The Era of Aria Snape

86

Chapter Eighty-Six

THE REPETITIVE SOUND of someone knocking on her door was enough to wake Aria from her peaceful slumber.

She grumbled, standing up and grabbing her wand from the nightstand next to her bed before making her way over to the door. She swore that if it wasn't her father or even Malfoy, she would hex whoever saw it fit to wake her up so early. The sun wasn't even properly up yet.

Upon opening the door, the familiar gaze of her best friend's disappointed expression met Aria's eyes.

"What the bloody hell, Aria?" Annabelle snapped and forced her way into the room.

"Make yourself at home," Aria mumbled sarcastically as Anna shoved all of the clothes off of the chair and sat down angrily.

"What were you thinking? She could have been killed!"

"She would have deserved it." Aria frowned and began to make her bed. "I'm sure you've only heard half the story. Did whoever it was that told you mention that before I did anything she said that Harry would be better off dead? No. Did they say that she provoked me? No. So before you come in here and spew all your self-righteous crap, maybe think about getting the whole story first!"

Anna stared at Aria incredulously. "She didn't throw you out a window, though. Did she? An eye for an eye, Aria. Not an eye for a heart!"

Aria's face scrunched at the ridiculous expression. "I don't care. She'd be better off dead."

"I'm surprised you're not expelled."

"I would have gone straight to the ministry if I had been expelled. Can't expel me for standing up against someone inciting violence."

"You're no better than Matilda when you go and tie people up before throwing them out of windows."

"I also gave her lots of pimples and boils all over her ugly face, just in case you didn't know." Aria smiled and sat down, sending Anna a cheeky grin, which was returned with an even more intense glare.

After a moment, Anna sighed and stood up, heading for the door. "The whole of Slytherin's talking about it."

Aria didn't care.

"You're a menace. And I can't believe they rewarded you for your actions with your own bloody room." An expression of sympathy flashed across Anna's face. "But I'll speak to Matilda."

"No need. I think our little discussion last night did the trick. She won't say anymore nasty things."

With one more eye roll, Anna left the room.

Aria hurried to get dressed. If everyone was talking about what she did the previous night, it meant that there would be lots of angry Slytherin's (and some impressed ones) waiting for her down in the common room and she was not in the mood for a crowd.

Minutes later, Aria was slipping out of the common room and heading towards the Great Hall.

A few teachers were sitting there already, including the one in pink. She looked ghastly in that specific shade and Aria wondered whether her teaching skills were as horrible as her face.

ϟ

Umbridge arranged the class to sit alphabetically, Slytherins on one side, Gryffindors on the other.

"Now, class. As I have heard, your previous teachers and education have been rather fragmented and confusing. This is being rectified by the new curriculum. Please open your textbooks to the first chapter and begin copying it down."

The first chapter focused solely on the Chameleon Ghoul, a dark creature that could disguise itself as an everyday object to avoid detection, classified into the Beast, XX category.

Aria turned to the person sitting next to her. A shy boy with glasses and shaggy hair. "Kind of a funny section, don't you think?"

He glanced at her suspiciously as if not convinced that she was talking to him.

"I mean, there's nothing in here about defending ourselves from this creature. It only gives us its appearance."

"Strange, yes." The boy muttered and continued to scribble down into his workbook.

"Miss Snape, is there a problem?"

"Yes. It only tells us what the Chameleon Ghoul can do and what it looks like. Nothing about what spells can defend against it. Is there a mistake?"

"No. No mistake." Umbridge smiled. "It is simply the new curriculum."

"The new curriculum is teaching us about colors of dark creatures. Sounds effective." Aria muttered.

"Did you say something?" Umbridge's smile tightened.

"No. Nothing, Professor." Aria smiled back at her.

Anna (who sat a few seats in front of Aria) turned and sent her an amused grin, to which Umbridge stomped her foot and demanded that everyone focus.

Aria could already tell that this new teacher was going to be a problem. And getting rid of her seemed to be an easy enough task. If she could pull that off, her father could finally have the Defense Against the Dark Arts teaching position.

And as Aria wrote down incoherent scribbles, a plan began to formulate in her head.