A Mermaid's Tears | Fred Weasley

Chapter 20

Dumbledore's start of term speech included something that Marceline had never seen before. The new Defense Against the Dark Arts interrupted Dumbledore.

The lady in pink introduced herself  as Professor Umbridge.

"More like Professor Ugly," Lola muttered under her breath.

"Lola, if that's the best insult you can come up with, you don't need to be insulting people," Aliyah told the girl with a smirk.

"Well if you're so good at insults, name one good one for this... this... woman," Lola said, saying the first word that came to mind and instantly regretting it. Aliyah raised her eyebrows at the challenge.

"Toad face," Aliyah said easily.

"You mean Professor To-"

"No, Lola," Aliyah sighed. "Just toad face!"

Cedric chuckled at the two and shook his head.

"Quit bickering, I'm trying to listen," he said.

"Don't go all Mr. Head Boy on us now," Aliyah began.

"You know, Fred told me that when Percy became Head Boy, they changed it to say Big Head Boy," Marceline said, chuckling, but stopped as Cedric glared at her.

"Oh my Merlin, did they already do that to you? I mean, I knew they would but that was fast," Marceline said, impressed. Cedric continued to glare at her. "I mean, I'll tell off Fred, don't you worry," She declared, trying to hide her smile.

Cedric began to open his mouth but Aliyah put her finger to his lips.

"Shush, Big Head Boy. You wouldn't want to miss out on what toad face is saying, would you?" Aliyah said, turning Cedric's head towards the woman giving the speech. Aliyah and Marceline exchanged smirks while Lola shook her head.

As Professor Umbridge gave her speech, Marceline could tell none of the students were truly paying attention. Some of them seemed to be trying but failing, while others were having their own conversations, and Marceline even saw one student taking a quick nap. As her speech came to an end, Marceline made sure to clap, glad that it was finally over.

After what seemed like hours, the feast finally began, and Marceline did not hesitate to begin eating. She ate and ate until she physically could not hold any food.

"I ate too much," Marceline groaned, rubbing her stomach.

"You say that every year," Aliyah said, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, because every year, I eat too much!"

After the feast, Marceline wanted to talk to Fred, but her body was disagreeing wholeheartedly. She was exhausted and needed to go to bed. She made a mental note to spend time with Fred when they had free periods tomorrow and went to to her dorm with Aliyah.

Marceline slept soundly that night, it was one of the first nights where she wasn't woken by the screams of Sirius' mother, order members coming and going, or Annabelle's loud snores. She loved the girl, but she felt bad for her fellow dorm mates. No one deserved to go through that every night.

After rising from her peaceful slumber, Marceline went down to breakfast, not bothering to wait for Aliyah as she knew the girl had gone to bed much later than her and would therefore be sleeping for much longer.

There were very few students down in the Great Hall, and most of the ones that were down there were first and second years. However, Marceline easily spotted Fred, George, and Lee chowing down and joined them the Gryffindor table.

"Hello," she greeted the twins, and as she sat down she grabbed Fred's toast. However, this time when she bit into it, it was rock hard, and Fred, George, and Lee began to crack up.

"Fred!" Marceline exclaimed, never have being the victim of one of their pranks before.

"Stop taking my toast! There's a whole plate right there," Fred said, laughing, but pointing to the plate of toast. Marceline shook her head but laughed along with the boys.

As teacher began to hand out time tables to the students, Marceline went back to the Hufflepuff table to receive hers from Professor Sprout.

"We are going to have lots of fun in Herbology this year! More dangerous plants, bigger limbs, and brilliant students," Professor Sprout said, smiling at the girl. Marceline grinned back but her face paled as she imagined a giant plant strangling her.

Professor Sprout continued to pass our time tables to other Hufflepuff as Marceline sighed at her classes. Not only was a healer one of the most time consuming careers, difficult classes were required. However, Marceline was happy to see that she had potions first this morning and had free periods after that until the afternoon.

Marceline headed to potions, dreading the fact that every week would immediately start in potions with Professor Snape, her least favorite Professor.

Professor Snape immediately started the class by explaining that he expected nothing but perfection from them, considering they were seventh years and knew exactly what he wanted from them, which was, as he stated many times, perfection. However, Marceline knew from experience that N.E.W.T level potions was much harder than the potions that everyone was required to take. Marceline was perfectly capable of following instructions from a textbook, but last year she began to have to improvise on almost every potion in order to make them properly. She knew that this year would be no different.

Professor Snape started the students off on a difficult potion, but it was one that he said was just a warm up for the upcoming year, making Marceline very nervous for what Professor Snape would be having them do this year.

After a stressful potions class, Marceline met up with Fred on the grounds.

"Hello love, did you enjoy Potions?" Fred asked with smirk, causing Marceline to roll her eyes.

"Of course," Marceline said sarcastically, causing Fred to chuckle. Fred and Marceline sat under a tree by the Black Lake, with Marceline resting her head in Fred's lap. As she rested in his lap, he began to play with her hair.

"Really quite strange," Fred began, causing Marceline to adjust herself so she could look up at Fred. "How here, it doesn't really feel like You-Know-Who is a threat. At Grindelwald Place, everything was dark and depressing and the thought of You-Know-Who coming was always there. But here, it's like nothing ever happened. Everyone is ignoring it, or calling Harry and Cedric liars."

"Of course. The school year ended with Dumbledore telling everyone he was back, and then students went home for the summer with the Daily Prophet telling them Dumbledore was a lair. No one wants You-Know-Who to be back, so they are obviously going to believe the Prophet. Although Dumbledore, Harry, and Cedric also have a lot of support, their supporters are just staying quiet because they are afraid of speaking up."

"I hope we aren't unprepared when he decides to come and destroy us," Fred said quietly, and for the first time, Marceline saw a trace of fear on his face.

"We'll be as prepared as we can be," Marceline said quietly, holding Fred's hand in hers, trying to convince herself that in the end, everything would turn out okay.