Chapter 7
Syntax
For as cocky as Lisa felt when she had been leaving Professor Flitwick, when she finally got back to Ravenclaw, she felt absolutely awful. After all the work she and all the other members of the staff had done to keep the paper a secret, she had given Umbridge everything she needed to expel the lot of them! It would only be a matter of time before the woman came sniffing around looking for whatever she could possibly use to shut down the paper and shut up it’s staff for good.
Up in the dormitory, while the three fifth-year girls were setting up to work on their next edition, Lisa was still feeling the heavy guilt coming down on her while the other girls were busy at work.
“What on Earth could be keeping Stewart and Orla?” Mandy exclaimed, her hands on her hips. “We did tell them we were having a staff meeting tonight, right?”
“We’re having staff meetings near every night now,” Morag reminded her. “We should be telling them when they’re not supposed to show up for work.
Lisa’s fingers drummed over the typewriter keys as she worked her way through the pile of handwritten articles that were going to make up this week’s edition of The Fourth Estate. She bit at her bottom lip while Mandy and Morag tittered back and forth as to the possible whereabouts of their second-year staff members as Lisa’s own mind raced with all the possibilities of how she was responsible for whatever had happened.
Eventually, it all got to be too much, and Lisa had to confess. That only proved to further show how she was capable of doing such a great wrong towards her housemates.
“I have something to tell you two,” Lisa finally said, pushing the typewriter away.
The two girls set their work and their materials aside and listened intently.
“I think I’ve might have told Umbridge that we’re the ones printing The Fourth Estate,” Lisa confessed, looking down and tracing her fingers over the floor. “She was in Professor Flitwick’s office went I went for career counseling, and he and I did a lot of sort of side-talking about journalism and newspapers. I guess I was taunting her, and I think she might have figured it out. That I was taunting her about The Fourth Estate, I mean.”
Lisa’s confess went on for several more minutes, accounting every detail of her time in Professor Flitwick’s office. What she noticed, however, was that Mandy and Morag didn’t appear to be as distraught over the situation as Lisa was. In fact, she even incited a few giggles from her roommates, making her feel just a little bit nervous. Even though her roommates didn’t appear to be mad at her over what she had done, Lisa still couldn’t help but be concern over the fact that the two girls were not taking the situation very seriously.
“But you didn’t actually mention The Fourth Estate?” Mandy clarified. “You didn’t say that it was you writing it and you didn’t mention any of the rest of us?”
Lisa shook her head. “Though I might have really placed an emphasis on the notion that it is a member of Ravenclaw that is responsible for all of this.”
“There are lots of people in Ravenclaw,” Morag said. “Even if Umbridge does think to look into the Ravenclaws, she doesn’t possibly have the manpower in little Inquisitorial Squad to track all of the people in our House. And they’ll likely get bored with after a few nights of watching Ravenclaws pour over their books for hours on end.
“We’ll just keep a low profile on the writing and investigating, and tell Stewart and Orla to do the same,” Morag continued. “And then next week, two Hufflepuffs will be caught together in a broom cupboard, and Umbridge will forget all about you, Lisa.”
Lisa nodded with her lips pursed in a grim matter as she reached out to pull her typewriter back towards her. She tried to focus her attention back onto the parchments beside her and the sound of the typewriter keys which became more rhythmic the longer she worked. And slowly, she began to feel the nervous knot in her stomach loosen just a little bit, enough so that getting back to their work on a forbidden project came just a little bit easier.
Suddenly, the dormitory door flew open with a crash. Orla and Stewart would always knock before entering the room, and these day, Padma barely had enough energy to open the door at all, let along slam it with such great power. So all three girls knew in an instant that whatever this was, it could not be anything good. Instinctively, the girls tried to cover the writing materials with their arms and outstretched hands, but, of course, it was no use. Umbridge and several of her favorite pets in the Inquisitorial Squad flanking her on either side were standing in the doorway. Stewart and Orla were held captive in the gripes of one monumentally large sixth-year among the group. It was clear that the so-called headmistress had seen everything she needed to see.
“Well, well, well,” she said in that voice of hers, like poisonous honey. “What have we here?”
As though the woman didn’t already know what it was she was seeing. Knowing full well that arguing with the evidence would prove futile, Morag dropped her paste brush and her knife to the floor and Mandy set her pile of photographs carefully out of the way of the spilled ink and paste. Lisa left her typewriter just the way it was, not bothering to reset it to type the next line.
Less than an hour later, the entire staff of The Fourth Estate was waiting in the headmistress’ office, which Umbridge had redecorated with all her disgusting photographs of kittens and various shades of pink. Lisa almost found herself giggling at the thought of all of Professor Dumbledore’s possible reactions when he finally did return back to Hogwarts and he saw what had been made of his office.
Although, Lisa currently had bigger problems than worrying whether or not her former headmaster would ever be coming back. Right now, she and her housemates had much bigger problems facing them, such as whether or not they would be expelled.
The reason Stewart and Orla hadn’t come to meet them at the staff meeting was because they had been detained by the Inquisitorial Squad, who wouldn’t let them leave until Umbridge arrived as well. Umbridge authorized the older Slytherin students to search their book bags, and inside Stewart’s, they found his camera, which contained all the photographs he had taken for the next issue of The Fourth Estate. Inside Orla’s, there was an actual copy of The Fourth Estate, which Umbridge knew enough about by now to have one of the members of the Inquisitorial Squad hold it while she examined it from afar. From there, the headmistress and the students made a mission to track down each all of the other Ravenclaws in an attempt to find anyone else who might have any other such damning evidence on their person. That, of course, led them straight up to the Ravenclaw tower and into the fifth-year girls’ dormitory, where Umbridge had actually caught them in the middle of the paper’s production.
While they waited, the various members of the newspaper’s staff took up their own little habits. Morag had taken a pack of Droobles gum and began a pattern of blowing bubbles and cracking the gum loudly. Mandy was using her hands to tap out song rhythms onto the top of her legs, working her way through the latest Weird Sisters album. And Lisa, of course, had been detailing every object that Umbridge must have brought into the office and speculating as to what Dumbledore’s reaction would be when he came back and found it.
Stewart and Orla, on the other hand, were dealing with the passing time in a far less positive way. Poor little Orla had been reduced to a weeping puddle, clinging to Stewart’s shoulder. It was clear that Stewart was doing his very best to stay brave and macho in front of his crush, but he was just barely on the side of tears. Orla rubbed her face back and forth over Stewarts robes, muttering about what her parents would do to her once they learned she had been expelled, how she would never be able to get into another Wizarding school, and that she would grow up to be one of those people who lived in boxes under bridges. Stewart nodded along with every possibility Orla brought up, and with each of them, he began to shake a little more distinctly.
Lisa watched the two second-years, and then her gaze shifted back to her roommates. It was clear that whatever punishment was going to be doled out her, Lisa, Mandy, and Morag would be much better able to deal with it. They were older, so it was a perfectly natural assumption. But Orla and Stewart were both still so young; the world was so much more black and white to them. Either they were going to be let off without punishment, or they would be disciplined for speaking out against the Ministry: expulsion, a detention session with the Quickslitter Quill; it would all be equally devastating to them. They couldn’t be allowed to face Umbridge’s wrath in the slightest, and there was only one way to make it happen.
“Everybody listen!” Lisa leaned in close, urging her housemates to crouch in close. “Mandy, Morag, and I, we wrote the paper all by ourselves.”
Orla and Stewart quit their sobbing long enough to flash an expression of insult. They couldn’t quite grasp what Lisa was trying to say just yet, and all they heard was the insult that they had done nothing all these weeks to help in the publishing of The Fourth Estate.
Lisa explained further, bringing Mandy and Morag further in on the conversation. “The three of us would never trust mere second-years with such an important job.”
Mandy and Morag finally understood what Lisa was trying to say, and they nodded in silent agreement. Lisa turned to Orla and Stewart. “You two have absolutely no business with any of the fifth-years in Ravenclaw. You are not friends with any of the fifth-years, you do not talk to any of the fifth-years, and you certainly didn’t work with any of them on any secret newspaper. Do you understand?”
Despite the fact that they were shaking heavily, the two second-years still managed to nod. Finally, they were beginning to understand, and Lisa even thought she could see a small, thankful smile on Orla’s lips as she wiped at her eyes with her sleeve.
The plan was made just in time, because it was at that moment that Umbridge waddled out of a doorway at the top of a staircase, staring down at the five Ravenclaws almost like a queen regarding her serfs, ready to begin the interrogations.
“Miss Quirke,” she called out in that disgustingly sweet tone of hers, “would come inside for a moment? I would like to ask you some questions.”
Slowly, Orla rose to her feet, smoothing out the wrinkles in her robes, and making her way stiffly to the door, like a prisoner being lead to the firing squad. The other four all moved to hold themselves stiffly and with dignity, in the matter of those prisoners who would be next.
Later, after everyone on The Fourth Estate staff had been put through their separate interviews, the three Ravenclaw fifth-years sat alone in the headmistress’ pink, kitten-covered private office. Morag’s shoes were gone, as she had thrown at the loudest, most annoying kitten paintings in an attempt to get it to shut up. They were already getting expelled; what more trouble could they get into?
There was very little to debate about at this point. When Lisa had been asked outright by Umbridge if she had anything to do with the illegal underground newspaper known as The Fourth Estate, she saw no reason to drag it out. “Yes,” she told the woman right away. “I wrote it, and I am proud of it.”
That had certainly not been what the woman had been expecting. It was almost worth it just to see Umbridge’s mouth drop open and hang there as though she were catching flies. Lisa was also sure she was the only one who got to see this reaction, as Mandy and Morag gave, more or less, the exact same answer in the exact same fashion.
No one gave any doubt that Orla and Stewart had nothing to do with the paper’s production. With three willing confessions, they didn’t have reason to.
Umbridge sat in front of them, at a bleached wood desk, stirring spoonful after spoonful of sugar into her teacup. She had already offered the girls tea, but each of them had quite adamantly refused. If she had it in her power to expel them, Lisa was fairly sure that Umbridge wouldn’t see the need to poison them as well, but none of the girls were willing to take a chance on that.
The girls had been sitting before Umbridge for nearly ten minutes, but aside from offering the girls tea, she had yet to say anything to them. Though she did seem to take great pleasure in staring at the three girls just the way one of her kittens would stare at a cornered mouse. The tiny smile spread over her lips aided in creating this comparison as well.
“Did you owl our parents?” Mandy asked suddenly.
Umbridge took a thoughtful sip of her tea before answering. “Oh, I don’t believe that needs to be addressed right away.”
“Don’t we have the right to have our parents or guardians present if we are charged with crimes against the Ministry?” Morag asked snidely. It would seem that knowing she was truly at the lowest point she could possibly be at was bringing out her snarky nature even more than usual.
“Let’s discuss the matter at hand, and then we will consider what needs to be done in terms of contacting your parents.” Umbridge stirred yet another spoonful of sugar into her tea. How much could she possibly have needed? “And for the record, you are here because you willfully broke school rules, not for committing any sort of crime against the Ministry of Magic.”
Morag crossed her legs and offered a mirror image of Umbridge’s smile. “Well, we’ll just have to agree to disagree on that, won’t we?” she replied, perfectly imitating the headmistress’ sugary tone.
The woman’s smile faltered for just a moment before she quickly regained her composure and got back to her prepared speech.
“Let me see if I understand what has been happening,” she said. “You three all willingly engaged in an unapproved afterschool activity in writing this paper?”
“That’s right,” Lisa answered.
“Even though you knew such an activity was banned by Educational Degree?”
“We were aware of it,” Mandy admitted.
Umbridge laced her fingers together so that her horribly gaudy rings were showed off. “Why did you do it?”
“Does it matter why?” Morag begged the question. “Will you consider not expelling us if we have a good reason?”
“Most likely not,” Umbridge admitted, still smiling as she said so. “However, I would think you would want your records to reflect that you didn’t just do all this for the mere sake of breaking rules.”
“We didn’t agree with certain school and Ministry policies,” Lisa finally told the woman in an attempt to humor her. “We decided to put our thought to paper and see if anyone else in the school agreed with us.
“Clearly, they did, if our little paper is turning out to be such a big deal,” Mandy finished for her, twirling a strand of her mousy hair through her fingers. “It wouldn’t have become such a production if the students were just using the editions to line their owl cages.”
“How popular your little paper may or may not allegedly be is beside the point,” Umbridge suddenly lectured harshly. “The mere papers existence is a violation of school rules, and the content that you chose to publish certainly did not help your case.”
“We published no lies!” Lisa insisted quite vehemently. No matter what happened to them or what was said about the three girls after they were gone from the school, she wanted that point to be made very clear.
“You certainly may assert that point,” Umbridge replied in a way that Lisa couldn’t tell whether or not the headmistress though she was lying or just refused to acknowledge any negative press about the Ministry. “The Ministry has been doing everything in its power to provide you children with a proper education and to protect you from danger. But you three have not only shunned that gift, but also done everything in your power to bring the rest of the school down with you. I can’t imagine a more disgusting crime that I could face under this post.”
None of the girls, however, seemed to be phased by these harsh words. They maintained their tall and proud composure as they sat up in their chairs. “In certain cultures, the press is considered to be a forum for the truth, completely free from government terrene,” Mandy commented in an offhand sort of way. “The British culture used to be one of them.”
Mandy then looked the headmistress square in the face. “Whatever happened to that?”
The woman didn’t have a word to say in response to that. Her short, sausage-like fingers drummed against the surface of the desk and behind her, the kitchen pictures purred and licked themselves.
“So how long until we are expelled?” Morag asked in an effort to resume the conversation once again. “Can we owl our parents, or are you just going to throw us out on our””
“Miss MacDougal!” Umbridge exclaimed. But Morag just shrugged her shoulders and leaned back in her chair, smirking up at the ceiling.
“I was hoping we might have a discussion like civilized people,” Umbridge stressed. “Maybe you could tell me a bit more about how you managed keep such an advanced paper going for so long? Maybe a bit about some of the things you didn’t include in your articles?”
The three girls sat, puzzled at what their headmistress could possibly be inferring at.
“We didn’t keep any secrets in our writing,” Lisa asserted. “What you see is what we know.”
But the woman didn’t seem convinced.
“No little details you chose not to publish?” she probed. “Maybe because you couldn’t prove it to be true, or you just couldn’t make a good story out of it?”
Mandy raised an eyebrow. “What are you getting at, Professor?”
“I know what this is!” Morag shouted suddenly before Umbridge could offer any answer of her own. “She wants us to trade information for our own safety. If we have anything she wants, she won’t expel us!”
“Is that true?”
Umbridge shifted slightly in her seat.
“The Ministry recognizes that while the publishing of your paper clearly went against several Educational Decrees, but it also understands that you could possibly have information prudent to the Minister of Magic, and that it may very well be in our best interest to offer you some sort of compromise in exchange for something we want,” she told the girls. “Even Azkaban inmates get time off for good behavior.”
She giggled slightly at the end of this sentence, but she was alone in this. The three girls all shot deathly glares in her direction, and it did seem to rattle the woman just a bit.
“We did not keep anything we learned from our readers,” Lisa finally said stoically. “What you see is what is there. And even if we did keep anything of the pages, you must be stark raving mad to think we would trade information with you for any sort of leniency.”
The expression on Umbridge's face took on a rather disappointed and very grim tone. "Are you sure?"
“Administrations have risen and fallen all through history,” Morag answered, leaning back casually and stretching her arms. “I, for one, have no problem with waiting.”
“So the three of you all agree on your course of action?” she asked them. “There will be no changing your minds?”
“No,” the three girls replied in unison, though notably less enthusiastic than they had spoken before.
“Very well, then.” Umbridge took out a rather official looking piece of parchment, as well as a quill. “In violation of Educational Decree, I, as headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, hereby expel students Mandy Brocklehurst, Morag MacDougal, and Lisa Turpin.”
She finished scrawling on the paper with a final flourish. “I am very disappointed in the three of you.”
At this point, Lisa really couldn’t have cared less about what Dolores Umbridge thought of her personally, but she and her roommates all did their best to appear dejected and ashamed.
“I will be sending letters to your families straight away,” she said in a resigned sort of way as she stood to her feet. “They should be here to bring you home by morning. You may spend your last night at Hogwarts in your dormitory, though I strongly advise you against bragging of your debauchery to the rest of the student body. Anyone caught in possession of The Fourth Estate or is caught talking about or the three of you, will face expulsion as well. And I am certain you wouldn’t want any of your housemates to face such a horrible fate, especially with your strong sense of House loyalty.”
She said this last part in a rather snide manner, taunting Lisa with the same words that she had taunted the woman with earlier that afternoon. “You all may leave now.”
The three Ravenclaws all stood to their feet and made their way out of the office and all the way to the Ravenclaw tower. For once, they did not have a word to say to one another. Every word that had needed to be said between the three of them had already been said.
The Fourth Estate by OliveOil_Med
Chapter Notes: Like so many resistance movements, The Fourth Estate comes crashing down, and crashing down hard.
Thank you once again to Fresca for being such a great beta!