Luminescent
Part Eighteen
Umbridge's Victory
Disclaimer: I still don't own Harry Potter. Pity that, but true. I do own the Lugovaloses. I'm not entirely sure I want to admit to that, but it's still true.
Warnings: Some sap, Umbitch torture--that may or may not need a warning. I will also put in a tiny spoiler because it's necessary, but Chara spanks River and Rayne. I know some people don't believe in spanking children. I am not one of them. If you have an issue, I'll warn you to read carefully. The passage is not marked. But I did want to warn you. Oh, and also (in case you hadn't notices yet), this is slash.
Author's Note: I'm so sorry about the long time to update. I was sick for a month--and I'm not kidding--so all I did was sleep and go to work. I'm feeling better now, but I was out of the habit of writing, and I'm just now getting back into it. Bear with me for a little while longer, and I promise this story is not abandoned. I even worked on it a teeny bit while I was sick, but not enough to update. I have, however, re-read it and made sure it doesn't suck, and now I can update!
I'm glad everyone liked the last chapter, and I apologize again for the long time between updates. Ugh. I'm attempting not to do that anymore, I really am. So. . . please all of you do me a favor.
Enjoy!
oOooOo
Even after Harry and Phyrrus filled their friends into what was going on with Harry's dreams and the bond, they still found themselves at a standstill. Severus and Leon had left, taking with them Harry's only source of advice for a great deal of things the other professors couldn't know. Like Dumbledore's Army, for example. The DA decided to continue to meet, but Harry knew it was going to be a lot harder now that their competent teachers were gone.
"It's a good thing Dumbledore didn't let her replace the teachers," Hermione huffed. "Who knows what idiots we'd get stuck with, then?"
"Do you know who is replacing them?" Harry wasn't sure if the replacements would be better or worse than the people they'd had before.
"That hasn't made it down the grape vine," Hermione had to admit. "Whoever it is, the headmaster is being very hush-hush about it."
"I half-hope it's Aunt Lily he gets to teach potions. It'd serve Umbridge right," Phyrrus hid a snicker. "She is a potions master."
"Aunt Lily is a potions master?" Ron's face twisted into a strange look, though Harry could sympathize. Tiger Lily, the youngest of Phyrrus' aunts, was a strange woman, half tomboy and half hippie. Hiring her would only bring out and out war to the castle.
"Believe it or not," Cyrrus snickered. "We originally thought she took the degree for the. . . well, being on drugs, pretty much."
"Is she really? I didn't think Grandma Lugovalos would approve."
"We always thought so, but according to Uncle Clayton it's all natural." Phyrrus grinned. "But, moving on, we still have one major problem. We don't know who's telling secrets to Umbitch, so we can't avoid giving them away."
"I hate to say this but. . . why don't you set River and Rayne on them?" Hermione shuddered a bit as she said it, but the little girls, who had been playing in another corner of the room, perked up at the mention.
"Can we really?" River's too-innocent eyes were shining.
Harry raised an eyebrow, glancing at his boyfriend, who shrugged. "What the hell. You find them, you can do something. Just no permanent damanage and no killing."
"It won't be on purpose," Rayne agreed, leaning towards her sister. Phyrrus winced. Whatever the two were planning, they'd been planning it for quite some time, if their whispers were any indication.
"Shit," Cyrrus whispered softly, and returned to their own problems.
"I'll start looking up what's in the department of mysteries," Hermione whispered. "Draco, can you help me find out what Voldemort's after? Surely you can get something from your parents."
Draco chewed his lip, but nodded. It would be dangerous, especially since Lucius was no longer a favored follower, since he was closer to Severus who was now "in the league with Potter," according to Voldemort, but Narcissa might still have valuable information.
"Harry, I want you and Phyrrus to at least try to get some sort of research on bonds. I know they're all different, but there must be something we can use," Hermione ordered. "If being bonded to Phyrrus and have part of Voldemort's soul attached to yours is true, we'll need all the help we can get. Cyrrus, you and Pansy put out some feelers about those sneaks of Umbridge's and what they found out. I have a feeling the DA is going to be watched very closely." Hermione frowned, considering. "Neville, why don't you and Ginny try to find out about our new professors? Ron, you're in charge of the list of the DA. Professor Snape and Uncle Leon left it here." Hermione handed it over to him and then glanced to her friends.
Nods spread around the table and Hermione sighed. How did they get stuck in all of this, anyway? Something terrible she'd done in the past, or was it just her luck?
Splitting up, the group decided to get at least something done that night, and headed out in separate directions, all of them hoping that things would get better very, very soon.
oOooOo
Three days later, River and Rayne flushed out the people snitching to Umbridge. The little twins walked into the Great Hall, grinning like mad and letting everyone know that they were, indeed, responsible for the coming explosion.
And it was an explosion, with lots of very bright, florescent colors.
"Fire in the hole!" River screamed at the top of her lungs, sending most of the great hall for cover. Even the teachers got under the tables, and Hagrid, who didn't fit, covered his head with a soft whimper. Harry wasn't entirely sure what they launched, but everyone felt the affects, even River and Rayne.
"You said it wouldn't get us!" Rayne griped at her sister, staring at her bright pink hair. It matched her hair ribbon.
"It wasn't supposed to," River protested, frowning as well. "I wonder if any other part of it was faulty."
"I don't think so. I mean, we used that stabilizer and then added the bat wing just as it turned, so it shouldn't do anything it shouldn't. Maybe we didn't infuse it with enough amplifier. . ."
"Powder quartz might solve the problem. Maybe if we used that in conjecture with the moonstone and then--"
"WHAT HAVE YOU TWO DONE?" Phyrrus roared, striding toward his sisters. His hair, like most of the boys' in the Great Hall, was now neon green.
"You don't like it?" Rayne smiled. "We thought to make the boys' hair green because it was sort of like Harry's eyes. Even if it is florescent. Besides, you said to flush them out."
"And you turned my hair colors just for shits and giggles?"
"Well, ours is different too," River reminded him, gesturing at the hot pink curls on her head. "Besides, it did the trick."
"And you did that how?"
"Well, we didn't want to make it too obvious, so the people with pink or green hair are innocent, and the ones with florescent yellow or orange hair aren't." Rayne smiled brightly.
"You didn't want to make it obvious?" Cyrrus crossed his arms and glared at his cousins.
"Okay, that's a flat out lie. But we do have something planned." River smirked. "Now, Rayne, to put the rest of the plan in action."
"That's not our trip," Rayne reminder her sister, flipping her hand towards Fred and George Weasely.
The older twins smirked brightly at them and jumped onto the Gryffindor and Slytherin tables, and began to sing at the top of their--rather considerable--lungs.
"Umbridge is an ugly toad,
If you want shite, she's got a load!
All she says is insults and lies,
And yellow and orange denote her spies!"
And that was about the time all hell broke loose, because River detonated something--no one ever did figure out what it was, exactly--and sent up a round of sparklers in the same yellow and orange several people were currently sporting on their heads.
Umbridge, who'd finally dared to stick her head out from under the table, her neon yellow hair clashing with her pasty face, began to scream in her squeaky, little-girl voice. "I'll have you expelled! I'll have all four of your wands for this!"
"Not allowed to snap me wand, Umbitch!" River twiddled her fingers. "That's not how we roll in America! I'm allowed to go to another school."
"Dare I ask how she knows this?" Harry frowned.
"Personal experience," Phyrrus answered, shrugging. "They've been expelled twice already."
"Should I ask?"
"I never did. I decided it was best not to know."
"Have you been expelled?"
"Not me. But then, I'm not crazy."
"If you say so," Ron muttered, too soft for Phyrrus to hear, but Harry had to hide a snicker.
Umbridge continued to squeak until George Weasely made a direct bull's eye with a canary cream and Umbridge's mouth, promptly turning her into a bright canary. She screamed in rage, chasing them from the Great Hall, and the two boys cackled as they ran. Heading up the third floor corridor, they stopped her for while with something they called a portable swamp. It smelled, and Umbridge was stuck right in the center.
Not even the professors could figure out how to banish it, and George cheerfully admitted, as he was sweeping from the castle on his broomstick, that they hadn't exactly set a time limit on it yet. It was still in the development process.
Umbridge, still stuck in the swamp, screamed and cursed.
The twins just gave a merry wave and tossed back some other spells that transformed Umbridge into a bright orange toad with a yellow mohawk and were gone, flying off into. . . the high noon sun.
"Brilliant," River hissed, examining the swamp. "Just brilliant. Add a time limit and we could really have something."
"I think I know how. We'll have to talk to Fred and George. Remember, they said we could work as developers this summer at their shop," Rayne agreed, ignoring Umbridge's loud, croaked protests. McGonagall was taking her time to change the woman back. River and Rayne felt she looked--and sounded--much better as a toad than a woman.
The little twins continued to mutter to themselves as they headed back to the dormitory. Classes had been canceled due to the fiasco in the morning, leaving them more time to plot.
By the time everyone arrived in the Great Hall the next day, there was a huge sign above the teacher's table that announced, "Open Season for the Yellow and Orange Haired Spies!"
And it degenerated from there.
It was chaos and mayhem, and not even threats from the headmaster could get it under control. Most of the students were so tired of Umbridge's edicts and rules that once they had a chance for revenge, they all took it. With so many people participating, it was impossible to tell who responsible. The only people Umbridge could blame, were River and Rayne.
She readily assigned detention for the next week, after the potion had, hopefully, worn off and things were mostly back to normal.
Phyrrus and Cyrrus had said nothing, just watched the chaos and occasionally joined in, but they also knew they were going to have to do something about River and Rayne themselves. And let Chara know what was happening.
All River and Rayne knew was that their mother was not going to be happy.
oOooOo
Saturday, Chara Lugovalos stormed into the Great Hall and straight up to the Teachers' table. She smiled to Dumbledore, then turned. "If you're name contains Lugovalos in any way, shape, or form, your ass is mine! Yes, Harry, I mean you, too!"
Harry, Phyrrus, and Cyrrus paled. River and Rayne started sneaking for the doors.
"HALT!" Chara's bright eyes pinned down the twins. "All of you, McGonagall's office. Now."
The four Lugovaloses and the one almost-Lugovalos darted out of the room. Harry grabbed Phyrrus' hand. "Your mum is scary."
"I didn't have anything to do with it!" Phyrrus protested as he kicked River out of one of the chairs and sat down. Cyrrus claimed the other chair, and Harry took Phyrrus' lap. They forced the little twins to stand.
Chara stalked in a few moments later, glaring at all of them. Harry flinched. "I'm sorry," He whispered.
"I will do the talking, and you guys will be listening." Chara pinned him with a glare, and Harry flinched. He had done his best not to make Chara angry, but with Chara so mad. . . would she make him stop seeing Phyrrus?
"River. Rayne." The two jumped to attention. "You two will stand in separate corners until I finish with these three. Understand?"
"Yes, Mother," The two whispered. Harry almost started. He had never heard them call Chara, "Mother," before.
"You three." Chara rounded on them once River and Rayne were settled. "I'm surprised you let them do this. From what I heard, you told them they could do it."
"I said they could do something, not this! I never thought they'd. . . they'd have spy-hunting season!" Phyrrus protested. "And they would probably have done something anyway!"
"I realize that. However, you are somewhat to blame. And you three also joined in with the rest of the students. I am beyond disappointed in all three of you. What if someone had gotten hurt?"
"We know not to hurt anyone, Aunt Chara. We didn't do anything we haven't done before." Cyrrus crossed his arms. Harry chewed his lip. Cyrrus never called Chara anything but, "Mom."
"That's not the point. What if someone decided that if you did it, it was all right? What if they don't know when to stop? You three are supposed to be good examples. You, all of you, have shamed the Lugovalos name! What do you have to say for yourselves? And no excuses!"
"I'm sorry, Mother," Phyrrus stared at the desk his mother stood behind.
"Me too, Aunt Chara."
"I'm. . . I'm sorry, Mrs. Lugovalos."
Chara's face softened. "Oh, Harry, sweetie, none of that. Even if I'm angry as hell with you, you need never call me Mrs. Lugovalos. You're my son-in-law. Call me what Phyrrus does."
"I'm so sorry, Mother," Harry sniffed, and Phyrrus hugged him. Chara hugged them both tightly.
"Never Mrs. Lugovalos, sweetie. No matter what happens, you are always going to be part of this family, understand?"
"Yes, Mum."
"That's my boy. Now, you three still have some work to do. You will write letters of apology to the students you pranked, and you will be helping Madame Pomfery for three days, two hours a day after your last class. Got it?"
"Yes, Mother," The trio chorused.
"Good. Hugs, then you're out." Chara hugged all three and sent them off, leaving all of them relieved.
Chara then turned to River and Rayne. "Chairs. Now."
The dressing down the two received was enough to make their ears burn, and the two stared, shame-faced, at their hands the entire time. Chara wasn't finished there, however.
Commandeering McGonagall's chair, she gestured for River to come to her first. River winced. They were in for spankings. Chara rarely had to spank any of her children, but they knew she'd do it. And now was one of those time.
Several smacks each, and the two were left crying all over Chara's shirt and whimpering out apologies. Chara hugged them and cuddled them and accepted their apologies, but still ordered them to write a letter of apology to the students for Dumbledore to read at breakfast in a week. Plenty of time for them to get it done and help out Harry, Phyrrus, and Cyrrus in the Hospital Wing.
River and Rayne said nothing to their brother, just sat next to him on one of the couches and settled their small heads on his legs. Phyrrus rubbed their backs gently. "Do you think Daddy would be ashamed of us?" Rayne sniffed after a few moments.
"I think he'd be disappointed in all three of us," Phyrrus carefully brushed her hair from her face. "We weren't acting very good."
"She deserved it!" River cried, rubbing at her eyes. "She did! She's mean to everyone, and she hurt them, and she used those nasty quills on Harry and you, and she deserved more than that!"
"But just because we have that power doesn't mean we should use it. It's not our place. Things Grandma might be able to do and get away with, we can't. Mom was right. We need to act like Lugovaloses."
"Which means?" Harry raised an eyebrow.
"If you're going to do it, don't get caught." All three announced.
Harry blinked. "What?"
"The unofficial Lugovalos Rules." Phyrrus explained. "The parents don't ever tell their kids, but the cousins get them. They're always passed down somehow. There aren't a lot of them."
Rayne nodded, and she, River, and Phyrrus told them in a rather round-robin fashion. "Rule one: Don't hurt innocent people."
"Rule two: Don't get caught."
"Rule three: Plan A should always work.
"Rule four: If Plan A doesn't work, make it work."
"Rule five: If you can't beat it, blow it up."
"Rule six: Be curious and take everything apart."
"Rule seven: Make sure you can get everything you take apart back together."
"Rule eight: If you do get caught, blame someone else."
"Rule nine: Act innocent and make sure you have an alibi."
"Rule ten: Don't snitch. Unless someone is in mortal danger. Then you can snitch."
The trio considered, then nodded and added, in unison, "And, most importantly, Don't bring shame and reproach on the family name!"
Harry stared at them for a moment, in utter shock. They seriously had rules passed down from generation to generation for troublemaking? And why did this sound like something his dad and the rest of the marauders would have done if they had known about it. "You seriously pass down these rules?" Harry had to ask, unable to believe for a moment they were serious.
"Better to have rules than not," Phyrrus pointed out. "At least we try our best to keep people safe. I mean, just think if we didn't have them? We might do something dangerous!"
"Because the lot of you don't do that on a regular basis," Harry sniped.
"Well, yeah, but at least no one else gets hurt," River shrugged. "But. . . I guess we didn't do a very good job this time. We really made a mistake."
Rayne nodded, sniffing a bit and rubbed a hand over her face. Harry glanced at the trio, resting his head on Phyrrus' shoulder over the back of the couch. "We really screwed up."
"Mom never says we shame the Lugovalos name," River murmured. "Never ever." It was rare for the twins to actually sound their ages, and River's digression only accented how upset the two were.
Phyrrus sighed softly and shook his head, still holding his sisters. "We'll just have to make up for it. Go get cleaned up, you two. We've sat around long enough. You have letters to write."
"So do you," River muttered, getting up and moving toward the dorm. Rayne just shook her head and followed her sister out. Phyrrus bit his lip, wrapping Harry in his arms as he fought to compose himself.
"Are you all right, Phyrrus?"
Phyrrus shook his head, his grip on his boyfriend tightening. "What have we done?" He whispered.
Harry hugged Phyrrus, but had no good reply, no matter how hard he wished for the answer.
oOooOo
Detention was every bit as bad as Harry expected, and the entire Lugovalos family was strangely subdued. They all received neon-orange howlers from a few family members over the next week, including Leon, Anders, Clayton, and Grandma Lugovalos. Grandma Lugovalos' howler, though no worse than any of the others, drove River and Rayne to tears that took nearly an hour to soothe. They seemed to realize just how badly they'd messed up, and seriously regretted it. Not only that, they still all had apologies to write to most of the student body. That alone kept them busy for the next two weeks, and by the time they were finished with that, it was time to truly prepare for their OWLs.
The DA still met regularly, even though Leon and Severus were no longer at the school, and Harry found himself very glad.
"You're doing the spell wrong, Flame," One of the Ravenclaws announced, crossing her arms and frowning. "Swish your wand harder and shout the curse, not mumble it."
"You say it weird," Phyrrus protested, attempting the spell again. "I'm trying to do it, but I have to change the vowels to work in my accent."
"Why don't you just pick up ours, you pansy," Seamus teased, and Phyrrus huffed, snapping his wand and managing most of the spell correctly. He still failed with a spectacular shower of sparks and general destruction, but he was getting better, at least. Harry hid a snicker and did the spell himself, then moved to help a third year with some wandwork.
"I don't understand how Umbitch thought we'd be able to do this without practice," Dean muttered, miscasting the spell and bringing a drape down on another student's head.
"Most of the school is part of the DA," Cho Chang commented, taking a short break. "We'll all do fine. It's everyone else I'm worried about."
"I've seen a lot of the students in the DA tutoring those that aren't," Luna Lovegood replied, her eyes still dreamy and somewhat lost. "So I think we'll all be okay."
"That's a relief," Hermione sighed. "We've been working way to hard to fail!"
"At least we know about the academic part," Another student shrugged. "Thought I must admit, I'm worried about the NEWTs."
"We'll be fine, man. Just don't lose your cool." One student offered in a wavery, dream-like voice. Phyrrus choked. It sounded like the boy was on some serious stuff.
Harry raised an eyebrow as Phyrrus leaned over to whisper, "If he was any more hippie, I'd have to pry him off a tree."
Harry burst into laughter and had to stop mid-spell so he didn't aim it somewhere it wasn't supposed to go. The meeting continued for almost an hour after his outburst, and then Harry pleaded exhaustion so Phyrrus would let him out of cleaning. Phyrrus agreed, pressing a gentle kiss to Harry's lips. It had been hard to steal time alone for awhile, and they were beginning to feel the strain. Harry slowly made his way up the stairs, smiling softly to himself.
The room was dark and dank, but large as it stretched in every direction, glittering vials surrounding him like dozens of gems. But which one did he want? His body was snakelike and the squiggles on the bottles made no sense--
Harry gasped, barely grabbing the stair rail before his knees gave out. Why was he having those visions? It made no sense! Staggering the rest of the way to the dorm, Harry fell into bed to wait for Phyrrus to appear.
When the red-head finally got to the room, Harry barely waited for him to change before dragging him into bed and snapping the curtains closed with a wave of his hand and casting a silencing charm. "Harry?"
Harry explained about the vision, sighing when Phyrrus shook his head. "It has to do something with that road, but I don't know what."
"I don't want to. I just want Voldemort out of my head!" Harry half screamed, going limp in Phyrrus strong arms when he was pulled close.
"We'll figure it out," Phyrrus promised.
"Just. . . make me forget about it, for now, then." Harry pleaded, shifting to face his boyfriend.
Phyrrus nodded, pressing a kiss to Harry's lips and slowly deepening it, laying them back on the bed. Harry groaned into Phyrrus' mouth, readily reciprocating the action and letting their tongues battle for dominance. Hands roamed and left what almost seemed to be burning trails in their wake, though both boys continued to be mindful of just how far they could go. "Feels good," Harry panted as Phyrrus lapped at the spot behind his ear.
"Mm," Phyrrus had to agree, not wanting to interrupt their nice snogging session.
"Hands," Harry warned softly, catching the calloused palms and kissing them softly. Phyrrus grumbled something, but went back to kissing Harry, who didn't complain, but pulled away after a little longer.
"Best to stop," Phyrrus panted, nipping Harry's throat. Harry hummed in agreement, flopping back and pulling Phyrrus with him so they could cuddle. Having Phyrrus close made his connection with Voldemort seem like a distant memory. It was. . . rather nice.
oOooOo
From there, all anyone could do was watch the rest of the semester fall apart like a train wreck. The students, so used to have Severus around, could not get used to the new, ministry assigned, potions teacher who was incompetent and seemed to need more help from the students than the students needed from him. The new divination professor was a centuar, disturbing half the population--not because he was a centuar, but because Parvarti and Lavender spent so much time drooling over him--and the year was not going as smoothly as anyone would have liked.
Not to mention that Defense Against the Dark Arts was hell, and that Umbridge managed to use the prank River and Rayne caused to get Dumbledore cast from the school as a "bad influence" after nearly a month of deliberation from the governors.
Cyrrus and Phyrrus wrote to Anders and Percy about that. A month after the incident and the Board was just now finding fault with Dumbledore? It seemed unlikely, and the boys wanted to know who, exactly, was currently pulling the strings behind Hogwarts.
To top it all off, Harry could no longer be separated from Phyrrus more than twenty minutes before having a vision about that strange room with the glittering bottles.
"I don't fucking get it!" Harry slammed his hands down onto the table. "Why am I having these visions?"
"I wish I knew," Phyrrus rubbed his temples. Harry had started to get headaches after them, and Phyrrus was feeling the pain as acutely as his partner; it was making them both incredibly cross.
Hermione sighed softly to herself. None of this was condusive to studying, especially now that the DA was meeting several times a week to cover not only Defense Against the Dark Arts, but Potions as well, with directions sent trans-atlantic via Chara from Severus about most of the potions they were brewing. Fortunately, the only students having any real difficulty were the seventh years because they didn't have anyone of a higher level to help them. It was four times harder to learn to do it alone than with a competent professor.
River and Rayne, strangely enough, were in their element. After Umbridge attempting--and failing--to get them expelled, the two had been quiet. Deadly quiet. All Harry knew was that they were planning something huge for after the school year ended, and that they were in contact with Fred and George. None of it boded well for any of them.
"Done," Hermione announced, tossing aside her Transfigurations text. "I think we'll be okay for our OWLs as long as we stick with the schedule I have."
"With the extra work we're doing, we don't have a lot of options," Cyrrus, buried up to his nose in books, scowled.
"Hear, hear," Draco agreed. He'd already been burned four times from Neville's exploding cauldrons. They had all been mistaken when they'd blamed Severus for Neville's inability to brew correctly. He was just really, really bad at potions. Severus' sarcastic nature certainly didn't help, but none of them could see much difference from Neville's work now compared to Neville's work with Severus around.
And then, after months of work and stress and trials, it was time for their OWLs. Harry chewed his fingers nervously and tried to ignore Phyrrus constantly batting them from his mouth, as River and Rayne chattered to them constantly, trying to distract them.
None of it was working. Harry still found himself inexplicably nervous when he, and the rest of the fifth years, were assigned groups for the practical tests.
Glancing at his papers and opening his link with his boyfriend, Harry felt his heart sink.
He and Phyrrus had been placed in separate groups.
oOooOo