Deep in the forbidden forest, under the cloak of a moonless night, Char moved with cold, swift purpose. His platinum-grade night vision turned the oppressive darkness into day, allowing him to track Umbridge's panicked flight with ease. He was familiar with this part of the forest, having patrolled it with Hagrid before. Every snapped twig and crushed leaf marking Umbridge's path was clear to him.
Suddenly, he noticed her footsteps falter, then stop. He frowned, slowing his own pace. Ahead, a short, stout figure stood waiting. It was Umbridge. Char paused, cautiously scanning the surrounding trees for an ambush, but saw nothing. He looked at her, a flicker of surprise mixing with his disgust.
"You're not running away?" he called out, his voice calm.
A sarcastic laugh echoed through the trees. "Escape? From you?" Umbridge's voice was dripping with condescending venom. "Do you really think so highly of yourself? That you can defeat me after learning magic for less than a year?" The memory of her humiliation at the hearing flashed in her mind, and her grip tightened on her wand. She took a step toward him, a twisted smile on her toad-like face.
"If you hadn't chased me, I might not have been able to do anything to you," she said, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "But since you have followed me into the Forbidden Forest… well, if I don't teach you a lesson, I'm afraid even the heavens would be disappointed." She raised her wand, showing it to him deliberately. "Look. Not my own wand. I bought this one in Knockturn Alley. Do you know what that means? It means that here, in this lawless place, whatever magic I perform on you will leave no trace."
Her expression grew more distorted. "You were so eager to learn during the hearing. Well, tonight, you will learn a great deal."
With a flick of her wrist, a jet of fire shot from her wand. "This is called the Flame Curse," she announced, her voice giddy. "A third-year spell. I had mastered it in my first year. I used it on a roommate who bullied me. Left quite a few scars. She called me a toad, you see. I hate that."
Char shifted his weight, and the jet of fire passed harmlessly by him. Umbridge didn't seem to notice or care. She was lost in her own monologue, seeing him not as an opponent, but as a mouse in a cage, a target for her long-simmering rage.
"This is the Shattering Spell!" she shrieked, sending another curse flying. It missed, exploding against a tree and showering the ground with dirt and splinters. "I was very good at this by my second year. I shattered a girl's favorite necklace with it. She was always showing it off, laughing at my secondhand robes behind my back. She learned to shut her mouth after that."
One after another, she cast her spells, her voice rising in a hysterical tirade. "Do you have any idea how difficult it is for someone like me, a half-blood with no family and no name, to climb in this world? Do you know how many people I had to step on? Of course, you don't. You have your dear aunt to prepare everything for you. You publish papers in your first year. I'm sure you'll take over as the Herbology professor the moment you graduate. Why? WHY?! Why couldn't you just let me step on you, like all the others?! It would have been a trivial loss for you!"
Her face was a mask of sick, triumphant glee. The game was over. The little mouse was trapped. She raised her wand, pointing it directly at Char. "This is the last spell I will teach you. You may not have learned the Unforgivable Curses yet, but it doesn't matter. I will make you understand their power intimately." Her eyes glazed over with a cruel memory. "There was this annoying department head, right after I joined the Ministry. She couldn't bully the pure-bloods, so she made me copy files, over and over. I did the most work, but the promotion went to someone else. It doesn't matter. After I snuck into her home and cast this spell on her, again and again, she became very… obedient."
A twisted, malicious power gathered at the tip of her wand. "This spell is called— Crucio!"
A jet of red light, pulsing with a vile energy Char had never felt before, shot toward him. A victorious, ecstatic smile spread across Umbridge's face as she waited for his agonized screams.
But they never came. Char simply sidestepped, and the curse flew past him into the darkness.
So slow, he thought, almost involuntarily. After his brutal training with Snape, his duels with the house-elves, and his self-imposed ordeal against his own mutated plants, his combat reactions were on a completely different level. Umbridge, for all her supposed talent, had only ever fought petty dorm-room squabbles and office power-plays. In a real life-or-death battle, she was slow, unfocused, and emotionally unstable. There was not a single thing about her that was impressive.
The next second, Char merely twitched his fingers. A silent, wandless Levicorpus hit Umbridge before she could even register that her ultimate spell had failed. She was hoisted into the air, dizzy and disoriented, her wand falling to the forest floor.
Char waved his own wand. "Serpensortia!"
A huge black serpent erupted from his wand, landing with a heavy thud that crushed Umbridge's wand to splinters. It then coiled around her suspended form.
Click. Click.
The sound of her bones cracking echoed through the silent forest. Blood streamed from her nose and mouth. Death, she realized, was suddenly, terrifyingly close. This boy, this Hufflepuff, hadn't said a word. He had just watched her with cold, merciless eyes. He was actually going to kill her.
Fear finally seized her. Tears of blood squeezed from her bulging eyes, her face pleading. "Don't kill me—"
"Don't worry," Char said, his voice a low whisper. "I won't kill you."
A wave of ecstatic relief washed over Umbridge. He was just a boy, too soft-hearted to finish the job! She would survive! And when she did, she would have her revenge, tenfold, a hundredfold!
But Char's next words plunged her into an icy abyss. "Killing someone with your own hands taints your magic with a certain coldness. That's common sense. It's late, and Professor Snape has been working hard. I don't want to bother him. Besides, I hear that high-ranking Ministry officials are protected by certain laws. I don't want to deal with that trouble. But… you do have to die."
He gestured to the dark woods around them. "Luckily, this is the Forbidden Forest. I'm sure there are plenty of starving creatures willing to take care of you for me. In fact, I know just the place. Since you taught me so much, allow me to teach you a little about Magical Creatures."
His voice was soft, almost conversational. "There is a species of 5X-rated magical creatures. They are extremely intelligent, can speak human language, and are as large as a carriage. They also have a particular fondness for human flesh. Can you guess what they're called?"
Umbridge, her face already pale, turned a ghostly white. She screamed, her voice choked with terror. "Acromantula! There are Acromantulas in the Forbidden Forest?! You're mad! You belong in Azkaban!"
The serpent, still coiled around her broken body, began to move, dragging her deeper into the forest. With every jolt, more blood dribbled from her mouth. Soon, she saw the tell-tale sign: thick, sticky strands of silk stretching between the trees. The fear became absolute. The prey of an Acromantula suffered a death more painful than the Cruciatus Curse, their insides slowly dissolved into a liquid slurry.
"Kill me," she pleaded, her voice a hoarse whisper. "Kill me now."
Char's face remained impassive. He let the snake wrap her tightly in a giant, sticky web, then dismissed it, leaving her trapped and helpless. Her struggles only entangled her further.
Soon, the vibrations of the web attracted hungry hunters. Spiders, each larger than a carriage, descended from the darkness, their multiple eyes glinting greedily.
"Is it a wizard?"
"Human flesh! We can eat human flesh again!"
"This one is plump and white. She will be tastier than the last hunter."
"She looks like a toad! I like it!"
Umbridge wailed in horror. But as the venomous fangs of the first Acromantula pierced her body, injecting her with digestive juices, her screams were cut short, replaced by a sickening, gurgling sound.
Seeing this, knowing she was doomed, Char turned to leave. But at that moment, as she felt her insides begin to dissolve, Umbridge summoned her last ounce of strength and let out one final, hysterical scream.
"A little wizard! There's a little wizard in that direction! Char Sprout— I'll die with you!"