Yellow Badger [3]// Harry Potter // Draco Malfoy

Like The Back of My Hand

Chapter Twenty-Five: Like the Back of My Hand

Sobs racked my body as letter by letter the sentence appeared in my handwriting on the back of my left hand.
'I must not break rules' 
I dropped the quill as I watched the letters etch onto me, blood running over the back of my hand. My handwriting was horrible to me, before I loved it, the mix of cursive script and modern letter formations, it was how my dad wrote the letter to my mum in all the cards they left behind.
I hated it now.
There was a high-pitched chuckle from the front of the Great Hall. Headmistress Umbridge sat in Dumbledore's chair in a pink robe and a china tea up and saucer in her hand.
How did I not see this coming? By doing the bidding on the order for weeks, I wasn't able to see this and now twenty of my friends are in pain because I prioritised the Order of them. An Order who had yet even written a letter saying my family was safe, Gran did declare we were now in hiding and she had moved us out of the Farm but Gran did that, not the people I was risking my mental stability for.
Line after line I wrote, and the more lines I wrote the deeper the quill cut into my skin.
Betrayal left a mark but it was never supposed to be physical.
"Time," Umbridge spoke putting down her teacup,
She stood up, her heels echoing on the stone floor as she walked up and down the line of students.
"I hope you have all learned a valuable lesson today that will stay with you for a very long time. You may not go to the Hospital Wing for this, you deserve this," She chuckled at the end," Back row first then in a straight line exit the Hall."
Standing up, I stayed behind my chair until my row was permitted to leave. I walked behind Fred and in front of Hadleigh, a calm washed over me as I left the Great Hall, I was no longer being watched and the coldness the Hall had given off didn't provide any comfort during the perilous hour we had been in there. Cho was waiting for us outside, she looked at all of us as she tried to work out what had happened to us but no one talked to her, no one even looked in her direction.

Hadleigh, Hermione, and I agreed to meet up in the Music room arriving one at a time so no one could follow us. In the first twenty-four houses of Umbridge becoming Headmistress, the portraits that covered the walls have been removed, the people in them being evicted forcefully from their homes here and having to take refuge in their other frames or the frames of friends outside of the castle. In their place, pink megaphones had been installed, and Delores Umbridge's shrill voice echoed all of the educational decrees in case we ever forgot. Each corner of the moving staircase tower had a megaphone at each entryway and exit.

"Boys and girls are not to be permitted to be within eight inches of each other."

"Those wishing to join the Inquisitorial Squad for extra credit can find sign-up sheets in my office."

"Students will be submitted to questioning about suspected illicit activities."

"Any student in noncompliance will be expelled."
I stood under this megaphone for a second, the impulse to be expelled was high, and Hogwarts had lost the overall sense of safety. If Dumbledore could be overthrown so easily, if he could leave us all vulnerable, then Hogwarts was no longer safe

Since Umbridge's takeover, the instruments had been removed, the fire had been put out and a thin layer of dust had started forming. The Choir had been disbanded, which meant the band had also been disbanded and this room had no use anymore. Not trusting any of the empty classrooms in case expandable ears had been installed, I went over to the record player added a jazz record to the turn table and turned it up to full.
"Explain," Hermione said as she walked through the door.
"So you know how I conveniently know the outcome of events, either big or small," I said and Hermione nodded," I saw the outcome of the end of the Maze last year."
Hermione let out a shaken breath," You saw him?"
"I saw him and his noseless face," I confirmed," and the death of Cedric Diggory."
"Cels I am so sorry." Hermione wrapped me in a hug," But what that got to do with what you said before,"
Hadleigh cleared her throat," Because of what Celyn saw, Dumbledore refromed the Order of the Phoenix that ideally works out of Padfoot's home, and Celyn was given a task to do because of her gifts."
"I was instructed to focus my dreams on him, and for the last year I have," I licked my lips," I saw Mr Weasley get attacked months before it happened, I even warned them but with no date or distinguishable time, they couldn't stop it. I've him in someone's house, with all his followers planning a theft out of a department in the Ministry, it's in the department that Mr Weasley was attacked in. There is something there they need. I only see things when they are set in stone when that final decision has been made and there is no changing it."
"how do you know you can't?"
Hadleigh sighed," Because we've tried, and failed."
"Because I'm risking my safety to do this, Hadleigh offered to go into these dreams with me, so someone could pull me out if there was a risk I would expose who and where I was." I continued," But because we have been spies for the last year, things like the events of the last six months have gone unnoticed."
"shit Cel," Hermione shook her head in disbelief," Why didn't you tell anyone?"
"The Order told us not to," I leant against the wall," People need to believe Harry on their own, not to have any outside influence, they need to see it for themselves."
Hermione nodded," But why can't you just project it into their heads, like a dream to convince them?"
"I think that's illegal actually." I said," Plus no one can know what I can do. We think it was triggered by the events of 1981 so my doctors know and Gran tried to suppress it when I was a child. If anyone else knows, then I'm at risk of being used against you during the last part."
"Have you seen what the outcome is?" Hermione questioned.
I shook my head," I can see maybe six months ahead, but there are too many variables to see that far."
Hermione nodded confidently," Least we have time."
"A year at best." I shrugged.
"Thank you," Hermione hugged both Hadleigh and me," For letting me in, you didn't have to."
Hadleigh poked Hermione in the side," You are our best friend Friz, get used to it."
"That was mean," Hermione laughed flattening out her hair.
Hadleigh struggled," Eh, you love me."
"Sometimes."