Purple Rain.

Chapter Twenty-One.

"Did everyone see that Grubbly-Plank woman?" asked Ginny. "What's she doing back here? Hagrid can't have left, can he?"

"I'll be quite glad if he has," said Luna. "He isn't a very good teacher, is he?"

"Yes, he is!" said Harry, Ron, and Ginny angrily.

Harry glared at Hermione. She cleared her throat and quickly said, "Erm... yes... he's very good."

"Well, we think he's a bit of a joke in Ravenclaw," said Luna, unfazed. (Y/n) winced and averted her eyes.

"You've got a rubbish sense of humour then," Ron snapped, as the wheels below them creaked into motion.
Luna did not seem perturbed by Ron's rudeness; on the contrary, she simply watched him for a while as though he were a mildly interesting television program.

"I guess you guys wouldn't know," (Y/n) murmured quietly. "I'll tell you what's happened to Hagrid later... Remind me if I forget."
Rattling and swaying, the carriages moved in convoy up the road. When they passed between the tall stone pillars topped with winged boars on either side of the gates to the school grounds, Harry leaned forward to try and see whether there were any lights on in Hagrid's cabin by the Forbidden Forest, but the grounds were in complete darkness. Hogwarts Castle, however, loomed ever closer: a towering mass of turrets, jet-back against the dark sky, here and there a window blazing fiery bright above them.
The carriages jingled to a halt near the stone steps leading up to the cloak front doors and Harry got out of the carriage first.

"Are you coming or what?" Ron asked, finally breaking Harry from his thoughts.

"Oh... yeah," said Harry quickly, and they joined the crowd hurrying up the stone steps into the castle.
The entrance hall was ablaze with torches and echoing with footsteps as the students crossed the flagged stone floor for the double doors to the right, leading to the Great Hall and the start-of-term feast.
The four long House tables in the Great Hall were filling up under the starless black ceiling, which was just like the sky they could glimpse through the high windows. Candles floated in midair all along the tables, illuminating the silver ghosts who were dotted about the Hall and the faces of the students talking eagerly to one another, exchanging summer news, shouting greetings at friends from other Houses, eyeing one another's new haircuts and robes. Harry heard (Y/n) gasps at the face of a new ghost: one who had not been a ghost a mere few months prior.
"Hey," Harry said softly, slipping his hand into (Y/n)'s. "You'll be okay. Just—"

"(Y/n)!" Cho Chang and Padma Patil shouted. Less than a moment later, (Y/n) was being whisked off to the Ravenclaw, sending apologetic looks back at the Gryffindors.

"Hi, Helena!" the girls greeted their favourite House ghost. Helena Ravenclaw came and greeted them all, being especially fond when greeting (Y/n).

"Oh hell no," (Y/n) said suddenly.

"What?" Cho asked, peering at the professors' table.
First, Professor Dumbledore was sitting in his high-backed golden chair at the centre of the long staff table, wearing deep-purple robes scattered with silvery stars and a matching hat. Dumbledore's head was inclined toward the woman sitting next to him, who was talking into his ear. She looked like somebody's maiden aunt: squat, with short, curly, mouse-brown hair in which she had placed a horrible pink Alice band that matched the fluffy pink cardigan she wore over her robes. Then she turned her face slightly to take a sip from her goblet with a pallid, toadlike face and a pair of prominent pouchy eyes.
"Who's that?" Cho said, trying not to laugh at the woman's appearance.

"Dolores Umbridge," (Y/n) said. "She was my biggest problem during that trial."

"That was a huge accomplishment, you know?" Padma said. "Imagine telling our kids 'when I was your age, I was winning court trials.'"