At the Gryffindor table
"Do you think that's true?" Hermione asked her friend beside her.
Listening to Hermione, Rose stopped her hand holding a fork and wondered what she meant before seeing her friend looking towards the Slytherin table.
Her friend's cheeks were red, and Rose was sure she was the same when she remembered what they had heard.
Looking towards the Slytherin table, Rose couldn't help but imagine her blond friend as a sex beast.
Quickly shaking her head, Rose dismissed those thoughts that couldn't help but appear when she first heard those rumors about her blond friend.
"They're just rumors, don't believe them," said the redhead as she returned to her breakfast, trying to think about something other than Draco naked.
"But those twin girls always follow him."
"Even Pansy doesn't seem to be against those girls being close to Draco."
Although Rose told her she didn't believe those rumors, Hermione at least believed there was some truth to them.
Although I didn't believe Draco was a sex beast, I at least believed that Draco was involved with the Carrow twins, as the rumors said.
Otherwise, how come Pansy doesn't seem bothered by her fiancé's closeness with other girls?
Hermione was annoyed that Draco had a fiancée and could do nothing but try to crush the little crush that was starting to grow.
But even though she was annoyed that Draco had a fiancée, Hermione now wanted Pansy to stand up and keep those girls away from Draco.
But since he didn't, Hermione could only accept that the twins were also dating Draco.
Knowing that duels of honor existed in the Wizarding World and that many of those duels ended in death made Hermione lament the backwardness compared to the Muggle world.
But it doesn't bother her as much compared to knowing about the existence of engagement contracts and that the boy she liked had one.
'And if…?'
But knowing that Draco was also dating two other girls made the young woman suddenly think about other possibilities.
Hermione opened her mouth, wanting to consult her friend about her idea, but was interrupted by the sound of owls flapping their wings as they entered the Great Hall and began dropping the packages and letters they were carrying in their talons.
Hermione reached out to pick up the letter that fell in front of her and smiled as she guessed it was a letter written by her parents.
While Hermione put the letter away to read later, she picked up the newspaper that another owl had dropped.
Meanwhile, Rose waited to see if she would receive anything as well.
But as no letter or package fell on her, she went back to her breakfast while she waited for Hermione to open her newspaper to read with her.
Rose didn't subscribe to the Daily Prophet because her mother already had a subscription. And although she didn't lack the money, she felt it was a waste when her mother was at school with her.
But since her friend was a subscriber, she didn't have to wait until later to read her mother's newspaper.
"Rose!" Hermione shouted, pointing at something on the front page.
Suddenly, Hermione's scream caught his attention and he saw what she was pointing at.
Reading the title on the cover, Rose could understand her friend's exaltation
"The Decline of Hogwarts"
The title caught the attention of the two young women, who were of legal age, as they were first-year students at Hogwarts.
The two girls stood shoulder to shoulder and read the paper in their hands.
Not only Hermione and Rose were attentively reading the newspaper in their hands, but also the other students and teachers in the Great Hall.
At the Slytherin table
Holding the newspaper in his hands, Draco read the report from The Daily Prophet about an investigation that had begun circulating in all the newspapers of Europe in the previous days.
This research deals with the performance of all magic schools in the world and drew attention when it emphasized the decline in education at the school known as the best in the world.
Emphasizing the teachers' ratings, the report underlined the comparison with the poor performance of many Hogwarts wizards and witches on the NEWT exams.
Known as the best magic school in the world, it was not uncommon to see high ratings for Hogwarts teachers.
Filius Flitwick, Minerva McGonagall, Pomona Sprout, Seventh Vector, etc. All of them masters in their fields.
Regularly, even some journals of magical research printed their opinions or research on certain magical topics.
That's why there was something strange about the performance of many wizards and witches on their NEWT exams each year.
According to the research, the performance of graduate students has been declining every year.
And not only that.
When Hogwarts students go abroad, they are surprised to find that they were ignorant of certain knowledge compared to other wizards and witches from other countries.
And what's the most scandalous thing?
It's the absolute disaster that the numbers of Hogwarts potions apprentices have been in recent years
When you pass the NEWT level potions exam, a wizard and witch are considered a potions apprentice.
Further research and creating or improving a potion recipe are necessary to be considered a potion master.
And for the last two decades, Hogwarts has been in the spotlight for having the world's youngest potions master as its potions professor.
With the world's youngest potions master guiding the students, it was expected that there would be many potions apprentices at Hogwarts.
But not.
The number of potions apprentices at Hogwarts was incredibly low and among the lowest compared to other magical schools.
While reading the newspaper, Draco kept his expression steady and discreetly observed the reactions of the others in the great hall.
As the instigator of this, Draco expected to see the consequences of his actions.
Except for the director who has been absent since yesterday, the reaction of the others was as expected.
While the students were shocked, with some denying it and others accepting what they had read with embarrassment, the teachers seemed to have expected this.
After all, unlike the students, they had more contact with the outside world and had ways of getting news faster.
Three days ago, a French newspaper published an article that quickly caught the public's attention.
The newspaper article detailed the academic results of the past few decades and came across a surprising fact: Hogwarts' academic results have been declining every year.
Of course, the newspaper not only criticized the school, but also gave an explanation of what was happening with the best magic school in the world.
Suppression of knowledge.
The newspaper reported on the British Ministry of Education's regulations, which, to everyone's surprise, ended up affecting Hogwarts.
But how could this happen?
It is well known that Hogwarts was independent of the Ministry of Magic and the school governors dictated how the school operated as long as it did not violate any laws or harm any students.
Therefore, Hogwarts should not be affected by the regulations of the British Ministry of Magic.
Great Britain has other small schools, and only those schools follow the educational regulations of the Ministry of Magic.
And here, the newspaper points out a very important detail.
Dumbledore
As the head witch, the Hogwarts headmaster is involved in the Ministry's politics and arguably had to follow these educational regulations for political reasons, affecting the school's education.
But that's not all.
Many of Dumbledore's supporters in the Wizengamot have proposed these educational regulations, and according to rumors, it is Dumbledore himself who is actually behind these proposals.
The topic was highly debatable and quickly captured the interest of the French public.
Therefore, it was not surprising that this article reached other countries.
On the second day, several newspapers from other countries reprinted the article, and on the third day, the news exploded when all the international newspapers debated the issue and gave more details that they themselves had investigated.
This is when Dumbledore was once again in the spotlight.
As with the Wizengamot, the International Confederation of Wizards was also almost affected by these educational regulations, but to a lesser extent because many countries refused to follow these regulations and in the end only a few were approved.
And again, it was Dumbledore's close representatives who proposed these educational laws.
They were clearly pointing indirectly to Dumbledore as being responsible for the decline of Hogwarts.
Of course, many Hogwarts headmasters before Dumbledore forbade certain subjects from being taught at the school, but the academic performance of Hogwarts students declined much more during the time Dumbledore held the position of headmaster.
The newspaper explained that Hogwarts' decline was not the fault of the teachers, who had great qualifications but whose hands were tied.
Of course, certain teachers were singled out.
The history teacher and the potions teacher.
The History teacher was the ghost of Professor Bins, who was a history teacher until he died and his ghost continued to teach.
Despite expressing sympathy for the professor's situation, the newspaper did not hide its negative criticism of the ongoing biased knowledge.
Goblin Wars.
The newspaper clarified that knowledge about the wizards' wars with the goblins was important and should not be forgotten, but there was much more history that should be learned and Professor Bins does not take it into account.
The newspaper detailed the history results of the Hogwarts students and there is a noticeable change since Bins took over as teacher.
This meant that Bins was a bad teacher even before he became a ghost.
And to conclude, the newspaper requested an investigation into whether the school is paying anything for the history course.
And if it is paid, where does the money go if the ghosts have no use for it?
At the end, before finishing the article, the newspaper mentioned the professor who won the award for worst Hogwarts teacher.
Severus Snape.
Out of the corner of his eye, Draco noticed the potions professor leaving the great hall.
Many students looked up from their newspapers when they read the mention of Professor Snape, but they could only see his back leaving the building.
His colleagues saw it too, but they said nothing and just shook their heads.
Back in the newspaper, the article detailed the academic performance of the potions students since Severus Snape took over as professor.
It was a disaster.
The OWL potions results of Hogwarts students and the few NEWTs were catastrophic in these years.
While this spoke of Severus Snape's ability as a teacher, here the article again emphasized something it considered criminal and that should be punished.
Whether students or teachers, they couldn't help but agree when they read about what Severus Snape caused over the past two decades.
The number of potion apprentices fell to a ridiculous number.
Whether to be healers or aurors, on
e of the requirements was to have a NEWT in potions.
In the case of becoming a healer, one had to pass with an Extraordinary grade or higher, and in the case of becoming an Auror, only the grade Exceeds Expectations was acceptable to enter the program.
Therefore, Great Britain has had very few Aurors or Healers in the last two decades compared to other countries.
This was very dangerous for any magical community, and Great Britain will be in trouble if they don't do something soon.