The Eagle and The Snake: A Tragic Love Story

84. Snake School

Within a few weeks, everyone had learned exactly what kind of teachers the Carrows were, and how seriously they took their roles as head of punishments.
You couldn't go a day without walking past a student covered in cuts and brusies.
The Carrows quickly recieved the nickname; the terrible twins, because of how brutal they were. The punishments they handed out made Umbridge look like a caring motherly figure.
The other teachers were supposed to report misbehaving students to the Carrows, but the stopped doing that when they saw exactly what went on in detentions.
Needless to say, Madam Pomfrey was kept very busy that term.

Only the Slytherins managed to escape the Carrows punishments, no matter how many rules they broke.
The Carrows didn't want to punish those in their own house, especially as many of the students in it were the children of their fellow death eaters.
They tried to avoid spilling too much pure blood, especially if it belonged to a member of the Sacred 28 Pure-blood families. So, it was the half-bloods who suffered the most at the Carrows hands.

Large gangs of Slytherins patrolled the school as if they owned it, bullying anyone who got in their way. They were allowed to hex whomever they liked, without being punished.
In fact, they were practically encouraged to pick on kids who had Muggle relatives.
When Carly wasn't with Luna, she was forced to join in with these Slytherin gangs, or risk becoming an outcast like Draco, who had isolated himself from everyone, as he was haunted by all of the things Voldemort had made him do. He had become a shadow of his former arrogant self, just like his father had.
Draco's old lackies Crabbe and Goyle, now ran their own Slytherin gang, and it was by far the most brutal one. They didn't take orders from anyone anymore, especially not Draco Malfoy.

Life at Hogwarts for Half-bloods was very bad, particularly during Muggle Studies classes.
In these lessons Alecto made up a whole bunch of lies about Muggles, in order to make them seem stupid and dirty.
Since Carly had grown up with Ted as a guardian, she knew the truth about Muggles.
Therefore she found it hard to listen to Alecto spew utter nonsense every week.
But since she didn't want anyone to know about how she really felt about Muggles, as that would put her in danger, she had to keep an aloof facade going all the time, to fool them all.

Amycus's Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons were just as evil as Alecto's Muggle Studies classes, for instead of learning defensive charms, the students were actually taught dark magic.
Luna and Carly already knew most of the spells being taught, so they didn't have a problem with any of it.
However, they didn't enjoy being forced to perform the Cruciatus Curse on first years and those in detention. As these people had done them no wrong, so it didn't feel right to hurt them.

Despite the school falling into darkness, the DA reformed and did their best to keep everyone's hopes up.
The bravest of the group freed students chained in the dungeons, and wrote inspiring messages on the walls at night.
Ginny and Neville even broke into the Headmasters office, in an attempt to steal Godric Gryffindor's sword that was kept there. But they failed, and were severly punished.

To stop Luna and Carly from revealing DA secrets, Ginny had stolen their fake galleons, which the DA used to send messages on.
After being taught the Imperius Curse in class, she used it on a first year Slytherin, and got her to break into Carly's room to find the galleon.
She then did the same to a first year Ravenclaw, to get hold of Luna's one.
Ginny knew what she did was bad, but in her mind protecting those in the DA came first.

"I know this is what we always wanted, but I have to admit that I'm not as happy as I thought I would be" revealed Carly one evening, as the girls studied at a private table in the Restricted Section.
"What aren't you happy about?" Asked Luna, who didn't even look up from her Potions homework.
"I'm not happy that all of the non Slytherins avoid me, like I've got the plague or something. And I'm not happy with the way all the teachers treat me. But I can't complain to my Head of house about it, because with Snape as Headmaster now, I'm stuck with Slughorn. And Slughorn is one of the teachers who hates me" admitted Carly.