Chapter 22: A talk with Minerva
"What do you mean you can't do anything until you've definite proof?" he asked softly to the foolish old woman "One of your student is getting bullied and all you care about is the proper procedure instead of helping her. What kind of head of house are you?"
Minerva looked miffed at his choice of words while Hermione looked horrified at his argument with her head of house.
He wanted her to punish Lavender Brown and Parvati Patel who had bullied his one and only friend in Hogwarts so that they would not do so again. But the old coot refused to take any action without any proof.
A part of him understood that she was right. That she could not simply punish another student at his word. That part of him also understood that even if those two girls were punished, that would only make them hate Hermione even more which would in turn make her life at Hogwarts worse.
But another part of him that wanted to protect the girl didn't listen to reason and so he had come to the old woman, knowing that she would most like disappoint him once again by not any action when it was needed.
And just like he had expected, the woman had failed to live up to reputation once again.
He talked with her for a few more minutes, asking the old woman to at least do something to make sure that the girl won't be bullied in the future.
But the woman had not listened.
In the end, he realized that he was losing his patience a little bit and that talking with this woman was like asking a deaf dog to bark.
It just wouldn't work.
So he had been about to lay off and leave along with Hermione to do something rather productive with his time when the woman had made a huge mistake.
She gave him a week of detention and took 20 points from his house.
The punishment was meaningless to him. He would attend his detention and he never cared about house unity or house points in the first place. But this action of her made him realize just how fucked up this whole situation was.
A boy was trying to ask for help for his friend who being bullied by her house mates but instead of being rewarded, he was being punished instead.
He felt this patience break a little at that, something that would not have ended well for any of them when Hermione gave him a pleading, telling him to stop. And a sad look in her face that made him realize that he was being of no help to her.
Well, fuck the woman in that case.
Fuck the teachers.
Fuck the house.
Fuck Hogwarts.
From this point onward, he would deal with his problems himself, like how he had always done.
If any boys, even if it was Ron or someone else who hurt Hermione, he would beat them to an inch of their life and send them to the infirmary for a long recovery session.
And if she was harmed and bullied by the girls, then he would humiliate them in such a manner that the thought of returning home would feel much sweeter than remaining here for them.
Minerva also must have seen the determination in his eyes for she stood up from her chair in order to say something but he had already turned back at this point and he closed the door before the old woman could say anything.
He could still hear the footsteps coming toward them from the other side of the door so he wrapped an arm around Hermione and hid both of them with the Shroud of Concealment.
The old woman would not find them again in the corridors and a part of him felt like he was running away from her and that he should confront her instead but he had nothing else to say to her and would prefer to spend some time with his friend Hermione than spend it fighting the old woman.
He offered his apologies to Hermione for upsetting her but she simply smiled sadly at him and gave him another of her hugs that he could never get enough of and he realized that maybe having friends was not such a bad thing after all. If those could give such nice hugs to him.
He had originally planned to take her to the library but with all that had happened over the last hour, he thought that it would be better if they change their location for this one time and took her to the Great Lake instead.
He had a few memories of the Lake from the movies of Harry Potter and one of the most prominent ones was the one in which the original Harry flew over the lake on the back of a Hippogriff.
He also remembered that at the end of that movie, the original Harry and Hermione had flown on the back of the Hippogriff in order to rescue Sirius Black and wondered how it would feel to spend some time with her like that.
He made a note in his mind to bring a Broom with him the next time he and Hermione came here. He knew that he was too prideful and would most likely not bow down to a Hippogriff. So a ride on the back of such a majestic animal was out of his reach. So he would have to content himself with a Broom for the moment.
He was brought out of his musing by a tug on his sleeves and turned to see Hermione looking at him questioningly.
"Harry, I'm not saying that this place is not beautiful. It is. And very peaceful. But why are we here?" she asked and he could see that she was simply curious about his decision to bring them here.
"After that debacle back at Minvera's office…"
"Professor Minerva, Harry." She chided and he pinched his nose at her blind worship of the teachers and anyone with authority.
He probably knew Hermione's history better than anyone. How she only ever found any acceptance from her teachers which was why she even now tried to find acceptance from them instead of her classmates. But it still irritated him a bit that she would defend someone like Minerva who could not even be bothered to protect her from bullies.
Hermione must have seen his irritation in his expression as well for her smile died away at once and now he felt even worse.
"Alright. Professor Minerva" he acquiesced and continued "After that debacle in her office, I decided that it would be better for us to go outside and get some fresh air instead of sitting indoors so I brought you here for a study picnic." He said with a smile and was rewarded with a smile from her in return.
"But Harry. There is no where here for us to sit comfortably and we have no books to study either." She said with a smile. A smile that did wonders to improve his mood.
"I will admit that you're better than me at Charms but that doesn't mean that you can simply teach me without any book. Plus it's evening already and it's a bit cold out here so I don't think that your plan of having a picnic right now is very good."
At her words, he simply smiled at her. "Yes. I can see your problems but believe me when I say that I have a perfect plan for all of this."
She looked skeptically at him but he just waved away her concerns and took out a time turner and showed it to her.
"Do you know what this is?" he asked and she gazed skeptically at it for a moment before shaking her head.
"What is it?" she asked, looking a bit miffed at the thought that he knew something that she did not.
"It's an artifact known as time turner." He replied and went on to explain what it was, how it was used and how it was highly illegal to own one without the knowledge of the ministry.
Moments later, Hermione was once again freaking out over the fact that he was breaking rules and doing something illegal though he felt that a part of her still liked the thought of breaking rules and doing what she wanted.
By the end of their argument, he was able to placate her and just like before, she acquiesced to his wishes and he wrapped her with the chain of the time turner and revolved the time turner five times, which was, to his knowledge, it's maximum limit.
Time reversed itself and once the reversal ended, they were both standing near the lake at mid afternoon with a warm sun shining down upon them.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Fortunate_Soul
Fortunate_Soul Despite her good nature and her contributions in the war, I always felt that Minerva failed to deliver when it came to protecting the children under her care. Especially from bullying.
In 3 out of the 5 years spent in Hogwarts, Harry was constantly brought down by the rest of the school where Minerva did absolutely nothing to support him.
So yeah. I guess this chapter shows my anger at people who allowed Harry to be bullied right under their noses without ever doing anything about it.
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