Somebody tipped off the Slytherins about the impending attack; most of them presumably didn't know WHY they were supposed to provoke Slughorn into calling a House meeting for Saturday, but any excuse to act out against the other houses would probably be enough for the Death Eaters-in-training among them. More reason to suspect the agent in place is a Slytherin prefect, too -- he could have started the ball rolling with a few words in the ears of other Slytherins he could count on not to rat him out, stayed out of trouble himself, and suggested the Saturday House meeting to Slughorn as a solution. I wonder if Harry or any of his friends will be sharp enough to work that out once things settle down.
Those poor, misguided terrorist bastards; I'd be hard-put to say that even a bunch of IRA bombers deserve what's about to happen to them….
More Harry-Ginny sweetness, and quite in character; she was established in OotP as the most perceptive of Harry's inner circle with regard to what was troubling Harry and how to deal with it. She's not as academically gifted as Hermione, but she has more emotional intelligence than the entire (canonical) Golden Trio put together.
I like the bit from Madam Rosmerta's POV; nice to see a bit of the adult population of Hogsmeade's perspective on current events. I'm hoping you'll find some interesting use for Aberforth as well (probably the one person in the original timeline who saw Albus with absolute clarity, right through both his fame and his surface eccentricity) before this story ends.
Oops; the gates are warded six ways from Sunday against all kinds of magic, but nobody thought about the kind of simple, physical force a judicious application of high explosive could deliver. As for the Dementor handlers, one has to wonder if they're really hopelessly incompentent, or if one or more of them are in on the plot and doing something to subtly sabotage the rest.
Who knew a simple "Sonorus" could result in a Crowning Moment of Awesome? It reminds me a bit of a scene from one of the best of the Miles Vorkosigan tales, "The Borders of Infinity" (don't want to spoil the circumstances for anyone who hasn't read it and might in the future; if you've read it, you know what I'm talking about).
The Patronus Charm was a lot more effective in canon than you portray it to be here; once cast, we never saw any sign that it needed power to maintain, nor did we ever see a Patronus fade before it had finished routing every Dementor present, if that was what the caster intended. At the Ministry in Book 7, Patroni were used for hours on end simply to serve as shields between their casters and the influence of Dementors being used to guard prisoners in the dock.
And a bigger Crowning Moment of Awesome for Ron. I don't think that would have worked in canon either, but who cares? The only reason I wasn't jumping up out of my seat and cheering when it happened is that I was reading it on my phone in the car while while waiting in a parking lot for my next ride request (I'm a rideshare driver with Lyft and Uber these days). Ron couldn't have been quoting Robbie Williams' "Millenium," because it wasn't released until 1998, but that's what I thought of when Ron called out the other Dementors after killing the one that tried to kiss Hermione:
"We've got stars directing our fate,
and we're praying it's not too late,
'cause we know we're falling from grace...
Millennium….
Come and have a go if you think you are hard enough…"
Ah, so someone did do something to sabotage the Ministry employees that were supposed to be controlling the Dementors. Seems likely it was in inside job, but of course the Ministry won't admit that.
And now everyone thinks Ron is the Heir of Gryffindor. Hmmm. That actually seems like it would be more likely to happen if Year 2 had gone as it did in canon, with the basilisk attacks and the entire school speculating about the identity of the Heir of Slytherin, but I suppose him summoning and using the Gryffindor Sword in such a public fashion would lead someone to come up with that explanation anyway.
"She walked up right behind me as I said that, didn't she?" LOL! Of course, what he said wasn't really negative at all; I would think Minerva would just as likely be flattered as annoyed.
…And it looks like I was right.
Glad they fixed the flaw in the wards. Also, if the real target of the attack was the Muggle Protection Act (makes sense, since that was what the Diary was aimed at undermining as well), that would explain why even a fanatical blood purist like Lucius would actually do a little research into Muggle politics and military capabilities -- he's trying to manufacture a reason for the wizarding world at large to see Muggles as a threat, and for that, he needs them to be scary, not just contemptible. It's unfortunate that in order to thwart that political goal, the good guys are going to have to effectively let this incident slide, but a full investigation would simply accomplish exactly what Lucius wanted the attack to do.
Nobody's killed a Dementor in direct, hand-to-hand combat before, but Harry killed twenty of them last year by forcing them onto the wards around the Burrow. I was kind of hoping for a massacre at Hogwarts, too, with the Gryffindor Six and DA's massed Patroni working as a hammer to smash the Dementors on the anvil of Hogwarts' new wards.
Ron probably isn't really
the Heir of Gryffindor in the sense that Riddle was the Heir of Slytherin, but Godric didn't share Salazar's obsession with bloodline's anyway; his heirs are
spiritual heirs, and Ron is surely one of them, along with Harry, Hermione, Neville, Ginny, Luna, and every other truly worthy member of Godric's House.
Ah, so Lucius was behind it, but Peter came up with the specific plan, based on what he'd learned about Muggles from Lily before he turned Dark. That makes sense. Another ex-Death Eater could have sponsored the plan, but Lucius is the one who specifically hates the Weasley family even more than he hates Muggleborns. And now Peter will probably be leaving his employ to track down the remnant of Lord Voldemort hiding in Albania….
By the way, after reading the climax of this chapter, I immediately came up with this little parody:
Narrator: In A.D. 1994 war was beginning.
Harry: What happen?
Madam Rosmerta: Somebody set up us the bomb.
Hermione: We get signal.
Harry: What!
Hermione: Main screen turn on.
Harry: It's you!!
Dementors: How are you children!!
Dementors: All your soul are belong to us.
Dementors: You are on the way to destruction.
Harry: What you say!!
Dementors: You have no chance to survive make your time.
Dementors: Ha ha ha ha....
Hermione: Harry!
Harry: Take off every 'Patronus'!!
Harry: You know what you doing.
Harry: Move 'Patronus'.
Harry: For great justice.