Heyy… so, here's chapter three… obviously…
Thanks to: The Anonymous Reviewer and rowellylovesgryffindor
So… this chapter is spread over one week… from Monday to Friday…
Disclaimer: I own Mia and… no one else
I would also like you to note that there is hardly any knowledge of the curriculum for seventh year students, so a lot of the stuff done in Mia's lessons will be what I think seventh years would learn… or they might just be things that hadn't been covered in other years by Harry Ron and Hermione. If any spells/potions I name here as being taught in seventh year are actually taught in another one- please tell me… did that make sense?
And I found the Screechsnap plant on the Harry Potter Wikia- where it said that fifth years worked with their seedlings… so I thought I'd make seventh years work with the fully grown plants
Chapter 3: The Pressure Is On
If Mia thought fifth year was bad, it was nothing compared to seventh. In all her lessons, the teachers spent half of the first one speaking about how important their NEWTs were. After every lesson, they walked out with a stack of homework. With the way the teachers talked about the exams, you would think they were next week, not next year.
On the first day of term, Mia was pulled from her dream about flying rainbow-coloured cats by Angelina, who was shaking lightly on her shoulder. "huh?" she said, groggily.
"If you sleep any longer, you'll be late," Angelina told her. Mia groaned.
"C'mon, Mia!" Alicia chirped from the other side of the room, pulling on her robes.
"We'd better have some good lessons today," Mia muttered, rolling out of bed, "OW!"
"What?" Angelina asked.
"I just stood on one of my shoes!" Mia said, sitting back down on her bed and massaged her foot, throwing the heeled sandal across the room.
Mia, Angelina and Alicia went down into the common room where Fred and George were waiting. "Finally! We thought you'd already left!" Fred exclaimed.
"Then we remembered Mia would never get up before she absolutely had to, and therefore couldn't possibly be earlier then us," George said.
"Oh, shut up!" Mia replied, yawning.
They entered the Great Hall five minutes later and McGonagall stalked up to them.
"I was starting to think you five wouldn't show up to your lessons today!" she said briskly, "here are your schedules," she handed them each a slip of parchment, "do not be late."
"I'll see you guys later," Mia murmured to Angelina, Alicia and Katie as her, Fred and George trotted away, eyes skimming over their timetables. "Double Herbology first…" Mia said, "Free period after break… Charms after lunch then another free period… no double Potions at all! Oh, wait… on Friday. DAMN!"
"Seems alright," Fred commented as she shoved her timetable in her bag.
"'Cept for the Potions," Mia shrugged.
"-Binns, Snape, Trelawney and that Umbridge woman all in one day! I wish Fred and George'd hurry up and get those Skiving Snackboxes sorted," they overheard Ron say as they neared him, Harry and Hermione
"Do mine ears deceive me?" Fred asked, and sat down next to Harry. "Hogwarts prefects surely don't wish to skive off lessons?"
"Look what we've got today," Ron complained, throwing his timetable at Fred, "That's the worst Monday I've ever seen!"
"Fair point, little bro," Fred read over Ron's timetable as Mia sat down "You can have a bit of Nosebleed Nougat cheap if you like."
"Why's it cheap?" Ron asked warily.
"Because you'll keep bleeding till you shrivel up, we haven't got an antidote yet," George said
"Cheers," said Ron "but I think I'll take the lessons."
"And speaking of your Skiving Snackboxes," Hermione said in a business like voice, "you can't advertise for testers on the Gryffindor notice board."
"Says who?" asked George.
"Says me," said Hermione bossily, "…And Ron," she added as an afterthought.
"Leave me out of it!"
"You'll be singing a different tune soon enough, Hermione," said Fred, "You're starting your fifth year; you'll be begging us for a Snackbox before long."
"And why would starting fifth year mean I want a Skiving Snackbox?" asked Hermione.
"Fifth year's OWL year," George told her.
"So?" Hermione asked.
"So you've got your exams coming up, haven't you? They'll be keeping your noses so hard to that grindstone they'll be rubbed raw," said Fred.
"Half our year had minor breakdowns coming up to OWLs," said George. "Tears and tantrums- Patricia Stimpson kept coming over faint,"
"Kenneth Towler came out in boils, d'you remember?" Fred grinned.
"That's 'cause you put Bulbadox powder in his pyjamas," George told him.
"Oh yeah, I'd forgotten. Hard to keep track sometimes, isn't it?"
Rolling her eyes, Mia said, "I lost so much sleep trying to revise!"
"Anyway, it's a nightmare of a year, the fifth," said George. "If you care about exam results, anyway, like Mia-"
"Only the ones that mattered," she cut across him, looking over at Ron, "my advice: choose what ones you want to fail."
"But Fred and I managed to keep our peckers up somehow," George finished off his sentence.
"Yeah, you got, what was it, three OWLs each?" Ron asked.
"Yep," said Fred cheerily. "But we feel our futures lie outside the world of academic achievement."
"We seriously debated whether we were going to bother coming back for our seventh year, now that we've got-" George broke off suddenly and obviously changed what he was originally going to say, "- now that we've got our OWLs. I mean, do we really need NEWTs? But we didn't think Mum could take us leaving school early, not on top of Percy turning out to be the world's biggest prat."
"We're not going to waste our last year here, though," Fred looked around the hall, "We're going to use it to do a bit of market research, find out exactly what the average Hogwarts student requires from a joke shop, carefully evaluate the results of our research, then produce products to fit the demand."
"Which'll probably be the only real work they do this year," Mia said, taking a bite of toast.
"'But where are you going to get the gold to start a joke shop?" Hermione asked. "You're going to need all the ingredients and materials - and premises too,
I suppose." Harry dropped his fork and went under the table to get it back.
"Ask us no questions and we'll tell you no lies, Hermione," Fred told her. Hermione just looked at him with her brow furrowed and a frown on her face. The bell rang and Mia finished off her toast.
"Right, well, I have Herbology…" Mia said, standing up and leaving the Great Hall. The twins followed her and left her to go up to Gryffindor Tower as Mia trotted along to the greenhouses.
Professor Sprout spent the first hour of their double lesson going on about NEWTs. How important they were, what kind of questions might come up in them, what they were going to do to prepare and things like that. Then they had to try and re-pot a Screechsnap plant, because they had become too big for their original pots. The plants seemed to be much larger then they were when Mia worked with them in her fifth year (when they were only seedlings), but by the end of the lesson, she was sure she had the exact same plant as she'd had in fifth year. It was just as fussy, and squeaked and squirmed if she put just a speck to much dragon manure fertilizer on it, or had just a speck less- just as the one she'd had had done in fifth year.
She walked out of the greenhouse with the task of writing an essay on how the properties of the Screechsnap plant change as it grows and matures.
When Mia got back to the common room with a couple of books from the library that evening, she saw Fred and George with some first years around them. She walked over to them, dumped her books and bag on the table and asked, "Testers?"
"Yep," Fred replied, letting the first years take something out of a paper bag, "alright then, take a bite!" he told them brightly. The first years warily took a bite out of the sweet and one bye one, they all slumped. A tiny girl with dark hair in the chair next to her slid onto the floor.
"That's enough!" Fred and George looked up in surprise as Hermione stalked over to them.
"Yeah, you're right," George said, shrugging, "this dosage looks strong enough, doesn't it?" Fred nodded.
"I told you this morning, you can't test your rubbish on students!" Hermione told them shrilly.
"We're paying them!" Fred exclaimed.
"I don't care, it could be dangerous!"
"Rubbish," Fred scoffed.
"God, Hermione, it's alright!" Mia told her, even though she wasn't entirely her statement was true. She hadn't actually seen Fred and George's Skiving Snackboxes work yet.
"Yeah, look, they're coming round now," George pointed to the first years.
They were starting to sit up, looking shocked at seeing themselves on the floor or over the edge of their chairs. Mia helped a titchy boy to get back onto his chair.
"Feel all right?" George asked the girl with dark hair lying next to Mia as she helped her up as well.
"I… I think so," she said shakily.
"Excellent," said Fred, clapping his hands together. Hermione huffed.
"It is NOT excellent!" she almost shrieked. Several people around them looked up form whatever they were doing.
"'Course it is, they're alive, aren't they?" Fred said, jabbing his fingers at the first years, a few of which were now slipping away.
"You can't do this," Hermione yelled, "what if you made one of them really ill?"
"We're not going to make them ill," George told her.
"Even if they did," Mia said, "I could do something to make them bet-"
"You're not even a real Healer yet, Mia!" Hermione turned on her, and Mia raised her eyebrows and stuck her hand on her hip. Before she could say anything, Fred cut across her.
"We've already tested them all on ourselves, Hermione; this is just to see if everyone reacts the same–"
"If you don't stop doing it, I'm going to–"
"Put us in detention?" Fred asked.
"Make us write lines?" said George, smirking.
"No," Hermione said, drawing herself up, "but I will write to your mother."
"You wouldn't," George said in a horrified voice. Mia pressed her lips together to stop herself from laughing.
"Oh, yes, I would! I can't stop you eating the stupid things yourselves, but you're not to give them to the first-years." The last of the first years was now timidly edging around Mia.
Hermione gave them one last warning look before stalking away. After a second, a slight laugh escaped Mia's lips. "What?" Fred asked, irritated.
"If that's how you react to just the threat of your mother, I'd love to see what happens when she's actually yelling at you!"
In addition to their single Charms lesson on Monday afternoon, Mia, Fred and George also had a double lesson on Wednesday after noon. Flitwick had already lectured them on the NEWTs on Monday (during which Fred and George didn't seem to pay any attention to).
When they sat down, they noticed several bowls full of scrunched up bits of parchment. Mia picked up one of the pieces and tossed it from hand to hand for a second before dropping it in the bowl as Flitwick started speaking.
"Right, today we are doing the spell Incendio. Like so," Flitwick flicked his wand over his own bowl of parchment, saying "Incendio!" and the parchment in the bowl burst into flames. Mia's eyebrows raised as Flitwick put out the flames. "Well have a go then!" Flitwick squeaked. The class immediately set off, trying to set their parchment alight. One Ravenclaw across the room managed it on the first go.
"You should be able to do this, Mia," Fred said, "remember last year when we were doing Aguamenti and you set the bowl on fire instead of pouring water into it?"
"I have absolutely no idea how I did that," Mia muttered, before pointing her wand at the parchment, "Incendio!" she said. Nothing happened. Fred suddenly coughed, which was obviously him failing to hold back a laugh. "Alright, you try it then!"
"All right, I will! Incendio!" nothing happed to Fred's parchment either.
"HA!" Mia jabbed her finger at him, and he stuck his tongue out at her.
"Oh, very mature!"
"I know."
For the twenty-second time, Mia pointed her wand at the still un-burnt parchment and said "Incendio!" her eyes suddenly widened when the parchment was set ablaze. "BOOYAH!" she yelled, punching the air.
"Show-off," Fred said sulkily, then grinned.
They walked out of the room having to do an essay on how to control the fire.
As they were walking down the corridor towards dinner, Katie came running up to them. "Did you hear?" she asked.
"Hear what?" George asked as he slipped an arm around Mia's waist.
"Apparently Harry and that new Defense Against the dark Arts teacher, y'know, Umbridge? Apparently they had this big, massive fight right in the middle of the classroom! Loads of shouting and everything! Apparently she's not letting any of her classes do any magic and all the lessons are just theory and reading from books!"
"What? Really?" Mia asked.
"Mhm, something about a 'Ministry approved course'," Katie said.
"Well, that kinda ruins the whole point of Defense Against the Dark Arts, doesn't it?" Fred said, "Defense Against the Dark Arts… learn defensive magic… kinda speaks for itself!"
"I know," Katie sighed as they entered the Great Hall, "I've got her first thing tomorrow, when have you got her?"
"… Friday… after lunch," Mia replied after pulling her timetable out if her pocket and checking it as they sat down.
Katie wasn't wrong. When they got to the classroom the following Friday afternoon, Professor Umbridge was standing at the front of the class, smiling sweetly with her hands clasped in front of her. Mia, Fred and George glanced at each other as they sat down. Finally, everyone had shuffled into the class and Umbridge smiled even more.
"Good afternoon!" she said in a happy, high voice.
"Afternoon," a couple people at the back of the classroom replied.
"Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, that was not good enough! Whenever I greet you, I expect you to reply! Once again now! Good afternoon!"
"Good afternoon," the class said back.
"Oh, now isn't that much better?" Umbridge said. Mia just stared at her. She was acting a bit like some pantomime character. "Now, I would like you all to put your wands away please, and take your quills and books out," several people groaned, but did what she said. Once the movement had died down, she carried one.
"I understand that this year, you will be taking your NEWTs. Is that correct?" a few people mumbled. "When I ask you a question, please reply with 'yes' or 'no' followed by 'Professor Umbridge'. Now, is that correct?"
"Yes, Professor Umbridge."
"Very good. Now, this year we will be covering a few new topics, and then revising many of the topics you have learned in your previous years, in order to prepare yourselves- yes, Mr…?" everyone in the room looked back to the Ravenclaw boy with his hand in the air.
"Gennish…" the boy replied.
"Yes Mr Gennish?" Umbridge asked his sweetly.
"Well… I've heard from many other classes that we aren't going to be doing any proper magic or spell work this year and only doing theory I was just wondering that was true?" he drew in a big breath and Umbridge seemed to smile even wider.
"Yes, Mr Gennish, that is true. It is the Ministry's understanding that if there is no threat, which there is not, then there is no need to learn the spells, and the theory is enough," she spoke as if the class was full of three year olds, not seventeen year olds.
"But what about the practical part in our exams?" Gennish asked.
"If you study the theory, you will be able to perform the spells for your exams, otherwise, there is no need for them!" before Gennish could say anymore, Umbridge had walked away. "Now, please open your books to the first chapter, and read," Umbridge sat down at her desk and slowly, everyone in the room started to read.
Five minutes later, a scrap of parchment slid under her nose.
Did that make ANY sense to you at all?
Mia looked up at Umbridge, who was looking around the class, still smiling. She quickly scribbled down a reply:
Obviously she doesn't want us to know any spells
She slid it back across the table. The conversation went on:
Fred: yeah, we figured that. But why?
Mia: I dunno
George: so we don't know them?
Mia: why doesn't she WANT us to know them?
George: dunno
Fred: incase we decide she's so bad and then blow her up?
Mia: like that cabinet last year?
The parchment was snatched from her fingers as she went to slide it back over the table. She looked up slowly and saw Umbridge standing there, reading what they had been writing. The twins were looking up at her too.
"I would appreciate it if you did not pass notes in my lesson, Miss…?"
"Homing. Mia Homing.
"And Mr…?"
"Weasley," Fred and George replied.
"Yes, please do not pass notes in my lesson. There is another time for conversing," Umbridge smiled and walked away, tearing up the note.
"That. Was. So. Bad!" Mia said as they walked out of the room at the end of the lesson. They had learned nothing, and walked away with yet another essay.
"It would've been better if you hadn't got caught!" Fred retorted.
"Not my fault she decided to come snoop around," she muttered.
"Yeah, well, we'll just have to find other ways to amuse ourselves during those lessons," George said, slinging his arm around her.
"Just get those Skiving Snackboxes up and running, ok!" She replied.
So… I know I didn't really put any fights/arguments/whatever you want to call it with Umbridge in here, but' I'm saving them for later…
And on the subject of Umbridge, I hope I wrote her properly…
Please review!