Crucio ⇢ D.M

chapter fourteen

The Boat House
word count: 8685

Despite having run away from all the commotion when Umbridge found Dumbledore's Army, Arden was still caught thanks to Umbridge's illegal use of truth serum on all the members she did manage to catch. Arden sat in the great hall, cringing at the echoing sounds of soft sobs and winces as Umbridge's cursed quills carved their hundreds of lines onto the back of their hands. The unfamiliar magic in her had acted in defence quickly, the cuts barely penetrating her skin and the pain almost nonexistent. Arden wished she could somehow exert her magic onto everyone else in the room, but if she already didn't know how she was doing it for herself, she couldn't even begin to attempt at controlling it on a wider scale.

Arden's eyes looked up at Umbridge who sat in the Headmaster's chair with a silk shawl draped over her shoulders. She swirled her tea lightly with a teaspoon, a sadistic, yet seemingly innocent smile on her face as she watched the room of children suffer in front of her. Arden locked eyes with the wretched woman for a moment. Umbridge's eyes narrowed but her smile remained, the cold, unforgiving eyes paired with the guilt free smile made a chill run down Arden's spine; she couldn't fathom the idea of someone being as evil as the gremlin that sat before her. Arden narrowed her eyes in response, before quickly returning her focus back to her lines. She didn't see Umbridge's eyebrows raise in shock at the disrespect, but she didn't need to, as the abrupt sound of her spoon clanking harshly against her tea cup and the slight scoff satisfied Arden just enough.

It felt like years of endless torture for the students before Umbridge had finally let them go. In a rush, everyone stood from their desks and marched out of the great hall in a hurry, rubbing the backs of their hands to try and soothe the pain. Arden could have sworn she saw Padma and Parvarti Patil both in tears, but they hurried away too quickly for her to try and see if they were alright. Even Fred and George, who always found light in every situation, left the great hall in silence and headed straight for their common room, holding their sleeves over their hands to stop the bleeding.

"Did you see her face? That sadistic wench probably took pleasure out of that," Lena cursed, wincing as she grazed her fingertips over her fresh wounds. Arden stayed quiet. She still hadn't yet adjusted to the fact that Lena's own father was ordered to kill Cedric. Arden wanted to believe that Lena had no clue, but over the summer, the doe eyed girl seemed to have been behaving differently. She was still her chirpy, friendly self (that could still snap if it were something she were passionate about) but she had been spending more and more time with Blaise, Pansy, and even closer, Draco Malfoy.

Arden was positive Lena had a distaste for most of the Slytherins since hardly any of them were nice to her. In fact, Lena had even told her before that she wished the Slytherins were more like the Greengrass girls, who were some of the kindest people in the school. All of a sudden, Arden would arrive in the great hall for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, and see Lena standing by the Slytherin table, making Pansy Parkinson laugh until she couldn't breathe, making Blaise Zabini chuckle lightly, and making Draco Malfoy crack a small smile. Arden tried to ignore the pang of jealousy when she'd see Lena and Draco so close, instead she would write it off as her increasing suspicion. Was this a secret Death Eater thing? Even if Arden knew deep down that Draco wouldn't go down that path (or rather, she had hoped), nearly half the Wizarding World knew that his father along with Parkinson's family were affiliated with the Death Eaters; it was too significant to ignore.