That retort brought another round of guffaws from the former Headmasters of Hogwarts. "I'm not surprised, given the number of cinders you carried in with you," teased Hermione. "Just warming up," said Harry, "Just warming up." "That would be thirteen-nil…better luck next time, mate," Ron walked over to a small piece of parchment attached to one of the office walls and added another mark beneath his name. He turned back to Ron "So what's the tally now?" "Thank you, Dobby," Harry said with a smile. Harry Potter, sir," said Dobby, as he popped in and began to mend the burn marks in Harry's robes. It happens so rarely in these dark days." "Please forgive us," Dumbledore's echo asked, with a twinkle in his eyes, "for seizing upon the opportunity to amuse ourselves. The hoots and catcalls grew louder with Harry's admonishment. Harry glanced up at the portraits, most of whom were still holding the white placards that displayed in numeric form their thoughts on Harry's landing. That comment brought a few catcalls from the office walls. He looked towards Ron and Hermione, who had just "announced" his arrival out of the Headmistress's secured floo connection. "Very funny," said Harry, as he gathered himself up off the floor and shook the cinders out of his hair. "And here come those scores now, ladies and gentlemen…5.7…5.4…5.6…Oh!…a 3.1 from Phineas Black, that's going to bring his average way-y-y down." "Well, that over-rotation produced a much bigger splash then you'd expect to see at this level of competition, and I'm sure that will be reflected in the scores." "So what did you think of that landing, Jim?" He pocketed the silver mirror, and reentered one of Gringott's private meeting rooms.
While he knew that the chance of any communication being traced or monitored increased with message length, he was still getting used to the economy of Hermione's comments. I'll need five more minutes or so to wrap up my meeting with Griphook – I'll meet you there." The image blurred, and then sharpened back around Hermione's face. "Okay, Dobby," said Harry, "would you put Hermione back on, please?" Harry Potter, Sir…she be wanting to see you right away." "She was right to have you deliver the message to the secured location. Harry Potter, Sir, Dobby be giving the message to your hand but Headmistress tells Dobby to keep Mr.
Her face was soon replaced by one whose eyes were a bit more out of proportion with the rest of his face. Harry Potter frowned as he looked down at Hermione's image. "Sorry to interrupt, but McGonagall sent d-mail asking you to meet with her at Hogwarts." I've provided translations in the "Bottom Author Notes" in case anyone wants to know just how coarse. There's some rather coarse Italian used in Act III. This was originally posted as a five-chapter story, but as I look at it five years later, it's better off as a one-shot.