Normally, I would wait until after I had updated Sweet Child O' Mine (my GN'R fic) before I update this one. But I've got the plan to just just write for SCO'M until it's finished, so that may take a while? So, yeah, instead of leaving you hanging, I'm updating this!

Hope you enjoy! :D

Chapter II: Screw the Ministry.

Classes roll around the next day, and not one person is looking forward to it, mainly because they've got Defence Against the Dark Arts today; which means a class with that powder-pink toad that Dean can't stand looking at.

'I think I'm going to vomit in this class, seriously, this isn't gonna be good.' Dean declares as they trudge down to the dungeons. He had just gotten his schedule, and near enough called it quits when he saw he had Defence first thing in the morning followed by Transfiguration. Lucky for him though, after Transfiguration, that was him for the day.

"The blessing of NEWTs" he had said. He only gets two classes a day, and gets a Thursday off. He's a little bit in love with his Sixth Year already.

Except for today; Wednesdays will always be a pain if that's the two classes he has - personally, Mondays are his favourite with Muggle Studies and Herbology, the two easiest subjects for Dean, which he knows will make the first day of the week fly by and not be as painful as his Fifth Year, where he had Defence, Potions and Transfiguration all on the one day.

That was not fun.

'C'mon, Dean, it can't be that bad.'

'Yeah, she seems like the kind that'll wind up easy.'

Fred and George suddenly appear on either side of him with those comments, and whilst he's used to them just appearing out of the blue like that, it still doesn't stop him from having to close his eyes for a second until the shock wears off, then rolling them as soon as they're reopened.

'Chick works for the Ministry; you're saying she'll wind up easy?' Dean wonders, sending them a disbelieving glance because he knows how tough you need to be to work in the Ministry. After all, his mother worked there and well, she was a tough cookie.

Not tough enough apparently; not immortal like Dean thought she was when he was younger, but... nope. No, no, no and no.

Bad place. Bad place. Get out!

'Does anyone know what Department in the Ministry she works for?' Jo questions, almost as if she can sense Dean's sudden change in mood and wants to divert his thoughts for him; she's amazing at reading Dean - it's almost scary.

'She's the Senior Undersecretary for the Minister of Magic.' Ash explains, answering the question before Jo even gets it out of her mouth. Everyone turns to look at him with a raised eyebrow. 'Common knowledge, mi amigos.'

'You're a freaking genius man, how you ended up in Gryffindor instead of Ravenclaw with Charlie I have no idea.' Dean states but no-one replies to him for they walk into the classroom and are greeted by Umbridge, who's standing in front of the classroom, behind the desk that has two large stacks of books on top of it.

'Books?' Dean whispers to Jo as they slide into the seats at the back of the class, waiting for the other pupils to come in. His eyes don't leave Umbridge, almost as if he doesn't trust her enough to take his eyes off her; like the suits of armour in the corridors at Hallowe'en.

He hears people come in and walk past him, but it isn't until one of them comes into sight from the corner of his eyes that his eyes leave Umbridge, because they're wearing yellow. Since when do they share this class with the Hufflepuffs? Isn't it normally the Slytherins that they share Defence with?

He voices this thought to Jo and Ash, who merely scan around the room and shrug at him, because they have no idea either.

However, Dean doesn't really care about that as another thought comes into his head; Blue-Eyes is a Hufflepuff - Blue-Eyes is the Hufflepuff Prefect, chances are he's going to be in this class. No freaking way. He thought this class was going to be weird enough having Umbridge as a teacher, but this idiot with the blue eyes is going to be in it and yeah, Dean just knows he's going to fail his NEWT in Defence; Sammy will be disappointed in him, that's for sure.

Dean sees Blue-Eyes walks in and immediately rolls his eyes when he sees him go straight for the front table. Jesus Christ, what a kiss-ass.

'Good morning, class,' Umbridge starts as soon as everyone is inside and settled in a seat, and Dean rolls his eyes again because Goddammit, that voice is going to annoy him so bloody much. No-one sounds like that; that voice is definitely a fake voice and Dean doesn't trust people with fake voices; doesn't trust anyone who does fake anything. 'As you know, this year you are sitting your NEWT examinations.'

She picks up her wand and Dean frowns at it because of how short of it is; he's never seen a wand that short before, and if she were a dude he'd be making a joke about how it must reflect on him and yeah, he may or may not give a small snort at that pathetic joke.

The toad does nothing, however, and just waves her wand at the chalkboard standing to the left of the desk clad with textbooks.

The chalk flies up in the air and starts writing and Dean tilts his head so he can actually see what it has been enchanted to write: Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Test.

Who didn't know what the letters stood for? Dean wonders but shakes his head because Umbridge starts talking again as she moves to stand in front of the desk now, her hands clasped together and her wand still in her hand, and Dean rolls his eyes, because of course, of course, her wand would be pink.

He didn't even know they made pink wands!

'Most people who find the Ordinary Wizarding Level examinations hard, usually fail their Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests, or as they're more commonly known as, NEWTs.' She waves her wand once more, towards each stack of books that are still on the desk. They come floating off the desk and start trailing down the corridors that the student's desks make, and as they do, a book is deposited on each of the student's desk. 'These books give you all the information needed to pass your NEWT in Defence Against the Dark Arts.'

As soon as one lands on Dean's desk, he picks it up with distaste written on his face because textbooks aren't his favourite things in the world; he's much more interested in the practical side of things, but as he flicks through the book, he realises something: 'Where are the spells?'

Umbridge's eyes land on him, and he notices that everyone turned their head the second he spoke up to stare at him, before they turn back to their books, almost to see if they could find the spells or that they thought Dean was lying, but after a moment, it becomes apparent he wasn't, because no-one can find any mention of spells or anything practical.

'They are there, Mr. Winchester.'

'Yeah, a brief explanation on them and what they do; no mention on using them, though.' He realises as soon as the words leave his mouth that this is a record for him; in the first ten minutes of the first class of the first day of school, he's managed to cause an argument with his teacher; an argument that he has no doubt that will end in detention. Most of them do.

But this one will be worth it, because he's not going through a year - his second lastyear - and not doing any spells in his favourite class!

'Why on earth would you want to know how to use defensive spells, my dear?'

And yeah, Dean's tempted to hex the old hag right now for calling him "my dear". No-one calls him stupid names like that. No-one should call anyone "my dear"!

'I dunno, maybe because there's a lot of crazy shit going on out there, in the Big-Bad-World; y'know, the one we're gonna be a part of in two years time?'

She seems to ignore his swearing and focuses on the more important thing in his sentence. Dean give Umbridge her first - and probably last - good point for that.

'Nothing bad is happening in the "Big-Bad-World", as you put it, Mr. Winchester.' She turns her eyes away from Dean and addresses the full class. 'I do not know what you have heard, but nothing is happening. All these… horrible rumours of a certain Dark Wizard being back are a lies!' She hisses the last word, as if it's dirt in her mouth and Dean seriously didn't think she could get any crazier, but apparently he was wrong.

'Told you.' Jo whispers and Dean gives her a glare.

'The Ministry doesn't exactly have the best reputation for telling the truth, though, do they, Professor?' Dean snaps because no, they do not. He's not buying any of this crazy story that they're trying to spin, because they did the exact same thing with his mother, and look where that got her; got his family.

Umbridge's eyes narrow at him, and it's almost as if she knows what he's thinking; can see his thought process and chances are she can. She works for the Ministry, Dean realises just a second too late that it means he'll know about his mother; knows he's going to be a pain in her side just because she's a Ministry Official.

Yep, this isn't going to bode well for him if the look in her eyes is anything to go by.

'Detention during lunch, Mr. Winchester; my office.' She declares, her voice going even faker and sweeter, which Dean didn't think was possible, but there you go.

She then turns her attention back to teaching the class, telling them to open the book at a certain page and to read and not interrupt her again unless it's to ask a question regarding the book, and to raise their hand if they're going to do so.

And it takes all of Dean's strength not to rise from his seat, tell her to go fuck herself and storm out of the classroom and back to the Common Room. Instead, he just bites the inside of his mouth, and opens the book, before looking up because he can feel someone's eyes on him, and if it's that bitch again, he's going to lose his self-control.

But Umbridge isn't staring at him, she's examining her nails, and Dean frowns before he starts scanning the room, because he can still feel someone's eyes on him, and then he finds the bright blue eyes of Hufflepuff's Prefect and it occurs to him that he still doesn't know the guy's name!

However, he turns away as soon as Dean's eyes land on him, almost as if he didn't want to be caught staring and Dean's torn between smirking and frowning, and his face contorts into something in between them and it causes Jo to poke a finger to his ribs.

'You constipated or something?' She whispers and Dean just gives her a glare, which she chuckles at before they both turn their attention back to their books as soon as Umbridge looks up from her nails.

Though before Dean starts to read the words printed on the paper, his green eyes flicker up to Blue-Eyes once more, but he's got his head down as he reads and Dean rolls his eyes at himself, and he rests his head in his hand, and wonders how much more trouble he would get into if he had to fall asleep.

~oOoOoOoOoOo~

'I hate her.' Dean declares the second he's in the Common Room. He dumps his bag onto the floor, the contents clattering and clanking together, and he wants to hiss at it to shut up, but instead he just collapses onto the burgundy suede couch, his head lolling back until it's resting against the back of the love seat.

'I'm guessing detention was no fun?' Ash questions.

'Detention is never fun, but this bitch is a million times worse.'

They don't even ask him what she made him do for his detention, which he's thankful for, because that would mean talking about it and dammit, that's just not something he's willing to do. All they need to know is that Professor Dolores Umbridge is a bitch of the highest degree.

'Doesn't sound good.'

Dean lifts his head from its place on the back of the couch and fixes his eyes on Ash.

'Yeah, and whatever you do, don't go to her office. She's redecorated; everything is pink now. With kittens everywhere. Her freaking sugar is pink! I mean, c'mon! The woman is obsessed.'

'What did she make you do?' Jo grins at him. 'Sit there and get brushed up against by one of the kittens? Does she enjoy seeing people runny nosed, red eyes and covered in blotches?'

'No-one is that cruel.' Ash reasons but Dean just scoffs.

'I don't know, this cow might be.'

Almost sensing that Dean's heading in a downward spiral, Jo changes the subject. Talking isn't something Dean does, and she knows he's not going to tell them what he had to do for his detention, but she does know that he needs to be pulled away from all thoughts of it, and she knows just the subject that will put a smile on his face.

'I was talking to Charlie at lunch, and she's dying to see you, because there's apparently something really big she wants to tell you.'

And just like Jo predicted, a smile pulls at Dean's lips at the mention of Charlie, and then it grows when she tells him that Charlie is looking to tell him something, and it must be big because Charlie normally waits until she sees Dean before telling him anything; the big important stuff gets a mention to a million other people, telling them to tell Dean she's got something to say to him.

It works in distracting him, even though he knows that's what Jo's plan was all along. He's not as smart as Sammy, but he's not exactly an idiot. It leaves him feeling impatient, however, this is something big and he wants to know now and he's kind of wishing Jo had kept her mouth shut, or at least picked a different subject to talk about.

'Did she give any hint on what she's going to tell me?'

'Nope.' Jo answers straight away and Dean rolls his eyes, chances are even if she did know something that would give him a hint at what Charlie was going to tell him, she wouldn't say a bloody word. Jo can be twisted like that.

Dean sighs and his head falls back to its previous position on the headrest of the couch.

'How long is it to dinner?'

Jo and Ash just roll their eyes and laugh, going back to what they were doing before Dean came in, and Dean just closes his eyes and lets the silence around him quiet the buzz in his mind.

~oOoOoOoOoOo~

Dean laughs. It's loud and unashamed and it ends up gathering the attention of half the Great Hall, but he doesn't stop or quieten down.

'Dean!' Charlie hisses, playfully slapping his arm as her face turns red, almost matching the hair on her hair, that's been tightly pulled back into a ponytail. 'You're not supposed to laugh!'

Dean tries to stop, but finds that he can't. He does quieten down though, and after a moment, his laughter dies into sparse chuckles, before he manages to get a word out.

'I'm sorry, it's just you got detention? You, Charlie Bradbury, got detention for sneaking out of your Common Room, to go to Hufflepuff's Common Room so you could snog your girlfriend!' He bursts into laughter again, but Charlie's glare is enough to have it simmering back to chuckles once more. 'I'm sorry, it's just, that's the shit I do, not the genius Ravenclaw Charlie Bradbury!'

It's been three weeks since he came back to Hogwarts, and two weeks since he discovered Charlie actually had a girlfriend as well. The supper after his detention with that toad Umbridge - who he's had plenty more detentions with in those three weeks - was when he found out about her. Her name was Gilda and Dean laughed when Charlie told him about her.

Not because it was funny that Charlie had a girlfriend, because he's actually quite happy with that, his friend was happy, but it was just the way she talked about her. Her silky brown hair; those sparkling brown eyes; mocha coloured skin. Everything was over described and sickly sweet and it was so out of place coming from Charlie, who's normally so cool and flippant, that he just had to laugh.

Though, he did end up with a dirty big bruise on his arm for his troubles, but he still maintains it was worth it.

And he's probably going to end up with another one now, for laughing again, but he can't help it because Charlie is normally so afraid of breaking rules that Dean's had to walk her through some things; like how to flirt her way out of a detention with the male Prefect for Ravenclaw. And he's surprised she's forgotten everything he taught her.

'What about my techniques, Charlie? Couldn't flirt your way out of this one?'

'It was the male Hufflepuff Perfect, Castiel, I think his name is, and I dunno, I panicked!'

'Castiel?' Dean questions because okay, he's not been thinking about the Prefect as much as he thought he would; distractions keep coming up and if he's honest, he's kind of forgot about his determination to find out the guy's name, but now he has it and he wasn't even looking for it. It's always the same.

Charlie frowns at him. 'Really? Out of all of that, you just got the guy's name?'

Dean just shrugs as he reaches across and gets another slice of toast before he has to head for Potions. Potions, Charms, Transfiguration, Muggle Studies and Herbology are the only classes he knows what he's doing and is positive he'll get the NEWT for. Defence still isn't any better. They're still just reading from that stupid book all day long and Dean knows that if they keep that up, he's never going to pass.

He needs to add practical with technical otherwise he's got no chance of remembering things. Reading isn't Dean's strongest learning technique; though, despite what other people say, and what Sam seems to believe, he does enjoy reading. Most of the time it's the Muggle books that his father owns, on rare occasions he reads books by Wizard authors, but the reading/studying combination isn't his best way to learn something. It normally goes in one ear and out the other.

He needs both. He needs the practical side so he knows and understands what the book is saying, and needs to the technical side so he knows what the spell is supposed to do and look like.

This whole just reading malarky is getting him nowhere. And he needs a NEWT is Defence if he wants to follow through with his dream of being an Auror.

He wasn't the one that brought up the idea, it was actually McGonagall in his career advice meeting in Fifth Year. She said it would suit him; saving people, hunting bad guys. It was something he was just made to do, and it would almost be the family business, seeing as his mother was one.

As soon as his mother was brought up, he said no, because he knows what happened to his mum, but the more he thought about it, the more he decided he wanted to do her proud; wanted to follow in her footsteps and maybe put a stop to the thing that took her away from him and his family. He went back to McGonagall then and asked her for information, which she gladly gave.

But now, it looks like he won't even be able to do that, because of that stupid, pink-clad, stuck-up bitch that he hates!

'Earth to Dean! Earth to Dean!' He comes back to his senses with Charlie waving a hand in front of his face, a grin on her lips and she's probably misread everything wrong because he went off in a dream after they talked about Castiel, and nope, this is not good. Not good at all.

'C'mon before we're late.' He declares, taking the first and last bite from his new slice of toast, before throwing it back down onto his empty plate. Those thoughts totally ruined his appetite and he shouldn't think of shit like that before 12pm, it's just shouldn't be done. Truthfully, he shouldn't be allowed to think shit like that period.

He stands and hooks his bag over his shoulder, looking down at Charlie with a raised eyebrow. She says nothing as she stands as well, following his example of shouldering her bag and they leave the Great Hall and head for their Potions class.

As soon as they're away from the Gryffindor table where they were sitting, Dean questions, 'So, I take it now you've got Gilda, you've stopped crushing on Hermione?'

She swots his arm again, her face reddening and she wants to hit him even harder now; she had just gotten rid of her first blush.

'I never fancied Hermione.'

Dean throws his head back and laughs, 'Liar! You were obsessed with her; always asking me what was up with her, and let's face it, every time you sat at our table and she talked to you, your eyes glazed over and you turned into a nervous eleven-year-old again.'

Charlie just rolls her eyes and walks into the Potions classroom, no longer in the mood to protest his statement. Anyway, if she kept arguing with him, it would eventually lead to her having to admit that yes, she did have a small - or rather a humongous - crush on Hermione Granger, even now when she was going out with Gilda, and she wasn't really willing to do that.

Dean chuckles before he takes his seat next to her and decides not to make a comment because Snape walks in the room, and the last thing he wants is to piss off that greasy git.

He's had enough detentions from the toad, he doesn't want any from the snake.

~oOoOoOoOoOo~

Nearly two months have passed since they first came back to Hogwarts and things are definitely not going as well as they had hoped for. Dean wanted a smooth Sixth Year; something to remember and this one he's definitely going to remember, but for all the wrong reasons.

Umbridge continues to make Defence Against the Dark Arts a living hell for every single student of the Hogwarts population, and they can do nothing about it. She works for the Ministry, and she's definitely there for the purpose of watching the school; that much becomes clear the second she is appointed Hogwarts "High Inquisitor".

Dean and the others could no longer deny Hermione's suspicion that the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, had put Umbridge into Hogwarts to watch the students and teachers alike. Dean normally looks forward to his other classes, because it meant getting away from her and actually doing magic, but now that she was the High Inquisitor of Hogwarts, she had the ability to sit in on other classes and the teachers couldn't protest.

And Dean was definitely finding it hard to learn about how to brew the complicated Draught of Living Death without her stupid pink heels clanking against the stone floor of the Potions classroom.

'She better hope I never manage to brew this,' Dean whispers under his breath to Charlie, as he stirs the potion inside his cauldron. 'I'll slip a vial into her stupid tea as she adds her stupid pink sugar.'

Umbridge walks back to the front of the classroom, and that's the only reason Dean feels safe enough to whisper to Charlie. If he's honest, he's getting tired of all the detentions and what she makes him do is finally getting to him, something that she looks happier and happier about, the cheeky cow.

'Something needs to be done, right? Something needs to be done about her? We're not learning; how are we supposed to pass NEWTs if she's the one calling the shots?' Charlie enquires, her voice a whisper as well because she's also had enough with detentions; all of them for sneaking out to see Gilda. It's actually becoming a regular occurrence, and the Hufflepuff prefect, Castiel, has given up trying to get her to stop and just lets her and Gilda be, knowing they're not doing anything bad.

Charlie nearly kissed him when he explained this to her, when she called him out on it when he just walked past them one night, when they were sitting in Hufflepuff's Common Room.

They frown when a psst comes from behind them, and after checking to make sure Umbridge isn't watching, which she isn't as she's talking to Snape instead, they both turn to find Fred and George staring at them, leaning on the table beside their cauldron and completely ignoring it, even as the steam turns green, which it definitely should not be doing.

'What?' Charlie and Dean ask in unison.

'Something needs to be done?'

'Well, something is being done.'

'Ron's told us that him, Harry and Hermione are getting together on the next trip to Hogsmeade -'

'- Next week -'

'- To do something about it. We don't know what, but Hermione's determined to make it happen -'

'- And you know how Hermione gets when she's determined to make something happen.'

Sometimes it gets confusing with their constant switching on who's doing the talking, but after six years, both Dean and Charlie are used to it.

Dean smirks and turns to Charlie, who's wearing a frown on her face, because this is sounding like something that's very Gryffindor-y and not at all Ravenclaw-y.

But she's willing to do anything if it means passing her NEWT, and hey, this may be just what she needs.

So, with this in mind, she turns back to Fred and George with a small smirk growing on her lips, one that's matching Dean's and asks, 'Where about's this meeting in Hogsmeade?'

Please review and let me know what you think! ;D

~Charlotte.x