Plot Bunnies

A collection

By

EvilFuzzy9

Rating: T

Genre: Various

Characters/Pairings: various; [various]

Summary: A collection of unfinished plots, ideas, and snippets from a wide range of things. Mostly stuff that I will never complete but don't want to leave gathering dust on my hard drive forever.

Hermione was opening her mouth to speak, and Millicent Bulstrode had relaxed her grip a little. Umbridge looked excited.

Ron gaped at Hermione. Ginny glared. Neville was perplexed but defiant.

Harry felt a flash of anger and another faint stabbing pain in his scar. What was Hermione doing, now? All year, it felt like, she had gone around making plans and dragging him along. The DA, the interview with Rita, and now this?

She was his friend, and he cared for her dearly, but now was not the time for this.

"Shut up!" Harry snarled at Hermione, feeling his scar prickle all the worse with this surge of emotion. In his mind's eye he could still see Sirius lying on the ground, thrashing about in agony as Voldemort tortured him. They'd been captured here because of Hermione's damned obstinacy, her bloody insistence on making sure Sirius was actually gone.

His frustration with Hermione parroting Dumbledore and the other Order members about closing his mind, her refusal to listen to him, her constant bickering with Ron, her nagging, her self-righteousness, all of it burst out. He glared at her so coldly that whatever words she was about to say died on her lips.

Hermione recoiled as though stricken. She looked hurt, frightened by the intensity of his glower.

Umbridge frowned. "She has your best interests in mind, Potter," the woman said in her disgustingly honeyed tone, although her words carried no small degree of venom. "You should let her speak."

She then turned to Hermione, but Hermione's mouth was shut. She refused to meet either Umbridge's or Harry's eyes.

For a moment, Harry thought Umbridge was about to seize Hermione and shake her.

He almost didn't see the wand point at him, or hear the incantation hissed with as much quiet hatred as he had heard in that graveyard almost a year ago.

"Crucio!"

Harry was lifted up off the ground. For a moment, he felt nothing as he flew a half foot through the air. The pain did not register until a second after the curse had been cast, but when it did his world exploded. He fell back onto the floor of Umbridge's office, the side of his head striking her hearth, but he barely felt it for the hundred thousand needles jammed into every inch of his skin.

Harry was not a stranger to the effects of the Cruciatus Curse. No less than the most powerful dark wizard in living memory had cast it upon him the previous year, and this cruciatus paled in comparison with Voldemort's. But it was still agonizing, and he still had to fight in order to keep himself from crying out.

He was barely aware of his friends' reactions. Ron loosed a furious shout and struggled against his captors, and Ginny howled in outrage. Hermione let out a choked, horrified sound somewhere between a sob and a strangled "No!"

But the most intense response came from Neville. Even through the haze of blinding pain, Harry was aware of it. Neville roared in a way that did not sound altogether human, a wordless bellow of anger accompanied by two dull thuds.

The inquisitors holding Neville sprawled out across the floor, and he sprang at Umbridge. But there was a flash of red light, and he crumpled to the floor before he could reach her.

Malfoy put his wand away.

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A/N: This was meant to be a what-if thing where Hermione never gets to carry out her spur of the moment plan and the gang is stuck with Umbridge. There might have been torture of them, and Snape or other teachers coming to the rescue, and everything would end much better than in canon because they'd never get a chance to run off to London.

Also, the

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– — ❤

you see above is a usual device of mine that I paste into a text where I intend to add more, or else that I have lying at the end of an unfinished chapter. It's useful for my purposes, and is just something I've been using for a few years at least. As another note, the – — ❤ you see there, and under every TTFN and R&R!, are pasted there because those have been, generally, characters which I use a lot but can't type, so I leave them on hand for ease of copying and pasting.

Sorry for pestering you with those boring details, but this is the kind of thing I find interesting. XD

Updated: 6-22-16

TTFN and R&R!

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