(A/N: I will try to post a chapter a few days, because writing takes time and energy that I don't always have... Anyways here's the second chapter
Enjoy!)
Chapter Two-
Umbridge
The girls woke up to a dreary and cloudy day.Holly, as usual, had been the earliest to wake up. After Holly, Ginny rose from bed. Ebony, as usual, woke up after those two, and Jamie wouldn't budge unless she was forced out of bed. On this day, Holly had to jump on Jamie's bed yelling loudly while pulling at her arms. Jamie finally got out of bed and started getting dressed muttering at them all the while.
"Don't know why you can't just nudge me gently and call out my name like a sane person would. Were you trying to kill my eardrums?"She grumbled.
Holly raised a blond eyebrow, "We've tried before, Jamie. You know it takes way more to get you to wake up, and your eardrums are fine. You need to be yelled at! You sleep like the dead!"
Ebony smiled and Ginny giggled. Jamie didn't argue with that. Every day, for four years now, they had to make a ruckus to make Jamie even stir. If it ever came to a "Who can stay asleep longest" contest Jamie would certainly give the dead a run for their money.
Ebony, Holly, and Ginny were already dressed, and as soon as Jamie finished muttering to herself and finished dressing, they made their way out of the Common Room. It was the first day of classes and none of them were quite sure of what to expect. When they walked down they noticed the Common Room was, for the most part, empty. That was odd, normally by this time of day the Common Room was packed with students. Oh wait... the students were there, but it was eerily silent. Ebony looked around the Common Room and found out why almost instantly. Harry Potter was walking down the boy's staircase with Ron, trying to make his way out of the common room, and being glared at all the way by some guy Ebony thought was name Sammy... or Seamus?
Jamie quirked an eyebrow, clearly sensing something worth gossip points, Holly looked slightly worried. Ebony was just extremely curious as to why Harry was being treated like dung, and Ginny was livid. They all thought Ginny was scary enough when she's yelling angrily. They were down right terrified when she gots all icy and such. They never wanted to be given one of Ginny's icy glares. It was just one of those things they thought no one should be subjected to endure. Ebony pulled Ginny with her out of the common room and the other two girls followed.
"What was that?"Jamie said soon as they were out.
"They're all prats... that's what" Ginny frowned. She didn't understand how people could be daft enough to believe all the nonsense the Daily Prophet was spouting.
Ebony noticed the dangerous waters they were treading with Ginny and decided to change to subject, "Anyone hungry?"
The other girls murmured an affirmative and together they set off towards the Great Hall to eat breakfast and get their schedules for the day.
Even in the Great Hall, Harry was subjected to people staring and talking about him. They didn't even bother to hide it, anymore.
While looking for a distraction, Harry noticed when Ginny and her Gryffindor friends walked in. He watched as Ginny and another girl with long, almost shaggy, black hair gave him sympathetic smiles. He tried to smile back, but only managed to turn his lips up into a ghost of one.
Ebony blushed and looked down, she hadn't been expecting him to return the smile. This little flurry of movement caught Harry's attention and made him really see the girl in front of himself. He obviously didn't know her and he didn't even know her name, but he felt like he had seen her somewhere before. She looked ...almost...familiar?
He shook his head and tried to eat, while blocking out his two best friends that were arguing about something, probably something stupid.
The girls; however, kept walking a little until they reached their favorite spot in the table. They all found a spot to sit in, unluckily for her, Ebony got the worst one. She was stuck next to a second-year that was eating so much so fast it was disgusting. She looked blankly at him before grimacing, "You're supposed to eat the food...not inhale it" The boy looked up at her, swallowed really quickly, and almost choked. He was clearly frightened, and not without good reason. He mumbled an apology and ran off shortly after that.
Jamie burst into a fit of laughter, "Haha! That poor kid!"
She was still in hysterics when Ebony said, "What? It was disgusting! It can't possibly be healthy to eat that much that fast. I was thinking of his well-being"
Holly scoffed and when Ebony raised her eyebrow, as if daring her to contradict, she shrugged and continued munching out of a protein bar.
"Where'd you get the protein bar?" Ebony wondered aloud.
Ginny grinned and Jamie smirked, only making Ebony more confused.
Holly frowned, "It's not a protein bar! It's actually granola bar with chocolate chips! Why do you always assume it's something healthy?"
The other three girls giggled in unison.
Ebony started, "You're a health freak and you know it. I am a little surprised it isn't a protein bar, but I have a feeling you're going to run for an extra hour tonight to get rid of the calories in the thing."
Ebony smiled as Holly looked miffed, Ginny's grin became more pronounced, and Jamie laughed. Holly was known for her healthy habits. They were annoyingly healthy habits, but you couldn't really do anything.
Holly flicked her head and her long, blond hair smacked Jamie right in the face.
"Thanks for whipping me with your freakishly long hair" Jamie's words dripping with sarcasm.
"I'm sorry, freakishly long? It's barely to my waist. It's just long, but not freakishly long!" exclaimed Holly.
Jamie rolled her eyes, "Technicalities." And Holly returned to munching on her granola bar to ignore Jamie. The two best friends were always bickering. It actually got annoying after awhile.
Ebony smiled and looked to her left and Ginny was blushing. Ebony's brow furrowed a tiny bit, trying to find the reason for the unexplained blush.
The said reason was sitting, not too far away, in the form of Michael Corner smiling right back at Ginny. Ebony made a mental note to ask Ginny about it later, because at that moment Professor McGonagall was starting to hand out schedules. She sprinted up to McGonagall, leaving her friends behind, and was given her schedule. When she started walking back to her table, the girls were getting up to get their schedules.
Jamie smirked, "What are you so excited about? You could've just waited two more minutes for us."
Ebony huffed, "I don't have to wait for you to do everything." She bit her lip, a nervous habit of hers, and sat back down on the table to observe her schedule.
"Arithmancy, Herbology, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Divination", she said aloud, frowning.
She didn't like her schedule. For one, her first class required for her to actually think. It was way too early to think, especially for learning something as useless to her like Arithmancy.On top of that, she had to deal with the Professor for Divination. Ebony thought she was a flat-out fraud, and was only taking the class because Holly had forced her into it.
She still wasn't sure on what to think about the new D.A.D.A professor. She knew today wasn't going to end well. The other girls took their schedules and walked back to where Ebony was sitting.
"Hey Ebby, looks like we have all the same classes!" Jamie cried out enthusiastically.
Ebony resisted the urge to roll her eyes, "we are all Gryffindors. That sort of goes without saying..."
"But... Then, why were you so excited to see the schedule? It was almost as if you were hoping to be free of me." Jamie said with a mock-indignant expression.
Ebony cracked a smile, "like I could ever have a chance to be rid of you."
Jamie grinned evilly, "Nope. Not a chance."
The two girls laughed, but Ebony noticed a darker hint in Jamie's eyes. The expression in Jamie's eyes disappeared just as fast as it appeared, so Ebony thought she imagined it. It was then that Ebony noticed Jamie's smirk. She raised an eyebrow before Jamie said, "Fred and George 6 'o clock"
Ebony spun on the spot so fast, her almost-shag came back and whiplashed her in the face. "Ow..."
Ebony was in the process of rubbing her face with her hand, when George walked up to her.
"You should really be careful when you turn. Long hair's a menace, and public enemy number one-" He said while tugging at a clump of his red hair.
"-We would know," added Fred.
Ebony grinned, "Thanks, I'll be sure to turn with extra caution now."
The twins grinned their identical grins, and turned to Harry and the rest of the trio.
She turned back to her friends, still smiling like an idiot on drugs. Jamie smirked, Holly giggled into her hand, and Ginny looked slightly exasperated.
"Please, tell me you don't fancy my brothers. Even if you do, I don't need to hear it right now."
Ebony said nothing. She just followed her friends out the Great Hall - after getting a wink from George, and meeting Harry's eyes. He looked curious, like he wanted to ask her something, but didn't know how. She just gave him a faint smile, and made her way out of the Great Hall.
Together, Ebony and her friends, made their way to their first class, Arithmancy.
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"Harry, mate, you all right?" Ron asked.
Harry broke out of his reverie, "Eh... Yeah"
Ron just gave him a dubious look, but continued talking to Hermione.
"...Honestly, I think Sirius was being pretty selfish..."
Harry hadn't been paying much attention to their conversation; he was still trying to figure out where he had seen that girl before. As soon as Hermione said his name, Harry realized with a jolt. Sirius! Perhaps she was some relative. She could be a cousin or something...
He was taken out of his stupor by Hermione pulling him and Ron out of the Great Hall and towards their first class. Bugger.
xXXxxXXxxXXxxXXxxXXxxXXx
The girls were the first to walk into the classroom, and didn't really appreciate the fact. It was silent and awkward, and by no means, was it entertaining. When the others finally began to drizzle into the class, Ebony let out a sigh of relief. Not because she particularly liked them, she didn't, but because now at least there was sound and movement in the room versus the silent awkwardness, Ebony preferred her annoying classmates much more.
The class turned out, as expected, to be a drag. The professor, Mr. Stewart, was monotonous and made everything he said seem ten times more boring. It. was. Torture.
Holly was probably one of the few people whom actually tried to pay attention, but she failed spectacularly. After a couple minutes of his voice that just droned on and on, her eyes glazed over and he had lost her. Holly took out her sketch pad and started drawing random objects around her and in the room. She carried the thing everywhere. Ginny had her elbow on the desk and her chin in her hand, staring blankly at the wall behind the professor. At least she was smart enough to at least look like she was listening. Ebony had tuned out the teacher as soon as he has started speaking and taken up the chance to compose her own piece of music, just for the hell of it, on a spare piece of parchment. Ebony was just weird like that. Jamie, being Jamie, was knocked out on her desk. She obviously hadn't bothered to at least stay awake. Ebony giggled into her hand. "Only Jamie," she thought.
Holly had reached into her bag to get out her travel-size paints out, and she looked up to her left and saw Jamie sleeping. She had been planning to save the paints for when she was feeling particularly inspire, but she couldn't just let this opportunity pass her by, so she got a brush and some paints and grinned evilly at her best friend.
A couple minutes later...
"Miss Lambert, may I ask what is going on?" Professor Stewart started until he saw the painted face of the sleeping Jamie, "Do I want to know?"
Holly shook her head, "Probably not, but I'll tell you anyway. Jamie was asleep and I had paint. The opportunity was too good to let it go. It was just too easy!"
Professor Stewart was conflicted, he didn't know if he should be amused, or not. He hadn't been teaching at Hogwarts for very long, and honestly, he didn't know what to do with the students half of the time. He didn't know if he should smile and laugh, or punish her, so he went with the easiest option. He ignored it.
Holly didn't seem to mind it much. She didn't get punished and she got to keep painting Jamie's face. She was using a special magic paint, and it would take weeks before Jamie would be able to wash it off her face. It was the perfect prank and revenge for all of Jamie's pranks she still hadn't avenged. She knew perfectly well that this was probably going to be the equivalent of proclaiming war to Jamie, but she didn't care very much. She was having too much of a blast.
At this point the whole class had abandoned trying to listen to Professor Stewart, and they were all watching Holly's progress on Jamie's face. Even the Ravenclaws were watching with amused faces. Everyone, but Ebony and Ginny, were really amused at Holly's antics. Ebony and Ginny; however, had known the other two for four years now. They were so used to each other's crazy personalities and odd quirks that things like this were hardly surprising, anymore. By this point, Jamie had a variety of different colors and designs on her face, courtesy of Holly. On her forehead, there was a very intricate-looking design that spun and swirled around her temples. If anyone was to look close enough, it looked like a lot of tiny, spinning H's.
Ebony then continued with her composition, oblivious of the other two, while Ginny yawned into her hand and watched Ebony curiously.
Ebony was relatively normal compared to Jamie or Holly, but she had her fair share of weirdness. Watching Ebony compose something was like watching a new species. She swayed and nodded her head to imaginary beats, and tapped her hands and fingers to made-up rhythms. When Ebony found or imagined something she liked, she would quickly jot it down on the staff paper and continue.
Ginny briefly wondered if she was the only normal one of her group, but quickly ruled that out with a "negative." She was, by no means, saner than her friends. After all, she had had an insane crush on Harry for ages. That was until she got over it during third year. She had Michael now, and Harry was just a good friend.
Now that even Ginny was obviously spaced out, Professor Stewart didn't even bother to try and regain the class's attention. Any attempt would've been completely futile.
When the bell for dismissal finally came, Professor Stewart was very relieved. Not even his crazy seventh years from last year had been this ...odd. Thinking about how much worse the next year could become made shivers run down his spine unpleasantly.
The class slowly trickled out until the four girls were the last ones in the classroom. Holly, Ebony, and Ginny were having a stare-off to find out who should be the one to wake Jamie up. Ginny blinked first.
"Aha! You have to do it!" Holly exclaimed.
Ebony quirked an eyebrow, "really," She addressed Ginny. "Don't you think the one who painted all over her face with magic paint, should be the one to deal with the consequences?"
Ginny grinned, "That goes without saying! Great minds thing alike, my friend."
The two girls packed up their things and made for the door leaving Holly terrified, and alone. "Don't leave me here in the lion's den!" She yelled very loudly.
Jamie stirred and rubbed her eyes with her thumb and forefinger, "What's this about a Lion's Den?"
Holly's eyes widened, trying to think of what to say, "Its code... super secret. Uber confidential. No one, but I and who I yelled it at can know about it."
Still confused Jamie asked, "why not?"
Holly racked her brains for something convincing, but found nothing. "I'll... uh... die...yeah, a supremely painful, violent death if... if I tell anyone who's not meant to know." She knew she would be caught lying, but surprisingly Jamie seemed to have bought it and dropped the subject.
Holly collected her things and put them up, and when she and Jamie were both ready, they headed down, and outside towards the Green Houses.
Herbology was, like always, normal with little or no incident. It wasn't until the time for double D.A.D.A. class with the Ravenclaws did things get interesting.
While Ebony and her friends passed corridors and hallways, they heard students complaining about that Umbridge woman, or whatever her name was. Clearly, Umbridge wasn't liked very much, to put it mildly. Ebony wondered aloud about just how dreadful Umbridge could be to be able to make so much students already dislike her. Not even professor Snape was this hated.
"I don't know, but we'll probably find out now won't we? We have her next." Ginny said when they were outside the D.A.D.A classroom.
Ebony was still reluctant to walk through the doors. She had an unexplainable fear that things weren't right in more ways than one. She knew very well her fears were unfounded and very, very silly, but she couldn't help having them.
As soon as they walked in they knew something was off. They weren't late yet, because class hadn't started. Yet, the classroom was silent. All of them had heard complaints from other kids about the lady, and they weren't sure how to gauge if what the others' said was true or not.
Ebony, Holly, Jamie, and Ginny all sat down wordlessly at a nearby table, sensing the mood, and looked toward a very toad-like witch. All waited, for what seemed ages until she smiled a really creepy smile, and opened her mouth to speak.
"Wands away," Umbridge said. "You will not be needing those in my classroom. Please, take out your textbooks and read up to chapter 19."
No one was accustomed to a D.A.D.A class without using their wands. That was something unprecedented before in Hogwarts History, but alas, here they were reading from a ridiculously ridiculous book that they were supposed to think was appropriate for their "age-group." Ebony and Ginny shared an incredulous glance. What was she going on about? A D.A.D.A. class without actually learning about defending yourself from the Dark Arts was almost laughable!
"Miss Bl...Thompson. Do you have anything you would like to say?" Ebony looked around nervously. Umbridge was frightening, and she was smiling at her in that non-friendly way, looking like she knew something Ebony didn't.
"No... ma'am," Ebony finally managed to say, although it came out as more of a squeak.
Umbridge smiled that creepy, not-really-a-real-smile smile, "Come again?"
Ebony was being looked at by everyone in the classroom. Expressions ranged from, curious, nervous, sympathetic and Umbridge's sneer. She mustered up as much courage as she could and said and steadily as she could, "I said 'No ma'am,' Professor."
Ebony saw a range of different emotions flit across Umbridge's face, but she could've sworn she saw a hint of hatred behind those hard-to-read eyes. "Five points from Gryffindor, for your cheek, Miss ...Thompson"
Ebony breathed in deep and looked down at her hands underneath the table. She didn't know how she'd done it, but she managed to make this woman hate her on her very first day.
Even while she read, Ebony couldn't quite shake the nagging feeling in the pit of her stomach that Umbridge knew something about her. It still couldn't explain as to why she was treated like a nasty piece of dung, almost like a criminal.
Ebony sat there, pretending to read her textbook, purposefully ignoring the glances her three friends kept sending her. She was trying hard, really hard to not break down and go into a frenzied rampage. She knew whatever resolve she had to not be murdered by Umbridge, would be lost if she were to look at her friend's faces.
Her patience was wearing thin, and had the dismissal bell come a few minutes later, Ebony would've snapped. She stuffed her textbook into her bag and got out as fast as she could from the room without running. As soon as she was out of that suffocating room, Ebony was much better, but she was still very irked. Nonetheless, she still waited a couple feet away from the door for her friends, who caught up with her a minute or two after she had left.
They walked in silence, all either at a loss for what to say, or in their own private trains of thought. They walked like that the entire trip to their next class; Divination.
Divination, went terribly. Luckily it wasn't a double period, or Ebony would've killed someone or herself... Ebony already had a short temper because of Umbridge, and now she had to deal with the insanity of professor Trelawney. Trelawney had "seen" a grim in Ebony's teacup, and was "predicting" her untimely death, much to Ebony's distaste. Ebony bit her lip, to stop herself from saying the reason she would die early, would be because she would've killed herself to stop from having to hear her false, misty voice. She took the cup back from Trelawney, looked into it, and said, "Next you're going to tell me my death will be a violent, and cruel one aren't you?" She glared when Professor Trelawney's already bulging eyes widened,
"You must possess the seeing eye as well..."
Ebony interrupted Trelawney's muses by scoffing, purposefully dropping the teacup on the ground, and storming out.
"Was it something I said?"... The other three girls rolled their eyes in unison, and as soon as the bell rang to dismiss them, they were the first to leave. They needed to find Ebony before she hurt someone...
After combing the castle for a half-hour the girls could not find Ebony anywhere.
"Where could she have gone?"Ginny wondered aloud.
The others shrugged and decided to head back to the Common Room. They would see her again during dinner.
As they were passing the library, the girls saw Ebony, surrounded by an array of different books. They all looked at each other and felt like idiots. How could they have forgotten to check in the Library?
They walked in cautiously, not wanting to do anything that could provoke her.
"What did I do?" Ebony finally cried out.
The girls didn't really know what to say so Ginny tried, "Maybe it's not a personal thing. She could've done it to any of us in there."
Ebony pouted and raised an eyebrow, "No... I could've sworn I saw her look at me like she hated me. It was personal. Also, the point is, she did it to me, which is why I'm pretty sure she hates my guts, but I don't know why..."
The other girls sat around Ebony, trying to find a spot that was book-free. Ginny was the first to say anything, "Ebony, we all have a teacher that seems to hate us at one point or another. I'm sure she doesn't really. You're just going to have to endure as much as you can."
Holly added, "Don't let that old-hag get to see the satisfaction of seeing you snap, and have an excuse to treat you worse."
Jamie grimaced, "What an old wench. She's probably never known love of any kind. I'd be willing to bet ten galleons that she still has her V-card."
Ginny smacked Jamie's arm playfully, Holly was shocked and laughing into her hand. Ebony cracked a smile, and was soon in a violent fit of giggles.
"Ebony, it wasn't that funny..." Jamie stated.
Ebony said through giggled, "Yes...It…Is!" Ebony spared another glance at Jamie's face and started laughing.
Jamie started laughing just as hard at Ebony, but for no reason. Suddenly, all four of them were laughing hysterically for, apparently, not reason at all.
"Out! Out, out, out! I will not have this nonsense in my Library." The librarian yelled.
The girls ceased the laughing, but were still grinning ear-to-ear. Ebony picked up her bag and together the girls walked towards the Common Room, all feeling much lighter.
They went up to the Common Room, and went to their dormitory where they left their bags. The girls then went down to the Great Hall for dinner. Ebony walked in, and looked toward the Headmaster's table and saw Umbridge sneer at her. She winced, but followed her friends to the Gryffindor table. They sat near the Golden Trio and the twins, whom were talking about "that horrible Umbridge woman." It seems Umbridge had also "picked on" Harry, but also gave him a detention for saying You-know-who was back.
"She's terrible! She did a similar thing to Ebony during our class. It was terrible. Luckily, it's not a double-period or Ebony would've murdered someone."Ginny stated.
"What'd you mean?"Ron asked.
"She looked at me like she hated me, and almost as if she knew something bad about me. Something she would have fun holding over my head. She took off points for repeating what I had said, when she asked me to repeat it!" Ebony obviously still held a bit of residue anger at the woman, and none really knew what to say. That is, until they all noticed Jamie's face.
Fred was biting on a chicken wing, and George was putting more mash potatoes on his platter when he noticed it. His face cracked into a grin, "Is is this like a new fad you're trying, or something?" The others looked at Jamie's face, and while they all laughed, Jamie was confused.
"What're you talking about?"
Ignoring Holly's panicked hand signals telling him to stop he said, "You're face. It's ...colorful"
"What?" said a confused Jamie. She picked up an empty silver platter and turned it to its back to see her reflection. What she saw came as a very nasty shock.
"My...my face…Holly…Did you do this!" her voice rose about an octave higher. "How come no one said anything? All day people were looking at me and giggling, I thought that they were all on something, but now I know why!"
Holly couldn't stop a giggle escape from her lips, and was immediately narrowed down as the culprit.
Jamie glared at her best friend for a few minutes until her lips turned up into an evil grin, "You realize...this means war?"
Holly duplicated her grin, "Of course. I knew it all along"
"Aha! Fred, pay up", George cried out.
"Bummer, I was so close." When everyone looked curiously at them Fred said, "We were betting on how Jamie would react and how Holly would react to Jamie's reaction. Looks like George was right about the war thing." They all looked at the twins, not knowing what to say, and decided to simply not.
They started talking about pranks and such; probably trying to fuel Jamie and Holly with ideas. Ebony didn't like all of their pranks very much, mainly because she ended up taking the brunt of them. she particularly got hit with Holly's or Jamie's pranks. Right now, though, Ebony didn't seem to mind much. She was just glad they had stopped talking about that evil woman, and she didn't have to think anymore about her. She tried her best to ignore the sensation of having something trying to burn a hole in the side of her head, and talked idly about unimportant things with her friends.
Harry's attention wandered to and away from Ebony a couple times. He was trying to see similarities between her and his godfather.
"God... They even laugh the same..." he stated aloud. Ron gave him a curious glance, but decided against asking. Harry wasn't really known for being the sanest of the lot. When the food finally disappeared and they all headed back to their Common Rooms, Harry made a mental note to ask Sirius about her some time.
The girls were back in their dormitory, and were changing into their sleeping gowns. "You know, Ebony, tomorrow will probably be a lot better. Our schedule for tomorrow is Charms, Transfiguration, Potions, Care of Magical Creatures, and Muggle Studies"
"Why Muggle studies?" Ebony asked, "I'm Muggle-born."
"It's an easy O," Jamie said. "My dad's a Muggle, so I know a little. Even if I didn't, it would be the easiest grade ever."
Ebony shrugged. She didn't really care as long as she didn't have to see that... She couldn't even think about that woman without getting angry.
Ebony climbed into bed and said goodnight to her friends. Ginny was already half asleep, Jamie was trying- unsuccessfully- to get rid of the paint, and Holly was fidgeting nervously trying to go to bed.
This was bound to be an interesting year. Maybe, not the best, but interesting it would be.
(A/N: Hi! btw I'd like to state again that i DO NOT own Harry Potter (I wish) and I only own the few characters I created (i.e. Holly,Jamie,Ebony, and professor Stewart, so far) I'd like to give a shout out to Mogselftof. ThankyouThankyouThankyou! What would I do without your help?; Die probably... haha I hope to be able to keep making longer chapters, because I like long chapters way more than short ones.:]) Btw sorry if you think the story is going very slowly... Its just more realistic that way:]
Please review! I like feedback:] thanks
Again, I thank my wonderful BETA for fixing this chapter. :) Thank you so much , Smile Life Away!