CHAPTER EIGHTY-TWO
"detention"
Luckily, for the past few days, Regulus hadn't done as much as glare at Remus out of anger. Hollis hadn't been expecting it, but she was silently relieved that there was a few days of peace between those two boys, a duo slowly beginning to rival James and Snape.
However, in light of this new, most likely short-lived peace, there was a new dark to keep the balance; the students of Hogwarts were receiving a very odd approach of defending themselves against the Dark Arts.
Professor Abrigor taught about these dark creatures, potions, and spells as a subject he highly respected, even revered and honored, not one to be fought off.
Of course, as a professor, one has to hold a certain level of pride in their subject, but this old man stepped far beyond that line by the first class when he lectured about defensive spells with a disappointed and scolding tone, as if he disapproved of the purpose of his own subject.
It was still a mystery to almost everyone at the school how on earth Abrigor Bounce had been hired.
Almost.
Unknown to most, the Notts and the Bounces were two very close families. Despite the relationships' initial buyer and seller nature, after a few years, the Bounces gained the trust of Cantanerus Nott.
As a high ranking member under the Department of Education at the ministry, Theodore's father saw this as an opportunity to purify the schools and make the Dark Arts something to be feared instead of fought against, working what he deemed to be the proper mindset as early as possible into the next generation of witches and wizards so that the muggleborns would know their filth and the purebloods would know their purpose to rid the world of that mud.
Cantankerus Nott had no care for the education of Hogwarts students besides purebloods, and the sole reason he had joined the Ministry was for reasons such as these when he could twistedly extort his power.
Just like his son, his desire for control overwhelmed any morals he had left, and this was a perfect chance to exert that control by making the Dark Arts more foreboding and something not to cross rather than facing them with a rebellious spirit.
Unfortunately for Bounce and the Notts, the Marauders had made it their personal goal to call out their crooked professor every single time something like this happened, not sparing him from as much as a distasteful glance at Lily or another muggleborn.
Although these disruptions landed the five sixth years in detentions on multiple occasions, all of them thought that pointing out these flaws in perspective was worth it. Not only for their year's sake, but to shield the easily molded minds of the first and second years at Hogwarts.
Many professors secretly admired the Marauders for this, all of them despising the ministry for appointing Bounce as well against the headmaster's will. Dumbledore only had so much influence to a point.
If the Ministry, especially a family like the Notts, wanted something done, it would be done out of sheer fear of the consequences if it did not. However, several times after these five teenagers had stood up against Bounce, McGonagall, Sprout, or Flitwick would secretly negotiate with Bounce into lowering their punishment or not giving some of their favorite students detention, wishing the best of will and luck upon them.
So, when the Marauders walked into Defense Against the Dark Arts class, their presence was acknowledged with narrowed, pale eyes of Professor Bounce.
"Sit down, you five," he sternly ordered, even though many of the Slytherins besides Hollis were still standing up and talking before class had started.
Holding up her hands exaggeratedly by her sides and widening her eyes in mock surrender, Hollis earned several laughs with her cartoon-like, vaguely mocking, expression.
"Don't give me that sass, Miss Rosier," Bounce ordered.
The old man no longer had the fear of Hollis he had that day in his shop at Moribund. Once he had understood Hollis's reputation he discovered that the girl's haughty demeanor at the shop was just an act to keep her friends out of trouble, any worries of being threatened by her family were gone.
Sirius let out a whistle that made the class laugh again, and Bounce's wrinkled face scrunched up in anger at the two disruptive students.
"Would you like me to give you and Miss Rosier another detention, Mr. Black?" he asked, and Sirius sat down silently beside a dramatic thud of him slamming his wand and book on the wooden desk.
merlin, i hate him - h
i don't think he understands that we're so used to detentions that they just don't affect us anymore - s
at a point, but we don't want any letters to be written home - r
He glanced up slightly to Hollis.
i think hope might actually be pleased if she heard - j
and mia would try to act disappointed but couldn't - p
Every time the Gryffindors started talking about their parents, Hollis couldn't help but feel a curl of jealousy in her stomach pushing slightly against her happiness for them. Every tale of their home lives from peaceful camping trips to chaotic, amusing dinners launched her into bitter daydreaming, a hope for something she could never have.
When those four took the Express away from Hogwarts, they knew that a comforting home would be waiting for them, accepting, loving parents and all. They wouldn't ever be punished for their career choice or who they were in a relationship with, much less simply their friends.
On the contrary, Hollis had three scars crossed on her body and memories that contained what most people suffered in a lifetime compared to her sixteen years.
Even though she had seen little of them, Hollis tried to imagine Lyall or Mia raising either a hand or wand threateningly to James, Sirius, or Remus and came up blank. That was part of why Hollis had such a hard time revealing any of her past, especially to James and Remus.
She knew that they just couldn't grasp the feeling of sickening betrayal from a person that you never even trusted.
"Miss Rosier, I assure you that if you zone out in my class one more time, I will take points off Slytherin," Abrigor snapped, and Hollis blinked a few times, her thoughts abruptly disrupted. "Would you like that?"
She stared at the professor with an unbothered expression for a few seconds before answering. "No," she replied, voice drawn out and dripping with sarcasm. Remus bit the inside of his cheek, and Hollis turned back to him with a small smile.
"Now, as I was saying, today we will be starting a lesson on Inferi. Can anyone tell me what these are?"
Hollis propped up her elbow on the desk with a raised hand, and their professor intentionally ignored her as he scanned the rest of the students several times. The room was completely silent; the Rosier was the only one that knew the answer. Clearing her throat, Hollis raised an eyebrow at Bounce, daring him to not call on her.
"No one else?" he sighed, and then gestured to Hollis. "Miss Rosier?"
"An inferius is a dead body, used like a puppet by a wizard or witches' spell. They're created using Nercromancy, the Dark Art of raising the dead," Hollis answered, leaning back in her seat once she was finished.
Reluctantly, Bounce nodded to confirm what his student had said was true.
The amount of time spent in Rosier Library had payed off somewhat, Hollis thought with a slight smirk as she twirled her quill between two fingers.
"Yes, that is correct," Bounce said, picking up a piece of pale chalk nearly the same color as his skin and starting to write Inferi on the board in rushed, spiky script. "Now, these creatures are impossible to be harmed-"
Gritting her teeth, Hollis tried to contain her temper.
This was where Bounce always twisted things, made the Dark Arts seem much more undefeatable than they really were and didn't allow for a shred of hope. The horrified expression on Alice's face as she thought that she could do nothing to defend herself against the creatures was enough to make the Rosier speak up.
"Actually, they can be injured," Hollis cut in, swinging her black boots on the desk and tipping back her chair on it's back legs casually.
Bounce knew this very well, but he wouldn't let her get away that easily. "Well, if you know so well Miss Rosier, then why don't you tell us?"
Several students took in sharp inhales, not expecting for Hollis to be able to back up her contradictory claim. "Gladly," she said, slamming back down the front two legs of her chair for emphasis.
Sirius and James grinned at each other; they loved when Hollis got like this.
"Well, since they're already, you know, dead-" Lily couldn't help but giggle slightly at the way Hollis told their professor this, as if he was as intelligent as the stone bricks below her feet.
"They can't be killed again. But, fire scares the living crap out of them, giving you enough time to escape as long as you're not so thick you can't produce a Burning Charm. It's really not that difficult alone unless there are hundreds, then you might need a friend or get a little burnt. "
The rest of the class, especially Remus, was thoroughly impressed.
Bounce's wrinkled face turned even paler and angry at being proven wrong in front of his class. He should have learned better by now, but he just slammed down his palm flat on the mahogany desk placed at the front of the room.
"Detention."
"She didn't do anything wrong!" Remus exclaimed, and several people shouted or nodded their heads in agreement.
"Miss Rosier was disrespectful towards me, Mr. Lupin."
"By answering your question?"
Bounce gritted his teeth.
"Detention tonight for both of you."
.｡*ﾟ+.*.｡ ﾟ+..｡*ﾟ+
Something about precariously dusting the tops of the frames on every single portrait located on the third floor without magic to help at all just wasn't how Hollis had imagined spending her Friday night.
For the past two hours, she and Remus had been using decaying rags from Filch's office to gather up all the grime accumulated on these orientally carved metal frames. She didn't know if she was spreading the dirt more or if the fabric was going to disintegrate before she found out.
The crime listed on their detention record was 'Disrespecting their professor with brash interruptions of the lesson.' This small slip of paper was added to the entire filing cabinet that was full of hexes, pranks, and other punishable offenses committed by only the Marauders. Peter and Remus shared a drawer, while Hollis, James, and Sirius each had an entire one stuffed to the brim for their records of mischief.
On average, these five would spend around four nights in detention a month, more than a normal student would in their entire year. For James and Sirius, their records usually consisted of hexing someone just because they could or being caught playing a prank in the most idiotic way possible. As far as Peter, he would usually be tagging along to James and Sirius, and then get lost along the way and get in some equally as stupid trouble as the boys he was following. When Remus got detention, it was for getting caught as well, but more likely the reason was getting in a heated argument with a teacher, namely Bounce.
And when Hollis had a slip of paper shoved into her drawer, it was almost always for one of four things.
One, her intentionally letting herself get caught or in trouble so that she could join the others in detention. Second, whenever Hollis made witty yet biting remarks to Bounce, she would almost always land herself with yet another slot.
Third, her temper would snap and she would hex someone without raising a wand or even looking in their direction. She was remarkably good at aiming for her target, but these instances had been associated with her nearly every time, resulting in her punishment.
And put most simply, defending Remus or werewolves in general.
In short, none of them would be leaving Hogwarts with a remotely clean record.
"I think that an entire colony of dust bunnies has bred up here," Hollis muttered, holding her fist over her mouth to cough into from the amount of tiny, grey specks that had just shot down her throat.
From the rickety, tall ladder that Filch had set up, Remus looked down at where she was trying to get the dust out of her system.
"I mean, we only have a dozen or so frames left," Remus pointed out, narrowing his eyes so that he could see better down the torchlit, carpeted corridor. "And it's taken us like two hours to do, what, thirty? So that means-"
With a groan, Hollis pressed her forehead against a canvas full of a red-haired witch that was sorting through the jars of dried flowers on the wooden shelves within her painting.
"So that means another hour of this," she calculated sourly.
Throwing down her grit covered, faded yellow rag in their growing pile, Hollis looked around the corner to where Filch had fallen asleep eating a sandwich in his stiff, wooden chair.
"Our dear Argus seems to have fallen asleep," she whispered, turning back around the corner to Remus with a grin. "Let's just use our wands really fast and get this over with."
With a slightly disapproving face, Remus opened his mouth, but Hollis cut his protests off swiftly as she walked to the base of the ladder.
"I wouldn't normally, Moony, but we both know that we did absolutely nothing wrong to deserve this," Hollis said reasonably. "Don't look at me like I'm all Slytherin, okay? It's only logical."
For a few seconds, Remus was quiet, considered. Then, a smooth motion, he pulled his wand from his pocket and flicked it down the general direction of the hallway. Adding a swirling motion, the dust all condensed into one big ball before disappearing with a crack.
"Show off," Hollis muttered with a grin as Remus hopped down from the ladder. "Really had to make a production out of it, did you?"
"It was just-"
They both faltered in their steps as they turned the corner to see a very angry Filch. A few sandwich crumbs were caught in his matted beard, evidence of his abrupt awakening.
"No magic," he said menacingly, his head tilted slightly with a sick smile.
"Run!" Hollis cried, grabbing Remus's hand and yanking him down the corridor with her. "Go go go!"
Completely ignoring Flich's furious calls for them to come back, the two breathless sixth years kept running down the corridors away from the hobbling caretaker. Hollis's footsteps were almost completely silent, her feet hitting the ground as if it was made of air.
Remus was quiet as well, but couldn't even get close to the practice that Hollis had gotten.
After another minute or so of sprinting, Hollis and Remus were both finally too out of breath to continue. Looking at each other with mischievous grins, she started laughing at the expression on Filch's face.
"He looked like a gremlin," Remus said matter of factly, making her laugh even harder.
"God, how did we run all the way to the staircase to the Astronomy tower?" Hollis asked once she had regained her ability to talk. "That's like two floors away from where we were. I guess the staircases are on our side tonight."
With one eyebrow raised, Remus grinned at Hollis.
"Seems like a sign to me."
"Huh- REMUS!"
Lupin had grabbed her by the waist, frowning only for a second about how easy it was to pick her up before racing up the stairs.
He planted the sole of his foot against the door and pushed opening them up to the views of the highest tower, Remus gently set Hollis down.
The night sky was clear and cloudless, easily peeling back to reveal a majestic display of the stars. Slight purple tones swathed across the deep navy, texture and dimension flooding through the plane, pale stars that glistened like water droplets in the sunset scattered across the dynamic background. Lines could be drawn in any direction, creating intricated patterns among the heavens, the only sounds the slight rustle of pine trees in the wind, flags snapping if a particularly strong breeze gusted through them.
Wrapping one arm around Hollis's waist, Remus tilted his head back to look up with the short girl.
"We should claim a star," Hollis whispered, not wanting to disrupt the peace of the moment. "No way every single one of these has a name."
Remus smiled and then pointed at a large star with a slight purple tint after scanning the sky for a few moments. "What about that one?"
"It's perfect," Hollis replied, wrapping both her arms around Remus's waist and leaning her head against his side.
He had chosen that particularly recognizable one because he knew it could be seen from Rosier Manor.
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