The American. (George Weasley)

Nineteen.

Umbridge and McGonagall had a big fight outside of the Great Hall that night. McGonagall said they never use physical punishment at Hogwarts. Umbridge said to question her methods was to question the Ministry itself. That didn't scare McGonagall at all. She told Umbridge not to harm any more of the students, and if she did she would know. Umbridge ended by saying things at Hogwarts were far worse than she feared and she was going to inform Minister Fudge right away.
   
Irina looked upset. When I asked her what was wrong, she said, "T-this is a-all m-my fault."
   
"No it's not," said George, his tone firm. "You didn't cause that. Umbridge did by the way she's been acting."
   
She's so upset her stutter got worse when she spoke again, she stumbled over almost every word she said, "I s-should have k-kept my m-m-mouth s-shut."
   
"No," I say, "you didn't do anything. The way she acted was disgusting. Towards you, towards me, towards Harry. It shouldn't be allowed, and McGonagall agreed with me. It needed to be put to an end before it got worse."
   
"Yeah, Irinia," said Neville, who placed a hand onto her back to comfort her. "You're not the one to blame here. I know she's not pleasant but she's got no right treating her students the way she does."
   
My sister smiled at Neville, and it made me smile knowing he'd made her feel better. I saw Hermione, Harry, and Ron all huddled together looking like they're having a quiet, but important, conversation. Probably about the same thing we were all talking about.
   
We woke to the news that next morning that Umbridge was made the Hogwarts High Inquisitor. She didn't have the power to fire any teachers, but she had the power to put them on probation if they weren't up to her standards. Now we had the pleasure of watching her making fun of the other teachers as she observed their classes. She observed the fifth year classes more than anyone else, and I think it was because of Harry.
   
As for my detentions, I had to write lines for Umbridge but I didn't use her quill. She let me go early on the last day. And I made it in for Quidditch tryouts. Since all three girls were still at school I figured that I wouldn't make it as a regular team member, but just a reserve again. And I did. Angelina was more obsessed with winning as Oliver was. Even more so than Oliver was, actually.
   
Fred and George kept their spots as Beaters, and Harry kept his spot as Seeker, and Ron made Keeper. I wasn't upset about not making the team as a regular player but it did mean less time with George. I guess I'd be spending a lot of time with Gen now that our boyfriends would be busy with practice a few nights a week.
   
When October came, we had our first Hogsmeade weekend. Hermione had told us that if we wanted to learn some real Defense Against the Dark Arts that we should meet at the Hogs Head. It was a rundown pub at the end of the main street. Anyone who wanted to join the group had to sign up that weekend. The Hogs Head was dirty and damn near downright disgusting, but Hermione said that The Three Broomsticks would be too busy for us to have the  meeting there.
   
I sat with Genevieve and George on either side of me, and Fred was next to Gen. And we listened to Harry and Hermione speak. Hermione started the meeting, first thanking everyone for coming. She explained how they thought it would be a good idea to have an actual Defense Against the Dark Arts class instead of what Umbridge was teaching them all, and that Harry would teach it to them.
   
The only person that was skeptical about this idea was a Hufflepuff boy, Zacharias Smith. He wanted to know what proof Harry had to say that the Dark Lord was back. Harry told that that he watched him kill Cedric Diggory last year, and then he added, “I don’t want to talk any more about Cedric Diggory, alright, so if that’s what you’re here for, you might as well clear out.”
   
Hermione took over again, and told us that we still needed to figure out a place and time that we could all have lessons, but we would all know when we did. But of course everyone got off topic quick enough and started talking about everything Harry’s done. From Destroying the Sorcerer’s stone his first year, to taking on the Basilisk his second year, the dementors his third year, and the Triwizard Tournament last year, Harry had been through a lot while at Hogwarts. It was no wonder we wanted him to be our teacher.
   
The only request about these meetings was from Angelina Johnson, who said that these meetings better not interfere with Quidditch practice. Hermione passed out gold coins to everyone and told them that it would tell them the date and the time when we were having our first meeting once it was decided upon. She then had everyone meeting sign a piece of paper for reference of how many people would be there.
   
The next few weeks we heard nothing from Hermione or Harry about where these meetings would be taking place. I was starting to worry that they might never find a place. With Harry in Quidditch practice nearly every night we knew he wasn't looking anywhere.
   
Everything seemed to be going alright, until Umbridge put out Educational Decree number Twenty-four. Which stated that all student organizations, societies, teams, groups, and clubs were disbanded if they had three or more people. We were, however, allowed to ask for permission to reform. Angelina went straight to her office to try and get the Gryffindor Quidditch The to be reformed, and Umbridge took her the deciding upon it.
   
Then Hermione expressed her doubts about having these meetings after what happened when they talked to Sirius, when we were almost caught by Umbridge. She was nervous that we would have a good chance of getting caught now that they know Umbridge is obviously watching everything that everyone does in this school without anyone knowing. We were all able to convince her to keep going with the plans.
   
The end of October and the beginning of November brought some nasty weather. Quidditch was postponed until the weather cleared up. Harry said Dobby the house elf told him about the perfect room to have our secret classes in. We went searching for it and we were able to have our very first ever classes there.
   
We had come up with a name for our group, the D.A., which stood for Dumbledore’s Army. Because that’s what the Ministry were scared of, that Dumbledore would have his students start an Army and overthrow the Minister and Dumbledore would take his job, which is so far from the truth but we still went with it. It had a nice ring to it, and it was a name we all agreed on.
   
We started out as simple as we could for the first spell of the day, Expelliarmus. Which is to disarm your opponents of anything they have in their hands. We paired up in groups of two and we took turns trying to disarm each other. Fred and George paired together, Ron and Hermione teamed up together, and I paired with Gen.
   
I saw my brother and Luna playfully disarming each other, it looked like they had turned it into a game of some kind. And I saw my sister paired with Neville. They smiled proudly when the other did the spell right. It was very cute.
   
All in all it was a great first lesson. We had them all leave in small groups here and there so a big crowd didn’t attract any unwanted attention. Genevieve, Fred, George, and I all left together, since it wasn't off for the four of us to be together in the halls.
   
Another few weeks later the Quidditch teams had gotten in enough practice that they could start playing against each other like we usually do. The first match was Slytherin VS Gryffindor, natural enemies. Of course.
   
This was Ron’s very first match on the team. He’s a keeper this year, and he is rather nervous about his first ever game. I don’t blame him, Quidditch is a rough game. No matter what position you played. No one was safe.
   
We all listened to Lee Jordan’s commentary as it ran through the stadium, “Listen to the crowd! They’re loving this! What is that they’re singing?” He took a pause and we could hear what the Slytherin’s were singing
   
It was a song about Ron. About how they loved how awful he was at Quidditch because it meant an easy win for them. They said he was their king. 
   
They got louder and louder as the game went on, making sure Ron could hear them. It got to him, you could tell, because he started messing up. Gryffindor ended up winning only because Harry caught the Golden Snitch and got them an extra 150 points on top of the lead they already had. Harry was hit in the back with a Bludger and fell to the ground, landing hard, so Hermione and I ran out to the pitch to make sure he was okay, we all knew the game was over anyways.
   
When Hermione, Ginny, Genevieve, and I reached them on pitch Draco flew by on his broom and hovered over the air where Harry was so we could hear his nasty, smug voice. “Saved Weasley’s neck, haven’t you?” He said to Harry. “I’ve never seen a worse keeper…but then again…he was born in a bin…did you like my lyrics, Potter?” Harry did not answer; he turned away to meet the rest of the team who had just reached him as well. “We wanted to write a couple more verses!” Calls Malfoy, “But we couldn’t find rhymes for fat and ugly, we wanted to talk about his mother, see we couldn’t fit in useless loser either for his father, you know.”
   
By now the twins have realized what’s going on, the Slytherin’s laughed, but the Gryffindor’s stiffened. “Leave it,” I whisper to George. “He’s just sore that he lost.”
   
“But you like the Weasley’s, don’t you Potter?” Continued Draco. “Spend Holidays there and everything, don’t you? Can’t see how you stand the stink, but I suppose when you’ve been dragged up by Muggles even the Weasley’s hovel smells okay.”
   
Harry then grabbed George and I helped keep him still as the other female players kept Fred back, and Hermione was talking Ron down now. Malfoy just didn’t know when to quit it, he decided to keep going. “Perhaps, you can remember what your mother’s house stank like, Potter, and Weasley’s pigsty reminds you of it.”
   
Harry releases George then, and George shoves me aside. Not so hard that I fell to the ground but hard enough that I was forced to let go of him. A second later they were sprinting at Malfoy together. Harry tackles him and they both start punching Malfoy as hard as they could anywhere they could land a hit. So many of us were screaming at them to stop it, but our cries landed on deaf ears.
   
Madame Hooch came and broke them up with a spell. The three of them were forced to go see their heads of house, which was not about to be a pleasant visit. Fred told me at dinner that night that George, Fred, and Harry were banned from playing Quidditch and they had to give up their brooms to Umbridge.
   
The twins weren't very upset about it. They could play Quidditch whenever they wanted. And now they could focus more on their shop. They nearly had a premises. They were working so hard on their future after school and I was so proud of them.
   
That night, Angelina had asked me if I played Beater, and I knew why. I told her as much as I wanted to be on the team as a starting player, I wasn't going to take my boyfriend's spot in the team to do so. This annoyed her, but she got over it and walked off.
   
George said that he wouldn't have been mad if I had taken the spot, but I reminded him that there were two perfectly good reserve Beaters that she could give the spots to. I wasn't leaving her without anyone to take the spot.

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Here's part 19!

I just want Umbridge out of here already.

I can't stand when I have to write her.

-Emily Winchester.