Most looked either confused or surprised at this revelation. Others, most notably Ron and Draco looked to be about ready to explode with anger. Hannah was grinning amusedly at the array of reactions. Hermione however looked introspective.
"So there you have it." said Harry, tucking the roll of parchment away "You all have a job to do, and it is my job to make sure that you are doing it."
"Why would the Ministry do this?" asked Bianca Dunstan "Do they not trust us to do our jobs?"
"I'm not going to lie to you," said Harry "There have been a few issues with the choice of prefects in the past. Cases of prefects abusing their positions have been reported but never acted upon. As the staff of Hogwarts have made it repeatedly clear that they cannot be bothered to address these issues, the Ministry has seen fit to ask me to step in as an independent body. Someone to help things run more smoothly, you see? If a student has some kind of problem with a prefect, they can come to me rather than a Professor and we can work towards sorting out the situation. Similarly, if any of you are ever faced with a difficult problem, you are more than welcome to come to me and seek my help."
"So you're here to help us as well as control us should any of us go mad with power?" asked Anthony.
"In a nutshell." replied Harry "It is my hope that we can all work together to help Hogwarts to function better than ever before."
"And what do you get out of this, Potter?" asked Pansy "The title of prefect means something once we get out of school. Does yours?"
"It most certainly will," answered Harry "I am doing this at the Ministry's request, after all."
"Any rules?" asked Roger.
"Just a couple," said Harry "From now on there is a "three strikes and you're out" system in place for all prefects. For the first strike you serve two nights detention. For the second you lose privileges. For the third, you lose your badge. Understand?"
Everyone nodded, though some did not seem happy about it.
"The punishments may seem harsh," said Harry "But as prefects you are supposed to lead by example, and therefore must be held to a higher standard than most. Trust me when I say that I do have the authorisation to do this. I do not wish anyone in here to get three strikes, but if you do I will not be lenient on any of you. If any of you are caught bullying, and I promise you that I will find out if you do, you will be in for a world of pain. Is that understood?"
Getting another round of nods from everyone, Harry turned back to the Head Boy and Girl. "Roger, Patricia, I believe that the two of you had the floor?"
Hannah turned to the girl next to her and hissed "Budge up, Pad."
Padma Patil shifted a little to her right as Hannah moved to her left. The blond Hufflepuff then patted the space between herself and the Ravenclaw prefect and Harry moved to sit down.
It was a bit of a tight squeeze, but neither girl was particularly feeling like complaining.
"A guy could get used to being in positions such as this one." commented Harry as he pulled out a muggle note-pad and a self-inking quill. Hannah nudged him with her elbow.
Roger shook his head and carried on with the meeting. Harry was pleased to see that the majority of the prefects saw what he was doing and took it on board. Even Pansy Parkinson had the good sense to take out a bit of parchment and a quill in order to jot down a couple of notes.
Ron on the other hand seemed to be perfectly content to let Hermione take all the notes whilst he busied himself with gazing vacantly out of the window. Draco chose to spend the rest of the meeting glaring in Harry's direction rather than pay attention to what was being said.
Harry made sure to jot that down in the margin.
Harry was just making to follow Padma out of the compartment when he noticed out of the corner of his eye that Hermione was trying to gain his attention. Not feeling up to dealing with her just yet, he ignored her. Thankfully he was separated from her by Bianca, Marian, Heidi, Geoffrey and Eric so he could convincingly pretend that he hadn't spotted her.
What he really wanted was to confront her outright, and demand that she return Hedwig to him, but now was not the time to do such things. Instead he followed Padma out of the room, having agreed to assist the Ravenclaw prefects as they took the first patrol. Actually he was going to be assisting each house in turn; the Ravenclaws were just up first.
Surprisingly quickly he found himself along in a corridor with only Cho Chang for company.
Given that Harry was the last person to see her late boyfriend Cedric Diggory alive, this had the possibility of getting very awkward very quickly.
His own personal crush on the girl certainly would not help matters.
"So, did you have a good summer, Harry?" she asked.
.....
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