The Eight Part Soul

Headmistress

"New Headmistress?!" I exclaimed, totally bamboozled. Even if I knew the events of last night, I mean, come on! Who on their right mind would appoint Toad as the Headmistress?! Whoever did it must have been smited by Dionysus into madness to do such a mad thing. They should have been turned into dolphins instead!

"Yeah, I know, right? Even now, seeing it, like the tenth time, I don't believe it! What happened to Dumbledore?" Daphne asked.

I got back to my room for a shut eye, woke up the next morning, met Daphne down the Common Room and saw the Educational Decree where we were standing agape with very confused looks.

Ten minutes later, we still are, gossiping with shock clearly written on our faces.

"Oh... they said that he got himself into some trouble," Another voice intruded, and we both saw that it was Malfoy who was now looking at the Educational Decree with a smug grin on his face.

"Oh, hey, Malfoy," Daphne said politely while I followed suit. We were pretty much neutral with Malfoy, who although was a thorn in the side for Harry and his friends, was OK with his Slytherin compatriots and treated as such. In Slytherin, you either like or just indifferent with Malfoy. There was no hate.

"But what trouble?" Daphne inquired, the curiosity not letting go.

Malfoy shrugged, but he kept the same smug grin, "It's a known fact that Hogwarts has been spiraling into chaos and disrupting the learning process for the students for months. Of course, parents would complain and who else but to complain to our... previous Headmaster who even with the complaints did nothing? If the Headmaster is garnering no results, then of course, the next course of action was to appoint a new head figure and kick out the old one."

Daphne listened to the whole thing attentively, before nodding, "I can't help but say you are right. But appointing Umbridge... would that even make any difference? I mean... during our second year, the Basilisk attacks only got better after Dumbledore came back from his suspension. Also, this might be a bit biased, but Umbridge is more or less the reason for this mess. Absurd degrees, poor teaching, harsh disciplining, revolutions." Daphne finished with a shrug.

But Malfoy kept his pointed smile.

"But maybe if a few students were behind the scene, changing things up a bit and influencing our Headmistress... maybe the Ministry didn't make the wrong choice," Malfoy said.

My eyebrows rose a notch, "And what does that mean?"

"You will find out very soon. Just keep out of trouble, like staying away from Mudbloods and Potter's friends. That will do you a lot of good these days," Malfoy said.

"Huh?" I said, with skepticism and grudge in my tone for the plain mockery of Harry... again.

"It will be better once you see it. Anyway, I have to go. See you," Malfoy said.

I turned to Daphne and asked, "What was that about?"

Daphne shrugged. We both decided to pay it no mind for now.

And look where that got us.

It was afterwards when me, Daphne, Blaise and Michael saw Malfoy and his cronies in confrontation with Harry and his friends, Will included.

"You cannot just dock points off from Prefects, Malfoy," the same pompous Hufflepuff who I knew later as Ernie MacMillan objected.

"But the Inquisitor Squad can dock points, so..." Malfoy said, doing so for such ridiculous reasons.

When Malfoy and his cronies left, Will who was with Harry near Ernie came over to me once he spotted me.

"Inquisitor Squad?" Will asked.