First period on Tuesday the next morning was double Charms. Professor Flitwick, like Professor Babbling, spent the first half of the period explaining what they were going to be covering for OWL Charms and explained the exam information. They would have both a theory paper and a practical exam to undertake, where they could literally be asked anything. Amelia wasn't feeling overly great - as her, Harry and Dorea had spent the rest of the evening doing Snape's homework, as they wouldn't get a chance to before Thursday, when it was due. It was almost one in the morning when they had finally finished it, and that was with Hermione's supervision. She cursed Umbridge in her head again - why were four detentions necessary? Their first one would be tonight, and they would last until Friday.
"What you must remember," Flitwick lectured them, "is that these exams will influence your future job prospects for years to come! Employers will judge you on your grades before even seeing you for an interview. But grades do mean a lot - for example, even though an A - that's an Acceptable - is considered a pass mark, it is not often desired, as it implies that you're only just a bit better than a P - Poor."
Before even starting on fifth year curriculum, Flitwick had the class spend an hour perfecting their Summoning Charms - which were almost guaranteed to come up in the OWL, - before then assigning them three lots of worksheets and an essay to complete for next Tuesday.
Professor McGonagall was only slightly easier on them. She drilled into their brains that OWL exams required serious practise and study, and that they would only pass their subjects if they put more than enough work in. Then, they started on learning the first of their fifth year Transfiguration spells: Vanishing Spells.
On the whole, Amelia found them quite difficult, as did the rest of the class. She remembered to take into account her stance, wand movement and pronunciation of the incantation, yet the spell still wasn't executing perfectly. On her fifth attempt, she managed to almost vanish her snail, but you could still partly see it - it was looking like a chameleon, blending with the desk. It took Dorea until the last ten minutes of the double period to vanish hers, and Hermione managed to do it too in the end. Harry looked a bit stressed, as his snail was still very much visible. However, he was taking his time, with deep breaths, and he succeeded right at the end of the period. Ron looked a bit disheartened, but there were plenty of other students who hadn't managed to vanish their snails. McGonagall proclaimed that the only homework was for those who hadn't managed to perform a Vanishing Spell to practise before tomorrow's class.
After lunch, they headed down the sloped lawn towards Hagrid's hut for Care of Magical Creatures. As they neared it, Harry had half a mind to knock on the door and see if he was in, but he already guessed that answer - he could see no lights on inside.
Professor Grubbly-Plank was waiting for them, and stood at the head of a long trestle table, which was occupied, weirdly, with twigs and sticks on it, and a few green leaves. Harry thought that a bit odd, but he was sure she would soon explain. Behind their group, they heard the arrival of Draco Malfoy and his gang, which today also included Pansy Parkinson and Millicent Bulstrode. Weirdly, Daphne Greengrass arrived separately from them, and stood a bit away from them with Tracey Davis, Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott.
"Everyone here?" Professor Grubbly-Plank asked briskly, and a quick head count showed that everyone was present. "Let's not waste time, then. Who can tell me what these things are called?"
Hermione's hand was straight in the air, but Harry had no clue why - for it didn't look like there were any creatures occupying the table. Malfoy did an impression of Hermione, jumping up and down with his hand in the air, whilst his goons barked laughter.
Everyone was given quite a fright when suddenly, the twigs sprang to life, and were darting around the table. However, some of the shrieks appeared to frighten them, for they turned suddenly shy, and tried to hide away underneath the leaves. "Can we please keep our voices down?" Grubbly-Plank demanded, and the class fell silent. "Miss Granger, can you tell me the names of these creatures?"
"They are Bowtruckles," Hermione gladly supplied, "they guard trees, and tend to live in wand-wood ones."
"Five points to Gryffindor." Grubbly-Plank awarded, "As Miss Granger rightly points out, bowtruckles are tree guardians and you will typically find them residing in trees that have wood of wand quality. Does anybody know what their diet consists of?"
Hermione answered straight away. "Woodlice, primarily."
"Good girl, another five points to Gryffindor." Grubbly-Plank smiled. The woman went into more detail about how to lure them with food to placate them, and claimed they could claw someone's eyeballs out. Harry glanced at Malfoy, who was still whispering and sniggering with his friends. I wish one would do that to him.
They spent the rest of the period sitting down on the grass, in groups, as their task was to sketch the Bowtruckle and label its body features before the end of class. Dorea volunteered to hold the Bowtruckle first, as the others sketched, and they would change who would hold it every five minutes so they could all get a chance to sketch it. Malfoy's group sat on a hill just up from them, and he could feel their eyes staring at them. When Professor Grubbly-Plank meandered over to check their group, Harry decided to ask her upfront. "Where's Hagrid?"
Grubbly-Plank eyed him closely. "It is not my place to disclose that information, Mr Potter."
"At least tell us if something's happened to the bloke?" Amelia reasoned.
"Yeah, he's our friend." Dorea said.
"Nothing bad has happened to him, do not worry." Was all Professor Grubbly-Plank told them, before she was about to leave, however, Hermione also asked another question.
"Where's Professor Sinistra?"
"Professor Sinistra has taken a year off, as she is travelling the world on an Astronomy sabbatical. She sends her best wishes to you all, and will be back for your sixth year." Professor Grubbly-Plank said quickly, before she went to go and inspect Malfoy's group.
"Well, I wish I was travelling the world right now," Ron breathed.
"Oh, it sounds amazing, travelling around, mapping stars and constellations and seeing how they differ from country to country... " Hermione said dreamily. Harry and Ron smirked at each other. Though Harry quite liked Astronomy, he wasn't sure if he would enjoy doing star charts and plotting the moon's positions for a whole year, but he internally wished Professor Sinistra good luck.
"So at least it's a bit of comfort that nothing happened to Hagrid," Dorea said, as they walked to the Herbology greenhouses for sixth and seventh period. Harry felt a bit of dread, as their detention with Umbridge loomed ever closer.
"She still didn't say what he was doing, though." Harry added.
"Maybe Dumbledore is the person to ask?" Ron said quietly, as the Hufflepuff's were joining the line behind them. "He's on our side, and the leader of the Order, so surely he knows where he is."
"You have a point," Harry said, "but I doubt he'd answer if I was the one to ask him." He added, a bit bitterly. Ron gave him a look of understanding.
Justin Finch-Fletchley and Ernie Macmillan shuffled their way into their circle, "Harry, I just want to say that I personally believe you when you say that You-Know-Who is back. My family has always stood behind Dumbledore, and I will back your corner one hundred percent."
"I never doubted you, Ernie." Harry was almost stunned. "I kind of guessed when you signed up for the club."
"Just making sure - I know there's some idiots who believe the Daily Prophet and have been glaring at you, but I just wanted to let you know." Ernie added.
Justin added his support. "I know I doubted you back in second year," he said, referring to the heir of Slytherin incident, "but I will never doubt you again. You have my support too."
Harry felt good now. Hannah, Susan and Megan Jones also said they supported him. Seamus, who Harry didn't even notice near the back of the line, was looking a bit confused and in disbelief.
To virtually nobody's surprise, Sprout started the lesson explaining the Herbology OWL course and the exam information. Though he was still feeling a bit anxious for the detention which awaited him, Amelia and Dorea virtually straight after Herbology, he kept his mind occupied within the class. He only wished he ate a bit more at lunch, as he wasn't going to have much time to eat dinner before detention…
To add even more homework to their already large pile, Professor Sprout assigned them yet another essay at the end of class, to be completed for Friday. When on earth am I going to get time to complete that? Harry thought, annoyed. He cursed Umbridge in his head for giving them four detentions that week - surely one was enough?
The Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Slytherin and Ravenclaw fifth years trooped back up to the castle after their double Herbology class, none of them talking very much due to the fact they all internally agreed it had been a long day. It was only going to get even longer for three of them.
Dorea, Harry and Amelia worked out they had fifteen minutes to eat something before they had to go for their detention, so gobbled their dinner down faster than Ron on a good day. Amelia noticed that Umbridge was at the staff table, and was talking to Snape, who looked like he wanted to end his life. Amelia was only on her third mouthful of apple crumble before her twin and godsister were ushering her to come with them, for it was indeed five minutes until their detention. When she looked back, she realised that Umbridge was no longer there. They left Ron and Hermione, the former complaining to the latter that Trelawney assigned the Divination lot a dream diary they had to complete over the course of a month.
The three of them made their way to the third floor, where Umbridge's office was located. They didn't really speak, but they were all wondering what on earth the woman had in store for them. When they came on to the third floor, they all separately cast a Freshening Charm on their robes, for they had been dealing with dragon dung in Herbology and the smell was lingering.
When they stepped into their Defence teachers office, they were quite horrified, for Umbridge had decked the room out almost totally in pink, and occupying the wall behind her desk were portraits of cats, which all quietly meowed every few seconds. She was sitting at her desk, looking expectant. "Good evening, Mr Potter, Miss Potter, Miss Black."
Amelia was that transfixed in mortification at the room's decor she almost forgot to respond. "Good evening, Professor." She answered last.
"Take a seat," the woman said, pointing towards a circular desk draped in a lace table runner that had a vase of flowers decorated in a doily in the middle of it. There were three seats around it - two facing each other on either side, and one at the edge of the left hand side. They sat down in them, where pieces of parchment and quill were waiting for them. Lines? Amelia almost chuckled, this ain't so bad, we'll just write till we fill both sides and that will be us done.
"You will be doing lines for me," Professor Umbridge rose slightly, "I want Mr Potter to write, 'I must not tell lies', and you girls to write 'I must not disrespect my superiors'."
Harry turned in his seat, although Amelia wished he hadn't. "I want to make it crystal clear that I was not lying, Professor."
Umbridge let out a shrill laugh. "Oh dear, it seems you do not understand the point of the exercise, Mr Potter. I am doing this in order to reinforce the lesson I am trying to teach you, and we all need to keep our temper in check."
Harry was biting back another remark, and with a grunt turned back in his seat to face the parchment. However, as she was about to start writing, Amelia noticed something. "Professor, we have no ink?"
"Oh my dear, I should have said - you three will be using rather special quills of mine. They do not need ink." Umbridge smiled sweetly at her, but Amelia noticed a twinkle in her eye, which she did not trust one bit. "Now, do your lines. There will be no need to talk. I have work to do, so I would prefer it if questions are left until the end?"
The three of them all shared a look, and grudgingly started their detention task. She picked her quill up, and eyed it with a dark look before she got down to writing.
She soon regretted it - as soon as she wrote the first 'I must not disrespect my superiors', it appeared to carve itself into the back of her right hand. Dorea was clutching hers, and Harry looked mortified. Surely this isn't legal? Amelia thought. Nonetheless, to appease the toad, she carried on to the next line, and again, her hand stung. She had a feeling it was going to do this every time she wrote - just keep carving into her skin. On the fourth line, blood started slowly dripping.
It was almost midnight before Umbridge stopped them. "That will be all for tonight."
Amelia wondered how on earth she had the strength to even stand up, and when she did, she saw stars. She had to clutch the table in order to not sit back down again. After a few moments, her vision cleared, and she regained strength.
"Hand your parchments in to me," Umbridge dutifully held her hand out expectantly.
"You aren't getting anything with my blood on it." Dorea said, trying to keep her tone neutral, but she was looking pissed off.
"Miss Black, don't be silly, you will hand the parchment in, and the sooner you do that, the sooner you can get back to your dormitories." Umbridge said, smirking.
"Dorea's right. You aren't keeping anything with my blood on it." Harry piped up. Amelia nodded her head too, for it came to her that it was very suspicious that Umbridge wanted to keep something with their DNA in it.
"I do not wish to argue," Umbridge was still smiling, "but what on earth do you think I'm going to do? Perform a ritual with it?"
"You know that we've filled both sides with lines," Amelia said, "so why do you want to see our work and keep it?"
Umbridge's smile vanished. "Why, I was hoping the messages would sink in, but it appears not. If you do not want detention for everyday next week as well, you will hand me your work!"
Amelia knew they couldn't risk that, so they all shared a look and gave in to the woman. On one condition. "You will keep those parchments no longer than a week."
"They will be filed away accordingly anyway, Mr Potter, so I do not understand what the big deal is." Umbridge proclaimed, before her voice turned sickenly sweet again. "Now, off you go."
Walking back to Gryffindor Tower, the three of them were simply outraged and hurt. "I can't believe her!" Dorea complained through a hushed voice, as it was after midnight.
"How are we going to cover this up?!" Amelia worried that people would ask questions.
"I made a batch of Burn-Healing Paste back at Black Manor," Harry said.
"Please tell me you brought your potions caddy bag with you?" Dorea pleaded.
"I did." he responded.
The common room was empty when they got back. The only light in the room was the fire. Harry went to his dorm to get Burn-Heal Paste for them all, and they prayed it would work. He came down two minutes later, and gave them a squeezy bottle each. "I have a feeling we'll be needing more over the course of the year."
They all tested it out, pumping the paste out and rubbing it into their hands, and it worked - it covered the carved writing up. "I hope it works every time," Dorea said, in a hushed voice.
"We're really going to have to hold our tongues in her class, whether we like it or not." Amelia looked at her twin.
He sighed, "I cannot promise I won't stand up for myself, but I will try."
Amelia and Dorea tiptoed into their dorm and quietly got changed into pyjamas before getting into bed and almost falling asleep straight away. Despite the fact her hand looked virtually untouched, Amelia could still feel the stinging underneath the Burn Paste. She prayed it held.
Despite the fact she got to bed quite late the night before, Dorea was the first one of the girls up, and wandered down to the Great Hall for breakfast after she got dressed.
Ron was the only one at Gryffindor Table. "You're up early," she remarked as she sat down across from him.
"Couldn't get back to sleep, so I just decided to come down." Ron smiled as he bit into his toast. "How was detention last night?"
Dorea knew she should really tell the truth, because what Umbridge did to them was horrific and probably breached a few student protection rules. Even though Ron was one of her best friends, she just found that she couldn't tell him. A part of her really didn't want to divulge into what actually went on behind closed doors in that office. "She had us do lines." Was her response.
Ron grinned. "Gosh, I thought she'd have you doing something more tiring than that, eh? Like polishing silver or something."
Dorea forced a grin and kidded that she enjoyed it, but quickly started eating in case he asked more. The Burn-Healing Paste was still holding up well - she had put a second layer on before she came down in case it wore off during class or something. As they were eating, more people started turning up, and Dorea noticed Cormac McLaggen was grinning at them as he walked past, which she found a tad creepy. "What?" She looked at the sleazy sixth year, and Ron looked up with a puzzled look before he noticed the boy behind him.
"You lot have Astronomy today, do you not?" Cormac didn't even wait for them to answer before he carried on. "You're going to like the new teacher, that's all I'm saying."
As he walked away, Dorea couldn't help but have her mouth hang open slightly. What on earth was that supposed to mean, she was going to like the new teacher?
"The new Astronomy teacher doesn't even sit at the staff table," Ron said, "they must be shy."
Dorea stared at (what was) Professor Sinistra's usual seat at the staff table, wondering what on earth Cormac was meaning. She almost didn't notice Hermione, Amelia and Harry turning up.
First period on Wednesday morning was Ancient Runes, and that period was spent going over new terminology, question types, and to finish off she gave them a new script to translate, but this time it was to be translated to Runic, when normally they were asked to translate the scripts to English. It would certainly take longer, and nobody had completed it by the end of class, so it was assigned as Homework for next Monday. For second period, Harry had his first private Arithmancy lesson with Vector, whilst Amelia and Dorea had Muggle Studies. Professor Burbage went over the OWL content for the subject, and assigned them an essay at the end of class where they had to talk about different methods of transport Muggles used. The class was so easy that Dorea knew she could leave this essay until the night before it was due.
After morning break was double Herbology, which passed quite quickly, and after it came Transfiguration, where Ron finally managed to perform a decent attempt of a Vanishing Spell. Professor Grubbly-Plank inspected their Bowtruckle drawings and deemed them quite good, but gave them a few pointers about the creature's legs and fingers.
When the bell rang for seventh period, they would finally find out who their teacher was for Astronomy. Amelia, along with Dorea, Harry, Ron and Hermione trudged their way up to the Astronomy Tower for their first lesson with the unannounced new professor.
"So just who do you think it is? Our new Astronomy teacher?" She asked, desperately.
"Cormac came swaggering into the Great Hall this morning, all smug, and he grinned at me. It was terrifying. He said that we were going to like whoever it is." Dorea answered, panting slightly as the climb to the classroom always took its toll on people.
"Whoever it is must've sworn their previous classes not to tell for some reason," Ron reasoned.
"Well come on, let's not wait any longer and get there quickly. I can't stand the anticipation." Harry groaned, and started climbing the spiral staircase two steps at a time.
They at long last (and feeling as though they had just climbed Mt Kilimanjaro), arrived at the door to the Astronomy classroom. Without further ado, Amelia turned the door knob and entered.
Leaning against the teachers desk was none other than her godfather.
"What the-" Amelia started.
"-bloody hell" Harry continued.
"-are you doing here?" Ron and Hermione finished.
"Dad? You're the Astronomy professor? Don't make me laugh." Dorea had entered last, and her face was a picture.
It took Amelia a moment to realise that all their fellow classmates were in the room, which surprised her as she didn't think they had left it too late to embark to the class. Sirius gave them a grin.
"Nice to see you too, daughter." Sirius said, faking being hurt, which made the class laugh. "Come give me a hug."
Dorea gave her father a glare that Snape would be proud of, however Sirius seemed to be immune to it. The others in the class giggled at Dorea's embarrassment.
"Please don't embarrass me, dad, or I will make your year here a living hell." Dorea grimaced, and gave Amelia a look that screamed for her to go to the empty row near the back. Ron, Hermione and Harry followed suit, still laughing at Dorea.
"Now that the Fantastic Five have arrived, among them my very stubborn daughter and godchildren, let's get started." Sirius clapped his hands together, and took his wand and waved it at the blackboard, where a very nicely annotated picture and diagram of Pluto, the dwarf planet was displayed. Sirius then explained how it was visible for viewing at that very moment, and said that when they looked through their telescopes it would be clear to the naked eye. He talked some more, but Amelia was more interested in the girls in the class that seemed to be finding Sirius very attractive, as most of them were staring at him dreamily, which she had to stifle a laugh at, especially when she saw that Dorea had noticed them.
"That's my bloody dad that they're eye-boggling!" Dorea whispered angrily to her.
"The amount of people that are going to be coming up to you saying how handsome he is is going to be so funny to witness. I hope you're prepared." Amelia smirked.
"I know, and I don't want to think about having to endure that." Dorea said grumpily and then crossed her arms to try and listen to whatever her dad was on about now.
That lesson turned out to be very entertaining, as Sirius tried with every second to embarrass Dorea (much to the class's amusement). When she was looking through her telescope to locate Pluto, he came up behind her and jabbed her sides to which she let out a very loud yelp and then turned to punch him playfully in the chest and sent him a death glare, which caused Harry and Ron much amusement. When Ernie Macmillan complained that nothing but complete darkness was showing up when he looked through his telescope (which caused him great distress for a minute or two), Sirius came over to them after fixing it and whispered "I charmed it to do that".
Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown were the first few girls to come up to Dorea, and whispered to her "you didn't tell us your dad was so handsome," which caused her to grip her telescope so tightly Amelia feared it might snap. Truth be told, Parvati and Lavender were a bit cringey, as whenever Sirius so much asked them if they were finding Pluto they burst into giggles before saying "mmhmm" for much longer than necessary.
The lesson finally ended without too much more pranking from Sirius, and he held the five of them back. "How did I do? I must say, your year is quite boring compared to the NEWT students, even the first years were more fun!"
"Why did you not tell us you were coming to teach? And why on earth are you teaching?" Dorea said angrily.
"Because, my dear, that's the whole definition of a surprise." Sirius replied, as if it was the most obvious answer in the world.
"Parvati and Lavender wouldn't stop talking about how gorgeous you are, it was so annoying, and all the girls will be coming up to me and saying that for the whole year, damn you!" Dorea continued, and Amelia had a hard time stifling a laugh, lest send her godsister over the edge.
Sirius just let out a bark of laughter.
"Oh come here, my girl, give me a hug." He gave her puppy eyes, which to any other woman would make them weak at the knees.
"Why? I'm annoyed with you." Dorea said simply.
"Because you're my baby." Even though it was directed at her godsister, it warmed Amelia's heart.
Dorea obliged then, and her dad embraced her in a bone-crushing hug. Amelia and Harry gave each other the side eye, and knew that they both found it touching.
"Right, you lot better get down to the Great Hall, dinner will be ready soon, and you've got me again for the practical this evening." Sirius all but shooed them out then. Amelia hoped Umbridge wouldn't keep them until midnight, as that was when their Practical Astronomy lesson started. They would have to ask her to let them off early.
"Aren't you coming down to sit at the staff table, now it's revealed that you're a teacher?" Harry asked.
"Oh Merlin, so I am. I'll be down in a few."
The five of them entered the Great Hall together and sat in their usual spots at Gryffindor table. Dorea looked in no mood to speak about the fact her father was somehow the new Astronomy professor. Amelia almost couldn't believe it either - he'd never before expressed his interest in the subject. Sirius entered through the door behind the staff table, and the Hall let out a few cheers. Professor Dumbledore stood up. "Now that it can be revealed, I am glad to announce that our new Astronomy teacher is Mr Sirius Black!"
The Great Hall erupted in cheers as Sirius sat down at the staff table. Amelia still couldn't wrap her head around the fact that her godfather was a teacher, but she found it nice that mostly all the students were supportive of him.
Amelia, Harry and Dorea left the hall in order to go to detention with five minutes to go until it was five o'clock. "Right, we'll go to detention, ask her to let us off early, and do the lines." Hary rattled off to them.
"You're going to hold your tongue this time?" Dorea asked.
"Yes." Harry said.
Their detention was the same as last night - only, their hands were bleeding a bit more freely the more they wrote, and more redness around the carved writing showed. Dorea let out a hissing noise from time to time, as if she was trying desperately not to give Umbridge the satisfaction she was hurting them. Amelia spoke up then. "Professor?"
Umbridge looked up from her desk. "Yes, Miss Potter?"
"We have an evening Astronomy lesson with Siri- Professor Black," she corrected herself, "so we'll need to leave at least an hour before midnight, when the class starts, so we can get a quick nap."
Umbridge looked reluctant. "On this occasion, I will let you go early, as you do have a class, but you will have to make up the lost time on Thursday and Friday."
"But we're only missing an hour tonight?" Harry said, "Surely that means tomorrow, we'll stay until one?"
"I think we can add an hour onto both Thursday and Friday." Umbridge said sweetly.
"But-"
"-No arguments, please. My word is final." Umbridge quickly cut in.
How on earth are we going to get our homework done?! Amelia raged in her head. They still had to do a Giant Wars essay for Binns, worksheets and a counter-charm for Flitwick, a translation for Babbling, an essay on muggle transport for Burbage, an essay for Sprout, and god knows what else (Amelia couldn't think right now, they'd been assigned that much). Plus, Professor Vector was likely to assign them work for Arithmancy. She had half a mind to tell Sirius, but she just knew that would only give Umbridge the upper hand and satisfaction.
Umbridge actually let them go at ten minutes to eleven, so they all but threw their parchment at her and strode out the door to get back to Gryffindor Tower, so they could get a nap in before their midnight Astronomy practical. They each took out their Burn-Healing Paste and rubbed another layer on to conceal the new efforts. When they got back to the common room, Hermione and Ron were already asleep at a desk near the fire, but Seamus and Dean were occupying the comfy sofa, and were very much awake. Seamus's mouth tightened when he saw them come in, whereas Dean nodded at them.
They were the only ones in the common room. Dorea grabbed the armchair for herself, whilst Amelia sat down on the bean bags. Harry just sat down on a bit of carpet near the fire, but soon elected to take the other bean bag. The heat from the fire was soon making them all drowsy, and Amelia found herself drifting off…
When they lined up outside the class, all the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff fifth years looked very sleepy, none more so than Ernie Macmillan. "I've been studying since six," she overheard him say to Zacharias, as he was yawning, "... 'm trying to do eleven hours each day…"
Sirius's energy soon had them slightly more awake, as he made their practical lesson quite fun. He still did everything in his power to cause Dorea embarrassment (in a good way), and ruffled Amelia and Harry's hair a few times as well. Their practical was spent looking through their telescopes and finding Jupiter, with its moons. It was quite far in the distance tonight, as their telescopes were on the largest zoom, but it was soon located. Sirius explained the names of the moons - Europa, Io, Ganymede and Callisto were the ones they had to know at OWL level, and he wrote notes for each of them on the board so they could copy it down after they had a good look. At the end of the class, Sirius held her, Harry and Dorea back. "Why did you three leave ten minutes into dinner?"
"Well, we had a detention with Professor Umbridge." Harry explained for them.
Sirius had to do a double take to make sure he was speaking to Harry and not his father. "But it's only your third day!"
"The three of us got into a bit of an argument with her on Monday," Dorea said, "she's given us detention until Friday."
Sirius clearly hadn't been told of this. "Well, don't be getting into any more of them next week, for I'm sure you already have plenty of homework." He slightly scolded them, but let them leave.
When they finished their Astronomy lesson at half one in the morning, Amelia found herself falling asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.
Harry had a double period the next morning with Professor Vector, and was looking forward to it. She was very laid back, good at explaining, and always let him take his time whenever she put a question to him. When he got totally stuck, she would let him look up the answer in Numerology and Grammatica, and he would read the answer out. Vector actually approved of this method, as even though it was getting him to read the answer out loud, it would help make it stick in his brain, as he was saying it. They took things slightly slow - after all, over the course of the last three weeks Harry had been cramming two years worth of content into his brain, so it was no wonder he wasn't automatically remembering some of the information. By the end of the double period, they had managed to get through the same work the Arithmancy class had done yesterday and Tuesday, and she assigned him a homework task to do, but it wasn't that long or difficult looking.
Double Charms was spent learning the first of the fifth year spells: the Slowing Charm. They spent the first period learning the theory behind the Charm, and the second period was spent practically learning it. They tested it out by throwing certain objects up high, and as they were falling, casting the Charm to slow down its fall. Harry used his parchment notebook, and before it could land on Hannah Abbott's head, said the incantation "Arresto Momentum!"
It worked, and Hannah grinned as she gave it back to him, when it softly landed on top of her blonde hair. They gladly weren't assigned homework, but Flitwick suggested they could still work on it for next week.
After lunch, they unfortunately had Defence Against the Dark Arts. The period was spent reading (again), in silence (again), and everyone was bored. Harry thought that half an hour had passed, but it had only been ten minutes in. He sighed, irritated, and kept reading. He found himself unable to even concentrate, and kept reading the same line over and over, to no success.
Double Potions seemed to go by a bit quicker, but perhaps that was because Harry was no longer dreading it. Snape started the lesson by giving them feedback (also known as harsh criticism) about their Draught of Peace potions they brewed on Monday. "Longbottom, you will never get anywhere in life with this mess." Snape snapped at poor Neville, who flinched. Harry didn't think the boy's potion had turned out that bad… He swore to himself that he would help Neville out one day, and possibly invite him over to Black Manor one day to use the Potions Lab.
"Potter, I have reluctantly given yours an O, for there is nothing wrong with it." Was all Snape said quickly, as if he would catch a disease for giving Harry praise. He said the same to Amelia and Dorea. Hermione got an E, and Ron scraped an A. He couldn't hear what Dean or Seamus got, but he assumed they passed.
The rest of the period was spent brewing an Invigoration Draught - which Harry again brewed almost perfectly. Snape was getting more and more angry whenever he came over to inspect, for he couldn't berate Harry, Amelia or Dorea's. Unfortunately, Snape only targeted Neville even more, snarling over his shoulder and causing Neville to almost drop whatever ingredient he was holding into the cauldron.
Detention was the exact same as the previous two, however, the carved writing wasn't for healing up. The burn paste concealed it, but if you looked close enough you could still see it. The three of them were just glad it would hopefully be their last one, and they wished that their hands would heal up within no time.
When they got back to the common room, Ron was sitting nervously on the couch. "What's up?" Harry asked as the three of them sat opposite him.
"Q-quidditch tryouts," Ron muttered, "they're only three days away now, and.. Well, I'm not sure if I'll be any good after all."
"How?" Amelia wondered.
"Well, Fred and George are going to laugh when they see me turn up, kitted out, aren't they? They still snigger whenever they see me with the Prefect badge." Ron said, worried.
"You think you're worried? Try being me, it's the first session of the Defence club on Saturday!" Harry laughed, trying to make Ron feel better. Harry's heart raced a bit when he realised that on Saturday night, he would be teaching a ton of fifth to seventh year students that signed up to the club. He wasn't sure if he would come across totally confident. As they went up to bed, Harry remembered the book he got in Flourish & Blotts - the Quidditch one, which he planned to give to Ron. He couldn't believe he almost forgot about it. He handed it to his best friend. "It has tons of hints, tips, maneuvers and tactics for Keeper's in it," Harry explained quietly, as Seamus, Dean and Neville were assumedly all asleep, "if you read it, you'll have an advantage over the rest of the prospective Keeper's."
Ron nodded, and promised to read it on Saturday, or Friday after class. He took it from him, but then looked down. "Harry, what's that?"
Harry's eyes widened when he realised that his hand was bleeding. He must've caught it off something.. "Oh, hit my hand by accident earlier." He tried to play it off.
"No, there's something glimmering in the light as well!" Ron insisted in a hushed voice. When Harry frantically rubbed the blood away, the Burn-Healing Paste came away, and revealed the writing carved into his hand - 'I must not tell lies'.
"Mate!" Ron started to rant, "Did that cow do this to you?"
He nodded, for the secret was out now. "How bloody dare she!" Ron kept his voice down, but started pacing the dorm. "She's evil, and demented! You've got to tell somebody about this, Harry!"
Harry shook his head, adamant. "No, I'm not caving in to her wishes."
Ron sighed. "Well, why don't you tell McGonagall? Or better yet, Sirius!"
"Ron, the woman tells everything that goes on here to her beloved Minister," Harry explained, "if Fudge finds out McGonagall or Sirius have reported her, he'll sack them, I bet."
Ron nodded, but still looked fierce. "Well, he can't sack Dumbledore! He knows he's too powerful! Plus, he's terrified of the bloke!"
"Dumbledore hasn't looked my way since my Hearing," Harry gruffly pointed out.
"Well, I suppose, but… You have to tell someone Harry. You can't keep hiding it forever. Especially since she's doing it to Amelia and Dorea too." Ron reasoned.
He sighed, knowing his best friend was right. "If she puts us in more detentions I'll go to McGonagall and have her anonymously report Umbridge." He bargained. Ron seemed satisfied with that.
Harry went to sleep, feeling ever more nervous as the first session of the Defence Association was looming ever closer, and yet he had no clue how the first session would go.