Chapter 38 -
Umbridge slowly woke up, her eye felt heavy, especially the right one. Her whole body was in pain, she quickly realised that she was sitting on a chair, her wrists were tied to the armrests with her ankles to the legs by some uncomfortably tight ropes.
She was unsure what was happening, the last thing she remembered was doing paperwork after a detention with two mudbloods and Astoria Greengrass. She knew that she probably should not have gave a detention to Miss Greengrass but at the time she was far too angry because she could not believe that the little brat had actually dared talk to her like that. And over a couple of mudbloods no less.
She remembered thinking about a way to reduce the damage she had caused when Potter walked into her office. Yes, Potter! She remembered him entering her office and putting her in a body bind before he assaulted her like a muggle. The filthy half-blood! She would make him pay!
Umbridge blinked repeatedly as her eyes got used to the light, she looked up and saw a giant mirror in front of her. In the mirror she saw herself tied to a wooden chair, no footwear, a black eye, a bruised lip, her hair was burnt and her clothes were ruffled, covered in dirt and damaged. In the mirror she saw a giant statue of a face with a big beard. Umbridge looked around and saw several large snake statues.
"Ah, you are awake." A familiar voice said as the mirror disappeared, Umbridge looked in the direction where the mirror used to be and saw Harry Potter standing there.
"Potter!" Umbridge shouted.
"Umbridge!" Harry shouted in the exact same way that Umbridge did, mocking Umbridge's outburst before he waved his wand and a chair appeared. Unlike Dolores's wooden chair, the new chair was a comfy red one that would not look out of place in the Gryffindor common room. "Oh wow that's comfortable," Harry smiled as he sat on it. "ten points to me."
"Potter! I will have you expelled and arrested for this!" Umbridge screamed.
"Really?" Harry drawled in an uninterested voice.
"Yes! I am Dolores Umbridge! Hogwarts defence against the dark arts teacher, Hogwarts High Inquisitor and undersecretary to the Minister of Magic! You will pay for this!"
"Ok, so just to confirm something, you are going to punish me for my actions, correct?" Harry asked as if he was a student in a classroom.
"Yes! Yes you little brat!"
"Okay, that is brilliant but I think you may have possibly missed something important." Harry replied.
"What?! What are you on about?!"
"Well I am no expert, " Harry said in a calm voice. "but in my experience if somebody kidnaps you and ties you to a chair then that does not usually mean that they are going to simply let you go." Harry smirked as he saw the colour slowly leave her face as realisation hit her like a train.
"N...now...t...there is no need for that." Umbridge stuttered as she tried and failed to speak in a calm voice. "I am a very powerful woman, I promise that if you let me go then I can and will repay you."
"Really? Hmm, I will have to ask my daughter what she thinks." Harry said with a thoughtful look on his face.
"Daughter?!" Umbridge blurted out, unsure if she heard right.
"Yes, my lovely little daughter." Harry smiled before he hissed in parsletounge.
"What...why are you hissing?!" She demanded, her eyes widened when she saw the scariest looking snake she had ever seen slither towards them, she watched as Potter picked up the snake, the head rested on the back of Potter's right hand while the body curled around his arm with the tail resting past his shoulder.
"Meet Selena." Harry smiled as he petted Selena's head. "You should have seen her mother, shame I had the body removed, but she was impressive."
"Keep...keep her away from me!" Umbridge screamed.
"Relax lady," Harry rolled his eyes. "I am not letting her near you." Harry said, Umbridge briefed a sigh of relief until Harry continued. "I don't want her to get sick or infected, Merlin knows what kind of diseases you are carrying."
"I am not carrying diseases!" Umbridge said in an insulted voice.
"Let's just agree to disagree." Harry replied before Selena hissed at him, Harry hissed back before turning to Umbridge. "She disagrees." Harry informed Umbridge.
"Where are we?!" Umbridge looked around, trying to remember if she had ever been here before.
"Oh, welcome to Salazar Slytherin's personal chamber of secrets." Harry smiled widely.
"You are lying!" Umbridge shrieked.
"No, really, we are." Harry said, smile still on his face. "It's part of how I have become so strong, Salazar Slytherin was really a genius, so were the other founders as interestingly enough they had also left some stuff here."
"Why are you doing this?!" Umbridge demanded. "I did not do anything to you!"
"Actually, you did." Harry replied. "You hurt my friends, first it was Scott and Jean Smith."
"Who?" Umbridge blinked. "You mean those two mudbloods?!"
"Mudbloods, very original." Harry rolled his eyes. "But yes, and then you hurt the young Miss Greengrass."
"I admit Potter that punishing Miss Greengrass like that was a mistake," Umbridge conceded. "after all the girl's blood is pure but she had to be punished and..."
"I don't really care," Harry cut her off. "if you had given her a detention where she wrote lines or cleaned something then we would not be here but you hurt her, she's just a first year and you used a blood quill on her." Harry said, glaring at Umbridge.
"She had to be punished."
"Not like that!" Harry snapped, Selena reacted to Harry and hissed threateningly at Umbridge who paled under the death glare from Harry and the fear of Selena. "She did not deserve that! She's just a first year! I came to your office with the intention of hurting you a little and then I was going to obliviate you right after I used a bit of mind magic to make you less of a bitch but when you were unconscious I read your mind and I want you to know two things, the first being your occlumency barriers are about as effective as the mental defence of a newborn muggle with a brain condition, the second thing you need to know is that by the end of tonight I will kill you."
Harry was of the opinion that somebody or something had probably put Dolores Umbridge on Earth just to see how long she could last before somebody killed her, Harry could not imagine the disappointment that person or thing must feel about the fact that Umbridge somehow made it past the age of twenty. In Harry's opinion there was some people that deserved a second chance but that did not mean that everyone deserved a second chance, Umbridge being a great example as Harry was sure that any good changes on her behalf would be temporary at best.
When Harry read her mind he discovered a lot of stuff that quite honestly made it tempting to just end her, but he held back after deciding he preferred if she suffered first. It was bad enough that Umbridge used her position to make things as difficult as possible for muggleborns, half-bloods, werewolves and other 'half-breeds' as she would call them, but it was made worse by the fact that she had a muggle mother yet acted like her blood was as pure as can be.
But then there was also the fact that Umbridge bribed when she did not accept bribes, blackmailed when bribes didn't work, and had even arranged for a few workers to have 'accidents', greatly limiting the amount of good workers in the ministry. If that was not enough then there was also the fact that she had secretly been muggle baiting, when she wasn't outright torturing and killing them, during the last war and blaming it on death eaters. She might not be a death eater but she was just as good as in Harry's opinion.
Harry was pissed off and that fact was not helped by the rumours and lies Umbridge spread about his own mother after her death and the defeat of Voldemort, apparently Dolores was jealous that a muggleborn was able to bag a rich and handsome pureblood while also becoming really famous plus she did not like the fact that Voldemort's death made her own activities more difficult. At this point it felt like he was being challenged to not kill her and it was one challenge that Harry would gladly fail at.
The cherry on top of the pink monstrosity that was Dolores 'fucking hell' Umbridge was the fact that she preferred younger kids, at this point it was a waste of time and stating the obvious to say that Harry was going to kill her.
"You can't do that! I am..." Umbridge was cut off as Harry aimed his wand at her and hit her with a silencing charm before he used a summoning charm, Umbridge felt herself get pulled forward by her two upper front teeth but she did not move too far as she was tied to the chair which was stuck to the floor. After an agonising minute of pulling, Umbridge's two upper front teeth were yanked out of her mouth, letting blood and bits of gum fly out as they dropped in front of her, if not for the silencing charm then Harry's ears would probably be ringing with the sound of her screams.
Harry then repeated with the lower teeth, and Umbridge was once again left in silent pain. Harry stood up and cast a spell to lock Umbridge's mouth open so she could no longer close it. Harry cast several stinging hexes at the spots were Umbridge's teeth used to be before he applied a spell on her remaining teeth to make them incredibly sensitive to the point where she would be incredibly uncomfortable with just a few minutes of exposure to air.
"Kreatcher." Harry called and the old elf popped into the chamber, right next to Harry.
"Master calls for Kreatcher?" Kreatcher asked in a respectful tone as he bowed his head, acting as if he had not noticed the tied up Dolores Umbridge.
"How good are you at torturing?" Harry asked Kreatcher.
"Oh," Kreatcher said, looking pleasantly surprised. "Kreatcher can do it, oh yes, Kreatcher can do this for kind half-blood Master." Kreatcher added, grinning at Harry.
"That bitch." Harry clicked his fingers and pointed at Umbridge. "She's under a silencing charm so feel free, torture her however you like but I want you to keep her alive, do not let her escape, do not tell anyone about this and do not harm her hands either. Understood?"
"Kreatcher understands." Kreatcher nodded quickly.
"Good," Harry paused and hissed at Selena who hissed back before she changed back into a tattoo. " I want you to occasionally take breaks to give the bitch some time to recover before you continue, during those breaks you will rest. If someone besides me calls you for something then send Dobby in your place. Do you understand Kreatcher?"
"Yes Master, Kreatcher understands." Kreatcher nodded.
"Good, I'll be off, remember to keep her alive and avoid her hands." Harry said before he turned and walked away, he was pretty sure he heard Kreatcher chuckle but decided not to say anything about it.
"Hey Tori," Harry said as he walked over to Astoria who was sitting against a tree by the lake. "where are your friends?" Harry asked as he sat down next to her.
"They are in the common room," Astoria answered. "I told them I just wanted to have some time alone."
"Time alone huh? Do you want me to leave?" Harry asked.
"No," Astoria shook her head. "you can stay."
"That's good because I already sat down," Harry smiled at her. "how's the hand?" Harry asked.
"It's better." Astoria said as she showed Harry her hand, the scars appeared to be fading.
"You are lucky that she only used it once, if she did it repeatedly then that could have caused permanent scarring." Harry replied,
"Yeah." Astoria sniffed.
"Hey," Harry wrapped an arm around her shoulders and allowed her to lean into him and rest her head on his chest. "it is going to be fine, I sent a letter to Tonks."
"Your girlfriend?"
"My girlfriend who happens to be an auror." Harry smirked. "She will do whatever she can to help and if she can't then I will go straight to the ministry myself. I am the boy-who-lived and Lord Potter plus Heir Black, I have quite a lot of pull there."
"Thank you Harry." Astoria smiled and wrapped her arms around his waist.
"You are welcome." Harry kissed her forehead. "Have you told Daphne yet?" Harry asked.
"Hmm? Tell her about what?"
"About your hand and Umbridge." Harry answered.
"I...I don't know if I want to. She'll just worry." Astoria mumbled.
"Yep," Harry nodded. "but at least she cares about you. Trust me when I was your age I didn't have anyone who really cared for me, at your age I would have killed for a sister like Daphne."
"I am only a few years younger than you, stop talking like your an old man." Astoria rolled her eyes.
"That's your fault." Harry replied.
"What?"
"It's your fault that I am 'talking like an old man', you're making me be the adult here."
"Oh shut up prat."
"Brat."
"Jerk."
"Midget."
"Boy-who-stinks."
"Munchkin."
"Mr 'unable to use a comb'."
"Miss 'too short to reach up high shelves'."
"Hey, enough about my height," Astoria complained. "I am still growing."
"Whatever you say shorty." Harry grinned at her. "So, are you going to tell Daphne or not?"
"If...if I do then will you come with me?" Astoria asked as she looked up to him. "Please."
"Fine, if that's what you want." Harry nodded.
"Great, thank you Harry." Astoria smiled brightly at him.
"You're welcome."
"Great, now can you do me a favour and turn into a tiger." She said.
"Why?"
"Because I want a cuddle and your girlfriends won't get jealous if I do it when you're a tiger." Astoria replied.
"You just want to pet me again, don't you?" Harry said with a knowing look.
"Maybe." Astoria smirked, Harry rolled his eyes but he did transform into a tiger, he lay down and allowed Astoria to hug him for a few minutes before she placed his head in her lap and gently stroked him.
In a death eater meeting Voldemort sat on his throne and listened as Snape, who was on his knees like the other death eaters, gave him a report. Snape was informing Voldemort about how Dumbledore was still on the run and did not contact anyone beyond a couple of letters that he would send at random times from random locations.
Snape had suddenly stopped speaking when he felt something brush past his leg, he looked down and saw a King Cobra slither past him and towards Voldemort. The King Cobra hissed at Nagini in what Snape suspected was a greeting, Nagini hissed back before the King Cobra turned to Voldemort. The King Cobra hissed once more before suddenly changing shape and a second later Apophis was standing in front of them. Snape and the other death eaters were beyond surprised to find out that Voldemort's heir was apparently an animagus, though they all agreed that a snake was a fitting form for him.
Apophis walked towards and Voldemort who did not look surprised in the least and whispered something into Voldemort's ear, it was several long and dragging moments after Apophis finished whispering before Voldemort finally spoke.
"Well...that is interesting." He smirked.