"You recognize me," I said. "I'd have thought that all muggleborn looked the same to you."
"They kept playing that same picture in the paper over and over," Umbridge said. "As though hitting a majestic creature like an animal was something worthy of praise."
The picture of me fighting the Dementors in the paper. It must have infuriated her, knowing that I had stopped her planned massacre.
We stared at each other.
"Why are you here, Miss Hebert?" Umbridge asked. "Do you really think you can make a difference? The tide of history is inexorable, and it is flowing against your people. The natural, rightful order is reestablishing itself, and those who do not fall in line shall be trampled."
"You've been working for the Death Eaters," I said. "I want to know everything you know about them... especially about where they live."
"Miss Hebert!" she said, sounding shocked. "There's no point in being rude! I would never work with the enemies of the state!"
I sighed.
"You know," I said. "It's too bad that the Unforgivables aren't allowed. This would be much easier if someone had showed me how to use the Imperius. I'm going to have to use... cruder methods."
I'd suspected that she'd used torture not out of fear of using an Unforgivable, but out of sheer enjoyment of breaking the man. There had been something in her eyes.
Her face twitched.
"You wouldn't dare!" she said. "I'm the Minister for Magic!"
"I'm a barbarian," I said. "A sociopath. You've heard what I did to boys who tried to bully me; what do you think I'll do to someone who tried to have me and all my friends Kissed?"
She backed up a little.
"This is unconscionable!" she said. "What will it gain you? Even if I lied and gave you a list of false names, what would it get you?"
"A list of people to kill?" I asked. "That would be priceless. I don't know if you've heard about my boggart."
"There were rumors," she muttered.
"My greatest fear was that I was going to have to murder all of you, destroy the entire Wizarding world. The problem we're having is that I'm getting less and less afraid of that."
She frowned, so I explained it to her.
"It's actually starting to sound like a good idea," I said. "And that's going to be a problem for everyone if things don't change."
"I'm sure we can come to some arrangement," she said hastily as I lifted my wand.
She was stalling. I could see it in her eyes.
I didn't see anything with my bugs, so...
"Did they tell you they'd be coming for me?" I asked. "The Death Eaters?"
They had a Seer; furthermore, they'd had almost a year and a half to get a grasp of my personality. They had to know that sending dementors to destroy me and my friends would warrant immediate retaliation, most likely on the very Ministry that had issued the order.
"If you surrender, I can grant you protection," she said. "You are of more value alive than dead. Showing the world that you are no hero would be worth a little disagreement with my benefactors."
So she thought that I'd become a rallying point for the muggles, a symbol that resistance was not futile. Having me in prison would demoralize the rest of them, make them easier to round up and deport, or worse.
"So you admit it," I said flatly.
"You won't get away," she said. "Whatever else happens, you will be found. It would be better if the Ministry administered justice, rather than the Dark Lord. I understand that some of his punishments can be... rather creative."
She didn't know about the boys.
I could see it in her eyes. She believed that I'd broken into the Ministry on my own. It made sense that she'd think that; it had been my modus operandi in the past. I'd never really used allies in the past, and the seer had probably focused completely on me and ignored any images of the others.
Switching wands took me only a moment.
"What are you doing?" she asked, as I held her wand up and pointed it at the wall.
"Morsmordre Maxima," I said.
The cats on the walls screamed as the wall bulged, twisting and changing into the shape of a familiar, green hued skull.
"What?" she asked.
"We need to get the Ministry back on track, chasing after the real enemy," I said. "That's only going to happen if there is a crime big enough to shock the entire country."
I could see it in her eyes.
"Now Miss Hebert," she said. "There's no need to be hasty."
She was reaching behind her; my insects could see something on her desk. She had another wand hidden under her papers, likely the wand of the man she'd just sent to the dungeons.
"Expecto Patronum," I said.
There was a moment of confusion in her eyes, followed by a lot of screaming.
I watched dispassionately, despite feeling a little impressed at just how... effective the spell was. It didn't last long; just a minute or two, but her pain was indescribable. She didn't scream long; her voice box was eaten through after only a few moments, but she was alive throughout most of it.
Dismissing the patronus was harder this time, but I managed to do it.
All that was left of her were bleached bones and the remains of her clothes; apparently the Patronus had a preference for living flesh.
Immediately I was out the door.
I reached the boys, and I saw that they'd just finished disassembling the machine and had put it away.
"Get out. There are Death Eaters coming, and they only know about me. I'll try to draw them away. Get back to the school, and I'll meet you there."
I heard them protesting, but I didn't bother to listen. We'd gone over several escape scenarios extensively, and they knew what to do in a situation like this.
I disillusioned myself and I sprinted down the hallway.
Voldemort had gone all out this time.
I could sense them now in the Atrium; there were more than twenty of them, and they were spreading out. They were wearing their full outfits, masks and everything, and as I watched, they killed the guard.
Being disillusioned wouldn't help if they used the human revealing spell. The spell didn't reveal identities, and it only revealed the general location, which gave me some wiggle room. Still, fighting twenty Death Eaters with no time to prepare was probably beyond even me, unless I was willing to reveal all my trump cards.
They were coming up the elevators.
I followed the boys through my bugs as they rushed down one set of stairs. I went down the other.
The sheer size of the Ministry was to our advantage. The fact that the seer had given them information was not.
On level three I paused. It looked like the boys might run into Death Eaters; I scowled, opened the door next to me, and pointed my wand.
"Bombarda Maxima!" I shouted.
The explosion in the room next to me was satisfying, and more importantly loud. I could sense the Death eaters who had been going up the stairs turn and head back in my direction.
Rain began to fall in the room almost as soon as the flames erupted from the furniture, despite there not being a visible sprinkler system.
I slipped back into the stairwell and slid down the steps as quickly as I could. There were alarms going off all over the building, which was only to the good. It would take the aurors some time to arrive, but once they did, things would start looking more in my favor.
A woman in her early thirties with prematurely graying hair was looking out of an office. She looked confused.
If she wasn't careful, she was going to be murdered before she had a chance.
Putting my wand to my throat, I shouted, "THE DEATH EATERS ARE ATTACKING THE MINISTRY. EVACUATE!"
I tried to make my voice as deep as possible, hoping it didn't sound like the voice of a child. It was incredibly loud.
I was disillusioned, so she didn't see me, but I ran past her. Undoubtedly her ears were still ringing.
The Death Eaters were closing in on me more quickly. I had to find the route with the fewest Death Eaters between me and freedom.
It took me a moment, but... there.
I ran, and I cast the spell to silence myself. It might not help if they tried the human revealing spell, but they couldn't keep that up constantly.
Two Death Eaters emerged from a stairwell; I pointed my wand and said "Bombarda Maxima."
The spell bounced off a shield being used by one of the Death Eaters. It exploded against the wall beside them, sending out splinters of wood.
I slid to the floor as beams of greenish light flew over my head. They couldn't see me, but they knew my general location. They probably hadn't disillusioned themselves for fear of friendly fire; it would have been difficult to avoid attacking each other if they didn't know where they were.
Darkness powder from my pack flew through the air; neither one of them was holding a Hand of Glory, although one of them had one on his belt. It would take precious time for him to reach it, by which time I could cut their feet out from under them.
The shield didn't reach the floor, so I used a cutting spell, putting as much of my will into it as I could. It sheered through muscle and bone, severing the man's foot. He screamed and fell, and the shield vanished.
The other man was fumbling with the hand of Glory. He looked up, but it was already too late.
"Bombarda Maxima," I said.
He exploded, and as I ran past the other, screaming man, I pointed my wand at him and put him out of his misery.
Running down the stairs, I realized that the Atrium was still guarded by several Death Eaters.
The boys had reached it by now; the Death Eaters were firing at the spots where the sounds of apparition could be heard, but no bodies hit the floor. It looked like they'd gotten away.
Good.
I'd had a plan, just in case all of this went sideways. All I needed to do was reach an elevator...
A Death Eater was guarding the elevators. His head snapped around, and a flash of green light flew past my head.
They weren't trying to save me to be tortured by Voldemort; they were just trying to kill me. It was a lot more pragmatic than I would have expected from them.
The fact was that some of the others were distracted by fighting Ministry employees. Maybe this wasn't entirely to catch me. Having the Ministry attacked wouldn't have been in the interest of their puppet, Umbridge.
Maybe they were finally making their play for control of the Ministry.
I blinked as I realized that Voldemort was in the Ministry. He was headed down to the bottom level, which is where I needed to go. He was taller than I would have thought, his skin chalk white and in my old world I'd have thought he was a Case 53.
A group of five Death Eaters were fighting aurors in the next room, near the elevator. I dropped to the floor and crawled as spells flew over my head. They'd be too busy to use the human revealing spell, not while they were in the middle of combat.
I reached the elevator and I slipped inside. Pushing the buttons, I pointed my wand and spoke in a low tone.
"Bombarda Maxima," I said.
It was enough that one of the Death Eaters heard me. He whirled around, but died as he was hit in the back by one of the auror's spells.
The man beside him exploded into a shower of guts and viscera, and that distracted the others enough for the aurors to take them down.
The door closed and I grimaced as the elevator almost shoved me to the floor. These things hand handholds for a reason; they didn't just go up and down; they moved from side to side and back and forwards, and they did so unexpectedly.
I was heading for the bottom floor, and the elevator was likely to open on the first floor before it continued on.
Moving as Far as I could around the edge of the door so that I'd have cover for most spell fire, I spoke the words of the shield spell, expanding it as wide as I could against the doorway.
It wouldn't protect me against the Killing curse, which is why I had cover, but it would keep someone from simply creating an explosion inside the elevator and easily killing me.
The door opened and I felt something massive explode against my shield. I heard screams as the blast rebounded on the people who'd cast it.
A moment later the doors closed again, and I heard soothing elevator music.
I was on the ninth floor.
This was the place where the Department of Mysteries resided. There were things here that I'd puzzled over for days; rooms filled with brains,
The doors opened into hallway with plain, black tiled walls. There were no doors to either side; only one at the end of the hall. It led to a circular room that moved; it had taken me hours before I'd figured out the trick to it.
I didn't have long before I was followed from one of the other elevators.
I sprinted down the hallway, reaching the Entrance Chamber just as the doors behind me opened. Spells flew over my head and I dodged to the side.
The entrance chamber was a circular room with a dark marble floor that looked almost like water. As I closed the door, the walls seemed to rotate. In truth, it was the chamber that was rotating with magic used to keep the people inside from realizing it.
Voldemort was in the prophecy room; presumably that was part of the reason he was here.
"Time," I called out, and a moment later a door opened up.
I was in a long, rectangular room filled with beautiful, dancing lights. There were strange devices everywhere, including clocks of every description.
On one wall there were numerous devices that looked like hourglasses on necklaces. Hermione had tried to get the Ministry to loan her one; they hadn't, saying she was too young. When she'd shown me a picture in a book, I'd realized where I'd seen them before.
I began scooping as many of them as I could into my fanny pack.
Grabbing one, I began to twist it, just as the book had said.
Voldemort had taken up a globe, and it was speaking.
"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies...""
I ducked as green light sprang up over my head. For once my shortness was an advantage instead of a disadvantage.
"Bombarda Maxima," I said, but this time I didn't aim back at the people who were attacking me; instead I began to run, and I targeted the wall that held the time turners.
The explosion was quite satisfying.
The only thing almost as good as gaining a new assert for your side was denying one to the enemy.
I pulled my power in as much as possible, until it just covered the area over my skin.
Time changed around me. Even better, the Time Turner didn't just return you to the same place you'd left in the future; it brought you to the place you had been at the time when you arrived.
I was disillusioned and I had the sound dispelling spell on me; the worse thing that could happen would be for my former self to sense me when we fought to control the same bugs.
Everyone was in the Great Hall settling down for bed.
Remembering what had happened, I waited.
"I have to go to the loo," a first year said.
"Take someone who can manage a patronus," my past self said, irritated. I'd told everyone to go beforehand, but anxiety had given some people nervous bowels.
I waited until a fifth year escorted the first year out the door.
From there it was a matter of avoiding the Dementors; I slipped into the Infirmary, presuming that the Dementors had been told to avoid the adult staff members.
I could hear the sounds of battle from where I was, and I hid as all of the crying students filed into the infirmary.
I watched myself talking to the Seventh Years, and then I waited as they all escaped through the window.
Slipping into the bed was easy while everyone was busy reconstructing the window, and I disillusioned myself.
I think I'd fallen asleep when the seventh years returned.
The window above us disappeared suddenly, and the disillusioned boys dropped exhausted off their brooms. The others replaced the window before the aurors outside, who were looking outward noticed that it was gone.
As they reappeared, people burst into confused murmurs.
"Death Eaters showed up at the Ministry," one of the boys said. "Taylor led them away from us."
There were dismayed cried from everyone in the crowd.
I sat up in bed.
"What took you guys so long?"