C082 - Toads & Murder

On the day of the second dueling session - which was briefly thought to be canceled due to Harry's reveal as a Parselmouth when the first through fourth years met for the first time, I sneaked out of Hogwarts since Flitwick and I had trained earlier in the day.

I had spent some time getting familiar with the two daggers by setting up my own weak proximity wards placed on simple stones. It was really two birds with one stone because I could put into practice some of the stuff I had discussed with Professor Babbling, the Ancient Runes professor, in recent times.

She had really helped me put into perspective some of the things I learned through the talking hat and my dreams of Heimdall, which I have had none of since Heimdall revealed the existence of the Pieces of Eden to me.

After a short flight as a raven, I turned back mid-air, rolled on the ground, threw a rock at the gnarled knot on the roots of the Whomping Willow and ducked into the passage towards the Shrieking Shack in one smooth movement.

My proficiency with my animagus form change increased day by day, especially since I dared to do pretty reckless stunts like turning back mid-air. Plus, having the insights of Lara available to me made it even better.

"Patrick," I called once I was in the 'haunted' house and rolled my eyes. Magicals were really afraid of a haunted house? The myth behind the Shrieking Shack was absolutely stupid. There lived a literal dozen of ghosts in the school they all grew up in...

"Master," the elf greeted after popping into the room several moments later.

"Hello, Patrick. Any news from Goldsborough?"

"Nothing since my last letter," Patrick answered curtly.

"What about Umbridge?"

"The pink monster has left the ministry. She should be at home."

My elf used to belong to my grandfather, who was a vice-deputy head in the ministry. Naturally, Patrick knew his way around the ministry building and was therefore ordered by me to stalk the woman today. Finding out where she lived wasn't hard, either. Everyone living close to her hated having her as a neighbor, and she lived in the biggest dwelling of magicals there was, Hogsmeade.

I pulled up my hood and the turtleneck collar to hide everything below my eyes, made the white dagger into a hidden blade, donned Sir Frye's hidden blade on the other arm, and brandished the dagger and a random wand from the mountain of wands I looted from the Room of Lost things.

"Get me close to her home," I ordered since I could use Apparition but also made a ton of noise doing it still. Plus, not that I really cared since I was about to commit murder: using apparition without a license was technically illegal.

Patrick and I arrived near a garrish three story home with pink flowers littering every bush of the woman's yard. Since I was disillusioned and Patrick was smart enough to get us somewhere nobody from the mainroads got a good line of sight towards, I used my eagle vision to see if there were wards on the home, and boy did Umbridge splurge on her own protection.

What I could discern were not only intruder alert wards, but even proximity wards on the road leading to the fence and the gate, intent wards on the gate itself, blood wards that likely reacted to her own blood, a shielding ward, and many more.

Either she or one of her ancestors was a brilliant warder, or she splurged on her own protection with money that wasn't hers. From all I knew, I was heavily in favor of explaining the many enchantments through corruption and bribery.

Closing my eyes for a short moment, I brought forward the black dagger and gave Patrick the signal to stay behind.

Cutting through the warded space in front of me once, I dealt with the proximity ward and took a few steps forward until I reached the white picket fence of Umbridge's home. Cutting a second time, I jumped through, and with a roll for dramatic effect and swiftness, I stood on Umbridge's perfectly manicured lawn.

A silently cast 'Homenum Revelio' revealed to me that Umbridge, or at least a witch, was inside her home on the ground floor where I suspected her kitchen to be.

Casting a 'Silencio' on her door, I gently tried to open it - it was not locked. Since the door couldn't make a sound, I was assured of my entry point, took another deep but silent breath, and rushed inside before quickly closing the door and scanning my surroundings.

Umbridge was singing along to something on the Wizarding Wireless Network, and it came as no surprise to me that I could instantly judge that she had been granted exactly zero talent in singing. At least I could make sure it was indeed her and not somebody else. Nobody sounded as grating and offensive as her.

"...in my coooouuuuldroooon~" she finished singing in a particularly high voice, and I could see her brewing something on her stove as I got closer to the kitchen.

No playing with food, no risking revealing myself, I allowed the hidden blade on my non-wand hand to come out, holstered the black blade, and took cautious steps forward.

Just before I reached an arm's length away from her, she was about to turn around. So I lunged forward and buried my knife in Umbridge's short neck while keeping an eye on her arms and casting a silent 'Petrificus Totalus' so no last second shenanigans could ruin my plans today.

Once I was sure I severed her spine with the attack, I took the hidden blade from her body and allowed her body to fall down. Looking at her unsightly, scrunched up face, I felt no guilt. Umbridge was one of the worst this society had to offer, especially since her position allowed her to do more damage than most could ever dream of doing.

"A more prosperous society will be built on your ashes," I whispered after tearing my eyes away from the still warm corpse. I needed to see if she left behind any evidence of her wrongdoings.

But first, I needed to stage a little fight. Dropping two hairs near the fireplace that I had taken off Lucius Malfoy during our interaction at Halloween by sheer luck, I started blasting furniture into walls with a single spell. After all, Umbridge will have lost her life in two spells during this staged fight. So there was no need to overdo it.

In the end, she ended up with a knife from her own kitchen stuck inside of her to mask the wound from my hidden blade. Following that, I found Umbridge's library and used my black dagger to open the heavily warded door by jamming it inside the keyhole. Curiously enough, that worked instantly. Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff's craftsmanship was truly overpowered.

Inside the study, I found exactly what I suspected I would find, tons of books supporting blood supremacy and dark tomes detailing countless unethical experiments to determine that all magical creatures were lesser than wizards and witches. At least I did find a blackmail ledger in the witch's desk drawer without having to search too long. The ledger appeared golden in my vision. Same as a book on ancient curses that I doubted made its way into Umbridge's hand by legal means.

It looked as expensive as this entire house, well, minus the extensive wards.

Suddenly, sounds came from downstairs. Someone had entered through the floo that I definitely should have extinguished. Quickly opening the window after throwing a bunch of books and the ledger in my pouch, I dropped a small vial of Wyvern Ichor in the study to leave behind less evidence and more suspicions to be investigated and jumped out of the window while casting an 'Incendio' at the vial with the black dagger in my hand while my legs were already outside.

Once more disillusioned, I cut through both the regular ward line and the proximity ward line with my black dagger and reached Patrick, who I ordered to get away as I changed into a raven to make my way to the Shrieking Shack.

"Patrick," I called out once I changed back into human form, and my elf appeared in front of me without a pop. He had been waiting here for me.

"Yes?"

"Did you see through the windows who arrived at Umbridge's house before I jumped out of the window?"

Patrick nodded and said, "Yes. It was Auror Gruff."

My pupils constricted before I asked, "Are you sure? He should be in Azkaban! At the very least a holding cell!"

"Patrick is sure," the elf confirmed sullenly.

"What the hell are those bastards at the DMLE doing?? That asshole literally enslaved young magicals to work in his brothels," I spat angrily before calming down with a deep breath. This wasn't the time or place to vent my anger at the corruption of the ministry.

I ordered my elf to wait for a moment before writing a letter for my lawyer.

"Hand this to Limm today. I want the full weight of my name thrown around. The Lord name, not the orphan one. He is to ensure I get that hearing with Auror Gruff as soon as possible. Tomorrow morning, if he can get it done. I will not allow them to muddy the waters and get away with having Gruff released. Tell Limm that he has my full approval to embarrass the DMLE as much as he can if there's a better tactic that he can think of, even if I make more enemies. Have Verdi contact me with the answer as soon as you can get it. Urd has a special mission and shouldn't be bothered with this," I ordered with a deep frown.

All my impending happiness at the successful assassination of Umbridge had vanished before I even fully acknowledged my work.

-----

After returning to the castle, I had Penelope join me in learning the blink spell. I needed someone I could trust to bring me to the infirmary in case I splinched, and while my choice should have been Flitwick, my professor was just that. A professor. And a head of house, a father, someone who needed to pay attention to many more duties than just spending all of his freetime with me. He already spent way too much time with and on me recently.

I'd show him the spell eventually, Flitwick had earned at least that much. But I still chose to do the training with Penelope. The first through fourth years were still in the Great Hall, so I took the prefect out to the lake and taught her the spell 'Ictura'. I'd keep the 'Ictura Umbris' spell to myself once I'd get it and use it as a signature spell of my assassin persona, but the 'Ictura' spell would be something I would be known for as Talion.

I might not need it to remain dueling champion, even in the long run, but as a trump card, I wanted to use it openly regardless. Penelope would keep the secret anyway, and I'd like her to live through any attack she would have to face where I wasn't close.

Since gaining a little insight through my Apparition training, I had a decent idea about what was required of me performing the spell. Casting it successfully still took a few seconds and was not done in the time of a mere blink, but I still managed to do it without splinching on the second try and without hurling out my insides.

Penelope wasn't so lucky. She toppled over after casting it once and puked her guts out. Similarly to Apparition, which felt like you were pulled through a straw by your navel, blinking felt like your body was put through the wringer so that it was paperthin and fit below a door. It was far from pleasant... and I hoped Flitwick was right when he said that Apparition got better the more proficient you were. It gave me the hope that the same was true for Ictura transportation.

Spending several hours like this, most of which Penelope sat out because she got too sick, the two of us eventually made our way to the Great Hall. Dueling should have ended, and dinner was about to be served.

I had secretly informed Nitwit through her daughter Skuld, one of my three new elves, to place a light salad on Penelope's table later on and joined her to sit down near the two beaters from my team.

"Macnair, Clearwater," Inglebee greeted. "You look kind of pale - both of ya. Everything alright?"

"Had to see Flint's ugly mug coming inside," I quipped with a shrug and had both of them grinning.

"I heard he bet someone fifty galleons that he would beat us," Inglebee said with a grin.

"Yeah, and his dad cut his allowance ever since he heard of the brand on his forehead. So 50 is a little above his means at the moment," Samuels added with a smile full of schadenfreude.

"I'm just glad Hooch and Flitwick worked together to keep Malfoy banned from the team after the incident on your first flying lesson last year. Not sure what that was about, but apparently he had proposed buying everyone the new Nimbus 2001 since he couldn't get seven Firebolts in time to get to replace Higgins, their seeker," Inglebee shared with a gleeful smile. "All it did was ruin their team morale since Higgins knew he'd be replaced for just a broom."

"You got something against Malfoy, too?" I asked curiously. These two were way too much into gossip as long as it concerned Quidditch players.

"You don't have a monopoly on his ire. And you're definitely not the only one who hates having to listen to his drivel," Samuels answered with a wry smile. "Worst of all, Slytherin shows a united front to the outside. So they'll defend him even if he's wrong. And he's wrong so often. I hate when he comes over to our table because of you."

"Not that it's your fault," Inglebee chimed in and had Samuels nod.

"What were we talking about again?" Samuels asked as I looked over to Penelope and saw her slowly eat the light salad in front of her with slightly shaking hands.

"You wanted to tell me how the dueling went for the younger students," I coaxed with a sly grin as I could only shake my head at Penelope's state.

"Pretty sure I didn't, but I don't mind. Your little blonde protegee apparently won two duels in a row before skipping away. She won against a Slytherin third year who called her Loony Luna, too," Inglebee answered with a small frown. "You'll never guess who."

"If you're saying it like that... Bletchley or Higgs?" I asked after having lost my smile.

"Bletchley, the keeper. I bet he was still salty about us winning last week. They are pretty much out of the race for the cup already anyway with their second loss. All they can hope for now is not getting bodied by Hufflepuff, but we all know Diggory got that Firebolt, so their chances are terrible for that, too."

"Yeah, and they'll have to play with their reserve keeper, too, for that match... oh no," I drawled with an indifferent face.

Almost two months without anybody calling her 'Loony Luna' to her face. He just had to break the streak.