The next day Harry, Ron, and Hermione were all sitting in the common room waiting for Isabel to go get breakfast.
"Can we just go? I'm hungry," Ron complained.
"I'll go check on her," Hermione said.
She goes to the girl's dormitory and sees Isabel dressed, sitting on her bed, and drawing.
"Do you want to come to breakfast with us?" Hermione asked softly, she remembered what happened the night before and Isabel might still be hurting.
Isabel looked up and nodded. She grabbed her sketchbook and muggle pens and went to the common room where the boys were waiting.
"Isabel! It's good to see you," Harry said, surprised she showed up.
She lightly smiled.
Harry could see how puffy her eyes were. He felt so bad, she was probably crying all night.
They all walked down to the Great Hall in silence. Besides Ron's stomach growling that is.
The group all sat at the table, Hermione next to Ron and Harry next to Isabel straight across from them.
"Are you going to eat anything?" Ron asked Isabel, his mouth full of food.
She shook her head 'no'.
"More for me then," he laughed.
Harry watched Isabel carefully while he ate his breakfast. She was obviously very hurt and he wanted to help her.
Isabel took out her sketchbook and starting drawing again.
While she was drawing, Harry took her injured hand and held it.
He looked carefully at the scars. Isabel stopped drawing at looked at him.
You did this to yourself, she thought, you basically asked for it. You don't deserve this love or friendship. You are useless. You are pathetic. You don't deserve anything.
Harry put his arm around her and rested his head on hers.
"Everything will be okay." He said.
They sat there like that until breakfast was over. Isabel was feeling a bit better. She tried to forget the awful thoughts and focus on her friends who made her happy. Throughout the day, she cheered up.
~
"Harry, Isabel, can you come with me please?" Hermione asked before dinner.
"Why?" Harry asked.
"I'm going to tell McGonogall what Umbridge did to you both and I need proof," Hermione said.
Isabel clutched her hand to her chest and quickly shook her head 'no'.
"Isabel, this could get her fired, please," Hermione bargained.
"Come on Isabel, Hermione isn't going to give up on this," Harry said.
Isabel nodded in defeat and followed them to McGonogall'soffice.
Hermione knocked on the door quickly.
"Come in," McGonogall said.
"Ms. Granger, Mr. Potter, Ms. Lyston, how may I help you?" McGonogall said as they stepped into the room.
Hermione took a deep breath, "Umbridge has been hurting her students as punishment in detentions."
"What do you mean?" McGonogall said, turning her attention to them.
"She makes them use a quill to write lines and the lines then imprinted on their hands, the quill's link was blood," Hermione informed.
"That's horrific," McGonogall said. Harry outstretched his hand as McGonogall examined it.
"She is awful, I can not deny that," She said, letting Harry's hand go.
"Isabel, show her," Hermione said.
Isabel slowly put out her hand, it was shaking and the mere raising of it made her face go pale.
"Goodness gracious. Alright, I will have a talk with Umbridge, you both take Isabel to the hospital wing, get Harry checked too. This woman must be stopped." McGonogall said, walking out of the room.
~
It was after dinner, Isabel and Harry both got their hands bandaged by Madame Pomfrey. The four friends walked out of the Great Hall together and saw McGonogall and Umbridge talking.
"I have to question your means of punishment Professor Umbridge," McGonogall said.
"To question me is to question the ministry or, by means, the Minister himself," Umbridge said. McGonogall looked defeated.
Umbridge turned to the students watching, "This school is far worse than I expected, I will inform the ministry and set things right."
~
"Isabel, will you come with me, I want to send a letter to Sirius and visit Hagrid's hut to see if he's back." He said.
She nodded.
It's been a week since her incident with Umbridge and she hasn't spoken a word.
They walked down to the Owlery, Harry talking the whole way about Sirius and Voldemort and the Order of the Phoenix.
They got to the Owlery and Harry gave his letter to Hedwig to send to Sirius.
While he did that, Isabel curiously looked and played with the owls.
"You like owls?" Harry asked as they walked to Hagrid's hut.
Isabel just nodded in response.
"He's not back I guess," Harry said sadly.
Then, he saw one of those things he saw pulling the carriages earlier this year.
"There," He said, "Let's go!"
Isabel was very confused but followed anyway.
They arrived in a spot in the forest to see Luna Lovegood standing there with no shoes petting something that was invisible to Isabel.
"Hello Harry Potter," Luna said.
Isabel felt like she wasn't needed, so she sat under one of the trees and watched them.
"Your feet," Harry said, "Are they cold?"
"Yes, but unfortunately all my shoes have missing, I think Nargalls are behind it." She said.
"What are they?" Harry asked referring to something else.
"Thestrals, quite gentle creatures, but people avoid them because they are a bit-" Luna said.
"Different." Harry finished.
"Why can't the others see them?" Harry asked.
"They can only be seen by people who have seen death," Luna informed.
Oh, Isabel thought.
Isabel felt very out of place and unimportant there. She couldn't see the thestrals and the others seemed to completely ignore her.
She decided to head back to the common room.
She started walking thinking about things for about 10 minutes.
She was freezing, she was only wearing her thin school robes and a small sweater underneath and it was only 25 degrees (Fahrenheit). It was the beginning of December after all.
She then snapped back to reality, it was getting dark, and she has no idea where she was.
"Lumos," She said. A small bit of light emerged from her wand. She looked around and all she could see were trees.
I'm going to freeze out here, she thought. She began to walk again.
An hour passed. She figured it was about 18:00.
Her feet hurt, she was so unbearably cold, and she was very tired.
Trees, trees, trees, more trees. She thought.
She started hyperventilating.
Where do I go? No one will find me. Nobody even cares anyway. Maybe this is for the best, she thought.
She sat at a tree and continued to try to catch her breath, she was having a panic attack.
Minutes later, she was super lightheaded, her breathing still ragged.
"Isabel?! Isabel?" She heard some voices yell.
Her breathing rapidly increased.
"Lumos," she whispered.
She couldn't yell back, she was too tired and weak. She couldn't breathe well at all.
She saw some lights running towards her and heard footsteps and twigs snapping.
"Isabel!" She saw someone in front of her, it was Harry.
He pulled her into a giant hug and held her as tight as he could.
"I keep losing you, I'm so sorry, are you okay? I'm never taking my eyes off you again." Harry frantically said.
Isabel breathed heavily, finally being able to catch her breath with Harry there.
"You must be freezing, let's go, I have a giant fuzzy blanket you can use," Hermione said.
Isabel stood up slowly, trying not to fall, she was still lightheaded.
"You okay there mate?" Ron laughed.
Isabel nodded.
Hermione and Harry exchanged looks, she still wasn't talking to anyone.
They walked back to the common room with caution.
When they got there, Hermione ran and got the big blanket and Isabel laid on the couch in a little ball my the fire and Hermione put the blanket on her.
Harry sat on the couch with her, by her feet.
"Warming up?" He asked.
She just nodded.
"I'm very sorry I lost you again, I hope you don't blame me for it, I didn't mean to," Harry said.
"It's not your fault, I just keep wandering off and getting myself into trouble and causing problems." She said quietly, her voice scratchy from not using it.
"She speaks again!" Ron exclaimed.
"Please never stop talking again," Harry said.
"I'll try." Isabel smiled.
"While you were in the forest, Trelawny was fired and Umbridge was questioning all the teachers," Ron added.
"Umbridge is taking over Hogwarts. This is not good." Hermione said.
"At least we have each other that we can trust, we will be okay," Harry said.
Isabel smiled into the fire, "Are you guys always this cheesy?"
Ron smirked, "Yeah, pretty much."
°°°