𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐃𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐘 𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐓| 𝐃𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐨 𝐌𝐚𝐥𝐟𝐨𝐲✔️

𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍|𝐈 𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐋 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐓𝐀𝐋𝐊 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊

MARA WILLIAMS

The moment Hermione, Parvati and I stepped into Defence Against the Dark Arts I knew exactly what Ron had meant.
-For there at the front of the class room, stood a human PomPom.

"Hello children." A toad like face with prominent pouchy eyes surveyed the class as they trickled in from beneath a ginormous fluffy pink cardigan.
Professor Umbridge's eyes locked on me as I took the empty seat between Parvati and Hermione. Her movements reminded me of a predator descending upon its prey as she swooped towards me, head cocked eagerly. "You must be Mara... What an earth happened to your face?"

I struggled not to screw my face up at her high pitched voice. I could already tell I was not going to be leaving the class without a headache. "Nothing, I just tripped."

What into a bramble bush? It was a stupid excuse.

"Well Mara." She said my name as if testing it on her tongue before spitting out the bitter flavour. "Regardless, I hope from now on you have the common certousy to at least show up to these lessons."

I frowned at the strange woman, "I'm sorry?" But she did not take kindly to that.

"Yes well, you most certainly will be." She huffed haughtily. "I've reported your previous absences to Dumbledore, and he will see to them accordingly."

The entire class had fallen into an uncomfortable silence the moment Umbridge had descended upon me and now I could feel every single pair of eyes boring into me, though not in a snarky way, instead their looks were more towards that of pity. As if I wouldn't already get stared at enough what with being the new girl, and now with my face looking the way it did.

I didn't say anything, just stared at her blankly. Did she expect me to be bothered? Umbridge took a moment longer to break her wide eyes from mine, and when she did she waved her wand towards a stack of books which dispersed themselves evenly between the desks. "Turn to page one hundred and eighty three."

I stared down at my copy of Dark Arts Defence; For Beginners. "We only study theory?" I asked Parvati confused as I flicked through the pages. "I thought Hogwarts was known for it's defence practicals?"

Parvati opened her mouth to respond but a shrill voice cut her off. "Students who wish to speak in my class will raise their hands!"

Umbridge swooped down upon me like a bird of prey. "Do you have a question Miss Williams?"

"Yeah I do actually." I said, and she seemed slightly taken aback by the fact that I didn't cower or recoil beneath her. "How come there's nothing in here about using defensive spells?"

She let out a high pitched laugh, like a mockingly feminine shriek. "Oh child, I can't imagine why you would you ever need to use a defensive spell in my classroom? No, the Minister believes it's much safer to merely teach you theory, we don't want you to go causing fights now do we? So instead you'll be following a carefully structured, Ministry-Approved course of defensive magic."

"So we're not going to use magic?" I said confused, wasn't that the whole point of the class?

"You will be learning about defensive spells in a secure, risk-free way."

"Are you serious?" I asked blankly, refusing to believe what I was hearing. It actually made me angry to think that this woman didn't believe there would ever be a time when defensive spells would need to be practised.
I hadn't fought off my fathers heavy fists for years for nothing... Had I?
I hadn't felt him thrusting inside of me even when I cried out for it to stop. I could still hear my screams ringing in my ears, still feel the tears that pricked my eyes, still feel the ache in my chest and the blood between my thighs, all because I didn't know how to defend myself. In the end I used the only spell I knew of, an unforgivable one. The Cruciatus Curse.