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014.
LEARNING THAT HAGRID got put on probation seemed to Esme a fitting end to an already grueling week. Usually, her Care of Magical Creatures lessons were something to look forward to, despite the fact that sometimes Hagrid could get a little carried away with the creatures he decided to show, but now they were just plain torturous. Umbridge skulked in the shadows every single class, watching and waiting for Hagrid to do or say something that would appease the idea in her head of him being unfit to teach.
Umbridge had also put out a new decree, stating that teachers were not to discuss anything with students other than the topics they were being paid to teach during their lessons. This decree had come just after the news of the ten escaped Death Eaters – Esme couldn't help but feel a slight surge of satisfaction, knowing that Umbridge was losing her nerve with so many coincidences regarding the status of the Ministry of Magic's hold on certain dark wizards.
The satisfaction didn't last for very long, however, and by the time Valentine's Day rolled around and Esme was following Amara and Daphne beyond the Hogwarts grounds and into Hogsmeade, she felt very much depressed at the lack of sunlight in the sky and the way she kept getting bombarded by posters highlighting the escaped convicts everywhere she turned once in town.
"It's giving me the creeps," said Daphne as they passed by yet another shop covered in posters. Bellatrix Lestrange was at the center, glaring up at them with a cruel, twisted smile on her pale, gaunt face. Esme had the destabilizing realization that she was a really beautiful woman, except something about her appearance just seemed so horribly twisted. "All these posters..."
Amara nodded, grimacing. "I don't know why they don't send the Dementors over here," she lowered her voice as they passed by a group of older wizards chatting outside of a pub. "They did it for Sirius Black, didn't they? And that was just one person!"
Esme flinched at the name, before realizing that Amara and Daphne did not know the same Sirius she did. They all still thought he was a true mass-murderer, killing thirteen people without a single regret. She would have thought the same if it weren't for the fact that she had been to Grimmauld Place. "The Ministry obviously doesn't have control over them anymore."
Amara sent her a sideways glance as they passed by Zonko's Joke Shop, waving to Fred and George through the window. "You think so? Is that what Harry told you?"
The frostiness in her tone caught Esme a little off guard. She looked at Daphne, who shrugged. "No, it's just common sense."
"Right," Amara huffed, shaking her head. "Maybe. It's hard to believe the Ministry could just lose a bunch of Dementors."
