Rosabella Black|Daughter Of Sirius Black|(Book 7)

The Muggle-Born Registration Commission

Harry's Point Of View:
After checking Umbridge's office for the Locket and taking Mad - Eyes magical eye, I made my way towards the court rooms using the Invisibility Cloak.
Moving through the towering black figures was terrifying. The eyeless faces hidden beneath their hoods turned as I passed, and I felt sure that they sensed me, sensed, perhaps, a human presence that still had some hope, some resilience . . .
And then, abruptly and shockingly amid the frozen silence, one of the dungeon doors on the left of the corridor was flung open and screams echoed out of it.
   "No, no, I'm half - blood, I'm half - blood, I tell you! My father was a wizard, he was, look him up, Arkie Alderton, he's a well known broomstick designer, look him up, I tell you - get your hands off me, get your hands off -" A man shouted desperately.
   "This is your final warning. If you struggle, you will be subjected to the Dementor's Kiss." Umbridge said in a soft voice, magically magnified so that it sounded clearly over the man's desperate screams.

The man's screams subsided, but dry sobs echoed through the corridor.
   "Take him away." Umbridge said.
Two dementors appeared in the doorway of the courtroom, their rotting, scabbed hands clutching the upper arms of a wizard who appeared to be fainting. They glided away down the corridor with him, and the darkness they trailed behind them swallowed him from sight.
   "Next . . . Mary Cattermole." Umbridge called.
A small woman stood up. She was trembling from head to foot. Her dark hair was smoothed back into a bun and she wore long plain robes. Her face was completely bloodless. As she passed the dementors, I saw her shudder.
I did it instinctively, without any sort of plan, because I hated the sight of her walking alone into the dungeon. As the door began to swing closed, I slipped into the courtroom behind her.

It was not the same room in which I had once been interrogated for improper use of magic. This one was much smaller, though the ceiling was quite as high it gave the claustrophobic sense of being stuck at the bottom of a deep well.
There were more dementors in here, casting their freezing aura over the place. They stood like faceless sentinels in the corners farthest from the high, raised platform. Here, behind a balustrade, sat Umbridge, with Yaxley on one side of her, and Hermione, quite as white-faced as Mrs. Cattermole, on the other. Jason and Jacob sat next to her, looking pained and angry as they watched the Mrs Cattermole walk in.

At the foot of the platform, a bight - silver, long - haired cat prowled up and down, and I realized that it was there to protect the prosecutors from the despair that emanated from the dementors. That was for the accused to feel, not the accusers.
   "Sit down." Umbridge said in her soft, silky voice.
Mrs. Cattermole stumbled to the single seat in the middle of the floor beneath the raised platform. The moment she had sat down, chains clinked out of the arms of the chair and bound her there.
   "You are Mary Elizabeth Cattermole?" Umbridge asked.
Mrs. Cattermole gave a single, shaky nod.
   "Married to Reginald Cattermole of the Magical Maintenance Department?" Umbridge asked.
Mrs. Cattermole burst into tears.
    "I don't know where he is, he was supposed to meet me here!" Mrs Cattermole sobbed.
Umbridge ignored her.
    "Mother to Maisie, Ellie and Alfred Cattermole?" Umbridge continued.

Mrs. Cattermole sobbed harder than ever.
    "They're frightened, they think that I might not come home -" Mrs Cattermole said hysterically.
    "Spare us. The brats of Mudbloods do not stir our sympathies." Yaxley spat.
Mrs. Cattermole's sobs masked my footsteps as I made my way carefully toward the steps that led up to the raised platform. The moment I had passed the place where the Patronus cat patrolled, I felt the change in temperature.
It was warm and comfortable here. The Patronus, I was sure, was Umbridge's. It glowed brightly because she was so happy here, in her element, upholding the twisted laws she had helped to write.
Slowly and very carefully I edged my way along the platform behind Umbridge, Yaxley, Hermione, Jason and Jacob taking a seat behind the latter. I was worried about making Hermione jump. I thought of casting the Muffliato charm upon Umbridge and Yaxley, but even murmuring the word might cause Hermione alarm. Then Umbridge raised her voice to address Mrs. Cattermole, and I seized my chance.
    "I'm behind you." I whispered into Hermione's ear.