The next morning, I sat isolated at the Hufflepuff table as always, yet nobody had actually said any mocking words to me. Today, another person was at the forefront of their hate. One Harry James Potter, or, as most of them were saying; the murderer of Cedric Diggory.

I had to snort at that. As if green-eyed boy-wonder could ever harm anybody; I once saw him blush asking if he could borrow a quill from somebody. How in the world would that shy a person be able to hurt anybody?

Yes, I had seen a couple of angry outbursts, but those were just words. He had never actually harmed anybody and had saved a lot of people every year he was at school. Even if they said it was the quiet ones to look out for, Harry was still quite vocal of his beliefs, and to me they were a lot more pure than mine.

I rolled my eyes, and decided to leave it be and eat my breakfast. If they wanted to be dramatic and believe the Prophet and the words of a cowardly Minister, then so be it. Perhaps I was blessed with the obvious truth of having the Dark Lord be a constant in my household due to my father, but to be so ignorant when it was obvious he had been returning to power the last couple of years was just plain stupid.

Anyway, the day progressed and soon we were given our schedules. I groaned out loud when I saw that I had double DADA at the end of the day with Ravenclaw. Something to really end the day with a bang with, for sure, then.

I found a seat near the back, next to a Ravenclaw whose name I did not know. Her long blonde hair and distant stare into the distance made other people go away from her, so I of course chose to sit next to her. Another fellow outcast, then.

People chatted with each other, the Ravenclaws mainly about the contents of our textbooks for the subject and the other Hufflepuffs just chatted about anything interesting. And it was then that Umbridge entered the classroom.

Everybody became quiet as she walked up to the front of the room, her heels clacking against the stone floor. She looked way too satisfied about such a simple thing. So she was addicted to having authority and power too. Lovely.

"Now, put your wands away and find your books," she said, making the Ravenclaws mutter amongst themselves. The girl beside me stayed quiet though. We all did as she said, though too slow for her liking.

"Now class, when I tell you to do something, I want it to be done straight away. Can I hear a 'yes, Mrs. Umbridge'?" she said in that annoying voice of hers. We all murmured a 'yes, mrs. Umbridge' and she clasped her hands together, looking happy.

"See, that was better, but next time I want it to be clearer and louder. Now, this year, the ministry has put me in charge of giving you a proper education in DADA, since the previous teachers have been… lacking," when she said the last part she looked at me, as if she wanted nothing more than to throw me away in the trash. I narrowed my eyes, but said nothing, knowing this would only please her.

"If you would all open your books to the first chapter, I want you all to read the chapter whilst taking notes, then we will go through the theory of what you have read in next class," Umbridge said, settling down in the chair behind her desk, taking out some parchment herself.

I sighed but opened the book, starting to read, but slowly found that all of this was something we had covered in our first and second year. This was the most basic theory of DADA, with a nice heaping of ministry approved thinking about the Dark Arts.

"Yes, ms.?" Umbridge said, making me look up. A Ravenclaw had her hand up, clearly dissatisfied with our reading material too.

"Crawford, Mrs. Umbridge. I was just wondering, if we would go more in depth with higher level theory? And what about offensive spells, this book only contains defensive spells, shouldn't we be learning-" the girl started ranting, but was interrupted by Mrs. Umbridge.

"Now, dear, this is all to ensure that you are all caught up with what you need to know. And why would you need to be practising spells, such as offensive ones? When would you need those, hm? This is all Ministry approved, dear, so just read the chapter and don't worry your little head about your curriculum," Umbridge said with a smile, but there was a certain bite to all her words.

Another hand shot up in the air. I was surprised to find that it was mine.

"Ah, yes, ms. Greyback?" her voice dared me to defy her. And she got me.

"Well, would some of us not need it for our future careers or for the practical exams? And just for the real world out there?" I asked, and was surprised to find that a lot of the Ravenclaws were nodding their heads along to what I was saying.

"If you study correctly, you will be able to do these spells just fine. And for the real world, my dear? Why, there is no need for offensive spells out there, who would you be attacking?" a short laugh followed her question, making me clench my fists. Why, what a pretentious bitch.

My hand shot up again.

"Yes, ms. Greyback?" her tone sounded impatient, and I knew I was entering dangerous territory now, but this little bubble she wanted to put us in was one I wanted to pop so bad.

"There may be Death Eaters out there, even Sirius Black is still on the loose. And I do believe the ending of last year's Triwizard tournament should make it obvious that Voldemort is back," I snarled, my canines aching in anticipation. If only I could rip off that stupid smile of hers from her arrogant self.

"Do not be silly, dear. Do any of you really believe Harry Potter? He is just a boy looking for more attention, now return to reading the first chapter, all of you," she said with a finality but I was not done.

Once again, my hand shot up in the air. This time around, she pretended not to see it, but when the students started noticing this, they started murmuring amongst themselves which forced her to take action.

"Last interruption, ms. Greyback."

"Do you expect us to believe what Rita Skeeter puts out in the paper? Harry Potter has no reason to lie about this, turning our heads the other way will only make it easier for Voldemort to come back to power, why should we not-"

"That is quite enough, ms. Greyback," she interrupted me, but I continued anyway.

"Learn to defend ourselves? Just because the minister is a coward does not mean we all should follow his example," I finished. Umbridge seemed to compose herself, her smile tight this time.

"I guess your heritage can excuse such an outburst from you, ms. Greyback, but I will not have you question the Ministry in my class. Detention tonight after dinner," her words were a slap to the face, and I stayed quiet this time.

A few Hufflepuffs snickered at her words, which seemed to amuse her. She nodded and left us to our own devices for the rest of the class.

...

The day passed slowly after that, though when dinner came around, I found that I was too agitated to want to eat anything. It also did not help that Sophie kept looking at me whilst whispering to her girl gang. They would laugh and snicker. I knew they did it to anger me and I hated that it worked.

What kind of fucked up government did we have, if the Ministry approved Umbridge to teach us? The entire curriculum was way beneath our level and if she wanted to try and silence Harry Potter she was apparently succeeding if other houses took her words in like Hufflepuff had.

Well, Ravenclaw had seemed irritated about the material she had chosen for us to study. However, they did not weigh in on what Harry had said. Or anything political. I gathered they were just trying to wait for factual evidence to come out, before they would be on Harry's side too.

That might be too late by then, though. Sighing, I decided that I did not want to stick around in the Great Hall any longer, tired of Sophie, my entire house and the entire school.

I stood, slinging my bag over my shoulder, before walking out. I had a little time before I had to show up for detention, but I had absolutely no idea where or what I would do until then.

"Hey!" a voice yelled from behind me, a male voice I could not recognize. Thinking the person was talking to somebody else, I ignored it, continuing to walk at a leisurely pace. That was until somebody grabbed my arm, turning me around.

And then I was face to face with the Weasley twins.

"You should learn to stop-"

"When somebody calls for you!"

"Silly Hufflepuff," the twins said, switching between who said what. Ginny had remarked that it sometimes made her mum go insane when the twins did that, but it was different being exposed to it yourself. Actually seeing them completing each other's sentences was fascinating.

I wonder, did they think about it? Could they just feel what the other wanted to say? If so, who was the instigator for their sentences, did they agree with each other completely?

"Hey, back to earth, little badger-"

"We heard that you stood up to Umbridge"

"And for Harry"

"In defense earlier today."

"We also managed to hear how the rest of your house talks about you-"

"Honestly, we thought Hufflepuffs were less prejudiced"

"At least more loyal to their own"

"But we wanted to say that you can always sit with us"

"Whenever you want some good company"

"And with that he obviously means with me"

"Oi! Take that back, Fred!"

And this was when I officially felt completely lost. It was a lot to take in at once, and I was not sure I completely understood why what I had done had warranted them wanting to befriend me. Had their mother not told them who my father was?

"Thanks, that's sweet of you, I guess," I murmured, narrowing my eyes at them. At this, they stopped their bickering about who was the better company, and looked at me smirking.

"Don't worry, we will collect you at breakfast tomorrow-"

"No need to face the coolest table in the Great Hall alone"

"Besides, Harry heard what you said, and we think it might actually help him"

"To hear some people actually stand behind him, right now."

Before I had a chance to answer them, or more like stop them from 'collecting' me for breakfast tomorrow, they gave me twin smirks, saluted and were off. I shrugged, perhaps they were just playing around as they tended to do.

Now I had a detention to face though, so I sighed for what felt like the thousandth time that day, and made my way to Umbridge's office.

…

I was going to snap soon. I could feel a soft whisper of a wolf in my ears and I knew my eyes had to be glowing. The kittens on the plates around me were all eerily still, whenever I would chance a glance at them, they would hiss and curl up.

She could see me tense up, every time I put the pen on the paper, I knew she could. She was probably smirking, feeling very smug about it all. Time seemed to move slowly yet very quickly, I could not decide. The pain was reaching unbearable levels, and I had Fenrir Greyback as a father.

It was not only the pain and the thought of how satisfied Umbridge was feeling, it was also the words she was making me write and embed into my skin, blood staining my sleeves, the table and slowly the paper too.

A mutt must obey its Masters' rules.

It was humiliating words, I knew they were meant to be so. But they hurt, they hurt so damn much. More than just the physical pain, it made me feel like I belonged less in this stupid magical world.

I did not fit in here, because I was half-human and I did not fit at home either, because of the same reason. To Umbridge and to many others, I was worse than a mudblood. I was a creature, a thing to rule over. I was no human in their eyes.

My thoughts made me press the pen harder into the paper, making the words cut deeper into my hand. But the physical pain kept me grounded to reality, it brought me out of my head. Made me stop thinking about what an outcast I truly was.

"Show me your hand dear, let's see if the words have started to sink in," Umbridge said, making me stop and put the pen down. She got up from her seat and came over to me. I was sitting at a desk facing the wall, so she could see me from the side.

I grit my teeth and stuck my hand out, looking her straight in the eyes. She simply smiled, inspecting my bloody hand, humming thoughtfully.

"I am not completely sure the words have sunken in enough. Same time tomorrow, ms. Greyback," Umbridge said, dropping my hand. A nod at her, and I was out the door. Away from those stupid cats and her stupid smirk.

My bag was slung over my shoulder, my robes in disarray and I was probably dripping blood on the stone floor as I went. The tension in my shoulders was making me angrier, the fact I wanted to cry made me even more so.

This woman was asking for a beating, and karma was going to come for her, even if I had to become karma myself.

She would not be allowed to do this all year.