Oh my gosh!
Guys, I'm so terrible sorry for the long wait! But seriously! At the moment I barely have time to do my homework!
And even my absolutely wonderful beta Kyae is very busy, so please understand why it took so long to post this chapter.
Enjoy!
Chapter 32
Harry's eyes lingered on the fireplace, or rather on the headmaster, who was standing in front of it. Gazing into Dumbledore's eyes already told him all he needed to know. Despite of his knowledge about the probable outcome of the headmaster's talk with Fudge, Harry rose to his feet and looked at Dumbledore, who sadly shook his head.
Hermione – fully ignoring Dumbledore - was meanwhile once more reading Voldemort's letter Harry had handed her seconds before. She bit her lip and rested her head on his shoulder.
"Cornelius refuses to believe that Umbridge is at fault for young Miss Zeller's family's' death. There will be no investigation in that matter whatsoever. He even went as far as to say that her family died from a simple electrical-shockwave from their TV," Dumbledore said gravely and Harry's fists clenched, his bright green eyes flashing darkly.
"That's ridiculous!" cried Hermione enraged and quickly slapped a hand on her mouth when Rose stirred. She continued in a quieter, but angrier voice: "A shockwave from a TV? Maybe one of them could've been electrocuted and then died that way, but not all three!" She had tears of rage in her eyes now and Harry placed a hand on her shoulder. "It's impossible!"
Dumbledore nodded with a sad look at the still sleeping Rose. "I know. But despite his refusal to believe me, the Minister will send two Aurors to escort Umbridge around the castle."
Harry snorted and shook his head. "Sure, because he's afraid his dear toad-faced Undersecretary will be attacked not because he thinks that she's a danger!"
Dumbledore nodded grimly and went over to the fireplace once more. He threw a handful of ash into it and spoke: "Severus, you have to cancel the wards around Umbridge's quarters. Two Aurors will be arriving shortly and they can't know about our precautions."
Harry didn't understand what Snape replied to that, but from the tones, Harry knew he didn't envy whatever unfortunate soul had him for their next lesson.
Suddenly Perenelle stood up. Rose was still sleeping on the sofa and she carefully hauled her up in her arms like it was nothing. She looked at Dumbledore. "I'll bring her to the Hospital Wing. I believe she shouldn't wake up alone and Poppy's always there. Albus… please tell me when you know more."
He nodded while looking at her. "Certainly," he turned back to Harry and his friends once Perenelle left the room with Rose, and sighed, rubbing his temples. "Harry… what did I tell you about controlling your temper?"
Harry stared at Dumbledore in disbelief. "Are you actually attempting to reprimand me?"
Draco was also staring at the headmaster, his expression like that of someone who had a very sour taste in his mouth. "Sorry, but that's totally uncalled for, Headmaster. I would've reacted exactly as Harry did."
Dumbledore nodded with a sigh. "But you didn't, Mr. Black. Quite the contrary, you actually tried to stop Harry together with Mr. Longbottom and Mr. Weasley. So what makes you say that you would've reacted the same way he did?"
"BECAUSE IT'S UMBRIDGE'S FAULT THAT SO MANY DIED!" Hermione unexpectedly exploded and threw Voldemort's offending letter that Harry had given her to read on Dumbledore's desk. "Voldemort killed Rose's entire family and f-fed five other muggles to his… his disgusting snake!"
At that Dumbledore swiftly went behind his desk and grabbed the letter. After he had finished reading, he looked grave and nodded and stared at Harry once more.
"What she did..." whispered Harry softly, "is unforgivable. Do you understand, Professor?"
The headmaster opened his mouth to say something else, but Harry simply cut him off. "That woman's beyond redemption, so don't even bother to try and see something good in her."
Dumbledore put the letter down and stared at, not saying a word.
Harry, not longer able to stand the tension in the room, clenched his fists and turned around, giving Hermione, who was looking at him with a trace of hurt and a warning in her eyes, a look that clearly said, that he would talk to her later, but for the moment needed some time alone.
"Harry!" called Dumbledore, but the boy-whose-name-has-to-be-hyphenated-for-us-to-know-who-he-is ignored the headmaster and stormed out of the office, heading straight for the common-room, all who saw him coming scuttling to the sides of the hall to avoid him.
…HPHPHP…
When he entered the room after restlessly pacing in front of the wall he found himself at the receiving end of nine questioning looks.
"Harry!" cried Daphne, unknowingly mirroring Dumbledore. Her eyes were slightly puffy and he was once more surprised, how much the former arrogant girl had changed from the Slytherin ice-queen she had previously been known as. "Exactly what happened?"
"How… how's Rosie?" asked Ernie, who knew the small girl best out of them all because of their weekly Quidditch-theory lessons. "Is it… are her parents really…?"
With clenched teeth Harry nodded and reluctantly sat down on the sofa next to Fred and George when they waved him over. Hannah and Padma had gasped and were now staring at each other in horror, while the others were all clenching their fists or looking blankly at the floor.
"How?" asked Padma shakily, her voice was barely above a whisper.
"Killed," answered Harry and was surprised when his voice sounded rather calm and composed. "Voldemort killed them."
His words were met with silence, and Harry shifted slightly, looking around the room. It was strange to see his housemates this serious and sad, especially the normally grinning Twins.
"Where's Euan?" he asked then, referring to the absence of the other first year of their house.
"He went to the Hospital-Wing together with Mrs. Edison after she told us Rosie wouldn't be coming back tonight," answered George. "They left not even five minutes ago."
Once more they were surrounded by silence…
Tick...
Tock...
Tick...
"Is there really… a war coming?" Hannah asked quietly, hugging her knees, as Terry patted her back awkwardly.
"What kind of dumb question is that?" Blaise scoffed and swiftly rose to his feet. Harry observed through his bangs as the dark-haired boy went over to the window and crossed his arms while looking at the starless sky. Harry could see his reflection in the window and saw Blaise clenching his teeth. "D'ya think the H.A. is merely for good OWL-results?"
Their eyes turned back to Harry, whose face was still hidden by his hair and stared at him – waiting for an answer to Blaise's question. "You know the answer anyway," he said without moving. "There won't be coming a war… we're already in the middle of it."
They stayed silent, everyone lost in their own thoughts. Harry sat up straight and leaned back into the soft cushions of the sofa. His hands were trembling slightly and he felt a little nauseous.
"It was her, wasn't it?" asked Fred into the silence of the room and Harry's head snapped up. "Umbridge I mean. She's responsible for the death of Rose's family, isn't she?"
"That's why you lashed out on her before, right?" added George, for once not exactly continuing his twin's sentence, merely adding to it with a heavy voice.
All eyes turned to him once more, while he looked at each of them. "Yes," nodded Harry.
"I can't believe it!" shouted Padma angrily and with a flick of her wand one of the vases in the corner broke into thousands of pieces – making them all jump . She took a deep breath, willing herself to calm down. "Sorry… I needed to get that out."
"Why doesn't the Ministry do something - anything?" asked Daphne and wrinkled her nose. "They're incompetent idiots, but surely they notice murder?"
"He didn't believe him," Harry said bitterly.
"Who didn't believe who?" blinked Terry Boot.
Harry stretched his shoulders and leaned back in his seat once more. "Fudge didn't believe Dumbledore when he told him that Umbridge was the one who send Voldemort after Rose's family."
"That rotten bastard!" cursed Ernie and punched the armrest of the sofa he was sitting on. "We need that guy to come here to give him a piece of our mind! We can't let Umbitch get off like that!"
"But how should we get Fudge into coming here?" Hannah wanted to know while fiddling with a lock of her red hair. "We need to present him another reason for coming here if he doesn't believe Dumbledore."
"That man doesn't even believe that You-Know-Who's back!" Daphne said. "We've got a snowball's chance in hell to make him believe the truth!"
They looked at Harry, who had said nothing so far - thinking about the possibilities - but he shook his head. He had no clue how he could bring Fudge to Hogwarts. He even doubted that he would come when he told him about the Cruciatus now… not after Dumbledore had – in the minister's opinion of course – talked such nonsense once more.
"We need her to do something horrible in front of the whole school, preferably when the two Aurors are present," said Padma then and looked Harry in the eyes. "And we have to force her to do it…"
Harry stared at her when the meaning of her words had sunk in. His eyes widened slightly when Padma nodded guiltily while holding eye-contact. Harry blinked and then his face became devoid of all emotion. "If that is what it takes, I'm in."
"Only until she's done enough," whispered Padma. "It's… the only way, I think. But I don't know what she could do…"
"But I do." Harry gave her a small reassuring smile, but then his face grew serious once more. "And if it get's discovered, you keep silent. I'll take the blame."
"What in Merlin's name are you two talking about?" asked Fred and George simultaneously while the others looked at them in question.
…HPHPHP…
The next evening – or rather the next night, because it was eleven o'clock - Harry was found standing in the shadows of an old armor in the Defense-corridor, reflecting on what he was about to do. He slightly clenched his teeth and looked at the two aurors flanking the door of Umbridge's office. With relief Harry had discovered that it were Kingsley and Tonks who had been sent for the toad's 'protection'.
They both, of course, had been told by Dumbledore what Umbridge had done and Harry had seen their looks of disgust when they had arrived at breakfast this morning with their fingers itching for their wands to hex the self-proclaimed High Inquisitor, and queen of pink (not that any of them had be informed of that particular monstrosity of a title) into oblivion.
He slowly stepped out of the shadows and found himself at the end of two wands. He held his hands up. "It's me. Harry."
Kingsley and Tonks lowered their wands slightly, but didn't let their guards down. Despite the tension Harry was feeling he had to smile a little bit at the caution Mad-Eye had drilled into his former subordinates.
"Wotcher Harry!" said Tonks quietly, but the enthusiasm was still heard. "What're you doing here? It's past your curfew."
He couldn't resist and smirked slightly. "Hey Tonks. As if that ever stopped me. I have… something to do."
"Harry, we normally would have to bind you and bring you to Umbridge," frowned Kingsley, but made no move to carry out what he had said.
"Kingsley, please… not a word to anybody," Harry whispered slightly desperate and tried not to sound too nervous. "Don't ask me why just now, but please get the Minister to come here tomorrow at breakfast. Tell him something… anything that'll make him come… but please, don't tell anybody that you've seen me here tonight!"
The dark-skinned Auror hesitated shortly, throwing a look at the door of Umbridge's office and his lips curled in disgust. To Harry's relief he nodded and mentioned for Tonks to follow him.
"Come on, we have to continue our rounds!" he said somewhat exaggerated and loudly, before disappearing in the shadows with the young Auror in tow.
Immediately the door opened and Umbridge leened out of her office. She frantically looked to her left and then to her right. "AURORS! Where are you going?"
He grimaced when she stepped out into the corridor and the torches on the walls threw light on her ugly cloak. He had to bite back a snicker when he saw the pink curlers in her hair and waited for her to look in his direction.
"It's your duty to never leave me unprotected!" she called trough the seemingly empty corridor. "There are no rounds you have to be doing! I demand you to come back, now!", the toad-woman hollered, her voice destroying the ear-lobes of many magical creatures in the nearby district, forever swearing their allegiance against the sound-destroyer and Harry rose a hand to his ear to test if it was bleeding and snorted.
And then, she looked exactly in his direction. Harry clenched his eyes shut and took a deep breath. Suddenly his own heartbeat thundered in his ears when he slowly stepped out of the shadows. Umbridge's eyes widened when she saw that he had his wand in his hand and she hastily stepped back and reached for her pockets in search for her own wand.
"Pathetic…" jeered Harry. "You don't even know where you've got your own wand."
"AURORS!", she screamed and Harry really hoped that no one had heard her. He closed his eyes and begged for the sound-proof-barrier that Padma and Daphne had promised to rise would work when he took another step forward.
"You know what I'm going to do now, don't you?" he hissed at her and pointed his wand directly in between her eyes.
"YOU CAN'T DO THIS! Y-y-you don't know what you're doing!"
"I'll take revenge for the miserable time you've given everybody here. I'll take revenge for everything you did to me. And… I'll take revenge for what you did to Rose!"
"NO!" she screeched loudly, still trying to find her wand. Oh, how Harry wished he had a camera to capture the look on her face now. "YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING!" she repeated.
"Oh, I know exactly what I'm doing," replied Harry coolly while raising his wand and taking a deep breath. "Imperio Momentum!"
She screeched again, before the curse hit her and then plummeted to the ground – lifeless like a puppet. Her wide eyes stared at Harry when he flicked his wand and Umbridge's eyes fell close. Harry bit his lip and closed his eyes as well while calming his slightly ragged breathing and resisting the urge to simply let Umbridge slit her own throat. Then he raised a hand to his forehead to wish the sweat away that had gathered there from strain of the curse he had just used.
He then pointed her wand at her unconscious form. "Obliviate Substitum."
He took another deep breath, then he turned around when he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder. Nodding to the other members of his house, he threw Hannah, whose hand was on his shoulder, a reassuring smile.
Fred and George who had been standing directly behind Hannah flicked their wands and Umbridge hovered in front of them. George gave Harry a pat on the back, while Fred gave him an uncharacteristically serious nod. Seconds later, they disappeared trough the door, bringing the toad's limp form back to her office.
The other members of his house gave him small uncomfortable smiles. "Thank you, Harry…"
…HPHPHP…
When Harry went down to breakfast the next morning, it was very quiet on the Phoenix-table. Fred and George were trying to light up the mood with some jokes, but only had moderate success when they hexed some passing students that now sprouted pink robes. Harry noticed that all of his friends were also sitting on the table and sat down in between Hermione and Draco, right across from Neville and Ron.
Catching each of his house member's eyes he felt the determination radiating off of them and knew, that they would carry out what they had begun the night before.
He gave Hermione a peck on the lips and murmured a quiet good morning to all of them, before halfheartedly grabbing a piece of toast and a spoon full of scrambled eggs. Harry noticed that several students from the other houses had noticed the downright depressing mood on their table and were whispering to each other while eying their table curiously. Often their eyes flickered to him. He sighed and bit into his toast. He should have expected something like that after his display with Umbridge the day before.
"Sorry that I stormed off yesterday, Mione," he said then and she simply nodded with an understanding smile. "I simply needed some time to calm down."
"What do you think Dumbledore will do about Umbridge now?" asked Ron whose head rested on his hands. "I mean… does he seriously let her walk around here freely?"
Hermione didn't even look up when an owl delivered the Daily Prophet and absentmindedly put a Knut into the little pouch on the owl's feet. She sighed while unfolding it. "He won't have that much of a choice now, won't he? Look!"
She laid the prophet out in front of them and pointed at a medium sized article on the front-page.
…HP…
Dolores Umbrige, Undersecretary of the Minister, Professor and High Inquisitor of Hogwarts School now under Auror protection!
Arising security issues at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry are responsible for the Minister's decision to place two of his best Aurors at the school. Their job is to protect Professor Dolores Umbridge, who – according to sources that remain unknown – has been attacked several times already.
Why exactly protection is necessary and why Headmaster Albus Dumbledore isn't able to provide such himself is left unclear. But surely a Headmaster should be able to take care of the teachers' faculty better than outsiders. The question is: Is Headmaster Dumbledore getting senile?
…HP…
Harry put his half-eaten toast down, shook his head and rubbed his temples. His appetite was completely gone. "Why doesn't an article like that surprise me? Of course the Ministry wouldn't write anything useful."
Draco looked at the article with disgust. "They didn't even write anything about Rose's family… they rather rant about Dumbledore's state of mind!"
Neville, whose face was sprouting an uncharacteristic frown threw his fork down on the table, startling several of the passing students with that motion. The still slightly chubby teenager ignored the looks he was getting "Those arrogant pricks! Don't they know that they're just making it easier for Voldemort to kill?"
Suddenly another loud bang was heard and they all whirled around and stared at Blaise, who had rammed his fist on the table with as much force as he could muster. Harry could already see the bruise forming on the dark-haired boy's knuckles.
He too, had the Daily Prophet in front of him and was looking at those around him. "Snap out of it, dammit! We're sitting here like a bunch of hypocrites waiting for the apocalypse!"
No one said a word while they stared at Blaise, who glared at each of them in return. Finally Harry nodded when he caught the ex-Slytherin's eyes. "He's right. Rose's still in the Hospital Wing and if she comes back and we're sitting around here acting like kicked puppies she won't feel better at all."
"True…" agreed Daphne quietly. "We should be able to support her."
"Yeah!" nodded Terry with a small grin, signaling each of them, that they should simply think about their plan. "And that doesn't work if we're all walking around with thunder-clouds over our heads!"
Fred and George snickered and suddenly both of them had exactly such clouds hovering over their heads. They looked at each other and then frowned.
"Brother o' mine, he's right", said George, shaking his head. "That definitely doesn't suit you!"
"So…" said Blaise hesitantly and looked around. "We agree to stop being in such bad moods?"
Ron chuckled softly and shortly looked around the Great Hall. "I think we should. We're scaring the other students."
They looked around and noticed that he was right. Most of the other students were staring at them with a mix of curiosity, unease and fear. Most of them quickly looked away when they noticed their looks and quickly minded their own business.
"So…" said Harry then no one in particular. "H.A. meeting today at five?"
His friends looked at him in question, but before they could say something, every member of the Phoenix-House – to Harry's own surprise - had agreed to it and Padma and Hannah offered themselves to tell the H.A. members of the other houses. They and everyone else of the House of Phoenix then left the hall under the impression of getting their galleons to notify the others.
Harry shook his head and so did his friends, because only the five of them could notify everyone via the galleons. He stared after his house-members in confusion, wondering what the hell this suddenly was all about.
He shrugged and half-heartedly finished his toast and opened his Ancient Runes Book to look at some of the Vocabulary that they would need for today's lesson.
…HPHPHP…
Fifteen minutes later, when everybody got ready to go to class, even before the doors of the Great Hall opened, Harry froze in the middle of closing his book. Every muscle in his body became painfully tense, while his hands balled into fists. He didn't even flinch when his fingernails broke the skin, drawing small drops of blood.
Hermione noticed this and worriedly encircled his hands with her own. Draco was wearing the same expression as Harry and Ron and Neville looked over to the doors with barely contained fury when they finally opened.
It had been wonderful having Umbridge in front of him, pleading for mercy yesterday night, but it was something entirely different to have her marching into the Great Hall as if she owned the place like nothing had happened – even though Harry knew that she couldn't remember. The students noticed her and all eyes hushed to the two Aurors flanking her sides.
Harry despite of the situation had to bite back a chuckle then, when he saw a very grumpy looking Nymphadora Tonks (this time without any transformation, showing off that she was a Black) and an disgusted looking Kinglsey Shaklebold with their wands drawn.
Harry caught the black auror's eyes and saw him nod very slightly, so he flicked his wand when he and Tonks positioned themselves at the Entrance-Doors. 'Imperium Initio'
Umbridge's eyes snapped to him and a sweet smile appeared on her face when she slowly walked to him –drawing her wand. Hermione saw that he was putting away his wand and grabbed his hand.
"What did you do?" she hissed in his ear, but he merely shook his head and followed Umbridge with his eyes.
"Mr. Potter!" Umbridge stated loudly. "WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE? I expelled you yesterday!"
"Oh, you did, Professor?" he asked sweetly. "I hadn't realized… why was I expelled?"
He could practically see the question-marks over all the hall's occupants' heads but ignored them in favor of thinking about a sufficient reason to anger Umbridge without being at fault after it.
"You insolent little…" spat Umbridge and then pointed her wand at his forehead. "You still dare to oppose me?"
Harry didn't say anything, but simply stared back at her.
"THEN SO BE IT!" she screamed. "I guess the use of a blood-quill on you wasn't enough! I have to resort to more corporal punishments!"
The students in the Great Hall gasped at the new information and started whispering to each other.
"Now, now, Auror Shaklebold why exactly did you want me to come to Hogwarts?" asked a new voice Harry happily recognized as Fudge's. The Minister just came walking through the entrance door and stopped next to Kingsley and Tonks, who were standing slightly away from Umbridge.
"I'd like to talk to you about the way your Undersecretary is acting. I can't help but wonder…" but Kingsley's voice drowned in another one.
"YOU WON'T HARM A STUDENT HERE!" boomed Dumbledore suddenly and Fudge squawked startled by the headmaster's outburst.
All eyes once more hushed over to Umbridge, whose wand was trembling in her hands.
"Wha- what are you planning on doing?", asked Harry acting frightened and pretended to try to get out of the way of Umbridge's wand while sincerely hoping that the headmaster didn't interfere with his plan.
"I think a demonstration of what will await students who disobey me is in order, don't you think?" she asked sweetly with an insane glint in her eyes, that Harry knew he had no part of creating. "And you… are the perfect example!"
Fudge stood between the two aurors like a gaping fish and Harry's eyes flickered to him, before thinking about Umbridge's, hopefully, final act as a teacher.
Not even a second later a high-pitched shout rung trough the Great-Hall. "CRUCIO!"
It was followed by a seemingly agonized scream of Harry and several loud shouts of shock from the other students. Harry let himself fall off the bench he was sitting on and fell down to the floor, trashing around. Once more, he couldn't feel a thing, but he knew, that he had to be doing a great job, because Hermione fell on her knees next to him.
Suddenly stunners flew from various directions of the Great Hall and when he squinted trough his eyelids he saw Umbridge falling to the ground. He immediately stopped trashing, but continued to lie on the ground, while carefully letting his breathing sound ragged.
"Wha- what… that… I can't believe it!" Fudge's voice reached Harry's ears, just as he squinted up at Hermione, who was glaring at the prone form of Umbridge.
"All students are ordered to go to their Common-Rooms! No arguments!", Dumbledore shouted and at the tone of his voice all students hurried out of the hall – except Neville, Draco, Ron and Hermione.
Harry, who had closed his eyes once more suddenly felt someone else than Hermione touch his shoulders and blinked up at Tonks. "Harry, how're you feeling?"
"Hurts…" he ground out, while looking at Fudge, taking deep breaths. "A great teacher… isn't she?"
"I… I don't know what to say…" stuttered Fudge and helplessly looked at Umbridge's unconscious form and then at Dumbledore. "Can we maybe… maybe continue that in… in your office?"
"Gladly," replied Dumbledore and Harry saw him throwing a look at his friends that clearly said, that they weren't allowed to accompany them. They immediately looked at Harry, who nodded as well and gruntingly left the hall. Each one of them careful to kick Umbridge while passing her.
"Can you stand?" asked Dumbledore and helped Harry to his feet.
"Sure," he replied, his voice sounding exhausted and followed them.
Well, that was it for now. What do you say? Give me a Review and tell me your opinion!
Dark Phoenix of Slytherin