White Heather for Protection

Umbrage

It was with a heavy heart that Hadrian returned to Hogwarts after the Yule Break. Don't get him wrong; he loved the school and learning more about magic every day. It was just one person in particular he was dreading to see again. That disgusting, horrid, unbearable toad of a woman. Dolores Umbridge.

Or as Ron had aptly put it once, Umbitch.

The damnable woman with her sickly saccharine smile and grating falsetto voice. She dared to deny all claims of Voldemort's return and then accuse him of being the liar. He rubbed his right hand soothingly, feeling the phantom pain of words carved into it. There was nothing visible there, of course, thanks to his sister's potions. Heather knew nothing about his detentions, thank Merlin. He had made sure of that. In fact, besides Hermione, no one knew.

Hadrian didn't know how his friend had gotten Blood Replenisher from Heather, but he was grateful. That week had been pure torture, with detentions assigned every bloody night. Literally. He had been on the verge of fainting from blood loss. He knew it had been visible from how pale he had become.

He wouldn't give up though, no matter how many detentions he would get from Umbitch. He couldn't just sit there and not say anything when she spewed such blatant rubbish. He had seen Voldemort, felt the agonising pain of his Crucio. No matter how much Hermione told him to just lay low and bide his time, he couldn't.

He was just glad that the toad had stopped talking about Voldemort and focussed more on her precious Ministry-approved DADA curriculum. It was completely useless, true, but the DA sessions were enough of a victory for him to keep quiet in class. His hand was thankful for the break from the torture of that stupid quill.

Having Cedric in the DA had been very helpful. He knew the schedule of the Professor's patrols, so avoiding discovery was a piece of cake with some fine coordination and copious use of the Marauder's Map. He knew Heather and the twins were currently working on reproducing a copy of it - with some nifty additions - for each of the founding DA. When they were done with it, everything would be much easier.

Now, if only they could come up with a way to knock Umbitch down off her high horse so that she was too unsuitable, even by the Ministry's flimsy standards, to teach at Hogwarts.

~~~

The second morning of the school term started with a bang. Quite literally, as a loud sound was heard from the Gryffindor table shortly after the owls had swooped in during breakfast to deliver the mail. Heather glanced towards the source of the noise, surprised to find Neville Longbottom standing, red-faced and glaring, with his palms flat on the table. He quickly reverted to his shy self when he realised where he was and sat down with an audible 'eep'.

She had never seen the gentle boy so worked up before. It must have been quite something to rouse his anger like that. And it had been anger she saw in his eyes. Not that she thought poorly of him like so many others did. Oh, she knew what some people said about him. 'The Cowardly Lion', 'Baby Longbottom', et cetera. They were all wrong about him, though. While Neville wasn't the classic Gryffindor, she had seen his quiet strength and persistence shine through, especially in the DA.

He had really improved by leaps and bounds over the course of the meetings. Heather believed that all he needed was more confidence and the right teacher. She ador- admired Professor Snape, truly she did, but even she could see that his caustic style of teaching clashed badly with Neville's personality.

Still, her curiosity had been piqued. Quickly finishing her omelette, she snagged the newspaper that her darling Hedwig had brought to her. She could only infer that it was something in the Daily Prophet that had triggered Neville's temper, since it had been lying open in front of him when she looked over. Turning it over, her hands clenched tightly, crumpling the parchment. Ahh, she understood his reaction now.