Being Different Year 5

Tuesday Morning Anne was sat at the breakfast table with Irwin, Irwin was eating some scrambled eggs and toast whilst Anne ate some apple slices. They were discussing their revision plans for the day.

“So if today we go over our notes for History of Magic for third year and then go over switching spells for Transfiguration, we can do some Charms tomorrow,” said Irwin as Anne jotted all this down on a piece of scrap parchment.

They were about to go get some studying done before class when they were assaulted by an avalanche of owl post.

“What the hell!” screamed Anthony as he ducked under the table to duck the avalanche of post.

“Oohh you should open this one Anne,” said Luna passing her the latest copy of the Quibbler. There was a picture of Harry with his arm around Anne on the front of the paper

“Here we go,” muttered Anne as she pulled open the paper.

She opened it to an article entitled, Harry Potter, the Truth at Last!

Irwin was reading over her shoulder as usual as she read the article.

They passed the paper around when they finished reading it.

“Woah,” muttered Mandy, “no wonder you and Luna were late!”

The Ravenclaw table were shocked to read about the return of Voldemort but already knew that Anne wasn’t crazy. It did help explain Anne’s point of view about things though.

The rest of the school though were looking at Anne strangely all through breakfast, the only person getting more weird looks was Harry.

All through the day people kept on coming up to her.

“I’m sorry I thought you were crazy,” said a third year Gryffindor that Anne had never met before.

By the end of the day Anne found herself hiding in her dormitory. If people weren’t going up to her to apologise for calling her mad, they were telling how terribly the ministry had been treating her and how they should have believed her and Harry all along.

There was a light knocking on the door.

“Annie you in here?” asked Irwin poking his head around the door.

“Do I see a lock of beautiful auburn hair hiding beneath that quilt?” he chuckled sitting down on her bed.

“No,” she muttered hiding her lock of stray hair back under her Ravenclaw quilt.

“What’s up?” he asked.

“People won’t leave me alone,” she muttered.

“Do you want some chocolate?”

“No,” she mumbled.

“Did you hear that Umbridge has banned the Quibbler?”

“Really?” asked Anne poking her head out from beneath her quilt.

“Really,” chuckled Irwin, “I thought that might interest you.”

“I brought you some dinner,” he said handing her a dish of beef casserole that he had brought up for her.

“Thanks Irwin,” she beamed as she ate her dinner.

“Want to take the night off from studying?” he asked as she finished her food

“And do what?”

“Well there’s always my favourite past time,” he smirked pulling Anne in for a kiss.

“Other than that,” she chuckled throwing a pillow at him.

“How about some crochet, that always makes you feel better?”

“You’re right,” she beamed pulling out her crochet and going downstairs to make some granny squares.

After a few weeks most of the ruckus over the Quibbler article had died down. Anne did notice that people were trying to be a lot nicer to her now though. A lot of the students were being more understanding towards her, McGonagall gave her fifty points just for getting a question right in class and Flitwick gave a large bar of Honeydukes chocolate for no reason other than opening the door for him.

February slowly turned to March; Professor Trelawney got fired in front of the whole school only to be replaced by a centaur of all things. Then March drifted through to April; the exams were now only two months away!

Anne was in her weekly DA meeting, they had been joined this week for the first time by Seamus. Today was a lesson that most of the class had been looking forward to for months.

“Ok sis,” said Harry, “think of a happy memory.”

Anne tried to think of a happy memory and tried Harry and Anne’s last birthday when they had all been watching Monty Python.

“Expecto Patronum,” she muttered.

A small wisp of silvery mist shot out of Anne’s wand.

“Try a different memory sis.”

She closed her eyes again and tried to think back. She had just become unpetrified and was running into the Great Hall to find Irwin and Harry.

“Expecto Patronum,” she called pointing her wand.

A black and white cat came dancing out of Anne’s wand. The cat started to weave its way between Anne’s legs.

She watched the cat play with Hermione’s otter and Luna’s hare for a while.

Suddenly Anne’s wrist started to burn again, burning like it had never burnt before, the silver charm was glowing bright red. She looked over to the dark detectors on one of the walls, the figures in the foe glass were getting more and more distinct by the second.

“Harry,” Anne whimpered.

“Harry!!” she screamed shaking pointing at the foe glass.

“What?” asked Harry turning round from where he had been working with the Creevey’s.

Harry’s eyes moved to where Anne was pointing.

Most of the rest of the class were looking at the glass as well.

“Well!” shouted Harry.

“What are you waiting for? Run!!!!!!”

Anne had gone into shock again and was leaning against the wall hyperventilating. Harry took Anne by the wrist and helped her off the floor.

“Irwin!” Harry yelled, “take Anne and get her back to the Common Room, stop for no one!”

“Come on Annie,” said Irwin taking her hand. He quickly pulled the list of members off the wall and put it in his pocket before running out of the room pulling Anne with him.

It was chaos in the corridors, he could hear shouting of spells and screaming, but all that mattered was getting Anne back to the Common Room safely.

“Stop where you are gingers!” sneered Malfoy blocking the end of the corridor.

Irwin stopped running and tried to turn around only to find the other end of the corridor blocked by Millicent Bulstrode.

“You’re cornered Scamander,” smirked Malfoy as he and Millicent walked closer towards them.

“What do you want Malfoy?” scowled Irwin still clinging on fiercely to Anne’s hand.

“Well Professor Umbridge asked us to bring in anybody who was out of breath,” said Millicent.

“And we just caught you sprinting down the corridor dragging your freaky girlfriend along with you,” Malfoy finished.

“Looks like we’ve got two more Draco,” grinned Millicent.

Draco grabbed Irwin by the back of his collar and Millicent put a death grip on Anne’s arm and pulled her away from Irwin.

“Get off her!” screamed Irwin as Millicent dragged Anne away by the arm.

“Oh, don’t worry Scamander, we’re not going to hurt your freaky girlfriend,” whispered Malfoy as they pulled Irwin along by the collar, “with any luck though she might get expelled.”

“Two more for you Professor,” beamed Malfoy as they found Professor Umbridge on the seventh-floor corridor.

“Excellent Draco, you can go now,” said Umbridge adding their names to a list on a clipboard.

“Oh, I found this in Scamander’s pocket,” he added as an afterthought before leaving with Millicent.

Malfoy handed Umbridge the list of DA members that Irwin had pulled off the wall before leaving the room of requirement.

Umbridge’s face split into the most maniacal smile that Irwin had ever seen.

“Mr Scamander, Miss Potter,” beamed Umbridge, “I’d go and pack if I were you, you and everyone every other person on this little list will be leaving on the first train in the morning.”

“What?” Irwin stuttered.

Umbridge never got time to answer his question when Draco returned once more, this time with Harry who was also out of breath from running.

Harry arrived to find Irwin trying to get Anne up from off the floor where she was hyperventilating.

“Ah Mr Potter,” trilled Umbridge, “come with me, Mr Scamander, Miss Potter, I’d go and tell your friends to pack.”

“Come on Annie,” Irwin pleaded as, “we’ll sort this.”

Anne wasn’t responding, Irwin picked her up off the floor still hyperventilating and started to carry her back to the Common Room.

But Irwin wasn’t quite so sure that he could sort this one. They were all going to get expelled and only two months from their OWLs which they had been working towards for five years.

Irwin got back to the Common Room and found that several of the other DA members looked like they had been manhandled too, Luna’s arm was bruised, and Michael and Terry’s shirts were both untucked. All of them were out of breath.

“What happened?” asked Anthony as he helped Irwin place Anne on the sofa.

“We’re all expelled,” Irwin sighed as he flopped down onto the sofa, “we’re all leaving first thing in the morning.”

“I guess we’d best go back then,” muttered Brenda as she and two of her friends from third year slunk their way up to their dorm to get started.

“What I don’t understand,” muttered Anthony as Persephone applied some bruise salve to his black eye, “is how she found out?”

“Well its fairly logical, who was new today?” asked Mandy.

“You think it was Seamus?” asked Padma.

“No, it wasn’t Seamus,” muttered Cho who had been avoiding everyone’s eyes, Marietta had been saying that she didn’t feel well today and didn’t want to come to the meeting, next thing she knew they had all been turned in.

Irwin turned to Cho and suddenly realised which person had been absent today, Marietta who hadn’t wanted to join in the first place.

“Come on you lot,” said Irwin blankly picking up Anne, “let’s go pack.”

The fifth years along with Luna headed up to the girl’s dorm to spend one last evening together before they all got sent home, leaving Cho sat on her own in the Common Room. Luna went to go pack in her own dorm.

“We knew the risks when we signed up,” said Padma as they started to pack the girl’s trunks.

“Yep,” said Terry as he packed away Anne’s books.

“But at least we’re going to be out there knowing how to defend ourselves than in here hopeless,” muttered Michael.

“What about our exams?” sobbed Lisa.

“Annie,” said Irwin gently, “I need you to eat this ok?”

Irwin passed Anne a slab of chocolate with some calming draught mixed into it, Anne was still hyperventilating.

“Please Annie!” he begged.

Anne eventually took a nibble from the chocolate. With Irwin’s help Anne’s breathing did eventually start to slow down.

“There you all are,” said Flitwick coming in when the girls were nearly packed, the boys had been helping so Michael and Terry had been packing for Anne whilst Irwin calmed her down.

“I’ve already talked to Miss Chang, Miss Lovegood and the third years,” he explained.

“We already know,” muttered Anthony as he did up Persephone’s trunk, “we’ve been expelled.”

“Actually, no you haven’t,” sighed Professor Flitwick, “you have all been given detention though.”

Anne flinched and Irwin gripped onto her right hand again.

“Just detention?” stuttered Anthony.

“There’s more isn’t there?” asked Persephone seeing the look on Flitwick’s face.

Flitwick nodded solemnly.

“Professor Dumbledore has left the school,” Flitwick stopped for a moment. “Professor Umbridge is our new headmistress,” he finished through sucked teeth.

“What!” screamed Irwin jumping off the bed and forgetting all about his distraught girlfriend.

“This is all our fault, this is all our fault,” mumbled Anne rocking back and forth.

“There’s got to be something we can do,” pleaded Anthony.

“I’m afraid not no,” said Flitwick shaking his head solemnly, “if you’ll forgive me I have to go tell the rest of the house.”

“So on the bright side,” said Michael in the silent room once Flitwick had left, “we don’t have to leave.”

“And on the dark side,” said Irwin flopping onto Anne’s bed, “Dumbledore’s gone.”

“Umbitch is going to ruin our lives,” muttered Terry as he started to unpack Anne’s trunk.