Aria Ashborn and the Order of the Phoenix (A Harry Potter fanfiction)

Chapter 11: The Hogwarts High Inquisitor

On Monday, Aria made her way up the silver ladder to Divination. She planned to talk to Ron about the Quidditch practice but she ended up arriving too early for Ron to be there. Instead, Aria made her way over to Harry, who was slumped over at the circular table as he flipped through his dream journal without interest.

"You did well at Quidditch practice yesterday." Aria said with a smile.

"Thanks, but we got crushed." Harry replied, "Wait, did you leave early or something? I didn't see you there." Aria sighed. It's not like I wasn't sitting right there when you waved to Cho Chang she thought, sarcastically to herself.

"Did you see Cho?" Aria asked disappointingly.

"What?" Harry asked, having not heard her. His mind had wandered as he tried to come up with a false dream to write in his dream journal before class started.

"Nevermind."

"Hey." Ron said, walking past Aria and sitting down at his spot next to Harry.

"Hi, Ron." Aria said, "I'm sorry the Slytherin were being so mean to you the other day. I'm happy you made the team. You deserve it."

"Thanks." Ron said, though he still looked deflated.

"Good morning students." Professor Trelawney said in her usual mystical voice. Aria took this as her cue to take her seat. Trelawney was an untidy woman. Her hair was curly and wacky and her glasses were huge making her eyes appear very large as well. She talked often with her arms and whenever they moved, her shawl would whisk over her shoulders and the many beads attached to different parts of her outfit would jangle.

She continued, "I'm very excited about today's lesson. We will be continuing dream interpretation. It's a most important means of divination. For, the inner eye sees sights to which the outer eye is blind." She bumped into a table as she said this, knocking a book off, and the class laughed. As she went down to pick it up, Professor Umbridge entered in a blur of pink. Now that she was High Inquisitor at Hogwarts, she had been checking up on teachers. This is the first class Aria had witnessed this in.

"What are you doing here?" Trelawney asked, standing up.

"Don't mind me, dear." Umbridge said with a sugary voice. She held a pink, floral clipboard and a pink, fluffy quill. "You see, Professor Trelawney, isn't it? In addition to my teaching, the ministry has asked me to be an informal observer here at Hogwarts. Cornelius's eyes and ears as it were. Nothing to worry about whatsoever. Please, do go on. I'm just a fly on the wall."

"Oh yes." Trelawney replied, a bit flustered as Umbridge went to stand in the corner. "Well erm...dream-"

"Just one question, dear." Umbridge interrupted, "You've been in this post how long exactly?"

Trelawney thought for a moment, "Nearly 16 years."

"Quite a period." Umbridge replied, her quill scratching on the notes on her clipboard, "And it was Dumbledore who appointed you?"

"He did." Trelawney replied and when Umbridge didn't say anything she assumed it meant she could go on and Umbridge nodded. "Dream interpretation-"

"Just one more thing," Umbridge interrupted again, "if it isn't too much a bother. Could you please predict something for me?"

"I'm sorry?" Trelawney asked. Now, Aria, Harry, and Ron knew Trelawney was an old fraud and her class itself was not their favorite, but they couldn't help but feel bad for her. They absolutely despised Umbridge which made it a no-brainer who to root for in this situation.