𝐒𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐁𝐔𝐑𝐍 (Hermione Granger)

Chapter Forty-Three

"DO YOU EVER STOP EATING?" Hermione asked the redhead in front of her. He looked at her as he took another bite of his food.

"What? I'm hungry," he said with his mouth full.

Hermione looked over her shoulder and saw Harry standing there which caused the other two to look over at him. He looked a bit nervous.

"Can I join you?" he asked. Hermione looked over at Ron and Lehla, but couldn't respond due to hearing Umbridge's loud and obnoxious voice.

"Pardon me, professor, but what exactly are you insinuating?" Umbridge said to McGonagall.

"I am merely requesting that when it comes to my students, you conform to the prescribed disciplinary practices," she told the woman. The students who were in the Great Hall started slowly gathering around the scene.

"So silly of me, but it sounds as if you're questioning my authority in my own classroom. Minerva," she said, going up a step to be taller than her.

"Not at all, Delores," McGonagall copied her actions, going up a step to be taller than her. "Merely your medieval methods."

"I... am sorry, dear," she said. "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."

"Disloyalty," McGonagall said softly, taking a step down.

"Things at Hogwarts are far worse than I feared," Umbridge said, walking a few steps up. "Cornelius will want to take immediate action."

And by that, she meant she was taking action. She was enforcing rules and was basically the new headmaster. She was interrogating teachers and forcing students to be different than what they normally were. And she was killing the fun.

But just a few days later, when Lehla and Draco were walking down the corridors together holding hands, everyone started going the same way they were. They gave each other confused looks and started following everyone. Professor Trelawney had her bags packed and Umbridge was standing in front of her.

"Six... Sixteen years I've... I've lived and taught her. Hogwarts is my home," she said through tears. "Y-you... you can't do this."

"Actually, I can," she said, holding up a paper. McGonagall went forward and hugged Trelawney, trying to ignore Umbridge. "Something you'd like to say, dear?"

"Oh, there are several things I would like to say," she said.

The doors opened and Dumbledore walked out at the scene. He walked forward to the three women there. "Professor McGonagall, might I ask you to escort Sybil back inside?"

McGonagall did as such. Trelawney walked past Dumbledore and thanked him through tears, she was eternally thankful.

"Dumbledore, may I remind you that under the terms Educational Decree Number Twenty-three, as enacted by the Minister—"

"You have the right to dismiss my teachers," he reminded her. "You do not, however, have the authority to banish them from the grounds. That power remains with the headmaster."

"For now," she said threateningly.

Dumbledore looked around before turning back and heading inside. "Don't you all have studying to do?"

The corridors of Hogwarts were still buzzing with the echoes of the incident involving Professor Trelawney. As Lehla and Draco walked through the dimly lit halls, the tension between them grew palpable. Draco, seemingly unfazed by the recent chaos, couldn't resist finding humor in the situation.