Unseen University for extra magic

Ashe bullied

The next week passed with much suffering. My professors were all trying to run me to the ground. We learned vanishing spells in Transfiguration, which I found nearly impossible. Morgana and I had stayed up until the small hours of Wednesday morning until I could vanish a mouse properly. Then, we reviewed summoning spells in Charms class, which I'd promptly forgotten how to do after exams last year. In Herbology, at least, the shrubs and I had reached an agreement of sorts where if I didn't talk loudly, they wouldn't try to eat me.

The weekend had been much appreciated. Sunday had been dedicated to homework. Evie and I worked our arses off trying to finish our Herbology essays on time. Neville longbotto,, came into the common room at four in the morning to find Evie and me crying over our parchments, and even though he was outstanding at Herbology, Neville stayed to help us finish in time.

Monday morning, Evie and I dragged ourselves down to the Great Hall for breakfast. We were running on less than three hours of sleep.

"You look beautiful," said Morgana, grinning at us over her morning cup of pumpkin juice.

Evie mumbled something in response and nibbled on a croissant.

"Look at this." Ashe shoved her copy of the Daily Prophet under my nose.

"I'm too tired to read," I said, making myself a cup of tea and almost forgetting to add the hot water.

"'Ministry Seeks Educational Reform'," said Morgana, reading the article title aloud, "'Dolores Umbridge Appointed Herself High Inquisitor".

"Hold up?" asked Evie through a mouthful of croissant.

"Get this," said Morgana, leaning forward in her seat, "They interviewed Percy Weasley—you know, the older brother—and he was anti-Potter."

I glared at Morgana. She knew mentioning Potter meant I couldn't join the conversation.

"Listen," said Evie before continuing, "This is an exciting new phase in the Minister's plan to get to grips with what some are calling the "falling standards" at Unseen University The Inquisitor will have powers to inspect her fellow educators and make sure that they are coming up to scratch... The Ministry has yet to comment—"

"It won't," I scoffed. "If they let Umbridge off at trial I doubt they give a shit about what she's actually doing."

"Since," said Morgana grimly, "This is technically her punishment"

"I can't believe Umbridge is going to be inspecting other professors."

"Government regulation of schools isn't unusual," said Morgana. "But the inspections aren't usually done by another professor."

"Imagine her inspecting Sharp," said Evie with a laugh.

"Or Russo," I added.

The rest of breakfast was spent imaging different teachers being inspected by the High Inquisitor. We had Herbology first period, but much to our disappointment, Umbridge was not in the class we would've enjoyed watching one of the plants try to eat her. Instead, we moved on from self-fertilizing shrubs to Chinese chomping cabbages. By the time the class had ended, I had bite marks all over my forearms.

Afterwards, we had double potions. Morgana and I had barely settled in our seats when Sharp swept into the classroom and handed back our graded homework assignments from last week.

"I have awarded you the grades you would have received if you presented," said Sharp. "This should give you a realistic idea of what to expect in your Advanced potions calls." He reached the front of the room and turned to face the class. "The general standard of this homework was abysmal. Most of you would have failed had this been your examination. I expect to see a great deal more effort for this week's essay on the various varieties of venom antidotes, or I shall have to start handing out detentions to those dunces who get D's."

Malfoy released a barely concealed laugh. "Some people got D's!"

" Keep interrupting my class and ill give you a D Malfoy"

I examined the black E at the top of my paper on moonstones and breathed a sigh of relief. With a teacher like Sharp, it helped to be in his house, but he was known for giving credit when credit was due . I glanced over at Morgana and saw the O in the corner of her parchment.

"Show off," I muttered, shoving my essay into my bag.

As per usual, Morgana and I prepared our potions together, and by the end of the class, both of our Strengthening Solutions were the proper shade of turquoise. With a feeling of triumph, I placed my labeled flagon on Sharp's desk and went to pack up my things.

"How'd you do on your essays?" asked Evie as we made our way to the Great Hall for lunch.

"Exceeds Expectations," I said.

"What did you get?" asked Evie.

"Outstanding," said Morgana.

"Same," said Evie cheerfully.

I vote to slip poison in your morning pumpkin juices."

Morgana laughed. "You can't even make a Strengthening Solution without me, Jessi, how do you expect to make a poison by yourself." As if on cue a ratty and tattered old Advanced potions making book fell from the shelf by the door and into my hands. " Interesting" I said, I stuffed the book into my bag.

As we reached the entranceway for the Great Hall, there was a squeal, we heard shrill laughter to our right. I looked over and saw a group of girls giggling amongst themselves. There were about four of them in the group, and they were all leaning on each other as they laughed, following their gaze I AShe who appeared to had been hit with what looked like a Jelly-Legs Jinx, and she clung to one of the stone pillars in an attempt to keep herself upright. When her legs collapsed beneath her and she landed on the hard floor, the girls laughed even harder.

" Hey Horse head" a voice said

To her shame, one of the girls looked up in response to "horse-head".

"No spells in the corridors between classes," said Professor Russo. "And especially not spells against other students. Detention. All of you." He gestured to the group of girls. "You should be glad it'll be with Ronen instead of Umbridge." Justin gave them a nasty grin. "I hear she makes you write in your own blood."

The color drained from the girls' faces, and they certainly weren't laughing anymore. However, Justin asked "horse-head", "dog's-breath", "newt-face", and "flobberworm" their real names so she could report them. Then, with a smirk of triumph, Justin Russo turned around and returned to his office. Of course, throughout all this, he'd completely forgotten to undo the Jelly-Legs Jinx on poor Ashe and I quickly cast the counter-spell before Morgana helped her up, we then headed into the Great Hall for lunch.

Students jinxing each other between classes was nothing new. In my opinion, it was the inevitable side effect of teaching a bunch of kids magic, and as much as the professors tried to control the students, we were all idiots and there was no stopping it.

Cho's group were the worst of the lot when it came to jinxing other students. They liked to be considered "nice" and remained in most professors' good books, but in truth, they were a bunch of know-it-alls who often wanted to try out a new spell on some poor, unsuspecting students. However, no one really held grudges against them because at least they treated everyone the same: they hexed students for being prats, they hexed students for being rude, they hexed students for being too nice, and they even hexed others for being know-it-alls.

After lunch, it was time for our elective classes, and we parted ways. Ancient Runes was fun for me and torture for Morgana who could never seem to remember the runes. I think they were relieved when the class ended and we headed to Defense Against the Darks Arts—a subject they knew they were better than me at.