Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [5]

⚡️ Chapter 31 ⚡️

However, Vega, Harry and Ron did not have to wait for Defence Against the Dark Arts to meet Professor Umbridge. It was Monday but Vega was having her Arithmancy and Divination classes one by one. She sat down with Harry and Ron as per usual in a seat at the very back of the shadowy classroom, and she opened her bag to rummage around for her Dream Diary, hoping that she would not have to give it to Professor Trelawney.

Ron suddenly elbowed her at her side and she looked toward him quizzically until he nodded his head ahead. Vega looked around to see none other than the pink toad, Professor Umbridge emerging through the trapdoor in the floor. Vega groaned internally.

It's hard enough to see her face when you have to in class,

and now we have to see her elsewhere, too?

The entire classroom, which had been talking cheerily, fell silent at once. And this abrupt fall in the noise level made Professor Trelawney, who had been wafting about handing out Dream Oracles to every little table, looked around to see the cause.

"Good afternoon, Professor Trelawney," Professor Umbridge greeted with her wide smile. "You received my note, I trust? Giving the time and date of your inspection?"

Professor Trelawney nodded curtly and, looking very disgruntled, turned her back on Professor Umbridge and continued to give out books. Still smiling, Professor Umbridge grasped the back of the nearest armchair and pulled it to the front of the class so that it was a few inches behind Professor Trelawney's seat.

Umbridge then sat down, took her clipboard from her flowery bag, and looked up expectantly, waiting for the class to begin. Professor Trelawney pulled her shawls tight about her with slightly trembling hands and surveyed the class through her hugely magnifying lenses.

"We shall be continuing our study of prophetic dreams today," Professor Trelawney said in a brave attempt at her usual mystic tones, though her voice shook slightly. "Divide into pairs, please, and interpret each other's latest night-time visions with the aid of the Oracle,"

Vega knew that she was to do it on her because she was the odd-student out so she simply opened her copy of The Dream Oracle. She glanced over to see that Professor Trelawney made as though to sweep back to her seat, saw Professor Umbridge sitting right beside it, and immediately veered left toward Parvati and Lavender, who were already deep in discussion about Parvati's most recent dream.

"Do you want to interpret each other's dreams?" Neville asked as he turned to look at Vega and she looked back at him in surprise. "I don't have a partner, either,"

It seemed strange at times but Vega felt like Neville was being quite friendly to her now. She was, of course, very appreciative of this and almost agreed to do it with him when she remembered what sort of stuff that she had detailed in her Dream Diary.

Neville shouldn't be reading all of this.

"Um, I'm supposed to work on my own," Vega informed him. "Because I wouldn't be here every day..." She looked around and saw Fay Dunbar entering the room late. "Oh, look! It's Fay, you can do it with her," Neville looked over as well.

Soon, Neville and Fay were working together, and so were Harry and Ron. Seamus and Dean were together and of course, Parvati and Lavender. And being on her own, Vega could time her interpretation to watching Umbridge covertly. The woman was making notes on her clipboard now.

After a few minutes, Umbridge got to her feet and began to pace the room in Trelawney's wake, listening to her conversations with students and posing questions here and there. Vega turned her grey eyes back down to her diary, ready to disguise it if Umbridge demanded for it.