Arthur Weasley was sitting down to dinner when he received a letter from a Hogwarts owl. He opened it to read:
Dear Mr. Arthur Weasley,
I am writing you today regarding your son Ronald Weasley's schoolwork. Ronald's grades have never been extraordinary or even average but they are dropping drastically. I have inquired into this and been informed that your youngest son has only ever studied or completed his homework when forced to by Miss Hermione Granger, a former friend of his.
Upon discussions with Mr. Potter, Miss Granger, and your other three children I've come to realize that without Miss Granger's help Ronald very likely would have failed out of Hogwarts already. I must also inform you that your son's bad study habits were diminishing others' grades. With Mr. Potter and Miss Granger no longer spending time with your son Mr. Potter's grades have soared this term.
Normally I would not discuss another student's academic progress however Mr. Potter permitted me to do so to illustrate to you that the distractions Ronald is causing are detrimental to others' educations. At this rate, Mr. Weasley, your youngest son will fail out of Hogwarts before Christmas break. He currently has a T in all courses and has handed in little to no homework in all of his courses this term.
Further, Ronald is taking great pleasure in verbally sniping and berating Miss Granger and Mr. Potter at every opportunity. They have both made complaints to multiple teachers about it and Ronald has been given detentions and warnings but ignores them all. Miss Granger and Mr. Potter do not engage him in any way; in fact they quite obviously ignore him which apparently serves to only irritate Ronald more. Perhaps you can emphasize that he not continue to poke the bear? I fear that one day either Miss Granger or Mr. Potter will snap and very little will be left of your son if that happens. His magical abilities are not even close to theirs.
In other news the twins and Miss Ginevra Weasley are all doing well and the twins seem to have turned their love of pranking into something more constructive. They are even promoting unity during this tournament and it is a pleasure to see.
I look forward to your efforts to deal with Ronald.
Minerva McGonagall
Gryffindor Head of House
Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts
Arthur rubbed his face and handed the letter to Molly as he got a glass of firewhiskey. "I thought Ginny and the twins were overreacting," she whispered. "Did I coddle him too much Arthur?"
"Molly you've been telling Ginny she'll marry the boy-who-lived for years and yet when Harry and Hermione became a couple her letter home was exuberant and she went on about how perfect they are for each other. I do not believe for a minute that you can be blamed for this. I do share Minerva's concerns. Harry and Hermione could take Ron out before he even drew his wand. And he's never been one for schooling even when you were teaching him. He was eight before he could read."
Molly nodded and cast a glance toward the recent letters from the twins and Ginny. They were filled with joy from being with their friends and both letters were protective of Hermione being a Veela, almost daring their parents to say something negative about the revelation. It was nice that Harry and Hermione didn't hold Ron's behavior over the rest of the family. "What should we do Arthur?"
"I would never take away an education from my children but if Ron isn't putting in the effort then why should we continue to pay for it? With the money we save on his schooling we could buy the others new robes and clothes or better brooms for them. Ginny wants to play quidditch we could get her a decent broom to play on the house team next year."
Although Molly wanted to argue with her husband because she wanted all of her children treated equally, she could see Arthur's point. Ronald's scores had never been good and when she asked the twins about their brother's scores after his first year they'd both said what Minerva had in the letter; without Hermione he'd have failed out. "Perhaps we should give Ron an ultimatum? If his scores aren't improved dramatically by the end of the year he will return home."
The school year was already paid for. Arthur nodded his head in agreement with his wife's suggestion, "We'll both have to tell him this in person. I'll write Minerva tonight to arrange a visit."
Harry sat in the Gryffindor common room after dinner, Hermione in his lap as they read their History of Magic book together. Dean sat down on the sofa near the chair the couple was sitting on, "Okay why is it that the book is so interesting but all we ever hear from Binns is goblin rebellions?"
"To hear him tell it we shouldn't even bank with the goblins," Neville agreed.
Hermione looked at Harry before looking at the boys, "Why don't we draw up a petition and see how many students will sign it? Maybe we can force the headmaster to give us a real history professor."
"That's brilliant!" Harry looked to see Angelina Johnson and the twins grinning, "Why has no one else ever thought of that?"
"Because my Hermione is the most brilliant witch in the school," Harry said, kissing her gently.
Fred and George faked gagging sounds which saw them being hit with pillows by the three chasers. Ginny got the conversation back on topic, "So how does this petition work?"
Hermione vacated her spot on Harry's lap and got out a long sheet of parchment and began to work out the wording of the petition so that it was clear and concise. With assistance from their fellow Gryffindors Hermione soon had the wording perfect:
We the students of Hogwarts feel that our education is sorely lacking in History of Magic. Our textbooks are more informative and interesting than Professor Binns, who is forever stuck on goblin rebellions and is incredibly monotonous in his lectures. We demand that our education be taken seriously and a new professor of history be hired.
Hermione then signed the document. Harry took the quill and followed suit and one by one every Gryffindor, save Ron who was upstairs in his room pouting, signed the document.
"We can always duplicate the parchment right? To send it to the Board of Governors too?" Ginny asked.
"We can present it to the headmaster and if no action is taken take it to the Board of Governors," Angelina Johnson said.
"We can duplicate it easily," Hermione nodded.
The next morning once the Great Hall was full Hermione finished her breakfast and walked over to the Ravenclaw table, explaining the petition. In no time at all every claw had signed it. Hermione was glad she'd chosen a particularly long parchment. With Ravenclaw finished sooner than expected she went to the Hufflepuff table where they quickly all signed as well.
By that point Slytherin was curious and a few of them went to see what was going on. No sooner had Hermione said, "A petition to fire Binns and get a real history professor," the snakes were lining up to sign. Ironically this willingness to sign made Hermione late to History of Magic, not that Binns noticed.
At lunch the entire school was eagerly waiting for Hermione to walk up to the head table. When she stood and walked up the entire hall's attention was on her. Hermione walked up to the head table right in front of the headmaster, "Professor Dumbledore, on behalf of the student body I present this petition to have Professor Binns removed from his post and to put in his place someone to properly teach us. Our parents don't pay for us to learn from a book." She unfurled the long parchment and the professors watched the parchment roll down the steps, "Almost all the students in this school have signed this petition and we are prepared to also send it to the Board of Governors."
Albus Dumbledore had never heard of the entire student body writing a petition. The school could never fully agree on anything. That they did was outstanding to him. He accepted the parchment from Miss Granger and read the short paragraph at the top. He was well aware that the entire hall's attention was on them. He finished reading the paragraph and gazed at Hermione Granger. "Thank you for bringing this to my attention Miss Granger. I will take immediate action. Twenty points to Gryffindor for your initiative."
"Thank you sir," she said before walking back to the Gryffindor table. Harry smiled as she sat down next to him. "What?"
"You're just so incredible," he said, kissing her sweetly.
"I'm rather aware of that Harry," she whispered, "you say so every night." He grinned in response.
That evening at dinner the headmaster made the announcement that Binns had crossed over. The students cheered. The other Hogwarts ghosts would be filling in for the position until a suitable replacement could be found. Only Ron Weasley and Draco Malfoy were displeased; Malfoy because Slytherin had stood behind the Veela mudblood and Ron because as usual Potter and Granger were getting all the attention.
Draco Malfoy was not having a good year. First he got entered into a tournament somehow and then Pansy had had their betrothal terminated. His father wasn't helping him and neither was his godfather citing that it was 'against the rules'. While most of Slytherin was impartial regarding supporting Malfoy no one was leaping up to help him. He had Crabbe and Goyle still but that wasn't anything to brag about. They were utter idiots and really only good as henchmen. He tried to bait Granger but she responded in kind and then his godfather had pulled him aside and told him that he needed to quit harassing her. On the plus side, Weasley was incredibly easy to rile up and that was fun.
Ron had been sure his forgiveness of Harry and Hermione becoming a couple would work. When it hadn't he'd gone back to verbally berating them every chance he had. He'd also publicly attacked Hermione, saying among other things that Harry was only with her out of pity. He'd also been publicly ogling the blonde Beauxbatons champion. She was Veela and Veela were really beautiful. He'd lament that there weren't any Veela at Hogwarts and so on. When Hermione had publicly admitted to being a Veela Ron had been outright shocked. He'd scoffed at the idea so she'd sent a targeted blast of allure at him. The resulting reactions had furiously embarrassed him in front of Gryffindor. He'd tried to then get her in trouble only for his classmates to point out that he'd brought it on himself and McGonagall to tell him to 'not poke the bear,' whatever that meant.
Now his parents were on his case. Potter and Granger must have whined. He didn't understand why Harry was with Hermione. She was a Veela so that could be the reason but Ron had called dibs on her. Admittedly he'd never told Harry that but to Ron's mind that was just a formality. He'd showed his feelings for her by the constant fights they had. It was obviously sexual tension. And they'd even gone on dates in third year! Although Ron had never considered Hermione's feelings, spent most of his third year blacklisting Hermione over a broomstick and a rat, and never asked her out on a date. Those weren't relevant anyway. The best part was that then Harry would be jealous of him for a change. But now Potter was with her and Ron was without anything. He'd just have to work out how to get revenge on the traitors.
The first Hogsmeade weekend arrived the weekend before the first task and Hermione was excited. She was finally going to get Harry new clothes. He was letting her dress him only if he could dress her with him footing the bill for their new wardrobes. Hermione was loathe to refuse her lover and had agreed reluctantly weeks ago. Now she was actually eager for the day.
At breakfast the whole school was abuzz with excitement for the Hogsmeade weekend. Some of the younger students approached the older ones asking for things from Honeydukes and Zonko's shop. Harry looked at Hermione, "Excited for today?"
"Well I always look forward to time spent with you," she smiled.
"Smooth," Harry chuckled. "New clothes are exciting to me. I've never had clothes that actually fit me before."
"My poor Harry," Hermione said, running a hand through his hair.
"Do you need help dressing Harry, Hermione?" Ginny asked.
"I think I can dress him well," Hermione said, "my concern is when it's his turn to dress me."
"I'll make sure he doesn't do anything weird," Ginny promised.
"Hey! I can dress Hermione!" Harry said indignantly, pouting when the other girls laughed at his statement. "Well I could," he mumbled.
Hermione squeezed his thigh, "I know you can Harry." She leaned in to whisper, "You can pick out all of my underwear. Just accept Ginny's help with the outer clothes okay?"
He grinned and nodded. "If Harry weren't immune we'd think you used your allure," George teased.
"You do seem to perk him up easily," Fred cut in.
"Hermione just always knows what to say," Harry said, kissing her cheek.
Hermione and Harry walked down to Hogsmeade with everyone else. There was always an excitement to the first Hogsmeade weekend of the year. As soon as they were down there Harry was dragged into a clothing store and Hermione proceeded to dress him like a mannequin. Harry was in for a very long day.
Ron entered his head of house's office to see his parents. "Why're you here?"
"To deal with your stupidity this year," Arthur said, "sit down Ron."
There was an edge to his father's voice that had Ron obey. Molly showed him a parchment, "Why are your grades so poor?"
Ron quickly thought up an excuse. "It's Granger's fault! Her being a Veela is distracting!"
Molly felt a flashback to Ron at nine years old blaming Ginny for him not having his homework she'd assigned. Accepting blame was something Ron couldn't do. "Yet you spend no time with her so there's no reason for her to 'distract' you as you put it Ronald."
Ron flushed, "W-well I mean Harry! Yeah, it's Harry's fault! He steals my work and gets my grades! He stole my girl and stole my homework!" Arthur rubbed his brow. This was going to be a long day.
Draco Malfoy was not amused. At the wand-weighing the Daily Prophet reporter Rita Skeeter had ignored him and focused on the other champions. To add to his bad attitude Delacour was a Veela. He was competing with a half-breed! On the plus side when he won it would be obvious that the purebloods were superior in every way. Krum and Diggory were both blood-traitors. He was the only real pureblood in the competition. He knew the first task would prove to all that he was the superior being.
Cedric Diggory, Fleur Delacour, and Viktor Krum had all become friends of a fashion. Karkaroff and Maxime had told their students the first task was dragons so they'd shared that information with Cedric and practiced together. Krum was rather pleased with his friendship with Harry; the younger man was happy to practice flying maneuvers with him and with help from Fleur Hermione had learned to control the transformation into a harpy and her ability to cast fireballs in that form helped the three champions practice dodging flames. Although initially bringing the harpy out had meant that Cho, Cedric's girlfriend, had to hang all over Harry in order to properly enrage Hermione. Poor Harry had not enjoyed it in the least and Cho seemed to find it as hard. Still it was to help the champions and with Fleur whispering things that would enrage the Veela into Hermione's ear the transformation happened.
The transformation was immensely frightening for Cedric and Cho the first time they saw it. Harry knew that it was still Hermione and while she was more part-woman, part-bird at that point he still thought she was beautiful. Fleur could also transform so she wasn't surprised and Viktor's mother was a Veela so he was aware of the transformations. Hermione was good at casting the fireballs and Harry and the twins set up obstacle courses for testing the champions' agility and accuracy while Hermione blasted at them with Cho having a stopwatch to time each run. They had plenty of practice.
Harry sighed as Hermione made him try on yet another outfit. When he exited the dressing room and Hermione's eyes lit up with lust, though, Harry decided it was worth it. If him wearing better fitting clothes made Hermione happy then he was going to happily try on as many clothes as she wanted.
Hermione knew Harry didn't like the constant trips to the dressing room but it was necessary to get his sizes right. Once she had them she went through the store quickly, gathering an assortment of clothes. Harry was left to get his own socks and underwear and he made sure to get some particularly garish looking socks for Dobby to have for Christmas. Dobby was of the opinion socks should never match so Harry got three pairs for Dobby to mix and match to his heart's content, Hermione picking out three other pairs for him too.
When it was Harry's turn to pick out things for Hermione Ginny helped him pick out shirts and jeans and whatnot before Hermione let him loose in the lingerie section with her measurements. With help from a saleswoman Harry soon had all the things he wanted Hermione to wear. Ginny told Hermione she was brave but Hermione waved it off. Harry wasn't like Ron who would have no clue. Harry knew what he wanted to see her in and she was confident in his abilities to dress her; especially in their bedroom.
After the shopping trip they shrunk their bags and put them in their pockets before heading off to the Three Broomsticks for lunch. They ate alone, enjoying the privacy. At least, they did until a woman with ridiculous glasses approached them, "Well well, Harry Potter. And who might this be?"
"The young woman I'm trying to eat lunch with," Harry said, "And you are?"
"Rita Skeeter, reporter with the Daily Prophet," she said, sticking her hand out. Harry didn't shake it. He'd read the Daily Prophet Hermione received and knew that Skeeter was more suited to gossip columns than actual journalism.
"The Daily Prophet. The paper that publishes quotes from me without ever having spoken to me," Harry said.
Skeeter's smile vanished in an instant. Hermione was good at controlling her emotions so she didn't laugh but she definitely wanted to. Harry squeezed her hand under the table. Skeeter's voice became sickly sweet, "Well Harry if you gave me an interview you could put that to rest. Why with my Quick Quotes Quill it'd be over in no time."
"Those quills are notoriously unreliable," Hermione said, "they don't take dictation they write fiction and change people's words."
Skeeter's eyes narrowed at her, "And you are?"
"More than willing to hex you if you even think of pulling that notepad and Quick Quotes Quill out of your pocket," Hermione answered, her eyes hardening.
It was Harry's turn to avoid smirking. That was difficult. Hermione looked ready to blast Rita out of the restaurant with a fireball. Rita Skeeter's eyes narrowed, "I don't know who you think you are, little girl, but I can ruin you."
"Well you can try," Hermione said. "You could write nasty things about me being Harry's girlfriend, about me being Veela, about a great many things. But we have something that you don't, Ms. Skeeter. I have a very good friend whose father is the Minister of Magic in France. Harry goes flying regularly with an international quidditch star. And they are just the friends we have on the continent. You know, Ms. Skeeter, I looked up animagi my first year after I saw my head of house transform into a cat. Your name is not on that list of registered animagi and I understand failure to register can lead to time in Azkaban. Now you could subvert that but then all of your stories would come under attack as people learned how you get your scoops and charges of trespass would swiftly follow."
Skeeter's eyes bulged. Harry had thought Hermione was going off on a tangent but it looked like she hit the mark perfectly. "Not much is known about Veela Ms. Skeeter," Hermione continued, "but one thing is very much known. Enraging a Veela does not end well for you. My aim with my fireballs is quite good."
Harry smiled, "She's great for quidditch practice."
Hermione wanted to reprimand Harry but was too happy to see Skeeter beginning to sweat, "The Daily Prophet has long arms."
"Generally I hate my fame," Harry said, "but I'm happy to use my fame to protect myself and my girlfriend. Yours is not the only source of news and I'm sure WWN would love an exclusive. As would that other paper, The Quibbler."
Skeeter didn't like to admit that she was beaten. But neither of these two looked like teenagers at the moment. They both looked like people who were ready to fight. She'd hoped to embarrass the boy into a story and then she could let her readers go after this girlfriend of his. Instead they seemed to hold all the cards. She was very much aware that the entire pub was quiet. Rosmerta walked over, "Leave my customers alone Skeeter." She took the opportunity to flee.
Harry thanked Madame Rosmerta for getting Skeeter out only to have her respond, "You two cleaned the floor with her. I will enjoy that memory for years to come. About time someone stood up to her. Lunch is on the house dears."
"Thank you," Hermione smiled.