Hermione's POV
"What's going on back here?" I demanded, as I made my way to where the exchange students and Malfoy were standing.
"It's ok Hermione," Lisanna was saying, brushing flecks of sand off her outfit. "We were just playing a game of tag." Eyeing the area, I noticed there was nothing out of place, except having the grass charred in some areas.
"Why is the grass singed?" Harry observed.
"The game we were playing involved using magic," Erza explained as she rejoined the group.
"That doesn't seem safe," I observed. Natsu shrugged.
"With us, nothing really is" Evelyn voiced the thought she and her brother were thinking.
"C'mon lighten up Hermione," Ron was trying to calm me down. "Nothing actually happened." Casting them one more suspicious glance I marched back up to the castle.
"They're getting awfully suspicious aren't they?" I asked my friends, waiting to see their reactions.
"Well, Lucy did stop coming to detention which drove Umbridge mad," Harry mentioned before shrugging. "But then again that letter from their headmaster said she was forbidden to go to any other detentions."
"The nicknames are weird too," Ron added in an offhand way. "What kind of a nickname is 'metalhead?'"
I bit my lip considering everything we had observed the past month or so. "I'll need to do some research," I decided. "But I'm strongly convinced they're not actual wizards." Once in the library I left Harry and Ron and went to do looking on my own. After a couple of minutes of searching, I found a thick, leather-bound book that looked like it hadn't been touched in years about magical schools. Without hesitation I flipped to the index and scanned the tiny rows of print for anything that talked about a "Fairy Tail School for the Gifted" and found nothing.
"Did you find anything?" Ron asked and I shook my head.
"No I didn't. I figured maybe it had been a school that I just never heard of but this book doesn't have anything on it."
"Maybe you should find a more modern book," Harry suggested and I considered the idea.
"I will later, right now we have loads of homework to do."
Nothing exciting had happened but I was eagerly anticipating the article Percy, Ron's brother, had mentioned in the letter he had sent us. When the delivery owl dropped the Daily Prophet in front of me I gasped. "What's wrong Hermione?" Lucy inquired leaning over my shoulder to look at the newspaper. "Oh. That's not good."
"What is it Luce?" Natsu urged and all of the exchange students huddled closer to hear what Lucy was about to tell them.
She swallowed, trying to find the voice to tell them what she had read. "Umbridge has been promoted to the title of 'High inquisitor,'" the blonde managed to say.
"What does that mean?" Natsu asked scratching his head in confusion.
"I was wondering the same thing," Harry related.
As I was about to start reading Lucy tapped my shoulder, "can I read that really quickly?" she requested and, a bit hesitantly, I handed over the newspaper. Whipping out glasses from her bag she was carrying she pored through the articles before giving the Prophet back to me. "Thanks!" she expressed before summarizing what she had read to her friends.
"Wait how did you read it so quickly?" I wondered.
"Oh the glasses I have are called 'gale-force' reading glasses. They let me read everything really quickly," Lucy described. "You can try them if you want to," she offered them out to me. "They're a huge help when it comes to reading a lot of stuff." Tentatively I took the glasses from her hand and out them on. Instantaneously I read the article in about ten seconds.
"That's incredible," I praised.
"I'll get you some for Christmas," the blonde promised before turning back to her friends. As suspicious as they were, all of them were really nice. But I had never even heard anything about these "gale-force glasses" and that only made me more suspicious.
Before I turned back I heard someone smack the table and stand up. Erza's face was flushed from anger and she was glaring daggers at Umbridge.
"This is infuriating," she fumed. "If they've given her that much power they've basically made her in charge." Her fist hit the table again and her breathing was heavy. Charle told us about her prophetic vision and how she was putting up decrees and almost torturing a student. "This is becoming a dictatorship!" she stormed out of the Great Hall her friends staring at her retreating back.
"Should someone go stop her from blowing up the castle?" Gray asked staring at the doors that had just slammed shut.
"Let it go," Lisanna advised. "She just needs to calm down."
"This is so irritating!" Malfoy, and the rest of their friends flocked to the table. "I can almost guarantee my father had some part in this. He's been advising the minister for a while. Damn it," he looked up at the teachers' table before averting his eyes. "This is getting out of control so fast." My eyebrows shot up at his opinion. Wasn't he loyal to the ministry? But then again, he did say he came from Fairy Tail.
After explaining everything to Harry and Ron, they were furious to say the least. "So now we know how we ended up with Umbridge," I ranted. "Fudge passed the educational decree and forced her on us! And now he's given her the power to inspect other teachers! This is outrageous!" While Harry and I were exchanging comments Ron had an idiotic smile on his face.
"Oh I can't wait for McGonagall to get inspected," he laughed. "Umbridge won't know what hit her."
"Do you mean Umbitch?" Evelyn corrected and we burst into laughter, Wendy, Gajeel, and Malfoy did also. I saw Malfoy's mouth moving but the clamor of the other students was too loud for me to comprehend what he had just said.
"Don't worry sand castle, I'm being careful," Evelyn called to him and he just shook his pale, blonde head in response. How had she heard him? I wondered.
I didn't know if any of the others had Umbridge inspect their previous lessons but I saw her for the first time that day in her classroom. "Shouldn't she be inspected by another teacher?" Gray muttered to Natsu and Evelyn.
"Gray, I would watch it," Mirajane cautioned. "You don't want to land yourself in detention." He winced at the reminder of what detention actually entailed.
Class commenced and as it ended, I had gotten Gryffindor to lose five points because she was being a toad, and Harry had landed himself in detention again. Lucy gave him a sympathetic look.
"Hey, Harry," Gray called. My best friend looked over surprised. "Maybe we could get Wendy to heal your hand for you. She's amazing with healing magic."
"Thanks, but I'll be ok," Harry declined the offer.
"Ok then," Gray turned ready to get out of the classroom, "but the offers there if you want to take us up on it."