CHAPTER 27: PASSING DAYS
-------------------BY ORDER OF-----------------------
The High Inquisitor of Hogwarts
All Student organizations, Societies, Teams, Groups, and Clubs are henceforth disbanded.
An Organization, Society, Team, Group, or Club is hereby defined as a regular meeting of three or more students.
Permission to re-form my be sought from the High Inquisitor (Professor Umbridge).
No Student Organization, Society, Team, Group, or Club may exist without the knowledge and approval of the High Inquisitor.
Any student found to have formed, or to belong to, an Organization, Society, Team, Group, or Club that has not been approved by the High Inquisitor will be expelled.
The above is in accordance with Educational Decree Number Twenty-four.
Signed:
Dolores Jane Umbridge
HIGH INQUISITOR
Harry, Ron, and Hermione stood in shock in front of the Gryffindor Tower's bulletin board, looking over Umbridge's latest plan to make their lives hell.
"Who does she think she is?" Ron asked angrily.
"The High Inquisitor of Hogwarts," Hermione said smartly, causing Ron to scowl.
"She's Fudge's right hand man," Harry said. "Er, well, maybe not."
"No, no. Man fits her perfectly," Ron said.
"You're just insulting your gender," Hermione retorted to Ron, who had to stop and think about what he had said.
"You know what I mean," Ron glared.
"How did she know?" Hermione asked, forgetting about Ron. "I mean, she's obviously put this up because of us, but how did she know? We haven't even had our first meeting yet! It was all in the planning stages."
"She must have had spies somewhere," Harry said. "Maybe one of the members said something."
"No, I've charmed the parchment, remember? We'd know if someone told."
"She must've had someone at the Hog's Head that day," Harry said finally.
Hermione said and then said, "Well, what're we going to do now?"
"Why're you asking me?" Harry asked. "You're the one that started this!"
"Yes, but you were elected as leader, so it's up to you."
Harry gave her a look while Ron said, "You fell right into that one, mate."
"We'll keep it going," Harry said after a long pause.
"Even with our new lessons," Hermione said in a whisper.
"Especially now," Harry said. "We have no idea how long this is going to keep up, or what she's really doing. Plus, it can't hurt to have extra practice."
Hermione and Ron nodded in agreement and all three turned back to look at the new legislation with looks of disgust on their faces.
The days flew by quickly as everyone's work load and schedule increased drastically. Between homework, Occlumency, Quidditch practice and planning the DA meetings (the first of which went off without a hitch), Harry was very busy.
Harry was very glad that he rarely saw Profess-no, High Inquisitor Umbridge anymore. And he hadn't had a detention in ages, which was making Angelina much happier. Practices were held daily, to prepare for the upcoming match: Gryffindor vs. Slytherin.
The rest of September flew by, and October came and went just as quickly. The Defence lessons always proved to be interesting, and they were learning more stuff than they had in all previous four years combined. Harry hated to admit it, or was that feeling something else, but Professor Fox was an even better professor than Lupin was.
His Occlumency lessons were going fairly well. At first it was awful trying to learn from Snape, but he was determined to learn as quickly as possible so that he was able to hear what Dumbledore had to say. Plus, he was getting sick and tired of having Snape see his memories. He swore that Snape was actually trying to find the ones he didn't want to share.
One time, he was able to push the spell back onto Snape, much to his later disgust, and saw several memories of the greasy haired potions master.
One memory in particular stuck in his mind, no matter how hard he tried to get rid of it. It wasn't a long memory, in fact, Harry had only glimpsed it before another one took its place, but it was the most memorable. He saw a much younger Snape shove a blonde girl up against the wall. She was definitely not happy, as he could see the slightest bit of fear cross her features; her striking green eyes were burned into his memory. He thought she looked familiar, but he couldn't figure out where he'd seen someone like her before. Obviously he hadn't seen her, because that was some fifteen years ago, before he was even born.
He remembered how furious Snape had been, and much to Harry's surprise, it seemed he was disgusted with himself. Harry wanted to know what had happened, but as he was quickly dismissed, he figured he shouldn't ask. Other attempts at looking inside of Snape's mind were futile; Snape was much more protected around him.
Every night before he went to bed, he cleared his mind and did everything else Snape told him to do. Although, if he was honest with himself, he hadn't really improved much until his one 'detention' with Professor Fox.
He had gotten detention after one really hard class. He hadn't been in a good mood that day, so he might not have been doing as well as he could have. At least, that was the only reason he could think of for receiving detention. As he didn't have Quidditch, and he was so surprised that she gave him it, that he didn't really question it.
If Umbridge had done it, he would have exploded at her, but with Professor Fox, he kind of wanted to have detention. And no, it didn't make any sense to him.
He had gone to her study with brave, but pitying, faces from Hermione and Ron, and strangely enough, a smile from Neville.
She sat in front of her desk, scribbling over several parchments, grading their essays on vampires, he expected.
"Harry, have a seat," she said, gesturing towards the seat facing her desk.
Harry sat and watched silently as she finished writing comments on the side before writing a big E on the top. She then pushed the pile of papers into a drawer and sat back in her chair, looking at Harry.
It was the first time she had been alone with Harry, and truth be told, she was quite scared. Maybe more nervous than scared. She had been watching him in class and during meals, discreetly of course, and she finally thought it was time to meet with him.
She knew he didn't trust her, of course. It was painfully obvious since the first class; he didn't hide his emotions well at all. He wore his heart on his sleeve, like she used to do, as someone had once told her. Now she should earn an Academy Award for all the false performances she'd put on. She had become very good at hiding her real emotions.
Buffy didn't know how much Harry knew about his parents, and well, her, so she wasn't just going to announce it to him. Yet. Based on his attitude and performance in class, she'd say he would jump up, call her a liar, curse her, and then go get Dumbledore. Then who knew what would happen.
She had to play this safe. She had to earn his trust. And, more than anything else, she wanted him to like her. Love her even. If she could, she'd take him away from the Durselys and have him live with her, but he might not even know she existed. Or he assumed she was dead, just like the rest of the wizarding world.
With an evil wizard after him, it wouldn't really do to tell him that she was his long lost aunt come back to life. He was being safe, not trusting everyone, and that was good. Except she wanted him to trust her.
She studied her nephew for a moment, marvelling at how much he looked like James. Except the eyes. Those were without a doubt, Lily's eyes.
"So, Harry," she said, breaking the tense silence. "You were a little... edgy today. Is there anything you want to talk about?"
"Talk?" Harry repeated, disbelief evident in his voice. "You gave me a detention so we could talk?"
"Well, kind of," Buffy said. "I believe that detentions should be useful in some way. For the most part, sitting around doing nothing, or copying lines won't do any good. Believe me, I spent plenty of time in detention when I was in school."
"For what?" Harry asked, despite himself. He couldn't believe a ministry official was telling him this. What was she up to?
"For a lot of things," Buffy said, thinking back to her days at Hogwarts and Sunnydale High. "I skipped class on a regular basis; I don't think the teachers liked that very much. I know principle Snyder didn't," she said with a wrinkle of her nose. "Stupid little troll," she muttered to herself, unaware that Harry heard her.
"Principle? Where did you go to school?" Harry asked.
"Oh, um, some school in America. I moved when I was fifteen; not my choice, really," Buffy said. "We used the term principle instead of headmaster."
"Right."
"So, anything going on?" Buffy prodded again.
"Why do you want to know?" Harry asked, narrowing his eyes just the slightest, something that Buffy didn't miss.
"Look, if you're going to come into my class acting like a... like you did today," Buffy said, making sure she didn't insult him. Not a nice way to earn his trust, "then you can be kicked out just like Malfoy. I know you don't want that."
Harry was getting furious at this professor. Who was she to tell him how to act? He opened his mouth to speak, but she cut him off.
"Look, I know we all have bad days, and we all get angry sometimes, but leave it outside of my classroom, please? I'm going to be honest with you; I think you have a temper problem. As in, you can't control it. I've heard the stories of your behaviour from the beginning of school from High Inquisitor Umbridge and I've seen your behaviour around school and in my class. You have a lot of suppressed anger. I'm not sure who you're angry at or why, but it isn't good to keep it locked up inside, trust me.
"If you ever need anyone to talk to, you can come to me and I'd be happy to listen. I'd even be happy to help you figure out whatever problem you need solved."
"Why?" Harry asked suspiciously. Did she want the inside details so she could send them to Minister Fudge?
"I was a counsellor at a school in America for a while, I've got some experience with this." 'Not that anyone thought I was all that great,' Buffy thought, remembering Robin Wood's laughter as he told her why he'd hired her. She had thought she was doing a decent job; sure, she couldn't help everybody, but being The Slayer was tough. Late nights and early mornings do not do good things to her attention span.
"Why aren't you still a counsellor?" Harry asked.
"Um, well, I wanted a change."
"So you went all the way to the Ministry in London?" he asked skeptically. Alarms were going off in his head; she wasn't being honest with him. He couldn't trust her.
"Well, it was a long process," Buffy tried to cover.
"You're not that old," Harry challenged bluntly.
"I was a counsellor for less than a year," Buffy said, staring into his eyes.
"You left in the middle of the year?"
"They didn't need me anymore."
"So you weren't good enough?" Harry countered, noticing with little satisfaction that a flicker of something he didn't recognize flashed through her eyes. When he blinked it was gone.
"The school closed," she said. "I was out of a job, I decided to go back home, I picked up the pieces of my old life and applied for a secretarial job in the Ministry before I began to climb the ladder."
Harry was silent for a moment, contemplating everything she had told him. "What do you do now?"
"I teach," Buffy said, her forehead wrinkling slightly at the obvious answer.
"I mean at the Ministry."
"I don't think that's any of your business," Buffy said finally, not able to think of a good department. She had said she climbed the ladder so she couldn't be a secretary, and if she named a department, it was possible he would go look it up. Or maybe Hermione would when he told her, which he undoubtedly would.
Buffy knew she had chosen the wrong thing to say, when once again, Harry's eyes clouded over with suspicion.
"So are we done yet?" Harry asked.
"No," Buffy said, lifting an eyebrow at him. "We still haven't fixed your attitude problem."
"I'm not going to talk to you," he said.
"Fine. I don't want to listen. But you will do what I tell you to. You are in detention after all."
Harry scowled at her angrily.
"Like that, see?" Buffy pointed out. "There's no need to get upset. You're in trouble, deal with it. Don't take it out on me. Nobody's going to like you if you keep venting your frustration on your friends."
"Most people are too scared of me anyway; they all think I'm psychotic, thanks to your ministry and the papers," he said, folding his arms over his chest.
"And I'm sure your attitude is really helping to deny those accusations," Buffy said. "If you yell, throw things, talk back to teachers, snap at your friends, they're really going to flock towards you."
"Nobody's telling me anything!" Harry grumbled unconsciously, his frustrations coming back again. "I have to do what everyone says and I'm not even sure why! And nobody believes anything I say anyway. It's all going to get twisted around!" Harry stopped abruptly, suddenly realizing exactly who he was talking to. A possible spy for the Ministry. For Fudge.
"What aren't they telling you, Harry?" Buffy said, unaware that her question solidified Harry's theory.
Harry sat in silence, not acknowledging her presence.
Buffy sighed and sat back in her chair. "Maybe if you were a little nicer, a little calmer, people would be more willing to accept you. In other words, grow up."
Harry's head snapped up at her words and he glared angrily at her. "You have no idea..." he started, but stopped once again.
"Life is hard and it's painful and it's everyday, but it's something you have to deal with," Buffy said. "You have your friends to help pull you through, but if you pull away and alienate yourself then it's going to be so much worse.
"You have to realize that the world doesn't revolve around you, that everyone has lives they have to take care of and other priorities. That's just life. You won't always be on the top of the list and if you get jilted, then you just have to deal with it. Do what you're supposed to do and be as happy as you can while you're doing it. It's the little things in life that make all the difference. Who's going to be at your side through it all? Why are they going to be there? It does matter, Harry.
"Don't be angry, don't be stressed, live happily. After all, stressed spelled backwards is desserts. Life is short, eat dessert first," Buffy finished with a smile.
"What?" Harry asked, startled by her strange ending.
"It's an old saying I heard once. I thought it was cute."
"Oh," Harry said.
"Do you understand what I'm saying?" Buffy asked seriously.
Harry just nodded, his mind whirling.
"It's not always easy to keep your emotions in check," Buffy said, "But it can be done with practice. And it does get easier. Meditation helps a lot. Basically, you focus your energies on yourself and finding your inner calm. Typically, the more controlled you are, the less vulnerable you are."
And for the next hour the two of them practiced meditating, clearing one's mind and focusing one's energies.
Harry did that every night he went to sleep, as he found it decreased the chances of nightmares, letting him sleep better than he had in months, and it also helped him in Occlumency.
He was also much more pleasant to be around; he was much more like his old self than the strange angry person that had developed over the summer, much to Hermione and Ron's pleasure.
Harry was even much happier than he had been. He still didn't trust Professor Fox, but he did respect her. To some degree. She was, after all, still a ministry official under Fudge's control.
The Quidditch stands were filled with people, oddly enough, some of them were singing, but the lyrics were drowned out by the whistling and cheering.
It was the first game of the season, Gryffindor vs Slytherin. Harry was fairly confident, as they had not yet lost to Malfoy's team, but he was a little nervous for Ron, who looked like he might keel over any minute. His nerves combined with the shock of playing in front of the whole school were not a good combination.
The game began and Harry flew high to look for the snitch. Unfortunately, he kept getting distracted by Ron's performance, which was getting worse with each passing moment. The Slytherin's and their song were not helping either.
"Weasley cannot save a thing,
He cannot block a single ring,
That's why Slytherins all sing:
Weasley is our King."
Harry flew around frustrated because of the stupid lyrics. He knew Lee was trying his best to drown out the song, but it was a useless attempt.
"Weasley was born in a bin,
He always lets the Quaffle in,
Weasley will make sure we win,
Weasley is our King."
Harry turned around on his broom, abandoning his search for the snitch, in order to watch Ron play. Once again, Ron let the Quaffle go right by. "Stop listening, Ron!" Harry muttered to himself. "You're better than this."
"Weasley is our King,
Weasley is our King,
He always lets the Quaffle in,
Weasley is our King."
Harry beat his hand on his broomstick as he watched the Slytherins gain possession of the Quaffle once more. He was startled out of his thoughts when he heard Angelina yelling at him.
"Harry, WHAT ARE YOU DOING? GET GOING!"
It was only then that Harry realized he had been stationary for more than a minute, forgetting completely about the snitch, which was the 150-point sphere. He flew around, glancing at Malfoy once to make sure he didn't see the golden ball.
As they circled the pitch, looking in opposite directions, Harry heard Malfoy singing along with the song. He forced himself to calm down and find the snitch. He could sing all he wanted, but in the end, Gryffindor would be victorious.
Harry was circling closer to Malfoy and every once and a while he had to dodge the Bludgers that Crabbe and Goyle were frequently sending at him. Fred and George were doing an admirable job sending them straight back to where they came.
A glint of gold shone in Harry's right eye, and he turned his broom sharply to see the golden snitch hovering high in the air, quite a ways away from both him and Malfoy, but closer to Malfoy.
Harry took off on his broom, wanting to get ahead of Malfoy, who had yet to spot it. If he had tried to be sneaky, it wouldn't have worked, as he had avoided Malfoy for the entire game. He had yet to get within a hundred feet of him, and he'd have to get fairly close in order to pass by. He figured racing was the way to go.
Naturally, Malfoy didn't notice him until he flew right by, but then the blonde took off right behind him.
Coming closer to the snitch, it decided it wanted to play more, so it shot straight up into the sky. Higher and higher, causing Harry and Malfoy to fly almost vertically.
Harry was so focused on the snitch that he didn't notice Crabbe and Goyle still shooting the Bludgers at him. Fred and George were getting a little off track, as the singing and Ron distracted them. They were trying to help Ron stay focused, but they forgot that the two Slytherin beaters wanted to get Harry out of the match.
In his peripheral vision, Harry saw a blur coming at him and he spun his broom like a top, causing the bludger to miss the underside of the broom as it past, while allowing him to stay on his path of chasing the snitch.
Malfoy was right underneath him, and suddenly, the snitch veered off horizontally again. Harry turned sharply, not even thinking about how high they were, but noticed that Malfoy was beneath him, attempting to catch it from below.
Harry flew faster on his broom, causing Malfoy to drop behind him. He was almost there. . .
Harry reached out his hand for the snitch, but pulled back as one of the bludgers charged right by him. While he was avoiding the one Bludger and still keeping his eye on the snitch, Harry didn't see the one Crabbe had shot that was heading straight for him until it was too late.
The bludger collided with him, slamming into his chest, knocking out his breath, and breaking a few of his ribs. The force of the bludger caused him to slide backwards off the broom.
It seemed like forever that Harry was falling in mid-air, it was only now that he vaguely realized how high he was, but in reality it was less than a second before he collided with Malfoy who was still speeding off towards the snitch on his broom.
Harry slammed into Malfoy, jarring the broom and causing it to flip upside down. Acting on instinct, Harry grabbed onto the broomstick, catching himself from the fall. Farther down on the broom, Malfoy was holding on with his legs, surprised at the right side up face of Harry Potter, as his own blonde hair hung upside down.
Malfoy snarled at Harry to get off, so Harry did just that.
Harry swung himself upward, using the broom like a muggle gymnast, flipping himself up to the top or bottom, since Malfoy's feet were gripping tightly to the broom, keeping himself from plummeting to the ground. Once he was up, he released the broom and used his momentum to finish the swing.
Harry planted his feet on the broom for the briefest of seconds, standing on it only long enough to push off, launching himself towards his own broom a few feet away.
Harry didn't hear the screams of the crowds as he had first fallen off, and he didn't hear them now as his right hand didn't grip the broom and he began to plummet once more towards the ground. All he knew was that he couldn't let another Cedric Diggory loss happen, especially to Malfoy.
As he fell towards the ground, he was vaguely aware of passing Malfoy, who had righted his broom and showed no motion to help him out. Everyone in the stands were still screaming, but all Harry saw was a broom moving swiftly towards him. It was someone on his team. But they weren't low enough.
Harry was dropping too quickly and passed the broom's height before his saviour could help him.
However, the Gryffindor was not going to let Harry fall to his doom, and he flung himself over the side of his broom as Harry sailed by, grabbing onto his left arm, stopping him from his death dive.
The two of them hung in the air for a second to catch their breath. "Alright there Harry?" George asked.
Harry looked up at him and grinned faintly, holding up the snitch in his right hand. "Fine," he said.
George's eyes widened in astonishment. "You took that dive to save the snitch! Are you mad?"
"I figured I should prove the rumours right," Harry said, happy that everything was okay. The horrified screams of the crowds now changed to ecstatic excitement, as they couldn't believe what had just happened.
George just laughed as he hung upside down from his broom, Harry's left arm still in his own.
George was just about to pull Harry up, and put himself right side up, since the blood rushing to his head was making his face match his vibrant hair, when a bludger ran into the small of Harry's back, knocking him out of George's grip.
Cries of outrage rang through the crowd, as Goyle had shot the bludger after the snitch had been caught, and at a helpless person. Luckily for Harry, he had fallen quite a ways before George had caught him, so he didn't fall nearly so far.
However, it was still a painful landing.
Once again, the air was knocked out of his lungs and his ribs protested painfully. Harry could see his team-mates all coming to a stop around him, worried about his safety. Even Ron had forgotten his painful performance to check on Harry.
Madame Hooch had come over and was looking him over, declaring that he needed to go to the hospital wing. Everything was happening too fast for Harry. People were congratulating him and scolding him, handing him things, like his broom, shoving him this way, and pushing him that way. Too many people were talking; he hit his head a little harder than he would have liked.
Unfortunately, he was able to hear Malfoy's vicious comments to the Weasleys. He tried to hold back George and Ron, even though he was still a little shaky, but Malfoy finally went too far.
"Or perhaps," said Malfoy, leering as he backed away, "you can remember what your mother's house stank like, Potter, and Weasley's pigsty reminds you of it—."
Harry was not aware of releasing George and Ron, all he knew was that a second later all three of them were sprinting after Malfoy. With all the craziness that had happened, he had completely forgotten about his anger management issues, and all the teachers that were watching. All he had wanted to do was cause Malfoy as much pain as possible. With no time to draw out his wand, and his anger fuelling his tired body, he drew back the fist still clutching the Snitch and sank it as hard as he could into Malfoy's stomach, while Ron attacked Goyle for his unsportsmanlike behaviour.
Girls' voices were screaming, Malfoy was yelling, others were swearing, and then Harry was hit with an Impedimenta curse, knocking him backwards.
Madame Hooch came storming up, breaking up the fight. "I've never seen behaviour like it — back up to the castle, all three of you, and straight to your Head of House's office! Go! Now!"
Reflecting back, Harry should have realized that it wouldn't have been a good idea to attack Malfoy. As he sat in front of McGonagall's stern, disappointed, and unhappy face, he knew he was going to get punished severely.
Unfortunately, he didn't count on it becoming much worse. But it did. As soon as a "Hem, hem" interrupted McGonagall's lecture.
Professor McGonagall did her best to ignore and dismiss the High Inquisitor, who was strangely accompanied by Professor Fox, but she would not be dissuaded.
She pulled out another roll of parchment, "Educational Decree Number Twenty-five."
"Not another one!" exclaimed Professor McGonagall violently. Harry looked up to see Professor Fox looking mildly amused by the outburst, but her features were soon blank again.
"So... I really think I will have to ban these three from playing Quidditch ever again," Umbridge said, looking from Harry to George to Ron and back again.
"What?!" Ron yelled.
"Ban us?" Harry asked, his voice sounding strangely distant. "From playing... ever again?"
"Yes, Mr. Potter, I think a lifelong ban ought to do the trick," said Umbridge, her smile widening still further as she watched him struggle to comprehend what she had said. "And I think, to be safe, this young man's twin ought to be stopped too-if his team-mates had not restrained him, I feel sure he would have attacked young Mr. Malfoy as well."
"Dolores, a word, please," Buffy said, speaking up for the first time since entering the office.
Dolores scowled but then walked outside the door with her fellow ministry employee. It wouldn't look well to dismiss her totally.
"Yes," Umbridge said.
"Are you mad?" Buffy asked, not realizing the door hadn't closed all the way and that the four people inside could still hear her.
"Excuse me?"
"You cannon ban four of the Gryffindor players for life," Buffy said. "Do you have any idea what that will look like?"
"Will it look something like expelling Mr. Malfoy from class for life?" Umbridge retorted.
"No, because nobody likes Mr. Malfoy," Buffy said slowly, as if explaining it to a small child. "If you ban them, they'll become martyrs, except they didn't have to die. The whole school will soon rebel against us! You cannot do this," she finally hissed.
Buffy knew how much Quidditch must mean to Harry and the other boys; it had meant a lot to her when she was on the team, and she couldn't imagine ever being banned from playing.
"Actually, I can, and I just did. Fortunately, I am High Inquisitor and you are not."
"Well, fortunately, I might not be High Inquisitor, but Fudge did appoint me to this position himself, and I'm sure that he'll back anything I say. Plus, you said you'd back any decision I made. Remember?" Buffy said.
"I don't know what you're playing at, but you've obviously forgotten our goals. Banning him from Quidditch is just the first step towards expulsion," Umbridge said, hissing the last part so quietly that the people inside didn't hear.
"I remember the goals perfectly well, thanks," Buffy said. "But there are better ways to achieve them; this is stupid and immature."
"Then I'm glad it's not up to you."
Buffy glared at Umbridge before continuing on. "Fine. I guess I'll have to dismiss Mr. Goyle from Quidditch for purposely hitting a Bludger at a defenseless player after the game was over, Mr. Crabbe for hitting a potentially fatal bludger at another player, and Mr. Malfoy for not helping Mr. Potter as he fell. I think these all qualify for lifelong bans, if a simple fight after the game is over does as well. I don't think Mr. Malfoy would be too happy to hear his only son was banned from Quidditch as well as class. I might as well expel the kid. And don't ridicule me, because I do have the power."
Umbridge glared at the blonde before admitting defeat and storming away angrily.
Buffy smiled to herself outside, happy that she had saved Harry and the Weasley's from a horrible punishment. She steeled her face and marched back inside the room.
"You're punishment has been revoked due to the amount of people involved. You will all serve detentions with Professor Snape for the next week, no arguments. Fifty house points will be deducted total. I'm sure that fighting is not uncommon at this school, but I would have expected better from you. You are also banned from practice for the next week, just so that you'll have plenty of time to do your homework and your detentions."
Buffy turned to leave and then added, "Next time, think first. It's not always smart to go charging in headfirst when it's easier to walk away."
Buffy left the group of three students and one professor, each one shocked at what had just occurred.