Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Harry Potter. If I did I would be a far richer man. And I'd be a woman.
AN: Again, thanks to my beta, Grey Raven 09. Sorry this took so long, but I wanted to get things right with Umbridge. There is a mature scene in the first section in the beginning so if you want to skip it, consider yourself warned. If you skip Author's Notes, well you would've been warned had you read this.
Please enjoy and let me know what you think in a review if you feel like it!
Chapter 12: Something to Stew Over
\/ BEGIN MATURE SCENE \/
Harry breathed in the strawberry scent of Gabrielle's shampoo and grinned at the way it mixed enticingly with the shea butter moisturizer that Rose had recently taken to using. Their particular combined essence was unlikely to be erased from this configuration of the Room of Requirement for quite some time, considering how long the trio had been making use of it the past few months since their return. Well those smells and…other ones.
" 'arry," Gabrielle gasped, "don't stop! Please, whatever you do don't stop!"
Harry grunted in reply and ground against his French lover harder, eliciting another exclamation of pleasure. The Veela bucked up towards him, her chest rising and her nipple slipping back into Rose's hovering mouth. Harry threaded his hand through his sister's hair as the redhead ran her tongue over the nub and lightly skated her teeth along the edges. Gabrielle bucked again and Harry felt her clench hard on him and he groaned as his own control started slipping.
"Rose, finish her off," Harry managed to get out between thrusts, his breathing ragged. "I can't hold on much longer here."
Rose twisted enough to smirk up at him, despite never letting go of her prize. She bit down harder and Gabrielle's moan and bucking nearly sent him over the edge. Rose snaked a hand down to rub at the top of Gabrielle's mound, brushing ever so slightly against Harry himself as he pulled out. Groaning, he moved one of his own hands from supporting Gabrielle's legs to slap his sister's arse. She wiggled it under his hand and he slipped it further down until he had a finger firmly lodged inside her.
Thankfully, he didn't need to devote much attention to splitting his concentration as Rose seemed to be taking care of herself just fine and was bucking back on his hand without much assistance from Harry at all. He actually barely seemed to be involved with the girls at all at this point, from what he could tell anyway. It was all he could do to hold on with how Gabrielle bucked up underneath him. He thrust forward one final time and with a cry of release the Veela arched her back and clamped onto him like a vice while her hands latched onto Rose and pulled the redhead against her chest hard. Harry lost his struggle against his restraint at that point and felt his own release burst forth as Gabrielle's legs locked behind him ensuring he wasn't able to move from being sheathed inside her. Rather than fight the taller Veela, Harry instead opted to collapse on top of her and start lightly kissing her neck, running his free hand along her arm while she shuddered under him.
Rose for her part was quivering to the side and still bucking on his other hand. Harry twisted his finger inside his twin ever so slightly, searching for the sensitive spot that they had found during Vernon's dinner party so long ago. He didn't have to search much; barely an instant after moving, Rose's muscles locked up and she let go of Gabrielle's breast arching her own back to sit up with a loud exclamation of shock and pleasure before collapsing bonelessly on top of the other two.
\/ END MATURE SCENE \/
The trio stayed cuddled together for a few minutes barely moving before Gabrielle finally broke the silence. "Have I mentioned recently, how much I thoroughly enjoy having an active sex life? Because I do," she said practically purring. Harry chuckled at the satisfied triumph in her tone.
"Yeah, I missed this too," Rose murmured next to him. She pushed up enough to lock Gabrielle into a deep kiss before breaking off and pulling his own face higher to share the same with him. Letting him go a few moments later, Rose smiled at them both and laid her head back down on Gabrielle's chest. "I wish we could stay like this forever."
"Well hopefully soon we can," Harry replied. He shifted slightly and grimaced. "Err, Ella, luv? Could you maybe let me go? This is getting a bit uncomfortable for me."
"Must I?"
Harry cast his eyes towards the heavens silently praying for guidance. "Look, I know you and Rose really seem to like when I stay like this, but honestly, it's not all that fun for me, so…please?"
Gabrielle sighed dramatically and with herculean effort unlocked her legs from around Harry's back and finally freed him. He rolled to the side and leant up to peck her cheek. "Thanks, luv."
"When we are trying for children in a few years, you do not get to complain, 'arry."
"Agreed," Rose said raising her hand in confirmation. The two girls nodded together in solidarity. Harry just looked at them both and rubbed his temple.
"I am never going to win an argument when I'm against both of you."
"Nope," they agreed simultaneously.
Harry chuckled, shaking his head at their antics. How had he ever managed to forget about his family? Granted he hadn't actually known Gabrielle was part of their group before the mindwipe, but still…Nothing was ever going to tear them apart again. It would better to die together than to live apart again at this point. And with that particularly gloomy thought, Harry's mind flashed back to why they had originally come to the Room to begin with before the smell of the girls had gotten him all hot and bothered. "Um, not to spoil the afterglow and all, but we do have to talk before we head down for dinner."
Rose grunted while Gabrielle did her best to shrug with two bodies still mostly on top of her. "About the last 'ogs-ogs-ogs-oh for the love all the all that's holy, I hate that town's name! 'ogsmeade! Hog…s…mea…de. There! Got it! 'ogsmeade. Oh for – I give up. You want to talk about what we are doing while the school frolics, yes?"
"She really is adorable when she stumbles on the accent isn't she?" Rose asked smirking. Harry nodded hard enough to shake the bed. Gabrielle scowled at the both of them. Rose just smiled and kissed the corner of her Veela lover's lips eliciting a head shake and a pout. "She's right though, what are we doing? Way I see it, we have two options really. We can take care of your Scarcrux or we can go after Umbridge."
"Are we ready for either?"
Rose sat up completely and crossed her arms under her chest. "Honestly, sorta for both, but not really for either. We need an alibi either way for Hogsmeade so we'll need to get with either Daphne or Hermione to provide that. Dora has a doctor lined up to cut out your scar whenever we ask; and she brought up how we apparently all forgot that we can just use Skele-Gro to regrow the bone instead of using a Muggle steel plate so that prevents the long recovery which is nice. We still have to loop Sirius in fully though so that he can get us to said doctor. It's really not fair to ask him to take you to a big Muggle medical procedure, cutting out a portion of your skull and not telling him why we know this is the right thing to do."
"Glad to see you have finally forgiven him," Gabrielle said softly reaching over and squeezing Rose's hand. Rose shot her a smile and nod so small it was barely even there.
"And Umbridge?"
"I have everything lined up for her. Ella, you got word back yesterday that they accepted our terms?" The blonde nodded. "Cool. Okay, yeah, we're ready. We also don't care who knows that she's been abducted this time since we want Fudge worried to hell and back now. The more people are paranoid in the Ministry the better at this point. With Voldemort so close to coming back, we need people ramping up now right? We need to make sure that they actually start fighting instead of having him just waltz right in the front door, otherwise what's his incentive to let us go?"
Harry nodded as he also sat up. He rubbed his chin and frowned. "While I'd like to get rid of the Horcrux I think it's best to take out Umbridge while we can still get to her fairly easily. Plus, it does help things to put the fear of god into Fudge now rather than later. Maybe this would help convince Amelia Bones to send Susan off to Beauxbatons too."
Gabrielle pulled herself up with a soft mewl of protest. "You must consider that none of ze Light families will be willing to part with this country until the war starts in earnest and even then it may not happen until things get bad. We are not letting them crucify you like last time. That was a tipping point for many who might have been on the metaphysical fence."
"Metaphorical, sweetie," Rose corrected.
"That's what I said!"
"Well we could always just kidnap Susan and Neville…" Harry mused.
"No, bad Harry!" Rose bit out, reaching over to lightly slap his leg, leaving her hand firmly planted where it landed. "No kidnapping good people. We don't need that kind of attention." She trailed off, licking her lips and squeezing his calf. Her lips quirked up into a half smirk and her hand started inching its way up Harry's leg massaging him as it went. Harry let out a soft groan of pleasure as Rose's hand reached ever higher.
"Now who is getting off track, hmm?" Gabrielle asked chuckling lacing her fingers over Rose's and pulling the redhead's hand up to rest on Gabrielle's stomach accompanied by both twins' groans of dismay. "Non, if I don't get to keep playing, neither do you two. We finish our talk, zen we can continue. Now, we were talking about who we can and cannot kidnap, no?"
"Spoilsport," Rose murmured. "Fine, fine. Stupid Veela, you're supposed to be obsessed to sex, why are stopping me anyway?"
"I learned to abstain for ten years. The lesson has carried over. Now focus, I want to play!"
"Whatever. We kidnap people we want to kill and that's it. If we can't convince our friends' families to leave then we try to convince our friends to run themselves and if that fails, well it's on them, Harry. Not us. We still look out for our own first and foremost. Agreed?"
Harry sighed, but nodded. "Yeah, agreed."
"Good." Rose let out a breath and closed her eyes re-centering herself. "Okay. So. Umbridge then?" She opened her eyes and looked to the others. Both of them flashed thumbs up.
"Umbridge," Harry and Gabrielle echoed together.
A wide grin split Rose's features that showed off more teeth than was proper for anything remotely approaching a happy expression. "Excellent. I have been sooooo looking forward to this!"
Harry turned to his blonde lover, his eyes wide and his mouth in a careful partial pout, the best approximation a puppy-dog-look he could make. "Now can we keep playing, Mistress Gabrielle?"
Tracey Davis stalked down the corridor in search of a target. It didn't particularly matter who at this point though she'd prefer the find one of the Weasley twins. They were the ones who had turned her hair flaming orange after all. Not that it wasn't funny; it was just that it happened to occur right when she was supposed to be asking Daphne out. Again.
Well…technically she had asked Daphne and was waiting for the response back, but that was a minor detail really.
Tracey ground her teeth as she turned yet another corner. One of these days she was really going to have to wise up to reality. First though, she was going find and hurt one of the Weasleys.
"Look out!" A surprised voice exclaimed from under a mane of hair as Tracey rounded the West side staircase and nearly ran right into a fellow student. They both dodged to the side and succeeded only in tripping each other up and crashing to the ground with bags flying.
"Ow…" Tracey groaned rubbing her head. She pushed herself to her feet and held out a hand to help the other girl up only to belated realize that she had run smack dab into Hermione Granger. "Sorry about that, wasn't really watching where I was walking."
"No, I think it was my fault. That's what I get for carrying too many books back to the library at once," Hermione replied shoving her masses of large tomes back into her overflowing pack. Tracey could only stare in wonder at how such a small girl could carry so many things without falling on her back.
"Please tell me that thing has a featherlight charm on it."
"I tried, but apparently the material doesn't hold it for long. I need to get a new rucksack that's more expensive over the summer hols that way it can keep the charm applied. I've been considering just going for a space-extended bag. Or making my own really. It would be cheaper."
Tracey blinked several times at that statement. A grin spread across her face and she snorted in suppressed laughter, bending to help to grab the remaining books. "You and Daphne should talk. The two of you would make a scary team. Come on, Granger, let's get you to the library before you die falling down the stairs."
"Not afraid to be seen with a Gryffindor then?" Hermione asked shooting a thankful glance towards Tracey and following along.
Tracey for her part just shrugged. "Eh, now that Snape's gone I don't care. Professor Vector hasn't enforced the House separation thing that he kept up and Malfoy's either dead or gone so no one is ruling the roost; there's no one to punish me for rocking the boat. Well…not yet at least. Daphne has been saying I need to watch my back which honestly does have me a bit worried especially considering the writing on the wall if you know where to look."
Hermione was silent for nearly an entire flight of stairs before slowly replying, "And you are telling me this…why?"
"Because you're part of that writing on the wall, Granger." Tracey smirked at the brunette. "I'm a Half-blood in Slytherin who was told to get out of the country by someone with powerful friends. Daphne has been standing up for the Potters recently. You're a Muggleborn who is very good friends with the Potters and whose parents have recently divested themselves of their lucrative business holdings. I can put two and two together, Hermione Granger. Your friends are friends with my friend and have told my friend to tell me to get out just like they told you to and now we're all in the same boat together trying to leave before the other rats realize the ship is sinking."
Hermione stared at her for several seconds, finally just shaking her head. "You are a very unusual Slytherin, Tracey Davis."
"I take that as a compliment."
"I think I meant is as one."
"Oi! Tracey!" Harry Potter's distant shout rang down the castle halls and caught both girls' attention as they stepped off the staircase. Stopping, they turned to wait for the running Potter twin to catch up to them. He slowed to a stop hands on his knees, breathing deep. "Man, I, have been, looking EVERYWHERE, for you people! Wait – " Harry cut off his gasping speech and pointed at her hair. All of a sudden, Tracey's anger at the Weasleys surged back to the forefront and her face burned red. "Why is, your hair orange? Never mind, not important. Look, I need, to find Daphne. She's vanished and, I need to ask, her a question, about the, Hogsmeade trip. Woo, man I need to pick up my running again."
Tracey's eyes narrowed. "The one tomorrow morning?" Oh hell no. Potter already had at least one girlfriend. He wasn't going to be taking Daphne too. Wait that didn't even make sense. Daphne still wasn't even remotely interested in dating anyone and everyone knew Harry Potter didn't have eyes for any girls besides Gabrielle Delacour – and probably Rose Potter too, not that people actually mentioned that one though.
"Yeah, hence why I need to find her fast," Harry said finally catching his breath. "Rose and Gabrielle are searching other parts of the castle, but we haven't had any luck yet."
"You won't," Tracey said shaking her head. "She's in a meeting with Susan Bones. Very hush, hush. Something about you though she wouldn't tell me what."
"Me?"
Tracey smirked. "Well, whatever it is you have going on at least. I imagine Daphne is attempting to plead your case since Sue's aunt can be a stubborn broad."
Potter pulled up short at that completely at a loss for words and just worked his mouth open and closed. "I'll be damned," he muttered. "Best PR girl we ever contracted with. Should've pulled her in years ago!"
Hermione cut into the conversation at that point. "Harry, if you want Daphne to cover for you three tomorrow you need to look elsewhere. She'll be meeting with Neville for the same reason while we're at Hogsmeade for most of the day."
"Dammit!" Harry cursed his fists balling up. "There goes Plan A."
"We can do it," Tracey said waving a hand to encompass herself and Hermione. Harry cast a piercing eye over her looking at her from head to foot with a gaze so intense that Tracey felt for an instant that he must be examining her very soul. Shaking herself to brush off the prickly feeling, Tracey pulled on her normal Slytherin armor. "I mean really, you obviously trust Daphne with it, and Hermione is in the know enough that you'd trust her too."
"Yes, but you are new."
"I'm friends with Daphne," Tracey replied doing her best to keep the warble out of her voice. How did he look so intense? Did the dragon feel this way when Harry had pulled out that giant war staff before roasting the thing?
"You are which gets you a lot of points and she speaks highly of you which gets you more. But you are still new and we don't trust easily."
"Harry," Hermione set down her bag back and leaned forward to lay a hand on Harry's arm. He tensed slightly before relaxing and looking at the other girl. "I think she's a friend. She's smart and she's already planning to leave if the conversation I just had with her is any indication."
"I am if that helps."
He frowned looking back towards her. "Daphne told you there was trouble coming?"
"Not in so many words, but yeah. Is it really that bad?"
"It is," he said softly. He turned back to Hermione and fixed her with a searching stare. "You're sure we can trust her, Hermione?"
Hermione shrugged. "Well, I'm not good friends with her, so I honestly don't know. But I am sure that you can trust me and I can stay with her for the day tomorrow and if she does anything that makes me think we can't trust her to cover for you, then I can just stun her until you can get Padfoot or Tonks to come and memory charm her until she thinks you really were with us all day."
Tracey looked back and forth between the two as Harry slowly nodded. Her mind spun a mile a minute. "You people really don't play around do you?" she murmured. "Merlin, what the hell am I getting myself into? Alright fine, you want a bloody Secret Keeper, sure, I'll be your bloody Secret Keeper. Hell, my best friend likes to think she's already on the Wizengamot anyway so why not play around with two Unspeakables too while I'm at it?"
"I actually like to think of myself as a librarian, thank you very much," Hermione said standing up straight and thrusting her head off to the side in as prim a manner as possible. Both Harry and Tracey took one look Hermione's attempt to appear pompous and proper and burst out laughing followed shortly by the brunette herself. "So does she pass, Harry?"
"Okay, sure, trial basis. Welcome to Team Potter, Tracey. We might get T-Shirts one day."
"Glorious. I'm either a Medium or a 10 depending on what brand you're going with."
"I'll keep that in mind," Harry said grinning back at her and saluting as he turned to go back to lord knew where.
Rose glared at the wand in her hand as she and her little family stalked – walked, they walked, they couldn't stalk yet, they had to maintain appearances for the moment – down the halls of the Ministry of Magic. "I hate this thing," she murmured just loud enough for Gabrielle and Harry to hear. "It feels dead."
"It doesn't owe you its allegiance. Wands are strange things," Gabrielle replied softly. "Now hush. Laura Burns should not be looking at her wand like she wishes it would spontaneously combust." Harry nodded beside her though he also seemed to be fingering his stolen wand quite a lot.
Waylaying – and polyjuicing into – a trio of Ministry aides had been laughably easy. The security on this place was so pathetic that Rose was forced to wonder if it was intentional. Were the Death Eaters already sabotaging things in preparation for their takeover or was Fudge's leadership just that incompetent? Or were Bones and Scrimgeour that bad at their jobs? If the entire organization was this horrible, then maybe it wasn't malicious intent that had seen Harry separated from her and it actually was just a screw-up.
Yeah, and maybe pigs would fly tomorrow too.
She grit her teeth and clenched her fist tightly around the stolen wand as it started to grow warm in her grip.
They were going to take Umbridge. Umbridge was going to pay for tearing Harry from her. Umbridge was going to hurt. Umbridge was finally, finally, finally going to hurt!
Rose ignored the stupidly warm piece of wood as her lips curled into a snarl. Squeezing her hands tighter she was shocked back to a semblance of normality as the wand rapidly reached scalding temperatures and started burning her fist. Gasping and only barely managing to avoid throwing the offending stick down the corridor, Rose instead started fumbling the thing from one hand to the other as it cooled itself back down now that it was no longer being abused.
Glaring at the wand, Rose took a calming breath and concentrated on schooling Laura's borrowed features back into an easy grin at the passing workers and their curious glances.
"…I swear it's going to be the metaslut. You just watch."
Rose's feet stopped all on their own and her head whipped to the left searching for the source of the cretin that was bad-mouthing Dora. Her fist started to clench again though Harry's hand on her upper arm kept it from escalating to the point that the wand had to rebuke her again. "Wait," he hissed in her ear.
"You're nuts man," another disembodied voice responded to the first. They were in an office a few paces to the left. The trio stepped closer to the nearby wall, Gabrielle quickly cutting a nick on her finger and using the blood and a flicker of flame to lay down a quick ward of her own invention. It was a nifty privacy one she'd created a few years back that prevented eavesdropping while allowing those within the boundary to hear outside sounds. It did seem to dampen smells in both directions for some reason that they'd never figured out, but since humans didn't really use smell too often they'd never bothered to figure out how to fix it. Sometimes that was even a minor bonus since the original privacy ward didn't block smell. Not that they'd ever managed to figure the original one out anyway…
"Did you even read the article? Rita was totally going after her wand blazing. Who else would have it in for the woman besides that bitch?"
A snort of laughter followed that. "Just half the country. Seriously, Trout, you're a complete idiot. Skeeter prints trash and pisses off everyone around her. The only people who can stand her are lonely mothers with nothing to do except read her bull."
"Yeah? So why did she vanish just after the article about the metaslut?"
"Okay you really need to stop calling Auror Tonks that before someone hears you. She's going to kick your arse five ways to Sunday you stupid tosser. She's Mad-Eye's protégé for starters, she's the apple in Kingsley's eye for two, she's descended from the bloody Blacks for three, and just for kicks she lives with Harry-Dragon-Arse-Slapping-Potter!"
Rose gaped at that new title for Harry, momentarily forgetting her anger, and pulled back from the wall to stare at her brother with wide eyes. Her hand was up and pointing at him and her mouth was open ready to tease him but he beat her to the punch. "Not. One. Word. We never speak of this again. Ever. Or I swear to Merlin, Morgan, and fucking Sauron I will never use Parseltongue on either of you ever again."
"Understood, 'arry. My lips are sealed as long as yours are not," Gabrielle quickly responded elbowing Rose. Rose groaned though nodded her agreement and turned her attention back to conversation between the two Ministry workers.
"…I still say she's overhyped," the idiot was saying.
"So go duel her and get your arse beat into a pulp for all I care. Look, you're forgetting one simple thing, Trout."
"Yeah? What's that Mike?"
"She was arguing with Bones while Rita was supposedly being kidnapped."
"What's this now?"
An audible slap was heard and Rose snorted in commiseration. She felt Mike's pain having to deal with being surrounded by idiots and fools. "You're never going to pass basic training. Okay, so Rita's entire office hears her getting told by her editor to meet with a mystery informant at 6am the next day. At 6:03am the next day, Auror Tonks is walking into Bone's office to drop off a report and is in there for almost twenty minutes before walking out pissed off. She hangs around filling out paperwork with Savage and Dawlish at the office for the next six hours before going to train with Kingsley for another four hours afterwards. Tell me when in all of that time she was supposed to go and hunt down Rita?"
"I…hadn't heard about that…"
"Yeah, I figured. Maybe next time you should think with your brain instead of your rejected pecker. Now listen, supposedly Savage thinks that the Parkinsons are involved with this somehow, so we're supposed to go and…"
Gabrielle looked at Rose and Harry and nodded towards the corridor. "Can we go now? I don't think we have to kill this fool. His partner seems to have done a fairly decent job of beating him into submission for us."
"Yeah, drop the ward and let's get a move on. Everyone have their extra dose of potion in case we need it?" Rose asked as she fingered her vial. She saw the other two nod affirmatives. A second later Gabrielle had dropped the ward and they were on their way again. Thankfully they managed to reach the small lift to the Minister's officers without further encounters. While it was still technically the same level, Fudge had installed a separate area for himself and his top personnel just so they could feel more important by making people wait.
As said lift chimed for 'Level 0' the trio took a deep breath and looked at each other. "Last chance to back out," Harry murmured.
"Not a chance," Rose said.
"I have been thinking about this for over a decade 'arry. Ze last time was far too…quick. We do zis and we do zis together," Gabrielle stated.
Harry nodded as the doors started to open. "Okay. Ella, remember your accent." Gabrielle's eyes widened momentarily. She set her mouth in a grim line and bit her lip as they walked out. Rose knew from experience that if Gabrielle wasn't entirely certain she could hold to her British accent she'd stay silent throughout. Umbridge may be a stupid waste of air, but she was somewhat observant at times and they needed a few moments to get the toad alone.
They made it through the first room before being accosted. Even then they were almost halfway through the second cubicle area and to Umbridge's private office before one of the officials called out to them. "Johnny! What are you doing up here man? I thought you had that report to finish with the Games and Sports people. Mary, Laura, weren't you two supposed to be helping him?"
"Yeah," Harry replied rubbing the back of his neck and shrugging. He gestured towards Umbridge's office. "The boss asked for an update though on how the how the other countries are looking at our setup for the last event. It's really something that the actual department should be briefing her on, but you know Madame Umbridge."
The man pulled back and held up his hands. "Say no more. I'm amazed you managed to convince these two to come up with you."
"Hey if I have to suffer they have to suffer, benefits of being the project lead."
"He can be a real bastard sometimes," Rose chimed in rolling her eyes.
The worker chuckled sitting back down. "Good luck. She's in one of her moods too. I'd get in and get out if I were you."
"Noted. See you later."
They moved off and skirted past a few more desks before knocking on the door to Umbridge's office. Rose could practically feel her very bones vibrating as the spells holding it closed dissolved and they slipped inside. The putrid pink practically pummeled her senses but she ignored it. The garish cat pictures were some of the most disgusting attempts at 'cute' she'd ever laid eyes on but she skidded right past those. The frilly lace covering everything was almost vomit inducing, and yet Rose skipped over that too.
She had eyes only for Dolores.
The toad was right there.
10 feet of empty air and a measly wooden desk was the only thing separating the two of them.
"Heh hem, can I help you? I believe you were supposed to be doing a report for me Mr. Marcone." The nails-on-a-chalkboard voice screeched through Rose's brain. She had to wait a moment longer. Just a moment longer. The wand in her hand heated up again, bringing with it a slight whiff of burnt flesh.
"We have that finished. If you'd activate the privacy spells again Madame Umbridge we can give you the update," Harry replied smoothly.
Umbridge giggled and a stronger smell of burning skin filled the room, along with a faint sizzling. "Oh excellent! One moment, one moment. There! Now what were those nasty little French tarts going on about with safety violations concerning sphinxes? It's not enough they have a half-breed polluting our noble Tournament, now they have the gall to complain about our very events too!"
Rose felt the office's privacy wards descend around them. The wand stopped burning as a grin spread from ear to ear. "Hello, Dolores. It's been a long time. Let's have some fun."
Rose smiled politely – well, she considered it polite at least; others probably would be a little intimidated by the too wide grin and saucer eyes – as Umbridge started to stir. The toad shifted against the ropes holding her to the stake and her eyes fluttered open. "Good afternoon. Welcome to the Scottish countryside. It has an official name but I can't pronounce it; I don't speak troll you see."
"Potter!" Umbridge hissed, her beady eyes narrowing in on Rose. "When the Minister gets word of you kidnapping me I will see you Kissed before the night is out! Let me go you little whore."
"You really should be nicer to your captors," Gabrielle said nonchalantly she walked over, wrapped her arms around Rose and kissed the redhead's neck. "I am guessing that was not the type of kiss you meant, no?"
"Oh so you brought your half-breed with you too. Excellent, I can get the both of you taken care of with a single stroke the quill. Now let me go! I am the Senior Undersecretary to the Minister for Magic!"
"She really doesn't listen does she?" Gabrielle asked Rose with a small chuckle.
"If she did we wouldn't be here to begin with would we, luv?"
Harry walked over and crossed his arms smiling at both the girls. "No, we wouldn't. But then, things might be worse off for a lot of people too so maybe we should be thanking her too."
"Well she shouldn't be thanking us, that's for sure," Rose replied, her grin widening even further and a gleam entering her eyes as a thumping and series of loud grunts sounded from somewhere nearby.
Umbridge spat on the ground at the trio's feet glaring at all three. "Let me loose you pathetic little children. You think this attempt at intimidation will work? Whatever your goal is you've already failed. You will be in Azkaban or soulless before the sun sets and I will be drinking tea with the Minister. The only question really is whether I want you to suffer or whether I want it to be over quickly. You have kidnapped the Senior Undersecretary and you are already known as dangerously unstable individuals who consort with a barely human half-breed. Let me go this instant and I will consider letting you live out the rest of your lives in the misery of Azkaban. "
"Oh my, that's such a very tempting offer, Dolores." Rose held a hand to her face and gasped in mock thought. "Why I think we might just have to take you up on that! I mean the only other option is to kill you! And it's not like we've ever done that before, right guys?"
"Nope," Gabrielle said cheerily. "I certainly didn't use my abilities to charm Draco Malfoy into committing suicide by centaur."
"And I definitely didn't eviscerate Severus Snape then burn his corpse to ash," Harry chimed in.
Rose waved to encompass the group. "And none of us trapped Rita Skeeter in an unbreakable jar that is buried in the woods where she'll stay until she dies from suffocation."
"Confessing to murder in front of the Senior Undersecretary?" Umbridge asked giggling and rattling her ropes. "Stupid children. No I don't even need to settle for the Kiss, I can just tell Cornelius to toss you through the Veil instead."
Rose closed her eyes and sighed. "Wow, you are even stupider than I remembered." The false cheer dropped from her voice and cold steel entered it along with a vitriol that would have made even a manticore pause. "That wasn't a threat bitch, it was a promise. You're not walking out of here, you're not getting released, we're not bluffing; you're going to die in a few minutes and we're going to watch and later we're going to celebrate because we hate you with every fiber of our being."
"Heh hem, if you were going to kill me you would have done so already," Umbridge stated primly as she pulled herself up as straight as possible against the stake.
Rose scowled dropping all remaining semblance of civility. "The first time I killed you, you were a vegetable. There was no satisfaction whatsoever. I had destroyed your mind ripping the information I needed from it and the worst I could do was to burn your mindless body to the ground. It was over too quick. I learned my lesson. This will not be fast. This will not be painless. You are going to suffer! You took my other half away from me you cunt!"
"To elaborate on what my dear sister is trying to say," Harry said dropping in before Umbridge could sputter out a reply. "Is that you are currently tied to the cooking stake of the troll community of Warbarbar. At least that's what we think it's called. This group actually has a bit of beef with you as well since you did sign a law displacing them from their land about three years back. It moved them into the mountains and deprived them of most of their food supply. They've been slowly starving. It made them a good target for Quirrell and Voldemort when the possessed duo needed a local distraction. Hungry trolls are easy to herd."
"Lies!"
"You should consider yourself lucky, Umbridge," Rose said ice coating her words and her lips thinned into a barely visible line. "I wanted to give you to the centaurs again. Did you know that their equipment is two foot long at minimum? They also generally don't stop breeding a sow for hours at a time. And their herd is quite large at the moment. Since you've pushed legislation through that slashed their rights and cut their territory in half…well they're rather upset with you too. Granted some people can actually survive such an experience, but they practice for that. You would need special spells that we would not be providing." Umbridge paled at that. "Fortunately for you, Harry didn't feel comfortable subjecting anyone to such a fate – even someone like you. I disagree, but I'm only one voice and we abide by majority rule in this trio. So congrats, you get to be either burned alive and then eaten or eaten alive. I honestly don't know whether trolls prefer their meat raw or not."
"…You are insane…" Umbridge whispered. Her eyes jumped from Rose to Gabrielle to Harry. "Please, either of you. I can perhaps make some of the charges against one or both of you two disappear if you get me away from her. Untie me and get me back to the Minister."
Harry shook his head and grabbed Gabrielle's hand. "You just don't get it, Dolores. You are going to die. It is as simple as that. You can scream and beg and cry and it won't matter, you are still going to die. You can hold out hope for Fudge to save you, but we all know that the man is laughably incompetent. The three of us literally just walked into your office, stunned you and Floo'd straight out with you over our shoulder."
"And don't worry, we're going to kill him too. We're just going to let him sweat with old Tommy Boy for a bit first; serves him right to face his worst nightmare. That's almost worse than anything that we can do to him; almost," Rose purred, her grin wide and demonic.
Umbridge snarled at them spittle flying and foam actually starting to form at the edges of her lips. "Why are doing this?! You are children! You are pathetic little half-blood children! You don't deserve the magic you have! I haven't even started to destroy like you deserve! Why, why, why?!"
Rose untangled herself from Gabrielle and stepped forward until she was almost nose to nose with Umbridge. "For starters, that little rant should tell you everything you need to know about why you need to be taken off the table," she said her voice pitched low and thrumming with rage. "Though you do deserve an actual answer, Dolores, so I am going to give you one. I'm going to show you just why we hate you so much and why there is no way for you to talk or bully your way out of this. I'm going to show you why you're dying. Do you want to know why? Because it's going to hurt you even more, that's why. Look into my eyes, Dolores. Look into my eyes and see the future that never was and, now, won't ever be.
"Legilimens."
Rose could barely breathe as she watched the chains coil around Harry in the rickety wooden chair that looked like it would collapse under even his meager weight. "Can't they at least use a-a cushion?" Rose whimpered. "He's going to get a splinter." Her hands shook and she stuck them into her armpits to try and keep her anxiety hidden. Still she couldn't stop the shudders from racking her body nor could she stop her teeth from chattering every time she stopped clenching her jaws together.
"I hardly think that splinters are what the boy has to worry about at the moment, Rose Potter. Now you be quiet, girl. The proceedings are going to be starting shortly," Molly Weasley chiding from the row behind her. Rose barely even heard the plump woman. She could only focus on those chains around her brother's arms. They had tightened further; it didn't even look like he could flex his wrists. Oh god, if this went on too long would he even be able to use his hands when it was over? Was that intentional? Did they do this with everyone or did they just hate her and Harry this much?
"Molly shut the bloody hell up!" Dora whispered. "She doesn't give a shit about splinters! She's scared and you're making things worse. I've got this; go sit with your own bloody family! Rose, sweetie, you need to breathe or I'm going to make you take a calming potion."
"No!" Rose whipped her head back and forth hard enough that her hair obscured her vision of Harry momentarily and she felt herself taking short gasping breaths until she could see him through the red strands again. She focused on the way his eyes crinkled at the corners and the way his right ear was just a touch lower than his left and how his nose was kinked ever so slightly to the side from that Bludger in their second year…her breathing slowed. "I can't take any potions. Please, Dora…I can't…I have to be sober. I can't…I have to be thinking clearly."
"Okay, but you need to keep calm, Rose."
"I'll try," she whispered.
Dora looped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her against the older woman's chest. "Where the hell is Dumbledore?"
As if drawn by the sound of Dora's muttering, a horribly dressed, pink clad, frilly woman banged a gavel directly across from Harry. "Heh hem! It seems that the accused will be defending himself as his advocate has declined to show. Even the esteemed Dumbledore appears to believe that the 'great' Harry Potter has fallen from grace. Now, I call this meeting of the – "
"Hey, you can't do that! I wasn't even consulted about who I wanted as an advocate!" Harry shouted. "If Dumbledore isn't around then get a bloody public defender! I don't even like Dumbledore and I barely even trust the bloody old man!"
"Be quiet child. You are the accused. Your right of choice was waived when you displayed a horrid lack of judgment when using magic in front of Muggles, despite previous warnings. You were assigned an advocate and he has failed to show. You will defend yourself."
"I was defending my – " Harry's protests were cut off as a chain from the back of the chair wrapped around his head and across his mouth.
Rose's breath caught. "How's he supposed to defend himself if he can't-if he can't talk? Dora? Dora, how's he supposed to say anything? What are they doing?"
"Stay here, Rose. I'm going to fix this." Dora pulled her arm from around Rose and gently pushed her back onto her own seat moving to stand up. Before Dora had gotten halfway out of position though, the doors to the chamber burst open and Albus Dumbledore strode through them. Rose twisted, her eyes widening and drinking in the sight of the Headmaster. While she tended to alternate between general dislike and outright hate for the man who was directly responsible for leaving them with the Dursleys, at this moment he was the lifeline that Harry needed and she could've kissed him. He also looked bloody furious. She'd never seen Dumbledore's mouth narrowed to McGonagall levels, nor had she seen his eyes so focused and steely that, for a second, she thought Umbridge, Fudge and Diggory might just burst into flame on the spot from that gaze alone. He wasn't quite running, but he was moving fast enough that he was as close as you could get without it being considered such a thing.
"Ah good, I see the disciplinary hearing has not been called to order yet. Excellent. It would be rather poor form to start such a thing without the defense advocate present after all," Dumbledore stated, his gaze sweeping across the Ministry's box. Rose felt her breathing start back up again and her fingers started to unclench from their stranglehold on her sides while Dora slowly sank back down into her seat again.
"You are late, Dumbledore," Amos Diggory spat. "We've already started."
Dumbledore's eyes turned onto Diggory. "Well, Chief Warlock, perhaps you should have deigned to inform me of the change in meeting times then; as is the regulation. After all, you wouldn't want anything that happens here to be illegal and challengeable afterwards now would you? That would open up quite a few doors that I am sure the Ministry would rather remain shut."
"Is that a threat, Dumbledore?" Fudge asked scowling.
"Goddamn them, this isn't about Harry at all," Dora muttered. "It's fucking politics!"
"Get them to loosen the chains, he can't breathe," Rose murmured watching Harry gnawing on the length of chain in his mouth as he glared at the trio set against him.
"On the contrary, Minister, I was merely stating how you need to ensure that proper procedure is followed here. The last thing we want is another miscarriage of justice…like in the lack of trial for Lord Sirius Black."
"That nonsense again! I swear Dumbledore if you bring that up one more time I will toss you out of this room!" Fudge shouted.
"Heh hem, Minister, we should proceed," the toad croaked. All of the Ministry officials turned to her with varying degrees of annoyance crossing their features, though each nodded. "As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted, the trial of Harry James Potter for the Improper Use of Magic In Front of A Muggle (Repeat Offense), Breaking the Statute of Secrecy (Repeat Offense), Underage Sorcery (Repeat Offense), Evading Arrest, and Murder has commenced. It is being presided over by myself, the Senior Undersecretary, Dolores Umbridge, the Chief Warlock, Amos Diggory, and the Minister For Magic, Cornelius Fudge."
Dora's hair turned black and lengthened to the middle of her back while Rose forgot to breath. Harry's complexion paled to near deathly white and Dumbledore stood completely still. "Murder?" Rose had no idea who spoke. It could have been her; it could have been almost anyone at that point as the sentiment seemed to be shared by most of the room that was not the Ministry.
"Certainly there is a…conflict of interest here," Dumbledore said slowly. "I can only assume that you are going to be attempting to try young Harry for Cedric Diggory's death. To have his own father as one of the presiding members cannot possibly lead to a fair hearing."
"Are you saying I cannot be trusted to listen to the evidence and remain impartial?"
"It would be unfair to ask that of you. It would also be unrealistic considering you have already labeled Harry as guilty, otherwise he would not be bound and gagged while you were expecting him to defend himself, despite being barely 15 years old," Dumbledore rumbled. "Will you excuse yourself Chief Warlock or will we be proceeding with a murder trial helmed by a man obviously biased?"
"We will be proceeding," Umbridge said smiling. "State your case, Dumbledore. Some of us have work to do."
Dumbledore's eyes narrowed further and the courtroom started to blur as tears welled up in Rose's own gaze.
They were never going to let Harry go. The two of them should have just ran. They should have ran like they had planned originally. They should've ran like Bonnie and Clyde. They could've lived without magic and evaded the Ministry for years. They should've ran. Maybe she could grab him when they tried to take him away? Maybe she could grab the chair? Could you apparate in the Ministry? Did she know how to apparate? It couldn't be that hard, people did it all the time. Maybe Dora could get them both? Maybe could get just Harry? Would Dora do that for them? She said she was going to fix things. Was she going to attack them? Was she going to fight to get him out? Was she just going to argue? Why was Dumbledore just sitting there and letting them browbeat him? Why wasn't he arguing back like before?
Why?
Why?
Why?
Why was this happening?
Why couldn't these people just leave the two of them alone?!
"He killed my son! If you think I'm going to believe some stupid drivel about He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named being reborn and murdering my child over this obviously violent sociopath doing the deed, you are senile Dumbledore!" Diggory was shouting. Everyone was shouting. Everyone was shouting except for Dumbledore.
"There are none so blind as those who refuse to see," Dumbledore said softly. "I am sorry for your loss, Amos. You cannot see past your pain and you are forcing another to suffer just to ease it."
"I believe we've heard quite enough Dumbledore," Fudge stated banging the gavel. "It's been well documented that Cedric Diggory made every effort to mend the rift between the two boys and he was rebuffed each time. The accused has shown multiple instances in the past of violent tendencies including, but not to: 1) intentional permanent harm to a protected Hungarian Ministry asset on loan to Britain, a Hungarian Horntail dragon, by use of an ancient war staff; 2) intentional threatening of permanent harm to, at minimum, five Ministry sanctioned judges during an official Internationally Sanctioned Tournament by use of an ancient war staff; 3) malicious slander against a respected Hogwarts teacher, one Severus Snape; 4) malicious slander against multiple respected Hogwarts students; 5) intentional attempts to maim respected Hogwarts students; 6) intentional attempts to maim respected Hogwarts teachers; 7) intentional maiming of his own relative using a Muggle eating utensil; 8) intentional threatening of inflicting permanent harm to his Muggle relatives using Magic, etc. etc."
Fudge set down the list and Umbridge took over her smile spreading from ear to ear. "I believe we all get the idea, Minister. Dumbledore has however made his point that Harry Potter is the last member of an Ancient House. It would be a shame to see such a House die off due to…the Kiss, now wouldn't it."
Fudge nodded slowly as he looked to Umbridge and Rose's vision narrowed down to center solely on the pink clad toad. This woman. This woman was the woman who was running this kangaroo court. Fudge was here to screw over Dumbledore, Diggory was here to screw over Harry for Cedric…but this bloody bint was the bee in the bonnet that led the rats to the cheese. "I don't think a vote is really necessary at this point as the verdict is easy to determine. Though perhaps a lesser sentence would be acceptable. Amos?"
"Veil. It is the only sentence I accept. If you absolutely must compromise then I insist on life in Azkaban!"
"Heh hem," Umbridge held up a hand, her face sickeningly sweet with a smile that did not reach her eyes. "Well I was thinking…exile. Complete Magical Exile. The Ministry is merciful after all. Why with a proper Obliviation, Harry James Potter would, in effect, die anyway, yet his House will still carry on through his body's progeny!"
"And it's not like he wouldn't be punished by the sentence. It would be torture to live without magic even if there is only some dim memory that lingers," Fudge said pursing his lips.
Dora's hand on Rose's knee clenched hard enough that she felt the bone pop. "Come on Dumbledore, say something!"
"Alright, let's finish this up," Fudge said slapping the gavel. "As Minister for Magic, I Cornelius Fudge, declare the accused, Harry Potter, guilty of all charges. He is to be immediately exiled from all Magical corners of the globe, his magic bound and his memory Obliviated. Case closed."
Dumbledore hung his head, though his soft voice carried to Rose's ears, "At least he will live. Perhaps the anchor will die if it is starved."
The gavel fell. The toad giggled. The Minister nodded. The grieving father slammed a fist on the desk. The metamorph lunged to her feet shouting obscenities.
Rose could only stare as the chains fell from her brother, the Aurors gripping both his arms and dragging him to his feet. "ROSE! ROSE! STAY SAFE ROSE! I WILL FIND YOU! I DON'T KNOW HOW BUT I WILL FIND YOU!"
She couldn't breathe, they were taking him and she couldn't breathe, they were taking Harry and they were going to wipe away his mind and take away everything that he ever was and they were going to cut away the only person who had been there for her through everything and she couldn't even breathe enough to say anything!
She gasped, air rushing into her lungs, "HARRY!" She ran towards the ledge surround the center of the room as the Aurors dragged her brother away and the pink toad laughed.
Red flashed just past her right shoulder and Harry reached out to her.
Rose stretched out for the barrier just as she felt an impact on her back and the world around her went black, her last image Harry's screaming face and Umbridge's pink giggling features looming over him.
Rose swam up out of the memory she'd implanted into the toad's mind and pulled back with a wide grin that perfectly matched that one she'd seen so long ago. Sweat poured down Umbridge's face and the woman was almost as pale as the Fat Friar. "So, do you understand now, Dolores? You're not leaving here. The first go round, I did give you to Bane. You lasted four minutes before you begged me to stop him. Unfortunately, you were the only one with the knowledge of where you had stashed Harry so I had to turn you into a vegetable to find it."
"She has gotten much better with Legilimency since then, non?" Gabrielle said hugging Rose's arm. "Practice makes perfect as zey say!"
"Why am only I here?" Umbridge asked her eyes closed, a glob of snot leaking down her nose.
Rose danced back and shaking a finger at the toad. "Excellent question, Dolores! Fudge gets to reap what he's sown in a bit of karmic retribution. We're going to kill him eventually, but I wanted to let Voldemort have some fun first and then we'll swoop in to pick off the leftovers. Plus we don't want the war to end too fast. We do need a bit of leverage when we leave after all."
"And we're still undecided on if we're actually going to kill Diggory," Harry commented shrugging. "The man is an arse, but he did legitimately believe I killed his son and I sympathize to a degree. Plus if Cedric ends up dying again, would anything that we do to him really be any worse? If we kill him it would mostly just be a self-preservation thing rather than straight up revenge like you and Fudge. I was a pawn to you two. Diggory was out for revenge like us. We're kin in a way."
"We have odd family," Gabrielle said shrugging.
A loud grunt followed by a banging of pots sounded from the tent behind Umbridge's stake. Rose looked over at the trolls that had assembled around their leader – or at least the one that was doing the banging – before turning back to Umbridge, a shudder running through her body. "You have no idea how long I have waited to watch you suffer like this, Umbridge. Is this a bit much? Maybe. Probably. But I've been cut in half for over a decade thanks to your political games and your bigotry. This isn't going to fix me. I know that. I don't care. I just want to make you hurt. So do try to last longer than four minutes before breaking this time, Dolores. It's not every day you get to kill your Boogeyman twice after all."
Fanfic Rec: 'The Stag and the Flower' by ReluctantSidekick. This is a Harry/Fleur fic set after the war. Harry splits with Ginny while Fleur decides she needs a vacation after Bill pisses her off one time too many after letting Molly tear into her. They go on holiday together and after a bit of an intervention wind up falling in love. It's sweet and cute and still somewhat short though being fairly consistently updated. Well worth a read if you're in need of a Fleur fic.
