Decree No.29 (O.C) Fred Weasley/ Draco Malfoy

Split Decisions

"Oh, Clarke, I thought we were friends?" Pansy whined to Jessica as they exited the Slytherin Common Room together for dinner, "we need to help each other out."

"No, I tried to be your friend, Pansy, and you stabbed me in the back," said Jessica as she slammed the door behind her, her voice echoing in the dampness of the dungeons. "You tried to trick me into drugging my friends without me knowing, you used me to get some stupid revenge on Angelina, then you let Draco go through my possessions so he could find out about me and Fred, which you said you would keep quiet, and now today I find out that you copied my charms essay to make it look like I was the one who copied you!"

"Yeah, and what's your point?" Pansy questioned as she scooped up her hair to tie in a high ponytail, "you shouldn't have ratted me out to Flitwick."

"He already knew because he knows my work!" Jessica retaliated, knowing that Fred and George had spotted it when Flitwick showed them both of their essays during extra tutoring for their N.E.W.T.S. the night before. As expert forgers, Flitwick could rely on them to tell the difference. "Honestly, save me with the girls helping girls shit, because what out of everything I've just said that you've done to me screams besties for life to you?"

"Wow, didn't know you were so sensitive," Pansy muttered, securing her hair in place with a black scrunchie.

As the two walked up the stairs from the dungeons to the first floor, they were met by a large crowd gathered around the doors to the Great Hall. Jessica's jaw dropped while standing on her tiptoes to see what they were all looking at. The wall was now covered in plaques stating various decrees, being hung up by the oddly cheerful caretaker Filch. At the bottom of the ladder Filch was standing on, Professor Umbridge stood by wearing a rather brash fuchsia woollen dress and looking very pleased with herself despite the shock from the surrounding students.

It was just like her vision.

"This is absolute ridiculousness. Those things are spoiling the wall!" Professor McGonagall called out as she came bursting through a group of students near the staircases. "Surely these rules do not need to be displayed in such a horrific and dictated way!"

"A school is not a place for interior design, Minerva," Umbridge called out condescendingly, "it's for discipline and education. Those wrong kind of priorities is the reason this school is failing."

"Failing? And you think a bit of framed paper will do the job?" McGonagall asked her crudely, her pitch getting higher as she became angrier.

"It is what they say that counts," replied Umbridge, maintaining her sweet but firm appearance.

Jessica and Pansy heard the familiar sound of deviant laughter and decided to dance around their fellow students to reach it. Jessica followed behind Pansy, who had her way paved out for her by girls who wouldn't dare get in her way.

"Welcome to the show girls," said Draco, seeing them appear through the crowd. He was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, analysing the spectacle from a front-row view. "This is when the real change begins."

"What's going on?" Jessica asked Theo as Pansy pushed past her to stand between Draco and Blaise.

"Umbridge has just gotten the approval to go full steam ahead with her rules. She's putting them in place as of now," Theo told her.

"How many are there?" she asked him.

"At least 36 from what I counted," he answered.

"Oh well, that's a relief, 37 would have been overboard."

They exchanged brief humorous smiles as more students filled the entrance area for dinner, first expressing wonder at the spectacle before them but then turning to dismay the longer they read what was written.