Courage

-67-

"Layla," Dean turned to the Lupin girl. "Did you see the notice?"

"Yeah, I saw it," said Layla with a sigh. "Umbridge is a mean old cow. She found out somehow, and when I find out what she's playing at, I'm not holding back. She's hit my last nerve. What are we going to do now?"

"We're going to do it anyway, of course," Harry said quietly as if he was afraid Layla would snap at him for answering her question, but instead, Layla just sighed in relief and nodded.

"Knew you'd say that," said George, beaming and thumping Harry on the arm.

"The prefects as well?" said Fred, looking quizzically at Ron and Hermione.

"Of course," said Hermione coolly.

"Here come Ernie and Hannah Abbott," said Layla, looking over her shoulder. "And those Ravenclaw guys and Smith..."

Hermione looked alarmed.

"The idiots can't come over here now, it'll look really suspicious — sit down!" she mouthed to Ernie and Hannah, gesturing frantically to them to rejoin the Hufflepuff table. "Later! We'll — talk — to — you — later!"

"I'll tell Michael," said Ginny impatiently, "the fool, honestly..."

She hurried off towards the Ravenclaw table.

But the full repercussions of the sign were not felt until Layla was leaving the Great Hall for History of Magic after her healthy breakfast of absolutely nothing.

"Layla!"

It was Angelina and she was hurrying towards Layla, looking perfectly desperate.

"It's okay," said Layla quietly, when Angelina was near enough to hear her. "I'm still going to—"

"You realise she's including Quidditch in this?" Angelina said over Layla. "We have to go and ask permission to re-form the Gryffindor team! I'm on my way to tell the others."

"What?" said Layla, appalled. "No way."

"You read the sign, it mentions teams too! So listen, Layla... I am saying this for the last time... please, please don't lose your temper with Umbridge again or she might not let us play any more!"

"Okay, okay," said Layla, for Angelina looked as though she was on the verge of tears. "Don't worry, I'll behave myself..."

Layla then set off for Binns's lesson. She was revealed to see that Umbridge wasn't there. The only teacher present when she entered was Professor Binns, floating an inch or so above his chair as usual and preparing to continue his monotonous drone on giant wars. Layla did not even attempt to follow what he was saying today; she doodled idly on her parchment, ignoring Hermione's frequent glares and nudges.

"Oh, I've always loved that owl, she's so beautiful," Layla suddenly heard Lavender sigh to Parvati, causing her to look up in confusion.

There, she saw Harry's owl perched outside of the classroom window, causing Layla to frown in confusion before rolling her eyes. Harry could've had the letter delivered to him at breakfast, but of course, he probably wanted the attention on him again.

"Professor Binns," said Harry loudly, and everyone in the class, including Layla with yet another roll of her eyes, turned to look at him. "I'm not feeling well."

Professor Binns raised his eyes from his notes, looking amazed, as always, to find the room in front of him full of people.

"Not feeling well?" he repeated hazily.

"Not at all well," said Harry firmly, getting to his feet with Hedwig concealed behind his back. "I think I need to go to the hospital wing."

"Yes," said Professor Binns, clearly very much wrong-footed. "Yes... yes, hospital wing... well, off you go, then, Perkins."