Previously on Defiance…
Thor listened to his voice as he forced his magic through the wand, feeling the fiery bats to tried to force their magics to transform. The entire group merged to form into a missile like shape, which shot towards Stark, who had a grin on his face.
"Excellent." He congratulated, "-however," he thrust his wand forwards as the entire missile exploded, the energy throwing Thor by at least five feet.
"And that, students," he concluded dramatically, "shows how more energy is required whenever you try to retransfigure flames, proving Descartes' principle right."
Not even a week had passed and Thor knew it like the back of his hand that Derek Prince hated him. Not that it was unexpected; after all, Hogwarts had a Snape to torment him at every step, why should the Guild be any different? At least, Master Prince knew what he did and went out of his way to explain his subject, unlike Snape who simply wrote the ingredients and let the students do it by themselves, not caring to even explain why they did what they did. Master Prince seemed to expect Thor to be the best, and never missed a chance to belittle him whenever he could not answer something or failed to provide an adequate performance in class.
The unfortunate thing was- Prince was a masterful teacher, and his personal ambition to make Thor's life a living hell aside, the man's classes were fantastic, and Harry found himself looking forward to the man's classes. The next class was going to be about the hidden arte of Occlumency and its' offensive opposite-Legilimency, and he was looking forward to it.
A few hours later….
"Today we are going to begin our foray into the hidden arts of Occlumency and Legilimency. Now, who can tell me what either of them is?"
"Isn't Legilimency the same as Mind-reading?" The young man Thor had faced the first day, a French whose name was Sebastian Montague, spoke up.
"Couldn't have had a worse definition. Anyone else?" Prince spat.
"Legilimency is the art of extracting memories from another's mind, usually by force." One of the students, one Sophie Neveu, answered.
"Barely adequate."
"Legilimency is the art of invading someone's mind, and getting access to his mind space." Amy answered. The elder girl reminded him a lot of Granger, given how she was always able to answer questions correct to the technical point of view."
"Correct." Prince remarked. "Thor, have you ever come across the terms in your school?"
"Yes, sir."
Prince raised his eyebrows. "And you know what it entails?"
"Yes, sir." Thor answered, looking into his eyes, recognizing his folly a little too late. A humongous amount of pressure shoved his way through his mind shields, which arose instantaneously, though given the pressure, he could feel his shields buckling and almost at the point of shattering into pieces.
I won't let him access to my memories. I won't…
His inner determination called on his magic, which empowered his shields, powering them up once again, giving off a powerful resistance against the powerful Legilimency attack. He could feel blood in his mouth but refused to bend and accept defeat. Slowly, he felt the invasive presence withdraw from his mind as his shields erected themselves up to full power.
"You dunderhead," Prince snarled, "what kind of a moron are you?"
"Excuse me?" Thor returned, completely stunned by Prince's anger.
"This Idiot," Prince pointed at him while explaining to everyone, "This… this boy, he suffered the brunt of my Legilimency at full power, and despite the lack of any kind of containment, he did not shield his eyes away. Instead, he decided to show off his strength and faced my attack head-on. I could feel his shields get to their breaking point, and I could see his mind crumbling, and yet he did not turn his eyes away." He looked back at Thor, "tell me Thor, don't you have the minimum sense of self-preservation? Just what kind of a noble hero do you think you are?"
Thor looked at him, stunned.
"This class," Prince spat, "is about learning weaponry and the art of war. The first rule of war is to avoid fighting in the first case. The best win is one achieved without consorting to war." He snarled. "You could have easily shielded or looked somewhere else, but you didn't. Hopeless."
"But Sir-"
But Prince was not done. "You think you have wandless abilities and a ton of power so you will win a fight. That's a ridiculous notion if I ever heard one." He turned towards the rest of the audience, "This… moron, he might have natural Occlumency shields, but push his buttons a little, and he becomes a little more than a mad dog who has been kicked a lot."
Thor stood silent.
"Here," he threw a tome at Thor who caught it, "that's a book on controlling one's emotions and learning to use logic in an emotional situation. Practice it. I expect you to overcome this… liability by the next week. Now get lost while I can teach the more deserving students"
Thor looked at him with shock. The fact that Montague and Sophie were sniggering at him, did not even register to his mind.
More deserving students…
"I will not fail you next time, sir." Thor answered slowly. Prince did not even care to reply back. Understanding that he had been dismissed, he slowly walked out of the classroom.
"Thor?"
Thor looked up to find Amy standing behind him. "Yeah?"
"Still sad?"
Thor looked at her in surprise. "About?"
"Don't be coy. I know you felt bad when Master Prince sent you out. I would have thought that he would have congratulated you, since Master Prince is an accomplished Occlumens and Legilimens, and you faced him head-on without breaking."
Thor shook his head. "Apparently, I have great shields, but pathetic emotional control."
Amy smiled, as she sat down on the cold rock beside him. The place, it was kind of Thor's favorite. He would sit on the wall overlooking the Transmogrifian cave and stare out into the snowy land outside, thinking and practicing all by himself.
"You know; I have had a lot of private education before I got the chance to actually be here. You, you have achieved the same so much earlier. You can do wandless magic, unlike everyone else. Yes, the Masters can do that, but it's not like you. You are special."
Thor sighed. "I hope you do not mind if I find it a little difficult to believe. Master Prince thinks I am next to useless."
Amy laughed. "You have got it wrong. Master Prince just expects a lot from you. More than what he expects from me. He just has a different way of showing his appreciation."
"Appreciation by insult. Right. Different indeed." Thor muttered.
"See?" Amy pointed out. "You are not in control of your emotions. Master Prince says that those who wear their heart on their sleeves, die first in the battle."
"I am trying." Thor receded. "It's just that it's not easy."
Amy laughed. "This is a Masters Guild. Nothing is easy. More for you, since you shouldn't be facing this until at least a couple more years."
"Right." Thor muttered, snapping his hands and manifesting little flames which danced on his fingers. Amy spotted the flames and questioned. "What are you doing?"
"Nothing. Really." He replied, snapping the flames in his hand out of existence. Amy however, decided to put her foot onto it. "Come on, show me what you are doing."'
Realizing that she wouldn't allow him a moment of peace unless she showed him, he resigned. "I was trying to use Descartes' principle and trying to come up with a battle technique."
Amy raised her eyebrows. "Create a battle technique? Thor, I don't know where you are from, but one doesn't try to create new techniques after just a week of education. You hardly know much and-"
"I'm just trying to use the principle in the fight, like Master Stark."
"Really?" Amy challenged, "come on, let's see it then."
Harry regarded her. Amy was really pretty, what with her blonde hair and bright hazel eyes. Frightfully intelligent and a glutton for magical theory, the girl was one of the very few he actually conversed at the Guild. Half of the other apprentices considered him a kid and unworthy of attention, and the other half treated him as a ticking bomb, one which held enormous fire power and could erupt any moment, and not necessarily with the best results. That left him mostly alone, studying hard, having to learn much more complicated concepts than NEWT level most of the time to fill up the distance between his education and others. Not for the first time, he cursed himself for not studying seriously in his initial years at Hogwarts. There, he was a talented individual among underdogs and thus had tried to be normal and average. Here, no matter how hard he tried, he was treated as an underdog, and no matter his talents and powers, he was always underqualified and treated like vermin.
"Come on, show me." Amy stressed.
Thor nodded as he raised both of his hands and pushed his magic through them. He manipulated the magic from his right hand to manifest a fireball which he propelled with little effort towards his other palm. Just the moment before it reached, he used his magic to bend the composition of the fireball to transfigure it into a miniature missile and send it back. The missile reached back to his left palm, and he forced the magic to retransfigure it back into a fireball as the process continued over and over again.
"Th—Thor, how are you doing that?" Amy spluttered, not wanting to believe what her classmate was performing in front of her eyes.
"What?" Thor looked at her, puzzled. "I am merely trying to transfigure and retransfigure it faster."
"Thor," she sounded half-surprised and half-exasperated, "you are manipulating raw magic over and over again, amplifying its power exponentially with every single retransfiguration. I fear that the little fireball in your hand might be equal to-"
"A standard Fiendfyre attack, I know. That is my plan."
Amy shook her head in disbelief. "Did you show this to Master Stark?"
"No. I plan on surprising him when I have perfected this technique."
"What do you mean?"
For the first time, Thor smiled. "I want to use this technique on real, uncontrolled Fiendfyre. I want to retransfigure it and then use the power against my opponent, just like Master Stark demonstrated, only that it would be infinitely more powerful."
That shut Amy up.
Classes with Master Serena Thüringen, were perhaps the most difficult of all. While Derek Prince was harsh, at least Thor could adequately perform in class most of the times, never mind the fact that Master Prince always found something or else to belittle him. The man was becoming closer and closer to being associated with Snape in his mind, and Thor had even reached that the greasy git shared some kind of family connection with Master Prince.
Master Thüringen taught animation, and unfortunately, Thor did not show any aptitude for it. Unlike other types of magic, animation was not something that depended on raw power. In fact, it was the opposite. While it was true that a more powerful wizard could animate multiple things simultaneously, animation was more about using magic with a paint brush. It was about control, and finesse.
When it came to animation, it seemed that Thor's own raw power was his own enemy. Animation required less energy and more finesse to perfect the art, and no matter how much he tried, he always ended up overpowering the dummy, obliterating it in the process. Master Thüringen had embarrassed him further by commenting that it was good that he had not tried to become a healer, else he would have more body count to his name than a dark lord.
Serena Thüringen however, was a lot better than Prince. Despite Thor's overblown attempts at animation, she diligently worked with him in her private lessons, lessons that often ended up with him having to learn how to manipulate his own core and his own release of magical power. She had explained how power flowed down the nerves of magical people, and interestingly, Thor had more refined stimulations in him, making the flow of magical power much more seamless and in large amounts, giving him a shitload of power at his fingertips. She made him relearn how to control his power, how to voluntarily restrict his core and release it when he desired. Thor had taken up the practice and had begun to work on creating another tactic out of it, working in secret, hoping that sometime in the future, the tactic would prove useful in battle.
"Constrict your power, and let it seep down instead of rush down like it does. Restrict the stream to flow as if it was flowing through a little pipe." Serena explained. "She even used Legilimency to peek inside his magical core, keeping to her word of not trying to spy on his original memories, a fact that greatly endeared Thor to her. Despite the fact that she was around a hundred years old, the woman had the agility of a young woman in her thirties and her excitation on facing a new challenge was almost childish.
Thus had begun his training to constrict and unleash his power at periodic intervals. It was a new experience, and he enjoyed it. Unlike Hogwarts, the education at the Guild was more practical–oriented. At Hogwarts, he would have studied magical theory, but here, he learnt how to apply it in real life. Initially, his core would not respond as it did, since it was used to the turbulent flow of energy outward, but Thor was nothing if not persistent.
Classes with Master Vanko was completely different though. The first class, he had realized the true effects of the potions he had taken on the first night. It hadn't changed his memories, but had simply given him an understanding of the seven runic languages and their nuances. Since he never had much of an experience with the subject before, there were no alterations in his memories, but the moment he sat down to read about the different rune systems, he found it to his wonder that he recognized them all.
Anton Vanko was perhaps, the only teacher at the Guild that was overtly fond of him. While Stark had his own brand of humor and Thüringen spent an awful lot of time training him privately, Vanko was overly excited to teach him, now that he had taken the potions and had demonstrated an aptitude for the subject. He had a valid reason for that too.
"Thor, this field of runic transfiguration… it is as ancient as it goes, and I have spent decades trying to master this field and stand where I am. Even then, there is so much that is beyond my level or skill, but you, son… you are special, you can do what I could not, if you work on it with due diligence." Vanko had explained to him during one private session.
"Surely you are overestimating my abilities, Master Vanko," Thor replied slowly, the harsh words of Master Prince working against him.
"Overestimating?" Vanko laughed, "No Thor, I am not. Let me give you an example. Observe." He raised his wand and moved it in intricate patterns, creating runic chains and matrices in the air, which glowed and manifested a powerful reflective shield.
"Do you recognize this shield?"
"The Imprimis." Thor answered.
"Correct. This shield," he remarked, "has the potential to stop any spell of the level of a standard bone-breaking hex, and reflect it back to the opponent without any loss of energy. However," he let the shield dissipate into thin air, "the energy requirements for holding this shield up are tremendous and quite taxing. As it is, it is impossible for me to attack while I am in a defensive position and using my wand to cast the shield"
Thor nodded.
"Now you however," he remarked, "are small, but have a lot of potential. Your power is tremendous, and when you learn how the art of parallel synchronization, you will be able to divide your power between your two palms with ease, one holding up the shield and the other to throw an offensive spell. The possibilities of your wandless abilities are limitless, and I believe you have only begun to etch on the surface."
The week was over and now it was time for him to begin his weekly lessons with Dumbledore. As promised, the old man had returned and being a former Master at the Guild, he had been authorized a private office for his temporary stay. As it was, the fortress had the ability to sprout out guest rooms whenever any guests arrived to stay at the Guild. The rooms would get absorbed into the walls after the guests departed.
"What are you going to teach me, Professor?"
"Well, you know, a bit of this, and a bit of that." Dumbledore replied evasively. "To be honest, what I can teach you depends upon your progress so far. So why don't you show me what you can do."
Thor considered the question. "Master Stark has been teaching us flame retransfiguration, and I have been practicing it. I think I can comfortably retransfigure any amount of standard fire and use it against my opponent."
"Interesting. Fire Manipulation is the first step to magic manipulation. Once you master the technique with Fire, you will be proceeding to other elements like air, earth and then water."
"Is that the particular order?"
"Very astute. Yes, Thor, that is the particular order." He drew up a cross on the sheet of parchment and wrote down-'Fire, Air, Earth, Water' in the four respective quadrants in that order. Below the names, he scribbled what Thor recognized as the runic equations for magic manipulation. "The manipulation of water, as you can see, is reverse to the fire manipulation, so learning water right after fire is detrimental to your development. Air on the other hand, holds much more similarity to Fire except for this-", he pointed out at the runic equation to show the difference of one single variable. "—which can be easily mastered. Then, Earth manipulation has a difference of one single variable to Air, and consecutively, Water has a single variable difference to Earth. However, Fire and Earth demonstrate a difference of three variables, and thus, it is not a good idea to try water manipulation right after Fire, or the reverse."
Thor nodded. "Master Thüringen has had me learning to control the flow of my magic, because I kept on overloading the animation dummies with excess power, blowing them to bits." He finished with his cheeks a little red with embarrassment. Dumbledore chortled heartily. "Yes, Animation is best reserved for those with adequate power. I too suffered from the same problem, but you will face it more than me."
Thor gave him a questioning look.
"Two reasons. The first is because I took my mastery when I was twenty-seven, an age when I already had a lot of control and fine-tuning over my magic. You do not have that advantage."
Thor nodded. "And the other?"
"You have more power than I ever had. Simple." Dumbledore smiled.
"Surely you are joking."
"I am not joking, Thor." Dumbledore quipped. "As good as it sounds to be the most powerful wizard, the moment you get yourself locked in a power struggle makes you a lot humbler. You, my boy, have a lot of power at your fingertips, something you share with Voldemort, though I admit while you would defeat him in terms of power, he has decades of magical experience and knowledge over you."
Thor nodded. He still did not want to fight for the Light, but if Voldemort, and knowing the bastard, he would- come for him or his family, he would ensure that the bastard would pay for his sins.
"Now, what else have you learnt?"
"Master Vanko insists on me learning runic transfiguration wandlessly. He says that I have a lot of potential on the subject. So far, I am able to cast a standard Imprimis and fire an energy burst simultaneously."
"Parallel synchronization." Dumbledore muttered, "I thought Vanko would do that. He has tried to master the technique but lacks enough power to do it. You on the other hand, would be able to diverge your power into two different runic matrices and still have some with you. It is easy to see why Vanko is so taken with you, and what about Derek?"
Thor scowled. "He is just like Snape."
Dumbledore chortled. "You have no idea how right you are, my boy."
Despite his indignation, he continued, "Master Prince thinks I am a dunderhead, because my actions in his class are… well, whatever the term for 'Gryffindorish' is at the Guild."
"He does, doesn't he?" Dumbledore chortled again.
"Apparently, I am a failure at emotional control."
"Harry," Dumbledore returned, using Thor's real name, "Master Prince teaches assassins, and the most important thing for an assassin is to have an ironclad emotional control. The reason Derek insults you so much is because you demonstrate a reaction, proving the fact that you have no emotional control. Learn to recognize it, and do not display a reaction at his taunts and insults. You will begin to understand the changes."
"You mean bottle my anger away? I am not sure I want to do that!" Thor muttered, reminiscing how he had bottled his anger upon discovering that his friends had betrayed him and how the Room of Requirement had gotten overheated when he had finally liberated his anger through his spells. The fortress might not even hold it if that would happen here."
"NO," Dumbledore expressed, "that is not what I meant. There are hardly worse things you could do to learn emotional control than bottling your anger. On the contrary, I want you to initially avoid giving any reaction to his insults. Tell me, do you really think you are as hopeless as he claims?"
Thor shook his head.
"Understand this, Harry. You are only fifteen, and yet here you are, knee-deep in magics which most people don't even touch in their entire lifetime. The other apprentices, they are all highly talented witches and wizards, who have had a considerable amount of education and experience before coming here. Yet, you are learning the same thing that they are, and are doing so successfully."
Thor nodded.
"Understanding that, do you think that Derek's words are true, at least the hopeless part?"
Thor shook his head.
"Then understand and accept it, and stop showing a reaction to his taunts, since they mean nothing. Once you do that, you will be able to slowly put away your emotional responses and be able to logically analyze your own reactions and others. Occlumency has more to it than just having natural mental shields, you know."
Thor widened his eyes at the news that Dumbledore knew about his natural shields, but then again, the old man was a Master here and it was almost obvious that he would get to know about it. "Remember, Derek trains assassins, who have ironclad emotional control, and hence expects the same from his students. Once you learn to do that, you will gain his respect."
Thor nodded. "I will try."
"Good." Dumbledore clapped his hands, "so let us begin our first lesson. We are going to learn how to block."
"Block? You mean, shield?"
"No, I mean block. The technical definition would be along the lines of using raw magic to squeeze out the momentum of a spell or a physical object and make it stop in mid-air, before it reaches your person."
"Wouldn't shielding it or dodging it be better?"
Dumbledore shook his head. "Had you asked me this question while at Hogwarts, I would have said yes. However, you are learning the art of battle-transfiguration. The first thing you need to remember is that war is all about deception. Pretend what are not. When weak, display strength and when strong, display weakness. The art of blocking is a show of strength." He explained. "Anyone can throw up a shield or dodge a spell, but trust me, it is very disheartening to see your spell reach your opponent and then stop in mid-air."
Thor nodded, agreeing to his theory.
"Enough talk, let me demonstrate." Dumbledore got up from his chair. "Now, since I am an old man, please keep yourself from sending an over-powered spell at me." He winked.
Thor rolled his eyes as he shot a stunner from his hand, not caring to use his wand. Dumbledore simply thrust his wand forward and the stunner just-
Stopped in mid-air.
Thor could even see the pulsing crimson energies inside the stunner that was now floating in air like a fireball. "Now," Dumbledore began, "blocking, while a little difficult to master, does not consume as much energy as a shield does. In fact, the power required to block a standard stunner is less than half of what is required to raise a Protego powerful enough to stop it." He paused, "—and then, there is this-" he thrust his wand towards the stunner which propelled back towards Thor who deflected the stunner towards the floor.
"One can simply propel the opponent's spell back towards the opponent. This is extremely useful while fighting dark curses, especially those you do not recognize. Unlike a shield, blocking works on all spells except the Imperius, which uses magic manipulation not very different from Legilimency. The Cruciatus and the Avada Kedavra on the other hand, can be blocked, though the power required will be quite taxing I am sure."
Thor nodded, understanding that the information might just save his life someday.
"Now, for the rest of this class, I am going to be enjoying my lemon drops and hurling spells for you to block. Since I don't want to get up every now and then and get you enervated, we are not going to use stunners. A powerful stinging hex and a banishing hex might just be a better option."
Thor groaned.
Two hours and forty-seven welts later, Thor somehow remained standing on his feet. His entire body was itching and paining, the stinging hexes were damn fast and were very difficult to catch midway, never mind blocking them successively. He had come close to blocking one, but it blew up on his face, resulting in him coughing for five minutes. Dumbledore didn't even have the conscience to apologize for the fact that he had just conveniently forgotten to mention that an overuse of magic for blocking could in fact, blow up a spell.
Come now, Thor. Surely you are capable enough to block a stinging hex? It's a first year spell." Dumbledore taunted, making him angrier. Another stinging hex shot out at him and he almost caught it, but in his anger, he overdid it and it blew up, throwing him off his feet.
"Tut, Tut. Perhaps Prince does have a few reasons for calling you names." Dumbledore remarked, eyeing him curiously. Thor got up in anger. "I am not hopeless and I will-" he stopped midway.
He knows that I am not hopeless, and yet he is taunting me, only because he knows it will make me mad and make me lose my control. Damn.
He stopped and relaxed himself, taking a deep breath. "Give me your best shot, Professor." Another stinging hex shot out and this time he nearly dissipated its energy before it hit him.
"Is that all you got?" Thor taunted back, making Dumbledore smile. Finally, he is learning, he thought. Dumbledore raised his wand and fired a powerful stinger, which shot out and traversed the distance between them and was about to hit Thor in the chest and then-
It stopped. Floating in mid-air.
"So this is how it feels. Using my power like a web and holding the spell captive inside the web, dissipating off its momentum." Thor muttered to himself. He felt the momentum vanish away before he propelled it with some of his own energy, as the hex hurled back and hit the lemon drop on Dumbledore's hand, blasting it into smithereens.
Dumbledore looked sadly at the obliteration of his favorite delicacy. "That was insanely cruel of you, Thor, to destroy such a delicacy. That said, I am sure that the stinger wasn't supposed to blast it like it did."
"I might have retransfigured your spell into a simple blasting curse, professor." Thor grinned. "Descartes' principle, you know."
Meanwhile, back in Magical Britain…
The fact that Harry Potter, the boy-who-lived had left Hogwarts proved to be more earth-shattering than anything else. The magical population had divided into three major groups—the ones who worked at the Ministry and were Fudge loyalists, who were overjoyed at the fact that the boy-who-lived had finally understood that Fudge was not someone to be trifled with, and not being able to withstand the shame of defeat, he had transferred himself to some other school. They completely ignored the fact that he had been transferred to a Guild of all things and believed that it was another of Dumbledore's lies. Rita Skeeter had done a masterful job in presenting the fact in such a way that it all seemed like a perfect white lie that Dumbledore would have told to the public, just like the lie that a certain dark wizard was back.
The second group were those who were in awe that the boy-who-lived, at the age of fifteen, had been invited to a Guild for further education of all things, and wholeheartedly supported it. The neutral faction was mostly in this group. Lord Greengrass and Sirius had wholeheartedly supported that they were very pleased at Harry's progress.
The third was a more radical group of people, who were mostly comprised of muggleborns and halfbloods, who seemed to consider this as Harry Potter being forced to leave Britain because of Fudge's tomfoolery and his incapability to accept the truth. Demonstrations were held in public against Fudge's administration, but it was nipped easily by the Auror contingents.
Back at Hogwarts, Umbridge seemed to think that Christmas had come early for her. The moment Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore left for the Guild using the portkey, she seemed to assume herself as the next Headmistress of the castle. She had even tried to enter into the Headmaster's office, resulting in her being hurled back to the wall by a rather infuriated stone gargoyle, which point-blank refused anyone from entering the office without the express permission of the Headmaster. That however, did not stop Umbridge from assuming control over her High Inquisitor position and assigning three new educational decrees on the very same day. Any and all mention of Harry Potter was absolutely forbidden, and she pretended that said boy had been thrown out of Hogwarts instead of the transfer he had received. That very day, she had brought in several students from Gryffindor House and questioned them with Veritaserum, asking them to reveal all that they knew about Harry Potter and his propensity to cause malice. Draco Malfoy and his cohorts—Crabbe, Goyle and Parkinson that is, were a great asset to her in this case, what with the way Malfoy seemed to expound on Potter's adventures and his disdain for rules, and his malice.
Dumbledore's absence from the castle had left Hermione alone in uncharted environment. She had to submit to a round of interrogation by Umbridge, where she was all but force-fed Veritaserum, and forced to reveal even more about what she knew about Harry Potter. Umbridge had thought that the boy had been making up stories, but she was completely shocked when the girl explained in ginormous detail about how Harry had battled with the diary and the basilisk among other things. Clearly, the boy was confounded and the girl seemed to share his problem. However, that did not stop her from making said girl write lines using her favorite quill again and again.
However, nothing could have prepared Dolores Umbridge for what had happened the next morning.
It was time for breakfast and everyone was in the Great Hall including students and staff. Dolores Umbridge, the High Inquisitor and self-proclaimed Headmistress of Hogwarts, daintily walked up to the Headmaster's throne to sit on it. Ever since she had begun the DA and all but forced Professor Flitwick to assist her, there had been no complain from the Pureblood community since they were getting the DADA education they had hoped for. Professor Flitwick, being the master duelist that he was, had no problems in teaching DADA to the students, and after the initial forceful signup, he had taken up the job as his own and continued teaching the DA properly, much to everyone's delight, leaving Umbridge to pretend being the Queen Bee of Hogwarts.
She walked up straight to the throne, and then with a rather flamboyant fashion, she turned back and sat on it, never expecting what was about to happen until a moment after when-
EEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
A huge banishing charm seemed to activate out of nowhere, throwing the toad woman high up into the air, as everyone watched her fall down all the way onto the ground with a great sound. It was clear that the woman had broken a few bones by the looks of it. However, that was not all. The momentum of the propulsion had her body skid across the floor, all the way straight to the entrance as the great oak doors opened with a thunderous roar, the person walking into the room being just as magnificent as the sound that had accompanied his entrance.
Albus Dumbledore had just entered Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Ignoring her pain somehow, Umbridge got up from the floor, maintaining all the dignity that someone dressed in dust could have, and glared at the old man in front of her. "Albus Dumbledore, this is all your fault. As High Inquisitor, I-" she stopped midway, realizing that something was different in the man she was talking to. This was not the dotty old man who had listened silently and accepted every word and clause that Cornelius Fudge had dictated to him this year. The twinkling-eye thing was gone, blaring the fact that the old man had deserted and the defeater of Grindelwald had walked into his place.
"Dolores Umbridge, did you torture my students with a blood quill?"
The scions of the older families immediately recognized what Dumbledore was talking about. The Blood Quill was a device that employed the principles of blood magic and was normally used exclusively in signing contracts, because it used the writer's own blood and magic as its ink. The negative of using the quill was that it sucked in a significant amount of blood, even for writing a single line, causing the writer to fall sick. If Umbridge was torturing them with the Quill, then that meant-
Damn.
They all looked towards each other, and then towards Umbridge who was staring defiantly at Dumbledore.
"I refuse to answer. I am the High Inquisitor and I-"
She couldn't speak any further. Why? Because the headmaster wandlessly bound her in a petrifaction hex as she was slowly being levitated higher, higher, until she was at least twenty feet from the ground, and then-
THUD!
Umbridge screamed.
"Did you, or did you not, use a blood quill on my students?" Dumbledore snarled angrily. Everyone went deadly silent, never seeing this face of their normally calm, funny and eccentric Headmaster.
"When the Minister finds out-"
"You should just hope that the Minister does find out. And I hope that Cornelius knows better than to allow you to do so in my school, for if he does not, then he is going to join you in your fate."
Dolores swallowed. "Yes, I did."
Perhaps that was the wrong thing to say. For Dumbledore snapped his fingers, sending her up in the air once again, despite her screams. "Did Cornelius give you authorization for it?"
"NOOO!" she wailed.
"That will be enough, Dumbledore." Remarked someone from behind him. Everyone watched in shock and one particular girl from Hufflepuff squeaked in surprise, as Amelia Bones, the director of Magical Law Enforcement, walked into the Great Hall. "Albus, please let her down."
He snapped his fingers again, as she fell down on the ground, emitting another shriek of pain. Amelia rolled her eyes at Albus's antics, but did not comment. "That will be enough to send her packing into Azkaban."
"You cannot do that to me. I am the Senior Under-" she stopped midway as a couple of magically restraining bracelets attached themselves to her hands, tying them together, "-secretary."
"You will find that I can." Amelia hissed.
"I will not let this go, Albus Dumbledore," Dolores hissed, half in pain and half in vengeance. "The Healers will find your magical signature, and I will see you out of Hogwarts."
"Actually, they won't." Amelia explained offhandedly. "He did not use his wand. Aurors?" Ignoring the look of blank shock in her eyes, the Aurors dragged her out of Hogwarts, ignoring her wails all the way.
Amelia watched her leave. She turned towards Dumbledore. "I am frankly, surprised by this… activeness on your part. I thought Albus Dumbledore was a passive fighter."
"Motivation." Dumbledore replied. "Previously I wanted to give second chances, now I know that they do not mean anything to such people."
"The reason for the change?"
"The reason is not here, at the moment." Albus replied cryptically.
"So I have heard."