Chapter Eighteen
Harry flopped down at the Slytherin table for breakfast and was surprised when an over excited owl dropped down in front of him. It had only a short note attached,
"Lakeside, now." Harry read it out quietly, "I'm assuming it's from Hermione."
Draco nodded, staring longingly at the large dish of porridge, "Bacon butties for breakfast again then."
Pansy and Daphne nodded, wrapping some croissants and toast up for themselves before heading out.
"Hem hem. And where are you four going?" Professor Umbridge asked, walking up behind them.
"We were going to eat breakfast outside today." Pansy said, "We often do when we have good weather."
Professor Umbridge looked along the line of them, "I don't think that's appropriate. Breakfast is an indoor meal."
"There is a school rule about breakfast being eaten inside?" Draco asked innocently.
Professor Umbridge narrowed her beady little eyes, "No… enjoy your breakfast." she turned and walked away, her heels tapping on the stone floor.
"Evil toad." Pansy hissed once they were out of the castle.
Hermione and Neville were already sitting down by the lake, and waved them over. Harry, Draco, Pansy and Daphne sat down with them.
"Have you seen this?" Hermione said, handing over today's copy of the Daily Prophet.
Harry took it and frowned at the large picture of Umbridge on the front page. He and his friends scanned over the pages, more and more concerned with each line.
Dear Readers,
The Ministry, after years of our concerns about Hogwarts School, have acted and acted most wonderfully!
New professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts is one Ms. Dolores Jane Umbridge, a Ministry worker! Finally a respectable teacher our children deserve! She has also been given the position of Hogwarts High Inquisitor, meaning she is there to "keep an eye on the place" and "make sure everything runs smoothly" for our children in their studies, as one Mr. Percy Weasley told me in an exclusive interview. "Professor Umbridge, as she now is, has been given the honour of High Inquisitor, which she will be reporting her findings back to the Minister himself, Mr. Fudge. I must say that this is a perfect fit, many will agree with me, and while she has no power over what happens at Hogwarts school, the Ministry feels it can no longer trust Professor Dumbledore to act appropriately, given his recent claims." Mr. Weasley went on to say.
Parents have been flooding in with the praise also, including one Mrs. Goyle saying, "Dolores Umbridge is a wonderful person, everyone loves her! I could not be happier to know my boy will be safe while doing his O. this year with Professor Umbridge watching over them all. She is a lovely, kind, sweet woman who will stop at nothing to do what is best for the next generations."
Of course, faithful readers, I have not been blind sided by this amazing appointment of position. I have asked myself the same question; why would Hogwarts need a "high inquisitor"? Well, readers, I'm sure you already know! Dumbledore seems to have completely lost the plot, excusing the muggle term. From my talk with Mr. Weasley, it seems that Albus Dumbledore is claiming preposterous things, lies that cannot be believed, not only because they are untrue but because of how ridiculous they are! I will not write what he is claiming, as I do not want to put falsehoods into your head. I respect my place of influence too much to do so to you! Clearly, Dumbledore does not though. From speaking to Mr. Weasley, who I should point out has close personal connections to Minister Fudge himself, I can gather that many people are concerned over Dumbledore's health and mindset. Mr. Weasley even said "It's nothing to be concerned with yet, however after such events happening in the last few years, we would like to get a jump on things in the hope to protect the children before anything bad happens." Mr. Weasley has several siblings attending Hogwarts this year.
My concerns for the youngsters have always been fuelled by you, dear readers, and I can now say it's come to an end! With Professor Umbridge there, as High Inquisitor, nothing will escape her watchful eye! You can guarantee that trouble makers, and those wishing to disturb the peace, will be punished accordingly. Finally! The relief floods me, readers, floods me! I tried to talk with Professor Umbridge, who politely declined to speak, saying "her attention is needed in the school" and she "doesn't wish for a fuss to be made of (her) new appointment as the focus should be kept on the children's education and safety". Even when asked for comments, she was polite and courteous, and it was clear her focus was on the children and not herself. This is who we have been waiting for, for so long, readers, someone who cares for the children above her position and links. She did let slip she would be sitting in on some lessons to "get a lay of the land" and "find out what is working well". The results of her findings will be eagerly awaited!
We must trust in her, readers, as if we do not it will cause others to doubt. I tell you now, I have no doubt in this wonderful woman, or the Ministry that appointed her as High Inquisitor! And neither should you, readers! Spread the word! Hogwarts is finally safe, safe from outside and inside influences who wish to destroy the peace and organisation we finally have! We must continue to be united behind this wonderful news, and not let others who believe the mad ramblings of Dumbledore and others destroy this wonderful world we live in.
Signing off,
Alissa Ward
"I don't believe it." Draco said, "They're trying to make her Headmistress in all but name."
"I think it's more than that." Neville sighed, "For all Dumbledore has power to inspect teachers and stuff, there'd be an outcry if he actually did. Umbridge will though, the Ministry will make sure she gets rid of as many teachers that don't stand with the Ministry as possible."
Harry took several seep breaths, "She's going to go after Dad."
Hermione nodded, "Yes. Almost certainly."
"You have to stay away from him Harry, even more than you already are. Make sure that he treats you like nothing more than a normal student." Daphne told him.
"I just don't know how." Harry sighed, "He's already told me that Umbridge was getting twitchy about him having a step son in the school."
"And she stopped us." Pansy pointed out, "On our way out of the hall. We need a way to contact each other, that's not always at breakfast."
"I have an idea of that." Daphne smiled, "I made this."
She pulled out a fine golden thread.
"What is it?" Hermione asked.
"It's a tracking spell, bound to a fine thread. Mama and Papa use it to track the cats at home." Daphne explained.
"But we'll know where we are." Neville pointed out, "We just wont be able to talk to each other."
"An unforeseen side effect of the tracking spell is it warms the thread slightly, not enough to burn, it just gets warm." Daphne told them, "I think, if we could braid them into a bracelet or anklet, along with a hair from each of us, it would trigger the spell and we'd all be able to feel it."
"That's a good idea." Hermione said, cheering up a little.
"It's not perfect." Daphne shrugged, "But I figure Pansy and I wear anklets anyway so it wouldn't look strange, plus bracelets can be hidden under robes. It also doesn't let us make a time or date for us to let anyone else know so we'll just have to try and pop back here as often as we can."
"I do have a few ideas about that, but I have to do a little more research before it's ready to try and make anything from my idea." Hermione said, "Unfortunately I think it's going to get even more difficult to do any research in the restricted section. I can see if McGonagall will give me a pass."
"She's back." Draco said, looking over to where a distinctly pink figure was watching them.
"We'll manage." Pansy said, standing up, "But I think for now we should head inside and get to class. Before anyone comes over to ask what we're up to and we're forced to lie."
The others nodded; the last thing they needed was giving Umbridge any excuse to give them even more attention.
"Harry!" Miles Bletchley called, "Daphne, Draco, first practice is this Wednesday. 7 o'clock."
"We'll be there." Daphne called back.
Harry grinned, "Well at least we know there'll be somewhere Umbridge can't get us. I think she's too short for broom riding, you know. She'd need a kiddies broom."
Draco snorted a laugh and pushed open the door to the Potions room, taking his seat. Hermione put her bag down with Pansy and looked at it.
"Damn." Hermione said, "I shouldn't sit here should I?"
"It's fine." Pansy said, "Umbridge isn't inspecting this class."
Hermione shook her head, "It's fine. I'll sit with Neville."
Harry watched her walk away and felt like smacking the desk, "I hate this." he hissed.
"Calm down Harry." Draco told him.
Harry took several deep breaths and nodded, "Yeah, sorry. I don't know what came over me."
Pansy and Daphne frowned at him but said no more as Severus had just put up the instructions for that days Potion.
Harry was determined to get his potion right this time and made sure he read over the instructions several times before he even added the half a pint of water to his cauldron. By the end of the lesson his potion was looking good, it wasn't quite the same shade of turquoise that Draco's was, a little cloudier maybe but not the bright red or pink that Crabbe and Goyle's were.
"I have here your results from the last potion and recent homework. I have marked them as I would your O.W.L. I expect you all to work hard and try to improve as apart from a few, your results have been dismal." Professor Snape said, handing out the sheets of paper.
Harry looked at his and sighed, a large A was written in red ink in the top corner of the page with a small note that read 'Must try harder, this was only one mark off being a Poor'
Harry didn't know what to say. He had tried, what would people think if the Potion Master's son failed Potions? He shook his head and stuffed the marked homework into his bag. He would go over it later and see where he'd gone wrong. There was still a lot of time until the O. after all.
It was Divination next, one of the few subjects that Harry was sure he was going to fail and didn't really care about. He hoped his class work would be enough to get him a passing grade, or only a minor fail because there was no way he was going to be able to blag his way through the exam.
He pulled himself up through the trap door and felt his blood run cold, Umbridge was there already. No chance of him sneaking to the back to go unseen for the lesson. He forced a smile to face and walked over to his usual table with Ron, Daphne and Pansy.
"Wonder what she's doing here?" Ron mumbled.
"She's inspecting all the lessons. It was in the paper this morning." Pansy said, taking the copy of 'The Dream Oracle' the Professor Trelawney was handing out.
Professor Umbridge waited until all of the students had text books before stepping forward and making her annoying little coughing noise.
"Good afternoon, Professor Trelawney." Professor Umbridge said, "You received my note, I trust? Giving the time and date of your inspection?"
Professor Trelawney didn't say anything but gave a sharp nod, pulling her shawl a little tighter around her shoulders.
Professor Umbridge smiled widely and pulled the nearest armchair to the front of the class, making a loud noise as she did so, the chair legs scrapping across the rugs. She sat down, wiggling a little to make sure she was comfortable before reaching into her flower covered bag and pulling out a clip board, looking expectantly at Professor Trelawney to start the class.
"We shall be continuing our study of prophetic dreams today," said Professor Trelawney, clearly rattled and uncomfortable with Umbridge's presence, "Divide into pairs, please, and interpret each other's latest night time visions with the aid of the 'Oracle'."
Harry turned to face Ron and opened his book, "So, go on then."
"I did it last time, what's your dream?" Ron said, remembering Harry's previous, and a little to close to home, predictions.
In truth Harry couldn't remember; his dream journal was looking rather blank and he'd already agreed with himself that he wasn't going to write anything down that could be considered 'weird' but that had left him without anything to write at all.
"I was in Transfiguration and McGonagall turned my water glass into a pond and tried to drown me in it." Harry said quickly.
Ron snorted, "Yeah, she is a bit like that." he opened his book and started to flick through the pages.
Harry waited patiently, forcing himself not to keep glaring over at Umbridge. Pansy and Daphne were deep in discussion, cross referencing over several pages; either one of them had hand an interesting dream or they were doing a very good impression of pretending to work while talking about something else. Harry suspected the latter.
"Ok, we've got to add your age and the date you had the dream to the number of letters in the subject… would that be pond, Transfiguration or drowning?" Ron asked.
Harry shrugged, "Unlikely to be pond. I'd go with drowning, so eight."
He glanced behind him, Professor Trelawney was trying to talk to two Gryffindors about their dream diaries, Professor Umbridge hovering just behind her taking a lot of notes.
"What night did you have this dream?" Ron asked.
"What? Oh umm, last night." Harry said, trying to focus again while also listening into what Professor Umbridge was saying.
"Now, you've been in this post how long, exactly?" Umbridge asked.
Professor Trelawney pulled her shawls even tighter around her shoulders, clearly annoyed at being forced to submit to such an inspection, "Nearly sixteen years."
"Quite a period." Umbridge smiled, making a note, "So it was Professor Dumbledore who appointed you?"
"Yes." Professor Trelawney said sharply.
"I believe you are the great-great-granddaughter of the well known and celebrated seer, Cassandra Trelawney?" Umbridge asked.
Professor Trelawney held her head a littler higher, "Yes, I am."
"But I think," Umbridge did her annoying, fake giggle which made Trelawney frown slightly, "correct me if I'm wrong, that you are the first in your family since Cassandra to have the second sight?" Umbridge asked, smiling widely.
"These things often skip… er… three generation." Professor Trelawney said dismissively.
"Of course." Umbridge said with sickly sweetness, "Well would you, please, predict something for me?"
Professor Trelawney stiffened, "I don't understand you?" she snapped.
"I'd like you… to make… a prediction… for me." Professor Umbridge said clearly, like she was talking to someone who was stupid.
Harry looked around, he was not the only one who had been listening in, now abandoning their work to see what happened next.
"The inner eye does not see upon command!" Professor Trelawney said, scandalised.
"I see." Umbridge said softly, still smiling.
"I… wait!" Trelawney said suddenly, in another attempt at an ethereal voice, although the fact she was shaking in anger somewhat ruined the effect, "I am afraid… I am afraid that you are in grave danger!"
There was a pause, Professor Umbridge looking at her with raised eyebrows, "Right." she said, scribbling on her clipboard, "If that's really the best you can do…"
She turned away, leaving the classroom. Professor Trelawney seemed fixed to the spot, her chest rising and falling in anger.
Harry forced himself to look back to 'The Dream Oracle', avoiding Ron's eyes. They all new that Trelawney was an old fraud but that didn't stop Harry from feeling sorry for her, having to suffer being humiliated by Umbridge so much.