Daylight || Harry Potter

Chapter Eleven

Harry's second detention was worse than his first.

The skin on the back of Harry's hand became irritated more quickly now, red and inflamed; Harry thought it unlikely to keep healing as effectively for long. Soon the cut would remain etched in his hand and Umbridge would, perhaps, be satisfied. He let no sound of pain escape him, however, and from the moment of entering the room to the moment of his dismissal, again past midnight, he said nothing but "Good evening" and "Good night." He now shuddered as he remembered Umbridge's satisfied smile at his pain.

Thursday passed in a haze of tiredness. Ron and Ash seemed very sleepy too, though Harry couldn't see why they should be. Harry's third detention passed in the same way as the two before, except that after two hours the words "I must not tell lies" didn't fade from the back of Harry's hand, but remained scratched there, oozing droplets of blood. The pause in the pointed quill's scratching made Professor Umbridge look up.

"Ah," she 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 I still have to come back tomorrow?" Harry asked, picking up his schoolbag with his left hand rather than his throbbing right.

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

He'd never considered the possibility that there might be another teacher in the world he hated more than Snape, but as he walked back toward Gryffindor Tower he had to admit he had found a contender. She's evil, he thought, as he climbed a staircase to the seventh floor, she's an evil, twisted, mad, old —

"Dude, there's nobody here. Let's just go."

"Ash?" Harry stopped in surprise at the sight of Ash and Ron lurking behind a statue of Lachlan the Lanky, both clutching their broomsticks. Ron gave a great leap of surprise when he saw Harry and attempted to hide his new Cleansweep Eleven behind his back.

Ash rolled her eyes and said, "Hiya, Harry."

"Hi. What are you doing?"

"Er — nothing," Ron said quickly, before Ash could reply. "What are you doing?"

Harry frowned at him. "Come on, you can tell me! What are you hiding here for?"

Ron gave Ash a panicked look, but she just gestured at Harry like, tell him!

"I'm — I'm hiding from Fred and George, if you must know," said Ron. "They just went past with a bunch of first years, I bet they're testing stuff on them again, I mean, they can't do it in the common room now, can they, not with Hermione there."

He was talking in a very fast, feverish way.

"But what have you got your broom for, you haven't been flying, have you?" Harry asked.

"I — well — well, okay, I'll tell you, but don't laugh, all right?" Ron said defensively, turning redder with every second. "I-I thought I'd try out for Gryffindor Keeper now I've got a decent broom. There. Go on. Laugh."

"I'm not laughing," said Harry. Ron blinked. "It's a brilliant idea! It'd be really cool if you got on the team!"

Ash grinned widely and elbowed Ron like five times. "See? What did I tell you? I told you he would like it!"

"I've never seen you play Keeper, are you good?" Harry asked, getting properly excited.

"I'm not bad," said Ron, who looked immensely relieved at Harry's reaction. "Charlie, Fred, and George always made me Keep for them when they were training during the holidays."