Chapter VII

In Which Arithmancy was TOUGH

"And then I said, 'who wants worms coming out of their head?', remember?" Pansy repeated for the umpteenth time. "That was so much fun; did you see the look on her face?"

Karida definitely did see the look on Johnson's face, but she had not seemed nearly as offended as Pansy made her out to be. None of the Gryffindor team was acting any different; sure Weasley looked a bit put out, and Fred and George tried to slip one of the candies that had made Katie Bell bleed into Malfoy's pouch… But the harassment during their Quidditch practice paled in comparison to the next day's news.

Karida knew something was up as soon as she saw Malfoy standing up with his chest puffed out and absolutely beaming. She tentatively stepped over to where his group was sitting for breakfast to hear the news.

A copy of The Daily Prophet was spread out across the entire section of the table, and the oversized picture of Dolores Umbridge was stained with a glob of jam next to Goyle.

MINISTRY SEEKS EDUCATIONAL REFORM

DOLORES UMBRIDGE APPOINTED FIRST-EVER "HIGH INQUISITOR"

Karida, shocked and scandalized, attempted to read the article despite the plates covering it.

"I don't get it," Crabbe said thickly, reading the headline with his mouth open. "What is a… 'High In-Queasy-Tore…?"

"The article says she'll come in and judge the teachers," Malfoy said with a gloating expression. "Too bad Hagrid hasn't showed his ugly face yet; I can't wait to see Umbridge boot him out." He said with relish.

To Malfoy's disappointment, Hagrid still hadn't returned in time for their Care of Magical Creatures lesson. Instead of the half-giant, Umbridge was waiting with her clipboard next to Professor Grubbly-Plank.

Umbridge went through all of her usual forced pleasantries with Professor Grubbly-Plank before starting her questioning. After leaving Dean Thomas slightly baffled after a long interrogation, Umbridge turned back to Professor Grubbly-Plank to ask her about her course aims.

She also asked the blunt witch what she thought of Hogwarts and Dumbledore, which Karida thought was odd. Was her fate determined by her loyalty to the headmaster?

Eventually, Umbridge turned off on another tangent and faced Goyle. "Now, I hear there have been injuries in this class?"

Goyle guffawed stupidly while Malfoy rushed to answer the question. "That was me!" He drawled, capitalizing on Potter's rising temper. "I was slashed by a hippogriff."

"A hippogriff?" Umbridge said incredulously, giving Malfoy a sickening piteous expression while she scrawled notes on her clipboard.

"Only because he was too stupid to listen to what Hagrid told him to do," Potter muttered angrily for the class to hear. He was glaring at Malfoy with extreme distaste.

Potter's friends slapped their hands to their foreheads, and Umbridge smiled slightly as she tilted her head in his direction. "Another night's detention, I think," she said happily.

(A/N: Educational Decree Number Twenty-Four was passed between this time lapse; meaning Quidditch teams were disbanded and so forth.)


After an extremely frustrating double period of Arithmancy, Karida was more than happy to finish her Friday with Potions. She was the first in front of the dungeon door, and waited impatiently for Snape to start the class.

Soon Malfoy arrived with his extended group, holding a rolled-up piece of parchment with a seal hanging off. "Yeah, Umbridge gave the Slytherin Quidditch team permission to continue playing straightaway, I went to ask her first thing this morning," he said, unfurling it and waving it around as he zoned in on Potter joining the line. "I mean, she knows my father really well, he's always popping in and out of the Ministry… It'll be interesting to see whether Gryffindor are allowed to keep playing, won't it? I mean," his voice rising as he smirked at Potter and Weasley maliciously, "if it's a question of influence with the Ministry," (which Karida quite thought it was), "I don't think they've got much chance."

Potter was visibly fuming, but had enough sense to keep his mouth shut for once, lest Snape appear.

"…Apparently they've got a special ward for people whose brains have been addled by magic…" Malfoy joked, miming a lightning bolt on his forehead and rolling his eyes into his head. After a few shrieks from Pansy, Malfoy's delighted face turned to one of astonishment.

Neville Longbottom, the Neville Longbottom, was attempting to throw a punch at Malfoy, but Potter and Weasley held him back. What he was muttering was obscured by Potter's elbow, but he seemed extremely distressed.

Snape threw open the dungeon door to see the trio in an awkward scuffle, and took it to mean Potter and Weasley were bullying Longbottom. He gave a swift deduction from Gryffindor (with a badly hidden smirk) and let the class in for the period.

Karida sat in the front table in the middle of both of the Slytherin and Gryffindor sections, in front of Neville but in plain view of everyone in the class.

"You will notice," Snape said after slamming the dungeon door, "that we have a guest with us today." He gestured to a dim corner, in which Professor Umbridge was sitting, her clipboard balanced on her knee.

Karida smiled bitterly. Finally Umbridge would be put in her place.

"We are continuing with our Strengthening Solutions today, you will find your mixtures as you left them last lesson, if correctly made they should have matured well over the weekend. Instructions – on the board. Carry on."

Umbridge took the first half hour of class to take notes on her clipboard, pausing every once and a while to smile sweetly at Malfoy and keep a close eye on Potter.

While Snape was examining Dean Thomas' Solution, Professor Umbridge snuck up on him and started speaking to his back. "Well, the class seems fairly advanced for their level. Though I would question whether it is advisable to teach them a potion like the Strengthening Solution. I think the Ministry would prefer it if that was removed from the syllabus."

Snape straightened up and turned to face the vile woman slowly, bristling, but not replying.

"Now… How long have you been teaching at Hogwarts?" she asked shrilly.

"Fourteen years," Snape answered, avoiding her eyes. The entire classroom was silent, watching the two talk. The Gryffindors were obviously conflicted whether to hope for Umbridge to have a victory over Snape or vice versa.

"You applied first for the Defense Against the Dark Arts post, I believe?"

"Yes," Snape said coldly.

"But you were unsuccessful?"

Snape's lip curled. "Obviously." This earned him scribbles on Umbridge's clipboard.

"And you have applied regularly for the Defense Against the Dark Arts post since you first joined the school, I believe?" She continued, with a shadow of a smile.

"Yes," Snape said quietly, giving Umbridge a look of unfathomable loathing that would only be recognized by those who had seen him interact with Potter.

"Do you have any idea why Dumbledore has consistently refused to appoint you?"

"I suggest you ask him."

"Oh I shall," Umbridge said sweetly, making Karida cringe. Umbridge seemed determined to win everyone over.

"I suppose this is relevant?" Snape asked with the hint of a glare.

"Oh yes. Yes, the Ministry wants a thorough understanding of teachers' – er – backgrounds…"

She finished awkwardly, then made her way to question Pansy.

The class also made an awkward shift back into work. For Karida this meant putting the finishing touches on her Solution. She looked up just in time to see Snape empty Potter's cauldron once again, and she was glad; it was giving off an awful stench of burned rubber.

"No marks again, then, Potter…"


September eventually melted into late October, although Karida could not say it was a quick process. The house-elf Dobby now knew her name, and was exuberant when she stopped in the kitchens for dinner approximately every other day. Now she didn't have to lie to him; she was barely scraping by in Arithmancy, and even that was an overstatement.

Karida was excited for the Great Hall to be decorated for Halloween, although since Hagrid had not returned, his usual gigantic jack-o-lanterns could not be seen growing during their Care of Magical Creatures lessons.

Professor Flitwick's choir sounded magnificent, and the entire school was buzzing with excitement over the upcoming Quidditch game between Gryffindor and Slytherin. Weasley looked even more sick than usual as the date of the Quidditch opening drew closer.

Meanwhile, at every opportunity, Malfoy was boasting about how he'd made perfect, extremely fast catches of the Snitch at the Slytherin teams' practices. Karida was coerced into going to one of these by the gaggle of girls, and she noticed that Montague, the team captain, had let out the Snitch directly below where Malfoy had been flying.

` The Slytherin team was running short on members, and Malfoy used his heavy influence to drag Crabbe and Goyle onto the team. The only reason why Karida had enjoyed the practice at all was naturally because any thought of Crabbe and Goyle on broomsticks was hilarious.

The realization that the game was just around the corner hit Karida one day while she was desperately trying to study before an Arithmancy exam in the Common Room.

There was a crowd of people growing in front of the fire, and Malfoy at the center. He and the rest of the Slytherin team were handing something out to any student who asked, and they were exhorting even more students off the couches to grab whatever it was they were passing out.

All Karida could do through the noise was sit, blankly starting at her Arithmancy calculations, and wait for people to filter out. When she had given it fifteen minutes, however, her housemates had started singing some song that had a mocking tune, directed by Pansy. Karida tried to ignore it, but it was useless.

With a huff, Karida stood up and gathered her things to head to the library. She was definitely farther behind than anyone else in the class, and she just wanted to get past this one exam. The rowdy atmosphere of the Common Room sure wasn't helping.

Just as Karida was about to slide the stone door open, Malfoy slid next to her, blocking her path. "Haven't you taken one yet?" He asked, holding out a crown pin to her and pointing to his own. "Weasley is our King," Malfoy said proudly, "thought of it myself, though Nott wrote the song to go with…" He held out a piece of parchment with reproduced text upon it. "The more people we get to memorize this, the better. Just don't tell anyone from other Houses, we'd rather like it to be a surprise." After Karida took them apprehensively, he left, his emerald cloak trailing behind him as he rejoined the crowd.

Cursing the Slytherins under her breath for being so inconsiderate, Karida lazily took a portrait shortcut to the library. Once there, she took a seat at an empty table, hoping that she wouldn't have to share her space.

Before taking out her textbook to resume her studying, Karida took out her copy of "Weasley is our King", curious although disgusted.

After a read-through of the poorly-composed song, Karida became ever more thankful that she did not possess the talent for Quidditch. She didn't really understand the appeal either – flying was fun, sure, but what was so fun about hitting each other with different types of balls or watching others hit each other with different types of balls?

But poor Weasley… He could be seen pale faced and green in the public school hallways, obviously already lacking confidence. Although it was cruel, Karida could see why Malfoy would want to taunt Weasley nonstop; it would greatly increase Slytherin's chances of winning.

Pushing the image of all the Slytherins singing "Weasley is Our King" out of her mind, Karida yanked her Arithmancy book out of her bag, hoping that the quiet of the library would force her to understand. It hadn't worked in study sessions thus far, but eventually the magic of the room was bound to kick in.

After what seemed like an hour trying to figure out what letters to add together, Karida found herself hoping beyond hope that when she faced the O.W.L, it would wind up that she hadn't wasted three years in Arithmancy class. What was she supposed to be writing this essay on? What was that Theory that she was applying with which Method? How did she do them at the same time? How the bloody hell was she going to pass her O.W.L.?

Tears unwillingly filled Karida's eyes as she got increasingly frustrated, but she blinked them back. She was going to figure out how to do this.

What was she missing? Her practice questions weren't matching up with the answers in the book, so obviously she was doing something wrong. But what?

New Theory of Numerology was extremely one-sided and dull. Reading the lesson over and over wasn't helping Karida figure anything out. Surely, any other book would be simpler to follow.

Karida stood up abruptly. This was a library after all. She needed to pass the Arithmancy O.W.L., and that wasn't going to happen if she didn't know how to find Nicholas Flamel's character number with Socrates' Method.

Knowing full well that she might find a large volume, Karida packed up her things to move with her to the Arithmancy section. One look down the aisle told Karida that she was not alone.

Granger sidled a bit to make room for Karida to shuffle by in the narrow shelves. She looked like she knew what she was doing; she was an expert at navigating the extensive shelves.

Karida wasn't sure where in the section to begin. The library didn't seem to have a very extensive collection of Arithmancy books compared to the size of the rest of the shelves. Dumbledore didn't like the study of Divination, but Arithmancy was completely different. Mathematical predictions are much more reliable than soggy tea leaves. Well, at least they would be more reliable, if Karida could figure out how to do these calculations.

Maybe it was the pressure of the O.W.L.s fully dawning on her, maybe it was out of loneliness or frustration, and it might have been out of spite that Karida called out to Granger as she was leaving the aisle.

"Granger?" she said quietly, not wanting to sound put-offish lest she scare her off.

Hermione turned around slowly, chin raised. "Yeah? You're one of Pansy's friends, right? What's wrong with my hair today?"

"No, I'm not…"

"I'm getting sick of you Slytherins coming in here and pushing me around, I'm just trying to read! I haven't done anything to you!"

""I'm not one of Pansy's friends!" Karida said a bit too loudly, earning her a hiss from Madam Pince.

Granger appraised Karida silently, but didn't reply.

"I'm not one of Pansy's friends," Karida repeated, tears threatening to escape from her eyelids once again. "I just… I've been trying to study for Arithmancy and I just don't get it. You're really smart… Do you think you could help me?"

Granger seemed to see the tears welling up in Karida's eyes, and let her defensive walls down. "Sure, I guess… Yeah, I have some free time, I was just getting some extra background reading in for that essay we have to write." She gestured awkwardly to a small table at the end of the shelf. "Should we sit, then?"

Feeling her frustration melt, Karida went to go set her bag down at the table while Granger slid a few quite large volumes from the shelf. They brought the books to the desk together, and got settled silently.

"So, er… What did you need help with?" Hermione started, pulling out her own parchment and quill and opening up one of the books.

"Um… Kind of everything," Karida said apologetically.

(A/N Tiny little time lapse that doesn't constitute an entire line break but the ***'s won't stay on this formatting, so like later in the study session)

"It's really like the essay we had to do third year about the number seven, and the one about thirteen last year," Hermione said, after she had uncomplicated Socrates' Method. "But now we have to put them together and explain why seven cancels out thirteen and not the other way around."

Karida felt her agitation dissipate as everything slowly became clearer, albeit, she had taken a lot of time to get help, so she needed quite a lot of it. She was thankful that Hermione wasn't treating her like she was stupid, just confused.

"This might help," Hermione said, pushing the largest book to Karida's side of the desk. "It's a book written by Bridget Wenlock herself, she basically discovered the number seven! Well, the magical properties at least, you know what I mean."

Hermione guided Karida through about half of her essay when there was a shuffling from a shelf nearby. Fred and George Weasley emerged, determinedly forcing their gleeful faces to stay only a light shade of pink. They were quite obviously concealing a bulge in their robes, and Hermione stiffened. "Excuse me," she said shrilly, standing up. "It looks l have to –"

But before she could push her chair out to scold them, the twins spotted the pair of girls and came over to chat. Hermione sat down quickly.

"Why isn't this a quaint inter-House study session?" George said, grinning down at the table and eyeing their workload with Fred.

"Well, George, maybe she wasn't lying, she does have quite a lot of homework…"

"Nope, I still think she was determined to avoid Pug-Sinton." George shook his head. "Hey, you two might want to clear out, we're testing out our dungbombs-"

"-And they're known to pack more of a punch than Zonkos', if you know what I mean…" Fred finished, and the pair snickered.

"In the library?" Hermione said, scandalized. "You can't set off dungbombs in the library!" She said in a huffy whisper.

"Ooh, we thought we'd run into a problem like this with Little Miss Prefect," George said.

"But actually," Fred said, smirking mischievously, "you'll find we can set them off in your beloved library. Thanks for the challenge."

"But…" Hermione protested.

"Don't worry your little prefect head about it," Fred said, patting her bushy hair twice. "It'll only last a little while, just enough to clear it out for a while."

"Right, but if we ever tell you we're using our Garroting Gas, you might want to move to Albania." George snorted, and the pair walked coolly off to another shelf.

Hermione started packing up her things quickly, knowing that she hadn't gotten through to the twins. She noticed Karida was blushing the smallest bit pink, and completely misinterpreted. "Sorry about them," She said, rushing to stuff the library books back on their shelves. "They're normally like that. Can you believe them? In the library."

Karida packed up the last of her things and the pair walked out of the library doors, checking behind their shoulders for any sign of a discharged dungbomb. They came to the end of the hallway, where they needed to branch off to get to their respective Common Rooms before dinner.

"I can't believe I still have that chapter to read for Umbridge…" Karida groaned. "I usually read ahead since it's interesting, but this book is different."

"I've finished," Hermione said, sticking out her tongue. "And sorry, it doesn't get any better." Karida curled her lip and stood uncomfortably, not knowing what to say to bid her new (friend?) adieux. "Thanks a lot Gran- Hermione." She settled. "Maybe now I'll be able to pass that test on Wednesday…"

"No problem," Hermione said, shaking her head. "See you around?"

"Yeah," Karida said, smiling. Both girls had taken ten paces in the opposite direction before a pin in Karida's pocket stabbed her leg.

"Hey, Hermione, wait up a minute." She said, jogging to catch up quickly. She snatched the pin out of her pocket and dug for the lyrics in her bag. "Malfoy and the Slytherin team came up with this really awful song about Weasley… They'll be singing it at the game."

Hermione's eyes scanned the parchment rapidly, and her face turned to one of disgust. "That's horrid! Ron's not bad!"

"He's really not; he just needs to be confident… So just keep his morale up and don't let him see the buttons before the game." Karida said sadly. "I don't think I'll be going, I don't want to sit in the Slytherin section if they're singing this…

"Well… Why don't you meet me by the Owlery before the game starts? Then we could go in together?"

"That sounds perfect, thanks," Karida smiled warmly, relieved. "Well I guess I'll see you in Potions on Monday…"

"Sounds good," Hermione beamed.

"Oh, and… Tell Potter to try to knock Malfoy off his broom or something. He needs a good whack in the head, maybe with those bats the Beaters have…"

Hermione looked taken aback but grinned mischievously. "No problem."


Ah, it feels good to have finished this for you guys in a really short time! :D

Please review! It helps so much!

For all you silent readers who added to their favorites/alerts that didn't review, thank you, too! A lot of you guys have PM'ing disabled so I don't have the chance to say anything. I really appreciate you reading, it would be awesome if you could tell me what you think! Please?

Pretty please with a gnome in a fairy dress on top? :D

And bee to the dubs, if you can tell me what the chapter title is in reference to, I will give you street cred, in my mind. :)