Bad News

Umbridge strutted through the door with a fowl grin on her face. Behind her walked Draco, Crabbe, Goyle and Mel who were smugly restraining Harry, Ron and Luna.

"I thought I would find you here." Beamed Umbridge, her very presence was making Hermione feel sick. "You think a wouldn't notice when someone breaks into my office? Well after the last time I put up a few more security measures, as soon as someone comes into the office, I am immediately informed, but since I knew you were bound to be the one behind it, I decided to have a bit of fun with it."

It required all of Hermione's will power not to scream into her gag out of sheer frustration and humiliation.

"Despite their lack of blood loyalty, those revolting twins did have a good idea with those traps that can only be triggered by women under certain conditions. I set up my own that can only be triggered by naked women.

You see, yourself and miss Weasley were, of course, transported to this hut and bound in a most delightful manner, your wands; however, are locked safely in my drawer."

Umbridge flicked her wand at the bound witches, Hermione immediately felt the gag in her mouth disappear.

"Now, tell me, with whom have you been communicating?"

"No one!" Hermione wailed.

"Liar"

"I was planting a firecracker!"

"Your rebellious activities have moved well beyond firecrackers. When I found Mister Potter, his head was still lodged in my fireplace, so tell me, to whom was he speaking."

"No one!"

Umbridge sighed and then smiled maliciously. A few flicks of her wand and suddenly Hermione found herself hanging from the ceiling. Her arms were well fastened behind her back, and her legs had been pulled up behind her in a kind of hog tie. With a panicked glance to either side, she saw that Luna and Ginny were in the same position. The three of them dangled helplessly from the roof, whimpering with fear.

"I'm sure Mister Crabbe and Mister Goyle are more than capable of restraining those naughty little boys themselves, so Mister Draco, Miss Sout why don't you help me?"

Hermione was facing away from the Slytherins; she couldn't see what was happening, but she heard what sounded like a brief struggle from Harry and Ron, but it quickly stopped.

"Now, Miss Granger," Said Umbridge in a piercingly shrill voice, "you will tell me who you were trying to contact, or you and your friends shall be punished."

"Ow!" Hermione gave a yelp of surprise and pain as she felt a hard slap on her buttocks. A split second later Ginny and Luna cried out as well. Hermione knew the sensation of a slapping jinx; this wasn't it. Umbridge was using a real wooden paddle to **** her, and from the sound of it, her friends too.

The spanking continued relentlessly. To her left Hermione could make out Mel spanking Ginny and to her right Draco was savagely beating Luna. Hermione had been spanked by Umbridge's spells before; she knew she could take a lot of this before giving out; Ginny's cries of pain were no doubt real, but Hermione knew her well enough to know that she was also enjoying it; however, Luna's screams were very real and very painful. With every sharp smack of Draco's paddle, the blonde witch let out a pitiful cry.

Hermione began to panic. She couldn't tell Umbridge what had happened, she couldn't let her friends get tortured like this, even if she could, it wouldn't matter, eventually someone, maybe even Ron or Harry, would break, there was nothing she could do! She screwed up her face, forcing tears out of the corners of her eyes, that would help her.

"I'll tell you!" Hermione sobbed pathetically, "please, just let us go! I'll tell you everything!"

The cries of pain fell silent and the sounds of wood hitting flesh stopped.

"Of course you will, Miss Granger, you horrid children never had a chance against a powerful figure of authority like me. Now tell me, with whom were you trying to communicate?"

"P-P-Professor Dumbledore." Hermione stammered out.

"Ha! I knew it! What were trying to tell him?"

"It's ready. He was giving us instructions on building a weapon. It's now finished and hidden in the forest."

"A weapon? For what purpose does he need a weapon?"

"He wants to overthrow the ministry."

"Of course he does. Oh this is perfect. I'll get the order of Merlin for discovering this. Dumbledore will be rotting in Azkaban until the very walls crumble!" The excitement in Umbridge's voice was palpable, Hermione felt sick to her stomach and she could feel the shocked eyes of both her friends and the inquisitorial squad on her.

"Potter, Granger, you will take me to the weapon. As for you, inquisitors, I'm sure you can keep an eye on the remaining troublemakers until my return. You will all be given medals for this." Umbridge smiled a malicious grin that curdled the blood.

The next few moments passed in blur, by the time Hermione was aware of what was happening, She was entering the Dark Forest behind Harry and in front of Umbridge. She was held on a long black lead with a matching heavy collar and a matching leather harness. It was the most she had worn in months, but still, she felt more naked now than she had been in her life. Her hands were also bound behind her back and she could feel the eyes of Umbridge burning into her bare bottom as she walked. She slowly became aware of a sharp but persistent pain in her nipples and looked down to see a set of nipple clamps pinched tightly over her nipples. Harry was walking without looking back, he must have figured out where she wanted to go, or maybe she managed to tell him... she couldn't remember.

With every step Hermione took, she was shaking. Fear building up greater in her body, she didn't have a plan, only a half baked gamble of an idea based on something Hagrid showed her before he was chased out of Hogwarts. She ended up wandering where Hagrid was now and if she would ever see him again. The thought threatened to bring real tears to her eyes so she wiped it from her mind.

Umbridge, all the while had been talking, or more accurately, gloating over her captives like a spoiled child that cheated to win a game.

"Don't you worry Granger," Umbridge had also been largely ignoring Harry, "The ministry will be lenient, you are just a child and Dumbledore has fooled and manipulated wiser and far more powerful people than you. You will be able to enter a national service program to earn full forgiveness from the ministry. Officially it is called the Witch Helping Out to Redeem Evils program. It was my own creation actually; young witches who break the law can earn redemption by working to serve high ranking ministry officials, including myself in fact.

You will have the initials of this program written on your chest and on your back in magical permanent ink so that everyone knows who you are and why you are naked. Then you will serve your assigned master, whom I shall make sure is me. You must prove yourself an obedient witch by obeying your master's every command, no matter how degrading. You will show the ministry that you can become the perfect submissive servant to authority and then, when we decide you are ready, you will earn your place in society again."

Hermione did her best to ignore Umbridge, to think about anything else as she walked deeper into the forest. It was difficult, but she managed to keep walking without breaking down crying.

Finally Harry stopped at the root of a large tree, large even by the standards of the dark forest. Hermione felt a chill go down her spine that had nothing to do with the temperature of the air around her. There was a rope coiled around the base of the tree, with a severed end, clearly the giant had escaped.

"Why have you stopped?" Squawked Umbridge. "You lied to me! There is no weapon, you just brought me out here to waste time, I'll have you expelled for this!"

Umbridge's indignant rambling was interrupted by a low tremor in the ground. Slow thuds echoed through the trees.

"What is that? What have you done?" Umbridge demanded.

Neither Harry nor Hermione knew what to say, they just stared silently through the trees toward the origin of the noise. It was coming closer.

"Answer me, you filthy children!" Umbridge shrieked. "I will have-"

Umbridge stopped as finally, a sixteen foot behemoth came into view. A giant with ugly flat features stared angrily down at them.

"What is this? A giant? There are no giants in this forest, the ministry cleared them out centuries ago."

"Professor, meet Grope." Harry said nervously, "This giant has been living here these past few months and we've become well acquainted."

"Dumbledore illegally smuggled a dangerous animal onto Hogwarts grounds! The ministry will not stand for this."

Without warning, Umbridge shot a curse at the giant. It hit the beast square in his ugly face and fizzled out meekly on his nose.

"Grope mad!" He shouted and stamped his feet. "Grope mad!" Suddenly the giant charged at the three wizards. "Grope mad!"

Harry and Hermione scattered, fearing for their lives against the giant. Hermione heard crashing and felt a terrible tremor in the earth, then finally a piercing scream. Looking up just in time, Hermione watched as Umbridge was carried away in the fist of the giant deep into the forest.

An eerie silence settled over the forest.

"We should get back." Harry said bluntly.

"Yes," Hermione agreed,"but can you untie me first?" She flexed her arms in her bonds, but the ropes remained tight and secure, forcing her chest forward and keeping her arms immobile.

Harry tried to pick at the ropes binding her hands, but to no avail.

"She must have enchanted the rope. Without my wand I can't get them off." Harry explained.

"Fine," Hermione sighed, "let's get back to Hagrid's hut."