Decent chapter. I'm not sure I buy the whole chain of succession as described, especially since I thought Umbridge was the "under secretary" or something like that.
I think I'm missing something here. So the warning owl about Voldemort's plans never made it to it's destination? There seems to be a lack of anger, confusion, or something somewhere. Or do I mis-remember something?
In regards to the 'ship... you said in a previous reply to a review that you gave double weight to Cho - so each Cho vote counted for two - AND yet Hermione still won. Doesn't that say something? It sounds as if the Hermione vote won by a landslide.
In any case, I can't remember if I ever voted. I vote Hermione. I'm still having problems seeing Cho and Harry together, despite how well you've written her character. (Actually, I like Cho's mother better than Cho. Go figure...)
Author's response
The undersecretary is merely a Fudge lackey (at least, this is my interpretation). The undersecretary would be a sort of Fudge's executive and certainly does not outrank the various Heads of the Departments. Also, it makes sense for the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement to be Minister until a new one can be elected. Also the head of the DMLE seems to be a very powerful position - remember the amount of power Barty Crouch wielded.
As for the warning owls, the present chapter deals with them. Neville does not know what happened to his warning owl - he blithely assumes that the owl did reach its destination. Susan is much more suspicious, as you can see in the present chapter.
As for the ship, I bow to the will of my readers - the ship is going to be Harry/Hermione.
Thanks for the encouragement, and thanks for reading and reviewing.
Regards,
Maidros