The Reticulation

"Excuse me, let me through!" an overly sweet voice shouted. "I am senior undersecretary to Ruf--I mean, the Minister!" Dolores Umbridge and her entourage pushed through the crowd at the Hogsmeade train station and headed towards Hogwarts and out of anyone's earshot.

"Now, I want you all to remember why we're really here," she told the others shrilly. "Officially, we're here to assess what happened in the defeat of...well, you know who he was. However, I want you all to try as hard as you can to try and find any evidence--even the slightest bit of it--that indicates Professor McGonagall is an incompetent headmistress. If all goes well, this school will soon be back in our hands with a perfectly Ministry-approved curriculum!"

Hermione, Ginny and Luna ran up the Gryffindor boys' staircase until they reached the seventh years' room. However, Hermione opened the door easily and couldn't see anything preventing the boys from leaving.

"What's going on here?" she asked angrily.

"Hermione!" Harry said running up to the open door with Ron, Neville, Seamus and Dean following.

"I don't see anything preventing you from getting out of there," she said irritably. "If this is supposed to be some kind of a joke--"

"Well, we can see something," Ron replied. "There's a wall right here," he said pointing through the empty doorway.

"Well, I can't see anything!" Hermione snapped.

"Maybe you can only see it on their side," Ginny suggested. Hermione considered this and then turned to the boys again.

"Can you prove there's a wall on your side?" she asked eventually. Harry and Ron looked at each other in exasperation, but Seamus stepped back and threw a small ball into the doorway. To the girls, it appeared to bounce off an invisible wall and back into the room. Hermione waved one of her hands in the doorway, but nothing obstructed it.

"This seems quite unusual," she commented. "Though the founders did make it so certain rooms can seal themselves off, I can't see way they would do it with a dormitory. I mean, this seems almost...intentional."

Hermione looked at the empty doorway for a moment and then stepped through it. When she turned around, she saw a stone wall had appeared behind her. She ran up to and, finding that it quite solid, pulled out her wand.

"Don't waste your time, we've already tried that," Harry told her. Hermione put her wand down.

"I take it there is a wall," she heard Ginny say on the other side.

"Yes," Hermione said immediately, "Don't either of you come through; it's a one-way trip!" However, no sooner had these words escaped her lips, then Luna Lovegood followed her through the wall.

"Luna!" she said in exasperation.

"Oh, sorry," Luna said as though just realizing what she had done, "I was getting lonely on the other side."

"Well, Ginny was there," Hermione contested.

"There was a lot of talking on this side," Luna replied vaguely. Hermione sighed.

"Ginny, don't come through!" she said desperately. "Go get Professor McGonagall and tell her what's happened." They heard Ginny turn and run back down the stairs.

"What's she doing here?" Ron asked, pointing at Luna. "She's not in Gryffindor."

"I'm not a boy either," Luna pointed out.

"True," Ron conceded as Luna turned to look around the dormitory. Though Hermione seemed to disapprove of how messy it was, Luna was smiling vaguely as though thinking of a fond memory from long ago.

"So, this is your dormitory," she said pleasantly. "It's nice. I'd really like to sleep with you." Everyone stared at her, but she didn't seem to notice.

"She probably meant that literally," Hermione said quickly. "Why haven't you tried flying out the window on your broomstick?" she asked Harry, changing the subject.

"The window won't open," Harry explained, "And the Reducto spell doesn't seem to have any effect on it."

"How'd you get Hedwig out then?" she asked skeptically.

"The window was already open then," Harry replied. "After she left, I absentmindedly closed it and now it won't open again." Hermione went up to the window and, as though doubting Harry had tried hard enough, endeavored to pull it open.

"Have you tried Alohamora?" she asked after abandoning her attempt.

"Yes, I tried it," Ron said. "It didn't do anything."

"You tried it, Ron?" she asked, sounding impressed. "I didn't think you'd have had it in you." Ron tried to smile confidently.

"Well, I did," he said proudly. However, he noticed Luna was staring at him and turned around to look at her.

"What?" he asked in annoyance. Luna blinked.

"Oh, sorry," she said dreamily, "I was thinking about something." Ron turned back to the window, looking irritated.