"I can have that rectified, if you like," Neville cut back. "I am now well acquainted with, and on friendly terms with, Lord Black. I believe he's looking for an excuse to have both you and your mother Disowned.
"Embarrassing him and the House of Black in public by your actions in being rude to a senior House may just be the final piece he needs to carry out that act. Continue on the path you are on and I'll be sure to inform him of such."
Almost quivering in rage, Malfoy was about to say something back when another voice cut in - Professor Flitwick.
"Mister Malfoy," he snapped.
From reddening in anger, the boy almost quicker whitened in shock before turning to look at the Charms Master. "Ummm―"
"Mister Malfoy," he snapped again. "For your attempt at deliberately seeking out and causing trouble with another student against the rules relating to bullying, that'll be fifty points from Slytherin and two weeks detention. You'll be serving it with Professor Burbage in the detention classroom each evening from 7.30pm until 8.45pm. Leave now, return to the Slytherin table or I'll double both!"
Malfoy stood gaping back in shock before he again reddened. "When my father hears about this―"
"He will," snapped the Professor. "That, too, is part of the new rules regarding bullying. Your father will receive official notice of your detention, and why, by no later than this evening."
Malfoy, again looking a little fearful, stood staring back for a long moment more before he angrily spun away and stormed off back to the Slytherin table.
Once Malfoy was clear out of range, Flitwick spun to look at the Gryffindors. Most were in shock or simply surprised Malfoy was cast down for his actions. "Mister Longbottom," he said. "For acting in a calm and rational matter when faced with someone looking to cause trouble, ten points to Gryffindor."
Then he spun away and hurried back to the staff table, not waiting for response.
Once Flitwick was up on the dais and moving to round the head table, Finnegan asked, "Did what just happen, actually happen? Or, did I just dream the entire thing?"
Neville chuckled and replied, "It happened. When my parents paid a visit to the school last week, Headmistress Lady Marchbanks was apparently quite firm in her conviction about handling bullying from that point on. This is going to be the new normal."
Turning to Ron, who'd managed to get his wand out but hadn't cast when Neville verbally cut down Malfoy, he said, "And that's all bullying, Ron. That includes calling someone a 'filthy, slimy snake' or similar; no matter how much you think they deserve it."
While happy the Professors were now dealing with the way the Slytherins treated the Gryffindors, Ron found himself appalled it also meant the Gryffindors couldn't mouth off to the Slytherins, either.
"But, they're Slytherins!" he tried.
"No, buts," Neville firmly stated. "All bullying."
That left Ron sulking, but it didn't impinge on his eating breakfast.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
Just after 8.00am, Dumbledore was re-manacled, pulled from his cell within the holding cells of the DMLE and silently dragged off to the Interrogation Rooms.
The two beefy aurors who'd come to collect him, who refused to answer any of his questions on the way or otherwise interact with him, simply affixed his manacles to the large iron ring bolted to the middle of the table in the room, forced him to sit in the plain wooden chair and left him. He was sitting side-on to the door and with his face to an almost room-wide mirror he knew to be magical one-way glass.
He'd not been treated like this since the day of the first task. All the times he'd been in a cell since, he'd been informally questioned in his cell.
He was forced to wait for about fifteen minutes before Bones walked in with Robards and Moody at her heels. None of them were so much as smiling.
Dropping a thick folder of parchment she'd had tucked under her arm on the other side of the desk before taking the more comfortable chair than his own on that side, Bones then inscrutably stared at the old man for a few moments. Moody stood by the door while Dawlish moved to a position on the opposite wall to the door, just out of the old man's peripheral vision. It was a spot known for being exactly that.
She stared at him for about a minute before it looked like the old man had lost his patience and was about to speak.
Cutting in first she said, "You were given a direct order by me, no less, to remain away from the Grangers' residence as you awaited trial for unlawful trespass on that property. Last night you were caught analysing the wards of that same property.
"I'm now formally charging you with breaching a lawful DMLE order - again given by me, no less - by going to that property.
"As the wards on that property are not yours to analyse, nor are they under your control, nor did you have prior permission to do such, I'm also formally charging you with illegally analysing private property wards not in your control.
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