The Protector

Dumbledore's Secret Weapon

"What is his weapon?" I asked Hermione as we were walking in the woods.

"I have an idea," she replied. "Just go along with it."

"How much further?" Umbridge called to us.

"Not very far," Hermione told her.

"He needed to hide it far enough that students wouldn't dare look or venture," I explained.

We came upon the place where Hagrid kept his brother. His rope was broken. My mouth dropped, "Oh no."

"What?" Umbridge came up next to me. "What is it?"

"Looks like his weapon ran off."

"So there's not a weapon?" She asked. "You...you were trying to get me into this nasty forest alone. I've always hated children."

"Then why come to Hogwarts as a job?" I asked. "Trying to get good with Fudge?"

A snap of a branch was heard from behind Umbridge. We all turned to see. Centaurs were herded up above the hill. I smiled.

I felt hands grab my arm and pull to the right. I turned and Umbridge was trying to use us to block her from this herd.

I heard her voice shake, "You need not be here. This is all Ministry business."

"You shouldn't have said that," I warned. I stepped away from her. The centaurs got closer and began to pull out weapons.

"You are to lower your weapons at once."

"Just stop," I whined. "You know you screw yourself over when you said Ministry, right? Cause they have it in bad with the Ministry right now. Wanna know why?" I smiled at her. "You keep take away their land and territory. Honestly I don't blame them. I mean, look what the Ministry is doing to keep their land from Dumbledore."

"Shut up!" Umbridge shouted at me.

A centaur released his arrow. It went straight towards her, but she created a shield to block it, "How dare you try to kill me? You filthy halfbreeds!"

"That was mean," I frowned to her.

"Incarcerous!" I watched as a rope flew from her wand to around the centaur's neck.

"No!" I shouted.

He fell to the ground. It was strangling him. I ran up to him as he rolled down the small hill towards us. I took out my wand. The centaurs aimed their arrows at me, so I tucked my wand back in, "Wait! I'm going to save him! I'm going to help him! Please, let me help him!"

They lowered their weapons and nodded.

"Hermione!" I called her over.

"I need you to stay still, okay?" I knelt down towards him. He kept grasping at the rope. Hermione held out the rope slightly.

"I shall have order!" Umbridge called out. Suddenly, Grawp picked her up by her jacket. I had never been so happy to see a Giant. The centaurs began to go after the two of them but I remained focused.

I aimed, oh so carefully. One wrong turn, and I'd be centaur stew for their friends burial. I aimed, "Diffindo!"

The rope was cut, and the centaur took the rope off. He joined the others. Arrows were flying but they all were hitting poor Grawp.

"Stop it!" I cried out. "Get the girl not him! He hasn't done anything wrong!"

"Don't hurt the Giant!" Hermione cried out. "He can't understand you!"

After getting hit a couple times, Grawp dropped Umbridge into the swarm of centaurs. They picked her up as she screamed to us, "Please do something! Tell them I don't mean them any harm!"

"I shall not tell lies, Professor," I heard Harry tell her without a second to spare.

After they were gone, Harry and Hermione went on. I stayed back a few more seconds to talk to Grawp, "Listen to me, Grawp. You have to stay here!" I pointed to the ground.

He did too.

"Yes! Yes. Stay here. Wait for Hagrid!"

"Hegrid," he spoke slowly.

"Yes! Hagrid! Wait here for your brother Hagrid! Please don't go anywhere!"

He nodded. I smiled. I ran a couple of yards, hoping to get out of his view as I transformed into a dog. I ran fast. I caught up with Harry and Hermione, who were making their way back to the castle. I transformed back while running as we came next to Hagrid's hut. On the bridge, we ran into the rest of our friends.

"How'd you get out?" Hermione asked.

"We gave them Puking Pastels. It wasn't a pretty sight," Ginny chuckled.

"At them all," Ron gave Hermione and Harry their wands back.

"That was...witty," Hermione complimented Ron for the first time in forever.

"It was the best!" Neville seemed thrilled. "When are we headed to London?"

"We?" Harry asked.

I turned to Harry, "We are in this together. You want to go, then we're all going."

"You're not alone," Ron nodded.

"And Dumbledore's Army is still a thing," Neville nodded. "You said it was real, so why not?"

He chuckled, "Fine, but how are we going to get there?"

I thought for a moment. What can fly and get us to London fast. Not everyone has a broom....then it hit me. I looked to Luna who was already smiling at me. We both turned to Harry, "Thestrals."

We showed our friends what they were, even though they couldn't see them. They were stoked about getting to ride an invisible being. Well, some of them were.

It was storming when we got to London. It was dark too. I could feel a gut-retching feeling in the pit of my stomach. Something is going to go wrong. We shouldn't have come. But I couldn't let Harry do this alone.

We went inside the Ministry, which was pretty hard to do with a group of seven people (myself included). We ran down the halls. "Where is it again?"

"Department of Mysteries," I answered. "Filled to the ceiling with glass balls and prophecies."

We arrived to the hallway faster than I thought. That hallway leading to the doorway almost gave me chills. The door gave me a whole bunch of chills though.

"Alright," I took a deep sigh. "It's now or never."