Aurora | Harry Potter

chapter twenty-two

It's the next day and I had a nightmare last night about Cedric, so today I'm not in the happiest of moods. What doesn't help that is the fact I'm currently waiting for Umbridge's Defence Against the Dark Arts class, which will be horrible, if she truly acts like how she did yesterday.

I see the Parvati twins create a flying paper bird and they launch it into the air. It gracefully soars through the room but I don't look at it, instead I just fiddle with my fingers.

"You alright, Aurora?" Harry, who's sat next to me, asks with a worried look on his face. "I had a nightmare about Cedric last night," I reply, looking up at him and giving him a small smile. "I'm fine, just tired."

Suddenly, a see a burst of flames and look forward to see the paper bird now burnt to a crisp and falling down onto the Parvati twins' desk.

"Good morning, children." Everyone turns around to see Umbridge at the back of the classroom, wand in hand. She starts to walk forward and uses her wand to write on the chalkboard.

"Ordinary... Wizarding... Level... examinations! O - W - L's, more commonly known as O.W.L.S," she exclaims joyfully, a wide cheery smile on her face. "Study hard and you will be rewarded. Fail to do so and the consequences may be... severe."

She then flicks her wand and books get handed to each student. I pick mine up and read the front cover as Umbridge starts to talk: Dark Arts Defence - Basics for Beginners... does she think that we're all a bunch of ten year olds?

"Your previous instruction in this subject has been disturbingly uneven, but you'll be pleased to know that from now on, you'll be following a carefully structured, Ministry approved course of Defensive Magic."

Hermione raises her hand and alerts the class that the book says absolutely nothing about using spells to defend ourselves. "Using spells?" Umbridge asks, followed by a really sharp laugh, "well I can't imagine why you would need to use spells in my classroom."

"We're not going to be using magic?" Ron asks, confusion lying thick in the air. "You'll be learning about Defensive Spells in a secure, risk-free way," Umbridge answers.

 "That's just not useful though," I say, really confused and befuddled by this woman's idiotic nature, "If we're going to be attacked, it's not going to be 'risk-free' and--"

"Students will raise their hands when they speak in my class!" She snaps, swiftly turning around and walking to her desk. "It is the view of the Ministry that a theoretical knowledge would be sufficient to get you through your examinations, which after all is what school is all about."

"So how is a theoretical knowledge supposed to prepare us for whatever is out there?" I say, stating the obvious danger of who's just returned into the Wizarding World. "There is nothing out there, dear," Umbridge responds, "who do you imagine would want to attack children like yourselves?

"Lord Voldemort," I retort, which makes several students start to murmur to each other. Few actually believe that Voldemort has returned, but the majority of people just think it's all a massive hoax.

"Now, let me make this quiet plain," Umbridge starts as she walks closer to my desk. "You have been told that a certain Dark Wizard is at large once again. This... is... a... lie."

That's it.

"It's not a lie! Harry here saw him and fought him!" I snap in Umbridge's face, just to have her twist around and give me a detention, which is obviously the worst thing I should be worried about right now.

"So what, you're saying that my brother just dropped dead and died of his own accord?" I ask sarcastically, anger lacing my every word. Umbridge tries to argue back saying his death was a 'tragic accident', which just makes me even angrier.

"IT WAS MURDER! Voldemort murdered him in front of Harry, you know this!"

"ENOUGH!!"

The whole room goes silent and you would've been able to hear a feather drop on the floor. "See you later, Miss Diggory. My office." I scoff as I slink back in my chair, eagerly awaiting my most likely boring detention later...

-

"See you back at the Common Room," I say, pulling out of the hug with Harry and I walk up to Umbridge's office. As soon as I walk in, I feel like I'm in a five year old girls bedroom. The walls are painted an alarming shade of pink, there are china plates displaying cats among cats everywhere and when Umbridge sits me down, I see that even her cup of tea is pink.

"You're going to be writing lines for me today, Miss Diggory," she says, but stops me as I go to pull out my quill and ink. "You're going to be using a rather special quill of mine." She stands up, walks over to me and places a curled feather quill on the desk.

"I want you to write 'I must not tell lies'," she says, standing by my side. "How long should I write that for?" I ask. "Until the message... sinks in," she replies as she walks up to her window.

"You haven't given me any ink," I say, slightly confused when she says I'm not going to need any ink. I sigh and start to write my lines on the piece of parchment, which, surprisingly, is a normal beige colour.

After writing the sentence about three times, I feel my left hand start to burn and itch. I pay no mind to it at first, but when I gets worse, I quickly glance at it and then do a double take. Words are etching themselves into the back of my hand, bloody red words spelling out 'I must not tell lies'. It stops and pricks of blood start to appear, trickling down my hand and onto the desk.

Then, Umbridge walks around to the front of the desk and looks at me, a sickly, menacing smile on her face. "You know deep down you deserved to be punished, don't you, Miss Diggory?" She says, before motioning to the door, telling me that I can leave.