Playing with Fire

Chapter twenty-three ~ The Fire

The swamp was still in the corridor outside of the library as the last day before Easter had arrived – as no one knew how to clean it up and me, Fred and George refused to help. For us, the last day, meant Potions (which was a drag because I had to watch my back from Pansy all the time), Transfiguration, lunch and then Charms and Defence Against the Dark Arts. We also had detention, the whole DA-gang in the evening. The top of my hand was burning worse than ever before.

At least we got some laughter during that day – considering Fred and George had put their plan in the works for real. Umbridge, along with Filch, spent the majority of the day running around the castle trying to prevent any of Fred's and George's pranks to go out of hand. They didn't succeed, obviously.

Pranks, including loud and colourful blasting fireworks; shocking-pink Catherine weels five feet in diameter were whizzing lethally through the air like so many flying saucers; rockets with long tails of brilliant silver stars were ricocheting off the walls; sparkles were writing swear words in midair of their own accord; firecrackers were exploding like mines everywhere... It was the sight of a lifetime.

The fireworks continued to burn and to spread all over the school that day. Though they caused plenty of disruption, particularly the firecrackers, the other teachers didn't seem to mind them very much.

"Dear, dear," said Professor McGonagall sardonically, as one of the dragons soared around her classroom, emitting loud bangs and exhaling flame. "Miss Brown, would you mind running along to the Headmistress and informing her that we have an escaped firework in our classroom?"

The upshot of it all was that Professor Umbridge spent her first day as Headmistress running all over the school answering the summonses of the other teachers, none of whom seemed able to rid their rooms of the fireworks without her.

While, during our Charm's class, Umbridge was red out of sweat as she flashed through the door to stop another wheel from going loose.

"Thank you so much, Professor!" said Professor Flitwick in his squeaky little voice. "I could have got rid of the sparklers myself, of course, but I wasn't sure whether or not I had the authority."

Beaming, he closed his classroom door in her snarling face while the rest of us were out of breath out of laughter.

As the time ticked away that day, Umbridge stormed into the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom ten minutes late, breathing heavily as she rapped her wand over the blackboard, ordering us to continue reading.

"No need of talking," me and Harry mumbled underneath our breaths as we opened up our books and pretended to read. I didn't even bother glancing at which page we were supposed to read, I had given that up way before Christmas.

I glanced out the window, where the Spring rain was pouring down and I imagined myself sitting on the Hogwarts Expressed tomorrow, surrounded by no one else than my friends. The only downfall was the fact that when we returned, we had detention until school year ended and out O.W.L's to write.

I imagined Arnatt's round face in my mind, he must have grown a bunch since last time I saw him, which was months ago. I was surprised how fast this time had passed, it felt like only yesterday I had been nervous to board the train for the first time to be taken away to a school where I knew no one. Now here I sat, side-by-side with Harry Potter. It was more than I could have ever asked for.

I was disrupted from my thoughts as the bell rang and we were dismissed. We packed out bags slowly, exhausted from today's happenings. As we reached the foot of the stairs on our way to dinner, we were stopped by a group of students forming a circle right outside the doors.