That night, after dinner but before 'Harry's' detention, Tonks and the twins did the spell to find the horcrux. It was something they wanted to get over with as soon as possible. The sooner it was done, the sooner the war would be over, hopefully.
The charm worked and they followed the beam of light, using the Marauder's Map, that Harry had lent them. It wasn't far, it was even on the same floor as them. Walking along, making sure no one was around they soon came to an empty corridor. They located it on the seventh floor, but there was no door to where it was pinging.
"This must be the room that Dobby was telling us about," Fred said, waving to the tapestry of the dancing trolls.
"You may be right, my uglier twin," George agreed, he too looking at the funny picture of trolls in tutus.
"Alright," Tonks said, nudging them out of the way. "I pace in front of the wall three times, right?" she asked, still looking like Harry.
"You have to think about what you need while you're pacing," Fred said, standing on the opposite wall, leaning back with his arms and ankles crossed. His brother in the same pose.
"Okay, give me a moment, yeah?" she said, thinking hard on what they wanted. 'I need the horcrux,' she thought over and over in her mind while pacing.
Soon a door appeared and the trio of troublemakers when through, wands drawn and ready. The room was bare, bar a pedestal. On the marble column was a tiara, or maybe a diadem. It was a nice looking one, though old and tarnish. It was silver, and there were wings of a bird, that they thought was ravens, wrapped around to the back. Words were written between the wings. 'Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure.'
"Isn't that Rowena Ravenclaw's?" George asked, have seen in on the statue in the Ravenclaw dorm. There wasn't anywhere in this castle that he and his brother hadn't explored. Well, except this room and they were going to abuse the hell out of it this year. If Sirius was serious about them needing to have good grades to get their shop, then this room just became the highest priority.
"Yeah, looks like it," Fred agreed, peering close at the words on the crown.
"Kreacher," Tonks called, hoping the elf could get in this room that seemed to be sort of an off to the side dimension. Like it was one step away from reality.
A second later the old elf popped in with an iron box. "You is calling Kreacher?" he asked, warily eyeing everyone. Sure, his life was better, but he could not overcome a lifetime of prejudice. It had been drilled in his head since birth that people like these three before him were less than trash. To Mrs. Black, even he was higher on the totem pole than them. Still, he had been given orders that even thought he thought it, he couldn't express it.
"Yeah, I think this is it," Tonks said, still looking at the lost treasure and very glad that it didn't have to be destroyed.
"Kreacher will be taking it to Master," the elf said, snapping his fingers and floating the diadem into the box. The box snapped shut and the elf sketched a small bow and left.
"Well," Tonks said, looking around the now empty room, "that's that, I reckon. If I can get Umbitch to screw up right away, then I can be out of here tonight," she finished smugly. Not that she didn't like posing as Harry, but she wanted to be in on the takedown.
"Ah, does ickle Harrykins want to go home?" Fred teased, leading the disguised woman out of the room.
"Stuff it," Tonks said playfully, shoving his hand away.
"Have fun torturing the toad," George said as the twins took off running to make the tower before they were missed. Not that they were ever in the dorms before curfew, but this night they wanted an alibi. You know, just in case.
Tonks whistled as she moved toward the DADA room. She was happy that everything got done in record time. She hoped that her boss would let her go home. She wasn't lying when she said that she wanted to help stop the war. With only two horcruxes left, that could be as soon as next week. This put a bounce in her step as she thought up ways to 'torture the toad', as George put it.
She showed up just in time for her detention. She was still wearing that Black Family Crazy Smile, and it was still creepier on Harry's face, because she wanted to put the woman off her groove. She took a seat and stared at Umbridge, not blinking once. Her eyes were magnified by the glass in her glasses. They did that so that no one could guess that they were just glass.
"Potter," the woman started, getting out of her seat and walking towards the boy. Her face was in her superior smile, like 'Harry' was a bug and she was a foot.
"Mr. Potter," Tonks said, blinking owlishly.
"I beg your pardon?" Umbridge said, her smile dropped, and a look of shock came over her face. She was completely affronted at being talked back to by a teen. One she despised more than other teens. It upset her plans that the little bastard didn't just die via Dementors like she wanted. Nor did he use magic to get away. She had no idea how the boy did it, but he didn't 'break' any laws doing it.
"My name, to you, is Mr. Potter," the metamorphmagus, stated, still smiling. "We are not friends, I would hope we were not enemies, and you are a teacher. Therefore, the professional way to address me in 'Mr. Potter'." If anything, that smile got wider.
"Who do you think you are, you little ruffian? You have no right to talk to me like that," the teacher said in a high shrilly voice.
"Sorry, Madam Umbridge, I know you're new to teaching, I was only trying to help," Tonks said, in the most insincere way possible.
"Quit smiling at me, boy," the teacher demanded, sniffing the air like she smelled something bad.
"No, I don't think I will," Tonks said with a shrug. "Detention?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. Her hands were folded on the desk, for all she looked like a proper schoolboy waiting for his teacher to get on with it.
"You will be writing lines," Dolores simpered, handing her a parchment and a black quill. It was her smile that was now unnerving.
"Ink?" was the blunt inquiry.
"You won't need it," the toad said, still smiling, though it did get creepier.
"Oh, well, okay then," Tonks said, and then asked, "What am I to write, and how many?"
"'I must not tell lies', and until it sinks in," was the answer as the fat woman turned to go to her desk, making it look like she was doing something besides planning torture.
"Okay," Tonks said slowly, putting quill to parchment and writing the letter 'I'. She felt the pain in her hand, looked and saw a straight line, trickling with blood. She slammed the quill down, stood from her desk, putting her fist on said desk she leaned forward and looked the woman in the eye with nothing but hatred showing.
"Something wrong, Mr. Potter," the pink woman asked, with a tone that ice would melt in. As if she was daring the boy to make a big deal of it.
With all the things that happened to the child over the summer, she really thought he would sit and take his punishment. She had had second thoughts after Black threatened her, but her 'mother' was long dead now, and he would have a hard time proving it. Though, her 'brother' was out there somewhere. She couldn't find him to shut him up. It's a good thing that she bribed, and threatened, her father to leave the Ministry. It would do no good if people knew she was a half-blood. That and the man had been a janitor of all things.
After Black had left that day, she and Cornelius had talked, and they came to the conclusion that man was blowing hot air.
"You bitch," the disguised female snarled, still wearing Harry's face. To hell with the plan. This was completely out of line and she wasn't going to put herself in pain just so she could draw it out. She had no idea what in Merlin's name this quill was, but the fact that it caused pain and drew blood, which is a major taboo, was enough for her to arrest the woman.
Speaking of which, Tonks took the parchment and burned it right in front of the woman. There was no way in hell that she was going to leave her blood on anything.
"I beg your pardon?" Umbridge said, standing up to glare at the child. Then she started giggling. It was disturbing. She figured that she had the brat right where she wanted. He was about to attack a teacher. That was reason for expulsion.
"You planned on torturing me? You unmitigated bitch," Tonks snarled, putting the quill in her robe pocket and pulling her wand. "You, Dolores Umbridge, are under arrest," she said, pointing her wand at the flabbergasted woman.
"You can't arrest me, boy. You're not an Auror," she said, raising her wand to the teen in front of her. This was not going as planned. He was supposed to just sit and do what she told him too. She held the higher ground here. She had power over him. He was a student; she was a professor. Weren't they supposed to sit and take it?
"Think again," Tonks said, and fired a spell at the despicable woman.
Umbridge didn't even have time to point her wand correctly before she fell face first on her desk. The loud crack that sounded when her head hit, just made Tonks smile. The trickle of blood was nice too. Tonks lifted the fat woman up in the air, settled her into the chair behind her, and wrapped her up in rope.
She then went to the woman's office and Flooed her boss at home. Amelia said that she would be up late for the next few weeks, waiting for Tonks to call her. If she hadn't heard from her by then, she would come and see what the hold up was.
"Madam Bones," Tonks called when the Floo connected.
"Tonks?" the monocled woman asked, turning in her chair to see. "Already? You've only been there a day."
"What can I say, Harry is good at getting in trouble," Tonks said, waving her boss through. "I expect Dumbledore will be here any minute. I'm sure he has the Floos monitored," she added, taking her head out of the fire.
Amelia stepped through and the two women went to the classroom. Umbridge was just starting to wake, since Tonks didn't hit her with a powerful spell.
"Amelia, I want that boy arrested!" she shrieked, wiggling in her ropes. "Do you see what he has done to me? You're going to pay for this, Potter!"
Tonks just ignored the woman and pulled out the quill. She was still wearing Harry's face and still trying to act accordingly. If Dumbledore did show up, they didn't want him to know that she wasn't Harry. It would make the man more relaxed if he thought that he could sway Harry to come back to his way of thinking. They didn't think they could arrest him, but if he slipped, which was unlikely, they could use it against him.
"She wanted me to write with this," she informed her boss, handing the quill over and showing the red mark on the back of her hand. "It draws blood as it writes," she added, glaring at Umbridge through her fake glasses. "I'd show you the parchment, but I followed protocol, and burned it."
"Good job, not many would have thought of that," her boss said, giving the metamorphmagus a nod. She then peered closer at the quill. "I've heard of these," she said, looking the black quill over and waving her wand over it to diagnose what it was.
"Really, I didn't receive anything about these," Tonks said, thinking that there would have been a memo to be on the lookout for one. But then again, Umbridge was in Fudge's bunch of brown-nosers, so it might be only those at the top to know. She, for all she was good at her job, was still a rookie.
"That woman," Bones explained, nodding her head in the tied-up woman's direction, "has been rumored to be using this thing on underlings. There was no proof, but now…" she trailed off, giving Umbridge a nasty smile.
"He planted it," the desperate woman said, glaring at the still disguised Harry.
"She would not lie to me," countered Amelia, making Umbridge look at her funny. "Tonks," was all the head of the DMLE said, not taking her eyes off her prisoner.
Tonks morphed back into herself and said, "Got you." She morphed quickly back and just sneered.
Umbridge shrieked and tried once more to get out of her bonds. It was futile, and Amelia hit her with a stunner. Just then the door opened, and in came Dumbledore.
"What, may I ask, is going on here?" the old man said, trying to take in the scene. 'Harry' was standing next to Amelia, who was holding a dark artifact in her hand. His DADA professor was knocked out, while tied up to her chair. "Harry, my boy, whatever is the meaning of all of this?" he inquired, looking over his glasses at the boy. Something seemed off about Harry. Was it because he didn't trust Albus anymore, or was it something else?
"She," 'Harry' said, pointing at the tied-up toad, "tried to torture me for detention. Madam Bones told me this summer, that it my DADA teacher tried to hurt me this year, like every year before, I was to call her." It was the cover story that they had cooked up when this whole scenario was being planned.
"I did not know you were in contact with the head of the DMLE," Dumbledore said, a twinkle in his eye. "Why did you not come to me?"
"You've never helped before, so why would I think you would now?" 'Harry' said, giving a careless shrug. "I mean, every year my DADA professor has tried to do me in. You never stopped it, or Snape, come to think of it. Not to mention the years of abuse, via students and professors alike, that you just let play out. So why in all that holy would I come to you?" she finished off, having got her jab in.
"I never knew until it was too late to help you, Harry. I tried my best to make sure that you, and all the students in this school, were safe," Dumbledore said, genuinely believing what he was saying. He left the abuse part alone. He knew he was in the wrong there, but he felt that it would make Harry get thicker skin. One should not let the feeling of others effect their actions. He knew Harry was going to be a hero. And if the boy thought he had it bad now… well, time will tell.
"Not by my reckoning," the 'boy' said, once again shrugging. "Your past actions have shown me that I cannot trust you, even with telling me the correct time."
"I am terribly sorry that you no longer trust me, Harry. What can I do to make it up to you?" the old man asked, sincere in his question. It was like a blow to the gut to him that the boy would had once looked to him like a grandfather, now looked at him with disdain.
"Don't interfere," was the casual reply.
"This is my school," the Headmaster said, "it is imperative that I know what is going on."
"And you will," interrupted Amelia, who was waving her wand at the woman tied to the chair. "After my investigation," she finished with a note if finality. "After all, you let her in the castle with implements of torture."
"I would never," the aghast man said, putting his hand to heart.
"This," the older woman said, holding up the quill, "was invented by her," she pointed to Umbridge, "with no other thought in mind but to torture. It uses blood of the victim. I don't have to tell you that that is a capital offense. She will not be walking away from this."
"That's good news," Tonks said, glad to hear that the bitch would die.
"Right," Amelia said, with a determined look, knowing that it was going to be a battle to the end. However, she was up for it. "I've been looking for evidence for ages, now that I have it, I'm not going to let you interfere."
She stuffed the quill in an evidence bag, sealed it and put it in her charmed pocket. Only she could get in that pocket, and only her death would break the spell.
"I will do all I can to help," the Headmaster stated, hoping that his offer would make Harry see that he was a good man.
"You want to help?" Amelia said, lifting the chair that housed the teacher and making her way back to the office. "Don't" she finished as she made it to the door.
"Do you need me anymore, Madam Bones?" 'Harry' asked, following to the door, but going no further.
"No, go back to your dorm. Don't answer any questions on what went on here. That means you too, Albus. This is now a criminal investigation, Harry is not to talk about it, at all," the Head of the DMLE stated, putting Floo powder in the fire and levitating the chair in. "Go on, Harry. I will be with you either tomorrow, or the next day. No one, you hear. Not even your friends," she leveled Tonks a look.
The 'boy' sighed and slouched out of the room. She had been hoping to go home today, but there must be a reason Bones wanted her to stick around for a while.
"Amelia," Albus started as he watched Harry leave.
"No, Albus, I will talk to you tomorrow," she said, whirling around and entering the fire. "Department of Law Enforcement," she called, and disappeared in green flames.
Dumbledore sighed and looked around the now empty classroom. Harry wasn't wrong in that all the Defense Against the Dark Arts professors had at one time or another tried to kill the boy. He just hoped whoever replaced Umbridge would not do so. With another sigh he left the room. He had work to do.