Rise of the Death Eaters [3]

Chapter 45: A Word with Dumbledore

**Long chapter Warning. Word count: 4152**

"There now Mr. Nott. We mustn't get ahead of ourselves," Umbridge remarked with a girlish giggle that did not belong in such a situation. Nott calmed his laughter as instructed but his eyes still gleamed with silent humor as Umbridge turned back to survey the D.A.

"Potter!" She said jubilantly as Harry moved forward from our clump. "Oh excellent," she went on with a little hop of excitement as she motioned the inquisitor squad forward to join her like hunting dogs waiting for the signal to track.

"Such a capture deserves celebrating," she went on, looking to the students behind her. "50 points must be awarded to Slytherin," she deemed, before turning daringly at the rest of us like bullies do when they want to see people's dejected looks after a victory. "For the wonderful effort house Slytherin has given-"

She stopped mid-sentence as she finally looked in my direction. She locked eyes on me and in that moment part of her carefree joy was extinguished like a snap and replaced with a heated spark that was no doubt anger.

Ah, so she did trust me somewhat. How awkward.

"You!" some students from the DA turned to the direction of her accusations, resting on me as I remained abundantly still.

"This was my doing," Harry declared, turning everyone's attention back to him. "If you are to go after anyone-"

"Oh not to worry dear," Umbridge stopped him short in a dangerously soft voice as she slowly turned back to Harry. "Punishment will be awarded to you most severely. As for the others," she added, with a look my way, "Let's make short work of this."

"Collect them."

In a dash of movement those in the Inquisitor squad shot forward, with trip jinxes angled at  the DA. Some were fast enough to know what was coming and run for it. Three D.A. were hit and went down while another made it around a column before Blaise came from the side and stunned him in passing.

Sam detached from me immediately and ran in the direction of Alice who was dangerously close to Crabbe and Goyle volleying stun spells at random. Tati raced with her friends to a corner of the room for cover, barely missing a jinx that recached off the mirror.

Dom was by Ella's side in an instant with Jasper following with his wand drawn while across the room I heard my name called. Theo was trying to get to my side, shoving one of the inquisitor members out of the way as he did so.

"Run!"

A flicker of annoyance hit me at the command. Run where, Theo? There were at a minimum three people after me and those were only the definite ones. For all I knew someone other than Draco, Umbridge or Pansy would catch me.

As if being summoned from my thoughts, I heard Pansy's voice leer at me. My wand was already drawn at the ready as I saw Pansy come stalking towards me with a greedy expression of triumph on her face.

"Made a mistake at last did you?" I heard her say. "I doubt Draco will want to talk to you after this."

"Oh just shut up, Pansy. Petrificus Totalus!"

The spell hit it's mark oddly easy. As if Pansy hadn't expected me to dare retaliate when Umbridge was present to watch. Nevertheless, Pansy dropped unpleasantly to the ground with a satisfying smack, unblocking my view from Draco who was moving fast toward my position from across the room. A flash of those grey eyes looked my way making me want to bolt. But as I turned to retreat, I caught Nott freakishly close by my shoulder with an inquisitive smirk of delight on his face.

"Bet that felt good, huh, Ava?" Nott had snuck up while my head was turned but surprisingly didn't move to jinx me. "Pansy's always needed a good stunning if you asked me."