The night of their detention was drawing nearer, only minutes away in fact. But, there’s one slight twist here that could change the whole night, well at least for James. Let’s just say after hearing how Draco talked to James in that arrogant little tone of his, Lily went kind of crazy on him. How you might ask? Well let’s just say that Professor McGonagall found her with an unconscious Malfoy in the middle of a girls’ bathroom. Very odd occurrence if I say so myself. But, this leaves us to Miss Evans’ punishment. She is sentenced to detention with the others. Sometimes teachers are so stupid. I mean detention with your friends is never that bad. Anyway, let’s get back to the present shall we?
James stood near the portrait hole with a frown on his face. It seemed to be stuck there because even when Ron and Hermione appeared next to him he merely nodded.
“Why are you so depressed?” Hermione asked irritably. She hated it when Harry was depressed and this was about ten times worse.
“I’m not really. I’m just over dramatic,” James shrugged.
“Oh, reminds me of someone,” Ron muttered.
Hermione grinned. “It’s not Harry’s fault.” Lily came bounding down the stairs of the girls’ dormitories and ran across the room ending in an over dramatic fall onto the carpet. “His parents were just a tad over dramatic.” She held two fingers about an inch apart to signify this. Ron started sniggering as Lily and James exchanged slightly confused looks. James had drifted off of their conversation and Lily only hearing part of it was no better off then he was.
“Well, off to a very depressing detention, then?” Lily asked as she ambled over to the portrait hole. Ron and Hermione nodded and James just started clambering through the hole.
Once they arrived in the dimly lit dungeon that was the Potions room, they found it empty, except for Snape who was wearing a fluffy pink nightgown. “What are you doing here?” he shrieked as he rushed into his office and closed the door with a snap. “You weren’t supposed to be here for a half an hour!”
“That’s not what the note we got said,” Ron pointed out as all four of them pulled out slips of parchment revealing the time of detention. All read the same; 7:00 sharp.
Snape remerged from the office wearing his normal black robes. “None of you will speak of this. Is that clear?” he hissed as Ron and James started snickering. All four of them nodded in reply, although not one of them was planning on keeping this a secret for very long. “Now, for your detention you will be going with Hagrid. I think into the forest.”
The color seemed to drain from Ron’s face as he remembered the giant spiders. Hermione shivered slightly and Lily’s mouth hung slightly open. On the other hand, James seemed rather calm about all of this. He let out a bored yawn. “All right troops, forward march!” James yelled in a mock platoon leader tone as Ron, Hermione, and Lily started out the door repeating “Sound off, one two. Sound off three four. Sound off one, two, three, and four.”
Once they reached Hagrid’s cabin, the large head of Rubeus Hagrid peered at them the depths of the trees. Actually, he was barely in the forest, but oh well. “Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny.” His giant voice boomed as he called them over to the edge of the trees.
“Hello, Hagrid,” Ron stuttered staring into the trees apprehensively. Hermione forced a smile and Lily was clinging to James’ shoulder.
“So what is our noble task?” James asked as he bran dashed an invisible sword through the air.
“It’s a righ’ hard task and I wouldn’t trust any o’ the other students ‘cept you four.” Ron cowered behind Hermione as Hagrid spoke and Lily’s nails dug into James’ skin. He pushed her away irritably. His eyes glimmered with curiosity. He really wanted to know what this hard task was. “We’re goin’ on the edge of the trees here to catch the missing flobberworms.”
James’ face fell as the others breathed a sigh of relief. They were each set at strategic points around the perimeter of the trees watching for the missing flobberworms. It turned out to be pretty fun after all. The person who caught he most of the retched worms was rewarded with a huge slab of Honeyduke’s chocolate.
Throughout the grounds you could hear the grunts and screams of Ron, Hermione, Lily and James diving on the ground for the flobberworms. Once all fifty were caught, they were dismissed. It turned out Hermione had actually caught the most. She caught twenty while all the others had only managed to get ten. “Don’ expect all of your detentions to be this fun!” Hagrid yelled after them as they walked slowly back to Gryffindor Tower. All four of them were covered head to toe in dirt, or maybe some of it was chocolate. Hermione had been nice enough to share it with the rest of them. By the time they reached the portrait hole and got inside the common room it was nearly 8:30.
Once inside they collapsed onto the carpet and practically fell asleep. Ron would have been asleep except for the fact that Crookshanks was lurking near the corner of the room. So they sat there for a moment before actually blacking out. Actually, Lily was the only one awake. Not a good sign for the others.
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Harry sat in the middle of the common room floor trading Chocolate Frog cards with Sirius. It was but a few minutes away from their detention with Dumbledore but seeing as it was Dumbledore Harry wasn’t too worried. Yes, their detention is with Dumbledore only because McGonagall gave too many students detention on the same night, and couldn't squeeze them in. Very McGonagall-like, eh? Anyway, Remus was above them in a red velvet armchair watching the debating of trading a new Harry Potter Chocolate Frog card with an old Merlin one. They were both mint condition. Eventually Sirius gave in and took the Harry card as he reluctantly handed over his Merlin card.
Just then Ginny came hurtling down the stairs and landed with a THUD on the carpeted floor. “Detention is in five minutes!” she squeaked as Remus pulled her off of the ground.
“Don’t worry Evans. Dumbledore’s always late for detentions,” Sirius replied as he pocketed his new collector’s cards. Harry chuckled.
“Dumbledore is always late fore everything,” He pointed out as he jumped off of the carpet as if he was scalded and pocketed his own Wizard’s cards. Remus sighed as he followed the other three down to the Headmaster's office.
When they got to the stone gargoyle, Harry realized he didn't know the password, so he muttered the first thing that came into his head. "Lemon drop." Sure enough the gargoyle jumped aside and the golden escalator to Dumbledore's office appeared. The four of them climbed aboard and arrived on a landing with giant oak doors. Ginny opened them apprehensively.
When they arrived in the bright lighted room, they found it completely empty. That is besides a large scarlet bird perched on a golden perch in the corner. “Fawkes,” Harry murmured as he stroked the phoenix’s feathers affectionately. The bird had after all saved his life. Ginny grinned as she patted his head. The two stepped away to let Sirius and Remus have a turn. As soon as Sirius placed his hand upon the bird’s soft feathers, it burst into flames leaving a pile of light grey ash in the golden tray beneath the perch.
“Bloody Hell!” Sirius exclaimed as he backed away quickly. “I’ve killed Dumbledore’s bird!” Remus slowly backed away and looked at Sirius. Hew as very startled that the bird had just caught fire. Ginny and Harry exchanged amused looks as they tried their best to look shocked and confused as well.
Just then, Dumbledore walked into the room. “Professor I didn’t mean to but your bird. It just caught fire,” Sirius explained quickly as he wrung his hands nervously.
Dumbledore let a small laugh escape his lips. “Mr. Black, Fawkes is a phoenix and therefore he can regenerate himself.” Dumbledore stuck a knobby hand into the pile of ash and pulled out a small pink baby bird. The bird blinked at them and quickly recoiled into Dumbledore’s outstretched hand.
Ginny and Harry started giggling but stopped as soon as Dumbledore caught their eyes. Dumbledore’s brilliant blue eyes locked on the scar on Harry’s forehead but seemed to shrug it off. Remus seemed to be processing this in his mind as he nodded slowly and Sirius just looked relieved that he hadn’t done anything wrong for once.
“For your detention, you will be writing apology letters to Mr. Snape. As soon as I approve them, you may go.” Harry snorted with laughter and Ginny held in a giggle. They both thought this was a joke, but obviously it was not. Remus and Sirius had looks of disgust plastered on their faces. All four of them pulled out parchment, quill, and ink and began to write.
Harry wrote at least twelve inches of parchment about being sorry in about fifteen minutes. He reread it twice before handing it to Dumbledore. Dumbledore’s electric blue eyes flew across the page quickly and approved it. Ginny walked up shortly after and hers was approved as well. The two of them walked out of the door and leaned against the wall waiting for the other two to emerge.
After about another half an hour, Remus appeared next to them. It took at least a full hour before Sirius finally came out of the room with a disgusted look on his face.
“That was horrible,” Sirius muttered. “Absolutely horrible.” The four of them began making their way down the hallway to the common room. Sirius seemed to be beating himself up on the inside over what he had put on that parchment.
“I know what you mean, Padfoot,” Remus agreed as he rolled his eyes to the ceiling. “Dear old Dumbledore always has the most creative ideas.”
“I don’t see what all the fuss is about. It could’ve been worse,” Harry replied. The other three stopped dead in their tracks. Sirius and Remus glanced at him open mouthed.
“Harry, that’d be like you having to write an apology letter to Malfoy,” Ginny explained. Harry now had a terrified look in his brown eyes.
“Never mind, that was crazy.” They all laughed as Ginny pushed Harry to the floor. Ginny sped off down the hall and made a sharp right turn as the three boys followed her just behind.