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xvi. SIXTEEN
PATHETIC GIRLFRIEND
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THREE OF THE FIVE DETENTIONS THAT ILIA AND PRESCOTT HAD GAINED THEMSELVES HAD PASSED. It seemed as though the woman had attempted to use the Blood Quills on more than a few students, since both girls now had lines engraved into the back of their hands. Neither of them could do anything about it, because their parents were not important enough to influence her at all. In fact, they just had to bite down tightly on their tongues and cope with the pain.
Ilia had presented her hand to Melora after the second night, when the mark was more prominent. She could easily make out what Umbridge had forced her to write out with her own blood.
I must not hurt inferiors.
Whilst it pained her to witness her friend go through with a form of torture, it was amusing to see that Umbridge had classed Ilia as the superior student, and Prescott as the inferior. Somehow, amidst all of the consequences, came a victory.
Montague later revealed that Prescott's hand brandished a similar text, of: I must not challenge superiors. Again, another torment had been carelessly tossed at Prescott. Not only had she been called a lower status, she was also required to scrape more characters into her flesh. And if that wasn't an insult, then Melora didn't know what was.
It was the day in which Ilia's fourth detention would conclude, and she was starting to stress over it. Whilst they were very nearly over, she wasn't sure how much more pain she could withstand. The line was incredibly visible, and she made it obvious than whenever anyone touched it, it hurt.
And as if the physical pain wasn't enough to break her, Ruth Prescott had decided that she wasn't a finished piece of work. There was still room left to paint on the canvas. And she wanted to paint the picture this time around, with no interruptions or changes from anyone else.
"You won't get away with this, Nyxeris," she snapped at her when the two were simply passing each other in the corridor. "You could never be my superior. I would do another week of detentions, just to prove it."
"Oh, would you really?" Ilia asked, a little too smug about it all. "I'm sure we can arrange for that to happen, if you really want it to."
"Knock it off, Nyxeris, you're scared of everything. It's no wonder you partnered up with Lestrange back in first-year. If you hadn't, then nobody would have accepted you," she hissed, spitting each word like it were venom. "You're too cowardly to be a Slytherin. You're too boring, and far too traitorous."
