𝐎, 𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐒𝐄𝐃 𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐃 ⎥ "He wants a fight with
a God? I'll give him one."
﹙ from stardust we came, to stardust we return ﹚
Prisoner of Azkaban - Deathly Hollows
...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
* * *
THE STORY OF FRED, GEORGE, AND AURORA'S FLIGHT TO FREEDOM WAS RETOLD SO OFTEN OVER THE NEXT FEW DAYS THAT ELARA COULD TELL IT WOULD SOON BECOME THE STUFF OF HOGWARTS LEGEND. within a week, even those who had been eyewitnesses were half-convinced that they had seen the twins and aurora dive-bomb umbridge on their brooms, pelting her with dungbombs before zooming out of the doors. in the immediate aftermath of their departure there was a great wave of talk about copying them, so that elara frequently heard students saying things like, "honestly, some days i just feel like jumping on my broom and leaving this place," or else, "one more lesson like that and i might just do a weasley. . . ."
fred, george, and aurora had made sure that nobody was likely to forget them very soon. for one thing, they had not left instructions on how to remove the swamp that now filled the corridor on the fifth floor of the east wing. umbridge and filch had been observed trying different means of removing it but without success. eventually the area was roped off and filch, gnashing his teeth furiously, was given the task of punting students across it to their classrooms. elara was certain that teachers like mcgonagall or flitwick could have removed the swamp in an instant, but just as in the case of the wildfire whiz-bangs, they seemed to prefer to watch umbridge struggle.
then there were the two large broom-shaped holes in umbridge's office door, through which fred and george's cleansweeps had smashed to rejoin their masters. filch fitted a new door and removed harry's firebolt to the dungeons where, it was rumored, umbridge had set an armed security troll to guard it. however, her troubles were far from over.
inspired by fred, george, and aurora's example, a great number of students were now vying for the newly vacant positions of troublemakers-in-chief. In spite of the new door, somebody managed to slip a hairy-snouted niffler into umbridge's office, which promptly tore the place apart in its search for shiny objects, leapt on umbridge on her reentrance, and tried to gnaw the rings off her stubby fingers. dungbombs and stinkpellets were dropped so frequently in the corridors that it became the new fashion for students to perform bubble-head charms on themselves before leaving lessons, which ensured them a supply of fresh clean air, even though it gave them all the peculiar appearance of wearing upside-down goldfish bowls on their heads.
filch prowled the corridors with a horsewhip ready in his hands, desperate to catch miscreants, but the problem was that there were now so many of them that he did not know which way to turn. the inquisitorial squad were attempting to help him, but odd things kept happening to its members. warrington of the slytherin quidditch team reported to the hospital wing with a horrible skin complaint that made him look as though he had been coated in cornflakes. pansy parkinson, to hermione's delight, missed all her lessons the following day, as she had sprouted antlers.
