Rosabella Black |Daughter Of Sirius Black| (Book 5)

Detention With Umbridge

Rosabella's Point of View:

During dinner Harry told us what McGonagall told him and passed on her warning to us, mainly me, about misbehaviour in Umbridge's class. McGonagall told Harry that misbehaviour in Umbridge's class could result in worse things then losing house points or detentions, Umbridge was reporting directly to Fudge.

This didn't mean that I wasn't going to mess with Umbridge, on the contrary, I just had to be sneaky about it and cover my tracks. That just makes it more fun. Harry also told us that Umbridge had given him detention everynight this week, starting tomorrow.
Dinner in the Great Hall that night was not a pleasant experience for Harry.

The news about his shouting match with Umbridge seemed to have traveled exceptionally fast even by Hogwarts standards. We heard whispers all around us as we sat eating Gryffindor table. None of the whisperers seemed to mind Harry overhearing what they were saying about him, it seemed as though they were hoping he would get angry and start shouting again, so that they could hear his story firsthand.
     
“He says he saw Cedric Diggory murdered . . .”
     
“He reckons he dueled with You - Know - Who . . .”
    
“Come off it . . .”
    
“Who does he think he’s kidding?”
    
“Pur-lease . . .”
    
“What I don’t get, is why they all believed the story two months ago when Dumbledore told them.” Harry said in a shaking voice, laying down his knife and fork.
    
“The thing is, Harry, I’m not sure they did.” said Hermione grimly.
    
“Oh, let’s get out of here.” I snapped
and slammed down my knife and fork.

Hermione got up immediately, Ron looked sadly at his half-finished apple pie but followed suit. People stared at us all the way out of the Hall.
    
“What d’you mean, you’re not sure they believed Dumbledore?” Harry asked Hermione when we reached the first-floor landing.
    
“Look, you don’t understand what it was like after it happened.” I said quietly.
    
“You arrived back in the middle of the lawn clutching Cedric’s dead body. None of us saw what happened in the maze. We just had Dumbledore’s word for it that You - Know - Who had come back and killed Cedric and fought you.” Hermione said.
     
“Which is the truth!” said Harry loudly.
    
"She know it is, Harry, so will you please stop biting her head off?” I said scoldingly.
    
“It’s just that before the truth could sink in, everyone went home for the summer, where they spent two months reading about how you’re a nutcase and Dumbledore’s going senile!” I continued for Hermione, who was glancing at Harry wearily.

Rain pounded on the windowpanes as we strode along the empty corridors back to Gryffindor Tower. We still had a mountain of homework to do before bed.
    
“Mimbulus mimbletonia,” Hermione said, before the Fat Lady could ask.

The portrait swung open to reveal the hole behind and the four of us, plus Winter, scrambled through it.

The common room was almost empty, nearly everyone was still down at dinner. We sat in our favorite chairs at the fireside. Crookshanks curled up in Hermione's lap and Winter layed her head on my lap and I scratched behind her ear.
    
“How can Dumbledore have let this happen?” Hermione cried suddenly, making the rest of us jump. Crookshanks leapt off her, looking affronted.
    
“How can he let that terrible woman teach us? And in our O.W.L. year too!” Hermione exclaimed.
    
“Well, we’ve never had great Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers, have we? Apart from Remus. You know what it’s like, Hagrid told us, nobody wants the job, they say it’s jinxed.” Harry said.
    
“Yes, but to employ someone who’s actually refusing to let us do magic! What’s Dumbledore playing at?” Hermione said shrilly.
    
"It's not Dumbledore's fault. There's this new policy that if Dumbledore or any Headmaster can't find someone to take a teaching position, the Ministry will appoint one." I said, miserably.
     
"How do you know that?" Hermione said, surprised.
     
"Lucas. He's quite good at spying for such a tall guy." I said casually.
     
“She’s trying to get people to spy for her. Remember when she said she wanted us to come and tell her if we hear anyone saying You - Know - Who’s back?” Ron said darkly.
    
“Of course she’s here to spy on us all, that’s obvious, why else would Fudge have wanted her to come?” Hermione snapped.
    
“Don’t start arguing again.” said Harry wearily, as Ron opened his mouth to retaliate.
   
“Can’t we just . . . Let’s just do that homework, get it out of the way.” I said hurriedly.