VII

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"Damn" Nico cussed. He kicked at the stones on the path. Potter was stupid. Didn't he know  it was sometimes better to just stay quiet and not open his mouth. He just begged for attention. He was startled when he heard the bell signaling the end of DA.  He shadowed back to the Slytherin common room, praying that no one was there. He arrived there. Thankfully it was empty. He then made his way up to the DADA class. Nico saw Harry already knocking on the door. He made his way next to Harry.
"Mind if I join you? Potter" Harry looked at him startled. Nico could tell that Harry had not heard him approach.  
"Sure"
"Come in" a sickeningly sweet voice answered. Harry went to open the door but Nico stopped him
"Potter. You are an idiot. Attention will only get you killed" with that he pushed the door open and entered first. Umbridge sat in her desk. It was all pink. Nico wanted to get the plates that were on the wall and throw them at Potter's head.  
"Good evening,  Mr. Potter. Mr. Di Angelo”
“Evening,” Harry said answered. Nico didn't even bother to answer.
“Well, sit down,” she pointed at a small table.  Two pieces of parchment sat there. Harry shifted in his place
“Er, Professor Umbridge? Before  we start, I-I wanted  to ask you a . . . a favor.” Nico  wanted to scream at him that he wasn't in any position to ask for favors.  
"Yes?”
“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 — do it another night . . . instead  . . .” Nico felt like smacking him in the forehead.  His stupidness reminded him of Percy.   
“Oh no,” said Umbridge, smiling that smile that made Nico want to gag and throw up the few grapes he'd just had.
“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.  No, you will come here at five o’clock tomorrow, and the next day, and on Friday too, and you will do your detentions as planned. I think it rather  a good thing that you are missing something you really want  to do. It ought to  reinforce the lesson I am trying  to teach you.” she then turned to Nico
"As for you.  I expect the same exact thing.  You are both going to get good acquainted." Nico didn't even answer and simply turned his head and walked over to the desk. He sat down, slumping. He couldn't be less interested in this detention. Harry sat down next to him
"Excuse me professor. You didn't give us ink quill"
"Oh. You won't need it" Umbridge smiled. Nico looked at his paper
"What do we write"  
"I will not tell lies" she simpered back. Nico looked at his paper. Placing the quill that Umbridge had set out he started writing
HARRY POV
Nico had started writing but Harry didn't start
" “How many times?”  
“Oh, as long as it takes for the message to sink in, off you go.”
Harry placed the point of the quill on the paper and wrote: I must
not tell lies.
He let out a gasp of pain. He felt like sharp needles were stabbing into his hand. His hand seemed to burn.
The words had appeared on the parch-
ment in what appeared to be shining red ink. At the same time, the
words had appeared on the back of Harry’s right hand, cut into his
skin as though traced there by a scalpel — yet even as he stared at the
shining cut, the skin healed over again, leaving the place where it had
been slightly redder than before but quite smooth.
Harry looked around at Umbridge. She was watching him, her
wide, toadlike mouth stretched in a smile.
“Yes?”
“Nothing,” said Harry quietly.
He looked back at the parchment, placed the quill upon it once
more, wrote I must not tell lies, and felt the searing pain on the back of
his hand for a second time; once again the words had been cut into his
skin, once again they healed over seconds later.
And on it went. Again and again Harry wrote the words on the parchment in what he soon came to realize was an endless loop. He glanced at Nico. He seemed to be writing at a very lousy pace. Slumping on his chair and and holding the quill loosely on his hand. His face betrayed no expression. Harry gritted his teeth and looked at Nico's parchment. The ink was also in red. The messy handwriting. Nico didn't even seem human. Harry wrote. Trying to maintain his expression of disinterest that Nico had. After what seemed to be like hours she said

“Come here” Harry went to stand but she was looking at Nico.
Nico stood.

“Well. Have you learned your lesson” she asked.

Nico then did something that Harry had not expected. He smiled. Full teeth. He seems to be gritting them and when Harry got a look at his face he saw his teeth were red. It took him a minute to realize that the red was from Nico biting his own tongue.

“Like hell. I rather be dead than say that someone doesn't exist when I know they do” Umbridge seemed to breath in deeply.

“Well then, I'll see you next week” Nico smiled.

“See you” Nico turned and walked out the door.

“Mr. Potter?”
He stood up. His hand was stinging painfully. When he looked
down at it he saw that the cut had healed, but that the skin there was
red raw.
“Hand,” she said.

He extended it. She took it in her own. Harry repressed a shudder
as she touched him with her thick, stubby fingers on which she wore
a number of ugly old rings. “Tut, tut, I don’t seem to have made much of an impression yet,”
she said, smiling. “Well, we’ll just have to try again tomorrow
evening, won’t we? You may go.”
Harry left her office without a word. The school was quite deserted;
it was surely past midnight. He walked slowly up the corridor then,
when he had turned the corner and was sure that she would not hear
him, broke into a run.

.

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