An American At Hogwarts: Book Three

Chapter Fifteen

I opted out of dinner in the Great Hall after my talk with McGonagall. Despite my resolve not to rise to Umbridge's stupid comments, I still didn't want to see her tonight. I'd make up an excuse to Cedric and the rest of my friends later.

Instead, I went for a walk around the grounds. I needed to clear my head, and a little fresh air and exercise was the best way I could think to do that.

In my two years in the magical world, most of my problems had been easily solved with a little muggle ingenuity, physicality, and a few passionate arguments to put uppity people back in their place. But, after my talk with McGonagall, I was quickly realizing none of those tactics would work against Umbridge.

I'd have to be a little more subtle in my rebellion, at least for now.

Once I managed to get my heartrate down a little, I went back to the Common Room and ate in my dorm. I managed to do the little bit of homework we'd been assigned after our first day, and then I turned to my trunk and pulled out an empty notebook.

I opened it to the first page and picked out my favorite pen, ready to write as soon as inspiration struck. I'd been in the magical world so long I mostly focused on spells and training nowadays. But, with Umbridge and her little speech, I decided it was time to return to my roots.

Progress for the sake of progress was the Stark motto, after all.

It had bee a while since I'd actually carved out time for myself to try and invent something, so it wasn't as easy as it used to be when my dad and I would just spend a few days down in the lab coming up with crazier and crazier ideas. Still, I was determined. I needed to do something to feel like I was hitting back at Umbridge, so I managed rough design for a mechanical system that would close the drapes around my bed and shut off the lantern at the flip of a switch before closing my notebook. I could hear Angelina and Alicia coming up the stairs and talking loudly, and I knew I wasn't going to be doing any more productive brainstorming once they got up here.

Apparently, Harry had gotten detention from his screaming match with Umbridge, which meant he wouldn't be able to make tryouts for Quidditch on Friday. Angelina had been looking for him in the Common Room to yell at him, but he wasn't there, and now she was practically boiling over she was so furious.

"I'm going to kill him tomorrow!" she yelled, flopping down on her bed after venting to me and Alicia. "I asked him for one thing for the responsibility of the team, and he couldn't even pull that off!"

She was definitely turning into Oliver Wood.

Still, I couldn't help a small smile at this new craze from my best friend. I just shook my head and offered to put on some music to help her take her mind off things while I made the modifications to my bed.

"What exactly are you trying to do, anyway?" asked Angelina, finally shifting her attention to me now that she'd had a good amount of time to yell about Harry.

"I'm gonna hook my curtains and lamp to a switch so I can turn them on and off more easily," I said, pulling a few tools out of my trunk. "I think I might find a way to tilt it up so I can go straight from laying down to standing too, but that'll be for tomorrow."

"I have a better idea," Alicia chimed in. I turned to see an uncharacteristically evil smirk on her face.

"And what might that be?"

"Do it to the boys' beds instead, so you can launch them out of bed in the morning."

I grinned. "Alicia, that is a fantastic idea. Although, it might have to just be Lee... I have a truce with the twins, and now that they've got all their magical joke products ready for human testers, I don't know if I want to break that truce..."