Rosa flinched once again. She was walking past the desk after Transfiguration and her hand barely nicked the edge of the desk. Her right hand flared up in pain. "Evil toad." She thought darkly. It had only been yesterday she had the detention with Umbridge. The day after, Rosa realized, Harry Potter had had his. She thought back on how she ended up with this cruel punishment.
She was in Defense Against the Dark Arts with her fellow 4th year Ravenclaws and the Hufflepuffs when "Dumbridge", as they had started calling her after the feast, stormed in, fuming about "that attention-seeking liar". Umbridge then proceeded with giving out awful text books for beginners. "This, is an insult to our intelligence," whispered Rosa to the person next to her, it happened to be Luna Lovegood. The toad then told them there would be no spells used at all. The Ravenclaws burst out in protest. "Hem, hem," The toad said over the noise in that voice that made you shudder, "I am the teacher, not you. This is Ministry approved. I don't want any arguments, I've had enough from the last class."
Everyone shut up, except for Rosa. "How are we supposed to learn how to defend ourselves?"
"From what? You silly girl, there's nothing there for you to defend yourself from."
"What if Harry Potter is right, though."
Rosa's words made Umbridge look like she had eaten something unpleasantly slimey, making her look even more like a toad. "Harry Potter," she paused, getting redder and redder by the second, "is no more than an attention seeking brat and liar."
"What about Cedric Diggory?" asked a Hufflepuff.
"That was a tragic, tragic accident."
"Or murder!" Rosa practically yelled.
"Nothing is out there! Cedric was a boy who was simply over-stressed and panicked in that awful maze. Something happened in there that was obviously too much."
"Or, Harry Potter could be right!" retorted Rosa.
"It's not illogical." Added Luna.
"ENOUGH!" Umbridge yelled, "I've had enough. First the Gryffindors, I expected it from them, but the Ravenclaws? I thought you would be a bit more intelligent."
Rosa was in an outrage, saying Cedric's death as an accident was one thing, but insulting her intelligence? This was not happening.
"I expected a teacher to be intelligent as well, but I guess we'll all have to lower our standards." Rosa said before she could stop herself.
"Detention! Ms. Neer, I will not be insulted or interrupted again. Do you understand?"
Rosa didn't respond. "Hem, hem." Rosa's hair stood up on end.
"Yeah."
"Good, now read the introductory and I want an 8 inch essay about how this course will be good for your education by tomorrow.
Rosa had forgotten where she was going and almost treaded on the step that transported you back to the bottom of the staircase. She hastily stepped over it when someone hit her right hand , making it throb.
"Oh! Sorry!" when Rosa gasped out in pain. It was Cho Chang.
"It's ok." She replied.
"What happened?"
"Well…" Rosa couldn't say her excuse for wrapping her hand, because Cho, like herself, was on the Quidditch team, therefore she couldn't say the simple one word excuse that worked so well, "Quidditch."
"Herbology plant get to you?"
"Yeah… it hurts pretty bad." Inwardly, she sighed with relief.
"You'll be ok for Quidditch though, won't you?"
"Yeah, it should be ok."
"That's good, I gotta go, see you around Rosa."
"Bye."
The real way her injury happened flashed through her mind. The "special quill" as Umbridge called it, was given to her and the toad told her to write "I must not spread lies." Rosa opened her mouth to tell her she didn't have any ink when Dumbridge said, "You won't need any ink, begin, please." When Rosa finished the first line she could not stand the irritation in her right hand anymore and looked down. Horrified, she saw "I must not spread lies" in her own handwriting.
She looked up at the hideous woman. She was sipping tea, smiling as if she were punishing a naughty kitten, who had ruined her favorite color yarn.
"Yes, Ms. Neer?"
"This cannot be legal." Rosa said.
"You are a naughty child, Rosa. You must be punished or you will spread terrible lies just to scare the other children.
"This isn't the way to do it."
"Oh, now you're the teacher? Start writing again, Ms. Neer, you've wasted five minutes of your time, you will stay five minutes longer." Rosa opened her mouth to speak, but shut it, this wasn't the time to argue.
For an hour and five minutes she sat there in that evilly pink office, cutting herself over and over again with the same words. When the toad finally let her go, Rosa quickly found a bandage and wrapped her bleeding hand. She wouldn't tell anyone, or that foul, kitten-loving, tea-sipping, evil thing of a woman would win. Then a thought occurred , she would tell one person, or three, if the other two were around. If she felt this pain, who better to share it with than someone who had the same?
She came back to reality when she saw the boy that she was just thinking of. "Hey! Harry!" Rosa shouted, running across the corridor.
"Just, leave me alone!" He said, not even looking back.
Rosa caught up with Harry and his two best friends, their names escaped her at the moment.
"Oh, sorry, it's just… I believe you."
He turned around a look of surprise and delight. She put her right hand out, then quickly switched to her left.
"Rosa Neer."
"That woman did that to you, didn't she."
"Yeah, yesterday," They shook hands. "I defended you, so she gave me a detention."
"Blimey, thanks. Sorry about your hand though." He showed her his.
"Harry! Go tell Dumbledore! That's two people now!" said the girl with bushy brown hair. Hermione Granger, that was her name.
"No." Rosa and Harry said simultaneously.
"Not you too!" she sounded exasperated.
"If we tell, she wins. She'll see we've given up."
"There you go, Hermione, now you can't blame it on the 'pigheadedness' of boys." said the boy with very ginger hair.
"Ron..." Hermione started to say.
"Before Ron and Hermione start fighting," Harry interrupted, "Ron and I will go get this potion Hermione made that helps the cut heal quicker." Ron, who wanted to avoid the argument, mumbled, "Sure."
"You're a Ravenclaw! Can't you see that it would be better to tell your Head of House or Dumbledore?" Hermione said, as soon as the boys had left.
"No, it wouldn't. She'll just get more power from Fudge so she can still punish us that way.
"Maybe, but still…"
"No, not still, end of story. If she wins, then we'll all lose hope, and when you lose hope, you lose the will to fight."
Harry and Ron arrived with a small vial.
"Thanks, Harry."
"Thanks for defending me."
"Cedric didn't kill himself, you know. Harry, listen, if we don't stand up for what we know is right, we'll start doubting the truth."
"Yeah, I suppose so."
"If we don't fight Umbridge, we'll never learn how to defend ourselves, and," Rosa laughed in grim humor, "We'll be stuck in Nursery School for the rest of our school years. I have to go to Quidditch. See you around Harry."
"Bye."
Hermione had a brilliant idea. "What if," she thought, "we could have a class in secret to learn how to defend ourselves? Who would be the teacher?" Hermione looked over to her right. "Of course! Harry, who had the most experience in the Dark Arts and that could be trusted! It would be the only way, because I will not be attending Nursery School anytime soon." She thought.
THE END.
