cardigan, h. potter

unwanted attention.

⤑‧₊˚🖇️✩ ₊˚🎧⊹♡

Word of Harry's shouting match which Umbridge crept around the school like quick-growing vines. Very quick, in his case.

Everyone was fairly invested, as it was the first gossip of the year. Although, peoples talk always seemed to revolve around Harry these days. The people who refused to believe him, that was.

The rest of Defense Against the Dark Arts was placid and mild, though Genesis assumed people were still too shook to say much more. Harry had used 'He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named's name, after all. Twice! What an idiot, she thought.

They just went on reading Defensive Magical Theory in silence, everyone glancing around the room ever so often. And when Umbridge asked, "Is there any questions?" at the end of the lesson, everyone just mutely shook their heads.

Even with the follow up inquiry, "Anyone?" Nothing.

But the level of noise audibly changed as they were dismissed. Genesis saw many students sneak peaks at her, and shoot her looks of indignation. For what? That was her question.

She wasn't the one accused of spreading false information circling Dark forces arising, Harry was. She wasn't the one who said You-Know-Who's name, Harry was. She wasn't the first one to shout at Umbridge, Harry was. She wasn't the one that got sent out of class, he was!

The trip to dinner felt like a walk of shame for some reason. Even with her friends beside her, she felt like she was being stared down and talked about. Again, for reasons she could not understand.

They sat down next to Fred, George, and Lee. Somehow, that made Genesis feel a little more invisible.

"Hello, young travelers," said Fred as they sat theirselves around them.

"Hi," said Eudora, acting smiley despite the days events.

"Greetings," George said in a deep voice that was not his own.

"Hi," said Alethea, as well.

"Heard'ja had Defense with the pink lady today. How'd it go?" said George. Genesis winced when she heard his teeth collide with the metal of his fork.

"Horrible! She's a horrible, old woman. . ." Eudora said. "She thinks we don't know anything about Defense Against the Dark Arts, has us started on a beginners book!"

"She's got us on the same thing!" said Lee.

"You had her today?" questions Genesis.

"Sure did," replies George. "But we didn't get quite the scene you lot did."

"She's not allowing us magic! How are we to pass our O.W.L.'s if we can't practice?" said Alethea, dismayed.

"And our N.E.W.T.'s!" exclaims Lee. With a look around at his peers, (Fred and George,) she shortens his earlier statement. "And my N.E.W.T.'s!"

"I got three O.W.L.'s and I'm doing just fine," said Fred.

They each exchanged looks of disbelief with one another, aside from the twins. Alethea, being the candid one she was, said:

"You're still in school, dumbarse. O.W.L.'s don't count for anything when you're using your school rep to get a good job later on."

"I always thought me and Fred should've got an 'E' in everything, because we exceeded expectations just by turning up for exams."

George shrugs, along with Fred, and they keep biting into their forks the same way that made Genesis uneasy in the first place.

With a peek at behind her, she's reminded what was the very first thing that unsettled her. Several pairs of eyes, staring in her direction. She turns back around, dismissively.