A/N: Content warning - Umbridge :/
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"Good evening, children," Dumbledore's voice boomed across the Great Hall as you all finished the last of your desserts from the start of term feast in September.
"Now we have two changes in staffing this year, we are pleased to welcome back Professor Grubbly-Plank who'll be taking Care of Magical Creatures while Professor Hagrid is on temporary leave." A few mutters of confusion filled the air and you were both disappointed and perplexed by this news, as Hagrid was easily one of your favourite professors despite you no longer taking Care of Magical Creatures as a class anymore.
"We also wish to welcome our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Dolores Umbridge." He gestured to a peculiar looking woman in a pink skirt suit and matching pink hat sitting next to Snape at the professors' table, "and I'm sure you'll all join me in wishing the Professor good luck." An awkward silence hung in the air, and you noticed that even the other professors were eyeing their new colleague warily.
Dumbledore continued with his announcements, "now as usual, our caretaker, Mr Filch, has asked me to remind you-"
A small high pitched cough interrupted him, making everyone, including Dumbledore and the other professors, look over in the direction of the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. The woman stood up from the table with a sickly sweet smile on her face and made her way over to Dumbledore's podium.
"She was at my hearing," you heard Harry whispering to Hermione, "she works for Fudge."
You watched the pink-clad witch as she addressed the hall, "thank you, Headmaster, for those kind words of welcome. And how lovely to see all your bright, happy faces smiling up at me."
You glanced around and as expected, no one was smiling, in fact most people were looking at her with pure distaste as she spoke, having just interrupted Dumbledore.
"I'm sure we're all going to be very good friends," she said to you all.
"That's likely," the twins said and you stifled a laugh behind the sleeve of your robes as Umbridge's eyes seemed to drift in the direction of your table.
She continued with her unwelcomed speech, "the Ministry of Magic has always considered the education of young witches and wizards to be of vital importance. Although each Headmaster has brought something new to this historic school..." she glanced up at Dumbledore in an overly-polite nod of recognition, "progress for the sake of progress must be discouraged."
She walked along the stage and continued to address the student body, "let us preserve what must be preserved, perfect what can be perfected, and prune practices that ought to be prohibited."
"That sounds like your To-Do-List for the year," you whispered sarcastically to the twins who snickered.
Umbridge walked back to her seat and Dumbledore began an applause which most people unenthusiastically took part in, you and your friends didn't bother joining in. "Thank you Professor Umbridge, that really was most illuminating," Dumbledore said politely though you could tell he was wary of the woman.
"Illuminating? What a load of waffle." Ron said to you all in disgust.
"But what's it mean?" Harry asked, and Hermione shared a worried look with you all, "it means the Ministry's interfering at Hogwarts."
---
You all sat in the common room after dinner and talked about the upcoming school year and the new professor. Everyone seemed to be in agreement that she was odd, but there was still hope that she might be a good DADA professor since she worked for the Ministry.
Silence fell suddenly and you looked up to see everyone staring at Harry and some whispers began around you. A group of second-years behind you started gossiping and pointing at the Daily Prophet article with a photo of Harry with the headline 'Plotter?'
You planned on ignoring them but they started pointing and you heard someone use the word 'crazy' so you snatched the paper from them, "have you nothing better to talk about!?" you hissed angrily and they looked down, ashamed.
Harry turned to Seamus and Dean, and asked them about their summers, and Seamus stood up, and you could tell by the boy's body language that he was tense. You stood up from where you were sitting up on the back of the couch beside Fred, where he and George leaned against it, and prepared for things to get ugly.
"My mam didn't want me to come back this year," Seamus said to Harry, walking across the room to him.
"Why not?" Harry asked him, you could tell that he could sense the hostility you were seeing from his classmate.
"Hmm, let me see," Seamus considered sarcastically, "because of you."
You hadn't realised that you'd stepped forward defensively until Fred pulled you back gently by the hand, and you held onto him because you could feel your blood boiling and you needed him to ground you or you would give Seamus a slap for his ignorance.
"The Daily Prophet's been saying a lot of things about you, Harry, and about Dumbledore as well."
"What, and your mum believes them?" Harry asked incredulously.
"Well, nobody was there the night Cedric died," Seamus retorted and Fred's hand tightened on yours, sensing how riled up you were.
"I guess you should read the Prophet, then, like your stupid mother. It'll tell you everything you need to know," Harry snapped and Seamus took a step forward and pointed in Harry's face, "don't you dare talk about my mother like that-"
But Harry cut him off loudly, "I'll have a go at anyone that calls me a liar!"
Ron strode into the room, "what's going on?"
"He's mad is what's going on!" Seamus said, once again jabbing a finger at Harry, "do you believe the rubbish he's come out with about You-Know-Who?"
"Yeah, I do," Ron said, narrowing his eyes at the shorter boy, "has anyone else got a problem with Harry?" He addressed the common room, and people averted their gazes awkwardly. When no one responded, the two turned around and marched upstairs.
The tense atmosphere broke as soon as they left, but you kept your narrowed eyes focused on Seamus. Fred tugged your hand gently and pulled you back so you were standing between his outstretched legs and leaning back against his chest as he rested his hands on your waist. "While I would love nothing more than to see you give him a piece of your mind, you really shouldn't. It'll only make things worse," he whispered down into your ear and you nodded and took hold of his arms and wrapped them around you so he was hugging you from behind.
Ginny who was standing on your other side sighed wearily, "this is going to be a long year," and you and the twins nodded in agreement. It was bad enough that there were dark witches and wizards reconvening outside of the school, the last thing anyone needed was for tensions to come to a head within the school as well.
---
The next morning you sat in the DADA classroom in your usual seats, you and Fred in front, Lee and George behind you, and Bea and her Ravenclaw friends across the aisle from you. You'd caught up with Bea over breakfast and now you were discussing the implications of Ministry interference at Hogwarts.
"With everything that's going on, Dad is even afraid of being openly supportive of Harry in work, there's been rumours of Fudge giving people the sack if they say they believe him or Dumbledore," she told you, her voice laced with frustration. You scowled in disgust and your next words to your friend were interrupted by the clicking of heels across the stone tiles of the classroom.
Umbridge walked up to the teacher's desk and put down her bright pink bag, smiling sweetly at you all and then she pointed her wand at the chalkboard and enchanted the chalk to write as she spoke.
"Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests. N-E-W-Ts. More commonly known as NEWTS. Study hard, and you will be rewarded. Fail to do so, and the consequences may be severe, and you will not be able to pursue the career of your choice." You groaned internally at the thought of having to pick your career, with everything going on you couldn't even begin to think about where you wanted to be in five years.
Umbridge flicked her wand and piles of books began to distribute themselves across the desks. You were immediately concerned when you saw the image of children on the front with the phrase 'for beginners' printed on the cover.
"Your previous instruction for this subject has been disturbingly uneven," Umbridge said with annoying cheerfulness, "but you will be pleased to know, from now on you will be following a carefully structured, Ministry-approved course of defensive magic."
You held up your hand, and she turned to look at you, "yes?"
"There's nothing in here about using defensive spells" you pointed out. The woman merely laughed, "using spells? Why, I can't imagine why you would need to use spells in my classroom."
"We're not gonna use magic?" Fred asked incredulously, not bothering to raise his hand.
"You'll be learning about defensive spells, in a secure risk-free way," Umbridge answered sweetly. You couldn't believe what you were hearing, "well, what use is that? If we're going to be attacked, it won't be risk-free."
You could see Umbridge's sweet exterior beginning to crack, "students will raise their hands when they speak in my class." She put up her mask of feigned kindness once again, "it is the view of the Ministry that a theoretical knowledge will be sufficient to get you through your examinations, which, after all, is what school is all about!"
"And how is theory supposed to prepare us for what's out there?" you demanded, not even caring if you were going to get in trouble, which you undoubtedly were.
Umbridge blinked at you and gave you a tight smile, shaking her head patronisingly, "there is nothing out there, dear. Who would you imagine would want to attack children like yourself?"
You completely snapped and didn't care if you were being rude, "oh, I don't know, maybe Lord Voldemort?" You ignored the whispers around you as your words hung in the air. Fred found your hand under the desk and squeezed your fingers in warning, as if he, too, could sense your inevitable punishment. But you didn't care about getting detention with this nonsense being spouted in front of you.
Umbridge walked up to your desk and looked down her nose at you, "now let me make this quite plain. You have been told that a certain Dark Wizard is at large once again. This is a lie."
"It's not a lie, Harry saw him and fought him!"
"Detention, Miss Y/L/N!" she shrieked.
"So what, you think that Cedric just died of his own accord, for no apparent reason?"
"Cedric Diggory's death was a tragic accident," she simply said, as if completely dismissing what had happened to Cedric.
You felt angry tears filling your eyes as she belittled and trivialised the death of your friend, "it was murder. Voldemort killed him. You must know this-"
"Enough!" she screamed, and the rest of your words died in your throat as she glared at you with such ferocity, "enough," she repeated, more calmly this time. "See me later, Miss Y/L/N. My office, eight o'clock sharp." She squeaked out another girlish giggle and in that moment you've never wanted to slap someone so hard.
You were too angry and upset to sit through the rest of the class so you grabbed your things and stormed out of the classroom, "stay where you are, Mr Weasley!" you heard her instructing behind you, and without looking over your shoulder you could guess that Fred had attempted to follow you out.
You went straight into the girls' bathroom and slammed the cubicle door behind you, sitting on the closed toilet lid and burying your face in your hands. You didn't regret your outburst, not one bit, but what you couldn't handle was that Cedric's death was just another accident in the eyes of the Ministry. He didn't drown, or fall to his death, he was murdered in cold blood by the manifestation of pure evil, and the Ministry refused to see it. It was like his loss meant nothing, and that his wasted future was just another sad story for them to briefly discuss during their morning briefing.
You stayed there for the rest of class, and only when you heard students walking outside in the corridor did you leave the cubicle. You flung your bag strap over your shoulder and leaned over the sink, splashing cold water over your undoubtedly blotchy face. You jumped when you heard the bathroom door open, and Veronica Spratt walked in. You averted your gaze and watched in the mirror as she quietly walked behind you to one of the other sinks, you hoped she wouldn't say something nasty to you, because you were too emotionally drained to put up with any of her usual snark.
But she said nothing, she just attempted to scrub quill ink from her hands and while she dried them she turned to you, "I'm sorry about Diggory."
And then she walked out without another word, you stared in shock at your reflection. When you accepted that you looked the best you were going to look after crying for an entire class period, you walked out of the bathroom and prepared to show your face, because you knew how quickly rumours spread at Hogwarts, and you knew your outburst would undoubtedly be the talk of the halls for at least a day.
Sure enough, you stepped out into the corridor and were immediately met with stares, some people looked slightly scared while others looked at you in pity, and you didn't want attention from either side of the spectrum. The twins were waiting by the wall for you with Lee and Bea, you mumbled an awkward hello and Lee patted you on the back, "if I liked girls, I'd fancy you right now," he said to you and you couldn't help but laugh, you could always count on Lee to lighten the mood.
"I'm glad you said something, Y/N," Bea told you earnestly, "what they're doing, it's not right, and people need to stand up to them. I just wish you didn't have to get detention for telling the bloody truth."
She squeezed your hand and bid you goodbye, and then she turned down the corridor to head to her next class. The boys walked you towards Herbology which you took with Fred, George and Lee had a free period so you told George you'd see him in Transfiguration in the afternoon.
Fred's hand slipped into yours as you walked to the greenhouses, "I'm proud of you for standing up to her, love. She was talking out of her arse." You huffed a laugh, "yeah well I don't think it earned me much more than a few stares in the corridor and a detention this evening."
He squeezed your hand comfortingly, "well you didn't let someone challenge your integrity, I think that's worth a lot."
You raised his hand in yours and kissed his knuckles, "thanks, Freddie. You always know what to say."
As you walked into the greenhouses, you moved to your designated spots. At the beginning of your sixth year, Professor Sprout had assigned you with partners, mixing Gryffindors with Hufflepuffs to create a feeling of 'unity in the greenhouse' as the witch had said. As you stood in your usual spot, you were extremely aware of the empty space beside you where Cedric used to stand as your Herbology partner. You swallowed a lump in your throat as the professor walked in and greeted the class, she walked past you and paused, squeezing your arm gently with a sympathetic look on her face, "you can join Mr Weasley and his partner if you wish, Miss Y/L/N."
You nodded gratefully and picked up your bag. You walked around the greenhouse, and you were fortunate enough that Sprout started the class and drew the attention away from you. You stood beside Fred and he gave your fingers a brief squeeze and introduced you to his Hufflepuff partner, Jack Abbott, the older brother of Hannah Abbott in the Trio's year. He was a nice guy, quiet and very keen on Herbology, but he carried friendly conversation with you and Fred as you worked.
Later on in Transfiguration with George, you were studying the theory behind turning a toad into a toadstool when McGonagall walked up to your desk. You didn't pay her much mind as she normally lapped the classroom to observe people's understanding of the theory, so you were surprised when she addressed you.
"Miss Y/L/N, am I correct in assuming that you have a free period after this class?" she asked you quietly. You looked up at her in surprise, "yes, Professor, I've a free hour until Potions class after this." She nodded thoughtfully, "please come to my office after class," and then she walked away without waiting for a response.
George raised an eyebrow at you and you shrugged, "I guess word of my meltdown in DADA got around quickly, McGonagall is probably going to give me a detention as well." He squeezed your shoulder sympathetically and then you both turned back to your work as McGonagall walked back down the aisle to observe the other students.