Ugh. Draco Malfoy had become insufferable.
The first thing Umbridge did in her new role as headteacher was to appoint her little gang of Slytherins to become her bitches and named them the 'Inquisitorial Squad'.
And guess who made Head Bitch?
"I really do have the power to put you in detention now, Potter, so you'd better start behaving yourself," Draco said, sidling up to me in Potions as I rifled through the supply cupboard.
He simply loved to thrust his new shiny badge in my face at every given opportunity.
"Get bent, Malfoy," I spat, refusing to look at him.
"My, my, my, no need to be so rude. Unless you want me to put you in detention," he smirked. "After all, I know just how much you love being alone with me."
He moved so close behind me now that I could smell the distinct waft of peppermint on his breath mingled with the faint fragrance of expensive cologne.
"You want me, Potter," he hummed softly as the tickle of hot, uneven breaths whispered against the top of my ear. "I can see it in your eyes."
I noticed he had placed his fingers on the inside of the cupboard and so I slammed the door shut, making him yelp as he swiftly pulled his arm back.
"You little bitch," he snarled, cradling his fingers in his hand.
I threw him an unapologetic look before striding back to my cauldron.
"Blimey, that was cold," Ron chuckled as I dumped the ingredients on the desk and began furiously hacking at them with my knife.
"He was winding me up," I gritted through my teeth, nearly chopping my finger off instead of the frog's leg.
It wasn't just Draco Malfoy winding me up though. Snape's Occlumency lessons were becoming unbearable. I now had another memory of Draco I wanted to suppress which made it virtually impossible to block anything else. It meant I had to endure another chapter and verse from Snape about what a weak and pathetic individual I was.
And when Fred and George decided to do a spectacular early exit, I was sorely tempted to join them. Except that I had OWLs and if I wanted to become an Auror, then I needed to do well. Ugh. My fucking life.
But it was during one of my exams when some serious shit happened.
I had a vision.
Basically, Sirius was going to fucking die if I did not do my hero thing ASAP.
But before I could act, that fucking Umbridge and her Inquisitorial Squad caught us. The glee on Draco's face as Umbridge handed him my wand made me want to scream. I refused point blank to tell Umbridge that I was on a mission to save my godfather.
"The Cruciatus Curse ought to loosen your tongue," Umbridge said, quietly. That evil fucking bitch!
"No!" Hermione shrieked. "Professor Umbridge - it's illegal!"
But like that toad gave a shit. Instead she was eyeing me with a nasty, eager, excited look on her face, measuring me up for a spot of torture. She raised her wand.
"Professor!"
Umbridge's arm froze mid air and we all turned to look at Draco in surprise. He had jumped off the windowsill where he had been languishing, a look of slight horror upon his face.
"What, boy?" Umbridge snapped, sounding annoyed at the interruption.
He didn't seem to know what to say, his eyes flicked to mine and I was startled to see panic in them. If I didn't know better, I'd say he cared.
"Y-You can't." He stuttered, not sounding like Draco at all. "If Fudge finds out you'd no longer be able to be our headteacher." His eyes kept darting nervously from Umbridge's to mine.
But the bitch didn't care!
"What Cornelius doesn't know won't hurt him," she chimed brightly whilst pointing her wand at different parts of my body, apparently trying to decide which area would hurt the most.
I could do nothing but brace myself for it. I was never going to give that bitch the satisfaction of trying to run away from her.
It was Hermione who saved me in the end. She told Umbridge some cock and bull story about there being a weapon in the Forbidden Forest.
Long story short - she got taken by Centaurs and Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville, Luna and I flew to the Ministry on Thestrals. That was fun.
And then we found ourselves in the Department of Mysteries, in the room where I had seen Sirius tied up in my vision.
Except he wasn't there.
Doh.
I did find a prophecy with my name on it though, so it wasn't that big a waste of a trip.
There was also, however, a whole bunch of Death Eaters there to greet us. Including Draco's delightful father and auntie.
Lucius was his usual charming self and Bellatrix - well, Bellatrix was just bat shit crazy.
Apparently they wanted to get the prophecy. They were so desperate that they were quite happy to try and kill us all to get their hands on it. But they messed with the wrong kids.
They struggled, oh they struggled. In the end we ended up in this strange room which held a peculiar type of archway which was hung with a tattered black veil. Lord knew what that was about.
And then the Order of the Phoenix showed up! Yay! Including my beloved godfather! Yay!
But then, oh shit. That bitch Bellatrix only went and killed him. I watched in horror as she blasted a spell right into his chest. One minute he was here and the next he had toppled backwards, through the veil and... gone.
Bitch.
To be honest, I couldn't understand it. It wasn't even a Killing Curse that Bellatrix had blasted at him and yet going through that veil had somehow meant he was dead?!
The wizarding world was really confusing at times.
I refused to believe he had died. But Lupin, being ever the optimist, insisted.
"There's nothing you can do, Etta-"
"Get him, save him, he's only just gone through!"
"-it's too late, Etta."
"We can still reach him-"
"There's nothing you can do, Etta... nothing... he's gone."
See what I mean? What a Debbie Downer.
***
In the end I thought the most sensible option was to go after Bellatrix myself to avenge my godfathers death.
This did not turn out well as I ended up face to face with Voldemort again. Jesus Christ. At one point he even possessed my body which hurt quite a lot. But Dumbledore came and saved me. He really is a great guy. I hope he sticks around for a long time.
The Death Eaters all got sent to Azkaban thanks to our little trip, including Lucius Malfoy. This, obviously, didn't go down well with Draco, who seemed to think it was all my fault that his father was a murderous thug.
He had been waiting for me outside the Gryffindor common room. As soon as I stepped out of the portrait hole, a pair of hands grabbed the front of my robes and I was slammed roughly against the wall.
"What the fuck, Malfoy?" I yelled, after the back of my head connected painfully against the cold hard stone.
"Thanks to your little outing the other night, Potter," Draco hissed, his pale face full of fury as his cold grey eyes narrowed in hatred, "my father is now in Azkaban!"
"Good," I spat, "exactly where he belongs."
A muscle twitched dangerously at the corner of his eye, and for a split second, I thought he was going to hit me.
"You think you're so fucking special, Potter," he snarled, his nostrils flaring in anger. "But you just wait. I'll have you. You can't land my father in prison-"
"Your father tried to kill me!" I hissed, making him wince. "Your aunt murdered my godfather!"
He didn't say anything. His eyes seemed to be searching mine for something. I could feel his hot, fierce breaths on my face as we stood there in a charged silence, pressed up against one another.
"You tried to stop Umbridge from torturing me," I whispered, looking up into those hypnotic grey eyes.
"I- I wasn't..." he trailed off, his breathing slowed and confusion flickered in his eyes.
He suddenly let go of me, backing away. My hand flew to my chest trying to calm my furiously thudding heart.
"Just stay away from me from now on, Potter," he said quietly, finally tearing his eyes away from me.
And with that, he turned and fled.
***