Together We Are Strong

I sat in the hall in between Fred and George once again, staring at Ron shovel food down his face.

"Do you ever stop eating?" I asked.

"I'm hungry!" He said, some pastry spraying across the table. I wiped a bit off my cheek. Harry walked in and looked at us.

"Harry." Hermione said.

"Can I join you?" Harry asked. Hermione and I looked at each other.

"Pardon me, Professor, but what exactly are you insinuating!" Professor Umbridge said from outside the Great Hall. We all rushed to see what was going on.

"I am merely requesting that when it comes to my students you conform to the prescribed disciplinary practises." Professor McGonagall snapped.

"So silly of me, but it sounds as if you're questioning my authority in my own classroom. Minerva." Umbridge said.

"Not at all. Dolores." She growled. "Merely your medieval methods!"

"I am sorry, dear. But to question my practises 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." McGonagall looked shocked and went down a step.

"Disloyalty." She said. Umbridge stepped up.

"Things at Hogwarts are far worse than I feared! Cornelius will want to take immediate action." Umbridge said. I stared at her in disgust.

---

Filch slammed his hammer into a large nail, the first decree ordered by the Ministry. It read, 'Dolores Jane Umbridge has been appointed the post of Hogwarts High Inquisitor.'

She now had the power to inspect teachers and fire them if she thought them not up to Ministry standards. She would walk around school pushing people apart, tightening ties and tucking in their shirts with a flick of her wand. Fred, George and I were throwing around a ball of sparks in the Entrance courtyard and she put it out and walked away.

As the days went on, more and more decrees made by the Ministry were slammed into the Entrance room of the Great Hall. 'No music is to be played during study.' 'All Weasley products will be banned immediately.' 'Proper dress and decorum is to be maintained at all times.'

Everyone was rushing out into the Entrance courtyard.

"Cho!" I said. "What's going on?" I asked her.

"It's Professor Trelawney." She said. I looked up at Fred and George then followed the rest of the school out.

She stood alone, whimpering and sniffing in the middle of the courtyard. Filch dropped the last one of her trunks beside her. Umbridge walked through all the students who were crowded on the outskirts of the courtyard.

"S-sixteen years I've lived and taught here." Professor Trelawney said. "Hogwarts is my home! Y-you can't do this!"

"Actually, I can." Umbridge said, holding up one of her decrees. Trelawney started sobbing as McGonagall ran in and held her. "Something you'd like to say dear?"

"Oh, there are several things I would like to say!" McGonagall hissed at her. "There, there. Shh." The castle doors burst open and Professor Dumbledore walked out into the center of the courtyard.

"Professor McGonagall, might I ask you to escourt Sybill back inside?" He said.

"Oh, thank you! Thank you!" She said and shook his hand as Professor McGonagall took her inside.

"Dumbledore." Professor Umbridge said. "May I remind you that under the terms of education decree number twenty three as inacted by the Minister - "

"You have the right to dismiss my teachers." Dumbledore said. "You do not, however, have the authority to banish them the grounds. That power remains with the Headmaster." She gave him a fake smile.

"For now." She said. Dumbledore started walking back into the castle.

"Don't you all have studying to do?" He said and disappeared.