Dressed for Ruin

chapter five

The next day went by in a blur, I was very distracted. I had never in my life had been to detention. My brother was always the troublemaker, I had never even had a teacher dislike me. Apparently Potter and I were the talk of the school, from his shouting match with Umbridge to my tardy and being assigned detention together. I was still so angry, I had gotten two days worth of detention, and for what? Before I went to detention, I stopped by the Owlery. I hadn't seen Winston since the day term started and i missed him. Also I needed him to deliver a letter to my mother.

     Dear Mum:

Hello! How have you been? This first week of school has been lousy. We've got a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Umbridge. Remember her? The short, toad-like woman who works with Father at the Ministry? Well anyway, she's a horrid teacher, and gave me detention for arriving a few minutes late, so now I've got detention for two days with her. Other than that, its been fine, i guess. Anyway, I've got to go! If Draco doesn't start writing to you, I'd send him a Howler if I were you, just to teach him a lesson. I love you!

    yours,

    Helena

 "Winston, take this to Mum, at Malfoy Manor." he nipped my cheek in affection and took off. I looked at him until he was nothing but a dot in the sky. I took the long way to Umbridge's office, not wanting to go to detention at all. 

When I got there, Harry was hovering by the door, not wanting to go in either. We looked at each other in acknowledgement and went in. "Good evening Miss Malfoy, Mr. Potter!" she said in a bright voice. Her office was absolutely horrid, everything was pink and there were just too many kitten decorations. "Evening" Harry said stiffly, "Good evening" I said. "Both of you, sit down" she said while pointing at two tables, that were lined with lace. They were set like three feet apart. Harry asked her if he could do his Friday detention some other day, as he had Quidditch tryouts that day, that he couldn't miss. I snorted, anticipating her answer. I was suddenly grateful Marcus Flint, the Slytherin Quidditch House team captain had postponed our tryouts for next week. As expected Umbridge said no and Harry was fuming, "There, we're getting better at controlling our temper already, aren't we?" she said smugly. "Okay so today, the both of you will be doing some lines for me, but you will be using a special quill of mine." she said looking more at Harry, than at me. She handed us some quills that were rather long, with an unusually long point. "Mr. Potter, you will write 'I must not tell lies', and Miss Malfoy you will write 'I must not smart-off to my teachers'." she said softly. "How many times?" I asked, "However many times it takes for the message to sink in." she responded. "Professor, you haven't given us any ink" Harry said rather pointedly. "Oh, you won't need any ink. Off you go." she said rather menacingly.

Harry and I got to work. I placed the point of the quill on the parchment and wrote: I must not smart-off to my teachers. I whimpered as I the back of my right hand stung. The ink on the parchment was bright red and I saw the words I had just wrote, on the back of my hand, as if traced there by a sharp knife. It quickly healed, but my skin was a bit redder than it had been just a minute ago. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" I hissed. I looked at Harry and assumed that he didn't want to give her the satisfaction of seeing him in pain. Umbridge gave no answer, "My father will be hearing about this." I said knowing I sounded more like Draco than I've ever had. I also knew that I wouldn't actually tell him. "My dear, but what are you talking about?" she said, and in that moment I knew it would be her word again ours, or rather mine, since everyone thought Harry was a nut job. So I wrote: I must not smart-off to my teachers. Again and again, for what felt like hours, until she said "That is quite enough, I shall see the both of you here again tomorrow." I could not fathom doing this again. As I left her office I looked at the back of my hand and saw the faint white mark of what I had wrote for the last two and a half hours. "Helena, are you okay?" Harry asked, as he caught up with me. "Are you?" I shot back. He didn't answer, so i walked back to the common room. 

When I got back there were a few first and second years huddled testing some of the Weasley twin's merchandise. I went up to my room to gather my things. As much as I wanted to go to sleep, I had a lot of homework to do. I spent about an hour doing assignments and as I was about finished with my Potions essay, in came Draco and Blaise. "How was detention with Umbridge, H?" Draco asked. "Fine" I sighed, "What did she make you do?" Blaise wondered, "Lines" I said halfheartedly. Draco eyed me in a worried way, I ignored this and gathered my things in a hurry to go to my dorm. I got ready for bed at top speed, desperate to get some rest.