A/N. Hi everyone….here's an extra-long chapter to make up for the delay! Don't forget to leave a review to let me know what you think!

Chapter 37: Dolores Umbridge

My dear Charlie

Being back is nice. It has to be said. I've missed the old castle, the ghosts, the lessons, the lake, Hagrid…the library of course! You know me. But of course I miss you like crazy too.

There's a new teacher this year to fill the Defence against the Dark Arts post. Any guesses as to how long she'll last?

How is everything going? I know you can't tell me any details by letter but nothing dangerous I hope. See you soon.

I love you,

Alicia xx

"Hem hem!" A shrill clearing of the throat broke through the cheerful "first-week-back" chatter of the seventh year Defence against the Dark Arts students.

The class fell silent. A short woman, with a face like a toad, wearing a sickeningly bright pink cardigan and matching bow on top of her mousy coloured hair, strode into the room, the sound of her heels clacking obnoxiously on the wooden floor.

There were a few titters and sniggers around the classroom.

"Wands away please," her shrill voice ordered. The class glanced at each other in dismay. "Please open your textbooks to page 10."

There was a ripple of muttering as the students put away their wands with bad grace and pulled out their textbooks.

"You will be studying the theory of this subject this year so textbooks at every lesson are vital. Those who do not obey my rules will find themselves in detention," she said, smiling falsely.

The class stared back at her coldly.

"But we'll have practical lessons at some point, won't we?" said one Hufflepuff boy, eyeing Umbridge with immediate dislike.

"I do not permit speaking out of turn in my classroom. Five points from Hufflepuff. You will put up your hand if you wish to speak. And no, we will not be practicing any spells for there is no need."

"No need?" said someone incredulously.

"Hand up!" Umbridge said shrilly. "You are hardly expecting an attack at school, are you? Therefore there is no need to practice the spells."

"But we've got our NEWTs coming up! How are supposed to pass the exam if we can't do the spells?" Fred said aggressively.

"You should have no trouble passing the exam if you study the theory correctly," Umbridge said in a sugary voice.

"But we can't-" began Angelina furiously.

"I can't see your hand!" interrupted Umbridge sweetly.

Angelina scowled and thrust her hand into the air.

"Yes, Miss…?"

"Johnson," Angelina spat. "You can't possible expect us to go into the exam without having practiced the spells at all?"

"That is exactly what we expect, Miss Johnson," Umbridge replied, smiling smugly and looking more like a toad than ever.

"But what about more important things?" Alicia said, finally losing patience.

"Hand!" Umbridge barked, rounding on her. Alicia stuck her hand in the air, glowering at Umbridge.

"Yes, Miss…?" Umbridge's voice grated on the ears of the students as they sat glaring at her from their seats.

"Spinnet," Alicia said angrily.

"Would you care to enlighten us with an example, Miss Spinnet?" Umbridge said, baring her pointed teeth in a sickeningly fake smile.

"Important things like…I don't know…the real world?" she said. "You-Know-Who is back and we need to be prepared for anything!"

Umbridge's expression hardened and the false smile slipped off her face.

"You will not tell lies in my classroom, Miss Spinnet," Umbridge said calmly.

"They're not lies!" protested Alicia furiously. "Surely you can't be naïve enough to actually believe all this Daily Prophet rubbish? Harry Potter-"

"Harry Potter," interrupted Umbridge. "is a liar."

"How dare you?" Alicia said, finally losing her temper altogether. "How dare you come in here and tell us what to believe? And by calling Harry Potter a liar, you are also calling our headmaster, Professor Dumbledore a liar too!"

"Detention, Miss Spinnet," said Umbridge triumphantly. "Next Saturday. 3 o'clock, my office."

"But Professor, that's the day of the first Hogsmeade visit," Alicia protested angrily.

"Good, maybe you'll learn your lesson. That liars are not tolerated in my classroom. Now turn to page 10. Now."

At the end of the lesson, the class filed out of the classroom miserably, muttering mutinously amongst themselves. Umbridge swept out looking extremely self-satisfied.

"Alicia, you really shouldn't get on her bad side," Angelina warned as they headed to lunch. "She'll only make your life miserable!"

"Let her try," Alicia muttered furiously. "I won't let her stand there and lie to our faces. I won't."

Dear Charlie,

I'm afraid I can't make Hogsmeade next Saturday. I've got an all-afternoon detention with that horrid Professor Umbridge. She was telling lies and insulting Dumbledore and Harry! I couldn't just sit there and take it.

I'm sorry. Maybe the next visit?

Love Alicia

"What's going on?" asked Harry with a frown, dropping into the seat beside Angelina at dinner.

Everyone was sitting around the table, gloomy faced and depressed.

"It's that new teacher Umbridge," Angelina told him. "She's a complete cow. She won't let any of us do practical magic. And she kept telling lies about…" She trailed off slightly, looking at Harry cautiously.

"About me and Dumbledore?" Harry said. "Yeah, I know. I just got a detention from her for standing up to her."

"So did Alicia," Angelina said, jerking her head over at Alicia who was sitting opposite her, talking to George with a gloomy expression.

"Something needs to be done about this!" Harry said furiously, glancing up at Umbridge at the teachers' table with loathing.

"We can't possibly take OWLs and NEWTs without doing any practical magic!" Hermione said crossly.

"Yeah and what about the fact that Voldemort is back?" Harry said angrily. "Does no one care about that?"

"Well, if she refuses to teach us, we'll just have to teach ourselves!" said Hermione firmly.

"How exactly are we supposed to do that?" asked Harry incredulously.

"You can teach us," said Hermione triumphantly. "You're a great teacher, Harry. I'm sure people would be interested."

"I would be," Angelina said with a shrug. "I need any teaching and practice I can get! Why don't you set up a meeting somewhere and tell people your idea?"

"That's great!" exclaimed Hermione happily.

Harry just looked at her doubtfully.

The next Saturday dawned fair and sunny. Alicia groaned as she remembered her detention. She couldn't believe she was missing such a beautiful day in Hogsmeade with Charlie. She got up and dressed irritably before stomping downstairs for breakfast.

She was in a thoroughly bad mood all morning. When two thirty swung around, she miserably waved goodbye to her friends and trudged back to the Common Room before heading to Umbridge's office.

Umbridge was waiting when she arrived, looking smug. As she entered, Umbridge pointed her to a large filing cabinet standing in the corner.

"I will not tolerate rudeness in my classroom, Miss Spinnet and you need to be taught a lesson. First you're going to organise every file in that cabinet into alphabetical order. And then when you're finished with that…and I would guess it will take you a good few hours, you'll be writing lines. How does that sound?" Umbridge's voice was gleeful.

Alicia gritted her teeth and ignored her.

The filing took her three hours. It was terribly boring and Alicia kept thinking how much she wanted to be at Hogsmeade with Charlie and her friends. It was almost unbearable.

Umbridge returned at six o'clock. "Finished, are you?"

Alicia nodded sullenly. Umbridge handed her a sharp black quill. "Now you will sit down at this desk and you will write out: 'I will not lose my temper."

"How many times?" Alicia asked boredly.

"As many times as it takes for it to sink in," Umbridge replied, smiling nastily. "I'll be back later. You must not stop writing or it'll be all the worse for you."

And she swept out of the room.

"She hasn't even given me any ink," muttered Alicia. "What am I supposed to do? Is it self-inking?"

She began to write on the parchment. There was suddenly a sharp stab of pain in the back of her left hand and words began to appear as she wrote, in blood red ink.

As she wrote, the stabbing pains worsened and, glancing at the back of her hand, she realised with horror that the words she had written on the page were starting to appear on the back of her hand, cutting into her skin.

She suddenly realised, with a wave of nausea, that the "ink" she was using was her own blood.

"That's sick," she thought.

But there was nothing she could do but write. She kept writing the words, over and over, until the back of her hand was raw and aching.

"I will not lose my temper." The words were cut into the back of her hand, shining red.

After an hour, Umbridge returned. "That should do, I think," she said smugly. "Have they made an impact?"

Alicia glowered at her. "Yes," she said bluntly.

"Then you may go."

Alicia strode from the room, her mind overwhelmed with fury. How dare she? The horrible hag! She was even worse than she'd first thought. This was inhumane.

She clutched her stinging hand and examined it. Her stomach gave a growl but the pain in her hand was stronger. She hurried up to the Common Room to fetch a bandage.

Angelina was waiting for her there.

"There you are!" she exclaimed as Alicia entered. "I was beginning to worry about you. Are you coming down for dinner?"

"Maybe," Alicia replied, hastily hiding her hand behind her back. She didn't want Angelina to see it. She knew what her reaction would be. She'd fuss and get angry and insist she go and see Dumbledore.

"I have some important news for you. It's about the idea for the Defence against the Dark Arts club," Angelina said excitedly.

Alicia looked up with interest.

"We all met in the Hog's Head today. There were loads of people there. Loads of people signed up! Harry's going to teach us. It's perfect."

Alicia soon forgot her detention and looked excited. "When does it start?"

"We're looking for a place to practice. Somewhere secret," Angelina explained. "Harry will let us all know. I wrote down your name on the list for you."

Alicia grinned. "This is going to be so great! We'll show that toad Umbridge!"

"I'd better go down to dinner; don't want to miss it! You sure you're ok?" Angelina asked, heading to the door.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just not that hungry," Alicia said quickly. At that moment, her stomach rumbled. Angelina frowned slightly as she headed out but did not pursue it.

Alicia flung herself down on the sofa by the fire with an enormous sigh and examined her throbbing hand.

"Rough day?" said a familiar voice. Alicia's eyes flew open. There was Charlie, sitting beside her on an armchair, grinning. "Ah, I've missed the old place," he sighed.

"What on earth are you doing here?" Alicia asked incredulously. "And where did you come from?"

"That's not the reaction I was hoping for," remarked Charlie in a mock hurt tone. He grinned mischievously at her. "Well, since you couldn't make our date, I thought I'd bring our date to you."

An uncontrollable smile broke out on Alicia's face. "But how did you get in?"

"I think you already know the answer to that question, love. Surely you haven't forgotten? Just because I no longer study here doesn't mean I'm not still one of the best Hogwarts mischief-makers of all."

"Of course, the passageway through Honeydukes," Alicia remembered, shaking her head, an expression of half-amusement half-disapproval on her face.

"Well come on then, let's go!" Charlie said smiling and pulling her to her feet.

"Where are we going?" Alicia asked, grinning but Charlie had stopped dead. He was looking at her hand which he now held in his.

"What's this?" he asked, his voice very serious.

"It's nothing, Charlie. Just a cut. Don't worry about it," Alicia said hastily, trying to pull her hand from his. But he was too strong.

"Was this part of your detention?" he said incredulously.

"Yes," she admitted. "But it's really nothing. It doesn't even hurt."

"That's barbaric!" Charlie exclaimed in fury. "A teacher can't do that!"

"Unfortunately I think she can. She's from the Ministry. She can do pretty much whatever she likes."

"This isn't right. You've got to do something about this."

"No Charlie, I'll just get into more trouble. Please, can we just forget about it and go?"

Charlie was unwilling to let it go but eventually he gave in.

"Where are we going?" asked Alicia, her eyes closed.

"Hang on, we're nearly there," said Charlie, pulling her along by the hand. "Ok, open your eyes."

Alicia opened her eyes cautiously and gasped. She was standing in a small cosy room. At the end of the room was a crackling fireplace which cast a warm glow around the room. There were candles dotted all around the room and in front of the fire was a large rug on which was spread out a large picnic basket, candles and flowers.

A smile spread across her face.

"I can't believe you did this," she said softly, gazing around her. She flung her arms around him and kissed him.

"Well, I couldn't very well miss seeing my girl, could I now?" Charlie grinned, pulling her over to the rug.

"Where are we?" Alicia asked curiously.

"This… is the Room of Requirement," Charlie said, with a hint of pride.

"The Room of what?"

"Requirement. I'm pretty sure very few students know about this room. I first found out about it from the elves. I was down in the kitchen one evening and Dobby was talking about it. I asked him about it and he told me everyone he knew. The elves call it the Come and Go Room."

"It's amazing," Alicia breathed, looking around her in awe. "So you just ask it for whatever you need and it creates it for you?"

"Pretty much."

"And can anyone get into it?"

"Only if they know what it's being used for," Charlie explained.

"This is perfect!" Alicia whispered to herself.

"For what?" Charlie asked curiously.

"Nothing, nothing," Alicia lied hastily. She quickly changed the subject. "So what's in here?" she said, pointing at the basket.

Charlie's expression brightened. "I called in a little favour from the elves in the kitchen. They put together a special feast for us."

Alicia smiled fondly at him and took his face gently in her hands.

"I really love you," she whispered. "You know that, don't you?"

Charlie smiled and nodded. He took her injured hand tenderly in his, turning it over in his palm. Then, bringing it to his lips, he slowly kissed the red raw scars that crisscrossed over the back of her hand.

"And you know that I love you too," he whispered back.

Then he wrapped an arm around her and pulled her closer to him, resting his head softly on top of hers and holding her protectively in his arms.

"Harry, I've got it!" Alicia exclaimed excitedly, dropping into the seat beside him the next day at breakfast.

Harry frowned. "Got what?"

Alicia jerked her head as if to say: 'Not here.' He nodded in understanding and followed her outside.

"You've found a place for us to practice?"

"Yep," she nodded. "It's called the Room of Requirement. It's on the seventh floor corridor, behind the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy."

"The Room of Requirement? How does it work?"

"Come with me and I'll show you."

"This is perfect!" Harry said ten minutes later as he walked round the Room of Requirement which had transformed itself into the perfect room for their practice.

There were wooden bookcases lining the walls and there were silk cushions scattered on the floor. Alicia wandered around the room, inspecting the books with interest.

"Look at these books," Alicia said, pulling out 'Self-Defensive Spellwork'. "These will be really helpful!"

"I can't wait to tell the others," Harry said.

Alicia grinned and nodded. But deep down, she felt a twinge of guilt. She knew she should have told Charlie about this. But somehow she knew what his reaction would be if he found out.

The weeks passed quickly from then onwards. Alicia was always busy with something but even being so busy, she missed Charlie like crazy.

It was hard not to think of him when she was supposed to be concentrating on something else. His face was always in her mind, the sound of his laugh echoed in her head as she tried to solve a particularly difficult Runes translation or finish her Potions essay, and their evening in the Room of Requirement seemed almost like a distant memory.

So she was happy when the next Hogsmeade visit finally swung around and she made plans to meet Charlie in the Three Broomsticks.

But when she arrived, he did not seem very happy to see her. His expression was grave.

"What's wrong?" Alicia asked with a frown as she slid into the bench opposite him.

"Do you have something you'd like to tell me about?" Charlie asked. His voice had an unfamiliar sharp edge to it.

Alicia looked at him in bewilderment. "What have I done?"

"Come on, Alicia, don't play dumb. We need to talk."

"Ok, let's talk," Alicia said, still utterly confused.

"Not here," he growled.

"Ok, where then?"

"Let's go for a walk," he said, taking her arm.

"Right, now would you please explain to me what on earth is going on?" Alicia said as they strolled through the wet cobbled streets of Hogsmeade a few minutes later. "I really don't know what you're talking about."

"I'm talking about this little…" He lowered his voice. "Dumbledore's Army thing you've got going on." Alicia raised her eyebrows. "Don't look so surprised," Charlie said.

He glanced around him furtively as though searching for eavesdroppers. No one was paying them any attention however; Hogsmeade was relatively deserted. Only the occasional person scurried past, eager to get out of the light drizzle that was now falling. "I'm part of the Order; it's our job to know what's going on."

"Well, I'm not going to deny it, since you clearly know everything that's going on," Alicia said, a hint of annoyance in her voice, "But I honestly don't know what your problem is."

"My problem is that it's a crazy idea. Umbridge is from the Ministry. And this club of yours is illegal. You're risking a lot for just a club."

"It's not just a club, Charlie!" Alicia exclaimed, coming to a halt and rounding on him. "Don't you get it? She won't teach us practical magic! We have to do something!"

"Yes, but this is dangerous, Alicia," Charlie argued. "You don't want to get on her bad side."

"Too late. I already am," Alicia retorted, holding up her hand so he could see the white scars. His expression softened slightly and he took her hand in his gently.

"I understand how you feel, love," he said sympathetically. "You're angry at her. I get it. I would be too after what she did to you. But you could get expelled. We both know how easy it is for you to get into trouble."

"I'm not angry," she protested. Charlie gave her a look. "Alright, so I'm a bit angry, but it's not about that. You-Know-Who is back, Charlie! We need to be prepared! I thought that's what you'd want! For me to be able to protect myself!"

"It is but-" Charlie was clearly torn.

"Look, if it were you, you'd do it, wouldn't you?" said Alicia her voice softer.

"I suppose you're right," Charlie said finally, looking unhappy. "Just be careful, alright? Don't get caught."

"I won't," Alicia said, squeezing his hand tightly.

"And next time, just tell me," Charlie said.

"I didn't tell you because I knew exactly how you'd react!"

Charlie sighed. "I know, but I just wanted to make sure you knew what you're getting yourself into. I worry about you."

"And you don't think I don't worry about you?" Alicia said, the old anxiety coming back into her eyes. "Every day there's a possibility of you getting hurt…or worse. And it's so awful not knowing. Being so far away from everything that's happening."

Charlie smiled sadly. "I know. All I can promise is that I'll do my best to stay safe. Because I have something worth staying safe for."

He took her face in his hands and kissed her tenderly.

"I love you so much, Alicia Spinnet," he said, wrapping his arms around her waist.

She smiled weakly. "I know you do."

"Alicia? Were you at Hogsmeade with Katie yesterday?" Angelina asked her the next day as they sat in their dormitory after a particularly cold Quidditch practice.

"No," Alicia replied, not looking up from her book. "Why d'you ask?"

"Well, I'm sure it's nothing, but she's been acting strangely recently," Angelina said thoughtfully.

"Oh yes?" Alicia asked with interest. "Strange how?"

"Well, she keeps making up some excuse for why she can't go to Hogsmeade. She hasn't been to a visit in months. Every time I ask, she says she has homework to do, or a detention, would you believe it? A detention!"

"That doesn't sound like our Katie," Alicia agreed. "But why won't she come to Hogsmeade?"

"Well, that's the strange thing, because yesterday when she told me she definitely couldn't come to Hogsmeade because she had a meeting with Professor McGonagall, I'm almost definite that I saw her in Scrivenshaft's yesterday afternoon."

"That is strange," Alicia nodded.

"And that's not all," Angelina said. "I'm sure I saw someone with her."

"Who?"

"I couldn't see their face, but I'm sure it was a man."

"A man?" Alicia echoed in surprise.

"Yes, he was very tall and broad; he had brown hair and was wearing a navy and gold jumper."

Alicia frowned. "Have you asked her about it?"

"Well, that's the thing. I confronted her about it today at practice but she denied it. She claimed she was at the castle all afternoon, getting help from McGonagall in her Transfiguration homework."

"That doesn't add up. Katie's never needed help with Transfiguration in her life."

"It's really weird. And I'm going to find out what she's up to."