Chapter twenty: keep your enemies close
Fed up with that conversation with Dumbledore and Snape, Alicia had decided to make good on her promise to Harry quickly. She arranged a meeting in the fireplace with Sirius. Right when his face appeared in the flames, a knock came to the door. Harry seemed eager to start their conversation. Alicia had left the room, and afterwards Harry had thanked her with a quick hug.
Within a couple of weeks more, Dolores Umbridge had managed a great deal in her quest for power. She had a number of Educational Degrees pinned to the wall that allowed her to do many things, such as overruling teachers when needed. Most students were off worse because of it. Dolores was cruel, unjust and very dangerous. Alicia had noticed the kind of punishment she served during detention: students got to write lines with a special quill that used their own blood instead of ink. She and Minerva among others had declared this to Dumbledore, who said calmly that he would 'discuss it with her'. Nothing had changed.
After Dolores' inspections she had also fired Professor Trelawney, the Divination professor. Alicia never had any affiliation with Divination. In her years at Hogwarts she had heard many times that the odd witch was a fraud and didn't possess the Sight. Nevertheless everyone was revolted and angered to hear the news. Most teachers seemed to agree: Dolores was getting too powerful.
It was however not something Alicia could agree with in public. She had maintained her act of agreeing with Dolores towards mostly everyone. It pained her to see Filius or Poppy or Pomona give her disappointing looks. It was another thing to add to the pile of reasons why she hated doing this job for the Order.
If Alicia had thought she had gotten through the worst part already, she was about to get a real let-down on the last week before Christmas. Most of the staff were gathered in the Staff Room in the evening. Alicia was sitting in an armchair next to Dolores. They were both silently reading books. Most of the teachers were standing in the furthermost corner of the room, talking in hushed voices. Alicia looked over the edge of her book to see all the others pretending to be casual. They were obviously talking about something they didn't want Dolores to hear.
'Awfully rude isn't it,' Dolores said out of the blue.
'Very rude indeed,' Alicia agreed, for once wholeheartedly.
Dolores sighed and put the book down. 'Hem hem.' Her little cough for attention was notorious by now. The others, quite far away, did hear it and all turned as one. 'What is so very interesting we must all gossip about it?'
'It doesn't concern you,' Aurora Sinistra said venomously.
Dolores seemed unfazed. 'If it concerns this school it concerns me, as High Inquisitor.'
The group dispersed. Minerva, Severus, Filius and Sinistra were coming closer. Alicia looked them all in the eye, wondering how dangerous this topic was. Their expressions were unreadable.
'It is only rumour at this point,' Minerva said, her watchful eyes focused on Dolores, 'But it seems that Dumbledore has found a replacement for Sybill, who you threw out so gracelessly.'
'Oh!' Dolores exclaimed excitedly. 'What wonderful news! I cannot wait to have an interview with this replacement.' She completely ignored Minerva's statement and focused on the information she thought important.
All four of them looked sour. Their lips twisted in similar expressions.
'What is it?' Alicia dared to ask.
'Oh I don't think you are going to like this new person,' Sinistra said while she crossed her arms. She was staring Umbridge down as she said: 'It's a centaur.'
Oh no. Not this again. Alicia tried desperately to blend in with the furniture.
'A WHAT!' Dolores shrieked as she got up from her seat. She slammed the book down on the little wooden table and the sound reverbed loudly. 'Albus cannot do that! We do not accept half-breeds in this castle!'
'That is only your opinion!' Filius said defiantly. 'None of the others have that narrow world-view of yours!'
Alicia's heart was beating rapidly now. She tried to stare ahead and be forgotten, but Dolores suddenly remembered her back-up. 'No, that is not quite true. Only a select few at this school seem to be able to see the difference between them and us. They should stick to their business, and not meddle with ours. We do not want their kind here. Do we, Professor Doreen?'
Alicia blinked a couple of times, trying to wake up from this nightmare. When she didn't, she looked up at Dolores and nodded curtly. 'Quite right, Professor Umbridge.'
'Oh really?' came a voice to her right. Alicia was already so uncomfortable, but knew it was only going to get worse. As Alicia looked at Severus, he had a well-acted innocent look on his face. 'I thought you befriended the centaurs. Didn't Hagrid proudly tell us about his top student who managed to integrate with the…herd? You might even know Firenze, the centaur that will be hired.'
'Yes, I do remember that! Hagrid kept saying that his favourite student was friends with them,' Sinistra added, not knowing the damage she was doing.
'Is this true?' Dolores asked, her eyes mad with betrayal.
Alicia laughed nervously. 'That was only out of academical interest! I wouldn't say I befriended them, I studied them. To anticipate their behaviour and see whether they were hostile. Besides, we are talking about my student years. It's been a while ago.'
'Not that long ago,' Dolores said with a stern look.
Alicia wondered whether this was still fixable. She got up from her seat and closed the others off by turning her back to them. 'Professor, you know me. I have changed my ideas since I have seen what a mess the world is. What they remember, was an ignorant and naïve girl. I am different now, I promise.' Alicia turned back to the others. 'I am no friend of the centaurs. If this is really true, I will file a complaint with the Headmaster. Centaurs are beasts, no men.'
Her words were convincing enough for now. The subject was dropped and everyone calmed down. After Dolores wished everyone a good night and returned to her office – an office that was once inhabited by a werewolf professor and his rebellious student – Alicia started to calm down. But when she saw Severus leave, she followed him.
He hadn't gotten far down the hall before Alicia called him out. He turned around with a dark look on his face. 'Yes?'
'What the hell was that? I think you are forgetting that I am not your enemy,' Alicia said angrily.
Severus stood very still. His fingers interlaced in front of him. 'Miss Doreen. You are unconvincing in your cover. You can't even overcome the slightest test. How are we to accomplish anything of import if you remain so…weak.'
Alicia's hands balled into fists. 'I don't consider it a weakness that I'm not like her.'
He huffed. 'You have been assigned a task. An important one, according to Dumbledore. To me you seem unfit to perform it. You are unprepared for your classes, you appear – and probably are – weak in knowledge and skill, you can't lie at all and you are irresponsible. In fact…' he stopped for a moment to smile wickedly. 'You remind me a lot of Lupin.'
This agitated her even more. 'How do you know about that?' she whispered through gritted teeth. 'You should leave him out of this!'
'It didn't even surprise me,' he said as calmly as one could sound. 'To find out two freaks found each other. Both scarred. Although he probably did that to you, right?'
Alicia closed her eyes and tried to inhale deeply. Her breath came out with a shudder. She was so furious, but she couldn't be what he had just called her out for: irresponsible. She stared him down with a furious look. He seemed to revel in it.
'If you don't stop talking about Remus in that disrespectful way…we are going to have a problem,' she said, hoping she seemed calm.
'Why don't you prove it,' he sneered right in her face. She couldn't remember when they had stepped closer, but she could see every muscle move in his face. Every line in his face seemed cold, distant and calmly furious. Severus was angry with the world, and it was readable on his face. Then she noticed a little red line running over his nose. It was the faintest of scars, so tiny he wouldn't have bothered to make it disappear with magic. Alicia sneered back at him.
'I remember when I did that,' she said, sounding as cold as he did. Her finger pointed to his nose. 'I remember the day you made me so angry I stormed into your office and attacked you.'
Severus took a step back. He was utterly shocked to hear this news. His face showed more emotion in five seconds than she had seen on him in seven years.
'YOU did that? You broke my nose?' he asked utterly flabbergasted.
She took a step forward. 'You shouldn't have done it Severus. You shouldn't have told the school about Remus. That day I wanted to make you pay. But I see now that it didn't have the impact it should have had. You are still arrogant and think yourself above others. You are pathetic.'
'You filthy-,'
'Yes that's right! Belittle me! Like you belittle everyone that you disagree with!' she shouted back.
Before she knew it, Severus had whipped out his wand and was levitating her in the air…upside down. Her wand fell from her pocket and rolled away.
'You see? This is exactly what I said earlier. You are irresponsible! You assaulted a teacher and then wiped his memory. Just because you were emotional. You make rash decisions based on personal feelings,' Snape said with supressed anger in his voice.
'Oh, like your actions are never biased by personal feelings! You bully students because you were bullied yourself! Don't lecture me, Snivellus,' Alicia said quickly. She didn't even care that she was defenceless and left to his mercy. She just had to tell him what everyone was too afraid to say.
The next second she tumbled to the floor. His spell had lifted. She picked up her wand and stood ready to attack or defend, but Severus did nothing. He looked quite lost all of a sudden.
'You are as short-sighted as your werewolf boyfriend,' he said. Alicia almost started to feel bad for him, because he sounded quite broken. Was the nickname too much? Did he really still feel powerless when he thought back of his time as a student?
Snape uttered a quick spell under his breath. It felt like a big hook had gotten her from behind and was pulling her back. She flew and crashed into a suit of armour. The metal crashed to pieces and bruised and cut her in various places. As she fell to the ground her back hit a sharp object. She hissed out in pain.
'Don't make the mistake to stand in my way again,' Severus said while she was clambering to her feet. She was about to get up and get him back when she felt hands holding her back. She looked around to see Minerva, with a terrified look in her eyes. She shook her head and maintained her grip on the younger professor. Alicia looked up to see Severus walking away, his cape billowing around him as he disappeared into the shadows.
Alicia wiped the blood from her mouth and looked after him. After a moment she realised he had a point: she became rather irrational when it came to personal vendetta's.
'Please stop fighting,' Minerva pleaded as she looked over Alicia's damaged face.
She could do that for now. She could turn and walk away now, but in the long run her problem with Severus was just as big as Sirius's. She sighed and gave Minerva a short glance before turning around.
'If Voldemort doesn't kill him, I will,' she pledged.
Madame Pomfrey was less than amused to see Alicia walk into the Hospital Wing with a worrying Minerva McGonagall next to her. Alicia was holding a handkerchief to the side of her mouth that was already soaked in blood. Upon noticing the healer's look, Alicia managed an apologetic smile.
Snape had actually managed to damage her intestines with that flying lesson he gave her. A lung had been punctured by a rib. Luckily Poppy knew just what to do, and Alicia was ready to go in ten minutes.
'Just don't teach your students to be as reckless as you are!' Poppy snapped.
As the young professor left the Hospital Wing, she actually thought that sounded like a wonderful idea. She smiled to herself as she came up with a new lesson plan.
Rules were made to be broken and Alicia was so done with the rules.
The next day when she taught Harry's class, she decided to take them outside. Many of the students seemed relieved by her change of strategy. They went to the edge of the forest where Alicia had secured a unicorn in an enclosure. The girls were particularly loving it.
They all got a chance to stroke the creature and feed it. Today there would be no warning. No false claim of how dangerous the creature could be. She taught them to always respect unicorns and allow them to be free. When one tried to trap or domesticate it, it was seen as a huge crime. The one she had over for the class went along in an understanding with Alicia and she would release it again after the class was over.
Draco Malfoy seemed calmer in her classes lately. There was no more snickering or nasty looks. Alicia wasn't under the impression he respected her, but at the very least he realised she was above him in status as a professor and therefore he couldn't contradict her too much. She still saw him bullying students in the halls, but he was clever enough to stop when she got close.
A couple of students were playing with Charles. The idea that this cute dog was actually a dragon larger than a house was comical to Alicia as she watched them. The way Belinda kept saying: 'Whose a good boy?!' was particularly funny, if she considered Charles transforming back to his true form and Belinda screaming in terror. Yeah, she could be a bit of a sadist at times.
Her encounter with Snape had not left any visible marks for people to see. She was happy about that, because it would be hard to explain. For now her strategy was to avoid the potions master and hope their mutual anger would subdue with time. It was a feeble hope.
She got into a whole new state of mind after the confrontation. Clearly her task wasn't too important, or Snape wouldn't try to cross her. Clearly Dumbledore didn't care enough about her assignment to keep his dog on a leash. That was fine. It was better than fine. It allowed her more breathing space. It allowed her to accidentally walk up to a discussion between Filius Flitwick and Dolores Umbridge, in which Dolores called out to her: 'Alicia dear, please tell Filius how dangerous centaurs can be.' And all Alicia did was turn on her heels and walk away.
She did something similar one evening during dinner when Dolores told Minerva that: 'You should have learned your lesson by hiring a werewolf two years ago! And now you want a centaur?' Minerva gave her a look but Alicia just dropped her spoon, said goodnight in general and whistled for Charles to follow her to her room. Surely Dumbledore didn't like that, which made it so much better.
'I just don't want to insult my boyfriend anymore. No matter to whom I'm speaking,' Alicia said out loud as she wrote down her latest developments in a letter to Sirius. In a way it was easier to tell Sirius about her latest adventures than to tell Remus. He would be all scold-y and tell her to befriend Severus. Whereas Sirius would probably pat her on the back and congratulate her on standing up to the slimeball. Sometimes Alicia just didn't want to be responsible. Not when it seemed like everyone disregarded her.
'I'm just wondering why I'm important to Dumbledore at all. I feel like Harry tells you more anyway. Why would he need two people to talk to? He only talks to me because I'm closer. If you were here Padfoot…well. I hardly think I would be needed,' she continued on a sad note. She bit her nail as she looked down at the last part of her thoughts that she had put in ink.
It bothered her more than she thought, to be so useless. At least in Romania she had been needed. She was good at working with dragons and people would come to her for advice. Now she was constantly pretending to be better than she really was, and it bothered her. It felt like she had to walk on heels that were too high to be comfortable in. She would sway in her walk and if she wasn't careful she could break an ankle and end up on the floor. Yet if she took the heels off, no one would bat an eye at her anymore. She had to be older, wiser, colder…everything but herself.
With a deep sigh she folded the letter up and gave it to an owl. It jumped eagerly through the open window and started its journey to London. A journey she would be on as well in a week.