"Fudge… Umbridge…" Ivan sneered as he held the Daily Prophet.
Now, with the threat of Lord Voldemort looming over him, the Ministry of Magic, the official body of the wizarding community, has repeatedly troubled him.
Such an action had crossed Ivan's line!
He was not Dumbledore, who would care about rules and regulations, or care about so-called procedural justice, and waste his time wrangling with idiots who could be squashed at will.
If the Ministry's actions were not to his liking, then he would not mind correcting them himself.
As for how to deal with Fudge, Ivan had thought about it over the past few days and had even formulated a preliminary plan!
If all went well, he would be able to clean up the Ministry of Magic as the Savior and replace most of the do-not-do officials with his own people.
Of course, this plan was still very incomplete at the moment, and there were many problems to be solved, the most important of which was to make the Philosopher's Stone to make up for their shortcomings!
Despite his considerable power and influence, he could easily destroy the Ministry of Magic, but if he did so, they would go from hiding to being out in the open, under attack from both the righteous and the Death Eaters!
After all, the Ministry of Magic was an official body, held in such high esteem by the general population that even a ruthless man like Voldemort would not dare to take its place, and would resort to using the Imperius Curse to control the Minister.
Therefore, in addition to overwhelming power, it would be wise to have a good reason to "liberate" the Ministry without incurring the public's disgust…
While Ivan was thinking, Harry and Ron, who were reading the newspaper, were furious.
"I guess you're right, Hermione. The Ministry of Magic is going to interfere with Hogwarts. What are we going to do now?" Harry asked worriedly.
Umbridge's tenure as Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts was annoying enough, but now that she is High Inquisitor and has the power to examine other professors, Harry can't imagine how hard life will be for her.
"What else can we do? There's nothing we can do…" Hermione sighed.
"Don't look so worried, just watch, the professors aren't that easy to deal with. If she tries to vet Snape, Snape will put a jinx on her!" Ron vowed without a hint of panic.
Harry's spirits lifted as he pictured Snape going head-to-head with Umbridge.
Hermione rolled her eyes as she listened to their conversation. What about the other professors in the school?
While the trio was deep in thought, Ivan continued to peruse the newspaper. Other than the headline, the rest of the article was interesting.
One report, for example, mentioned that the Ministry of Magic had held three meetings over the past two months to discuss reforms to Hogwarts, but Dumbledore did not appear, much to the displeasure of the Council.
It can be said that the swift passage of Educational Decree Number Twenty-two had much to do with Dumbledore's long absence.
"Where the hell is Dumbledore?" Ivan muttered to himself, rubbing his chin.
It had been over a month since the beginning of the school year, but Dumbledore had only come out to say a few words to the new students, and was nowhere to be seen.
Could it be that the other night's display of power was all an act, an attempt to deter the restless, and that Dumbledore was now losing his touch?
Yvonne thought it likely, or it would not explain the strangeness of the situation.
However, such a deterrent obviously could not be maintained for long, and as long as Umbridge kept probing, it would eventually be exposed.
They ate breakfast worriedly and headed to the Charms classroom.
Shortly afterwards, Ivan saw Flitwick enter the room with Umbridge in tow.
Clutching a clipboard, the new Inquisitor took a chair in the corner of the room and sat down, occasionally scribbling on it with great concentration.
Ivan, having read the papers, naturally understood that Umbridge was assessing the Flitwick curriculum to see if it met Ministry standards.
Flitwick was somewhat uncomfortable with the presence of another person in the classroom, but he did his best to ignore Umbridge's presence and carried on as usual.
The only difference was the lack of actual combat drills, which made the class tedious.
Flitwick was frustrated, as Umbridge had told him that Hogwarts students were only allowed to learn spells that were safe and harmless.
Charms of a certain offensive nature were taught in the form of theory lessons, on the grounds that they could be used to avoid magical mishaps that nobody would want to see.
When Flitwick was out of the classroom, Umbridge put down her pen and began questioning some of the students who were leaving, in general with advice.
Ivan did not stay in the classroom for long. After class, he went straight to the library to look for information on magic, hoping to answer the Bronze Eagle's question as soon as possible.
… .
A week passed in the blink of an eye. Apart from her daily lessons, Ivan devoted most of her time to researching.
Occasionally, he would take the time to visit Ravenclaw's Tower at midnight to chat with the ghost lady about life.
He was not like Tom, the scumbag who threw people aside after getting what he wanted.
As a responsible wizard, even if he had to disappear from sight forever, Ivan would give the perfect reason to avoid upsetting his next handsome junior.
Ivan was somewhat disappointed when, over the course of the past thousand years or so, no wizard or witch seemed to have made a serious effort to discover the nature of magic. In the vast majority of written records, magic was as natural to wizards as it was to hands and feet.
During this time, Umbridge was very active, frequently entering and exiting the classroom to lecture the professors.
Ivan was keen to note that the Hogwarts professors, as well as the vast majority of the students, treated Umbridge shabbily.
It is clear that Umbridge's arrogant, peremptory, patronising attitude was unpopular.
This was certainly something Ivan would have liked to see, as the high-ranking Inquisitor was now losing what seemed to be her most important possession.
Those who did not know better would think that she was an undercover agent sent to discredit the Ministry.
Ivan believed that with the right amount of fuel and fire, the reputation of the Ministry of Magic at this school would plummet…