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Chapter 21
Hermione took her seat next to her mother, who was sandwiched between her and her father, and Tracey and Daphne sat down on Hermione's other side. She had noticed that Tracey and Harry were starting to fall into the role of siblings now that the Slytherin had joined Harry's house. Hermione was glad about that, neither of them had had siblings before so it let them be close without the worry that there would be any backlash over a family member being replaced. She worriedly watched as Harry stood there on the piste and pulled out the sheet of parchment that Hermione had recreated her lines on using normal ink. She had been a little put out when Harry had asked her to make that, as she had made sure the original was destroyed since she was already well familiar with the sorts of things that can happen if you leave a piece of parchment laying around with your blood on it. But Harry had just asked her to trust him, and reluctantly she agreed that he must have had a good reason.
When Harry spoke out loud for everyone to hear that Umbridge had forced her to cut herself over three thousand times, his voice had a cold fury in it that she had never heard from Harry before. In a way, it was a little bit scary, yet she also felt safer than she had since her name had come out of the Goblet of Fire. She couldn't help but notice that even when Harry was like this his motivation was love. His love for her, his love for her parents; she had little doubt that hurting Fleur would provoke a similar reaction from him.
Then he told everyone that he was going to do to Umbridge what she had done to Hermione. It was then that Hermione realised what he was doing, and also that he was putting on a front. Or maybe it was more accurate to say Harry was half putting on a front. He was genuinely mad at Umbridge, but he was going to be an emotional wreck after this. Maybe not the same level as their third year, but it was going to take a week of work at least until she could break him out of his brooding.
When Harry started sending cutting charms at the evil toad demon that was masquerading as a woman, Hermione's mother grabbed her hand and started to squeeze it as tight as she could. "What is Harry doing? Why doesn't he just finish this duel? That's what Sirius told him to do."
Hermione told her mother what she had worked out, but before she could say anything else Harry started with the cutting charms and they couldn't look away. They had never seen Harry like this and they were relieved when Umbridge gave up and drank the potion.
Umbridge grimaced in pain and Hermione watched as fur started to sprout from all of her exposed skin, her ears migrating to the top of her head as they became pointy. Hermione recognised the transformation; even if she had never seen it before, she had lived it. Harry had fed Umbridge a Polyjuice potion with Kneazle hair in it. And then Hermione realised she was wrong earlier. She had thought that Harry was intending to leave Umbridge as a bloody tortured mess as a warning to the blood purists that he would hurt anyone who came after them, but now she understood that this was his plan the whole time: to threaten the very blood purity that they built their very sense of self on. In truth, what happened to Hermione and now Umbridge had nothing at all to do with their blood status, the changes wouldn't pass on to any children they had, but no blood purity bigot is going to accept a witch who looks like she is half cat.
Then Harry finally hit Umbridge with a stunning spell and it was over. Bonesnapper shouted out for everyone to hear. "Madam Umbridge is unconscious, victory goes to Warlock Potter." There was polite applause from most of the students, who were starting to see a side of Harry that most of them had never expected to be there. But there also was a number of people cheering with enthusiasm. The werewolves, who had more than a bit of an axe to grind with Umbridge, the first generation students, who had also suffered more under her, and the Gryffindor Quidditch team who were standing by a teammate. Lastly, there was Harry's family: Sirius, the Grangers, and Lupin. That much smaller group easily drowned out the lacklustre congratulations of the rest of the students.
"As per the arrangement of wager in this duel, Delores Umbridge is subject to five questions from Warlock Harry Potter while under the effect of an Unbreakable Vow. Walden Macnair, it is your responsibility to act as the bonder for this. Warlock Potter, can you please remove the stone impeding Madam Umbridge's movement?" Bonesnapper sounded extremely happy.
Soon a protesting Umbridge was kneeling in front of Harry while he gripped her for arms. He must have cast a Sonorous charm on the two of them because when he started speaking his voice easily carried throughout the hall. "Dolores Umbridge, do you vow to give me complete, full, and truthful answers to the best of your knowledge and ability for each of the next five questions I ask of you?"
"Go bathe in bubotuber pus you disgusting brat," Umbridge spat the words at Harry.
Harry didn't do anything, just kept a hold of Umbridge's arm. Bonesnapper, however, spoke up, and he apparently wasn't under a Sonorous as he had to shout to be heard. "Madam Umbridge, you will be fined one hundred galleons for every refusal to abide by the agreed stipulations of the duel." Harry just calmly asked the question again, and the new cat woman refused to say anything and gave Bonesnapper a look that would curdle the milk she would soon discover an increased appreciation for. "Refusal to answer still counts as a refusal to abide by the agreement, that will be another one hundred galleons," Bonesnapper said, and Umbridge's shoulders slumped as the fight went out of her. She understood that Harry would stand here and keep asking until her vaults were dry, and she owed the goblins enough gold that she would just be dragged off by them and put to work until she had covered her debts. When Harry asked for her vow the third time, she gave it begrudgingly, and a golden rope of fire came from Macnairs wand and wrapped around Harry's and Umbridge's arms sealing the pact.
Harry then turned to everyone. "Director Bones, Minister Fudge, are you ready for this?"
Director Bones sat up straight and after a quick glance at Fudge said. "Mr. Potter, I'm sure you are aware, but just to be safe I will inform you that if you intend to ask Umbridge about anything the Ministry has deemed need-to-know or classified, I will be forced to arrest you." She gave Harry a serious look.
Harry nodded his understanding and turned to Umbridge, who was starting to look nervous. "Dolores Umbridge, why did you torture students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry?"
"Why? Why not, they were animals and mudbloods not fit to lick the boots of their betters. Yet they were in our school learning our sacred arts; it's an abomination against magic. I was given the opportunity to teach them their place before they got ideas above their station, and I took it." The hatred and vitriol pouring from her mouth was disgusting.
Harry just nodded, filing away the information. "Did anyone at the Ministry who was involved with your placement as school inspector do so knowing that you intended to torture students?"
"No, my views are well known by the minister and others, they knew I was going to get the abominations removed from the school, but I kept my plans to myself," Umbridge said. More than a few people turned to look at the Minister of Magic at that revelation.
Harry asked his next question. "What do you know about how Hermione Granger's, Fleur Delacour's, and my own names came out of the Goblet of Fire on the thirty-first of October 1994?"
"That was me. I am sick of the old families diluting their blood with that of mudbloods and animals. The betrothal contract between you and your beast Delacour was on file in the Ministry, it was found when she applied for a visa to visit the UK for an extended time. And your dalliance with the Granger creature was all over the papers and the magazines. A disgusting scene of mudbloods defiling the blood of the old Potter line even more by adding creature blood. It had to be stopped, so I stole the blood declaration you and the filth used to go to France that summer and the blood quill signed document the Ministry had for a long stay visa for the Veela, and I changed the contract that was to be entered into the Goblet to reflect four groups of three. Then I added all three of your names under the name of a fourth school before the Goblet even arrived at the school. I blackmailed the people who enchanted the fire to produce the golem for the first task. You weren't supposed to survive that. Two fourth years and a creature, how could you have stood a chance? But then you, Potter, had to pull out that good damned water bottle with a lake in it. After that Bones and her aurors were sniffing around too much, so I had to drop it."
Harry turned and gave a nod to Director Bones. Whether it was a thank you for her efforts resulting in the other two tasks not being made to kill him and his girlfriends, or more of a 'looks like I found the culprit' nod, no one (not even Bones herself) could tell, but she did give him a nod back.
"Dolores Umbridge, did you try to have all the students suffering from lycanthropy trapped in the school during the previous full moon, in full knowledge that you were putting the lives and futures of over a thousand students in danger?" Harry asked.
Umbridge could already tell that she was done. Every question was calculated to turn more and more of the public and the Wizengamot against her. Any ally she might have had left would be lost at the admission that she had endangered the children of the high ranked pureblood elite. Her shoulders slumped and she just answered with one word. "Yes."
Harry saw the change in Umbridge and had to suppress a smile. He ended the Sonorus charm on the two of them, and with one more question to ask he leaned in towards the woman. Knowing that her new cat ears would easily hear, he said as quietly as he could so that only Umbridge could hear him. "And for my last question, how does it feel knowing that you will have cat features for the rest of your life, and knowing that all people like you, mindless bigots with an over inflated sense of self worth, will see you as nothing more than a creature barely fit to lick their boots?"
Harry watched as the realisation that what he had done to her was permanent settled into her head. A growing sense of horror filled her as she realised that even if she avoided Azkaban, the best case scenario for her life was one where the people in power would treat her no differently than she had treated the werewolves and Harry's betrotheds. When those thoughts were working around her head, Harry decided to kick her while she was down. "I guess you will need to learn to act your station." He smirked as Umbridge collapsed in on herself and started to sob uncontrollably.
Harry turned and addressed Bonesnapper. "I believe my part in this is over. Do you agree, Arbiter?"
The goblin grinned as he nodded. "Yes, Warlock Potter. As Arbiter I agree your participation has concluded successfully. May your foes continue to fall."
Harry considered the variation on the traditional goblin show of goodwill and quickly came up with what he hoped was an appropriate response. "And may their falls provide as much entertainment to you as this one did."
Bonesnapper laughed. "If you continue to choose your foes this well Potter, then I'm sure they will."
Harry noticed the lack of title in his name and wasn't sure if it was just a mistake or if it had a meaning he didn't know about, but as Bonesnapper was acting friendly he just gave the goblin a smile and a wave before he jumped off the side of the piste, and with his godfather not far behind him Harry made his way over the V.I.P. section.
As Harry walked up to his family, he saw Director Bones rush over to Umbridge and pull a set of Magic suppression handcuffs from her pocket. Seeing Harry on his way over, Hermione jumped to her feet, sprinted to him, and threw her arms around him. For the next minute, as far as the two teens were concerned, it was just the two of them as they hugged and reassured each other that nothing bad had happened. Then Harry started to hear Fleur's voice. "Hermione, what's happening? Everything is just blank and I can't see anything." Hermione still had her mirror connection open to Fleur, and as she was holding the mirror against Harry's back Fleur was getting a little frustrated not being able to see anything.
"One second Fleur, Hermione is preoccupied trying to squeeze the life out of me," Harry joked and was satisfied to hear both of his girls giggle a little at that.
As Hermione got her need to hug out of her system, everyone started to congratulate Harry. Daphne and Tracy were particularly impressed with Harry, while Dan and Emma were a little disturbed that the wizarding world had laws on the books that made duelling to settle a dispute a legal option. However, as Sirius pointed out, "We live in a society where everyone is carrying a tool that makes a normal sized house and everyone in it explode with a single spell. Without a legitimate and legal way for a duel, you would still have people losing their tempers and fighting. The rules of the duel mean that less people die, and injury happens where the person can be taken to a healer as soon as possible. They have tried to outlaw duelling a few times, but each time the death rate spiked and it was decided that this was the lesser of two evils." The Grangers accepted Sirius's explanation, but they didn't like it.
They watched as Director Bones led a sobbing Umbridge out of the hall. Harry expected to feel some guilt over what he had done to her, but all he felt was a wave of satisfaction. He was just about to leave the Great Hall and lead his family to the castle gates, and then maybe go join the celebration that was probably being thrown together by the Weasley twins, when that plan was thrown out of the window as Dumbledore came striding up to him. "Harry my boy, don't you think you went a little far? The Polyjuice was completely unnecessary and was needlessly cruel. You could have won the duel simply by stunning her and still got your answers. How could you do such a thing?"
Harry considered telling the former headmaster to go fuck himself, but he was still the Chief Warlock and he didn't think Dan and Emma would be to pleased with him saying stuff like that, so he decided to be diplomatic. "The necessity of the potion was outside of the duel. It sends a message to anyone who's coming after me that my family is off limits, or I will utterly destroy them." Dumbledore looked taken aback as Harry spoke, but he wasn't finished yet though. "And who are you to lecture anyone on unnecessary cruelty? Tell me, have you sent any more orphans to be abused since the last time we spoke?" Harry's voice had an edge to it, and Dumbledore looked like Harry had slapped him.
"I think it's best if you go, Chief Warlock." Headmistress McGonagall had walked up behind Harry during his exchange. "You have no business being in a school after everything you did. It will always be my biggest shame as a professor that it took me so long to see it. Now leave."
Dumbledore winced, and after giving both Harry and professor McGonagall one of his 'I'm disappointed in you,' looks he walked out of the Great Hall. Professor McGonagall turned to Harry. "Congratulations on your victory, Mr. Potter. I won't keep you this evening as I am sure your friends in Gryffindor are quite eager to celebrate your accomplishment, but I will need to talk to you tomorrow morning after breakfast.".
Harry acknowledged what the professor had said and she gave him a small smile before she too left. He was just worrying about leaving the Great Hall to find Dumbledore waiting to ambush him again when he was approached by a third person, this time Rita Skeeter. He just about growled in frustration, only for Hermione to give his hand a squeeze and quietly remind him that Rita was a good person to keep on their side.
Rita saw the frustration on his face, and given that she had just seen Harry encase a woman in stone and start hitting her with multiple cutting charms, she hesitated for a second until Harry said, "It's okay Rita. I'm just a little frustrated with everyone coming up to me, but you're fine. Let me guess, you want to ask me a few questions for the Prophet?"
Finding herself with an invitation to approach, Skeeter got back a lot of her swagger almost instantly. "Why of course Harry. My readers will want as much information as possible on a story as juicy as this."
Harry sighed at the necessity of the press interview, but at least it would delay them enough that if Dumbledore was waiting to ambush him with a lecture on not hurting people who deserve it, then he would probably give up and go back to where he would normally be this time of day. It was a pity Harry didn't have his map on him, but he had worried it could get damaged in the duel so he left it in his trunk. He also wasn't going to pull it out in the middle of the Great Hall either, so he had no way to check if Dumbledore was waiting on him.
Rita asked Harry about why he did what he did, along with a few more probing questions. Harry answered honestly, not wanting to hide anything this time. After all, what better way to tell the world that his girls were off limits than to say it plainly in wizarding Britain's largest newspaper? Hermione and the others were basically asked how they felt about what Harry did. She even asked Fleur, who was still on Hermione's mirror talking with everyone and demanding to know if Harry was truly alright every five minutes.
When Harry and Hermione got back from escorting Dan, Emma, and Sirius to the carriages, they returned to the common room, and just as predicted they were hit by a wall of sound as a cheer went up as soon as everyone saw Harry. He was dragged into the common room and almost immediately a butter beer was pushed into his hand, and he had to endure three rounds of the House singing "For He's a Jolly Good Toad Slayer." It was only during this that Harry noticed it wasn't just the red and gold trimmed robes of Gryffindor he was seeing, but that every house had at least a handful of students there.
At first Harry thought it was just the lycanthropy students from every house, but he quickly learned that someone like Umbridge didn't get to where she had been in the Ministry without creating a lot of people who would cheer when she fell. One Slytherin seventh year even gave Harry a bottle of firewhisky and explained that Umbridge had outed her uncle as a werewolf just to get him fired from his position in the Ministry, who just so happened to be her supervisor, just so she could apply for his job. As the party went on Harry heard more stories about how Umbridge used her power to bully and manipulate people, or how she proposed horrible laws just to demonise and oppress anything that wasn't 100% human. That Umbridge was now a cat hybrid herself a lot of people seemed to enjoy and called it poetic justice.
At normal curfew all four of the Heads of House turned up and either took the first through third years back to their common rooms, or in Gryffindor's case sent them up to bed. The fourth years and up were given some leeway at the show of inter-House cooperation and were given until midnight, as it was Saturday and there weren't any lessons in the morning. After the professors and the younger students left, the bottle of firewhisky soon disappeared into the punch bowl. There wasn't enough for anyone to get drunk after it was spread around so many people, but it was enough that everyone had some fun. Harry spent most of the night in Hermione's arms as they danced to the Weird Sisters, the Neck Romancers, and The Hobgoblins.
-ϟϟϟ-
The next day Harry made his way up to the Transfiguration professor's office and knocked on the door. As Professor McGonagall was still the Transfiguration Professor along with being the headmistress, she spent the weekend morning in the Transfiguration office so that any students wanting help with Transfiguration could approach her easily. A few moments passed and then the professor's voice called for Harry to go in.
"Ah Mr. Potter, have a seat, there are a few things we need to discuss," she instructed. Harry did as he was bid and before he could say anything Professor McGonagall added. "Before we get started, I want you to know that you aren't in any trouble. So despite what I have to say, you don't need to worry too much." Her voice was stern indicating she wasn't happy.
"Yes professor," Harry said, wondering where this was going if he wasn't in trouble.
She nodded. "Right, with that out of the way…WHAT THE HELL DID YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING! Duelling people at Hogwarts, are you insane? Did it never occur to you that with the evidence you had, if you brought it to me first I could have kicked her out of the castle? You had everything I had been waiting for so I could do something, and instead of handing it off to an adult like you're supposed to, you decide to challenge that bloody toad to a duel. What were you thinking?"
Harry tried to answer, but she cut him off. "Once you challenged her to a duel, my hands were tied until it was over. There was very little I could do without being accused of interfering with the duel. I could have had her out of the castle that day with the evidence you had." After about five more minutes of ranting at him she calmed a little and said, "Look Mr. Potter, I understand that in the past stuff like this has been left for you to deal with, that is something our former headmaster will have to answer for one day, but you need to learn that it's not always your place to fix everything."
Finally Harry had a chance to speak. "While I appreciate your position, professor, and I admit I didn't even think of going to the professors, probably because as you said I'm too used to having to deal with the problem myself, in this case I think I would have done this anyway. If I had come to you, Umbridge would still be a problem - not for the school itself but for Hermione and I specifically, as well as all the lycanthropy students, in her position at the Ministry. My way had her discredited to all of Magical Britain and taken from the school by Director Bones in handcuffs. It will take a miracle for her to avoid a stay in Azkaban, and from what I learned last night she has tread on a lot of people on her way to the top in the Ministry, people who really aren't going to be willing to offer her the help she would need."
In the end, they realised that they were never going to agree fully. Harry did agree with the professor that he couldn't get into a habit of calling duels for things that happened in school, that this was a special circumstance and if he ever did it again he would be expelled. Right at the end of their meeting, Professor McGonagall gave Harry fifty house points for protecting the students of the school and told him she was going to consider him for a Special Services to the School award, which would make Harry only the fifth person ever in the one thousand year history of the school to ever have been awarded the honour twice. By the time Harry walked out and went to find Hermione in the library where she told him she would be waiting, Harry wasn't sure if the headmistress was praising him, or if she was disappointed in him.