There seems to be a disconnect between this chapter and the last, yet you have a timestamp of only one day.
You had Dumbledore having some legitimate concerns that if the DMLE found out that Draco was in the hospital, they would arrest him. Then you end the last chapter with it being front page news. Shouldn't the DMLE have followed up on that as Dumbledore feared?
Yet you open in the next chapter with Draco being caught red-handed with one of the most blatant abuses of his prefect status and Minerva being powerless to strip him of his prefect status. I'm wondering when he got out of the hospital.
The rest of the chapter was good, and I found the scene where Hermione was talking about the honey to be hilarious.
Author's response
The last chapter was from the 1st to the 14th, this one from the 15th to the 28th.
Draco has his 'adventure' with the healers at St.Mungo's on the morning of Feb 1st. Bones is notified immediately. Since Draco is 'small potatoes', instead of inviting determined resistance from the socially entrenched purists, she sends Rita to embarrass him, and coincidentally, Dumbledore. He's returned safely to the castle within a few hours.
Since Lucy is being hunted, and Narcissa a social pariah, they can do nothing.
Dumbledore discovers Draco's situation before breakfast on the second and it's confirmed by The Prophet that morning. He works from the shadows, so anything he says will be misquoted and undoubtedly make him look stupid(er).
This chapter, Draco plays dictator and has his 'close encounter of the worst kind', on the 15th.
Unfortunately Dumbledore is protecting Draco from the consequences of his actions.(Pretty much as he did in canon.)
Thanks for the kind words, and as for Hermione...Loose lips and all.(see my reply to Teresa's review.)
Alorkin