in the end ~ d. malfoy

Chapter Twenty-Six

𝐒𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟓

❝ HAVE A BISCUIT, MISS RAJESH ❞

"What?!" Maya sputters, all traces of shame gone from her voice.

'Have a biscuit,' repeats McGonnagall, impatiently, indicating a tartan tin lying on top of one of the piles of papers on her desk. 'And sit down.'

There's been a previous occasion when Maya, expecting to be punished by Professor McGonagall, had instead been praised for her willingness to defend herself. She sinks into a chair opposite the older woman and helps herself to a jammie dodger, feeling just as confused and wrong-footed as she had on that particular occasion.

Professor McGonagall sets down Professor Umbridge's note and looks very seriously at her. Maya looks down in shame, feeling like a toddler being caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

'I assume you know why you're here?" She says. Maya nods, not being able to look her in the eye.

'Rajesh, you need to be careful around that woman.'

Maya immediately looks up, staring at Professor McGonagall in shock. Her tone of voice is not at all what Maya's used to; it's not brisk, crisp and stern; it's low and anxious and somehow much more human than usual.

'Misbehaviour in Dolores Umbridge's class could cost you much more than house points and a detention.'

'What do you mean — ?'

'Use your common sense,' snaps Professor McGonagall, with an abrupt return to her usual manner. 'You know what happened to you last year. Do you really want to give her another opportunity to humiliate you?'

The bell rings for the end of the lesson. Overhead and all-around comes the elephantine sounds of hundreds of students on the move.

'It says here she's given you detention every evening this week, starting tomorrow,' Professor McGonagall says, looking down at Umbridge's note again.

'Every evening?' Maya repeats, horrified. 'But, Professor, couldn't you — ?'

'No, I couldn't,' says Professor McGonagall flatly.

'But — '

'She is your teacher and has every right to give you detention. You will go to her room at five o'clock tomorrow for the first one. Just remember to tread carefully around Dolores Umbridge.'

'But — but I was telling the truth!!" Maya sputters, 'I was there, I saw what he did, I saw him come back — "

'For heaven's sake, Rajesh!' says Professor McGonagall, straightening her glasses angrily. 'Do you really think this is about truth or lies? It's about keeping your head down and your temper under control! You, of all people, should understand what I'm talking about.'

She stands up, nostrils wide and mouth very thin, and Maya stands up, too, somewhat awkwardly.

'Your father had the exact same temper as you. It got him in a considerable amount of trouble during his time here, ' she snaps, angrily, I won't let the same thing happen to you. Do you understand me? — "

"But — "

"She will be hard on you, " continues Professor McGonagall, sternly, "She will taunt you, she will try and twist your words into something they're not. If the opportunity arises, she may even try and bring up your past, which has been splattered across the front page of the Daily Prophet for the past three months. But your job, as a student and as a decent human being — is to take it with a grain of salt. You cannot afford any more mistakes, not with her around. I am telling you this for the last time — keep your head down. Do your work in classes and speak back to her only when she asks you to. Now have another biscuit,' she says, irritably, thrusting the tin at Maya.