Dark Pasts { A Harry Potter Story }

Chapter 35 - Professor Umbridge

I dressed at top speed the next morning and left the dormitory before anyone else woke up. I walked slowly down the stairs and out of the common room before I heard the echoing sound of footsteps approaching behind me.

"Hey, Liz," Hermione said as we continued to walk down the flight of stairs lined with portraits of old witches and wizards. "You didn't wait for me, you all right?"

"I'm fine... I just," I began, not sure how to describe the mess of emotions going back and forth in my head, "didn't really sleep well last night."

"Well, that makes two of us," She sighed. "Lavender would not stop talking about her opinion on the whole confrontation in the common room... rather uncalled for, if you asked me."

I simply nodded, and Hermione went on. "I told her to keep her big fat mouth shut when she started saying Harry was a liar though."

I burst of laughing then, and she joined me. "I reckon we'll not be joined by many this morning, then," I giggled.

"Why's that?" Ron's voice sounded behind us. We stopped and waited for he and Harry to catch up.

"Oh, just talking about how I had a lovely little chat with Lavender last night about you, Harry," She said, but Harry failed to note the sarcasm dripping from her voice.

"So you two had fun chatting about whether or not I'm a lying, attention-seeking prat, did you?" He said angrily.

"No," Hermione told him calmly. "I told her to shut it, actually. You know, it'd be nice if you could get it in your head that the three of us are on your side."

There was a short pause before Harry apologized in a low voice. Hermione shrugged it off as we sat down at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall for breakfast. Hundreds of owls came soaring in through the windows with a loud whoosh, bringing letters and packages. A large damp barn owl dropped the Daily Prophet in front of Hermione, causing Harry to stare at her in disbelief.

"Why on earth are you still getting that for?"

"Its best to know what the enemy is saying, no?" She looked at him darkly before disappearing behind the newspaper. I leaned in toward her to look through it as well, but there was nothing about Dumbledore or Harry.

Professor McGonagall then walked across the hall to hand us our schedules, and the four of us looked at each other in disgust.

"Bloody Hell!" Ron groaned. "Snape, Trelawney and Umbridge in one day!"

I really did not mind school, in fact, I loved it. But Ron was right, this was bound to be one hell of a day.

***

I was still recuperating from a dreadful divination's class when I sat down beside Hermione  for D.A.D.A., hoping that Professor Umbridge would not be as bad as she had come off in the Start-Of-Term Feast.

"Good morning, children," Professor Umbridge's high pitched voice said from the back of the class.

We all turned to look at her, and saw that she was again dressed all in pink. She began to walk toward the front of the classroom while waving her wand at the black board.

"Wand away and quills out, please," She instructed. Many of us exchanged gloomy looks at the order "wands away".

She waved her wand and the textbooks that had been sitting on her desk began to settle themselves in front of every student. Hermione and I exchanged a dumbfounded look as the books landed on our desks. The book was titled Dark Arts Defence: A Return to Basic Principles, but it looked more like Defence for 5 year olds, if anyone asked me.