silence | r. weasley

chapter 2

TW: umbridge is abusive, and this chapter does contain the scenes where harry uses the magic quill for detention.

EVEN THOUGH BEATRICE HAD never had a class with Cedric Diggory, walking into class the following morning was hard. Maybe it was because she missed him, or that she was desperately trying to avoid Draco, or that in less than an hour, she'd be facing her mother in class.

"Beatrice, can I see your timetable?" Hermione had asked when Beatrice sat down at lunch that day. Beatrice reluctantly handed it over. "Hmm... that's strange. When I look at the timetable from this angle, it says you've got divination, but from this angle, it says muggle studies?"

"Oh... I've had some issues with it." she quickly lied, not sure why Hermione Granger - easily the smartest in their year - cared about Beatrice's schedule. They'd only ever talked twice before, the previous night, and in their first year, when Beatrice had misplaced her quills and Hermione had leant her one. Funnily enough, that one quill was the only quill Beatrice had used since. It had been her first interaction with a Gryffindor, and she'd savored it, even though she thought it was stupid. "Professor McGonagall and I are going to go over it later." she grabbed the paper back, and ate a club sandwich that had appeared on her plate, before leaving the great hall. She wished that she hadn't been in such a rush, because it meant that she was the first one to enter her mother's class.

Because no one was in the room, she got to choose her spot, the very back row, at the furthest right seat. The class filled slowly, and everyone looked around anxiously, trying to spot their new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. She didn't appear until everyone was seated. Draco had tried to sit next to her, before Blaise Zabini had taken the spot. She didn't talk much to Blaise, they had no bad blood, but they just had a silent agreement not to bother. When her mother finally did enter the class room, Beatrice immediately wanted to cut her ears off. She thought of Van Gogh and smiled for a split second, before remembering she wasn't in her basement listening to the best songs from the 80s, and was indeed about to die of embarrassment in front of her entire class.

"Good morning class," she started. The only person to respond louder than a mumble was Hermione Granger, who was still quiet, for her. "Oh no, that certainly won't do. When I speak to you, I expect a proper response. 'Good morning Professor Umbridge' should do it. Let's try that again, shall we? Good morning, class."

"Good morning Professor Umbridge." the voices of Beatrice's classmates were mixed with fear, distaste and boredom.

"Much better!" the sickly sweet smile made it's appearance again. "Now, wands away, and pull out parchment and quills." The class groaned at her words; there had yet to be an interesting lesson that started with "wands away." The shuffle of paper took over as Dolores Umbridge tapped her wand on the blackboard behind her, and a list of rules showed up. She made them all copy down her rules, before instructing them to read the first chapter of their D.A.D.A. book.

Hermione's hand was in the air only seconds after being assigned her work, her textbook laying untouched on her desk. Dolores ignored her until she couldn't possibly pretend not to see her any longer.

"Yes, dear," her voice was strained, and Beatrice stilled. She never referred to her daughter as 'dear' and that's how she knew that these classes were going to be torture. If only she'd known the gravity of her thoughts, and the truth behind them.

"Well, I was just wondering when we'd start our actual work, Professor?"

"Actual work?"

"With wands, practicing actual defense against the dark arts." Hermione shrugged like it was obvious.

"Like I've mentioned before," her voice raised an octave. "You will be learning a Ministry-Approved curriculum of which your education is lacking, in a proper, and safe environment, much unlike your previous classes. The only professor who came close to meeting our standards was perhaps Professor Quirrell."