Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.
Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.
Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.
Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.
Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.
Notes: Just detention ... oh, and a kiss.
Chapter 26: The Cave
Even though Harry wasn't the only one who had to serve detention with Professor Snape that Saturday it felt like a torture specifically designed for him. Mary followed him down from Gryffindor tower to Professor Snape's office silently. The four Ravenclaws were already outside waiting. At least that proved that the girl Harry had cursed had recovered. Nevertheless she was the last person Harry had wanted to meet.
Luckily she didn't say anything, but just glared at Harry so darkly that Mary sought shelter behind his back.
It was a good thing that Professor Snape arrived shortly after the two Gryffindors and let them into not his office, though that had been the location given on Harry's detention slip, but an empty classroom next to it. It didn't make a big difference, of course. They wouldn't be able to hear a sound from the Quidditch pitch here any more than they would have in the office.
The Professor assigned each of them a desk with a filing box on it, the Ravenclaws on one side of the classroom, the Gryffindors on the other and ordered them to check the files for legibility and copy those that were too faded to read easily onto fresh ... detention forms.
Harry started to pull files out of his box and found to his surprise that they were indeed detention records from some twenty years ago. About every second or third one seemed to be about 'James No. 6' and 'Sirius'. There never were any last names mentioned of course but Harry was quite sure he knew who those two boys had been and he really wished not to be reminded of either who his father was or that Uncle Sirius was dead.
Did Professor Snape know about his secret exchange of owls with Uncle Sirius? Harry had never told him, of course, but Professor Dumbledore knew and might have shared the information.
Time seemed to crawl and Harry suddenly became aware that there had been no end time stated on his detention slip. How long would Professor Snape keep them?
The Quiddich teams were probably already in the changing rooms now. Would they get a chance to see the end of the match? Harry crossed his fingers and hoped that it would be a long game.
Now the game would be starting. Katie and Theodore, the Ravenclaw captain, would shake hands, mount their brooms and push off.
Cho would most likely rise high straight away and then circle wide. What would Ginevra do? Would she circle as well or hover in the middle of the field ready to dart in any direction the moment she spotted the golden glint of the snitch?
Either strategy had its advantages and downsides.
Ten minutes into the game, fifteen minutes, half an hour, fifty minutes, an hour ...
Professor Snape gave no sign of even being aware what time it was. He was grading essays. Maybe he'd simply let them go when he'd finished the stack? It looked awfully high, though.
Over an hour later Professor Snape finally sat up, put the last sheet of parchment back on the stack, got up ... and carried the stack out only to return with a new one.
By the time he finally dismissed them it was quite dark outside and the game had to be long over.
When the Fat Lady swung aside to let them in Harry could hear that the victory party was in full swing and when he stepped through the portrait hole heads turned and an obviously tipsy Ginevra rushed towards him, slung her arms around him and kissed him full on the mouth.
Oh well, perhaps he could live with her playing better than him after all.
Still it would have been nicer if he'd gotten to watch the game and be kissed as he explained to Hermione the next morning.
"Well, then you should have been a little more cautious about that Prince fellow," she declared. "Or girl, actually," she added to his surprise and proceeded to show him an old article about one Eileen Prince captain of the Hogwarts gobstone club.
For a moment Harry was excited, but then he saw the date of the article. This girl had been at Hogwarts fifty years ago while Professor Snape the self-confessed inventor of the Sectumsempra spell which the Half-Blood Prince had copied had been in the same year as his parents about twenty years ago as his detention had so annoyingly reminded him.
Eileen Prince could not have written down a spell thirty years before it had been invented.