Chapter 210: Educational Decree Twenty-Four (1/2)
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On the Monday morning after the meeting at Hog's Head, Eddie and Marcus headed downstairs from their dormitory together, discussing the correct order of jam and cream on a scone, and not until they were halfway across the sunlit common room did they notice the addition to the room that had already attracted the attention of a small group of people.
A large sign had been affixed to the Ravenclaw notice board, so large that it covered everything else on there — the lists of secondhand spellbooks for sale, the regular reminders of school rules from Argus Filch, the list of new arrivals in the Ravenclaw library, the Quidditch team training schedule, the offers to barter certain Chocolate Frog cards for others, the Weasleys' new advertisement for product testers, the dates of the Hogsmeade weekends, and the lost-and-found notices. The new sign was printed in large black letters, and there was a highly official-looking seal at the bottom beside a neat and curly signature.
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EDUCATIONAL DECREE -> NO. 24
----------- By Order Of -----------
The High Inquisitor of Hogwarts
All Student Organizations, Societies, Teams, Groups, and Clubs are henceforth disbanded.
An Organization, Society, Team, Group, or Club is at this moment defined as a regular meeting of three or more students.
Permission to re-form may be sought from the High Inquisitor (Professor Umbridge).
No Student Organization, Society, Team, Group, or Club may exist without the knowledge and approval of the High Inquisitor.
Any student found to have formed, or to belong to, an Organization, Society, Team, Group, or Club that has not been approved by the High Inquisitor will be expelled.
The above is in accordance with Educational Decree Number Twenty- four.
Signed:
Dolores Jane Umbridge
High Inquisitor
----------- Ministry of Magic -----------
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Eddie and Marcus read the notice over the heads of some anxious-looking second years.
”Does this mean they're going to shut down the Gobstones Club?” one of them asked his friend.
”I reckon you'll be okay with Gobstones,” said Eddie, ruffling a second-year's hair, ”I don't suppose Quinn will be happy with this, though, is he?” asked Eddie to Marcus as the second-years scurried away.
Marcus was reading the notice through again. His mind turning with the new injection of information. There were a few implications from this notice.
”No, he will not be happy with this; that much is obvious,” said Marcus. ”This isn't a coincidence. She knows.. . somehow she found out.”
”Someone blabbed?” Eddie guessed and threw a glance around the common room, ”I can't see anyone with an infestation of acne.. . and let's face it, we don't know how many of the people who turned up we can trust.. .. Any of them could have run off and told Umbridge. . .”
Eddie, Quinn, and Luna were already made aware of the jinx placed on them when they signed the parchment; of course, it was a courtesy from their best friend. But he didn't remove it for them — they had committed to the study group, they were going to be treated like everyone else.
”Or someone could've been listening in that pub.. . we didn't really get a good look at any of their faces,” said Marcus, suggesting another theory.
”My money is on arse-face, Zacharias Smith,” said Eddie scoffing, punching his fist into his palm, ”man, I'm going to pop his the jinxed acne-face all at once,” he shivered, ”oh, I can already feel goosebumps.” He was convinced that Zacharias Smith was the one who leaked the information.
”I wonder if Quinn has seen this yet?” Marcus said, glancing around.
”It doesn't matter; he will know soon enough.”
”You're pretty chill,” said Marcus, looking over to Eddie, ”I thought you would be more pissed at this.”
”Eh, why? We were probably going to do the study group no matter what the situation; this is but a blip in our endeavor.”
”You realize she's including Quidditch in this. An Organization, Society, Team.. . team as in Quidditch team.”
Eddie's mouth slowly opened as his eyes read upon the notice once more, and as Marcus had said, it was written right there.
”Motherfuc—”
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- (Scene Break) -
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The clicking of a wall clock ticked away in the silent AID office as the owner sat behind his office table, reading the ancient tome written on the life of Stigweard Gragg and, in turn, making his way through the enormous amount of garbage written about the Architect.
”No, I don't want to know about his neighbor's wife's relationship with his other neighbor.. . maybe some other day, not now,” mumbled Quinn with a sigh but picked his pen and made notes — one never knew where a code might be hidden. ”Surely not in the color of his favorite loincloth.. . Ugh, why would someone add this to a biography!”
But he had no choice to read through this book as the room of the now dubbed Architect's vault didn't provide him much information.
”At least, in the Icy vault, I knew what I had to work towards to succeed,” he said, grumbling while flipping a page and marking some notes.
The Icy vault had a mechanism, and just like Architect's vault, he had no idea how both mechanisms worked (he only got to know the working of the Icy vault mechanism after he entered the inner vault room.) But in Icy vault, Quinn had a direction on how to solve the problem — here, he only had a problem (to push the pedestal down) and no way to solve it.
”The pedestal better not be a decoy for the real deal to be hiding somewhere else,” he said before again flipping to the next page to start a new chapter in the book.
”The Magical Adventures of Stigweard Gragg.. . hmm, this might be interesting,” he said, but his reading was interrupted when he 'sensed' someone outside and looked up. A few seconds later, the door opened, and 'pink' entered the room with Argus Filch holding the door for her.
”You can leave, Argus,” said the woman in her sickening voice, and the hunched caretaker left with a bow and a nasty cackle.
He watched as the toad-like woman gazed at his office with hands clasped together in the front and a sickeningly-sweet smile on her face as if she was watching an infant's playroom.
Quinn glanced down at the open pages in front of him, and a sigh escaped from him.
”Afternoon, Madam Umbridge,” said Quinn as he gently closed the book and put it away in a drawer with his notes. ”To what do we owe the pleasure for you to visit my humble abode.”
Umbridge continued to look around his eyes and move from one wall to the glass wall. She raised her hand and touched the glass.. . her fingers curled up into a claw, and her manicured, sharp pink nails dragged down on the surface, but they failed to do damage because of the series of treatments that the glass had gone through.
The woman looked dissatisfied and raised her hand to look at her nails then back at the glass.
”Good afternoon, Mr. West,” said Umbridge finally, ”I have heard about this club of yours a lot,” she reached into her purse and took out a black card, ”AID services.. . you have been running this club for quite a few years, and I have heard nothing but promising words about it.”
”Thank you,” said Quinn nonchalantly.
”But did you not see Educational Decree Number Twenty- four?” she said, moving towards his table step-by-step, ”all Student Organizations, Societies, Teams, Groups, and Clubs are henceforth disbanded.”
”I did see that, but don't you think it was a bit too aggressive — to shut down every long-standing club, formal or informal?”
”Of course not, my dear,” the smile on her face widened, ”it's all to improve academics of Hogwarts students — it's for their own good. I'm simply trying to guide the children to grow into functioning part of the society as model citizens.”
”But you ever closed the educational clubs — transfiguration, charms, astronomy, and the other ones. Those clubs were a place for students to share, increase, and consolidate their knowledge.”
”Nonsense, the ministry-approved taught in the classroom is more than enough,” sweetness rolled off from Umbridge's tongue as her tone became one used with little children, ”and if the children do think that an organization is indeed beneficial to them, a provision is given for reinstation — they would just need to tell me the benefits.”
Quinn picked a parchment on his table and read from it, ”Seventeen applications were submitted to you today, and you rejected every single one of them bar one — that one exception being the Slytherin Quidditch Team.. . and out of the sixteen rejections, one of them was Professor Sprouts' outdoor club for extra herbology exploration for the interested ones.. . your provision doesn't seem to make sense, Madam Umbridge.”
”The Slytherin Quidditch Team members all have outstanding grades — there wasn't a need to disband them because of their excellent academic performance,” Umbridge had reached the table, and as she spoke, she tried to take a look at the parchment in Quinn's hand, but he had held it vertical enough for her not being able to see a single word.
Quinn laughed as he had heard the best joke of the year. ”And Ravenclaw Quidditch Team doesn't?” he said, ”it took you,” — a look at the parchment — ”a total of two minutes for you to dismiss the team captain Roger Davies and reject the application.. .. Do you, a Hogwarts graduate, really think that a group of Ravenclaw students would have poor grades, surely not.”
Umbridge fixedly stared at the parchment in Quinn's hand.
”Mr. West, what's that parch—”
Quinn cut her off at once and apathetically stared while directly asking what seemed to be a question with an obvious answer.
”Why are you here, Madam Umbridge?” he asked.
”That's Professor Umbridge to you, Mr. West.”
”First teach me something, then I will think about it. I'm more willing to address the author of the reference as my Professor than you.”
Umbridge's smile twitched a bit, ”Detention check for that cheek, Mr. West.”
”With pleasure,” said Quinn with a shrug, ”Give me a time and place, and I will be there.”
”Good, at least you're not completely without manners,” said Umbridge with a smug smile. ”Now, I want to you two close this little playhouse,” she sighed, ”what were the Professors thinking giving a student complete control over a classroom and allowing him to run this ridiculous charade. There's a reason why Prefects, Headboy, and Headgirls are selected — they'll help their fellow students and not this ridiculousness from you.”
Quinn raised a finger and pointed at the Prefect pin on his robe's lapel, ”I'm a Prefect if you haven't noticed.”
”I'm aware, Mr. West,” Umbridge said in a chiding tone, ”but you have been wasting your time on this before you were a Prefect — I, in good standing, can't allow for this to continue any longer. You'll return the room key to the caretaker first thing in the morning.”
Quinn shook his head to that.
”You can't order me to that,” he said and took a roll of parchment from a drawer, ”I was granted the permission to use this room and turn it into AID's office from Professor Flitwick. You don't have the authority to shut me down.”
Umbridge giggled without opening her mouth, which Quinn thought was quite disturbing.
”You don't have the choice, Mr. West,” she smiled, ”Education Decree Twenty-four grants me, the High Inquisitor, to dismiss any Student Organizations, Societies, Teams, Groups, and Clubs.”
Quinn softly laughed a few chuckles before his face immediately lost all joy in an instant. ”You don't have that authority, Madam Umbridge.”
Umbridge made a half-confused face mixed. ”Did you not hear me, Mr. West? Education Decree Twenty-four—”