In The Dark [Book Four]

Epilogue:

DEDICATED TO: sharkheadgirl for being an amazing, supportive reader all the way to the end, i really, truly appreciated all of your input and your opinions!  Thank you so much <3 

Epilogue:

6th January, 2000

I'd planned it down to the last detail and I knew I couldn't put it off any longer. I deserved retribution, Harry deserved it, every student who had attended Hogwarts in the years of 1995 and 1996 deserved some atonement for the way they were treated.

I couldn't get her out of my mind, I had Neville next to me and his parents were very supportive of us. Neville wanted to get married next year, and I was ready to say yes to his proposal. I couldn't do that with Dolores Umbridge still walking around as if she owned the place. She was my one piece of unfinished business and I refused to plan my future until my past had been taken care of and put to rest.

I'd learned, just in the end of 1999 that she'd been sentenced to Azkaban for her crimes but it hadn't been good enough for me, not by a long shot, so I made plans to visit her, working for weeks with with the Minister of Magic for a pass to go to Azkaban, where nobody ever visited. I wouldn't be allowed to bring my wand, so I'd learned to use my ring, the one I'd stolen so long ago from Borgin and Burkes. No longer were there dementors, now I'd have to deal with actual guards who would undoubtedly be keeping a close eye on me during the entire ordeal.

Today would be the day, before the next semester began at Hogwarts, that the new Senior Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic would escort me to the prison where I would find the woman who had begun my need for revenge. The person who had taken Umbridge's position at the Ministry of Magic was called Dominic Trunbull, a man of average build and height but whose eyes could frighten a normal person easily enough.

He'd gone through hell and back and he would not put up with anything other than absolute obedience from anyone he addressed.

I smiled at him, acting as friendly as I could and in return he nodded to me and lightened his stance. In another time, we had a good chance of actually getting along, but I had plans already today and couldn't be bothered with actually attempting any type of conversation. We locked arms, he would apparate us straight to the building, I would be able to visit Umbridge and do what I needed to do, then he would erase the location of the prison from my mind so I would never be able to return.

As we found ourselves outside of large, steel double doors, I watched as a guard opened the doors for us before ushering us inside. The both of us were made to leave our wands at the front desk and while Dominic went to speak to whoever ran the establishment (if it could even be called that), a new guard all together led me up three flights of stairs and to a corridor filled with cells on either side. Neither of us spoke, he simply walked to a particular one, unlocked the door long enough for me to get inside and then locked it back up.

"When you're ready, just yell. If she gives you trouble, just yell. I'll be right down the hall," the guard assured me, moving away.

Smiling largely, I turned to the woman who I'd come to kill.

"Hello Dolores, do you remember me?"

"That Potter girl, wasn't it, what do you want?" The woman sneered, she somehow managed to look down on me despite the fact that she looked as if she hadn't bathed in weeks and laid upon a thin mattress that wasn't fit for a dog to sleep on. She didn't bother to get up, acting as disrespectful as I'd expected her to.

I pulled the stone out of my pocket slowly, turning the design towards her so she could see it.

"This is the Resurrection Stone, it brings the dead back to life. It leaves them feeling as if a piece of themselves is missing, as if they have no chance to ever be fully happy again until they get it returned to them. You feel as if you no longer belong, that the piece of yourself that's missing is constantly calling you to the other side of the veil.. I know this for fact. This is what brought me back to life at the end of the Battle of Hogwarts, did you know? This little rock is the only reason I'm able to be here today.. I'm on a mission to make my life happier, and in order to do that, I feel that I need a bit of revenge. Dolores Jane Umbridge, I sentence you to death and to be reborn; never whole."