Disclaimer: not mine.
Five o' clock sharp I walked into Umbridge's office. Harry was there already, a piece of paper in front of him. I heard he had gotten in trouble with Umbridge too but I hadn't expected to see him there tonight.
"Aww, Miss Josephs," Umbridge said. "Nice of you to join us. Take a seat."
Surprisingly, she had put me at the same small table with Harry, a piece of parchement already waiting for me. I sat down looking to Harry. He held a black quill in his hand, staring back at me in apprehension. What was she doing to him?
I looked up at her as she handed me a quill that looked just like Harry's. My eyes narrowed in suspsion, but she smiled. "Very well. You also will be writing lines tonight, Miss Joseph. I want you to write 'I must be respectful."
"How many times?" I asked, not bothering to be polite. She wasn't getting any respect from me, not like this. This was just pointless.
"Oh, as long as it takes for the message to sink in," she told me, glancing at Harry. I looked down just in time to see the knuckles on his left hand grip the edge of the table, turning white.
What was going on in here?
She turned her back on us. I felt Harry nudge my foot with his. I met his wide green eyes as he glanced down at his paper. He had already written one line: I must not tell lies.
Taking a deep breath, he put the quill to the paper again, quickly scrawling out another line . . . in red ink I watched, horrified, as the words appeared on the back of his hand. They disappeared but his skin was turning red.
"What –" I started.
Umbridge turned around. "Is there a problem?"
I stared up at her. She was enjoying it! She was twisted . . . completely and utterly crazy. "No."
"Good." Her smile widened as she sat at her desk, watching me.
I put my quill to the paper, squeezing my right hand tightly (I was a lefty). The piercing pain I felt was surprising but I didn't stop. I shot a quick glance at Harry as he continued to write, even though he was in pain. I tapped his foot with mine and he tapped back, continuing to write. No weakness. We'd show her for sure.
What felt like hours later, she finally called Harry up to her desk. From behind, I saw Harry freeze, rigid as she took his hand, examining it. She muttered something about not making an impression before letting him go.
"Miss Josephs." I grabbed my bag, moving up to her desk. My hand was red in that one spot. Everywhere else was pale and shaky. I kept my head held high as I approached her, no matter how scared, how . . . disgusted I was at the moment.
She took my hand. And then, she pressed her fingers against the red mark. I repressed a gasp as pain shot up my arm but I couldn't help but yank my hand away from her, glaring at her. "Why would you –?"
"Looks like we have yet to make an impression on you either," she said, smiling. "I will see you tomorrow."
Still glaring at her, I walked out of the office. Harry was no where in sight, but I could hear him running. I took as quick strides as I could away from Umbridge's office before I broke into a run too.
Harry was the same height as me, maybe a bit taller, so his strides weren't long. Still, he was fast and it took me a minute to catch up with him. It wasn't like I was some aletich prodigy.
"Harry!" I said. "Harry, stop!"
He did, his hands flying up to the hair. "What in the hell was that, Evie?" he said, sounding frantic, freaked out.
I took a moment to catch my breath before I faced him. "I don't know, Harry. I really don't know."
"She's twisted," he said, running his hands over his face. The red mark shone out. "Completely and uttely crazy."
I looked up at him, slightly shocked. Those same exact words had run through my head.
"Should we . . . should we tell someone?" he said, suddenly.
I thought for a moment. We could tell Dumbledore, maybe McGongall. . . . "No."
"What?" he said.
"Harry, the Ministry put her here to keep an eye on the school," I told him. "To make sure that things stay in order, that people don't start believing 'rumors'. . . . In other words, she's here to try and make you and Dumbledore look crazy. If we tell, she could easily disprove it. She has the whole Ministry behind her. It won't matter."
"So what do we do?"
I ran my hands through my own hair, staring at him. "We can't show any weakness. We can't let her know that she's getting us. It's exactly what she wants."
"Why you?" Harry was looking at me strange. "You haven't even done anything. You've barely known me more than four months."
I shook my head, trying to remember what all she had said to me during our last conversation. "I guess . . . maybe because I'm an older student. A threat because people just might listen to me. She's trying to make me feel I need to stay away from, make me feel as if I shouldn't help you or talk to you."
"Maybe you shouldn't," he told me. "I don't want you to get hurt because you hang out with me."
"Harry," I said, pointing my finger at him, "don't you dare start. I promised you that if you ever needed me, you could call on me and I do not break promises. And I don't want you to not come to be because you're trying to be noble. Okay?"
Harry held up his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay, I got it."
"Good." I sighed. My heart was still pounding painfully in my chest from the whole ordeal with Umbridge. "We'll figure this out. In the meantime, we'll keep this between you and me, alright?"
"Alright," he said.
We shook hands on it.
When my friends asked me what was I did for detention, I told them simply lines. "Boring and tedious work," I had told them.
When Cedric asked me what was wrong, telling me he could read me like a book, I told him that I was tired. "Work is already stacking up, you know?" I had said.
I would feel horrible for lying to my friends and Cedric, keeping them out of the loop but they didn't need to know. For now, it wasn't anything I couldn't handle.
Detention that next night was the same. We didn't speak to Umbridge except for pleasantries. She didn't seem to mind.
We were there past midnight again, giving each other taps on the foot when the other showed signs of wanting to cry out or say something.
The cuts would be marked permantly into our hands after another one of these detentions, I realized as we left. Harry looked exhausted and I offered to help him with his homework even though I had a ton of my own, but I also didn't have Qudditch practice or anything else hanging over me. He turned down my help though, saying he'd scrap through it.
The next night, the words were etched into my skin, just like I thought. After Harry and I had gone in separate directions, I started at my hand.
I must be respectful.
"Evie?"
I looked up to see Cedric heading towards me, a smile on his face. I shoved my hand into my pocket. "Hey," I said, smiling back.
"Just getting out of your detention?" he asked.
"Yeah. The old bint doesn't get that we have school in the morning I guess."
He took my right hand in his (thankfully). "I'll walk you back to your dorm so you won't get in trouble," he said.
"Thanks."
We walked in silence. This was odd. Usually, we always had something to talk about but for some reason I couldn't say anything. Maybe it was because of this, I thought as I squeezed my left hand. I would have to tell him eventually. I couldn't keep hiding stuff from him.
"Ced –"
"Evie –" he said at exactly the same time.
I smiled. "You first."
He stopped, reaching up to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear, his hand staying on my cheek. "Evelyn, you know can tell me anything right? You know that I would do anything for you. "
"I know."
"So why does it feel like your hiding something from me?" His eyes were sad, peering into mine.
Tell him now. You'll lose him if you don't tell him now!
"I'm fine," I told him. "I promise you that. Just tired and sick of Umbridge. I'm fine though."
Cedric, of course, did not press me but he left it alone, the two of us walking off the my tower as he told me more about his new job as Head Boy.
It was afternoon, lunch. I stared up at the stars that dotted the ceiling of my common room. I could deal with this all my own.
But if I thought I could, I wouldn't be allowed too.
"EVELYN JOSEPHS!"
I sat up as the twins and Daniel walked into room, angry. "Why weren't you at lunch?" Myra asked.
"Tired," I said, and I was. Staying up till two in the morning finishing homework had not been on my agenda when we started back to school five days ago and yet, for the past three days, that is what I had been doing.
"Tired doesn't give you the excuse to starve yourself," Daniel said.
Michelle reached into her bag and pulled out a sandwhich she had wrapped up for me. Turkey, mayonnaise, and swiss cheese. My friends knew me better than my own dad did.
I was eating when Daniel noticed the scar. "What is that?"
"What is what?" I asked.
He grabbed my hand, turning it over. He looked up at me in horror. "Evelyn, what the hell is this?"
"It's nothing," I said, trying to take my hand back but he wouldn't let me. "Come on, Dan."
By now, Myra and Michelle had moved to look at what Daniel was looking at. Daniel looked furious. "Is this what that bitch has been making you do?"
Daniel had to be one of the calmest people I know. He hardly ever cursed, but boy when he did, it was vicious.
"Evie," Myra said, her hands over her mouth.
"That lady's off her rocker," Michelle was saying.
The next thing I knew, Daniel had yanked me out of my seat and was pulling me towards the door. "What are you doing?" I said.
"Taking you to Flitwick," he said. "There is no way –"
"NO!" I cried, surprising my friends. Daniel let go of me while the twins stared at me. "Please, we can't – you can't tell anyone. This is just – it's nothing."
"Nothing?" Michelle said. "Evelyn she's been carving words into the bank of your hand! If that's not corpral punishment, I don't know what is."
"Keep your voice down," I said. "Look, it's nothing I can't handle. You guys, no one can know about this. I can't let her see weakness. This is all just a ploy to get me to turn against Harry. And I know you guys don't understand it but I can't let Harry down and I won't. Please. Please, don't tell anyone, I'm fine."
There was a pause.
"Have you told Cedric?" Myra asked.
"No," I said. "And I'm not going to. Not yet. He's got enough on his plate without me to worry about."
"Evie you're his girlfriend," Daniel said. "He's supposed to worry about you and he's going to want to know."
"I know," I said, "but for now this has to stay between us."
They didn't approve but they would let me tell Cedric on my own terms and they would keep it a secret for me.
That's what friends were for.
A/N: So I know in the last chapter i made her detention eight. I've already fixed it so it reads five. So what do you think? Let me know what's good.