"This year, I would like to introduce a new teacher to Hogwarts. Professor Umbridge." Remembering our beloved Mad Eye from the year before, I wasn't too fond of "new teachers" anymore.

She looked like a large, pale toad. She was rather short, but she wore tall heels which seemed to compensate. However, her voice was one of a kind. A fluttery, shrill type. She was wearing pink. A lot of pink. As I was looking her up and down for a few seconds, she interrupted Dumbledore's talk. She goes ahead and makes a little opening speech for us students.
Joy.
The only reason I was legitimately listening to the speech was because I found it amusing; it was like watching someone ride a unicycle on a tightrope.

Everyone looked tempted to laugh, but nobody actually did laugh while she was talking. Hogwarts had a great sense of etiquette.

I didn't like her at all, but of course our DADA teacher last year wasn't any better. A man of the Dark Lord who drank Polyjuice potion to look like a man Dumbledore trusted. The small mistake we made of having him teach at Hogwarts resulted in Cedric's death. Cedric was a brother to me. Our parents were great friends. Such a shame it all had to end like that.

All the students in the crowd finally let out their giggles, covering them up by a bit of applaud for the woman in pink.

What I wanted to know were the whereabouts of Harry. Harry came to the Weasley's just after his incident with Dudley and the dementors. He stayed with us for a few days, a bit worried about how he was said to be expelled from Hogwarts.

Dumbledore told him it'd be taken care of, but Harry had no clue what that was supposed to mean.
Turned out, there was a hearing for Harry right before we were going to go to Hogwarts. I haven't seen him today. But he of course, could be sitting somewhere else.

But what if his hearing didn't go as planned?

I watched as Ron stared at Hermione and Fred in pure disgust. I'd have to find him a mate this year. Merlin knows he needed one to get his mind off things.

After nearly an hour of announcements and eating breakfast, the professors let us out.

My stomach was cringing at the thought that Harry might not be able to attend this year, just because he was trying to protect himself as well as his annoying excuse of a cousin.

I looked down at my schedule, curious at where I might be walking to first.

1. Defense Against the Dark Arts with Umbridge
2. Free Period.
3. Potions with Snape
BREAK
4. Arithmancy with Vector
LUNCH
BREAK
5. Free Period

I was quite satisfied, only having three classes and all. I was allowed to take extra classes for second and fifth, but I honestly wasn't at all interested this year. I did just fine on my exams last year, so I didn't have to retake any courses anyway.

I walked into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, watching loads of people convse and laugh. I was a bit curious about her, that Umbridge. Ron told me about how the Ministry was trying to bias everyone's opinion when it came to whether or not Voldemort was back. Umbridge could either be a kind woman who wants nothing more than to keep us safe and sound, or she could be a wretched woman who wants to lead the student body's opinions astray when it came to the truth about the Dark Lord.

I saw Hermione sitting at a two person desk alone, so I sat over with her.

"Are you alright?" she asked me.

"Yeah yeah-" I tried to continue, but she cut me off.

"Harry's here. I saw him walking around a few minutes ago. He got through the hearing," she said smiling.

"Oh okay. Excellent," I said, a feeling of relief flooding every section of my body. I smiled as Harry walked through the door, scanning the class for an empty desk. I immediately stood up from my desk and threw my arms around him.

"You did it," I whispered.

"Hardly though. Dumbledore had to come in and defend me," he said, still a bit of nervousness in his voice. "Oh. And that Umbridge lady voted against me." He ran a hand through his brown hair, rubbing his neck. I gave him a sympathetic look and focused my attention to the loud laughing and talking echoing around me.

Parvati Patil made a paper bird out of a scrap sheet of notebook paper. We all took turns batting at it to make it move certain directions or to get higher. A few seconds later, the woman in pink burnt it to ash.

What an excellent first impression, Lady in Pink.

"Good morning everyone." she said, a fake smile plastered on her made up face. "Ordinary Wizarding Level Examinations." she had her wand write this up on the blackboard. "O-W-L's also known as Owls." she made sure to let us know that if we do not do well on these exams, we will suffer 'severe consequences.'

So I guess she was that horrid, vile woman I was thinking about earlier.
She enchanted the text books to pass themselves out.

Dark Arts Defense
Basics for Beginners

"Open your books to page 3, and begin reading."

I did as I was told, scanning the curriculum for any new spells we'd be learning this year. Hermione's face turned to an almost confused look. That's never a good sign.
"There's nothing in here about using spells?" Hermione's leg furiously tapped against the tile below us.

This bitch went on to speak of how much of a lie Cedric's death yesterday was. That was when we realized what a monster she really was.

This year, she'd change things for the worst.

Harry's POV

The hearing went miserably. The only good thing that happened was that Dumbledore and I won. The Minister of Magic knew me by name, hated me, and was accusing Professor Dumbledore of lying. And it was all my fault. I went into Hogwarts, Dumbledore apperating inside with me. He handed me a schedule, and I looked over it.

I had Defense Against the Dark Arts with a new professor.

I walked through the halls, scanning the door numbers for the correct room. I walked inside, chaos awaiting me. I saw Annabelle and Hermione sitting next to each other. Annabelle stood from her seat and enveloped me into a hug. I looked behind her to the professor that would be teaching this class.

It was one of the ladies that voted against me. She basically ordered us to sit down, magically handing out textbooks.

The book was titled :

Dark Arts Defense
Basics for Beginners.

This was absolutely insane. One, everything that could be in a 'basics for beginners' book was learned first year. Two, when I was attacked by Voldemort last year, it surely wasn't 'risk-free' as this women said. I attempted to argue with the wretched women, not really sure of what I could accomplish by doing this.

"Student's will raise my hand when they wish to speak in my class." Umbridge spat back at my argument. She didn't make eye contact with me.

This woman was not going to be my favorite teacher this year, and I sure wasn't gonna be her favorite student.

I stayed silent. I knew she heard me. After a bit more talk about how 'nothing's out to get us', I had to intervene.

"He's out there! I fought him!" I exclaimed, fuming at her arrogance. Sitting next to Hermione was Annabelle. She pleaded me to stop with her eyes; to stop this mess of an argument.

Annabelle was friends with Cedric. I knew that every mention of him seemed to ruin her day, but I couldn't just let this argument drop.

"So Cedric Diggory dropped dead of his own accord?"

"His death was a tragic accident-" I interrupted her. No. How did her mind warp into thinking this? Was it the Ministry that manipulated her mind like this, or was she just plain stupid?

"No! It was murder! Voldemort killed him. You must know that-" before I could continue rambling on, she interrupted me.

"Enough!" she stood at the front of the class. "Potter, see me later. My office." she said, smiling that fake smile of hers.

This was utterly disgusting, this entire class. And it's just because of the teacher.

I looked over at Annabelle, hoping she wasn't too hurt about Cedric's mention. She ran a hand through her brunette hair, shaking it off. She sensed my eyes on her, so she hinted a smile at me.

Everyone's face was turned at me. Some looked at me as if I was a hero, while others thought I was a liar.
I wasn't either.
I was just a child who lived through an Avada Kedavra curse. That lucky day of mine instigated quite a few problems. A few problems like this one.

Annabelle's POV

"So Cedric Diggory dropped dead of his own accord?" Harry asked the new Professor, his face tinted at red with anger and anguish at the topic.
Cedric Diggory was my best friend. Closer to me than any have been. At the time of the Triwizard Tournament last year, Harry and I broke up right after the first task. I wouldn't talk to Harry for a few weeks. Hell. I wouldn't look at Harry for a few weeks. And then, Ced was murdered.

Last Year

"I mean, he obviously is sorry, Annabelle, I can see it in his eyes." Ron tried to get me to forgive Harry. Harry ruined my fourth year at Hogwarts.
I was gonna have a pretty difficult time forgiving him. I nodded my head, not saying anything back. It was a Saturday afternoon, a cold one at that. I got up out of my chair to walk to the library.
It's been two weeks since the breakup. Two horrid weeks. While my mind was wrapped in pure thought, I was startled as a pair of arms wrapped around my neck from behind me.

"Hey Annie," Cedric stated walking towards my side.

"What's up Diggory?" I asked, a smile appearing on my face. Cedric always made me happy. It didn't matter how sad I was. A genuine smile was always on my face when he was around.

"Trying to figure out this stupid egg," he said, his eyebrows furrowed." Come seek us where our voices sound, we can't be seen above the ground-"

"A body of water, uh, the Black Lake?" I said, understanding a bit of it. Cedric nodded and continued.

"An hour long you'll have to look to recover what we took." he recited, knowing the lines for memory.

"Oh. That's not good." I say, stating the obvious.

"I know. Do you know of anything that could give you oxygen underwater, or that could make you breath water?" he asks, almost chuckling at the question. He wasn't expecting an answer.

"You could always use the bobblehead charm!" I exclaimed.

"The what?" he asked.

"It'll help you breath underwater. Remember when we were over at yours a few years back? Your dad put the charm on us so we could go down into the lake for as long as we wanted to," I said, jogging back my memory. "He did it so that we could find that necklace you dropped down there, remember?"

"You're brilliant, Annie!" he pulled me into a tight hug. "I'll go off to the library and look it up. I owe you one." He smiled and quickly walked to the library.

The smile that was on my face disappeared. He said 'to recover what we took.'

Like a treasure? Curious.

I walk over to the library as well, wanting to see Hermione. I wanted to speak with her. She was my best girl friend anyway. I walked past a few aisles of books. I didn't see her anywhere until I found her sitting on a chair with an individual I wasn't crazy about talking to.

Harry James Potter.

I instinctively acted as if I didn't see the two of them and quickly walked back to where I came from.

There were only a mere 3 people I avoided at Hogwarts these days.

Cho Chang, Harry Potter, and Draco Malfoy.

Cho? Because she was sticking up for Harry about the entire situation. And because she was the only reason Harry and I broke up.

Malfoy? Because he's been trying to get me to go to with him since last year. Plus, he scares me half to death. His father was a death eater. That's scary enough.

"Annabelle!" I hear Hermione's voice calling my name. I looked back to where she was sitting. Harry kept his face plastered to a book. We haven't yet shared one glance, or said one word to each other since the incident. "Do you understand this homework?" she asked me, holding out a sheet of paper. I walked toward her just enough to see the sheet. It was Trelawney's homework. I always understood Divination. It was the one subject I could do better than Hermione in.

"Nope." I said, turning right back around towards the door.

Hermione got up out of her chair, and lightly pulled me backwards by the arm.

"Listen. Harry's heartbroken." she whispered, wanting to resolve this all. "He'd do anything for you to at least look at him again!" she stated, slowly walking towards the chairs with me. "You need to speak to him. You can't keep going on like this."

I listened to her and sat down across from Hermione.

"Hey." I mumble to no one in particular.

"Hi." Harry said, making eye contact with me. A spark in his eyes lit up as I made conversation with him.

"Here." I walked over to where he was sitting, and I sat beside him. I pointed to different things on the sheet of homework as I explained. I felt moderately awkward doing this, like I wasn't supposed to even be speaking to him...

"And that right there's the life line." I concluded pointing to the long line on the diagram of the hand on the paper. When I set my hand back down on the couch, it accidently landed on Harry's. The two of us blushed and quickly moved our hands. I stood back up, and walked to my original seat.

"I ought to' get going. I'm tired," I said, a horrible excuse coating the sentence. It was only 6:30.

I walked out the door in utter confusion. I still had feelings for him. We were dating for 9 months for Christ's sake! Of course I still had feelings for him.

2 months later

I waited for what seemed like hours for someone to exit the maze. Harry, Cedric, and Krum were the only ones remaining. Fleur sent sparks up a few minutes ago.

I wanted Cedric to win. He trained so hard for this. He loved his father so much and wanted to please him more than anything else. Cedric put his heart and soul out for this.

Harry and I weren't really friends again yet. We were still awkward acquaintances. The suspense was killing me.

Then I saw a figure come out.

It was Harry. But he was holding my best friend in his arms. I immediately saw what was going on. Cedric Diggory was not okay. I dodged everyone in the crowd to get to them. Harry was crying. What happened?

I moved around Harry to get to Cedric. I put a finger on his neck and wrist.

My best friend left. Call it what you want. He was gone, no longer in existence to this world.
Cedric Diggory was dead.

As soon as it all sunk into my head, I let out a scream which caught other's attention. I was wailing over his body. His dead body. I saw his father sitting over in the bleachers, swiftly rushing to come see Cedric.

"That's my son! Move!" was all I heard out of his mouth. He saw his dead son laying on the ground.

I gave Harry a questioning look before Professor Moody and Dumbledore proceeded to yank him away from the body..

"Annabelle. What. What happened?" Amos Diggory, his father, asked me in tears.

"Something bad. Something really bad."

I snapped out of my memory from last year, a tear threatening to push out.
That was how the tension between Harry and I broke.

We started talking about Ced, which led us to speak about other things, which brought our friendship back.

When I needed a shoulder to cry on, he was there. When I needed to talk to someone, he was there.

That's Harry Potter.

That's the guy I'm best friends with.

That's the guy I'm in love with.