.⊹⁀➷ CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE!
↳ ❛defense against the dark arts❜

AFTER THE SORTING ceremony of the first years, everyone slowly made their way up into the Common Room. Ron and Hermione had to fullfil their Prefect duty which meant that they had lead the first years up into the Common Room.

It was a rather odd feeling to go through this steps without their friends for the first time. Especially after everything thats been said over them for the holidays.

Anabeth nervously played with the sleeves of her roabes while she walked silently alongside Harry.

The brunette could feel everyone's eyes moving towards them, the second they came into view. The whisperers and the finger pointing from the other students were not really subtle.

Annabeth felt how Harry's body tensed besides her, his hands dangling on each of his sides, balled into fist, his knuckles turning white.

Of course, this could've been expected. After all the events of the Triwizard tournament were only two months ago and the Daily Prophet had spread all these conspiracy theories about them and Dumbeldor.

The brunette felt her heart ache when the images off Cedric's dead body falshed through her mind and she remembered how limp his body was when she had held him in her arms.

It must've seemed confusion to other's, the twins emerging from the maze with Cedric's dead body, claiming that Lord Voldemort had returned.

Only now Annabeth realized how almost everyone she passed, had this pitying look in their eyes when they glanced at her.

The brunette felt like she was going to be sick, when they finally rounded the corner and came to a stand infront of the portrait of the Fat lady.

Annabeth's head suddenly snapped towards Harry and only now she realized that the Head boy and girl hadn't told them the password.

"No password- no entrance", the Fat Lady stated, while she gave them a stern look.

"I know it!", Neville's voice suddenly came from behind them. He seemed out of breath while he slightly bend over, smiling. "Guess what it is?- I'm actually going to be able to remember it for once-"

He waved the little cactus in his hand around and smiled even wider while he straightened up, "Mimbulus mimbletonia!"

The Fat Lady nodded before her portrait swung open towards them, "Correct."

Annabeth gave the brunette boy besides her a thankful smile, "Great- thanks, Neville." And the three fifth year Gryffindors' climbed through the entrance.

Annabeth exhaled in relief, that the Gryffindor Common Room was exactly the way they had left it last year. A cosy circular tower room, full of comfortable looking armchairs and dark brown, old looking tables with the two large fire places' to their left and right.

A few people were sitting in the sofas' infront of the fire, warming themselves up and to the other side Annabeth saw how Fred and George pinned something up on the noticeboard.

The ginger twins then spotted her and Harry and gave them a wave, which the Potters returned before they whished each other a goodnight and went up into their dormitories.

When Annabeth pushed the door to her Dormitory open, she could already hear Parvati's and Lavender's voices coming from inside.

As soon as the two girls heard her coming in, their voices ceased.

Annabeth couldn't held but feel awkward while she entered the room and steered straight towards the bed by the window, where her trunk was placed.

When she moved to open her trunk, she smiled at the other two girls, "Heyy."

Parvati, who was busy with putting her cloths into her drawer, gave her small smile before she answered, "Hey, Anni.-" She raised an eyebrow at her "-good holiday?"

Annabeth gave her a slight shrugg while she continued to unpack her trunk, "Yeah- it was alright.- You?"

The black haired girl seemed to consider her answer for a moment. "Well- it was okay- considering what I heard from Seamus's", she stated, her voice a pitch higher than usual.

Annabeth frowned immediately, stopping with unpacking her trunk and facing Parvati, "Why, what happened?"

"Well, he told me that his mother didn't want him to come back to Hogwarts", the Gryffindor girl immediately told her, her eyes slowly meeting Annabeth's.

Lavender had sat down into her bed, while fiddling nervously with her bracelet.

Annabeth gave them a confused look, not understanding why, "But- why?"

"Well-", there was a moment of silence between them before Lavender spoke carefully. "- I suppose - because of you and your brother."

Annabeth immediately shot her a dark glare, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well- first of all- don't be mad at us- we're just telling you-", Parvati tried to calm her down, but Annabeth couldn't help but feel the rage bubble up inside of her.

"I think he said- it's not just you- it's Dumbeldor, too", Lavender stated while she exchanged a look with Parvati, who nodded.

"His mother believes the Daily Prophet?", Annabeth immediately questioned, her eyebrows raised.

Parvati exchanged another look with Lavender before she shrugged, "I believe so."

Annabeth felt her frustrating building up, "How can someone believe such- rubbish!"

The brunette shook her head to herself and couldn't help herself but to feel disappointed by Seamus for not believing her.

"Look Annabeth - what did happen that night- you know, when- with Cedric Diggory?", Lavender questioned the brunette hesitantly, her eyes not meeting Annabeth's.

Parvati, who had pulled a jumped from her trunk, suddenly went oddly still before she gave Lavender a glare.

Annabeth felt the memories of that night flashing back to her, and before the tears started to whelm up in her eyes, she quickly got up onto her feet and faced her trunk.

"I already told everyone what happened-", she quickly chocked out while she continued to unpack her trunk.

"Yeah- well, but most of us don't understand -", Lavender tried to push, but Annabeth immediately snapped while she faced the girl. "It's not my problem that you don't understand- And that everyone rather believes that stupid prophet than to make up their own mind!"

"Hey, don't-", Parvati started to shout back at her, but in that moment the door flew open, revealing no other than Hermione.

The brunette seemed exhausted, but her eyes were widely opened when she stumbled into the argument. "What's going on here?"

The three girls exchanged a quick look before Annabeth scoffed loudly, "Nothing, Hermione- nothing."

She quickly shoved her now empty truck under her bed, changed into her jumper, quickly got unit her bed and shut the curtains.

When she laid there, the brunette could still hear the heartbeat pounding in her ears and her thoughts about everyone talking behind her back, was rushing through her mind.

The brunette just continued to stare up at the celling of her bed until her eyes slowly fell shut and she drifted off into her dream.

The next thing she knew, she jolted awake by the sound of Hermione yanking the curtains of her bed back.

"Wake up!"

She slowly sat up in her bed, silently groaning before she hesitantly pushed her duvet way and got up onto her feet.

She had slept lousy that night, nightmares haunting her in her dreams. And she wasn't really hungry when she was sitting at the Gryffindor table that morning.

When the brunette followed Hermione into the DADA classroom, she could bearly keep her eyes open and the dark circles under her eyes told that she hadn't slept that night.

Annabeth let out a small yawn when she slowly settled into her seat next to Hermione, her gaze wandering off towards the little paper bird that flew over their heads, amusing the class.

It had just turned and hovered over Parvati when it suddenly bursted into flames. Every single head of the class turned into the direction of the entrance, where Professor Umbridge was now standing.

The woman slowly lowered her wand, a smile on her face while she greeted them, "Good morning, children."

She then slowly stared walking down the path between the tables while she suwng her wand.

Annabeth followed her line of vision and saw how the words "Ordinary Wizarding Level examination" drew themselves onto the board at the front.

The woman's voice echoed through the silent classroom, "O-W-L- More commonly know as OWLs." She then came to a stand in front of the whole class. "Study hard and you will he rewarded. Fail to do so, and the consequences may be servere."

She swung her wand again and now the books that had been piled up behind her landed on their desks. "Your previous instructions in this subject has been disturbingly uneven. You'll be pleased to know, from now on- you will be following a carefully structured, Ministry-approved course of defensive magic."

Annabeth glanced down into the book, which looked like a children's story book.

Hermione besides her had raised her hand and Umbridge nodded at her, "Yes?"

"Um- there's nothing in here about using defensive spells?"

"Using spells?-", the woman repeated the question in a shocked tone before she let out a high pitched laugh. "- I can't imagine why you would need to use spells in my classroom."

She took a couple of steps forward and came to a stand infront of Annabeth's and Hermione's table.

"We're not gonna use magic?" Ron suddenly questioned, his face showing his confusion.

Umbridge's head snapoedd towards the boy, "You'll be learning about defensive spells in a secure, risk-free way."

"Well, what use is that? If we're attacked, it won't be risk-free", Harry then questioned, voicing his disapproval.

"Students will raise their hands when they speak in my class", the Professor suddenly exclaimed before she took a couple of steps back and faced the class once more.

The fake smile back onto her face, "It is the view of the Ministry that a theoretical knowledge will be sufficient to get you through your examinations- which, after all, is what school is all about."

"And how's theory supposed to prepare us for what's out there?", Harry suddenly interrupt the woman, making Annabeth squeeze her eyes shut. She already knew that her brother was about to catch himself some detention from that old hag.

"There is nothing out there, dear- who do you imagine want to attack children like yourself?", the woman questioned him a sweet voice.

Harry frowned at her and Annabeth already saw it coming before he suddenly spoke, "Oh, I don't know- maybe Lord Voldemort."

A murmur went through the classroom by the mentioning of that name and Professor Umbridge remained silent for a minute smile plastered on her face that kind of scared Annabeth.

The woman then slowly made her way through the rows, "Now, let me make this quiet 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 him- I fought him!" Harry immediately interrupted her once more, his voice now louder than before.

"Detention, Mr. Potter!", the woman immediately shouted loudly before she returned to the front of the class.

"So according to you Cedric Diggory dropped dead of his own accord?", Harry immediately spatted at her, completely ignoring his punishment.

Annabeth immediately flinched by the mentioning of Cedric's name and Hermione immediately noticed and placed a hand over Annabeth's.

"Cedric Diggory's death was a tragic accident!", the woman argued back at him and Harry shouted. "It was murder! Voldemort killed him!- You must know that!"

The woman screamed now, her voice so high that Annabeth squeezed her eyes shut, "Enough!"

"Enough-", the woman then repeated once more. "- see me later Mr. Potter. My office." She then let out a giggle before she continued with the lesson as if nothing had happened.

When the class was over, Hermione, Ron and Annabeth made their way out of the room. The brunette Potter girl gave her brother one last encouraging look before she stepped out into the corridor, leaving him behind with Umbridge.

"That's a psychopath, right there", Ron stated quietly and the other's nodded in agreement before they continued their way down the corridor.

"That was the first lesson and I already hate her", Annabeth sighed while they rounded the corner and took the next flight of stairs down.

Hermione had remained quiet until then, "How are we supposed to learn how to defend ourselves, if the ministry doesn't let us?"

The brunette seemed quite angry and Annabeth nodded her head in agreement, "Clearly, they don't want us to be able to protect ourselves."

Suddenly a crowd of second years ran past them, catching the group by surprise.

"I think it's Fudge-", Hermione stated slowly when they had reached the entrance of the common room. "He's scared that Dumbeldor want to take his place as Minister, like Lupin said."

The three friends made their way into the Common Room and after Annabeth had changed into something more comfortable she claimed the couch for herself and started studying for her OWL's.

While her eyes skipped over the pages she could hear Fred and George from time to time.

"Skiving Snackboxes- Sweets that make you ill", Fred voice was carried through the Common Room.

"Get you out of class whenever you like-", George quickly added while he handed one of the second years a toffee.

"Obtain hours of pleasure from unprofitable boredom-", Fred smiled while he watched the results of their work.

Harry suddenly bursted through the Common Room and when he spotted Annabeth he flopped down besides her.

Annabeth raised an eyebrow at her brother, questioning, "How was it?"

Harry just shrugged in return and pulled out one of his books.

"I'm asking to write all of it for me- It's just- I've been busy studing for these stupid OWL exams-", Ron's voicemail suddenly reached Annabeth's ear.

Hermione gave the boy a small smile before she finally gave in, "I'll do the introduction - that's all."

Ron immediately broke out into a large grin while he still followed after the girl, looking at her like she was everything, "Hermione, you're honestly the most wonderful person I've ever met. And if I'm ever rude to you again-"

"- I'll know you've gone back to normal", Hermione stated while she flopped down next to Harry and Annabeth on the couch.

Harry was busy flipping through pages of his book when Annabeth's gaze flickered down onto his hand.

There was a spot on the back of his hand, that was bright red and the brunette frowned, "Harry, what's wrong with your hand?"

The boy gave her a questioning look before he shrugged, "Nothing."

Annabeth immediately yanked his hand towards her and pulled up his sleeve, so that Ron and Hermione could see it to. There was a sentence carved into the back of his hand.

Annabeth brown eyes immediately widened in shock, "Harry, we have to tell Dumbeldor about this- that is torture!"

Harry immediately pulled his hand out of her grasp and shook his head, "No- Dumbeldor's got enough on his mind right now. - And anyway, I don't want to give Umbridge the satisfaction."

"Bloody hell, Harry- Annabeth's right, that woman is torturing you!", Ron tried to talk some sense into his friend. "If the parents knew about that-"

Harry immediately snapped at him, "I haven't got any of those, have I, Ron?

Annabeth gave Ron an apologizing look and Hermione gluped before she spoke, "Harry, you've got to report this- it's perfectly simple. You're bein-"

"No, it's not!", Harry interrupted Hermione, giving her an angry look. "Hermione, whatever this is, it's not simple- you don't understand."

"Then help us to", Hermione offered him, a frown on her face before Harry got onto his feet and grabbed his things before he left.

Hermione exchanged a worried face expression with Annabeth, who assured her, "It's not you- since last year Harry's shutting himself out."

The brunette played with the sleeves of her pullover before she continued, "He thinks he's the only one hurting - the only one who's in pain."

Annabeth didn't make eye contact and Ron and Hermione remained silent, they both didn't knew what to say.

They knew that Harry wasn't the only one they had to worry about. Annabeth had lived the same trauma as her brother, at the moment she was as damaged as he was.

Hermione carefully placed her head onto Annabeth's shoulder and Ron did the same before they all stared silently into the fire.