Running Out of Time

Detention and Confrontations

Just as promised by our favorite blonde, me and the rest of the Hippogriffs all got detention. Apparently another Ravenclaw had blabbed, and I was extremely bitter about that, and everything else in general.

The one upside was that I got to hang out with the twins more outside of the DA. I saw them frequently in the Hospital Wing thanks to their experiments and adventurous nature. And if I occasionally made them potions in the common room to help prank my sister, her friends, and Umbridge, no one had to know.

At first they'd been suspicious about how much time I spent in the Wing, but Poppy simply told them that I was her assistant of sorts, and that she was training me to be a healer.

Detentions still sucked though. There was no getting out of writing with my own blood unless we revealed my illness, and even then there was no guarantee. Every night I left her room more drained and dizzy than the last. In this weakened state, Blaise and Daphne caught me.

"Astoria, I know you're probably- Salazar Almighty, are you okay? Did you forget to take your potions?" I must have looked horrible for Daphne to react that way.

"What happened?" Blaise interrupted her fussing to pull us away from the crowd leaving that stupid classroom.

"Like you don't know? What, did you think that writing with my own blood was going to fix my illness? Was that why you thought landing me detention was such a good idea?" The words "I must not disobey" were now carved in my own somewhat neat handwriting on the back of my left hand. It was a line specially for me. Wasn't that nice of her.

Daphne seemed shocked while Blaise just seemed worried. "We didn't-"

"Oh "you didn't know" Pixie pellets! You knew she'd give us some form of punishment. Did you think we'd just be polishing her plates every night?" Fred and George glanced up from where they were comforting a first year a bit away.

"Well she'd told us you'd be doing lines, I didn't think she'd make you use blood quills!" Daphne's volume was beginning to rise and match mine. People leaving detention glared at the two squad members with me.

"Well what did you think was gonna happen? She isn't exactly the kind of person who'd be satisfied with a few written "I must always obey Professor Umbridge the wise.""Sarcasm wasn't a purely Slytherin trait.

"That's enough! Both of you. The point isn't who knew what. We're here to make sure you're okay, and you certainly don't look like it."

"Well no duh. My blood is barely doing it's job as it is. Trying to get it to heal a repeatedly opening wound isn't really doing me any favors." I don't think it really needed pointing out that I was beyond mad at the two.

Daphne looked distressed. "If you had just listened and stayed out of it."

"I really don't want to hear it. It's nice of you to try and be an actual sister after 13 years of being one, but I already have an extremely bossy mother, I don't need another."

"What do you mean? I've been trying to help you ever since this summer. You just don't-"

"That's just it, Daph. Since this summer. Before that, you never even spoke to me. The only thing I can think of that changed is my health. "People aren't just polite when someone's dying, Pans." What a load of dragon dung." Blaise was just watching it unfold now. I think he knew that it had to happen. We hadn't addressed the incident since it had happened. Me wanting to be able to die with no regrets, and Daphne just happy to cling to any kind of relationship with me.

"Is that what you think? That's I'm just being nice because you're ill?"

"What else am I supposed to think? You never even acknowledged my existence unless you had to, up until I was suddenly that little sister that you got to coddle and take care of. Be able to be that good older sister, and then when I was in a box you'd be able to say "Well, I was as nice as I could've been, during the time we had." It's absolutely fantastic to have a sister that only comes around when she knows she could leave any day now."