But Father I Love Him (Harry Potter)

3. The frilly pink cow.

The room is alive with chatter and noise, and I watch the Patil twins' paper airplane soar through the air.

It suddenly bursts into flames, leaving the twins taken aback, speechless.

"O.W.L.s, more commonly known as OWLs!" Umbridge says in a high pitched voice as she moves her wand to write on the chalkboard.

She then passes out books, Defense against the Dark Arts for beginners, stating that our course needed to be more organized.

I want to speak up, but I know I need to get on her good side.

Potter of course, speaks up.

"So you're saying Cedric Diggory dropped dead on his own accord?" His voice is filled with hatred and loathing, his shoulders tense.

"Cedric Diggory's death was a tragic accident!" Umbridge snaps back.

He tries to speak up again, but Umbridge interrupts him with a cold voice.

"Detention, Mr Potter."

His friends glance at each other, worried looks crossing their faces.

Umbridge then goes through her "planned course" that was set for us by the ministry.

I overhear Granger talking about how we were going to fail our O.W.L.s, and she was right.

Umbridge taught us nothing but that she wanted to take over the school, with the excuse of the ministry.

Potter has his hands clenched into fists beside him, as he murders Umbridge with his loathing green eyes.

I look down at the book with faces of smiling cartoon children on the cover, staring up at me.

The book is tattered and old, from Umbridge's storage.

The pages are littered with dust as I attempt to brush some off.

"Hem hem." Umbridge clears her throat, and rereads the directions twice to make sure we "absorbed all the knowledge given."

Then she hands out an activity to work on in pairs.

"Ms Granger... and Mr Nott..."

Theo reluctantly moves next to Granger, who inches away from him.

"Ms Parkingson... and Mr Corner..."

Daphne's face practically falls, and she sends a death stare to Pansy, who mouths that "she wanted to be with Draco."

Daphne doesn't believe her, and huffs angrily.

"Mr Weasley and Ms Greengrass."

Daphne gets up after rolling her eyes, and moves as far away from Weasley as she could get away with.

"Mr Malfoy and Ms Abbott."

Abbott blushes, twirling her blonde hair around her finger.

Draco forces a half smile at her, and she giggles, touching his biceps with her fingers.

Pansy looks disgusted, and I know she is silently vowing to Avada her in her sleep.

"Ms Malfoy... and Mr Potter."

I sigh.

Could this day get any worse?

Potter's lips form a straight line as we awkwardly move next to each other.

My mind plays over the incident on the train as Umbridge gives us directions for the fifth time.

Potter and I work in silence, and I overhear conversations from other tables.

"You're doing it wrong!" I hear Granger complain to Theo, who grumbles in annoyance.

Pansy and Michael Corner look disgusted at each other while Daphne looks longingly over at their table.

I watch as Weasley shoots a look over at Potter, and they share a look.

Draco's lips are pursed together and he glances at Pansy  as Abbott smiles ear to ear, blushing and giggling at him.

She's latched onto his arm, and makes failed attempts at talking to him, to Pansy's delight.

As soon as the school bell rings, the pairs split quickly and rejoin with their own friend groups.

With the help of a couple of us, Draco is freed from Abbott's grasp.

"She was literally eye fucking you Draco." Pansy huffs angrily.

"At least I got away from her." He mumbles, only half listening to Pansy.

"Did you see Granger? She kept telling me I did everything wrong... it was such a pain! I want whiskey." Theo complains.

He had it the worst, because Granger kept yelling and glaring and slapping his hand off her textbook.

"I'll buy you one if you buy me one." I laugh.

"It's a fair trade." He agrees.

"But we ran out of hangover potion." I remind him, remembering how Pansy, Daphne and I had drank the last few drops.

"Goddamnit, those things take a month to brew. And they're hard to make." He complains.

"Plus stealing from Snape's storage."

"This just keeps getting worse and worse." He groans.

I snicker.

"And we have potions now too."

He groans even louder this time, causing a bunch of heads to turn around us.

"Kill me, Lia."

"I would, but I'd go to Azkaban... so no."

"Dementors are better than Umbridge." He says while ruffling his curly brown hair from his face.

"Anything's better than Umbridge. But fair point."

We laugh, but it soon evaporates when we enter the cold dungeons where the potions classroom was.