บท 39: Chapter 39 Punishment

Harry, Ron, and Hermione shuddered as they lifted the invisibility cloak.

The trio stepped forward, wincing, "Professor ..."

Felix's eyes kept glancing between the three, "Miss Granger, Mr. Potter, and Mr. Weasley, can you tell me the reason for your presence here?"

Harry gathered his courage and said, "Professor, I, we wanted to visit Hagrid, in case you didn't know, we're kind of close to him."

"This is not a good place to come around, you are too far into the Forbidden Forest." Felix shook his head, "I think your professor should have told you not to trespass into the forbidden forest."

Ron stammered, "Professor, we were looking for Hagrid, but we happened to see you and were curious for a moment, so we followed you."

"A moment of curiosity," Felix fiddled with the wand in his hand as he looked at the trio, not speaking.

A tremendous amount of mental pressure fell over them.

Finally, Hermione said, with a whimper, "I'm sorry, Professor, we disappointed your trust-"

"It's alright," Felix said calmly, "it's in every young wizard's nature to take risks, especially the Gryffindor ones. But I hope you will define the line between bravery and foolhardiness, and know that you only have one life to live."

Felix didn't say anything more as he led the trio back to the castle.

"Let's see, breaking curfew, trespassing into the forbidden forest, and stalking a professor ..." The trio's faces paled as Felix's words rang out, "ten points each and a one-week detention."

The trio sleepwalked back to the common room.

Seeing Hermione's sad face, Ron soothed, "It's nothing, better than the best outcome I could have imagined. I was expecting us to be docked fifty points each and put in detention until Christmas."

Harry's face looked with approval; if they had fallen into Snape's hands tonight, the consequences would have been unimaginable.

As he laid in bed, Ron suddenly spoke to Harry, "That was cool, right?"

"What?"

"Professor Hap, O swish, whiz! Can't even see him move, he's definitely much better than Snape if you ask me, even better than Dumbledore!"

"Headmaster Dumbledore is the strongest," Harry said without thinking.

"That's not necessarily true, the Headmaster has not done anything in years. If it had been decades ago, I certainly wouldn't suspect it ..." Ron muttered in a small voice before drifting off to dreamland.

Harry, however, is somewhat sleepless, his mind kept coming up with the images of Professor Hap casting spells, every movement, from Professor Hap casting the first spell then bursting into black smoke, breaking down and replaying in his mind.

He remembers it all vividly.

The next day, Hermione remained a little sad, but she quickly pulled herself together and even began to discuss the Chamber of Secrets leads with them.

The young witch said with a scowl, "So it seems that Professor Hap is not the heir of Slytherin."

Ron said, "Don't be so arbitrary, we've just put a temporary hold on the suspicion, although Professor Hap is certainly cool." He admitted that much.

Harry hastily changed the subject, feeling somewhat ashamed of their stalking of the Professor last night, which had put Hermione, who worked as an assistant, on the spot.

"I think it's more likely Malfoy after all."

"Exactly," Ron interjected.

"But how do we coax it out of him? He's not going to swagger and admit he's the heir of Slytherin, right ?."

Hermione nodded as she whispered, "Perhaps, we need to make a Polyjuice Potion."

"What is it?"

"Polyjuice Potion, it can turn you into another person." Hermione peppered them with knowledge.

The two of them remained confused.

Hermione said, somewhat annoyed, "Don't you all listen to your lessons? Snape mentioned in class that the process of brewing this potion is very difficult and requires a variety of precious ingredients, and its recipe is recorded in the book Potent Potions."

The trio discussed it in small voices.

But then, they got stuck on the first step.

The recipe for the Polyjuice Potion is difficult to get hold of because the Potent Potion in which it's recorded is in the forbidden section of the library.

There's only one way to borrow this book from the forbidden section: to get an official seal signed by a professor.

"There's no reason for us to borrow that book," Ron said, "it's not something we should mess with at our grade level."

"I think," Hermione said, "that if we pretend that we're interested in the theory, we might have some hope ..."

"Oh come on, professors don't fall for it that easily," Ron said, "unless they're stupid enough to do it ..."

Saturday morning.

The trio had breakfast and went together to the Ancient Runes Professor's office - to complete their detention.

Harry lamented a little that the first Quidditch game is about to take place, and he is unable to attend training, about which Quidditch Captain Wood had a strong opinion.

Knocking on the door, the trio is surprised to see Draco Malfoy in the room.

Malfoy is slumped in front of a table with a large, thick book in front of him, looking at the page numbers, having reached the final ten or so pages. His quill kept scribbling, and the tip of his nose even had a little ink on it.

Harry remembered with a jolt that Malfoy had been punished with copying a book.

Professor Hap said in a relaxed tone as he closed the door, "I was going to keep you apart, but after thinking about it, it was too much trouble. I enquired him, and Mr. Malfoy doesn't mind sharing the same table with you."

Ron let out a sudden snicker, the look on Malfoy's face didn't look like he "didn't mind" and he seems to be looking forward to their detention.

Felix conjured out three chairs and placed them in front of them, "I'll go find the materials you need to copy." With that, he left.

The four people in the office stared at each other with wide eyes.

Harry said teasingly, "Malfoy, your detention still isn't over yet? It's taking a lot out of you."

Malfoy tilted his head high, "Harry Potter!" He glanced at the three and seemed to want to say something when he saw Hermione, but he hastily held back.

He said, slightly condescendingly, "At Professor Snape's suggestion, Professor Hap allowed me to take a break in the middle of the session as a way of - not having to miss Slytherin's Quidditch training, Potter! I'll beat you at the tournament!"

Harry's mood soured for a moment. With the financial backing of the Malfoy, the entire Slytherin Quidditch team had switched to Nimbus 2001 Brooms, which made them extremely fast, like seven pale green silhouettes on the pitch.

Ron teased, "The real game is all about skill, even if you take the back door and become a Seeker, you'll just be more the butt of a joke, loser!"

"Shut up, Weasley. Do you even have a double-digit Golden Galleon left in your family's vault?"

Ron's face turned red, and even his ears grew hot as he pulled out his wand and shouted, "Say that again! Malfoy, say it again!"

Harry and Hermione hastily held him back, leaving aside what would happen if they fought in a Professor's office, and even if he allowed Ron to fight, what would happen, another day of spitting slugs all over the place?

Felix returned with a thick pile of parchment, and Harry and Ron were in no mood for any sort of fight as they looked at the more than a foot-high pile of material.

"I asked Professor McGonagall about it, and she had a batch of papers that were too old and required a renewal, so I volunteered to take this job," Felix said slightly perkily, " It happens to be related to your behaviour - the list of student violations and their penalties."

Felix placed the material on the table and with a "thud" brought up a thick ring of dust, he waved his wand to "Scourgify" and a gust of wind carried the dust away, "Let's get to work, kiddos. "

Felix sat in a corner of his office, seven or eight metres away from them, "Silencio." He pointed his wand at himself and then flipped open a thick book and enjoyed his leisurely weekend.

At the other end, Harry, Ron, and Hermione resigned themselves to their fate and sat down, Ron is strongly repulsed to sit with Malfoy and as a last resort, Harry had to be next to him.

Harry flipped open a piece of parchment and began to copy the material with a quill dipped in ink.

Malfoy whispered, "Potter! You know, you're going to lose ..."

"Shut up, Malfoy!" Harry yelled in a low tone.