oOo
The DA continued to meet quite regularly, practising charms such as the Impediment Jinx, the Stunning Spell and the Reductor Curse. Veronica was pleased with her execution of the charms and sailed through quite smoothly, needing little to no help from Harry.
This couldn't be said for some of the others in the DA who struggled quite a lot with certain spells, and Veronica even stood in to help a few of them if Harry was busy with someone else.
She had noticed Cho pretending to fail at many of the tasks set to them so that Harry could go over and talk to her directly, much to the annoyance of Veronica. The Ravenclaw made it quite obvious with what she was doing, as she was barely trying the spells herself before immediately calling the boy over with a pathetic pout on her face.
Quite a few times Veronica has had to put her wand away and take deep breaths before she gave in to the urge to perform the spells on Cho instead of the dummies provided. Not that she saw much difference between the two options anyway. She would plaster a fake smile on her face and try to ignore the two, avoiding looking in their direction until the end of the meeting.
oOo
The news that Hagrid had returned reach the Trio the night after the first Quidditch game of the season.
For once, Veronica had decided to accompany her housemates to watch the match, trying to convince herself this had nothing to do with the fact that it was Gryffindor playing. Nevertheless, she found that she couldn't take her eyes off of the seeker for the whole game, barely paying attention to the score until the end.
She had cheered loudly once Harry had caught the snitch, ending the game and proclaiming Gryffindor as victorious. On her way down the stands to congratulate the boys, she had noticed a commotion on the pitch.
Harry, along with Fred and George had pounced on Malfoy and were wildly throwing punches towards the blonde boy. Even though she'd tried to make it down there to calm the boy and stop the fight before anyone saw, McGonagall and Umbridge quickly got involved resulting in the boys being dragged off to the latter's office.
They were in there for a while, and the next time Veronica saw Harry was when he came stomping into the Great Hall during dinner with a large scowl on his face. She abandoned her meal at the Hufflepuff table and ran over to the Trio to quickly find out Harry had his broom taken away from him and been given a lifetime ban from Quidditch.
As much as she'd tried to comfort the boy and offer her condolences, nothing had made him brighten up until they'd heard that Hagrid was back. The Trio had rushed through dinner and ran down to Hagrid's cabin, but before they left Harry had excitedly grabbed Veronica's wrist and dragged her along after him.
Hagrid was quite confused at Veronica's presence and was unwilling to tell them anything in front of her but after she informed him her dad was part of the Order, he relaxed and began his story.
Turns out, Dumbledore had sent Hagrid, along with Madame Maxime, the Headmaster of Beauxbatons, to visit the giants and try to recruit them to the Order. Unfortunately, a couple of Death Eaters were also there so, consequently, Hagrid and Maxime were unable to convince the giants in their favour and were chased out of the mountains.
This was big and worrying news, as it gave them evidence that You-Know-Who was gathering troops, and succeeding. The story of Hagrid's unsuccessful mission had astounded Veronica, but the conversation around her had quickly moved on to the dreadful changes being made at Hogwarts.
She nodded along after Hermione had warned Hagrid about Umbridge's inspections because even if she didn't take Care of Magical Creatures, she had heard about all of the ghastly creatures Hagrid would bring to class. Umbridge would jump at the chance to fire Hagrid, as her dislike for half-breeds was very well known, and Veronica didn't want to see a key Order member and just an all round nice guy, be kicked out of Hogwarts.
Hagrid told Hermione that she had no need to worry about him, he already had the next lessons all planned out and he was positive that it would be a safe and interesting time for the students.
oOo
Veronica had been informed by the Trio after Hagrid's class a few days later that the inspection hadn't gone very well. Apparently, Umbridge has purposely pretended she couldn't understand the half-giants thick drawl before interviewing the Slytherins and written a bias evaluation because of this.
She had to admit that the lesson on Thestrals did sound particularly interesting, however, because only a handful of people could actually see them, as they can only be seen by witnesses of death, it seemed to be quite redundant for the rest of the students in that class.
The Trio were worried about Hagrid's evaluation, knowing it was not going to end well and Veronica found herself pitying the man. He was a genuinely good guy and she could tell he was just very enthusiastic about magical creatures, never wanting to harm anyone and always there to support them.
That's why it angered her so much that Umbridge felt the need to 'cleanse' Hogwarts of people like him, as there's nothing wrong with his slightly orthodox ways of teaching. Umbridge was crossing a line, and Veronica had the feeling that it wasn't going to end well for the chunky pink woman.
oOo
YOU ARE READING
Undistinguished (H.P.)
Fanfiction[adjective] lacking distinction; unexceptional. Veronica Green is a simple and average half-blood. Hidden in plain sight and blending into the background are what she does best. Until her fourth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, wh...
