Written for The Golden Snitch. [Challenge] South Korea, between facts and fiction
The death of Queen Inhyeon
Prompt 3: Write about one wishing the others death.
Word Count: 839
Wishing Makes it So
Susan Bones had been raised by parents who taught her what was right and what was wrong. Her aunt, too, would instill in her a sense of justice. She always tried to help those that suffered under injustice, the best she could, and protected the little ones like professor Sprout taught every Hufflepuff to. It was second nature to her now to be a protector and never the one to instigate a conflict. And now against every fiber of her being she wanted Dolores Umbridge to die a horrible, terrible, painful death.
She looked down at the first year who was sniffling and showing his hand. The words "I will show respect for my professors" had been etched into it in shallow cuts. Susan pushed aside the rage and bent down to console and help the boy. She dressed the wound and gave the child a chocolate frog, then sent him to his dormitory. And the first shard of rage had been planted. That night she dreamed of the Whomping Willow grabbing hold of Umbridge and shaking and striking him over and over again.
The trouble was that Hufflepuffs were loyal. That meant that when one of them did something that caused Umbridge to lash out, the others stepped in to protect the first and soon the line of kids coming back from detention was far too long. Susan tried to keep quiet. There were injustices but she had to choose between helping the younger ones or fighting back against a professor not even reined in by the headmaster. There was no point. And when she did explode and fight back? She just had her own wounds to worry about and it was harder to help the younger ones who needed it more. That night Susan dreamt of a figure in a black cloak standing over Umbridge and cursing her with every hex and curse from her imagination. The terrible thing? It made her feel good. It made her wish that it was real.
She began to daydream about it too. In classes sometimes as Umbridge droned on in her horrible voice, Susan saw giant tentacles crash in from a window and drag her outside, kicking and screaming. Other times she saw herself getting up from her seat, drawing her wand and going crazy. She was ashamed to admit it later but she even dreamt those horrible words slip from her own lips. Avada Kedavra.
But no matter how much she wished and longed for it, the bitch would not die. She was still there and people still suffered. Until one day right at the end of the year? She wasn't. They said she had gone into the Forbidden Forest.
That night Susan dreamt that Umbridge was dead. But it was a different dream. This time she was not victorious. She was not overwhelmed with joy. As she looked at the broken body of her professor, she felt a nagging feeling of horrifying guilt. The woman was horrible, but her crimes did not warrant this. To be fired, to even serve time in Azkaban. Not lay dead, mauled by countless monsters of the forest, tortured and slaughtered. That night Susan was terrified she'd gotten what she wished for.
Even when Dumbledore brought Umbridge back…They all whispered that she was not the same as before. There was something terribly wrong with her now. Susan knew she had not gotten up from bed and the children giggled as they whispered she now had a terrible aversion to hearing hooves.
Finally Susan could not take it any longer. She snuck into the hospital wing and stopped at her bedside. The professor looked terrible. She was awake but she saw nothing. Her eyes roamed around wildly and she jumped at every small sound. Is this what Susan had wished for? Is this what she had wanted? Because it didn't feel as she thought it would feel. It didn't feel like justice. She didn't realize, she'd been crying, when she turned to leave. She wiped her eyes with one sleeve, then slipped out from behind the curtains, not noticing she ran into someone.
Albus Dumbledore was looking down at Susan with his bright blue eyes. It was Susan's first time to be this close to the headmaster. She was for a second horrified and frozen in place. He seemed to be looking into her soul. Then he smiled softly. "You know, Miss Bones, wishing that something would happen is not the same thing as making it happen. If it was, the world would be a whole different place…" There was a sadness in his voice that made her suddenly wonder what he wished for in secret to come true.
Finally Susan looked down and bit her lip. She was embarrassed now for both what she'd thought but the horrible stone of guilt was slowly lifting from her chest. She held onto her bookbag and without a word turned to dash off. On the door though she gave her professors one last glance. "Thank you."