Chapter 10

I know my updates had petered off, Senior year and a slight case of writer's block, but now I'm back on, and my updates will be infrequent for now while I try to move.

Thank you everyone who has loved this story and made me very happy because of it.

Talk to you all soon. Please, R&R, and stay tuned.

Sophie.

Rose's POV

I watched with curiosity as Filtch scaled the tallest ladder I've ever seen and shook the castle with the dull thuds of his hammer as he pounded a thick nail into the ancient stone above the door of the Great Hall. He put a framed notice on the nail, and I had to stare at it hard to read what it said. When was finally able to read it, what I saw turned my stomach. Umbridge had been named the Hogwarts High Inquisitor to Address the Falling Standards of Hogwarts. The Ministry had given her powers just below those held by the Headmaster, and I had a feeling that Umbridge would aspire to that post as well.

I swallowed, knowing now that nothing was stopping the torture. I also had a feeling that the walls around the door would soon fill with more of her decrees. "What are you doing?" Snapped Filtch in his gravely voice, "Don't you have some studying to do or something?"

"Oh, yeah." I said unsurely before turning tail and heading back down the corridor. I normally didn't display that kind of cowardice, but my brain was overwhelmed with what the notice meant for me. If Umbridge had been named High Inquisitor, then she had the power to wreck my life and that of my housemates; but that was not all that I worried about. Since Harry and I served detention with her, she seemed to become enamored with causing me pain, and she loved to literally add insult to injury, emotionally and verbally abusing me.

I walked down the hall, intent on absorbing myself in books, when I saw them, wrapped in green and silver Slytherin robes. The trio, all in my year, were stalking toward me, seeming to follow in Umbridge's footsteps on her Bully-The-Girl-Who-Sided-With-Harry-Potter regime.

The girl, and the party's leader, was of average hight, with olive skin and dark coarse hair that was tied loosely with a black ribbon. Her eyes were dull hazel flecked with olive green. She wasn't the prettiest girl in the school by any means: my old friend in Slytherin, Pansy, was far more beautiful. Millicent appeared to make up for her lack of popularity and her "looks count for everything" complex by striving to be the best—or worst, taken another way—bully in the school. Her cronies were testiment to that. Crabbe and Goyle, two rather unintelegent students who had run with Draco before he came to his senses the year before, flanked the haughty Slytherin, who adored bullying me above all of the others.

"Hey, Potter Lover!" They called. I scoffed and shook my head in amusement. They meant for the label to be an insult, but since I didn't have any glaring impurities of blood or birth like they seemed to believe my housemate had, they were reduced to pathetically grasping at straws.

"I've got a trip to the library to get back to." I answered, before continuing confidently on my way.

"Hey, you don't walk away from us!" Goyle barked.

I shut them out and strode couragously onward. Personally I'd found that ignoring them was the best way to deal with their bullying - they wouldn't get the satisfaction of a reaction from me - but Umbridge was another story altogether.

They, in turn, walked toward me. I quickly whipped out my wand and held my beloved book against my chest, knowing that it would be their target. "Stay away from me." I warned harshly.

"Ooh, ginger's got teeth." They mocked.

"I'm warning you." I snapped, picking up my pace so as not to be boxed in.

They hastened their advance, and pulled out their wands, their eyes trained on my precious book.

I was furious that they weren't backing off, annoyed that they weren't backing off, and frightened that they weren't backing off; each emotion warring with the other, my gift trying to latch onto one and escape. I held my careful control in place and walked down the hall on the way to the library. Suddenly, I felt a rough hand on my arm. Very calmly, too calm perhaps, I said, "Let go of me."

They ignored me and forced me to face them. "We rule thi..." Millicent started. Her mouth clamped noisily shut when she saw the murder in my stare. Like all bullies, they were cowards in a real confrontation.

"Let me go, and I'll forget this ever happened." I offered. They complied and scampered away like frightened deer.

I smiled to myself, pleased that I'd been able to stave off the assault, if only for a second. Once I was almost to the door, I was hit with the nauseating scent of ultra-concentrated rose perfume.

The woman who it emanated from, with her hair in its usual curled do and now holding a clip board after her promotion to High Inquisitor, sauntered down the hall authoritatively. My resolve wavered. It wasn't so easy for me to combat the D.A.D.A. Teacher as it was to fend off the Slytherin bullies. I ducked my head to make myself less noticeable, hoping I could sneak past her. I failed.

"Something wrong, Dear?" She asked in mock concern in her obnoxiously high squeak.

"No. Not at all." I answered, confident and sweet, "Good evening professor." I tried to walk forward, but found my feet stuck to the floor. I braced myself, wondering absently if the abuse would be emotional, physical, or verbal this time. I looked behind me and saw that she bore her most condescending grin. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, increasing my grip on my gift. I'd been following my parents advice to a tee, and I didn't plan on letting them down now.

She walked in front of me and lifted my chin with one of her short, sausage fingers, forcing me to look into her muddy brown eyes. "You are such a silly child Braddock." She crooned. I fought to keep the rage off my face as the memories of what she liked to do to me resurfaced once again. "You are far too weak and insignificant to go against me, and you are a very bad girl for telling lies along with Potter." She let my chin go and walked away. "And remember," I turned to face her. "Naughty children deserve to be punished." She flicked her wand, and I hissed when my hand burned. I looked down and watched as the words I must not tell lies that were permanently scarred into my hand blazed red and hot, and blood once again began to seep through my skin, dyeing my hand a bright crimson.

I glared at the marks, resentment tainting my mind, and looked behind me to see Umbridge plaster a small satisfied smile onto her face and stride down the hall as if she owned it.

I looked at my hand and realized that the blood ran freely down my fingers, dripping into a small puddle on the floor. I could tell that she had charmed it somehow so as too not let the blood clot on its own. I had to do something before more blood was on the floor than circulating through my body.

Thankfully my wand was of a kind that seemed to be perfectly suited to healing magic. I touched it to the cut and whispered a spell that I'd made up the year before. I was pretty good at Latin, enough to know what words would give me what result. "Sanguio." The blood stopped welling from my body, and a quick "Agua-Menti," washed it from my sore hand. The puddle on the floor was still there, but I knew that Filtch got angry if the students cleaned up messes for him. How I could explain this to him in a way that would make his see reason I had no idea; he seemed completely enamored with Umbridge as much as she was with abusing me.

I sheathed my wand and retreated into the library. I navigated the massive, book-filled room, considering heading to the Restricted Section which I had access to so that I could be alone and vent without hurting anyone. On the way to said section, I bumped into another familiar face, but it was one that I did not want to see.

He gazed at me awkwardly and I pushed past him, leaving him standing in the library alone. I knew that with how hurt I felt and how he'd treated me also before this year, it would take a lot more than just an "I'm sorry" for me to forgive Draco Malfoy.