Remember, some of the dialogue in this fanfiction is directly from the book. But not all…
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“Oh, no, no, you don’t want to go that way,” Luna said cautiously to a second year. “There was some Garroting Gas set off in there and it would be wise not to take your chances, I’d say.”
“I don’t see any gas,” a suspicious sixth year stated.
“Of course you don’t!” Luna replied. “If you want to try your luck and see if you don’t happen to choke to death, be my guest.” Her sweet whimsical voice saying such a dreadful thing seemed to scare the nearby students away. Soon, no one else was coming through the corridor. All was quiet.
Then, Luna whipped around as she heard shouts coming from Ginny’s side of the corridor. She looked down the hall to see Ginny, and to her surprise, Neville as well, trying to fend off two Slytherin members of the Inquisitorial Squad. Luna was about to run over to help, when two beefy arms grabbed her from behind and jostled her wand from her grip.
“Let go!” Luna cried. At the sound of her voice, Neville turned mid-struggle, and with a look of dismay in his eyes saw her with her arms behind her back. And in that moment of distraction, his offender punched him in the gut and took him in a head lock. Luna gasped.
“Neville!” She turned to see Ginny thrashing in the arms of her attacker as well. “Ginny—” But that was when Umbridge came streaking through, fuming with rage. Draco Malfoy wasn’t far behind her, smirking smugly as he smiled at each of the captives in turn. Oh, how he irked her so! But soon after him came another one of his friends whom was holding an ashamed looking Ronald Weasley.
They were all then dragged into Umbridge’s office where they found Harry at the point of her wand, Hermione being held against the back wall, and both of their wands in Dolores’s pudgy hands.
Luna felt her heart seize up at the terror Umbridge’s wild eyes foretold. Her feet froze in their tracks, until the brute who was grabbing her pushed her forward with a gruff, “Move it, freak.”
One of the High Inquisitor’s thugs marched in and said, “That’s the last of ‘em. That one,” he said, pointing at Neville with a bloated finger, “tried to help her,” he finished, his finger making his way to Ginny’s grimacing face.
Then we were all lined up, a member of the Inquisitorial Squad holding each of us. Umbridge walked up and down the line like a drill sergeant glaring at us. Then the witch whipped around and pointed her wand at Harry’s nose.
“Who were you trying to contact in the fire?!” she screeched.
“I…uh…I—“
“Spit it out, boy!”
Luna wanted to know what Harry was going to say. She had no idea what she would have said in his situation.
“It’s none of your business who I talk to,” Harry snarled through his teeth. He had been in a bad mood before they had gotten here and Luna was scared to see how long it would take before he finally burst.
“Of COURSE it is my business! You posted lookouts around my office and sent this buffoon,” she waved her hand in Ron’s direction, his face turning redder as Draco laughed cruelly, “after me with a story I already knew was false because Mr. Filch had informed me otherwise just before. Clearly it was very important for you to talk to someone. Was it Dumbledore? That giant, Hagrid?”
Harry remained silent, the only sounds in the room were the crackly fire and Neville’s short breaths at the arm around his throat.
“Fine,” Umbridge snapped. “Draco, go fetch Professor Snape. Potter, I’ve tried to be civil with you but obviously that tactic does not work with savages,” she spit at him.
As they waited for Draco to return with Snape, the rest of the crew continued to struggle against their restrainers. Ron had a bloody nose, Neville’s face was purple, and Hermione and Ginny had been fairly unsuccessful and getting much of anywhere in the positions they were in. Luna knew she had no chance and decided to conserve her energy for when the time was right. She stood limp and unmoving.
Then, in a flurry of black fabric, Snape appeared at the door, greased hair and all. “You summoned me, Headmistress?” His face was completely blank as he glanced at the array before him.
“I need more Veritaserum to interrogate Potter, quickly please.”
“Surely you did not use all I gave you the last time you wanted to question him? I told you that two to three drops would suffice.”
Umbridge blushed in embarrassment. Luna couldn’t help but smile. “Well, go fetch me some more, then!”
“Unfortunately, I cannot. You took my last bottle.”
“Can’t you make some more?”
“Certainly. It only takes a full moon cycle to—”
“A month?” Dolores squeaked. “I need it now! I have just caught Mr. Potter communicating through my fire with unknown persons!”
Snape said, sounding the slightest bit more interested than he had moments ago, “Really? It is not a terrible surprise, though. Potter has never been one to follow the rules. It’s in his blood.” Luna saw Harry’s fists clench at that.
“But I wish to interrogate him!” Umbridge said again, angry this time. “I demand you give me a potion that will make him tell me the truth!”
“As I have already told you,” Snape answered cooly, “I have no more Veritaserum. Unless you wish to poison Potter—and I assure you I would have the greatest sympathy with you if you did—I cannot help you.” Harry and Snape then locked eyes, Snape’s cold ones staring back at Harry’s yearning green ones. Snape turned to exit.
All of a sudden, Harry burst out, “He’s got Padfoot!” Snape whipped around, his bat-like cloaks whooshing. “He’s got Padfoot in the place where it’s hidden!” Luna was confused. Harry was speaking in riddles! Who or what could ‘Padfoot’ be? And the place where it’s hidden? Would that be the Department of Mysteries? There is quite a lot hidden there and that seemed to be the only relevant answer. Then was Padfoot….Sirius? Why would Harry be calling him Padfoot and how would Snape know any of this? Luna was so out of the loop it made her head spin.
Before Professor Snape could open his mouth to speak, Umbridge piped up, “Padfoot? What is Padfoot? Where is what hidden? What is he saying, Snape?” It seemed that then Harry and Snape were in the middle of a staring contest. Harry’s back was to Luna but she could see Snape’s face—it was utterly blank. She could not read a single crease even after all the Divination classes she had taken. Finally, Snape broke the stare and turned to Umbridge.
“I,” he began, “have absolutely no idea.” The room was silent as Snape’s eyes landed on each resident in turn. Then eventually he said, “Crabbe, I’d loosen your hold on Longbottom a bit. If he suffocates there will be quite a bit of paperwork involved and when you apply for a job I’m afraid I shall have to mention it.” With that, Crabbe’s arm slackened, and Snape flew out the door.
Umbridge was trembling. “Very well,” she murmured to herself “there is no other choice….It is a matter of discipline….a Ministry security issue…yes….yes…” The witch pulled out her wand and pointed it at Harry. “The Minister will never have to know,” she whispered. She cleared her throat. “The Cruciatus Curse ought to do the trick.”
“No!” Hermione cried out, drawing everyone’s attention in her direction. “That’s illegal!”
“Never mind you,” Umbridge fussed, turning back to Harry, her wand at the ready. “Cruc—”
“NO!” Hermione shrieked even louder this time. “Harry—no—we have to tell her!”
“No! You can’t Hermione!” Harry cried out with rage.
“But she’ll force it out of us, anyways,” Hermione said. Then tears began to form in her eyes pitifully. Was she really going to give them up that easily? Luna had thought that Hermione was above that…
“Well, well, well!” Umbridge said gleefully. “Spit it out, girl!”
“No, Hermione!” Ron shouted out, his eyes wide. Everyone was shocked that it was Hermione, or all people, who had cracked.
“We were trying to contact….Dumbledore.” Luna’s eyes nearly bulged out her head. Where was Hermione going with this? “We wanted to tell him that i-it-was r-ready!”
“What was? What was?!” Umbridge cried, practically jumping up and down.
“T-the weapon,” Hermione choked out. The fakeness in her voice was evident to Luna but Umbridge was too excited to notice.
“A weapon? One to overthrow the Ministry? And have Professor Dumbledore take over?”
“Y-yes,” Hermione stammered. “But he had to leave before it was finished and n-now it’s finished, and we c-c-can’t find him!”
“What kind of weapon?”
“We don’t really…understand it. P-Proffessor Dumbledore just told us how to build it.” At that, Umbridge seemed to straighten.
“Show me the weapon!”
“I don’t want…them to see it,” Hermione said, looking at the Slytherins.
“You do not have the right to say who will come or not,” Umbridge stated.
“Fine,” Hermione said, now pretending to sob again, “let them see it, I hope they use it on you!” Umbridge looked taken aback. She stared suspiciously at Hermione, her beady little eyes squinting. Then, she straightened and smiled in a sickly sweet way.
“Alright, dear, just you and me and Potter, then, shall we? Get on up, now—”
“Professor?” Draco interrupted eagerly, “Shouldn’t some of the squad come with to you look after—”
“I am a highly qualified Ministry official, Mr. Malfoy,” Umbridge reminded him curtly. “Do you really believe I cannot manage myself and two wandless teens? Anyways, it does not sound that the weapon is something children should see.” Draco turned red in the face. “You will remain until I return and make sure none of the rest of them escape.”
“Okay,” Malfoy mumbled, looking at his shoes.
With that, Umbridge prodded Harry and Hermione with her wand, getting them out the door, slamming it shut behind her.
Luna, Ginny, Neville, and Ron all looked at each other, unsure of what was to come.