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Feels like someone had just struck me with a lightning. The woman who's sitting there... About to get sentenced for whatever reason by Umbridge Dolores... Is Edward's wife?! Ho..- How could this be possib..- "Mrs. Woods. A wand was taken from you earlier today when you arrived to the Ministry. Is this... That wand?" Umbridge lifts up to show her a wand that has been confiscated from Emma. Emma nods timidly. "Will you please tell the court, which witch or wizard you took this wand from?" Umbridge asks. Wait..? My gaze keeps shifting from her to Emma, confused what's going on here. "I didn't take it. I got it when I was eleven - back when me and my parents lived in France." she answers, looking so stressed, yet so sincere. She's a witch too!
It soon became clear Emma didn't go to Hogwarts like the rest of us. She went the Magic School in France - Beauxbatons Academy Of Magic. After she turned twenty, she moved here in England, and soon after met the love of her life - Edward. The reason behind her visit in the Ministry originally was because she wanted to come all the way down here to discuss about her children and how she'd wish not to receive a letter for her daughter - (Y/N) Woods, to Hogwarts in next year when she'll be turning seven. Seems that everything that has happened here in Wizarding World got her so worried she wanted to tentatively prevent from her children get in touch with the Magical World. It seems that Emma doesn't really wanna have anything to do with the Wizarding World now that she has a family in the Muggle World, where she's happy and feeling safe. But...
As soon as she arrived here to deal with the matter, a guard snatched her and now they are accusing her of stealing someone else's wand because according to them, 'a person like her' can't be a real witch. No matter how much Emma pleads and tells Umbridge the truth, she doesn't seem to want to believe her. "You're lying." Umbridge ends up gritting her teeth with venomous tone. There is desperation written all over Emma's face as she still tries to explain herself. We need to help her somehow - and get the locket! My eyes starts darting around the room, trying to come up with the plan. Then, my focus goes to the cat and the Dementors. It'll be dangerous, but... With slow movement, I pull out my wand and carefully place it beside me while pointing it at the floor. Neville notices this, but does his best to just act normal.
When I've made sure no one's watching what I'm doing, I close my eyes for a quick second to think a happy memory. The moment when we were all at the Burrow... Eating great food, drinking and laughing... When Remus announced the gender of their baby and asked me to be the godmother... Then, my Patronus - a niffler - that looks just like Sniffy, appears right next to my foot. The silvery, playful beast looks up to me which makes me feel half joy, half sadness when Sniffy comes to mind. Go get them. With that, the niffler starts running around the Courtroom, immediately catching everyone's attention and some of us got up 'acting surprised' by this. "What is that?!" Umbridge asks baffled. Right away, the cat hisses and jumps down from the podium to go after the niffler.
It all happens so fast; Just when I'm about to draw my wand to stun Umbridge so I could take the locket from her, someone else gets to do that first! "Stupefy!" a man in long and dark leather jacket - who has been sitting other side of the room from us - casts the spell and hits Umbridge right in her chest. What?! Everyone in the Courtroom got up from their seats, about to draw their wands. But before anyone could do anything, another man joins in and they both casts spells all around the room to momentarily petrify people - Yaxley included. Neville and I were quick to hunch down to avoid getting attacked. "Shit!" I curse when going down for a cover with 'Alecto', shielding his head just in case.
Now that Umbridge is out of it - and her Patronus disappears, the barrier that has been keeping the Dementors away breaks. Ooh, shit. Mine Patronus disappears as well in that moment. Immediately Umbridge's assistant - whose been sitting beside her, snatches the locket from her. Emma has been sitting in the chair whole this time, shocked what has just happened. She then noticed something about the man who was the first one to cast the spell on Umbridge. "Ha-Harry Potter..?!" her voice shakes shocked. Huh?! The man who's in the long, dark leather jacket is actually indeed Harry himself! So that must mean..- All I get to do is take a peek when Harry and two others runs out of the Courtroom. Those two must be Hermione and Ron in disguise as well! My focus then goes to the ceiling. The Dementors are approaching, hungry for suck our souls. That's not good.
I quickly grab Neville and pull him on his feet:"Yep, our visiting hour is now over. Up you go..!". After giving him a push on the back, Neville started to run out of the Courtroom. I quickly glance at Emma. She's still too stunned by everything, so she hasn't moved from the chair. Damn it! Had to run up to her and grab her by the wrist:"Ma'am, I need you to come with us.". Luckily, she doesn't resist or anything, and we start running out of there. Harry and his friends are running way ahead of us, and they managed to get one of the elevators in ninth floor before us. As soon as they were gone, Neville gets to the elevators and pushes one of them open. After he steps in and turn to look around, he gets partly petrified by the sight of me and Emma running for our dear lives from the sea of Dementors.
Huge panic hits him:"Wh..- Which level do I choose?!". My mind is full on blank while running and don't know what to say. "Eight!! Take us to the eighth floor!!!" Emma shouts. Just barely Emma and I get to the elevator before any of the Dementors catches us, and Neville gets the gate door closed. Immediately when the door gets closed, all of the Dementors runs into it and tries to reach out to us with their scary looking hands. All three of us are pressing our backs against the back wall of the small space. Shit!! When they realize they can't get in touch with us, they open their mouths and began to suck the positive emotions out of us, making us relive the most worst memories of our lives. No..!!
Right away, all of these memories from my childhood comes to the surface. Fuck. Even the moment when Nagini attacked Sniffy from the mid air... Shit. The grip around my wand tightens and I shut my eyes to focus. All of these dark memories keeps flashing by. One after another. But then... Severus's face appears in my mind - and all of those moments I've shared with him. The most intense ones, and the most fluff ones. Severus. That's when I get the strength to draw my wand at the Dementors and shout:"Expecto Patronum!!!". A big, blinding, powerful dazzling light shoots out from the wand, making the Dementors fly back all the way where they came from. We all let out a heavy sigh of relieve, hearts pounding hard in our chests and I quickly kick the lever to take us to the eighth floor.
Out all three of us, Emma seems to be most terrified. Neville and I share a look, then I look at her:"You're alright?". Immediately realizing I've lost Amycus's voice and now I'm speaking with my real voice. Emma's head snaps right at me confused:"Huh?". Awkward smile appears on my face and I reach a hand to shake hers:"(Y/N) (Y/L). Nice to finally meet you 'properly' - even though the circumstances aren't ideal.". To ease the intense tension, I also point at Neville and introduce him as well with somewhat casual tone - like this is everyday for us. Even she's still shaken up by everything, she and Neville shake hands. Then she turns to me, looking all baffled:"...(Y/N)? As in..- A-are you Ruby Harris's - our neighbor's - niece?!". I nod:"Yeah.". Her eyes goes quickly up and down on me:"B-but..-", "Polyjuice potion." I nudge my head casually. "Ah." she nods as acknowledgement.
The elevator does the 'Bing' - sound when we reach the right floor and the door opens. Only now I can feel how hard my heart is actually beating inside my chest. Everything on this floor seems normal and calm. There are still people in their fancy suits walking around, heading wherever they are supposed to be heading. No one here knows what happened upstairs. Good. There is this feeling in me that the Polyjuice potion is about to worn out any minute now. Neville and I share yet another look. Then, I give him a nod and all three of us start walking with fast steps towards the fireplaces, so we could get out of here. We may not have the locket with us, but at least it didn't stay in Umbridge's neck. And seems that Harry and his friends got out of he..- "Harry Potter..? I-it's Harry!!" someone spotted the boy in middle of the big crowd. Oh, no...
The word spreads like a wild fire, and soon all of the guards are running after the trio. All of them shouting things like:'Get him!', 'Don't let them get away!', 'Stop him!'. The kids have all changed back to themselves and are now trying to run away by going around the gigantic statue that is placed in the middle of the Atrium. All the people around gets confused and don't know what to do here. We need to help them to get out of here. "Neville." I call under my breath and both of us start running after them. Emma stays behind, but uses this opportunity to escape. She may have lost her wand for good, but all she ever actually wanted was leave the Magical World behind, so I bet she won't be missing it any time soon. Neville and I are on the move, trying to get thru this crowd as fast as possible:"Excuse me, sorry!". Damn it. There are too many people in here!
We get stuck and try to see where the trio is now. People around us are confused what the hell is going on. They can't believe that Harry Potter is actually in here. When I finally spot Harry over these people, the conversation Dumbledore had with Severus in the memory echoes inside my head. 'A part of Voldemort lives inside of him.'. 'So, when the time comes... The boy must die?'. 'Yes... Yes, he must die.'. My lips apart when this thought came to my mind. Would that... Set Severus free..? The worst comes to my mind and the grip around my wand tightens, but I quickly shake my head to get rid of the thought. Right then - all of sudden, a flash of a light whooshes from behind us and hits the big statue near us, partly breaking it. Huh?! People around us let out a scream at the same time and hunches down. My head snaps to the direction where the spell came from. It's Corban Yaxley! And he doesn't look too happy.
With determinant steps, he keeps on going after the trio. Looks like he's still little bit affected by the stunning spell since his right side is limping a bit. People immediately steps to the side when they notice he's coming closer with three guards beside him. He then tries to cast more spells on the children, but keeps missing. Shit! "Cover for me!" I shout to Neville as I start running after Yaxley and the guards. I'm running as fast as I can, shoving people out of the way more aggressively than before. Yaxley is speeding his steps as the trio is getting closer to the fireplaces. "Stupefy!" I cast the stunning spell on one of the guards and they drop to the floor immediately. I jump over them and keep on running, finally out of the big crowd. This all makes people gasp out of surprise and more guards starts now running after me too. Neville is hesitant what to do at first, but starts casting spells to stop the guards by freezing their legs to the floor and such.
Even it all happens so fast, it feels like it all happens in slow-motion; The flicker of hope raises in me seeing how Harry and his friends are about to get out of here with the Slytherin's Locket, but that soon turns into fear when I see how Yaxley draws his wand at them. Just when he's about to shoot yet another curse at them, having the perfect aim, I get first:"Expelliarmus!!". The wand flies out of his hand and he stops running to turn around see who dared to do that. I stop too, little out of breath. In the meantime, Harry, Hermione and Ron jumps in one of the fireplaces and gets sucked in, disappearing from our sight. However, two of the guards did managed to jump right after them. Shit! All we can now hope is that the trio can handle them. But that's least of my worries right now...
Yaxley and I are now standing at the long hallway that has all of the fireplaces both sides of us. Seems that they have shut down the ability from other people from entering the place since none of the fireplaces are working right now. We are standing only five meters away from each other. Both of us are panting a bit from all that running. Yaxley is mixed with this confusion and shock it was Amycus who prevent him from catching the Choisen One and his companion. But he's not a fool. He quickly catches up it's really not him. "Who are you?" he asks. I stay silent while having stern glare at him. We need to get out of here. And it seems there is only one way... Just when I raise my wand at him, ready to attack, he shift his eyes from me to see what's happening behind my back further away. The unpleasant, smug smirk ends up raising on his face. Huh?
That's when I glance over my shoulder, only to see Neville - who has been caught by the guards. No..! My mind is trying to figure out quick solution what to do at this point. But as expected, nothing's coming to my mind right now. Damn it. With slight hesitation, I ended up lowering the wand and turn back to him. With confidence, Yaxley starts walking up to me:"That's more like it.". He keeps on coming towards me, knowing there is not much I can do now that my friend is captured. My chest keeps going up and down faster than normal as we keep the eye contact. He then stops right in front of me, leaving barely any space between us as his eyes flickers between mine:"Now... Care to tell me who you are, or am I going to haveto force that information out of you by myself?". I can feel it... The potion starts to worn out. Slowly, but surely. Think, (Y/N)!
If they're going to see who we really are... I don't know what's going to happen to us - or the other members of the Dumbledore's Army. I need to buy more time to figure out what to do! I end up frowning at him with stern glare:"Why won't you act like your hairline and take couple steps back, so I will tell you?". My comment annoys him and he quickly grabs me by the collar inside his fist, pulling me closer:"I'll..-", we all hear how the fireplace near us does the soft whoosh sound as someone enters the room, and all of our attention goes towards it surprised. My eyes widens and heart skips a beat as the familiar dark figure enters the hallway with us thru the green fire with dark glare narrowed right at us. Yaxley won't let go off my collar, but lowers the fist and takes a step away to look at the man before us:"Snape...". And before he could ask what is he doing in here, Snape takes a step forward and answers with determinant, yet calm tone:"I came to collect... What's mine.".