Needing You

Chapter 39

Dumbledore had disappeared.

No one knew where to, but this left a space for a new head, which Umbridge delightfully took.

The first thing she did was to make sure she punished all the members they had found from Dumbledore's army.

After Blaise saw that Talia was brought into Umbridge's office, he thought there was no point in being friendly, it was boring.

So he gathered up Talia's friends who hadn't gotten much further from when he let them go, and brought them to join Talia in Umbridge's office.

The students were gathered together and made to write lines, which led to all the students having sore hands for some time.

Talia was about to go back to the Hufflepuff common room with Hannah, Susan and Justin when they bumped into Ernie and the Golden trio who looked furious.

"That bloody Malfoy of yours!" Ron exclaimed when he saw Talia, his finger pointed to her.

"Now hold on there-" Susan started.

"No. You know he took points off us, for no reason. We were just standing there!" Ron continued.

"Well, there's no need to talk to Talia like that-"

"Did you know?" Hermoine asked Talia, which shocked her as Hermoine usually gave Talia the benefit of the doubt.

"Did I know...?" Talia questioned, which she regretted immediately as she realised what Hermoine was asking.

"Did you know he could take points away like that? That he was part of that Inquisitorial Squad? Because it would've been nice to be given a heads up!" Hermoine asked, clearly seething with rage.

Talia truly did not appreciate the position she was put in. She was not speaking to the boy but still had to fight his battles.

"I, um... Yes, I knew," the Hufflepuffs gasped and Hermoine looked at Talia with a disappointed expression, whereas Harry shook his head and Ron tapped his foot impatiently with his arms crossed.

"When?" Hermoine pushed on.

"Just after Christmas, he took 5 points from me," Talia said with her head down.

"And you couldn't have told us?" Ron asked, his arms still crossed.

"I... I didn't think-" Talia was thankful for the interruption as she could not think of an excuse.

"Now, I really think we shouldn't be hounding Talia right now. We're all tired and pissed so why don't we just go to our respective common rooms for a little breather," Ernie said whilst putting his arm around Talia and guiding her to the Hufflepuff common room and away from the clearly frustrated trio, with the other Hufflepuffs following suit.

"Sorry about that Lia, they just had a not so great interaction with Malfoy and couldn't take it out on him, so they probably thought you were the next best thing," he explained.

Hearing this did not make her situation with Draco any better. The chances of them coming to terms with their relationship had lowered now that she knew he was wreaking havoc on her friends.

Talia stayed silent whilst making her way to the common room and went straight to her room, not realising she was being followed by Hannah and Susan who comforted her as soon as she fell into her bed and started quietly sobbing.

Although the two girls were also a little upset that their friend had forgotten to tell them such crucial information, they also knew that she had been through too much to constantly think about others. It was okay for her to forget some details, seeing as she clearly is not her usual self. They just hoped that she would drop all ties to Draco as they noticed the turbulent relationship did not help her situation at all.