Chapter 32 – Go Your Own Way
It took all of the Rangers self control not to start throwing curses at Dolores Umbridge. The vile woman was spouting her usual rhetoric about maintaining the status quo and various other derogatory statements about muggleborns stealing their magic. The pink loving woman was sitting on a throne like chair looking down on Kat. The smug look on her face asking pitching a question towards the Australian was disgusting and disrespectful but somehow their friend was keeping her cool.
"She's a pretty good actress", Harry muttered to himself from the safety of his cloak. Unfortunately Umbridge wasn't alone in the room, she was flanked by two beefy looking security wizards probably newcomers to the Dark Lord's ranks.
"We're going to need to pick our opening", Hermione whispered, "I don't think Dean can maintain the illusion for much longer".
"I'm fine", the green ranger hissed, "I can keep this up for another couple of minutes at least". He took a couple of deep breathes, "It would help if those bloody things weren't hovering overhead". Dean was referring to a swarm of Dementors hovering overhead. They were being held in place with a rather weak looking cat Patronus.
"Alright here's the plan", Harry began, "I'll stun the two guards and you two drive those things out the back door over there".
The pair gave a subtle nod but before their could activate their plan, a paper airplane fluttered into the room. It stopped right in front of Umbridge and she grabbed it with her stubby fingers, "This better be important", she huffed, "I gave specific orders not to be disturbed". As he read the note, her face slowly fell and she glanced over the top of the piece of paper, "It's from Yaxley, apparently there's no Aurors by the name of Nicks and Buckingham".
"Funny we'd never heard of Yaxley until now", Dean snorted but he pulled out his wand and placed it behind his back.
"I think we've got a couple of frauds but why would they want to infiltrate my interrogation", Umbridge patted her chin, "unless they were here to assassinate me".
"It's very tempting but we're not here to kill you", Hermione nodded towards Dean and the pair fired off a stunning spell. They hit the two guards flanking Umbridge and their heads slumped against the desk. The yellow ranger then used some of her extra speed to run to the main door and quickly barricaded them in.
"How did you do that?" Umbridge was on her feet, "no magic can make you move that quickly".
"Maybe I stole it, that's what the leaflets state", Hermione smirked and her appearance slowly morphed back to normal.
Instead of being scared, Umbridge actually rubbed her hands together gleefully, "Oh this is excellent, we can add impersonating Aurors and invading the Ministry to your list of charges". She then looked at Kat, "Now what part do you have to play in this?"
"You leave her alone", Harry shook off his cloak and stepped in front of Kat protectively, "I've been looking forward to this for a long time".
"Harry Potter", the woman spat, "I had a feeling you would be behind all of this, it stinks of your deviant behaviour".
"Why thank you" he bowed slightly, "now you've got something we want", he pointed his wand at the golden item on the front of her blouse".
Umbridge grasped the locket in her hand, "This is a family heirloom, have you now resorted to stealing from respectable purebloods as well as lying Mr Potter".
From her seat in the chair, Kat snorted, "There's nothing respectable about you lady".
"Watch your tone filth", Umbridge shrieked and fired a nasty looking curse at the Australian. Fortunately Hermione was able to cast a shield to protect her from harm. In response, a furious Harry channelled some of his fire Chi through his wand. An explosive fireball whizzed past Umbridge's ears, burning the tip of her hair.
"I'm not in the mood for your crap Umbridge", Harry roared. The toad like woman for once had a look of fear in her eyes, "That was just a warning shot so if you give me what I want then you can leave with your reputation and dignity intact". Umbridge looked like she was genuinely considering his offer, however, a firm banging on the door interrupted her thought process.
"You're too late", she smirked, "the real Aurors will be inside in a few moments. They'll have that door unlocked in a matter of seconds".
"Oh it's already unlocked", Hermione said casually, "I've just blocked it with several chairs. I wonder how those mighty wizards will break through because I'm sure that door is immune to most forms of offensive magic".
Umbridge went silent for a moment before she snarled, "I will not let you win", she grabbed her wand and fired a killing curse in the direction of Harry. The red ranger rolled out the way and pushed Kat low to the floor.
As another nasty looking curse whizzed over their head, Harry grabbed his communicator, "Guys now would be a good time to get over here".
A fraction of a second later, three columns of light arrive in the courtroom. Startled by these new arrivals, Umbridge fired another killing curse at the nearest new arrival and they happened to be Ron. Hermione's eyes widened and she screamed, "No!" at the top of her lungs. She blinked a couple of times and to her shock, everything had stopped moving. The green light of the killing curse was just inches away from Ron's chest.
She moved quickly from her position but with every step, she found that she was becoming extremely weak. She stumbled the last couple of step and collapsed into Ron, knocking him out the way of the curse in the process. Time suddenly restarted and the curse slammed harmlessly into the wall. Umbridge was so shocked that she had missed that she didn't even defend herself against Cho's disarming spell. Her wand flew straight into the pink ranger's hand and she promptly snapped it into two pieces, "You just broke the wand of a Ministry official", she screamed.
"You tried to kill my friend", Cho snapped, "I'll call us even".
Ron was in shock, one second he was looking at an incoming killing curse, the next he was on the floor with Hermione on top of him, "Hey", she said weakly, "I'm glad you're alright".
"Yeah takes more than that to keep me down", he smiled back. Hermione didn't look well, her skin was extremely pale and her eyes were unfocused, "You're bleeding", he pointed at her nose.
The yellow ranger raised her arm weakly and wiped some blood away from her nose, "Oh yeah, so I am", moments later her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she blacked out.
"Hermione", Ron cried and shook her, "Hermione speak to me", it was no good, she was unresponsive. Ron leapt to his feet with fire burning in his eyes, "You're going to pay for that", he bellowed at Umbridge.
"Good riddance", she snorted, "one less mudblood polluting our society". She was about to launched into a tirade when her extended finger suddenly snapped. She screamed in pain but moments later her forearm bent back on itself.
The other were stunned for a moment and it took them a while to find the source of Umbridge's pain, "Ron, stop it", Ginny called out. The blue ranger was using his gravity power to literally squeeze the life out of Umbridge. She tried to gurgle a protest but all of her ribs collapsed in on themselves and she fell face first onto the desk.
"Ron, you're killing her", Dean added, "Hermione wouldn't want that". This made Ron hesitate for a moment and relax his grip, giving his sister an opportunity to stun him. The blue ranger slumped to the ground and landed next to Hermione.
As the others attended to their fallen friends, Harry jumped up on to the platform to check on Umbridge. Her upper body was horribly deformed, Ron's crushing force has really done a number on her bones. He pulled the locket off the woman and checked her pulse. To his utter shock she was still alive, "I despise you but I'm not a heartless person", Harry sighed and cast a few healing spells on Umbridge. He managed to fix her rib cage to relieve the pressure on her internal organs and allow her to breathe.
"Harry we've got to go", Kat called out as the banging on the door was getting louder, "they'll be through any time". The red ranger sighed and hopped down from the platform, grabbing his communicator. He took hold of Kat's hand and the group teleported away, just as the Aurors burst into the courtroom.
Later that evening the mood was sombre around the kitchen table as everyone waited for news on Hermione. She was still unresponsive when they got her back to Grimmauld Place. They had decided to leave Ron unconscious as well to give him time to cool off. The door opened and everyone around the table looked up in hope but they were slightly disappointed to see Kat, "Thanks for letting me borrow your communicator", she slid it over to Harry, "just making sure that my daughter stays as far away from the country as possible ".
"And probably won't now we've taken out the head of the committee that issues them", Dean sighed.
"Not really the time mate", Harry groaned and turned back to Kat, "so what are you going to do?"
"I'm taking the next flight back to America, Tanya is going to put me up for a while ", she replied, referring to the former yellow Zeo and Turbo Ranger, "at least until this has all blown over".
"That's good timing", Keira added, "because the new Command Center is nearly finished. I'll be able to bring it online first thing tomorrow".
"So that means you're going back?" Ginny asked.
"Rotten timing I know", Keira began, "but Tommy has to prepare of the new school year and I've have been away from my job for too long".
"Can you stay until Hermione's back on her feet?" Dean asked and the others nodded in confirmation.
"Hey", Cho snuck in through the kitchen door, "I've done a few diagnostic spells on Hermione and I can't find anything seriously wrong. I think whatever she did to save Ron's life simply exhausted her. Once her core is stable she should wake on her own".
"Any idea when that'll be?" Ginny said.
The pink ranger sighed, "I only know the basics of healing but I would say by tomorrow evening at the latest".
"At least that's some good news", Harry breathed a sigh of relief. He reached into his pocket and pulled out Slytherin's locket, "Now we need to research a way of destroying this thing".
Keira looked slightly disgusted, "So this actually has a piece of someone's soul inside it", the rangers nodded, "that's the most disgusting thing I've ever heard".
"I really don't like being near this thing", Ginny pushed it across the table, "can't we store this somewhere else for the time being".
"Agreed", Harry stated, "we'll have a look in the Black library, maybe they'll have some answers about how to destroy this thing". Harry found a scrap of cloth, scooped up the Horcrux and placed it in his pocket. He led everyone away to search the library for some clues, hopefully by the time the yellow ranger woke up, they would have some good news for her.
