"Click, click, click." High heels tapped against the polished wooden floor as a woman in a skirt suit emerged from the lift, carrying a stack of documents.
Her footsteps fell silent on the thick carpet. She approached an ornate wooden door and cast an envious glance at its brass plaque: "Office of the Minister for Magic."
She tugged up the corners of her mouth into a sickly sweet smile and knocked lightly.
After a brief wait, the wooden door opened by itself, and the little brass speaker beside it announced:
"Deputy Minister for Magic, Dolores Jane Umbridge."
Those words were like her favorite sherry, almost intoxicating. Umbridge closed her eyes with an expression of bliss.
A moment later, she forced herself back to her senses. Promotion to Senior Undersecretary was a hurdle she had to clear. That post and the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement were practically the only two positions from which one could succeed the Minister for Magic.
But that did not matter. An excellent opportunity had just presented itself...
She crossed the soft carpet embroidered with gold thread. Before the enormous floor-to-ceiling windows, Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge sat behind a solid wooden desk the size of a dining table.
The expensive desk was a recent replacement. Things had not always been like this. Umbridge still remembered Fudge when he first took office, when everyone generally regarded him as a kindly, generous minister.
He had even been humble, always treating every Ministry employee with courtesy and affability. Even his office had been plain, and the thing he did most often each day was write to Dumbledore.
That had lasted only a year. Little by little, the modest office had transformed into this luxurious room.
Umbridge was not surprised in the least. She herself had