"Ow…oh god, my head…"
The party had ended once the last of the Gryffindors had passed out, which was at about 3:30 that morning.
Danny looked down at the watch he was wearing ("When did I get this?"). It read 5:46. He hadn't been the first to wake up, as he saw most of the seventh years (the ones that were awake) placing Sobriety charms on themselves and on their peers.
The first, second and third years were gone, having been led to the dormitories after everyone kept tripping over their feet, and the people who had already cast their Sobriety charms were now leading the other passed out people to their dormitories for a couple of hours of sleep to start the day.
Besides Danny, the only other fifth year awake in the common room was Hermione, who seemed to have already mastered and cast the N.E.W.T. level charm on herself the second she realized she had a raging hangover. She was walking around with a giant garbage back that seemed to never fill up, cleaning up after everyone and muttering to herself about Elfish welfare.
Danny unwrapped himself from Sam's arms, being careful not to wake her up and let her lay down on the spot where he'd been sitting. He took a quick glance at Tucker, who had occupied the chair with Parvati again. They were sleeping, Parvati on his lap and her head on his shoulder.
Shooing Hermione and her wand away, he walked up to the boys' dormitories, where the only ones awake and sober were Seamus and Dash playing a game of what looked to be like normal Go Fish. They both nodded to Danny in recognition and he nodded back, walking to his bed and collapsing in it, closing the curtains around him to try and get some more comfortable sleep.
Four hours later, the Gryffindor common room was in a panic.
"Has anyone seen my shoe?"
"Give me back my quill!"
"Can we all just lower our voices please?"
"Where's my watch??"
Most of the students had gotten over their hangovers, with the help of Hermione and the seventh years, but there were still people who were sleeping that they needed to wake up or people still spinning with a hangover that needed Sobriety charms in order to not get into any trouble.
By the time the seventh years went to class, only the hung over fifth years remained. Hermione, having no time to do any more spells on her own, had no choice but to let them go to class that way. She crossed her fingers and hoped that Potions that day wouldn't be so horrible.
They all had twenty minutes to get to class, and most of them were still walking wobbly. And they had Potions first. Snape was definitely not going to make things easy for them.
"Today we will be brewing a Calming Draught. Not exactly O.W.L. level, but it does tend to pop up unexpectedly. The instructions are on the board, ingredients are in the store cupboard. You have an hour. Start."
The Slytherins shot up and out of their seats to get the better half of the ingredients while the Gryffindor 5th years walked at a slow and steady pace, grabbing hold of anything to keep themselves walking steady. Once they were back in their seats, they started to read the instructions on the board, a couple of them grabbing their heads to keep them from spinning.
Seamus and Dash had partnered up, making them the only sober pair in the class. They set to work on the potion almost immediately, having no repercussions whatsoever. Danny and Tucker were working together, as were Harry and Ron, and they were having a hard time at putting the steps in order. Sam was with Hermione, so while Snape wasn't watching, she cast a Sobering charm on her. Dean and Neville were hopeless. The sniggers coming from the Slytherins made everything worse.
By the time Snape had begun to walk around the classrooms, almost every potion made by the Gryffindors were worse than failures.
"This potion is at a 3rd year level, and none of you can get it right. And most of you are causing accidents. Pull yourself together, or eventually you won't have any points left in your House."
He walked around the classroom some more, and stopped at Danny and Tucker's. What was supposed to be a light blue looked like muddy water and smelled of turpentine. "Well Fenton, seems like that streak of yours is over. Evanesco."
The contents of the cauldron disappeared, but Danny and Tucker hadn't noticed. They knew they were getting zero marks for the day, but at this point, the sound of anything was enough to give them pounding headaches, and with all the small chattering that the Slytherins were doing about the Gryffindors, they were about ready to collapse. If that wasn't bad enough for Danny, his ghost sense went off, and a voice was heard vibrating off the walls of the dungeon.
"Hello Daniel. You look positively horrible."
The whispers from the Slytherins ended as they looked around for the source of the noise. Their eyes fell on the two glowing red ones floating just above Danny's head.
He rubbed his temples and looked around for a few seconds, finally meeting the eyes of Plasmius. Danny groaned, gently putting his head into his hands and rubbing his eyes, not seeming to care about the words that came out of his mouth.
"What do you want, Vlad? I'm not exactly up for a fight now with you right now."
"Oh really?" Vlad sighed. "Tut tut. I guess you're right, I mean you look positively awful."
"Shut up, Vlad. Even without a hangover, your voice gives me pounding headaches. And how do you know about the school Houses? You're not…" Danny sighed. "You know what, I don't even care. Can you come back later?"
"Are you sure you weren't doing anything heroic at the time—"
"Just go, Vlad!"
Plasmius sneered at Danny before turning invisible and leaving.
"I will be back, Daniel. Count on it."
The voice echoed across the dungeon, and before it finished vibrating off the walls, Snape's hovering figure appeared right behind the spot Vlad was standing on. He sneered ten times worse than Plasmius did, and sent a letter to Professor McGonagall with one of the Slytherins, taking off 50 points in one sitting.
Malfoy was waiting outside of the classroom for the Gryffindors to exit, holding his textbooks far apart. When they walked out, he smashed them together, and six of the ten Gryffindors hissed and glared at Malfoy, Danny being one of them. At Malfoy's snigger, Sam glared as well, and he cringed, almost as if he felt sorry for her.
Danny's glare was the one that made Malfoy look away, as a glowing green tint overcame the blue. Malfoy stared, unable to look away until Danny did, and then walked quickly in the opposite direction.
Danny and the other 5th years begged and pleaded with Hermione for a Sobering charm right as Professor McGonagall appeared. They scattered, but she managed to get a hold on Danny, Harry and Hermione, and led them to her office.
"I am absolutely disgusted! How is it possible that it hasn't even been a month into the new year and already 50 points have been taken from the Gryffindor house?" she yelled, making Danny groan and close his eyes.
"Oh, for heaven's sake." She held out her wand. "Siccus Abstentis." The pounding Danny had had vanished. The world had stopped spinning in place, and he was no longer dizzy.
"Don't think that you'll be getting off that easy! Maybe I ought to take another 50 points from your house, teach you a lesson!"
Hermione frowned. "But Professor, we didn't do anything! We were just there, where we were supposed to be, in the common room!"
Harry and furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "Uh, Professor, I don't know if I should be asking this, but why am I here?"
"Professor Umbridge sent you and Mr. Fenton here last week, do you remember? But due to an unfortunate event that side-tracked you two on your way here," Professor McGonagall looked over to Danny, "you never actually made it to my office."
"Err, right. Sorry about that." Danny said, scratching the back of his neck.
McGonagall turned back to Harry. "Mr. Potter, you need to know that Umbridge isn't exactly the woman she looks as though she might be. She has her own way of doing things, and she has every right to do them. Tread carefully around Dolores Umbridge, for she does not play by our book.
"Mr. Potter and Mr. Fenton, you two have detention with Professor Umbridge. Mr. Fenton, you have today, Tuesday and Wednesday until 5 o'clock, and Mr. Potter you have Thursday and Friday until 7 o'clock."
"This has to be the worst Monday of my life."
The six of them were heading back towards the castle once they were dismissed from Care of Magical Creatures with Professor Grubby-Plank. Things went pretty smoothly in that class, no accidents like mixing wrong ingredients, dropping crystal balls, or falling asleep on their textbooks, though they were still stuck with the same question: Where was Hagrid?
"So, is that class always going to be as simple as examining little twig bugs?" Danny asked.
"No, Hagrid has a tendency to make things a bit more…interesting. And that's putting it lightly," Harry explained.
"Yeah, one time he took us into the forest to see hippogriffs, and almost got sacked because of it," Ron said.
Danny, Sam and Tucker nodded. "Alright then. Here's hoping he comes back soon. That had to be the most boring class all day."
Dinnertime was a lot less chaotic than most of the Gryffindors had predicted. From what they had been through in the morning, they expected groans and moans, and cups spilling. But by the time they all gathered in the Great Hall, the hangovers had disappeared and everything was back to normal.
If anything, the worst thing was that someone's plate had fallen and broken onto the floor…at the Ravenclaw table. Luna Lovegood was seen looking upwards towards one of the high windows (apparently pointing out a Blibbering Humding), not even noticing the contents of her plate scattered on the floor.
Maybe the party hadn't been such a bad idea after all, Danny wondered.
——————3 WEEKS LATER——————
MONDAY, 27TH SEPTEMBER
The Daily Prophet.
MINISTRY SEEKS EDUCATIONAL REFORM: EDUCATIONAL DECREE NUMBER TWENTY-THREE.
Dolores Umbridge Approved First-Ever Hogwarts "High Inquisitor"
—…—…—…—…—…—…—…—…—…—
BY ORDER OF DOLORES UMBRIDGE, HOGWARTS HIGH INQUISITOR
No festivities are to be planned without the consent of Dolores Umbridge or without written formal consent signed by both Dolores Umbridge and the current headmaster at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
The above is in accordance with Educational Decree Number Twenty-Four
Ministry of Magic Signed Dolores Jane Umbridge
A/N - 7/17/09 - Me no like this chapter. It's so annoyinggg. BUT LOOK AT THE DATES PEOPLEEEEE!!!!!!! I'm editing that, so if your reading this and then later on it's different, it's cus I'm still working on it.
