Emily Potter - Book 5 - Order of the Phoenix

Chapter 45 - Rotten Luck

(photo above is Daphne Greengrass + check external link for more!)

January seemed to be passing alarmingly fast. Before Emily knew it, February had arrived, bringing with it wetter and warmer weather and the hope of the second Hogsmeade visit of the year. A Hogsmeade visit she wouldn't be allowed to go to due to her unacceptable behaviour a.k.a that time she gave Draco a beating with curses and hexes, and Aunt Minerva grounded her heavily for it. Emily was banned from Hogsmeade, from recreational potion making, from dating, and from playing Quidditch (the last one was courtesy of Umbridge).

On top of all that, Aunt Minerva sent a letter to Ollivander saying that Emily would be helping out in the wand shop for the upcoming summer. She had no say in the matter, Emily was already fearful if she spoke a word of it to Aunt Minerva – scared to her very wits that she might add more time to her sentence.

Being banned from her extracurricular activities meant giving Emily a lot of spare time, and in that spare time she would do advance work or extra credit for her subjects or tutor that Muggleborn third year again or most likely planning what spells, charms, hexes, and curses she and Harry would teach during DA meetings and after that, she would go to an empty classroom with Daphne and Blaise to teach them in private. But even after all that, Emily found herself asking for additional sessions with Snape.

She didn't tell Harry about her extra sessions; Emily felt that he would question her sanity if she told her brother about it. Emily felt a dire need to win her mind back and seal it off from Voldemort's view. With everything slipping out from her hands, she needed something to have control over. She had to admit to herself, though, she was almost mastering it.

During her last session yesterday evening, she managed to break Snape's intrusion into her mind less than five minutes. Emily had successfully closed her mind and defended herself by casting the stupefy curse over Snape who in retaliation, dodged it with a casual sway of his wand. He did remark on her improvement, but other than that, the professor curtly asked her to leave after the session.

Emily wasn't at all offended by his rudeness, although she was relieved to see that he was no longer favouring her over Harry, but instead treated the Potter twins in the same cold attitude he had specially reserved for non-Slytherins and Harry. Granted, Snape was cold to everyone – but he was relatively less cold to students in his own house.

"My wrist still hurts from all those bloody hexes you made me learn," Daphne snarled, bandaging her wrist tightly with a handkerchief, "I still don't see the reason why Blaise and I have to learn all this. We could walk in straight to Knockturn Alley and have some seedy looking fellow teach us rotten spells and whatnot."

"First of all, your wrist hurts because you've been swishing your wand wrong. It's a wand, Greengrass, not a baton. Second of all, they are not rotten spells! I've been teaching you, two idiots, how to defend yourselves with Dark Magic –"

"Funny. You're teaching us how to defend with dark magic, but the subject is called defence against dark magic." Daphne said with a lopsided grin, giggling as she said, "Talk about fighting fire with fire." Emily glared daggers at her, sighing, "Most dark wizards don't even know the stuff I've been teaching you, it should work against them."

"What's your third and final point, Professor Potter?"

"Shut up."

"Oh come on, I really want to know!" Emily could see the curiosity in her eyes even if she was half-joking Daphne was full on serious at this point, "We are learning absolutely nothing from Umbridge. You and Blaise have to learn something from someone – even if that bloody someone is some mediocre teacher counterpart like me."