The Lightsaber
By: Tellemicus Sundance
#06: The Ministry Strikes
October 7, 1995
Hog's Head, Hogsmeade
"So who did you say is supposed to be meeting us?" Harry asked, wrenching open the rusty top of his Butterbeer and taking a swig.
"Just a couple of people," Hermione repeated, checking her watch and then anxiously towards the door. "I told them to be here about now and I'm sure they all know where it is—oh, look, this might be them now—"
He felt the jumbled assortment of familiar presences gathering around the entrance for a few moments before they gathered their courage and entered. The door of the pub opened, letting in a thick band of dusty sunlight to split the room in two for a moment and then vanish, blocked by the oncoming crowd rushing inside. Among the crowd, Harry recognized quite a few faces. Neville, Dean, Lavender, Parvati, Padma, Cho (Harry tried not to stare at her too closely or for too long), one of Cho's usually giggling girlfriends, Luna Lovegood, Katie Bell, Alicia Spinnet, Angelina Johnson, Colin and Dennis Creevey, Ernie Macmillian, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Hannah Abbott, a Hufflepuff girl with plaited hair he didn't remember, three Ravenclaw boys he was sure were Anthony Goldstein, Michael Corner, and Terry Boot. Then came Ginny, followed by a tall, blonde boy, and lastly there were Fred, George, and Lee Jordan (all of whom were carrying large paper bags crammed to bursting with Zonko's merchandise).
"A couple of people?" Harry whispered hoarsely to Hermione. "A couple of people?"
"Yes, well, the idea seemed quite popular," Hermione said happily, though he could sense her very well-hidden unease and restlessness due to his almost-angry stare. And thus, after a few minutes for the people to settle in and get some butterbeers from the quite unhappy bartender, the meeting began. Despite the fact that Hermione's calling card for the meeting had been about organizing a practical Defense Against the Dark Arts club, it soon became obvious to Harry that the majority of the people present or at least a good third of them had only come because they wanted to hear the story of Voldemort's rebirth and/or Cedric's death from his own mouth.
And while that did bother him to a degree, the part that really irritated him was that he could feel Cho's interest in the conversation spike substantially whenever that particular issue came up. It made him feel suddenly very foolish and somewhat angry at her as it explained a great deal about her behavior towards him since this school year had started. The passing glances she'd shot at him, the occasional greetings, bumping into each other and the fumbling attempts at a conversation between them. She hadn't been wanting to actually speak with or get to know him, just wanting to speak about what had happened to her boyfriend several months ago. This realization had followed shortly after the revelation of just why the students had even attended the meeting, leaving him feeling bitter and angry.
"Look," Hermione was saying. "that's really not what this meeting was supposed to be about—"
"It's okay, Hermione," Harry interrupted, closing his eyes and repeating an increasingly familiar mantra in his head. 'Breathe in, breathe out. Take in the peace, expel the anger. I'm no destroyer, I'm just Harry.' Opening his eyes after just a moment of collecting himself and forcefully letting his anger go, he looked Zacharias Smith (the most outspoken of the group) straight in the face. "I saw him. But Dumbledore told the whole school what happened last year, and if you didn't believe him, you won't believe me. And I'm not wasting a precious afternoon trying to convince anyone."
With that said, Harry stood up and left the Hog's Head, ignoring Hermione and the others' calls for him to stop and return. Perhaps it was childish of him, but he found he didn't really care anymore. He'd been telling people ever since it happened that Voldemort had come back, but each time they ignored him, scorned him, or just looked at him like he was touched in the head. And frankly, he was sick and tired of trying to justify himself to those types of people. Beyond that, he found that working on and building his MagiTech weapons for Dudley was giving him a great outlet to focus on and vent some of his frustrations.
If Hermione wanted to found a Defense club, then by all means let her. But he wasn't going to waste his time in it if all he could expect were a bunch of kids trying to get him to tell them about what they felt basically amounted to little more than campfire ghost story. Such a club would no doubt steal away what little time he had for his MagiTech and Sorcery training, so that was just another reason to not attend.
Did this make him a bad person to put his own training and desires ahead of others and not want to participate with his friends? Maybe, maybe not. And frankly, just like with his earlier decision, he just didn't care anymore. To them, the Defense lessons were little more than a bad joke that would result in them failing their end of the year exams. To Harry, the Defense lessons were now a critical part of his life and if he wasn't allowed to practice them anymore, then he'd just dedicate more time and effort to his own secret projects as a means of combating Voldemort and the Minister's vile and spiteful Hogwarts attack dog.
As he was making his way back up to the castle, having lost any desire to remain in the magical village, he sensed a familiar presence rushing towards him. No, correction, make that falling towards him. Spinning around, Harry spotted a familiar beautiful white snow owl in the air. One of her wings seemed to be disjointed and she was having obvious trouble remaining in the air. That spoke little of the actual pain he could sense emanating from her.
With no conscious thought to his actions, Harry reached out his arm towards her, using his Sorcery to gently take hold of her. Using all of his self-control, he gently pulled her out of the sky, keeping her injured wing locked in position so that she could jostle and further injure herself. However, that appeared to be unneeded as she seemed to recognize that he had taken hold of her and she didn't try to resist him in the least as he brought down to land gently upon his upraised arm.
"Are you okay, Hedwig?" he asked, very concerned for his beloved familiar. Hedwig just hooted dolefully as she ruffled her feathers. With great care, Harry pulled the letter from her leg. Eyes glued to her injured wing, Harry cautiously reached his hand up as if to touch her wing. When he sensed the spike of fear and pain from the owl as she hooted at him reproachfully, he withdrew his hand slightly. "If you'll let me, I'm gonna try and heal your wing, girl. Please, trust me."
Staring at him with her unblinking gaze, Hedwig finally turned her head away and shuffled her injured wing towards him. Taking a deep breath, Harry gently reached toward and laid his hand upon it. Focusing his magic upon her small form, Harry gently eased 'inside' of her. As his magic filled her up, he became starkly aware of everything about her. But he focused his attention towards her injury. In his mind's eye, Harry could see that torn muscles, bleeding skin and feathers, and the fractured wing bone, all of it highlighted in a blazing red lines of fire that was laced throughout the area of her injury. Pushing his magic into that area, he focused it through her fresh and cells, rejuvenating and realigning them. After just a few moments of this, he felt her cells begin to respond to his presence, accelerating her natural healing process many times past its limit. Her muscles mended themselves back together, her fractured bone healed, and the slight dislocated shoulder popped back into place.
In the span of less than two minutes, Hedwig's injury was healed and the owl let out a loud ecstatic hoot of joy, flapping her wings about as she bounced excitedly on his arm. Harry just smiled at her happily, enjoying seeing her so happy. He petted her gently as she rubbed herself up against his cheek. Chuckling quietly, he held his arm out, "Go on, girl. Go rest up, you deserve it." Though somewhat reluctant, Hedwig did as asked and took flight for the Owlery. Digging out the note, Harry found it was written by Sirius, simply saying 'Today, same time, same place'.
Midnight
Gryffindor Common Room
The meeting with Sirius that night started off a bit rocky, not the least bit surprising. First, Harry had to deal with angry Hermione. It seemed that even though he walked out on the meeting, Hermione and Ron had still managed to talk the gathered group in creating the club. While they wouldn't have the 'experienced instructor' that Hermione had desired, she was still by far the most knowledgeable witch of their year and likely the whole school (excluding the professors of course). Hermione was especially angry to learn that he was going to be devoting more of his time to creating his MagiTech.
Thankfully, before the fight could start becoming something else that might've tested, dented, or even broken their friendship, Sirius had arrived. He passed on a warning to Ron from his mother to no get involved with their Defense club, on the grounds that he could potentially ruin his future. And then, Sirius quite happily did his usual 180 and loudly declared that he wholly supported the idea and that Harry should be the instructor (much to Hermione's immense satisfaction).
"I'm not interested in teaching a bunch of kids what they should already know," Harry said, ignoring the trio's looks that essentially said 'but you're a kid too'. "I want to keep making my MagiTech."
"Magi-what?" Sirius asked, cocking his head in confusion.
"Magical technology," Harry explained, smiling slightly when he saw and sensed the sudden spike of interest from his godfather. "Kind of like what Ron's dad did with his flying car, but much more 'combat oriented' as it were."
"Now that sounds like fun!" Sirius chirped, grinning widely. "You should tell me more about it when we ha—" He broke off. His face suddenly tense and alarmed as he looked off to the side, evidently seeing something that none of the others could. But Harry could also sense something wrong. It was almost like a hole had been torn into a bed sheet that he had been using to hide himself, or a break in the wall that allowed others to see and listen to what was going on.
"Sirius?" Harry asked anxiously.
But he had vanished. The trio only had a few seconds to wonder why before they saw the cause of his sudden departure. A hand had appeared amongst the flames, groping as though to catch hold of something. A stubby, short-fingered hand covered in ugly old-fashioned rings that all of them recognized quickly. As they hurried away from the fire, Harry kept facing the flames, glaring hatefully at the groping hand. Just before he closed the door to his dormitory, he reached out his hand towards the fire. Using his Sorcery, he 'changed' the green flames of the Floo. The end result was that while the green flames remained, they were more or less evenly distributed between the normal orange-red flames. An unearthly feminine shriek of pain echoed out of the fireplace as the hand and forearm were literally burned from the fires they had been stuck into.
Harry rested very peacefully that night with the memory of Umbridge's shriek in his dreams.
October 13, 1995
DADA Classroom
The past week had been one of considerable stress for many of the students. With the advent of the newest Educational Decree that banned all clubs, groups, teams, and so on, many of the students were scrambling to receive the High Inquisitor's acceptance to maintain or re-form their various club activities. It really came as no surprise to Harry since he knew she had discovered Hermione's attempt to create a Defense club and was quite obviously reading his mail. He wasn't entirely sure why she was so obsessed with ruining everyone's time and experience at Hogwarts, but it was plainly evident to him that she was using it as a cover to get at him. Following her attempt to catch Sirius the Saturday before, Harry had been unable to stop the very pleased grin on his face when he came to her class on Monday and saw her arm in bandages. Apparently, she correctly assumed he was the one responsible for her injury and promptly gave him another week-long detention later during class for 'not paying attention' and had started following him under his Invisibility Cloak every chance she had.
It had been nearly 5 o'clock and Harry was really starting to feel his patience beginning to snap. It had been flayed something fierce for the past two hours since he'd arrived for his detention at Umbridge's classroom. The only consolation he had was the fact that Umbridge seemed to have moved from her favored Blood Quill. Even though it was obvious she still wanted to use it on him, it was also equally obvious that she couldn't. His hand was simply too tender, too raw, too torn up to safely continue using the Quill, despite his meager attempts at self-healing. Any further use of it would run the risk of causing him to sever one of the arteries in his hand have him bleed to death, necessitating a visit to the infirmary or Wizarding hospital that would demand a lot of 'unpleasant' questions.
Instead, Umbridge had him writing out whole chapters of the Defense textbook. And she refused to let him leave until he finished the set of pages or text in its entirety. By this point, he was already working on the latter half of the book, writing out its last five chapters for perhaps the third time of the week. If he ever came across the man or woman who had written this text, Harry wasn't sure if he'd be able to contain his potent desire to bash their heads in with his bare fists. He loathed this textbook with such a fiery passion!
He had thought that this was the worst of what could happen, but evidently he was wrong. For just as he was finishing the last of the text, he felt an all-too-familiar feeling creeping up on him. The icy aura, the all-consuming sensation of happiness being drawn out of the very air around him, the unsettling realization that he was in the presence of pure evil, that was his only warning before he faintly glimpsed a red light out of the corner of his eye and everything went black.
When he came to, Harry found himself bound to a chair by heavy, magically-reinforced chains. His hands were clasped to the armrests and his ankles to the front with the chains wrapping around his torso in an x-shape and locking behind his back. To his great relief, he could also feel the hilt of his lightsaber pressed up against his back from where it clipped to his waist. Good, it had been taken from him! But all that was secondary to the oppressive icy aura of darkness, decay, and hopelessness that was surrounding him. Lifting his head and opening his eyes, Harry found himself gazing at a pair of familiar cloaked and rotting forms of Dementors. It was apparent that the only thing keeping the pair of them secluded to the opposite side of the room was that of a cat Patronus that was pacing about just in front of them.
"Hem, hem," a familiar voice falsely coughed to his opposite side. Harry already knew she was there, but he'd ignored her as he stared at the Dementors to the side. Why were there Dementors here, in Hogwarts? How had she managed to get them inside without anyone seeming to notice? Why had she brought them here in the first place? This couldn't have been done legally, of that he was sure. The professors and Headmaster had been quite vocal in their distaste and anger at having so many of the foul creatures surrounding Hogwarts in his Third Year. So it stood to reason that they wouldn't have condoned actually letting them into Hogwarts!
"Hem, hem!" Umbridge much more forcefully crocked. But again he ignored her, puzzling over the presences of the Dementors in the room. There was something here that was playing at the edge of his awareness, some clue he'd overlooked, some link he hadn't yet made. The Dementors officially were supposed to be under the Ministry's strict control, guarding Azkaban Prison. And while Voldemort may entice them to join his side, aside from the two that had attacked him over the summer, there was no hint that he'd even approached them to sway them over to his side. That meant that, officially, the Dementors still followed the Ministry's orders. But the Ministry, even with as demented and twisted as it was becoming under Fudge's growing insanity, should never have brought the Dementors into the Hogwarts. That must mean that…Umbridge had brought them here illegally, without consent from either the headmaster or the Minister of Magic. But if she was could that, then didn't that also mean that she could…
Finally looking up at Umbridge, who was clearly on the verge of cursing him to get his attention on her, Harry stared at her with his more deadly glare. In a low, dangerous voice, he said, "You sent those two Dementors after me this summer. The ones who killed my Aunt and Uncle."
Giggling loudly, as if his accusation amused her, she grinned conceitedly, "Oh, very clever, Mr. Potter, very clever! Yes, I did! And that is something else we'll be talking about in a few minutes. For now, would you be so kind as to drink this?" She held up a small vial of a crystal-clear potion. Harry recognized it immediately from having seen it and its effects briefly after he'd returned with Cedric's body and Crouch Jr. had been captured and interrogated, Veritaserum!
Before Harry could do little more than widen his eyes in realization, Umbridge had already cast a spell and froze his body. As he struggled to summon his magic to break the Witch's spell on him (something he'd never tried before), Umbridge had opened his mouth and poured some of the potion down inside. As the potion slid down his throat, the effects immediately started taking effect on him. He could literally feel his conscious mind being separated from his body, losing his control over his body, though there were still some attachments that kept him anchored, they were weak at best.
"Is your name Harry Potter?" Umbridge asked immediately.
"Yes," Harry's body answered immediately in a flat tone of voice that conveyed none of his anger towards her.
"Are you indeed learning the illegal art of Sorcery?" What the?! How did she find out about that?! But there was no denying the hungry gaze in her stare as she waited for him to answer.
"Yes," Harry again answered, despite all of his tremendous mental efforts to not answer, to fight back, to regain control of himself.
The look of pure triumphant glee on Umbridge's face was something that Harry quickly found he despised with a deep passion. "I suppose Dumbledore is the one teaching this Sorcery, isn't he?"
"No," Harry answered. Despite himself, he felt at least a little satisfaction at seeing Umbridge's triumphant grin fade as anger replaced her glee.
"How are you learning it?"
"From a book I found."
"Where is this book?"
"In my schoolbag."
Umbridge rushed over to where she'd evidently placed it and dumped it over. Among the clutter of ink, spare quills, rolls of parchment, his textbooks of the day, and some miscellaneous items, there was his leather-bound book of Sorcery. Taking the book and quickly skimming through it, she nodded in acceptance that she had found the actual book. Returning back to Harry, she lowered her face down to his and glared intensely at him. "How did you stop my Dementors without using magic?"
"I killed them," Harry answered automatically. Since Umbridge didn't specify her demand, that was the best answer she got. That, and Harry could feel himself quickly regaining control of his body now, which helped him to fight back and stop his mouth from further explaining just how he managed to kill them.
"Impossible!" Umbridge barked immediately, her confusion and anger causing her to miss the signs that he was regaining his control. "Dementors cannot be killed! How did you stop them?! Did you have help from some other, older wizard or witch?!"
"No," Harry answered again, regaining enough control of himself to keep his curt answer the only answer.
Umbridge must've seen that he had regained himself. She leaned back and glared at him with anger and a look of resignation that she couldn't interrogate him further. Then, after a moment to recollect herself, her grinned returned with a vengeance. "I guess it doesn't matter. You're still going to Azkaban for being an illegal Sorcerer."
"And you're going to Azkaban for bringing Dementors into a Muggle suburban city, enabling the spiritual deaths of two people, and bringing two more Dementors into Hogwarts itself," Harry countered, forcing himself to not use his powers to break free. His instincts told him that now wasn't the right time, despite how much he really wanted to!
"Oh contraire, Mr. Potter," Umbridge purred back. "I have the full, legal backing of the entire Ministry of Magic on my side. Sending two Dementors into a city? Ha, you can't prove that. The 'spiritual deaths' of two people? They're only Muggles. Who cares about them? And I'll be praised by Minister Fudge for having the forethought to have two powerful escorts keeping a dangerous felon restrained until the Aurors arrive for his arrest and imprisonment. The law is what we make of it, Mr. Potter."
With that, she marched over to doorway that the two Dementors were more or less guarding. She didn't even pause as she reached the door and purred out to them, "Watch him closely. If he tries to escape, Kiss him."
As the door closed behind her, the cat Patronus faded and the two Dementors glided over towards him. They took positions on either side of them, scarcely more than an arm's reach away, trying to exert their oppressive down on him even more strongly. But Harry was much more powerful than he had been the last time he'd been in their presence and was able to shrug off their power with relative ease. Instead, Harry bowed his head, thinking deeply on what he should do now.
He could no longer stay at Hogwarts, or anywhere in the Wizarding World anymore. Umbridge was no doubt contacting Fudge this very moment. In fact, he could feel her as she moved about in her office and the sudden flare of the Floo as it was activated. Even if he tried to lie and claim that Umbridge was trying to spread lies about him, Fudge would no doubt leap at the chance to expel, arrest, and imprison him, even if the fact that the illegal use of Veritaserum on a minor came up. There would be no trial of defense, he already knew that. And even if there was, by some miracle, it would be heavily-rigged against him to the point nothing he said or did would reflect positively on him. And while Dumbledore may have a lot of power and influence, even if that said power was in serious question these days, even he would no doubt have to side with the Ministry on this issue, assuming that Ron was correct in how the Wizarding World as a whole viewed Sorcerers in general.
His life as a Wizard was now and forever effectively over.
But, much to his great surprise, he found he no longer cared. Granted, he was going to miss his friends and all the good memories he had gained over the last few years (this year notwithstanding). And as bleak as his future as a Wizard may have appeared, he could now see a vast swath of new choices and options open to him. He wouldn't be bound by Wizarding laws anymore (to an extent, at least). This meant that he could take much more active roles in the coming war against Voldemort! He could much more freely explore his MagiTech without worrying about homework or intrusive Inquisitors. He could dedicate more of his time to learning and mastering his Sorcery powers! Heck, he could even leave Great Britain altogether and travel the world if he so wanted!
Yes, he no longer had any reason to remain at Hogwarts.
As if to justify him, Harry sensed Umbridge abruptly vanish as she entered the Floo fully and was transported the Ministry of Magic. He knew she was traveling to the Ministry now to give Fudge a more detailed report, maybe even share her memory of the interrogation. Regardless of her reasoning, he knew that when she returned, she wouldn't be alone.
Clenching his hands around the armrests, Harry focused his magic upon the magic of the chains and shackles that held him in place. With a simple exertion of force, the shackles snapped open and the chains fell free to the floor. Launching himself forward, Harry slipped past and between the Dementors as they both jolted towards him, comically hitting one another on their 'heads'. Spinning around, Harry used their distraction to launch a powerful telekinetic shove, throwing both of them back into the far wall.
As they were recovering themselves, Harry grabbed his lightsaber and clamped on the emitter shroud. Igniting it, he leapt at the dark magic monsters, killing both with a single slash of his blade. Ignoring the disintegrating forms, he turned and collected his upturned schoolbag and discarded wand, he'd needing them in a short while. Rushing to Umbridge's office, he kicked the door open, smashing the wood in the process. In the room, he sought out the familiar feel of his Invisibility Cloak, finding it hidden in the lower drawer of her desk. Taking and donning the cloak, he then rushed out of the classroom and down towards his workshop.
If he was leaving Hogwarts, he wasn't going to leave behind his prototypes and research.
Entrance Hall
There was quite a commotion going on in the Entrance Hall. Harry knew what was going on long before he actually saw it. He could feel Fudge and Umbridge's presences there, along with easily two dozen Aurors, and they were in quite a heated argument with Dumbledore. And he could easily guess what it was about. Most of the students were gathered around the stairs down into the dungeons or towards the Grand Staircase close to where the Great Hall was located. Since this was happening shortly before dinner was about to be served, nearly the entire school population were present.
Hidden safely under his Invisibility Cloak with his schoolbag shrunk down to fit in his pocket, Harry snuck quietly up the staircase from the dungeons. Scooting around and between the different students who had gathered around the stair's upper steps, he was finally able to catch sight of the loud but incoherent words that were taking place there. It seemed that neither Fudge, Dumbledore, nor any of the Aurors seemed to care that they were attracting a large portion of the student body's attention.
"—arrested right now, Dumbledore!" Fudge was saying quite passionately. "I will not have you interfering a sanctioned Ministry proceeding this time!"
"I'm afraid that I cannot, in good conscience, simply allow you to arrest a young student with nothing more than the High Inquisitor's declaration of him performing illegal magical arts," Dumbledore said, unmoved in either his tone of voice or posture.
"I would not make false claims about something so serious, Headmaster!" Umbridge declared, standing as tall and proudly as her short figure could allow, self-importance and vindication quite evident in her posture and voice.
As the Headmaster was about to make another statement, Harry sensed a pair of Aurors rushing through the halls towards them. From the direction they were approaching from, as well as the outright panic in their auras, he knew they had just discovered his and the Dementors' missing presences in Umbridge's classroom. "Minister!" one of the Aurors cried out as they rounded the corner, shoving aside several students who hadn't moved aside fast enough. "He's gone! Potter's missing!"
"What?!" Umbridge and Fudge both cried in surprise, much to Harry's private delight. Then Umbridge demanded, "What of the Dementors guarding him?!"
"Dementors?!" the entire gathering of professors, students, Aurors, and even Fudge all cried out, shocked and quite disturbed at the possibility of having such foul creatures inside the school without their knowledge or consent.
"W-W-We didn't see any when we came through your Floo link," the other Auror answered, recovering from the surprise quicker than the rest.
"Impossible!" Umbridge cried out, her eyes widening as (Harry assumed) she realized that he hadn't been lying when he said he could kill Dementors. "That's impossible!"
Due to his distraction at seeing Umbridge so flustered and even scared, Harry didn't notice that one of the students next to him was stepping around the others to get a better vantage point. The student, a Slytherin, bumped into him and caused both of them to grunt and momentarily lose their balances. Though he caught and steadied himself, the damage was done. The Slytherins around him had heard him and were turning to face where they thought he was. The Slytherin who'd actually hit him quickly reached out and managed to grab ahold of his Cloak, yanking on it. The Cloak was pulled off of him before he could dodge away and keep it secured around him. At least he was able to yank his Cloak back out of the surprised Slytherin's hand when he suddenly emerged and became visible again.
"It's Potter!" Malfoy cried out eagerly as soon as he recognized Harry, sneering conceitedly at the fumbling Gryffindor. "Over here! It's Potter!"
In a burst of anger, Harry thrust his hand towards Draco, sending the blonde ponce flying across the Entrance Hall and coming to a crumpling halt at Fudge's feet. Like the parting of the Red Sea, the collected students quickly shot away from Harry, leaving him completely exposed to the Aurors and Fudge. Draco quickly scrambled to his feet and fled off to the side with a hateful glare at Harry, which Harry ignored with practiced ease.
"Mr. Potter, you're under arrest for treason and illegal use of Sorcery!" Fudge immediately declared, blatantly ignoring everything else around him as he drew himself up in a self-righteous manner.
"You sure love posturing for the masses, don't you?" Harry asked irritably, stepping up out of the stairwell and into the Entrance Hall fully as he stuffed his Cloak into his magically-enchanted pocket with his schoolbag.
Snarling at Harry's disrespect, Fudge pointed at Harry as he looked over his shoulder. "Arrest him now!"
Harry ignored the Aurors as they hurried past the Minister, stopping a short distance away from him with their wands leveled at him. Several of them fired some spells at him, but Harry tapped into his enhanced flexibility and speed to easily dodge or evade the spells. In fact, on a whim, he actually threw himself up into the air and somersaulted over a Jelly-Leg Jinx, landing lightly on his feet and continuing his walk without a seeming care. This show of acrobatics with casual ease caused the Aurors, and the bystanders, to blink in surprise. Harry continued to ignore until he came to a stop at the foot of the large staircase leading up towards the Grand Staircase.
Turning back to face the Minister while still ignoring the somewhat unsettling stares of the school around him, Harry said, "You really are a pathetic man, Fudge. You would happily arrest and condemn innocent people just to ensure that your precious peace will not be disturbed by unpleasant truths."
"How dare you—!"
"I dare," Harry interrupted before the Minister could get started on his rant. "because it's the truth. I dare because I face my fears and dangers head on, not cowering behind others doing your bidding." He gestured towards the wall of Aurors who stood quite clearly between them, causing a lot of quiet muttering among the students and uneasy glances between the Aurors in question. "But that is beside the point here. You would imprison me, without a trial I'm guessing, because you don't want to accept those unpleasant truths. Well, let me make something perfectly clear to you, to all of you!"
"Whether you accept Voldemort's return or not, Cedric Diggory was still murdered!" Harry said, loudly so that his voice carried throughout the entire Hall. "And his murderer is still out there! And if you believe nothing else, believe this: I will not stop until I lay that murderer's cold, bloody corpse at your feet!" He pointed quite clearly straight at Fudge to help enunciate his solemn vow.
"A fine speech, Mr. Potter," Umbridge spoke up, grinning conceitedly. "But that doesn't change the fact that you're still under arrest for—"
"Shut up, you ugly toad!" Harry snapped, glaring at her. There was soft, muted chuckling among the students at that particular remark. Clearly, Umbridge picked up on the students' repressed amusement and started going a rather interesting shade of red as her anger mounted.
"Enough of this!" Fudge yelled, once again regaining everyone's attentions. "Aurors, I order you to arrest him—NOW!"
"I'm not going to prison to satisfy your fantasy world, Fudge," Harry declared, removing his school robe and letting it fall the ground around him, leaving him dressed in his red and gold Gryffindor undershirt and black slacks. This action also caused his lightsaber hilt to become exposed to the students who were watching from the Entrance Hall's second level and balcony. As the Aurors started moving towards him again, preparing to launch Stunners, body-binders, and rope spells at him, he grabbed the lightsaber hilt and held it forward towards the approaching Aurors. The Aurors all stopped at the sight of a strange contraption they could guess was a weapon but didn't recognize.
"The world is changing," Harry said, igniting the lightsaber and causing the Aurors to flinch back in reflex as the loud snap-hiss noise. Sweeping the blade to his side in a casual stance, Harry closed his eyes as he delved deeply into the magic around him, summoning it and becoming one with it and his surroundings. Despite having his eyes closed, Harry became more aware of his surroundings than ever before.
"Remember, Fudge," Even to his own ears, Harry's voice carried a subtle undertone of power that commanded attention. "Whatever happens next was entirely your choice."
The next few seconds seemed to stretch on for an eternity. Around him, Harry could sense the emotions of everyone present. The majority of the school were scared, excited, confused, concerned, or happy with what was happening before them. The Aurors were a mixture of cocky arrogance, confidence, uncertainty, fear, or resignation. Fudge was wavering between fear, rage, uncertainty, and pompous pride. Umbridge was perhaps the easiest to read because she had nothing more than a dark desire to see him arrested and imprisoned for life.
Despite himself, Harry almost let out a sigh of exasperation when he sensed something else. From all of the collected observers, he could sense a variable amount of curiosity towards the unusual weapon he was carrying. A vast majority of those people were far from impressed, and he could practically read their thoughts on what they thought it was. 'What kind of pathetic weapon is that?' 'What can a flimsy stick of light like that possibly do to a group of Aurors?' 'It's going to be so funny watching Potter get knocked off his high horse when the Aurors finally take him down.' He knew that this line of thinking was quite prominent among the Purebloods and Halfbloods. But it was the Muggleborns that he sensed true awe, reverence, and excitement. They had grown up in a full Muggle household, and as such were exposed to certain things that the Purebloods and Halfbloods weren't, who usually were raised in purely magical households. Thus, they were the only ones to recognize what he was holding and the true significance of just what it was and could possibly do.
"STOP STARING AND ARREST HIM!" Fudge yelled, having finally given into his pride as being the most powerful man in the Ministry of Magic, fear of losing that position and the acclaim to some senile old man and his teenaged upstart of a figurehead, and rage at the said 'figurehead's open mockery of him.
"Expelliarmus!" one of the Aurors fired off.
This time, Harry didn't bother trying to dodge the magic bolt. He simply waited for the magic to reach him before he swept his arm upwards, deflecting the spell up towards the ceiling where it crashed with only a small explosion of magical discharge to mark the spot. All went dead silent and still in the Entrance Hall for a long moment as everyone took in just what had happened and what it meant. It was in that moment of silence that Harry finally opened his eyes and stared at the collected Ministry officials with a detached calmness that seemed quite out of place on his face.
"Here's to finally getting expelled," Harry said with a wan smile on his face, his voice echoing off the walls. But despite the smile on his face, all bystanders and participants could practically feel the sadness in his aura, hear the resignation in his voice, and see the look of wistful longing on his face. He had already accepted the fact that his days in Hogwarts and the Wizarding World as a whole were over now, and it saddened more than he could possibly convey in words. Looking at his situation logically, Harry knew he really should have been expelled ages ago. And now, at last, it takes a Ministry attack force, sorcery, and what was likely to be a life and death struggle in front of the whole school to do it. 'Only Fred and George could top something like this.'
Then he launched himself up into a titanic jump that no normal person and Wizard could possibly be capable of, sailing over the frontline of Aurors and landing behind them before they could overcome their shock. Spinning around, he thrust both his hands at them, blasting them with a powerful wave of telekinesis that sent them flying forwards, disoriented and confused. Spinning back around, he deflected six different spells launched at him from different angles, knocking them safely up to the ceiling.
"You really are reckless law enforcers," Harry observed as he batted aside yet another spell. "Using so many spells where so many innocent bystanders are in danger of being hit. What would happen if I didn't try to protect them from your stupidity?"
His question caused several of the Aurors to lower their wands as they looked around, as if seeing the large number of watching students for the first time. However, the rest of the Aurors ignored Harry's questions and continued firing off their spells at him while rushing around the sides to try and flank him. Having to increase his speed to keep up with the wider area of spells being fired at him from, Harry began drawing in the magic around him. A corona of visible magic began to collect around his fast-moving body, causing gawking awe from the students and several of the smarter or more experienced Aurors to brace themselves.
Jumping lightly into the air, Harry curled himself into a ball as the massive amount of magic around him was drawn towards him, compressed and eager to break away. With a loud shout of exertion, Harry threw his arms and legs out, launching the magic into a massive spherical blast of pure power. The overwhelming force of the blast sent all of the nearby Aurors flying in all directions away from him, leaving Harry standing in the eye of the storm he'd created so briefly
"Harry, you need to stop this now," a slightly familiar voice spoke up in front of him. It was that Auror he'd briefly met back at Grimmauld Place, Kingsley Shacklebolt. He seemed to have been the only one of the Aurors still standing, having used a powerful Shield Charm to block or redirect Harry's repulse. "That power will lead you down a path you don't want to walk, even if you're trying to bring a killer to justice. You don't know what that kind of power can do to a person."
Flashes of a mechanical being dressed in black armor who mercilessly condoned the destruction of an entire planet shot through Harry's mind. "I think I have a pretty good idea of what could happen."
"If you stop this now, I'm sure that the Minister will be willing to overlook all this, but you have to stop," Kingsley pled, a look of genuine desire to help Harry crossing his face. But Harry could see over Kingsley's shoulder, where Fudge was gawking in plainly visible growing fear and anger. Even without his enhanced senses, Harry could've easily guessed the man's mental state and thought processes.
"We both know that door has already been slammed shut, Auror," Harry said, his voice devoid of all emotion except a detached calmness that was as surprising to him as everyone else. He didn't know how or why, but he just didn't feel anger or aggression anymore, not even when he had been in the heat of combat a few moments ago.
"Very well then," Kingsley said, casting his wand about as he muttered muted complex magical phrases. Around him, large chunks of the stone floor began rising up out of the ground, molding and growing up into a large behemoth figure. After several long moments, Harry stared up at the titanic form of what could've only been some kind of super-advanced Auror-level golem. The golem had a very strong resemblance to a praying mantis with two large antennae protruding from its head, a slender neck that connected the head to a long body that was adorned with six pincer-equipped legs. Strangely, aside from the shining blue eyes it had, the two ends of the antennae on its head were glowing with powerful, repressed magic.
Despite himself, Harry couldn't help swallowing back a bit of well-deserved fear at this show of advanced magic. He had never heard of anything like this, thus he had no idea of just what it was capable of. And that stark realization set him on edge immediately.
Taking a large step forward, the golem's antennae glowed brightly momentarily before a pair of powerful but narrow streams of pure magical energy shot out of them. Harry fumbled to bring his lightsaber up to block the magic, but the sheer force of the impact knocked the saber from his hand and sent him careening backwards a short distance, landing on his back. The heavy stomps and vibrating floor told him the golem rushing to keep him down and secure. Looking up, Harry had just enough time to see the golem raising one of its pincers to bring down on him. He quickly rolled to the side, just missing the pincer as it smashed into the floor. Pushing himself up to his hands and knees, Harry kicked off and slid backwards between the golem's legs as it was preparing to bring another pincer down on him.
Jumping to his feet and dashing to the side, Harry watched the golem as it turned towards him at speeds that surprised him. 'It's faster than it looks,' Harry analyzed as the golem caught sight of him, its antennae glowing ominously. This time prepared, Harry gathered a large amount of magic into his hand and raised it defensively in front of him just as the golem launched its attack. The magic beams slammed into Harry's palm, emitting a potent heat that Harry could feel and yet not feel, merely detecting the impression of the heat on his skin. The impact of the beams still knocked him slightly off balance, toppling him down to his knees and forcing him to steady himself with his spare hand. All the while, the magic beams continued to bear down on him, determined to power through his defense to reach him and knock him unconscious.
Bracing himself, Harry raised his spare hand and directed it towards the golem's leg that he could see. Channeling the ambient magic into a form that he hasn't used since he spoke to Firenze, Harry unleashed strong torrents of lightning from his fingertips and palm. The lightning slammed into the golem's leg, knocking it back and disrupting its stance, which in turn caused it to cease its beam attack as it steadied itself. Rushing towards it, Harry reached out his hand to where he could sense his lightsaber had fallen and summoned it back to his hand.
Leaping up, Harry ignited the blade as he landed upon the golem's bucking and thrashing head. With one hand to hold himself in place, Harry stabbed his saber down into its 'brain' repeatedly, trying to disrupt the internal magics that were holding it together. But that did little more than apparently disorient and piss the golem off, causing it stumble and slide across the floor as it launched magic beams that drilled and burned through everything they came into contact with, all in a vain attempt to reach him or knock him off of itself. Seeing the effect he was having, Harry quickly changed tactics, yanking his saber out and slashing off the two antennae, abruptly cutting off the arcing beams as they were starting to swing towards the unprotected and unprepared bystanders.
Releasing his hold, Harry slid down off it neck and onto its torso, slicing off several of its legs to cripple its mobility and speed. As the golem tilted precariously to one side, Harry leapt off it fully and landed on the debris-strewn floor several meters away. Turning back to the golem, he had just a moment to glimpse it struggling towards him, raising one of its severed and still-red hot limbs to jab him with. Thrusting out his hand, Harry used his power to stop the limb in place before it could come closer than a meter's length from reaching him. The golem struggled to break free of his grip when it saw this. Switching off his lightsaber, Harry brought his free hand forward to help him reinforce his hold on it, lifting its heavy bulk completely off the ground.
Clenching his fists mightily, Harry used his power to crush its remaining limbs to gravel and dust before releasing it of his hold. As the bulk of the golem descended for the floor, Harry reignited his lightsaber and leapt up beside it, his blade slashing through half of its torso. The body crashed to the ground as Harry reached his jump's apex, gently sliding over to the opposite side of it. As gravity pulled him back down to the ground, Harry brought his lightsaber down, completely bisecting the golem into perfect halves.
All was once again silent in the Entrance Hall as Harry calmly stood back up to his feet, the remains of the golem disintegrating into an unrecognizable pile of dirt, debris, and dust. Facing Kingsley, Harry raised his free hand towards him and gave him the classical 'come on' gesture, silently asking him to try again. Kingsley was visibly panting from the massive amounts of magic and mental concentration he'd put into creating and controlling the golem, so he was far from ready for another shot. The black man merely raised his hands in a surrendering gesture as he wisely stepped aside, showing he would no longer try to interfere with Harry.
"Avada Kedavra!"
Looking over at where the curse was launched from, Harry stared unerringly at Umbridge. He didn't even break his gaze as he held up his lightsaber to absorb the deadly and supposedly unstoppable Killing Curse, unwilling to risk deflecting it anywhere else. "You truly are a monster, you witch," he growled at the stunned witch, his voice once again reverberating with an incredible and unnatural power.
Using all of his speed, Harry sprinted up to the Dark Witch even faster than she or anyone else present could blink, much less try to stop him. He slashed his lightsaber up in a rising arc across her chest, not enough to actually kill her since he didn't want to be branded an outright murderer. But his attack definitely would leave a permanent slash mark across her torso. And despite all his hatred of the witch, he felt absolutely no pity or satisfaction as he watched her shriek out in agony, falling to the floor and staring in total horror at her smoothly dismembered right forearm and hand that was still gripping her wand, which she'd reflexively tried to use to protect herself with from the saber blade.
It took only a glance at the terrified pudgy man who now stood less than a meter from him to send him falling to the ground, crying out in fear and practically begging for his life.
Deactivating his lightsaber, he swept his arms to the sides and sent Umbridge and Fudge's downed forms sliding in opposite directions, leaving the exit before open and unblocked from any further combatants. Turning, he glanced over his shoulder towards the watching students, professors, and quickly-recovering Aurors. Forcefully ignoring the school and Aurors, Harry fixed his gaze on Headmaster Dumbledore, "Sorry, Headmaster. Looks like I'll have to hand in my resignation from the school. I hope they don't blame you for this. It wasn't your fault."
Dumbledore looked every bit his age as he gazed sadly at Harry, clearly unable to find the words to voice his thoughts. In the end, he merely gave the departing Potter a curt nod as he said, "You are hereby expelled from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."
Harry nodded in acceptance. Turning back to the exit, he raise his free arm in a farewell wave over his shoulder as he started walking out the doors. Then he vanished in a burst of speed towards the Forbidden Forest. Reaching into his pocket as he ran, he pulled out his wand. "Accio Firebolt!"
As he raced away from the castle, he knew his life would never be same again.
(Author's Note) Before any of you start harping about how Harry (barely even a Fifth Year student who hasn't even taken his OWLs) was able to basically curb-stomp 2 dozen trained Aurors with no difficulty, I'd like to make a few clear about how Harry was able to do this. The first and most important thing to consider is that Harry is the first known Sorcerer in Great Britain for at least the last 100 years or so, so the Aurors had next to no knowledge or training on how to handle a person like him.
The second thing is how Harry is able to use his Sorcery: wandless, silent, and with ease despite his relative inexperience. He doesn't have to waste time waving, flicking, or jabbing a wand in complex patterns while chanting out magical phrases of gibberish. This saves time and gives him a huge advantage in and of itself. Also, he is changing into a very different type of combatant than they've ever had to deal with. Where Wizards and Witches view combat as taking place at mid- to long-range with high amounts of magic being thrown about, Harry is becoming a close-range fighter who can enhance his body to superhuman levels thanks to his Sorcery.
When combined with his lightsaber, a tool he's created and never revealed until just now, this makes him a practically unbeatable foe to most run-of-the-mill Wizards because they have never seen such a weapon before or know of its many different capabilities and dangerous powers.
And all that is without even considering his massive amount of raw power. Simply put, if Kingsley were a loch, Harry would've been an ocean.
Frankly at this point, the only one present who could've beaten Harry would've been Albus Dumbledore. Albus had not only a large amount of experience and power, but he knew far more types of magic and tactics to win than all of the Aurors combined and then some. And while his power may not hold a candle to Harry anymore, it was still considerable and nothing to sneeze at. Had he entered the fight, Harry would've been beaten in a comparatively long and hard-fought battle.
PS: If no one can see the parallels between this fight scene and a fairly well-known game trailer in recent media, I'm going to be VERY surprised and maybe a little disappointed.