HARRY POV:

Umbridge stares at me in a way that makes me want to sprint out the door. It's silent in the room as she neatens up her desk.

There's a knock at the door, and I turn around in my chair to see who it is.

"Come in." Umbridge says in a horribly sweet voice.

"Sorry I'm late." A girl I've definitely noticed before sporting a Slytherin tie moves into the room.

"No matter. You're here now." Umbridge does a stupid little laugh and gestures to a desk across the room.

The girl finally notices me, and her eyes widen before she scurries off to the desk Umbridge pointed at.

"Now. You two will be doing lines for me," Umbridge begins. The girl digs into her bag presumably for a quill, and I follow. Lines don't sound too bad. "Uh-uh." Umbridge interrupts us, a sick smile on her face.

"You won't be needing your quill." She smiles. The toad goes back to her desk and places one on my desk. She places one on the Slytherin's desk, who flips her off as soon as she turns around. I stifle a laugh.

Umbridge turns around to face me, her nostrils flaring. "Is this funny to you, Mr. Potter? Is this all a joke to you?"

I bite my cheek. "No professor."

Umbridge inhales sharply and glares down at me. "You will write 'I must not tell lies'." She whips around to face the girl. "You will write 'I will not be disrespectful'."

The Slytherin nods and rolls her eyes, picking up the quill and proceeds to mindlessly stab the desk with it.

"Professor, where's our ink?" She asks, as I pick up my own quill.

"Ink?" Umbridge acts like it's a foreign word she doesn't understand. "You won't be needing any ink, Miss L/N."

I knew she looked familiar, I've seen L/N inscribed on the back of the Slytherin seeker's quidditch robes in third year. She's the new team captain.

"How many lines do we have to write?" I ask.

"As many as it takes... for the message to sink in." Umbridge shrugs, a disturbing smile on her face.

L/N shrugs and starts writing. I try to do the same, forcing myself to look at the parchment and not the Slytherin. The ink appears in a strange crimson shade.

I pause when I feel a burning on the back of my hand, but keep writing until I see scratches appearing.

Slowly, and with a pain that makes me frown, the words I wrote appear on the back of my hand.

I must be staring at the letters carved into my own flesh for too long, because Umbridge approaches me with mock concern.

"Is anything wrong?" She asks. I shake my head no and look back at my parchment.

I glance briefly back at the Slytherin girl. She's writing as if her life depends on it, and has pulled her robe's sleeve to cover her hand. She's chewing on her lip in concentration, seemingly unable to react to her own scar she's inevitably inflicting on herself.

I continue writing, the room silent except for the clink of Umbridge's tea cup, the scratching of quills on parchment, the cats in the plates on the walls, and the occasional sharp inhale from either L/N or I.

My hand's beginning to tingle when Umbridge finally stands. "You're dismissed."

L/N mock curtsies and smiles at Umbridge. "It was a delight, professor."

We both exit her office as quickly as possible. We're walking at the same pace and direction, but not quite together. I notice her checking the back of her hand and blowing on it gently.

"Hey," She says, her voice much more gentle without the sharp edge she had talking to Umbridge. "Y'know, this isn't right."

I'm surprised. I don't know if it's because she's a Slytherin, or because she just didn't seem bothered, but I don't know how to respond.

"It's fine." I end up saying.

She moves her hair from her face. "It's not fine. That woman just abused us."

"I'll figure it out later." I don't mean to sound rude, and it's nothing personal, but I don't want to talk to anyone about it.

"Figure what out?" She says to my back as I head up the stairs to Gryffindor tower.

I don't bother replying, not having an intelligent response.

~~~~

Y/N POV:

Anthony and I are in the library, studying. Well, we have our books and things out but we're not really doing anything besides talking. I'm dying to tell him about Daphne's crush to see if Terry feels the same way, but I don't want to betray Daphne's trust.

Right now I'm recounting the story of how I tumbled off my broom and gave my mum a heart attack this summer when I tried leaning too far forward to catch the snitch.

"Y/N, what's that?" Anthony points at my hand. I pull my scarred hand into my lap, shrugging my sleeve over it and putting my other hand in his face.

"What's what?" I look around my other hand. "Are you calling my appendages deformed? That's pretty rude, Ant." I know he hates that nickname so I only use it when I want him to shove off.

"Other hand, idiot." He grabs my wrist off my lap and stares at the scar. "Y/N... what the fuck..?"

"I know, bad place for a tattoo. In my defence, I didn't pick the location. Or words."

"How'd that happen?" He asks, releasing my wrist. His brow is furrowed in concern and I know he wants a straight answer.

"Detention with Umbitch." I admit. I know he's resisting a smile at the nickname I chose.

"So for detention she carved I must not be disrespectful into your hand?!" Anthony raises his eyebrows in disbelief.

I sigh and explain the quill. I'm a tad fascinated by how it works, but I'm not going to mention that. Either way, it hurt like hell and I'm not eager to have to use it again.

"That's abuse. You have to report it." Anthony says, using his no-nonsense tone.

"To who?" I raise an eyebrow.

"Dumbledore. Or your head of house. Anyone, Y/N. You can't let this continue." Anthony has never been this serious.

"Dumbledore doesn't have time for this kind of petty nonsense, and I doubt Snape would give a flying flobberworm's arse."

"But—"

"Look, Anthony, I know you're concerned for me, and it means a lot, but it's not as big of a deal as you're making it to be. She'll stop eventually, and if she finds out I reported her she might just give me more detention." I reason.

Anthony looks at me like I'm stupid. "You just described a textbook abusive situation."

"Well, Hogwarts is lacking an HR office, so I'll just have to wait on this one."

I know Anthony is starting to let it go, because he smiles. His mum is muggle-born like mine, and she works in an HR office.

"I'll talk to my mum about setting one up." He jokes.

"Oh yeah, I'm sure the ministry would love to have her in here working on that." I stifle a laugh. "I'm going to go ahead and put the books away." I offer, standing. My chair squeaks and Madame Pince shushes me.

HARRY POV:

"Quiet!" Madame Pince shrieks, and I turn around, thinking it's me. I see the Slytherin I had detention with apologising to Madame Pince as she moves away from the table with an armful of books.

"Bye." She waves at a Ravenclaw who was sitting with her and turns towards the shelf.

Is that her boyfriend?

"Harry."

I turn back to face the table. "Hm?"

"I said, can you get me that textbook? The Guide to Magical—" Hermione repeats herself, but I cut her off.

"Yeah, I got it." I stand up and glance at Ron, who just shakes his head at me tiredly.

I squint at the spines as I walk down the aisle, in no particular rush to find the book. I crane my neck upwards to the top of the shelf and walk sideways, mindlessly scanning the rows of books.

I bump into someone and they drop a book that crashes down onto their shoulder.

"Sorry." I apologise, picking up the book and handing it to—

The Slytherin from detention.

She looks briefly surprised to see me but covers it up with indifference as she takes the books.

"Thanks." She looks unsure if she wants to stay or not.

"You're the one who had detention with Umbridge, right?" I want to just walk away. That has to be the most idiotic thing I could have said.

"Yeah. I've been terribly careful not to get it again." She smiles.

I find myself smiling. "How's your hand..." I trail off feeling even more like an idiot when I realise I don't know her first name.

She catches on and gives me a condensing smirk, causing my face to feel red. "Y/N." She supplies.

"Harry." I offer, then want to slam my forehead into the bookshelf.

"Nice to meet you, Harry." Her tone is friendly, but she's still wearing the condescending smirk.

It's sort of a weird phrase to hear. Someone treating me like a new person, not someone they think they already know because they've heard of me.

"Let me start again... How's your hand, Y/N?" I ask.

She doesn't offer to show me her scar. "It's alright. I've been taking care of it." She pauses, setting her books down on a table. "What about yours?"

I push my hair back from my forehead. "Still there." I smirk.

Y/N smirks back. "Cute." She stands there just looking at me in a way that makes me nervous. But not exactly bad nervous.

"What did you do to get detention with her?" I ask. I'm sort of curious. I doubt she got in trouble for speaking against Voldemort.

"Oh." She looks briefly embarrassed. "I got caught setting a dung bomb in her desk."

I must look amused, because she smiles. "It was totally worth it because it went off as soon as I left her office."

"Sounds worth it." I reply.

"Why were you in there?" She asks, leaning her shoulder against the shelf.

"Speaking out in class. Y'know, she was denying everything that happened last year... and she didn't like me telling her she was wrong."

"Last year... as in Diggory's death...?" She trails off suddenly realising. She furrows her brow in mild anger. "Why would anyone make that up? Is she mad?"

"She wasn't denying that Cedric died..." I clear my throat. "She was denying that Voldemort is back."

"Oh." Y/N looks briefly surprised, either because I used his name or maybe she has Death Eaters in the family. "So it's true?" She asks, her tone much quieter.

"Yes. I watched it happen." I cast my eyes down. I didn't know the conversation was going to turn this way. "He's back. And with... sinister goals in mind."

"Wow." Y/N glances back at me, dead serious. "How do you even cope with that?"

"I—" I pause, confused. "What?" What is she asking?

"How do you deal with it? How do you take your mind off of it?" Y/N elaborates.

"Oh. Uhm, friends, I guess. Quidditch. I really missed it last year." I supply.

"Oh, me too. Although I suppose you were busy with the Triwizard Tournament." Y/N smirks at me. "How'd you get your name in there anyway?"

I sigh. "I didn't. But that's probably a story for another time." I'm not in the mind to explain.

"Sorry." Y/N looks slightly guilty for pressing.

"It's fine." We're silent for a moment. "I heard you're a quidditch captain." I offer, and she lights up at the mention.

We talk about quidditch for a while, and I resist the urge to question her about some of her teammates.

It's strange to be talking to a rival team's seeker, even more strange the Slytherin seeker.

My heart shouldn't be beating this quickly during a conversation about quidditch.

"Harry!" I turn around to see Ron gesturing for me to go.

"I have to go." I smile at Y/N. "Talk later?"

She nods and turns around to leave. I head over to Ron and Hermione.

"Oo did you see Cho?" Hermione smirks.

I feel my smile subside, and a weird feeling grows in my stomach. "No, why?"

"Because you're blushing like mad." Hermione smiles, raising her eyebrows at me.

"Yeah, who's got your wand all in a knot, mate?" Ron nudges my shoulder as we leave.

"No one." I shake my head as we exit the library.

~~~~

A/N: glad to be back, and i promise chapter four is well in the works <3 

hope you're enjoying the story so farrr

- wheezely