Medici the Magnificent meets Hogwarts. Maria Fiore, adopted friend and sister of the Medicis, must overcome her draw to the enigmatic Francesco Pazzi. Or give in.
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Francesco's appearance had been both unwelcome and unexpected. My determination to not think about him for a single second more went out the window with his visit. As I walked away from the encounter, he was all I thought about for the rest of the day. And the day after that.
I was constantly concerned that I would run into him again. If seeing him became a regular ordeal, I would have to come to terms with some of my inexplicable feelings. Our friendship for one needed addressing. He had spoken to me in the hall when he saw me as if I was an old friend and classmate he was glad to see again. He even said as much. The Medici family would shun me worse than they shunned Bianca if they learned of my softening heart towards him.
Then there was the matter of our accidental kiss. It had been a lesson in CPR, but either Francesco didn't understand what "practice" meant, or he had kissed me for real because he wanted to. As much as I didn't want to admit it, I had kissed him back.
Losing interest in the DADA lesson that day, I lifted a hand to feel my lower lip as I relived the kiss on the train. In my imagination, the kiss was a little more drawn out and made much more sense.
"Mr. Medici," Umbridge said, her high-pitched voice growing louder and interrupting my thoughts. "Did I not make myself clear yesterday? No wands are necessary for this class. Please put it away."
I looked to Giuliano and feared for him. He had a knack for doing stupid things when he really shouldn't.
With a roll of his eyes, he set his wand on his desk and geared up to say something insolent.
I blamed it on the Tournament, but recently I had grown a pair of balls I didn't know I had. I spoke up just before Giuliano could say something he would later regret. "Professor, might I ask why we don't need our wands for this class?"
All eyes whipped around to fix on me.
Umbridge kept a smile pinched on her lips, but her eyes burned with contempt. "Because we won't be practicing spells in my class."
"Yes, I'm aware of that," I drawled. "But... Why aren't we? I thought the point of Defense Against the Dark Arts was to learn defensive spells should we ever need them."
"Miss Fiore, I made myself infinitely clear yesterday had you cared to pay attention. We will learn about the spells, but none of you will ever need to use them. It's the Ministry's job to keep you all safe, and I can assure you we're doing quite well at that."
I bristled, and maybe it was because I was just so fed up with everything going on in my life or because I really had changed after the Tournament, but I wound up speaking my thoughts in the middle of class. "I don't doubt that, but defense spells would help us all feel a little safer. Myself, I'm muggle-born and worry about all the attacks on wizards who aren't pureblood."
