delphinium - remus lupin ¹

four | a new friend

Dear diary,

I've come to expect that detentions in Hogwarts aren't average. Sending children into the forest, forcing them to plant potentially deadly plants, organising jars of ingredients bouncing around the room. There's always a sense of danger in everything that we do here. I guess that's why I never used to mind getting detention - it was just more adrenaline to fuel my desire to break the rules.

Something's different this year, though. Everything is more... boring.

Penelope had been sitting in an empty classroom for almost an hour. During that time, no one had entered, no one had left, and nothing had moved. There were no paintings on the walls, all of the windows were boarded up, and her desk held no hidden drawers or secrets.

She had decided that she would've preferred the average muggle detention instead of what she was enduring now. Professor Slughorn had left her there to serve detention an hour before the bell signalled for curfew. He walked out almost as quickly as he had walked in, leaving her with muttered charms to keep her from talking and moving from her seat.

Penelope imagined up worlds to try and keep herself busy in the bleak prison she found herself in. She imagined a world with no homework, school, or teachers. She imagined a world where she could be with the rest of the Gryffindors in the common room. She imagined a world where she could see her prank come to life with the others.

None of those worlds existed though, as she remembered as Professor Slughorn came storming back into the abandoned classroom. He seemed just as angry as he did when he first left her there, clearly not having gotten over her disregard for the rules in his hour-long break.

"Miss Pettigrew," Professor Slughorn held his hands together in front of him, trying to hide his temporary distaste towards the girl. "As you know, our seventh-year Slytherin prefect, Lucius Malfoy, caught you wandering the grounds after curfew last night." He took a few more steps forward, reaching for his wand from his pocket. "I believe you've had enough time to reflect on why you shouldn't be disobeying the curfew, and I have hope that you won't break this rule again."

Penelope glanced up from her desk after he had finished talking, forging a sorry look in her eye as he reversed the silencing charm.

"I'm so sorry, Professor Slughorn." She flashed him a smile as he removed the charms holding her to the chair too. "I'm not quite sure how I let time slip past me that fast. I could have sworn it was two hours before curfew when I started my walk."

"That's alright, Miss Pettigrew. You don't have to explain yourself to me." Professor Slughorn still held back from smiling. Something is off... "However, I will have to remove twenty points from Gryffindor at the request of multiple professors in the school."

Oh, Lily is going to kill me.

"Twenty points?" Penelope stood up from her desk, trying her best not to seem intimidating to the professor. "I was out after hours for... like... five minutes!"

"Yes, I am aware, Miss Pettigrew." Professor Slughorn started walking towards the exit of the classroom. "But it has come to the attention of multiple faculty members that you have been rather... disruptive and reckless with the rules so far this year." He picked his words carefully as he stopped walking as he reached the exit, turning back to face her.

"'So far this year'- It's been a week! How bad could it possibly be?" Penelope found herself asking the question without much thought beforehand, and the disagreement had just gone horrifically in the Professor's favour.

"Refusal to hand in homework. Incomplete reading assignments. The use of 'funny' hexes on lower-year students. Causing commotion during silent study periods. Causing commotion in the library. Being out of bed after hours."

Yeah, okay, I definitely did all of those things.

"I could go on." Professor Slughorn had a hint of smugness and pride in his tone. "And that's just the rule violations that I know of. You've caused Gryffindor to lose over seventy-five points, Miss Pettigrew. There has to be a point at which we step in to prevent this behaviour."

Penelope stayed silent. What was she meant to say? Apologise for the rule-breaking and continue to do it the next day with no change? Stay silent? Turn back into the person she used to be? There's no chance of that happening.

"Go to the headmaster's office in the morning – early in the morning." He turned back around to the door, reaching for the handle. "Professor Dumbledore will explain more in the morning, but I can tell you that you'll be introduced to a new friend,

Severus Snape.'

Finn Wolfhard as
Severus Snape