Brontide

Chapter Six

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Double Charms that morning was an irritable experience. I'd heard previously from a few people that Umbridge would be inspecting our class. At first, I seriously considered swallowing a few Puking Pastilles and staying in the infirmary for the day, but I decided against it. I wasn't going to let her win. When I spotted She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named sitting in the corner of Flitwick's classroom, clipboard in hand and that ugly pink bow perched on her head like a bug, I began to wish I'd done it.

All throughout the class, she kept interrupting Flitwick's lesson on the Flower Charm, asking questions and writing things down on her clipboard. When it came time for us to practice conjuring a bouquet of flowers from our wands, she went around and asked us questions about Flitwick and his class. The urge to curse her out the window pretty much prevented me from conjuring anything.

After a few minutes of practicing, Umbridge found her way over to me. I gripped my wand tightly.

"Hello, dear," she said in her sickly sweet voice that made me want to upchuck my breakfast, "how do you find Professor Flitwick as a teacher?" Her clipboard was at the ready.

I cleared my throat, putting on a fake smile of my own. "Professor Flitwick is a wonderful teacher who possesses a lot of talent. I believe he could teach even a troll some of his fancy wand work."

She wrote something down. "And do you find that his classes are instructive and informative?"

"Oh yes," I nodded, "I've learned a ton from him."

She scribbled down something else. "Do you find that Professor Flitwick's height and ancestry prevent him from teaching his classes to the fullest extent?"

This time I looked at her with shock. "I beg your pardon?"

"Well - Miss Bains, is it? Professor Flitwick, as the Ministry has researched, has a goblin ancestor some ways back. The Ministry is beginning to wonder if enactments should be made so that only full humans- or should I say, full wizards- should be allowed to teach magic here at Hogwarts."

This time I actually lost it. "If the Ministry has any sense left in their thick skulls then they shouldn't even bother inspecting Professor Flitwick! He's a world-renowned Charms Master, best one you'd ever come across! So if you're trying to tell me that he shouldn't teach because of his ancestry then you're loose in the head. I won't have anyone discriminate in front of me and think that it's alright." At this point I'd neared closer to her, my eyes glaring into hers with cold hatred. I was not happy, not one bit, and neither was she. Her smile was icy and forced, the entire class watching and waiting to see what was about to happen.

"Twenty-five points from Gryffindor, how dare you talk back to me like that? Detention, Miss Bains, my office at noon." She turned to Flitwick. "I believe I'm done here for today, Filius. Consider yourself having passed." She strode from the room, her smile never waning the entire way.

I was seething with rage. Professor Flitwick, surprised at my outburst but looking overall grateful that Umbridge had gone, offered me a glass of water, which I happily accepted. Fred and George patted me on the back and cheered and clapped with most of the class. Rae smiled and told me how she wished she could've told Umbridge off too. I didn't know what they were all so happy about; I had detention with Umbridge to look forward to and writing lines using my own blood was not on my list of things to do. I shouldn't have let my anger get the better of me.

As we were all leaving class an hour later, Fred approached me.

"You, my friend, deserve these," he said, muttering "Orchideous", a bunch of brightly colored wildflowers appearing from his wand. I took them with a small smile.