Hey everyone,

I wanted to say thank you for being honest in the reviews. I think the general consensus is that you all liked the chapters but it felt a bit ...rushed? Which is more than fair.

And I agree with you, they were a bit rushed, and I don't like that. So I am going to try and slow down and take more time on the chapters. More attention to detail. I think my lack of updates had become frustrating, mainly because I really really enjoy writing these stories, and also because I made a promise to you all and myself to stick to my schedule. So when I don't do that, it makes me angry at myself. With all of that being said, I think I'll start spending more of my free time writing, everyday after work. When I first started this journey, that is how I wrote. Now I sit down on my days off, Saturday and Sunday, and write a chapter a day for each of my stories. I haven't been ahead of schedule in a long time, I'd like to get back to that.

Now ...enjoy the latest chapter, and remember there is an authors note at the bottom.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

"They have Percy."

Of all of the people for Harry to say, I didn't expect it to be my estranged brother that turned out not to be estranged, just a spy for Dumbledore.

Sirius, Bill, Arthur, Molly, hell even Fleur would have been more expected. I thought as I processed the information.

"How?" I asked while turning my eyes to the person tied in the chair in front of me. Harry just stared at me with a look that was impossible to discern.

Umbridge fidgeted, her body writhing under my stare. Her arms moved behind her back, no doubt trying to wiggle out of the robes binding her. Her eyes looked around the room, anywhere besides my eyes.

She must have some competence. I thought as I noticed she wouldn't meet my eyes after I just got done forcing my way into her mind. She didn't answer my question.

My mind became clear as she continued her silence. I drew my wand slowly, slow enough for her eyes to lock onto the motion. With clear deliberate strokes in the air, I cast the most powerful privacy charm I knew. There weren't very many clues that the spell worked. But I felt my magic 'click' into place as the spell ran its course.

I turned back to look at the only door in the room. Sure enough, it wasn't there anymore. Instead, it looked like a blank stone wall spanned the length of the room.

I turned back with a smile on my face. Harry looked at the door with appreciation, Umbridge looked at it with horror. Hermione watched the interaction with a trembling lip.

"The illusion will hold until I say otherwise." I spoke to the other people in the room. "Which is good…" I continued as an ethereal blade extended from the end of my wand."...because we might be here for a while."

Umbridge's eyes widened as she saw the spell. "You wouldn't…" She mumbled, her eyes followed the blade as I let it fall to my side.

I ignored her. "Tell me, what's worse?" I asked with a raised eyebrow as I approached her. "The torture curse? Or feeling your arm get flayed right in front of your eyes?"

She didn't answer, she was too busy processing what I asked, while watching me reach for her arm.

I grabbed it roughly, with enough force to make her yelp in pain.

"Answer me!" I screamed at her as soon as I made contact.

"Letter! A Letter!" She screamed back at me hysterically, obviously believing that I would flay her alive.

Do I have it in me? My mind asked itself as I replied to her.

"What? A letter, what letter?" I asked more calmly, ignoring my mind.

"We found a letter he was planning to send to Dumbledore!" She said, still screaming.

A letter? I wondered, confused. Why would he be so reckless? Never leave a paper trail. I said as if he was in front of me.

"So? Why didn't you just fire him?" It was Harry that cut in this time, asking questions about the rest of the puzzle that I already pieced together.

"Because Fudge knows." I answered for him, looking back towards Umbridge for confirmation. "He knows that Voldemort is still alive."

She said nothing, a smile splitting across her face. "Of course we have known. It doesn't matter, the Dark Lord has promised us. Cornelius will be allowed to keep his post now that Dumbledore is away from the school."

Rage.

A white hot rage slowly started to spread from my core. A chair to my right caught flame and burned up faster than anything I had ever seen burn.

Hermione yelped behind me.

"You're telling me that the Minister of Magic is in contact with a man that has terrorised, raped, killed, and God knows what else to the very people he represents?!"

My voiced matched how I felt inside, angry didn't even begin to describe it. I just couldn't comprehend what I heard, it was outside the realm of possibility.

"Don't be so naive, boy." Umbridge answered me.

My body moved without me telling it to. I felt the crunch of the bones under my fist, before I registered what had happened.

I drew my hand back to see her nose, flattened against her face, pouring blood. Her shriek was the most satisfying part of the whole scenario.

I felt a hand on my shoulder before I could repeat my actions. I traced its source to find Harry's brilliant green eyes staring at mine.

"You might hurt Hermione."

I frowned at his remark, and the rage inside me subsided to a smolder, ready to be ignited into a roaring flame again. I looked around the room as I processed his words.

It was on fire.

Hermione cowered behind Harry, who had been busy protecting the two of them as my magic wreaked havoc around the classroom. Luckily the fire produced by my magic hadn't cause any smoke and we could still breathe.

Another shriek split the air.

"You won't get away with this!" Umbridge screamed at the top of her lungs, angry.

I smiled at the scene, finding it a little amusing to see blood dry up around her mouth and chin. She looked exactly as she deserved to. The scene gave me an idea.

I turned back to Hermione again. "It's your turn, Hermione." I told her, thinking she might want to get back at the woman who had tortured her.

Hermione's face turned from fear at me, to confusion, to recognition. It wasn't that much of a shock when she stepped forward with her wand in her hand. I moved to the side, to let her have some space as she got her revenge.

She raised her wand and looked Umbridge dead in the eye. Umbridge looked down the wand, fearfully, knowing just what it was that she did to the girl in front of her.

Merlin help the man who casts the torture curse on me, and doesn't kill me. My mind supplied as I took in the scene.

I expected Hermione to cast something, anything. Instead she stood there for a few moments, her wand started shaking.

Eventually it dawned on me that she didn't have it in her to hurt the woman in front of her, no matter how much she hated her. She's still naive.

Harry acted before I could and moved behind her. His hand reached out and grabbed her wand arm, turning her around and hugging her in one motion. She melted into him as he walked her backwards, out of the way.

I stepped up, in front of Umbridge. "Where is my brother?" I asked calmly.

She wants to lie. I realized as I sent a probe into her mind when her eyes met mine.

"We gave him to Lucius, that is the last I know of it."

Truth. I told myself as I sensed no lies in her mind.

The rage that sat in my stomach started to stir as I heard the words. "Whatever happens to him, will be nothing compared to what I will do to the rest of your family when I get out of he..urk…."

A thin line of red appeared on her neck.

What? I asked as I noticed my wand arm was outstretched. Time slowed as a single drop of blood dripped from the end of the ethereal blade extended from my wand.

My eyes were drawn back to Umbridge. Her eyes were unfocused as her head slid to the side. I noticed every detail, the red line wasn't just on the front of her throat, it ran around the entire surface of her neck. I couldn't see the back of her neck but I knew that the line would be present there also.

Time sped back up in to real time as her head detached from her body and rolled down her torso, to her lap, and finally the floor.

'Thud.'

My mind registered the sound as her head impacted the floor. The fire inside my body turned to ice as I realized what had just happened. The world came back into clarity, sounds reached my ear.

"Fucking hell, Ron!" Harry exclaimed behind me as he held onto Hermione.

Fuck.

I turned around to see that he hadn't let Hermione see what just happened. He had his hand on the back of her head, pushing her into his neck.

"I know." I answered him as my eyes locked onto a seat next to me that hadn't been touched by my fire, I sat down. My head fell into my hands immediately. "I know."

"What happened?" I heard Hermione mumble into his neck.

"Nothing. Do not look up." Harry said in a stern but soft voice.

I looked to the duo to find Harry staring right at me. I shook my head as I tried to find words. They never came.

Because I have nothing to say, nor do I wish I could take it back. My brain kicked back into gear at the realization.

"Get her out of here, I'll handle this." I told him. "Do you have the cloak?"

"I always have the cloak." Harry responded quickly.

I nodded to him. "Good. Meet me at Hagrid's when you're done, we have shit to do."

He didn't verbally respond, instead his body melted into thin air as he draped the cloak over their heads.

Blood ran in a line towards my shoe from the head sitting on the ground not five feet away. The door closed and the illusion slid back into place. The back of my mind realized that I never dropped the ward, and Harry had just walked straight through it when he shouldn't have remembered the entrance location.

The Cloak. I realized.

I steeled myself for what came next. My wand rose into the air and I concentrated on the effects I wanted to instill in the world. A flick of the wrist, combined with the will to make it happen and a green flame appeared in the world. It latched onto Umbridge's body, head, and pooling blood on the floor.

It didn't take long, as the book said it wouldn't. I stood there silently as green light reflected off of my skin. Soon enough I was left with a pile of ashes.

Another flick of my wand and the chair nearest to me split, with one end turning into an Urn, and the other into a cap for the urn. I considered gathering the ashes with my hands, as a type of atonement for the murder, but instead I decided to do it magically.

Soon enough I was left with an urn full of ashes, and a room missing some chairs. My hand rose again and all of the furniture in the room repaired and rearranged itself to how it would have been before all of the shenanigans of the night.

I took a deep breath before walking out the door.

"What did he show you?" I asked Harry almost as soon as he walked into Hagrid's hut.

He seemed taken aback by the question, no doubt he wanted to ask his own questions about Umbridge.

"Percy, hovering in the air, spread eagle, screaming." Harry summed up shortly. "Then an image of the Department of Mysteries sign."

I panicked. What if it was a fake image and I just killed Umbridge for no reason? No she admitted to giving him to Lucius.

"It was real, wasn't it?" I deduced.

"Yea, I can tell what is and isn't real now, and he knows that. He knows that I wouldn't take the bait unless it was." Harry answered me.

My response was to let my head fall into my hands. "Fuck. We've got to let the Order know."

"Why there? Why does he want me there?" Harry asked out loud, not to anyone in particular.

I didn't say anything at first, battling with myself on whether or not to tell him. I made the decision.

Fuck it, his Occlumency is good enough. My mind told itself. It has been for a long time. It's time he knows the truth.

"There is a prophecy." I answered him. "Held in the Hall of Prophecies. It has two names on it, want to guess whose names those are?"

His head snapped to mine when I answered him, then his eyes grew colder as I continued talking. "Mine and Tom's." He stated in the air.

"It's why dad was attacked down there. The Order is trying to stop Tom from hearing the whole prophecy."

He frowned then. "Why not destroy it?"

I shrugged, not knowing the answer. "Only thing I can think of is that they want Tom to reveal himself to the public. Only those whose names are on the prophecy can hear it, no one else. Although I know for a fact that Dumbledore knows the entire thing."

Harry's eyes spoke of understanding, but I could tell he had a million questions going through his head. "He thinks that you will charge after your brother, and I that I will follow? So when Umbridge handed Percy over, she gave him the perfect bait." Harry realized.

I nodded, already coming to the conclusion. "Yea, and he's right. We're just gonna have about a dozen trained wizards at our back. Hopefully Dumbledore too."

"Sirius doesn't know where he is, hasn't seen him in a while." Harry shot that down pretty quick. "How will you contact him?"

I smiled, happy I got to use my favorite line. "Magic."

I laughed as Harry rolled his eyes. "Once this is all done, we're going to have a talk. And you'll finally tell me everything." Harry told me, staring at me.

I met his eyes and nodded.

"Of course. Now let's go."

'CRACK'

The world came into focus with a twist as I folded space according to my will. Harry stumbled and let go of my arm. He shook his head.

"Always unpleasant." He commented as he walked forward and opened the door to 12 Grimmauld Place.

I followed him and felt the wards shift around my presence, it purred as it rubbed against my own skin and magic.

I almost missed a step as I felt the wards. Well that was odd. I pondered and filed it away in the back of my memory. My magic sensing is getting better.

"Sirius!" Harry called out in the house as he moved to the family room and shot straight towards a cabinet I knew would hold all sorts of alcohol. He opened it and found three glasses which he set on the table in front of me.

I could hear Sirius' heavy footfalls on the stairs as Harry finished pouring the last glass. Someone else is coming from the kitchen.

"Are you old enough for that?" Tonks' voice called out from the door that would lead to the kitchen.

"I know for a fact that they aren't." Remus answered her as he stepped into the room. "And they should be in school right about now, worrying about OWL's. Well ...one of them should be."

I ignored them and grabbed the glass, swirled it once, and downed the entire thing. It hit me immediately.

It sure does earn its name. I thought to myself in response to the feeling spreading through my body.

"Yes it does. Wotcher boys." Tonks greeted.

"Said that out loud did I?" I asked the room.

"Yes you did. I should have never shown you two my stash." Sirius called out from the stairs. "Now what are you two doing here?"

"We have had an eventful night." Harry began.

I raised my hand to him, before he could reveal anything that may or may not have happened. "Let's leave that part out yeah?"

"Of course I was going to. Now they'll just be suspicious!" Harry replied with a tone that would make someone think that I was a child.

"Just making sure." I said, reassured that he wouldn't say anything.

"Oh yea, I'm going to get whatever that was out of you." Sirius said as he plopped down beside me on the couch.

"Not tonight you're not." I responded. "They have Percy."

Silence. The type that only happens when you find out that your spy has been found out and captured.

"Bloody hell." Tonks was the first to speak.

"He's in the Department of Mysteries." I dropped the next bomb on them.

"Of course he is." Sirius groaned at the information.

"How did you come across this information?" Remus asked me from his place at the doorway.

Harry stood up from his chair before he responded. "Tom sent me a vision, a real one." The last part Harry said to Sirius directly, leading me to believe he had been confiding in Sirius about his nightmares and the 'link'.

"Wait, what?" Tonks asked walking over to sit down next to me. Hair a brilliant shade of red.

"Harry and Voldy have a ...connection. Left over from the night he earned his name as the boy-who-lived." I answered her.

"He's been torturing me with images, memories, nightmares since his resurrection the night of the final task of the Triwizard Tournament." Harry picked up and finished. "I've become fairly skilled at occlumency since then, and have learned to block out anything unless he really really wants me to see something. I've also learned how to differentiate between real and fake images."

"And he sent you one of Percy?" Tonks asked. "Could you be wrong about it being real?"

"No, we have confirmation." I answered her again.

"How?" It was Remus that asked this time.

Neither Harry or I answered. Both of us just stared at Remus, unflinching and unanswering.

"What did you two do?" Sirius asked from his place beside me.

Once again, we were silent. Except this time, Harry's eyes swirled around to land on me, I met his gaze the same way I met everyone else's, unflinching. Somehow, everyone else in the room took that as a sign of guilt, for me only.

Remus walked closer to me and kneeled in front of me, in response to our little stare off. I didn't look at him, preoccupied with Harry.

Why don't you just tell them then, you traitor. I thought to myself about Harry. That's not fair, he just witnessed me cut a woman's head off. Worst part is that I involved him and Hermione. Now they are both accessories to murder.

"Ron." Remus said while putting his hand on my shoulder, still I kept Harry's gaze. "What happened? How do you know?"

I stood up and finally broke the eye contact. I walked over to the fireplace and leaned against the mantle, facing away from everyone else.

"My brother is captured. Best case, dead. Worst case ...crucio." I responded, letting everyone know that the other part of the conversation was done and they wouldn't get anything out of me. It said a lot about the torture curse that I put it as the worst case, and him being dead as the best case. No one corrected me either, we all agree about that little fact.

"We all know it's the worst case." I continued. "So I intend to retrieve him tonight. I'm here to ask for help, not for myself but for Harry. Because whether any of us like it or not, he's coming with me."

I finally revealed why we were there at the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix. Harry just grunted a little 'mmmhmmm' as confirmation. As angry as he was at me for killing Umbridge, he wouldn't leave me by myself.

"No." Remus spoke up after we dropped the bomb.

That rage inside me popped up again. I grabbed a hold of it with both hands and clamped down on it with my occlumency.

Don't let your rage control you. Use it as fuel, direct it to the right places. I reminded myself.

"No?" I asked, knowing everyone must have looked at him crazy when he said that. Or maybe they think I am the crazy one.

"Yes, no. Percy knew what he was risking when he approached us with the idea." Remus answered me. "We won't risk you two over him."

Part of my ego swelled when he said 'you two'. They think they know my worth.

"I'm sorry." I responded by turning back to the room and drawing my wand. "I wasn't asking you if I could go, I was asking if you would like to use the opportunity to eliminate some of Tom's Death Eaters."

Everyone's eyes dropped to the wand in my hand.

Tonks eyes shifted and immediately I could tell that she was in Auror mode, I prepared myself for her to move.

"Enough." Harry spoke up before the room could erupt into spellfire. His wand slipped into his hand as he chose sides. "We are going, Tom won't stop until he gets the prophecy, we have no choice but to spring the trap."

The room stopped and my eyes moved from Tonks to Remus. The wolf is strong in this one. I thought to myself at the primal look in his eyes.

They have seen war. I realized as I took in my opponents, three veterans of magical warfare. Luckily the situation defused when Sirius decided to cut in.

"At least give us enough time to call the others."

A/N: Ha! You thought you were getting the battle this chapter. To be honest I did too, but I felt like the last few chapters have been a little fast and I have missed some good scenes that I could put in.

Anyway. UMBRIDGE IS DEAD! Dude Ron cut her head off… What do we think about that? What will the effects be? Will anyone even care? What about Remus' refusal to save Percy? I think it makes sense, it's a risky move for sure. No one wants to see war again, and no one wants to send children into it.

Let's talk about it all in the reviews!