ᶜʰᵃᵖᵗᵉʳ ⁴²⁻ "ᴹᵃʸᵇᵉ ᵗʰᵉʸ'ʳᵉ ᵘˢⁱⁿᵍ ᵗʰᵉ ᴿᵒᵒᵐ ᵒᶠ ᴿᵉqᵘⁱʳᵉᵐᵉⁿᵗ"
The decrees Umbridge put up increased and had only gotten worse. Thankfully, we weren't obliged to listen. And others weren't happy about it.
Blaise had forgotten his book and I was accompanying him back to class. We had the misfortune of bumping into Umbridge on the way.
She walked up to us with a sick smile plastered on her face. One day, one day I was going to wipe it off her face. "Shouldn't you lot be getting to class by now?" she asked in her usual tone.
"Shouldn't you be promoted by now?" Blaise scrunched his eyebrows and I couldn't help but laugh.
My father was her superior and in charge of giving her promotions and we used that against her every opportunity we got.
"Detention mister Zabini"
I let out a laugh yet again. "Are you very sure, professor?" I returned her sickly-sweet smile. "I was just about to write to my father about how you are making a difference in this school"
Her smile faltered for a minute but she soon regained composer. "Of course not," she laughed awkwardly. "I will let you off with your... sixth warning"
"Sixth?" Blaise repeated putting a hand around my shoulder.
"Second," she corrected hesitantly.
I elbowed Blaise as the pink dwarf walked away from us, shouting at other students. "Detention mister Potter and Miss Weasley!"
"What for?" Ginny Weasley scrunched her eyebrows giving Blaise a look.
"Twenty points from Gryffindor!" she screeched, Blaise and I trying our best to control our laugh. "My authority will not be questioned, miss Weasley! Off to class!"
--
Theo and I were stopped by Granger on our way to class. Granger was a prefect and was trying her best to take revenge on her friends' behalf.
"Five points from Slytherin," she turned her nose up. "Each"
"What for?" Theo scoffed.
"Roaming around the halls after hours," she answered.
I rolled my eyes at the girl's false sense of superiority. "We happen to be in the Inquisitorial Squad. However, I cannot say the same for you. What are you doing after hours?"
"I-I happen to be a prefect," she answered matter-of-factly.
"Who hasn't been assigned anything since we are the ones in charge of assigning prefects with their duties," Theo smirked folding his arms in front of his chest.
While Theo was doing that, I heard some footsteps behind me. Carefully, I saw what the noise was and saw a familiar head of red hair.
I wasn't quite sure if there were more people or not and was also severely underprepared to deal with the Potter lot. So, I decided not to do anything about it.
--
"You should've caught him and reported him!" Pansy exclaimed making all of us shush her.
"No, what she did was right," Theo backed me up. "We didn't know if it was only Weasley or if there were more of them. We didn't know if they had legitimate reasons to be there"
"They didn't! Nobody does!" Crabbe pointed out.
I rolled my eyes. "Well, we didn't either. They could've simply made up an excuse just as we did"
Malfoy gave a supportive nod. "Besides," he began. "We already knew about their little Dumbledore's army"
"We need to catch them in the act with Umbridge next to us," Daphne thought out loud. "Where did you see Granger?"
"On the seventh-floor corridor," I answered.
"Seventh floor?" Millicent Bulstrode repeated. "Maybe they're using the Room of Requirement. It is on the seventh floor too, is it not?"
Our faces lit up and Pansy's face was filled with pride.
Usually, we were not very welcoming of new people anywhere near us but Millicent or Millie- as she liked to be called- was, for better or worse, one of us now.
"I am liking you more and more every single day," I smirked and she gave me a shy smile.
"Where were you all our lives?" Blaise chuckled. "We could've used a smart person in this group"
"Hey!" Theo objected. "But it is true. We really could've used another smart person in this group"