In four years, Rohini had had her fair share of rough days while studying at Hogwarts and though she was growing used to them by now, it didn't make them any less difficult to deal with.
Thankfully enough, her circle of friends had grown bigger and it was easier to find moral support after yet another student bumped into her on purpose with a sneer.
Most of the time, their smile would vanish as soon as Padma flashed her prefect badge to them right before taking some points from their respective house.
"My shoulder is starting to feel sore." Rohini complained to Padma on their second day back to the castle, right after a group of Slytherin didn't pay enough attention and 'accidentally' shoved Rohini aside with more strength than necessary. "I'm starting to wish I had been a prefect."
"You don't need more responsibilities on your shoulders, trust me." Padma said wisely, looking down at their new schedule as she hadn't memorised it yet. "I have a feeling this is going to be a difficult year…"
"School wise or generally speaking?" Rohini asked before yawning, not entirely wide awake after breakfast.
"Both, at this point." Padma sighed. "I heard you shifting and grumbling last night. Still have troubles sleeping?"
"Oh, did I keep you awake?" Rohini asked with a worried frown. "Sorry about that."
"Don't fret, silly." Padma scoffed, gently nudging Rohini. "We should hurry, we start with History of Magic today."
Rohini rolled her eyes; Binns would barely notice if the castle was on fire, let alone if two students arrived late or skipped his class entirely.
They had been walking for a few minutes when Rohini remembered something she had heard Hermione talk about the previous day.
"Say, Padma, do you know if exams this year will be difficult? Hermione seems to think OWLs are nothing to worry about, but she's the only one so far…"
Padma pinched her lips, thoughtful.
"I know that mum did really great because she wanted to become an Auror but dad barely passed them, but he wasn't really the studious kind so I can't really tell..."
"Really?" Rohini asked, surprised. "He looks like a serious man, yet."
"Oh he is now," Padma laughed, "He wasn't a troublemaker, not really, but he wasn't into studying that much. I think being into a wizardly profession wasn't what he was looking for anyway."
"I see." Rohini said as they reached the classroom.
What about her? She was so worried about survival lately that the whole thought of planning her future seriously had never occurred to her. Until Voldemort was dead for good and his followers put into jail, Rohini found it unlikely she would manage to find a stable job and live a normal life without being killed one night, just like her parents had been-
"Oh thanks goodness, he hasn't started yet." Padma whispered as they hurried to find a seat, getting Rohini out of her quite depressing trail of thoughts.
History of Magic was by common opinion the dullest subject ever devised by wizardkind. Professor Binns, their ghost teacher, had a wheezy droning voice that was almost guaranteed to cause severe drowsiness within ten minutes, five in warm weather. He never varied the form of their lessons, but lectured them without pausing while they took notes, or rather, gazed sleepily into space.
For his first lesson of the year, he decided to settle on the subject of giant wars and Rohini tried so hard to focus for the subject should have been interesting, but it was no use; their teacher was as morbidly boring as the grave he wasn't currently haunting.
Instead, Rohini started to think about OWLs and how there were going to influence her future as an adult. The thought almost made her laugh in disbelief; she was 15, how exactly was she supposed to know for sure what she wanted to do for the rest of her life? Even with Voldemort's threat set aside, what if she came to realise she didn't love her job? Was it possible to change fields without having to pass more exams? It all seemed quite confusing….
Finally the bell rang and it was time for them to leave the next lesson was Herbology and Rohini felt herself relaxing a little as both Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs crossed the castle's yard under a fine misty drizzle that made everything a bit blurry to look at.
The weather made everything inside the green house smell stronger and though most people grimaced and complained about it, Rohini found out she didn't mind the earthy smell. On the contrary, she happily buried her gloved hands in muds, wondering how something supposedly dirty could felt so soothing.
"Dad says it's something some people enjoy," Padma explained as she pushed her hair away from her sweaty forehead. "Stimulating your senses with different kind of textures, fidgeting malleable materials…"
"I like it-" Rohini said, and Padma gave her a fond look. "-but I can't see myself working in the Herbology field, you know?"
"You could become a potter and play with clay the whole day, then." Padma said cheekily and Rohini laughed, drawing attention on herself and she quickly muttered an apology to Professor Sprout.
"Maybe I should do that, yeah." She whispered with a wink before focusing on the ugly slug looking sentient plant they were supposed to take care of.
Playing in the mud was sadly not powerful enough to make Rohini forget their next class: Potions.
Professor Snape was as infuriating as Rohini remembered him, sweeping over and staring for uncomfortably long in your eyes as he spoke oh so slowly, reminding everybody that only the most skilled students will be allowed to keep Potions in their schedule in Sixth year and that the rest will have to say their goodbyes.
"I will gladly do so." Rohini mumbled, "but I have a feeling I'll need Potions if I want to become a Magizoologist… might give up on this dream, just to avoid Snape…"
"What a drastic solution." Padma said with a smile, her eyes fixed on the chalkboard as Snape wrote his instructions, the chalk screeching painfully against the board.
"Today we will be mixing a potion that often comes up at Ordinary Wizarding Level: the Draught of Peace, a potion to calm anxiety and soothe agitation. Be warned: if you are too heavy-handed with the ingredients you will put the drinker into a heavy and sometimes irreversible sleep, so you will need to pay close attention to what you are doing."
It wasn't an easy work; ingredients had to be added to the cauldron in precisely the right order and quantities; the mixture had to be stirred exactly the right number of times, firstly in clockwise, then in anti-clockwise directions; the heat of the flames on which it was simmering had to be lowered to exactly the right level for a specific number of minutes before the final ingredient was added.
"You know what, I take it back. You were right, and I'm definitely not gonna keep up with this class next year." Padma grunted, pulling on her hair in frustration. "It's driving me crazy!"
"Don't let Snape hear you, he'll be too pleased about it." Rohini said moodily, trying to get rid of the sticky bug skin that had gotten under her nails.
"A light silver vapour should now be rising from your potion." called Snape, with ten minutes left to go.
"It looks silverfish enough, right?" Zach whispered to Rohini, pointing to his own cauldron issuing a pale blue steam while Padma's cauldron was now spitting white sparks that left burn marks on the table.
Rohini was surprised when she looked around and realised that she was one of the few students with a shimmering mist of silver vapour hovering above her cauldron. Her pride only grew as Snape stared down at her over his long large nose and his eyes narrowed furiously, for he had nothing to say about her potion.
"Those of you who have managed to read the instructions, fill one flagon with a sample of your potion, label it clearly with your name and bring it up to my desk for testing," said Snape, walking away and missing the thumb up Padma gave Rohini.
As usual, he made sure to torture them further by giving them twelve inches of parchment on the properties of moonstone and its uses in potion-making, to be handed in the next day as homework.
Everybody complained loudly as soon as they were out of the dungeon all the way to the Great Hall but Rohini was too hungry to open her mouth, happy to just listen to Padma planning how she would write this essay for the next afternoon.
"Would you say no if I ask to copy yours?" Rohini asked and Padma huffed, pointing out how bold it was to ask that to a Prefect, though she didn't deny Rohini's request.
Rain was lashing the high windows and Rohini couldn't tell if there were more candles lit or if it was just a trick of her eyes. As she sat and helped herself to some shepherd's pie, she listened to Luna's first impression of Umbridge.
"She is a really strange woman, I don't think you will like her very much." She said, her expression less dreamy as she recalled how she had taken points from Ravenclaw when Luna had dared to question her methods without any ill intention. "But I think Harry is the one she dislike the most."
"What do you mean?" Rohini asked, her mouth stopping an inch away from the slice of pie she was holding, making some of its filling fall back into her plate. "You're not in his class, so how-"
"Oh, Ginny just told me about it, she bumped into Harry yesterday but he barely acknowledged her, so she went and ask Ron about it. Umbridge wasn't really nice to him and treated him like a petulant child." Luna said.
"He didn't tell me about it." Rohini said, frowning as she glanced at the Gryffindor table where Harry was laughing at Fred and George's joke. He seemed fairly alright so it might not have been as bad as it sounded…
"DADA is next, so be prepared for the same treatment." Padma said grimly to Rohini who waved it off.
"I'm not afraid of her." She said, throwing a nasty glance at Umbridge who was listening to Professor Flitwick with pinched lips.
"That's what worries me the most." Padma sighed, playing with her pudding without much enthusiasm.
When they entered the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom they found Professor Umbridge already seated at the teachers desk, wearing her fluffy pink cardigan and a black velvet bow on top of her head.
The class was quiet as it entered the room; Professor Umbridge's reputation had already started to spread among the students about how strict a disciplinarian she revealed herself to be.
"Well, good afternoon!" she said, when finally the whole class had sat down. "I should like you, please, to reply 'Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge' when you first enter my class."
"Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge." They all chanted back with more or less sarcasm audible in their voice. "I see you didn't take your wands away, good, good. Those are not necessary in my class."
Rohini huffed loudly; 'wands away' had never yet been followed by a lesson that ended up interesting and from what she had gathered from the whispers, "boring" was an understatement when it came to Umbridge's class.
"Remember; don't make a fuss." Padma whispered to Rohini as they took place in the last row, Rohini being tired of feeling everybody's gaze on her back when she decided to sat upfront.
"I never do." Rohini said and Padma gave her a relatively unimpressed glance.
Professor Umbridge opened her handbag, extracted her own wand, which was an unusually short one, and tapped the blackboard sharply with it; words appeared on the board at once:
Defence Against the Dark Arts: A Return to Basic Principles
Rohini was almost upset at how it might have been a great idea to make sure everybody remembered the basics before starting to study more profound subjects for their OWLs yet with someone like the terrible woman it only sounded like a kindergarten class.
"Well now, your teaching in this subject has been rather disrupted and fragmented, hasn't it?" stated Professor Umbridge, turning to face the class with her hands clasped neatly in front of her. "The constant changing of teachers, many of whom do not seem to have followed any Ministry-approved curriculum, has unfortunately resulted in your being far below the standard we would expect to see in your OWL year."
Regrettably, Rohini had to agree on one point; Professor Lupin aside, none of their DADA teachers had been relatively competent.
"You will be pleased to know, however, that these problems are now to be rectified. We will be following a carefully structured, theory-centred, Ministry-approved course of defensive magic this year. Copy down the following, please."
She rapped the blackboard again; the first message vanished and was replaced by:
Course Aims:
1. Understanding the principles underlying defensive magic.
2. Learning to recognise situations in which defensive magic can legally be used
3. Placing the use of defensive magic in a context for practical use.
For a couple of minutes the room was full of the sound of scratching quills on parchment. When everyone had copied down Professor Umbridge's three course aims she asked, "Has everybody got a copy of Defensive Magical Theory by Wilbert Slinkhard?"
There was a dull murmur of assent throughout the class. Rohini didn't even bother to answer, just resting her chin over her copy with a grunt.
"I think we'll try that again," said Professor Umbridge. "When I ask you a question, I should like you to reply, 'Yes, Professor Umbridge', or 'No, Professor Umbridge'. So: has everyone got a copy of Defensive Magical Theory by Wilbert Slinkhard?
"Yes, Professor Umbridge." rang through the room.
"Good," said Professor Umbridge. "I should like you to turn to page five and read 'Chapter One, Basics for Beginners'. There will be no need to talk."
Professor Umbridge left the blackboard and settled herself in the chair behind the teacher's desk, observing them all closely with those pouchy toad's eyes. Rohini turned to page five of her copy of Defensive Magical Theory but didn't bother to read; after seeing who their DADA teacher was going to be, she had taken a quick look at the book and realised it was worthless of her attention.
Several silent minutes passed and most Ravenclaws were obviously pretending to be reading while thinking about something else. Next to Padma, Zach was absent-mindedly scribbling Elliot's name on his parchment and Padma's eyes were now fixed on a particle of dust floating in front of her eyes.
"Children please, focus on your books. If you have already finished reading it, make sure to read it a second time to ensure you understood it properly." Came Umbridge high pitched voice and Rohini realised she was staring at the three of them with insistence.
"Children?" Rohini scoffed and Padma stepped on her foot as a warning.
"As a matter of fact," Umbridge said, loud enough for it to be clearly addressed to Rohini in particular, "if anyone has a strong desire to ask a question about this lesson, they must raise their hand before talking."
To Rohini's surprise, Zach raised his hand.
"Yes, Mister…?"
"Zachariah Nzeogwu." He said. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but… I took a long at the table of contents, but there's nothing in this about defensive spells?"
Whispers rose among the Ravenclaws, half the students quickly going to the table of contents and nodding in agreement.
"Do you expect to be attacked during my classes, Mr Nzeogwu?"
"Hopefully not." Zach answered and a few chuckled at that.
"Then, there is no need for those spells."
"I beg to differ, Profess-" Rohini started but was startled when Umbridge screamed at her to raise her hand before talking.
Putting on her sweetest smile, Rohini raised her hand before trying again. "I'm sorry Professor, but I disagree with your statement."
"Miss Potter. Surely, your brother's hearing would have taught you that responsible adults know better than children with a creative imagination do, I'm sure?" Umbridge said with her oh so unpleasant voice and Rohini clenched her fist as she forced the polite smile to stay on her face.
"On the contrary, Professor; I think it taught me that adults were quick to turn a blind eye to the world's biggest threats, which make me wonder if those adults are indeed competent enough to teach us how to defend ourselves."
A silence followed Rohini's words, every pair of eyes going back and forth between her and Professor Umbridge whose smile didn't seem amused at all now as she ignored Rohini's intervention to look at the rest of the class with a sorry expression.
"I do not wish to criticise the way things have been run in this school," she said, an unconvincing smile stretching her wide mouth, "but you have been exposed to some very irresponsible wizards in this class, very irresponsible indeed-not to mention," she gave a nasty little laugh, "extremely dangerous half-breeds."
Rohini started standing up but Padma grabbed her firmly and forced her to sit down.
"Indeed, you have been introduced to spells that have been complex, inappropriate to your age group and potentially lethal. You have been frightened into believing that you are likely to meet Dark attacks every other day and it is my understanding that my predecessor not only performed illegal curses in front of you, he actually performed them on you."
She paused to take the time to clear her throat and kept going.
"Now, it is the view of the Ministry that a theoretical knowledge will be more than sufficient to get you through your examination, which, after all, is what school is all about. And your name is?" she added, staring at Lisa, whose hand had just shot up.
"Lisa Thompson, Professor. I agree entirely with you, however isn't there a practical bit in our Defence Against the Dark Arts OWL? Aren't we supposed to show that we can actually do the counter-curses and things?"
"As long as you have studied the theory hard enough, there is no reason why you should not be able to perform the spells under carefully controlled examination conditions." said Professor Umbridge dismissively.
"Without ever practising them beforehand?" said Padma incredulously. "Are you telling us that the first time we'll get to do the spells will be during our exam?"
"I repeat, as long as you have studied the theory hard enough-"
"I've studied broom racing for years before our first flying lesson, yet I could barely stay on my broom floating three inch above the ground more than five seconds." Zach said with a frown. "Theory doesn't-"
"RAISE YOUR HAND BEFORE SPEAKING!" Umbridge yelled and everybody fell quiet once more. "Now, I can clearly see that you have all been misinformed-"
"And the Minister of Magic knows a lot about misinformation, am I right?" Rohini said loudly, rising her clenched fist in the air, her blood boiling in her veins.
"Ten points from Ravenclaw, Miss Potter." Umbridge said coldly. "Now, let me make a few things quite plain."
Professor Umbridge stood up and leaned towards them, her stubby-fingered hands splayed on her desk.
"A lot of you are misinformed after being told that a certain Dark wizard has returned from the dead and is at large once again. This is, of course, a lie."
"It is NOT a lie!" shouted Rohini, ignoring Padma's grimace as her best friend hid her face in her hands. "The only liar here is yo-"
"Detention, Miss Potter!" said Professor Umbridge triumphantly. "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."
"Oh, I'm sure Cedric appreciate it." Rohini growled and everybody gasped, looking at her half-scared half-fascinated. Too focused on Umbridge, Rohini didn't realise it mostly due to her copy of Defensive Magical Theory that had just caught fire on its own, Padma yelping and already trying to extinguish the flame with her own book.
"Cedric Diggory's death was a tragic accident." Umbridge said coldly, though she too was looking at the flame with a funny look on her face. "But I see you and your brother are quite delusional about it, Miss Potter."
Then, in her softest most sweetly girlish voice, she added, "Come here, Miss Potter, dear."
But Rohini didn't move. Instead, she grabbed her bag and stood up, face pale and twisted with anger.
"Clearly, you're not here to teach us anything. I'm out, you can keep this useless book." She said before exiting the classroom without wasting another second in the vile woman's presence.
Within the next five minutes, she was summoned to Professor Flitwick's office by Peeves who taunted her all the way up to his office where the Ravenclaw Head lectured her about respecting one's teacher though it didn't sound much convincing at all as he did gave her a wink when he told her he was disappointed to see such behaviour in a Ravenclaw.
Rohini however felt her heart sink in her chest when Professor McGonagall was the one summoning her to her own office later that evening; she might not be the one in charge of the Ravenclaw House, but she was still the House Head Rohini both admired and feared the most.
If Rohini expected her to give her a proper lecture, she didn't expect however the biscuits she was offered without an explanation.
"Potter, I have already warned Mr. Potter to be careful, but I should have expected such behaviour from you as well."
Rohini didn't answer, taken aback by how Professor McGonagall's voice wasn't brisk, crisp and stern as usual but instead low and anxious.
"I'm sure you're quite aware misbehaviour in Dolores Umbridge's class could cost you much more than house points and a detention."
"Yes, Professor." Rohini said, looking down in shame as if she was being scolded by a grandmother rather than getting warned by an actual teacher. "But I-"
"I would also enjoy it greatly if you didn't burn every school supplies you stumble upon. If the Minister hears that your magic is getting out of control, I'm afraid your place at Hogwarts might become… uncertain."
"But you- I mean, Professor Dumbledore will not let that happen, right?" Rohini asked, feeling her stomach twist painfully.
"Of course not." Professor McGonagall snapped as her voice came back to normal. "Don't be foolish, Miss Potter. It is in your best interest to stay at Hogwarts and I expect you to put on your best behaviour. Now, OWLs will take most of your free time as you must study for them. However it is quite obvious we need to train you and keep your excess of wild power under control. We will meet thrice a week from now on, unless I specifically decided not to. Understood?"
"Yes, Professor." Rohini said.
"Good. Now go back to your dorm."
"Yes, Professor." Rohini repeated, taking her leave before stopping. "Professor McGonagall?"
"Yes, Miss Potter?"
"Thank you, Professor." Rohini said and Professor McGonagall's lips twitched ever so slightly as Rohini finally left her office, the castle now quiet and deserted if not for the ghosts and portraits wandering in the corridors.
Professor McGonagall was right about carefulness.
This whole farce wasn't about truth or lies; it was about the Minister wanting nothing more than to see Dumbledore down- and the twins with him… and it started with the detention Umbridge had set for her this week.
Maybe staying with Sirius would have been the wisest choice, after all.