Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [5]

⚡️ Chapter 27 ⚡️

The second detention with Umbridge was just as bad as the previous one. The skin on the back of Vega's hand was becoming far more irritated and far more quickly now, it had turned inflamed and red. It was so deep that Vega was quite sure that it was unlikely that it would heal over itself at the pace that she working on at writing the lines.

Soon the cut would remain etched in Vega's hand and Umbridge would, perhaps, be satisfied. By now, however, Vega was becoming much more concerned about how she was going to hide it from Fred when she can't cover it all the time.

There was no way that Vega would allow Umbridge to know the pain that the quill caused her. Vega did not let a moan of pain leave her lips, and from the moment of entering the room to the moment of her and Harry's dismissal, again past midnight, she said nothing but 'Evening' and 'Night.'

Back at the Gryffindor Common Room, Vega and Harry joined the meagre number of students to work on their own homework. Harry finally got around to Snape's Moonstone essay which Vega helped him out with while she finished her Muggle Studies homework.

Vega had finished her Transfiguration and Astronomy homework while on the lunch and dinner table but she still had Care of Magical Creatures and Study of Ancient Runes work to finish after Muggle Studies. It was all too much for being this late.

Harry's Bowtruckle sketch was an atrocity and after finishing her work, Vega helped him re-draw it and label it properly. On the other hand, Harry rushed to finish Professor McGonagall's essay.

It wasn't until after one that they went off to their dormitories, tired of their minds and their hands aching horribly.

Their third detention passed in the same way as the previous two, except that after two hours the words 'I must not tell lies' did not fade from the back of their hands, but remained scratched there, oozing droplets of blood.

The pause in Harry's pointed quill's scratching made Professor Umbridge look up.

"Ah," Umbridge said softly, moving around her desk to examine his hand herself. "Good – that ought to serve as a reminder to you, oughtn't it? You may leave for tonight,"

"Do we still have to come back tomorrow?" Harry asked, picking up his schoolbag with his left hand rather than his smarting right.

"Oh yes," Professor Umbridge said, smiling widely as before as she took a look at Vega's deep scarring. "Yes, I think we can etch the message a little deeper with another evening's work,"

"Let's go," Vega muttered to Harry, picking up her own schoolbag and leaving the stupid office. "I don't like that place at all – not since last year,"

Now that Vega thought about, even Snape seemed considerably sweeter than the horrendous toad woman. Vega had never imagined that she would dislike a teacher this much after Snape but here it was – she had found herself a wonderful contender for that title.

"Ron?"

It was at the sound of Harry's voice that Vega snapped out of her thoughts to see that they had reached the top of the stairs, turned right and almost walked right into Ron, who was lurking behind a statue of Lachlan the Lanky, clutching his broomstick. He gave a great leap of surprise when he saw Vega and Harry.

"What's going on with you?" Vega inquired the ginger as he attempted to hide his new Cleansweep Eleven behind his back. "Is everything alright? Why are you out here so late?"

"Er – nothing," Ron replied. "What are you doing?" Vega and Harry both frowned at him.

"Come on, you can tell us!" Harry exclaimed. "What are you hiding here for?"