"Umbridge?" I said

"Yeah, she needed to assert her authority over Hagrid right away didn't she?" Hermione replied

"I'm guessing she treated him like shit" said Demelza

"Yep. As soon as she entered, she acted like he was incapable of understanding English or basic human actions"

"What did she say to him?" Amy asked

"She told him who she was and how she was the Defense teacher and High Inquisitor. She also seemed to cotton on to the fact that there were other people there, even though we'd put the Invisibility Cloak on"

"How did she know? Don't you often destroy your footprint trails in the snow?" I said

Hermione bit her lip

"I must have forgotten this time. Anyway, Hagrid managed to improvise some stuff, and although it really didn't sound convincing, he just about got Umbridge away. Though not before she warned him about her upcoming inspection. I'm very worried. Hagrid doesn't seem to be taking Umbridge seriously, and we all know she's going to do whatever she can to get rid of him. Trelawney's already on probation, so he needs to be so careful. He's refusing to listen though! All day today I was at his cabin trying to convince him to plan some reasonable lessons, but he just won't hear a word of it!"

She chewed her lip and glanced around at all of us nervously, wringing her hands.

Hagrid's inspection occurred on Tuesday, during the fifth years class. He was showing them Thestrals, which honestly weren't a terrible choice for the age group, and they were obviously easily accessible. In particular, it was good to show them in order to dispel the stupid rumours of them bringing bad luck to those who see them. Umbridge however, didn't see it that way, and continued to act as if Hagrid couldn't understand normal English or basic human interaction, all because he was half giant, the scumbag bitch! She told him that the Ministry had classified Thestrals as dangerous despite them having pulled the Hogwarts carriages for, as far as I know, the school's entire history! I felt as though Hagrid would be extremely lucky not to be sacked after that, despite having done nothing wrong!

December arrived, bringing with it more snow. Ron and Hermione's prefect duties also became more and more onerous as Christmas approached. They were called upon to supervise the decoration of the castle ("You try putting up tinsel when Peeves has got the other end and is trying to strangle you with it," said Ron), to watch over first and second years spending their break times inside because of the bitter cold ("And they're cheeky little snotrags, you know, we definitely weren't that rude when we were in first year," said Ron), and to patrol the corridors in shifts with Argus Filch, who suspected that the holiday spirit might show itself in an outbreak of wizard duels ("He's got dung for brains, that one," said Ron furiously).

I had to agree with everything he said, especially the last one! Why would Christmas spirit make us want to duel? If anything, it would be the complete opposite! This Christmas however, would not be spent at Hogwarts, but back home at the Burrow, which would make for a nice change from the last few years. Not that Christmas at Hogwarts was ever unenjoyable, in fact it was usually pretty brilliant, especially the food, but I hadn't been home for Christmas since starting at Hogwarts, so I was looking forward to it. Harry had also been invited. Hermione was going skiing with her parents. Skiing was a weird muggle activity where people attached strips of wood to their feet and used them to travel down mountains.

"Okay," said Harry, calling us all to order at the last DA meeting before we broke up for the holidays. "I thought this evening we should just go over the things we've done so far, because it's the last meeting before the holidays and there's no point starting anything new right before a three-week break —"

"We're not doing anything new?" said Zacharias Smith, in a disgruntled whisper loud enough to carry through the room. "If I'd known that, I wouldn't have come.

"Fucking hell, is your sole purpose in life just to complain about Harry?" I said loudly, "cause if so, do us all a favour by leaving and never coming back!"

There were several murmurs of agreement, though Smith didn't move, say anything else or even look at me.

"We can practice in pairs," said Harry. "We'll start with the Impediment Jinx, just for ten minutes, then we can get out the cushions and try Stunning again." We all divided up obediently. The room was soon full of intermittent cries of "Impedimenta!" People froze for a minute or so, during which their partners would stare aimlessly around the room watching other pairs at work, then would unfreeze and take their turn at the jinx. I was doing superbly with this, managing to freeze Amy three times in a row and block her attempts to freeze me. Stunning was more of the same, so eventually Harry had to pair me with Matilda to get more of a challenge. She was able to freeze and stun me on two out of the three attempts, but even so, considering I was up against a superblood, I was very proud to succeed against her on both!

At the end of an hour, Harry called a halt.

"You're getting really good," he said, beaming around at us. "When we get back from the holidays we can start doing some of the big stuff — maybe even Patronuses." There was a murmur of excitement, and I had a wonder about what my Patronus could be. I was thinking most likely a horse, as it would match up well with my fierce and free spirited nature, but I couldn't be sure. The room began to clear in the usual twos and threes; most people wished Harry a Happy Christmas as they went. I however, decided to stay behind and help Harry put the cushions away. I intended to leave with Ron and Hermione, but I didn't. For some reason, it felt like some force was compelling me to stay, or at least to watch what happened, as Cho had hung back.

I stood right next to the door, and Harry and Cho didn't seem to notice me. They were way too focused on each other. They had a brief conversation, though I was too far away to hear what they said. Then, my heart stopped, as slowly, standing underneath the mistletoe, they closed up to each other, leaned in closely, and kissed. I didn't need to see it for any longer than a second. I burst out of the door and stormed away back towards Gryffindor Tower, a tear running down my cheek.