New chapter when the plot gets a much more specific shape. Enjolras meets his new teacher and she makes clear that she is in charge of things... for now. Everyone makes fun of Marius, as usual, and Jehan comes with a surprising news.
This story is already living it's own life and it decided to take a much darker turn in approximately chapter 4. But don't worry, I'm keeping Les Amis and I can't see them finishing the story without any fun at all.
SO, please, review, tell me what you think.
2. Les Amis Meet Dolores
Almost seven years ago a group of old French wizard families decided to let their children study at Hogwarts rather than Beauxbatons. Voldemort was on the rise, and they thought that Dumbledore's school was going be safer than even a continental one. Some of them thought that the education there was better. Some of them thought that British education was going to become new fashion. The reasons were different, but the result was the same – creation of Les Amis.
It started the very first year of this fashion. Ever since Bossuet saved Marius from an unfortunate misunderstanding with Professor McGonagall and Combeferre stopped Enjolras from ruining his potion ten minutes before the end of the class, Les Amis created an inseparable group and all French students in Hogwarts gravitated towards them. The fashion didn't last and that left almost all of Les Amis in two consecutive years.
That meant that they were all (with the exception of Éponine and Azelma) past their OWLs and shared classes. All of seventh-years shared only one – Defense Against Dark Arts on Wednesday morning.
"Who do you think we are going to have this year?" asked Marius on the way from breakfast.
"Her name is Dolores Umbridge," said Combeferre. "Dumbledore told us."
"I know, I mean who is she? Defense is not going to be so important now that You-Know-Who is gone, but still..." Marius left the sentence unfinished. It was almost a year since Voldemort disappeared after trying to kill Harry Potter, but all Hogwarts students were still putting extra efforts in DADA classes.
"Maybe she'll be something like Professor Darryl," Grantaire smiled at the memory of their last teacher. Clementine Darryl had to be the worst Metamorphomagus ever. She always got stuck with an extra ear or frizzy blue hair. The worst accident happened in June, when she tried to change the shape of her lips and made them grow together. As far as they knew, she was still in St. Mungo's. Still, Professor Darryl wasn't a bad teacher and not a bad witch either (except for the whole Metamorphomagus thing).
"I've heard that the new one is from the Ministry," Feuilly chimed in. "Maybe she's an Auror. That would be cool."
Enjolras opened the door of the DADA classroom and froze. "Or maybe not," he said.
The plump woman behind the desk was dressed all in pink and had the most sickeningly sweet smile Enjolras had ever seen. A couple of students had already been there and most of them looked halfway between nausea and denial. Professor Umbridge gestured them to sit down and after a couple of Slytherins arrived, she started the lesson.
"Good morning, children," she said and obviously waited for an answer. After a few muttered good mornings, she clicked her tongue.
"No, this won't do at all. I want all of you to answer me: Good morning, Professor Umbridge. Let's try again, shall we? Good morning, children."
"Good morning, Professor Umbridge," they said.
"Very good. Now wands away, please, and quills out."
Wands away? This is a NEWT class, for Merlin's sake! Who does she think we are, first-years? Enjolras thought. He saw Grantaire and Combeferre exchange a concerned look. They had had a teacher, who stressed the importance of theory, and it didn't go well.
"We all share one goal this year – you successfully passing your NEWT exams. I understand that my predecessors insisted on teaching you practical defensive spells. The reasoning behind this procedure was that a certain Dark wizard and his followers could target anyone, even children. However this danger is no longer imminent, so you no longer need to concern yourself with such nonsense. You're perfectly safe now."
"Yeah, cause there wasn't a Death Eater attack just two weeks ago," Grantaire snickered quietly.
"Do you want to ask a question, Mr...?"
"Grantaire. No, thanks."
"But I do," Enjolras raised his hand.
"Yes, dear?" Professor Umbridge turned to him with a sickeningly sweet smile. "What's your name?"
"Sebastien Enjolras. What do you mean by perfectly safe? I am quite sure that there are still Death Eaters on the run and they are still attacking people."
Her smile grew even wider and Enjolras suddenly thought that she resembled a toad. "Quite sure? Did you see any Death Eaters, Mr. Enjolras? Did you witness any attacks?"
"No, but we all read the Prophet. You-Know-Who might be gone, but they say he's not dead and his followers certainly aren't." Enjolras wasn't going to give up. "And who says he won't come back? Who says there won't be another one? We need to know how to protect ourselves."
"There's nothing you need protecting from, Mr. Enjolras. Now, please, open your book and read Chapter One. You need to know the answers to your test questions. And that means all of you. Chapter One, page 5." The false sweetness was gone from Professor Umbridge's voice. She turned away from Enjolras, but he wasn't done with her. He raised his hand again, but Combeferre kicked his ankle. When Enjolras looked at his friend, Combeferre just shook his head and started writing on a piece of parchment.
Enjolras put his hand down and pretended to read the chapter. He hated to be defeated. After a moment Combeferre passed him a note.
Don't argue with her. You can't beat her. Let's talk about it after class.
Enjolras glanced at Professor Umbridge who was now sitting behind her desk and reading something. He took his quill and scribbled the answer:
Fine. But you better have something good to say.
"Talk!" Enjolras barked at Combeferre the moment they left the classroom.
"You're not going to achieve anything this way. You're only going to get more detention. Let's just suffer it, all right?" Combeferre reasoned. "It's not like we haven't learned enough to pass our NEWTs already and more than enough to survive peaceful time. Besides, we still have the Defense Club," he reminded him.
Enjolras smiled at the memory of the study group half of Hogwarts attended to learn a little bit more about counter-curses and protective spells. "Speaking of which, did Flitwick give us the date of the first meeting?"
"Not yet, but I have Charms next, so I can ask him. Which reminds me I should really go now. Marius, are you coming?" Combeferre turned to their friend. "Marius?"
But Marius was not listening, instead he was staring at a certain cute Hufflepuff student. Enolras wasn't sure, but he thought he saw drool in the corner of Marius' mouth.
"Can I jinx him? Please?" Grantaire begged Enjolras.
"No."
"Pretty please?"
Suddenly Marius' hair turned neon green. Combeferre turned to Grantaire, who raised his hands palms up to show that he had nothing to do with it. Enjolras looked up and saw Azelma perched on the shoulder of the statue of Serena the Sinister. Éponine's little sister was barely suppressing laughter, as she slid off the statue and landed next to Enjolras.
"Sorry 'bout that," she nodded her head in Marius' direction. "I can't figure out how to make pink. Also I tried making those little cupids we had last Valentine's Day..."
"Put it right, Azelma," Enjolras told her.
"No, please," begged Grantaire, who was trying not to laugh aloud so hard, that he was crying now. "He has only Charms now, Flitwick won't mind. Enjolras, please!"
Enjolras turned to Combeferre, who just shrugged. He knew that if he told Azelma one more time to undo her spell, she would. But Marius, who didn't notice anything yet, didn't deserve to be a laughing stock for the rest of the day.
"Éponine! Did you give her my letter? Did you invite her to a meeting? What did she say? Is she coming? You didn't tell her anything that might scare her off, did you?"
Or maybe...
"Make sure he doesn't set his head on fire when he finds out," Enjolras told Combeferre. They all knew that when Marius got upset, things tended to burst into flames.
"I think we have all mastered the Water-Making Spell well enough during the last six years with Marius. Come on, lover boy, she can wait, Flitwick can't," Combeferre pulled Marius' sleeve. They watched them go, Marius' head clearly visible even in the crowd. Other students were trying their best to conceal their giggling as they passed them by and Enjolras was quite sure that he saw Professor McGonagall roll her eyes and walk the other way.
"Bet you ten Knuts that when he comes to the meeting, he still won't know," said Bossuet.
"I'm in. He isn't that dumb," muttered Feuilly.
Betting against Bossuet was usually quite a safe bet, considering his terrible luck. This time was not an exception. When they met in the afternoon in an abandoned classroom, Marius stormed in like a rhinoceros, his hair wet, sticking to his face, and slightly smoking, but its normal color.
"Which of you jerks...?" he yelled.
Azelma kept a remarkable poker face, but Feuilly nudged Bossuet and caught Marius' attention.
"She told me! Cosette saw it and she told me! Are you trying to ruin my life?"
"Actually," said Courfeyrac, who had been complaining just a minute ago that hadn't seen Marius' new image, "it was a nice opportunity to talk to her. It's not our fault if you mucked it up."
Marius hesitated for a moment and then carried on: "Anyway, she is coming here today, so please try to behave like people and not like a bunch of baboons."
"Maybe we should throw her a welcoming parade," Bahorel muttered.
Enjolras saw with the corner of his eye that Éponine hugged her knees as she was fighting to keep her happy face on. Azelma hugged her with one her and reached for her wand with the other.
"Protego," Enjolras whispered and Azelma's spell bounced off the invisible wall, hit a stuffed Grindylow and turned it bright pink.
"Got the pink," Azelma murmured happily.
Understanding dawned on Marius' face, but before he could say a word, there was a knock on the door. Enjolras gestured Courfeyrac, who was the closest, to go and open it.
"Good afternoon to you, mademoiselle, we have been expecting you," Courfeyrac invited Cosette in.
The blond girl looked scared by the huge group that met there. She sighed in relief when she saw Marius and sat down next to him. Musichetta passed her a Butterbeer and Courfeyrac offered her a Chocolate Frog. Cosette politely refused, but Marius stared at Courfeyrac until his tie started to smoke.
"Welcome, Cosette. I'm Enjolras and I'm sure Marius will introduce you to the rest soon enough. Just have fun, that's pretty much the point of these meetings," Enjolras told her.
"Yeah, the biggest thing we do is our traditional Welcome Back to Hogwarts prank," Grantaire added.
"Which reminds me, Enjolras, Chetta, the three of us is supposed to report to Snape's office tomorrow at seven," Bahorel said. "Probably another evening of scrubbing old cauldrons."
Courfeyrac tossed a sugar mouse to Joly. Joly missed it, the mouse ran under a chest of drawers, and he had to use the Summoning Charm to get it out. It came out covered in dust and even though Joly, the expert on hygiene spells, cleaned it of every speck of dust, he still gave it to Combeferre.
"See?" Combeferre turned to Cosette, waving the sugar mouse for emphasis. "We are not as dangerous as Filch makes us sound. We enjoy some nice, quiet..."
The door flew open and Jehan stormed in, waving a piece of paper.
"It's all over the school! The Defense Club has been canceled!"