Ginny had positioned herself on the sofa with the best view of the portrait hole entrance. Though she held a book as if she was reading, her eyes never left the entrance. It was many minutes of waiting before Harry and Hermione entered. Her eyes lit up as she noticed the plate missing from Harry's hand. "He must have eaten it already," She thought. "Harry did you enjoy the tart?" She asked with a smile. "I might even get a good night kiss tonight from my hero."
"Uh no," Harry replied as he tried to feign a look of disgust. He then launched into the prepared speech. "We were uh…stopped by Malfoy and a few other Inquisitorial Squad people. They took my tart and the box of candy Ron gave Hermione saying that having food in the hallways is now against the rules."
Ginny complexion became white as fresh snow. The stark contrast to her red hair made her look ghoulish. She swallowed hard dreading the answer she was going to get, but had to ask. "Uh…so...uh who took your tart?"
"Bulstrode," Harry snarled. "She started eating it right in front of me too."
"She…she ate it?" Ginny asked as an absolute look of horror crossed her face. "No..."
"Oh don't worry Ginny. I ate enough already," Harry said. "It was very nice of you to give me the piece though."
"Yeah...uh...of course," Ginny mutter as she had a very distracted look on her face. She kept glancing at the portrait hole expecting to see Millicent Bulstrode coming through any second to announce her undying love. She then remembered the candy. "I…I'm sure my…my brother will be...uh...disappointed you didn't…uh…get to enjoy your chocolate Hermione. Who took it?"
"Malfoy and Parkinson," Hermione groused. "And it was Honeydukes chocolate too. They sneered at us as they opened the box and started eating the chocolate pieces right in front of us as well."
"The…they...uh…both.." Ginny didn't finish the sentence as she turned and ran up the boy's dorm steps.
Harry and Hermione smiled at each other as they knew the next two days would be very interesting in Hogwarts.
"Now we just need to do something about Umbridge," Harry said.
"Any ideas?"
"Outside of feeding her to the Acromantulas?" Harry asked.
"That is an option, but maybe we should think of something else first. I mean she isn't a Death Eater."
"No but she did try to kill me with the Dementors and has been torturing me all year," Harry said.
"If Voldemort breaks everyone out of Azkaban again, do you think she'll join him?"
"She supported his agenda the last time. Do you remember Mrs. Cattermole?"
"Of course and the other two cases I had to record before you got there," Hermione replied. "It made me sick on my stomach."
"So what's the proper punishment for attempted murder of a minor, extensive torturing of a minor, abuse of power, sentencing muggleborns to Azkaban and Dementors if they resisted the punishment?"
"I guess Dementors would be best for her," Hermione begrudgingly said. "But I doubt we have time before they join Voldemort."
"I agree, Fudge would protect her and I'm not sure I could help him if he started helping Umbridge."
"Acromantulas then?" Hermione asked. "Are we risking splitting our souls by killing people Harry?"
Harry thought about it for a while and remembered the final battle. "Did you think less of Mrs. Weasley when she killed Bellatrix?" He asked.
"I...no I thought..." Hermione's thoughts trailed off.
"Exactly. I think Neville is right. I think our souls would be in more jeopardy if an innocent person got killed because we didn't do what needed to be done. Besides you led her to the Centaurs last time, what if they had killed her?"
"True. We'll do it, but it can't look like we did it though."
"That's why we need a plan."
...
In the Slytherin common room Millicent was trying to study for her Charms OWL which was to be held the next day. But as she studied the material, visions of the young red-headed Gryffindor that played on their Quidditch team kept dancing in her mind. "She looked so beautiful flying. Her red hair flowing… What am I doing?" She asked herself but it was taking all of her willpower not to run to the Gryffindor tower just to see the "beautiful young lady and confess how much she wanted to be with her," Millicent looked around the common room hoping no one was noticing her distractions.
Draco and Pansy both noticed the small box of chocolates that were on the bed tables as they were preparing to go to bed. Each thought the other had given them the chocolates and each had one before going to bed that evening. The both ended up dreaming of a tall lanky red-headed boy with the song "Weasley is our king" flowing through their mind in a much kinder tone than they had sung it before.
....
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