AN: Written for round four of the Quidditch League Competition.
Prompt: The Umbridge Family
I do not own Harry Potter
Dolores smiled as she ran across the platform.
"Ethan!"
Her older brother weaved his way through the crowd and bent down and swept her up into a hug.
"Hey Dolory, how are you?"
Dolores giggled, "I'm good. Tell me about Hogwarts." She demanded.
Ethan smiled, touching his new Ravenclaw scarf without realizing it.
"What do you want to know?" he asked her.
Dolores grinned and started firing off question after question.
Ethan mentally groaned, but answered each and every one.
When Dolores got off the train after her first year at Hogwarts, two year later, there was no one waiting to ask her what she thought of the school. Her brother was off with his friends for the first week of summer, and her parents were working, of course, leaving her to floo home by herself.
Dolores wouldn't admit it but she was jealous, Ethan was staying with one of his muggleborn friends for a week, he would get to see the muggle world, all she got to see was her room. Why did Ethan get all the adventure?
When it came time to go home at the end of her second year, Dolores was not surprised to receive an owl informing her that Ethan would once again be spending some time at a friend's and she was to floo home from the train station.
Dolores was not entirely sure which friend her brother was staying with as his answer changed every time she asked him. Eventually, she stopped asking.
When Dolores stepped onto the platform after finishing her third year she froze when she saw her father standing on the platform. She didn't need to be a genius to know that something was wrong.
Ethan had spotted him too, from where he was standing with his friends, she saw him quickly wish them goodbye and walk over to her.
"Dolores, we should go."
Dolores just stared at her brother.
"Dolores."
She shook her head, "What happened Ethan?"
He looked at her, "I don't know any more than you do, Dolory."
She briefly smiled at the nickname, but the grin slid off her face as she followed her brother through the crowd towards her father.
"Father, what going on?" she asked as soon as she was close enough.
Her father ignored her, grabbing her brother's arm tightly. "Come, Dolores" he said as he started to march towards the floo.
"Father, what is going on?" Ethan demanded. "You are making a scene."
Her father did not acknowledge that his son had spoken and dragged him through the floo, leaving Dolores to follow behind.
When Dolores arrived in her living room, the shouting had already started.
Hours later when Dolores slipped into her brother's room, she nearly cried. Her big strong brother looked so sad.
"Ethan, what's wrong?"
"You shouldn't be in here, Dolores."
Dolores knew that; her mother had been clear that she was not to speak to her brother, but she wasn't going to listen until someone told her what was going on.
"Tell me," she insisted.
Ethan cleared his throat, "Father was not pleased that my friends have a cousin who is a werewolf."
Dolores froze, "That's it?"
Ethan smiled sadly. "I'm afraid so Dolory, go get some sleep."
It wasn't a real answer, but Dolores went anyway.
Their father made his annoyance well known throughout the summer, changing things slightly, just to annoy Ethan, until he snapped.
"What is your problem?" Ethan yelled.
Dolores quietly stepped into the corner of the room, away from the argument.
"Watch your mouth, boy. Remember who you are speaking to. It is you who has the problem."
"What? If I apparently have a problem could you inform me of what that is?"
Dolores watched as her father stopped over to stand toe to toe with her brother.
"You want to associate with werewolves," he snapped. "That should be self-explanatory."
Ethan frowned. "I was going to stay with a friend," he said.
"Knowing full well that they were related to a werewolf who might just stop by."
"That's your problem? Are you serious?"
Dolores looked away as the sound of her father's hand connecting with her brother's face echoed through the room.
"The muggles, I tolerated, at least they do not turn into vicious animals."
Dolores looked at her brother. She had never held anything against creatures before. Why did their father hate them so much?
"They are sentimental beings!" her brother snapped.
"Get out."
Dolores sucked in a breath. Surely her father wasn't going to kick her brother out,
"No son of mine will ever accept those things as humane. I want you gone by dinner."
Ethan left the room without another word.
Dolores did not know a lot about werewolves, but if this was how they affected her family, then she had no kind feelings for them.
When her brother's body showed up on their doorstep a month later, she decided she agreed with her father.
It had been her who found him, thrown on the front step, barely recognizable, and covered in scratches, bite marks, and blood. She had run back inside and sprinted to the bathroom before she lost her lunch.
She hated creatures.
The Ministry came by later that day to talk to them, to try and figure out who it had been. Her mother barely spoke a word and her father was fuming. Dolores just wanted her brother back.
"Mum, why won't Father say anything?" She asked later once the ministry officials were gone.
Her mother smiled sadly at her, "The exact same thing happened to your uncle, his brother."
Dolores did not ask any more questions."
Two days before she was set to go back to Hogwarts, they convicted a young man, beast, werewolf, of her brother's murder.
Now she just needed to figure out where her father went every month and all her mysteries would be solved.
AN: Reviews are always nice. Thanks for reading.