Discovery

50.

"Ella! You've got to see this!"

I was sitting in the Clock Tower, messing with my locket, when suddenly Fred and George were running toward me at full speed.

"Woah! What is it? You two look like you've seen a ghost."

"Yeah, actually, just had a nice conversation with the Bloody Baron a couple minutes ago," Fred said, bending over to catch his breath.

"Very funny. Ok, what's this I've got to see?"

The twins practically dragged me all the way to the Gryffindor notice board, where important announcements were constantly being posted. Covering up the twins' advertisement for Skiving Snackbox Testers was a large piece of parchment.

BY ORDER OF
The High Inquisitor Of Hogwarts

All Student Organizations, Societies, Teams, Groups, and Clubs are henceforth disbanded.
An Organization, 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 (Professor Umbridge).

"She can't do this!" I shrieked.

"She just did," George said solemnly. "You know what this means."

"No Quidditch, and no Defense Club either." I sighed. "Can't Dumbledore do anything about this?"

"She's High Inquisitor now," George shook his head. "She can do whatever she wants. Fudge will make sure of it. Dumbledore may be powerful, but if he's not careful, Fudge could make things difficult for him."

We headed to the Great Hall, where Neville, Dean, and Ginny were already seated, looking exasperated. It was only mere seconds after we sat down across from them before the questions came.

"Did you see it?"

"D'you reckon she knows?"

"What are we gonna do?"

"Yeah, we just saw it." I said.

"She has to know," George added. "I reckon it was that Zacharias kid. He's no good,"

"We should do it anyway." Fred grinned. "What's more fun than a secret club?"

"Keep your voice down!" Ginny hissed.

Suddenly, who else but the trio walked into the Great Hall.

"Hey guys," said Hermione, sitting down next to me.

"Did you see it?"

"D'you reckon she knows?"

"What are we gonna do?"

Everyone was looking at Harry. He glanced around to make sure there were no teachers near us.

"We're going to do it anyway, of course," he said quietly.

"Knew you'd say that," said George, beaming and thumping Harry on the arm.

"The prefects as well?" said Fred, looking quizzically at Ron and Hermione.

"Of course," said Hermione coolly.

Fred leaned into me and whispered, "You in?"