Chapter Eight
Hailey POV

"Hailey, slow down." Tony called as he jogged up the Grand Staircase to catch up with me.

I stopped reluctantly, "Hurry, Tony!" I called, "Padma said she saw Davies post something on the notice board before dinner!"

When he was within two steps of me I began running up the staircases again. I was out of breath by the time I reached the knocker. The eagle misheard me the first three times I said the answer and Tony had to say it for me.

There was a group of people in front of the notice board. "Cho looks pretty upset." Tony whispered, and I know it's terrible but I got excited. I speed-walked over to the notice board to see the listing.

Ravenclaw Quidditch Team Roster:
Chasers: Roger Davies, Simon Chambers, and Jonathon Bradley
Beaters: Jason Samuels, Duncan Inglebee
Keeper: Grant Page
Seeker: Jeannette Blaire

"Tony! I got it!" I squealed in delight as I threw my arms around him. I wasn't even mad that Davies used Jeannette instead of Hailey.

"Told you so." He grinned, carrying me away from the notice board so others could see. He sat down on what we had come to know as our couch. He pulled me into his lap, or rather he never set me down. "Want to sneak down to the kitchens to celebrate?" He asked.

I pretended to be shocked, "A prefect, sneaking out of the dorm after curfew? I'm a bad influence on you."

His eyes were bright as he laughed, "You're worth it." He smiled at me, then leaned down and kissed me. It was really gentle and sweet, our first kiss. He blushed, "So, er, to the kitchens?"

I beamed, "Let's go." We left the common room holding hands, Padma sent me a not very subtle thumbs up, causing me to blush. We held hands on our way to the kitchens, when we got down there Tony tickled the pear and we opened the door and climbed in.

"Hello sir and ma'am, can Twinkle get you anything?" A little house elf asked, her bright blue eyes sparkled, Twinkle was a good name for her.

Tony looked to me and I shrugged, and Tony turned back to Twinkle, "How about a hot chocolate and a butterbeer. Is there anywhere we can sit in here?" I grinned, he remembered that I don't like butterbeer.

"Yes, sir, right this way." She replied as she led us to a table in the corner of the kitchen, "Twinkle go get drinks now." She went back to the main area of the kitchen.

I looked around the kitchen, it was a huge room. There were five tables in pretty much the same positions as the ones above it. In the corner where we were sitting it was set up like a little restaurant, Tony and I were at a table for two. We held hands across the table.

"Hailey?" Tony asked with a small frown.

"Yeah?" I replied, worried suddenly. Had I done something wrong?

"What's that?" He asked pointing to my hand, where the words 'I will stay quiet' were clearly visible.

"Nothing." I muttered quickly as I shoved my hand into the pocket of my robes.

"Who did that?" He asked, and I looked away, "Hailey, please tell me." I wouldn't meet his eyes, so he gently pushed my chin up so I would. His eyes were so full of concern that I broke.

"Detention with Umbridge." I said quietly.

He looked shocked, "I thought you said you had to do lines?"

"We did." I insisted as Twinkle brought our drinks over, "Can we talk about this later?" I pleaded, "We're supposed to be celebrating."

He sighed as he lifted his butterbeer, "To Ravenclaw's new Seeker." I clinked my mug against his and I took a sip. It was delicious.

We drank our drinks and then snuck back up to the Tower. We quite literally bumped into another prefect, I knew immediately from her great mass of bushy brown hair that it was the know-it-all Granger.

"Anthony who do we have here?" She asked and I fought the urge to roll my eyes. I failed and did so anyway.

"I just caught Hailey sneaking out," Tony replied, thinking on his feet, "I can handle her, Hermione."

Granger nodded, "What's her punishment going to be?"

"I was going to have her polish the trophies." Tony replied.

"Okay then," Granger said before turning to me for the first time in this conversation, "I hope you learned your lesson."

"Yeah," I gave her a cheeky grin, "I won't get caught next time." It would look weird if I was suddenly respectful to Granger. She made an aggravated noise before storming off. When I was sure she was out of earshot I whispered to Tony as we began walking back to the common room. "Polishing the trophies?"

"You don't really have to do it." He explained, "But I had to say some punishment."

I nodded as he answered the riddle and we went back to our couch. Padma and Terry were sitting in one of the comfy chairs, she was on his lap. They waved us over. "Hey." I smiled at them as Tony and I sat down. Tony pulled me into his lap and wrapped his arms around my waste and I leaned back against his chest.

"How was your celebration?" Padma asked, wiggling her eyebrows.

"We had butterbeer and hot chocolate." I said.

"And Hermione caught us on the way back," Tony continued, "so if anyone asks Hailey had to polish the trophies." We laughed.

"I'm going to go on up, I have to get to the library early to work on that Potions essay." Padma smiled, as she got up, but Terry grabbed her arm.

"No, don't leave me down here with these two, they'll sit there making goo goo eyes at each other!" Terry pretended to beg.

I blushed and hid my face in Tony's broad chest. I felt it shake as he laughed, "Then maybe you should go up too mate."

I turned back around as Terry pretended he was offended as he stood, "Maybe I will. Come on, Padma." He wrapped his arm around her and they walked over to entrance to the staircases. Terry pulled Padma into a goodnight kiss, they separated and went upstairs.

We sat in silence and Tony played with my hands. "There's an elephant in the room." Tony whispered.

"I don't see one." I replied as someone else went upstairs, the only people left in the common room were Tony and I, and a seventh year doing ovomancy off on the other side of the room.

"You know what I meant." Tony continued, "Are you going to tell me what happened to your hand?"

I slid off his lap so I could face him, "I told you, I had detention with Umbridge." I whispered as his fingers intertwined with mine.

"She did this?" He asked, his cobalt eyes were stormy. That was when I realized he's just as protective as Blaise.

I shook my head, "She had us to do it to ourselves." I lifted my hand to show him, "See that's my handwriting."

He still looked angry, but now he was also confused, "How?"

"She gave us parchment and a thin black quill. It had a really sharp tip, she didn't give us any ink. She said it was a special quill that didn't need ink." I told him, "So I wrote and the words appeared in red ink but faded away. There was a stinging on the back of my hand, and the words were cut into my hand." I recalled, it was hard to explain the process. It was just too weird.

"You were writing in your blood?" Tony asked, he was a smart boy. I nodded, "So that's what you meant by lines? She isn't allowed to do this, we have to tell someone."

"Then she would win." I told him what Harry said to Weasley earlier. "I know you're upset but I'm not going to give Umbridge the satisfaction of knowing she's gotten to me by running to a teacher. I'd rather suffer in silence."

He sighed, "It's a wonder you're not a Gryffindor."

I scoffed, "Then I would have to share a room with Granger, and that would've gone terribly. She's probably complaining to Harry and Weasley about me right now."

"You two are a lot alike it's a wonder you two don't like each other." He said, but I could tell he was still thinking about my detentions.

I shook my head, "I could never be friends with someone who's like me. I'd annoy myself."

He smiled, "How? You're so cute." I blushed, and he brushed his thumb across my cheek, "See that's so cute." He leaned in and kissed me, it was much more intense than our last kiss, but it ended when the seventh year doing ovomancy tried to sneak past us but ended up tripping.

"Are you okay?" I asked, peeking over Tony's shoulder, at some point I ended up back on his lap.

She blushed bright red, "I'm fine."

"Did you see anything in the eggs?" Tony asked.

She shrugged, "It's hard to say, I was going to ask my roommate. Sorry for, er, interrupting." With that the seventh year hurried up the steps leaving Tony and I laughing.

"Why are we always the last ones down here." I leaned back against his chest and he wrapped his arms around me again.

"I don't know." He shrugged and he started to hum to himself.

I yawned and Tony stood pulling me up with him and walking us over to the entrance of the steps, "Goodnight, Hailey." He pulled me into another stellar kiss.

"Goodnight, Tony." I smiled at him before going up the steps and off to bed.