How To Annoy A Gryffindor ; harry potter

Step 54: Get in Trouble

April passed way too quickly for Ember's liking. She was terrified of what was to come in May, the month that she had predicted the Dark Lord would come and invade Hogwarts. It was only early in the month, the second to be exact. Not to mention everything was too normal. Her friend group was back together like normal and Ember seemed to be the only one suspicious.

The classes had been going on silently. Students were locked up and it seemed that only the Carrows had access the rooms where they were hidden. It was rare that a Slytherin got a punishment, especially because most of them were too scared to speak out of turn but when they did it would only be a slight electric shock. Others got tortured, locked up... Ember wasn't sure if anyone had died yet but she wouldn't put it past the Carrows.

"Draco Malfoy, if I see you snap at one more first-year I will murder you right here!" Astoria Greengrass screeched in the middle of the Great Hall after Draco gave a particularly rude comment to one of the younger years.

"Miss Greengrass," Amycus Carrows sung, gliding down the Slytherin table. He pointed his wand at her and her body convulsed as she screamed once. "I thought we established months ago that there was to be no talking in the Great Hall."

When the spell wore off, Astoria stormed out of the Great Hall without another word. She was the only one willing to defy the Carrows other than Ember and those who still believed in Dumbledore's Army... which was barely anyone. In some ways, Ember admired her behaviour, but it was also stupid. She couldn't go around yelling in the hall again because as much as Astoria didn't want to be tortured or shocked anymore, Ember didn't want to have to see it.

"Good morning class, we're working on our Fiendfyre once more until you can all get the hang of it," Amycus said later that afternoon during their Dark Arts class.

Crabbe and Goyle shared a look of glee. The two of them had particularly loved the topic of learning dark curses such as Fiendfyre. It was a curse that produced enchanted flames of immense size and heat that were capable of destroying nearly anything in its path, taking the form of gigantic fiery beasts such as serpents, chimeras and dragons that seek out living targets.

It was dangerous and incredibly hard to control, Amycus had insisted that no one actually produce the curse in case someone was murdered in the process. Ember assumed that he only said this so he himself didn't die, it was unlikely that he cared about anyone else.

The entire room was just waving their wands around carelessly, some hexing their friends. Amycus marched around the room, occasionally whipping his wand to send a jelly-leg curse at someone.

Muggle Studies the next period wasn't any better. This particular lesson was teaching them how to kill muggles without using a wand. It made Ember sick to her stomach, the entire time she could see the death of Amanda flashing through her mind. The pain that had covered Sabrina and Romeo's faces and she just wished she could see the two of them.

"So, there's this thing called electricity and if it goes in water it shocks them!" Alecto was saying giddily. "You can feed them to a Hippogriff, I'm sure that would be a lot better."

Ember didn't comment. She wanted to say something about how you couldn't just find a Hippogriff lying around in a muggle town, but that would only trigger Alecto even more and Ember didn't fancy being tortured in the middle of class.

The rest of Muggle Studies went on with more traumatising ideas of how to kill them and then Alecto got so bored that she listed a bunch of spells that they could cast to torture, kill and injure them. Apparently she just wanted to have all muggles dead. It was unlikely that she was completely pure and it made Ember wonder what her parents had done to her when she was younger because one of them would have been either a muggle or a half-blood.