Disclaimer: I do not own any characters used in this story, all recognizable names, locations, and characters are property of the wonderful JK Rowling, who was lovely enough to bless us with the Harry Potter books to become obsessed with as I have. (The italics at the beginning of the story are quoted from Order of the Phoenix. My story starts when the italics end, but they were necessary to set up the plotline.)

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Blood Quill

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Chapter 2

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Once Snape, Harry, and McGonagall left the office, Dumbledore left his desk and made his way over to his fireplace. He was seething, and extremely sad, but he had to let Sirius, Remus, Molly, and Arthur know what had been happening. While he felt extremely guilty for letting it happen, they had the right to know.

He sighed and grabbed a handful of floo powder, throwing it into the fire. It instantly turned green. Dumbledore got down on his hands and knees and stuck his face into the fire. "Number 12, Grimmauld Place!" His head whipped through fireplace after fireplace while his knees stayed firmly on the office floor. Finally, after about a minute and a half of whizzing past the fireplaces of many wizarding families, Dumbledore appeared in the fire of Grimmauld Place's basement kitchen.

"Sirius! Remus! Molly! Arthur!" he yelled into the building. He heard rushing footsteps as four people ran from wherever they were in the house to the kitchen. Luckily, today was Arthur's day off.

"What's happened, Professor?!" Remus asked worriedly.

"You don't have to be worried. Harry isn't in danger. Will you four come to my office in about twenty minutes? I have some…well…news to share with you, but I must talk to my Head of Houses first. It will only take about twenty minutes. Are you four up to that?" Dumbledore asked politely.

"If it concerns Harry, absolutely, we'll be there." Arthur answered.

"Thanks, Arthur. See you all in twenty minutes." With that Dumbledore pulled his head out of the fireplace and made his way back behind his desk, just as Snape, Sprout, and Flitwick made their way into the office.

"Please have a seat. Minerva and Harry will be joining us shortly." Dumbledore waved his wand and conjured two more chairs so there were five in front of his desk. The three professors took their seats, curiosity etched onto the faces of all but Snape's.

A few minutes later, McGonagall and Harry entered the office and took seats in the remaining two chairs.

"All right. Now that everyone is here…" Dumbledore started. "There's a…predicament. It seems Professor Umbridge has been using illegal artifacts during her detentions with students. She has been forcing students to write lines using a blood quill. Harry?" Dumbledore motioned toward Harry, who, with a deep sigh, lifted his hand and showed it to all the professors. He heard sharp intakes of breath from both Flitwick and Sprout. "Harry has said that he's heard of victims in all of the Houses except Slytherin. I would like all of you, including you, Severus, just in case, to go to your common rooms and find anyone who has had detentions with Dolores. Bring them to the hospital wing so Madam Pomfrey can tend to their hands, then bring me a list of all the students you find, along with what words are…carved…into their hands. I know this is distressing, but we must keep it as quiet as possible. We also must stay calm for the students. I will be handling things with the Ministry to get here removed from the school as soon as possible. That will be all, thank you. Harry, can you stay, please? I will alert Professor Binns of your excused absence, even though he probably didn't notice you were gone." Dumbledore gave a little wink as he said this, though it looked strained. Harry also noticed the customary twinkle in his eye was nonexistent, at the current moment.

One by one, the four Heads of Houses left the office, all with varying degrees of shock mixed with anger apparent on their faces. It seemed they had questions, but for now would wait so they could take care of their students. Once the door closed behind Snape, Dumbledore spoke.

"I have alerted Sirius, Remus, Molly, and Arthur that there has been an issue. I have not told them exactly what has happened, though. I wanted you to be able to explain in your own way. They will be here shortly. Until then, can you tell me exactly what happened?"

"All right, Professor. I have one question though. Can you please make sure Sirius doesn't go bursting into the rest of the castle trying to find Umbridge and curse her or something? That would turn out rather poorly in his case." Harry replied.

"Rest assured, Harry, he will not be able to get to her. I have it covered. He will not be able to leave this office, and when they get here I will cast both a silencing and locking spell on the door so no one can get in or hear what's going on inside." Dumbledore smiled, a bit of the customary twinkle making its way back into his bright blue eyes. "Now can you explain to me exactly what happened?"

"Well, I'm sure you heard the story of how I got detention the first time, right sir?" Dumbledore nodded. "So, she assigned me a week's worth of detentions for it. When I got to her office that night, she had a little desk set up for me with a pad of paper. She said I would be doing lines. When I went to grab my quill out of my bag, she stopped me and said she had her own, special quill that she was going to have me use. I shrugged and released my bag. When she gave it to me and told me to write 'I must not tell lies' I realized she hadn't given me ink. When I pointed this out she said, 'Oh you won't be needing any ink, dear.' I asked how many lines and she said, 'Oh as many as it takes for the message to sink in.' So, I got to work writing. It didn't take me long to realize that the quill was cutting open the back of my hand and taking my blood to use as ink, but I pressed on. I didn't even flinch because I didn't want to give her the satisfactory. I didn't want her to win. And I kept going back, evening after evening, cutting the back of my hand open repeatedly. When Ron and Hermione found out, they demanded I tell you, but I wouldn't because I didn't want her to win. Hermione got some essence of murtlap for me to soothe my hand after the detentions. I got another week of them last Monday. I'm hoping not to get more today. You already know how Professor McGonagall found out about them." Harry explained. Dumbledore didn't interrupt once, he seemed lost in concentration.

When Harry finished, Dumbledore got up and paced back and forth behind his desk. After a few minutes, he stopped abruptly and turned toward Harry. "Harry, we might need you as a witness if there is a trial, which there probably will be, since Dolores is the Minister's pet toad. Would you be willing to do this?" Dumbledore asked.

"Of course, sir. But will they take me seriously?"

"I'll make sure they do." With this, Dumbledore sat back in his chair. The minute he reached his seat, the fireplace burst into green flames and Sirius stepped out, followed by Remus, Molly, and Arthur. "Hello everyone. Please have a seat." Dumbledore gestured toward the four empty seats in front of his desk, formerly occupied by the four Heads of Houses.

"What's going on, Albus?" Sirius didn't move toward the chair.

Dumbledore sighed. "Please, Sirius. Harry is fine, as you can clearly see. Sit, I insist." Sirius moved toward the only remaining seat, between Harry and Remus, but didn't relax into it. He, along with everyone else who had just entered the office, was on the edge of his seat. Dumbledore sighed again. "Harry, care to explain everything. I daresay you will be able to do it better than I." He waved his wand toward the door, out of sight for anyone except Harry.

Reassured, since Dumbledore had just sealed the door, Harry began to explain. "Um…well…it's Professor Umbridge. She's…um…been making me use this special quill to write lines in her detentions. According to Professor McGonagall, it's…uh…called a…a blood quill." He stuttered. He really didn't want to tell them all, because he knew they would freak out, but he saw no way out of the matter.

He heard all four of them breath in sharply. After a moment of shock, Sirius jumped up and started pacing, a murderous look on his face. Molly started crying silently, but no one really noticed. Arthur jumped up shortly after Sirius and started pacing a little way away from him. Remus moved one seat over, into the seat previously occupied by Sirius. Also with a murderous look on his face, he gently grabbed Harry's right hand and examined it. Harry had never seen him look so angry. He was starting to see the wolf in Remus reflected through his human face.

Harry turned and looked over his shoulder while Remus examined his hand. Dumbledore have moved out from behind his desk to sit beside Molly. He was trying to comfort her. Both Arthur and Sirius were still pacing somewhat near the office door. Harry was surprised Sirius had yet to make a run for it.

He took a closer look at Arthur. He looked absolutely livid. His face was redder than usual and he was grimacing. Usually, he had a kind, though tired, smile on his face, but not now. For the first time, Harry really saw Arthur's protective father side. He had seen it before, but not with this much ferocity; none of his kids had been all that seriously hurt before, except when Ginny was possessed by Voldemort, but Harry wasn't there when Arthur found out, so he hadn't seen his reaction. He looked an extremely protective father, ready to fight to the death for his as-good-as son. Harry felt a rush of gratitude toward him.

Now that he had examined everyone else, Harry turned back to Remus, who was still carefully examining his hand. He saw Remus turn simultaneously livid and depressed. It was an odd experience. Remus quietly let go of Harry's hand, still looking toward the floor. After a moment, he looked up into Harry's eyes.

"Harry…" he started sadly.

"I'm fine, Remus, really. You don't have to get worried. And this can get Umbridge removed from the school, which could make this very much worth it." Harry smiled at him, but it wasn't returned.

"This shouldn't have happened in the first place." Remus stated. He dropped his head into his hands.

"Remus…" Harry reached over and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Really I'm all right." Harry was bewildered to say the least.

"If I hadn't quite your third year, Voldemort wouldn't be back and this wouldn't have happened. This is my fault." Remus's voice cracked as he said this.

"Remus, this isn't your fault." Harry moved his hand from Remus's shoulder to his knee, giving it a slight shake. "It's not your fault. I'm not at all mad at you. It's okay."

Remus sniffed and lifted his head out of his hands. "Thank you, Harry, but I could have prevented this. I'm so terribly sorry."

"While there is nothing to apologize for, Remus, I know you will argue with me on this until I agree, so I will just say you are forgiven. But I don't blame you. Seriously, that…woman…did this all herself, and now she's making one of my only good father figures question himself. Honestly, you, Sirius, and Arthur are the only good father figures I've ever had, and that evil bitch is making you all question yourselves. Well don't. You aren't to blame." Harry replied.

"Thank you, Harry." Though Harry could tell Remus was still doubtful, he counted that as a win. He squeezed Remus's knee and stood, making his way over to Arthur.

"Mr. Weasley?" He asked, trying to get his attention. Arthur snapped out of his trance at once.

"Harry, are you all right? I sweat to Merlin, that woman is going to get what's coming to her…" he began muttering under his breath.

"I'm fine, Mr. Weasley. Are you?" Harry replied.

"Yes, of course…well no actually. That bitch force you to use a blood quill Harry!" Mr. Weasley yelled. Harry glanced over his shoulder. It seemed Remus had taken up Dumbledore's task of calming Molly, while Dumbledore was lost in thought, back in his desk chair, idly stroking Fawkes, who had landed on his lap. Harry turned back to Arthur in shock. He had never heard him utter a single swear word. Ever.

"I'm fine, Mr. Weasley. Really. Thank you for your concern though." Harry paused, choosing his next words very carefully. "I've never really had a father figure in my life. Uncle Vernon is nothing to me, I've always considered myself alone when it comes to parental figures. I now see that I do have a mother and father, even if I'm not related to them by blood. Thank you for being the father that I never got the chance to have, Mr. Weasley." He finished.

Arthur stared at Harry for a few seconds, a blank look on his face, before grabbing him by the shoulders and pulling him into a tight hug. Apparently, that was a Weasley trait. "Thank you, Harry." Arthur whispered roughly into his ear. "Since I met you, I decided I would consider you one of my own. I'm glad you feel the same way toward us." Arthur released Harry and gave him a small smile before wiping a tear from his eye and making his way over toward Molly, who was still crying.

Sirius was still pacing by the door. Harry walked over to him.

"Sirius?" he tried to get his attention. Unlike Arthur, Sirius didn't snap to attention when his name was called, he continued pacing. "Sirius? Are you all right?" Harry stepped in front of Sirius so he could no longer pace back and forth. This got his attention.

"Hm? No, I'm not all right, Harry. How could that evil bitch do that to you?!" Sirius yelled.

"Calm down, Sirius. I'm all right, really." Harry put his hand on Sirius's shoulder to calm him down and bring him out of his thoughts. The problem was, he used his right hand, which meant, when Sirius glanced down at his hand, he saw the cuts etched into the skin on the back of Harry's hand. His eyes went wide and he immediately pulled Harry into a rib-crushing hug, not unlike the hugs he got from Hagrid.

"How could she do that?! IT'S ILLEGAL!" Sirius screamed. Harry winced, as Sirius's mouth was right by his ear.

"Please, Sirius, calm down. Really, I'm okay. It doesn't even hurt that bad. Honest." Harry pulled away from the hug and gave Sirius a reassuring smile. Sirius still seemed seconds away from running out the door and cursing Umbridge into oblivion, however he sat down in his vacated chair to try and calm himself. He wanted to hear more, therefore he would curse her later.

Harry walked over to Arthur and Molly, glancing over his shoulder along the way. Dumbledore was still stroking Fawkes, sitting behind his desk. Remus and Sirius were deep in conversation.

"Mr. Weasley…" he started.

"Please, Harry, call me Arthur. There's no need for such formalities." Arthur cut across him.

"Okay Mr. – Arthur. Can I speak to Mrs. Weasley, please?" He asked politely.

"I'm sure she would prefer you call her Molly, Harry. And yes, I feel talking to you would calm her down better than talking to me will. In any case, I need to have a word with Dumbledore." He stood.

"Arthur," Harry placed a hand on his shoulder as he made his way toward Dumbledore. "Don't be too hard on him. He was forced to give her the position and he had no idea what she was doing. He's not to blame for this."

"But Harry, you were being harmed by a teacher. You especially should have been under close supervision. This wouldn't have happened if Dumbledore had kept a better eye on you." Arthur argued.

"Maybe, but it's still not his fault. The Minister forced Umbridge onto the school, and Dumbledore had other things to be going on with rather than supervise me at every moment. I'm not mad at him." Harry replied. "And when I told him, at the command of Professor McGonagall, he was really upset. Please don't upset him any more. Talk to him, but please don't accuse him or anything. It really isn't his fault."

"You're so kind, Harry. I won't accuse him. Thank you for explaining. You really are a very good person." Arthur patted Harry on the shoulder and made his way over to Dumbledore.

Reassured, Harry sat down in the chair next to Molly. She was still crying. "Mrs. Weasley?" He whispered. He placed his hand over hers. "I'm fine, Mrs. Weasley. Please don't be upset."

"How could I not be upset, Harry?" she whispered through her tears. "You're like another son to me, and you're being harmed by someone who is supposed to be helping you." She started crying harder.

Harry stood, reaching for Molly's free hand with his, so he was holding both of her hands. He then pulled her up to her feet. Without saying anything, Harry stepped forward and hugged Molly, causing her to sob even harder.

"Molly, you're the mother I never got the chance to have. I never had a family until I met you guys. Thank you." Harry whispered in her ear. After a few more minutes, Molly's sobs subsided and she pulled away from Harry, sitting down in her vacated seat. Harry smiled at her and moved back over to his.

Now, everyone was in their former seats.

"Let me just take a moment to say that I am so terribly sorry this happened. I should have kept a closer eye on Harry. For this, I cannot apologize enough. Dolores Umbridge will be removed from this school and tried for her crimes, I assure you. I will make sure Harry comes to no further harm. I may visit Grimmauld Place at some point in the future to discuss this further with you, but for now I must, regrettably, ask that you leave. I have my Heads of Houses coming back with lists of all students who have been harmed by Dolores, and it would come as quite a shock to Filius and Pomona if Sirius Black was sitting in my office when they did. Again, I am terribly sorry this happened." Dumbledore looked extremely sad again.

"Stop, Professor." Harry growled. Everyone looked up at him, shocked. "Stop blaming yourself. Umbridge was forced upon this school, you could not prevent it. And not only that, but you had absolutely no idea what was going on. You had much more important things to be going on with than supervising me every minute of the day. This isn't your fault."

"But," Dumbledore started to protest.

"With all due respect, Professor, this may be the only time in history that you have had a stupid thought run through your mind. You are one of the smartest, brightest, and wisest wizards in history. How could you even toy with the idea that any of this is your fault?" Harry interrupted.

While everyone else in the room seemed shocked that such a phrase escaped Harry's lips, especially directed at Dumbledore, Harry's mentor, Dumbledore just looked sad.

"It is."

"No, it's not. Stop letting these false ideas run through your head, Professor. This isn't your fault, and any thought to the contrary, though expected, is entirely false, and rather insulting. The only person to blame for Umbridge's actions is Umbridge herself." Harry stated, hints of anger coloring his words.

"Thank you, Harry."

With that, everybody except Dumbledore stood and made their way over to the fireplace. Arthur left first. He turned and briefly hugged Harry before grabbing a handful of floo powder and throwing it in the fire. He shouted, "Number 12, Grimmauld Place!" and was gone with a whoosh.

Molly followed. She also gave Harry a hug, but it was much longer and tighter than the one he got from Arthur. She then turned and left the same way as Arthur.

Next went Sirius. He gave Harry a brief, one-armed hug before leaving very quickly. Harry had a feeling he didn't want to lose his cool in front of him.

Now only Remus was left of the group. "Harry, please contact me if anything happens, anything at all. Here…" Remus handed Harry a small mirror he had taken out of his pocket. "This is a two-way mirror, I have the other one. I think Sirius gave you one to contact him as well, though I wouldn't advise you to contact him. I say this with the fear that he will show up here and start cursing people should he find out you are being harmed. Very little stopped him running into the castle today when he found out. If you need anything, say my name into this and I will be alerted. Anything at all. I'm serious."

"Thank you, Remus." Harry stepped forward and hugged Remus, wrapping his arms around his waist. This shocked Remus. Yes, he was close to Harry, but he wasn't the Weasleys and he wasn't Sirius. He never thought Harry would want to hug him. Regardless, he got over his shock quickly, and hugged Harry back just as tightly.

After a moment, Harry released Remus and gave him a warm smile, which was returned. At that, Remus threw some floo powder into the fireplace and left. Harry made his way back to his seat in front of Dumbledore's desk. He cleared his throat.

"Professor, this isn't your fault."

"What gives you the idea that I still believe it is?" Dumbledore asked, looking down at his finger stroking Fawkes. "You have already made it blatantly clear that it is not, at least in your eyes."

"I know you, Professor Dumbledore. I know that you believe that this is your fault. That you could have prevented this. But you couldn't have. You couldn't have stopped the Minister from forcing Umbridge onto the school, and I was making sure you didn't see my hand. You were the last person I wanted to find out, because I knew you would blame yourself. You had no idea what was going on because I didn't tell you, so there was no way you could have prevented it. Please believe me, Professor." Harry responded.

"Thank you, Harry." While Harry could tell that Dumbledore was still not convinced of his innocence in the matter, he knew there was nothing else he could do. He decided he would wait in silence for the Heads of Houses.

After a few minutes, Dumbledore started.

"Harry, do you have your invisibility cloak?' he asked mildly.

A bit confused, Harry nodded.

"If you could, would you mind going over near the fireplace and covering yourself with it so you cannot be seen?" Dumbledore asked calmly.

"Of course, sir. May I ask why?" Harry replied.

"It seems Dolores found out something is going on. She is on her way up here with the Heads of Houses."

In a flash, Harry had his cloak out of his bag. He threw his bag over his shoulder and sprinted over near the fireplace, throwing the cloak over his as he did so. He made sure his feet couldn't be seen before making himself as comfortable as he could, so he wouldn't be tempted to move when Umbridge was in the office. He saw Dumbledore quickly vanish the extra chairs in front of his desk with his wand. He then continued to stroke Fawkes, who was still perched on his lap.

After a moment of tense silence, there was a small knock on the office door.

"Enter." Dumbledore replied calmly.

The door opened and in walked McGonagall, visibly seething, followed by Flitwick, who was shaking slightly. Then Sprout walked in, her fists balled up at her sides, followed by Snape, who looked as calm and collected as ever. Then in walked Umbridge, with her nasty little smile resting on her face.

"Professor Dumbledore, what is going on here?' Umbridge asked.

"I have asked my Heads of Houses up here to discuss a few things, Dolores." Dumbledore replied simply.

"And what, may I ask, are you discussing?" Umbridge asked in her high, girlish voice. Harry felt a strong urge to run out from under his cloak and strangle her, but controlled himself. He knew it wouldn't be the brightest idea, since Umbridge was under the Minister's thumb. Plus, it would cause a lot of questions to be raised, him being found hiding out in Dumbledore's office. He kept his cool.

"Detentions." Harry started when Dumbledore said this, as did the Heads of Houses. Even Snape looked mildly surprised and worried at the route the conversation was taking.

"It has come to my attention that students are skipping class, so I asked my Heads of Houses to come up here to find out what students have ben skipping and decide on a course of action." Dumbledore lied.

He is really very good at this, Harry thought.

"Do you have any idea why Potter is not in class, Professor?" Umbridge asked. Harry could hear her cold dislike of Dumbledore underlying her false, girlish laugh.

"I haven't the foggiest idea, Dolores. Perhaps he is skipping like many other students have been. History of Magic is really a very boring subject, maybe he is using the time to sleep in, or else catch up on some homework."

Harry saw Umbridge's eyes sweep over the room, most likely in search of Harry's foot of the tail of his robe. So, she thinks I'm spending my time in here, plotting against the Ministry with Dumbledore rather than being in class, Harry thought.

"Right. I'm watching, Dumbledore." Umbridge said shortly. She turned and stomped out of the office, slamming the door behind her.

After a few tense moments, Dumbledore motioned for Harry to take his cloak off. He pulled it off and walked over to stand beside McGonagall.

"That evil goddamn woman…" McGonagall growled. She seemed to be on the verge of punching the wall, which was very unlike her.

"Do you have the lists?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yes, here." McGonagall handed Dumbledore a list of at least 20 names. Professors Flitwick and Sprout handed him smaller lists, but they still had roughly ten names on them. Snape stepped forward as well and gave Dumbledore a small piece of parchment containing three names.

Dumbledore's face grew chalk white and he started shaking, which utterly surprised Harry. What was more surprising was when the little whirring instruments around the room started shaking and exploding. Ten instruments exploded before Dumbledore regained control and calmed down. He didn't stop shaking slightly.

"I had no idea she had harmed this many students. While I was extremely angry about her treatment of Harry, I never expected that incompetent bitch to harm nearly fifty students. You saw the words?" Dumbledore's voice was shaking as well. Harry had never seen him so angry, let alone heard him swear or insult another professor.

All four professors nodded, all showing signs of surprise at Dumbledore's outburst. Eve Snape looked surprised, though he quickly hid his surprised with the cool mask he always put in place.

"Well. I doubt the Minister will be able to deny this." Dumbledore looked like he was barely containing his magic. He stood and started pacing behind his desk.

Professors Flitwick and Sprout seemed to calm down a bit after Umbridge left the room. They still looked angry, but nowhere near to the level they were when Umbridge was in the office. Snape looked as calm as ever.

McGonagall, on the other hand, was shaking slightly, her hands balled up into fists at her sides. Her mouth, instead of being pressed into a thin line like it usually was when she was angry or annoyed, was opened slightly in a snarl, which was very unlike her. She looked slightly mad.

While Harry was observing this, Snape walked over to Dumbledore and engaged him in a very quiet conversation. Flitwick and Sprout also broke into conversation. Harry moved a bit closer to McGonagall.

"Professor, are you all right?" he asked quietly.

"No, Potter, I'm not. That bitch has harmed over twenty of my Gryffindors without me finding out! Not only has she harmed multiple children under my care, she has also somehow made sure they haven't told me, making me look like an incompetent Head of Gryffindor House!" she seemed like it was causing her a great deal of strain to whisper this, as not to cause attention to shift to them.

"We didn't want to worry you, Professor." Harry replied.

"It is my job to worry, Potter! You should have told me what was going on." McGonagall bit back.

"I'm sorry, Professor McGonagall. I promise I will come to you if anything else happens. I just thought you and Professor Dumbledore had enough to be going on with, what with the fight against Voldemort and the Order and everything, that you didn't need something as minor as this on your minds. I didn't realize she had harmed as many students as she did. I'm sorry." Harry responded.

"It's quite all right, Harry. Thank you for the apology and you concern, but please, bother us with these things in the future. We want to know if you are being harmed, especially by part of this staff." McGonagall seemed calmed a bit, but she was still shaking slightly.

"I will, Professor. Thank you." Harry turned toward Dumbledore.

"Sorry to interrupt, sir, but I don't think I'm needed here anymore. I should probably get to class, in any case, because my class with Umbridge is going to start soon and she'll start asking more questions if I don't show up. Let me know if you need me for inquiries or anything. Any of you. Thank you for your concern. May I leave?" Harry asked Dumbledore.

"Of course, Harry. You are dismissed. Thank you for trusting me with this information. I will get ahold of you if I need you for anything."

"Thank you, Professor." Harry turned and walked out of the office onto the spiral staircase. As he went down, he thought maybe somebody cares after all.