MARA WILLIAMS

The moment Hermione, Parvati and I stepped into Defence Against the Dark Arts I knew exactly what Ron had meant.
-For there at the front of the class room, stood a human PomPom.

"Hello children." A toad like face with prominent pouchy eyes surveyed the class as they trickled in from beneath a ginormous fluffy pink cardigan.
Professor Umbridge's eyes locked on me as I took the empty seat between Parvati and Hermione. Her movements reminded me of a predator descending upon its prey as she swooped towards me, head cocked eagerly. "You must be Mara... What an earth happened to your face?"

I struggled not to screw my face up at her high pitched voice. I could already tell I was not going to be leaving the class without a headache. "Nothing, I just tripped."

What into a bramble bush? It was a stupid excuse.

"Well Mara." She said my name as if testing it on her tongue before spitting out the bitter flavour. "Regardless, I hope from now on you have the common certousy to at least show up to these lessons."

I frowned at the strange woman, "I'm sorry?" But she did not take kindly to that.

"Yes well, you most certainly will be." She huffed haughtily. "I've reported your previous absences to Dumbledore, and he will see to them accordingly."

The entire class had fallen into an uncomfortable silence the moment Umbridge had descended upon me and now I could feel every single pair of eyes boring into me, though not in a snarky way, instead their looks were more towards that of pity. As if I wouldn't already get stared at enough what with being the new girl, and now with my face looking the way it did.

I didn't say anything, just stared at her blankly. Did she expect me to be bothered? Umbridge took a moment longer to break her wide eyes from mine, and when she did she waved her wand towards a stack of books which dispersed themselves evenly between the desks. "Turn to page one hundred and eighty three."

I stared down at my copy of Dark Arts Defence; For Beginners. "We only study theory?" I asked Parvati confused as I flicked through the pages. "I thought Hogwarts was known for it's defence practicals?"

Parvati opened her mouth to respond but a shrill voice cut her off. "Students who wish to speak in my class will raise their hands!"

Umbridge swooped down upon me like a bird of prey. "Do you have a question Miss Williams?"

"Yeah I do actually." I said, and she seemed slightly taken aback by the fact that I didn't cower or recoil beneath her. "How come there's nothing in here about using defensive spells?"

She let out a high pitched laugh, like a mockingly feminine shriek. "Oh child, I can't imagine why you would you ever need to use a defensive spell in my classroom? No, the Minister believes it's much safer to merely teach you theory, we don't want you to go causing fights now do we? So instead you'll be following a carefully structured, Ministry-Approved course of defensive magic."

"So we're not going to use magic?" I said confused, wasn't that the whole point of the class?

"You will be learning about defensive spells in a secure, risk-free way."

"Are you serious?" I asked blankly, refusing to believe what I was hearing. It actually made me angry to think that this woman didn't believe there would ever be a time when defensive spells would need to be practised.
I hadn't fought off my fathers heavy fists for years for nothing... Had I?
I hadn't felt him thrusting inside of me even when I cried out for it to stop. I could still hear my screams ringing in my ears, still feel the tears that pricked my eyes, still feel the ache in my chest and the blood between my thighs, all because I didn't know how to defend myself. In the end I used the only spell I knew of, an unforgivable one. The Cruciatus Curse.

"Excuse me?" Umbridge's thin eyebrows flew upwards towards her hairline as she continued to smile sweetly. "Are you questioning my methods?"

"Yeah, I am." Whispers erupted amongst the students, some excited, some nervous, all waiting to see what would no doubt ensue. "That's ridiculous, we need to know how to defend ourselves!"

"Mara..." Parvati gently tugged my sleeve under the desk as she whispered, "Be careful."

"Oh my child, what could you possibly need to defend yourselves from?" She was deadly calm, eerily so. A plastic smile plastered across her toad-like face.

I couldn't think of an example that wouldn't reveal too much. It's not exactly like I could out and say that I needed to know how to protect myself from those who were supposed to love me most, but luckily Hermione answered for me. "How about Lord Voldemort?"

There was a few seconds of silence, Professor Umbridge's face twitched as she struggled to maintain her sickly sweet disposition, before she let out a laugh just as fake as her smile.
-But with every second that passed I could see the anger behind her clenched teeth manifesting as she spoke slowly, carefully. "Now, let me make this quite plain... You have been told that a certain dark wizard is at large once again."

"This." She approached our desk. "Is." Each word becoming more and more strained, "A." until she was practically spitting at us over the table. "Lie."

"It is not!" Hermione fought back instinctively. Then clamped her hands over her lips as if only now realising what she had said. "I mean, Harry's seen him."

"Harry Potter is a known liar." Umbridge's smile was now more of a grimace, she was struggling to hold it together as more whispers were exchanged amongst the students, many of who had clinched at the mere mention of Voldemort's name.

"He is not!" Several voices cried at once. Hermione and Neville both looked furious. What little respect I'd once had for Hermione Granger grew tenfold when I saw how fiercely she defended her friend, Neville too, who's cheeks now glowed the same shade as Umbridge's hideous cardigan.

Her temper boiled over and her anger came spewing out of her like fire as Umbridge erupted, shrieking so loudly I thought I might go deaf. "Detention! Both of you! Miss Williams you too!"

"What?" I hissed back at her, "But I haven't done anything!"

"Silence!" She screamed. "I've had quite enough of your insolence! My office after school!"

What a fucking joke.

• • •

The inside of Umbridge's office looked like fairy vomit. Varying shades of pink oozed like pale pus from every wall, picture frame and lace-lined pillow.
I wasn't exactly sure what I had expected it to look like, but what ever it was, this wasn't far off. At least twenty hung plates displayed kittens of varying colours and sizes that mewled at me as I entered, shutting the door behind me.

Umbridge's small frame was completely dwarfed by the plush salmon chair she sat in before her dark wood desk. She didn't look up at me as I entered, instead focusing on stirring copious amounts of sugar into her tea. "Please, sit."

I did as she said, taking residence in the seat opposite her. On the desk before me was a sheet of empty parchment and a quill, which reminded me that I must finish that letter to my Great Aunt I'd been working on since the beginning of last week.

"Today you'll be writing lines." She said, standing and moving round the desk to loom over me like a hideous pink cloud.

"Ok..." I said slowly after she didn't continue. She did realise she actually needed to tell me what to write right?

"How about, I will not talk back. How does that sound?" She said sweetly as she straightened a plate with a kitten resembling Crookeshanks on it.
I had spend a few minutes this morning looking for Percy, but I doubted he would want to come back anytime soon with Hermione's horrid cat about, I could look again later tonight.

"Great." I deadpanned, really not caring what I wrote as long as I could get it over with quickly in time for dinner.
"Well then, you may begin."

"...But you haven't given me any ink."

"Don't worry, you won't be needing any." She said with a grin, somehow I got the feeling this one was genuine. A feeling of dread settled heavy in my chest as I began to write, scarlet ink coiling neatly.

I will not talk back.
I will not talk back.
I will not talk back.
I will not talk back.
I will not talk back.

All of a sudden I held back a cry as I felt something white hot and sharp carving into the back of my left palm.
I stared down in horror, watching as five identical lines of 'I will not talk back.' etched itself into my skin. No blood flowed from the wounds for it was on the page before me, I realised as much as it clicked in my mind. "Don't worry. You won't be needing any ink."

That absolute cow- "Is everything okay?" Umbridge said in a sickly voice staring down at me as if daring me to protest. "Why have you stopped?"

She knew damn well why. But I refused to give her the satisfaction of watching me so much as flinch.

"You didn't say how many lines you wanted." I drawled, staring her dead in the eye like the dog she was and wishing she would do something more to provoke me, to give me an excuse to do her like I'd done Krum.

"It depends how many it takes for the message to sink in." I had never in all my life known such a slapable face and it took all my strength not to strike her then and there. My fingers itched for her skin.

I kept my head down from then on, scribbling down as many lines as I could. After a while I no longer felt the pain, I was numb to the feeling, all my adrenaline had long since faded and I was left empty and aching until she finally let me go, my skin bloodied, raw, and unable to forget.

I had never been one to forgive, let alone forget, and one day Professor Dolores Umbridge would realise that and I would make her pay in the only way I knew how. With blood and pain and anguish.

***
QOTD-Who's POV do you particularly want to see? (Preferably other than Draco's)
Just because I feel like the whole mystery is not knowing how Draco feels, and if I did do a chapter in his POV i would have to make it almost entirely devoid of feeling which makes it pretty hard to write
-->PS. I'll be following back those of you I see regularly voting and commenting!🥰🥰
Don't forget to vote and comment!
-TFOA