look we all know what the best magical creature is
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She checks the Map - "Looks like she's in the office right now."

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"Perfect."

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Onward, then!

Sadly they're getting kind of tall (Anathema especially is shooting up), and the invisibility cloak was apparently designed for a single adult...

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Does she want to take the cloak, then? Ellie can skulk around the corner with the map.

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Anathema doesn't really want Ellie exposed, but, yeah, that makes sense. Ellie will be able to see people coming and Anathema's doing the directly risky thing. 

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She's more likely to get caught, yeah.

Ellie hands the cloak over and off they go.

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The hallway's clear, and Umbridge is stationary in her office, so Anathema slinks up near the door and starts whispering at it, encouraging Hogwarts to just please rearrange this one bit of castle, it's very important that this room open into the lake...

It takes her a bit - and then the wall ripples, stones flowing -

And then Umbridge is barreling out the door just as her office falls away, leaving a glass door where her door had been that now opens onto a nice little balcony as her office flows away -

Umbridge whips around, wand raised, a snarl on her lips, as Anathema, thankful for the invisibility cloak, flattens herself against the wall.

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Ellie is sticking her head around the corner to check that Anathema didn't get run over-

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Umbridge spots her, and, furiously, "You - "

She points her wand at Ellie, whip-fast - "Crucio!"

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She trips down to the floor with a strangled scream.

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And Anathema tackles Umbridge, grabbing her wand hand and trying to shove it away from Ellie, kicking at her ankle hard enough to snap it -

Umbridge teeters and starts going down, her wand's still in her hand but the spell's wavering - Anathema goes to backhand her, still keeping a death grip on her wand hand -

- And Umbridge is saying something, trying to get her wand to bear on her attacker, except Ellie's in the path her wand will take, any broad area spells that can hit an invisible attacker will take, and Anathema knows that spell and doesn't even have enough time to process that she knows it even though everything is happening in slow motion -

Everything happens very fast, after that.

'Everything' mostly being a flash - Anathema's ears pop - Umbridge goes flying down the hall, slamming into the stone at the end hard enough something cracks, and her wand's in Anathema's hand and her gaze is meeting Anathema's and everything is -

Ellie is hers and anything that hurts her should scream -

She doesn't even really acknowledge the whirlwind of Umbridge's thoughts as she rips into that monster's head, tearing through her life, slamming every moment of failure and weakness and pain to the fore almost without noticing, catching the tattered scraps of nightmares and weaving them into every happy thought, slashing through anything Umbridge values about herself, destroying as much as she can -

Her ears are ringing, her heart pounding, and the invisibility cloak has billowed off her, and it's only been moments but Umbridge is already shrieking, and something in Anathema is running so fast her body feels like it's dragging through molasses, and -

Crap.

Her burning anger pours into a cold pool of fear, the writhing steam evolving into hate -

It's not fair that Umbridge might get them in trouble for this -

There's a roaring in her ears and Anathema stares into Umbridge's terrified eyes and something in her snarls, resounding, You will not cross me again.

Umbridge keens. Anathema weaves together that thought, that fear, tightens it across her destroyed mind.

And the world returns to normal. The decorations Umbridge had surrounded her office with - disliking portraits - clatter to the floor from where they'd been floating. Umbridge slides down the wall, no longer suspended by the force of Anathema's rage.

Anathema gives her one last disdainful glance, then turns to check on Ellie.

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Ellie has raised herself onto one (only slightly trembling) arm. "Anathema?"

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She kneels beside her wife.

"I'm okay. We need to get you to the Hospital Wing."

They went over the Unforgiveables for their OWLs, Cruciatus victims need to be treated promptly...

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"Mm. Call- call Fay. About her."

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She nods, sending off a Patronus, then scoops Ellie up (you're not supposed to use too much magic on people just recovering from this kind of attack, she thinks) and starts running for the Hospital Wing.

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Hug.

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She gets to it in record time, shouting for Madam Pomfrey -

They get Ellie on a bed, Madam Pomfrey confirms most wizardry is contraindicated here, there's aftershocks from the Cruciatus. She sends her current intern to floo to St. Mungo's (the Hospital Wing has one of the only two floo's in the castle), as she sits by Ellie, calmly walking her through Occlumentic exercises to clamp down on the magic still buzzing within her.

Anathema's sent to go get a few specific potions and herbs. Ones she recognizes, luckily, and soon enough Madam Pomfrey is interspersing her calm litany with sips of a pale green potion.

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She wasn't actually under for very long before it was interrupted, so she starts feeling better relatively quickly.

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Good.

(Madam Pomfrey does want her to sit still for evaluation by a specialist, though - a maliciously cast Cruciatus can have hard to detect side effects, especially if you've never been under one before.)

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That's all right. (She's confident Fay is handling the other consequences.)

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The specialist comes through quickly, evaluating Ellie with a brisk demeanor and declaring her mostly free of side effects, though she'll want to be cautious about picking up heavy objects for the next day. 

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And Fay arrives soon after. 

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"Professor..."

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She goes to hug Ellie, very tightly.

"I'm so sorry."

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Hug.

"Not your fault."

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