Chapter Forty Eight
"Well, well well..." Umbridge tutted, "What have we here?"
"Can I help you, Professor?" Harry asked, his heart pounding so fast he could hear it, echoing in his ears.
Umbridge let out a cruel laugh, "You can't really think for one moment I don't know what is going on here. You are all in breach of several school rules and educational decrees. Line up please."
No one moved, everyone fixed to their places, to shocked and afraid to know what to do.
"She said line up!" Filch barked.
He walked into the room and started to push the students into two straight rows. Pansy grabbed her crutched and hobbled into line before Filch could give her a shove, which at the moment would almost certainly send her sprawling on the ground as several students already had been.
Professor Umbridge took two steps into the room and closed the door behind her, she waved her wand over the doorknob which flashed yellow.
"The door is now locked, it will not open without my command so I would recommend not bothering to try." Umbridge informed them.
She walked quickly over to the board, covered with pictures from all of the DA members' families, "How sweet. Make sure you confiscate all of these, Mr Filch. They are evidence."
"No!" Cho cried as Filch snatched Cedric's photo down, tearing the corner, "Please be careful with those, they mean a lot."
"Then why did you let them go?" Umbridge asked, raising an eyebrow.
She saw the list of names and snatched it up, her greedy little eyes scanning over it, "The DA? That must stand for Dumbledore's Army. Most excellent."
"Anything else you need to me gather up Professor?" Filch asked.
Umbridge looked around the room, still clutching tightly to the membership list, "Have a good look around, anything you think might be evidence bring with you. I've already sent word to the Minister for Magic, he's on his way. You will all report to my classroom. I will deal with you shortly."
She went along the two lines and pulled out Harry, Hermione, Neville, Pansy, Draco and Daphne; pushing them into a separate line.
"You six will come with me, it is clear you are at the centre of all... this." Umbridge hissed, "Give me your hand." she said to the nearest student to her, snatching the hand up when the girl didn't move quick enough.
Umbridge muttered something and jabbed her wand in the girl's palm. She let out a cry of pain and flexed her palm at the growing red spot in the centre of her hand.
"What did you do?" Harry snapped.
"It's temporary. I will remove it after the punishment has been fulfilled. In the meantime it will continue to grow in both size and intensity unless you are in my classroom." Umbridge said simply before moving along the lines.
She waited until everyone had a red spot, apart from Harry and his friends, before unlocking the door.
"You six will come with me." Umbridge said.
"Oh will we?" Daphne spat.
"Yes." Umbridge smiled, "Or I will be forced to remove the spell on my classroom which stops the red spots from spreading, do you want that?"
Harry gritted his teeth, digging his nails into his palms, "You evil bitch."
"Now now Mr Potter, you knew the rules." Umbridge sighed, "Come along now."
Harry, Daphne, Pansy, Neville, Hermione and Draco had no choice but to follow her in silence along the long corridors to the entrance hall. There, Cornelius Fudge, Kingsley Shacklebolt, a rough looking wizard Harry didn't know and an excited looking Percy Weasley were waiting.
"Dolores!" Fudge beamed, "Who have we here?"
"Dumbledore's second in command." Umbridge said with triumph, "And every other student in the army Dumbledore was raising against you!"
"What?" Neville spat, "That's insane."
"We'll have quiet here please." Umbridge hissed.
Harry caught Neville's arm and gave a small shake of his head, now was not the time to fight back.
"I see!" Fudge said, rubbing his chin, "I knew that Dumbledore was up to something. We've got him now Dolores!"
"Follow me." Umbridge beamed.
She marched them through the corridors to the stone gargoyle that guarded Dumbledore's office.
"Fizzing Whizzbee." Umbridge said.
"Stupid password." Percy sniffed.
"Quite right Weasley. The man loves to pretend he is a child. It is undignified." Fudge nodded, stepping onto the moving staircase.
They reached Dumbledore's office, Umbridge not even bothering to knock before barging in. Dumbledore was sitting at his desk reading a large book. He looked up and gave them a small welcoming smile, several of the portraits also opened their eyes and looked around.
"Can I help you Dolores?" Dumbledore inquired.
Harry shrugged himself free from Umbridge's grasp and glared angrily at her.
"Come now Dumbledore, enough with these games." Fudge sniffed, "We have the proof now!" he said, gesturing to the students.
"That we have students at this school? Yes, we have several." Dumbledore smiled, a glint of laughter in his eyes, "Or that Mr Potter attends school here?"
Fudge threw his hands in the air in frustration, Umbridge glaring at Dumbledore with more anger in her eyes than Harry had ever seen before.
"How dare you?!" Umbridge spat, "How dare you make a mockery of our Minister?! Pretending like you don't know what is going on! This will be the end of you Dumbledore, the end!"
"We know your games now, Dumbledore. Enough." Fudge snarled.
Dumbledore looked more closely between Umbridge, Harry and his group of friends before placing the book down on his desk and tapping his long fingers together.
"I am afraid, Dolores, that I must admit I have no idea what you're talking about." Dumbledore said carefully, "But clearly there has been a serious slight, would you care to tell me what has happened? Can I presume that it has something to do with Mr Potter and his friends, as you have dragged them in here?"
Umbridge gave one sharp grunt towards Dumbledore before looking over to Fudge. Fudge was playing with his bowler hat and shook his head at Dumbledore,
"It's a bad business Dumbledore, we've known of your plans for a while, of course, but to involve children… it's low, even for you." Fudge sighed.
Dumbledore paused, "What have I involved children in, Cornelius?"
"Your army!" Umbridge spat, "Your take over of the Ministry! We have the proof!"
Dumbledore frowned, looking between Umbridge and Fudge; a swift glance towards Kingsley and nodded.
"It began months ago!" Umbridge said, her chest heaving in anger, "We have a sworn statement from Willy Widdershins saying that Harry Potter held a secret meeting in the Hogshead to start up a 'club' teaching students material that the Ministry has not deemed appropriate." she said, reading a small scroll of notes, "We have no further information until, through various sources, we discovered the time of the next meeting."
"What various sources?" Daphne snapped.
Umbridge ignored her, "Then through the use of my Patronus Charm, I was able to follow the suspects to their illegal meeting."
Daphne kicked herself in her head for ignoring the flash of light she'd seen on the way to the meeting.
"I am a little confused on how you knew when the meeting was, or how they were even going on?" Dumbledore asked.
"So you admit your part in all this?" Fudge said with triumph.
"No." Dumbledore said calmly, "But we will get to that later."
"I believe an enchanted coin was found." Kingsley said, pacing behind Dumbledore and Umbridge, looking around the room.
"Where?" Harry asked.
Pansy felt her stomach sink, "At the lake. Am I correct?"
Umbridge sneered at her and gave her a single, sharp nod, "Yes. I went down to see where the giant squid was after its horrific attack and spotted it in the water."
"I told you it was missing." Pansy sighed, "I assumed I'd dropped it deeper in the lake rather than just at the shore. I'm so sorry."
"This isn't your fault." Harry assured her.
"Be quiet!" Fudge snapped at them, "You six are already in enough trouble. Mr Malfoy, Mr Longbottom, Miss Greengrass, Miss Parkinson, I am most disappointed in you. You come from some of the most respectable families in the country; they will be most disappointed at your transgressions."
"I think they will be proud, proud we're following in their footsteps and actually doing some good. Rather than being a simpering Ministry puppet!" Neville said, crossing his arms stubbornly across his chest.
Umbridge smiled nastily, "In which case, we should look closely at said parents ties to the Ministry. Miss Parkinson, I believe your parents are in America currently, we will arrange that they are held there until a full investigation is completed."
Pansy gasped for breath, "How could you?! They've done nothing I swear! They didn't even know about the DA!"
"We will see." Fudge nodded, "Lord and Lady Parkinson have given us a great service over the years, it would be a shame to see their daughter's actions bring them into such disrepute. Dolores… I mean Professor Umbridge, is correct though. A full investigation is needed."
Pansy dug her nails into her palms and bit her tongue to stop herself from saying anything more, she knew it would only make the situation worse. She lowered her head and stared down at the patterned rug on the floor.
"I must say, there are a few, inconsistencies, in your theory, even in just what we have covered so far." Dumbledore said calmly, "For example, the first meeting, the one in the Hogshead was not illegal at that point, Educational Decree number Twenty-Four was not yet in effect."
Fudge threw his hands in the air again, "I see. And the one tonight?"
Dumbledore thought for a moment, "I believe that it wasn't a lesson, it was simply a gathering, to insure that all of the students knew about the new risk from the giant squid."
"That is still and illegal meeting Dumbledore!" Percy spat, "And there were certainly students missing from this 'public announcement'!"
"I'm sure there were, nor do I think that Mr Potter made the correct choice in his way to convey this information, but I am sure that's all it was, wasn't it?" Dumbledore glanced briefly towards Harry for a second before looking away again, it was the first time he had looked at Harry at all.
Harry nodded furiously, trying his best to look innocence, "We all nearly died at the lake." he said simply, "I just wanted to make sure that people knew there was an issue. We couldn't get all of the students but thought that at least this way, we had people from all four houses and the message would spread. Since some of the new Educational Decrees it has been very hard to talk to students."
Kingsley stepped forward and whispered something into Fudge's ear. Fudge shook his head, looking furiously at the group of students and at Dumbledore before sighing and giving a stiff nod.
"Until there is further proof that Mr Potter was holding regular illegal meetings, we will take no further action on that count." Fudge announced.
Umbridge looked at him furiously.
"Apart from regular school punishments of course." Fudge nodded to her, "They must learn their lesson. Weasley, take notes."
Percy nodded and scribbled furiously on his parchment, tearing off several copies of notes and handing them around.
"Now we get to the most important issue, Dolores." Fudge said, gesturing for her to step forward.
"We found this, in the meeting room." Umbridge said, thrusting forward the list of names and showing it proudly around the room.
"You see now Dumbledore? Your games wont save you this time, this is proof of everything I have been saying! I am assured that this 'DA' stands for Dumbledore's Army!" Fudge said.
Harry didn't know what to say, he felt the need to do something, anything but anything he did know would only make things worse. Fudge was right, this was proof.
Dumbledore looked slowly over the list of names, his eyes scanning the large DA and the list of names.
"I see. Well, Cornelius, would you like a written confection or would a statement before witnesses do?" Dumbledore asked, smiling.
"Statement?" Fudge asked in shock, "What?"
"You're right." Dumbledore shrugged, "This parchment clearly says DA, not Potter's Army, or even Hogwarts Army but Dumbledore's Army."
"I… I was right?" Fudge gasped, "You did all this?"
Dumbledore nodded, "Yes."
Umbridge looked at him in shock, "You asked Potter to organise this meeting? To recruit students for you?"
"Yes." Dumbledore said again, "I did."
"No Professor!" Hermione gasped.
"Please be quiet Miss Granger." Dumbledore ordered.
Hermione fell back, breathing heavily.
"Yes, shut up Granger." Percy hissed, writing down everything that was being said, word for word.
"Well… I… I came here to expel Potter and instead I get this…" Fudge said, still trying to wrap his head around what had happened.
"Yes." Dumbledore smiled, "Rather like loosing a Knut and finding a Galleon."
"You've got this all written down Weasley?" Fudge asked, "His full confection?"
Percy nodded and magically copied his scroll of notes and handed a copy to both Umbridge and Fudge.
"Excellent." Fudge beamed, "Now then Dumbledore, you will be escorted back to the Ministry where you will be transferred to Azkaban to await trial."
Harry saw the man that had come with them step forward, reaching for his pocket. Harry reached for his friend's hand around him.
"See, here is where we hit a little snag." Dumbledore smiled, "You seem to be under the impression that I will, what's the saying? Come quietly? Well I have no intention of going anywhere with you, I could break out of Azkaban of course but it seems such a waste of time and there are many things I really aught to be getting on with."
Fudge looked at Dumbledore, a mixtures of confusion, fear and anger on his face, "Come now Dumbledore. Are you really telling me you are going to take on Dawlish, Shacklebolt, Umbridge and I single handedly?"
"Not unless you give me no choice." Dumbledore said politely.
Harry took a slow step back, dragging his friends with him.
There was a bright flash of silver light across the room and Harry dived to the floor, his friends following on. They huddled together on the floor as more spells flashed across their heads. Dust filled the air and there were several large crashes before the room grew still.
Neville slowly raised his head and patted the others, "It's safe."
Harry raised his head slowly and got to his feet, brushing himself off. Dumbledore's office was a mess, several of his instruments were shattered, glass strewn across the floor. Dumbledore's desk was lying unharmed but on its side.
All of the Ministry workers lay unconscious on the floor.
Dumbledore looked around and sighed, "Unfortunate that I was forced to hex Kingsley as well, but it would have been most suspicious if I had not, he will understand I'm sure."
"Are you all right Professor?" Hermione asked, stepping over a broken chair.
Dumbledore smiled and nodded, "Of course. Now I don't have much time until they wake. Harry, you must listen to McGonagall. Your Occlumency lessons are of the up most importance. Close your mind."
Harry nodded, now that Dumbledore was looking at him the same anger filled need to bite him returned. Harry swallowed hard and forced himself to look away.
Dumbledore took a step away from Harry and reached his arm into the air. Fawks flew down from his perch and circled the room before flying towards Dumbledore.
Dumbledore's hand and Fawks's long tail touched, there was a flash of fire and both of them were gone.
Fudge stirred of the floor, looking around for a moment before jumping up, "Where is he?!"
"I don't know." Umbridge huffed, also standing up, "He can't have disapperated, you can't do that in school!"
"The stairs." Dawlish moaned, heaving himself up and they quickly left the office.
Harry looked around at his friends, "What do we do?"
"We should go to Umbridge's office and wait for her there." Pansy said, brushing some dust off her skirt.
"Why?" Hermione asked.
"She's going to punish us." Draco reminded her.
"Yes." Pansy said, "But all of the other DA members are there and will be punished more severely if we are not."
Daphne nodded, "One moment."
She walked over to Dumbledore's desk and picked up the list of DA members, throwing it into the fire and watching them crumble to ash before poking the fire and destroying all trace of the list. Harry nodded and sighed before leading them out of the door.