Yellow Badger [3]// Harry Potter // Draco Malfoy

The Rise of Umbridge.

CHAPTER TEN: The Rise of Umbridge.

Leaning against the wall with my cloak over my shoulders, I stood at the bottom of the stairs of Ravenclaw Tower as I waited for Hadleigh to grab her potions book from the dorm. 
By my feet, Drizella sat proudly as I tapped my fingers on the leather strap of my bag.
Classes start in ten minutes and I really don't want to be late.

Haddie came bolting down the stairs, holding on to the iron railing as she went to prevent her falling as she squeezed passed a group of first years walking down.
'Come on"! She yelled, grabbing my arm pulling me in the direction of the Dungeons.

I took my bag off my shoulder, holding it in my hands like a clutch as we ran through the corridors toward the Great Hall, from there we would take one of the passages that link up with the Viaduct Corridor.
On the stairs the lead out towards the bridge that links the West side of the castle to East, I jumped down the last two to avoid three fourth years sitting on the steps.
Finding ourselves on the right side of the castle, Haddie and I took the main flight of stairs that ran through the middle of the school. At the time in the morning, it was full of people walking obscenely slowly still groggy from sleep as the first cup of tea hadn't yet taken effect.

On the ground floor, we smiled and spoke quiet 'Hellos' to people we shared classes with or knew from clubs as we walked across the Entrance Hall then up another flight of stairs towards the entrance of the Viaduct Corridor.

"Pardon me, professor, but what exactly are you insinuating?"

Hadleigh and I shared a look as we heard Professor Umbridge's voice echo from the stairs we walked past. In curiosity, we walked backwards, joining the growing crowd that had started to build. The two female Professors where polar opposites, Minerva McGonagall stood with her back straight and her shoulders pulled back dressed in her black robes with emerald trimmings – the dark colour making the older professor taller in an appearance against Umbridge's short and stumpy statue, the over the knee skirt making her legs look shorter than she actually was.

"I am merely requesting that when it comes to my students you conform to the prescribed disciplinary practices." Professor McGonagall spoke sternly.
"So silly of me, but it sounds as if you're questioning my authority in my own classroom Minerva." Dolores Umbridge pursed her lips into a smile, walking up a step.

I scoffed "If she isn't I will."
Hadleigh elbowed my ribs," Low radar remember, the Ministry can't know what you are."
"I know but her face would make perfect Beater target practise." I crossed my arms under my chest, a small smirk on my face.
Haddie let out a laugh before shushing me to overhear the two adults.

McGonagall stepped up a step to face her, towering over the small women, "Not at all, Dolores, merely your medieval methods.
"I am sorry, dear." Dolores Umbridge spoke, keeping the sour look and entailed stance," But to question my practices is to question the Ministry and by extension, the minister himself. I am a tolerant woman but the one thing I will not stand for is disloyalty."
Our proud professor stepped down a step below Dolores, shock and a hint of pain clouded her usual expression, she was a loyal person who took pride in everything she did, and a pink toad was questioning her. A woman that twenty years ago, taught Umbridge herself.
"Disloyalty?" Professor McGonagall questioned with a pained voice.

Umbridge turned to us," Things at Hogwarts are far worse than I feared. Cornelius will want to take immediate action."

Hadleigh and I looked at each other, my eyebrows knitted together,
"Cornelius?" I whispered.
"Unusual to call your boss by his first name when he's the PM." She spoke back in the same volume.
I shook my head, "she has issues."
"What do you think happened for McGonagall to snap like that?" A third-year Hufflepuff questioned.
Her friend shrugged," I don't know, but whatever it has to be bad for her to snap like that."