On the evening of Tuesday, September 5th, Harry was feeling very uneasy.
He had just come out of a detention.
By itself, there was nothing amiss about that.
It was what happened during the detention that caught Harry's attention.
Harry's task during the detention had been to write lines. This was a typical task assigned to students who had received detentions.
But these were no ordinary lines.
Instead of using a normal quill, Professor Umbridge had forced Harry to write lines with a "special quill" of hers. No ink had been provided.
When Harry wrote with this quill, the words he had been ordered to write, I must not tell lies, had appeared on the parchment in shining red ink but had also appeared on the back of Harry's right hand, cut into his skin as if traced there by a scalpel. Harry had noticed a sharp pain as he had written.
His hand had quickly healed itself. However, Professor Umbridge had forced him to write I must not tell lies repeatedly for hours and this pattern of pain, words appearing on his cut hand, and his hand healing itself, went on for the duration of the detention.
It was damn near midnight and Harry sensed something was wrong.
This "special quill" of Umbridge's seemed to be an instrument of torture.
Harry felt sure that this quill was not legal.
Harry remembered Amelia Bones from his trial and remembered that she was the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.
And her niece Susan was now one of his best friends after his change in friendships on the Hogwarts Express.
Could Susan help him here? Well, there was only one way to find out.
The nanosecond he got up to his dorm, Harry retrieved his own quill and parchment from his trunk and wrote:
Dear Susan:
Hello, Susan, it's Harry here. I am writing to you because there was an incident involving something that happened during a detention that I served with Professor Umbridge tonight that I strongly suspect to be illegal. I remember your aunt Amelia Bones from my trial this summer and I remember that she is the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. I suspect you will be able to help me. If you are agreeable, I would appreciate it if you would meet me in Classroom Eleven. I apologize for pestering you so late at night, but I sense this is a matter of urgent attention.
Sincerely
-Harry.
Harry knew he wouldn't be able to enter the Hufflepuff Common Room.
So, he went to the owlery and called Hedwig.
"Hey, girl?" Harry told Hedwig in an affectionate voice, "This is urgent. I need you to take this letter to Susan Bones. She will need to be woken up, but, because of privacy and security concerns regarding the discussion I need to have with Susan, it is important that you don't wake up the other girls in her dorm. I therefore forbid you from hooting. Instead, you need to touch her quietly to wake her up. Please do so gently if possible. Got it girl?"
Hedwig nibbled Harry's ear affectionally and took off with the letter while Harry walked to Classroom Eleven.
Sure enough, a few minutes and a few nanoseconds later, Susan entered classroom eleven holding Harry's letter. Hedwig had also accomplished her.
"Hi, Susan," said Harry warmly, "Thank you for coming to meet me."
"I got your letter," explained Susan, "I ordered Hedwig to follow me here because I suspect I may need to write to Aunt Amelia immediately."
"I'll get to down to business so that I don't take up too much of your time," began Harry, "So, during my detention with Professor Umbridge, she ordered me to write I must not tell lies. She made me use a "special quill" of hers. She did not provide any ink. When I wrote I felt a searing pain. The words appeared on the parchment while also appearing on the back of my right hand, cut into my skin as if traced there by a scalpel. My hand healed itself, but this pattern repeated itself for hours during the detention. I sensed something was wrong and I strongly suspect that this "special quill" is illegal."
"What you've described is a Blood Quill," said Susan in a very serious voice, "Blood Quills exist because some magical contracts are required either legally or magically or both to be signed in blood. That is the ONLY purpose for which the use of Blood Quills is legal. All other uses of Blood Quills are illegal. It's a particularly egregious crime to use a Blood Quill on a minor. The use of a Blood Quill on a minor by a teacher is grounds for immediate dismissal. If you were willing to come to the Ministry of Magic and allow Aunt Amelia to access your memory of the detention in question, via a Pensive, then it's almost certain Umbridge will be fired."
"I am agreeable to allowing my memory of this detention to be seen," said Harry clearly.
"I'm going to send Aunt Amelia an emergency letter," declared Susan, retrieving a quill and some parchment from her left hand pocket with her left hand.
Harry and Susan then sat down side by side at two desks and Harry looked over Susan's shoulder as she wrote:
Dear Aunt Amelia:
I apologize for pestering you at this late hour, but there is a legal emergency at Hogwarts. I just received a letter from Harry Potter informing me about something that happened when he was serving a detention with Professor Umbridge. He sensed something was not right and that Professor Umbridge had acted illegally. He asked me to meet him in Classroom Eleven. In Classroom Eleven, Harry described what the detention had been like. It turns out that Umbridge used a Blood Quill on Harry. You know that legal use of Blood Quills is very limited in scope and that for a teacher to use one on a student is grounds for immediate dismissal. Harry remembered you from his trial and contacted me. Harry and I, along with A Ravenclaw girl named Luna Lovegood, have become very close friends since the start of the new semester. He felt I would be able to help him. He has also informed me that he is completely agreeable to allowing access to his memory of the detention in question. That should make it very clear what happened, and we should have ample evidence to throw Umbridge out of Hogwarts. Sorry to pester at this hour Aunt Amelia, but this is urgent news. We are stationed inside Classroom Eleven.
Sincerely
Your loyal and loving niece
-Suisan.
Susan gave the letter to Hedwig and told her.
"Take this letter to Aunt Amelia. Wake her up but do so gently like you did with me."
And Hedwig soared off into the night sky.
Exactly how long Harry and Susan waited, neither of them was sure.
Both looked up when Amelia Bones entered Classroom Eleven carrying Susan's letter.
Amelia saw Susan holding Harry's letter and looked down to read it.
"You've both done the right thing," Amelia told Harry and Susan proudly, "Neither of you needs to apologize for anything. Some things are much more important than sleep. Here's what's going to happen: I have set up an emergency meeting with the two of you in my office. I have set up my Pensieve. I am going to use Side Along Apparition to take both of you to this meeting, which will take place in my office at the Ministry of Magic. Harry, you will be using my Pensieve to show the memory of the detention in question. Now, a Pensieve will not show an incorrect memory, nor will it show a lie. Pensieves are only capable of showing the exact truth. If the memory you provide shows ample evidence that Umbridge needs to be removed from Hogwarts, then she's out of here!"
Amelia took Harry and Susan by Side Along Apparition and the three of them landed in her office.
"Harry," said Amelia calmly, "I'm going to use my wand to extract your memory of the detention is question."
Amelia retrieved her wand from her right hand pocket with her right hand and performed sense nonverbal spells to extract the memory from Harry. She then threw the memory into the Pensive at the back of the office.
Amelia and Susan both gasped when they saw the words I must not tell lies appear on Harry's hand as the gasp of pain was ejected from his mouth.
"Harry was telling the truth, "observed Susan.
"While I was in the detention," said Harry thoughtfully, "I didn't utter a syllable of complaint. I didn't want to give Umbridge the satisfaction of thinking she had gotten to me. I hadn't planned to tell anyone about this detention either. If someone asked what task I was assigned to do during this detention, I was going to tell them I had to write lines. "
"That would be factually true but a lie by omission," reasoned Susan, "It would be making out the detention to routine. "
"Which it clearly wasn't," nodded Harry. Once my feet had taken me a few steps outside of Umbridge's office, my senses told me something was wrong. I sensed this was a potential legal issue. I also felt the need to speak up so that I could possibly save other students from enduring the torture of what I now know is a Blood Quill."
"You've done the right thing, Harry," said Amelia proudly, "Some things are too important to be kept a private battle of wills and I'm glad you sensed that."
Susan and Amelia watched a bit of Harry's memory before Amelia had seen enough and had them all step out of the Pensive.
"Harry," said Amelia sadly, "I'm sorry that you had to endure that kind of treatment from a teacher. As the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, I have the authority to immediately terminate any Hogwarts teacher who I know has committed a crime against a minor. I will be giving the order for Dolores Umbridge to be removed from Hogwarts effective immediately. If Defense Against the Dark Arts classes have to be cancelled for a few days, so be it. "
"It's not like we learned anything from her anyway," admitted Harry.
"She didn't let us use any spells in class," piped up Susan, "We spent whole class just reading that boring textbook. Ernie asked her how we were supposed to learn to defend ourselves without actually practicing how to defend ourselves. Umbridge said that we should not expect to be attacked during class and that theory was good enough to get us through our O.W.L.S. She talked about running a risk free class. I pointed out that the situations that would require the use of defensive spells wouldn't be risk free and Hannah asked her about there being a practical part in our O.W.L.s. Umbridge insisted that as long as we studied the theory hard enough, we'd fine and Hannah was incredulous about the fact that the first time we'd ever perform the spells would be during our O.W.L."
"That's a carbon copy of what happened when I had her," Harry informed Susan and Amelia, "Hermione was Ernie, I was Susan, and Parvati was Hannah."
"I have to believe that the Ravenclaws had the same experiences," guessed Amelia smartly, "I will be asking a Ravenclaw about her class when I visit Hogwarts. I will also be having chats with both Fudge and Dumbledore about why they can't ever seem to get this hire right."
"If you want to ask a Ravenclaw, ask Luna Lovegood," suggested Susan, "She's become an incredibly close friend of Harry and I since the new semester started as we've Bonded Over Losses, as I've explained to you in my letters home."
"I will ask Luna tomorrow about Umbridge's lesson with the Ravenclaws," promised Ameila, "I expect to hear a similar story to those of the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff classes."
"Umbitch is as good as gone then?" asked Harry hopefully.
"You'll never see her again and nor will any other Hogwarts student," promised Amelia, "An announcement will be made at breakfast about her removal."
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