Ilvermorny Exchange student standing in for year 2
Theme: Humility -write about a big-headed character learning humility.
Prompts (emotion) Disgust; and (word) Real
Thanks to my team for all their beta work this round!
Italics: memories
A 57-year-old Dolores Umbridge sat in her cell in Azkaban reflecting on her life before everything went wrong. She sneered with disgust. Remembering her muggle mother and squib brother made her skin crawl coldly.
A soft knock at her dingy dark cell door brought her out of her stupor. Harry Potter and Seamus Finnigan stepped into her small dark and wet cell, both much older than the last time she had seen them.
Potter said, "Dolores Umbridge, you are to come with us"
"Where to?"
They didn't answer her. Instead, Potter and Finnigan frog-marched her to the courtroom after her chains were unshackled; they Apparated into the Ministry atrium, Dolores squirming uncomfortably. They set her down in the chair and cuffed her wrists to the arms. She looked around the big vast courtroom with blackened wooden seating and paneled walls, her eyes settled on Granger.
Hermione Granger perched on the judges seat, with a neutral expression on her face and said, "Dolores Jane Umbridge, this is a probation meeting. You are accused of creating the Muggle-Born Registration Commission, unfairly, and cruelly imprisoning Muggle-born witches and wizards as well as crimes against the wizarding world."
Dolores held her silence with defiant eyes, and her lips curled in a Malfoy sneer.
Potter and Granger nodded at each other. He collected a special pensieve that Dolores had only heard of, the enchantment performed by Filius Flitwick, the Hogwarts Charms professor, at the end of the second wizarding war as it projected memories for everyone to see.
Granger dug out her wand from her robe pocket and pressed it to her temple. She pulled out a wispy silver memory, and dropped it carefully into the pensieve.
The memory started to play out in the courtroom:
Harry and Hermione were walking towards the courtroom.
Hermione said, "Harry, as head Auror, you do have the right to use Veritaserum if she doesn't talk."
Harry hummed in agreement and they continued walking down the hallway to prepare the courtroom.
Panic rose in Dolores's chest. She didn't like to feel out of control there are stories that she didn't want that Mudblood Granger to know. Her eyes widened watching the memory play.
"Wait, I will tell you what you want to know!" She shrieked.
Granger grinned, and said, "Go ahead, Ms Umbridge."
Dolores replied, "As a young child, I knew Muggles, Squibs, half-bloods, and Muggle-borns were beneath us pureblood wizards—"
Granger interrupted, "According to your file, you are a half-blood."
Dolores sneered, and her skin crawled at the thought of her family. "I had a filthy Muggle mother and a Squib brother. I grew to hate all below pureblood status!"
Granger's face twisted with disgust. "Continue."
"I really started to hate Muggle-borns when I met Potter's Mudblood mother. She shouldn't have been that talented, not when she didn't have a magical family."
Potter shot her a cold glare down from the balcony, and Dolores shuddered when their eyes met. She couldn't help but think of how vibrant and expressive his filthy Mudblood mother's eyes were.
Dolores sighed. "I met Potter's mother at the Ministry during a Yule celebration. That was the first and last time we spoke... Take the memory, Potter."
He did as she asked and placed it into the Pensieve. She slumped against the chair, only half-paying attention as the memory started to play.
A young Dolores looked around the Ministry atrium, watching all the witches and wizards around her. Her eyes finally settled on Lily Evans, her bright auburn hair flouncing with every step she took.
Lily approached Dolores and said, "Hi, nice party isn't it?"
Dolores hummed in agreement. They got into a deep conversation that soon turned into an argument when Dolores gloated, "All those beneath pureblooded wizards should be put in their place!"
Lily raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. The conversation got more heated over time, but Dolores finally pushed the wrong buttons after saying, "All Muggles, Muggle-born and Squibs should be eradicated!"
Lily finally snapped.
"Listen carefully, you pathetic dimwitted excuse of a witch. We are all equal," she spat.
"You don't know what's coming for you, filthy Mudblood. I've heard via the grapevine that You-Know-Who is rising to power," Dolores shouted back.
Lily's wand slipped down her sleeve, but James, after hearing the commotion, came and picked up Lily, carrying her off. That was the last time she saw Lily.
Everyone in the courtroom scowled, but it was obviously all too real for Potter, knowing how his mother and father had died. He had to walk off his anger.
Granger carried on by motioning for Dolores to continue.
Dolores said, "When I heard You-Know-Who was rising to power, I was happy. I may not be a follower, but I am a sympathiser."
Granger and the rest of the witnesses shifted in their seats.
Granger said,"He was a Half-blood himself, known as Tom Marvolo Riddle."
Dolores's eyes widened. She couldn't process that little tidbit. It made her mind whirl at a million miles per hour. It was shocking to know that HE was a half-blood...
Granger stood. "Dolores Jane Umbridge, this probation meeting is over, and you are hereby sentenced to life in Azkaban with no chance of parole. You are to be stripped of your magic."
She banged the hammer down on her gavel and an Unspeakable approached Dolores, muttering in Latin and swishing his wand.
Dolores felt her magic being slowly stripped from her until she was nothing more than a Squib. She felt empty. A sharp pain ripped through her chest as she realised that she would never again be able to perform any kind of magic.
Granger softly explained,"It's a punishment to become the very thing you hated but also just in case any ex-Death Eaters escape, you'll not be magically able to hurt anyone."
Tears leaked down her cheeks as she felt the cold presence of Dementors. The guards picked her up by her armpits and carried her off to Azkaban.
The End.