The Potter Twins and the Order of the Phoenix {5}

10. Fake Happy

"Yeah...yeah, that will be it," Tay says, sounding reassured, but Hermione bites her lip, looking up and down the staff table as though hoping for some sudden explanation for his absence. 

"Who's that?" she says sharply, pointing towards the middle of the staff table. 

I follow her eyes. First,  look upon Professor Dumbledore, sitting in his high-backed golden chair at the centre of the long staff table, wearing deep-purple robes scattered with silver stars and a matching hat. His head is inclined towards the woman sitting beside him, who is talking into his ear. She looks, I think, like somebody's maiden aunt; squat, with short, curly, mouse-brown hair in which she had placed a horrible pink Alice band that matches the fluffy pink cardigan she wears over her robes. Then she turns her face slightly to take a sip from her goblet, revealing her toadlike face. Harry makes a noise beside me. 

"It's that Umbridge woman!"

"What? The one who was at your hearing?" I ask incredulously. 

He nods. "She works for Fudge!"

"Nice cardigan," Ron smirks. 

"She works for Fudge!" Hermione repeats, frowning. "What on earth's she doing here, then?"

"Dunno..."

Hermione and Tay scan the staff table, their eyes narrowed. 

"No," Tay mutters, "no, surely not..."

I do not understand what they're trying to say. And I don't make any attempt to, as seconds later the great doors open, and the tiny first years begin filing in, lead by McGonagall, and the buzz of the Great Hall fades away. The first years (plus Riley and Tessa) line up in front of the table facing the rest of us, and McGonagall places the stool carefully in front of them, then takes a step back. 

The first years' faces flow palely in the candlelight. A small boy to the left looks as though he's trembling. I recall, fleetingly, how terrified I had felt when I was standing there, waiting for the unknown test that would determine to which house I belonged. 

The whole school waits with bated breath. Then a rip near the hat's brim opens wide like a mouth and the Sorting Hat bursts into song;

In times of old when I was new

And Hogwarts barely started

The founders of our noble school

Thought never to be parted:

United by a common goal, 

They had the selfsame yearning,

To make the world's best magic school

And pass along their learning. 

'Together we shall build and teach!'

The four good friends decided

And never did they dream, that they

Might some day be divided,

For were there such friends, anywhere

As Slytherin and Gryffindor?

Unless it was the second pair

Of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw?

So how could it have gone so wrong?

How could such friendships fail?

Why I was there and so can tell