She then handed the documents that were clutched tightly in her hand to Daphne and growled, "They're not the only disobedient boys. Your father and Sirius are as much to blame. However, I can only get my hands on those two, at the moment."
Taking the documents, Daphne smoothed them out and began to read what was bothering Hermione so much.
After a few seconds she looked up and, in a soft voice, said, "Oh, dear."
"What did they do?" asked Hannah.
Hermione sat back in her seat, crossed her arms and fumed quietly, muttering to herself.
Gathering herself, Daphne replied, "Well, what Harry, Neville - through his Gran - my father, and Sirius did - was transfer money into the Dagworth-Granger vaults."
Frowning, Hannah asked, "How much?"
"One hundred and sixty thousand Galleons!" snarled Hermione. "How much?" squeaked Tracey.
"One hundred and sixty thousand Galleons!" snarled Hermione for a second time as if she hadn't done it already.
The other girls were stunned.
The first to recover, Susan asked, "But, why?"
Rifling through the documents, Daphne said, "According to the included documents, they're four separate open-ended loans of nil interest - For the purpose of re-establishing the Noble and Ancient House of Dagworth-Granger."
After a few moments Tracey started laughing.
"It's not funny!" snarled Hermione.
"Oh, yes, it is!" replied Tracey. "And it's brilliant!" The others thought that through for a bit before Daphne said, "She's right. It's brilliant."
Surprised enough to knock her down from furious to just annoyed, Hermione asked, "Why?"
"It's an incredibly Slytherin thing to do," said Tracey. "Now, you're beholden to their four Houses. So, when it comes out that you wish to form an alliance with their Houses - which would be politically wise, by the way - no one would question it."
"Secondly," said Daphne, thinking. "It's a most noble thing to do for their fellow Head of a Noble House. It shows solidarity among the nobility, which is always a good thing."
"They didn't ask first!" snapped Hermione.
"Which is even better," replied Daphne. "You're too noble to ask for help. And they're too noble not to give it. It'll also embarrass their political opponents within the Wizengamot."
The others except Hermione were nodding in understanding.
"Daphne and Tracey are right, Hermione. This is a good thing they've done," said Susan.
"It's still a lot of money!" grumbled Hermione.
"Not at our level," said Daphne. "This only represents a small investment for our Houses."
"My Dad's going to flip out when he sees this," said Hermione.
"You leave him up to my father and Sirius," replied Daphne. "They'll explain it to him enough to get him to accept the help it is." "So, I'm not allowed to tear strips off either of them?" grumble-whined the girl.
"Oh, no," said Susan. "You still get to do that. After all, they're boys; and they should have at least let us know what they were going to do."
"So, how do I get back at them?" asked Hermione, much calmer.
"Why, we're going to play on their being gentlemen for starters," said Tracey with an evil grin. "Here's what we're going to do..."
All five girls sat forward from where they were sitting - and plotted revenge. Harry and Neville felt simultaneous shivers down their backs.
The next evening found both Harry and Neville sprawled off their bench seats opposite each other and over the table. The girls were sitting not far apart, prim and proper, with evil smirks on their faces.
The rest of the nearby student body was surreptitiously watching with interest.
"I'm dying!" moaned Neville.
"Me too!" moaned Harry.
"Come now, gentlemen," said Hannah, primly. "It's only the proper thing to do, to carry a lady's bag for her."
"You put every heavy book you had in your bag!" whined Harry.
"Hermione's was worse!" whimpered Neville.
"Well, you didn't expect us to lug that heavy weight around, did you?" asked Susan. "You should be grateful we deigned to allow you the honour of carrying them for us," said Tracey, a bit prissily.
Both boys spent the time between meals and classes lugging sometimes two, occasionally three, other bags on top of their own, through the castle. And the girls weren't backwards in offering the service of the boys to carry the bags for other girls.
Harry, if he was a true gentleman, would have admitted Neville had it worse, because he always had Hermione with him. Without a Second Year female Ravenclaw in their group Harry got off a little easier. However, Neville was also a little bigger than Harry, and had the extra muscle mass from working in the family greenhouse over summer.
"I didn't think there was such a thing as an evil Hufflepuff," moaned Neville. "Until today." "The Slytherins are still worse," moaned Harry. "They're more - creative."
"Eat your dinner, you two!" said Daphne with a lightly scolding voice. "We want to get some combat training in, tonight."
"Oh, good," sighed Neville. "You can train while I study."
"Sorry, no," said Hermione. "We want to train against real people."
"There's five of you," moaned Harry. "That's enough."
"Sorry, future husband of mine," said Daphne, not sounding at all sorry. "We've voted and decided its girls against boys, tonight."
"Oh, Merlin!" whimpered Harry.
"Shield Charms and Stinging Hexes only," said Hannah. "You'll need to eat up so you can build your strength back up for tonight."
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