The Light in the Dark | Neville Longbottom

Chapter 17: Snake Eyes

November 17th, 1995 - 5:00pm

"Please tell me you're kidding!" Hermione asked sternly, "Umbridge's banned all three of you from playing!"

"YEAH!" Harry screamed, his face red and stained with tears, "THAT... THAT BITCH, I SWEAR!"

After the events that took place at the end of the quidditch match, Umbridge banned the twins and Harry from playing quidditch for the rest of their time at Hogwarts. The twins were angry, immediately storming up to their dorm the moment they got back. Harry, on the other hand, broke down completely before he even made it to the stairs.

"AND GUESS WHAT? MALFOY GOT NOTHING!" Harry yelled, pacing back-and-forth, "LIKE HE WASN'T THE ONE WHO STARTED THE WHOLE THING! HE WAS BASICALLY ASKING FOR IT!"

According to Harry, Draco was making fun of Ron, calling him dirty and poor. Even though Harry ignored him, at first, Draco kept antagonizing Ron. Then, Draco started poking fun at Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, which angered Fred and George. Harry held George back while it took the joint efforts of Angelina Johnson, Katie Bell, and Alicia Spinnet (The Gryffindor team's chasers) to hold back Fred. But the moment Draco mentioned something about Lily Evans, Harry's mother, all hell broke loose, and the two boys jumped him.

"Have you spoken to Dumbledore? Has anyone?" I asked frantically, "Just because she's High Inquisitor doesn't mean she has power over the Headmaster, and I'm sure that Dumbledore would understand-"

"OF COURSE, I WOULD'VE GONE TO DUMBLEDORE," Harry spat, "IF HE WAS HERE! AND SINCE HE'S NOT, UMBRIDGE IS OBVIOUSLY IN CHARGE AT THE MOMENT! DON'T BE DAFT, DAWN!"

I swallowed the lump in the throat, taking a step back. The tingly feeling quickly reappeared as I sent Hermione a cold look; she subtly shook her head, hoping that I wouldn't have responded to Harry's rebuke. And I listened to her, Harry was a walking time-bomb, and if I set it off, it wasn't going to end well. Ron noticed my fixture, and leaned in.

"More like Umbitch, don't you think?" Ron chuckled softly, causing me to relax my shoulders and laugh.

Harry scoffed loudly, "WHAT'S SO FUNNY OVER THERE, YOU TWO? THE TWINS AND I WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN IN THAT SITUATION IF YOU WERE ABLE TO BLOCK A BLOODY QUAFFLE, RONALD!"

Ron's smile dropped almost immediately, "Nobody asked for you three to get involved. Maybe if you learned how to control your anger, Potter, you'd still be on the team!"

"MALFOY ATTACKED MY MOTHER!" Harry protested angrily, lunging forward.

"HE CALLED MY MOTHER A PIG," Ron shouted, standing up from the sofa, "AND YOU DIDN'T SEE ME BEATING THE BLOODY DAYLIGHTS OUT OF HIM!"

Harry raised his fist, prompting Hermione to pull out her wand and hold him back. I did the same to Ron, grabbing his arm and yanking him back to the sofa. The last thing we needed was these two getting into a fight and having a repeat of fourth year.

"ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS!" Hermione scolded loudly, tears forming in her eyes, "YOU BOTH NEED TO CALM DOWN RIGHT NOW BEFORE SOMEONE SAYS SOMETHING THEY'LL REALLY REGRET!"

Harry pushed away from Hermione, "You expect me to just calm down, 'Mione? You know what... I'll calm down the second I stop getting attacked for my blatant existence, does that sound alright with you three?"

Nobody responded, we all just stared coldly at Harry. Angrily, Harry scoffed, turned on his heel, and stormed upstairs. Moments later, the only sound heard in the common room was the slamming of a bedroom door on the fifth floor.

Hermione sighed as she put her wand back into her pocket, "Well... that went well."

"What an arse..." Ron spat, relaxing and taking a seat again, "I really tried, you know! We couldn't practice for two weeks because of Fred, then Umbridge wasn't allowing us to use the pitch, and let's not forget that bloody song..."