「HALF-GIANTS, WEREWOLVES, CENTAURS, AND ... DEATH EATERS」

THE NEXT DAY DAWNED BRIGHT and lively. The wind has stopped beating ferociously against the castle walls and even the sun attempted, rather futilely, to cast its warmth over the dreadful world below it. The calming of the weather exactly the day after the dementors were forced out of the castle grounds couldn't be just a coincidence and several students were left speculating whether it was those creatures who had brought upon the onset of such terrible colds and storms.

Blaise wasn't in the dorm, nor in the common room when Theo had woken up. He had waited for him for five minutes before deciding to head into the Great Hall himself.

A ripple of excited conversation reached his ears as he neared the Great Hall. He paid no mind to it, thinking it was because of the lack of dementors in the castle grounds but when he sat down at the Slytherin table, he realised that the students from the other tables, especially from Gryffindor, were speaking in hushed voices and pointing toward the teachers' table or the large doors of the Great Hall. Theo glanced at the teachers' table. All the usual teachers, except for the Carrows were present. The Headmaster's chair at the middle of the table was deserted, although it wasn't surprising, for Snape rarely ate here.

Blaise was nowhere in sight.

Confusion gripped him hard, but hunger overcame any other emotion, and Theo began to pile up his plate with food, deciding that Blaise was okay. He couldn't help thinking that Ginny and Luna, who had been out of their common room last night, had something to do with this shift in mood.

Halfway through breakfast, Blaise appeared along with Draco Malfoy, and Crabbe and Goyle. His eyes flitted over the Slytherin table before they fell upon Theo and he crossed the Hall to sit beside him. Without any word, he grabbed a tray of pancakes and began to eat them directly from there. Theo raised an eyebrow, nudging his arm.

Blaise glanced at him briefly before returning to shovelling the pancakes into his mouth. "I'm starving," he said through a mouthful of pancakes. "I woke up early and went out for a walk, and the Carrows came out of nowhere and dragged me away."

Theo snorted but managed to turn it into a cough. Blaise wouldn't like him laughing at him right now, not when he was clearly in such a bad mood. "Dragged you where?"

"Well, first they made me go back to the dorms to fetch more Inquisitorial Squad members," explained Blaise. "I went back and got Malfoy. Then they made us scrub paint off the walls."

"Paint? What paint?" Theo asked in confusion. He was still on his first pancake, but Blaise has already finished three and picking up his fourth. He paused and looked meaningfully at him, lowering his voice.

"Your friend did it," he said. "Painted Dumbledore's Army, Still Recruiting on the wall. Remember when they did it the first time? The Carrows removed it easily with Scourgify. But now they must have used some sort of spell or special ink. It took us hours to even make a scratch on it. It's still visible. Snape is furious."

Theo glanced over at the Ravenclaw table. Luna was talking to a girl and didn't look in his direction. He turned away.

"Stop smiling. I can't feel my hands anymore."

"I'm - I'm not smiling," Theo stammered, taking a large bite of his pancake. "So, did they catch anyone?" He lowered his voice to a whisper. "You didn't tell them, did you?"

"I didn't. But everyone knows obviously that Longbottom is behind it. They took him in for questioning. Malfoy said he cursed him with the Leg Locker jinx last night while he was patrolling."

Their first period was Muggle Studies, which was compulsory for everyone. But since they still had about half an hour left for the class to start, Blaise dragged Theo to the third floor saying, "Come and see what your friend did."

It was just next to the corridor where they had met Luna and Ginny last night. They couldn't get close to the wall for the area has been roped off. Filch stood inside the boundary though, fruitlessly scrubbing over the large painted letters on the wall. They were bright red, like blood, and shone spectacularly as though it was painted just seconds ago. Mrs Norris paced around on the floor, hissing at anyone who came near.

"We tried all sorts of spells at first," said Blaise. "When that didn't work, the Carrows handed us clothes and brushes to scrub them."

Theo suppressed a smile. "I'm sorry. I'm sure Luna meant no harm to you."

Blaise rolled his eyes and turned away. "Come on, we'll be late for class. Alecto has become ten times as dangerous now that they don't have the dementors on their side."

But Alecto wasn't in class when they arrived. Noiselessly, they chose a bench at the back and settled down. All the seventh year Slytherins and Gryffindors were here. During seventh year, it was customary to have all four houses have their classes together since only a handful of students were able to advance to each subject. But as the Muggle Studies and Dark Arts classes were made mandatory for all, it wasn't practical to have so many students crammed into one classroom.

Eyes fixated on the blackboard, Blaise absently massaged his hands together. After a brief hesitation, Theo took his hand and spread it over his own. It was pale and cracked, and as he ran his fingers over his palm, he felt how hard and dry the skin has become. "You'd think the Carrows would make one of the Gryffindors scrub the paint as punishment."

"They were too enraged to think straight, I suppose," said Blaise breathlessly, blinking fast.

The door swung open and Theo hastily let go of his hand.

Alecto Carrow sauntered into the classroom, and in her wake, Neville. He was bent forward and limping. The 'questioning' clearly hasn't gone well for him. But as he reached the middle of the classroom, he straightened up and gave a bright grin to everyone, before taking his seat.

The Death Eater went behind her desk and glared at the students as though they were a bunch of very ugly maggots. Blaise was right. She looked ten times as scary.

"Hogwarts is pure," she began her usual monotonous speech about how worthless muggles were. "Or at least, it used to be. Once Dumbledore took the reigns of Hogwarts, it all went downhill. As many of the wizards and witches with any sense had predicted, Dumbledore would only bring disgrace to this school, and that's exactly what has happened."

Theo looked at her in surprise. She usually spent the entire class talking about muggles. It was unusual that she would bring up their late Headmaster. A feeling of unease rippled amongst the students.

"Salazar Slytherin was wise to want only the purest of blood in this school," she continued. "But Dumbledore accepted not only mudbloods and blood traitors but also filthy half-breeds, half-giants, centaurs, werewolves and who knows what else. No wonder this school -"

"Professor Dumbledore was the best thing that happened to Hogwarts," someone yelled from the Gryffindor side. As heads turned, Theo noticed the speaker. It was Lavender Brown.

"The whole wizarding world loves him," said Seamus Finnigan, "and you're not even worth a house elf's ears when compared to him."

Faint laughter rippled through the class but dispersed quickly. A satisfied smile appeared on Alecto's face - this was exactly what she wanted. She was looking to provoke the Gryffindors.

"Dumbledore is the reason this school is in this state," she spoke in a sickly sweet voice. "Had he followed the ways of Salazar Slytherin and accepted only the worthiest of purebloods, he would still be alive and teaching this school. But did he do that?" She stared deliberately at the Gryffindors, challenging them. "No. He brought in filthy creatures to teach the students. He hired centaurs, and werewolves, and -"

"And yet, he would never hire you."

A collective gasp sounded and the smile vanished from her face. Theo had to bite hard on his lip to hide a snort.

"Neville Longbottom," she addressed him through gritted teeth. "Detention."

Then she turned back to the class again. "As you may be aware, we are on the verge of war. People are dying every day, disappearing, being tortured. And who is to blame? Why, the very people who refuse to acknowledge the superiority of us, purebloods, and want the wizards to join hands with muggle and mudblood scum."

"So You-Know-Who is an innocent little boy, is he? He's not the one causing massacre everywhere. Is that right?"

It was Daphne. Everyone, especially the Slytherins, stared at her, shocked. Even Daphne herself seemed surprised at her sudden nerve and her eyes widened in disbelief. Blaise whispered beside Theo, "This is not good."

Alecto Carrow took very slow steps towards her. Unfortunately for Daphne, she was sitting right at the very front and she visibly cowered under the Death Eater's gaze. Alecto stopped in front of her and lowered her head until her face was just inches from Daphne's nose. "A traitor, I see," she whispered, but her voice carried around the classroom. "You will join Mr Longbottom in detention."

And that was the end of the matter but someone didn't seem satisfied with the outcome, for a shrill voice called out, "Why detention? Why not show her right now what traitors will face under the new regime?"

Alecto's face swept around the students before her until she locked eyes with Pansy Parkinson. "That's alright, Ms Parkinson," she said sweetly. "It was a mistake." Her eyes bore down on Daphne, who shrank back, her face whitening. "If she dares repeat this behaviour, she will be all yours."

Theo clenched his fists under the table as Alecto continued her speech on muggles once again. Time dragged on excruciatingly slowly, and nearly all of the Gryffindors had earned themselves a detention each, and Neville two, by the time the class was halfway through. But the maliciousness in Alecto's speech only increased every second, and the anger from the Gryffindors seemed almost visible as it spewed out like smoke from their bodies.

"Muggles have driven us into hiding and tortured us for centuries," she spat out each word in a voice that was now so high-pitched that Theo thought she would break the windows. "It's high time we returned the favour. Muggles are nothing but pests. They're inferior creatures, and they deserve to be squashed like bugs."

"And how much muggle blood have you and your brother got?" Neville burst out.

The silence that followed pressed down on Theo's ears. Everyone seemed to be holding their breaths as Alecto Carrow made her way through the rows of desks to reach Neville. She wouldn't give him detention now. It was as clear as day. They sat in anticipation for her reaction.

When she reached Neville's seat, he stared her down, like nothing in the world scared him; which was saying a lot considering how gravely weakened he looked after his 'questioning'. Theo craned his neck to see what she was about to do - cruciate him perhaps? - but it happened so fast that he didn't even realise she has done something until she was back to the front of the class, a knife clutched between her fingers, its blade dripping blood.

Loud shouts of protests erupted from the Gryffindor side as they all rose to their feet and began yelling all at once. Unfazed, Alecto announced, "Class dismissed," and stalked out of the classroom. Amidst the chaos, Theo noticed Neville's face cut by a large gash and covered in blood as he got dragged out of the classroom by his friends. The Slytherins remained in their seats, shocked by the progress of the events.

"I can't believe she used a knife," said Blaise beside him. Theo agreed. The Carrows had so far relied on wands to punish the wrongdoers, but seeing Alecto slash a student's face with a knife somehow made her seem ten times as scary. Sure, the Cruciatus curse caused pain like no other, but watching blood rush out in rivulets from someone's face was a whole other category of horror.

Daphne's shaking figure snapped Theo out of his thoughts and he stumbled to his feet to catch her before she left the classroom. She trembled like a leaf and wrapping an arm around her, he led her out of the classroom and into a nearby corridor.

"Are you okay?" he asked softly once they were away from the crowd.

She nodded, then shook her head. Though she wasn't crying, her eyes were bloodshot and her pale face looked even paler. "I can't believe Pansy would say something like that," she whispered. "We've shared dorms since we were eleven."

Theo gave a sympathetic smile. "Well, you've never been friends with her."

"Still." She bit her lips, clearly terrified. "What - what do you think she'll do to me in detention?"

Theo didn't know exactly what, but judging by the scars on Neville's face, he could take a guess. But he wasn't going to say that to Daphne, so he held out his arms and let her fall into his chest, where she began to weep like a child.

⋆

i hate this chapter but i'm glad i've got it out of the way