So one of the weird things that comes with being medicated is the ability to go off your medication . . . I will try better. No. Umbridge does not get her comeuppance yet. It's coming, I promise! But I wanted to spend some time with some other characters. After all, Harry might be the main character and a primary in the war but he is not the only one. People who straddle the line in a conflict, who have to choose a side. We don't often consider those people. Hopefully you will enjoy this brief interlude.

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EDUCATIONAL DECREE NO 23: DOLORES JANE UMBRIDGE HAS BEEN APPOINTED AS HIGH INQUISITOR OF HOGWARTS.

The sign was posted outside of the great hall. The students passed by it without much consideration. There had never been a high inquisitor and that term meant nothing to them. That was until they sat down and Umbridge cleared her throat. There was a loud groan as she stood to hands folded demurely in front of her.

"Now children." She tittered, nasty smile across her face. Harry was starting to hate that expression with a passion he did not know he had. "The ministry is very concerned about ensuring you get a proper and appropriate education. The minister has appointed me to ensure that everything is in tip-top shape." She kept going but Harry had tuned her out. Umbridge had now been here for a month and he could not convince himself she ever had anything worth saying.

He had suffered through two more detentions with her, for equally stupid infractions. One for "disturbing the peace" when he had gotten into a quiet sniping match with a Ravenclaw who claimed it was his fault Umbridge was in the school. The other was for "insubordination" when he was unable to keep his annoyance out of his tone when answering a question. Both detentions ended up the same as the first. For some reason she kept with the same phrase for him to write. He noticed that the words were starting to take longer to heal. The last time he still had scabs when he was ambushed by Hermione. Every time she was insistent that he tell someone. Each time he pushed her off. She was getting progressively more aggressive about it.

What was bugging him the most was not Umbridge. The unfortunate fact of his life was that there was always someone trying to make him miserable. Umbridge was just the latest iteration of this. As it turns out, she wasn't nearly as good at it as some of the others. Even Lockhart had been more of a nuisance, with his insistence of pulling Harry in front of the room or telling unbelievable tales. What was really nagging at him was the fact that he had not been able to speak to Snape.

He had gotten so used to being in his presence, even in such small ways. Whether it was sitting across from him at the kitchen table or watching the telly at night. Even now, it seemed weird that he was in the same room but so far away. It was weird for Harry. To actually have an adult that he actually spent time with and wanted to be in contact with. For the first time he understood, in some vague way, what homesickness was. That lack of comfortable familiarity. As he thought a few lines from the speech seemed to filter into his consciousness.

"-eliminating distractions and unnecessary lessons."

"Discipline should be the primary concern-"

"Conformity is how society functions."

Very 1984. You will be hollow. We shall squeeze you empty, and then we shall fill you with ourselves. He felt in the pit of his stomach. He turned to make a snide comment to Hermione but stopped at her expression. If looks could kill, Umbridge would be nothing more than a disparate cloud of molecules. She was muttering under her breath, fist clenched and shaking a little. It must be difficult for her, Harry thought with a little pitying laugh. As much as the various professors trying to kill Harry year after year, Hermione was still prone to assume an authority figure, especially an authority figure who is supposed to be an intellectual, was to be trusted. The idea that education could be used as a political move. That a government would use it as a way to spread propaganda. Well, at least that it would happen in Britain in the modern era, must have been grating. Even worse that she would have to suffer it without recourse. Considering the anger on her face and the threats that could be barely heard over the chatter, recourse would be found.

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Educational Decrees came in like a flood not long after.

EDUCATIONAL DECREE 24: Hogwarts School will be subject to informal scrutiny by an appointed Ministry member

EDUCATION DECREE 25: No music is to be played during study hour

EDUCATIONAL DECREE 34: Proper dress and decorum is to be maintained at all times in accordance with recorded gender

EDUCATIONAL DECREE 41: Students may not discuss the upsetting events of last year. Anyone found doing so will be punished

EDUCATIONAL DECREE 42: Any literature by non-wizards or half breeds is banned forthwith

EDUCATIONAL DECREE 47: All students will submit to questioning about suspected illicit activities

With each one the tension in the school seemed to increase. And with human nature being what it was, as it grew there was an increase in misbehavior. The whole place felt like a jar full of angry bees. One being held threatening over a concrete floor about to drop. It was suffocating and Harry was trying his best to not engage. Even keeping his head down, he found that he could not avoid the beady gaze of the pink menace. Hermione kept trying to get him to go the Snape and he kept brushing her off. He knew he should. He knew Snape would help him. Would drop everything and rain fire. Which was the problem. The amount that the man would have to put aside to help him.

Harry knew that Voldemort was calling more often, his scar burning in the night each time. They were getting more frequent as they approached the end of the year. He knew that each meeting with the Dark Lord also meant an Order meeting. Neither would be pleasant experience for the taciturn man. Then at school he also had to deal with Umbridge who was now going into classrooms to watch professors work and judge them. People knew she was trying to court Snape into an alliance, even go as far as to flirt with him. Not that he was interested at all but it was another problem to deal with.

All of this on top of what his normal duties were, which Harry got a close look over the summer. He was a professor as well as the potion master of the school which supplied the infirmary. That included standard potions, students prescribed medication, as well as adhoc requests when there was sickness or injury. He was also a Head of house, a time consuming position at the best of time. However, Harry saw just how far above and beyond he went for his students. McGonnagal, as far as Harry knew, did not schedule therapy for her students yet Snape did for at least a dozen. He spent time with lawyers for depositions and as character witnesses in cases for custody. For those he could not take down a legal route, he made house visits to act as a threat to misbehavior.

He was an important person to so many people. He had almost a hundred kids that needed his attention. Harry was just one. He wasn't even the one that was supposed to be under the man's purview. Plus, he was doing okay. He has been worse, that is for sure. The man already helped him, it was time for Snape to get a break trying to manage his issues. He would survive this as he always did.

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Unbeknownst to Harry, Snape was having a very similar train of thought. The potions master was used to stress. After all, he had been a double agent to a paranoid, violent, megalomaniac for years. He had experienced the worst of life. Poverty, torture, death, abuse and all the misery that came with it. He had known that this year would be miserable but he had truly underestimated the extent that the Ministry would be interfering with the daily life of students, and subsequently how much he would have to take one to mitigate it.

His anxiety prone students were suffering daily. Knowing to be under scrutiny for the new rules that seemed to be coming daily, inconsistency increasing symptoms and making a few fall back on unhealthy coping mechanisms. The High Inquisitor was monitoring owls and Floo. That meant that these students could not contact the doctors and therapists with the ease that they needed. Which meant he was sending the letters through his personal Floo. He had warded it against monitoring many years ago. Dumbledore had allowed it in the case that he needed it for his spy work, which never truly ended. He had the foresight to make the ward appear to give readings, though never the true ones. Since it had been in place long before the Inquisitor had arrived she had yet to notice that he could move as he wished. She was also fool enough to believe that he was not a person to be interested in.

There were also many unforeseen issues with some of the more banal decrees. For example, number 34. Forgetting for the moment those with gender dysphoria, something that no one in his current students were currently dealing with, there were other implications. He had to create a rather complex glamor for Miss Burke due to her body dysmorphia. Since she was in second year she had worn the boys uniform trousers because she had issues with the shape and size of her legs (prompted by her mother's own obsession with having a beautiful daughter). The dysmorphia had presented itself as an eating disorder he had worked hard to eliminate and giving her the option to cover what she was obsessed with others seeing and judging was a large part of it. The new rule would require her to wear a skirt and had caused an immediate back slide. Luckily it was caught by his Prefects, whom he had tasked to keep a close eye on their charges eating habits. The glamor allowed her to still wear pants but look as though she was wearing a skirt. This being only one of the issues with one of his students that were caused by the ill thought, biased decrees being spewed out at the moment.

As much as he wanted to rely on his prefects to help, it was not an option. Personally, he was not one to allow children, no matter the maturity, to take on the role of an adult. They had to deal with their own struggles, without him putting pressure on them to help other students. He was struggling to keep an eye on changes in behavior. This included the resent acquisition of his first years, whom he needed to watch closely to discover if there were any issues he had to intervene on. Then there was Potter, whom he had not been able to meet. He had wanted to start lessons on the mental arts hoping it would be good both for his mental health but also his training for the war. Yet for all the plans he made, he was constantly being forced to re-correct due to Umbridge. This left him with very little time to do . . . anything. Which meant he was often doing two things at once. Which was what he was doing right now, grading essays and having his regular meeting with Draco Malfoy.

Draco was one of the few people who he could do so. In general, people liked when you looked at them when they were speaking. Draco, however, did not like it when he was on his own and needed to speak freely. Under such hard scrutiny on all aspects of his life since early childhood, he took comfort when he could speak without the pressure of eyes. The boy was sitting in a lounge chair facing the fire while the potions master sat off to the side at his desk.

"Father wants me to take the mark early." Snape paused in his writing. He glanced at the boy to see his profile. Like every perfect pureblood, it was a blank mask.

"And you think this because?"

"Because he said as much." Draco scoffed, rubbing the back of his neck in a nervous motion. "He thinks that if he can get me in early, I will be favored. Increase the position of the Malfoy name within the group. When he wins, we would be the true believers rewarded above all others."

"And he thinks the Dark Lord would agree?"

"He is desperate for people. A lot of his followers are dead, others in prison. People who aren't don't want to come back and he is killing them." He paused here. "Father thinks that since he has a need and has marked people young in the past he would for me." Snape had to suppress a shudder. He knew of two people who were marked early, both of them Blacks.

Regulus had been marked because of Sirius. His parents had been ashamed when Sirius had left the family, went to the Potters, and publicly disavowed the Dark Lord. So they pushed the younger boy to the Dark Lord so that they could regain their position. The reason they were able to was because of the other Black who had been marked early, Bellatrix. She was given the honor due to her true fanaticism. While it was never proven, Snape knew that she had been the cause of an attack that resulted in five people dead, including two children, of the Shiver family. The Shiver family was headed by Emily and Doug, a husband and wife who were muggleborn advocates. Coated in their blood she was branded into his service with a cry of ecstasy that he had wanted to purge from his memory.

"If you were offered, would you want to?" He asked quietly. Years ago, the young boy probably would have immediately said yes. When he had only heard about the glory of the man. However, slowly the boy had been leaning away from the teaching of his father. Snape had been . . . moderately subtle about his true position. Nothing that would put him at risk. But the boy knew about Alex. Knew he was protecting Potter. Knew enough to question/

"No." It was a long silence before Draco responded. "I am . . . I am not a blood traitor." He whispered, not quite believing it himself but not ready to take on a title that would have him losing everything in his life. Snape resisted the urge to push him further. "But I know I don't want to be a slave." Here he spat out the words.

"I don't want to hurt people. I don't want to kill anyone or torture any one." There was a desperate whine in his voice. "I don't want to fight a war that someone else started. I don't want to fight at all."

"You wish to stay neutral." Snape stated.

"Yes."

"Yet you will not be able to." Snape paused and placed his quill down. He looked at the boy who would not look at him. "You do not have the privilege of being neutral. In fact, abstaining in any way would cause both sides to assume a choice. If you do not choose to support the Dark Lord he will call you traitor and will certainly call for your death. If you do not choose to speak out against the Dark Lord the light side will believe that you support him by proxy and that you are just trying to avoid scrutiny. You will have to choose a side."

"I know."

"If you know, then you will have to choose your future actions. If your father wants you to serve early, then you will have to make that choice soon."

"You are not a true believer." Draco said after a long silence, finally turning his face to the man. His expression was guarded and hopeful. It was a risk, Snape knew this. Draco was skilled in Occlumency and could protect himself well. Not against the Dark Lord if he ever went under a fill mental attack. Still, he had known the boy his whole life. So he chanced a small nod, a mere drop of his head. Enough to confirm for the boy.

"I worry about my mother." A reasonable worry.

"Your mother if no fool. She will be able to survive."

"If I did leave, even to run to hiding, the Dark Lord will punish her."

"Perhaps." Snape did not want to lie to the boy. The Dark Lord was known to do that. He could create comfort with the lie, but he was not one to do so.

"If I do stay and submit." Draco worried his thumb between his teeth, staring into the fire as he considered. "I will be tortured. Mother will be tortured. I will be turned into a killer."

"Yes." That was for sure.

"If I turn on him and side with Dumbledore . . . I will be targeted as well. She will be punished if she does not come with me. . . If I am captured I will be tortured and killed."

"Yes."

"Would Dumbledore ask me to kill?"

"He may ask. However, he will not demand it. If you choose not to kill, it will actually endear him to you." Dumbledore knew the reality of war did include death. He would never dismiss someone who would be willing to do so. However, as someone who would be coming from 'the other side' a declaration not to take life would be seen as 'proof'. Proof of change, because the Headmaster would assume that Draco had always been willing to kill. Something he had never been willing to do. Snape could remember the little crying face, red and broken, holding the little rabbit that his owl had hunted and brought home. Draco had grown to become colder and more pragmatic, but he would never not be the little boy crying over a bunny until his father punished him for being weak.

"No good options."

"No. In war there is never a good option. The only people who chose the 'good' option are the people who fought on the winning side, and you do not know who that will be until the dust settles. You may be dead at that point." The room felt silent and heavy, with only the crackle of the fire to break the quiet.

"What would you have me do?" A loaded question, heavy with responsibility that Snape did not want to have. It's true that he took responsibility of all those who came into his care. Took but did not want.

"I would have you do whatever keeps you safe. Whatever you can live with." He answered. "I will always do what I can to protect you and every child in my care. Whatever you choose, I will do my best to see you through."

"If my father was arrested." Draco started his question. "Would that buy me time?"

"I cannot know that."

"Is there a chance?"

"A chance, yes. If it was played well." Draco hummed in consideration of the response. He stood up and finally fully turned to his professor.

"Thank you for your time. I have much to consider." The boy swept from the room, the true tableau of a Pureblood lord. Snape groaned and dropped his head to the desk. If the Dark Lord did not kill him, the stress of this war would.