The following morning at breakfast was met with a sense of great, electric anticipation across the four house tables as everyone waited for the morning post to arrive.
The continuous hum of low chatter was shattered the exact second a massive flock of delivery owls soared through the high windows. They had fully expected to have to wait for Hermione to meticulously sift through every hidden detail on the back pages of the paper, but today the news was slapped cleanly across the front page, accompanied by a horrid, moving photograph of 'Dolores Umbridge' slowly blinking her bulging eyes at them.
MINISTRY SEEKS EDUCATIONAL REFORM
DOLORES UMBRIDGE APPOINTED FIRST-EVER "HIGH INQUISITOR"
"High Inquisitor?" Harry asked aloud, his buttered toast slipping completely through his fingers and landing face-down on his gold plate.
"Son of a bitch..." Lucifer muttered underneath his breath, his deep voice carrying a resonance that his friends still caught perfectly over the din.
"What exactly does that mean?" Ron asked, his fork hovering precariously in mid-air on its way to his open mouth, a piece of fried sausage trembling on the prongs.
"It's simple," Lucifer said, leaning forward across the table to lay out the chess pieces. "The Ministry of Magic is trying to forcefully interfere with Hogwarts... It's spelled out right here in the fine print: the 'High Inquisitor' has the full, legal authority to evaluate the other professors to decide if they're qualified for their teaching positions. If she deems they are not coming up to scratch, she can officially fire them and replace them with someone chosen directly by Fudge."
"The professors are definitely up to the job!" Hermione said indignantly, her eyes burning with a sudden, furious spark as she stared at the ink. "Have you noticed the wording, though? They don't even mention a single piece of objective criteria for determining whether an educator is qualified."
"Obviously, that's up to Umbridge's personal discretion," Lucifer replied grimly, taking a slow sip of his black coffee.
"The Headmaster won't stand for this!" Harry exclaimed, his knuckles whitening as he gripped the edge of the bench, his green eyes flashing with an outraged energy. "He'll shut it down!"
"It won't matter what he wants, Harry," Lucifer said, pointing a pale finger toward the very last line of the front-page column. "Look at this, every single member of the 'Board of Governors' signed off on Educational Decree Number Twenty-Three. Even the Headmaster can't override a Ministry decree backed by the board."
Even Lucifer was secretly surprised by the sudden turn of events. After the heavy backlash and mockery from the previous 'Quibbler' article, he had thought Cornelius Fudge would grow cautious, perhaps even start doubting Umbridge's erratic management on the ground.
Instead, not only was the pink toad still securely in power, she had been handed an unprecedented promotion that effectively choked off the faculty's freedom.
He couldn't imagine what Umbridge had said or promised to Fudge behind closed doors, but whatever it was, her authority at Hogwarts had grown terrifyingly absolute. The power to dismiss tenured professors at will wasn't trivial; it was on par with the raw executive authority of a school Governor.
Lucifer genuinely wondered if she was physically sleeping with the Minister to secure her Galleons and her titles. Furious and vibrating with a tight, academic rage, Hermione began to read aloud, determined to mull over every single word hidden within the waffle.
"In a surprise move last night, the Ministry of Magic passed new legislation giving itself an unprecedented level of control at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...."
'The Minister has been growing uneasy about goings-on at Hogwarts for some time,' said Junior Assistant to the Minister, Percy Weasley. "He is now responding to concerns, voiced by anxious parents, who feel the school may be moving in a direction they do not approve of."
It is this last function that the Ministry has now formalised with the passing of 'Educational Decree Number Twenty-Three', which creates the new position of Hogwarts High Inquisitor.
'This is an exciting new phase in the Minister's plan to get to grips with what some are calling the falling standards at Hogwarts,' said Weasley.
'The Inquisitor will have powers to inspect her fellow educators and make sure that they are coming up to scratch. Professor Umbridge has been offered this position in addition to her own teaching post and we are delighted to say that she has accepted.'
The Ministry's new moves have received enthusiastic support from those who are happy to see a first step towards ensuring that Hogwarts has a Headmaster in whom we can all repose our confidence.
Wizengamot elders Griselda Marchbanks and Tiberius Ogden have resigned in protest at the introduction of the post of Inquisitor to Hogwarts.
"'Hogwarts is a school, not an outpost of Cornelius Fudge's office,' said Madame Marchbanks, 'this is a further disgusting attempt to discredit Albus Dumbledore.' (For a full account of Madame Marchbanks' alleged links to subversive Goblin groups, turn to page 17).
Hermione finished reading, she glanced across the table at Harry and Ron whose faces had turned purple with suppressed rage.
"Knowing how stupid Witches and Wizards have proven themselves to be lately, I'm sure they all actually believe she has links to Goblin groups," Lucifer said, trying to lighten the suffocating mood slightly.
Hermione snapped the newspaper shut and turned to him, her knuckles white. "This is serious, Lucifer."
"And I'm taking it seriously. Malfoy Sr. is being his usual manipulative self, Percy's so busy bending forward for Fudge, and speaking of that pig, he's chosen to fight a political war he can't possibly win," he said calmly. He leaned in slightly and looked at Hermione, gazing deeply into her left eye. The intensity of his unblinking stare caused a sudden flush to rise to her cheeks.
She became flustered, her breath catching, and she quickly turned away from him to fixate on her cold plate.
"At least we know for sure how Umbridge came to be here at Hogwarts. Fudge passed this 'Educational Decree' and forced her down our throats!" Harry said angrily, his fork vibrating against his golden platter.
"And he's given her the absolute power to inspect other teachers," Hermione added, recovering from her fluster as her outrage overtook her bashfulness. "I can't believe this... it's completely outrageous!"
"I know..." Harry muttered darkly, his jaw tight as he clenched his right fist tightly against the wooden surface of the table.
Lucifer's sharp eyes caught the sudden, rigid movement. He looked directly at the clenched fingers, sensing a hidden layer of pain. "Something wrong, Harry?" He leaned forward, trying to look closely at the boy's skin.
Harry, however, yanked his hand off the tabletop with jerky speed, shoving it deep into the pocket of his robes. "No, nothing's wrong," he replied shortly, his voice flat and defensive.
"Alright, whatever then," Lucifer murmured, raising a careless shoulder. He wasn't going to argue with him or pry if the scar-headed boy wanted to play the martyr.
A sudden, wide grin began unfurling on Ron's face, breaking their tense silence. "What?" Hermione asked him, blinking at his unexpected amusement.
"This is perfect!" Ron chuckled, his shoulders shaking. Both Harry and Hermione went wide-eyed at his declaration. "Think about it. When Umbridge goes to inspect McGonagall, she won't know what she's gotten herself into. Professor McGonagall will tear that pink toad to shreds!"
"Well, we better get going. If she's already started inspecting classes, and it happens to be one of Binns' Fifth Year periods, we don't want to be late for it," Lucifer said, sliding smoothly off his bench and gathering his things.
As for Umbridge's sudden promotion to High Inquisitor, Lucifer recognized it as another desperate maneuver by Fudge to systematically undermine Albus Dumbledore. The veteran professors at Hogwarts were staunchly loyal to the Headmaster; everyone in the Wizarding world knew that.
By targeting the staff, Fudge was indirectly attacking his rival.
Yet Fudge's political logic completely baffled Lucifer. Surely, the Minister didn't honestly believe that highly respected witches and wizards like Minerva McGonagall, Filius Flitwick, or Pomona Sprout owed their international reputations solely to their roles at Hogwarts.
It was utterly ludicrous to imagine that an administrative creature like Umbridge could even think of replacing them. The sheer absurdity of the thought made him let out a soft snort of amusement as they walked. 'What if Umbridge actually brought in another ghost to replace Cuthbert Binns?' he thought to himself. 'If that's the grand plan, maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all. At least a different corpse might have a voice that doesn't put people to sleep.'
When they finally arrived at the History of Magic classroom, it was quickly proven that Umbridge was 'not' inspecting their period, at least not today. Professor Binns's drone was as flat and soporific as ever, the ghost sliding through notes on medieval goblin rebellions without a single glance at his sleeping class.
Lucifer had already learned every single historical fact his textbook had to offer all the way through the Seventh Year curriculum, so he casually used the boring period to practice his freehand drawing.
He wasn't the greatest artist yet, his lines still carrying a sharp, geometric rigidity. But he knew that when his hand finally became skilled enough, he would attempt the most difficult, rewarding task imaginable: capturing Hermione's complex beauty in the most detailed, exquisite pencil sketch that would ever exist.
He just hoped his hand wouldn't do her a grave disservice when the time came. As his quill moved across the margin of his parchment, Lucifer realized the Ministry wouldn't dare fire Binns anyway. It wasn't like Fudge could find another qualified professor willing to teach a core subject entirely for free.
Unless, of course, Umbridge volunteered herself for the job. If it came down to that, at least the student body would have something hilarious to watch during class, unless the pink toad could suddenly figure out how to pass through solid stone walls too.
When the bell finally dismissed them and they descended to Severus Snape's classroom down in the damp dungeons, Umbridge was noticeably absent from the dark corners there as well.
The cold air was thick with the scent of vinegar and sulfur as Snape marched down the rows to return their homework.
When Lucifer's Moonstone Essay was dropped onto his desk, a large, resounding, silver-inked O stared back at him from the very top of the parchment. He let out a silent, knowing smirk to himself.
"I have manually awarded you the exact grades you would have received if you presented this specific slop in your formal O.W.L. examination," Snape snarled gleefully, his black eyes sweeping across the room to drink in the students' collective misery. "This should give you a perfectly realistic, harsh idea of what to expect next June."
'I highly doubt it...' Lucifer thought to himself, his dark eyes locking onto the greasy professor's face with cold, contempt. 'The only reason some of these students perform so suboptimally right now is because they are entirely terrified of your petty tantrums. I'm certain they'll do much better when a real examiner is testing them and you aren't looming over their shoulders like a giant bat, you fucking cocksucker.'
Snape reached the front of the stone classroom and turned on his heel to face them all, his dark robes billowing. "The general standard for this holiday homework was absolutely abysmal," he sighed, a cold sneer twisting his mouth. "Most of you would have failed the section entirely had this been your official examination... I expect to see a great deal more effort put into this week's essay on the various varieties of venom antidotes, or I shall start handing out mandatory detentions to those dunces who secure D's."
Across the aisle, Draco Malfoy snickered loudly, leaning over to whisper to True-blood Slytherins in a carrying voice, "Some people actually got 'D's? Ha! Pathetic!"
Snape then set forth the instructions for them to brew up a Strengthening Solution, a complex, multi-layered remedy which Lucifer knew had to mature over the weekend before they finished the final steps next Monday.
The final color of the liquid was supposed to be a brilliant turquoise, but the first stage of the brewing process had to turn a deep, flawless sapphire blue.
Naturally, with his meticulous control over his flames, Lucifer felt entirely confident by the end of the class, his potion exhibiting a perfect, shimmering blue mist.
"Well, that wasn't nearly as bad as last week's disaster, was it?" Hermione asked softly as they climbed the narrow stone stairs out of the dungeons, making their way across the crowded Entrance Hall for the lunch period. "And the grading on the homework didn't go too badly either."
"No, it was actually rather easy compared to last week," Lucifer said smoothly, his eyes tracking the moving portraits. "Which was still fundamentally easy, but yeah."
Hermione blinked, not really sure he had said anything of substance at all to comfort her.
"I mean, sure, I didn't realistically expect the top grade from him, not if he's strictly marking to the official O.W.L. standard this early," She continued, her voice rising slightly as she walked beside him. "But a passing mark is quite encouraging this early in the year, I'd say."
She was met with a heavy, total silence that time. She looked sideways at Lucifer, and even from his profile, she could tell he carried a distant, completely unreadable look in his eyes.
They sat down at their usual spot at the Gryffindor table. Hermione turned her body to face the rest of their group, her fingers nervously twisting her napkin. "So... wh-what did you all end up getting?" she asked, clearly hesitant to break the ice.
"I got a P," Ron said nonchalantly, completely unbothered as he began ladling a massive mound of thick potato soup into his bowl.
"There's absolutely nothing to be ashamed of, is it?" Fred said cheerfully as he, George, and Lee Jordan all slid onto the wooden bench beside them. "Nothing wrong with a good, healthy, traditional P."
Lucifer tried his absolute best to stifle his sudden amusement, but the absurdity of Ron's pride was too much. He let out a rich, sharp laugh that carried a ways across the table, ringing out over the buzz of the Great Hall.
"But..." Hermione started, her brow furrowing into a deep scowl after Lucifer finally calmed his laughter down. "Doesn't 'P' stand for—"
"Poor, yeah," Lee Jordan grinned, grabbing a roll. "But it's still a hell of a lot better than getting a D, isn't it? Dreadful."
"So the top grade is O for Outstanding, then it's A—"
"No, next is 'E' for Exceeds Expectations," George corrected smoothly, a wicked smirk on his face. "Honestly, Fred and I should have secured E's for every single subject we took... We exceeded everyone's expectations every time we even bothered to show up for class."
Everyone sitting around the platter burst into a loud laugh at that except for Hermione and Lucifer.
"So after E, it's 'A' for Acceptable..." Hermione trailed off, her fingers tightening around her own essay. She had gotten an A, and realizing it was only a basic passing mark made her no longer nearly as happy about her score. "That's the absolute last of the passing grades, right?"
"Yep," Fred confirmed, dunking a crusty roll directly into his soup before transferring it to his mouth, where he swallowed the entire piece in one massive gulp.
"Then you go down to P for Poor," Ron said, raising his hands in a mock, triumphant celebration. "Then it's 'D' for Dreadful."
"And then there's T," Lucifer chimed in smoothly, a dark glint in his eyes as he looked at her. "It stands for Troll."
Hermione turned her face completely to him, her heart skipping a beat. "What did you get?" she asked softly. Since he had volunteered the definition of the lowest failing mark, a sudden, sharp fear seized her chest that Snape had maliciously failed him so horribly out of spite.
"....." Lucifer remained perfectly quiet, keeping his paper face-down against the table.
"Don't tell me..." Lee Jordan laughed, a massive smile forming across his face. "Did the great, invincible Lucifer Morningstar actually get a T from Snape?"
"No..." Lucifer murmured. With a lazy, fluid flick of his fingers, he flipped his parchment over, revealing the bright silver ink shining at the top of the page. "I got an O."
Hermione stared at the shimmering letter in complete, jaw-dropping shock, her mind spinning with a violent mix of awe and academic jealousy. 'He got an Outstanding...?' she thought to herself, her fingers numbing. 'I shouldn't... I really shouldn't be so surprised at this point. He is easily the most intelligent wizard alive... he'll secure straight Outstanding marks on his actual O.W.L.s without a single problem.'
"No wonder you became a Prefect over Ron," George said, his tone turning a less than friendly register as he glared at the silver ink.
Lucifer completely disregarded the bitter comment, taking a slow bite of his lunch. He knew that his academic marks were 'not' the reason Dumbledore had handed him the leadership badge, but he let the Gryffindors believe whatever lies kept them from looking too closely at his real power.
xxxxxxx
"You lot had an inspection yet?" Fred asked them, shifting his weight on the bench as a strategic change of topic to dispel the lingering tension.
"Not yet, no," Hermione said, her fingers tracing the silver embossed lettering on her clean glass goblet. "Have you?"
"Just now before lunch," Lee Jordan said, leaning across the table with an eager grin. "Charms."
"What was it like?" Harry asked, his green eyes darting up from his plate of sausages, his posture instantly turning defensive at the mention of the High Inquisitor.
Fred shrugged, casual as ever. "Not that bad, honestly. Umbridge just lurked in the corner making notes on a clipboard. You know what Flitwick's like; he treated her like an honored guest, didn't seem to bother his tracking at all. She didn't say much to the class, just asked Alicia a couple of quiet questions about what the periods are normally like. Alicia told her they were really good, and that was basically it."
"I can't see old Flitwick getting marked down by a Ministry audit anyway," George said, loading a baked potato onto his plate. "The bloke's a legend; he usually gets everyone through their exams with an Exceeds Expectations at least."
"Who've you got this afternoon?" Fred asked Harry.
"Firenze first, then Umbridge for Double Defense Against the Dark Arts," Harry answered, his voice dropping into a hollow mood.
"Arithmancy for Lucifer and me," Hermione said, casting a brief, sideways glance at her boyfriend.
"Well, do us a massive favor, mate, be a good boy and keep your temper with Umbridge today, yeah?" George asked, looking directly at Harry, he offered a dramatic, half-mocking salute, before continuing, "Angelina is likely to blow an absolute gasket if you miss any more Quidditch practice over a Ministry dispute."
xxxxxx
Author's Note
If you want to Read my Complete book, including 8th Year, Marriage and having kids, ahead of everyone.
Support this novel, join me on Patreon!
Link - patreon.com/SmutDxddy
We have a stockpile upto Chapter 1030 for you to binge-read! 😋
Playing Cards with Pregnant Hermione on a n*de beach, if you'd like to Read now! 🍼