Chapter Ten – Chasing a Witch on a Broomstick

Harry seemed very happy as we walked down the stairs and through corridors toward Filch's office.

"Where did you hide Draco's wand? I thought he searched you pretty well."

"I gave it to the little girl earlier this afternoon and asked her to hide it under her pillow. You'll have to retrieve it tonight. Her name is Margaret, by the way."

"I thought you seemed inordinately pleased with yourself."

"Yes, I'm relieved that Draco isn't going to have that wand, but as silly as it seems, what I'm really happy about is that we're going to be flying together. There may not be any more Quidditch for me, but at least I can fly."

"You and Hermione said McGonagall was acting strangely, because she's under pressure and she finds dealing with our gang a little awkward. I really think she has been enjoying this entirely too much. I don't remember this level of humor from her in the past. By the way, I didn't want to tell her, but I think I've figured out your problem. Not solved it, but if I'm right, it should be easier to fix."

Harry didn't get to respond before we reached Filch. I certainly didn't want to stroll into his office holding hands.

"Hello, Potter", said Filch, "What can I do to serve our newest school hero?"

"Professor McGonagall said you had collected a lot of wands from the Great Hall and grounds yesterday, and asked me to get a list from you. She wants me to check the collection with my wand and see if Voldemort's wand is there."

"Right Potter, if you're sure McGonagall sent you. I wouldn't want to find you and the girl are prowling around on your own. I've got the wands over here in a box. Don't know whose a lot of them are, I just marked the ones Hagrid or I pulled from someone's dead hand. Here's the list, I just marked what type of wand for the others."

Harry slowly made several passes over the box with his wand. The look on his face said that he hadn't gotten a response. "It doesn't seem to be here. I'll just take the list back for Professor McGonagall".

"Aren't you going to take that box with you", asked Filch.

"Nope, she didn't ask for the wands, and I wouldn't want you to think I was trying to steal them."

"Here's the list. Anything else, Potter."

"Yes, as a matter of fact, the Professor wants me to pick up our brooms. Mine and Ron's. I guess Hermione's too. Yours probably isn't here, is it Ginny." I gave a short head shake 'no', never being eager to talk with Filch.

"I have them locked up over here. Are you sure you're allowed to have them? I thought you were finished with Quidditch. Banned for life, is what I heard. Well, here they are. They were taking up more room than I can spare."

"Thank you, Mr. Filch," I enthused "you've been a big help." He returned a look that suggested I had taken him by surprise and that he didn't quite know how to reply.

We carried the brooms back to Gryffindor tower to pick up my broom. We left Ron's and Hermione's brooms in the common room and headed to the Quidditch field.

We just stood, looking at the field and the sky and deeply breathing in the air, for several minutes. The sky was a wonderful crystalline blue, with just a few streaks of wispy white clouds for decoration. It was the eye candy I needed after all the death and the sights and smells of the wounded Hogwarts castle.

Harry asked, "You said earlier that you might know why I can't make my wand work like it should? Please explain."

"It's just a theory. When I hugged Mom, I realized what a great protector you have been for all of us, and then I started replaying your description of the battle. Other than killing Voldemort, I don't think you launched any serious attack curses, certainly not a killing curse. You used protective spells. That saved a lot of us from being hurt. So, we know those spells were top notch after Voldemort killed you. I think you may just have a mental block against an attack curse. Since Voldemort, 'expelliarmus' probably seems like something of a killing curse. That is the only wand test that you did badly on, at least the only one that can't be put down to nerves. You were able to protect McGonagall from Eva Duerr, so we know you still do a mean 'petrificus' against someone you don't see as possibly a friend. We can run an experiment, but if you could just rethink the battle and try to remember if you used any attack curses and if they worked.

"Another thing… I think McGonagall set you up to think you had failed the tests. She talked to you yesterday about your current fighting abilities being diminished. That put doubt in your mind. Then, the first test she chose was Parseltongue. It is logical that you would fail that one. That is the one talent that you clearly borrowed from Voldemort. You worked to learn all of your fighting skills. You never tried to study Parseltongue - it was just there. None of your other skills were ever just there.

Failing that Parseltongue test made you more nervous. Your 'wingardium leviosa' really was fine – just a little shaky on the fine control, but that was a shaky hand, not shaky magic. I think McGonagall may even have cheated and shifted her weight to make you appear shakier than you actually were.

"Then, later, she deliberately disarmed you, before you were ready to start the duel. That wasn't a fair test and it shook you up even more. Then the negative pep talk in Snape's office. Guaranteed to set you back on your heels. And why Snape's office? Because she knew we would be ill at ease there. She had said she was taking us to a classroom to talk and then surprised us with Snape's office. It was all planned to establish her dominance. When you told me about saving her from Eva Duerr, I understood at once that it was just another reason why she had to re-establish her dominance RIGHT NOW. Otherwise, we would have left Hogwarts or at least set up our own organization apart from her. Please don't allow her to manipulate you. You are stronger than she claims you are."

I didn't want to give Harry time to respond or reflect too much upon what I had just said. A happy flight would reinforce my message that all was well with my Harry. I just gave him a grin and a slap on his shoulder. With that, I kicked off and soared to the center of the three goals we were facing. Harry kicked off and chased me, as I flew through and up and over the center goal and then dove to fly just a few feet above the ground, crossing the field in the other direction to go through the opposite center goal and then straight up. Harry let out a whoop of pleasure as he chased me through the second goal. I leveled off and flew back to stop at a point about 500 feet above the center of the field, hovering as I waited for Harry to fly up aside me.

I saw damage to the castle which wasn't apparent from the ground. Several towers were severely battered and one seemed to have sustained a breach that would have allowed raiders to enter. At least that was my explanation for the large timbers secured in the middle of the damaged zone. "Look at that," I directed Harry's eye toward the damage.

"I think that's Hufflepuff," Harry informed me. "I hadn't realized that Hogwarts had been so extensively battered from the air. You can see the damage to the Astronomy tower, but that didn't go beyond the door by which the tower is sealed off. There may have been some flying dragons involved in the attack, although I never saw one. Look at all the holes in the main roof. I'm surprised Gryffindor tower is in such good condition. You can see where facing stone and roof tiles were blasted away and that shutter on the girls' side looks scorched, but I don't see a breach."

The sight was too sad to dwell upon. Not wanting to pass my depression on to Harry, I simply urged "where should we start our patrol?"

Harry needed little prompting. He immediately turned his broom. "Let's check out the area outside the main gate and down toward the train and then the gate to Hogsmeade," Harry urged, as he started to float away from me. I leaned on my broom and directed it to a point 60 feet directly over the main gate. We didn't see anyone near the gate. Harry pointed for me to scan to the right of the path, while he took the left. We basically hovered, moving up and down about 50 feet and moving about 30 feet right to left, as we tried to better judge the shadows. I saw nothing on my side, all the way down to the tracks and along the track, about 100 feet to the right. It didn't look as though Harry had seen anything either, although his gaze appeared to be just approaching the tracks.

A curse came screaming up between us. We each swerved to the side, but the curse had already shattered against the magical barrier. I don't know why I had more faith in my spying than Harry's, but I now looked to my left to find the attacker. I thought I saw a little motion behind bushes about fifty feet to the left of the path and fifty feet away from the gate. I aimed a couple of double bat bogie hexes at the bushes as I motioned to Harry to fly back from the gate. No further curses flew our way. I think the attacker realized that the Hogwarts defenses made further attack futile.

"Should we go back to McGonagall and report?" I asked Harry, flying alongside him. He shook his head no and led us along the wall toward the Hogsmeade gate. We spent a few minutes surveying that area and then Harry wanted to fly along the inside of the walls. We traced the whole perimeter of the Hogwarts lands, but saw nothing other than one of Hagrid's repair crews. We did a quick overfly of the forest, but left when a thestral rose in challenge. We changed direction toward the castle. As we flew toward the front of the castle, Harry suddenly pointed toward Dumbledore's tomb. I turned again to fly in that direction, and saw three women leaning against the tomb. As we flew closer, I could tell it was Mom and McGonagall, with Umbridge between them. They were facing away from us.

Harry motioned to stop and we found ourselves hovering about ten feet over their heads and fifteen feet behind their backs, close enough to know they were talking animatedly, but too far to tell what was being said. I was beginning to worry that McGonagall and Mom would be angry if we didn't leave before one of them spotted us. We were much too far away to hear what they were saying, in any case, although they were pointing at the new memorial garden with a bronze statue of Colin at its center. Harry moved his broom alongside mine and reached to touch my neck.

{[excited] We have to report the attack to Professor McGonagall, so I think we should just hover a little closer and watch them. If any of them turn toward us, we look like we're flying in to land behind them and make our report.}

I wasn't happy with this plan, but didn't think I could explain why to Harry without speaking loudly enough to give away our presence. Harry slowly moved closer until he was about seven feet off the ground and just five feet behind Umbridge. It looked like he planned to drop her where she stood. Harry was leaning forward and trying to eavesdrop, but I couldn't tell if he was able to hear. I decided to back off and watch from about 30 feet away. Harry was right that we really had nothing else to do until McGonagall finished with Umbridge, but I was getting bored.

An argument may be exciting at first hand, but watching a silent pantomime is boring. I started awarding style points, based on body language and gesticulation. McGonagall was clearly in the lead - her mouth indicated strident speech rather than yells, and her gestures were compact. Mom seemed to be getting in some well-chosen words, but her body language said she was in awe of McGonagall. Umbridge was now obviously yelling and her gestures were wild and disjointed, indicating a loss of self-control. She was stepped forward and pointed her finger at McGonagall, trying to get in her face, but not tall enough to do it effectively. She pushed a forefinger into McGonagall's chest and was shoved away with enough force that she stumbled back and almost fell. Her arm came up with a wand in her hand. I saw Harry draw his wand and scream "Protego!" and then I was forcing my broom into a dive as I drew my wand. I closed the distance so quickly, that I had barely fired a double bat bogie into Umbridge, when my broomstick plowed into her back before she could crumple to the ground and I was somersaulting over her head. My back and head hit the ground with a thud that left me breathless and stunned.

"Are you alright, Ginny? Ginny!" {[panic] Please wake up. [relief] Welcome back to the land of the living. [concern] Don't try to move, just lie there for a minute.} I came to my senses, with Harry cradling my head on his lap. I was surprised to see Luna staring down at me, but then remembered that she was supposed to be shadowing Umbridge at a distance. Umbridge had four wands following her from a distance when she had drawn her wand on McGonagall. I think I had been the first to cut her down, but I didn't know why the fight had erupted.

"I'm okay Harry. How long was I out?"

"About a minute, I'd say."

"Is she still alive?"

"Yeah, but she's not in good shape, at all. She's out cold, and she's gone all white."

I couldn't help looking over at Umbridge and saying, in a tone that despite my slightly shocky condition perhaps sounded a little too blood thirsty for a sixth level Witch, "That was for Fred, and for what you did to Harry's hand."

McGonagall gave me a surprised glance as she stepped forward, "Let's move Umbridge behind Dumbledore's tomb before we draw a crowd, then we can figure out what to do. At least the students and parents are in the Great Hall."

Ron and Hermione came running up, with Draco and George not far behind. "Draco and George, go back to the castle and keep the students and parents inside," shouted McGonagall. "Neville, go get Madam Pomphrey".

Harry pulled me to my feet and removed his hands a few inches to test if I could remain standing. {[calming] It looks like you'll be able to stand.} I swayed lightly into one of his hands and grabbed it to steady myself. {[a little worried again] Whoops! Perhaps not.}

{[relief] I think you're alright} He threw his arms around me. After a brief hug, he released me and turned to face McGonagall. "What the heck happened here? She almost killed you, and she was outnumbered two to one. If I hadn't decided to hover behind your back to guard you, which you didn't notice by the way, even when I was only six feet away, you'd be dead. I'm not sure I'm the one who needs protecting."

McGonagall seemed taken aback, but didn't respond. After a few seconds, she said "Let's do something productive while we wait for Madam Pomphrey to arrive and for Umbridge to either come around or die."

Ron leaned over Umbridge's body, "I say let's see what she's hiding under that pink sweater."

"Ron! Don't be crude", said Mrs. Weasley, but Ron had already reached out and shoved the sweater and blouse up her arm, ripping the button from the sleeve. "There!" he shouted as he backed away. It took a few seconds for me to be able to see between the bodies well enough to make out the faint Death Head mark on Umbridge's arm.

"Search her," said McGonagall, in a voice that seemed to say she was ready to reassert her control on the group.

Luna turned out all her pockets, revealing a Ministry credential, a large brass key, a picture of Pansy Parkinson, an overdue bar bill belonging to Pansy, and a small phial of unknown liquid. Ron took the key from Luna and studied it closely. It looked very old. It had a long shaft with a round handle at the end, about an inch across. There was fancy scroll-work engraved on both sides of the handle. The business end held three wide-spaced prongs of intricate design. The center prong, in particular, was extremely intricate, as it divided into three smaller prongs, which flared at their ends. It was far more detailed a key than the one to the Burrow.

Of course Umbridge lived in London and Londoners must be far more worried about thieves than my parents were, since few passed by the Burrow. I made a mental note to ask Harry to show me the key for Grimmauld Place.

McGonagall added all of the contents from Umbridge's pockets to the pocket into which she already had stowed Umbridge's wand.

None of us was able to think of anything else we should do before Madam Pomphrey and Neville arrived.

After making a visual exam and slowly passing her wand several times over Umbridge's body, Madame Pomphrey gave her verdict: "I think she is likely to live, but we need to get her inside to the infirmary, so I can treat her properly. I won't know for sure if she's going to make it until tomorrow."

"We can't carry her into the building," protested McGonagall, "I don't want the Slytherins or their parents to see her. Can't you bring some materials from the infirmary and treat her here?"

Harry stepped forward and gestured for Ron's attention. "Ron, can you bring Hagrid here quickly? Take my broom and check his hut, then check in the Great Hall. I've got my invisibility cloak and Hagrid can wrap her in that to carry her. Luna, I'm afraid you're going to have to miss dinner and the Memorial Service and guard Umbridge in the infirmary. Recruit Seamus and Ernie to help you. I don't want her vanishing if she's in better shape than Madam Pomphrey thinks and I don't want anyone to kill her before we can question her. Also, please find out where Seamus and Ernie plan to be this summer and work out a way for us to contact them. Neville, er Professor Longbottom, we'll need some Veritaserum potion by tomorrow morning. I realize you have to be at dinner and the Service, but after, we need that potion."

When Ron returned with Hagrid, Harry explained what was needed. We wrapped Umbridge in the invisibility cloak and I lay on top of her, so that when Hagrid picked us both up, it looked like he was carrying just me. At least it did if you didn't look too closely. Harry trailed along beside us with Madam Pomphrey, in case anyone met us and asked questions.

"We'll be back soon and meet you all in McGonagall's office. Somebody should let George and Draco know about the meeting. Weren't you supposed to be following them, Hermione?" asked Harry.

"Professor Longbottom," said McGonagall, "would you kindly go to the Great Hall and tell Miss Parkinson that I want to see her in my office RIGHT NOW. If her parents are there, please ask them to come along, also. The rest of you, we'll meet in my office as Harry says, but the gargoyle won't admit you until the Parkinsons have departed. I'd prefer if they didn't find you loitering on my doorstep."