It was the last class of the day, they had received a lot of homework from their previous teachers and many just wanted the day to be over. They entered the DADA classroom and immediately saw Professor Umbridge sat at the teacher's desk. A dreary silence passed throughout the class as they sat down, they were shocked that a Defence class was told that they didn't need their wands and to put them away. Dahlia could tell that this was going to be the worst year yet when it came to Defence Against the Dark Arts. Sure, last year it was taught by a Death Eater, but he at least taught them useful spells and enchantments.

Writing from a book whatever information Professor Umbridge wanted, no one questioned her at first, but Hermione took the first step and questioned the course aims. Professor Umbridge said, "I think the course aims are perfectly acceptable".

"Well I don't. There's nothing written about using defensive spells," Hermione said bluntly.

"Using defensive spells?" Professor Umbridge repeated with a little laugh. "I can't imagine why you would need to use such a thing. Miss Granger, are you expecting an attack to happen in my classroom?"

"We're not going to use magic?" Ron exclaimed loudly.

"Students need to raise their hands when they wish to speak in my classroom, Mr-?"

"Weasley," Ron answered.

Professor Umbridge turned her back on him as he put his hand up into the air and she began to question Hermione's qualifications, stating she didn't have the qualifications to assess what was right or wrong with the lesson aims and that they would be learning in a risk-free way.

"What use is that?" Dahlia said, finally breaking as she snapped, "if we're going to be attacked, it won't be in a risk-"

"Hand, Miss Potter," sang Professor Umbridge and everyone could tell she was getting impatient now.

Several other people began to put their hands up into the air. Professor Umbridge picked one and said, "and your name?"

"Dean Thomas. Well, it's like Dahlia said, isn't it?" Dean said, "if we're going to be attacked, it won't be risk-free".

"I do not wish to criticise the way things have been run at this school," she said with a stretched smile, "but you have been exposed to some very irresponsible wizards in this class – very irresponsible indeed – not to mention extremely dangerous half-breeds".

"If you mean Professor Lupin," Dean said angrily and he wasn't the only one as many of the students were now glaring at her, "he was the best we ever-"

"Hand up, Mr Thomas. You have been introduced to spells that are beyond you, inappropriate for your age. You have been frightened into believing that there are going to be dark wizards attacks every other day-"

"No, we haven't, we just-" Hermione pipped up.

"Hand, Miss Granger," Professor Umbridge said once again, even though she wouldn't go to Hermione, even if she was the only one with her hand up.

Parvati began to question the exam itself, saying that there were practical's in their O.W.L. exams that they had to do, but Professor Umbridge seemed to believe that theory would be good enough for you to pass the exams.

"And how exactly is theory supposed to help us out there?" Dahlia questioned not just for herself but for everyone else. She had a different form of magic that she could rely on but everyone else in the classroom didn't. She may not have been friends with all of them, or on good terms at the moment, but she didn't want to see any of them dead.

"Who do you expect would want to hurt children?"

"Oh, I don't know, let me think," Dahlia said mockingly, "Lord Voldemort?".

Ron gasped at the name being spoken while several other people had different reactions. Lavender uttered a small scream and Neville almost fell off his chair. It was clear that they were brought up in a world where the name caused fear growing up, but the room began to whisper that Dahlia had actually said it.

Professor Umbridge, on the other hand, didn't even flinch like most fully grown witches and wizards did and just said, "ten points from Gryffindor". Everyone couldn't help but stare between Professor Umbridge and Dahlia, knowing that it wasn't the end yet. "Now, let me make a few things quite clear, you have been told that a certain dark wizard has returned from the dead-"

"Wasn't dead," Dahlia said angrily as her fists clenched, "but he has returned".

"Miss Potter, you have already lost points from your house. Do not make it worse for yourself. As I was saying, you have been informed that a certain dark wizard is at large once again. This is a lie".

"It's not a lie, I saw him, I fought him," Dahlia said loudly.

"Detention, Miss Potter," said Professor Umbridge in triumph, "tomorrow evening, five o'clock, my office. I repeat, this is a lie. The Ministry of Magic guarantees that you are safe and not in any danger from any dark wizards. If you are still alarmed, come and see me outside of office hours. If someone is alarming you with fibs of any dark wizards, I would like to hear about it. Now, please kindly return to your work".

Professor Umbridge sat back down at her desk while everyone just looked at Dahlia as she stood. Hermione pulled on her uniform to sit back down and be quiet, but she didn't, "so according to you, Cedric Diggory dropped dead of his own accord, did he?" She said, her voice shaking slightly, not wanting people to believe the lies this woman was spreading. Wanting Cedric to receive justice, for everyone to know how he died and how brave he was.

Everyone in the room gasped, Dahlia had refused to talk about what happened to Cedric to anyone. The only people in the room who ever heard her talk about it was Ron and Hermione. Professor Umbridge stood there with a fake smile that Dahlia would happily smack off her face as she said, "Cedric Diggory's death was a tragic accident".

"IT WAS MURDER," Dahlia shouted as she slammed her hand on the desk, feeling herself shaking. She saw everyone in the room jump at the action. "He killed him, you know it".

For a moment, everyone in the room thought that Umbridge was going to scream at her but she said in her sweetest voice, "come here, Miss Potter". Dahlia left her seat and stood in front of Professor Umbridge's desk as she wrote with her pink quill. She handed her a note and said, "take this to Professor McGonagall".

"Gladly," Dahlia said as she took the note, grabbing her stuff and leaving the room, slamming the door behind her.

She walked down the corridors, the note clutched tightly in hand, until she got to Professor McGonagall's room. She knocked on the door and the Professor opened it and immediately asked, "why aren't you in class?"

"I've been sent to see you," Dahlia said looking down.

"Sent?" She questioned, to which Dahlia handed her the note. Professor McGonagall opened it and took a few moments to read the note, zoomed from side to side over her square spectacles. Professor McGonagall eventually sighed and moved to the side of the door and said, "come in here, Miss Potter".

She went inside of the study and the door was closed automatically as Professor McGonagall went to sit at her desk, while Dahlia took the other seat.

"Is it true?" Professor McGonagall questioned.

"What, Professor?" Dahlia asked with a hint of aggression in her voice, which she didn't mean for it to be there.

"Is it true you shouted at Professor Umbridge?"

"Yes".

"Is it true you called her a liar?"

"Not in that particular word but-" Professor McGonagall stared over her glasses at her, "yes".

"You told her He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is back?"

"Yes".

Professor McGonagall leaned back against her chair and reached to a drawer in her desk and said, "have a biscuit".

Blinking rapidly for the scolding she thought she would have received, she said, "excuse me? Have..."

Professor McGonagall held a small tin box full of biscuits and said impatiently, "have a biscuit." She reached for a ginger newt and slowly began to eat it as Professor McGonagall set down the note and put the biscuits down. "You need to be careful, Miss Potter. Misbehaviours for Umbridge could cost you more than losing house points".

"I don't understand?"

"Common sense, use it" Professor McGonagall almost snapped, "you know where she comes from, whom she reports back to". The bell for the end of lesson rang and Dahlia knew that everyone would be on the way back to their common rooms or the library, since dinner wasn't for another hour. "She's given you detention, every evening this week, starting from tomorrow".

Horrified, Dahlia requested, "Professor, can't you do something?" Then ate the last bit of her biscuit.

"No. She is your teacher, she has every right to give you detentions. You will go tomorrow at five o'clock. Just remember to tread carefully around her".

"But, Professor, it was the truth," Dahlia said, outraged, and tears began to form in her eyes that no one would listen, "Voldemort is back, we know it, Dumbledore knows it-"

"For heaven's sake, miss Potter," Professor McGonagall said as she straightened herself and her glasses, "do you really think this is about truth or lies? It's about keeping your head down and your temper under control".

Dahlia now had her head down and Professor McGonagall could hear her soft silent whimpers. She walked around her desk and kneeled beside Dahlia, but Dahlia turned her head away, so Professor McGonagall couldn't see her tears. Professor McGonagall raised her hand and turned Dahlia's chin as the young girl tried to quickly wipe her tears away. As soon as their eyes linked, Dahlia broke down once again and Professor McGonagall pulled her down and gathered her into her arms. Dahlia, at first, tried to push Professor McGonagall away but the old witch was strong. She eventually relented and simply cried in the witch's arms. After a few moments, she cried, "they don't believe me, no one does. They all think I'm lying because I won't tell them what happened there. But I can't relive that," a sob broke through again, "I do it every night, I can't tell people about it as well. I can't tell them how he died to protect me, how he told me to get back before he was murdered. The green light, the way his body fell, I just...I can't".

"Shh," Professor McGonagall said stroking her hair as her sobs got louder.

"People are keeping secrets from me and I can't control my anger. I don't know why I'm so angry...I want my mum, I want my dad, I want...I want my family back".

"Shh it's okay. It may not seem like it, but you have a family. Miss Granger, Mr Weasley, the whole Weasley family consider you their own. You have me and the other Professors".

"It's not the same," she hiccupped through her tears, "no one really understands".

A few moments of silence passed, and Dahlia was still in Professor McGonagall's arms with the Professor stroking her hair which she felt was oddly comforting. She said, "you know, I did this to your mother in her first year".

Dahlia looked up, her tears slowly stopping, "what?"

"She was homesick, like many Muggle-born children. She didn't have any friends in Gryffindor that truly understood her, and she one day came to me and wanted to go home. She was so upset. So, we sat down on that couch," Professor McGonagall gestured to the antique couch, "and she cried as I told her that it was her choice, but that she would eventually find people who would understand her in her own house. Not long later, Sev-her friend came, and he talked her down and they left, smiling, going to the library".

Dahlia wiped her tears away and said, "no one talks about mum. It's always about J-dad. People are always comparing me to him, but very few people tell me about my mum and those that do, don't really know that much about her time here".

"And that was wrong of us. Wrong of me. I should have made sure you knew about her, I'm sorry".

"It's not your fault. Everyone probably thinks I hear about her at home, but I don't. They hate me there".

"We have just under an hour until dinner. Why don't I tell you some stories about her time here, just about her?" Dahlia nodded with a tearful smile. "Now, let me think, oh yes, the first time she stepped into my Transfiguration classroom..." and there the lioness was on the floor holding one of her cubs in her arms because she was in pain. Because the lioness knew just how much the cub was suffering, how much the small cub had been through and what was to come, and she wanted to comfort her cub, while she still could, before the pain became unbearable.

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Dinner was anything but a pleasant experience when Dahlia had arrived. Word had gotten around about what happened in DADA and the news of the shouting match had reached all ears, Professors, students, ghosts, and even paintings. It seemed like no one cared that she was around as they spoke, as if they wanted to see her flip first hand. Dahlia couldn't understand why they didn't believe her, how some of them looked to Professor Dumbledore as one of the most powerful wizards, yet they listened to the Ministry when they said he was a fool. Hermione said it would be hard for people to believe, considering Dahlia just appeared back at the competition with Cedric's body, and because not one of them saw his death happen; they just had Professor Dumbledore's word.

Leaving Hermione and Ron, Dahlia went to the Gryffindor common room just as the rain began to pound against the windows. There were very few people in the common room as most were at dinner, but Dahlia didn't care since she had other plans. Going into her dorm, she was glad that no one else was there as she took her invisibility cloak, her bag with all her homework in, and the box that her sister had given her. She shrunk the box down and placed it into her bag. She wrapped the invisibility cloak around herself and left the Gryffindor tower.

She arrived at the Astronomy tower, knowing that no one would be in the tower for hours. She removed the box from her bag and placed it into a corner of a tower, hidden from the sight of others. She then took off her necklace and placed the locket into the hole and was sucked into the box with her belongings.

The candles and fireplace immediately lit, and Dahlia took a deep breath, letting go of the frustration she was holding deep inside. She sat at the table and spent two hours doing her homework before finally spending an hour working on her mind blocking, like she promised her sister she would. Dahlia used the soft harmony of the music box her grandparents had given her as a focusing point. She was getting good at blocking her mind but focused on the areas that held the memories of her family, knowing she wanted no one finding them. She struggled to keep the barriers up for long, however, and it was hard knowing if she was doing well considering she had no one to practise with. For the final hour, she practised her other Aesir magic and read some new spells from the books, before she saw the clock and found it was almost ten, curfew that she had to be in her dorm. Closing the book, she ran a hand through her hair frustrated that she had to go back to a bunch of people who didn't believe her, and she looked up to the painting of her family and said, "I wish you guys were here".

Dahlia looked to the mirror that was on the opposite side of the room; it was not very big, big enough to show all of her, but it was also a looking glass that showed the outside of the box for anyone around. She saw no one, so she grabbed her belongings and left the box. Putting her cloak back on, she went back to her dorm.

Everyone in the Gryffindor common room had begun to go to bed and only a few remained. She entered the dorm room to see some of the girls in bed but of course, Hermione was reading while Lavender and Parvati gossiped. Hermione said, "where've you been?" when Dahlia was close to her bed.

"Nowhere. I just needed to think and do my homework in quiet," she lied before getting ready for bed, hiding her dagger and going to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day hadn't gone much better than the first. Dahlia started out with her morning routine of running but didn't run into any Avengers this time, which was a plus, but she had Charms all morning, back to back, before double Transfiguration, Care of Magical Creatures, then finally Herbology. Professor Flitwick started out by warning them about their O.W.L.s before practising a summoning spell and giving them the largest amount of Charms homework they had ever received. Transfiguration was no better as Professor McGonagall warned them about their O.W.L.s before allowing them to practise the vanishing spells, which even Dahlia found difficult and didn't manage to vanish her snail, even though she knew she would be able to do it better if she was able to use her Aesir magic. Hermione was the only one who didn't get homework as she vanished her snail, but everyone else was told to practise as homework. Panicking about the amount of homework they had, Dahlia spent her lunch period doing hers.

Care of Magical Creatures was usually a fun lesson to have with Hagrid, but seen as he was away, they had Professor Grubbly-Plank. It wasn't that she was an awful teacher, she was quite pleasant, and many would say she was a better teacher than Hagrid, but because of the close friendship the Golden Trio never thought that. They learned about Bowtruckles, which were tree-guardians that usually live in wand trees. No matter how hard Dahlia tried or how many times she asked, Professor Grubbly-Plank refused to tell Dahlia where Hagrid was but of course, Draco took this as an opportunity to tease Dahlia about how Hagrid could be hurt, and she almost hit him.

Herbology was last with Professor Sprout and before they entered a classroom, Dahlia ran into Luna Lovegood, who everyone called Loony, which she felt was unfair. She was wearing what looked like a pair of orange radishes for earrings but for Dahlia, that was okay. Sure, Luna was slightly weird and eccentric, but it was her style. She knew not to judge because she knew how her sister would have been judged for her appearance if she was here, and that wouldn't do. What surprised Dahlia is that Luna said, "I believe He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is back, and I believe you fought him and escaped".

"Er, right," Dahlia said awkwardly as she was still in shock that someone actually believed her.

Dahlia did notice the others laughing, such as Lavender and Parvati and wanted to tell them to shut up but Luna said, "it's okay, you can laugh but people do believe there were no such things as the Bibbering Humdinger or the Crumple-Horned Snorkack!"

"Well, they're right, weren't they?" Hermione said impatiently, not truly understanding what Luna believed in or appreciating her uniqueness. "There aren't any such things as the Bibbering Humdinger or the Crumple-Horned Snorkack!"

Luna just gave her a withering look before she flounced away without a worry and it seemed like there were people, who were trying not to laugh at the crazy blonde girl.

"Do you mind not offending the only person who believes me?" She almost snapped at Hermione.

"Oh, for heaven's sake, 'Lia, you can do better than her. Ginny's told me all about her; apparently, she'll only believe in things, as long as there's no proof at all. Well, I wouldn't expect anything else from someone whose father runs the Quibbler," Hermione said.