𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭

E I G H T

A couple days went by. Ariana tried to stop herself from thinking about her dream, besides she had much worse things on her mind. Umbridge.

There were pieces of paper flying across the whole room, students trying out new spells and talking with their friends. They started hitting a paper bird flying across the room. It was going to be a pretty decent lesson. Ariana sat next to Hermione and jasmine.

Suddenly, the bird burnt down into a crisp, falling on a desk infront of the one Ariana was sitting on. In the corner, at the back, stood a short woman, who looked like a big toad wearing all pink. She had an annoying fake smile put on her face as she stared at her students.

"Good morning children" she said, her voice high pitched, already making half the class cringe.

Everyone turned around as she walked towards the front, through the middle of the class.

"Ordinary. Wizarding. Level. Examinations." She walked past ariana. Her perfume filling up the room. It stank. "O. W. L.s, more commonly known as OWLS" she looked at the students infront of her, the fake smile spreading across her face. No one smiled back at her, they were all focused on her voice. Her annoying, high pitched voice.

"Study hard, and you will be rewarded. Fail to do so, and the consequences may be severe." The smile still on her face. Did it never go away?

She waved her wand towards some books behind her and they started handing themselves out, umbridge looked at everyone in her class.

"Your previous instruction in this subject has been disturbingly, uneven. But you'll be pleased to know, from now on, you'll be following a carefully structured, ministry approved, course of defensive magic."

Hermione put her hand up, "yes" umbridge said looking at her. Deeply into her eyes. It was kind of creepy. Poor hermione, Ariana thought.

"There's nothing in here about using defensive spells" Hermione states, having already looked through the whole book.

"Using spells?" umbridge laughs, her laugh even worse and more high pitched than her normal voice. Goodness, could this woman get even more annoying?

"I can't imagine why you would need to use spells in my classroom" she now started to walk towards Hermione. She must've put on litres of perfume on her.

"We're not going to use magic?" Ron says. It was surprising to hear Ron speak out load especially to this toad.

"You'll be learning about defensive spells in a secure and risk free way" Bullshit. How can anyone learn to defend themselves in the magical world without being able to use magic.

"What use is that? If we're going to be attacked it won't be in a risk free way" Harry finally spoke up, to be honest Ariana expected him to say something much earlier, way before Ron.

"Students will raise their hand when they speak in my classroom" her voice got deeper and louder. It pissed Ariana off how she just snapped at her brother like that. Ron didn't put his hand up but she didn't snap at him.

There was an awkward silence as she turned around to face the whole class. Her smile back on her face, but now it looked even faker.

"It is the view of the ministry, that a theoretical knowledge will be sufficient to get you through your examinations, which, after all, is what school is all about." She said eyeing Harry.

"And how's theory supposed to prepare us for what's out there?" Ariana and Harry said at the same time. She wanted to say something for ages and there she finally did even though her and her brother did it at the same time.

"There is nothing out there, dear. Who do you imagine wants to attack children like yourself?" She says, a weird look on her face. It was almost as if she felt bad for them.

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe Lord Voldemort." Harry snapped back at her as her face dropped. There were whispers carried around the whole room, students looked around at Harry and Ariana and then at umbridge.

"Now, let me make this quite plain. You have been told that a certain dark wizard is at large once again. This is a lie." She said this as if she was telling a horror story. Her facial expression looked very fake, it was obvious she was trying to put on a smile but underneath was a worried look, as if she had been discovered.

"It's not a lie. I saw him. I fought him." Harry started to get mad, his face was turning slightly red.

"Detention, Mr. Potter."

"You can't just say whatever Harry's saying isn't true. You weren't there with him. You know Voldemort's back but you won't admit it" Ariana snapped, she was enraged as to how umbridge treated her brother.

"Detention to you aswell, Miss. Potter."

"So you're saying Cedric Diggory dropped dead of his own accord?" Harry says, slightly through the middle of the professors sentence.

She turned back towards Harry, "Cedric Diggory's death was a tragic accident." She says, she was trying to pull a sympathetic face but she looked like a toad doing it.

"It was murder. Voldemort killed him. You must know this." Harry says.

"You can't keep this away from all of us, it'll come out into the open soon and you'll be proved wrong. You don't expect him to be hiding away forever? He's got his strength back, he will show himself once again" Ariana added on as she realised Harry didn't have anything else to say.

"Enough! Enough. See me later, Mr. Potter. My office. And you, Miss. Potter, can come aswell."