Chapter 11
"Harry Potter!" Dobby called excitedly as Ron and Harry came through the portrait. "I will be there in one moment, I must finish this batter".
"Take your time Dobby. We can also ask Winky if you're too busy" Harry assured his little friend.
"Master Harry called?" The female elf trotted over from where she had been setting the tables.
"Hello Winky. I'm here to get something with protein to eat and snacks for tomorrow at the urging of Kreacher" Harry crouched down so he was closer to her level.
"Kreacher is wise to direct you here for that purpose. I will gather some snacks for you and allow Dobby to give you something for now." She hurried off as Dobby finished up and came over.
"What can I get for you?" He asked earnestly.
"Harry will take a roast beef sandwich and I'll have some of the potatoes and a smaller sandwich" Ron requested to a head bob from the small being. The two boys sat at an out of the way table to wait patiently.
"Nice catch earlier by the way. I saw that sloth grip into an underhand toss" Harry told his friend.
"Thanks! I picked it up from one of the twins last summer, when you were over for the Cup and we were playing modified. I forget exactly which one did it, but I've been practicing how to do it myself" Ron bragged proudly.
"It definitely shows!"
"Here's your food, Harry Potter and Ron Weezy!" Dobby came over with the two plates.
"Thanks Dobs" Harry smiled.
"Thank you so much Dobby, and make sure to pass on our compliments for tonight's meal" Ron added after swallowing his first bite. The nearby elves glowed with pride as they overheard the request. The excitable elf nodded in agreement and skipped off. The pair ate in silence for a while, enjoying the busy noise of the kitchen. Winky appeared as they stood to leave, piling snacks into Harry's bag and arms.
"Make sure you eat those when you are hungry. They're under stasis for now, just tap them twice with your wand to end it. Call for Dobby or me to get more" She fussed.
"We will. Thanks Winky" Harry allowed her to do so before leaving to go back to the tower.
"Is Lily back yet?" Harry asked Hermione, sitting down next to her after entering the common room. He could hear Dean and Seamus discussing something with Sirius on the other side of the room.
"No, she's at detention still. James is back early though, Snape didn't want to deal with him one on one, so the detentions were essentially cancelled" Hermione said absentmindedly, scratching out some notes on Herbology for her essay.
"I don't like the sound of that. Think one of us should go watch under the cloak?"
"No. It's too risky right now, and I don't want her to let slip that the cloak exists in rage if she knows" Hermione looked up, apology in her eyes.
"You have a point. I'll get out the map if she's not back by curfew though. Oh, by the way, Kreacher came by to report. Siri finally gave him an order that he could interpret as allowing him to find me. Apparently the Order is freaking out over a prophecy, and Podmore had been on duty before he was arrested. And then he made me go get snacks from the kitchen" Harry complained to his friend as Ron returned from the bathroom and sat on her other side.
"Interesting. Well, at least we know now that they're guarding a prophecy, likely about him. For now we'll have to trust they have that well in hand until proven otherwise. And if Lily's not back by the time I go to bed, I'll leave the things with you to give to her".
"Thanks Mione" Harry rested his head on her arm briefly. She patted his head before returning to work, joined by her two best friends and Neville after a few minutes. All was silent until a few minutes before curfew when a sniffling Lily entered the portrait hole.
"Lily!" Harry was out of his chair in seconds, hurrying to pull the red-head over to the corner with his friends. She went easily, sitting in the recently-vacated chair next to Hermione.
"Let me see" Hermione held one hand out as Ron pulled her essay out of the way helpfully and Neville drew his wand to rest on the table in silent threat to those around them. Lily held out her right hand. It was still faintly bleeding through the words 'I must respect authority'. Hermione tapped out a few drops of Murtlap Essence on it. All of the assembled teenagers watched quietly as the wound sizzled slightly and began to knit closed faster than before. After about a minute, they were gone with only some redness around faint words. "Good. Come to me again in the morning for a few more drops and it'll hopefully go away completely".
"That's it? You're not going to tell her to go to McGonagall? Or Pomphrey?" Sirius asked angrily as he watched alongside the rest of the fifth years.
"And what do we tell them? Oh, the teacher from the Ministry who holds almost as much power as Dumbledore is making students cut open their hands for detention. Oh, I'm sorry to hear that, just don't get detention though because we can't stop her from repeating the behavior!" Harry growled lowly.
"We hate to say it, but Harry's right. None of the teachers are willing to go against her. And that's if they believe us. Big If" Ron added solemnly.
"Can you go after her with the influence of your titles?" James asked.
"No. I'm the only one who's inherited any lordship titles, and nobody knows outside of the Goblins. The mail to the Ministry and Dumbledore 'got lost'. We checked. So there's no use trying" Harry sighed with a far off look.
"We're just doing what we can to stay out of her clutches" Dean said, resting a hand on the small boy's shoulder. "And when we can't, we do exactly this. We believe she has a way to watch the Hospital Wing, or will likely get one soon".
"She does" Lily said in a small voice. "I tried to go there after detention, she showed up within a minute of me entering and dragged me back to detention. No matter how much I yelled or kicked and screamed, nobody noticed anything. Madame Pomphrey never came out of her office, and the one person we passed in the halls just looked the other way. I noticed they also had words on their hand, too faint to make out and probably a day old".
"What house?" Parvati asked lowly.
"Hufflepuff."
"We'll need to get word to them first then. I'll see if I can catch Susan, and make sure Padma knows too if the ravens haven't figured it out yet" The Indian girl nodded decisively.
"Sue may be able to get word to her aunt. We can hope at least" Lavender closed her eyes tightly with a heavy sigh.
"Her aunt is head of the DMLE, and has a very strong sense of justice" Ron explained at the confused looks.
"Let's hope she will listen then" Peter said, staring at the floor.
"We can only hope. I'm tired from practice, so I'm afraid I'm going to bow out" Harry apologized.
"Night Har" Hermione gave him a tired smile, reaching for her essay to finish. Ron also excused himself for sleep. Both did their exercises for Occlumency to process the day before going to bed.