all too well - Theodore Nott

chapter 13

"Hello, students," she said in a voice that grated against her eardrums. "My name is Professor Umbridge."

She talked forever about how excited she was to be teaching them. She had a great deal of respect for their families. Selene started zoning out, closing her eyes for a second, and taking a deep breath.

"You okay?"

Selene opened her eyes to see Pansy looking at her, concerned.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Just really tired."

Pansy did not look convinced, but Umbridge was speaking again: "Please come up here so I can individually meet you."

The small group arranged themselves in a line, and Selene found herself at the end, right behind Nott and Daphne. Daphne had her arm looped through his and looked like she was trying to lay her head on his shoulder, but every time she tried to, he shifted away slightly, causing her to have to try again. Selene currently watched her try for what was probably the hundredth time, only to hit her forehead. Daphne gave up and looked over her shoulder, her eyes narrowing on Selene.

Daphne turned around, placing a sugary, sweet smile on her face. "How was your summer, Selene?"

Theodore stiffened at the mention of her name, but Selene refused to pay him any attention. "It was fine."

"Are you not going to ask me how my summer was?"

"No."

"I spent my whole summer with Theo." She said, smiling at him, but like Umbridge, it didn't reach her eyes.

"I'll send you a condolence card," Selene whispered under her breath.

Daphne smiled, grabbed Nott's shoulder, and pulled him down to kiss her. Selene scrunched her nose up in disgust. She rolled her eyes and stepped around them to get in front of Professor Umbridge.

"Hello, I'm Selene Parkinson. I'm going into my fifth year. I was wondering if you knew what textbook we were going to be using for that class so I could prepare. I would think it's volume V of the set we have been using, but I just wanted to make sure. Because the other option is the Defense Against the Dark Arts in-depth textbook, which goes into really great depth about halfbreeds. Which I thought would be the more beneficial one because we didn't really go into that much detail during our third year-"

"We are using a new textbook this year," Umbridge said, interrupting her, "one that is ministry-approved. It doesn't go over haldbreeds. I would think that's inappropriate, seeing as how one of your teachers was one."

"Oh, Professor Lupin was a wonderful teacher. And about it not being in the textbook, are we still going over it because we need to know a lot for the OWLs and the NEWTS?"

"We will not be going over halfbreeds at all in that class."

"But-"

"That is all, Ms. Parkinson." Umbridge said, her voice firm and condescending, "Please let your last two classmates come forward."

Selene looked behind her to see Daphne smirking at her and Nott looking at her with so much intensity that she immediately stepped aside. She turned back around, gave a quick fake smile to Umbridge, and walked back out into the party, heat flaming her face.

Selene walked along the Hogwarts Express with Cho Chang. They were supposed to be patrolling as prefects. Selene wasn't surprised when she got the letter with the badge on it. She had been expecting it before her first year because she had been working on it for forever. However, the accomplishment she thought she would get from it didn't happen. She felt the same dull ache she had felt all summer.