〖Detention With the Devil〗

"Hermione I swear I had nothing to do with that," Sera said putting her hands up defensively during breakfast the next day. "Well, then how did Umbridge's papers catch on fire?!" She hissed quietly as a group of Ravenclaws passed by their table.  "Her wand was rebelling against her because it disapproved of her punishing innocent children." She said sarcastically, rolling her eyes at the cloudy grey ceiling. Hermione sighed and gave her a very disapproving and fell silent but she had the feeling she wouldn't let this subject drop.

She quietly ate her food for the rest of breakfast, lost in thought about what McGonagall had told her, and Harry the day before. She had given them a warning about the costs of misbehavior in Umbridge's class. Sera had tried to listen intently but the truth of the matter was she had already heard this before. Time and time again she had received multiple warnings from her grandmother all with the same notion Do not cross Dolores Jane Umbridge. There was a difference between Castielle and Sera though and that difference was that one of them was actually good at staying out of trouble.

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That evening she and Harry trekked to Umbridge's office in silence. Her fists were clenched and every flame in the lit candelabras they passed flared dangerously casting an eerie orange glow in the corridors. Her anger was reaching a dangerously high point she had no idea how she was going to be able to serve detention without incinerating everything first. No matter what she does. Sera told herself No matter how hard she pushes and tries to get a rise out of you, you must not give in.  The pair stopped in front of Umbridge's door and knocked and she took a deep breath as she walked inside and snuck a glance at Harry It isn't your destiny to kill the golden boy. 

For a good half-second, Sera wasn't entirely sure if she was walking into an office or one of the circles of Hell. Everything was a gaudy, lurid, disgustingly bright pink and accentuated by the lace and frills that seemed to adorn every surface in the place, complete with plates featuring grotesque frolicking kittens that Sera couldn't help but feel sorry for. "Good evening," Umbridge said with a sickeningly sweet smile "Take a seat both of you." 

She gestured to two desks to her left and right respectively, Sera complied and sat down stiffly at the desk to Umbridge's left, but Harry hesitated and straightened up before asking Umbridge something Sera couldn't hear. The pounding of her heart was too loud and the rushing in her ears made it impossible to hear. The heat from her palms was starting to become unbearable even to her and when she clenched her hands together in an attempt to quell their shaking she realized she had left small black burns on the desk which she desperately tried to cover with her robes. 

"Now," Umbridge said presently "Tonight the two of you will be writing lines for me, no, no, not with your quills." She said as Harry and Sera reached for their bags "You'll be using some..." A sick little smile spread across her face, "rather special quills of mine." She went to her desk and took out a pair of black quills with unusually sharp tips and set them down in front of both of them. "Now Mr. Potter you'll be writing 'I must not tell lies.' and as for you Miss Rowe..." She paused for a second her mouth curling into another menacing smile " 'I must not be insubordinate.' should do the trick..."

Insubordinate?! Sera thought with a stab of outrage, what orders had she disobeyed? She had been late to class and then just simply agreed and stood by Harry's side when Umbridge went after him. 'I must not be tardy' was a line she could understand, but insubordination was something entirely different, and no disobeying a command implied with a look didn't count, at least for Sera. She glared at Umbridge the heat rising in her body, the temperature around her spiking, but Harry suddenly interjected snapping her back to the moment and out of her borderline trance. 

"How many times?" He asked in a forced polite voice that Sera assumed was all the sweetness that he could muster. "As long as it takes for the message to sink in." She emphasized the last two words in such a way that sent a shiver down Sera's spine. "What about ink?" Harry asked narrowing his eyes at the quill. "Oh," Umbridge said, "You won't need it." She smiled at the pair before settling back down at her desk. "You may begin."

Okay then, Sera thought totally not sinister at all. She set her quill to the paper and began to write:

I must not be insubordinate.

She winced in pain and gasped as the words appeared in blood-red ink, as well as on the back of her and Harry's hands. She stopped and looked up at Umbridge whose face was stretched into a twisted smile. "Yes?" She inquired, Sera couldn't speak she quickly looked back down and continued writing her lines ignoring the searing pain and the thin letters seemingly carved by a scalpel into the back of her hand. Don't show weakness, do not crack. She told herself, keep going. She looked up one last time her eyes watering 

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After what seemed like an eternity of writing searing, cutting strokes that left the words on the back of her hand red and raw and bloody, Umbridge called them up. "Hands," She said presently, Sera extended her hands and drew in a sharp breath as Umbridge touched the cut with her stubby fingers, it took all of Sera's will power not to yank her hand away. She studied it for an excruciatingly long time with her beady toad eyes before taking Harry's and doing the same before smiling. "Tut, tut, Mr. Potter seems the impression hasn't quite been made yet..." She sighed in a mock exasperated way, "I suppose we'll have to keep trying then." He narrowed his eyes at her for a split second before grabbing his things and exiting the room without another word.

"Not so fast Miss Rowe," Umbridge said sweetly as Sera reached for her bag. Sera grimaced and turned back around trying to make her face as neutral and bored looking as possible. "I have a query to ask of you," Umbridge said reaching down to one of the drawers in her desk and taking out a very charred stack of burned papers that were dropping their ashy remanents all over her desk. "What do you know about this." She gestured to the papers and looked expectantly at Sera. "Nothing," she said trying to keep the fear from her voice "I don't know what happened."

Umbridge surveyed her carefully, her eyes roving over every inch of Sera, mapping out every nervous tic any movement that might give away Sera's lie. "I don't know what happened." Sera said again, "there were other students in that class, it could have been any of them." Umbridge gave her a mock innocent look, "but none of them had their wands out-" "and neither did I." Sera interrupted, her eyes flashing. Umbridge's eyes narrowed "you silly girl." She hissed, "you don't need a wand to start a fire." Her eyes narrowed with triumph, "I know what you can do. The horrible secret your dear grandmother and her nosy little apprentice have been trying to keep."

Sera shook her head, "whatever you're implying, whatever you think I can do I can't." She took a small step backward, "I don't know who started that fire and I sure don't know anything about a secret." She picked up her bag and slung it over her shoulder and without another word she walked briskly out of the room. 

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She broke into a run as soon as she reached the hall, running, trying to get as far away from that room as fast as possible. Every step echoing off the walls seemed to sing she knows, she knows, she knows, "she can't know my secret." She murmured aloud in the dark and shook her head as memories from her childhood flashed in her mind. The grin with the pointed teeth, those horrible stubby fingers tracing the burn scars on her arms, her grandmother yelling her wand raised rage burning in her emerald green eyes. She stopped, shaking at the base of the stairs and collapsed into a sitting position, and no matter how hard she tried she couldn't stop her tears from falling.

They dripped steadily down her face all of her awful memories, the weight of today it all came crashing down on her in a single instant undoing the carefully sewn seams in her heart. She hated Umbridge, she hated her and her cruelty. She knew nothing about Sera only the dangerous volatile things she wanted to see. She looked up at one of the candelabras, wiping the tears off her face as a small wisp hopped from its holder and came to settle in her hands.

 It looked up at her with its wide black eyes and flared trying to give her warmth. She smiled a little and lifted it holding it close to her heart as she stood up and began to climb the stairs back to the Gryffindor common room unaware of the scream echoing from the third floor below her. 

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This insolent mortal, her wings flared with rage as she stared at the shattered remains of one of the many garish kitten plates lying at her feet.  She clicked her tongue gesturing with her bony hand sending another plate falling off the wall and shattering at the woman's feet. Her screams filled the room causing a grim smile to spread across her face.

 She eyed the black quill on the woman's desk and raised her bony fingers lifting the quill into the air and snapping it in half with a single final motion. "Nobody sheds the blood of my quarry mortal." She studied the face of the woman which had gone white with fear and she reached out to her stroking the side of her face with her cold dead hand. 

"Nobody but me." 

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Dedicated to

〖IronWolfie123〗

I'm excited for what's to come. ;)

❤︎