Alice is just 11 years old when she finds out she's a witch and has to attend a magic school. Her life's been pretty ordinary; although she has never known her true family, she's found one in her foster parents. However, everything will change when...
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"I don't know how I feel about this new professor." Said Alice worriedly as she headed towards her first Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson alongside Daphne.
"I'm sure she's not that bad." She replied, not very convinced.
Once they made it into the classroom, Daphne sat with Hermione in the front of the class, while Alice stayed at the back in the place next to Draco. He took the opportunity to move his chair closer to hers and stretched his arm around the back of her chair.
"Good morning, children." Professor Umbridge greeted them in a very unpleasant, evidently unnatural high-pitch voice. A few people answered her, but she wasn't happy with the feedback she got.
"Tut, tut," said Professor Umbridge. "That won't do, now, will it? I should like you, please, to reply 'Good morning, Professor Umbridge.' One more time, please. Good morning, class."
"Good morning, Professor Umbridge," they chanted back at her.
"That's better." She smiled. "This year you have your Ordinary Wizarding Level examinations. O-W-Ls. More commonly known as OWLs." She wrote the letters on the small blackboard behind her. "Study hard and you will be rewarded. Fail to do so, and the consequences may be severe."
"Did you hear that? Severe consequences." Draco leaned closer to Alice, mocking Umbridge's voice and earning a giggle from the young witch.
"Your previous instruction in this subject has been disturbingly uneven. But you'll be pleased to know, from now on you will be following a carefully structured, Ministry-approved course of defensive magic. Yes?"
Now Alice was the one to tilt her head towards Draco to comment on what the professor had just said. "Doesn't that sound fun?"
Suddenly, the two of them were abruptly separated by an invisible force that shoved their chairs apart from each other. Alice had to clutch at the edge of her seat as not to fall down. Unfortunately, Draco did hit the floor and, surprisingly, nobody laughed at him, not even Harry, since the one that had caused that was Umbridge herself.
"You're in a classroom." She said, her tone turning severe. "Respect an appropriate distance, please." Everyone was looking at them, probably more at Draco as he got up from the ground, but Alice could feel her face turning red from embarrassment and tried to hide it by lowering her head. Professor Umbridge continued with the class as if nothing had happened. "Has everybody got a copy of Defensive Magical Theory by Wilbert Slinkhard?"
"There's nothing in here about using defensive spells." Hermione raised her hand and spoke before she was asked.
"Using spells?" Asked Umbridge, sounding surprised and alarmed at the same time. "Well, I can't imagine why you would need to use spells in my classroom."
