A Change in Fate || Cedric Diggory [1]

Chapter 38: The High Inquisitor

It was a cold morning the day following Harry's little fight with his friends after they tried making him go to Dumbledore regarding Umbridge's detention methods. They decided to let him cool off, knowing all too well that he had been quite moody since summer for multiple reasons.

Fortunately, allowing Harry to calm down on his own was very helpful to him, as well as a nice talk with Luna Lovegood. He had woken up earlier than his friends to send a letter to Sirius, so he spent his free time strolling through the grounds before breakfast. He happened to come across Luna at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, feeding the creatures he was told were called thestrals. He also learned that only people who have seen death and accepted it could see thestrals. Although he had been a mere baby when his parents died before his eyes, perhaps seeing their ghostly figures during his duel with Voldemort that night at the graveyard made him accept their deaths in a different light.

The Great Hall was bustling with students getting ready for another day of school. Ron was somehow able to shove mouthfuls of food into his mouth while cramming an assigned reading at the same time. Analeigh and Hermione kept giving him disgusted looks, but Ginny was more than used to her brother acting that way and didn't speak up. However, Hermione just had to say something.

"Do you ever stop eating?" she cringed.

"What? I'm hungry," Ron said. Just then, Harry walked up to them tentatively. They all stopped what they were doing and stared at him.

"Harry," Hermione acknowledged him.

"Can I join you?" he asked carefully. Before they could even reply, a shrill voice from outside the hall caught their attention.

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

"I am merely requesting that when it comes to my students, you conform to the prescribed disciplinary practices."

Those were undoubtedly Professor Umbridge's and Professor McGonagall's voices. Many students seemed interested in the commotion and began filing out of the hall, including Analeigh, Harry, Hermione, and Ron. When they had left the Great Hall and joined the crowd that formed, they found the two teachers in the middle of a heated discussion by the stairs.

"So silly of me, but it sounds that you're questioning my authority in my own classroom..." Umbridge took a step higher to give herself some height. "... Minerva."

"Not at all..." McGonagall mimicked her and stepped up. "... Dolores, merely your medieval methods."

"I am sorry, dear. 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."

McGonagall didn't even try to mask the offense she felt at those words. Stepping back down, she repeated in disbelief, "Disloyalty?"

Analeigh exchanged troubled looks with her friends. The nerve Umbridge had to call McGonagall disloyal of all people... she was truly one nasty woman.