Warning: This chapter contains a flashback. Flashbacks will be in italics.
The second day of year five started like any other: Breakfast and then first lesson – Double Charms.
Today, Teddie was excited for her first lesson, she happened to excel in Charms, and found that this would've been her first chance to talking to Flitwick about a possibly taking on a teaching assistant for the next few years, already Mason had told her that being a Professor's TA would look good on any job applications in the future.
"Are you going to ask him after class?" Daphne asked, settling in beside Teddie on the charms bench. "Or during?"
"I don't know," said Teddie. "Maybe I should leave it until the weekend? I mean, we have double Transfiguration after that, I don't want to risk being late."
Daphne made a small murmur of agreement and then fell silent. First, Flitwick took the register, marking off each name as they answered, he them jumped straight into a speech that sounded like he had practiced over and over for years.
"You must remember," Flitwick squeaked. He was perched on his usual stack of books so that he could see over his desk, "is that these examinations may influence your futures for many years to come! If you have no already given serious thought to your careers, now is the time to do so. And in the meantime, I'm afraid, we shall be working harder than ever to ensure that you all do yourselves justice!"
Teddie grinned as Daphne nudged her. "What?" she laughed.
"Not all of us are perfect at Charms, you know," said Daphne, shaking her head.
"Yeah, but what you lack in Charms you make up for in Transfiguration," said Teddie. "That's why we're such a good team."
"What are we?" Blaise asked, leaning over.
Teddie turned to him. "You're great at History of Magic and Theo excels in Ancient Runes," she said, smiling at them both.
Both boys seemed satisfied with the answer and leaned back in their seats. Daphne and Teddie shared a look and smothered their giggles into their hands, as Flitwick continued the lesson.
"The Summoning Charm will most definitely come up in your O.W.L.s examination," Flitwick said. "So, we shall start off with practicing it this year. After me now…"
The double lesson ended with Flitwick giving them their largest amount of homework.
Double Transfigurations started off the same as Charms – McGonagall took the register and then proceeded to tell the class about their O.W.L examinations.
"You cannot pass an O.W.L, without serious application, practice, and study. I see no reason why everybody in this class should not achieve an O.W.L in Transfiguration if they put in the work. So, today, we are starting the Vanishing Spells. These are easier than Conjuring Spells, which you would not usually attempt until N.E.W.T. level, but they are still among the most difficult magic you will be tested on in your O.W.L."
Teddie blinked and glanced at Daphne. The blonde seemed to be hanging onto every word that McGonagall was talking about, but only she and Hermione seemed to understand any of it, and by the end of the lesson, they were the only two that had managed to vanish their snails completely, earning both Slytherin and Gryffindor ten House points each.
"I guess this gives me time to finish my homework for Snape," said Daphne, leading the way out of the Transfiguration classroom.
Her friends shot dirty looks at her back.
~X~
After lunch was the first Care of Magical Creatures lesson that everyone had seemingly been anticipating. Even though it wasn't spoken about that much in the Slytherin common room, everyone, in every house, was curious as to where Hagrid had seemingly disappeared too.
The rain from earlier had eased off a bit but left a thin sheen of slippery water on the grass, forcing the Gryffindors and Slytherins to take their time as they walked down to Hagrid's hut for their lesson.
"Anyone wonder where Hagrid is?" Daphne asked, breaking the unusual silence.
Blaise shrugged. "Not really," he said. "I mean, sure, it's unusual for him to not be at Hogwarts, he lives here all year 'round, after all. But I don't know, maybe he's taking time off?"
"There is nothing more important to Hagrid than being Care of Magical Creatures professor," said Teddie. "I remember Harry telling me two years ago, Hagrid was so ecstatic about it when Dumbledore had asked him. I wonder why Grubbily-Plank decided to come back? Didn't Dumbledore say that she wanted to spend time with her remaining limbs?"
Her friends nodded,
"If the job is that dangerous, why be so quick to come back after only two years retirement?"
The silence returned as the quartet reached Hagrid's hut. It was strange to find Grubbily-Plank standing on the doorstep, but the friends figured they had best get used to it, who knew how long Hagrid was going to be gone for.
A small group of Gryffindor students were already present, and Teddie found Harry amongst the group with his friends, Ron and Hermione. The latter two offered her a small smile, while the former merely ignored her.
In front of Hagrid's hut were two trestle tables laden with many twigs. As Teddie leaned forward to get a better look, a loud laugh caught her attention and caused her to wheel around and see Draco Malfoy approaching with his usual cronies.
"Who wants to bet he is talking about Hagrid?" said Blaise.
"No need to bet," said Theo. "We know he was."
"Everyone here?" barked Professor Grubbly-Plank. "Let's crack on then – who can tell me what these things are called?"
Out of the corner of her eye, Teddie spotted Malfoy doing a buck-toothed imitation of Hermione as the girl raised her hand to answer the question, she glared at him as he shot her a humorous smile and winked. She shook her head and turned back to the twigs that she now noticed were moving.
"Oh!" said Daphne, nudging Teddie and pointing at the nearest trestle. Teddie's eyes widened as she spotted a pixie-like creature made entirely of wood. It had knobbly brown arms and legs, two twiglike fingers at the end of each hand, and a funny, flat, barklike face in which a pair of beetle-brown eyes glittered.
"Oooo!" Parvati and Lavender gushed.
"Kindly keep your voices down, girls!" Grubbly-Plan said sharply. She scattered a handful of brown rice amongst the creatures and then nodded at Hermione.
"Bowtruckles," said Hermione. "They're tree guardians, usually live in wand-trees."
Grubbly-Plank nodded. "Five points to Gryffindor. Yes, these are Bowtruckles and, as Miss Granger rightly says, they generally live in trees whose wood is of wand quality. Anybody know what they eat?"
"Wood lice," answered Hermione. "But fairy eggs if they can get them."
"Good girl take another five points. So, whenever you need leaves or wood from a tree in which Bowtruckles lodge, it is wise to have a gift of wood lice ready to distract them. They may not look dangerous, but if angered they will gouge out human eyes with their fingers, which, as you can see, are very sharp."
Teddie leaned closer to Daphne and lowered her voice. "I'm sure our eyes don't taste half as nice as fairy eggs," she said.
Daphne bit back a smile.
"So, if you would like to gather closer, take a few wood lice and a bowtruckle – I have enough here for one between three – you can study them more closely. I want a sketch from each of you with all body parts labelled by the end of the lesson."
As Daphne picked out a bowtruckle, Teddie scooped up a handful of wood lice and returned to Theo and Blaise. Although Grubbly-Plank had said they needed to work in groups of three, they had no desire to split up, and set down on the ground near Hagrid's hut.
Daphne held the bowtruckle in her hand, not too tight that she hurt the creature, and not to slack so that it could run away.
Settling down on her stomach, Teddie placed two wood lice on the floor between her friends and the bowtruckle scrambled out of Daphne's hands to scoop them up.
The hour lesson passed quickly, and by the end of it Teddie had completed her sketch. She was in the process of labelling the body parts when Grubbly-Plank called for everyone to return their Bowtruckles and hand in their sketches next lesson.
Rolling up her image, Teddie followed her friends back up to the castle while the Gryffindors hurried off for Herbology.
~X~
At five o'clock, Teddie found herself standing outside the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. Her heartbeat wildly in her chest and she felt like she would throw up. Her hands gripped the straps of her backpack until her knuckles turned white, and she was already contemplating turning and running back to the Slytherin common room when Harry arrived behind her.
"Are you okay?" Harry asked, gently touching her shoulder.
Teddie let out a startled shriek and turned to face him, her eyes wide and her breathing coming in rapid gasps.
"It's okay," Harry said, gently. "You're okay. I'm sorry…"
Tears appeared in Teddie's eyes and she buried her face in her hands. "I'm sorry," she whispered, dragging her hands down her cheeks and brushing aside the smudges that had appeared due to her tears.
"You don't have to be sorry," said Harry, shaking his head. "This was the room you were attacked in and abducted from. Do you want me to cover for you with Umbridge? Surely she can't force you to stay here if it's going to be a problem."
"Actually, Mr. Potter, I can," said a sickly-sweet voice.
Teddie and Harry looked up to see Professor Umbridge standing in the doorway to her office.
"If Miss Green hadn't wanted to visit this room outside of school hours, she wouldn't sprout her nonsense lies in my classroom," Umbridge said. "Now, inside, both of you!"
She turned and walked briskly back to her seat.
Harry took Teddie's hand and squeezed it as they both followed. Over the years the office had houses many different things, each one pertaining to the current teacher – Lupin had housed many fascinating dark creatures in cages and tanks. Last year it held various dark objects, and when Lockhart had been there it had been covered in images of himself – now it was plastered in pink lace, several vases of flowers, and the walls were full of china plates with different breeds of cats, all of which watched the two students closely.
"Well, sit down," said Umbridge.
Two desks had been set up in front of her desk. They were two inches form one another, and each one had a single piece of blank parchment on the surface.
"Er – Professor Umbridge? Er – before we start, I-I wanted to ask you a… a favour?" Harry stammered.
Teddie glanced at him as she sat down.
Umbridge narrowed her eyes at him. "Oh, yes?" she asked.
"Well, I'm… I'm on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. And I was supposed to be at try-outs for the new Keeper at five o'clock on Friday and I was – was wondering whether I could skip detention that night and do it – do it another night… instead…"
Teddie's eyes widened and she looked between her friend and Professor. She knew the answer before Harry had even finished speaking, but she was still curious to whether Umbridge would allow him this one-off chance.
"Oh, no," said Umbridge, smiling. "Oh no, no, no. This is your punishment for spreading evil, nasty, attention-seeking stories, Mr. Potter, and punishments certainly cannot be adjusted to suit the guilty one's convenience. No, you will come here at five o'clock tomorrow, and the next day, and on Friday, same as Miss Green, and you will take your punishments as planned."
Teddie glanced at Harry and offered him a small, sympathetic smile as Umbridge continued. Teasing Harry about having to miss out on something that was clearly so important to him.
Harry grit his teeth and opened his mouth to argue but stopped as he felt a small hand slid into his. He looked down and saw Teddie leaning over, her fingers wrapping around his and squeezing. He met her gaze, and his anger ebbed away.
If he had to miss practice, at least he would still be with friendly company, even if they were forced to share it with the one woman who would see them expelled for telling the truth.
Taking a deep breath, Harry sat down in the table next to Teddie, her hand still held tightly in his own.
"Now, you are going to be doing some lines for me," said Umbridge looking between the pair. "You won't need your own quills," she added as both Harry and Teddie reached for their book bags. "No, I have two rather special quills of my own that I would like you to use. Here you are,"
She removed two red-feathered quills from her handbag and set one each on the desk before the two students.
"Mr. Potter, I want you to write 'I must not tell lies,'," said Umbridge, staring at Harry.
"How many times?" Harry asked, biting back a sigh.
"Oh, as long as it takes for the message to sink in." Umbridge smiled sweetly and turned to Teddie. "As for you, Miss Green, I would like you to write "I will not make up stories."
Teddie swallowed and picked up the quill. She refused to look at Umbridge, not wanting to show the woman the tears in her eyes. What she had revealed yesterday was not a lie, she had been tortured, and it still haunted her dreams every night – even Parkinson had overheard her whimpering about it on their first night.
"You haven't given us any ink," said Harry as Umbridge turned away.
"Oh, you won't need any ink," Umbridge said over her shoulder.
Teddie furrowed her brow and glanced at Harry. He shrugged in confusion and looked back at the quill, Teddie did the same, trying her best to find a place for where ink could be stored inside the quill.
Shaking her head, Teddie pressed the quill to the parchment and moved it downwards. She glanced sideways as Harry gasped, and saw the words 'I must not tell lies' glistening in a sort of red ink.
"What?" Teddie whispered, looking back at her own parchment. She scratched out the rest of her words, ignoring the pang of pain her hand, and watched as each word came out in the same red ink as Harry's, only… it didn't look like ink.
"There are many different quills," said Ursula. "Rita Skeeter uses what we all call a Quick-Quotes-Quill, a mouthful, I know, but it allows her, as a journalist, to write in shorthand. She translates it later when it comes to writing her full article."
"The quill must be charmed to not take the specific notes then," said Mason. "None of Skeeter's articles made any sense this year. In all her articles about Harry she called him twelve, when he's fourteen, and the story was all false. Wasn't it, Ted?"
"Yes, well, Skeeter isn't known for telling the truth," said Ursula.
Teddie blinked and looked up. "You said there are many different quills. What do you mean?" she asked. "What other quills are there? Do they all have different charms on them?"
Ursula smiled at the passion in Teddie's voice when she spoke about Charms. "Of course, yes," she said. "Do you remember the quills you use in your exams? They have no-cheating charms cast on them; if you are caught cheating while using them, they will not dispense ink for you to write with."
"That happened to Gemma Reynolds in our last lot of exams," said Mason. "She was caught cheating, trying to copy off a slip of parchment she had snuck into the hall, and the quill refused to pick up any ink from her bottle."
"Serves her right," said Ursula. "Silly girl. There are also some quills that have a charm on them that uses other forms of liquid. They're rather crude if you ask me, but they're Ministry approved, so…" she shrugged.
Teddie cocked her head to the side. "What are they called?" she asked.
"Blood Quills."
Teddie gasped and looked down at her hand. The stabbing pain she could feel was in fact small pin scratches in her skin, she shakingly pressed the tip of her quill to her parchment again and dragged it downwards, wincing as she watched a silver of hot pink slashed through her skin, as if an invisible scalpel was being pressed against her.
The words 'I will not – 'glared back at her.
Looking up, Teddie met Umbridge's gaze. "Yes?" she asked.
"Nothing," whispered Teddie, shaking her head. She took a deep breath and looked back at her parchment, her gaze glancing at her hand as she scribbled out the rest of her words. She breathed in through her nose, trying her hardest to ignore the pain in her hand.
As they worked in near-enough silence, Harry and Teddie didn't look at one another. Teddie had already figured out what was so special about the quill Umbridge had given her – the colour of the feather should've given her an indication when Umbridge had first presented it – but she had never thought a teacher would stoop to such crude ways to punish a student.
Darkness fell outside the window, and still Teddie and Harry worried in silence. Umbridge was watching them both closely, waiting for one of them to show a sign of weakness, but they were both much to stubborn to show her anything of the sort. They had faced a lot worse than a Blood Quill, and while it hurt now, it wouldn't hurt forever.
"Stop," said Umbridge, breaking the silence. "Come here, Mr. Potter," she motioned for him to approach her desk.
Teddie watched as Harry stood and stepped closer. She could see the faint markings of 'I must not tell lies' etched into the back of his hand and had to swallow the sicky feeling rising in her throat.
"It seems that I have not made much of an impression," said Umbridge, examining Harry's hand. "We'll just have to try again tomorrow. You may go. Miss Green," she motioned to Teddie.
Teddie walked around the outside of her desk as Harry walked back to his own and picked up his backpack, he shouldered it and then turned to wait for Teddie.
"You have been dismissed, Mr. Potter," said Umbridge, staring at him.
"But – "Harry started, staring at Teddie. He didn't want to leave her alone in the Defence classroom, especially not after what had happened last year.
"You have been dismissed," Umbridge repeated, a little more forcibly that the last.
Swallowing her fear, Teddie turned and nodded at Harry. "Goodnight," she whispered.
Harry grit his teeth and left the classroom.
~X~
When Teddie returned to the Slytherin common room after her detention, she found her friends waiting for her by the fire. It was almost empty, a few seventh-year stragglers lingered, finishing up homework, but they paid no attention to Teddie as she entered.
Teddie pulled her the sleeve of her robe down over her hand as she approached the fireplace, tossed her bag onto the floor, and flopped down on the leather sofa beside Theo.
"Are you okay?" Blaise asked, eying her curiously. "You look like you've been crying."
"I'm fine," said Teddie, her voice thick with emotion. She could've broken down there and then and told them everything – the panic attack before detention, the lines, the blood quill, but she chose not to. What did it matter, anyway? There was nothing they could do about it.
Before she climbed into bed that night, Teddie stood in the girls' bathroom, staring at her reflection in the mirror. Was this what Avery had had in mind when she had spoken about a "delectable surprise" all those weeks ago? Did she plan on Teddie being tortured further when she returned to school?
With a sigh, Teddie looked down at her hand. She could see the faint words of her lines etched into her skin, they weren't prominent to anyone's eyes but her own, mainly because no one knew what she had written in detention, except Harry, and no one, but Harry knew that's he had used a Blood Quill.
Gritting her teeth, Teddie run water from the cold tap and stuck her hand beneath it.