More to Life

~+~

Chapter Thirteen - Detention, Pranks and Peeves

"Harry," Draco began as he and Harry were sat on their respective beds in their dorm room. "We still haven't pranked Peeves yet."

"You know, I knew there was something we'd forgotten," Harry said.

"Peeves?" Blaise said amusedly from the doorway, having just walked in. "I knew you two were insane but this just tops everything."

Harry smirked. "Aw c'mon, we can prank Peeves, right Draco?"

"Absolutely," Draco agreed. "In fact, we can prank Peeves a thousand times better than he could anyone else."

"Yeah. Good luck in trying to either wet through, use spells on or trick him," Blaise said, counting off each idea with his fingers.

"You can use spells on ghosts," Draco protested. "Just not ordinary spells."

"Oh do tell," Blaise looked intrigued now. "You know some dark arts?"

Harry smiled now. "I remember that one spell..." He stopped and looked at Draco. Draco suddenly caught what the dark haired boy was on about.

"Oh, that spell," he said.

"What spell?" Blaise asked.

Harry touched his nose a few times. "Never you mind."

Blaise sulked. "Fine, don't tell me then."

"It'll be good," Draco said. "We promise."

Blaise still sulked. "I don't see why I have to wait."

"It'll be more fun if you wait," Harry said.

"You know I suck at waiting."

"You suck at other things too," Draco sniggered.

Blaise gave Draco a friendly shove "Shut up," he shouted while laughing.

Harry sighed while he glanced at his watch. "Great, detention with Malkin in half an hour."

Blaise snapped out of his brooding mood and laughed. "I'm glad I'm not you right now."

Harry glared at his friend then looked at Draco. "C'mon, I'm going to find Peeves."

Peeves wasn't that hard to find, especially since he was causing havoc at the time. The poltergeist was just about to drop water balloons over an unsuspecting second year, who had her back turned to the spirit.

Harry hid around a corner, Draco behind him, watching as the ghost levitated water balloons over the girl. Harry let out a cough and hid back behind the wall. Peeves looked around, letting the water balloons fall to the ground, away from the girl.

The small second year shrieked at the noise and ran off with the rest of her friends. Peeves instantly made himself appear invisible. Harry swore as he saw the ghost disappear. A few minutes later, Peeves' head appeared through the wall, just above Harry's head. The dark haired boy caught the flash of white almost immediately and stepped away from the wall.

"Ickle firsties?" the poltergeist asked as the rest of his body followed him out the wall.

Draco drew his wand and pointed it at Peeves. "Just call it payback, Peeves," he said.

"We don't like being on the receiving end of a joke," Harry added.

"Peeves can tell Filch about ickle firsties using magic in the corridors," Peeves said with a huge grin on his face.

"But Peeves wouldn't do that and Filch wouldn't believe you," Draco said with a smirk.

Peeves seemed to think about this for a few moments before deciding to fly away.

"I don't think so," Harry said loudly. "Lemures adstringo!" The blue light hit the poltergeist dead on.

Peeves seemed to freeze for a moment before his transparent white self appeared to curl up into a ball. The white ball shivered in the midair for a little while then shot off towards the ceiling, bounced off it and shot off towards the ground, bounced off that and kept bouncing against the walls all the way down the corridor and out of sight.

Harry couldn't deny that it felt good to use that spell on Peeves, especially a spell a first shouldn't have been able to do, a dark spell at that. Frankly, Harry couldn't see why the spell was classed as dark anyway.

Harry cracked Draco a smile. "That worked better than I thought it would."

The blonde haired Slytherin, who had been laughing loudly since Peeves curled up into a ball, paused to try and breathe. "I don't think anyone could top that," he gasped out.

Blaise walked from where he was stood watching with a smirk on his face. "You were right, it was worth the wait."

*~*~*

Detention.

Harry hated that word. Well most children do, but Harry would protest that he hated the word more than any other child did.

He had no idea what to expect from Hogwarts detentions though. It was the first one he'd had after all and it was half way through November in his first term. Harry thought he'd done pretty well. At Primary school, he had ended up with detention on the first day of the first year that teachers were actually allowed to give after school detention in his school.

It didn't matter that it was Dudley's fault that he had gotten one in the first place. Dudley had been taunting him, like always, when Harry decided he'd had enough so kicked him behind the knees to trip him up. Of course a teacher happened to appear at that exact moment. Dudley had just laughed at him.

If Harry had to pick a teacher to have detention with, McGonagall wouldn't be his first choice, but she wouldn't be his last either. Filch claimed top spot on that list. His first choice would probably Hagrid. The giant of a man seemed to like Harry quite a bit, always said hello if he saw the boy.

Harry sighed and knocked on McGonagall's office door. He knew he was about five minutes early, but he wanted to appear before Malkin did, not fancying having a fight with the plump boy even before detention started. The Gryffindor had been glaring daggers at him all day. Harry had let Draco glare back; he just couldn't be bothered with the other boy.

As if on cue, the said boy appeared at the end of the long corridor. Why when you thought about someone did they always appear? Harry shook his head as McGonagall opened her office door.

She glanced at Harry. "Where's Malkin?" she asked.

Harry pointed up the corridor as the boy walked closer. McGonagall peered out the doorway, took once glance at the Gryffindor then stepped out of her office, closing the door behind her. She beckoned both boys to follow her to her classroom. Once there, McGonagall transfigured three drawing pins into a bucket of water and two small scrubbing brushes.

"The desks have been in need of a good clean for a while now. I thought I'd save the job for some unsuspecting first years," she said. Her lip twitched to the side just a little.

Harry groaned. He should have known it would be something as nasty as cleaning desks.

"But Professor!" Malkin protested loudly. "You can't do that!"

"Just watch me Mr. Malkin. You are in detention because you have earned it and I will hear no more about the matter," McGonagall said sternly.

"Yes, Professor," Malkin mumbled.

"I'll be back in an hour to see how you are both fairing." With that she left the room, closing the door behind her.

"This is all your fault," Malkin spat as soon as he thought McGonagall had left hearing range.

"My fault?" Harry spat back with equal hatred. "If I recall you were the one who started throwing insults at me."

"How can they be insults if they're true?" Malkin said smugly.

"They're not true," Harry said with his teeth gritted together.

Malkin wagged his finger in front of the Slytherin. "No need to lie, Harry," he said with fake sweetness.

"Just shut up, Malkin," Harry snarled as he picked up one of the brushes and dunked it in the soapy water. He began scrubbing the desk harshly; ignoring the insults the Gryffindor was throwing his way. That was until one small comment.

"What would your parents say if they found out you support their killer?"

Harry dropped the brush on the desk and whirled around to glare at Malkin.

"You have no right to talk about my parents," Harry said dangerously quiet.

"What's the matter?" Malkin said in a baby-like tone. "Does poor little orphan Potter miss his Mummy and Daddy?"

Harry pulled out his wand and pointed it at the Gryffindor.

"Hey! You're not meant to have-"

"Do I look like I care?" Harry said as he spun his wand between his fingers.

Malkin gulped.

"Scared Malkin?" Harry asked. "I know enough hexes to make you fall flat on your back."

Harry could see Malkin swallow, but still the Gryffindor didn't back down. "You wish, Potter. I wouldn't be scared of you even if you had several Dementors backing you up."

"Of course you wouldn't. You wouldn't have time to be scared of me because the Dementors will already be taking care of that job," Harry said in reply with a little smirk.

The plump Gryffindor realised his mistake a little too late so resulted to snarling at the Boy Who Lived. "We'll see who's smirking when the world finds out what you really are."

"What? An eleven year old boy just trying to get by in school while having a mad man after him?" Harry decided to put his wand away knowing that cursing Malkin wouldn't get him anywhere but it'd earn him another detention.

"A mad man who you follow. He wouldn't kill his most faithful follower, would he?"

Harry scowled. "You know what? I don't really care what you think anymore. I've got better stuff than you to worry about." With that he picked the brush back up and began scrubbing once more.

Malkin stared at the other boy for a while before picking up his own brush. It wouldn't do to being trouble with McGonagall twice in two days.

*~*~*

When the detention had finished, Harry began to make his way back to the Slytherin common room. He had been wary of walking alone at night in the corridors of Hogwarts ever since Pettigrew had kidnapped him. He also carried his wand with him, even though the detention hadn't required it.

While he was walking down the last corridor before the common room, he heard a noise from behind him. A quiet shuffle of feet echoed along the passageway. Harry stopped and turned around, only to feel a wand pressed up against his neck.

"You'll never win, Potter," a quiet voice said right next to his ear. Harry didn't move. "You were just lucky at Halloween."

He couldn't see the boy who was talking to him because he was stood directly behind Harry. He was probably a seventh year; none of the Seventh years seemed to like Harry all that much. Weird considering that most of the older Gryffindors didn't mind Harry all that much. At least they didn't glare at him like most of the first year Gryffindors.

"So what if I was lucky?" Harry said. "I'm still here, aren't I?"

The wand poked into his neck a little harder. "No need to get smart, Potter."

"What? You want me to just stand here and take it then?" Harry snarled.

"Exactly," the voice said with a sarcastic sweetness. "The Dark Lord will kill you Potter, make no mistake."

"Isn't that Mrs. Norris?" Harry said in a conversational tone. Of course there was no cat in the corridor, but the other boy still looked. Harry spun around as soon as the pressure from the wand against his neck had receded.

He vaguely knew the boy in front of him. He had only caught him in the common room a few times. He fought hard to remember the boy's name. "Higgs."

Higgs grinned. "Maybe there's hope for you left, Potter."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Maybe, but for now I'm going to bed."

The seventh year blocked his path. "Don't think so Potter."

Harry glared at the Slytherin boy. "What? You going to beat a little first year up? That's not at all sporting, you know?"

"Since when did Slytherins care about being 'sporting'?" Higgs said while folding his arms.

Harry had to admit Higgs had a point. He looked up at the older boy. "You're not going to do it."

"Why not?" Higgs snarled.

Harry grinned. "You'd have done it by now."

Higgs snarled. "Why you-"

A cough echoed down the corridor. Higgs turned around to come face to face with a stone faced Severus Snape. The seventh year gulped.

"May I ask what you are doing out at this hour, Higgs?" Severus said in a quiet tone. Harry nearly chuckled.

"Making sure Harry got back from detention ok, sir," Higgs said rather quickly.

The Potions master eyed Higgs for a minute before looking at an amused Harry. Harry bit his lip to keep himself from laughing. He turned back to Higgs and spoke. "Move along then. I don't expect to see any Slytherins doing something as idiotic as being out after curfew."

Higgs didn't wait for Snape to say anything else; he bolted towards the common room and mumbled the password, disappearing as soon as the wall opened.

"What did he say to you?" Severus asked as soon as the wall closed shut once more.

Harry gave a small shrug. "Nothing really." He gave Severus a quick glance before looking at the floor. "I bumped into him so he yelled at me some. My fault really." He didn't want to bother the Potions master with threats from immature boys.

Snape raised an eyebrow at the boy's obvious attempt at lying, but didn't press the subject. He just gave a nod and started off down the corridor. He came to a stop a few feet before a corner in the passageway. "You know where to come if anyone starts bothering you." He then left Harry's line of sight.

The dark haired boy sighed. He knew for sure that he would get threaten again while he was at Hogwarts, probably more so once he had left the school. As long as Voldemort was around they'd always be people who hated Harry's very existence.

Harry smiled a little. People's hatred hadn't stopped him before. It wouldn't now either.

~+~

Lemures means ghost in Latin and adstringo means to compress. Sorry it's so short (it's about 600 words shorter than normal *hides behind her chair*), it seemed right to end it just there. I'll make up for it in the next chapter.

~Leatrix Malfoy - 18^th December 2003