Chapter Sixteen: Inquisition

PROCLAMATION TWO – SANCTIONED BY THE MINISTRY

AGATHA WHITE HAS REPLACED PERCY WEASLEY AS HEAD OF HIGH INQUISITOR OF HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY.

THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC

As the days grew colder, Astrid knew that the holidays were approaching. The snow would fall slowly some days, winter coming near, and so would Christmas. At any other year, the blonde girl would be excited for going back home, spending the Christmas eve and the New Years with her parents. But that particular year, such thing would not be possible. She had other relatives who offered her some shelter, of course, but once Hiccup announced that he'd stay in the castle, the girl politely refused every other invitation.

It was all directing to be a remarkable Christmas, until she saw the boys. Pale looks, eyes wide in shock and dry throats, she knew something was off. For as soon as they had put themselves together they made sure to tell the girl everything they had just witnessed. When they were done, the girl had her mouth open in shock, her eyes scanning their surroundings to check if anyone close enough could listen.

It was right then that she saw the strangely emaciated figure of Argus Filch crossing the hall, holding an enormous wooden ladder beneath his arm, nearly knocking down a few students on his path.

"That can mean no good." Hiccup muttered. Astrid stepped forwards, examining the big wooden portrait the keeper carried up among a hammer, stabbing the new Declaration on the wall. This one meant a new High Inquisitor. The second portrait, near the one that announced the review for magical creatures, was way lower so students could read it clearly.

More people were climbing down the marble staircases, crowding in a mass of students staring at the wall, getting more and more numbers. Aster came down as well, walking straight to the two boys and Astrid, standing next to the girl. Filch brought another two heavy frames with him, nearly hitting the students across the head with his ladder, then climbing up and hanging them up even higher.

"Every student organisation has to be reviewed, including reading clubs, Quidditch teams and any non-official formation." Hiccup read. "What exactly are they going for?"

"That is an excellent question, Mister Haddock." Minister Shaw walked into the entrance hall, dodging through the mass of students, all around him and trying to stay as far away from him as possible. "The Ministry has found better for the safety of the students a complete review on every and each possible formation that could represent a threat to our school system, and…"

"So reading clubs and Quidditch teams are threats now?" Hiccup's sharp voice had cut through Eames words, and students around him yelled in approval. "What is this, are you afraid that they're going to start throwing books and broomsticks at the Ministry's door?"

"That would be certainly unsettling." Obscene yells from students followed the minister's reply, and it got clear how unprepared the wizard was for that position. "Alright, everyone…"

"Are you going to cast away the centaurs too?" Another voice rose up from the middle of the students.

"And Hagrid as well?" This time Jack spoke, and even though not everyone was a fan of Hagrid's classes, cheers supported him.

"The Ministry of Magic is not at the mercy of scholars and teenagers!" The minister rose his voice, now in complete loss of his own control. "Everyone!" But the chaos was taking place among the students, and soon offensive slurs were shout across the hall. Even Professor McGonagall appeared, and even though she might have acted like calming the students, she quietly took pride in seeing everyone cursing the Minister, and mostly kept herself from joining the choir until a sinister dark voice buzzed:

"Silence!"

This voice wasn't either a scream or a desperate shout, it was a command. A strange, feminine voice that seemed to float through every living soul in that hall. As every head turned to the entrance doors, standing right there they saw a strange short woman, dressed to her toes in dull brown robes. Her eyes were an odd shade of blue, not like Jack's icy blue eyes, but a pale shade, nearly grey, as if life was being extracted from them. She had this forced expression on her features, and Hiccup wondered if she had eaten kittens for breakfast. Suddenly he understood who she was.

"As the new High Inquisitor of Hogwarts School, I must admit that I am… deeply impressed by the scale of indiscipline from the students." She said in an annoyingly sharp voice. Also, not sharp as McGonagall's, which was filled with witness and discipline; hers felt like thin blades scratching black boards, ear deafening and cruel.

"You must be Agatha White; am I correct?" McGonagall finally walked down the final steps towards the new witch that had just came in.

"Minerva, yes." The hispid way she pronounced the Professor's name sounded wrong, as if she had spelled the letters backwards. "I assume you are responsible for…" Somehow, it felt like White was referring to the chaotic mess rather than the actual school. "…this."

McGonagall examined the woman up and down before answering. "The school, yes, I am the Headmistress." The witch took a firm step in front of the new High Inquisitor.

"Well, Minerva, I am rather shocked at my reception. Certainly that I had expected a better behaviour from the student group, but in any case, the Minister considers that if the responsible Headmistress cannot take the grip of its very school," McGonagall seemed at the very edge of exploding right there, if not holding herself for dear life. "Then I guess we can all say it's a lovely thing that I happen to be right here."

Every eyes on that hall were stuck on that woman, talking so deeply and so passionately that a twisted feeling shock up through Jack's body.

"Agatha, what a lovely thing to have you here." The Minister stepped forward to the witch, taking her hand but all she gave him was a cold look of unworthiness.

"I suspected that the Minister would have everything under his control, am I right?" White said, adjusting the dark brown scarf she wore – Hiccup could not even distinguish one piece of clothing from the other. The woman started walking towards the students, as if she was examining each and every single one of them. "I see these little heads of these teenagers, so clouded, so… empty." She moved her hands enthusiastically as she spoke, but it looked like she could grab someone by their necks in an instant. "I feel this teenager spirit trying so desperately to take control of their own beliefs, am I right?" She looked straight through Hiccup, and a wave of disgust rose up inside both Hiccup and Jack. "But I think you fail to see that there is a great difference between what you believe it's best and what is actually for the best of your well-being. See, you're only children, magical blood running through your veins that demands discipline to shape its good use." She sounded passionate about it. "And the Ministry will, I can assure you, shape your little heads into working the very best that the world expects from you all, fitting into the same patters and good costumes that got our world growing for centuries."

Students looked one to the other, shrugging. Agatha's eyes met Hiccup's again, taking another look at his incredulous expression as they stared at each other, repulse growing inside him. That is when Hiccup felt a hand touching his shoulder, and warmth got back to his chest as Jack pulled him one step closer, so Hiccup was standing right in front of Jack. At that sight, the witch gave a strange face, as if her eyelids shook in stress.

"I think it's best for us to take this to my office." McGonagall said, finally, walking to the witch, and White gave Hiccup one final look before readjusting herself. "We have much to discuss. All of you, head back to your classes."

Someone yelled "It's Saturday!" on the background, but people paid him no mind. The two witches stepped away from the scene, the minister following closely behind as the students watched.

#

It took Jack only a day to realise what the new High Inquisitor was all about. The four teenagers were standing in the Astronomy Tower, Hiccup and Jack standing by the observation deck while Astrid and Aster sat down on the floor.

"What do you think she meant with all that?" Aster spoke. "That whole thing of feeling the spirit or whatever." He mocked her voice in a strangely high pitched falsetto that made Hiccup actually flinch. Astrid replied to him:

"It's pretty obvious, isn't it? The ministry is trying to keep us under their thumbs now. It's like if they were afraid of us or something."

"Well, she saw how we reacted to the Minister." Hiccup spoke, his back to the view of the Castle's towers as he faced his friends.

"Yes, and that only puts you in her black list, doesn't it?" Astrid said, causing Jack to look worriedly over Hiccup, and the girl again remembered how obvious their feelings for each other was. She didn't comment on it, though. "I mean, you clearly have more wits than the minister, and that's not only because he's daft; then secondly: you basically started that entire protest yourself, which puts not just him, but consequently the entire ministry off balance since they can expect nearly no support from their own students; and third: we all saw how she looked at you before McGonagall pulled her away."

"I think it's the first time you talk nicely about Hiccup." Aster remarked, and said boy actually blushed.

"Astrid's right, though." Jack said. "Thing are changing, and not for the better."

"Hagrid has made a comment on the Order today." Hiccup remembered. "That the order was reforming, did he mean the Order of the Phoenix?"

"Nah, mate, the order was finished after You-Know-Who was taken out."

"Yes, but he said they were reforming," Hiccup looked at Jack now, both boys now thinking about everything they heard from Hagrid. "He said that the Ministry was compromised."

"Compromised?" Astrid got up on her feet, walking to the boy. Hiccup nodded.

"I can feel it comin', I tell ya." Aster fixed his sitting position. "With these bigots takin' charge and now that your parents…" Astrid looked sternly at him, swallowing. "Everythin' is headin' to hell by now. The Dark Mark, an' now… I mean, if the dark side is recruitin', I don't see how the Order wouldn't."

"Even if they are forming," Jack interrupted. "There is no way we can just join them, I mean, if they're not dead, they're so far from us and we're still scholars yet!"

"Hagrid's part of it." Hiccup pointed.

"Yes, but he's one step away from being kicked out from the castle." Said Jack.

"Not if Potter can intervene…" Astrid reminded.

"It won't matter, it's compromised anyway! I'm up to assume that every person somehow connected to the Ministry cannot be trusted." Jack shook his head. "If we have to make a group, it has to be made of people we actually know, no one else."

The words fell on the four teens, and there was a long silence in which all heads looked down, their minds fuzzing until Aster spoke up again.

"We still have McGonagall." The three heads turned to him. "And even if she is now under surveillance the whole time, I could bet that if she has the chance, she'll be the first to raise her wand."

"She was good friends with Dumbledore…" Hiccup said. "She's the one who told me not to trust anyone. Hagrid said they're looking for something. We don't know what it is yet, but if we did…" His eyes met Jack's as the boy smirked.

"I'm in." Jack said.