About a month into Umbridge's 'High Inquisitor' regime and two more 'Educational Decrees' that strip the professors of their power and authority and give it to the Inquisitor, everyone's sitting in the Great Hall for breakfast and the usual Owl Post comes in - with Peeves cackling up above the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables, looking to make some mischief as usual. Right up until he goes perfectly still, the usual mischievous expression falling right off his face as he says "Uh-oh…"
That, right there, gets a lot of people whispering worriedly.
He looks down at the Gryffindor table for a minute and goes pale, then yells at the top of his lungs "WASN'T I WHO HURT THE BELOVED BIRD! SOUND THE FIRE ALARM! POTTER'S PRECIOUS PET WAS TAMPERED WITH!" He then disappears at once, looking more panicked and scared than anyone in the castle can remember him ever being - including the ghosts.
Leaving behind a dead-quiet Hall, with Bloom frantically scanning the Owls coming in for the snowy owl she's gotten to know better than most people know themselves.
Draco looks away from the Owls long enough to see Umbridge looking particularly smug - and most of the teachers subtly moving away from her, making a hole big enough that a troll could walk through it and only step on the pink-wearing witch.
His attention snaps over to the Gryffindor table at Bloom's scream of "HEDWIG!" He quickly spots the Snowy Owl, and quickly transfigures his napkin into a pair of binoculars to see her bet- fuck. Bloody fuck!
He immediately sees why Bloom screamed like that, even as she jumps up in a magically-boosted jump to catch her first-ever friend and present - Hedwig's hurt. He could see red - probably her own blood - coating a patch of feathers on one side of her body under her wing, and that she was more falling than flying.
The date suddenly flashes through his head - Halloween. He's starting to share Bloom's hatred of the day - every single year, something bad happens on Halloween.
Troll in year one.
The writing on the wall in year two, and Bloom subsequently being thought of as the Heir to Slytherin.
Year three, Sirius got into the school - yeah, he wasn't trying to kill Bloom, but still.
Year four, the Goblet of Fire chose Bloom as a fourth champion.
There's a loud clattering as Ron and Neville clear away a patch of the Gryffindor table for Bloom to set Hedwig down on, and the whispering comes back full force as everything starts rattling. Every plate, piece of silverware, goblet, and even the tables themselves starts rattling like the Hogwarts express is passing by right next to them.
More and more people start trying to see how Hedwig's doing, craning their necks to see over the gathered crowd of Gryffindors and a few lucky Ravenclaws…especially as the rattling gets stronger by the moment.
A lot of the First-Years are starting to look pretty scared - and for good reason, they've seen Bloom demonstrate a spell enough times in their meetings - and the Weasley Twins thankfully take over. They make their way out of the crowd and get to a few Prefects - within a minute, the Fourth-Years and below are getting quickly herded out by Prefects from multiple Houses.
Draco makes his way over, having a much easier time now that half the student population is out of the way of the inevitable fallout of this, and sees Bloom's gently lifting Hedwig's wing with one hand and pressing the other to Hedwig's side. And, she's glowing orange for anyone to notice - secrecy be damned, then. Hedwig suddenly squawks, and a line of discarded goblets explodes one after another. Even so, Bloom's being as gentle as she can with Hedwig - despite the pure fury written all over her face and in her body language.
Luckily, when Bloom transfigures the oatmeal into a bowl of water and grabs a napkin, the blood washes off easily and doesn't reappear. And then Draco notices people parting behind them, and Ron groans quietly and mutters "She has a death wish…"
The whispers of 'Is Hedwig alright?' and 'Please calm down, Potter. Your scaring everyone.' suddenly die, replaced by a hushed anticipation…and then there's a familiar - and dreaded - "Hem hem."
Exactly like every other person in the Hall knew would happen, Bloom whirls around furiously - exactly like Draco knew would happen, she catches fire. Making almost everyone gasp and back away as she rages "You bloody bitch! You were too scared to try anything against me unless I got you furious first, so you went after the people I care about! When that backfired on you, you went after Hedwig!"
The students silently back up to the wall, a few Transfiguring popcorn from their breakfast to eat as they watch the events unfold - everyone with half a brain knew something like this was coming, after all.
Snape watches in a bit of morbid fascination - Umbridge basically dug her own grave, and now she's going to lie in it. Quite literally, as it happens.
Bloom's hair is floating above her head, and he already knows Dumbledore's not going to get her calmed down any time soon.
Umbridge sends a spell of some sort at her wordlessly while backing away - Potter simply bats it away with one hand while advancing on the idiotic woman. She doesn't even look back as the wall gets a new hole in it, just repeats the action to deflect two Stunners and a Bombarda.
She catches the fireball sent her way, and extinguishes it by closing her fist around it, saying "Cute. My turn." A wave of her hand sends Umbridge flying and the table behind the woman clattering. The veritable meteor that explodes out of her wand barely gets dodged and puts a hole through the wall.
Umbridge tries to send another Curse at Bloom, but the explosive ball of fiery magic that comes from her wand pops it and keeps going. And then Potter holds her hand up to Umbridge's level…and swings it to the side. Umbridge's body follows the motion like she's a ragdoll that got thrown.
Dumbledore apparently decides to not even try talking the furious red-head down…and sends a Stunner her way. Which goes right over her head as she drops into a roll, then comes up glaring bloody murder at Dumbledore. She almost causally flicks her wand in Umbridge's direction, sending another explosive fireball the woman's way, as she growls out "Stay out of this, Dumbledore. This is between me and the Tyrannical Toad-bitch."
A few teachers have to try very hard not to laugh at that, even as Umbridge sputters in rage and tries to Hex Bloom. Tries and fails, that is - Bloom simply tilts her head and lets it go past her. From the hole in the wall it makes, it was a Bludgeoning Hex.
Bloom then magically picks Umbridge up, and everybody swears Bloom's about to kill her in some way as Bloom looks like she's simply fed up with the woman…when Hedwig suddenly lets out a cry.
Bloom's head snaps over as instantly as if Hedwig had just called her name, so she's got a perfect view of Hedwig bursting into magical flames. Bloom quickly vaults over the one table between her and Hedwig, throwing Umbridge to the side like she no longer cares about the woman, and gets there just in time for her beloved bird…to turn to ashes. Before she can do much more than let out a strangled sob, though, there's a high-pitched chirping noise.
Bloom scoops up the large pile of ashes in her hands, and blows them away gently to reveal a tiny chick of a bird, with a few orange feathers edged with white already grown. As the baby bird chirps and coos, the flames dancing along Bloom's body die and her hair drops back where its supposed to be at her back. Her eyes don't quite turn back to blue from the on-fire orange they were, though.
Draco makes his way over, and quietly says "She turned into a Phoenix. The last time this supposedly happened…it was Merlin himself." He runs a finger along Hedwig's head, trying to process the information that Bloom's at least as powerful as the person the entire Wizarding World swears by - he knew it, but knowing it and seeing some of the results of it are two very different things.
Professors McGonagall, Flitwick, Sprout, and Snape start piecing the Hall back together - this is honestly not the first time a battle tore it apart, though its easily the most destructive case, and only from one side! - while Dumbledore starts making his way through the debris that used to be the Hufflepuff table. He doesn't even get halfway there - as he was going to reprimand Bloom for the violent display of her temper, and putting her classmates in danger as well as attacking a teacher - when she gets herded out by several students while cradling her new-born Phoenix Chick to her protectively.
Umbridge stands up, cradling her own arm to her torso and demanding why nobody helped her with that 'insolent lying brat Potter' - Professors Snape smirks, while Professor McGonagall and Flitwick share a look, and McGonagall says "We would've, High Inquisitor, but we weren't sure we had the authority. After all, you override us in matters of, well, everything."
Umbridge sputters in rage, and goes to her office to firecall Fudge. And then eventually brings herself down to the Hospital Wing…where she gets diagnosed with quite the array of injuries. Cracked ribs, a hair-line fracture in her skull, a very broken arm, and a few dozen magically-inflicted burns all over her body. Which comes to nobody's surprise.
Unfortunately, Madam Pomfrey can't heal magically-inflicted injuries as quickly - or painlessly - as non-magical ones. So, she's in the Hospital Wing for the rest of the day at least.
Bummer!
When McGonagall tries to get Bloom - because Dumbledore wants to talk to her - she's informed that Bloom's out cold on her bed. With Hedwig currently sleeping curled up on her abdomen, one of Bloom's hands cupped around her protectively. McGonagall wants to let the red-head sleep, but Dumbledore insists on talking to her so she tries to wake her.
Just like with the Diary three years ago, no amount of 'Rennervate!' will wake her up.
They couldn't get Bloom's jaw open back then to dump a Reviving Potion down her throat, and McGonagall seriously doubts it would work anyway - then or now, as Bloom's completely out of it. Good thing they canceled classes anyway, as Umbridge is in no shape to teach anything.
Dumbledore leaves severely disappointed, as he wanted to make sure Bloom understood that she's not allowed to simply attack teachers - but, when nobody can wake Bloom, even he has to admit defeat on the matter.
Daphne's breath would catch in her throat if she still breathed - as it is, she's just gotten the biggest shock of her incorporeal existence.
Bloom's alive. Her baby sister is alive!
And knows how to use her magic, seeing as she felt it all the way from the magic-less planet - Earth - she sent the toddler to so she'd live.
Once Daphne gets over her elation, she starts wondering exactly what kind of life her baby sister has led - because Earth is a very long way away from Magix, and she felt the surge of magic clear as if she were in Alfea. To be perfectly honest, it hit her like a bag of bricks. A large bag, full of very dense, heavy, magically-compressed bricks.
Well, at the very least, I know Bloom's connection with her magic is strong. Though, I can only hope it isn't too strong. If it were…
If Bloom's connection to the Dragon Flame is too strong, it could well be the end of all of Magix City - while Bloom's physically at Alfea.
The very next morning, there's no Daily Prophet - just a lot of notes saying the printing machine that makes the newspaper broke down and they're still fixing it. Only Bloom seems to have any idea about why there's no Daily Prophet today - but the Quibbler is certainly very amusing.
For one…it printed a story of how Umbridge attacked Hedwig.
For another, there's an interview with Amelia Bones a few pages in, about concerns about Umbridge's behavior and what's being done to investigate her.
Umbridge promptly bans the Quibbler from Hogwarts, students promptly learn concealment Charms that same afternoon.
AN: Hey, everyone! As promised, Hedwig is a Phoenix! I hope everyone enjoyed me having Bloom beat Umbridge to a pulp - I know I sure did. To clear up any questions, yes, Hedwig has the miraculous ability to calm Bloom down - even moreso now that she's a Phoenix and has the whole Phoenix song going for her. In short, Umbridge technically owes a life debt to Hedwig. How hilarious is that?! I, for one, thought it was absolutely hysterical.
Enjoy! Please review! More chapters on the way!