Written in the Stars | A Draco Malfoy Fanfiction

Chapter Forty-Five - Allison

On a Monday in March, an issue of The Quibbler arrives for those who have subscriptions. By mid-morning, however, enormous signs have been put up all over the school. Not just on house noticeboards, but in the corridors and classrooms too.

BY ORDER OF THE HIGH INQUISITOR OF HOGWARTS

Any student found in the possession of the magazine The Quibbler will be expelled.

The above is in accordance with Educational Decree Number Twenty-eight.

Signed: Dolores Jane Umbridge, High Inquisitor

This sign, of course, intrigues those students who don't have a subscription to The Quibbler, including myself.

By the end of the day, I've read the article without Umbridge finding out about it, and the rest of the school has as well. Padma and I were able to figure out how to bewitch the pages of our own issues so that we could read the article. If anyone else looked at it, it would appear like regular textbook pages.

The teachers, banned from talking about anything other than the subjects they teach, resort to other methods of showing their approval of Harry Potter's article. In Charms, we all clearly see Flitwick press the box of squeaking sugar mice in his hands.

***

Screams come from the Entrance Hall, and all of us, still eating dinner, follow the sounds out The Great Hall to see where they're coming from. What we find is Professor Trelawney standing in the middle of the Entrance Hall with her wand in one hand and an empty sherry bottle in the other. She looks like a mess, her shawls wrapped around her haphazardly and her glasses placed on her face are lopsided. Two trunks are toppled around at her feet and she stares terrified at Umbridge, who stands at the foot of the stairs.

"No!" she shrieks. "NO! This cannot be happening...it cannot...I refuse to accept it!"

"You didn't realise this was coming?" asks Professor Umbridge in her deceivingly sweet, girlish voice. "Incapable though you are of predicting even tomorrow's weather, you must surely have realised that your pitiful performance during my inspections, and lack of any improvement, would make it inevitable that you would be sacked?"

"You c-can't!" howls Professor Trelawney. Tears are now noticeably streaming down her face, magnified in size by her glasses. "You c-can't sack me! I've b-been here sixteen years! H-Hogwarts is m-my home!"

"It was your home," corrects Professor Umbridge, "until an hour ago, when the Minister for Magic countersigned your Order of Dismissal. Now, kindly remove yourself from this Hall. You are embarrassing us." Trelawney rocks back and forth for a while, while Umbridge watches, clearly enjoying this rush of power.

Professor McGonagall breaks away from the spectators, marches straight up to Professor Trelawney and pats her firmly on the back while withdrawing a large handkerchief from within her robes. "There, there, Sybill...calm down...blow your nose on this...it's not as bad as you think, now...you are not going to have to leave Hogwarts..."

"Oh really, Professor McGonagall?" asks Umbridge, finally taking a few steps forward. "And your authority for that statement is..."

"That would be mine," says a deep voice. The oaken front doors have opened and students move out of the way as Dumbledore appears in the entrance. The crowd of students part as he walks, striding towards Professor Trelawney, who is now sitting on one of her trunks.

"Yours, Professor Dumbledore?" asks Umbridge. "I'm afraid you do not understand the position. I have here -" she pulls a parchment scroll from within her robes " - an Order of Dismissal signed by myself and the Minister for Magic. Under the terms of Educational Decree Number Twenty-three, the High Inquisitor of Hogwarts has the power to inspect, place upon probation and sack any teacher she - that is to say, I - feel is not performing to the standards required by the Ministry of Magic. I have decided that Professor Trelawney is not up to scratch. I have dismissed her."