Upon passing through the doors to the Entrance Hall, the first thing that Harry heard was the sound of several second year Gryffindor girls screaming.
He did not have to look far to find the answer.
Peeves the poltergeist was welcoming the students back to the castle in the only way he knew how, with chaos. Last year it had been a barrage of water balloons. This year he had decided on throwing ink pots at the new arrivals.
As usual no staff were about to deal with the pest, so Harry supposed that it fell to him to do something.
"Peeves!" he yelled "Stop that now!"
The poltergeist turned to face him, a wide and sadistic grin on his face "Why, if it isn't Potty wee Potter! Thinks he can tell Peevesy what to do does he?"
"I don't think I can Peeves, I know I can." retorted Harry.
Peeves stuck out his tongue, blew a massive raspberry and then hurled one particularly large ink pot towards Harry.
However, the young wizard was prepared for this. From the first moment he had called out to Peeves to stop he had had his fingers clasped tightly around his wand. The moment Peeves made to throw the ink pot, Harry raised his wand and waved it through the air.
"Depulso!"
The ink pot came to a stop right in front of Harry's face and then shot back towards Peeves, smacking into him right between the eyes. The Poltergeist flipped over backwards twice before righting himself. Then he threw his sack of ink pots over into an empty corner and then raced away, making noises that sounded suspiciously like sobs.
"Wow." exclaimed Susan.
"Yeah." agreed Hannah
"To think that after all this time, that was all it took…" muttered Ernie.
"HARRY POTTER!"
All eyes turned to see Professor McGonagall, the deputy head of the school marching towards Harry looking rather cross.
"See ya, Harry." said Susan, making her escape.
"Later." added Hannah, following her.
"Traitors." Harry mumbled under his breath as the entire Hufflepuff contingent abandoned him to his fate.
Cho followed them, making sure to brush close to him as she passed him by.
Harry shook his head at her behaviour and was just bracing himself to deal with McGonagall when another, entirely different woman moved in to separate them.
"Good evening, Professor Umbridge," said Harry to the pink-cardigan-wearing, toad-faced monstrosity that now stood before him.
"Good evening, Mr Potter," Dolores Umbridge replied politely, and Harry was fairly certain that doing so was causing her to die a little inside "I just wanted a quick word before the feast begins."
McGonagall finally reached them and tapped the other woman on the shoulder with the roll of parchment that contained the names of the new first year students "Pardon me, Dolores, but I was just about to have a word with Mr Potter."
Umbridge turned her flabby face towards McGonagall and said "Not at all, Minerva. This will only take a moment."
McGonagall visibly bristled at being referred to by her first name, but turnabout was fair play.
Umbridge gestured with her arm and Harry followed her over to one side.
"How can I help you, Professor?" he asked once they were out of McGonagall's hearing range.
"I simply wished to know if there were any problems on the train?" the Professor replied.
"Nothing much," replied Harry "A few prefects had trouble accepting the new status quo, but I was able to make examples of them and the rest quickly fell into line. After that everyone was pretty well behaved."
"Very well," replied Umbridge "Please get your report on those prefects to me as soon as possible."
"Will do," replied Harry "I was forced to issue a strike against the two troublemakers, and will need to inform their Head of House after the feast. I trust that if I end up requiring assistance in that matter…?"
"Of course," agreed Umbridge "I imagine that some of the staff will have the same problems as some of the prefects to begin with. Never hesitate to ask for my help."
"Likewise," replied Harry "Oh, and before I forget, Prefect Patil of Ravenclaw House was very helpful in resolving the situation on the train, and has been awarded a merit for her actions."
"Very good," said Umbridge "That's what I like to hear. The more merits you can give out, Mr Potter, then the more it shows that we are winning."
Harry nodded in reply before asking "Was there anything else? Only Professor McGonagall's got a vein throbbing in her forehead from being kept waiting."
Umbridge turned slightly to look over her shoulder at the other woman. Seeing the scowl on McGonagall's face, Umbridge smiled and turned back to Harry before replying "Just one other thing, are you prepared for your speech?"
"All set to go." replied Harry.
"Good," said Umbridge "Carry on then, Mr Potter."
And with that she turned and walked towards the doors that led into the Great Hall, where the welcoming feast would shortly begin.
Harry felt rather dirty after having to be so polite to the old toad for so long.
McGonagall came over and snapped "I suppose it's alright to talk to you now is it Potter?"
"Of course, Professor," answered Harry.
"Good." she replied tersely "Now, first of all I would like to know what you think you were doing earlier when you confronted Peeves."
"I think that I was giving the sorry excuse for a phantom a taste of his own medicine," replied Harry.
"And why did you simply not vanish the ink pot after stopping it?" asked McGonagall "Why did you have to fire it back?"
.....
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