She actually looks like a frog!"
It was a Wednesday morning and Ophelia was sat at the back of the Defence against the Dark Arts classroom, awaiting her first lesson from Umbridge.
Lia glanced at Trace as she slid into the seat next to her.
"Tell me about it," She replied, watching as Hermione, Ron and Harry entered, the latter giving her the slightest of smiles. Lia didn't return it.
"Good afternoon children!" Umbridge said loudly when the last student, Malfoy, swaggered in. Lia smirked as she heard the word "children". She got the feeling herself and Umbridge were going to get on like a house on fire.
"Well, that won't do!" The squat woman exclaimed when nobody replied to her. I'd like you to please reply, "Good afternoon Professor Umbridge…Good afternoon class?"
Lia snorted loudly as the rest of the class chanted back at the teacher. Umbridge looked at her for a moment, but decided to stay silent for now.
"Wands away and quills out please."
Trace sighed from beside Ophelia as she grabbed parchment out of her bag. Lia put her wand in her pocket for now. She felt a little vulnerable without it. Umbridge started to write something on the board, and Lia felt her concentration ebbing away already. And to her annoyance, her thoughts seemed to float towards a certain red headed twin. George hadn't spoken to her since her sorting, which annoyed her, and the fact that it annoyed her added to her annoyance. For some reason, every time she saw him her heart sped up, her breath caught in her throat and every sane thought that was in her head completely left. There was something wrong with her.
She couldn't even talk to Trace about it, because to Trace, she was Ophelia Williams, who was a transfer from home schooling, and who hadn't spent the whole summer with a great part of Gryffindor house, past and present. Nah, to Trace, Lia was another Slytherin, outcast from the rest but in some ways just the same, just like her.
"We're not going to use magic?"
Lia snapped out of her thoughts as she heard Ron's exclamation. Frowning slightly, she looked up and saw many of the class with their hands up, and so she looked at the course aims she should have been copying. He was right; it didn't mention using magic at all. How ridiculous was that?
Umbridge was now speaking to Hermione. "Yes Miss Granger?"
"Isn't the whole point of Defence lessons to practice defensive spells?" She asked, trying to sound polite, but Lia could hear the anger evident in her voice.
"I'm afraid you are not qualified to decide the 'whole point' of my lesson Miss Granger. Some very clever and much older Wizards have devised this new study programme. This means you will be learning in a secure, and risk-free-"
Harry interjected before Lia could open her mouth.
"What's the use of that?" He said "If we get attacked it won't be risk free!"
Umbridge smiled in a sick way. "Hand Mr Potter. Surely you do not expect to get attacked during my classes?"
A Gryffindor girl raised her hand. "So you're saying the first time we'll use these spells will be in out exams?"
Umbridge continued on. "If you have studied the theory-"
Lia'd had enough of this idiocy. "Yeah, we might not get attacked in the lessons but what about outside of them?" She shouted, not bothering to put up her hand. "If we never get a chance to practice the spells how are we supposed to use them in the real world?"
"There is nothing in the 'real world' that would want to attack students such as yourself!"
"Are you really such a sub-standard defence teacher that you think there're no dark creatures in the world? There're such things as Leithoids, Chimeras, Dementors, not to mention dodgy Wizards you pass in the street who think they can have a go! Are you trying to tell me that we don't deserve to learn how to defend ourselves? I thought this class was all about defence?" Lia shouted.
"Detention Miss Williams. Tomorrow night, my office."
"Save it. I'm leaving." Lia answered, standing up grabbing her things and walking straight out the door.
"Like I said children, there is nothing that would want to protect students such as yourself" Lia heard Umbridge say as she stormed out the door. She'd pay for walking out later, she guessed but she didn't care. She'd been holding in her anger since she got here, and her frustration with Sirius, George and not to mention Pansy Parkinson had vented out slightly with her outburst at Umbridge.
She started to wander the corridors. She didn't want to go to the common room; her housemates were too annoying to endure. She certainly wasn't going to go back to class. She figured she'd go to the owlery and write to Remus or something.
Now she had a destination, she started to storm up the flight of stairs. That Umbridge woman had to be the most stupid person she had ever met in her entire life. And that included some of the stuff she'd had to endure in Grimmauld Place. Surely the whole point of magic school was to learn magic? Ophelia thought that the sooner she left this place the better, if the teachers were like that old toad.
She'd reached the owlery. She pushed the door, but it seemed to be stuck. Something was jamming it the other side.
"Oh, for Merlin's sake!" She exclaimed, pushing it with all her might. It suddenly opened, and Lia found herself falling onto whatever had been blocking it.
Or whoever, it turned out to be. This was an annoyingly familiar situation.
"Err…Hi" The obstructer said.
Lia shot up as quickly as she could. "You wanna save the formalities for when I'm not lying on top of you George?"
He seemed to snap to his senses. "Ha, yeah… of course." He stood up, slower than she had done, and Lia found herself looking anywhere but him, otherwise she was sure she would not be able to speak at all.
"You really shouldn't be blocking the door, you know!" She said, more angrily than it was supposed to come out.
"Well, I didn't expect some lunatic to barge right in here," he said, half laughing, until his face seemed to remember something and he stopped. "Err, I have to go anyway. Bye Lia,"
Don't go Lia thought, but snapped herself out of it.
"Hey, maybe we can hang out sometime? I haven't spoken to any of you lot since we've been here." She spat out as quickly as she could, cursing herself at the same time for it.
George's eyes lingered on Ophelia's robes. "Err, maybe. I think everyone's busy with all the homework though, but I'll see." Not meeting her eyes, he left swiftly.
It was only after he left that Lia noticed what he'd been looking at. Her Slytherin house badge.
Dear Remus. And don't you dare tell anyone from the Order how sappy this letter was or I'll break your face.
This school is the biggest pile of dragon dung I've ever had the misfortune to endure. I want to come back to the house, as much as I thought I'd never say that.
It's just… I guess being a Slytherin is harder than I thought. After my dad's letter I was utterly determined to prove him wrong. Just because I'm in the same house Voldemort was, it doesn't mean I'm going to turn out like him, does it? Everyone here seems to think so. Everyone in my own house hates me because of some stupid childish rumour, and everyone in the other houses hates me because they think I'm just like the rest. I have one friend, and even she's a bit of a bitch, though to be honest, I probably am too.
Lia.
After sending her letter, Lia wandered the corridors some more, still annoyed by George. What an absolute, well, you can guess the kind of names she was coming up for him.
"Argh!" She shouted in frustration and kicked a nearby suit of armour.
"Shouldn't you be in class, Miss Williams?" A voice sounded behind her.
"Probably." She replied, turning around to see none other than her headmaster. Crap.
"And why aren't you in that class?" He asked her, but she thought she saw a smile in his eyes.
"Because it's all a bunch of, well, rubbish, if I'm going to be honest!" She replied.
Dumbledore smiled. "Well, they say honesty is the best policy. Do you want to tell me why you walked out of Professor Umbridge's class?"
Lia frowned, how come he knew what she'd done?
"A good headmaster always knows where his pupils should be, Ophelia. Especially those prone to skipping lessons."
"That toad isn't let us use magic! And that's completely ridiculous, so I left the lesson." Lia exclaimed.
Ophelia expected the Headmaster to be angry, but he simply sighed slightly.
"Ophelia, you must understand that Professor Umbridge is working for the Ministry. As much as I… disagree with her teaching methods, for now it would be best for you to keep on her good side, to avoid further…suspicion."
"What are you getting at?" Lia asked.
"I think it would be a good idea not to give her reason to be curious about you. Given your…home situation. Professor Umbridge is in direct contact with the Minister himself."
Lia opened her mouth to speak.
"Now, as it's nearly time for lunch I suggest you run along to the Great Hall. Goodbye Miss Williams." And with that he briskly walked away, humming softly to himself.
Lia just stared after him. Was he trying to say that Umbridge could find out about Sirius? The only thing she knew for definite after that conversation was that her Headmaster was the strangest man she'd ever met.
"Oh my lord, Phee, I cannot believe you!"
Lia laughed to herself as Trace sat next to her at dinner that night.
"I bet Umbridge exploded." Lia said, helping herself to some sausages.
"Oh, she barely had time to readjust herself before Potter started on her too!" Trace exclaimed.
Lia put down her fork, glancing over to the Gryffindor table where Harry sat looking very uncomfortable. "Harry? That goody-goody? What did he say?"
"Ooh, first name terms with Potter are we?" Trace said in a sing-song voice, but she was only joking. "Well, he started shouting about You-Know-Who wanting to kill everyone, and all that guff."
"Oh right. Well hopefully she's forgotten about my punishment." Lia replied, watching George enter the hall with Fred. He looked straight towards the Slytherin table, as if he was looking for her, but Lia looked away from him with all her strength. She would not be some simpering obsessed little girl. He didn't want to know her, and that was the end of it. Merlin, you'd think she had a crush on this boy! She didn't, she reassured herself. Of course she didn't. Did she?
"Oh yeah, she told me to remind you, you're detention's tomorrow night at five." Trace said bluntly, sticking her fork into a potato.
"Great."