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! chapter five !
─── ∙ ~ ✩ ~ ∙ ───
HAVEN SAT NEXT TO Hermione in their shared class the next morning. More specifically, the class they were in was Defense Against the Dark Arts. The two girls giggled amongst themselves, both doodling random things in Haven's notebook. Neither of them were artists, to say the least. Haven couldn't even begin to understand what her friend had drawn, which only made her laugh harder.
One of the boys had made a paper dove, and it flew around the room. Haven watched as students attempted to catch it, a grin planted on her face.
Their fun was cut short when the piece of paper suddenly caught fire in the air, and landed on one of the desks. The excitement dialed down once Umbridge came into view, that stupid fake smile still plastered across her lips.
"Good morning, children," she greeted in a calm, high-pitched voice. She slowly began to make her way towards the front of the classroom. Umbridge waved her wand, and words appeared on the chalkboard as she did so. "Ordinary Wizarding Level examinations. O-W-L's. More commonly known as OWL's."
"Would've never guessed," Haven mumbled, and she heard a snicker from behind her. She glanced back, meeting Draco's gaze. Haven resisted to raise her eyebrows in surprise—she didn't even notice that he and Pansy were sitting behind them. Hermione elbowed her, making Haven face forward once more.
"Study hard, and you will be rewarded," Umbridge went on. "Fail to do so, and the consequences will be severe." The professor suddenly waved her wand, and the pile of books began to fly into the air, landing in front of each student. "Your previous instruction in this subject has been disturbingly uneven. But you'll be pleased to know, that from now on, you will be following a carefully structured Ministry-approved course of defensive magic. Yes?"
Hermione placed her arm back down onto the table once she'd been called on, her brows furrowing with confusion. "There's nothing in this book about using defensive spells?"
"Using spells?" Umbridge repeated, before she let out an obnoxiously fake laugh. "Well, I can't imagine why you would need to use spells in my classroom."
"But we're literally wizards," Haven said, making Umbridge's head snap over in her direction. "Using spells is what we do. Why is the Ministry cutting that off? I mean, what good is a wizard if we can't even perform a simple spell?"
"You ask too many questions," Umbridge told her, and Haven shrank back into her seat, ignoring her pounding heart. She was almost positive her face had to be beat red, and she clenched her hands into fists to stop them from shaking.
"We're not gonna be using magic?" Ron asked, and the attention was quickly taken off of her. Her shoulders sagged in relief.
"You'll be learning about defensive spells in a secure, risk-free way."
