A/N sorry for the delay but I've had exams ... :( sad sad times. I have Physics tomorrow ... hmmmmmmmmm. Anyway, thanks for the reviews, and please remember to R&R on this chaper :) xxx
Chapter Thirteen
A Bad Start
"He says he saw Cedric Diggory murdered. . . ."
"He reckons he duelled with You-Know-Who. . . ."
"Come off it. . . ."
"Who does he think he's kidding?"
"Pur-lease . . ."
The whispers were all around the hall at dinner: everyone had heard about the shouting match in Professor Umbridge's class. It made Amara so annoyed to hear them so loudly as though Harry was deaf as well as "mad". Harry himself had come to say he'd got detention for a week. It didn't matter that Tessie had walked up to them, Aubrey and Josephine "Joey", as she liked to be called, and told him straight away that she still believed him and the other people in the school who didn't were utter morons. It did earn a laugh from Ron and a slight grin from Harry, which Tessie took as a good sign. She told Amara she was not looking forward to her first Defence lesson.
"What I don't get," said Harry now, laying down his knife and fork. "is why they all believed the story two months ago when Dumbledore told them. . . ."
"The thing is, Harry, I'm not sure they did," said Hermione grimly. "Oh, let's get out of here."
She slammed down her own knife and fork; Ron and Amara looked sadly at their half-finished apple pie with cream but following suit. People stared at them all theway out of the Hall.
"What d'you mean, you're not sure they believed Dumbledore?" Harry asked Hermione when they reached the first-floor landing.
"Look, you don't understand what it was like after it happened," said Hermione quietly. "You arrived back in the middle of the lawn clutching Cedric's dead body. . . . None of us saw what happened in the maze. . . . We just had Dumbledore's word for it that You-Know-Who had come back and killed Cedric and fought you."
"Which is the truth!" said Harry loudly.
"I know it is, Harry, so will you please stop biting my head off?" said Hermione wearily. "It's just that before the truth could sink in, everyone went home for the summer, where they spent two months reading about how you're a nutcase and Dumbledore's going senile!"
Rain pounded on the windowpanes as they strode along the empty corridors back to Gryffindor Tower. Amara was still thinking about her apple-pie, as it was one of her favourites, and the house-elves always made it perfectly.
"Mimbulus mimbletonia," said Hermione, before the Fat Lady could ask. The portrait swung open to reveal the hole behind and the four of them scrambled back through it.
The common room was almost empty; nearly everyone was still down at dinner, probably talking about Harry still. Crookshanks joined them as they sat down near the fire in their favourite four seats. He sat in Amara's (she was not amused by this) lap and curled up, purring.
"How can Dumbledore have let this happen?" Hermione cried suddenly, making Amara, Harry and Ron jump; Crookshanks hissed and scratched Amara's arms – she shoved the cat off in annoyance. Hermione pounded the arms of her chair in fury, so that bits of stuffing leaked out of the holes. "How can he let that terrible woman teach us? And in our O.W.L. year too!"
"Well, we've never had great Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers, have we?" said Harry. "You know what it's like, Hagrid told us, nobody wants the job, they say it's jinxed."
"Yes, but to employ someone who's actually refusing to let us do magic! What's Dumbledore playing at?"
"And she's trying to get people to spy for her," said Ron darkly. "Remember when she said she wanted us to come and tell her if we hear anyone saying You-Know-Who's back?"
"Of course she's here to spy on us all, that's obvious, why else would Fudge have wanted her to come?" snapped Hermione.
"No need to bite his head off," Amara said. "Don't start an argument over agreeing with the same thing."
"Can't we just . . ." Harry began. "Let's just do that homework, get it out of the way. . . ."
They collected their schoolbags from a corner and returned to the chairs by the fire. People were coming back from dinner now.
"Shall we do Snape's stuff first?" said Ron, dipping his quill into his ink. " 'The properties . . . of moonstone . . . and its uses . . . in potionmaking . . .' " he muttered, writing the words across the top of his parchment as he spoke them. "There." He underlined the title, then looked up expectantly at Hermione.
"So what are the properties of moonstone and its uses in potionmaking?"
Hermione wasn't listening – she was gazing over to where Fred, George and their best friend Lee Jordan were. There were first-years near them, chewing something in a paper bag Fred was holding.
"No, I'm sorry, they've gone too far," she said, standing up and looking positively furious. "Come on, Ron."
"I — what?" said Ron, plainly playing for time. "No — come on, Hermione — we can't tell them off for giving out sweets. . . ."
"You know perfectly well that those are bits of Nosebleed Nougat or — or Puking Pastilles or —"
"Fainting Fancies?" Harry suggested quietly.
Amara was just about to tell her to leave them be when she glanced over and saw a familiar brown-haired first-year knocked out on the sofa.
"I can't believe them!" Amara hissed, and for the first time since she'd met them, Amara was furious with Fred and George.
Hermione was already marching over to where they were standing and Amara joined her.
"What are you doing?" Amara said furiously.
"Oh, hey Amara, Hermione," Fred and George took in Amara's murderous face.
"That's enough!" Hermione said.
George tried to play Amara's glare off. "Yeah, you're right, this dosage seems –"
"I asked you to do one thing," Amara cut across George as the people nearest them were noting what was going on and laughing at the first-years and Amara and Hermione. "Remember what it was?"
Fred and George, who had taken a step back for fear Amara would hurt them, looked at each other, comprehension dawning. They opened their mouths, but Amara got there first.
"Don't test on my sister!"
"Amara, it's alright, they're fine," Lee Jordan tried to reassure her as he gave each first-year a purple sweet.
"You shouldn't test this stuff on eleven-year-olds!" Hermione said.
"We're paying them!"
"I don't care!" Amara said loudly. "Why would eleven-year-olds need money here? It could be dangerous!"
"No they're not, we tested them on us first," said Fred.
"Not everyone is the same as you!" Amara said. "They could be allergic or something!"
The first-years were now waking up one by one.
"Feel alright?" George asked Tessie kindly, and Amara wanted to smack him.
"I guess so," said Tessie.
"Excellent," said Fred.
"It's NOT excellent!" Hermione snatched the clipboard and bag off of Fred.
"'Course they are. They're alive aren't they?" Fred said angrily.
"You shouldn't do this," Hermione said. "What if they had a reaction?"
"I can't believe you let her do it," Amara said, glaring at them. "What if someone else was doing this on Ginny."
"Well Ginny wouldn't –"
Amara took her wand out of her robes; Fred and George shielded themselves slightly, and pointed it at the bag of Fainting Fancies.
"Say something like that again and I'll destroy every last one," she hissed at them. "Keep your word next time – got it?"
Fred and George nodded as Amara stalked off, leaving Hermione to deal with them.
"Bastards," Amara muttered angrily as she sat back down. She ignored Harry and Ron's stares and brought her empty parchment toward her. Seconds later, Hermione got back from dealing with Fred and George.
"Thank you for your support, Ron," Hermione said acidly.
"You handled it fine by yourself," Ron mumbled.
Hermione stared down at her blank piece of parchment for a few seconds, then said edgily, "Oh, it's no good, I can't concentrate now. I'm going to bed."
She wrenched her bag open; she pulled out two misshapen woolly objects, placed them carefully on a table by the fireplace, covered them with a few screwed-up bits of parchment and a broken quill, and stood back to admire the effect. Amara forgot to be angry and stared at them in surprise.
"What in the name of Merlin are you doing?" said Ron, watching her as though fearful for her sanity.
"They're hats for house-elves," she said briskly, now stuffing her books back into her bag. "I did them over the summer. I'm a really slow knitter without magic, but now I'm back at school I should be able to make lots more."
"You're leaving out hats for the house-elves?" said Ron slowly. "And you're covering them up with rubbish first?"
"Yes," said Hermione defiantly, swinging her bag onto her back.
"That's not on," said Ron angrily. "You're trying to trick them into picking up the hats. You're setting them free when they might not want to be free."
"Of course they want to be free!" said Hermione at once, though her face was turning pink. "Don't you dare touch those hats, Ron!"
She left. Ron waited until she had disappeared through the door to the girls' dormitories, then cleared the rubbish off the woolly hats.
"She's going to anger them," Amara said as she chucked the rubbish away. "They won't like it. Maybe we can pretend they're something else?"
Amara stared at the weird hats another moment before getting up and stretching.
"They should at least see what they're picking up," Ron said firmly.
"I'm never going to do work down here, so I'm going upstairs to do it," said Amara. "'Night."
Amara did her potions essay whilst lying on her bed to calm her down. She was quite satisfied with the result, and had even decided to not be mad at Fred and George, because in all honestly she could never stay mad for long.
As she wasn't tired, she bypassed Professor Binns' essay and did half of her Ancient Runes translation before going to sleep.
-OOOOO-
Amara woke up fairly early the next day, and because Hermione wasn't awake she scribbled a note saying she'd already gone to breakfast and left the dormitory.
In the common room, Amara saw that the woolly hats Hermione had left had disappeared.
There were a few people in the Great Hall when she was helping herself to porridge whilst finishing her Ancient Runes translation. She was just finished and had poured herself another cup of coffee when the seats opposite her and beside her were taken by Fred and George.
"We don't want you being mad at us," said George before Amara had even opened her mouth.
"We promise not to test on Tessie again," added Fred. "And no other first years if you want."
Amara smiled. "It's OK," she said. "Don't do it on Tessie - but please tell the first-years what they're receiving before giving it to them okay?"
"OK," grinned the twins and Fred, who was next to her, gave her a hug.
By the time Ron, Hermione and Harry had arrived the twins had disappeared to sell some Extendable Ears and Amara was now onto her second bacon sandwich. The three of them looked sad when they noticed Hagrid still not at the table.
"But on the plus side, no Snape today," said Ron bracingly.
Hermione yawned widely and poured her and Amara some coffee. She looked mildly pleased about something, and when Ron asked her what she had to be so happy about, she simply said, "The hats have gone. Seems the house-elves do want freedom after all."
"I wouldn't bet on it," Ron told her cuttingly. "They might not count as clothes. They didn't look anything like hats to me, more like woolly bladders."
Hermione did not speak to him all morning.
Amara decided that Tuesday's timetable was much better than Monday. They had double Charms and Transfiguration, both of which were Amara's favourite subjects along with Ancient Runes.
"What you must remember," said Professor Flitwick at the start of their first lesson, perched on his normal pile of books so that he could see over the top of his desk, "is that these examinations may influence your futures for many years to come! If you have not already given serious thought to your careers, now is the time to do so. And in the meantime, I'm afraid, we shall be working harder than ever to ensure that you all do yourselves justice!"
They spent more than an hour revising Summoning Charms, which according to Professor Flitwick were bound to come up in their O.W.L., and he rounded off the lesson by setting them their largest amount of Charms homework ever. Even Amara was shocked about how much they'd been given, but McGonagall was thinking along the same lines. She too started off the lesson with a fifteen minute lecture about how important O. were (Amara kept thinking about Fred and George's excellent inventions and how they only got three each).
"You cannot pass an O.W.L.," said Professor McGonagall grimly straight after break, "without serious application, practice, and study. I see no reason why everybody in this class should not achieve an O.W.L. in Transfiguration as long as they put in the work." Neville made a sad little disbelieving noise. "Yes, you too, Longbottom," said Professor McGonagall. "There's nothing wrong with your work except lack of confidence. So . . . today we are starting Vanishing Spells. These are easier than Conjuring Spells, which you would not usually attempt until N.E.W.T. level, but they are still among the most difficult magic you will be tested on in your O.W.L."
Everyone found the vanishing spells extremely difficult. Amara, however, was very pleased with herself when she managed to vanish her snail before Hermione, who kept giving her little glares for being beaten. Professor McGonagall was very impressed (especially when Hermione managed to do it straight after) and gave them fifteen points each. Harry and Ron were with the rest of the class who were given homework to practise the spell, which Amara and Hermione didn't have to do.
As Amara had already done her potions essay, she did not join Harry and Ron in the library at lunch, both of them panicking with how much homework they had to do. Instead, after she'd eaten with Hermione and her sister (who described to her how she loved Charms, and Professor Flitwick loved her, and Herbology, because the plants were exciting) she went up to Gryffindor Tower to do her Giant Wars essay, which she dreaded to do and didn't want to do that evening. She managed to ramble on for a foot-and-a-half, as well as because she borrowed Hermione's notes.
It was a good thing that she did some homework the night before; whereas Ron and Harry still had to do two other pieces from yesterday as well as Charms and Transfiguration, Amara only had to do Charms.
They had Care of Magical Creatures next, and Amara walked down with Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan, who had been in the common room doing homework too (she had sat at the same table, comparing essays) and they had a nice catching up session (but Amara did not talk about Harry, and Seamus didn't mention him either).
Harry, Ron and Hermione were already there when they arrived. Professor Grubby-Plank had set up a long table near Hagrid's hut which had loads of twigs on it.
"Do much homework?" Ron muttered as she joined them.
"Did my History of Magic essay," she said brightly. "Why?"
"Want to ask you something," Ron muttered and Amara was intrigued.
"What?" she asked, but Professor Grubbly-Plank called them to be quiet.
"Everyone here?" barked Professor Grubbly-Plank, once all the Slytherins and Gryffindors had arrived. "Let's crack on then — who can tell me what these things are called?"
She indicated the heap of twigs in front of her. Hermione's hand shot into the air. Behind her back, Malfoy did a buck-toothed imita- tion of her jumping up and down in eagerness to answer a question. Pansy Parkinson gave a shriek of laughter that turned almost at once into a scream, as the twigs on the table leapt into the air and revealed themselves to be what looked like tiny pixieish creatures made of wood, with arms and legs and weird eyes. Amara smirked at her scream.
"Oooooh!" said Parvati and Lavender, and Amara rolled her eyes. Wow, a pile of twigs moved! She mocked them. Like Hagrid never showed them anything interesting (minus the flobberworms, they were dull).
"Kindly keep your voices down, girls!" said Professor Grubbly- Plank sharply, scattering a handful of woodlice. "So — anyone know the names of these creatures? Miss Granger?"
"Bowtruckles," said Hermione. "They're tree-guardians, usually live in wand-trees."
"Five points for Gryffindor," said Professor Grubbly-Plank. "Yes, these are bowtruckles and, as Miss Granger rightly says, they generally live in trees whose wood is of wand quality. Anybody know what they eat?"
"Wood lice," said Hermione promptly.. "But fairy eggs if they can get them."
"Good girl, take another five points. So whenever you need leaves or wood from a tree in which a bowtruckle lodges, it is wise to have a gift of wood lice ready to distract or placate it. They may not look dangerous, but if angered they will gouge out human eyes with their fingers, which, as you can see, are very sharp and not at all desirable near the eyeballs. So if you'd like to gather closer, take a few wood lice and a bowtruckle — I have enough here for one between four — you can study them more closely. I want a sketch from each of you with all body parts labelled by the end of the lesson."
The class surged forward around the trestle table. Amara, Ron and Hermione (Harry had disappeared) took one large bowtruckle and some woodlice and walked away to sit on some dry grass so they could sketch it. It was difficult to get the bowtruckle to stay still, so they took it in turns whilst they drew parts of it. Amara quite liked how hers was going, but she was distracted when Harry came back to tell them about Malfoy's jibe about Hagrid having a problem to "big" for him.
"Dumbledore would know if something had happened to Hagrid," said Hermione at once. "It's just playing into Malfoy's hands to look worried, it tells him we don't know exactly what's going on. We've got to ignore him, Harry. Here, hold the bowtruckle for a moment, just so I can draw its face. . . ." Amara got her quill out too so she could draw the face and fingers, which were very fine and quite hard to draw. She had just started labelling her drawing when Malfoy's drawl came from nearby.
"Yes," Malfoy said. "Father was talking to the Minister just a couple of days ago, you know, and it sounds as though the Ministry's really determined to crack down on substandard teaching in this place. So even if that over- grown moron does show up again, he'll probably be sent packing straight away."
"OUCH!"
Harry had gripped the bowtruckle that he was holding so hard that it had almost snapped; it had just taken a great retaliatory swipe at his hand with its sharp fingers, leaving two long deep cuts there. Harry dropped it quickly and It ran off towards the forest until it had disappeared. The bell rang soon after, and Harry was in a very bad mood.
"If he calls Hagrid a moron one more time . . ." snarled Harry.
"Harry, don't go picking a row with Malfoy, don't forget, he's a prefect now, he could make life difficult for you. . . ."
"Wow, I wonder what it'd be like to have a difficult life?" said Harry sarcastically. Ron and Amara laughed, but Hermione frowned. Together they traipsed across the vegetable patch. The sky still appeared unable to make up its mind whether it wanted to rain or not.
"I just wish Hagrid would hurry up and get back, that's all," said Harry in a low voice, as they reached the greenhouses. "And don't say that Grubbly-Plank woman's a better teacher!" he added threateningly.
"I wasn't going to," said Hermione calmly. Amara knew that she didn't think he was, and Amara agreed, but saying that out loud would offend Harry and Hagrid when he returned.
"Because she'll never be as good as Hagrid," said Harry firmly.
The door of the nearest greenhouse opened and some fourth years spilled out of it, including Ginny.
"Hi," she said brightly as she passed. A few seconds later, Luna Lovegood emerged, trailing behind the rest of the class, a smudge of earth on her nose and her hair tied in a knot on the top of her head. When she saw Harry, her prominent eyes seemed to bulge excitedly and she made a beeline straight for him. Many of his classmates turned curiously to watch. Luna took a great breath and then said, without so much as a hello: "I believe He-Who-Must- Not-Be-Named is back, and I believe you fought him and escaped from him."
"Er — right," said Harry awkwardly. Luna was wearing what looked like a pair of orange radishes for earrings, a fact that Parvati and Lavender seemed to have noticed, as they were both giggling and pointing at her earlobes.
"You can laugh!" Luna said, her voice rising, under the impression that Parvati and Lavender were laughing at what she had said rather than what she was wearing. "But people used to believe there were no such things as the Blibbering Humdinger or the Crumple-Horned Snorkack!"
"Well, they were right, weren't they?" said Hermione impatiently. "There weren't any such things as the Blibbering Humdinger or the Crumple-Horned Snorkack."
Luna gave her a withering look and flounced away, radishes swinging madly. Parvati and Lavender were not the only ones hooting with laughter now.
"Harsh, Hermione," said Amara. "She can believe what she wants you know."
"Yeah. D'you mind not offending the only people who believe me?" Harry asked Hermione as they made their way into class.
"Oh, for heaven's sake, Harry, you can do better than her," said Hermione. "Ginny's told me all about her, apparently she'll only believe in things as long as there's no proof at all. Well, I wouldn't expect anything else from someone whose father runs The Quibbler."
"Hermione!" Amara said, rather angrily (everyone was saying things angrily at the moment). "Don't be horrible, who cares if she believes stuff like that? It's what she does!"
Hermione didn't answer, because Ernie Macmillan had walked up to Harry too.
"I want you to know, Potter," he said in a loud, carrying voice, "that it's not only weirdos who support you. I personally believe you one hundred percent. My family have always stood firm behind Dumbledore, and so do I."
"Er — thanks very much, Ernie," said Harry.
Professor Sprout began the lesson with the importance of O. once more – Amara tuned out because she was so used to it by now – but was less than amused when she gave them an essay to write. Now she had an essay for Charms and Herbology to do – and Ron wanted her to do something for him too, which she wanted to know what it was.
Hermione went to the library before dinner, to 'check something' quickly, whilst Ron and Amara went to dump their bags off in Gryffindor Tower before going to dinner too.
"What did you want, by the way?" Amara asked him as they were walking back down.
"I – er – I was planning to go for Keeper, try for the team," said Ron after a pause.
"That's a great idea!" Amara exclaimed.
"I was wondering if you could play Chaser for me and help me practise? I mean, I know we have homework, but tryouts are on Friday," said Ron.
"Of course," said Amara. "I'd be happy to! If we go straight after dinner, we'll still be able to get at least an hour's worth of homework done afterwards."
Ron nodded. "Don't tell anyone, OK?"
Amara nodded and grinned.
They found Harry still in the entrance hall when they came back down, being talked to angrily by Angelina Johnson.
"You know what?" Harry said to Ron and Amara as they entered the Great Hall (Hermione came running up after a second). "I think we'd better check with Puddlemere United whether Oliver Wood's been killed during a training session, because she seems to be channelling his spirit."
"What d'you reckon are the odds of Umbridge letting you off on Friday?" said Ron sceptically, as they sat down at the Gryffindor table.
"Less than zero," said Harry glumly, tipping lamb chops onto his plate and starting to eat. "Better try, though, hadn't I? I'll offer to do two more detentions or something, I dunno. . . ." He swallowed a mouthful of potato and added, "I hope she doesn't keep me too long this evening. You realise we've got to write three essays, practice Vanishing Spells for McGonagall, work out a countercharm for Flitwick, finish the bowtruckle drawing, and start that stupid dream diary for Trelawney?"
"Merlin," said Amara, and she was very pleased she didn't have as much as Harry and Ron to do. She only had two essays (Charms and Herbology) and the countercharm for Flitwick, which she thought she had already.
Ron moaned and for some reason glanced up at the ceiling.
"And it looks like it's going to rain." Amara looked up and groaned too.
"What's that got to do with our homework?" said Hermione, her eyebrows raised.
"Nothing," said Ron and Amara at once.
At five to five Harry bade them good-bye and set off for Umbridge's office for his detention.
Amara and Ron hurried back to the Gryffindor common room, grabbed their broomsticks and headed for the Quidditch Pitch before it got dark.
Ron was surprisingly good at being keeper, even when Amara gave him her best shots. However, considering she wasn't trained, she didn't really know. But she gave him a lot of support for the few hours they were out there for. Amara made Ron get back to the Tower when it got to dark so they could do one of their essays, because Ron was even more behind and she promised to do it again tomorrow.
Whilst Ron barely got through half a paragraph, Amara whizzed through the Charms essay and finished the countercharm Flitwick wanted before she got too tired to do it anymore. Hermione was already sleeping when she went up, but the rest of the dorm were still in the common room, struggling through the pile of homework they had to do.
-OOOOO-
Ron stayed with Harry to do the homework which was now piling up on them at breakfast whilst Hermione and Amara went down together.
Tessie had taken it upon herself to describe her day at least once a day to Amara since they'd arrived. She normally told her of the day before's events during breakfast. Amara was getting amused yet irritated, and she hoped she'd go bother Ethan soon, but from what Tessie told them, a girl named Romilda Vane kept hanging out with them, and Tessie described her as "soooo annoying.", which meant she was staying for a while.
Professors McGonagall, Grubbly-Plank, and Sinistra gave them more homework during the day which was very annoying, because now Amara was behind too, as she still had her Herbology essay to write. She was contemplating not helping Ron, but he needed the support, so she told him they should do it for only a few hours.
Angelina was not pleased that Harry was still in detention on Friday evening, and she yelled at him in the Great Hall about commitments.
"I'm in detention!" Harry yelled after her as she stalked away. "D'you think I'd rather be stuck in a room with that old toad or playing Quidditch?"
"At least it's only lines," said Hermione consolingly, as Harry sank back onto his bench and looked down at his steak-and-kidney pie. "It's not as if it's a dreadful punishment, really. . . ."
"I can't believe how much homework we've got," said Ron miserably.
"Well, why didn't you do any last night?" Hermione asked him. "Where were you two anyway?"
"We did do some," said Amara. "But we – er – went for a walk instead, y'know, clear our heads."
Hermione shrugged.
After Amara and Ron's practise (he somehow convinced her to stay later), they walked back to the common room eagerly talking about Ron's good catches. Suddenly, Ron grabbed her and pulled her into the shadows, next to Lachlan the Lanky, a hand over her mouth.
She was just about to pull his hand away when Fred and George went past with a few first years, none of which were Tessie. They watched them pass silently, both their broomsticks behind their backs. Once they'd gone, they peered out the side of it.
"Ron? Amara?"
Amara and Ron whirled around. Ron unsuccessfully tried to hide his broomstick behind his back.
"What are you two doing?" Harry asked.
"Er — nothing. What are you doing?" Ron replied.
Harry frowned at him.
"Come on, you can tell me! What are you hiding here for?"
"We're — We're hiding from Fred and George, if you must know," said Ron. "They just went past with a bunch of first years, I bet they're testing stuff on them again, I mean, they can't do it in the common room now, can they, not with Hermione there."
"Amara's been hiding from Fred and George?" Harry said disbelievingly and Amara blushed. "But what have you got your brooms for, you haven't been flying, have you?" Harry asked.
"I — well — well, okay, I'll tell you, but don't laugh, all right?" Ron said defensively, turning redder with every second. "I-I thought I'd try out for Gryffindor Keeper now I've got a decent broom and I got Amara to help me. There. Go on. Laugh."
"I'm not laughing," said Harry. Ron blinked. "It's a brilliant idea! It'd be really cool if you got on the team! I've never seen you play Keeper, are you good?"
"That's what I said," said Amara, nodding.
"I'm not bad," said Ron, who looked immensely relieved at Harry's reaction. "Charlie, Fred, and George always made me Keep for them when they were training during the holidays."
"So you've been practicing tonight?"
"Every evening since Tuesday, Amara plays chaser and throws the Quaffles in, it's much easier than doing it by myself," Ron said. He then looked anxious. "Fred and George are going to laugh themselves stupid when I turn up for the tryouts. They haven't stopped taking the mickey out of me since I got made a prefect."
"I'll slap them for you," said Amara, grinning as they started their way back to Gryffindor Tower.
"I wish I was going to be there," said Harry bitterly.
"Yeah, so do — Harry, what's that on the back of your hand?"
Amara whipped around and saw that Harry was scratching his nose with a bleeding hand. He tried to hide it quickly, but Amara grabbed it and brought it up to her eyes. Ron leaned down to see it too.
On the back of Harry's hands were the words I must not tell lies carved into the skin. Amara dropped the hand like it burnt.
"I thought you said she was giving you lines?" Ron said, looking sick.
Harry hesitated, before explaining what had happened in Professor Umbridge's detentions.
She made him write lines with a special quill, which, instead of using ink it used his blood. And whichever thing she wanted them to write was carved into the hand.
"That – that toad-faced bitch!" Amara said loudly, and Harry and Ron shushed her. "How could she do such a thing?"
"She's sick!" said Ron "Go to McGonagall, say something!"
"No," said Harry at once. "I'm not giving her the satisfaction of knowing she's got to me."
"Got to you? You can't let her get away with this!"
"I don't know how much power McGonagall's got over her," said Harry.
"Dumbledore, then, tell Dumbledore!"
"No," said Harry flatly.
"Why not Harry?" Amara said.
"He's got enough on his mind," said Harry.
"But what about others who –"
"Are you going to give me the password or will I have to stay awake all night waiting for you to finish your conversation?" the Fat Lady interrupted loudly.
Ron and Harry went straight to bed, but Amara collected her bag, yawning, and did her Herbology essay and McGonagall's homework, leaving Care of Magical Creatures and Astronomy left. But considering she was too tired, she left it. It was ridiculous how much they'd been given; everyone in her dorm seemed to go to bed two hours later than normal, every night.
-OOOOO-
Even though Friday was dull and wet, like the rest of the week had been, Amara was glad it was Friday, because it meant that she didn't have to do any homework, as she had the whole weekend to do it. And she wanted her full attention on Ron's tryout. Tessie, who'd heard from Angelina Johnson yelling it, had decided to come too.
After a tiring day of school, Amara and her sister went down to the pitch together with Ethan and Eddie (they'd forbidden Flick and Piper for coming to) as Hermione was already there.
Amara made them go get a seat whilst she went to see Ron, who was standing on the edge of the pitch, still in his school robes. Everyone except Harry was there in the team, standing in their Quidditch robes, Fred and George looking very evil.
"You'll do great Ron," Amara beamed at him, giving him a hug.
Ron nodded and went off to get changed out of his usual robes.
Amara walked over to Fred and George.
"Don't take the piss out of him, alright? He's nervous as is it," she said, hands on hips, looking up at the two of them.
Fred and George looked very conflicted, so Amara did something she'd seen Tally do, flick her hair and tilt her head, but she narrowed her eyes as well. Fred and George widened their eyes.
They nodded and Angelina, Katie and Alicia all laughed.
Amara grinned sweetly at them and skipped off towards the stands to watch them tryout.
Angelina first did a normal warm up around the pitch three times to see who could actually fly (a few couldn't and got kicked out immediately). Then she split them up and put them into three groups to do some catching practise whilst there were lots of Bludgers about. Ron managed to get into the top three that Angelina actually wanted to see do some Keeper skills.
There was a sixth-year girl named Vicky Frobisher, and a fourth-year named Geoffrey Hooper who were left.
Angelina, Alicia and Katie flew up and tried to get past the keeper, each in turn. Ron did well, not perfectly, as he only saved three out of four and one of them was very rough. But he did marginally better than the other two, and Amara felt a leap of hope.
Soon, they were flying back down and Angelina was making her decision. Amara went over to them to see if Ron got in.
He came out the changing rooms beaming.
"I did it! I got it! I'm keeper!"
"That's great!" Amara said excitedly, and she gave him a hug. "Congratulations Ron!"
Fred and George, who had kept what Amara had said to them (or done) in their minds, went to get butterbeer so they could celebrate. Tessie tasted her first butterbeer, and she found it great, as did Ethan.
"Harry, I did it, I'm in, I'm Keeper!" Amara turned to see Harry coming through the portrait hole.
"What? Oh — brilliant!" said Harry.
"Have you seen Hermione?" Amara asked as Harry and Ron came over
"She's there," said Fred, swigging his butterbeer, and he pointed to an armchair by the fire. Hermione was dozing in it, her drink tipping precariously in her hand.
"Well, she said she was pleased when I told her," said Ron, shrugging.
"She works herself too hard," said Amara. "I'll go make her go upstairs -"
"Let her sleep," said George hastily. Amara turned to look at him and saw the first years with nosebleeds around them. Amara sighed and rolled her eyes.
"Come here, Ron, and see if Oliver's old robes fit you," called Katie Bell. "We can take off his name and put yours on instead. . . ."
As Ron moved away, Angelina came striding up to Harry. Amara, Fred and George moved slightly away.
"Need more butterbeer?" George said abruptly and disappeared with Amara's empty bottle.
"Sorted out the Nosebleed Nougats then?" Amara said, noticing no one was shrivelled up.
"Yep, we managed to solve the hole shrivelled-up thing," said Fred. "Liking OWL year so far?"
"No," said Amara. "They give us homework all the time - I have so much to do this weekend, and it's only the first one!"
"We told you," grinned Fred. "I'll give you a skiving snack box for free if you'd like."
"Why's it free?" Amara said suspiciously.
"Pretty girls shouldn't pay."
Amara looked at him, blushed in a sheepish way and looked away. Luckily, George arrived back and Amara didn't see Fred's grin.
Harry sat with Hermione for a whole before disappearing, so Amara stayed with Fred and George for the better part of the evening. They made her judge when they and Lee Jordan tried to juggle empty butterbeer bottles, which made her laugh. She chose Lee because Fred and George kept dropping them purposefully.
She didn't do any homework; instead she went straight to bed and dreamt about a certain red-headed twin.