The room was filled with only the scratching of quills against parchment - punctured by smatterings of small gasps of pain.
Hermione bit her bottom lip in an effort to contain her own wince as the words she was writing etched their way deeper and deeper into her skin; she would not give that old toad the satisfaction of seeing her in pain.
At the front of the class, Umbridge sipped sickeningly sweet tea from a delicate china cup, her gaze sweeping over the students with a smug smirk. The Slytherins, exempt from her sadistic methods, lounged on their desks, revelling in the discomfort of their peers.
At the centre of them all was Malfoy, swinging back on his chair as he lapped up the attention of his peers. He had been even more infuriating than usual recently, his head blown to twice its size thanks to Umbridge's favouritism providing him with power over his fellow students that he had never had before. And how he must have adored it.
Hermione scowled as she turned back to the lines she was writing: 'Theory prevails over practice, despite the falsehoods spread by untrustworthy mouths.'
They could actually be spending this time learning something valuable! Right now as they sit here, wasting time writing lines, You-Know-Who was out there, getting stronger by the minute. And thanks to Edgecombe, Dumbledore was gone, and they could no longer practise defensive magic by themselves.
Hermione glanced around the classroom, eyes landing on the red haired girl who currently looked like she wanted to shrink into her desk and disappear. Hermione noted that the heavy layers of makeup she was currently wearing didn't quite cover up the angry red spots across her face spelling 'SNEAK'. Smirking, Hermione turned back to her desk. Good, serves her right.
'Ahem."
Hermione jumped as she noted Umbridge standing directly beside her desk, a sugary sweet smile on her lips. "So silly of me, but I do believe you were instructed to write down the lines until the message sunk in? For somebody so thoroughly concerned with her grades, Miss Granger, I do believe you of all people should be focused on paying attention?"
Hermione narrowed her eyes but bit back her retort - there was no Dumbledore here to save them now. The witch could do whatever she wanted. She turned back to the parchment, hand shaking with fury.
Umbridge gave a small giggle of contentment,"Good girl. You're all starting to learn very well how students should behave."
Still, the Gryffindor ignored her, despite her hands balling into a fist as the stout woman turned away from her to go torment another student.
She was mid way through cussing Umbridge out in her mind with the most inventive curse words she could think of when she felt a familiar burning in her left pocket. She instinctively looked around to the other DA members to see who else had reacted - Harry, Ron, Neville, Seamus - but none of them had reacted.
Cautiously, eyes and ears on high alert for Umbridge, she scooped the large golden Galleon out of her pocket. Pretending to adjust her skirt, she stole a glance at the engraved letters on the burning coin: 'Calm down."
Puzzled, she squinted at the words. Who could see that she was about to lose her temper? And why had none of the other members of the DA reacted? Surely at leas one of them still had their coin?
Hermione shoved the coin back in her pocket - just in time for Umbridge to swoop around to her desk again. She surveyed Harry first, one desk away, then Ron, and finally, back to Hermione.
"Aren't you three so dreadfully lucky that Professor Dumbledore is gone? Perhaps if he had focused more on discipline and less on his misguided notions of 'practical' applications of magic which will never be needed then Hogwarts wouldn't be in such a mess. To think, he had a group of ill advised 16 year olds thinking they knew better than the whole ministry!" She giggled again, and the Slytherins joined in.
Finally, Hermione snapped, the scribbling of the quills silenced and a collective gasp filling the room as she chucked her wretched cursed quill to the floor and stood up, staring in the old toad's face.
"Dumbledore was a great Professor! He actually wanted us to learn something, not to sit here carving ourselves up while the ministry ignore the blaringly obvious signs that something is very wrong around them! And for what - so that Fudge doesn't look bad? Because he doesn't want to deal with reality? We should be learning how to protect ourselves, and instead we are wasting time being bullied by an old witch who doesn't care about anything more than her own power!"
Hermione's chest was heaving as she came to the end of her outburst. Beside her, Harry's eyes were gleaming with pride while Ron's mouth was agape in shock. Umbridge's expression had turned from sickly sweet to menacing. The smile was still plastered on her face, though now her lips were tight and her nostrils flared.
"Miss Granger. Escort yourself from my classroom. Detention will be in order, let's make it every night this week." Her voice was light, but carried the dark edge of a threat. Turning back to the class, she commanded "Back to your lines, or the same will be in order for you. Such a pity, really, obviously even the most mundane witch or wizard can develop an over inflated sense of ego when they run in the wrong circles."
Still reeling, Hermione gathered her things and stormed out of class without sparing the evil witch so much as a glance. Memories of marching out of Trewlawney's classroom two years prior sprung to her head - but this was so much worse. As she entered the Gryffindor girls dormitory at last and threw her school bag onto the floor, she finally slumped onto her bed and let out a sob. What were they going to do?
Hermione grieved not only for her education, which until this year had been her number one priority, but also for the future of the Hogwarts students. For the muggle-borns who wouldn't be learning defensive magic and would therefore be vulnerable if attacked. For the first years who had been told tales of the wondrous Hogwarts only to be met with a prison-like castle where they could be bullied and abused as Umbridge saw fit. And for the Professors, who without Dumbeldore were powerless to help in anyway.
Suddenly, there was another burning in her shirt pocket. With some annoyance that the coin had interrupted her wallowing, Hermione snatched it out and stared at the letters.
"Told you so."