Being Caught

Third Person P.O.V.

The D.A. was practicing casting Patrnous's when they got the news. Umbridge was looking for him. They were all scattering to get back to their common rooms. Asteria was the one following closely behind Harry noticing something. So she quickly matched his pace trying to make sure they would be safe.

Something caught them around the ankles and they fell spectacularly, skidding along on his front for six feet before coming to a halt. Someone behind them was laughing. Harry rolled over onto his back and saw Malfoy concealed in a niche beneath an ugly dragon-shaped vase.

"Trip Jinx, Potter!" he said. "Hey, Professor — PROFESSOR! I've got one!" Umbridge came bustling around the far corner, breathless but wearing a delighted smile.

"It's him!" she said jubilantly at the sight of Harry on the floor. "Excellent, Draco, excellent, oh, very good — fifty points to Slytherin! I'll take him from here. . . . Stand up, Potter!"

Harry got to his feet, glaring at the pair of them. He had never seen Umbridge looking so happy. She seized his arm in a vicelike grip and turned, beaming broadly, to Malfoy.

"You hop along and see if you can round up any more of them, Draco," she said. "Tell the others to look in the library — anybody out of breath — check the bathrooms, Miss Parkinson can do the girls' ones — off you go — and you," she added in her softest, most dangerous voice, as Malfoy walked away. "You can come with me to the headmaster's office, Potter. You as well Miss Katsaras."

Asteria rolls her eyes as she gets up. She could care less about what was going to happen. When they arrived to see so many professors as well as the minister.

"They were heading back to Gryffindor Tower," said Umbridge. There was an indecent excitement in her voice, the same callous pleasure Harry had heard as she watched Professor Trelawney dissolving with misery in the entrance hall. "The Malfoy boy cornered them."

"Did he, did he?��� said Fudge appreciatively. "I must remember to tell Lucius. Well, Potter . . . I expect you know why you are here?"

Asteria watches and rolls her eyes. She didn't like the minister, and by the looks of it, he was just wrong. He was so caught up in something that didn't affect him that he wasn't listening to the truth.

"You know why you're here. Bitch I don't know why you think I look so confused now," Asteria says mockingly under her breath.

Harry fully intended to respond with a defiant "yes": His mouth had opened and the word was half-formed when he caught sight of Asteria being critical about Fudge and Dumbledore's face. Dumbledore was not looking directly at Harry; his eyes were fixed upon a point just over his shoulder, but as Harry stared at him, he shook his head a fraction of an inch to each side. Harry changed direction mid-word.

"Yeh — no."

"I beg your pardon?" said Fudge.

"No," said Harry, firmly.

"You don't know why you are here?"

"No, I don't," said Harry.

Fudge looked incredulously from Harry to Professor Umbridge; Harry took advantage of his momentary inattention to steal another quick look at Dumbledore, who gave the carpet the tiniest of nods and the shadow of a wink. Asteria was holding back from falling into laughter. She knew exactly why they were here.

"Excuse me but this is an important matter," Umbridge says in her usual girly voice. "Do you have anything to say?"

"This seems irrational for one. There are more important things to be discussing instead of punishing students you found walking back to their common room," Asteria says.

Dumbledore glances at Asteria and nods still not looking at Harry because the minister would know if all this was a lie. It didn't surprise Asteria in the slightest. It just made her more prone to doing irrational things.

"So you have no idea," said Fudge in a voice positively sagging with sarcasm, "why Professor Umbridge has brought you to this office? You are not aware that you have broken any school rules?"

"School rules?" said Harry. "No."

"Or Ministry decrees?" amended Fudge angrily.

"Not that I'm aware of," said Harry blandly.

Harry's heart was still hammering very fast. It was almost worth telling these lies to watch Fudge's blood pressure rising, but he could not see how on earth he would get away with them. If somebody had tipped off Umbridge about the D.A. then he, the leader, might as well be packing his trunk right now. But it didn't change the fact that Asteria stood next to him squeezing his hand. She was signaling for him that she would make sure this would be over soon.

"So it's news to you, is it," said Fudge, his voice now thick with anger, "that an illegal student organization has been discovered within this school?"

"Yes, it is," said Harry, hoisting an unconvincing look of innocent surprise onto his face.

"I think, Minister," said Umbridge silkily from beside him, "we might make better progress if I fetch our informant."

"Or you can let us leave because you have no evidence," Asteria says mockingly.

"Miss Katsaras you better be quiet as this can affect whether or not you stay in Hogwarts," Umbridge said with a voice smoothly ready to kill.

"I'll be quiet when you stop spying on people," Asteria snapped back. "This little show has nothing to do with us. We were just walking back to our dorm."

But without fail, Asteria was dismissed. Not out of the room so to speak but from the conversation and they went about their conversation. It was until Umbridge decides to speak on the D.A. that Asteria listen partially.

"The purpose of Potter's meeting with these students," continued Professor Umbridge, "was to persuade them to join an illegal society, whose aim was to learn spells and curses the Ministry has decided are inappropriate for school-age —"

Asteria starts laughing. Like uncontrollable laughing as she kept thinking of what Umbridge just said. Everyone turns to look at Asteria in utter shock. She wasn't supposed to be laughing at what seems to be very important.

"'Inappropriate age' it's magic what is the appropriate age is it to learn," Asteria says finally able to compose herself. "When you're head stuck up the authority figure ass because you doing that so well Professor."

Asteria had a sheepish smile paster on her face. But her eyes were telling a different story of wanting to cut Umbridge into pieces. Umbridge herself was shocked at boldness in front of the minister. This would not end well.