“DETENTION, Mr. Potter.” Umbridge yelled triumphantly. “Tomorrow evening. Five o’ clock. My office. I will say it again, this is a lie. The Ministry of Magic guarantees that you are not in danger from any Dark wizard. If you are still worried, by all means come and see me outside class hours. If someone is alarming you with rumors of reborn Dark wizards, I would like to hear about it. I am here to help. I am your friend. Now, kindly continue your reading. Page five, “Basics for Beginners.’”
Professor Umbridge sat down again. Harry, however, stood up. Everyone was staring at him; some scared, some fascinated.
“Harry, no!” Hermione whispered, trying to get him to sit back down. Harry ignored her.
“So, according to you, Cedric Diggory dropped dead of his own accord, did he?” Harry asked, his voice shaking.
The class had a collective intake of breath. They glanced at Harry, then Umbridge, then back to Harry, fearing what was about to come.
“Cedric Diggory’s death was a tragic accident,” Umbridge said coldly.
“It was murder,” Harry retorted. He was shaking, and everyone could see it. Harry had never told anyone about it, and now everyone was listening. “Voldemort killed him, and you know it.”
Umbridge’s face was blank, then she said, “Come here, Mr. Potter, dear.”
Harry kicked aside his chair, strode around Ron and Hermione and up to the teacher’s desk. The entire class was holding their breath. Umbridge pulled out a small roll of pink parchment, stretched it out on the desk, dipped her quill in the ink, and started scribbling a message.
Dear Professor McGonagall,
I’ve sent Harry to see you to control his temper. He has disrupted the class, shouted at me, and called me a liar. He said that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Names was back, in which I tried to tell him the truth. Due to this outburst, he now has detention everyday this week, starting tomorrow at 5 o’ clock. Please get him to calm down and stop spewing nonsense.
Head Inquisitor,
Dolores Umbridge
“Take this to Professor McGonagall, dear,” Umbridge said, holding out the note to Harry. Harry took the note without a word, fuming, and left the room, slamming the door behind him. Everyone watched him leave, then turned to Umbridge.
“Well, what are you waiting for? Page five, “Basics for Beginners.’” She said. Everyone quickly put their head down and started to read. After a couple minutes, the bell rang. “Remember class, if you haven’t finished the chapter, it is homework. You may leave.” The kids couldn’t leave fast enough.
The rest of the day passed by, with no distractions. The next day, Umbridge was excited for the upcoming detention. Class was too slow, but finally, 5 o’ clock rolled around. She sat down in her office and was marking some essays when she heard a knock on the door.
“Come in,” she called. Harry entered the room and stared at the walls, not seeming to notice Umbridge. He was looking at the plates with cats she had on the walls. They were all kittens, meowing softly. They were the cutest things. After he had stared at the walls for a while, she decided to gain his attention.
“Hem, hem. Good evening, Mr. Potter.” Harry stared at her, and the look on his face told her that he had just noticed her.
“Evening, Professor Umbridge.” Harry said.
“Well, sit down.” Umbridge said and pointed to the small table she had set up beforehand. It was draped in lace and was accompanied by a straight-backed chair. She had also set up a blank piece of parchment but had not put down a quill yet.
“Er,” said Harry, without moving. “Professor Umbridge. Er - before we start, I - I wanted to ask you a… a favor.”
Her bulging eyes narrowed. Whatever it was, she already knew she would decline. That would be part of his punishment.
“Oh, yes?”
“Well, I’m… I’m in the Gryffindor Quidditch team. And I was supposed to be at the tryouts for the new Keeper at five o’clock on Friday and I was - was wondering whether I could skip detention that night and do it - do it another night… instead… ”
“Oh, no,” said Umbridge, smiling widely. “Oh, no, no, no. This is your punishment for spreading evil, nasty, attention-seeking stories, Mr. Potter, and punishments certainly cannot be adjusted to suit the guilty one’s convenience. No, you will come here at five o’clock tomorrow, and the next day, and on Friday too, and you will do your detentions as planned. I think it rather a good thing that you are missing something you really want to do. It ought to reinforce the lesson I am trying to teach you.”
She watched him with her head tilted to the side. If he lashed out, she would make sure he has detention for the whole month. Surprisingly, he just dropped his school bag, and sat down in the chair, not looking at her.
“There,” said Umbridge, “we’re getting better at controlling our temper already, aren’t we? Now, you are going to be doing some lines for me, Mr. Potter. No, not with your quill,” she added, as Harry bent down to open his bag. “You’re going to be using a rather special one of mine. Here you are.”
She handed him a long, thin black quill with an unusually sharp point.
“I want you to write, I must not tell lies,” she told him softly.
“How many times?” Harry asked, with a creditable imitation of politeness.
“Oh, as long as it takes for the message to sink in,” said Umbridge. “Off you go.” She leaned down over some essays she needed to grade, when Harry spoke again.
“You haven’t given me any ink.” he said.
“Oh, you won’t need ink.” said Professor Umbridge. She smiled sweetly at him before looking back at her essays. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Harry write the sentence, then let out a hiss of pain. By the time he looked up at her, she was already staring at him with a wide smile on her face.
“Yes?”
“Nothing.” He looked back down at the parchment and continued to write. She frowned a bit at the lack of reaction but made sure to watch him while attending to her work.
When darkness fell, she finally decided to call it a day.
“Come here,” she said. Harry stood up and stared at his hand. “Hand.” He gave it to her, and she took it in her own hands. “Tut, tut, I don’t seem to have made much of an impression yet,” she said, smiling. “Well, we’ll just have to try again tomorrow evening, won’t we? You may go.” Harry left her office without a word. She sighed, and put up her work, said goodnight to all her cats, walked over to her office, and went to bed.
The next day, she was waiting eagerly for the next detention. It somehow seemed to be even less exciting than the last. The entire time he didn’t even make a sound. On the third detention, however, Harry suddenly paused writing.
Due to the lack of noise, she looked up, and saw that there was blood on his hand. She got up and walked around the desk to him. The words were starting to form.
“Ah,” she said softly, closely examining his hand. “Good. That ought to serve as a reminder to you, oughtn’t it? You may leave for tonight.”
“Do I still have to come back tomorrow?” said Harry picking up his schoolbag with his left hand rather than his now scarring right one.
“Oh yes,” said Professor Umbridge, smiling as widely as before. “Yes, I think we can etch the message a little deeper with another evening’s work.” As Harry left, she walked around and sat back down at her desk satisfied.
On Friday, Harry arrived for his final detention.
“You know what to do, Mr. Potter,” said Umbridge, smiling sweetly at him. At night fall, she decided to check up on his hand. “Let’s see if you’ve gotten the message yet, shall we?” said Umbridge's soft voice. She moved towards him, stretching out her short ringed fingers for his arm. As she took his hand to examine the scars, he suddenly jumped up, pushing her away.
“Yes, it hurts, doesn’t it?” she said softly. He did not answer. “Well, I think I’ve made my point, Mr. Potter. You may go.”
He ran out of the office and Umbridge had a small celebration with her cats. He had finally somewhat learned his lesson.
For a long time after that detention, he never disrupted class again. It was pure bliss, but Umbridge was trying to find a good reason to put him back in detention. After releasing a couple more decrees, she managed to get Lee Jordan detentions, and he also left with scars. Should have never contradicted me.
One day, everything was going perfectly. The class wasn’t misbehaving, the Inquisitorial Squad was passing out many punishments, her cats were as cute as ever, and life was just great. That was, until she was suddenly called to the Great Hall.
“I’ll be back class. Keep reading.” She walked out of the class, and down to the Great Hall. The moment she walked through the doors, she was suddenly grabbed by a random person. Trying to get her wand, another person took it away, and she watched helplessly, but struggling, as what she identified to be aurors apprehended her.
“You, Dolores Umbridge, are being arrested for harming students.” one of them said.
“I DIDN’T DO IT!” shrieked Umbridge as she was being taken away. “IT’S JUST SOME PLOT AGAINST ME! WHEN I GET BACK, YOU’RE GOING TO WISH YOU NEVER CROSSED ME!” She kept screaming threats while she was being dragged away, but it was no use.
Sometime later, she was at a holding cell in the Ministry of Magic awaiting her trial. As long as I can get Fudge in my trial, I can get out. I’ll make sure they all pay for this. A guard appeared at her cell, opened the door, and dragged her out. He immediately started taking her to her trial when she didn’t even get a chance to fix her appearance. She was then chucked into the trial room, and the door was slammed shut behind her. She took a deep breath, and walked over to her seat, sitting down.
To her dismay, Fudge was nowhere to be seen. Instead, Amelia Bones was the judge for this trial.
“Now that you’re present, let us begin. This hearing is because of accusations made towards you, Dolores Umbridge, about harming students. Are you Dolores Umbridge?” Amelia asked.
“Yes.”
“Do you accept these accusations?”
“No.”
“Please tell us your testimony.”
“Alright. So, I was just doing my job as the High Inquisitor, when I suddenly was dragged away by the aurors for some silly lie against me.” Amelia nodded at this.
“May the plaintiff, Harry Potter, tell their side.” Of course it was Potter. I thought he had learned his lesson, but apparently not.
“So, umm, I got some detentions, and she made me write with this quill. It didn’t need ink, but I found out it was written with someone’s blood. It healed the first hundred times, but later it stopped healing, so now there’s a scar.”
“Where’s your proof?” Amelia asked. Harry lifted his hand up, so everyone could see the words clearly written on his hand, I must not tell lies.
Many people gasped, a few whispered to each other.
“I was framed! He obviously set this up to get me thrown out, because I told him that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named wasn’t back!” Amelia didn’t acknowledge this outburst, instead, she spoke again.
“May the other plaintiff speak now his testimony?” Umbridge turned, and now noticed that Lee Jordan was also sitting there.
“Yeah, so Umbridge made this decree that she went against, so I called her out on it. She got mad, gave me detention, and I also got lines.” He raised his hand, and everyone could see that his hand also had words etched onto his skin forever.
“Is this true, Ms. Umbridge?” Amelia asked.
“No! It’s a plot!” Umbridge said, now starting to sweat. Amelia nodded.
“Then you won’t mind if we give you some Veritaserum then.” Umbridge paused for a moment, shocked. Some walked up to her holding a flask, and Umbridge started to panic.
“NO, YOU CAN’T MAKE ME!” She tried to get up, but ropes on the chair suddenly sprung out, tying her to the chair. She had no choice but to take the potion, knowing that it would be the end for her.
“Did you, or did you not use this quill on these students, knowing that it would cause them harm?” Amelia asked.
“Yes, I knew that. I made it myself. If they had just not objected to my taking over of Hogwarts, they wouldn’t have had detention.” She said. She wanted to slap herself for speaking. “So, you knew it would harm them, but did it on purpose?” Amelia asked again.
“Yes.” Umbridge replied. Amelia then looked at the Wizengamont.
“All in favor of prosecuting the defendant?” Everyone raised their hand. “Well, looks like you are guilty, Dolores Umbridge. You have one of two choices. Azkaban for life, or a kiss. If no choice is made, it will be Azkaban.” At this moment, Umbridge could have sworn she would throw up. Didn’t they know who she was? She kept silent, then Amelia nodded.
“I’m sentencing you, Dolores Umbridge, to life in Azkaban. Trial adjourned.” She banged a gravel, and the Wizengamont started to get up to leave.
“What? No, you can’t make me-, GET OFF! LET GO I TELL YOU!” she screamed as two dementors came down to bring her to Azkaban. Without her wand, she wasn't able to do anything, and was dragged to the famous wizard prison where she would spend the rest of her life.
TWO YEARS LATER
Umbridge, once plump and obnoxious, was now skinny and anxious. She cowered in the corner of her cell as dementors swept by, draining happiness out every time. Every day was spent worrying if she’d make it to the next. She only kept sanity thinking about all her cute kittens, and how she would make sure to see them again, one last time. She heard footsteps that stopped right outside her cell.
“Dolores Umbridge: You have been ordered to receive a kiss in an hour. Please prepare yourself.” the person said, then walked away.
What? No, no no no no no! It was just supposed to be a life sentence! Why a kiss? She spent that entire hour wondering why this happened to her of all people. She didn’t notice, but the cell door unlocked, and a dementor swept in. She immediately felt the chills, the remaining happiness she managed to keep all drained out, and she was left in despair.
“Please! Help! I promise to change, I promise to never harm someone again! I’m begging you, have mercy!” she yelled, but no one came. The dementor got closer and closer, as she kept screaming for anyone, to please, just help her. The dementor started to draw her in. Tears streamed out of her eyes as she begged one last time for someone to help her. No one did. The last thought she had would never be shared or known, proof that she had actually changed for the better. I wish I never did it.
The dementor glided out of the cell, and the limp body of Dolores Jane Umbridge fell to the floor, the life in her eyes gone, soulless. A punishment from the gods themselves.