Brontide

Chapter Ten

That moment when you realize it's somehow 1:30 a.m. and you've been editing one chapter for over 4 hours x.x

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December soon turned into January, which flew through February and sped into March. The months went by surprisingly fast, though somehow not fast enough for my liking. Fred, George, and Harry were miserable because they couldn't play Quidditch anymore, all because of an incident back in November during the Gryffindor versus Slytherin game. A fight had almost erupted on the Quidditch pitch and Umbridge had banned the three of them from playing permanently, taking their brooms and locking them away. So now, the only things Fred and George had to look forward to were the Dumbledore's Army meetings.

Umbridge had created an Inquisitorial Squad, comprised of the foulest members of Slytherin House. One of their duties, besides trying to help Umbridge break apart Dumbledore's Army, was intercepting owls. It was no longer safe to talk to Tonks or anyone from the Order about anything, as Umbridge could find ways to hold it against me. I didn't even send a letter to my parents because I was afraid it wouldn't get to them.

Lee Jordan and Angelina Johnson started going steady, which was really the only good news I'd heard in a long time. Lee was happy beyond his wits and, on the occasion that he made an appearance, he never seemed in bad spirits, despite everything else that'd been going on. I only wished I could experience his optimism, because living at Hogwarts had lost its luster for me. 

Rae and George, on the other hand, were as stubborn and oblivious as ever. I didn't know what she expected to happen by not telling him how she felt but at least she wasn't a crying, drunken disaster. I could've easily just told him for her, which I'd offered to do on numerous occasions, mind you, but she didn't want me to, so I respected her wishes.

Dumbledore's Army meetings were still happening regularly, and anytime I felt that galleon burn in my pocket, telling me when the next meeting would be, I felt a small sense of joy. I had to hand it to Harry, he was a really wonderful teacher and I couldn't have found a better one if I tried. I got the opportunity to take my frustrations with Umbridge out during the meetings, becoming increasingly better at blowing things up or setting them ablaze. We began working on the Patronus Charm towards the end of March, which was the most difficult spell to date. However, after a week I was able to produce a full-bodied Patronus, which took the form of a porcupine.

It was April, and everyone was in the Room of Requirement for one of Harry's lessons. A lot of people still hadn't successfully produced a Patronus yet, but they were trying. Fred and George had; theirs were a raccoon and a fox, which was oddly fitting for the both of them. Rae was one of the people who struggled. She was trying really, really hard but all that kept coming out of her wand was wispy silver stuff.

"Come on, Rae, you can do it," I encouraged her, trying to help in any way that I could, "don't think of anything else other than that key memory you picked."

She glanced around at the others who were practicing. Seeing all of their Patronuses soaring around the room was likely a bit discouraging, so she shut her eyes. "You make it sound as though it's easy," she muttered. "Having you lot breathing down my neck isn't helping, either."

"Blimey, you want us to close our eyes and turn around or something? It's not like you're being graded on this," Fred joked.

"Oi, let her concentrate, you turd," I hissed at him, grabbing him and his brother by the elbows and pulling them back a few paces.

George was watching her with great interest, seemingly pondering something. I raised an eyebrow at him.

"What's the face for?"