Sirius's son

Percy and Padfoot

Rigel spent most of his breakfast finishing his essay about Human Transfiguration but he also had to deal with the fact that Angelina Johnson had given him a piece of her mind and threatened to kick him out if he pulls another stunt like this again.

"I can't believe you took our detention," Eliza muttered as he tried to finish his bowtruckle drawing. "And what happened to your hand?" she questioned.

"Oh, Gandalf scratched my hand." Rigel lied

Eliza shrugged. "What did Umbridge make you do?"   

"Write lines," Rigel said pulling his sleeve over his hand without drawing attention. "Yeah, it was still terrible. She made me write 'I will not tell lies' for like, an hour and a half and then erased it! All that hard work is gone."

Eliza laughed.

"I can't believe how much homework we've got," said Ron miserably in the Gryffindor tower.

 "Well, why didn't you do any last night?" Hermione asked him."Where were you anyway?" 

"I was . . . I fancied a walk," said Ron shiftily. 

Rigel had the distinct impression that he was not alone in concealing things at the moment.

The second detention was just as bad as the previous one. The skin on the back of Rigel's hand became irritated more quickly now, red andinflamed; he thought it unlikely to keep healing as effectively for long. Soon the cut would remain etched in his hand and Umbridge would, perhaps, be satisfied. He let no moan of pain escape him, however, and from the moment of entering the room to the moment of his dismissal, again past midnight, he said nothing but "Good evening" and "Good night."

His homework situation, however, was now desperate, and when he returned to the Gryffindor common room he did not, though exhausted, go to bed, but opened his books and began Snape's moonstone essay. It was half-past two by the time he had finished it. He knew he had done a poor job, but there was no help for it; unless he had something to give in he would be in detention with Snape next. He then dashed off answers to the questions Professor McGonagall had set them, cobbled together something on the proper handling of bowtruckles for Professor Grubbly-Plank, and staggered up to the bed, where he fell fully clothed on top of the bed covers and fell asleep immediately. 

Thursday passed in a haze of tiredness. Ron seemed very sleepy too, though Rigel could not see why he should be. His third detention passed in the same way as the previous two, except that after two hours the words "I must not tell lies" did not fade from the back of Rigel's hand, but remained scratched there, oozing droplets of blood. The pause in the pointed quill's scratching made Professor Umbridgelookup

"Ah," she said softly, moving around her desk to examine his hand herself. "Good. That ought to serve as a reminder to you, oughtn't it? You may leave for tonight

"Do I still have to come back tomorrow?" said Rigel, picking up his schoolbag with his left hand rather than his right. 

"Oh yes," said Professor Umbridge, smiling widely as before. "Yes, I think we can etch the message a little deeper with another evenings work

Rigel really wanted to throttle her. 

"Ron?" 

He had reached the top of the stairs, turned right, and almost walked into Ron, who was lurking behind a statue of Lachlan the Lanky, clutching his broomstick. He gave a great leap of surprise when he saw Rigel and attempted to hide his new nimbus 2001 (A gift Rigel and Harry had gifted on his fourteen birthday) behind his back. 

"What are you doing?" 

"Er — nothing. What are you doing?"Rigel frowned at him. "Come on, you can tell me! What are you hiding here for?"