Things took a drastic and rather brilliant turn at Hogwarts after Fred and George's daring escape. It was definitely one for the history books, I'll give them that. There were more pranksters than ever before, making it almost impossible for any of them to be captured by Filch who'd taken to patrolling with a whip in hand. Cedric and I had taken it upon ourselves to protect as many students as we could from punishments, hence why I broke into Filch's office in the middle of the night and stole all of his whips and torture equipment, clearing it out so that he was left with nothing.
Umbridge was unable to get rid of the charm in her office, meaning that it was either coming down in torrential rain or a freezing blizzard which ruined everything she hadn't put waterproof charms over. She was almost constantly waking around soaking wet or shivering from cold. All of my work had not gone to waste, and students soon learned which steps to avoid, though they seemed to particularly like the springing stones as they'd jump on them and go flying through the air only to land in a spongy spot, just as I'd planned. Soon enough, bubble head charms were like a new fashion statement in order to go through the swamp corridor, and I made sure that it didn't stop there.
One afternoon, I secretly transfigured a whole bunch of wild animals, including a herd of horses, an elephant, lions and tigers, jackals and hyenas, and pretty much anything else I could think of before releasing them, giving Umbridge and Filch an even harder time trying to round them up. The elephant was particularly funny as it got stuck trying to get outside, so people had to walk underneath it whilst being careful of any droppings which Filch had to clean up. The horses were a particular favourite of mine and I overheard Firenze actually complementing them as they'd gathered around him during break, snorting and pawing the ground before taking off again. Some students even tried to ride them, and I'd charmed the horses to let them but any time Umbridge went near them, they'd stampede in her direction. Ron thought it was the greatest thing ever.
Ginny's favourite was the underwater corridor I had charmed, smiling as she gazed upwards to see a beautiful singing blue whale sing overhead as it's body undulated forwards, a cluster of turtles riding a current and swirling around people as several shouts of alarm announced that my octopi had dropped down on a bunch of unwitting Slytherins, and those who had jumped back in time were now being chased by a great white shark and a kelpie. Professor Flitwick was having the absolute time of his life, and sometimes he'd spend all of break times just staring at different parts of the castle which the twins and I had charmed, murmuring how marvellous it all was under his breath whilst Professor McGonagall also commented loudly and often how extraordinary the magic was.
But still, that wasn't to say things weren't also difficult for us. As if in retaliation for all the chaos the rest of us students caused, the inquisitorial squad became nastier than ever. More than once I had to knock them out from behind and quickly escort first and second years away from danger, telling them to hide in their common rooms for a couple of hours whilst I dealt with the situation. Cedric was also helping, and the two of us became quite the team, though we were also run ragged. Most evenings I didn't even make it to my room, I'd crash out on a sofa in the common room and people knew not to disturb me. In fact most of the time, someone would put blankets over me and leave little notes and gifts to say thank you if I'd gotten them out of trouble.
It only made me want to work harder, fighting in my own way against Umbridge and her followers. The worst incident was when Colin and Dennis Creevey came running into my charms lesson sobbing and crying, racing straight to my desk as Professor Flitwick blinked in surprise. "Mia! Mia you have to come…you have to hurry…they're going to kill…it's bad...in the courtyard…hurry!" They could barely get the words out but I was already on my feet and drawing my wand.
"Stay here with Flitwick, tell him everything that happened once you've calmed down." Then I was off, leaving them behind in order to run. I'd never gotten to the courtyard from charms faster in my life, and when I got there it was to find a horrifying scene. Neville was on the floor, bleeding profusely with a broken nose, there were a bunch of young students crying, Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, and Cedric Diggory was getting punched and pummelled by Crabbe and Goyle as several other members of the Inquisitorial Squad held him, laughing. There was Malfoy too, threatening the other students with detentions such as whippings, and Pansy Parkinson was torturing a couple of Ravenclaw girls by making their teeth grow into tusks as they sobbed.
Something snapped in me, and I roared.
Literally. I was already down on all fours and I changed into a lion so fast I didn't even know I was springing forwards until I'd tackled the lot of them with my powerful form as they screamed. In my mind I could hardly think, instincts driving me to seek out blood as I slashed wildly with my claws and sank my teeth deeply into Crabbe's leg, drawing a blood curdling shriek from him as he desperately tried to shake me off. They tried to run, abandoning Crabbe but Cedric, despite both eyes being swollen nearly shut, managed to trip them with a jinx so they all went sprawling and I was back on my feet in an instant. "Stupefy! Stupefy, Stupefy STUPEFY!" I bellowed in absolute fury, making all of them drop like stones into unconsciousness. "Obliviate!"
Everyone who was recovering from their shock gasped at me as I carefully altered their memory, taking away this entire moment before having them all sit upright and bound them with ropes around their middle. Now I turned to everyone else. "It's alright, don't be afraid. Everyone who's hurt come stand over here, everyone who's upset or in shock, stand over here. Quickly now, we don't have much time." Umbridge could be here any second, so I helped to pull Cedric and Neville onto their feet. "Episkey." Fixing Neville's nose, he seemed too concussed to really know what was going on so I had him sit down for a moment then began to deal with the rest, focusing on Cedric who needed immediate treatment. Then I herded them all together and brought all of them to the hospital wing, much to Madam Promfrey's surprise.
"What's all this? What on earth has happened?!"
"Madam Pomfrey, we need shock tonics for this lot and treatment for the rest. Neville has a concussion I think and Cedric…he's in a bad way. They were punching and punching…I have to go, I have to deal with the rest, but I'll come back." Barely getting the words out, I ran all the way back to the courtyard were thankfully, no one else had stumbled upon the tied up and unconscious group of Slytherins. I was shaking from anger as I released them from their ropes, but there was no way I was going to let them off that easy, so I magically vanished their clothes, everything except their underwear – yes even Pansy Parkinson because she was a total cow and she deserved it – then left them to lay side by side inside the entrance hall, where I pointed my wand and used magic to paint on their stomachs.
GET OUT.
Seeing as there were six of them, it was perfect, and I held no regrets as I returned to charms to collect my things and the Creevey brothers who had stopped crying by this point but still sniffled with upset. I opened the door just as Professor Flitwick came hurrying towards it. "Miss Black! I've only just managed to get the story out of them, what is…"
"I'd like to take them to the hospital wing please, professor." I spoke quickly with a look to the boys. "I apologise for interrupting your class, but this really is urgent. I've dealt with the situation, though…you might not like the way I handled it, so I'd appreciate it if the fact that I was involved was kept quiet." Flitwick, who had always been a kind and understanding teacher, promised that he wouldn't drop me in on it, but insisted on going to see what I'd done regardless. The bell rang anyway at that point, signalling lunch so everyone was going to find out in a few minutes either way. Signalling to Collin and Dennis, I brought them up to Madam Pomfrey.
"They just cornered us, saying we were up to no good because we weren't in class." Colin said to me in a rather squeaky voice as they kept close to me, hurrying to keep up with my striding steps as I kept on hand in my pocket, clutching my wand tightly. "Then more people walked by and they stopped all of us, they held us there for ages, testing out jinxes and hexes on us, but because we knew the shield charm, Dennis and I managed to hold up against them a fair bit then we eventually were able to run and find you, and Peeves told us you were in charms…"
"Peeves told you?" I was surprised, but I guess I shouldn't have been. Peeves had been oddly on side ever since Fred and George had left. He and I were often in conference with each other about how best to cause trouble for Umbridge.
"Yes he did, asked why we were crying, calling us snivelling babies but then we told him what was happening, and he immediately stopped laughing and told us where you were then took off. Neville was so brave, he was trying to protect everyone but he was outnumbered, then Diggory came running out shouting, I've never seen him so angry, it was quite scary and he managed to throw a good few spells in but they outnumbered him too. He managed to free us from the jelly-legs jinx though before he went down, told us to run, so we did." I was still livid, I wanted to go back and hurt those Slytherins for this, but I had to focus on what these students needed first, and that was care. Comfort. Reassurance.
Madam Pomfrey did not even ask when I brought two more to her, merely ordered them into bed and prepared something to calm their nerves so that they could take a nap. I'd never seen the ward so full, and as I looked over, I saw that Neville was starting to come around so I went over to see him. "Hey, how are you feeling?"
"Like someone's hammering inside my head, but alright." He answered gruffly, still a little disorientated but managed to sit up a little. "I'm sorry Mia, I tried to stop them, I really did but there were too many…I managed to hit Pucey with an impediment jinx though."
"You did wonderfully, Neville. You should be proud of yourself. I'm going to write to your grandmother myself to tell her how you stood up to those despicable excuses for human beings. I'm sure she'll be very proud." He smiled at that so I gave his shoulder a squeeze and sat down, looking across the Cedric who had his eyes firmly closed, sticky looking salves plastered to his skin. "The Creevey brothers told me what happened, but I don't think we'll be able to get them punished for this."
"No, there's no justice in Hogwarts anymore…" Neville mumbled, rubbing his head gingerly.
"But don't worry, I extracted some justice of my own." With a wink, I then lowered my voice to whisper to Neville what I'd done to all of them, making him grin broadly at me.
"Brilliant! It's exactly what they deserve. Did you really attack them as a lion?"
"Yes, I expect any second now, they'll all be brought up here to be treated. They won't be able to prove anything though, I wiped their memories. They won't remember a thing." No sooner were the words out of my mouth, the doors flung open and in strode Umbridge and Professor Snape, carting the six scantily clad students of Slytherin all floating as if on invisible stretchers. Robes and cloths had been thrown over them in a bid to protect their modesty, and although Madam Pomfrey looked mightily displeased, she had them placed at the far end of the hospital wing so that they were as far away from the rest of us as possible.
"What's happened here? Why are there so many students in hospital?" Her beady little eyes scanned us all, falling on me and quickly started to march forwards. "Miss Black, what are you doing here?"
"Visiting a friend, Professor Umbridge." I answered sweetly, giving her a smile. "Neville here had a slight accident with a backfiring spell when he was trying to practice his charm work, didn't you Neville? I told you not to flourish your wand so much, perhaps next time you'll listen to me." The lie rolled easily off my tongue and Umbridge twitched, looking very much like she wanted to contradict me, but now the Slytherin students were starting to be roused so she hurried to demand what they knew and to identify the culprit. I smirked to myself, Neville and I thoroughly enjoying the sound of her shrieking as she demanded to know why none of them could remember what happened, and Madame Pomfrey exclaiming that this was a hospital wing and her patients required calm and quiet.
Umbridge was livid, pacing up and down, throwing knowing looks in my direction but once more, she was unable to prove anything so had to give up. Snape also looked at me coldly as he passed but chose to say nothing, leaving as silently as he'd arrived without ever saying a word. "I'm going to check on the others. I'll be back in a minute." I said to Neville, giving his hand a squeeze before moving away. I went to each student in turn who thanked me for helping but I had to sternly tell them that they couldn't say anything about what happened in the courtyard or they'd be brought to Umbridge for questioning, and if they felt the need to spread the news, make it sound like none of them had been involved.
They all nodded in understanding, so I smiled to them all and apologised. "Hogwarts is usually much more fun and magical than this, I'm sorry you had to go through this. Chin up, alright? We'll drive out that wicked crone before long, you mark my words." Bolstering them with confidence, those who had only been in shock or minor injuries that were fixed in a heartbeat were sent off after half an hour or so to go get dinner whilst I remained.
"Miss Black? Are you not going to eat something?"
"I'd rather stay, if it's alright with you Madam Pomfrey. I'd like to wait until Cedric wakes up and keep Neville company." She allowed it, bringing sandwiches for us to share as Neville needed to stay for observation for a couple of hours. Cedric woke up not long after, groaning deeply and struggling to open his eyes so I moved over to his bed and put my hand on his shoulder to keep him from rising. "Lay down for a bit. Madam Pomfrey said you had several broken ribs and a hairline fracture in your skull, and your pretty face has been completely messed up. It'll take a while for the swelling to go down."
"Mia?"
"In the flesh. I gallantly came to your rescue, you're welcome." I told him brightly, squeezing my hand as he exhaled deeply. "I've dealt with the situation, so you don't need to worry. They won't even remember attacking any of you because I wiped their memory, so if someone asks you how you got injured, lie. Say you tried to tango with the Whomping Willow or something." This made Cedric smile, though he winced when he moved his mouth too much and his lip split again. "You shouldn't have tried to take them all on by yourself. Come and get me next time, I'll help you. We can take them together easily considering most of them don't even have half a brain."
"I'll remember that for next time. In the meantime, I think I'll abstain from anymore heroics." He struggled to move without something hurting so I plumped up his pillow as Madam Pomfrey came over to take a look at him, shooing me away finally with a promise that I could come back and visit tomorrow, and to take Neville with me since he was now better.
When we got back in the common room, the story had already been passed around several times. I was utterly shattered, barely able to keep my eyes open as I was pulled inside and Harry, Ron and Hermione demanded to know what happened. Only Ginny saw the state I was in, bellowing over everyone and with Hermione's help, managed to get me to my bed for the first time in days. I fell asleep whilst fully clothed and swearing vengeance on all those who dared cause pain to the innocent students of Hogwarts.