Milena sat at her desk slumped back in her same seat in DADA as she read chapter 10 of Basics for Beginners: Vol. III, barely retaining a word on the page. No matter how many times her eyes scanned the paragraphs over and over again, not a single word stuck in her head. Everyone else was quietly reading apart from the twins who were pretending to read, but passing notes back and forth to each other whenever Umbridge was facing away.
Milena let out a sigh and put the book face down on her desk. Umbridge turned around and her eyes darted over into Milena's direction.
"Ms. Carter," Umbridge called out with her uneasy smile, "is there any particular reason why you have put your book down? Have you finished the chapter?"
"No." Milena said.
"No?" Umbridge repeated. "So, then why are we not reading the chapter I've assigned?"
"Because it's no use," Milena replied matter of fact, feeling herself grow more frustrated the longer she looked at Umbridge, "No matter how many times I re-read these paragraphs, I don't take in a single word. This is completely useless and doesn't help any of us."
"Useless? Ms. Carter, I hope you're not suggesting my teaching is inadequate?" Umbridge said, slightly tilting her head.
"Well, what have you taught us?" Milena shot back. "I mean I don't think you've given us a single lesson. You've just told us to open our books and read a chapter and when we're done, read another! We haven't written any notes, we haven't practiced anything! What good is it for us to not-"
"That is quite enough!" Umbridge yelled back, making Milena scowl. "I will not have you questioning my authority in my own classroom, Ms. Carter!"
Milena was standing now, she could feel her frustration bubbling and rising in her. The class fell so quiet that Milena was sure she could hear her own heartbeat, if that were even possible. Milena and Umbridge both stared at each other, neither one wanting to back down.
Fred and George had completely stopped what they were doing and were both intently watching the stand off neither of them had expected. Umbridge cleared her throat and tilted her chin up just a little, putting the fake smile back on her face.
"Ms. Carter, unless you would like a detention with me, I would suggest you sit back down." Umbridge said, in a calm tone again, "I don't think Ms. Johnson would appreciate you missing any quidditch practice, now would she?"
Milena felt her teeth grinding as she fell back into her seat, thinking about how stressed Angelina would be if she missed a practice for detention. Umbridge let out a little high pitched giggle, clearly believing herself to be victorious.
At the end of the class, Milena quickly threw her textbook back into her bag which she hadn't picked up again until then. Throwing it over her shoulder, she stormed out of the room, fuming and leaving the twins behind, who had to jog to catch up with her. They ran up on each side of her, Fred taking her hand in his.
"That was quite the show, Mills," Fred chuckled, "taking one from Harry's book, are we?"
"No... no... I don't know what came over me..." Milena said, "I just can't stand that woman. She's ruined that class and that... that smile... that awful smile... Godric, she makes my blood boil!"
"She definitely has ruined that class," Fred agreed.
"But that's what the DA is for," George whispered.
"Besides, I'm sure sooner or later she'll get what's coming to her." Fred smirked.
It seemed like everyday after that, a new rule was put in place by Umbridge banning something else from the school, tightening her grip on the classes and everything that was taught. Fred and George had been scheming on how they would go about selling their products, filling Milena in on their ideas and plans and she was more than willing to help them sell as much as they could purely out of spite for Umbridge.
"So, we figured if we catch people around the corner from the Great Hall after lunch, show off some of the products and get a few names, we can start getting orders out." George explained.
"We even have enough ready for people to buy on the spot." Fred added.
"So, what did you want me to do?" Milena asked.
"Help us sell the products," George replied, "mainly keep track of the profits and names for us, handle the orders while we sell what we can."
"Which will be the whole stock, of course," Fred said.
"Well of course, I'd expect nothing less," Milena nodded, "and sure, I can handle the paperwork."
That day, as lunch was coming close to an end, Milena and the twins stood in a corridor just out of sight of the Great Hall and waited for people to come by, grabbing their attention with some small, noiseless, yet colourful fireworks they had created. It didn't take long for a crowd to be drawn and soon people were lining up as the twins demonstrated their skiving snackboxes, Milena periodically waving her wand and vanishing whatever mess they would make on the floor. People seemed highly interested in their products and soon people were handing Milena their money as she handed out some of the products. She wrote down names of people who would be buying more and eventually they did run out of the products they had with them, so she began taking orders until she noticed that the sounds of people cheering, gagging, or laughing quickly died down.
"Ahem." She heard to her right in a familiar, almost mocking tone.
"Professor," Milena greeted in a professional tone, "How can I help you? Here to place an order?"
"Place an order?" Umbridge repeated, sounding mildly shocked. "Why on earth would I want to do that? This is an educational establishment and I will not have you selling these inappropriate toys!"
"Oh no, the inappropriate toys are for later!" Milena said with a grin. Umbridge's eyes fell wide open for a moment. Milena could hear Fred let out a snort behind her, both him and George now standing on either side of her.
"Ms. Carter!" She yelled in disgust. "That's it! I've had enough of yours and the Weasley's inappropriate behaviour! Detention with me every night until the end of the week. Be in my office tonight after dinner. Also, these 'products' of yours will be banned from this school. Anyone with the contraband will be punished!"
People who had been standing around and watching the feud between Milena and Umbridge quickly began to disperse at her threat and Umbridge turned around proudly as she walked away and out of sight.
"Detention every night... worth it." Milena said, turning back to the twins.
"What about Angelina? Won't she be furious with you missing practice?" Fred asked.
"Well, we still have to do tryouts to replace you two and Harry and those won't be until Thursday," Milena said, "so for now, there is no practice, but my concern is your business. Did you hear what she said? She's banning all of it."
"Like that's going to stop us," Fred laughed, "she may have banned us from quidditch, but this is a big school, good luck to her trying to stop us."
When dinner ended in the Great Hall, Milena and the twins left for their first night of what felt like many detentions with Umbridge. They arrived at her office and George knocked on her door.
"Come in." Umbridge said in her unnervingly happy tone.
George opened the door first, walking in and Fred, then Milena walking in behind him. The room was just as pink and frilly as she was with pictures of cats meowing along the walls and her desk neatly organised more than any other defence professor had ever kept it. There was a smaller desk placed in front of hers and on it was a single piece of parchment and a quill with no ink.
"Ms. Carter, I'll have you sit first, boys you may wait outside until your turn." Umbridge ordered, shooing them into the hallway again and shutting the door. "Please, sit."
Milena sat down at the desk and was told she would be writing lines for Umbridge that would say "I must not talk back." using the quill on the desk. She thought it was odd it had no ink, but maybe the wizarding world had finally discovered pens. So, she picked it up and began to write with it. Almost immediately, her hand began to sting and she winced a little, making Umbridge glance up at her. As she continued to write the lines, the pain continued to sting on her hand, but she tried to remain straight-faced. After a little while of writing the lines over and over, she noticed that where the pain was in her hand, the sentence had engraved itself into the back of her hand.
"You may stop writing." Umbridge said and Milena dropped the quill. "Let me see."
Umbridge took her hand and examined the fresh cuts on the back before letting go of her hand again.
"I think that should be all for tonight then," She said, "please send in George Weasley on your way out."
Milena stood from her seat and walked out of the office where Fred and George were sitting by the door, waiting their turn. George went in next and when the door shut, Milena looked back at her hand again, realizing now just how awful the stinging pain was. Fred noticed her holding her hand and stood up, taking her hand and looking at the cuts, making her wince a little.
"Godric, what did she do to you in there?" Fred whispered in shock, looking at the sentence etched into her hand.
"Made me write lines." Milena said.
"With what? A knife?" Fred retorted. "That woman is bloody cruel. One of these days, I swear I'll get her for this. For all of this."
"I don't doubt that for a second." Milena said, holding her hand again.
Milena spent the next couple of nights writing the same phrase over and over again until her hand would bleed and Umbridge would finally let her go. It wasn't until that Sunday when she finally decided that Milena had had enough detentions and would not need to return again, provided she didn't "act out" again.
In the common room that night, Fred, George, and Milena were soaking their hands in a mixture Hermione had made for them. Milena had expected to have gotten some sort of "I told you so" from Hermione, but she seemed rather empathetic about it, telling Milena just how much she hated Umbridge too.
After hours of sitting around in the common room and letting Hermione's remedy soak on their hands, the cuts seemed to fade into scars and the stinging quickly went away. Hermione took the bowls from them, vanishing the liquids and the cuts that had been on the back of their hands were now just scars faded on their skin.
"I can't quite get rid of them entirely, but if you give it time, I'm sure it'll fade." Hermione said as she cleared up everything. "Now, I'm off to bed for the night. Please, try not to get into any more trouble with Umbridge."
Hermione left the three of them sitting on the couches and a moment later, Milena could hear Angelina entering the common room with Katie and Alicia. George's head shot up, clearly also hearing their voices and he suddenly stood from his seat.
"You know what? I think I'll be off to bed too now. Night!" George said as he quickly made his way to the boy's dormitory, leaving Fred and Milena without any explanation.
"What was that all about?" Milena asked as soon as the other girls had passed and gone to bed.
"Ever since George and I were banned from the quidditch team, him and Ange have been fighting like crazy," Fred explained, slumping back on the couch, "so he's been avoiding her. I keep telling him he should just end it if he's not happy."
"I had no idea," Milena said, "Ange hasn't said a word about it to me."
"I only know because I happened to walk by them while they were in a heated argument in a corridor," Fred was now prodding at the scar on the back of his hand, "the only time I ever see 'em around each other is at the DA meetings, but even then, they keep their distance."
And it was true. Milena hadn't really noticed until now, but whenever they were at a DA meeting now, she saw that George and Angelina would use her and Fred as a way to keep distant from each other, never once even looking at each other. Milena would often pair up with Angelina for their practice and she'd always seem to pull Milena to a spot a little further away from George. At the end of the practice, Milena went with Angelina as they snuck out of the room and went back to their dorm for the night, however, when they got back, Milena pulled Angeline aside for a moment.
"So, I need to know," Milena started, "what's going between you and George?"
Angelina gave her a look like she was dreading the day Milena finally asked her this question and she finally dropped her head, staring at the floor.
"Well..." she started, "we... um... sort of broke up...?"
"Sort of? What do you mean by 'sort of?'" Milena asked.
"Not sort of, we did break up... mutually I guess." Angelina said.
"And neither of you told me?" Milena said, feeling a little offended that neither of her friends had bothered to mention it to her.
"We didn't want to make it a big deal. We were just fighting so much and George seems to always be in another place when we're around each other and then he got banned from the team and I was getting so fed up and so we just decided it would be better to end things and try and be civil." Angelina explained.
"Your version of 'civil' is avoiding each other at all costs?" Milena remarked.
"If it works," Angelina shrugged.
"How long have you two been broken up?" Milena asked, wondering how long she hadn't known.
"A few weeks ago now." Angelina muttered.
"A few weeks!?" Milena said in shock, "and again, you didn't tell me?"
"I didn't want to make a big deal of it," Angelina said as she went to grab out her pajamas.
"Yeah, clearly," Milena said, "I just would have liked to have known what was happening."
"Well, it's nothing to worry about now and we have quidditch tryouts tomorrow that I need you to be there for. So, now you know, now, please don't make a big deal out of this, I really don't need more on my plate now." Angelina pleaded.
"Alright, I won't," Milena said, "just please tell me a little bit sooner next time."
The quidditch tryouts were anything but easy. Angelina was clearly having a hard time finding people to replace the twins as the new bludgers and was starting to run out of options. They tested a few people one of which, nearly took Milena's head off by hitting the bludger in the complete opposite direction Angelina had asked him to and another who instead of swinging at the bludger, would suddenly cower at the last second and swoop his broom down, missing the bludger entirely. Eventually, she got through the line of people waiting to try out for the beater's position and they had them all sit aside while they had people tryout for the seeker's position. Milena scanned the line and noticed Ginny who was a few people back in line, looking eager and ready to fly.
Angelina had them each go after a snitch which she would release and the rest of the team would fly around, tossing the quaffle and scoring some goals, to make sure they could avoid flying into teammates and still keep their eye out for the snitch. After going through everyone in the line, Angelina ended the tryouts, gathering them all together to announce who would take the positions. She gave the beaters positions to the two who had been the least likely to hurt their own team and the seeker's position to Ginny, who was beyond excited to have made the team.
"Congrats, Ginny!" Milena said, giving her a pat on the shoulder. "You're really gonna give Harry a run for his money!"
"Oh please, he's got nothing on me." Ginny laughed as they made their way back to the castle for their last DA meeting before Christmas. "How's the hand, by the way."
Milena looked at her hand where the cut had been, but was now a mostly faded scar thanks to Hermione.
"It's alright now," Milena said, "I don't know how the ministry is letting her do this though. Changing the curriculum is one thing, but this?" Milena waved the hand with the scar once. "I'll get over it though. Have to, don't I?"
"I hope not for much longer," Ginny rolled her eyes. They continued to trek through the snow until they finally were inside where they stomped away the snow and continued their walk. "Oh! I almost forgot to ask. Are you joining us for Christmas this year? Mum mentioned she had asked Fred to ask you."
"Oh right, yeah he told me I was invited this year," Milena said, "My parents are actually going to visit some family out of the country for the holidays, so yes I will be joining you."
A big smile was plastered over Ginny's face.
"Great! It's going to be so nice having you there so I'm not just surrounded by brothers the whole time." Ginny laughed as they entered into the room of requirements for their last DA meeting before the holidays.