Room 308, Thursday afternoon

[smartestone]

Sometime after her little meeting with Umbridge, Hermione went back to her room and started on a mental to-do list.


1. Call Harry.
With no instructions from Dumbledore not to, Hermione was able to pick up the phone and call the Dursley house. She'd tried calling him before, then realized that the Dursleys kind of didn't want wizarding types calling their house, and pretended to be a neighbor who wanted to yell at Harry for something. Horrifyingly, that got them to give him the phone right away. He couldn't do anything about it, but at least she got to share an omgwtf moment and assure him that she was not letting this happen at two of her schools if she could help it.

2. Call her parents.
Umbridge had mentioned them a little too much for Hermione's comfort, so if they happened to get a little push towards taking that vacation they'd been talking about, well.

3. Call Alec.

4. Write letter to the school board.
It was long and detailed, telling all about what she knew of Umbridge's issues at Hogwarts and all the decrees she'd instated and the scars on Harry's hand. Of course, Hermione totally didn't realize that the school board might not take a sixteen-year-old who disliked her principal seriously, especially with some of those claims.

5. Feed Crookshanks.
Because pets needed to eat.

6. Get back to work on her knitting.
Because this Umbridge had no idea what had been done with the dildo cozies, so it would be a nice surprise when they charmed themselves right into her office.


#6 was what Hermione was working on for the rest of the afternoon. She was terrible at it, but she was determined. And she'd left the door open on purpose.


[Open! Especially if you want to see Hermione bitch like a bitching thing that bitches.]

Comments

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"'Usurped' isn't good," Luke commented. "What's she like? I'm going with not nearly as perky as she sounded."

[smartestone]

"Well, she is..." she said slowly. "She also made a friend of mine do lines with a quill that etched the lines into his skin. I'm not sure what to call that."

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

Luke's jaw dropped. "Sadistic," he said, voice hard.

[smartestone]

"She spent a full year denying that a Dark Wizard was alive and is still denying it despite her organization catching us fighting his minions, she put up educational decrees limiting every freedom the students had, she kept them from learning anything useful because of course Harry had to be lying and let's make an example of him..." She took a breath, realizing what she was saying. "Um. Sorry."

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"Don't be," Luke said softly. "You know what we're going to be up against. The power hungry always overreach. How long did it take for your old school to catch on? How did she get her information? What kept the teachers from killing her outright? How was she gotten rid of?"

Luke wasn't quite as naive as he looked.

[smartestone]

Hermione was sort of impressed by the questions. "The school itself caught on pretty quickly, except for Mr. Filch, who was just happy to be able to punish students," she answered. "She attempted to use Veritaserum at least once to force answers out of people, but for the most part I think it was intimidation. The teachers could't do anything because the Ministry of Magic appointed Umbridge to the position and she was there to interfere for them, and the teachers wouldn't have let us handle her on our own. And we got rid of her by letting centaurs carry her off, but I know that won't work again."

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"Did the teachers know about her quill? Or did your Ministry wield that much control?" He could only imagine the look on his father's face if he found out about that...probably better not to mention it for the time being.

"And how did she use the Veritaserum?" Luke asked. "Does it need to be ingested, or spread around the skin or something?"

He blushed faintly. "Sorry. Before school I watched people run a revolution. I guess I learned more than I thought I had."

[smartestone]

"No, that's perfectly all right," she said, smiling a little excitedly. "Usually I'm the one having to ask all the questions. I don't think the quill was common knowledge, or I know one teacher who would have kicked Umbridge out ofthe school herself. And the Veritaserum is a sort of truth-telling potion. It's easily slipped into tea, so I wouldn't take anything she gives you."

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

Luke walked into the room and sprawled out on the floor. "Do you think she'll change tactics because she knows you're here?" he asked, leaning back against his hands, "or is she egotistical enough to think we won't catch on?"

[smartestone]

"Pompous enough to believe we won't do any good against her, I think," she said, tapping a knitting needle thoughtfully. "And I did tell her I was from a different reality than she is, so she might assume I don't know what her tactics are."

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"Wonderful," Luke said. "Underestimating us is good." He gave Hermione a slightly wicked smile. "Though I'm calling it now--if someone reads something from some book and we all end up as, I don't know, weasels, instead of having her gone, I'm going to be upset."

[smartestone]

"Oh, so will I," Hermione said, wide-eyed. "And she is a witch. She can use magic right back. I hope people realize that."

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"And she's been at it a lot longer than we have," Luke said with a nod. He let out a small sigh. "There are going to be a lot of people who have to learn that the hard way, huh? Where did your friend's scars show up? We can find out if she brought the quill that way."

[smartestone]

"His hand," she said. "It cut into his skin while he was writing. I know what'll help it, though. And I should get some, actually, just in case..."

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

Luke winced sympathetically. "Yeah. What excuse did she use for punishing your friend?"

[smartestone]

"He needed to be," Hermione said with an eyeroll. "He witnessed something that proved Voldemort was back. She refused to believe it, and he must have been telling lies."

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"Wow," Luke said, frowning. "Why didn't she want to face that truth?"

[smartestone]

"She works for the Ministry of Magic, who couldn't admit Voldemort was back because it would mean they had been ignoring the signs of his return for a while. And no one wanted to admit that someone as horrible as Voldemort could return," she explained. "But in order to save face, especially in light of our headmaster, Dumbledore, and his views on the situation, they put Umbridge in the Defense Against the Dark Arts position in order to keep Dumbledore in line and keep the closest eye on what they thought was an army he was starting against the Ministry."

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

Luke looked positively floored. "But stopping it as early as possible is better than losing face!" he exclaimed. "Short-sighted idiots."

"If someone had noticed warning signs, my galaxy wouldn't have exploded spectacularly twenty years ago, I wouldn't be the only Jedi left in my dimension and Alderaan would be a planet still and not an asteroid field."

[smartestone]

"That's exactly it!" she said, a little too overexcited by someone getting it. "They didn't realize that Harry had been telling the truth until we'd taken matters into our own hands, and Ministry workers actually saw Voldemort for their own eyes. By that time someone they'd wrongfully accused of working for him was dead."

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"That's beyond ridiculous," Luke spat.

[smartestone]

"Since then they've been trying to backpedal, making Harry out to be the hero in the Ministry-approved paper. Which he is, but they just spent the last year slandering him," Hermione said. "It's a horrible situation and now she's here."

The mental grrrrrr might have been a little obvious.

[tatooine-doofus.livejournal.com]

"Fantastic," Luke said flatly. "At least we know what we're in for. Do you think Hades...never mind. He'll probably be selling popcorn, huh?"