Chapter III: Detention
George awoke early the next morning to the sound of pouring rain. Thinking longingly of the summer behind him, he untangled himself from his covers. Yawning, he pulled on his robes and headed down to the great hall for breakfast.
Walking over to the Gryffindor table, he spotted Fred and Lee. George took a seat beside them and listened into their whispered conversation.
"So how do you think we can play Quidditch without getting caught?" Fred said, checking that no one was listening.
The twins had been crazy about Quidditch ever since they were old enough to fly a broom and the thought of them not being able to play all year didn't hold up well.
"Maybe we could…" Fred started.
"Sneak into the grounds after dark?" continued George.
"Nah- first years aren't allowed having brooms…" Lee frowned as he thought.
They were soon interrupted, though, by about a hundred owls flying overhead. Most were carrying parcels or letters. To George's amazement, an owl fluttered down in front of him. Swallowing his mouthful of porridge, he took the letter from the owl, opened it and read it out loud.
Dear Fred and George,
Hope you both have a great first day at school. Ooh yes, and BE GOOD.
Lots of love,
Mum.
George smiled to himself, wondering what she would say if she knew that Fred and himself had already gotten into trouble.
Looking down the table he saw Professor McGonagall passing out timetables. She passed one to George and, looking down at it, he saw that his first class was Potions with Professor Snape.
Having just finished their breakfast, Fred, George and Lee all headed towards the dungeons. On their way down yet another flight of stairs the boys ran into Peeves.
"Hey look! A pair of Weasels and ickle Lee" Peeves said, cracking a huge grin and flipping upside down.
The boys laughed admiringly. Peeves, looking crestfallen, turned right side up and zoomed down the hall, cursing under his breath.
They continued down the dimly lit hall and entered the Potions classroom.
"You're late." The voice of Professor Snape, the potions master, rang throughout the classroom. "Five points each from Gryffindor."
The boys glared at him as they found seats in the very back of the class.
The rest of their classes weren't nearly as horrid as Potions.
They had double Herbology with the Hufflepuffs right after, where they learned about Devils Snare. George dropped his on the ground and it immediately started to climb up Katie Bell's leg.
Professor Sprout bustled her way over to them, pushing the twins out of the way. She muttered under her breath and pointed her wand at Katie's leg. As blue flame erupted from its end and landed on the floor beside Katie. At once the Devils Snare released her leg, trying to get as far away from the heat as possible.
"You see, Devils Snare likes cold, damp and dark places." She said, picking up the plant and quickly dropping it into its pot. Luckily, Professor Sprout thought it was an accident and didn't take any points away from them.
The boys were overjoyed that they had the afternoons off. They used their extra time to sit in the Gryffindor common room and discuss once again how they could play Quidditch. Each idea was as unlikely as the next and after a while of discussing, they came to the conclusion that perhaps they were beat and would have to just watch as the house teams played.
It was nearly time for them to go down to Professor McGonagall's office, so they decided to head down, figuring that it wouldn't be the wisest decision to arrive late for detention.
Lee Jordan joined Fred and George as they walked to McGonagall's office. However, when they reached the floor her office was on, Lee told them he had somewhere to be and continued going down the stairs.
"Thanks a lot…" Fred began.
"…for leaving us to our doom." George called after him.
They knocked at the office door and McGonagall let them in. She passed them each a piece of paper, a quill and a fresh bottle of ink and instructed them to sit down.
"You will both write lines for what you did. Humiliating your fellow students is not acceptable." She stated in a lecturing tone. "You will each write out "I will not purposefully embarrass my fellow classmates." until all of the ink is gone." She said, her lips were pursed tightly together, forming a thin line.
"I need to go check something. I will be back in half an hour." She said crossing over to the door.
George eyed Fred and smiled. McGonagall turned around, just before she walked out of the room.
"And don't even think about using magic to get out of this one. The ink, quill and parchment all have spells on them to prevent you from cheating." She turned on her heel and walked out.
George looked down at his parchment, took his quill and loaded it with ink. Placing it to the surface of the parchment, he wrote out the sentence.
I will not purposefully embarrass my fellow classmates.
I will not purposefully embarrass my fellow classmates.
I will not purposefully embarrass my fellow classmates.
It wasn't as bad as he thought. He reloaded his quill and once again placed it back on the parchment.
I will not purposefully embarrass my fellow classmates…
It had been about twenty five minutes and, looking down at his progress, he was startled to find out that he had barely finished a fifth of his ink. He looked over at Fred's and he too had barely finished any.
Looking back at his own quill, he took out his wand. Maybe McGonagall was lying to try and scare them. He charmed the quill, and it stood up and wrote out the words in shining black ink across his parchment.
I will not purposefully embarrass my fellow classmates.
Fred smiled and did the same. However, just as his twin had uttered the incantation, George's quill went mad, and began to write the lines all over George with such force that he could not pull it off.
George managed a side glance at his brother. Fred's face was covered in shimmering black ink and he had fallen to the ground. They both caught each others eye and began laughing hysterically.
Right at this moment, Professor McGonagall walked back into her classroom. She took in the sight before her with a swift glance, and smiling a rare smile, said "Did I not warn you?" waving her wand, the quills fell to the ground. Fred stood up, still chuckling and wiping away tears from his face. George, grinning widely, tried to rub off some of the ink.
"Dr. Octopie's Non-Washable Ink." She said with a twinkle in her eye. "You'll have to head up to the Hospital Wing to get that off. I think you both have learned your lesson. Now go, before I change my mind and make you write more lines for disobeying my orders." She said, the smile vanishing.
George thanked her and the twins left, still chuckling, and headed towards the Hospital Wing.
