April 6th, 1996. Tuesday.
Selena angrily ate breakfast as Tess continued talking to Alisson about Firenze.
"Tess, he's a centaur!"
"A beautiful centaur! He's so gorgeous and clever!"
"Sel," Renee murmured from beside Selena.
The young Gryffindor looked over at her friend, meeting a concerned look as Renee tilted her head. Tess and Alisson continued talking.
"Are you feeling all right? You look sick," Renee whispered.
Selena bit her lip, nodding quietly as she rubbed the top of left hand. It had been nearly two weeks since her detention with Professor Umbridge. She'd gotten a bandage the next day, wrapping her hand and feigning Crescent having scratched her. There was still some gauze wrapped around it now, the words nearly healed. They would scar faintly, from the looks of it. Selena glanced over at Renee's hand for moment, unharmed. Despite the sadness she felt at her own injury, there was a kind of protective resolve in her that it wasn't Renee. "Yeah. Just, not excited for Divination is all."
Tess gave a scandalized gasp. "Divination is the best class!"
"You weren't saying that when Trelawney taught it," Alisson said into her goblet as she took a drink of orange juice.
"Just because you fancy Firenze doesn't mean the rest of us do!" Elizabeth said to Tess as she folded her arms stonily.
Renee grinned at the pale blonde. "Take that back or I'll show them your Firenze doodles in your notebook."
Elizabeth blushed furiously, beginning on some rant about Renee keeping her nose out of her books. Before they could continue with their little argument, an owl gave a hoot which made all the Hogwarts students in the Great Hall look up as the post arrived. Owls flew in the windows, soaring over the tables, weaving through floating candles as they dropped parcels and letters in the hands of the Hogwarts students, who excitedly opened them.
Selena quickly opened hers, reading the letter from her parents and siblings. Cody was applying for a new job, and Violet had received excellent marks on her art project. A tap on Selena's shoulder made her turn to face a familiar redhead. "Oh, hey, Anne, I was-"
"Follow me," the girl said, turning around and quickly walking out of the Great Hall. Selena shrugged at her friends' curious glances and followed her cousin out into the Entrance Hall where they stopped under a torch. Anne handed Selena a weathered piece of parchment.
"Is this a letter from your dad?" Selena asked her, reading the loopy scrawl:
Dear Annie,
I am happy to hear about your Charms test! That's my girl! Everyone knew that you would out-charm the Zabini and Malfoy boys. Onto a more serious topic, my dear. I was traveling around the other day (as Snuffles, of course) when I passed by some witches from the Ministry who were talking about your teacher, that Dolores Umbridge.
I want you to be careful around her. It seems she is just like each of your past Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers - not what she appears.
Stay safe,
Papa
P.S. I am still undiscovered. I don't want you to worry about me.
Selena glanced up from the paper. Anne pressed her lips in a thin line, crossing her arms. "Umbridge thinks that Dumbledore plans to overthrow the Ministry of Magic. It's no wonder she's so against Harry, everything he says is contrary to what Fudge says. Not only that, but the dementor attack over the summer..." She huffed. "I could just wring that woman's neck for blaming Harry after he tried to defend himself."
Selena nodded quickly, biting her lip once again. She'd heard about the dementor attack, everyone had. When Harry used a charm in front of his Muggle cousin and was put on trial by the Ministry, nearly getting expelled from Hogwarts. Selena looked back at the paper. It was time to admit something. "A couple weeks ago, I had detention with Umbridge." She glanced up.
Anne cocked an eyebrow. "You got detention?"
Selena nodded quickly. "Yes, but she made me write lines-"
"She made you write lines? Snape made me scrub the potion's cauldrons last weekend with my hands!" Anne hissed.
Selena sighed, putting her hands on her hips. "She used dark magic for me to write my lines, Anne."
Anne paused for a moment before she raised her eyebrows. "Professor Umbridge used dark magic? On a student? On you?"
Selena nodded again. She held up her bandaged hand. "I told everyone that my cat scratched me. Umbridge made me use a quill that didn't need ink, and when I wrote my lines on parchment, it magically cut the words into the back of my hand. She'd done it before, other people have had detention. I didn't want to tell my friends, I don't want them to feel bad." Particularly Renee. Selena knew it would kill a part of her friend to know what happened, that Renee would blame herself.
"Remember what I said? Back at the start of the year?" Anne asked her. "Umbridge used a quill on Harry that wrote with his blood."
Selena recalled that night suddenly, having completely forgotten about it with everything that had been happening. "And... and he never told anyone... did he?"
Anne shook her head, red curls swinging. "No. And he wouldn't let us tell either... but Selena, we can tell someone now! We have more proof." She looked at the girl's pale wrist with hope in her eyes. "You'll tell someone, surely. We should tell a teacher if she's using dark magic." She looked back at Selena, an excited look on her face at the prospect of getting Umbridge sacked.
Selena watched as Anne's face flickered in the firelight. Then she shook her head before she got a familiar smile on her face that she did whenever she was ready to snoop. "We're not going to get Umbridge sacked quite yet." She took a deep breath, recalling a conversation she'd overheard back in October. Umbridge speaking with the Terrible Twins, snatchets of their conversation. "Umbridge is definitely up to something. There must be more to this, I want to know whatever it is she's keeping secret. How much of this is the Ministry's idea."
Anne let a cattish grin spread across her face. "Alright then. Let's spy on Umbridge, shall we?"
I just had to get this chapter out here already! It was quite the interesting chapter to write.
That little ending was just a spurn of the moment idea for them to decide to spy on Umbridge. But now I am quite excited for that!
The next chapter will be longer I PROMISE! It will have Damon and Anne and hopefully a new character and some old/new characters too!
Then I think I will write the Patronous chapter! I am soo excited to write about the Patronous chapter! I know some of you are as well!
Well thanks for reading! Please review!
Thanks to my reviews:
ChamredMillie
I Am Gwen Duaghter Of Arcus
SakuraDragomir
YOU GUYS ROCK AND I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH WOO HOO!
Please review and thank you for reading! See ya!
~Meghan
1/30/18: I hAd No ChIlL! Honestly, whenever I get into the all caps, I just sound so much more hyper...