Chapter 14: Expulsion? Detention?

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"But!"

"Miss Granger has come to me saying you used a curse on her, Miss Incendie. You must know that it is against the rules to practice magic between classes, on week-ends, and especially, to curse people."

Vanella looked down at her hands. This was going to be hard. Dumbledore could make anyone feel horrible; she didn't know how her father did it. "Professor—"

"What makes it worse is that I trusted you. I let you into this school knowing who you are, whom you could possibly grow up to be. Yet, I didn't care. I thought you might be different than your father, and by taking you into my school I might be able to help you grow in the side of light. It is my fault. I was wrong."

Vanella stared in shock, the goldfish-look firmly in place. "You—"she stammered. "You know who I am?"

Dumbledore met her gaze evenly, and she realized that he wasn't angry with her as much as he was angry with himself. "I know who you are supposed to be, but only you know who you are. Or who you are to become." He leaned back, his ice blue eyes boring into her own Sapphires. "Do you want to become your father?"

She shook her head. In all honesty, she didn't know what she wanted. She wanted his power without doing all of his unforgivable crimes.

"Then why are you torturing fellow students?"

She shrugged. She didn't want to tell him. She wanted the conversation over. She wanted to leave his office, whether she was walking out of the castle for good or not.

She asked the question she had been afraid to ask since he retrieved her. "Professor, am I expelled?"

Dumbledore stood and walked over to his phoenix. "No, Miss Incendie, you are not expelled. You should be, but you are not."

Vanella let out a relieved breath and sat up straighter. She wasn't expelled, so what was she?

Then there was a knock on Dumbledore's door. He called to the door to allow them to come in, and nodded to the entering Professor McGonagall.

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Harry sat, quietly munching on bacon in the Great Hall. Most of the students were off doing something else, only the latest of the late risers were still eating breakfast. Unfortunately, Draco Malfoy was one of them.

"Well, Potter. It was some good dueling you showed out there."

"Why thank you, Malfoy. How kind of you to bother me during my bacon to tell me," Harry said, still munching.

Professor Quirrell, their stuttering Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, interrupted their somewhat-civil conversation.

"H-h-harry Potter, you n-need to come t-to Professor D-d-dumbledore's office," the teacher stammered.

Harry swallowed, thinking he knew what this was about.

"F-f-follow me, please."

Harry nodded a farewell to Draco before moving to follow his Professor. He noticed the turban the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor was wearing. Studying it, he felt an itching pain in his scar. He grabbed it, still following his Professor, but it didn't hurt when he wasn't looking at the back of Quirrell's head. He found this curious, but thought nothing of it.

They made it to Dumbledore's office shortly, Quirrell giving the password to the gargoyle and motioning for Harry to follow him up the stairs. Professor McGonagall, Professor Dumbledore, and, Harry was surprised to see, Vanella were sitting in the room. Curious, he thought.

Professor McGonagall was the first to speak to Harry. "You were fighting with one of my students, Mr. Potter. For that you have one detention with Filch, then another week's worth with your Head of House." 'Head of House' came out like a hiss, as if it was poison to her mouth to say 'your Head of House' instead of 'me.'

Harry thought about that, and came to the conclusion that Dumbledore had come up with his punishment. "Why is she here?" he asked, indicating to Vanella.

"She also has attacked one of my students."

Vanella remained silent, but Harry gaped. "Also?  Also?  I didn't attack one of your students! He attacked me!"

"I highly doubt that Mr. Ron Weasley would do such a thing." McGonagall seemed pretty set in her ways, and Harry doubted he could prove his own innocence. "Your detentions will start on Monday. For participating in this fight, Ron is also getting detention with Filch when the time comes."

Vanella then spoke. "Actually, Professor, it is possible that Ron would attack Harry."

McGonagall looked at her sharply, so she continued.

"He was probably angry that I attacked his...erm, friend, so he attacked mine. It would make perfect sense if you thought about it." She had a superior tone in her voice, as if stating the obvious to kindergartners. "He wanted to do the same to me that I did to him. Unfortunately, it backfired." She smirked, ever-so-Slytherin. "I guess he's not a very good dueler."

Dumbledore cleared his throat. "Professor Quirrell, fetch Severus, if you would. We need to consult Harry's Head of House before punishing him."

Quirrell nodded and exited the room.

"Harry, sit down." Dumbledore conjured up a chair next to Vanella, and Harry sat.

Professor McGonagall leaned against a wall, waiting for Dumbledore to continue, as she knew he would.

"How did this happen, Harry?"

"The whole story, Professor?"

"Yes."

"Well, I was walking to the Great Hall, late today, because I was reading up on my spells this morning, when Weasley saw me and started running at me. He yelled 'You,' and I said, 'what.'"

"Then what?"

"Then he said something about 'your friend,' and tried to attack me. I deflected it with the Glass Wall spell, and threw 'Deieci' at him, then when he was down, used 'Deligavi.'"

At this Dumbledore looked interested. "Why didn't you just use 'Deligavi'? It would have had the same effects with one less spell and less injured bystanders."

Harry looked sheepish. "I didn't think of it until after, when he started moving again."

Professor McGonagall snorted.

Vanella sat quietly.

"Am I allowed to ask, Miss Incendie, why you didn't use something less painful?"

"I couldn't think of anything more fitting. Besides, I haven't done all the reading he has—"she pointed a thumb at Harry "—so that was the only one I knew of."

McGonagall stared. "What curse did you use, Incendie?"

"Miss Incendie, Minerva," Dumbledore corrected.

"Miss Incendie?"

"I used the Flaming Insides curse, Professor."

"Flaming Insides?"

"Harry told me about it."

McGonagall's eyes flicked to Harry, to Vanella, then back to Harry. "You're looking at curses, Potter?"

"Mr. Potter," Dumbledore corrected.

"Mr. Potter?" McGonagall repeated, getting annoyed.

As Harry's savior walked into the room, in the form of Severus.

"What's the urgency, Headmaster, that you disturbed my sensitive experiment. I do hope it's very important, because that experiment was necessary to my studies, and now I must redo it."

Professor McGonagall spoke up. "That'll be alright, Severus. You'll have help. I believe Mr. Potter and Miss Incendie are rather skilled in your department." She was wearing a tight smile.

Severus turned to her, and back to Dumbledore. "What does she mean by that, Albus?" he snarled.

Dumbledore sighed—a sad one this time. "It would appear, Severus, that two of your students have been fighting with others."

"Fighting, Headmaster? Surely that doesn't usually require a trip to your office."

"Well, Vanella here has done a particularly nasty spell on one Hermione Granger—"

Severus sneered.

"—and Harry out-dueled Ron Weasley after provocation."

"What is the point of my presence?"

"Severus, we need you to approve the punishment. You should know that."

Severus sighed. "What exactly did my two Slytherins do?"

Dumbledore filled him in on the day's events.

Severus leaned against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest. "What punishment did you agree upon?"

"Detention with you for a specified amount of time, and one with Filch."

"Why one with Filch?"

"Hagrid needs someone to go into the Forbidden Forest to try and find a dying unicorn. It'll be a while before he needs someone, but when he does, these two will be helping."

"Then, I'll ask once again, what do you need me for?"

"You are their Head of House, so you are the one their detentions will be served with."

"So... because I'm the one that has to deal with them, I get to chose the specified amount of time," he snarled.

Dumbledore nodded, a twinkle beginning to show.

Severus pondered it. "I say we give Miss Incendie three weeks with me and one with Filch, and since what Mr. Potter here did wasn't as bad, give him one week and one with Filch.

Any problems?" His question was aimed at Minerva, who snorted.

"I think your letting them off easy."

"Oh? And what will you be doing to your precious Gryffindors? Ron Weasley did start the fight, after all."

"Yes, but he had justified reason."

"Harry was exhibiting self-defense!"

"And I suppose that's what Miss Incendie was doing as well?"

Severus sneered. "Well, you never know with Miss Granger."

It was then that Dumbledore ushered Vanella and Harry out of the room to avoid them hearing the adult's argument.

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Author's Note: Sorry I wasn't able to put more up yesterday, but I really did have to do that Algebra work. I have to say: I'm not sure when the next update will be, because I'm going to my father's house tomorrow, and I really can't upload from there. I can type the chapters, but I'd need to either use one of my school's computers or wait until next Friday. Besides, I've got to finish a ton of work for school and need a little break. Anyway, I got 6 reviews on Chapter 13 so far and am going to answer them all:

BlackSparrow: Thanks. Poor Hermione, I know, but someone had to do it. By a 'you/Harry' or a 'you/Draco' do you mean actually me or a new character? I don't know, maybe...

starangel2106: Awesome. Yea, I need to get stuff done. It's just not happening, unfortunately. Yep, detention for Vanella, Dumbledore's way. Harry definitely (that's the way to spell it) is only getting Detention with Snape. Unfortunately, I need both of them for detention for things to go the way I want, and Vanella more than Harry, so that's the way it was. Ron will have a Detention with Filch... er... Hagrid, actually... oh, into the Forest we go! Thanks.

Kayla Summers: I figured it would. What next? Good question. I don't know.

Hakkai – Gojyo – Goku – Sanzo: Did I do that name right? Ah, anyways... She just got detention, no worries. But torturing Hermione? Maybe she had it coming eventually, but on the second day of school? Yea, she'll be fine. A little ruffled, yes, but fine.

shirriez: It would be amusing to watch Harry and Ron fight, I think. Though I also think that Harry would out-duel Ron any day... which is what happened here, I believe... anyways. Yea she is, I know. Once again, another thing she is that I am not (hopefully). We should get to know more later [hint, hint]. But for now.... Detention with Snape!

essex1: I'm sorry you feel that way, then. I tried to keep it interesting, and find I succeeded with some and lost some others. I think she's believable, or I wouldn't be writing her in, but one is allowed to have opinions. As for Mary Sue... I probably shouldn't go into that. If you didn't, go back to Chapter 10 and read my response to 'Saturnine the Possesive' because I explain about that there. Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed the fist five.

That's it for now. No translations this chapter. In the next will be the first class where they learn how to fly, and the first detention with Snape... a surprise there, too... you'll have to wait and see!