Draco Malfoy and the Yule Ball Disaster

Disaster of a Year

You dislike this woman very, very much.

Not only is she completely incompetent as a teacher, she is vile, disgusting, rude, and cruel! You can't imagine why the ministry would assign her as your professor in a course that she isn't even intending to teach, she just wants you to read about spells, not perform them! How exactly are you supposed to learn anything from that?

Not to mention she seems to have a special hatred for Harry, who honestly has done nothing to deserve it. You wish he'd stop patronizing her and getting detention, you've heard of how horrid it is. Something about a pen that actually writes into your skin or something, she shouldn't be allowed to do such things! Why does Dumbledore not step up?

You're so... frustrated! Snape seems to be the only teacher not bothered or intimidated by Umbridge, he doesn't seem to care about her at all and has no patience for her sickly sweet attitude and her constant need to wear that awful color of pink you previously liked until her. She's just so fake, or maybe it's the fact she's not sincere, that makes you detest her more.

"High Inquisitor of Hogwarts, ridiculous!" You hear someone scoff, and you glance over from where you're standing in one of the many hallways. You'd paused on your walk to the courtyard to talk to Nearly Headless Nick, who has no promptly floated through the wall to another chamber, leaving you alone. "Who does she think she is!? Dumbledore needs to put an end to this nonsense!"

Well, that's Hermione Granger, you recognize her angry voice easily enough. She shouldn't say things like that out loud, not when there are so many ears that report back to the evil woman. You hesitate, wondering if you can make it down the hallway fast enough so that you don't run into anyone, and you hastily start towards the end.

"I mean, she shouldn't be doing this! She shouldn't be allowed," Hermione continues furiously, her voice echoing against the stone walls.

"Shh, keep your voice down!" someone says hastily, and you cringe slightly as you realize they're about to turn the corner and you haven't made your great escape just yet. You sigh as you hear their footsteps, glancing over your shoulder to see them turning the corner. Hermione quiets as she notices they're not alone, and you start to turn the corner ---.

"Oof!" You run smack into someone, nearly dropping all of your things, your quill and a book clattering to the ground. You mutter an apology without looking as you kneel, hastily gathering your school things.

"Well, I see there's not a student around here paying attention today."

Uh oh.

You hesitate before you look up, noticing the pink skirt before you see the frog-like face of the very teacher everyone seems to hate. You frown as you straighten, propping your things in your arms; she's a short lady, with curly brown hair, and very pale, which the constant wearing of pink does nothing to help.

"Sorry about that," you apologize again, twisting the end of your braid nervously. Your eyes flick behind her, and of course you're not surprised to see Draco on her heels, silver eyes gleaming with no doubt some mischief.

This year hasn't been that great, and although he's a Prefect, it's already gone to his head; you're not sure why he's siding with this awful toad of a witch, other than she seems to hate Harry and he's a pure blood, not that she can talk, you've heard one of her parents was a muggle anyhow. You keep quiet in class, try to keep your distance from her, you don't really want her attention.

Now you understand why your mother has been so inquisitive in her letters about how your year is going, she wants to know all about Umbridge, and really she's not been so subtle about it. You wonder what she knows about the woman that she can't tell you in writing, as you don't doubt every letter that is sent to or from Hogwarts is read before the student ever sees it.