A/N: Hello to all of my lovely readers! I'm so sorry for my absence! I've had a major case of writers block and my internet has been super terrible over the last few weeks. As a result I'm 3 chapters behind schedule for uploads! But to try and make up for it, I'm uploading 4 chapters today! My writers block won't affect any uploads right now because I still have at least 5 weeks of content already written!

Once again sorry for being so absent lately but thank you for staying with me! Much love and enjoy!

-Casper

"Draco. Draco! Will you please extract your tongue from Pansy's for a moment please?"

I finally snapped when he continued to ignore me. I ignored Pansy's glare, and the speculative gazes of both Adrian and Daphne and focused on Draco.

"Who is that in the pink? Do you know?"

He glared at my interruption but looked up to the Professor's table.

"I'm pretty sure that's Delores Umbridge. Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic."

"Okay thank you."

I responded absentmindedly as I continued to stare at her.

"What is it Kat?"

I turned to look at Daphne who was staring at me, confused.

"Well, she's from the ministry. She's most likely the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. I also read our textbook for this year. It's not a very good textbook. It's just all very curious."

I had gathered everyone's attention by this point but before I could continue Dumbledore stood up and began the introductions. Sure enough, Umbridge was the new DADA professor. But then she interrupted, stood up and walked past shocked professors to stand near Dumbledore. We all looked at each other in amusement but when she walked around the table I grimaced.

"Daph, please tell me you see that outfit."

I saw her shake her head.

"That is awful. I mean, where did she even buy that? I think I might break out in hives just from being around it!"

I giggled at that but quickly quieted myself when she began to speak. A few minutes later I turned back to the table and saw that most people hadn't paid attention. However, from the way that Draco was staring at the head table, he was not one of them. We all looked at each other before Blaise spoke.

"So does someone want to tell me what that was all about."

I shook my head in exasperation.

"One of these days Blaise, you're going to have to pay attention for yourself."
"That's why I have you my dear."

He responded throwing an arm around my shoulder. I felt Adrian's gaze so I quickly shrugged Blaise's arm off.

"Basically, the ministry doesn't trust Dumbledore. They've decided to interfere at Hogwarts."

Everyone's glanced at the table quickly before we all looked at each other.

"Is that a good thing?"

Daph asked. Draco and I both shrugged at the same time.
"It just means it's going to be an interesting year."

"As if we've had any other."

Theo deadpanned. We all started laughing and the glares we received from the head table only made us laugh harder.

I was sitting in Transfiguration when Umbridge walked into the back of the classroom.

"Oh this should be good."

I whispered to Daphne who nodded her head in response.

"McGonagall hates Umbridge. This is going to be great."

She replied gleefully.

"You two are the worst."

I heard Iz say from behind us. I shrugged my shoulders and raised my eyebrows in response. She rolled her eyes and continued on with her conversation with Granger.

"So what's going on with you and Adrian?"

I turned to look at Daphne.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, he keeps looking at you strangely."

I shrugged my shoulders.

"I'm not sure. He's like that anytime I speak to Draco. And before you say anything, I know what you'll say. But it's not like that."

"Even if it's not. It kind of appears that way."

"Please, you're not telling me that you believe it too?"

She paused for a moment and then I saw her tell, a quick back to back blink. Whatever she was about to say was a lie.

"Of course I don't."

Apparently I didn't need her tell because she didn't sound very convinced, and we both knew that she was lying but class had just started and McGonagall snapped at the two of us. We watched as Umbridge sat in the back of the classroom and scratched away at a clipboard.

"Well that was interesting."

"Interesting. Nothing interesting happened! Maybe she'll be in potions. I'd love to see her with Snape!"

I rolled my eyes at Daph's dramatics but secretly I agreed. Umbridge with Snape would be the most talked about event for months.

We walked into the Great Hall for lunch and sat down with the rest of our group. We had just sat down when Adrian walked up. I sighed, despite what I told Daphne, we had been arguing a lot lately. It was over little things but I didn't want to deal with it in the middle of the Great Hall. He sat down next to me, I turned towards him and plastered a convincing smile on my face.

"Adrian, what are you doing? I didn't forget lunch today did I?"

"No, we weren't supposed to do lunch today. I got a letter from my parents today. They've already decided that they're going to be going to the Malfoy Winter Ball and they want to meet you."

Despite my best efforts, I don't think that I was able to stop the shock from showing on my face.

"Oh, of course. That's so far away. What made it so important that you had to tell me now?"

"I just wanted to make sure that you knew how important this is for me. There are a lot of ministry officials that will be there that I need to impress."

At that last piece of information I dropped my smile and narrowed my eyes.

"So you're not so subtly trying to inform me that you need me to act like a perfect little pureblood girlfriend? You're a Slytherin, you could try to work on your subtlety."

Then without waiting for a response I turned my back on him and ignored him until he left. I looked up from my plate to see Daphne looking thoughtful, but what surprised me was how angry Theo, Blaise and Draco looked. I had never been so relieved when Pansy sat down and started talking. I saw that our next class was about to start so I pulled Pansy into conversation and had her walk with me to our next class. I looked back to see frustration written all over everyone else's faces and grimaced. I could only escape them for so long.

I was so focused on my work that when a hand touched my shoulder I nearly jumped out of my chair.

"Calm down. Are you okay?"

I looked up to see a laughing Daphne standing over me.

"Salazar, you scared the life out of me."

"Well if you hadn't practically hidden all day then you wouldn't be so jumpy. Do you want to talk about it?"

I hated the look of sympathy and pity written on her face so I just evaded.

"Talk about what?"

She pursed her lips and gave me a look that I've seen on her face all too often, the 'we'll talk about this at some point.' I just smiled widely in response and she rolled her eyes and sat across from me and pulled out her books.

We worked in silence for a little bit before the hard scratching from her quill started to annoy me.

"Daph, what has that paper ever done to you?"

She looked up at me and I almost laughed at the sheer frustration in her eyes.

"Divination. It was supposed to be so easy. But it's OWL year so apparently everything needs to get harder. I don't know how you do it?"

I frowned in confusion.

"How I do what?"

She gestured her hands towards all of my books and papers.

"Everything. The other houses may hide grades from each other but we don't. I know that you haven't gotten anything below an E in years and you're in Ancient Runes and Arithmancy. You're a prefect and don't even get me started on Quidditch. You have practice and games and I don't know how you do it!"

Daph ended her rant dramatically and dropped her head to the table with a 'thunk.'

"What's going on?"

I looked up and grinned when I saw Theo staring at his girlfriend with something akin to terror.

"Oh nothing. Daph's just having a panic attack about OWLS."

"Already? Daphne, it's not even October."

"I'm going to fail. I'm not going to be able to do anything other than get married and have children. Oh Merlin, what if no one wants to marry me!"

Daphne was in a full blown meltdown and Theo was obviously not going to be any help. He was standing as far away from her as he could and was just staring at Daphne. I stood up and walked around to Daphne and put my arms around her.

"Calm down Daph. You're smart. You'll do fine! You just need to breathe."

A few deep breaths later and Daphne looked up at me.

"How do you do it?"

"Honestly, I have no idea. I didn't think that I was doing all that fabulously. But I study all the time. When you're reading magazines in the common room, I'm working. I work at night when most everyone's gone to bed. I get up early on the weekends and work. I've felt like I've been pretty antisocial so far this semester and I'm exhausted all the time."

"Oh, I thought you were spending all that time with Adrian."

"Not at all. I spend a lot of time here."

"That makes me feel loads better."

Now that Daphne was looking more composed I walked back to my side of the table and let Theo sit next to his girlfriend.

"I'm glad I could help. Anytime you want to work on homework, let me know. You're right, OWL year so far is tough. I've never questioned my choice to take Ancient Runes and Arithmancy, until this year that is. As a result, I always have work that I can do."

We all settled back down but before I could get too far into my charms work someone called my name. I looked up to see Adrian walking over.

"Hey I grabbed a table over there."

He told me, gesturing towards another section of the library. I looked at him confused.

"Is this table not acceptable? I mean I am already sitting here."

"A few of us are working on potions together and they already grabbed a table."

Before asking if I was going to follow him, he spun around and walked towards his table. I silently grabbed my books and stood up to go head to Adrian's table. I looked at Daphne and Theo to tell them that I'd see them later, but I stopped when I saw the looks on their faces.

"What?"

I asked them.

"You're welcome to stay here."

Theo hedged. I gave them both a wry smile.

"I know. But Adrian and I really do need to spend some time together. Maybe his friends will leave."

Without giving them time to reply I walked away.

I wandered over to where Adrian was sitting and sat down. He smiled at me before turning back to his work. I pulled out my charms paper and got back to work. I had just finished my paper when I tuned into what Adrian was doing. Since he was working on Potions I figured that I might be able to help. I leaned over and looked at what their paper was on.

"Maybe we should add another leaf. That might increase the potency of the potion."

Drew, one of Adrian's friends, mentioned. I frowned before butting in.

"That'll turn the potion poisonous."

They all turned to look at me, I saw suspicion written all over their faces so I continued to explain.

"Adding another leaf will make the potion poisonous, taking out a leaf decreases the effectiveness. If you're looking for a way to increase the potion's potency, adding in two counterclockwise stirs in the middle should help."

Both Drew and Brian laughed as I finished. I frowned when I realized that they were laughing at me.

"Is something funny?"

"It's just so cute that you think that you can help us. We are 7th years, and you're just a little 5th year."

I turned to Adrian, he knew that I was brewing 7th year potions with Snape. When he didn't say anything I glared.

"For everyone's information, I've been brewing all of your potions all year. I know what I'm talking about."

They stopped laughing, began to glare at me and turned to speak to Adrian.

"Look man, it was funny at first but could you tell your girlfriend to calm down?"

Instead of backing me up, Adrian nodded his head and turned to face me.

"Do you think you could try and keep quiet…"

However, I did not hear what the rest of his sentence was. I didn't need to.

"I'm sorry. You want me to stay quiet and pretend to be stupid. I'm not stupid."

"I know, and I love how smart you are.."

I cut him off again.

"But not in front of your friends. I forgot, that might ruin my image of the perfect, doting, pureblood girlfriend and that could damage your image. Well, fret not. You won't have to worry about it any longer. We're over Adrian."

I stood up, shoved all of my papers into my bag and rushed over to where Daphne and Theo were. I knew that my face was pale and I must've looked terrible because I didn't have to say anything. Daphne took one look at me, kissed Theo on the cheek, stood up and ushered me out of the library. I didn't say anything as she guided me back down to the common room. I wasn't sure what to think so I didn't, and I let Daphne do everything. The next thing I remember was walking into the common room. Draco, Blaise, Pansy and Tracey were sitting on the couches but as soon as we entered, Draco and Blaise jumped to their feet.

"What's the matter?"

Draco accosted me as he grabbed me and began checking me over for injuries.

"Nothing Draco. I'm fine."

I said gently as I pulled his hands off of me. I turned and started walking towards my dorm room when I heard Daphne speak.

"No, I don't know what happened. She was with Pucey and then the next thing I know she's standing in front of my table looking like that."
"Pucey. If he did something.."

I hear Blaise growl but Daphne quickly cut in.

"Look, I don't know what happened. Give me some time."

When she caught back up to me, we walked into our room and I sat on my bed. I moved slightly to give Daphne more room and she sat down next to me.

"What happened?"

"I broke up with Adrian."

I whispered. Daphne didn't show any surprise other than a slight widening of her eyes.

"What happened?

"I tried to help him and his friends with their potions paper. At first they just laughed at me, but then they told Adrian to stop me from talking. He agreed with them. He tried to smooth it over by telling me how much he loves how smart I am. But it has become more and more obvious that he wants a perfect pureblood wife. I don't know what I want to do after Hogwarts, but I want to be able to make that decision myself."

Daphne didn't say anything for a few minutes but finally she whispered.

"Do you love him?"

I took a moment to reply but when I did I was so quiet that I wasn't sure if she heard me.

"I don't think so… Wait, no, I know I don't. But that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt."

But when Daphne just wrapped her arms around me and whispered "I know," I knew that she heard me. So I just slumped into her arms and let her hold me.