Hey, I'm actually updating on time! Enjoy! =)
Chapter 51
Lesson of the Year: OWLS are Very Important
The evening after the feast, Harri, Hermione and Wendi helped Luna get situated in their room. They fourth year seemed to like the Gryffindor dorm rooms. It wasn’t a quiet affair, since they had to hang Nargle repellant charms all over the room. Hermione, even though she was reluctant to help, did it anyway after receiving a very threatening glare from Harri. The bushy haired girl would rather feel silly hanging things up than have the lone descendant of the Marauders after her.
Once the charms were set up, Luna skipped to the bathroom, got ready for bed and went right to sleep. The three fifth years followed her lead, not wanting to imagine what their workload was going to be tomorrow. Being fifth years meant that they had to take their OWLs. Hermione was already planning a study schedule for them.
Harri grudgingly got out of bed the first morning of classes and went to breakfast. Halfway through breakfast she was handed her schedule by McGonagall. She nearly groaned at it. She had double potions with the Slytherins first thing, then History of Magic with the Ravenclaws, where she and Draco would pass notes, and then DADA, again with the Ravenclaws. The last subject on the list got her excited, she couldn’t wait to see what Sirius had in store for them.
Right before she left, she felt someone watching her from the teachers’ table and it wasn’t Snape. His glare was different. She turned around to see Umbridge, who was dressed in a horrid shade of pink, staring at her with beady eyes. Harri turned right back around, her greens eyes sparking in anger. She didn’t like Umbridge, not one little bit.
Harri was not happy with Umbridge. The woman was watching her like a hawk. She wouldn’t be surprised if she found Umbridge waiting outside her classrooms to make sure she didn’t skip.
On her first day back she entered the potions lab, the Gryffindors had a double lesson of potions with the Slytherins, it seemed to be a tradition. Harri sat in the middle of the classroom with Hermione and Wendi. The three girls sat quietly, until Snape came in with his robes billowing out behind him. Harri swore he used a spell for that effect.
Snape was, as usual, picking on everyone who wasn’t in Slytherin. Harri didn’t take the insults personally anymore. She found them very amusing, which infuriated her potions master. She preferred to think of Snape as an annoying cousin.
She was stuck dealing with him because he was Draco’s godfather, but he wasn’t directly related to her. Harri could only imagine Snape’s horrified face if she ever told him that she considered him family.
The potions master lectured the class on their lack of brewing skill and how most of them wouldn’t make it to the NEWT level potions class next year. Harri was planning on taking it, though she doubted that her professor thought she had the skill for it.
He then set them all to work. Harri was daydreaming as she worked. This wasn’t a difficult potion, they were working on the Draught of Peace. If she was distracted there was a better chance of her not snapping at her professor.
She then had a free period and decided to go back to the common room to read up on Transfigurations and Ancient Runes, which she had the next day.
Hermione and Wendi had decided to go to the library to research something for their Arithmancy class on Wednesday.
Binns class was unremarkable, as per normal. Harri could barely keep her eyes open through the droll class. Wendi actually ended up sleeping. Though, her nap didn’t last long. Her head fell out of her hand and she smacked her forehead on her desk, successfully waking her up.
“I can’t believe that we have so much homework already! A foot and a half of parchment for Snape and then a foot for Binns! I hope we don’t get anything in defense,” she complained on their way to Sirius’ lesson.
“It could be worse, you could also have Ancient Runes with me, instead of Muggle Studies,” Hermione told Wendi, sternly.
“Ancient Runes is easy, Hermione. I don’t know what you’re complaining about,” Harri said as she walked into the DADA room, which was completely redone. Sirius must have worked all night to get it looking this good. The desk were all moved to the back and there was a dueling platform in the center of the room. There was only one eyesore in the room and that was the pink toad, who was standing in the far corner, mouth set in a frown. She obviously didn’t like the decor.
Sirius was sitting on the platform and waited for everyone to arrive. She could see him counting students as they walked in. Neville was the last to arrive with Trevor in hand. The toad had obviously tried to escape again. This year Gryffindor had defense with the Ravenclaws, so both Harri and Draco got to witness Sirius’ teaching together.
“Alright class, I’m Professor Black. Up until recently, I was one of the top Aurors in my department. I captured the majority of the Death Eaters that are rotting in Azkaban right now. My job is to teach you how to defend yourself against outside threats an-”
Sirius’ speech was interrupted by the toad, who coughed in the corner. “Yes, Dolores?” Sirius asked, gritting his teeth.
“Are you insinuating that there is a threat out there that the students should be afraid of?” she questioned, daring him to say that Voldemort was back.
“Yes, there are rapist, murderers, muggers and dangerous magical creatures like dragons and mermaids, which the ministry forced the Tri-Wizard tournament participants to face. I’ve locked away a lot of those magical rapist and murderers. And, as the defense teacher, I feel I should teach my students how to properly defend themselves from danger,” he replied, shutting up Umbridge. She couldn’t argue with him there. Rapist and murderers weren’t Voldemort, well they might be, but Harri wasn’t going to say anything. She was smart enough to keep her mouth shut.
Sirius turned away from the toad and faced his class once more. There was a marauderish glint in his eyes that meant fun was coming. “Today we are going to be doing some mock dueling. Later this year there will be a tournament between the houses to see who the best duelist in each year is. You will be allowed to use any kind of magic to defend yourself. The only thing I don’t want to see are dark spells. If I catch anyone using those, you’ll have to deal with me,” he told the class, making everyone silent with a steely glare, but then his glare left and a goofy smile made its way onto his face. “Any volunteers?”
Wendi volunteered along with Seamus. It was obvious that Wendi had more spells up her sleeve than her opponent. Harri figured she picked up some of them last year. Harri had been practicing a lot of spells for the tournament.
Wendi ended up knocking Seamus out with a powerful reducto curse. There were quite a few boring duels, some of the took forever. The one between Ron Weasley and Padma Patil was exceptionally long. Hermione faced Neville and, surprisingly, Neville won with a very good stupefy. Everyone was surprised about his win, even Neville himself, who was apologizing to Hermione profusely.
“I helped him with his wand work this summer,” Wendi told her with a smile.
“I bet that wasn’t all your helped him with,” Harri replied, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively and Wendi nudged her gently. Harri could see a blush on her friend’s face, signaling that something did happen, but she wasn’t going to push her friend. Not till later, anyway.
Eventually, Harri and Draco ended up on the opposite sides of the platform.
Harri had never dueled Draco before and decided that she wasn’t going to hold back. They both pointed their wands at each other and Draco made the first move by casting Petrificus Totalus at her. She moved out of the way by side stepping and cast a transfiguration spell and a movement charm at his feet. Sirius did say they could use any kind of spell. She was going to use her strengths.
He jumped out of the way and a few people laughed. “Potter, your aim sucks!” one Ravenclaw shouted, but she had been hoping that he would jump, that way her spell would work.
Suddenly, roots started shooting from the platform, right where her spell at hit. The roots charged at Draco and he lit them on fire. The roots crumbled to ash.
The blonde on the other side of the platform looked livid. She saw him mouth “dirty trick”. She grinned and prepared her next spell, which she aimed right at his head. It was another transfiguration spell. Draco ducked and it hit the wall behind him. Just like she planned.
Draco rolled his eyes and fired many different disarming charms at Harri, but she either defended herself or stepped out of the way. It was a pretty impressive fight, but no one was paying attention to the spell she had fired a while ago that missed Draco.
The wall behind him started to sprout leaves and a trunk and started to grow towards his head. Eventually, it poked him on the back of the head. He spun around and Harri decided that enough was enough. “Stupefy!” She shouted and Draco didn’t have enough time to react before the spell hit him. He was successfully stunned. There was a reason that she did well in the Tri-Wizard Tournament, and that was thanks to her Transfiguration skills.
Draco didn’t hold it against Harri for beating him. She had competed in the Tri-Wizard Tournament the year before, which improved her dueling skills.
“Alright, I want you to write a foot of parchment on the art of dueling for Friday,” Sirius told the class and everyone groaned and a smirk formed on Sirius’ face. “Just kidding. Brush up on your defense spells and strategy. There’s going to be an intense quiz next class!”
“Ms. Potter, a word, please,” the toad said from the back of the room and Harri went over towards the woman. She motioned for Sirius to leave and the Professor scowled, but complied.
“Is there something I can help you with, Ms. Umbridge?” Harri asked politely, acting like this woman didn’t piss her off. The woman grabbed her arm and dragged her down to meet her eyes.
“I’m going to warn you once, you half-breed. Do not talk about the Dark Lord in this school. I will go after everything you care about and torture them till they hate the very mention of your name. You’re a filthy half breed that relies on another wizard for survival and I plan on using that to my full advantage. You’re going to jumps the hoops I provide for you, starting with you failing your classes. I want you out of this school. Remember who owns you and you’re mate, Potter,” she spat releasing her arm.
Harri’s fist clenched and she left the room. There was no way she was going to fail her classes for a toad woman or harm a hair on George’s head. Hermione and Draco were waiting outside the door for her and when they saw the angry look on her face they knew it would be better to wait till they got to the common room to talk.
The group entered the common room to see Fred and George talking in hushed tones near the fire. Harri quickly went over to the twins and whispered something quietly to them. The emerald eyed girl motioned for Hermione and Draco to come over and she quietly explained what Umbridge had told her.
“That toad, how dare she say that to you! Go to McGonagall!” Hermione suggested frantically. Her brown eyes darkening with worry.
Harri sighed, “That isn’t going to help. She’s got the Minister wrapped around her finger. No doubt she’s sleeping with him...we need to get rid of her.”
Draco ran a hand through his blonde hair, trying to think of something. “So, what do you propose?” He asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Do you have any of the potion that was used on Cho last year?” Harri asked and Draco’s eyes lit up dangerously.
“As a matter of fact, I do have certain parts of the potion preserved and ready to use. I was worried that this would happen again. Give me three to four weeks and everything should be ready. Though...the way she acts, certain parts of the potion will take effect immediately. Luckily, she threatened everyone you care about, which includes me, which Sev will not like. I’m going to ask if I can borrow his potions lab for an experiment,” he told her ruffling Harri’s hair and running out of the room. Most likely, to the potions lab.
Harri rolled her eyes and watched her best friend leave the room. She turned to Fred and George, who looked like Christmas came early. “So, what are you two planning?”
“We’ve found a new test subject...” Fred said with a grin, obviously thinking of Umbridge. They talked for a few minutes on possible prank products to use on her, but Harri noticed that Fred wasn’t look at them when he was talking. He was looking over Hermione’s shoulder. Harri followed his line of sight and Angelina was making her way over.
There was a quick conversation between Harri, Angelina, Fred and George. Angelina was the new captain of the quidditch team and she wanted to win almost as bad as Oliver did in her third year.
“Don’t worry, Angelina, we’ll be fine!” Fred told her soothingly, holding her hand and giving it a gentle squeeze. The chaser gave him a sly look.
“Fred, you promised we’d finish the discussion we were having on the train sometime later today...” she told him and Fred stood up quickly and nearly pulled her out of the common room.
Harri blinked a few times and George looked repulsed. “I didn’t need to know that they were going to a broom closet...”
“Speaking of leaving, I was going to go to the library and study a little bit more before I make my rounds as a prefect. Try to behave while I’m gone,” Hermione told them with a wink.
Harri rolled her eyes. She attempted to get up, but strong arms pulled her back onto the common room couch. She looked up and saw George’s crystal blue eyes staring at her. “Can I help you, Mr. Weasley?” she asked with a grin.
“I think you can. You see, I have this mate and she’s just irresistible and I want to kiss her. Do you think you can solve this problem, Ms. Potter?”
“I definitely can solve this problem you’re having,” she told him leaning up so their lips could meet. It wasn’t a rushed or heated kiss, it was gentle and familiar. Their magics were melding with each others, reminding them of their bond to each other.
It was sometime later, while she was cuddling on the couch with George near the fire when something Umbridge said hit her. “She called him the Dark Lord...”
“What did you say?” George asked with raised eyebrow.
“That toad...she’s a Death Eater. No one, but his followers, call him the Dark Lord,” she hissed, her hair turning red.
“So, are our plans going to change?” George questioned with a frown.
“No, they’re just going to be more advanced. There is also no way that we are going to leave a mark to insinuate that the pranks are ours. We’re going to give her hell,” Harri promised with a determined look in her eyes.
“Have I ever told you that you look bloody hot when your angry?” George asked completely ruining Harri’s serious mood. She rolled her eyes and pulled the prankster down for a kiss.
So, I hope that you enjoyed the chapter! =) It was a lot of fun writing it out. You'll just have to wait and see what happens to Umbridge. =P
Thank you so much for your comments. They made me smile! =)
~Animerocker
PS
I don't own Harry Potter