Amie and the Army (Harry Potter fan-fic) Book 5 COMPLETED

StuDying

Dinner that evening was not pleasant. The news of Harry's shouting match with Umbridge had travelled through the school exceptionally fast. All around them, people were whispering about it, and they didn't bother keeping their voices down. Amie had to breathe very deeply to not have a go at them. She managed not to morph her hair to her usual angry red, but the tips she couldn't control. It was as if by talking just loud enough about it, maybe Harry'd lose his temper and yell some more.
"He says he saw Cedric Diggory murdered..." 
"He reckons he dueled with You-Know-Who..." 
"Come off it..." 
"Who does he think he's kidding?" 
"Pur-Lease..." 
"What I don't get," said Harry, laying down his cutlery on the table, because his hands were shaking. "is why they all believed the story two months ago when Dumbledore told them..." 
"The thing is, Harry, I'm not sure they did," said Hermione grimly. "Oh, let's get out of here." 
She slammed her own fork and knife on the table, Amie and Ron following suit, although Ron looked lovingly at his half-finished apple pie while he did it. People stared after them all the way out of the Hall. 
"What d'you mean, you're not sure they believed Dumbledore?" Harry asked Hermione when they reached the first-floor landing. 
"Look, you don't understand what it was like after it happened," said Hermione quietly. "You arrived back in the middle of the lawn clutching Cedric's dead body... none of us saw what happened in the maze... we just had Dumbledore's word for it that You-Know-Who had come back and killed Cedric and fought you." 
"Which is the truth!" said Harry loudly. 
"We know, Harry, she's just telling you what it's like," Amie said in a soft voice.
"Before the truth could sink in, everyone went home for the summer, where they spent two months reading about how you're a nutcase and Dumbledore's going senile!" Hermione continued. Amie spoke up.
"You have to understand that for people who don't know you, and who want to believe they're safe, it's easier to take the Prophet's word for it. And Dumbledore didn't give anyone here any proof, and they weren't allowed to ask you about it --"
"Okay, okay - I get it!" Harry interrupted Amie.
They all walked in silence the rest of the way to the Gryffindor tower. Rain was pounding on the windowpanes.
"Mimbulus Mimbletonia," said Hermione to the Fat Lady, before she could ask. The portrait swung open, and the four of them walked inside. 

The common room was nearly empty. Crookshanks jumped down from an armchair and walked up to them, purring, and when they all sat down, he jumped up on Hermione's lap and settled there. They were quiet.
"How can Dumbledore have let this happen?" Hermione cried suddenly, pounding the arms of her chair in fury. Amie and the others jumped in surprise, and Crookshanks leapt off her, looking offended. "How can he let that terrible woman teach us? And in our OWL year, too!" 
"Well, we've never had great Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers, have we?" said Harry. "You know what it's like, Hagrid told us, nobody wants the job; they say it's jinxed." 
"Yes, but to employ someone who's actually refusing to let us do magic! What's Dumbledore playing at?" 
"And she's trying to get people to spy for her," said Ron darkly. "Remember when she said she wanted us to come and tell her if we hear anyone saying You-Know-Who's back?" 
"Of course she's here to spy on us all, that's obvious, why else would Fudge have wanted her to come?" snapped Hermione. 
"Don't start arguing again," said Harry wearily, as Ron opened his mouth to retaliate. "Can't we just... let's just do that homework, get it out of the way..."
They all agreed that was the best idea, so they collected their school bags and returned to their chairs by the fire. Meanwhile, people were starting to come back from dinner. Amie saw them looking at Harry, but she tried her best to ignore it.
"Shall we do Snape's stuff first?" said Ron, dipping his quill into his ink. "The properties... of moonstone... and its uses... in potion-making..." he muttered, writing the words across the top of his parchment as he spoke them. "There." He underlined the title, then looked up expectantly at Hermione. 
"So, what are the properties of moonstone and its uses in potion-making?" 
But Hermione wasn't listening. She was looking over at Fred, George and Lee, who were sitting in a corner, surrounded by a group of first years, who were chewing on something that seemed to have come out of a bag that Fred was holding.
"No, I'm sorry, they've gone too far," she said, standing up and looking positively furious. "Come on, Ron." 
"I - what?" said Ron, plainly playing for time. "No- come on, Hermione - we can't tell them off for giving out sweets." 
"You know perfectly well that those are bits of Nosebleed Nougat or - or Puking Pastilles or -" 
"Fainting Fancies?" Harry suggested quietly. 
One by one, as if hit over the head with a club, the first years fainted. Some slid down to the floor, others simply hung over the arms of their chairs. Many who were watching were laughing. Hermione squared her shoulders and marched up where Fred and George were standing with their clipboards, observing the first years. Ron rose halfway out of his chair, hovered uncertainly, and then sat back down, muttering "She's got it under control,"
"That's enough!" Hermione said forcefully, making Fred and George look up at her looking mildy surprised.
"Yeah, you're right," said George, nodding, "this dosage looks strong enough, doesn't it?" 
"I told you this morning, you can't test your rubbish on students!" 
"We're paying them!" said Fred indignantly. 
"I don't care, it could be dangerous!" 
"Rubbish," said Fred. 
"Calm down, Hermione, they're fine!" said Lee, who was walking from first year to first year, putting purple sweets into their open mouths.
"Yeah, look, they're coming round now," said George. 
Some of the first years were indeed waking up. Many looked shocked, finding themselves on the floor or dangling off their chairs. Amie got the impression that the twins hadn't informed them of what the sweets did. 
"Feel all right?" said George kindly to a small dark-haired girl lying at his feet. 
"I - I think so," she said shakily. 
"Excellent," said Fred happily, but the next second Hermione had snatched both his clipboard and the paper bag of Fainting Fancies from his hands. 
"It is NOT excellent!" 
"Course it is, they're alive, aren't they?" said Fred angrily. 
"You can't do this, what if you made one of them really ill?" 
"We're not going to make them ill, we've already tested them all on ourselves, this is just to see if everyone reacts the same -" 
"If you don't stop doing it, I'm going to -" 
"Put us in detention?" said Fred, in an I'd-like-to-see-you-try-it voice. 
"Make us write lines?" said George, smirking. 
Onlookers all over the room were laughing. Hermione drew herself up to her full height; her eyes were narrowed and her bushy hair seemed to crackle with electricity. 
"No," she said, her voice quivering with anger, "but I will write to your mother." 
"You wouldn't," said George, horrified, taking a step back from her. 
"Oh, yes, I would," said Hermione grimly. "I can't stop you eating the stupid things yourselves, but you're not to give them to the first years." 
The twins looked as if they'd been hit by lightning. They obviously thought Hermione's threat was below the belt, but Amie understood where she was coming from. With one last threatening look at them, Hermione gave back Fred's clipboard and the bag of sweets, and then she walked back to her chair by the fire. Ron had by now sunk so low into his chair that his nose was almost level with his knees.
"Thank you for your support, Ron," Hermione said acidly. 
"You handled it fine by yourself," Ron mumbled. 
Hermione stared down at her blank piece of parchment for a few seconds, then said edgily, "Oh, it's no good, I can't concentrate now. I'm going to bed." 
Hermione wrenched her bag open, pulling out to oddly formed woolly objects. She placed them on a table by the fireplace, covered them with screwed up bits of parchment and a broken quill and stood back to admire the effect. 
"What in the name of Merlin are you doing?" said Ron, watching her as though fearful for her sanity. 
"They're hats for house-elves," she said briskly, now stuffing her books back into her bag. "I did them over the summer. I'm a really slow knitter without magic but now I'm back at school I should be able to make lots more." 
"You're leaving out hats for the house-elves?" said Ron slowly. "And you're covering them up with rubbish first?" 
"Yes," said Hermione, swinging her bag onto her back.
"That's not on," said Ron angrily. "You're trying to trick them into picking up the hats. You're setting them free when they might not want to be free." 
"Of course they want to be free!" said Hermione at once, though her face was turning pink. "Don't you dare touch those hats, Ron!" 
She turned on her heel and left. Ron waited until she disappeared, then cleared off the rubbish covering the hats.
"They should at least see what they're picking up," he said firmly. "Anyway..." he rolled up the parchment on which he had written the title of Snape's essay, "there's no point trying to finish this now, I can't do it without Hermione, I haven't got a clue what you're supposed to do with moonstones, have you?" 
Harry shook his head, while Amie was silent. She got the feeling that Harry and Ron didn't actually want to do homework this evening, and Harry looked as if he might have a headache. He started putting away his books into his bag.
"I'm going to bed too," he said, and a second later he was gone.
"What about you, AJ?" said Ron.
"I'll stay up for a bit, try to get some of the homework done," Amie answered off-handedly, her nose stuck in a book, reading about moonstones.
"All right," said Ron, standing up. "Good night,"
"Night," said Amie.
Amie stayed up for quite a long while that night. First she finished the moonstone essay, and then she proceeded with the essay on giant wars for History of Magic. Luckily no one disturbed her, so when she went to bed her workload had noticably decreased.