Chapter Nineteen
Daphne managed to sit next to Neville in the History of Magic classroom without too much worry as Umbridge wasn't yet there.
"Are you all right?" Daphne whispered, "Your hand?"
Neville forced a smile, "Nothing's broken. Just hurts like hell. I think it might be worth trying to get hold of some more of that ointment stuff Harry got last time Umbridge was here."
Daphne gingerly held Neville's hand, two long bruises already stood out on the slightly swollen skin, running across is fingers in horribly straight lines. Nothing broken was the main thing but it had still been horrific to watch, she couldn't imagine how Neville had felt being on the receiving end of it.
"She managed to break the skin with her sodding nails as well." Neville said, shaking his head. He showed her the crescent shaped scratches just above his wrist.
"I… we knew it was going to be bad, but this is bad bad." Daphne said, shaking her head.
The door swung open behind them and Umbridge walked in, dressed in a pastel pink suit, the jacket ending just at her elbows and showing off her new Dark Mark. She walked on her pink court shoes to the front of the classroom and turned to beam at them all.
"Good morning class." Umbridge chirped.
"Good morning Professor Umbridge." the class chorused back.
"I can't tell you how happy I am, to have all your happy, eager little faces shinning up at me once again." Umbridge simpered, "I know I've not been here for… my goodness, over a year! But I am so happy to finally be back, where I belong."
Daphne forced herself not to snort a laugh. The words carved on the back of her hand, the punishment she'd refused to force on Harry always seemed to itch painfully when Umbridge was in the same room as her.
"Now, as you bright little things might remember, last time I was here I was teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts, which was a very silly lesson. It was nothing but… propaganda from certain undesirables. Now we have simply, Dark Arts, which will teach you all everything you need to know for when you're all grown up! But I'm not teaching that this time, can anyone tell me what I'm teaching this time?"
Daphne and Neville bit back several sarcasm filled responses about her memory really being that awful. Umbridge had never shied away from harsh punishments and Neville's hand was already painful enough.
"History of Magic?" a Ravenclaw said slowly, remembering to raise their hand at the last minute.
Umbridge looked at them carefully, considering whether or not to punish them for not asking for permission to speak, it wasn't worth it right now though, "Correct. But please remember to raise your hand and then wait for permission to speak next time, all right?"
The Ravenclaw nodded, "I'm very sorry, Professor Umbridge."
Umbridge beamed at them, "Well done. Now, I know that your last 'teacher' was a ghost." she let out a tinkly laugh, like it was the funniest thing she'd ever heard, "But don't worry, now you have a proper teacher. We're going to start right at the beginning." Umbridge reached onto her desk and held up a copy of 'Hogwarts- A History' for them all to see, she flicked her wand at the hard cardboard cover and it burst into flames, floating in the air before them, "You must try and remember from now on, history is written by the 'winners' and after brave Salazar Slytherin was chased from this school by Gryffindor, for nothing but the 'crime' of trying to protect magic, Gryffindor was the 'winner' and could write any number of lies that he wanted to."
Daphne watched as large, snowflake like flakes of ash floated up into the air, blown around by the slight draft from the open window. The now fully burnt book fell to the floor, shattering into fine ash before vanishing completely.
"For example, that lie filled book," Umbridge continued, "goes on and on about Slytherin not wishing to allow 'mixed blooded' children into Hogwarts. Is this the truth? Or did he simply want to protect magic from those who would abuse it?" she shook her head dramatically, "I hope to show you, all of you, that you have been lied to. Now, I would like you all to write down some 'facts' you know about the beginning of this school. Ten or twenty should be more than enough, and then we will talk about them and correct any… misconceptions you may have. There will be no need to talk."
Neville crouched over his parchment, mostly because he didn't want Umbridge to see the face of disgust he had on and partly because he didn't want Daphne to see how much pain he was in as he wrapped his hand around his quill, the pressure sending stabbing pain through his wrist.
Facts? His mind was far too focused on the pain his was in to think of anything that couldn't be debated, or wouldn't get him into far more trouble for being too anti-Slytherin. Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw were the safe bets, they were the more forgotten houses.
Ravenclaw had a daughter as her only child.
Hufflepuff adopted hundreds of house elves, many of which have descendent that still work here.
Hogwarts was founded in around 950AD
Neville put down his quill as soon as he'd managed to think of ten, boring facts and composed his face before sitting back up.
"Hem hem." Umbridge said, the noise grating on every student in the room, "Are you all finished?"
It wasn't really a question, it was an order.
"Excellent." Umbridge smiled, looking as toad like as ever, "Now… let's see… Mr Longbottom, do you have a 'fact' for us?"
"Umm…" Neville looked over his list, "Hogw…"
"Please stand when you addressing the class!" Umbridge snapped, before letting out a childish giggle and smoothing her hair, "It's the polite way."
Neville nodded and stood up, clearing his throat, "Hogwarts was founded in around 950AD."
Umbridge beamed widely at him, "Perfect. You may sit back down."
Neville nodded and slid back into his seat. He risked casting a worried look at Daphne, who was sitting perfectly still, facing the front almost serenely.
"This is a perfect example of the challenge I'm facing trying to teach you all the truth." Umbridge sighed, "Hogwarts was in fact formed in 936AD by Salazar Slytherin himself, with a little help from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. It was a lovely school that kept magical students safe. In 950, Gryffindor came along and stole the school from the other founders. He wanted to steal muggles and infect them with magic that they couldn't really control, all so that he would be praised."
Daphne took a deep breath to stop herself from saying something stupid, true but stupid under the current climate. It didn't even make sense that you could infect a muggle with magic! If you could, any squib could be helped. Magic was simply something you were born with or you weren't.
"Next!" Umbridge chirped, the wide, sickly smile never leaving her face.
Daphne and Neville sat by the edge of the lake in their lunch break. Daphne had popped into the Great Hall and grabbed a large handful of cheese and pickle sandwiches for them both.
"How's the hand?" Daphne asked, taking a bite of her sandwich.
Neville shrugged, "Hurts like hell. And writing is bad, need to remember to give them my left hand next time."
Daphne gave him a sad, exhausted smile. They still had a double period of Dark Arts to get through and her energy was sapped more than she wanted to admit.
"Swelling seems to be going down at least." Neville said.
They sat enjoying the breeze coming off the lake until the bell rang, summoning them back to class.
Dark Arts was every bit as horrible as they'd expected it to be. Amycus had them all practising curses on one another, thankfully something that none of them were very good at at this point.
Several of the students were rather sore and/or covered in spots and boils as they crept from the classroom, Amycus screaming at their backs about how awful they all were.
"We're going to have to get better at those at some point." Daphne said to Neville as they walked quickly through the corridors.
"I hope not." Neville said, rubbing his aching shoulder, "You've got a huge bruise." he said, brushing her hair off her shoulder, taking a closer look at the sickly yellow colour that was coming up over her neck.
Daphne shoved his hand away and smiled, pulling her shirt up to cover it up a little more, "It's fine. Tracy just caught me with one of those last spells. You win at the bruise game today I think."
"Hem hem?"
Daphne and Neville forced themselves to smile before turning around to face Umbridge who was click clacking quickly down the hall towards them.
"Can we help you Professor Umbridge?" Daphne asked sweetly.
"Mr Longbottom, were you… touching Miss Greengrass just now?" Umbridge said tightly, "In the middle of the hallway!"
Daphne managed to stop herself from laughing, "No Professor. I just have a bruise, and Neville was checking it for me. No touching involved."
Umbridge gave them a sharp glare, "Well… good… and keep it that way. You young things are far too young to be even thinking about touching. Now run along."
"And I thought all teenagers were ever meant to think about was touching." Daphne sniggered.
Neville grinned, "Miss Greengrass! Naughty girl."
"It comes with the blonde hair and long legs." Daphne smirked, "I got it in a multi-pack."
"I'll meet you at the Entrance Hall this evening, at eight?" Neville double checked, looking at the streams of students dividing up to go to their different common rooms.
There wasn't group study rooms any more and the idea of risking the library didn't appeal to them considering both were already badly bruised. Madam Pince had taken to the new teachers like a fish to water and loved screaming at every student who dared to even breath loudly.
"Yep. Already fully disguised." Daphne said, "I'll see you then."
She wondered down the corridor and forced herself not to look back towards Neville walking in the opposite direction.
"Ron, what are you doing down here?" Daphne asked.
Ron slapped on a smile, "Oh… I needed to pick up some Potions homework from Slughorn. I'm not so great at Potions, didn't do so well last year and we're now not allow to drop it so…"
"If it makes you feel any better I think everyone's grades are going to be a little all over the place this year." Daphne said with a laugh.
"You're hurt." Ron said, pointing to her bruise that was brightening from dull yellow to purple and starting to show through her shirt slightly.
"I'm fine." Daphne assured him, "I think we'd better get used to being a little battered anyway right? What with the way the lessons are going."
Ron nodded, "I tried to get Mum and Dad to let me stay home this year, but they said no. The law came into effect we had to go to school and what with Dad having ties to the Ministry… it's pretty bad isn't it?"
Daphne gave a small shrug, "It's… yeah, pretty bad covers it."
Ron looked around nervously, even though there were the only ones there, "I… umm… I was thinking… maybe we should learn too… make it not so bad?"
Daphne smiled, "We're on it. Keep an eye on your coin."
"Will do." Ron said, feeling rather relieved.
"Take care, Weasley." Daphne said, giving his arm a small pat and hurrying down the hall.
The common room was painfully quiet. Gemini and Rodolphus had taken over the comfy seats by the fireplace, they glared at her whenever she was in eye sight while their followers whispered and giggled at one another.
Daphne had a small seat in the corner, there were few people willing to sit with her any more.
Still, sitting alone in the common room seemed better than the alternative of sitting alone in the dorm room. Her bed hadn't changed since she'd first arrived at Hogwarts but now it all just seemed so empty without Pansy sleeping in the bed next to her.
Millicent and Tracy mainly just ignored her and pretended the perfectly made up but empty, cold bed that was Pansy's didn't exist. That it was perfectly normal that she wasn't there.
Daphne settled herself at her little table and dug out her homework. 'The Muggle Breeding Problem' chapters one and two.
Joy.
Pansy sat next to the camp fire, trying not to chew her nails, thinking about how annoyed her mother would be if she saw her chewing at her nails.
Since they'd been shopping and gotten more settled in, camping wasn't so bad. It was almost homely in fact. They had a rota of who cooked and cleaned, of who went for water and did the laundry. It had taken a week or so but for the first time, Pansy believed they could actually do this long term.
Tonight was the first meet up with Daphne and Neville though, meaning her nerves were through the roof waiting for them to arrive.
William, Cho and Pansy were all struggling with being so cut off from the world. They'd always known they wouldn't be able to write to anyone unless it was really needed, but it was very different now they actually had to live with it.
William held tightly to Pansy's hand, wishing there was some way he could make her feel better, but he knew her well enough to know that until Daphne and Neville arrived, she wouldn't be able to calm down.
Apart from them having to sneak out of the castle, something that wasn't going to be easy in the first place, they then had to make their way through the forest.
There was a rustle in the tree line nearby, William, Cho and Pansy's heads all snapping towards the sound.
"It's me!" Neville called out, "Well, us!"
Pansy jumped to her feet, "What happened with Trevor and Mrs Ijewsky?"
"I put him in her tea pot, Lucius thought it was kind of funny, although he wouldn't say it. Lily and Narcissa were ready to kill us."
"I wouldn't know, I wasn't there." Daphne said, "Neither were you."
"It's them." Cho smiled, letting out a huge sigh of relief.
Daphne and Neville rushed over, throwing their arms around Pansy and holding her tightly.
"It's been so strange at school without you there." Daphne smiled, "How are you all doing?"
Pansy led them over to the camp fire, getting them steaming mugs of hot chocolate and letting them sit before saying anything.
Daphne let herself sink into the fabric camping chair and took a scolding sip of her drink. The drinks ordering station was heavily guarded now in the Slytherin common room, as a result she'd not had hot chocolate since she got to school.
"It's been pretty good here." Pansy smiled, refilling her own mug, "It was rough the first night."
Cho snorted a laugh, "Awful is more like it."
"We got soaked and cold and it was bad." Pansy explained, "But we went shopping, got better equipment and we're all learning to cook. We'll be fine. How's it your end?"
Daphne and Neville gave each other a worried look.
"We promised we were going to be honest to one another." William reminded them.
"It's hard." Neville said, giving a small shrug, "Umbridge is back, teaching History of Magic this time, and two other Death Eaters. They're brother and sister, commonly referred to as 'the Carrows'."
"And Snape, of course." Daphne sighed, "Gone are the days of scrubbing the stairs or cleaning trophies for punishments."
She pulled her shirt out of the way slightly to show her bruise, Neville holding up his hand to show the deep bruises across his fingers.
"Oh my god!" William gasped.
Daphne nodded and sighed, "This one was from lessons. We don't do Defence Against the Dark Arts any more, we do straight up Dark Arts which today involved throwing curses at one another, while Amycus swore at us. They've been running around trying to keep order up until now, today were our first classes with them, although other years had some before us."
"Do… do you think they'd really hurt you? I mean dangerously hurt you?" Cho asked.
Neville nodded, "Without a doubt."
"Ron asked about more DA lessons today." Daphne said, determined not to let them all wallow in worry and self pity, "Not in so many words of course but he wants them to start again, I think others will as well."
"That's going to be really dangerous, stupidly dangerous!" Pansy protested.
"We have to." Daphne and Neville said at once.
"We'll be careful I promise." Daphne said, giving Pansy's hand a tight squeeze, "But we need to have a fighting chance. This is one of the reasons we went back to Hogwarts this year."
Pansy nodded, "That doesn't mean I have to like it."
Neville smiled and pulled out the Daily Prophet article about the break in at their offices and handed it over to Pansy.
"This was published today, I thought you should have a look." Neville explained.
William and Cho huddled around Pansy to read over the fine print in the dim light from the fire and a few hanging lamps.
"We don't really think that Harry, Hermione and Draco killed someone, do we?" William asked, nervously.
"No!" Cho snapped defensively, "Harry would never do that, not unless he had no other choice and this doesn't seem like that sort of situation."
"I think Cho's right." Daphne agreed, "It sounds like a fluff piece, the sort of crap they were coming out with when we were in fifth year, or sixth year for you two."
"I do wonder if they were actually at the Daily Prophet though." Neville said, "I mean…"
"You think there might have been a Horcrux there?" William frowned, "Why?"
"The Daily Prophet moved buildings not that long ago, five or six years maybe?" Pansy mused, giving in and chewing her nails, "So if there was something there, it would make more sense for it to belong to one of the people who work there, not something at the Prophet itself."
"I hope they've found one, one thing closer to all this being over you know?" Cho said softly, running a hand through her hair.
The five of them sat quietly, listening to the sounds from the forest and the crackling fire.
"We should head back." Neville sighed, saying it so quietly they barely heard him; he didn't want to leave the warm safety of their little camp, "We need to be back before anyone notices we're gone."
Daphne nodded and gave a small, sad smile to Pansy, William and Cho, "Activate your anklet if you need us."
Pansy nodded, "You do the same."
They gave each other one last hug before Daphne pulled out a pork chop. She and Neville headed back into the forest to find a Thestral and get back to school.