Bookworm

13

"Hem hem." It was fairly amusing to Mira to see the reactions of everyone to Umbridge. Lots of the students looked outraged about her rude interruption, others looked disgusted by her very appearance. The teachers were more amusing to her-she had never seen a wider range of emotions in the space of a few seconds. Dumbledore seemed to be the only one willing to give her a slight amount of respect, and was sat watching her intently.
"Thank you Headmaster, for those kind words of welcome." Her voice was obviously fake high-pitched (She sounded like a weird Bernadette) and she smiled sickeningly sweet at the faces around her. Mira could only imagine the disgruntled looks she was receiving in return in amusement. Everyone seemed to zone out and begin whispering as she continued to prattle on. Mira ignored George poking her sides and kept her eyes fixed on the woman, furrowing her eyebrows and scowling. She eventually finished talking and smiled before returning to her seat.
"Thank you very much Professor, that was most illuminating."
"That was about as illuminating as Bins when he's talking about goblin wars." Alicia hissed. The group dissolved into a silent fit of giggles, whilst Mira kept her eyes fixed on the woman. Hearing it in person, it was so much worse. And besides, Harry wasn't listening. Half of the speech was missing in the book. Stupid Harry.
"What's the look on your face for? You look like someone has died." Lee asked her. Mira turned her eyes to them thoughtfully.
"You weren't listening, were you?" she asked quietly. Alicia snorted.
"We don't listen to each other half of the time. Why would we listen to her?" Mira shook her head, glaring at her one last time before leaning over the table so they could all hear her.
"There was some very interesting stuff in that speech." the twins looked at her in horror. "Old habits will be retained? Preserving what ought be preserved? Perfecting what needs to be perfected? Pruning wherever we find practices that ought to be prohibited?" Mira recited, the words fresh in her head. The blank looks staring at her made her sigh heavily.
"You're useless. It basically means, that the Ministry is interfering at Hogwarts. They think old Dumbles is going senile in his old age, and that Potter is an attention seeking child. That's why she's here-so they can take control in the one place that they previously had none. It basically means trouble." She stood up swiftly, ignoring their dumbfounded and putout expressions. "Now, if you don't mind. I have to get going."
She was gone into the crowd and out of sight before any of the seventh years could call after her.

Mira loved her room. It really had the feel of the castle. The walls were all cold stone, a fairly large window overlooking the grounds and distant mountains. The floor was also stone, but some sort of magic made it warm to walk on so she didn't have to worry. A large four-poster bed was in the corner with her trunk at the bottom of it, neatly made with light grey bedsheets. At the other end of the room was a huge fireplace, happily crackling away and warming the rest of the room. Before it sat a large plushy chair alongside a three seater sofa-both grey to match the walls. After promising her that she was allowed to personalise it, Dumbledore left the room and her to her own devices. The first thing Mira did was dive into her trunk and take out her collection of Harry Potter books.
If anyone came upon the room, the first place they would check was in there. It really wouldn't do well for them to find them.
Instead, she pulled the cushions from the sofa and pulled her wand from where it was tucked behind her ear.
"Diffindo," a few more attempts and the fabric ripped open, leaving the bare inside of the sofa to her. She hurriedly shoved the books in before adding the horcruxes to it and sealing it back up with a quick reparo.
She gave William a quick pet before changing into her pyjamas and slipping into the warm bed.

When she awoke the next day, Mira hastily changed into her uniform and made her way up to the Gryffindor common room.
"Mimbulus mimbletonia." The fat lady hesitated, looking her up and down before Mira repeated herself and she had no choice but to open her portrait. There were many people in the room, all of whom sent her weird looks, but there were no seventh years. Mira decided they were either in bed or already at breakfast. The trio were sat in the corner, Harry silently glaring at the fireplace as Ron and Hermione spoke in hushed whispers.
"Hey, what's up?" she asked, dropping into the seat beside him. He glared at her and shuffled away slightly.
"Mira! You're a member of the Order, maybe you can talk some sense into Seamus?" Ron questioned. Mira was about to play dumb before realising that she didn't have to-they all thought she was a seer, after all.
"Not really a good idea Ron."
"She's not meant to be drawing attention to herself, Ron! How well do you think that'll go down? Oh yeah, don't mind me. I'm an Order member but I'm undercover so don't say anything. Voldemort is back, I can promise!" Harry grumbled.
"Say it a bit louder. I don't think the Slytherins heard you." Mira rolled her eyes. "If it's any consolation, Potter, I believe you." Harry sent her a tight lipped smile before turning his eyes back to the fire. They stood up in unison to go to breakfast, Mira tagging along slightly behind them deep in thought. The thought that Dumbledore was still set on refusing to tell Harry anything irritated her to no end. He was so hot-headed and desperate that anything could happen at any time-Mira knew that her presence had thrown off most of the normal school life at least.
Would he be comfortable confiding in her? Or bitter that she was an Order member, and knew more than he did?
He seemed to be acting a little off with her; but then again he was with everyone. The trio were in a deep discussion about Hagrid, seemingly unaware of their surroundings. Angelina marched up to them and stood waiting for Harry to decide to pay attention. Mira nudged him in the ribs.
"Hi Angelina."
"Hi. Good summer? Listen, I've been made Gryffindor Quidditch captain."
"Nice one!" Harry grinned, looking genuinely happy for the first time Mira had seen him.
"Yeah, well, we need a new keeper now Oliver's left. Tryouts are on Friday and five o'clock and I want the whole team to be there, all right? Then we can see how the new person'll fit in."
"OK." Harry replied with a nod. Angelina smiled at him and looked to Mira, gesturing to the seventh years with her head and walking away. Mira bid farewell to the trio and followed behind her awkwardly, slightly embarrassed by the way she reacted the night before regarding the speech.
"There's our angry little fifth year!" George cheered as they approached. Mira grinned and took the empty seat beside him, grabbing a couple of slices of bacon.
"I wasn't angry, mate. Just stating facts."
"Come off it, we could practically see the steam coming out of your ears." Katie cut in. Mira felt her cheeks beginning to flush and opted to stay quiet, biting into her bacon.
"Oh, Lee! You still on for tonight?" Fred suddenly asked. Mira rolled her eyes, no doubt in her mind that they were planning a prank. Alicia snickered behind her hand.
"They always do this-you'll get used to it. Eventually." They all fell quiet as McGonagall handed them their timetables, to engrossed in their own to notice Mira wasn't handed one. The teacher sent her a discreet wink before making her way down the table further. Mira made an act of pretending to slip something into her bag before standing with Fred and George.
"We bid thee farewell." Fred smiled cheekily before the twins strolled away. Mira waved at them before catching up to them as they headed straight for the trio.
"Do mine ears deceive me?" Fred asked, forcing himself into the small space next to Harry. "Hogwarts prefects surely don't wish to skive off lessons?"
"Look what we've got today. That's the worst Monday I've ever seen." Mira glanced over at it over Fred's shoulder and winced.
"Fair point little bro." Fred shrugged, showing it to George. "You can have a bit of Nosebleed Nougat cheap if you like."
"Don't do it Ron." Mira interjected.
"Why's it cheap?" Ron asked suspiciously, looking between the three of them.
"Because you'll keep bleeding till you shrivel up, we haven't got an antidote yet."
"Cheers," Ron grumbled as he snatched his timetable back and shoved it into the depths of his bag. "But I think I'll take the lessons."
"Intellectual." Mira mumbled, standing straight behind the twins and folding her arms as they began discussing OWLS. She knew she should pay attention more, but she knew this conversation. She'd read through it at least eight times-the Order Of the Phoenix was her favourite book of them all. She gave them a half-hearted wave as they left for herbology before sitting down where sat had been sat previously.
"What did that mean? "Ask us no questions..." Does that mean they've already got some gold to start a joke shop?" Hermione asked.
"From what I heard, they started it a good few years ago, Hermione. They're just...expanding their horizons." Mira inputted softly. Harry sent her a strange look, but his face was flushed red. Mira winked and his face paled slightly when he realised that she knew exactly what happened.
"You know, I've been wondering about that. They bought me a new set of dress robes this summer and I couldn't understand where they got the galleons..." Harry's face contorted into panic and Mira took pity on him, deciding to steer the conversation.
"Do you really think the OWLS are going to be difficult? I already have four years of work to catch up on." Harry sent her a thankful look, not noticing that despite using it as a distraction she was actually worried about it. Hermione's face lit up.
"There's nothing to worry about, Mira. I could tutor you if you'd like!"
"Great. You've just given her another reason to go into the library." Ron muttered to the girl sat beside him. Mira laughed as they stood up from the benches and began walking.
"What's first?" She asked, falling into step with Ron at the front.
"History of Magic." He grumbled. "Most boring lesson ever...why Binns couldn't just stay dead..." Harry snickered on her other side as Hermione smacked Ron's arm hard.
"Really Ronald! Must you say such things?" she snapped.
"D'you know what you want to do after Hogwarts?" Harry asked the other two.
"Not really...except, well..."
"What?" Mira urged.
"It'd be cool to an auror."
"Yeah, it would." Harry responded dreamily. Mira almost rolled her eyes, fighting the smile off her face. The two would grow up to be the best Aurors the department had ever seen.
"But they're, like, the elite. You've got to be really good."
"What about Tonks?" Mira spoke up curiously. "Not that she's not good, just...she doesn't seem very careful or threatening. Surely that's a large part of the job?" Ron shrugged.
"What about you Hermione?"
"I don't know. I think I'd like to do something really worthwhile."
"An aurors worthwhile!" Harry argued, looking genuinely offended that Hermione had implied it was anything but.
"Yes, it is. But it's not the only worthwhile thing. I mean, if I could take SPEW further..." The other three looked away from each other. Mira knew that (despite knowing how important SPEW actually was and could be) if she made eye contact with any of them she would lose her composure.
They carefully avoided looking at each other for the whole lesson. Which, wasn't hard, as Ron fell asleep within two minutes and Harry spent an hour and twenty minutes staring dreamily out of the window. Hermione was sat beside her feverishly scribbling down everything the teacher said. Mira tried to do the same, but only managed to get half of what Hermione did by the end of the lesson. Hermione sent her a tight lipped smile before silently duplicating her parchment and handing her a copy.
"You actually tried. Don't tell the boys."
Mira, on the other hand, was quite offended. She thought she had done pretty well, and had taken note of the most important points only so that she didn't have as much to study come the end of the year.
"Yes, I tried Hermione. Just because I didn't write two sides doesn't make my work worthless!" she frowned, creasing her eyebrows together. Hermione's mouth dropped open.
"I was only offering it, I wont bother trying to be nice next time!"
"Quality, not quantity." Mira only muttered in reply. Hermione shot her an extremely offended look before setting the spare parchment on fire and shoving her own in her bag before turning to the boys and stalking from the room. Harry glanced at her and shrugged apologetically before following her hastily. Mira watched them go with a frown before pulling her bag up her shoulder and heading for the door.