The Order of The Phoenix
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Sadie's eyes went wide as hope-filled her as she watched Harry dive down. He had spotted the Snitch. Malfoy was streaking out of the sky on Harry's left, a green and silver blur lying flat on his broom.
"Come on Harry," Sadie muttered. Harry pulled his Firebolt around, he and Malfoy were now neck and neck.
Feet from the ground, Harry lifted his right hand from his broom, stretching towards the Snitch and it was over in two breathless, desperate, windswept seconds, Harry's fingers closed around the tiny, struggling ball. The Gryffindor spectators screamed their approval.
"Yes Harry!" Sadie yelled, cheering for her best friend as she clapped loudly and zoomed down to him. They were saved, it did not matter that Ron had let in those goals, nobody would remember as long as Gryffindor had won.
WHAM.
A Bludger hit Sadie squarely in the small of the back and she flew forwards off her broom. Sadie let out a blood-curdling scream as she fell from her broom. Sadie was about fifteen feet from the ground, and the time anyone got close to catch her, she had already landed flat on her back on the frozen pitch. She heard Madam Hooch's shrill whistle, an uproar in the stands compounded of catcalls, angry yells and jeering, a thud, then Angelina's frantic voice.
"Are you all right?"
"I think so," Sadie gasped, taking her hand and allowing her to pull her to her feet. Madam Hooch was zooming towards one of the Slytherin players above her, though she could not see who it was from this angle.
"Sades, you alright?" Harry asked, landing next to Sadie who nodded.
"It was that thug Crabbe," said Angelina angrily as Fred and George zoomed down next to the younger girl and made sure she was alright, "he whacked the Bludger at you the moment he saw Harry got the Snitch, but we won, Sadie, we won!"
Sadie heard a snort from behind her and turned around. Draco Malfoy had landed close by. White-faced with fury, he was still managing to sneer.
"Saved Weasley's neck, haven't you?" he said to Harry. "I've never seen a worse Keeper, but then he was born in a bin, did you like my lyrics, Bridgerton and Potter?"
Sadie and Harry didn't answer. They turned away to meet the rest of the team who were now landing one by one, yelling and punching the air in triumph. All except Ron, who had dismounted from his broom over by the goalposts and seemed to be making his way slowly back to the changing rooms alone.
"We wanted to write another couple of verses!" Malfoy called, as Katie and Sadie hugged tightly. "But we couldn't find rhymes for fat and ugly, we wanted to sing about his mother, see. . . ."
"Talk about sour grapes," said Angelina, casting Malfoy a disgusted look.
". . . .we couldn't fit in useless loser either, for his father, you know. . . ."
Fred and George had realised what Malfoy was talking about. Halfway through shaking Harry's hand, they stiffened, looking round at Malfoy.
"Leave it!" said Angelina at once, taking Fred by the arm. Sadie looked at her, narrowing her eyes slightly but a small smile grew on her face when Fred pushed her hand away. "Leave it, George, let him yell, he's just sore he lost, the jumped-up little. . . ."
". . . .but you like the Weasleys, don't you, Potter and Bridgerton?" said Malfoy, sneering. "Spend holidays there and everything, don't you? Can't see how you stand the stink, but I suppose when you've been dragged up by Muggles, even the Weasleys' hovel smells OK. I expect your Mudblood mother's house smelled better than the Weasley's Potter."
Harry grabbed hold of George. Meanwhile, it was taking the combined efforts of Angelina and Katie to stop Fred leaping on Malfoy, who was laughing openly. Sadie looked around for Madam Hooch, but she was still berating Crabbe for his illegal Bludger attack.
"Piss off Malfoy," Sadie snapped, "you're just a sore loser."
"Oh look who's talking Bridgerton," Malfoy said as Sadie looked at him, "your jumped up Mudblood brother wasn't a winner either."
Sadie felt her hands shake as she stared at Malfoy.
"Maybe now the Mudblood can actually be classed as some sort of a winner with your muggle parents," he laughed as Sadie felt her blood boil. "It's no wonder they died, having a pathetic Mudblood like you for a daughter. No wonder the plane went down, killing your pathetic Muggle mother, or that man shot your father. Don't forget Bridgerton, your Mudblood brother is wandering the halls. It would be a shame if anything happened to him."
All Sadie knew was that a second later, she, George and Harry were sprinting towards Malfoy. She had completely forgotten that all the teachers were watching. Harry merely drew back the fist clutching the Snitch and sank it as hard as he could into Malfoy's stomach.
"SADIE! HARRY! GEORGE! NO!"
"Get out the way," Sadie said to George and Harry, her voice shaking in anger. "My turn."
Sadie held her hand out and Malfoy rose five feet in the air, gasping for breath. Sadie was shaking as blood dripped down both her nostrils and out her ears as she stared at Malfoy with pure hatred.
"One flick on my hand and you're dead Malfoy," Sadie said angrily as she slowly closed her fist, "should we find out how easy I can kill you?"
Malfoy began struggling as if there was a rope around his neck. Blood was dripping down Sadie's nostrils, out of her ears as her eyes became bloodshot as Malfoy became whiter and whiter.
Sadie could hear girls' voices screaming, Malfoy yelling, George swearing, a whistle blowing and the bellowing of the crowd around her, but she did not care.
Not until somebody in the vicinity yelled 'Impedimenta!' and she was knocked over backwards by the force of the spell and Malfoy fell from the air, gasping for breath.
"What do you think you're doing?" screamed Madam Hooch, as Sadie leapt to her feet.
It seemed to have been her who had hit her with the Impediment Jinx. She was holding her whistle in one hand and a wand in the other, her broom lay abandoned several feet away. Malfoy was curled up on the ground, whimpering and moaning, his nose bloody and a bruise around his neck. George was sporting a swollen lip, Fred was still being forcibly restrained by the remaining Chasers, and Crabbe was cackling in the background. "I've never seen behaviour like it, back up to the castle, both of you, and straight to your Head of House's office! Go! Now."
Sadie glared at Malfoy, tilted her head to the side and he rose a few feet in the air and then came crashing down onto the pitch.
Sadie, Harry and George turned on their heels and marched off the pitch, both panting, neither saying a word to the other. The howling and jeering of the crowd grew fainter and fainter until they reached the Entrance Hall, where they could hear nothing except the sound of their own footsteps.
They had barely reached the door of Professor McGonagalls office when she came marching along the corridor behind them. She was wearing a Gryffindor scarf, but tore it from her throat with shaking hands as she strode towards them, looking livid.
"In!" she said furiously, pointing to the door. Sadie, Harry and George entered. She strode around behind her desk and faced them, quivering with rage as she threw the Gryffindor scarf aside on to the floor.
"Well?" she said. "I have never seen such a disgraceful exhibition. Three on one! Explain yourselves!"
"Malfoy provoked us," said Harry stiffly.
"Provoked you?" shouted Professor McGonagall, slamming a fist on to her desk so that her tartan tin slid sideways off it and burst open, littering the floor with Ginger Newts. "He'd just lost, hadn't he? Of course he wanted to provoke you! But what on earth he can have said that justified what you three. . . ."
"He insulted my parents," snarled George. "And Sadie's entire family and Harry's mother."
"But instead of leaving it to Madam Hooch to sort out, you three decided to give an exhibition of Muggle duelling, did you?" bellowed Professor McGonagall.
"That little shit deserved it!" Sadie yelled, slamming her hands on McGonagall's desk and taking everyone by surprise as she stood up. She still had blood dripping from both her nostrils and ears and her eyes were bloodshot. "He threatened Will! He called Si a Mudblood! He mentioned the plane crash, and my dad getting shot and do you seriously expect me to sit there and do nothing? He called Harry's mother a Mudblood, and insulted my boyfriend's parents! Madam Hooch was dealing with Crabbe who hit a bludger at me once the game was over! Do you expect. . . ."
"Hem, hem."
Sadie, Harry and George both wheeled round. Dolores Umbridge was standing in the doorway wrapped in a green tweed cloak that greatly enhanced her resemblance to a giant toad, and was smiling in the horrible, sickly, ominous way that Sadie had come to associate with imminent misery.
"Oh you can fuck off," Sadie muttered under her breath.
"May I help, Professor McGonagall?" asked Professor Umbridge in her most poisonously sweet voice.
Blood rushed into Professor McGonagall's face.
"Help?" she repeated, in a constricted voice. "What do you mean, help?"
Professor Umbridge moved forwards into the office, still smiling her sickly smile.
"Why, I thought you might be grateful for a little extra authority."
Harper would not have been surprised to see sparks fly from Professor McGonagall's nostrils.
"You thought wrong," she said, turning her back on Umbridge. "Now, you three had better listen closely. I do not care what provocation Malfoy offered you, I do not care if he insulted every family member you possess, your behaviour was disgusting and I am giving each of you a week's worth of detentions! Do not look at me like that, Bridgerton, you deserve it! And if either of you ever. . . ."
"Hem, hem."
Professor McGonagall closed her eyes as though praying for patience as she turned her face towards Professor Umbridge again.
"Yes?"
"I think they deserve rather more than detentions," said Umbridge, smiling still more broadly.
Professor McGonagall's eyes flew open.
"But unfortunately," she said, with an attempt at a reciprocal smile that made her look as though she had lockjaw, "it is what I think that counts, as they are in my House, Dolores."
"Well, actually, Minerva," simpered Professor Umbridge, "I think you'll find that what I think does count. Now, where is it? Cornelius just sent it. I mean. . . ." she gave a false little laugh as she rummaged in her handbag, ". . . .the Minister just sent it. Ah yes. . . ."
She had pulled out a piece of parchment which she now unfurled, clearing her throat fussily before starting to read what it said.
"Hem, hem. Educational Decree Number Twenty-five."
"Not another one!" exclaimed Professor McGonagall violently.
"Well, yes," said Umbridge, still smiling. "As a matter of fact, Minerva, it was you who made me see that we needed a further amendment. You remember how you overrode me, when I was unwilling to allow the Gryffindor Quidditch team to re-form? How you took the case to Dumbledore, who insisted that the team be allowed to play? Well, now, I couldn't have that. I contacted the Minister at once, and he quite agreed with me that the High Inquisitor has to have the power to strip pupils of privileges, or she, that is to say, I, would have less authority than common teachers! And you see now, don't you, Minerva, how right I was in attempting to stop the Gryffindor team re-forming? Dreadful tempers. Anyway, I was reading out our amendment. Hem, hem. The High Inquisitor will henceforth have supreme authority over all punishments, sanctions and removal of privileges pertaining to the students of Hogwarts, and the power to alter such punishments, sanctions and removals of privileges as may have been ordered by other staff members. Signed, Cornelius Fudge, Minister for Magic, Order of Merlin First Class, etc, etc."
She rolled up the parchment and put it back into her handbag still smiling.
"So, I really think I will have to ban these three from playing Quidditch ever again," she said, looking from Harry to Sadie to George and back again.
"Ban us?" Sadie said, and her voice sounded strangely distant. "From playing, ever again?"
"Yes, Miss. Bridgerton, I think a lifelong ban ought to do the trick," said Umbridge, her smile widening still further as she watched her struggle to comprehend what she had said. "You, Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley here. And I think, to be safe, this young man's twin ought to be stopped, too. If his teammates had not restrained him, I feel sure he would have attacked young Mr. Malfoy as well. I will want their broomsticks confiscated, of course. I shall keep them safely in my office, to make sure there is no infringement of my ban. But I am not unreasonable, Professor McGonagall," she continued, turning back to Professor McGonagall who was now standing as still as though carved from ice, staring at her. "The rest of the team can continue playing, I saw no signs of violence from any of them. Well, good afternoon to you."
And with a look of the utmost satisfaction, Umbridge left the room, leaving a horrified silence in her wake.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
"Banned," said Angelina in a hollow voice, late that evening in the common room. "Banned. No Seeker, no Beaters and we're down a Chaser. What on earth are we going to do?"
It did not feel as though they had won the match at all. Everywhere Sadie looked there were disconsolate and angry faces; the team themselves were slumped around the fire, all apart from Ron, who had not been seen since the end of the match.
"Kill Malfoy and that toad?" Sadie asked, staring into the fire with a look of hatred on her pretty face.
"No Sadie!" Angelina said, "that is exactly the attitude that got us in this situation in the first place!" Sadie looked at her.
"Oh I'm sorry," Cassie said, "so when Malfoy insults my dead brother and parents and threatens my younger brother, should I go skip with him in a meadow and sing about our feelings?"
"You didn't need to attack him that badly," Angelina said, "you could have killed him." There was a small knock at the common room door, but nobody except Hermione noticed.
"That was the point," Sadie snapped. "I wanted him dead and I would have done it! Not that you would have noticed with your hands all over Fred. Forgive me for trying to defend my family."
"Sadie," Hermione said standing at the common room entrance, "there's someone to see you." Sadie furrowed her eyebrows and stood up.
"What?" she asked as she walked over to Hermione. But her question got answered when Will ran inside the common room and hugged his sister tightly.
"I heard you got hurt," Will said as Sadie bent down and hugged Will tightly.
"I didn't get hurt," she said, her voice shaking, "are you okay?" She let go of Will and her eyes darkened when she saw he had a bloody nose, a black eye and a busted lip. "What happened?"
"N-Nothing," he said, avoiding Sadie's eyes.
"Will, I taught you how to lie," Sadie said, "what happened?"
"N-Nothing, I just f-fell."
"William Michael Cooper," Sadie said sternly as Will looked at her. "What happened?"
"Please don't be mad at me," Will said, his voice shaking, "I heard that people were being mean to you, so I told them to stop. Then they did this."
"Who did this?" Sadie asked, her heart racing.
"Um. . . ." Will said, "it was a group of Slytherins. I don't know what they looked like, but one of them had really white hair. Like when Lou tried to dye her hair that time and it went really white." Everyone looked at Sadie stood up.
"Hermione," she said, her voice scarily calm, "can you keep Will here please and look after him."
"Yeah," Hermione said, "why?"
"Because I don't want Will to see his sister kill someone," she said and with that, she walked out of the common room and ran down to the dungeons.
As she got to the entrance of the dungeons, she saw Malfoy, Pansy Parkinson, Crabbe and Goyle all standing around.
"Ah, Bridgerton!" Malfoy said beaming, "what brings your Mudblood self here?"
Harper said nothing as she stormed towards Malfoy and punched him hard in the jaw, causing him to stumble into the wall.
"That was for Will," she said, glaring at him.
Little did she know, Harry, Fred and George were running after her. Sadie turned her back and let out a scream of pain as Crabbe grabbed her hair and threw her into the wall. Sadie fell to the floor with a groan and sat up. The four boys arrived and their eyes went wide when she saw the four Slytherins walking towards Cassie .
"You pissed off the wrong girl," Sadie said as she stood up.
She held out her hand, then threw it to the side and Malfoy and Pansy went flying into the wall. Crabbe and Goyle ran to her, and the blonde held out both her hands, stopping them. Pansy got up and ran to Sadie, but the blue-eyed girl glared at her with a murderous look on her face and tilted her head to the left, and they heard a loud crack as Pansy fell to the floor, screaming as her left leg was sticking at an angle it wasn't meant to. Sadie threw her left hand to the side and Crabbe went flying into the wall, getting knocked unconscious as Sadie glared at Goyle. She lifted her hand up, Goyle rose a few feet in the air and Harper threw her hand out in front of her, and Goyle went flying into the wall behind him, also getting knocked unconscious. Sadie walked to Malfoy with blood dripping out both nostrils, both ears with her eyes bloodshot.
"Now listen to me," she said as she glared at Malfoy, grabbing him by his face and squeezing tightly, "you ever repeat a word of this or you ever lay a finger on my brother again," she looked down at his wrist and narrowed her eyes at it and Malfoy began to yell in pain as it slowly twisted a way it wasn't meant to, "you will end up with more than a broken wrist. Say you won't tell anyone." Neither of them said anything. "Say it!" Sadie yelled.
"Okay, we swear!" Malfoy said.
"I swear we won't tell anybody!" Pansy sobbed. Sadie eventually snapped her head to the left and a bone breaking noise was heard as Malfoy's wrist broke.
Sadie turned around and froze when she saw Harry, Fred and George standing there.
"We came to help," Fred said, "looks like you didn't need our help."
Sadie said nothing as she walked past the three boys.