Harry wondered if the scowl on his face had been there since breakfast, or whether his expression had becoming increasingly more thunderous since then. He hadn't expected the day to start well and he was right. Hermione had been perusing the Daily Prophet that morning to find any sign of what Sirius had mentioned last night and she had indeed found an article about the dragon attack in the Hebrides, which Ron had been eager to read since Charlie was in it.
The second eldest Weasley brother seemed to have been brusque with the reporters, stating that there was no evidence to suggest anything other than a simple clash over territory, albeit a slightly more vicious one than usual where they'd both scored lucky hits on the other, but that they were going to continue investigating anyway.
There had been no mention of the attack on the Muggle Bank at Portree though. Hermione guessed that the Ministry were trying to cover that one up until they knew what exactly they were dealing with.
But it was the news on the front page, which Percy had hinted about in his letter to Ron the previous day, that had really soured his mood - the appointment of Umbridge to becoming the Hogwarts High Inquisitor, giving her the power to inspect the rest of the staff. Under normal circumstances, that might seem to actually be a rather fair thing to do - it was important that the teachers were doing their jobs properly after all. But they now knew the Ministry was only doing this in an attempt to interfere and gain a foothold at the school, all solely as part of their plan to discredit Dumbledore and hopefully unseat him, all because Fudge was becoming convinced Dumbledore wanted power for himself. This had nothing to do with standards of education, only the Ministry's paranoia.
He could only hope that the toad-faced bitch hadn't seen his furious death glare across the Great Hall that morning.
And of course any morning he had to sit through a Potions lesson could not be considered a good one, especially when he learned afterwards that the D that Snape had given him for his homework stood for 'Dreadful' and was the second lowest mark he could have gotten - the equivalent of an E at Muggle schools.
And he'd never thought he'd ever feel sorry for Professor Trelawney considering she predicted his violent death in every single lesson, but after watching the agony of her inspection from Umbridge just now he'd found sympathy even for her, right up until the point where Trelawney had taken out her anger on him with a more graphic description of his death than usual.
But still, his loathing for Umbridge seemed to be increasing by the minute.
"I hate her," he growled under his breath. "I hate that frog-mouthed, evil spawn of… Satan. I hate her."
"Jeez, mate, you might want to dial back the rage before we actually get to her class," Ron patted him on the back slightly. "You're not the only one. I don't think there's a single Gryffindor that likes her. And judging by what I've been hearing from the other houses, she doesn't have many fans in Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw either."
"Who the hell does she think she is though?" Harry clenched his fist. "The way she waddles around the place with that smug face… its like she thinks she's the Headmistress already. Or the Queen of England or the damn world or something."
"Dear God that's an image I could do without," Ron shuddered. "Her sitting on some kind of throne, waving that stubby hand of hers around as people look upon her magnificence and throw up in droves."
Harry snorted in amusement at that last part but his anger still broiled unbidden within him. "You know what I think? I think someone should inspect her lessons. I bet if they did, then they'd find a reason to throw her out pretty quickly considering she's not actually teaching us anything."
"We wish. She's got the Ministry behind her. They won't send anyone who'd do that."
"I honestly don't think that there's been a Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher I hated more. And that includes Lockhart."
"Me too, but there's not much we can do but hope she has some kind of accident that gets her carted off to St. Mungos is there? Until then, she's here to stay, I think."
"Oh, I wouldn't count your Plimpies before they hatch," said a dreamy voice from behind them, and both Harry and Ron turned around to see Luna Lovegood was there, practically gliding along through the corridor along with all the other students and giving them a vague smile. "I think its entirely possible that that woman's days in the school are numbered."
"Huh?" Harry asked. "What makes you say that?"
"Just a feeling I have," Luna said, staring a little past them as if remembering something. "I just think that when that woman does get ejected from the school, it will be quite a windstorm. Not unlike that one that occurred at the Quidditch Pitch yesterday."
"Were you there?" Ron asked, a grin spreading across his face. "Did you see the Slytherin team get knocked about?"
"Yes, and it was quite fascinating," Luna nodded simply. "And I can't help but wonder if that windstorm might return to help liberate us all from her tyranny. Or maybe one of its friends."
"One of its friends?" Ron frowned. "Windstorms aren't living things, you know."
"Aren't they?" Luna smiled enigmatically before she breezed between the two and they watched her skipping off, her peculiar radish-like earrings bouncing around erratically as she went.
"…I know calling her things like Loony Lovegood is horrible and all but… she is a pretty odd one," Harry blinked as he watched her go.
"Not entirely sure she has all of her eggs in one basket," Ron shook his head. How can a windstorm have friends? That doesn't even make sense on any level."
Harry had to agree, but Luna had seemed quite sure of what she was saying, though her meaning was totally unclear. He wondered if he would ever actually figure Luna out. She wasn't exactly a prominent person in his life since he'd only spoken to her on three separate occasions, though all of them had been since the train journey here this year. And every time she seemed to leave him feeling flummoxed and unsure what just happened.
But he was grateful she wasn't shunning him like a large portion of the rest of the school were. But it was difficult to know if she believed his tale about Voldemort because of what he's said or whether she believed it because it sounded like an interesting idea.
"Still," Ron added as they continued walking. "The image of Umbridge being scooped up in a gale and getting blown away… that is an appealing one. Hey, have you ever considered trying to do that thing you did to your Aunt where you inflated her without using a wand and she floated off like a big balloon?"
Harry burst out laughing so hard he doubled over and had to find a place to sit briefly so he could laugh it off, which caused a great deal of people to stop and stare at him as if he'd lost it, but since many of them probably thought he had already he didn't care.
"Now I really… really wish I knew what I'd done that day," Harry wiped his eyes beneath his glasses slightly.
"You'd get a standing ovation for it if you could pull it off, I reckon," Ron grinned as he helped Harry up. "Come on, though. I don't think you want to find out what she'll do to you if you're late for her classes."
Realising this was a rather valid point, Harry hurried off with Ron behind him. They met Hermione, who had been at Arithmancy, right before they entered the room where Umbridge was waiting for them, humming sickeningly. And then of course the lesson began and, during the course of it, Harry managed to lose his temper and landed himself in a week's worth of detentions. Again.
...
It was not long before Lisanna and her two passengers managed to find a settlement.
Unfortunately, it was not a pleasant sight that greeted them.
"Oh no!" Lisanna gasped, catching the attention of the other two. "Look up ahead!"
Gray and Juvia both gasped when they saw the buildings they were approaching. Or, to be more precise, they noted what was on and around the buildings. It seemed like they had found the Clippers again. And the Clippers had evidently decided that the rooftops of all the houses would make the best roosting site.
Which was extremely bad news for the people who lived there. Screams were ripping through the air as people cowered in their parked or crashed vehicles, ducking behind the cover of benches and signposts or made wild dashes for doors, shielding their heads against the onslaught of the aggressive avians. And the streets were not only filled with humans trying to find shelter but also cows, horses, donkeys and dogs. The birds were indiscriminate in their targets, whirling around to dive-bomb and human and aim pecks and slashes at their heads before lifting off and aiming themselves at a cow instead.
And they were showing no signs of stopping.
"Looks like we should have dealt with those birds when we had the chance," Gray growled, watching one of them throw itself off a roof and forcing a mother to grab her child and dive behind a bench to avoid a snapping beak. "All we did was give them a chance to find this place."
"They're attacking everything in sight!" Juvia agreed.
"They're not being malicious though," Lisanna insisted. "I can sense the Clippers' instincts within me. It's driving them to attack in order to protect themselves from potential threats and competition."
"Even so, we've got no choice now," Gray insisted as they winged closer. "We've got to protect those people!"
"But we can't kill them! They're innocent creatures!" Lisanna protected.
"We won't kill them," Juvia agreed. "But Gray-sama is right. We have to do something."
Lisanna groaned but nodded her head. "I guess you're right. Just try not to hurt them too badly if you can. Hang on, guys!" And she swept her wings with all the power she could muster and shot in towards the town like an arrow fired from a bow, Juvia and Gray clinging on for dear life. Lisanna's eyes locked on a Clipper that was diving down towards a lone child that had panicked and run out into the open, crashing into it head-on and seizing it by the wing to pull it off course, spinning around to send it hurtling down into the street in a heap of feathers. The impact knocked Gray and Juvia loose but they were able to flip safely back onto their feet as Lisanna morphed back into human shape and landed near them.
"We should split up," Gray took charge. "Try and cover all the area we can between us."
"Try not to destroy any buildings!" Juvia agreed as she turned to water and blitzed down the road, weaving through the air on her personal water jet towards another Clipper that was trying to beat its way through the windshield of a parked car to get at the terrified people within.
The Clipper squawked as Juvia rammed it with her watery shoulder and sent it rolling across the street. Juvia stood upon the hood of the car and called into the startled family. "Get out of here! Juvia will handle this!"
...
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