Snips and Scars In Which Letters Get Sent, a harry potter fanfic

Chapter 73, everybody! Now time for Umbridge to pay for her actions….

So a chunk of this was written way early on and required some snipping and rewriting in order for it to still work, but at least it didn't end up totally axed like some passages have in the past (example being Luna originally meeting Snips in fifth year, which got axed by her interacting with the group in second year). As for some of the content…I looked at the fan websites but I can't confirm if the twenty-eight primary pure-blood families also hold seats in the Wizengamot or if this is a bit of fanon again, but Grandma Longbottom needs something to do and you can bet your bottom dollar she's dragging Sirius along for the ride.

Also I don't think Draco's owl ever got named but it seems fitting to have it be Jove, seeing as how that's another name for Jupiter, of Roman myth—because then we also have the pun: the letters are delivered by Jove. Also Hedwig's line is hanging a lampshade on the fact that while they would know the owl's name, technically we don't at this point in the story.

Slytherinsal, thanks for the review! Yes, go Snips! :D

FaolenBookWolf, thanks for the review! Very true.

Thanks for the review, guest! Yes indeed!

Thanks for the review, guest! Me too…and thank you, glad you like it! :D

Juxshoa, thanks for the review! Oh no! D:

Harry almost felt sorry for Umbridge, knowing what was coming. Almost.

Because she had made a most pointed enemy, and one that could fly and hide and maneuver students around with the best of them. Harry, Ron and Hermione were never ambushed on their way to class, and when they had to go to Umbridge's, Snips would fly away and find the twins.

And Snips was most definitely the sort to hold a grudge and act on it, Harry figured—so he wasn't surprised when Umbridge started finding herself with firecrackers dropped right behind her, Snips having flown overhead and dropped them and flying off as she yelped in alarm. The firecrackers in question were of the twins' own invention, exploded on impact, and did not go out without a fight—Umbridge was more often than not sighted with a frazzled and smoking appearance in the coming weeks.

Snips also frequently flew up and undid the latch on Umbridge's window, thin tail able to slip in and lift the latch with ease. Umbridge would often find her office inundated with a variety of nasty surprises, ranging from Nifflers to Cornish Pixies to a swamp, one memorable time, and try as she might, she could never figure out how they were getting in, as Snips would close the window behind him.

Snips would also trash her plates and shred her parchments too, occasionally flying off with several important papers so that she could never find and repair them. And spread various potions that he and the twins worked on all over, causing Umbridge even more problems.

And best of all, finding Umbridge's blood quill and stealing it.

"Brilliant," Harry said, turning it over when Snips presented it to him. "Now what?"

"Is that it?" Ron asked, leaning forward. "That's the quill that cow used that made you carve words into your own hand?"

"Yup. Think tossing it in the fire would work? OW!"

Snips took the blood quill away as Harry was rubbing his wrist, where Snips had snapped at it.

"Snips is right—getting rid of it now won't stop her," Hermione said. "Oh, but we can't write to the Ministry and we can't write to the Prophet—but we have to be able to do something!"

Snips started chirping animatedly, flew over and herded Neville over to them before pointing at him and flying off.

"What was that all about?" Neville asked, confused.

"I'm guessing another round of Snips-charades," Harry guessed.

"First word is Neville," Ron said, grinning.

And then Snips came back with his little feather boa and the little witch's hat with the stuffed vulture they had gotten from the crackers in Christmas of third year.

"Why are you imitating my gran?" Neville asked, as Snips pointed at himself and then Neville.

"Okay, so Neville's gran," Ron guessed, earning him a point from Snips.

Snips next move was to take the boa and hat off and start doing his best to imitate a dog.

"Sirius," Ron guessed, earning another point—and then Snips was pointing at the quill again. "You want us to tell Sirius…and Neville's gran…about the quill?"

"I get why Sirius would want to know, but why your gran?" Harry asked Neville. "You haven't had detention with Umbridge yet, have you?"

"No, not yet," Neville said. "Why? What's wrong with the quill?"

Within short order, Harry had shown Neville his hand and filled him in.

"That's awful!" Neville squawked. "That's a dark object being used on students—now I get it! Snips wants to get the Wizengamot involved!"

Harry and Ron both looked at him blankly, although Hermione got excited.

"Could we really?" she asked.

"Sure—Gran represents the Longbottom family—and I bet Sirius has probably been reinstated, seeing as he's the only representative of the House of Black."

"Pureblood families—especially old and noble ones—have seats on the Wizenmagot," Hermione explained. "And this means—one could propose and the other could second—I have to get to the library!"

"And she's off," Ron said as she took off out of the portrait hole. "So. Summary is we're not tossing the quill."

"Could we really bring this up to wizarding court?" Harry asked Neville, now fully interested—the idea of Umbridge in the hot seat was entirely appealing.

"Yeah," Neville said, shrugging. "I mean, we'd have to provide evidence of what happened—"

"I could ask Colin to take a picture." Even after a week and Madame Pomfrey's treatment, the scars hadn't exactly faded.

"Right. And you could provide your memory of the event, or take Veritruserum, and testify against her."

"We'd need someone who'd actually listen to us, though," Ron said, thinking. "Everyone is in Fudge's pocket, most of the Wizengamot included—I could write to Dad, but with Umbridge monitoring the mail…."

Snips crred and waved him off.

"I guess Snips has that covered—Bones. Susan Bones? Her aunt is the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, remember she said that?"

"Yeah," Harry said, nodding. "That's how she knew about the Patronus."

"She would be a good one to contact," Neville agreed. "We can ask Susan to ask her—use Snips' way of getting the mail out, and…."

"And hey!" Harry said, spotting Snips doing a very good imitation of a certain Ravenclaw. "Luna's dad—he writes the Quibbler—I bet he'd run an article about it!"

"I'm guessing we've got a lot of writing ahead of us," Ron said.

Snips wasn't done yet, though—disappeared up the stairs, came back down and deposited a business card next to Harry.

"What is that?" Neville asked, eyebrows going up as Harry read the card and started smiling.

Harry turned the card so the others could read it. "My lawyer."

By the time Hermione came back, it was to find that the boys had formulated a plan, and she quickly set to bolstering it with the numerous facts and cases she had looked up and taken notes on before Madame Pince had kicked her out of the library.

Now it was just a matter of setting it into motion.

Snips had several letters clutched tightly in his claws—a couple from Harry, one from Ron, one from Neville, several from Hermione, one from Luna Lovegood, and one from Susan Bones. Altogether, despite his growth over the years, they weighed more than he did and did their best to drag him down, forcing him to flap as hard as he could to stay aloft and moving forward.

Fortunately, the ones he had gone and seen beforehand were more than willing to swoop down and help him to the treeline.

'Ugh,' he noised, flopping down on a thick branch as soon as he touched down.

'Flying letters about is a lot more work than it looks like, isn't it?' Hedwig asked, sounding amused.

'Fortunately all I needed to do was get them away from the castle,' Snips said, pushing himself up and loosening his death-grip on the letters. As far as he could determine, Umbridge had set up an alarm to alert her when a student visited the owlery, and a basic compulsion charm on the owlery itself, so when an owl left the castle with a letter in its possession, it came to her first. And if an owl returned to the castle with a letter, it still came to her first.

This had done nothing to endear Umbridge to the owls, who took great pleasure in aiming for her window when they yarped up pellets.

But as they discovered, if the owls did not depart from the castle with letters in their possession, they were not compelled to deliver the letter to Umbridge first. And seeing as how Snips was not an owl and therefore not compelled to deliver to the old toad, it fell to him to complete the first leg of the journey.

And to be honest, he was more than happy to hand it off to them now.

'I think you should take Ron's letter, definitely,' Hedwig said, toeing the letter in question out of the stack and over to Pig. 'I'll take Hermione's, that's a lot of lifting there, and Harry's—you can take Luna's, the Lovegoods live in the same area as the Weasleys.'

'You're not supposed to be exerting yourself, remember?' Snips asked.

'Hush you.'

'So who takes Neville's and Bones'?' Pig asked.

'I will, it won't be too far for me, and we don't want to risk losing these letters.' Hedwig had not been happy about the blood quill either, which had done nothing but fuel her vendetta against Umbridge.

'I can take more than two,' Pig said indignantly. 'Besides, you're still recovering.'

Hedwig puffed up angrily at that—Snips poked her with his tail. 'He has a point, it will not kill you to share those letters.'

She looked like she wanted to argue but couldn't quite justify it—was cut off by all of them looking sharply at a handsome eagle owl that came in for a landing next to them.

'I heard through the Order you guys were taking letters,' he said. 'Need a hand?'

Snips blinked. 'Jove—Draco's owl.'

'Yes, we know who he is,' Hedwig said, still irritated at him; looked at Jove, sighed finally. 'Yes you can help.'

'I'll take Harry's letter to Sirius, since that's in the neighborhood,' Pig said, tugging the one letter out from under Hedwig's foot.

'Fine,' Hedwig said, still busy dickering with Jove—finally agreed to split Hermione's letters with him, her taking Neville's and him taking Bone's.

'Are we finally settled?' Snips asked, having taken to hanging upside-down from a nearby limb.

'Yep,' Jove said, taking his letters and lofting away. 'Don't wait up.'

'Showoff,' Hedwig muttered, taking off as well. Pig launched himself—dropped several feet before winging off as well.

Well all this was good news—nailing that witch to the wall was happy news, even if it would take a while to put everything in motion. Let go, start winging for the castle, angling around so his left wing got hit with cooler air when it started aching again—he was finally free of that collar, he would not give them a reason to put it back on—

Staggered in flight a bit when he saw something that definitely qualified as good news.

Harry was quick to open the window at his insistent tapping. "So everything went okay? They got out?"

Yes but that wasn't what he was wanting Harry to focus on—jump up and down, pointing down and across the grounds as he yipped insistently—

Harry saw it too, brightened considerably as he spun to tell the others.

"Hagrid's back!"