm that lasts for a couple of days is all you need, and usually doing it once is all you need to do.” She whispered to him.

“Alright Minerva, you didn’t bring me up here to look at the view, what seems to be the problem?” She asked.

“I apologize for bringing you here Griselda, but I have a problem with a student. You see Miss Granger here feels that she should have gotten the With Distinctions awards in History of Magic and Transfigurations and that Mr. Longbottom and Mr. Potter Black should surrender their Awards. And that by surrendering their Awards that means they no longer have the right to the the number one and number two positions that they so proudly maintain at this point and since she has five With Honors, if she had the two With Distinctions on top of that it should be she that has top spot not Mr. Potter Black.” Minerva stated the problem quite distinctly and to the point, leaving nothing out but not expanding on any one area either.

“Oh she does, does she. Well, you are Miss Granger I presume?” Griselda had all her focus on Hermione at this time.

“Yes, Ma’am.” Hermione stated her nose a little in the air, as if daring Madam Marchbanks to dissuade her from what she knew was true.

“I can already see we are going to have a problem with you, young lady. But oh well. Such is life.” Griselda went over and sat down behind Minerva’s desk as easy as you please and Professor McGonagall created a second chair for herself and also sat down.

“First let me explain something to you, it doesn’t matter how many With Honors, or With Distinctions you have if you don’t have the total points necessary you don’t get the slot. So thinking if you will get Mr. Potter’s Spot if you somehow steal his With Distinction Award is a load of dragon dung. He wouldn’t have gotten the spot if he didn’t have the points to back it up. So get that little idea out of your head right now. You are seventh in the listing and you will stay seventh end of story.”

She then reached up to Professor Lupin and he immediately handed over his grading book, as if he knew what she wanted without her even having to ask. “Thank you good Sir,”

“Very well, let’s see here. Your transfer of points is correct, and… so is Mr. Potter Black’s so no error there.” Then she did a quick calculation of points under both names, “Your scores are correct,” then after a minute or so.” And Mr. Potter Black’s scores are calculated correctly. According to my calculations these numbers are correct the award is proper and will not be changed. And that is the Department of Education’s final say on this matter as Governor of the Wizarding Examinations Authority I hereby close this case. So be it.” She then held out her hand to Professor Black who jumped and immediately handed her his grade book. Then stepped back and waited with the rest of the room, You could almost hear the wheels in Hermione’s head turning it was so quiet.

“Mr. Longbottom’s scores were correctly transferred,” then a minute later. “And your scores were correctly transferred.” Then after a minute or two later she announced “Mr. Longbottom’s scores were correctly calculated.” Another three to four minutes. “And your scores were correctly calculated. According to my calculations these numbers are correct, the award stands and is proper, it will not be changed. And that is the final say on this matter by the Department of Education and as the Governor of the Wizarding Examinations Authority I hereby close this case. So be it.” With that she handed the two books back to the Professor and thanked them for their patience. Then she leaned back in the chair and waited the oncoming outburst like she knew it was inevitable.

Hermione was so upset she was practically shaking. “But you’re wrong. Those awards are mine. Maybe they wrote a score down wrong…”

“Young lady, did you not notice that those grade books were identical, that is because they are handed out by the Department of Education to each and every teacher. They are enchanted. They do several things, most of which I need not discuss, but two of which I will tell you, as soon as a paper or test is graded, it is automatically added to the grade book. Professor Lupin and Professor Black do not post those grades what so ever, therefore no mistake could have been made. Once a grade is listed on your paper it is listed in your book, end of story. If you did not dispute a grade during the year, we have to assume that you agreed with the grades, therefore there was no mistake made. If a mistake had been made, a slash would have appeared through the original grade and the new grade would have been entered. There were no such marks in your listing. Therefore your marks stand.”

Then Griselda continued. “Mr. Potter Black and Mr. Longbottom were also correct, as they had no alterations on their books either. Therefore your argument is incorrect. And before you state they added wrong or something so idiotic, the books automatically keep tabs on each individuals scores as they are added to the book, and it is updated as soon as a new figure is added to the book. And besides I just went through each book and verified that each book was indeed correct so that is a mute point anyway.”

“But there has to be a mistake somewhere, I made solid O’s and frequently O+ throughout the year. I made O+eight on my final. That has to count for a lot doesn’t it?”

“Do you mind Mr. Potter Black?” Griselda asked Harry who smiled and shook his head.

“Go right ahead, Ma’am.” Harry answered.

“Yes, the extra credit counts for something, in fact it can count for up to thirty five points, Mr. Potter Black got the full thirty five points. He is the first person to get full credit on his History of Magic final in over three hundred and fifty years. An Elizabeth Pendle I believe her name was, although I may be mistaken. Since I didn’t bother to look up that information before coming here. Brilliant individual, I believe she went to work for the Department of Mysteries and did research for them for many, many years. There was a big tadoo in the witch trials but the Department of Mysteries came in and took care of that mess, and adjusted everyone’s memories, consequently she was never seen or heard from again in their realm. She spent the rest of her days doing medical research and I must say she came up with some brilliant work, you should look her up some day when you have a moment, brilliant person.” Madam Marchbanks stated.

“But to say the least Mr. Potter Black scored twenty seven points higher than you did on your final, and that is just one place that you can compare points and you received the lower amount than he. And before you start in on favoritism, the whole Boy-Who-Lived garbage which I am sure is next to pop out of that mouth of yours, we have no idea whose tests we are grading. We receive a test with a number on it, the number is randomly chosen by the scoring book, even the teachers don’t know what it is until they receive the test back and it is fully graded. Then they match the number on the test to the number that will appear next to the student’s name. At which point the test results will appear on the bottom of the book and be added into the total. This is when the book gives out the final scores. As in With Honors, and With Distinction. Those books are directly linked to books we have in our main rooms and they are compared to all the schools Nationally. To get the With Distinction award you must have the highest score of any school reporting to us. That includes Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and England. There is also a world wide award and we are waiting to see how these four do on those scores. Before we celebrate. Although I think Mr. Potter Black in History of Magic, Mr. Longbottom in Herbology, Miss Lovegood in Potions, and Miss Patil in Astrology have very, very good chances of having the highest scores on record. Now don’t quote me on that yet, a few countries have yet to send in their information. So we are still processing things, but so far they look excellent.” She smiled at the four students who smiled huge smiles back at her, their eyes huge at the idea of a world wide award. Wow!

This only made Hermione that much more frustrated, it should be her with those accolades not Harry or Neville. “Well I demand that there be a recount of scores, there must be one of my papers or tests missing. That must be it, apparently one of my tests or papers didn’t get graded or something. I demand something be done to right this travesty.”

“Are you saying that a teacher would deliberately hold back a paper that you handed in, in order to make your scores look less than your school mates? That is a serious charge you’re making young lady.” Madam Marchbanks stated, almost glaring at Miss Granger by now.

“Well that is the only way that my scores are less than they should be, I did beyond excellent work in both classes and have all the papers to prove it. I will be happy to bring each one down and we can find out which one was forgotten or left out.” Hermione quickly stated.

Griselda raised her hands and two books immediately filled them, “Thank you Gentlemen.”

She went to the History of Magic book first and began searching row by row, line by line. Looking at dates and scores on each entry. Then closed that book and went over to the Transfigurations book and did the same, line by line, row by row until she came to the calculations at the end of the rows.

“Miss Granger, there is not a single missed assignment in either of the two logs. There is the exact same number of entries on all occasions. With the exceptions of the extra credit work done by twelve individuals in History of Magic, they are exactly the same.” Madam Marchbanks stated, and she knew what the next question would be before she even looked at the book.

“Extra credit! I didn’t know we could do extra credit! That alone should default their scores right there, they shouldn’t be allowed to have those points added into their score if not everyone knew about it.” Hermione shrieked, waving her hands about, practically dancing.

“I actually announced it on the first day of classes, I informed everyone that I would not allow them to hand in the extra credit work until two months before the end of year. You asked what you could write about and I informed you that you could choose any topic that we covered during the year up until that date. You asked how long I wanted it to be, I informed you no more than sixty inches, That I didn’t want to be reading books so near the end of the semester. Later in the year, after we had had our guest speakers come into the class, Mr. Potter Black, Mr. Longbottom, Miss Patil, and Miss Lovegood asked if they could do an interview of the people that had been in the class and ask anywhere from twenty to twenty five questions. Although they may have to edit it depending on the length of the answers the guest speaker wrote. I told them they could as long as they didn’t all pick the same individual to interview that is. Their papers were brilliant. Their questions were insightful, in-depth, probing without being rude or disrespectful, they were well written and well thought out, to the point and absolutely worth every point they received. The fact that you did not remember the extra credit offer is your responsibility not theirs. I received a total of twelve extra credit assignments in the second year class, nine of which are on the ratings boards. The three others are not far behind them I am told.” Remus stated.

“Well what did Mr. Longbottom do for extra credit in Transfigurations class?” Madam Marchbanks asked.

Harry looked over to Neville who appeared to be deep in thought. Harry turned to Griselda and asked. “Ma’am would it be permissible to show you instead?”

“You don’t plan on turning me into a rabbit or anything are you boys?” She smiled.

“Not at all,” Neville answered. We will make sure that it is a good distance away from you especially Ma’am.”

“Very well. Let’s see this brilliance that earned you twenty five points from your instructor.” She sat back in her seat to get comfortable and wait.

Harry stood up at one side of the room and Neville was at the other side of the room, both boys were far away from anyone else just to be safe. Harry waited for Neville to nod to him and raise his wand, Harry aimed his wand and called out “Serpensortia!” Which conjured a huge live snake out of the end of his wand. And it was mad. It immediately started heading towards Neville, Neville raised his wand and called out “Serpensbaculum!” And in an instant the large vicious looking snake turned into a stick. Neville reached down and picked up the branch and walked over to a shocked McGonagall and handed it to her.

“Sorry about that one Headmistress McGonagall, we didn’t have time to show you this one yet. We only perfected it two days before finals. We showed it to Professor Black the day before Finals and he graded it as extra credit, same as last time.” Then Neville laid the stick on the desk and walked over to were Harry was standing, waiting to see what they said.

“Oh my stars. I know the two of you are twelve years old, I see it in your paperwork, but how….. how do you do that? That was brilliant! The transformation was smooth and there is no energy leakage, it looks as if it is a perfect transfiguration. I want that written up. I want you to do pictures. I don’t care what you do if it is pause frame or maybe a moving picture itself. But you discuss that later. I want everyone that helped noted in this article and I of course want your teacher and Hogwarts to get a little byline somewhere if you don’t mind. Minerva I want to see that article in the next months Transfigurations Monthly. They just published their one this month so they will be looking for new stories right now. If we get a good response from that we may see about listing it in Teaching Transfiguration, they are always looking for articles on new up and comers. You two could easily make the cover of that magazine. I have already heard about your other genius transfigurations, I think you could make the cover easily.” Griselda giggled so high it almost sounded like a cackle, oh she was going to have some fun.

“So who came up with the idea?” Griselda asked.

“This time it was Neville, so he got the most points, he got the full twenty five. I got twenty, and I am very happy with it Ma’am. It was his idea after all.” Harry stated smiling and put an arm on his brother.

“TWENTY-FIVE POINTS, mark those out immediately.”

Hermione couldn’t help but smile at that little shriek, she was on her way of getting that award right now, she could practically see it on her wall.

“I want Mr. Longbottom to have sixty points for his ingenuity, his ability to invent such a complicated spell and his imagination.

“I want Mr. Potter Black to receive fifty five points for his ability to cast a fifth year spell, and his assistance in the creation of this Transfiguration. And allow me to put my initials next to those two adjustments and they will be permanent. It doesn’t change your standing or your awards, but you know your score properly reflects your hard work now and it may alter your standing in the world wide awards, but we shall see. I want those articles finished and handed into Minerva as soon as possible boys. They may wish to make some changes to them or come out and do a photo shoot of their own you never can tell. So as soon as possible.” Griselda stated with all the authority in her little frame she had.

“Even with the inconvenience of Miss Granger, this trip is well worth my stopping by. “ She stated to Minerva, Turning she looked directly into Hermione’s eyes. “You are in seventh place because that is what you earned. You did not get a With Distinctions because you did not earn one. We will not be altering these facts. If you still wish to pursue this fools game, then you may have your parent’s Barrister contact the the Ministry for Magic, The Department of Education, Governors Board of the Wizarding Examinations Authority of which I am the head of. Any further comments or innuendo about these boys status being incorrect will be considered slanderous and you will be breaking the law, you can at that time be arrested and put in custody until your parents can come and get you. At which point they can either pay the excessive fine that will be lodged against you, or go to court and fight it. If you go to court you will have to remain in custody during that time. Any action you take out against any one of these children in this room as we speak, you will be charged with assault in the first degree minimum. Depending on your actions the charges may escalate from there. I would suggest you do not speak about these individuals, do not speak about your rating, do not attempt to make contact with any of these individuals within this room. Specifically these four. I believe the last young lady is a Ravenclaw also, I would use caution and common sense when coming into contact with her as well. Now good day to you,” and with that she allowed Minerva to walk her over to the floo whispering together about the possibilities of the two boys.

Hermione took one breath then two, she couldn’t believe it, she had been shut out of two awards. One because she didn’t remember that extra credit was available to her. And the other because she hadn’t been able to come up with a stupid transfiguration all summer. Oh she had tried, over and over again she had tried. But nothing worked. She had worried that they had some form of shield around her house since it was in a Non-Magical neighborhood, but she went down to the park and hid under the bridge and tried there as well and still nothing. Why was it so easy for them and so hard for her. They came up with three new Transfigurations in the last two years. Three. Stupid transfigurations in two years. That is ridiculous. And with the new points added on there was no way she could possibly beat them. Her shoulders slumped as she walked out of the room defeated, she doesn’t realize that her actions that day may very well have damaged the friendship they had worked so hard to build. At this point none of her ‘friends’ would talk to her, she had no one at all. And it was all her own fault. She walked slowly down the hallway and she walked a long ways and had no clue where she was, she knew it was in the dungeons some where but no idea where. She saw a door on the left up ahead and saw the sign specifying a girls bathroom.

She went inside and went up to the mirror and looked in it for a long while. What she was looking for she couldn’t say, but she didn’t find it. She took out her wand and lifted her left wrist, she remembered the spell from Herbology. “Diffindo!” She said it and slit her left wrist, then changed her hands and held her wand clumsily in her left hand and said it “Diffindo!” The blood was starting to caused little rivers down her arms, it was kind of beautiful if you took the time to watch it. Then she stumbled to her knees, why was she so dizzy. Her mouth was dry, she wanted a drink of water but she didn’t have a cup. The blood was beginning to get all over her clothes, the world was looking funny shades of grey around the edges, I wonder why it does that? Her arms felt like they weighed a ton, so she laid down on the ground, in a pool of the dripping blood. It didn’t seem to matter now. Her chest felt heavy. I wonder why? All of the sudden there was a crash and people talking, it sounded like they were a million miles away. Someone was grabbing her arms and saying something over where she had cut herself, that felt better, but it was too late… the person grabbed the other hand and did the same thing. Then the person picked her up and started running down the halls. There was someone else in front of them and the person appeared to be following who ever the other one was. They were going up, she could feel this person who was carrying her having problems carrying her up a bunch of stairs, did she go down some stairs? Two more flights and someone stopped them she was handed off to another person, someone taller she thought. And they were off running again.

Soon she was laying down on something warm and comfortable and her outer robes were removed and her shirt was cut out of the way so that they could have access to the wound.

“Jeeves!” Harry called out.

“Master Harry called Jeeves?” The little elf quickly tried to take in the situation and sort out what might be needed,

“I need you to go find Madam Pomfrey, she should be in the Dining Hall still. Tell her we have a student that slit both her wrists, and need help immediately. Then ask if she would like you to elf pop her over here, got it?” Harry spoke quickly as he tried to pull the edged together and used episkey spell on the cuts, but they were too deep. He didn’t know anything for deep cuts, not really.

All the sudden there was the sound of banging coming from down stairs, it sounded like someone was trying to tear down the door to Hogwarts, which is silly since it isn’t even locked. One of the first year olds in the area went over to the door and opened it up only to be pushed aside by a huge Darcorn. It was Procella. She was racing through the halls of Hogwarts and up the massive stairs that lead to the Medi-Ward. At the doorway Procella looked around and found what she was looking for, she spotted Harry and Luna working on her Person, trying to save her life. She moved over to stand next to the bed and lowered her head down toward the two injuries, then Harry nodded and reached for the left hand first and removed the wrap that was on it and Procella touched the wound with her horn, in an instant she had healed the gapping wound, you couldn’t even see a scar at all. Then Harry did the same for the other wrist and she did the same thing, a slight blur of magic and the wrist was as good as new. No sign of injury at all.

Then all of the sudden Procella whinnied and took a step back from the bed, her legs began to buckle and she was going down. She had used too much magic at this stage in her pregnancy, it started her into early labor. Thankfully she was only three weeks early but still, it was incredibly dangerous.

Then Madam Pomfrey elf popped into the room, totally confused, she went to Harry since he appeared to be in charge.

“Hermione went to some hidden out of the way bathroom in the dungeons to cut her wrists. If it wasn’t for Luna’s foresight we wouldn’t have made it on time. I think she used Diffindo, on her wrists, at least that is what it feels like. Luna dragged me through the castle until we found the bathroom where she was laying on the floor covered in her own blood. I tried episkey and it helped some then I bandaged her up, put on a couple of tourniquets and grabbed her and ran. Luna led the way and then we met Cedric and Susan, Cedric took her the last storey and put her down here.” Harry continued to clean up the blood off of Hermione where he could. “The problem we have is that Hermione’s Darcorn could feel her dying and came to rescue her, she placed her horn against each wound and now you can’t even see where the wound was. But she used too much magic and is going into early labor. She is three weeks early and she is going down fast Madam Pomfrey, we need Professor Lovegood immediately.”

Madam Pomfrey went and got several large sheets and spread them out on the floor, then gently moved the Darcorn around to where she was in the middle of the nest of sheets. About that time Professor Lovegood popped into the room holding onto an elf, Jeeves to be exact. Apparently he took it upon himself to get more help too. Which Harry really appreciated right now.

“Luna get me some fresh rats cube them up, soak them in chicken blood and light elvish wine. Nothing too strong mind you just something light for her. She may not take it but let’s have it ready if she wants it. Susan she seems the most comfortable with you, that is very important right now, I want you to check and see if the foal is crowning.”

“Oh no! It’s breach!” She tried to stay calm for Procella but she could feel herself shaking, and now was not the time to faint. Ok deep breaths, deep breaths, who was saying that? Oh, it was Cedric, he had his hands on her shoulder and was rubbing her shoulders, Ok, she had read all about breach births from the library, she had to sterilize her hand, then stick them up inside Procella, and gently rotate the baby until it is coming out head first. She felt the sterilization spell done on her arms, all the way past her elbows, whoah really… ick. Then slowly she moved aside Procella’s tail and began to assist her. At first she was bucking as if she wanted to get up, but she didn’t have the energy to. So Harry went around to Procella’s head and began to sing to her, and Luna joined in together they had almost an etherial sound. They went from one song to the other no one really picking one they just started singing. This seemed to calm Procella immensely, as the contractions got closer, Susan was able to slip her hand inside Procella and gently rotate the foal around to where it was pointing in the right direction. With the next contraction Susan could see the head crowning. “It’s crowning!” A little further help and a couple of contractions later they had a beautiful little female foal in the Medi-Ward. Susan began to help Procella clean the baby off and gently wiping her down with towels and warm water. After all the contractions stopped and the afterbirth was birthed, Mr Lovegood announced that this foul was special, and would be named only by her rider as normal. The only visitors allowed are those in the room at this minute, and the other Darcorn riders.”

“Her heart rate is slowing down, I think, she lost too much blood, I think she is going into crisis,” Susan said panicking.

Mr. Lovegood immediately checked Procella’s heart rate and she was right, the Darcorn’s heart rate was dangerously low”

“Jeeves!” And the elf popped in again.

“Can you go to the stables and grab Thunder and pop him up here, he is the only one that can save Procella and the foal?” Harry asked, the elf popped away before anyone could question him, especially Madam Pomfrey.

Pop, the big stallion who appeared to be all worked up took the scene in and immediately rushed over to Procella and touched his horn against her own, a gentle golden light washed over her, encircling her from one end to the other, as soon as it ended she began to try and get up on her feet and stand up. She wanted to see to her foal. Then the big proud papa when over to his little girl who was shivering in Susan’s lap and touched his horn to her little horn nub and the same golden light washed over her whirling and swirling about her all over the place.

In a matter of a few moments what was a fragile, helpless looking premature Darcorn, was now a raring to go right on time foal, it looked like she had ages three weeks and was kicking and bucking and playful. Happy to be alive, and wanting mamma, she was hungry. Soon the foal was suckling for the first time and proud papa was nuzzling mama who was happy he had come to her rescue. It was such a touching sight it made Harry’s eye water up.

A few moments later Hermione started to come around, apparently the blood replenishers that Madam Pomfrey had magicked into her stomach were taking affect. And she was coming around.

“Who… where am I… where… Procella, what? Procella was nuzzling Hermione’s face as soon as she began to speak.

“Procella saved your life,” Harry said.

“Procella?” Hermione was confused, oh yeah, the bathroom, the blood…oh no. Procella. Hermione started to get up but was held in place by Madam Pomfrey.

“No you don’t Miss Granger, you just went through quite an ordeal young woman you are laying here for a while.” While she also made ready a round of what ever else she thought of that she might need in case they had another issue of what ever made the young woman think suicide was her only solution.

“Procella is here because she felt you dying and she ran to save you. She climbed all those stairs. And used magic too save your life. It sent her into early labor. We nearly lost her and the baby. Would have lost them both if it hadn’t had been been for Thunder here, he saved both Procella and the foal, it’s a girl.” Luna said gently.

Hermione looked over Procella’s muzzle and saw a brand new muzzle resting not the covers of her bed. Oh she was so beautiful, such great big eyes. And a tiny little horn nub. She was so cute. Hermione reached over and gently patted the new muzzle oh it was so warm, so precious. And they almost lost her because of me. Hermione began to cry, it would have been her fault, this precious angel would have been gone and it would have been my fault for being so selfish.

Just about then they heard running coming down the hallway outside the Medi-Ward and “Where is she, where is my Hermione?” It was Jean Granger. “Dear God where is she?” And Dan Granger.

They spotted her at the same time “HERMIONE!” And rushed over to her bed, followed quickly by the Headmistress. It was Hogwart’s policy that when ever there is a suicide attempt that the parents are immediately contacted and brought to Hogwarts, and this was no exception. Now they did have to wear special bracelets that allowed them to see the castle but they could come right through and raced down the hallways to the Medi-Ward to where they knew their daughter was at.

“Oh no!” Hermione gasped, she was in such trouble now. They would never understand. They would be so disappointed in her, she didn’t get a with distinctions and was still only in seventh place. She was so ashamed. She turned to where she wasn’t facing them. They thought it was because she was embarrassed about her suicide attempt and started to gently talk about it to her. But then after a few minutes they got her to explain why she had done it and the dams broke.

“You mean you tried to kill yourself over a grade?” Dan shouted.

Jean shook her head, her hand at her throat in disbelief. “Didn’t we tell you how proud we were of you for getting those scores last year, didn’t we tell you that you were so smart, so talented. That we loved you and we thought that you were a wonderful daughter.” She asked.

Hermione was crying but nodded. “But I didn’t improve, I should have but didn’t.”

“Who cares, you maintained your standing and that is saying a lot. You got five With Honors, who cares about With Distinctions, you can try for that next year if you must. But to try and kill yourself over a grade, surely you are smarter than that, surely we did not raise someone so petty or shallow that would think we would only love you for the grades you bring home.” Dan fumed. He was having a real hard time raining in his temper, his little girl tried to kill herself over a bloody grade, a grade. Did they put too much pressure on her, was this all their fault? Did they stress her intelligence too much and not how much they loved her in general. Did they make some mistake along the way that they were just not seeing until now? To think that could have forced their little girl to turn to suicide as the only choice rather than face them was terrifying. Was she that afraid of them? Had they really made their little angel afraid to even confront them about something so simple as grades? What if it was something important, like a boyfriend? Or her heath? Or other problems at school? How could they know she would come to her about anything if she was afraid to come to them about even grades? The thought were racing through Dan’s head so fast that he was giving himself a headache without meaning to. His little girl was afraid of them, that was the bottom line.

Jean had caught onto his line of thinking and was crying outwardly by this time. She couldn’t believe her little girl was afraid of them. All the times in Hermione’s life she had praised her, supported her, encouraged her, and awarded her, had all come crashing down on her all at once. Had it been too much for her fragile little girl. Had they unintentionally been trying to build her up but hadn’t given her a good enough foundation to stand on? Was her self esteem so low that she really thought the only reason they loved her was because of what graded she could bring home to them?

Soon all three of them were crying and Hermione was laying there begging for forgiveness, for all of it. Not getting the better grade, trying to kill herself, scaring them, scaring her friends, almost killing Procella, almost killing the new foal, she would have kept going until her mother reached over and pulled her into a hug and sat there rocking her and singing to her as she cried. Her mother hadn’t held her and sung to her until she was really sick since she she was little. Finally, Hermione cried herself to sleep and everyone left the three of them alone to try and work things out.

Professor Lovegood escorted the Darcorns out to the stables carrying the newest member of the herd himself, with Procella trotting proudly by his side and Thunder following close behind making sure that no one got to close to the little one and his mare.

Cedric and Susan followed the Darcorns out to the Stables and helped set up the stall for Procella and the foal mucking the stall and spreading a fresh layer of hay about then adding a couple of bales of hay in there for Procella to rip apart to make a nest bed for her new foal.

The other students headed home that next Monday and everyone that was staying at the castle for the summer were anxiously awaiting the birth of the remaining three foals. Procella’s little foal was coming along in leaps and bounds, quite literally. She was always jumping around and leaping in the air, dancing to her own form of music Harry said. She never got very far from Procella but she was always nearby playing some imaginary game or something. The other three mares looked on longingly as they watched the little foal play, waiting for their foal to get there. They knew that Procella had almost lost her’s so they were quite happy to keep their own for a couple more weeks but it didn’t stop the longing looks every time they saw that pretty little foal jumping and leaping in the air.

It was a misty June morning when an elf popped into the Dining Hall during breakfast, and announce that Tonitru had gone into labor, before the elf could finish the sentence the kids were running out of the dining hall and heading out to the stables.

The could hear a soft whinnying coming from inside one of the stalls and storm was kicking at his stall want to be let out, so Harry opened his stall and let him out. Storm went over to Tonitru’s stall and she was down on her knees, about that time Fulgura started to whinny as well, Padma rushed over to her stall and sure enough she started to go down. Both mares were having contractions at the same time, talk about a twins thing.

It was four nerve racking hours later and hey had two adorable new foals born practically at the same time. Poor Storm was running himself ragged running between the two stalls checking on both of this mares and foals. But it was worth the wait, two brand new stallions were welcomed into the herd with a proud papa prancing around throwing his head around and whinnying all over the place. Two sons, yep, two strong heathy sons, and they were gorgeous too. Each one was a little wobbly on their feet but boy did they enjoy falling down, they would get right back up just so they could fall back down again, it was so cute. They were so funny. Harry thought of the Weasley twins immediately and sent off a message to them and told them that the they had new foals had been born, only minutes apart. Well those two just couldn’t be kept away, they flooed over to Hagrid’s Hut and hurried down to see the new addition to the herd. Soon they were out there laughing and playing with the new foals who were prancing around and leaping and dancing with them. Harry said it once he saw them clowning around, “Those four are meant to be together.”

Luna nodded. “I think so too. I think the foals have already chosen their riders. In fact I think that the other little one chose Susan, she just hasn’t figured it out yet.”

“Really, that will do Susan a world of good. Being a Darcorn Rider is the most healing thing in the world.” Harry thought, next to being Luna’s friend that is, but he would just leave that last bit off for now.

It was about three o’clock in the morning when Ventus when into labor, Harry rushed out of his rooms and headed down to the stables just in time to let Storm out before he kicked the whole place in, apparently the whole twin births last time had shook him up more than they thought. This time it was pretty simple, Storm just stood close at hand in case he was needed and watched and waited. A little over five hours later and another little male foal was brought into the herd. This one had his father’s height and chest size, definitely a daddy boy. Boy was this one going to be spoiled.

Harry looked over to Luna and raised an eyebrow. “Well?”

“I think Ventus already has eyes on Mr. Diggory for this little one’s rider. And after him helping save Procella’s rider, I think that is a pretty sure thing.” Luna stated dreamily.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t doubt that one little bit, the way they were letting Cedric, Fred and George and Susan hang around near the end there and were practically nipping at any one else. I wouldn’t doubt that those are the ones that ended up being our new riders. But I didn’t think that riders could be chosen so early.” Harry whispered, not wanting to wake the sleeping foal and mother.

“I think they chose their rider while still in the womb. And I have never heard of it being chosen so early myself, but these are hard times. Maybe they felt like their riders would need them and wanted to have them near them before they reached their third year, which is normally when a rider is usually chosen.”

“So when do we tell them? Or do we let them figure it out on their own?” Harry asked.

Luna chuckled softly, “Let’s see how this one acts around Cedric then we will see about telling them. We already have our answer about the twins though, those two couldn’t be a better fit than if they were glued together. As far as out little girl, I just think we need to invite Susan down to have a look at our new herd and see how our little precious acts around her. If she acts like I think she will then she has already chosen, Susan just doesn’t know it yet, and we just have to tell her.”

“How will they handle taking care of them, being so young and all?” Harry asked.

“They will stay with their mothers on a constant basis for the first two to three months then you can slowly separate mother from foal but not for long periods of time until they are six months old. So they would have to come here to tend to them. Right now we can tend to them both, I don’t mind tending to both Ventus and baby, he is so adorable after all. He of all the boys, got his father’s looks. He has that broad chest and tall stature the makes Storm so gorgeous.” Luna stated.

“He is a handsome little guy isn’t he.” Harry softly chuckled, and then pointed for them to head out and they did. Leaving the new mother and son in peace.

———————————————————————

Fred, George, Susan, and Cedric all gathered at the stables two weeks later as asked waiting anxiously.

Harry began bringing mother and foal out one by one and leading them around the corral in a wide circle, just walking them around, the little foals were running wobbly quickly behind them as they walked. Never leaving their mothers side. First to leave formation was Ventus and she went over to Cedric and stood there as the little one went up to Cedric and let him pet him, Harry came over to Cedric and asked, “Well Cedric how do you feel about being a Darcorn rider?”

“Huh. Me, what do you mean?” Cedric asked.

“Just what I said, this little one just chose you to be his new rider, its a little young to choose one, but I think they chose a long time ago, their just letting you know today.” Harry stated.

“Oh Merlin. I would love to be a Darcorn rider. But I couldn’t ride this one for years yet.” Cedric said.

“No you would have to see to his care and train him and watch him grow and then between two and three years from now you could actually ride him, but it is worth it, I can tell you it is so worth it. So do you accept?” Harry asked again.

“Are you stupid or something, of course I accept!” Cedric said and he pet the muzzle of the gorgeous little Darcorn. “He is so gorgeous.”

“Okay then give him some of this bottle.” Harry handed over a bottle of mixed mares milk and chicken blood. And Cedric took it and gave it to the little guy who loved it. And drank the whole thing rapidly looking for another.

“Whoah there big fellow those are special treats right now, too much can make you sick. Talk your mama into it and you can have another but no more than two a day.” Harry told the young foal.

“Now you have to name him Cedric. What’s this little guys name going to be?”

“Justice. I like the name Justice, he is going to be just as big and proud as his father and he is going to bring justice where ever he roams. Yeah, Justice is his name.” Cedric said kinda teary eyed. He was a Darcorn rider, his father was going to be so proud. Oh Merlin, his father was never going to shut up about this, he was bad enough that he made it to second in his year. He was the only Hufflepuff on the board at all and he was just behind a Ravenclaw, Bradley Brackenhurst. So his father was extremely proud of him for making that rank.

He was too, to tell you the truth. And he couldn’t have done it without Susan and her friends though. He only got an O in potions because they let him use their trunk to work on his potions and without it he wouldn’t have done better than and EE and he knows it. He is going to try and talk his father into getting him a trunk for his congratulations present. It would make things so much easier.

The next Darcorn to separate from the walk was Ventus and she walked up to Susan, the little foal just pranced right up to her and nuzzled her and nibbled on her fingers.

Harry walked over to Susan and the foal and asked Susan the same question. “Well Susan how do you feel about being a Darcorn rider?”

“Me? But I am not worthy? Oh sweet one, you need some one who is worthy of you, some one that is so much more than I am? Ouch! Hey! Naught little thing.” Susan pulled back her hand. Apparently the foul didn’t like that thought.

“Apparently the foal has picked you and won’t take no for an answer, so what do you say?” Harry chuckled.

“Well if you are sure. I would love to be your rider.” Susan began to tear up as she pet the beautiful little foal.

“Well take this and give it too her to seal the deal as it were, it’s mares milk and chicken blood, her first taste of blood,” Harry handed her the bottle.

Susan took the bottle and gave it to the little foal and she latched on immediately, suckling heartily. “Whoah there girl your going to make yourself sick that way.” Susan laughed. Apparently she liked the blood mixture.

“At this point they can only stomach two bottles of blood mixture a day but they can be given two as a special treat when you want too.” Harry said. “Now you have to name her.”

“I think her name will be Karma. Yeah Karma fits her just fine. Just a beautiful as she is.” Susan was crying by now. She couldn’t stop the happy tears that came pouring down her face she didn’t even try.

The last one to break formation were Tonitru and Fulgura and their foals trotted, well tumbled right up to Fred and George, when they reached the two mischief makers who were laughing their ass of at the fun these two little ones were having. They foals were leaping and pouncing and jumping and twisting and twirling, anything you can think of these two were doing it. They then got quiet and walked slowly up to one twin each and nuzzled one. Fred and George laughed and petted the foal that had come up to them willingly and loved on it, telling it how beautiful it was, how smart and perfect it was.

Then Harry came over and ask the question. “So what’s your answer?”

“What’s the question, old chap?” Fred asked looking confused.

“The foal is asking if you would like to be his rider?” Harry stated.

Fred looked shocked, then he looked down at the little foal and asked, “Are you really, do you really want me to be your rider?”

The foal nodded it’s head and whinnied softly in agreement, that is exactly what it was saying.

“Oh my, ah…well I guess there is no answer to that question but yes…I would adore being your rider.” Fred began to get a little choked up and found speaking was getting hard to do, which was hard for him to understand since he normally always had something to say.

“Then you need to give him this,” Harry handed over the bottle “It’s chickens blood and mares milk, it is a special treat and he can only have two bottles a day right now, his stomach can’t handle any more of it. But let’s see if he likes it.”

Fred gave the foal the bottle…likes it, if the foal could have eaten the bottle he would have. Geeez. “Hold on there big fella the bottle is empty, its finished see.” Fred showed the foal the empty bottle and the foal shook his head back and forth like he was saying no, he wanted more of that stuff. “No more for right now. When you get older.”

“Now you have to name him.” Harry stated.

“This little guy is nothing but Mischief. And that is going to be his name, Mischief. How do you like that, huh?” The little foal leapt into the air and bounced around and played as if he couldn’t be happier.

“I think he likes it.” Harry chuckled.

“I think you are right” Fred laughed as he watched the young foal frolic about.

George had been watching his brother become a Darcorn rider a little enviously, with a sigh he continued to pet the little foul that had come up to him not really thinking about what it had meant until Harry walked over with a bottle and said “Well?” And handed him the bottle.

“Me, really…me?”

Harry nodded.

“You want me to be your rider? Are you sure here, you can’t take it back once you choose one you know? There are a lot more deserving people out there. Ouch! Okay I get it, you want me. You didn’t have to nip me you know.” George took the bottle and gave it to the foal and and boy did he like the stuff. Almost as much as Mischief had.

Harry looked over to George and said “Now you have to name him,” “Well if that one is Mischief then this one must be Mayhem, cause between these two that is all we can expect. Mischief and Mayhem. That sounds about perfect for you little guy.”

“What do you think little one, is Mayhem your new name?” Harry asked and the foal went and left leapt about, kicking his back feet in the air, and raring up on hind feet, whinnying the whole time. “Okay stupid question, Mayhem it is.”

“Okay folks, I would like to proudly introduce you to out new Darcorns. Justice, Karma, Mischief, and Mayhem.” Everyone who had been holding back waiting with bated breath to see what would happen began clapping excitedly and came up congratulating the new riders and foals. Then the mother’s of said foals came over and each one came up to their foal’s rider and began to chew at the hair of their foal’s riders hair.

Fred was the one that asked. “Why is Fulgura eating my hair?”

“She is letting you know she approves of you being her foals rider, and that she accepts you being around her foal. In other word mucking out the stalls and helping take care of him.”

“Oh okay. I was worried there for a minute. Thank you there big girl. I am proud to be his rider. I will take good care of my little man don’t you worry.” Fred patted Fulgura on the muzzle and Harry came over with a bucket of rats and suggested he give her a juicy rat as a treat and so he did and Fulgura was more than happy with that. So Harry took the bucket around to the rest of the riders and sure enough that was what the other mares were looking for. A rat to seal the deal.

————————————————————

For the rest of the summer it was teaching the new riders how to muck out stalls. How to brush down to foals. How to measure out the blood bottles, with the under stasis chicken blood and how to get the mares milk from the mares. How to give the foals a bath and how to brush out their manes and tails. How to exercise them and how to start to train them on using a lead and bridle.

Justice took to it all brilliantly even the lead and bridle bit. He did it all proudly as his father watched and proudly nodded his head the whole time.

Little Karma didn’t like the bridle but with a little coaxing she would work with Susan and take it.

Mischief and Mayhem were just being their normal playful selves and made the twins work for every bit of effort they made, but eventually they did take to the bride and lead without doing a tumbling act. For some reason both foals thought it was a better idea to try and knock both their riders down than it was to wear a silly old bridle. That was until their father whinnied loudly at them, then they stopped their playing around and took the bridle and walked in circles with the rest of the foals. Foals, gotta love ‘em.

The kids even brought their instruments down and played music for the Darcorn, who really liked it, it seems. Especially the mares. They swayed and nodded along with the music keeping time with the music as they played. Harry decided they would get a Wizarding Wireless and keep it down in the stables for the Darcorns to listen to next time they went into Diagon Alley.

Mr. and Mrs Weasley were so proud of the twins they bought them their very own owl just for them. They threw a huge party and invited everyone to come over. All the riders showed up. It was too bad the little foals couldn’t be there, but they were too young to be away from their mothers yet. That would take a few months yet.

“Anything we can help with Mrs. Weasley.” Harry asked.

“Oh heavens no. I have it all in hand. If you want to see if Arthur needs some help you might.” She smiled.

So Harry and the gang went outside to see if Arthur needed help setting up the tables and he did, so they started with the chairs. While Fred and George helped bring out the tabled, Harry, Pavarti, Padma, Susan, Luna, and Neville helped put up chairs. Then once the chairs were in place the girls started working on place settings. As Harry, Neville and Cedric continued with the chairs.

Soon everything was all set up, and the kids just went inside to help bring everything out. It was a kind of pot luck, Since each family had sent something along with each kid that came. Sirius had sent some pizza, freshly ordered that morning and under stasis to make sure they stayed warm. Frank sent over some Philly Cheese steak sandwiches for everyone. Amos had provided fish and chips. Susan had sent over hot roast beef sandwiches with cheddar and hot turkey with Swiss cheese.

All Molly had to do was make all the fixing and desserts and boy did she, she had mashed potatoes, potato salad and scalloped potatoes. Then she had green been salad, yams, carrots in honey, cole slaw, chips, crisps of all kinds, little cheese cubes, regular salad and fruit salad. And that is just the side dishes. Then she started on desserts. She had chocolate swirl cake and strawberry swirl cake, cheese cake and fudge, of course she made some treacle tart for Harry. Blue berry cobbler, banana cream pie, and chocolate pie, there were several forms of pudding too. Mrs Weasley had surely outdone herself this time.

Every one was having a blast. The food was fabulous and the company was wonderful, well all except Ron. All he did was look at his food until Mr. Weasley told him he could eat and then he slowly picked up his fork and began to eat, none of that piggish eater that he was so known for. In fact he didn’t act like the Ron they knew at all. He didn’t eat anything that wasn’t put on his plate, he didn’t speak unless spoken directly too, he didn’t mouth off, or interrupt, he didn’t act jealous about the twins getting to be Darcorn riders and him not, he just didn’t act like Ron.

Harry looked over to Fred in question.

Fred leaned down and spoke in a whisper, “He’s been that way since he returned from Durmstrang, he just isn’t himself. If he isn’t told specifically what to do, he just sits on the end of his bed and stares at the wall. He doesn’t run in the house any more, speak out of line any more, eat to fast or eat messily like he use to, he isn’t a pig like he used to be, he doesn’t throw a fit like a pig he used to be, he doesn’t through fits at all any more, he says Ma’am and Sir all the time, and Please and Thank you, it is scary, he is all polite and well mannered, he just isn’t our little brother any longer. Mum is talking about teaching him herself from now on, since he has calmed down so much. She is going to try him a little through the summer months and see if he is willing to learn from her or if she has to send him back to that horrible place. I can’t imagine what they did to him to turn our little Ronnikins into this proper Ronald in just one year. Its too terrifying to think about really.” Fred whispered.

“Wow. I wonder how a school can get away with something like that. I mean yeah it made him for the better but what did they have to do to him to get him that way.” Harry whispered back.

“I don’t know Mum tried everything and nothing worked, not even her spoon made him behave at times. And now there is nothing you can do to irritate or upset him. We’ve tried. Even put a spider on his pillow, he just woke up brushed it away and rolled over. Harry, he is terrified of spiders.”

“I know, every since you guys pulled that prank on him when you were like seven years old. And turned his teddy into a spider. He has been terrified of them.” Harry couldn’t believe that Durmstrang could change someone so completely. But apparently they had. He honestly didn’t know if that was for the better or the worst.

“Mrs. Weasley have you thought about seeing if Ron could try and see about sorting again, since his behavior has changed so dramatically from before, I bet that he would no longer fit for Slytherin. And if you explained that to the Headmistress she might just let him be resorted.”

“Yeah, he might have to start a year younger that everyone else but maybe he can get into one of the other houses without a problem now Mum. Why don’t you take him down here and try?” Fred said, it sounded like a perfectly wonderful idea to him.

Molly thought about it for a minute then nodded. She definitely wanted her son to go to Hogwarts and if there was any chance that he could get in, she wanted him to be able to do so. He would be in second year in stead of third like everyone else his age but oh well, it is better than trying to home school him again, and she wasn’t so sure about sending him back to Durmstrang. While she liked the new Ron, she had loved her old Ron too. She just didn’t like a lot of his old habits and had fought night and day with him trying to break him from his old habits. “That is an excellent idea, I think I will talk to Minerva and see what she says, he was a strait ’A’ student while he was there so transferring him here should be no problem, and if she treats him as a transfer she will have to sort him fresh, yes I think that is how I will handle it. Thank you boys, I think I will do that.”

They enjoyed their lunch then everyone got together and played a game of quidditch out on the family quidditch pitch, even Ron joined in. They continued to play until the sun started going down and they decided that it was getting late and they had better head back home, Molly insisted they stay and eat dinner. Apparently there was still enough food to feed an army left so everyone ate again and they all laughed and had a blast until it was time to leave. Then they all helped clean up and put things away, insisting that the Weasleys keep the left over food. That they didn’t want to take any of it home with them. Which flustered Mrs. Weasley some but she got over it quickly and wished everyone a good night as they headed through the floo.

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Not to be outdone Amos Diggory had to celebrate Cedric getting to be a Darcorn rider as well, and other than having it announced in the paper, which it was. He had a ball. That’s right folks a high fashion, champaign drinking, orchestra playing ball. Amos invited all the Darcorn riders and their parents, Frank and Sirius flipped the bill of getting the twins, Molly and Arthur new outfits, this flustered her again. But she went along with it anyway and she looked beautiful in her new gown, and Harry told her so. Which brought about a blush and a swat on his arm. Arthur looked quite handsome in his new robes too, and was complimented several times as well. The twins tried to joke and laugh it off but they looked real good in their new robes beside their laughing and clowning around.

The ball was actually pretty nice, Amos had invited half the Wizengamot is seemed, even the Minister for Magic was there. It was The Who’s who of the magical world right in front of your face. Famous Author, Singers, Musicians, Wizards, even a few Quidditch Players that Cedric was fond of were there. And everyone seemed to have a brilliant time, between the buffet, the champaign, the music and dancing it was all wonderful.

“May I have this dance My Lady?” Harry raised his hand to Luna who blushed and nodded. And they took of twirling amongst a sea of adults. But they looked so perfect, so beautiful together that several of the adults stepped aside to stop and watch them dance. Over and over again they twirled around, like tiny ballet dancers in a story book, Luna smiling and her eyes just sparkling, you could tell this is what she had hoped for all night long.

Neville walked up to Pavarti and took her hand, “May I have this dance, My Lady?” With a nod they entered the dance floor and soon they were twirling about right along side of Harry and Luna side by side. Every spin was perfect, every twirl was beautiful and you could see she was delighted with the whole thing. When she was in his arms she felt like she was dreaming.

Fred walked up to Padma and held out his hand “May I have this dance, My Lady? She smiled and headed to the dance floor with her rider, the usual jovial prankster was nothing but serious tonight. He held her with the utmost respect and dignity. He was charming and serious about their dance and let her know that she was worth every ounce of his respect. He swayed with her and twirled her slowly spinning her when she would sway just right. Her eyes never left his the whole dance, and they were meant for him alone.

Without even thinking about it Cedric went over to Susan and bowed then grasped her hand “May I have this dance My Lady?” She smiled and placed her hand in his allowing him to lead her onto the dance floor, he gently placed his hand on her waist and began to sway, the music was so beautiful that they were carried away almost immediately. Soon the sway became a spin and then a twirl, Susan was smiling the whole time, she had always secretly liked Cedric, and this was the first time they had ever really danced together. She couldn’t believe it was somewhere in such a public event like this. She was having such a brilliant time, she was almost swept away with the music and the dancing.

Hermione stood off to the side her eyes tearing up as she watched everyone else dance and enjoy themselves. Then a voice came to her “May I have this dance, My Lady?” It was George oh my he was asking her to dance, he had his hand out and waiting for her answer. She couldn’t believe it, she had forgotten all about George, she never knew that George knew how to ballroom dance and he did it so well too. This night was brilliant.

By this time all the adult had stopped dancing and were just watching the riders dance, watching them sway and twirl and spin with the music, it became an almost timed precision back and forth, twirl for twirl, spin for spin, who knew if they planned it that way or not but that is the way it ended. Magnificent. It was as if the dance was choreographed or something, it looked too perfect.

After words they got so many compliments and invitations to dance it was amazing, all night long they danced, both the boys and the girls.

It wasn’t until they danced that Harry realized that they had exactly the right number of males to female riders now, he wondered if the Darcorns knew something they didn’t.

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Susan and Amelia decided that they wanted to have a party to but they wanted something different so they stoked up the grill and decided on a bbq. There was steaks and burgers for everyone, she invited a bunch of her off duty officers and friends and some of Susan’s Hufflepuff friends as well as all the riders and their parents. They had the party out by the swimming pool so it was a bbq with swimming and sunning and then the kids brought out their instruments and they began to play they called Percy and to see if he wanted to join in and he did so they had the whole gang there and they played music, ate good food, drank sodas or the adults drank beer, or swam in the pool, or danced to music until well into the night. It was almost morning by the time they all headed home. Still laughing and having a blast.

They started with Abba songs then went into Queen, which seemed to be a big hit. Especially to the off duty officers. Everyone took a moment of silence after they played We Are The Champions and then they went right on playing music. They played the Beatles and some of Prince, Michel Jackson, Pat Benatar, and AC/DC anything that anyone would shout out they would play.

After they got tired of playing music Harry got a hair brained idea of playing poker and so he dug out his cards and they started playing poker. But since they didn’t have any chocolate frogs on hand they had to pop over and get some if they wanted to play. It was great, they had two tables set up Harry, Luna, Susan, Fred and Padma, Shackelbolt, Dawlish, and Tonks on one table. With Neville, Pavarti, Hermione, George and Cedric playing with Amelia, Frank, Sirius, and Mad Eye (who promised not to cheat).

It ended up with Harry and Cedric raking in most of the chocolate frogs, Mad Eye swore he was cheating some how he just couldn’t catch him doing it, but that was just because he lost holding a baby flush and was mad about it. Who knew the guy would draw to four of a kind, now really…

Throughout the night they kids had let the adults take over the poker tables and had gone back to the bbq and swimming and it seems like Amelia and Frank were the big winners on that, and of course they weren’t playing for chocolate frogs by then either, Frank swore he hauled in almost three hundred gold but Amelia refused to say, she just grinned and walked away.

After it was all said and done the kids help clean up after the party and put everything away. Making sure that Amelia didn’t have a big mess to deal with later. Then they all headed home.

No one could decide which party they enjoyed the most, each had its good points, although some had more good points than others. They just knew that this summer had been a blast.