Chapter 90

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The OWL exams came too quickly, and revision sessions were packed in everywhere they could be. Rebekah even had to take a few of the Crown back in time so they had more time to revise. There wasn't anything that would prevent her from doing so, it was never stated that she couldn't.

Loopholes were the gods' gifts.

The Fifth years had to eat lunch with the rest of the school on the day when they finished their Charms theoretical exam but before their Charms practical exam. They had to stop in the small chamber beside the Great Hall, waiting until they were called for their practical exam in alphabetical order.

Tracey and Daphne were called in way before the rest of the Crown, and thus they were the first of them to finish and leave back to the dorms.

Halfway through the waiting time, after Draco and Theo had also been called in, Professor Flitwick called, "Parkinson, Pansy. Patil, Padma. Patil, Parvati. Potter, Rebekah."

"Good luck," Pansy and Rebekah said to each other, fistbumping before going seperate ways.

"Professor Tofty is free, Potter," Professor Flitwick gestured vaguely to the oldest examiner who was not far from Marchbanks and Draco.

Draco nodded to them and continued on to the dorms when he finished.

"Potter, is it?" Professor Tofty peered over his glasses at her before consulting his notes. "The famous Potter?"

"I wouldn't say famous for good reasons though," Rebekah half smiled to quake her nervousness.

He smiled encouragingly, "No need to be nervous… Now, if I could ask you to take this eggcup and make it do some cartwheels for me…"

Rebekah took a breath in, closing her eyes and centering herself before opening her eyes, wand out and ready.

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There were a lot of exams for Rebekah to take. Revision was difficult but all of the students were trying their best. There was no time to relax, Transfiguration was the next day and they revised and studied like their lives depended on it.

Luckily, they all were doing well on their written exams so far. A couple questions here and there weren't the best but they knew where they went wrong. Complex spell models and theories were not the easiest things to remember.

Herbology was on Wednesday, and Defense on Thursday.

Defense Against the Dark Arts was the easiest for the Fifth year Crown members. The Court meetings had been focusing on revision for the exams in the last month, and went from once a week to twice for any that wished to attend.

Rebekah was aceing her exams so far, and she hoped it stayed that way. Defense was going to be an easy O. It was her best class, Potions being a close second. She had no problem with any of the written questions and took particular pleasure, during the practical examination, in performing all the counter jinxes and defensive spells right in front of Umbridge, who was watching from near the doors into the entrance hall.

Professor Tofty was examining her again, watching as she demonstrated a perfect Boggart Banishing spell against the Death shaped Boggart. "Very good indeed! Well, I think that's all, Potter… Unless…"

He leaned forward a little.

"I heard, from my dear friend Tiberius Ogden, that you can produce a Patronus? For a bonus point…?"

"Am I allowed?" Rebekah twisted her wand in her hand before Professor Tofty nodded energetically and she raised her wand with confidence. "Expecto Patronum!"

It had been a while since she had summoned her Patronus. She missed her Hungarian Horntail Patronus, it was such a close match to the Dragon she had to face last year and lovely little Enyo who had to stay away for the duration of the exams.

She made sure to have the silvery Dragon go up towards the ceiling so it didn't disturb the rest of the examiners. The Dragon let out a puff of silvery mist that was supposed to be fire before curling around her and dissolving into silver mist again.

"Very well done, Potter, you may go!" He said.

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Umbridge couldn't do anything to stop Firenze from teaching.

There were so many schemes discussed between the Crown members, but almost all of them ended in Umbridge dying. It wouldn't have been sad but they kinda wanted to stay out of Azkaban for the time being.

There was already a small plan set, and it had to do with the Centaurs and The Crown's little journeys into the Forbidden Forest…

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One of the final exams was History, and Rebekah was dozing off three fourths of the way through it. She had finished almost all of the exam before something in her suddenly became tired and she couldn't keep her eyes open.

Something wasn't right with the image when she woke up, suddenly not in the examination hall and instead in the Department of Mysteries as Voldemort stood in front of a screaming Sirius Black. He was curled up on the floor like a wounded animal who refused to fight.

Her stomach contracted with fear and disgusting excitement, though her mind told her this wasn't right.

Voldemort's voice was tight, high and cold without any human kindness, "Take it for me… lift it down, now… I cannot touch it… But you can…" When Sirius shifted a little but did not speak, Voldemort snapped, "Crucio!"

Sirius let out a scream of pain and Rebekah gritted her teeth. It didn't sound right. There was a certain lack of something in Sirius, something that she knew. She knew Sirius had been under the curse before, knew he had a better tolerance of it than most, but this scream was off.

It was bland.

Fake.

Unreal.

This wasn't Sirius Black.

It was an imitation!

A pathetic try of making a replication of him to make her believe that he was in pain!

After that, Rebekah had to shake the memory or whatever it was off but couldn't so she let it happen. She wanted to know what Voldemort wanted her to know, what he had planned for her. He wanted her to do something, he wouldn't just show her an image of her loved ones being injured and expect her not to do anything about it.

"Lord Voldemort is waiting. . . ."

"You'll have to kill me," Said the fake Sirius.

"Undoubtedly I shall in the end," Voldemort hummed. "But you will fetch it for me first, Black… You think you have felt pain thus far? Think again… We have hours ahead of us and nobody to hear you scream…"

Rebekah bit her tongue as hard as she could, clutching her shoulder as she woke up and finally saw the Great Hall again.

"Miss Potter?" Professor Tofty said, concern laced in his voice. "Do you need the Hospital Wing?"

Rebekah nodded, getting up from her desk slowly. Her shoulder ached, burning with icy heat as she felt the torrent of anger go through her as Voldemort sent it.

"I've done as much as I can," She said, knowing she could have finished but knew she was going to do well anyway.

The old Wizard nodded, "I shall collect your examination paper, and I suggest that you go straight to the Hospital Wing."

"I will, thanks," Rebekah said, and lied.

Waiting until the old man disappeared into the Great Hall, she bolted up the marble staircase to get to Dumbledore's office. Lady Hogwarts herself seemed to know that this was an emergency and made all of the staircases be in the right position for Rebekah to get to the office as soon as possible.

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"Dumbledore is damn well useless," Rebekah swore while the Crown sat in the Chamber.

Draco snorted. "You've known since First year, 'Bekah."

"True." She sighed, suddenly collapsing onto her knees as she shifted into her Animagus form. "That man has been no help."

"Especially with Umbitch," Tracey sighed, letting Rebekah put her head in her lap and scratching one of her ears. "We've finally found a way to get rid of her at least."

"Plans have been set and made,"

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Umbridge trekked into the forest, getting deeper and deeper as she tried to follow the group of Animagus students. She knew they were keeping something from her, from Voldemort. Umbridge had orders from the Dark Lord and she was going to do as he bid, even going to the lengths of capturing Potter and forcing her to the ministry where the other Death Eaters would be.

Why did the Forest have to be so thick? She was loosing track of the stupid teens now, but at least she could hear them still, all making various sounds. Umbridge tripped over a fallen sapling again, getting up with a loud grumble as she dusted herself off. She continued to jog after the students, not realizing that the students knew she was there.

She walked on for what seemed a long time, trying to catch up until she realised she couldn't see very well because the dense tree canopy blocked out all light. She had the feeling of being watched by unseen eyes. She shook it off as nerves and excitement for finally getting rid of Potter and getting into the Lord's good graces.

Umbridge almost screamed as an arrow thudded next to the tree just over her head, the sudden sound of hooves penetrating the air. She hurried towards the opening in front of her, seeing the various colours of the students' Animagus forms.

Potter and her group of friends were in the clearing, all laying on the ground in a mass pile of limbs as they just laid. Within there were several smaller limbs belonging to foals, along with a larger than average dog with three heads who just licked the foals with little growls and nips. The foals had begun to pet the animal forms, liking the fact that they were comfortable enough to be around them in their Animagus forms.

They were also surrounded by fifty Centaurs with bows at the ready.

"Who are you?" Magorian said, a dark grimace of anger over his face.

Umbridge didn't reply, lifting her wand and pointing it at the advancing Centaur with a trembling hand.

Magorian huffed out a breath. "I asked you who you are, human."

"I am Dolores Umbridge!" She said, trying to sound confident and knew she was failing. "Senior Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic and High Inquisitor of Hogwarts!"

"You are from the Ministry of Magic?" Magorian almost laughed at how important she tried to make herself sound. Several of his colony shifted restlessly, all watching her and their foals within the group of Animagi and Tercet.

"That's right!" Umbridge tried again. "So be very careful! By the laws laid down by the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, any attack by half-breeds such as yourselves on a human —"

"What did you call us?" Bane almost shouted, shaking his head aggressively enough to make his black hair shake around him. Centaurs around him tightened their bowstrings as Umbridge took a step towards the group and foals.

Umbridge continued as if she didn't hear him. "Law Fifteen B states clearly that 'Any attack by a magical creature who is deemed to have near-human intelligence, and therefore considered responsible for its actions —' "

" 'Near-human intelligence'?" Magorian repeated as he had to raise a hand to stop some of his colony attacking her prematurely. "We consider that a great insult, human! Our intelligence, thankfully, far outstrips your own —"

"What are you doing in our forest?" A grey Centaur spoke over him. "Why are you here?"

"Your forest?" Ubridge shook with fright and disgust. "I would remind you that you live here only because the Ministry of Magic permits you certain areas of land —"

The Crown had to refrain from laughing as an arrow almost grazed Umbridge's ear and she let out an ear splitting scream. The Centaurs laughed and stomped their hooves in approval, the foals laughing and clapping their hands before returning to petting the Crown members who relished in their attention.

"It's our forest!" One of the young foals yelled and stood up, looking up to Bane as he smiled at his son.

"Filthy half-breeds!" Umbridge screamed, her hands near her head to protect it. "Beasts! Uncontrolled animals!"

She lifted her wand towards the young foal who was still standing, opening her mouth to yell a spell.

Tercet launched himself over the foal, making him go down to the floor as ropes covered the HellHounds form and tried to strangle him. It didn't work for long as the ropes burned off as he used his HellHound Magic.

He became bigger and bigger, trapping the Crown and foals behind him as some Centaurs pulled all of them away and behind them too. Tercet jumped forwards, grabbing Umbridge around the middle with her in Hao's mouth.

"I am Senior Undersecretary!" She screamed as Tercet clenched his jaws to silence her but couldn't without killing her just yet. "You cannot… Unhand me, you animals!"

She tried to send a stunner but Magorian took her wand and snapped it before breaking it further under his hooves.

"Crown," He said, looking at the now human-formed students, all huddled near the foals and a couple of their mares and sires. "Plans have changed."

"Do with her what you will," Rebekah said, hugging the foal that was almost hurt. Bane's son had his arms around her middle as he sniffled, she tried to comfort him. "She attacked one of your young. We did not know she would try. We apologise."

"It is not your fault, Crown," He said. "We will deal with her in the Centaur way. She will be killed for her treason against Centaurs, even Wizarding law cannot keep her safe against it without losing Centaur treaties. If they even tried, they would lose every single treaty and agreement to date."

"She's getting what she deserves."

"That she is," Bane muttered darkly as he allowed Tercet to follow him. "Keep my son safe, Potter. Borian, be good and be strong."

Borian just nodded into Rebekah's side.

They watched as almost all of the Centaurs followed Bane and Tercet deeper into the forest. Eventually, after a couple minutes, there were screams of extreme pain from the distance. Real pain, real hurt, real.

Umbridge would not survive this.

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