The Eagle and The Snake: A Tragic Love Story

27. Exciting Punishments

Although Carly liked learning new spells, and enjoyed the thought of constantly undermining Umbridge, she did not like being around the DA.
Most of the students in the DA were openly cold towards her, and some were out right bullied her as often as possible.
Only Harry and his closest friends were civil towards her.
Luna tried her best to help Carly and take her mind off the bullies, but it was hard.
Especially as both were girls were still suffering through agonising detentions with Umbridge. And they were both miserable and grouchy after ever session spent slicing their hands open with Umbridge's evil blood quill.

But Christmas was approaching, and the girls were looking forward to going home to see their families.
They were also hoping to tell Voldemort about how well they had been doing with their mission.
However, leaving Hogwarts meant that they wouldn't be able to see each other every single day. And the girls hated having to spend any time apart.
The last day of the holidays was always especially hard for them. But staying at school with Umbridge was not an option, as she was the epitome of evil.

"Are you going to show your aunt your scar, and explain how you got it?" Asked Luna on the last evening of term, when her and Carly were alone in the Room of Requirement.
"I don't think I will have much choice. I can't exactly keep my hand hidden from her for 2 weeks. But she is not going to be happy when she learns about what Umbridge has been making us do" sighed Carly.

"You could bandage it up, and claim you were attacked by a beast in Care of Magical Creatures, and have to keep your hand wrapped up for several weeks" suggested Luna.
"Your dad might buy that lie, but I know that Aunt Andy won't. And neither will Sirius" replied Carly.
"Are you definitely going to see him over Christmas then?" Questioned Luna.
"I think so. Andy said in her vague letter that we would be visiting family this Christmas. And since the Malfoys hate us, we are unlikely to be seeing them. The only family we have left is Sirius. But she obviously can't write that in a letter, since all owl post is being inspected before we read it".

"I suppose that means you will be spending time with Harry as well, as he is with Sirius" commented Luna.
"Yes, I will. Dumbledore told me and Hermione this morning that Harry and the Weasleys had to leave promptly, because Arthur Weasley was attacked. He didn't go into detail or explain how they knew Arthur Weasley was in trouble. He just said that Harry and the others had already returned home for the holidays, so we wouldn't get to travel with them tomorrow" replied Carly.
"I hope Mr Weasley is alright"
"Me too. But from the way Dumbledore spoke, it seemed like Voldemort was the one who attacked Arthur".

"Why would Voldemort want to kill Mr Weasley?" Questioned Luna.
"No idea. But I'm sure he did it for a good reason. He wouldn't attack a man who is close to Dumbledore, on a whim" answered Carly.
"No, I suppose he wouldn't. I just feel bad though, because he's Ginny's dad, and she's one of our classmates. But we are on the side of the person who tried to kill her dad" sighed Luna.
"I know. But we chose our side remember, and we can't turn back now. Because that would mean that all of our suffering this year has been for nothing".

Luna looked down at the scars on the back of her hand.
"We can't let this be for nothing. Voldemort has to overthrow the Ministry, to stop bad things like this from happening again in the future. The Ministry's control has to end" insisted Luna, as she clenched her fists.
"I agree. But I don't think Voldemort is close to bringing them down just yet. So, we will have to keep fighting for a bit longer" replied Carly.

"Do you think if Voldemort does take over soon, he will let us get our own revenge on Umbridge?" Quizzed Luna.
"He might do. If we can prove to him how brilliant and useful we are, then he might give us Umbridge, as compensation for everything we have suffered through this year" answered Carly.
Luna smiled, "I keep thinking about all the horrible things I want to do to her. I picture them during our detentions, and it's one of the only things that gets me through".
"I do the same" revealed Carly.

"There are so many ways I want to hurt her, that if I actually got to punish her, I wouldn't know what to do first" admitted Luna.
"Pushing her down every single flight of stairs in the castle is one of my favourite ideas. And the thought of watching her smash her face against every step, makes me smile, while I'm being forced to cut open my own hand, and write lines in my blood" replied Carly.
"That's a good idea, I like that one. I also like the thought of dropping her in the middle of the Acromantula nest, in the Forbidden Forest, so that she can get eaten alive by giant spiders" grinned Luna.
"We could fill her with rocks, and drown her in the lake"
"Or cover her in meat, and force her into a dragons den".

"I could talk about ways to punish Umbridge for hours" said Carly.
"So could I. A long and tedious punishment I came up with, would be to make her write out the entire dictionary, using her blood quill, followed by copying out an encyclopedia and then the Bible" revealed Luna.
"Oo, that would be brilliant. I wonder where all the writing would go. It wouldn't all fit on her hand, so I wonder if it would start appearing all over her body"
"I guess we would have to find out"
"It would be a very interesting scientific experiment, and the perfect payback. She scarred us with the quill, so we would get to make her do the same".

"It's just a shame that we are stuck with her until the end of the school year, and we won't be able to get our revenge on her until after then" sighed Luna.
"At least the Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers only last for a year, so we definitely won't get her again in our 5th year" replied Carly.
"That's good, because we definitely wouldn't pass our OWLs with her teaching us" admitted Luna.

"No, we wouldn't. Although, I have to admit that my brother isn't actually that bad of a teacher. In fact, he kind of excells at it" said Carly.
"That's high praise coming from you" commented Luna.
"I'm not saying he's as good as Crouch was last year. But Harry is a good duelling coach" admitted Carly.
"You should tell him that, when you next see him. Building up his ego will get you further into his good books".

"It's annoying that Hermione and Ron found out about our shared scars. Because it's harder to bond with Harry over it, when they also know the truth" admitted Carly.
"Well, they were bound to notice the scars eventually" replied Luna.
"I suppose. It just makes our job harder, when Harry is happy and has lots of other friends to confide in. Hermione told me that he finally kissed Cho yesterday, after the DA meeting, which is something he couldn't be bothered to tell me himself. I feel like he is slipping away from me, now that he has the DA to take his mind off how bad his life is" sighed Carly.

"He was happy, until Umbridge gave him a lifelong ban from Quidditch the other day and confiscated his broom, for beating up Malfoy after the match. You can use the fact that Ron is still on the team, to drive a wedge between him and his best friend" suggested Luna.
"I will try... Anyway, I had better go back to my room and finish packing, since the train leaves early tomorrow morning" replied Carly.
"I'll see you at the station"
"Yep. I'll be there".