Chapter 327: The Defiance Consortium

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I would like to thank my beta, Awdyr, for his help in this chapter.

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1st October 1995, Hogwarts (Earth 2)

The announcement of Dolores Umbridge's appointment as High Inquisitor of Hogwarts had come out of nowhere. Hermione Granger had assumed, after reading Percy's letter, that whatever he was alluding to would have been subtle, that she would have had to go through the newspaper very carefully over the following few days to see if they could notice anything.

She didn't really have to.

The ministry wasn't even being subtle about being involved in Hogwarts affairs. They had literally put it in big letters in the Daily Prophet, which honestly didn't really make any sense. No matter how important Hogwarts was, the fact that the professor's performance was going to be investigated, shouldn't have been on the front page. There were many things that citizens would consider to be more important.

Fudge was very heavy-handed in his approach, and it was sad that the entire thing was routed in truth. Hermione had attended many classes that had sub-par professors. Defence Against the Dark Arts had a couple and Divination was frankly a joke probably run by a fraud. If she was completely fair, Hagrid wasn't exactly a good teacher. He could be a great tutor, and he was knowledgeable enough to be one, but he had different ideas on what a safe classroom could be, and it was hard to take him seriously, especially since he didn't exude the authority expected from a seasoned professor. It was a shame because he could have easily become a good professor with a bit more teaching experience.

Unfortunately, he would probably be Umbridge's first pick, or at least, he would have been if he was in the castle. Hermione couldn't believe that she was thankful that Hagrid wasn't in Hogwarts. Was that why Dumbledore got him to stay away?

Other than Hagrid, she couldn't exactly see any other staff member as a bad professor. Even Snape, while a completely unreasonable git, knew what he was talking about and was a relatively good teacher. Ironically, the worst teacher in the school was actually Dolores Umbridge. She was definitely unqualified and didn't teach anything in class, other than making them read that useless Slinkhart book.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Ron's confused voice, "So, they gave her the power to fire any of the professors. I hope she gets rid of Snape. Life would be better without that git prowling around in the dungeons."

Hermione couldn't help but roll her eyes. They were in their common room and thankfully, it was the weekend, leaving them time to process any of it. She had just received her copy of the Daily Prophet and finished reading the article.

She was about to retort when Smith snorted, just reading his weird journal, "Of course, she won't get rid of Snape. Honestly, this is just a big publicity stunt. This is an advisory role at best, to make reports and assessments of classes and a recommendation. The Department of Magical Education and the school board will decide whether or not to follow that recommendation. Snape is widely known as one of the best potion masters in Britain. Unless he used an Unforgivable curse on his students, the board won't dismiss him. McGonagall is the same, a renowned master in her field, and Flitwick is an internationally acclaimed Duelling champion and a master of Charms. It's the same all around the castle. As long as people have a reputation, they'll be safe unless they do something outrageous. The people that should be feeling threatened are the people who aren't known masters of their field, or they don't have any certifications on the matter. The ministry could push to dismiss those, and the Board will likely agree if there's a good potential replacement ready. That'll probably be the headmaster's job to do that. Still, I'm guessing there's going to be a big overhaul of the Department of Magical Education since most of the people there are friends of Dumbledore."

Harry hummed in response, "So, that would be Trelawney, then? Maybe even Binns?"

Ron grinned, "Oh, I don't mind seeing them both gone. It would be weird to have to stay awake during History of Magic, though."

Smith rolled his eyes at that, "I don't think they'll remove Binns since that would cost the school more money."

"How would you know about his classes?" Hermione retorted, "You haven't really been there since the first day."

"And yet, he didn't even notice. That's a win in my book," Smith replied.

This time, it was Neville who interjected, "I don't mind Trelawney leaving, but I think that Hagrid will be the most in trouble. Umbridge is well known in her ministry for her hatred of anything that isn't fully human and magical."

That silenced the trio completely. Hagrid's nature as a half-giant was a bit of a sore point there, and to imagine Umbridge using it as a way to attack the gentle groundskeeper rubbed them the wrong way. Once more, Hermione couldn't help but be grateful that Hagrid hadn't come to Hogwarts yet.

After a bit of silence, Hermione complained, "That woman is really horrid. To think she would sabotage our education, in our OWL year no less because Fudge refuses to even entertain the idea that Harry was telling the truth. I honestly don't think most of our year will be able to even pass the Defence practical exam at the end of the year. We need to do something about that."

Harry interjected, "I don't mind self-studying, to be honest. I already learned a lot when I prepared for the tournament last year. I just assumed we'd practice our magic outside the classroom."

"No offence, mate," Ron interjected, "but you probably know all of the spells for our Defence OWL. You really went overboard last year."

Harry snarked back, "Oh, I'm sorry that I worked hard to avoid dying, Ron. Next time, I'll ask Voldemort to tone down his magic as a consideration for what I've learned in class."

Neville jumped at the name and Ron flinched as well, "I didn't mean it like that!"

"Then how did you mean it?" the boy who lived retorted.

Hermione decided to break the tension a bit, "Actually, it's a pretty good idea. Harry, you're probably better in defence than I am. You could be the one teaching us. Tell you what, I'll even personally tutor you in our other classes and help you with your homework if you do. We could even invite a few other students. It'll be like a study group."

"Be serious," Harry protested, "Who would want me as a teacher?"

"Anyone with a brain would mate," Ron replied, "No one would even say you're not good at it and everyone saw you last year during the tournament."

Harry protested, "Harrold is better, why don't you ask him?"

They all turned towards the unconcerned boy who was still looking at his journal. He then turned and gave them a bored look, "Huh? Did you say something?"

"Harry said that could teach us defence."

 The new student raised his eyebrow, "I probably could. I'm not going to, though."

That boy really grated on her nerves, "And why is that?"

"Well, it's pretty simple. I don't have a lot of free time. I already spend some time tutoring Neville and teaching Harry how to duel properly. I need enough time to focus on my own stuff."

Hermione practically growled, "Come off it, you practically miss most of Umbridge's and Binns' classes and you're not taking any electives."

She was pretty frustrated with the boy. Following him around with the cloak and map didn't help. Sometimes, the boy just disappeared from the map, which was very suspicious. She never figured out how he did that, though. She hated not knowing something with a passion.

Hermione did sneak into one of the lessons with Neville and had to admit that Smith was a good and patient teacher. The improvement was very evident. The formerly shy boy became more confident, his spell work became a lot better, not at the top, but somewhere in the middle of the pack, and was improving every day.

She tried to do the same for Harry's sessions, but there was always some kind of protective magic stopping her. She had tried to break it multiple times and researched the ward but had found nothing that worked. The muggleborn only knew that Harry loved these sessions with a passion and would come back exhausted but oddly happy.

"Yes, like I said, my time is very precious to me. The only way for me to do this would be to stop one of the sessions. So, Neville, Harry, are you willing to sacrifice your lessons for me, so that I could teach shield charms and disarming charms to a bunch of people who barely know how to hold their wands."

Neville shook his head and Hermione turned towards Harry with pleading eyes. The green-eyed boy averted her gaze and spoke up, "No, I want our sessions to continue."

Smith gave her a smug look, "There you have it. I'm glad that you're finally thinking about yourself first and didn't sacrifice it for no reason. Just so you know, I wouldn't have done it either way. I would have just cancelled our lessons if you said that I should teach others instead of you."

Hermione couldn't help but be incensed by what the boy had just said. Had he just praised Harry for being selfish? And to think he was refusing because he said that he didn't have any time, "I thought you said that you wouldn't do it because 'your time is precious'."

"Of course, but there's also the fact that I don't want to," the brown-haired boy returned with a bored expression.

"Good, you probably don't even know the spells in the curriculum since you didn't go to school before. You wouldn't even know what to teach," Hermione growled. She was being petty, but that boy just kept grating at her nerves in every way.

"Whatever you say. I just think it's funny that you say that, especially since I probably crafted more spells than you learned."

"Why would you ever need to make so many spells? It's needlessly dangerous," Hermione answered, confused.

The new student simply shrugged, "I don't really expect you to understand, it's a cultural thing. My family has these values. 'To be a mage is to walk with death'. Every generation's duty is to improve on what their ancestors created, either by creating new spells or improving the ones they have. It's a pretty neat way to make sure that we keep improving, and that we don't stagnate. We take risks but are better, we become better, all in the hopes of one day finding the root of all magic, to finally master it and understand it."

"The root of all magic?" Ron retorted.

Smith snorted, "It's more of a theory, really. The idea is that magic has a beginning, that it came from a source, like the root of a tree. It's a singularity that contains everything that has ever happened, everything that could have happened, and everything that could happen. It's a source of infinite knowledge and power. It's barely more than a fairytale, really, and one that would definitely be extremely dangerous if it really existed. But it's not about whether it's true or not, but what it represents, how much we can still improve our craft. And it worked. My family has created countless spells, simple and complex alike."

"Then why aren't your family members known in magical Britain? I'd have expected someone to notice so many spells created by one family line."

"Because we don't teach outsiders our spells."

Hermione was incensed by that, "Do you have any idea how many people you could help by sharing your magic?"

Smith immediately interrupted her, "Sure. But I'm also not going to give away hundreds if not thousands of years of effort for nothing."

The boy motioned to get up, "Why are you going? Are you ashamed about losing our argument?"

Smith tilted his head in confusion, "Oh, you weren't done? I was just going to the library."

"Why?" she retorted.

"Oh, nothing, really. There's this weird bat that keeps following me around all the time. I'm just preparing a very special surprise for it."

He didn't leave them time to process what they said and just left. Ron chuckled in amusement, "That guy is a riot."

Hermione though decided to use the opportunity to try to pressure Harry even further. The boy who lived was resolute in his refusal until the following week after Umbridge started making snide comments at him during her inspections.

On a particularly bad day, he walked up to Hermione and practically growled at her, "Fine. You win. I'll teach you what I know about Defence. Just stop bothering me about it."

And they said that nagging didn't work. To be fair, Harry probably also did it to spite Umbridge, as a way to prove that he was a better teacher than her. Hermione didn't complain, though. She got exactly what she wanted. If only Smith would stop being so mysterious, everything would be golden.

However, she couldn't help but be curious about a family that specialized in magical experimentation for centuries. She could only imagine the wonders that they must have come up with.

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AN: I'll be honest, this chapter is a bit of a filler, at least in my opinion. I had to write something before the whole Snape debacle in the next chapter. I thought that just putting it immediately after would have messed with the flow of the story... Things are about to get pretty eventful and I thought I'd use it to see the small shifts in Canon characters because of Harry's presence, like his counterpart being a bit more selfish, Neville being a bit more confident and growing as a wizard, as well as Hermione start to consider experimenting using magic. I don't know if it came out like I wanted it to, so I hope you can let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.

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If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr

I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.

Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.