Daylight || Harry Potter

Chapter Thirteen

The article Percy had mentioned was on the front page of the Daily Prophet the next day. It announced that by "Educational Decree Number Twenty-Three," Umbridge had been appointed High Inquisitor of Hogwarts and would be inspecting all of the teachers to make sure they were teaching stuff that the Ministry approved.

Hermione finished reading the article and looked across the table at Harry, Hermione, Luke, and I.

"So now we know how we ended up with Umbridge!" She fumed. "Fudge passed this 'Educational Decree' and forced her on us!"

"I can't believe this," I said. "It's outrageous!"

"I know it is," said Harry, staring across the table at my hands where the words he'd cut into his own skin had transferred onto mine.

"Man, this Minister of Magic is starting to sound like a huge dickwad," Luke said.

I elbowed him. "Language."

"Didn't you just call Umbridge 'Umbitch' the other day?"

"Wait, you called her what?" Harry asked, grinning.

"I heard Angelina and Alicia call her that, and I have to say, it does have a ring to it."

"It really does."

"Okay, so if Umbridge is Umbitch," Luke said, "then what's Fudge? Cornelius Fu —"

"Do not finish that sentence," I said.

"All jokes aside," Hermione said, "This new decree is absolutely outrageous. Fudge has given Umbridge —"

"Umbitch," Harry, Ron, Luke, and I corrected her.

"Umbitch," Hermione repeated, rolling her eyes. "the power to inspect other teachers."

Something made Ron slowly start to grin.

"What's so funny, Ron?" I asked, causing Harry, Luke, and Hermione to glance at him in confusion.

"Oh, I can't wait to see McGonagall inspected," said Ron happily. "Umbridge won't know what's hit her."

I started to grin, too. "When Umbitch does that stupid hem hem thing... 'DiD YoU gEt My NoTe AbOuT tHe InSpEcTiOnS?' 'I didn't need to. It was plastered in the newspaper.' "

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Luke all started snickering.

"Well, come on," said Hermione, jumping up, "we'd better get going, if she's inspecting Binns' class we don't want to be late."

"Maybe he'll be so boring that she'll sack him and find a more interesting professor," I said.

But Umbridge wasn't inspecting History of Magic. It was normal boring History of Magic. She wasn't inspecting Snape, either, though seeing Umbridge shading Snape would've been the only thing possibly as interesting as her being shaded by McGonagall.

"Well, that wasn't as bad as last week, was it?" said Hermione to Harry and Ron after Potions, during which Snape had handed us back our essays on moonstones and telling us how stupid most of us were. "And the homework didn't go too badly, either, did it?"

When neither Ron nor Harry answered, Hermione pressed on, "I mean, all right, I didn't expect the top grade, not if Snape's marking to OWL standard, but a pass is quite encouraging at this stage, wouldn't you say?"

Harry grunted. I smirked, knowing Hermione was trying to pry what grades we got out of us. I'd managed to scrape an A for Acceptable, but I didn't think Ron and Harry did so well, and they were probably less than willing to admit what grades they'd got on their essays.

"Of course, a lot can happen between now and the exam, we've got plenty of time to improve, but the grades we're getting now are a sort of baseline, aren't they? Something we can build on... "