Blood and Beatings

A/N: Disclaimer's in the first chapter. I'm baaaaaaaaaack! Finally figured out how to get myself unstuck! Yay!

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October 21, 1995

It was fairly late in the evening, and Harry was sitting in the Common Room with Neville and Ginny, studying while they waited for Hermione and Ron to finish their Prefect rounds when Colin and his little brother Dennis came in. Dennis was crying quietly, and Colin's eyes were red, like he'd been fighting crying (and losing).

"Colin, Dennis! Are you all right? What happened? I thought you had detention with Umbridge tonight?" Harry asked, concerned.

"We did." Colin choked out.

"Someone get you on the way back then?" Neville asked, apparently thinking the same thing Harry was.

Colin shook his head. "It was her. Her detention. She made us *sniff* write lines. With a quill that ... " He held out a hand, the back of which was a raw, angry red.

Harry snarled. "Writes in your own blood." Rage nearly blinded him. What the *hell*? That tore it. "DOBBY!"

Dobby popped in. "Yes, Harry Potter sir?"

"Get all the Gryffindors in here. Pop them here if you have to. House meeting. Then go tell Sirius that Umbridge's pulled something she can get nailed for, and tell him to contact Augusta and Septimus, and that they'll get more details by morning."

Dobby nodded and popped out.

Within minutes, people were thundering down the stairs. Harry was surprised that Dobby didn't have to pop anyone down here, but then again, practically the entirety of Gryffindor had joined the 'DADA study group' that they were keeping secret from Umbridge , much to Umbridge's increasing ire.

"Harry? What's going on? You're looking ... really angry." Ron asked. He was one of the first down the stairs.

"Tell you in a minute, Ron. Don't want to have to say it twice." Harry told him.

"Fair enough." Ron agreed.

Finally, Dobby popped in. "That bes all of them, Harry Potter sir." He said.

"Excellent. When you're done with the other assignment, come on back here, you're going to be a part of this, too."

Dobby nodded enthusiastically, and popped out again. He came back less than two minutes later, smiling evilly. "Theys be told, Master Harry sir. They's be waiting to find out what happened."

Harry nodded and grinned, then clambered up on a table where he could be seen. "Sorry about rousting everyone out of their rooms, gang, but we've got something we need to deal with, and fast. How many of you've had detentions with Umbridge?"

A lot of hands were raised. Harry blinked when he realized that every last one of them that he recognized from fourth year and up was a Muggleborn (The only reason he knew their blood status was thanks to the damn Chamber of Secrets). "And how many of you were required to write lines with a particularly nasty quill that writes with your own blood?" That question had every pureblood in the room inhaling sharply. Harry nearly exploded when every hand stayed up.

"Damn it. This is worse than I thought. All right. Listen up. For those of you that don't know ... quills that gouge blood out of your hand in order to write are illegal as hell. And it's pretty damn clear it's not going to stop, so we're going to have to do something about this our damn selves."

"But she's a teacher!"

"Are we Gryffindors or not?" Harry demanded. "And it's about more than the bloody damn toad. It's about the damn Slytherins, too. They're more or less taking over the damn school, and it's well past time we started fighting back! Start spreading the word. Have everyone that's had a detention with the toad talk to either me or Neville. Colin, would you be willing to take pictures, for evidence?"

Colin nodded emphatically.

"What good's that going to do?" Someone asked.

"Let's just say that between the names Potter, Longbottom, Weasley and Black ... " Harry smirked. "We'll be able to do damn near anything that needs doing." He looked over at the twins. "Rascal, Rogue? You have free reign. Ask Dobby or Winky if they want to help you, if you need it for deliveries."

The twins were wearing identical evil grins as they nodded. Harry grinned back at them before continuing. "The rest of you ... start taking the damn war to the bloody Slytherins. We've had over two weeks of practice and you all have learned quite a few hexes and jinxes. And if nothing else, just bloody well punch them in the nose! Stop going to detentions. And ignore the damn points system. If these assholes are going to trample all over the rules and get away with it, I see no reason why we have to let them, because we're 'supposed' to play by the rules. It's time the Slytherins got a dose of their own medicine ... and discover why it's a *really* bad idea to piss off a lion."

That announcement got a near-deafening roar of approval from his fellow Gryffindors, and Harry hopped down. The Gryffindors immediately started breaking up into groups, talking animatedly as they plotted and planned. Harry grabbed a piece of parchment and wrote down what had happened, and what he'd arranged to do about it, then handed it to Dobby. "To Padfoot and Moony, Dobby." He said with a grin.

The next morning, the Great Hall was alive with talk as Gryffindors with good friends in Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff passed the word, both about the quill, and about the rebellion. By lunchtime, the entire castle was in chaos. Hufflepuff had evidently held an emergency House meeting of their own immediately after breakfast, because the entire House boycotted Umbridge's class, refusing to attend, which, of course, got them all in major trouble. And by lunch, Harry and Neville had quite a list of names of people who'd been subjected to the quills, every last one of them a Muggleborn who wouldn't know about the quills. Almost all of them were from Hufflepuff and Gryffindor, as evidently Umbridge wasn't willing to risk whether or not a Ravenclaw Muggleborn would either already know about the quills or find out fast, and wasn't (unfortunately) stupid enough to go after Slytherins.

As for the Slytherins ... they couldn't move for being hexed, jinxed, tripped, elbowed, and generally harassed to death. It wasn't until later that evening that another very disturbing issue (that Harry had been completely oblivious to, thanks to using Dobby as a totally secure method of communication) came to light ... owls were being intercepted. Where, by who, and why was unclear, but most of the outgoing mail was not making it to the recipients.

The final list of kids subjected to the quill, pictures of their mangled hands, and the information that owls were being intercepted, was sent off to Sirius and company by Dobby, along with a request for ... materiel ... by the twins very late that night. They'd been dangerously quiet all day, their heads together as they came up with a plan for Umbridge. Harry did *not* envy her in the slightest. Dobby returned about a half hour later, carrying a big box of god-knows-what, and he and the twins disappeared for the night.

Next morning, when everyone had arrived for breakfast, Dumbledore stood up. After he had everyone's attention, he began to speak. "It has come to my attention that yesterday, quite a few students missed one of their classes. I am afraid that each person who has done so has lost their House five points, and will be required to attend detention tonight here in the Geat Hall."

There was a low, warning growl of outrage from all three 'rebel' tables, and Harry shot Dumbledore a death glare before turning to the New Marauders, who'd sat down around him. "Nobody goes to DADA. Nobody goes to detention. To hell with House points. Pass it on." Expressions angry, they passed the word to those nearest them. Not that it really seemed to be needed. Most of Gryffindor looked severely pissed off and ready for open, all-out rebellion.

Shortly after that, breakfast was served, and seconds later, Umbridge let out a horrified-sounding scream that had Harry's head snapping around to see what had happened. He couldn't get a really good look, but from what he could see, her breakfast was, apparently, alive. And very slimy looking, too. He couldn't be sure at that distance and angle, but he thought he saw a tentacle wave about. At any rate, Umbridge shoved the plate aside with a revolted look and tried to drink from her goblet, only to spew it out all over everything. Whatever it was, it *looked* like pumpkin juice, but clearly wasn't, from her reaction. Harry glanced over at the twins.

"Transfiguration charm for the food." One said.

"And concentrated essence of the most foul-tasting thing we could get our hands on in the drink." The other said. "Rather tame for a first shot, we admit, but we didn't have much time to get everything set up."

Harry grinned. "I have no doubt you'll pick up the pace from here. And from the looks of things, the teachers appreciate the effort." Indeed, most of the teachers were either openly amused or wearing expressions that were clearly attempts to look disapproving (and failing). Only Dumbledore, Filch and Snape (other than Umbridge herself, obviously) looked honestly displeased.

The next few hours were utter, complete, and total chaos. There were three different fights in the corridors of Slytherins versus ... well, whoever caught them bullying someone. Interestingly, Malfoy had disappeared sometime the day before and refused to come out. Harry had a feeling he was in the Room of Requirement, waiting out the mayhem because he had to know damn good and well he'd be a top target. On top of that, literally three-fourths of the DADA classes were empty, as only Slytherins were still attending class, and by lunch, only Slytherin had any House points. The other three would probably be in the negatives, if the counters allowed for such a thing. Even better, the corridors had been ringing with Umbridge's screams of fear, horror, and rage all day ... yet no one had seen her. Whatever the twins were doing to her, on top of three-quarters of the castle refusing to attend her class, must be a beaut.

She finally appeared at lunch, looking harried and hunted, her hair in disarray and her sweater shredded by who-knew-what. Shortly after everyone had sat down to eat, the Great Hall's doors banged open, and what seemed like half the Wizengamot and the Aurors swept in, with an apoplectic Augusta, enraged Amelia Bones and frantic Fudge in the lead. Fudge was bleating about being the Minister and being in charge and trying to stop Augusta and Amelia, but it was rather like watching a worm try to stop a pair of elephants. Just not happening. Amelia in particular was reading Fudge the riot act, if her expression was anything to go by. Augusta seemed to be saving her ire for a different target. Harry spotted Sirius and Septimus, both looking every bit as pissed off as Augusta and Amelia. Sirius was bellowing in rage at Fudge, loud enough that his voice carried a bit over everyone else's.

"You're corrupt Fudge! You always have been and you always will be, and so help me if you try to shield that ugly hellspawn, I will make sure this is your last day as Minister, instead of giving you a week to clear your bloody desk!" Sirius roared.

From the way Fudge went a pasty, horrified gray, Harry wasn't the only one to pick up on the implications of Sirius' threat, that Sirius was about ten seconds from demanding an honor duel with Fudge. A duel there was no way in hell Fudge would ever win, if he was as competent at dueling as he was at being Minister, which was to say not at all. That threat finally shut Fudge up, and Amelia strode out of the pack, looking straight at Umbridge. "Dolores Jane Umbridge, you are hereby placed under arrest for the crime of using an illegal torture device on minors."

Umbridge blinked, and then in a syrupy-sweet voice said. "I'm sorry, but I'm quite sure there's a mistake. I would never break the law."

"Nevertheless, you have been accused, and evidence gathered. We have been presented with pictures of thirty individuals who have been subjected to a blood quill, along with written testimony that the device was used in detentions under you."

And dear, sweet Merlin, but McGonagall looked like she wanted to kill the toad, eyes slitted in rage, one hand white-knuckled on a half-drawn wand. "A blood quill?." She snarled, enraged. "A blood quill? On students?"

Umbridge, of course, kept trying to claim innocence, and evade getting arrested. In the end, it took four Aurors and an immobilization charm of some kind (it looked like a Petrificus Totalis, but whoever had cast it hadn't spoken aloud, so Harry wasn't certain) to finally get a completely unwilling Umbridge out the door under heavy guard. Once she was out, there was a huge cheer from the majority of the school.

Sirius threw Harry a gleeful, triumphant look, and Harry couldn't resist jumping up to give him a hug. "Wasn't expecting you guys this fast!" He told Sirius, grinning like a madman. "I think you've disappointed the twins. They were so looking forward to pranking her for a few days!"

"I'll make it up to them." Sirius promised. "You should have been there, Harry. It was a thing of beauty."

Harry knew Sirius meant the mayhem the news of blocked owls and blood quills had brought to the Wizengamot, and he grinned. "I'm sure we can find a pensieve somewhere and you can share the memory of it with me, Sirius. Ought to be a blast!"

Sirius grinned hugely. "It's a date." He promised, then headed out with the rest of the adults. It took Dumbledore the best part of an hour to regain control of the students, since most of them were capering up and down the aisles between the tables, laughing and celebrating their victory, but eventually, they all got sent off to their classes. Of course, it wasn't a complete win, because the Slytherins were still up to their tricks, but at least they'd got rid of Umbridge.

The very next morning, Harry 'earned' a detention in Potions. That night, when he arrived for it, Snape regarded him for long moments before finally leaning back in his chair. "I seem to remember." He growled. "A rather rash Gryffindor storming into my office at the end of term last year in order to make a rather ... odd ... statement, only to immediately leave."

Harry blinked. Ok, so ... not really a detention, clearly. "I remember the same thing."

"You seem to have ... changed ... in the last few months, Mr. Potter."

"Not as much as you might think, sir." Harry said. "I'm not my father, and never have been. That said ... watching Voldemort get re-bodied is enough to make anyone change a bit."

"Quite so. I believe that ... truce ... you sought might be possible after all. However, I cannot be seen to favor you in the slightest." Snape growled.

"Because of Malfoy and company." Harry wasn't stupid. "He's up to something, you know."

"I'm quite aware Mr. Malfoy is up to something, Mr. Potter. He is a Slytherin, after all." Snape grumped. "In the interests of this ... truce ... I shall reduce the number of points taken, and replace them with detentions. These detentions will be arranged such that you and your cohorts then have a free few hours to practice what you may, and if any of you desire so, I may be convinced to provide additional tutelage."

Harry blinked mentally. Snape, offering to teach them extra-curricularly? Not that he was going to take Snape up on the offer, but he rather thought the twins might, given that they worked with potions a lot for their stuff. "Thank you, sir. I appreciate that." And he honestly did. One less enemy was something to celebrate.

He got to spend the rest of the detention finishing his homework. Not another word was said between them, but Harry was fine with that. It would be a long time before he and Snape could do more than coexist less-than-antagonistically.