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After leaving the Potters standing slack-jawed in front of the Headmaster's office, Harry sauntered into the Library looking for Hermione, who had invited him earlier to join her study group. Also in attendance were Neville and several other Gryffs clustered around Hermione like she was royalty. On the way in, Harry crossed paths with Theo, and he asked the boy to join them. Theo just looked back at the table (making eye contact with Hermione as he did). Then, he whispered a quick "no" and rushed out of the Library.
Shaking his head, Harry walked over to Hermione's table and introduced himself to the other Gryffindors: Parvati Patil, Lavender Brown and Dean Thomas. "I must say, I didn't expect this many people. I thought it was just three of us."
"Let's just say Hermione's popularity has skyrocketed in the last few hours," said Parvati smugly.
"Oh, stop!" said Hermione, blushing madly. "Now that the adrenaline's worn off, I feel quite embarrassed about the whole thing!"
"Well don't be!" said Neville. "You were incredible! That was what Gryffindor bravery is supposed to be about, not acting like ... like a braying ass." The other Gryff's laughed at that, until Madame Pince loudly shushed them all.
"What? For calling Jim out in Potions?" asked Harry.
"Oh, that was just the start. At some point, Harry, I'm going to borrow my Gran's pensieve just so you can watch the memory, because I'm going to treasure it forever," said Neville. "It all happened like this..."
Three hours earlier...
After the horrors of the first Potions class had ended, the First Year Gryffindors returned to their tower with mixed emotions. For Jim Potter, the dominant emotion was anger.
"Granger!" he bellowed as soon as he was through the passageway. "Gryffindors are supposed to stick together! What the hell do you mean by calling me a 'braying ass' in front of the whole class? And in Snivellus's class at that!"
"Oh, I'm sorry, Potter," she said sweetly. "I'm only a humble Muggleborn still in awe of the wonders of the magical world. And when I see a braying ass magically disguised as a Hogwarts student, I CAN'T HELP POINTING IT OUT!"
"Why you little...! What were you so upset about anyway?! It's just house points! Nobody here cares about that except Little Miss Know-It-All!"
Hermione's eyes flashed dangerously, and she whipped out her wand. Startled, Jim fumbled for his own, but Hermione simply turned and walked to the stairs leading up to the dorms. There, she pointed her wand up each staircase and, to everyone's astonishment, shot off a series of loud popping fireworks before yelling "ALL PREFECTS TO THE COMMON ROOM FOR AN EMERGENCY MEETING!"
Seconds later, dozens of older Lions, including all six prefects were pouring into the room, where an angry Hermione Granger was standing atop a coffee table surrounded by the rest of the First Years who were staring at her in amazement. She still had her wand out and looked ready for battle.
Ralph MacMillan, the 7th Year prefect, was the first to speak. "What the HELL is going on down here?! Who called a prefects meeting?!"
"I did," said Hermione calmly. "You lot said if we have any questions, then we should ask a prefect! Well I have a question, and I want it answered right now!"
"Have you gone completely mental?!" exclaimed Ralph before a female prefect, Emily Rossen, put her hand on his arm.
"Easy, Ralph. Let me. Miss Granger, er, Hermione. You're obviously distraught. Why don't you put your wand away and step down off the table and we can talk about this?"
"Not until I've asked my question."
Emily took a deep breath. "Okay, then. What's your question?"
"The House Cup. Is it something Gryffindor House actually cares about? Something that we actually aspire to win? Or is it just a big joke that only 'Know-It-Alls' worry about? Something we should just laugh over whenever some idiot costs us dozens of house points at one go? Because if it's the latter, I promise you I can stop caring about the House Cup too! It will be a lot easier to pass my OWLS if I'm not dragging a lot of dead weight behind me!"
Hermione glared at Jim and Ron at the end, but Percy Weasley missed that and whirled around on his twin brothers instead. "Oh Merlin's pants, what have you idiots done now?!"
In unison, the twins put their hands up in a surrender gesture.
"Twasn't us, oh Perfect Prefect Percy." "We haven't lost any house points ... yet." "Haven't had time to do anything worth memorializing." "I mean, we did steal a toilet seat, but I don't think anyone's noticed yet."
"We've noticed," said Katie Bell and Alicia Spinnet, almost in unison and with obvious displeasure.
Neville interrupted the discussion. "It wasn't the twins, Percy. It was Jim."
"Oh, thanks a lot, traitor," snapped Jim.
Hermione stepped down from the table and walked over to the confused prefects. "I don't know how things are going for the upper years. But among the First Years, it has taken Neville, Parvati, Lavender and myself a week to make up for the twenty points Jim Potter cost us on his first morning as a student."
Ralph coughed at that. "Yes, well. Admittedly that was a bad start for Potter, but hopefully, it's given him something to think about and won't happen..."
"Jim just lost us thirty-five points in Potions," she said calmly.
The room went quiet and all six prefects stared wide-eyed at the Boy-Who-Lived, who swallowed hard at attention that, for once, was not as favorable as he was accustomed. Then, the assembled Lions began murmuring their discontent. The twins were incorrigible, but a thirty-five point loss was what they might post in a week, not a single class. It represented nearly half the points the entire house had earned in the first week of school.
"Thirty-five points... in one class," said Emily weakly.
"Actually," said Neville tiredly. "Thirty-five points in under a minute."
"... HOW!" shrieked another of the prefects.
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