Umbridge was someone who held grudges.
Her means of retaliation had never been wands and spells.
It was rules.
It was stamps and signatures.
Strictly speaking, she did not think she was retaliating, either.
It was care.
Her attention and care for those pure-blood gentlemen naturally meant stricter assessment standards than for Muggle-borns and half-bloods.
Dig through the records?
Hmph!
She wanted these exam rankings to follow these pure-blood families for the rest of their lives.
She turned away from the Entrance Hall and headed toward the Academic Affairs Office.
Her pink low heels tapped out an even rhythm.
Click. Click. Click.
In the letter she had written to Minister Fudge last night.
She had used her final paragraph to hint that the poor performance of students from traditional pure-blood families under the new system showed that the old educational model had fallen behind.
Reform was imperative.
And the driving force behind that reform-
Was her.
Dolores Umbridge.
The corners of her mouth curved upward.
As she left the Entrance Hall, she glanced back one last time.
The Entrance Hall was packed with students.
Some cheered in front of the red list.
Some stood silently in front of the white list.
Some copied down the rankings to analyze them.
Some secretly wiped away tears in the corners.
Everyone was looking at those two lists.
Her lists.
The lists she had approved with her signature and stamp.
The lists whose scoring she had supervised from beginning to end.
For the first time since coming to Hogwarts, she felt something entirely different from power.
Influence.
It was not ordering other people to do something.
It was defining what was good and what was bad.
What deserved to be displayed beside golden stars.
What deserved only to remain on bare white paper.
Sunlight