Interrogation

Minerva only had moments to act. Dolores, determined to gain entry to Severus's office, was shoving the door quite hard. With a single step inside, not only would she see Harry's blood-stained robes – and they would pose enough questions of their own – but Sirius's presence would be revealed. Sirius would be sent back to Azkaban, and she and Severus and Harry, as perceived accessories, would probably follow soon after.

Sirius was quick-thinking. Already he was transforming into the big black dog. Minerva wished that that would solve the problem. She was certain that some in the Ministry knew about his Animagus form, and even if Dolores was not amongst their number, she was sure to query the presence of an animal in Snape's office. Harry's Invisibility Cloak lay way out of reach on the other side of the room, and a summoning charm would bring it flying right in front of Umbridge's view.

Harry and Minerva exchanged looks. Harry seemed unafraid, and Sirius, now in his dog form, bared his teeth, snarling. Minerva shook her head, her thoughts racing. Quickly, she shoved back against the door, making opening difficult and buying them a little more time. Harry, following her lead, moved to her side, shoving against it in concert with her. His face contorted with the pain the effort cost him. Minerva admired the courage that he showed in ignoring the agony from his wounds and continuing to fight to delay the opening of the door.

"Open this door!" Dolores shrieked, pushing harder. Harry and Minerva could probably easily overpower her, but not without raising questions about why the Headmistress had been denied entrance. Minerva had to come up with another solution quickly.

"It's stuck!" Minerva called. "It does that sometimes." She had no objection to bare-faced lies under the current circumstances.

She and Harry exchanged another look. Leaning closer to him, Minerva hissed, her voice only loud enough to reach his ears, "Keep pushing." The noise the door was making as it scraped along the ground would have blocked out a louder voice than she was using, but she was taking no chances.

With the Invisibility Cloak out of reach, the Floo network being watched and Apparition impossible within the castle, there was only one solution that Minerva could come up with in the short time she had available to her. She whipped out her wand and gestured for Sirius to stand by Harry. In moments, she had transfigured them into a dog-shaped doorstop and an innocuous-looking cupboard.

She caught the door just in time. With Harry unable to push back on it, it would have swung open easily under Dolores's hand, but Minerva wedged herself behind it. "Just stand back, Dolores!" she called. "I think I've got it!" She pushed the door fractionally closed and then opened it. "That's got it," she said.

The Headmistress was out of breath, leaning against the open door. As she glanced around the office and took in the glass, blood and potion ingredients that still littered the room, her jaw set in annoyance, and she folded her arms and pursed her lips. "Well," she said, glaring at the teachers. "Do the two of you have something to tell me?"

Snape was leaning back against the wall, his arms folded and the customary disdainful expression firmly on his face. "Good evening," he greeted Dolores coldly. "I would invite you in, but it appears you have already found your way."

Umbridge afforded him a tight smile. "I'm sure you would not deny me entrance, Professor Snape, unless, of course, you were trying to hide something from me."

"I cannot imagine what I would possibly wish to hide from you, Headmistress," Snape replied, boredom suffusing every word.

"Really?" Umbridge responded with disbelief. "Well, perhaps you'd care to explain this wreckage, then?" She glared first at Snape and then Minerva, challenging them both.

"An accident," Snape lied easily. "They occur occasionally when formulating new potions."

Minerva kept her own face impassive.

"And what are you doing here late at night?" Umbridge shot at her.

Minerva didn't even bother to formulate an excuse. "That's really none of your business,"

"Oh, I think that it is," Umbridge responded triumphantly. "Teachers meeting secretly in the middle of the night? Don't think that I don't know what's going on. You were plotting against me, weren't you? I knew you would go to any lengths to undermine me, Minerva, but I am very disappointed in you, Snape."

Severus just sneered at her, seemingly unaffected by the Headmistress's displeasure.

"Dear me," Dolores continued. "I shall have to widen the scope of the Educational Decrees. Let's see, how should we word the next one? Hmmmm. 'Teachers are hereby forbidden from congregating, except for meals and staff meetings presided over by the Headmistress.'" She shot a smug little smile at the other two teachers. "Yes, I think that will do nicely."

"Really, Dolores," Minerva responded, her voice dripping with disgust. "I have better things to do with my time than concern myself with you. I have no need to weaken your position. You are doing it admirably without my help."

Umbridge pressed her lips very firmly together. "Don't think you can fool me so easily, Minerva. I am hardly stupid. I see no other reason for the two of you to meet secretly like this, not unless..."

Dolores narrowed her eyes suspiciously, first at Minerva, then Severus. "Unless the two of you are having a romantic liaison?" she guessed. Once again she took in the disorder in the room. "And you had a fight, didn't you? A lovers' quarrel. That explains everything!" Her eyes lit up in smug triumph. "Well, well, well. The ever-so-superior Minerva, descending to throw things around the room."

Snape's face was suffused with rage. "We most certainly were not having a lovers' quarrel. How dare you!"

Minerva was equally repulsed. "Once again your imagination gets the better of you, Dolores," she snapped.

"Well, if it wasn't a lovers' quarrel, then you must have been plotting against me," Dolores simpered smugly. "After Professor Snape's uh... potions accident."

"The truth is," Snape cut in, "we were speaking of you."

"I knew it!" Umbridge crowed.

"But..." Snape continued smoothly, "we were not plotting against you. Minerva and I are distressed at the disruptiveness of the student body since you took on your new role as Headmistress and were trying to determine how such a situation could be resolved. After all, the students' welfare is foremost in both our minds. Such disruption does not aid student learning."

"Yes, yes," Umbridge said eagerly, easily swayed by sentiments so close to her own heart. "But the mess!"

"I'm afraid we disagreed quite strongly on the cause of the problem," Snape said smoothly. "I attributed the entire thing to the Weasley twins, who, as you know, caused that shocking display in the Entrance Hall."

Umbridge was by now completely persuaded. "Yes, exactly!" she said excitedly. "But Minerva did not agree?"

"Minerva, as you know," Severus continued, "has a distressing preference towards students of her own house. Undoubtedly, it makes her popular with her students, but it does make her rather short-sighted when it comes to recognising their weaknesses."

With difficulty, Minerva restrained herself from strangling Snape. How ironic that he should make that accusation of her.

"Just like when she went to Dumbledore to have the Gryffindor Quidditch team reformed," Dolores supplied, entranced by this new turn of events. "So what did she attribute the problem to?"

Snape looked across at Minerva, who narrowed her eyes back at him, waiting to see how deeply he would incriminate her. "Slytherin students," he said after a long pause. "You know how prejudiced she is against them."

"Of course!" Umbridge crowed. "I see why you fought so viciously now. The Gryffindor Head of House and the Slytherin Head of House each defending their students against the other! It's admirable that you both show such loyalty to your houses, even if yours, Minerva, is misguided. You must see how well the Slytherins assist me."

"Quite," Minerva responded through clenched teeth.

"It's just as well you two did meet at night," Umbridge continued. "What a terrible example to the students this would have been. It would have incited them to worse disruptions! I trust this will all be cleaned up before any of them see it?"

"Naturally," Snape said. "Now if you will excuse us..."

But Minerva, struck with a sudden idea, cut in, "Perhaps now that it's all sorted out, you'd be so kind as to take a glass of wine with us, Dolores? Severus and I thought if we had a drink together, we might restore the harmony which has underpinned our working relationship."

For a moment, Minerva was certain that Umbridge's suspicious nature would see right through the invitation and that she would refuse. However, after a slight pause, the Headmistress simpered and said, "Oh, very well, as it's important to you."

Barely suppressing the urge to roll her eyes, Minerva once again filled three glasses with the wine and handed one each to Severus and Dolores before taking the third for herself. She noticed that Dolores was not entirely taken in; the woman refused to touch her glass until the two other teachers had both taken a drink.

Minerva took a long, ostentatious sip and was rewarded when Dolores finally partook of her own glass.

"You must have been delighted to become Headmistress," Minerva prompted once she'd given the Veritaserum time to work. She and Snape, of course, were still protected by the antidote they'd taken. "And I'm sure the Minister was thrilled too."

"It was only a matter of time, of course," Umbridge said, smiling smugly. "The Minister always intended for me to take over the school."

Somehow Minerva managed to keep her irritation at that revelation out of her expression. "Really?" she asked, glancing meaningfully at Snape. Severus glanced away in a bored fashion.

"Oh, yes. He's known for years that Dumbledore meant to come up against him," Umbridge continued chattily. "Of course, it's always been a quandary, how to deal with it quietly. Somehow, Dumbledore seems to have garnered himself quite a lot of support amongst the wider community. It just wouldn't have done to strip him of office publicly."

Minerva struggled to keep a smile on her face. It took an immense effort. She had to keep Umbridge talking. Having drunk the wine, the Headmistress had no choice but to tell the truth, of course, and it would be easy to force answers out of her, but that would arouse her suspicions, and that might cost Minerva her job. Minerva took no satisfaction from being at Hogwarts now Umbridge had replaced Dumbledore, but there were the students to think of. Not only that, but Albus had asked her to stay, and for him, she would do anything. She knew that somehow Dumbledore would get himself reinstated, and when he did, she intended to be there waiting for him. Whatever she could discover from this woman might aid his return; it might even help the Order.

Somehow, she found her voice. "I suppose it wouldn't," she gritted out.

"We knew that Dumbledore was recruiting Hogwarts students to aid him against the Ministry," Umbridge continued conversationally. "We had to undermine his power base. Naturally, when he was unable to fill the Defence Against the Dark Arts position, it presented us with an irresistible opportunity."

"Naturally," Minerva said dryly.

Severus, she could see, had clenched his jaw tightly shut, his rage almost palpable. He had pointed out on a number of occasions that if he'd been given the Defence Against the Dark Arts position as he had requested, the Ministry never would have been able to infiltrate the school. No doubt he was brooding on that right then.

"It's rather funny, really," Umbridge tittered.

"I can't imagine how it could be," Minerva responded repressively, turning her gaze back to the Headmistress.

"Me as a Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher," the Headmistress said. "I didn't take it as a NEWT subject."

Minerva paused, staring at the woman. "You didn't?"

"Oh, no," Umbridge simpered. "I only scored a D at OWL level, and so I wasn't accepted into the NEWT class. Of course, it really doesn't matter. There's nothing about teaching that requires you to be good at your subject is there?"

Not even for Albus could Minerva have managed to agree with the woman. The best she could do was to ask, "Isn't there?"

"Of course not. The students learn everything they need to know out of Wilbert Slinkhard's book," Umbridge pronounced triumphantly.

Minerva took some long, deep breaths. She was sorely tempted to follow Moody's example – or rather, the example of Barty Crouch, who'd been impersonating him – and turn the Headmistress into a ferret, bouncing her around the room for a while to knock some sense into her. That, however, while affording Minerva a great deal of satisfaction, would do nothing to help either the students or Albus.

Whilst she struggled to think of a response, she was interrupted by Snape.

"You failed your Defence Against the Dark Arts OWL?" Snape prompted.

"I'm sure it was a misunderstanding," Umbridge tittered. "I told the examiner that as long as I ingratiated myself with the right people, there was no need to use defensive spells."

"Ah," Snape responded with every semblance of interest. "And that's what you did."

"Of course," Umbridge replied, showing her small, pointy teeth as she smiled. "I joined the Ministry as soon as I left Hogwarts. I had to lie a little to get the job, but the end justified the means. Cornelius was my mentor. It was a shame he was married, but we didn't allow that to interfere with our relationship, and of course, when he rose within the Ministry, he took me with him." She offered Snape a smug little smile. "Promotions aren't always because of ability, at least," she paused to smirk there, "not always ability at your job. Look at young Weasley! He would never have made it out of the Department of International Cooperation if it hadn't served the Ministry's purpose to have him where we could keep an eye on him. After all, look at the mess he made of his last position!"

"Quite," Severus said, keeping his face carefully neutral.

"So, naturally, when Cornelius wanted someone he could trust inside Hogwarts, he asked me to take on the position. I was only too happy to oblige."

"I'm sure you were," Minerva muttered to herself.

"It does you no service to set yourselves against the Ministry," Dolores continued, taking another sip of her wine. "We will win in the end. After all, haven't we already deposed the mighty Albus Dumbledore?"

"Indeed you have," Snape responded smoothly. "Fudge must be very happy to have someone like you so close. I suppose you know all of his secrets."

Minerva's gaze whipped across to the Potions professor. His expression was bland, giving nothing away.

Umbridge appeared not to suspect a thing. Blithely, she continued to prattle on, "Oh, yes. He trusts nobody as much as me, not even his own wife."

"Really?" Snape said interestedly. "What sort of secrets does he entrust to you?"

"You don't really expect me to tell you, do you?" Umbridge asked with a smug little smile. "Cornelius's secrets are between me and him. After all, it wouldn't do for it to get out that he wears women's underwear, now would it?"

Minerva had taken an ill-considered sip of her wine at the very moment that Dolores had let that titbit slip. She began to cough as the liquid went down the wrong way.

"Are you okay, Minerva?" Umbridge asked sweetly.

"Perfectly," Minerva managed to gasp, her eyes watering. "You were saying?"

"Oh, enough about Cornelius," Umbridge replied stoutly. "I can't reveal Ministry secrets, after all."

"Naturally," Snape said, his voice thick with sarcasm.

Finishing off the last of her wine, Dolores wandered over to the intact cupboard. As she placed her empty glass on one of the shelves, her eyes lit on Harry's Invisibility Cloak crumpled on the ground nearby.

"What's this?" she demanded, her eyes narrowing.

Minerva strode over to the cloak, lunging for it just as the Headmistress closed her own fingers over it. Rather than rip it, Minerva let the fabric slip through her hands, returning Umbridge's triumphant little smile with a bland one of her own.

"Something I found hidden," Minerva said.

"Educational Decree number thirty specifically states that all such devices should be handed over to me!" Umbridge snapped. "Why did you not do so immediately?"

Once again, Minerva had to take a deep breath to prevent herself from saying or doing something she would later regret. "Obviously, I was on my way to do so," she lied through gritted teeth. "However, first I felt it necessary to have this discussion with Severus. The OWLs are fast approaching, and the fifth years need to be able to study."

"Not to mention that it interferes with my leadership of the school," Umbridge cut in.

"That goes without saying," Snape said when Minerva couldn't bring herself to respond.

"Well now, I think I'll just take this up to my office," Dolores said, running the silvery grey material between her fingers. "I'm certain I'll have the cooperation of all the teachers in stripping it down and determining its owner."

Minerva made no response to such a ludicrous assumption. If the teachers' lack of assistance with the Weasley twins' fireworks and other pranks hadn't taught her, nothing would. Snape must have been thinking the same thing because he was as close to hiding a smile as she'd ever seen him.

Or perhaps that wasn't the source of his amusement at all. His next words completely floored her.

"There is no need to strip it down," Snape said. "That cloak belongs to Harry Potter."