Green Eyed Monster | Draco Malfoy

40. Understanding Umbridge

Chapter 40 - Understanding Umbridge

"They like you," I should have known that Umbridge would be quick to observe that her obnoxiously cute kitten-plates, hung up on the wall in her office, were all mewing and pawing in my direction as if to get my attention. She had sat herself down in her seat and watching me closely. I stayed close to the wall cautiously, taking another quick look around the completely familiar and yet completely unfamiliar Defence Against the Dark Arts office.

I could not remember a time spent in here during first year, so I do not remember what it looked like under Quirrel's rule, but I had very strong memories from all the years after. Lockhart's decorations had included multiple posters of himself, along with lavender drapery and a variety of fan mail that he had found particularly flattering. Lupin had kept it more simple: his desks strewn with paper, the wardrobe that housed a boggart, and a few other knickknacks that I still would not be able to place if I saw them. Moody - or in reality Crouch - had kept all of his auror specialties on display: foe glasses and thing-a-mabobs which would show all his enemies...these were all things we hadn't realized were actually to keep him in the dark about his own secrets, rather than privy to the secrets of others.

"They're adorable, professor," I donned my brightest and fakest smile, turning away from her new office renovations. It was pink and cluttered with all things cute and fluffy. The rug on the ground looked extra soft - I briefly wondered what animal she had maimed for it.

Professor Umbridge giggled girlishly while looking at the plates of mewing kittens before flicking her wand and conjuring a tea pot. It, too, was pink.

"Would you like some tea?" She asked me with raised eyebrows - it took me a long time to decide my answer. Though I didn't want to stay long enough to have a cup of tea with her, I found myself sitting down and nodding enthusiastically - she seemed quick to accommodate me, anyway. Even though I was having trouble being around her, I needed to control my urges to retch and remember that I was doing this for everyone else - and my torture would later bring about her own downfall.

But Merlin, that was hard to remember when I was being choked by her floral smelling office.

She poured me a cup of tea after she had poured her own. It was hard keeping a straight face while I was forced, in horror, to watch while she dumped three lumps into her own small tea cup. "Would you like milk or sugar?"

"I drink mine plain, thanks," I said, forcing my smile on again.

"Oh no, I insist - the flavour is quite plain. At least some milk?"

"No, thank you." I said again. Her eyes narrowed slightly, measuring something that I couldn't comprehend. I kept my gaze firm and as sincere as I could, watching as her narrowed eyes shifted to my cup again and back to me. She smiled boldly, nodding her head in a bitter understanding before she pulled both the milk and the sugar farther back on her desk, as if her withdrawing them was an insult to me. I couldn't really force myself to mind - that was, until her hand continued to draw back towards herself and her arm knocked the sugar right off of her desk.

The clatter of the dish on the hardwood reverberated around the two of us - both fighting to keep our composure while we tried to measure up how the other was going to react.

It took everything in me to try and be kind to the wench, though my eyes still narrowed instinctively while she spluttered out some kind of apology. I blinked once before shoving a smile back on my face - when was she going to realize how fake it was? - and bending down to pick up the fallen lumps of sugar. Setting them back on the desk, she smiled at me.

"Thank you, dear. You're so sweet."

"Thank you, that's not a compliment I hear often." I let myself give out a giggle that would never be heard from me otherwise before I took a sip of tea, just to give myself something to do. "May I ask why you helped me escape my detention?"