"Certificate of Outstanding Youth Role Model...?" Ron, standing at the very front of the notice board, looked as though he had swallowed a slug whole. "Do they think we're three-year-olds? They want us to betray our friends with a piece of paper?"
Harry, beside him, wore the same disgusted expression.
The so-called certificate was just a sheet of paper. There was a chance their deeds might be published... but frankly, they might be, or they might not. It all depended on the Ministry of Magic's mood.
"What a 'generous' reward!" Fred finally squeezed his way in. He looked back at George behind him, and the two exchanged glances before breaking into wicked grins, as though they had found a new source of amusement.
Outside the crowd, Hermione quietly watched it all.
The intentions behind this "Warning and Advocacy Notice" were even more sinister than Umbridge entering Hogwarts as the Special Educational Commissioner. It did not directly alter the school rules, but it tried to change the atmosphere of the school.
It used hollow rewards and vague threats to entice or intimidate students into censoring themselves, even spying on one another. It wanted to turn Vincent Wayne's name into a taboo at school, and turn trust between friends into a choice that required courage.
Yet, judging by the undisguised mockery on the surrounding students' faces, this sinister scheme was rather unpopular, at least for now.
Hermione watched the twins squeeze out of the crowd and sprint upstairs, instinctively tightening her hold on Gu Gu.
There was no need to guess. Those two had definitely found some new amusement.
She turned around and discovered that Cedric and Cho had somehow disappeared.
She gently rubbed Gu Gu's round little belly. "They must have gone on another date..."
If none of those things had