Golden | h.p

35| Hermione's worries

Harry and Diana had another detention the day after. Diana didn't have an additional one this time but she was still having odd visions of Lizzie Saltzman. Harry had been looking over some parchment and skimming over the pages of a book while Diana read Perks of Being A Wallflower.

A/N- I'm not specifying a year (s) for my story. So some books, movies, and references might be from the early 2000s or just not add up with the original year Harry Potter was based off. 

"If I'm ever rude to you again-" Ron began, "I know you've gone back to normal" Hermione said with a slight head shake and laugh. "You've agreed to write his essay for him, haven't you?" Diana asked Hermione  as the pair sat next to her and Harry.

"What's that?" Ron asked Harry. "What's what?" Harry asked. "That, one your hand" Ron said, pointing at Harry's hand. "Nothing" Harry mumbled. "Diana, you have it too?" Hermione asked noticing similar scarring on her hand.

"It was-" Diana tried saying but Harry signaled for her not to say anything. "Umbridge, wasn't it?" Ron asked, Diana nodded slightly. "She did that to both of you as a punishment?" Hermione asked in a disgusted disbelief.

"She had us write lines with these enchanted quills. The more we wrote the deeper the cut got" Diana answered. "Something tells me you had worse" Harry mumbled to Diana, who ignored it. 

"You have got to report this" Hermione told them. "To Dumbledore? He's got enough going on" Harry shook his head. "Well you have to do something" Hermione said.

"No use in adding fuel to the fire" Diana told Hermione, Harry nodded in agreement. "How so?" Ron asked. "If we go to Dumbledore and complain about this then Umbridge will have the upper hand. She'll have the satisfaction of knowing she hurt us" Diana answered.

"But-" Hermione said but Diana cut her off, "let's say Umbridge does get in trouble for this. Who's to say she won't give an even worse punishment? It's best to deal with this without the help of Dumbledore".

"This is harassment! She can't be doing this" Hermione tried telling the pair. "I agree with Hermione but if you two think it's best to keep quiet then you do what's best fro you" Ron told them. 

"No! She can't be getting away with this" Hermione said. "Hermione, leave it be" Harry said getting frustrated at Hermione's constancy. "It's perfectly simple-" Hermione was cut off by an angry Harry, "It's not simple, Hermione. None of this is simple. You wouldn't understand".

"Then help me too" Hermione said. Harry instead grabbed his parchment, stood up, and stormed up to his dormitory. 

"Diana, please" Hermione told her best friend with worried eyes. Diana shook her head. "It'll heal... eventually. It's best to just get on Umbridge's good side and make sure we don't get detentions" Diana told Hermione.  

~~~

The next morning Diana had been writing a letter to Caroline when she heard an exhale from behind her. "What's up redhead?" Diana asked, not needing to look to know who it was. Ron sat next to her, "nothing" he mumbled. Before she could say anything Hermione and Harry joined the two.

Hermione looked at the professor's table and noticed Hagrid's chair was still empty. "He's not back yet, Hagrid. I hope he's all right" Hermione sighed. "I've asked Sirius about it" Harry said rather quietly. 

"Harry! You can't do that. Owls are being intercepted. It's dangerous" Hermione told him. "Don't worry, Hermione. I wrote it in code. I needed to tell someone about Umbridge's detention" Harry told her.