𝙀𝙐𝙋𝙃𝙊𝙍𝙄𝘼 ➣ 𝐷. 𝑀𝑎𝑙𝑓𝑜𝑦✔

𝟒𝟎 | 𝑶.𝑾.𝑳.𝑺

"𝗕𝗢𝗬𝗦 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗚𝗜𝗥𝗟𝗦 𝗔𝗥𝗘 𝗡𝗢𝗧 𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗠𝗜𝗧𝗧𝗘𝗗 𝗧𝗢 be within eight inches of each other." Not even three days after she takes over and she's already making her rounds. But that doesn't matter much to me anymore. The only person I have right now is Theo and half the time, he's not even with me. And I'm done worrying about Blaise and Eleanor. If they don't want to admit they're wrong, then so be it. Draco is a whole different story. I feel so betrayed after seeing him with Umbridge. I mean, how could he possibly side with the Ministry when he knows Voldemort is back?

Maybe I've been wrong about him this whole time. Maybe he really does only care about himself. If I knew all of this was going to happen, I wouldn't have bothered getting to know him. But... Getting to know him has been one of the greatest adventures I've experienced. He's one of my best friends, one of my only friends, actually.

"Lenora..." Speak of the Devil. The sound of his voice makes my body freeze. My head snaps up, my eyes darting in his direction to see him jogging my way. No, not now! I can't do this, I'm sorry, Draco. My body screams at me to run, so I do. I run in the opposite direction he is, toward the Great Hall. I have to go that way anyway.

He betrayed my trust, I can't dare look at him right now or I'm afraid I'll lose my cool. And I can't afford that, not with what's about to happen.

I swallow the lump that forms in my throat as I step into the Great Hall, where I'm met by Umbridge herself. Without the tables, it looks so empty; Dumbledore's chair sits in the middle of the platform in front of 30 desks, one for each member of Dumbledore's Army. Only a few students are seated, meaning I must be early.

"Have a seat, Miss Kane," Umbridge says in a sickly sweet tone as she points to one of the desks. I clench my jaw and walk to the front of the room and find a seat in the back. And because she never said anything about a seating arrangement, she'll have to deal with me sitting here. "Mr. Potter. Have a seat."

I slouch in my seat and cross my arms over my chest as I await the arrival of all the other students. One by way, they come into the Great Hall until eventually, all the seats are full. Once everyone is here, Umbridge let's out a content sigh.

"Now then, shall we begin? You all will be writing lines for me this afternoon. I must not conspire against the Ministry. Hmm. I think that shall do..." No one moves a muscle, afraid of retaliation if they make one wrong move out of line. "Well, go on then."

Chewing at my lower lip, I'm the first to pick up my quill. There's no sense in dragging this on any longer, our punishment is inevitable. And so I write. The moment the first two words are written on my parchment in ink, I feel a familiar burning sensation on the back of my hand. Just as I suspected, she's making us use a "special" quill.

Everyone else ends up following my lead and we all write lines for about an hour before Umbridge finally dismisses us. I'm the first to set my things down, immediately pushing myself out of my seat and speed walking about of the Great Hall. I almost stop short when I see Cho Chang standing in the hallway, but I don't falter. Instead, as I pass by her, I hiss, "Nice going, Chang."

I shoulder check her before rushing straight to the Slytherin common room. I need to get away from all this, it's too much all at once. And not only can Potter not do anything about it now, but neither can anyone else. Umbridge is like a hawk, she seems to have eyes everywhere now. I know Filch has pledged his allegiance to her, but I think that's mostly because he does that with every headmaster. Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle have all done the same. And a few other younger and older Slytherin kids, but apart from them, everyone else is afraid. Surprisingly, Eleanor and Blaise aren't by Umbridge's side in all this. They haven't said a word against her, though.

April is the one month I hate because of testing. O.W.L.s are the one thing every genius looks forward to, people such as Eleanor and Granger. Everyone else, on the other hand, would rather be sleeping than taking some silly test. I personally am one of those people. Tests are a load of nothing, they're not going to get us anywhere in life; they only test us on how well we'll do in life, and if you fail, you either be stuck with an office job, or living on the streets.

Boom! Boom! My hand stops on my paper at the sound. It's faint, most likely coming from outside somewhere. And it sounds almost like fireworks, maybe? I look up to see Umbridge has an irritated look on her face before another Boom!

I furrow my brows and turn to the doors this time before looking back at Umbridge when the sound of clicking fills my ears. She's practically running past us in the Great Hall to get to the doors. And when she reaches then, she pulls them open, but there's nothing there. That us, until some pink thing flies in front of her face before zooming past her into the Great Hall and a firework explodes over our heads, illuminating the room blue. My brows furrow as Umbridge leans into the hallway. I glance at Theo, silently asking if he knows what's going on, but he shrugs cluelessly.

And then all hell breaks loose. Two people on brooms come flying into the Great Hall, making our tests go flying everywhere and explosions erupting above us.

Umbridge and her followers look horrified. But I can't help but smile. The only two people I know that would have this much fun rebelling against Umbridge are Weasley one and two. I can't help but applaud them, of course I will never let them know that.

I snicker when they set off a firework that forms a snake and starts chasing Umbridge out of the Great Hall. It envelopes her completely before destroying every single one of her proclamations outside the door, the frames crashing to the floor around her.

All the fifth year students in the Great Hall rush outside, among many other students and teachers alike. Weasley one and two set off more fireworks, one of them creating a giant letter W in the air. Shaking my head, I clap, knowing fully we've most likely won against Umbridge.

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