Welcome one and all back to another chapter of Bad Moon Rising in which a nail is delivered, Scáthach kills a hound, and a Devil comes to Hogwarts.
But I've got to admit, hurting one girl and one owl I got to see the comment section turn into ardent worshipers of the Blood God is amazing.
On with the show.
Harry Potter.
"HEDWIG!?" the horror and pain-filled shout of a boy rocks the tower which he called home as divine power born from his blood seeps out of him in a howl that made every living soul in the tower freeze as they felt the fangs of the Hunt upon their necks, only two moved, one being the boy who yelled, moving with swiftness to pick up his oldest friend and bundle her carefully in his arms, and a girl on the other side of the tower who heads snaps up from her homework with wide eyes at the call; for she knows the feeling of the Hunt all too well.
The boy, cradling the owl who meant so much to him in his arms, turns, ignoring the call of his friends, and begins to move. The door to his dormitory that sat closed and in his way? Kicked off its hinges and shatters as it hits the wall and window opposite to it. The stairs? Take four at a time all without justling his winged companion. The people in his way? All they saw was a blur moving through the crowd at a speed none could follow. The portrait in his way? Kicked open with such force that the fat lady was knocked off the wall before the boy charged down the hallway that led to the Hospital Wing. He did not care for those who were out late in the corridors of his home, he did not stop when people shouted at him, and all that was on his mind was that he had to get his owl to the hospital wing, and within minutes he arrived with a shout.
"Madam Pomfrey! Madam Pomfrey, help! Please!" Harry cried as he ran into the hospital wing, and did not have to wait long for the Madam to show up.
"Mother-Magic Potter, what in the blazes is it this-" The elderly matron begins to say, before stopping in shock as she walks out of her office to see the boy who so often spent the night in her wing of the castle standing before her, his face twisted in agony and tears with his feathered friend in his arms bleeding upon the hospital wing floor.
"I-I didn't know where else to bring her," Harry says weakly as he begins to shake, causing the Matron to snap out of her shock before instructing the young man.
"Put her on one of the beds, now Mister Potter, I'll be right back," Madam Pomfrey says before turning back around and running into her office as Harry does what he was told to do, laying his owl down softly onto one of the hospital beds.
"Please, Hedwig, please don't go yet, Please," Harry begs as he kneels next to his owl, tears leaving a trail down his cheeks, and as he rocks back and forth. It's only a few moments before Madam Pomfrey and another person return.
"Move back, quickly now if you would, Mister Potter," Orders Professor Grubbly-Plank, causing Harry to scoot back as the two older women converge on the owl laying on the bed to begin to examine it, whispering between themselves as Harry sits on the floor just behind them with his back against the hospital bed with his head in his hands, trying to force the Hunt out of his head.
"It seems like a Piercing Hex-"
"-Missed her vital organs-"
"-Need a Blood Replenishing Potion-"
"-Tough old bird-"
Harry hears them, but the words are like a garbled mess to him as the anger and desperation flood him, all he wants to hear is that she'll live, that she'll fly again, so Harry could get a name, a description, anything from Hedwig because he was going to hunt whoever did this down and kill them.
Ron Weasley, Gryffindor Tower
"Well," Ron says, looking at the shattered remains of the door on the floor mixed with the broken glass of the window, "That could have gone better," He says before turning to Hermione who was now looking at him like he was mad, "What?" Ron questions as he begins to follow Harry's path of destruction and mentally gives the Auror department props for the accurate nickname they gave to his best mate.
"Ronald! Why would you say something like that!?" Hermione snaps at him before quickly following him down the stairs to the common room.
"Because it's true?" Ron says without looking back, and quickly heads to the portrait hole to go find the one person who has any hope to stop what's about to happen as Hermione stutters and scoffs at his words.
"Oi! What the fuck happened with Pot-Head? And the bloody hell was that feeling!?" Delphini says as she walks over to the two, stopping Ron in his tracks he turns to her and watches as she rubs her throat. Ron couldn't blame anyone who hadn't spent a lot of time around Harry where the feeling of fangs at their throat that was ready to rip it out if you even breathed wrong from feeling put off by the feeling, but he fights the urge to narrow his eyes at this girl in particular. Ron didn't trust her and neither did Hermione. Delphini became too close to Harry far too quickly if you were to ask either of them, especially when you take Harry's general demeanor of Don't talk to me into account, but before Ron could tell her to bugger off, another voice calls out.
"Ron! What the hell just happened with Harry!?" the angry voice of Angelina Johnson calls from the stairs leading up to the girls' rooms, Ron turns and sees his captain come down the steps with a keen and scared look in her eyes.
"Someone hurt Hedwig, Harry just took off with her," Ron tells her, looking out of the secret passage and the knocked-over portrait of the Fat Lady who was screaming, before looking back at the slightly scared-looking Captain, once again, Ron didn't blame anyone for feeling that toward Harry, especially when he was pissed, "Me and Hermione are about to go do damage control, alone," Ron says before turning to look at Delphini whose mouth was open as if she was going to say something before closing it slowly with a grumpy look on her face, but Ron didn't care as he and Hermione, once again, stated to leave and luckily no one this time stopped them as they both hopped over the downed portrait of the Fat Lady. It wasn't until the Grand Staircase only a few minutes later did they speak again, Hermione going towards the hospital wing as Ron was heading toward the defense tower, "Hermione!" Ron called out when he noticed his other friend heading up, "Where are you going?" he asks.
"To the hospital wing!" Hermione snapped back, "Where are you going!?" she demanded, worry and pain in her eyes.
"I'm going to go get Teacher!" Ron snapped back, "She's the only person in the school who can stop a berserk Harry," He says, gesturing in the direction of Defense Classroom, watching Hermione's face melt from anger to one of realization looking as if she wanted to cuss something fierce.
"Okay, good point, but we can do both, now come on," Hermione says before turning and running down the corridor that leads to the hospital wing before Ron chases after her.
"Both? How the bloody hell do we do both!?" Ron calls as he runs down the hall behind Hermione.
"Teacher is a GOD, Ronald, We don't need to go find her if she can hear us as we pray to her," Hermione says, before closing her eyes while feeling a bit silly, "Scáthach, Witch-Queen of Dún-Scáith, please hear my pray, we have a problem with Har-" Hermione begins to mutter and before she could even finish what she was going to say, a voice cuts her off.
"What happened to the Greaca this time, Miss Granger?" the voice of Scáthach sounds out with a bit of a sigh, "I swear that boy finds more trouble than Sétante," The witch-queen grumbles before her hound that trods along behind her as she walks down the Corridor toward the pair of students barks, "Oh, be quiet you," Scáchach snips at the hound that whines a bit. The Witch-Queen stops as the two teenagers turn to her with surprise coloring both their faces before they both begin to talk as one and over each other.
"Stop," Scáthach says calmly after a moment, watching as the words die in both Ron and Hermione's throats and they fall quiet, "Now, one at a time, tell me what's wrong?" Scáthach asks before the two teens tell her what has happened to Hedwig.
Scáthach.
Scáthach had sent Ron and Hermione to the headmaster's office to inform him what was happening and her hound to search the grounds for the location of the attack, The Headmaster had to be informed of a potential threat to the school before it got out of hand, and Scáthach hoped it wouldn't get to that for she had no intention of killing her student if she could help it, but if Harry became a threat to the other children in her school…
"What have you done, you foolish dog!?" the memory screamed through Scáthach mind of the last time Sétante returned to Dún Scaith, the same day she had banished him from her castle until his death only a few short years later and even then, Scáthach had refused his soul entry to its halls for the shame and crime he committed against her. Scáthach shakes her head as she approaches the door to the Hospital Wing, chasing the memory from her mind as she focuses on her current task; she had to calm Harry before he lost himself to his mother's domain and as summoned by Scáthach's thoughts, the doors of the Hospital Wing slam open as Harry walks out, a look of rage and hatred set on his face as he walked stiffly with his wand in a death grip, and more worryingly, his eyes were almost fully overtaken by the Yellow-Gold of the Hunt right above dried tear tracks rested, the boy doesn't ever stop as he sees her. His single-minded pursuit was the only thing on his mind, the boy was on a hunt, and if Scáthach didn't stop him he could very much become a threat to the rest of the students that call Hogwarts home.
"Greaca, Stop," Scáthach says, stopping herself right in the middle of the boy's path, When Harry tries to step around her, she steps in front of him, "Greaca," She says again, her tone soft but full of a warning, "You need to stop and calm down at once, I know you're angry right now, and rightfully so-" Scáthach begins to reason with her student, but Harry wasn't having it.
"Hedwig almost fucking died!" Harry screams, his face twisting in an ugly rage as his eyes pulsate and glow in the shadows of the corridor, "They had to put her in some type of stasis spell so she wouldn't, I can't even talk to her! I can't hold her! I don't even know if she's going to make it! So I'm going to hunt down the fuck who hurt her and put my spear through their fucking heart!" Harry yells, his voice echoing throughout the corridors as he lowers himself into a ready position for a fight with his eyes burning and his hands shaking, "So, move," Scáthach's face remains blank at her student's outrage, for she could not fault him for it, for his rage was justified in her eyes, but she could let the boy stalk the halls looking for any excuse to attack someone in his rage.
"No," Scáthach says as Harry growls at her like a wild animal he was on the verge of becoming, "I will find out who hurt Hedwig, Harry, I promise you, but I can not allow you anywhere near people as you are, your losing-" Scáthach tries to reason with the half-mad boy, but he snaps at her, cutting her off.
"I DON'T FUCKING CARE, NOW MOVE!" Harry roars, and Scáthach can count on one hand the number of people who dared to speak to her like that and still have fingers left over. But before Scáthach could correct such disrespect in her student, her hound had returned, and with his accused idiocy spoke without thinking as it stepped into the corridor through her shadow with a bark, saying a single word.
Umbridge.
Harry's roar was deafening as the Beast won against humanity and he took off like a shot, charging around Scáthach and down the corridor, Scáthach tries to grab him, but the boy was just too quick, and she was unprepared as he moved and he slipped passed her, but luckily enough, didn't slip past Cú. With a single lunge, Cú sank his fangs into the back of Harry's calf and pulled back, bringing the boy crashing to the ground right on his face. Harry quickly pulls back his other foot before lashing out with a devastating kick to Cú's head, causing Scáthach hound to yelp and knock its head away, but thanks to Cú's quick action, Scáchach was able to drive a knee into Harry's back, pinning him to the ground before he could find his feet.
"Harry, stop!" Scáthach said firmly to Harry as she pinned him down, but the boy was heedless to anything but his madness as he thrashed, trying to throw her off, but Scáthach was a god, and if she did not want to move, she wouldn't, "Harry, please, calm down!" she says as she grabs one of his arms and pinned it down, but it wasn't the one that held his wand. Scáthach's eyes widen as she feels the castle shift around her, snapping her head up she watches as the stones of the castle form into spears-Her Spear-before they come crashing down at her, trying to force her to move, but this wasn't a spar and she had no reason to move as the spears of stone puncture her body, 4 in all finding home in her heart, lung, liver, and lower intestine.
Scáthach couldn't help the proud smile that stretched over her face, "Even in the throws of madness and the Everchase you still remember my spear and my teachings, huh, Greaca?" she says softly as her eyes soften with her words, before reaching out and grabbing Harry's other wrist before twisting it behind his back as he continues to thrash about, snapping his own arm in the process. "I normally wouldn't be able to stop a child of the Hunt when they are like this without killing them," Scáthach says in a whisper as golden blood drips from her back and chest onto Harry as she closes her eyes, "But you're not just a child of the Hunt, now are you, Harry," she says as she leans her head down before opening her {Fathomless Black Eyes} and presses a kiss to the scar that so marred his life.
The effects were immediate as Harry gasps and begins to wheeze, his eyes widen and the veins across his face begin to bulge and grow black as they spread to his neck and chest. But Harry was the only one affected by the kiss, as the same veins grew from below the neckline of the dress that Scáthach wore and up her throat, black thorns grow from her wounds to wrap around the spears sticking into her back, and as they begin to grow and spread around the shafts of the spears they unravel the very existence of the stone till nothing is left, not even dust and magic.
Scáthach pulls away from the kiss and watches for a few moments as Harry's eyes bleed back to Emerald green before rolling into the back of his head as the black veins begin to recede, "Sleep, Harry, and dream pleasant dreams," Scáthach murmurs to him before standing up, her wounds long closed, They were lucky that Poppy had gone with Wilhelmina to make sure Hedwig would make it. It seems the stern Mistress of the Hospital Wing had grown a bit of a soft spot for her student for how often Harry found himself in Poppy's domain.
The soft footfalls of Albus catch her attention, and after a moment of focus, Scáthach feels her eyes shift back to the blood-red color she normally wears before she turns to look at the Headmaster, whose face is stern and solemn as he approaches with the Deathstick out.
"My Lady," Dumbledore greets, his eyes flicking to Harry lying on the ground as fear and worry flash through his eyes before relaxing a little after he sees the boy breathing, "You were able to stop him before things escalated I see, good, good," the elderly man says with a relieved sigh, "Will he be okay?" Albus asks.
"Yes," Scáthach says after a moment of quiet, "He just needs rest for right now," she says before pulling out her wand and giving it a wave over Harry's broken arm, fixing it, before stowing it away and leaning down to pick her student princess style, "Albus?" she says, without turning to the Headmaster.
"Yes, My Lady?" Dumbledore answers, looking away from Harry and back to Scáthach.
"Can you please have Dolores in your office in ten minutes, I need to have words with her," Scáthach says, causing Dumbledore's brows to shoot up in surprise for he could feel, even standing a good ten feet from Scáthach, the rage in her tone of voice.
Albus merely nods his head before speaking, "Of course, My Lady, though I do hope you will keep in mind our agreement while you have your words with her," the Headmaster says carefully, trying to feel hopeful but it was more unsure than anything.
"No promises," Scáthach says as she begins to walk away, her ever-loyal hound following at her heels as she heads back to her office and private rooms to lay Harry down in the bed she hadn't used since first taking over the office, it would be in that room where she would find a visitor. A King had come calling and in a rare moment of honesty for it, it shared with Scáthach news of a black quill being used on both her Hunter and his Moon.
Albus Dumbledore
Albus Dumbledore explored many areas of the magical arts over his long life, from what they teach at Hogwarts, to high rituals, to even dark magic though he had never used any of it himself. But what he found was that the most interesting form of the magical arts was divination, not for prophecies of dark lords and their downfall, no, but for the everyday use of the practice. Tarot cards and horoscopes, reading tea leaves and crystal ball gazing, he found it all very fascinating which was probably what drew him to his former love at the start of their tumultuous relationship so long ago.
But Albus was no seer, and could not practice the art to such accuracy that Grindelwald had in the past, so he settled for misread tea leaves and funny little horoscopes he would read from time to time, like this morning after his morning cuppa he saw a message of impending danger he had written it off as being once more being misread.
But as he sat in his office, watching Dolores talking to Cornelius through the floo, he felt the castle shake due to the rage of its Mistress and Albus knew he hadn't read those smudges in his teacup wrong.
Cornelius stepped from the floo just a moment later as Dolores looked around the room confused, Cornelius pats off the sot and ash from his robes before turning back to the still burning green Hearth before yelling, "Do not let her into my office, Percival, tell her I've gone home or something, I do not want to see her!" he hollers back before turning to Dumbledore with a glare.
"Good evening, Cornelius," Dumbledore greets the Minister before leaning back in his chair, never one for being rude to anyone, no matter how foolish he thought they were.
"Well, what's all this then?" Cornelius snaps at Dumbledore, ignoring his greeting, "Why are you calling upon the High Inquisitor into your office at such a late hour without calling me first, hm?" he asks angrily with a scowl on his face.
"I assure you, Cornelius, I am not the one who asked for this meeting, though I do believe we will be discussing an assault on an owl that happened earlier in the evening," Albus says and watches as Dolores stiffens a bit before putting her nose in the air like the harming of someone's beloved pet was beneath her to discuss.
"Well then, who did?" The Minister asks, sounding upset to be dragged out of his office to discuss something as mundane as the harming of someone's beloved pet, which caused Dumbledore a rare spot of rage in his chest, for not all pets were like Fawkes and could walk off life-threatening injuries like they were nothing, but he stamps it out quickly enough. But before he could answer the question, the floo flared again, and two more people stepped into his office and if it was for Dumbledore's careful control over his own emotions, he would have paled for Taili Peverell stepped into his office and was quickly followed by Daniel Gaunt's imposing figure.
"Ah, there you are Cornelius, and you too Headmaster, Excellent, I can kill two birds with one stone," Lady Peverell says with a terrifying smile as Daniel Gaunt crosses his arms over his chest and stands behind the woman in front of him before turning to the Headmaster and nodding his head in respect and Dumbledore returns it, though a bit lower than Lord Gaunt's.
"No, absolutely not, my office hours are closed. You can come tomorrow morning for whatever you want," Cornelius says, taking off his hat and waving it at the woman who was smiling at him as sweet as a poisoned apple.
"Oh, but Cornelius, I have rather important news to share with you, and every time I try to make an appointment to speak with you your secretary tells me that you're booked for the next month, Why it feels like you're avoi-" Lady Peverell says, before stopping dead as the door to Ablus office opens and in walks, to everyone's confusion, a Cat. It walks into the office and both Lord Gaunt and Lady Peverell follow it as it hops from the floor to on top of Albus' desk before circling a few times and lying down with its paws and tail tucked in to stare unnervingly at Dolores.
"What is tha-" Lord Gaunt tries to say before Lady Peverell's head snaps to the office door once more She quickly turns and makes her way over to the Headmaster's desk before standing beside it with everyone looking at her odd, but before anyone could say another thing, the office door slams up again with such force it cracks the wood as the mortals in the room all jump and feels the all-consuming and ever-present fear of death floods the room as Scáthach stands in the doorway.
"Oh dear," Albus thinks to himself as he watches Scáthach's eyes immediately land on Dolores.
"I will deal with you,-" Scáthach spits out while nodding her head to Lady Peverell with such disgusted rage that Albus could almost taste it, "-In a moment," before she stalks into the room bring the menacing aura of her domain into the room as she does, "Attacking a students owl and infecting such grievous injuries that it had almost died just to steal the student's mail, when, not thirty minutes later you make said student use a blood quill to write lines!" The Queen of Shadows hisses out through clenched teeth as she advances on Dolores, "You have lost your mind if you think you would get away with that not once, but twice!" she snaps.
"What?" Albus says, in a quiet, horrified voice, "You did what!?" he roars as he stands from his chair, eyes ablaze as the pressure from his magical aura comes crashing down in the room making Cornelius and Dolores's heads snap back and forth between both Dumbledore and Scáthach as Lady Peverell looks over at Dumbledore with a mildly impressed look and Daniel Gaunt tries to shove himself into a corner to back away from Scáthach as much as he could.
"L-Lies!" Dolores stutters out, trying to stand tall, "I have done no such thing," she cries out just before a small wooden box shatters against the wall behind her where Scáthach had thrown it, scattering the black feathered blood quills across the floor.
"Now say that again, with a straight face this time," Scáthach growls out as she continues to advance slowly on Dolores as Cornelius rounds on his undersecretary with wide eyes.
"I have done no such thing!" Dolores screams as her wand slips into her hand, standing straighter.
"I have heard enough!" Dumbledore roars before turning to Scáthach, "My Lady, how sure are you of these claims?" he asks, stopping Scáthach from advancing any further but not the death glare she was sending Dolores.
"Positive, Headmaster, both Luna Lovegood and Harry Potter carry scars on the back of their hands that say I will not tell stories and I will know my place respectively and I have no doubt both will give testimony to it," Scáthach says, her hand opening and closing, no doubt wanting her weapon in hand.
Albus then turns to Dolores with a hard glare, "Dolores Umbridge, I, as the Headmaster of Hogwarts, hereby strip you of your position as a Professor and Educator of this fine institution for the use of corporal punishment on two students, which was outlawed by this schools charter in the year of nineteen-sixty-six, you are suspended from all privileges except those put in place by educational decree number twenty-three until an investigation into this matter is concluded, you have until breakfast to leave these grounds peacefully, or-" Dumbledore speaks, the weight of his words hammered down like the words of a judge striking his gavel, but it was the Queen that finished the threat.
"-or I will make you leave," The Witch-Queen says with such ferocity and rage the tower they stood in shook with that rage.
"Now, see here! You do not have the power to just sack anyone you want, Dumbledore," Cornelius says, pointing his finger at the man who stands tall and powerful.
"I think you would find, Cornelius, that I do," Dumbledore says with finality, "While the board of governors has to approve of who I hire, they do not have any say on who I suspend or fire, that power rests with me, alone," He says, folding his arms behind his back to steer down at the man with magical fire burning in his eyes, quite thoroughly done with this foolish game the Minister was trying to play, for Albus Dumbledore would put up with much, but he drew a fine line at harming the students under his care.
"As fun, as this is to watch, I did come here for a reason and would like to be done with it so I may leave as soon as possible," Lady Peverell speaks up, looking between the Headmaster and the Minister with a bored look before pulling out two packets of parchment from her black traveling cloak before handing one to the Headmaster, who polite takes it with a nod of thanks, before walking up to the Minister and thrusting the second one into his hands, all the while Scáthach's glare switched to her.
"As you will read within, this is the preliminary findings of the Auror department into what happened in the graveyard, and my oh my, when not using political power to narrow their investigation they tend to do a rather good job at finding things," Lady Peverell says with a small smile while looking at the Minister of Magic as he and Dumbledore read what was handed to them, "Like how they found twenty-nine different sets of footprints, one belonging to, whom they believe to be, a young teen, as well as the remains of a destroyed cauldron saturated in an unknown dark magic," She says as her smile turns wicked as the Minister looks up with very wide and very scared eyes, "It would seem, Cornelius, that there is some credit to Mister Potter's story after all," she tells him as the Minister begins to gape like a fish.
"That's just the first nail, Cornelius," Lady Peverell purrs out, "I'll be getting you the rest of them another time," she tells the Minister before turning to Albus, "And Headmaster, I'll be pushing to reinstating you as our representative for the ICW by the end of the month," she says before Dumbledore sighs.
"It would seem, my short vacation is almost to an end, a shame, I was looking forward to my knitting projects," Dumbledore says, before smiling at the gods he knew were in the room.
Harry Potter, one week later.
Harry Potter has had a very odd week, for one, he had woken up in Teacher's bed with a splitting headache and Cú lying on top of him licking his face. It wasn't until Scáthach had arrived with breakfast and explained what happened the night before that Harry remembered what happened to Hedwig and the rage came once more, but oddly enough, not the Hunt. In fact, Harry hadn't felt the Hunt at all the whole week, no heightened senses that led to his migraines or the ever-present beast howling in his mind for a hunt or to be fed, he couldn't even call on it, it was like the Hunt was just gone.
Scáthach had informed him that he had lost it again, though she didn't blame him for doing so and had to use an extreme method of calming Harry down to bring him back from the edge of the Everchase, though when he asked what she had done, Scáthach had refused to answer. But she did tell him that Hedwig was out of danger and was expected to make a full recovery thanks to Harry's mother's blessing, which almost made Harry cry in relief.
Scáthach also informed him of Umbridge's suspension and sacking pending investigation which he would give his full participation in when the deputy headmistress called him to her office to question him, but Harry didn't want Umbridge sacked, he wanted her dead.
To which, Scáthach had said, "Give it time, Greaca, I'm sure something will happen," Before giving him that smile she normally gives when she is sure of something, so Harry let it drop, for now.
Harry was called to McGonagall's office the following day and met the odd girl from the express who had Cait-fucking-Sith as a pet, Luna Lovegood was her name. They were called in one at a time to give a statement to McGonagall before showing her the scars on the back of their hands. It was announced the next day at breakfast that Umbridge was sacked and they were looking for a new teacher for the Wixen Culture and History class, though they may still see her on grounds thanks to Education Decree number twenty-three and Harry wouldn't see the wide mouth toad for another five days.
Then came the Aurors and their investigation into what happened at the Cemetery, which had blindsided Harry just a few days after Umbridge was sacked. They had shown up in the middle of Defensive Arts with Sirius in tow and asked if they could speak to him, to which Scáthach had dismissed the class for the day so she could sit in on the interview as well that was led by Kingsley and had both Dawlish and Dora as well to collect both his statement and Memories of the whole event, they asked a million questions and a lot of them were the same ones but just phrase differently but he had answered all of them before the Aurors left with their thanks.
It was the following day that the new temporary teacher for the Wixen Culture and History class was announced, and the look of Horror that Harry saw on Theodore's face when Fúamnach walked on stage in fine robes and went by Lupusreigna Nott almost made up for how shitty the week started out, but it was when Fúamnach had sent Dobby with a fully healed Hedwig did Harry actually cry, it was apparently common knowledge that Harry had trashed the common room and the entrance to the Gryffindor Tower and just why he did it, so much so, that Theodore had heard about it and asked Fúamnach to take a look at Hedwig and Harry almost hugged the other boy for that one, almost.
Sadly, they couldn't charge Umbridge with hurting Hedwig because no one had seen her do it, but one way or another Harry swore to get justice for his feathered friend, he had thought his chance would come a few days later when Umbridge showed up to "Inspect" another teacher. But when lunch had come and gone that day, Harry had almost given up hope for he had not seen the toad all day, until Lunch had come and gone, and he was leaving the Great Hall when he heard her annoying, high-pitched fake sweetness coming from the entrance hall.
"-And I told you, if you can not answer my questions then you will have to leave, now," Umbridge's voice rang out as Harry was going to his afternoon Double Transfiguration lesson, stopping him dead in his tracks before he turns and followed the sound of her voice while ignoring the calls of Ron and Hermione telling him to stop, while Delphini yells at him to "Kick her ass" that made him smile a bit.
"Ma'am, as I've explained to you, multiple times, we do not answer to you nor do you have any power to order us to go anywhere," an old wizen voice answers back sounding frustrated and tired, "So, I'm going to ask you one more time, step aside," the voice says as Harry pushes through the crowd forming around the disturbance near the front door to the castle.
"Not until you answer my questions," Umbridge snaps back, and as Harry pushes his way to the front of the crowd, he finally sees who she is arguing with. It was a group of five people, two were standing in front of Umbridge as a half-imposing wall, for one of the people had to be almost two meters tall if not taller, and built like a smaller Cernunnos with his arms crossed over his chest, he, like most of the group, was wearing Muggle clothing and a camo windbreaker that Harry could see the butt end of some type of firearm in a holster under his arm, with a plane looking dark brown shirt and a pair of blue jeans and boots. The man was old too, with steel gray hair in a crew cut and a short and neat beard, his brown eyes were narrowed in a glare as he looked down at Umbridge who glared right back defiantly.
The other half of the wall was a bit less impressive, she was tiny and willowy, and she was maybe around Harry's height which wasn't all that impressive. While the man she stood next to was white, she was Asian in descent with short and wild black hair, her brown eyes looked at Umbridge like she was a slug she had found on the ground, and she wore a short white and orange jacket that showed off her mid-drift and black baggy cloth pants with an odd fur belt holding them up with what looked like a nightstick holstered to the side of her leg, as well as some slip on blue flats. She was younger, much younger than the man she was standing beside, late teens or early twenties at the most. She had a bored look on her face as she had one hand resting on her cocked hips and the other tapping on the baton on her leg.
Another man was standing to the far back and looked to be a proper wizard in a pressed blue suit, the man looked like a member of that ZZ-Top band that Sirius liked to listen to now and again, even had the sunglass on, he looked almost Dumbledore's age but stood like a trained soldier as his head was constantly swiveling back and forth looking over and scanning the crowd.
The last member was pale white, not Irish pale but like, muggle paperwhite, It was honestly a bit off-putting, and if it wasn't for the man's white hair and red eyes, Harry probably wouldn't have figured out it was some sort of extreme albinism, though it didn't explain the red markings under his eyes or what seemed to be gold bands wrapped around his neck unto his Adams apple. He wore an oversized black hoodie and baggy black pants with what seemed to be golden boots poking out from under the pants legs, he had this disconnected look on his face like nothing around him was real but his eyes, while carrying the same disconnected look, were also sharp as blades as he scanned the gathering crowd in front of him with the detached look.
"Ma'am," The tall older man with the crew cut says, "To be perfectly honest with you, I don't have to answer a fuckin thing you ask me, so either step aside, or I'll let Shi here crack your head open like an egg," The man says in an American accent as the tiny Asian girl gives Umbridge an unsettling feral grin.
Harry approved of this.
"I will not be threatened like this," Umbridge snapped at the older man as she held her wand concealed behind her back, "If you will not announce yourself or why you are here I will be calling the Aurors at once," she snaps at the taller man, and as the smaller girl takes a step forward to presumably crack Umbridge's head like an egg, an arm shot out between the small girl and larger man, cloaked in a pure white sleeve and holding a metal fan, and starts to smack the tiny girl in the head and the larger man in the arm.
"I've had enough, Shi, Ozwalt, step aside, step aside," a high-pitched and commanding voice says sharply as whoever it was continues to smack the two parts on the wall, forcing them to step aside and as they do, they reveal who is standing behind the larger man, a princess.
It was the only way for Harry to describe her, she wore a gown that looked like it had at least nine other layers and looked bulky on what should be a small frame, the top part of the gown? Dress? Robe? Whatever it was, it was pure snow white with a long golden sash tied loosely around her waist with what looked to be a dagger of some kind tucked into it, The sleeves of the robes hung low, almost to the ground, one sleeve was pulled up to the crook of her elbow so she could move her golden fan to the lower half of her face to glare down at Umbridge who was about half a head shorter than the woman. The woman's hair was done up in several elaborate buns with long colorful and ornamental pins to keep her hair in place, Everything about the woman seemed to radiate confidence and command as she stood in the halls of Hogwarts like a foreign princess from some far off land coming to demand the complete surrender of the castle.
"Who the bloody fuck is that?" Delphini whispers in awe to Harry's right, causing him to jump, looking around and finding Ron and Hermione standing just behind him, he quickly starts to miss having the Hunt pumping in him, as nice as it was not to have a migraine every time he sat down to eat, it felt like he was missing a leg or a piece of himself.
"No clue," Harry whispers back, but he has a feeling they are about to find out.
"What is your name?" The princess look-alike asks Umbridge with narrowed eyes but with a soft, flat tone.
"I am Dolores Umbridge, Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic and the High Inquisitor of Hogwarts," Umbridge says, standing straighter with her head held high as she glared back at the Princess, "Now, for the last time, Name yourself foreigner," she spits the word at the feet of the Princess who looks unbothered by Umbridge's disrespectful tone.
The Princess closed her fan with a snap before drawing her other arm up gracefully and sliding the other arm that was holding the fan back into the long sleeve before sliding each of her arms into the opposite sleeve and bringing them up to her chest, "I am Lady Makoshi Tomoe, Head of the ICE division of the International Confederation of Wizards, and I am here to speak with an old friend," Lady Makoshi says as Harry feels his eyes widen at what the Princess said.
Chapter done!
And finally, Tomoe Makoshi has arrived!
Okay, so why is Umbridge still alive?
Because I want her to suffer, I want her to try something BIG while thinking the Ministry is still even relevant, and get swatted down before being fed to a monster without equal.
But her ass still got sacked because fuck that child-abusing piece of shit.
Why didn't Scáthach know about the blood quills?
This is a *Very* interesting question, so let me explain it to you.
Hogwarts is like a giant machine that has been storing up information for the last one thousand years, unable to do anything but that because it was missing a key piece.
It was missing Scáthach who acts as the central processing unit and control panel for the castle, without her, the castle was on standby, but once she was freed, the system booted back up again and the castle is now free to be what it was always meant to be, the seat of Scáthach's power. While Scáthach is in the castle she is *Untouchable* even by someone like the Morrígan, crown or not, and can draw on any information that has been said, stored, or written down in the castle for the last thousand years.
That being said, there are blind spots in the system that was built in at the conception of it do to the phasing that was used in its creation, that being, if no one talks about it or writes it down, the system won't know what is happening and in turn can't report it to the OS that is Scáthach, hence why she was shocked when Harry pulled out his new spear and used it, because no one has revealed that he had it within the wards of Hogwarts.
So, when the students are writing with the blood quills, the castle only records it as a student writing with a *quill* because no one has inputted the information that the quills are *Blood Quills*.
Anyway, October is gonna be a few chapters long because a lot happens in this month and I want to go over everything from Makoshi and Harry, to Delphini meeting Sirius, to Samhain and the changes to the feast I'm doing, introducing y'all to a few of the gods the Morrígan has release as well as a Lost Celtic Goddess coming home at last, to Voldemort fulfilling his threat and catching up with Atalanta.
There's….a lot.
Kingsaxcul, Out!