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"You have said what you had in your heart?" Asked Nigel.
"Damn right. That was an amazing bloody speech." Laughed Morag.
"Language!" Said Hermione.
"Okay, maybe I versed a bit too much in the dramatic and the complaints." Admitted with a groan Alexandra under the laughter of one Ravenclaw and two Gryffindors. "But I stand on my position: the Professors have failed in their duty to keep us safe. And the silence from outside, not a word on it in the Daily Prophet, is weird."
"I admit it's a bit strange." Stated Morag. "Normally, for such an emergency the Aurors should have been called."
"Any idea why they haven't?" Asked Nigel.
"Hogwarts is a law into itself in Britain. The Ministry of Magic has only the authority the Headmaster of Hogwarts wants to give it." Speculated the MacDougal Heiress.
"Wait a minute." Said Alexandra. "Is that why Longbottom, Black and Weasley got nothing but detentions for flying a car straight into the Whomping Willow?"
"Surely." Affirmed Morag with a shrug of shoulders. "If Professor Dumbledore decides Minister Fudge has not the right to intervene, the Ministry can't do a lot to stop him. Not with the chaos at the Wizengamot and the Chief Warlock having one fourth of the votes behind him."
"There must a stop-gap, though." Said Hermione. "If the situation becomes too explosive, there must be something the Ministry can do."
"A unanimous vote of the Board of Governors is the only thing which can force the hand of the Headmaster. Nothing else can. And there are twelve Governors, three of them belonging to the Light factions."
"Which means the Board won't act until it's too late." Affirmed Nigel with a large grimace.
"And maybe their first action will be to get rid of the Headmaster." Alexandra grimaced. Facing three surprised looks, she smirked. "Don't be worried, I haven't been replaced by an impostor in the last ten minutes."
"You had us fooled." Grinned Morag. "But why would Dumbledore be voted out of his seat would a bad thing? We see barely the man once per week at school and I doubt he do that much work in the castle."
"Because for good or worse, Professor Dumbledore is a really powerful wizard who inspires fear and respect to his enemies." Affirmed the Potter Heiress, reminding herself of all the occasions she had felt the power the old wizard commanded. A true volcano of energy was the best description she could come up with. "For the moment, the Heir of Slytherin or whoever is really behind these attacks is stalking, preparing his raids and striking once before disappearing in the shadows. If Dumbledore leaves...Flitwick and Snape are probably the most powerful Professors after him, and they aren't in the same league."
"You fear the Heir would be free to attack with impunity." Frowned Nigel.
And what a joyous perspective it was, when four students had in four months been turned into stone.
"That's all and good, but what if we knew the name of the Heir? What if it was truly Neville Longbottom?" Asked Hermione in her best inquisitive tone.
The two Ravenclaws and the two Gryffindors looked at each other worriedly. That had been the subject of conversation for the last week at Hogwarts. Was the Boy-Who-Lived guilty? Before the latest attack, Alexandra would have been the first to declare the Golden trio's presence at the first crime scene and Longbottom being a Parselmouth were just a tragic, unlikely coincidence. The Hero of Gryffindor was perhaps the worst suspect to support a Dark agenda inside Hogwarts, wasn't he?
This certainty had been brutally smashed into splinters when the Boy-Who-Lived and Ron Weasley had been found on the scene of another attack. Justin Finch-Fletchley and Sally-Anne Perks, two Hufflepuffs second-years, were petrified and the Fat Friar, the Hufflepuff House Ghost, was levitating in a sort of shadow whirlwind, unconscious and under the appearance of a weird, shapeless cloud. It was the latter's situation, which had been the greatest shock, actually. Among the many wizarding families frequenting Hogwarts, it had been widely accepted there were horrible spells created by Dark Wizards to kill, maim and do horrible things to their victims. But a ghost? A ghost was only a magical imprint of a dead person. A ghost was not alive. Neither Alexandra nor Morag nor anyone of the entire student body knew a spell which could affect a ghost, much less neutralise it like this.
Terror had spread in the corridors of the castle, and the vague reassurances of the teachers had done nothing to calm the spreading fear. Neville Longbottom and Ronald Weasley being released twenty minutes after being sent to the Headmaster's office by Professor McGonagall hadn't helped things either. People were whispering the search for the culprit was a half-baked job plagued by the Headmaster's favouritism of Gryffindor House. Alexandra had abandoned the title of 'potential Dark Lord' to Neville, and if there hadn't been so little time before everyone departed, it would have had the potential to develop into a very tense situation.
"What do we do about him?" Asked Hermione.
"Nothing for the moment." Replied the black-haired girl.
"Alexandra..."
"No, Hermione. Unless you have an idea what we're going to face, confronting Longbottom or any potential 'Heir of Slytherin' would be pure suicide. We're not speaking about a nasty fight with some enraged bullies. We're speaking about an enemy who has a weapon which petrifies people and can stop spirits. I don't want to go blind and find out the Heir has another magical power which allows him to kill one of us without any member of our group able to retaliate." Said forcefully the Potter Heiress.
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