Chapter 4

Detention

The girls walked back into the school and returned to their dorms. After a nap, which gave them all strange dreams, they all felt the need to go to the dining hall for dinner. They were all famished, having all missed lunch.

Padma and Parvati were seated at the Ravenclaw table across from Cho. They were too busy eating to carry on much of a conversation. Luna was sitting a little ways away. She was also busy consuming some Yorkshire pudding before starting into a plate of roast beef and fresh, garden peas.

As they neared the end of their meals, Professor Sinistra approached them with a very confused-looking Hermione. "Are you girls about ready to go?" said the professor.

"Ready to go where?" asked Cho.

"To the Astronomy Tower," responded the professor, slightly confused by the response. "We are going to see how you talked to the stars last night."

"I'm sorry," said Padma. "I am not certain what you are talking about."

"We sat at this very table and talked for almost an hour about how the group of you used a summoning spell to contact the stars in Orion's Belt."

"Who talked to the stars in Orion's Belt?" asked Luna, who had moved closer to the rest of them.

"You said you did," responded the professor in a voice that was starting to sound angry.

"I did?" she said in a perplexed voice. "Oh, my. I don't recall doing that. I must have forgotten about it."

"You girls sat with me this morning and told me you had contacted the stars in Orion's Belt with a summoning charm. All of you were very serious. We agreed to meet here after dinner to go do it, again, in the Astronomy Tower. Is this some kind of joke?" childish said Sinistra in what was becoming an enraged voice. "I do not appreciate having my valuable time wasted with juvenile jokes."

"We're very sorry, professor," said Hermione. "I really don't recall any of this."

"We'll see about it," fumed the professor as she turned and stomped off in a crisp, furious gait.

"What was that all about?" asked Parvati.

"I have no idea," responded Hermione.

"She seemed very certain of herself," noted Cho. "She was very sure of what she was saying."

"Yes, it was kind of scary," said Padma. "It was like one of us was under a confundus charm."

"Maybe it is wrackspurts," offered Luna. "She might be confused by a bunch of them. I wish I had my Spectrespecs."

"That's it," said Hermione, breaking down and laughing. "It was wrackspurts."

The others all joined in the laughing. Luna smiled, thinking she had solved the situation.

The rest of the day passed without incident, other than a pair of Hufflepuff girls running through the halls squawking like scared chickens as Neville chased them barking like a little dog. Draco was said to have been seen laughing a little too much at the scene.

In the morning, the dining hall was buzzing louder than usual as Harry and Ron arrived for breakfast. Not seeing Hermione, they picked a spot and sat down. Ron immediately started piling his plate with the always sumptuous food. Harry took a more conservative portion while drinking a glass of pumpkin juice.

A moment later, Ginny ran up to the table and sat down beside Ron. She seemed very excited.

"Have you heard the news?" the words exploding out of her mouth. "It's hilarious, or ghastly, or something. I don't know. Wait till you hear it."

"Calm down, Ginny. What is it?" said Ron.

"Hermione, Cho, Luna, Parvati and Padma all got detention. They pulled a prank by telling Professor Sinistra some crazy story about talking to aliens in the stars. It got Professor Sinistra quite excited. They were supposed to show her how they did it last night. Then, when it was time to do it, they all pretended to know nothing about it. Professor Sinistra gave them all a week of detention.

"Brilliant. And she got mad at me for saying 'Accio Aliens'," said Ron to Harry with raised eyebrows and a smirky grin.

Harry laughed as Ginny just looked confused.