A/N: Here's to Fairy Tail's open ending to the series! (And not having to change anything in this story concerning them in the process muwhahahahah honestly bless Mashima-)
Anyway, I'm so sorry for the late chapter! About a month ago, I actually got laser eye surgery so that I won't have to use my glasses anymore. I couldn't use anything for a couple of days so finishing this chapter is dragging out more than I wanted it to T_T. I'm planning on doing monthly updates rather it being just completely random though, so keep an eye out for that ahahahaha
Enjoy this update! :D
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Chapter 42: Professor Toadface
The first thought that appeared in my brain when Ginny said that: I had to tell Hermione.
I sat there stunned, unable to move a single muscle. Celestial Spirit keys. How and where the hell did Daphne manage to find them?!
"Subha?" asked Cody in a concerned tone. "You alright?"
"I'm fine," I lied. "Come on, let's get going."
"Are you sure?" asked Zack. "If there's anything-"
"Guys, leave it," said Ginny. She then lowered her voice and added, "We'll explain everything later this evening."
Thankfully, that seemed to shut up the two as we headed out of the hall to class and continued to keep their mouths zipped for the rest of the day.
Binns was boring as usual. I was able to focus for about three minutes before boredom caught up to me and I would've almost fallen asleep if Hermione hadn't prodded me awake from time to time.
"Honestly, Subha," said Hermione as we walked out of the classroom. "Can't you try to stay awake?"
"Kinda hard when all Binns does is drone," I grumbled.
Hermione smiled gently. "At least try, will you?"
"Alright, fine. Speaking of which, um, we've got a bit of a predicament."
Hermione stopped in her tracks and sighed. "What did you do this time, Subha?"
"Nice to know you trust me, Hermione," I deadpanned.
"There are times where I trust you just about as much as I trust Fred and George's products," said Hermione flatly. "Now what's going on?"
I rolled my eyes. "Name the Zodiac spirits and you'll have a pretty good idea of what I'm talking about."
"What in Merlin's name....oh bother. Aquarius, Capricorn, Virgo, Leo-" Hermione paused. Then her eyes widened and turned towards me. "Impossible," she hissed. "How?!"
"They were all in Daphne's usual care package this morning. All of Lucy's keys."
Hermione's jaw hung in the air. "How did Daphne even-" she stopped mid sentence and adopted a calculating look. About a minute later, she then proceeded to smack her head. "Of course. I am such a bloody idiot!"
I raised an eyebrow. "Care to explain, Granger?"
"I heard a rumor last year before the summer holidays."
"....about what?"
"About your mum. The rumor that Priya Patel used to have Celestial Spirit keys in her possession."
I pulled Hermione to the side. "And you didn't tell me about this earlier because...?"
"Zack and Cody were with you! Ginny didn't believe it and I tried to tell you on the train but in case you hadn't noticed we were interrupted by Harry and Ron!"
I thought back to the train where Harry asked about Celestial magic. "Does Harry know about this?" I demanded.
Hermione nodded. "I actually heard about this from him. He overheard someone talking about it and it also turns out that the rumor's been circulating since our first year. Apparently, it was originally supposed to stay as a secret between the school staff, but-"
"-knowing Hogwarts, of course the entire bloody establishment knows," I cut in.
"And it's true," said a voice.
We flinched. Jay Singh was behind me, holding her books in front of her.
"What?" I asked her.
"It's true that Priya had the keys in her possession," Jay emphasized. "Sorry, couldn't help but eavesdrop."
"Did my mother give the keys to anyone before she died?"
Jay shrugged. "To be perfectly honest, I have no idea. She died before I was born and all I know is whatever Nandini told me that."
"Nandini? Your older sister? How would she know?"
"She found out when she was around ten. Point is, Priya gave them to Lily Potter."
I dropped the textbooks that were in my hand and locked eyes wth Hermione. An immediate understanding passed between us. There's only one person who could have an idea on how it ended up in the Blake's care.
"Harry?" I said.
"Harry," confirmed Hermione.
Meanwhile, Jay stared at us blankly. "I'm sorry, what? I don't see how Harry would have a clue."
I patted her on the shoulder. "I'll fill you in on the details later. Granger, we need to get to class."
"Right. You're going to have to tell Zack, Cody and Ginny eventually, aren't you?" asked Hermione as we speed walked to the dungeons.
"Ginny already knows about the keys, she's the one that opened the package. As for Zack and Cody....this evening. And I'll have to send an owl to both Eriol as well as Sakura."
"Eriol Hiiragizawa? Why him?"
"Because he's the reincarnation of Sakura's ancestor."
"Clow Reed's reincarnation? Are you serious?"
"Not to mention his past life was also Meena's uncle."
"You honestly have the weirdest family tree, Subha."
I scoffed. "What else is new?"
"Anyway, good luck telling the twins everything."
"Come on, you know they're not gonna leave me alone if I don't tell them, Hermione."
"I know, Subha," said Hermione. "Now that the two know about the portal..."
"Don't remind me," I moaned.
Giving me a pat on the head, she ran off to find Harry and Ron.
Snape was torture. It got so bad to the point where even Cody messed up on The Draught of Peace. It would've been fine if a) if it wasn't a difficult potion, b) this potion wasn't an Ordinary Wizarding level potion and c) the potion's ingredients weren't supposed to be added in the order Snape listed on the blackboard.
A silvery mist was coming out of my potion as per instructions when Snape dropped in front of me, Zack and Cody. Oh brother, this isn't gonna end well.
"Five points from Gryffindor," drawled Snape, looking down at Cody's potion. "Do tell me, Martin - what did you forget?"
Zack and I gave Cody a pained look. Potions was Cody's least favorite subject and while it wasn't his worst subject, it wasn't like it came as easily to him as it did for Zack. Next to Neville and Harry, Snape probably picked on Cody the most.
Meanwhile, the Slytherins were discreetly watching, and I could have sworn I heard Malfoy snicker in a unflattering manner as he added, "Serves him right....he can't even get a hex right...."
I rolled my eyes. The asshole was still salty about being hexed on the train last year. Cody was the one that hit him with a rather nasty Conjunctivitis Curse and to this day, I've heard rumors that it took over half of the summer to get rid of the pink eye.
"Mr Martin," said Snape softly, "can you read?"
Cody refused to look up. Underneath the table, I could see him clenching his fists. "I forgot to let it sit for seven minutes," he answered tensely.
"Which means this potion is entirely pointless. Evanesco."
The potion that was previously in Cody's pot vanished in an instant. Even with his head down, I could see him fuming. Two rows away, I saw Harry looking over the commotion with a sympathetic glance and then nodded towards his own pot, which was empty as well.
"You too?" I mouthed. Harry nodded.
"For those of you who have managed to read the instructions, fill in one flagon with a sample of your potion, label it clearly with your name and bring it up to my desk for testing," said Snape. "Homework: twelve inches of parchment on the properties of moonstone and its uses in potion-making, to be handed in on Thursday."
I filled in my flagon and marched up to Snape's desk, handing it in. Before I went back to get my stuff, I heard Snape say behind me, "Patel, I do hope you use your semi-competent skills to tutor Martin, at the very least."
I pursed my lips. I didn't want to give him the satisfaction by replying but the last thing I wanted was to spend a detention with Snape. Swallowing my pride, I replied with clenched fists, ".....Yes, Professor."
I stiffly walked back to our bench. At long last, the bell rang, and before even I knew it, I was muttering angrily like a crazy woman as we reached the Great Hall for lunch.
"The nerve of him!" I said as I slammed a slice of shepard's pie onto my plate. "Semi-competent skills to tutor my best friend? Ha!"
"Subha, don't worry about it," said Cody. "You know he's always been like this."
"Yeah, like the fact that Crabbe's potion was worse than yours, and yet yours and Harry's are the ones which get scrapped," I grumbled.
"Like Ron said, poisonous toadstools don't change their spots," said Zack sagely.
"When the hell did he say that?" asked Cody incredulously.
Zack pointed with his thumb to his left, where I heard Ron and Hermione arguing. "Just a few minutes ago."
I groaned while Cody smacked his forehead with a sigh.
"Merlin, help us," said Cody. "Those two argue more than Subha does with Ron these days."
"Tell me about it," agreed Zack. "I almost miss it."
"I'm not the only one," Harry's voice sounded off on Cody's left in a dry manner. He sat down and let out a huff of annoyance. "Breaking up Ron and Subha's fights was way more enjoyable than their bickering."
I sighed. Normally I would've given them a death glare but this time, I had to agree. Plus, the Knucklehead and I have surprisingly argued less since that talk we've had last year. In the end, I guess we remembered our true priorities.....yes, that's right......that incident was the reason we made that-
"....Ron and Subha have been more calm though, now that I think about it," I heard Harry say, snapping me out of my brooding thoughts. "Calmer than they were three years ago."
"We still have the annual Christmas pranks," I said innocently, managing to keep a light tone in my voice.
Or as innocently as I could because Harry wasn't having any of it. "Subha, you know he'll try to give you a detention now that he's a prefect."
I snorted. "At least he'll be better than Percy."
"....Fair point," said Harry wryly after a second of pause. He then got up and slung his bag over his shoulder. "Well, I'm going to head over to the North Tower."
"Harry, Divination is not for another hour," said Zack, with an arched eyebrow. "What are you going to do in that time?"
Harry shrugged. "Dunno. Just....need some time by myself, I guess." Then he looked at me squarely in the face, his green eyes reflecting my current eye color. "We need to talk."
I pulled my head back, slightly taken aback. "N...now?"
"No, er...later this evening. You free then?"
I glanced at the twins with a confused shrug. Over the past four years I've known Harry, we never actually made time on our own to talk to the other, so this was a slight surprise. Remembering the promise to explain what was in the box this morning, I was stuck in bit of a dilemma. But what if it's about that letter?
"I....yeah, I'm free," I answered.
"Okay, see you guys in an hour then," he said, giving a small salute before marching out of the hall.
"Subha..." Cody said warningly.
"Are you and Ginny seriously gonna bail-" Zack started to say.
"Oh, shut up, the lot of you, we'll still explain that package," I cut him off.
We eventually caught up with Harry in Divination about an hour after lunch, who was looking slightly sullen as Ron took his place beside him.
"Good day," Trenalwey's usual misty, dreamy voice entered our sudden attention. "And welcome back to Divination. I have, of course, been following your fortunes most....."
I glanced back at Harry who was gazing mindlessly at Trenalwey speaking. What did he want to talk about? Was is about Lily's part of the letter....or was it something else entirely?
"You will find on the tables before you copies of The Dream Oracle, by Inigo Imago," Trenalwey's voice interrupted my thoughts. "Dream interpretation is a most important means of divining the future and one that may very probably be tested in your O.W.L. Not, of course, that I believe examination passes or failures are of the remotest importance when it comes to the sacred art of divination. If you have the Seeing Eye, certificates and grades matter very little. However, the headmaster likes you to sit the examination, so..."
Trenalwey trailed away delicately. Zack and I gave a sideways glance at each other with a raised eyebrow. The rest of us at this point had no doubt that our Divination professor considered her subject above such sordid matters as examinations.
"Turn, please, to the introduction and read what Imago has to say on the matter of dream interpretation. Then divide into pairs. Use The Dream Oracle to interpret each other's most recent dreams. Carry on."
"I'm sure as hell glad this isn't a double period," Zack muttered under his breath.
I gave a murmur of assent as I dully flipped through the book. By the time we finished, we were nearing the end of class.
The class was slightly better, if not worse and in fact, Trenalwey's eccentric personality did happen to cheer me up a bit. Seeing Zack make up random dreams about Nikki sitting on him meaning the end of the world was funny if not completely bizarre.
"There's no way I'm writing down what I dream about in a bloody book," said Cody as we walked out with the homework of keeping a Dream Journal. "Subha's Ring Journal do that as is."
"Cody, the ring records your memories, not your bloody dreams," I retorted dryly. "Did you even look through the thing to see exactly what it recorded?"
Cody scoffed. "Of course I did! You forgot that it also records our thoughts!"
I rolled my eyes. "I made the damn thing, I'm not an idiot to forget what its functions are." With a side glance and a smirk, I added, "Isn't that what a journal is?"
Cody was about to shoot back a retort but was interrupted with a moan.
"This isn't fair," Zack whined, apparently not even paying attention to our discussion. Either that, or he was trying to keep it from escalating into an argument. "In addtion to having a foot long essay from Snape, we have to write down what we dreamt about." To my surprise, he then turned a slight shade of pink as he pouted. "Cody's right. This is stupid. Dad never had to do any of this."
"Of course he didn't," Cody grumbled. "Divination wasn't even a subject back in his day."
"If you both hate the subject so much, why don't you two drop it like Hermione did?" I said listlessly, knowing full well what their answer was going to be. Come on, I could only take enough complaining for one day.
"If we had the option, we would," the twins chorused gloomily.
"On the bright side, after this year we never have to take it again," Zack chirped cheerfully.
"Hear, hear," Cody and I cheered in agreement.
The class the twins were both dreading was Defense Against the Dark Arts. Which we all thought was weird, especially since they usually liked the class. Then again, even Harry was dreading it, and that was arguably his best subject.
When we arrived, Umbridge was already sitting at her desk in her god ugly pink cardigan. Her hairdo still gave me the impression of a bird's nest, and the minute I entered the room, she gave me that exact same smile she gave me during the feast.
The class was silent as we entered. Umbridge was, as yet, an unknown quantity and nobody knew yet how strict a disciplinarian she was likely to be.
"Well, good afternoon!" she said when finally the whole class had sat down.
A few people mumbled "Good afternoon," in reply.
"Tut, tut," said Umbridge. "That won't do, now, will it? I should like you, please, to reply 'Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge.' One more time, please. Good afternoon, class!"
"Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge," we chanted back at her.
"There, now," said Umbridge sweetly. "That wasn't too difficult, was it? Wands away and quills out, please."
We all glanced at each other warily as we gloomily took out our parchment and quills, tucking away our wands into our bags. As far as I know, the sentence "wands away" has never been said in a interesting class.
"Please, just take a sword and slice my throat now," Zack murmured so that only Cody and I heard. "If I have to say that one more time-"
"Shhhh!" Cody made a slicing gesture at his brother. "Do you want to get detention?!"
I kicked Cody's leg to get him to stop talking; he hissed in pain. Concerning Umbridge, the last thing I wanted was for the three of us to be the center of attention.
So it makes absolute sense that that's exactly what ended up happening.
Umbridge turned towards the commotion. "Is there a problem, Mr....?"
"Martin," Cody said hesitantly.
Unbridge's lips curled. "Right. Is there something wrong?"
"No, Professor," he said almost immediately. "Just stubbed my toe."
Unbridge smiled, almost as though she could see right through him. No matter how Cody may have been mad at me, I knew he'd never sell me out. That didn't stop him from glaring at me however. When she turned around, I made the exact same slicing gesture at him.
Umbridge took out an unusually small wand from her handbag and tapped the black board with it. Words immediately appeared on the board:
Defense Against the Dark Arts
A Return to Basic Principles
"Well now, your teaching in this subject has been rather disrupted and fragmented, hasn't it?" stated Umbridge, turning to face the class with her hands clasped neatly in front of her. "The constant changing of teachers, many of whom do not seem to have followed any Ministry-approved curriculum, has unfortunately resulted in your being far below the standard we would expect to see in your O.W.L. year."
"Can I please kill her now?!" Cody hissed in my ear.
"Look who's speaking words of wisdom," I said as I pretended to get out an extra bottle of ink.
"....We will be following a carefully structured, theory-centered, Ministry-approved course of defensive magic this year," Umbridge was continuing. "Copy down the following, please."
With a sharp rap on the board, it was replaced with:
Course aims:
1. Understanding the principles underlying defensive magic.
2. Learning to recognize situations in which defensive magic can legally be used.
3. Placing the use of defensive magic in a context for practical use.
"I would say Moody wasn't even that bad," I whispered quietly. "Even if he did turn out to be a Death Eater."
"Yeah," agreed Zack as he wrote down the objectives of the class onto his parchment. "At least we were learning something useful."
"And I've already read the entire text for this class from start to finish," said Cody as we all finished writing down everything that was on the board. He tapped his copy of Defensive Magical Theory by Wilbert Slinkhard.
"Of course you did," Zack said knowingly with a hint of annoyance in his voice.
Cody rolled his eyes. "My point, is that if you even bothered to look at the book when we got it, you would've seen that it's boring and dull. You would also know the board says nothing about using defensive magic."
Zack and I dropped our quills in shock and looked at each other. What the hell did he just say?! Zack's expression especially mirrored my thoughts: he wasn't serious, was he?!
I glanced back at the board with a frown. Sure enough, after a quick reread, the three course aims hinted at absolutely nothing of actually using defensive spells.
It was right then Umbridge decided to open her big mouth. "Has everybody got a copy of Defensive Magical Theory by Wilbert Slinkhard?"
"Yes, Professor Umbridge," rang throughout the room again. I assumed that most of the class did not want to be subjected to another torturous lesson on how to respond to her. Can't blame them, really. I was one of those people.
"Good," said Professor Umbridge. "I should like you to turn to page five and read chapter one, 'Basics for Beginners.' There will be no need to talk."
I opened up my copy of Defensive Magical Theory and started to read chapter one. And then I fell asleep. The end.
No, that didn't really happen but I almost did fall asleep at the sheer bore that was my textbook. It was so dull and uninteresting to the point where an avid reader like me was falling asleep in class. Besides History of Magic, that never happened to me in a class. Delilah would kill me if she found out I wasn't going to do well. And it wouldn't matter if she didn't know about Hogwarts, my arse was still going to get fried.
I eventually found myself rereading the same sentence about a dozen times, so I gave up and looked around. On my right, Zack had his chin on the table while playing around with the edge of the page of the book. Cody was actually the only one who was actually reading, although even he was just reading a page and then flipping through a few more as though he was reviewing for an exam....which, knowing him, was probably what he was doing.
Harry eventually caught my gaze dully. I made a loopy gesture around my ear, pretending to twirl my Fairy Tail earrings and pointed my head towards Umbridge. Harry smiled as though he was holding back laughter and mouthed slowly, "Worse than Luna."
I leaned onto my arm."Ya think?" I mouthed back.
Harry quickly turned back to his book on his table to hide his oncoming smirk. Beside him, Ron was twirling his quill in his hand while yawning.
What finally managed to shake me out of my apathy was Hermione. The thing is, Granger hadn't even opened up her copy of the book. Instead, her hand was firmly up in the air, staring fixedly at Umbridge.
Harry and I glanced at each other again, this time questioningly as Harry shrugged and shook his head. Great. Even her best friend had no idea what the hell she was doing.
Meanwhile, Umbridge was resolutely staring anywhere but at Hermione. In fact, she was now staring keenly at me.
"Subha...." said Zack warily.
"And I'm going to pretend she's watching the person sitting behind me," I said flatly.
"Hey, I heard that!" hissed Dean Thomas, who I could swear was burning a hole behind my back with a glare.
"Sorry, mate," I said apologetically.
Dean scoffed. "Like brother, like sister."
I glanced back at my book, a little taken aback. What the hell did he mean by that?
Several minutes later however, it was becoming more and more impossible for Umbridge to ignore Hermione's fist in the air because practically everyone got bored of their textbook and was now watching her instead.
"Did you want to ask something about the chapter, dear?" she finally asked Hermione, as though she had only just noticed her.
Hermione shook her head. "Not about the chapter, no."
"Well then, I'm sure your query could wait until the end of class, seeing as we're reading," said Umbridge with a forced sweetness in her voice.
"I've got a query about your course aims," said Hermione.
Umbridge raised her eyebrows. "And your name is-?"
"Hermione Granger," said Hermione.
"Well, Miss Granger, I think the course aims are perfectly clear if you read them through carefully."
"Well, I don't," said Hermione bluntly. "There's nothing written up there about using defensive spells."
"Good, I'm not the only one who noticed," said Cody under his breath.
"Cody, not now," I muttered back.
"Using defensive spells?" said Umbridge incredulously with a little laugh. "I can't imagine you ending up in a situation in my classroom that would require you to use a defensive spell, Miss Granger. You surely aren't expecting to be attacked during class?"
"We're not going to use magic?" Ron ejaculated loudly.
"Students raise their hands when they wish to speak in my class, Mr-"
"Weasley," said Ron as he thrusted his hand in the air. Umbridge promptly turned away from him. Cody, Harry and Hermione raised their hands. The hag's pouchy eyes lingered on Harry and Hermione before turning towards Cody.
"Yes, Mr Martin? You wanted to ask a question that's related to the chapter?"
"Unfortunately no," said Cody coolly, "But isn't that the entire point of a Defense Against the Dark Arts class? To practice defensive spells?"
"Are you a Ministry-trained educational expert, Mr Martin?" asked Professor Umbridge in her falsely sweet voice.
"No, but -"
"Well then, I'm afraid you are not qualified to decide what the 'whole point' of any class is. Wizards much older and cleverer than you have devised our new program of study. You will be learning about defensive spells in a secure, risk-free way -"
"What use is that?" said Harry loudly. "If we're going to be attacked it won't be in a -"
"Hand, Mr. Potter!" sang Umbridge. Harry thrust his fist in the air. Umbridge promptly turned away from him again, but now several other people had their hands up too, including me, who Umbridge apparently decided it was a good idea to pick.
"Yes, Miss Subha Patel?"
A cold shiver went down my spine as she said my name. I tried not to think about it as I said, "Harry's got a point though. If we're going to be attacked - wherever at home or here - it's definitely not going to be 'risk-free'-"
"Ten points from Gryffindor," said Umbridge with a false honeyed voice. "I repeat, do you expect to be attacked during my classes?"
"What-?" I promptly tried to ignore the injustice of being taken off points for no reason. I got the very vague feeling that it was going to happen often. "No, But-"
"I do not wish to criticize the way things have been run in this school," she said, an unconvincing smile stretching her wide mouth that said otherwise, "but you have been exposed to some very irresponsible wizards in this class, very irresponsible indeed -not to mention," she gave a nasty little laugh, "extremely dangerous half-breeds."
"If you mean Professor Lupin," piped up Dean Thomas angrily, "he was the best we ever -"
"Hand, Mr. Thomas! As I was saying -you have been introduced to spells that have been complex, inappropriate to your age group, and potentially lethal. You have been frightened into believing that you are likely to meet Dark attacks every other day -"
"No we haven't!" Zack interrupted incredulously. "Yeah, the last one turned out to be a bloody maniac, but we at least learned something-"
"Your hand is not up, Mr Martin!"
Zack furiously thrust his arm in the air, seething in his seat. Umbridge turned her back to him. "Speaking of which, it is my understanding that my predecessor not only performed illegal curses in front of you, he actually performed them on you -"
"Like Zack said," Dean said hotly, "we still learned loads from-"
"Hand, Thomas! Now, it is the view of the Ministry that a theoretical knowledge will be more than sufficient to get you through your examination, which, after all, is what school is all about."
I stood up and slammed my hands on the desk. "Hang on. If there's not going to be any actual usage of magic to practice the spells being taught, then how the hell are we going to do our OWL Exami-"
"Your hand, Miss Patel!" Umbridge said shrilly. "Five points from Gryffindor. And do sit down and not make things worse for your house. And your name?" She added as she stared at Parvati with her hand in the air.
"Parvati Patil, and like Subha pointed out, isn't there a practical bit in our Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L? Aren't we supposed to show that we know how to do the countercurses and everything?"
"As long as you have studied the theory hard enough, there is no reason why you should not be able to perform the spells under carefully controlled examination conditions," said Umbridge dismissively.
I gaped at Umbridge dubiously. I could hardly believe what I was hearing.
"You're joking," I piped in as I raised my hand. "You're telling me that we have to do our exams without any practice whatsoever?! That's pretty much the entire point of even attending school to begin with, so it can prepare us for the real world! Are you trying to say that the first time that anyone in this class will be performing spells is going to be on the day of examination?!"
"I repeat, as long as you have studied the theory hard enough -"
"So basically, you're just going to make us fail our examinations in the process because you refuse to teach us the practical use of the theory in class," I said, barely masking the venom in my voice.
A deadly silence filled the classroom. Zack and Cody were staring at me warily. Hermione was gaping at me as Ron made no effort to mask his attempt to make me shut my mouth. Umbridge glared at me with a fake smile plastered onto her face.
"Detention, Patel," she said swiftly as she went up to her desk and wrote something on a piece of paper. "Day after tomorrow at six o'clock. You are to take this paper to Professor McGonagall after class."
I fumed in my seat as Zack squeezed my hand.
"Subha, don't," he whispered in my ear. I jerked my hand away from his.
"And what good's theory going to be in the real world?" I heard Harry say loudly, his fist in the air again.
Umbridge glared at him. "This is school, Mr Potter, not the real world."
"So we're not going to be prepared for what's out there?"
"There's nothing waiting out there Mr Potter."
"Oh yeah?" Harry challenged and immediately my fury dissolved into a pit feeling forming in my stomach.
"Who would attack children such as yourselves?" she asked in irritably sweet voice.
"I dunno, let's think...." said Harry in a mocking tone, "maybe Lord Voldemort?"
"And there it is," muttered Cody, his face now in his hands. "Tell me when it's over."
I heard Ron gasp; Lavender Brown had stifled a scream and Neville slipped off his stool.
The entire room became still and silent. Everyone was now staring at either Harry or Umbridge, the latter who seemed to have an oddly grim satisfied look on her face.
"Ten points from Gryffindor, Mr Potter."
Umbridge went back to her desk and leaned over with her stubby hands splayed on the surface.
"Now let's make a few things quiet plain. You've been told that a certain Dark wizard has returned back from the dead-"
"He wasn't dead!" said Harry angrily, "but he's return-"
"You have been informed that a certain Dark wizard is at large once again," Umbridge spoke over him. "This is a lie."
"It is NOT a lie!" said Harry. "I saw and fought him with my own two eyes!"
"Detention for you as well, Mr. Potter!" said Umbridge triumphantly. Glancing at me with a satisfied look in her beady eyes, she added, "Looks like I got the complete set. As for you Mr Potter, tomorrow evening. Five o'clock. My office. Now I repeat, this is a lie. The Ministry of Magic guarantees that you are not in danger from any Dark wizard. If you are still worried, by all means come and see me outside class hours. I am here to help. I am your friend. And now, you will kindly continue your reading. Page five, 'Basics for Beginners.'"
Harry however stood up from his stool. Everyone was now staring at him, half scared, half fascinated.
"Yeah," he said coldly, "according to you, Cedric Diggory dropped dead of his own accord, didn't he?"
I paled. "Oh god, Harry," I muttered under my breath, horrified. "Don't do this, I'm begging you."
"Cedric Diggory's death was a tragic accident," Umbridge countered just as coldly.
"It was murder," said Harry, his voice now shaking. "Voldemort killed him and you know it."
Umbridge's expression had become blank but her eyes gave way to a stony look. Finally, she said in her most girlish voice yet. "Come here, Mr Potter, dear."
The class held their breath as Harry pushed his stool away and stormed over to Umbridge's desk. She scribbled something on a piece of parchment and after a minute or so she rolled up the parchment and tapped it with her wand; it sealed itself seamlessly so that he could not open it. After another minute, she did the same to the parchment I was supposed to give to McGonagall.
"Take this to Professor McGonagall, dear," said Professor Umbridge, holding out the note to him.
"Should be lucky she didn't send you out of class with the note she wrote for you," whispered Zack.
"Shut up," I retorted.
"Subha, I'm dead serious."
"Doesn't make feel lucky," I said as we watched Harry grab his bag and marched out, refusing to look at Ron and Hermione, who had worried looks beyond meaning.
"Now," said Umbridge, who was wearing an extremely satisfied look on her face, one that did not match her honeyed tone. "Is there's anyone else who would like to join Potter and Patel in their detentions?"
No one spoke and turned to their books, the tense atmosphere still in the air.
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A/N: Phew, finally finished after a bazillion years! XD Vote, comment, all that shiz. Also do tell me your favorite character in this fanfic! I would love to heard it ;D
Sayonara!