HP X LOTM : Please Call Me Mr. Error.

Umbridge's eyes kept widening in fear.

Her heart raced and her fingers clenched into a fist.

Her nails dug into her palms as blood freely spurted, escaping in the form of trails from the gaps between her fingers.

Loki's ghostly body started to move closer as all the light around it started to flicker.

There were short bursts where the light fought back against the deeply encroaching abyss, but it all looked futile.

The light just couldn't bear the weight with which it was being dragged into an abyssal pit from where it could not escape.

Umbridge gulped audibly and pushed herself against the wall, going as far back as she could.

Umbridge tried her best to keep her thoughts steady, but a drum of fear kept beating inside her mind as she felt her thoughts be consumed by what felt like a tide of misguided expectations.

'What's happening!?'

'In Hogwarts?'

'Is it 'His' doing?'

'No! It can't be!'

'Or is it?'

'Or is it some other professor?'

'Is it Snape?'

'Is this an illusion!?'

'Why can't I calm down!?'

'Placate!'

'Placate!'

'Placate!'

'Placate!'

Umbridge tried her best to regain her sanity.

But as if something was pumping fear into her blood, it felt like she just couldn't bring herself to think rationally.

In this fire of insanity, Umbridge's mind gleaned a spark of freedom.

'I just need to run away!'

Umbridge quickly extended her hands and snapped her bloodied fingers.

'Psychological Invisibility!'

Umbridge waited with a panicked expression as she froze her breaths, holding them to make sure that nothing could break away her psychological invisibility.

She pressed her back fully against the wall.

Making sure that none of her clothes even brushed against the fingers of the freaky spirit hovering in front of her.

And it seemed to have paid off.

For a moment the spirit seemed to freeze in confusion as its eyes rolled around frantically, trying to figure out where its target had escaped to.

Umbridge's breath returned as her shoulders heaved in relief.

She closed her eyes to calm her thundering heart as she patted her chest to make it slow.

Except just as she opened her eyes, she found herself staring into the deep abyssal eyes of something she didn't have the time to recognise or understand.

And before she could even scream or fight back-

Umbridge collapsed.

Loki took a deep breath while tapping his cane on the floor as he leaned in closer to Umbridge's body to examine her.

The spirit that resembled him had vanished a few moments earlier after it had served its purpose as Loki tapped Umbridge's head with the tip of his cane.

"She's not dead is she?" Loki murmured while probing her continuously until he saw her nostrils flare as they tried taking in steady and deep breaths.

"Alright…she's just unconscious."

With that done, Loki started to work his magic.

"Although I can't be as good as someone from the Visionary Pathway, I'm pretty sure this is not too terrible.", Loki said as admired the cluster of runes that was hovering above his palm.

While the runes would look complicated to most, to Loki they were arranged in a rather simplistic manner with a single purpose.

Loki carefully inserted the cluster of runes into his own body of heart and mind.

Almost instantly, Loki felt a bundle and collections of thoughts flood into his mind.

These thoughts constantly hammered away at his sanity as they tried to drown him under their worldviews.

'Fudge and the White Lord are useless!'

'The real and greatest person is Mr. Error!'

'Mr. Error is the greatest!'

'All serve Mr. Error!'

'No one else compares to Mr. Error!'

'Mr. Error is the strongest!'

'Mr. Error is the only person who deserves my love!'

As those thoughts hounded Loki's mind, he slowly pushed the cluster of runs that had already begun dissolving into his mind deeper and deeper, until they finally slipped out of his conscious mind and slipped into the sea of subconscious.

Loki then quickly pulled out his wand and drew a rune in the air with it.

It was a simple rune, yet was one that most people would fail to recognise.

It was the rune associated with the Error Pathway.

A curling snail-like shell with four clocks in the cardinal directions planted on its body.

The rune detached from Loki's wand as it fluttered down and landed on Umbridge's pink pillbox hat.

The rune submerged into it without leaving a trace, only stopping when it touched her body of heart and mind.

With the rune as an anchor, Loki peeked into the Sea of Subconscious closer to Umbridge's mind as he directed the rapidly deteriorating bundle of thoughts that he had created towards Umbridge's mind.

He tied them together with the anchor that was the symbol of the error pathway, making sure that they wouldn't spread.

Umbridge remained unconscious throughout it all as Loki looked at the room around him.

The room was in its pristine condition since much of what had happened was just an illusion since Loki wanted to test if Umbridge was of the sort to willingly turn to him, or if force was necessary.

As such, when he realised that Umbridge had already firmly chosen sides, he knew that keeping her conscious would only serve as a liability because he couldn't trust her with what he was about to do.

Perhaps showing her his strength might've swayed him towards supporting Mr. Error. But that would also risk her informing other people about it.

And what was to say that someone else couldn't just similarly 'sway' her once again.

As such, Loki aimed to develop a servant rather than a follower relationship with Umbridge.

So he planted compulsions deep into her mind so that she could no longer betray him of her own accord, and if anyone else tried to clear her of the corruption, Loki would instantly know of it since he used the Error pathway's symbol.

It would be harder to even spot the symbol in the first place since Salazar was still confining any information about the Error pathway.

To top it all, he could even access Umbridge's mind if he wished by going into the Sefirah Castle since he had planted the rune associated with the Error pathway into her mind.

The symbol, however, wasn't a brainwashing item. It was more like the flick of a switch, which would allow him to make Umbridge think that he was also Mr. Error's follower until he wished so that he could get information out of her, before flicking it back to make her forget if any of it ever happened.

With everything finalised, Loki floated Umbridge to her chair and quickly cleared up everything around the room as he sat opposite her and flicked his wand before calmly inserting it into his wand holster.

Umbridge's slump head turned pivoted on her neck, as her eyes flickered around for a few seconds in which Loki closely examined her for any signs of rebellion or calling out for help.

But not finding any, Loki cleared his throat.

Ahem

Umbridge's eyes locked onto Loki's position instantly and her lips morphed into a frown.

"What did you do Mr. Lo-"

Loki noticed that everything was fine and flicked his hand under the table, releasing the hold on the compulsions he had imposed onto her in her sea of subconscious.

"I'm a supporter of Mr. Error Professor. Are you not one too?"

"Mr. Er-" Umbridge was about to speak with a frown, but all of a sudden as if something within her had unravelled, Umbridge spoke with vigour.

"How can you take 'His' name so casually!! The lord must be respected!"

'She sure has good boot licking skills.'

Loki rolled his eyes but the meaning was lost on Umbridge.

"You must pay for this sin deepl-!!!" Umbridge was about to continue speaking like a paladin of Mr. Error, but she was stopped when Loki interrupted her again.

"Do tell me what has been going on with Minister Fudge. Based on your information, I will have to make a decision if you will be assigned to the same post to spy on Minister Fudge again or if your position will be changed to help our Lord better."

"Oh and make sure you don't ever directly take the name of the person who is the headmaster of this school when you're talking to me in the context of our lord. Replace it with something like the White Lord or something similar."

Umbridge had a soft, unwilling and confused expression but she started speaking nevertheless.

"Fudge plans to overtake and overthrow the White Lord's…"

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