Broken: a Draco Malfoy Love Story

Chapter 6 - High Inquisitor & the King

The next day brought along news in the Daily Prophet that Professor Dolores Umbridge was appointed by the Ministry of Magic as the Hogwarts High Inquisitor.

"Look at this!" Pansy said to Alexia, passing her a copy of the Daily Prophet on the way to their first lesson.

Alexia took it from her and read the statement made by Cornelius Fudge explaining that the High Inquisitor was to make sure unsatisfactory teachers were removed from the school and to ensure any Educational Decrees set by the Ministry were followed.

"Draco's father even made a statement, it's on the next page."

Alexia turned the page and sure enough there was a photo of Lucius and underneath an interview in which he gave his full support of the new post.

Other Slytherins told them at lunch that Umbridge inspected their classes, taking notes and asking questions to the teachers and students.

"Flitwick completely ignored her!" A seventh-year girl said.

"You should have seen Professor Sprout!" Another girl added.

"I hope she gets rid of all these pathetic teachers." Graham Montague said in an undertone.

By the end of the week, every teacher had been inspected. There only seemed to be one teacher Umbridge was actually pleased with, and that teacher was Professor Grubbly-Plank; the Care of Magical Creatures substitute teacher, for whilst Hagrid was mysteriously away. They had also been introduced to new Educational Decrees, some that sounded somewhat crazy and some that Alexia thought might actually keep the school in tact. Professor Umbridge had even considered not allowing the Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff Quidditch teams to not play this year, but she was outruled by Dumbledore.

The lead up to the Slytherin-Gryffindor Quidditch match was like any other, accept this time it was much worse for Gryffindor with the continuous catchy song mocking Ron Weasley being sung everywhere throughout the school. Even Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor Ghost was caught out humming the tune to himself. Professor Snape had booked the Quidditch pitch for Slytherin so often that it felt like Alexia hadn't spoken to Draco out of class for ages. After hearing Miles Bletchley, the Slytherin Keeper, had hexed Alicia Spinnet of Gryffindor so her eyebrows grew so thick and fast they obscured her vision, Alexia felt left out. If she hadn't changed to the new her, she knew Graham Montague would have called on her to help with the teams dirty work. After sharing her feelings with Pansy and Daphne, they decided to get to work and create some accompanying badges to go with the Weasley is Our King chant. The badges were shaped as crowns and etched onto them were the words Weasley is Our King. It was all she could do.

•••

When the game day approached, Alexia, Daphne, Pansy and Blaise all made their way down to the Great Hall for breakfast in their green and silver scarves. They found the hall filling up fast; packed with students and buzzing with chatter. Not long after they had begun eating their breakfast, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley entered the hall, passing the Slytherin table and receiving an uproar of laughter which made Weasley look even more ill than he already did.

"What are these badges everyone's wearing?" Blaise asked, noticing the small, silver crowns everyone was wearing pinned on their fronts.

"Oh yeah," Alexia said, then reached to her pocket and pulled out a little pouch, "We made these the other night, but I didn't see you to give you yours." She said with a wide and fake smile, bracing herself for a lecture.

Blaise looked at Pansy and Daphne who had both revealed the same badges from hiding under their scarves. Then he looked back at Alexia who was still beaming at him, now wearing a badge on her knitted jumper and holding one for him in the palm of her hand.