Little Bird

Chapter Seven

Eve

            By the time I finally made it to Defense Against the Dark Arts, I was about ten minutes late.

            I walked in hurriedly, looking up to see Professor Umbridge staring at me from her place at the front of the classroom. My heart sank as I realized she'd stopped mid-sentence, and now half the class was twisting in their seats to look at me. "Um—"

            "Why, Miss Hawkings," Professor Umbridge said, her unusually sweet voice making me even more uneasy. "Would you care to tell us why you're so late to class?"

            "Um," I repeated, all these eyes on me making me forget what I should say. "I had to...I had to help Professor McGonagall clean up. She told me to tell you."

            "Well," the professor said crisply, "next time, tell Professor McGonagall I need to hear that from her in person. Take a seat, if you would."

            My cheeks burning, I mumbled a hasty apology. I went to sit down at my regular seat alone in the back, but I almost stopped when I realized someone was seated beside my chair. Blaise looked over his shoulder and gave me a warm grin, waving me over.

            'Stay away from Zabini.'

            I pushed Malfoy's voice away and quickly sat down beside Blaise, setting my bag down next to the table. As Umbridge continued her boring lesson, I whispered to Blaise, "Why are you here? I thought you had Divination this period."

            "Nice to see you too," Blaise said cheekily, rolling his eyes in fake annoyance. "My schedule got switched around. Guess you're stuck with me."

            My smile widened, and I knew I was blushing. Thank God, I thought, looking back up at the front of the room. Thank God he's in this class now. I wouldn't have to sit at the back all by myself anymore, surrounded by Ravenclaws—none of which had any interest in speaking with me, a Slytherin.

            As Umbridge set us off to do the problems on page 24 of the textbook, Blaise looked around the classroom and said, "Man, this class is shit. Not a single Slytherin."

            Or Gryffindor, I thought, but decided not to say it. "Tell me about it," I said instead, flipping through my book to the right page. "And Umbridge is awful, so that just makes it worse."

            Blaise snorted loudly, glancing up at the front of the room to see if the professor had heard. The rest of the class was talking, and my voice was always so quiet that my comment didn't carry far. He finally flipped to the right page and said, "She really is terrible, isn't she? Makes me sick, if I'm being honest."

            "There's just...so much pink," I said, peering over my open textbook to look at Umbridge. She was sitting at the front of the room, slowly grading some papers while we did our work.

            Blaise was watching her as well now, the two of us critically looking her over from our place at the back of the room and trying not to laugh. "She reminds me of a toad. Do you see that?"

            "Yeah," I giggled quietly, trying to cover my mouth with one hand. "It's the eyes, I reckon."

            "Definitely the eyes. And what's up with her hair?"

            Umbridge glanced up then, so I quickly ducked my head and prayed she hadn't heard. Blaise, however, didn't even move—he just sat there casually, probably not even caring if the professor had heard or not. When I finally looked up again, Umbridge was back to grading her papers and Blaise was doing his best not to laugh at me.