On Monday morning Cynthia and Eleanor make their way to breakfast where Susan is already nearly finished eating, a copy of the Daily Prophet strewn across the table for her to read as she eats.

"Anything interesting?" Eleanor asks, claiming the seat across from her.

"Only this," she replies, pushing the front page of the Prophet into Eleanor's hands. A large photo of a simpering woman stares out from the page, a large bow perched on top of her head.

"Is that?"

"Umbridge," Susan nods.

"What about Umbridge?" asks Cynthia as she fills her plate with toast and bacon.

"She's been promoted. Delores Umbridge has been given the position of Hogwarts High Inquisitor and she has been given powers to address the falling standards at Hogwarts."

"Falling standards? Please, this is just to give the Ministry a stronger foothold here because the Minister is scared of Dumbledore."

"Cyn, keep it down will you?" Susan says, looking towards the staff table where Umbridge sits, her sappy grin even more unbearable than in the paper.

All around them students begin to make their way out of the Hall but one girl with pale blonde hair and a dreamy look on her face who instead wanders over to Cynthia and Eleanor who are continuing to snatch a few more pieces of food before class.

"Excuse me. I read a flyer that you were looking for people to write in a school paper and I'd like to join."

"Aren't you the one who's always reading the Quibbler?" Cynthia asks, snatching at a piece of toast as it disappears with the rest of the breakfast leftovers.

"My father publishes it," the girl replies, her turnip shaped earrings bobbing along as she nods.

"We'd love to have you join, I've no doubt you'll write some very interesting pieces," Cynthia smiles as McGonagall comes to shoo them all out and off to class.

"Well that's four of us now, I wonder how many more people we'll have by the end of the day." Eleanor says as she and Cynthia take their seats in the first class of the day, having been so preoccupied in their discussion they were the only two students in the classroom who hadn't yet noticed the extra person seated in the back.

"What? Why's everyone - oh."

"Cyn?"

"It's Umbridge."

Turning to see what had caught everyone's attention Eleanor finally notices that Professor Umbridge was indeed sitting quietly in the corner of the classroom, a clipboard perched on her knees and her toadish face beaming with a smug sort of satisfaction.

"Don't mind me everyone, I'll just be sitting in on some of your classes for the next few days. As a part of my new position as High Inquisitor I'd like to get a first hand view of how the other professors here at Hogwarts get along teaching you all."

"A lot better than you that's for sure," mutters Cynthia so only Eleanor can hear her.

Moments later Professor Flitwick walks in and, with a constant fearful glance towards Umbridge, begins the class.

"That cow!" Declares Cynthia an hour later as they make their way to potions. "She was awful to him and clearly she's looking for any excuse to degrade the staff but, to do it in front of his students? I didn't think I could dislike her anymore, clearly I was wrong."

"Yeah that was really uncalled for, I hope Professor Flitwick isn't too upset by it all," says Eleanor, glancing over her shoulder to ensure Umbridge hadn't just witnessed Cynthia's outburst.

"I think I want my first article to be about her, why she's really here and ways we should try to get rid of her."

"She's High Inquisitor, she'd never let you publish it."

"Hmph." Is Cynthia's only acknowledgement.

Potions class is unsupervised by Umbridge and though Snape has never been a liked Professor by any means, Eleanor can't help but feel relieved to be in his class.

"The results of your essays," says Snape, flicking his wand and sending stacks of paper amongst the tables as they searched for their owners, "I must say I'm overall disappointed, if these were your OWLs then very few of you would have achieved even an A, and even less an E never mind O. I will expect better on your next one which will be due next week."

A collective groan echoes around the room as they are assigned another essay to write. Eleanor watches her paper drop in front of her, an A scrawled on top of it.

"Hey it's better than me, I got P," whispers Cynthia.

"There is no way I'll get into alchemy if I don't get an O."

"Well, isn't that why you're doing that work with Malfoy, is he helping at all?"

"We didn't exactly get to the essay on Sunday for Potions, I stormed off when he started getting all, well, Malfoy." Eleanor says, hating that she had to admit she'd given up on the help just because she couldn't ignore some stupid comment that wasn't worth jeopardising her education over.

"So is it not happening anymore?"

"I don't know, I guess I'll find out on Friday won't I?"

Friday comes a lot sooner than expected as Eleanor becomes consumed with work for classes as well as releasing the first issue of the Hufflepost.

Colin Creevey had approached them later on Monday to ask if he could help with photography and despite how much he just never stopped talking she was glad to have someone to share the work with.

They had all met in the empty classroom to put together their stories and assign tasks, Eleanor and Colin would get photos of the rest of the Quidditch teams, Cynthia and Luna each had several stories already written by Friday - including coverage of Hermione's S.P.E.W and an article all about nargles. Susan had the job of arranging everything into a readable, physical paper with her own artistry being put to use in creating a stunning layout with the 'Hufflepost' written in gorgeous calligraphy.

When on Friday they handed out the first copies everyone seemed a bit sceptical of how interesting a school paper could be but it didn't take long for word to spread that it was a great read, particularly the slanderous article Cynthia had written about Umbridge.

"That concealment charm was genius," Susan said to Cyn, who, late the night before, had come bursting into the dorm from the library with a way to write stories without Umbridge's knowledge.

"It's simple really, we add the story in, cast the charm and then even if Umbridge got her hands on a copy she'd only be able to find the stories we don't mind her reading."

It had taken a few tries to get the spell right but once it worked they had all been so ecstatic that Ernie had had to yell at them to be quiet or he'd deduct points from his own house since it was well past bedtime.

When they weren't revelling in the success of their first paper Eleanor was preoccupied with prefect duties and wondering if she really had botched her chance at getting into alchemy if Malfoy didn't show up that night.

"Ooh, Hogsmeade trip in two weeks," Cyn says as they enter the common room later that afternoon after classes are over, finally signalling an end for Umbridge to sit in on other lessons hopefully. Although the Hufflepuffs had heard of the class with McGonagall she'd sat in on and had a good laugh amongst themselves, their own were much less eventful but just as unnerving.

"I've decided," Eleanor says, gathering up her transfiguration and potion books, "I'll go for like, ten minutes but if he isn't there after that I'm leaving, there's no way I'm wasting valuable time if he won't show up."

"Hey, he needs you too remember, and this is Malfoy. He's such an ass that he's probably used to girls storming off."

"I don't storm."

Cynthia just laughs and pushes Eleanor out of the common room, "Have you seen you mad? You storm."

But when she reaches the library she finds Malfoy already sitting there.

"You. You showed up?"

"Of course, I need to get into alchemy and so do you, so like it or not and like me or not, I need you to tutor me and you need me to tutor you."

The reason and bluntness to this statement without any of the usual snide behaviour catches Eleanor off her guard and she stands for a minute blustering before she shakes herself out of it and takes the seat opposite Malfoy.

"Although you did really piss off Madam Pince last time so if you could avoid raising your issues with me so publicly next time I'd appreciate that."

"Yeah well if you could avoid insinuating things about me and my love life or insulting my friend then I won't have to."

He nods slightly, his only acknowledgement to agreement and then pulls his books out.

"I thought we could start with Potions this time since I didn't really get a chance to have a proper look last week. Not to mention, an A on your essay? You need all the help you can get."

"Shut up, I heard you got the same in transfiguration and you did have my help with that."

"Touché."