Can A Phoenix Love A Lion? (Hermione Granger x Male Reader)

52. The Hogwarts High Inquisitor

Y/N walked into the Great Hall and along the tables. Hermione, Harry and Ron were already there. Ron was reading a leaflet and eating with his mouth open at the same time.

"Do you ever stop eating?" Hermione asked, obviously annoyed.

"What?" Ron said defensively. "I'm hungry."

Y/N was about to sit down with them when Professor Umbridge's voice came from the entrance hall: "Pardon me, Professor, but what exactly are you insinuating?"

All the heads inside the Great Hall turned toward the doors. In no time, everyone was up and flowing out into the entrance hall.

Professor McGonagall and Professor Umbridge were there, on the first steps of the moving staircase. Though they stood on the same step, McGonagall towered above Umbridge.

Sternly Professor McGonagall said, "I am merely requesting that when it comes to students, you conform to the prescribed disciplinary practices."

Professor Umbridge climbed up one more step so as to seem as tall as Professor McGonagall. She failed; it only highlighted how short she was. "So silly of me, but it sounds as if you're questioning my authority in my own classroom, Minerva."

Professor McGonagall climbed up one step, too. "Not at all, Dolores,"—she emphasized "Dolores" as if it had a bad taste in her mouth—"merely your medieval methods."

"I am sorry, dear," Professor Umbridge said sweetly, as though talking to a student. "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."

Professor McGonagall took a step back, eyes wide open, and repeated incredulously, "Disloyalty. . . ."

"Things at Hogwarts are far worse than I feared," Professor Umbridge said, climbing one more step and now looking at all the students gathered inside the entrance hall. "The Minister will want to take immediate action." And then she walked away toward her office.

Professor McGonagall stared at Umbridge's back for a second, then turned around and looked over all the students gathered in the entrance hall. "Have you got nothing better to do than stand watching?" she said, and everyone walked back inside the Great Hall.

They had expected to have to comb the Daily Prophet carefully the next morning to find something related to Professor Umbridge. However, the delivery owl had barely cleared the top of the milk jug that Hermione let out a huge gasp and flattened the newspaper to reveal a large photograph of Dolores Umbridge, smiling widely and blinking slowly at them from beneath the headline.

MINISTRY SEEKS EDUCATIONAL REFORM DOLORES UMBRIDGE APPOINTED FIRST EVER HIGH INQUISITOR

"Umbridge—'High Inquisitor'?" Y/N said darkly. "What does that even mean?"

Hermione read aloud:

"In a surprise move last night the Ministry of Magic passed new legislation giving itself an unprecedented level of control at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

"'The Minister has been growing uneasy about goings-on at Hogwarts for some time,' said Junior Assistant to the Minister, Percy Weasley. 'He is now responding to concerns voiced by anxious parents, who feel the school may be moving in a direction they do not approve of.'

"This is not the first time in recent weeks that Minister Cornelius Fudge has used new laws to affect improvements at the wizarding school. As recently as 30th August, Educational Decree Number Twenty-two was passed, to ensure that, in the event of the current headmaster being unable to provide a candidate for a teaching post, the Ministry should select an appropriate person.