A/N: This idea came to me but is obviously a later chapter in the story since I was previously in first year. I wrote it out so I would not forget it. As I said, I enjoy coming up with new ways to deal with Umbridge. I seem to not suffer from inspiration when it comes to her.
A Better Plan
by Roff
Chapter 9? - 5th Year
At the start of fifth year, during the Welcoming Feast, Harry knew it was not going to be a good year.
The reason?
Dolores Umbridge.
She made it perfectly clear in her speech at the feast and then on the first class he had with her that she was at the school as a plant for the ministry. She had no intention of actually teaching Defense. Harry ignored her obvious lies about what happened during the final task of the Triwizard Tournament and refused to rise to her baiting of him so she could punish him. He could read her like a book and she was one nasty piece of work.
However, she had this way of really grating on your nerves when she talks and of course her overboard, bigoted viewpoint on life was hard to put up with. She even went out of her way in the halls to bother Harry and try to catch him messing up just so she could punish him. Harry avoided her as much as possible.
Harry steadfastly maintained his cool for as long as he possibly could, never giving her the opportunity to punish him for anything. It wasn't until Educational Decree Number 23 was enacted which gave Umbridge the position of High Inquisitor that Harry decided he'd gone as far as he was willing to go with her nonsense.
When she started on him again in the hallway one day after dinner with no one else around, he refused to recognize her as the High Inquisitor, or even a professor for that matter. She yelled "Detention!" with glee and even had a sadistic smile on her face.
"You will be serving detention with me immediately," she said still smiling. "Tonight even. Let's go!"
"No," Harry replied, refusing to go to detention with her. "Since you like detention so much, serve it with yourself."
She was shocked that he refused. Harry turned and started walking away from her as she stood there dumbfounded.
"Petrificus Totalis!" she cast silently at his back.
When he fell over frozen to the hard floor, she approached him and searched until she found his wand in his holster. She removed it and felt disgusted at the feel of it.
"Now, I'm going to release you from my spell and you are going to walk with me to my office for your detention. I'm going to keep my wand on you just in case. Do I make myself clear, Mr. Potter?"
Harry couldn't move his body, except his eyes, so he glared at her.
She released him from the body bind so he stood up and started walking in front of her towards her office. He still had his backup wand in his leg holster and he could even do plenty of wandless magic to take her down, but he was wondering if that would be the best course of action. He decided to wait until he saw what else she was willing to do.
"What is it with your wand?" she asked. "It feels like it's been cursed," she looked at it in her other hand before putting it in her pocket so she didn't have to hold it.
"Mr. Olivander told me he doubted anyone else could use my wand. It feels perfectly fine to me."
Once they reached her office, she had him take a seat at a small desk with a blank piece of parchment on it. She then gave him a black self-inking quill and told him to write lines. He was to write "I must not tell lies" until the message had time to sink in, she told him.
He began to write and immediately knew the quill was cursed. It was writing with his blood taken from the back of his left hand. Harry stopped for a second and looked over at Umbridge. She gave him a look like I dare you to say anything.
Harry started writing slower and much lighter as he thought this through. He was ready to wandlessly stun her and turn her over to Dumbledore but he was thinking his actions against her could land him in hot water with the Ministry of Magic. Suddenly, he had a much better idea.
Giving Umbridge sideways glances to keep tabs on her, he took advantage of her distraction when she started looking for something in her desk drawer. Harry quickly and wandlessly cast a messenger patronus to his godfather.
The message went low and through the wall where she wouldn't notice. Harry then cast a numbing spell on the back of his injured hand and went back to work slowly and steadily as he waited.
He had thought through very carefully who he needed to notify. His father or his mother? Then he was wondering if anything would be left of Umbridge if one of them showed up, especially his mother. That's when he thought of Sirius. Sirius was one of the biggest and important members of the Wizengamot. He was Harry's godfather but not an actual family member. This would be a better option.
Sirius was sitting in Black Manor having a drink when a very large Gryphon patronus appeared before him. Prongslet, he thought. Then he heard his godson's voice speaking to him calmly.
"Sirius, my defense professor, Dolores Umbridge, attacked me, took my wand, and is now forcing me to write with a cursed quill that uses my blood for the ink. We are in her office. I started to blast her wandlessly but think it would be better if an adult dealt with her instead since she's the Undersecretary to the Minister. If you hurry, you can catch her in the act."
Sirius immediately apparated to the Shrieking Shack and two seconds later his animagus came tearing out from under the Whomping Willow running at full speed toward the castle. He entered and ran all the way to the Defense office before changing back into himself.
In the Defense office, only about a minute passed when suddenly the office door flew open hard and slammed against the wall that stopped it from opening further. The thud of the door on the wall caused a few of the saucers with kittens on them to fall off the wall and smash onto the floor, breaking into many pieces. Sirius stormed in, saw Harry then turned toward Umbridge with a very angry expression on his face.
"LORD BLACK!" she yelled standing up. "What is the meaning –"
Sirius hit her with a stunner that threw her backwards and into the wall behind her. She slumped down to the floor out cold. He turned to Harry who had stopped writing. He then rushed over to him.
"Are you alright, Harry?" he asked putting his arm around his godson.
"I will be. I just need to put some Murtlap Essence on this," he replied showing his godfather the back of his hand.
"Merlin, that woman is evil. Unfortunately, I need you to leave it like it is for now. I'm going to send for Madam Bones to come and collect this …this …waste of space," he said nicer than he was thinking.
Sirius sent off his patronus to Madam Bones, then turned and sent another to the headmaster.
"Thanks for your help, Sirius. I could have taken her down myself but thought someone in your position of authority would be a better choice for the job."
"That was good thinking, Harry. As a Lord and high ranking member of the Wizengamot, my word will go a bit further than yours. Madam Bones and the headmaster should be here shortly. I told Madam Bones to floo to the headmaster's office and that I would let him know she's coming."
It wasn't too much longer before Professor Dumbledore, Madam Bones, and Professor McGonagall walked into the office.
They noticed Umbridge over on the floor and Sirius hovering around Harry.
"Sirius, why are you here?" asked Dumbledore.
"Harry sent for me. He reasoned it would be a better idea for me to deal with Umbridge rather than him handling it personally. I wholeheartedly agree with him."
"What happened" asked Madam Bones.
"I suppose Harry should be the one to answer the questions, but I'll give a quick summary so we can get this over faster. Harry needs some medicine for his hand."
"Alright. Tell us what you know," Madam Bones replied.
"I was home relaxing after a long day when Harry's patronus showed up telling me that Umbridge had attacked him and forced him at wand point to write lines with a cursed quill. He was going to blast her himself but decided to let an adult handle it instead. I arrived as fast as I could get here and stunned Umbridge. Harry was still sitting in that same chair writing lines with that cursed quill when I came through the door."
All three of them walked over and looked at Harry's left hand.
"My word!" exclaimed McGonagall. "I have never seen such a thing. How could she?!" she asked heatedly.
"Mr. Potter, I want you to get that hand looked at right away," Madam Bones told him.
"I'll send for Poppy," Dumbledore told them then sent off his patronus to her.
"Meanwhile, could I trouble you for a memory of the events?" Madam Bones asked Harry.
"No problem. If you can get my wand back from Umbridge over there, I'll get it for you right now."
"You know how to extract a memory?" she asked.
"Yes, I do."
"Very well. Give me a second," she told them then went over to search Umbridge.
"Mine's aspen, mostly a white color with black on it. Her wand looks to be a rather short brown one."
Madam Bones found his wand and brought it back to Harry.
"I don't know how you use this wand, Mr. Potter. It feels all wrong. I doubt I could cast Lumos with it and make it work."
Harry took it from her hand and looked up at everyone.
"Everyone who touches my wand tends to say something similar. Mr. Ollivander said that I was probably the only one who could use it, and like I tell everyone, it feels perfectly fine to me."
"What's it made out of, if you don't mind me asking, Mr. Potter?" asked Madam Bones.
"Aspen, of course, for the wood, and for the core, a shard from the horn of a Horned Serpent."
"That's a very unusual core, Harry," Dumbledore told him.
"He had to custom make it before I could get one that fits."
"Interesting," Dumbledore mumbled.
Harry concentrated for a second then placed his wand to his temple and pulled out a thick white strand that he placed in a vial Madam Bones produced for him. She stoppered it and placed it in her robes.
Just then Madam Pomfrey rushed through the door and cleared everyone out of the way of Harry. She started casting diagnostic spells on him immediately. She then looked at him suspiciously.
"You should be in pain, Mr. Potter, but you're not, are you?" she asked.
"No, I'm not."
"Who cast the numbing charm on your hand?"
"I did. I figured if I was going to have to continue to write for a while I might as well get comfortable."
"Very well," she told him then turned to the others. "I need to take Mr. Potter to the infirmary so I can heal his hand.
"That will be fine as far as I'm concerned," Madam Bones answered. "He gave me his memory of the incident so I think we need go back to the headmaster's office and view it for ourselves. If I have further questions, I'll ask him later after he's been treated."
"Come with me, Mr. Potter," Madam Pomfrey told him.
"I'll drop by and check on you later after we're done with the memory, Harry," Sirius told him.
Harry nodded as he followed Madam Pomfrey from the office.
Madam Bones tied up Dolores and then put a spell on her to float and follow behind her as they walked to the headmaster's office.
When they arrived and had Dolores situated on the floor near the fireplace, Dumbledore setup his pensieve on his desk and poured the memory Amelia gave him into it. They all entered the memory and watched as it started with Dolores stopping Harry in the hall and ended when Albus, Amelia, and Minerva entered the office to find Sirius there with Harry.
"She was purposely baiting and taunting him just so she could give him detention," Amelia said after they were back out of the memory. "Do you know if he ever had to serve detention with her before?"
"Not that we know of. Normally detentions are known, especially as the headmaster. I'm usually informed of such matters, along with the Deputy Headmistress. Do you know of any, Minerva?"
"I can tell you that I'm pretty sure he has never served any detention with any teacher since he's been here. He's a model student and the top scorer in his year. He has been very careful with her all semester. I can only surmise that he got sick of her nonsense and told her so."
"Simply casting a spell on a student in anger, like she did, will get you probation as a professor," Albus informed them with Minerva nodding in agreement. "Mess up again and you lose your job. Now, the use of a cursed quill on a student gets her dismissed immediately. What you do with her legally, Amelia, I leave up to you."
"I'm going to arrest her so I'll call two of my aurors and ask them to take Dolores back to the Auror Office cells and lock her up. I feel I need to clarify some things with Mr. Potter before I go though."
They all nodded as she summoned two aurors.
Kingsley and Proudfoot arrived via the floo and collected Umbridge following Amelia's instructions. They took her back to the ministry to lock her up while the others decided to go check on Harry.
When they arrived in the hospital wing, he was sitting on a bed with his left hand submerged in a bowl as it soaked in a medicinal liquid. James and Lily were there beside his bed with him. Lily was holding his right hand and she and James did not look happy.
"How's it going Harry?" asked Sirius as he glanced worriedly over at his friends.
"Alright, I guess. I just have to soak my hand for a good while."
"Mr. Potter? Can you tell me how long Dolores Umbridge has been baiting you just so she can punish you?" asked Madam Bones.
"Since the first class with her. She never let up about it either. I always tried to avoid her, since she never passed up an opportunity. It was worse in class but as you saw in my memory, she would literally hunt me down."
"I see, and was this your first detention with her?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact, it was my first detention ever."
"I assure you, Harry, this detention will not remain on your record," Dumbledore told him.
"Thank you, sir."
"I was also curious, Mr. Potter," continued Madam Bones, "about what caused you to suddenly abandon all your carefully laid plans to avoid her punishment. You successfully did that since the beginning of the year. What changed?"
"I realized that no one in their right mind would make her High Inquisitor or pass all these ridiculous educational decrees. It was obvious to me she had someone, or several people at the Ministry, who were backing her on this. I assume the Board of Governors for Hogwarts were behind her and perhaps Minister Fudge, since she works directly for him."
"You are familiar with the issues we are having with Minister Fudge, Harry," Dumbledore told him. "Lucius Malfoy not only has the Minister's ear but he also serves on the Board of Governors, so you might guess where that could be a problem."
"Exactly, so I realized none of this was on the up and up. It was all being done illegally, or at the very least, without proper support. I admit I was curious as to why she was so focused on me and why she wanted to get me in detention so badly. It was a bit unnerving to say the least.
"I decided I would not recognize her in her new position and I would no longer recognize her as a professor. She has a way to get on your nerves very quickly. I'm willing to respect a teacher up to a certain point. Once they start abusing their power, it becomes when and not if I will do something. Plus, personally, I was simply tired of being abused."
"Where is that bitch now?" asked Lily quietly and coldly so no one doubted her intentions.
"I've already arrested her, Lily, and sent her with aurors to the holding cells," answered Amelia. "She will be tried for her crimes and punished. She will no longer be allowed around children, nor will she be able to keep her position as Undersecretary to the Minister."
"She better be dealt with severely. She attacked and abused my son. I will hunt her to the ends of the earth if she is not properly punished for her crimes."
"You have my word, Lily."
Lily nodded.
"That's all I have, Mr. Potter," Madam Bones informed him. "I hope your hand heals up properly."
"Madam Pomfrey assured me it will as long I follow her instructions and soak it long enough. That's what I plan on doing."
"You do that. I'll let you know if I need you for anything else. Bye, everyone. Do you mind if I use your floo, Poppy?"
"No, go right ahead. Bye, Amelia."