Detention

"Have you forgotten? Trelawney is the divination professor I told you about. Ah, she's as mad as a hatter, no matter what she says, don't listen."

At dinner, Hermione hurriedly swept away the food in front of her. Her attention was on a large book next to her. What was written on it, Ginny could not understand at all.

"Why don't you sit down and eat?" She glanced at Ginny.

"Standing helps digestion… " Ginny trembled a little, "She knows Mary Sue and said my sister is a divinity. Isn't that strange?"

"Your sister is not of the common sort in the first place, everyone knows." Hermione looked at her watch, threw down the half-eaten dinner, packed up her things and planned to leave, "As for Trelawney, whatever she says is not surprising. Every day she predicted that Harry would die, yet Harry is still alive. Seers are liars."

"You finished eating? Where are you going?" Ron looked at Hermione's plate.

"Lessons."

"In the evening?"

"Sorry, I mean just studying."

Hermione hurried away and ignored Ron, soon disappearing into the crowd.

"What's up with her?" Ginny asked anxiously.

"She's been like this lately, always in a hurry, also I don't know what happened." Ron rummaged through the crowd for Hermione who, by now, was long gone.

Still steeped in their conversation, Luna dropped her eyes for a moment and continued on, "Hermione says seers are liars, but Trelawney was right about that prediction."

"So something really happened to Harry?" Ginny's face went white, "No wonder Harry didn't come to dinner!"

"No, Trelawney didn't tell Harry when to die. But in a thousand years or so, Harry is unlikely to still be alive. " Luna made a cross on the toast with her knife and fork, "Believe Trelawney's prediction, but don't take her too seriously."

Luna's philosophy left Ginny speechless. Ginny could only nod Industrious and devoutly eat her dinner.

The pointer looked close to half-past six, Ginny sighed and said goodbye to her friends.

"I'm going highway to hell now… " She still has detention tonight.

"Have a nice trip." Luna waved her fork as a farewell to Ginny.

Ginny strode ruefully forward, then lost her balance and fell at Ron's feet.

When she got up, she saw that her shoelace had somehow been tied in a tight knot, it even looked like one of those puzzle versions of the super buckles. Nine, nine, eighty-one ties, seven, seven, forty-nine rings. I am a part of you, you are a part of me, they seem to unite the whole world.

After ten minutes, Ginny admitted her intelligence didn't meet the standard, so she grabbed Colin's shoes and rushed to the basement.

"I'm just a dinner table!"

Of course she was.

She had forgotten that Snape was in charge tonight.

Trying to keep her heart from popping out of her throat, Ginny summoned the courage to open the cellar door and, before she could apologize, froze in shock at what she saw.

"You're here!" She pointed to Harry, who was standing against the wall.

"I didn't do my homework… " Harry replied easily.

"Every homework for every subject every day of this week, and I didn't go to class for a week..." Ginny then noticed Snape, who was sitting at his desk looking through a stack of papers. "Mr. Potter… What. Are. You. Up. To?"

He slammed the papers down on the desk in his usual gloomy mood. Ginny looked around quickly to see how Harry planned to pass. Harry smiled, unconventionally, and for a second Ginny had the illusion of Harry having a halo on his head and wings on his back.

Is this what Trelawney meant by divinity?! Ginny was shocked.

"Don't be angry, Professor, there's no point, the world is going to end… It's meaningless to love or hate, and really, Professor, I don't know why you keep picking on me, but maybe it's because I have a perfect temperament that makes people deeply jealous. But I forgive you, I forgive all those who hurt me… " He drifted forward, taking Ginny with his left hand and the Professor with his right. "Come on, let's all sit on the lawn in harmony and love, doing nothing, looking up at the vast sky and the beautiful sunset. Let's all wait for the moment when the great god on high will destroy the world, as if a book were closed in a split second, all the troubles will be gone with the wind. Our bodies follow fate, but our souls remain forever~~~"

Snape refused to give him a chance to remain forever. In split seconds, all Harry's troubles were momentarily swept away by a copy of the Oxford Encyclopedia. Perfect proof that knowledge is power.

Ginny looked at Harry on the floor, and it took her a long time to say:

"Arty is horrifying!"

"Arty is not horrifying, but arty-farty is… " Snape sublimated Ginny's thoughts with a deadpan expression. "Miss. Weasley, why are you late?"

"Because my intelligence is not up to standard… " Ginny backed away quickly, staring in horror at the dictionary in the professor's hand.

"..." Snape was not satisfied with this answer but decided not to inquire about it. He threw Ginny the document he had been examining and told her to take it with her to Lupin, where she would do whatever Lupin would want her to do.

Ginny flew out of the basement.

Goodbye, Harry, I'll take on your spirit and live!

Professor Lupin's office was a very different scene, equally unadorned but humane, looking particularly safe without any large dictionaries.

Best of all, there was a big box of white chocolate on his desk, cheap but delicious.

"Professor Lupin, you like chocolate?"

"Haha, I have low blood sugar." Professor Lupin caught Ginny's eager look and understood what she meant, "Help yourself."

With that said, Ginny took the offer immediately.

Lupin picked up the papers and scanned them quickly, while Ginny glanced casually at them. She vaguely noticed that it was a proposal to change the course, and didn't take it to heart.

A few minutes later, Lupin put down his papers, saw Ginny standing beside him, and asked, "Anything else?"

"What can I do for you? You know... That... Detention… "

Ginny's voice trailed off, but Lupin understood what was going on. He thought for a moment and said, "You can help me catch the Boggarts."

He explained Boggart's properties in simple, clear terms and taught Ginny how to use the Boggart-Banishing Spell.

"The wrist should be flicking this way, the last shake with a bit more power… Much better… Pronounce it more clearly."

"Ridiculous!"

After a few practices runs, Ginny was good enough to start work, and Lupin handed her a wooden trunk.

"Don't try too hard, just think of it as playing. If you catch any, put them in the box, and they'll be in my locker in my office. Hmm… What are you most afraid of?"

"It's hard to answer on the spot, my mum... It could be my sister... Professor Snape's was terrifying, too, and… "

"It's safer to think of your mother. What do you like best?"

"Doraemon!"

"Very well, then, try to think of Doraemon when you use the spell." Lupin smiled amiably. "Go, it's all right, it doesn't matter if you can't catch any."

Ginny walked out of the door, clutching the wooden trunk, thinking if you say that then I'd have to catch a bunch.

She set out confidently on her crusade against the Boggart, searching every corner of the school in vain, risking her life.

An hour later, Ginny emerged from Broom cupboard Number seventeen, exhausted and dusty, dejected and sitting on a wooden crate, aimlessly banging an iron bucket.

Peeves floated down from the ceiling singing an incongruous little tune, singing and dancing with glee in front of Ginny's eyes. One shining star after another broke out of his bow tie.

"Off you go," said Ginny, pulling out a broomstick and stabbing it. "Go tease your Bloody Baron!" Ginny set her feet on the ground and turned, leaving Peeves with a plaintive back. "Can't you see I'm troubling!"

"Heh heh heh~~~ You're just twelve, what could be bothering you?" Peeves grinned. "I'll go play with Boggarts."

Hearing that, Ginny perked up and stopped Peeves.

"Wait, do you know where I can find a Boggart?"

"I thought you told me to leave?

"No, please stay, I can't live my life without you~~~"

Peeves' pancake face unfurled delicately and sparkled pearly.

"Now you're saying please? I can't tell you for nothing."

"Then how can you tell me?"

"Hmm… Tell you what, you go to Snape, wave your hair in front of him, and shout, L'Oreal! Because you're worth it!"

"No, the danger coefficient is too big… " Ginny was ready to give up without thinking.

"Don't go! How about… " Peeves spun around in the air a few times. "That… I'll tell you where Boggart is, and you'll do me a favour one day."

"What is it?"

"Promise me first."

"Not a chance, in case it's something like L'Oreal again, then I'm finished."

"It's certainly not dangerous or wicked. You're just helping me."

"Really? You promise?"

"Swear on my mother's name."

"Yes!" Ginny then followed Peeves zigzagging along several corridors, and on a high wall of still-life paintings at the back of the Hufflepuff common room, Peeves found a canvas full of fruit, tickled a pear, which giggled and rolled it up. Behind was a flight of stairs hung with red candles.

"Down from here is the kitchen, a door to the right, and then down is the storeroom. There are many old cupboards in it."

"You're not going? Ginny poked her head down, feeling that Peeves might be planning a practical joke.

"I'm not going, I'm going to find someone… " Ginny felt that Peeves' face was reddening slightly when he said this. "I won't lie to you this time, so remember what you promised me. Maybe... we should do an Unbreakable Vow… "

"You know how to do that?" Ginny looked at Peeves in surprise, wondering how the ghost did its magic.

"I certainly do!" As he said this, Peeves made Ginny hold out her little finger and hooked his own, so coldly that Ginny shuddered.

"I promise not to lie to you and you repeat after me: I promise I will help Peeves! Whoever breaks the promise will drop dead!"

They solemnly made an Unbreakable Vow and swore to keep their promise. Peeves soared into the air, his bow tie a glorious gold, waved at Ginny and disappeared through the ceiling.

Ginny walked down the stairs toward a light ahead. The more she went on, the more she felt she had been screwed. Peeves had been dead for Merlin knows how many years!