2 | CONFESSIONS° HARRY POTTER

9 | DETENTION WITH DOLORES

ACT THREE, loss
CHAPTER NINE, detention with dolores

         "I cannot believe you went and got yourself detention on the first day of classes." Oliver said over dinner that evening

"With Harry Potter." Pansy added. Draco snorted.

"Have fun with that." Draco said. Iris shrugged nonchalantly while she picked at her food.

"Why did you go and get detention anyway?" Astoria asked from beside Oliver. Iris let out a sigh.

"I think it's stupid and a waste of a year to be in Defense Against the Dark Arts and not be practicing any defensive spells. Especially with our exams at the end of the year. It's sabotage." Iris lied smoothly, though that was partly true. She was just glad she didn't have to listen to them talk about what Harry had said in DADA anymore about Voldemort and Cedric. 

The following day dawned just as leaden and rainy as the previous one.

Double Transfiguration was followed by double History of Magic. Transfiguration was another class that Iris was really good at. She really liked Professor McGonagall as a teacher and it helped that her wand was really skilled at Transfiguration. It was made out a fir wood meaning the subject was its strongpoint. 

Professor McGonagall spent the first fifteen minutes of class lecturing on the importance of O.W.L.s.

"You cannot pass an O.W.L.," said Professor McGonagall grimly, "without serious application, practice, and study. I see no reason why everybody in this class should not achieve an O.W.L. in Transfiguration as long as they put in the work." She glanced around the classroom at the faces of the Slytherin's and Hufflepuffs. "Today we are starting Vanishing Spells. These are easier than Conjuring Spells, which you would not usually attempt until N.E.W.T. level, but they are still among the most difficult magic you will be tested on in your O.W.L."

She was quite right, of course. Vanishing Spells had proved to be a little difficult, but by the end of the double period Iris managed to figure it out on her second attempt and cause her snail to vanish. McGonagall awarded ten extra points to Slytherin and her house members gave her looks of appraisal. Iris was the only person not awarded homework and she was thankful for that because her homework load was beginning to become too much, especially now that she had been assigned detention.

A part of Iris dreaded having to go to Care of Magical Creatures because that meant having to hear her Slytherin friends laugh and make fun of Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

The day had become cool and breezy, and, as they walked down the sloping lawn toward Hagrid's cabin on the edge of the Forbidden Forest, they felt the occasional drop of rain on their faces. Professor Grubbly-Plank stood waiting for the class some ten yards from Hagrid's front door, a long trestle table in front of her laden with many twigs. 

Iris walked between Pansy and Milicent with her head staring down at the grass. She spotted Harry up front looking at them while Draco, Crabbe, Goyle, and Pansy laughed while sneaking looks over at Harry as they gathered around the trestle table.

"Everyone here?" barked Professor Grubbly-Plank, once all the Slytherins and Gryffindors had arrived. "Let's crack on then — who can tell me what these things are called?" 

She indicated the heap of twigs in front of her. Hermione's hand shot into the air. Behind her back, Draco did a buck-toothed imitation of her jumping up and down in eagerness to answer a question that landed him an eye roll from Iris. Pansy gave a shriek of laughter that turned almost at once into a scream, as the twigs on the table leapt into the air and revealed themselves to be what looked like tiny pixieish creatures made ofwood, each with knobbly brown arms and legs, two twiglike fingers atthe end of each hand, and a funny, flat, barklike face in which a pair of beetle-brown eyes glittered.