Notes: Not much to say this week. It's been long, arduous, and I have tests coming up. As always, thanks to Crystal for beta-ing, and thanks to everyone that has been following up until now. Also, thanks to Dark-heika for recommending this fic on TV Tropes. Again, feedback is always welcome.
….
Chapter 11: The Woman in Pink
….
Zidane was taking in deep breaths of fresh air when he left that classroom, for a moment he didn't think he would make it, more than twice felt like he was going to pass out. Now he only had to survive through DADA and he would be home free… until tomorrow.
He followed Harry and Ron to the DADA classroom and the second he entered it, he felt a shiver go down his spine, all the way to his invisible tail, which bristled in response. The desks were ordered in perfect rows, but it was in a way that made it look both eerie and unnatural. When he looked at the teacher's desk, he almost drew out his daggers to attack the creature, but stopped himself just in time once he realized it was just Umbridge. She was once again wearing that nasty pink fluffy cardigan that made him feel slightly self-conscious, and the black bow that resembled a suicidal fly perched on top of a large pasty frog.
The genome sighed as he noticed that there was still some time until class started. He considered putting as much distance between him and the toad-like woman as possible, but in the end just sat down near Harry and Ron, with Hermione and Neville flanking him. He originally thought against sitting close to Hermione giving her constant questions about his background, but with Neville next to him, he could always engage the teen in some pointless conversation just to be able to give Hermione the 'not-now-let's-talk-later' excuse, with 'later' meaning never.
The bell rang to signal the start of class, and from the teacher's table he briefly noticed the way the woman in pink was eyeing him, right before students rushed into the class bringing chatter, and the sounds of chairs being pushed against the floor. After a minute or so the noise died down and everyone was quiet in anxious wait. Nobody knew what to expect from this new teacher. Was she strict? Was she nice? Zidane wasn't keeping his hopes up.
'I got a bad feeling about this.' Zidane thought. His tail was still bristled, and his tail was never wrong. He was not going to enjoy this.
….
"Well, good afternoon!" Umbridge said in an obviously-fake, sugary sweet voice. Only a few people replied with unenthusiastic 'good afternoon's. "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!"
Harry looked at the teacher like she was insane, while several students repeated after her. She was treating them like four year olds! He quickly found himself losing hope about this class.
"There now, that wasn't too difficult, was it? Wands away and quills out please." She said in that overly sweet voice again.
Harry sighed, usually the 'wands away' were never followed by a class that he found interesting. Nevertheless he complied and took out a quill, ink and some parchment. Professor Umbridge took out her unusually short wand, and pointed it at the blackboard, making words appear.
Defense Against the Dark Arts
A Return to Basic Principles
"Well now, your teaching in this subject has been rather disrupted and fragmented, hasn't it? The constant changing of teachers, many of whom do not seem to have followed any Ministry-approved curriculum, has unfortunately resulted in you being far below the standard we should expect to see in you OWL year." Umbridge said while turning towards the class, her hands clasped neatly in front of her.
"You will all be pleased to know, however, that these problems are now to be rectified. We will be following a carefully structured theory-centered, Ministry-approved course of defensive magic this year. Copy down the following please." With a tap on the blackboard, the words vanished and more reappeared.
Understanding the principles underlying defensive magic.
Learning to recognize situations in which defensive magic can legally be used.
Placing the use of defensive magic in a context for practical use.
They were then told to read through the first chapter of 'Defensive Magical Theory', which was incredibly dull. After reading the first sentence three times and not understanding it, Harry just gave up. He turned around to look at the others, Ron was playing with his quill, Zidane was actually using the margins of his book to doodle large, long-legged birds and making them run around the page with the partially hidden wand he had snuck out. Harry inwardly smiled and continued looking around. He suddenly stopped when he saw Hermione. She had her arm raised and her book lay on her desk unopened. For her to disobey a teacher was completely unheard of. Slowly, more people turned to look at Hermione's mute request, and once it was impossible to keep ignoring her, Umbridge finally addressed her.
"Yes dear, do you have a question about the chapter?"
"No, not about the chapter, no."
Umbridge proceeded to treat Hermione like a small child and told her that they were reading right now and her question would have to wait. When Hermione insisted and told the witch about her question regarding the course aims, only then did Umbridge seem to take her seriously.
"There is nothing there about using defensive spells." Hermione said and then Harry realized that she was right.
"Using defensive spells? Why I can't imagine any situation arising in my classroom that would require you to use a defensive spell, Miss Granger. You surely aren't expecting to be attacked during class?" Umbridge said, showing her pointy teeth in a sickly sweet smile.
"We aren't going to use magic?" Ron exclaimed loudly.
"Students will raise their hands if they wish to speak in my class, Mr-"
"Weasley." Ron said, thrusting his hand in the air. Harry and Hermione raised their hands as well.
"Yes Miss Granger."
"Surely the whole point behind Defense Against the Dark Arts is to practice defensive spells?"
"Are you a Ministry-trained, educational expert, Miss Granger?" Umbridge asked in a sweet tone.
"No, but-"
"Well then, I'm afraid you are not qualified to decide what the 'whole point' of any class is. Wizards much older and cleverer that yourself have devised a new program of study. You will be learning about defensive spells in a secure, risk-free way-"
"What use is that?" Harry finally snapped, obviously the woman was going to ignore him, even if he had his hand up. "If we are going to be attacked it won't be in a-"
"Hand, Mr. Potter." Umbridge called.
Harry raised his hand once more, but as expected the witch ignored him. But others raised they hand too, including Dean and Zidane.
"Yes Mr.-"
"Dean Thomas." Dean replied. "It's just like Harry said, if we are attacked, it won't be risk free."
"I repeat, do you expect to be attacked during my classes?" Umbridge said, smiling in an irritating fashion.
"Not, but-"
Harry felt the anger start surfacing as Umbridge not only proceeded to ignore all their claims, but also criticize their previous teachers. Sure there had been some bad ones like Quirrel and Lockhart. Lupin may have been a werewolf and maybe the 'Moody' from last year did turn out to be an impostor, but they did learn tons from them. Lupin had been his all time favorite, and he felt his blood boil when he heard this woman insult his teaching capabilities and even go as far as calling him 'an extremely dangerous half-breed'. Even the others agreed. Dean jumped in to defend Lupin earning him a reprimand for not having his hand up.
The woman continued to ignore his hand, and also Zidane's which she regarded in a way that reminded him greatly of how the Durselys would look down on him…which Harry found quite odd. The blonde was nearly glaring at the woman, his bright cyan eyes almost glowed from the intensity. The moment Parvati raised her hand though, Umbridge selected her instead and asked for her name.
"Parvati Patil, and isn't there a practical bit in our Defense Against the Dark Arts OWL? Aren't we supposed to show that we can cast the counter-curses and things?"
"As long as you have studied the theory hard enough, there will be no reason why you should not be able to perform the spells under carefully controlled examination conditions." Umbridge replied.
Harry then realized that it would mean that the first time they would perform each spell would be right during the test that would determine their futures. But Umbridge insisted that theory would be enough. This woman was absolutely insane. But there was a more pressing issue. Theory wouldn't save them from real danger.
"And what good's theory going to be in the real world." Harry nearly shouted. "This is a school, isn't it supposed to prepare us for what's out there?"
"There is nothing out there, Mr. Potter." Umbridge replied in a sickly sweet tone that barely disguised her irritation. "Who do you imagine would hurt children like yourselves?"
"Hmm, let's think…" Harry said in a mock thoughtful voice. "Maybe Lord Voldemort."
There were gasps of shock around the room. Many people had terrified looks on their faces. Hermione and Ron gasped, Parvati had let out a small scream, Dean and Seamus looked horrified, Neville hand fallen off his chair, even Zidane's expression became slightly more serious as the blonde eyes saw everyone's reactions, Umbridge however had a face of grim satisfaction.
"Ten points from Gryffindor, Mr. Potter." The woman said. "Now let me make things quite plain. You have all been told that a certain Dark wizard has returned from the dead and is at large once again. This is a lie."
"It is NOT a lie! I saw him! I fought him!"
"Detention, Mr. Potter! Tomorrow evening. Five 'o'clock. My office. I repeat, this is a lie. The Ministry of Magic guarantees that you are not in any danger from any Dark Wizard. If you are still worried, by all means come and see me outside class hours. If someone is alarming you with fibs about reborn Dark wizards, I would like to hear about it. I am here to help. I am your friend. And now, you will kindly continue your reading. Page five. 'Basics for Beginners'." The witch said and she sat down behind her desk. Harry however, stood up, much to everyone's surprise.
"Harry no!" Hermione whispered, but he ignored it. He saw Zidane giving him a small look of warning from the corner of his eye.
"So, according to you, Cedric Diggory dropped dead of his own accord, did he?" Harry asked, his voice shaking. There was a sharp intake of breath from most of the class. It was the first time Harry had ever talked about what happened the night Cedric died.
"Cedric Diggory's death was a tragic accident." Umbridge replied coldly, all fake sweetness gone without a trace.
"It was murder, Voldemort killed him and you know it." Harry said, his voice was shaking. He did not shout, instead his voice was cold, and like a river, it did not reveal the turbulent maelstrom raging inside of him.
The silence that followed was almost unbearable. Umbridge's face was completely blank and, for a moment, he thought Umbridge was going to shout at him. Instead the woman beckoned him over and gave him a sealed pink roll of paper with orders to take it to McGonagall. He took it from her and without another word he turned on his heel and crossed the room, doing his best to avoid everyone's looks, and slamming the door behind him.
…..
Zidane glared at the woman once the door slammed shut. Sure what Harry did was pretty stupid, but it was very brave as well. The murmurs that rose in the classroom afterwards were quieted down by Umbridge who, once again, told them to continue reading as if pretending the little discussion earlier never happened. Zidane absolutely loathed people like her. The way she dismissed others as lowly trash, the way she used that annoying overly sweet voice of hers to bend people's wills and suck up to those of higher ranking. She reminded him a lot of those 'better than thou' nobles that objected to his marriage with Dagger. She was nothing more than a poisonous snake in toad's clothing.
'I can't just let everyone start reading peacefully like nothing happened. Otherwise, they will just continue to take Harry as an attention desperate teen. I'll get in trouble for it, but someone has to stand up to this toad. And if I play my cards right, I will even gain some support, which is exactly what we need at the moment. Besides, I probably shouldn't leave Harry all alone on this.' Zidane thought, considering his options before making his decision.
He rose from his seat, his hand shooting into the air as well, just so the toad couldn't say anything about it. This gained the whole class's attention, which didn't bother him as much since he was used to acting on a stage for hundreds of people. Murmurs started once again, and noticing this, Umbridge turned to address him, a look of barely-concealed contempt on her face.
"Yes, Mr. -"
"Zidane Tribal." Zidane said, calmly interrupting the woman. "I am not from around here, so I can't ascertain whether that Dark wizard is back or not. But I do think it would be plain idiotic NOT to prepare for it. I agree with Harry about preparing ourselves for what is out there. Dark wizard or not, there will always be some form of danger. I mean, wasn't it about a month ago that a street in Diagon Alley just blew up? It could be only a matter of time before another madman shows up, and then what will happen then? It won't be risk-free anymore, will it?"
The loud whispering broke out once Zidane finished. Many students found themselves nodding to each other, which made the blonde inwardly smirk. Outside however, he was speaking in a professional tone that hinted reason and control over the situation. He had learned to use that sort of tone during the few times he had been forced to negotiate with other snooty nobles. On an unconscious level, the tone intimidated others by insinuating a higher rank and power, which he technically did have, but usually didn't flaunt around.
Umbridge's mask faltered for a moment when she looked at him coldly, Zidane was sure she was about to draw out her wand at one point, but quickly her face was set into a sweet and forceful smile. "Well, I can't expect someone like you to understand the way things are run in this country. But if, hypothetically speaking, there was indeed some form of danger, it is the Ministry's proud obligation to take care of the danger, so children such as yourself do not have to worry-"
"I know what the Auror department exists for." Zidane interrupted. He was going to do his best to give the toad a taste of her own medicine. She had enjoyed her time interrupting Harry and the other students, now it was his turn. "My question is. What will the Ministry do if the Aurors are defeated? How will they get new ones if new recruits aren't good enough because they grew up expecting others to come and save them. And what if, hypothetically, a powerful Dark wizard rises. This nation doesn't have an army, does it? If I remember correctly, that didn't turn out so well the last time, did it? I mean, it was left up to a year-old baby to clean after the Ministry."
'Check and mate.'
Zidane inwardly smiled as he saw that Umbridge looked like she wanted to kill him now. Her metaphorical mask had several cracks now, and he could practically feel the killing intent rolling off of her. Personally, he was pretty angry himself. He had to make a conscious effort to stop his tail from moving about and to avoid accidentally trancing. He was angry enough for it, anyways. Umbridge was exactly the dictionary definition of people he couldn't stand.
"Silence!" The woman snapped, but then quickly recomposed herself. She once again wrote a pink note, and used her wand to close it. With that sickly sweet tone of her, she called him over. "Mr. Tribal, you will be joining Mr. Potter in detention tomorrow. I want you to take this to Professor McGonagall."
"Cool, maybe we can form a club." Zidane said jokingly as he walked over and took the note. He gathered his things and then left through the door, whistling and playfully twirling the note in between his fingers while ignoring the murmurs that erupted from behind him.
'Zidane: 1 Umbridge: 0'
…..
"Have another biscuit Potter." McGonagall said, handing him the tin filled with treats.
"No thanks." Harry replied coldly.
"Don't be ridiculous." She snapped.
Harry took one.
"Thanks." He said begrudgingly.
After a small run-in with Peeves, Harry made it to McGonagall's office. The Gryffindor Head read the message and told him of his punishment. There was no way out of it. He would have to serve detention under Umbridge for the entire week. All for causing a commotion and calling the teacher a 'liar' which he didn't.
His worst mistake was losing his temper like that, and now, Umbridge was going to make sure he paid for it. Even if he was telling the truth, the woman was from the Ministry, and therefore, she was out to get him regardless, because of the whole Voldemort thing.
"Tread carefully around Dolores Umbridge, Potter. You know why she is here don't you? Keep your head down and your temper under control!" McGonagall warned, her face stern and her lips thin.
The bell outside rang, and with McGonagall's dismissal, he headed over to the door. Her words were still echoing in his ears, as well as her relief to know that he at least listened to Hermione. He was about to open the door, when it swung open and he was greeted by a mop of blonde hair and a pair of bright cyan eyes. It was none other than a smiling Zidane.
"Hi Harry."
"I should have known." McGonagall deadpanned. 'What did you do Mr. Tribal?"
Zidane grinned as he handed her the pink slip. The stern witch took it and read it out loud.
"Interrupted the lesson, instigated chaos, and expressed radical views against a respected institution." McGonagall read and then turned to look sternly at the blonde.
The blonde whistled and replied sarcastically. "Wow, does it mention the three cities I single-handedly destroyed with my sarcasm?"
Harry would have burst into laughter had it not been for McGonagall's stern gaze.
"Potter, you can leave now. I need to have a few words with Mr. Tribal here. On the upside, it looks like you are going to have a partner with you for those detentions."
…..
"Would you care to explain what happened?" McGonagall asked once she made sure there was nobody eavesdropping on their conversation.
"Well, it seems Umbridge is quite resistant to my natural charms." The Zidane said, flashing the woman a smile.
"This isn't something to joke about." The woman snapped.
"Yeah, you're right. I don't think I want Umbridge lusting after me, after all." The genome said jokingly as he took out a biscuit from the tin on McGongall's desk.
"I don't know what Albus was thinking when he allowed you to enroll here, but I do hope you keep in mind that, should anything happen, none of us will be able to aid you. You have made a dangerous enemy here today. I don't think I should have to remind you what her current views on the non-wizarding magical population are, and what exactly that means for you." McGonagall warned.
"Yeah, Lupin told me about it." Zidane said lazily. "I will be careful, you know. I'm keeping my tail out of sight and everything."
"Dolores Umbridge must not be underestimated. I believe she already suspects that you are at least of mixed parentage, like Hagrid. Should she learn that you are not even a wizard, I'm afraid there were be several legal repercussions for Albus as well."
"Like I said, I'll be careful. Thief's honor." The blonde said, placing his right hand over his heart.
McGonagall just looked at him with her lips pressed thin.
"Besides, my job is guarding Harry. I can't have him do anything stupid when he's alone with that pink toad. Wouldn't you feel much better knowing that he isn't going in there alone? Who knows what she might do to him?" Zidane argued before taking a bite out of his biscuit.
"Honestly Mr. Tribal, I sometimes don't know who I should worry about the most." The woman said, before sighing. "I suppose that as long as you don't cause the Order, or the staff here any further problems, it should be fine. As your Head of House I also expect you to behave while in this school; wizard or not, you´re still a member of Gryffindor house. Should you face any difficulties, I expect you to come to me."
"Will do." Zidane said, before heading towards the door.
"Before you leave, I also thought it appropriate to warn you about Miss Granger. She can be quite persistent with her endeavors."
"I could tell, she's really quite ruthless when she wants to know something; I've been dodging her questions left and right ever since I came here." The teen said, laughing as he opened the door to leave. Before leaving, the teen looked at the Deputy Head-mistress once more. "Women in this world really are terrifying, but you know, women back in Gaia are far worse."
Walking out the office along the throng of students leaving class, the blonde hummed merrily to himself.
'It's decided then, as long as anything I do can't be traced back to me, it should be fine, shouldn't it?'
…..
Dinner that night was not a very pleasant experience. Rumors about the incident with Umbridge travelled like wildfire around the school. The students weren't even quieting down whenever he passed by. Instead, they seemed to talk louder, as if they wanted him to break down again and tell them more about what happened to Cedric. His only real consolation was that he was not the only one sharing the spotlight. In his short stay, Zidane Tribal had already made himself into something of a celebrity. He had been confused at first when he heard parts of the rumors. He just assumed it was because of whatever he did to land him in detention with him. It wasn't until he met up with Ron and Hermione that he got the full story.
At this point he wasn't sure if he should feel touched that the blonde was standing up to his beliefs like him, or be shocked at the blonde's disregard for his own hide. It was understandable to be afraid of getting in trouble. Heck one of his worst nightmares was of him getting expelled and having to live the rest of his life with the Dursleys, but Zidane didn't seem the least bit worried about that. For someone who just got detention on the first day, had the entire school talking about him, and had made enemies with one of the teachers, he was pretty calm about it all. Even Harry couldn't fathom how the blonde did it. Maybe he liked getting the attention. Maybe that was just the way he dealt with stress.
That particular easy-going behavior quickly got to Hermione too. When they left to the common room and found the blonde sitting down on the couch, writing something on some parchment, while absentmindedly scratching Crookshanks behind the ear, Hermione had more than a few words to say to him. Well, right after taking care of the twins, who were testing some Fainting Fancies on a group of first years.
Hermione may have been taking her duty as prefect a little too seriously. Ron however, wasn't. Whether it was because the twins were family, or because of Ron's crippling fear of what they would do to him, Harry didn't know, all he knew is that Ron would never stand between the twins and their goals.
After they were taken care of, Hermione expressed her incapability to do any of the homework at the moment, and with that, Harry and Ron's hopes of getting any help disappeared. Instead the bushy haired girl sat down on a couch next to Zidane and continued on her knitting. All for the sake of SPEW.
…..
Zidane was just sitting down minding his own business and doing some work, when he became aware of Hermione's presence next to him. Crookshanks then went to annoy his owner, which he really didn't mind since it gave him more space and mobility to write. Zidane noticed how the girl started casually knitting something that looked like a deformed bladder, but he knew that the real reason she sat was because she wanted to talk to him. The way her posture was shifting was a huge giveaway.
'Any second now.'
"Zidane." The girl said.
"Hmmm?" Zidane didn't even bother to look up to her from his work. 'I knew it.'
"It's about today. You really shouldn't repeat what you did with Umbridge. She may be a nasty woman, but it doesn't change the fact that you could get in some serious trouble. Not just for yourself, but for others as well."
"Mmm hmmm." Was Zidane only reply. He wasn't really in the mood to get lectured.
"I'm not joking! You don't want to face suspension, or even worse, expulsion." Hermione said more seriously.
"Right." Zidane said absentmindedly, and Hermione's resulting angry expression highly amused him. The way her bushy hair was crackling with static electricity made it look like she was about to trance.
"Will you listen?!" Hermione said, her temper rising and she snatched away his parchment to get his full attention. "What is this, anyways?"
"History homework."
Hermione critically eyed the cursive writing on the page and frowned. "But it looks more like a play write."
"I thought it would be more fun this way." Zidane said with a shrug. "Especially when Gulg declares his undying passion for the daughter of the opposing Giant tribe's chief."
"That's beside the point!" Hermione snapped. "Please do be more careful from now on, especially with that dreadful witch."
"Don't worry. I'll try to be more careful from now on. Are you happy?" Zidane said, soothing the girl's nerves. He just couldn't say 'no' to girls, even bookworm-y types like Hermione. "Now just sit down calmly so you can work on your…knitting. What is that for anyways?"
"Oh I haven't told you about SPEW yet!" Hermione said happily like she had just undergone a giant mood swing. From the other side of the room he heard Harry and Ron groan.
After about half an hour of Hermione's explanation about what SPEW was, Zidane just wanted to make himself invisible and run for his life. He had met Kreacher and some other house elves that worked at Hogwarts, and they didn't seem as oppressed as Hermione portrayed them. In fact, he was told that giving them clothes DID free them, but it was also considered a massive act of shame and an insult. Besides, the way she was hiding the hats in trash (so it would be picked up by a cleaning elf) was really quite low and underhanded, and he should know, he's a freaking thief. In the end he politely declined her invitation to join, but still donated some money for her cause, mostly because he didn't want to end up on her bad side.
With the little time he had left, he finished his epic History assignment and part of the Potion's assignment with some luck. After seeing that it was almost midnight, he decided to take a quick shower before heading to bed. This was because the showers were probably empty at this time, meaning that he didn't have to worry about his tail being seen. Afterwards he just decided to head straight to bed, he was just too tired to wander off and explore tonight. His last thoughts before falling asleep were of possible ways to get back at the toad, and what Dagger was doing at the moment.
'Gods I miss you Dagger.'
To be continued…
…..
A/N: Short chapter, but again, it seemed like good place to stop. Zidane has yet again managed to make another enemy, and it's still only Monday.
Yes, Harry did see Zidane doodling chocobos on his parchment, but of course, he wouldn't see them as anything other than large, cartoonish birds. Also, have I mentioned how much I like McGonagall? I feel like her backstory is so awesome, and she is such a badass, yet she doesn't seem to get as much love as she should.
See you guys next week!