"Yep, I really felt good when old Toad Face got her comeuppance" said Old Jerry as he fondly stroked an article pasted in the photo album entitled 'Dolores Umbridge removed from Hogwarts'. It showed a photo of Umbridge storming out of Hogwarts with a suitcase and an infuriated, indignant look on her face.
"Yeah, if only that was the only big thing that happened that night" said Old Tom.
"What do you mean?" asked Jerry.
"That was also the night we lost Sirius" said Tom, looking sadly down at the album.
"Oh God, Sirius." cried Jerry, bursting into tears. "Oh, why did you have to remind me about that?"
All hell was breaking loose in the Department of Mysteries.
When Tom, Jerry and the DA had met Harry and Hermione in the forest, the next thing they knew was they were off to the Ministry of Magic to rescue Sirius, on the backs of invisible horses that apparently, only Harry and Luna could see. Now they had arrived at the Deparment of Mysteries, they had not found Sirius or Voldemort, but they had found a mysterious glass sphere on which a prophecy concerning Harry and Voldemort's fates was written. At that moment, Voldemort's Death Eaters had pounced. It turned that Harry's vision has been bait to lure him to the Ministry and get the prophecy, as prophecies could only be retrieved by those about whom they were written, and Voldemort was not ready to appear in public yet.
Now the Death Eaters were here to take the prophecy back to their master. Naturally a fight had ensued, which had moved from the Hall of Prophecy full of shelves to a strange archway with filmy layer in the middle.
Tom and Jerry were currently separated from Harry, who was battling none other than Draco Malfoy's father, Lucius Malfoy, who aside from a wand also had his cane to use as a weapon. Tom and Jerry would have run over to help Harry were they not duelling another Death Eater, a slightly insane witch by the name of Bellatrix Lestrange.
"Stupefy!" cried Jerry as he cast his spell.
"Protego!" screamed Bellatrix in response. Jerry's spell bounced off the shield charm and sailed away through the air. It seemed that no matter what sort of spell either Tom or Jerry had cast at Bellatrix, she had always blocked it or gotten out of the way.
"Expelliarmus". Jerry's wand flew out of his hand to the other side of the room. Bellatrix pointed her wand at him a third time, an evil, sadistic leer appeared on her face.
"Avada Kedavra!" she screeched. Jerry would certainly have been killed there and then had Tom not had a very good idea.
"Accio Mouse" he shouted. Jerry was pulled out of the way of Bellatrix's curse and flew straight into Tom's hand. From the other side of the shield charm, Bellatrix looked at Tom with a look that could almost have been described as admiration.
"Nice wandwork, for a cat" she admitted. "Serpensortia!"
With a loud bang a cobra shot from her wand and collided head on with Tom and Jerry. As he was knocked backwards, Tom felt the snake's coils begin to wrap themselves around him. Soon his legs had disappeared under an undulating mass of scales and muscle. His torso would undoutedly follow soon.
Jerry however had been knocked to the side by the snake and so was not being constricted by it. Now he had retrieved his wand and was rushing to aid his friend.
"Avada Kedavra!" screamed Bellatrix. Taking a running jump, Jerry only just missed her killing curse. He leapt on to the snake and wrapped his arms and legs around it. Not knowing any spell he could use to stop it, he resorted to jabbing it in the neck with his wand. The cobra hissed in fury and thrased about wildly, but it did not loosen its grip on Tom. Nor did Jerry loosen his grip on it, until-
"Legsloosia!" Bellatrix's Jelly-Leg jinx hit Jerry. Instantly his legs flopped uselessly as if they were filled with cake mix. Seeing its chance, the snake threw Jerry off its neck. He landed just by its coils. It reared back its head before bringing it down hard on Jerry.
"No!" cried Tom in shock as the snake's fangs pierced Jerry. He lay there, breathing rapidly and labouriously, aside from that his small body was very still.
"Expelliarmus!" shouted Lucius Malfoy, and there was a clatter as Harry's wand flew out of his hand and on to the floor. Tom diverted his attention to his human friend, ignoring the fact that the snake had resumed wrapping itself around his torso.
"The game's up, Potter. Did you actually think that children like you and your friends could defeat the Dark Lord's finest Death Eaters." He gestured to himself and the other Death Eaters. This was Draco's father alright. He gestured to the prophecy, which Harry held in his hand.
"I'll make his simple, Potter. Give me the prophecy, or watch as we kill your friends, one by one" snarled Lucius. Tom looked around the room. Indeed all of Harry's friends were now at the mercy of the Death Eaters. Avery, Dolohov, Mulciber and McNair had captured Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Luna respectively, and somehow, Bellatrix had managed to get hold of Neville. Jerry was dying of envenomation and he, Tom was about to be crushed to death by a snake that usually poisoned its victims. There really was no choice for Harry.
"Don't gib it do him, Arry" said Neville, his severe nosebleed affecting his speech. But Harry did not listen. Slowly and with considerable reluctance, he began to hand over the prophecy to Lucius' outstretched hand.
"Hurry up, Potter. We haven't got all night!"
Suddenly, there was a loud bang and Sirius apparated into the room next to Harry.
"Get away from my godson, Malfoy" he said contemptously. "Stupefy!" he bellowed, and Lucius Malfoy was thrown across the room. The other Death Eaters threw their hostages on to the floor, took out their wands and charged, only to be faced with Remus Lupin, Mad-Eye Moody and various other members of the Order of the Phoenix. As both groups opened fire on one another, Lupin turned to Tom, who was now almost completely wrapped up in the snake's coils.
"Epera Evanesca!" The cobra turned to ashes the moment the spell hit it, Tom was free. He scooped up Jerry and ran over to a safe part of the room with Hermione.
"OK, little buddy" said Tom quickly. "I'm gonna go help Harry and Sirius now, but you're gonna be ok, won't he Hermione?"
"Hopefully" said Hermione. Tom turned and ran back into the fray. Ducking and dodging various spells fired by the Death Eaters, he soon joined Harry and Sirius.
"Hello, Tom. Nice to see you and Harry are still close" said Sirius as he stunned Dolohov.
"See you've got good wandwork, Sirius" Tom complimented him. "Hope you can use it to end this fight. It's like being in Saving Private Ryan."
"Like being in what?"
"Muggle film" said Tom, before he used 'Incarcerous' on another Death Eater.
Through the joint efforts of the DA and the Order of the Phoenix, the Death Eaters were soon all lying stunned or trussed up like turkeys on the floor. Except for-
"Avada Kedavra!" screeched Bellatrix, the only Death Eater still standing.
"Sirius, look out!" cried Tom. But his warning came too late. Bellatrix's spell hit Sirius sqaure in the chest. A vacant look appeared on his face, and one of shock and horror appeared on the faces of Harry, Tom and all the members of the DA and Order of the Phoenix. Sirius took a few steps backwards, his face growing more and more pale. And then finally, he tumbled backwards into the archway and his body vanished without a trace.
Tom looked at Harry and saw that tears were beginning to trickle out of the corners of his green eyes.
"No, no" he stammered in a voice that broke Tom's heart. He heard Bellatrix-that shameless murdereress-cackling wildly, taking advantage of the shock of everyone else present to make her escape into another room. Harry turned in her direction and began to give chase. Tom grabbed his arm.
"Harry, you can't-
"Get off me, Tom!" snarled Harry. He shook Tom off and tore after Bellatrix, tears streaming down his face. Tom followed him. He could understand why Harry would want to deal with his godfather's killer personally, but as his protector, Tom could not let him face her alone.
As he neared the door that Bellatrix and Harry had gone through, Dumbledore apparated right into his path.
"Sir, Sirius is dead. Harry's gone after Bellatrix Lestrange. I need to-
"I will go after him this time, Thomas" said Dumbledore. "Voldemort himself is on his way here and you will be no match for him. I must be the one to protect Harry this time."
And he went into the Ministry Atrium without another word. Tom felt a cold sense of dread rush over him. Voldemort was coming, no doubt to finish Harry off himself, or get the prophecy. He'd never get the prophecy now, Harry had tossed it to Neville who had dropped it and smashed it. But why would the Dark Lord care about that when he could just as easily kill Harry, the thing he had waited so long to do?
As Tom went back over to Jerry, he hoped that Voldemort was as scared of Dumbledore as everyone said he was.
A few days later, Tom walked down the corridor to the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom.
Thankfully, Dumbledore had been able to prevent Voldemort from killing Harry long enough for Cornelius Fudge and several Ministry officials to arrive and see the Dark Lord for themselves. As a result, Fudge had been forced to admit Voldemort's return and two days later, the loss of his position of Minister for Magic. Now the entire wizarding world knew that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was back in town and dark days were predicted ahead.
Jerry, and all of the DA members who had been present at the Department of Mysteries had all been admitted to hospital. Luckily they were expected to make a complete recovery.
As for Harry, for now he was inconsolable over Sirius' death, for which he blamed himself. Dumbledore had told Tom that he had had a talk with Harry about Sirius and the prophecy, and that he felt that it was best that for now, Harry was left alone.
So Tom was on his way to see Duchess. What with the hecticness of the past few days, he had not yet had the chance to see her since he got back from the Ministry. As he entered the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, he saw her sitting on Umbridge's desk and looking down at her paws.
"Hey Duchess" said Tom as he entered the room. "I just thought I should come say hi. How's your mistress?"
"She's fine, sadly" said Duchess without looking up at Tom. "Dumbledore went into the forest the other night and rescued her. By the way, did you see the Daily Prophet this morning?"
She pushed a newspaper off the table, it landed at Tom's feet. As he picked it up, he saw the article posted under the one entitled He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has returned. The article Duchess was most likely talking about was the one entitiled Dolores Umbridge to be removed from Hogwarts.
'With the unexpected return of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, Cornelius Fudge has been replaced as Minister for Magic by Rufus Scrimegeour. Mr. Scrimegour's first act has been to reinstate Albus Dumbeldore as headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In light of this, Dolores Jane Umbridge is to be removed from her post as headmistress of the school. She is to be kept under Ministry monitoring for the next few months as she is under suspiscion of wanting to consort with the Dark Lord for selfish gains.
"But this is good news" said Tom joyously. "Umbridge is being kicked out of Hogwarts at last and you're free!"
Duchess leapt down from the table and looked up at Tom, tears welling in her eyes.
"No, Tom. I'm not free. I never will be free of my mistress. She may not love me but she wants to take me around with her because it makes her look good to have a white cat. She's just gone to get a few supplies, but when she comes back, she'll be taking me away with her back to the Ministry."
"But...but can't you escape, run away, be free?"
"It wouldn't do any good" said Duchess. "She'd find me, use that terrible torture curse on me. She's done it to me so many times before. I have to go with her, Tom. I'm sorry."
"Duchess, I...you...I can't let you go like this" stammered Tom. "I mean, ever since I saw you I...I can't imagine life at Hogwarts without you!"
"Tom, you have a good life here at Hogwarts. You have friends who care about you, an owner who loves you, and Jerry. Jerry would do anything for you, Tom, I know he would. You don't need me here."
"Will I ever see you again?" asked Tom.
"I don't know" whispered Duchess in reply. From outside there came the sound of footsteps, the door opened to reveal Umbridge with a suitcase.
"Duchess!" she barked. "Get away from that filthy animal and come here this instant. We're leaving."
Duchess trotted over to her owner and leapt up on to her shoulders. With one last disdainful look at Tom, Umbridge turned and waddled away down the corridor. Tom dared not follow her, but he stood in the doorway of the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, never taking his eyes off Duchess.
"Goodbye, Tom" mewed Duchess. "I'll miss you!" she added as Umbridge rounded the corner and was gone from sight.
"Goodbye" whispered Tom in a voice choked with tears.
And so ends the Order of the Phoenix story arc. More magical action and shocking happenings happening next in the one and only Half-Blood Prince related chapter. Coming soon to Fanfiction!