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Hermione huffed and began to caress a purring Crookshanks on her lap. Since the incident in November, the Gryffindor girl had refused to lock her cat in the girl dormitories. An action Alexandra supported wholeheartedly, when the other inhabitants of said dorm had proven so unreliable.
"Yeah. Yeah. We were saying the same thing last year, Morag." Smirked Alexandra, taking a pancake from a basket which had just magically appeared in front of her. "Just before Professor Dumbledore decided to play the Gryffindor favouritism and awarded them the Cup on a silver platter for their rule-breaking." She added in a whisper.
"Ah, but it was before Professor Snape awarded us two hundred points for saving the skin of the Snakes." Remarked Morag. "And that our dear Head of Slytherin removed five hundred points to Gryffindor. Points they didn't have by the way, which put them a lot more in the negative."
"I would find it more reassuring if five hundred points was the amount Snape removed on the day of the attack." Remarked Alexandra. "Unless my memory fails me, Snape wanted to remove a thousand House points, made them scrub the floors and the grounds from Hagrid's hut to the top of Ravenclaw tower, expulse them and charge them in front of a tribunal with criminal charges. And while I am not his greatest fan, I think Professor Snape was right in this case. The Golden Trio and all these Gryffindors should have been expulsed and face a tribunal for their actions."
"Impossible." Affirmed Nigel. "Did you really think the Headmaster would have expulsed the sons and daughters of his own allies?"
"No. No, I did not." Sighed Alexandra, cutting her pancake in four and eating it piece by piece. "Still, I hoped...never mind. If it had one of us four responsible for a stunt like that, I have no doubt we would have been tried by the entire Wizengamot."
"See the good side of things." Told Morag, emptying the plates on the Ravenclaw with the dignity of a pure-blood and the appetite of someone in deep hunger. "By intervening in this fight, you became popular with the Neutrals."
In her mind, Alexandra rather used the word 'respected' or something equivalent. With her parentage, being 'popular' was forbidden to her. But a lot of Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws - who were never going to be Slytherin friends or show support to somebody belonging to a Dark House - had been the recipients in the last sixteen months of the pranks imagined by the Weasley Twins, the Golden Trio and Gryffindor House as a whole.
With the teachers turning a blind eye, many had despaired. Except Snape, few teachers had felt concerned enough to stop this bullying. Alexandra and Morag raising their wands against them had changed the situation: for several days afterwards the overwhelming majority of the Professors had punished the prankers and the students breaking the school rules. A bit too late in the green-eyed girl opinion, but at least now they acted.
Besides this sudden episode of the teaching staff doing their job, for an entire week the two Ravenclaw girls had received an owl's tempest of congratulations from a lot of families. A dozen or so included Houses known for their 'conservative' positions on blood-purity. According to Morag, these Lords and Ladies would have ignored a disgraced Half-Blood witch in normal circumstances. Realistically it was because they didn't like the Boy-Who-Lived, but the letters had been appreciated nonetheless. As had the thanks of the Greengrass sisters and the other Slytherin when they had got out of the infirmary.
"And unpopular with the Light, according to the Daily Prophet." Tempered Hermione.
"No one is perfect." Shrugged Alexandra.
The Light Houses sitting at the Wizengamot had proven very spiteful, and tried to eject House Potter from its seat at the next session after the incident. Frankly, Alexandra was surprised they had been so stupid to try. House Potter's seat and vote were held at the moment by their leader, Albus Dumbledore. If they had achieved their goal, they would have fractured their own power base. Fortunately or unfortunately for them, the Dark and Neutral Houses had vetoed this move, 87 voices for, 198 voices against.
It had been the last offensive action of the Light Party. House Greengrass and House Malfoy were now suing House Longbottom, House Black and all the Houses of the Gryffindor involved in the attack. Each new paper of the Daily Prophet now was covering the political chaos it caused. It was unimaginable when one paused to think about it, but the problem of the Heir of Slytherin had just unleashed a massive political crisis in Wizarding Britain's legislative body.
At Hogwarts, it translated in seeing more and more rarely Professor Dumbledore. They hadn't seen the old wizard this week for example and it was already Thursday. Numerous searches in the dormitories of House Slytherin and Gryffindor for illegal and dangerous items, and the member of the two aforementioned Houses looking at each other with looks of murder.
The loud hoots of incoming owls for courier interrupted the conversations in the Great Hall. Like at each breakfast, the noises made by the hundreds of owls arriving each morning were a spectacular sight.
"Is it me, or there are a lot of letters for the Gryffindors this morning?" Asked Morag.
"And why are the Slytherins looking so amused?" Added Nigel with a lot of worry in his voice.
There was no time to wonder what the Snakes had imagined for their long-awaited retaliation. It was happening in live.
In a hoot full of revenge, around one hundred and fifty owls threw each a red envelope on the Gryffindor table. Before any boy or girl sitting there had the reflex to open one of them, the Howlers all exploded in a simultaneity that was too perfect to be a coincidence.
BOUH!
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