A/N: So after almost seven months I am back. Some of you probably thought that this story was abandoned, although it hasn't, I did have major problems regarding the development of this story and it is that, along with other factors that has caused this hiatus. On another note, I am looking for someone to beta this story. If you would like to please leave a review or pm me.

Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter, why would I be writing fanfiction?

Chapter 11 Toadaphobia

The moment Harry walked into the defence classroom he knew with certainty that again, this class would be absolute trash. It started with the teacher. He recognised her from the hearing, and again he noticed her remarkable similarity to a toad. Honestly, couldn't the school at least hire people who looked like humans? How hard could it be to find someone who was qualified? For Merlin's sake, they had managed to hire a possessed incompetent, an incompetent fraud, a werewolf (not that Harry had anything against Lupin personally) and a death eater. Now that Harry thought about it, maybe he really should have paid more consideration to Fleur's offer for him to transfer to Beauxbatons. Whatever their teaching stocks were like, he was sure they could beat a literal ministry toadie. And when it came to Madame Maxime vs. The Old Man, Maxime won by an ocean, several countries and the Sahara desert. Resigning himself to the fact that he would have to probably resist the temptation to curse the toad's fat head off when she started spouting off garbage about how Harry was an addled liar.

She began the lesson by announcing the three course aims (three ways to prevent a capable student body), these in Harry's completely subjective opinion were utter garbage. As Harry had expected there was nothing in any of the course aims about the actual use of defensive magic, just the theory. However, know he thought about it, it was a pretty good way of preventing the development of any of Dumbledore's supposed child soldiers, while also indoctrinating the students with the teachings of the ministry. So maybe, Harry thought despondently, he should probably give Fudge some credit where it's due, though then again, it was probably Lucius Malfoy. So yeah, nah.

Harry managed to make it thirty minutes before the inevitable happened, the pink thing made a mocking remark about how people who believed Dumbledore's words about what had happened during the Third Task were clearly mentally unstable and had been manipulated and indoctrinated by the evil headmaster and his little sycophant Harry Potter. Now Harry could stand for the toad making derogatory comments about the old man, after all Harry now generally shared her dislike of Dumbledore. However, Harry would not stand for any comments which gave the impression that he couldn't think for himself and just parroted the views of others. Harry ground his teeth and clenched his knuckles, feeling them crack under the force. He stood and looked around at the class, putting on an air of wonder and surprise. He looked at Dean and said slowly, "Mr. Thomas, please take notes as an incredible event has occurred here today." Dean nodded and mimed taking notes with an invisible quill. "On September 2nd, 1995, a toad spoke in English," The whole class roared with laughter, while Umbridge looked like she had swallowed a rat. "The Department for the regulation and control of magical creatures will be notified because surely there must be some magic here." This was too much for Umbridge, she turned purple and glared at him with a fury that made the rest of the class take a metaphorical step back. She looked for a second like she wanted to curse him but managed to get her temper under control and smiled at him with a sickly sweet smile that didn't reach her eyes. Umbridge reached under her desk and pulled a piece of bright pink parchment. She scrawled something on it with a long black quill and looked up, "Mr Potter, come up here please." Harry walked towards her warily, however when he reached her, all she did was hold out the parchment for him to take.

"Take this to Professor McGonagall," she said. Harry simply nodded, took the parchment and walked out the door.

As Harry walked down the hallway he reflected on the promise that he had made to Dean and Neville. He had been planning to tell them before defense but had been sidetracked by an argument with Seamus over the events of three months ago. This had ended badly on both sides as Harry had threatened to use the Cruciatus on Seamus so he could see that he was describing it accurately, not that he actually intended to go through with it, but it terrified Seamus enough that he didn't tell a teacher. Harry felt a bit bad that Seamus had actually been scared of him but he wasn't going to let Seamus know that.

So Harry was back to step one, trying to find a time to tell Dean and Neville the full story without anyone else overhearing. As he stalked down the corridor, fists clenched, Harry found himself confronted by the insufferable nuisance that was Peeves, the Hogwarts poltergeist. Peeves looked down at him, a wicked grin on his face.

"Why, it's Potty," cackled the poltergeist. "Out of class too. Does Potty need to go to the hospital wing to get an anti-lying potion?"

"Fuck off Peeves," Harry snapped. He was in no mood to deal with Peeves. Shoving past the poltergeist, Harry continued on, though behind him he could still hear Peeves' mocking laughter.

Harry arrived at Professor McGonagall's office still fuming from his encounter with Peeves, therefore he knocked with a much greater ferocity than was needed. He regretted it straight away as the door opened, revealing an irate Professor McGonagall.

"And just who do you think you are, beating my door like an ape?" she yelled, her Scottish accent all too evident.

"Professor, Professor Umbridge told me to give you this," he said, holding out the lurid role of parchment. Harry watched as her eyes contracted into a frown. She sighed and motioned him into her office.

"I think you had better come in." Harry nodded and walked in, taking a seat in one of the hard backed wooden chairs that faced McGonagall's desk. Professor McGonagall took the much more comfortable looking chair across from him and steepled her fingers, looking down at him with an air similar to one that one might use when meeting a recidivist offender. It annoyed Harry greatly as it reminded him all too much of Dumbledore.

"Mr Potter, it says here that you are to spend detention with Professor Umbridge every night for the next week, pending further consideration," McGonagall said, her eyebrows rising as she spoke. "May I ask what exactly it was you did that warranted this decision?"

Harry shrugged.

"I merely made a note of an extraordinary event that happened during defence this afternoon."

"And this extraordinary event was what exactly?" Professor McGonagall asked, her mouth forming a dangerously thin line.

"The event of a toad talking in english," said Harry, smirking. Harry could've sworn that a small smile played across the Professor's face as he said the words, before she sighed again and shook her head gravely.

"Mr Potter, I would warn you to be careful around Professor Umbridge as she acts for an authority that is not the headmaster of Hogwarts school."

"I'll bear that in mind, Professor," nodded Harry, standing and walking towards the door. Harry laughed bitterly under his breath, as if the toad could cow him. They thought him a sycophant and/or a fool; Umbridge, Fudge, McGonagall and Dumbledore would see that he was neither, especially Dumbledore.

The bell rang as he emerged from McGonagall's office, quickly he made his way back towards the defence classroom, catching Dean and Neville just before they joined the rest of the throng heading for dinner. He waved to get their attention and sure enough the pair noticed and headed over to him.

"Come on," Harry said, already beginning to walk in the opposite direction to the great hall. "I need to talk to you about the thing I said I was going to talk to you about."

"Can't it wait until after dinner Harry?" asked Neville, who was struggling to keep up with the brisk pace that Harry was setting.

"No," Harry said shortly. "It needs to be in private, and the best time for that is now."

They arrived at the, unsurprisingly, deserted library and Harry found a concealed corner in which they grouped together, Neville and Dean sitting with Harry standing. Harry took a deep breath, opened his mouth and began to recount the events that had happened over the last summer.

When he finished he was surprised by how tired he was. Not physically tired but mentally exhausted. He looked down at Dean and Neville and saw with some degree of pleasure the looks of horror and disgust etched on both of their faces.

It was Dean who spoke first.

"Harry, mate, I can't believe they'd do that to you. Like, you've been friends since first year. Your friendship seemed so legit and real."

Harry nodded glumly.

"I thought so too, but I guess I was just as wrong as you apparently were."

Neville looked up at him.

"Harry, I'm not going to pretend that this is a good thing but this can show you one thing. You still have friends, people like Dean and I, even if our names aren't Ron or Hermione."

Harry smiled, a true smile that lit up his face. This was what he had wanted, but not dared to hope to hear.