CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

ZIA

I was so tempted to call on Ra and blast her into the Duat.

The woman was irritating, rude and downright obnoxious, and on top of that, she had no respect for human rights. Bad enough she tortured students with blood quills. Bad enough she found a way to make clubs illegal again (an amend saying that clubs could be no larger than four people). But this really was the final straw.

We all sat in the Great Hall, doing our O. while she sat in a chair overseeing us like she was a goddess or something. I really wished Isis, or Hera, or some queen goddess would strike her down where she sat. To make matters even worse, a few of the students who had behaved 'badly' over the year were rewarded with doing their exams with a blood quill. Me, Carter, Percy and pretty much everyone who was a part of Dumbledore's Army was a part of that group. I wanted to pull a dagger, go up there, and gut her where she stood.

Thankfully, the Weasley twins struck before I could do anything rash.

We were in the middle of our exams, the sounds of quills scratching against parchment nearly driving me insane with the silence, and in pain from the words that were being dug into my hand. Occasionally 'bad' students would sent Umbridge agony-filled looks of silent pleas, only to be met by her self-important, sugary, sickening, arrogant smirk from her perch on her throne. The room was dull so her bright pink clothes only seemed to make her irritating demeanor even more irritating, if that made any sense whatsoever.

I threw a glance as Carter that said: I am going to attack. You distract her and I'll brain her, when a low thud hit the outside of the doors of the Great Hall. Umbridge frowned from her throne and ignored it a few seconds, until the thudding became louder and more obvious. Her frown deepened as she got up and walked dutifully to the large double doors. She threw them open and took a few steps outside of the Great Hall, looking for whatever made the noise. Her 'vigilance' wasn't disappointed.

A solitary ball of sparks flew out in front of her, hovering in front of her face for a moment before whizzing into the Great Hall and blowing up with a loud pop! and sending sparks raining down. She took a few more steps out into the corridor as tense quiet hung in the air, looking for the perpetrator, a.k.a, pranker. A low whistling sound started from one of the corridors on the left, and she leaned closer to hear . . .

And then jumped back in surprise as two redheads on brooms came barreling through the doors, throwing papers from their sleeves and tossing fireworks into the air. Fred and George laughed as they flew around the room, creating chaos and lighting the place up with a thousand flashes of different colors. Fireworks rained down, hovering in front of student's faces before flying away and exploding like the first firework. Several of the fireworks, by chance, I'm sure, happened to chase a few of the Slytherins around.

One cornered Malfoy into a wall, and left an impression of his terrified face on the wall as he dodged the sparks. Another flew into Crabbe's face and then chased Goyle and stung his rear, which made him yelp rather girlishly. A few other kids that were a part of the Inquisitorial Squad were targeted and sent running around the room in blind panic. A firework flew in front of my face and exploded into the symbol of Ra, leaving my eyebrows singed. I aimed a glare at the twins, who didn't seem to care too much.

Fred and George stopped, hovering in the air at the front of the Great Hall. Fred - or was it George? - yelled, "Ready when you are!"

George - it could have been Fred, no one would ever know - gave a thumps up, and Fred - I was sure it was Fred - threw a dark red firework behind him. They both flew off to the side, Cheshire grins stretching across their faces.

This is going to be the grand finale, I though.

The firework morphed into the head of a dragon, sharp teeth and an open jaw aiming straight for one person: Toady.

I saw Leo concentrating, with his hand held out toward the dragon. The fire mutated again, and the dragon head grew a large body. It bounded over the Great Hall, smoke and fire flying off its sides and into the air. Umbridge, who had taken several steps back inside the Great Hall, tried to run out, but her pink high heels and her copious weight gave her a hard time. She nearly tripped several times, before reaching the doors. The dragon ran behind her, its large open jaw grinning as it clamped its teeth around her.

The dragon exploded into sparks and smoke, dissipating into the air. The sound of glass shattering rang through the castle, and all of the Educational Decree papers fell from their frames, lighting on fire and torn to shreds. Then the frames fell, clattering the ground and landing around Umbridge. By some divine miracle she wasn't hit in the head and didn't die. Smoke filled the air and glass skittered across the floor, bring an end to the best prank of the century.

Fred and George raced out of the Great Hall, buzzing low over Umbridge's head and making her dunk and shriek loudly. The rest of the students, including me, Carter and the rest of us magicians and demigods, ran after them, crunching over the glass, paper and Educational Decree frames and cheering wildly. We ran all the way out into the courtyard, clapping and yelling after the Weasleys with huge grins plastered to our faces.

A large 'W' appeared in the sky, made up of red and gold sparks. "Announcing the grand opening of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes!" Fred and George's voices yelled over the students.

That brought another round of cheers of joy.

In the turmoil, I had somehow ended up standing next to Ivan Aiden, the later looking good for a dead person. He grinned. "Great. Fred and George upstaged us."

Ivan sighed dramatically. "What are we going to do, brother-mine?"

"We'll think of something." They said, a smile spreading across their faces that was somewhat scary. It reminded me a bit of one of those vampires, right before they came in for the kill.

Good thing we were only going to Hogwarts that one year.

Umbridge stood, smoldering in more than one way. Her hair was singed, and several burning embers glowed on her head. Her pink clothes were blackened with soot. All in all, Toady looked murderous. Her beady eyes glared at us with so much hatred, I was sure she was going to try and kill us where we stood. Instead, she snapped something at Filch, who backed away and looked a little hurt. He slunk away like a beaten puppy and grabbed Ivan and Aiden by their collars and hauled them away.

Uh oh. I glanced around for Carter and met his eyes. I motioned with my head to Filch, who was still struggling to drag Ivan and Aiden out. I was certain Hades was going to wash their mouths out sometime with soap if they kept up with their language. That's when I noticed several people from Dumbledore's Army were already missing. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Percy weren't in the courtyard anymore. I gave Carter a questioning look, but she shrugged and shook his head in an I have no idea type of way.

"Hem hem!"

I ground my teeth loudly, swung around and snapped, "what do you want now?"

"If you would follow me, please?" She said in her sugary hatred-laced simper. She really left no room for argument. "You too, Mr. Kane."

Carter glared at her, and for a second I thought Horus was going to make an appearance and challenge her to a fight to the death. That was something I would have paid money to see. Instead he said, "fine," shooting out the word with equal amount of poison that she spoke with.

We followed Umbridge and Filch, who refused to let go of Ivan and Aiden's collars. He wouldn't budge, even after they promised him they would give him the secret to how they pranked and never got caught, which was a lie because that would be exposing the fact Snape was an illegal animagus, which would expose them as illegal animagus. The code rule of Slytherins was self-preservation, though, and they weren't above lying to get their way. Umbridge kept shooting them weird looks, somewhere between hatred (expected), disgust (also expected), and pity (totally unexpected).

Beth - or was it Bianca now? - followed from where Umbridge had ambushed her in the corridors. She no longer looked shy, and she had gotten her hair out of her face, and her eyes seemed to glow with more life and warmth. She was permanently at Nico's side - or maybe it was the opposite. Nico never wanted to let her out of his sight again, in case something happened where she died. Bianca, and everyone else, knew that Nico would never trust anyone with her ever again. Not ever the goddess Artemis. The goddess had, after all, failed Nico once.

Grudges were the fatal flaw of children of Hades. I wondered what grudges the twins harbored. Just because they made themselves constantly happy didn't mean they didn't have people they hated irrationally.

Carter frowned at Umbridge, so I guessed he picked up the same emotions coming off her as I had. Then she started ranting, which only confused me and made me hate her even more. "Look at all you," she cried. "You filthy filthy half-breeds and mudbloods!"

Carter scowled. "Careful, Toady. You might be sounding a little like Voldemort."

"Don't say the Dark Lord's name," she hissed furiously, her short fat legs carrying her the rest of the way to her pink office door. "You lessers have no right to!"

A jolt ran through my stomach. "You . . . you're for him?" I gasped. "I knew you were evil, but you're for Voldemort?"

Ivan gave a laugh from where he was being dragged. "Seriously, you didn't figure that out sooner? And you call yourself a Ravenclaw?"

"She only carved stuff into our hands about our 'superiors'," Aiden chipped. "Not too obvious."

"Shut up!" Umbridge shrieked. "You two . . . you turned down a place at the Dark Lord's right hand! You rebuffed him even after being Marked!"

Marked? I mouthed at Carter, who shook his head wildly.

Don't ask, he mouthed back.

"Yeah, like he was going to -"

"Actually let us ever become -"

"His equal," they finished in unison, and continued, "We were competition. He would have killed us sooner or later."

Bianca laughed, "how do you two do that?"

"Brotherly instinct," they said. "It's one of the greater things about us."

"Shush!" Umbridge border-line screeched. She opened the door to her office, and we were greeted by Hermione, Harry, Ron, Percy, and Jason already there. Nico stood in a corner, partially hidden by the shadows. Umbridge, in her anger, seemed to have forgotten about what Nico did to her a while back with the skeletons. I wondered if he would remind her . . .

"What is your Dumbledore's Army thing really doing?" Umbridge demanded, leveling her wand in Carter's face. "What are you and Dumbledore planning? To take over the Ministry? Is that what it is? Tell me!"

"If you would shut up," Percy grumbled, louder than he probably intended, "he could get a word edge-wise."

Her face reddened and she turned her want to Percy. She grabber by his collar and threw him into a chair, where he gaped at her. "Looks like the real toad is coming out of the Pink Toad, huh guys?"

I agreed with him, along with everyone else. Umbridge's face turned even redder, becoming an interesting purple hue. "Careful," Percy taunted. "If you turn anymore colors you'll be more blue and purple than pink."

Umbridge let out a screech of fury. "Filthy half-blood! I'll show you who is in charge! Cruci -"

The door banged open, and Snape strode in with a flurry of his bat wing-like cloak. Umbridge straightened herself from where she was about to cast the torture curse on Percy and pulled her pink cardigan down. "Professor Snape. You have the Veriteserum, I presume?"

Hermione gasped, "that's illegal! The Ministry oversees all Veriteserum -"

"I am the Ministry!" Umbridge shrieked at Hermione, her purple rage coloring her face again. She turned back to Snape, breathing heavily. "The Veriteserum?"

"I'm afraid there is none left," Snape drawled in a lazy tone. Then he lifted a patronizing eyebrow and let out the passing comment of, "You used it all on Miss Chang," as he swept out, slamming the door behind him.

I felt like the air had been blown by stomach. Cho had been given a truth serum? She hadn't willingly snitched on the DA? I could see the surprise flitting across the features of Harry, Ron and Hermione as well. Percy, Jason and Nico looked a little confused. I wondered if they even knew what Veriteserum was. I caught Nico's eyes and mouthed, truth serum. His eyes widened and he nudged Jason, muttering the same message to him. Bianca looked furious as Ivan and Aiden.

"You used an illegal truth serum on a student?" Ivan growled. "You're just as bad as Voldemort! You enjoy -"

That's when he hit the ground screaming.

Bianca let out a shriek of horror, and I covered my mouth to muffle my gasp. We moved forward in unison to stop Umbridge, but she had already let up on the curse. Ivan stood shakily from the after-effects of the Cruciatus, wiping blood from his chin. "Bit my tongue," he mumbled in answer to our questioning looks.

Hermione seemed to be trying to force out words, but failed. Ron picked up for her, his face turning Gryffindor red. "You evil b -" Hermione swatted his arm, and he scowled. "Only was going to say 'bloody toad'."

"Right," I grumbled. I reached over and grabbed Carter's hand on impulse, which made him jump in surprise. He returned the sentiment, however, with a faint smile.

Umbridge aimed her wand at Harry next and hissed, "what is your little army planning? What are you doing?"

She raised her wand to cast the Cruciatus again, but a random spark of inspiration lit in me at that second. Maybe it was the blessing of the Weasley twins, gods know it was desperate, but it was something. "Wait!" I cried.

She stopped, and turned to me, her face thunderous. "You have something to say?"

"I-in the Forbidden Forest," I said. "There's a secret weapon. Dumbledore planned on using it to take over the Ministry!"

"Where in the Forbidden Forest?" Hook, line and sinker, I thought triumphantly. "Take me there!"

"Zia," Carter snapped, "what are you doing?"

Did anyone ever tell you that you could be a great actor? I shot at him in a glance. "Would you rather be crucio-ed?"

Ron, who apparently was as dim-witted as he let everyone think, caught on. "Bloody Ravenclaw! Ratting us out like a Slytherin!"

I hung my head in 'shame' and walked hesitantly out the door. "We have to. P-Professor. This way."

The Forbidden Forest was dark, and gloomy. Mist hung around on the ground as Hermione took over, because I had 'forgotten' where the secret weapon was. She was leading us through the forest as if she knew exactly she was going, and I had no idea where it was leading to. Tall trees rose up around us, and the thick canopy was almost obscured in the heavy mist. It was very creepy, but even the Forbidden Forest couldn't take away the warm and fuzzy feeling of watching Umbridge stumble around in fear.

"This is hilarious," Percy mumbled.

Bianca's eyes were dark. "I'll kill her for hurting my brother."

Nico gave her a smirk. "I distinctly remember someone by the name of Bianca di Angelo saying that holding grudges was deadly for children of Hades."

"It is?" the twins said at the same time.

Nico lost some of his enthusiasm. "It's a fatal flaw of most children of Hades. We hold bitter, hard grudges, and it's hard to let go of them." He glanced at Percy, and I remember that Percy had 'failed' to keep Bianca safe during her first quest.

"Nico," Bianca sighed. "It wasn't Percy's fault."

Ivan and Aiden had become very quiet. "Grudges, you say? Never really thought about," Aiden finally said. "But I really want to get back at our aunt and uncle."

"And Draco Malfoy for making life suck."

"And Fudge for never trusting us and throwing us in Azkaban."

My eyebrows lifted at that - I didn't know they had been in Azkaban. Carter was clearly surprised as well. It seemed like we were permanently surprised lately.

"And the Ministry for hating us."

"And -"

"You have to just forget it," Nico said soothingly. Their voices had become increasingly bitter.

I glanced at Carter. Bipolar much?

No kidding. He shot back.

"How much farther?" Umbridge panted as we wove between large tree roots. She kept her wand trained on us the entire time, her panic and anger showing clear as day.

"Not much far," Hermione replied. "It had to be somewhere out of the way so students wouldn't find it accidentally."

"What are you doing?" Harry asked.

"Improvising," Hermione whispered back.

Great. So she didn't have an elaborate plan. Percy and Jason looked as crestfallen as I did, but then Percy perked up. "Well," he whispered, "some of my best survival plans are improvised."

Hermione stopped in a small opening in the trees. There was a broken rope that laid on the ground, tied to a tree. A small stash of broken toys were piled up against the tree, and the area had a rather unpleasant odor. Hermione chewed her lip nervously, looking around. She looked really distressed, and a bit guilty. Clearly something was supposed to be here. One of Hagrid's large pet monsters? Gods of Egypt only knew.

"Where is this weapon?" Umbridge demanded in a harsh whisper. There was tell-tell silence for a few seconds, and the trick dawned on her. "There is no weapon, is there?"

No, idiot, Percy glared her boldly.

She leveled her wand at us again. "You were trying to trick me."

You don't say, I thought.

"You know," she said, "I really hate children."

Leo snorted. "You can say that again."

A crack echoed through the forest. We wheeled around, expecting to see a large monster, but instead saw Bane and a group of other centaurs. Umbridge stumbled back behind us, raising her wand shakily. She pointed a finger at them and tried to speak in an authoritive voice, "You have no business here, centaur. This is a Ministry manner."

Aiden rolled his eyes. "Yeah. That's going to convince them. Let's wave paper in their faces and spout Educational Decrees while Umbrige crucios us. That will really make them leave."

"You're really confident," I muttered.

"Pride is supposed to be an Athena flaw," Nico agreed.

Ivan smirked. "We might or might not have the respect of the centaurs."

The centaurs advanced, pulling bows off their backs and nocking arrows threateningly. They still hadn't said anything. These centaurs seemed much rougher and wilder than Chiron, or his Party Pony relatives. They seemed . . . feral. One look at Percy's face said he was thinking the same thing. Their hair was wild and unkempt, and they weren't exactly . . . clean.

"Lower your weapons." Umbridge demanded in her annoying high-pitched voice. "I warned you! Under the law, as creatures of near-human intelligence -"

I winced. Not too tactful or diplomatic of Toady.

The centaur in front released the arrow, and it went flying at us. Umbridge waved her wand, and a weak shield flew up around us. "How dare you?" She gasped. "You filthy half-breeds! Incarcerous!"

A rope spun through the air and wrapped around the centaur's neck, cutting off his wind pipe and making it choke. He fell the ground, writhing and gasping in vain for air. Bianca and Hermione ran forward, and Percy followed, their eyes widened in horror. Hermione made a few attempts to free the centaur, but without her wand the ropes were too thick. Percy went for his pen as Hermione cried out, "please! Please, stop it, please!"

Umbridge smirked, happy watching the centaur's agony. "Now enough! I will have order!" She let out a sudden shriek a huge giant picked her up from behind. The giant looked like a really, big, really dirty toddler. "Don't touch me, you half-breeds! No, put me down!"

"Grawmp," Hermione murmured.

The centaurs - including the choking one, who had freed himself - flooded around the giant and Umbridge and the giant - Grawmp, I think his name was - put her down, reluctantly. The centaurs picked her up roughly and she shrieked, "Potter! Tell them I am no harm!"

Harry's face hardened, and he said stiffly, "I'm sorry, Professor, but I must not tell lies."

"What are you doing?" She screeched as the centaurs hauled her away over a hill. "I am Senior Undersecretary Dolores Jane Umbridge. Let - Me - Down!" Her shriek carried through the woods as the centaurs galloped away with her.

Leo let out a mock-sad sigh. "And so ends to reign of the Pink Toad."

I felt suddenly very, very tired. I gave Carter a weary look, which mirrored. Percy groaned. "I don't know about you, but I'm hungry."

Hermione sighed. "We just sent a Professor to her ultimate demise, and you're talking about your stomach."

"She was evil, Hermione," Harry justified.

"True, but . . ." I could tell Hermione was a bit disturbed by what had happened.

"Look on the bright side," Leo said. "They probably won't kill her. They'll ransom her for more land or something."

Hermione shrugged her shoulders, and we started the long, winding trek back to the castle.

A/N: Okay, so I'm pretty sure I just totally screwed up the chronology of the Order of Phoenix. Sorry. I like it this way better, though :D

So Umbridge met her demise, but with a special Nico di Angelo twist.

I have a few other stories planned out on my profile page, so if you guys want a certain fiction done, pick one! Of if you have any requests. (I am working on that Ranger's Apprentice one, btw. I haven't forgotten that request! Just give some time to read the books - I don't own any of them.) Someday I might write a sequel to this, but I would have to think out the plot line extensively before I did. I was a little scatter-brained with this one, since it was my first, and threw it all out there.

I was kind of tempted to make a few stories building up to this one with Ivan and Aiden. Like their time at Hogwarts, Azkaban, how they met Sirius and knew him, monster attacks on the school, the Tri-Wizard tournament (it was implied several times that Voldemort captured them!). What do you guys think? What to hear more from the twins?

Have any of you heard of Lindsey Stirling? Dubstep violinist ring a bell? I absolutely LOVE her new album, Shatter Me. Love it!

Remember to review! It's my writing-blood and inspiration to move. Seriously, without you guys I would never had made it this far. Until next time!