Chapter 22
After Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Mark returned back to Hogwarts the next day, Harry and Hermione were woken early by Seamus and Parvati, and told to come down to the Great Hall for an early breakfast.
Harry was stunned when he got there. The hall erupted in cheers, it seemed that most all of the Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Gryffindor houses were there waiting for them, and a few Slytherins as well, including Nott and Owen. Harry stared around in disbelief and looked at Hermione, whom was doing the same.
The huge banners that usually displayed the previous years house cup champion had been taken down, and instead there was a huge banner that stretched across the entire back of the room. Harry and Hermione's smiling faces were on it, and a headline above it read,
"Harry Potter and Hermione Granger Single Handedly Capture 5 Escaped Death Eaters"
Under the photo was the full story, telling them all about their heroic capture of Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Macnair, and Nott. They had a muggle eyewitness, whose memory had since been cleared, that said he had seen the two defeat all five death eaters in less than 20 seconds, without receiving a single scratch in the "battle."
Seamus beamed at them from the Gryffindor table, it had been his idea no doubt, and Harry and Hermione sat down at the Gryffindor table and recounted the entire story for everyone.
The teachers came in a while later, and from the looks on their faces, had had no idea that the banner had been put up. Poor Seamus got a week of detention and lost 50 points for putting the banner up (with a permanent sticking charm, so the teachers could not get it down) but all was well when Harry and Hermione were each given 250 points for their capture of the death eaters.
Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were infuriated at sight of the banner, and came straight up to Harry and Hermione, and the entire hall fell silent, even the teachers did not interfere.
"You think you're all brilliant Potter?" he said sneering, Crabbe and Goyle cracking their knuckles behind him. "Just because you landed my father in prison agai-"
"Actually I didn't put your father in prison Malfoy," Harry interrupted. "It was Hermione who put him out of the fight for your information. That's right, muggle-born Hermione Granger was to strong for your father Malfoy."
He smiled at Malfoy's outraged expression. "I got your father's next," Harry said, motioning at Crabbe and Goyle.
"Then Hermione got Nott with a disarming spell, and lastly I nailed good old Macnair with an impediment curse, then we wrapped them all up in an anti-apparating bind, and we carried them off and a friend took them to Alcatraz." Harry smiled at the still outraged but also fearful expression on Malfoy's face.
"It wasn't much of a battle really, I mean it took me longer to take the snatch the snitch in our last game, you know, that one where you didn't fall for my wronski feint." Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle all leapt at Harry but were knocked to the ground after twenty or so varying spells from the DA members hit them. Finally the Professor's came and broke it up, and Snape offered to take the three to the hospital wing, and did so immediately.
There were no punishments outside of Seamus', and the Professor's let them know that the only reason they allowed the talking match to go on was that they knew it would happen eventually, and they all wanted to be there if it got nasty.
With that all the Professor's left, and the day proceeded as normal. Well, at least as normal as a day can be when all the students burst out into applause every time he or Hermione walked into a classroom.
There was a party in the DA that night, everyone save Seamus was there. Harry and Hermione relived the whole "fight" again, and Ginny turned a deep shade of scarlet when Hermione told everyone that it was her bat-bogey hex that put Malfoy out of the fight.
The party exploded when none other than Cornelius Fudge walked in to the room and presented both Harry and Hermione with an Order of Merlin, Third Class honor. They were stunned, but Fudge just smiled and shook each of their hands in turn, then left them to their party.
"Wow, Order of Merlin! That's brilliant!" Yelled Ron, who was holding a beaming Padma Patil's hand. "You two must be the youngest wizard and witch to ever get one!" The rest of the room shouted in their agreement.
Harry grinned happily as he went to sleep that night. Voldemort and made the first gamble, and he had lost.