Someday, I will own something of great value. This will not be Harry Potter, as J K Rowling already owns it.

Detention and Thestrals

The next morning, Ryua was called to Snape's office directly after breakfast. To her immense relief, he was alone, no ministry wizards, dementors, Dumbledore, or Umbridge. Hopefully, that meant she wasn't in too much trouble. She'd slept very well, mostly because Pansy was absolutely terrified all night long and hadn't made a sound, and she didn't want to wreck the good mood.

"Ryua, please sit down," Snape said, indicating his other chair. She did, and looked up at him. "The good news is, you're still in Hogwarts, and I think it is still possible to retain your captaincy as well. You may have to empty a bit more of your family's vaults, for that."

"Ugh. Fine, I don't care, as long as I keep the team. So… if you gave me good news…"

He sighed. "The bad news is that Umbridge has given you detention from now until Christmas."

Ryua was quiet for a moment, calculating in her mind. "…Sir… I don't think I can physically do her detentions for a month and a half… I might lose my hand." She was entirely serious; that much cutting would wear the bone down to the point it wouldn't support even regular muscle tension, let alone Quidditch.

"I know that, and so does she. You will end up with scars on your other hand as well… to give the first time to heal."

"Wonderful…"

"It is entirely your fault, Ryua. If I hadn't convinced Miss Parkinson to say, truthfully of course, that you hadn't actually pulled your wand, you would have a much different scar by Christmas. You will report to her every day, excluding Fridays and Saturdays, from after dinner until eleven."

"Yes sir." Ryua said, more humbly than she'd spoken to most in her life.

"For what it's worth, I am sorry." He said as he opened the door. She left, without saying anything else.

Her silence ended when she got back to her dorm room and discovered Pansy pulling out her lethifold, the other contents of her trunk spread over her bed. "What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?"

"Oh, Professor Umbridge told me to make sure you didn't have anything useable for sneaking around, or illegal possessions."

Ryua became extremely glad she'd given most of her potions ingredients to Snape for safekeeping. "So you're going through my stuff?"

"Of course. Draco would be the better choice, since he knows what you have, but he's not allowed in here. So, the chore fell on my poor, overworked shoulders."

The worst thing, Ryua thought, is that I can't do a thing about it. Not if I want to stay in Hogwarts, that is. Suppressing a rather animalistic growl, Ryua grabbed her snake, which had crawled down off of her shoulders to try and bite Pansy, and left. She did berate the team, up and down. Cassie, Ashley, and Pucey looked properly shamefaced, and Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle at least looked terrified. She spent the rest of the all-too short day doing homework, and working as far ahead as possible, until dinner rolled around.

She went up early, Parsyl left back in the common room. Ryua knew the cobra would bite Umbridge if given such a ripe opportunity as detention. Wandering the corridors, she saw a rather dejected Fred and George walking. Not strutting, sneaking, or with pockets full of barely-legal merchandise, just walking. "What happened to you two?"

"You ought to have an easy job of winning the cup, Malfoy."

"Me, Fred, 'n'Harry all got kicked off the team."

"For good."

"A lifelong ban."

"And she even took our brooms!" Fred wailed.

Ryua was aghast. "That little, insignificant, irritating-as-hell, puffed-pastry lumpy bitch. I'm so sorry. Although, I'm barely on the team myself."

"What?"

"Why? What did you do?"

"I had a go at torturing Pansy Parkinson for that stupid song. Snape caught me before I got very far, which is why I'm still here, but I've got detention till Christmas, and I'll have to bribe her for the captaincy."

"Ouch. She use that quill on you too?"

"Harry's hand always looked nasty."

"Just a minute…" they both said.

"Why'd you care about the song?"

"It did a brilliant job of demoralizing us…"

Ryua sighed. "Because, I can't stand that sort of thing. I've got no compulsions about playing dirty, or hard, or even forthright cheating if it's absolutely necessary. I don't have any reservations about injuring, torturing, or even killing people. But, striking out like that, it smacks of childish squabbling, of two-year-olds saying 'my dad's better than your dad'. It's degrading, it takes no talent or thought… and besides. It's my team. Mine, not hers. And I want to win the cup my way. It takes away from the whole thing to let her do all the work."

The twins were silent for a minute. "Man. Slytherins with honor."

"What next?"

She smiled a bit. "I meant what I said, about torturing people…"

Fred blanched. "Erm, right… maybe we'll just go to dinner now…"

"Excellent idea… Bye Ryua!" They all three went the same way to dinner, of course, but it was cute anyway.

Ryua did need to get two school owls, plus her own to bring enough gold from Gringotts. She didn't like it, it was too close in spirit to what Pansy had been doing, but she couldn't live without the Quidditch. Even with six weeks of detention ahead of her, she wouldn't trade Harry, Fred and George for anything. Of course, she made sure to take the gold from the family coffers, not her own personal vault. As long as he keeps me in the family, I might as well use it to the best of my advantage.

Her hand had healed well from the last bouts of detention, and it wasn't even bleeding by night's end. She knew it wouldn't keep up for long, though.

And then, Monday, there was Care of Magical Creatures. Hagrid was back, although Ryua was appalled at the amount of bruising on what was visible of his face. She was completely used to him carrying around dead animals, although the cow was a bit much, but she'd never seen him this badly injured. From the way he moved, there was more underneath, maybe a few cracked ribs to boot. And here he was, leading them into the forest, as if he were at full strength. Insane.

Once they were quite deep enough to make any normal person nervous, Hagrid dumped the cow, and shrieked. Not scared, but like a huge, hungry hawk or something. Not long after, the first Thestral came through the trees. Ryua knew Hagrid was searching the crowd for people who were watching them, but she didn't bother trying to hide her ability. Interesting… Hagrid's seen death too. And Harry, Millicent, and… Neville? When's he been around death?

Hagrid was saying the same list of people, but of course, Draco had to interrupt before he could explain, "Excuse me, but what exactly are we supposed to be seeing?"

"Thestrals, you idiot. Now shut up." Ryua said, petting one who was sniffing at her robes. He did shut up, when he saw the cow being eaten invisibly away, and Ryua's fingers sliding over something obviously there. The class actually looked to be sort of good, when from behind everyone…

Hem, hem, came the all-too familiar voice. Umbridge proceeded to humiliate Hagrid with all the skill of the worst Slytherins, asking stupid questions, acting out basic words, questioning the students…

Pansy was all too happy to help out, of course. Poor Neville was obviously trying to defend Hagrid, but was just as obviously terrified of the Thestrals. Umbridge completely ignored Ryua, which on reflection was probably a good thing. There's no telling what I'd have said…

Luckily, much of the class had been taken up by walking through the forest, and there would be time to walk back too, so the lesson was mercifully short. On the way out, Ryua was walking ahead of the others, writing a Transfiguration essay as she went, and she heard Draco come up behind the Trio. "Weasley, we were just wondering. D'you reckon if you saw someone snuff it, you'd be able to see the quaffle better?"

The laughter made her feel somewhat sick. He really doesn't care. I'm worried he's going to get a nasty shock, and live all those things he teases others about. And I don't know if he'll be able to cope… "Don't worry about him, Ron. You're better than he could ever be. He's far too impatient at the rings, wants to be out, earning all the glory. You know…" she said, trailing off.

"What?" Ron asked, "Don't leave me hanging like that!"

"If you're up to the occasional midnight flight, I could give you a bit of training, keeper to keeper. That way, no one will see it's me coaching you, and I won't have the excuse to skip detention…"

"Really? You would?" Ron looked positively thrilled.

"Depends. If you would give me a hand with Charms, than definitely."

"… You want my help with Charms? Have you gone completely nuts?"

"No… I really can't do them. And if you help me, it'll look sort of like I did it, unlike if I asked Hermione."

Ron's face got an odd, pensive expression. "I'm not sure whether to be really happy… or insulted…"

"If given the choice, Ron, be happy." Harry said. "So, detention every day?"

"Except Friday and Saturday…"

"Ouch. I sympathize. I'll try to schedule around it at least…"

"Yeah. Thanks."

Meanwhile, Hermione gave a little pout. "I feel so left out. Between Quidditch, Thestrals, and detention, I have absolutely nothing to put into the conversation."

"Wow. That has to be a first for you, right?" Ryua chuckled when Hermione stuck her tongue out. So, that meant classes ended on a somewhat happy note.

Of course, the evening sucked, but she'd expected that. One tenderly written Herbology paper later, Ryua was in bed, trying to catch up sleep.

She kept her promise to teach Ron Quidditch, though. Just once a week, but enough to assure her that he was really an excellent keeper. "Ron, I think you've just got a block against performing for a crowd."

"Yeah, that's what Harry reckoned too." He said glumly, passing the quaffle (which Ron had charmed to glow slightly) back to Ryua.

"So… try to forget you're in front of a crowd. And ignore that ridiculous song Pansy thought up."

"I hate that song…"

"Me too. It's degrading. I mean, don't they think we can actually win? When your own house loses faith… I tried to curse her for it, did Fred and George tell you?"

"No," he said, fielding a shot without even blinking. "When was this?"

"Right after the match. I didn't even get off my broom, just shot after her. I had her dangling a foot above the ground too, before Snape interfered."

"I suppose it's good he did though, huh?"

"Yeah. Well, next time you hear the song, just imagine her being squeezed by an invisible hand until she pops. That should help."

"Or make me sick. I'm not that good with blood…"

Detention-homework, detention-homework, detention-quidditch-homework, detention, detention-dictate-homework-to-Dobby, DA meeting, homework, homework, homework… Ugh, even on my nights off, I still can't seem to sleep. For the first time in my life, I think I'm actually looking forward to Christmas break…