Hey guys! I know I know, it's been a LONG time since I've updated, but here we are. The only reason I was able to do this is because I'm sick, and don't have enough energy to do anything else. So, I hope you enjoy it! And as always, R&R!
Disclaimed: There are direct quotes from the Fifth Book in here ( a lot of them actually). You know what's mine and what's not. Don't sue me. I don't gots no money. )
Chapter 9: The Potions Master, The Pureblood, and The Toad (Aka: The Bad, The Worst, and The Just Plain Ugly)
Celia and Hermione caught up with Ron and Harry as they were leaving the common Room to go to breakfast.
"What's up Harry?" asked Hermione, "You look really angry about something."
"Seamus reckons Harry's lying about You- Know- Who," Ron replied for Harry.
"What?! Where is this guy? I'm gonna give him a piece of my mind," said Celia angrily, looking around. Hermione sighed.
"Yes, Lavender thinks so too," she said.
"The little brat," muttered Celia under her breath.
"Been having a nice little chat with her about whether or not I'm a lying, attention seeking prat, have you?" asked Harry rather angrily.
"No, we actually told her to-"
"I believe that 'told' would not be the correct term here," said Celia, " I think it was more along the lines of 'threatened'."
"- her to keep her big fat mouth shut about you, actually," continued Hermione, ignoring Celia. "And it would be nice if you stopped jumping down our throats, Harry, because if you haven't noticed, we're on your side."
There was an awkward silence.
"Sorry," said Harry softly.
"It's alright," said Celia cheerfully, breaking the low mood. The four continued to breakfast and sat down.
"Good morning Neville!" said Celia grinning. "Sleep well?"
Neville grinned back.
"Yeah, how about you?"
"Very well! The beds here are really comfy."
"How are you liking Hogwarts so far?" he asked as he dumped eggs onto his plate.
"I'm loving it so far! I can't wait for my classes!"
"Well, you won't have to wait much longer," said a voice from behind Celia. She turned around to see Professor McGonagall handing out schedules.
"Good morning professor!" said Celia, grinning even more.
"Good morning to you. I trust everyone is being helpful to you?" inquired Minerva as she tapped a blank piece of parchment and handed it to Neville. If anyone was mistreating 'her' children, especially 'her' little new comer, it was not going to be good for them.
"Oh yes! Everybody's so nice!" said Celia.
"Well, here is your schedule. I hope your first day goes well, Miss Hamelton," said Minerva as she handed Celia her schedule. As she moved down the table, she could hear Hermione asking what classes she was taking and seemed to sound happy when she found out that she and Celia were in the same Ancient Ruins class. What a coincidence.
The fifth year Gryffindors headed to their first class, History of Magic. Celia was surprised to learn that a ghost taught the subject. The Gryffindors spent the first hour and a half of their day either taking notes (Celia and Hermione) or gazing off into space (pretty much everyone else).
"How would it be if I refused to lend you my notes this year?" asked Hermione rather coolly as they left the classroom.
"We would borrow Celia's notes," replied Ron, winking at Celia, who giggled.
"And what would you do if she didn't lend you her notes?" asked Hermione icily.
"Then we would fail our OWLs, and you and Celia would feel absolutely terrible about letting your two best friends down," said Ron.
Celia rolled her eyes as Hermione snapped back angrily.
"We'll, you'd deserve it. You don't even try to listen to him do you?"
"We do try," pleaded Ron, "We just haven't got you two's brains, or memory, or concentration-"
"Doesn't sound like ya'll have much then," joked Celia.
Harry and Ron glared at the two witches as they laughed and huddled on the edge of the courtyard.
"Hello Harry!"
Celia and Hermione turned around to see a girl walking up to them.
"Hi Ron, Hermione," she looked at Celia, "I'm sorry, I don't think we've met, I'm Cho Chang." She held out a hand, which Celia shook.
"I'm Celia Hamelton," said Celia smiling.
"Is that a Tornados badge?" asked Ron rudely, pointing to a pin on Cho's robes. "You don't support them do you?"
"Yeah, I do," replied Cho.
"Have you always supported them? Or just since they started winning league?" Ron demanded.
"I've supported them since I was six," Cho replied coolly. "Anyway, I'll see you all later, nice to meet you Celia!" Cho walked away.
"You are so rude!" said Hermione, rounding on Ron.
"What? I can't ask her about-"
"You didn't have to attack her like that you know!"
Celia moved closer to Harry.
"Are they always like this?" she asked, looking slightly amused at their bantering.
Harry nodded dully, obviously thinking about something else.
"That would be the bell ya'll," said Celia, since nobody was paying attention to it. They made their way to the dungeon, with Harry leading, Celia following, and Ron and Hermione bringing up the rear, still arguing. They arrived, and filed inside. Professor Snape arrived and set them to the Drought of Peace. Celia was working between Hermione and Neville. Neville read the instructions through and groaned.
"Great. This is going to be so hard…"
"Hey now, it's not that bad, just requires a lot of concentration. Here, I'll help you," said Celia, moving her things a little closer to Neville so she could help him while working on her own potion.
"I really don't think you should…"
"Oh, nonsense. Just let me help you."
It was a half hour before Snape walked by to inspect the Gryffindor's potions.
"And what is it that you think you are doing, Miss Hamelton?" he asked as Celia was helping Neville with his powdered moonstone while stirring her own potion.
"Giving Neville a bit of help. He's having some trouble with his potion, sir," replied Celia cheerfully as she added salamander saliva to her potion.
"I don't know how things are done in American, Miss Hamelton, but here, you do not make other student's potions for them," sneered Snape.
"Oh, I'm not doing it for him. It's just, how is he supposed to be able to make it for the OWLs if he doesn't understand it? I mean, don't you want him to do well, sir?" asked Celia.
"Mr. Longbottom is a disaster waiting to happen and is hopeless cause, and unfortunately for him, you will not be there to help him during his OWLs, so do not help him now."
Snape walked down the row to inspect Harry's potion.
"I told you you shouldn't help me," muttered Neville, turning slightly pink.
"Oh, don't worry yourself about it. He doesn't scare me," replied Celia, though she didn't help Neville for the rest of class.
"I'll just have to help you outside of class," said Celia as the bell rang. Neville gave her a grateful smile. The fifth years made their way to the Great Hall and sat down to lunch.
"So Celia, tell us more about yourself," said Hermione as they started eating.
"Well, as ya'll know, I'm from Charleston, SC, and we just moved to the edge of London. My parents are both lawyers, so-"
"You're Muggle-born?" asked Hermione.
"Well, yea. I thought it was totally obvious," replied Celia.
"No, not at all. I'm Muggle-born too, actually."
"Seriously? Sweet!"
"And that's all we need isn't it? One more filthy Mudblood," said a drawling voice behind Celia.
Ron, Harry, and Hermione instantly turned around. Celia though, calmly turned to face her insulter.
"Excuse me?" she said darkly, as Neville, Ron and Harry pulled their wands out. "Did you say something? I thought I heard some insignificant jibberish, but I must have been wrong. Would you like to repeat that?"
"Yea," growled Ron, "Give us a good reason to hex you into infinity."
"Temper Weasley," drawled Draco Malfoy lazily, "Or I'll have to report you for threatening a prefect."
"We should report you for using foul names," replied Ron, still glaring at Malfoy.
Minerva looked up from her lunch and saw Malfoy at the Gryffindor table. That was never good.
"What is the meaning of this?!" she asked as she approached the group of fifth years. Celia was now standing up, almost nose to nose with Malfoy, glaring at him.
"Malfoy was calling Celia foul names, professor!" said Neville.
"I was not the only one he insulted. He referred to both Hermione and myself as 'filthy Mudbloods'," said Celia coolly, still glaring at Malfoy.
Minerva internally sighed. This was not the first time Malfoy had called Hermione a 'Mudblood'.
"Detention, Mr. Malfoy. And ten points from Slythern," said McGonagall curtly. "And if I hear of you using the term 'Mudblood' again, you will lose more House points and serve a week's detention. Are we Mr. Malfoy?"
Malfoy nodded once before glaring at Celia one more time and returning to his table. Celia glared right back at him and stiffly sat down. Minerva placed her hand on the young witch's shoulder. She hated that Celia had already made an enemy.
"I'm very sorry about that Miss Hamleton," said Minerva. Some of the iciness seemed to melt off of Celia.
"It's not your fault Professor. But thanks though," replied Celia, smiling weakly at Minerva. After McGonagall left, Ron turned to Hermione.
"I think you might have some competition," he said softly, grinning.
"What do you mean?" asked Hermione.
"What I mean is, who is McGonagall's favorite? You or Celia?"
"And why do you think I care about such a silly thing as that?" scoffed Hermione.
But Ron just laughed.
"Time for Divination Ron," said Harry as he stood up.
"You're not taking Divination are you Celia?" asked Hermione.
"No, I've got Ancient Ruins next," replied Celia, glancing at her schedule.
"Great! That's what I have. Let's go," said Hermione.
After they had taken their seats, Hermione leaned towards Celia.
"Are you alright? Malfoy's is really foul. He's called me a Mudblood before too," she said.
"I'm totally fine," muttered Celia, just as the class was starting. The girls didn't get a chance to talk until they were on theur way to Defense Against the Dark Arts.
"Don't take it too personally," said Hermione. Celia raised an eyebrow.
"Ok, I know, that's easier saud than done, but you can't let Malfoy get to you. It's what he wants to do."
Celia sighed as they entered the classroom. It was quiet. Celia and Hermione sat down and were soon afterwards joined by Harry, Ron, and Neville. They quietly waited as the rest of the class filed in. When everyone arrived, Professor Umbridge stood up.
"Well, good afternoon!"
There was a general muttering of "Good afternoon."
"Tut tut. That won't do now, will it? I should like you, please, to reply "Good afternoon Professor Umbridge." One more time please. Good afternoon class!"
A "Good afternoon Professor Umbridge" was chanted back to her. Professor Umbridge pulled out her wand. Celia stifled a snigger and passed a scrap of parchment to Neville.
Is that a wand or a weapon?! Look how thick that thing is!
I think you could whack somebody over the head with it
and knock them out cold!
Neville grinned as Umbridge tapped the board and he scribbled something down on the parchment and passed it back to her.
Maybe she hit flies with it for her dinner.
Celia looked at Neville and mouthed, "Lame?" Neville just grinned and shrugged as they began copying down the course aims. Celia softly groaned as they were told to read Chapter One of Defensive Magical Theory. Celia looked around and saw that Harry was also looking around. She caught his eyes and subtlety rolled her eyes. Harry gave a small nod in response. And that's when they noticed Hermione. Hermione was not reading. In fact, she hadn't even opened her book, but had her hand raised and was staring at Professor Umbridge pointedly. It wasn't long before most of the class was watching Hermione. Finally Umbridge decided to acknowledge the raised hand.
"Did you want to ask something about the chapter dear?"
"Not about the chapter, no," replied Hermione.
"Well, we're reading just now. If you have other queries, we can deal with them at the end of class."
"I've got a query about your course aims," said Hermione, nodding to the board. There was a slight pause.
"And your name is-?"
"Hermione Ganger."
"Well, Miss Granger," said Umbridge in a falsely sweet voice, "I think the course aims are perfectly clear if you read them through carefully."
"Well, I don't," said Hermione, "There's nothing written up there about using defensive spells.
"Using defensive spells? Why, I can't imagine any situation arising in my classroom that would require to use a defensive spell, Miss Granger. You surely aren't expecting to be attacked during class?" asked Umbridge with a little laugh.
"We're not going to use magic?" asked Ron loudly.
"Students will raise their hand when they wish to speak in my class Mr. - ?"
"Weasley," said Ron as he put his hand up.
Harry and Hermione both raised their hands. Professor Umbridge turned back to Hermione.
"Yes, Miss Granger? You wanted to say something else?"
"Yes," said Hermione, "Surely the whole point of Defense Against the Dark Arts is to practice defensive spells?"
"Are you a Ministry-trained educational expert, Miss Granger?"
"She never claimed to be," said Celia angrily, raising her hand, "That's not the point though. Couldn't you just answer the question please, professor?"
"And who are you?" asked Umbridge, turning to Celia.
"Celia Hamelton," replied Celia boldly.
"Well, Miss Hamelton, you will be learning about defensive spells in a secure, risk-free way-"
"Because you know that if we don't, you actually use magic, that's going to do us a lot of good on the practical part of our O.W.L.s when we're going to have to perform spells," interrupted Celia sarcastically. Umbridge's eyes narrowed momentarily before speaking.
"Ten points from Gryffindor, I think. For cheek." She looked at the rest of the class. "As long as you've studied the theory hard enough, there is no reason why you should not be able to perform the spells under carefully controlled examination conditions."
"And what good's theory going to be in the real world?" asked Harry loudly.
"There is nothing waiting out there, Mr. Potter."
"Oh yea?" inquired Harry angrily.
"Who do you imagine wants to attack children like yourselves?"
"Your mom," muttered Celia under her breath. "And that's scary enough."
"Hm, let's think…" said Harry mockingly, "maybe Lord Voldemort?"
The effect was immediate. Everybody reacted in some way, except for Umbridge.
"Another 10 points from Gryffindor. My, my, Gryffindor is not getting off to a good start, is it?"
She returned to her desk before addressing the class. "Now, let me make a few things quite plain. You have been told that a certain Dark Wizard has returned from the dead-"
"Using the term 'dead' rather loosely isn't she?" asked Celia under her breath, though apparently she wasn't quiet enough, for Umbridge glared at her before continuing.
"-and is at large once again. This is a lie."
"It is NOT a lie!" said Harry hotly. "I saw him, I fought him!"
"Detention Mr. Potter!" trilled Professor Umbridge. "Tomorrow evening. Five o'clock. My office. I repeat, this is a lie. The Ministry of Magic guarantees that you are not in danger from any Dark wizard. If you are still worried, by all means, come and see my outside class hours. If someone is alarming you with fibs about reborn Dark Wizards, I would like to here about it. I am here to help. I am your friend. Now, you will kindly continue you're reading. Page five, 'Basics for Beginners'."
As Umbridge sat down, Celia muttered, "If she's my friend, then I'm the friggin' Queen of Sheba."
"Miss Hamelton, you are very close to joining Mr Potter in detention," said Umbridge. "You need to get your sarcasm in control."
But nobody was paying attention to her, because Harry had stood up.
"Harry!" whispered Celia and Hermione together, tugging at his arms.
"I've already made her pissed! Just sit down before she does something stupid to you!" whispered Celia frantically, but to no avail.
"So, according to you, Cedric Diggory dropped dead of his own accord, did he?" Harry asked, shaking with anger.
"Cedric Diggory's death was a tragic accident," Umbridge replied coldly.
"It was murder. Voldemort killed him, and you know it."
Umbridge stared blankly at him, and then said very softly, "Com here, Mr. Potter, dear."
The professor proceeded to pull out a small roll of pink parchment out of her bag, ("Eww," whispered a repulsed Celia, "What's next? Pink quill and ink?" Hermione promptly stomped on her foot.) and started scribbling on it. She finally tapped the parchment with her wand; it rolled itself up and sealed itself.
"Take this to Professor McGonagall, dear," she said, handing the roll of parchment to Harry. And with that, Harry left the room and slammed the door shut behind him. The room was dead silent.
"Well, let's get back to our reading shall we?" asked Umbridge sweetly. As everybody turned back to their reading, Celia looked at Hermione, Ron and Neville.
"Uhoh. That ain't good…."
