Faith .|. H. J. POTTER ✔

Chapter fifty-nine

Later that day, the school was talking about two things. One was that Umbridge had put Hagrid on probation, much to Malfoy's delight. Second, was the news about the escaped Death Eaters. Everyone had suspicions and theories about where they might be. Someone even said that they were spotted in Hogsmeade but Faith didn't think that was true. They had to be really stupid to get themselves seen less than twenty-four hours after they escaped. Others said that they were hiding in the Shrieking Shack, forming a plan to break into Hogwarts as Sirius had done. 

There also seemed to be a change in attitude towards the Daily Prophet now. A lot more people were dissatisfied with the version of how the Death Eaters managed to escape. The Prophet hadn't said a thing about it which made people doubt it. They tended to turn to the only other explanation and that was Harry and Dumbledore's truth; that Voldemort had returned. 

Because of this news, the teachers were often seen huddled together, talking in hushed voices. Hermione figured it was probably because they couldn't talk about stuff like that in front of Umbridge in the staff room. Not even a day later, Umbridge had made another decree, this one banning teachers from giving any information to students that is not related to the subject they are teaching. Fred, George and Lee took full advantage of this in their next class with Umbridge when she told Fred and George off for playing Exploding Snap in the back of the class. Lee told her that it had nothing to do with Defence Against the Dark Arts, but that sadly earned him detention. That same night, Faith helped him heal his hand with the spell and some Murtlap Essence. 

Faith had expected Umbridge to have less talk in front of the students and other teachers but she was wrong. She seemed determined to sack at least one teacher while she was in charge. The question was if it was going to be Hagrid or Trelawney. Faith hoped it would be none but Harry, Ron and Hermione didn't mind seeing Trelawney gone.

Umbridge was now in every Divination and Care of Magical Creatures lesson with her clipboard. It made both teachers nervous. Trelawney kept predicting the students' answers before them telling those and Hagrid was fidgety and jumpy during each lesson even though he had taken Hermione's advice on the kind of creatures he taught the class. He also seemed to distance himself from the four friends, saying it was far too dangerous for them to visit him in the evening.

All of this took quite a toll on Harry, as Faith noticed. Now with visits to Hagrid, letters to Sirius, his Firebolt and Quidditch all gone, he only focused on the DA.

Everyone doubled their efforts after the news of the ten escaped Death Eaters but no one improved as much as Neville. He never said much during the meetings, always focused on the jinxes Harry thought them. Faith was usually the victim of his brilliant spellwork. When they learned the Shield Charm, only Hermione mastered it faster than Neville.

Faith was usually doing OK during the meetings. She wasn't the fastest but she knew that was because of her concentration problems and the difficulty of the spells and charms. With a little help from Harry, she always got there.

Since the Occlumency lessons the two had, their foreheads, or Harry's scar, never stopped prickling and they both sometimes felt really happy or really irritated in random times of the day. They were sure it only started getting worse since the first Occlumency lesson. 

"Maybe it's a bit like an illness," Hermione had suggested when Harry and Faith had told this to her and Ron. "A fever or something. It has to get worse before it gets better,"

"The lessons with Snape are making it worse," Harry told her. "I'm getting sick of my scar hurting and I'm getting bored with walking down that corridor every night,"

"I just wish the stupid door would open," Faith agreed. "I'm sick and tired of just staring at it every night,"

"No, Dumbledore doesn't want you two to have dreams about that corridor at all, or he wouldn't have asked Snape to teach you Occlumency. You're just going to have to work a bit harder in your lessons,"