three
{Kit’s POV}
|September 2nd, 1995|
Well, today is my half birthday. That means it’ll be a good day with no issues at all, right?
I’m kidding. I know that they aren’t directly linked; I just like to think it.
“Morning, Kit!”
“Hey, Pans,” I say groggily. The sleep deprivation is already hitting me.
She’s already dressed in her school clothes. “Breakfast has already started. I waited for you.”
I sigh and get up. “Thanks. I’ll be ready in a minute.” Pansy nods and grabs her bag before leaving the room.
As I said, it only takes me a minute or so to get changed into my school robes. I ensure that my bag has the essentials. Quills, ink, plenty of parchment, books, etc,. When I know I’m ready, I grab my wand and head out the door.
Pansy is waiting at the bottom of the stairs that lead out of the common room. She sees me and starts walking up, not waiting for me any longer. I rush to catch her. As usual, we walk to breakfast in silence, seeing as we talked all night.
The Great Hall is loud and bustling, despite it being 8 in the morning. I easily spot Draco in our usual seats at the Slytherin table. I beat Pansy to the seat. Draco smiles at our arrival.
“Morning, Kit.” He hands me a glass of water.
I gladly take it. “Morning. Has the post come yet?”
He shakes his head. “They’re passing out timetables before the owls come in this year, so it’s taking longer today.”
“Cool.” I grab a piece of toast. My appetite is never big in the morning, so I don’t eat much. Snape starts walking along the table to hand out timetables. After a minute, he reaches us.
Draco sticks his hand out for his and Snape hands it to him, a kind of… paternal look quickly flashing across his gloomy face. However, it was barely noticeable. He gives me a similar look when he gives me mine.
“Welcome back, Kit,” he says before moving on.
“You too, Professor,” I respond. Along with the required classes, I am also taking Arithmancy, Study of Ancient Runes, and Care of Magical Creatures.
I look up at the sound of feathers entering the room. I immediately spot my owl, Whodini. I got him two years ago from my dad.
He flies down and drops a single letter on my half-empty plate before perching on my shoulder. I give him a treat from my bag and scratch his head. “Hi, sweetie.”
“Sweet! We get a free period right away!” Blaise cheers. I roll my eyes playfully.
Draco pouts a little. “But I want to start class already.”
Pansy flicks his ear. “You’re such a nerd, Draco.”
“I don’t care. This summer was so long. I didn’t do anything exciting.” Draco downs the rest of his juice. “We didn’t even go to any new countries. Believe me, after visiting Germany and France every summer for 9 years straight, it gets a tad repetitive. I’d much rather stay home and visit places in the UK. We never get to visit anywhere other than London.”
“Well, if it makes you feel any better, I only ever travel around the United Kingdom,” I tell him.
He grins. “So you can be my tour guide then.”
I scream internally. Jesus, why is he like this. I can’t stand it. “If you pay me.” Oh my gods, Kit. What is wrong with you? Why would you say that?
Draco laughs. “Of course. How about this upcoming summer?”
And that’s when my brain explodes. “I’ll have to check with my grandfather. He’s visiting this year.” But then I realize something. “That is, if you were being serious?”
He looks slightly confused. “Why would I joke about something like that? I would love to spend the summer holiday with you.”
Oh my gods. Holy shit. Did he really just say that out loud? I pinch myself discreetly.
“I was just double-checking,” I explain, trying to hide my red face behind my hair. I do not say anything else. There is no way I’m risking saying anything stupid right now. I just give Whodini a few more scratches before sending him off to the owlery. The others jump into a conversation about upcoming classes.
From the corner of my eye I see Alzona waving to me. I look over and wave back. He then starts gesturing at me to follow him. I stand up and grab my bag. “I’m gonna go meet Al. I’ll see you guys later.”
I walk out of the Great Hall and see him on a bench at the top of the Grand Staircase. I climb it and join him.
“Morning,” he says.
I smile at him. “Hi, Al. What’s up? We have Charms together in two hours.”
“I know,” he mumbles, looking down at his shoes. “I just figured that you would be talking with Thea most of the time.” Oh. To be honest, that is probably what will happen. “I just wanted some time to talk to you.”
“That’s fair. What did you want to talk about? Anything specifically?”
He looks at me with his dark brown eyes. “Not really. I just wanted to chat for a little bit. That okay with you?”
I agree happily and we end up almost being late for Charms. As we enter the classroom, I spot Thea and speed walk over to her table. Luckily, she saved the seat for me.
She gives me a slightly disapproving look. “Kit. It’s the first day. You can not start off by getting to class a minute before the bell.”
I shrug. “Al and I lost track of the time,” I say, only a little guiltily.
Thea verbally groans her disapproval. “Who in Merlin’s name let the two of you divulge into unsupervised conversation? You guys are always late when you’re together.”
“Well, it can’t be helped now, can it? Because it’s already happened.” In response, she rolls her eyes at me.
Filius Flitwick, the professor, makes a few semi-loud bangs on his wand to get our attention and I shut up. He begins going over some basics and stuff we learned at the end of last year. Overall it’s a pretty easy first day in Charms.
Next, Blaise and I have Ancient Runes together. The teacher is a middle aged woman named Bathsheda Babbling. All she gives us is a review test. It passes pretty quickly.
Lunch is next. My friends and I typically grab some food from the Great Hall and then go outside to the courtyard. Today is no different.
After that, we have Defense Against the Dark Arts. With the new pink toad, Umbridge.
We enter the classroom and I sit with Cece in the middle of the rightmost row. Draco and Pansy sit right behind us. Theo Nott and Blaise sit behind them.
The room is completely silent. Umbridge is sitting at her desk, watching. Once she sees that everyone has been seated, she begins speaking.
“Good afternoon.”
Nobody responds.
“Tut tut tut.” She shakes her head. “That simply will not do. Try again, but this time, everyone must say, ‘Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge.’” She clears her throat. “Good afternoon!”
This time, everyone responds, although most, like me, are very low-energy about it. “Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge.”
She smiles. Her mouth and cheeks are unnaturally wide. “Much better! Now, put your wands away and get your quills out, please.”
Tons of people groan as they put their wands away. I personally like taking notes, so I don’t mind more non-wand using lessons.
Umbridge apparently does not apply the no-wand rule for herself, as she takes it out and taps the board to make words appear. ‘Defense Against the Dark Arts: A Return to Basic Principles.’
Basic principles? Now that is an actual boring lesson to me. I hate review work. It’s always way too easy.
“Well, it appears I have quite a bit of work to do in fixing your knowledge of this subject, seeing as none of your recent professors have been extremely neglectful of the Ministry-approved curriculum. As a result, you are severely under the standart we hold the year of your O.W.L.s.” Her smile doesn’t fade. “I believe that you will all be pleased to hear that I will be sticking to a carefully structured, theory-based curriculum this year. Please copy what is on the board.” She changes the words.
Course Aims:
Understanding the principles underlying defensive magic.
Learning to recognize situations in which defensive magic can legally be used.
Placing the use of defensive magic in a context for practical use.
A few minutes later, after all of the quill scratching noises stopped, Umbridge spoke again. “Does everybody have a copy of Defensive Magical Theory by Wilbert Slinkhard?”
A couple people mutter various answers under their breaths, but it is obviously not enough for the toad.
She tuts a few times. “Let us try that again. When I ask you a question, you will respond with, ‘Yes, Professor Umbridge,’ or ‘No, Professor Umbridge.’ So, does everybody have a copy of Defensive Magical Theory by Wilbert Slinkhard?”
“Yes, Professor Umbridge,” is said by everyone in a loud chorus.
“Good. Turn to page five and read chapter one. There will be no need to talk.”
Books are pulled out of bags and opened as the room falls into an uncomfortable silence. A few minutes pass before I notice a bunch of people staring at the middle of the room. I join them and see Hermione Granger not reading. Instead, her hand is in the air. Sure, it’s strange, but I go back to my reading and quickly finish the chapter. It was a simple enough concept, but the wording was unnecessarily difficult.
My eyes drift back to Hermione. At this point, half the class seem to be staring at Hermione instead of their books, so Umbridge stops ignoring her.
“Did you have a question about the chapter, dear?”
“Not about the chapter,” said Hermione.
“Well,” Umbridge says, “we’re reading right now. Any queries will wait until the end of class.”
“But I’ve got a querie about your course aim.” Hermione is not backing down.
Umbridge raises her eyebrows. “And what was your name?” After Hermione replies, Umbridge continues. “Well, Miss Granger, I think the course aims are perfectly clear if you read through them carefully.” Her voice is ridiculously sweet.
“I don’t,” Hermione spouts. “Nothing on there talks about using defensive magic.”
I look back at the board and notice that Hermione is right. Everything listed are theoretical things.
“Using defensive spells? What sort of situation could arise in this classroom that would require you to use defensive spells? Miss Granger, I don’t suppose you expect to be attacked during class, do you?”
Ron Weasley speaks up. “We’re not going to be using magic?”
“You will be learning about defensive spells in a secure, risk-free way,” she tries to explain.
Then Harry Potter speaks. “What use is that? If we’re going to be attacked it’s not going to be risk free.”
Umbridge snaps at him. “Students will raise their hands when they speak in my class.” She waits a second. “It is the view of the Ministry that theoretical knowledge will be sufficient to get you through your examinations. Which, after all, is what school is all about!”
Harry interrupts again. “And how’s theory supposed to prepare us for what’s out there?” He’s got a point.
“There is nothing out there, dear.” Her smile shows off pointed teeth. “Who do you think wants to attack children like yourselves?”
“Oh, I dunno, maybe… Lord Voldemort,” Harry states.
Everyone starts talking amongst themselves. Cece gasps. So does Pansy. Draco inhales quickly. Umbridge doesn’t speak. Her smile falters slightly and her eyebrows furrow up.
After a few seconds she finally speaks again. “Now, let me make this quite plain. You have been told that a certain Dark wizard is at large once again. This. Is. A. Lie.”
“It’s not a lie! I saw it! I fought him!”
“Detention, Mr. Potter.”
“So, according to you, Cedric Diggory dropped dead of his own accord?” Harry inquires.
Umbridge takes a breath. “Cedric Diggory’s death was a tragic accident.”
“It was murder, Voldemort killed him. You must know that.”
“Enough!” she yells loudly before getting softer. “Enough. See me later, Mr. Potter. My office.” And then she does her stupid little laugh thing.
The class falls into silence. But Harry makes another outburst and gets sent to McGonagall’s office. When he’s gone, Umbridge assigns an essay to go along with the chapter one reading and gives us the remainder of class to work on it.
Once the bell rings, everyone exits as quickly as they can, desperate to escape the confines of Umbridge’s classroom.
I let out a sigh of relief. “I don’t think I can last a year with her as my teacher.”
Draco nods in agreement. “My father told me last week that there would be a new DADA curriculum, but he didn’t say anything about us not being able to use magic. It’s ridiculous.”
“She’s a bitch already and it’s only the first day, great,” Pansy says.
I’m not excited for DADA this year. When Lupin was our teacher, it was really fun. Even when Not-Moody was our professor last year, it was good. But now it’s not.