"Where did he go?"
It was Umbridge. Just as soon as the daze of red blasted me back, I felt myself readjusting to the office around me. Next to me, Harry and Professor McGonagall were also sitting back up. Umbridge was scrambling to her feet alongside Fudge who looked to be blinking back stars.
"He's gone!" The wizard in blue exclaimed, being the first to stand up. The guards that had collapsed against the walls bordering the door were struggling to their feet as he spoke.
"He must have disapparated!" one declared.
"Not possible," Umbridge snapped. "You can't disapparate on the grounds."
But the two guards thought otherwise and were already on their way out of the office in search for the man at large.
As for Fudge, he quietly got himself back up with the help of the fireplace arch, before turning to the students and McGonagall. She was already standing but Harry, Marietta and I were watching everything from the ground.
"Now what to do with you three..."
"They cannot be charged with any crime," McGonagall defended immediately. "It was Dumbledore you wanted, not them."
"We shall see about that," Umbridge snapped back, coming toward us. She was looking from Harry to me with a brightening that called for trouble. "Prime Minister-"
"I know of Potter's reasoning for being here and of that of Miss Edgecombe but as for this one here-" he began, turning towards me with a suspicious glance. He obviously did not remember me. Go figure. McGonagall was regarding the situation tensely but I knew she couldn't do much now Dumbledore was gone. I wasn't even in her house to be protected.
"She, Prime Minister," Umbridge began, "worked extensively to send my members in wrong directions to extend this catastrophe from happening! If there were two students who should be made an example of this mess it's both of them!"
"Ava could not have done such a thing," Professor McGonagall insisted, turning between Umbridge and Fudge. "Like you heard, Dumbledore only just planned this meeting into effect this evening. How could the girl hold back the might of the Inquisitor Squad as you so ardently put it, Dolores?"
"This girl is as bad as the lot of them and I want her expelled. Immediately!" Umbridge snapped back, turning on Fudge with a such rage, the man actually stepped back.
Harry was listening to this quietly before giving me a look that seemed to wake me from my silence. If my schooling was on the line, now was as good as ever to retaliate.
"There must be some misunderstanding!" I demanded, sending the adults to turn to me. I got to my feet and directed my attention to Fudge. "It's true that I was a part of this meeting but I couldn't possibly have gone against Professor Umbridge in such a way. My father has taught me better than that."
"Your father?" Fudge repeated, with a raised brow. "Come now, girl, you can't expect me to believe you off of the word of you parent, whomever he is."
"Her father is no one, Prime minister," Umbridge replied a beat too quickly. It was perfect timing for a name drop after all.
"On the contrary, Prime Minister," I replied politely, "We've met before. You were kind enough to invite my family to your box for the Quidditch World Cup. My father is Darious Fountaine."
Like Draco said, my father's name did wonders. Fudge dropped his negligent air with one of fatherly displeasure as he turned away from Umbridge's words of the contrary and focused more so on me.
"Your father will not be pleased to hear of what you've done. For your school, to your professors and to me. Do you understand the position you have placed me in?"
"Come now, Cornelius. Can't you see the girl was just acting out. It's common enough for her age. She obviously did not know the extent of what she was getting herself into," McGonagall came to my aid while ignoring the menacing stare Umbridge shot her way. Her words worked in settling Fudge on the matter.
"Yes, I do believe you are correct there, Minerva. Though I should not pride myself of this situation. I'm afraid this is the end of your friend Dumbledore."
McGonagall gave him a scornful look before simply replying, "You think so do you?"
Fudge ignored her as he turned back to us and made up his mind.
"It seems enough has happened tonight. Best they be taken to bed, then Dolores. " He gave her a dismissive nod that made Umbridge look like her teeth had been stuck uncomfortably together with hard toffee.
She brushed off the dust from her pink suit, before waving the three of us to follow her without another word.
Harry and I exchanged another look of disbelief. I think we both expected to not leave unscathed by this encounter.
As we were making our descent, I heard the man in the blue robes say something rather comical for the situation at hand.
"You know, Minister, you may not like him, but you cannot deny, Dumbledore's got style."
I would pay numerous gallons to have seen Fudge's reaction to that.
Instead, I was forced to follow Umbridge back to her office and not our common room as the three of us had expected. She gave us no word until we were climbing the stairs to her door, and she waved us in with a snap.
"You may have missed expulsion this time, but I am not through with you two yet. As for you, dear," Umbridge added, turning slowly in Marietta's direction. "You're failure to state what you were so ardent about not even two hours ago has caused the Prime Minister and I some trouble. You too will share in this detention to learn from your behavior."
I was in as much shock as Marietta as she was shown to a desk like the rest of us where a black quill and a roll of parchment waited.
"Mr. Potter should do well to educate you two on what now awaits for the next few hours. I see here it is just merely nine o'clock and I usually retire close to 11. Let's see if I feel generous enough to end this by then."
Harry did not say a word, but by how I watched him tighten his jaw at the sight of the quill, I knew this wasn't good. I had heard the rumors about Umbridge's detentions. She made people write lines but I hadn't paid enough attention as to what punishment came from it. Was it muscle ache from writing too much? That didn't seem to cause the likes of such gossip.
It didn't take long for the truth to come out. Umbridge flipped the blackboard at the corner of her office around where a simple sentence was written once long ago and since has never needed to be erased.
I must not tell lies
Harry was the first to write, answering my question about any need for ink. His writing came off against his parchment no problem. I slowly picked up the unfamiliar quill from the desk and in my careful penmanship began the phrase.
I had only just started on my second repetition of the phrase when a searing pain erupted on my left hand, making me drop the quill and gasp at the wave that ran down the nerves of my arm.
To my horror, I watched as the soft skin on the top of my hand turned red with anger as the exact words I had written out appeared in my skin. Just as soon as the words showed up bleeding red, the skin started to grow back, leaving only an ache in its place..
A cry of pain came from Marietta as the same fate befell her, except she let a tear escape her eye as she saw the words on her hand.
Umbridge was really doing Marietta dirty here. One malformation of the body in a day was bad enough. But two?
Speaking of the devil, Umbridge cleared her thought with a sadistic "Hm, Hm" sending me to look up at her. She was standing behind her desk looking from Marietta and then resting on me with avid delight.
"Now then, let's begin shall we?"
I was about ready to snap at her exactly what I thought about this. How it was unfair, barbaric. And something that even my father would have reason to fight her on. If my mother heard about this, Umbridge would become literal mincemeat.
But it was Harry in my peripheral vision giving the slightest shake of his head that stilled me. He had done this before. He knew how to play this game.
After all, like Umbridge had said, she was willing to keep this going all night if we angered her long enough. If I wanted to get out of this before the new dawn, I would simply have to submit.
But one look at that crackling smile of hers did plenty to strengthen my resolve. If I had to brutalize my hand to get her to be happy, so be it. But she will never see an emotion cloud my face to her benefit. I will be a simple mask.
Unfortunately for Marietta, she did not have the same thought process. It didn't take more than ten minutes before the girl started to openly weep as we scribbled away. And by the half hour mark she was begging to be let off from the task. But as I suspected, Umbridge had no such plan for the girl.
"You will do as you're told and learn from this experience, Miss Edgecombe."
Marietta released another cry but returned to her writing as did the rest of us.
We went on like this until past 11 in the evening. My eyes were blurry but I didn't let a tear drop from my eye nor did I look up to let Umbridge see me. I didn't have the heart to look at my hand anymore either. It only took a few tries before the letters stopped fading. The message just got deeper and deeper as the time went on at a snail's pace.
It was just under 11:30 when Umbridge finally stood back up from her chair and came around to examine each of our hands. As she bent over Harry's hand I quickly looked up at the closest light source and blinked the tears back, feeling them resolve back into my eye.
Umbridge came next to me and gave a tsking sound as she looking at the state of my hand. Blood had ran off onto the table and the words looked black against my skin. My skin was pink and hot at the touch, with the neighboring flesh white from the drain.
She had ruined my hand.
"There now, even with your pretty cursive, your hand now looks as dismantled as you should be. We will work on this further, yes?" It was a question I did not value giving an answer.
After she had said her piece to Marietta between the girl's sobs, she released us, with plans to see her again very soon. The news sent Marietta into a rake of sobs that sent her falling to the floor. Harry and I on the other hand, only gave Umbridge vacant stares in response before taking the stairs together, leaving Marietta to her own devices.
We were walking down the corridor now, when Harry asked if I was okay.
"I will be," I said back. "I'm just happy I didn't break in front of her."
"We can't give her that pleasure," Harry agreed. We had reached the stairs when he stopped and I followed suit.
"I, I just have to say, I'm sorry Ava. For what's happened."
"Don't," I responded. "You are a wonderful teacher Harry. And for the record, I would sign up again even if I knew this was the result." Harry looked taken aback by what I said before releasing a breath of his own.
"I never expected Umbridge to corner you like that. I knew she had it out for me, but you-"
"She was right about what she said to Fudge earlier," I explained simply. "I knew she was trying to use me to monitor Hermione and subsequently you. I was an idiot in thinking I could play two sides at once. It didn't seem to work after all."
"It seemed to work just fine to me," Harry said to my surprise. He was looking at me rather impressed. "Ron and I were never sure about you being in the D.A. with what I know about you and Malfoy-" I looked away from him immediately, sensing a growing twist in my stomach.
"Well, I don't blame you there," I finished. "I can't say I've been the smartest of late."
"But you kept it a secret," Harry advocated, making me look back to him. He was regarding me earnestly, as if the truth of the situation had swayed him a bit. "I don't know what's going to happen now, but I can at least go back to the common room and be safe. Do you know what you're going to do?"
"That's a question I haven't quite figured out," I admitted carefully. "But my brother will be there. And he's protective of me so-"
"So I noticed." I gave him the smallest of smiles that he returned gratefully before saying goodnight. We separated there, with him taking the stairs up toward Gryffindor towers and myself taking them down to the dungeons.
I hid my hand in my robes in an attempt to dull the throbbing that had begun.
I had only just turned around the stairs in the dungeons when I felt something grasp my arm and drag me into the alcove of the stairwell.
It was Draco.
"We need to talk."