Minerva glowered furiously. She turned on Albus and with a very thick accent slurred, "You paid a student to defraud another of their rightful grades, causing a skewing of the student standings? Did yeh ev'n bahthah tah think abou' the cost tah Ms. Granger should it evah behcum known what she did fer yeh? Merlin knows, yeh neveh bathahed tah think abou' Mr. Pottah feelings. Or reputation. Clearly, wha he'd be thinkin' 'bout somethin' nevah once entered yeh mind at tal."
Albus quickly forgot all his half formed schemes to use the trio's markings against his puppet in the all consuming need to smooth over this new crisis. He scrambled quickly to find an explanation that would suffice never realizing it was already too late. MS. Granger had already burned the masts down to the hull on that particular ship. "Now, now, Minerva. Don't get your temper all worked up. There was no harm done. Harry passed all his necessary classes and what grades he received has little or no bearing on the information he gained over the course of the year. And Ms. Granger kept up with all her own work just fine. Her standing in the rankings wasn't affected at all by the little bit of extra work she was doing to keep attention off of our Harry. The dear boy has enough attention focus on him as it is. He should be thankful she was willing to do this for him and that I thought of it. Nor has it in any way hindered his possible future prospects. He can still become the auror he told you he wishes to become. Just like his Father was." He was desperately trying to remind her of James hoping to derail her back into her usual litany of how Harry was such a disappointment to the memory of James. Whether it would've worked or not he never got to discover as Severus decided to weigh in on the matter.
"Oh, that's where you're wrong, Headmaster," purred Severus. "You see, when I discovered the assignments I'd been grading as Mr. Potter's weren't actually his work, - because I do have samples of the work he has turned in so far this year to compare the old work to - and discovered who's work it actually was, I also decided to look at the work of that student. I do have recent copies of that students work as well, you know. It was rather easy to discover Ms. Granger has been turning in Mr. Potter's work as her own since half way through her first year here. So her standing, at least in my classroom has indeed been affected by what you asked her to do. Because the marks I have been giving her for what I assumed was her work actually aren't the marks she should have been given at all. They were Mr. Potter's rightful marks while his were hers. Mr. Potter should've been competing with Mr. Malfoy and Ms. Greengrass for the top position in my class while Ms. Granger should have been barely scraping by with an Acceptable. Had I known what her true level of understanding was, I could have assigned her to a remedial class to improve her understanding because her brewing ability is above average. Only her theoretical work is lacking. But because of her deceit, I didn't do any such thing and now she is five years behind in understanding the theory behind potions and catching up in time to pass her Owls is nigh on impossible for her."
Hermione paled. She'd never considered that angle before. "I'll fail my Owl exam?" she whispered questioningly.
He nodded. "At this point in time, yes. You currently do not possess the necessary knowledge to pass the written portion of the exam. Even if you make a flawless potion, it won't be enough to pull your overall grade up to passing into Newt Study. To give you a chance however, you will be in remedial classes every weekend from now until the end of the year with extra classes over the school holidays to bring your understanding up to where it should be by this point."
But Minerva disrupted that idea with her shouted words to Albus. "You idiot! Now that I know wha the lass did and have heard the lass admit it from her own mouth I've no choice but tah expel her from Hogwarts!" Minerva yelled, hearing but ignoring what Severus had said. She took some deep breaths to try and get her temper under control less her strong accent make her unintelligible. Hermione's eyes had flown wide at hearing the word expelled attached to her name. She was beginning to hyperventilate while Minerva, now slightly calmer, continued her tirade.
"What she did counts as cheating because she tampered with the assigned work of another student with the intention of lowering their grade while raising her own. She even admitted she did so without the express knowledge of the student involved which means only she is guilty of breaking the school Charter and By-laws against cheating. Even if she had no plans to use the work the student did for her own benefit, she knowingly was lowering his marks which would've naturally elevated her own. And from what Severus has just told us, she intentionally planned to use Mr. Potters own work to elevate her marks by turning in his work as her own. At least in his class. But I've no doubt if she did it in Potions, she more than likely did it in other classes as well. Meaning the standings across the board for her year group are skewed. That's a clear cut case of scholastic cheating, Albus. It's against the school charter as well as the by-laws and as an administrator of this school I've no choice in the matter. Congratulations, Headmaster. Your scheming and games have destroyed a young witch's life and future."
Minerva turned to Hermione and formally said, "Ms. Hermione Jean Granger, you are hereby expelled from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for cheating and gross misconduct towards another student. Please hand over your wand as you are no longer entitled to possess one." A snap of her fingers brought a house-elf into the office. Ginny was standing wide-eyed and astounded in the far corner of the office which she had moved into when Hermione was being taken to task once again by the Professors. Ron automatically moved away from Hermione and towards the corner she was in, positioning himself to block her from the view of everyone else while trying to place himself out of the line of sight as well.