Bookworm

15

The seventh year Gryffindors weren't very impressed with Mira's 'detention' with Snape, but they congratulated her for standing up to him on her very first day.
"He can be a right foul git sometimes." Angelina muttered as she played with Alicia's hair absentmindedly. Fred groaned loudly and flopped across Mira's and Katie's legs. Mira chuckled as Katie shook him off her legs and lashed out with a well aimed kick to the stomach.
"Piss off Weasley. You know I have a bad knee." She muttered. Katie was not impressed-Binns had apparently given them a five foot essay on Merlin due in for the following week. And Katie hated essays. Fred and George had just laughed and told the teacher that he shouldn't be expecting their work to be handed in-if only the rest of the group were ballsy enough then there wouldn't be so many sullen faces. A bell rang in the distance and Mira sighed heavily, slumping back into the tree.
"I don't want to go to Umbridge's lesson." she complained. "I just really cant be bothered dealing with the woman." Mira had been in a foul mood since the argument with Harry. The others had picked up on it, but after a hushed explanation from the twins they decided not to ask.
"She can't be that bad, can she?" Lee pointed out. "You haven't even had her yet-you never know, she might be as good as Lupin."
"I do know," Mira mumbled quietly. "And she is nowhere near the pink little-"
"If she's as bad as you say she is then you'd best get going." George inputted. Mira let out a long sigh before bidding farewell-the seventh years had a free period. Of course, Mira could give herself a free period whenever she wanted but she knew Harry would probably need the moral support this lesson. She arrived outside the door just as the bell rang and entered with the rest of the class. She saw Harry with Ron sending the occasional guilty glance, she just sent him a smile and sat at the front on her own as everyone scrambled for desks as far back as they could go.
In the end, Mira was the only one on the front row.
Umbridge was sat at her desk, a smug little smile on her face. Mira tried not to snort at the frilly pink cardigan she was wearing and narrowed her eyes as the woman's own settled on Harry and narrowed.
"Well, good afternoon!" she chirped. There was a barely audible rumble in reply. The woman tutted and Mira tried not to roll her eyes.
"That wont do now, will it?" I would like you, please, to reply 'Good afternoon Professor Umbridge.' One more time, please. Good afternoon class!" Mira made a point not to open her mouth as the class chanted it back to her. Her beady eyes settled on her and she tugged her lips into what looked like a very painful smile.
"Now, now. That wont do. I asked the class to respond, and you didn't. Good afternoon, Miss..."
"Moriarty." Mira replied in a bored tone. She heard quiet snickers and felt eyes burning into the back of her head. She knew she shouldn't be doing this, she knew she should be keeping a low profile-but just knowing what this woman did...what she wanted to do. She couldn't help but hate her.
"Miss Moriarty. I would like you to say good afternoon to me." Mira lazily flickered her eyes over to her before rolling them.
"Do I look like I'm five?"
"You're certainly acting like it. Good afternoon, Miss Moriarty." Umbridge snapped. Mira remained silent and pressed her lips into a thin line, keeping her eyes trained on the blackboard at the front of the room. The silence remained. Mira finally gave in-she clearly wouldn't get on with the lesson until she responded.
"Hi Professor." she grumbled. Umbridge grimaced but quickly turned it into a strained smile.
"See, that wasn't so hard, was it?" Yes. It was. "Wands away and quills out, please." There was a shuffling behind Mira-whom hadn't gotten her wand out and was sat with her book resting on the desk with an impassive look on her face.
"Well now, your teaching in this subject has been rather disrupted and fragmented, hasn't it?" she turned back to the class after making the chalk write the title on the board. "You will be pleased to know, however, that these problems are now to be rectified. We will be following a carefully structured, theory-centred Ministry approved course of defensive magic this year. Copy down the following please."
Mira hastily scribbled the notes down before slamming her quill down and folding her arms, keeping her steady gaze focused on the teacher. Umbridge sent her a glare, but couldn't reprimand her as she had done the work. Mira bit back a smirk. Umbridge broke their little staring contest first and forced a smile on her face.
The next twenty minutes went by much like it did in the books. Mira glanced back and pride welled up in her when she saw Hermione sat with her hand up, the book sat on the desk untouched. Most members of the class were sat staring between the girl and the teacher, forgetting their books.
"Did you want to ask something about the chapter, dear?" Umbridge finally asked when she noticed she could ignore the situation no longer.
"Not about the chapter, no." Hermione's voice was strong, but even Mira heard the slight tremble in it-this was the first time the goody-two-shoes had disobeyed a direct order from a teacher, after all.
"Well, we're reading just now. If you have any other queries we can deal with them at the end of class."
"I've got a query about your course aims." Her eyebrows nearly disappeared into her hairline.
"And your name is?"
"Hermione Granger."
"Well, Miss Granger, I think the course aims are pretty clear if you read them through carefully."
"Well I don't. There's nothing in there about using defensive spells." Mira glanced back and forth between the two.
"Using defensive spells? Why, I cant imagine any situation arising in my classroom that would require you to use a defensive spell, Miss Granger. You surely aren't expecting to be attacked during class?"
"They were last year. And second year. And first year, Voldemort was sticking out of the back of the Professors head." Mira pointed out loudly. Umbridge seemed to have nothing to say to that, and instead sent her a nasty glare before Ron came to the rescue.
"We're not going to use magic?" he exclaimed.
"Students raise their hands when they wish to speak in my class, Mr-?"
"Weasley." Ron retorted, thrusting his hand above his head. Umbridge just smiled widely, reminding Mira strongly of a toad in that exact moment more than usual, and turned her back on him. Her eyes landed on Harry, then drifted back to Hermione.
"Yes, Miss Granger? You wanted to ask something else?"
"Yes. Surely the whole point of Defence Against the Dark Arts is to practice defensive spells?"
"Are you a ministry trained educational expert, Miss Granger?"
"Well, no, but-"
"She probably knows better than anyone that works for the damned ministry!" Mira inputted loudly. Umbridge turned to look at her, narrowing her eyes with dislike.
"I'm afraid that she's not qualified to decide what the whole point of any class is, Miss Moriarty. Wizards much older and cleverer-"
"If you were involved, much older, yes. Cleverer, we'll have to think about that." There was a sharp intake of breath from the class and a few snickers. Umbridge froze and turned her pouchy eyes down to stare at Mira with anger.
"I've been told about you. Miss Moriarty. And if you're not careful, I'll have to send some officials to have a word with your...uncle." She sneered. Mira tensed up but clenched her jaw and averted her gaze. Remus couldn't be dragged into trouble because she couldn't hold her tongue. She clenched her fists under the table so hard that she began to draw blood from her palms; but she didn't care. She stayed quiet as the class argued with Umbridge-right up until the teacher gave a nasty little laugh.
"And extremely dangerous half-breeds."
"Excuse me, Professor." she forced clearly fake politeness into her voice, making the teacher turn to look at her with malice glinting in her eyes. "But I'm confused. How do you expect us to just accept you slandering and ridiculing people because of what they are, when most of them probably have better morals than you could ever dream of?" Her voice quivered with anger. How dare this foul woman think she can speak of Remus in that way? Umbirdge just laughed and completely ignored her, turning away again as Dean Thomas spoke up angrily in his Professors defence. Mira sat and silently stewed with loathing as she continued to argue with the class. Up until Harry landed himself in detention.
"The Ministry of magic guarantees that you are not in danger form any dark wizard. If you are still worried, by all means come and see me outside class hours. If someone is alarming you with fibs about reborn dark wizards, I would like to hear about it. I am here to help. I am your friend. And now, you will kindly continue your reading. Page five, 'basics for beginners'." Everyone turned back to their books, but Mira stood up quickly. Her chair skidded back and made a loud sound, alerting the class from their studies once more. She faintly heard Hermione whisper "Harry, no!"
"So, according to you, Cedric Diggory dropped dead of his own accord, did he?" she heard the shaking in his voice. Everyone was silent. A tense atmosphere swept across the room.
"Cedric Diggory's death was a tragic accident." she said coldly.
"You had his body!" Mira cried. "There was no other way he could have died besides the killing curse! And a fourteen year old boy is nowhere near strong enough to cast that! How, how, can you just sit there and ignore the evidence?"
"There is no way the Dark Lord could have returned." Umbridge said strongly to the class at large, narrowing her eyes.
"It was murder." Harry's voice was trembling and she could tell he was close to tears. She sent him a glance and saw he was already looking over at her.
"Come here, Mr Potter, Miss Moriarty." Harry kicked the desk aside and stormed up to her desk. Mira stayed where she was, glaring at the woman through slits in her eyes.
"This is bullshit." She announced. There was a collective intake of breaths.
"I beg your pardon, Miss Moriarty?"
"I said, this is bullshit! Utter bollocks!" She grabbed her bag and threw it over her shoulder before she span on her heel and marched to the back of the room. "If you are too dull to understand what is staring you in the face, then I'm afraid that I don't see you qualified enough to teach me. Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge." And with one last filthy look, she slammed the door behind her as hard as she could. She didn't bother waiting for Harry to emerge from the room, knowing he would be too angry to be patient with her at all. And she didn't really feel like getting yelled at again.
Instead, she headed down to the Black Lake, to the spot where she had left her friends just an hour earlier. There was still half an hour to go, and with any look they would still be there.
She caught a glimpse of the twins' hair on the other side of the tree and continued marching down, a deep scowl etched on her face as she reached them. They silently watched as she threw her bag to the floor and flung herself into the space besides Lee, folding her arms and glaring at the ground.
"What crawled up your arse and died?" Fred joked. Mira couldn't bring herself to smile at him and instead curled her fingers around the blades of grass surrounding her and began tugging on them.
"Umbitch. God I wish she would crawl somewhere and die."
"Don't tell me you got kicked out of your very first lesson with her?" George piped up, admiration in his voice.
"No, I walked out." she replied hotly. "Honestly, the woman is a joke. She's even worse than I thought she would be-"
"Slow down. I didn't catch a word of that. What'd she do?" Angelina soothed in a calm voice. Mira took a deep breath.
"The course for the year-it's all based on theory. She's refusing point blank to teach any defensive spells at all. Then when the class pointed out that we would need to know them, she proceeded to call Remus an 'extremely dangerous half-breed.' I'm telling you-I'll show her extremely dangerous if its the last thing I do!" The group was silent for a few moments.
"Wait, so she is refusing to let anyone practice the spells?" Lee asked in a small voice. Mira nodded.
"She said that if we study hard enough, the theory will give us enough to be able to perform the spells for the first time in our exams. I suppose she'll say the same for your NEWTs."
"How does she expect anyone to pass?" Alicia scoffed. Mira shrugged her shoulders before letting out a deep breath. Her shoulders sagged and all tension seemed to leave her body.
"On the bright side, there's not any rules about practicing outside of lessons yet." she pointed out. After a few more minutes of discussing the pranks they'd pull on her, the small group agreed to meeting in Mira's room at seven every night, until their curfew, to practice their defence. Mira's lips curled into a smile. She knew they wouldn't be resorting to this for very long.