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━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ONE | NEW YEAR NEW TEACHER ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
❝IF SHE'S ENDANGERING YOUR ONLY CHANCE AT LEARNING TO PROPERLY DEFEND YOURSELF, I CAN HATE HER, RIGHT?❞
∞
NEVER HAD IT OCCURED TO ISAAC HOW DIFFERENT THIS YEAR WOULD BE FROM OTHERS. It all started with the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, a function no one seemed to maintain for longer than a year. It was as if there was a curse on the position. The lady dressed all in pink seemed harmless and quite dull at first, but it was soon clear that she was the total opposite of that. Her sugar sweet voice failed to mask the fact the new lady, Professor Umbridge, would be anything but sweet. With tiny steps, just like the ones she had taken to get on the stage, interrupting Dumbledore while he was holding his yearly speech, she would change Hogwarts from how it was nowadays.
Isaac's bushy eyebrows shot up in surprise. That was an impressive line, if he said so himself. It felt nice to him to know that after weeks of being unable to write down a single word, he could start off good. Since the moment he had laid eyes on the pink lady, Isaac was certain his paper would be dedicated to her, of course with the usual holiday stories he would receive. He just didn't know yet if it was going to bring her in a positive light or not. Immediately, the fifteen year old boy scribbled down the idea on the small piece of parchment that was laid out in front of him, trying to ignore the commotion of students filling up the classroom. As usual, Isaac was one of the first to enter the classroom, but this time he had, what he thought, a valid reason to do so, at least more valid than wanting to secure a nice spot.
Since the death of Cedric, it was as if everyone in the school had to wish their condolences to every Hufflepuff they saw, whether it was in the hall or at the breakfast table. Isaac had already been confronted twice on his way to the Great Hall and he couldn't handle any more confrontations. He didn't want to be reminded about Cedric and neither wanted any of the Hufflepuffs. Was that so hard to understand? If they wished their condolences to people who knew Cedric, Isaac would understand; but it had gone as far as them even wishing their condolences to clueless first years (even though Aila found their reactions 'absolutely hilarious').
He tapped with his quill on the piece of parchment, trying to think of anything more to add. His first idea was not so bad and even though Isaac had all week to get more ideas, he wanted to have them all, now. Writing distracted him from his mind and messy thoughts. Another idea had just popped up in his head and before he could write it down, to review it later with Aila, Isaac heard someone clear their voice. He raised his head up slightly, first noticing the dark red robes and lion emblem.
"Hey, Isaac," the girl, otherwise known as Hermione Granger — or how Aila preferred to call her, Granger Danger, greeted the boy in his seat with a careful smile. "I am so sorry about Cedric." Hermione pulled out the empty chair next to Isaac. "I know you were close to him." Her brown eyes flickered over to his shoulders, debating wether or not she should hug him or not. Would that be appropriate? Placing her hand on his shoulder was enough and so she did.
