ᶜʰᵃᵖᵗᵉʳ ³⁸⁻ "ᵂʰᵃᵗ ᵃʳᵉ ʷᵉ ᵍᵒⁱⁿᵍ ᵗᵒ ᵈᵒ ᵃᵇᵒᵘᵗ ᵁᵐᵇʳⁱᵈᵍᵉ?"
We had our first DADA class with the new professor the following day. We were sitting in our usual seats, me with Pansy and Daphne. Theo and Blaise with Malfoy and Greg with Vince, while we waited for the tiny, pink woman to come.
A paper bird flew past all of us but was soon burned and turned to ash. "Good morning, children," a voice more awful than Granger's came out from behind the classroom. As expected, it belonged to the pink lady.
It was quite an entrance she made.
The first thing professor Umbridge started off with was a reminder of the fact that it was our OWL's year. It made me realise I would have to study Divination- the only subject I could not care less about- in order to pass the exams.
Next, the woman went on to distribute our new DADA textbooks. It was a book for children that I had memorised since the age of six.
It was incredibly disrespectful that the Ministry was infiltrating our syllabus because of their fears and inability to grasp the fact that Voldemort had returned.
I shared a look with Malfoy and Blaise. We knew we had to do something about this, but we also knew we had to wait for the right opportunity to strike. However, Granger lacked basic survival skills and raised her hand to argue with Umbridge.
Soon, Potter joined the little squabble as well and the professor seemed to be offended by the fact that he spoke up. It seemed like she wasn't a fan of 'the Chosen One', but then again, she did not seem like a fan of anyone other than the Ministry.
Potter went on and on about the death of Cedric Diggory. Each sentence gets worse than the last. He had to be stopped before he- "Enough!" the woman screeched. "See me later, Mister Potter. In my office"
Malfoy seemed over the moon about this development. There was a huge grin plastered on his face and it did not likely that it would be going away anytime soon.
"What was he thinking?" Pansy cringed. "I mean, has he no survival instincts?"
"He's a Gryffindor," I whispered back. "Of course, he doesn't"
"Well," Pansy whispered back, as she opened the textbook to the instructed page. "Does he have no brains either? I thought Gryffindorks were supposed to be smart"
--
I was at the library during the afternoon while everyone else was at quidditch tryouts. I noticed someone walk up to me and take a seat beside me.
"Hi," Theo chirped in his usual tone.
Theo Nott was never one for sports. No matter how many times he had to choose, he'd always pick studying over sports. He would come to matches to support the team but would avoid sports whenever possible.
I smiled at him and the both of us fell silent, engrossed in our own homework assignments.
"You know we have to do something, right?" I spoke up. "If what we fear does happen, we need to have a plan. We need to survive"
Theo was the only one smart enough to be trusted with this task. Malfoy was smart and so was Daphne but Theo, Theo was the rational one. He wasn't the book smart, byhearting answers type of smart but the actually knowledgeable kind of smart.
"I know Cass, but what can we do?" he sighed. "We don't have any resources or allies to fight our own bloody war. We're only kids"
"Exactly Theo," I replied. "Nobody will expect it. We are only kids. Let's use that to our advantage"
He let out another sigh, still unconvinced. "We don't even know who's planning what"
"I have a feeling we will soon"
--
Later that night, we were sitting in the common room after dinner. Crabbe, Goyle and Malfoy were discussing strategies since Crabbe and Goyle were now on the Slytherin Quidditch team as beaters.
Daphne and Blaise were gushing about the new issue of some fashion magazine. I was talking to Theo about Divination since the Nott boy was far too smart in every subject.
Meanwhile, Pansy and Millicent Bulstrode- who'd been hanging around with us pretty much since the beginning of the year- were chatting and laughing about some book.
"Alright lads, listen up," Blaise stood up. "Here's to Greg and Vin on getting the positions of the beaters," he raised an imaginary glass and all of us followed his lead. "Make us proud," he smiled and all of us clinked our imaginary glasses and burst out laughing.
"But on a serious note," Pansy caught our attention. "What are we going to do about Umbridge?"
"She isn't a fan of Potter so I say we do nothing," Malfoy suggested.
I shook my head in reply. "Just because she doesn't like Potter doesn't mean she likes us," I pointed out and everyone hummed in agreement.
"Well then let's just make her hate Potter and Potter only," Bulstrode spoke up. "I mean, there are a few perks of being from influential families, right?"
Theo nodded in agreement. "That is brilliant actually. She's a Ministry nut. Let's use that against her"
"At least one of our parents must be her superiors," Daphne quirked an eyebrow. "Or at least know them"
All of us wrote to our parents immediately that night.