The Forgotten Girl

Chapter Five: The Devil Wears Pink

Chapter Five: The Devil Wears Pink

The next morning Mary was up and out before any of the other girls even opened an eyelid.  Alison and Ginny pulled their robes on in an uncomfortable silence. The morning after Ginny exploded was always a hard one. You had to be careful around her, she was likely to explode again.

They headed down to the common room where they met Colin and went down for breakfast. Sitting at the Gryffindor table Alison pulled some toast towards her and started to put jelly on it. The twins appeared on either side of her.

“Good morning.” greeted Fred piling eggs onto his plate.

“Hermione told us there was quite a deal of yelling last night.” said George casually grabbing a piece of bacon.

Ginny remained looking at her plate, “And?” she asked.

“Just wondering what it was about.” said Fred.

“Just a little misunderstanding.” supplied Alison, biting into her toast.

“About what?” demanded Colin, looking at each of his friends in turn.

“Harry’s sanity.” said Ginny with dry sarcasm in her voice.

Just then Professor McGonagall appeared to give them their schedules. She tapped three pieces of paper and handed one to Ginny, Colin, and Alison. “Don’t be late.” she said as she turned to give the twins their schedules.

“McGonagall, Umbridge, and Grubby-Plank. Not too bad.” said Ginny scanning their schedules. They all had the same schedule expect for one difference. Ginny didn’t take arithmacy with Alison and Colin.

Alison took another bite of her toast, George peered over her shoulder at her schedule, “You guys have Umbridge this morning.”

Fred smiled, “Lovely, you can tell us what she’s like.”

Colin stood up, “Let’s go, you heard McGonagall, ‘Don’t be late.’”

“I’m still eating.” protested Alison holding up her toast to show him.

“Bring it with you.” he answered.

Alison rolled her eyes at Ginny, but stood up, grabbing her bag, and waving goodbye to the twins. Alison followed Colin out of the hall and up the marble staircase to Transfiguration, where McGonagall gave them an essay due Monday. Ginny was already complaining as they left the classroom and started their walk towards defense against the dark arts. “First day and she gives us an essay? A bloody essay?”

“Gin, we have all week to do it.” said Colin in his calm voice.  

They made their way through the castle to defense against the dark arts. In the classroom they all sat quietly, waiting patiently. No one was quite sure how this professor would run her class.

Umbridge came walking up to the front of the classroom. She was wearing all pink once again. “Good morning class.”   

There were a few murmmed good morning’s, but most of the students were still silent.

“Well that will not do.”  Umbridge said turning to face them all, “When I say good morning, you all will reply ‘good morning Professor.’ Let’s try it. Good Morning.”

Everyone in the room replied this time, “Good Morning Professor.”

“Now that’s much better.” she gave a sickly sweet smile, “Now, I know you have had quite a number of teachers in this subject. Each of which had their own teaching styles, some of which were quite inappropriate.” she began to pace in front of them, “I however have a very safe, ministry approved course that I will be teaching you.”