PROCLAMATION
Educational Decree No. 38

Dolores Jane Umbridge has replaced Albus Dumbledore as head of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

It was worse than they ever could've imagined. Filch had taken all the portraits and pictures off the walls, so Hogwarts didn't have all those warm voices covering the walls. Umbridge had introduced some new rules like "boys and girls can't be within eight inches of each other" and "students will be questioned about suspected illicit activities".

The place was also on lockdown, so all the doors were closed and no one was allowed outside the grounds. Rosalyn was feeling more guilty than she thought she could.

Also, all the DA members had to do a detention with Umbridge. They all sat at individual desks in the great hall, scratching away at the paper with those hand-carving quills. Rosalyn took responsibility for this as well, and at the end of the detention, she muttered "sorry" to everyone. Most people told her not to and that she was being stupid, but boy, that's not how it looked from where she was standing.

Cho was outside the room when they all came out, but none of them talked to her. They all simply pretended she wasn't there. "Harry," she said when he and Rosalyn walked by, but Harry walked past her without saying anything. Rosalyn, meanwhile, shoulder barged her and murmured "bitch" to her, then walked away.

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Rosalyn, all nursing bleeding hands, went out to the bridge.

"You did everything you could," Ron said to Rosalyn, trying to ease her out of her guilt. "No one could win against that old hag."

"Yeah, even Dumbledore didn't see this coming," Hermione joined in.

"Rosie if it's anyone's fault it's ours," Harry tried.

"Yeah, we talked you into it!" Ron said.

"Yeah but I agreed," Rosalyn said, close to tears, looking out at the view. "I tried so hard to help, and all it's done is make things worse. Anyway that doesn't matter anymore, because I don't want to play anymore, all it does is make you care too much. And the more you care the more you have to lose. So maybe it's just better to..."

"To what?" Hermione asked warily.

Rosalyn turned round. "To go it alone."

"Psssst!"

The four of them turned to see-

"Hagrid?" Rosalyn asked quietly. "What are you doing?"

They were halfway into the Forbidden Forest by the time they got their answer.

"Hagrid can you please just tell us?" Rosalyn asked yet again, as a bunch of loud, galloping centaurs rode past.

"I've never seen the centaurs so riled!" Hagrid said, more to himself than to them. "And they're dangerous at the best of times! The Ministry restricts their territory much more, they're gonna have a full uprising on their hands!"

"Hagrid, what's going on?" Hermione asked firmly.

He turned round slowly. "Sorry to be so mysterious, you three, I-I wouldn't be bothering you with this at all it's just- with Dumbledore gone- I'll likely be gettin' the sack anytime now-"

He began to tear up. Rosalyn felt sad for him, but she needed an explanation. She begged Hagrid for more information so he said. "I just couldn't leave without telling someone about him."

And then she saw it. A giant, much bigger than Hagrid, came out of nowhere. "Grawpy! Down here!" Hagrid yelled. "Down here yeh great buffoon!"

The giant walked forward, to which the quartet scrambled back, and caught one of the birds circling the clearing in his hands.

"Grawpy," Hagrid said reprimandingly. "I've brought yeh some company..."

The giant ('Grawpy') walked forward, feet thundering on the forest floor. The quartet ran back, and he was about to get one of them when Hagrid pulled on a rope that he had attached to the giant.

"I couldn't leave him, because, well, he's my brother!" Hagrid said.

The other four gasped.

"Well half brother really," Hagrid continued as Grawp leant over the quartet. "But he's completely harmless, just like I said, a little- high spirited is all!"

But he didn't seem harmless as, with two screams, he picked up Hermione and Rosalyn and lifted them up to his height, which was at least sixteen feet in the air.

"Now Grawpy, we've talked about this, you do not grab, do you? Those're your new friends Hermione and Rosalyn," Hagrid continued.

Ron, however, took a more direct approach, and ran at Grawp with a club. He struck him in the leg and then was kicked away. Grawp didn't seem to care.

So Hermione tried. "Grawp," she said firmly, pointing a finger in his face. "Put. Us. Down. Now."

Rosalyn sighed and said. "N-Nice to meet you, Grawp, but you can't grab people, okay?"

The giant nodded and put the two girls down. "You alright?" Ron asked.

"Fine," the two girls replied in unison.

"Just needs a firm hand is all," Rosalyn continued.

"I think you two have an admirer," Harry said. Sure enough, Grawp was looking through lots of things that he had, by the looks of it, collected.

"You just stay away from them, alright?" Ron said dangerously.

"Ron, he means no harm," Rosalyn said gently, as Grawp gave Rosalyn a bycicle handlebar and bell. "Thanks."

Rosalyn rung the bell and Grawp smiled. "He gets his own food and everythin'," Hagrid said. "It's just company he'll be needing when I'm gone," Grawp sat down as Rosalyn smiled. She rung the bell again and again.

"Yeh will look after him, won't yeh?" Hagrid asked. "He's the only family I've got."

Rosalyn smiled and nodded as she rang the bell again, making Grawp smile along with her friends.

☆☆☆

She was staring at her parents in the Mirror of Erised...

"Feeling sentimental?" Snape had appeared in the reflection.

Rosalyn was pulled back to real life. She was sat in the chair, Snape pacing around her. "That's private," she burst out furiously, panting and sweating.

"Not to me," said Snape. "And not to the Dark Lord either if you don't improve," he moved closer to her. "Every memory he has access to is a weapon he can use against you. You won't last two seconds if he invades your mind."

Rosalyn, still panting, said. "No, I won't last two more seconds with you in this classroom..."

Snape moved backwards. "How extraordinary how one can look so like their mother but embody their father, Potter. He too was lazy, arrogant-"

"Don't you dare say a word against my father!" Rosalyn yelled.

"Weak," Snape went on.

"I'm not weak!"

"Then prove it! Control your emotions! Discipline your mind!" Snape yelled. "Legillimens!"

She was in the maze...

Grawp caught that bird...

Sirius and Izzy were smiling up at her... they had just let them free...

Dumbledore was escaping with Fawkes...

Voldemort at the train station... that dream...

She and Neville... under the mistletoe...

Her mum and dad... the photo of them in Harry's bedroom...

Mr Weasley attacked... she was the snake...

That corridor... that door...

The orbs...

She was at Grimmauld Place... her Godparents...

"Sirius! Izzy!" she said, smiling as they hugged.

"I may vomit," came a much colder voice. Snape was standing behind them. Rosalyn was pulled back to his office with a start.

"Stop it!" Rosalyn yelled, close to tears.

"Is this what you call control?" Snape asked.

Rosalyn got up from the chair and yelled at her least favourite teacher, "We've been at it for hours if I could just rest-"

"The Dark Lord isn't resting," Snape leant closer to her. "It's like you're two of a kind, sentimental children, whining about how bitterly unfair your lives have been, well it might have escaped your notice but life isn't fair! Your blessed father knew that in fact he frequently saw to it-"

"My father was a great man!" Rosalyn shot back at him.

"Your father was a squine!" Snape countered, throwing Rosalyn across the room. "Legillimens!"

But Rosalyn had had enough. She raised her own wand and yelled. "Protego!"

The spell rebounded and went to Snape...

A greasy haired teenager walking through Hogwarts... everyone laughing at him...

Sitting alone in a room...

Then a scene...

"Come on Moony! Padfoot!" James Potter yelled as he chased Snape. "Expelliarmius!"

"Nice one, James!" Sirius Black complimented as Snape lost his wand.

"Dad..." Rosalyn said, as Snape was levitated up in the air by James.

"Right, who wants to see me take off Snivelly's trousers?" James asked.

But Rosalyn didn't get to see if he did or not. She was pulled back into Snape's office. One look at the potions master told her everything she needed to know.

He grabbed her by the scruff of the neck. "Your lessons are at an end," he said in a dangerous voice.

"I didn't-" Rosalyn started.

"Get. Out."

He released her and she went. She ran and ran until she was sure that Snape wouldn't be coming back after her. She tried to run away from what she had seen, as well, but she didn't find physical methods as successful for this job.

☆☆☆

Rosalyn heard Fred and George's voices in the courtyard. She saw they were comforting a crying boy with a bleeding hand. She went over to them and asked the boy gently. "What's your name?"

"M-Michael," he answered.

"Your hand's gonna be fine, Michael," Fred said. "It's not as bad as it seems."

"Yeah, you can hardly see ours anymore, look," George joined in. "The pain stops after a while..."

"Hem hem."

Umbitch was standing at the end of the corridor.

"What kind of heartless creature are you?" Rosalyn asked, firing up and walking forwards. "How can you make children do this?"

"As I've told you once before, Miss Potter, naughty children deserve to be punished,"
said Umbridge.

"For what?" Rosalyn said. "Punished for what, exactly? You could commit every bloody crime in the world and not deserve this!"

Umbitch said. "Hm," then walked away.

"You know, George, I've always thought our futures lay outside the world of academic achievement," Fred said behind Rosalyn.

"You know, George, I've been thinking the exact same thing," Fred smirked.

Rosalyn turned round. "What exactly are you planning?"

"All in good time, little sis," Fred smiled, "All in good time..."

It turned out that "good time" was the next day. Right in the middle of a certain exam.