Fragile Delay

Chapter 2 - Chapter Two

Devara snorted, about to retort once again when a light cough sounded from their left. She turned to face Professor Trelawney, who was looking down at them with an airy expression. "Page 234, please," she prodded gently before wandering off to another table.

They both flipped open their textbooks to the page, which was a chapter discussing the method of palm-reading. The pages talked about things that made no sense to either of them, like heart lines and life lines. Devara didn't bother trying to piece together any sort of meaning from the text. Trelawney would only bother grading them well if they predicted something unfortunate or tragic.

After making up some bull about Aurora's lonely, desolate future and Dakeira's tragic fate for their classwork, class was over. Devara walked with Aurora and Dakeira to their next class as it was along the way to hers.

She then made her way to Herbology where they spent over an hour reviewing safety protocols within the greenhouse. They also reviewed basic methods of care for the plants in order to keep everything safe and healthy. It was a lecture she'd heard three other times by now, but she'd seen the effects of misconduct in the greenhouse before and knew well enough that ignoring the rules would earn her a one way ticket to Madam Pomfrey.

Her next class was easily her most dreaded one—Defense Against the Dark Arts. The past three years had been surprisingly insightful regarding that class, though she didn't know how to feel about Professor Moody turning out to be one of Voldemort's underlings in disguise. He'd been the one to set the trap leading to Cedric Diggory and Harry Potter's presence in that graveyard that night, and was a major cause of Cedric's death in her mind. They'd never been close, but he'd always been nice to Devara when she'd been introduced to Hufflepuff house. He wasn't someone that you could easily forget.

She didn't know how to feel about Umbridge. She was certainly a character, but so far only seemed to pose a threat to Hogwarts. The Ministry had been very anti-Harry Potter ever since he'd started talking about Voldemort rising once again. Devara didn't know what to think of someone like Umbridge, but she knew she believed in Harry Potter. Someone like Cedric Diggory doesn't just fall over dead without cause. And someone like Harry wouldn't have killed him, she's sure.

If Umbridge stands to oppose that way of thinking, then Devara was certain they wouldn't get along. She didn't know Harry, and she didn't know Cedric besides a vaguely kind member of her own house, but she knew logic and she knew reason. And she knew that if Voldemort was back, a war was brewing and the only way for everyone at this school to stay safe was to stay aware.

Class with Umbridge trickled by horribly slow, and although each class was the same length, she felt as if this one dragged on too long. She rested her head on her palm, eyes drifting to the clock again and again, counting down the minutes. How much longer was this class going to be?

In reality, it had only been about fifteen minutes since class had started. Most of Defense Against the Dark Arts so far had been notetaking and Umbridge explaining to the students why learning defense was important, as well as lessons in which witches and wizards had successfully defended themselves.

This had started to rouse the interest of the Hufflepuff and Slytherin students there, believing that they were finally getting into the exciting part of class. Aurora and Devara shared an excited glance, and Dakeira had seemed to sit up even straighter in his seat than he already was. A bout of energy seemed to breathe new life into the bored students.

However, they didn't get to actually practice anything, further proved when Umbridge had, in her shrill voice, told the students to put their wands away, and instead passed thick books around. Everything was textbook work, explaining the theorem behind Defense against the Dark Arts. This raised multiple eyebrows around the class.