CHAPTER FOURTEEN
THE PINK TOAD
[14]

song: Teach Me To Fight by YONAKA

+++++++++++++++

I get off the Hogwarts express with Ron, Harry, and Hermione. And we walk to the carriages.

As I climb into one of the carriages that already has Neville and a blond girl reading an upside-down magazine named The Quibbler. Harry stops in front the carriage and is staring at a large, walking-dead looking horse with wings. "What is that?" Harry asks us.

Ron looks to what Harry's pointing at. "What?" He can't see it.

Harry keeps pointing, "That... that thing!"

I explain to him, "It's a thestral. They can only be seen by people who have seen death. You must been able to see them now because of..." I look to Hermione.

Harry catches on. "So can you see them too?" He asks me. I nod.

"Well I don't see anything." Hermione says.

"You're not going mad." The blond girl says with a dreamy voice. "I can see them too. You're just as sane as I am."

"Er... you are?" Harry asks the girl in the carriage.

"Luna. Luna Lovegood." She introduces herself.

"Well, thanks Luna." Harry says awkwardly.

Harry climbs into the carriage and the thestrals pull the carriage.

"Hope there's pudding." Luna says as if she were in a haze. Or high. I like her already.

"Me too sister."

+++++

Dunbledore stands. "I beg a few moments if your attention, as I have a few start of term announcements. Right off, our caretaker, the good Mr Filch, has reminded me for what he says is the four-hundred and sixty-second time that he had an annually updated list of various banned items, usually by our humour experts, Fred and George Weasley..."

I clap and cheer with the rest of the student body. Fred and George stand up and take a bow.

The headmaster continues, "...which are posted on an extensive list on the door of Mr Filch's door." I smile at the twins. Fred winks back. "Also we have two staffing changes this year. Professor Grubby-Plank will be taking the post of Care of Magical Creatures as Professor Hagrid is on... extended leave."

I exchange glances with Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

"Tryouts for the house quidditch teams will take place on the —" At this, the lady in an ugly pink outfit stands and clears her throat. The pink blinds my eyes.

"Hem, hem."

Dumbledore looks taken aback for a moment then invites Umbridge forward.

"She was at my hearing." Harry whispers to us. "She works for Fudge."

"Thank you, headmaster, for those kind words of welcome." The pink toad turns to look at all the students. "And how lovely to see all your bright happy faces smiling up at me."

No one smiles.

"I'm sure we're all going to be very good friends."

"That's likely." Fred and George say in unison. Professor Umbridge fake smiles at the twins.

She continues. "The Ministry of Magic has always considered... the education of young witches and wizards to be of vital importance. Although each headmaster... has brought something new to this historic school..." At this, Umbridge turns to Dumbledore and fake smiles. The headmaster fake smiles back and his eyes go a little wide when she turns back around to us.

"Progress for the sake of progress must be discouraged. Let us preserve what must be preserved... perfect what can be perfected... and prune practices that ought to be prohibited." She lets out a sickly giggle.

"Thank you Professor Umbridge." Headmaster Dumbledore says. "That was most... illuminating."

"Illuminating? What a load of rubbish." Ron says.

"What does it mean?" Harry asks.

I sigh. "It means the ministry is interfering at Hogwarts."

+++++

I was telling Fred and George my ideas for their joke shop. "I think you should have some kind of 'Euphoria' candy, where you feel as if you're in euphoria. Kind of like drugs but safe and not addictive."

"So you want us to make euphoria drugs for kids?" George asks.

"Absolutely!" Fred and George say at the same time. I smile.

"What about a charm or something to help you daydream in class?"

"Nerdy Lin Wong coming up with ideas to miss class? Woah." Fred jokes.

"Oh shut it. It's not for me. I just want to make your business even better." I say.

Harry walks in and the common room went quiet.

"Dean. Seamus." Harry greets the boys in our year. "Good holiday?"

"All right. Better than Seamus', anyway." Dean replies.

Seamus throws down his Daily Prophet newspaper with the title 'Potter or Plotter?' "Me mum didn't want me to come back this year." Seamus says with his thick Irish accent.

"Why not?" Harry questions.

"Let me see. Because of you. The Daily Prophet's been saying a lot of things about you and Dumbledore."

"What, your mum believes them?" Harry asks.

"Nobody was there the night Cedric died." Seamus explained.

"I guess you should read the Prophet, then, like your stupid mother." Harry snarls.

"Harry..." I warn him. Fred grabs my hand so I don't get into the middle of their argument if it gets physical.

"Don't talk about my mother."

"I'll have a go at anyone that calls me a liar."

"What's going on?" Ron says when he enters through the portrait hole.

"He's mad, is what's going on." Seamus says. "Do you believe the rubbish he's come out with about You-Know-Who?"

"Yeah. I do." Ron turns to the rest of the common room. "Has anyone else got a problem with Harry?"

No one speaks up. Ron and Harry walk up the boys' spiral staircase to their dorms. I sit back down on the couch.

Fred is still holding my hand.