✓ Heavenly

013. I Must Respect My Superiors

     Umbridge was watching Harry with her head slightly to one side, still smiling widely, as though she could read his thoughts. With a massive effort, Harry looked away from her, dropped his schoolbag beside the straight-backed chair, and sat down. Glancing over at Venus, who'd already taken her seat; quill in hand.

"There," said Umbridge sweetly, "we're getting better at controlling our temper already, aren't we? Now, you two are going to be doing some lines for me. No, not with your quills," she added, as Harry bent down to open his bag, looking at Venus' quill in her hands.

"You're going to be using a rather special one of mine. Here you are." She handed them two long, thin black quills with unusually sharp points.
"I want you to write ' I must not tell lies, ' " she told Harry softly. "And for you dear, I want you to write 'I must respect my superiors' "

"How many times?" Harry asked, with a creditable imitation of politeness.

"Oh, as long as it takes for the message to sink in, " said Umbridge sweetly. "Off you go."

Even with the immense amount of sweetness in her voice, that sentence never sounded more sinister. Venus raised the sharp black quill and then realized what was missing.

"I don't have any ink," she said.

      "Yeah, mines doesn't have any either," Harry added raising his quill slightly.

"Oh, you won't need ink," said Professor Umbridge with the merest suggestion of a laugh in her voice. Extremely unsettled with the woman's off-putting words, Venus placed the point of the quill on the paper and wrote: I must respect my superiors.

She let out a squeal of pain. The words had appeared on the parchment in what appeared to be shining red ink. At the same time, the words had appeared on the back of Venus' left hand, cut into her skin as though traced there by a scalpel— yet even as she stared at the shining cut, the skin healed over again, leaving the place where it had been slightly redder than before but quite smooth.

She felt tears sting her eyes from the pain; biting the bottom of her lip harshly attempting to stop a cry from escaping her mouth. Venus looked around at Umbridge. She was watching them, her wide, toadlike mouth stretched in a smile. "Yes?"

"Nothing," said Harry quietly. He was impressively hiding his pain, looking back down at the parchment, placing the quill upon it once more.

"You're crazy!" Venus burst out into tears dropping the quill onto the parchment. "This certainly cannot be allowed."

"I suggest you keep quiet and continue your lines, Ms. Rosario," Umbridge's voice was losing its sweet accent.

"Why? Why shouldn't I get up right now and tell Dumbledore what you're doing to us?" said Venus standing up halfway from her seat. Harry had a horrified look on his face; the first emotion he'd displayed since stepping foot into the office.

"Because Ms. Rosario," her voice was bitterly cold now, Venus felt the hairs on her arms stand, "We have information at the Ministry that will certainly guarantee you. . . unpleasant circumstances, Ms. Rosario."

"Like what? My birthday?" said Venus sarcastically.

"More like your birth parents, Ms. Rosario. Now, continue with your lines before this escalates further than it has to, for your own sake."

Venus didn't like the threatening tone coming from Umbridge. She gloomily looked back at her parchment. Pangs of fear and the throbbing pain provoked the tears that brimmed her eyes to fall down her cheeks.