05. FUCK YOU, PROFESSOR UMBRIDGE!

The next morning, Elara made her way to the Great Hall, holding Theodore's hand. She had not slept well the night before, something made her uneasy, whether it be that Voldemort was back, or that the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor rubbed her the wrong way.

As they sat at the table and her boyfriend grabbed a plate of food and dug in, she didn't. She just stared off into the distance, a mug of coffee gripped between her hands. She snapped back when someone waved their hand in front of her face. It was Blaise, and he had just arrived with Draco.

"What's wrong with you?" He asked.

"To be completely honest with you, I'm not really sure. I just feel weird. Maybe it's that new Professor." Elara gulped down some coffee before bringing a plate of eggs closer to her and taking a bite.

"She does seem like the bad type." Draco agreed. They then got their timetables from Snape, and just as she was dreading, she had Umbridge first lesson.

"Lovely." She finished her food and grabbed her bag, before kissing Theodore. "I'll see you in class."

"I'll come with you." Bianca stood and linked her arm with her best friend before the pair made their way out of the Great Hall and up the marble staircase towards the Defense class. As soon as they walked in, they were greeted by the short professor dressed in pink.

She smiled at the sight of them. "How lovely to see students early in class. What are your names, dears?"

"Bianca Zabini." Bianca smiled.

"Elara Black." Elara replied.

At the sound of their familiar last names, her smile slightly faltered. "Lovely to meet you." Then she noticed their silver and emerald ties and her smile widened. "And Slytherins. I was a Slytherin myself."

"That's nice, professor." Bianca smiled as she slowly lead Elara to one of the seats in the back. Bianca sat down in front of Elara.

The darker haired girl leaned forward to whisper. "I hope she doesn't expect me to be early every bloody lesson."

Soon enough, the class filled up and Theodore made his way in, taking his seat beside Elara. She could see Fred and George walk in, accompanied by Lee, and they were followed by Angelina and Alicia. Elara noticed a glimmering badge on Angelina's chest.

As the Gryffindors sat down beside them, she turned to face them. "Hey, Ange. Captain?"

Angelina grinned. "Oh yeah. Going to whip them into shape. Who's your captain?"

Elara brushed her hair out of the way and pointed at her own badge. "Me." She winked, smirking at the shocked look on her friends face. "Ready to be beat this year?"

"Never." Came the response.

"Now, settle down! Good morning everyone!" Umbridge spoke, clasping her hands in front of her. Barely anyone replied, and she shook her head, frowning. "I would like you to reply with 'Good morning, Professor Umbridge' so let's try that one more time. Good morning everyone!"

"Good morning, Professor Umbridge."

"Good. That wasn't so hard. Now, wands away and quills out, please."

Elara rolled her eyes, a foul look on her face as she stuffed her wand into her boots and pulled her eagle feather quill out, along with some ink and parchment. In her head, she was cursing the professor every foul work she could think of.

Umbridge fished her wand out and tapped the board with it. Cursive letters appeared on it, spelling out:

Defense Against the Dark Arts

A Return to Basic Principles

"Well now, your teaching in this subject has been rather disrupted and fragmented, hasn't it?" She began speaking, sounding as though she had rehearsed her speech in the mirror ten times before she came to class. "The constant changing of teachers, many of whom do not seem to have followed any Ministry-approved curriculum, has unfortunately resulted in your being far below the standard we would expect to see in your N.E.W.T. year."

Elara muttered under her breath to Theodore. "She best not be taking about uncle Moony, or I'm going to have words to say." He simple grabbed her hand under the table and linked their fingers.

Umbridge continued, "You will be pleased to know, however, that these problems are not to be rectified. We will be following a carefully structured, theory-centred, Ministry-approved course of defensive magic this year."

Elara raised her eyebrows at the mention of theory based work. She raised her hand. Umbridge looked over in her direction. "Yes, Miss Black?

"So sorry, Professor. But, I may have misheard you say, theory-centred?" She made sure to make her voice sickly sweet.

"Yes, dear. Theory."

"But, Professor." She said it with a bitter tone. "Is there not a practical bit in our exam?"

"Yes, there is."

"So, how will we be able to do the practical without having practiced beforehand in class?"

"As long as you have studied the theory well enough, you will do well in the practical."

"That's bullshit." Elara stated bluntly. She could see Bianca shaking her head with an amused look on her face, and Theodore trying to hide a smile.

"I beg your pardon?"

"I said, that is bullshit. Complete and utter crap."

"Detention, Miss Black. 8 in the evening, my office. Moving on now." Umbridge tapped the board once more as Elara shifted her focus down to her parchment, angered at the way she was dismissed. She would need to have a talk with McGonagall about this.

More words appeared on the board:

Course aims:

1. Understanding the principles underlying defensive magic.

2. Learning to recognise situations in which defensive magic can legally be used.

3. Placing the use of defensive magic in a context for practical use.

"Does everyone here have a copy of Defensive Magical Theory by Wilbert Slinkhard?" There was a murmur of replies around the class. "When I ask a question, I would like you all to reply either with 'Yes, Professor Umbridge' or 'No, Professor Umbridge'. Now, does everyone have a copy of Defensive Magical Theory by Wilbert Slinkhard?"

"Yes, Professor Umbridge."

"Good. Now, everyone please turn to page five, and read chapter one. There is no need for anyone to be talking for the remainder of the lesson."

And so the rest of the lesson passed by quietly, and once it ended, Elara shoved the book in her bag harshly and stormed out of the classroom, leaning against the wall outside with her fists clenched and an angry look on her face.

Soon, her friends came out of the class and Theodore immediately wrapped her in a hug. She sighed and dropped her forehead on his shoulder as she wrapped her arms around his waist. "I hate her." She said glumly.

"I do too." He muttered in her ear. "Come on, we have to head to Charms."

Elara's foul mood lessened slightly during the day, but after dinner, it came back full send, when she remembered that she had detention. So, she dropped her bag in the common room and went off to Umbridge's office.

As she got closer, she found Harry walking in the same direction she was going. "Harry?"

He looked up. "El?"

She moved faster to catch up to him. "Why are you here?"

"Detention with Umbridge. You?"

"Same. What did you do?" She asked as they got closer to her office.

"Got a bit angry, said we need practical because what if Voldemort came to attack us. What did you do?"

"Called her out. Said that the theory was bullshit. Literally swore to her face. It was worth it." Elara shrugged. Then she knocked on the office door.

"Come in."

They entered, and both looked around, comparing the office to how it looked with previous teachers. Lockhart had pictures of himself scattered everywhere. Her uncle Moony had interesting creatures in tanks somewhere. When the imposter who took Moody's place, there were artefacts for detecting dark magic. It was very different now.

Every surface was covered in lacy clothes, and there were multiple vases filled with dried flowers, and on the walls there were plates, and on each plate a kitten, all of them wearing different bows around their necks. "Good evening, Mr Potter, Miss Black."

"Evening." Harry replied stiffly, while Elara simple nodded.

"Sit." She pointed at two little tables with chairs. There was a piece of parchment on each table. Lines. They would be doing lines.

"Er, Professor Umbridge? Er – before we start, I-I wanted to ask you a...a favour." Harry said, not sitting yet. Elara didn't sit either, looking at her godbrother curiously.

The professor narrowed her eyes. "Oh yes?"

"Well I'm...I'm on Gryffindor Quidditch team. And I was supposed to be at the tryouts for the new Keeper at five o'clock on Friday and I was – was wondering whether I could skip detention that night and do it – do it another night...instead..."

Umbridge smiled, as though she had just been handed all the gold in the world. "Oh no. Oh no, no, no. This is your punishment for spreading evil, nasty, attention-seeking stories, Mr. Potter, and punishments certainly cannot be adjusted to suit the guilty one's convenience. No, you will come back here at five o'clock tomorrow, and the next day, and on Friday too, and you will do your detentions as planned. I think it rather a good thing that you are missing something you really want to do. It ought to reinforce the lesson I am trying to teach you."

Elara really wanted to speak up, but she knew she would gain nothing from it, simply more detentions. Harry simple sat down, and Elara followed. "There, we're getting better at controlling our temper, already, aren't we? Now, you are going to be doing some lines for me." As they went to pull their quills out, she shook her head. "No, not with your quills. You're going to be using a rather special one of mine."

She handed each of them a long, thin, black quill with a very sharp point. "Mr Potter, I want you to write 'I must not tell lies' and Miss Black 'I will learn to control my tongue'."

"How many times?" The girl spoke.

"Oh, as long as it takes for the message to sink in. Off you go."

As they went to write, Elara realised something. "We don't have ink."

"Oh, you won't need ink."

Elara placed the tip of the quill onto the paper and began writing. But as she did, the writing came out glimmering in scarlet, accompanied with a stinging pain on the back of her hand. She frowned and turned it over, seeing the words she wrote engraved on her hand. She was writing in her own blood. The cuts faded, but her hand was red.

She heard Harry gasp and looked over at him in concern, to see him looking at her in disbelief. The boy looked away and up at Umbridge.

"Yes?" She asked.

"Nothing." They both went back to writing, searing pains on the back of their palms every time they wrote anything. They continued like this until they were told to stop. There was blood dripping down Elara's fingers and onto the table.

"Come here." They both stood and walked over. "Hands."

She grabbed both their hands and ran her fingers over the raw, bloody area on the backs of their hands. "I'll be seeing you again tomorrow evening, Mr Potter. Take your seat, Miss Black. We're not done yet with you."

Harry shot her a concerned look as he grabbed his back and left, and she sat back in her seat. She picked the quill back up and continued writing, biting her lip harshly as the pain increased. Her wounds didn't even have time to heal because she didn't stop writing, just wanting this detention to be over.

Elara began feeling slightly light-headed from the loss of blood and when Umbridge saw the girls head drooping slightly, she called her over and brushed over her hand, causing her to wince. "Yes, I think I made my impression. You may leave."

Elara didn't hesitate to leave right away. As she made her way to the dungeons, she noticed that the blood from the cut on her hand had dripped down and stained her sleeve red. "Shit."

She stopped outside the entrance to the Slytherin and said the password. She was let in and noticed that barely anyone was in the common room, and when she didn't spot Theodore, she made her way to their dorm.

Elara opened the door and smiled when she saw him sat on the armchair, with her little model dragon sat in his palm. He looked up when she walked in and she saw his eyebrows furrow as he took in her paler-than-normal face and how she seemed to be hiding her left hand behind her back.

"Elara."

"Hmm?" She edged closer to him, her hand still behind her back. Theodore stood and walked towards her.

"Why's your hand hidden? Why are you all pale?"

"Nothing of importance." She said, but Theodore reached out and grabbed her wrist, pulling her hand up to see what was wrong. When he saw it soaked in blood, his eyes widened.

"What," He began, voice shaking in anger. "the actual fuck is this?"

"Sit." She plopped down on the ground and he sat beside her, his hand still around her wrist. "Detention was lines."

"And your hand?"

"Lines with a blood quill."

"Sorry?"

"Blood quills were made illegal years ago. They used to be used to torture people. When you write with them, they use your own blood as the ink and the words you write are cut into the back of your hand. If you use it long enough, the words will stay there forever. I only had one night, but she made me stay a bit longer, that's why there's so much blood."

"What the fuck." He ran a hand over his face. "Bathroom, come on." He stood and helped her up, before walking into the bathroom and making her sit on the counter as he wet a towel and gently tried to clean the blood off. "You're going to tell someone, right?"

"I'll talk to McGonagall, but I doubt there's much we can do considering she's ministry." Elara winced as Theodore accidentally pressed harder than he meant.

"Sorry." He whispered.

"It's alright."

Then, he took his wand out and said a spell to make bandages wrap around her left hand. "That'll have to do until you can see McGonagall tomorrow and maybe she can help you."

"Thanks, Theo."

"Anytime."