Potter's Girl / Butterfly Effect.

49. Simple Delusions

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE;

SIMPLE DELUSIONS

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Harry and Atticus began to grow closer after Atticus had appeared at Grimmauld Place over the summer, Cassie noticed. Occasionally, she would catch the pair of them walking together along the corridors, or whispering in the library, or passing knowing glances across the Great Hall. She did not know nor ask as to what their sudden acquaintanceship dawned from.

On the afternoon of their first detention (of many, Cassie would soon learn) with Professor Umbridge, Cassie found Harry only ten minutes before five o'clock p.m., unsurprisingly with her cousin. Cassie and Harry rushed off to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom and made it with only a minute to spare.

"What're you spending so much time with Atticus for?" she huffed as they approached the professor's office door. Harry hesitated, as though he were going to actually tell her the truth, before Umbridge swung her door open and greeted them with a smile.

"Good evening, Mr. Potter, Miss Black," said the professor, stepping to the side to allow them into her pink – not just 'pink', but 'nauseatingly, disgustingly, I-would-rather-claw-my-own-eyes-out-than-stare-at-this-color pink' – office.

   "Evening, Professor," said Harry and Cassie in sync, both taking their seats in the two identical desks that had been conjured.

   "Professor Umbridge? Er– before we start," said Harry, shifting in his seat to face her, "I–I wanted to ask you a favor."

   "Oh yes?" said Umbridge, her bulging eyes narrowing.

   "Well I'm.. I'm on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. And I was supposed to be at the tryouts for the new Keeper at five o'clock on Friday and I was– was wondering whether I could skip detention that night and do it another night instead..."

Cassie internally groaned – at both the fact that she had forgotten about Quidditch tryouts (which she had been planning on doing, mind you) and that Harry even attempted to snake his way out of a detention with this woman.

   "Oh no," said Umbridge sweetly. "Oh no, no, no. This is your punishment for spreading evil, nasty, attention-seeking stories, Mr. Potter, and punishments certainly cannot be adjusted to suit the guilty one's convenience."

   Harry dropped his head obediently; Cassie was almost surprised.

   "There," said Umbridge, "we're getting better at controlling our temper already, aren't we? Now, we're going to be doing some lines tonight. No, not with your quill," she added, as both teens had begun to reach for theirs. "You're going to be using a rather special quill of mine. Here you are."

   She waved her wand and two thin black quills with particularly sharp tips appeared on their desks; they shared a glance before picking them up.

   "I want both of you to write 'I must not tell lies'," she said softly.

   "How many times?" Cassie asked, gritting her teeth.

   "Oh, as long as it takes for the message to sink in," said Umbridge with a disgusting smile. "Off you go."

Harry looked to Cassie; she merely shrugged slightly in reply. The both of them picked up their quills, before another question rang through Cassie's head – a question she thankfully shared with Harry, as he was the one who voiced it.

"We haven't got any ink," he stated dully, lifting the quill as if to say 'see?'.

"Oh, you won't need any," said Umbridge with a trace of a laugh in her voice. Cassie watched her skeptically as she took her seat behind her pink desk; though the meowing kittens in the tea plates on the wall watched Cassie right back.