Confident | Fred Weasley

Chapter 44 | Listener

A day or so after their meeting, Sarah was sat amongst her friends in the Great Hall.

"I still can't believe you missed the meeting," Angelina shook her head in disbelief as she ate her breakfast. The burdens of being Quidditch captain were already showing, as the dark circles under Angelina's eyes were oddly prominent today.

Patricia shrugged, "Hermione said it was fine. She just caught me up with what was said in the meeting and then made me sign some parchment."

Sarah grinned at this, "Hermione's good like that. Still, the meeting was pretty tense. That Zacharis kid was debating for his life."

"Not very hufflepuff of him, huh?" Alicia joked.

As Sarah laughed, the morning Owls arrived. Sarah watched as a grey owl swooped low over Gryffindor table, dropping a newspaper tied with some string.

Sarah caught it before it dive bombed her breakfast.

"I didn't know you got the daily prophet, Sarah," Patricia said, watching as Sarah untied the string.

"Oh, that's a recent development - " Sarah began.

Sarah's mind went blank when she saw the front page. She'd never been a big newspaper reader, but now she decided it would be a good idea to get into it. Wizards didn't have a news channel on the TV, so newspapers were the fastest way to spread news. Sarah was glad she made this decision.

"Oh no," Sarah gasped, causing all the girls to glance over in concern.

On the front cover, a black and white photo of Umbridge at a press conference sat in the middle of the page. Above, in bold, black letters, the title of the article glared at Sarah.

"Dolores Umbridge - the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts - launches Educational Decree twenty-four," Sarah read to her friends, who slowly grew more concerned.

"Another one? Are you kidding?" Alicia sighed, a frown appearing on her face.

"What - is this making Filch her high inquistress?" Patricia joked.

Sarah shook her head, and began to read, "All Student Organisations, Societies, Teams, Groups, and Clubs are henceforth disbanded. An Organisation, Society, Team, Group, or Club is hereby defined as a regular meeting of three or more students. Permission to re-form may be sought from the High Inquisitor. No Student Organisation, Society, Team, Group, or Club may exist without the knowledge and approval of the High Inquisitor. Any student found to have formed, or to belong to, an Organisation, Society, Team, Group, or Club that has not been approved by the High Inquisitor will be expelled."

There was a beat of silence as the girls processed the words, before Alicia hissed, "She must know."

"She can't have, otherwise we'd be expelled," Sarah answered in a low voice, glancing over her shoulder apprehensively.

"Someone could've told her," Angelina argued in a hushed voice, glaring at Hufflepuff table.

It seemed everyone else had caught up with the new decree, as shown by the rise of panicked whispers.

"Let's ask Hermione - " Sarah went to get up.

At the other end of the table, Hermione ushered her down with a wave of her hand, mouthing something along the lines of 'You're going to make it obvious'.

Sarah sat down, after having made a show of pretending to pull her trousers up.

Fred and George arrived later, also talking about the new decree.