The Ministry arrived at noon.
Dumbledore met them at the gates.
Several officials followed him toward the Hall. One carried scrolls; another paused to inspect a crack in the path.
A woman in pink walked at their center. Harry stopped speaking when he saw her through the window.
"Umbridge," Hermione said. "Dad heard about her office from a Ministry client."
Percy frowned. "Who is that?"
Ron answered flatly. "That is trouble."
Dolores Umbridge entered behind Dumbledore. She waited at the front of the Hall until the students stopped talking.
"Good afternoon," she trilled, her voice syrupy and sharp at once. "I do hope I'm not interrupting anything important." Behind her stood several Ministry officials and a thin wizard clutching a stack of scrolls. The hall was silent. Dumbledore rose calmly from the staff table.
"Madam Umbridge," he said pleasantly. "To what do we owe this pleasure?" Her smile widened. "Why, Headmaster, to safety of course." Her eyes swept the hall and landed on Percy. Just for a second. Then moved on.
"It has come to the Ministry's attention," she continued, "that certain… disturbances have occurred on school grounds. Dangerous magical surges. Structural instability. Unverified claims of interdimensional ruptures." Murmurs rippled through the students. Harry's jaw tightened.
Dumbledore stood beside the staff table. "The lake is closed. I have requested help with the damaged seal."
"I'm sure you believe that," Umbridge replied sweetly. "However, the Ministry does not rely on belief. We rely on oversight." The thin wizard stepped forward and unrolled a scroll.
"By order of the Minister," the thin wizard announced, "the school is to undergo immediate administrative review under Educational Decree Number Twenty-Four."
Hermione looked at the scroll. "They wrote a new decree before sending anyone to inspect the lake," she whispered. Ron swore into his sleeve.
"And," Umbridge added brightly, "I have been appointed High Inquisitor of Hogwarts." Her eyes glinted. "For your protection."
By evening, pink notices covered the walls. Ministry workers added seals at corridor intersections and placed new enchantments over sections of the existing wards. Flitwick argued with one of them outside the Hall.
Umbridge took a former Charms classroom for her office. She summoned Percy there that afternoon. McGonagall came with him and sat beside the desk while Umbridge opened a file.
"Mr. Jackson," she said softly. "Such a fascinating student."
Percy waited. She looked down at the file. "No family record. Unusual magic. A rather incomplete account of how you came to be here."
"I came from the orphanage," Percy said. "Ms. Hartford can tell you about it."
"We will make our own inquiries," Umbridge said. "You appear in the reports of each disturbance. Why does water respond to you?"
"I was defending the school."
"How noble."
Her quill scratched across parchment. "You must understand, dear boy, the Ministry cannot tolerate unstable magical phenomena within a learning environment."
"I lost control at dinner," Percy said. "At the lake I was trying to help stop the opening."
Her smile vanished for a flicker of a second.
"Oh?"
"Professor Dumbledore was there. You can ask him what happened."
"I am asking you," she said.
McGonagall leaned forward. "He has answered. Please include both incidents in your notes."
Percy could feel a current beneath the floor.
"Will the people installing those seals read our reports?" he asked.
Umbridge shut the file. "They will receive the information I consider necessary."
Within days, Educational Decree Twenty-Five banned "unsupervised water-based spellcasting." Twenty-Six required all magical research to be submitted to Umbridge's office for approval.
Twenty-Seven prohibited "dissemination of unverified catastrophic theories." Hermione nearly exploded.
"Our notes are with Dumbledore," Hermione said. "Now he needs her permission to let someone else read them."
Ron looked at the new notice. "Can she give him detention too?"
"She doesn't believe the rift is real."
Percy shook his head.
"She kept asking who could make it obey."
They looked at him.
"I think she believes it is something she can use."
The next disturbance came during one of Umbridge's inspections. She stood in the courtyard, flanked by Ministry officials, evaluating Professor Flitwick's "curriculum adequacy." The fountain at the center of the courtyard trembled.
Percy felt the current stop beneath it. A thin line appeared above the water. Hermione pointed it out. "Professor Flitwick!" Umbridge turned to look. "What is that?"
The line opened far enough to hide part of the far rim. Flitwick drew his wand. Harry pulled a younger student away from the fountain.
"No intervention without Ministry approval," Umbridge said. Flitwick did not lower his wand. "Madam, move away from the water."
"Move," he said.
Her eyes flashed. "You will stand down, Mr. Jackson."
The air thinned. The shimmer began erasing the edge of the fountain.
Flitwick held a shield around the opening. "Percy, can you move that current back toward the lake?"
Percy placed his hand in the water. It rose around the gap. Hermione's marks appeared along its edge. Harry and Ron kept the other students outside Flitwick's shield.
Flitwick tightened his spell around the marks. The gap closed, and the water fell back into the fountain. Percy took his hand out. The far rim had a piece missing.
"You defied a Ministry directive," she said in a trembling voice.
"Professor Flitwick told us to help," Harry said.
She turned to the officials behind her. "Record this."
Her smile returned, brittle as glass. "Detention. All four of you."
That night, Percy copied lines with an ordinary quill while Umbridge watched. He felt water stop and start beyond the wall. The interruption came from the place where workers had added a Ministry seal.
It had not stopped there before. He wrote the location on a separate scrap for Flitwick.
Umbridge noticed the second page.
She took it from him without reading it aloud.
Percy flexed his fingers after the last line. Umbridge put his scrap inside her file. "Order depends on authority," she said. "You will learn to follow it."
"Please give that page to Professor Flitwick," Percy said. "The water stops beside the new seal."
Her smile faltered.
"He needs to check it before another opening appears."
She looked at the scrap, then closed the file.
"Detention tomorrow as well," she said sweetly.
Later that night, Umbridge used the fireplace in her borrowed office to return to the Ministry. In a lower room, a hooded wizard placed a vial of blackened water on the table between them.
"You are certain this is from the epicenter?" she asked softly.
"The sampling team collected it there," he said. "I also brought the copied script."
He slid a scrap of parchment toward her. Ancient script. Hermione's script. Umbridge smiled. "Good." She placed a gloved hand over the vial. The liquid inside darkened further.
"Continue acquiring what I requested," she said mildly. "Discretion will be rewarded."
The wizard left. Umbridge stayed with the vial. "If Dumbledore cannot control it," she said, "we will find someone who can." The water moved against the glass.
For a moment, part of the liquid vanished. The remaining water fell into the space it had left.
Umbridge drew her hand away, then leaned closer to inspect it.
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I know it's weird that they know who umbridge is at this point in time. Just pretend that Umbridge is already infamous among the student body because of her methods in the Ministry.