I thought I'd try something different than my usual Fics, especially for my first one on this kewlarewla site! Thanks for bearing with me whilst I try to work this out. Oh yeah, and all characters belong to J.K.R., etc. etc. etc. We know how it works, right? Nothing's mine but the plot...and ships! hearts teh shippers Ahem...anyway. Back to business. A Hufflepuff's view on the DA and Umbridge's ... presence at Hogwarts.

Yawning, Hannah stretched as she woke on the Sunday morning. It was a Hogsmeade weekend, that should be loads of fun! She smiled and quickly fixed herself up for going out. She opened one of the curtains in the dormitory and looked outside. It was a fine day, to be sure, and she'd have a good time.

Hannah took a quick glance at the dormitory surrounding her. The five four-poster beds loomed over the short Hufflepuff. Making her way toward the door, she saw that her best friend, Susan, had already gone to breakfast. Hannah exited the room and walked down the dormitory stairs into the Hufflepuff Common Room, her favourite place in the world.

Most people figured that Hufflepuffs were dunderheads, that they were always afraid and didn't fit into any of the other houses; that they were rejects. In truth, though, the loyal House was just a big combination of Ravenclaw, Slytherin, and Gryffindor and more! Hann blinked at the empty Common Room before leaving to make her way to the Great Hall. On her way there, she met up with two of her friends, Justin Finch-Fletchley and Wayne Hopkins. They exchanged greetings and went to the Great Hall together.

Upon entrance, they saw the new Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher, Umbridge was looking very smugly at the entirety of the school. Hannah sat down across from Susan, knowing that Wayne was probably going to sit next to her. Sure enough, the silly fifth year went straight for the spot next to his red-headed girlfriend. Justin sat next to Hannah and smiled, turning almost immediately to the food on the table, while Hannah's attention was drawn to the new DADA teacher. "She sure does look a bit toady, doesn't she?" Susan asked, noticing where Hannah's gaze was turned to.

"Yeah, she really does...what's with the hair? And her bow?" Hannah replied, and turned back to find Eloise Midgen standing over Susan with a mean look on her face. "Don't call people names because of the way they look! That's so inconsiderate!" She growled, and stormed off. Susan and Hannah giggled, leaning in to the table to hide it was best they could, while the boys chortled a bit. "I understand why she's acting like that, that's for sure," Justin piped up. "Remember fourth year? When she blew her nose off, trying to rid her pimples?" The girls were hit with a new fit of giggles, and Wayne smirked before scooping some eggs into his mouth with his left hand, his right arm being around Susan's shoulder.

"Don't you guys ever NOT touch each other?" Hannah asked, teasing the couple. "Well, it's not our fault you haven't had a boyfriend yet. Don't be jealous, Ickle Hannah," Susan said, sticking out her tongue. "You are fifteen, after all."

"Yeah, yeah," Hannah said, brushing the comment off. The thing was, it did kind of bug her, but she didn't want to show it. Especially with Justin sitting right next to her. Oh, yes, she'd fancied Justin for at least a year. He had asked her to the Yule Ball with him, but that was merely as friends; he even said so when he asked her. She had nodded and pretended that she would rather have had it that way, of course, as any other fourteen-year-old, shy Hufflepuff would have done!

'Oi, not that toad's class already.' Hannah was thinking to herself (not that she'd be thinking to anyone else, mind) and had suddenly realized that if she didn't hurry she would be late for Defense Against the Dark Arts. It was only yesterday that Susan'd called the woman a toad...and Eloise had shouted at them. Silly girl, always fussing over appearances.

But that wasn't the point. Hannah had to go see that woman now, for the first class of the term, and she wasn't looking forward to it. At least they didn't share the class with Ravenclaw again, like usual. Those nerds were always answering questions before the Huffles had a chance, and so Hufflepuff didn't get much "question points" for themselves. No, this lesson was shared with Gryffindor, thank God.

Hannah was all in a fit at seeing Harry Potter again. Of course, she didn't fancy him or anything…but just being in the same year as the famous Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived and defeated He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named...well...yeah! She entered the Defense Against the Dark Arts room and sat down near the mid-back of the room; Justin, Susan, and Wayne had joined her, as had most of the rest of her class, like Ernie Macmillan, Megan Jones, and Eloise. These last three were dispersed throughout the room.

Even though she wasn't one for much practical magic anyway, Hannah was disappointed when Umbridge said to put their wands away. It was bad enough this old banshee had forced them to answer her in one monotonous response like Muggle kindergarteners, but now she was going to ruin one of her favourite classes since Professor Lupin had taught here? Though on the outside she sometimes acted appalled and terrified at the fact that the Professor was a werewolf the whole time, she secretly admired his bravery and persistence.

Umbridge wanted them to read something dumb from the book, and Hannah pulled hers out and stared at the pages, not seeing the words, only the yellowish colour of the parchment itself that the book was written on. She was thinking about Justin. What if, you know? What if he did like her? He certainly acted a little odd, lately; maybe he was just trying not to show that he liked her? No...stuff like that didn't happen for Hannah. She looked up to see Hermione Granger, the messy-haired Gryffindor who held the top spot in the entire class, raising her hand, and NOT reading the assignment.

The row that followed surprised Hannah more than ever and the look on Justin's face next to her showed that she wasn't the only one who was utterly shocked. At the mention of You-Know-Who's name by Harry Potter, she squeaked rather loudly and covered her ears with her hands. That boy was insane! Utterly insane! The Ministry was probably right, of course, about the poor boy. Had he truly gone mad? Because he was most definitely acting like it. Though she herself would probably have been at wit's end if she'd seen something as dreadful as Harry'd claimed to see, and no one believed HER.

Harry'd been sent out of the room, and the lesson ended rather quickly after that, because Umbridge was "distracted" now. Fine by her, she didn't want to spend much more time with the amphibian. Maybe she'd pull something out of Justin. She looked over and saw that he was already looking at her. Turning away quickly, she tried to hide the redness in her cheeks as she picked up her bag and left the class.

Hannah was walking at a decent pace, even for someone so short as her (well, short for a fifteen-year-old, that is), and she was surprised to find that Justin was rushing a bit to catch up with her. He'd came up behind her and placed his hand on her back so she'd keep walking instead of stopping to talk with him. She blushed even more than she had in the classroom and contented herself with staring at her feet while they walked.

"Hey, Hannah, I was wondering if you wanted to come to Hogsmeade with me this weekend. I mean, Susan and Wayne said they may not even go...They'll probably be snogging in the common room or something," he said, looking at her a bit hopefully. Hannah stared into his dark blue eyes and merely nodded. "Great, then! It's a date," he said playfully, and went off the other way, perhaps to find Ernie about something.

A date? A date. That's what he had called it, right? Her? On a ... a date? But...surely he didn't mean it, right? She hoped she was wrong. 'Let me savour my moment, silly Hufflepuff,' she thought. 'For goodness sakes.'

Writers' block has forbidden me to reveal anything more. I just kind of wanted a Hoofle's eye view. I hope it works out well! Please R&R. I'm open to suggestions as for what's gonna happen next! nod I haven't written a fanfic in ages, and I'm afraid it might show here...This is only the first chappie, though. Thanks! passes out cookies and brownies to reviewers

Lill