Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything of J.K Rowling's creation. So don't sue
Chapter 2
Detention's a pain in the…well you get the picture
As eight rolled around I had gotten fairly anxious. Sitting in a bed all day really is quite boring. So by seven thirty Madame Promfrey deemed me well enough to go and so off I went to the dungeons to await my impending doom. While traipsing down the corridor I met a fairly sulky Blaise Zabini. I decided to acknowledge his existence. "Zabini," I said softly almost hoping he didn't hear me or would ignore me.
"Granger, what are you doing headed down to the dungeons?" he said in resigned way.
"Actually, I have detention, Snape told me you did as well, I suppose we'll be collecting potions ingredients together," I said hoping that for now we could leave it at that. I wasn't really in the mood for talking at that moment. My anxiety had been growing and at that point I felt horrible, I hate detention. We slowly opened the door and walked into Snapes office.
"Ah, I see my two troublemakers have arrived," I winced at the word troublemaker. "Well, tonight shall be a fairly long evening for you. I need you both to go into the Forbidden forest to collect beetles and when you come back I need you to strip the beetles of their wings and place them in jars. You will need to fill this basket to the brim. Now there is a special place where you find these beetles so listen carefully, go out past the Quidditch pitch, when you reach the forest edge keep going, do so until you come to a small pond and in the trees surrounding the pond you will find the beetles." Snape said with a tone of finality.
"But sir, this is absolutely ridiculous! You could simply go to Hogmeade and get them much quicker! Why on earth should we do this, it's simply a waste of time!" I said getting all upset on account that he shouldn't be subjecting us to this.
"Miss Granger you need to learn more respect! You will do what I say, I am your teacher and this is your detention. If you do not hold your tongue I will make it 2 weeks worth of detention! Mr. Zabini do you have any reservations on going out tonight?" Blaise simply shook his head. "Then take the basket and get out of my sight!" He said in a very irritated dismissal.
We took the basket and headed toward the Quidditch Pitch. I decided to talk to Zabini consider there was nothing better to do. "So Zabini, what'd you do to get into so much trouble with Snape?" I asked timidly.
"Oh, you know… I was entirely set up by Malfoy; he put an extra lizard tongue in my potion and messed it up. It was all because I stood up for something he didn't like. I suppose it's my own fault for not keeping my mouth shut." He went back to his brooding. But after a few seconds of thought decided to keep the conversation going. "So Granger what are you in for?
"Oh, well, I was up way past curfew and wandering the corridors. Sometimes I think that man has a sixth sense for when students are out in the halls." I told him almost getting lost in my own thoughts contemplating how that man seems to always know when students are out of bed. I was quickly pulled back into reality when we reached the edge of the forbidden forest. "Well, here goes nothing…Lumos" I muttered under my breath. Zabini muttered the same incantation as I and we trudged along into the forest. Eventually we came to the pond…
I'd never seen anything like it! It was mystifying! Everywhere there were glowing beetles that contrasted so dramatically with the densely green background, which brought about an iridescent glow. I just stood there and watched in awe as the beetles buzzed and glided around Zabini and I. I briefly glanced at Zabini, but he seemed to be in as much awe as I. It was absolutely fantastic; there was just no other word to describe it.
Eventually after getting over the initial shock I prodded Zabini with my finger and told him we should get moving if we were going to get this done tonight. He sighed and followed behind me to the nearest tree. We opened the basket and soon realized that even though the basket looked quite small it was really rather large inside. Our task was easily going to take us well into the morning. We quickly started to collect the beetles, fast as humanly possible. After about an hour I got sick of the silence and we were only about 1/3 of the way through. I decided that Zabini wasn't going to break the silence so it mine as well be me. " So Zabini, what did you defend that got Malfoy so riled as to ruin your potion?" I asked with a hint of curiosity.
"I'm Granger but that I cannot answer that question. I'm a Slytherin and unlike Gryffindors we don't trust whomever we happen to have a conversation with. Plus, you probably wouldn't understand." Zabini said with a hint of animosity.
"Well I'm terribly sorry for asking a question, I was merely trying to start a simple conversation. The silence is deafening…but I suppose you like your silence, gives you time to brood or whatever you moody Slytherins do." I said slightly angered considering he just told me I wouldn't understand something. Me, the girl at the top of her grade, I was Head Girl for crying out loud! It simply infuriates me!
"Granger don't pretend like you know us Slytherins, you simply lump us all under the same category the one falling under the stereotype of Malfoy. You think we're all slimy gits who pay people to get our work done or buy our way into everything. But I assure you we are not all like that. Obviously you don't care to get to know us very well. I also know that it goes vice versa as well. We Slytherins can be just as Stubborn as Gryffindor, we just know when to use knowledge to our advantage." Zabini said with an air of arrogance. Typical.
"Well, you do have a point. However I still have not found one Slytherin that has disproved the stereotype of cocky, arrogant, bas…you get the point." I said, as much as I wanted to say that last word I knew I still need help with the beetles and who knew how much longer we'd be out here for. This conversation was getting to be intolerable. Zabini was almost as insufferable as Malfoy!
"I suppose you are generally right, most Slytherins are like that. With all the Slytherin/Gryffindor rivalry I suppose our houses may never actually get to know one another. A gift and curse I suppose." Zabini said with a sigh. Maybe he wasn't so bad after all. He was probably just as fed up with house rivalry as I.
"Yeah, you know you're not as bad as I thought you were. You actually know how to have a decent conversation…Oh, my gosh! Look at that." I said as I looked into the basket. "We're done!" I proclaimed with a bright smile on my face and I looked over at Zabini. He looked as if he'd just had something on the tip of his tongue that he was going to say but decided against saying it.
"Lovely, it's only 10 o'clock maybe if we're lucky we'll get this done by midnight." He said with a smirk. Apparently smirks come with the Slytherin territory. We headed back to the castle, both completely lost in thought. I was thinking about how I'd never really noticed Zabini before and how interesting our conversation had been. I had no idea what he could possibly be thinking about, but then I didn't really know him so it would have been pointless to even try to guess what he was lost in his thoughts about. After about a half an hour of walking we finally reached the dungeons.
"Ahh… My favorite troublemakers, back for part II of their detention," He said with a sneer forming on his face. It was very unbecoming of him to sneer like that. I simply looked at him and sighed. Fortunately he didn't hear me; or he probably would have taken points for my breathing. "Well what are you standing around for! Get to work!" He said with a tone of finality. We went to the closest desk, grabbed some jars, sat down and got down to work. Surprisingly Zabini was a very hard worker who seemed to care about precision and detail. Not one of his beetle wings were torn or broken. It was amazing what one could learn simply by observing. How could Snape have thought someone who took such care in his work mess up a simple potion? Obviously Snape didn't pay as much attention to his house as people thought, he seemed to only care what Malfoy did. Which is reasonable considering the Malfoy family's friendship to Snape was invaluable to the order but it was still no reason to ignore his duties as Head of House and pay attention to his other students.
It was getting late and I felt myself start to get weary. I could barely hold back my yawns. Towards midnight my eyes started to droop but I kept working. Around one in the morning we finished our task. Snape gave us each a pass to get back to our rooms with out being stopped. I told Zabini goodbye and slowly plodded down the corridor to the Head Girl and Head Boy dorm.
It was so far away. I was fairly certain I wouldn't make it, but I was determined to try. After 15 minutes I was almost there. Only one more flight of stairs…I could do it, I could do it. I smirked inwardly at the thought that I sounded like the muggle book of the Little Engine That Could. After I got to about the fifth step I slunk down on the ground and leaned against the rail. My eyes started to drift and I vaguely remembered someone pulling me up and nearly dragged me up the stairs to the dorm where they spoke the password and dragged me through the hole and put me on the couch. After that I remember nothing. I suppose I completely surrendered to sleep at that point.
The next morning I awoke with a blanket wrapped around me and questions nagging at my mind. Who would possibly be nice enough to take me back to my rooms? Better yet how did they know the password? I knew Head Boy Malfoy would never take me back to the rooms; no he would have left me there and would never let me live it down. Still the thought nagged at my mind whilst I got up and got ready for another grueling day of school.