Chapter Eleven

Detention and Détente

Harry Janus Black was being frog-marched through the corridors of Hogwarts by Professor Sprout, en route to the Charms classroom of Professor Flitwick.

'You wait here. One peep out of you and you will be expelled!' Professor Sprout was still very angry. Never in all her years of teaching had she seen a student assault another on the first day of classes.

The rotund witch knocked on the classroom door, and opened it.
'Filius, do you have a moment? I need your assistance with one your Ravens,' she said in a strained tone.

'Ah, err... certainly Pomona,' the minute Professor replied.
'Class, please read the next chapter. If I am not back by the end of class, your homework will be to practice the Doubling Charm, remember the incantation is Gemino. I expect you all to have mastered it by the next class.'

Professor Flitwick stepped out into the corridor, and saw Harry standing there looking dirty and miserable.
'My Office then Pomona, Mr Black?'

The three walked down the corridor to Professor Flitwick's office, at the base of the Ravenclaw tower.

'Filius, Mr Black here has earned a Points loss and a detention for assault on a classmate,' Pomona wasted no time once they were seated.
'He attacked Mr Malfoy in Slytherin, and called Mr Malfoy senior by a most foul name. Furthermore he –'
She was cut off as the door slammed open, and a fuming Professor Snape stepped in.

'Why is it that one of the students in my House is in the Hospital Wing in pain Filius?' he began, in an ice cold tone.
'Black... taking after your good-for-nothing father I see,' were the next words out of his mouth as he saw Harry sitting there.
'Well, Filius? Why is this street fighter not on his way back to whatever slimy hole his father calls a home?'

'Don't you talk about my father like that, giri!' yelled Harry, rising from his chair. Professor Flitwick was quick to push Harry back down again in his seat.
'Mr Black, calm down or do I need to give you a Calming Draught before we can have a discussion?
'And you Severus,' Professor Flitwick looked angrily at his colleague, 'should know better than to insult others. We haven't heard young Harold's side of the tale yet.'

'What is there to tell? You see what a hot-head the brat is. No doubt he attacked Mr Malfoy just because he accidentally got a little mud on him, which is hardly uncommon in Professor Sprout's class,' the greasy-haired man smoothly said.

'Mr Black – Harold – why don't you tell us what happened?' Filius asked the boy. Standing up, he was just at Harry's eye level and looked at him in what he hoped was a reassuring way.

'Era yo quien pago el pato,' Harry muttered in the llanito dialect he had grown up speaking in Gibraltar.
'Hermione and I –'

'Ms Granger, his girlfriend,' Professor Sprout interjected.

'My friend Hermione and I,' Harry continued with a glare, 'were drawing the plant as Sprout –'

'Professor Sprout, Harold,' said Filius.

'Argh, do you want me to tell you or not!'

Professor Flitwick shot him a look, and Harry took a deep breath to calm himself.

'Sorry,' he mumbled.
'Hermione and I were doing what Professor Sprout told us to do, when we were suddenly splashed by a tray full of mud.
'And Drakey Malfoy called me a... Mudblood lover.'

Professors Sprout and Flitwick were disgusted by this. Mudblood was one of the worst invectives used by Wizards, and carried the same weight in Wizarding culture as a Muggle calling someone of African descent by the N-word.

'I lost my temper at that,' Harry continued. 'Malfoy had been bothering me on the train the day before and had used the term then to refer to my – to Hermione, so I was not willing to let that empepinado insult her again.'

'The boy is obviously lying,' Snape said.

'Not so fast Severus! What proof do you have of that?' asked Flitwick.

'Harry, is that the truth?' Professor Sprout asked, her face softened.

Harry nodded in response.

'I believe him. Mr Malfoy was away from his own work table when I noticed the alteration, and there was an empty potting tray lying on the floor.
'Look at the boy, he is dirty all over!'

'I see, I see,' Filius stroked his moustache.
'I believe you assigned him a loss of fifty House Points and detention with Mr Filch, Pomona?'

She nodded in response, and Filius looked Harry straight in the eye.

'The Points loss and detention will stand. Ut-tut-tut,' Harry had began protesting, 'you did throw the first punch and used an equally foul term in response.
'As for Mr Malfoy,' Filius looked at Professor Snape, who had been smirking just now,
'I think an equal punishment would be more than fair. Don't you agree, Pomona?'

'Yes Filius, that sounds fair,' she replied.

Snape was angry again. 'Must I remind you that Mr Malfoy is currently in the hospital wing, severely wounded by this savage here?'

'Mind your words Severus, or do I need to take things up with Minnie and Albus again?' Filius would not let Malfoy get off scot-free.
'Either Mr Black and Mr Malfoy both lose points and serve detention, or neither will!'

'Fine,' Snape grumbled. 'I'll have Mr Malfoy arrive at Mr Filch's office at seven pm, if his injuries will permit such.'

'He'd better be there Severus, or we'll have words,' Flitwick replied.
'If Mr Malfoy is suffering from a broken nose, all he will need is an episkey from Madam Pomfrey, and a pain killer later he will be right as rain.'

Snape left angry, his cloak swirling behind him.

'Mr Black, you will report to me directly after dinner,' Filius told Harry, 'Before your detention I wish to discuss your temper with you.
'Is this all right for you, Pomona?' he asked his colleague.

'Thank you Filius, I knew you would be fair,' Pomona Sprout replied.
'Harry, I hope you will learn to restrain your temper. Even with what Mr Malfoy did and said, I will not tolerate brawling in- or outside the classroom, understood?'

'Yes'm,' Harry replied, not looking up.
'May I go now Professors?'

'Head directly to your common room Harry. Your girlfriend is probably waiting for you,' Filius replied with a dismissive wave.

'She's not my – argh!' Harry stood up, and walked out of the office.

'He's got a temper, that one,' Pomona replied.

'Perhaps the Headmaster was right to warn us about the son of the notorious Sirius Black?'

'We should not judge him by his father Poma, but I agree, his temper is troublesome. I hope he will listen tonight.'

Harry stamped up the long stairs to the Ravenclaw Common Room, fuming in anger.

'The rolling hills, the heart that beats forever,
The land that never changes, never stills.
Ploughed by travelers far from home, not planted,
White in anger, green in peace, and always blue.

What am I?' asked the eagle knocker.

Harry stood there, forcing himself to calm down as he thought of an answer.
'Farmland? No... wait... that's not it. Are you the ocean?'

'Very well young Raven. Step inside.'

The door opened and Harry entered the Common Room. The room was half filled with people, among them all the firsties. Hermione took one look at him, then huffed in anger and rushed up the stairs to the girl's quarters, the other girls following her. It looked like she had been crying.

'Now what did I do?' Harry asked of his dorm mates.

'Never mind that, girls are crazy. What happened? Are you expelled? Did they whip you?' the boys asked, their voices overlapping as they rushed him with questions.

'I lost fifty Points,' Harry said, causing the others to groan. A third-year who overheard them shot Harry a dirty look.
'And I have detention with Filch tonight.'

'Dammit Harry, fifty Points? That will set us dead last for the Cup! How could you –'

'It's not my fault! It's that git of a cousin of mine!' Harry cried in defence. 'At least he got the same punishment for starting it, and has to serve detention as well.'

Harry felt an older hand on his shoulder, and saw Robert Hilliard looking down at him with a disappointed look.

'Harry, as Prefect of the House I'm giving you an official warning. Until you have earned those fifty Points back, you are on probation in the House.
'It's only because you managed to also cost Slytherin the same loss, that you're not in any more problems.
'Now you'd better get started on your homework, dinner starts soon and you won't have time later.'

Harry nodded his assent, and sat down at the firsties' table with Michael, Terry, Steve, and Kevin. The girls did not come down until it was time to leave for dinner, and Hermione was ignoring Harry's attempts to speak to her. She still had puffy eyes from crying.

A miserable young wizard sat at the dinner table, Steve, Padma and Mandy between him and Hermione. All the girls were glaring at him from time to time.

The jeers from the Gryffindor table about 'trouble in paradise, love birds?', led by the red-headed git Harry mentally now called 'mo-Ron Weasley', didn't help to improve his mood either. Harry was especially annoyed to see Neville Longbottom sit next to Ron Weasley, he had thought they Neville was (or could become) a friend. Even if the Longbottom boy didn't appear to take part in the teasing, by allying with Ron Harry felt Neville had chosen to go against him and Hermione.

He again tried to talk to Hermione as dinner ended, only to be told by a rather cold Lisa Turpin:
'She's very upset right now, Harold. You can apologise later if she will let you.'

Harry nodded in understanding, and went to Professor Flitwick's office. Flitwick gave him a long lecture on the importance of holding one's temper and never to use physical violence or curse hexes but always get a teacher instead.

Then it was time for detention. Mr Filch was a nasty old man, who looked at Harry as if he saw a bug to be stepped on.

'Well well well,' he said as Harry and Draco were standing in Filch's office, 'we are in trouble. 'tis a shame the Headmaster has abolished the old punishments, a night on the rack would cure your brawling spirits... this country is going to the dogs I tell you.' The Hogwarts janitor seemed to stare off into nothingness a bit, probably dreaming of torture instruments, then looked back at the two boys.
'Right you miserable lot, follow me.'

Mr Filch took them to the Trophy Room, filled with cups, scales, and other trophies ranging back hundreds of years.

'You, Black, polish the left side of the room – and no magic!
'You, Malfoy, do the same for the right.'

'What!' spluttered the blond. 'Cleaning work? When my father hears about this –'

'Your father knows that bad little boys get punished here, oh yes he's had his share of detentions here back in his day. Now get cleaning, and no talking!'

Mr Filch put up a chair, and sat down, stroking his cat. The two boys worked in silence.

Finally it was approaching seven thirty, and Filch let them go.

'Wait up Draco,' said Harry as they left the room.
'I apologise for the punch earlier. But I mean it when I said you can't insult Hermione around me.'

'And why should I accept your apology?'

'Because I know your father wants to be friends with my father. Truce? You will stop insulting me, and I will pretend you are a friend next time we have a family meeting?'

Malfoy carefully considered Harry's stretched out hand.

'All right, it's a truce, Black. I won't insult her, but I won't act nice to your pet Mud– to your girlfriend either,' he corrected himself.

'Why does everybody say that, we are just friends!' cried Harry. Just then Mr Filch's cat, Mrs Norris, walked out of the Trophy Room.

'Oh shit, curfew!' The boys ran for their respective common rooms.

Harry made it to the top of the tower just in time, not even registering the riddle as he answered it in a breathless tone.

Hermione was not there waiting for him.

A/N: I have Harry use some llanito terms here when he is really upset. Llanito (pronounced Yanito) is the Spanish-Italian-English pidgin spoken by people in Gibraltar. The term probably comes from the Genoan (Italian) name Gianni, as a large part of Gibraltar's population is of Genoan origin.
Giri: a llanito term for British people, roughly equivalent to 'limey'. I don't know its origin.
Era yo quien pago el pato: literally 'I paid the duck'. The expression sort of means 'I was blamed'.
Empepinado: stuffed with cucumbers. Meaning stupid/mad/foolish etc..

If you think Hermione is being too unreasonable here regarding Harry, please keep in mind that while they both are smart eleven year olds, they're still eleven year old kids. Hermione is not exactly a stable person at this time (canon!Hermione spends all day crying in a bathroom over an insult), and Harry tries to act more mature than he is, but you've seen he has a short temper by now.

This chapter beta'd by marijeme, all remaining errors are mine.

My story recommendation is Perceval23's incredible Fairy Tales with story ID 6883400. A description won't do it justice, just read it if you like fairy tales, Harry, and Luna Lovegood being Luna.