Its finally winter break at Hogwarts, and nobody could be more relieved about that than Dolores Umbridge - ever since she gave Potter that detention with Filch and then the girl woke up, it seems the castle itself has turned on her. The hallways constantly smell like Dungbombs, she swears someone's slipping potions into her morning tea somehow since her hair has repeatedly turned every color imaginable and her tastes always go off, once she found a swamp in her office that destroyed her decorations, swallowed her furniture, and has ruined all her photos of cats, and yet she can't find any culprit!

Potter always has an alibi for her whereabouts whenever something occurs, as well as the Weasley Twins - if she didn't know any better, she'd say the castle has multiple copies of Peeves that have taken an extreme dislike to her.

Case in point, she sits down in her chair in the Great Hall for breakfast that morning, before everyone leaves, only to leap up screaming in fear as it goes disgustingly squishy underneath her and starts shifting about and creeping up her legs. There's a quiet whisper of laughter across the hall, even as she looks at her chair only to see it stop being so…rubbery isn't quite the right word, but it's the closest she can manage in her frazzled state.

Peeves cackles above her, and spits out another infuriating rhyme before disappearing. Umbridge just glares at the spot, hating how she barely managed to hold onto her position - she's on thin ice as it is, one tiny misstep and she's out. The only reason Sirius Black didn't have her head on a silver platter is because nobody knew about the whip she enchanted to teach the Potter brat a lesson.

Bloom takes one last look through her trunk - yes, she's got everything. Including the book on the effects of the Cruciatus…and the one on just how effective the 'Fire of Life' is at healing things. Turns out, just about literally everything - she woke up three days after her detention with Filch because it sent her into a Healing Trance, a sleep-like state where absolutely nothing will wake her up and disturbing her is an incredibly bad idea. Apparently, it only does that if she'd have lost all control of her magic due to being conscious from the pain of healing everything.

She also read this interesting bit about traces of her magic still outside her body - like the blood Voldemort used in the Regeneration Potion that gave him a new body - and how she can apparently manipulate that if the magic hasn't been used up. Oh, she's going to have a field day if that's the case and the magic in her blood is still in his body. Seeing as her very touch burns the Horcruxes, and his new body is basically another Horcrux with some of her magic imbedded in it…

Bloom gets a wicked grin at the ideas that train of thought brings up, then closes the trunk decisively - she heard from Sirius, via the Enchanted mirror, what happened to Neville's parents. Rather, she saw flashes of them in a dream, last night, and mirror-called him to get more details. Then she went to the Room of Requirement - honestly, how did she not think of this before?! - and requested a book on how to use the Dragon Flame's healing capabilities on someone else and how to heal the Cruciatus. That room is an honest-to-Merlin miracle, even by magical standards - which does set the bar pretty high, in reality.

Bloom.

Bloom goes still for a minute, looking at her stuff without seeing it - its that same voice, its been calling her more and more ever since the detention with Filch. She finally got a look at the owner, only to get shocked into the vision about Arthur Weasley - it's the same woman from some of her dreams, the ones about the crumbling castle.

Presumably…she's Daphne.

Her…sister.

Okay, now she feels a tiny bit guilty about not answering her calls. But, hey, better safe than sorry, right? Besides, ever since, she's been a whisper behind Bloom's ear, always present and occasionally becoming something of a phantom. One nobody else can see. Its kind of unnerving, really - good thing everyone knows she's a Seer, and just assumes she's Seeing something. Technically, they're right.

She shakes her head, bringing herself back to what she's doing, then lets Hedwig land on the trunk and flash away with it - its not that she doesn't trust people not to go through her stuff, but- oh, wait, that's exactly it. Umbridge has been looking for any excuse to catch people in something, and she's still touchy about people poking through her stuff. If its someone she knows, such as Sirius or Draco for example, she doesn't mind too much.

Umbridge rifling through her things, though? Not happening. She tried to take away Bloom's Firebolt, a gift from Sirius, and Bloom was one second from giving the woman a burn all the way to the bone - had Umbridge touched her broom, her personal broom, Bloom wouldn't be held responsible for what happened next. As it is, the toad-woman quailed underneath Bloom's deadly glare - seems she has some survival instincts after all. Barely any, though.

As proven when she tries to make Bloom submit to a 'mandatory search' for security reasons. Bloom flatly denies that suggestion, and then walks out the door - leaving a dumbstruck, but slowly furious woman in her wake.

She finds Draco, Ron, and Hermione easily enough, and they get on the train together - they end up in one of the first compartments, with Bloom sitting with her knees tucked into her body while leaning into Draco on one side, and Hermione reading a book with Ron looking over her shoulder. Unsurprisingly, Bloom quickly falls asleep once the train ride starts - Hermione figured that particular quirk of Bloom's out thanks to the Room of Requirement.

Bloom's magic has been conditioned to keep her in as good a shape as possible, and for a long time that included making it so that she was wide-awake as soon as she woke up - it's also why she can fall asleep so easily, and why she can eat so much consistently, as her magic takes up all the energy she gets from it to keep her body running like its supposed to. Long explanation short, her body literally functions off her magic in various ways - not needing food, for instance, and being perfectly awake as soon as she opens her eyes - and its changed her. Almost literally physically changed her. Because nobody just wakes up with a perfectly clear head from being out cold without some kind of magic being involved - nobody but Bloom, and she's still got magic involved in her case. She just didn't know it.

And, all the ways Bloom's been changed by her magic to keep her alive can be traced straight back to the Dursleys.

Crazy-amazing memory? The Dursleys would tell her a list of things she had to do, and expected her to remember it all.

Her skill in preparing Potion ingredients? She had to cook two meals a day for five days of the week, and three meals the other two.

How she always seems to keep track of the time? She always had to have everything done by the time Vernon was home from work.

Draco leans over and presses his lips to Bloom's temple, and grins to himself when she shifts in her sleep and leans into him more. He's the luckiest guy on the entire planet.

Neville, Dean, Seamus, Susan Bones, Hannah Abbot, and Daphne Greengrass and Theodore Nott walk in, and Hermione quietly says "This space is way too small for everyone. Hang on." She waves her wand, and the compartment doubles in size.

Of course, then Bloom cracks one eye open and murmurs "Nev, when are you heading to St. Mungos?"

Neville goes a bit pale, and says "A week before Christmas day. Gran and I are going to visit my parents."

Bloom sleepily says "We'll meet you there…" She then closes her eye and apparently falls back asleep. They've all gotten used to Bloom's moments like this, where she'll just pop up with stuff like that - though, the warning is nice in advance.

Once she had everyone get into random pairs based off of their strengths in different subjects so they could claim to Umbridge they were doing a sort of tutor-exchange deal when she tried to get them on the Educatinal Decree forbidding any student groups of more than two outside of class. One kid's good at Transfiguration while the other is good at Charms, for instance. One has memorized a dozen history books, while the other can practically read Ancient Runes. They were discussing the topics when Umbridge cornered them, and the shades of red and purple the woman's face turned after each unsuccessful capture of rulebreakers was hysterical. The twentieth pair thought she might have a apoplexy, she looks so furious.

Draco's pulled out of his thoughts when Ron tugs at his elbow, saying "We've got to get going. Prefect meeting."

"Right, course." Fred and George come in just as Draco's reluctantly eases Bloom into the wall, and both smirk at him as he leaves.

Fred murmurs "I knew it since year three."

Neville grins, then asks "What's planned for the toad after winter break?"

Fred and George get matching devilish grins, and Fred says "Professor Snape helped us perfect a little something for the toad. All we have to do is make it without her finding out. Lets just say her appearance will reflect her true nature. We left her the box of chocolates in her office via Peeves in the meantime. She eats them, she'll have enough problems to keep her from planning anything for the entire break. Plus, Professor Snape had the idea to put a Compulsion on the box so she'll want to eat them."

Bloom chuckles, and murmurs "Serves the toad-bitch right. Using a Blood Quill on Firsties. The woman's sick and twisted." They all wordlessly agree with her on that point, Umbridge is an absolute psychopath who shouldn't be allowed near children no matter what.

Sirius and Remus are waiting at the front of the platform for Bloom when they do get off, with Lucius and Narcissa waiting for Draco. Everyone's shocked at the sight of Hedwig, despite being told about it via a two-way mirror and letters. Unfortunately, Hedwig can't teleport yet - it takes about nine months for that to start working in baby Phoenixes, Bloom's read, and Hedwig's not even close - so they have to Apparate to Potter Hall. Bloom still hates Apparition - at least it didn't take all her self-control not to barf this time.

And then she's subjected to a very long questioning from Remus about 'is she alright, what the bloody hell did Umbridge do to her, is Filch truly dead, etc.' Which takes about three hours, start to finish.

Note to self, never worry a Werewolf that much.

Ever.

Again.

AN: Hey, everyone! Yes, I know, i'm getting a bit close to the end of the week - today's seriously the first day it hasn't looked like it was about to pour for days. All the rain really cut into my writing time, since its been thunderstorming the whole time.

Anyway, I know, I'm kinda dragging the school year out just a bit...but there's so many hysterical things to do to Umbridge! Up next, Bloom's Christmas present to Neville - I bet you can all guess what it is. Here's a hint, Neville's going to be one happy boy.

Anyway, enjoy! More updates to stories coming soon!