YOU MAKE MY HEART SHAKE, BEND, AND BREAK BUT I CAN'T TURN AWAY!
aurora "rory" archer was a powerhouse. well, sort of. she was a fierce friend with a heart of gold and a love of music. she was also awkward, bad at potions, and... fatherless. her frie...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
RORY WAS AN ENTIRELY NEW PERSON entering seventh year. In just a few months she'd gotten a boyfriend, a dad, and a shiny badge that said Head Girl. However, she'd lost a friend. Going back to school was harder than she expected. Sure, it was great no longer being cooped up in Grimmauld Place, but sitting where she once sat with Cedric, looking over in class to make a joke and realizing he wasn't there was hard on her.
And then there was Umbridge. The new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor who decided to teach them anything but defending themselves. They weren't even allowed to use their wands. The worst part about her, though, was the fact that she force fed them all the narrative that You-Know-Who wasn't back and Cedric's death was an accident. It made Rory's blood boil. It was a disgrace to his memory.
She found herself ranting about Umbridge to the tree planted for Cedric's memory in the courtyard. Rory didn't want to risk losing Head Girl over snapping in class. So, she took it out on a damn tree. It was a bit pathetic. She had had another bad day, Umbridge nearly made her cry and Fred got detention for being caught with a prototype for their shop in class... so as October entered the air, she needed to get things out before it got too cold to sit by Cedric's tree for hours.
"Ya know Cedric," she sighed, "I don't think being Head Girl is worth it, not if I can't lash out at my teachers. Of course you'd probably get mad at me if I got in trouble over you. We're only a month into school and I'm honestly looking forward to getting out of here, which I'd never thought I'd say. I love school, that's why I want to come back... to teach. But, I dunno. The atmosphere is just off this year. It's really not the same without you. Quidditch practice is really rough, although I think we have a good shot of beating Slytherin. You know, we always said they were never that good. Today was a bad day. I've been having a lot of those as of late. Fred got detention, it always makes me anxious when they get in trouble. It was fun when we were kids, but it's different now, ya know?"
The tree remained silent. She shut her eyes and ran her fingers through her hair. She knew what she needed to do. She needed to write to her father. The girl held off any mention of Umbridge to him in their letters because she knew Andrew would probably march down to Hogwarts himself to give her a piece of his mind. And although Rory would have loved to see that, she couldn't risk it. Umbridge held a scary amount of power at Hogwarts.
The girl said her goodbyes to the tree and headed back to the common room. Fred would hopefully be back from his detention when she arrived and she could spend some time with him, since it was a Friday night. Usually, they spent their Friday nights by the fireplace just enjoying each other's company. It worked out the past few weeks that they got some alone time when everyone else went up to bed. That was always... fun.
