Detention With Dolores

• At dinner that night, Harry hears people muttering about his scene in Defense Against the Dark Arts.
• Hermione finally levels with Harry: "It's just that before the truth [about the return of Voldemort] could sink in [at the end of the last school year], everyone went home for the summer, where they spent two months reading about how you're a nutcase and Dumbledore's going senile!" (13.13).
• As they settle in to do homework in the Gryffindor common room, Hermione sees Fred and George up to something.
• They're testing their Skiving Snackboxes on a bunch of first years.
• Hermione shrieks, "I told you this morning, you can't test your rubbish on students!" (13.34).
• Hermione agrees that she won't give them detention – she'll just write to their mother.
• The twins "looked thunderstruck. It was clear that as far as they were concerned, Hermione's threat was way below the belt" (13.55).
• After this confrontation, Hermione starts pulling out a couple of weird, woolly objects.
• They're hats for the Hogwarts house-elves.
• A house-elf can only be freed from its wizarding service if its Master gives it a gift of clothes.
• Hermione thinks house-elf servitude is basically slavery.
• So, she's trying to free them through trickery, by covering these hats she has knitted with trash so that the house-elves accidentally pick them up.
• Ron does not approve: "You're setting them free when they might not want to be free" (13.65).
• The next morning, both Professor Flitwick (Charms) and Professor McGonagall (Transfiguration) spend the beginning of class terrifying the students about how important their OWLs are.
• At Care of Magical Creatures, Professor Grubbly-Plank introduces Bowtruckles, tree guardians that live inside trees and eat wood lice.
• Harry asks where Hagrid is, but Professor Grubbly-Plank won't answer.
• Draco says meaningly: "Maybe he's messing with stuff that's too big for him, if you get my drift" (13.98).
• Luna Lovegood is coming from one of the nearby greenhouses when she stops, turns to Harry, and says, "I believe He Who Must Not Be Named is back and I believe you fought him and escaped from him" (13.111).
• Unfortunately, this show of support doesn't do much good, since Luna is wearing a pair of radish earrings that make everyone laugh at her.
• Still, it's nice to have someone who believes you, even if she does have a reputation for being crazy.
• Angelina Johnson confronts Harry at dinner: "How come you've landed yourself in detention for five o'clock on Friday?" (13.124). He's going to miss Quidditch Keeper tryouts!
• Angelina tells Harry to tell Professor Umbridge off: "Tell her You-Know-Who's a figment of your imagination if you like, just make sure you're there!" (13.128).
• So, Harry reports to detention with Professor Umbridge and asks whether he can do his Friday detention another night.
• He knows even before he finishes asking that she is going to say no. Of course, she flatly refuses.
• Professor Umbridge wants Harry to write, "I must not tell lies[...] as long as it takes for the message to sink in" (13.154-6).
• Professor Umbridge hands him a special quill to use.
• This quill writes the message with Harry's own blood.
• Every time he writes out this sentence, he feels pain on the back of his hand, as though the words are being cut into his skin. The wounds heal over, but they reappear when he starts writing again.
• After hours of this, Professor Umbridge wants to see Harry's hand.
• She says, "Tut, tut, I don't seem to have made much of an impression yet [...] Well, we'll just have to try again tomorrow evening, won't we?" (13.172).
• Harry has to do all of his homework early the next morning thanks to Professor Umbridge's (horrible, horrible) detention, so all of his classes go badly.
• The next detention is just as bad, but Harry is proud that he doesn't show the pain he's feeling. He doesn't even tell his friends the truth about the Blood Quill.
• Harry is exhausted all the time with trying to fit his homework in when he can.
• He can't figure out why Ron seems to be equally exhausted, though.
• What is he up to?
• Harry's hand is starting to scar from all of the lines Professor Umbridge makes him write.
• On his way back from detention one night, he bumps into Ron.
• Ron confesses that he "thought [he'd] try out for Gryffindor Keeper now that [he's] got a decent broom. There. Go on. Laugh" (13.209).
• But Harry think it'd be great if Ron gets on the team. He's excited that Ron is practicing.
• Ron notices the marks on the back of his hand, so Harry finally confesses what Professor Umbridge is having him do.
• Ron sums up all of our feelings: "The old hag! [...] She's sick!" (13.221).
• Harry won't go to Professor McGonagall or Dumbledore for help, though.
• On Friday night, Harry starts writing out his lines again.
• His hand bleeds freshly.
• Harry is trying to watch the Quidditch tryouts through the window as he writes.
• When Professor Umbridge takes Harry's hand to see how scarred it is, "pain seared, not across the back of his hand, but across the scar on his forehead" (13.246).
• Professor Umbridge smiles and says, "Yes, it hurts, doesn't it?" (13.248).
• Harry isn't sure if Professor Umbridge is aware of the pain from his curse scar.
• Harry is so freaked out by his suspicion that Professor Umbridge is connected to Voldemort that he can't work up very much excitement over Ron being made Keeper on the Gryffindor Quidditch team.
• Angelina admits privately to Harry that Ron isn't the greatest player, but she's hoping he'll turn out all right with some training.
• Harry tells Hermione his suspicion that Professor Umbridge is possessed by Voldemort.
• Hermione wonders if it's a coincidence.
• She suggests that Harry go to Dumbledore to say his scar hurts.
• Harry retorts, "that's the only bit of me Dumbledore cares about, isn't it, my scar?" (13.278).