“So, what do you think the new transfigurations teacher will be like?” Jack asked as they approached the classroom.
“I don’t know,” Ginny said, “Lockhart seemed happy to see me though. I’m surprised he came back actually. With how much boasting he was doing in the papers, I thought he might be only teaching for the chance to claim credit for teaching the triwizarding champions.”
“Well, our grand champion hasn’t graduated school yet, has she?” Jack said with a light punch on Ginny’s shoulder, “He’s still got plenty to teach you still.”
“True,” Ginny said with a snort. As self-absorbed as Lockhart was, his stage play style of teaching was interesting enough for Ginny. She just wondered what he’d do when he ran out of his own books to go through. She didn’t see him being nearly as excited about it if he had to narrate and discuss someone else’s adventures…
They went into the room and all took their seats and waited for the new teacher to arrive. She had already made an appearance at the opening feast, wearing all pink. But after Headmistress McGonagall had given the opening speech, she had simply eaten her food. There were all sorts of rumors floating around about her, mostly negative, but now Ginny and Jack would get to see the truth of them themselves.
Ginny had never put much stock in rumors ever since Lupin. He had gone from beloved teacher to violent criminal that everyone had always known was dangerous from the beginning in only days. She had never forgotten that.
When they had all taken their seats, a door opened in the back of the room and the new transfiguration teacher emerged, Dolores Umbridge. There was a little space on the far side of the classroom where the teacher could keep supplies that were segmented off from the rest of the classroom. Rumors held that some of the teachers put chairs and other things in there for them to relax in between classes too.
“Hm hm,” The teacher said as she cleared her throat in a high pitched tone. She was wearing an all pink fuzzy vest head to toe. She had a wide, slack mouth and a broad, flabby face with wide bulging eyes. She almost reminded Ginny of Alexa’s toad Caesar. Ginny struggled to control her expression as the comparison became unmistakable as soon as she had the thought of comparing the surly toad and the teacher.
“Today, we will be going over your third year transfigurations,” Dolores Umbridge said, “Please open your new textbooks to page one.”
There was a rustle of pages as everyone did so and waited.
“Wands away. Please read the first chapter and introduction. If you finish early, keep reading. There will be no need for you to talk.”
Ginny blinked and looked between the teacher who appeared to be completely serious and the rest of the confused class. She looked between her book and the teacher again and raised her hand.
“Yes? Ms. Weasley?”
“Excuse me, professor. Are we not doing any spell practice today?”
“No, any spellcasting will be done outside of the classroom. We will only be going over the theory in class, the rest is for homework.”
“But Professor, how will we learn how to cast properly if you’re not there to tell us what we’re doing wrong?” Ginny asked in disbelief, “We’re not going to be having any classroom spell practice at all?”
“No, we will not,” Umbridge said in a sharp tone, “This is my classroom, not yours Ms. Weasley. You may feel you don’t have much to learn as the triwizarding grand champion, but your fellow students do need to attend to their studies. So please read silently without disrupting the rest of the class.”
Ginny opened her mouth, but at seeing the professor's glare, closed it again.
“Yes, Professor Umbridge,” Ginny said sullenly as she began to idly flip through the pages of her textbook. She’d already read the first half of the chapter before coming to class. Man, without any spell practice at all this class was going to be so dull…
It was near the end of class and Ginny was nearly bored to tears. The textbook was dense, with all sorts of laws and theorems she had to know that were only barely explained. McGonagall usually had whole lectures that weren’t about anything in the textbooks or focused on the different properties and sub properties of the laws of transfiguration that were casually mentioned in the textbook. McGonagall was demanding, but you could at least ask questions about things. Umbridge had wasted no time shutting down anyone who attempted to ask her any questions.
Ginny leaned over to her right.
“Hey, Jack,” she whispered.
He looked over at her. She shifted her book slightly so he could see what page she was on. She pointed to the paragraph that was trying to explain some law of transfiguration. She had been reading it over and over for about five minutes now with no success.
“Do you have any idea what this one means?”
Jack leaned over and read the offending paragraph. His eyes lit up and he smiled slightly. Ah, he actually knew!
“Oh, yeah,” he whispered back, “I remember this. It’s a subset of one of the bigger transfiguration laws we learned last year. Something about…”
“Hm hm hm.”
The both of them looked up and saw Umbridge standing right in front of them.
“Ms. Weasley. I thought I told you to not disrupt your fellow students?”
“Sorry,” Ginny said, “I was just asking Jack a question about the textbo-”
“Did I not tell you to read silently?” Umbridge said, “Were you silent or were you not?”
“But how are we supposed to figure it out if we can’t ask anyone, even the teacher, questions?” Ginny said finally in frustration, “There’s plenty of stuff we learned before that’s just not in the textbooks. How are we supposed to know any of that if we do this?”
“Ms. Weasley…” Umbridge said with a dangerous tone, “Everything you students need is in that textbook. Everything. It’s ministry approved for your grade level. I’m surprised you’re struggling with it, given your prior accomplishments.”
“Can you just help me?” Ginny asked and turned her book around, “What does this paragraph mean? Please?”
Umbridge glanced at where Ginny was pointing and read it for a few seconds. The woman’s face suddenly went beet red and she looked angry.
“Detention!” She spat out, “Detention, Weasley! For disruption of the class! And if I hear another word out of you, it’ll be for a week! I’ll see you this Friday after classes.”
Ginny glanced between her book and the angry professor.
“O… okay,” Ginny managed to choke out, now nearly in tears from frustration. What was she supposed to do if she couldn’t ask for help? Just sit here and stare at it uselessly and feel like an idiot? Gah! She sat there and stewed in the injustice of it all as she stared angrily at her textbook without reading any of it.
When class ended she left in a huff, Jack following closely behind.
“She’s so bad!” Jack said quickly, “I can’t believe she made us read the textbooks the whole time!”
He reached out and hesitantly grabbed her hand. She flinched slightly before relaxing as they held hands and walked through the hallway to their next class. Their dating relationship had sort of faded away a little with neither of them really paying attention to it. But occasionally one of them would do something like this and hold hands to remind them both of it. They still had only held hands and hugged so far. Their ‘dates’ were just wandering around the castle together instead of with Alexa too. They had just felt a little lonely without her. So even those had stopped after a while. Having a boyfriend didn’t seem to be much at all like the other girls seemed to have hyped it up to be.
They hadn’t even kissed yet. Ginny shot a glance at Jack and blushed at the thought.
He put his free hand up to his face with a blank look.
“What? Is there something on my face?” He asked innocently.
“No! No, you’re fine,” Ginny said, “Just thinking about something. I can’t believe we got downgraded to Umbridge from McGonagall for transfigurations.”
“I know, right?” Jack said sympathetically, “Good luck at that detention. You totally didn’t deserve that.”
“Thanks, Jack.”
— — —
Ginny walked into Umbridge’s office for detention and froze. The woman herself was sitting there at her desk.
“No! No! What are you doing here?” Ginny shouted as she dropped her school bag to the ground in shock.
“Why, I got detention too, old friend,” Eric said with a grin as he sat across from Umbridge, “Seems that teach here is allergic to success. Two triwizarding champions, two detentions. What a coincidence.”
“Quiet! You already have a week of detention, another word out of you and you’ll have more!” Umbridge barked out.
Eric smirked, but didn’t say anything else as Ginny quickly sat down in the chair after picking up her bag. It was only one detention, she could push through it.
“So, teach. What'll the two of us ruffians be doing today?” Eric asked.
“You’ll be writing some lines for me,” Umbridge said with deadly calm. She reached into her desk and drew out two large quills. She handed them to Ginny and Eric. The two of them took out pieces of parchment, Eric getting a calculating look in his eyes as he glanced at Ginny next to him with quick glances.
“I thought this detention would be a drag,” Eric suddenly said just as Umbridge opened her mouth again, “But if Ginny’s here with me, I’m sure that it’ll go by like a breeze. She always does the most interesting things.”
“Enough. Your lines today are ‘I must respect teacher’. Begin,” Umbridge said.
“How many times?” Ginny asked.
“As many times as it takes for the message to… sink in,” Umbridge said with a malicious glint in her eyes.
“Sure thing, teach!” Eric said before pointing a finger gun at Umbridge and pulling the trigger. Ginny tensed as she felt the killing curse welling up within his finger before it dispersed again as he put his thumb down to pull the trigger. He winked at Ginny before picking up the quill Umbridge had given him.
Eric started writing his line and it came out in red ink.
“Now, isn’t that interesting?” Eric said mockingly, “Is that the iron stench of blood I smell? But whose could it be?”
Umbridge smiled and opened her mouth with a victorious look on her face. But Ginny felt something in her gut drop. Oh no…
Umbridge suddenly screamed as cuts started appearing on her forehead. Carved like a thin scalpel sliding against Umbridge’s skin into the red words, ‘I must respect teacher’.
Umbridge was leaning against her desk and panting heavily with one hand held to her head to stanch the flow of the blood. Eric leaned over his parchment and wrote again, ignoring Umbridge’s cries of pain. A second later another bloody line was carved on the back of the hand held to Umbridge’s face.
“Stop!” Umbridge gasped, “Stop!”
“But Professor…” Eric said with an inhumanly wide grin, “I don’t think the message has sunk in just yet…”
Eric kept writing and more and more bloody lines were carved all over the screaming Umbridge, bleeding lines of text appearing in a different spot of her body each time.
“Stop! Stop it!” Ginny suddenly shouted, “She gets it, just please stop writing Eric!”
Eric stopped after finishing one last line with a flourish. He turned to her while Umbridge whimpered from the floor, having fallen from her chair at one point.
“You do realize that was meant to happen to us, right?” Eric said casually, “She’s only reaping what she sowed. Now, I think my message has sunk in. Now it’s your turn. Write, I’ll even handle the enchantment for you. Write your lines just as teacher ordered you to. We’ve got to respect teacher. Umbridge even told us so.”
Ginny picked up the quill and her hand trembled over the blank piece of parchment for a moment before putting it back down again.
“No! No, I won’t do it! I won’t play your sick game! No one deserves this!”
“Some do,” Eric said mildly, “Perhaps you’d like to take her place? I can not alter the enchantment so it cuts you instead. She ordered you to write your lines. We’re not leaving this place if we don’t both write our lines, are we? Umbridge won’t let us, we’ll be in trouble with teacher. So now it’s your turn for your lines. It’s just a choice you’ve got to make. Do you keep the mark on your body…” Eric pointed at Umbridge’s bloody hand that had just slapped on the top of the desk from where she lay on the floor groaning, “Or hers?”
“I won’t. I won’t write at all.”
“Why, Ginny!” Eric said in surprise, “Surely you’re not saying that Umbridge is your friend now? She’s not covered by our deal, is she? You’re not trying to break our terms, are you?”
“...No,” Ginny said reluctantly.
“Then get. To. Writing! If you don’t, I may be forced to come back for the whole week for my detentions. Make sure that the message is really… carves down to the bone on teach, don’t you agree? I mean you can still choose not to write, that's fine. But that would just be worse for dear old teacher here in the long run if she has to be in detention with me for a full week because of it. But if you do it, then it can only be for today. I think that sounds fair. The punishment seems like it'd be a lot more vicious if it's coming from you too.”
Ginny’s hand trembled but she reluctantly picked up the quill. She held it just up the parchment, hesitating. Then stopping.
“You’re not going to get away with this, Eric,” Ginny said, “She’s a teacher, you can’t bully her into not talking.”
“Who said I was going to try doing that?” Eric said, “You’re right, that wouldn’t work at all. That’s what memory charms are for. Turns out that plenty of powerful people know how to cast them. You’ve just got to know the right ones to ask.”
“So why does it even matter if I do it or not?” Ginny asked, “She’ll forget this ever happened either way. You’ll heal her and she won’t even remember.”
“Oh, but I’ll remember,” Eric said, “And she was punishing you too. So choose. Cut yourself, or cut teacher? Or do nothing at all despite knowing what I'll do instead?”
Ginny’s pen hovered over the parchment for another moment before at Eric’s expectant look Ginny let it touch down and started writing on the parchment with the red ink. Eric watched her expectantly as she kept writing as fast as she could. Her left hand started to burn and then burst into pain as she took the enchantment on herself. She clenched her fist and held back her tears as the blade cut deeper and deeper into the back of her hand. But she wouldn’t hurt someone for Eric. Let him hurt someone when she could stop it. She couldn’t. Even if Umbridge probably deserved it for putting Ginny through this.
Half way through, Ginny finally let her tears fall onto the parchment even as she kept writing.
“That’s enough! You’re good, you’re good,” Eric said suddenly. Ginny stopped part way through a line and lifted her quill with a gasp. Her vision was blurry as tears ran down her face.
“Ginny…” Eric said, suddenly sounding confused and lost, “I didn’t think you’d really do it. Why didn’t you hurt her instead of yourself? I was just kidding around, I didn’t mean to make you cry…”
Ginny threw the quill onto the desk and shoved the parchment into her bag angrily, “Well, I did it. I’m not like you. Happy now? Just leave me alone!”
She picked up her bag and shoved her way out of the door. Eric didn’t follow her. She fled through the hallways outside, keeping her head down so other people wouldn’t see her. Even if she heard most of them muttering as soon as she went by. She eventually found an abandoned corner of the castle and sat on the wall with her knees curled up to her chest and head on her knees.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Ginny? People said you were upset and pointed me this way…” She looked up as she heard Alexa’s voice.
“Ginny? Oh my god, Ginny, are you okay?”
Ginny felt Alexa sit next to her and then suddenly grab her bloody hand.
“What the- Did Umbridge do this to you? We’ve got to take this to Dumbledo- I mean McGonagall! She can’t do this to you!”
“Who- Who’s the one that sent us into the forbidden forest in our first year again? Why would she help at all?” Ginny muttered through all her snot and grossness from crying. She’d calmed down now that Alexa was there with her.
“Ginny, that’s different. She can’t ignore this. And she's the headmistress now. She can’t ignore something like this. She just can’t.”
Alexa was massaging Ginny’s hand with her thumbs and it was making Ginny feel a little better. She looked up and saw her friend’s concerned face peering at her from less than a foot away.
Ginny jumped and Alexa startled too and went back. But then they both relaxed and Alexa kept massaging Ginny’s injured hand.
“Let’s at least go to Madame Pomfrey’s? Right?”
“I guess,” Ginny muttered, “But I have to tell you. It was Eric. I’m… the pain is not fun. Umbridge had these quills she wanted us to use. They did this. Eric turned it around, was torturing the teacher and forced me to use them too, choosing between cutting myself or hurting her. Said it didn’t count for the deal because Umbridge wasn’t my friend. I… I couldn’t do it, and so…”
Ginny lifted her hand slightly while not looking at Alexa.
“Eric’s probably erasing her memory of what happened right now,” Ginny said, “Even she might not believe that it happened.”
“Oh. Why is it always Eric?” Alexa muttered angrily, “But that doesn’t change anything, We’re still going to get your hand healed and tell the teachers.”
Ginny looked at puffy eyes as the other girl grabbed Ginny’s bag from the floor and leveraged Ginny to her feet in one large lurch.
“But… How can we tell them?” Ginny said, “He’s Eric. Who knows what he’ll do?”
“Ginny…” She looked at Alexa in the eyes, “Eric’s deal only is between him and you and your friends, right? You tattling on him isn’t part of it. If he wants to do horrible things where you can see them and where he'll get caught, then he gets to deal with what happens. Memory charms aren’t perfect, I’m sure they’ll find something.”
“You think?” Ginny asked hopefully, “Could that work? You're right, Eric might see it that way actually if we told him that...”
“Only one way to find out,” Alexa said, “Now c’mon. To the hospital wing. I’ll do the talking, you just sit tight. I’ll yell at the people who need it.”
“T-thanks, Alexa. You’re a good friend.”
“Thanks. I helped you pick out those cute tops for the summer, didn’t I? Wasn’t that fun?”
“Y-Yeah. That was fun, I wore them all summer.” Ginny choked out as Alexa started leading Ginny away through the hallways. After a few seconds to get Ginny walking, Alexa let go of Ginny’s hand even as she carried both of their bags.
“Good, that’s what they're for, right? So you can wear them, change it up a little sometimes.”
“U- uh huh.”
Ginny calmed down a little bit more as Alexa started talking about all sorts of different things as they walked, just letting Ginny respond in grunts and single words as they went. Ginny kept her hand in her sleeve so the people walking by wouldn’t see the blood still oozing from her hand. Alexa and Ginny had tried using the Episky healing spell a few times but it hadn’t seemed to do anything. There was foreign magic sticking into the wound and keeping it open. Ginny had tried to shatter it like it was an enchantment, but it hadn’t accomplished much. Hopefully Madame Pomfrey would know how to handle it.
They reached the hospital wing and when Madame Pomfrey saw Ginny’s hand she gasped and got right to work. Ginny was led to a nearby bed and given a series of gross potions to drink. Her whole body went numb after the third one and when she looked down at her hand the cuts started to finally start healing.
“Lucky you came to me quick,” Madame Pomfrey said, “Magic in the wounds, you see. No good, no good at all. Would have led to scarring even with healing magic if you’d let it heal on its own.”
The woman had sent off some sort of spell to alert McGonagall of what was happening. A blue glowing rabbit that had bounded off through the air and out of the door after Madame Pomfrey whispered to it for a minute. Alexa had explained what happened to the woman, saying that Eric’s quill had ‘malfunctioned’ and he had chosen to keep writing when he saw what was happening.
After a few minutes, McGonagall finally arrived. Ginny had been silently watching her hand healing in slow motion the whole time while feeling pinpricks all over her numb body. Her hand didn’t hurt anymore, but it was so strange watching the bleeding wound on her hand slowly disappearing. Most magic healing from Mom went away with a single spell like it had never been there at all…
Alexa explained the whole thing again, just like how she’d done for Madame Pomfrey.
“I hardly think Eric is capable of casting memory charms,” McGonagall said skeptically, “But I will go to her office and see to the truth myself. Certainly Umbridge at least will require a good explanation for what happened to your hand, Ms. Weasley.”
“Yeah, sure,” Ginny said gloomily. That sounded promising… Not. Clearly Eric was about to get away with it again.
“Well, I will go… do that then,” McGonagall said, seeming a bit confused by Ginny’s suddenly gloomy expression. She left the room.
Ginny was fully healed and waited with Alexa for McGonagall to come back. She returned with Umbridge and Eric. Eric was cradling his hand with an obviously hurt expression. Ginny was sure that it was fake, but if she didn’t suspect everything he did by default then she probably wouldn’t be able to tell. Umbridge was standing next to McGonagall looking completely unhurt and puffed up like a bullfrog. She looked like she was barely holding back from shouting at McGonagall as the two women stood there without looking at each other.
“Oh, Ginny! Are you alright?” Eric asked as he lifted his hand to Madame Pomfrey. The back of his hands was cut with the same line, ‘I must respect teacher’. Ginny unconsciously rubbed the spot where she had been cut on her own hand. His cuts weren’t as deep as hers had been. He must have only written it a few times so he could play the victim now.
“Yeah. Fine,” Ginny said shortly as Alexa glared at Eric silently.
Madame Pomfrey healed Eric up as Umbridge stood there glaring at them both. Ginny stared back, a little shocked by the change in the woman’s behavior. It only felt like minutes ago that she’d been begging for Eric to stop hurting her… Now she looked so superior and proud, like they were the annoyance for running to McGonagall to tattle on her.
“How about we all go up to my office to discuss the situation. Thoroughly,” McGonagall said sternly, silencing Umbridge’s reply with a look.
They all went to leave, Alexa following with them.
“Not you, Ms. Adams,” McGonagall said, “I appreciate you helping your friend, but I’d like to only keep the people directly involved in the conversation.”
“Directly involved…?” Alexa said in disbelief, “I found her crying and hurt! How am I not involved?!”
Ginny put a hand on Alexa’s shoulder and shook her head when the girl looked at her.
“Just go, I’ll be fine,” Ginny said heavily, “Go tell Jack what happened. Maybe my brothers too if you can. I’m sure they’ll want to know the real story rather than whatever McGonagall or Umbridge decides that it is.”
McGonagall looked insulted, but held her tongue as Alexa hesitated but then firmly nodded to Ginny.
“Okay. I will. I’ll make people know what really happened.”
“Wait!” Ginny said quickly as Alexa went to go. The girl stopped and looked back, “I was wrong about Eric. It was all Umbridge, make sure you tell my brothers and everyone else that. All the evidence says so anyways. You get it?”
Alexa took a second to process it before nodding and grimacing before shooting another dirty look at Eric and running off at full speed a second later.
Ginny turned around back to the three people watching her.
“What are you all staring at?” Ginny said irritably, “Let’s just get this over with.”
“Why I never…” McGonagall said before shaking her head and leading the way to the Headmistress’ office.
Eric and Ginny trailed behind McGonagall and Umbridge who were taking great pains to not look at each other.
“No need to look so smug, Eric,” Ginny said sullenly in a whisper, “Whatever, you won. You’re not in trouble again somehow.”
“Hey, don’t worry we’ll both be fine,” Eric said, “It’s all on Umbridge. Headmistress McGaga can’t overlook this. And Umbridge would never submit to a memory search no matter what. She just doesn’t seem like the type.”
Ginny saw some real emotion on his face for the first time in a while, “Hey look, I really didn’t think it would go that way. I’m sorry. I was just kidding around, I didn’t mean for you to go so far. I didn’t mean for you to get hurt like that.”
“Well it happened and it's your fault,” Ginny replied, “I won’t ever be like you.”
They reached the staircase to the headmistress’ office and McGonagall said the password to the eagle.
“Ginny, are you alright?” Amvatroz asked, completely ignoring McGonagall as she said the password.
“I’m fine Amvatroz, I’ll tell you about it later,” She said absently.
“Well alright then. I suppose I’ll humor this supposed headmistress. To think the old man just left without even having a year to fully show her the ropes and prove herself to the castle…”
Umbridge smirked as Amvatroz’s statue went still and started rotating to form the staircase upwards. McGonagall huffed but ignored Amvatroz as all of them proceeded upwards and then through the large doors to the office itself that McGonagall opened after staring at it and muttering under her breath for a few seconds.
All of them went inside. McGonagall sat on one side of the desk while Ginny, Eric, and an annoyed Umbridge sat on the other side. Ginny managed to snag a seat on the side so Eric had to sit in the middle next to Umbridge. Small victories.
Ginny looked around at the rather bare office. The only changes McGonagall had made was a small bookshelf in the corner and a large blackboard covering one wall. All sorts of tight scribbles and spell diagrams covered it.
McGonagall caught Ginny’s look and smiled slightly.
“My transfigurations research,” She said, “As Headmistress it seems I have more free time. I’ve been able to dive into my theories and experiments more fully recently. Now, how about you start us off Ms. Weasley? Tell us all your version of events again. I’ll make sure that… No one interrupts.” McGonagall shot a quick glance at Umbridge for that last part.
“I think that Eric should go first,” Ginny said, “He seems eager to go.”
“Yes, it was all rather horrible,” Eric said, not wasting her hand off of the story to him, “We were just having detention when Umbridge used those horrible quills on us. Ginny was quite distraught and Umbridge yelled at her and made her write. After a few lines Ginny grew so upset that she took her things and left the room crying. I stayed a little longer and defended Ginny’s honor, but alas I was forced to write lines just before you got there, Headmistress McGoogoo.”
A vein pulsed in McGonagall’s forehead as Eric said the completely wrong name again before she turned to Ginny.
“Is this what happened?”
“Pretty much, I was just confused before. Eric’s right of course.” Ginny said without much enthusiasm.
“Professor Umbridge? What do you say about this?”
“Well, I admit to it all of course,” Umbridge said primly, “I was well within my rights to punish them as I see fit. In fact, it is Ms. Weasley here that left detention early and Potter that yelled at me in a most disrespectful way. I think both of them will have detention with me… for a whole month. If not more.”
“No… No I don’t think they will,” McGonagall said with a voice loaded with threat, “I think they’ll be free of any punishment in fact. And I’ll be bringing your behavior to the board of governors and we’ll see just how ‘reasonable’ your punishment is then.”
“Ha! You? Criticizing me on detentions going too far? Didn’t you send in Ms. Weasley and several other students into the forbidden forest as first years with a half-giant oaf? Where they were attacked by some savage beasts in the woods at night? How rich, you’re just jealous that I’ve taken over your old classroom!”
McGonagall snorted before quickly recovering at Umbridge’s last statement, “Jealous? My word, you should read the letters I’ve received from parents complaining of your sheer incompetence. By Merlin, it’s only been one week! It’s frankly astounding how one can be so confident with so little to back it up. At least Lockhart knows enough by now to make himself scarce when he’s not up to a task.”
Eric looked between the two women with glee, clearly soaking up the gossip like a sponge.
“Enough!” Umbridge said with a red face, “You can’t do anything to me without approval from the board of Governors. And I have the minister’s approval in case you’ve forgotten.”
“Yes, just in case one of our staff is secretly ‘Dark Lord Pettigrew’ in disguise,” McGonagall drawled, “I assure you. I knew Pettigrew when he was at school. Traitor he may be, dark lord he was most certainly not. I've heard that even Sirius Black doesn't believe that it was actually him. For all we know it's some imposter using his face for some free press.”
“Excuses! The Aurors and all those people there confirmed that it was him and not a spell. And you know that you can’t fire me!” Umbridge said standing out of her chair, “Anyone that takes my place could be him in disguise. Who knows how young he was when he mastered his skill in deception? He could be anyone, anywhere, we have no idea what kind of magic he has access to!”
“Let’s not get caught up in conspiracy theories and hysterics,” McGonagall said, not sounding impressed, “Clearly someone's been taking those ridiculous news articles full of baseless speculation at face value. Now back to the task at hand. Umbridge, you are not to retaliate against the children. Any detentions you assign will be monitored by one of the other teachers. Whichever ones you can convince to take their time to do so.”
McGonagall smirked slightly, “You will be able to convince them to give you their time, won’t you?”
Umbridge hesitated, “Fine,” she muttered, “I see how it is. No one at this school takes security seriously. I’ll be telling the Minister about this.”
Umbridge stood up and stormed out of the office, so red in the face that she was almost starting to turn purple in rage.
McGonagall turned to Eric and Ginny.
“I’m very sorry that that happened to you two. If she does absolutely anything that makes you uncomfortable, report it to your head of houses or me and I’ll set her straight. I’ll see she’ll be properly punished for what she’s done. Completely out of line, and improper of an educator…”
“Hey, who’s my head of house again?” Eric interrupted, “Is it still you McGillamonster?”
Ginny unconsciously snorted in laughter at the sudden name.
“No, Eric,” McGonagall said while looking like her soul had suddenly left her body, “I am not. Didn’t you listen to my speech at the opening feast when you returned to school this year?”
“Well, yeah. But I wasn’t really paying attention, McGigantic. I must have missed that part.”
“Professor Vector who teaches Arithmancy. She’ll be your head of house. Hopefully her name will be simple enough that you’ll be able to remember it, Eric.”
“Of course I will, McGordon. I’m great with names, you of all people should know that.”
“I suppose another month of detention wouldn’t correct your behavior and allow you to remember my name correctly for just once, would it?” McGonagall said with a sigh.
“Of course I have no idea what you’re talking about McGonagallbladder.”
“You both can leave. Especially Eric,” McGonagall said, “I’ve had enough of him for a week already. Remember the both of you, any problems and report directly to your head of house. No matter what that woman out there says neither of you are to serve any detentions under her supervision. Nor anyone else for that matter.”
They left.
“How do you do it?” Ginny asked as she and Eric left the headmaster’s office. They started walking through the hallways towards the general direction of both the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw common rooms, “You just insult her to her face and she takes it.”
“It’s not insults,” Eric said, “It’s more like… a game. She knows that I really know her name. But I haven’t called her the same name twice in a very long time. And never used the real one, I don't think. If she really wanted me to stop then she wouldn’t have settled on giving me only two months of detention with her in my first year before giving up.”
“Anyways, as I was saying before about Umbridge. Sorry about that,” Eric continued, “I just don’t understand. Why would you hurt yourself when you could have hurt her? It was only me there, I would have healed her. Only we would have known, we wouldn’t have been caught.”
“Maybe I don’t want to hurt other people, Eric. Ever thought about that one before?” Ginny said sarcastically, “What a novel idea.”
“But it was you or her,” Eric insisted, “You chose yourself. Why? That’s more than just choosing to not hurt someone. You chose to hurt yourself instead. You could have just stood back, not done anything even though you knew what I'd do. It wouldn't happen in front of you, so if it was unpleasant for you then you wouldn't have to see it. She doesn’t deserve that sacrifice, to hurt yourself for her, surely even you see that. You saw how she acted when she thought she was the one that had hurt us instead.”
“It’s… it’s not about whether she deserved it or not,” Ginny said firmly, “It’s not even about her. No one deserves what you did to her. I won’t be the kind of person that does that to other people. Or just lets it happen and stands by if I can. I mean, I had Fawkes save your life at the Quidditch World Cup last year! You think I told him to do that because I thought you were a good person? You’d just maimed Cedric in front of my eyes a day before. I did it because it was the right thing to do, and that’s it. Even if you’re a terrible person.”
“So, you wouldn’t kill or torture or even seriously hurt anyone ever?” Eric said, sounding confused, “Even if they murdered your family or did something to your friends? If they really deserved it?”
Ginny paused longer than she would have liked, “I don’t know. But if you or anyone else touches a hair on their heads, I’d get my revenge somehow. Maybe even if I’d have to do something horrible to do it. But I’m not going to cross that line for you and your amusement of all things.”
Eric’s expression cleared and his thoughtful frown twisted up into a slight smile of relieved understanding, “Oh, okay! I think I get it now. It doesn’t matter to me since I’m a true veteran. But for the first time you do something violent it needs to be special, right? You can’t waste that on somebody unimportant like Umbridge. Or have me pushing you into it and ruining the whole thing because I’m there. It’s gotta be somebody you reeeaaalllly hate so it's more impactful. I didn’t do that, I just kinda started doing it willy nilly as the urge struck me. Now my chance for special memories are all gone now. I’m really sorry, now that I understand why I should be sorry. I won’t try to give you any more opportunities like that in the future, okay? You’ve got to go out there and find your own for your first time. Make it real special like you said. I believe in you, I’m sure you can do it.”
Ginny felt something twist in her gut at Eric’s utterly insane interpretation of what she had just said. Was that really the conclusion he had come to from what she had told him? Or was he just messing with her again somehow?
“Fine. Apology accepted or whatever. So long as you never try to make me do something like that ever again.”
“Well, never say never…” Eric said, “Just for your first time. With how often you get wrapped up in things, I’m sure the day you give it a go will pop up sometime in the next couple years. Probably while we’re both still in school even. Let me know after you’ve dipped your toes into the waters. I’ll give you some tips, help you a bit once you’re ready to try out some more of it.”
“No thanks,” Ginny said, “Let’s go back to pretending we don’t know each other now.”
“If you say so. But I'm happy to answer any questions about it if you get curious,” Eric said before turning and taking a left turn to start walking away down a side hallway as Ginny continued walking forwards.
Ginny went to the closed doors of the great hall where Jack, Alexa, Fred, George, and Ron surprisingly were waiting there concerned. All of them spent a long while being concerned about what happened and badmouthing Umbridge as much as they could, even drawing in the passerby to start spreading what had happened to whoever would listen.
That cheered up Ginny a little bit. Despite everything that had happened with Eric, Ginny did still think Umbridge was unpleasant and deserving some payback for what she’d tried to do to Ginny and Eric. Just not something as intense as what had actually happened.
By the next day the whole school had heard the rumors of what had happened and hated Umbridge even more than they already had. Umbridge’s classes were chaotic, with not even the slightest semblance of order as no one read their textbooks and mostly did whatever they wanted. Umbridge shouted at all of them until she was purple in the face, but there was nothing she could do. Since she hadn’t found a teacher to take over her detentions, so she wasn’t able to assign them to anybody. All of her threats were toothless without the ability to punish any of them for stepping out of line.
Until she found a teacher to take over her position or the board of governors made a decision on what to do about the quills Umbridge had used on Eric and Ginny, Umbridge would remain toothless and powerless to enforce order in the classroom. A fact that clearly drove the woman up the wall as she practically tore her hair out as most of the students outright ignored her during class time.
Many of Fred and George’s new products were used on Umbridge. At one point leading to her having both a four foot long tongue, boils all over her body, and hands the sizes of tennis rackets. Seems that multiple people had tried to dose her with Fred and George’s products all at once.
Fred and George were doing good business with their products. They were mostly focusing on the Gryffindors at the moment but were slowly spreading out to sell to the other houses as soon as the Gryffindors started spreading word of the success of Fred and George’s products to their friends in the other houses.
Ginny didn’t have to talk to Eric at all for the next few days, and he didn’t seem up to anything suspicious. So all things considered things were looking relatively up.