8PM Detention

Matt stood behind his desk, waiting, sternly watching the door as he waited for the hooligans he had caught the previous day to arrive. He had a special task for them tonight that he had been saving for when something particularly irked him, which they had succeeded in doing.

The clock drew closer to eight and he continued to stand in his place, ready to tack on an extra detention if any one of them was even just one minute late for this.

Hester stood in front of the office door, attempting to calm herself. She couldn't let him see that she was scared; it wasn't really a very Gryffindor thing to do, was it?

She knocked sharply. She wouldn't cry. Everyone got into trouble now and again, didn't they? And the others would arrive soon, as well.

She waited for Professor Hamilton to call her in; she didn't want to annoy him any more.

Andy begrudgedly walked to Professor Hamilton's office. He really didn't fancy doing a detention, especially since they were only having a bit of fun and in his opinion and didn't deserve one at all; they weren't even making that much noise.

Could there be a worse way to spend an evening? Andy hadn't been having a very good day either, so this was the icing on a crappy cake indeed. He ran into his sister in the common room that morning, who was deeply disappointed that he got a detention (how she found out, Andy will never know) and the the classes that he did have on that day, were as boring as watching grass grow.

Andy walked the final steps to the office and noticed that Hester was there. He stood beside her, wanting to start this torture session and get it over with.

"Hey," he said in greeting. "This just blows."

"Mmm," said Hester, still trying to keep control over herself. She was the sort of person who cried at anything, even if it wasn't that bad. People shouting at her was the main thing that set her off, so she really hoped that the Professor would be the quietly angry type. A quite scary type of angry, but not something that usually reduced the girl to tears.

She hoped that he would let them in soon, because the anticipation of the task was the worst bit, never mind how horrible the detention would be. She hated waiting for horrible things.

James left the Gryffindor Tower at ten to eight, so that he wouldn't be late, but not super early either; nothing worse than being too eager for a detention.

He meandered down to the first floor and noticed Andy and Hester were already there. Good, he thought, not wanting to be the first one there.

"Hey guys," James greeted. "This is gonna suck, I foresee it." He looked around, "No Natalie yet?"

James looked at Hester. "You look like you're gonna be sick."

Hester shook her head.

"She's not turned up yet," she managed to say.

She was glad that the boys didn't seem scared about the whole thing; if they had seemed scared, then she would have run a mile, regardless of any future punishments. She wondered when Professor Hamilton would let them in, or whether he was keeping them outside just so they could stew for a while in dread. She wouldn't have been surprised if that was what he was doing.

Natalie skipped to Professor Hamilton's office. She'd never had detention before but she was sure that it wouldn't be too bad. It would do more harm than good to bother being nervous about it.

She saw her fellow detention-bound students and smiled. "Hi guys," she greeted.

She couldn't figure out why they were clustered around the door rather than being in the office. He was expecting them, and it was nearly 8, so there was no reason not to go in. She knocked once on the door, then opened it and went inside.

"Natalie Olivier reporting for detention, sir!" she saluted the professor.

Hester followed Natalie in. She had been waiting out of politeness, but now one of them had entered it would be stupid to stay outside.

"Hester Alderman," she said to the Professor after Natalie had announced her arrival. She bit her lip. It would be fine. It was one evening, that was all.

She wondered if the boys would follow them in.

Andy snorted when he heard Natalie's introduction to Professor Hamilton. He walked in behind Hester and had a look around.

He had never been in Hamilton's office before, so he was fascinated at all the Potions get-up he had going on. Andy wrinkled his nose at the sight of some of the things he had bottled on his shelves and prayed to Wizard God that they didn't have to touch any of that nasty stuff.

"Andy McGuire," Andy said to the professor, though he had the impression that the professor knew who they all were anyway. With the exception of Natalie, they were all in his Potions class.

James followed Hester and Andy into the Professor's office. He noticed Andy was looking around and did the same. It was a gross looking place, but kinda cool at the same time. He wondered if they would be dealing with some of the gross stuff for detention. James could deal with that, but he wondered how the girls would react.

Hearing the others introduce themselves, he did as well. "James Wilson." He really just wanted to get this stupid detention over and done with so that they could find something fun to do. Life was too short to be in trouble.

Matt opened the door when he heard a knock and watched as the four trouble makers entered his office. He raised an eyebrow as they addressed themselves as if he didn't know who they all were already. Matters not, he thought as he closed the door behind them.

"Right," he began, "Let's get this over with, for I have far more important matters to attend to than to babysit all of you." Matt waved his wand, conjuring four suits of armour along with Muggle cleaning supplies. He turned his attention back to the four students.

"Because you seemed to have so much fun dismembering a suit of armour last night, I see it fitting for you to have some fun cleaning them. You will each get a suit of armour, that you will be required to clean, by hand," he looked sternly at them, "which means no magical assistance, until the suits themselves deem worthy. Once you have completed one suit, another shall appear, and you will clean the next one until that suit is clean. Continue on in this fashion until the entire castles supply of armoured suits are clean. If you are diligent workers, it should not take you all night." Matt smirked at the four expressions on the children's faces before him.

"Have fun," he said, leaving the room.

((OOC: For each suit, you shall write a 100 word response. There will be 3 rounds of suits to clean, meaning 3 suits each, therefore 300 words are required. You can break up the three hundred words into smaller posts (50 words minimum) if required, but three suits must be cleaned, and you must have 300 words minimum at the end of your cleaning stint before you can leave detention, and I will count them.))

Natalie shrugged and set to work on her first suit of armor. A little physical labor never hurt anyone. She picked a suit and stepped up to it after grabbing a rag and some polish. She knew some of the suits of armor around the castle were enchanted, so she shook its hand, just in case. After all, she didn't want to be rude.

"Not to worry, Mr Knight, sir, we'll have you cleaned up in no time," she said to it.

She put some polish on the rag and stood on her tiptoes to start at the head and work her way down, but she just wasn’t tall enough. She could have asked the professor for a chair to stand on or something, but that would take all the fun out of it. Instead, she bent at the knees and jumped as high as she could, running the rag up to the helmet and then back down again when gravity kicked in. She did that several times until she was satisfied with the shine of the metal.

She moved on to the torso, then the arms, then the legs, ending on the metal boots. A final swipe of the rag on the gleaming metal signaled that her first suit was clean. The suit disappeared, presumably to go back to its place in the castle and another appeared where the first had been.

She repeated the process she’d used the first time in order to clean the helmet, but she noticed that the gloves were unusually tarnished. “Oh, darling, you need a manicure,” she said, lifting up one of the arms and holding it steady as she scrubbed at the metal hand with her rag, as if preparing to paint its nails. If it had nails. “Your cuticles are awful!”

When she had finished with that hand, she moved on to the other, repeating the process, starting to hum as she worked. No reason for there not to be some cheery music while they performed their tedious task.

She continued to hum as she finished it off and the second suit of armor vanished, soon replaced by a third. Her volume increased slightly when the suit began to wiggle a little. I think it’s trying to dance! she thought happily before breaking out into full-on singing. “You put your right foot in, you put your right foot out, you put your right foot in, and you shake it all about. You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around, that’s what it’s all about!”

To her delight, the suit of armor danced along to her words. She continued to sing and she polished each appendage as the song commanded it to be put “in”, starting with the right foot, then moving to the left, then up the legs, arms, hands, helmet, and finishing with the torso.

“That’s what it’s all about!” she finished triumphantly as the suit of armor vanished, still dancing away.

Then, as if she had done nothing at all, she turned and faced the professor. “Am I finished?” she asked.

Hester almost smiled, but she stopped herself. It wouldn't do to let Professor Hamilton think that she was happy about the detention. She was just pleased that she wouldn't have to touch the gunk on the shelves.

She stepped up to the first suit of armour, copying Natalie, who didn't seem to be bothered by the task at all. Hester picked up a rag and some cleaning liquid. She dunked the rag in a bucket of water, sprayed the suit of armour and began to scrub. She was very pleased that the Professor had left the room and wasn't watching them work. She scrubbed at the suit of armour's body, trying to get it shiny clean as quickly as possible. Finally, when she could see her face in it, it disappeared, and a new one appeared in its place.

Hester looked at the next suit of armour. This one looked particularly dirty, with grime engrained on its metal suit. She sighed and sprayed cleaning fluid onto it, then attacked it with the rag. She could hear Natalie nattering away to herself, and she wondered how she could be so cheerful, or work so fast. She scrubbed at the suit's arm, glad that the teacher had asked them to use non magical cleaning methods. It was a bore, but she didn't know any magic. This was what she was used to. She bent down and polished the suit of armour's feet. She remembered that she had worn a boot like this whilst playing armour tag, and wondered whether it was the same boot. Then, when she could literally see her face in the suit of armour's metal, it disappeared, to be replaced by a new one.

This was her last suit of armour; after she had cleaned this one she would be allowed to leave. She hoped. As she scrubbed at its very grimy metal legs she hoped that the Professor wouldn't have thought up anything else they would have to do. She really didn't want to clean anything else after this. She scrubbed and scrubbed, her body feeling weary. It was late now, and she wished that she was back in Gryffindor tower. She would think twice about causing trouble from now on. She moved onto the suit of armour's arms and hands, wondering how on earth it had got so dirty. Her own arms ached. Finally, she finished, and stepped back, relieved.

She waited for Professor Hamilton to return and let her leave.