Dawn Rivera

The Centaur and the Sneak

"I'll bet you wish you hadn't given up Divination now, don't you, Hermione and Dawn?" asks Parvati, smirking.

It is breakfast time, two days after the sacking of Professor Trelawney, and Parvati is curling her eyelashes around her wand and examining the effect in the back of her spoon. We are to have our first with Firenze this morning.

"Not really," says Hermione indifferently, who is reading the Daily Prophet. "I've never really liked horses."

Hermione and I turn the pages of our newspapers and scan its columns.

"He's not a horse, he's a centaur!" says Lavender, sounding shocked.

"A gorgeous centaur..." sighs Parvati.

"Either way, he's still got four legs," I say coolly. "Anyway, I thought you two were all upset that Trelawney had gone?"

"We are!" Lavender assures me. "We went up to her office to see her; we took her some daffodils - not the honking ones that Sprout's got, nice ones."

"How is she?" asks Harry.

"Not very good, poor thing," says Lavender sympathetically. "She was crying and saying she'd rather leave the castle for ever than stay here where Umbridge is, and I don't blame her, Umbridge was horrible to her, wasn't she?"

"I've got a feeling Umridge has only just started being horrible," says Hermione darkly.

"Impossible," says Ron, who is tucking into a large plate of eggs and bacon. "She can get any worse than she's been already."

"You mark my words, she's going to want revenge on Dumbledore for appointing a new teacher without consulting her," I say, closing the newspaper. "Especially another part-human. You saw the look on her face when she saw Firenze."

After breakfast, Hermione and I depart for our Arithmancy class as Harry, Danny and Ron follow Parvati and Lavender into the Entrance Hall, heading for Divination."

*

The happiness I felt in the aftermath of The Quibbler interview has long since evaporated. As a dull March blurs into a squally April, my life seems to have become one long series of worries and problems again.

Umbridge has continued attending all Care of Magical Creatures lessons, so it has been difficult to talk to Hagrid.

Meanwhile, as the teachers, Hermione and I persist in reminding people, the OWLs are drawing even nearer. All the fifth-years are suffering from stress to some degree, but Hannah Abbott becomes the first to receive a Calming Draught from Madam Pomfrey after she bursts into tears during Herbology and sobs that she is too stupid to take exams and wants to leave school now.

If it weren't for the DA lessons and Draco, I think I would be extremely unhappy. I sometimes feel I am living for the hours spent in the Room of Requirement, working hard but thoroughly enjoying myself all the same, swelling with pride as I look round at my fellow DA members and see how far they've come. Indeed, I sometimes wonder how Umbridge is going to react when all the members of the DA achieve "Outstanding" in their Defence Against the Dark Arts OWLs.

We have finally started work on Partonuses, which everybody has been very keen to practice, though, as Harry and Danny keep reminding us, producing a Patronus in the middle of a brightly lit classroom when we are not under threat is very different from producing it when confronted by something like a Dementor.

"Oh, don't be such a killjoy," says Cho brightly, watching her silvery swan-shaped Patronus soar around the Room of Requirement during our lesson before Easter. "They're so pretty!"

"They're not supposed to be pretty, they're supposed to protect you," says Danny patiently. "What we really need is a Boggart or something; that's how we learned, we had to conjure Partonuses while the Boggart was pretending to be a Dementor - "

"But that would be really scary!" says Lavender, who is shooting puffs of silver vapour out of the emd of her wand. "And I still - can't - do it!" she adds angrily.

Neville is having trouble, too. His face is screwed up in concentration, but only feeble wisps of silver smoke issue from his wand tip.

"You've got to think of something happy," Harry reminds him.

"I'm trying," says Neville miserably, who is trying so hard his round face is actually shining with sweat.

"Harry, Danny, I think I'm doing it!" yells Seamus, who has been brought along to his first DA meeting by Dean. "Look - ah - it's gone...but it was definately something hairy, Harry and Danny!"

Hermione's Patronus, a shining silver otter, and mine, a tiger, are gambling around us.

"They are sort of nice, aren't they?" Hermione says, looking at them fondly.

The door of the Room of Requirement opens, and closes. I look round to see who entered, but there does not seem to be anybody there. It is a few minutes before I realise that the people close to the door have fallen silent. Next thing I know, something is tugging at Harry's robes somewhere near the knee. I look down and see, to my very great astonishment, Dobby the house-elf peering up at him from his usual eight woolly hats.

"Hi, Dobby!"Danny says. "What are you - What's wrong?"

The elf's eyes are wide with terror and he is shaking. The members of the DA closest to Harry have fallen silent; everybody in the room is watching Dobby. The few Patronuses people managed to conjure fade away into silver mist, leaving the room a lot darker than before.

"Harry Potter, sir..." squeaks the elf, trembling from head to foot, "Harry Potter, sir...Dobby has come to warn you...but the house-elves have been warned not to tell..."

He runs head-first at the wall. Harry and Danny, who have some experience of Dobby's habits of self-punishment, make to seize him, but Dobby merely bounces off the stone, cushioned by his eight hats. Hermione, I and a few of the other girls let out squeaks of fear and sympathy.

"What's happened, Dobby?" Harry asks, grabbing the elf-s tiny arm and holding him away from anything with which he might seek to hurt himself.

"Harry Potter...she...she..."

Dobby hits himself hard on the nose with his free fist. Harry and Danny seize that, too.

"Who's 'she', Dobby?" Danny says.

But I think I know; surely only one "she" can induce such fear in Dobby? The elf looks up at Harry, slightly cross-eyed, and mouths wordlessly.

"Umbridge?" asks Harry, horrified.

Dobby nods, then tries to bang his head on Harry's and Danny's knees. Harry and Danny hold him at arm's length.

"What about her?" Danny says. "Dobby - she hasn't found out about this - about us - about the DA?"

I read the answer in the elf's stricken face. His hands held fast by Harry and Danny, the elf tries to kick himself and falls to the floor.

"Is she coming?" Harry asks quietly.

Dobby lets out a howl, and begins beating his bare feet hard on the floor.

"Yes, Harry Potter, yes!"

Harry and Danny straighten up and look around at the motionless, terrified people gazing at the thrashing elf.

"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?" Danny bellows. "RUN!"

We all pelt towards the exit at once, forming a scrum at the door, then people burst through. I can hear them sprinting along the corridors and I hope they have the sense not to try and make it all the way to their dormitories. It is only ten to nine; if they just take refuge in the library or the Owlery, which are both nearer -

"Harry, Danny come on!" I shriek from the centre of the knot of people now fighting to get out.

*

Question of the chapter: Dudley or Mrs Dursley?