Chapter 28 – Trials & Tribulations

'Dolores Umbridge has been appointed as the first-ever High Inquisitor of Hogwarts'

Even without any idea of what a High Inquisitor was, it was generally accepted that if it had anything to do with Umbridge, it wasn't a good thing.

The changes that came with Umbridge's new appointment started out small in the days following the announcement. Initially, she was found sitting in various classes throughout the day. She claimed that she was there to observe each professor's teaching methods and ensure that students were getting a satisfactory lesson.

The differences in how she observed various classes became obvious to many. She was mostly silent in classes such as DADA, History of Magic, Arithmancy, Astronomy, and Potions, only interrupting to praise their seemingly 'ministry approved methods'. However, in classes such as Charms or Transfiguration, she would challenge both Professor's methods and finding any reason to disrupt the lesson.

It was also clear, at least to Harry and many of his friends, that Umbridge had a tendency to be present for whatever class Harry or Fleur had that day. It was also obvious that her reasons for this were the same as why she targeted them in class, Harry because of the current political landscape, and Fleur because she was as Umbridge had once alluded to in class, a 'half-breed'.

When Harry had heard what she had implied in class, it had taken the effort of Fleur and the Twins to restrain him from marching down to her office and confronting her. Fleur quickly thanked him with a kiss for being upset for her, but she reminded him that he needed to keep his head down around her. Harry begrudgingly, couldn't disagree with her statement.

Harry was proud of himself for being able to reign in his temper and kept himself from lashing out. Fleur was a big help as well, as her methods were also helpful of keeping him in check. He blushed as he thought about said methods, the most recent being a particularly heated snog before they went to bed a few nights earlier.

Even as he, Ron, and Hermione made their way down too Care for Magical Creatures, his mood couldn't be ruined as he thought of his girlfriend. They had been dating for a month yet Harry still couldn't believe that she still wanted to be with him. Their relationship wasn't perfect, he felt that was overly stubborn, and she felt that he was broody, which caused some minor incidences but nothing outside of a small disagreement.

Once outside the classroom, his mood darkened as he prepared himself for the onslaught that would surely come. Waiting inside was the toad herself, a sickeningly sweet smile adorning her face. Everyone in the Gryffindor/Slytherin class sat down at their desks and opened their books to what they assumed to be the next lesson.

"Good morning class!"

"Good morning Professor Umbridge," came the less than warm response. If Umbridge noticed, she hid it very well behind her smile. She stood up from behind her desk and began to walk up and down the aisles as the class waited for her to begin the lesson.

"Today's lesson is going to be on semi-humanoid creatures." Harry's neck stiffened at her statement. Many heads around the room turned to glance at him, some slowly in an attempt to be a casual glance, but the overwhelming majority of the class didn't bother with subtlety as they looked directly at him. This was going to be a long class.

"Can anyone give me an example of such a creature?" Immediately, the hand of one Draco Malfoy shot into the air and was called on almost as soon as he began to move.

"Werewolves, Professor."

"Yes, very good Mr. Malfoy. 10 points to Slytherin." Her gaze briefly flicked over to Harry before she continued. "Yes, werewolves are one of the most common examples of semi-human beings. Now don't let that fool you, these people aren't the same as you and I, and should be interacted with, with extreme caution."

Harry's blood began to boil at her words; he wasn't prepare for a near direct attack against him. It was only through Hermione's hand on his arm and a whispered, "Remain calm," was he able to keep himself under control.

"There have been many reported occurrences of werewolves attacking wizards, which is why the Ministry had enacted heavy restrictions on those with lycanthropy. Many werewolves turn out to be savage, and savages deserve no place in our society." She had purposefully stopped near Harry, her sick enjoyment at his anger was there for all to see. Still Harry would not give in.

"Can anyone else name another example?" She again briefly looked at Harry and he knew exactly where she was going with this. Another Slytherin hand was raised, as Pansy Parkinson, answered, "Veela." Harry was at the point of visibly shaking.

"Another 10 points for Slytherin. Yes, Veela are another example of such a being. They are humanoid in nature and have a history of ensnaring male Wizards and reproducing." Harry briefly glanced to his left and saw that Umbridge's words were now angering Hermione as well. She and Fleur had become close friends during their time together and Harry felt a swell of pride for best friend.

"There have been few sightings of Veela in Britain, but beware, they are known to use their charm to sway young wizards." It seemed that she had abandoned any pretense of teaching anything useful for the day, her failure to get Harry riled up with her werewolf comments led to her essentially bashing Veela instead of providing any useful information.

"Now the list for semi-humanoid creatures includes centaurs, mermaids, and other similar creatures but I feel that this list should be expanded," she again glanced to the side but this time her gaze fell onto Hermione. "I think the list should be altered to only include magical individuals. That way members of our society can stay away fro-"

"Enough!" Harry had had it with Umbridge's charged comments. It had taken one look at Hermione and the sight of pure shock on her face coupled with the slight glistening of her eyes for him to be fed up with this farce. "I won't listen to you spreading your lies anymore!"

"I'm not the one telling lies Mr. Potter," smiling like the cat that got the canary, "and I don't appreciate your outburst during my class. I think a detention is in order for your outburst." Without another word she strode back up to her desk, but not before saying, "Class dismissed," and allowing everyone to go.

To say Harry was livid was a huge understatement, he quickly stood up once the class was dismissed and headed back towards Gryffindor Tower in a huff, despite the calls of Hermione, Ron, and Neville trying to calm him down.

Once back in the common room, he was quickly noticed by his girlfriend, who upon seeing that he was visibly furious, went over to try and calm him down.

"What's wrong 'Arry?"

He quickly recounted the events of Umbridge's class; towards the end Ron, Neville, and Hermione had finally showed up and corroborated his story. Both Fleur and Hermione were seemed displeased that Harry had let Umbridge get to him, though Hermione's was very miniscule due to her having actually been there.

"You shouldn't have let her get to you sweetie. Now she's got you exactly where she wants you."

"I agree Harry. Though I appreciate your outrage over her comments against muggles, you only managed to give her what she wants." Hermione gave Harry a sympathetic look, relaying that she truly did appreciate his actions.

Harry drug his hands through his hair in frustration, "It's not just about what she said, it's everything on top of it," his eyes pleading looked to everyone else hoping they would understand. "It's what everyone is saying. About me, about Fleur."

He pointed one finger towards his ear and looked at Fleur. "Remember, I can hear everything that everyone has been saying about us. When she was about to suggest that muggles and muggleborns were no better than 'creatures', I'd had enough," he flopped down in a nearby chair, a mixture of shame, guilt, and exasperation flowed through his body. "I'm tired of all the whispers, you know?"

Ron, Hermione, and Neville all looked at each other; each of them understood that this was affecting Harry hard. He had experienced this kind of attention twice before, but now it was almost as bad as those times combined. Fleur however, didn't appear to be swayed.

Seeing that it was around the time for lunch in the Great Hall, the three Gryffindors decided to leave the couple to themselves. Once they were gone, Fleur spoke up.

""Arry, you mustn't care what other people think."

"I don't care if they believe me or not, sooner or later they'll see that I'm telling the truth about Voldemort. What I can't stand is that they see us as something less than human."

Fleur found it hard to understand where Harry was coming from. She was used to people spreading lies about her all of her life, and from her experience with Harry last year, she knew that he was too.

"I don't understand? I don't see the difference between the two."

"I can prove to them that I'm not delusional, that I'm not lying," his expression became sad again as his gaze dropped to the floor, "I'm not sure if I can prove to them that I'm not a monster." He opened his hands and studied them closely, his claws slowly elongating.

"You should embrace what you are. Their words aren't worth your time-"

"But I don't want to embrace what I am. It's not me!" Harry's raised voice shocked many of the people who were lingering in the common room including Fleur, he never shouted like this at her. "Even if some things in my life have improved since I was bitten, I never asked for it, I just want to be normal for one moment of my life!"

The silence that followed was a deafening one. All eyes were trained at Harry and Fleur as they continued to stare at one another, Harry's was pleading for her to accept his words, whereas Fleur's was a mixture of hurt and confusion.

"Mr. Potter?"

Harry turned towards the entrance to see Professor McGonagall staring at him. His cheeks began reddening in embarrassment over his outburst.

"Yes professor?"

"The Headmaster wishes to speak with you in his office."

Harry desperately wanted to turn around and apologize to Fleur, but he knew that if Dumbledore asked to speak with him outside of their weekly meetings, it had to be important. He hesitantly headed for the door, hoping that whatever it was, it would be brief so he could apologize to his girlfriend.

He was left alone to his thoughts as he headed towards Dumbledore's office. He didn't know where his anger had come from, he was feeling increasingly more ashamed of himself as he walked farther away from his girlfriend. It wasn't that he disagreed with what he said, but he realized that he went about expressing those feelings completely wrong.

Once he reached the gargoyle protecting the stairway to Dumbledore's office, the gargoyle immediately stepped aside without a password and he continued on into the office.

Inside, he found Dumbledore standing next to his desk, the sword of Gryffindor in his hand. If this wasn't surprising enough, on the desk he saw the locket from Grimmauld Place. He immediately bristled as the memories from the last time he dealt with the locket, but Dumbledore saw his hesitation and greeted Harry.

"Hello Harry," began Dumbledore with the ever present twinkle in his eye, "I bet you're wondering why I called you here today?"

"At this point sir, I just kind of go with it." This earned a chuckle from the elderly wizard, which helped to break down some of the tension within Harry's body.

"Be that as it may, I find myself in need of your help with destroying this dark artifact," he motioned towards the locket and the feeling of dread washed over Harry once again. Was that hissing and a cracking noise he was hearing?"

"I don't understand how I would be helpful sir."

"Look closely at the locket Harry." He approached the locket cautiously, not wanting to risk another violent reaction if he were to accidently come in contact with it. He looked it over once, his eyes settling on an ornate 'S' on it's lid that resembled a snake.

"Salazar Slytherin," he exclaimed once the realization washed over him. Harry immediately understood what his purpose here was.

"That is correct Harry. In order to destroy the locket, it needs to be opened. Being that it once belonged to Slytherin himself, I have little doubt that Parseltongue will be required for this." Harry understood what needed to be done, but it didn't make him any more eager to be anywhere near this thing. "I must warn you though," Dumbledore's face turned more serious, "The locket may try to fight back. You must be ready."

Harry nodded his head, but he couldn't understand how a locket could fight back, no matter what kind of dark magic resided inside.

Dumbledore raised the sword slightly, in preparation for what was to come. A nod to Harry signaled that it was time.

"Open"

As soon as the locket sprang open, both Harry and Dumbledore were sent backwards a few feet, as an image vaguely resembling Voldemort appeared in the smoke that had begun billowing from the locket causing a sharp pain to erupt from behind his scar.

"They will never accept you Harry Potter."

Harry's head shot up as the image in front of him morphed into a monstrous version of himself, complete with razor sharp teeth, claws, and blood caked all over him.

"They all will turn on you when they see the monster that you really are."

Harry covered his hands over his ears. It wasn't true, they would never abandon him, but the locket continued to show his hearts worst fears as images of all the people he cared about appeared only to turn away. He tried to block out thee noises with his hands, but the pain in his scar forced his hands back over top of it.

"Everyone. Your friend, your school mates, even the girl you love."

He watched helplessly as the images of Ron, Hermione and Fleur began to turn away from him. He opened his mouth to cry out, but a loud clatter caught him off-guard as he saw Dumbledore had finally made it back to the locket and plunged the sword into it.

As soon as he did that, Harry felt pain erupt within his scar, even worse than the one he felt when the locket was speaking to him. He thrashed around for several seconds clutching his forehead before the pain ceased as quickly as it had come.

He slowly opened his eyes, an act that was surprisingly difficult; the light pouring in from one of the office's windows causing more pain inside his head. His eyes trained onto to Dumbledore, who he could've sworn had a look of extreme sadness on his face, before quickly schooling it to a more neutral expression.

"What was that sir?"

"I'm afraid that my terrible predictions have come true," Harry could sense that there was more to Dumbledore's words, but the dull ache in his brain prevented him from pondering it any further, "That Harry, was the secret to Voldemort's escape from death." He sat down heavily in the chair behind his desk, his face a sullen mask as the Sword of Gryffindor loudly clattered to the floor.

"That my boy…was a Horcrux."

AN: So there we go, Harry finally knows about the Horcruxes. I've decided to spread out the finding of all the Horcruxes over the course of the story instead of finding 3 of them within hours of each other like in the book. I hope everyone liked my nod to the 6th book when Harry meets with Dumbledore.

I included that moment between Harry and Fleur because I wanted to showcase that their relationship isn't perfect. Like how Hermione has trouble understanding Harry's changes since being bitten, Fleur has trouble understanding that he doesn't want to be a werewolf.

Last thing, if anyone was wondering about those three stories I was working on, it'll be a little bit longer. I have one ready to go and had finished the second one, but I broke my flash drive so I lost the second story. Hopefully they'll all be ready in a week or two.

As always, thanks for reading!