Chapter 9 of Year One: "Midnight Stroll Into Trouble"

Announcement: It is sort of like the scenes from POA and OP merging. Hope you like it and please comment and say how I can improve or if you generally like it. Please, share also. I would be thrilled! :)

Every time I walked past Umbridge for a few days after she nearly killed me, all I could think about was to get her back for it. She just infuriated me that day. Her denial of helping the Death Eaters was just blood boiling. Her class was boring enough, just reading. As much as I loved to read, reading the same chapter over and over just put me to sleep. Mind you, this Defence Against the Dark Arts class was not teaching us to defend ourselves in anyway. How was reading supposed to teach us about self protection when we were not able to practice the spells? Horrendous...

After Herbology -which was fun may I add- Vera, Dan and I walked towards the Great Hall for lunch.

“You know, I'm still wandering about the fifth floor. The secret door, the slide and the dungeons. There must be something there that we are ought to know about!” I said as we walked into the Great Hall.

“Come on Jules, you know that if we go and try to find out about it we might get expelled!” Vera commented back

“Vera, I think that might be the least of our problems!” Dan said

“LEAST of our problems? Are you kidding? Nothing can be worse than getting expelled”
“We might get killed before we even get expelled. You know what is worse, don't you?”
“Yeah, getting expelled..”
“Sort out your priorities, Vera!”

As we sat at the table, I reached into my pocket. The silver charm that I found in Potions was still there. I felt the deep engraving “Property of the Department of Mysteries” on it as I scanned my fingers top to the bottom of the charm. The smooth cold texture of silver was a pleasant feeling as rested in my fingers gently and the chain's coarse rust was rough and very unpleasant to touch.

“You know, I think the secret of the fifth floor corridor might have something to do with the Department of Mysteries” I said

“Department of Mysteries in the Ministry of Magic? Why would it have anything to do with that?”Vera asked

I took the chain out.

“I found this in the potions classroom a few weeks ago, the day that the cauldron exploded. The charm says that it is the Property of the Department of Mysteries. My guess would be that something that is hidden in the dungeons has to do with the Department of Mysteries”

“You could be right. But then again, it might not. It could just be something out of Gringotts. You never know” Dan said.

“If it was then the charm would say Gringotts. I say we check it out”
“But what could be hidden there?”
“I don't know. Slughorn's stash of files?”

“And you are on your jokey side again. In case you didn't notice, we are talking serious here!”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever.”
“If you don't want to come, it's your choice. Vera, you coming?”
“Yeah, I want to know what it is that is hidden there” Vera replied

After our last class -which was DADA grr- Vera and I went to the common room to get things that we might need for our night time operation. Wands, stink pallets -for distraction- and the charm.

“Right, everything is set. Now, we can roll!” Vera said and we quietly sneaked out of the girls dormitory. Dan was on the bottom of the staircase

“You are not coming with us, are you?” Vera asked

“No, I am stopping you from going” Dan commented back

“OK,I am sorry for what you are about to experience. It's for your own good. Petrificus Totalus!” I said and waved my wand, pointing it at him.

Dan froze in place, with hands by his sides and legs locked next to each other. He then fell to the ground. Apart from his eyes, nothing else could move.

“Sorry Dan!” I said as Vera and I walked out from the Fat Lady's portrait.

Vera and I walked out into the staircase and we ran across the stairs to the fifth floor corridor.

At the common room.

Umbridge walked in and have seen Dan under the Full Body Bind spell. She ended the spell.

“Thank you Professor Umbridge!”
“What happened to you dear?” She asked

“I was a target of the Full Body Bind by my sister who is out and about the castle. I think she said she was going to the fifth floor corridor”
“Thank you, Daniel for this information. If you would be interested, you can become part of my Inquisitorial Squad, which gives you ability to punish those who misbehave. What do you think?”

“Um, sure. Anything to get back at Vera and my sister.”
“Excellent. Come, two of your fellow team mates, Cory and Brian and I will be going down to the fifth floor to find those two”

Fifth floor corridor.

“So where was this trap door again?” I asked as we were walking in the corridor, pointlessly.

“End of the corridor, remember? In that big room”
“I just hope that my horrible excuse of a brother didn't spill his guts to a professor otherwise we will be in trouble.”
We went quiet for a minute. We heard footsteps coming on to the corridor, Vera and I hid in the doors opposite of each other in the corridor. I walked along into room that was hidden behind the door. It was a room filled with scrolls and old papers.

I sneaked over to one of the stacks with scrolls and opened one.

It read 'Untold truths about death eaters and Umbridge, hand written. I took the scroll and put it in my bag and opened the next one it read 'Secrets about hogwarts you never heard of' again I put it in my bag.

Then a guy came and took me by my arms, putting them behind me.

“Let go!” I shouted

“No. You can thank someone later!” the guy replied

He walked my over to the main corridor.

“Umbridge.” I groaned as soon as I saw her.

“That's right, little miss Sharmons. Now that I found you here, you are going to get punished. But first, you might want to thank the person that helped us to find you. Oh come out!” She said

Then Vera and I stood in shock as we saw Dan come out of the shadows.

“Daniel helped us and has become the part of my Inquisitorial Squad. He will choose a suitable punishment for you.”

I looked at Daniel with desperate plea for help. He ignored it and stood there thinking.

“Since you insist on me choosing the punishment, I will choose... Get them to the Forbidden Forest. Hagrid needs help in getting rid of some beasts from there or we could get them to write lines out” Dan said and laughed

“I hate you Daniel. I'm so unlucky that I have to call you brother!” I said

“Take them to my office and do not let them get away” Umbridge said

As Vera and I were lead out of the corridor I looked at Daniel.

“That is what you get for casting spells on me!”
“You never change your ways, Daniel. But what can I expect from someone that never had a stable family or normal parents or lived through the Muggle life”
“Get her out of my sight!” He commanded and we were led on..

Umbridge's Office

“Sit them down boys and get out of here. I will take it from here!” Umbridge sweetly said

The boys pushed us onto the chairs.

“You are dismissed. Use a strong locking spell to ensue that they don't escape until punishment is done”

Boys and Daniel left casting a spell on the door.

“So we meet again Vera and em..um..”

“Julie, professor.” I replied
“Julie. Take these quills and write twenty times on the parchment 'I will never stand up against Professor Umbridge”

She handed out two quills and paper but no ink.

“You have given us no ink, professor.”

“You won't need it”

As soon as we wrote the tenth line, red writing engraved itself on our right hand. It said exactly what we wrote in our handwriting. It looked as if it was written in blood. The pain that it took for the words to engrave themselves was unbearable.

We looked up at Umbridge with pleading looks. We needed to rest.

“All right, all right you may go. But if you defy me again, you will be writing out twice as much”

She cast a spell on the door to unlock it and we ran out with tears in our eyes and bleeding hands as the wounds themselves were freshly engraved by Umbridge's punishment quills.

At the common room as we walked in we saw Daniel. As soon as I saw him, I ran up to him and pointed my wand into his neck.

“You are heartless monster. You have no idea of what we just went through!” I screamed at him.

“Remember, if you cast a spell on me Umbridge will take you in for punishment again!”
I pressed the wand harder in to his neck.

“He is not worth the spell, Jules. Just leave it”

I lowered my wand.

“Remember, if you turn us in again I will not listen to anyone that is trying to stop me. I will get you back for tonight. You evil cockroach!” I shoted and left for the staircase up to our dormitory.