The Cupboard Series 5: United We Stand ...

Chapter 18

"She introduced what?" Minerva McGonagall, Headmistress of Diricawl Academy nearly screeched.

"You heard, Minerva," Augusta Longbottom snapped.

From the very instant that Augusta, Sirius, Cyrus Greengrass and Brendon Abbot nearly stormed into the Headmistress' office, tensions had been high. And now that their news had been imparted to Minerva and Remus, they, too, shared feelings of shock, anger and disbelief.

"How is this legal?" Remus asked. "To force students and parents to pay a ... a tax, I suppose is the best way of describing it, to force them to pay a tax for services that they won't even use in a lot of cases, it's just ..."

In the end, he trailed off, his hands moving to indicate that he didn't have the words to describe what he was feeling and his head shaking in disbelief.

"Unfortunately, if Umbridge gets this passed in the Wizengamot next month, it'll be legal simply because the Wizengamot says so," Augusta stated.

"Not moral or right, but definitely legal," Sirius agreed.

"How likely is this to pass?" Minerva asked, dreading the answer.

The four Wizengamot members looked to each other before Cyrus sighed.

"Quite," he said. "From what I could tell, there seemed to be a lot of support for the idea."

"It's the old pureblood members that are the problem," Brendon added. "They'll vote for anything that sees the ancient traditions and culture being promoted, especially if it's at the expense of the muggleborns."

"There were a lot of murmurings after the session from those purebloods that made me think that they'll want to turn the tax into a two-tier system – a smaller, token amount for those who attend Hogwarts and a larger tax for those with magic who don't," Cyrus said.

"I wouldn't be surprised if there's a third tier," Sirius added, "aimed at those with magic who've refused to educate their children in the magical world at all."

"What sort of figures are we talking about? How much are they going to charge each student?" Minerva asked. "We've got some, like the Creevey boys, who can pay the tuition, but an Education Tax on top of it would force them to either give up their magical education or to transfer back to Hogwarts."

Augusta shook her head. "No figure has yet been mentioned. Without a doubt, it'll be more than a lot can afford."

"Lionel, I should think, will be the worst affected of all of our students," Remus said grimly. "He's only here because of the scholarship that Sirius set up, a scholarship that in no way will be able to cover an extra tax."

"Don't worry, it'll cover it," Sirius grimly assured his best friend.

"What's Umbridge's ultimate goal?" Minerva asked. "Surely there's a reason behind this Decree that she's introduced."

"I don't know," Cyrus said "Umbridge did point out that when Harry, Hermione, Hannah and the Creevey boys took those OWLs, it exposed some serious flaws within the Department of Magical Education. She's already authorised five thousand galleons for the Department to use to examine teaching practices and what information is being taught within each subject area, not to mention overhauling both the OWL and NEWT examinations with the intension of bringing the educational standard within Britain back to where it was decades ago: being the best in the world."

"She kept pointing out that Hogwarts is an institution," Sirius continued.

At that, Remus couldn't help but snort. "It's a jolly school, by very definition, of course it's an institution!"