Stars in Her Eyes {Wolfstar's Daughter}

Chapter 66: Pink Sugar

The first lesson back of the year. Students were tired, longing for the passed summer days and in general wanting to be anywhere else but there. Just like the beginning of every other school year, life was ticking on once again. But sat in her chair, blurring out the noise of her classmates around her, Nell was on edge.

For first day back she had put great effort into avoiding certain places around the castle, the staircase up to divination, the courtyard, the quidditch pitch. Yes quidditch was back on but she wasn't entirely sure that the pitch was a place she wanted to be right now. Memories were powerful things.

Not only that but she was also entirely conscious that a one Dolores Umbridge would be walking through that classroom door any moment now. Although nothing had ever been proved about her Dad, she wasn't entirely sure that the woman had let it go, that she didn't still have that hunch. Well being in a lesson with her was certainly one way to find out and as far as it went, Nell had every intention to keep herself as invisible as possible.

Noticing his friend's uneasiness, Harry ripped a piece of paper out of his notebook, the noise catching her attention. With her eyes now on him, he brought his wand over the paper and in one swift movement it folded itself into a small phoenix. He scooped it up into his palm before holding it out before her, nodding at his charmed creation. A small smile made its way onto her face as she realised what he wanted her to do and with a small blow from her lips the Phoenix fluttered up into the air of the classroom.

It was a simple charm yet a beautiful one nonetheless and had already caught the attention of several other students as the paper creature soared high above their heads. Harry couldn't help but let his eyes move down from the Phoenix and onto the small smile still resting on Nell's lips as she followed the creature with her gaze.

But then with the flick of another wand paper turned to ash. The phoenix singed into flames, falling back to Nell and Harry's desk and disintegrating before their eyes.

"Ordinary... wizarding... level... examinations"

The entire room turned their eyes from the crumbling bird to the voice of the person responsible. And sure enough, stood by the door with her wand still raised and a sickening smile on her face was Umbridge herself.

Content with the attention on her, she began to strut across the classroom, her pink heels clacking against the wooden floor as she went. With swishing movements of her wand chalky words were appearing on the blackboard as she spoke.

"O.W.Ls, more commonly known as owls" she stopped at the front of the room, smiling at her students who were entirely unimpressed.

"Study hard and you will be rewarded, fail to do so and the consequences may be.. severe" she continued, her smile pulling tighter against her face with each word.

"Your previous instruction in this subject has been disturbingly uneven but rest assured that from now on you will be following a carefully constructed ministry approved course about defensive magic"

Brightly coloured books began to slide themselves onto each desk and as Nell looked down at hers she couldn't help but think it resembled a children's illustration story. Apparently a fitting cover in regard to what content was actually inside.

"There's nothing in here about using defensive spells" Hermione realised aloud, flicking aggressively through the pages with a frown.

The girl was already highly irritated after learning all about their teacher the evening before and was trying to stop herself from strangling the woman. Which, with each passing minute of the lesson, was proving to be a struggle.

"Using spells?" Umbridge let out a shrill laugh as if the idea was entirely preposterous, "well I can't imagine why you'd need to use spells in my classroom"