Chapter 4:
The Great Hall
5:15 p.m.
He was the first one of the fifth-year Slytherins to reach the Great Hall for an early dinner, right after Umbridge's class. Wanting to get Parkinson's essay out of the way as quickly as possible, he would eat quickly before going to the Room of Requirement and advance on his and Parkinson's essay before doing another set of training simulations. Taking his place at the end corner of the Slytherin table, he began choosing his dinner - grabbing a stack of French toast in front of him, as well as some butter and syrup.
He was just about to start enjoying his delicious meal, but was interrupted by the ruckus behind him.
"It's ridiculous, we're not doing anything!"
"She's wasting our time!"
"Does she really expect us to just re-read the same chapter over and over again? I read it like four times before the class had even reached its half point."
"You bothered reading that shit? That book is a guide on how to repeat the same sentence over and over again until you reach fifty chapters!"
"Well, what else was I supposed to do?"
"Oh, I don't know, literally anything else! Ugh, make some room!"
"Oi, that's my place!"
"Dibs on the pancakes! Hey!"
"You can't call dibs on shit, Nott."
"Fuck off, Malfoy."
"What the hell are you doing here?" Harry snapped at the five Slytherins who had just invaded his corner.
"We were looking to play Quidditch, actually," Parkinson gave him a sarcastic grin.
"You lot can eat at your place in the table, this is my corner."
"We don't care if we're ruining the loner, brooding persona you want to maintain, Potter." Malfoy drawled as he cut his pancakes. "We have bigger problems than you being upset."
"I thought you liked Umbridge, Draco," Daphne smirked.
"Yeah, you talked about her so much last week that I was sure you would end up trying to snog the toad before the end of the month." Blaise continued.
"Ugh, gross!" Malfoy exclaimed as he put down his fork. "No way, I'd renounce magic and become a filthy muggle before I kiss that old hag."
"What does this have to do with me?"
"It's house business, so shut up and deal with it."
"What the fuck do you want me to do about Umbridge," Harry snapped. "You're the one whose father is close to the Minister."
"What, you want me to call my daddy for help?"
"Well, I'm lacking daddies right now, so I guess you'll have to be the one who does it."
"He brings up a good point, Malfoy," Theo backed him up. "Your father could fix this in an instant."
"First of all, if you think my father would do anything out of the goodness of his heart, you're deeply mistaken. Unless forcing Umbridge to give us normal classes or at least some preferential treatment benefits him, he won't move a finger. And second of all, even if my father tried to fix this, Umbridge has full control of her classes, so there's nothing he can do to change them. The bitch actually believes the shit she's selling us!"
"So there's nothing we can do?" Harry asked.
"Not that I can think of."
"Good," he stood up. "Then I'll be on my way."
"Ah, ah, ah," Pansy grabbed his hand and pulled him down. "We're here to try and figure how to fix this. So if I'm forced to be here, then so are you."
"Malfoy already said there was nothing we could do-"
"I meant from the outside. If we do anything, it'll have to come from us."
"So what? You want to go against Umbridge? Won't that ruin whatever your daddy's planning on the outside."
The group went quiet as Malfoy stared back at him. Harry had never particularly cared to tone down his frankness when it came to Voldemort, but this was the first time he had talked about him and the Death Eaters since they came back this year - and something told Harry that the older year Slytherins wouldn't appreciate it if they had heard.
"Whatever my father's business with the Ministry is none of my concern, Potter," Draco spoke in a deadly serious tone. "And I don't particularly look forward to having six hours a week where we read that bloody book, and then another four hours on the weekend to write the fucking essay."
"I know you have a uniquely small brain, Malfoy, but you do realise you can do other things in the class. You could do other homeworks, you can read other books, hell, you can fall asleep just like Blaise does!"
"Actually, Umbridge warned me about that," Blaise said. "She said if she caught me sleeping in class again I'll have detention with her, and given the rumours, I don't really fancy going."
"What rumours?" Pansy asked.
"Have you seen Longbottom's hand, recently?" Daphne countered.
"I'm not a palm reader, so no."
"Well, it's got some kind of carving on it. I couldn't read what it is, but whatever it said, it's not natural."
"Yeah, and some Ravenclaws were shaken up after their detentions as well," Theo added.
"What did they get on detention for?" Malfoy asked. "Shouldn't they be smarter than Longbottom and his gang and not antagonise her?"
"They weren't, according to some of the other Ravenclaws who were in that class, they were just finishing up other assignments and were caught."
"Now do you see why we need her out?" He turned towards Harry pointedly.
"I've always seen why she needs to go, but what do you want from me, Malfoy!? I'm not the fucking Boy Who Lived or have family in places of power, what the fuck do you expect me to do!?"