Chapter 31 – Detention

He arrived in Gryffindor, in the 7th years’ dormitory, transformed back and woke James up.

“Harry, what are you doing here?” he said shocked.

“I just wanted to tell you that I’m going to play tomorrow. Pomfrey won’t let me, but I’ll just flash into the changing rooms, and when we take off as we come out, they won’t notice me fast enough. Or maybe you could place a Notice-me-not charm on me?”

“I can do that. But are you sure you are well enough to play apart from the fact that you will be in so much trouble afterwards?”

“I’m well enough; she’s only keeping me because I have a fever, but I’m fine and I don’t care about the trouble, I only want Gryffindor to win the cup!”

“Alright, but we have to distract Poppy, so that she can’t come to the game. But how? I have some joke powder, which makes people vomit for a few hours. We could feed that to some of the Slytherins at breakfast. Then she will be busy the whole morning.”

“Oh, that’s great. How can we arrange that?”

“No problem, can you flash me to the kitchens, so that I can speak to the elves?”

Harry transformed immediately and flashed James to the kitchen. When they arrived in the kitchen, a few House elves came and motioned them to sit down and one of them brought something to eat and drink to their table. Suddenly Harry noticed Dobby.

“Dobby?” he asked cautiously, and the elf bowed deeply and said,

“Yes, master Harry; I’m glad you managed to visit me here.”

Harry smiled and asked, “Dobby, are you and Bobby well? Do you like it here?” As James was busy arranging his prank with a few other elves, Harry took the opportunity to tell Dobby everything about him and the relationship they were having in the future, before he hugged him fiercely. Finally, everything was arranged, and Pomfrey was indeed very busy with a room full of Slytherins during the following morning, so that Harry had no trouble getting away with his broom and his Quidditch robes.

He flashed directly into the Gryffindor changing room to transform back to his human form, and when he arrived, everyone cheered. James had already spoken to the team, so they knew they had to get into the air quickly without attracting any attention, especially not from their Head of House. They managed to get in the air without problems, and as soon as the game began, Harry relaxed, although he noticed a gasp that came from the teachers’ seats when the commentator announced their names. He began to fly over everyone else, feverishly looking for the snitch, which he intended to catch as soon as Gryffindor was five goals ahead of Hufflepuff. As they didn’t need any more points than the 150 points they would get for the snitch plus 50 more points, this would be enough, and he didn’t know how good his condition would be after a while.

Very luckily he managed to catch the snitch immediately after the score was 80:20 after just forty minutes, handed it over to Madam Hooch, went a few steps aside, transformed and flashed away just when she announced, “Harry Pane has caught the snitch. Gryffindor wins 230:20.”

Within minutes, McGonagall and Dumbledore were at James’ side. “Where is Harry?”

“I don’t know Professors.”

“You know that he wasn’t supposed to play, don’t you?”

“Why?” James asked innocently.

“Because he is ill, and you knew that. I have told you on Wednesday evening that you had to train your reserve seeker because Harry probably would not be able to play today. And until the game I haven’t told you anything to the contrary, have I?”

“I’m sorry Professor, but Harry told me he was fine and so I thought it would be alright to let him play.”

“I know my Grandson very well, and I know that it is his fault, but nevertheless you should not have let him play! I am very disappointed in you Mr. Potter. I will tell you your punishment after I have spoken to Harry.”

“Minerva, please calm down for a minute,” Dumbledore said and placed a hand on her shoulder before he put the Sonorus charm on himself and announced,

“And now it is time to present this year’s Quidditch Cup… to… Gryffindor,” he spoke louder than the enthusiastic applause that was coming from all sides. “Congratulations Gryffindor!” he said and handed the golden Quidditch Cup to James who showed it around with a huge smile on his face before he gave it to his Head of House, who thanked him, took the Cup and transformed into a cat only to dart away like a bolt of lightning.

“Oh, poor Harry,” James whispered to Sirius, who was standing next to him.

-----

Madam Pomfrey sat down in her office and tried to relax for a few minutes. Just a few minutes beforehand, she had been able to release all Slytherin students who had kept her busy for the whole morning. After that, she had gone into Harry’s room, who was peacefully asleep, but checking on him she had noticed, that his temperature was much higher than in the morning. ‘What is wrong with him and what can we do?’ she kept thinking repeatedly. ‘Maybe I should ask Albus to excuse Severus from certain lessons to give him more time for his research on Harry’s Potion. Anyway, when they are all going to be obliviated, I have to make sure that Severus still knows that he has to develop this Potion for Harry, so that Harry can get it immediately when he goes back. Good that Albus said I do not have to be obliviated’.

She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she did not notice the familiar cat rushing through the Hospital Wing and her office towards Harry’s room. A few minutes later McGonagall came into her office, but not through the wing but from Harry’s room.

“Hello Minerva, how did you get here?” she asked surprised.

“Sorry, Poppy, I came here as a cat, but you seemed to be so wrapped up in your thoughts that you didn’t notice. I wanted to talk to Harry.”

“Oh, he is fast asleep and you may not wake him up; he is not well,” Pomfrey said sternly and McGonagall snorted. Poppy raised an eyebrow and looked enquiringly at her friend.

“Have you, by chance, looked after him once during the Quidditch game that has been played on the pitch?”

“Hmm?”

“He got out and has been playing Quidditch for about an hour!”

“He has WHAT!”

“Yes, you heard me correctly, Poppy, that’s why I’m here right now.”

Pomfrey remained speechless.

“I think he has to be punished this time, maybe he should receive one week’s detention with me and can do some grading for me.”

Poppy glared at her. “That’s a good idea, but not before I release him, and I don’t know when I’ll be able to do that.”

“All right, so please tell him he has detention from the day he is released and I expect him to be at my office at 7 pm every day for a week. Are you coming to lunch with me?”

“No, Minerva, I cannot let him alone, but after this morning of two dozen puking Slytherins around I’m not hungry anyway.”

“What was wrong with them?”

“I don’t know Minerva, to me it seemed as if someone had put something in their pumpkin juice, but as none is left, there is no way to prove it.”

Harry was kept in bed for the rest of the weekend, until he was very reluctantly allowed to attend classes with a note that this could be revoked by Madam Pomfrey anytime, when his fever that had still not completely gone got worse. When he walked out of the Hospital Wing to attend breakfast before going to his first classes, Pomfrey called him back. “Don’t forget your detention with Professor McGonagall at 7 o’clock in her office! And you are not allowed to play Quidditch without my explicit permission, which you only will get within an hour before the practise or game. Don’t forget that, otherwise you will be banned from Quidditch completely for the rest of the school year!”

-----

He couldn’t eat much at dinner, because his stomach was doing flip flops. His grandmother hadn’t come to speak to him at all after the Quidditch game on Saturday, but for giving him a 7 days’ detention she must have been very upset. Even in the future, he couldn’t recall having a private detention with her. When he walked up to Gryffindor tower, his pace was getting slower and slower, until he remembered that he had to be in her office at exactly 7 o’clock and it was already two minutes before that. Therefore, he sprinted up the stairs and arrived just in time at the door of ... what would probably be a tiger tonight. He knocked hesitantly and was called in immediately. His grandmother threw him a very stern glare and motioned him to sit down. “Harry, I assume you know why you are here.”

He dare not look at her. “Yes Professor.”

She sighed. “As you are not stupid, I suppose I don’t have to tell you how dangerous and irresponsible your actions have been. And your health is poor enough, so there is no need to play with it; even for the Quidditch Cup.”

Harry shot a small glance at the cup, which was placed on the shelf to his right side.

“I want you to grade these papers for me. They are from the second class, so you should not have any problems. And if you have questions, don’t hesitate to ask.”

Harry nodded and began to grade the two mounds of parchment lying on the table in front of him. At first he did the grading very cautiously, but after some time he had gotten used to marking the younger students’ mistakes and he had to admit that he rather liked it. It took him about one and a half hours to finish the first pile, and he started on the second pile immediately. However, after two hours he noticed that he couldn’t concentrate anymore. “Um…” he started timidly.

“Yes, Harry?” Minerva asked immediately.

“Do you need these corrections tomorrow morning?” Harry blurted out, and his grandmother noticed his flashed cheeks and smiled at him.

“If you are tired or unwell you should go to bed; in that case you don’t even have to ask me.”

Harry nodded relieved and said, “Thank you, Granny. Good night.” In front of the door, he transformed and flashed back to his room.

-----

During his fifth detention on Friday evening, he had to grade fourth years’ homework and was nearly disappointed when his grandmother told him there wouldn’t be any detention on the weekend, but he had to serve the remaining two evenings of detention during the following week.

“But I’ll miss too much of Quidditch practise,” he weakly protested.

However, his grandmother sternly replied, “You should have thought about the consequences before doing the stunt you pulled last week, shouldn’t you?”

On Sunday morning, when Pomfrey came in his room to check on him, Harry asked her immediately, “Our Hogwarts team has Quidditch practise directly after breakfast. May I play?”

She sighed and shook her head. “No, Harry, you may go and watch the practise from the stands and even advise your players, but I don’t want you to play in this rain. Please give me your broom for a while, so that I can be sure you comply.”

Maybe it was not so bad to watch Quidditch practise from the ground – he could see things he would never had noticed from above. After twenty minutes of watching Harry called his team together and gave a few tips, before they resumed practise. “You haven’t covered this part at all,” he told the chasers. “You,” he addressed the chasers of the reserve team, “have to concentrate more on your teamwork. Don’t forget, our match against Beauxbatons is next week, and I want us to win this game!”

During his seven detentions, he had finally graded the homework of all classes except for seventh years’. Before leaving the room after his last detention, he told his grandmother, “If you need help grading homework, you can call me anytime; I have really enjoyed it… Granny.”

She laughed and told him she would remember it, when she needed help.

-----

On Wednesday evening, after his last detention with Professor McGonagall, he spent the hour until curfew helping Severus with his research, the first time in weeks to visit Slytherin’s Potions lab.

“Whom are you going to take to the Dance?” Harry asked cautiously, while they were waiting for a Potion to simmer.

“Nobody I think,” was the short reply, and Harry glanced inquiringly at his friend. “The only girl I would have invited is Lily, and she is already going with James,” Severus offered an explanation Harry could understand very well.

Harry would have invited Amelia Bones, but as he even didn’t know if he would be allowed to participate at all, he didn’t ask her or anyone else. “Alright, then the two of us can go together and don’t have to dance,” he smiled.

“Why don’t you invite someone?”

“Because I don’t know if the dragon will let me go at all. It would be unfair to ask someone just to have to cancel at the last minute. But in fact I don’t care about the party; I hope she will let me play at the match; I’m thinking all the time how I could perhaps manipulate her, because running away won’t work this time.”

“Hmm. But what is the problem? Do you still have a cold? And when does she check on you? Before breakfast or after?”

“My cold is gone, but I still have a fever; I don’t know exactly why. Pomfrey says my immune system has gone crazy. Normally she checks before I get up. Why?”

“All right. Then I will brew a very strong fever reducer for you and give it to you the day before. When you wake up early and drink it at least a few minutes before she checks on you, then I am sure she will allow you to play. Maybe you also need one the evening before. Let us meet down here on Friday evening directly after dinner, so that I can check on you and advise you which Potion when to take. If you are fine, we don’t have to do anything, so…”

“Thank you, Severus, that’s a great idea,” Harry interrupted him relieved. “You know, I just have to play in the match; everything depends on if we can catch the Snitch.”

“All right, we will try to do what we can. Like I said we will meet here on Friday evening to discuss what to do.”

-----

At dinnertime, James came over to their table and whispered to Harry, “Don’t forget that we are having Sirius’ birthday party tonight at about midnight in the Room of Requirement, and tell Remus, Severus and Lily to come as well please.”

Harry nodded and whispered with the three friends at Merlin table. He told them to go ahead; he would flash there, as soon as the air was clear for him to leave his room. This evening, Harry was lucky. Pomfrey went to bed a few minutes before midnight, so that he was one of the first to arrive at the seventh floor.

As the door was already there, he could just enter the room, which was decorated beautifully. The room looked like a forest with a lake in the middle, and on the grass beside the lake, several sofas and comfortable chairs were arranged in a circle around a huge table on which the House elves had arranged a midnight birthday picnic, which was topped by a gorgeous cake with seventeen candles. Harry looked in awe at the stunning landscape, transformed into Icicle and sat down on a branch of a maple tree. It didn’t take long until the others arrived and the party began.

After their midnight birthday meal, they changed into their Animagus forms and played for a while between the trees, occasionally taking a swim in the lake, until the delicious food attracted their attention too much, so that they transformed back in order to eat another piece of the huge cake. Afterwards they spent some time playing exploding snap and a few other games, before they reluctantly decided to head back to their dormitories at nearly 5 o’clock in the morning.

-----

After two hours of sleep, Poppy woke him up, glancing at him suspiciously. Normally Harry was awake when she left her private quarters. Why was he so tired? Harry just shrugged when she asked him and got ready for his classes. However, he was slowly beginning to panic about the match. Would Severus be able to help him so that he could play?

On Friday just before dinner, the two other schools arrived and they were again having a huge welcoming feast for the guests, who were once more sitting at Merlin table and staying in the still more than half-vacant Merlin House. Unfortunately, Harry couldn’t enjoy dinner at all, because he was too worried about the match the next day, and was glad when they finally were dismissed to their common rooms. Before Severus and Harry left Merlin House half an hour before curfew, Severus quickly told Lily where he and Harry were going to go so that she wouldn’t miss him back in their apartment, before Harry transformed and flashed them to the Chamber. When they arrived in the chamber, Severus motioned him to sit on the sofa in the room with the huge fireplace, took a thermumeter out of his robes and stuck it under Harry’s tongue.

“I’m sorry Harry; I don’t know how to do this with a wand,” he apologized. A few minutes later Harry watched as Severus checked the thermumeter with a frown. “39.2 – that’s much too high, no question why she doesn’t let you play Quidditch; more or less a wonder that she lets you attend classes at all.” He went over to the Potions lab and brought four phials with him, which he handed to Harry. “Here, drink one now and the others every four hours, the last one just before she checks on you. But hide them carefully and don’t let her get to know this; otherwise we will both be in real trouble! Now flash us back and go to bed.”

Harry did as Severus had told him and luckily managed in the morning to drink the Potion just a quarter of an hour before Pomfrey came to check on him.

“May I play today?” He asked immediately and looked at her when he didn’t get an answer.

“Let me check you over first Harry,” she said and waved her wand once, a second and a third time, before her face took a sceptic look and she said, “Your fever seems to finally have come down. All right, if you feel well enough, you may play Quidditch today. Good luck!”

Harry was so relieved; he nearly couldn’t believe his luck. In order not to meet the nurse again before the game, he took his broom and everything he needed for the match with him, when he went down to breakfast, where Severus and Lily were already waiting impatiently. Severus smirked and whispered, “From the look of your face I assume that it worked and she is letting you play?”

“Yes, Severus, I still can’t believe it. Thank you so much!”

Lily glared sternly at Harry and scolded him, “I don’t really appreciate that, and if you pull such a stunt once again, I promise you I will tell Professor McGonagall.”

-----

After breakfast, they rushed to the Changing rooms and got ready for the game. As soon as everyone had changed, Harry gathered his team around himself and said, “Let’s do as well as the last time, and then the cup will be ours. We only need 60 points more than Beauxbatons, but although I will try hard to catch the snitch, please don’t rely on me, try to get as many goals as you can. Let’s fight!”

Minister McNeill, who was refereeing again, was already waiting for Harry.

Harry stood next to the minister and took the microphone. “As the organiser of this Quidditch tournament I welcome you to the match Beauxbatons versus Hogwarts and hope you have a lot of fun and that we have fair play. Thank you.” With a short nod to the minister, he returned to his team.

Professor McGonagall took over the microphone and announced the names of the players, and the minister released the Snitch, so that the game could start. Harry didn’t care about the match going on below him – he was circling above everything feverishly looking for the Snitch – they only needed the Snitch. And there it was! He raced downwards with the Beauxbatons Seeker on his heels, and pulled up in the last minute to grip the fluttering golden Snitch – after just fifteen minutes into the game. But… at the same instant, when he closed his right hand around his favourite ball, a cry caused his attention to be directed to a scene just above him, where a Bludger had just hit James in the leg. James couldn’t hold himself on his broom and tumbled down at full speed.